Cool and wet again.
Yesterday was sub-60s in the morning and night, with slightly warmer temps during the day. Rain throughout the day. Buckets have about 2 inches in them but we got less than that by the gauge.
Spent the day cleaning and organizing indoors, mostly in my office. Didn’t get much of it done to be honest. Did get some stuff up into the attic, and checked the attic roof for structural damage. We had that huge explosion in the neighborhood a few weeks back and some of our friends are discovering that they have damage they didn’t know about. Mainly roof structure that cracked and broke. They are closer to the blast site, and iirc blast force is inverse square law, so if they saw 1/2 the force , we saw 1/4, for any given force. In any case, I didn’t see any broken sheathing, or rafters.
Wife and kids watched the first Harry Potter movie. I watched some of the beginning. Everyone looks so young. Of course they were young then and so were we.
Time is passing very strangely here. It feels like forever since we isolated, but the last week flew by. And counting the days to check if my wife could have an exposure, fewer days have gone by than I would have guessed. So micro time is flashing by but macro time is dragging. Huh.
Dinner was canned chili, with sweet onions, shredded cheese and Fritos. Not quite Frito pie, but not bad. Can was best by 2014 and was delicious. Well, as delicious as canned chili can be.
Stay in, stay safe.
nick
Sun. April 5, 2020 – time is on my mind, yes it is
49 Comments and discussion on "Sun. April 5, 2020 – time is on my mind, yes it is"
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The wife has been binge watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with other things. The pilot episode with the caretaker was cool.
Caretaker? You mean the “Voyager” pilot?
“Voyager” was rough for a while. Consider yourself warned. Cast chemistry took a while, the TV production team had promoted the wrong individuals getting towards the end of the 90s, and the “Next Generation” movies were starting to bomb, intensifying the pressure on the Stage 8/9 crew.
Sadly, “Enterprise” never stood a chance despite more than a few cool performances from Scott Bakula, including “Azati Prime”, but you do get a reasonable explanation for the way the Klingon look evolved and a “Mirror, Mirror” two part which ties a lot of that story arc together across 50 years of production, including backstory for “Discovery”.
And if you’re wondering why Chakotay on “Voyager” looks familiar, did you ever take in a midnight screening of “Eating Raoul”?
Not even one “Chiquita”.
Have your wife give you the heads up when she reaches “Trials and Tribbleations”. And the final Mark Alaimo moment of that season’s finale “Call to Arms”, when Dukat walks into the evacuated station commander’s office and finds a very special message from Sisko, possibly *the* DS9 scene.
Jeri Ryan did an interview awhile back on bumping heads with Kate Mulgrew. Ryan was brought on to sex up the production. Boy did she. Mulgrew hated that ’cause female captain and all. Nobody could do much since Ryan can actually act.
Geeks. Nerds.
You guys know that “nerd girl” is now a subcategory of pron? So many 80s kids have grown up, and the signifiers have been fetishized….
And because pron is normalized, kids in high school adopt the ‘nerd girl’ look like they used to be ‘preppy’ or ‘goth’…
————————————————————–
I stopped watching Trek with ST:TNG in re-runs. Never found my groove with the new universe or spin offs.
Same with Dr Who, stopped and never came back. Tried. Liked the spin off with the rift and Cpt Harkness… Tried the new Dr. Just didn’t work for me.
n
Wow, this number is escalating quickly… I wonder how much is legit and how much is blue flu….
Law and order fears for NYC as nearly 10,000 NYPD and FDNY members call out sick amid a rise in burglaries while virus daily death toll DOUBLES in the city to 757
n
Dr. Birx recommends not going to the grocery or pharmacy for two weeks. So, they just close, supply lines stop, and then start up in two weeks like nothing happened? I’m not sure I’m buying that. I’ve got enough food/supplies on hand for months, but most do not. I’m having trouble separating WuFlu damage from goobermint damage. Bill Gates online again saying mass get togethers may be a thing of the past without a vaccine. And even then, some kind of way to mark you as vaccinated. It’s hard to believe eating a bat with coronavirus destroyed the World. Gates says he is working behind the scenes with Big Pharma, NIH, etc. Why not just keep your yap shut. Don’t expand on socialist views. He may be smart, but not a genius. Is he positioning himself and the leader of the NWO?
Was that “don’t go to the store for two weeks” starting about two or three weeks ago, when we were first told to put ourselves under house arrest, or starting now, after several weeks of having been told not to go out? Or is this a rolling “don’t go out for two weeks”? The way the panic ratchet has been turning, I know where I’m placing my bet.
You guys know that “nerd girl” is now a subcategory of pron? So many 80s kids have grown up, and the signifiers have been fetishized….
Fetishizing “nerd girl” is Felicia Day’s whole career. Margot Robbie’s riding the same wave. I guess it makes sense that it would be a subgenre of pr0n.
I believe it is a side effect borne of a lot of X-er woman my age, over the last 30 years, attempting to lay claim to being nerdy/outcast in high school, a higher percentage than was actually the case, in order to hide a history of debauched MTV-fueled behavior that would be embarrassing if it came to the light of day in the #MeToo era. The meme is that nerdy girls are hiding something, not an incorrect assumption but still a stereotype.
Of course, a lot of pr0n makes money with stereotypes. IMHO, the most brilliant “Friends” episode was the “free pr0n” script, where, after endless hours indulging, Chandler expressed surprise about his newly-skewed sense of reality, that the pizza delivery girl just delivered the pizza and didn’t try to have sex with him.
(I expect “Friends” to be back on Netflix within a year.)
Again? The problem is a lot of early 2000s cars are still reliable transportation if the owners at least made sure that they didn’t rust and changed the oil occasionally.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/32877/ford-wants-a-repeat-of-cash-for-clunkers-as-new-car-sales-tank
I know people who carefully bought and preserved GNXs in storage in 1987. First year 300Zs with that Mercedes engine and Chrysler automatic were another big one for preservation. Of course, it is an old story in Florida — the kids inherit the oldsters’ collections and they just want fast cash or a Corolla for the offspring.
I live in the Northeast…
What is that “rust” of which you speak? Here, we have plastic rot on cars not kept out of the sun. We also humidify our garages in summer.
What is that “rust” of which you speak? Here, we have plastic rot on cars not kept out of the sun. We also humidify our garages in summer.
I had a lot of plastic rot on my 93 Probe, but, as much as I hated that car, I still kept it for eight years because it ran well. The “it” moment was a $1000 idle bypass valve replacement, and the dealer cut me a break on labor, $0, because the part was so expensive from Ford.
The chief is a big time gun grabber.
The judge is our Emergency Manager, and replaced a capable, experienced, and well liked judge in the last straight party ticket vote in Houston. She has ZERO EMgmt experience or training.
n
The chief is a big time gun grabber.
The Chief was hired away from Austin.
The current Austin Chief, Brian Manley, isn’t stellar, but he is an improvement, having been promoted from the ranks of APD. He still spent at least a year as “interim” before Adler and the council decided to remove that label after Manley bagged the serial bomber two years ago.
(Bagged the bomber with the help of Round Rock PD and Williamson County Sheriff. The Travis Sheriff, in whose jurisdiction the bomber *lived* was less helpful beyond gathering evidence after the fact.)
Still, a drive down Riverside between the airport area and I35 will tell you volumes about what police can and can’t do in Austin.
Puzzling. With so many more paople home, I would think burglaries would be way down, and invasions might be up.
In Texas? Really?? Get a rope!!
“The chief is a big time gun grabber.”
In Texas? Really?? Get a rope!!
Not in Austin, parts of Dallas, or Harris County (Houston). Not anymore.
San Antonio city government is outright Socialist, but they’re confined to the city limits for now.
It is easy to blame the influx of Californians, but the Republicans in Austin burn political capital chasing the ghost of Ann Richards, the last Dem Governor of Texas, by tightening restrictions on abortion instead of squelching Prog ambitions.
(For the uninitiated, Ann Richards daughter Cecile ran Planned Parenthood for about a decade, and her name is floated as a Governor candidate.)
Wow, and on a Ford. That is above Japanese car dealer pricing, and almost to European car dealer pricing. I owned a 91 Plymouth Grand Voyager for 20 years, my first EFI car, with a little 3.3 litre V6. It had no problems, and then at about 140k miles the idle speed would occasionally stay at about 2k rpm, instead of returning to idle, when stopping. Since my wife also drove it, I worried this might bother her. I priced the idle control motor and valve assembly, and it was something like $35 from the local parts stores. That seemed expensive, so before I ordered it, I decided to try cleaning it as directed in the service manual. A few minutes with a screwdriver and some carb cleaner, and it was like new. Did need to do that again a few years later. Sure liked that car.
Wow, and on a Ford. That is above Japanese car dealer pricing, and almost to European car dealer pricing.
The 93 Probe was a Mazda MX-6 with a different body. The previous generation was developed to replace the Mustang, but the purists flipped about a front wheel drive car with that name so Ford retreated.
The “E Mustang” is a sign that the purists are dying off, and I doubt they would have tried it with Lee Iacocca still alive and coherent. Still I wouldn’t be surprised if Ford does another retreat.
Well, not from my county. Here, the sheriff readily (for CA) issues CCWs and mostly ignores those of us inland of the mountains. Our county seat is 120 miles west of here, and a verrry different environment. Here, many people adhere to the old farmer’s adage of “shoot, shovel, shut up.” Well, maybe not seriously any more.
My uncle visited Randsburg in the late 1940s, when there were still more than ten operating saloons on the main street. He said he saw lots of prospector types looking like cowboys and wearing sixguns in town, and a marshal who didn’t bat an eye. Honest, that’s what he told me. He was a good storyteller. 😉
Over The Hedge: The SARS-2 House
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/04/05
Oh my goodness.
The wife has been binge watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with other things. The pilot episode with the caretaker was cool.
Caretaker? You mean the “Voyager” pilot?
“Voyager” was rough for a while. Consider yourself warned. Cast chemistry took a while, the TV production team had promoted the wrong individuals getting towards the end of the 90s, and the “Next Generation” movies were starting to bomb, intensifying the pressure on the Stage 8/9 crew.
Incompetent I am.
Actually, the wife has been binge watching DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. We watched them all when they were originally broadcast. She did not like Discovery but loved Picard.
“It is easy to blame the influx of Californians…?”
Well, not from my county. Here, the sheriff readily (for CA) issues CCWs and mostly ignores those of us inland of the mountains.
No. I’m talking about owners of vehicles with dealer license plate frames with iterations of “Stevens Creek” in the name. Pre-virus, on a Friday or Saturday night, I’d be willing to bet I could find at least a dozen of the cars in the garage in the Domain, Austin’s imitation of Northern CA.
I’m guessing that Stevens Creek Blvd is “auto row” in Silicon Valley.
Actually, the wife has been binge watching DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. We watched them all when they were originally broadcast. She did not like Discovery but loved Picard.
I strongly suspect “Picard” was tweaked last year after the second season of “Discovery” concluded and the fan reaction more positive with the reintroduction of Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise.
The much-rumored flashback of Beverly Crusher meeting her demise didn’t see air, and Gates McFadden was prominent at the “Picard” premiere.
“Enterprise” deserves a real finale. Hopefully, that gets corrected via “Discovery” or “Picard” before too much time goes by and, like Bakula’s “Quantum Leap”, the fans never get a satisfying conclusion.
The “E Mustang” is a sign that the purists are dying off, and I doubt they would have tried it with Lee Iacocca still alive and coherent. Still I wouldn’t be surprised if Ford does another retreat.
Ford was desperately trying to meet the new 56 mpg CAFE standards that the Obola administration required for 2026. The standard got dropped to 36 mpg last week by the Trumper.
There is an “E F-150” coming also that is having pricing problems. They are desperately trying to get the additional price down from $20K to $3K. Plus, Tesla is eating Ford’s lunch on loaded sedans and Toyota / Honda / Kia / etc is eating Ford’s lunch on the entry level crap boxes.
There is an “E F-150” coming also that is having pricing problems. They are desperately trying to get the additional price down from $20K to $3K. Plus, Tesla is eating Ford’s lunch on loaded sedans and Toyota / Honda / Kia / etc is eating Ford’s lunch on the entry level crap boxes.
Ford’s sedans are done in North America. They can pull Mondeos in from Spain to rebadge as Fusions while Jalisco retools if market tastes suddenly shift again, but gas prices will have to go up *a lot* before people give up the cargo capacity of a crossover.
I saw the prototype Crown Vic in Chicago in March last year and took pictures, but, given the nightmare Ford had with that platform as the new Exploder for 2020, I doubt we’ll see that even for the cops before 2022.
84 month car loans were the limit pre-virus. I swear one of the local dealers was offering a 90 month deal on 2019s *briefly* in their commercials, but that disappeared before I saw the spot again.
Stick a fork in Tesla and EVs in general if the virus mess continues into the end of summer.
When I went to a Randsburg saloon about 45 years ago, it was the only one left.
Ford’s sedans are done in North America. They can pull Mondeos in from Spain to rebadge as Fusions while Jalisco retools if market tastes suddenly shift again, but gas prices will have to go up *a lot* before people give up the cargo capacity of a crossover.
There is a larger 4 door Ford E sedan coming soon too. Or maybe that is a full blown E SUV variant of the Exploder.
There is a larger 4 door Ford E sedan coming soon too. Or maybe that is a full blown E SUV variant of the Exploder.
Maybe an EV Exploder for CA. One of the snowflakes at work was talking about flying out and buying an EV Focus at a dealer there since he’s destroyed the battery pack in his plug-in C-Max hybrid trying to drive completely without turning on the gas engine.
Moron. I guess there is a switch to disable the engine or he had one wired in to make a point.
Regardless, Ford makes things for CA that don’t see dealer lots in the rest of the country. I had no clue that a Focus EV even existed.
I doubt the E Mustang will happen next year. Ford had a 99% profit decline for 2019 with the botched Exploder launch, and the local dealer still had 20 2019 gas Mustangs on the lot six weeks ago when I took a serious look at replacing the Camry. The company needs the bailout money and a replacement for Steelcase Boy as CEO ASAP.
The dealers will flip if the manufacturer foists the EV Mustangs on them in September in the current economic mess. Pre-order reservations aren’t sales, and even an end to lockdowns by Labor Day will mean a couple of years of rebuilding what was lost in the last month.
Hmmm.
Just went To WinCo this morning, first time in two weeks (ok, 12 days).
As I rolled my cart towards the end of the small line someone already there in line called out to me: “ Sir, sir, over 60 can go right in!”
Um. Thank you kind stranger. I think.
Fruit, veggies, coffee, cat food, baking powder, beer. I meant to pick up a couple of steaks and some creamer, but forgot.
I don’t want an electric vehicle, not unless my driving patterns change a lot or batteries improve to where I can drive 800 miles in a day without excessive charging time. And I still need it big enough to carry me and five kids and their school stuff or me and furniture or me and a thousand pounds of manure. (The manure weighs more than the five kids but otherwise is less bothersome.)
I’d be interested in a hybrid minivan or large SUV but they don’t seem to be there yet, at least not the models available in the US. The Chrysler Pacifica is almost what I want, except for the seats getting out of the way for boxes or furniture or plywood. Maybe in a couple years.
One of our neighbors, who’s even more paranoid than my wife about Chinese Bat Cooties (and that’s a high bar to hurdle) and who just this morning declined half a loaf of pumpkin bread (which I make fairly often and share around because old Chinese people really like it and consider it good for their health; go figure) because of fear of coming into contact with other people, just this afternoon asked if we had any bread yeast to spare because they couldn’t find any when they went to the store this morning. I don’t know about you but I smell hypocrisy and bullshit.
Whenever anyone asks why I hate people, I tell them “People.”
Asshole at the grocery. There were 4 or 5 of us standing in line to enter the store, we were well separated and wore PPE. Suddenly, there was a loud, hacking coughing from the end of the line. Everyone instinctively stepped aside. A man in his 30s finished coughing, began laughing, and walked inside through the empty space his fake coughing had created.
Well, “shut up” is part of it. Er, “fight club”.
I know which one you mean. We moved here in 1972, and probably visited Randsburg for the first time later that year. There was one not very busy saloon and the general store. Now, there is just the general store and the museum. I think, because we haven’t been into that town in a few years.
Did you know about the few homes that are supposed to be palaces on the inside, but very ordinary on the outside? I have it on good authority that there at least used to be. Time moves very slowly around those parts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still in use. We only stay in the main part of the town, because we have heard there can be residents who don’t like outsiders. I wouldn’t be surprised. Over the years, the area has been overrun by flatlanders, who have no respect for solitude. We wouldn’t want to disturb the natives. Seriously.
@SteveF said:
Soon we will be begging the Amish for buggies and horses.
I do not foresee a future of electricity or internal combustion. Too many eco-weenies are going to survive this pandemic and blame it all on the wrong things and people. The oligarchs will sit comfortably in their estates laughing at us slaves trying eek life out of nothing.
If you had not fully prepared by now you will not be able to catch up in the near future. We have relied too much on other countries and we will pay dearly for it. The lessons of WWII have died with the Veterans. And I blame the Veterans because they did not want their children to experience the trials and tribulations of the Great Depression (and the one before it, lessons not learned) and WWII (and the one before it, again lessons not learned). Sheltering people from the facts of life has never been a good plan.
Recovering from things the way they are now is not like flipping a light switch. Again, we no nothing of how we got back to normal after WWII. It was not simple or pretty. Our recovery from this will not be simple or pretty and the politicians will bend over backward to give us “things” and will in the process destroy what little we have left in value, desire, drive, and self-worth. Our infrastructure and “system” has suffered a destructive blow equivalent to many many atomic bombs.
Yet/Yes, I still have Hope and will strive towards Peace. But I will not tolerate the intolerant, I will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils, and I will not believe the false prophets of salvation. I need to see real action, not words, not promises. My days grow short and I have much left to do.
Peace. Hope. Fair winds and following seas.
Slowly cleaning and organizing. Some in the garage, some in my office, some in the rest of the house.
Found 6 air rifles I forgot I had. All in rough shape, which is probably why I stashed them where I did. Sprayed them down with oil as a stopgap.
Found some other stuff in the office to sell, and to keep. It’s so crowded that I have to move like I’m doing Tai Chi Chuan in some places.
Found a baby possum in the garage. Just sitting there on the floor. Shivering. Moving very slowly and not looking good. No obvious injury but maybe poisoned? So I got a shoe box and put it on the wood pile. Still there and still breathing several hours later. I guess we’ll see tomorrow. I’ve been told not to kill them as they eat things we want eaten. Nasty looking things.
n
Cash for Clunkers, or CARS. I had a car that qualified at the time. We were on a trip, and I had some time to spare, so I checked out the ads on new cars, thinking I might snag a deal when we got back home. From what I could tell, the dealers jacked up the price, or jacked down the discounts, so that the deal was not very good. I couldn’t see the point.
Then I heard about the outcry over destroying cars by seizing the engines. That was just symbolic, because there could have been a mandate to not sell the engine, leaving accessories and other parts for normal junkyard sales. This was just a political stunt, and the public was wise. Government is a blunt tool.
If Ford lobbies and gets their way, I hope it is handled better. Here in CA, we can turn in a car that fails emissions inspection, and get something like (it varies) $1000-1500 for it. It goes through the normal junkyard scrappage, leaving all the reusable parts available. Successful recycling? I am still opposed to this.
Government types have no appreciation for old cars, just like they have no respect for a lot of things they don’t understand. I would like to scrap most of them.
But… that makes you intolerant.
Beatcha, SteveF :->
The tolerant already beat you, JimB. Haven’t you noticed? “You have to respect others’ choices and opinions!” “OK. And I have my own opinion. Why aren’t you respecting it?” “… You’re a hater!”
Wise as always, SteveF.
My wife reported a line to get in the door at HEB this afternoon. The debit card networks kept crashing and each register transaction was requiring 7-8 minutes to clear so the store limited how many people could be inside at any given time.
I didn’t know the Venezuelans were into slapstick. (via)
I think it really is that funny. I showed the article to my daughter and it made her giggle like a little girl.
Did you know you can snore with your mouth closed? Loud enough to wake yourself up? I didn’t.
But I did it.
On the plus side, for once my head was clear enough to not be a mouthbreather in bed. And I didn’t wake up with cotton mouth. Just a sore throat.
Something in the pollen mix this year is messing with me. My eyes are gritty, nose sort of drips, mostly runs down the back of my throat, and coughing up snot is pretty constant. It’s not in my ears yet. Give it time… I can wait for that forever.
Our pollen is already better. The rain has washed away a bunch too.
We’ll get leaf mold and grass and flower pollen next I guess.
zertec D is one of my ‘maintenance’ drugs.
one a day, forever
n
And I really like the breathe*rite strips.
n
And I really like the breathe*rite strips.
Afrin. I know my limits there, however. I know people who didn’t.
And of course, today’s title refers to a song. Moan-y geezerrock song. Not quite a direct quote…..
n
Sheriff’s deputies are working a guy who got 4 rounds shot into his truck. The location is only a few minutes from here. It’s on the route I take home from my secondary location most evenings. NOT a great area, that I avoid after dark.
n
Jeez, the deputy investigating has heard 10 more shots. Guy must have been hit, there is a victim at the hospital. The deputy says he found a bullet in front of a residence that had called in ‘shots fired’ in front of their house…. Freaking battle.
“Even if I get very very ill, though, my opinion is the same. Short of actual black death numbers, what we’re doing to the economy is more dangerous than the disease. And will ultimately cost more in lives blighted and ended- SAH*”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2020/04/01/destroyed-lives/
Jeez, the deputy investigating has heard 10 more shots. Guy must have been hit, there is a victim at the hospital. The deputy says he found a bullet in front of a residence that had called in ‘shots fired’ in front of their house…. Freaking battle.
According to my former USMC son, people with grudges do not let a good crisis go to waste. Time and time again, they had to settle fights between people while in Iraq. We are not much better than them.
“Brother against Brother”
“Brothers against the Father”
“The Family against the Tribe”.
“The Tribe against the Government”.