Cool and sunny, another great day. [79F at 9am, probably another hot day]
Yesterday was another great spring day. Hot in the afternoon, but nice in the shade and a cooling breeze. I spent the afternoon working on sprinklers again. I confirmed that all the zone valves were working electrically, except the one zone I wanted to disconnect anyway. Bonus! I spent some time changing out a few heads and aiming and adjusting the remaining. I’ve STILL got a couple of things to do to get better coverage of my raised beds, and one head I can’t find. It was nice to be working with water in the shade on a beautiful day.
However, since it’s taking so long to get the freaking sprinklers done, other things have slipped. And I won’t be getting to them today, as I’ll be heading to my client’s house to install the parts I have. I want to get his security cams back up, and his bluray replaced. That will get 95% back working, and the upgrades can follow as the gear arrives. Not sure when I’ll head over, but I really want to get some of my list done over there.
I made a loaf of bread in the machine since we’re finally out of sandwich bread. I even warmed up the yeast, and added extra… but it was only about 3 inches high and with a thick crust. It tastes ok, and is soft but dense. We’ll eat it, but it was not a success. I’m blaming the yeast at this point. I’ll try again with some fresh packet yeast.
Dinner was personal sized pizzas. Not as tasty as I’d have liked. I bought the crusts as a kit and froze them months ago. I had cheese and toppings in the fridge. When I went to the case of tomato paste, I discovered they were BB date 2017. High acid foods don’t do well in cans past their date and these were no exception. All were either bulged, or had pinholes that leaked. Most of the pinholes were in about the same spot too, so there must be a defect in the cans. We don’t eat red sauce, so I never use the paste. I ended up using jarred marinara sauce (which I keep around for guests on spaghetti night) with additional seasoning. I put WAY too much oregano in the sauce. WAY TOO MUCH! Oh well, I ate it, and so did my wife. Kid 1 ate some, but kid 2 didn’t care for it at all. I was hoping for a nice treat, but it didn’t work out. Dessert was daughter’s birthday flan. Hmmmm, egg pie…..
We’re approaching the end of the school year and everyone in town wants a live, in person graduation ceremony for the High Schools. I really don’t get why, but it looks like the mayor and HISD superintendent are going to have one of some kind. Sounds like a bad idea to me.
Speaking of bad ideas, barber shops and salons will be open in Texas today… it really doesn’t get more up close and personal than a haircut, with clothes on anyway. My barber was freaked at the idea of reopening, but he will because he needs the money. Not me, I’ll be cutting my own for at least a while longer.
I guess we’ll be running the experiment whether I like it or not. In 3-4 weeks we’ll know who was right.
My plan is to continue to isolate as much as possible. Limit contacts. Avoid crowds and other people in general. Stay in, and stay safe. And keep stacking. (in my case, going through the stacks too.)
n
My experience of late with the VA has been quite positive. At least for the clinic and facility in Murfreesboro that I use. The VA wanted some urology testing done and the closest was Murfreesboro which is 150 miles away. I was sent to my regular urologist with the VA covering the cost. So no complaints.
For which I am grateful. The service has improved dramatically over the last couple of years. Better facilities, better service, better equipment. It is about time in my opinion. Some ex-service members have some really serious problems from their stint in the military. The military is responsible for their care. I feel fortunate that my issues are trivial compared to some.
Thus my first comment about being treated in a private facility. Cheaper for the VA to pay those providers than staff their own facilities for specialists.
I am curious as to why he was forced out. For what reason? My impression is that once an individual is in the VA system they are there for the duration. For the VA to take away benefits is not very common and is in fact really rare. Even if the VA was not able to treat the condition the cost should have been covered by the VA using a private provider. That scares me as I am in the system.
Thus I keep paying my medicare premiums and supplemental insurance. I had considered abandoning those costs and going strictly with the VA for everything. Would save me $250.00 a month.
That could change with shifting political winds. Get someone like AOC in a position of power and the VA may get stripped of everything. Liberals hat the VA with a passion. Those that have given nothing to the country get top notch care they voted for themselves and deny coverage for those that sacrificed for the country.
I have a supplemental policy under Medicare. My deductible is $187.00 per year. After that the supplemental pays everything that Medicare does not pay. I pay no copays. Medicare denied charges are not my responsibility as the provided accepted Medicare. The prior three years I had a different plan where I paid nothing, and that was certainly the case. But the extra cost was more than the deductible so I changed coverage plans. He may not have a supplemental policy. In that case he will be responsible for 20% of the covered Medicare charges, which can be a lot of money.
Medicare is run at the state level with the feds chipping in money. The rules are basically the same but getting coverage may be different.
My aunt was on the system. Primary insurance once a person reaches 65 is always Medicare. Even with company provided insurance the provider will generally demand Medicare Part A now be Medicare, Part B still covered by company insurance. Secondary insurance was her health insurance from the Bell system retirement. Tertiary insurance was Medicaid which covered anything left. It was complicated and I never understood charges and who paid what. I just tossed the paperwork.
My doctor had me on the regiment for years. But last year he told me to cease as it would cause more problems than it helped. I am not at risk for heart problems and maybe that is the difference. Even my VA doctor has stated to stop the aspirin. There is some confusion and difference of opinion in the medical field.
Actually, my doctor took me off of my daily low dose aspirin. It is no longer recommended (or never was?) by the FDA for people who have not already had a heart attack or stroke.
Keep yeast in the freezer or at least the refrigerator and pull it out and warm up a couple teaspoons (or a 1/4 oz packet) when you’re going to use it. Definitely don’t keep it in the cupboard unless you’re going to use it within a couple weeks. I normally buy yeast two pounds at a time and, keeping it frozen, it stays good for the year or so until it’s all used.
Yeast is a living thing. No matter how you do it, it doesn’t store well and degrades, in my experience, exponentially as it ages.
Have you considered a sourdough starter? It does need to be kept “fed” but lives forever. The internet is full of ways to create your starter, just be patient. Also, while you can buy starters, it is best to create your own as it will be acclimated to your area. And it gets better with age.
“Keep yeast in the freezer or at least the refrigerator and pull it out and warm up a couple teaspoons (or a 1/4 oz packet) when you’re going to use it.”
—-I keep the jar in the fridge, and for the loaf yesterday I warmed it up, and put it in warm milk and sugar before dumping it in the machine.
“Have you considered a sourdough starter? ”
–yeah, but I really don’t like sourdough bread. I like sweeter breads and with lighter textures. But you do what you can with what you’ve got, so I might end up there. Interesting during the BBC “Farms” series that in medieval England, when a daily meal was mostly near beer and bread, they used ‘wild’ yeast, just putting the pan out of doors for a while.
I’ve got some foil packets of yeast I bought fairly recently that I’ll try next. I don’t know how long the jar’s been in the fridge.
n
In news other than wuflu, this is Stop the Bleed Month.
–Doctrine and attitudes among the ‘only ones’ are FINALLY changing…
How revamping citizen first aid training to include the application of tourniquets will save lives
Why you must stop overlooking and start training the immediate responder
–other threats are still out there. Get training and supplies.
n
Like Steve, I just keep a pound or two in the freezer. (restaurant supply) Helluva lot cheaper that way. I tested foil packets way back when and found the Platinum brand better than any other, hands down.
Bread yeast.
If you want to dabble in brewing, this is a simple mostly fool proof way to produce a mild alcohol from bread yeast, with supplies most people have.
I’ve made a couple batches. It’s not great mead, but it’s tasty ice cold and refreshing. It’s really pretty if you add in a bunch of dandelion blossoms in the spring, or the juice from crab apples in the fall.
Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead
(JAOM)
https://gotmead.com/blog/recipe/joes-ancient-orange-clove-and-cinnamon-mead/
I have been baking bread since January using sourdough starter. I cheated by getting a jar of someone else’s rather than starting my own, but I have kept it alive until now. Much more reliable than yeast packets and will work in both hand-made bread and bread machines. If using a machine (free from a friend in March), remember that sourdough starter is a liquid ingredient so it goes in before the flour. My method: Add warm water to the machine (hot will kill yeast) in a ratio of 1 cup water to 3 cups flour. Add tablespoon of sugar and stir. Pour in a cup of sourdough starter (if it does not pour and does not float in the water, it is not ready for baking). Stir and let it sit feeding on the sugar for a few minutes. Add dry ingredients (flour and salt) and turn on the machine (mines a Hamilton-Beech). That makes a 2-pound loaf. Has worked every time with white flour, whole wheat, white with 1/6 rye flour.
Finished replacing some piping for the pool. Filter and pump is in the garage, below pool level. Wife knocked over a ladder that hit the pipe for the discharge and shatter the pipe and a fitting. Had to remove the blackflow preventer that naturally did not work and screw on a cap to stop the flow. A couple hundred gallons of water ran out until I could get it stopped. Big mess on the garage floor. Fortunately most of the water ran out the garage door.
Replaced the pipe from the filter to the discharge line. Put in a couple of couplings to allow disassembly in the future along with a new valve that uses screw on couplings to attach the lines. Dry fitted all the stuff before gluing. Used alignment marks and letters to get all the pieces correct.
Attached as much as could up to the discharge line. Removed the cap blocking the discharge line and was able to quickly get the new piece attached, a screw on fitting glued into the end of one of the couplings. Not a lot of water this time as I was able to get the fitting attached in about 30 seconds. Now to see if the fittings are water tight. I am not concerned about the glued joints, just the joints with the twist fittings.
PVC pipe gets brittle after years of chlorinated water. Especially the fittings, which may have been something other than PVC. Very brittle, just shattered into multiple pieces from the impact of the ladder. I have had this happen before on these pool pipes when I was replacing some old valves.
Like most home improvement projects, more than two trips to Home Depot is required.
Will open the pool next weekend. Too cold to open yet with predicted lows tonight and tomorrow to match or exceed records, perhaps even freeze.
@Ray
I have been occupied with pool duties as well, though not so epic as yours. We’ve had a kiddie pool the last few years. A simple 12′ x 30″ above ground Intex. Cheap and usually easy. Only holds about 1,200 gallons but it offers its excitements. Last fall was eaten by locusts and I didn’t get it completely emptied. This spring I’ve paid the price in additional work making it suitable for use. Emptied it and am scrubbing the liner as I’ve been completely unable to find a replacement for love or money.
We had a ‘Doughboy’ above ground pool as a kid – I remember it being fairly ginormous, maybe 5′ in the deep end (because dad dug down to deepen one end) and maybe 36″ walls. Perhaps 15′ x 25′? 40 year old memories so who knows what the reality was. I do remember he spent hours keeping it clean.
And I clearly remember his fury when I filled it with tadpoles one spring.
Just completed another instacart order from Costco.
They had vinegar, so I got 3 gallons. I’d forgotten about pickling season. I’ve got salt and planted cukes, but am down to 3 gallons of vinegar. I mainly use vinegar for de-rusting metal parts, which uses about 5 gallons each time…
I got 3 packages of meat, one beef, two chicken legs, and some lamb rib chops. So either my store isn’t enforcing the 3 item limit or it really doesn’t apply to lamb. I didn’t notice any limits on the other items, but I wasn’t looking either. I barely have freezer space for this much.
They had several choices for TP and paper towels and napkins, although there were limits. I only bought napkins as I’m still really good on the rest. And besides, the paper towels are $6 more than I paid on sale.
Prices in general were higher, some much higher. Pork shoulder was 3x what I pay on sale. But beef stew chunks were right in line with sale prices pre-covid. High end steaks were about pre-covid prices too, neither cheaper nor jacked up. Choice top sirloin steaks were ~$7, which is cheap for Costco and in line with HEB sales.
Choices in bakery were limited, but I got what I needed.
I even got some canned chicken.
I ordered online, the shopper started pulling the order w/in about 20 minutes, and I had it in my fridge within an hour. That’s REALLY convenient.
n
There were still noticeable gaps in cleaning supplies, no bleach or lysol forex.
My pool is inground, 18’x36′, 8′ deep in the deep end, 25K gallons. In 30 years I have only drained the pool three times. I keep it full all year round, covered in the winter. Tried an experiment to not cover one year, never again. Pump and filter are located in the garage below the level of the pool. Thus the pipes never freeze. I am on my third pump and third filter. Last filter exploded, shattered into pieces from the pressure. That was a mess. Now I use spun fiberglass, expensive but sturdy. I have a spare pump that I recently replaced the seals that were leaking. 1HP 240V, easy to replace to replace the seals. Have had a couple of motors die, ordered a new one and had the only rebuilt for about $120.00. New pumps are over $400.00. Use a sand filter and change the sand every five years. Tedious job but not difficult.
Last year I had the edging replaced as the old concrete was crumbling. That was $7K and was really the first major expense in 30 years.
Hoarder! Send a gallon to me!
Hair and nail salons opened here last week. All by appointment only and extreme protection in place. I had no concerns getting my hair cut. In retrospect, not the best idea as they scalped me. I had hair down to my shoulders after 6 months and wanted it trimmed up. Now I have a short business cut and my wife is very upset. She liked my long curly hair. Oh well, it’s still growing.
Yeast. I’ve been using a sourdough starter for quite a few years now. However, when my wife wanted some sweet dough last week I dug out the jar of yeast that moved with us that has a best by date of Oct 2016, refrigerated but never frozen. I proofed about 1 teaspoon with a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar in warm water and it showed signs of life so I made a sponge to work over night and it was nice and ready to go in the morning (I would normally use no more than 1/4 teaspoon for such a sponge but I wanted to make sure).
I got 3 packages of meat, one beef, two chicken legs, and some lamb rib chops. So either my store isn’t enforcing the 3 item limit or it really doesn’t apply to lamb. I didn’t notice any limits on the other items, but I wasn’t looking either. I barely have freezer space for this much.
Sam’s is enforcing limits on lamb.
Under normal situations, we only use Costco for cat litter and Spam. We’re down more than I like to be with our Spam stash, but that is unobtainium for now, especially the lower sodium cans that my wife prefers to use.
Let’s start an office pool to see when the first mention of a “third wave” occurs. 🙂
My father-in-law was forced out of the VA system six years ago
I am curious as to why he was forced out. For what reason? My impression is that once an individual is in the VA system they are there for the duration. For the VA to take away benefits is not very common and is in fact really rare. Even if the VA was not able to treat the condition the cost should have been covered by the VA using a private provider. That scares me as I am in the system.
My father-in-law was taken to the local ER in an ambulance against his wishes by my wife’s sister six years ago. He was 81 and throwing up constantly for 8+ hours. They found out that he had a gangrenous gall bladder and sepsis. They hit him with massive amounts of antibiotics, stabilized him, and removed the gall bladder after 4 ??? days. They missed a piece of the exploded gall bladder and removed that after another week or so. They could not get his heart stabilized during this time (continuous afib) so they performed an ablation. Then his resting heart beat was in the 30s so they put in a pacemaker.
The VA REFUSED to pay for none of this even though he has been a disabled army vet (90% at the time) since he was 37 and always went to them for care previously. So they activated his Medicare, made him back pay into the system back to age 65, and then he had to pay deductibles, etc, etc, etc. I have not performed any forensic accounting but I saw bills for over $30,000 that he paid out of pocket. I am fairly sure that there were other bills that he paid also. One of the bills from Medicare was for over $8,000 for the time period he did not join from age 65 to age 81.
He was moved from the hospital to the first rehab XXXXX nursing home after about a month. It took a long time to get him stabilized. The VA had previously treated his afib with drugs and popping him with the paddles. He needed an heart ablation for over ten years and they refused to do it.
He still goes to the VA for his drugs which are free there but I have no idea how much longer that will happen since he cannot travel anymore and they require a yearly physical. The last time he went, he fell out of his wheelchair in the back of the ambulance on the way there. He told me he was laying on the floor of the ambulance screaming at them while they were driving 60 mph down the road. He also gets a $3,100 / month disability payment that we use to help pay the $6,000 / month nursing home fee.
ADD: My SIL now wishes that she had let him go six years ago. We had no idea his paralysis was at his knees then and moving up about 2 or 3 inches per year. It has been hell for him.
Hallelujah! HEB had vinegar today. Gallon and a half jugs. Only 1/4 of the shelf was used, though. And some name brand TP. I’m still set on that.
Hallelujah! HEB had vinegar today. Gallon and a half jugs. Only 1/4 of the shelf was used, though. And some name brand TP. I’m still set on that.
Get some TP for the third wave.
And I clearly remember his fury when I filled it with tadpoles one spring.
Ah, a grand experiment ! Did he make you clean them out ?
xkcd: error types
https://xkcd.com/2303/
I like error type #9.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2303:_Error_Types
And this goes right along with his diatribe on error bars.
https://xkcd.com/2110/
@lynn
He tried.
I fled, in tears. I was young enough that between his fury and the sight of their soft tadpole bodies flung against the fence I couldn’t own my mistake. I spent the day in the hills in misery and slunk home when it was dark.
It genuinely didn’t occur to me at the time what a mess I’d made. Summer arrived early and the tadpole ponds were dried up too early, killing them. I’d spent a couple days bringing them home to the pool in coffee cans before my mischief was discovered. None of the other creatures (snakes, lizards, frogs, baby birds, interesting insects) I’d brought home had occasioned such a response.
That was 40 odd years ago. Backyard remains home to an unusual number of frogs so I guess he didn’t get them all with his pool skimmer.
“The last supermoon of 2020, a ‘flower moon,’ rises tonight”
https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/The-last-supermoon-of-2020-a-flower-moon-15253988.php
The moon was huge last night. I look forward to tonight’s viewing except we have a thick cloud cover at the moment.
“Nearly 3.2 million new jobless claims across U.S. drives tally during outbreak to 33.5 million”
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/nearly-3-2-million-new-jobless-claims-across-u-s-drives-tally-during-outbreak-to/article_46159e90-9053-11ea-8a56-2f7900ce6cee.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-sticky-siderail-latest
This could get ugly in a hurry when all of these people do not get their jobs back. 20% of the workers in the USA have now lost their jobs.
“Justice Department dropping Flynn’s Trump-Russia case”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/ap-exclusive-justice-dept-dropping-flynns-criminal-case/
Wow, wow, wow. Flynn beat them in the end but they bankrupted him and his family. Apparently the FBI Mueller team coerced Flynn to plead guilty or else they would charge his son. Just about any man would roll over at that point. Somebody in the FBI needs to go to jail now. I nominate James Comey.
This could get ugly in a hurry when all of these people do not get their jobs back. 20% of the workers in the USA have now lost their jobs.
You assume that they all *want* their jobs back. That will be the bigger problem.
“Moderna shares surge after FDA approves coronavirus vaccine for phase 2 trial”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/07/fda-approves-moderna-vaccine-candidate-for-phase-2-study.html
“Moderna said it will begin phase 2 trials with 600 participants shortly and is finalizing plans for a phase 3 trial as early as this summer.”
““We are accelerating manufacturing scale-up and our partnership with Lonza puts us in a position to make and distribute as many vaccine doses of mRNA-1273 as possible, should it prove to be safe and effective,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. The company hopes to start a phase 3 trial early this summer here, which would line it up for approval for public sale as soon as 2021, he said.”
Gonna be a while.
Imagine doing that today, especially in a city. Many kids aren’t even allowed to walk to school, such is the fear that something bad will happen. I just can’t imagine that, but we live in a small friendly community with low crime and high trust. Things sure have changed since I was a kid in the 1950s, although where I grew up seems about the same: peaceful. I was fortunate to live most of my life in suburbia, in areas that had few problems. I did go to a university in Detroit, and the surrounding neighborhood had its problem areas. Not as bad as lots of other areas, but enough to teach me to be careful.
Uuuuuuuugh. We live in a pricey development with only a few roads in and out. Low crime.* One-tenth of a mile from our house to the corner where the school bus stops. My wife and her mother freak out at the thought of the almost-teen daughter walking to and from the corner. The weather is miserable most of the school year, but that’s not the problem. No, it’s the danger. Haven’t I heard??? A million children are abducted every year! It’s too dangerous to let a child out without escort! Setting aside that “a million child abductions a year” is a flat lie and that something like 90% of child “abductions” in the US are bogus reports resulting from divorce and custody squabbles, my wife and her mother encourage the kid to go out and bicycle around the neighborhood or walk to her friends’ houses a quarter and a half mile away. Maybe it’s the school backpack that puts kids at increased risk of abduction.
* “Low crime” meaning burglaries and assaults and such. I have not the slightest doubt that a large number of crimes are committed by the residents of the development. Lawyers, career bureaucrats, a Chinese academic scientist who is one of the “points of light” or whatever they’re called and thus presumptively a spy.
I walked just under a mile to school, starting at age six, crossing one busy street with a frequently malfunctioning traffic light and walking along one street which didn’t have sidewalks. And one teenage girl in my hometown did go missing, though she was enough older than I that I’m fuzzy on the details; I don’t know if she was grabbed while walking home from school or a job. Regardless, I don’t think a single parent kept the kids from walking to and from school. Gee, do you think it’s possible that the parents who were born in the 1930s and 1940s were tougher and more savvy than the idiots who were born in the 1960s and 1970s? (My opinion on that question may be deduced from the phrasing.)
Lawyers, career bureaucrats, a Chinese academic scientist who is one of the “points of light” or whatever they’re called and thus presumptively a spy.
Rule of thumb from what I observed in Vantucky:
– If you never see the scientist, that’s a bug out pad. He’s either in China or hiding inside from the ChiCom KGB.
– If you see the scientist around outside regularly, he’s whatever passes for ChiCom KGB, especially if he’s sociable.
We had bug out pads around us at our rental. My mother-in-law used to flip out the residents by trying to be friendly. We were probably marked as ChiCom KGB even though I’m 100% redneck. “Stay inside, children. The big hillbilly is a sleeper agent, and the old woman is the spymaster.”
Well, *I* walked two miles to school even in the snow. So there! Neener, neener! ;-p
Ah, but was it uphill both ways like my walk to school?
“WD Red SA500 NAS 2TB 3D NAND Internal SSD – SATA III 6 GB/S, 2.5″/7mm, Up to 560 MB/S – WDS200T1R0A”
https://www.amazon.com/Red-SA500-NAND-Interno-Rojo/dp/B07YFGG261/?tag=ttgnet-20
WD 2TB SSD for $280
If we had the cash, I would like to put one of these in each of my file servers at the office.
“Well, *I* walked two miles to school even in the snow
Ah, but was it uphill both ways like my walk to school?”
–with nothing but socks on your hands because you couldn’t afford mittens?
n
I just noted that I had a voice mail for teeth cleaning next Tuesday. This should be interesting, apparently we are going to PPE up and I am to wear a face mask in to the office. How does she clean my teeth with a face mask on ? I am game as long as there is no pain.
Then I am going to get a real hair cut at my Super Cuts if it is open. Living on the edge !
Nope, socks had holes. I had to shove my hands in my pockets which also served to hold my pants up because I could not afford a belt.
We not only walked to school, we also walked home for lunch (actually we called it “Dinner”), about 6 blocks, then back to school again. There must have been a full hour for it, because we were never late. Sometimes our grandfather would give us a ride back when he took our grandmother back to work (she came home for lunch too. He worked nights, so he was already off).
There were also from 30 to 32 kids in each elementary class, depending on how many were out with whooping cough or something that year. No teacher’s aids. No special ed – everyone was in school together. The principal taught 6th grade, and math. And we did have “standardized tests”, but they were fun because that meant no homework that week.
“Authorities seize thousands of fake IDs headed to New York in Kentucky”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/authorities-seize-thousands-of-fake-ids-in-kentucky
“Federal officers recently intercepted nearly 3,000 fake driver’s licenses and more than 3,100 blank card stocks used to make counterfeit licenses in Kentucky, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).”
“The IDs were heading from China to various locations in New York, the federal agency said, adding that the fake driver’s licenses were seized at an Express Consignment Operations hub in Louisville, Ky.”
6,000 fake driver’s licenses in just one shipment. Lovely, just lovely.
And from China. Why is it always China nowadays ?
“Well, *I* walked two miles to school even in the snow
Ah, but was it uphill both ways like my walk to school?”
–with nothing but socks on your hands because you couldn’t afford mittens?
Nope, socks had holes. I had to shove my hands in my pockets which also served to hold my pants up because I could not afford a belt.
Barefoot?
Barefoot?
And backwards!
Lol, I think Ray’s almost telling the truth. I think we went through this once before, and I lost.
6,000 fake driver’s licenses in just one shipment. Lovely, just lovely.
And from China. Why is it always China nowadays ?
Among my in-laws rackets are drugs and prostitution. Those are American problems.
Oh, you had FEET! Why when I was a lad, we walked to school on our hands. Couldn’t afford feet. Saved on shoes and socks, we did….
n
(was hell on our gloves though….)
Many kids aren’t even allowed to walk to school
The freedom I had in the 1970’s and 1980’s was a gift. My family was poor but in so many ways, dysfunctions and all, richer than anyone I know today.
A major factor in our original private school choice was that it was close enough that when our child is older I fully intended that getting oneself to school, on time, be part of the curriculum. Current school couldn’t get their enrollment numbers up (long story and some shockingly bad behavior on the part of the ‘leadership’) and this is their final year. We have her enrolled in a private school a bit further away, along a somewhat sketchier path, however I still fully expect self transport to be part of the parent inflicted curriculum.
It is increasingly difficult to give a child enough freedom to become a self-sufficient human. The hand wringing over stranger abduction is irrational – the statistics just do not support it as a real danger. I do not recall the number off the top of my head but it was in either the low 100’s or low 200’s across the ENTIRE nation annually. Terrible tragedy if it is your child, yet I argue it is equally tragic to wrap the other millions of children in bubble wrap to nurse the neurosis of the adults around them. Our kid gets dirty, is outside unattended, I hope is doing things of which I would disapprove. This summer I expect to grant the run of the neighborhood as soon as I see proof that, at least while I am watching, the bike will stay out of the middle of the road. I do expect broken bones, skinned knees, bonked foreheads, maybe even a bloody nose.
Life is risk. We have immune systems and a remarkable ability to heal for a reason.
Now if I don’t post for a couple of days it will probably because I am rotting in prison while CPS takes my kid and bubble wraps her.
Now a small weehaw. I forgot about two assignments that were due tonight. I knocked out 1,200 words on recursion (comparative programming class), kNN, Z-score and min-max (data mining class) and got them submitted in 42 minutes flat. Just made the deadline. Phew! I was lucky it was the ‘fluff’ assignments. My only real complaint about University of the People is the weekly fluff assignment where you talk about what you learned and how you feel about it. Who cares and what does that have to do with Computer Science? I pity the instructors reading this schlock.
“Who cares and what does that have to do with Computer Science? I pity the instructors reading this schlock.”
–maybe it cuts down on the cut and paste? Or helps the instructors believe a single person is doing all the work? Gotta be some reason and it’s probably not the stated reason.
n
@nick
believe a single person is doing all the work
Could be. People cheat for lots of reasons, maybe this reveals them. Or maybe it fulfills somebody’s tick-box for ‘meaningful instructor – student interaction’.
And with that I’m getting an early night for once. Dishes can wait until tomorrow. Hah.
Barbara missed posting today (Thursday,) very unusual. She has been having back problems. I hope she is OK. Can anyone here check?
@JimB, I sent her email, hopefully she’s just taking it easy and taking a day off….
n
Y’all talking about vinegar as a cleaning agent: I like to buy concentrated acetic acid from a chemical supply house, because you can then dilute it to what you want. I use 8% for general decalcification, but for occasional toilet cleaning I’ll pour in the pure concentrate (since the toilet water will dilute it). For urine deposits, hydrochloric acid works better – but is considerably more dangerous.
As always, do be careful with any concentrated acid…
Good grief. How are kids supposed to learn any independence if they are always hovered over? Of course, you know that, and that the “million abductions” mostly don’t exist, because they are actually custody disputes. Actual kids snatched by strangers is damned near zero. Seriously, no one wants someone else’s brats.
I bicycled to school, a couple of miles. Of course, uphill both ways, through blizzards and desert heat, both at the same time 🙂
OK, this is more than half-a-century ago, but in my first school, from age 5 to 11, although the classroom was literally 100 yards from my front door, I had to walk at least 400 yards to get to the school gate, and then most of the way back, inside the school grounds, due to the fact that the school was downhill, and the boundary wall was 5 feet at street level, but 20 feet (or more, I misremember) on the school side.
Then, when I went to secondary school (your high school, I think. Anyway, from 11 to 18) I had a mile or more to walk to the bus stop, where I caught the first of 2 buses that would get me to school (there’s a saga there, that I will not elucidate unless asked) 11 miles away. That was more than an hour’s travel (at age 11, without adult supervision) OK, there were a bunch of other kids attending the same school, but no adults on the trip. And the same back home, afterwards.
G.
And no-one thought anything bad about either of those. In fact, I consider the secondary school trip to be good training for the adult commute. Rain or shine, summer or winter, snow or sleet. I would have drawn the line at floods, and one day in winter 1963 (the epic winter, worst in living memory) I finished the first bus journey, and on discovering that the roads over the hill, into the next valley, were closed, turned around and went back home.
That was the only day I did not attend school for weather-related reasons. In 13 years!
G.
With a 25 pound backpack.
A 25-kilo backpack. They were trying to ram the Metric system down our throats when I was a kid.
As an engineer, I strongly favor the metric system. As an ordinary American, I’m very suspicious of and resistant to the Europhile elites’ attempts to force us to do anything.
And as long as I’m on the topic of school travel travails, while elementary school and high school were only uphill one way, junior high was uphill both ways. The highest point in town was between our house and the school and there was no reasonable way to bypass it.
My elementary school (K-5) was a .5 mile walk. I walked or biked, though I do remember mom driving me sometimes, especially in kindergarten and first grade.
Middle school was .25 miles as the crow flies, but closer to .5 miles as the walking path wasn’t direct. There was an added bonus of passing the neighborhood store, which just happened to have video games and candy.
High school was 15 miles. I started out by taking the bus in the morning, but after a few weeks joined a carpool with some friends. I rode the bus home most of the time when it wasn’t swim season. I couldn’t wait to get my license. One month left in my Sophomore year and I said goodbye to the bus forever.