Still hot. And humid.
Got a smatter of rain yesterday but mostly it was sunny and hot.
I did my auction pickups. Got a pair of small vacuum formers, with about 6″ square working area. They were school “industrial arts” tools. I’ve wanted to make or find a small one for a while. Didn’t have time to test them, I’ll hopefully get to that today. They add a tiny bit of capability to my home ‘makerspace’.
One of my pickups was at a moving company/warehouse/shipping logistics company. I spent a few minutes talking to the guy running the place, asking how their business was, how was the rest of the country, etc. It started when I asked about the next auction. He said they had no idea when it would be, as they were depending on other warehouse/ cross dock facilities to move stuff to them. He said they couldn’t predict or guarantee how or how long freight would take to move around the country.
Freight that moves by truck doesn’t actually typically move from your dock, onto a truck, over the road to your customer’s dock, to be unloaded. That’s called ‘point to point’ service and costs more. What happens more usually is that a local service picks up your freight, takes it to a warehouse or cross dock facility. There it’s unloaded, and sits briefly until it can move to a trailer moving in the correct direction. Then it gets loaded and moves to the next cross dock, or regional hub, where the process repeats. It’s kind of like packet routing on the internet. Eventually it gets near where it is supposed to be, and a local carrier will take it that last couple of miles. Sometimes your pallet or crate moves with only a stop or two, sometimes it bounces around.
The problem comes, and what is causing his company all the uncertainty, is what happens when one of those hubs/crossdocks/warehouses shuts down because of COVID cases. Then your freight is stuck there until they reopen. This is happening now and is causing delays. Completely unpredictable delays, and fairly long ones at that.
I asked him what his impression of the overall economy is, and he said they cut all the deadwood out of his office, and now they are busier than ever. He sees the same thing happening elsewhere. Fewer people are doing more work, and it’s more efficient because of keeping the best people and sending the rest home. He also thinks construction is currently more efficient because they have fewer ordinary people in the way, ie. less traffic means road repairs happen faster, etc. He’s not seeing economic devastation everywhere.
Just a data point, from someone with a nationwide network.
I am not sure what to make of it. I’m seeing some amazon items take weeks to get here, but next day on other items. I know that there are delays in shipping and it makes sense with what he told me. Not a good thing, if true and widespread, that’s for sure.
My wife says she’s starting to see delays and disruptions with her manufacturers and distributors. The pace of new projects is slowing, and deliveries for existing are being pushed out in time. A lot of office build out work is probably now obsoleted – no one will want to be ‘hot desking’ if and when they come back to the office, and likely a whole lot less office space will be needed with a lot of jobs converted to work from home. That is a bit worrying, when things had been continuing on pretty much as before.
My last observation is that there were newbies picking up at my ISD location. People are looking at buying and reselling as an alternative to whatever they were doing. I don’t consider that a good sign.
Take a hard look at your own situation. Do a bit of ‘what if’ concerning your income. Look at your expenses, and think about what’s really necessary. What will help you get through this? If it won’t help, might be time to cut it out. I’m going to try to do that, we’ll see how it goes.
As a counter to cutting back on some things, you might consider spending money on stacking some necessities 🙂
nick
Gonna be a lot of GM and Dodge trucks on the market soon for pennies on the dollar. I’ve seen this movie before, it was not pretty. People would default on the high priced object as they bought the same object at a way lower price from somebody else.
In other words, houses in 1986 in Houston, Texas. People would assume the payments on the nicer house across the street and walk away from their house. And so many people did it that the paperwork got lost in the shuffle. And lenders went belly up at the end of the day and the cleanup crews for their offices threw all the paperwork in the dump.
Dodge trucks will have some resale value since parts will be available for the older 1500 design. The GM Arlington truck plant product, especially with the four cylinder engines? Fuggedaboudit.
Ah, the S&L crisis of the 80s. That seems so quaint. In the end, IIRC, the government made money liquidating everything after paying the FDIC losses. Only so many people qualified to borrow at double digit interest rates.
Offices? The paperwork for the current crisis is so massive that it will pop up abandoned in the U-store-it places out by the freeway. That’s how it worked in Florida 10 years ago. The strippers turned finance officers at the mortgage companies knew the locations of all the self storage places in town.
Texas had a reasonable lid on things when we bought our house six years ago, but when one of the young’n’s at CGI bought a place in Austin in 2017, he said that the appraisal for the mortgage company came from a local office and met his bid which raised alarm bells in my head. Not that it mattered to the young’n — he was more concerned about the condo association not allowing his garage to be rewired for his Tesla 3 on preorder.
Of course the parents provided the down payment. Priorities.
One of my cards did that to me. Lowered by credit limit by 50%. Chase to be specific. I don’t use the card much and really only keep it because the $75.00 annual fee gets me a free room at Hyatt hotels. Never been late, never paid any interest, FICO above 800, so not a credit issue. Just blanket lowering. Picked my card because of the limited use. I suspect it makes the banks look better on the amount of possible unsecured debt.
Turning into a lovely week
https://weather.com/weather/today/l/35.38,-119.21?par=google&temp=f
PGE gets more, with state mandated penalty for high usage.
Looks like Seattle is going to run the experiment….
Gonna look like Chicago pretty quickly….
n
Tyler Durden cowardice. Why?
“Best, who in addition to trying to maintain order during the BLM protests while operating under a ban on tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs, has been dealing with protesters showing up to her Snohomish County house.”
In other words, despite being a career SPD officer, the Chief lives a minimum of 30 minutes outside the city, in a very wealthy, white suburban county, home to Boeing’s big plane assembly plant … and, interestingly, PBS Fans, Rick Steves.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/seattle-police-chief-resigns-after-city-approves-plan-defund-police-axe-100-cops
You think the Chief … or Rick Steves … are going to live *in* the Prog paradise of Seattle?
Following nick, had the external woodwork on house powerwashed yesterday. Sanding and other preps today and then repainting. Stucco looks fine, holding repainting that off for a while.
LA isn’t looking so good either. You have to get to the literal last paragraph of the article but FINALLY I’m seeing “gang-related” in articles.
In other news, the pedo’s procurer is about to die….
Even if they have to nuke the whole prison, she’ll never testify.
n
Fortunately, I live about 20 miles SW of Los Angeles. OTOH, my two granchildren will now be living in LA. Actually, on/near USC campus in student housing, instructed to not walk off campus.
They are not like us. Probably never had a real job in their entire life. Think they deserve, because, they deserve. No effort required for gain. They are not like us.
I wasn’t a racist. But this BLM stuff may change my position.
I say the same thing to American blacks that I do to mohammedans: Any of you so-called moderates had better get your radicals under control or you’ll be lumped in with them when we’ve had enough. The two groups are trying make your skin color all that matter or your religion all that matters. That’s a losing strategy in the US, where “losing” will be characterized by death, expulsion, or enslavement.
@jenny– I was looking around the site yesterday for earthquake stuff and saw your comment about the first time you processed the rabbits, in 2015 iirc. It sounded like you weren’t ever going to do that again.
What changed your mind? What did you do differently this time?
n
Why can’t we have nice things? Because people are stupid and selfish….
FEMA summary—
And we might get another storm here in the south
And we might get another storm here in the south
The models are all over the place.
The Gulf is like bathwater right now, but the storm is a long way from being remotely predictable. Any weather geek predicting US landfall is on the GasBuddy.com payroll. 🙂
_Spanish Mission (Hope Blackwell) (Volume 2)_ by K.B. Spangler
https://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Mission-Hope-Blackwell-2/dp/0998431753/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number two of a two book series in the paranormal fantasy OACETverse. There are several other books in the OACETverse and a webcomic that has been going for over fourteen years now:
https://www.agirlandherfed.com/
I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published in 2018 that was printed in Coppell, TX on Aug 4, 2020. I will buy and read future books in the series.
Mare (Mary), Hope’s OACET agent best friend, has just discovered that ghosts exist. And that she is related to one. Since she is having a hard time dealing with this, Hope decides to forget about studying for her medical internship exams and takes Mare to Vegas for a week off. But, as usual, Hope gets in the middle of a mess in Vegas.
Please note that K. B. Spangler has a professional website at:
https://kbspangler.com/
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 (28 reviews)
“SpaceX plans to build luxury spaceport resort in a tiny Texas town”
https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/SpaceX-announces-new-venture-for-Texas-spaceport-15474919.php?cmpid=hpctp
Buy your lots now !
None for me, the Starship will be audible from about fifty miles away when it takes off.
“‘Why can’t I own it?’: Fort Bend resident seeks ownership of monument honoring white supremacists”
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/fortbend-news/article/Why-can-t-I-own-it-Fort-Bend-resident-seeks-15472650.php?cmpid=hpctp
“A Fort Bend man is determined to see a monument, which he calls “a direct slap and insult to African-Americans of Richmond and Fort Bend,” removed — but the city isn’t making it easy for him.”
“The monument reads, in part, “Capable county government and their fellow citizens have reared this monument to their memory and as a promise to them that their principles shall be maintained for all time to come.” It pays tribute to white supremacists H.H. Frost, L.E. Gibson and J.M. Shamblin, three members of a group called the Jaybirds that dedicated their time to overthrowing the Woodpecker Republican stronghold and denying Blacks the right to vote or run for office.”
I find this hilarious. And yes, I live about ten miles away from that statue.
From yesterday, Commercial RV park but really nice. Not packed in like sardines, trailer back to a large pond, nicely mowed grass, level spots (packed gravel), water, sewer, electricity,.. Have DVD’s, movies on the iPad so should be OK. Nice to get away from it all.
No offense, but what are you getting away from? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Oh, and nice pictures the other day. Who would have thought just a few years ago that a camera that tiny could take such beautiful pictures? I have a friend who ditched his camera in favor of his cell phone for trips a couple of years ago. I also saw one of the first lab “digital cameras” developed as a seeker. It had three pixels! Bit of a stretch calling it a camera, but it had all the components, just very poor resolution. It wasn’t very portable.
Looks like Seattle is going to run the experiment….
Seattle’s first black female police chief RESIGNS in protest hours after city council voted to defund their police and cut 100 cops from the force
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8614011/Seattle-City-Council-votes-DEFUND-police-force.html
Gonna look like Chicago pretty quickly….
Looting is ‘reparations’: BLM gather outside Chicago PD in support of Sunday’s looters, as organizer claims ‘anything they wanted to take, they can take because these businesses have insurance’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8614105/Chicago-goes-lockdown-bridges-raised-freeway-exits-closed-restrict-access-downtown.html
Welcome to Joe Biden’s America.
And the businesses will be abandoning downtowns and moving to the suburbs where they can have armed security guards.
Walled fiefdoms.
Or ‘extraterritorialized zones’ a la Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash.
n
“WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS: HOW AMERICA’S CITIES MAY EXPLODE IN VIOLENCE”
https://www.americanpartisan.org/2020/05/when-the-music-stops-how-americas-cities-may-explode-in-violence/
“STEP ONE: FLASH MOB LOOTING”
“In my scenario, the initial riots begin spontaneously across affected urban areas, as SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) and other government welfare recipients learn that their EBT cards no longer function. This sudden revelation will cause widespread anger, which will quickly lead to the flash-mob looting of local supermarkets and other businesses. The media will initially portray these “food riots” as at least partly justifiable. Sadly, millions of Americans have been made largely, or even entirely, dependent on government wealth transfer payments to put food on their tables.”
“A new social contract has been created, where bread and circuses buy a measure of peace in our minority-populated urban zones. In the era of ubiquitous big-screen cable television, the internet and smart phones, the circus part of the equation is never in doubt as long as the electricity flows. But the bread is highly problematic. Food must be delivered the old-fashioned way: physically. Any disruption in the normal functioning of the EBT system will lead to food riots with a speed that is astonishing. This will inevitably happen when our unsustainable, debt-fueled binge party finally stops, and the music is over. Now that the delivery of free or heavily subsidized food is perceived by tens of millions of Americans to be a basic human right, the cutoff of “their” food money will cause an immediate explosion of rage. When the hunger begins to bite, supermarkets, shops and restaurants will be looted, and initially the media will not condemn the looting. Unfortunately, this initial violence will only be the start of a dangerous escalation.”
“The ransacked supermarkets, convenience stores, ATMs and gas stations will not be restocked during this period due to the precarious security situation. A single truck loaded with food or gasoline would be perceived to be a Fort Knox on wheels and subject to immediate attack unless heavily protected by powerfully armed security forces, but such forces will not be available during this chaotic period. Under those conditions, resupply to the urban areas cannot and will not take place. The downward spiral of social and economic dysfunction will therefore both accelerate and spread from city to city. These delays, in turn, will lead to more riots with the constant underlying demand that hungry people be fed, one way or another.”
We are very close to the urban violence moving out to the suburbs. We just had the reverse of that with the protected inner city of Chicago being looted by the mobs with vans. Driving their vans out to the suburbs and looting the stores there is the next step.
Wow, my weather station shows 112F in the sun in my driveway. F’ me that is hot.
n
But it’s a dry heat!
Oh, wait…
Welcome to Joe Biden’s America.
And the businesses will be abandoning downtowns and moving to the suburbs where they can have armed security guards.
Amazon has private security at their offices in Lake Union, and their HQ2 will be across my road project from The Pentagon.
I posted another story earlier about the Seattle Police Chief’s resignation. Funny how she chooses to live in one of the wealthy white suburbs.
@Ray: It’s not black folk in general. It is US inner-city blacks, with their FSA culture. From what I’ve read, recent African immigrants tend to do fine. So do US blacks who manage to avoid the ghetto culture.
It’s an FSA problem. For which there is no easy solution, unless you let SteveF have a say.
You will get no disagreement from me. I have met several dozens of black people that are fine folk. I have met dozens of white folk that are trailer trash. It is not the color of the skin, it is the mindset of the individual. BLM is full of FSA people. It is against that movement I am developing my racist tendencies.
organizer claims ‘anything they wanted to take, they can take because these businesses have insurance
They are not like us. Probably never had a real job in their entire life. Think they deserve, because, they deserve. No effort required for gain. They are not like us.
I wasn’t a racist. But this BLM stuff may change my position.
Just remember, BLM = Burn Loot Murder.
BTW, BLM, Inc. has $1.3 billion in the bank according to Rush yesterday. Rush was not wondering where it came from, that is obvious. Rush was wondering what they are going to do with it.
Change of scenery, doing something different. Really not getting away from anything.
Yes, how true. I remember the Sony Mavica that would store pictures on a 1.44 MB floppy. Amazing technology for it’s time. Resolution sucked but it was a start. Now I have the iPhone 11 PRO, which in addition to be an outstanding camera, is also a phone, video editor, note taker, world wide communicator, access to financial records, music player, video player, etc. All in a device that fits in my pocket, easily.
I have more computing power than NASA had in all it’s computers that put a man on the moon in my hand. A device that contains more computing power, and storage, than a mainframe of 40 years ago that filled a 20K sqft room. Simply amazing.
Holy crap he picked Kneepads
n
Holy crap he picked Kneepads
Biden picks Kamala as his running mate – putting her on ticket to be first black and first female Vice-President
It was never going to be Susan Rice. She has never run for an elected office.
Nor Stacey “the tank” Abrams.
Still, I think all of the old white democrats are going to sit this one out.
Wow, Wikipedia has already been updated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
“Holy crap he picked Kneepads”
Biden picks Kamala as his running mate – putting her on ticket to be first black and first female Vice-President
It was never going to be Susan Rice. She has never run for an elected office.
Nor Stacey “the tank” Abrams.
And Karen Bass would have meant losing Florida as soon as the announcement was made.
Still, do you really believe Plugs has the nomination?
I don’t.
Um, shirts already being retconned….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8616827/Man-51-shot-Secret-Service-outside-White-House-UNARMED-say-sources.html
watch the video on zerohedge. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-pulled-press-briefing-after-shooting-outside-white-house
Note that the black guy isn’t exactly covering himself in glory here. He has to be reminded to holster, he picks up the weapon with his bare hand, he sets it down and then walks away from it until he’s reminded, then goes back to it, all the time holding his hand like it’s now contaminated…..
Watch the guy cross the frame from right to left hands down by his side, then he falls forward dropping what was in his hand, and then 3-4 other uniforms enter the frame and cover him while he’s being handcuffed. Freaking video is very clear and it’s clearly a gun that he drops. I thought “insult to injury to handcuff him after you’ve just shot him.” Redheaded white guy.
n
Um, shirts already being retconned….
Shirts ???
Watch the guy cross the frame from right to left hands down by his side, then he falls forward dropping what was in his hand, and then 3-4 other uniforms enter the frame and cover him while he’s being handcuffed. Freaking video is very clear and it’s clearly a gun that he drops. I thought “insult to injury to handcuff him after you’ve just shot him.” Redheaded white guy.
How do you know that is the only gun that he has ? Best to restrain him.
And he shot him from less than 50 feet with a 9 mil and it did not go through him ?
“Holy crap he picked Kneepads”
Biden picks Kamala as his running mate – putting her on ticket to be first black and first female Vice-President
It was never going to be Susan Rice. She has never run for an elected office.
Nor Stacey “the tank” Abrams.
And Karen Bass would have meant losing Florida as soon as the announcement was made.
Still, do you really believe Plugs has the nomination?
I don’t.
So who will be Kamala Harris’s VP ?
“Kamala Harris: My EO seizing assault weapons would be constitutional under the Yes We Can clause, or something”
https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2019/09/13/kamala-harris-eo-seizing-assault-weapons-constitutional-yes-can-clause-something/
I will answer my own question. Kamala’s VP is going to be Robert Francis, gun grabber wannabe from El Paso, known here in Texas as Bozo the Clown.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Logical. He courts the female and black vote in one package. If Biden were to get elected she will be president within a year. Biden will either croak or be declared incompetent and resign. That would allow her to be president for 10 years, two 4 year elected terms plus the remaining 2 years of Biden’s term. Imagine 10 years of that fool Harris in the highest office in the land. The entire US would be made in the image of California if she has a chance. A liberal cesspool of freeloaders and lazy cry babies.
I’m predicting, not advocating.
I thought she wasn’t eligible? Neither of her parents were citizens when they had their anchor baby. Oh wait, “see Obama”.
My white privilege is showing.
I will answer my own question. Kamala’s VP is going to be Robert Francis, gun grabber wannabe from El Paso, known here in Texas as Bozo the Clown.
Robert Francis is damaged goods this cycle, and he’s Newsom’s houseboy in Texas.
I don’t see it happening unless the political calculus currently being crunched indicates that they could put “Doors” in the Senate as well as win Texas electoral votes, both by big margins, with Robert Francis in the #2 slot on the ticket. I haven’t even seen “Doors” TV ads yet in Austin.
File under possible but unlikely. Willie Brown used to buy those kneepads in bulk, and Gavin Newsom has a pair just like Kamala’s. Gavin could always find another houseboy for the ranch.
But on the bright side, after Trump wins in a landslide, she’ll be history.
See: Lieberman. Or any of many vice-president picks where “the man” didn’t win.
Robert Francis is damaged goods this cycle, and he’s Newsom’s houseboy in Texas.
I don’t see it happening unless the political calculus currently being crunched indicates that they could put “Doors” in the Senate as well as win Texas electoral votes, both by big margins, with Robert Francis in the #2 slot on the ticket. I haven’t even seen “Doors” TV ads yet in Austin.
We are still suffering from the 2018 Bozo coattails here in Fort Bend County. A bunch of jerks are going to our Indian immigrant county judge’s Facebook page and telling him to go back home and such. He passed a resolution in the County Commissioners Court the other day that such racism should be prosecuted with a mandatory prison term. Of course, that is unconstitutional here in the USA, but not his native India. We have two more years of his crap.
yes, of course, SOP, but still, that’s what I thought when I saw how pathetic he looked.
Not only didn’t go thru, but someone tougher or more motivated wouldn’t have been stopped. NB- from the video it doesn’t look like a righteous shoot. He raises his empty left hand, fingers spread. Never raises the gun. Some witnesses say 2 shots though, so that could have been the second one, with all the ‘rushing toward me/shooting stance’ happening before the clip. However, that scenario doesn’t match the description given either.
n
We are still suffering from the 2018 Bozo coattails here in Fort Bend County. A bunch of jerks are going to our Indian immigrant county judge’s Facebook page and telling him to go back home and such. He passed a resolution in the County Commissioners Court the other day that such racism should be prosecuted with a mandatory prison term. Of course, that is unconstitutional here in the USA, but not his native India. We have two more years of his crap.
Please. Behind closed doors there is a pecking order among the Subcontinent-born, and I guarantee you that he gets far worse from his fellow countrymen and women from higher castes than anything a redneck would dream up to post on Facebook.
Subcontinent has made a serious political push in Texas as of late. One, “Donna”, survived the primaries to make it to the nomination to challenge our walking corpse Congresscritter. Depending on how fast the Dems move on open borders, it could very well be impossible to get them out of offices they win now working white guilt.
But on the bright side, after Trump wins in a landslide, she’ll be history.
See: Lieberman. Or any of many vice-president picks where “the man” didn’t win.
Senator Lieberman supported Bush after 9-11.
Nixon came back after walking away from the probabable fraud in 1960 and a humiliating defeat by Moonbeam Sr. running for CA Governor in 1962.
I don’t see Kamala Harris coming back from defeat, though. The CA money people funding Willie Brown’s kneepad brigade will want to run Newsom in four years, whether as Cuomo’s running mate or at the top of the ticket with someone capable of delivering TX or FL post redistricting.
“Trump Campaign Launches Lightning-Quick Attack Ad Hitting ‘Slow Joe’ and ‘Phony Kamala’: ‘Perfect Together, Wrong for America’
Dementia Joe Picks Corrupt Phony Kamala Harris as Running Mate”
https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/11/trump-attack-ad-slow-joe-phony-kamala-harris-biden-vice-president-vp-pick-election/
“‘She Was My Number One Draft Pick’ — Trump Launches Immediate Attacks On Kamala Harris After Biden Names Her As VP”
“President Donald Trump responded to news that former Vice President Joe Biden had named California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate with attacks on Twitter, from his campaign, and by calling her his “number one draft pick” to be Biden’s vice presidential pick.”
““She was my number one draft pick,” Trump said of Harris in response to a question at Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “I was a little surprised he picked her.””
“He added that Harris was “very nasty” throughout Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process and that he “won’t forget that soon.””
Wow, didn’t see that coming from Trump. “snicker”
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
I don’t think so buttermilk breath. If Biden does not win in 2020 he will be relegated to the sidelines. His brain is so far gone he will not last two more years. Harris would then have a very strong standing to be the democratic candidate. As Trump cannot run for the office anymore the democrats will be pulling out all the stops to get Harris in 2024. Black, female, liberal, a perfect trifecta for the democratic platform. This is just a stepping stone for Harris.
I also think that anyone current senator or congress critter running for another political office needs to have their salary stopped during the campaign period. They are not working at the job for which they were elected (even when not running) and thus should not be paid for not doing their job. I would also advocate that before running for president or vice president that any sitting congress critter or senate leach be required to resign from their current job. To me it is a conflict of interest with too much insider knowledge and undue influence on other members of the legislation.
“He added that Harris was “very nasty” throughout Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process and that he “won’t forget that soon.””
Wow, didn’t see that coming from Trump. “snicker”
Didn’t Kamala Harris fly the Blasey-Ford woman to DC on her jet?
Either Dianne Feinstein or Harris provided the transportation IIRC. The Schtick Express.
I would also advocate that before running for president or vice president that any sitting congress critter or senate leach be required to resign from their current job. To me it is a conflict of interest with too much insider knowledge and undue influence on other members of the legislation.
A President should come from a Governor’s Mansion IMHO or at least have that in their background. Governors don’t spout garbage like “Elections have consequences” … or “If you like your doctor …”
I also think that anyone current senator or congress critter running for another political office needs to have their salary stopped during the campaign period. They are not working at the job for which they were elected (even when not running) and thus should not be paid for not doing their job. I would also advocate that before running for president or vice president that any sitting congress critter or senate leach be required to resign from their current job. To me it is a conflict of interest with too much insider knowledge and undue influence on other members of the legislation.
Oh, it is much worse than that. If a person left their job to run for a federal spot, they can pull their former salary from their campaign funds.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/2020/08/07/ethics-committee-clears-michigan-rep-tlaib-of-wrongdoing-but-orders-funds-to-be-returned/
If you are running the Edge Browser from Microsoft type this into the address bar:
edge://surf/
Interesting. I found this out when the WiFi was disconnected on my laptop.
Seems the server is having problems tonight.
Yup, I got a 504 error when reloading. Sent Rick an email, but it’s likely something out of his control…
n
The wife is having an exciting day. The nursing home called and said that her father is having trouble breathing. They did a chest x-ray which was inconclusive. They asked if she wanted to call hospice or send him to the ER. She sent him to the ER. Turns out that he has pneumonia again.
The good thing about sending a nursing home patient to the ER is that one family member can visit them there. He has not seen a family member since March 15 since the nursing homes in Texas locked down. The wife’s sister is sick and we are 300 miles away so she sent her sister’s youngest son. He is with his grandfather now who is overjoyed to see anyone with a familiar face.
The hospital is admitting the wife’s father so the visitor count will go back down to zero. The only visitor is one in the ER, no visitors once admitted. The hospital does not know what is causing the pneumonia but they are going to pump him full of antibiotics. Oh yeah, his weight has dropped from 260 lbs in January to 216 lbs now (he was 300 lbs a full year ago). He is fading away with many issues. 87 years of age, stage 1 lung cancer 15 years ago, extremely advanced Myositis which has paralyzed his body up to his high waist, etc, etc, etc.
I think that the isolation in the nursing home has done him extreme mental harm. But, they are trying to keep the SARS-COV-2 from spreading through the nursing homes like wildfire. It is a double edged sword.
And yes, the wife’s father does have a DNR. But only for heroic measures. Antibiotics are not heroic measures. At least not yet for our rapidly failing society.
@lynn, that sucks and being far away makes it harder. I hope the drugs help.
n
The hospital is admitting the wife’s father so the visitor count will go back down to zero. The only visitor is one in the ER, no visitors once admitted. The hospital does not know what is causing the pneumonia but they are going to pump him full of antibiotics.
Turns out that the hospital is putting my FIL in the COVID unit since he has pneumonia. And they are pumping him full of antibiotics. Turns out he is 206 lbs now, not 216 lbs. Almost a 100 lb drop in the last year.
If he does not have COVID then they will move him into a regular hospital room. Then he can have one visitor again so the wife is planning on running up there at that point. It is a crazy world that we live in now.
Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of my dad’s death. I still catch myself thinking “I should grab this for dad” or “dad will get a kick out of this.” Just a couple of days ago I thought “I haven’t talked to dad in a while, I should call him.” But I can’t.
The older I get and the older my kids get, the more I understand him. And you know, it’s only one generation away, but already most of the real knowledge of what actually happened is gone. We’ve got family stories that we all remember a bit differently, but we are already losing the why’s and the whens. I suppose we’ve been losing those forever, but there’s no getting them back now. The only brother left isn’t someone I’d willingly spend time with for any reason, even to get back what was lost. And the next generation, my kids, never knew my grandmothers, will barely remember my dad, and will only have the fragments of the misremembered stories, retold by my siblings and me, where they have anything at all.
Heck, MY life separate from theirs will be only whatever stories get told by my siblings and my wife, and my wife only knows the stories from when we’ve been together. There’s about 30 years of me prior to that…and only about 2 people in the whole world would really care to remember most of it, what they even know of it.
I guess that is a product of me moving around, changing careers, living in different places, and compartmentalizing my life. No one but me was even there for most of it, my two best men at my wedding had never met even though we all lived and worked in the same town, and the same industry. I guess that’s a bit strange looking back at it.
I’ve always just moved on to the next thing, done that for a while, then moved on again. I don’t ‘cross the streams’.
I better get some sleep.
n
Nick
I read you and it seems my autobiography
Thanks
Nick,
It’s been twenty years for me. I reached for the phone for the weekly call almost every Sunday for a long time. I still get that “Dad needs to hear this” once in a while.
Decades ago one of my cousins sat down with our grandfather and a cassette tape recorder and asked some questions. That’s been transferred to CD and all the cousins have a copy. Unfortunately, the only time I see any cousins is at funerals, so those bonds are fading.
I’ve been thinking about doing some writing. Not a full autobiography, but getting some stuff recorded for the family. No one knows what questions to ask better than me. Maybe set a goal to get one story a month down. Start with some of the stories that dad told me.
If the box gets opened and no one remembers whether the cat lived or died, did it ever happen at all?
My grandfather’s brother wrote a family history. The family originated in Utah and the narrative starts before Utah was a state. It details the journeys, trial and tribulations of the family before eventually settling in Southern California. The story stops shortly after myself and my two brothers were born.
In the story there is a narrative about thousands of acres of land was stolen from the family by the state of Utah. No compensation, just eviction because the state wanted the land. Some powerful state figures were involved and a lot of corruption that rewarded the state officials handsomely.
The document was typed and the paper was becoming brittle. I scanned in the pages and did OCR on the result. About 90% success rate. The rest I manually corrected over the course of several months. I left everything intact including the phrase “like a tick on a nigger’s back” and other racial comments in the document. It was the way they talked and dealt with life back then. During that time it was not considered a racist statement and no one got offended.
I have thought about continuing the story from my perspective and continuing the timeline. My son is not interested, neither are my brothers. So I suspect it will just die with me.
The document was sent to the Utah Historical Society about 20 years ago which that were very much pleased to receive. What they did with the document I have no idea.
There are several oral history projects out there but it seems that they are mainly concerned with other people and their experiences.
The stuff my dad did or experienced just 60-70 years ago was so different from today as to have been on a different planet. Little kids caddying for golfers. Like age 4 kids. Taking the bus with a sibling at that age. Working at a job. And not only did people let them, but they did the real work well enough to keep doing it.
I think that my kids will have a different experience given the constant fountain of recordings, pictures, and other data they generate. More pictures of them exist at every stage of their lives than my generation by a couple of orders of magnitude. Maybe they’ll have enough of a digital life that some sort of gestalt software will be able to preserve them in spirit and knowledge. Who knows?
n
Never mind.
You know how sometimes, just before a storm, it gets really quiet? And then, out of nowhere, the wind blows furiously, rain pours down, and lightning flashes through the sky, with loud booms of thunder.
Sort of like this place today. Sure is quiet….
FLASHLIGHTS?
It seems quiet because you’re 24 hours behind, Rick.
Oh. Oops….that happens when you are retired.
What day is this anyway. [sigh]
Harumph Day….
The sound an older “Karen” makes when you lick the outside of your face mask…
n
Same happens when you’re under house arrest and work seven days a week. I need my computer to tell me the day and date. It’s getting tedious, I must say.