Cool and fairly dry warming up later. Yesterday was very nice. It got to 85F in the sun, while still being 65F in the shade. A great day for working outside.
Which I did, at least a little, while getting my display set up. Since the universe so kindly gave me the pieces I needed to complete my new skeleton pirate vignette, that’s what I did. Two pirates, on broken chairs, sprawled next to a crate covered with cloth, with an open jewel box (coffer) and various spilled jewelry and shiny metal plates and cups. A few metal candelabras and I’ve got a pirate celebration on my lawn.
I got a few of my older decor pieces out of the attic too, but I’m not going as crazy as some years just throwing everything out on the lawn. (I usually set up ‘areas’ that are more themed, but the whole yard doesn’t have a theme.) There will be “old standby” pieces that won’t get out this year.
While I was adjusting the lighting, one of our Deputy Constables drove by, slowing to admire the display. She turned around and stopped to tell me she liked it, so I asked her to keep an eye on it overnight. That saves me some time that I thought I’d spend putting the pirate stuff away overnight just to be sure it would still be there for tonight. I saw her drive by again at 1:14AM before I went to bed. Couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t get snatched, but it made me feel better leaving it out.
One of the best parts of our neighborhood is the 24/7 Constable patrol.
Today will be getting the rest of the display stuff set up, getting all the small toys and candy ready, and maybe getting something together for me as a costume. I’ll probably just paint myself with UV paint again though. It’s easy and looks dramatic.
Then at some point the kids will start coming by. First a trickle,then a flood. We usually get between 100 and 150, mostly younger than about 15. A couple of older kids always show up around 9pm, but they’re usually the last. A few more of my neighbors will be home this year to hand out candy too. I hope my candy holds out. There might be some pent up demand after last year’s COVID related restrictions.
I enjoy today a lot. I get a nice outlet for my theatrical skills, and I get to see the neighbors, and make kids happy. What’s not to like?
Take a break once in a while, especially if it’s something that cements your ties to your community. Meatspace baby!
nick
Ask the people who uncritically bought into the mask hysteria and the isolation hysteria and the tyranny which demanded that small businesses be shut down and driven into bankruptcy while WalMart and Home Depot stayed open, and who called the police on neighbors who had gatherings of more than five.
Comics, particularly Marvel, were really hot for a while. Shows like "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" probably contributed to creating the market too.
Plus, Boomers are getting older. The first of that generation will turn 75 this year.
I'd love to see the stats on cases from transmission of the bug at Home Depot or Lowes. I haven't bothered with a mask in those places since December of last year. No one says anyting.
The only places around us still pushing masks are Costco and Sam’s, which sell essentially useless Hecho en China masks in bulk.
Read the labels on the boxes. Well, soooprise!
One upside of the pandemic hysteria is that Bill Gates credibility is kaput and the reality of The Legend Of Bill has been exposed. “Reading week”. Did here anyone ever really believe that? Seriously?
Playboy and Hustler?
I suspect that Cowboy Slim used the Fortran code developed by GE and Westinghouse that I based my steam tables on.
We bought ours as a Fortran program from an outfit in Phoenix, IICR. I converted the program to subroutines and incorporated into our existing transient simulation program.
>> Playboy and Hustler?
I read them just for the articles, really!
@Nick: as seen on Tumblr:
71F anf 53%RH at 10am.
I read them just for the articles, really!
–wrt Playboy, that's all that is in it, nothing else.
Fresh, locally sourced, all natural skeletons are more environmentally friendly.
–and biodegradable as well!
n
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/american-airlines-cancels-1000-flights-24-hours-blames-staffing-shortages-high-winds/
–anyone remember an airline canceling flights due to "high wind" before? What about the other airlines operating out of that same airport, did they cancel flights?
Systems degrade, formerly functional institutions begin to fail. We're in it, no matter the excuse or actual cause.
n
Does American still have their vaccine mandate in place?
This is the weekend to apply the pressure on the airline. Win or lose, after the Virginia elections, the Dems will unleash a lot of pent up hostility.
Chairman Warren gets the press, but Buffett isn't the only control freak in charge at BRK.
https://nypost.com/2021/10/29/dennis-mcfadden-resigns-over-charlie-mungers-usbc-dorm/
Man, 24, dressed as the Joker STABS 10 people in Tokyo train rampage before 'spraying acid on passengers' and setting carriage on fire – then calmly smokes a cigarette before cops arrest him
Warner's handling of The Joker property has been questionable since Heath Ledger's questionable posthumous Oscar. They are playing to some seriously disturbed personalities with that franchise, and then they want to run back to the defense of "It is only a movie" when things like this happen.
71F anf 53%RH at 10am.
It was 48 F at 7am at my house this morning. The air was perfectly still before the sun came up and the smell of my neighbor's septic tank (maybe our septic tank) was horrible. Drove me right back inside the house, the dog too.
Does American still have their vaccine mandate in place?
This is the weekend to apply the pressure on the airline. Win or lose, after the Virginia elections, the Dems will unleash a lot of pent up hostility.
So what have the dumbrocrats and their willing allies, BLM and antifa, been releasing to date, bad smelling farts ?
If any more hostility gets released out there, people are going to start shooting.
Pearls Before Swine: Judgement
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/10/30
Yup, I'll bet that those are not kind words being spray painted on the garage.
And as a treat, here is the Sunday comic.
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/10/31
I am fairly sure that Bicycle Jeff is getting his garage spray painted also.
The vaccine mandates. Plus, whatever "infrastructure" bill they manage to jam through.
The actual bill will be secondary to the gloating, much like Obamacare.
Maybe Stretch will get the giant gavel out again.
"Swiss Analysis: Climate Models Running Too Warm, Falsely Calibrated…IPCC Needs “To Review Its Findings”"
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/10/31/swiss-analysis-climate-models-running-too-warm-falsely-calibratedipcc-needs-to-review-its-findings/
"Climate models do not represent reality. They sre running too hot.
Climate modeling has been awarded the Nobel Prize. But two German researchers prove that observations are more important than calculations in climate research."
Wow, I am impressed. The Swiss just told the UN IPCC to take a hike.
Let's see if plugs throws approximately 14,000 Air Force members out on their ears. Plus all the other Services. Fully 1/3 of the bill is climate change horse hockey. Very little of the remainder will help anybody. Shot Girl ™ and crew may very well end the old Dumbocrats.
Polling indicates a Redumblican win in VA. I wonder what malarkey the Dumbos have planned. And, the inner tubes are pulsing with the story plugs shit his pants with the Pope. You gotta love the inner tubes.
The Air Force has a total of six deaths from Covid as of Oct. 19.
Total cases: 43,000
Total hospitalizations: 23
The vaccines will kill/hospitalize more of the troops than Covid.
The Marines have *0* deaths from the virus itself.
Eat right and a little exercise to combat the pandemic? God forbid.
I peeled off some of the visor stickers in new truck. I don't need the dire warnings to use a seat belt and kiddie seats go in the back seat because of air bags. The blobs of bright yellow are distracting.
The stickers feel woven. They tear off in strips. Not exactly woven. I have one sticker left. Remaining glue? Not sure, the slight color difference could be a year's worth of sun fading.
Bilingual labels. English and French. Maybe the factory that built my truck doesn't ship to Mexico.
Yep. Bored on Sunday.
71F anf 53%RH at 10am.
It was 48 F at 7am at my house this morning. The air was perfectly still before the sun came up and the smell of my neighbor's septic tank (maybe our septic tank) was horrible. Drove me right back inside the house, the dog too.
48 F to 83 F today. Amazing, a 35 F change.
Trick-or-treating is done, so far as handing out candy goes. We got a burst, several dozen in a few minutes, and a few ones and twos. When the mob came, while it was still light out and only about ten minutes after I turned on the lights, I thought that maybe, just this once, we'd give out all of the candy I bought. Nope. I have at least six pounds remaining, even though I said from the beginning to take three things each and at the end told the kids to grab a handful. Luckily (except totally not luck, it was by design) everything we bought is stuff that my daughter or the spare teenage girl like.
Daughter is over at the spare teenager's actual family's house for the night. They were planning on not only going around mooching but the family had a party going on, followed by going to bed late and dragging themselves in to school tomorrow. This totally beats what we had planned here: walk around mooching, and then the girls would watch stupid videos on YouTube until I yelled at them to take showers and go to bed at the normal time.
In other tech news, seeing that Facebook has changed its name to Meta, MySpace has decided to change its name to Facebook.
From Friday…
It's my belief that they periodically send deauthorization signals on the control channel to receivers that are no longer paying for the service. You can ask to have a re-authorization signal sent.
A friend kept an XM receiver in his car alive for years after he stopped paying by parking it under a a metal carport.
Back in Cacafornia, we used to go all out for Halloween. We had a blowup dragon about 8 feet tall that flapped its wings, and a blowup zombie playing a spooky organ. A fog machine with light sticks made the yard a little obscure, and a 4-foot diameter plush spider suspended from the eves, to drop down BEHIND the candy thieves, right at eye level when they turned around. It was loads of fun, especially listening to the parents (waiting back on the sidewalk) shrieks when the spider dropped behind their children.
The only downside to our new semi-rural neighborhood just west of San Antonio is no sidewalks, no streetlights, and no trick-or-treaters. That might change in a couple of years, when a few enormous subdivisions just west of US are finally built up.
Trick-or-treating is done, so far as handing out candy goes. We got a burst, several dozen in a few minutes, and a few ones and twos. When the mob came, while it was still light out and only about ten minutes after I turned on the lights, I thought that maybe, just this once, we'd give out all of the candy I bought. Nope. I have at least six pounds remaining, even though I said from the beginning to take three things each and at the end told the kids to grab a handful. Luckily (except totally not luck, it was by design) everything we bought is stuff that my daughter or the spare teenage girl like.
As of 8pm, we are zero trick-or-treators for the night. Nobody wants to trick or treat in a country neighborhood on roads with no shoulders, sidewalks, or street lights.
We did have a halloween parade at dusk of 10 to 12 vehicles. One truck pulling a trailer with 20 kids in it and a 10 or so fancy golf carts following. But they did not come down our street since we live on the main thoroughfare. They just stayed on the side streets.
The same thing the Dims ALWAYS have planned; massive, overwhelming fraud. In Minnesota, Cacafornia or VA, it's almost guaranteed.
The same thing the Dims ALWAYS have planned; massive, overwhelming fraud. In Minnesota, Cacafornia or VA, it's almost guaranteed.
Probably a 100,000 fake absentee ballots.
The water main break that wasn't worked pretty well last time.
That's what our neighborhood is, and furthermore we're at the end of a twisty dead-end and can't be seen from the corner a tenth of a mile away. Funny thing is, there used to be a fair number of kids, before the development was finished. I do know that many of the kids within a few blocks have grown up or moved away, and many of the houses are now occupied by empty nesters or else by furriners who are making very little effort to meet the neighbors or to fit in to American customs.
We've had 50+ trick or treaters, but it has tapered off at 8:42CT.
Went pretty steady until around 9. Got a few stragglers while I was wrapping up the expensive or fragile stuff. Maybe a dozen kids after nine.
We did somewhere between 100-200 kids. Can't narrow it down any more because we didn't give every kid a glow bracelet like most years. Kids from the street (toddlers mostly) around 6pm everyone else after dusk.
Got a lot of complements on the decor, which always feels good. Walked our street (2 blocks) and one street over (2 blocks) with the 10yo, who went a the daughter of one of the greek Titans. I can't ever remember which one. Caliope? Two homeowners came close to guessing, greek goddess… but most had no idea. 12yo is too old to trick or treat. WHY do they want to abandon the fun stuff? in a couple of years she'll be doing sexy Halloween, gods help me.
Got all the stuff indoors that I want to keep safe.
Quiet and dark out. Spooky.
n
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn — more irresposible WB marketing.
We had about 20 stop at the house according to my son. He stayed home while we made the annual Chipotle "boorito" run.
@SteveF
testing…
testing…
testing…
Stage Two Test Complete.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-coal-miners-all-sold-out-coal-2022
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-coal-miners-all-sold-out-coal-2022
n
First comment: "Biden is to coal sales what obama was to gun sales".
Gonna be a long cold winter.
Saw a coal train coming in from Wyoming this afternoon. 300 cars of 100 tons each headed to the Parish Power Plant six miles away from my house. Looks like they are trying to build a pile too, even here in Texas where it never gets cold. Except when it does.