Wed. Nov. 16, 2022 – nothing clever, just work

By on November 16th, 2022 in culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal

Cold, clear, and damp.   Or maybe not, but probably.  It was 42F last night, and I expect the same this morning.  The clear sky forecast will help with the chilly…  It was pretty chilly most of the day yesterday.  Oddly the mid 40s at 7am didn’t chill me to the bone like usual.   The wind gusts were pretty unpleasant though.

Spent the day at my client’s home, getting his new AT&T business internet fiber service set up.   We put off doing a bunch of networking stuff, mostly related to the Ubiquiti Unifi gear, until we had a decent connection and a way to use it.  That all came home last week, and yesterday.   I think it’s about 95% done at this point.   Some port forwarding, a DDNS service and a VPN, with maybe a VLAN to get the other vendors’ gear off the main network, and we’ll be complete.  Ok, that looks like 85% done.   I’ll try to get back there this week for a couple of hours to do at least the port forwarding and poke at the VPN.

This stuff is a lot easier if you do it all the time, and not once every couple of years.

There were some other issues at the house, including another dead camera from last year’s lightning strike.   In testing it, I also killed a port on the NVR’s PoE switch, so I’ll have to replace that too.  Supply chain issues mean I still can’t replace a dead piece of control hardware either.

Speaking of supply chain, my wife stopped at the store to get some turnips for a dish she volunteered to bring to her office potluck lunch.   She came home quite angry that there were no turnips to be had.   I talk about it, and she nods along, but until SHE went to the store and couldn’t get what she wanted, it apparently wasn’t quite real that things are DIFFERENT now than they were.  She’s even popped into the store for a couple things, and come home saying “everything seemed normal to me” a few times in the last year.   And they might seem normal, if you don’t look, or don’t know what you are looking at.  But they are not normal.

If you don’t see it, when others do, ask yourself if the reason might be that you don’t look for it or recognize it when you do see it.   This applies to more than just the economy of course, and can be difficult or painful to do.  But it’s worth doing, if you are an adult, and live in the world.


Today’s plan is to do more of the things I’ve been letting slide here at home, and some new things.   We’ll see if I get sidetracked, or derailed.  (Train metaphors, from when they were the new hotness…)  Maybe I won’t have the bandwidth, or my buffers will be full…

But I will be working on improving my situation, and finding things to stack.   Because I’m the adult in the room*, and likely, so are you, so get to it.

nick

 

 

*and isn’t THAT a terrifying thought?

81 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Nov. 16, 2022 – nothing clever, just work"

  1. SteveF says:

    I talk about it, and she nods along

    Every husband in the spacetime continuum knows what you mean.

    And probably most wives are familiar with the converse, to be fair.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    The dadgum Fortran interpreter is allowing me to look at global variable but not change them.   And everything is a pointer to a pointer to a pointer which drives our crappy debugger nuts.  I suspect that the developer got a very early version of lex and yacc and recoded them in Fortran.   From obtuse to incredibly obtuse with variables named ix1, ix2, ix3, … ix32.

    Give a developer a hammer in the form of a Fortran compiler, and suddenly everything looks like a nail.

    IIRC the first version of Adventure was in F77.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Speaking of supply chain, my wife stopped at the store to get some turnips for a dish she volunteered to bring to her office potluck lunch.   She came home quite angry that there were no turnips to be had.   I talk about it, and she nods along, but until SHE went to the store and couldn’t get what she wanted, it apparently wasn’t quite real that things are DIFFERENT now than they were.  She’s even popped into the store for a couple things, and come home saying “everything seemed normal to me” a few times in the last year.   And they might seem normal, if you don’t look, or don’t know what you are looking at.  But they are not normal.

    Curbside pickup at HEB really screws with our local store’s stock levels on the floor, particularly in produce. I’d estimate 20% of the building is now devoted to pickup carts following a remodel which took place a few years ago.

  4. Ray Thompson says:

    First-letter determined the type, and total length was 6 characters?

    Where is COBOL when you need it? Variable names of “This_Is_The_Outstanding_Balance_On_The_Account_As_Of_Yesterday” are really helpful.

    I survived FORTRAN with its limitations which prepared me well for Burroughs Medium Systems Assembler with 6 character max name length, and the somewhat infuriating prefix of a period, followed by 1 to 5 characters for memory locations (logical or storage). Sometimes several within a dozen lines of code. References were to the next label in sequence. Some clod (looking at myself here) would add a dot label not realizing there was another label of the same name two pages down. Broke my share of code that way.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Rick Scott makes his move.

    If Musk is The Real Life Tony Stark (TM), Scott gets my vote as The Real Life Ernst Blofeld.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rick-scott-announces-plan-unseat-mitch-mcconnell-top-republican-senate

    Scott wouldn’t be an improvement over The Turtle. Heck, Mittens would be a better choice because at least Romney has to answer to The Elders once in a while.

  6. Pecancorner says:

    The whole “Judge” concept, someone with executive authority over a county, is ridiculous. 

    Weren’t these offices mostly symbolic until the pandemic?

    No.   Just like Texas sheriffs,  the County Judge has always held strong power.  Don’t go messing with Texas’ political system.  We like our County Judges out here in red Texas (even the ones we don’t like).  

    And quit with the scare quotes. Until very recently, and still in many counties, the County Judge also hears cases.  

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    The Harris County Judge is primary Emergency Manager for the county, a field Lina had zero experience in.   My CERT credential has my Chain of  Command ending with the County Judge.   

    —————————-

    42F this morning, slightly warmer at 43F now.  Light overcast and damp.

    I realized that with a fixed IP address, I don’t need to set up any dDNS… one task off the list.

    n

  8. Roger Ritter says:

    My local HEB is in the middle of their store reset (every five years or so?), so  aisles are moving and lots of shelves are not just empty but stripped. Makes it hard to see and compare stocking levels now to a couple of years ago, since I can’t tell if low stock is due to supply issues or just that it’s in mid-move and the temp shelf space is smaller than the expected final space.

  9. ITGuy1998 says:

    This stuff is a lot easier if you do it all the time, and not once every couple of years.

    Quoted for truth. Applies to almost everything of course, but IT is especially bad as crap keeps changing on us frequently.

    I’ve found myself having to remind myself on how to do some things that I used to do all the time. Mainly anything with wireless stuff or exchange, since I no longer do any of those two things for pay ( I have a love/hate relationship with classified networks, but this is one of the definite loves). My Ubiquity stuff at the house is generally rock solid, but on the rare occasion I have to make a change, it usually takes me a while.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    Our local “small” HEB is starting a major remodel to increase the “back room” space for curbside.   They moved all the  milk to the ‘seasonal’ aisle, and are converting the whole dairy area.   That puts the milk with the veg and breaks long standing grocery dogma, that you put staples in the back of the store, and spread them out, so people have to walk thru more aisles and potentially buy stuff they didn’t want to buy.

    n

  11. ITGuy1998 says:

    Our local Walmart added onto the store on one side for curbside. The put in 14 covered parking spaces. It was a fairly big addition, and they didn’t take away any of the current retail space. Most of the customers I see using it are of a particular stereotype…

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11434893/Thug-stabs-two-people-butchers-knife-grabbed-shelf-LA-Target-store.html 

    Homeless thug stabs two people, including nine-year-old boy, with butcher’s knife he grabbed off a shelf before being shot dead by security guard at a Target in lawless LA

    • A homeless man randomly stabbed a nine-year-old boy and an unrelated 25-year-old woman at a downtown Los Angeles Target store Tuesday night
    • Police say the thug ‘confronted’ the young boy and threatened to kill him before grabbing a large butcher knife off the shelf and stabbed him
    • The boy suffered a deep wound to the back of his shoulder and fell to the floor
    • The suspect then continued to walk around the store, approaching a 25-year-old Asian woman and stabbed her ‘brutally’ in the chest
    • The suspect was finally shot dead by a security guard after he lunged at the guard with his knife raised
    • Police say the boy is in stable condition but may have suffered neurological damage, and the woman is believed to be in critical condition 

    and 

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11432543/Parents-waiting-15-hours-emergency-rooms-amid-Amoxicillin-shortage.html 

    A shortage of the common antibiotic Amoxicillin continues across the US as an increasing number of kids are diagnosed with seasonal illnesses and more parents are forced to call out of work to care for them.

    As pharmacies struggle, due to an ongoing shortage that the FDA warned about several weeks ago, to keep up with the demand from parents for Amoxicillin, more and more Americans have been required to stay home from work to tend to their sick children.

    More than 100,000 Americans missed work last month – an all time high – because of child-care problems, many of which come down to sick children and sick daytime caregivers. 

    The FDA initially blamed a surge in demand for the shortage, as the numbers of respiratory syncytial virus cases skyrocket to unseasonably high figures alongside the seasonal surges of strep throat, ear infections and other respiratory illnesses.

    Infectious-disease specialists say a number of factors but primarily weakened immune systems from the pandemic are contributing to the recent spike in viral infections.

    ‘Pandemic babies,’ who were guarded against respiratory pathogens because of measures like social distancing are also now getting sick and the easing of mask mandates in schools makes it easier for viruses to spread, especially among those with weakened immune systems. 

    – it’s not that their immune systems are ‘weakened’.   That is freaking battlespace preparation, or gaslighting or just ignorance.   They haven’t gotten sick with this thing YET, when most kids pre-covid had already had it by that age.  That isn’t a “weak” immune system, especially not “weakened” which implies an active change.  It’s just a body that hasn’t been exposed to that particular pathogen prior to this exposure.  After this exposure, those kids will have just as “strong” an immune system wrt this pathogen, as earlier kids do after their exposure.

    Driving me nuts.

    n

    –if you can carry, carry everywhere. Learn how to “Stop the Bleed”. Notice if your commonly visited stores have bleeding control kits (our “big” HEB has one prominently mounted on the wall in the cashier area. You should be looking for AEDs and fire extinguishers, and exits, anyway.)

    –you probably should have a stock of common medications of your own. There are online ‘fish medicine’ vendors. One advertises on J.Wesley Rawles site. I can’t recommend one over another.
    n

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    Man, 25, who jumped onto top of moving 18-wheeler dies after slamming into overpass in Texas  

     

    An unidentified man was knocked off the semi-truck around 11.30am on November 10 after he climbed up on top and started dancing.

    – play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

    n

  14. Greg Norton says:

    And quit with the scare quotes. Until very recently, and still in many counties, the County Judge also hears cases.  

    The quotes aren’t meant to scare but reflect the amount of respect I have for the concept based on observing the local “Judge” and the office holder in the neighboring county for eight years.

    I can’t imagine ours acting as a Judge (no quotes). He’s useless.

  15. Greg Norton says:

    Infectious-disease specialists say a number of factors but primarily weakened immune systems from the pandemic are contributing to the recent spike in viral infections.

    Antibiotics are useless for viral illness beyond treating possible secondary infections.

    Of course, that doesn’t stop parents from demanding antibiotics at the pediatrician’s office the moment the kid gets sick.

    Some doctors will just give the parents what they want, however, and amoxicilin is relatively low risk and widely available cheap … or, at least it used to be.

  16. CowboyStu says:
    • A homeless man randomly stabbed a nine-year-old boy and an unrelated 25-year-old woman at a downtown Los Angeles Target store Tuesday night

    I don’t go to downtown LA for anything.

  17. ITGuy1998 says:

    Of all my trips to Southern CA, I’ve been to downtown LA once, and that was for a Dodgers game. Once was definitely enough.

  18. nick flandrey says:

    More bad retail news.

    Target Tumbles After Cutting Guidance, Warns Consumers Are Pulling Back On Spending

    by Tyler Durden

    Wednesday, Nov 16, 2022 – 07:26 AM

    One day after stellar earnings from Walmart sent the stock of the world’s largest traditional retailer soaring, Target spoiled the party when it reported that consumers had pulled back on their spending in recent weeks, sapping sales and profits in the latest quarter and “putting a cloud over its holiday season” as the WSJ put it.

    Both sales and earnings missed consensus as well as Target’s own forecasts while sales growth lagged behind larger rival Walmart. Also unlike Walmart which boosted its Q4 and full year guidance, Target executives lowered their financial goals for the holiday quarter “in light of an increasingly challenging environment.”

    Walmart had previously dramatically reduced their forecasts.

    n

  19. Nightraker says:

    There are some hoops to go through, but http://www.jasemedical.com will supply antibiotics by mail:

    Emergency Antibiotic Kit includes:

    • Unlimited physician follow-up for any questions relating to the use of any medication prescribed
    • Emergency Antibiotic Guide written by board-certified physicians as a companion to the use of your prescribed antibiotics
    • Amoxicillin-clavulanate 875 mg tablets (28 tablets)
    • Azithromycin 250 mg tablets (6 tablets)
    • Ciprofloxacin 500 mg tablets (28 tablets)
    • Doxycycline 100 mg capsules (120 capsules)
    • Metronidazole 500 mg tablets (30 tablets)

    Each medical bundle is intended as an emergency supply for ONE ADULT. 

    Pricing:

    For US patients: $259.95 USD*
    For Canadian patients: $339.95 USD*

    * Our antibiotic kits are priced to reflect local costs of medications, shipping, fees and materials.
    ** In the case of allergies the listed medications may be substituted or removed at the discretion of the physician.

    I have no connection to jasemedical, for your information only.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    I keep my Jase kit in the fridge. Threw in some ivermectin’.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Back from the dentist to get the fangs cleaned.

    My old dentist whom I had been seeing for 32 years passed away last November. Sudden death while on vacation. I had to find a new dentist.

    Several of the dentists in the area are franchises. I don’t want those as they tend to be expensive and sometimes do what some might consider unnecessary work. Another dentist locally that I had to use in an emergency wanted to replace all my teeth with implants at a cost of about $10K. No thanks.

    I found a fairly new practice about 20 miles away. No franchise seems to be fairly low key. Friendly staff, small office one dentist office with what appears to be two support staff.

    I have no dental insurance as I question its usefulness. Most plans are two cleanings a year, covered stuff is at 50%, much stuff is just not covered. I figured out that for my and the wife’s needs we would pay more in insurance premiums than just paying the dentist directly. A gamble perhaps.

    No real problems were found for me other than the cleaning needed, which has not been done in 18 months. One tooth needs watching as there is a sign of a problem. It will be checked on the next visit. I have had three teeth pulled. The front tooth was replaced with an implant. The two molars were just pulled, and the spot left vacant. A bridge was an option but not recommended for molars due to the bite pressure.

    Yeh, SteveF, I get the jokes that in E TN having more than three teeth puts me better than most.

  22. Lynn says:

    More bad retail news.

    Target Tumbles After Cutting Guidance, Warns Consumers Are Pulling Back On Spending

    by Tyler Durden

    Wednesday, Nov 16, 2022 – 07:26 AM

    One day after stellar earnings from Walmart sent the stock of the world’s largest traditional retailer soaring, Target spoiled the party when it reported that consumers had pulled back on their spending in recent weeks, sapping sales and profits in the latest quarter and “putting a cloud over its holiday season” as the WSJ put it.

    Both sales and earnings missed consensus as well as Target’s own forecasts while sales growth lagged behind larger rival Walmart. Also unlike Walmart which boosted its Q4 and full year guidance, Target executives lowered their financial goals for the holiday quarter “in light of an increasingly challenging environment.”

    Walmart had previously dramatically reduced their forecasts.

    And Walmart is the shopping store of last resort.  I have seen multiple people pull out their Texas Card and use that to the max, put $25 on their Mastercard, $15 on their Visa, and pay the last $30 with cash.  Walmart can handle that kind of transaction to the max since they do it EVERY day.  Few retailers have that kind of flexibility.

    Rush Limbaugh used to say that Walmart was a blessing to the poor of the USA.  I totally agreed with him then and still do.  If all you can afford is Grade C fruits and vegetables at Walmart, at least that is available for you there.

  23. Lynn says:

    No.   Just like Texas sheriffs,  the County Judge has always held strong power.  Don’t go messing with Texas’ political system.  We like our County Judges out here in red Texas (even the ones we don’t like).  

    How are you doing ?  We were real sorry to hear that your breast cancer came back in your bones, that has to suck.  

    I continuously thank the Lord that my wife has been cancer free for 17 years now.  It is a blessing.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    More bad retail news.

    Target Tumbles After Cutting Guidance, Warns Consumers Are Pulling Back On Spending

    The Target stores around here are thin on merchandise but generally well kept.

    While on our abbreviated trip through Tennessee, however, we stopped at one Target in what seemed to be a fairly decent section of Nashville near closing time, and the entire store looked post-apocalyptic, with most of the employees standing idle looking at their watches instead of doing something about the general condition of the place.

    I don’t know Nashville so maybe “decent” wasn’t  accurate. The closest store to the Grand Ole Opry area. Last night of July — the Party City next door was doing an all nighter remerchandising for Halloween.

  25. Lynn says:

    “Musk tells Twitter staff: Opt in for ‘intensity’ or take severance”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/musk-tells-twitter-staff-opt-115236558.html

    Wow, hard core.   Musk will have Twitter down to a thousand people soon.

    If the doomsayers are correct, the rest of the USA had better take note.

    My sales guy quit last week, I am toying with the idea that me and office manager will fill in the job for now.  Things are tough in the oil patch, very tough.

  26. Lynn says:

    “Elon Musk says he will find a new leader for Twitter”

         https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-says-expects-reduce-163849041.html

    Yup, I suspect that he is getting inundated with resumes right now.  Remember, put the good stuff on the front page and details on the back pages.  Embellish but do not lie.

  27. Lynn says:

    “‘The world should be worried’: Saudi Aramco — the world’s largest oil producer — has issued a dire warning over ‘extremely low’ capacity. Here are 3 stocks for protection”

       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/world-worried-saudi-aramco-world-160000039.html

    Things are getting dicey out there.  Most wars are started for resources.

    We, the USA, should be building about a dozen baseload nuclear power plants on an emergency basis right now. Two in California, two in Texas, two in Florida, one in New York State, one in Maine, etc. We have 2 or 3 under construction on a casual basis at the moment.

  28. Lynn says:

    No real problems were found for me other than the cleaning needed, which has not been done in 18 months. One tooth needs watching as there is a sign of a problem. It will be checked on the next visit. I have had three teeth pulled. The front tooth was replaced with an implant. The two molars were just pulled, and the spot left vacant. A bridge was an option but not recommended for molars due to the bite pressure.

    My wife lost a molar about a decade ago.  We put an implant in its place to keep from losing the molars around it.  It was a year long process to get installed since they had to build up her jawbone. I’ve told her that will be her last tooth if she lives to be 94 like her grandmother.

  29. Clayton W. says:

    We, the USA, should be building about a dozen baseload nuclear power plants on an emergency basis right now. 

    One 1000 MW nuclear plant per congressional district, allocated, or not, by said congressman.  So 535 plants.  One nuclear fuel reprocessing plant per state, to be allocated by that state’s congresscritters.

    Bet it ends up as less than half a trillion dollars and would do wonders for most states power grids. Excessively green states, cough cough California, will refuse to allocate their plants, perhaps, but the best we can do is the best we can do.

  30. Lynn says:

    “North Sea association stunned by threat of further windfall tax”

        https://www.offshore-mag.com/regional-reports/north-sea-europe/article/14285751/north-sea-association-stunned-by-threat-of-further-windfall-tax

    “Offshore Energies UK has warned of reduced investments in North Sea E&P if Britain’s Chancellor Jeremy Hunt raises the windfall tax on the industry’s profits on oil and gas production to 35%.”

    There will not always be a Great Britain.

  31. Pecancorner says:

    The quotes aren’t meant to scare but reflect the amount of respect I have for the concept based on observing the local “Judge” and the office holder in the neighboring county for eight years.

    Unfortunately, your local experience is an anomaly that says nothing about the purpose of the office or how it has continually worked out in practice during the past 150 years.    We, and most of the rest of Texas, have good judges that have acted sensibly, keeping our roads in repair, our taxes low, our county services fit, and that did not put us under lockdown after the first one.   
     

    This is a good example of how even conservative immigrants are turning Texas purple. People move here, and don’t realize how deeply they’ve internalized Leftist thinking.  Being usually urbanites, they think modernization is a good thing,  lacking context and history to understand how our political structures have protected our state all these years – and still do. 

    Many places  – such as yours and other blue hives –  in good times like to elect charismatic PR boosters as mayor or county leader or governor, and only realize too late , when the emergency arises, that person lacks genuine leadership capacity.    Navy ship captains spend peacetime overseeing painting the ship and swabbing the deck, but  when war breaks out, they need to be able to operate it as the weapon it is. 

  32. Pecancorner says:

    How are you doing ?  We were real sorry to hear that your breast cancer came back in your bones, that has to suck.  

    I continuously thank the Lord that my wife has been cancer free for 17 years now.  It is a blessing.

    God has indeed blessed your wife! May He continue to keep her cancer free!    Despite that neither my oncologist nor radiation oncologist expected any recurrence,  mine did metastasize into brain and bones.  The tiny brain tumor has already been eradicated with radiation. The bone cancer, my oncologist says, is incurable, but they try to slow it down.  A fellow church member has been going through this and hers is now in remission (a word my oncologist says they no longer use for my type). So she is certainly a role model for me. 

    The wierd bit is that all summer I have had an increasing number of symptoms that the Drs still have found no cause for or brushed off.  Except eventually, when I started vomiting, my oncologist said that is a symptom of brain cancer so they began doing new scans.  And found both of the cancers. Except now they say that those symptoms are not caused by the cancers because they have discovered them at too early a stage.   

    So these symptoms are, perhaps, a God thing to get me in and get the scans done.   If that is the case, I hope He solves those soon so that I can feel good again.  Right now, I feel worse and weaker on a daily basis than I did during the chemo before.   With no explanation. 

    10
  33. lpdbw says:

    People move here, and don’t realize how deeply they’ve internalized Leftist thinking.  Being usually urbanites, they think modernization is a good thing,  lacking context and history to understand how our political structures have protected our state all these years – and still do. 

    see also: Chesterton’s Gate.

  34. RickH says:

    The deadly blast in Poland that killed two and stoked fears that the Kremlin’s war would escalate into a wider conflict was most likely an accident caused by Ukraine’s air defense responding to a Russian missile barrage, Western leaders said Wednesday.

    The leaders of NATO and member state Poland both said that early indications suggested the incident was not a deliberate Russian attack.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-poland-missile-putin-nato-rcna57416   and other news sources.

  35. Lynn says:

    This is a good example of how even conservative immigrants are turning Texas purple. People move here, and don’t realize how deeply they’ve internalized Leftist thinking.  Being usually urbanites, they think modernization is a good thing,  lacking context and history to understand how our political structures have protected our state all these years – and still do. 

    Many places  – such as yours and other blue hives –  in good times like to elect charismatic PR boosters as mayor or county leader or governor, and only realize too late , when the emergency arises, that person lacks genuine leadership capacity.    Navy ship captains spend peacetime overseeing painting the ship and swabbing the deck, but  when war breaks out, they need to be able to operate it as the weapon it is. 

    Fort Bend County (partially Houston) and Harris County (Houston center) turned blue in 2018 and both got dumbrocrat county judges along with most of the rest of the district judges.   They are horrible people and prolific spenders of things that are not important to the general good.  Both of them still want people to wear masks.

  36. Lynn says:

    So these symptoms are, perhaps, a God thing to get me in and get the scans done.   If that is the case, I hope He solves those soon so that I can feel good again.  Right now, I feel worse and weaker on a daily basis than I did during the chemo before.   With no explanation. 

    My 81 year old mother has stage 4 endometrial cancer.  She had five tumors in her abdomen that they killed with radiation.  Unfortunately, they had to go over her lifetime radiation limit to get the fifth tumor wrapped around her lower spine.  The tumor died but they radiated her lower intestines also so she is having continuous digestive problems.  There are tradeoffs for everything.  She is is remission for now but they are telling her the tumors will come back eventually. 

  37. Lynn says:

    “Rising steel prices, interest rates could push NuScale Utah project cost to $100/MWh, but support remains”

        https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nuscale-nuclear-reactor-smr-uamps-rising-steel-prices-interest-rates/636619/

    “Previous cost estimates were for the project to generate power at a price of $58/MWh, but at least one municipal power provider says project developers told it that prices could run $90/MWh to $100/MWh. The Utah project consists of a half dozen 77 MW reactors, being developed by NuScale, with the first expected online in 2029.”

    You know, if they would build a thousand of these pocket nuclear power plants, I’ll bet that the cost would drop significantly.

  38. Pecancorner says:

    My 81 year old mother has stage 4 endometrial cancer.  She had five tumors in her abdomen that they killed with radiation.  Unfortunately, they had to go over her lifetime radiation limit to get the fifth tumor wrapped around her lower spine.  The tumor died but they radiated her lower intestines also so she is having continuous digestive problems.  There are tradeoffs for everything.  She is is remission for now but they are telling her the tumors will come back eventually. 

    There are indeed tradeoffs… such is life. I’m a Christian so death holds no fear for me.  I would like to feel good each day and have strength to do my work, whether I go tomorrow or 20 years from now.  Still, God is healing me, either here or in Heaven – as He is healing your mother. I hope she is feeling better than she was, and able to get around easier.

    Did your daughter make a decision on the hysterectomy?  I keep her in my prayers… she is so young to face such insurmountable health problems.  

  39. SteveF says:

    Bet it ends up as less than half a trillion dollars

    Plus a couple hundred dollars for the bullet to put in the brain of every watermelon who tries to stop the project until the rest get the message. Couple thousand for bullets for the grifters who want to dip sticky fingers into the money stream.

  40. Pecancorner says:

    The quotes aren’t meant to scare but reflect the amount of respect I have for the concept based on observing the local “Judge” and the office holder in the neighboring county for eight years.

    VS

    Fort Bend County (partially Houston) and Harris County (Houston center) turned blue in 2018 and both got dumbrocrat county judges along with most of the rest of the district judges.   They are horrible people and prolific spenders of things that are not important to the general good.   

    A great sample on how the difference in thought leads to different conclusions, even though both are politically conservative people.  Internalized urbanist/blue state thinking sees bad management and assumes it is the process that causes it,  while native conservative thinking sees bad management and blames the individuals responsible.  

  41. paul says:

    Grade C fruits and vegetables at Walmart might be a thing at some locations.  The Marble Falls Walmart is just as good as the big HEB in Marble Falls and the little HEB in Burnet.

    I think Burnet does a better job. 

    Sure, they don’t have jicama or artichokes all the time.  I don’t buy that stuff anyway.  

    All three stores are thieves when it comes to avocados.  $1.80 each and so small you can stuff two into a 12 ounce beverage can is a rip off.

    You have to watch prices between the stores.  A lot is within a few cents.  My flavor of beer is almost $5 more at HEB than Walmart.  That’s if either store has it.  

    For a solid example, HEB has sea salted tortilla chips near the Deli/Bakery.  Not El Milagro, a little thicker but a lot fewer crumbs. One pound bags closed with a twist-tie.  $2.98 in Burnet.  $3.49 in Marble Falls.  The UPC is 41220 36277.

    Want a nice salsa?  Look for the Hill Country Fare Homestyle Mexican Salsa.  Made in Mexico, even. Seven ounce pop-top can.  It’s not full of sugar and thickening stuff like Pace.  Once upon a time it cost 39¢ a can.  Up to 79¢ now.  It’s over by the canned jalapenos and other salsas…. about chest high at the Burnet store. 

    But you won’t find it at the Marble Falls store.  Certainly not at the Plus store in Leander.  ‘sniff’  Nor Central Market.   But Burnet sells it. 

    HEB does some interesting stuff.  I’m sure Walmart does too.

  42. paul says:

    Plus a couple hundred dollars for the bullet to put in the brain of every watermelon

    Wow!  I can sell my .22 bullets for a couple of hundred bucks each?  What a country!

    Couple thousand for bullets for the grifters

    Naw, let’s go Governmental on the prices and we can make at minimum several million bucks.  

    Do we use a pistol or a rifle?  Decisions, decisions. ….  Sort of like taking care of that racoon in the trap or the pear stealing squirrels in my pear trees. 

  43. Lynn says:

    Did your daughter make a decision on the hysterectomy?  I keep her in my prayers… she is so young to face such insurmountable health problems.  

    The wife and daughter are headed to the obgyn right now to discuss her options.  The daughter had her sixth iron infusion yesterday for this year.  The daughter is 35, she has had Lyme disease since she was 15.  She had her first stroke when she was 19 or 20, we are not sure.  Her entire life since 15 has been tough.

  44. Lynn says:

    “FBI is planning to EXTRADITE Sam Bankman-Fried from Bahamas – as crypto contagion from FTX collapse spreads to $20BN BlockFi that is preparing for bankruptcy”

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11433541/FBI-planning-extradite-SBF-crypto-contagion-FTX-collapse-spreads-20BN-BlockFi.html

    Good night, FTX has only been in existence since 2019 and peak valued at $25 billion !  Crypto is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme to me.

  45. paul says:

    Internalized urbanist/blue state thinking sees bad management and assumes it is the process that causes it,  while native conservative thinking sees bad management and blames the individuals responsible.  

    I lean towards “bad management”.  But there is always the stench of Process and “This is how it’s always been done.” 

    See, I’m in Precinct Three over here and the previous guy focused on his area around Marble Falls.  Because that’s where he lived and where the money (campaign contributions) is.  After about 20 years of sucking on the taxpayers, he retired.  The new guy was all rah-rah gonna fix the roads.  And not much happened.

    I have a friend that works for the county and can see where the money goes.  New guy has a limited budget and has spent the last few years just patching neglected things.  He’s finally getting on top of all that and the roads around me are being fixed with more than tamping a bag of asphalt mix into the potholes.

    Last time I saw him I asked him to paint a center stripe on CR330.  Because the fat women in Suburbans and Exploders take their lane out of the middle of the road.  Why do I have to run two wheels on the dirt?  Oh, “we can’t do that because of “rules”.  Width of road and such.” 

    Ok, I get that, paint some marks anyway, not even full stripes, just stripes a couple of feet long and if anyone complains say “we are surveying the road while planning upgrades”.  And the idiots in Suburbans running 60 on a road posted for 45 will stay on their side. 

    Nothing happened.

  46. nick flandrey says:

     Crypto is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme to me.

    the soon to be felon in question has described his own exchange as a ponzi scheme in interviews without actually using the words “ponzi scheme.”    There are articles in the alt-media about FTX being a money laundry operation for the democrats, with Ukrainian money coming back to the party.   The soon to be Epsteined felon is the second largest donor to the democrat party.   There is a LOT of circumstantial evidence that it was set up that way from the beginning.

    n

  47. Greg Norton says:

    “Previous cost estimates were for the project to generate power at a price of $58/MWh, but at least one municipal power provider says project developers told it that prices could run $90/MWh to $100/MWh. The Utah project consists of a half dozen 77 MW reactors, being developed by NuScale, with the first expected online in 2029.”

    You know, if they would build a thousand of these pocket nuclear power plants, I’ll bet that the cost would drop significantly.

    NuScale is Bill Gates.

    Another example of life imitating “The Simpsons” art. “You Only Move Twice” – best episode ever IMHO.

  48. paul says:

    Crypto is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme to me.

    Y’all just now figuring that out?  

  49. Lynn says:

    Crypto is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme to me.

    Y’all just now figuring that out?  

    I used to think that crypto was a way for Putin to move his money around without anyone knowing it was Putin’s money. Supposedly Putin moved $8 billion dollars worth of rubles into dollars a decade or so back using Bitcoin.

  50. Lynn says:

     Crypto is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme to me.

    —the soon to be felon in question has described his own exchange as a ponzi scheme in interviews without actually using the words “ponzi scheme.”    There are articles in the alt-media about FTX being a money laundry operation for the democrats, with Ukrainian money coming back to the party.   The soon to be Epsteined felon is the second largest donor to the democrat party.   There is a LOT of circumstantial evidence that it was set up that way from the beginning.

    n

    If so, then the felon in question will be in a federal holding cell soon under suicide watch.  And then when he has passed out of the news lead, he will commit same.

    2
    1
  51. Lynn says:

    “FTX and star backers including Brady, Curry sued by investor”

         https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/ftx-and-star-backers-including-brady-curry-sued-by-investor-1.1847292

    “FTX and former chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried were sued by an investor over claims that the cryptocurrency exchange now in crisis targeted “unsophisticated investors” using celebrity endorsers including Tom Brady and Stephen Curry, who are also named as defendants.”

    Be careful who you promote.  You might get to stand in their place if the whole thing falls apart.

    Hat tip to:

        https://drudgereport.com/

    Mr. Wonderful got hosed too, “FTX Collapse: Tom Brady, Steph Curry and ‘Mr Wonderful’ Are in Big Trouble”:
    https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cryptocurrency/ftx-collapse-tom-brady-steph-curry-and-mr-wonderful-are-in-big-trouble

  52. Greg Norton says:

    Paywalled, but the important points are free. 

    AWS days are numbered as a HotSkillz without broader experience in The Cloud. I’ve heard this for nearly a year from people who get into HashiCorp’s tools.

    https://fortune.com/2022/11/16/amazon-aws-extends-hiring-freeze-into-2023-preformance-management-weed-out-teams-above-headcount/

  53. Greg Norton says:

    Be careful who you promote.  You might get to stand in their place if the whole thing falls apart.

    Gronk’s shoe commercials have disappeared again, but those will only get him in trouble with the Fashion Police.

    The Yucs and the Seahawks gave the Germans quite a show on Sunday.

    And even in Germany, they know about Jimbo’s future.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bghzcdits6s

    Okay, not really. Apparently that is a popular party song over there.

    Still, it was almost a spit take moment when I saw the clip.

  54. Lynn says:

    “White House requests $38 billion more in Ukraine aid”

        https://www.militarytimes.com/congress/budget/2022/11/15/white-house-requests-38-billion-more-in-ukraine-aid/

    “WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday asked Congress for another $38 billion in Ukraine aid. If lawmakers fund the supplemental request, it would bring the total amount Congress has appropriated for Ukraine to more than $100 billion in less than a year.”

    Really ? How are the dumbrocrats going to funnel money back to themselves from Ukraine ?

  55. Greg Norton says:

    Really ? How are the dumbrocrats going to funnel money back to themselves from Ukraine ?

    DoD contracts. Who do you think runs those companies these days, especially the firms clustered around DC in the reliably liberal counties in Virginia?

    Clapper was on the board of the wannabe Defense Dept. contractor I worked at last year until the Hunter laptop story became too big for even Pinch’s brood at The Times to ignore.

    Clapper vanished from the web site as soon as the mainstream media issued their mea culpa.

  56. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?  

  57. Lynn says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?  

    Cranberry.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?  

    My father-in-law was always obsessed about getting his Beaujolais Nouveau, which is released every third Thursday in November, just in time for Thanksgiving.

    If you’re going somewhere and want to bring a wine, that’s a safe bet.

  59. Ray Thompson says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?

    It’s all Trump‘s fault.

  60. nick flandrey says:

    @Robert,  white meat = white wine, and if it were me, something sweeter rather than dry.  

    On the other hand, all the rules are breakable, and it’s easy to argue that the savory flavors of the turkey and fixin’s could easily be paired with a red.  

    n

  61. nick flandrey says:

    Added- my wife likes Beaujolais Nouveau but they can be hit or miss for a good one.   She usually gets a pinot noir.

    I like sweet though.

    n

  62. SteveF says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?

    Do you have to ask? Pumpkin spice wine.

  63. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Wine for Thanksgiving?  I’m not all that knowledgeable about wine, but my favorites are Berringer White Zinfandel, which isn’t at all tart or bitter; a little sweetness. Added benefit; it’s inexpensive. 

    A new favorite is the Chateau Ste Michelle Harvest Riesling. A delightful wine. 

  64. EdH says:

    Do you have to ask? Pumpkin spice wine.

    hah.

    The gentleman next to me in line at Costco today had a bag of “Pumpkin Spice Flavor Coffee”.  I actually said “You must be joking!”.

    He scowled and replied “The wife likes it, I won’t touch it.”

  65. Alan says:

    >> I talk about it, and she nods along

    Coincidentally(?), this article was in my Google News feed today:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/11/the-no-relationship-hack-according-to-psychologists-who-have-been-married-for-35-years.html

  66. Alan says:

    >> Curbside pickup at HEB really screws with our local store’s stock levels on the floor, particularly in produce.

    My wife uses Target curb-side constantly, even if it’s for just two or three items, especially considering that the grocery section is in the far corner of the store. I don’t recall the last time we were there and there weren’t at least a few cars waiting. Oh, plus always 5% off with the Target Red card. And good prices on some grocery items.

  67. Alan says:

    >> Rick Scott makes his move.

    So how’d that go for ya Rick? Canceled the drapes order yet?

  68. nick flandrey says:

    Guys in sandals in a dirt yard in Pakistan making a copy of a HINO truck frame from raw steel shapes.   Crazy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9ShEH7Nes 

    n

  69. Alan says:

    >> Homeless thug stabs two people, including nine-year-old boy, with butcher’s knife he grabbed off a shelf before being shot dead by security guard at a Target in lawless LA

    Righteous shooting, but armed security at Target? A bit surprised that Corporate is okay with this…unless moonlighting off-duty cops?

    And hey Garcetti, why aren’t those butcher knives in locked display cases??

  70. Alan says:

    >> I’ve found myself having to remind myself on how to do some things that I used to do all the time. 

    It’s called ‘getting old.’ Sucks, doesn’t

  71. Alan says:

    >> if you can carry, carry everywhere. Learn how to “Stop the Bleed”. 

    Carry…and practice at the range (or downtown LA) including your draw.

    Bleed kits for any victims, not for the perp, right?

  72. drwilliams says:

    @Kenneth C. Mitchell

    Wine for Thanksgiving?  I’m not all that knowledgeable about wine, but my favorites are Berringer White Zinfandel, which isn’t at all tart or bitter; a little sweetness. Added benefit; it’s inexpensive. 

    A new favorite is the Chateau Ste Michelle Harvest Riesling. A delightful wine. 

    Concur with both. 

    The white zins exploded in popularity in the late ‘70’s and have become mainstays. Inexpensive and relatively low alcohol. Sutter Home makes the prototype.

    There are many good reislings from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region of Germany. It’s also a staple wine of he Finger Lakes in New York State, but harder to find in Cali or Texas.

    The Finger Lakes is a beautiful area. There’s a classic aerial poster shot of the Finger Lakes taken from the east with the sun reflecting. I was fortunate to be on a flight about thirty years ago where the view was nearly identical. One of the iconic wines from the region is made from frozen grapes picked in early winter:

    https://www.newyorkupstate.com/wine-tours/2022/01/who-likes-these-cold-winter-blasts-finger-lakes-ice-wine-makers-thats-who.html

  73. Alan says:

    >> Rush Limbaugh used to say that Walmart was a blessing to the poor of the USA.  I totally agreed with him then and still do.  If all you can afford is Grade C fruits and vegetables at Walmart, at least that is available for you there.

    Yup, cause you ain’t getting them at the dollar (and a quarter) store. And what comes in the flavor packet in the ramen doesn’t count. Oh, and french fries don’t count either.

  74. Alan says:

    >> My sales guy quit last week, I am toying with the idea that me and office manager will fill in the job for now.  Things are tough in the oil patch, very tough.

    @lynn, I hear that the Office Manager can be a tough taskmaster.

  75. MrK says:

    What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?  

    If it’s a family gathering, anything alcoholic is my preferred tipple. 

  76. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    If new customer sales is important, several successful business owners (and others) have told me that the sales staff’s total  pay should be equal to the pay of remaining company staff’s and CEO’s total pay.  Not production staff, however.  

    One small company had a hot shot salesman, that made that.  He and the owner were both happy with their income and work loads. The owner told me the salesman knew how to sell and where to spend his time selling.  The business for flourishing the last time I had contact with them.

  77. Nick Flandrey says:

    Yup the finger lakes region is beautiful.  And ice wine rocks!

    I’ve been happy with anything from Chateau Ste. Michele, but since I quit drinking alcohol, I am not familiar with any of their newer varieties.   Wife is happy with them though, when I bring it home.   

    n

  78. Alan says:

    >> What wine, if any, is good with  Thanksgiving Day dinner?

    If you want to go traditional:

    https://www.winemag.com/2022/11/09/hard-cider-thanksgiving/

    Of course, depending on who’s doing the cooking, this could be ideal:

    https://www.thrillist.com/spirits/vodka/good-strong-liquor

    Okay, if you insist on wine, head over to Trader Joe’s:

    https://pix.wine/the-drop/bargain-basement-wine-trend/

  79. Lynn says:

    “Claim: Climate Models Are Imprecise, Because Psychologists Were Not Consulted”

        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/16/claim-climate-models-are-imprecise-because-psychologists-were-not-consulted/

    “According to Nature “Human behaviour is a neglected factor in climate science”.”

    Okkkkaaaayyyy.   I don’t have any human behavior factors in my software which works remarkably well at simulating chemical processes.

  80. Jenny says:

    We’ve had our friends twins the last few nights. Getting them caught up on homework is difficult. Had good conversations with their teachers regarding strategies and goals. The teachers genuinely care and are vested in helping them develop good coping mechanisms and not just surviving the disfunction but rising above it. 
     

    Its hard. We are trying to strike a balance between helping and enabling. They’re such good young people. A team is forming to support the family. These girls aren’t going to fall through the cracks. 
     

    Tired. Worried. Balancing is not my strong suit. 

  81. ITGuy1998 says:

    October HVAC usage report arrived today. October 2021 – 54 hours of cooling and 0 hours heating. October 2022 – 1 hour cooling and 8 hours heating. Yes, my last electric bill was really low. I actually had the HVAC turned off for most of the month and the windows generally stayed open.

    This month is a different story – it’s cold. Not Alaska cold, but north Alabama cold.

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