Cold and clear today, warming slightly. It got up to shirtsleeves weather yesterday, and that made working in the attic ALMOST sweaty. Still very nice for December.
Despite my late start, I did get stuff accomplished. I got the hose bib outside the kitchen in, but not connected in the attic. I’ll leave that for later. I got the water line for the ice maker in, and it’s working again. The main thing we use it for is the filtered drinking water. Not having it working was inconvenient.
I did some other organizing and cleanup. Got the newer, bigger tv installed. It’s one I fixed by replacing the power board. It lasted 9 years, so putting $20 into it wasn’t a killer. And it was free. Frankly I could do without any tv up here, but my wife wanted one to watch movies on when it’s too cold on the dock.
Today I’ll get the wall closed up behind the dishwasher and get that installed. That will make the bride happy, which is worth doing… I hope to get some of the shelves I brought up set up in the garage and get some stuff organized so I can find it. I might open a wall and remove another hose bib, or drop in some pex for the hall bathroom tub. Or I might do plumbing for the washer and dryer. The current pipes are green with corrosion and very sketchy.
One thing I have to get done is whatever the gas company needs to do before they fill my tank. I’ll call them as soon as they open today and see what that might entail. I wish they’d have called or emailed instead of leaving the door hanger. I’ve lost a week that I didn’t know about, and I’ll feel a lot better about my wife coming up this week, and all of use being here after Christmas, with a full tank.
I don’t have to be back in Houston until 2pm on Tuesday for a pickup, so I’m playing my return by ear. As long as I’m making progress here, I feel like I should keep moving.
The fake tree looks nice, and I found a lighted angel for a topper. Between that and the Christmas music on the radio last night, I’m starting to feel the season. Since I had my non-prepping hobby Christmas dinner last week, I’ve been having weird flashes like Christmas already happened. That is very odd and not at all like me.
I guess I should get home and do the Christmas stuff there soon, before it really is too late <|:-)
We’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul for a long time now, and Peter is out of stuff, while Paul wants more than ever. Things are going to get weirder as that reality sets in with more people. Enjoy the season, but don’t forget that the times they are a changing.
Keep stacking, and if you can, look for where you can spread a little joy, or help someone in need. Good karma need stackin’ too.
nick
Quoted for truth.
It may be a while before people post on this new day’s thread; there’s a competition going on yesterday’s.
all people have practices that look loony from the outside.
Fixed it for you.
I saw this linked on another site today as a reminder. The pandemic actions of the “heroes” in uniform enforcing the kabuki shouldn’t be forgotten/forgiven any more than the politicians or friends and relatives.
I’m sure they were just following orders from the county “Mayor”, the Florida equivalent of a “Judge” in Texas, except not all counties have them, just machine Dem strongholds.
Miami-Dade cops have retirement plans up in Orlando. Gotta protect those pensions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MinVw6HvLg
And the Dems still wonder how DeSantis won Dade County.
Quoted for Truth.
Starting my day. Got up at 7 with thunder, ran down to the dock and put away the stuff I didn’t put away last night, when I thought “it’ll be ok this once, it’s not gonna rain”. Hah, the universe p!sses on my cornflakes. Got wet as I was coming back up the hill.
Went back to bed, got up with the alarm, but it was pouring down, so I laid back down, and suddenly it was now.
I have an antenna tower I’m bidding on in an auction closing in minutes. It’s big. It’s also very cheap for what it is. I don’t expect my max to hold up, and I can’t go higher. We’ll see what happens.
Got a text from the neighbor, we are supposed to freeze on Friday. That moves some of the work higher on the list.
Better get to it.
And thanks guys for sharing the details about Hanukkah. I also thought the rules on the Sabbath were about avoiding ‘work’. That’s what my employers said, when they would try to do a trade show on the Sabbath. That made for some interesting hoop jumping.
n
Wow, I won the tower. I did not think my bid would hold up. Hooray, but now I’ve got to go get it, and eventually set it up!
n
Cold and wet this fine day. 44F and raining. Been raining since 730, steady, but not a downpour. Water is still pooling around my septic tank excavation in the front yard, so I’ll need to put on my muck boots and adjust my drainage channels a bit. I’m glad to be up here with the rain, so I can see the actual puddling and not just the aftermath. That gives me a chance to establish some grade lines and drainage paths for when I finally get some heavy equipment in to finish the grading.
I’m about 20% leaning toward a landscape company to just do it, put in a crushed granite path, and call it good for now. That won’t solve my issues with poor soil or get rid of my concrete though.
Hmm. choices.
n
Update:
I didn’t post it, but we all tested positive for COVID last Saturday. Three days of various cold/flu like symptoms. Down to just a cough. We call it the ‘Rona cough since it lasts for 3-4 days. One kid went to Urgent Care. Cold meds and check by in 7-10 days if not better. We are all better. It’s been about two years now since we all got double clot-shots. If this is COVID, I’ll just call it a bad cold.
PS We all tested negative yesterday.
Pretty chilly this week. 4 feet of snow in the last two weeks, a full year of snow in December. Yowzers. It’s hovering around 0° F all week. I’m struggling to get down to the rabbits. The snow is over my waist and the path is a hill. My long suffering long legged husband has been caring for them this week. A friends youngster cleared much of the snow from pressing against the sidewalls of the fabric shed that comprises my rabbitry shelter. I’d gotten the snow pulled off the roof, but that made the snow chest deep and I couldn’t manage anymore. Difficult to clear the path to the rabbits of snow. I’ve been prioritizing keeping the drive, front walk, roof vents, and steps clear. The back deck and stairs have been getting short shrift. Once the high priority areas are under control I’ll nibble away at the rabbit path.
Even moose have been struggling with this sudden deep snow, despite their long legs. It is common to see moose in Anchorage, including the most urban sections. Downtown regularly has moose though it remains a novelty. Our neighborhood moose has been hanging out more frequently.
This morning my younger dog started barking and carrying on shortly after going outside. We had sent her out to blowoff steam. Moose. I have a cam down under the apple trees for the sole purpose of spotting moose before we send the dogs out. I‘d checked the camera and looked off the deck before I sent the dog out. Moose was lying in a hollow and was virtually invisible. They step over our 4’ chain link fence like it’s nothing, and hop 6’-8’ fences with similar ease. Not much keeps moose out.
Fortunately the moose was more intent on resting than dog stomping. Dog bounced around barking and charging the moose like a brainless suicidal fool. The moose eventually stood up and resumed eating the apple tree. Completely ignored dog. Dog wouldn’t come inside until I’d walked out the back patio and rattled a bucket of dog cookies. Even then dog kept turning back to tell off the moose.
Idjit. I wasn’t getting any closer to moose. They are unpredictable and more than one Anchorage resident has met their demise rescuing their fool dog.
>> Wow, I won the tower. I did not think my bid would hold up. Hooray, but now I’ve got to go get it, and eventually set it up!
Borrowing from the old saying…
“Be careful what you bid on, you might win it”
And what life-long lessons do we learn from this little mishap?
(I’m guessing “none”.)
Quoted for truth.
The doctors’ lies need to be remembered, too. Though I suspect that they’ve permanently damaged their credibility and social stature and maybe that’s punishment enough.
Brainless suicidal fool is as brainless suicidal fool does.
Just like the opening credits of “Northern Exposure” …
… filmed in a Seattle exurb.
Back from the ‘scope, recovered (mostly) from the anesthesia.
Nothing golf ball sized this time.
Oh, and before I forget: “A moose bit my sister”
The weather forecast keeps sliding towards “WTF” and I don’t mean Wed Thur Fri.
Half an hour ago the low for Thursday night was 13. It’s now 10. 28 for the high on Friday and then 15 Friday night.
Tomorrow’s projects are “go to Tractor Supply for cat food” as I don’t have enough to get past the weekend if I give them an extra scoop or so a day.
Then Wally World for a couple of things because it’s right there and HEB for a few other things. Get it all unloaded and put away and then haul in several bags of pellets for the wood stove.
Just curious…. if they take out a golf ball size thing… and I’m guessing that would be some kind of obstruction, did that affect your pooping? Don’t need details. Yes or No is enough. Just seems like a golf ball sized would be blocking the system. I don’t know. . . . . .
“Rep. Dan Crenshaw not returning donation from FTX exec”
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/dan-crenshaw-ftx-donation-17661023.php
“Several Texas politicians announced they are giving back contributions from Sam Bankman-Fried or his associates, but not the Houston congressman.”
I knew that Dan Crenshaw was an idiot and now he is proving it. It was stolen money, the bankruptcy judge will sending him a letter soon.
My guess of memory usage was wrong.
New PC had 16GB RAM and used 3.7GB with 13.4 MB compressed. With 32GB RAM it’s doing 4.8 GB and nothing compressed.
The system seems “snappier” but it didn’t seem like a slouch before.
32 GB of RAM. Crazy. I remember an 800 MB WD hard drive that cost $800. My Win11 Windows directory is pushing 20 GB.
“ERCOT: Texas energy demand to exceed predicted winter peak Friday”
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/texas-freeze-power-grid-17664726.php
“Last week regulators said the grid was prepared to meet demand during the coming freeze.”
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, (ERCOT) which runs the state’s grid, predicted that demand will hit 69.3 gigawatts Friday morning as the cold front sweeps into the Lone Star State. Last month, ERCOT predicted that demand would top out at 67.4 gigawatts over the winter, Bloomberg reported.”
That is a lot of gigawatts. The problem is not the power plants, the problem is getting enough fuel. The Texas Railroad Commission is responsible for the natural gas pipelines and has allowed the EPA to force new compressors since 1990 to be electric motor driven instead of combustion turbine driven. It is a Catch 22 situation when the electric grid does not have enough power to start the 30 MW to 50 MW electric motors to compress the natural gas pipelines to provide natural gas for the power plants to make electricity.
BTW, when we had these single digit mornings at TXU, we would back off all of our power plants to half power at four am. Usually our coal power plants were running flat out day and night. So anyway, we would run all of the units to half power at 4 am and then start increasing them at 5 am when people got up at 6 am and turned on the lights and then the heaters. By 8 am, we would have everything running wide open and the demand had doubled since 5 am. Usually, one or four of our 124 power plants would trip on the way up since we were running diesel and bunker C fuel in them instead of natural gas.
Weather here in the Olympic Peninsula (WA) is cold, courtesy of a pile of cold air coming out of the Frasier River valley (just across the border in Canada). Temps today max at 29F at my house, with a low of 25F. A little dusting of snow last night, but a Winter Weather Watch for tonight and tomorrow for snow, with 2-4″ projected at sea level (I’m at 190 feet).
Storm will be leaving by late Tue night/Wed AM. Our trip to CA for the holidays will be Wed – between storms, as the next one here is scheduled for Thurs. Storm track looks to be mostly in WA, so no snow projected as we travel south on I-5 through OR into CA. Should be able to get over the Siskiyou range (at OR/CA border; elevation 4100 feet) without issues.
It’s a 13 hour drive to our destination. Will probably do it in one day, leaving at about 5am. Will have chains, but the Highlander with AWD (plus the ‘snow’ mode) works OK in snow conditions. Don’t really want to have to put on the chains.
Dilbert: Dogbert’s Crypto Exchange
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-12-19
Oh, Scott Adams went there. I suspect that the entire week will be about cryptocurrency.
Yeah, I had issues there, but I chalked it up to job stress.
I was scoped at 31 due to serious issues involving blood, and the exam came back totally clean. All the problems completely stopped a few months later when I turned in notice at GTE.
Got the electrical for the dishwasher done. Ended up pulling the outlet box, putting in a 2 gang box, and adding the switch for the dishwasher. I decided to replace the romex that old boy had put between the outlet box and the dishwasher, because all the kitchen outlets are run with 12/2 plus ground, but the dishwasher wasn’t grounded. So I put 14/2 + bare from the above counter box to the new box and outlet under the sink. Once I needed to pull the box, it made sense to replace it with a bigger box and put in the switch. That was way more work than I had in mind, but it was right. Well, right-ish. still some cheats. ALL the kitchen outlets are one circuit.
We’ll change that to meet code when we redo the kitchen but for now, I’m gonna leave it. None of the outlets are GFCI. It may be easier and cheaper to put in a GFCI breaker, but I don’t want the fridge on a GFCI and it’s first in line in the circuit. I could put a GFCI in the first above counter outlet and protect all the down stream that way, but the way OB has wired it, and the tiny outlet boxes means that is a bunch of work too.
Folks, if you do your own electrical, LEAVE ENOUGH WIRE IN THE BOX. 6″ at least. And buy the big boxes. You aren’t doing 1000 outlets in a subdivision where the smaller box will save you 6c per… and you don’t want trouble fitting GFCI outlets, dimmers, or the wires into the boxes.
Sprayfoamed the holes in the wall and around stuff. Tried to use my cans from home but they were cured in the can. It is worth having a couple of cans around just in case, but they do age out. Used the new I’d bought in case the old were bad.
Once I was done messing around under the counter, I soaked it all with mold killer/disinfectant. Since that had to dry, I went out and played in the dirt and wet- cutting little drainage ditches to drain the big puddles. Since it was nice and cool, it occurred to me to maybe move some of the dirt around, knock down some high spots and fill some of the low… so I did. The ground was very easy to dig, so I moved about 9 inches off one higher side into lows around the porch and the septic tank. I ended up moving about a cubic yard of dirt before I ran out of daylight. Machine would be better, but I don’t have a machine. Only took about an hour.
There are a lot of big jobs that can be attacked by doing an hour here, and an hour there. Breaking concrete is one, and I guess re-grading the front yard is another.
Fake beer is almost drunk, and the Hungry Man Classic fried chicken dinner is calling.
I’m kinda beat.
n
I swear I remember Adams being involved with NFTs in some way.
Hah, one thing those new fangled LED worklight floods can’t do that a 500w or 750w incandescent can do– heat up a whole room!
I’m going old school to dry the under cabinet area. Freaking light is scorching hot.
n
Ha ha!
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-are-urgent-need-help-nyc-mayor-starts-freaking-out-over-impending-wave-illegal
Oooh, 1000 per day… in NYFC. El Paso is getting more than double that. Tiny towns along the Texas border are getting more than NYFC so NYFC can suck it til they choke
n
BTW, I’m now seeing the same sort of deformed and crippled beggars on Houston streets that I used to only see in Mexico and see pictures of in other third world sh!tholes. This is NOT a good thing.
>> Folks, if you do your own electrical, LEAVE ENOUGH WIRE IN THE BOX. 6″ at least. And buy the big boxes. You aren’t doing 1000 outlets in a subdivision where the smaller box will save you 6c per… and you don’t want trouble fitting GFCI outlets, dimmers, or the wires into the boxes.
I almost always use these boxes, especially if having to replace an existing box or adding a new box to existing work. Being able to mount a new box in an existing location by screwing into a stud easily make these worth the extra cost. Haven’t seen them at HD or Lowes but one of the local electrical supply houses has them if I can’t wait for the ‘Zon.
>> https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-are-urgent-need-help-nyc-mayor-starts-freaking-out-over-impending-wave-illegal
Adams is ever so slightly more competent than deBlasio, but that’s not saying much. DeBlasio’s 2020 presidential campaign lasted all of four months.
Adams was a NYFC cop for 20 years yet hasn’t done much to corral crime, much less get prepared for the illegals. Both he and deBlasio are slimy, crooked politicians.
Happy to have left 15 years ago.
Jan 6 Dumbo committee refers tRump to DOJ for “criminal” charges. This will be another embarrassment for America. DOJ will probably do nothing to save face. I hope the Redumblicans stop these nonsense committees and get back to work. But, no, revenge is a dish best served post haste. There is no bipartisan Congress. They are all money grubbing scumbags.
I’m not sure about El Paso, but, from what I’ve seen firsthand, the border area around Brownsville/McAllen has serious economic problems. I doubt that the migrants stay around for long which raises the question of who provides the transportation in the US.
>> I swear I remember Adams being involved with NFTs in some way.
@Greg, if you can’t find them, there’s always these!
And in other Tony news today, he posted a live poll on Twitter ask for a vote on whether or not he should resign as Twitter’s CEO. Said he would abide by the poll results regardless. 57% of the vote was ‘For Resign.’ Tony then said “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,” he said on the social network. “There is no successor.”
He should focus on EVs and rockets. Time to leave the mall…hmm, what level did I park that damn CyberTruck on??
I’ve got the new office Starlink hooked up to the office LAN via the Peplink WAN mux. Seems to be running ok. I had to pull the two AT&T DSL lines off it to get a true look at the Starlink.
I am getting a 90 ms to 263 ms ping to my website in Pittsburg, I get a 60 to 70 ms ping using the DSL lines. I downloaded a 180 MB file, took about two minutes, not as fast as the 12/1 mbps DSL lines. I was really hoping that Starlink would be faster than the DSL lines.
“SpaceX Tips Second-Gen Starlink Satellite Launch This Month”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-tips-second-gen-starlink-satellite-launch-this-month
“The company is also preparing to use its second-gen satellites to beam broadband to existing Starlink dishes.”
“The second-generation satellites promise to relieve the congestion woes. For now, the FCC has cleared SpaceX to operate 7,500 of them across Earth’s orbit, in addition to the 4,408 satellites for the first-gen Starlink network.”
“The company plans on launching the second-gen satellites through both Falcon 9 rockets and its upcoming Starship craft. “Although its specific launch cadence is being finalized, SpaceX anticipates launching satellites into the Gen2 constellation at a rate of at least once per week during 2023, with a more rapid cadence over time,” the company told the FCC in October.”
The second gen Starlink satellites are much bigger, 2,600 lbs each as opposed to the old 600 lb Gen 1 satellites.
We are living in the future.
“Owner of WA natural gas power plant sues state over carbon-pricing law”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/owner-of-wa-natural-gas-power-plant-sues-state-over-of-carbon-pricing-law/
Yes, discrimination is almost as prevalent as stupidity in these enlightened days.
@paul
WTH is in there? The complete spatio-acoustical mapping of all of Bill Gates farts since birth?
The freaking Encyclopedia Britannica is only a gig.
Was the download via https?
Does Starlink install anything on the client PCs?
@Alan
Any feel for historical cost variation?
My office neighbor that is trying to steal my office property popped his head up again today. His unlicensed lawyer called my licensed lawyer this morning and demanded that I sign his overbearing access easement so that he can sell the 35+ acre property north of my property to an organic grower who is going to run 18 wheelers up and down my road daily. And his lawyer demanded that I get the other property owners to sign the agreement also. And he wants my lawyer to negotiate with the buyers lender for terms on the access agreement. All by next Thursday, Dec 29. My lawyer wrote him a letter telling him to pound sand XX XXXX XXXX that we are not the buyer or the seller and not a party to his transaction. It is his job to get things done, not me, I could care less.
His lawyer also threatened to sue me for a declaratory judgement forcing me to sign the easement agreement. All we can figure out is that he is trying to make me out to be the bad guy when this goes legal. My lawyer says that if they do file a lawsuit, the judge will tell us to hire a negotiator and report back to him.
His lawyer said that they are not going to sue the property owner to the west as they no longer live there since the wife got mauled by feral pigs last year. Which makes no sense. The west property owner also threatened to get a work crew out and destroy the road. If he does, I will sue him as I own 70% of the road and am the only maintainer, having spent $60,000 in the last ten years on contractors. If he destroys my section of the road, that will not go well. I have been maintaining his section of the road for my benefit all these years.
This is freaking crazy.
Was the download via https?
Does Starlink install anything on the client PCs?
Yes. No. Starlink is just a WAN on my LAN.
I did have to install the Starlink app (which has both IOS and Android versions) on my Android phone in order to configure the Starlink which consisted of setting the Wifi name and password. All the rest was automatic including hooking up the optional Starlink ethernet box to my Peplink 30 WAN mux box.
WTH is in there? The complete spatio-acoustical mapping of all of Bill Gates farts since birth?
The freaking Encyclopedia Britannica is only a gig.
My Windows 10 x64 Pro c:\windows directory is 26 GB.
Lynn, I have the same neighbor advice for you as I had for Brad: Shoot. Shovel. Shut up.
C:\windows folder on my Win 11 system (HP laptop) is 35GB. But it’s on a 512GB SSD drive which is only about half full, so I don’t worry about it.
SSD makes things fast. The D (data) drive is a 2TB SSD. I upgraded both from a 256GB SSD and 1TB spinner.
Got both SSD from Crucial. Installation was fairly easy; came with a data transfer process to copy all the old stuff to the new drives.
How much is stored in C:\Windows\Temp?
The line is, “I’ve got a .45 and a shovel.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ1qyj-4ZpU
So the Ethernet connects to a separate component than the Starlink transponder? The two pieces communicate over WiFi?
Did you try the upload from a laptop connected to the Wifi on the transponder?
Huh, without any real internet, and without a couple of hours messing around with a fire and a drink, the evening seems a bit longer than usual.
Good thing I got the fourth Bobiverse book before I left home. War comes to the Bobiverse…. (not the title).
Vibrating heated lazyboy is pretty comfortable for reading.
n
How much is stored in C:\Windows\Temp?
Also there is another temp folder under the user/app data. I’ve found hundreds of files in that directory using hundreds of gigs of space. One endo dental specialist I do work for has a 3D facial panographic xray that produces very large images. The viewing app stores copies in that folder and never cleans up. I’ve found 300-400 gig of temp images there on workstations. Lots of programs store images and docs and pdfs in there. Disk cleanup never clears it.
Users/name/app data/local/temp
So the Ethernet connects to a separate component than the Starlink transponder? The two pieces communicate over WiFi?
Did you try the upload from a laptop connected to the Wifi on the transponder?
Nope, I bought the ethernet adapter from Starlink and it is wired to the antenna box. Someone even has one for sale on Big River.
https://www.amazon.com/Starlink-Ethernet-Adapter-External-Network/dp/B0B4KSBR7L?tag=ttgnet-20/
And those were download speeds, not upload speeds. I did not try an upload yet.
I can turn off the Starlink Wifi if I want to as I am not using it.
Life increasingly imitates “Star Trek”. We live on Feringinar now.
However, it sounds like the lawyer is a Neal Stephenson fan. “Mauled by feral pigs” is right out of Stephenson’s latest book, “Termination Shock”.
@SteveF
Posthole auger attachment for the Bobcat. 18″ auger with extension. Headfirst.
@Lynn
Probably takes Windows half a gig to index the alphabet.
Windows-R, Open: %temp%
I found ton of long-forgotten files in both directories of my primary desktop’s Windows 7 install when I went looking for the reason a 500 GB partition was still nearly full after uninstalling a bunch of software. I booted one of the Linux partitions on the sytem, mounted the drive with Win 7, and did “sudo rm -rf *” in each one of the temp directories.
Several hundred GB suddenly got added to the free space on the partition. To be fair, it was 12 years of neglect.
Of course, as always, the Mythbusters are professionals. Kids, don’t try that at home.
And I’ve previously commented on the massive amount of files on my older machine that were failed windows update files… about half the drive capacity, iirc.
I’m going to try for an early night. Seems like I’ve been saying that a lot and not achieving it. Maybe tonight…
n
seen online:
”When I was a kid bedtime was 9pm.
I couldn’t wait to become a grownup and go to bed whenever I wanted.
Turns out that is 9pm.”
>> Any feel for historical cost variation?
All ‘Zon prices:
July 2020 – $1.50
Sept 2020 – $1.50
Currently – $2.69 (thank you FJB)
>> Vibrating heated lazyboy is pretty comfortable for reading.
@Ray, all yours…
>> Posthole auger attachment for the Bobcat. 18″ auger with extension. Headfirst
Commercial wood chipper, feet first.
4.22 MB
50 MB there.