Cold. Don’t know how cold when I am writing this but I know it will be cold. Also, relatively damp. ‘cuz Houston… it was 20F when I went to sleep and that is pretty dang cold in Houston. Don’t know what it got down to at the BOL, I’ll probably find out later today. No precip in Houston.
I guess I’ll also find out if the outdoor water heater survived. Kinda forgot about that, since this was our first weather event since we installed it. It is outside the building envelope and not very well protected from cold. Nothing I was willing to do at 1 am. when I thought about it.
I had a pretty normal day yesterday, probably should have done more cold prepping. Instead I got my antenna tower (it’s in good shape, a couple of minor things will need fixing, and the missing stuff will need to be ordered, but otherwise- never installed.) Wife got mom from the airport. I went grocery shopping, we did some half-hearted preps, and spent the night decorating the tree and wrapping presents. I’ll deal with aftermath later.
Worst case, if the heater is trashed, I’ll bring the propane one from the BOL home, and temp it into the plumbing while we find a replacement. TOTALLY don’t want to do that, but missed the boat on weatherizing it. It was working at 1am.
If the grid holds together, it’ll prove we can still do maintenance and planning. If not, we’re skiing down the slope. I’m hoping for “holds together.”
But I also know/believe we are on the slope, headed downhill, and accelerating. Any gains will be local and short lived.
So stack the things you will need for a while. Be flexible, and resourceful. Plan to survive.
nick
At the upper MidWest, Western Great Lakes: Minus 8 degrees F now trending to double digits later today. Low rumbling wind makes it worse. 66 in the apartment, lowest I’ve seen in the 18 years I’ve been here. Broke out the electric oil radiator style heater I’ve never really used for purpose before. Might have to dig out the Mr. Buddy propane heater at some point. Predicted mountain of snow did not come but I will have to attack the inch or two at the modern storage facility a mile away at some point. Have down coat and long johns. 😀
Since Roosevelt used some fine parsing of the Trading With The Enemy act to establish that the Feds could confiscate Americans’ gold with an Executive Order and get away with it.
It isn’t a terrible to idea to have some stashed has a hedge, but gold isn’t a normal investment.
Just be aware of what you can and can’t do with gold. And don’t buy GLD thinking it is the same as having physical possession.
BTW, the real US price of gold per ounce.
https://catalog.usmint.gov/american-eagle-2022-one-ounce-gold-uncirculated-coin-22EH.html
Eagles have some premium for easy provenance, but not a lot since they are not portable wealth like a Maple Leaf or a Krugerrand and subject to customs duties.
What is AAR ?
After Action Report. Whenever there is a crisis, those involved should have some sort of AAR. During the crisis we often make less than optimum decisions (An imperfect decision NOW is often better than the perfect action too late!).
When things return to normal, we should discuss what went right, wheat went wrong, and, most importantly, how can we keep it from being a crisis again.
There is, IMHO, WAY too much emphasis on Just In Time (JIT or Lean), especially when we are talking about essential services, and not enough discussion on what to do when things go bad. Heck, at my last job we had a huge Lean/Six-Sigma process: We made big giant multi-billion dollar satellites. A program would build 2. STUPID!
Buying power in 15 minute blocks seems to be false economy to me. As Texas saw during the crisis, when things go bad they suddenly go very bad. They should be paying for reliability and long term reserves, at list to some degree.
But what do I know, I R Injuneer, not a MBA.
Wheeeeellllll…..
power and water and heat still up. No hot water though. Quick look says the cold water supply pipe is frozen. It’s the only uninsulated 8 inches of metal pipe outside… I’d have seen it if I’d looked, but they were supposed to insulate during the install, and they did. Just missed a spot.
I’m going to warm that pipe and see if that works.
currently 17F sun is shining, and house is toasty. Dunno if that will last. Dunno if we have the capacity remaining for everyone to plug in a space heater this morning.
I’ve got two used gas instant hot water heaters in the attic of my rent house, and one at the lake if it comes to that. Reduced flow is better than no flow until replacement unit can be obtained, assuming damage to the actual heater.
Most of my warmer clothes are up at the lake too, turns out. Well, I know how to wash clothes Hobo Shoestring style if needed.
Coffee should be ready. Better get to it.
n
If they had reached out, would anyone have picked up the phone at the gas companies? I’m guessing there are a lot of TeamViewer fans at those places like everywhere else.
Abbott has been on the local Faux News practically every night this week, repeating the mantra that staffing levels will be adequate for the situation. He knows what happened in 2021.
The danger with that sentiment is playing into Warren Buffett’s hands, who, despite losing Oncor, is still looking to get a piece of the Texas energy market, proposing providing reserve gas-fired generating capacity in the state … for a fixed price every year.
Of course, pay no attention to Warren’s plans for his soon wholly-owned Pilot/Flying-J subsidiary, which will need electrical generation capacity of a small city each as the service centers transform to serve the EV truck and private vehicle charging nees. Somebody will have to pay for all of those generators so why not taxpayers.
No conspiracy theory — Warren will always tell you what he’s up to if you pay attention.
I had quite forgotten that we didn’t insulate the wall cavity when we changed the hot water heater from an innie to and outie… I’ve opened that wall back up to let heat into the cavity. Unfortunately my 500w floodlight is at the BOL. That thing would warm the pipe and keep them warm. I’ll find something.
n
Got a flood light sitting on the pipe in question and rigged a bit of a wind shield, hoping that works. we’re up to 19F. Still gusting to 10mph though.
n
OFD isn’t here to do the honors, but I’m sure this would have caught his eye today on Kunstler’s site.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/santa-and-satan/
A riff on the old Church Lady gag and Zelensky as Krampus.
Good Lord, Canadians. Seriously?
https://twitter.com/CPHO_Canada/status/1605676994817056787
Wee Pierre would make a good Krampus too, but he’d need a beard.
Of course a beard on Wee Pierre would make great pictures for use by the “Fidel Junior” conspiracy theorists among the Cuban expats in Miami.
I don’t buy “Fidel Junior” for the record. Wee Pierre is too stupid, and I’ve heard stories about Fidel’s eidetic memory directly from people who knew him.
Oh ffs,
That would be because Snow White is FREAKING “SNOW WHITE”! The whole thing is about how freaking white (the color of snow) she is.
– um no you empty headed meat puppet. It’s a centuries old story that is far more than waiting for a man to save you.
Glad I only own 1 share of Disney stock.
n
Funny how the bipocs and woke have to hijack stories rather than write their own.
The Mouse hasn’t learned a thing.
DeSantis took a lot of heat last year over blowing up Reedy Creek, but Iger figuratively kneeling before him in Tallahassee this Spring and giving lots of concessions in order to avoid having to deal with the political machine run by the “Mayor” of Orange County poking into every piece of construction on the property may be a real catalyst for change in Burbank.
Don’t buy any of the rhetoric that Disney is going to save money offloading the governing district reponsibilities onto the taxpayers of Florida and losing the district is in their best interest. That’s BS. The prospect of dealing with Jerry Demings and his cronies scares The Mouse more than Ron DeSantis ever will. At least DeSantis understands the money issue – he let them keep all of their tax breaks to move Imagineering to Orlando. *Everything* will be a race issue with Demings … and his wife, who failed to unseat Little Marco in November and might be a little upset about that political beatdown.
Honestly, I thought Little Marco was in trouble for all of his RINO antics, but 60-40 is a serious rejection. The only FL Senate race more embarrassing for the Dems was Hugh Rodham’s 40 point loss to Connie Mack in 1994, whose first election in 88 was decided by a slimmer number of votes than Bush-Gore.
Rolling blackouts by TVA from whom our utility district gets power. Each outage is supposed to last less than 30 minutes. TVA apparently cannot handle the load. So let’s add lots of electric vehicles to the load.
16° F in Anchorage this morning, with wind taking that to -4° F. Blizzard today though no new snow. The wind is powerful enough that we already have downed power lines.
We are prepped for outages. Mildly inconvenient for us if we lose power, and that’s a good feeling.
Hardest hit will be the animals, as their water relies on electricity. We will drain the animal watering systems and switch to bowls if it comes to that. I don’t think either shelter can blow away with the amount of snow in which the shelters are entombed.
Pretty much everything else is secure. Looking out the window I see our rolling trash bin is knocked over, trash pick up today and it’s at the curb instead of amongst the sheltering trees. I’ll watch for the trash truck and scoot out there to right it when he arrives. No point in doing it sooner. The wind is ferocious.
The supply line to the water heater thawed and by opening the bypass valve on the hot side I can see that the heater is fine. No hot water flowing into the house yet though. I remembered that I’ve got several of the ‘under desk’ personal ceramic heaters in the garage, which led me to remember that there is one under the wife’s desk… so now that is under the heater and pipes, behind a wind block… Hoping that is the issue, frozen hot return line…
The in house plumbing seems to be intact. Running the clothes washer had water coming out of the hot side of the faucets. There must be a mixer valve in the washer that was allowing cold into the unpressurized hot side. That’s good news.
The rent house has no water in the bathroom, which is fed from underneath. I hope the new-ish pex repairs are the part that froze, otherwise I’ll be doing plumbing there as soon as things melt.
Speaking of, the weather station just flipped from 30 to 31F. I imagine if we get above 33F we’ll lose water supply as everything broken starts dumping on the ground all across town.
Joy.
At least I found my cold weather gear.
n
Sophie Gregoire resents being called a beard.
For all the accusations that “wypipo have no culture, they just steal it” “wypipo never invented anything”, there sure is an absence of culture and innovation from, say, Africans and Spanish-speakers.
I moved away from the midwest to avoid this kind of weather. My everything hurts, but it’s really hard on my hands.
Dislike, would not recommend.
n
Meanwhile, we have your weather again. Currently in the upper 40s, here just south of the Adirondack state park.
Nick, is heat tape a thing in Texas? It’s a plastic tape with resistive electric wires in the middle. You normally wind it loosely around pipes and put insulation around both the pipe and the tape. Some have built-in thermostats.
@steve, yeah I’m familiar with the idea, and I think I have some somewhere, but it didn’t get stored with “plumbing” so I’m not sure where. I think it’s at my secondary site… I’m pretty sure I picked it up thinking I’d use it to bend plastic.
n
added- it’s not a thing in Texas, you don’t see it in stores anyway, like you do in cold parts of the country. No ‘ice melting’ wires for the roof either.
Funny how the bipocs and woke have to hijack stories rather than write their own.
– in mass media anyway. There is a whole sub-genre of SciFi that is female authors writing african stories. African people, african settings. And not dystopia like real life.
When teh ghey write stories it tends to be porn, like “Lawnboy”.
n
Friday Flight Cancellations Top 4,000, Disrupting Christmas Travel For Millions
Well that’s gotta suck.
n
And yet, the Wokesters wouldn’t let Kathryn Hahn portray Joan Rivers in the cancelled Netflix bio series because Hahn isn’t Jewish. The performance would have been “Jewface” was the accusation IIRC.
You are warmer than I am in East TN. The high today is 10f. Wind chill is about -10f. Eight days from now the high is supposed to be 63F.
I went outside to get the mail, in my house clothes (basically thick pajama bottoms with openings sewed shut), t-shirt and bare feet. I can report back that it is freaking cold with that wind. Sympathy for people working outdoors the next few days.
I used to spend a lot of time on the farm in sub-freezing weather. Annoying but really did not bother me. Pantyhose, levies, undershirt, light cotton shirt, heavy flannel shirt, jacket, thick socks, insulated boots, gloves, toboggan hat over the ears, stayed fairly warm if I was moving. Sitting on the tractor was miserable. Even attempts to direct the fan and radiator discharge into the seat area did not help much. That steel seat was a contributing factor.
Jenny says:
It was that cold here in San Antonio, TX! I’ve lived here in Texas for 2 years, and 40 years in northern California. But when I was in the Navy, I lived in Maine for 4 years, Kansas for 4, and I’ve spent winters in Adak AK and Keflavik, Iceland. And I grew up in Nebraska and Illinois, so I’m familiar with cold weather. Everything here is fine. The only thing frozen is the water in the stock tank for the deer; the top inch is ice. I’d purchased a birdbath heater after the Feb ‘21 freeze, but it’s too big for the birdbath, so I put it in the stock tank. The ice just above the birdbath heater is only a quarter-inch thick, so not much of an improvement.
Same old story. “Blackish” is not racist, “Whiteish” is racist. “UNCF” is not racist, “UNWF” is racist. A historically black college is to be applauded, a historically white college is to be ashamed. BET is honored, WET could never get a license. Black congressional caucus is progressive, White congressional caucus would be political suicide for any members. Society of Black engineers is inspirational, society of White engineers would be banned. The examples are numerous.
Everything should be color blind. People get rewarded for effort, intelligence and ability. Hiring should be blind. The NFL and NBA rewards based on ability (intelligence is questionable in any sport) and look at their racial mixture. Not a problem. Pick the best for the need.
I have never been a fan of the government 8A program to contract with small minority firms. Get rid of the minority part and just use small firms and I would applaud the program. Companies should not need to hire a black disabled female (who does nothing) to get priority on contracts.
SteveF:
I bought a roll of it after the ‘21 freeze, but haven’t needed it. It was on the shelf at either Lowes or Home Depot, and I can’t remember which. It’s out in the shed with the Mr Heater Buddy units and the 6 cans of Sterno. Which I ALSO haven’t needed, but it’s good to have extra stuff just in case you ever DO.
Because all the Glowbull Warmening stuff is stupid. We’re about to head into another “Dalton Minimum” period, and I expect cooler winters until 2050 at least. We can all HOPE that it isn’t a “Maunder Minimum”!
11F in North AL right now. No plumbing issues thank goodness. I do leave the master bath faucets dripping overnight, since they are last in line. The garage mini split, which I leave set at 64 in the winter, is struggling to keep the temp. Current garage temp is 60. I changed the setting to low, which is about 61 and left the ceiling fan on to help circulate more air.
I haven’t fired up the natural gas fireplace this winter yet, so I just did that. Our provider also gets their power from TVA, so wanted to make sure we had supplemental heat if rolling blackouts do happen.
TVA is demanding providers do rolling blackouts in their service area. A bunch of areas and people around me have been affected. My son in Hendersonville got tapped. I have not had any outages. I am close to businesses, and I think they are not part of the rolling blackouts.
Melted the blockage in the hot water line, and we have flowing hot water without any apparent issues. I”m going to add the missing insulation now while it’s a balmy 36F.
Heard from my buddy that it was 8F overnight at the lake… That’s pretty cold for anywhere, not just for Texas.
n
Yep, really sucks.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/snowmageddon-12500-flights-canceled-delayed-ahead-christmas/
I spent the night on a cot at Midway once.
Freak lightning strike took out all the runway and taxi lights, as I was landing. No flights in or out until daylight, and no hotel rooms to be had.
The omnibus boondoggle has passed the House. Bye, bye $1.7 trillion, we knew ye well. Redumblicans suck. Spineless scum describes most of Congress. LOL, Shot GirlTM voted no. I guess not progressive enough.
Dealt with the 2″ worth of snow at the commercial self storage place, sidewalks and entries. The plow guy did the rest. Minus 3 degrees F now, heat wave! Wind caught the snow blower discharge a couple of times, not fun.
Dressed in Kamik rubber, insulated, calf high sneakers. Double socks, cotton under wool. Fruit of the loom waffle pants, sweat pants, cargo pants. Tee shirt, quilted flannel shirt, lined hoodie, lined vest for pockets, long down coat. Gloves. Watch cap and hoods. Looked a bit like the kid in Xmas Story or the Michelin Man. 🙂 Removing gloves to operate stuff resulted in more than a bit of pain. Have to think thru a 2 layer system.
ADDED: On the way over a yellow tire icon with an exclamation point showed up on the dashboard. At the compressor from the gas station and my handheld showed 20 lbs pressure all around.
How close are you to a hospital or fire station?
Or a politically connected church?
I lived that last one in Florida, owning a house near a direct transmission line connection between the power substation in our area and the big Baptist church that always received a visit from the Republican Presidential candidate every cycle.
If the power was out for a hurricane, the outage never lasted more than 12 hours.
Had a major maintenance / prepper fail last night. Left work at 11PM per usual, had an odd coolant smell around the truck when I started it. Turns out I hadn’t checked the coolant condition and at -37 C (or -38 F) it had frozen. While thawing out (I think) it escaped out the water pump bypass. All of it. Two stops for overheat and 2 ½ gallons of water later, I was able to nurse it home. I’m hoping replacing the coolant will resolve it but there may have been enough overheat for something to break. Always something, always self inflicted.
Back in the day I knew a guy from Alaska. His family had an old Willy’s and he said they simply drained the coolant during winter – and continued using it.
So don’t despair.
Of course tolerances and clearances in the old Go Devil motors were pretty accommodative.
I drain my Willy several times a day; winter, spring, summer and fall. And it’s an old Willy.
Something I’ve found interesting – I currently live in Nebraska (near Omaha), but I’m originally from Long Island NY. Temperatures here in the winter are typically in the teens, but NY (LI) rarely gets below temperatures in the 20s and 30s. I’ve noticed that high 20s and 30s in NY feel as cold as teens here in Nebraska. Seems the humidity in the air there makes it feel just as cold as the lower temps here.
Realize that this is a rhetorical question, kids.
Why is the TV so cheap? Think carefully. Look at all of the logos in the pictures.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-24-class-f20-series-led-hd-smart-fire-tv/6491295.p?skuId=6491295
10F this morning. Cloudy and breezy.
It didn’t take Beagle Boy very long to do his business. Pee a lot on one spot, sniff over to a tree stump, mark that, sniff around a bit and deposit some processed food, wander over and mark a flower pot and “hey Buddy, ya ready to go in?” and he went directly to the door. No sniffing of cat butts or anything else. He acts dumb sometimes but (a) he knows his name and (b) he understands English.
Penny was out there somewhere barking like a fool. She came pretty quick when I whistled.
It’s about 26 now, sunny, but the wind goes right through you. No known plumbing problems. Fingers crossed. Forecast says 15F tonight. I think it will be lower if it stays clear.
We had a couple of power blinks last night. Long enough to wipe the clock on the microwave which is a very low bar. Long enough for the heat pump system to re-boot. The pellet stove didn’t have time to start shutting down. The track lights were weird. Blinking on and off. Turn them off at the dimmer and back on and they still blink. After a minute or so they were fine. Maybe it’s an LED thing but the kitchen lights are all LED and they didn’t act weird. That’s a first for me.
I think the neighbor is coming down the hill for Christmas. What to cook? I have most of the fixings for Beef Stroganoff. Need a tub of sour cream.
I have a package with several slices of a spiral cut ham in the freezer. Fry that in some bacon grease and make some au gratin taters with the Augeson potato slices.
Or make a batch of Spaghetti alla Vesuviana
Shrug. We won’t go hungry.
Yeah. My fingers feel like they are peeling ala sunburn. Looked at the t-stat and yep, it says 20% humidity.
Amazingly, the Yucs are still leading their division and a playoff run isn’t impossible.
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bucs/2022/12/23/rob-gronkowski-contacted-bucs-bored-possible-return-tom-brady/
We were up to 66 this afternoon and now 63. Projected down to 48 at 5 am and backup to 70 tomorrow afternoon.
Not calling real estate guy to sell my house and I’ll move to new york CITY!
>> Glad I only own 1 share of Disney stock.
Kids each have 10(?), probably more shares from a birthday gift years ago when you could get the colorful paper stock certificates. At least one certificate is missing from a stock split. And then there are the reinvested divided shares to sort out. A task for another day…
My credit card compromise that I noticed yesterday was part of a much larger compromise. I got an email from the CU stating:
The transaction that I noticed was for a lab, I think, in Florida. Citrus Diagnostics. What is puzzling is that the message states it was from a merchant compromise. What merchant? I have not used that card in two years. I only have a transaction once every couple of years to keep the card active. The last transaction was at Chick-fil-a in July of 2020. Did Chick-fil-a get compromised? If so, why are they keeping transactions details, such as credit card numbers, from two years ago?
Or is the email from CU generic and in reality some database somewhere has been compromised. I know that LastPass was compromised and I kept my credit card information in their system. That information is supposed to be encrypted without LastPass having the decryption key. I abandoned LastPass a couple of years ago and now use Bitwarden. I thought I deleted all my LastPass information. Did LastPass keep information that I purposely deleted?
Yes, they did. Not good. I just checked and LastPass still had all my old information. I have deleted the information, again, and changed the password on the account. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse has fled. I am also changing my Bitwarden password.
This may explain why I got a notice from Microsoft that someone was trying to log into my account. The 2FA notice I got I denied so the person could not get into the account.
Why is the TV so cheap?
–well it IS only 24″, but the answer is the same as why the “smart TVs” at costco are so cheap… subsidies from the data collectors.
Remember kids, if the service is free, you are the product.
That is why my tv, and my client’s tvs are not connected to the network.
n
Dilbert questions his investment in the Dogbert Crypto Exchange
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-12-23
>> Eagles have some premium for easy provenance, but not a lot since they are not portable wealth like a Maple Leaf or a Krugerrand and subject to customs duties.
Maple Leaf? Walmart of course (third-party seller though)
or
Maple Syrup? Costco (maybe not Canadian though)
That is why my tv, and my client’s tvs are not connected to the network.
Not to sound too paranoid:
Are you SURE they aren’t connected?
I ran across Verizon’s pricing for cell transceivers a while back. In bulk they were in the 1’s of dollars AIRC. And the data charges were minimal, again in the 1’s of dollars per month, tho maybe still too high. But I bet the FANG style big boys get a better rate.
Also the newer HDMI spec is 2-way. Are the devices you connect to also isolated? ( Roku, AppleTV, bluRay player, etc) And the devices that THEY connect to?
>> It isn’t a terrible to idea to have some stashed has a hedge, but gold isn’t a normal investment.
Just be aware of what you can and can’t do with gold. And don’t buy GLD thinking it is the same as having physical possession.
When I have a few bucks to stash I pick up what I can in ‘junk’ (well-worn circulated) US silver dimes or quarters.
Happy Festivus
The holiday for the rest of us.
Let the airing of grievances begin…
https://images.app.goo.gl/XwyGFTZ9AdPnfv8W6
Dropped my sibling’s Christmas presents at the Post Office. Came home and wrapped the pipes on the water heater. Breaker was popped, so I set the space heater to “low” and unplugged the bare bulb. Reset the wind shield. Reset the breaker.
Mom has been cleaning my house. Aye.
Got a hot shower, I’m feeling good.
Dinner is almost ready.
n
Hmm…who might this be?
Work in Progress Or Piece Of Work?
Amazon Fire devices like the discount Best Buy TV get on the network regardless of whether you configure WiFi or not. Before a few years ago, you needed nearby neighbors with an Amazon device, but 5G has services which operate in the unlicensed spectrum so anything with a 2.4 GHz transponder can theoretically “phone home” provided the manufacturer has a MVNO deal with one of the big three carriers.
Try to find a TV for sale in the US this Christmas *without* a 2.4 GHz transponder.
It’s our fault now…
Yes Karine, There is a Border and It is Wide Open
Netflix has “Knives Out: Glass Onion” streaming now.
If you aren’t a NFLX stock holder, it is entertaining if watched cold.
“Happy Shwanza” ???
Really? Been nipping at the eggnog punch again, huh?
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pelosi-mocked-wishing-americans-happy-shwanza-during-final-speech-house-speaker
They’ve been flocking to the border since the moment word went out that El Diablo Naranja was shown the door, in expectation that Title 42 would be revoked as promised by Abuelo Senil during the campaign.
The underlying motive, however, is commonly held belief that the next Ted Kennedy Memorial Amnesty Bill will have a provision allowing anyone to stay who could document having been in the country for at least X years, just like the amnesty in the 80s.
GlitterBomb 5.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWeu2dxHRDg
Thieves viewpoint: “It’s a scam”!”
ADDED: oh, the temptation to do it right: mixed acids (thin Alien, right through the decks), dyes, aromatics far beyond fart spray
I was told ca. 1978 that TI would sell their digital watch platform for $1 each in lots of $1MM or more.
Haven’t looked. Any disabling videos on YouTube?
Seems to me that any device with a microphone and an unauthorized wireless link has the strong potential to be considered a listening device and open the offender to class-action litigation.
No, let me guess: the ultimate destination is sanitized through a couple of OUS cut-outs.
Paul’s once-a-year Christmas present of the Viagra cocktail?
If you need a belated Xmas gift for your ‘better half’ (still time though ’til Boxing Day.)
https://alexoathletica.com/about/
(No connection, just happened across the site…and no, the models aren’t included.)
>> Paul’s once-a-year Christmas present of the Viagra cocktail?
According to a friend, she’s got the wrong chromosomes for Paul’s interests.
>> I moved away from the midwest to avoid this kind of weather. My everything hurts, but it’s really hard on my hands.
@nick, hypothetical question, all personal constraints aside (family, friends, schools, work, etc.) where would you move to to escape the Houston climate? Somewhere within the 50 states? Abroad? Or stay put and be happy with what you’ve got?
Not sure if Cliff was the first, but he used flying houses in The Werewolf Principle. Just relocate whenever you want.
I’d need a flying garage and a couple of other buildings… Probably simpler to wish for a spindizzy.
oh, maaaannnn…
https://twitter.com/TheFigen_/status/1604445671725174784
I guess it’s a little far for Triple A…
https://www.sciencealert.com/soyuz-leak-forces-russias-space-agency-to-consider-a-rescue-mission
>> Friday Flight Cancellations Top 4,000, Disrupting Christmas Travel For Millions
Well that’s gotta suck.
Thankfully, Tony’s jet was last seen in sunny California (h/t to @ElonJet)
Book recommendation: The Machiavellians by James Burnham
Summary of the writings of five “Machiavellian” (meaning “realist”) political theorists, plus one non-Machiavellian.
https://www.dailypundit.com/dailypundit.wordpress/2022/12/23/book-recommendation-the-machiavellians/
https://coldfury.com/2022/12/23/book-recommendation-the-machiavellians/
Last week (Dec 12, 2022 at 17:30) Paul linked to a Microsoft site that told how to create a Recovery Drive/USB.
I decided I hadn’t done that, so why not …I didn’t have a large enough free USB Stick so I used a pair of Memory Cards plugged into an external card reader and created Recovery files for my desktop, Windows Pro 10, and laptop, Windows Pro 11, systems. I also backup all of the files on OneDrive a to third Memory Card.
Last weekend I tried to install porch cameras and locked up my desktop system. It no longer boots.
I thought the Recovery files I had just created would make it easy to fix my system. But I was very mistaken. The Desktop will boot into the EFI display and even directly into the boot options menu. Both will let me drill down to the Memory Card reader and set it as the boot device. However, Windows will not boot from the files on the card.
I tried to make an ISO DVD but the total file size exceeds the DVD storage limits, so I’ve ordered a couple of large USB sticks that will get here in late next week. (Amazon is always slow the week after Christmas.) I wonder what else I should do.
APMEX, the third party, is a long established online precious metal dealer. Both Maple Leafs (Leaves?) and Eagles are marked $50 face value of their respective currencies, for customs purposes in the USA. Might have to spend some time in a little room to make that point, tho.
The utility of junk silver beyond wide recognizability is the relative small value per piece, for minor if high priority purchases. Comes the day. Gold, OTOH, has the virtue or the liability of concentrating a great deal of wealth in a small volume.
The guy who figures out development of a card/app that allows spending/transferring mils of gold/silver over an encrypted blockchain will give Elon a run for all the marbles. 🙂
Most DVD writers made in the last 10-15 years will handle writing the 9 GB +DL blanks.
I bought my last box of +DL discs at Office Depot … on closeout, unfortunately. You might get lucky where you live, however.
You might also try Unetbootin to create the bootable USB, but I have no experience using that with Windows. Also, depending on the age of the PC, you may have to graft on 32 bit EFI support files borrowed from a Debian install, which is not hard but takes a bit of practice.
Texas has a bullion depository which is an agency of the state government. It isn’t exactly what you are looking for, but it is a step in that direction.
https://www.texasbulliondepository.gov/
From what I understand, TAMU has a physical gold reserve larger than many countries, and one of the reasons behind passing the law establishing the depository was to repatriate all of the reserve into the state from New York. I don’t know if that goal has been achieved.
Eagles are a manufactured product, an alloy of 1 oz. gold with some other metals, which make them subject to customs duties when taking them to other countries but virtually impossible to fake. Maple Leaf coins are .999 pure, like Krugerands, so they are treated as money crossing borders.
“As the region faces another cold night, energy companies ask Texans to conserve power right now”
https://spacecityweather.com/as-the-region-faces-another-cold-night-energy-companies-ask-texans-to-conserve-power-right-now/
“Matt and I have been watching the ERCOT supply and demand tracker all day, and it seems that the agency’s estimates for power demand have been consistently low. Understanding the ins and outs of this predictive tool are beyond the scope of a meteorology site, but the Texas Tribune has a helpful story on the issue. The bottom line is that, as of 7 pm CT, ERCOT predicts that it will have enough energy capacity to meet demands tonight. But things are going to be cut really close from now until 10 pm or so.”
ERCOT set a new winter peak this morning of 75,000 MW with around 6,000 MW to spare. Saturday will not be as much. But the production of the wind has dropped from 25,000 MW to 3,000 MW so ERCOT will be tight in the morning.
Every single wind turbine MW has to be backed up with a gas turbine MW. It is that bad. The crazy people think that they can install batteries to back up the wind turbines. They are wrong.
And those gas turbines have got to have a week of liquid fuel on site. A hundred thousand gallons of diesel is a good start.
We had an exciting time tonight. My brother-in-law fell down when he got up from a chair in the living room to go to the restroom. We could not get him up so my wife called 911. My BOL is a big guy, 6’5″ and 250+ lbs, 67, and has Lewy Body Dementia and Alzhemiers. The EMS showed with a Pumper and got him up in less than a minute with a three man lift. They waited around for him to go to the restroom, got his name, and left with our thanks.
It is my fondest wish that most politicians do nothing. This crew has me wishing especially hard.
Tasty dinner.
Never heard back from my renters about any water shooting out from under the house, so I’m assuming we dodged a bullet there. If we get thru tonight I’ll be happy.
Currently 26F and falling, slowly, but forecast for tonight isn’t supposed to get much lower.
n
If I could live anywhere and social and political realities were not what they are, San Diego California. best weather in the country. Really nice place to live, stuff to do for any interest.
Of course it’s in occupied territory now, and it’s been 19 years since I left, and even then I had to work on the road to afford to live there between gigs.
I spent some time looking into New Zealand, but the LOTR movies changed that to something un-doable.
Texas and Florida are about it at the moment. You can get a bit further north, but not much.
Factoring in politics, gun rights, taxes, cost of living and active economies and there are few choices outside of Tx or Fla. There are small areas, and some smaller states with pocket of thriving economy, but … Texas has been very good to us.
I’d like a bit less humidity, a bit less heat in summer, and truthfully winters are pretty mild this far south despite recent events. I think we’re probably headed into a long cooling trend overall, so we’re likely to get some of what I want, if we live long enough.
n
>> Try to find a TV for sale in the US this Christmas *without* a 2.4 GHz transponder.
@Greg, how do you check for one?
But he’s The Real Life Tony Stark!
Summer 2024 is when it all gets real in Texas. We’re just getting a small taste now.
It could be worse. The inlaws are all up there visiting the wife’s nephew at Fort Campbell, KY this week. After knowingly driving into blizzard condtitions from Florida yesterday, they spent today snowed in at the nephew’s house, just across the TN state line, enduring TVA-ordered rolling blackouts and opening the gifts early to relieve the monotony.
I’ve been playing “The Last Train to Clarksville” on and off today while working. It took my wife a while to realize the significance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcXpKiY2MXE
“Doesn’t the singer think he’s going off to die in Vietnam?”
“Oh, I’ll bet they wish they would freeze to death right about now.”
Me? I would have taken one look at the forecast and either cancelled or stopped in the Nashville suburbs at a hotel within walking distance of a Cracker Barrel.
Of course, in TN, everything seems to be within walking distance of a Cracker Barrel. 🙂
Temp is still 26F. Ran hot water in the kitchen (nearest to heater) and the master bath (farthest from heater) long enough to warm up the stud cavity.
Headed to bed soon.
I’m wondering what the AV guys are installing in secure facilities for big screen monitors these days. We used to have to cut out the IR ports from the plasma tvs because of potential ‘side channel’ information leakage or use as an ex-fil route for stolen files. All the new tvs have wifi, ethernet, IR, some have bluetooth for remotes, etc. Most have microphones, and USB ports, some have serial ports. As Greg points out, how can you be sure you don’t have a network connection if all the ports, radios, and cards are there in a little computer when you have no idea what is running on it?
I bet there are only a few models specifically sold as ‘monitors’ or ‘displays’ that have been examined, sandboxed, snooped, and qualified for secure environments. Probably Planar… and certainly not cheap.
n
Any TV with WiFi built into the set will have that transponder capability.
Just a quick update; since the temperature moderated to a sprightly -23C (-9.4F) today, I was able to get the engine to defrost and get enough coolant into the mix to run at normal operating temperature. Today’s purchase at work was enough concentrated coolant and deionized water to mix it down to handle -60 (ish). That’s tomorrow morning’s project.
Glad I only own 1 share of Disney stock.
You own more than me.
The upside of flat screens is that they are not very hard to manufacture, and the equipment used to come from Applied Materials. Probably still does.
We have an Applied Materials facility not far from the house that no one talks about, part of a cluster of light manufacturing facilities down a dead end road, which is separate from the big splashy presence out on 290 east of town.
I’ve never been curious enough to drive out there to take a look.
Temp is still 26F. Ran hot water in the kitchen (nearest to heater) and the master bath (farthest from heater) long enough to warm up the stud cavity.
24 F out here in the sticks at 2 am. No problems here at the house or the office. I did have to turn the breaker off on the septic tank compressor last night as it was making a horrible whine when the temperature dropped below 20 F. Turned it back on at 1pm when I got up, was just fine.
My daughter stole my new Eddie Bauer down jacket this morning to get her blood tested. I am going to buy her one too. I love my new EB jacket in this weather. Looks like I will be using it a lot this winter.
I’ve never been curious enough to drive out there to take a look.
Don’t take a picture whatever you do.
“The Christmas Cat” by Sarah A. Hoyt
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/12/23/the-christmas-cat/
“It was Chrismas eve, and he was alone.”
Glad I only own 1 share of Disney stock.
You own more than me.
– someone mentioned owning shares because of the very pretty engraved paper share… which is what I have. A friend gave us one share for our wedding gift, very nicely framed for display. I think there was a company that would do that for you. It’s on the wall of my office.
And now I am going to bed. Shouldn’t have had the Dr Pepper after 5pm….
n