Cool and damp but not raining… if my gut and the forecast can be believed. If not, well it will be a damp dreary day. It started to get colder last night, and temps fell until after midnight.
I did get some of my list of things done. Never did find the ebay item, so I had to cancel the order. I hate that. I am going to stop all my listings and only relist the stuff I’ve seen with my own eyes in the new year. I’ve had too many cancellations. If I make a resolution this year it will be to renew focus on selling. I can’t just do auctions, as the ‘long tail’ and global reach of ebay make all the difference for some items. Prices are higher too, commensurate with the increased work and hassle involved. Much of what I have in storage will really only sell on ebay, so I need to get back to it.
Not sure what today will bring. I intend to sleep late. Then I’ll do some things. Maybe I’ll cook. We certainly need to figure out what we’re eating for dinner. We will probably have a bigger, more elaborate meal tomorrow, even though it’s just us here for the holiday. It’s nice to mark the beginning of the new year with a bit of ritual.
Rituals, traditions, shared experiences, stories. These are the ways we pass on our culture. It’s critical that we do.
Stack up some good times. And eat some of the things 😉
nick
Using the time zone advantage to wish you all a peaceful and prosperous New Year. Health, wealth and happiness in 2023!
We will spend the evening of St. Silvester with friends who love to cook, so we are bringing salad, baguette, cheese and Port to round out the table, plus fireworks to chase away the evil spirits of the year past, and bubbly to chime in a scintillating new year.
Thank you, Barbara and Nick for another year of the best forum on the planet! Please keep it up.
B&N never lost their monopoly on textbooks at a lot of colleges/universities, and the mainstream stores are competitive on prices. Plus manga is huge right now with the big American comic book publishers still not having learned the lesson of “Get Woke Go Broke”.
Our local B&N has a huge manga section, the only alternatives being creepy indie stores or Kinokuniya, which still doesn’t have a decent grasp on American retail.
Amazon stores tried to be Target-owned B. Dalton but failed miserably because they didn’t understand the “masses” aspect of mass market. In theory, the selection was only best sellers and a carefully curated selection of highly rated titles, but I can’t believe carrying Mayor Pete’s husband’s autobiography on the shelves for months is anything but payola.
When we went and did the tourist thing at the Lyndon Johnson ranch this week, among the posters in the airplane hangar where the President hosted movie nights was a half sheet for “True Grit” featuring Kim Darby prominently, just across from a picture of Obama on a civil rights timeline.
I don’t know if that placement is accidental or deliberate. The Buttgag (sp?) resemblence to Darby is strong enough to make me wonder if the staff was making a statement.
Of course, me being an X-er, I always associate Darby’s name with “Better Off Dead”. The running joke at our house is that Mayor Pete’s laughably fake public persona is “real aardvark”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8MYNytmaI0
Correct. We have the IRS funded by $billions and can’t even do their job. The 87,000 extra workers will fix that. Sure. They are going after the middle class with a vengeance.
Quoted for Truth.
Just highlight the text and select “Plain Text” from the dropdown instead of quoting it.
I missed the ugly troll posts yesterday.
Many thanks to “The Hammers of Bob” for that.
ABC was running a bit of what I presume is the Barbara Walters special. Her talking about how she structured interviews, then showing numerous examples where she repeated the same question to 5-6 people.
She evidently had the questions on 3×5 cards, and someone made a flip remark about wishing they could get their hands on those cards.
Brain dead they all are.
Brady’s backup in Tampa.
https://www.fox13news.com/news/tampa-bay-bucs-blaine-gabbert-helps-rescue-passengers-after-helicopter-crash-near-davis-islands
Amazingly, the Yucs can win the division tomorrow at home in Raymond James.
Anyone with allergy issues, myself included, had to buy their own soap to use in the restrooms at The Death Star, but the facility was a leftover building from IBM’s multi decade writeoff in Tampa so who knows where the original purchasing decision was made.
Yes, let’s send more $billions to Ukraine:
Zelensky Signs Controversial News Media Regulation
Attention Redumblicans/Dumbocrats you signed up for this.
Happening daily until 1/30.
57F and saturated this am, but not actually raining. So I called it so far.
I have been informed we might have a couple extra 13yo friends for an overnight tonight… I’ll be hiding in my office if so.
New Year’s Eve is always a bit stressful for me until after the ball drops. I can’t help thinking about someone walking a few mortar rounds into Time’s Square, mixing a couple hundred gallons of household chemicals, or just throwing a couple of buckets of gasoline followed by road flares off a rooftop or two. I can’t really relax until I see that it hasn’t happened this year.
But I guess that’s just me.
@denis, thanks for the good wishes, it sounds like you will have a lovely evening. Good food and good friends.
Now I’m off to make some waffles. Been a while since I had a plate of sugar and wheat for breakfast. I do love it even if it’s bad for me.
n
MicroCenter has 3d printers, laser engravers, and mini-CNC routers on sale.. along with supplies… all kinds of maker stuff.
no easy way to link to the same stuff featured in their email though.
This is nuts, $700 for a 10w laser engraver. I guess when you strip away all the safety features, it’s cheaper….
ORTUR Laser Master 3 10W Laser Engraver Air Assist Nozzle; Automatic Leveling; Compressed Spot Laser Cutter: 400 x 400mm Print Size
n
There are days when OFD’s absence is more strongly felt…
n
Another day, another start of a new year. I will be in bed by 11:15 after the weather guessers on the local news. After 71 years a new year is nothing special. Tomorrow, I will work some more on my taxes as the CU will have posted the interest payments.
Like the Trumpster, I pay very little in taxes. In fact, for three years, I paid nothing. Yes, I use every legal method possible to avoid paying taxes. As should every taxpayer. I get a large refund because the distribution from my 401K will not allow withholding of less than 20%. Thus, I am required to give an interest free loan to the IRS every year.
After 71 years a new year is nothing special.
– after 71 years, just getting up in the morning should feel special!
n
The former Hitler Youth and actual Pope by the rules of the Church.
OFD would point out that this greatly complicates the ongoing fraud in The Vatican, especially since the current fake Pope is entertaining a similar resignation of his own.
Where are the assassins?
I want to pay over $100k in federal income tax, while doing all legal things to avoid paying more. Imagine how much income that would take!
72 in 6 weeks.
I see many people younger than I who are doing much worse. I feel fortunate. No major health issues. Although the day is young.
No one is stopping you from paying that amount. The IRS does accept donations. But such money is not tax deductible as the IRS is not a valid charity. If one over pays their tax bill the IRS will not inform the taxpayer or offer a refund. A person has to file a return to get the money. If a person owes the IRS will go after the person with much zeal.
Not as much as you would imagine, especially if the income is 1099 based and the individual has to pay the full ride Social Security/Medicare tax rather than just the employee share.
Live in a state like CA or NY, where the SALT is still capped at $10k despite the Dems promises to repeal, and 50%+ taxation happens real fast.
Regarding the differing visual style of block quotes:
In the comment editor, the ‘double quote’ icon is used to specify block quotes. Normal operation is to type/paste the text, then highlight and click the double-quote icon. That will format the text as block quote.
There is another set of icons – the open/close bracket (next to last icon on the editor bar) that is used for the ‘code’ HTML tag. That is what changes the font to a fixed-space font.
Both the block quote and code HTML will result in a left colored border, a colored background, and an indent of that block of text. (Samples below.) Differences in border color/background/indent size.
So, I suspect those that have a fixed-space font indented in their comments are using the ‘code’ (double-bracket button), rather than using the more normal ‘double-quote’ block quote button. If you mouse-hover over the icons, you can see the ‘name’ of each formatting icon – ‘block quote’ or ‘code’.
This is a code block, using the code button.Conclusion: purposeful or accidental operator error.
It’s up to 80F in the sun, and there is some sun!
Got the rest of the ribeye roast divided and vac sealed. Made waffles for breakfast. Got the chuck roast browned and in the slow cooker with veg for tonight’s dinner.
Maybe I should get dressed?
n
71℉ and Sunny by the SA Airport.
Well I hope a good 2023 to everyone here.
be safe
thanks
I don’t even have to highlight the text. I just put the cursor in the line and click the desired icon. Takes care of the entire line(s).
Purposeful. Anything to be weird (leave it alone SteveF).
Does anybody here have experience with a tooth implant?
I have a root canal molar that gives me trouble with infections. My dentist thinks the best bet is an implant rather than a bridge since I have one near the molar.
My (I guess most) insurance doesn’t cover an implant. They pay for a bridge, though. Tooth extraction, X-rays and the final crown would be covered.
Be sure to discuss post-implant tooth care with your dentist.
I had to get a night guard custom made to protect the implant because I grind my teeth, and the implant is different from regular teeth. Regular teeth have ligaments, and move slightly in response to the grinding. The implant is fixed in place into bone.
I can’t seem to get used to the night guard. It seems strange to try to sleep with it in my mouth, and you have to care for the guard the way you care for dentures.
I often mention paying $100k in income taxes because of a book I read in the 1970s. Can’t remember its name, but the author used Standard Oil of New Jersey as an example of favorable corporate income tax rules and very generous deductions and subsidies. It was said that the company paid less than $100k in at least one year in the 1960s. Its income that year was a LOT, but of course I can’t remember that either. Just tried to find this on the web, but nothing I found went back that far. Sorry for no reference, but there are other examples I have read about. None of this applies to an individual filer.
It gets better. My first CPA said he had a few clients who paid more than that amount. He gave me an example of a scenario where an individual could make a large amount and pay less than $100k. There were some things I couldn’t or wouldn’t do. In later years, I have done some of those things, and they can work. They are also a subsidy for a sharp tax accountant, because of their complexity and the near constant changes to the rules.
Even us little guys can do well at reasonable risk and keep a clean conscience. It mostly involves debt and leverage, and very few people have the stomach for that. There is a way that works for me, however. It is to simply try some of these things using a small amount of capital that I could afford to lose. I like to say I have some great percentage gains on small investments. That’s good, but not very flashy; I do sleep well. I also managed to make my biggest single loss on a real estate deal that would have looked very safe to many people. Taught me a lesson: anything can fail, so have a tolerance for that. I haven’t missed a meal.
One of the easiest ways to reduce taxes is to defer gains. A lot of these techniques have been ruled out over the years, but there are still some. A problem is that many of these schemes involve passing wealth through an estate. This can be great for the heirs, but not so much for the benefactor. At least some of us would like to go out in a blaze of glory. For me, that might be a simple thing like eating a hot dog at a baseball game on a nice day. 🙂 Have you checked the ticket prices lately? 🙁
When my employment situation changed, I suddenly had a year where I paid more in fedgov tax than I had MADE 2 years previous. That was an eye opener.
n
Haha! /muntz voice
Why an over-sized suit is the new royal must-have! Princess of Wales and Meghan Markle are ditching slim fit for the trendy silhouette which ‘keeps them relevant’, expert reveals
if what you’re wearing is what “keeps them relevant” then they aren’t.
If dressing like a man is what a woman needs for relevance, then she isn’t.
n
WRT taxes, I’ve been using a CPA and Enrolled Agent for a couple decades. It’s well worth the (relatively small) expense. And using the same one (or at least the same couple in the office) so there is continuity of strategy and treatment.
getting your taxes right is deadly serious business, just ask Al Capone.
n
I have an implant, one of my top front teeth. Busted playing racquetball, capped, broken, capped, broken, and finally replaced with an implant. Insurance will pay for the surgery to install the implant for the base, pay for the follow up to open the gum to install the post. That is considered surgery and is covered. Insurance will not pay for the tooth removal as that is dental nor the actual tooth that goes over the implant post as that is considered cosmetic.
The process is rather involved and takes several months.
First the offending tooth is extracted, and some sort of temporary appliance installed. That is dental, not covered by insurance.
Several months later as the gum has healed and bone has replaced the opening under the gum the next process starts. The gum is opened, and a hole drilled in the bone. The implant base is installed, and the gum sewed shut. Covered by insurance.
Several months later after the gum has healed and bone has grown around the implant base, the gum is again opened and the implant post installed. The gum is sewn shut around the post and left to heal. Covered by insurance. A temporary appliance is created, not covered by insurance as it is cosmetic.
After a few months the temporary appliance is removed, and the permanent appliance is installed. That is not covered by insurance.
At least that is how it went with my implant about 20 years ago. Things may have, well probably, changed.
The removal of the tooth is not uncomfortable. The drilling of the bone under the gum is annoying as a big drill is used and it rumbles. There is no pain involved. Installing the post is trivial, no pain. The most painful part is installing the main shaft to support the tooth. That has to be torqued to a specific tightness and it feels like the bone is going to break.
As stated, that was 20 years ago. Techniques and technology are certainly better today. Based on those places that advertise replacing all a persons teeth in a day.
I think the tooth is removed and the base put in at the same time these days. That has to heal and then the next step is an abutment, heal, and the final tooth. I know the jaw has to be evaluated to see if the base will take. There are bone grafts and other things that can be done.
Thanks everybody.
A long game is being played by the handlers of that family and has been running for 50 years.
The wild card is King Chuckles. I have to wonder if his father ever used him as a wastepaper basket.
(Monty Python reference)
I’ve been ripping some DVDs using a Pioneer BDR-XS07S I’ve had for a while. It writes at 6X. I thought I’d try a newer Verbatim drive, but it won’t work on any of our M1 Macs. I just dropped it off at The UPS Store and got my money back. I ordered another Pioneer that can write at 8X to see how it works. I want to try some M-Disc archiving which both of the Pioneers are supposed to support.
My implant wasn’t 20 years ago, it was 2 years. I concur with @Ray on the process though, with a couple of further points.
* Keeping my posts family-friendly is remarkably difficult and unnatural. Just sayin’. You may remember I used “goldarnit” recently.
I have had two implants over the last few years – mainly to do with the fact they are upper front facing and my vanity. The timing and process will vary I am sure by practitioner. I believe my practitioner adopts a cautious (lengthy) approach (extended healing). The last, starting over a year ago was replacing a capped canine. Because of the undercut, the pressures were forward from the undercut lower teeth, which meant an number of failed caps, pushed out forward. I then decided to have an implant (having had a simpler one about 18 months preceding, which has been without any issues).
The root/tooth extraction was straight forward. The dentist then ‘filled’ the space with some substance (pig related I think) which promotes bone growth (to provide a more substantial bone base for the implant). This was left in place for over 4 months, following which the jaw was drilled and the implant put in place, with a small ‘cap’ visible in situ. This was then left in place for over 4 months (longer actually because I went on extended holidays) after which a mould was taken to create the implant cap, which was installed a couple of weeks later.
Given the location and forces impacting on the canine I was happy to take a the long multi step healing route to provide the implant and after about 3 months am still happy with both my original implant and the new one.
Wife’s computer died Christmas day. HP laptop, about 3 years old, used daily. Booted OK, but white screen of death shortly after logging in.
Tried all sorts of repairs – safe mode, repair mode, etc, to no avail. So, got her a new HP 15″ laptop with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD drive. (This one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X8B9FD6?ie=UTF8&th=1&linkCode=sl1&linkId=359d142f64aa37e9df78c7ec5e3070e6&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&tag=ttgnet-20 – got it for $649, now $709.) Arrived Thursday.
Setup was easy, updates were installed. Took the old laptop apart to dig out the hard drive, and connected it via an USB adapter (similar to this https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Drive-Cable-Power-Supply/dp/B08HQQNSZN?crid=2F2VKNJ8XJCPF&keywords=sata%2Busb%2Badapter%2Bpowered&qid=1672528584&sprefix=sata%2Busb%2Badapter%2Bpowered%2Caps%2C415&sr=8-8&th=1&linkCode=sl1&linkId=afe11be3c0af473f3aa9daebad6bed6e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&tag=ttgnet-20 ) and transferred the user files to the new computer overnight (lots of files).
She’s happy with the new laptop. Next step is to repair the old one by a ‘factory reimage’. If that doesn’t work, have a few extra 1TB external drives that can be repurposed.
BTW, 49 years ago tonight we met at a New Years Eve dance. Married 47 years. Still like each other.
Thanks!
Just got a package from amazon, 10 @ cr1620 batteries- So about three ounces in two strips the size of dollar bills. Came in a cardboard box larger than a shoebox, stuffed with air filled packing pillows.
The other one was for a Pelican 1920, about the size of a cigar, in a box almost as big.
Last watch batteries I ordered came in a padded envelope. Jeez.
n
“If it saves just one life…”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11588801/British-yoga-teacher-Amor-Armitage-tells-brush-death.html
-so the clot shot has saved one life.
n
(I had a classmate in college get hit by a prop while diving. Lost his leg above the knee. He had just completed the PADI open water self rescue class and used his regulator hose as a tourniquet.)
We’re seeing Peak Amazon this Christmas.
I suspect lazy Zon shipping workers, who just grab the nearest box and don’t worry about whether it is an appropriate size. I suspect that Zon has processes in place to specify the container used, but no process that ensures proper box usage.
We get lots of packages from Zon here – and they are usually properly sized for the content.
Looks nice, very nice. And it does BluRay.
But for the price, and as much as I use the DVD drive for anything, pulling the DVD drive from my old PC and buying this is what I did: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0758RP5V8?tag=ttgnet-20 Oh wait, I bought that gizmo when I swapped the spinning rust out of all of the PCs for SSDs a few years ago.
I bought a Sony BluRay player when I bought the 55″ Vizio, uh, about eleven years ago. I might have all of four BluRay discs and I didn’t buy Avatar. The picture /is/ a bit nicer than plain old DVD but not enough for the extra cost to my eyes.
I don’t need a BluRay burner yet. I still have a couple of hundred each of CD-R and DVD + and – plus a small pile of double layer DVD whatevers. + or – or whatever.
Ripping DVDs to what?
Does anybody here have experience with a tooth implant?
I have a root canal molar that gives me trouble with infections. My dentist thinks the best bet is an implant rather than a bridge since I have one near the molar.
My (I guess most) insurance doesn’t cover an implant. They pay for a bridge, though. Tooth extraction, X-rays and the final crown would be covered.
My wife has an implant molar installed over a decade ago. It took over a year to prepare her jaw properly for the post. Her jaw only a half inch thick, the surgeon had to increase the depth to an inch to keep the post from being exposed and causing phantom pain. He told her this why so many foreign implants fail.
We paid $7,000 out of pocket.
I have a few things coming from Big River today. It’s 6:30 pushing 7PM and tracking says “out for delivery”. It’s pitch black outside. Like “walk into trees” dark.
Which is fine. They’ll probably toss my stuff over the fence at the property line because that’s where their stupid GPS thing says my front door is. Ain’t a house in sight but by golly, “delivered to Front Porch” is what they usually say.
I’ll go get the stuff tomorrow. If the dogs want to walk up the driveway. Or Monday if I feel like driving the mile to the mailbox.
Forecast says 80F and Sunny tomorrow. Nice way to start the year.
I think I’ll toss some fajitas on the grill.
I got the tag renewal for the Highlander. $5.25 for the year. The truck tag never expires and costs me nothing. Eat your heart out California.
“Rearranging Titanic Deck Chairs” Published by Divemedic
https://areaocho.com/rearranging-titanic-deck-chairs/
“Effective tonight at midnight, we all have to wear a new scrub color. These scrubs have to be embroidered with the logo of the hospital and your job title “Nurse,” or “Doctor,” or what have you. We have to buy them from one approved vendor. That vendor is owned by the wife of one of the administrators. I am not sure how that is legal, but there it is. ”
Wow, I no idea that the nursing world was so crazy. I would move on also to another hospital.
@Nick
That reminded me that i needed to order a 3410M. Out of stock everywhere.
What batteries are you using?
My Mom’s van, which is also in my name, has Purple Heart plates. Like, $10.50 a year versus $75 and change each for the Jeep and the pickup.
I have no guilt about keeping the PH tags. The old man had a couple of PH medals and after ‘Nam, well, it wasn’t called PTSD or whatever then, it was beat your oldest son with a belt for random reasons.
Coming up from the RGV the folks at the border patrol check point just wave it through.
Doesn’t TN have property taxes on vehicles like some of the neighboring states?
Based on what I saw in Memphis and Nashville, you seem to have quite an infestation of Californians developing up there.
To my Mac Mini TV app. I stream to all my TVs/PCs from that. All the files are on a 12T G-Drive Pro external Thunderbolt drive.
Big River showed up at 7:45PM. Nice guy.
Some neighbors are setting off bombs. Err, sure ain’t Black Cats anyway. Penny is acting like “old dog with bad hearing” and is not happy. She’s not the first. Buddy the Beagle is whatever, do I get a cookie? Are we going to bed yet?
Sounds like a plan to me.
Happy New Year to All.
@drwilliams, I normally use eneloops in it. When I’m going out of town I change to kirkland brand disposables. They can’t supply the juice fast enough, and it fades out prematurely, but will come back if you wait. I don’t usually just turn it on and run it though so it’s usually not an issues.
The eneloops work well.
BTW, the new one is a little less “blue” of a white. Brightness looks the same. The 1920b gen 2 is I guess what I technically got this time. It has bright on the first push, dim on the second and off. No strobe or nonsense. BRIGHT when you hit the button.
I like the feel of it in my hand and it fits my pocket well.
n
“Big Tech Insiders Pushing Modular NUCLEAR Reactors for Data Centers”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/31/reliable-power-for-me-but-not-for-thee-big-tech-insiders-pushing-modular-nuclear-reactors-for-data-centers/
“As green energy policies pushed by big tech destabilise the public grid, tech industry insiders are pushing onsite miniature nuclear reactors to insulate their businesses from blackouts.”
As the USA moves further and further being a third world country with unreliable energy grids, businesses will start to install private generators. I don’t blame them at all, I am contemplating installing a 48 kW generator at my office building.
Ok. So ripped to mp4 format?
I see the appeal of ripping the DVDs to a hard drive. I do. File sharing for sure. But how often does any one movie get watched that makes it worth the effort? Stuffing a disc into a DVD drive is pretty easy.
I mean, ripping movie DVDs isn’t the same as ripping music CDs.
Best episode of “The Simpsons” ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V12ZAZ4Jn8Q
No, just registration. It is normally $29.00 a year but the state dropped their fee for one year. All I am paying is the county portion.
I have no guilt for my DV plates. Primary use is to avoid parking fees at state, county, or city owned parking facilities. One of the doctor’s my wife and I use is at the UT hospital. The hospital charges for parking. My wife was there for just one hour and the fee was $5.00.
Much to the delight of current democratic legislators. Who would really like to see themselves as lords over the common man, immune from their own laws and rules.
@paul, on of the reasons I ripped them to the server was to get the discs out of the living room. 1200 discs takes up a bit of space and is the very definition of “clutter” according to W1…
It’s not any harder to rip the DVDs than CDs of music, except that the auto naming works very poorly with series.
The quality is a bit reduced, but looks fine for normal viewing even on my 70″ with good upscaling. You do see gradient banding in darker scenes. I probably could have picked a different target size and got better encoding. Good enough.
Like I found with the CDs, having it easily accessible thru an interface on the TV (Roku Media Player) makes it more likely I’ll watch something.
n
From one of my enewsletters…
1 in 4. Avoid.
n
Times ain’t tough? They’re stealing FOOD.
Gauging by the hundreds / thousands of bombs going off within a quarter mile away, people have an incredible amount of disposable income. And it is over an hour away from midnight at which point they will go nuts. I am so glad for my triple pane windows with the laminate inserts to cut the noise.
I’m getting occasional bursts of banging. Not much. Not much obvious gunfire either.
n
Oh, and I have two extra 13yo girls in the house…. makeup and hairdye are flowing like water.
Honest to God, I just heard Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus sing “I Love Rock and Roll”.
I promise I’m not drunk or stoned. Yet.
Dude, sat down for 20 minutes. Wife has the CBS station on, and they are showing the celebration at some place in Nashville.
So far, 3 ads with glaring interracial couples. Ad for obabmmacare, ad for covid home test, ad for new diabeetus med. The weirdest was three different ads featuring indians, dot not feather.
The rest of the ads were for shows on tv and cable. Oh, and one ad about ads and some sort of local ad network.
The ‘talent’ so far has been one country chick, two country dudes, and SHERYL CROW of all people.
n
Keep an eye out for Zelle ads. Various permutations of couples mxing race, gender and preference, but always the same interracial couple as the focus of the spots.
Really woke. The ads were probably filmed last year.
Well Happy New Year to one and all.
Quiet and uneventful evening at a friend’s home. Heard the distant official govt fireworks, then drove home.
Anyway, hope 2023 is a better year. (I’m sure we say that every year). 😀
Happy New Year all!
LOTS of gunfire tonight. Mag dumps again and again in the ‘not too’ distance… lots of semi-pro fireworks at the end of the street. Big airburst stuff. Watched that for a bit until the mag dumps started. That lead will come down somewhere.
Not on my head though.
Now I’m headed for bed! Best way to start the year is with sleep.
nick
Our friends female 11 year old confessed a crush on a girl in her class at a sleepover last night. In decades past this would have been a nothing burger. Normal development and social behavior would have followed a predictable course, nothing much would have been made of it, and 99 times out of 100 child would have changed her mind in a few months. These days it gets taken waaay too seriously and sometimes irrevocable changes get made with a lot of damage. So we shared the information with the parent. We will need to have a few conversations with our child, too. Adult choices should be reserved for adults. Irrevocable choices shouldn’t be inflicted on a half grown human.
Whacky post crash brain and body today. It was a thinking intensive week, might have triggered it.
I was going to slaughter the 11 rabbit growouts but couldn’t focus long on anything. That’s a recipe for injury from inattention.
Brain a mile a minute with a slipping clutch and grinding gears. Felt like I had a head full of electric fencing set on a charge suitable for Jurassic park. Driving myself and everyone around me nuts. Finally found some chemical adjustment and got myself under control.
This was a fairly common experience in the early years after the big car crash. It recurs periodically, just to remind me my brain is still a bit off.
I end the year in deep gratitude that zippy-zap-whackadoodle brain is an aberration, not my new normal.
Church service tonight was great. Nice reflection on humanities relationship with a holy loving God.
We started the morning helping a big group of folks prep the church for professional painters. I flitted from task to task with no completion or order. I’m afraid I left a wake of disruption in my path. I eventually recognized my brain was whacked. Got a hammer and went thru pulling missed staples, tacks, screws from cleared walls. That was a tightly focused task I could wrap my head around.
A single new ‘pew chair’ was available for viewing. How one is supposed to help you envision what row upon row of linked pew chairs will operate is virtually impossible for most from a single chair. Me included. My broken brain had me chivvying my beleaguered husband to contact our pastor at the other church we attend and borrow half a dozen of their pew chairs. He graciously not only got permission to borrow the chairs, but when he saw me ramping up, got our current pastor to help him pick up said chairs, move a pew, and get them installed in time for tonight’s service.
I certainly don’t deserve such a good man in my life.
Brain is still going a mile a minute for no good reason. Something chemically whacky has got me out of sorts. Time for another chemical adjustment, and bed. MTBI‘s really really suck, and the joy just keeps on giving over the years in the most entertaining ways. I was a pretty annoying jerk today.
Here’s to being less frenetic and less insufferable tomorrow. And here’s to patient spouses who love even the broken parts.
Happy New Year to the folks here at TTGNET. I sure do appreciate all of you.
>> Maybe I should get dressed?
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Spent part of the day not picturing that.
AFTKB for a few spousal tasks.
Quiet NYE at home, about 5 minutes of somewhat distant fireworks. Dogs were happy. Put on CNN at 11:45. Always humorous to see an inebriated Anderson Cooper.
Time for bed. Happy New Year to the entire ‘virtual family’ here. May your 2023 wishes inspire you.
When we moved from Florida to California in 1972, my auto registration fees went to one third of what they were in Florida. I have no idea what the comparison would be today. We also lost Florida’s corrupt and costly annual “safety” inspections, but gained California’s biennial emissions inspections, which were much cheaper. I have a utility trailer here, and converted it to the Permanent Trailer license plate. No fees for as long as I own it. I remember way back in the late 1960s Ohio’s auto registrations were something like $6, when Michigan’s were about $15 and Iowa’s were about $50. Illinois was even worse, plus there was a city auto tax.
One thing I like here in CA is that I can put a stored vehicle in Non-operational Status. There is a small fee to start it, but all other fees are suspended until it needs to be put back on the road. Other states I have knowledge of charge regular fees every year. It really adds up on even a small collection. I have about ten vehicles.
Sure, some states are expensive, and some are less so. Property taxes for some of my family are about four times what we pay in CA, and they say they live in “cheap” states. Thank you, Howard Jarvis, for Prop 13. I am surprised it hasn’t been repealed after 44 years.
Quiet New Year’s here, but it is RAINING. Yup, here in the desert! Keeps all the delicate flowers indoors. We desert dwellers bloat up on contact with moisture. 🙂