09:07 – Chillier weather has moved in. It was 49.1F (9.5C) when I took Colin out at 0645 this morning, sunny and with strong winds. We had another 0.8″ (2 cm) of rain in the last 24 hours.
Email yesterday from Cassie, whom I hadn’t heard from in a couple of months. She was just checking in and letting me know that she and her husband are now up to over a year’s worth of food, and feeling pretty comfortable about the level of their preps. They’ve laid in bulk quantities of flour, rice, pasta, cooking oil, and so on and have the dry stuff repacked in one-gallon foil-Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
Cassie has also jumped big-time into canning meats. She does Marathon canning sessions a couple weekends a month, and is up to about 150 pounds of ground beef, chicken, pork, and sausage canned in pint jars. She waits until a particular meat is on sale, buys a bunch of it, typically 30 or 40 pounds at a time, and then cans it.
She also mentioned that she and her husband are now cooking and baking a lot more than they used to. Rather than eating a lot of fresh and frozen foods, they now make most of their meals from LTS. She’s been surprised at how little extra time that takes, especially since they often make up large batches and end up with several meals in the freezer.
Cassie offered an interesting observation that a lot of people probably don’t take into account in their LTS planning. She thought they had lots and lots of spices. Big Costco/Sam’s-size jars of onion flakes and garlic powder, for instance. But as she and her husband were making dinner one night she was measuring out a tablespoon of garlic powder and thought to look at the serving size on that big jar. She said a light bulb went on over her head as she realized that she was used to thinking of herb/spice quantities based on the way they used to cook. Back then one of those small jars of something would last them forever because they so seldom cooked from scratch. With the way they’re cooking now, even a large jar of something isn’t going to last them very long at all. So she sat down at her computer, logged onto Walmart.com, and ordered a bunch of different herbs and spices in large jars to add to their stocks.
She was a bit concerned about shelf-life. A lot of packaged herbs and spices have stated best-by dates 6 months out or less. I told her not to worry about it at all. Best-by dates on herbs and spices are as imaginary as those on canned foods. Most spices are packaged in PET (or glass) bottles, where they’ll remain good for many years, if not decades. They won’t even lose any potency to speak off. Those bottles provide an airtight seal, so the odors/flavors aren’t going anywhere. The same is true if Cassie buys bulk spices like turmeric or paprika or whatever and repackages them herself. Bulk spices usually come in plastic bags, which are not a long-term storage solution. But transferred to PET soft drink bottles or foil-laminate Mylar bags, they’ll last forever.
First heat wave, heading for a possible 100+ on Wed, then cooling off again.
Serviced the evaporative cooler I have upstairs in the back. Much cheaper to run than the AC and unless the humidity jumps, works just as well. Whole house smells like new Aspen pads.
“Most spices are packaged in PET (or glass) bottles, where they’ll remain good for many years, if not decades. They won’t even lose any potency to speak off. Those bottles provide an airtight seal, so the odors/flavors aren’t going anywhere.”
However, bear in mind that the odours/flavours of many herbs and spices were already compromised simply by the processes of drying, grinding etc. to which they were subjected in the first place. Some herbs don’t do well at all in their dried state, even though they might keep indefinitely in it. Sometimes one can compensate: for example by using more of the dried ingredient than of the equivalent fresh one, to make up for a loss in flavor; or one can store whole spices, and grind them as needed.
Many common culinary herbs are basically perennial weeds, rather hardy and low maintenance – it is worth sowing some in a small patch of garden or even in a bucket just to have them always on hand. I sowed a large flowerpot-full of mixed herbs on the patio yesterday.
Warmer up here this AM, I guess; 59 w/occasional rain showers, about like yesterday.
Off to a VA med appointment down in beeeyooteeful Burlap.
So this morning the democrans are high-fiving over their victory with the budget. The republicrats are busy trying to turn this pile of shit into chocolate pudding. And tRump is “mad”. How many idiots can this gooberment clown car hold? Obviously quite a lot.
tRump is promising things with change tomorrow (read September or 2018 or whenever). But the republicrats are not going to change and the situation will not change no matter how many republicrats are elected.
The best thing that could happen is for the gooberment to shut down. I’m prepared with enough beans, bullets, and barter.
Too bad for the folks who live with their head in the cloud (nose in their digital devices).
Too bad a gooberment shut down isn’t going to happen though.
Air in the banks, no shit in the tanks, all ahead flank, going that-a-way…, you’ve got the watch.
Many commenters on President tRump saying “close it down in Sep” are saying: why wait, do it now. No response from tRump, too busy inhaling the fumes.
UPS just showed up with my Costco order for a case of a dozen 12-ounce bottles and one 2-liter bottle of Purell hand sanitizer. About 6.25 liters total. Barbara knew I’d ordered this and approved it in advance so she wasn’t surprised. She actually seemed pleased to have it, and said she knew just where she wanted to store it.
But UPS also brought me my Amazon order of a case of 80 rolls of toilet paper, which she looked at warily. “What’s that for?”, she asked. Having been married for more than 30 years, I knew better than to say, “For wiping our asses,” so I just said I wanted to try this stuff. She asked what was wrong with what we’ve been getting at Costco, and I just said this stuff was a lot cheaper and got good reviews. I pulled out one roll and told her I’d put it in the foyer bathroom to test, and that she didn’t need to use it. She pulled the end off off the roll, said “Two-ply?” and handed it back to me. I told her it was two-ply. She just said it was okay with her and didn’t comment further.
Which means I can probably get away with ordering additional cases every couple of months until I’m up to a comfortable level.
Many commenters on President tRump saying “close it down in Sep” are saying: why wait, do it now. No response from tRump, too busy inhaling the fumes.
I think it is time to shut the federal budgeting process down now. Send all non essential workers home. Don’t bring any more refugees in. Essential workers such as FBI agents, military, Medicare, Social Security, etc will stay on the job. I have no idea about the TSA.
The excessive spending by the feddies must stop now. Cut the pay of every federal worker by 50%. Lay off all non-essential personnel. Bust the employee unions. Lay off the bunny inspectors.
If I were Trump, I would veto the spending bill that they send him on Friday. He is a control freak, he will control the agenda because they will not be able to muster the 2/3rds of votes required to override his veto in both chambers. Let us spend the long hot summer with federal workers sitting at home and crying to the media each day.
Yes they’ll cry to the media but it’s just a show. Once funded again they’ll be paid for every day and never have to make up the extra vacation they received. The only ones hurt are the taxpayers. No service but keep paying those taxes.
How about just converting all federal employees to contract workers? No benefits of any sort. And every year’s budget is zero-based for contractors.
When unicorns fly.
I thought unicorns DID fly. Oh, wait. I guess that was Pegasus. We scientists always said it was impossible for a winged horse to fly, but then we said the same about bumblebees.
She was a bit concerned about shelf-life. A lot of packaged herbs and spices have stated best-by dates 6 months out or less. I told her not to worry about it at all. Best-by dates on herbs and spices are as imaginary as those on canned foods. Most spices are packaged in PET (or glass) bottles, where they’ll remain good for many years, if not decades.
How about the best buy dates on liquid cooking oils and Aunt Jemima Lite syrup in plastic bottles ?
We scientists always said it was impossible for a winged horse to fly, but then we said the same about bumblebees.
I thought that I had bumblebees in the back yard but it turns out that they are wood bees. Same size, same hovering capability, and nasty wood boring. Our house and garage have Hardieplank trim but they are living in the wood fort in the back yard.
http://www.livingwithbugs.com/carpenter_bee.html
“Making Sense of Windows 10 S”
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/89713/windows-10-s-inside-story
I hope Windows 10 S fails and fails hard. Microsoft is doing an end run around Intel and is going to supply Windows 10 S on ARM chips for internet appliances. So, people will think that they can run Win32 apps on their new Windows internet appliance and they will not be able to unless they have a Intel / AMD cpu chip which they can upgrade to Windows 10 Professional. The Windows 10 internet appliances with ARM cpu chips will not be upgradable to Windows 10 Pro.
Big Costco/Sam’s-size jars of onion flakes and garlic powder, for instance.
I bought a #10 Augason can of dehydrated chopped onions, “Augason Farms Emergency Food Dehydrated Chopped Onions, 23 oz”
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Augason-Farms-Emergency-Food-Dehydrated-Chopped-Onions-23-oz/22001480
Speaking of Winblows; apparently the international SWIFT banking transaction network runs on Winblows Vista still. And the domestic banking system, a small part of which I witnessed and supported IT-wise at my 8-month gig down in Woostah, MA a few years ago still runs on extensively patched COBOL and Fortran. All of the above have been hacked and cracked repeatedly.
Back from VA med appointment; all they did was draw off more of my blood. Guess they dint git enuff in SEA. Mostly guys older than me there today, including a couple of Good War vets. And a couple of younger guys from the Sandbox wars, looking very pissed off, as usual.
Got back here and had to fix Simple Scan and xsane on this Mint machine with a chmod permission line, kinda strange, but it’s working again now. And loaded up the RAV4 for another big dump run tomorrow, while Mrs. OFD drives her mom and her 92-year-old aunt down to Lake George to see Uncle F.T., who’s gonna be getting radiation treatments, in his late 80s. Korean War vet; we get along great but I don’t wanna go down and pass off my nasty cold germs to all the octogenarians and the one nonogenarian. So I’ll stay here and do the dump run and stack firewood and do some raking and other yard cleanup stuff.
Hillary Clinton: ‘I Was On the Way to Winning’ Until Comey and Wikileaks
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/hillary-clinton-i-was-on-the-way-to-winning-until-comey-and-wikileaks/
HAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, and throw in the misogyny. Why are they even talking to her?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-amanpour-asks-hillary-clinton-if-misogyny-doomed-her-candidacy/
It will be a great day in this country (and the world, really) when both Larry and Cankles are gone. So many of us are so sick and tired of hearing them, hearing about them, seeing them, that the levels of sheer disgust and loathing beggar belief.
And now we have the spectacle of Obummer running around like he’s some kind of “shadow” President with his own “shadow” government still in place. Who will rid us of this troublesome pissant?
I hope Windows 10 S fails and fails hard. Microsoft is doing an end run around Intel and is going to supply Windows 10 S on ARM chips for internet appliances. So, people will think that they can run Win32 apps on their new Windows internet appliance and they will not be able to unless they have a Intel / AMD cpu chip which they can upgrade to Windows 10 Professional. The Windows 10 internet appliances with ARM cpu chips will not be upgradable to Windows 10 Pro.
I thought Microsoft had implemented Win32 emulation on ARM and only “blessed” Win32 applications, capable of running under emulation, would execute on Windows 10 S regardless of CPU.
Update: Did this scheme go away? Did Qualcomm overpromise and under deliver (big surprise)? Did Microsoft stab another partner in the back (bigger surprise)?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3148191/windows/microsoft-qualcomm-deal-finally-puts-windows-10-and-win32-apps-on-arm-devices.html
Emulating a PIII with hardware around an ARM core would be a nit. Transmeta did it in the 90s, and the i-series are essentially hardware decoders feeding a RISC core.
The Hildebeast *still* doesn’t get it.
“The fault, dear Hillary, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
And Mr. Miles_Teg wins the innernet today!
A an adept and appropriate Shakespearean allusion/paraphrase w/o the usual violent and foul language, which is difficult not to use.
Or to paraphrase the great Jimmy Buffet:
“Some people claim that there’s a Feebie to blame…but I know…it’s my own damn fault.”
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/breaking-berkeley-mayor-told-local-police-stand-conservatives-get-pummeled-riots/
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/update-25-people-arrested-portland-police-may-day-protest-turned-riot/
What a difference a state makes….
n
I thought Microsoft had implemented Win32 emulation on ARM and only “blessed” Win32 applications, capable of running under emulation, would execute on Windows 10 S regardless of CPU.
Update: Did this scheme go away? Did Qualcomm overpromise and under deliver (big surprise)? Did Microsoft stab another partner in the back (bigger surprise)?
I don’t have clue about Qualcomm. But Windows 10 S is only allowed to run apps out of the Windows store. And they are only C# apps from what I can tell.
And to paraphrase the great Esther Phillips:
“What a difference a state makes…five-twenty-eight little miles…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JsttkCH6E
So theoretically, and vastly so, the mayor of Berkeley should be arrested and charged with inciting a riot, which resulted in scores of injuries and major property damage, and criminal malfeasance pertaining to the orders he allegedly gave to the city’s police department.
Theoretically, he’d be found guilty and sentenced to a few years on a road gang working the state’s forestry reclamation and highway projects in a fluorescent-orange jumpsuit. With regular beat-downs from skin-head AN types.
“Or to paraphrase the great Jimmy Buffet:”
It’s almost 5 o’clock here!
Speaking of foul language:
Stephen Colbert’s Shocking Attack On Trump Concludes With A Homophobic Slur.
As someone pointed out in another article, if Rush had said something similar, all Hell would’ve broken loose.
I’m almost tempted to tune into Colbert tonight to hear his non-apology apology.
Just kidding. Not tempted at all.
Colbert used to be mildly funny, before he became just another libtard tool like the much-adored Jon Stewart character, so “edgy” and hip. And then he triples-down on the tRump-beholden-to-the-Russians media concoction, which has been proved utter bullshit.
Yeah, picture Limburger or Hannity or O’Reilly saying that kinda stuff about Cankles or Sanders (who took his honeymoon with the lovely and brilliant Jane in Moscow). There would be a media firestorm around the world for weeks. And any of those guys would have been shit-canned immediately.
I don’t have clue about Qualcomm. But Windows 10 S is only allowed to run apps out of the Windows store. And they are only C# apps from what I can tell.
I guess the hardware emulation didn’t work out.
Colbert used to be mildly funny, before he became just another libtard tool like the much-adored Jon Stewart character, so “edgy” and hip.
Colbert wasn’t supposed to last this long. IIRC, he is paid a lot less than either “Jimmy” on a three year contract. Trump was Colbert’s lucky break.
I don’t have clue about Qualcomm. But Windows 10 S is only allowed to run apps out of the Windows store. And they are only C# apps from what I can tell.
I guess the hardware emulation didn’t work out.
I don’t think that they want to run Win32 apps in Windows 10 S. To me, Windows 10 S is the modern day version of Windows XP embedded that all of the ATMs use. I think that Windows 10 S is a freebie operating system to compete with Linux for internet appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, touchpads, etc. Very little laptop usage, if at all.
“Rush Limbaugh: Vice President Calls the Show to Defend the Budget Deal”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/05/02/vice-president-pence-calls-the-show/
“RUSH: Okay, but why then is the president now suggesting a budget shutdown in September or October? If it’s no good now, why is it good then? You guys were sent there to drain the swamp.”
Rush gets it. Trump needs to drain the swamp TODAY !
A lie, Sir! An infamous lie!
Indeed. Miles_Teg doing anything praiseworthy is rare enough that I will bestow upon him a golf clap of approbation.
(Just kidding, Miles_Teg. We all love you. Not as much as you love sheep, but some.)
Nah. There are plenty of ways to paraphrase the bard without dipping into profanity.
“There are plenty of ways to paraphrase the bard without dipping into profanity.”
I clearly wasn’t clear; I only meant it’s difficult not to use violent and foul language in ANY discussion of Cankles. Whether or not paraphrasing the bard; Miles chose gentler language, whereas some others here might have gone the other way. Oh wait.
“If it’s no good now, why is it good then? You guys were sent there to drain the swamp.”
Limburger actually said that to the VP? If so, a tip of the hat. I had not thought him capable of such brass and effrontery to such a high personage of his own Party.
“If it’s no good now, why is it good then? You guys were sent there to drain the swamp.”
Limburger actually said that to the VP? If so, a tip of the hat. I had not thought him capable of such brass and effrontery to such a high personage of his own Party.
Rush is loyal to his 26 million listeners. No one else. They all want to drain the swamp.
BTW, Rush got a bounce in listeners out of the election. He said the other day that he was still at 26 million listeners. Usually after the election is over, his listeners drop back down to 20 million. People are hanging on this time.
It is fairly obvious Pence and Trump are not listening to him. I would bet that most, if not all, of his 26 million listeners vote and they voted for Trump. Rush warned them before the election that if Trump did not perform, his listeners would find someone else to drain the swamp in four years.
If the swamp is not drained, then I suggest we build a WALL around it and keep them all inside with No Exit possible. The whole place is literally built on top of a swamp anyway.
The fault lies not in you but in myself. I’d planned to state that it was easy to avoid profanity, then launch into a four-alarm blast of copper-plated profaniy as a Shakespeare variant … but I got distracted and when I got back to writing I forgot what I was doing and wrote a non-profane Cankles insult. Totally out of character, I acknowledge.
When the wall is built around DC, make it a two-way blockage. No people out, no food in. The DC denizens may feed themselves by the Kilkenny Cats method.
“When the wall is built around DC, make it a two-way blockage. No people out, no food in. The DC denizens may feed themselves by the Kilkenny Cats method.”
Should see if Kurt Russell is available for “Escape from Washington, D.C.”
Kurt Russell, starring in “Escape from Mordor.” Would probably need either some variation of a haz-mat scuba outfit with requisite underwater vision devices and decent weapons gear, or some variant of experimental aircraft which could evade and escape the mil-spec aircraft in the vicinity.
Need some ass-kicking hottie female, a brilliant wise-ass Asian-Murkan inventor, and some Afrikan-Murkan and Latino-Murkan mercenaries. Soundtrack by Parliament/Funkadelic and Santana. I will do the casting for the ass-kicking female hottie. Least I can do. Even old guys like me should step up.
I’ll have a three way with Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Jamie Alexander (Lady Sif). That should cover the hottie females.
“That should cover the hottie females.”
Works for me. I see you likes ’em thin.
I likes ’em wid a wittle mo’ meat on ’em.
And now we’re both dead meat, with our sexist chauvinist pig objectification of womyn and our lethal “male gaze.”
Don’t worry, Mr. SteveF will chime in and ruin it for us, shaming us, extolling us about how great marriage is for him.
No room for atheists in Linux fox holes:
https://www.nixcraft.com/come-on-nixcraft/268/
Had to pop into the grocery for one item so I took a quick look at the clearance rack. Huge score! Flour for 50c Yes, I’ll take three bags. Premix bread in a box, 50c, yes, I’ll take 6. Fruit cobbler mix? Yes. Lots. then they had ribs on sale for $1/pound off.
Ended up spending $30, and saving $30. Tomorrow I’m going back for the 20# sacks of tortilla mix. $2. 10c/#. I’ll fill a bucket or two with that. Esp. since I believe in flatbreads instead of risen for SHTF baking.
n
I checked my property tax values this afternoon and found that they released the 2017 numbers finally, only a month late. They dropped my house value 2% and dropped my commercial property 0.25%. Yeah ! I’ll take anything after last year as the wife and I were getting ready for a major increase in both.
http://fbcad.org/Property-Detail?PropertyQuickRefID=R34391&PartyQuickRefID=O0569960
I checked one of my employees house value to see if this was a general trend. Nope, his house was up 2%. I yelled his new value at him down the hallway and one of my other guys yelled back that I am a stalker boy.
” And Mr. Miles_Teg wins the innernet today!
Indeed. Miles_Teg doing anything praiseworthy is rare enough that I will bestow upon him a golf clap of approbation.”
I know I must be doing something very wrong when OFD and SteveF agree with me.
C’mon, OFD. Linux is an ATHEIST OS. Linus himself, not to mention RMS, ESR, and all those other FOSS guys are atheists.
Your old pal Bill Gates is also an atheist, so they’re not all good guys.
Strange that he married an idolator. (Hi OFD).
Well, what can I say? Bill is a smart guy. There is and always has been a very high correlation between high IQ and atheism. The smarter one is, the more likely one is to be atheist. That’s not to say, of course, that there aren’t plenty of dumb atheists and plenty of smart theists, but the correlation is there.
Just a reminder that what you see is filtered.
This sitrep is from my daily FEMA report. Seen any coverage of the flooding and deadly tornadoes in your normal news outlets? what else are you not seeing.
n
“Current Situation
Another storm system with additional heavy rainfall in already
flooded areas of Missouri, Arkansas & southern Illinois could
exacerbate flood impacts and hinder damage assessments and
recovery efforts
Impacts
• FEMA Region III – FINAL
o Pennsylvania
Several reports of storm related damage in western PA
o Flooding threat has ended
o 25k customers without power (peak 96k)*
• FEMA Region IV – FINAL
o MS: 2 confirmed fatalities
o TN: 1 confirmed fatality; 1 unconfirmed
o Flooding threat has ended
• FEMA Region V
o Illinois
1 shelter open with 7 occupants**
Localized evacuations in portions of Madison, Williamson,
and Franklin counties
Numerous county and local roads closed
• FEMA Region VI
o Texas
4 confirmed fatalities; 49 injuries
Numerous homes/businesses destroyed or damaged in
Canton (pop. 3.6k) and Emory, TX (pop. 1.2k)
2 shelters open with 8 occupants***
o Arkansas
7 confirmed fatalities
6 shelters open with 49 occupants**
Mandatory evacuations for portions of city of Pocahontas (pop.
6.4k), and Clay and Randolph counties (combined pop. 34k)
• FEMA Region VII
o Missouri
5 confirmed fatalities
9 shelters open with 195 occupants**
Mandatory evacuations for Valley Park (pop. 7k) due to
potential for levee overtopping (324 homes threatened)
Voluntary evacuations for West Alton (pop. 530) due to crest
of Mississippi River on May 4 (200 homes threatened)
Sandbagging operations ongoing
Interstate 44 – 12 mile stretch closed SW of St Louis
Interstate 55 – Expected to close south of St Louis
**ARC Midnight Shelter Count as of 6:29 am EDT, May 3, 2017
*As of 7:30 am EDT. Customer outage data is provided by the Department of Energy’s EAGLE-I system. Comprehensive National coverage of all electrical service providers is not available”
“Just a reminder that what you see is filtered.”
Filtered by the MSM, sure, but since you’re getting a daily report from the government they’re obviously not trying to hide any of this.
Speaking of which, for anyone who might want to get these daily FEMA reports, do you have an address to sign up for their listserv?
“The smarter one is, the more likely one is to be atheist. ”
10-4, how often did Einstein go to synagogue?
Recall Obamanous in that Chicago church prior presidency? Yuuup, soliciting the votes of the stupidos.
Well, in all fairness, Obamanable is not very bright himself.
I think this link will sign you up:
https://service.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/subscriber/new
I don’t actually remember how I got on the list.
n
added
https://service.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/subscriber/topics