Still hot, still no rain.
We did get the occasional spatter, but nothing more than a few seconds yesterday and it was HOT. 100F in the shade. Humid too, sweaty like a fat man’s thighs.
Mostly I just hid from the heat. I did have to run out to my secondary location and get some gloves that I sold on ebay. Listed for over a year, been months if not a year since the last ones sold, and suddenly I sell a pair. I must have sold the last ones I had here at the house, so off I went. While I was there I did some cleaning.
On Friday while I was there, I got some misc. electronics and stuff to bring home. One of the neighborhood families has kids who are currently interested in taking stuff apart. I’ve got stuff. When the mom sent out the appeal, my wife voluntold me to go and bring some home. So I did. I brought home an old daisy wheel IBM typewriter, a dot matrix printer, document camera, video snapshot printer, hard drive, and some other small stuff. There should be some fun stuff in there for them to discover. I started out taking stuff apart myself and I still enjoy it. It’s a gateway drug to all kinds of learning and fun.
Maybe with kids having all this unstructured time at home, they’ll be able to do some of the stuff I did as a kid. Stuff that involves getting dirty, breaking things, and taking time to explore. Or maybe they’ll just play Minecraft all day.
Elsewhere in the world, if you don’t think things are cracking apart and shifting, what are the live fire exercises in the Persian Gulf? Stuff is breaking loose all over. We’re not the only ones dealing with this wuflu, we are just actually better prepared than a lot of places. WE might be the ones taking advantage of a situation. It would be nice to have the House of Saud unable to meddle quite so much in world affairs. Unfortunately a cornered animal is a dangerous one…
Keep in mind the stories we’re NOT hearing about lately. What has the left hand been up to while the right hand’s been busy and distracted?
Keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel.
Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs. Stored pasta and frozen HEB italian meatballs. Garlic toast. Birthday cake for dessert. Yum.
Stuff is just getting started, keep stacking.
nick
Remember when the First Amendment was a thing?
Protection of free speech which doesn’t protect unpopular speech is no protection at all.
“Hate crime” laws and the Patriot Act have decimated the 1st. Bird cage line as the late, great, Mr. OFD would say.
The newspaper SFGate is ragging on tRump about *talking* about a nuclear test. As Fisherman’s Wharf burns to ashes. Talk about karma.
Lots of nice F150s and Expeditions in Houston
…
https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-cars-for-sale.htm?start=175&geoRadius=100&geoZip=77080&make=Ford
Wow. If those numbers reflect post-filing thought, Hertz management and their creditors are dreaming. The prices are still too high. The local Austin dealer had a couple of dozen non-GT 2019 Mustangs sitting on the lot in March which he couldn’t clear out in the low-mid 20s. If you were willing to go manual, 19.5k.
The price number dam will break sooner or later, but that website probably hasn’t been updated since the bankruptcy filing. No one was working in Fort Myers after Wednesday afternoon, regardless of the economic situation.
Plus, I’d be really careful buying anything turbocharged from a rental car fleet. Unfortunately, that covers a lot of new vehicles since the pipeline had to work towards 38 MPG CAFE and assume since 2018 that 54 MPG would happen when the Progs retook the White House.
Pool is open for the season, water is still too cold. Will put the solar blanket on sometime today as it is supposed to be sunny. On a good sunny day 25K gallons of water can be raised 2 degrees. Not back for what is effectively really heavy duty bubble wrap, keep the bubble side down.
After replacing a large chunk of the piping in the garage when the pump facilities are located I have discovered two small leaks, slow drips mostly. One is the discharge from the pump where the pipe screws into the pump. Will remove that section today, several wraps of Teflon tape and it should be good to go.
The other leak is on the valve assembly for the filter. There is a huge o-ring that probably needs to be replaced. That will involved isolating the assembly with the valves, disconnecting pipes (fortunately I put in unions at critical places), and removing the assembly. Lot of water in those pipes that will need to be sucked up with the shop vac. Pool supply place is not open until Tuesday so that will have to wait to get repaired.
The new valves have union connections on each end thus should be easier to replace when they wear out. The last brass valve was removed when I redid the piping. It still worked but required several turns to close. The new valves are plastic (PVC) ball valves and only require a 1/4 turn to close.
Next job after replacing the filter manifold valve is to patch a small crack in the bottom using pool putty. Leak is minor as I only lost 10 inches of water over the span of 8 months. This is the latest we have ever opened the pool as most openings occur the first week of April, about the time of the second mowing.
The newspaper SFGate is ragging on tRump about *talking* about a nuclear test. As Fisherman’s Wharf burns to ashes. Talk about karma.
Nobody who lives there likes Fisherman’s Wharf … or at least that’s the usual public line.
I lived there for 35 years, and it is pretty much true. Locals regard most of the Wharf as a gaudy tourist trap, which it is. Most of the old Italian seafood joints like DiMaggio’s, which locals would occasionally frequent, are long gone. To compare, do you think locals in NYC trek to the top of the Empire State very often?
That said, I was talking to a friend yesterday who was watching the fire from his place on top of Russian Hill. He said it was pretty spectacular, but confined mostly to Pier 45. Journos love to exaggerate SF fires. During the Quake of 1989, reporters filmed the Marina fire as if it was a vast conflagration. I walked down there while it was still burning in spots, and discovered that it was a single block – and the block was entirely ringed by journos and their cameras.
Funny story: Right before the Quake, SF was set to sell its one remaining fireboat, but the sale hadn’t been consummated. When the Marina fire broke out, the water mains were shattered and there was no water pressure to fight the fire. They brought the fireboat around and used hoses from it to quell the blaze. Absent that, most of the Marina would likely have gone.
Now they have two boats. And my pal tells me he saw one of them in action at the Wharf.
Living in Vegas, how often do you go to the strip? Or the big fish market in Seattle. Booth after booth of the same crap.
A little surprising that any warehouse in SF would lack an adequate fire suppresion system. Even very old ones. Afterall the quake and fire were 112 years ago.
Tines are tough and usually the lure of insurance monies looks too good.
Living in Vegas, how often do you go to the strip? Or the big fish market in Seattle. Booth after booth of the same crap.
Dunno about Vegas, but living in Seattle, you just don’t go down there. People living in San Francisco seem to hate the fact that their tourist district even exists regardless of the revenue it probably generates for the city.
We did go to the Seattle market on occasion during our sentence -er- tenure in Portland. Across from where the fish get tossed around is a pretty good Latin/Caribbean specialty market. Or, at least, there used to be. Mojo, achiote, and other ingredients for home Cuban/Yucatan cooking.
Away from the Oregon Coast and Mount Hood, Portland’s tourist attractions seemed to mostly involve sales tax/VAT-free shopping. I swear half of Canada was in the Apple store any time we visited. The old store looked like that “Star Trek” episode where the planet conquered diseases and the population got out of control. The new store is the busiest in North America.
Well, here comes some rain…
n
You guys are a bunch of nattering nabobs of negativism! I go to Pike Place market all the time! Not only is the fish, except for the salmon, cheap but it’s also very fresh. There are also couple really good produce markets down there.
When I lived in San Francisco I used to love rollerblading up the Embarcadero and around the wharf. I’ll have to admit part of the fun was just watching the tourists, though!
Say, those COVID numbers from India are looking pretty good. Looks like my thesis that a not-so-sterile environment confers acquired immunity.
PS
I’ll have to admit that in all the 12 years I lived in the city I never once visited Alcatraz. 🙂
“well, I’m not a woman and I’m not black, so it never would have occurred to me to try it…” said no one ever…
‘I’m not a man and I’m not white, so I wouldn’t think to do that’: Eva Longoria reveals she ‘put on her male privilege pants’ to demand directorial role
n
“Say, those COVID numbers from India are looking pretty good. Looks like my thesis that a not-so-sterile environment confers acquired immunity. ”
–or they are a complete fantasy…..
n
In Deaths per 1M population, India ranks 122, between Chad and China. That seems unlikely in the extreme….
and could be because they’ve done fewer Tests per 1M pop than Zimbabwe, The Philippines, Argentina, and only slightly more than places like Senegal, and Japan (also notorious for under-reporting by not testing.)
I’d LIKE it to be true because I think it would be a devastatingly large number, based on just population if it were attacking at Russia, Italy, or US rates.
n
added- and their chart is only 20 days old. There will be MANY more cases…
n
I demand all viruses, including colds, be counted just like SARS-CoV-2 in the future. It’s the only way to be sure.
–or they are a complete fantasy…..
I won’t flog the deceased equine, but, setting aside my professional and grad school experiences and focusing just on the Wuxu Flu, both of my wife’s near miss exposures at work were from Indian doctors who knowingly pulled into the parking lot at the Austin VA while sick and infectious. One even showed up for work *after* dropping a sick niece at Austin airport for her to catch a flight home after traveling to the US for a wedding.
If the numbers are even remotely true, it may be possible that the virus has been circulating there for longer than the government’s official lie -er- timeline, that expats brought it back during the Diwali-New Years period.
On Friday while I was there, I got some misc. electronics and stuff to bring home. One of the neighborhood families has kids who are currently interested in taking stuff apart. I’ve got stuff. When the mom sent out the appeal, my wife voluntold me to go and bring some home. So I did. I brought home an old daisy wheel IBM typewriter, a dot matrix printer, document camera, video snapshot printer, hard drive, and some other small stuff. There should be some fun stuff in there for them to discover. I started out taking stuff apart myself and I still enjoy it. It’s a gateway drug to all kinds of learning and fun.
Taking apart stuff is very cool and the gateway to an engineering degree. I took apart a lot of stuff growing up, vacuum cleaner, tv, mixer, etc. Then Mom made me put them all back together until they worked, in some fashion, again.
I really miss the old Heathkit company. Dad and I built a 25 inch color TV in 1972. Just perusing their catalog was the stuff of dreams for hours st a time. I am not sure that the Maker books and magazines fullfils this need in young men.
Speaking of pools and temps. Ours is still on the cool side especially for May. We had overnight temps in the low to mid 50s last week and the loss of heat at night greatly effects the pool. The heat wave begins this week with highs going to 105 by Tuesday. Pool should get up to mid-80s fast.
“Say, those COVID numbers from India are looking pretty good. Looks like my thesis that a not-so-sterile environment confers acquired immunity. ”
–or they are a complete fantasy…..
I do not trust any numbers coming out of any non-first world country. India and China especially.
My Dad traveled extensively in India in the 1970s and 1980s. His stories about the railroads are simply amazing. And nasty (no poop holding tanks in the trains back then).
ADD: reputedly, the internal number of SARS_COV-2 cases in China hit 640,000 last week. And they isolated another city …
I agree. My son was consumed with taking stuff apart and putting it back together. I bought a Heathkit vacuum tube voltmeter kit which he soldered together. Then went on to get a MSEE at Cal State.
I went and fixed my creepy crawly (Polaris) in the pool in the old house yesterday. The old bag had the velcro come loose and the tail fell off. I needed a new hose clamp for the tail. Went to Walmart, made it in before they soft closed at 8pm and out before they hard close at 830pm.
The one thing bad about Walmart is that ALL of their crap is from China. So, they have incredible holes in their shelves. And no freaking hose clamps, the peg was empty ! I was going to leave and go to Lowes and then a blue vest told me to try the garden section. She was right, there was a hose union with 2 pipe clamps for $3.78. Mine ! And I bought the last one !
I also finally bought a medium sized microwave (1,100 watt) for the new house. They had only one ! I actually wanted a 1,000 watt but they had none. I’ll bet there are 100 container ships waiting to be loaded in China sitting off the ports for just Walmart crap. I hope that President Trump keeps the 25% tariff on China for a decade. Too bad the next dumbocrat prez will kill the China tariff on her first day in office.
I really miss the old Heathkit company. Dad and I built a 25 inch color TV in 1972. Just perusing their catalog was the stuff of dreams for hours st a time. I am not sure that the Maker books and magazines fullfils this need in young men.
Tampa’s Heathkit store held on for a really long time, right up until all the retail outlets closed. The building wasn’t far from a Philips contract manufacturing facility which made monitors for IBM in the 80s and brick cell phones until 1992.
I think the Heath store site is now home to a Whataburger, Tampa’s first.
Heath is still around, even producing DIY kits again, but they went bankrupt a few years ago.
Beyond an interesting hobby, people aren’t interested in acquiring the skillsets. Mass production of consumer electronics is not coming back to this country without a serious deterioration of the currency, and, to be honest, having done it, the work is not something Americans would want to do without a serious incentive.
The globalists haven’t played all of their cards with getting gadgets made on the cheap overseas. China was just the country most willing to sell their population into slavery for a few generations.
I demand all brick & mortar businesses and goobermint offices have misting disinfectant tents at their entrances. And free Kabuki masks. And free gloves. And free bottles of hand sanitizer.
On the plus side, I can put my groceries in plastic bags again, without some Karen scolding me. Same with bottled water. Does Kalifornia still charge you for plastic bags? At least they were pretty heavy duty.
Too bad the next dumbocrat prez will kill the China tariff on her first day in office.
Kill the tariffs, reinstate 54 MPG CAFE to be effective in 2028 (if not sooner), and eliminate enforcement of the immigration laws, all possible with Executive Orders.
Even if it weren’t possible, are you going to question the first female President?
Seriously, though, the only way Plugs exits the candidacy at this point is feet first. Keep an eye on whoever the cabal comes up with to run as VP.
“the work is not something Americans would want to do without a serious incentive.’
–dell and foxconn both have assembly plants in Dallas area, foxconn’s was going to be huge.
We make and wire a lot of electronics for industrial use, just not mass market consumer.
Canakits has a lot of neat projects. https://www.canakit.com/
as does Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/
the ham radio kit market seems pretty strong, especially in the areas of sdr (software defined radio) and qrp (low power tranceivers).
n
rain lasted only long enough to wet the concrete and raise the humidity. On the other hand, the wind is out of the north now and swirly, which means we should get something soon.
n
wrt plastic bags, I used to request paper and get the eye from 20-somethings at the register. Same idiots that would have ‘no blood for oil’ bumperstickers. I’d look at them and let them know that the plastic was really just frozen gasoline, and that trees sequester carbon and are endlessly renewable as well as providing delicious O2 for humans.
I only use the reusable bags for stuff that I’m not going to eat, and only if I get them free at goodwill- filthy things.
n
Nick: which alarm company are you using at the rental property? I’m thinking that a Raspberry PI could run any SW I might need.
thanks
@robert, I was using a local mom and pop company, that has since sold out. I don’t have any opinion about the big companies, but they are all running scared of smaller startups and people like cable companies stealing their customers. All my security trade mags are full of ads to “sell us your business”, and articles about maximizing your “recurring monthly revenue” (lock in on monitoring.)
There is a big DIY company, with no contract monitoring, but the name escapes me at the moment. There has been and will continue to be massive consolidation in the industry.
n
Huh, rain came back, then tapered off. I guess it’s gonna be one of those days. At least I won’t be cutting the grass today.
n
Currently free, because of KungFlu, reusables are either forbidden or discouraged. As such, single usage, plastics are back and free. So the Screwsomnistics fought to get rid of them and now reinstated.
I bet Screwsome, et al, are just waiting for the day to eliminate plastic bags again. Probably has some EO or legislature just sitting on his desk.
–dell and foxconn both have assembly plants in Dallas area, foxconn’s was going to be huge.
We make and wire a lot of electronics for industrial use, just not mass market consumer.
Final assembly. Unless the end product is very pricey, essentially something bought as capex, circuit boards for consumer and civilian industry get made and mostly populated overseas. Surface mount soldering of high end components like CPUs might get done here or in Japan/Korea, but there are good economic reasons. A $1000 server CPU is going to be a huge target for theft, and a lot of high end analog components are tempting for counterfeiters.
Even when I worked at Jabil populating Dell’s boards domestically ~ 30 years ago, the bare boards came in from China. The amount of manual work was still significant, and our low level workforce was mostly Vietnamese immigrants, often whole families.
China will be tough to dislodge from the supply chain. Slave labor (lets be honest about the payscale) will be even tougher. The last 40 years may not have brought us $20 Reeboks, but just about everyone has an iPhone or Android equivalent if they want one.
My Ooma VOIP base station died today. I’m not even going to replace it. The iPhone app is adequate. Outgoing calls thru the app show your Ooma number and you can check VM thru the app. It’s nice having that number to put on applications that you know you don’t want calls from.
Rain is coming down now! splashing everywhere and there is plenty of thunder and lightning. I should disconnect my antennas….
n
Sunny in SA!
If you look you’ll see the check stands are set up for plastic bags. Not for paper bags and not for folk’s filthy reusable bags.
Filthy? If it smells…
Heck, if you want a few paper bags for whatever, just ask.
If you look you’ll see the check stands are set up for plastic bags. Not for paper bags and not for folk’s filthy reusable bags.
I need the plastic bags for cat litter.
I reuse the plastic bags for what we call “freezer trash”. That’s mostly meat packaging that would stink up the kitchen trash.
Wal-Mart bags go right into the trash as they tear too easily.
If you look you’ll see the check stands are set up for plastic bags. Not for paper bags and not for folk’s filthy reusable bags.
I worked for Publix ~ 1985-86 when Mobil pushed plastic bags into the industry. They paid to have all the checkout stands retrofitted with the racks which hold the bags open.
And HEB is set up the same way. Paper or plastic? Whatever. Just bag the stuff and don’t make me rummage around in a pile of boxes to “package” my purchases.
Because, see, then /I/ have to get rid of that stupid box. I’m not a fan of being used to reduce your store’s trash disposal costs.
Me? Crabby? Why, yes.
Because, see, then /I/ have to get rid of that stupid box. I’m not a fan of being used to reduce your store’s trash disposal costs.
Me? Crabby? Why, yes.
We only take the box for meat … well, back when you could have more than one fresh beef/pork/chicken item that is.
The leftover box is a cat toy for about a day, until the novelty wears off.
We stopped at Sam’s today since we had space in the freezer to top off the meat items, the same store that had the line outside last weekend. They did indeed have pork chops in stock, but the variety pack kind that hide the mostly bone chops underneath the two good pieces. Pass in favor of a tray of chicken drumsticks. I also grabbed another pack of their snack bar hot dogs for the back corner of the refrigerator.
Rain stopped and it’s a lot cooler now. A lot.
n
HEB does the same. Which is sort of ok if your planning to brown off and simmer the package for a couple of hours. Crock pot pork and mushroom stew, sort of. Into a mess of meat and gravy that is great over rice or noodles.
Dang, now I’m hungry.
But if your plan is to have a few meals of edible pork chops, yeah, no.
Anyway. Getting rid of the trash here is a PITA. The big green roller bins they dump once a week? They are proud of them and I’m not paying almost $2 a day for the one 3/4 full kitchen bag we make a week.
I need to get another burn barrel. Or build same with cinder blocks. Beer cans are separated for sale at the recycle place. That leaves tin cans and glass in the ashes. Not much, actually.
Oh. Down in Edinburg? You buy a sticker for the dump. $50 a year. Take all you want. They don’t have the green bins there. Hmm….
Over The Hedge: the new normal
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/05/24
Yup. Everyone looks like they are getting ready to rob the 4:15 stagecoach.
Rain came back with a vengence. Cool 68F and pouring down with lots of thunder and lightning. It’s coming down fast enough that the street is filling up.
n
Rain stopped and it’s a lot cooler now. A lot.
It got down to 68 F at our house and we went for a two mile walk. I even wore a sweatshirt (also covered my carry somewhat).
We went out to our favorite Mexican food restaurant with our long term Sunday lunch friends today. Good food, good times. Too many chips and hot salsa. Then went back to their house and played Racko for three hours.
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-RACK-Retro-package/dp/B01C3IMN2E/
@robert, I was using a local mom and pop company, that has since sold out. I don’t have any opinion about the big companies, but they are all running scared of smaller startups and people like cable companies stealing their customers. All my security trade mags are full of ads to “sell us your business”, and articles about maximizing your “recurring monthly revenue” (lock in on monitoring.)
There is a big DIY company, with no contract monitoring, but the name escapes me at the moment. There has been and will continue to be massive consolidation in the industry.
“SimpliSafe Home Security Systems | Wireless Home Security”
https://simplisafe.com/
Modern pick-and-place machines are capable of almost all assembly now. They slow them down for demos and the arms still blur as they move. In-person, not on video. There are also vision systems that inspect the end product automatically.
Here’s a pick-and-place: https://youtu.be/S8qkaTsr2_o