Hot and humid.
Yesterday was miserable hot and stuffy. The sun was brutal. I did my pickup but didn’t head to my secondary. The location, and the angle of the sun meant I’d be working in full sun, in a concrete canyon- in other words, boiling my brain. And while boiled brains might be tasty, mine need to stay unboiled and in my head…
So I’ll be looking to do some of that today. We’re on the edge of a storm system so it might not be so sunny.
First things first though it’s donut day for swim team. The kids don’t like to miss donut day.
My work will have to wait until after swim team…
Dinner last night was carry out pizza from our local. The good cook was on and the pizza was really good. I masked and gloved for the pickup.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise, but the world and the protests continue to amaze me. And not in a good way. People have lost their damn minds. There is a mania sweeping the country. You don’t want to get caught up in the crazy. Hold on to your core.
If this keeps going it is gonna be a long and dangerous summer, culminating in one of the ugliest election seasons ever. Our enemies are not going to let this go by either.
Take your joy where you can find it, but don’t retreat or ignore what’s going on. And GET PREPPED for a dark couple of months.
nick
It’s hot! Yesterday the flies tried to come in to cool off, so I broke out our Bug-A-Salt for the first time this year and “moida’d da bums” as my granddad used to say. Greatest invention in the past 10 years.
I saw a mention of Andre Norton yesterday. I started reading her books with Octagon Magic in about 3rd grade. That was the only one in the children’s section of our public library, so I didn’t discover her other books until I was 12 and they would let me check out from the adult section, where I read everything of hers they had.
I love my Bug A Salt. Lots of fun and works!
IIRC, the show the inventors were on, the judges said it would never be a successful product. When one occasionally comes up in one of my auctions, the bidding is fierce!
n
You have to get 2/3 down the page to get to what would have been an ‘above the fold’ story last year….
n
This is troubling to me. Get the students used to being tracked and you now have a population that cares little about surveillance and knowing all a person’s movements. Get pulled over, cop looks on his tablet, finds all the places a person has been, calculated speeds, places stopped and boom, multiple citations for exceeding speed limits or failing to come to a complete stop. Covid-19 is enabling this process at a much faster rate.
Where I come from, and my stance is that, where I have been, where I am going, what am I doing where I am going, is none of their business. When stopped by an officer my answer to those questions is silence.
I did play games one time during a routine screening for impaired drivers, the roadblock. Officer asked if I had anything to drink. I said, yes. He asked how much. I said 16 ounces. He asked me to pull into a parking lot and I did. He then gave me a sobriety test, walking, counting, alphabet, pointing etc. All passed with flying colors. He was confused. He then asked what I had been drinking. I said water. He got a little huffy to which I told him his question was if I had anything to drink not specifying the type of beverage and that I had answered his questions honestly and correctly. He was still pissed and chewed me out for wasting his time. I just smiled and asked if I was free to go.
This is troubling to me. Get the students used to being tracked and you now have a population that cares little about surveillance and knowing all a person’s movements. Get pulled over, cop looks on his tablet, finds all the places a person has been, calculated speeds, places stopped and boom, multiple citations for exceeding speed limits or failing to come to a complete stop. Covid-19 is enabling this process at a much faster rate.
All the new Ford vehicles for the current model year have a “tattletale” tech designed in cooperation with the insurance companies to offer rate discounts to drivers the system determines to be “safe” (for now). I imagine that law enforcement will eventually have wireless access to pull data from the system on demand, either via Bluetooth or the cellular modems now built into just about every car.
I posted about the system at some point in the last year.
Flies have been heavy the last month. Probably doesn’t help that there are dairy farms not too far west of here. Very tempting to leave doors open when the weather turns nice. It was 104F Thursday but there has been strong cooling the last couple of days and only 75F predicted for tomorrow. Leave a door open and the flies do come in. When it’s really hot they’re waiting at the door likely attracted to the cooler surface from the inside ac.
Bug A Salt certainly is fun but I’m much more into less work. On that we’ve been using clear window fly traps. They work pretty well and are cheap. Track down the rest with a swatter.
Thinking of purchasing a 2020 RAV4 (AWD, tow package, XLE trim). About $35K, but got a good hunk to put down (from the house refinance). Toyota offering 1.9%APR/60 months. Current vehicle is a 2008 Highlander, 237K miles; it will go to a daughter.
Need to have a tow hitch to carry the powered wheelchair. Don’t need more than two seats; we rarely have passengers, but need the cargo space. Like the Highlander, but a bit more $ than we want spend.
Have thought about used Highlanders (2018+), but there’s a big fuel pump recall that doesn’t have parts yet for those model years. Figure that local dealers are a bit hungry, so hoping for some price adjustments. Will be researching same, and methods to up my negotiating game.
Hot here in Indian country too.
High of 95f today but the humidity is much lower than we had in Mississippi so it’s bearable in the shade with a breeze.
That storm headed for Louisiana should bring us rain and cooler temperatures. Not that we need rain, its been a very wet spring. The rain will likely delay the concrete work I had scheduled to expand the front walk and build a new flower bed for the wife.
If any car salesman pulls out the ‘four square’ get up and walk out.
be ready for all the games, bring a book, don’t have to be somewhere, walk out if they make you wait too long.
Have competitive ads, even if they are from long ago or far away. If they sold for that once, they can sell for that again.
Ask for any dealer incentives, buyer incentives, incentives on different trim levels, cash back offers, good credit offers, floor models, loaner cars… if you don’t ask, they’ll keep it for themselves.
Remember that you don’t need THIS car from THIS dealer at THIS time…. and that they have numbers to meet, kids to feed, and they’re generally competitive.
Always be sure you are negotiating the “out the door” price, or after all your hard work they’ll suddenly have tax, title, and “fees”.
I refuse to pay “dealer prep” as a line item, if they can’t sell the car without doing that stuff, then it’s part of their overhead, not something I want to pay. Be careful of dealer add ons, like tint, roof racks, hitches, or paint and fabric treatments. Even if they’re already applied, don’t buy them. Give up the warranty on them as a bargaining point if you have to. Dealer markup on those things is HUGE, and they’re done by some $10/hr kid. They never pay claims and it’s cheaper to have a detailer fix any issues.
Do a CAREFUL inspection before delivery.
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It’s already 102F n my driveway with a ‘feels like’ of 125!
I’m waiting for my lawn guys, and the instacart delivery, wife took the kids to swim team.
I’m getting my vests out, and putting my winter stuff away.
n
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/leftist-co-founder-reddit-releases-sappy-video-announces-stepping-asks-black-replacement/
-suicide of the west. maybe there is something to the soy and BHPA theories. I can’t help but conflate this with the rise of cuckold videos in pron. and shake my head asking WTF?
n
-suicide of the west. maybe there is something to the soy and BHPA theories. I can’t help but conflate this with the rise of cuckold videos in pron. and shake my head asking WTF?
Alexis Ohanian is famously married to Serena Williams. Plus, the company is still private, and I imagine the investors would like to see it go public and cash out before the company implodes like the other unicorns.
Going public without a cratering stock price this year would require a gimmick.
Reddit has some interesting code, but it is poorly maintained and they don’t do R&D like Facecrack. Like a lot of social media, their only real asset is their user base’s personal information.
long and dangerous summer
Crazy times are here.
Saw the movie ‘The Reliant’ in the theater last year. I like Kevin Sorbo (even the cheesy Hercules back in the 90’s – fun stuff). The bits near the beginning where everything goes tits up ought to be a cautionary tale on ensuring -all- of the family has bought in to what preparedness and ‘go NOW’ means.
Film could have used some hard editing in the middle. They had less story to tell than the time they filled. Still enjoyed it. It’s on Netflix. Watch the first 20 minutes or so.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105774/
Bugs – we are being tormented by yellow jackets, mosquitos, and flies. I’ve got the Mosquito Magnet set up, the yellow jacket traps set up, ditto the fly traps. Keeping the grass short and not letting water collect in containers (breed mosquitos). I’ve hacked the raspberries which invaded from the neighbors to a manageable incursion. Pool is set up and in use. This weekend is finals (‘Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence’, ‘Comparative Programming Languages’), manure muck out of the rabbits, and final ‘plants in dirt’ tasks. Rabbit kits born earlier this week are growing nicely. Watching the progress of the garden vs the progress of the rabbits and chicks, I’m glad I’m a carnivore. Raising meat is a lot easier than raising veg, and denser in calories to boot. I am considering not fencing the rabbitry in a way that allows the chickens to be on the rabbit side. It has been pretty efficient feeding / refilling automatic waterer / dealing with waste without any fences to inhibit the work. If I fence for chickens (because they are escape artists) it will be a lot tighter work area and more challenging to work efficiently. I’m also looking to the future winter and snow loads. Not fencing makes it easier to perform minimal snow removal and again, working efficiently when it is well below freezing is highly desirable. The rabbits will do much better with the cold than I will.
Biggest argument in favor of fencing the rabbits is so the dogs can enjoy backyard time also. Without a fence they’ll scare the bejeezus out of the rabbits, and could potentially cost us a doe or a litter. That would be unacceptable.
Things to ponder.
Reddit announced that proudly. Many of the top comments pointed out that hiring by race is blatantly illegal. We’ll see what happens…
@Rick: FWIW we have a RAV4, approaching 100k, and we’re very happy with it. Wishing for some of the niceties of a newer model, but that’s all…
Cold snap here, lows in the 40s (F), highs in the 60s…
I’ve got my evap cooler vest on, my lightweight straw hat, and the big fan going in the driveway. Sweet jebus it is hot.
Headed out for a bit.
n
Reddit announced that proudly. Many of the top comments pointed out that hiring by race is blatantly illegal. We’ll see what happens…
Reddit is a privately-held company, and African-Americans are considered to be underrepresented in tech companies. Plus, 9th Circuit — the most liberal jurisdiction in the Federal Appeals Court system. Nothing will come of any lawsuit.
The NFL has the Rooney Rule for the benefit of non-white coaches, and they’re expanding the incentives for hiring minority candidates with draft picks. The Packers are the only semi-public corporate entity in the league, and the NFL goes to great lengths to make sure that never happens again.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8394755/Jeff-Bezos-explains-support-Black-Lives-Matter.html
“‘I have a 20-year-old son, and I simply don’t worry that he might be choked to death while being detained one day. It’s not something I worry about. Black parents can’t say the same.’ ”
–here’s his “wealth privilege” speaking. And I guess he doesn’t have to worry about his wife calling the cops and ending up shot dead by a diversity hire, or getting sexually abused on the side of a road during a traffic stop, or even being victimized by a convict released early over covid fears. In fact, I bet Bezos doesn’t have to worry about much, except maybe extortion and kidnapping. And there’s mexican nationals making $20k a year who have to worry about that too.
I absolutely LOVE the cluelessness in the statement “‘Black lives matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t matter'” when people have been fired or hounded out of jobs for asserting the exact same thing about All Lives Matter, or Cop Lives Matter, or White Lives Matter.
WORDS matter.
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–here’s his “wealth privilege” speaking. And I guess he doesn’t have to worry about his wife calling the cops and ending up shot dead by a diversity hire, or getting sexually abused on the side of a road during a traffic stop, or even being victimized by a convict released early over covid fears. In fact, I bet Bezos doesn’t have to worry about much, except maybe extortion and kidnapping. And there’s mexican nationals making $20k a year who have to worry about that too.
Bezos is divorced, one of the most expensive settlement deals in history. The only thing he’s worried about in the last five years is retaining the voting power of the AMZN shares he gave his wife. Acoording to The Legend Of Jeff, Family Guy, Drives A Honda, Wears The Same Type Of Shirt To Work Every Day (TM), MacKenzie Bezos gave up her own promising career at DE Shaw and drove the Bronco cross-country from New York to Seattle while Jeff worked on the Amazon business model on his laptop sitting in the passenger seat.
Live by The Legend, lose half of your money by The Legend.
That said, another part of The Legend states that Mrs. Bezos suggested books as a lover of literature going back to her days as Toni Morrison’s grad student assistant at Princeton. While highly unlikely, it is definitely possible that the ex-wife could end up hurt or dead from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially if she’s moved back east to NY or NJ to hang out in the NY-Philadelphia corridor and relive the glory days of her 20s as an extremely wealthy version of the creepy hippies who used to loiter around my university in the library and student center, having started school in the late 60s and never graduated.
One hit off the wrong skull bong in ’67 and there they are, still on campus in ’86. Just one more class, man …
I’m thinking about getting a Tesla Lowlander.
“Don’t need more than two seats; we rarely have passengers, but need the cargo space. Like the Highlander, but a bit more $ than we want spend.”
I’m thinking about getting a Tesla Lowlander.
No less real than the Cybertruck at this point.
The big downside of the RAV4 is that, as hungry as the dealers are in general, they’re not going to deal much on that vehicle since it is Toyota’s most popular model. Or at least was. It is popular for a reason, however, and if Toyota has truly solved DI carbon fouling issues all manufacturers faced trying to meet 38 MPG CAFE, you should get 100,000 miles or more without much more than standard maintenance.
BTW, if you still have the rodent problem, the 2018+ Toyota TNGA wiring is extra tasty to the varmints. You’ll want that spray under the vehicle where it parks, and, in the event of any damage, the Honda anti-rodent tape to wrap the problem spot on the replacement wiring as I did with my 2018 Camry.
Important tip — handle the tape with gloves.
Honda and Kia have even tastier wire, apparently, so it isn’t just Toyota. Toyota had their class action lawsuit dismissed, however, while the one against Honda continues.
The Yucs need to be smarter than this. Both the GM (and Jimbo Fisher) were lucky the Jameis Winston saga ended with a whimper instead of a PR disaster. Tom Brady will put butts in seats regardless of whether he still has the ability to play at a high level.
https://www.si.com/nfl/buccaneers/news/nfl-colin-kaepernick-tom-brady-bucs
Sportswriters need some sports ball to write about … and soon.
Next time, take the chain off the saw. The snowflakes aren’t going to look.
https://twitter.com/freezerohedge/status/1269008359291621376
Thinking of purchasing a 2020 RAV4 (AWD, tow package, XLE trim). About $35K, but got a good hunk to put down (from the house refinance). Toyota offering 1.9%APR/60 months. Current vehicle is a 2008 Highlander, 237K miles; it will go to a daughter.
Need to have a tow hitch to carry the powered wheelchair. Don’t need more than two seats; we rarely have passengers, but need the cargo space. Like the Highlander, but a bit more $ than we want spend.
Have thought about used Highlanders (2018+), but there’s a big fuel pump recall that doesn’t have parts yet for those model years. Figure that local dealers are a bit hungry, so hoping for some price adjustments. Will be researching same, and methods to up my negotiating game.
I paid $31K plus TTL for the wife’s 2019 Highlander LE 2WD with V6 and metallic white paint as the only options. MSRP was $37K. Bought it on Dec 30, 2018. Gets 20 mpg in city / 30 mpg on road. Zero to 60 mph in 6 sec. Totally awesome vehicle and highly recommended.
I think that the AWD version was another $3K or $6K, I cannot remember. I like it because it was a safe car for the wife and daughter. I also like it because I fit in any seat but the third row. I am not comfortable in many smaller vehicles any more due to my above average size and age.
Monday is going to be very interesting in the Houston area with the George Floyd funeral. They just canceled our garbage pickup on Monday. The latest estimate is 100,000 attendees at the church. Spicy time !
Monday is going to be very interesting in the Houston area with the George Floyd funeral. They just canceled our garbage pickup on Monday. The latest estimate is 100,000 attendees at the church. Spicy time !
Today was bulk pick up day in the neighborhood, well publicized at the community center via their electronic signs, so we’ve had a lot of creepy vehicles rolling through between last night and this morning, some of which I couldn’t decide if they were really looking for castoffs or casing the houses.
I hate the back entrance into our subdivision that the county cut through to the H1B housing development so the residents could get to their jobs at Dell without using the highways. The road provides a direct route to our house from the freeway and the bus/train center.
Hoo boy it’s hot.
Stepped out for a while doing auction pickups. All stuff for the kids or the household. Did arrange to take some stuff to one auction this week and see how it sells.
Came home and cut the lawn. Then I got in the pool. Played games with daughter 2. Rained. No lightning so I stayed in the pool, and we were soon back to blue sky and saturated air. I’m done for the day. Cooking dinner, then movie night.
Instacart FINALLY came this afternoon with my order from yesterday. Of course, by the time the guy went shopping all the stuff I was surprised to find in stock was out of stock. Bleach, Magic Erasers, cases of canned peaches, fresh bratwurst, all in stock when ordered, all out of stock a day later. That’s the first time instacart didn’t bring me my food within 2 hours and very annoying that I missed those items.
n
Hoo boy it’s hot.
Wow, we hit 65,000 MW today in Texas, that is amazing for a weekend day. The all time peak is 74,531 MW set on Aug 12, 2019. I saw 99 F on Wunderground yesterday, today looks like 95 F peak.
http://www.ercot.com/
The Yucs need to be smarter than this. Both the GM (and Jimbo Fisher) were lucky the Jameis Winston saga ended with a whimper instead of a PR disaster. Tom Brady will put butts in seats regardless of whether he still has the ability to play at a high level.
https://www.si.com/nfl/buccaneers/news/nfl-colin-kaepernick-tom-brady-bucs
Sportswriters need some sports ball to write about … and soon.
But if the Yucs were truly in touch with their inner BLM, they would field a total black team, down to the water boys and girls.
And I am trying to envision the game of Pro Football using the six foot distancing rule with face masks.
I am going to pass on the NFL this year, gonna be a bunch of useless posturing all around the place. There will be a moment of silence for George Floyd before, in the middle, and after each game.
“Reminder: World’s worst computer modeler ruined the world economy”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/06/reminder-worlds-worst-computer-modeler-ruined-the-world-economy/
“From the “all models are wrong, some are completely useless” department. This was originally from May 6th, but it’s so bad, we deserve a reminder just as we are about to emerge from the final phases of lockdown here in California.”
“From the National Review:
‘Professor Lockdown’ Modeler Resigns in Disgrace”
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/professor-lockdown-modeler-resigns-in-disgrace/
“Neil Ferguson is the British academic who created the infamous Imperial College model that warned Boris Johnson that, without an immediate lockdown, the coronavirus would cause 500,000 deaths and swamp the National Health Service.”
Do they not see the irony of “taking a knee”, for a guy who was killed by kneeling on him? ESPECIALLY when they do it for ~9 minutes? They are symbolically killing him themselves, every time…
n
Wow, that’s a pretty big change in the reporting from last week…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8394475/Traditional-funeral-pyres-set-New-Delhi-furnaces-struggle-Covid-deaths.html
~10k dead in a day…
n
Do they not see the irony of “taking a knee”, for a guy who was killed by kneeling on him? ESPECIALLY when they do it for ~9 minutes? They are symbolically killing him themselves, every time…
n
Nice catch, Nick!
Go! Go me hearties, and spread the word…
Every time you take a knee, you’re acting out the part of the KILLER. You are practicing to kill! You glorify the murder! You are continuing the oppression of blacks, figuratively kneeling on the throat of each one when you mimic the actions of that cop! You are expressing your secret desire to oppress and kill, just like the cops!
—man I’d love for that to spread, so I never have to see someone ‘take a knee’ again. Let them have to explain that they’re copying Kopurniklutz not secretly revelling in mimicking the killer….and acting out the killing.
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