Hot, humid, but perhaps not so hot as last week. And in theory, we’re on the edge of a system with T storms and heavy rain.
Yesterday stayed mostly overcast, which helped with the temps. It still got over 100F in the driveway.
After cutting the grass, blowing the debris, and weeding the gardens, I got some small things done. I finished changing out the sprinkler heads that were sticking up too far. I’d gotten 70% of the way done and stopped, so today I finished. I did a couple of other small tasks too.
Then I thoroughly cleaned the new freezer inside and out. I’ve got a bit more to do on the door. The outside is streaky where the clorox bleach cleaner lifted some 28 year old dirt but left the rest. I’d really like to go over that when I refill my spray bottle. The inside was in great shape. It’s been wet in the heat, so anything that WOULD grow in it DID grow in it. And that was very little. I plugged it in to start it getting cold again, and to keep it clean inside.
I’ve figured out how I want to change my garage layout to accommodate the new freezer. I’m taking out an old workbench that did nothing but catch piles of junk. I’ll slide the old fridge and new freezer to the end of the wall, and move the chest freezer over too. I’ll have a chance to put a file cabinet and some shelves where the chest freezer used to live. It will open stuff up a bit. Hopefully it will be a better use of the space, with less opportunity to just pile stuff on horizontal surfaces.
I need a dry, cooler day, to pull everything out of that side of the garage and move stuff around. Hope I get one soon.
The gardens are what they are… something has eaten almost every onion I planted. There are only a couple left. The broccoli is struggling. One plant died off this week. The others might or might not produce another stalk for my dinner. Probably not. The grape vine that lived is going gangbusters and has taken over the whole trellis. I don’t know if that means grapes or no grapes though. I haven’t seen any yet. The vine that died back to within a foot of the ground has put out new leaves and grown a bit. Maybe next year it will be back up the trellis.
Tomato plants are still alive, still setting flowers, and have a couple more tomatoes growing. I took two last week. Tomatoes have never grown well for me. One potato tower is empty of living plants, the other is down to one remaining plant. No idea if they died or were eaten. I can’t keep up with the sweet peppers. I had several rot on the bush. They are really tasty but I’m the only one who eats them. The brusselsprouts are finally thriving but haven’t put up the sprout stalk yet. Cabbages are about tennis ball sized through to slow pitch softball sized and looking good. Corn is about 2 1/2 to 3 feet high and has tassels. It LOOKS like it is growing well. I guess we’ll see later in the year. The melons/squash are still alive, with flowers, so I’m hopeful they’ll continue to grow.
I harvested 6 more blueberries today- go me! I was pleasantly surprised to realize I had more green fruits on the orange and grapefruit trees than I thought. I hope they ripen into good fruit. The container lime has a fruit or two left. The Meyer lemon is heavy with fruit. I had some garlic cloves sprout in the cabinet, so I stuck them in the window box today. No idea if they’ll root and grow, but the box was empty, and I’m not eating the sprouted cloves. I’ve got a couple of small cilantro plants started. I love cilantro and will eat and cook with it if I have it. It will be nice if the heat doesn’t kill them. Now if only I had 10 to 20 times the stuff planted, I might get more than the occasional taste… Growing food has a long learning curve, better get started.
Because the world isn’t getting better. “Protests” and rioting are continuing. Wuflu is continuing, although as the people getting sick are younger this time around, maybe it won’t kill so many of them. I’m nervous about it. My neighbor at my secondary location told me one of his coworkers and his whole family have it. Several of his other coworkers all have strong exposures now, as they drove around in the truck with the sick guy. My neighbor said he was outdoors (construction) and wearing a mask, but he’s still been told to stay home until he’s clear. I spent a few hours chatting with him in the parking lot. I’m hoping like he11 that 6 feet and a steady cross breeze is enough to keep me well. My next door neighbor at the house went to the Doctor in a big hurry this evening. I haven’t had a chance to find out why, but I really hope it wasn’t for a covid test.
Today I’ll be headed out to my client’s house to try to get him buttoned up before the Fourth. I’ve got auction pickups too (for my wife and her projects mainly, now that she’s discovered how handy and economical it is to have me on the lookout for stuff.) Since I was going anyway, I got some web gear, gub accessories, and a couple of things for me as well.
The scanner last night had someone in town running a drug surveillance op. Last I heard, they were watching a group of about 30 people hanging out, having a bonfire in the middle of the street around midnight. “That’s a really big fire!” says one cop. Just another weekend night in the ‘hood, I guess. Not something you’d know about from the news.
I hope everyone is healthy this week. And working on preps for the future. It’s comin’ like a freight train….
Keep stacking,
nick
A news reporter was interviewing a person holding a “Black Power” sign complaining that Trump retweeting a video where someone said “White Power” proved Trump is a racist. You can’t fix stupid. I guess only white people can be racists. Must be some recessive gene.
They freeze well. Cut off the tops and slice the body into strips and toss into a freezer bag. When you take them out they probably won’t be suitable for munching or fresh salads, but they’re fine for stir fry, dicing and tossing into a pot of jambalaya, and similar.
Our school systems started “only WHITEY!” can be rayyciss many years ago. Of course, *anybody* can be rayyciss, but that doesn’t fit the narrative. I’m sure current dictionaries are are changing the rayyciss definition to be WHITEY! as we speak. Probably have a picture of tRump as an example.
–went from a few to more than 200
n
When this is over it really will be about money. People on welfare will pay nothing while the rest of us will get slammed. I suspect forced to get the treatment or get fined and jailed, a felony.
“When this is over it really will be about money. ”
–thus all the backlash against the HCQ treatment. No money to be made.
n
@RickH, I just noticed the :thumbs-up: and :thumbs-down:
How long have they been there?
This really is the first day that I noticed them. Nice touch.
“(Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc has priced its COVID-19 drug candidate remdesivir at $2,340 for a five-day treatment in the United States”
When this is over it really will be about money. People on welfare will pay nothing while the rest of us will get slammed. I suspect forced to get the treatment or get fined and jailed, a felony.
Remdesivir is administered to the sickest who get admitted to the hospital in order to speed recovery. Recouping costs will be the usual song and dance of cost shifting, negotiations, and writeoffs.
I imagine that manufacturing the drug is not cheap, but I could be wrong.
this is almost exactly what my insider buddy told me on Friday.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/houston-hospital-boss-shatters-medias-covid-fearmongering-only-about-3-or-4-more-people-icu
n
I will point out that this applies to Texas only, and Houston specifically.
Cali might be a different story, Aesop’s hospital is full, has been full, and has gone on diversion…. https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/06/yeah-about-that-hoax-pandemic.html
Does it matter? The drug companies will charge whatever the market will bear. A 2000% profit is not a concern. Look at what the drug companies have done to insulin. Find something people cannot live without and put the screws to the patients. Covid-19 cures, vaccines, treatments will be no different.
I have zero faith in the drug companies regarding pricing.
“When this is over it really will be about money. ”
–thus all the backlash against the HCQ treatment. No money to be made.
HCQ may or may not work, depending on the patient, and there are side effects, contraindications, and medical conditions which may preclude its use. I don’t believe the FDA withdrew the permission to use it for Covid at physician’s discretion, however.
Cali might be a different story, Aesop’s hospital is full, has been full, and has gone on diversion….
Southern California hospitals go on diversion at the drop of a hat on a busy weekend. In Florida, Miami/Dade is the same way. In addition to capacity problems, there are hospitals people won’t go to unless their lives depend on it. I know the hospital where I was born in Anaheim was that way until HCA gave up and built a new building just down the freeway.
At one point, the hospital where I was born was on permanent “DO NOT TAKE AN OFFICER HERE, NO MATTER HOW BAD” status with the police in the region.
Driving out Saturday, we passed the North Austin/Round Rock hospital my wife classifies as “awful”, and they were about as busy as usual — in other words, slow — no ambulances lined up at the door with patients from far flung locales around Texas.
The interal VA reports in Central Texas show San Antonio as ticking up, but the big facility in Temple still at normal volumes treating the usual.
Texas should not have the numbers it does, but if the situation gets really dire, my wife would be ordered home and sent to Temple or San Antonio. Right now, San Antonio is simply seeking volunteers to relieve the existing staff on weekends.
Of course, VA patients have been really good about heeding orders about staying home and social distancing. It isn’t the general population, but they do interact.
>”I guess only white people can be racists.”
That has overtly been the party line for some years now. Clearly, it is about power, not any sort of equality.
Or the hospitals, or the medical practices, or the insurance companies, or…
They will all find a way to scam the system and make big bucks. Especially the insurance companies, thieving jerks.
Over The Hedge: Cabin Fever
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/06/29
Yes, that does look like a war zone.
this is almost exactly what my insider buddy told me on Friday.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/houston-hospital-boss-shatters-medias-covid-fearmongering-only-about-3-or-4-more-people-icu
Having lain on a gurney in a Texas hospital in a hallway for well over six hours with a leg broken in two places, I can say yes to that. My brother was on the gurney next to me with a vein ripped loose from his stomach for four or five hours of that time, we talked about his abdomen growing with the blood leakage. We could hear the surgeon shouting at the nurse as he tried to save the woman in the other car with over half of the bones broken in her body (he did not, it was a Herculean task). They can make ICUs all over the place if necessary and have plans for this.
Two cars hitting at 70 mph each on a curve is a real bad thing in 1972 or now. Wear your seatbelts, we did in our car, the other car did not.
“H-E-B limiting toilet paper, paper towel purchases again as coronavirus cases in Texas rise”
https://www.chron.com/business/article/H-E-B-limiting-toilet-paper-paper-towel-15373851.php
Our HEB was out of toilet paper, paper towels, and many of the canned vegetables on Saturday evening. People seek their comfort where they can in bad times.
The interal VA reports in Central Texas show San Antonio as ticking up, but the big facility in Temple still at normal volumes treating the usual.
Hey, the big VA facility in Temple is what, 10,000 beds ??? It is huge. My wife’s uncle has had several procedures there in the last 20 years.
Is using the W word as despicable as using the N word?
I ordered two TV remotes yesterday and after paying it said “delivery by August 18” or so. I canceled the order almost 15 minutes later.
Found a seller in Houston and delivery is July 2.
Oh! Then eBay says I can’t cancel the order because it’s already shipped. That e-mail was over 4 hours after I canceled.
Yeah, I believe that. I believe lots of things. But not this. I hope they don’t expect positive feedback.
“After switching to ARM, expect Apple to buy TSMC, too”
https://www.cringely.com/2020/06/29/after-switching-to-arm-expect-apple-to-buy-tsmc-too/
“Quite simply, Apple-designed ARM chips will be cheaper than continuing to use Intel chips. In a market with continued downward price pressure, this will help Apple maintain the higher profit margins that help make the company so uniquely valuable. Yes, the chips will also consume less power, make less heat and — this is really important — be designed-into the Apple ecosystem far more than Intel’s merchant chips ever could be. But what counts most of all is the money: they are cheaper.”
Yup.
I ordered two TV remotes yesterday and after paying it said “delivery by August 18” or so. I canceled the order almost 15 minutes later.
Found a seller in Houston and delivery is July 2.
Oh! Then eBay says I can’t cancel the order because it’s already shipped. That e-mail was over 4 hours after I canceled.
Yeah, I believe that. I believe lots of things. But not this. I hope they don’t expect positive feedback.
They were shipped from Mars on the slow rocket …
Rats. The water softener has a manifold of sort which includes a bypass valve. It’s held to the control head with a couple of plastic c clip things. Remove clip, slide the manifold out.
Easier said than done.
I can’t get the clips out. And, if I’m going to break something I need the breakable parts on hand.
So instead of actually fixing it, I’m going for replacing it. I can go to Lowes or Home Depot for a new GE water softener. Someone (Greg?) said there is better than that. What brand?
I can try to fix it after replacing it. Soft water in the EDC would be nice.
Fun times in a small town!
I ordered a new battery for my phone. Tracking shows it as delivered. Not in my mail box.
Well, there are two 660 mailboxes on the route. I get their mail once in a while and take it to the PO because that’s closer than the three miles or so to their mailbox with three miles back and still four miles to the PO. It’s not a big deal when you work at the HEB and the PO is across the street. Almost next door.
So, I left my name and number. They called back after a few minutes.
The carrier overheard the phone conversation and is going to retrieve the package and re-deliver to my mail box. “Give her half an hour.” More like 45 minutes. Not going to sit there with a stopwatch.
In Austin I would still be on hold with plenty of “we appreciate blah blah blah” and crummy hold music.
“Near Hong Kong”. I think that’s like saying “shipped from El Paso but actually from Houston”. With a detour through Fort Worth.
I’m just ticked by their lie.
Now we have Thumbs Down, too. Great. I expect to get a lot of those. 🙂
Can I vote for myself? Can, say, Someone, see who voted how? Just wondering.
The Shadowstats unemployment rate is now 35%, up from 20% four months ago:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
This does not bode well for the future.
Soft water in the EDC would be nice.
Please don’t put your Every Day Carry into a water bucket with epsom salts !
Seems to work for any anonymous cowards 😉
They were shipped from Mars on the slow rocket …
“Near Hong Kong”. I think that’s like saying “shipped from El Paso but actually from Houston”. With a detour through Fort Worth.
I’m just ticked by their lie.
My dad bought a Playstation 4 for my daughter from an outfit in New York. They shipped the PS4 from Hong Kong. Yes, we got the Asian version of the PS4. So far it is just fine. She has a separate Bluray player so the region code does not matter.
She was watching the awesome Labyrinth movie last night, I watched with her for a while. We argued about Disney’s new “Back To Labyrinth” movie as I feel that no one can measure up to David Bowie as the Goblin King. We decided that Disney needs to have a Goblin Queen instead as neither us feels that Adam Lambert can pull it off.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/
Some of the dialog for Labyrinth:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/characters/nm0000309?ref_=tt_cl_t1
“Jareth : Hello, Hedgewart.
Sarah : Hogwart.
Hoggle : Hog-gle!”
Oh yes, J. K. Rowling watched Labyrinth before writing Harry Potter and creating the magical Hogwarts.
Not a problem, I obliged. Not that I cared, I just wanted to make you happy.
EDC is short for Embryo Development Centre.
Gotta spell Center “fancy”. AKA, Incubator Building. Because that’s where the Natureform that is racked for 96 emu eggs lived.
The electric bills used to say “first right off “blank” road for the house and the EDC was “incubation building”. Now it’s all boring with official street addresses.
What a pal! Grin!
Re the thumbs up/down: no tracking of who did the vote. But anyone can see the vote tally. A cookie on your browser will block further voting. So I suppose that you could delete the cookie to stuff the ballot box.
Or I could set it to track by IP address.
On another note, I got my “Song of the South” DVD today. “Deluxe” edition. Looks brand new, except for shrink wrap. No scratches on the DVD. Case is shiny new. No indication on the case of when the DVD was produced. Label does indicate region-free playback. All for only $15.
Later on, I will be politically incorrect and ignore any outmoded racial stereotypes. Of course, I live in a county called “Jefferson” in a state called “Washington”.
“After switching to ARM, expect Apple to buy TSMC, too”
Apple is better off fabless, like AMD. Not having their own production line allows them to shop around for manufacturing and get the best quality/price, investing cash strategically as they have done for displays and other components when it make sense, keeping Sharp alive long enough to get bought out for example.
Apple could even take the chips back to Intel for fab capacity. That wouldn’t surprise me.
Not having a fab also allows Apple to use Samsung’s fab down the street from their CPU design facility in Austin for prototypes and small manufacturing runs. Don’t tell me that doesn’t happen quietly.
Likewise, TSMC is better off without Apple. They make chips for *everybody*, including all the current video game console manufacturers.
EDC is short for Embryo Development Centre.
Gotta spell Center “fancy”. AKA, Incubator Building. Because that’s where the Natureform that is racked for 96 emu eggs lived.
Are you still raising EMUs ?
Later on, I will be politically incorrect and ignore any outmoded racial stereotypes. Of course, I live in a county called “Jefferson” in a state called “Washington”.
Those will be changing soon in these enlightened times. Washington, DC wants to become the Douglas Commonwealth. Because Christopher Columbus was a genocidist and George Washington was a slave owner.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/26/house-passes-bill-to-make-washington-dc-the-51st-state.html
On another note, I got my “Song of the South” DVD today. “Deluxe” edition. Looks brand new, except for shrink wrap. No scratches on the DVD. Case is shiny new. No indication on the case of when the DVD was produced. Label does indicate region-free playback. All for only $15.
Region locking for a DVD isn’t as much of a problem as PAL encoding.
If you got a region-free PAL DVD, I can walk you through the conversion if you want a disc for the living room.
The Shadowstats unemployment rate is now 35%, up from 20% four months ago:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
This does not bode well for the future.
No one wants to go back to their cr*ppy pre-virus jobs. Name a recent big bankruptcy where the store chain wasn’t in trouble for at least a decade.
The Shadowstats unemployment rate is now 35%, up from 20% four months ago:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
This does not bode well for the future.
No one wants to go back to their cr*ppy pre-virus jobs. Name a recent big bankruptcy where the store chain wasn’t in trouble for at least a decade.
How are they going to pay the rent and keep momma happy ?
Stimulus checks and welfare.
@greg:
Surely the only difference between a “PAL/SECAM” and an “NTSC” DVD is the scanning rates, particularly the vertical rate – 50 or 60Hz, respectively? Absent region coding, of course. The ondisc video is all YUV (luminance and 2 colour-difference signals) aka “component”.
Any modern TV (i,e, non-CRT) should sneer at 50/60Hz, and just work.
G.
They generally do. NTSC/PAL also has a different number of horizontal lines from my understanding, at least in SD. I don’t know about HD, UHD, or 4K.
All my video at the church runs at 59.94 vertical rate. I have not found a TV that will not properly display the information except for one 90″ Samsung. It will lose sync every few minutes for about three seconds. Cables have been checked, the SDI to HDMI converted checked. All seems good. So I just leave it.
I did try putting Apple TV on the system. Apple runs at 60hz vertical rate. The entire system basically ignored the device. I had to install an Up/Down converter from Blackmagic Design. That little box will take any signal and convert to the output specified by dip switch settings. Will take in HDMI or SDI and output SDI or HDMI. Wonderful little box.
I do know for a fact that computer monitors will not work at 59.94. The output must be specific.
How are they going to pay the rent and keep momma happy
Stimulus checks and welfare.
Momma can get those from Uncle Sammie. Boyfriends gotta bring cash.
“Almost 300 Windows 10 executables vulnerable to DLL hijacking”
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/almost-300-windows-10-executables-vulnerable-to-dll-hijacking/
If I can get to the console of a PC, I own it. This is a lot of work to own a PC.
@greg:
Surely the only difference between a “PAL/SECAM” and an “NTSC” DVD is the scanning rates, particularly the vertical rate – 50 or 60Hz, respectively? Absent region coding, of course. The ondisc video is all YUV (luminance and 2 colour-difference signals) aka “component”.
PAL DVDs have higher vertical resolution. FFMpeg will transcode the video easily for creating a new DVD with DVDAuthor.
The other route is to rip the disc with Handbrake to x264. Most newer BluRay players will play x264 from a USB flash drive.
If I can get to the console of a PC, I own it. This is a lot of work to own a PC.
When I played in Windows, we didn’t leave the function signatures in the DLLs beyond the embedded Python module I built, and that shared library required compiling the calling EXE with a very specific UUID in the MSVCRT to avoid core dumps due to our developers ignoring standard practice in mixing C++ and Python.
“How are they going to pay the rent and keep momma happy”
Stimulus checks and welfare.
Parents. My mother-in-law still pays my wife’s sister’s bills.
My sister-in-law works Gig Economy jobs — Uber and piece work medical billing at half the rate of regular billing services.
Speaking of working, I got a few things done at my client’s house, but due to my late start, I’ll still be going back.
And my sometimes business partner is indeed positive for wuflu. He says it’s like a bad summer cold at this point. I hope it stays there and improves.
n
You do realize that we will be wearing masks for the rest of our lives, don’t you ? “States reverse openings, require masks amid virus resurgence”
https://apnews.com/3838b5b207c68546b22f9bd9d62e2e36
I doubt that we will ever get a workable vaccine out of the 120 being worked on.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
The argument to wear masks now is the argument to ALWAYS wear masks FOREVER. It’s about you not spreading a pathogen via coughing/sneezing/mucous/saliva and killing someone as a result. That’s true of a LOT of diseases. The obvious one being influenza. Thousands in the US die from it every year (despite a vaccine). So, if even one person dying from COVID-19 because you didn’t want to wear a mask is too high a price then the same can be said for even one person dying of influenza because you chose to not wear a mask. In which case, why aren’t masks mandatory from October through March EVERY year. If all it takes is a little rhinovirus to give grandma pneumonia and send her to an early grave then we should be wearing masks 24/7/365 to prevent spreading the common cold. So, if you’re a big mask proponent right now then I better NEVER see you in public without a mask. Not a week from now. Not a year from now. Not a decade from now. That’s the moral corner you’ve painted yourself into.
@paul
I expect to get a lot of those
That’s a self fulfilling prophecy
Ok, things are getting weirder by an order of magnitude.
–“insiders” again. Oath breakers. SERIOUSLY MAJOR, LIFE IN PRISON oath breaking, if true. Suddenly, after wazzizzname is finally revealed as the fabulist he was, ANOTHER wave of text ‘revelations’. From ‘insiders’. Given cachet and cover by one of the guys who did more to destroy the shared story of America, the mythos that created a nation out of individuals, than anyone.
and on the heels of the ‘russian bounty’ story.
It is getting seriously nuts.
n
I have not seen abuse of it and in the vast majority of posts I see what I would expect. Only a few weird thumb downs that I would not have expected here.
My 2cents: I like it and see we are having some fun with it. Leave as is.
It is happening in Oz in a way. DotGov instituted a JobKeeper payment. A set amount is paid to a business so the business can pass it on to the employee. Some businesses are reporting that given that the payment is considerable higher than even shift-work, the employees refuse to take shifts…
Is that a total of 7 years?
@chad, the ‘novel’ nature of this bug changes that logic somewhat. I agree that there should be a defined endstate.
n
I am not sure the thumbs up/down is a good idea. So far, this blog has a diversity of opinion (well, to the right of center, but spread out) with folks expressing their opinions and no negative feedback. I worry that the thumbs-down will cause some difficulties. I like the thumbs-up. (NB: I am a Canadian and a Globe and Mail subscriber. They changed their commenting system about 18 months (maybe more) ago to remove voting down and that did remove a certain amount of noise and contention on their comment system). I would ask that Nick and RickH watch what impact the thumbs have on behavior.