Cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, cool again at night.
That’s what yesterday was like anyway.
I did a few little things. The main two were looking at roofing samples with the wife under various lighting conditions trying to pick the one to go with. Simple for me, not so simple for her. And D/L’ing and trying some different security cam NVR software. I like the one from Russia with love, Xeoma Video. The playback is very nice and intuitive. It’s easy to zoom both the live video and the recording. The load on my pc is MUCH less as well. The main difference is that there are license fees for the product. There is a free version, some limited versions, and lots of additional cost add ons. I like it, but I’ll have to see what the cost would end up being. I was able to add all my cameras, even the weird old ones. There is a version that runs on linux. This may be the case where the additional cost is well worth it.
Couldn’t find my micro drip irrigation supplies. Bummer. I’ll have to buy some to water the ‘window’ boxes on the fence. If I don’t, I can be pretty sure I won’t be successful growing anything in them.
I ate too many carbs at lunch and had to take a nap. I decided to lay down, as I’m tired of waking up in my chair with a sore neck. That’s been happening more than I’d like. I’ve been coughing more than I’d like too. Part of cleaning up my bedroom was to control the dust under the bed and around the corners…but that didn’t solve the issue. My temp is normal as is my pulse ox, but I can’t help but consider that I might have picked up the wuflu. I think I picked up something, which is a breach of my protocol somewhere. It could just be lack of sleep and seasonal allergies, but now my wife thinks I should get tested. I’ll report on that when it happens.
Grocery order today, and more stuff for the freezer. Wife took a look at the canned goods and questioned some of the more unusual items. I like to have some choices, so I buy some stuff we don’t normally eat. Heck, until I started storing long term food we rarely ate anything out of cans at all. I have them to combat appetite fatigue if we’re ever forced to eat out of stores for a long time, and alot of them can be added to rice too, for a change of pace. I shudder to think of a time when lima beans will be welcome on the plate.
We can’t know for certain what tomorrow will bring, but we can prepare for the likely things. No one knew on September 10th, 2001 that the world would change forever the next day. So get ready for what you can, and plan to deal with the rest. Stack it high.
nick
There are a few people interested or curious about Starlink here. With the authorized 12k units it will serve about 5 million people. Not much, I would have thought. Perhaps it would be a good idea to try and get in the Beta…
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/spacex-starlink-brings-internet-to-emergency-responders-in-wildfire-areas/
Seems to be looking good and with a 3 year US Army deal it means that a lot of effort will be spent on getting it right…
@marcelo, there are a couple of articles that describe why Starlink will succeed, or at least become the Iridium of data carriers…
–Once there’s an acronym you know it will never die.
n
Grocery order today, and more stuff for the freezer. Wife took a look at the canned goods and questioned some of the more unusual items. I like to have some choices, so I buy some stuff we don’t normally eat. Heck, until I started storing long term food we rarely ate anything out of cans at all. I have them to combat appetite fatigue if we’re ever forced to eat out of stores for a long time, and alot of them can be added to rice too, for a change of pace. I shudder to think of a time when lima beans will be welcome on the plate.
I’ve noticed that Wolf Brand Chili hasn’t moved much at our local warehouse stores in the last six months. The same goes for Vienna Sausages.
@marcelo, there are a couple of articles that describe why Starlink will succeed, or at least become the Iridium of data carriers…
Like Iridium, Starlink may well succeed for a limited audience.
My concern is that the Cult of the Real Life Tony Stark (TM) will sufficiently believe the Reverend’s pizza boxes for the masses spiel that Tony shall ask Congress for and shall receeeeeeeeive whats left of the terrestrial broadcast services spectrum in return for a promise of Baby Yoda streaming anywhere on the planet, anytime for $60/month.
If you think corporations in the US control the media now, just wait.
And in the ‘water is wet’ category–
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8797647/Millions-career-women-considering-giving-work-stress-lockdown.html
—the primary goal, and probably secondary, tertiary, and beyond goal of business is NOT “gender diversity”. It is positive return on it’s owners’ investment. Anything else is a luxury and a distraction. Companies were doing fine before women entered the workforce in numbers, and would do fine again. FAMILIES may have a different experience, but the article is focused on business.
— more ‘water is wet’ —
–imagine that. But, WHY do you need two wage earners now? Inflation. Caused by both monetary policy, and the effect of doubling the pool of available workers. More available workers drives down wages, whether those workers are illegals, women, or H1B visas. Part of why I’m skeptical of “learn to code” efforts is that any time they try to increase the pool of qualified candidates, it decreases wages, killing the ‘well paying’ part of the job.
n
Yeah…
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2020/10/heh_2.html
Trump tests positive. Next debate via Zoom from the WH and Uncle Joe’s basement.
Part of why I’m skeptical of “learn to code” efforts is that any time they try to increase the pool of qualified candidates, it decreases wages, killing the ‘well paying’ part of the job.
The efforts only increase the pool of diverse and/or cheap candidates. As I’ve noted before, the percentage of the population who could be trained to the level of “qualified” is fixed.
Trump tests positive. Next debate via Zoom from the WH and Uncle Joe’s basement.
Teams, like the NFL draft.
I never posted my own run-in with WuFlu. This happened around Memorial Day. The family was vacationing in SA along with our intern. The intern went *tubing* with frat buddies. Two days later he felt sick and was turning pale. He was staying with us, so we put him in bed for the day. The next day he was 100%, but we sent him to get ChiCom Virus tested. He tested positive. It took a day for him to get the results, and quarantined with his family. We all decided to get tested. Eight of us. Half went with the 1-day test and half with the wait 30 min test (I took the 30 min test). We all came back negative and had no symptoms. Being mainly Hispanic, there was plenty of hugging during this time.
I believe the intern had some unknown virus. Or we all already had the ChiCom and had anti-bodies.
A week from now, tRump will either be sick, or, he’ll be fine and the country can relax about the ChiCom. As fugly ProgLibTurd pundits post “I hope the fat, out of shape fcuk dies”, a tRump recovery could end the mask mandates.
I wonder what Plugs is doing. President tRump was certainly WuFlu’d during the debate. Plugs’ advanced dementia could be worse than tRump’s pot belly for comorbidity factors.
My wife has had three fevers over 100℉ since March (what can I say – the woman gets sick a lot). She’s been tested three times for COVID-19. All negative. Sometimes I think people need to be reminded that just because COVID-19 is going around doesn’t mean every other communicable disease known to man stopped going around. There were plenty of viruses and bacteria that would cause fevers BEFORE the current pandemic and they’re all still out there in the wild. This assumption that every fever is COVID-19 is as silly as the old assumption that every fever between October and March was automatically influenza.
They should test Biden. I doubt he would test positive for anything. Including intelligence.
A week from now, tRump will either be sick, or, he’ll be fine and the country can relax about the ChiCom. As fugly ProgLibTurd pundits post “I hope the fat, out of shape fcuk dies”, a tRump recovery could end the mask mandates.
The Biden commercials in Austin keep promising a national mask mandate in January, a “patriotic duty”.
Regular flu numbers are WAY down. Turns out that precautions for wuflu work on other infectious diseases too. (don’t have the link handy.)
n
I’m mainly concerned about the cough and the occasional breathlessness/lightheadedness that results. The sometimes sharpness in my lungs, and the fatigue add to the concern. Never any fever yet this year, so I’m going with “don’t have it” because fever and cough were the critical symptoms.
I had chronic bronchitis as a kid, and issues ever since. Some were triggered or caused by industrial exposures, some just bad luck. I had diagnosed pneumonia 4 times one year when I was still traveling for work. Like eye issues, I’ve got a lifetime of minor lung issues too.
n
I remember thinking that when they first started saying that during the pandemic it was more important than ever to get a flu shot. I thought to myself, “With all the COVID-19 precautions won’t this turn out to be a really mild flu season?”
If we all barricade ourselves in and interact with nobody, then communicable disease will almost cease to exist. 🙂 It’s funny how that works. The introverts have been right all along! 🙂 lol
If tRump’s hairdresser is negative, he should protect her by replacing her with one who is positive.
” qualified candidates”
— got the right paper, are the right color/gender
If actual ability to code [well] was a criteria most of the people coding would be sent home.
I feel like it’s probably the same as any skilled trade, with motivation and training you can learn to do it competently, but to really do it WELL takes more.
n
(motivation and training being lacking in most cases too)
I’m listening to Mark Levin’s podcast from yesterday. He played the first 6 minutes of the Ryan/Plugs debate. All Plugs did was interrupt, snark, harass and bully. Just like the debate on Tuesday. Levin also said Plugs was the first to interrupt during Tuesday. I didn’t check, but that sounds right. Plugs is a bully and a thug who can’t debate. He certainly can’t think on his feet. Now way he will be President.
HARRIS/biden 2020
@nick, forgive me for missing any earlier comment, but what is your roofing project?
@drwilliams,
we had a minor hail storm a while ago, and had some of the ambulance chasers come by looking for roofing work. I let them inspect the roof, and call out my insurance adjuster. The adjuster laughing said, “you have the best roof money could buy at the time, it’s not showing any damage. It would take BASEBALL SIZED HAIL to damage it!”
Fast forward two WEEKS, and LO! what do we get but BASEBALL SIZED HAIL! The freaking jinx was on!
Well, this time I could see damage, so after getting roofer recommendations from a friend who is a commercial builder, and chasing off all the ambulance chasers, the roofer and adjuster came back out. This time there was enough damage to replace the roof. Then covid lockdown hit and we couldn’t proceed with the work.
Now that it’s cooler, and the roofer has time, we’re ready to have it replaced. We got approved for the top of the line asphalt 3D architectural, 40 year equivalent shingle. The hardest part was picking a color (which we will do later today when my wife gets a break from meetings).
Our roofline isn’t simple, but it’s not crazy complex either, so I’m hoping for a one day install.
n
I can’t say I’m surprised by the left’s reaction to Trump’s infection. There’s a 99+% chance he’ll be fine anyway.
I really hope he’ll be fine. Socialism is so great that Cubans die ever day trying to escape it.
Interesting moment from the debate… Biden says “Firstly (blaa blaa about something), that’s number 2, and thirdly…” Trump is simultaneously speaking to Wallace, turns to Biden and says “no, you’re on number 2”, then goes back to talking to Wallace. He was fully paying attention to Biden at the same time. No way Biden was multitasking at that level.
Interesting moment from the debate… Biden says “Firstly (blaa blaa about something), that’s number 2, and thirdly…” Trump is simultaneously speaking to Wallace, turns to Biden and says “no, you’re on number 2”, then goes back to talking to Wallace. He was fully paying attention to Biden at the same time. No way Biden was multitasking at that level.
Trump’s mistake was not letting Biden go into full meltdown yammering on the way he was. It almost happened several times, but Trump felt compelled to argue back at cheap shots.
It probably isn’t in Trump’s personality to let a cheap shot roll until Plugs was in full on Dementialand with his thoughts. Too bad. I also imagine Trump had a lot of caffeine in his system and was running on little sleep.
Interestingly enough, Hispanics and Asians seem less susceptible to getting COVID based on the numbers at the CDC.
For his age group, the IFR (infected fatality ratio) is over 5%. We don’t know what comorbidities he has besides obesity. I’d put the odds at about 2% of his passing unless he has other factors we don’t know like diabetes, type A blood, etc. Also, treatment has gotten a lot better, so his odds go up.
If anybody can get an effective treatment, surely it will be POTUS.
n
If you ever work above ground level, you might want to watch this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmjE0MWmNpY&feature=youtu.be
n
He’ll get the best treatment. Which will be treat any symptoms and take Vitamin D. If it gets worse, they’ll probably use steroids and interferon/resdemvir. (No, HCQ doesn’t seem to be very effective.)
Re: Programming
Here’s a language I have to work with semi-regularly, MUMPS (M),
—
Appendix 7: An example of “traditional” M coding style
%DTC
%DTC ; SF/XAK – DATE/TIME OPERATIONS ;1/16/92 11:36 AM
;;19.0;VA FileMan;;Jul 14, 1992
D I ‘X1!’X2 S X=”” Q
S X=X1 D H S X1=%H,X=X2,X2=%Y+1 D H S X=X1-%H,%Y=%Y+1&X2
K %H,X1,X2 Q
;
C S X=X1 Q:’X D H S %H=%H+X2 D YMD S:$P(X1,”.”,2) X=X_”.”_$P(X1,”.”,2)
K X1,X2 Q
S S %=%#60/100+(%#3600\60)/100+(%\3600)/100 Q
;
H I X2&'(%Y#4)+$P(“^31^59^90^120^151^181^212^243^273^304^334″,”^”,%M)+%D
S %=’%M!’%D,%Y=%Y-141,%H=%H+(%Y*365)+(%Y\4)-(%Y>59)+%,%Y=$S(%:-
1,1:%H+4#7)
K %M,%D,% Q
;
[…]
From http://www.faqs.org/faqs/m-technology-faq/part2/
.mg
@nick, ok, a few things to consider
1. Viewing color. View color under daylight illumination. CIE D65 is the standard for average daylight.
Don’t view your shingle choices by themselves. They are part of your architectural color pallet, and best viewed with your siding and trim colors.
2. Reflectance. The asphalt shingle industry has been chasing improved reflectance, or conversely, decreased solar absorption, for better than thirty years. Basically, the roofing granules are pigmented with metal oxide pigments that are designed to reflect solar IR, which makes up nearly half of the incoming energy. Look up “cool roof”.
3. Algae. The dark streaks on roofs is primarily a blue-green algae called Gloeocapsa magma. New roofs in the Houston area typically go dark within six months. You can see it on a white roof, not so much on darker roofs. There are algaecidal shingles that will prevent algae growth and keep your roof clean. Look for copper-based systems that use copper at a patented level and provide a warranty.
4. Nailing. Storm-nailed is six nails per shingle. Four is not enough. And all the nails have to be in the zone specified by the manufacturer, or your warranty can be voided. Discuss with your contractor, and make sure he inspects the work.
WRT roofing selection: 30 years ago we had our wooden shake roofing replaced with Al sheeting shaped to imitate wooden shake, painted dark brown to resemble the shake.
I am very confident that my roof will last another 30 years.
Please, please, please, Santa ! I want a Marlin 1894 Dark Series for Christmas. I’ve been a good boy this year ! OK, mostly a good boy. Ok, kinda a good boy this year. Ok, the wife has not had to beat me or put me in the corner in weeks !
https://www.marlinfirearms.com/lever-action/model-1894/model-1894-dark-series
I will take it in either .357 or .44 mag, I am not picky.
It will look beautiful right below my Henry Big Boy .357 with the John Wayne lever that is too pretty to shoot.
https://www.henryusa.com/caliber/357-magnum-38-spl/
Homeowners Insurance where I live is basically Prepaid Roofing (and priced accordingly). There’s no point in obsessing over manufacturer’s warranty. Due to hail or wind you’ll be replacing your roof long before the 25, 30, or whatever year warranty period would come to pass.
I like the Case Hardened look, myself.
https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/big-boy-color-case-hardened/
Please, please, please, Santa ! I want a Marlin 1894 Dark Series for Christmas. I’ve been a good boy this year ! OK, mostly a good boy. Ok, kinda a good boy this year. Ok, the wife has not had to beat me or put me in the corner in weeks !
Listening to one of Dennis Miller’s podcasts yesterday, I heard him drop a reference to an imagined use for a Manlicher Carcano, and the neurons in my brain failed to fire in the right area for a while.
Oh! Oswald!
I’m getting old. Or maybe I’m not old enough to have read the Warren Commission report.
Homeowners Insurance where I live is basically Prepaid Roofing (and priced accordingly). There’s no point in obsessing over manufacturer’s warranty. Due to hail or wind you’ll be replacing your roof long before the 25, 30, or whatever year warranty period would come to pass.
We had shingles subject to the GAF class action lawsuit in Florida in addition to still being under the 20 year warranty when we replaced them ~ 2002. The warranty usually doesn’t cover labor and pro-rates the replaced shingles, 13 years in our case. I think we ended up with a check for $200 on a $9000 roofing job.
Interesting item in the mail today. A check refund for the 2019 premiums I paid to the insurance company under the affordable care act. Apparently if the company does not pay out a certain percentage of what is taken in premiums, the excess must be refunded to the covered individuals. Last year about this time I got a check for about $400.00. This year the check was for over $1,300.
Seems the insurance companies have figured out a way to charge and then just refund. The insurance company keeping my money for 9 months, multiplied by a few million people, and that is a lot of interest the insurance companies have made on people’s money.
And since I claimed the insurance premiums as a deduction on my 2019 income tax do I have to claim this check as income? I won’t unless I get a 1099 or some other such document.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1DjsdbV-s4&t=907s
My favorite sheriff, Grady Judd, strikes again. If you watch it, stay tuned to the end for the responses he gives to an a$$hole reporter that has some snotty questions for him.
Swan Eaters: Is back !
https://www.gocomics.com/swan-eaters/2020/10/02
Sweet ! Now a buildup to ending the last arc where our intrepid gypsy children were kidnapped into the shadow realm with Mr. Wigglesworth and Grandma, Clover, and Winnie have gone to get them back.
Holy moly, after the sheriff’s clip, ABC news came up next. What a bucket of lies, distortions, and toxic sludge. I haven’t watched MSM in 4 years and I’m appalled by how big the change is.
n
I’d just like to remind everyone, since there’s been some recent talk about green energy and battery vehicles, that there is a LOT of energy in Lithium battery packs.
Check out what happened to Louis Rossmann’s ebike battery the other night…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCaDz_2YcGQ action starts at 1:10 and continues.
Keep in mind, most of these packs come from china. china. where they cut every corner possible….
n
From a lot of reading and no experience whatsoever, the problem is that all of these lithium battery packs need active cooling to keep the temperature below 140 F when more than 50% charged. Above 180 F, exciting things start to happen. And the jump from 140 F to 180 F can happen very quickly.
Most of the car battery packs have radiator fluid cooling that will run even when the vehicle is off. Some of the more sophisticated cars like Tesla actually will run the vehicle air conditioning to cool the battery pack. As noted elsewhere, Tesla is quite a good design shop.
xkcd: masks
https://xkcd.com/2367/
Heh.
And here is an illustrative video about non-effective masks (NSFW ! !! NSFW !!!! NSFW !!!):
https://theferalirishman.blogspot.com/2020/05/ooda-when-masks-are-mandatory.html
He added a link to BLM to the masthead. xkcd used to be good.
Seems the insurance companies have figured out a way to charge and then just refund. The insurance company keeping my money for 9 months, multiplied by a few million people, and that is a lot of interest the insurance companies have made on people’s money.
ACA caps the insurance companies’ profit margins, and the only place they can park cash with guaranteed liquidity is short term US Treasury paper at ~0.10%, effectively negative.
With other forms of insurance, the premiums over expenditures get invested to cover future claims, float, but I guess health insurance companies can’t operate that way any longer.
My favorite sheriff, Grady Judd, strikes again. If you watch it, stay tuned to the end for the responses he gives to an a$$hole reporter that has some snotty questions for him.
*Sheriffs* departments up and down the I-4 corridor are usually first rate law enforcement — note I did not say city police — but Grady Judd runs what is arguably the best of them.
What amazes me is that after 20 years of well publicized busts by Sheriff Judd and his deputies, usually filmed for shows like “Dateline NBC”, child molesters still show up in Davenport, FL, not far from Disney World, actually expecting to have sex with 12 year old girls they met online.
UPDATE: Grady Judd has only been Sheriff for 16 years. My bad, but he’s a lifer in the department.
I read a statistic once where some college study hooked adults (of both sexes) up to a brain scan and showed them non-nude but suggestive images of persons of varying ages and almost 4% registered some sort of sexual response to images of the obviously underaged. So, that would make what, 9.8M pedos in the US (328M in US, 75% of those are adult, 4% of those are pedo)? Now think about what percentage of them lack the self control or IQ to suppress their urges? Those are the ones showing up in Davenport, FL.
Lima beans. Wife won’t touch them. But a friend gave me some she cooked from dry with ham and such as you would with other beans and they were most excellent.
If asphalt shingles are improperly nailed the sealdown strip may fail to bond to the shingle below. When that happens, wind can lift the shingles and peel them off. The easiest way for the shingle manufacturer to walk away from a warranty on a damaged roof is to show improper installation, and the first thing they look for is nail location.
The importance of fastening was one of the top four lessons learned after Hurricane Andrew. In the 1980’s a lot of shingles were secured with staples, which pulled right through with the wind at the right angle. Staples don’t meet code today.
I do like me some Chilli Man canned chili.
I love a great Ham & Bean soup. Now, I’m craving the heck out of some. Thanks, Paul.
Yah, Chad. I was just in the grocery store and considered buying a ham (technically a half ham) but decided I didn’t like the price. And now, dang it, I’d like to take that bone and make soup with some of the (mountain of) dried beans in the cupboard.
Holy moly, after the sheriff’s clip, ABC news came up next. What a bucket of lies, distortions, and toxic sludge. I haven’t watched MSM in 4 years and I’m appalled by how big the change is.
Local TV stations have also become shameless purveyors of what is essentially lefty propaganda.
The importance of fastening was one of the top four lessons learned after Hurricane Andrew. In the 1980’s a lot of shingles were secured with staples, which pulled right through with the wind at the right angle. Staples don’t meet code today.
Building codes were an interesting suggestion in Miami pre-Andrew. Some would say that they still are regarded that way.
Bill Maher, who I have a love/hate relationship with, does a good job explaining why news sucks now. Here’s the clip (it should advance to the appropriate place in the video, but if not it starts at 5:45): https://youtu.be/CrqWNDIOWtA?t=345
Dang it, @Paul Hampson! Now I’ve got a hankerin’ for some ham and bean soup also! 😀
I did pick up a chicken and I’ve got lots of potatoes, carrots, and onions, plus barley if I want to use it. I’ll have my daughter cut up the chicken (she should remember how but surely needs practice) and we’ll make either stew or soup.
We call those cooked-from-dry “Butter beans”, and they are the only way to eat lima beans! 😀 Delicious. Like everyone else above, now I am thinking about them. ….
SteveF, slices of a Cure81 half ham will substitute pretty well for a ham bone. It has become difficult to be certain of flavor of bone-in hams. When you get a good one they are to die for. But a so-so ham will not have any flavor – or worse – at the bone. It is tempting to start treating “a good ham” like I do “good shoes” and buy several at once for the future!
I pre-soak overnight, cook fully, then pressure can, our beans. Totally different than commercially-canned beans, and they taste like delicious fresh-cooked. Except for Butter beans… they do not can well at all and turned grainy the one time I tried canning them.
I got my new 26 foot ladder from Home Depot today. We set it on the middle landing of the stairs at the office and extended the bottom side leg extension fully (5 ft). Then we extended the upper side leg extension by one run (1 ft). I assumed the pilot test monkey role and climbed up the ladder, my son providing a safety assist on steadying the ladder. I removed the light fixture cover and removed two 60 watt equivalent cfl bulbs. I climbed down, threw away the bulbs and washed the nasty cover, and got two 60 watt LED equivalent bulbs. I climbed back up, inserted the new bulbs and we now have light in the stairwell !
https://www.homedepot.com/p/WERNER-26-ft-Reach-Aluminum-Telescoping-Multi-Position-Ladder-with-300-lbs-Load-Capacity-Type-IA-Duty-Rating-MT-26/100659427
Thanks @nick ??? for the idea of the telescoping a-frame ladder.
The ladder is now the son’s emergency escape from the second floor in case of fire coming up the stairwell. He can extend the ladder and throw it through an office ceiling sheetrock in the attic which is on the other side from the stairwell. The office manager wants me to place a door in the sheetrock ceiling for the son to more easily get down with. I told her that is Phase II.
Now, return the ladder for a full refund until the next time you need it. lol
Grocery order today, and more stuff for the freezer. Wife took a look at the canned goods and questioned some of the more unusual items. I like to have some choices, so I buy some stuff we don’t normally eat. Heck, until I started storing long term food we rarely ate anything out of cans at all. I have them to combat appetite fatigue if we’re ever forced to eat out of stores for a long time, and alot of them can be added to rice too, for a change of pace. I shudder to think of a time when lima beans will be welcome on the plate.
The wife made chicken and dumplings in a skillet last night using Sam’s Club canned chicken and Bisquick biscuits as the dumplings. She also added in canned mushroom soup, corn, green beans, more corn, and butter beans. And with lots of chicken ! It was awesome ! I will probably be eating it for supper tonight too.
I climbed back up, inserted the new bulbs and we now have light in the stairwell !
Now, return the ladder for a full refund until the next time you need it. lol
Will I have to schedule the emergency usage for the ladder then ???
–imagine that. But, WHY do you need two wage earners now? Inflation. Caused by both monetary policy, and the effect of doubling the pool of available workers. More available workers drives down wages, whether those workers are illegals, women, or H1B visas. Part of why I’m skeptical of “learn to code” efforts is that any time they try to increase the pool of qualified candidates, it decreases wages, killing the ‘well paying’ part of the job.
Don’t forget health insurance ! My wife is working just to ensure that she has health insurance if I kick off before she hits 65 in 2023.
And one of my employees wife is working for $15/hr at the school district just to get their health insurance for herself and their two kids.
There are a few people interested or curious about Starlink here. With the authorized 12k units it will serve about 5 million people. Not much, I would have thought. Perhaps it would be a good idea to try and get in the Beta…
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/spacex-starlink-brings-internet-to-emergency-responders-in-wildfire-areas/
Seems to be looking good and with a 3 year US Army deal it means that a lot of effort will be spent on getting it right…
Reputedly, the FCC has given SpaceX over a billion dollars for rural internet usage using the telephone rural subsidy tax.
I’m mainly concerned about the cough and the occasional breathlessness/lightheadedness that results. The sometimes sharpness in my lungs, and the fatigue add to the concern. Never any fever yet this year, so I’m going with “don’t have it” because fever and cough were the critical symptoms.
I had chronic bronchitis as a kid, and issues ever since. Some were triggered or caused by industrial exposures, some just bad luck. I had diagnosed pneumonia 4 times one year when I was still traveling for work. Like eye issues, I’ve got a lifetime of minor lung issues too.
Me too. We moved to New Jersey for 3.5 years when I was six weeks old while Dad was getting his PhD from Princeton using a national science grant. I was allergic to something there and could not go outside from September through May. Mom says she and I lived in the bathroom with the tub turned on full hot so I could breath with the steam. Mom would call the local doc and he would stop by just about weekly and shoot me up with penicillin.
They took my tonsils out in Oklahoma when I was 6 or 8. My chronic bronchitis went away immediately. I used to have them in a jar somewhere, they were nasty.
Seems the insurance companies have figured out a way to charge and then just refund. The insurance company keeping my money for 9 months, multiplied by a few million people, and that is a lot of interest the insurance companies have made on people’s money.
ACA caps the insurance companies’ profit margins, and the only place they can park cash with guaranteed liquidity is short term US Treasury paper at ~0.10%, effectively negative.
With other forms of insurance, the premiums over expenditures get invested to cover future claims, float, but I guess health insurance companies can’t operate that way any longer.
BCBS just notified us that they are raising our group health insurance by about 10% on Dec 1. Grrr. This is on top of a 20% increase last year. From $850/month/employee to $930/month/employee.
But just think, Lynn. Without Obamacare and its miraculous $3000/month/family savings, you’d be paying even more.
“Rick Moranis tells cops to ‘catch the bad guy’ who slugged him”
https://nypost.com/2020/10/02/rick-moranis-tells-cops-to-catch-the-bad-guy-who-slugged-him/
Why does anyone still live in NYC ?
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“The Crock’s Biden Endorsement Met with Massive Online Anger”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/09/29/the-rocks-biden-endorsement-met-with-massive-online-anger/
“Now, back to Dwayne Johnson here. He posts a seven minute video to his Facebook profile. He says: “In this critical election, I believe Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the best to lead our country, and as my first ever (public) presidential endorsement, I proudly endorse them for the presidential office of our United States.” I endorse them for our presidential office. So, you know what? I’ll tell you why this is a story. There are 100,000 comments to this guy’s video on his Facebook post. Ninety-five percent of the comments are expressions of anger and feelings of betrayal.”
“Dwayne Johnson obviously doesn’t know who his audience is, or maybe he does. Dwayne Johnson’s audience, just like LeBron James and all these current pop culture icons, it is the ChiComs who are paying them, it is the ChiComs who own them, and it is the Chinese to whom they are loyal.”
President tRump flew to Walter Reed today on Marine One.
The ghouls are already praying for his death. And they are generally atheists.
Love or hate tRump, I’ve never seen a President take so much shit and keep on ticking. He makes it through WuFlu and he is a shoo-in for re-election.
In case you watch “The Boys”, heads are a popping’ on tonights episode.
“Car barely escapes raging mob attack in LA, but the driver is the one detained by police”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/09/25/car-barely-escapes-raging-mob-attack-in-la-but-the-driver-is-the-one-detained-by-police-976777
“Dramatic footage captured a driver in Los Angeles making his way through a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who took control of the street, only to be attacked by the raging mob.”
“The driver did not appear to hit any protesters and was fortunate to escape the raging mob, but he was later taken into custody by the Los Angeles Police Department.”
What is wrong with California and the LAPD ?
Home from my pickup. This time it was mostly industrial shelving so that when I get the space cleared, I’ll have some more organization for my ebay stuff. I’ve got an idea to do my own local auctions thru the HiBid site once I get everything set up.
@drwilliam thanks for the info. The shingles we picked (three different locations on the house, three different lighting conditions) have a special extra wide nailing area and are specifically designed for gun nailing. Says so right on the brochure anyway. Even though we’re not in the coastal zone, I talked to the roofer about doing the roof to the coastal code. I will talk with him again about the details after our HOA approves the color…
I have to say that Trump moving to Walter Reed LOOKS bad. It makes sense, but it looks like a rapid deterioration. I never really thought I’d be praying for Trump but I am. The disruption makes too many people crazy. If there was no telling what could happen before, now it’s uncertainty cubed.
I’m supposed to get my wuflu test tomorrow but there will be several days before the result is back. No fever, just feel ‘off’ and coughing at night.
n
Update on my earlier post, here is Trump correcting Biden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW1lY5jFNcQ&feature=youtu.be&t=4339
Biden looks really confused and stops talking.
Which one do you want running the country?
I’m supposed to get my wuflu test tomorrow but there will be several days before the result is back. No fever, just feel ‘off’ and coughing at night.
Make sure that they do not charge your health insurance for a $3,000 ER visit like they did one of my neighbors here in Fort Bend County at one of the “free wuflu sites”. She did not have to pay anything but they did charge her insurance.
It says free, and you get a code number. It also specifically says you don’t need to have symptoms to get tested at this site.
n
I almost gave my big juicy hambone to my doggie tonight, but the wife intercepted it and put it in the freezer for soup.
Costco had spiral slice ham, and I’m out, so I got some. I made 3 packs with 1 1/2 pounds of slices, and then one with the 2# that wasn’t sliced.
I also put away a couple dozen pork chops, some steaks, and I’ve got hamburger, bacon, stew, and chuck roast to split up.
n
No “thoughts” from our Governor, just prayers.
–from his weekly newsletter
n
I want to get some meat for the freezer, but the chest freezer and the freezer parts of the two fridges are both full. Partly it’s because I got a lot of french fries and chicken nuggets and microwavable dinners* for The Brat and partly because Grandma loaded up with a lot of bags of produce from the garden. I’m not much pleased by that latter item. Assuming space is ever freed up, I plan to get another of the 40# boxes of chicken thighs and one or two 20# bags of ground beef, both inexpensive at the restaurant supply store. Lay it in before the election, if at all possible.
* Hungry Man™ dinners. The chicken strips (790 cal) and chicken pieces (970 cal) are her favorites and she gobbles one down for lunch or supper along with a pint of milk. Conceded, she’s rather on the full side afterward and doesn’t show any interest in snacks for several hours. My wife and my mom are impressed, appalled, and envious that she can eat that because her one meal is most of the calories they eat in a day. Well, she’s a teen and growing and they … aren’t.
The chuck roast and stew meat were on sale, finally. They were ~$4.80/#. The hamburger was only slightly cheaper, 85/15 mix. The ham was about $2.40/# which is about what it’s been for several years. Prime sirloin was $8/# at HEB. Choice ribeye was ~$12. Pork loin and chops were $2.56/#.
So yeah, I stocked up. The new freezer is filling up nicely.
n
I ate a lot of Hungry Man dinners. I liked the turkey with trimmings, the Salisbury Steak, and the Fried Chicken was my favorite. Their larger size suited me well.
I also ate a lot of fish sticks and thin sliced pork chops. I’d eat a pork chop with my eggs in the morning most mornings.
n
–outsiders? What about all the insiders?
n
“AMAZING! September’s Jobs Numbers 5th Best Ever – After China Coronavirus Shut Down President Trump Already Matches Obama’s Unemployment Rate at the End of His First Term”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/amazing-septembers-jobs-numbers-5th-best-ever-china-coronavirus-shut-president-trump-already-matches-obamas-unemployment-rate-end-first-term/
“According to data released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, President Trump added 661,000 jobs to the economy in September.”
There is a lot of good news out there being overshadowed by the bad news.
And I can tell a lot of people are out there working with all of the traffic.
“Kellyanne Conway Announces She Has Tested Positive for COVID-19”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/kellyanne-conway-announces-tested-positive-covid-19/
“Kellyanne Conway attended the White House ceremony for the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last Saturday. That event is looking to be the focal point of the outbreak that infected President Trump, First Lady Melania and several others so far. Barrett was reported to have tested positive for the virus in the summer.”
““At least seven people have tested positive for COVID-19 who attended Saturday’s Rose Garden Supreme Court nomination event nomination of Judge Barrett: Pres Trump, Melania Trump, Sen Thom Tillis, Sen Mike Lee, Notre Dame Pres John Jenkins, Kellyanne Conway and a WH reporter.””
It is beginning to look like the event for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett was the spreader event at the White House. Do I smell a conspiracy ?
When I first heard that orange man was infected my first thought was a conspiracy. I am thinking that someone in the democratic party found an infected person at the peak of the infection cycle and hired them to attend the event. Shaking hands, touching as much as possible, breathing on as many people as possible. Based on some of the other democratic stunts I do not put this scenario beyond reason.
BCBS just notified us that they are raising our group health insurance by about 10% on Dec 1. Grrr. This is on top of a 20% increase last year. From $850/month/employee to $930/month/employee.
My compensation rundown at work indicates that they pay $20,000 for my plan covering the four of us. $2500 deductible with HSA contributions of $100/mo out of my pretax income on top of $320/mo for the my share of the policy.
When I had the brief MRI of my hand following the staph infection from the port-a-potty and hand sanitizer faciities at the site in Taylor, I paid the full cost, $800, out of the HSA. Interestingly the radiologists returned $300 to the account, and even my wife can’t explain that one.
The other shoe dropped with work today. I got a call from Catbert for two hours at *five o’clock*. At one point, I felt he was leading up to asking for me to sign something to the effect that I was rude and unprofessional, dropping an f-bomb in front of coworkers — NOT customers — after the big demo failed last week, but I told him any signature requests would get a lawyer involved. Next!
“I was rude and offended some people with an f-bomb”
— um, you can’t drop an f-bomb at work? We’d have had to be silent…
n
um, you can’t drop an f-bomb at work? We’d have had to be silent…
In the modern workplace, you never know who will be offended by what anymore.
They obviously went fishing for something like #MeToo on me, interviewing my co-workers privately over the last week, but that was the best they came up with.
And I doubt it was the two female co-workers who complained about the F-bomb.
The modern workplace is a wonderful nirvana of inclusiveness and puppy kisses. It’s nit for the timid, that’s for sure…
A buddy and I used to do most of the IT interviews for programmers several years ago at a former employer. We used to make it a point to F bomb a couple of times during the interview. We figured that would weed out anybody that wasn’t going to fit our “team culture.” I can still remember the network administrator at that company getting pissed off on a couple of occasions and throwing his mouse across his desk while yelling, “F*cking Microsoft!”