Cooler but also possibly wet. National forecast has us on the edge of a system, and we usually don’t get the rain in that case, but I guess we could. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. I got a sunburn on my neck while working in the yard.
And yes, the yard is very bright now that we removed the pecan tree in the middle. On the plus side, my one garden bed should get much more light too.
Spent a couple hours in the yard playing with the wife and kids. Did some archery. Did some hitting of the heavy bag. My 11yo mentioned some time ago that she was interested in learning more about fighting. I had a kid sized heavy bag show up in the auctions, so I got it. Took down the trapeze from the ‘play structure’ and hung up the bag today. Funny how different girls are when throwing a ball or a punch. I have to constantly remind her to straighten her wrists, but she’s getting it. We’re going to be doing a lot of palm and elbow strikes and less punching once she gets comfortable. The goal is to surprise any attacker and open up space to get away, not to win cage matches.
The younger child wanted to hit stuff too, but once she got started all she wanted to do was pester me with ‘what ifs’ and ‘but I want to turn my hand while punching’ and ‘ow that kinda hurts.’ It’s gonna be a bit more of a struggle with that one. She’s a barracks lawyer in training and her brain goes a thousand miles an hour.
Part of ‘getting through this, whatever this is’ means getting the kids ready to make their way in the world. They need some physical skills as well as mental, so I’m doing my best to head that way. There’s always something more to do.
Changing subjects entirely, for the last couple of nights I spun the dial on the shortwave to see what the bands sounded like. We’re supposed to get increased sunspot activity which improves ham and shortwave radio propagation, so I want to pay attention and see what the baseline is. Well, nothing spectacular so far. (and not expected either) I did get a night with late evening great signal from Tennessee and Cuba, but it faded as it got later. Usually 5mhz is better later, so that was a bit odd. Otherwise, it’s been noisy and variable for several days. Having a shortwave radio is kind of a prepper cliche’, but after years of tuning around and dozens of radios I was pretty sure that in anything short of the zombie apocalypse there wasn’t going to be much point in shortwave listening.
Most of the stations that are readily receivable are fringe religious broadcasters or state propaganda outlets. Still, the religious stations have news and opinion programming, and even propaganda can give you some information, and tuning the bands to get a rough idea of band conditions is easier with shortwave, so I still recommended people have a good shortwave radio. The recent increase in ‘cancelling’ conservative voices has changed my mind. Alex Jones was one of the very first to be cancelled, and he is still on the air, on shortwave radio, getting his message out. You may think little of his message, but he IS being heard. The religious broadcasters are almost all VERY conservative when you can tell anything about them, and so some other conservative voices are showing up on their news segments, and in their editorial content.
If things online get worse, the only place you might find a conservative voice is on shortwave. Hopefully, more people will take advantage of radio, and more of the existing broadcasters will leverage their platform so that there is an increase of opinions and news available. Shortwave could see a renaissance. One very good thing about shortwave, no one is tracking the listeners. (yes, there are ways to confirm someone is listening but you have to know who they are first, generally, to target them. Not so with online media.) Get a radio and string up a wire, and get some practice in tuning around the dial.
I’ve talked about radios and what you might hear before. So did RBT. Use the keywords for amateur radio and radio and do some reading… especially in the comments.
Today should be spent doing all the stuff I didn’t do this weekend, especially getting more stuff out to auctions for sale. Weather will determine which stuff moves up and down the list. Getting the kids up and out the door will be the first challenge…
Back to normal life. Stack it high!
nick
59F and 89%RH this morning.
n
If things online get worse, the only place you might find a conservative voice is on shortwave. Hopefully, more people will take advantage of radio, and more of the existing broadcasters will leverage their platform so that there is an increase of opinions and news available. Shortwave could see a renaissance.
If Elon Musk and the established wireless carriers don’t steal the terrestrial broadcast frequencies for yet another round of empty “pizza box” promises, local broadcasting will see eventually see renewed interest. Sooner or later, the Brown Truck Store Mall And Food Court(TM) will go the way of Sears, and advertising will have to be relearned with the other aspects of retail.
Had a poor night’s sleep last night. Up late, but then couldn’t get to sleep. Bladder and knee kept me up. I don’t know what I did to my knee a couple of days ago, it wasn’t anything dramatic, but I can’t bend it without pain now. It’s in the soft tissues, not the joint this time.
I might fade out and have to take a nap this morning. I don’t want to fall asleep at the desk, that just tears up my neck.
weather is overcast and still so far, but maybe we’ll get that rain after all.
n
It would be pretty ironic if the free speech issues here devolved to the point that any conservative voice could only be heard on shortwave out of Cuba….
n
Thus was born the term “Kimchi-Rigged”. Used for any half-assed construction or repair. A rube-goldberg solution to a problem is kimchi-rigged.
@greg:
The AM/FM freuencies are probably safe. Although the mobile carriers love low-band spectrum because of the better range they get, the AM and FM bands are both too small and too long range for cellular tech to work. There aren’t enough channels, and frequency reuse isn’t possible at acceptable cell sizes for the number of users.
TV, though… Here in UK, and I think also in USA, we’ve lost over 100MHz at the top of Band V to the demands of cellular. Not that what we had is worth what it was used for. “Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width” applies.
G.
It would be pretty ironic if the free speech issues here devolved to the point that any conservative voice could only be heard on shortwave out of Cuba….
Radio Moscow had a blowtorch station out of Cuba in the 80s. We clearly heard it at night in Tampa.
The Embargo will probably fall not long after Raul Castro assumes room temperature, an event which may happen in the near future from articles I briefly saw on the front pages of Florida papers last week.
It may take a Republican president to sell the concept of normalized relations in Little Havana, however. I always believed that Trump would address the Embargo in a second term. He may yet get that chance.
The Land of the Not Quite Right.
TV, though… Here in UK, and I think also in USA, we’ve lost over 100MHz at the top of Band V to the demands of cellular. Not that what we had is worth what it was used for. “Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width” applies.
Going back 30 years, I’ve viewed the pizza box dream as a trojan horse to eliminate broadcast TV.
At the clinic. Awoke Saturday feeling like crud. All the signs of sinus infection, also of covid. Feels like my regular yearly sinus infection that if not treated promptly turns into bronchitis. Walked into the clinic this morning and they are reviewing my covid swabs now. Then on to treatment. The regular white man’s clinic wouldn’t see me till I had made an appointment with a hospital and got my covid checked. Tomorrow at the earliest. Tribal medicine beats that hands down.
Don’t laugh at me.
After shoveling all that heavy, wet Spring snow off the road last week, I spent the weekend shoveling it back onto the road. The neighbors must think I’m nuts.
We had an appointment today with the company that is going to build a fence between us and the crazy neighbors. I really wanted them to be able to see the lay of the land, because it’s kind of complicated. But a large part of the fence line runs right where I had to throw the snow off of the road.
We had a sunny weekend, so I tossed the snow onto the nice, black asphalt, where it melted nicely. Makes perfect sense, maybe, but I still felt stupid while doing it…
Crappy sleep making the rounds apparently. We’ve had a head cold sweep our household. My old dog had another seizure about 2 am, lasted 3 minutes, then another 50 minutes of mindless pacing, panting, and Tourette’s like barking outbursts. At 13 she’s in pretty good shape, but for the seizures.
Another six chicks hatched overnight. First 11 went into the brooder (fancy name for a high sided cardboard box w/a heat lamp food and water) yesterday. Last nights will go in once they are fluffy and dry. Lost one to a drop in humidity – half pipped and got shrink wrapped when the humidity dropped. Humanely killed another when it was apparent it had a structural defect. None of the blue eggs have hatched which is unfortunate as the hen that laid those has the best comb and wattle for cold weather.
Not a great hatch rate, I set 41 eggs and looks like we won’t hit twenty chicks.
Still – cost nothing and half will be in the freezer around August.
Covid negative but a clear case of sinusitis. Picking up the prescribed medication at the tribal pharmacy in a few minutes. They are also giving me an antibiotic to use if this starts to descend into bronchitis. Love my tribal medicine.
Just your mentioning this brought back vivid memories of smell of a brooder. We raised hens on the farm as a child and it’s amazing the details brought back after 60 years including smell.
@harold
I recall reading how powerful scent memory is. I think it was an article about using various scents (vanilla, lavender, hay) to elicit responses from nursing home residences who had “checked out” mentally.
Brooder and livestock have such distinctive smells. When I see a picture of a horse I have a similar experience- transported back to mucking stalls and that warm dusty smell of horse. I hope the childhood farm memories are pleasant ones. I know o treasure my horse memories.
And best wishes for a fast and uneventful recovery. Pretty great they were willing to proactively provide a just in case antibiotic. That’s good doctoring and appreciate the implicit trust in the intelligence and wisdom of the patient.
Disney and some others understand the power of scent. Disney contracts with a group, ISG? to provide unique smells for attractions and areas.
Westin Hotels tried the same thing, but with much less success.
The smell of the “Trading Post” convenience stores in Fort Wilderness is the same, 40 years later. NO WAY is that an accident. Most of the Magic Kingdom attractions have unique scents too, some very subtle, some probably for natural reasons- one smells very strongly of rubber and hot oil and has a lot of ride machinery.
One family owned butcher shop in northern Indiana that we used to visit as kids still smells the same, but much weaker, as it did 40 years ago. Last time I was there it flooded back.
n
“Linus Torvalds on how AMD and Intel are changing how processor interrupts are handled”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-on-how-amd-and-intel-are-changing-how-processor-interrupts-are-handled/
“AMD and Intel recently started changing how the x86 chip architecture will handle exceptions. Linus Torvalds, in turn, gave his take on their new approach for forthcoming generations of CPUs.”
Interesting.
Freefall: Interrupting Engineers
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3600/fc03568.htm
Yup, we engineers usually act that way.
Disney and some others understand the power of scent. Disney contracts with a group, ISG? to provide unique smells for attractions and areas.
The smell I most closely associate with the Disney property is jet/diesel exhaust. Orlando Airport wasn’t fully prepared when the Florida resort opened 50 years ago so Disney ran small jets to/from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports out of a runway east of the main parking lot.
The big manufacturer for scents/tastes is IFF in New Jersey.
The only thing I smell at Disney is money. 🙂
“Elon Musk shows off SpaceX’s 1st Starship Super Heavy booster”
https://www.space.com/spacex-first-super-heavy-booster-photo
I was wondering when Super Heavy Booster would show up.
Looks tall. “You must be this high to ride this ride.”
“Elon Musk shows off SpaceX’s 1st Starship Super Heavy booster”
https://www.space.com/spacex-first-super-heavy-booster-photo
I was wondering when Booster would show up.
Looks tall. “You must be this high to ride this ride.”
28 freaking rocket motors. You must be tough to be able to ride this ride.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship
May I remind you that regulations specify thrusters only while in space dock?
Yes but…need to be careful not to overuse antibiotics when not needed so as to not propagate more antibiotic resistance. IIRC RBT was in favor of making all prescription drugs OTC with the exception of certain antibiotics. Certainly would be a boon for preppers.
Sam’s run today. Large bottles of water continue to be in short supply, but most other items are back to normal stock levels.
Travel-related note — I went in four Publix stores in Florida at various points on last week’s trip, and none had bottles of the store’s private label multi-vitamin tablets I make a point of picking up whenever I get the opportunity.
And DoubleTree hotels have (had??) warm chocolate chip cookies at the check-in desk.
That’s the smell of money evaporating out of your wallet and into Disney’s. I wonder what Walt would think if he we alive today.
Probably something anti-Semitic.
Speaking of Shatner…he’s 90 years old today.
James Tiberius Kirk!
William Shatner is boldly going where no man has gone before! Star Trek actor celebrates his 90th birthday by creating an AI version of himself to ‘preserve his memory and legacy for generations to come’
Sharp as a tack!
There are said to be restaurant chains that take some of the air from the kitchen exhaust and mix it into the ducts that feed the dining area HVAC system. Said to lead to increased sales from the aromas.
LOL! plugs calls a lid on today very early. Meanwhile, his handlers have to cover both his stumbling up AF1 stairs and the disaster at the border. Mush for brains is not long for this earth.
In other news new COVID strains are popping up.
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! AGAIN!
LET THE HEELING, STUMBLING AND CRIMMIGRANT BUM RUSH BEGIN!
“The only thing I smell at Disney is money”
— the smell of money is the smell of cocaine. At least some places. When I was working in Vegas, we got our per diem cash straight out of the casino’s cash room. I fanned $700 or more in hundreds, and the smell that hit me almost made my nose run- it was straight up cocaine.
I’ve read that most US currency has cocaine traces on it, and that the dogs they train to find currency smugglers are actually smelling the drugs… if I could smell it, a dog certainly could.
n
Just got the mail, and my issue of Machine Design arrived. Y’all know I put great stock in the thickness of trade magazines as an overall indicator of economic health…
It is down to 48 pages, and is stapled, not bound. Holy crow. That is one third or less, than it was a year ago.
n
End of an era in Florida. The column ran last week, but I was deliberately avoiding being informed beyond what I would see in headlines of papers or teaser commercials.
I’m sure Hiaasen would be pleased that we opted for “My Cousin Vinny” Friday night instead of the local news.
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/carl-hiaasen/article249892323.html
I got my first Pfizer dose today. I am able to fly pretty well, but the x-ray vision and invisibility are still pretty spotty. Perhaps after the second shot…
I’ve been reading some of Frank’s posts, quite sobering.
That was my suggestion, though RBT might have said it earlier without my noticing. Also, drugs other than antibiotics, if they can impact the health beyond those who take them. eg, if a nursing mother takes some kinds of medicine it can kill the baby.
Meth and alcohol and such are specifically not included in the by-prescription-only list. Assault and murder are already illegal.
getting 500 errors when trying to comment
the text in the blockquote would not post. I tried a dozen times, over the last 40 minutes. Got a 500 error every time.
Put it in blockquote and it posted.
Something weird is going on
n
n
Sam’s run today. Large bottles of water continue to be in short supply, but most other items are back to normal stock levels.
Travel-related note — I went in four Publix stores in Florida at various points on last week’s trip, and none had bottles of the store’s private label multi-vitamin tablets I make a point of picking up whenever I get the opportunity.
I am beginning to think that somebody is arbitraging International Delight White Chocolate Mocca coffee creamer since the freeze. None available in Walmart, HEB, or Kroger. I got some Kroger White Chocolate Mocca coffee creamer today that claims to be lactose free and less than 2% milk derivative. I’ll find out if it triggers my milk allergy which causes me to throw up about a dozen times. Something not good from my Belgium heritage.
I am beginning to think that somebody is arbitraging International Delight White Chocolate Mocca coffee creamer since the freeze. None available in Walmart, HEB, or Kroger. I got some Kroger White Chocolate Mocca coffee creamer today that claims to be lactose free and less than 2% milk derivative. I’ll find out if it triggers my milk allergy which causes me to throw up about a dozen times. Something not good from my Belgium heritage.
Last year’s shortage was CoffeeMate. Some key component for the creamers is imported.
I remember my wife scrounging for creamer when the VA had everyone return to the office.
The Dockmaster at the marina at the place where we stayed last week had a big basket of some creamers next to the obligatory free coffee pot. If I had known, I would have looked at the name and grabbed a few. Souvenirs!
I brought back our sizeable package of napkins and a box of Publix plastic flatware stuffed in my suitcase.
“Against the Tide of Years: A Novel of the Change (Island Book 2)” by S. M. Stirling
https://www.amazon.com/Against-Tide-Years-S-Stirling/dp/0451457439/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number two in a three book apocalyptic alternate history time travel series. This trilogy is the prequel to the fifteen book Emberverse (“Dies The Fire”) series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by ROC (Penguin) in 1999 that I just bought in 2021. I have ordered the third book in the series from Big River.
In the sudden blink of an eye, the island of Nantucket and its 6,000+ inhabitants plus a Coast Guard training sailing ship with a crew of 300 are transported back to 1,250 BC. Over 3,000 years in the past in the same place. But every one outside of Nantucket is still the same in the past.
It has been eight years since the event that threw the island of Nantucket into the past. The islanders have been very busy feeding themselves and exploring the rest of the very primitive world. They have made friends. And enemies. And the traitor William Walker took 30+ islanders, a ship, many guns, and is setting up his own Mediterranean kingdom.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (224 reviews)
@Lynn
Have you read Robert Adams?
I’m off to bed. Stiff, sore, and tired. I need the sleep.
n
@Lynn
Have you read Robert Adams?
Not to my memory.
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Horseclans-Robert-Adams/dp/0451116526/?tag=ttgnet-20
I did read some Jean Auel until it got too weird for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Clan-Cave-Bear-Earths-Children/dp/0553250426/
“Democrats Introduce New Green New Deal Bill Calling Fossil Fuels ‘Racist'”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/03/22/democrats-introduce-new-green-new-deal-bill-calling-fossil-fuels-racist-n1434177
“The economy of the United States enables but the opportunity for anyone of any background to reach for and achieve their dreams. That’s not a guarantee, of course. No system guarantees outcomes. Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty; socialism is the faith of mass murderers. Communism’s dirty little secret is that it creates oligarchy, rule by a very few, everywhere, every time it’s tried. How did communist Fidel Castro die almost a billionaire? Why was Venezuela’s communist strongman Hugo Chavez so rich when he died? It’s all a racket designed to seize power.”
This is all about impoverishing the USA and turning us into a third world country.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
@Lynn
I’d recommend all three of Robert Adams series:
Horseclans
Stairway to Forever
Castaways in Time
Horseclans is arguably the standard for post-apocalyptic series. Needs to be read in order. First two are on KindleUnlimited. The paperbacks were very popular in the 1980’s (Adams died in 1990) and went through multiple printings, so are not hard to find.
Stupidity, greed, and power madness are not sufficient to explain such irrational self-destructive behavior. I suspect a brain-rotting virus or takeover by an ancient evil entity. We won’t find out without a lot of dissecting, and I recommend getting started sooner than later. Maybe in combination with auto-da-fé, pressing, defenestration, and other tried-and-true techniques. (Yes, left one notable out–don’t want any confusion, this is non-secular)
“Democrats Introduce New Green New Deal Bill Calling Fossil Fuels ‘Racist’”
Stupidity, greed, and power madness are not sufficient to explain such irrational self-destructive behavior. I suspect a brain-rotting virus or takeover by an ancient evil entity. We won’t find out without a lot of dissecting, and I recommend getting started sooner than later. Maybe in combination with auto-da-fé, pressing, defenestration, and other tried-and-true techniques. (Yes, left one notable out–don’t want any confusion, this is non-secular)
“An auto-da-fé (from Portuguese auto da fé [ˈaw.tu dɐ ˈfɛ], meaning ‘act of faith’) was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican Inquisition as punishment and enforced by civil authorities. Its most extreme form was death by burning. ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-da-f%C3%A9
Dadgumit, I learned something today.
@Lynn
I’d recommend all three of Robert Adams series:
Horseclans
Stairway to Forever
Castaways in Time
Horseclans is arguably the standard for post-apocalyptic series. Needs to be read in order. First two are on KindleUnlimited. The paperbacks were very popular in the 1980’s (Adams died in 1990) and went through multiple printings, so are not hard to find.
So many books, so few decades of life left.