Hot and humid again. It is starting a bit cooler in the morning but still getting hot in the afternoon, especially if the sun comes out. Yesterday was so humid water wasn’t drying outside, despite the 100F + temps.
So I hid inside. Like brave Sir Robin, I bravely ran away from my work. Jiminy Christmas it was unpleasant out. Frankly my back hurt, I had auctions closing all day, and no one in the family wanted to do anything either. Down day all around.
Which means twice as much stuff to do today.
At least I won most of the stuff I wanted in the auction. All home stuff. We gave away our ‘child gates’ and now we need them to keep the puppy out of the only carpeted room. We’ve been improvising with limited success and a whole lotta hassle, so I got a couple. And some other stuff for the house, the wife, or the children. I’m just being prepared when I say “start getting your Christmas stuff together” because price increases and supply chain disruptions could limit availability later.
I wouldn’t wait ’til the last minute for anything anymore. Even amazon isn’t shipping as quickly as before on a LOT of items. Time to deepen your shelves for everyday stuff too.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without. Oh, and a little bit of maintenance goes a long way.
Stacks o stuff. You want them. You know you do.
n
Ah, sweet relief. Only 73F and completely saturated. Like an arctic breeze…..
Of course it won’t stay in the 70s and it would be nice to have stuff actually DRY outside in the heat and sun.
n
I like how the article emphasized that Elders and Owens are conservative radio talk show hosts. It’s intended as a slur, of course, not to convey useful information. If they’re radio talk show hosts, of course they’re conservative. Liberal talk show hosts can’t find and keep an audience.
What’s the Jira classification for priority on that ticket?
Most of those magazine and book games of that era didn’t work as typed. Part of the fun was finding and fixing the bugs.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/developer-just-fixed-game-breaking-typo-40-years-after-release
At the orthodontist. Kids. Braces. Bank accounts. These things are not compatible.
N
Make sure to always go to where you can chat online with an Amazon rep and then rant about the slow delivery. They’ll apologize and give you a month of Prime for free. 🙂
Real property is only worth what someone will pay for it. What if I think that necklace is worth only $14,000? Is the IRS going to co-opt the Antiques Roadshow staff, or better yet, the folks from Pawn Stars, to be the arbiters? I recall we went through something similar in the past with people over-valuing their clunker used cars that were donated to charity. (Reminds me that I’ve been hearing the old Kars for Kids ads on the radio again.}
+1
Sometimes I get a $10 account credit instead of a free month of Prime. Not much ranting even required, I just say my need for the item was time-sensitive and their late delivery caused me a financial impact.
Note though that this only applies if they are last versus the delivery date promised when you place your order. As @nick said, and I have also noticed, the time frames for “Prime” delivery for many items is already experiencing the holiday season lengthenings. “Prime Same Day” will soon be gone until February.
Hmm, wonder if Larry will continue his talk show after he takes office?
Some of the modern non-wax paint sealants may have done the trick. Spray on and buff off with a microfiber towel. Keeps the elements at bay in 20 minutes between hours-long detailing (wash/clay bar/polish/wax).
Earl Schibe $99.95
I remember when Schibe in Southern California was $29.99 for any vehicle. Of course they did not mask anything nor do any preparation sanding, no primer and overspray was everywhere. But the car was painted. I was about six years old when a friend of my father had his vehicle done. It was a really bad paint job. Overspray, runs, but it was a paint job. The car looked worse before so the paint was an improvement, for about a month. Then bubbles appeared, paint started falling off, other parts got really oxidized. Probably not the best quality paint.
My current neighbor across the street has an older model pickup. He painted the vehicle using a sprayer and paint he bought from home depot. Again, not automotive quality but actually looked fairly good. Keeps the rust at bay.
I have been informed by my insurance company that my truck cannot be selectively painted. Any painting done the entire vehicle must be done with special paint. That deep metallic red paint is several layers and is impossible to match. Fairly expensive paint requiring special application. Almost to the point that damaging a front fender will almost total the vehicle at it’s current age because of the cost of repainting.
And in other news. Apparently the rear brakes had been dragging for some time. Last trip I made to my son’s house I got 18 MPG. The trip I took this weekend I got 21.5 MPG. The dragging was enough to affect the mileage, but not overheat the brakes. Drives much better now.
All four rotors have been replaced, all four calipers, new brake pads all around, and new hoses on the front.
All four rotors have been replaced, all four calipers, new brake pads all around, and new hoses on the front.
We had to put new rotors on my wife’s Exploder last week, ahead of a trip over the weekend.
2016. No more turning of rotors, but I would hate to think about the labor on that job these days.
I still have to get the Subie in for repair. 28 Sep was the soonest. Hopefully they will have the major parts they need. Then it’s a major service. Including upgrading the *Starlink* modem. Subaru is upgrading their monitoring system early next year and the cars need a newer modem.
Off to Bridgeport, WA on Saturday for a three-day gig. Gonna stay in Seattle for a day or two. Then to Vegas for a week and back to SA. We already got a letter from the Marriot in Seattle “masks are mandatory in all public areas of the hotel.”
At this point, I wonder if we will ever unmask. At least in Tejas I can go to store without a mask. I’m glad we bought a house here. Vegas is back to masking in the casinos and no eating in the bingo hall. The fun is gone for me.
I wouldn’t wait ’til the last minute for anything anymore. Even amazon isn’t shipping as quickly as before on a LOT of items. Time to deepen your shelves for everyday stuff too.
I started buying Christmas stuff a month ago. I just ordered two copies of the new book “The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World” for my Dad and my son. J0hn Moses Browning was a genius ! Both my son and Dad are big Browning fans.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982129212?tag=ttgnet-20
Don’t forget to list Momma’s antique pearl necklace that she inherited from her grandmother that is worth $28,000. And that 1876 Colt single action army in mint condition worth $15,000. And that 1969 Chevelle 396 in your garage that has been fully rebuilt inside and out worth $35,000.
Real property is only worth what someone will pay for it. What if I think that necklace is worth only $14,000? Is the IRS going to co-opt the Antiques Roadshow staff, or better yet, the folks from Pawn Stars, to be the arbiters? I recall we went through something similar in the past with people over-valuing their clunker used cars that were donated to charity. (Reminds me that I’ve been hearing the old Kars for Kids ads on the radio again.}
Depends. What do you have the necklace listed for with your insurance company who requires an appraisal ? The IRS will be getting all of the insurance company listings also.
We are gonna need a quarter million more IRS agents. Shoot, maybe a half million more IRS agents.
All four rotors have been replaced, all four calipers, new brake pads all around, and new hoses on the front.
I have to admit, I like replacing and updating safety equipment. Maybe that is just the engineer in me.
Me and a friend were in cross country road “race” back in 1979 in my car. It started at midnight outside College Station and you followed the baggie of flour at every intersection, thrown on the ground on which way to go, about 50 miles long. I came over a hill at 80 mph and there was a T intersection, no straightaway. I downshifted to second and slammed on the brakes. One of my brake lines blew out at which point I may have uttered an unmanly scream. My buddy was already screaming. I went straight through the intersection (sideways by then), through the ditch, and up against the barb wire fence. I should have rolled my car into the field but it did not roll. We drove out of the dry ditch (no mud) and proceeded back to College Station at a very slow pace since I did not have brakes. Fixed the brake hose later that day. Yup, an idiot.
“New Details Emerge About Coronavirus Research at Chinese Lab”
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/06/new-details-emerge-about-coronavirus-research-at-chinese-lab/
“More than 900 pages of materials related to US.-funded coronavirus research in China were released following a FOIA lawsuit by The Intercept.”
“Newly released documents provide details of U.S.-funded research on several types of coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing the work of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based health organization that used federal money to fund bat coronavirus research at the Chinese laboratory. The trove of documents includes two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as project updates relating to EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic.
The documents were released in connection with ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation by The Intercept against the National Institutes of Health. The Intercept is making the full documents available to the public.”
Why are we funding bat virus research in China ?
When can we put Fauci into the stocks there in DC for people to throw old tomatoes at him ?
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
At this point, I wonder if we will ever unmask. At least in Tejas I can go to store without a mask. I’m glad we bought a house here. Vegas is back to masking in the casinos and no eating in the bingo hall. The fun is gone for me.
Masking is probably around to stay in a lot of states with the exception of Florida and Texas, and Texas is one serious power outage away from a significant change in political philosophy emanating from the Governor’s Mansion, whether that be from the incumbent fighting for his political life or a new face being sworn in on Jan 1, 2023.
All right, all right, all right!
Based on what I saw at the Texas Coast again this weekend, we’re probably in for another spike in the numbers over the next three weeks, and the school systems in the I35 corridor are eventually going to get their way fighting Abbott over masks for the next year at a minimum.
I think most of us feel the same way. I feel much better about the braking system having had all the major components replaced.
What I fail to comprehend is how a brake hose collapses. Seems strange as those hoses are made with walls that are not supposed to expand and conversely should not un-expand, ie collapse. But apparently it does happen. Something gets in the hose, a small part of the hose. Brake pressure gets by the blockage but such pressure is not released. Looking online it happens more than I would have thought.
I have never been a fan of turning rotors. It is better now that there are machines that will machine the rotors on the vehicle. But rotors are not that expensive to avoid being replaced. Calipers are expensive, $150.00+ even with the core charge (well mine were).
What is annoying is the parking brake. The cable can stick in the housing and requires full replacement. Several hundred dollars in parts and a significant amount of labor. Ford knows of the problem and chooses to ignore the issue. The replacement part still has the same flaw as the stuck part.
And in other news. I am really getting tired of the knee pain. The pain is slowly getting less but still exists. When walking every once in awhile it feels like the knee bends back too far and I falter in my steps. I have another 4 weeks to go to get the 12 week milestone where most of the discomfort is supposed to be gone. Full recovery takes 12 months. Ugh.
The knee is the largest joint in the body and takes the longest to recover from the replacement, actually resurfacing, process. Watch a video, it is gruesome.
Because there was a law against federal funding of gain-of-function research in the US.
About a month ago, Wells Fargo announced it was dropping its personal line of credit products. We used them for backup on checking accounts. Tons of paperwork was mailed. Last week, Wells Fargo reinstated the lines of credit after mucho feedback, according to them. Translation: a million people threatened to close their accounts. Now, another ton of paperwork mailed out. What a fiasco.
I still have a Business Line of Credit with WF. During our time with 8 employees, it came in handy making payroll when deadbeat school districts were behind on paying.
Hopefully this is enough to try him. At least get rid of him. The amount of money he gets paid is ridiculous. Goobermint grift at its finest.
Something Lynn will appreciate:
Hydrogen used for energy “production” is coded in different colors, with green being the best because the energy for cracking a water molecule comes from “renewable” sources.
But look! There’s something that’s even better! There’s white hydrogen, which is pumped from underground wells. They can produce up to 27,000 cubic feet of hydrogen per day and several thousand sites worldwide are potential sources. The climate crisis can be ended!
… Until you crunch some numbers.
27,000 scf/day (the “up to” value)
2000 wells (a likely highball number of wells that can be economically processed)
.0791 kwh/cf energy in hydrogen
That makes 4,271,400 kwh/day, the equivalent of 177,975 kw produced 24 hours/day, assuming perfect efficiency
0.55 fuel cell efficiency
That means an equivalent of 97,886 kw 24hr/day
30 GW Texas average load (SWAG based on peak capacity and typical power curves; presumably the actual number is available somewhere but I didn’t see it)
That means that all of the hydrogen wells in the world can provide 0.3% of Texas’s electrical load.
Yep, we can get rid of all fossil fuel and nuclear generation, all right. Happy days are here again!
In the 1980s there was a big hoo-rah because some kind of tumbleweed was found to naturally produce hydrocarbon oil. No more dependence on foreign oil! Except that turning over the entire US between the Mississippi and the Rockies to tumbleweeds would have yielded a million barrels per year or some such. It was a nice fantasy for the non-quantitative, but engineers shot holes in it in about a minute.
Tumbleweeds are not an indigenous USA species; they came from Russia. If you have ever camped in places where they grow, back country places in Utah for example, you would hate them also.
Who appraised the necklace originally? The jeweler who sold it to you and ‘valued’ it at whatever number you told him to pit on the paper? The insurance company really didn’t care since they set the premium accordingly, and also knew that if you ever filed a claim for said necklace they’d either raise your rate or drop you at renewal time. How much is Jeff’s Bronco worth? Is it a dumpy old clunker worth $500 or a one of a kind collector’s item worth tens of thousands? Or did Mackenzie get it in the divorce settlement?
How much is Jeff’s Bronco worth? Is it a dumpy old clunker worth $500 or a one of a kind collector’s item worth tens of thousands? Or did Mackenzie get it in the divorce settlement?
If there ever was a Bronco outside of the legend, which I doubt.
I saw a “Pawn Stars” where Rick passed on the OJ Bronco for $1 million.
Harrison did pay $10,000 for the “Waynes World” Pacer and spent $28,000 restoring it.
The auto transporter delivered my new (to me) used 2018 Nissan Leaf this morning. Lease turn-in at the original dealer and basically in like-new condition. 14,000 miles and 98% battery capacity. 99% charged and shows full 150 mile range. SL trim with all the latest (as of 2018) safety features. Paid roughly half the original sticker price. This replaces our second car (Subaru Crosstrek) that’s our around town vehicle so no real ‘range anxiety’ concerns. Kicker that pushed us to do the deal was the shocking price that CarMax paid for the Subie. Several thousand more than Carvana offered (usually my go-to used car buyer) and $200 more than we paid for it 18 months ago. Hoo-ray for the chip shortage. While not quite a Tony-mobile, still has plenty of torque and off the line pickup, the lack of which was always an issue with the Crosstrek. (They finally increased the engine displacement in the latest model.) The one-pedal driving mode (regenerative braking) will take a bit getting used to as there’s almost no coasting when you let up on the accelerator pedal. Needs to go through the car wash, dirty from its trailer ride. And gotta RTFM which is quite thick.
ADDED – the Subie was also due for a major service and was nearing needing new tires which was another save.
I remember when Schibe in Southern California was $29.99 for any vehicle. Of course they did not mask anything nor do any preparation sanding, no primer and overspray was everywhere. But the car was painted. I was about six years old when a friend of my father had his vehicle done. It was a really bad paint job. Overspray, runs, but it was a paint job. The car looked worse before so the paint was an improvement, for about a month. Then bubbles appeared, paint started falling off, other parts got really oxidized. Probably not the best quality paint.
My current neighbor across the street has an older model pickup. He painted the vehicle using a sprayer and paint he bought from home depot. Again, not automotive quality but actually looked fairly good. Keeps the rust at bay.
I have a car that was painted by Earl Scheib before I bought it in 1979, so probably in 1977. The paint actually adhered, looked decent, and lasted, but it was a color change. All the door jambs and sills were left the original color. There were other corners cut, but no overspray. The area behind the front license plate was still the original color. The guy I bought it from was a little fastidious, and admitted the job was poor.
A big percentage of the cost of painting a car is disassembly. All the trim has to be removed, not masked, and many small clips are plastic that breaks, so they have to be replaced. Some of the trim can be spaced so the paint goes under, and there are other tricks, but it is always labor intensive. Screws and brackets inside the jambs should be removed, and labels carefully masked or preferably replaced; some of those can’t be replaced because they are printed specifically for that car. And so on. Finally, adhesion and rust resistance are usually not as good as original, because original is done under controlled conditions on new materials.
Your neighbor might have chosen paint materials superior to the auto paint available in the aftermarket. I had very good luck with Rust Oleum primer under OEM color coat when I lived in the rust belt, but it was tricky to get good results. It was better than auto primer, but that was a long time ago. Everything is different today. Example, about 30 years ago in CA, good paint could be bought for general aviation aircraft but not for cars. Not any more, as I understand. Some states regulate painting products more than others, so taking a car to a neighboring state might be good.
The auto transporter delivered my new (to me) used 2018 Nissan Leaf this morning. Lease turn-in at the original dealer and basically in like-new condition. 14,000 miles and 98% battery capacity. 99% charged and shows full 150 mile range. SL trim with all the latest (as of 2018) safety features. Paid roughly half the original sticker price. This replaces our second car (Subaru Crosstrek) that’s our around town vehicle so no real ‘range anxiety’ concerns. Kicker that pushed us to do the deal was the shocking price that CarMax paid for the Subie. Several thousand more than Carvana offered (usually my go-to used car buyer) and $200 more than we paid for it 18 months ago. Hoo-ray for the chip shortage. While not quite a Tony-mobile, still has plenty of torque and off the line pickup, the lack of which was always an issue with the Crosstrek. (They finally increased the engine displacement in the latest model.) The one-pedal driving mode (regenerative braking) will take a bit getting used to as there’s almost no coasting when you let up on the accelerator pedal. Needs to go through the car wash, dirty from its trailer ride. And gotta RTFM which is quite thick.
ADDED – the Subie was also due for a major service and was nearing needing new tires which was another save.
Now THAT’S using the old noodle, and in ways many would not have thought unless they are in your exact situation. I am going to keep your post as a reminder for when people ask me for advice. Of course, they won’t have the exact situation, but it is an example of perfect deal coordination, with extra points for style!
Take a look at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jWl1qL8Gc
A 2013 Leaf, so different from yours, but watch future episodes as the Car Wizard learns and shares tips you might want to know about.
Something Lynn will appreciate:
Hydrogen used for energy “production” is coded in different colors, with green being the best because the energy for cracking a water molecule comes from “renewable” sources.
But look! There’s something that’s even better! There’s white hydrogen, which is pumped from underground wells. They can produce up to 27,000 cubic feet of hydrogen per day and several thousand sites worldwide are potential sources. The climate crisis can be ended!
… Until you crunch some numbers.
27,000 scf/day (the “up to” value)
2000 wells (a likely highball number of wells that can be economically processed)
.0791 kwh/cf energy in hydrogen
That makes 4,271,400 kwh/day, the equivalent of 177,975 kw produced 24 hours/day, assuming perfect efficiency
0.55 fuel cell efficiency
That means an equivalent of 97,886 kw 24hr/day
30 GW Texas average load (SWAG based on peak capacity and typical power curves; presumably the actual number is available somewhere but I didn’t see it)
That means that all of the hydrogen wells in the world can provide 0.3% of Texas’s electrical load.
Yep, we can get rid of all fossil fuel and nuclear generation, all right. Happy days are here again!
Texas peak electrical power level is about 75 GW for one hour in 2019. Note that this does not include the refineries and chemical plants which is probably another 20 to 30 GW since they generate their own power. 30 GW is probably a good average for Texas.
I have never heard of a “white hydrogen” well. Sounds like an internet fable to me.
Good old Sol is about 73% hydrogen, 25% helium. He is slowly converting all that hydrogen to helium, will take a few billion years. “The Sun’s core fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, converting 4 million tons of matter into energy every second as a result.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
BTW, hydrogen is the worst gaseous fuel based on mass or volume. To give you a comparison, the first power plant that I worked at in west Texas burned 220 million ft3 to 500 million ft3 of natural gas per day. The hydrogen equivalent of that would have been almost 2X.
Punctuation is important. I’m sure you meant to omit that comma.
There are too many bureaucrats, in basically all Western governments. Too many regulations. Crud accumulates, with no way to get rid of it.
Nissan has the various glove-box manuals on-line as PDFs. For the 2019 Frontier anyway. A bit easier to read since I have the files on my PC and the books are in the truck…. behind the rear seat next to the jack because I want to use the glove-box for more than a roll of quarters and a cord to charge my phone. Hey, gotta stash the beer coozies somewhere.
The manuals can use a decent editor. For example, the climate control I have has three variants. A, B, and C. They are all the same except for one button. That button changes the air source to “outside” instead or “recirculate”. Or that button turns on the heated rear window. Or turns on the heated rear-view mirrors. It seems kind of odd to have a button for fresh air when everything else I can think of just has a button to turn off recirculate.
The radio section is “aw crap” and forget it, just go play with the radio. The radio has the back up camera built in. And the navigation map gizmo. Sounds good but a bit heavy on bass for now.
Nissan has the various glove-box manuals on-line as PDFs. For the 2019 Frontier anyway. A bit easier to read since I have the files on my PC and the books are in the truck…. behind the rear seat next to the jack because I want to use the glove-box for more than a roll of quarters and a cord to charge my phone. Hey, gotta stash the beer coozies somewhere.
The manuals can use a decent editor. For example, the climate control I have has three variants. A, B, and C. They are all the same except for one button. That button changes the air source to “outside” instead or “recirculate”. Or that button turns on the heated rear window. Or turns on the heated rear-view mirrors. It seems kind of odd to have a button for fresh air when everything else I can think of just has a button to turn off recirculate.
The radio section is “aw crap” and forget it, just go play with the radio. The radio has the back up camera built in. And the navigation map gizmo. Sounds good but a bit heavy on bass for now.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 came with a 700 page manual in a special ledge of the glove box. The wife’s 2019 Highlander also came with a 500 ? 600 ? page manual in the glove box. I have used both of them. There is actual information in those things !
My 2019 Highlander didn’t come with the proper manual. The salesman grabbed on from a 2018 and told me ‘they are basically the same’. (Which was sort of true, since the 2018 is same generation as the 2019. But there are minor differences, mainly in the controls.)
I found a 2019 full manual set on Ebay for a good price (maybe $25?), so got that. And there is useful info in there, even though I also have the same manuals in PDF on my computer for convenience.
And, useful info can be found if you RTFM.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 came with a 700 page manual in a special ledge of the glove box. The wife’s 2019 Highlander also came with a 500 ? 600 ? page manual in the glove box. I have used both of them. There is actual information in those things !
The Ford dealer service wanted to do a transmission fluid flush the other day in my wife’s Exploder, which isn’t due to receive that service for another 60,000 miles according to a quick check in the manual.
Not that I will let the fluid go that long in a Ford, but the service advisor had already forced us to make a separate trip to replace the brake rotors.
My 2019 Highlander didn’t come with the proper manual. The salesman grabbed on from a 2018 and told me ‘they are basically the same’. (Which was sort of true, since the 2018 is same generation as the 2019. But there are minor differences, mainly in the controls.)
If the shoe was on the proverbial other foot, the salesman would have been a jerk about the trade if you didn’t have the right manuals in the glove box.
We got dinged for a missing key with my wife’s 4Runner trade. In retrospect, we should have sold that car to someone other than the dealer.
Haven’t had that problem. All of our ‘old’ cars were given to family members at no cost – they needed the extra help and transportation. All were Toyotas (Camry’s and Celica’s), at least in the past 20 years. All lasted another 100K+ miles after gifting.
Haven’t had that problem. All of our ‘old’ cars were given to family members at no cost – they needed the extra help and transportation. All were Toyotas (Camry’s and Celica’s), at least in the past 20 years. All lasted another 100K+ miles after gifting.
We won’t do that with family. My in-laws asked about the 4Runner for their son, but even if we gave it to them for free, the first problem with the car would have been our fault as far as my brother-in-law was concerned.
The reason we got rid of the car was a leaky rack and pinion, and that replacement job has mixed long term results on the 2002 4Runner. The moment rack #2 had to be installed, my in-laws would have been on the phone looking for a check.
I’ve never sold a working used car. I’ve either “sold” them to a junk yard for about $25 or given them away. Usually to someone broke but handy enough to take care of a working vehicle with 1000 little problems but once to a charity and once to a vocational school for their shop class.
And I know what Greg’s talking about with any problems with a gift being your fault and your responsibility. Not with family or in-laws that I recall, but I’ve done favors for people and had them go bad.
I sold my 1994 Camry to my best friend. I bought it used with 24K miles from a dealer. I sold it to my friend at 124K miles. I told him that buying the car from me was as a stranger. If the car died two days after the sale so be it. Don’t let it affect my friendship. He said he understood but knew I took care of my vehicles so considered it a good risk. If the car died a week later he said it was a risk he was willing to take and would not hold it against me. Bought it from me for $1200. He put 75K miles with nothing but normal maintenance on the car and sold it for $500. Said it was one of his better car purchases.
I do recall trading in one old car – don’t recall which one – to a dealer. Glad to do it, because the accelerator would randomly stick open. Made it exciting to drive down the freeway. No amount of lubrication of linkage or carb cleanout would fix it.
It was random enough that the dealer didn’t notice. I was glad to get the paltry amount they offered.
All of my ‘giveaways’ were to immediate family members, who were grateful for the donation. They were all in running condition, no problems. I wouldn’t give my kids a car that was not reliable. I would ensure good tires/brakes and mechanical condition before transfer, at my expense.
Apple’s “California Streaming” Event (LOL) is Sep 14. I expect it to be lack-luster. They better have something up their sleeve. I don’t know if I want to upgrade my iPhone 11 to a 13 because it has a 10% better lens or sumpin’. My MacBook Pro is only a couple years old, so no upgrade there. I *am* looking at replacing my Mac Mini which is getting long in the tooth. But that is already available with the M1 chip. I use an iPad Pro, so don’t care about the Air or others. Maybe an mini if it is a significant upgrade. I probably won’t even watch the stream, just watch a YT review.
Apple’s “California Streaming” Event (LOL) is Sep 14. I expect it to be lack-luster. They better have something up their sleeve.
The rumor is satellite phone capability for true emergencies. Voice and text. No Baby Yoda streaming.
Of course, this capability will probably allow the iPhone to communicate with the mothership without any WiFi or cell service involved.
No Starlink either. The place I talked to last week had satellite communications through one of the old school carriers as part of their product’s back up comm features so I assume the electronics have shrunk to a single IC and a small RF module, probably at the urging of one of the automakers.
BTW, got the “Thank you for your time, but …” email today. No problem — I only spent four hours of PTO on Friday talking to them. If the placement firm’s droid wants a debrief for their next candidate, I need a check.
Who appraised the necklace originally
–there are many places that used to tax personal property. Indiana was one, and there is a scene in the sequel to A Christmas Story where they are hiding all the new and expensive stuff so the tax inspector won’t see it. Dinnerware. Carpet. Etc.
TX still does this for business personal property and while they don’t typically inspect in person, they just assume way high and let you fight it. One year my assessment tripled for no visible reason. I fought and won using the argument that even if my stuff was pure gold it wouldn’t have increased that much.
So yeah, if they pass something like that, you can be sure there will be inspectors. In the old days they did an inventory after your death and taxed that.
n
I bet your Model T looked brand-new with that black paint job, Ray.
I didn’t know that! I was at Uwajimaya earlier and thinking of you, CowboySlim. There was some darn good picking on the radio which reminded me of Oleg(?) and his tractor band, lol. Seemed really strange in a Japanese grocery store, but what the heck…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pDHzK3Xe7Yw
Hoo-boy, gotta love that name. No one would ever suspect they were engaged in biological weapon research, would they?
Most states in the US have some form of property tax so the procedure is familiar.
If the feds pass an individual property tax, it will be on what states already tax and on financial assets – cash, stocks, bonds, etc. Anything else would be impossible to administer.
Looking around the web, it appears that states only have personal property taxes on:
– real estate
– cars, boats, and airplanes
– business property
All of those have established methods to determine values.
“You will own nothing and you will be happy” takes on a whole new meaning.
–there are many places that used to tax personal property. Indiana was one, and there is a scene in the sequel to A Christmas Story where they are hiding all the new and expensive stuff so the tax inspector won’t see it. Dinnerware. Carpet. Etc.
“My Summer Story” or “A Christmas Story 2”?
My wife just went to the “A Christmas Story” house in Cleveland at the beginning of August.
Sadly, no “Moonrunners” posters. Bob Clark had an … interesting film career.
I believe it was the summer one with the fighting tops…
n
I’ve sold a few, back in the day when people were a little more civil and you weren’t too concerned about test drives or hard feelings if there were post-sale issues. Nowadays I really don’t consider it. Look to trade in if the vehicle is extra-clean and/or there’s a sales tax benefit (pay tax only on the difference). Otherwise cycle through the big used car buyers (Carvana, Vroom, CarMax, etc.) and usually find a reasonable deal.
Oh, don’t be so sure. They could easily start with anything listed on any insurance rider on your homeowners/renters policy. All should have a value. Insurance companies required to send you a list every January and the same info goes to the IRS. Should catch plenty of jewelry, art, expensive “toys” (e.g. cameras, gubs, etc.).
How much is really missing from current cellphones? I’m still currently using a Pixel 2XL and what don’t I have? Wireless charging comes to mind but I don’t really mind plugging it in once a day. I won’t get Android 12 but I’m not unhappy with the look and feel of 11. Mostly change for change’s sake.
I love the wireless charging. It is a little thing, but dropping it on the stand is easier and saves wear and tear on the little connector.
Plus, I have a car mount with wireless charging built in, so it charges while I’m driving without having to mess with the connector.
Hugely convenient.
n
Have two and lose one, $50 to $75 to replace it, and not tied to the dealer.
Have one and lose one, several hundred dollars at least, if not more.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tiny-fish-stopped-construction-dam-no-longer-endangered-180978568
Gud deal. Now we’alls ken uze em as baits.
Wow, we are at 73 F now and to be 67 F by the morning.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond?cm_ven=localwx_10day
SUMMER IS OVER ! ! ! !
Long day. Picked up stuff. Hit the thrifts and picked up a bunch of good sales items for my next auction. Talked with my neighbor at my secondary and I think he’ll be paying me soon. He’s got the tool I sold him mostly checked out.
Weather was nice, cooler but still plenty hot in the sun.
Kids and dog in bed, time for a little relaxation.
n
If the feds pass an individual property tax, it will be on what states already tax and on financial assets – cash, stocks, bonds, etc. Anything else would be impossible to administer.
Oh, don’t be so sure. They could easily start with anything listed on any insurance rider on your homeowners/renters policy. All should have a value. Insurance companies required to send you a list every January and the same info goes to the IRS. Should catch plenty of jewelry, art, expensive “toys” (e.g. cameras, gubs, etc.).
I don’t have any gubs listed on my home insurance policy. I lost all my gubs in the Brazos River.
I can see them all when the Brazos River is this low. 10 feet on the gauge is about a foot deep in the central channel with sand bars visible all over the place. It blow my mind that they ran 300 foot long side wheelers up the Brazos River in the 1800s from the Gulf of Mexico to Waco, Texas (200 miles inland).
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=HGX&gage=RMOT2
When the Brazos is up and running, you can fish for rattlesnakes.
http://www.lifeonthebrazosriver.com/RattleSnakeBaitsBass.htm
Didn’t take long to go from liberal democracy to full jackboot. @marcelo, I don’t think there is any way you can characterize this that is consistent with freedom and individual rights. “Locked out” from healthcare. I thought liberals considered healthcare and access to it, to be a fundamental human right? Guess not.
n
n
FEMA summary
Betcha can’t read just one!
http://www.thomas-morris.uk/category/hidden-dangers/
Energy:
LA: 434k (-100k) (20%, -5%) customers without power (DOE Eagle-I as of 6:00 a.m. ET)
Most areas expected to be restored by Sep 8; full restoration to heavily impacted areas by
Sep 29-30
LA: 47% restored from peak outage; 6 of 8 major transmission lines restored
I am impressed ! Those people in the Sep 29-30 areas, good luck.
Yep, very impressive. Also note the boil water notices. LOTS of those and a whole lot less sexy than running solar or generators…
Are you prepared to boil some water?
(when I washed my clothes in a bucket, the turkey fryer heated up the water pretty quickly.)
n
Yep, very impressive. Also note the boil water notices. LOTS of those and a whole lot less sexy than running solar or generators…
Are you prepared to boil some water?
(when I washed my clothes in a bucket, the turkey fryer heated up the water pretty quickly.)
n
The only problem that you have there is that turkey fryer will blow through a lot of propane.
My parents have to boil water in Port Lavaca once or twice a month. They need to repipe the entire city as the broken main line pipes are killing their clean water supply. It is only $10 million or $20 to repipe the entire town of 13,000 people.
Who in the world created a BOM (byte order mark) for UTF8 text files ? I have been fighting this all day long ! Text files should not have have 0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF at the beginning of the file that I cannot see in a normal text file viewer such as notepad. I finally used my hex file viewer and found out that Visual Studio 2015 was adding the BOM to my source code files. My old Watcom compiler would see the BOM and upchuck all over it. We have a lot of shared code between the two environments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark#UTF-8
I swear, save me from nerdy programmers ! They are the worst and the origination of the Karens.
Save us from cleverness.
n
ESPECIALLY invisible cleverness.
Save us from cleverness.
n
ESPECIALLY invisible cleverness.
Very nicely put ! Especially the invisible.
Microsoft drove the Unicode consortium back in the early 1990s and ended up with the UTF-16 standard which turned out to be the wrong way to do things. UTF-8 was adopted by the WWW due to its compactness and is a totally excellent solution. “UTF-8 is a variable-width character encoding used for electronic communication.” But, the BOM is not needed whatsoever for UTF-8 text files and just makes a mess of things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8
We are in the middle of converting our Windows user interface from the single byte API to the double byte (wide) API and the project is not going well. Way too many nuances that the C++ compiler does not catch. If Microsoft had invented UTF-8 instead of UTF-16, we would not be having to go through this crap.
Just remember – you can’t unread them…
@Nick.. In the absence of Marcello , I can only comment on the situation in my state, (The western side of Oz).
Plus I rarely watch the news as it’s MSM at it’s worse. But Andrews did say it.
“Daniel Andrews: We are moving from a health system where we have everyone locked down we are going to move to a situation where to protect the healthcare system we are going to lock out people who are not vaccinated and can be. If you’re making the choice not to get vaccinated then you’re making the wrong choice… It’s going to be a vaccinated economy. And you get to participate in that.”
And that is the crux of the situation. Most states have a hospital problem. Even before Covid, most places were full. Each state leader is terrified of a mass influx of covid patients to overwhelm the system.
Andrews is a socialist, and a partner in the Chinese Belt & Road plan. Anyway, nobody seems very upset at his comments. I would have thought a few doctors would have commented, but so far nil.
Andrews has declared a “state of emergency” which is briefly as follows:
“A State of Emergency declaration gives the Victorian Chief Health Officer broad powers to act to eliminate or reduce a serious risk to public health by detaining people, restricting movement, preventing entry to premises or providing any other directions considered reasonable to protect public health, slow the spread of infection, reduce the pressure on the health system and minimise the risks of COVID-19”
There has been protests in Melbourne and Sydney with police firing rubber bullets at protestors in Melb. Which could be the first since the demonstrations of the Vietnam war I believe.
What is starting to occur is an “us and them” scenario. Vaxed vs unvaxed. (hereby referred to as the great unwashed). 🙁 This is going to get very ugly.
So, as is often quoted, they have the guns, manpower and resources. The average person doesn’t.
This is a country that I love, but it is circling the drain.
You might want to step back and think about why you love it. I’d give the same advice to someone who said he loved his abusive girlfriend.