Today we’re supposed to start getting cold. Should be warm-ish and damp until that happens though. Yesterday was nice, and the sun even came out.
I was thinking about taking down my holiday lighting, while it was still dry and nice out. But my desire to have it up until at least New Year’s Day won out in the end. If it rains or snows, I’ll just leave it up longer. I might not leave it LIT though.
And I had other stuff I preferred to do, or that I needed to do.
Some of which actually got done.
Today we’ll eat, clean, organize, and stack. I might even get the chance to fix something. And I’ll probably take down at least some of the outdoor decor.
There is a sense of ‘clearing the decks’ and getting ready to this time of year. No reason to fight it. Leverage natural tendencies when you can, and when they move in the same direction you want to go.
And of course, stack some stuff.
Because you never know for sure… but you can make a pretty good guess.
Welcome to 2022.
nick
And in other news. The estate of the MIL is almost settled. A small account in Vanguard that will take some more time. Got everything out of the executor account before the end of the year so I don't have to file with the IRS two years in a row on the EIN associated with the account.
What is troubling is the money that goes to the BIL. He wants the money placed into an account shared between him and my wife. He does not want his wife to know anything about the money.
The BIL has a tumor in his brain (unoperable) that is affecting him. He is paranoid about his neighbors spying on him. He accused his son of stealing tools of which his son has no need. He has a room in his house full of old computers, parts of computers, and all manner of stuff. He keeps the room locked and his wife is not allowed in the room. His doctor strongly advised that he and his wife put all assets including bank accounts in his wife's name so he has no control. Which they did.
I really think the shared account without his wife's knowledge is a really bad idea and have expressed it to my wife multiple times. She fails to see the issue. BIL is making a list of things on which he wants to spend the money. His wife will certainly find out when he spends the money. The shirt(-r) storm that hits the fan will be interesting. And my wife may wind up involved in the scuffle.
I am afraid he will make bad decisions with the money. The amount is north of $200K. A lot of bad things can happen with that amount of money. And with the wife on the account will she become responsible? That is a very real fear that I have. Any legal problems with how the funds are disbursed may put her at risk.
A Tesla full of Playstation 5s. 🙂
BIL has mentioned getting all new false teeth. He has them now, but cheap ones. He wants really good false teeth, maybe implants. A seriously good use of the funds. He also want to travel to Wales to research family background. A reasonable use of the money. He has vision issues and wants eye surgery. A very good use of the money.
My concern is the rest of the money. What happens when his wife finds out? Will my wife be considered an accomplice? Will his wife cause problems? I don’t care for her anyway so if she chooses to never speak to us again I would consider that a benefit.
Early dinner at Basque resturant, then went to daughter's house with a few friends. Couple of beers and some games, snacks and playing with grandson. Midnight went out back and heard some hoots bangs of fireworks but a real lack of gunfire. Son-inl-law says its because we no longer live on the eastside but we were in the same spot last year and heard several. I'm thinking ammo is too valuable to wast (no regard to shooting in the air).
@Nick
Matters have already been litigated that are similar enough that the outcome is predictable.
When the lawsuit gets filed it should include "reparations". Easy to calculate the number of POPs (Persons of Pinkness) that have been excluded, and so easy to calculate the numbers necessary to get to an overall colorblind result.
@nick
I’ll just leave it up longer. I might not leave it LIT though
Lights are left up all winter here. They go up before snow flies and come down / are replaced when the ground is clear in warmer months. It’s cheery to see them as the days shorten.
Most folks use white lights. It’s quite pretty to drive through neighborhoods and see the houses lit up in October or February.
Homeowners Associations in Florida and Texas go crazy if lights are left up much past the second week of January.
A lot of people are living the tenbagger dream, hoping that they will see California-style appreciation out of their houses if they keep the neighbors from painting their home the “wrong” color.
Posted on December 30, 2021 by John Hinderaker in Energy Policy
The Uselessness of Solar Energy
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/the-uselessness-of-solar-energy.php
References a short article by Isaac Orr at American Experiment.
The star of both is a graph from the USEIA showing capacity factors for solar power in Minnesota over three calendar years 2018-2020
Easy takeaways:
1) Even in the best conditions, solar capacity in Minnesota does not exceed 30%. There are 3 months where the 3-year average was between 25-30% (May, June, Jul)
2) In the worst conditions, solar capacity in Minnesota is less than 10%. There are 3 months where the 3-year average for the month was below 10% (Nov, Dec, Jan)
3) February 2019 is about 6%, doubtless due to:
Fixed solar panel angles are optimized to produce power in summer with a high solar angle, so the pitch is not steep enough to shed snow in the winter.
(Note the photo caption incorrectly identifies a solar installation as a wind farm)
It's not clear where exactly the data were found. I'd like to see similar data from Texas, but a quick search didn't find it.
Using a geographic map of solar potential by state, an eyeball estimate is that Minnesota averages 6.5 kWH/day/? (area measurement missing?) whereas Texas is 8.5, about 31% higher. Using that as a scaling factor yields estimates for Texas capacity factors of 37% for the three highest months and 12% for the 3 lowest months, with the latter probably underestimating due to lower snowfall. A comparison of cloudy days in both states would correct the estimate further, but I'd rather see the actual data.
Solar power is a homerun proposition for calculators. And it makes sense for certain portable and remote installations (emergency highway signs, mountain cabins, islands). Feed the grid with solar in the U.S.? NFW from an engineering and economic standpoint.
It’s quite pretty to drive through neighborhoods and see the houses lit up
–I think so too but not everyone here agrees. I do know people who have had expensive large permanent lights installed, but they don't light them except at the holidays. One of my wife's business partners has color changing LED strips installed under all his eves. He can change the colors to match a bunch of holidays. And does. Don't know what his neighbors or his wife think about it, but it sounds fun to me.
82F and 74%RH at 11;30am. At some point the cool starts…
Bright overcast at the moment.
n
LOL Peak Shot Girl ™
'Republicans are mad they can't date me'
Vacay in Florida and tries to dish the Gov. Turns out he was with his wife during her chemo. Not a peep of “sorry”. Harry Reid 2.0.
Texas is weird. It rained fish there the other day (last Wednesday).
https://www.facebook.com/texarkanatexas/posts/287678246727984
"Feed the grid with solar in the U.S.? NFW from an engineering and economic standpoint."
Sure. I do mildly resent that the term "solar" now almost exclusively means electricity generation. I have had solar space heat for over 40 years, and I can say it is an economic win. BUT, I live in a location that has just about the highest insolation in the US, with a mild climate. I am also all electric, with no natural gas, a big factor when we made decisions.
For me, the biggest factor is psychological. When the weather is sunny, the house is comfortable. When we get a few cloudy days, we are on backup heat, which is expensive. Cloudy days are so few that they are also depressing.
I am planning on installing a heat pump to replace our electric resistance backup heat. Modern heat pumps are much better than they were a couple decades ago. That should address our comfort. It won't chase away the clouds and their depressing effect.
@JimB
" I do mildly resent that the term "solar" now almost exclusively means electricity generation."
My bad. I did briefly think that I needed to go back and differentiate by making it "solar PV", but the thought took wing and left me for better pastures.
The Dems probably won't be able to take out DeSantis, but Little Marco is vulnerable in 2022.
Warren Buffett retained ownership in *one* TV station for a reason. WPLG in … Miami!
This is the reason I am on the board for our HOA. I hold them to the written rules, not the rules they'd like to have. For example, there was a 'rule' saying that you can't store your trash cans so they are visible from the street. It isn't anywhere in the written rules, however. Nope, you can drop the little paper tickets, but you CANNOT levy a fine.
—
Hawaii has some of the highest electricity bills and has good solar insolation. However, the grid operator found that when solar exceeded something over 5% (IIRC, it might have been 10%) the grid became unstable. Pop-up storms would crash the grid because they couldn't bring the traditional generators on line quickly enough to compensate. They started mandating the grid attached solar have a battery system as well. Since the battery systems cost as much, or more, than the PV systems, it really changes the economics of it.
We really need an inexpensive energy storage system if renewables are going to be useful.
If I were President, or King for a day, I would have authorized each congressperson 1 1000 MW nuclear reactor to be built somewhere in their district. And 1 reprocessing/breeder plant per state. Have the Navy train the first set of reactor operators. That would go a long way to making the grid stable again.
>> I am afraid he will make bad decisions with the money. The amount is north of $200K. A lot of bad things can happen with that amount of money. And with the wife on the account will she become responsible? That is a very real fear that I have. Any legal problems with how the funds are disbursed may put her at risk.
@Ray, just my $0.02, sounds like a consultation with an estate attorney would come up with a meas of accomplishing what the BIL wants that also protects your wife. Perhaps some type of irrevocable trust?
>> One of my wife's business partners has color changing LED strips installed under all his eves. He can change the colors to match a bunch of holidays. And does. Don't know what his neighbors or his wife think about it, but it sounds fun to me.
Sort of like this.
It would also reduce demand because all of the watermelons and other communists would die of apoplexy. #Winning!
Peanuts: Not Finished With Last Year
https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2022/01/01
Yup, I agree with Lucy.
"My bad. I did briefly think that I needed to go back and differentiate by making it "solar PV", but the thought took wing and left me for better pastures."
Oh, not just you. The whole rest of the world. I drive by a solar thermal plant that is being replaced with PV panels. That is the Kramer Junction plant just north of the CA58-US395 junction. It had the advantage of being able to generate electricity at night using natural gas to heat its boilers. When the renovation is complete, it will be another contributor to the duck curve.
Solar power is a homerun proposition for calculators. And it makes sense for certain portable and remote installations (emergency highway signs, mountain cabins, islands). Feed the grid with solar in the U.S.? NFW from an engineering and economic standpoint.
The problem with solar power is the duck curve. The solar power fields cannot make power during the late afternoons and evenings. So, either you have to start gas turbines to make up the power loss or bank some of your solar power in incredibly expensive batteries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve
Yes, solar is a 100% fraud sold only by idiot liars.
The rooftop scammers came to my house and asked me: "Do you want to save money?"
I answered: "Yes, an exact 100% guaranteed savings monthly of 10%".
I then gave them very specific paragraphs for the contract and they walked off, in contrast to buying a car where they take back to the boss so he can disagree.
They didn't realize that I am an intensely educated professional career thermodynamics engineer.
Just take my wife's name off the account. Then it is the BIL's and SIL's problem. Let them sort it out and keep us out of the mess. BIL stated he does not his wife to know as she would just spend all the money. She did do that with a certificate for which he was the beneficiary. We think she paid off a loan that was used to remodel the interior of their home. That is actually a good way to spend the money.
Both of them are strange people. Neither one is the brightest LED in the stop light.
While we both love our families, collectively and individually, there are reasons we live 2000 miles away from most of them, and why I get anxiety attacks when MIL and FIL start talking about moving to TX or buying a condo down here.
n
Tell them about the cars with license plates from libtard states being vandalized or even torched, down in Texas. They don't hear about it in the news because it's being censored. Play it up however would best fit with their beliefs and you'll have them too scared to move down there.
@CowboySlim
"intensely educated professional career thermodynamics engineer."
Card reads:
Cowboy Slim, IEPCTE, DNFWM*
*Do Not Fool With Me
@Nick
Arkansas is a great place to retire.
Roger that on my card!
They are lifelong Boston area residents with a couple generations there. Kennedy worshipers… I don't think there is anywhere in AR that they'd feel comfortable. Damn few places in TX either, which is fine with me.
n
Austin.
And Robert Francis' popularity among non-Hispanic oldsters across this state comes from a belief in Camelot among that generation.
If only Bobby had lived …
If only they hadn't missed Teddy.
It'd be a different country if Teddy hadn't changed our immigration policy to favor third world laborers instead of first and second world educated immigrants.
n
Teddy changed the immigration policy twice, once in the 60s and again, 20 years later, in the 80s.
The third "20 year" bill is 15 years overdue, George W. Bush having failed to get the "reform" through the Republican congress on schedule.
Failure to get the bill through is still reverberating in politics. It is one of the reasons DeSantis is sitting in the Governor’s Mansion in Florida right now instead of former Congresscritter Adam “Opie” Putnam, dopey scion of a wealthy citrus grower family and Bush’s point man on the effort.
I had a friend whose card read
John Doe, EG&PTBW
When asked, he cheerfully said "Engineering Genius and Part Time Boy Wonder." Always got a good laugh. He actually was a humble and very smart guy.
I also met Ed Trompeter in the early 1980s. At the time, he was owner of Trompeter Electronics, a connector manufacturer. His card read
Trompeter Electronics
Ed, Janitor
He was a character.
Another story out of New York about Covid test distribution with images featuring pricey to extremely expensive winter coats on all of the participants.
How much do those tests fetch on EBay?
If the coat on the “public servant” handing out the tests is Moncler (logo not visible on the other arm), that’s a $1700 item. The North Face on the test recipient in the foreground is “only” $300.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/need-know-covid-home-rapid-tests-results-provide-rcna10227?utm_source=pocket-newtab
People watch in Downtown Seattle in Winter and you quickly pick up on coats as status symbols. Walking out of the grocery store in Issaquah one night, a woman stopped me and correctly ran down the particulars of my outerwear that evening, including the cost to within $20.
I guess I was being hit on, Seattle style.
There have been times I was wearing ~$1000 plus jewelry and I only paid <$100 for it. Most people that are interested in clothing as status markers don't thrift like I do though.
I'm trying to teach the kids to think of clothes as a costume they put together to get a specific effect.
I've got 'work' clothes from each of my careers, and can dress the part if I need to. I can also dress for several other parts given one or two specific pieces.
Oil patch millionaires often just wear stained and worn carharts, for example, but will add a rolex to let you know…
n
(my wedding band is pretty plain, but it's platinum. Looks a lot like silver costume jewelry, which is what I like about it. I designed my wife's engagement ring so she could wear it at work, wearing gloves and climbing ladders without worry. We did sort of the opposite of what designers usually do wrt emphasizing the center stone.)
Electricity makes life better. Cheap energy more so.
I completed the heated automatic watering system for the rabbits. The system uses a 30 gallon barrel, 770 gpm pump with 6.5’ rise, 500 watt tank de-icee, brass rabbit drinking nipples all hung together with 1/2” PVC pipe.
My joins are ugly and I only have one leak (at a connector, I think the connector is flawed, it’s a very slow drip so ignoring). I just shaved 30-60 minutes a day off rabbit chores.
Without the system, twice a day I collected water crocks, placed them in warm water to break the ice free, put them back into cages, and finally filled them. Depending on how cold it was the chore could take as much as half an hour. That chore was semi automated with a 3 gallon bucket of water with the de-icer that was on a timer so it was thawed and warm when I went down to do rabbit chores.
Cheap energy makes this possible. Running the de-icer costs about 1 kWh/hour according to my Wyze smart plug. With the automatic system up it’ll be running 24/7 until March or April. That’s a lot of energy.
Normally I would use the garden hose to fill the barrel. It’s a 120’ run and it’s blowing like crazy. I didn’t want to be in the miserably cold wind dealing with water at 25f so instead I, with a bit of help from visiting kiddos and husband, filled it with 2 liter bottles, 8 at a time. Got about 15 gallons in before it was too dark and miserable to continue. Significantly more overall effort, but spread our over five individuals with only a couple minutes in the wind at a time.
Phew. I don’t know if you good gentles comprehend how glad I am to have this long delayed build completed. So glad.
@Jenny
Congrats on the build. Yes, a lot of energy and considerable expense, but the sure avoidance of time expense and the potential for avoiding sickness due to extended exposure to cold makes it worthwhile.
If you don't already have one, an inexpensive non-contact thermometer (pistol grip, laser guided, 10:1 distance:spot diameter) will tell you if you have any surfaces that need to be insulated.
Makes sense, since the Seattle winters aren't really cold. Pricey showoff coats spend half the time at the dry cleaners in midwestern cities–unless you have the motor in a heated garage with wash and dry service, the white salt coating rubs off on the coat when you scrape the ice off the windshield.
I always laugh when I seen a North Face showoff-logo-on-the-back.
You can tell the cities that are cold:
https://www.treehugger.com/cities-with-tunnels-skywalks-weather-protection-4869092
(and a few warm ones)
Pearls Before Swine: New Years Resolutions
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/01/01
Yup, that one works for me too.
"The Fleet of the Springers (Perry Rhodan, No. 22)" by Kurt Mahr, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Springers-Perry-Rhodan-No/dp/0431660050/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
Book number twenty-two of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1973 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #101, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 29 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Die_Flotte_der_Springer
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over ten years since then and the New Power has flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.
The Springers have captured the 200 foot diameter space ship with Cadet Julian Tifflor that Perry Rhodan used to flush the Springer spies into the open. The Springer trading clans have a monopoly on all trading in the Arkonide empire and want to take over the trading between Earth and the Vega system. Perry Rhodan does not want to delegate all Earth trading to the Springers. Plus, the Springers want Perry Rhodan to take them to the Planet of the Immortals.
One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1973. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.
Two observations:
1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (3 reviews)
Milwaukee has the grand av mall, all elevated and walkways, iirc. That was the only stop on a winter jazz tour where I zipped up my expedition weight down coat…
Alberta sure has a lot of tunnels and walkways too. It's pretty dang cold there in March.
Just finished a 2 hour long game of minecraft Uno with the kids. Oy vey. Got to try out my new Axil ear pro. I'm going to have to read the manual on adjusting them I guess. Very weird initially to put them in, block the ear, but still have every thing sound completely normal, except my own voice. I thought the high tech hearing pro in the books was so much BS (blutooth to phone/radios, boosted normal hearing, full blockage of loud noises) but that's what the Axils promise and for not crazy money. I'm trying the GS – Ghost Strike – model. They have a bit of a tearing/rattle on high pitch squeals…
n
My point is that something is going on with the home tests, akin to how the free AC units handed out in Chicago during one heat wave within the last decade were resold on Craigslist.
Or the Mercedes and other grocery getters in line at the food banks a year ago in Florida.
If the jabs were less fragile, those would have been unobtainium for much of the last year.
Welcome to NYFC Mayor Adams…
First Homicide of 2022
Three Subway Lines Suspended Due to COVID Staffing Issues
Agenda for First 100 Days Will Be to "get stuff done" – No Plan Yet Released
How about that? The outdoor temp dropped from 70F to 56F in just over an hour.
I'm going to bring my potted citrus up next to the house, under the patio.
n
Dropped to 54F now.
n
Now it's down to 49F. Dropping pretty steadily.
n