A bit cooler today, from weather, not numbers 😉 And maybe some more ‘moisture from the sky’. Got a bunch of rain in various parts of Houston yesterday as I drove around.  Went from Hockley to Crosby and back home. Lot of driving.
But I did get a billable half day at my client’s place, and I’ll get another on Friday or next Monday to put it back together. And I got some good stuff for the households.
Today I need to do more. I need to do some grocery shopping (will take D1 as part of her daddy together time) since she has been whining about the snacks I don’t put in their lunches. I have a couple of pickups that I can do, if the timing works.  And I’ve got to get stuff out of the foyer, because the GS cookies arrive at noon today.
The welding machine I picked up looks like it’s in decent shape for its age. The leads are cracked and too old but I’ve got NIB replacements somewhere… I don’t think I’ll have time to test it for a while. Too much to do.
And my brain is foggy right now, so short shrift today in the blogging column. Go read Peter’s post about supply chain issues in the spare and repair parts field, https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/ for more confirmation bias that we are rapidly slipping backwards.  The problem will really be when we lose the ability to fix the machines we need to make the parts to fix the machines.  That is going to hurt, and take a long time to recover from.
I’m adding oil filters for all three vehicles and at least a case of oil to the stack this week. Hopefully Costco will have it on sale, as they didn’t last month. If these were normal times, that means it would be on sale this month. Oil for the gennies wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
So many things to stack.  So get busy stacking.
n
53F and saturated. Supposed to be cooler as the day goes on.
I just need the rain to hold off.
n
What's the point of a $20k truck if the buyer is immediately looking to add the OEM gadgetry?
"Show ya" just proving he can get the deal?
("Show ya" is always Y chromosome driven)
Aftermarket will happen if the vehicle is popular enough with buyers who couldn’t afford the gadgets in the first place.
I get a very tiny pension from my time at National Bancshares Corporation (NBC) in San Antonio. It wound up being from Bank of America due to NBC being taken over by the feds, then assets sold, acquired, sold, acquired, etc. I got a letter many years ago from Bank of America asking what I wanted to do with my retirement account. Having never worked for BofA it was almost tossed. I called anyway. Surprised what I found out.
When the IT department was outsourced to MTech everyone with $3,500 or less in their retirement account got paid. I had more and felt I got stiffed and was more than a little miffed at the situation. Now I have been drawing $1,400.00 a year for 15 years. As I said, not much, tiny.
Fidelty manages the fund having gone through several companies over the years. There is several billion dollars in the fund which I guess is an aggregation of all the banks that BofA has absorbed over the years. It may even include other companies all lumped into the same fund.
And in other news. The VA dropped my disability rating from 100% down to 60%. The 100% was temporary covering the time the VA considers for recovery from knee replacement. It got me above the 50% barrier which was one of my goals. Now the VA covers 100% of my prescription medicines. Which is a good thing. The medicine my wife takes from the heart attack is costing almost $800.00 a month. The prescription coverage from Medicare covers basically nothing.
My friends at GTE gave me cr*p when they got cashed out at 30 cents on the dollar and it looked like I got zip. They are still in denial that the C-suite in our division pocketed the rest of the pensions … except mine.
It will amount to a few hundred a month eventually. I’ll always have a loaf of bread for sandwiches in the van. Maybe.
It will amount to a few hundred a month eventually.
— hope it will buy more than a cup of coffee in a couple of years.
n
Ah, the diversite' enriching our lives…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10464641/Massive-brawl-erupts-Golden-Corral-Philadelphia-diners-cut-line-buffet.html
Watch the video, turn the sound down first.
Have a plan.
There's more than "simple assault" going on here. Hitting someone with a chair isn't "simple" assault. Fighting while calling someone "puta" or whore isn't simple assault. Minimum is 'aggravated' due to the 'engaging in fighting' and the name calling. Use of a weapon- and a cast iron table base is a weapon, is "assault with a deadly weapon".
I'm sure there are some BS modifiers too, or would be if 'white hispanics' were involved.
n
BofA absorbed several regional banks with long histories and track records of being decent to employees, some of the acquisitions questionably legal. It wouldn't surprise me that the pension accounts were well funded just from the banks alone.
Interesting, and dovetails with a couple other ideas about perception too.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10464777/Your-brain-shows-images-15-seconds-past-instead-trying-update-real-time.html
And while the article doesn't talk about it, it could explain the "time dilation" effect where everything slows down under stress… could be your brain starts paying attention to every second instead of summarizing.
n
And how much insulation has been installed in homes in Texas over the last 12 months? I'm guessing almost none. Probably not even the easy stuff like unrolling some in the attic or sheathing the pipes in the crawl spaces.
Speaking of insulation in Texas. Did they change the code on min R-value in new construction?
Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium is the only NFL facility with an arraignment courtroom and holding cells on site.
Our President:
Illegal Alien Who Killed Teen Granted Permission By Biden To Stay In USA
plugs is the worst.
They hate us and want us dead.
Then they will retire to their modern haciendas, worked by the same peasants that have been chained to the land for centuries.
n
What's this about the Bush family?
Beyond the impact of the Governor's race, a freeze with rolling blackouts in Texas this week will probably tilt the race for the Republican nomination for Attorney General in favor of George "P. Diddly" Bush, son of Jeb!.
P. Diddly's next step towards the Governor's Mansion.
For all the grief Florida Man gets, the state’s voters rejected the Bush family’s hand-chosen candidate for Florida Governor four years ago, Adam “Opie” Putnam. We’ll see if Texas’ voters get similarly smart about P. Diddly and end the dynasty.
Yep, each new editing of the forecast brings the temperatures down a few degrees. It is supposed to arrive sometime tonight. I think we are ready. Fingers crossed! I sure hope that it doesn't freeze hard in points south. Our Austin contingent had to replace most of their landscape plantings after last year's freezes killed the plants.
We could sure use the moisture, though. We haven't had a measurable rain since early November. Good old La Nina drought. But no, we'd rather not have it come in sleet. Snow we can handle, sleet's awful and dangerous.
The "weather liars" as Nick calls them (used to know a woman at Dave's Garden who used that phrase), say a new El Nino won't start until sometime in late summer or fall. So the La Nina will hang on for months to come. That means a dry spring and dry summer for us, as La Nina always brings drought to this part of the world.
The Austin forecast keeps drifting up a degree or two every 12 hours.
Re: buffering vision. Perhaps they are referring to some various quiet times. No one would be able to drive if their perception was 15 seconds in the past. Or perhaps driving or other real time tasks brings us out of our fog in cognitive effort. Hmmm.
No one would be able to drive if their perception was 15 seconds in the past
— my snarky response was, have you driven lately??!!! but in truth, they are talking about awareness and attention. You don't need much awareness to travel at the same speed with a group of vehicles moving in the same direction. Distracted driving, drunk driving, sleep-driving… all prove it's not only possible but common.
The people in the study 'saw' the faces, they just didn't store them in real time, and didn't have their awareness focused on them. If the study had asked people to watch the video and push a button when the image showed a moustache, I'm sure the results would have been different. Of course then, the study could have had a clown walk thru the room during the video and probably no one would have 'seen' it even if it walked thru their field of view.
There is a prof who does things like that to show how bad eye witness accounts are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
n
Attention spans are really short these days. Even when I am at home, communicating with my wife, anything longer than a sentence is generally tuned out so I have to stop, request full attention, and reiterate if something is important.
A lot of psychological research on the topic is geared towards developing new audio and video compresson codecs, eliminating portions of a picture and/or pieces of the sound that the brain ignores.
The local ISD called off school for tomorrow and Friday. Parents are going to be scrambling if they have to report to work in an office or other on-site facility.
Pre pandemic, "snow days" were a big issue due to child care. After we left, the teachers' union in Vantucky only needed a one day strike to get most of what they wanted out of the administration at the bargaining table.
DIY upgrades for your base Ford Maverick…
Add cruise control (and mods for other vehicles):
https://www.rostra.com/2022-ford-maverick-how-to-add-cruise-control.php
Digital dash cluster:
https://jalopnik.com/owner-plugs-ford-escape-dash-into-base-maverick-and-it-1848460178
OK, that is just cool. But not to be touched until the factory warranty runs out.
And isn't cruise control a mandatory factory feature nowadays ? Just kidding.
From SRW in the Fort Bend Journal, "Sounds About Right":
"Even duct tape can't fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound".
A dash is not an upgrade to be approached casually. Cruise control either, but I remember my father doing it in the 80s with an old Fairmont, requiring the better part of an afternoon.
I still don't get the point of buying the base model of an entry level vehicle and then immediately trying to upgrade to a higher trim level, spending money on OEM parts.
Toyota nerds do it with TRD, but most of that is cosmetic. Plus, the last time I was on a dealer lot, the Corolla didn't have a TRD trim level.
I remember my dad installed an aftermarket cruise control on his 1984 Civic S hatchback. He purchased it at Montgomery Wards. A big bump in the road would disengage it. Another memory about that car is he got 50mpg on a trip up to MA one summer. It was him, mom, and myself and a full car load of stuff.
I note today is 2-2-22. Which works for US and EU date formats.
You're welcome.
Over The Hedge: Vowels Not Voles
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2022/02/02
OK, it is just a stupid game.
A dash is not an upgrade to be approached casually. Cruise control either, but I remember my father doing it in the 80s with an old Fairmont, requiring the better part of an afternoon.
I installed an aftermarket cruise control in my 1973 Volvo station wagon that my mother gifted to me (nobody else wanted it). It was great until my next trip to College Station when I discovered that I installed the plastic vacuum actuator waaaaaaay too close to the exhaust manifold. By the time I got to College Station from Sugar Land (110 miles), the plastic vacuum actuator was good and melted.
2-2-22 was 2,000 years ago. 🙂 You can't just chop two digits off the year to make it look cool… lol 😛
Exactly, Chad! Today is 20220202 and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.
They just announced a new 4,700 acre, 14,000 home subdivision south of my house about two miles in the swamp. There is another 20,000 acre subdivision also coming in soon. It is going to make traffic in our area a total disaster. The homes are going to be on 50 foot lot lines to minimize land usage. I have no idea what they are going to do about the flooding over there.
https://www.fortbendstar.com/austin-point/pdf_c494e992-7b07-11ec-a6a8-9bbc66f49a2e.html
can't just … to make it look cool
— well now you're just invalidating 99% of male behaviour!
n
Well, I had a change of plans today. I'll be doing my other pickup tomorrow. Girl Scout cookies arrived. Had to clear space, and help unload. Honda minivan filled front to back top to bottom….
So I cleaned, organized, and gave myself a haircut.
And I'll continue those things until it's time to get the child and go grocery shopping.
n
Rickards: The Narrative Is Collapsing
Fauci and his vax-at-all-costs gang have blood on their hands. Hopefully, one day they’ll be held to account. When they are, I think they’re going to need good lawyers…
— I think they'll need a blindfold and a last cigarette if half the stuff coming out is true.
n
@Lynn
”By the time I got to College Station from Sugar Land (110 miles), the plastic vacuum actuator was good and melted.”
That sucked but it didn’t.
Yep, each new editing of the forecast brings the temperatures down a few degrees. It is supposed to arrive sometime tonight. I think we are ready. Fingers crossed! I sure hope that it doesn't freeze hard in points south. Our Austin contingent had to replace most of their landscape plantings after last year's freezes killed the plants.
ERCOT is getting ready. They have ordered all of the steam plants online so they have 68,000 MW of online capacity at the moment. There is still 40 or 60 gas turbines that can be started as needed. If, they have fuel.
https://www.ercot.com/mp
But the problem in 2021 was that the wind mills were frozen up, the solar plants were covered in ice and snow, and half of the natural gas wells were frozen.
I went to the local H-E-B for some snackage and you would think the World was ending. I guess FOMO Freakout is in full effect for upcoming 100 Year Storm.
Well shoot, I am taking the kid grocery shopping… Forgot that it was open season on french toast…
n
This is Texas, son. We'll worry about the 100 year flood level in … 100 years.
Is HPE going to be out near you as well as ExxonMobil?
The school systems here sent out an announcement that they will close tomorrow and Friday.
My local HEB was kinda-sorta crazy last night, but I imagine that it is bonkers this afternoon.
From what I see in casually tracking the news and the comments here, I think you need to worry about the 100 year floods every 5-10 years.
See also: 100-year freezes
Price per MWh is $2.14 across the entire state. I assume that's due to the additional generation that's online.
I went to the new HEB in Marble Falls yesterday. What a cluster of fun. First of the month so maybe that was the problem. I can't find crap in that store. The planogram still makes little sense after three years. And HEY DOPES how about ripping out a row of crap somewhere and making the aisles where people are looking for groceries wider…. like, three and a half carts wide? So we can get past the old fart on the electric scooter that has just parked in the middle of the aisle?
Anyway. Ginger root? None I could find. Chili oil? Uh, that $7 jar on the shelf isn't the stuff I had that was in a bottle like soy sauce. No biggie, add cayenne.
Egg noodles? None. Pasta was pretty slim. Canned veggies looked fine. Bottom of the brand list tuna is up to 89¢ a can for oil pack. I kept walking.
Rye bread? Just a gap.
I didn't go through the meat department. The lighting in the store along with the whole "we be saving money by not having a ceiling" echoes along with wtf is that Muzak noise just made it miserable.
Normally I'm fine. Yesterday just got on my nerves.
Then, at the Walmart. Not too crowded and I found what I was looking for. Oh, hey! How about a 75" Vizio TV with Roku stuff built in for $750? Or a 75" LG for $850?
I'm holding out for an 80" TV.
Why the hate for popcorn ceilings?
I like them, they slow down the echoes.
The high today was 56F this morning and slowly dropping all day. Currently 44F and the rain has started.
Should be fun, tonight's low is 24F. Tomorrow's high a blistering 27F and then 14F tomorrow night.
It's February.
Anyway, I have the faucet trickling in the EDC and I made sure the heater works. I covered the windows with their pieces of foam board.
In the house, the back door and the bathroom door have old bath towels over the windows. Magnets for the win. Which is pretty white trash but I can feel the difference.
The pipes under the house are all freshly wrapped as of last month. Hopefully the cats have found other places to use as scratching posts.
After last year's low of 1F, I now know to leave the dishwasher door open. The dishwasher has enough soundproofing that the refrigerator is louder.
This is Texas, son. We'll worry about the 100 year flood level in … 100 years.
Is HPE going to be out near you as well as ExxonMobil?
The four+ million ft2 campus for ExxonMobil is 60 miles due north of me in the Woodlands.
Who is HPE ?
All of this land where I live is swamp land. Some of it is much more swampy that the rest of it. My house does not have a levee around it and I prefer it that way. I suspect that these new huge subdivisions being built south of me will require levees. Or raising by bringing in more dirt plus the dirt liberated by building water retention ponds. In fact, most of the nine county Houston Metropolitan area is a swamp.
Totally out of left field, but does anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive mandoline slicer? The blade is shot on the cheap P.O.S. I currently have.
From what I see in casually tracking the news and the comments here, I think you need to worry about the 100 year floods every 5-10 years.
See also: 100-year freezes
Yup, we have 100 year floods every 5 to 10 years. And we have 500 year floods every 10 to 20 years. Hurricane Harvey was rated an 800 year flood by some accredited group after all was said and done.
We also have 100 year freezes every ten years, winter storm Uri in Feb 2021 was a hundred year freeze that occurs every ten years. I am not sure how to rate the Dec 24, 1989 freeze which had 6 F in Sugar Land, 8 F in Port Lavaca, and -4 F in Dallas for three days. Maybe a million year freeze. It sure was cold, the two natural gas furnaces in my parents house in Port Lavaca ran day and night and could not keep the house inside above 60 F. My brother and I walked out over the frozen Lavaca bay a quarter mile and realized at one point that we were in ten foot of water with just a half foot of ice keeping us above it. We turned around at that point.
Price per MWh is $2.14 across the entire state. I assume that's due to the additional generation that's online.
ERCOT is paying people on the side to come online and wait for the freeze instead of trying to startup with frozen pipes. 100,000s of dollars per steam boiler. Several tens of millions of dollars across the state. They do not show those payments to anyone until way down the road.
ERCOT's budget is two+ billion dollars a month. They have plenty of money to do what is needed. If the electricity retailers do not pay ERCOT within three days with a wire transfer, they take away their customers and send / sell them to another electricity retailer.
I have seen ERCOT force small steam boilers online for the entire summer and pay the owner $200,000/month in addition to their energy charge payments. ERCOT can do ANYTHING they want to by law. ERCOT is a state monopoly of 17 million electric meters and arbitrator of everything to do with electricity.
And my brain is foggy right now, so short shrift today in the blogging column. Go read Peter’s post about supply chain issues in the spare and repair parts field, https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/ for more confirmation bias that we are rapidly slipping backwards. The problem will really be when we lose the ability to fix the machines we need to make the parts to fix the machines. That is going to hurt, and take a long time to recover from.
I’m adding oil filters for all three vehicles and at least a case of oil to the stack this week. Hopefully Costco will have it on sale, as they didn’t last month. If these were normal times, that means it would be on sale this month. Oil for the gennies wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
So many things to stack. So get busy stacking.
n
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-supply-chain-logjam-is-hitting.html
Gonna get sporty out there this summer. If you want anything, buy it now.
@Lynn
"My house does not have a levee around it and I prefer it that way. I suspect that these new huge subdivisions being built south of me will require levees."
Before the permitting process starts, get together with your neighbors and schedule a meeting with whoever votes on permits that is currently paid in part by your tax dollars.
The developer is going to have someone run simulation software to determine what they want for a levy. Tell your permit guy that you want the baseline runs without the new development as well as the runs with the proposal to be part of the application, and it needs to show the effect on existing properties.
Water denied it's natural course is going to flow somewhere else, which is usually the properties that don't have the clout.
Friend of mine objected to a proposal that was going to make the "unbuildable" lowest property in his neighborhood 100% impervious. He didn't get the project stopped, but he got his objections on record along with his prediction that his own property–flood-free for twenty years–was going to get inundated. When it happened he presented his claim to the city and acquainted the new mayor and new city manager with the history in their own files. They paid up without a lawsuit.
HPE is HP Enterprise, containing anything that used to be part of HP proper which wasn't related to PCs or printers.
At some point during the pandemic, HPE announced moving their headquarters to a new campus in Spring, but temporary HQ is in the old Compaq campus, somewhere near you IIRC.
Really, folks, this is elementary school stuff.
Doesn't one of the Star Bores spinoffs feature grossly overweight, grotesquely ugly crime family bosses?
Seems like a natural jump for a soon-to-be unemployed opinionator.
Before the permitting process starts, get together with your neighbors and schedule a meeting with whoever votes on permits that is currently
paid in part by your tax dollarsgetting bribed by some developer.Fixed it for you.
Probably no [traceable] money involved but I would not be surprised if there were not some perks being passed under the table. That all expenses paid fact finding trip for two weeks to Hawaii was, of course, all related to business.
“Folks, the surface above treeline is wind-scoured chicken heads, dinner plates and hard frozen sun cups. It is not skiable, not hike-able and extremely dangerous,” PMR said in a post on their official Facebook page. “Stay off it unless you are prepared with the skills and equipment for those conditions.”
from Portland Mountain rescue, after their coffee was interrupted for the fourth time in a week by a hiker sliding 1000 feet down Hogsback.
https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/pmr-hiker-injured-after-sliding-1000-feet-down-hogsback/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
Sounds more like the aftermath of the free school lunch program at the Portland Middle School.
You mean the hutts? Why would you think they're crime bosses? They're feminists. You can tell just by looking at them.
@Ray Thompson
"That all expenses paid fact finding trip for two weeks to Hawaii was, of course, all related to business."
Be a shame if they came back to find an accident with a malfunctioning valve on a misdirected 10,000 gallon water tanker had resulted in a 100-year precipitation simulation in their living room.
@SteveF
"They're feminists."
But are they foc's?
Whoopi is "Star Trek's" burden, at least through this next season of "Picard".
If I ran Sony, I would hold the "Spiderman" DVD/BluRay/digital release for the first day "Picard" is available for streaming.
HPE is HP Enterprise, containing anything that used to be part of HP proper which wasn't related to PCs or printers.
At some point during the pandemic, HPE announced moving their headquarters to a new campus in Spring, but temporary HQ is in the old Compaq campus, somewhere near you IIRC.
The old Compaq campus is about 30 miles away from me, out beyond the Beltway 8 tollway and 290. Nick is way closer to that incredibly nice campus. I did not realize that HP still owned the old Compaq campus, it would have been incredibly expensive to maintain all these years. Of course, if they rented it out, it would be a good investment.
"Whoopi is "Star Trek's" burden, at least through this next season of "Picard"."
Only until it's expeditious to drop her for her opinions.
Have they widened the doors on the Picard set yet, or does every appearance start with a beam-in?
"Star Wars" has enough problems right now if tonight's episode of the "Boba Fett" show is any indication.
@Lynn
"My house does not have a levee around it and I prefer it that way. I suspect that these new huge subdivisions being built south of me will require levees."
Before the permitting process starts, get together with your neighbors and schedule a meeting with whoever votes on permits that is currently paid in part by your tax dollars.
The developer is going to have someone run simulation software to determine what they want for a levy. Tell your permit guy that you want the baseline runs without the new development as well as the runs with the proposal to be part of the application, and it needs to show the effect on existing properties.
Water denied it's natural course is going to flow somewhere else, which is usually the properties that don't have the clout.
Friend of mine objected to a proposal that was going to make the "unbuildable" lowest property in his neighborhood 100% impervious. He didn't get the project stopped, but he got his objections on record along with his prediction that his own property–flood-free for twenty years–was going to get inundated. When it happened he presented his claim to the city and acquainted the new mayor and new city manager with the history in their own files. They paid up without a lawsuit.
Those new subdivisions are at least ten feet lower in elevation than my property. Maybe 15 feet. And the officials in charge are our Democrat county commissioners whose campaigns have been donated to already by the new subdivision owner.
My house is 81 feet above sea level. In 40 miles, that elevation drops to zero at the Gulf of Mexico. The elevation drop is rather quick downstream of my house and then flattens out the closer you get to the Gulf. Plus the Brazos River spreads out from 300 ft to ten+ miles wide during hurricanes just south of there. They will probably need a levy.
You mean the hutts? Why would you think they're crime bosses? They're feminists. You can tell just by looking at them.
Yup, the twins just look like something. Two big piles of stinking poo. Their 40 litter bearers can probably barely breathe.
"Arctic front on track for Houston tonight, will bring cold air and a chance of freezing rain"
https://spacecityweather.com/arctic-front-on-track-for-houston-tonight-will-bring-cold-air-and-a-chance-of-freezing-rain/
Please no freezing rain in the Houston area. We’ve got enough crazy around here already.
>> Why the hate for popcorn ceilings?
I like them, they slow down the echoes.
Enjoy them right out of the can.
>> Really, folks, this is elementary school stuff.
Your sure?
Just as we were getting restless for some new news about the Cuomo family…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10468905/CNN-president-Jeff-Zucker-quits-amid-Chris-Cuomo-fallout-admits-having-affair-with.html
“Neogenesis (21) (Liaden Universe®)” by Sharon Lee and Steven Miller
https://www.amazon.com/Neogenesis-Liaden-Universe%C2%AE-Sharon-Lee/dp/1481483927/
Book number 21 of a 29 book space opera series with psychic elves in space ! I count the series as 29 books as there are 24 novels plus 5 collections of short stories. I read the well printed and bound MMPB published by Baen in 2019. I have two more books in the series and I plan to order more as they come along.
Over a thousand years ago, the Liadens and several others escaped from a dying Universe. The dying Universe is still leaking spaceships and other flotsam to the Liadenverse. Along with live people.
And in the very recent past, the Korval clan, whose founder was the pilot of the universe traveling space ship, has been ousted from the Liaden planet to Surebleak, a harsh and underpopulated planet by Terrans and many others. The Korval clan is slowly rejoining the others at Surebleak. And other Liaden clans are moving themselves to Surebleak to follow Korval wherever they may go.
And Korval moved their quarter mile tall self aware tree from Liade to Surebleak so that they could continue their symbiotic relationship with the tree. After all, the Korval clan’s DNA has been extensively modified by the tree over the centuries.
https://liaden.fandom.com/wiki/The_Tree
BTW, Sharon Lee’s reading order is:
https://sharonleewriter.com/correct-reading-order/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (352 reviews)
>> Be a shame if they came back to find an accident with a malfunctioning valve on a misdirected 10,000 gallon water tanker had resulted in a 100-year precipitation simulation in their living room.
Sorta like this?
>> In fact, most of the nine county Houston Metropolitan area is a swamp.
Yet people want to live there…
I had to look up the differences between the ceiling types after all this discussion.
Orange peel, knockdown, and popcorn. Apparently, popcorn is like acoustic tiles.
I had to learn how to do knockdown when I replaced the awful kitchen lights, and I needed to match the rest of the ceiling or redo the whole kitchen ceiling instead of just around the lights. I chose to do the minimum.
Turns out to be not very hard except a bit of work overhead and sore muscles the next day. Matching the old texture was easier than I thought it would be.
"Starlink's New Premium Tier Is Fast But Super Expensive"
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlinks-new-premium-tier-is-fast-but-super-expensive
"If you have 500 bucks per month to spend on internet service, Starlink's premium tier can be yours in Q2."
I am fairly sure that this is the billionaire service level.
Because even the sucky parts of Texas are better than Illinois, or Mexico, or China, or India.
What I'd love is a nice farm in Southern Illinois, with cattle. And a government of incompetent, sometimes back-stabbing Republicans (like Texas), instead of people who can't decide if they're criminal commies, or just criminals (like Illinois).
>> In fact, most of the nine county Houston Metropolitan area is a swamp.
Yet people want to live there…
Air conditioning, lots of air conditioning and mosquito repellent.
Minor nit…as I understand it …
"levy" – a surcharge on something
"levee" – a raised bank of dirt, etc, next to a body of water or stream/river, to prevent water overflow.
Its the only thing that your going to remember today. (I did that on porpoise.)
It's not 'chevee by the levy'.
Don’t forget LaVey.
I'm holding out for an 80" TV.
— turns out that after upsizing all the other rooms, my client wants to increase the living room after all. 85" sony at Costco will probably find it's weigh to ‘is 'ouse latter this weak.
$2200 is CHEEP for the size…
n
😉
Who screwed up the it's vs its and triggered all this silliness?
n
The question:
The crime:
The criminal:
drwilliams
um….it's "way to his house later this week". Unless you did that on porpoise.
Or you can blame autocorrect.
Or maybe you missed the part below the comment area where it says "Please carefully review your comment before submitting."
which was put there on porpoise.
Whose gonna make me?? Huh??
n
😉
The question:
The crime:
The criminal:
drwilliams
Oh good, I was afraid it was me. Of course, I was guilty of the levy / levee sin also.
"Russia, Russia, Russia!!!"
Worked for the US media…. sorta
Canada's state broadcaster CBC spreads bizarre conspiracy theory that 'Russian actors' are behind 50,000-strong 'Freedom Convoy' of truckers protesting Trudeau's vaccine mandate: Cops threaten to ARREST truckers blockading US border in Alberta
'cuz the vandles took the handle…
canoe accident:
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2022/02/01/boy-reels-in-50-caliber-barrett-sniper-rifles-while-fishing/
The local TV station, on a lower thirds graphic, had “TN verses LSU”. These people are supposed to be professionals. I guess the spell checker rejected “vurses”.
>> What's the point of a $20k truck if the buyer is immediately looking to add the OEM gadgetry?
…
Aftermarket will happen if the vehicle is popular enough with buyers who couldn’t afford the gadgets in the first place.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, for the Cruise Control it is an aftermarket solution. The issue is the XL doesn't have cruise and it's a ~$2K bump to the XLT, which has cruise), while this system is ~$300 (if you self-install). Looks like this has been on the market for some time as I see this same part number also spec'd for the Ranger.
Raining here but still 65F. Was coming down pretty good for a while but has tapered.
Spent the last half hour teaching D1 how to handle and play vinyl records! She mentioned wanting to play some, and collect them, so I picked up an all in one player in the auction last week. It doesn't sound horrible, but I'm going to have to build her (assemble) a classic stereo system…
First album? Van Halen Van Halen of course. Second? Jackson Browne Running on Empty. Third? Kraftwork Autobahn (although we only played about 5 minutes or one track of each. It's past bed time.)
I actually picked it up for me, so I could play some of the more valuable LPs I picked up at Goodwill before listing them. I've got a dozen classic turntables, but NONE are actually running. And the ION USB one I picked up last month got stolen from my storage unit.
Vinyl, who knew?
n
Sending a driver-less 80,000 lb. tractor-trailer on I10 at 75 MPH should be fine, right?
https://www.up.com/media/releases/tusimple-tucson-phoenix-nr-220202.htm
From reading through the linked PDF it appears they are working to around Level 4 autonomous driving, though specialized for driver-less scenarios. Future expansion to the "Texas Triangle" is also mentioned.
>> Spent the last half hour teaching D1 how to handle and play vinyl records!
Is cleaning vinyl LPs before playing them still a 'thing?' I remember back in the day my brother was into high-end audio and it was required to clean a record with the Discwasher brush and cleaning solution before playing it. It had a wooden handle and the red bottle of solution fit into a recess in the handle.
Discwasher stuff sells for really good money on ebay. This particular player says NOT to use any cleaners but a dry rag.
n
Forgot to mention, wrt engine oil. Costco had one half pallet of Kirkland brand in one weight. They had another 1/4 pallet for 'heavy diesel' engines. Used to be they'd have a couple of weights from a couple of refiners, and a pallet of each.
I need to find a case elsewhere I guess.
n
Costco here carries their own brand in addition to Mobil 1 in synthetic, but both only in a few weights. Walmart has a much broader selection and better prices. All Mobil 1 five quart sizes go on sale at Wallmart every spring here.
I suppose there's some "wait and see" to see how serious she is. If she turns out to be reasonable serious, it's worth getting a good turntable, to avoid damaging the records with a heavy arm and/or crappy needle. But you know that, of course, I'm just heckling…
I got rid of the last of my vinyl about 15 years ago. I had kept some records by bands that no longer seem to be available, but in the end I am just not a pack rat. I haven't had a turntable for 30 years, and don't plan to take that step backwards. Advancing technology is a good thing.
Back when I had a high-end turntable, I had a soft brush that I used – but only if the record was visibly dusty. I certainly can't imagine squirting liquid onto the record – seems like that would make the dust stick.
Vinyl…
Well, still have an original Discwasher brush from around 1980. If you can find them, they do go for a good price – one way bristles and all. Someone started making them again recently, but using what is just a piece of velvet for the fabric on the brush. The new one is, frankly, cr@p.
Brad, you want to use the fluid since that works to reduce static and help lift dust from the grooves. You can make your own fluid (IIRC: 50% isopropyl alcohol, 45% distilled water, 5% of an anti-static ingredient (a tri-amonium compound works a treat), and a couple drop of detergent (like Dawn)).
If she is interested Nick, resurrect one of your better turntables for her (not an ION – yech!!!). The all in one player will do damage in a very short time (a few plays) to any record. Enjoy!!! There is something satisfying about the physical act of playing music using vinyl that is not captured by a digital feed.