I’ve got too many posts with the same title…
And to many days that start with HOT HOT HOT, and yet it IS hot. And humid. It was hot at the lake too, hitting 99F a few feet from the water, and much higher further away. Sunny too.
I did a bunch of small stuff this weekend, mainly because for one reason or another it is stuff I can safely do, or have all the stuff present to do. Bigger more important things languish… but I can make the place look better and function a little better.
SO ..
I installed the new freezers, and moved stuff out of the kitchen to one of them. I installed a handrail on the steps I built for the dock. One of our neighbors who we would like to see more often will be much more comfortable with a solid handrail. I back filled a bit of a hole at the edge of the same steps. With the lake down, this would be an excellent time to backfill all of my bulkhead to fill the gaps where water gets UNDER the concrete wall. Too bad I’m not ready and don’t have the time. I could start with less but to do the whole thing would take about a dozen cubic yards of material. I suppose there will be a period of low water next year too.
I did normal visit things, cutting the grass, cleaning up debris, making the place look loved and lived in.
And I tried out my new crawdad traps. Overnighted two traps, baited with dog food and freshwater mussel… and one had a whole mussel that died before I could cook it. That trap had 7 or 8 small ‘bait fish’ in it, including one inside the mussel shell. All the bait was gone. The other trap in deeper water (3 ft vs 1 ft) had bait left, and nothing inside. Too small a sample size to draw any conclusions. The bait fish would have been handy for a morning session trying to catch bigger fish.
Collected and cooked some mussels. Not horrible, but not New Zealand Green Lips in garlic butter and white wine either. I should try some smaller ones next time, and cook them in something besides water. The coons harvested and ate at least one other large mussel, I’m finding one big shell a night on the steps of the dock.
Turns out one of the trees in the back is a peach tree. Local wildlife has left ONE peach intact so far, but it’s still small and green. I did find a well gnawed peach pit on the patio, so there was at least one other fruit. It’s too small a tree to have much fruit anyway, but a nice discovery.
I’m trying to figure out what we actually have in terms of plantings and beds. The previous owner’s wife was an avid flower gardener, and there are several neglected beds. One is full of bulbs and flowered earlier. One is wildflower and rose bushes- the butterflies love that one, but I’m going to take at least half for a ‘salad’ and herb garden. There is a rock garden with what looks like blue agave… there were several flowering trees, and now I found the peach. I have done a bunch of weeding and cleaning because “hey, free landscaping! hey, free trees! hey, free flowers!”
Speaking of the garden, I’m abandoning my veg garden at the lake for the rest of the year. I’ll try again in fall. I pulled up 4ft of each row, didn’t find a single veg, so it looks like nothing sprouted. I took the ‘deer guards’ off and cut the watering time to 5 minutes daily. I can still experiment with how fast the grass grows back, and how little water I can put on the plot. The most useful thing to do might be to cover the whole thing with black plastic, and let the summer sun bake the heII out of it. That is supposed to kill a lot of the stuff in the soil, including the nutgrass. Don’t know if there is enough time to try it this year, before the fall garden needs to start.
At home the cukes or zukes are still growing vines. The grape vine is climbing the trellis. The collards are thriving. Peas and beans died. So I stack cans of veg.
Plenty of the same stuff to do this week as last, with the added complication of picking up D1 from a local ‘leadership’ class at 3pm every day. Kinda cuts short my workday. Oh well. If I can’t drive all over town, I can play chess with D2.
Stack some memories as well as canned goods, they will be there to get you through when the going gets tough.
nick
I had my driveway replaced many years ago with concrete from the old asphalt. The contractor ripped up and hauled away the old asphalt, dug down deeper, put in a gravel bed, then rebar, and the concrete was mixed with fiberglass fibers. In 25 years there has not been a single crack. I have four panels, roughly 12×10. I paid about $5,000.00.
About 10 years ago I had part of the yard taken out, a gas line moved, and a lateral extension to the driveway added. I used the same company as they did an excellent job on the prior replacement. This time the cost was $7,500.00. There was no asphalt to take up. Same deal, gravel underlayment, rebar, and fiberglass in the concrete mix. Same size panels. The company also installed a retaining wall that is 4′ high. Anything above 4′ has to be drawn up by an engineer.
Only thing I don’t like is that the connection to street had to be slanted. There was a power company support wire in that location. The power company refused to move and it is in their right-of-way. About two years ago the power lines were replaced. The old copper was replaced with aluminum in a triangular formation. The power company redid the supports and the support wire is no longer in place.
I’ve been quoted $26 per square foot for finished driveway concrete. I need 7500 sq ft. Not happening – I don’t have $195,000.
Yesterday I excursed for what @nick calls his “non-prepping hobby”. I attended the McMichael Rally, near Reading, on what turned out to be a hot (for Britain) day.
Mcmichael is a car boot sale – turn up, pay your pitch fee, and set out your wares. Not that there was much that interested me – I normally attend this rally for the socialising, rather than purchases. This year, all my spending was on food and drink, but I didn’t meet the group I normally see at this venue – they didn’t seem to be there. But I did discuss a possible future purchase with one of the minions at the only retailer who attended – I did say this was a boot sale, didn’t I? – so i may be able to do the thing I wanted – or I may just give up, and mount the box under the bonnet (hood to you)
But not for a day or three. Outside temperatures are forecast to reach 39C (102F) soon. It’s 30C and 31%RH in the study as I type, and I expect that to rise further, even though the room is on the North side of the house. The forecast is for at least another day of this, after which temperatures should moderate.
G.
I‘m at the Lexus dealer getting the cut tire issue sorted. Michelin approved the road hazard claim. The problem is the dealer can’t get a replacement tire. They are putting on a Bridgestone tire instead. The existing rear Michelin is hardly worn, so tread depth shouldnt be an issue. I’ll give it a good test drive today to make sure it isnt squirrell. I do k own that tire rack has the tire in stock. Worst case I’ll have one shipped and put it on. I’d rather not though and just wait until its time to replace both rear tires. Safety will be the ultimate deciding factor.
I experimented with 12x12x2″ concrete pavers for the roughly 50×60′ apron in front of my new garage about four years ago. It cost less than poured concrete, and has the advantage that I can remove parts if I want to add pipes or conduits later. Looks nice, too. I bought enough to complete my driveway to the street, and some other surfaces, so finding matching material is not an issue.
Our soil is very strong when compacted, and drainage is not an issue. The contractor put down an inch of coarse sand, which was screeded and compacted as the pavers were set.
The pavers are not rated for vehicular traffic, but have been fine with cars and pickups, due to our firm soil. Heavier vehicles will not be driven on them.
I realize this is not appropriate for every site, but just an idea.
@ITGuy1998
Sounds like exactly the situation where the buyer takes it in the shorts because of the absence of a full sized spare.
Personally, I would have thrown a fit, starting with “Let’s get your district manager on the phone then conference in the Michelin rep. If they’re not good with it, then you get on the phone and buy the tire from whatever source gets it here tomorrow.”
I’ve been quoted $26 per square foot for finished driveway concrete. I need 7500 sq ft. Not happening – I don’t have $195,000.
Good night ! My cost is $1250 / 10 feet / 12 feet = $10.42 / ft2. That does include steel and removal and disposal of the old panels.
I agree with @drwilliams, but don’t remember if you have a full size spare. I also don’t know the dealer’s responsibility in this case. My thought is that if a different tire is needed to get you on the road because of a donut spare, then the correct tire should be ordered and exchanged when it comes in. Dealers will always argue the path of least resistance, however, and they probably have manufacturer approval to substitute an “equivalent” tire. Wouldn’t be good enough for me, but I have never dealt with a car dealer on a tire issue.
In spite of my growing up around the auto industry, and therefore being taught to hate dealers, I have to admit that almost all of my experience with them over warranty issues has been good.
I’m sure it’s not to everyone’s taste but I’m in heaven over something I found on Amazon Prime Video.
SOZ: Soldados o Zombies!
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7636244/
100% pure, unadulterated escapism — and I’m only on episode 1, with nary a zombie in sight. Yet.
Yee haa. 96F and only 56%RH with the sun beating down. One of my cams is showing weird color artifacts that I’m going to blame on the heat.
Got up to get the kid and my wife out the door, then foolishly ‘laid down for a couple of minutes.” I didn’t sleep well last night and needed some additional sleep, apparently.
So that’s half the day gone.
Oh well. I’m feeling every step and every hour I spent squatting over holes in the yard looking for sprinkler heads. No strong desire to get out in the heat today. I’ll get caught up on paperwork first and get some housekeepinging done.
n
Oh boy, gonna be cold in Deutschland this winter…
– maybe they shouldn’t have laughed when Trump suggested they’d made a mistake putting all their trust in Russia.
And I note that Russia no longer has McDonalds restaurants.
n
Maybe get a collection of those “Copybook Headings” that Kipling (and JP) mentioned often?
With the state of the world today it’d be easy to pick a heading at random and have it be apt…
Huh, I looked it up and they actually do still exist…looks like they are used as aids for (east) Asians learning western penmanship.
I just read that the guy who invented Velcro died.
RIP.
And, The Resident Evil TV series is out on Netflix for you Z lovers.
I acquired Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead and the sequel Wyrmwood: Apocalypse for free. Good for some laughs.
>>I just read that the guy who invented Velcro died. <<
Surely a sign of the end times?
A competent U.S. President would make sure Germany has fuel oil/gas this winter – and that the public knows who they got it from.
And yes, its saving them from a stupid “own goal”, but it is a stick in Putin‘s eye, doesn’t involve weapons transfer…and it doesn’t have to be cheap.
Heh. Actually, there’s probably an entire FSPO they could get for free:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/18/yemen-act-avert-humanitarian-catastrophe
I got my choppers cleaned today. Due to my excessive popcorn and cornut habit, looks like I’ll be replacing another crown around Jan of next year. Maybe get them all pulled and put in titanium implants.
I have a question for you shiite-house plumbers:
I want to stick a 2″ PVC pipe through the ceiling in my network closet to run cat through. I want a piece of PVC that is threaded in the middle so I can screw a flange on the top and bottom.
Does such PVC exist, or is there a hack somewhere to make one?
Judaes Priest. This is our VP. Did she ever prosecute a case or take an oral presentation class in college:
WATCH: Kamala Harris explains ‘the purposeful design’ of ‘the assault weapon’ as well as the findings of a Venn diagram she requested
“All right children, pay attention.” I can’t believe the applause.
There are “Slip-to-thread” adapters for just about any side PVC in your local plumbing supply place.
>>> Does such PVC exist, or is there a hack somewhere to make one?
Sounds like a 2” PVC “nipple”. They come in various lengths.
“A competent U.S. President would make sure Germany has fuel oil/gas this winter – and that the public knows who they got it from. “
The same country whose leaders spend four years actively undermining Trump, and followed their Greens over the cliff with shutdowns of perfectly good electric generating plants.
Hard pass.
Not a therm until they frack their entire country. American oil and gas for Americans. Impeach any Democrat traitor that exports a btu while the price of oil is above $70 and the Bakken is shut down.
I agree, actually. A little arm twisting and RealPolitik is in order.
“Beware The Microbots (Perry Rhodan #35)” by Kurt Mahr, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Beware-Microbots-Perry-Rhodan-35/dp/4411660180?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number thirty-five 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 again. 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 #103, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 43 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/Rauschgifth%C3%A4ndler_der_Galaxis
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.
Perry Rhodan and his new 5,000 foot diameter spaceship, the Titan, are waiting at the planet Honur for their new hyperspace translation suppressor that the Ganymede is bringing from Earth so they do not reveal the location of Earth to the hyperspace watchers. The crew of the Titan have discovered that there are inhabitants on the planet and that they have little pets. But the pets emit a poison that causes continuous euphoria and most of the crew are infected. Perry Rhodan and the uninfected crew members find the drug manufacturing facility built by a remote Arkonide race and destroy it. But they cannot cure the euphoria disease.
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?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (1 review)
Glue on adapters with threads are readily available. I have several in my pool plumbing to connect PVC to valves. Easy to glue on the end of the pipe. Use primer, then the correct clue on both connections. Twist while installing the adapter so it seals well. You only have maybe 30 seconds after applying the glue before it will set.
Currently in Pigeon Forge TN, Camp RiversLanding, slot 107, for the next four nights. May go to Dollywood for a couple of hours, maybe even twice for just a couple of hours. Not much else planned. May see a dinner show, may do as little as possible.
Like most RV parks, especially in tourist locations, it is crowded. Not a lot of space between slots. There are a couple of RV sites we have used that are really nice. Not much around the RV parks so spacing is much better. Concrete pad, level, almost. Have stayed here before on the river. Problem with those sites is they slope towards the river. The back of the RV when the entrance is located winds up being three feet off the ground. We do have a small step platform but it is still annoying.
Wife and I getting fairly good at setting up the RV. We can have everything connected, slide extended, clock and pictures mounted on the wall, in about 30 minutes from arrival. Takes about the same amount of time to disconnect, maybe a few minutes longer as the tanks have to drain.
Supposed to start raining hard in about 3 hours. Rain is loud on the roof of the RV. Apparently one of my gutters is clogged as the A/C condensate is running off the side rather than the rain gutter. No big deal but something I will have to fix when I get home.
Hot, 94f according to my outside thermometer. A/C is keeping the RV at 75, running constantly. Shade where we are which helps. When the rains hit it will drop 15-18 degrees according to the weather app. Humidity is only 50%, but still feels moist. Houston must be horrible.
Look around at Lowe’s or whatever where they sell TV and phone wiring.
You can get a bracket like this set has: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YWW118M?tag=ttgnet-20 It looks like it has an insert with a slit foam gasket.
To mount this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NPZTKH6?tag=ttgnet-20
This is pretty simple: https://www.amazon.com/Construct-Pro-SpeedyZ-Spring-Lock-Through/dp/B07JMKD92Z?tag=ttgnet-20
It wouldn’t matter. Americans are expected to be polite.
Russia wants a deal where German missiles are not installed in Ukraine. Ever.
Lots of people remember ze old days, ja. Big smile!
It is time for Germany to put on its grown up pants and agree to Putin’s terms. NATO needs to get a grip too.
A competent U.S. President would make sure Germany has fuel oil/gas this winter – and that the public knows who they got it from.
And yes, its saving them from a stupid “own goal”, but it is a stick in Putin‘s eye, doesn’t involve weapons transfer…and it doesn’t have to be cheap.
Germany does not have the infrastructure to bring in LNG via LNG tankers from the 40+ LNG manufacturing plants around the world (20 of those are in the USA, two are down for a year for a recent fire, Freeport LNG). Germany just leased two tanker ships with LNG vaporization facilities, they are the size of aircraft carriers and not trivially built.
My customers in Germany are building new permanent LNG tank and vaporization facilities. It will take a year or more (probably three years) to get them in place and able to receive LNG.
The crazy thing is that Denmark has huge natural gas fields in the North Sea. All of the crude oil has been produced but much natural gas is left. Especially if they frack it. But Denmark does not want to the produce the fields any more than they are doing today as they are building huge offshore fields of wind turbines. Adding more natural gas pipelines between Denmark and Germany would cost tens of billions of euros and take years. They could have built those pipelines instead of building the two new pipelines from Russia.
Countries only have so much money for infrastructure. Adding new infrastructure must be planned carefully and the risks assessed due to the huge costs. Instead, German officials took bribes from the Russians and bypassed all of the good advice coming their way, especially from Donald Trump.
Go back and watch the footage of Obama at the Brandenberg Gate in 2008. They wanted to believe too.
>> Say what? No warrant? They don’t get into the house. They come with the police, well, the police also need a warrant.
Non-compliance with CPS, even without a warrant, has the potential to be twisted and used against you. Have a competent attorney on speed dial.
Non-compliance with CPS
, even without a warrant, has the potential towill be twisted and used against you.Fixed it for you.
From the cases locally I have seen involving CPS some of those people will go to great lengths to protect their jobs. Even to the point of flat out lying through their teeth. Even home situations that are known to be bad are ignored until something bad happens. Then CPS backpedals as fast as they can. No one in CPS ever suffers for making a mistake or intentionally making an error.
I fully expect CPS within a few years to have fully automatic weapons and a couple of assault vehicles here. Maybe a bazooka or two for effect.
is there a hack somewhere to make one
– if you want to make a pass thru with bushings (flanges) on both sides, I’ve used plastic toilet flanges to do that. It’s a hack, but a flange on each side with a short pipe between them… don’t glue it. Most people have never seen a toilet flange, so they don’t even recognize it.
n
Germans, like most Europeans, chose to spend huge amounts of money on parasitic “migrants”. Let them freeze, or turn their migrants into biodiesel.
Germans, like most Europeans, also hold America and most Americans in sneering contempt. Let them live with the consequences of their words and choices.
“Comic-Con Requiring Attendees Show “Health Pass,” Wear Masks At All Times; Security Staff Will “Support Adherence To The Policy””
https://deadline.com/2022/07/comic-con-health-pass-requirement-masks-1235071783/
“All attendees are also required to provide verification that they are fully vaccinated — two shots — or provide proof of a negative test taken within 72 hours.”
I suspect that they just killed Comic-Con.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Thanks to the hive mind.
The management behind the big Labor Day anime show in San Antonio also quaffs deeply from the Flavor Aid vat so they have the same requirement for either vaccination or test within 72 hours. Also masks are mandatory while inside the convention center.
C2E2 in Chicago, another big geek culture event, is enforcing similar rules in a delayed show this year.
The pandemic overreaction killed Comic Con two years ago.
It looks like we are going to do an ERCOT test today and might hit 80,000 MW demand. If, the generation can support that much load. We are at 77,811 MW with 3,501 MW reserve right now. I suspect that they are telling the interruptibles such as the Bitcoin miners goodbye right now.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
Pictures!
111F here, after 106F yesterday, and 104F expected tomorrow.
I do laundry and run the dishwasher in the mornings only. For cooking, I’ve been making lots of casseroles in the slow cooker to keep from heating the kitchen. And, have taken to leaving the shades pulled to retain any bit of cool we can. The window A/Cs do a good job of keeping cool in the places we are in.
Working people are all working early in the day and stopping around noon. Many outdoor tasks are going undone.
Nothing but traces of rain in months. My dad is having to fill troughs for the cattle to come drink from. as their pond is so low they would get stuck in the mud. Looks like the drought years are back, same old cycle.
Yep.
And this time around? When those cedar trees look dead? Again? I’m cutting them down.
Might use the propane torch to burn them, because fire can be fun. I’ll just see how it works out.
Soon. Excellent Smithers.
Yep.
And this time around? When those cedar trees look dead? Again? I’m cutting them down.
Might use the propane torch to burn them, because fire can be fun. I’ll just see how it works out.
No fire ! No fire ! Burn ban !
My nephew outside Corpus Christi was a getting a new fence installed last week by a welder. The welding machine started a fire and burned 7 of his 10 acres to the ground. Several of the local fire departments showed and killed the fire before it got the house he is building.
Cedars burn a treat. Hot and fast, with lots of crackle and pop.
Fell them in the fall, let them dry over winter and provide habitat, then burn them in spring after nesting. Bring marshmallows.
“Texas Department of Public Safety investigating how 91 of its troopers and Rangers responded to Uvalde school shooting”
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/18/uvalde-school-shooting-dps-investigation/
“The department’s officers made up nearly one-fourth of the 376 law enforcement members who responded to Texas’ deadliest school shooting. Announcement of the inquiry came one day after a report criticized police response to the massacre.”
376 law enforcement members responded ? Are you kidding me ? And they did nothing for an hour and an half while an active shooter situation was ongoing ?
Dunno. I did learn years ago at a BBQ that while wandering around to gather wood for the grill, cedar is not acceptable. We wood gatherers didn’t know. And hell, we weren’t putting the wood into the BBQ grill. So. Yeah.
There may have been a lot of beer involved.
May? Define “a lot” for any value of “not falling down”.
The Brits would say “make them redundant”
Here it’s “fire their asses”
Every one should be tagged in that national database they keep talking about: “At Uvalde, did not a damn thing. “
Granted it was local Faux News doing selective edits, but the footage I saw last night of the cops inside the school was downright embarrassing.
No one does anything for over an hour, until the Border Patrol’s REACT team showed up.
Oh of course! They all have to lookie-loo!!!! LEOs everywhere do the same with any exciting event – they abandon whatever boring task they obviously weren’t needed for, and speed away to get in on the action!!!!
We had a minor event the next street over a couple years ago, a junkie wouldn’t leave his mother’s trailer house. Our sheriff’s department obtained a robot from somewhere and sent it to break down the door and then the guy came out. There must have been 20 police/SO cars from all over come so they could say “I was there!”.
Which, as far as I am concerned, just shows how useless they are everywhere else for anything other than revenue-making speeding tickets. Most departments anywhere could be reduced by two thirds without the law-abiding citizenry ever noticing any difference.
The moral of the story…don’t leave home without it…
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2022/07/18/greenwood-park-mall-shooting-the-latest-updates-from-indiana/65375448007/
Kind of like the last time they “shut the government down” for what, a month? No one cared, no one missed them and their meddling. And they still got paid. Huh, try that at a grocery store.
And who the heck is giving them the power? I didn’t get a say.
For example, you have to get your car inspected before you can buy plate tags. Ok, in Texas it’s a window sticker. And now, you pay half of the inspection fee at the inspection place and half on your registration.
The $4.75 Service Charge REALLY pisses me off. What the actual eff?
Didn’t get to vote on any of it, it just happens.
added: The last time I bought plates I was grilled. Who are these people? Well, that’s my Mom and that’s the guy on the same checking account and neither are coming here to deal with you, that’s my job.
>> 376 law enforcement members responded ? Are you kidding me ? And they did nothing for an hour and an half while an active shooter situation was ongoing ?
How these 376 “cops” sleep at night is beyond me. Even if 10 percent of them stormed them room isn’t it probable that they take out the shooter?
They could have stood in a circle and sucked…
all the air in until the shooter passed out from oxygen deprivation.
And if the “chief” can ask about shooting him thru the window, why wasn’t anyone looking inside to see the situation? And THEN shooting him.
n
The KOA at the tip of South Padre Island wasn’t overly busy two weeks ago, but people may have been concerned about the border situation.
If the SpaceX hardware on Boca Chica is for real and Tony is cleared to start launching out of the facility, I can’t think of a better place from which to watch than the campground unless the dolphin cruise boats are repurposed.
I’ve heard a few cops talking on podcasts or video streams about “the realities” of being a cop on the site of something like a school shooting. In short, if they do anything other than play it safe and follow doctrine and the instructions of the senior cop on site, they can be held liable.
And, of course, “Job #1 is to go home at the end of the shift.”
I’m not buying it. If a cop has that mindset, he shouldn’t be a cop.
The doctrine is very clear. Everyone responds, first on scene enters and engages. Technically supposed to wait for a partner, ANY partner from any agency. The key is immediate engagement, because about half have suicided at the first resistance, and one way or another the goal is to END the situation, not turn it into a standoff or hostage situation.
n
I have always been fascinated by Velcro hook and loop fasteners. Their best quality is that they don’t creep under load, making them suitable for retaining things like cables. I have never had any on clothes, with the exception of one pair of sneakers. I like slip-on shoes, and the two Velcro straps were a good compromise.
I don’t like that Velcro makes noise when being separated, making it useless for situations like hunting and other times when silence is desired.
The inventor did not die today. Here is his Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Mestral
George de Mestral (19 June 1907 – 8 February 1990) was a Swiss electrical engineer who invented the hook and loop fastener which he named Velcro.
A good contribution that wasn’t immediately successful.
You mean like Jaws in the Bond films? One of my favorite characters.
Sorry. Forgot to add the 🙂 to indicate a joke.
Here’s another one – 🙂
@jimb:
Not my experience. I have a MOLLE “battle belt”, with a snap fastener – which works fine – but the belt is sized by adjusting a velcro closure on the webbing strap that the MOLLE pad is threaded onto, and that velcro closure slips, even though the strap is 2 inches wide.
And I’m not talking much weight on the belt. Just a couple of radios, and a 1 litre stainless steel water bottle.
G.
ERCOT is hanging in there. We set another all time demand peak of 79,265 MW with 3,000 MW of reserve. There was 9,000 MW of solar and 5,000 MW of wind turbines. The price came up and hit $1,500/MWH (150.0 cents/kwh). The price is back down to 500 $/MWH now.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
Note that I am quoting instantaneous value there. The official number will be integrated over the peak hour from 4pm to 5pm.
xkcd: Capri Suns
https://xkcd.com/2647/
No, no, no ! The only thing worse than the saline bags would be the blood bags.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2647:_Capri_Suns
“Only in America! Plastic disposable bodies! It’s like a supermarket!”
– George Hamilton as Dracula admiring the storage at a blood bank in “Love at First Bite”
Gotta wonder if that’s what the xkcd artist wanted us to think about.
111F here, after 106F yesterday, and 104F expected tomorrow.
I do laundry and run the dishwasher in the mornings only. For cooking, I’ve been making lots of casseroles in the slow cooker to keep from heating the kitchen. And, have taken to leaving the shades pulled to retain any bit of cool we can. The window A/Cs do a good job of keeping cool in the places we are in.
Working people are all working early in the day and stopping around noon. Many outdoor tasks are going undone.
Nothing but traces of rain in months. My dad is having to fill troughs for the cattle to come drink from. as their pond is so low they would get stuck in the mud. Looks like the drought years are back, same old cycle.
It hit 109 F in Dallas today. Suppose to hit 110 F there tomorrow and 109 F on Wednesday before the weather changes.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/carrollton/33.02,-96.88
It hit 113 F in Dallas in summer 1988. Right during the Republican Presidential Convention for GHW Bush. I was working for TXU at the time and we were dying. I worked in dispatch then and we were calling all of the plants every day and telling them not to touch anything. We had plenty of fuel but by the end of the week we had 3 or 4 boiler tube leaks due to overfiring. We made it by buying 350 MW from Dow Chemical in Freeport and 400 MW from the Lyondell Refinery in Baytown, day and night. We actually took the power from HL&P’s coal plants in Waco and they replaced it with power from the cogenerators.
@Geoff Powell:
I learned another thing today. My only use has been to tie cables into bundles. Some weigh about a pound per foot, and one used to go to a TV on a swivel platform. That one got regular workouts. None ever unfurled. Maybe not enough load. I sure like the hook and loop ties better than anything else.
Pro tip, when your velcro gets full of hair and little bits of string and doesn’t work well anymore, use a small wire brush to comb out the debris and it will work well again.
It does eventually wear out. I’ve got a ‘riggers’ belt I wear daily as my gub belt and the velcro barely holds anymore. I have the replacement velcro, just haven’t gotten the sewing machine out and done it.
n
You can find just about anything on the googles/bings/ducks:
Similar info with a search for “how to make Velcro quiet”.
More tips here: https://soundproofliving.com/how-to-open-velcro-quietly/ Watch the video at the end of this article for a full demonstration of reducing the sound of opening Velcro.
It also hit 113 in Dallas in the summer of 1980. I was working for EDS. A computer system at a client’s location was having issues. Needed a new disk drive. I was living in San Antonio and made a “day” trip to Dallas to resolve the issues. I instead had to wait until the next day when a drive was being overnighted from California.
I had to stay the night and was not prepared. No change of underwear or hygiene products. I purchased them and put them on my expense report. Had to fight to get my local manager to approve the expense.
I was wearing a three-piece suit as required by EDS. It was hot, hot, hot and part of the Southwest terminal A/C had failed.
Big ol’ drive. Probably weighed 75 pounds. Lugging that thing into the client’s place of business was a sweaty affair. I replaced the drive, got the system working having had to reinstall the OS, MVT/Famous, an obscure piece of crap chosen by someone higher on the food chain than I. Allowed for multitasking and more than 64K of memory using some tricks in hardware.
Replacing the disk drive require major disassembly of the computer system. Something for which I was not qualified. But I did it anyway. When I got done there were a few parts left over, screws and nuts, a couple of clips. The system worked so I considered the project a success.
I could do some major service on projectors that retailed for ~$100-120K while they hung upside down… but I ALWAYS removed some screws and retaining clips and didn’t put them back. The design had pieces that snapped into place, and then were screwed as backup. They COULDN”T physically come out so I would leave out the screws (internal to the projector anyway) that you couldn’t get to without a factory tear down. That meant I could go back in and do other tasks without dismounting the whole projector.
Field guys will find a way.
n
>> And, of course, “Job #1 is to go home at the end of the shift.”
I’m not buying it. If a cop has that mindset, he shouldn’t be a cop.
On 9/11, hundreds of FDNY firefighters went into the Towers, many knowing they would not return. When the carnage was over, 343 were gone, including one I knew personally. Every firefighter I’ve known has that mindset…cops, nope.
Ray:
Those parts compensated you for your hard work and inconvenience. 🙂
Nick:
Yes! I worked with some field guys a long time ago. Later worked with Seabees. There are some similarities.
Alan, my uncle was a policeman. Started right after WWII. His family and another family of firefighters were very close friends. I still know some of them. This was in the LA area. Yes, there are some rivalries, but not with this group.
FDNY has a great reputation, and I would be proud to associate with them. Cops… not so much, although there must be some fine ones.
BTW, we never called policemen cops in the Midwest, and of course way out west here. I guess it is an Eastern thing. I do know I have always referred to NYPD officers as policemen out of respect, and have never had any smirks. Very few encounters. Never had any run-ins with any real policemen. Don’t ask about the California Highway Patrol. LAPD always seemed to not like them, and I can see why, although I have known two who were OK.
@Alan
+1000
Soldiers who have been at the sharp end know it.
Our last WWII Medal of Honor winner lay in state at the U.S. Capital last Thursday. I saw two evening news broadcasts and neither one mentioned it.
“Woody” Williams, Rodger Young, and a lot of others not only went in and came out, they went back in and repeated as many times as necessary.
We used to call the Illinois Forest Preserve cops “tree pigs”. They had a lot of area to patrol and control that was pretty well suited to discrete corpse disposal, and drug dealing, so it was probably unfair. Wah. Despite having their own cops, we wouldn’t be caught dead in a forest preserve after dark, for fear of being caught dead….
n
so quiet. I’m going to bed.
n