Cooler, and hopefully clear. Rain is supposed to have passed us by in the night. It was overcast, threatening rain, and we did get a bit of light misty drizzle in the evening yesterday. By 11pm we were getting a little rain, but nothing like the straightline winds that were predicted.
The BOL got heavy wind and had power outages in the area. No idea what really happened until we hear from the neighbors, or someone shares on the local FB group.
Did some errands a preparation for the Hamfest yesterday. Most of the afternoon got eaten by a trip to the bank to deposit a check though. The check was too big to use the self deposit feature in the app. The nearest branch is 10 miles away, on a rainy day, around the time schools get out and people start going home… so normally heavy traffic as well as weather related crashes. Joy.
Since I was delayed anyway, I swung through a regular Goodwill store on my way home. Stock was low, but I did find a book and a couple of DVDs. I really went in for pants, but didn’t find anything I liked. It happens that way sometimes.
Hit my storage unit on the way home for two table tops, two CB radios, and a bunch of antennas. Today I’ll be piling up all the stuff I’m loading on the truck and trailer for the swapmeet. Gotta pick up the trailer first, then hit another location, then back home to rearrange and load. I better leave early and come home late… and NOT spend a bunch of time on the internet with my friends.
I’ve got a Dr appointment at 11, which will complicate all the other stuff. Couldn’t get it earlier and get it out of the way.
There will be some ‘playing it by ear’ today.
The Hamfest swapmeet is a great example of the secondary economy. There are people who make their living (or part of it anyway) by traveling from show to show and selling directly to the attendees. For locals, it’s a great way to get a bargain on gear, meet LMIs, and avoid CC and paper trails, if that is something you worry about.
In any case, get out and buy something, then stack it up!
nick
Every vehicle will require a kill switch for “driver impairment” starting in the 2026 model year so the contract with Ford Credit will simply extend the definition of “impaired” to include being behind on payments.
Of course, in the All EVs All The Time future, the Ford home charging system won’t work and the vehicle will be flagged in the supercharger networks’ systems. Pull into the Pilot/Flying-J needing a charge but behind on payments, and the Geico Gecko will appear on screen waving his finger and suggesting you step inside the store for a “spot of jam on a biscuit” while waiting for the repo men to arrive.
Going further, in about 10 years, when the surface streets are tolled, the finance company will get images and location of your vehicle via email as it rolls through each tolling point. I once created a system to do that for toll non payment repeat offenders, by OCR on the plate, but the first customer turned it off because it was too accurate and overwhelmed law enforcement.
Seriously, though, it sounds like someone was spitballing Patent ideas in Dearborn and one stuck with the lawyers. Certain paygrades where I currently work are required to file one viable idea per year, which will come up in the annual review.
It appears that the pendulum has swung back in the direction of sellers again at EBay. I had a dispute closed in the seller’s favor within moments of filing yesterday, which means that the Subcontinent labor looking at the case didn’t even consider the merits of the claim.
I’ll escalate to Paypal and then to the bank for an ACH cutoff if it goes that far.
That “Too Big To Fail” bank is a criminal enterprise blessed by the state.
The drive thru windows are closed at all of the branches around here due to ongoing labor shortages.
53F this am, down from 55F when I got up. Humidity is around 50%RH. Sun is up, sky is cloudless. Wind is gusting but not too bad. Gorgeous day in other words.
Won something that I really wanted for t he BOL (Steel cabinet) but didn’t have all the stuff scheduled for today when I bid. I’m going to try calling for an alternate pickup day, but it could monkey wrench my whole day.
Time to get moving… lots to do.
n
Tab clearing, before I forget.
Milspec rasberry pi!
https://www.curtisswrightds.com/capabilities/technologies/processors/raspberry-pi
‘member back in the day all the negative doubters that thought the whole concept of the razpi was a scam, could never be done, etc? Ha! Take that! now they’re flying in the drone that zapped yo’ azz!
n
WRT to Ebay issues, I have had some issues in the past. I always use bank credit cards and never paypal. When an issue arises, I initiate a dispute. I tell the cc agent if it is not resolved in my favor, I will still not pay it nor will pay any other part of my next bill. Cancel me out and I’ll see you in court if you file.
WHEW, I’ve never lost.
IIRC, Baen Books has the rights to a bunch of Heinlein, including the juveniles and they keep them in print on a rotating basis.
Isaac Asimov once said that some of his books made more money from movie options than they had from print sales. Just about any fiction best seller has had film rights purchased or optioned, often before publication. There are a handful of best selling authors that wouldn’t sell the film rights – Sue Grafton of the “alphabet” mysteries – was one. Her widower and children have sold the rights, however for TV.
Milspec rasberry pi!
https://www.curtisswrightds.com/capabilities/technologies/processors/raspberry-pi
Curtiss-Wright is still around? Who knew!
All the schools in the area are closed due to high wind warnings. We are supposed to get gusts up to 70 mph in some areas. My area might see 50 mph. I don’t think it will happen as the local weather people are really poor quality.
“Right now
there is just no consensusFJB is waiting for his ChiCom masters to tell him what to do.”Needs a milspec OS, which Linux is not outside of Common Criteria.
>> In any case, get out and buy something from @nick, then stack it up.
Fixed it.
Yeah, I was surprised as well. Big corporation, they bought the company my brother was working for, Symvionics, last year.
I’ve had decent luck with PayPal since they separated from EBay, but this is the first dispute I’ve had in the last few years.
My wife has a friend in Austin who reports that her power and internet are out because of an ice storm. (Cell phone service is apparently still up, though.)
Now, far be it for me to suggest that we talk smack about Greg while he may be unable to get online but…
Be careful what you say if this passes if you are paid to blog:
See here. Probably won’t pass (at least, that’s what you would think), and there will be lots of
2A1A lawsuits.Ice storm?
Yeah, Austin Energy screwed up again yesterday. Council already fired the white male City Manager so it is anyone’s guess as to who will get the blame this time.
I don’t live in the city. I am about 800 yards outside the city limits. We lost power for about 15 hours on Feb. 1 and never lost power in Feb 2021.
Well, rats. We’ll have to talk behind Greg’s back some other time.
Rick, I’m sure you mean 1A lawsuit. Understandable mistake, what with all the 2A lawsuits which have been filed in the past year or two.
Who knows. It is a shot across the bow of the Poynter Institute, parent organization of The (St. Petersburg) Times and Politifact, whose hands are not clean on that subject.
I’d also guess it puts Warren Buffett on notice. Berkshire Hathaway continues to hold one media outlet in the portfolio, the big ABC station in Miami which was a notable critic of DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic early on.
Not to worry here. No one here gets any compensation unless one counts personal satisfaction for pointing out the idiots that pass for politicians.
An ice storm in Austin? Just now? Must be a snow machine blowing margaritas for all Comrades pushing fake news.
anyway.
A cool thing this time of year is the new leaves on arizona ash and the elm trees. Little sparkles of green stained glass in the wind. While the live oaks are turning gold before they make new leaves. The old red oak is budding. Several of the post oak / black jack oak are pushing out their flowers.
The battery for my phone arrived. In a little padded envelope. 4600mAh versus the stock 3200mAh. Unlike some reports from perhaps mouth breathers, it fits perfectly. As described by the seller. No “peel off the wrapper” nonsense. Now…. whether the extra few bucks was well spent for a couple three days more between needing to charge the phone, who knows unless you try.
I’m going to fake Mom’s oven fried chicken in a little bit. Yeah, HEB had only boneless thighs. Skinless too. Not sure how that’s gonna work. I suppose $1.39 a pound versus 99¢ a pound is near enough to being the same per edible ounce.
I better get to it.
re the reported ice storm, -shrug- Just relaying what my wife told me her friend said.
The Times had to fire one of their entertainment reporters about 15 years ago, when the girl got caught blogging on a political web site under a pseudonym.
Things that make you say, “Hmmm…” – Her career hasn’t exactly suffered since then. After being fired, she attended Johns Hopkins on a scholarship, had a few teaching gigs, and now writes for Today.
South of Waco, snow and ice are rare in Texas once March begins.
Hail was a definite possibility. The Alamodome in San Antonio has hail damage this morning, and they’re an hour further down the freeway from South Austin.
Just make all the whores register.
@paul
Made in ScruWhiteyLand? Drop a decimal.
I have battery packs with labels that if they were true I’d build a freaking phaser.
90 % loaded. Trailer is almost full. Truck bed still has some room. Haven’t emptied my office or the attic yet.
n
“Beheadings are on Wednesdays”
Last night’s money line from “Picard”.
Mr. Worf gets much love from the writers, but Michael Dorn is a mixed bag delivering the lines sometimes.
He had no problem with that one, fortunately.
And “Picard” widened into being a “Deep Space Nine” sequel series as well last night.
Glory hole open to all comers.
YouTube surfing epoxy porn and I clicked on “do this immediately to get hard fast” and they weren’t talking about deep pours on tqbletops…
Down to 57F atm… Was nice and comfortable during the day. Got the truck and trailer loaded.
Everything is tarped and stretch wrapped, and under a street light. Hope that’s enough.
5X7 trailer stacked 4-6ft high. Small pickup, bed full, some long stuff on the rack.
Lot of stuff and it could all go away….
n
Local college radio station ca. 1972-75 featured a Saturday midnight show called “Darkside”. Second to the “King Biscuit Flour Hour” on Sundays, I learned to tune it by feel in the dark on that marvelous Pioneer tuner that didn’t have dial illumination for the better part of two years before I finally tore it down and replaced the bulb. (Second replacement got a resistor to drop the voltage)
Dea M. was the smokey-voiced goddess that spun the platters Saturday nights. When I saw American Grafitti, it was confirmed that I should never, ever, break down and hang around the studio to try to get a glimpse, for I would either be blinded by the beauty or flattened by the zeppelin.
But I digress.
Lovely Dea comes to mind because it was she that turned me on to Starcastle, the progressive Yes-channelers that were fronted by Terry Luttrell after he left REO. Two years later, they opened for the Winter bothers in a concert downstate at SIU Edwardsville, and I had great tickets until the main act, when the aisles got flooded by the cheap seats dancing. Sound was good even though Edgar was pissed that the roadie’s couldn’t turn his amp past 8.
I went looking for a video this evening after seeing one too many Kreg-jigged drawers, and, alas, found none from the period. Pity. I wanted to see if the rotating crystal illuminated by the spotlight was really the cheesy special effect that it almost was nearly fifty years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU3OM92th5s
About 8:00 is the discussion of Herb Schildt’s synthesizer work on “Lady of the Lake”, the song that hooked me in 1976. Yup, the records survived the flood years later and I have three of the five albums.
Thanks Dea.
Probably my last post on Federal taxes this year…
I found the response to FreeFile to be so bad during the evening that I quit trying. In the morning it worked fine.
After I filed I got a response telling me that my submission had two errors I need to fix so I could be validated.
The first was that I had the wrong AGI (Adjust Gross Income) for 2021, my submission had to match their e-file Database. They were incorrect here. I used the amount sent to me in a letter from them dated in January of this year changing my AGI. Their database is mistaken.
The second problem was the zip code I used on the 1099-R I created was invalid. It didn’t exist. Well I checked, and I used exactly what the Defense Finance Office had on their 1099-R. I haven’t a clue as to why it was wrong but it was exactly like the original. They referred me to “…efile : PayerUSAddress/efile:ZIPCd” to figure out the correct zip code to use. …Yea, … right like I have nothing else to do.
So I’ll mail it next week. I only getting $38 back so I’m in no hurry.
I still need to file my Alabama taxes, I owe them nothing as all of my retirement and SS income is exempt but you can’t get your Homestead exemption if you don’t file an Alabama income tax return.
SIU Edwardsville?
I just sold the family farm 15 minutes from there.
Depending on time spent there, we may have run into each other.
I lived in Edwardsville from 1966 to 1972, and again from 1976 to 1977, and again from 2003 to 2014. With stints in Spokane, WA and Alton, IL mixed in there.
Just severed my real estate ties to Illinois in the last week. I still have sons and daughters-in-law back there.
@lpdbw ,
Ever catch a band called Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows? They played a lot in southern Illinois.
I want this tune played at my funeral…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SryTW1qzxfg
Although I prefer the timing of the album version.
I saw Twist at the Mason Jar in Phoenix in the late 80s. Saw the band after he passed at a club in Chicago, I think it was Blue Chicago…
One of the tightest bands in show business.
n
added – pretty sure I saw them at Chuy’s in Tempe too.
n
Too many people dying ‘early’ these days…wtf is going on??
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/tom-sizemore-taken-off-life-support-brain-aneurysm-1235538021/
“Dow and X-Energy to build first grid-scale, next-generation nuclear reactor for NA industrial sites”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2023/02/dow-and-x-energy-to-build-first-grid-scale-next-generation-nuclear-reactor-for-na-industrial-sites
“Dow Inc and private company X-energy said on Wednesday they have agreed to develop and demonstrate the first grid-scale next-generation nuclear reactor for an industrial site in North America.”
“The X-energy Xe-100 plant featuring four high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors is set to be built at one of Dow’s sites on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The companies plan to finalize the location this year.”
Oh, I think I can come up with say, 357 ways…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11818693/California-moves-closer-paying-reparations-black-people-task-force-decides-to.html
RIP Tom Sizemore. Loved his Strange Days.performance.
Friendly psychopath in Heat.
———-
and now I’m off to bed. Got a long day of being extroverted and active, manic even, and standing on concrete.
n
“Natural Born Killers”, the mother source of Liberal memes about white men, especially father figures, but everyone was good, including Sizemore.
We did have some hail the other day. Pea size. Along with a lot of wind and 5/8th inch or rain.
I saw the first bluebonnet of the year while walking the dogs this morning.
What’s wrong with a simple 45 ways?