Thur. Apr. 11, 2024 – Just ‘cuz they say it, doesn’t mean it’s true…

Cooler, clear, and still damp. But should be nice later. It cleared out yesterday and turned into a nice day. Sunny, a bit gusty, and low 70s. More of that would be nice.

I spent most of yesterday at home. Did some domestic bliss, and will do more today. Put a pot roast in the slow cooker, and fixins in the bread machine and ended up with a fine dinner 6 hours later. And for not much effort. I tried to test the goodwill bread maker, but I’m obviously missing something about how it works. When I hit “start” I got a 6 hour timer. Should have been about 3 1/2 hours, so I dumped the bucket into my tried and true maker, and proceeded. I should d/l the manual and try again. I made “honey french” instead of my usual “old fashioned oatmeal” bread, and it came out great. Could have used a bit more salt, but other than that, soft airy inside, crunchy outside.

I also hit Costco for gas and groceries. Gas was $2.99, so 32c cheaper than Chevron. That makes a difference in an Expedition. Maybe not so much in a Geo Metro. Spent $400 at Costco and didn’t even overflow the cart. Two bales of Charmin, not on sale. It’s definitely not going on sale with the old frequency as I’m running out before the next sale. I have backup at the offsite location, so I am letting the home supply get low, hoping for the sale to stock up. Didn’t work this month so I sucked it up and paid the $30 per bale. Worse, it feels like there are fewer rolls now. I’ll have to check against the deep storage at some point. USED to be $18 on sale.

Between Costco and HEB, I spent about $800 this week on groceries and sundries. That would have been a HUGE week back in the Trump era.

I found the bin of medical supplies I was looking for. It didn’t have the stuff I needed in it. I’ll have to do some more organizing of medical preps at some point. I need to sort, label, and separate home and away kits. My two main home medical bags need to be refreshed too. I built them when the kids were little, and that was some time ago now…

There’s always more to do.

My auctioneer waved me off as they’ve been working on an in-home estate sale this week. I’ll just stack the bins and have more for next week I guess. I didn’t win anything in the last couple of days’ auctions either so I find myself without any pickup pressure today. I still have a couple of things to pickup, but I won’t be rushing all over the place.

Plan for the day is continue cleaning the house and putting stuff away, as well as processing auction wins, and outgoing auction stuff. Maybe plant some stuff in the garden if the soil isn’t too muddy, and I don’t run out of daylight. The water feature pond pump needs to be fixed or replaced soon too. The thing is getting stagnant. It’s part of the house and yard that I’ve been neglecting in favor of the BOL. Too much to do, not enough time or motivation.

All I can do is keep plugging away. At least I don’t have livestock making demands on my time too. Oh, I do have the kids, and they do need an hour or more of ferrying around every day, and it’s right in my most productive part of the day too. Oh well. I’ll miss it when it’s gone, I’m sure of that. Time is flying by as it is.

———————————————————————————————–

Stack, organize, refresh, build, renew, network, upskill, downsize, and monetize… while you can.

nick

74 Comments and discussion on "Thur. Apr. 11, 2024 – Just ‘cuz they say it, doesn’t mean it’s true…"

  1. SteveF says:

    And will snow plow blades become a fashionable auto accessory in the South?

    Have you ever seen a mine-clearing tank? They have a horizontal bar well out front with flails attached to the bar. The crew spins the bar, the flails whip the ground, and the mines are set off.

    Something like that might work for dealing with protesters, using whips just sturdy enough to cause pain.

    Or maybe not. Virtually all road blockers in the US are Democrats and they probably like that stuff.

  2. Denis says:

    From yesterday, about car paint colours:

    78.6% in white, black, gray, silver–non-colors

    All our vehicles are shades of silver. I like silver, because it:

    a) doesn’t show the dirt,

    b) is highly visible, other than in dense fog,

    c) doesn’t show the dirt,

    d) reflects heat in the summer,

    e) doesn’t show the dirt,

    f) is timeless; some colours obviously “date” a car (matte grey, anyone?),

    and,

    g) doesn’t show the dirt.

    Did I mention that silver doesn’t show the dirt? Well, it does, once there is enough dirt 🙂  but it is generally pretty dirt-tolerant, at least such that W1 doesn’t constantly pester me to clean the cars.

    I dislike washing cars myself, dislike paying others to wash my car even more, and I anyway regard washing cars as a waste of clean water and valuable detergents, so dirt-tolerant is what I want.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    And of course the protesters filmed themselves.

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/04/10/activists-disrupt-dinner-in-berkeley-deans-backyard-n3786291

    YouTube gold.

  4. SteveF says:

    at least such that W1 doesn’t constantly pester me to clean the cars

    I was to guess, I’d guess that she has legs and hands and could wash her car herself, if it bothered her that much. Or she could dig into her own pocket and pay someone to do it.

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    Or she could dig into her own pocket and pay someone to do it.  

    – my wife has a subscription plan with one of  the local carwash chains.   Her hoopty is held together with dirt… so I don’t encourage vigorous scrubbing…

    BTW longevity of exterior on the Honda Odysee is poor.   Paint is peeling to galvanized metal, all the rubber is perished, there is fading of the blacks.   It was always very noisy inside too, and that has just gotten worse.

    n

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    A bit chilly but very clear  today.  Warming as I sit here.

    n

  7. MrAtoz says:

    All our vehicles are shades of silver. I like silver, because it:

    My 2018 Subaru Outback is forest green. The color of choice for us lesbians.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Tennessee senate passes bill allowing schoolteachers to carry concealed weapons in K-12 schools

     

    The state Senate passed SB 1325 by a vote of 26-5Tuesday, allowing some concealed handguns in the classroom.

    – two lies in one sentence— actually three… 

    ‘We are literally talking about arming educators, who took an oath to teach our kids writing and arithmetic,’ she said, child in tow.

    ‘And [now] we’re now turning them into law enforcement agents.’

    34 states.  A majority.   

    If it does pass, Tennessee would join some 34 states that allow school personnel or teachers to carry a firearm – though it’s not as simple as them just bringing one into their respective building

    bTW, does anyone remember the reporting emphasizing the  age of the murderer, or was it always “former student”.    Fuxker was almost 30.

    Audrey Hale, 28, shot and killed six people at the Nashville school in March 2023

    n

  9. Denis says:

    Or she could dig into her own pocket and pay someone to do it.

    On the one hand, she occasionally does just that.

    On the other hand, she pays from household funds.

    On the gripping hand, I dislike washing cars or paying to have them washed, but “happy wife, happy life”, et cetera…

    Hmm. Why does nothing rhyme with “happy husband”? 🙂

  10. ITGuy1998 says:

    BTW longevity of exterior on the Honda Odysee is poor.   Paint is peeling to galvanized metal, all the rubber is perished, there is fading of the blacks.   It was always very noisy inside too, and that has just gotten worse.

    Honda’s have always been louder inside than other equivalent cars. In the past, that was made up for with sportier feel and performance. Not anymore. Honda lost its way a while ago.

  11. brad says:

    Teachers carrying concealed – in principle, I don’t see a problem. However, I do hope that they are required to have training, and re-training on a regular basis. A gun isn’t a good luck totem, and a teacher carrying one needs to know how to care for it, how to keep it safe, and (of course) how to use it in an emergency.

  12. Denis says:

    My 2018 Subaru Outback is forest green. The color of choice for us lesbians.

    I am toying with the idea of getting one of the new model Suzuki Jimnys as a shooting vehicle. They do a nice shade of dark forest green. It would definitely show the dirt, unlike silver, but silver for a shooting bus is not quite the done thing.

    https://www.globalsuzuki.com/automobile/lineup/jimny/

    Oooh. Now they have a five-door Jimney!

    https://www.globalsuzuki.com/automobile/lineup/jimny5door/

    The Jimneys look pretty decent, if somewhat under-motorised and substantially overpriced. The previous generation were great little vehicles, apart from the tendency of the floor pan to rust out in the early ones.

    I will probably hold out until the new model becomes available on the used market, but then I would need to be careful not to get one that a horsey or doggy person had before me, as I am allergic to horse dander, and have you ever tried to get the smell of dog out of a vehicle? Can’t be done, unless maybe in an old Land Rover Defender that could be pressure-washed inside and out…

    What I really want is a shooting break, but I don’t think anybody makes those anymore. Grrr.

  13. Ray Thompson says:

    Should have removed the child’s head, too.

    The little shirt(-r) head should never have been returned to the classroom and completely removed from the school. Send him to an alternative school for thugs and bill the parents.

    Teachers carrying concealed – in principle, I don’t see a problem. However, I do hope that they are required to have training, and re-training on a regular basis.

    I was subbing Tuesday and in the lunchroom for teachers there was some discussion about the new law. Who was going to pay for the training? Would they get time off work to attend the training? Would the IRS consider a gun purchase an allowable work-related deduction? Would the school district legal system protect the teacher if the teacher shot a student? Who pays for any bullets expended?

    The school does have a county sheriff officer at the school at all times. He even has his own office. One of his kids graduated last year and he has a daughter who is currently a freshman in high school.

    There are a couple of kids, aged 16 as they drive to school, who really don’t want to learn and disrupt classrooms almost every day. I am under the opinion, throw them out. With the restriction of no welfare or state aid for a minimum of 20 years. Find a job or starve, with the latter action probably a benefit to society.

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    Divemedic is coming around to my POV.

    So my advice here is to recognize that securing your own position through this is the best course of action. Understand what you can and cannot change, learn to tell the difference, and adapt to that which you cannot change. Governments fall, but the people remain. Make sure that you are one of the ones who remain. I know that some of you will think that this sounds defeatist, and maybe it is. I just don’t think that there is any way to change the course that this nation is on. It will play out, and my objective is to still be around to see what comes after.

    [emp added]

     Phil too…

    Expect Things To Ramp Up

    One thing I can guarantee you at this point, we are all living in a time period that will be studied and talked about for hundreds of years.

    There are still Romans in Rome.  

    n

  15. SteveF says:

    Why does nothing rhyme with “happy husband”?

    Make a happy husband or you’ll have a wasband.

    “Happy wife, happy life” is a lie. I don’t know if it was always a lie but it certainly has been for 40 years or more, at least in the US. Human nature doesn’t change (much) but culture changes and the economy changes and they can change how human nature expresses itself.

  16. MrAtoz says:

    Off to Vegas.

    D4 and I were watching some King of the Hill last night. In one scene, Boomhauer lays his wallet on the dresser. A close-up shows a Texas Ranger badge and ID. I never knew.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    The Jimneys look pretty decent, if somewhat under-motorised and substantially overpriced. The previous generation were great little vehicles, apart from the tendency of the floor pan to rust out in the early ones.
     

    Turbo three cylinder engine. Way too much tech.

    It will be an expensive toy to keep running outside of the warranty period.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    D4 and I were watching some King of the Hill last night. In one scene, Boomhauer lays his wallet on the dresser. A close-up shows a Texas Ranger badge and ID. I never knew.
     

    That episode is the series finale, which Fox snuck out onto the air about a year after cancellation.

    Most people have only seen it as part of the syndication package.

    Fox was not convinced that “The Cleveland Show” would work so they kept four episodes of “King of the Hill” in reserve just in case through the end of the following season.

  19. crawdaddy says:

    I always think of that phrase as, “Happy wife, maybe she won’t kill you while you sleep.”

  20. Chad says:

    From yesterday, about car paint colours:

    78.6% in white, black, gray, silver–non-colors

    I wanted white because I just like the look of darkly tinted windows on a white vehicle. I thought it was a sharp clean look. Now that I have a white car, I see them everywhere (frequency illusion). We were walking back to the car after patronizing the local big box store and I had to pause and chuckle because my vehicle was one of 7 white vehicles all parked next to each other. 

    I suppose there’s always going to be a large number of white vehicles on the road owing to the fact that the commercial/fleet sales tend to be white.

    Black is horrible. When it’s clean and polished there’s nothing sexier than a black vehicle. However, keeping it cleaned and polished is more effort than I am willing to expend. I had a black Jetta years ago and it was parked on the street on a hot afternoon and a sprinkler was hitting it. The water droplets kept hitting the car and quickly evaporating due to the surface temp of my black car on a hot sunny day. I had a black car covered in hard water spots/deposits. It took forever to get it clean.

    Any other color, except perhaps bright red, is probably a trend and what looks neat now will look dated in several years. Though, I am so burnt out on the white/silver/black that I’ll probably get something bright and colorful next time around just for a change.

    All our vehicles are shades of silver. I like silver, because it:

    a) doesn’t show the dirt,

    I’ve had silver, but consider it rather boring as car colors go (not that white and black are particularly exciting). Though, I agree, it hides the dirt like nothing else. I used to go months without washing my vehicle as a result. When you don’t notice it’s dirty (and neither does anyone else), then you’re not prompted to take it through a carwash.

    My 2018 Subaru Outback is forest green. The color of choice for us lesbians.

    They sell a bumper sticker that says something along the lines of "Yes, I drive a Subaru. No, I’m not a lesbian." lol

  21. Chad says:

    …but “happy wife, happy life”, et cetera…

    Hmm. Why does nothing rhyme with “happy husband”? 

    I believe the fair version is "Happy Spouse, Happy House."

  22. SteveF says:

    Off to Vegas.

    I recently got headhunter spam for a gig in Las Vegas. Eww. No, just no. Bunch Sweet Summer Childs out there.

  23. Gavin says:

    Why does nothing rhyme with “happy husband”? 

    Because they are like unicorns? In all the best fantasies and don’t exist in real life…

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    Having a happy wife may not guarantee your happy life, but the opposite is certainly true… unhappy wife, unhappy life…

    Still kinda cool out, but also still clear.

    n

  25. SteveF says:

    Because they are like unicorns? In all the best fantasies and don’t exist in real life…

    In the US, the marriage rate is much lower than it was in the 1950s.

    Interestingly, surveys of happiness show that men are happier than they were in the 1950s and women are much less happy than they were in the 1950s.

    Sure, sure, there are questions about comparing results over decades, on top of the usual questions about surveys and studies in the social sciences. Still, I can’t help but suspect there’s something there.

  26. SteveF says:

    Having a happy wife may not guarantee your happy life, but the opposite is certainly true… unhappy wife, unhappy life…

    And do you recommend paying off kidnappers? Negotiating with terrorists?

  27. Alan says:

    >> My 2018 Subaru Outback is forest green. The color of choice for us lesbians.

    What, the rainbow flag model was on backorder??

  28. SteveF says:

    When I’m working outside (ie, when I let the chickens out and am watching them while nominally working) for more than a little while, I normally plug my laptop into a battery box “power station” and then usually charge the battery box from a small solar panel. The panel is rated at 50W but I’ve never gotten more than about 36 out of it, with the caveat that I don’t know how good my meter is. Regardless, it’s enough to keep the usual laptop and the battery box charged or mostly charged while I’m out there.

    Not today, though. For a while I was getting a whopping 5W but the clouds got even heavier and I’m down to 1 or 2. Oh, that’s right. I forgot for a moment where I live.

    It’s surprising that the cloud cover cleared up enough for a very good eclipse viewing. Much better than the other way around, nice weather but full clouds on Monday.

    But the chickens are happy and the red hen jumped up and took a nap while I scratched her neck, so I guess it doesn’t matter that the battery box is running down and I haven’t gotten more than a few minutes’ work done in three hours.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    >> My 2018 Subaru Outback is forest green. The color of choice for us lesbians.

    What, the rainbow flag model was on backorder??
     

    Supply chain issues meant that the standard factory installed dog hair was unavailable.

    Subarus always have dog hair, especially if owned by a LGBTQXYZ household.

  30. Lynn says:

    On the gripping hand, I dislike washing cars or paying to have them washed, but “happy wife, happy life”, et cetera…

    Hmm. Why does nothing rhyme with “happy husband”?

    “Jeff Foxworthy – Totally Committed”

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swEE_XsBsdM

    “All a guy wants in life is to have a beer and see something naked”.

  31. Lynn says:

    “Starlink Rival Astranis Debuts Next-Gen Satellite With 5x More Capacity”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-rival-astranis-debuts-next-gen-satellite-with-5x-more-capacity

    “The new Omega satellite promises to offer more internet capacity while keeping the costs low.”

    Pretty soon, we are going to have million billion satellites rotating around the planet from LEO to GEO.

  32. Lynn says:

    Should have removed the child’s head, too.

    The little shirt(-r) head should never have been returned to the classroom and completely removed from the school. Send him to an alternative school for thugs and bill the parents.

    What makes you think that there are two parents in that home and on his birth certificate ?

  33. Lynn says:

    But the chickens are happy and the red hen jumped up and took a nap while I scratched her neck, so I guess it doesn’t matter that the battery box is running down and I haven’t gotten more than a few minutes’ work done in three hours.

    That there is a dog.  You are gonna be sad when she hits her short life end of 5 to 10 years.   Wait, dogs only last 10 to 16 years.

  34. Lynn says:

    There are a couple of kids, aged 16 as they drive to school, who really don’t want to learn and disrupt classrooms almost every day. I am under the opinion, throw them out. With the restriction of no welfare or state aid for a minimum of 20 years. Find a job or starve, with the latter action probably a benefit to society.

    We need to go back to only the first 6 or 8 grades of school are free.  The rest will be free only if you pass.  The ditch digger class behind the school is free for a week.

  35. Ray Thompson says:

    What makes you think that there are two parents in that home and on his birth certificate ?

    Again, I stand corrected. There are probably 13 parents, 1 mother and 12 possible fathers, none of them at home most of the time. The 12 male sperm donors are probably incarcerated, the mother is out spending her welfare money on bags of chips while using the money she exchanged to buy hair extensions, expensive acrylic nails, and a gold tooth, all the while complaining “do governmnt dain’t do nuting to help”. 

  36. Lynn says:

    Divemedic is coming around to my POV.

    So my advice here is to recognize that securing your own position through this is the best course of action. Understand what you can and cannot change, learn to tell the difference, and adapt to that which you cannot change. Governments fall, but the people remain. Make sure that you are one of the ones who remain. I know that some of you will think that this sounds defeatist, and maybe it is. I just don’t think that there is any way to change the course that this nation is on. It will play out, and my objective is to still be around to see what comes after.

    [emp added]

    You and me bro.

  37. Ray Thompson says:

    It seems that my Shark vacuum account was compromised. I use a simple password, the same one I used with AT&T years ago. It was apparently exposed during the AT&T security breach. There is nothing important in my Shark vacuum account. How do I know it was compromised? Someone accessed the account and started the vacuuming process about 3:00 AM.

    I never considered a complicated password for the account because there is really nothing of value accessing the account. They could get my vacuum information but that is basically worthless. All they did was inconvenience me but I don’t see the satisfaction in doing that.

     I have since changed the password to some random string of characters generated by BitWarden.

  38. Lynn says:

    “Costco selling as much as $200 million in gold bars monthly, Wells Fargo estimates”

        https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/09/costco-selling-up-to-200-million-in-gold-bars-a-month-wells-fargo-estimates.html

    “Costco is selling 1-ounce bars made of nearly pure 24-karat gold. While the price is not disclosed online to nonmembers, it’s estimated that the product generally sells for about 2% above the spot price, which as of Tuesday morning was around $2,357 an ounce. That would put the price at Costco just more than $2,400.”

    I am thinking about renewing my Costco membership.

    The importance of owning some precious metals is part of the central message of “The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047” by Lionel Shriver.   I won’t spoil it for you but obtaining some precious metals and then keeping them hidden from the thugs going house to house who will be seizing gold in the 2030s is tricky.

        https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/

  39. Lynn says:

    “EU Disinfo Lab Proposes Expanding ICANN Operations From Phishing And Malware to Target ‘Disinformation’ Sites at The Domain Level”

        https://www.infowars.com/posts/eu-disinfo-lab-proposes-expanding-icann-operations-from-phishing-and-malware-to-target-disinformation-sites-at-the-domain-level/

    “EU DisinfoLab, a non-profit officially operating independently but regularly making policy recommendations to the EU and member-states, is now pushing for a security structure created by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to be utilized in the “war on disinformation.””

    I knew that when we moved control of ICANN outside of the USA that we would have to fight for control of internet domains in foreign courts some day.  At some point, a foreign court will start making people justify their usage of an internet domain.

    Hat tip to:

       https://thelibertydaily.com/

  40. nick flandrey says:

    Not a starlink competitor.   Not even a wink in its father’s eye at this point.

    However, Omega will take a while to arrive. Astranis plans on launching the first Omega satellites in 2026 after completing work on the flight vehicle next year.

    The amount of work and good luck glossed over in that one sentence is astounding.

    n

  41. MrAtoz says:

    OJ be dead.

  42. MrAtoz says:

    Subarus always have dog hair, especially if owned by a LGBTQXYZ household.

    Are you sure that hair wasn’t really “fur”. As in…

  43. paul says:

    OJ be dead.

    I guess he’ll never find the REAL killer now.

  44. paul says:

    I just finished breaking down a couple of packages of boneless chicken things into about one pound packages.  Five bags vacuumed and in the freezer.  About a pound for tonight’s curry mix.  I hate messing with raw chicken.

    The scammers who call my phone with threats of “serving papers for court” called today.  A woman this time instead of the usual gruff sounding man.  What company?  How do they know my name? I’m not calling them and referencing a case number as long as a credit card number.  Message deleted.  Number blocked. 
    I haven’t stiffed anyone as far as I know.  I do not get snail mail from them, whoever they are.  Nor e-mails or text messages.  Just threatening voice mails.  It’s annoying. 

    We had 3.5 inches of rain on Tuesday.  It sure made everything green! The grass that needs mowing seems to have grown four inches.  Parts of the road washed out  a bit.  Not the road on my side of the cattle guard.  I have 4WD anyway. 

  45. Lynn says:

    “Nicolae Miu found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide in Wisconsin river stabbing”

        https://notthebee.com/article/nicolae-miu-found-guilty-of-first-degree-reckless-homicide-in-wisconsin-river-stabbing-trial/

    “This July 2022 stabbing took place on the Apple River in Wisconsin, just east of the Twin Cities. Multiple groups of tubers were on the river when Nicolae Miu approached one of those groups claiming to be looking for a cell phone one of his friends had dropped in the water.”

    “Miu grabbed his pocket knife, which he’d packed to help cut rope during the trip down the river, and used it to defend himself against the attackers, stabbing five individuals, one of which died as a result.”

    “After two years, and Miu being charged with first-degree intentional homicide and multiple counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, this case has finally reached a verdict.”

    Guilty on 6 counts, though much lesser crimes than the original charge.”

    “Possibly 100 years for, it looks to me, defending himself.”

    Unreal.  For defending yourself against a mob.

    Reminds me of the Army sergeant, Daniel Perry, defending himself in Austin when a street protestor pointed a rifle at him in a car and the sergeant shot the protestor.

    https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/pardon-murder-blm-protester-austin-texas/269-1846b545-aa84-4d0c-a637-a1690293ec8d

  46. Greg Norton says:

    “Costco is selling 1-ounce bars made of nearly pure 24-karat gold. While the price is not disclosed online to nonmembers, it’s estimated that the product generally sells for about 2% above the spot price, which as of Tuesday morning was around $2,357 an ounce. That would put the price at Costco just more than $2,400.”

    An uncirculated Eagle delivered from the Mint via Priority Mail in three days is $3170 this afternoon, but GLD puts the per ounce “paper” gold price at $2198. That’s quite a difference.

    If the “bar” from Costco isn’t .999 then it is in the same category as an Eagle and counts as a manufactured product, subject to import duties, not “money” in the legal/customs sense.

    In your bug out country, you’d have to establish provenance. No one questions Eagles with paperwork.

    I don’t see the gold bar on Costco’s web site right now.

  47. Lynn says:

    An uncirculated Eagle delivered from the Mint via Priority Mail in three days is $3170 this afternoon, but GLD puts the per ounce “paper” gold price at $2198. That’s quite a difference.

    If the “bar” from Costco isn’t .999 then it is in the same category as an Eagle and counts as a manufactured product, subject to import duties, not “money” in the legal/customs sense.

    In your bug out country, you’d have to establish provenance. No one questions Eagles with paperwork.

    That gold eagle is 22 kt, not 24 kt.

        https://catalog.usmint.gov/american-eagle-2023-one-ounce-gold-uncirculated-coin-23EH.html?cgid=gold-coins#start=1

    And I am not bugging out to another country.

  48. Denis says:

    I guess he’ll never find the REAL killer now.

    Perhaps not, but the Judge now won’t be no Ito…

  49. Greg Norton says:

    Having a happy wife may not guarantee your happy life, but the opposite is certainly true… unhappy wife, unhappy life…

    Post Vantucky, I don’t worry so much about “Happy wife, happy life”.

    We did it her way. Now we do only what makes sense and pray we can recover financially before I reach retirement age.

    Last week in New Orleans, we went to dinner with a higher up of a new med school who was interested in having my wife join the faculty, but I think I screwed that opportunity up when the topic came around to WA State and why we left.

    Me not having a job didn’t really seem to register as a legitimate reason to the med school prof … or her wife.

    Male and pale is stale.

  50. Greg Norton says:

    I guess he’ll never find the REAL killer now.

    Perhaps not, but the Judge now won’t be no Ito…

    Ito’s laptop made ThinkPad. Thirty years later, that’s what I’m typing on right now.

    The miniseries about the case with David Schwimmer as the late Kardashian patriarch is howlingly funny if you pay attention and have a dark sense of humor.

    “Please don’t kill yourself in Kimmy’s bedroom.”

  51. Greg Norton says:

    That gold eagle is 22 kt, not 24 kt.

    If the Costco bar isn’t .999 then it still isn’t “money”.

    Given Costco’s management’s left-leaning politics, I’d be concerned owning gold ordered through their web site if confiscation was reinstated.

    WA State threw a wrench into the works of Safeway/Kroger merger recently. The Attorney General is running for Governor, and Kroger was one of the most outspoken opponents of the implementation of liquor deregulation a decade ago.

    Costco’s lawyers literally wrote the new rules. Governor Inslee might as well have Kirkland Brand stamped on his forehead.

  52. Lynn says:

    Given Costco’s management’s left-leaning politics, I’d be concerned owning gold ordered through their web site if confiscation was reinstated.

    I am concerned about buying any precious metals through any credit card also.  Cash only in the case of precious metals.

  53. Lynn says:

    “TRAGIC: I Was Right About the Hostages Being Dead”

        https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/04/11/tragic-i-was-right-about-the-hostages-being-dead-n4928084

    “Conservative criminal defense attorney and columnist Marina Medvin called it a “devastating Hostage negotiations update” because that’s exactly what it is. In the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, Hamas officials now say that “they wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, dead or alive.””

    “”Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan,” according to the Wall Street Journal.”

    Sad.  Unbelievably sad.

    Do not let yourself get taken hostage by anyone.

  54. EdH says:

    Pretty soon, we are going to have million billion satellites rotating around the planet from LEO to GEO.

    Sort of a planetary scale Dyson sphere.
     

    The original Dyson sphere was individual objects orbiting a sun densely enough to block it out. In science fiction you often see this shown as a solid sphere.

  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    Sitting on D2’s school theater,  gettingready for some entertainment.    If a drama about orphans being used as slave labor counts as  entertainment.   Got my axil earpro in.  Glanced at the sound board and the kid has about half the faders at +10 dB, or maxed.  Gain structure was clearly not a subject. 

    N

  56. SteveF says:

    Possibly 100 years for, it looks to me, defending himself.

    Kill everyone.

    It seems that every day there’s another example of someone being punished for not following The Wisdom of SteveF.

    10
  57. Alan says:

    >> Honda lost its way a while ago.

    I remember when I used to live in NYFC and sped around in an original (Gen 1) Honda Civic with the CVCC engine. At only 1,500 lbs curb weight, the 1,169 cc (71 ci) engine was quite peppy.

  58. Lynn says:

    “Worm”, the first in a series of free online fantasy stories by Wildbow (J.C. McCrae).
       https://parahumans.wordpress.com/

    “Worm” is a online fantasy web serial that I have bounced off a couple of times, that was completed in 2013. I finally finished it the other day by skimming the last half million words or so. There is around two million words in the story. They say that a working understanding of Worm is needful to understand the fan fiction written about “Worm” but I managed without it. I just did not like the desperation of Taylor in the story. 

    If interested, I recommend that you read “Taylor Varga” by mp3.1415player instead. 
       https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/taylor-varga-worm-luna-varga.32119/

    Or, any other fan fiction by mp3.1415player.
       https://wormstorysearch.com/?is_nsfw_eq=any&story_keywords=mp3&page=1&limit=20&sort=stories.rating&direction=desc&searching=true

    My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

    Lynn

  59. Bob Sprowl says:

    I found a surprise when I went outside this afternoon.  A neighbor’s large tall dead pine fell into my yard during the storms yesterday and landed on my ’60 Ford F-100 pickup crushing the top and hood and breaking the windshield and back window.

    We had talked about cutting it down but hadn’t got around to it.  The truck was worth maybe a thousand dollars but nowat most only a couple of hundred.

    Stuff happens.

  60. Alan says:

    >> What I really want is a shooting break, but I don’t think anybody makes those anymore. Grrr.

    @Denis, there’s one out there…but at a different price point….

    https://youtu.be/f-FrFKrFFKc

  61. Lynn says:

    I found a surprise when I went outside this afternoon.  A neighbor’s large tall dead pine fell into my yard during the storms yesterday and landed on my ’60 Ford F-100 pickup crushing the top and hood and breaking the windshield and back window.

    We had talked about cutting it down but hadn’t got around to it.  The truck was worth maybe a thousand dollars but nowat most only a couple of hundred.

    Argh !  That is a classic.  Especially if it still runs.  Those usually came with a 250 ??? inch^3 inline six and three on the tree but a few of them had a 390 inch^3 V8 and a 4 speed with a granny first.

    My crazy neighbor just bought a 196x F-260 with a 390 and four speed granny. It is a 4×4 with the factory eight ??? inch lift kit. He paid $12,000 for it and drove it home from the Houston auction.
    https://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/1966-ford-f-260/

  62. nick flandrey says:

    Once again my axil active protection ear pro stood me in good stead…

    Show wasn’t actually that bad.   They are kids after all, and some of them are just taking their first steps “on the boards” so to speak.   D2 did a good job of setting our expectations very low, so we were pleasantly surprised. 

    The stories were interesting, compelling, heartwrenching.  It wasn’t that long ago and the abject poverty is striking.   I’m terrified that we’re headed back toward that.

    n

  63. SteveF says:

    Bob Sprowl, what you want to do is sue Trump for the loss of your truck. If he hadn’t pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, there wouldn’t be any Global Climate Change Confusion Catastrophy and the storm wouldn’t have knocked the tree down. QED

  64. drwilliams says:

    @Denis

    Your eyes see only visible light, which is less than 50% of the solar energy. Silver and White don’t necessarily reflect the UV and IR, which can pass right through and be absorbed by layers underneath.

    Auto manufacturers are using black paint with IR reflective properties that result in a much cooler surface and cooler interiors.

    Ask about solar reflectance/absorbance–they have the data.

  65. drwilliams says:

    @Chad

    “Black is horrible.”

    Fifty years a go the sanitary fixture manufacturers would run black once a year. Looks outstanding with gold faucets, but requires constant hand drying to keep water spots from forming. No U.S. market, but popular in the Middle East where they had wealth and slave labor.

  66. nick flandrey says:

    US drug shortages reach all-time high: Cancer and diabetes patients waiting ‘deadly’ amount of time for lifesaving drugs

    • Over 320 drugs are in shortage, the highest number since record-keeping began
    • Patients have had to forego life-saving medications because of supply issues

    Manufacturers of these cheaper generic drugs are competing with fellow makers to enter into distribution contracts with hospitals and pharmacies.

    This competition leads to downward pressure on prices, which impacts manufacturers’ profitability. 

    Michael Ganio, senior director at the ASHP, said: ‘It’s been a race to the bottom. We need more transparency around quality so that buyers have a reason to not chase the lowest price.’

    When manufacturers are short on profits, they can’t invest in quality control, drug development, and manufacturing capabilities to meet demand.

    David Gaugh, interim president and CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines, told Axios: ‘The majority of generic drug shortages cannot be addressed without raising prices.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13298049/us-drug-shortages-cancer-patients-wait-time-lifesaving-drugs.html 

    — we’ve been talking about drug shortages here for a long time.

    n

  67. drwilliams says:

    @SteveF

    In the US, the marriage rate is much lower than it was in the 1950s.

    Interestingly, surveys of happiness show that men are happier than they were in the 1950s and women are much less happy than they were in the 1950s.

    Sure, sure, there are questions about comparing results over decades, on top of the usual questions about surveys and studies in the social sciences. Still, I can’t help but suspect there’s something there.

    The classic Spock line from “Amok Time”: “ having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting”.

    Women got most of what they wanted, short of the Equal Rights Amendment.

    That included not having to name fathers to get public money.

    Men get what they want and can walk away.

    Then the loudest, most unhappy and screwed up women decided for all women that men that claimed to be women should be able to compete as women and destroy women’s athletics, using the same locker room.

    If women won’t defend themselves, why should they expect to be happy?

  68. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    ”Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan,”

    They are not a “militant” group. They are murdering criminals.

    The response should have been to declare Gaza devoid of life with human rights, and give the animals 24 hours to return all hostages before the Glassing of Gaza began with a full salvo turning the Iranians into Crispy Critters.

  69. Lynn says:

    Last week in New Orleans, we went to dinner with a higher up of a new med school who was interested in having my wife join the faculty, but I think I screwed that opportunity up when the topic came around to WA State and why we left.

    Me not having a job didn’t really seem to register as a legitimate reason to the med school prof … or her wife.

    So, is your wife considering the job ?

  70. Lynn says:

    ”Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan,”

    They are not a “militant” group. They are murdering criminals.

    The response should have been to declare Gaza devoid of life with human rights, and give the animals 24 hours to return all hostages before the Glassing of Gaza began with a full salvo turning the Iranians into Crispy Critters.

    Here is the problem.  The world is watching and some are considering jumping in the middle (Iran, Qatar, etc).  So, overt actions must be handled carefully.

    ADD: this action is far from done. Many more tough decisions are to be made by the Israelis and their enemies.

  71. Alan says:

    >> I won’t spoil it for you but obtaining some precious metals and then keeping them hidden from the thugs going house to house who will be seizing gold in the 2030s is tricky.

    I recall we’ve discussed here before hiding places beyond the IQ of the Mad Max bikers. Just keep paying for your gold in cash and don’t live in the fanciest house on your block and hopefully the bikkers pass you by. 

  72. Lynn says:

    >> I won’t spoil it for you but obtaining some precious metals and then keeping them hidden from the thugs going house to house who will be seizing gold in the 2030s is tricky.

    I recall we’ve discussed here before hiding places beyond the IQ of the Mad Max bikers. Just keep paying for your gold in cash and don’t live in the fanciest house on your block and hopefully the bikkers pass you by. 

    MZBs, mutant zombie bikers.

    And don’t live in a farmhouse a mile or ten away from anyone else.

  73. Alan says:

    Below ground bunker with well hidden air intakes. 

  74. Denis says:

    >> What I really want is a shooting break, but I don’t think anybody makes those anymore. Grrr.

    @Denis, there’s one out there…but at a different price point….

    https://youtu.be/f-FrFKrFFKc

    Thanks, Alan. Alas, it’s a Mercedes, so a bucket of trouble. I might take one as a gift.

    Grrr. Did I write “shooting break”, or did autistikorect get me? It’s “brake”, of course.

    I see that MB have not quite got the concept. A shooting brake should be a three-door vehicle, like a station wagon, with only two side doors, and a long cargo space, suitable for transporting long gub cases, shooting sticks and luggage lengthwise. There should also be room for a dog crate and a wicker picnic hamper, with a cooler for the Champagne. [I drink Champagne when other people overspend their money on it; I buy Bernard Massard from Luxembourg. Produced literally across the river Moselle from the French stuff, but the Luxy grapes grow on the sunny side. 🙂 ]

    @Denis

    Your eyes see only visible light, which is less than 50% of the solar energy. Silver and White don’t necessarily reflect the UV and IR, which can pass right through and be absorbed by layers underneath.

    Interesting, thanks! I have not noticed our vehicles getting hot this way, but then my layer of dirt is probably blocking the UV even if the paint isn’t!

    My crazy neighbor just bought a 196x F-260 with a 390 and four speed granny.

    Lynn, is the neighbour crazy because he bought a truck, or because he bought a granny? 😉

    “TRAGIC: I Was Right About the Hostages Being Dead”

    Sad.  Unbelievably sad.

    Yes, and enraging too.

    I was ashamed yesterday to see that the government of Ireland has adopted a pro-Hamas stance, announcing they would soon recognise a “Palestinian state”, thereby throwing overboard Ireland’s long and proud history of support for the statehood and legitimacy of Israel and the rights of Jews everywhere to live in peace and safety. Ireland used to be a safe and even welcoming place to be a Jew. I would not be so sure about that now.

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