Dunno about Houston, but here it’s a bit cool, then warmer. I will be in the attic so I am hoping for ‘cool’ to last a while. It was pretty nice all day yesterday, although very humid. Even with very light work I was sweating outdoors.
I did my home stuff, then went shopping and loaded the truck. Called one pickup and changed it to a shipment, moved the other to Monday afternoon. That got me some more time at home to get packed and ready before heading out.
I bought 3 apple trees at Lowes because they were in stock. I won’t plant them until later, but I learned last year that they don’t stay in the store very long. One tree for the house to replace a dead one, and two for the BOL. I’d have bought pears too, but they only had one variety in stock, and you need two for pollination.
The drive was uneventful, except seeing the cop pulling someone over outside of one of the small towns on the state highway. They had a rash of collisions, so they are upping enforcement. First time I’ve seen it.
I forgot we shut off the water main, so when I flushed and nothing happened I had a moment. Then I remembered and it was ok.
Only real goal for today is to get the new 50A 240V receptacles installed in the carport. I’m doing two, the most common styles, because I have them. That way, literally anything should be able to plug in- welding machine, EV Charger, RV, generator backfeed….
Good thing I had the receptacles and “in use” boxes. 75Ft of conductors and a breaker were expensive enough. If you see stuff you are thinking of using later on sale, or very cheap, it’s worth picking it up when you see it. I knew that eventually I’d put an outlet in the workshop area, and replace the RV outlet that burned up, but I didn’t have a timeline. I collected pieces when I saw them for pennies on the dollar. Having to buy the wire at retail was unpleasant. I’ll probably start seeing it in the auctions now that I don’t need it đ
Stacks saved a bunch of money on this project. They will certainly continue to save money, time, and effort on others. Stack wide and deep…
nick
Good morning!
We had the BOL electrical fully replaced during 2020. We we exceptionally lucky that the contractor honestly charged us on the basis of his prior purchase prices for the cable, rather than applying the âscarcityâ prices that suddenly went through the roof. We were also lucky that there is a cable factory nearby and he had been able to stock up.
I understand that construction prices have come down again, but not to pre-COVID levels. I am glad not to be building just now.
Every off base housing allowance paid by the DoD, with identifying information limited to Zip Code.
I think the numbers would surprise many people.
I couldn’t qualify for my wife’s nephew’s zero down mortgage. Not that I would want to live in that place, but the subsidy warps many local housing markets long term as the recipients get reassigned elsewhere and use AirBnB to maintain the âportfolioâ of past residences.
(Their word of choice.)
And, yes, I understand that the service people could be asked to die for their country and the allowance is part of the compensation in return for the potential sacrifice, but, really, my wife’s nephew and the people advising him have never seen actual combat and probably never will with Trump back in office.
Meanwhile, Corn Pop’s handlers were goosestepping us towards a nuclear war, with the brass paid off to keep their mouths shut.
Time for more than a few rectal probes in places like MacDill and Fort Hood.
Maybe literally.
Crown fell off a molar yesterday. The tooth had a root canal back to when I cannot remember so the crown is old. I do not have any discomfort. I will call the dentist tomorrow and see if it can be reattached. I have the crown that fell off. If it cannot be reattached, I am looking at another several hundred dollars to get a new one.
I would finish my taxes but I am waiting on one final document from Ameriprise which holds my investments. I can glean some numbers from the year end statement I receive. What I cannot get are the foreign tax credits and what is actually regular dividends and exempt dividends.
I can watch the Super Bowl in 4K on Xfinity on a special channel provided by Xfinity. The TV is 4K capable. I don’t know that I will see much difference. Especially in all the shots of Taylor Swift’s face that are certain to grace the production. She probably has a dedicated camera pointed at her.
The commercials will be interesting. The half-time show, not so much. Too much overly produced music, pitch correction, unintelligible lyrics, lots of glitz, little substance. It is still amazing that a full stage, with the production requirements of movement, maybe sound, effects, can all be assembled in a few minutes. There is probably one person for each electrical connection and that is their only responsibility. Maybe even a person for each mechanical connection on the platform. One person, one task, get it correct.
What is really interesting in terms of media is that the Fox ads for the Super Bowl tout the streaming via Tubi. That service has been disregarded as a dumping ground for IP writeoffs, but, honestly, what does Netflix offer on the ad supported tier that is any better?
I can’t watch âA Complete Unknownâ for free on Tubi, but I can’t watch it on my ad-supported paid tier of Netflix either right now.
That is another option for use on my Apple TV. But the Apple TV uses the network in my house, the router and WiFi. The Xfinity channel does not. I suspect that streaming in 4K would put a significant dent in my 1TB monthly allotment for internet use.
Xfinity is also offering two channels, identical. I wonder why.
The content will be the same between the two platforms and the two channels.
Digital cable uses the same bandwidth as your cable modem, but the packets going to/from your set top box don’t travel on the open Internet.
Broadcast ATSC would still be the most efficient way to distribute the progam to a mass audience, but I don’t think 4k channels have been allocated. Maybe on a limited basis.
A cool, 27F, morning, as predicted.
I will shop this morning, then prune the mulberries in the front yard, rhen start some laundry, and probably wander over to the neighbors for the game in the afternoon.
I haven’t met anyone that’s excited about the game, but then it’s two East Coast teams (where I identify East Coast as anything east of the Rockies).
Maybe they’ll let Mahomes off the leash, I’d like to see the guy play to his full potential.
The digital cable does not travel through my modem. It does not count against my bandwidth. The digital cable does travel on the same cable coming into the house. The signal is available at the modem, the modem just chooses to ignore the signal.
64F with light overcast this morning.
I have a male cardinal, and three females eating seeds out of the tree on the hill. Several squirrels munching stuff too. Funny what hangs around when the dog isn’t tearing the place upâŚ
Quiet weekend up here. Everyone is waiting for next weekend.
I’ve got a nice mug of coffee, I remembered the cream this trip, and just finished my egg and bacon.
Time to get moving on my day – soon.
n
I won’t even try to watch the Superbowl. I have friends who still work it every year, and they are the guys moving the half time show into place. It is manpower intensive, heavily rehearsed, designed specifically for purpose, and a crazy risk to the turf that the league sweats bullets about every year.
Some people like it.
The league does not like to put Super Bowls in Tampa due to the lack of the âpartyâ atmosphere around Raymond James, but the stadium has the best turf in the NFL and is on the short list of contingency sites considered whenever the announced location has a problem.
Some of the groundskeeper crew there go back to the “Old Sombrero” Tampa Stadium in the 70s, which was located right next door.
The NFL does get touchy about turf appearance on TV, but the bigger issue is potential injuries to some of the highest paid players in the league, especially when the surface is artificial like the Superdome and both of the teams have grass in their home stadiums like Kansas City and Philadelphia.
These days, most NFL teams with grass turf in the stadium have artificial practice fields available, but even as recently as ~ 20 years ago, the Yucs didn’t have one.
âAnoraâ isn’t for everyone, especially kids or those sensitive to nudity, sex, and the F-word, but it is a very good movie.
“Russian oligarchs” implies certain imagery, but the film lacks any real violence.
Plus, the flick made money. Imagine.
Hollywood could do worse.
https://www.showbiz411.com/2025/02/09/fave-indie-film-anora-leaps-to-front-of-oscar-race-with-cca-dga-pga-wins
Why did that make me think of the Three Stooges? Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk.
Up until Warren Sapp was drafted, comparisons of the franchise to the Three Stooges would have been extremely unkind to the Stooges.
The legendary money quote from John McKay, coach of the Yucs during the early, dismal years, came in response to a reporter’s question, âHow do you feel about your team’s execution today?â
âI’m all for it.”
If DOGE wants to have a long-term impact, the best thing they could do, would be to force all federal financial transactions online â viewable by anybody and everybody. Leave no place to hide.
Public benefit agencies like like USAID, HHS, EPA, Social Security, et all: none of these have any reason to have any classified data at all. All financial transactions should be online, viewable by the public.
So you want to know how Social Security I get each month ? Um, I have a problem with that.
My university salaries in Washington and Texas are public record if you know where to look.
The hilarious part of the WA State salary being public is that the fact that I was able to write a check for my wife’s tail malpractice insurance leaving Vantucky caught the clinic off guard.
When my wife turned in the requisite 60 day notice, they knew how much we had in the bank which received her direct deposit and believed that we couldn’t afford to pay the insurance and put a down payment on a house in Texas.
Surprise.
We continue to keep separate accounts for direct deposit for that reason.
We also use credit unions and not banks for direct deposit.
A âtoo big to fail bankâ? You’re playing with fire both in terms of privacy and your money actually being considered yours post MF Global.
âMethane Madness: How Exaggerated Climate Claims Are Targeting Farmers and Cowsâ
https://americafirstreport.com/methane-madness-how-exaggerated-climate-claims-are-targeting-farmers-and-cows/
âAs climate alarmism continues to take over headlines in the mainstream media, methane emissions from cows have become the latest target of overzealous policymakers. Governments worldwide, from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, are imposing draconian regulations on farmers, forcing them to feed their livestock methane-reducing supplements like Bovaer. But is this war on methane justified? A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the climate impact of methane has been grossly exaggerated, and the policies targeting agriculture are based on shaky, if not outright pseudoscientific, foundations.â
We are hurting ourselves with all of this crap.
I wonder who owns this Bovaer crap ?
So you want to know how Social Security I get each month ? Um, I have a problem with that.
—- there is a maximum per month payout isn’t there? Everyone is getting less than that number, it’s only a question of how much less.
How do you audit if there isn’t any tracking?
——-
For public âservantsâ or any civil service job, the public is paying and should be able to see what the rate is. I never want to see someone like the water czar in cali getting 750K$ of public money. If they exceed the published rate for that grade equivalent, there better be documented special circumstances.
n
I’ve got the boxes built, and the 6/3 pulled. Time for lunch.
n
âElon Musk Has a Great Idea To Get Rid of Activist Judgesâ
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/02/09/this-ruling-is-absolutely-insane-elon-musk-and-others-respond-to-obama-judges-ruling-n4936828
âA federal judge dropped a bombshell on Saturday, issuing an order that no only temporarily blocks the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing essential data on federal payments but also bars Treasury officials from accessing data managed by the agency.â
From Musk:
âIâd like to propose that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year. This will weed out the most corrupt and least competent.â
Maybe the worst 10% would be a good start.
The Super Bowl is indeed in 4K on the TV. And I really donât notice the difference over HD. I suspect Xfinity is compressing the 4K signal to HD, then up scaling to 4K. I donât think the signal is 4K for the entire signal path. Xfinity cannot be trusted. One signal feed on one channel (Fox) is about 30 seconds behind the Xfinity channel.
>>So you want to know how Social Security I get each month ? Um, I have a problem with that.
Back when I worked for the bank, there were a number of folks in our IT division that would reveal their salary if asked by a colleague as long as the asker revealed theirs in return. Always done off-campus to keep management guessing who was involved.
What you want is something like the âsunshine list” that shows all the Public Sector salaries over $100,000.
You can find it at https://www.ontario.ca/public-sector-salary-disclosure/2023/all-sectors-and-seconded-employees/
It might not be all you want but it would be a start.
Well Tubi (fox owned) is offing SB ar 4k for free. Pregame looks pretty good on roku to Samsung 65″ screen. Standard Fox coverage.
Disclaimer I have no interest. Not even in the game but I’ll watch with everyone else.
My fond hope is that Philadelphia is falls behind 7 points each quarter, but I don’t care enough to watch or check the score after.
Salaries are supposed to be confidential, but bit companies operate in specific ranges for titles
At my current employer, stock grants are not supposed to be discussed with anyone but your immediate supervisor under penalty of termination.
Is Brady in the booth for the game?
If so, the TV people will want the drama of Mahomes vs. Brady for GOAT and a dime will get dropped.
The best thing about the Super Bowl is tRump sitting there drinking Liberal tears. You know they have to fuming that Hitler is at the SB.
Oh, yeah, I believe tRump is the first POTUS to attend a SB.
Historical winning!
Got power to the new outlet. Didn’t have big enough wire nuts so I couldn’t connect the second outlet, but we’re good for our guest’s RV on Thursday now.
I even managed to run the mower and mulch leaves. Looks much nicer.
I’ll stay tonight and do some more cleanup tomorrow before heading home.
Little fire tonight.
n
I have a choice of watching the Super Bowl halftime show or my Lava Lamp. The Lava Lamp is looking like a strong contender.
âI have a choice of watching the Super Bowl halftime show or my Lava Lamp. The Lava Lamp is looking like a strong contender. â
Plug the Lava Lamp in and it’s a clear winner.
After the failures of lawfare, a leftist judge plows forward to new heights of judicial overreach
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/after_the_failures_of_lawfare_a_leftist_judge_plows_forward_to_new_heights_of_judicial_overreach.html
The order blocks access by political employees.
The Treasury Secretary is a political employee.
Immediate emergency appeal, of course.
In the meantime the easy solution is for the Treasury Secretary to order that all payments receive his approval before disbursement. The order should be accompanied by a press release that assures the public that legitimate payments will be made after a brief review.
The stock market will probably tank 1000 points anyway. It will come back.
Payments to U.S. District Judges in New York should then be held up âpending additional reviewâ. Might expand that to all payments made to New York. Then see who wants to make unconstitutional rulings next time.
I have a choice of watching the Super Bowl halftime show or my Lava Lamp. The Lava Lamp is looking like a strong contender.
Man, the Lava Lamp would have been a way better choice than that rap crap.
Is Brady in the booth for the game?
I think so. Brady is the color guy, not the announcer.
My observation of that ½ time show was the entire absence of any white person. Had that scenario been reversed, with no black people, the media and all the black organizations would be screaming racism. I donât care either way, but by gosh everyone should play by the same rules.
Besides, the show sucked. It was impossible to understand anything that was sung, Samuel Jackson speaking was sort of intelligible maybe. If a person watched 30 seconds of the show, the rest was just repeating the same crap.
what do you call country rock?
Crock.
What do you call country rap?
Crap.
I couldn’t understand a word of the half time show, but my neighbors son’s girlfriend was humming along.
So I am my dad listening to the Beatle’s I suppose
If your parents were like mine they complained about the music and the hair. But never about not understanding the words.
Dime dropped. 40-22.
Didn’t see the show but you probably don’t want to understand the words.
————
Had a nice fire on the dock. It got a bit chilly at 54F and it’s hazy and overcast. It looked like it might clear briefly, but then got more cloudy than it was.
Good radio tonight. 40M was alive to the east coast and Florida was booming in.
——–
Trying for an early bedtimeâŚ
n
^ âTryingâ being the optimal word đ
Interesting tidbit from Newsom-landâŚ
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/california-air-resources-board-eases-requirements-portable-generators-meet-increased-demand
>>Salaries are supposed to be confidential, but bit companies operate in specific ranges for titles
It was always interesting when you managed people and found the occasional outlier that got paid more than I did.
>>Is Brady in the booth for the game?
I think so. Brady is the color guy, not the announcer.
Dime dropped. 40-22.
Yup, Brady (color) and Kevin Burkhardt (announcer).
Brady actually isn’t that bad except that he talks too much as the âcolor commentator.’ He was noticeably short of breath at times during the second half.
My grandkids have no idea what it means to âdrop a dime.â
>>Maybe theyâll let Mahomes off the leash, Iâd like to see the guy play to his full potential.
Mahomes played like he missed curfew last night.
I think OHB got more cut-aways than Tay-tay. Paul McCartney got more than either of them.
And geez, at least Billy should be smiling⌠https://www.irishstar.com/sport/other-sports/fox-super-bowl-schedule-crew-34644638
>>So I am my dad listening to the Beatleâs I suppose
The Beatles have had some meaningful cuts. What was on today was just total cr@p.
—–
As expected, most of the SB commercials were less than memorable. Big show of celebs selling themselves out for a few extra bucks. Hardly remember what most of the products were, although getting Harrison Ford to do a Jeep commercial and end it with”âŚeven though my name is Ford.” wasn’t bad. The Bud Clydesdales were back. So so.
——
Time for bed. Nite all.