No idea what to expect today. A front was moving in when I went to bed, with blowing wind and lower temps. I would like it to be clear.
I got pretty crispy in the sun and overcast yesterday. I’m going to be regretting that for a week. But I had a great time at the Hamfest. Saw some people I only see there, and some people from real life. Two of them live near my BOL, one is involved with the club there. I met some new people to, and chatted about my non-prepping hobby. I’m hoping to see one of them at a meeting next month.
I still have to take the trailer back to uhaul, and I’ve got a few things in the truck to take back to storage. That’s my main reason for not wanting rain today.
I don’t know how my back will feel today either, but it was hurting after the load up, and hurting after unloading, and then again after the load out… I don’t usually take Tylenol but it was helping me sleep last night.
After getting the last of the Hamfest stuff stored away, it will be time to do some putting away and organizing in the garage and driveway. And in the house and my office. And everywhere else too for that matter, but that stuff will have to wait. I’m pretty sure we’ll head to the BOL for most of the kids’ spring break. Thare be plenty to do up there…
Keep stacking, keep working, build some relationships.
nick
“I’m Winston Wolf. I solve problems.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOZB6mNqhuA
CAFE.
Socialize the costs. Privatize the gains. The modus operandi of the Real Life Tony Stark.
Eventually, Starlink will cost us broadcast TV and radio just like paying for Tesla R&D cost us V8 engines in family saloons.
And family saloons.
$42k to start. If Telo ever makes them. 4300 lbs empty which means the 350 mile range hauling or towing anything isn’t going to happen.
The whores in the mainstream car press are not totally sold which speaks volumes these days.
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/telo-ev-mini-pickup-truck-first-ride-review/
Grift: The Next Generation
Bill Miller BBQ tonight for dinner. I always liked their product. Taco Cabana for breakfast tomorrow.
Stop at Schilo’s one morning. I only get one trip a year.
Bill Miller’s Laguna Madre is decent but the one we went to closest to the downtown area was in a marginal neighborhood.
You know you aren’t in Kansas anymore when you drive past a mural on the side of a building featuring George Floyd and Coach Pop.
Astronomy outreach last night at the park. The weather and seeing was excellent, not something you can normally say in early March. Windless and clear.
My back was hurting, so I just assisted my friend R with his 4″ refractor on a german equatorial mount, rsther than wrestle with my own scope.
Even a low power the major belts of Jupiter and the feathering of dust clouds and all four stars of Trapezium in M42 were visible. It compared well to the 10″ SCT nearby.
I was playing with the strip of rubber from the failing Otterbox case for the phone: it literally crumbles into dust if you rub a piece between your fingers.
I still bought another from Amazon, hopefully four years on a shelf in in an un-airconditioned warehouse in Shenzen have been kind to it.
I didn’t see this part of the speech the other night.
Its Fauxcahontas or Crockajawea. Take your pick.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/us-news/president-trump-taunts-elizabeth-warren-during-speech-pocahontas-says-yes/
If the phone is that old, I opt for a new case from a vendor like Spigen rather than take a risk with Otterbox from a third party shipping from overseas.
The small value import loophole in the customs laws really does need to be closed.
Bernie Marcus minions strike again.
The Chamberlain/Liftmaster universal dual garage door opener remote sold in Home Depot $40 is not the same as the one sold elsewhere for $40.
Opening the remote’s access panel to set the DIP switches for the older Genie opener on one side of our garage, I was surprised to see through the gaping hole left in the plastic shell that the component had not been installed on the circuit board. While the documentation online at Home Depot did not mention the absence, the paper documentation inside the box confirmed that the switches were no longer installed on units of the model made after 2020.
To be fair, the same model at Lowes lacks the switches, but Lowes has a one star review pinned mentioning the change.
Back to Home Depot. I ordered a new remote from a small place online.
The Mrs can enjoy the fumes in the truck.
$50K for what I would like, now, more like $65K if produced. Musk should have bought them out. Much better than the Cyber Doosh.
$40k is still a magic number for vehicle pricing in an F&I room.
Half ton pickups have been priced out of reach for the tradespeople who depend on that class of vehicle to earn a living.
I’m up, and moving gingerly…
58F and medium overcast.
Finally peed.
Coffee is starting to hit my bloodstream.
Pretty stiff and sore. Woke about 1am with bad leg cramps. Did a shot of vinegar and that stopped that. Slept well thanks to bigpharma.
I got way too much sun yesterday. I’ve got a red neck, and wedge of red on my chest. Red face, ears, arms, hands…. and my hands are stiff like paddles.
That said, I’m here, moving, and I’ll be better after stretching and some tylenol.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but it does mute them, scar over them, and work around them.
nick
I just looked and a base F150 from a fleet sale dealer is $38k
It STILL has far too many luxuries for a company vehicle.
n
@Greg Norton
If this is all the video you’ve seen, you still haven’t seen it.
Camera cut to Warren and she twinkled at Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn_QeaX_3QE
Only a loyal fleet customer is going to get that $38k base price on a 2025.
I was called a Black Nazi for daring to question the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, amid calls for the police officer jailed for 22 years for killing George Floyd to be PARDONED, I still believe there are troubling questions over his trial…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14476739/George-Floyd-trial-Derek-Chauvin-questions.html
There was a lynch mob, and a guy was railroaded. If you don’t like the way they’re trained, change the training. If you think the charges are unwarranted, change the law. The time to get involved is BEFORE it goes too far, but that is much harder and less sexy.
Anyone with some distance and critical thinking ability saw all this as it happened. St Floyd of Fentanyl is losing his luster.
n
The union let Chauvin get thrown under the bus. I haven’t dug into the property records, but I doubt that Chauvin was the only member of the Minneapolis PD who bought into that condo complex in Windermere, Tiger Woods old Florida neighborhood before his wife went after him with one of his clubs.
Cops do these retirement living seminars in groups.
tRump should commute Chauvin’s sentence. A pardon is possible with a great presentation to POTUS. The cops need to be reigned in on techniques, though, just commuting the sentence would send a message. plugs pardoned heinous criminals.
I am on record as believing that EVs are, for most Americans, a stupid idea.
There are niche cases where they make some sense, as a second vehicle for short range commuting and errands, where you actually believe the grid will always be up when you need it.
Having said that, after the latest trend of PLTs vandalizing Tesla dealerships and their cars, I’m strangely attracted to the idea of a cybertruck. Even moreso in light of how hard they seem to resist the damage from the deranged commies.
Chauvin was convicted and sentenced in state court. He was not tried in Federal Court.
Tampon Timmy would have to commute or pardon Chauvin.
Plus any opinion expressed by Trump right now in favor of commuting would attract attention to Pam Bondi’s involvement with crafting the case against George Zimmerman in the Treyvon Martin incident.
Right now, after what happened with the Epstein documents, Bondi can’t afford the bad publicity.
We are only in San Antonio for one night.
I tried to get on Randolph Joint Services and their system says my VA card is expired. The card does not expire until March 2027. I have no idea what’s wrong. So I had to make the turn of shame and will have to visit the visitors center tomorrow and get that straightened out. I want to buy a couple of Apple products, which are 10% off Apple prices and there is no sales tax saving me another almost 10%.
That entire project to rebuild the I-410 and I-35N interchange is massive. Of course the intersection we needed to get to get into Windcrest is all messed up and a couple of signs are missing. Took a wrong turn, but not according to the signs, and wound up on I-410 W, the wrong direction. So the second time tried the only other road option and made progress.
Well, she could, but we are in the Highlander. The truck is a long ways away. She also eats their breakfast tacos so it may just be a contest. Naturally, I will win.
Would you anyone expect anything else? The conclusions were well established before the autopsy was ever accomplished. The autopsy was done to manipulate the findings to match the pre-established conclusions. In court it is possible to hire an “expert witness” to testify to what the prosecution or defense desires.
“ad-vance-ment in memes” A few funnies.
He was also convicted on federal charges and given the same sentence to serve concurrently. A pardon of that sentence would send a message to Tampon Tim. He is also in a federal prison which tRump could mess with. He’s tRump, you know.
Well, that is not going to happen. I checked the exchange price and it was the same as Apple. Strange as the military and veterans get the 10% discount. I guess it is not on all products. So I just went to the Apple VA website and ordered online, got the 10% discount, with pickup in the store. Yeh, it cost me sales tax but that puts the price back close to the exchange site, but not more. I am OK and got it for cheaper than the exchange. And I don’t have to deal with the hassle of getting on base. And if I want to return the device within 14 days, I can at Apple. That would be difficult using the base exchange, physically, or online.
I may not ever apply again to get on base. I don’t come here that often. I can go to an air base by the Knoxville airport. That is a 30 mile drive and I don’t go to that area except to pick up, or drop off, people at the airport. When the MIL was alive I was using the card to get on to Lackland as the MIL like to use the commissary. That reason is gone.
More truth finally getting press, even if it is in baby duck style…
US service men are serving time because of trying to stop boys from being raped. By our allies.
n
Nearly 25 years of “war” and all we have to show for it is a $350 billion VA budget.
Time to come home and let someone else make the rubble bounce for a while.
The new iPhone 11 case in
Pureed PumpkinMandarin Red color showed up overnight.Apparently stored in Grapevine, California, USA and not Shenzen, Guangdong, CN.
The hard rubber bumper part that disintegrated on the old unit seems firm yet flexible on it.
The rather plain box specifically states “for e-commerce only” on it, never noticed that before.
“not in retail packaging” usually means that some regulatory messaging is missing.
“for ecommerce only” might be something similar.
n
Pro-Hamas Activist and Former Columbia University Student Nabbed by ICE, Faces Hard Consequences
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/03/09/pro-hamas-activist-and-former-columbia-university-student-arrested-by-ice-facing-repatriation-n2186465
Back to Syria.
Be a shame if someone happened to mention his recruitment by the CIA.
Yesterday, I bought a new TV from the Lackland AFB Exchange; when we got home with it, I checked the Amazon price for the same model. Amazon was $2 cheaper, but the Exchange doesn’t charge sales tax. I should check Costco; I suspect it’ll be with a few bucks of the Amazon/BX price.
Local restaurants often offer a 10% senior discount OR a 10% military discount.
Eateries do the same in TN. I generally just show my VA ID and I get 10% at most places, Zaxby’s gives me 20%, Papa Johns gave me 50%. Some places of business even offer 10% for veteran discount.
An example was the Pergola kits we bought for the back patio. We needed three of them, $2800 each. The first was bought on Amazon. The manufacturer website had the same price. Neither charged for shipping. For the second and third purchase I dealt with the company direct and was offered a 10% military discount, something Amazon did not offer. I wasted $280 by buying from Amazon rather than the manufacturer. It did take several days longer for the manufacturer to ship versus Amazon.
When I bought the Apple items I figured in the tax. The veteran discount is 10% at Apple. The exchange was the full price Apple charges, but no sales tax. So it was basically a comparable transaction. What I don’t know is if the online price for the Exchange is the same as the price in the physical building, or if the item was even in stock at the exchange.
The biggest advantage by going with Apple is that I can return the items within 14 days if I don’t like the items. That would be difficult buying from the Exchange as I am leaving the area shortly. Using the online Exchange I would be out the shipping.
Elon Musk Hit the Mother Lode of the Deep State. Now He Believes He’s an Assassination Target.
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2025/03/09/elon-musk-may-have-just-hit-the-mother-lode-of-the-deep-state-n4937735
There are lots of assassination targets.
DOGE Uncovers Hundreds of Millions in SBA Loans… to Children
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/03/09/youve-got-be-kidding-me-doge-uncovers-hundreds-of-millions-in-sba-loans-to-children-n2186473
Back in the old days it was not uncommon to put restrictions on the values that a program would accept. A trivial example is the value for sin x, which is mathematically restricted to values between -1 and +1.
Age does not have hard mathematical restrictions, it is entirely possible to restrict values in a practical fashion: SBA loans should require a borrower to be 18 at minimum (I don’t know of a “business arrangement” where someone who is 11 can apply for a loan–they certainly can’t be compelled to repay) and the Social Security database should reject a record over 115, as there have only been 10 in the modern history of the USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_supercentenarians
and if we get more we can certainly afford to keep them separately in a ledger book in the Director’s safe. (They should get a call from POTUS on their birthday, too)
I do not think my understanding of this nuance of data handling has been lost in the years since I learned it as “exception handling”.
I’d propose that there be a new federal penalty for incompetence discovered after retirement. In this case everyone who has been in charge of the SSA database and failed to act to correct age record errors will get penalized by a reduction and freeze of their pensions. If they are no more competent than a junior programmer, reduce their pension appropriately and freeze it at the current level with no more COLA.
ADDED:
Note that $312 million is slightly larger than the $250 million alleged to be the losses in the Feeding Our Future scam currently grinding through criminal cases in the courts. Would it be surprising to find that this latest blatant apparent fraud was also a product of a small group?
Some somalis have already been charged and prosecuted, iirc.
There will be lots of fraud when the intent of the program is to give away money, and the normal oversight is engaged in abnormal behavior.
Keep up the good work boys.
n
>>Tired. Need some dinner.
Guess I’ll make some.
@nick, like you were expecting another solution? 😉
(Attempted) Suicide by Cop…
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/secret-service-white-house-armed-man-shot-b2711863.html
Where it does make sense: Solar on the roof, usually home during the day (home office, house wife, retired, etc.). Trips longer than the usual EV range of 200-250 miles? Not actually all that common. For those, one might want a second car, or you could rent, but the EV can be the daily driver.
Clearly, that’s not everyone, but it is more than a niche case.