Cool and grey, rain forecast for the morning. It stayed overcast and humid most of the day, with occasional patches of sun. Started to sprinkle several times starting in the late afternoon, but never got all the way to rain. I’m hoping for a nice day today. Mainly because of our Easter egg hunt, but also so I can get more outdoor stuff done.
I got a bunch of little jobs done. Nothing serious or major, but nice little life enhancing things. In the process some things were moved from storage to where they will live for a while. Everything installed is one less thing stacked.
Today we’ll start with an egg hunt for the girls, then breakfast. We’ll see what the weather is like after that. Hopefully the girls will do some stuff outside. We won’t be working hard, but it’s hard to take a day completely off.
Stacking up the good times. Working to improve.
nick
Xristos anesti! Happy Easter to all. It’s a beautiful sunny day here. Very jolly Easter breakfast with W1’s family after Mass. Time for a nap and a walk before afternoon coffee and cake. Restaurant dinner this evening… it’s a hard life!
Alleluia! He is Risen!
Happy Easter to all.
Depending on the number of houses in the association, $200 annually is a common area or, possibly, areas which need to be mowed. Maybe a lighted sign with a utility bill.
Texas law is not like Florida law where the HOAs can turn fines and legal fees from suing rules violators into liens on properties.
Alleluia! He is Risen!
Happy Easter to all.
He is risen indeed !
Depending on the number of houses in the association, $200 annually is a common area or, possibly, areas which need to be mowed. Maybe a lighted sign with a utility bill.
My house POA (property owner association) fee is $1,350 annually. But that includes our trash pickup, mosquito spraying, fire and EMT service, etc. We live in the county, not a city.
Today is CEO day at the church. Christmas Easter Onlys.
The females will be decked out in their finest, some with new clothes, spring colors, some apparently bathing in perfume, the good stuff, at $2.98 a gallon at Walmart.
The middle aged women around here will have some fresh new “ink” from a Thursday night outing on 6th Street.
No one was in the building at work on Friday. The parking lot actually had close-in spaces available, and the cellular data was not overwhelmed with people watching YouTube. I actually received email!
Lately, by the time I show up for work, the parking spaces are filled almost to where the big boss banishes smokers, out on the sidewalk on the four lane road in front of our campus building.
BTW, I noticed that the frequent street sweeper passes out on the road went away in the last few months. I always believed the sweeper was harassment, meant to disrupt any smoker cabal meetings, but the company running one all day during business hours had to be expensive. Maybe it was related to Switch.com’s data center construction.
Still, the sweeper had run continuously since before I started.
Texas law is not like Florida law where the HOAs can turn fines and legal fees from suing rules violators into liens on properties.
– if true, it’s only because they changed it after some egregious abuses.
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Sun is poking out, but it was misty drizzle when the bunny laid his eggs. Kids have pails in hand and are lined up.
n
73F and humid.
Happy Feast of the Resurrection to all.
————–
Time to start breakfast for the kids.
n
Florida HOA law is much more open to abuse than Texas thanks to some very clever strikeouts and word additions to the statute made over the years. What Jeb! initially signed to curb abuses during the real estate bubble has been perverted in the last 20 years.
One of the prices of turning Florida red was that The Villages became the new seat of power for the party in the state, and a lot of “Republican” legislators in positions to tweak FS 720 are beholden to HOA-related business interests such as attorneys and management companies.
Florida is also home to a lot of C-suite and military retirees dreaming of turning their stucco cr*p shacks into tenbagger investments before they are too infirm to enjoy the rentier skim lifestyle, living in Margaritaville, sometimes literally.
Happy Easter!
Astronomy Outreach at the park last night. After a month of windstorms it was a beautiful, calm, moonless night. There was a decent turnout by the club, and 70 visitors.
I finally saw a Seestar 50 in action, used by the club president. Wow. As big a leap as “Go To” in the 90s I’d say, the images are amazing, though it is a bit too automation for my (current) personal tastes.
Amusingly, people lined up to look through my friends 4″ refractor on an equatorial mount, it just “looks” like a telescope is supposed to be, to the public.
I’m not Catholic, though I raised 3 Catholic boys, since lapsed. That required my frequent attendance at Mass, and socializing with Catholics including the Priests, and hanging out with the church musicians, since XW1 was (and still is) the music director.
I was enough of an insider that I adopted the term “L&P Catholics” for those who only showed up when the altar was decorated with Lillies or Poinsettias.
Since the last parochial school graduation, I’ve only been back to church for funerals, and not many of them.
Well, in today’s world, church even twice a year is an achievement.
In observance of the holiday, the local Alamo Drafthouse has a special advance screening of this flick today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVb7Xzlnmt8
“Am I driving ok?”
Of course the movie is sold out in Austin.
Happy Easter to my Christian friends. A glorious day for you…
I was hoping for some glorious rain today. But the day is not over.
Today is CEO day at the church. Christmas Easter Onlys.
The females will be decked out in their finest, some with new clothes, spring colors, some apparently bathing in perfume, the good stuff, at $2.98 a gallon at Walmart.
Hey, they show up for Christmas also.
Just because they only show up to make Momma happy doesn’t mean that they are not believers.
“SCOTUS Showdown: Justice Alito Issues Scathing Rebuke of Politically Motivated Order Blocking Trump from Deporting Foreign Terrorists Under Alien Enemies Act”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/scotus-showdown-justice-alito-issues-scathing-rebuke-politically/
“In a blistering dissent, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, has called out the reckless and legally dubious move by the Court’s liberal majority to block President Donald Trump’s lawful efforts to deport dangerous foreign nationals under the Alien Enemies Act.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court issued a late-night, unsigned emergency order blocking President Donald Trump from deporting foreign nationals tied to the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, who are being held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas under the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act.”
Unreal. That means all three justices nominated by Trump 45 voted against him.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Maybe next time he won’t use the Federalist Society as a guidepost.
The Swing and Payola seats aren’t surprises.
Gorsuch briefly worked with Boasberg at Kellogg Hansen.
According to Wikipedia, Gorsuch’s first phone call after receiving the nomination to replace Scalia was to Merrick Garland, the previous nominee for the seat.
We called them “twice a year Catholics” and we got mad because they took up all the seats…
Twice a year is still twice I guess… no longer my concern.
—————
Had so much sugar, I fell asleep reading and just now got back up. It’s still sort of overcast, yellow/greenish light, but the temp went to 83F and I’d bet the humidity matches. We only ever got sprinkles that were more like heavy mist.
Must be a lot of dew. The grass is in better shape than I expected.
———————–
In an hour or two, I’ll start getting the lamb roast going. Mashed turnips, sauteed brusselsprouts, oven roasted baby potatoes, take and bake bread…
A feast.
n
Hopefully, this is just a speed bump to allow ConeHead Beretta to study the case and rule for tRump. Oral arguments are still in May on this case. Dershowitz and other lawyers are saying the ruling will favor tRump.
Maybe next time he won’t use the Federalist Society as a guidepost.
Got a better guidepost ?
Finding a real conservative justice in these times is like looking for an honest man.
Might be easier to just nominate nine guys off the street in Texas.
>>In observance of the holiday, the local Alamo Drafthouse has a special advance screening of this flick today.
Oh right dude … Easter falls on 4:20 Day this year… Smoke ‘em if you got ’em.
“The 2025 Tesla Aztek”
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2025/04/20/the-2025-tesla-aztek/
‘About 20 years ago, Pontiac made the same mistake Ford made about 40 years before that when it confused different with ugly. The interesting thing is that neither the Edsel – Ford’s ugly duckling – or the Aztek (which was Pontiac’s) were bad vehicles.”
“Unlike Tesla’s Aztek-Edsel, the Cybertruck.”
“It is not merely ugly. It is ludicrous – to borrow a word. Three tons of glued-together stainless steel exterior panels covering up a conventional unibody chassis that holds a battery pack larger (and heavier) than a ’70s VW Beetle in order to store the electrical energy equivalent of about 17 gallons of gasoline that weighs about 100 pounds . . . in order to tout a best-case range of 340 miles – far less than the highway-driving range of any current V8 powered half-ton truck. And that’s if you don’t use the Cybertruck’s touted 11,000 pound maximum towing capacity, which will drastically reduce its driving range. As will the use of its touted ability accelerate to 60 MPH in less than four seconds.”
I can see the resemblance.
Nothing to see here folks, just move along…
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/another-signal-scandal-breaks-out-pete-hegseth-shared-yemen-plans-with-family-101745183913451.html
@Lynn
The Tesla Cybertruck is closer in spirit to the Hummer and H2.
The Delorean is probably in that group, too. But at least they looked good until you got close enoght to see the fingerprints.
Not all of us DM. Not by a long shot.
– follow the money.
n
Any indication that has changed, especially with COVID?
My rule of thumb I’m using these days, subject to further refinement:
If your primary care doctor works for a corporate practice or hospital, none of his decisions are made to benefit you. They are all made to cover standard of care, medical malpractice insurance, student loans, corporate profits and bonuses, and big pharma kickbacks.
Afther considering all those factors, they may actually dig into health factors, if they can see that far. But never enough to consider questioning the narrative from AMA and pharma.
This is idenitical to what a half-wit AI could do. Actually, I could code that much algorithmically, without AI. Vital signs and lab tests in, prescriptions out. HAND, and we’ll see you back when your disease progresses, and we can send more profits to big pharma. aka “disease management”.
My doctor, carefully selected from vax skeptics, still believes in the LDL cholosterol myth, but otherwise, he advises me and lets me call the shots (pun intended). Unfortunately, we may come to an unsurviveable difference of opinion about statins, and I’ll be shopping for another doctor.
OTOH, my latest round of labs shows improved HDL and Triglycerides due to my exercise program, so I may be able to hold out another couple of years.
If I had given up butter, eggs, and red meat for decades on the advice of experts, I would gladly plead justified homicide when the authorities tracked me down with my world class collection of shrunken heads.
The Cybertruck isn’t even in the same league with the H2, which is essentially a late 90s generation Silverado pickup platform mixed with bits an pieces of commercial class vehicles from back when GM still designed decent trucks.
Even the Aztek has a very reliable GM V6 mated to a simple and proven four speed transmission borrowed from other Oldsmobile and Pontiac sedans in production at the time to save money.
The writing was on the wall about the 2020 election when Ginsburg died in the Payola seat.
The plan had been to shift the seat conservative after two consecutive liberal payola deals using Barbara Legoa, with Barrett being kept in reserve to make the Roe seat less liberal, but, to use the oft-repeated Mike Tyson quote, “Everbody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Legoa was DeSantis payola. I still believe she will sit on the court but possibly not until the next conservative appointment after Thomas’ replacement.
Big pharma kickbacks from drug companies to doctors are no more.
Your pharmacist receives the gimmies now, particularly when it comes to suggesting generic replacements for name brand meds unless the doctor specifies name brand.
My sister put hardwood floors in her house from pharmacy kickbacks.
I don’t remember my wife even bringing back pens from the last conference in California two weeks ago.
I found the perfect place for us. Just the location is bad.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1549-half-moon-cir-early-tx-76802/940445
3/3.5/3 plus guesthouse 2/1/2 outside Brownwood, Texas on 8 acres for
$850,000.
Has a dadgum HOA.
Nice big shop too.
Joe Rogain being a doosh:
Joe Rogan sides with liberals and takes subtle dig at Trump over his policies
Gee, he thinks gangbangers deserve due process. Doesn’t even mention tRump is rounding up “illegal crimmigrant” gangbangers. Ilegals get zero due process.
How can he be that dense? ILLEGAL gangbangers, doosh.
“Mexican Nationals Busted in Colorado Carrying 180,000 Rounds of Rifle Ammo”
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/04/20/mexican-nationals-busted-in-colorado-carrying-180000-rounds-of-rifle-ammo-n2188079
“Last month, in Fremont County, Colorado, a mostly rural county southwest of Colorado Springs, two Fremont County detectives noted a van passing them without dimming headlights and so turned and initiated a traffic stop – and what they found was an eye-opener: Around 180,000 rounds of .30 caliber and 7.62mm rifle ammunition, packed in cases in the van.”
And this is what you call an armed invasion.
@Lynn
uhhhh…
it’s real estate:
location, location, location
Individual doctors? Possibly.
Corporate practices, especially pediatricians? I’m no sure. I’ve heard stories that pediatrics practices make as much income from the vaccine manufacturers as they do for well baby checkups.
It may be laundered through insurance companies first.
>> – follow the money.
Still waiting for RFK Jr to pull all the drug ads…
>>“Mexican Nationals Busted in Colorado Carrying 180,000 Rounds of Rifle Ammo”
Guess I know where I need to stop tomorrow and add to the stacks…
>>If your primary care doctor works for a corporate practice or hospital, none of his decisions are made to benefit you. They are all made to cover standard of care, medical malpractice insurance, student loans, corporate profits and bonuses, and big pharma kickbacks.
Afther considering all those factors, they may actually dig into health factors, if they can see that far. But never enough to consider questioning the narrative from AMA and pharma.
Very happy with my concierge PCP. His staff keeps his patients insulated from paperwork/forms/etc.
Grief. Wx -> ExWx. Seven figures. Life’s a bit…
Had a nice little fire on the dock. LOTS of bugs, which I combat with smoke. And by turning on a light that isn’t near me. They flock to it and mostly leave me alone.
It’s a chilly and damp 69F on the water tonight.
Black sky but there must be water vapor blocking the stars, no good viewing.
My little shortwave had dead batteries. IDK if it has a timer active, and is running while I’m not here, or if the kirkland batteries sucked, but it’s only been a week or two and I normally get very good battery life from it. So I listened to streaming music on pandora. Since I got the receiver and tv working, I can control it with an app on my phone. Not as engaging as the shortwave, so I read too.
Time for bed. PAST time…
n
Crawdaddy, that comment was too cryptic, did you get bad news today?
n
“Law And Order” is way too addictive. And Hulu is happy to feed that addiction to you at 100 episodes at a time.