Cool to start but then back to normal. Unless we get more rain. That might keep it cool for the day. Yesterday started with rain, but ended up sunny. The early rain kept the temperature down though and it was pretty nice. More of that would be great. Forecast shows the whole south and gulf coast in potential rain for the next couple of days. I’d like some nice days in Florida though, if we could get them.
Did my pickups Wednesday. Talked to my auctioneer, and generally did my normal routine day. Even did a load of laundry so I would have clean clothes for the trip. Just another day.
And today will be mostly getting ready to leave. Kids have school in the morning, but then we leave for our flight in the afternoon.
I’m not at all excited for this trip, but I should get into it once it gets going.
Can’t prep much, except for my normal carry on bag and relationships.
But these are the good old days, and we need to make sure they are GOOD. Time with family is good.
Building memories is good.
Stack the intangibles as well as the tangibles.
nick
Happy travels, Nick! I hope your cut is healing nice and cleanly.
Today and tomorrow are holidays from work for me. After breakfast, I am going to attack the garage here at the BOL and try to bring some order to chaos… First, I need some fruit and a fresh pot of tea!
Wishing everyone a good day.
Thanks Denis and Alan, extra good luck is always helpful when traveling…
———
Dry at the moment. 69F with light overcast. No breeze.
Coffee is almost ready.
n
Costco should really have a line in their fuel stations that says “For Stupid People Only”. It would save others a lot of aggravation for others.
That would be the shortest line because most people would avoid it. Making it the smartest move…
n
The lines at the Costco stations here always look like the hurricane center moved the “cone of death” for a Cat 5 storm over Austin. We don’t bother.
People in Austin seem to be in continuous panic buying mode since the “shortage” in 2017.
Plus Americans are pansies about gas prices.
You are correct. Most people don’t think they are stupid. But when you see them take 5 minutes to actually begin to pump fuel, after wasting time trying to make the pump work, their actions speak loudly. Costco pumps are some of the fastest I have seen for authorization when using the Costco VISA card.
I would use the stupid line in a heartbeat, if it was shorter.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/05/28/great-new-progressive-project-in-san-fran-grading-equity-n3803205
Superintendent is an incompetent liar steeped in DIE wokeness. Terminate immediately.
Insanity in Cali? seems unlikely /sarc
——-
currently pulling backups, I figure I can put a drive in my truck, in case the house burns down. It’s been a while since I did any offsite backup. Having the BOL is a perfect offsite, but I’ve had plenty of other choices and just got lazy.
n
The stupid people are probably trying to use Amex.
I dropped my Costco Visa. The late fee games were out of control.
This shite is out of control:
Unhinged Judicial Overreach: Trade Court Rules that the President Can’t Impose Tariffs (What?)
This is lawfare. This will obviously be overturned. The ball is in SCOTUS hands and they better get cracking or they’ll be on pikes during CWII. Just ridiculous get tRump at any cost. I hope the Redumblicans are paying attention. LOL. Spineless. They can’t even vote together to pass a bill. You’d think RINOs are part of the secret Dumbo playbook.
Yes, and that’s been obvious for quite some time now. RINOs are “stealth democrats”, Republicans In Name Only.
I have never paid a late fee to Costco VISA. I have never paid a dime in interest to Costco VISA.
Or Discover or MasterCard.
I have had significant problems with my water service from the city lately.
It started when I woke up one Sunday morning about six months ago with no water. I called the police department which is the after-hours contact for the water department. The line from the main to my meter had busted. It took about six hours to get the water restored.
Then about six weeks ago my pressure was really down. I called the water department and they came out and discovered the line had a crack. They patched the line and said they would need to run a new line. They ran the new line the day before we left on the trip.
When we got back from the trip, I noticed I again had lower than normal water pressure. I went to the water board this morning and said there was a problem. A couple of guys came out and discovered a small hole in the line from the meter to my house, at the connection to the meter, on my side of the meter. Four hours later another line had been patched in, a new meter installed, and a new connection on my side of the meter.
My contention is that the work on the line, tugging, digging, as they dug right up the meter box when replacing the line, caused the break in my line. The city manager said they would consider that when billing me for water as the break was really close to the meter. Had the break been five I can understand it would be my problem. But 1″ from the meter. Nope, the city’s problem.
Now I have to wait for my bill, which will be huge, as the leak has been running for about 14 days. Water and sewer. I will have to deal with the city manager and the water board to get the bill adjusted as the leak was not my problem.
The meters are wireless meters that can be read by driving by. A new tower is being installed in the city that can read all the meters without anyone having to drive by the meter. I was also told the meters can record consumption minute by minute, detect leaks before or after the meter, attempts to bypass the meter, and connections running that have had water shutoff, when the system is fully installed.
It is interesting (frustrating?) how many people don’t think!
I have recently taken over as Treasurer for a small section of a charity. I noticed that there were no expense claims to cover the PAYG mobile phone. (PAYG because when originally contracted we dealt with very few outgoing calls or texts and no data.) Activity has increased, as the number has been more widely publicised. The ‘President’ had set up auto top up using his credit card. I reminded him that he should be claiming expenses, and asked how much we are paying since the start of the year; he didn’t know! I strongly suspect that we should be on a monthly contract to save money. I find this not uncommon, people just carry on doing things, and never stop to question if what they are doing is appropriate in the current circumstances.
I found the same thing some years ago, in the same charity at a more senior level, where the higher level ‘President’ was claiming hundreds of Pounds for one month’s telephone charges. No one had thought to suggest that the charity acquire a mobile phone on a unlimited call contract at less than 30 Pounds per month!
Hmm!
I always paid on time and mailed the bill a week out, but the checks started taking two weeks to reach the processing center in the boonies of KY and Citi’s only answer was “pay online”.
“A number of Tesla robotaxis will hit Austin streets by June 12”
https://www.chron.com/culture/article/tesla-robotaxis-launch-date-austin-20351127.php
“The automaker has been quietly operating driverless vehicles on public roads this week.”
Look out !
“His next goal appears to involve a Tesla vehicle delivering itself to buyers. “Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer,” Musk posted on X.”
Now that will be something. Does it plug itself in also ?
“Trump tariffs live updates: Appeals court allows tariffs to stay in effect after trade court rebuke”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-appeals-court-allows-tariffs-to-stay-in-effect-after-trade-court-rebuke-191201904.html
“A federal appeals court allowed President Trump’s sweeping tariffs to temporarily stay in effect, a day after the US Court of International Trade blocked their implementation after deeming the method used to enact them “unlawful.””
“Commiefornia Has Gotten So Bad That Even Hollywood Is Abandoning It”
https://thelibertydaily.com/commiefornia-has-gotten-so-bad-that-even-hollywood/
“(The Epoch Times)—Low incentives and complicated state regulations, combined with high housing and business costs, have rendered California unable to keep Hollywood from moving production to other states and countries, according to an entertainment industry report released on May 27 by the Milken Institute, a California-based think tank.”
“Hollywood’s in-state production has dropped in the past two years as other states and international destinations continue to increase industry incentives, according to the report’s authors, Kevin Klowden, executive director for the Milken Institute Finance, and Madeleine Waddoups, a graduate teaching assistant in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California–Los Angeles.”
They don’t mention where in Austin.
The Domain is easy, and I imagine that the toll roads have been carefully surveyed.
Vast parts of this place are wild cards.
“Illegally in U.S. And Released, Now Tied to Deadly Jet Ski Crash”
https://texasscorecard.com/state/illegally-in-u-s-and-released-now-tied-to-deadly-jet-ski-crash/
“The tragic case involves illegal aliens from Venezuela who came across during the Biden administration.”
“Four individuals suspected to be involved in the tragic death of 18-year-old Ava Moore on Lake Grapevine over Memorial Day weekend were in the country illegally, having entered during the Biden administration, with most encountered and released by federal authorities.”
“According to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Moore was kayaking on Sunday when she was struck and killed by a jet ski. The driver, identified as Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez, fled the scene with the help of others and was later involved in a separate hit-and-run while attempting to avoid arrest.”
Unreal.
Venezuelans are not Cubans.
I believe it was Cutie Pie who had the statistic that human smuggling across the Darien Gap into Panama from Venezuela was generating more revenue annually than the NFL.
The Venezuelan elites fled to Collin’s Avenue on Miami Beach over 25 years ago, but the entrepreneurial class remained behind.
Earnings miss at my employer.
Gonna need a bigger layoff.
The execs stock grants are still not at a level where they can sell and pay the taxes much less make a profit.
Temporarily my azz!
Drill Baby Drill
https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2025/05/29/uinta-basin-railway-supreme-court/
I’m doing a little personal project, involving public access FCC databases. You can download the table definitions and the data. I’m trying to select a new call sign that is maximally morse code friendly.
After I got fired I dabbled from time-to-time with sql databases, mostly mySQL, but only trivial queries, nothing like what I dealt with daily against the Epic database.
I’m really surprised how rusty I’ve gotten. I installed the free version of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, created a local database, defined the tables using the FCC-provided SQLcode, and bulk loaded the data for the tables I want to use from the downloadable CSV files. 1.6 million rows in the main table.
Then I wrote a query to select only the expired or canceled call signs, which is not as simple as it first appeared. My quey’s still not quite complete, because it turns out expired and cancelled are independent, and there may be multiple expired and/or canceled records for each call sign.
Then I wrote a query to calculate the morse code “weight”, which was a hoot to do in SQL.
It involved a 6 way outer join against a data table I built, which has every letter and number in one column, and a weight column for the dots, dashes, and spaces needed. It was tedious inputting those 36 values. For example, “L” is di-dah-di-dit, or 1+1+3+1+1+1+1+3. 1+1 for dit and space, 3+1 for dah and space, final dit doesn’t need a trailing space but the character needs a space of 3 before the next character.
Of course, an optimal call sign isn’t necessarily the shortest. That’s why I need a list to select from. N5EE may be the shortest but it’s wicked hard to hear, consisting only of dits after the first and only dah. You also want to have one that’s friendly when you spell it out using the NATO phonetic alphabet. Alpha-Alpha-Five-November-November is good in morse, but tedious phonetically.
Even more trivia: AA5NN is, in morse code, a palindrome.
I should be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow. Then I will look at hundreds of candidates and pick a dozen or so to apply for.
BREAKING: ICE confirms to @FoxNews they have arrested the teenage Colombian illegal alien who was given no jail time & probation after he hit & killed Kaitlyn Weaver in Aurora, CO while driving 90mph & unlicensed. ICE also arrested the teen’s entire family, who are also illegal aliens & will seek to deport all of them.
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2025/05/29/mo-fafo-ice-arrests-columbian-illegal-teen-who-caused-a-womans-vehicular-death-and-skirted-justice-n2189794
Scoop up the lying skank DA and ship her out, too.
The policy for crimes by illegal aliens should be immediate deportation along with their families. And any other illegals within a mile.
Solve the problem. Put in a single-line gated access to the gas pumps that assigns a pump/pumps based on past performance. Diddlers go to one line with an extra-long queuing capacity and have to wait for their brethren diddlers. Those of us who get off the freaking cell phone, have the card in our hands when we get out of the vehicle, and otherwise focus on getting gas and getting TF done and out get rewarded.
@Lynn
The proper response to court interference on tariffs should be a temporary enforcement of 100% inspection of all containers coming into the Port of LA from China for the purposes of determining the level of fraudulent/misreporting of contents to reduce tariffs paid.
Any bets the Chinese are not wholesale cheating?
Flood the port with extra agents and require container ships to do ocean circles to prevent gridlock. Any ship that diverts to another U.S.port gets 100% inspected. Any ship that is scheduled for a U.S. port and diverts to a foreign port or turns around and returns is deemed 100% in violation and banned.
And any ships discovered with fentanyl are confiscated, towed to deep water, and scuttled with crew.
Immediate deportation along with their families. And any other illegals within a mile.
Get up to speed on SQLite for personal projects. The database files run on any platform where the single source file (!) compiles, and the engine handles surprisingly large data files.
Plus, an SQLite library is one of the “batteries included” features of Python, and an ODBC driver exists to read the files into the Office ecosystem which permits data editing in Excel.
If you want MySQL on Windows, the best way to get that is using XAMPP.
SQLite code scales to MySQL easily.
“BREAKING: All 4 Suspects in Jamie White’s Murder Arrested, Face Capital Murder Charges”
https://www.infowars.com/posts/breaking-all-4-suspects-in-jamie-whites-murder-arrested-face-capital-murder-charges/
“The Austin Police Department announced Thursday that all four individuals suspected in the brutal March murder of top Infowars reporter Jamie White have been arrested.”
““All have been arrested, all have been charged with capital murder in this case,” APD homicide detective Jason Jones said at a press conference Thursday.”
““They are identified as Eloy Camarillo, a 17-year-old Hispanic male arrested on April 30th, a 15-year-old juvenile arrested on May 5th… a second 15-year-old juvenile male arrested on May 20th, and Rodney Charles Hill, a 17-year-old black male arrested on May 27th.””
A bunch of kids.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
High profile case which never should have happened. Another of many black eyes for the Austin Police Department.
APD is still down ~ 300 officers from where they should be thanks to the protests during “The Summer of Love” inspiring calls to “Defund Da Police”.
Plus, we’ve yet to see what the District Attorney Jose Garza will do with the yout’s.
Because…Miami…
Car was going maybe 5 mph and the PO PO was blindly(?) firing into the car.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/wild-video-florida-cop-clings-to-hood-of-moving-car-shoots-through-windshield-on-busy-intersection-in-broad-daylight
Video sponsored by Hanes…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm238175gzyo
“E-ticket” ride for sure.
Assault with a deadly weapon at the least: fall off the front and get run over and it would be either intensive care or the morgue for that cop.
Made it to Disney. The Houston airport was a mess. Lots of construction, total gridlock, parking garages closed…
We missed checkin. Then missed any possible window of getting our bags on the flight when the people in front of us in the “special” line spent 20 min arguing about their extra bag fee. no triage of the line.
Females dumped the bags on me, and split for the gate. I finally got checked in and ran to the other terminal. And when I got there the flight was delayed one hour, due to weather in FL. Ay. So the bags made it. We made it. And we got to the hotel just fine, albeit later than expected.
They’ve done a refresh to the property we’re in, and it shows. Looks nice and there is more theming. Tomorrow we’re off to one of the parks.
Sibling stocked our kitchen for us, so I had a nice snack before bed, and we’ll eat breakfast in the room.
All the comforts of home.
n
Made it to Disney. The Houston airport was a mess. Lots of construction, total gridlock, parking garages closed…
We missed checkin. Then missed any possible window of getting our bags on the flight when the people in front of us in the “special” line spent 20 min arguing about their extra bag fee. no triage of the line.
Females dumped the bags on me, and split for the gate. I finally got checked in and ran to the other terminal. And when I got there the flight was delayed one hour, due to weather in FL. Ay. So the bags made it. We made it. And we got to the hotel just fine, albeit later than expected.
I should have mentioned that Houston Intercontinental is a total freaking mess. They are adding a new terminal and rebuilding an old terminal. My dad has a limo take us to and from the airport, works a lot better. $200 (fee plus tip) to pick us at my house and drop off at the airport (50+ miles !). $200 to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at my house. The limo dude has an airport badge and parks his Suburban about 500 feet away from Delta baggage pickup. I can give you his number offline, he is always looking for new customers.
Delta now requires that you check your baggage 45 minutes before the plane is to take off. No exceptions so I wonder what they do if you don’t check in your baggage ?
Have a great trip, Disneyworld is a cool place ! Try to keep your spending under $1,000 per day, I’ll bet that you cannot.
My wife and I drove to Disneyworld from Houston in January 1982 for our honeymoon. It was great fun and icy cold. Yes, ice was hanging off all rides. My wife only brought shorts and tshirts because the previous week, it was 85 F in Orlando. But, the weather changes and the oranges all froze. I had to spend some of our $600 cash to buy her jeans and a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. It was very, very, very cute on her. I have pictures.