Hot and humid, cuz summer. Yesterday started with rain but was clear after mid-morning and got into the 90sF by late afternoon. It felt HOT and was super sweaty. Today should be the same. The BOL got lots of rain but the lake outflow started to catch up and the level actually went down.
I got a bit of a late start, but I did my pickup. Turned out the place was a UHaul facility with “mini-office/warehouse” spaces. I’ve seen 4 auction companies try to work out of there and go broke. Only one is still doing auctions that I know of. Some locations are ‘death’ locations. They look ok but for whatever reason, businesses don’t thrive there.
I cleared about half of a storage unit out after my pickup… took the stuff to my buddy’s office for sorting and sale. The lock on my unit was cut almost all the way through. That would have been the second time that unit was burgled. The management wasn’t too shocked and wasn’t too interested in doing anything about it either. “You got insurance.” At this point I might make more on the insurance claim than by selling the stuff. She did agree that theft was more common, and violence was rising among the perps.
I might make another trip today, if there is a break in the festivities.* It’s very hot at the office though, and that limits the work I can safely do. I will take an A/C unit and maybe an evap cooler over there if I can get them out of the driveway.
There’s always more to do… but at least I might not have to redo all the work on the dockhouse.
I’ll use the time to do some other stacking or improving.
Happy Fathers Day to everyone here with children of their blood, or their heart.
nick
*not really gonna be any festivities. I might get waffles with bacon for breakfast. And I hinted pretty broadly that I’d like some mudbugs for dinner…
Disturbing. Given how fast a cordless angle grinder is, did your arrival perhaps disturb the thief?
Intersectional *-isms.
@Jenny – Keep an eye out for screenings where you live, especially any which include “The Shark Is Still Working” documentary, itself a period piece these days.
https://thedailyjaws.com/news/jaws-to-resurface-in-theaters-for-50th-anniversary
The shark is still working. The Beard cannot make edits like “ET”.
We did “Jaws” and Chappaquiddick tourism last Fall as part of a trip to the Boston area.
It is 76 F with one thousand percent humidity this morning at 7 am. Water dripping everywhere.
The varmints went out but the dog came back in after doing her business. The cat loves laying on the patio now that he is 16.
The wife took the cat to the vet last week. He has dropped from 15 lbs to 11 lbs in the last couple of years. The vet told us to feed him this paste stuff called Inaba Churu, little packets of tuna and chicken paste. He loves it and has already gained some weight back. And he does not throw it up like he was doing with his solid food.
I opened a new bottle of Kirkland chewable vitamin C this morning. Comes with 500 tablets for $19. I remember when it was $8. I actually buy it on Big River now. I believe in superdosing vit C for killing colds and other nasties.
https://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Vitamin-500-Count-Chewable-Tablets/dp/B01E6ASYYS?tag=ttgnet-20/
Wanna-be Deep State.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/suspect-minnesota-democratic-lawmaker-killings-identified-vance-luther-boelter
Like everything else, a lot of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) originated in China in the last decade so tariffs are going to hurt until domestic production can be reestablished.
The tablets are $17.99 on Costco’s web site, but my guess is that the seller on Amazon is laundering Costco and/or Visa gift cards for his real profit.
UPDATE: Mailing address for HealthEmpire, LLC, the Amazon seller:
https://www.lowincomehousing.us/det/eastend_project-77011
The new official portrait of Trump hanging in US Government offices everywhere looks a lot like that mugshot. It is a friggin’ badge of honor outside of the Arts & Letters faculty break rooms.
Maybe we should ask Fanni Willis if the sacrifice of her career was worth it.
Or Stacy Abrams. I saw that she may try for GA Governor again, but the Dems have to get Ossoff reelected next year.
Its a different worrrrld … than where you come from …
81F and dripping wet. Really unpleasant.
Happy Fathers Day all.
D1 made me waffles with bacon. So good. So very good. I ate one and a half, so I’ll be taking a nap soon.
Kids’ cards were funny.
No gifts though, not sure if that’s an oversight or if they are coming later 😉
n
Charmin blue bulk pack at costco was $30 this week, no sales. It used to be under $20, and I’m pretty sure the bale got smaller.
n
Paper silver (SLV) is at $32/ounce this weekend.
I took a look at reactivating my Costco Visa now that I see where the mailing time problem originates, but the company wants the membership renewal locked to the card on the first day of the renewal month.
Why the RAT Changes Everything – Air India 171 Update
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14794469/states-credit-card-debt-america.html
Short term solution, just waiting to bite the a$$ of anyone who endulges.
n
The Mail has nary a clue about how interest rates work.
OTOH, neither do many Americans.
The pressure is on the Fed to resume buying the mortgage paper. The Texas Legislature just placed a $51 billion bet that will happen before the 2027 session.
And yet, government regulators at multiple levels are expected to sign off on Capital One, one of the most predatory credit card companies, buying Discover.
Been there, done that, many solar anniversaries ago. Getting laid off, down to my last $400.00, car payments (2), house payment, credit cards (3), and it was a very upsetting time. I made it my goal to be debt free as soon as possible. First was getting rid of the credit card debt. Second was to pay off the vehicles. Third was to pay off the mortgage.
I was able to last 5 months without a job. The wife subbing as much as she could. Some friends that needed computers that owned small businesses got me to do some work. I knew a year in advance I was losing my job so I planned as best I could. It was almost not enough.
I still have half a dozen credit cards. A couple were offers to spend $500.00 in the first month and get a $150.00 credit. Why yes, thank you very much. I have never used the cards again. I keep Discover as that is a very good card and served me well in the past and is the oldest account I have. But it does not work overseas. Yes, I have a VISA with the credit union I use. I need to spend something once a year to keep the card active. I buy something at the local quickee-mart for a couple of bucks and I am good. My main card is the CostCo VISA which gives over $1K in cashback every year and works overseas with no foreign transaction fees. I have not paid a dime of interest in 15 years on a credit card. I am what the card companies call a “dead beat”.
Still have a snotty nose and cough. So I took a swab test. Negative for flu a or b, and wuflu. I guess it really is the cold I thought it was.
It’s been a week and I feel like I should be farther along toward feeling normal. Gah.
Rain started about an hour ago, I think. I didn’t notice it right away. Not going to get any storage unit stuff moved today.
n
It used to take 14 days to get over a cold, but now with modern medicine it only takes 2 weeks.
Rumor says that NHS England has reduced it down to a fortnight.
Monty: Simulated Campfire
https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2025/06/15
Oh yeah, that is the edge of crazy right there.
I saw a battery powered campfire at Bass Pro within the last two weeks.
I believe it was intended as a kid’s toy.
Or maybe I’m just hoping.
Pearls Before Swine: Ice Cream
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/06/15
Please, please, please !
Specifically, HEB Chocolate Chip ice cream, my current love.
Pearls Before Swine: Carry-on
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/06/14
Ok, that is gross.
And yes, Dad joke on Father’s Day.
*not really gonna be any festivities. I might get waffles with bacon for breakfast. And I hinted pretty broadly that I’d like some mudbugs for dinner…
I had chocolate chip pancakes with blackberry jam and turkey sausage. That is, I shared my turkey sausage with my ever present buddy, Lily our dog.
BTW, RickH has a Compendium of Dad Jokes on Amazon, for thise who might be running short this Father’s Day.
Like everything else, a lot of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) originated in China in the last decade so tariffs are going to hurt until domestic production can be reestablished.
The tablets are $17.99 on Costco’s web site, but my guess is that the seller on Amazon is laundering Costco and/or Visa gift cards for his real profit.
UPDATE: Mailing address for HealthEmpire, LLC, the Amazon seller:
https://www.lowincomehousing.us/det/eastend_project-77011
Is anything not made in China anymore ?
And that there is an entrepreneur. I applaud them, saves me a trip to Costco and renewing my Costco card (a $65 savings as I do not want anything else there).
“SpaceX Hits a Big Milestone for Starlink Satellite Production”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-hits-a-big-milestone-for-starlink-satellite-production
“SpaceX produced its 10 millionth Starlink kit this week, an effort that’s bound to increase as the company moves into more international markets and offers appealing discounts in the US.”
I feel like I am living in the future.
“GameStop Has a Surprising New Strategy for Saving Its Business”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/gamestop-trading-cards-surprising-new-strategy-to-save-its-business
“Expect to see Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and other trading cards take top billing at the retailer as it struggles to compete with digital game sales.”
Comic books too ?
Comics are dead outside of niche publishers.
Charmin blue bulk pack at costco was $30 this week, no sales. It used to be under $20, and I’m pretty sure the bale got smaller.
The Sam’s Club Charmin Blue 32 rolls == 134 rolls bulk pack was $31.48 today plus 8.25% sales tax. I bought two of them plus three Bounty club packs.
The business model doesn’t work without the subsidized housing and possible criminal activity.
You’re forgetting the Prime fee for “free” shipping.
And yet, government regulators at multiple levels are expected to sign off on Capital One, one of the most predatory credit card companies, buying Discover.
The Capital One – Discover merger happened three weeks ago.
Capital One wanted Discover for their international network so they can get off the Visa network. Discover also handles 1/3rd of the Walmart credit traffic.
Both of my relatives still work at Discover for the moment.
The business model doesn’t work without the subsidized housing and possible criminal activity.
You’re forgetting the Prime fee for “free” shipping.
I wonder if Costco has a pallet price for the Chewable Vitamin C ?
Or, the back shipping dock price.
Comics are dead outside of niche publishers.
Sorry, that was sarcasm. The old comic book sellers were selling trading cards as they went downhill.
Why the RAT Changes Everything – Air India 171 Update
I saw another youtuber who talked about the unique sound, like a prop plane, that the RAT makes, on the day after the crash. “What Caused Air India 171 Crash, Mysterious Sound Before Impact”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbDJjgN7Xbo
Something really went wrong with that plane. That is why I said bad fuel. Putting gasoline into a jet airplane might kill those engines. It would take a little while for the new fuel to get from the tanks into the fuel lines. And the pilot told the ATC that he had no thrust.
Had a little nap. now it’s time to get dressed and get some mudbugs.
n
Wow, HAMMERING down rain now. Thunder too.
n
Putting gasoline into a jet airplane
– yeah but how would that happen? The plane is fueled by a truck, the truck is either a tanker, or the pumper using underground pipelines. In a rational world, the fittings wouldn’t match. The pipelines shouldn’t even be close by as what plane needs gasoline at the gate? Unless there is some incredibly bad design at work, the fuel guy’s job should be designed to make a misfueling like that impossible… Certainly the plane was on it’s own power at the gate, taxiing, etc. burning whatever fuel was in the lines…. it’s incredible to think the timing would be perfect like that.
The pilots should have noticed a weight difference too based on their expected load.
There were two other conditions that would deploy the RAT, and I’d bet on one of those rather than both engines failing without a puff of smoke.
n
Panic in Tehran tonight, shelves emptying, cars headed out.
Looks like Miami before a Cat 5.
The weight of Jet-A, JP-4 and 100 octane aviation gasoline is about the same, around 6.7 lbs per gallon. I’m surprised, but Grok tells me that a modern jet engine would not work with gasoline.
Diesel engines don’t work with gasoline.
Huh, learn something new every day. Still, there is enough of it that if there were differences you’d think they’d add up.
—
We ran out of gas on a flight and landed short of the airport at a small local airport. Our wings overhung both sides of the runway, and the refueling truck guy couldn’t figure out how to attach to the port on the wing. It was a TINY airport. We did take on fuel, then went up, and right back down at the commercial airport. We must have been DRY to try landing at the little strip rather than continue for another minute or two and get to the real airport. The place we landed was in the middle of a river, and we probably kicked up a rooster tail coming and going. We were over the water until touchdown. I can’t remember, it might have been outside of Philly on USair…
n
Diesel and automotive engines are both mechanical. In a turbine engine, all the fuel needs to do is burn consistently. Some turbine engines have been running using peanut oil as fuel.
United landed a 727 on the runway at Meigs in the 90s when the airline gave the plane to the Museum of Science and Industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMfZdGgWefc
I finished putting the living room together today. Silly stuff. Centered the TV stand under the TV, it looked like it was half an inch off. My bad, ¾ of an inch. Looked crooked, too. Squared off the receiver and LD and aimed the speakers. I needed to add felt feet to the Lazyboys. That is done. It all looks nice. It looks clean and neat and not too cluttered. Tidy, perhaps? Maybe not “decorator nice”, maybe add some silly throw pillows and a vase or two of fake flowers if drugs get involved.
The new floor…. someone asked if I liked it. I said it doesn’t actually matter, I’ve dropped $3200 for the new floor, too late now. But yeah, I do like it. For now. I might hate it come winter. But it looks great. It has a 20 year warranty. Replacing it will be someone’s problem after I die 30 years from now.
We have two Lazyboy leather covered rocker recliners. Dark brown. One of the kids and his wife decided the way to go was with power reclining sofas. So they gave us roughly $1600 worth of furniture. They are nice. They smell good. I still sit in my old and pushing 40 Lazyboy swivel rocker recliner when the dogs decide to share. It fits me.
It’s interesting that the two chairs sit different. They look the same, almost. One was built in October and the other in December. By the dates they are 10½ years old. Which means they were just three when we got them. I prefer the October chair.
I’d like to get rid of both and the loveseat. Replace with a matching set of sofa and chair. Something lighter in color. A tannish brown tweed with a few threads of various colors woven in. Light oak wood frame, maybe. Maybe something that sits high enough for a Roomba to get under. But politics. She would, even while denying it, be highly insulted if I tossed out the chairs. I don’t need the drama.
The other kid said he would like one of the chairs. Problem solved. I’ll give him one of the chairs. It stays in the family, right? Put the loveseat where the chairs are currently, put the remaining chair and the table now between them where the loveseat is sitting. It will look good. More room to walk.
I might try it tomorrow. Shove one of the chairs back into the dining room where it has been for the last month….
The new floor shows every single white hair Buddy the Beagle sheds. I have vacuumed today. It looks like a snow flurry has passed through.
Time for the bedtime potty walk.
The weight of Jet-A, JP-4 and 100 octane aviation gasoline is about the same, around 6.7 lbs per gallon. I’m surprised, but Grok tells me that a modern jet engine would not work with gasoline.
For a very crude approximation, gasoline is octane, eight carbons in a chain. Jet fuel, diesel, and kerosene are decane, ten carbons in a chain.
Wow, HAMMERING down rain now. Thunder too.
n
I was in HEB, doing my Sunday shopping. I did have my golf umbrella so I am only partially soaked. Anything that came in a box is now in a ziplock bag.
Diesel engines don’t work with gasoline.
That is mostly true. I used to convert summer diesel (cloud point 10 F) to winter diesel (cloud point -20 F) by adding 1 gallon of regular unleaded to ten gallons of diesel. I would not do this with gasoline that has been bastardized with watery ethanol. In fact, I am not sure that I would do this with a modern diesel motor with piezoelectric fuel injectors.
I have vacuumed today.
– for dog hair, and “other” hair, and dust and little bits of paper I use the leaf blower. I start in the back of the house and work to the door.
Dewalt 20v, variable speed. Similar to this. You can get really good, just bumping the tumbleweed hairballs around, or blowing dust out of the carpet…
The job is quick, easier than vacuuming, more fun, and you can do light fixtures, book shelves, and the top of picture frames and mouldings too.
Sounds goofy but works REALLY well. I’ve made converts of several of my friends and acquaintances.
n
Hmmm.
My newish little roku stick just locked up again.
Basically it stops accepting input from the remote, removing power from the stick for a couple of minutes fixes it, but it is mildly annoying. Just doing a reset doesn’t help.
It does feel warm to the touch, so it may be an overheat issue.
But none of their pets.
Sounds like my 10 year old Roku box. Get warm all the time, sometimes starts ignoring the remote.
A quick power-cycle fixes it for a while.
Mostly happens when I’m watching a lot of YouTube but I think it’s not limited to that.
Had to power cycle the amazon stick today as it was super slow and stuttery.
n
Using a leaf blower sounds great. But not with my floor plan. Too many corners.
But I have a central vac so that’s not filling the house with dust. A small win.
“The Remaining: Extinction (The Remaining, 6)” by D. J. Molles
https://www.amazon.com/Remaining-Extinction-D-Molles-author/dp/0356505901?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number six of a six book apocalyptic science fiction series. There is another series in the same universe with the main character for a total of eighteen books. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Orbit in 2015 that I purchased new in 2025 from Amazon. I have the first book in the second series and will read it soon.
Captain Lee Harden of the US Army is a member of the US Special Forces. His duty is to live in his remote US Army built home with a steel and lead concrete bunker underneath it. Any time the US government gets nervous, he goes down into his bunker with his dog and locks the vault door. He then talks with his supervisor daily over the internet until released by his supervisor to leave the bunker. His duty is to stay in the bunker during any event and come out thirty days after he has zero contact with his supervisor. Then it is his duty to find groups of people to restore order in his portion of the USA.
Then one day, Captain Harden has been sitting in his bunker for a couple of weeks and his supervisor does not call. A plague has been sweeping the planet and things are getting more dire by the day. Apparently the infected do not die but their brains are mostly wiped out. Zombies. A month later, Captain Harden and his dog emerge from their bunker to find a total disaster with infected roaming the countryside.
Captain Harden’s home and bunker were burned out after everything to eat or shoot was stolen by a gang of bad guys. But he has a secret, he has ten bunkers built by the U.S. Army strategically located around the state. And only he can open the bunkers. But the bad guys are chasing Captain Harden to get the rest of the food and ammo from him. And
nobody trusts anybody.
The Marines from Camp Legume have shown up and allied themselves with Captain Harden. The Delta Force from Fort Bragg have also shown up an allied themselves with Captain Harden. But, millions of infected crossed the river into North Carolina before the bridges were blown up.
The author has a website at:
https://djmolles.com/blog/the-remaining-universe-reading-order
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (3,052 reviews)
Lynn
Too many corners.
– the variable speed lets you ‘bump’ stuff out of the corners and around obstacles… it really is a time saver. Central vac is nice though.
n
I just looked at pi-hole. What is all this stuff Moa is connecting to? It updated a few days ago, I haven’t touched it at all. So what services and such do I turn off?
Google is of little help. Maybe if the “helpful” fresher idiots would go away….. So I’m blocking the stuff in pi-hole.
Yes, it may mess up my pc. Time will tell.
Maybe it’s time for a different OS. Sharing of the Desktop folders is blocked from either direction…. with different messages.
Perp in Minnesota killings arrested:
https://x.com/thauserkstp/status/1934435483720847555
busted by a dron:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/06/15/minnesota-assassin-vance-boelter-apprehended-n3803837
The roommate is the Best CIA patsy ever !
https://x.com/THE_0HOUR/status/1934275072497270863
“Lets Recap Update 6/15/2025
A White Nationalist Racist
Best Job Working in all Black Congo and Middle Eastern countries.
Worked in a Security Guard Institution
Worked for Tim Walz
Worked at 7/11
Loved working in the morgue
Owned a home But would rather rent a room 50 miles away with a “friend””
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
It’s getting weird out there.
n