Humid. Oh my. 75F last night and dew was condensing on me, my radio, and everything else too. The rain started around 8am, stopped around 11am, and the sun poked through occasionally. Dusk was very nice. I’m hoping today lets everything dry off and lets me keep working on my walkway.
I couldn’t work on it yesterday, so I did a bunch of grading and roadway repair for the common area. I also did some for myself. There was a gutter separating the street from my driveway that had filled in with the road base material. It’s supposed to divert some of the water that otherwise pours down my sloped driveway and into the garage. Hopefully the restored gutter will help control that again. It will fill back up with time, but maybe I can keep it clear now that I’ve used the machine to dig it out. I took several cubic yards of material and put it in other eroded areas.
Today, if it’s dry, I’ll try to get more stuff done on the walkway. If not, I’ll do some of the other earthmoving stuff on my property. Flexibility and a really long list of things I could do if I have time will keep me moving.
Always be working… and stacking.
nick
Chicken post! I’m here first because I have to get up early for the fluffheads. I did set my alarm back a few minutes, from 0500 to 0510, after opening the coop this morning, what with the sun coming up later and the birds not being awake when I opened the door today. Around the Summer solstice my alarm was set for 0420 and there was a good chance that they’d already be awake and come tumbling out as soon as I opened the door.
The pullets are generally atop the coop in the evening when I close them up. I don’t know if that’s because they prefer it or because one of the hens, who seems generally fed up with their energy and motion, always goes up first and then pecks at them if they try to go in. About five evenings in the past week I’ve had to lift the pullets down and put them inside. They’re mostly ok with it but each evening one has panicked and carried on. I’d let them sleep on the roof but the run isn’t quite secure from raccoons and what-not. Because of uneven ground, critters can sometimes find a spot to wriggle under. The coop and accompanying cage are secure, so even if a coon gets into the run, he’s not getting into the coop. Sorry, fluffheads, you need to sleep inside again.
Gregorio Eduardo leading the protests for the local Faux News cameras, right on schedule.
The upside of the redistricting is Gregorio’s seat would go away forcing the issue about a Senate run against Colin Zachary who already announced.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-redistricting-dems-flee-quorum-greg-casar-protest
Local Faux News is also helping the Dems make a star out of James Talarico, who is leading the Dems misadventure in Chicago, but the video isn’t online.
Wine/Weed Moms and Joe Rogan love Talarico.
Maybe Faux 7 Austin understands the what the optics of Talarico standing next to JB Pritzker in the ballroom of one of Pritzker’s hotels will look like in a few months, but it may also be laziness on the part of the staff running the web site.
It does – it makes a huge difference. The standard here, for some years now, is triple-glazing.
Maybe your better bet it just to replace the single-paned window?
There are regions of the US that rely on international tourism. They might disagree…
I would think that some audiophile place would have equipment that they might rent out. Or take your albums and digitize them for you. Not much sense in spending a pile on equipment you won’t need afterwards…
Chickens, and…who else qualifies as a fluffhead?
>>So? The whole world has beautiful places that I’ll never see. Some tourist missing a trip to the Grand Canyon and some tour guides and motels missing the business is not on my radar. pftt.
GIYF
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fa%2Faa%2FDawn_on_the_S_rim_of_the_Grand_Canyon_%25288645178272%2529.jpg%2F960px-Dawn_on_the_S_rim_of_the_Grand_Canyon_%25288645178272%2529.jpg&tbnid=74k3FRXDSeCFvM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGrand_Canyon_National_Park&docid=Bgd9c-f5Em6P4M&w=960&h=640&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F0&kgs=73f7cf61b0214ca0#sv=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
Coffee in the mug… breakfast croix– cro– qua– biscuit in my belly. 72F this morning, sunny blue sky, some clouds. Moist. Oh yes, moist. Condensation running down the windows. No double glazing here.
Wife and kids had a beach day yesterday and have been shopping every day. I’d rather work.
In a little bit, I’ll test the ground, maybe pull back the temporary weed barrier if it’s not drying… Tomorrow the stone comes and I want to put it in place.
First, more coffee.
n
Just walked the prepped area. It’s mostly firm, but there are still squishy places. All the surface water is gone. I did spend some time blowing water off the weed barrier before calling it a day yesterday.
I am thinking about cutting some cross wise channels in the clay bed to facilitate drainage under the rock, maybe just the width of a 2×4. at least in the part I haven’t finished grading.
The sun feels pretty warm already, shining down on my melon. Yikes.
n
It is not possible to have enough contempt for these liars:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/08/04/nyt-editors-knew-that-photo-was-deceptive-n3805477
who else qualifies as a fluffhead?
– teenage girls. but they don’t get up early.
n
I don’t know who did it, or how. But I am now getting two or three mail pieces a day about my new truck. Extended warranties mostly but some other crap that I don’t even open. Did the Ford dealership sell my information? Is the information available from vehicle registrations? Does some jerk at the DMV sideline selling information? I am placing my betting money on the Ford dealership.
And such behavior is probably not unique the Ford dealership. They all probably have side contracts to sell vehicle purchase information for a few bucks a sale. Get that information out to spammers, and maybe even scammers.
Cretins.
Did you finance with Ford Credit?
Who owns the stealership? Group One? Lithia? The Gecko?
LOL tRump subpoenas the Klintons. Make ‘em sweat.
Maxwell answers questions, gets removed from a tough lockup in deep blue NJ and sent to a minimum security facility in Texas, then The Clintons get subpoenas. Obviously nothing to see here.
Barr got a subpoena too.
As well as Loretta “Tarmac” Lynch.
Maybe the infamous tarmac meeting was about something other than the emails.
Nope. My credit union. For only 21 days. Vehicle is now paid off.
I got one letter saying if I don’t respond the warranty on my vehicle is no longer valid. There is no company name anywhere on the letter. Another says I have to respond now, but never says anything about the rates or what is covered. These people are crazy. But I guess someone, somewhere, does respond.
I am not certain if they are part of any group. Ted Russell Ford, three dealerships, Ford, Nissan (I think) and Lincoln-Mercury. Of course the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships sell both brands of vehicles.
“Laziness Can’t Be Retrained”
https://areaocho.com/laziness-cant-be-retrained/
“When we recently built our pool, we were intending to care for it ourselves. The contractor that built it paid for the first month of pool servicing to get it started off on the right foot. At the end of the month, the pool servicing company came out and gave us a one hour lesson on the proper care of the pool and equipment. Of course, it was also a sales pitch.”
“It worked. They offered to take care of cleaning and servicing the pool, as well as keeping the chemicals in balance for $160 per month. That seemed economical to me, so we hired them. It went well for the first couple of weeks. The pool girl that came out did a good job, until she brought along a new trainee who would be taking over the route.”
“The new girl, Shamiqua, screwed things up from the start. The first week, she left the control panel open for the pool equipment and left it in service mode. It stormed that afternoon, and we were lucky that the electronic controls for the pool didn’t get water damaged. We complained, and they told us how she was new and they would talk to her.”
This is why people want robots.
“A sobering, short-term warning about artificial intelligence and white-collar jobs”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-sobering-short-term-warning-about.html
“Basically, any white-collar job (management, technical, administrative, whatever) is under threat.”
“Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer of Google X, has a stark message for white-collar professionals: Artificial intelligence isn’t just coming for entry-level work — it’s coming for everyone, including software developers, CEOs, and podcasters.”
“In a Monday conversation on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, Gawdat predicted that most knowledge workers would be replaced in the next decade and said many still underestimated just how rapidly this transformation would unfold.”
“He cited his own startup, Emma.love, which builds emotional and relationship-focused artificial intelligence and is run by just three people.”
“”That startup would have been 350 developers in the past,” he said.”
I just do not see it for software developers of anything complicated. I’ve got 1.4 million lines of Fortran and C++ that I am dragging around the place. I cannot imagine an AI figuring it out.
Shamiqua? Seriously?
Uh. No.
I thought Dive Medic lived down South somewhere.
And lest you think I’m rayciss, I know black families who wouldn’t hire a “Shamiqua” for the same reason I would pass.
The funkier the name, the worse the ‘tude.
He didn’t hire her. He hired the company that employs her. Big difference.
The Moon is a harsh parking lot. (Engadget)
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in disappointment
“The mission was a total failure. We’d like to apologize to SpaceX for wasting time and resources. The Lunar Trailblazer team is looking for new jobs that do not involve mechanical engineering or coding.”
ANY JOB in which you do not NEED TO PUT YOUR OWN HANDS ON THE EQUIPMENT is in jeopardy. ANY job that can be done remotely WILL BE done remotely.
“This is why people want robots.”
A swimming pool is an open-air CSTR (continuously stirred tank reactor). Put the pump on a timer and it becomes an ISTR (intermittently stirred tank reactor). If the pump is off to save electricity the pool water segregates thermally and chemically, so samples are not representative.
A balanced pool has multiple things to balance: pH, chlorine, alkalinity, and calcium hardness. There’s no index for water clarity, but not having it tells you the pool water isn’t balanced. Then there’s this thing called ORP that’s kind of a hybrid measurement…
Sunlight depletes chlorine, which can be supplied by stabilizer, chemical addition, generation (in salt water pools), or added by a service that bubbles pure gas chlorine into the pool . If you have a spa, it might sanitize with bromine rather than chlorine.
pH and alkalinity are adjusted with chemicals. Everything is linked, so changing one often makes another move out-of-range.
Calcium hardness can be increased chemically, but the only way to decrease it is to drain water and refill with softer water.
Any addition of pool chemicals takes time to equlibrate. Pour out of a jug and you can go watch paint dry. Dip a bucket of pool water, add the chem, stir, and walk around the edge pouring it in.
Wear eye protection, gloves, and store your oxidizers and reducers separately. Lock them up.
Get a good test kit and keep it in an air conditioned space. Renew your test chemicals as directed. Keep the batteries in your Langelier Saturation Index calculator, and when you think you understand balancing the chemistry read up on “break point chlorination”.
Then there’s these things called algae, dirt and leaves…
Yeah, if God intended you to have a pool he would have given you an IQ of 150 and flippers.
If you work at a desk and communicate through a wire, the wire can be 10 feet, 10 miles, or 10-thousand miles long.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is preparing to vacate the seats of the Democratic Party state lawmakers who fled to stop redistricting.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/08/05/go-time-texas-ag-ken-paxton-prepares-to-vacate-the-seats-of-democrats-who-fled-to-stop-redistricting-n2192479
Slow process requiring suits in each district.
Put up a tent on the tarmac, process them into county jail, shave their heads, do a body cavity search, and walk them to the transport van in orange jumpsuits.
And somewhere there needs to be a finding that explicitly not doing their jobs results in explicitly not getting paid.
“Texas Attorney General Paxton will ask courts to vacate Democratic lawmakers’ seats”
https://www.chron.com/news/local/politics/article/texas-democrats-ken-paxton-20803576.php
“Legal experts say it’s “inconsistent with the Texas Constitution” to argue a quorum break qualifies as abandoning an office.”
“Paxton himself has acknowledged that this would likely be a lengthy and complicated process, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that they’d have to bring individual lawsuits in each district.”
““We’d have to go through a court process, and we’d have to file that maybe in districts that are not friendly to Republicans,” Paxton said on Monday. “So it’s a challenge because every district would be different.””
If I run away from my job, I will probably get fired. Why not the quorum breakers ?
The pullets are generally atop the coop in the evening when I close them up. I don’t know if that’s because they prefer it or because one of the hens, who seems generally fed up with their energy and motion, always goes up first and then pecks at them if they try to go in. About five evenings in the past week I’ve had to lift the pullets down and put them inside. They’re mostly ok with it but each evening one has panicked and carried on. I’d let them sleep on the roof but the run isn’t quite secure from raccoons and what-not. Because of uneven ground, critters can sometimes find a spot to wriggle under. The coop and accompanying cage are secure, so even if a coon gets into the run, he’s not getting into the coop. Sorry, fluffheads, you need to sleep inside again.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
pul·let
/ˈpo͝olət/
noun
noun: pullet; plural noun: pullets
a young hen, especially one less than one year old.
Dadgumit, SteveF is trying to make me larn something again.
It does – it makes a huge difference. The standard here, for some years now, is triple-glazing.
I really like my triple glazed windows with the plastic inserts to cut noise. Both efficient and low noise.
And they can take a 2×4 at least at 100 mph during hurricanes and tornadoes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-wipe-out-most-jobs-2045-few-still-survive-researcher-2025-7
An AI researcher says most jobs will be wiped out by 2045 — but sex workers, politicians, and sports coaches will survive
Whew, was worried about those
sexsports coaches…Well, well. I found a new button on my truck. I pushed it. Nothing seemed to change. Then a few seconds later the steering wheel started getting warmer, and over the next few seconds much warmer. I apparently have a heated steering wheel. I would much prefer a cooled steering wheel.
I also found out the seat cooling has an automatic setting. Get in after sitting in the sun and the seat fans are on full blast. As the vehicle cools down, the seat fans reduce their speed eventually dropping to the lowest level. I have no idea what happens in the winter with the seat heat. Probably the same scenario.
The auto setting on the air conditioner has three settings, low medium and high. The system still automatically maintains the temperature but the fan operates at different speeds. The low setting is higher when the vehicle has cooled down. I guess to circulate more inside the vehicle.
There is a lot of automation and computer control in this truck. Somewhat nice, somewhat scary. If that computer crashes not much of anything will work until I provide a service location with a significant chunk of change. The good news is that the computer technology, and reliability, in vehicles now is quite good. Computer failures are not common events.
The high setting is higher when the vehicle has cooled down.
Gggaaaaccckkk. Me speakie English very goodly.
@Ray – Did you notice any problems with Quicken today?
I could not open my file or any of the backups for most of the day. The problem finally resolved a few minutes ago.
No problems here.
DNS on Spectrum locally seemed to be the problem, but that application is way too dependent on having network access anymore.
Agreed. If the internet is not working, or not in a location with internet, the app can take 10 minutes to start. In those scenarios I have to disable wireless or the Ethernet port. That seems to help but the app still takes a couple of minutes with no access to Quicken servers. The app is checking to see if the account is active, every single time. It should only check once a week, or month.
Why are you using Quicken? Habit? If Quicken is acting like a spoiled child, isn’t there some other program to do the same job?
I don’t know. I have my stuff pared down to two credit cards and treasury direct for t–bills. I get a statement from Discover. Another from the HEB card folks. Plus my monthly statement from Frost. It’s all simple. SS and 401k and t-bill monies go into my bank accounts. And then I transfer from savings to checking as needed.
Maybe I’m a dolt and can’t grok “high finance”.
I have been using Quicken since 1999. I track 55 investments. I forecast finances 90 days in advance. I use Quicken to print checks. I categorize all my transactions to get reports, especially for taxes. I download my credit card transactions. I attach scans of some receipts to the actual transaction. I can go back 20 years and find a transaction. I have not found any other program since Microsoft abandoned MSMoney that can do what Quicken does as well as Quicken does.
At one point I was a beta tester for Quicken and got a nice present for finding, and duplicating, a significant flaw in the program.
Adobe also acts like a spoiled child but adds that only they know what I should want. But I use their products because they work. Microsoft and Apple fall into the same category. But I have multiple Apple products, 11 of them.
MS Money was a nice program.
I have just my 401k and it does whatever it wants. I have t-bills. Checks? Maybe six a year. License plates and property taxes. And feed store.
If I want I can dig back about to 1983. I have the bank statements….. the rest is in my head/
Sorrrrrrrrry. What can I tell ya, I just plain suck.
I’m just sort of stunned Lynn didn’t know what a pullet was.
I’ve used Quicken for 30 years. The commercial competition is all gone, and converting to Gnu Cash would be a lot of work at this point.
Maybe if the private equity owners of Quicken get more obnoxious.
Vanguard would be the biggest issue.
Whew I’m beat. I did a lot of raking, shoveling, and picking (with a Mattock). Plus a lot of bending over and kneeling. And it did get hot. Well into the 90s F.
I am headed to bed as soon as the clothes washer cycle ends. I can barely lift my arms.
n
I’m just sort of stunned Lynn didn’t know what a pullet was.
I ain’t French and it ain’t an engineering term.
“The only thing worse than sweatshops is no sweatshops”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-only-thing-worse-than-sweatshops
“Poor countries have to get rich somehow. This is the tried-and-true method.”
Yup. Making steel, aluminium, and copper require a lot of capital. And mines, lots of mines.
Sweatshops just require cotton fields and sewing machines.
“Backblaze Drive Stats for Q2 2025”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-2025/
Buy WD drives for now.
QLC drives are coming. Less heat, less electricity, less space, way longer life, and sizes in the hundreds of TB real soon now for the same cost as spinning rust.
We use quicken. W used Money but that went away, so we were back to my Quicken. I’ve used it for 35 years? Long time.
It saves a lot of time and effort at tax time.
Our taxes are complicated.
n
I’m taking my meds and going to bed. I’m wiped out. And my back is sore. Laying down sounds sooo nice.
n
Bleach-blonde looks like cultural appropriation to me:
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/08/05/megyn-kelly-drops-the-bulwarks-sarah-longwell-over-beyonces-knock-off-jeans-ad-n2416794
>>ANY JOB in which you do not NEED TO PUT YOUR OWN HANDS ON THE EQUIPMENT is in jeopardy. ANY job that can be done remotely WILL BE done remotely.
Catch a few episodes of “How It’s Made” (the Science Channel on my cable system) and you can see how much hands-on work goes on in this ‘age of automation and robotics.’
You also see that there are many parts of a manufacturing process are now done by automated processes and robots. And note that the “How It’s Made” shows shown are not very current – some are over 10 years old. You can easily imaging that the manual processes shown on the old shows could be easily automated.
I’ve always wondered about the process of making all the automated machines. It would seem that the design and manufacting of the automated machines is a job that requires a human, although one with skills to use fancy computer skills to do the design.
I use an increasingly complicated LibreOffice spreadsheet which is semi-automated and tracks income, bills and my (limited) net worth. I’ve been threatening myself to convert it to a database. Maybe next year!
“I use an increasingly complicated LibreOffice spreadsheet which is semi-automated and tracks income, bills and my (limited) net worth. I’ve been threatening myself to convert it to a database. Maybe next year!”
I use CPA. Seriously, I started a fairly simple Excel family of spreadsheets around 1990. When I started playing with Linux, I liked OpenOffice, but I never used it much. By the time I transitioned to Linux for production, OpenOffice was replaced by LibreOffice. I especially did not like Calc, the spreadsheet, but I converted my Excel sheets to it because I thought there were no better alternatives. It was clunky for me, but it was remarkably similar in functionality to Excel, as long as I didn’t use macros, which I didn’t.
Six years ago, I returned to Windows and Excel. Converted my files back. I immediately picked up the goodness of Excel. It still feels the same after all these years, an old friend. The only other spreadsheet I ever considered was the much liked Borland Quattro Pro, but I never tried it because the Microsoft Office suite had come out, and was about the same price. A good deal.
I also used Lotus 1-2-3 at work, after starting with Excel. Backwards, I know, but the result of changing jobs. I thought it was OK, but it needed add-ons for graphing. Still, it was remarkable on a text-based OS (IBM PC-DOS) with a VGA display.
I had a friend who had tried almost everything, including all the tax and accounting software up to about 1990. He thought highly of Microsoft Money, but I didn’t like proprietary data formats, and avoided all those programs. My Excel data is readily usable in almost everything I have needed.
I also liked databases, but never used one for anything other than fooling around. My impression was that they took a lot of work to do simple things. Spreadsheets take a lot of work to do moderately complicated things, but simpler things are easy.
After I gave up on databases, Microsoft Access came out. A different friend used it extensively to generate reports from mainframe (actually, a big minicomputer) data, and thought it was very good. He offered to show me what he was doing, but I figured that would be a big time sink. I will never know, because I have stayed with spreadsheets.
Oh, that CPA. In 1982 I started with one. He specialized in taxes. Best decision I have ever made. He sold the business to a younger guy who is similar, and who might last the rest of my days. I had an uncle who was a CPA, and he convinced me that engineers and CPAs have different views about accounting, but can get along synergistically. We admired each other’s views. I probably don’t impress my current CPA as much.