It’ll be coolish to start and get very humid later. Because that’s the pattern. SO very humid. Just standing around yesterday I was soaked with sweat. It was tolerable when I sat out by the fountain at night with a breeze.
I did get some stuff done Saturday. My fuses finally came in, so after my pickup, I replaced the fuses at the shop. Finally I have light everywhere and the A/C in the office area works. I unloaded the shelves I’d picked up and left the A/C running so that it should be cool enough to get some work done there today.
Which is the plan. Head over there with a load of stuff to be sold, and get some organizing done. That’s a lot easier when sweat isn’t dripping off your eyelashes. Some domestic bliss probably needs to happen too. Like lawn mowing. And cleaning some stuff up. And maybe tuck pointing the flagstone front walk…
Unless it rains.
But there are things on the list to do if it rains too.
Stack. Work. Improve.
nick
Another day. Not much planned except a trip to a park. But that may not work out. The spousal unit decided to fix a dress for the girl that was a little too tight. Brought out the sewing machine and they got involved with stuff.
I took a short walk to a bakery and got some bread and some baked treats. It is probably a good idea that I don’t live close to a bakery. I have always like German bakeries and the fresh baked bread. Especially the variety of items. I spent $23.00 I really did not need to spend.
I loaded some pictures of the trip in the website. Removed some, added some. The link is in yesterday’s post but I will repeat it today for the navigational impaired. (snicker)
https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Germany
My undergrad alma matter did what? To whom?
Where?
There?
Really?
With a field goal sealing the win kicked by … oh, that is cool?
Kids, “patsies” are no more.
As is the automatic dominance of the SEC.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/usf-football-fans-erupt-stunning-004259121.html
My in-laws got bored in Munich and spent most of their week in Europe driving to Euro Disneyland and back.
Did I mention that they live in Orlando?
I don’t understand what the logic is behind their travel choices beyond rubbing it in that, for most of the last 30 years, my wife and I have either lacked the time or the money for the trips.
Grandma covers the costs my sister-in-law and her brood on the basis of some weird Chinese thing about keeping things “even”. They also have to take her sorry butt.
Of course, I keep track. Payback will suck. I hope they enjoyed their trip to Germany.
Are you planning to see the BMW museum?
I’m not into that company’s products, but I’m not into Harley-Davidson either and I saw that museum two years ago.
I’ve found that making a point of doing the blatantly touristy things on trips usually leads to seeing/learning something even more interesting which doesn’t make the guide books.
German bread is incredibly good. I don’t know why French baking is so famous, because it is a pale shadow of what the Germans produce.
My wife likes to bake, and when we lived closer to the German border she would buy flour in the German grocery stores. Literally dozens of choices, suited to different types of bread and baking.
Kids, “patsies” are no more.
As is the automatic dominance of the SEC.
My TAMU Aggies beat both of their patsies.
Notre Dame is next. Not a patsie.
76 F and 92 % humidity. Gotta be tough to live on the Gulf of America coast. Or have air conditioning and lots of it.
TN beat East Tennessee State University, another pansy team. TN does that every year, first two or three games are against a “homecoming team”, a team they know they can beat. That gets all the fans excited and the fans think TN is unstoppable, visions of an SEC championship, dreams of a national championship. The bubble will burst this coming Saturday.
Next up is Georgia. I predict that GA will wallop TN and the fans will be screaming bad officiating or other such factors. Alabama will not be a problem. Florida will not be a problem. TN will win 6 games making them eligible for a bowl game. A lot more money for the program, players get to practice longer and stay out of the classroom. That degree in “sports equipment management” is really a high demand degree. Truth be known, half the players could not move the needle very far from far left of the bell curve.
Phone call from yesterday. Answer “Lynn McGuire”.
“Uh, my brother and I saw that you have 14 acres for sale. How much are you asking for it?”
“There is the 14 acres of land, all cleared. There is a 5,300 ft2 office building, a 3,800 ft2 warehouse, and two smaller buildings. A 30 gpm water well and large septic. I am asking $3.9 million.”
Stunned silence from the caller.
“Uh, thank you. Bye.”
Fort Bend County is expensive. Do your homework first.
With the Harley museum, I learned just how important DEI is in the thought process of the C-suites of public companies whose stock is more than 90% owned by the institutions, particularly the big three where most Americans have their 401(k) and pension plans invested whether they know it or not.
In the hallway leading to the reception areas for the HD archives (yes, complete with full motorcycles) the walls featured pages from a book titled “My Papi Has A Motorcycle”.
I think most of the regulars here know what the book was about. And not just the principle of “Papi” getting whatever he wants, even if it means going into debt for something like a motorcycle because he works hard and deserves the indulgence.
That is a long standing American tradition, however, not unique to immigrant households.
I’m looking forward to the upset that is coming at Texas.
The earliest I see it happening is the Red River Classic, however. Two patsies and Florida in The Swamp are up for “Arch” and Seven Wins Steve before that game.
As my undergrad alma matter just demonstrated, angry Scrub cows can walk out of the Swamp alive.
When I was a kid, growing up outside Tampa, when Florida still had a real cattle industry – imagine! – we were always taught to avoid the local Scrub bull’s enclosure, especially if we saw part of the fence was down.
And most of the swamps have been drained for stucco cr*p shack developments.
OTOH, those Longhorns with the historic pedigrees may have had the survival instinct bred out of them.
NVDA broke support and the significant resistance won’t be before 140. Money needs a place to go that doesn’t involve the monkey trick.
79F and overcast. I didn’t look at the humidity yet, but I’m guessing “saturated”.
Coffee will be ready soon, and I’ve had a bowl of Cap’n Crunch with cold milk. Gotta be careful not to slice up my mouth, but man o man that was good.
——–
DIE. The disney mailing we got for something, I thought Halloween in the Magic Kingdom, but it might just be for Halloween specials at the disney stores, has an interracial couple featured on the front. I thought it was just DIE pandering, but when I just checked the percentages, it’s 19% of opposite sex couples in the US. That’s big enough to aim an advert at. unless the AI summary is lying. It is lower in the south and east, so maybe that’s why 20% seems crazy high to me.
Of course I didn’t look at black/white vs the others. Maybe the 20% is inclusive of hispanic/white which isn’t – since the census seems confused about that.
To un-caffeinated to go down a rabbit hole this morning.
n
White Hispanic and “White adjacent” like Asian probably count for a big chunk of that percentage.
Every C suite beholden to Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street are going to adhere to the agenda. The Weatherman is extremely dependent on those three along with with JP Morgan Chase after the proxy battle for control of The Mouse last year.
We’ll see what really happens at Cracker Barrel beyond the inevitable laying on of hands and firing of the CEO along with a big chunk of that hallway at HQ. That will be a big indictor as to the current influence of DEI in Corporate America.
The employees call the CEO “Taco Julie” behind her back. Google is careful not to bring her page up in response to that search term, but The Duck has no such filtering.
Brave search also does not seem to recognize “taco julie”. Most of the first twenty results are for “Julie’s Tacos” (a food truck, not an OF site).
The employees call the CEO “Taco Julie” behind her back. Google is careful not to bring her page up in response to that search term, but The Duck has no such filtering.
– wow, that is … well, unbelievable is too strong, because it’s the new normal. https://www.celebsworlds.com/julie-felss-masino/
I thought she was wearing the novelty glasses with the nose…
n
The article is interesting for a number of more ‘meta’ things.
Two of the points are the non-military version of stolen valor, which I forget a good name for– she’s from the midwest, list the traits they want you to believe midwesterners have, and by extension she has.. and then the article does the same thing for the school she attended. “Supportive” not being something I would glorify in a university. There’s an attempt to assign traits to her thru association.
That lead photo is REALLY unflattering after more than a casual glance.
I can’t quite tell if the article is AI generated or just written to a template.
n
Ray Bans with clear prescription lenses are quite the fashionable choice among females in the C suites. Sometimes I wonder if the lenses are even prescription.
I see it when I venture over to the building on campus where those management levels tend to cluster using “hotel” desks if they are not “working” from home.
The Colonist females go for the look in a big way, especially if they are in the process of switching to the management track.
My lead when I started switched to those frames not long after I began working there, and she was management level within six months.
She’s not sporting that look anymore, but she was demoted back to “I.C.” (Individual Contributor) and stripped of her direct reports after screwing up something big.
My kids’ peers are sporting big 80s style glasses, as a fashion statement.
Glasses to look smart. Oy.
————-
Temp dropped to 73F and the rain started. I had just put on my boots to cut the grass.
Won’t be doing that now.
n
It gets even dumber:
UK Law Student’s Dubai Glam Trip Bust: 25 Year Jail Sentence in Hellhole for Coke … Stay Out of Dubai
I missed she is a “law student”. Must be a shitty school.
Visit Google image search. Enter “black mother with her children” – you get black moms with their black kids. Same for “Asian”. Try it with “white” and the mons are white, but most of the kids are black.
It’s a tiresome agenda.
“How Much Does Starlink Cost, and Is It Worth It for You?”
https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/how-much-does-starlink-service-cost
“Considering signing up for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet? The service comes in a bunch of flavors. We’ve broken down all the pricing tiers, subscription costs, and equipment fees to make your choices easy.”
Starlink actually has options now.
I was wondering how many of y’all put camper tops on your trucks and if you were happy with them ?
I put a Leer top on my 1982 Chevy S-10 with V-6 and 4 speed. It always smelled mildewy in there but kept my stuff dry.
Yes, it is raining today, why do you ask ?
I didn’t put a camper shell on my F-150 truck, but I did get folding tonneau cover, and I’m quite happy with it. As you said, it keeps stuff dry. And hidden, so that’s all I can reasonably hope for.
The wife’s nephew has one of those Jesus Truck-style roll up covers with a remote on his Maverick.
He aspires to a Cybertruck or EV Hummer, but, until he manages to guilt Grandma into buying him one, he has to live with the Maverick.
The cover looked aftermarket, but my guess is that the dealer did the install.
The Maverick was a dealer insider arrangement with a few hundred miles on the odometer. The cover was probably a sweetener to make the $10k over retail — another guess — in early 2023 easier to swallow.
Alphabet is another stock which Yahoo! Finance hides the breakdown of ownership percentages by company.
The stock is only ~60% held by institutions, however.
Adhering to the agenda isn’t just about satisfying the large investors. Failure to comply can affect a company’s ability to borrow money affordably to cover things like payroll.
The biggest of the Too Big To Fail Banks is notorious for making life difficult for anyone not going along with their political goals.
That bank deserved to die. Some of the mergers which put it together, like with Barnett, Florida’s largest independent bank at the time, were questionably legal.
>>Many of the immigrants have fake documentation. If I hire somebody for a day job, do I have to check their papers ?
Silly question…of course you’d have to check them…and you should be asking what the penalty is if you don’t catch any that are fake.
re: Checking papers
Since 1988 or so, Form I-9 is a requirement.
So yes, employers are supposed to be checking papers. For decades now.
re: truck toppers
My 1989 F-150 came to me with a camper shell installed. It was not quite water tight, and while it was lockable, sort of, it was far from secure.
Within a month of buying my new 2023 F-150, I had a 4 piece foldable tonneau installed. I like it. It’s not completely waterproof, but it’s reasonably secure. I keep a tote of tools and supplies back there.
Pro tip: Don’t put your jumper cables in the locked back end of your truck with an electric tailgate. You can unlock the driver’s door with a physical key, and then the hood to access the battery, but you can’t get to the back end without power.
I’m happy with my Starlink. Sure, the deal with free equipment with a year contract would have been nice. But the various local wISPs charge about the same to install as the price of the Starlink hardware.
It’s just “who is climbing on a ladder?”
I paid $250 for the current wISP to install back in 2019. It was about $350 for Starlink this past May. Six years, an extra hundred bucks, an extra $30 a month, and JUST a speed boost from about 60 down on a good day up to an almost consistent 250 down. By the way, how’s the price of groceries in your area?
Speed? I’ve seen as fast as 348×32. But that’s on Moa and not in the house. The Nanobeams slow it down to around 250 down, it’s the Nanobeam hardware, I know. Plus it depends on the weather, a humid day lowers the speed. Plus we had some rain and I really need to hack down some brush that has grown and is blocking a clear view. But Starlink always works. Even when it’s raining so hard your windshield wipers are useless, I still get 40 down while the wISP connection simply goes down. And the wISP going down? That’s about when over the air TV pixelates away. DirecTv is gone long before that.
No complaints. Would buy again.
I’ve looked at the folding covers for my truck. I haven’t found one that looks good to me. Also, like I need another place for the cats to gather with their muddy footprints tracking up the windshield? On the driver’s side, not the passenger side. Of curse.
Err, I meant “of course”. But “curse” works.
Yeah…. electric tail gates. I’m not sure what that is. But I have power locks. My tailgate has a lock. I suppose to slow thieves from stealing the tailgate for the camera that you can buy on Big River for about $60. There is wiring for the camera but there is no power lock.
The freaking sides and tailgate are so tall on recent trucks, even at 6ft I can’t reach over the side and reach the bed. The camera is needed because of that. It makes hooking up the trailer easier too.
I keep thinking I’d like a tonneau cover for my Ranger, especially to hide stuff, but too often I have every inch of it filled past the brim and a cover would get in the way.
Dad had one on his full size chevy, and a bed rug, but he rarely put anything back there other than golf clubs.
n
Fell asleep in the chair. Got nothing done.
Grrr.
n
This weeks episode of ST:SNW was a real stinker. They tried to showcase “LT. Ortegas”. Not a very good actor, but I guess it was the Hispanics turn to be showcased. I think every ST trope was used. Blech.
The obvious thing to do is to identify the guilty party. Might I suggest Jamie Dimon? That slimy SOB has committed enough offenses that it wouldn’t surprise me.
Don’t the hard ones usually fold up against the back window so you can stack things high in the bed, except for maybe six inches?
Yeah, but there is also the question of interaction with the lumber rack. I use it more often than any cover I can imagine.
n
Sounds to me like you need a trailer, probably a full enclosure.
Bonus: When (not if) the girls get obnoxious, you can toss an air mattress into the trailer and tell the offending party to sleep there tonight.
I have the one episode from the latest season directed by Jonathan Frakes, but I’m not in a big hurry to watch.
The sooner Kurtzman Trek ends and Skydance starts the rebuilding process, the better.
Don’t encourage them by sailing the high seas to view the entire season.
A nap is an excellent accomplishment. You’ll appreciate that more when you hit 70.
Head ‘em up! Move ’em out! … with a robot?
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/09/06/robots-are-herding-cattle-but-real-wyoming-wranglers-say-they-cant-replace-them/
LOL! tRump holds a party in the new Rose Garden and PLT heads are exploding. Pettiness will lose you the mid-terms. Even the Dumbo’s are sick of it.
“Burning Hybrid Toyota RAV4 Wrecks a Sydney House”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/09/06/burning-hybrid-toyota-rav4-wrecks-a-sydney-house/
“The Toyota RAV4 has a 18.1KWh battery according to online specifications – significantly less than full battery EVs, but significantly more than the 0.5 – 0.8KWh of a normal automobile battery. In addition that 18.1KWh is a lithium battery, while most automobile batteries still use far safer lead acid battery technology.”
“Obviously this is breaking news, investigation might discover the fire was not caused by the lithium battery. But even if the battery didn’t start the fire, a battery a quarter the size of a pure electric vehicle battery would likely have added to the intensity of the fire.”
“I’m not an expert on vehicle fires, but I once owned a gasoline vehicle which caught fire with a full tank. My vehicle fire didn’t look like the vehicle in the picture. The back of my vehicle burned, after the rear fuel tank ruptured, but the front of the vehicle was almost untouched.”
“The question I’m sure we’re all asking, how long will insurance companies continue to put up with this risk? Because it wouldn’t surprise me if hybrids with such large batteries are actually more dangerous than EVs. If the gasoline portion of the vehicle has the normal risk profile of a gasoline engine, and the large EV scale battery carries the normal risk of an EV, then surely the risk such a hybrid vehicle will spontaneously explode is the sum of both sets of risks.”
EVs and Hybrids might become uninsurable in the not so distant future. The liability is almost infinite. Say if your vehicle took out a cargo ship of a thousand feet (325 meters). Or if your vehicle took out a 60 story building, collapsing it onto another 50 story building.
A nap is an excellent accomplishment. You’ll appreciate that more when you hit 70.
I wish that I could nap at 65. I lost the ability to nap when I was 5 when I broke my arm and spent 6 weeks in traction.
Everything Toyota builds based on that TNGA platform is a hybrid now.
The 2.5 L 4 cylinder system on its own can get decent gas mileage, but the hybrid is about replacing the V6 which used to be optional in the Camry, RAV4, and Highlander.
I can get more than 500 miles of range out of may 2018 non-hybrid Camry driving long distance.
Our 2025 hybrid rental in California showed 600 miles of range estimated when we filled up in Palm Springs before flying out.
Amazing, but that comes at a cost. Base price on the Camry now is over $28k while my LE was $20k new just seven years ago.
Amazing, but that comes at a cost. Base price on the Camry now is over $28k while my LE was $20k new just seven years ago.
Any price is worth it to get better mileage out of today’s vehicles for these people. Pretty soon, all vehicles will be plugin hybrids.
and since they can turn off you power remotely, (which means they eventually WILL because if they can, they will), they can control your mobility.
Solar, off grid to beat that, but how long will you be able to fight around the restrictions?
n
One of the tunes the marching band played reminded me of a song from the Toys soundtrack. I love that disc. Listening tonight, and looking at the artist list, I guess I know why.
Seems a lot of the albums I like are pretty meloncholy…
n