Still more of the same. It got perilously close to raining late yesterday, so we might get some today, but otherwise, cool to start, warming to hot. Humidity seemed higher yesterday too.
So of course I worked outside in the afternoon. Sometimes I think my momma did raise at least one fool… But, I did get some stuff done. The walkway to the front door of the house has been a tripping hazard for a while, and really needed repair. I’d bought the mortar some time ago, and the bags were sitting on the porch waiting.
I finally got the kid to pressure wash the flagstones and the mortar joints, and I did some filling last month. I did a bunch more yesterday. There is still some to do, but I have to see if the remaining bag is mortar or cement or concrete. I used up the open bag and called it quits for now.
There are many things on the list, and fixing some of the holes in the walk has been far down the list for a year or more, but things have come together to move it to the “just get it done and move on to the next thing” part of the list. The bucket was there, the mortar was there, the walkway was there. And now it’s about 90% repaired.
Today I’ve got pickups to do. I’ve been bidding on less, and not really trying to win most things- just putting in a “you stole it” bid, since prices are low at the moment. I still managed to win some stuff that falls in the ‘preps’ category, as well as some day to day household stuff. I’m working on spending less time driving around to do pickups, as I finally realized that was where all my time was going. I know, sometimes I am not really ready to face the obvious truth.
Never the less, I will have some pickups this week, and some today. Unfortunately, today’s is one of the farthest away, and not really combine-able with any other pickups. I’ve been trying to not bid much with that auction house, but sometimes the deal is too good to pass up, and they often have really low prices. It’s easier to not bid in auctions that always seem to sell stuff for too much money. Not so easy when they almost give stuff away.
I’m still stacking stuff, although most of it isn’t food anymore. And most of it is tweaks and refinements of what I’ve already got stacked. For example, I’m bidding on the 220v combiner kit for my two honda es3000i generators. That would be a nice addition, especially if it was cheap. I don’t need it, but it would expand my capabilities. There are a lot of things like that. Especially things related to infrastructure.
Power generation, storage, and conversion. Drinking water preparation and storage. Waste handling. Comms. Infrastructure. And for here, not just at the BOL. Medical stuff is high on my list for stacking too. In the last few weeks a bunch of syringes, needles, bandages, and useful books have been added to the stacks. It’s a deep prep, and definitely in the ‘I never want to have to use this stuff’ pile. But it’s cheap now, precious in the right situation, and impossible to improvise. Exactly the stuff to stack after your basic needs are met.
So keep an eye open for stuff that you might need, and can’t readily get. Stack it when you can.
nick
Monday, last night in Munich. Heading to the airport tomorrow, 4.5 hours on the train. Then a night in hotel close to the airport. We get into Atlanta about 3:00 PM. We will have to endure rush hour to get to the hotel north of Atlanta to spend the night. That 3:00 PM arrival is 9:00 PM our biological clock and I am not driving 4 hours home that tired.
Four pretty crazy weeks coming up. Wife and neighbor comment “aren’t you rites now?” It’s just two part-time teaching gigs overlapping, so very temporary, but still…
Picked up my mulrifocal toric contacts today. Will try them tonight…
@brad, good luck with the torics, they felt like having dimes in my eyes to me…
@ray, safe travels, at every step.
——–
Kids are extra surly this am.
75F and 80%RH
Tea in the mug. Tea first then coffee later did seem to even out my afternoon, so I’m trying it again this week.
n
Welcome to the party son. Glad you could join us.
n
n
Do not fire “warning shots”.
– street level political violence.
n
Finnish President: Today’s World Echoes “1918, 1945, Or 1989”
When you look at the chart, with a little squinting you can see that we should have started regime change around 2019. We’re a little late, maybe because of the whole “no two countries with McDonalds have ever attacked each other” global trade thing.
I consider the previous period of change to be from just before WWI to just after WWII. The chart puts another period in there, but that’s kinda artificial to my thinking. The UK fell, and the US rose over 25 years. Roughly. The world looked very different after WWII.
We’re still seeing the transition shape up after the fall of the USSR, and the rise of China. That’s not done playing out.
n
That makes no sense. Translation error? Story writer trying to fake gravitas?
Unless somehow the “per capita” thing refers all the way back to artillery in the prior phrase.
I’d guess it was a result of writing one thing, changing her mind, and going back to change it but doing it incompletely. Second guess is that an editor started to rewrite.
On the plus side, we can be pretty sure that it wasn’t written by a LLM because they usually produce correct grammar.
“English M[ellon]F[armer], do you speak it?”
– gonna be an everyday question now. Remember the ‘witness’ they called in the Zimmerman trial that literally couldn’t speak a coherent sentence? The girl who got to adulthood without being able to express herself in english, despite being born to english speakers, and being in an english speaking environment, and graduating from english speaking schools? (well a dialect of english anyway)
There are youtubers and tickytackers who use the same vernacular english dialect that are speaking almost complete gibberish compared to standard english, yet they are communicating with their audience. The ‘witness’ couldn’t even do that.
n
My energy has been in toilet for tge whole summer. I haven’t done much on my to do list.
With winter on its way I was forced to address the rabbitry. While the rabbits themselves were clean, manure had accumulated. with my husband lending moral support and practical aid by using a propane torch to burn hair off wire, I fully removed the manure. Husband gets a gold medal for distributing the manure about the yard. Only had the four adults and a single litter of six this year so while it was bad, it certainly could have been worse.
Glad it’s done.
Also planted a couple bags of bulbs in an existing raised bed – that was easy as I literally dumped the bag, adjusted the bulbs to right side up, then shoveled on dirt. And manure.
Dug potatoes from one of the raised beds out front. I lacked the gumption to plant flowers this spring and instead shoved a bunch of potatoes into the beds that would typically have my annuals. Kept the weeds at bay and was lovely and green, if unconventional . Not a great yield but more than nothing. Two more beds to do.
Rainy seasons here. The window trim and siding isn’t getting done this year. next spring. For sure.
I had the house to myself Saturday midday so I pulled out my loud instruments and instruments at which I kind of suck and had a grand time creating an unholy racket. Mostly tin whistle and violin. The dogs stayed outside. They don’t appreciate the high pitch of the whistle.
Sound of Music on the big screen last night. First time daughter saw the film, I envy her that she got to experience that first time magic in such a great way.
She didn’t like the minimal kissy face (13 and boys are gross), and has enough history that she understood the political ramifications and parallels to today. That was cool.
The dinner table scene in “The Sound of Music” has a good selection of Whos Who across four decades of sci fi TV and movies, including people behind the camera.
Strangely, it is an important genre film.
”Moulin Rouge” is another good musical to see big but you will have to judge whether the story content is suitable for the kid.
Next year will be a big anniversary year for “Moulin Rouge” so I don’t doubt The Mouse will put it in theaters.
With all the talk of nazzis, the kids need to see Schindler’s List. Need. Not want or will enjoy. The only thing holding me back is I only have a full screen edition, and I ‘d rather they saw it on wide screen.
That word is WAY to easy to throw around.
n
That is strange for The Beard. Are you sure that the DVD isn’t full frame?
The White Hispanic.
Just remember who brought the charges against Zimmerman.
Pam Bondi. Newly elected Attorney General of Florida, under the direction of Governor Rick Scott, RINO-FL.
Ka-Boom!
President Trump Announces Another ‘Kinetic Strike’ on Venezuelan Boat
This is the “real” war on drugs.
Downvoted, I see. Someone’s widdle feefees got hurted.
I got woken several times last night. I was tired enough to go back to sleep each time, which I normally don’t. Today I tried really hard to work on my big, potentially lucrative task despite the brainfog, figuring that doing some crappy work that needs to be redone is better than doing no work. Unfortunately, I looked at the task requirements and the soft expectations and couldn’t figure out what they meant. That’s a bad sign, right? It’s possible, even likely, that there’s some missing information or contradictory requirements, but unlikely that what I read is all gibberish. Yah, pretty sure that’s a bad sign.
Meanwhile, I toted more boxes of crap up and down stairs, took care of tax estimated payments, further helped The Child in her transition to independent adulthood (independence supported by my bank account and multiple messages every day, but she’s making some steps, anyway), and chased down an escapee chicken. Most or all of my pullets are now hens and I have a large supply of small eggs – it takes a while for the hens to start pooping out regular-sized eggs. Oh, and most of the young birds are still perched on the roof most evenings when I go to close up the coop. Maybe once every week or ten days they’ll all be inside the coop but usually three or more need to be brought in. Dumb chickens. (redundancy alert)
… and paying another $995 because someone, not me, screwed up the housing billing. Bah.
@Ray – Mac OS Sequoia 15.7 fixed wish and even stopped the deprecation messages starting tclsh.
Tcl/Tk 9.0 too!
I’ll wait a while on Mac OS 2026 Tahoe.
Who could forget the lovely Rachel Jeantel?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3XPf912-k
(Well, I had, but, given Nick’s description, she was easy to track down! :-D)
That makes me feel a certain kinda way.
Some 503 errors tonight.
n
>>15 September 2025 at 13:00
My energy has been in toilet for tge whole summer. I haven’t done much on my to do list.
@Jenny, are you up to date on your annual physical exam/tests?
Hmm…..Trump was asked about the latest boat strike on alleged drug smugglers, and whether that action was illegal. He said:
Total population in US is about 340 million. I don’t get out much, but I think I would have noticed 90% of the US population gone. And about 62 million people died in the world last year. So that’s not it, either.
Another example of his “Don’t bother me with the facts, here’s the truth’”.
I’m afraid I can’t muster much sympathy for drug runners. It’s a poison which has been allowed and encouraged to flourish for too long.
And while I don’t trust the .gov, I’m not to concerned that the boat might have just been innocent holiday makers.
Not much point in splashing them.
A couple of kinetic strikes on cartel strongholds would be a nice escalation too.
n
“The Inheritance (Breach Wars)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Breach-Wars-Ilona-Andrews/dp/1641973404?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a two book paranormal fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by the Nancy Yost Literary Agency in 2025. I am reading it again already, very unusual for me. I am eagerly awaiting the release of book number two in the series. By the reception on Amazon, many other people are impatiently waiting also.
Ten years ago, the first twelve gates, the breaches, opened on Earth. After a couple of months, all of the gates erupted with monsters who killed thousands of humans. After the army destroyed all of the killer monsters at great cost, many people were discovered to have paranormal talents. Talents for mining in the breaches, talents for shielding, and talents for fighting.
Adaline Moore, Ada, was a worker bee who suddenly became a Talent after the breaches started opening. A talent for finding ore in the breaches. She has been into hundreds of gates but the latest gate is different.
The authors have a website at:
https://ilona-andrews.com/
My rating: 6 stars out of 5 stars (yes, six stars !)
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars (4,546 reviews)
Lynn
What’s illegal is the drugs that were on the boat and the drugs that are being sent in to our country, and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs,” Trump said. “That’s what’s illegal.”
Got URL ?
Several URLs :
AL.com: Trump mocked for latest wildly false claim: ‘Is it time for the 25th Amendment?’
MSNBC News: Why Trump’s math fail on the deadly boat strike was more than just an embarrassing flub
yahoo.com : Trump makes a completely bonkers claim — and everyone laughs
The Independent : Trump claims 300million people died last year from drugs
FactCheck.org: Trump Again Overstates Number of Drug Overdose Deaths in U.S.
…and at least a dozen more (all via Google News – link )
…and I suspect that the reaction to those stories from many here would be different if the same story / situation had “Biden” instead of “Trump”.
Prove me wrong…
“Si vis pacem, para bellum” – the Romans understood this. The West seems to have largely forgotten it. Military service in most European countries is laughed at by young people. In Switzerland, where it is “required”, people work hard to find a way to be declared unfit. Meanwhile, the Swiss military leadership reminds me of what I have read about US military leadership leading up to WWI – complacent, and completely unprepared for anything to actually “go hot”.
As if Biden would have actually done it. He would have probably provided escort all the way to Miami. Hunter would be there waiting to greet them, and collect 10% for the big guy.
I see the PLT’s are very comforted that Trump misspoke and said “million” rather that “thousand”. It distracts them when they can claim that a verbal error is more important than their ownership of 90% of the drug deaths and 90% of the firearms deaths in the U.S. every year.
Ya know, it might have been worthwhile to have Kamala win last November after all. We could have set a record by applying the 25th Amendment to her as president-elect, arrested Tim as a communist spy, and had Johnson as president. We’d be ticking over $40 trillion by the end of the year and be off the grid by the end of 2026 and watching the blue shiiteholes burn.