Cool again. Moist. Then hotter later. It’s kinda boring, but the trend is cooler. We could use some rain though, and I can’t believe I’m even saying that here in the swamp. We do get droughts though.
I did get my major stuff done yesterday, but nothing extra. I spent too much time not working. A sore back is an excuse, but isn’t the whole story.
Today will be a bit different. I have to do some of the things in the morning, so I have to leave the house. Some of the things could happen in the afternoon, but I’d like to have time to do some work around the house. I’ll TRY to get done early.
D2 will be home since this is a four day weekend at school. W and D1 and Xtra1 are at the BOL. D2 is here because of school activity on Saturday. That’s right, in the middle of a 4 day weekend. Who the heII thinks that is ok? They don’t work for our benefit, but I don’t know how it benefits them either.
In any case, I’ve got stuff to do today, then my non-prepping hobby Saturday while D2 does her thing. Not much time for preps or anything else, unless I’m very disciplined. Anyone taking bets??
Stack something.
nick
The VA.
Caleb Hammer on YouTube frequently cites a stat that the VA benefits are 2% of the Federal budget.
Screw your freedoms!
The trailer for Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” drops hints that Ahhhhnold may appear, possibly as … President?!? … but his career is done otherwise.
If you want to try a tank for yourself, this place used to advertise heavily on the big San Antonio talk station up until around the 2018 Midterms. I thought that they had gone out of business.
https://www.drivetanks.com/
Disney World tickets are going up to $200 per day before the Lightning Lane shakedown.
https://piratesandprincesses.net/disney-jacks-up-pricing-on-walt-disney-world-tickets-parking-lighting-lane-and-more/
Will the Bankruptcy court sell the property in one piece or will it be divided between multiple buyers?
And how much of the federal budget goes to welfare and support leaches who gave nothing to the country?
Crazy. Going back, for us, keeps getting lower on the priority list. My wife can no longer go on rides where there is sudden neck motion potential, so that takes a lot of the fun out of it. Plus, there are so many other places to see. A two week trip to Europe (excluding airfare) is roughly the same price as a week long Disney trip. I’m not saying we will never go again, but it isn’t likely in the near future.
Of course, the exception is if we eventually get grandkids. Then it’s almost guaranteed once they hit 5. Hopefully that is several years away yet…
“Hey, kids, the parrot in the bar talks.”
“Can we go see Super Mario now?”
The VA is still a bloated mess.
Hammer cites the stat on his show because he has yet to interview anyone involved with military service who is not on VA Disability, discharged, retired, or even, in one recent case, still on active duty.
Most of the cases he presents are suspect, but Hammer leaves it up to the audience to decide after stating the facts.
I live not far from a major international airport. GPS and cellphone signals regularly drop out, are turned off or are jammed. Usually because there are VIP flights arriving or leaving. These days, it could also be the Russians and drones, of course.
My insurance paid up for the fang cleaning earlier in the week. They covered 80%, not 85% as I had thought. Still not much out of pocket for nice shiny fangs, maybe the price of a beer.
Thanks, Mr. AtoZ!!
Best wishes. In court, as on the high seas, one is in God’s hands alone.
Unions. Hah!
A friend was a machinist at Oak Ridge National Labs. He told me of an incident where a really expensive machine went berserk, either from incorrect settings, or bad karma. The machine started doing significant damage. He and his coworkers were not allowed to disconnect power, as in pull the plug. All they could was watch the machine completely destroy itself. They weren’t electricians, they were machinists. If they had pulled the plug there would have been a grievance filed against them.
The office I worked in Oak Ridge had half a dozen offices with the facility managed by Martin Marietta. The offices needed painting. First the labor crew had to come and remove the furniture. Then the electricians had to come and remove the wall plates. Then the painter arrived. When the painting was done the process was reversed. It took two weeks because of scheduling the labor forces. Meanwhile, my office, not managed by a union organization, was painted in a day.
When I was with EDS we went to a trade show in San Antonio. EDS was located in San Antonio so no real travel. We had to have a display booth shipped from Dallas. When it arrived we needed one union crew to remove the crate from the truck. Another union crew to move the crate from the loading dock to inside the building. Another union crew to move the crate from inside the building to our booth location. Another union crew to unpack the crate. We set up the booth ourselves. Our biggest mistake was plugging in the power for the computer system. A grievance was filed against us because that was the job of the electrical union.
When the show was over the reverse had to happen. Each time we had to pay a minimum of four union workers a minimum of four hours. Even though most of the work took less than 15 minutes. Repeat that for several vendors that had stuff shipped in and the workers made dozens of times their normal hourly rate. Four hours pay, repeated eight times in one days is a lot of money wasted.
I was at a computer site, a bank, when I worked for Burroughs. I needed a tape mounted, so I mounted the tape. A grievance was filed against me because that was the job of the operator, not the support personnel. I was supposed to find an operator and let them mount the tape. But they were all on their coffee break and could not be bothered.
I posted this on yesterdays page but didn’t anyone top over look it.
My dad was a welder. During WWII he worked for the Navy. After WWII he worked for Kaiser building electrical plants and others companies in the San Francisco bay area. He was a strong union guy and had joined the Boiler Makers union before being hired by the Navy. He didn’t let his membership lapse.
At one job he needed to move his welder and did so . The electrician’s union filed a grievance against him. They wouldn’t talk to him, refused to hear his explanation. At the hearing the next afternoon, when it was his turn to talk he didn’t say a word, just laid his electricians union card that he had for years in front to the man hearing the complaint.
The hearing resulted in him getting a full apology and a pay raise. He went back to working for the government as soon as he could. He helped build every nuclear sub built in California.
When he retired, he got a small pension from both unions.
That convention center fills a lot of soup/rice bowls.
The only time I’ve seen them reverse course on bureaucracy was in 2021, when Abbott issued an executive order to reject the liquor license renewal of any venue requiring vaccination to enter.
That got the city’s attention.
73F and sunny. 61F at the BOL.
————
Trade shows and exhibits are a special kind of union heII. I dealt with them for years. The division of the pie can be contentious and seem ridiculous, but it was the regs and rules for one organization that I was thinking of.
There is a lot of dead wood and kruft that could be cleared out of almost any industry older than 20 years. It’s why IBM and Xerox couldn’t invent the personal computer. They could develop it, and exploit it, but industries with thick rule books don’t innovate.
———–
nice to sleep in a bit, but time to get my day going.
n
Over the years we took our business to places that either had friendlier unions, or less union involvement.
Philly was a good example. LONG list of unions involved, contention on site, crazy demands. They got us ONCE. Then our client was more than happy to consider venues that wouldn’t bend us over and violate us.
King of Prussia was close enough for the attendees, and we had ONE friendly union to deal with.
n
Unions.
My father was briefly a member of the pipefitters union in 1940, before he joined the Navy.
Fast forward to the early 1970s gas crisis and he loses his white collar insurance job.
He applies to Kaiser Steel and gets the job, because he was still a member (apparently it was for life in those days). They are making offshore oil rigs.
Our family standard of living doubled.
He bought a house, a new car, and never went back to an office job.
“The Irish government has informed the EU they will not comply with a demand to force hate speech laws on the public. “
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/10/in-an-amazing-step-into-the-light-irish-inform-eu-we-will-not-comply-n3807701
”Hate speech” defined as anything an anti-Christian zealot, communist, GAYPOC, LBGQRST activist or Mohammedan does not want to hear.
Xerox invented the Mac/Windows model for personal computing, including the network and printing infrastructure as well as OO programming, but they failed to understand what they possessed at the time.
The last chapter of the IBM PC case study has yet to be written. God help us all if a court decides that an API can be copyrighted.
An explosive manufacturing plant in middle TN has gone boom. Rapid disassembly of the building and probably the same fate as the 19 people that are missing. Someone made a minor mistake. In explosive manufacturing there is no room for error.
Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence.
Probably true. But unlike the idiot 3 letter agencies and cops, I won’t rule out terrorism or other sabotage before an actual investigation.
Chuck and the Boys closed it up until Tuesday.
Nice long weekend to get some work done:
Here We Go: Russ Vought’s Big Announcement About Gov’t Jobs Being Cut Because of Shutdown
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/10/10/vought-announces-jobs-being-cut-because-of-the-shutdown-n2194939
Put away the fingernail clippers and get out the axe.
Start with 80,000 IRS agents hired by Biden*.
Get NASA out of the climate zealot business.
Get the EPA out of the “CO2 is a pollutant” business.
Shiitecan every federal employee across all departments that was involved in violation of First Amendment rights, participated in lawfare against officials running for office, or was involved in enforcement actions that inappropriately used the application of deadly force.
Judges have a lifetime appointment, but their staffs do not. Zero the staff budgets for the 20% most-reversed federal judges.
*Some of them could be offered auditing jobs in other departments. Every elected government official and employee that has a federally backed loan should have the file checked for the popular “primary residence” error, and any that are behind on student load payments should voluntarily have 100% of any increases going forward directed to student load service unless they want to be RIF’ed.
The small buildings where the grinding and compounding was done at the DuPont black powder works along the Brandywine River in Delaware had blowout walls that faced the river.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleutherian_Mills
I’m sure the DuPont archives contains records of the losses. I wonder if any buildings were “luckier” than others?
So….. I had a range hood. It looked like s(h)irty carp after 30 plus years. I never could get the grunge off and it was rusting. What the hey, it was a cheap range hood back in 1980.
I ordered a fancy one. Chinese and Stainless Steel. Fully screened underneath (and dishwasher safe screens) and with LED lights. That will fit with some white trash carpentry and look rather too white trash even for me. Think “picture frame under the cabinet and hood mound to picture frame”. I’m going to give it away.
I ordered this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AMGV92?tag=ttgnet-20
Same as the original. Almost. The switches are different and don’t have much “click”. The front edge is rounded instead of a square bend. But it comes with the parts needed to vent through the wall. And to cover the louvers that vent into the house. That’s worth the extra $8 over the lower model.
I open the box and there is a dent front and center. Beyond my skill with a hammer because the vent louvers are bent. too.
Off to Big River to start a return. During the process I get this message:
“Would you like to keep the item and get a partial refund instead?
If you choose to keep it, we’ll refund you $16.34, plus any applicable tax.”
Interesting. But no. I can’t fix the damage. I can’t hide the damage. Send another hood.
THEN I took the hood out of the box. I still have the old hood. It’s even more rusted than it was a year ago. Smells like a cat pissed on it, too. But back to back, all of the mounting screw slots match. The cover for the wiring is silver metal on the new hood and painted black on the old hood. Same filters.
So maybe I will or maybe I won’t vent through the wall. I’m really having a problem with cutting a hole in the wall. But I can simply replace the old hood and be done.
Assuming I can get a new and undamaged in shipping hood.
Such exciting, right?
I maintain that a small group at Xerox invented the GUI and a pointing device. They did not invent the personal computer.
———
Home from my pickups. Got a 12v fridge/freezer shaped like a cooler. I have to see if that runs. Some boat stuff. Some hobby stuff. Lots of driving today.
Now to get some home stuff done.
n
The pointing device predated Xerox.
PARC researchers created bitmapped graphics, object-oriented software, the laser printer, Ethernet, PostScript, the Model-View-Controller GUI application model, and VLSI – everything necessary for Apple to create the Mac and Microsoft to subsequently “extend and embrace” for Windows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto
“Personal computer” is a matter of perspective.
I was able to play sysop on an IBM 360 several times when I was in high school. Does having one person calling all the shots make it “personal”? Does it require ownership?
Our phones have more computing power than the original PC’s, or even 8th gen PC’s from 10-15 years ago and can run similar software. Why are they not personal computers?
Xerox PARC revolutionized the user interface. Steve Jobs recognized the potential, paid for it, and used it to shape computing according to his own vision. BillG’s response was to steal everything he could and send people a worthless mouse with an extra button. Steve wouldn’t acknowledge his own child; Bill thinks he should eat Kobe while everyone else eats bugs. Neither of them are admirable human beings.
Gates was a frequent flyer on the Lolita Express, and his needle kink gave us the pandemic kabuki.
– administrivia – his page counter only counts people that click on the permalink header, not if they read the post in its entirety on the main page. IE it undercounts his reach.
n
Shades of “I, Pencil”:
Why Simple Everyday Objects Are Impossible to Make
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj0ze8GnBKA
The evolution of engineering and why rebuilding civilization would be… hard.
“AT&T Switches on Standalone 5G Nationwide, Unlocking Future Network Slice Services”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/att-switches-on-standalone-5g-nationwide-unlocking-future-
“AT&T has lit up a major upgrade to its 5G network that you may not notice on your phone immediately, but which may already have improved service to your Apple Watch. It should also unlock non-trivial improvements to its overall wireless service.”
“The nationwide standalone 5G that the carrier announced Wednesday essentially unchains that service from 4G LTE, allowing devices to connect to the network without first requiring a setup via AT&T’s older and slower network.”
I guess that it is just a matter of time before the 4G network is turned off.
ca. 1980, I interviewed at Sundstrand Aviation for a gig to assemble F-14 APUs. I was shown a desk sized work area to do the one off assembly of a some dozens of parts into a functional, completed aviation grade APU. For the time, $8.00/hour was decent money. No mass production, assembly line here!
I do wonder how the Russians are maintaining their Soviet era ICBM fleet, perhaps a thousand rockets and warheads. Published reports suggest Russia’s GDP is less than 5% of ours and their defense budget runs perhaps 6% of ours, less Ukraine operations.
The aging Minuteman 3’s are due to be replaced with a new missile at well north of a $100 billion. That’s assuming they can recycle the silos and command centers, not necessarily a given.
==========
I do understand the difficulty in punching a 6-8″ hole thru the exterior wall for a range hood. OTOH, the recirculating grease trap models are really only a half step better than useless. With the gripping hand, that is the only kind I’ve ever had.
The Chevron refinery in Kakafornia is burning today.
Yep. I have whatever blocked now that my views don’t increase the count anymore.
Divemedic ain’t no Remus. But he’s borderline….
Divemedic brings a real world lived experience that I like as well as a thoughtfulness for the big picture.
n
Kinda funny that two of my daily reads are male ER nurses.
n
BOL.
Commander Zero may be zeroing in on his BOL. And Aesop found his and is starting the money/time sink process…
As John Wilder is fond of saying, GET OUT. A year early is better than a day late.
n
There are a lot of how -to videos on YouTube for that, from people putting in mini splits, if that’s any help.
More like 4″ though.
Cut 12″ hole.
Shim.
Can I say “I hate you”?
At my high school, La Joya, Texas, the BIG tech was the Xerox 720ii (I think) in the High School library. It was the ONLY copier for the entire school district.
And when the copier crapped, and it did often, folks got upset. I have no clue what they were paying but the Xerox tech dudes were based in Corpus Christi. I hung out in the library. Reshelve books and get to read all of the new books before anyone? Win. But the copier pukes and the Xerox guy shows up some random day after a couple of weeks?
Well. Me being me had to go looking. There were directions inside the machine. Do this and do that and do not touch the drum. Wipe the rubber rollers with a damp cloth to clean off the paper lint.
I got to be friends with that Xerox machine. I’d pull guts out and clean with alcohol and (on my on) a drop of 3-One oil in a few spots. Heck. I got pulled from class a few times to fix the machine.
One day I had the machine gutted. Really gutted. Parts all over. Oh, and here suddenly is Mr 23 year old Xerox Dude gonna give me shit after THREE weeks of me calling for service. Me calling. Because everyone else had given up. Yeah, man, go talk to Mr. Salinas, the principal, while I put baby together.
I put it all back together. Powered up. Used the Xerox test copy page. Hit print and the copy was perfect. Mr Xerox Dude was impressed. Mr. Salinas was like “that what he does”.
Funny. Calling Xerox was never more than a 5 day wait after that…
Hey. I hated HS school. I was done at 10th grade. Gee, ya think an hour and a half to school on the bus and and hour and half back home might matter.
But hanging around the library, because while Shop with welding and shit would have been more fun, I wasn’t from there and didn’t speak that Spanish. Nice guys but I didn’t fit. It was all cool all around. So, Library. Messing with books, and A/V stuff. Yeah, film projectors and overhead projectors. And record players not working right. The Xerox machine was just more.
Gotta say. In 11th grade, the librarian had to go out sick. I don’t know why. But back to China or somewhere. Guess who ran the library for a few months?
And I mean, ordering books and all of it. Nah. I didn’t get paid. But I didn’t have to go to any classes.
My mother worked in the payroll office of an explosives plant in Scotland after WWII. In one of the infrequent discussions of her early life, she mentioned that matches of any kind were not allowed on the lines because they would induce an explosion. I have no idea what the product or process was, but I do remember she said at least once or twice a month someone would find out the hard way. Injuries common, deaths frequent. No room at all.
Seen online:
“The Kindle copy I have looks like somebody quit checking for OCR typos somewhere around part 3.”
I’ve seen more than a few books like that. Most recently there was one that left the reviewer and proofreaders comments in.
from wiki:
Inasmuch as the federal government had no such restriction for 204 years, and continues to receive tax payments during a shutdown, the reasoning is at least suspect if not outright specious.
I would argue that the obligation of the executive to perform constitutionally mandated function continues irrespective of the failure of the legislative branch to perform their function. I also note that congress is somehow exempt and that their paychecks continue.
Trump should ignore Civiletti’s opinion. Remember “provide for the common defense”? It’s in the Preamble, but sounds pretty mandate-ee to me. Pay the troops.
Shop jurisdictions and find a conservative judge to issue a nationwide injunction that “essential” workers cannot be required to work without pay. Then pay them.
Then let’s see if Democrats in congress want the optics of filing suit to withhold paychecks, when they themselves are getting paid.
Note that judicial workers get paid as long as the courts can run on filing fees and other monies that they have coming in. Seems that the executive should be able o make the same argument. But what is the basis for paying congress? Where does the legislative brnch receive payments from anything–at least anything public and legal .
Prepare for Another Leftist Meltdown: Report That John Bolton May Be Charged As Early As Next Week
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/10/10/bolton-action-coming-next-week-n2194949
Goody.
“News from the ED”
https://areaocho.com/news-from-the-ed/
“Working in emergency medicine has convinced me that far too many people have Main character syndrome.”
Yup. I was getting my mother’s prescriptions today at HEB and a guy on an store electric buggy tried to cut the line. He definitely had the syndrome.
And yes, he did not need the buggy to walk.
Tested the 12v cooler. Works! It looks like this one with a different name.
https://www.amazon.com/Alpicool-Portable-Refrigerator-Vehicle-Freezer/dp/B073WTNRJ2?tag=ttgnet-20
All the chinese copies of the dometic look similar.
Has scrapes on the outside, and had food stain inside, but the power cords were sealed in a box. Maybe they tried it as an ice chest? Or they read ‘battery’ and thought there was one built into the cooler?
Anyway, I paid about 10% of retail and it got cold to 39F in about 20 minutes.
I’m happy. One more 12v way to keep stuff cold, or in this case, frozen.
Layers of preps.
——–
Time for some reading and a tiny little fire.
n
I was working on my errand list this afternoon and cut it short, leaving the last three for tomorrow. Need to check the underside of the truck for the asshole magnet, and slip it to someone else first thing.
There were about ten thousand traffic cones set up on roads around a local mall. No real work, just finishing painting the lines. Taking one lane out of a two-lane road and watching the traffic try to get through a light as it backs up for blocks must be a main source of amusement for the orange truck sleepers. Had two vehicles pile into a half-closed lane at a light and try the forced merge b.s. First one got a long honk from the mini-bus in front of me and mister I’m-important-and-in-a-hurry suddenly had time to pop out and show off his middle fingered spittle spraying.
Finally got out of the zone and had a flocktard in a Chebby pu-pos pull into my left lane while I’m doing 50+ and he’s doing 35. I merged in front of him at the left turn onto the highway and he was still looking at his phone when I lost him in the rearview.
Add 20mph and the same thing happened on the highway. Honda minvan. At least it wasn’t more German eurotrash. They all have the pricks on the inside nowadays.
BEWARE! FLASHLIGHTS AHEAD!!!
Picked up some 3-packs of “Bobcat” LED COB lights like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/257139602775
With tax less than $3 each. Charged one up and it is bright. Comes with USB-A to USB-C cords for each one. Magnet on back, ‘beener at top. Charging port has water-resistant rubber plug and switch is rubber sealed.
I’m going to stash one each in the door pockets of all the vehicles (cord into the console) , where cheap AAA flashlights already live, add one to each briefcase, range bag, and backpack, and keep a set in the charging drawer ready to swap out.
And, yup, Christmas is coming.
Had to do a taste test on some caramel corn. $6 for 32-oz and pretty good. Not as good as the 16-oz I bought from the Boy Scouts two weeks ago, but it didn’t tear a $20 hole in my wallet.
Where are all the hurricanes?
None Made Landfall!
Where are all the hurricanes,
they said would kill us this year?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/10/live-at-1pm-edt-where-are-all-the-hurricanes-guest-joe-bastardi-the-climate-realism-show-177/
Close your eyes and imagine Mary Travers screeching it out.
“Feminists Have Discovered “Nose Ring Theory” And They’re Not Happy”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feminists-have-discovered-nose-ring-theory-and-theyre-not-happy
“Nose ring = Bats*** crazy”
Works for both women and men.
Note: stay away from dumbrocrats, they are dangerous.
It just doesn’t get much better than this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1giGNEXhLw
How dare you assume zir gender???
I’ve watched the MCU through Black Panther 2. I ‘m now regretting my life choices.
Nice night. Currently 69F.
W said it got chilly at the BOL.
Shower and bed time. Gotta get the kid to her thing at 545 AM.
On a Saturday. In the middle of a 4 day weekend.
Grrr.
If I oversleep for my non-prepping hobby, I’ll be peeved.
n