Cold and clear, warming later. Should be a nice day. Yesterday was surprisingly warm, and even stayed reasonable until about 11pm when temps started to drop. With the dampness, it was downright chilly. Of course, that makes sense for New Year’s Eve.
Didn’t do much during the day. Did one pickup of two invoices– mostly stuff for the house. Did some other piddly things around the house too.
Not gonna do much today either. I’m thinking that I’ll cook something nice though. It won’t be a traditional New Year’s Day big meal. Maybe a nice beef roast…
It’s traditional to make some resolutions to change, and some predictions for the year, but I just expect more of the same, only worse. At some point, we’ll turn a corner, and there will be optimism and hope but not this year. I think we’ll see more assassinations. More crime. More unrest and political violence. There will be a whole lot of pushback from those exposed and much grasping at straws and attempts to maintain the status quo.
Desperate people do desperate things. Don’t be there if you can avoid it.
And of course, see to your preps and bolster your relationships.
Stack.
nick
Happy new year all, may you have an interesting and unalarming 2026
Thursday. New Year’s Day. Blue skies and sunshine.
Weißwurst breakfast consumed. Now watching the Wiener Philharmoniker New Year’s concert.
May 2026 be a good year, that brings you only what you need and want.
A Happy New Year to us all!
Light rain yesterday, heavy rain this morning.
There were a few bottle rockets and (I assume) fireworks at midnight, but I was in bed by 10pm and only a little bit woken up by the former. I would say more on Christmas Eve, which is weird.
Happy New Year! Well last night was different. Daughter and family went to stay at sister-in-laws house at the beach (empty) so not with us since Sunday evening. Makes if very calm around here. We had another couple over for dinner and they left about 10 and we both went to bed about 11. I didn’t make it to 12. Up early as usual before 5.
Even odder is I didn’t even have a beer yesterday. In fact not since before Christmas. I don’t drink like I use to but not abstaining either.
Plenty of rain here. Some wind this morning too. Thursday is lawn day and the gardener took last week off but tells me they’ll be out today. Need to remove the blowups out front. Wet!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BBa_ioZJcWQnKQoi7glEyZWLcp7SNIdq/view?
also don’t try a stupid shortcut for a tie down.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d3TqV-m2GrljsFwlWZV8wGbmlHSdDau6/view?usp=sharing
That repair will wait for dryer weather
@Nick – Any chance that the halfway house next door is fraudulent?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xwk9siSSxko
It is a damp Rose Parade, but people seem to be enjoying it.
Blew my earlier links. Did not set sharing correctly
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BBa_ioZJcWQnKQoi7glEyZWLcp7SNIdq/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d3TqV-m2GrljsFwlWZV8wGbmlHSdDau6/view?usp=sharing
Well a lovely afternoon it is. Coffee is delicious.
It was 3am by the time I got home, finished here, showered, and got to bed, and I was still too up to sleep. Reading for an hour did the trick. So I’m very late getting up today. Still the first person into the kitchen…
Sunny and clear, didn’t look at the thermometer yet.
Now for more coffee.
n
65F diggory dees… and nice in the sun.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15426855/Moment-ceiling-catches-fire-sparking-inferno-killed-40-people-injured-100-Swiss-luxury-nightclub-witness-describes-seeing-people-burning.html
– Jesus wept. Have we not learned ANYTHING?
Not terrorism, stupidity.
n
Another nightclub/disco fire. Very sad.
One more tragedy for the long list.
Nightclubs are good places not to be. Teach your kids and grandchildren about emergency exits and what to do if there is a fire and/or a stampede.
More Seattle-based Somali daycare fraud. Public housing.
Eventually, one of the amateur reporters will end up dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiL5LObJGNU
>>It’s not a virus. It’s a SUPER virus from Planet Krypton! Bust out the masks, boys and girls, line up for a mechano-gene-splicing clot shot. Maintain 8′ separation (’cause that’s better than 6′). If you can’t do that, just kill yourself. It’s never going to stop. We’ll have flu season until all birds are dead.
I thought it stops when they start using the mRNA technology to deliver the flu jabs?
“Line forms to the left folks, no need to push, there are plenty of doses to go around. And please, have your papers ready…”
Not to mention they probably built an illegal DNA database from the swabs. Why else would you have to show a valid ID or have a confirmed phone number to get the test? We know they keep at least some of the swabs, because there were articles about retesting early swabs and finding the chinkyflu earlier than anyone knew it was here.
n
More Seattle-based Somali daycare fraud
– scams propagate thru communities as one is successful, then there is a bandwagon effect. I saw it a lot in the Chicago area growing up. There was a wave of insurance fraud when I was in high school. People were looking for someone to “buy”, register and insure sportscars (that were VIN swapped, stolen, or otherwise sketchy) and then one night the car would be “stolen” and any payout would be split. All the patsy would do is damage their credit and insurance score, but would drive a free sportscar for a few months… and then get some money too.
On The Soprano’s, the mob was big into welfare scams, iirc.
n
@greg, does the original news outlet have a thing for Publix?
Florida’s favorite grocery store slammed for ‘criminal’ prices as customers protest ‘ridiculous’ cost of meat
because the image and price are for PRIME TENDERLOIN, and in line with even Costco…
Yes, it’s crazy high, but we’ve been talking about why that is here for a couple of years, and it ain’t because grocery stores are gouging customers.
n
Surprising number of semi-pro fireworks still exploding at 1am… Especially considering that they are illegal within city limits.
They kept on going until 2 am in my neighborhood. My dog does not care so I don’t care. They will be back tonight as soon as the sun goes down.
We watched “Escape to Witch Mountain” after midnight last night on Disney. Great movie with Eddie Albert and cheesy special effects released in 1967.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/escape_to_witch_mountain
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072951/
Ah, nothing like the sounds of lawn mowers on New Years Day.
Yep, mine was here shortly after nine. Mowed, raked leaves and debris up and gone in 20 minutes.
Thursday night, now nearly Friday. Bedtime on New Year’s Day.
Today was relaxed.
Weißwurst for a late-ish breakfast, followed by some reading and a snooze. After that, I got some more of my internet bookmarks tidied up. I even found a few sites I had forgotten about and some small items I want to order.
Dinner was “Böfflamott” (braised beef served in a sweet-savoury port wine sauce). Very tasty. I went a bit decadent and had it with fries instead of Semmelknödel.
Evening Mass to kick off 2026 with some divine assistance can’t have done any harm. There was nice organ music in the church.
More music tomorrow; W1 and I have tickets to see Mozart’s Zauberflöte. Looking forward to that, especially as the last time I saw it live, probably twenty years ago, my comprehension of German was not as good as it is today.
Here are two of my favourite “performances” of music from the Magic Flute…
Patricia Pettibon as the Queen of the Night. You can hear the venom. This has got to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever, but it’s about one of the most horrid of themes- procuring a murder.
Elisabeth Boudreault and Huw Montague Rendall as Papagena and Papageno. The chemistry between these two is palpable. They apparently are now engaged to be married. Huw is definitely one to watch out for as an operatic baritone.
Anyhow, goodnight, and may your 2026 also be filled with nourishment for body and soul, as well as with beautiful music.
Yes. Publix is not a close ally of DeSantis, but the company generally leans Republican.
The Mail writers need to leave their condos in Sunrise – my guess – once in a while.
Greenwise is Publix’ certified organic brand. Of course a tenderloin steak will be expensive.
I also smell a Gecko at work.
Ray Milland. Donald Pleasance. Denver Pyle.
Milland’s best days were behind him, but Pleasance and Pyle went on to bigger and better things late career after “Escape to Witch Mountain”.
Svengoolie has Milland’s “Frogs” and “The Thing With Two Heads” in regular rotation.
That was a huge movie when I was a kid. The original was made in 1967, but “Escape” was 1975.
I think only one woman in a supporting role in the whole movie. And the kids get in an RV with a random guy and no one cares.
n
Data point, 17 year old Ice Wine, even when stored in a cool dark place, doesn’t have any bubbles left. It’s still drinkable as a sweet beverage, but it’s not what it should be.
———
Took down the big santa inflatable, and some lights on the house. It went up in stages, it’ll come down in stages.
———
Refilled three 1 pound propane bottles for my Mr Heaters. I don’t get a full pound in them, only about 9 ounces without a lot of extra time and effort, but it is cheap and simple, and convenient. Plus, the model heater I’m using needs the bottle as part of the structure so using the bulk adapter isn’t possible.
——–
Spent some time pruning the trees and bushes around the back yard.
——–
So I did actually get some small things done today. It was very nice out and seemed a shame to not be out in it.
n
Finally!!!
Experts Say 2025 Was So Hot It Pushed Earth Past Critical Climate Change Mark
Can we give the news cycle a rest now that our doom is sealed without any possible reprieve? People, instead of shelling out to grifters like the Goracle, spend the money on yourself and enjoy the life you have left.*
*Well, maybe there is a little room for more grift.
The grifters always leave room for a “come back” if you only shell out money or do the “right thing”.
Experts Say 2025 Was So Hot It Pushed Earth Past Critical Climate Change Mark
Doldrums. We’ve gone through all the good Christmas movies, and then all the cheesy Christmas movies, then even threw in “The Proposal”, which is a Hallmark-movie-but-with actual-movie-stars rom-com. Which I liked. I’ll admit to a weakness for Sandra Bullock.
But what do I watch now?
We’ve either finished or grown tired of NCIS, Midsommer Murders, Death in whatever, and exhausted most of the others, like Death Valley, Shetland, Vera, and so forth.
I like old movies, but there’s a lot of them you can’t really rewatch, or at least rewatch very often. My Man Godfrey, The Thin Man, It Happened One Night, Some Like It Hot, Philadelphia Story.
I tried Pale Rider, and had to turn it off when the rape scene happened. I also don’t watch movies with suicides, since my GF’s dad did that when she was a kid and I don’t want to tick her off. It occasionally catches us off guard anyway but I avoid it when I can.
I can stretch out our current stash of DVDs because I haven’t actually seen any of the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or Harry Potter movies. To be frank, I don’t actually care to, either. I tried to read Lord of the Rings in middle school and got bored, and I read the first few Potter books until they got too dark and depressing for me.
I just want light entertainment. It can be serious with a light touch, or outright funny, or just quirky.
I think only one woman in a supporting role in the whole movie. And the kids get in an RV with a random guy and no one cares.
n
The kids snuck into the RV without the owners knowledge. And unlike normal kids, these kids were perfectly able of defending themselves.
How about some britcoms? ‘Chef’ with lenny henry was pretty great.
‘Vicar of Dibly’ was entertaining to me and some people love it.
Christmas movie, did you watch ‘Bernard and the Genie’? Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson… one of my favorite lines ever as they walk down the street…
‘Coupling’ surprised me with how much I enjoyed it, and it has some deeper moments too.
I loved a cooking show called “Two Fat Ladies”.
n
If anyone needs to change, it’s everyone around me. I’m practically perfect as I am. No point in me changing because that would make me worse than I am now.
The past few days have been busy and bothersome. SSDD, and now SSDY. Bah.
Cooked some pork shoulder today.
One pot – carnitas, the other pot – apple bourbon sweet pulled pork.
n
I watched the first Harry Potter movie. That was enough, I don’t need to read the book. I have the Lord of the Rings on blu-ray and I just haven’t felt like watching it….. that and the Hobbit stuff was BORING to read. My sisters thought it was great stuff.
Amen. They were awesome.
I read the first five to the sons. By the time the sixth book came out, they were old enough that they didn’t want or need dumb ol’ dad to read to them before bed. The whole family went to see the third movie. I remember nothing of it except the werewolf transformation scene, and that only because the younger son got scared and jumped into my lap, pulling me out of my stupor.
If I’m not mistaken, the last movie I saw in a theater was District 9 over 15 years ago, a crappy sci-fi movie which was in large part a morality play about South African apartheid. (Not related to the movie, but how’s that post-apartheid society working out for you South Africans? Is it everything you hoped for?) A group of about ten teens went as a group. It used to be that a parent could go and vouch that all of the kids’ parents said it was ok to see the rated-R movie but the theater’s policy had changed that at least one parent had to go in with them and stay there for the whole movie. Annoying, but it wasn’t the biggest waste of money and time involved in raising kids.
Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy is really stretching the material, but “The Lord of the Rings” movies are very well done.
“Harry Potter” was impeccably cast and has really cool performances, especially from Alan Rickman as Snape.
The first two “Potter” movies keep things light while the third, “Prisoner of Azkaban” is interesting as an Alfonso Cuaron freak show if you pay attention.
Warner wanted Guillermo Del Toro for “Azkaban”, but he was busy and suggested Cuaron.
“Broadcasting Christmas” if you’re going down the Hallmark Christmas rabbit hole.
I hadn’t read The Lord of the Rings when I watched the movies. I thoroughly enjoyed the movies. Highly recommended. I tried reading it afterwards and couldn‘t get into it. I will try again some day…
The Hobbit is one of the last books I read to my son at night before bed. That was an easy read and a good book. The movies? Not so much. Stretched out to 3 out of greed. 2 short movies would have been perfect.
I agree that in general, the LOTR movies are superlative. They are as true to the source as it’s possible to be, (other than adding women, which you have to do to get the film made), and beautifully realized.
The books have digressions into made up languages and poetry that appealed to me as a nerdy teen, but not any more.
I never thought the HP books were very well written, although the story is mostly entertaining if you don’t look too hard. She was a novice writer after all, and by the time she got the hang of it, she was too famous to edit, so the books got long and full of stuff that would have been better in another series or some short stories. The movies are a hot mess that doesn’t make any sense after about the third one.
I will say, HP got a LOT of people reading that either never did, didn’t read much, or didn’t read long form stuff. As a literate person who enjoys reading for pleasure, I think that is a fantastic thing and a bonus in the world.
n
@lpdbw
Have you watched all the Thin Man movies?
@nick: “How about some britcoms? ‘Chef’ with lenny henry was pretty great.”
Second that.
Add “Good Neighbors”, “To the Manor Born”, “Jeeves and Wooster (Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry)“The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perin”, “Are You Being Served?”, “Keeping Up Appearances”, “The Thin Blue Line”, “Absolutely Fabulous”, “As Time Goes By” (Judi Dench).
“I loved a cooking show called “Two Fat Ladies”.
The Great British Baking Show is a low-key enjoyment.
You recommended Broadcasting Christmas before, and I watched it.
It was exactly what I needed in that kind of movie. So was Secret Santa. So was The Nine Lives of Christmas. Also A Very Vintage Christmas. I even liked A Christmas Romance (1994), with Olivia Newton-John and Gregory Harrison. I think there were a couple of others in there, too, but less memorable. And there were a few that only made it about 10 minutes in before shutting off.
Them’s the breaks. I will admit to being surprised by liking 2 movies with Tia Mowry and another Jacquee Harris. Not my normal cup of tea.
@SteveF
“I’m practically perfect as I am.”
You go along thinking so and then one day find yourself in line at the grocery and a real-life Mary Poppins starts making useful conversation about more effective laundry soap.
@SteveFsays “practically perfect”, but we all know that’s just the modesty talking.
Finally!!!
Experts Say 2025 Was So Hot It Pushed Earth Past Critical Climate Change Mark
Can we give the news cycle a rest now that our doom is sealed without any possible reprieve? People, instead of shelling out to grifters like the Goracle, spend the money on yourself and enjoy the life you have left.*
*Well, maybe there is a little room for more grift.
The grifters always leave room for a “come back” if you only shell out money or do the “right thing”.
Experts Say 2025 Was So Hot It Pushed Earth Past Critical Climate Change Mark
We are all going to die.
The past few days have been busy and bothersome. SSDD, and now SSDY. Bah.
What is SSDD and SSDY ?
SSDD is a common acronym (more precisely, initialism) and easily looked up. SSDY is easily deduced from that. You would know these things if you were
practicallyperfect.Speaking of British we watched Ricky Gervais’ Mortality on Netflix tonight. I liked it, W1 not as much. Judy Dench and a ‘minge’ joke explained for non-Brits (I get it)
Vaguely Christmas movie: Trading Places with Ackroyd and Murphy. Murphy is over the top, well they all are. Still fun.
I liked Ackroyd in Coneheads but it took until my last viewing to hear “Bluntskulls” instead of what I took to be the nonsensical “Bloodskulls”. Ackroyd’s boss gave excellent business advice: cash only. <smirk>
Riddle has left a new comment on the post “Sure makes you think, doesn’t it?“:
“It’s not water boarding if you use used motor oil.”
“A criminal investigation I’d like to see to start 2026 on the right note”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-criminal-investigation-id-like-to-see.html
“This headline yesterday boggled my mind.”
DOJ’s Inventory Of Unreleased Epstein Files Soars To 5.2 Million Pages
“Remember February 2025?”
“I don’t know what bureaucratic battles Attorney General Bondi has had to fight with an entrenched anti-Trump Justice Department and a Deep State dedicated to fighting him and his minions at every turn. Her public statements have all been along the lines that she’s going to (and wants to) release all the relevant documents. She may be the victim of bureaucratic sabotage, more sinned against than sinning . . . but her public image has become one of ineptitude, incompetence and waffling.”
Unreal. The amount of corruptness in the federal government and blue state governments is just breath taking.
I would add Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister to the list;
that’s just the modesty talking
– I am the most modest person in the world.
—-
Tiny little fire and some Mr Heater and I had a pleasant couple of hours reading. No real breeze so it wasn’t too chilly.
I live in a neighborhood where I don’t worry about my Christmas lights being stolen. I don’t worry much about leaving my Mr Heaters out by the chair, or the Solo fire pit/stove. I like it like that. I’m not looking forward to that changing.
——-
Time for a shower and bed.
n
Doldrums. We’ve gone through all the good Christmas movies, and then all the cheesy Christmas movies, then even threw in “The Proposal”, which is a Hallmark-movie-but-with actual-movie-stars rom-com. Which I liked. I’ll admit to a weakness for Sandra Bullock.
But what do I watch now?
We’ve either finished or grown tired of NCIS, Midsommer Murders, Death in whatever, and exhausted most of the others, like Death Valley, Shetland, Vera, and so forth.
I am bingeing “The Closer” on Netflix. Serious moments and light moments. I am on season 3 of 7 seasons.
Sadly, the sequel “Major Crimes” with Mary McDonnell is not available to binge without paying about $200 or so.
@rolf, I thought about those, but do they hold up? Some of the other classics mentioned, like ‘To The Manor Born’ were things I enjoyed, but would I still?
Classic ‘Are You Being Served’ holds up for the gags and the classic lines, much the same way ‘Fawlty Towers’ does, but is that because I’m already fond of it?
n
Happy New Year y’all. I’ve been mostly offline for the past two weeks. Haven’t even worked out. Somehow I was feeling really stressed, and needed a couple of weeks to do…nothing much.
Oof… Too often, innocent people pay for other people’s stupidity. This was just a couple of towns over – we can see it from where we live.
Details will come out over the coming weeks, but from initial information (and videos from the participants) the cause is pretty clear. Huge number of people in a bar. Bet: far more than the allowed capacity, especially since there was only a single exit.
The foam suspended from the ceiling was (obvious from the videos) highly flammable. Bet: it was improvised, and not an approved building material. Which also means that the bar made renovations that were never permitted or inspected.
Low ceiling, flammable material, big indoor “sparklers”. Greed and/or stupidity, paid for by the party goers.