Cool and damp again, but the clear sky and sunshine late yesterday has me hoping for sun and a bit of drying off today. National map still has us in a T storm possible area until Saturday. We had some light fog yesterday morning too, which is unusual for us, and light sprinkles in various parts of town. The bayous were back to normal flow rates and levels after getting quite high earlier in the week. It would be nice to start drying off.
I did stuff around the house in the morning, then headed out to do my pickups. Household stuff at the first place, and a generator accessory at the second. It’s an electric pump with some sort of flow control to allow automatic pumping from a second tank to the main tank on a portable generator. It’s not the second tank option for the Honda inverter gennie I looked at in the past, which is more like a boat tank, with Mercury outboard style connectors, and I’ll have to see how it attaches and works. Since I’m running propane in my Honda gennies, it will probably end up at the BOL.
Then it was more domestic bliss in the evening. Everyone was out and about at dinner time, so I enjoyed the pork tenderloin myself. I really should look at the family calendar.
Today I’ve got one or two items to pickup, and some grocery shopping to do. We’re celebrating D2’s birthday next week and my 21st wedding anniversary, so if I can get a jump on the provisioning for that, I really need to. I’ve also got to get the truck unloaded, and move some more stuff out of the house.
And the list never sleeps. I do however, so things slip. I do keep adding stuff to the stacks, you should too.
nick
Thursday. Good morning! A beautiful sunny day here, but there was frost on the car when I got up. Lots of late posting in yesterday’s comments. Maybe worth a look back.
Busy day ahead. Hoping to get enough done at base that I can head to the BOL after work. Roebuck season starts tomorrow. Hurray! I have to locate all my gear…. less hurray!
Busy day ahead. Hoping to get enough done at base that I can head to the BOL after work. Roebuck season starts tomorrow. Hurray! I have to locate all my gear…. less hurray!
My brother is already talking about the fall hunting season. I plan to try out the Ruger single shot .270 breech loader that I inherited from my father last year. If nothing, it is a beautiful gub.
https://ruger.com/products/no1/models.html
https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/rifles/ruger-rifles-single-shot/ruger-no-1-270-winchester.cfm?gun_id=103585647#gallery-103585647-lg-1
That is indeed a handsome gub. I am still kicking myself for not buying one when I had the chance… Enjoy!
May 20 is only a month away.
Only.
Tick … tick … tick …
“Usually it’s entertaining or interesting nonsense… at least the commentor thinks so.”
Commentator sounds like “common tater” for a reason.
Be thankful that we don’t have a (shudder) Code of Conduct!
Or a mission statement.
n
71F and brightening outside. Street does look dry, so maybe we get some pause from the rain.
——
Kids are moving. Lunch is made. Coffee is in the mug. Small coffee and snack anyway, I’m hoping to get another hour or two before starting my day today.
Frogs are still making noise. I wonder if they’ll stop when the squirrels start nosing around?
n
Improve the synergy of the provenance of the creative paradigm.
Duh. When gas prices go up, spending on gas goes down, and where demand is inflexible, other spending decreases.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/heres-what-happened-inside-convenience-stores-when-gas-hit-4
The article mentions “downtrading” in store purchases, which mainly seems to mean switching to cheaper cigs. I guess it could be off brand snacks and chips too.
“Downtrading was strong in Q1, as roughly 80% of respondents indicated that deep-discount cigarettes gained share.”
—–
I’ve seen it myself, even though our gas isn’t that high. Pumps have smaller transactions on them when I pull up than they used to. I’m driving fewer miles. I don’t go in the store unless I need the bathroom, and then I buy something in thanks, but I do see a lot of off brand snacks available. I’ve mentioned that Costco seems to be emphasizing less expensive wines, and my online cigar sellers are featuring cheaper cigars in their catalogs and daily special marketing. There is a lot more emphasis on “value” and “inexpensive luxury” in the ad copy.
The tough times that have been here for a while, are catching up with more people the longer it goes.
‘n
We’ve been in a depression since the Obama years but we didn’t notice because we’re so rich and because it’s been papered over with money machine go brrr.
Of course, all that deficit spending and “quantitative easing” makes things worse in the long run, but it won’t hit until after the next election, so that’s ok.
… , moving the needle through disruptive thought leadership.
I don’t understand the insult of “meatballs”.
I’m all for learning new insults. Like Fresher and Jeet.
Called faggots in Britland. Not all kinds of meatballs; I don’t know which meatballs are faggots and which aren’t.
Italian or Swedish disparagement?
Maybe it is a Canadian thing. Reitman the elder’s first flick was “Meatballs”, yet another snobs vs. slobs story.
And while we’re at it, could we (people in general, not the commenters here) stop using f*ck*ng as a f*ck*ng adjective? 😀
Buc-ee’s switched to their private label syrup for most of the soda fountain heads except for Dr. Pepper, but I attribute that to the coming clash with the Geico Gecko.
Coca Cola dividends are an important cash stream for the Gecko, particularly as he starts the overhaul of Pilot and Flying J.
BTW, the shareholder discounts at NFM are awful this year.
The Gecko is feeling the squeeze too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
That would be f*ck*ng amazing! 😉
Don’t forget the student loan paper.
A blanket forgiveness would convert what is now an asset into Treasuries, adding the outstanding balances to the debt and effectively breaking reconciliation used to pass Obamacare.
You’re f*ck*ng asking for too much.
(That’s an adverb!)
Buc-ee’s switched to their private label syrup for most of the soda fountain heads except for Dr. Pepper, but I attribute that to the coming clash with the Geico Gecko.
Coca Cola dividends are an important cash stream for the Gecko, particularly as he starts the overhaul of Pilot and Flying J.
The former owner of Pilot is starting up his Speedimarts again. He just built a new one in Port Lavaca, down the street from the former Buccees, where he lives.
“GE Vernova gas turbine backlog hits 100 GW as prices rise”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-vernova-gas-turbine-backlog-hits-100-gw-as-prices-rise/818332/
“GE Vernova’s gas turbine backlog reached 100 GW in the first quarter, up sharply from 83 GW at the end of 2025. Parks said the company shipped 25 gas turbines in the quarter, a 32% increase from the first quarter of 2025, with pricing rising faster than the inflation rate.”
““We continue to be in that 10% to 20% growth in price on new bidding and winning activity today relative to where we were in the backlog in the fourth quarter of last year,” Strazik said later on the Wednesday call. “The dollar-per-kilowatt growth is going to be very healthy in the second quarter of this year.””
“As was the case in Q1 2025, most turbine orders and bookings this quarter were for heavy-duty machines rather than lighter-grade aeroderivatives, the company said.”
People are buying heavy duty gas turbines for base load instead of peaking load. Data Centers and replacing old mostly coal power plants.
“CenterPoint to energize 8 GW of data center load by 2029”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/centerpoint-energy-data-center-load-earnings/818293/
“Houston is now “firmly established as a location of choice for some of the world’s largest hyperscalers,” CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells said in the company’s first quarter earnings call.”
Lovely, just lovely.
“”Pie in the sky” prepping – or, getting real about our chances”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/04/pie-in-sky-prepping-or-getting-real.html
“I’m a relative lightweight in the “prepping” world. I have emergency food, water and other supplies to keep my wife and myself alive for a few months in a disaster situation, and (hopefully) enough to share with friends for at least the short term; but that’s based on “bugging in”, staying in our home and not venturing far unless and until it’s safe to do so. We don’t have a “bug out” location, or remotely stored supplies, or anything like that – it’s simply unaffordable for us.”
“Nevertheless, I’m often surprised to hear from people who are very much in our situation that they have these grand plans to “bug out” to the sticks, establish a survival homestead from scratch, grow their own food, herd a few cows, steal a travel trailer from somewhere as a place to live, and so on. Frankly, I think they have no idea at all of just how much effort will be involved in making that plan work.”
Having a compound in the back woods is incredibly expensive. Just the security force alone is not cheap.
I was planning on building a barndominium in the back woods with a massive safe room. My former USMC son told me that from his two years in Iraq on Uncle Sam’s dollar, any house with a safe room just gets burned down as people settled old scores. With, the inhabitants inside of course.
“YET ANOTHER NASA SCIENTIST DEAD: Nuclear Propulsion Expert Was Found Charred Inside Crashed Tesla”
https://modernity.news/2026/04/23/yet-another-nasa-scientist-dead-nuclear-propulsion-expert-was-found-charred-inside-crashed-tesla/
“The FBI has now confirmed it is spearheading a probe with the Departments of Energy and Defense into potential connections among the missing and deceased scientists. Trump himself addressed the issue last week: “I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half. I just left a meeting on that subject.””
Something is definitely going on with our top scientists in the USA.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Wärtsilä continues to expand its data center footprint with new 790 MW order in Texas”
https://gasprocessingnews.com/news/2026/04/waertsilae-continues-to-expand-its-data-center-footprint-with-new-790-mw-order-in-texas/
“Technology group Wärtsilä will supply an off-grid energy power solution for a new data center facility under construction in Texas (U.S.). The 790-MW power plant will operate with 42 Wärtsilä 50SG engines running on natural gas. By opting for a primary power source using Wärtsilä engines, the facility can ensure fast access to reliable power. The order was booked as intake by Wärtsilä in Q2 2026.”
Off-grid data center. Wow.
Currently in San Antonio, actually Windcrest, on the Northeast side. I was able to get on Randolph without issues so my DOD ID is good. I went to the Exchange to look at stuff and maybe find a keyboard for the wife’s friend. What a dismal selection with the exception of perfumes, purses and watches. I can beat the Exchange prices even with the tax exemption on many items. My 10% at Apple is better than Exchange can offer without the tax.
That mess north of I-410 on I-35 where the state is installing an upper deck is a real mess. It will still under construction five years from now. When I was stationed at Randolph that intersection to Pat Booker Road and Universal City was just a simple off-ramp. Now it is a convoluted maze of ramps, exits, entrances, involved I-410.
We left Conroe and the GPS did not take us on I-45 south but instead headed towards Bryan, then on to Bastrop, and finally on I-35S at San Marcos. The speed on some of those roads matches I-10 and there is a lot less traffic on the back roads. I-35 still sucks, even with three lanes.
Now I need to take a nap before Bill Miller’s BBQ this evening.
Besides buying a Tesla?
En fuego!
Silly stuff.
Nuclear thermal isn’t really high-tech, it is more of a materials science thing. People sketched out designs and even built demonstrators in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
It is not something that aliens with star travel, say, would care about in the least.
It is information that Farsi or Han speakers down here on Earth might be interested in obtaining, but committing mass murder after the fact would simply draw attention to espionage.
That’s exactly the kind of “pooh, pooh, nothing to see here” pabulum I’d expect from an embedded member of a worldwide conspiracy.
If we play a game of “Spot the Illuminatus”, I know who my money’s on.
BTW, if anyone hasn’t read the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, you should. If you aren’t looking-over-both-shoulders-at-the-same-time paranoid by the time you’re done, you did it wrong.
No word on customer name or location.
I’m guessing Crusoe Energy and the oil patch, respectively.
Crusoe is still privately held.
The Geico Gecko is only offering $14 on a MacBook Neo at the shareholder event sale running through next weekend.
This time last year, I remember seeing $100 off of the 16 GB 256 MB MacBook Pro.
The MacBook Pro discounts aren’t even cracking the $50 mark.
I had no internet this morning. The Nanobeam in the house had nothing to connect to and I couldn’t see the router. I went out to the EDC and turned the UPS on.
Could be worse. Could have been raining.
I did tote the spare UPS out there. Just not in the mood to crawl around to swap the two. Maybe tomorrow. Or Saturday. Soon.
Easy fix.
My wife and I went to the Lackland AFB base exchange today. The clothing was overpriced, as were the housewares, and just about everything else. They didn’t have a bathroom scale, which was a bit surprising. But if they had, I’m certain that it would have been far more expensive than comparable scales from Amazon.
I have long believed that the BX system has decent prices on semi-luxury goods, which doesn’t help the junior enlisted folks trying to make it on low military pay.
The last time I was in the Lackland exchange it seemed, from my observation, to be full of tawdry gifts that young basic trainees would buy for their girlfriend who is visiting just before graduation from BMTS. Having to walk through that infestation of perfume was not pleasant.
Off to Boerne tomorrow for the wife’s mother and brother gravesites to update the flowers. Then one more night at the friend’s house. Departing for home on Saturday. Undecided on the northern or southern route. If I go the northern route I will head east on I-10 and take 130 north until the merge onto I-35 just north of Georgetown. A little bit of a detour but avoids that horrible mess in Austin. We would stay in Bryant Arkansas which is about halfway. Then home on Sunday late in the afternoon.
They will make it up on the long run with the disability payments.
When Fido the cat died I would see her out of the corner of my eye once in a while for a few years. Sitting at the dining room table, either end (so seeing with either eye), eating a bowl of Cheerios and reading a magazine. Sometimes she went from the kitchen where her food and water had been towards the wood stove. She liked to lay near the stove. Sometimes she was going the other direction.
Fred came running down the hallway one night, about six months after he died, and jumped on the spare bed. Then jumped off and back up the hallway. The clock in the hall bathroom stopped working at that time. 2:10 AM. Even with a new battery. Plus there were foot prints on the bed.
While Mom was in the nursing home once in a while I’d see something shaped like my Dad walking past the window. Outside. Going both directions, like circling the house. Never again after she died.
The house in Austin had an Indian ghost. A young guy. Seemed to hang out in the furnace closet. Still sort of weird to see someone walk through the toilet and then into the wall.
All in color. The Dad ghost was wearing a shirt I sort of recall from when I was 15. The Indian wore a tan loin cloth that covered his front.
Yeah. I guess ghosts are real. No proof.
I’ve seen a new one here a few times. I come in from outside, maybe putter in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee, and when I go into the dining room, it runs across the living room from near the front door toward the sliding door on the other side of the room.
It’s charcoal gray/black. Shaped sort of like a dog. But not a dog. I haven’t had more than glimpses. About the size of Missy, a 100 pound Lab mix. But with long legs sort of like a deer.. Missy died six years ago.
Maybe it’s just passing through. Maybe it will slow down for a better view. Shrug.
There is still a large-ish back corner of the Exchange labelled “Souvenirs”, so that demographic is still well-covered.
From the Air Farce? Not likely.
So this is how they did it:
https://thefederalist.com/2026/04/23/how-liberal-justices-used-a-footnote-to-drag-out-dobbs-release-amid-assassination-threats/
Quick conversation with Breyer to confirm that Kagan was the architect of the scheme, then a tragic accident.
Hey, did we ever discover who called someone a nig g er here?
Pubicharius dreamed it.
They’re coached about how to collect.
Breyer wrote the minority opinion. He delayed his retirement since the liberals knew what was coming before the term began and they needed him to stay in the “Roe” chair since Biden had vowed to nominate a black woman for that seat, regardless of qualifications.
Kagan is the last one left on that side who can write.
Hermione Granger Kagan was never a judge.
“Confirmed: The Four Anti-American RINOs Revealed Themselves by Opposing the SAVE America Act”
https://discernreport.com/confirmed-the-four-anti-american-rinos-revealed-themselves-by-opposing-the-save-america-act/
“Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined every Senate Democrat to sink Sen. John Kennedy’s effort to attach a version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to the GOP’s immigration enforcement funding package. The amendment failed 48 to 50. The vote confirmed what everyone who has been paying attention already knew. The names were not a mystery. They are the same four senators Majority Leader John Thune has spent months shielding from any vote that might expose them.”
Yup. RINOs. We’ve got way too many of them.
Home and fed.
Picked up my auction item, some lighting for the dock at the BOL… and went to the shop to break down the laptop carts for the batteries and chargers and inverters. These are a little bit different from the last set, but they had a good battery and charger. The inverter is a bit smaller, but that’s ok. I won three more tonight, so I’ll break those down next week.
I have to figure out if I can just series/parallel the lithium batteries to build a bank, or if I need to do something else with chargers and switches. Hmm.
——-
Starting to feel like I might be coming down with a cold. Or it could be intense allergies. Probably a cold as I’ve been touching my face too much as I groom my unruly ‘stache.
I will try to go to bed early today.
n
A lot depends on BMS circuits on these older batteries and chargers.
A lot of the fire prevention is in the BMS. And preserving the life of the battery by keeping you from drawing it down too far.
I’ve got a ham friend who’s an expert on this stuff. He went so far as to intentionally abuse some cells to see how hard it was to make fire. He said it’s actually pretty hard.
Balderdash. Tillis, McConnell, Collins, and Muckkowski were always the RINO-est of the RINOs in the Senate. Cornyn was almost as bad.
Fortunately, Tillis and McConnell aren’t seeking re-election so them, plus Cornyn, could make the difference in 2027, IF the Dims fail to take the Senate. And they might not.
Time for a shower and bed.
Pasta alfredo, amigos.
n
And goodnight to you too!