Cool, then warm, then hot. Humid all the time. Yesterday hit mid 90sF and was sunny and clear. A nice day, which I spent indoors. I’ll spend most of today indoors too.
Slept as late as possible yesterday, then finally got out of the house for a few minutes. Made an appointment for today to do smog on both trucks. That’s it, besides reading and auction stuff. Nothing but blowing snot, trying not to trigger coughing fits, and moving slowly. Fun times.
More of the same for today too. Joy. I do have to get up and out to do the truck thing, and I might feel up to some other light work. We’ll see.
Stack, so you have stuff when you’d rather not go anywhere or do anything.
nick
Saturday. Good morning.
Hope you will feel better soon, Nick.
I closed yesterday’s comments with a long blather about tool storage. Too lazy to move it.
Time to get up and doing stuff. The guys at the shooting club want help moving some scaffolding, so I suppose I will assist with that.
Have a good day!
IDK if I’m early or late, but I’m SECOND!
n
Nick’s sick again? I suggest that he run himself through the sheep dip tank.
Tool storage.
I’ve learned there is no one best way. Adam Savage inspired me on some things. The two big ones were his parts storage solution and tool accessibility.
I’m not able to spend the cash he does for Sortimo containers. I went with Stanley organizers instead: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Stanley-Hand-Tools-014725R-25-Drawer-Professional-Organizer/21289243
They were $18 each when I bought them a few years ago…
Like others, I like to keep tools close to a work area, though it’s not as big a deal for me. My work garage is 26×16, so it isn’t huge. I do have 11′ ceilings, so when I built it out, I incorporated a shelf on each side that fit a medium size plastic storage bin. Those store project tools: two for painting, one for drywall, two for electrical, and air compressor plumbing stuff. I use that stuff infrequently enough to make pulling out the ladder and retrieving it not an issue.
I have a big US General toolbox for tools. I also have a hand built cabinet on the wall that is full of smaller drawers. Pencils, cutting tools, sandpaper, etc gets stored in there.
I’ve scaled down my usage of peg board to just a 2×4 piece hanging above the toolbox. Safety glasses, ear protection, and a few other hard to categorize things hang there.
In my main garage, in the third bay, I’ve recently installed a 4 post car lift. I’m trying to avoid duplicating tools. I moved the auto specific tools in there already and store them in a US General tool cart. things like oil filter wrenches, battery terminal cleaner, scan tool, etc. My plan is to just load up a rolling tool table with the sockets and other tools for a job and then put them back when done. I don’t do car work that often, so it should work fine. Today will be the first test, as my son and I are changing pads and rotors on his Mustang, along with a brake fluid flush.
and
do not appear to be compatible statements.
Nearly 30 years later, both sides of my wife’s family are still upset about the very restricted guest list we had at our wedding *because I wrote the checks*.
My wife’s mistake was allowing her dirtball father to save face by telling people that he offered me money and I refused.
https://instapundit.com/798661/
When W1 and I got married 26 years ago, money was really tight, so we invited the minimum of family members we could get away with without giving grave offence, and then as many of our friends as we could afford without breaking the budget.
Some of the “friends” chose not to turn up, without giving notice beforehand. That cost both money (meals ordered, but not eaten) and spaces (for other potential guests). That was the last contact we had with those people, and I am still annoyed about it.
Not that I hold a grudge, or anything…
Kinda, but not really. I guess it’s relative on what is a lot of car maintenance. I do all the work on my cars, with a few exceptions. Oil changes, preventative maintenance, etc.
In my mind, a lot of car work is doing something every weekend.
The lift is used to store the 71 Corvette most of the time. At full rise, I can park the SUV underneath. That frees up a space in the two bay stall.
Hold a wedding in October in Florida and not inviting all of the relatives who live in WA State is giving grave offense.
Plus, my wife didn’t have her medical licnese yet, but that was less than six months away.
Like Corn Pop’s.
I think his was a late 60s model year, however. It was all his poor Chevy dealer father could afford to give him as a law school graduation gift.
Or was it a wedding present.
Or winning his first big case in court.
The story was always different.
I thought that the ‘vette was a consolation gift after war hero Beau died while rescuing hostages.
Good! Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!
MrsAtoz and I were married in the county court house in Atchison, KS. The license was $10 and Edna and Irma from the backroom were witnesses. On the way back to Fort Leavenworth, we stopped at a Wendy’s for supper. The manager comped us for our wedding day. We played bingo at the Officer’s Club and won a bottle of wine. Total cost of our wedding, about $100.
A couple of friends were married the next month and the wedding started at $15,000 and ended up around $30,000.
No thanks.
Nearly 30 years later, both sides of my wife’s family are still upset
– We limited the +1 in the invites, mainly for our friends. Her family made up the bulk of the list, with mine being something we intended to exclude by virtue of having a destination wedding. We told the family that anyone could attend some of the events but the dinner was strictly adults, 18+ as we had that number nailed down. The number of dinners controlled all our other charges, drinks, desserts, how many room-night-stays we had to guarantee… If we had ONE extra dinner, we’d move up a level and our guaranteed room nights would increase by a big chunk, which we didn’t think we’d make. In other words, we’d end up paying for hotel nights nobody used.
Wife’s aunt was chapped for 15 years that her minor kids were excluded. UNTIL she had to pay for one of their weddings…. then she actually apologized.
Looking back, we probably could have handled it better, or made some accommodation, but at the time it seemed clear and necessary.
———-
84F and sunny. I’m up. Back is sore from all the laying in bed. I need coffee and food.
W had a tree guy look at the dead tree. Pine bark beetles killed it, lightning just made it possible. Another tree guy looking this afternoon, then we’ll have someone take it down and away. Unexpected expenses are the most common thing to prep for.
Solid finances and a bit of an emergency fund, as well as a good partner in life, are probably the two best preps. Difficult to do though, much harder than just stacking.
n
53 years after the wedding I recall very little of it. It was done right but cost was reasonable. W1’s parents paid all and wasn’t an issue.
He probably wrote off $10,000 a year for the “secure document storage”.
Suggestion: dig a hole under it, fill with dynamite, detonate. Done properly, the dead tree will land on the house next door. Poof! No more problematic halfway house. Your neighbors with thank you. #FollowMeForMoreNeighborhoodAmityTips
We got stiffed by my mother on the rehearsal dinner.
At the end of the evening, the restaurant manager broke the bad news to my wife after my mother waived off the bill.
Even the manager was embarrassed.
The CNN footage often cited in the classified documents investigation showed file boxes in the garage in Rehoboth next to the ‘vette.
Not to brag, but my in-laws paid 100% for the wedding.
It still cost me $250,000 in the end, though.
I allowed only one +1 at my wedding…
We had a simple wedding, celebrate 25 years next month so it got the job done.
Made our own everything, splurged on a photographer (then foolishly never got around to ordering enlargements from proof book).
Three of our friends gave us some menu options then took over the massive Bed and Breakfast kitchen and cooked up a storm.
We had half a dozen chairs for the parents and infirm, threw many quilts on the ground, and left it to the guests to sort themselves out.
We made a guest list, tried and failed to keep track of who was coming. Everyone ate and drank and it was enough.
Thrift, homemade, and second hand everything. My sister altered my thrifted wedding gown, made a vest for my husband from a tartan skirt, rings from Costco and a pawn shop.
We kept it under $2,500 (included cheap hotel for my parents) and had about 60 guests. Our parents kicked in a little of that, the rest we saved up over our 6 month engagement.
Granted it was over two decades ago and we BOTH thought the premise of starting married life with debt was unacceptable.
@SteveF
dig a hole under it, fill with dynamite, detonate
No, no, no, SteveF. That is strictly for whales, sir.
Just got the EOB from the wife’s recent back surgery. Just the hospital, no overnight stay, is $76,000.00. Medicare paid 80%, supplemental paid the rest. I have not seen the surgeons bill or anesthesiologist bill.
Our wedding was on the cheap. MIL made the dress, friend of the wife did the flowers, another friend did the cake. Just a small reception with no real food. Cost about $500.00 in 1975. Most of the people were the wife’s family and friends. I had some coworkers attend. The only member of my family was my mother.
I did attend a wedding in Norway for an exchange student. The reception was probably $250K by my estimate, which may be low. They divorced two years later.
And not terribly effective on them, going by the videos I’ve seen. I mean, unless you intended to have 200 pound slabs of blubber land on cars ¼ mile away. In which case, well done! Perfect job!
intended to have 200 pound slabs of blubber land on cars
Still hilarious, decades later.
Aye, there’s the rub.
I was conspicuously silent when The Elder Child was starting to think about girlfriends and marriage, on account of I clearly suck at it. I’ve said a few things to The Child about how not to be a miserable beeyotch in a relationship but she has expressed no interest in listening to me. On the other hand, later words or events showed that she had been listening years ago when I didn’t think that she had been, so maybe she didn’t totally disregard every word.
In the words of Edgar Montrose from “Red Green”, “The solution is to increase the parts per million.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/ceo-saves-his-company-firing-entire-hr-department
Interesting. I almost never watch videos. I watched this video. I like the guy.
But… but… Eeeeek! Who will protect the employees from bad managers???
Weddings? In California, they have “confidential marriages”, so we did that. The officiant was one of those “Marryin’ Sam” itinerate officiants who brought the marriage license, she signed it, WE signed it. My wife wrote the wedding vows, to “love, honor, and stay until it stops being fun.” Literally. We were both freshly out of marriages where it was NOT fun, and that was important to her. We had the obligatory two witnesses; one of her friends, and the wife of a squadron-mate who was already off on deployment. She wore a “relatively normal” party dress in sunshine-yellow from Fredericks of Hollywood. Total cost: $100. Best money I ever spent.
45 years later, it’s still fun. We still have her dress; I wouldn’t let her get rid of it. And after being on Mounjaro for 18 months, she can still wear it!
Bah, as soon as I mentioned sun, the clouds came and by 1pm it was raining. Nice little gully washer, then nothing but occasional drops.
I did get both trucks smogged, so I can do the online renewal now.
I’m taking meds and going back to bed. One load of domestic bliss about wore me out.
n
I dropped the Starlink Mini off at the shipping place. They do USPS, UPS, and FedEx. The Mini is going to Bastrop.
I looked at the tracking. The package went to Pflugerville and is now in Cypress. My mental map has Bastrop on the way to Cypress. Shrug.
On another site I read “olive oil will congeal in the fridge. Put your olive oil in the fridge, check the next day. If there is some liquid at the top, that’s the cut. You got ripped off. This test doesn’t prove you have high quality EVOO but if there is a lot of liquid at the top that is definitely a problem.”
I suppose if you pour off the liquid your olive oil is purer.
I’m going to try this. Curiosity.
@paul. Nope. Sez the googles…
Keep an eye on the news. “Timmy” the whale has died in the North Sea, and there is some talk of exploding the carcass, which has filled with gas and is floating.
Olive oil definitely goes thick and cloudy in the cold. We have some liquid soap based on olive oil that does the same in cold weather. It still sudses up fine, though.
Saturday bedtime. Just home from the birthday party. I am definitely now old. The music was too loud – painfully so – for me to have or understand a conversation. I left as soon as I politely could, for that reason. Get off my lawn.
Goodnight.
SteveF, does the Dark Side have cookies? Asking for a friend…
My fridge runs at about 35F. The number varies with the thermometer and what shelf the thermometer is sitting on.
I like my beer cold. I like that when I buy milk it keeps for a few weeks after expiration date.
HEB store brand corn oil thickens and clouds but is still easy to pour. A bit thinner than cold pancake syrup.
So… I guess what I’m going to see is if olive oil gets thicker and more cloudy than corn oil.
Unless I’m missing the point, the reason for putting it in the fridge is a purity test.
The denser olive oil settles and the canola or whatever used to dilute it floats.
That same storm system blew through San Antonio this morning, from about 7AM to 9AM. As the old saying goes, “like a cow pissing on a flat rock”. Almost an inch, which, as my wife loves to remind me, “we desperately need”.
The Dark Side does have cookies. Cookies are good. Problem is, over on the Dark Side, you think you are getting an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips. But you get raisins.
Or you like raisins and get chocolate chips.
Me? If I were to make oatmeal cookies, you get both. In one cookie. Don’t like? More for me.
We’re getting more rain and some thunder and lightning too. Another tree guy came by to give a quote. It’s gonna be between $700 and 900 to get the tree removed.
I was sleeping but woke up hungry so that’s what I’m doing now, snack time.
Oh, and checking on the intarwebs.
n
I bought some Nutella coolies. “Biscuits” Very good with coffee. Interesting construction. Base like a shallow cup, filled with Nutella, then a flat cookie top that leaves a uniform ring of Nutella showing.
The latest leftist assassin got off three shots before being retired by Secret Service agents. Sounds like a bystander was wounded also.
Waiting for Jeffries and the rest to be outraged because the assailant was not read his rights, Schiff to claim that he was actually a right-wing killer, and the Tucker/Owens tree nut coop reveal that it was faked.
Let me be the first to claim – I mean, proclaim – that the alleged shooter was a J-O-O. Or was paid by the J-O-O-S. Or was blackmailed by the J-O-O-S.
Won’t anyone think of the poor, poor ADL? There’s not enough genuine antisemitism to go around, so we need to drum some up to keep the money flowing. Can’t you help, even a little?
Someone pointed out that there have been 45 men who were President, and 20% of the assassination attempts were against Trump.
When do we start shooting back?
Woke up so I’m eating. No fever, but I don’ t think I’m getting better yet.
Back to bed shortly and probably stay in bed most of tomorrow too.
I hate losing the time but I was JUST SAYING that I haven’t gotten sick in a long time… had to go and jinx it.
n
Won’t anyone think of the poor, poor ADL? There’s not enough genuine antisemitism to go around, so we need to drum some up to keep the money flowing. Can’t you help, even a little?
– taking a page from the Southern Poverty Law Center?
n
The ADL has been running that racket for quite a while. Better part of a century, I’m pretty sure. I’d have to look into which had been grifting longer, ADL or SPLC but I’m not going to waste even five seconds on it. A pox on both of them.
We have been on the genny for a half hour. The entire neighborhood is dark. The power just went out, it did not flash on and off at all.
Centerpoint just sent me a email and said that 4,000 homes are down until 325 am.
The battery just died on the xfinity neighborhood switch behind my house. It did not even last an hour this time. I need to get one of those Starlink minis for the house.
I cant tell if the genny for the water well started and I aint going over there in the dark. I guess I am going to take a shower and go to bed.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/post%20removed.jpg
That same storm system blew through San Antonio this morning, from about 7AM to 9AM. As the old saying goes, “like a cow pissing on a flat rock”. Almost an inch, which, as my wife loves to remind me, “we desperately need”.
We got about 8 inches of rain today since the massive storm at 5am blew through. I had gone to sleep an hour or two earlier and the wind and rain hitting the windows woke me up.
You know, it would be nice if we could get an inch or two a week instead of these deluges.
The frogs really like it though.
“A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, Book 4)” by David Gerrold
https://www.amazon.com/SEASON-SLAUGHTER-Against-Chtorr-Book/dp/0553289764?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number four of a four book science fiction alien invasion series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Bantam Spectra Books in 1992 that I bought new in 1993. I hope that more books will be published in the series but I doubt it.
The book is dedicated to “For Ben and Barbara Bova, with love.” There is also a thank you list for several people including Robert and Ginny Heinlein, Jerry Pournelle, and Richard Fontana, I suspect alpha readers and discussion buddies.
This is very hard sci-fi. Do not pick up this book without having many hours available to you to finish it. Once started, the book sucks you in gradually so that you say, “just one more chapter”. When you finish the book at 5:50 am the next morning, you will be exhausted as if you had just run a 10K. This also applies to the preceding and follow-on books.
I have read this book at least three times. Maybe four times. I lost count many years ago.
“First you die. Then they put you in a box and bury you. Then the worms eat you.”
“Be glad it happens in that order.”
“- Solomon Short”
The first book starts off with a series of plagues that devastate the human population across the Earth. Then the weird plants start growing everywhere. Then the huge one meter to five meter long alien carnivorous worms show up and starting eating people, cows, horses, etc. The worms are very difficult to destroy without a combat rated flamethrower.
In the second book, Jim McCarthy is now a lieutenant in the Army Special Forces. And things are getting worse. McCarthy and Duke are drafted into an expedition into northern California to investigate secondary and tertiary worm homes but their assault helicopter crashes when the Chtorran airborn plants cause the jet engines to fail. Then things get very tough when the bunny dogs riding the worms show up.
The third book is even worse. The subjects are horrible and not for the faint at heart or the squeamish. All of the States in the USA except Hawaii have worm infestations with worm huts all over the place. Various cults of worm worshipers have sprung up of people actually living with the worms and feeding their … to the worms.
This book rolls things back and start talking about the conflicts between the old army and the new army. And then they move to Brazil in a very cool giant airship who has embraced the worms and the Chtorran ecology. Hundreds of thousands of the worms living in huge mandelas with people slaves. The sheer craziness is hard to comprehend.
Warning: this book ends on a cliffhanger. A subtle cliffhanger that is exposed in the beginning of book five.
Gerrold has claimed many times over the years that there will be a fifth book and a sixth book and a seventh book in the series. I will believe it when I see it. He stated once to us on his email list that book 5 is so insane that he just could not finish several chapters in the middle of the book. However, there is a taunting preview of book 5, “A Method for Madness”, at:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060321170726/http://www.gerrold.com/chtorr-5/page.htm
I am hoping that if Gerrold does not finish the books then his son will publish the books when he passes on. Who knows? Gerrold is very sensitive about people asking when he is going to publish the remaining books in the series.
“David Gerrold’s Health and Leukemia Fundraiser”. He is 82 and sadly recently diagnosed with HCL (Hairy Cell Leukemia).
https://www.gofundme.com/f/david-gerrolds-health-and-leukemia-fundraiser
He said he is going to try to finish book 5 of the Chtorr series. Who knows if he does, I kinda doubt it. I suspect that he is totally mentally blocked. He did provide his latest preview of “The War Against The Chtorr (Book five)”, “A Nest For Nightmares”:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFEhjdp_S_sJDhuFrRZfhhqRPp9ZeedY/view
BTW, he has expanded the Chtorr series to eight books now. The War Against The Chtorr:
A Matter For Men
A Day For Damnation
A Rage For Revenge
A Season For Slaughter
A Nest For Nightmares
A Method For Madness
A Time For Treason
A Case For Courage
There is better review by James Nicoll at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (54 reviews)
Lynn
My power is back on after an hour on the genny. The xfinity came right up. I need an internet backup for the house. I have power, I just need to bypass the powered neighborhood switch.
“SpaceX Starship Hits Some Targets, Misses Others on Latest Test Flight”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-starship-hits-some-targets-misses-others-on-latest-test-flight
“One missed mission goal suggests that reaching orbit is at least two test launches away.”
“SpaceX’s Starship rocket returned to space on Friday after more than seven months off (and more than three years after the star-crossed debut of its first version) as a largely redesigned launch vehicle that performed a moderately successful test flight.”
“Starship V3 lifted off at 5:30 p.m. Central time from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, on 18 million pounds of thrust from 33 Raptor 3 methane-fueled engines in its first stage—two more engines than in V1 and V2 Starship boosters.”
“One of those 33 engines cut out at about a minute and 40 seconds into the flight. However, the booster completed its part of the mission as the second stage kicked off Starship’s “hotstage” procedure, in which the upper stage’s six Raptors ignite just before the booster detaches, venting through a ring of struts between the two stages.”
“Then the booster’s engines failed to relight to control its descent, thwarting plans for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Killer Tranny Down”
https://areaocho.com/killer-tranny-down/
“Yet another attempt was made on Trump’s life today. This idiot tranny tried shooting his way into the White House before the Secret Service conducted an impromptu ballistics test.”
What a waste of a life.
>>Lynn “Centerpoint just sent me a email and said that 4,000 homes are down until 325 am.”
>> Lynn “My power is back on after an hour on the genny.”
Don’t ya hate it when the power comes back faster than estimated?!
I bow to your superior dark-sidedness. So superior that it is, in fact, far-sidedness.