It’ll be hot and humid with some brain roasting sun, if we’re lucky. There is a small chance of rain, but hopefully it will hold off until after midnight. It was certainly hot and humid yesterday, although in the shade, with a breeze is was comfortable if you were just sitting there.
Of course I was not. I was in the sun on the dock putting up bunting and additional flags. And installing cleats, bumpers, and LED tape lighting to outline the boat lift parts of the dock. LOTS of bunting… LOTS of flags.
I did some on the front of the house on the road side too. It looks very nice and patriotic. I would have thought there would be more stuff planned for the 250th anniversary, but I’m not totally surprised there isn’t. Patriotism is out of style. F that. I love this country.
Today we’ll do some more small jobs, maybe take the boat out, cook hamburgers, and then we are supposed to have the neighborhood fireworks show. That is always a good time and unlike big public shows, I don’t have to be nervous and watching the crowd. I can relax and enjoy the spectacle.
I hope everyone has a chance to celebrate at least a little. There’s more to love than hate, and it’s good to remember that.
Happy Independence Day everyone.
nick
Now, since it is early and timezones are on my side:
Saturday! July 4! Good morning!
Wishing my US-American friends a happy and blessed Independence Day, liberty, peace, prosperity, and another 250 years of your great constitutional republic. It’s not perfect, but it is a shining city on a hill, when seen from most of the rest of the world.
Today I will be at the BOL helping set up for the Schützenfest tomorrow. It should be a fun weekend. Time to get up, fed and on the road…
Greetings, Denis. I don’t have a timezone advantage but I have a working-all-night advantage. “Advantage” might not be the appropriate word. Getting pretty tired and still have a couple hours before I’m finished. I knew it was going to be a rough night but I missed so much billable time lately that I needed to just buckle down and earn some money.
Poor SteveF. Hang in there! I hope you can get some rest soon. Earning money is the curse of the drinking classes.
I am feeling a wee bit ragged myself – lots of overtime this past month. Thankfully, Megaproject is on a bit of a lull until Tuesday, so I actually got the day off yesterday, and I can have a weekend too.
Fredericksburg is grim this weekend. I can’t decide if they moved too quickly to go upmarket with their tourist demographics or people are out of money.
It may be a combination of both.
I only saw one Jesus Truck, and people watching resulted in spotting just one example of implants in a skimpy dress with pricey boots which are usually everywhere here.
The real story of our Independence Day:
‘Independence Day 1776’: Revolutionary AI Short Reveals the ‘True Story’ of America’s Break From England
Hilarious AI video ”Is that a badger!!”
That happened when my uncle died. At the funeral, and dinner afterwards, there were several relatives show up that I did not know even existed. Never heard of them. I suspect that they wanted something. My aunt was the executor, so I don’t know what actually happened.
When my aunt died, she had nothing but $400.00 as she had burnt through her money (my inheritance) in assisted living. Before she died my mother (her sister) demanded my aunt’s car when we were disposing of the aunt’s property to put the aunt in assisted living. I firmly said no, I was selling the car and the money was going towards my aunt’s care. My mother was pissed.
My mother also said that she should get my VA compensation as she needed it more than I did. I said no. And that was the last time I ever saw my mother for six years.
When the mother-in-law died my wife was the executor. We followed the MIL’s verbal wishes giving some money to a church, putting some aside for her son’s vision care, distributing certificate funds according to her wishes, and splitting the rest equally between her two children. None of this was in writing, just verbal instructions. I kept detail spreadsheets of the expenses we incurred and how the money was distributed. No one has asked for any of that information. Truth be known, I would not give it to them anyway.
As a side note on the aunt’s relatives, one of them was a former nuclear sub commander. I found it interesting talking with him. His travel restrictions were severe. Any flight travel in the U.S. he had to inform the state department. He could not leave the U.S. without permission from the state department. Any overseas travel route had to be approved by the state department. He also had to inform the flight crew of his travel restrictions. I guess his knowledge of the submarine was considered top secret, very hush-hush.
My late sister’s husband showed up at my mother’s “life celebration” with my nephews, part of working the family to get decent cars for his kids who are now college age.
My wife started to be sympathetic, but I didn’t budge from my position that if my former brother-in-law had been concerned about his kids’ futures, he would have done something wiser with the life insurance payout than digging two swimming pools in an 18 month period after my sister died.
Figure about $100k for two pools with birdcages in 2012.
Florida public records are awful if you want to hide stupid.
Suns up, coffee’s on the boil, cats are fed, dogs are fed, birds are fed.
The wind has stopped, it is moderately overcast.
I haven’t heard a firework yet. I talked to my neighbor that does some – though never the flying types – and he’s decided not to do any this year, too windy and too dry and the penalties are phenomenal. Too bad, they are pretty remarkable these days, semi-professional.
—
I talked a bit with a friend who is the executor for his brother. The kids and stepkids are a piece of work, they were never particularly attentive to the brother but they are very attentive to the progress of the trust disbursement and wind up. He isn’t quite to the Dr. Phibes level of being an executor – but he’d walk away in an instant if he hadn’t promised his brother to do it.
PBS is running Ken Burns “The American Revolution”. It’s the usual combination of good storytelling and PLT sniveling.
There are some simple clues to spotting the commie PLT America-haters and tuning them out. One red flag is the use of the term “enslaver” to describe slave holders, rewriting the meaning as it has been understood for centuries to imbue the strong impression that the person in question personally journeyed to Africa and captured innocent natives to become property.
Rewriting history by redefining words is one of the favorite tools of the PLT’s. One of the big trends in the leftist strongholds of the Upper Midwest is to set up a commission that then advises that some geographic feature must be renamed with some native term according to the oral tradition of people who had not written language, but would have been the world champions of the child’s game “Telephone”. They used a commission to give Walzland a close copy of the Somali flag in place of a state flag that actually showed a farmer and Indian amicably passing, but was claimed that the Indian was going the “wrong way”.
HotAir has chosen to post “Shocking New Evidence Reveals True Brutality of American War of Independence” which links to a UK Independent screed that has no new evidence, but spins old evidence under the guiding hand of the usual PLT historians that are eager to blame everything on us. It was confusing until I confirmed that the “Hatchencoughsalot” that they are nattering about were the Iroquois Confederation that I read about many years ago. Conveniently omitted from the tales of innocent Indians violently attacked by land-hungry colonists is the prior history in which those same Indians laid waste to towns and farms at the behest of their allies the British. And of course, any attack on peaceful Indians by white men is a “genocide”, no matter what came before or after.
I’m somewhat surprised that there has been no movement to foist this nonsense on the larger nation and rename the Great Lakes, both individually and collectively. Master Lightfoot taught us that Superior is really Gitcheegoomie, and who are we to dismiss our betters to the north, even if they can’t distinguish a mass grave from random ground radar returns? I would fully support a federal bil requiring the renaming of all the states with pseudo-Indian names. We are now told that “Dakota” is a dirty name so it would be fitting to have names celebrating the civilization brought by the settlers, or perhaps just “Wewon” and “Oursnow”. After the Somalis are retuned we can rename Minnesota “The Great White North”. Wisconsin would, of course, become “Cheezinbrat” and Illinois would become “Nobearz”.
For thousands of years most people were considered the property of some king, and had no rights otherwise. In the United States we have rights granted by The Creator that cannot be taken away as long as we remain vigilant and are willing to water the Tree of Liberty as needed. One of those rights is the right to leave, and inasmuch as half the Democrats and all the Alien Invaders want to do so or try to change my country into something resembling the shiitehole that they came from–only with them at the top this time–I urge them all to get packing and leave.
Communists, like pirates, are the enemy of all mankind.
Put down another 250# of rock.
Also picked up some more dry brush that has blown into the yard – as always the question is: what to do with it? Currently there’s a big slash pile out back but you aren’t allowed to burn it anymore.
Does that include booty pirates?
I planned to toss some boneless chicken thighs on the grill. I guess I can’t read. I bought boneless chicken breasts. “With rib meat” whatever that means. Big pieces of chicken. I cut the meat up. I want it sized to wrap in a tortilla. Not the size of a beer can. Into a bowl with marinade. My version.
4 oz pineapple juice
1 tbl garlic powder
1 oz teriyaki sauce
1 oz soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 oz hot sauce.
That’s the basic version. I use a shot glass to measure. I’ve decided I like it better without the teriyaki sauce. So this time I doubled the soy sauce. I use plain old La Choy.
The hot sauce is your call. Louisiana Hot Sauce, store brand, is good. Either variety of Valentina is good. Use what you like.
Mix it all in a drinking glass and set aside while prepping the meat. Taste it after a few minutes. If it has a bitter edge add a teaspoon of lemon juice from the plastic lemon. Chemistry! I forget where I learned that.
The pineapple juice is Dole. The little 6 oz cans that are in a six pack. Yes, I do sample the pineapple juice for quality assurance purposes. I store the extra cans in the spare fridge. I think this marinade will be good for pork, also.
Apple juice might be really good if using pork. I’m thinking of a pork chops with applesauce on the side flavor.
I let the meat marinade for a few hours. In the fridge.
1 PM. 92f. Forecast says high of 96f. Sunny with a few puffy clouds. Some breeze, enough to make the flag wave around. It’s actually nice on the back patio in the shade.
It would be an awesome day to go to Lake Travis and ride around on the SeaRay.
A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
It all makes sense now.
From Tina M. Brown:
BREAKING NEWS: Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Massachusetts.
National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a Para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.
Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.
Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”
Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.
During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.
Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.
And this, My fellow Americans who do not know your History, this is how the American Revolution began on April 20, 1775.
History. Study it, or repeat it.
Living in another country might mean needing to work for a living.
“Communists, like pirates, are the enemy of all mankind.”
And both are like roaches–you stamp them out and they spring up again.
“Also picked up some more dry brush that has blown into the yard – as always the question is: what to do with it? Currently there’s a big slash pile out back but you aren’t allowed to burn it anymore.”
Pile it in the back of the pickup and take it for a ride late some night with the tailgate down.
“Living in another country might mean needing to work for a living.”
Living elsewhere might be more attractive than deading here.
Another citizen murdered by an alien invader:
from Bill Melugin’s post on “X”:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/josephchalfant/2026/07/04/illegal-alien-cdl-holder-kills-pennsylvania-state-trooper-in-horrific-accident-n2678815
It’s past time for Biden, Mayorkas, MA Governor Healey, and anyone else who contributed to be charged in federal court with accessory to murder before the fact. The rank and file of the PA state troopers union should demand that their leaders in turn demand that the state government revoke all CDL’s illegally issued to alien invaders or threaten to go out on strike in protest of blatant disregard for the law.
A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
The Swedes have imported thousands of multi-generational pro-level ensh*ttificators to teach them how it is really done.
Nice back of the hand to PhotoF*cket
“Oddments” by Marko Kloos
https://www.amazon.com/Oddments-Marko-Kloos/dp/B0C2S4MYF4?tag=ttgnet-20
A standalone book of science fiction and fantasy short stories. Some of the stories are connected to the author’s Frontlines series of books. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Cryogenica, LLC in 2023 that I bought from Amazon in 2026.
Two of the thirteen stories, “On the Use of Shape-Shifters in Warfare” and “Lucky Thirteen”, were made into videos in the “Love Death + Robots” tv series on Netflix.
I really enjoyed all of the short stories, especially the two aforementioned short stories. The concept that an inanimate object could grow a loyalty to its owner is quite unique in this circumstance. I generally prefer novels but made an exception in this case due to the fact that I have read so many of the author’s excellent books.
The author has a website at:
https://www.markokloos.com/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (272 reviews)
Lynn
Something is up with Haiti since Biden’s Presidency.
A Hatian consulate doesn’t just happen in Orlando.
Of course, the place was a sh*thole, just like the country it represents, but a consulate is a consulate. Foreign soil.
“Air Conditioning Torn From Homes Under Net Zero Clampdown”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/26/air-conditioning-torn-from-homes-under-net-zero-clampdown/
“Council planning officers ordered residents to remove air-con units over fears they produce too much carbon dioxide, stating they should only be used as a “last resort”.”
“The Net Zero clampdown is part of building regulations that state “active cooling” should only ever be allowed when all other means of “passive cooling”, such as opening windows or using fans, have been exhausted.”
Unreal. The UK is going somewhere that they do not want to go.
Malaise-Ridden Nicholas Kristof Suggests US Adopt Nordic Model Going Forward
https://twitchy.com/brettt/2026/07/04/malaise-ridden-nicholas-kristof-suggests-us-adopt-nordic-model-going-forward-n2429911
Well, he’s already ensh*ttified himself, so it hardly counts.
Oncor has been providing incentives to contractors to install “smart” thermostats for at least a decade.
Where do you think that’s headed eventually?
Texas needs the jerbs, son. It is all about the jerbs.
They can try to pry my mercury-enriched thermostat out of my delightfully ice-cold hands…
I caught Brandi Carlile performing “America the Beutiful” on ABC News a bit ago, a recording of the live performance last night. (I understand she also performed at the SuperBowl, but I did not see it).
She does have a lovely voice, and the rendition is respectful. But the reason I listened was to see if she performed all four verses. She didn’t. She performed two and a half verses.
Also heard the report of the Pope’s wishes for our 250th.
He can suck it.
Oncor has been providing incentives to contractors to install “smart” thermostats for at least a decade.
Where do you think that’s headed eventually?
Texas needs the jerbs, son. It is all about the jerbs.
I may have several smart thermostats but none of them know the internet wifi password.
@lynn – there are ‘smart’ thermostats that use cellular connections …. so no wi-fi needed.
A 2.4 GHz transceiver is capable of 5G cellular data with a firmware upgrade.
@lynn – there are ‘smart’ thermostats that use cellular connections …. so no wi-fi needed.
Who is gonna pay that cellular bill? I would never agree to it.
>>Also picked up some more dry brush that has blown into the yard – as always the question is: what to do with it? Currently there’s a big slash pile out back but you aren’t allowed to burn it anymore.
What, your industrial-capacity wood chipper isn’t working? And certain people here should be able to contribute some compostables to the input pile.
>>@lynn – there are ‘smart’ thermostats that use cellular connections …. so no wi-fi needed.
Who is gonna pay that cellular bill? I would never agree to it.
Do you really think ‘they’ were gonna ask?
>>Put down another 250# of rock.
Still annoys me a bit to pay for “rocks.”
Newest pup in our pack is named “Elroy.”
>>I don’t have to be nervous and watching the crowd.
That’s what Charlie Kirk thought too…
“When seconds count…”
>>I only saw one Jesus Truck, and people watching resulted in spotting just one example of implants in a skimpy dress with pricey boots which are usually everywhere here.
Sightings here in the desert are few and far between of late. One pulled up to a red light in the next lane the other day – still don’t ‘get’ it.
I’ll blame the hot sun, but I put several comments at the end of yesterday’s comments, and wondered why it was so slow…
nick flandrey says:
4 July 2026 at 12:38
Ahhhh coffeeeeee……
Good morning. Sunny and 87F.
I can see the neighbors setting up the fireworks for the show. Can’t tell yet if it will be bigger or smaller. It could be half of last year and still be a crazy big show for a single person to put on.
House is quiet even at the late hour. Teens. I remember being able to sleep until three in the afternoon. Now I’d have to be medicated or at death’s door.
Enjoy the day, and sneak a little extra freedom into it…
n
2
nick flandrey says:
4 July 2026 at 16:57
well, took a little break and took the boat out around the lake. Hit something so we came in early. Got it up on the lift and it all looks ok, can’t even see any marks. Must have been a floating log, the stumps would have left a bigger mark. So that was exciting.
It’s 101F in the shade and hotter than satan’s taint in the sun. Still plugging away at small stuff though.
I might get the pressure washer out, the mist from that will be nice and cool…
n
nick flandrey says:
5 July 2026 at 01:50
Ah, I finished up the tasks and went for a swim. No pressure washing today.
Then it was a bit of a rush to get the chairs out and ready for our guests. Fifty minute fireworks show, with a front row seat. Equal to any pro show, except not choreographed to music and the stuff didn’t fly as high. Good times.
Tried to have a great big bon fire but it failed to light, despite liberal application of an accelerant. Settled for a tiny little fire and the kindle.
Now it’s time for a shower, meds, and bed.
n