Hot and hot and humid too. Well over 100F again yesterday, and probably today. All hail Mr Carrier, who made civilization as we know it possible.
Did a bunch of stuff yesterday but most of it unimportant. Did get my grocery shopping done. Soda and cream, and a few other things. I’ll eat out of my freezers. Also picked up prescriptions, did taxi service for D2 who is miffed by my withdrawal, but hasn’t joined the other side, added brake fluid to the Ranger, and did more unpaid work as an A/c repair tech. A busy day.
Today will definitely have some of the same elements as the kid will need the same taxi service all week. I’ve got auction stuff, and my upcoming big show to get ready for too. I took some time and did some Craigslist posts for some stuff I already had pictures of. I need to do more selling.
And I need to do more work on my trucks.
And I need to do more work on the house.
And I need to do more work on the BOL.
And I need to do some more work on myself…
Gah. A lot of work needs doing.
I’d rather stack.
nick
Are you suuuure that tab proliferation was the problem? Couldn’t the real cause have been Global Cooling Warming Climate Change Disruption?
Maybe.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/08/ny-socialist-cant-pay-rent-wants-to-write-state-budget/
Not sure how to instill enough contempt into any comment on this clown.
Yes, I used the place for washer and dryer in my younger years, the first set we purchased. A small dent on the side that when placed together was never seen. My son bought a refrigerator from the place in Nashville. The dent was in the back.
I have come to that conclusion based on my experience with the refrigerator that I got rid of. Our friends have the same refrigerator and have the same problem. The refrigerator still worked and kept things cold, but the ice maker is a real problem. And is quite rampant on the “net” of the problem that has existed for years.
I am hoping that LG is better.
LG has a history of bad compressors, hopefully now in the past.
Chasing too much energy efficiency leads to shortened product life, which is never considered in the energy efficiency calculations.
It’s just a coincidence that chasing energy efficiency leads to shortened product life.
Now filming:Escape from New York—The Prequel
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/08/04/leftist-mamdani-supporters-scream-i-didnt-think-you-would-do-this-to-me-n3817601
It happens so regularly that it’s astonishing that the idiots don’t realize they’ll be discarded as soon as practicable. Why, it’s like they don’t read history or something.
I have a couple chores to do which I don’t want to do. Not terribly difficult, nor time consuming, nor dirty, just don’t want to do them. Rather than think about how this suggests that I’m lazy, I’m looking for things to distract myself with.
Here’s something to take a few minutes: I’ve brought the ferret outside a few times. My understanding is that she’d never touched grass before coming here. At first she had no idea what to make of this green stuff but before long was exploring. More interesting, the second or third time she was out, I carried her over near the chicken run. The birds were not happy about the predator nearby: “danger” call, lots of flapping, and rushing to the far end of the run. Never mind that the ferret weighs less than half the smallest hen. I put her down a few feet from the run and let her wander around. Some of the hens edged closer, eyes steadily focused on the threat. Both eyes: Like most prey animals, chickens’ eyes are on the sides of their heads but there’s a narrow wedge of binocular vision which lets them get a better view and judge distance more sharply. The birds were relieved when the dread monster was carried away. For her part, the ferret paid no mind to the chickens beyond the first glance, likely because she realized that they were much to big for her to attack.
Well, I’m up. Got coffee ready soon. Breakfast will follow.
And stretching. Man that stings. And cramps. And throbs.
n
Well, I did my chores. I’m not going to need therapy over it but I retain the right to mutter imprecations under my breath.
It’s not that hot here, high 70s, but I worked up enough of a sweat and got covered with enough stinky stuff that I’m going to need another shower. That’s three showers in three days! Oh, the humanity!
(To be clear, I’m not particularly concerned about taking three showers in three days but am annoyed about having gotten splattered in stink three days in a row.)
Or “The Scarlet Pimpernel”.
Did I mention that something ate every one of the developing peaches off my tree at the lake?
Something ate every single unripened grape off my vines here at the house too.
Dang wildlife.
n
This State Is Expanding Its Warrantless Vehicle Surveillance Database
https://townhall.com/news/jeff-charles/2026/08/04/this-state-is-expanding-its-warrantless-vehicle-surveillance-database-n2680654
Another blistering day in Vegas. The A/C unit stops maybe 1-2 times at night for a minute. The unit is pretty old and cools only to 80ºF on the inside thermostat during peak hours. It didn’t do that last year, but it wasn’t as hot. I’m probably looking at a new unit in the next 1-2 years. Probably at least $15K.
I have my EcoWave 2 portable heat pump for backup. I just ordered the “raved about” Midea PortaSplit heat pump. It should come this weekend. $999 on sale. It’s 1,200 BTU, while the EcoWave is about 500btu. Enough for emergencies.
The garage mini-split keeps it a comfortable 77ºF, but is running 24/7 in this heat. It was worth it to have the garage as a liveable workspace.
I’ve noticed a bunch of new flock cams on the roads around my neighborhood.
n
“How to keep the Earth habitable when the sun dies”
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earth-habitable-sun-dies.html
“In a billion years, the sun will start to run out of fuel and expand to become a red giant. Earth’s oceans and atmosphere will be burned away, and Earth will likely be engulfed by the sun altogether. The sun will then shrink to a dim white dwarf, and all light and warmth in the solar system will diminish. In a hundred trillion years, the galaxy’s ability to produce stars will be exhausted, and everything will turn dark. However, there’s a way for life to escape this fate—and what’s more, we wouldn’t need to leave the planet to do it. We just need to build some safeguards.”
Are you kidding me?
Talk about an answer searching for a problem.
Mentioned this before, but check out the open-source Flock mapping project at https://deflock.org/ .
On the Maps page, select ‘Timeline’, then type in the location. Watch the timeline show the growth of Flock cameras locations. Or, check Flock camera locations on any route.
Currently, over 125K Flock camera locations in the US. The map on the site shows all LPR camera companies, including Flock.
“Faculty sue Texas A&M over limits on teaching race, gender and sexuality”
https://www.chron.com/texas/article/texas-am-gender-sexuality-lawsuit-22373370.php
“Four Texas A&M professors, a national faculty group and the ACLU of Texas say the school’s policy is unconstitutional.”
I know four Texas A&M Professors that need to be fired. Suing your boss over ideology never goes well.
I got my 2019 F-150 4×4 back! I had to pay $8,186 to get it out of hock. They were shocked when I wrote a check rather than putting that on my credit card.
I have a new 3.5L V6 long block with a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty. It has the new 2021+ Cam Phasors on it that are doing much better. They used my old intake manifold and my old exhaust manifolds with the embedded turbochargers. Now I have to break in the new engine gracefully.
I also got my transmission flushed. The Service Advisor recommended doing it again before 100K miles. They will not flush transmissions over 100K miles, too many failures in the next week or so.
I can buy a Ford ESP powertrain warranty for 48 months / 60,000 miles that covers the engine and transmission if you do the maintenance and can prove it. The cost is $2,200. The cost to put in a remanufactured 10 speed automatic is $12,000. I am thinking about it. The failure rate on the transmission is not good, maybe 25% at 100K miles (SWAG). Ford knows and they will not tell.
The garage mini-split keeps it a comfortable 77ºF, but is running 24/7 in this heat. It was worth it to have the garage as a liveable workspace.
Watch that drain on the mini-split. I had to replace the garage inside back wall and insulation because the mini-split drain in the 1,500 ft2 garage backed up and overflowed into the wall at my parents house. There is no drain pan to catch the overflow.
Of course, their house is at the ocean and your house is in the desert. A slight difference in outside humidity levels. Yours may never get above 30% and theirs never gets below 80%.
I had a water pipe beak today. I didn’t hear water running so I called a well servicing company. Nice guys, didn’t act like I was stupid. One shut off valve works.
So the water is off. I’ll turn it on so I can take a quick shower and bush my teeth before bed. Then to Hoover’s in the morning. When it is cool. For PVC glue. The can I have is sort of on the edge.
It’s at least 102f out and I’m soaked.
Could be worse. Could be a problem with the well.
Stolen from facecrack: https://www.facebook.com/rich.weyand.5 if you are interested and have a few days to blow off.
“Category: Weird thoughts about China”
“China pretends to be a civilized country. We shouldn’t let them get away with it.
Oh, sure. Five thousand years and all that BS. Well, then Turkey is one of the most ancient civilizations ever, since Gobekli Tepi goes back almost 12,000 years.
Wait, you say. That doesn’t count because there hasn’t been one government in control, one society, throughout that period. But the same applies to China.
The unification of China from the Seven Warring States was accomplished by Qin Shi Huang, who invented the title of Emperor (huangdi) to apply to himself, rather than king (wang). As Qin is pronounced as ‘chin’ in English, he was the founder of China, its first emperor.
Well, s***. The Italians and the Greeks and a bunch of other peoples have longer histories than that.
As for one continuous society, oh, please. China has a history of violent revolution or conquest of the country every seventy-five to one hundred years. Even the Mongols only ruled China for ninety years.
A sterling example is the Taiping Rebellion, between 1850 and 1871. In our Civil War, in the same period, 600,000 people died. Two percent of our population of thirty million. In the Taiping Rebellion, up to ten percent of the population died. As many as 30,000,000 people died, equal to the entire population of the US at the time.
As for civilization, China is systematically persecuting religion. Christians, Muslims (like the Uyghurs), Buddhists in Tibet. They never had the religious wars of Europe (the English civil wars and the Thirty Years War) that taught religious tolerance.
They continue to suppress the press. The only things one can publish in China are all part of the party line.
If you’re born in dirt-poor rural China, you are not allowed to move to one of the cities. If you were born dirt-poor in rural China, you will remain dirt-poor in rural China, as will your children and your grandchildren.
So let’s not treat China as a civilized society. It’s not.
Xi Jinping knows all of this, and he knows the CCP’s days are numbered. The Chinese civil war that put Mao and the CCP in power was concluded seventy-seven years ago.
In the next twenty to twenty-five years, they will be gone.”
A friend of mine was a Christian missionary to China. In the 1990s they left him alone and let him run his home church for ten years before he came home. He and his wife went back in the 2010s. They got run out of China in less than six months that time.
“Here’s When SpaceX Expects $1 Trillion in Annual Revenue”
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/f7f2d72b-31c5-3111-97ea-c084778c2ca9/here-s-when-spacex-expects-1.html
“SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday evening that SpaceX expects to generate $1 trillion in sales by 2030, up from prior projections of 2031. Second quarter sales were $7.8 billion. Currently, Wall Street projects $320 billion in revenue for 2030 for Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company.”
That is bold. Very bold.
More info:
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/spacex-shows-strong-growth-first-204248300.html
Missing a number me thinks. But anything above $8K that is close enough.
Could be worse. Could be a problem with the well.
That would not be cool. I have already had my horsepower well problem this year. I would not like to have another well problem.
Missing a number me thinks. But anything above $8K that is close enough.
Eeep! Yes, the ransom amount was $8,186.
I am losing my mind.
BTW, after driving my old 2008 Highlander for three weeks, my F-150 felt a little strange.
Ensh*tification of everything.
Got a call out of the blue today, from a foreign guy claiming to be Bank of America Fraud Detection Department. I told him that was curious; I have no relationship with BofA. He told me it was because of a recently received credit card application in my name. After I assured him it wasn’t me, but I do know of at least 2 other people in the US with my identical name, he wanted to transfer me to Experian to freeze that application.
I had already talked to this schmoe longer than most cold calls, so I explained that he called me, and I’d call Experian direct. After a moment, he gave me a suspicious direct phone number and a Case ID. I assured him I’d call, and hung up.
Then I googled that number, and got nothing. I went to Experian’s (real) website, and like most modern websites, it’s basically useless. I did establish an account with them, and downloaded my credit report, which did not show any new apps. I spent 15 minutes chasing deadends first, and dodging ads and come-ons for new credit cards. There was no way, none at all, to contact a human being, and more than ever I figured the Case ID was pure fiction from a scammer.
Nonetheless, because I’m thorough, I tried to contact BofA. I reached a trifecta; Bad website, useless phone tree, and nonexistent email. Their website lists security@bofa.com which bounced back to me. You can’t use their website or phone tree unless you have an account already.
At this point, I assume the original scammer was trying to get more info from me, which did not happen, and the credit card app was a fiction. I’m going to freeze my credit anyway; I’m not planning on new activity for a couple years.
But I had to deal with BofA and Experian awful websites, phone trees, and the nagging sense someone is targeting me. Oh, and it used to be that searching on a phone number would tell you in most cases that it was fraudulent. So searching is worthless now, too.
Larry Niven answered that one, in “World Out of Time”. We can’t DO it yet, but the physics would be straightfoward; it’s the engineering that will take a million years.
It’s at least 102f out and I’m soaked.
I treated a lot of fire ant beds at the house at noon today. No hat of course. Why would I need a hat to protect my severely bald head at noon? Now I have a heat headache and I will probably lose the skin on top of my head. Again.
Larry Niven answered that one, in “World Out of Time”. We can’t DO it yet, but the physics would be straightfoward; it’s the engineering that will take a million years.
The Chinese already have a plan for this in the excellent “The Wandering Earth” documentary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wandering_Earth
Only 90% (SWAG) of the human population died in the documentary. Recommended.
Crush the shorts.
Those Midea’s seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth, never seen one for sale anywhere. I’ve considered one for winter supplemental heat since I already use the U’s for supplemental cooling and don’t need a third, but a $ grand + pays for a lot of resistance heating (or 10 diesel truck heaters).
(I think you meant to write 12,000 btu, btw)
One concern for me is also the propane working fluid…
With 84 and even 90 month car loans increasingly common, chances are that a number of buyers will still have payments remaining when the transmission fails.
GM never could make that transmission work, hence the Allison signs on multiple buildings for the Arlington exit from the Tom Landry Freeway in DFW.
The 10 speed transmissions will be pointless if Federal speed limit policy goes back to 55 MPH, whether or not the states go along with the Progs.
Pay attention to the primaries tonight.
One concern for me is also the propane working fluid…
Just don’t smoke around the equipment.
Propane is being used as the refrigerant in all of the large LNG liquefaction plants.
My father and partner invented that refrigeration cycle for Phillips 66 back in the 1960s.
I had read that a lot of the small refrigeration systems were going to move to CO2 but they seem to have gone to cyclopentane instead. The Chinese made this happen since they are the producers of most of the refrigeration equipment on the planet now.
https://www.sdya-chem.com/news/manufacturer-85096303.html
The 10 speed transmissions will be pointless if Federal speed limit policy goes back to 55 MPH, whether or not the states go along with the Progs.
My F-150 goes into 10th gear, the third overdrive gear, at a constant speed of 45 mph. But that twin turbo V6 develops 400+ ftlbs of torque at 1,400 rpm. When, the timing chain does not fail.
“There Are Different Types of ‘Wealthy’ Husbands”
https://rumble.com/v7dowk4-there-are-different-types-of-wealthy-husbands.html?mref=o877&mc=eu19d
Heh.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Air Force: F-47 Fighter, B-21 Bomber Now Ahead of Schedule”
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/08/04/air-force-f-47-fighter-b-21-bomber-now-ahead-of-schedule-n2205183
“The United States, since 1941, has relied heavily in air power. In fact, it was World War II that taught us the value of air power. Air power was a large part of our World War II victories. Since then, almost every action the United States military has fought has been under the umbrella of air superiority, if not outright air domination. We’ve been able to do this in no small part by having the best aircraft available at the time, from the Grumman F-6F Hellcat and the North American Aviation P-51 Mustang fighters to the modern-day Lockheed Martin–Boeing F-22 Raptor fighter and the Northrup B-2 Spirit bomber.”
“Now in development is the next generation, the F-47 fighter and the B-21 bomber, and according to at least one source in the United States Air Force, they are ahead of schedule.”
“That’s good news, but look at the numbers: 100 B-21 bombers and 185 B-47 fighters. At present there are 187 F-22 Raptors, and that bird is our primary air-superiority fighter. There are close to 500 F-35s, but in bombers, the B-2 that the B-21 is intended to replace is fading, with only 19 operational birds. They are supported by 45 Bones – the B-1B – and 76 B-52s, which are undergoing replacement of their avionics suites and their engines.”
“100 bombers and 185 fighters seems like a lot, especially when set against the dwindling numbers of the two best right now. Granted, stealth and high-technology, which both of these birds have and to spare, are great force-multipliers. But the United States hasn’t faced a near-peer conflict in years, and while our aircraft can fly into Iran with impunity, if we ever have to face a more powerful nation, like, say, China, it may be a whole different story.”
Coming soon to an airbase near you.
Crush the shorts.
And Musk hates Shorts with a passion. Gotcha.
GM mated the transmission with a teeny four cylinder engine in a stripped Silverado pre-pandemic.
Of course, “stripped” still meant power locks/windows, AC, heated seats, and a premium sound system.
These were mostly used as rental car fodder, but the big local Chevy dealer carried them for the times when Papi walked in wanting a “man’s” truck but Mama insisted that payments stay below $500/month.
An important lockout period ends soon for 20% of the stock IIRC.
The dealership had a TV spokesperson who was a Latino male and spent a lot of time playing with a soccer ball on camera. The implication was that he owned the lot.
The actual owner of the Chevy dealer is the Van Tuyl Auto Group, a subsidiary of the Geico Gecko.
MrAtoz: If your AC unit may just need the coils cleaned. Outside I’ve had good success with a garden hose. Inside is another matter. But if your a do-it-yourselfer you can check the inside A frame coils to see what they look like. Cleaning them can be a chore but the results can be great.
Actually…. I had a water pipe break today. Farthest faucet. I found it. Dam the brush has grown up in that area quite a bit.
Getting to it, well, my skin seems to be getting tender. I didn’t notice any briar vines. Got back to the house and I had blood dripping from my fingers. WT?. Didn’t even feel it.
I have a ¾ inch pipe coming off of a 1 ½ inch pipe running full blast. I don’t know where the faucet is. There was a faucet, it had a slow drip last I looked but winter was coming and a drippy faucet is not a bad thing.
Kind of cool to see the water doing a water fountain thing 18 inches into the air.
I’m going to cap the pipe. And insulate it. I don’t need a faucet there now.
And my keyboard… is getting wonky again and not typing the letter r unless I press hard. Dunno. I’m used to this keyboard. Only been using it since I had a 386 running Windows for Workgroups.
“WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD GET THE HELL AWAY FROM BLACK PEOPLE”
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/08/04/white-people-should-get-the-hell-away-from-black-people-23/
The black kid that body slammed the white kid was over a foot taller than the white kid. Not good.
“Fate’s Edge (The Edge, Book 3)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Fates-Edge-Book-3/dp/0441020860?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number three of a four book paranormal romance thriller fantasy series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2011 that I bought new on Amazon in 2024. Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. I own the successor book and will read it again soon.
“The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…”
Audrey Callahan has lived in the Edge all of her life. She is an excellent thief and magical lock breaker. But her family lives off thieving exclusively and she wants to have nothing to do with it. Especially when her junkie brother sold her to his drug dealer.
Kaldar Mar is one of the surviving members of the Mar family from their previous encounter with the Hand, the horrible secret service of magic users from the Duchy of Louisiana. Kaldar now works for the Mirror, the secret service of magic users for Adrianglia. And he has been given an assignment to retrieve a pair of magic bracelets that can store magical energy for the user. But he needs help and Audrey is not a willing partner, plus the two very young lads who have stowed away on his 120+ foot long winged wyvern.
I enjoyed the hound out of this series back in 2024 and am rereading it again for the sheer enjoyment of it. The story telling is awesome and the depths of the people involved is amazing.
The authors have a busy website at:
https://ilona-andrews.com/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (3,554 reviews)
Lynn
… by rounding up the career criminals, the career welfare cases, and the rest of the net burdens on society and shipping them to Africa. Doesn’t matter if no African nation wants them. Put a thousand at a time on a worn-out barge off of Ghana for all I care.
That’s for American citizens. My recommendation for non-citizens who commit any crime in the US is to give them the choice between crucifixion and impalement.
Americans who abet the importation of crimigrants and other invaders aren’t given a choice. They get impaled. And they are offered water every hour, to keep them alive and prolong their suffering.
Yes, I’m fed up with the enshitification of the nation.
ICE Arrests Explode to 51,000: Biggest Month in DHS History
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/08/04/ice-arrests-explode-to-51000-biggest-month-in-dhs-history-n2205189
Start paying bounties. Bounties for reporting employers hiring illegals, bounties for landlords renting to illegals, bounties on illegals driving, and bounties on illegals themselves.
I think I could pad my retirement nicely with a few phone calls. I have noticed one local laundromat seems to have a cluster of potential violators on the same day each week. I’m curious as to whether that is a pattern of all laundromats. Maybe I should start a service, take in laundry from busy neighbors, do a wash and fold run to various coin-op laundries, then drop the dime to ICE.
Maybe ICE should start putting up their own FLOCK cameras.
“Put a thousand at a time on a worn-out barge off of Ghana for all I care.”
The price of warn-out barges would go through the roof in a month. Unless we rigged a system to rotate them once they dropped anchor off the African shore.
Wife decided the grass was looking ‘crunchy’ but the sprinklers wouldn’t come on. I’d decided that a couple days ago, but again, that’s one of those things I don’t do around here.
W made it my issue by turning on the water to the system when I told her that was why no water came out. No water going in. Then water was coming out of the grass.
Five minute job if I had my nipple
wrenchextractor turned into 45 minutes as I spent time looking for the wrench and couldn’t find it. It’s probably at the BOL since I was doing sprinklers up there. Eventually found the right size riser pipe, and got the broken nipple out, replaced the head and aimed the f-ing thing. 90F in the shade and hotter than that in the garage attic where the plumbing supplies live. Not even a mention that I had all the tools and materials to fix it…Then it RAINED. Not enough to matter as it turned out, but yeah.
Made myself some dinner and D2 came looking for TP. Took them a long time to run out. I suggested texting D1 to pick some up on the way home from her date.
————
Took the Ranger to the mechanic to see about getting all the front end suspension tuned up. That actually means replacing most of it as the bushings are rotten and most are not replaceable. Something like 18 pieces… The kit was about $300 on amazon for chinese parts, and the labor is a few hours but even the youtube guy that seemed calm and competent said he’d never do that again. I don’t trust the chinese parts with my life anyway. So we’ll see what he comes back with.
————
F-ing dog was going nuts out back and OF COURSE that’s my problem too. He had a possum that he was savaging. Couldn’t get him off with a rake or the hose. I used a pole to get space then stepped in between them. Mr Possum took the hint and booked it. Dog found him in a couple minutes and finished the job. Possum was almost as big as the dog.
Guess I won’t see him on his patrol route when I’m having a tiny little fire.
———–
Tenant keeps making comments about how attic insulation would probably help the temps in the rent house. So would double pane windows, wall and floor insulation, and air sealing, but it ain’t gonna happen. It’s real easy to spend other people’s money. She said “insulation might be cheaper than a new unit”. I said “I’d have to raise the rent. Higher electric bills for a couple of months might be cheaper than that.” I didn’t add the laughing emoji. Then she said “oh we can just continue to monitor it for a while…” Yeah.
This is the horse trainer who drives a lexus, who’s sister had the “Fuck the Rich” gold necklace, who’s family owns apartment buildings, sends the grandkids to horse camp, etc. Bougie hypocrites.
———–
My tolerance is low today.
n
oh, I spent an hour breaking down the big slab of loin into NY Strips, and vac sealing the lamb chops into meal packs.
Costco had the meat for $10/pound.
n
D2 spent 11 hours at the hairdresser trying to get her pink candyfloss colored hair back to something natural for her school activity. Colored hair is banned. Someone also spent about $300 on that project. It still is clearly colored but looks much more natural with high- and low- lights.
——-
Spent about an hour updating and making minor edits to my hobby club website. We’ve got a place to meet now, so I had to change all our “check every month to see where we’ll be meeting” text to the new address. Did some other small fixes too.
———
It’s been busy and I’m grumpy. It’s probably still too hot to be comfortable sitting out tonight too.
n
I’m pretty much carnivore for a while, and I’m realizing that steak is nearly the last thing on my preference list.
Hamburgers, Salisbury steak, eggs, bacon, sausage, hamburger dishes, chili, roasts, cheese all come first. Turkey and chicken come after steak in the preference list.
How do you cook your strip steaks, Nick? And others, too.
One issue I have is that I grew up eating only well-done steak, and I’ve been shamed into eating medium so I don’t offend others. It’s hardly worth the effort it takes.
I have access to a Blackstone now, so cooking 12 burgers at a time is pretty straightforward. Bacon on the Blackstone is easy, but also easy to overcook. I prefer baking bacon, but I’m not running the oven in the house for 2 more months.
The sales pitch for the “Green New Deal” promises minority women jerbs as home inspectors for the planned mandatory mass retrofitting of the housing stock to meet modern energy efficiency standards.
She’s getting in some practice now.
While on that subject, I saw the first “Gina! – Governor” sign in a yard in my neighborhood over the weekend.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that Abbott has suddenly reversed course on his previous laissez-faire approach to data center permitting in Texas.
It is not just about jerbs anymore, son.
Bern’s in Tampa used to have their policy of which cuts would not be cooked to a “well done” temperature printed on the menu, but I don’t see it in the current online version.
BC: Beware Of Velociraptor
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2026/08/04
Oh yeah, they adapt to their surroundings.
My father used to cook steaks “well done”, which probably explained why I was not all that thrilled with having steak when I was a young adult. Since then, my tastes have evolved from “medium well” to “medium” to “medium rare”, which is my current preference.
Of course, I have read that President Trump prefers his at the “shoe leather” stage, which I have never understood.
“A 9,000-pound SpaceX rocket will crash into the moon tonight. Will you be able to see it?”
https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/a-9-000-pound-spacex-rocket-will-crash-into-the-moon-tonight-will-you-be-able-to-see-it
“The 45-foot-long (13.8-meter), 8,000-pound (4,000-kilogram) rocket stage, left over from the January 2025 launch of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar missions, is expected to strike the moon at about 2:35 a.m. EDT (0635 UTC) on Aug. 5. Traveling at roughly 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h), the impact will occur near the moon’s western limb, close to Einstein Crater on the moon’s Earth-facing side.”
Heads up, incoming.
Poor cuts of meat need to be well cooked. Especially if they’re pushing their best by… and anything ground, unless you watch them grind it, needs to be med/med well for safety. French cooking with sauces is all about hiding the taste of meat that’s too old.
I eat steak rare to body temperature if they are good quality. I do sear the outside to kill anything on them. I use Adkins seasoning as a shortcut because it is mainly salt, garlic, pepper, and I think a little citrus. [Looking at the label it’s not citrus, it’s hot pepper. Maybe the citrus is in the Montreal Steak seasoning at costco…which I don’t like as much as the Adkins] I put the Adkins on it before vac sealing.
Adkins on burgers really pumps them up.
Kids and wife like beef rare too. Purple and jelly texture in the middle if it’s prime, and thick. You get a sweet beef flavor that you don’t get any other way. The sear gives it a good ‘taste of the grill’ and makes it very attractive.
When I do the sirloin cap roast (picana roast), I roast it to rare/medium rare, and serve it sliced.
Lamb is rare to medium rare. Modern lamb is bred to be low lanolin and does well at lesser doneness, without the strong flavor of lamb, but still you know it’s not beef. I think for the same money, modern Australian lamb is higher quality than similarly priced beef.
I make lamb roasts, chops, and the rib chop which is the tenderloin with the rib attached (‘frenched’ so like lamb lollipops). Funny that pork chops, lamb chops, and beef ribeye are all the same thing.
Speaking of ribeye, the ribeye roast (prime rib in the US) I’ll eat med. I ask for the rarest they have, but given how it’s cooked, that’s not usually very rare. I do love the outer ring of fatty meat even though it’s always well done.
My dad always overcooked beef, and yet would serve pork at 155F with a hint of pink. I had a rich friend in highschool who’s dad wouldn’t cook steaks past rare (because they were too high quality) and he taught me to appreciate that.
Never ate lamb as a kid, or an adult, until we were on the Atkins diet. I never thought I’d get tired of pork chops, but I really really did. We branched out into lamb, cornish game hens, quail (which you can buy in the store in TX), and some other cuts of beef besides just steaks.
Growing up, we had more beef and pork than anything else so when we went out I ate shrimp. And then I discovered King Crab legs… better than lobster. When I lived in Cali in the 90s the Kroger across the street had Alaskan King Crab for $9/pound on sale. I ate a lot of that. And I love deep fried frog legs.
I cut these NY Strips about an inch thick because the store is slicing everything so thin these days. They weighed out at about 14 oz. each. Normally, I wouldn’t buy NY Strips, but I do like them as a change of pace. Because HEB puts the prime sirloin on sale so often, that’s our go to here, but my personal favorite is ribeye. I thought the filet minon was the best growing up, and it’s great, but the ribeye is a bit less refined and the flavor is so much bigger.
We never eat chicken breast. Everyone in the family likes the dark meat, so when we bring home a whole chicken most of the breast gets made into chicken salad. I make a roasted duck when I find it on sale, it’s all dark meat.
We don’t eat much fish besides sushi, but breaded and baked frozen tilapia from Costco was a staple. I had frozen breaded cod tonight for dinner. It’s easy and relatively quick. I even like fish sticks baked, with melted butter and soy sauce. Deep fried farm raised catfish filets are delicious too but even they aren’t cheap anymore. I usually only get them at the chinese buffet.
I do like grilled swordfish, and ahi tuna steaks, but they are too expensive now. Salmon isn’t one of my wife’s favorites so I mostly avoid it except smoked on bagels. Rarely do I cook it. Growing up we ate lake perch filets deep fried. I’ll eat walleye as a substitute since overfishing wiped out the commercial lake perch fishery in Chicago and on Lake Michigan. Kinda regional, so if I’m there and it’s on the menu, I’ll probably get it.
And every part of the pig is delicious. Except maybe the eyes, which I never tried as my great aunt would snatch them up as a delicacy at family pig roasts.
Of course this doesn’t even begin to cover all the ways poor people the world over have used small chunks of meat in sauces and stews. Love a good curry. Or the miracle that is Texas BBQ…
Now I’ll have to have a snack.
n
A 9,000-pound SpaceX rocket will crash into the moon tonight.
– dang it, I’d have let the binos acclimate and looked for it if I’d known. I got my newly refurbed image stabilized binos out to look at the weird orange half moon tonight, but the condensation was so bad I gave up after 5 minutes. Now it’s too late, they’ll never dry in the high humidity in time.
n
And if I was at the BOL, I’ll try with the wife’s 8″ dob, or maybe set up my 10″ which hasn’t been out of the box since conditions have been poor for the last two years whenever we’re up there.
Deep fried farm raised catfish filets are delicious too but even they aren’t cheap anymore.
$13 to $17 depending on weight for four catfish fillets at HEB now. Not cheap but they sure are good. My wife just pan fries them in olive oil. I smother mine in Louisiana Tartar sauce (Louisiana Hot Sauce and tartar sauce).
Interesting.
I went to check the weather this morning from the NWS and it’s defaulting from the airport near me, KWJF, to a generic prediction for the entire valley (99F-109F, btw), and just reporting current conditions at the Palmdale regional airport, 20 miles away.
Weather Underground will sometimes default to a nearby station if a desired station is down, it could be something like that.
Re: Falcon impact.
Didn’t see anything. Didn’t expect to, tbh, with just 50mm binos…
Checking the tubes this morning no-one else imaged anything either, even with huge scopes.
Monday I looked up the personal libraries of some famous authors (Wikipedia, via the iPad). One was Butler, Missouri, where R. A. Heinlein grew up and donated some of his.
This morning You Tube has ‘recommended for you’ network news from St.Louis.
The cloud is watching.