HOT and HUMID and unpleasant outside. Maybe cooler with rain. National map has rain today, tomorrow, and maybe Monday. Yesterday Houston got some rain. Some of Houston got a whole lot of rain, some got none, and some got a tiny bit.
Anyway, I met my auctioneer and they are willing. I can send them stuff on Tues if I have a way to get it to them. Did a series of pickups and only missed one when I ran out of time. I’ll get that one today. It’s the closest to me. Missed it by half hour.
Today I’ve got my regular monthly club meeting in the morning. Then in the afternoon I need to decide if I’m going to the BOL. If it’s rained there, I won’t as the grass will be too wet to cut, but if it’s dry, I’ll probably head up. I don’t have the pickup, so the type of stuff I’ll take with me is a bit limited. W would like to head up but the kids are doing stuff at home. Hmm. Leave one? Hmm.
If I don’t go up, there are certainly things I could do here. Could being the most operative word. Most of it falls within my strike parameters. Dilemmas. Like plans, I got ’em.
Stack. No dilemma there.
nick
First post. Beat chicken boy and that foreigner. What a day.
Off to Nashville to visit the son and grandkids. A stop a Buc-ee’s in Crossville to pick up some Jerky, get a Dr. Pepper Icee, then back on the road. About a 3 hour drive, only 2 if you count the time change.
The Mouse bought and ruined Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm during Iger’s tenure.
Arnold’s Country Kitchen closes at 3.
Buc-ee’s in Temple had Cuban sandwiches yesterday.
Miami Cubans — no salami.
No Kathleen in 2005.
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up, moving, and waiting for coffee. 76F!!!
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n
Kathleen Kennedy never ran Disney. She was still fetching coffee at Amblin circa 2005.
Iger deposed Eisner with Steve Jobs’ help and, in return, The Weatherman made the Jobs family the largest non-institutional stock holders of Disney with the Pixar buyout.
Kennedy became President of LucasFilm in the Disney buyout of George Lucas, and there was some strange mutual backscratching/consideration for Lucas’ wife, Melody Hobson, with Dreamworks and her other corporate C-suite/board gigs in return.
It is a big club and you aren’t in it.
I held Disney stock for a long time until Iger started the p*ssing match with DeSantis.
The Home Patrol scanner radio does NOT have the GPS accessory. I brought it along and hooked it up for my Orlando to Milwaukee road trip in a rental car last year. But my macular degenerated buddy couldn’t see to change location database, so wasn’t really useful. On that trip, Android Auto from my phone did the Navigation honors. That got weird in Nashville and in Chicago’s Friday PM rush hour. Probably trying to avoid the unavoidable traffic jam.
The Android head unit in my Subaru can connect to WiFi and update/add apps. OTOH, my apartment’s rent included Juniper router is user inaccessible. Made my first call to ISP tech support to re-enable 2G WiFi for a Blink doorbell cam. My to do list includes parking nearby for updates that weren’t possible for the head unit’s WiFi. Google Play’s security authentication had me circling the definition of insanity when I used my phone’s hot spot function from the Android screen.
Android head unit AM/FM radio works fine, the SIRIUS sat radio uses the AUX input to use the car’s upgraded OEM speaker array. Mostly I just enjoy the capabilities. The installation trick is in having the proper wiring harness for the model of car to the Android box and opening the dash’s tight quarters to do the hookup. Patience and good lighting goes a long way.
As I recall, Lynn or his wife likes CDs. The Androids have plenty of USB connections but usually not a native CD slot. My Home Patrol radio, not connected to the Android box, floats around in the dash cubby that could accommodate an external USB enabled CD player. Instead, I drilled a USB connection to the head unit next to the OEM cigarette lighter and filled it with my music library on a SD card. The Android’s “Music” app and the “Music Monkey” app see the SD card as “USB-A” and Bob’s your uncle. There is another USB wire in the glove box, but I haven’t used it. In addition, the Forester has OEM USB connections in the arm rest console that ARE connected and functional to the Android’s wiring harness.
The Android’s wiring harness is specifically engineered for a Subaru Forester. Connections for the OEM speakers, steering wheel buttons, an external microphone and various add-ons and optional Subaru equipment require careful attention and a bit of thought. YouTube and Amazon Reviews are good sources for the realities of the Android upgrade.
I know that time-expired Starlink satellites are put into a descent orbit designed to maximize the thermal erosion aka burn-up. How much of them would hit a target if the orbit was designed to minimize burn-up? Considering how carefully they are steered to that same safe spot in the Pacific, I’m guessing a considerable amount.
Yesterday was a real scorcher in Vegas. I set up my EcoFlow Wave 2 in the master* bedroom, vented out a bathroom window. It got the MB comfortable. It is going to be scorchers all through August, here. Once it cools off, I’ll get a complete assessment of the house A/C unit. If it hangs in there.
*I still use “master” bedroom just to piss people off.
I’ve been trying out Mole on the Mac for system cleanup and maintenance. The terminal version is free, $19 for a GUI version. One time purchase. I’ll stick to the terminal for now. It found and deleted 2-3 times more metritis than CleanMyMac without crashing the system. If I like it enough, I’ll buy the GUI version rather than CleanMyMac’s annual license. It also removes applications as well as CMM. I need that feature since I try out a lot of apps.
Congratulations and happy travels!
That foreigner is on his holidays, and slept until after noon. He went for a stroll through the Saturday farmers’ market (lots and lots of cheese!), bought some fruit and veg, honey and fresh bread. Brunch on the balcony with a view of the lake, followed by a nap.
It’s a good life, if one doesn’t weaken!
Wow. Congratulations. Good thing you’re retired so you don’t have to use a week of vacation for recovery from the celebration.
The ferret’s owner got back several days ago but she’s “so tired” from the flight(s), so she won’t get her for another few days. Not a major deal, following my taking care of the critter for the past couple months, but I see it as further evidence of character. Meanwhile, Mr Weasel (yes, I’m both misgendering and misspeciesing her) really enjoys going outside and running around and sniffing things in the grass. Chickens are still very unhappy about the fearsome predator, but I continue to bring her to that side of the house for the afternoon shade.
Something odd I’ve noticed about how she walks and runs. When she’s walking on a floor, either hardwood or carpet, she arches her back high and just walks at whatever speed, either poking along or moving pretty fast to try to escape when I open my door. When she’s walking on grass, belly is low. When she runs on grass, she arches her back slightly and hops or “popcorns” at a good speed. I have no idea what to make of this, having no prior experience with Mustelidae. “At a good speed” is scaled for her size. I’m much faster than I’ve ever seen her move, but my legs are probably 15 times as long, so cut her some slack.
The Child thinks that I’m not doing the ferret any favors, getting her used to running around either in the grass or in my office. (Side note: it looks like I need to do a better job of cleaning under the futon because she has dust on her whiskers whenever she comes out from poking through the boxes and what-not underneath it.) She might be right but I don’t plan on changing my critter-keeping style. Too late now, if nothing else. She also didn’t much care for my observation that I spend a lot of time on and spoil not only the chickens and the ferret but my children and their friends who stay with us.
LOL! Metritis = inflammation of the uterus. It should have been detritus.
LOL! Metritis = inflammation of the uterus. It should have been detritus.
And here I though you were using metritis because you were working on a Mac instead of a PC.
Home from my meeting, and picking up my auction item.
Still don’t know if I’m headed to the BOL. Need to talk to W about it.
It’s currently mid 90sF here and sunny, so that cool start to the day was just a head fake.
Dang it.
n
Spent a couple of hours clearing weeds and
metritusdetritus from the north side of the house. 97F when I quit at 10:20am, today will be a scorcher.I will put a decorative rock border near the house there. Years ago I was thinking pavers, but it is more work and cost, and doesn’t get used for walking, so…. And it’s the obvious spot for the pads for heat exchangers for the (notional) mini-splits, and gravel is easier to move than pavers and 6″ of base and sand.
I will have to do some grading: the previous owner never did anything after finishing construction, to which is added 30 years of wind drift and the results of the sellers ‘handyman’ using a small yard-tractor grader to bury old wood & drywall here and there – so making sure things drain away from the house will have to be ensured.
It’s the desert, when it rains it pours.
Just tell W that you are too exhausted from your busy morning of bodhrán playing and Morris dancing to go to the BOL.
Nick would love to either go to the BOL and work or do chores and repairs around the main house, but his Elvis costume has spangles out of alignment.
We go as far as Hendersonville which is east of Nashville.
Nick will forever now be “handyman Elvis” to me….
Dovetail me tender, and Don’t step on my blued trade screws.
Where they have both kinds of music: Country and Western.
I commented on a Substack post. Uh, I think I’m reasonable. And someone is coming at me saying “it’s all on the internet there’s no reason to not to know how to cook anything”.
Yeah, veer off of the highway from what I first said and go over the guardrail and over the cliff.
Well. Yes. The comment is true. Now. But you have to know the question you need to ask. Think about that for a moment.
Like adjusting the valves on a slant 6 engine. I had no idea of such a thing beyond knowing engines have valves. But the auto parts store had a $12 Chilton or whatever brand of book for my car. And the book showed me how to do it. $5 for a set of feeler gauges. Along with cranking on the torsion bars so the car sat level.. So I did it. Both. We had 5 nickles standing on edge on the air cleaner when I was done. Running like a Singer smooth.
Later, in the days of dial-up, yeah, forget Youtube or any video existing at all when an animated gif took half an hour to download. I still don’t do videos. Mostly because I don’t want to here all of the “yeah, but, um, and, then” connector noises. Write it down.
Concisely. I read a lot faster than you talk. Really, I do.
If it’s not worth your time to write your wisdom down, well, bye.
Morris dancing IN MY ELVIS SUIT, and FAT ELVIS at that…
Whew, I pass out for a while and you guys go nuts!
I had some lunch, laid down on the bed with a book, and 4 hours vanish. I think we got some cats and dogs rain during that, but it doesn’t look that wet out the window. I’ll have to ask someone who lived thru it I guess.
Probably won’t head to the BOL if it rained. It’ll be too wet to mow. I’ll ping my buddy and see.
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Almost time for dinner.
n
Indeed. When one is retired, it is the little victories that make the day worthwhile.
I know that time-expired Starlink satellites are put into a descent orbit designed to maximize the thermal erosion aka burn-up. How much of them would hit a target if the orbit was designed to minimize burn-up? Considering how carefully they are steered to that same safe spot in the Pacific, I’m guessing a considerable amount.
I am fairly sure that the target would need new underwear at a minimum.
“Force Majeure: Wolfhounds – Book Three” by John Van Stry
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D5C3WJL3?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number three of a six book science fiction space opera series. And there is a prequel series of two books and a sequel series of a few books. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2024 that I bought in 2026. I own the other three books in the series and will read them soon.
I love Space Opera. And I love pulp science fiction. This series is both and a great example of the merging of the two. In fact, this series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the Piers Anthony “Bio of a Space Tyrant” series, the “Mutineer’s Moon” series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series. The dialog is very frequent and the action moves along quickly.
Chase Collis is a street rat. He and his mother lived in government housing in Imperial City until she died of a drug overdose when he was 12 years old. Just before that was the last time he saw his estranged father who screamed at his mother to keep hiding Chase or else the Emperor would kill them all. Chase ended up on the street at the age of 12, running with the street gangs, being arrested by the police time and time again.
When Chase became an adult, he murdered another street rat and was caught by the police. He purposely got caught to go to the Imperial Prison for a few years to get more street cred and rise to the top of the street gang. But to his shock, when he went to his trial, his father was the judge. His father sentenced him to ten years in the Imperial Navy rather than the four years in Imperial Prison that he expected, and then escorted him to the Naval Basic Training school.
In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star systems including Earth and the Solar system which were made uninhabitable in the War of Succession. Emperor Charles Morgan, Chase’s grandfather, was the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the Imperium. His family keeps power because they are genetically modified with machine interfaces in their DNA. So are all of the Nobles: the Dukes, the Earls, the Counts, and the Barons. Any machine of any importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do. And the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the Imperium. And nobody knows or understands how tight the Imperial human machine interfaces are with every AI in the Imperium.
Chase Collis ends up in the Emperor’s own Wolfhounds after his Navy machinists mate training to be a glorified broom pusher. The Wolfhounds are special military fleet embedded in a large asteroid capable of FTL flights to anywhere in the Empire. The Wolfhounds were standing down in cryosleep until needed by Emperor to protect him or to take care of a special task. But their cryosleep has lasted for over ten years when it was supposed to be for six months at the most. And upon the Wolfhound’s accidental awakening, the Emperor and his family have been dead for ten years and the Parliament and the Speaker have taken over the Imperium. So now Prince Chase and the Wolfhounds have to reconquer the Imperium, one star system at a time.
The author has a website at:
https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (3,204 reviews)
Lynn
LOL. When I set up the EcoFlow Wave 2, I hot-glued an adapter onto the sliding window insert. The exhaust hose attaches to the adapter. It got so hot that the glue came undone. I just redid it with 4 sheet metal screws to hold the adapter on. I also put some reflective garage insulation on the outside of the insert.
“WNBA Thug Brutally Clotheslines Sophie Cunningham, Tweets “White Privilege” Afterwards”
https://rumble.com/v7dwo4e-wnba-thug-brutally-clotheslines-sophie-cunningham-tweets-white-privilege-af.html
Sophie Cunninghan is going to feel that in the morning.
This is why I quit watching the NBA was crap like this.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Starlink Revives Optional Mini Kit Perk for Residential Max Plan”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-revives-optional-mini-kit-perk-for-residential-max-plan
“SpaceX stopped offering a free Starlink Mini rental with the subscription in June and added a $10 monthly rental fee for Starlink hardware. That rental fee has been quietly rescinded.”
Looks interesting again.
And I was going to
bitchcomplain about a measly 106F …Dadgumit, there is only one episode for Season 3 of “The Lioness” put up on Paramount+. S3e1 was intense and spent most of its time in Ukraine. The drones on both sides was incredibly realistic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lioness_(American_TV_series)
I guess that I have to wait like the rest of the unwashed for more episodes.
“The FCC Moves to Retroactively Ban Drones With LiDAR Obstacle Avoidance”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-fcc-moves-to-retroactively-ban-drones-with-lidar-obstacle-avoidance
“Many photographers and videographers will be surprised to learn that the FCC considers camera drones with LiDAR obstacle avoidance, like the consumer-grade Air 3S, Avata 360, and Mini 5 Pro, to be weapons of war.”
Are you kidding me?
The Sheep Detectives is probably better than anything Disney has excreted in the past twenty years:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+sheep+detectives&&view=detail&mid=8C96B3A6F96630F924438C96B3A6F96630F92443&churl=&FORM=VAMGZC
The above statement is only qualified because I haven’t watched much of anything Disney has produced in the last twenty years, being forewarned for most and having an urgent preference to putting needles in my eyes rather than finish total mewling carp.
be weapons of war.”
Are you kidding me?
– stable gate meet horse….
I recall a ban on murder, and on criminals having guns…
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Had my tiny little fire. Still hot out, mid 80sF, but I thought I’d sit out until eldest child got home. Turns out her plans changed and she is sleeping over at her bestie’s house…. Yeah, when we did that it was because we were too drunk to drive. Starting to get kinda suspicious.
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Time for a snack and bed. Despite crashing out this afternoon, I still need to get some sleep.
n