With the heat, it’s hard to believe summer is ending. We’ve got a month or more of hot and humid ahead of us. I don’t know how much longer we’ll have 100+ degree days though. And a bit cooler at night will be welcome.
And since the start of the school year is way dang early these days, it’s not really the end of Summer that it used to be. Still can’t believe how fast time is flying by.
Did my pickups yesterday, and had nice chats with several people. Met a nice lady that grew up in Chicago not far from where my dad grew up, and we knew a lot of places in common. As she’s 50, she was more of a child of the 90s while I’m a child of the 80s, but still, midwestern and south side of Chicago has a strong cultural influence. And her childhood was a bit more urban than my suburban life. We chatted for over an hour.
Today I have to get youngest out the door. She still wants me to make her a snack for school. Despite my strike I will do so because I get a lot out of it. D1 went to the store and bought TP and some food so the strike will continue a bit longer. As she has to do more of the background stuff I did, maybe she’ll come to realize it. Or maybe not. Teens are very self-centered.
In the afternoon, I have a couple of pickups in Katy. I got some fishing stuff and a nice leather chair for the BOL. The chair will need cleaning, but I’m looking forward to expanding my skills refurbing leather. It’s a distraction, possibly, but also something nice for the BOL.
I’ve got to move some stuff at the shop and get more auction stuff ready, now that I made a little bit of room with the stuff I dropped off.
Should be plenty to do. If my strike continues, I’ll have more time for some stuff. And, maybe the kid will learn some things in preparation to going to college next fall.
Always be working to improve. Stack. I still think it is all going to fall apart economically and socially and the trigger won’t be obvious. Unless they manage to kill Trump, that will make everything go nuts in a very unpredictable way.
n
“The Cat’s Choice” by Sarah A. Hoyt
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2026/08/11/the-cats-choice/
“In that day in the garden when reality shuddered and the great I Am descended in terrible glory upon his creations, the animals hid. The lion cub and the lamb crouched beneath a bush trying to make themselves small and quiet, while their mothers sought the total darkness of the trees and spied, with wide and frightened eyes as wind rose throwing clots of Earth into the air bruising the delicate flowers and startling the insects.”
“Above thunder like a ripping of gigantic cloth sounded, deafening, and the sky that had always been blue turned raging violet and angry red.”
“Even then, in those moments, the lioness and the ewe knew something had changed. The ewe felt a dread of her old friend, though she could not say why, and the lioness found herself thinking that this, the companion of her untroubled days smelled like food. They looked at their babies a few feet off and worried. Then forgot it as the thunder sounded again, and a sound as if of footfalls, and the voice that spoke louder than all creation and through all creation asked “Adam, where are you?””
Continued online.
I previously suggested trading a daughter for a cow and four goats. Update that to a transmission and four tires. #FollowMeForMoreParentingTips #ModernProblemsRequireModernSolutions
I’d rephrase as, Everyone starts out self-centered. A few people grow out of it as teens, more in their 20s or 30s. Many people never do.
UP. Snack made. Donut eaten to keep glucose up.
First day of school photo props standing by.
One child up and moving. D2 still in bed?
n
A lot of VA nurses seem to be in that category.
It is always the nurses.
Kids are off and I’m napping. 3.5 hours of sleep last night.
n
The notion that schools shall start in the middle of a week in August is here. GS1 starts first grade today. D1 works from home (or here often) so more peaceful mornings after the sendoff. GD2 is walking everywhere now so plenty of chasing. Retirement can be a busier than I expected.
Sounds like if you want to make a good trade, D1 has to be it. No one’s going to trade a transmission and four truck tires for a lazybones. #SignUpForMyPragmaticParentingClass
School started here a week ago. First football game, actually a jamboree involving several teams, is tomorrow. First real football game of the season is next Friday. They will play 10 games with one bye week.
When I was living in Rogue River Oregon school did not start until after Labor Day and was out the end of May. Lot of rural area and farms which drove the school dates. We also did not have fall break and spring break, each being a week in length and extends the school year.
Actually, probably more than to you if you have to purchase a new truck. I used to get calls from the dealer I bought my truck from wanting me to trade. I would tell them I want $40K as that was what it was worth to me. They salesperson would laugh and then say I was being unrealistic. I would say fine, if you don’t want to pay me that amount, I don’t want to trade.
The Gods have granted Vegas several days of less than 100ºF 24/7. The A/C actually turns off for 15 minutes each hour between 4:00am and 9:00am.
Ok, up and moving again. time for some coffee.
n
We found the juvenile rabbit in the house. The dog went berserk in the living room, the wife saw the rabbit. We blocked off the living room then found the rabbit. I captured the rabbit and we took the bunny to a rehabilitation center. Releasing was not an option as the bunny was too young. We are also not qualified to raise a juvenile rabbit and release. The bunny needs to be wild, so it can be eaten by a hawk.
Ever finish putting down 55sf of pavers, and realize you forgot to leave space for the brick border?
Yeah, me neither…
Done for today.
***FIRST WORLD PROBLEM***
The automated process I use on my other Mac Mini to download TV shows is broken. A key piece of software, iFlicks, no longer adds metadata or corrects show titles. It hasn’t been updated in 4 years. Some people were paying for a subscription to the Pro version, which is still being collected, and they are furious. You only need the basic version.
iFlicks still converts video to the right format for Apple TV and imports it into ATV. I then have to use Subler to open the file and add the right metadata and artwork. Most of the time, Subler is good at automatically finding the metadata. When it doesn’t, I have to manually find it and add it. It is a manual process.
There are some apps that are good at adding metadata, but won’t mux the file. Some geeks on Reddit are already working on an automated solution. When the TV season starts, I have 10+ shows to watch and don’t want to spend time adding metadata.
My flow will be something like: ShowRSS→Transmission→Handbrake→Subler/something→Hazel to move the file into the Apple TV “Automatically Add to TV” folder under the app. I can probably make it all work with a Shortcut or AI.
Ed, might I suggest a round of soul-cleansing profanity?
Sigh, another juvenile rabbit found dead in the pond. This makes number three. We believe the bunnies are trying to get a drink, falling in, and cannot get out. Too small and too young. We added a piece of carpet down one side, stiffened with plastic pipe, fastened to the pond with screws through the carpet at the top of the pond. A decent ramp. If the rabbits can find the ramp. There is little else we can do to help them. I have not found any rabbits in the pool. The pond is close to where we believe the nest is located. I think there are two batches of kits based on the size of the bunny in the house and the ones found in the pond.
This fall when nesting season is over, and Jenny may know if that is the case, we are going to put out a live trap, bait it with some fresh vegetable, and hopefully catch the rabbit. If we do, we are going to relocate the rabbit five miles away. I don’t like killing wild animals or having wild animals die because of my pond.
Can you create a watering hole with a shallow pan placed between the suspected nest location and the pond?
I left a trade offer for the crows today. Yesterday they left me a nice black feather, which I gave to my cat. I also smoked a brisket yesterday and it got wrapped in XHD aluminum foil, wrapped in a towel, and placed in a cooler to finish. The foil was uneven so I trimmed a shallow triangle off, which I tore into two pieces, creased and formed into loops. I put the pieces in the sun near a tree where the crows seem to hang out, just a few feet from where I found the feather. We’ll see if they are there tomorrow.
My XHD foil roll started as 24″ x 500′. It is a much heavier commercial grade than the short grocery store roll they claim is HD but tears with a hard look. Much better for the grill , and a great prep. You notice the extra thickness immediately: when you fold over a seam, it stays. The XHD is also probably tempered to increased strength, and may be a higher alloy (e.g. more alloying elements).
24″ x 500′ is 1000 ft2 for about $100 ($0.10/ft2). Amazon sells XHD Reynolds “Pitmaster” foil at 18″x 25ft (37.7ft2 ) for $7.78 ($0.21/ft2).
The 24″ width is better for the grill. 24″ will go around most racks of ribs and give you enough to double fold the seam. 18″ is always short so you have to piece a larger sheet. Then if you’re trying to use the wimpy HD version you do the last fold just as a rib bones pokes through the foil.
I also have a roll of wide commercial grade plastic wrap. The downside of each is that they are more difficult to store. I need to take the roll supports from both boxes and make a two-level dispenser, but haven’t done so because I want to incorporate a commercial gutting bar to replace the serrated edge tear strip. I suspect I could design it quickly from the 8020 catalog for a mere $300-400, but every second I worked on it I’d have a vision of it being in my estate sale for fiddy cents.
“Used Up”
https://areaocho.com/used-up/
“A 32-year-old single mother of three daughters clocked in at FedEx and decided to use her time on the clock to send out an SOS for a millionaire boyfriend. She poured her heart out on TikTok, saying she wants someone to come home to, who will treat her kids well and be a true 50/50 partner. The problem is the internet immediately did the math on her situation and started letting her know why she can’t find the man she is looking for. If you are interested, you can see the video pitch here. (It’s the only linkable version I could find)”
“A 32 year old mother of three kids from at least two different fathers, whose looks aren’t any better than a 5 and is covered in tattoos isn’t very hard to find. In short, there are a million or more women out there just like her, who squandered what value they had when they decided to get creampied by multiple men and had a few kids. This woman needs to take a realistic view of what she is offering in comparison to what she wants to receive in this deal. What does she offer?”
Sigh. Bad decision after bad decision. And odds are that her parents have disowned her. And she wants a tall millionaire man to whisk her away. Not gonna happen.
“Suppressors: It’s a Brand New Day”
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2026/08/13/suppressors-its-a-brand-new-day-n1233501
“I honestly expected the Department of Justice to file an appeal to the court’s decision in Jensen. That’s the case where the continued registration of suppressors and short-barreled long guns was declared unconstitutional.”
“There was a stay on the decision pending the possibility of the DOJ filing that appeal, and it was set to expire at midnight. That means today, August 13, 2026, is a brand new day for things like suppressors.”
“No more registrations, and at least one prominent gun guy has already taken advantage of it.”
Yeah, I would wait a while for the dust to settle.
“DOJ Says Post Office Carry Ban Contradicts Federal Law”
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2026/08/13/doj-says-post-office-carry-ban-contradicts-federal-law-n1233510
I wonder how many people that the feddies have put in jail over carrying a pistol into a Post Office.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
WNBA meeting adjourns without definition of “woman”:
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/08/13/woke-will-eat-itself-chapter-mclxii-wnba-meets-to-discover-definition-of-woman-and-n3817961
Seriously, honey?
Millions of years of evolution, a few thousand years of civilization, 70 years of rock-and-roll and you don’t know what a woman is?
I’ll tell you what it is from the perspective of a lifelong basketball fan and occasional player: It’s a league whose members can’t interest enough people to make it financially viable without subsidies, and uses an under-sized under-weight sissy ball.
Maybe it is time to lower the basket to 8-feet so you can learn to jam and make fearsome faces.
Naw, too late. Kantor and White like it just fine at 10-feet.
“Yeah, I would wait a while for the dust to settle.”
Do your homework before buying.
But you aren’t a fairly famous YouTuber gun guy who’s running for Congress in the San Antonio area, and he is. Plus, his exposure is fairly low. DOJ would have to appeal, win, and sue or charge him. But what he did wasn’t criminal even if they win; they could confiscate the suppressor, but the purchase was legal in the time window. Like the people in various states who bought ammo and magazines in various windows between judgments.
In his district, this is a great campaign move. He gains notoriety for doing it, and he gains sympathy if they try to shut him down.
“ And she wants a tall millionaire man to whisk her away. Not gonna happen.”
A realistic wish would be a forties ex-con who completed parole and stayed clean, mostly good ink and minimal prison tats, drinker not a methhead, so decent teeth, knows how to work and has twelve months of good attendance at current job.
But he’s not going to work every day to leave you to eat up the fridge and shop online with his paycheck, so figure out what you can realistically offer. Hint: Don’t dress like a slut, clean up the language, and learn to make decent coffee, basic breakfast, pack a lunch rather than $20 to DD every day, and do a few dinners that are not Dominos or heat-and-eat.
Past time to make all state gun laws unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and the supremacy clause.
That’s misogyny! You’re literally Hitler!
Tim Miller on X:
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2026/08/13/tim-miller-dystopian-dc-n2431240
Yeah, Tim, lot’s of good folks got displaced by the NG. Post your hotel and room number on the web and we’ll send over some of them to make you feel at home again.
WNBA meeting adjourns without definition of “woman”:
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/08/13/woke-will-eat-itself-chapter-mclxii-wnba-meets-to-discover-definition-of-woman-and-n3817961
Seriously, honey?
Millions of years of evolution, a few thousand years of civilization, 70 years of rock-and-roll and you don’t know what a woman is?
I’ll tell you what it is from the perspective of a lifelong basketball fan and occasional player: It’s a league whose members can’t interest enough people to make it financially viable without subsidies, and uses an under-sized under-weight sissy ball.
Maybe it is time to lower the basket to 8-feet so you can learn to jam and make fearsome faces.
Naw, too late. Kantor and White like it just fine at 10-feet.
I suspect that the WNBA is going to turn into a junior NBA farm system for guys.
TIL that the Texas State Guard and the Texas National Guard are not the same thing, and have different missions, although often aligned and occasionally cooperating. They share the same Adjutant General.
I heard the terms over the years, but just assumed they were different ways of referring to the National Guard.
I’m looking at aligning some Guard training (both Guards) with some amateur radio events to our mutual benefit. We give them a place and time and reason to train, and we get to use their portable equipment, mostly towers. Win-win.
It turns out that TX State Guard comm guys are encouraged to get ham licenses, and we can help with that.
The City of San Antonio proper has a hardcore left voting bloc, and they’ve just put their second Socialist Mayor into office, Gina Ortiz Jones, or “Mayor OJ” as she is derisively known even in RINO circles.
Even liberals got tired of Mayor Nuremberg, Jones predecessor, but run a pretty Latin female with veteran credentials — plus an Under Secretary for Air Force resume entry — and the military people will show up to support the candidate in droves.
Thursday bedtime.
Still much too hot, but I cheated by spending some of the day in the car with the A/C on.
We went to Switzerland for the day. Very successful – we visited an official Swiss Army surplus shop. Got two magnificent toolboxes full of top quality Swiss gear, one for tank mechanics and the other for phone technicians. Both new and never used.
Picked up some lovely warm wool blankets and hats for cold hunting days (I will make myself a poncho), and a bagful of other useful small stuff. I was very good and didn’t buy a single Swiss Army knife, but I did get a couple of bars of Swiss Army chocolate (that is a real thing!)
The shop is an absolute goldmine if you lived near one and had time to trawl through the shelves in detail. For example, they had drawers and drawers of NOS Timken bearings in all shapes and sizes for two bucks each. I would have gone through them all, but W1 was making increasingly impatient noises…
Also bought a second-hand travel tuba! Spotted a man putting it in the window of a music shop and made him a cheeky offer, which he accepted. Watch out, neighbours!!
Mac OS has shell and crontab.
The Handbrake command line utility used to be available from Homebrew.
Ffmpeg, also in Homebrew, will edit metadata.
She doesn’t want a partner. She wants to dominate the household.
My read is ex-military, possibly on disability for an undisclosed sex-related situation the brass wanted swept under the rug.
Future guest on Caleb Hammer’s “Financial Audit”.
Too Greta – not much better looking.
She doesn’t want a partner. She wants to dominate the household.
My read is ex-military, possibly on disability for an undisclosed sex-related situation the brass wanted swept under the rug.
She wants a babysitter with a checkbook. She does have a nice vehicle (the headliner is not hanging down).
She should go to church but I note that she did not mention that whatsoever.
Uh, well. I shoved the DVD of Thor in the player and yeah, I’ve heard of Transformers for years. The preview looked interesting. So I wandered to Big River for a used copy. Get just the first movie or pay an extra buck to get the first three movies? $9.50 for three movies delivered, why not.
I don’t think I lost any brain cells. There’s a couple of love stories going on. The audio Rumble Rama is great. Special effects, well. they look good but sometimes it’s “what am I looking at?”
Maybe my eyes are not trained with video games. I don’t know. Decent movies. No cussing other than maybe a “damn” once in a while. Onto the “watch again” stack.
Someone told me I should go to church. To meet people. Suppose to be good for me to socialize. Which church? I’m supposed to go to some random church on Sunday? To visit with strangers. And do????
Hey, I know where God is. I don’t need a lecture.
I get along with folks. At work. Part of working retail since forever. But walking into a church, cold? Full of strangers? No way.
Kennedy Center Board May Have Just Found Genius Workaround on Changes Opposed by Dems
https://redstate.com/beccalower/2026/08/13/kennedy-center-board-may-have-found-brilliant-workaround-on-name-closure-dems-are-mad-n2205589
Underfunded for years and in need of renovations. So amend the next voter ID law in the House to include funds to renovate the Kennedy Center.
I took Mr Weasel outside twice today, before and after mowing the lawn. The first time, she ran fast, belly low to the ground. The second time, she walked and hop-ran with her belly arched, not moving fast. I guess the cut grass is just the right height to scratch her belly? Whereas the longer grass brushed along smoothly?
The high temp today was 103f. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and breezy. Beautiful!!! Hot enough today that the dogs go out and come right back in. No wandering around sniffing stuff and eating grass. I noticed a few of the cats, in the shade, panting.
The a/c, well, doesn’t seem to be running extra. Maybe the floor insulation is actually working.
Actually, I think the floor insulation is making a difference. Set the t-stat to 80f and 50% humidity and it’s actually doing it with the humidity. 47% on the humidity right now.
Does Mr Weasel respond to “come here” or is she on a leash? Fresh cut grass smells entirely different than unmown.
Mr Weasel does not recognize any commands or gestures that I have tried. No leash. To the best of my knowledge, she lived in the cage except when taken out to play with for a few minutes at a time; I could be wrong about that. To the best of my knowledge, she never touched grass before I brought her outside a few weeks ago, and her behavior the first time bears that out.
If the ferret were mine for real, not just pawned off on me for a couple months, I’d train it at least to Come Here. I don’t know how trainable ferrets are but if I can train chickens to Go Home and respond to Who Wants a Treat?, I could probably do something with a ferret. (Most of the chickens are trained for those and maybe a couple other commands. Some of them don’t get it and just follow along the others. Fear of missing out! But those particular hens are, shall we say, residents of the left hand side of the intellectual bell curve.)
As it is, I watch her every moment she’s on the ground, stay close, and snag her as soon as she gets near a bush, the space under the ramp for Grandma’s wheelchair, or a drain pipe. (I don’t think she could climb up a gutter drain pipe but don’t want to find out that I was wrong about that.)
Mr Weasel doesn’t seem offended by the smell of cut grass. She scratches at little vole holes and such just as energetically as previously and doesn’t try to keep the grass away from her paws or face. If the issue isn’t the scratching on her belly, I don’t know what it is.
D1’s dog hops thru long grass like a gazelle. I know he doesn’t like the feeling of wet grass on his belly or junk.
—–
Still 90F and it was over 100F at 5pm.
—-
Did my pickups. Did some cleaning associated with that.
Got overheated and had to cool down. I don’t know how the student athletes are dealing with this heat.
—-
Went by Lowes after getting gas at Costco, and checked out the 50% off cull rack of lumber. It was full of nice clean straight 1x boards, exactly what I need at the BOL to do some of the window trim out and to replace and rebuild soffits. Grabbed a bunch. I’d stopped to see if they had any cedar boards to replace the failed rot rail on the fence at the rent house. They had a couple, and I’ll bring some back from the BOL. All in all, a good quick find.
I’m pretty sure I’m headed to the BOL on Saturday. I can’t let it go two more weeks, and next weekend is my non-prepping hobby event.
I can pick up the beat up backpack blower I won this week on the way. For $8 I’m willing to take a chance on it being easy to fix and for the part that is visibly broken (the air blowing hose) to be available. If I can get it running, it’s something I’ve been looking for for a while, and with my low buy in, I can afford to spend some money on parts if needed.
Owning property comes with a lot of hidden or at least non-obvious costs, and equipment is one of them.
n
Is the non-prepping hobby event early? I thought it coincided with the opening of TRF in the Fall and Sherwood Forest in the Spring.
Interpretive dance of history has its own schedule. They’re running late for the events of August 9th. There are so many. Nagasaki, Sharon Tate, Nixon, My wedding, My divorce. Seriously, all the same day.
I’m continually tickled by your descriptions of chickens. Your opinion of their general intelligence makes me wonder about the left-enders.
Get your lederhosen ready…
n
“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” concludes on that evening, presenting an alternative series of events happening on the cul de sac where Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski rented the house.
Tate was another victim of the Hollywood establishment. Wrong place, wrong time.
When William Castle ended up with the rights to “Rosemary’s Baby”, no major studio would touch it until Castle agreed to bring in a “real” director. Enter Polanski.
The irony is that when I walk into the Lamar Alamo Drafthouse, the gigantic pair of posters dominating the lobby belong to Castle flicks.
“CARDELLO: Why Anyone Who Mentions Medicare for All Can’t Be Taken Seriously”
https://granitegrok.com/national/2026/08/cardello-anyone-who-mentions-medicare-for-all-cant-be-taken-seriously
“I realize that medical insurance coverage is not only a hot-button topic for most people, but medical insurance premiums are now one of the biggest entries on the family budget. The failed Obamacare, or supposed Affordable Care Act, has been anything but affordable for most Americans, and the costs of medical care are as difficult to understand as a corn maze at harvest time.”
“I am writing this article today from two viewpoints: one as a consumer and taxpayer, and the other as a cancer survivor trying to survive the never-ending bills that fill the mailbox like catalogs in December. When I hear politicians, especially those on the Left, pledge to give Medicare for all, it stamps them as unrealistic and delusional. It labels them as someone who knows the pledge is untenable and unaffordable. Still, it is also pandering to the voters who are dependent on Medicare to help subsidize the medical treatments and bills that inevitably increase with age. Anyone who makes that pledge has lost all of their credibility.”
“Medicare enrollment is very difficult to navigate, and it’s frustrating that where you live helps determine coverage and cost. Until Medicare covers all costs after the deductible has been satisfied, there should be no talk of expanding the roles to include illegal immigrants. To do otherwise is foolhardy and an insult to Americans attempting to keep their finances in order after a medical event.”
He must be on Medicare Advantage. That is just another way of saying Medicare HMO.
My wife and I are on old school Medicare, Medicare PPO. We do not get surprises.
Always take PPO over HMO. Always.
“The All-New Barnett TS380 Crossbow Resembles an AR Build”
https://openairmedia.com/channel/Ballistic/video/3175/the-all-new-barnett-ts380-crossbow-resembles-an-ar-build
So why not get an AR instead? $600 will get you halfway there.
Definitely cool looking crossbow.
Yeah, I know some very sick people who can’t get coverage and are paying the COBRA monthly bill. It’s infuriating.
———
No wildlife tonight, and no aviation mysteries. Very quiet except for the hooting of an owl somewhere nearby.
Still really uncomfortably hot too as the breeze went away with the sun.
Time for bed. After a cooling shower.
n