Hot and humid in Houston today, but I’m hoping for a bit cooler at the BOL. At least there should be a breeze off the lake. It was hot, over 100F, and humid yesterday, with clear sky to start, scattered clouds and even overcast later, but it was clear again by dusk. It even sprinkled ever so lightly for about 15 minutes in the late afternoon. That didn’t help the humidity.
I did not do much in the morning, preferring to nap and try to get my sleep cycle back to school schedule. As it’s almost 1am when I’m writing this, I’m not going to be super successful. I did get a bunch of small things done in the afternoon. I spent a couple of hours cleaning my project up. It still needs work, but I’ll leave it at the BOL and finish up there.
I had cleaning stuff out, and the truck was in the shade so I washed the Ranger too. Well, that’s maybe an exaggeration. I used water and a red scotch pad to do a very crude ‘clay bar’ of the body, and wheels but not the bed. I’m swapping out the bed, so didn’t bother. The paint on the truck is a little dull, but if I get time and motivation, I’ll buff it later. The roof is not in good shape as the clear coat seems to have failed, and there are big spots that look similar on the hood as well. It is 23 years old, lived outside the entire time, and I don’t wash my vehicles very often.
At least it’s not a GM with the paint peeling off to reveal the galvanizing underneath. They all seem to fail that way anywhere near the ocean.
Anyway, I’ll hit Lowes for some trim, mainly window casing, and then do my pickup before 2pm. That’s my hard limit on when I leave, I have to be in Tomball by then. I’ll continue on to the BOL where a big list awaits… although I’m mainly concerned with mowing and doing more finish work on the window install.
The list gets longer, and I get older, and I still find myself getting distracted by sidequests.
Stack, and stay the course.
nick
Which is better than not getting older. Don’t let The List get you down!
I did an interesting experiment a couple of years ago. I had some serious health problems that were interfering with my work on The List. I wrote The List down, printed it out and put it in a safe place. I then consciously and deliberately ignored it, and concentrated exclusively on getting well again.
I got much better, and nothing on The List ever came back to haunt me or cause significant trouble. Sometimes we Sons of Martha put the monkey on our own backs.
Saturday. Good morning!
On academic plagiarism.
Somebody (Russia?) is definitely doing it to politicians. There have been a number of high-profile cases exposing the doctoral theses of German conservative politicians, including the former defence minister under Merkel, Gutenberg. Just this week, Mario Voigt, the prime minister of Thuringia filed a lawsuit to appeal the cancellation of his doctoral thesis for plagiarism.
Somebody should do the same for the socialist pols.
I had cleaning stuff out, and the truck was in the shade so I washed the Ranger too. Well, that’s maybe an exaggeration. I used water and a red scotch pad to do a very crude ‘clay bar’ of the body, and wheels but not the bed. I’m swapping out the bed, so didn’t bother. The paint on the truck is a little dull, but if I get time and motivation, I’ll buff it later. The roof is not in good shape as the clear coat seems to have failed, and there are big spots that look similar on the hood as well. It is 23 years old, lived outside the entire time, and I don’t wash my vehicles very often.
I have got my son’s 2003 red F-150 V6 5 speed junked at the office and the clear coat has definitely failed. He just parked it at the office when my dad gave him his 2008 Chevy Crew Cab V8 auto. He tried to get it going again a couple of years ago and the alcohol in the fuel tank just ripped the fuel system apart. It needs a new fuel tank and fuel lines at minimum. I will call the junk man to tow it off soon.
Denis’ Law: if you find a good gub cheap, but in a calibre you don’t have, buy it. Ammo will come to the gub.
Corollary to Denis’ Law: If you find a screaming deal on ammo in a calibre you don’t have, buy it. A gub will come to the ammo.
Goodbye, convivial transgender mustelid! I enjoyed hearing about your adventures.
Confession. I did once break Denis’ Law. Someone offered to give me a rifle in calibre 8*86S. That cartridge was too esoteric even for me.
What you want to do is hit yourself in the head with a hammer at bedtime. No, wait. That won’t work. Concussion “victims” often wake up at odd times over the next couple days.
OK, what you want to do is start watching a Billie Eilish concert an hour before bed. You’ll be bored to sleep. No, wait. That won’t work. You’ll become suicidal.
OK, what you want to do is take a benedryl an hour before bed. Important note: one benedryl, or at most two. Do not take the entire bottle no matter how much you want to after even thinking about watching a Billie Eilish concert.
#FollowMeForMoreHealthAdvice
Oh, it’s more than “look like”.
That scratches a memory but a couple minutes’ web search didn’t give me anything. (But I haven’t had any coffee yet, so maybe my attempts at writing query strings are more flailing than functional.)
That’s considerably more upbeat but of less everyday use than SteveF’s laws. Examples:
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear padded costumes while others hold cameras.
Bad news.
Wildfires near my BOL. The house is not in jeopardy, but some of the woods where I like to hunt are affected.
There are two biotopes, fen and woods. The fen is usually not permanently damaged by fire, as the dry grasses flash off and regenerate quickly, and fire encourages many species of flora. However, if it is too dry, and it is, the sub-surface turf can catch fire, and only extensive rains will extinguish it.
https://brf.be/regional/2100196/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Fens
Ho’s stunt joins a wave of online vigilantism targeting fraudulent scam operations. Fake call centers operating in India frequently impersonate Amazon or Microsoft support staff and focus on victims in the US, sometimes targeting elderly people for their lack of tech knowledge.
It is clear that where the authorities do nothing, “vigilantism” will take over. An elderly family member was the victim of telephone scammers. The material loss was substantial, but only material. The psychological harm is lasting.
I would certainly plait the rope…
That’s considerably more upbeat but of less everyday use than SteveF’s laws.
Indeed, but then I am not the demigod of easy parking!
The Escape, Maverick, and Bronco Sport all share the same platform.
In the US, unless a mass forgivness of student loans happens, a lot of the indebted will eventually discover the Borrower Defense mechansim built into the Federal Guaranteed Student Loan program.
Loan forgiveness isn’t so much about Dems appealing to young voters as it is “good” schools protecting their reputations from scrutiny.
Why not just defund the police the police, then?
Since the link in the quote above references the DSA:
The poster boy for the DSA.
If all the members of the DSA are as charming and articulate as our man Hasan, how can they possibly lose the midterms?
I’ve written before that my neighbor has a new Bronco as his Garage Queen. I only see the vehicle out of the throne room on nice days during the Spring and Fall.
I drove a manual trans Bronco a little after they came out. 4 cyl only of course. For what it is, I was impressed. It drove well and had decent power. I could never live with one as a daily as trucks just aren’t my thing. Too expensive for a weekend toy.
In regards to the Maverick, I’ve driven a couple of those too. Very nice for what they are.
My did just got a new Lariat hybrid earlier this year. He will probably put around 6K miles on it in a year, but we’ll see how it holds up. He just turned 80, so I worry more about accidents…
Did you drive a new Bronco or Bronco Sport?
The two vehicles are dramatically different.
The Bronco.
With a four cylinder engine? Geesh, what is Ford thinking?
Yeah, but it isn’t gutless. High performance? No way. But passable. That is also the only engine they offer with a manual transmission.
I’ve had a couple of normally aspirated 4 cylinder small trucks, 80s and 90s era Rangers and Toyotas (and a GMC, come to think of it), completely gutless but adequate for around town light duty. Ask any illegal gardener in Los Angeles.
Never had a truck with a/c until the 2019 Ram 1500. Other than the weird ignition lock issue early on it’s been rock solid. Would buy again, except I’d like something with the payload capacity for a slide in truck-camper
My dad gave my son his 2014 Tacoma for his first car. 4 cyl and auto. Gutless and utterly reliable. Perfect first car. I ended up selling it to put towards his mustang.
I was really close to keeping it as a spare vehicle, but it was an access cab (with the small rear doors). Just not practical enough when I need to carry the dogs. Two golden retrievers did not fit well in the back.
Americans have to get over “gutless” if they want small beater pickups back.
Most people don’t use the capabilities of the vehicles to justify the addition to MSRP.
To be fair, the gardners aren’t into the small trucks anymore either. Papi wants a “man’s” truck.
CAFE.
If the Midterm losses aren’t too extreme for the Republicans, manuals might return in other configurations next year.
The House is gone, but if the Senate changes hands, the manufacturers are going to plan for the worst with the 2030 model year which is going into the pipeline now.
2019 redux.
Worse news. The wildfires in the High Fen are spreading and getting much worse. Residents in our neighbouring villages are being prepared for evacuation.
The fires seem to be spreading from the fen into the forests, which will be a disaster, as the forestry is extensive.
Video down this page:
https://brf.be/regional/2100196/
@EdH
“Went into a lot of the early history of Mount Wilson.”
Who was the speaker? Is the talk on YT?
Bill Ackman.
https://www.science.org/content/article/billionaire-launches-plagiarism-detection-effort-against-mit-president-and-all-its
And Christofer Rufo was involved in the investigation into Harvard President Claudine Gay, who was forced to resign:
https://nypost.com/2023/12/20/news/claudine-gay-accused-of-40-acts-of-plagiarism-in-new-complaint/
There have been a number of other other high profile cases in academia, including the case of Ian Roberts, who became Superintendent of the Des Moines School Board as an illegal alien. The lack of dissertation on the PhD was allegedly not revealed until after the hire. (If I were on a search committee and had a short list of candidates, you can bet I’d be reading their dissertations and asking questions during the interviews). That one killed the political aspirations of the board chair.
Things heated up in the winter of 2023/2024, but died back down. Investigations will probably get rekindled now, and the DOJ is a lot more interested in fraud. Give folks someting to do after November.
The funny thing is how all of the scandals seem to feature the same political and ethnic groups.
Marco Rubio Just Made the Anti-Trump Ballroom Crowd Look Like Absolute Lunatics
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/08/15/doj-emergency-filing-with-scotus-over-ballroom-n2205629
The Lightbringer sat in the White House for eight years and did nothing about the facilities. The same could be said of Clinton and Bush, but given the design triumph of the non-library edifice in Chi-town, it’s probably a good thing.
It’s also worthwhile to note that Congress is in control the Capitol, the courts control their buildings, the Fed, part of the Executive Branch, has defied Executive control of their multi-billion dollar marble-clad fantasy with the help of the courts, but POTUS can’t make needed updates without the courts giving status to some unelected “preservationists” who have no interest other than opposing Trump.
Up, fed, and working on getting caffeinated.
Did take some real meds last night, which meant sleeping later, but back pain is manageable. Much better than when I went to sleep.
——-
@lynn, pickups have value, especially if you have the title. Don’t just call one of the $50 tow away guys. Assuming your son doesn’t want it, you still just spent a ton of money on your truck, so a bit of unexpected should feel good. Just the airbags are worth $1k or more. Tailgates are $500-700 or more if it’s got the backup cam. The cats are good money too.
——-
Guess I better get busy, I’m on a timer today.
n
That would be Tim Thompson from the Mt. Wilson Observatory.
He has a lot of 90s era web pages (not an insult, probably home rolled like mine used to be): https://www.tim-thompson.com/astro.html
The fuel system is designed by the manufacturer. Any deficiencies in materials that cannot be exposed to perfectly ordinary operating fluids rests with the manufacturer.
But parking a vehicle for long periods of time without making the correct preparations will have perfectly predictable results. Gasoline is not stable. Batteries and tires deteriorate.
It wasn’t too long ago (pre-alcohol blending) that we dumped alcohol in the gas tanks to take water into solution so it wouldn’t freeze in the winter.
And, yeah, what @Nick said: parts have value. Some a lot. But if the sheet metal is good someone with the skills to replace lines and tank might be happy buying a project truck.
And…. I’m headed out.
n
There really needs to be a death penalty for spammers.
Someone just sent out a request for zelle or venmo and signed it as the president of my hobby club with a believable, but fake, email address. They said the club had an expense but doesn’t have access to zelle or venmo, and needed some member to step up and pay the expense for us.
I’m not so worried about this one, but AI is making the whole approach better and slicker.
This isn’t the first time. The president already pointed out that he uses an (ironically) AI-generated picture in all his emails, and to ignore anything without it.
Just received my insurance renewal notice. I use Acuity insurance and they cover my vehicles, house, trailer, liability and personal property rider. Other companies farmed out some of the coverage to other companies and other policies. I don’t want to deal with multiple insurance companies in case I crash my vehicle while towing my trailer. That is a recipe for a nightmare with multiple fingers pointing each way. There is also uninsured, and underinsured, motorist coverage because of the cretins that don’t get insurance or the absolute minimum coverage.
When I lived in San Antonio uninsured was expensive because probably half the drivers in San Antonio have no coverage. Too many Latinos from south of the border driving junk vehicles. Here in TN, it may be 25% have no auto insurance. To me, if a person is caught without insurance, the fine is one year of the premiums for maximum coverage, or the vehicle is seized to satisfy the amount. The second offense is the same as the first, plus 6 months mandatory jail time. Make it hurt, badly.
I am well covered. Maxed out coverage on the vehicles with full glass replacement and OEM parts and maxed out on the liability which is required to get the umbrella liability coverage. House is well covered with a 25% cost overrun. Surprisingly my one-year older F-150 is more expensive to insure than the newer Highlander. Probably has to do with theft and the truck was a little more expensive than the Highlander.
In the overall policy, I have roadside assistance and identity theft coverage. I am also covered for water and sewer line replacement, sewage backup, mold and some other small incidents.
My cost, for a year policy is $400 a month. For this year that is $1,200 more than last year. The newer Highlander hurt that amount, plus adding OEM parts and full glass coverage, and the normal yearly increases. The window replacement is expensive due to cameras and sensors. Such increases required due to the rampant insurance fraud. And from people involved in an accident trying use the incident as winning the lottery. Add in the sleazeball PI attorneys that are abusing the system.
Two vehicles, two drivers, house, cameras, liability and travel trailer. I can get a slightly better rate, but only by about $20.00 a month and then multiple companies get involved with the coverage and the resulting pissing contest in case of a claim.
Surprisingly, USAA which is supposed to cate to veterans, was over $6K for the year, $3K every six months.
Not just that, but a painful death.
I get fake emails from Best Buy about Geek Squad bills and to call a number. They then ask for a credit card number to which the “service” had been billed to look up the charge and verify the purchase. Other popular ones are Norton products and Lifelock. I also get emails about my Xfinity payment failing because there was a problem with the credit card.
There are people that fall for this, one out a thousand is enough to keep the spammers in business.
I get calls, almost daily, about looking up my Medicare profile and there are benefits I am missing. I answer the phone, say hello, then say nothing. Let them waste their time.
CATER, say it twice, SLOWLY, move my lips if necessary.
Four hours of ‘yard care’. As always I let things go a week or two longer than I should have. Oh well.
Fortunately it was a cool night and only hit 90F towards the end of the work at noon.
The glass coverage will get worse next year when the cameras monitoring the driver’s eye movements become mandatory.
Two years ago, my daughter totaled the work truck of a questionably legal individual who only presented his Guatemalan passport as ID. Regardless of immigration status, when the Gecko only gave him $12k for a 10 year old Silverado, he got hip to the PI grift real fast and cobbled together enough documentation to take home the maximum per person settlement limit of my insurance policy, $50k.
My wife said, “Won’t the lawyers grab a third of it?”
“Yes, but he will end up with enough for a replacement work truck, and that’s all he really cares about.”
On my F-150 the camera is in the A pillar. On the Highlander the camera is above the steering wheel. The window is a poor location as the hardware would obscure part of the windshield.
From what I understand, some Subaru models have one driver monitor camera in the rear view mirror, part of an electronics package bonded to the windshield which makes assembly cheaper but drives the cost of replacement to more than $3500.
I’ve never looked at buying a Subaru, even when we lived in Vantucky and the deals were extremely good thanks to the import terminal just down the river from where we lived.
After we moved, early on, I had two separate Subaru fans here in Texas ask about driving down from Portland because the deals offered by Gresham Subaru back then were so tempting. The dealership would even pick up the buyer at the airport.
If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then those Flock cameras shouldn’t bother you.
We are considered to be cattle not game.
I have never wanted a Subaru. Way back in college days, 1977 or so, no one could afford a car. Rosalinda had lots of cars. And she would loan them out a month at time. Bring it back clean. Inside and outside. Top of all of the fluids and air the tires. Pretty much, drive it like you own it.
And yeah, you could drive without insurance at the time.
She had a Subaru. Nice enough that I remember it all these years later. Green, sort of between grass green and pimento olive green. It ran ok for being old enough that the paint was fading.
But yeah. Make a left turn at any speed above idle and the passenger door would open.
No Subarus for me.
Having dinner now at the BOL. Got the grass cut. It looks better but really wasn’t long in most places. They haven’t gotten any rain here.
It’s dry and dusty.
Lake is a few inches low too.
Should be a dark night. No clouds yet, and the moon is setting. It’s kinda hazy though, so we’ll see how the viewing looks.
Soon as I finish this tasty dinner, I’ll head down for my tiny little fire and some reading, and possibly some radio.
n
On the other hand, it might be a very short tiny little fire. It’s still 90F.
n
In the beginning there was a nice strong breeze to cool me down, but it eventually stopped and I got overheated. The radio wasn’t very good tonight, and the haze ended up hiding stars. Nice dark sky, and there were stars, just not particularly clear.
Time for a shower and bed.
n
“FCC Says Starlink Has Over 7 Million US Subscribers. Wait, What?”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-says-starlink-has-over-7-million-us-subscribers-wait-what
“The number is extremely high, considering SpaceX told the FCC in September 2025 that Starlink was serving more than 2 million subscribers in the US.”
Wow. Just wait until you can get a Starlink Phone.
This is why SpaceX has a HUGE upside. Maybe.
@lynn, pickups have value, especially if you have the title. Don’t just call one of the $50 tow away guys. Assuming your son doesn’t want it, you still just spent a ton of money on your truck, so a bit of unexpected should feel good. Just the airbags are worth $1k or more. Tailgates are $500-700 or more if it’s got the backup cam. The cats are good money too.
The airbags are already gone in a previous wreck. No backup camera, 2003 truck. Backup cams started in 2010???
Did the V6 have multiple cats like the V8s?
The second gear synchronizers are gone, you have to double clutch into that gear. Mazda five speed in a F-150 truck, what was Ford thinking?
The Escape, Maverick, and Bronco Sport all share the same platform.
The Broncos are all over this place. Big wheels, lifted, and all kinds of special options. My neighbors kid has the puke green with white trim. Not my favorite.
I can’t find it at this moment.
But Greg’s comment about the concrete beams and such up around Belton for the overpasses where I-35 meets the imaginary I-14? For the 12 years he’s been here?
That shit has been sitting there since 1999.. At least. More like 1990.
Look. I was like pushing 10 years old and when I-10 was run through Mobile it was maybe two years. Start to finish. Messed up the neighborhood but by golly, we got’s a brand new Interstate Highway!
If I-14 was actually viable, it would have been built by now.