Still hot. Still humid. Still no rain. Grass is crunchy, and something is seriously distressing the peach tree. I’m hoping it’s only heat and drought. More of the same expected for today.
I spent most of yesterday doing the trimout for the exterior of the window. My general plan of attack took some finagling but I got it done in the end. I’ll take off two boards and put the last two bricks back into place today. I also got started on the interior trimout, but most of that will happen today.
Which is the plan. Sleep for a bit, because of the muscle relaxer, then get busy putting the wall back together from the inside. If it was drywall, it would be straightforward, but it’s paneling. We’ve painted all the paneling in the house (all shades of grey that my wife insists are different but all look blue-grey to me) and I saved paneling whenever we took it down, so I just have to find pieces that match and can be cut to fit. W will paint later.
Everything takes longer and costs more… so stack while it’s cheap and available. And then you’ll have plenty to work on later.
nick
Should be at least a little rain today, but very localized showers. Here’s hoping yo get some of it…
I have to contradict you there. We all forget that forest fires are a part of nature. Suppressing them is artificial.
We live near an area that burned about 20 years ago. The forestry service decided – rightly, I think – not to replant it. Let nature take it’s course.
Lots of pioneer plants are getting their day in the sun. Plants that you rarely see. There are still some half-burned trunks standing, providing habitats for insects and some kinds of birds. Trees have sprouted, dominated by the short-lived birches. The usual larches and pines are also there, but they grow more slowly. They will take over once again, in 50 or 60 years, when the birches die. So it will look “normal” again in something approaching 80 years.
I asked ChatGPT to do an estimate, and it found some papers on the subject. Without human intervention, somewhere between 5% and 10% of European forests would have burned within the last 20 years. That’s 20% to 40% in the past 80 years. The lower end of those numbers for deciduous forests, and the upper end for more flammable pine and larch forests.
If 10%-40% of Swiss forests looked like the area near us, people would freak out. Humans think things should be stable, and stay just the way they are today. But that’s not nature.
Mornin’, Brad.
I don’t disagree with you at all.
Particularly in the Fens, fires are part of the natural cycle – there are lots of plants that thrive after, and only after, a fire.
Such of the fauna as can escape will get away, but many individuals might starve later for lack of grazing or seeds or prey. Some will survive, however, and breed next season. That is why I said “earth abides”.
The last big fire in the fens was in 2011, and within a year or two of that, the area looked pristine again, other than the odd standing scorched tree stump. Fire even prevents the fen from turning into forest over time, as the native moor plants recover from fire, while the invasive and pioneer trees generally don’t.
The forestry, which is not a natural biotope, but a manufactured one, will be a bitter loss. There are reports this morning that the fires have reached the first spruce plantations.
Those spruce trees will probably be consumed by the fire, or at least damaged beyond usable recovery. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions in construction lumber will be lost, and the stewardship of generations of foresters and loggers reduced to ash in a few hours. That will be a serious blow to the local economy, and a sore wound to my forester friends who spent their professional lives managing the felling and replanting.
On the positive side, if the spruce monocultures are destroyed, the foresters will have an opportunity to go for replanting mixed woodlands.
Those take much longer and are more difficult and costly to establish than spruce mono-plantations, but they produce more valuable lumber given enough time, and should be more resilient and resistant to drought, parasites and diseases. Over time, they will be a fine biotope for the flora and fauna, and will even be better hunting grounds for humans and wolves alike. Unfortunately, I won’t see that accomplished in my lifetime, which I regret.
So far, no-one has been killed or seriously injured, and no homes or farms destroyed, so that is good news.
Temperatures and wind are down this morning, and it has even rained a bit, so the prayers seem to be working…
>>The Ford Ranger was based on the B200.
The Number One Son “Boss” cousin in WA State had a B200 from the mid-90s when we lived up there. The truck was his wife’s college transportation.
While the exterior was in rough shape, the truck started and ran fine.
These Mazda pick-ups were numbered (in the US) as the B2000 and the B2600…I had one of each. The 2600 had two jump-seats that were (just) big enough for two Fisher-Price car seats. Full-size adults were happier riding in the bed.
https://cdn.dealrimages.com/GF/UT/2T/4DEOD9PA3SMNME.jpg?h=1000
Good night from this side of the pond. Once again up too late. This sucks…
Would it make sense to cut, paint, and then install?
Exactly! The evil Whites are suppressing forest fires because of innate evil. The “migrant” turd-world arsonists who start forest fires are not malevolent freaks who should be tortured to death, they’re acting as an avatar of Nature, because the turd world lives in harmony with nature and knows what needs to be done.
dem White Debbuls!
Trump had the power to fire Fauci at any time during the Kabuki.
“Dallas Buyer’s Club” arguably ruined McConaughey’s career and that of Jared Leto, regardless of Oscar awards, and may yet change the course of Texas politics.
The polls for the race for Governor are within the margin of error as of this weekend, however, and Abbott has upped his TV spending, appearing visibly nervous in the commercials.
Once ensconced, Gina! will be hard to unseat.
Dan Patrick has an even more significant problem than Abbott.
B2000. Yeah. My bad.
Toyota had the Hecho en Japan T100 before the Tundra.
The Number One Son definitely had a Mazda.
Trump might have had the power – meaning authority – but did he have the clout? And did he have a reason at that time? That was very much during his ‘let people do their jobs’ phase, before all the embedded traitors and operatives made themselves clearly known.
Fauxchi didn’t become the highest paid .gov employee and get to where he was without personal power and political savvy.
——–
Up. Back is very sore. Should have taken a full dose instead of half. Coffee is bubbling, food should be ready soon. It’s another sunny hot day. 83F in the shade.
Work. Work. Work…
n
These Mazda pick-ups were numbered (in the US) as the B2000 and the B2600
– yep, B2000 is usually cheaper than the identical Ranger too.
I think at the time Ford owned half of mazda.
n
Save the cheerleader, save the world.
Hayden Panettiere reported as suffering ‘cardiac arrest’ and ‘overdose’ on 911 call before being pronounced dead
Guess we’re all doomed now.
n
Dang, that’s too bad. Hollywood and fame in general devours pretty young women.
Oddly, sometime in the last few weeks it occurred to me that I’ve never seen more than a couple episodes, scattered, and was thinking of streaming it (Heroes).
—
Going to be 100F+ again today, and the rest of the week. Lots of non-urgent doctor & vet visits too, 4 of 5 days.
I need to be mindful of which roads I use that lead to schools that will be overwhelmed by mad moms in mini-vans … which is most of them.
Ford owned a third of Mazda at the peak, but that was a controlling interest
Toyota currently holds 5%, and the companies have a joint venture plant in Alabama.
Yes, sad. Looks like a heart attack induced by an OD. You’d think the Emperor of The World died by the number of articles on The DM.
My question about Hayden Panettiere would be, what was her Covid vax status? Far too many heart attack deaths were caused by the mRNA “vaccine”.
whoa, RH is 7% at 10am. hard on the partially rabbit girdled tree in front of me house.
“Heroes” inspired a lot of ”fanfic” written by lonely cat ladies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Plus, Universal is going to take full advantage of the renewed interest in the series.
Racist.
“Dilbert 2004-10-03”
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/1vnqn8b/dilbert_20041003/
Yeah, you need need ear plugs and ear muffs both for that scream of realization and disappointment.
BC: Catch and Release
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2026/08/17
Back in the ship, a subordinate is getting yelled at. “Probe first, then release, you idiot!”.
“Heroes” inspired a lot of ”fanfic” written by lonely cat ladies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Plus, Universal is going to take full advantage of the renewed interest in the series.
Netflix just picked up “Heroes” on July 1. Maybe they knew…
“SpaceX’s biggest investors are finally visible — just as millions more shares unlock: Chart of the Day”
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/spacexs-biggest-investors-are-finally-visible–just-as-millions-more-shares-unlock-chart-of-the-day-154946600.html
“The curtain is finally lifting on who owns SpaceX (SPCX), and the stock is surging over 5% Monday.”
“More than 1,500 investors disclosed stakes, but only 23 account for over 80% of the reported shares.”
Yeah, there is one BIG whale. I am wonder if the lady running SpaceX is now a billionaire.
I think that the FOMO crowd just showed up to buy their SpaceX stock.
I am wondering if I managed to catch a falling knife since I bought at $115.
“Evil”
https://areaocho.com/19829-2/
“About 20 years ago, I responded as a paramedic to a 911 call. A man had called the emergency number because his wife had called to tell him she was going to kill herself and the kids. We responded and the entry team went into the house. Inside, it was discovered to be too late. The woman and all four kids were dead.”
“In January of 2023, in Duxbury, Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy sent her husband out for takeout and medicine, and while he was gone, she strangled her three young children (Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (8 months)) using exercise bands. She then called her husband to tell him he should come home right away, and as he arrived at the house, she jumped from a second-story window in an attempted suicide that left her paralyzed.”
God lets Satan and his demons walk the planet. We know this because Jesus threw many demons out of a single man.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%205%3A1-20&version=NIV
These demons are still here. They still inhabit people. They are evil and do evil things. This will continue until Jesus comes again.
Baillie Gifford? 51 million shares?
I’m shocked. Shocked!
“Memes that made me laugh 324”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/08/memes-that-made-me-laugh-324.html
The memes are superb today.
And my cardiologist banned me from Waffle House.
Which is the plan. Sleep for a bit, because of the muscle relaxer, then get busy putting the wall back together from the inside. If it was drywall, it would be straightforward, but it’s paneling. We’ve painted all the paneling in the house (all shades of grey that my wife insists are different but all look blue-grey to me) and I saved paneling whenever we took it down, so I just have to find pieces that match and can be cut to fit. W will paint later.
I am amazed that you can take those muscle relaxers and then work. Just one muscle relaxer pill makes me loopy. I won’t take them anymore.
Muscle relaxer + blood thinner?
> Five Classic SFF Covers Featuring Potential Health and Safety Issues
>
> What is going on with that armour? And why are there no safety rails
> in the future???
>
> https://reactormag.com/five-classic-sff-covers-featuring-potential-health-and-safety-issues/
Zero for five again. At least I do not recognize the Dean Ing book but I may be wrong.
Just about every cover of all the Edgar Rice Burroughs books was a safety violation. Along with all of the other Ace / Del Rey books that featured people gallivanting around the surfaces of Venus, Mars, and other planets in just a breechcloth.
Nice, it is cooler today than yesterdays 104 F. Only 101 F today.
I’ve read the first two, but don’t remember much. Coramonde was part of a series I think.
And the last, Pulling Through.
Dean Ing, again? They say these things come in three’s.
My vague recollection of the book is that the protagonist was a fat guy living in the SF East Bay, and that he had a good nuclear bomb shelter that he had built, and knew his fallout half lives.
He was not a body builder and he did not go outside to watch the bombs go off, but rather took shelter when he saw the heavies headed out from Travis AFB.
“Magic (Book Six, The Wizards Series): A Paranormal Thriller” by Jack L Knapp
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1688078002?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number six of a six book science fiction fantasy paranormal series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2019 that I bought new from Amazon in 2026. I suspect that this will be the final book in the series.
Chief Warrant Officer T was serving in Afghanistan as a squad leader for foot patrols. However, T was never trained as an Army officer, he is the product of a failed CIA Black Project to develop telepaths for insertion around the planet. The strong telepaths can read anyone’s mind who is close to them. T is a weak telepath, he can only converse with other telepaths, but distance does not matter. And T is a strong telekinetic and a weak precognitive. T and a telepathic Army nurse officer, Shezzie, left their duty post in Afghanistan and returned to the USA. And the former CIA black project group head was killing all of the telepaths to hide the failed project.
T and the other talents are now meeting more and more people with various talents. It turns out that just being around people with talents is causing people with latent talents to start manifesting their talents to their surprise.
This book is more about the other people who are now talents due to their close proximity to the other talents who were initialized by T and Ray. So the group of talents is slowly increasing. And the government interest is slowly increasing also. And not all of the talents were initialized by T and Ray.
The book is a nice finish to the series. And while the series did not blow me away, it was a very nice comfortable read.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (54 reviews)
Lynn
Netflix picked up “Nashville” last year, and “Heroes” pulled decent numbers there a decade ago.
Right now, NBC/Universal needs money. Comcast is about to cut them loose like Versant.
My Versant shares, both of them, have lost 50% in the last year.
Trump had the clout. He didn’t have the nerve.
Clearly, a reason has been in Herr Docktor’s text messages and emails since that Spring.
memes…
I look forwarded to the news that David Hogg tried to follow David Carradine’s example and was discovered brain dead, thus increasing his IQ.
I am amazed that you can take those muscle relaxers and then work
– no no no, the muscle relaxers are only at sleepytime… They take a solid 8 hrs to metabolize, and I usually try to just take half if I can. A whole one still has me off my game until 10 hrs.
Fractal.
I installed an outlet below the window because the existing one would be too far from the corner. And it was easy now, but hard later. Insulation is in. I’m cutting paneling now. I messed up and used ¾ trim to bring the window frame out flush to the wall, when I should have used 1″. I’m just going to add a 1/4 ” filler, and not redo the whole thing. Shoemaker.
Did spend an hour chatting with my fisherman buddy. That was time well spent, even if I don’t finish.
n
Nice, it is cooler today than yesterdays 104 F. Only 101 F today.
Wrong, we bounced off 104 F with 34% humidity (63 F dew point). Our humidity is a little low right now, usually 75 F dew point, which allows the temperature to bounce.
Trump didn’t have the nerve?
If he had fired Fauci without absolute damning evidence the result would have been another impeachment And Pence in the WH
Instead we got the f*cking SG of the U.S.A. on tv showing people how to fold a scarf into a kabuki face mask.
And note that the absolute damning evidence existed at the time, but traitors to the nation withheld it.
When all the names and all the evidence gets exposed we should have bounties put on all of them and familial collateral damage as a multiplier for the awards.
Pearls Before Swine: Book Of Happiness
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2026/08/17
Pig, life is a continuous pop quiz. You fail it and things can go south in a hurry.
And the last, Pulling Through.
Dean Ing, again? They say these things come in three’s.
My vague recollection of the book is that the protagonist was a fat guy living in the SF East Bay, and that he had a good nuclear bomb shelter that he had built, and knew his fallout half lives.
He was not a body builder and he did not go outside to watch the bombs go off, but rather took shelter when he saw the heavies headed out from Travis AFB.
Dadgumit, there is one copy for $25 on Big River.
https://www.amazon.com/Pulling-Through-Dean-Ing/dp/0441690505?tag=ttgnet-20
I never read those books, but ….. Travis AFB is a Air Mobility Command base, or back then was, Military Airlift Command. They have cargo planes like C-5s. The B-52s were at Mather AFB a little SE of Sacramento. Look at the alert ramps at Mather, due east of the runways; the taxiways look like that so that the BUFFs could start engines and go to max power on the ramp, and make the turns onto the runway while they were accelerating. No “Position and hold” for BUFFs!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mather,+CA/@38.5512779,-121.3012117
Very true. I lived in Martinez – which was under a Travis approach during certain wind conditions, those things would drone over every 10 – 15 minutes.
I probably still have that book, but buried away in a packed to the roof 40 foot container, at the end furthest away from the door. After nearly 8 years of desert heat I don’t know that the binding is any good on anything I left in there.
And so it’s possible that the protagonist lived in the East East Bay on the far side of Mt. Diablo, and could see stuff out of Mather, I just don’t recall. I want to say he lived in Walnut Creek but TBH, I really don’t remember.
Speaking of weird covers, years ago there was a blog or something entitled:
“Boobs don’t work like that!”
Basically people would send a guy published book covers with breasts of questionable anatomical correctness & size, shall we say … and he would comment on them.
Mostly Sf/Fantasy.
Long gone.
I never read those books, but ….. Travis AFB is a Air Mobility Command base, or back then was, Military Airlift Command. They have cargo planes like C-5s. The B-52s were at Mather AFB a little SE of Sacramento. Look at the alert ramps at Mather, due east of the runways; the taxiways look like that so that the BUFFs could start engines and go to max power on the ramp, and make the turns onto the runway while they were accelerating. No “Position and hold” for BUFFs!
My son was first deployed from 29 Palms Marine Base in California to Iraq in 2006. The DOD rented a couple of 747s with pilots to take them to Kuwait. The planes were waiting for them at Los Angeles airport at one of the terminals. The buses dropped 300+ of the 1,500 Marine Batallion, including my son, and Sailors off at the airport and they marched through the entire terminal carrying their personal weapons and baggage. They even marched through TSA with nobody stopping. My son was carrying a M-16, a M240B, his 12 inch Kabar knife, and his 14 inch bayonet. The entire airport did not say a word as they boarded the 747.
His return to the USA was at March AFB. Apparently the City of Los Angeles begged them to not go through Los Angeles again. Landing privately owned 747s at March AFB took quite a while to get permission from the Air Force.
I worked as a civilian for various combinations of MAC, AMC, USTRANSCOM for 20 years. Travis was, indeed, an AMC base as long as I was doing that work.
But if you see every cargo plane they have scrambling to get out of there, that’s a clue. They’ve got somewhere important to go, and right f’n now.
A story from that time: in 1989 I only had a Secret clearance. We worked in the local Digital Equipment Corp. office in St. Louis, and only went to Scott AF Base (MAC HQ) for meetings and software upgrades. One afternoon I needed some advice from my team lead, but when I asked where he was, I was told he went to the base. Odd; no meetings were scheduled. So I asked for another team’s lead, and was told he, too went to the base. So I asked for our unit’s manager, and he, too was at the base.
Putting 2 and 2 together, a couple of us figured out that every Top Secret clearance in our office was suddenly needed at the base. We had no idea why, and nobody was telling us.
I turned on the radio in my car on the commute home, and found out that Dan Rather was positioned at the end of the runway at Howard AFB in Panama, counting cargo planes landing. Continuously, about 2 minutes apart. C-5’s, C-141’s, C-130’s.
So we didn’t know, but someone tipped off that commie Rather in time to get down there for the show. Granted, the declaration of war from the Panamanian legislature 5 days earlier could have been a clue,..
Hogg doesn’t have a penis anymore. He had bottom surgery as he troon’s himself. Therefore, he couldn’t Carradine himself.
They were just lucky no-one had fingernail clippers, TSA would have been right on them for that!!
I worked as a civilian for various combinations of MAC, AMC, USTRANSCOM for 20 years. Travis was, indeed, an AMC base as long as I was doing that work.
But if you see every cargo plane they have scrambling to get out of there, that’s a clue. They’ve got somewhere important to go, and right f’n now.
Watch the KC-135 and other air to air refueling planes. They take off first.
Back in the 1983, my bombardier / navigator uncle told me that as his B-52 crossed the Bering Straits, the KC-135 would give his squadron every drop they had, and then ditch the plane in the sea if they could not dead stick it back to Alaska. His squadron flew to Alaska 2 or 3 times a week from Fort Worth. They knew that the Russian interceptors would meet them halfway across the Bering Straits and would hope that the USA Air Force fighters based in Alaska would shoot them all down.
They were just lucky no-one had fingernail clippers, TSA would have been right on them for that!!
They did have to go through “security” when they were onloading the 747s in Kuwait. The Air Force security idiot grabbed my son’s brand new full size tube of toothpaste that my son bought at the PX. My son was carrying his M240B, his captain’s M9 pistol (his captain grabbed his M16 in Iraq and gave him his pistol), his bayonet, and his kabar knife. He was pissed.
quoting myself from earlier:
“And note that the absolute damning evidence existed at the time, but traitors to the nation withheld it. ”
By a strange twist of fate, another traitor* revealed himself just today:
The Confession That Should Shock Legacy Media (but It Won’t)
https://hotair.com/christian-toto/2026/08/17/the-confession-that-should-shock-legacy-media-but-it-wont-n3818051
Moran’s job was too precious to him? Didn’t have anything to do with his TDS and him not being comfortable at all with giving DJT anything to upset the applecart–like revealing that Herr Doctor Death was working behind the scenes to hide the truth?
*Moran was a yellow journalist–and still is–so technically he’s not a traitor because he never took an oath. But hand me an indictment for crimes against humanity and let me pick the jury from kungflu survivors…
@Lynn
“Dadgumit, there is one copy for $25 on Big River.”
$10.65 with free shipping:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=ing&sts=t&tn=pulling%20through&ref_=search_f_hp
With $4.50 of the price going to book rate shipping, the book price is $6, which is $5 too much.
Lots of higher fantasy prices by the drop shippers.
“Therefore, he couldn’t Carradine himself.”
It’s so nice to have fact-checking friends.
@Lynn
“Dadgumit, there is one copy for $25 on Big River.”
$10.65 with free shipping:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=ing&sts=t&tn=pulling%20through&ref_=search_f_hp
With $4.50 of the price going to book rate shipping, the book price is $6, which is $5 too much.
Lots of higher fantasy prices by the drop shippers.
That is better. I was hoping for free with $4 shipping though.
Yeah, $4 is more appropriate – it was OK, a journeyman effort, but not Earth Abides or A Canticle for Leibowtz.
The new smart plugs I purchased have energy monitoring. The 75 watt “equivalent” light in the living room is drawing 8 watts. The light has been on since 07:30. The energy consumption for today is 0.101 KWH. Total cost for today is $0.0118. Cheap.