And it will be hot and humid again. Because it’s still Summer in Houston. There was a little relief from the heat today in the form of a slightly cooler breeze, if you were in shadow. Otherwise it was brain broiling hot in the sun. Expect more of the same.
Got some ice on the way in for the crew drinks, and the price of a bag has gone from $2 to $3 in only a couple of years. That’s real inflation. Had a good load in and setup, and then I got busy selling. I didn’t pick up a bunch of good resale inventory, but I did organize what was left from last year and people did buy a lot of that. I did a bunch of small sales, and feel like I grossed at least $500 yesterday. If I can do the same or more over Sat. and Sun., it will have been a pretty good show.
So that’s the goal for today. Move some of the slightly bigger ticket items, and a lot of the old stale inventory even if it’s at fire sale prices. I’m even going to give away some stuff to another hobby group that can use it at the end of the show. The goal is to reduce the number of bins I’m storing, and improve the overall value of what I do store.
It’s a plan. We’ll see if it works out.
Meet some people. Talk to people about their version of the real world. Stack the good stuff.
nick
Saturday. Good morning!
Up early today for a bike ride and to visit an historic chapel, built around 840.
Time for a nap
But first, breakfast!
I’m up. Coffee is brewing. Food is cooking. Back is aching. But I did stretch some already and it’s manageable. A bit more stretching before heading out and it should be good.
I think I will shower again, just for the hot water on the back.
n
Oh, D1 got home before I went to bed, and W got to the BOL safely. She’s got D2 and an extra kid.
Time to get moving.
I will admit up front that I have no direct, personal experience with severe mental illness. However, I am tired of hearing this kind of defense. It is used frequently for immigrant crimes in Europe: “mentally ill” or sometimes “IQ too low”.
The thing is: it doesn’t actually matter. IMHO prison is less about punishment (although it may have a deterrent effect), and more about protecting society. Someone who commits violent crimes must be removed from society for everyone else’s protection. Why should it matter whether they are crazy, stupid, or just violent?
Police need to carry malpractice insurance, just like doctors. I don’t care if they pay it privately, or if the police force pays it. Either way, a bad cop will be uninsurable, and that unemployable. The current practice in the US is that a bad cop just can move to a new town and continue where they left off.
In a technical field at a decent university, a dissertation documents your work on something new and never-before-done. Plagiarism is basically impossible. The problem is fraud, i.e., people faking their results – and that needs to be addressed by encouraging masters students to reproduce other people’s work.
Plagiarism cases come from the social sciences (including fields like education, law and political science). A dissertation generally ruminates on things that thousands of other people have already ruminated on. New insights worthy of a doctorate are rare. Take Claudine Gay’s case from Harvard: All she did was run some statistics on soft data on the “political engagement” of black people. How is that worthy of a doctorate, even if she didn’t bother referencing other authors correctly?
I used to have the 80 page (!) printout for the procedure to replace the 2016 Exploder water pump courtesy of the first mechanic who spotted the problem but declined to take on the responsibility for getting the repair right.
Ultimately, we had to go to the dealer for $3000 labor because the seals are hand beaded. Yikes!
At least it is possible to rebuild the transmission. I don’t see how an F150 Lightning could be kept as a garage queen, which most of them were bought to become.
My neighbor has a Bronco as a garage queen, but his wife has an iD Buzz.
They must have AC in the garage for the Buzz.
Claudine Gay had the XX chromosomes and skin color.
Neil de Grasse Tyson had the right skin color and … questionable … relationship with Carl Sagan, but UT Austin famously (at least around here) threw him out of the Astronomy Doctoral program with a thesis-less Masters of Arts.
That’s a good idea. I think it must be paid by the officer or the union that represents them as an additional dues levy, though. If the force pays it, it’s taxpayer funded again.
@Lynn
“You know, you could build a Stanley Steamer out of one of these reactors. Just downsize by 75% to 250 kW.”
You could build a steam-electric locomotive. No diesel fuel required. $0.15 per kwhr electricity replacing 11 kwhr/l @ 70% efficiency gives a first estimate of $1.16/l fuel cost, or $4.38 per gallon. Current cost of diesel in U.S. is $5.59.
Coffee:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/08222026-CoffeeSpinach.jpg
auto-loading slingshot
https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/2090459620040905128
$265
https://autofling.com/
Replacement band sets less than $5 each. Standard 9mm ammo.
Options to roll your own with 3D printing or CNC.
ADDED: Nice video shows the assembly of the 3D print.
You could scale down by 50% and power a Tesla Supercharger site. Wikipedia says they supply up to 500 kW.
Consistent pricing and ubiquitous availability might even make EVs practical.
Well, except for the potential for terrorists.
Or a real life atomic Batmobile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWy0nNeSWU
I’m surprised no one has mentioned putting one in a Delorean.
Before we get these things running around, we need to tune up the laws a bit.
The Ballroom Is Back In Business
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/the-ballroom-is-back-in-business.php
The howler in this case has always been:
“the plaintiff in the case lacks standing.”
The “plaintiff” in this case claiming to anticipate aural outrage when she walked by with an anticipated frequency of … once a month.
Funny how citizens have no standing in illegal voting lawsuits but get standing for looking at something they don’t like. Maybe the next illegal voting case should include “aural outrage” at seeing illegal aliens in line.
If we’d only known that PLT judges have a soft spot for “aural outrage” we could have filed suit every time the White House hosted an event with porta potties.
When this is done the master keys for the new improvements should reside in the Oval Office, with instructions that if the Dems ever steal the presidency again the keys should be “lost”.
The Week In Pictures: Dog Days of Summer Edition
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/the-week-in-pictures-dog-days-of-summer-edition.php
I’ve always liked a nice set of suppressors.
If PopTarts are going to have such a bad rap then Kellogg’s may just as well bring back the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Considering the weight, maybe more appropriate to put the reactor in a 1972 Chrysler New Yorker.
Well, the roof’s on, nailed down and weather tight (I hope). I spent 4 days, maybe 20 hours total for a job that would have taken a roofing crew an afternoon. But much cheaper. And considering how contractors deal with homeowners vice commercial properties, probably better too.
“It’s Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit #9) by Michael Anderle
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Hell-Choose-Kurtherian-Gambit/dp/B0CGG6GH6P?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number nine of a twenty-one science fiction and paranormal fantasy series. There is also an eleven book follow on series and several other books related to the The Kurtherian Gambit Universe, over 200 books in total. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2016 that I bought new on Amazon in 2026. I own the next book in the series already. The related series are listed at:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?46598
The series is a cross between science fiction and paranormal fantasy. A thousand plus years ago, an alien space ship crash landed in the Baltics. A man, Michael, found the space ship, went inside, and was forever changed into the first vampire using alien nanocytes. However, there were werewolves and werebears already existing on Earth and they still exist.
Michael has sired vampires and they have sired vampires. But only one of the vampire “children” is a daywalker like Michael. And Michael enforces strict rules among the vampires and the weres, no blood drinking, no letting humans know of them, etc. Violators of Michael’s rules face swift termination.
But it has been thousand years since Michael was changed and he now sleeps for years at a time. Michael’s helpers found a young woman named Bethany Anne working for the USA government who is dying of a rare blood disease. Michael took her to the alien space ship to become the second first generation vampire on Earth. Bethany Anne’s people duplicated the anti-gravity drive from the alien space ship and built many small space ships. Now they have built a large gravitic drive and are building a Moon base and Lagrange Two space base.
This series is real pulp like old science fiction with lots of action and dialogue. I love it !
Warning: this series might be damaging to your savings account since there are so many books.
The author has a website at:
https://lmbpn.com/
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (3,945 reviews)
Lynn
Saturday bedtime.
Coolth. Blessed coolth. Only 23C (73F) in the bedroom tonight. I will sleep like a baby.
That was a nice relaxed holiday Saturday. Started off with a gentle cycle and some culture in the morning coolth, followed by breakfast and a nap, then reading and a bookshop visit before afternoon tea, then writing postcards, watching the lake, and catching up on the internets under the parasol.
Dinner on the balcony was a green salad, linguine with melted butter and freshly-grated black truffle, accompanied by a couple of glasses of local Grauburgunder, then across the road for gelato for dessert. Genuine Italians – the “Malaga” tasted of rum and raisins, not chemicals.
I kept half the dinner truffle for our breakfast scrambled eggs tomorrow. It’s a hard life…
Goodnight.
According to Wunderground, it is 108 F at my house.
According to my backyard thermometer now in the sun, it is 132 F.
It is a dry heat, the humidity is 36% with a dew point of 68 F.
It is 72 F inside my house.
“President AOC’s First Term”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/president-aocs-first-term
“We’re nearing the end of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first term as president.”
“First they eliminated the Senate filibuster. No more 60 votes needed to pass most legislation. Now a simple majority will do. The political equivalent of a nuclear first strike.”
“Then AOC’s coalition created two new states: Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. That’s 4 more Democratic Senators, and additional seats in the House.”
“The Supreme Court was quickly expanded from 9 to 13 justices. The number of justices has changed before, and there’s no hard and fast rule in the Constitution.”
“Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s last Constitutionalist, retired in 2028 due to health issues. So the highest court in the nation has 5 new neoliberal judges.”
“ICE was abolished almost immediately. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is out of control. Another 11 million illegals have entered, mostly from Latin America. And 4 million visa workers. Another 4 million refugees and “asylum seekers” from Africa and the Middle East.”
“All this immigration undercut American workers’ wages, drove up real estate prices, took over small towns, and drained social welfare programs.”
“Green cards are now granted to immigrants who have been in the country for 3 years, regardless of how they entered. Citizenship and voting rights after 6 years.”
“The unemployment rate hit 18% this year, even with all the book-cooking. AI, outsourcing, and poor leadership have taken a toll.”
“The federal deficit hit $5.3 trillion. The stagflation which began in 2029 shows no signs of letting up.”
“Inflation is running at a 16% clip. A gallon of gas costs $11.34, and diesel is $15 if you can find it. A third of American oil refineries have been shuttered under new environmental regulations.”
“Anyone worth more than $1 million faces an annual wealth tax of 3%. Family businesses are sold at firesale prices. Wealthy Americans flee the country, taking their assets with them.”
Oops.
I went to a Home Show today, to investigate buying a backyard spa.
It never occurred to me that the sports/performance center it was held at was part of the school ISD. I got to the entrance door, and noticed metal detectors and lots of police.
I had no intention of committing a felony today, it just never crossed my mind.
Fortunately, I could turn around before entering and put my pistol in the safe in the truck. But I was 2 steps away from arrest.
I understand the need to protect school children, but this was not a school in session, nor a school sporting event, and there was plenty of police presence. LTC holders should be able to carry.
BTW, Texas law is clear on this. My LTC gets me right up to the door, but no further. No LTC, and you can’t even be on the property while armed.
Everyone who owns a home within an hour of a major metro center will have a paper net worth of $1 million when the Dems pass the $35k first time home buyer credit.
Put in a few hours of work in the yard this morning, about 100F when I wrapped up for lunch. Fortunately it was the north side of the house, so decent shade after 9am.
But man, got a whiff of myself when taking a shower after, just rank.
FIFY
I stick by my previous statement: I have never killed an on-duty, uniformed police officer in the United States who was not himself breaking the law.
(Sure, I could loosen that assertion up a little. I choose not to, in case I need the more restrictive version sometime in the future.)
Drove up to the family house to load up the truck. Sister and mom are leaving tomorrow unless something else goes wrong.
From the subtle hint given in the preceding sentence, you may have deduced that things went wrong today. Yep. Starting with the U-Haul truck not being ready. Or available. Or scheduled. “Something went wrong” in the booking. Could be the online reservation system, could be human error, could be simply the ongoing enshinolafication of everything. Got that resolved, after a delay of less than two hours. Then the people who were going to show up to help, didn’t. That part didn’t really matter, as I had dollies and the truck was plenty big enough for the stuff being loaded. They got a bigger-than-otherwise-needed truck because they’ll be hauling an SUV on a car carrier over mountains and were advised to get the bigger engine and beefier transmission. They got the truck for the price of a smaller one, so I think this was honest advice, not an attempt to get a bigger rental fee. There were a few other problems, but minor compared to those, just added to the time it all took.
After that, swung over to my Dad’s to drop off scrap metal for recycling and some produce from my wife’s garden. Then met my daughter – I mean, The Child – to give her home-cooked food for the next week, then got groceries. I would have stopped at Tractor Supply for food for my precious starving chickens – they’ve never been fed in their entire lives, just ask them – but finding room for a couple hundred pounds of large bags would have been difficult. The hens will live. They’re not actually starving to death, they just think that they are. (And anyway, I picked up some romaine lettuce for them at the grocery store. They’ll eat the lettuce from the garden, but only reluctantly. They enthusiastically gobble romaine.) Also didn’t return the unused parts to the auto parts store because I couldn’t find them in the (rather full and rearranged) van. Tomorrow, maybe, now that I’ve taken out the endless flower pots I brought from the family house to this house. They’d occupied the entire rail of a large front porch, there’d be no one to take care of them, and my wife wanted them. I got some a week ago and the rest kind of sort of mostly fit in my van without too much trouble.
Next week I need to put up the security cameras (haven’t managed it yet because every time I go up there with the intent of installing them, something gets in the way), then visit city hall and the post office and who knows who else to get taxes and who knows what else put in my name, and switch over utilities and no doubt a dozen other things I’m not thinking of.
Meanwhile, the mother-in-law has been yelling every night again. Meds need to be adjusted again, presumably. I’m awfully tired…
Funny how that works. Sometimes I just smell salty. Sometimes like week old socks and a bad fart. All I can figure it depends on how much you sweat and how much your shirt and pit hair retain.
It made it 107 today. 106 for a couple of hours. It’s now cooling off! 104 and 20% humidity.
It’s 80 to 82 in the house. Depends on which thermometer you read. The a/c runs for about 10 minutes and off for 20. Not bad.
Also on your diet. If you eat a high-protein diet (eg, daily caloric intake is 45% protein, 45% fat, 10% carb) for more than a few days, your sweat will smell like cat piss. Ask me how I know!
I’ve never smelled like cat piss. Probably too many carbs from the beer.
Is she acting mean? Might check for a UTI. My Mom had a couple while living here and she got real ornery. Oh, and her gall bladder episode was just loads of laughter.
I don’t need a /sarc tag for this crowd.
The last time we picked up a UHaul, everything was automated through the app. Keys to the trucks were in boxes with 4 digit combination locks, and once all of the verificiations were complete, the app provided the access code for the lock.
Dropoff was pull the truck into a specific space in the parking lot at the destination and leave the keys under the mat.
Semi rural Texas at both ends, but still suburban, emphasis on urban at the destination.
My wife’s clinic manager in Vantucky smelled strongly of cat pee, but he lived on a houseboat at Jantzen Beach on the Oregon side of the river with a bunch of … cats!
Home from my event today. Stayed a bit late at the social hour part, and then went to dinner with two of the other guys.
Time for a load of laundry, a tiny little fire, and an early bedtime.
Tomorrow we have a recognition breakfast and a few hours of selling, although it’s pretty slow and a lot of people leave early. There are cash prizes to keep people around and set up until the end time.
It feels like attendance was a bit lighter than last year, but we’ll do the numbers are our next meeting. I’m about at the place I expected and hoped to be. Sold a bunch of stuff today that made up some of the deficit.
It’s still hot out, and oppressively moist. All hail Mr Carrier for his machines that make civilization possible.
n
I’m quite fortunate; I can no longer smell anything. Or perhaps, I rarely NOTICE smelling anything. My wife would tell me if I had an odor, and SHE can smell ANYTHING – even things that aren’t here.
“BREAKING: Killer Karmelo Anthony DENIED a New Trial After Revelations of Damning Texts and School Records”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/breaking-killer-karmelo-anthony-denied-new-trial-after/
“Killer Karmelo Anthony is not going to be set free anytime soon.”
“As WFAA reported, Retired Kaufman County Judge Michael Chitty issued a ruling denying the cold-blooded murderer a chance to escape accountability.”
“Chitty refused to buy into the defense’s stupid claims of racism and a prosecutorial violation of a ‘secret agreement’”
This was definitely a cold blooded killer. This young man needs to go away for forever and a half day.
“President AOC’s First Term”
The murder rate is approaching 2%.
Gas and oil production is down 80%.
Gasoline is only available on the coasts to the police.
The military has seen an 80% desertion rate and tried to force conscripts from coastal blue shiiteholes as young as 14. The Army is now part of the Crips, and the Marines are run by Tres La Putas
The rest of the city populations are starving and not smart enough to know that boiling Nike’s doesn’t make soup.
All of the military’s smart weapons are rusting and useless—hacked through back doors placed by patriots who saw the problem coming.
Midwest factories are producing Ukrainian design drones by the thousands, and no bridges remain around any blue city.
“Exclusive: EPA to Enact Emergency Fuel Waiver to Increase Domestic Gas Supply, Lower Prices”
https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2026/08/20/exclusive-epa-to-enact-emergency-fuel-waiver-to-increase-domestic-gas-supply-lower-prices/
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to increase the domestic gasoline supply by enacting a temporary emergency fuel waiver to go into effect on September 1, Breitbart News has learned.”
“In coordination with the Department of Energy, the EPA’s waivers will allow for the sale of E10 — gas blended with 10 percent ethanol — at a higher Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP). RPV measures how easily gas evaporates, with a higher RVP meaning more emissions, while a reduced RVP results in lower emissions. During the winter months, the EPA allows gas to have a greater RVP in order to help with cold weather starting.”
“By enacting this waiver, the EPA will have effectively ended the warm-weather RPV requirements early, with officials calculating that domestic gas supply will be increased by hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. With a greater supply on the market, officials said U.S. consumers will see lower prices at the pump.”
So, emissions do not matter when supp;lies are falling. Interesting.
Betcha Biden would not have done that.
BTW, my local Shell station just dropped regular unleaded to $3.399 / US gallon.
However, they raised diesel to $5.199 / US gallon. And therein lies the rub. The diesel will keep on rising in cost since there is a worldwide shortage. And we cannot relax the specs on diesel because that will kill all of the NOx urea reactors on diesels sold in the USA for the last 25 years. Yes, even on farm tractors.
However2, relaxing specs on diesel will not affect the diesels in the USA where their owners have deleted the emissions equipment due to the crappy equipment is ultra high maintenance and fails randomly under great stress. You know, when the diesels are working hard.
Maybe President Trump should offer a pardon to any hard working American who deletes the emission equipment from their hard working diesel motors.
Laundry is done, and I have clean socks for tomorrow, so I’m off to shower and bed. It was still 90F when I went out, with an occasional breeze to cool down. It’s now 87F.
Very sore and stiff from standing on concrete all day.
W got a lot of painting on the window project done, so that’s nice.
Bed is calling.
n
>>I’m quite fortunate; I can no longer smell anything. Or perhaps, I rarely NOTICE smelling anything. My wife would tell me if I had an odor, and SHE can smell ANYTHING – even things that aren’t here.
My sense of smell is only partially gone so I rely on W2 for critical opinions. Primary meds turns my pee bright orange 🙂