Damp and a bit cooler at the BOL than the last week in Houston. It was very nice last night on the dock, 78F with a gentle breeze off the water cooling it even more. It’ll be steamy today with all the moisture in the grass and dirt, and forecast for sunny skies.
I did a bunch of stuff yesterday. Moved some stuff around at the house, putting stuff away and sorting stuff. Loaded the truck for the stuff coming up here. And then I did something that has been on the list for a while. Since I was already soaked to the skin, I figured I’d spend a few minutes working outside, cementing some flagstones back into place on the front walk. I think I spent about 2 hours total and I’m not done filling in the “grout” between the stones (which has dissolved and been blasted away). I got the worst of it done, and fixed the biggest tripping hazard.
Oh, and I fixed my phone too.
Today I’ll unload the truck, and do some maintenance on the mower. I’ve got a new blade engagement cable and new blades to install, as well as new wheels and tires for the front. If it’s running and the grass is dry enough, I’ll mow after that. If not, it’s gonna really suck when I do get a chance to mow. It’s already way too long to cut easily. Another week of growth and it will be agricultural, and not something I can easily do with the riding mower.
I’ve also got to do some measuring and planning for my big week up here alone doing heavy equipment stuff. I intend to do some grading, install a gravel walkway, move some sand to the lake and level the leftover dirt piles from my previous work. Some sand and better dirt will likely end up on the garden in the hope of loosening up the clay soil, and some firewood needs to be moved… There are other things that a skid steer and mini excavator will make easier too. And if I have the time, I’ll do some drainage work for the HOA park. Tasks expand to fill the time available.
Stack. And always be working to improve your situation, right?
nick
The US banned private ownership of gold by Executive Order. The bill Ford signed lifting the ban did not repudiate the interpretation of law Roosevelt used to justify the action.
Ford was very Deep State, including a heavy influence from the Bush cabal during his last year in office when “Poppy” ran the CIA and frequently appeared at the White House.
The Deep State used to be somewhat aligned with the average American’s … same compass quarter anyway. Probably as good as any set of rulers, better than most.
That has changed.
My Dymo labeler arrived.
It came wrapped in a piece of paper with a quote from someone named ‘Uncle Ben’ on it. I threw it out w/o reading and now I am wondering: what that was about?
In other unrelated news I am googling about how to shave a bald patch onto a cat.
Today’s Tyler Durden cowardice covering the “food desert” situation in Milwaukee.
We stopped at a Pick-n-Save in Milwaukee two years ago not far from downtown, and the stench of weed was everywhere in the parking lot. A few cars looked like people lived there full time.
To be fair, every parking lot we hit around Milwaukee had weed smell except the lot at the Miller Coors Plank Road facility’s tour entrance.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/retailers-accused-racism-they-flee-black-neighborhoods-milwaukee
Things haven’t changed that much. Ford was on the Warren Commission, and, here in Texas, the Bush cabal still dreams of running George P. (Diddly) Bush for Governor and, eventually, President, hoping to complete the work of Poppy and Shrub with “The Little Brown One” as their instrument.
I was up late so I slept late. Coffee is in the mug. Food on the plate. Sunny and partly cloudy, 83F currently. Nope, 84F so it’s rising.
The grass is still shiny with dew so I have some time…
Looks like one of the two apple trees I planted has died. That sucks. I’ll see if Lowes still has any in stock.
n
I was thinking post-WW2.
In WW2, for example, the elites (and want-to-be elite’s) still sent the sons to war: the Ford’s, the Kennedy’s, the Roosevelt’s, the Bushes.
“Fewer Than 400 EV Charging Ports Built Despite $7.5 Billion Biden Funding”
https://thelibertydaily.com/fewer-than-400-ev-charging-ports-built-despite/
Scam.
“Why Has the Birth Rate in the United States Fallen to the Lowest Level Ever Recorded?”
https://discernreport.com/why-has-the-birth-rate-in-the-united-states-fallen-to-the-lowest-level-ever-recorded/
1.6 births per woman is not good.
Did you label the labeler?
My Dymo labeler arrived.
Did you label the labeler?
— the really important question is “did you label the cat?” Otherwise, why shave a spot?
n
All this talk of labeling makes me think of the ’60s Batman TV show. Did Batman (or maybe Alfred) have label-focused OCD?
I have a Brother P-Touch label printer, the one that takes the tapes. I used it extensively when I was working at Tau Beta Pi to label the cables, label the network ports, label the servers information, label the phones. Then I used VISIO to create a map of all the cable connections. I did this so my replacement would have a guide.
I did the same thing at the church for the video system. Each cable end was labeled for its destination on the opposite end. All the equipment (22 monitors, matrix switches, matrix switch controls, everything was labeled. This was all placed in a VISIO diagram for my use and the company that installed the equipment. It came in quite handy at times chasing down a problem. No more trying to follow a cable. Just look at the end and know where it is coming from, or going to.
That label maker is mine, purchased with my own money, so I took it home with me and kept it. Along with a dozen or so tapes of different widths or colors. I have labeled my network equipment, ports, and on the printer paper position when loading paper.
The printer hooks the computer and I use the computer to print the labels.
Yeh, I sometimes wonder if I got the illness from watching that show. I have been able to memorize all the lyrics to the TV theme song.
In a complicated environment, such as at my former work, and the church network and video system, the time spent doing the labels was more than returned in trying to troubleshoot problems. Most of the time.
One time I rewired the sound to improve the quality. We had stereo sound in the entire system except to the broadcast RF unit that actually put the video and sound on the cable system. The paths for audio and video were kept separate until that point. I had an audio delay unit with a 200 msec delay which was required because of delays in the digital video routers and switcher.
I did a really good job on the wiring. Come Sunday morning, I had no sound, nothing. Scrambling I quickly connected another mono path to the RF unit and got sound at a reduced volume. Come Monday it is trouble shooting time. All the connections were solid. I had audio all the way to the RF unit and the sound was fine.
Then I decided to take apart the audio connection to the RF unit. Well, doggies, what did I find? When rebuilding the connections and redoing the wiring I found had reversed the polarity of one side of the audio signal. The stereo phases were cancelling each other out. Gadzooks, Robin, Batman felt like an idiot. During that rebuild I was able to test everything up to the RF unit. Turning that unit on would block the other signal on that cable channel, something the owner really did not like.
“Why Has the Birth Rate in the United States Fallen to the Lowest Level Ever Recorded?”
mRNA vaccines are likely part of the answer.
more story emerging:
Mass Stabbing in Traverse City, MI Last Evening Stopped by Good Guy With Gun
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/07/27/mass-stabbing-in-traverse-city-mi-last-evening-stopped-by-good-guy-with-gun-n3805195
Video shows the man surrounded outside.
He got hit by one shopping cart. They should have surrounded him with shopping carts and pretended he was a Plymouth Duster.
added:
Prayers for the wounded.
Damnation for the perp.
China Is Increasingly Holding U.S. Citizens Hostage Indefinitely
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/07/26/china-is-increasingly-holding-us-citizens-hostage-indefinitely-n3805174
I’d guess we could arrest and charge 100 Chinese “students” with espionage without breaking a sweat.
Chuck E. Cheese arrested. Film at 11.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chuck-e-cheese-handcuffed-arrested-florida-charges-using-stolen-credit-rcna221104
The worse news is that it happened in Florida, where the chain has one of their prototype Chuck’s Arcade locations in St. Petersburg.
The concept is a long overdue attempt to rebuild mall arcades.
“All this talk of labeling makes me think of the ’60s Batman TV show. Did Batman (or maybe Alfred) have label-focused OCD?”
The labeling of the Batcave instruments and the Batmobile controls was a plot device to make it easier for the villains that regularly invaded the former and stole the latter.
The plot killer would have been to have a lever on a box in the Batcave and a panel in the Bamobile labeled “Emergency Diamonds” which would have barfed Sarin gas in the face of the villains and taken them out with no harmful residue except that left by cooling relaxed sphincters.
Most of the prop consoles in the Batcave saw repeated use in genre productions from the 60s up until some point in the last decade, when the rental warehouse went out of business.
I’m sure they will be seen again since the prop company liquidated everything in an auction.
the prop company liquidated everything in an auction.
– I bet a lot of it went into private collections.
n
– “I don’t need no man.” “I’d rather have the bear.”
All fine until you do…
n
(and the guy with the gun needs some lessons. one of the training facilities should offer him some free training.)
https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2025/07/27/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-ad-nazi-dog-whistles-n2416298
And in related news, a large number of progressives activists were prescribed heavy doses of Thorazine after hearing an idle observation by a fabric designer that there are literally thousands of swastikas hidden in a pair of gingham curtains.
“Certainly thousands in a pair of cabin window curtains, maybe more than ten-thousand in a pair of patio door curtains. ”
The Democrat PLT Caucus responded by introducing a bill titled “Federal Ban of Certain Hate Fabrics”. As this report goes to press, there are unsubstantiated rumors that the bill is being edited to include engineering graph paper.
The Wild Robot is in limited theatrical re-release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67vbA5ZJdKQ
Highly recommended. Nice homage to Capek.
Not a problem with total quantity equal to one. After that, all bets are off…
https://volonaut.com/
Mounting brackets for after-market armament?
Pearls Before Swine: Me Too
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/07/27
Oh yeah, get an idea and it is gone around the next corner.
With Disney still on its blind date with Bankruptcy, Paramount’s sale, and Warner circling the drain, a lot of Hollywood prop warehouses were liquidated in the last year.
RIP, Tom Lehrer.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/27/entertainment/tom-lehrer-death
So much of Lehrer’s material will live forever on the Interwebz, but I’ll go with this number as a tribute.
The last episode of “For All Mankind” that we watched closed with this exact clip after throwing their fictional Werner von Braun under the bus in favor of revisionist history Girl Power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
Grusum and wife started non-profit to milk the FireAid scam funds:
https://twitchy.com/amy-curtis/2025/07/27/flopping-aces-thread-gavin-newsom-fire-aid-money-laundering-n2416323
Trump reportedly has the FireAid scam on his radar.
Whew. Just got done with most of the yard work. For today anyway. Sweated thru to the skin…
The grass was so heavy I had to forgo the mulch and shoot it out the side. I’ll have to go over the whole thing tomorrow with the mulcher to get the windrows of grass cleaned up.
I am staying the night so I can get some sleep tonight once I cool off and eat. I might have a little fire and a book, or not.
Some animal has dug several tunnels under the patio and the house. They are big holes and it moved a half yard of sand to do it. Can’t have that but IDK what to do about it.
Having a glass of michelada style beer with my Hungry Man tonight. The salt and lime help rehydrate…
n
Insert a hose as deep as possible and turn the water on? To at least get the wee beastie to move temporarily. Add a heavy screen to force it to use another exit so you can find that as well (maybe). Then refill as much as possible with the sand, and a large rock on top.
I prepped today! I had purchased another small (7cu.ft) freezer a while ago, like maybe last year. Or the previous year. So I finally cleared space for it and plugged it in. I decided to split the frozen products by type, so I moved the chicken and pork to the new freezer, and have beef and vegetables in the old one. I learned today that I have far more red meat than white in the house. Aside from bacon. Can you have too much bacon? Is 18 lbs too much bacon?
It’s a start….
I do not have time or space or money to spend on new hobbies. And, frankly, I view most people’s 3d printing efforts as being impractical, and gadgetry, and technology for technology’s sake. A hobby in its own right, not simply a tool.
And yet.
I have seen examples online of certain items it would be convenient to print myself for my ham radio hobby.. I even paid a guy $10 to print me side rails for my latest QMX transceiver. And I have an idea for a niche product accessory for certain tiny musical instruments that I think could find a small market, and prototyping could happen on a 3d printer. Maybe even production.
Maybe I can find a local resource on fiverr.com or similar to just do the design and printing for me. Is fiverr still a thing?
re: too much bacon
I saw a meme about using leftover bacon. The punch line was “Who has leftover bacon?”
I saw another meme:
Me, to 16-year-old: When cooking, measure garlic with your heart.
16 Y.O.: With your heart?
Me: Yes. From time-to-time, you’ll see a recipe that says something like “add 1 clove of garlic, minced.” The writer of this recipe clearly doesn’t understand God’s grace to us. Use more garlic.
Bacon. Local market had a few packages of applewood smoked from a regional butcher on closeout last week. I didn’t buy it all. What was I thinking? Is this a sign of mental degradation and eminent collapse?
The commercial break during the local CBS/Sinclair station news tonight has an early commercial from Cornyn.
2026 begins.
Bacon makes everything better.
Time to head down to the dock.
n
I’ve been hearing commercials for Cornyn on the AM radio for two weeks now. I might vote him in for dog catcher but I am not sure. Nah, not even dog catcher.
Nice night on the dock. Some wispy clouds and a little haze but the darkest, clearest night in a while. Radio was poor, and Sunday night content is mostly religious, so I read instead.
Time to head to bed.
n
Well, that was fun. A lost weekend. Woke up Friday night around midnight with serious back pain. After pacing for an hour and a half, it was clearly only getting worse. Emergency room. Kidney stone, which was too big for immediate removal, so they could only do a temporary treatment. The actual removal happens in a month or so. Oh, and the CT scan shows a lot of smaller stones lurking.
Bleah. Getting old brings all these weird complications…