Cool, then warm. Maybe hot again. We had some dark clouds but no actual rain. We could use some rain.
I woke up with a pretty sharp pinching pain in my back, in a spot that doesn’t usually feel like that. That put a bit of a crimp in my morning so I got back in bed after some stretching. Got up an hour later and did more stretching. And some more. Then a hot shower, and MORE stretching and twisting, and I finally felt a tiny little pop as it moved into where it was supposed to be. Immediately I felt better. And it was tiny, less then a pop you’d feel in your knuckle.
Learning to manipulate and deal with my neck and back issues has been an ongoing challenge but is absolutely worth doing, if I believe I may not always have access to a chiropractor and meds. And I believe that.
Once I got that fixed, I was able to start my day. Among all the other normal stuff I did two pickups. These two are within a mile of each other. Sitting in the truck did bring a little bit of my back issue but I’m still good as I write this. More stretching today.
Picked up a prescription at the HEB and did some weekly shopping. Hamburger, 77/23 was $5/pound. The ground chuck and ground sirloin was even more. Nothing good on sale either, but some cans of baked beans on the clearance shelf ended up in my cart. Some chinese seasonings too. I always check the clearance area in any store – you never know what you’ll find.
In the evening we had our local “Neighbors Night Out.” Nice to see the neighbors outside of a hurricane or storm. All their babies are little kids now. We were about 10 years early to this neighborhood.
After dinner I spent some time fixing something for D2. It’s been a while since I needed to. I used to fix something for them pretty much every couple of days. I guess that’s growing up.
Today I’ve got to meet the guy buying my buddy’s thing. I’ve also got a couple of pickups, one close to home, one on the other side of town. I’ve been putting that off in case I win something else on that side, so I can combine trips. Gas is fairly cheap, but my time, and the tolls are not.
The economy definitely feels tighter, even for me, and I live like I’m on my last dime pretty much all the time. Living on my ACTUAL last dime for a couple of years will do that, I think. I’m also hearing a lot more comments about it being tight, and the economy being bad. Since I’m in Texas, and it’s generally much better than the rest of the country, I can’t imagine how bad it must be in other places.
We’re seeing it too. I’ve noticed debris piling up on the highways, more illegal dumping, and more closed businesses than in the last couple of years. We’re very cyclical here, but we’re definitely going into a down phase, despite all the people fleeing blue cities moving here.
Think about your situation, and start making plans. If you’ve already made plans, start working them. If you are already working your plan, evaluate and adapt as needed.
And stack, because that’s the easiest to do.
nick
Boca Chica/South Padre Island is faster from Houston than Kennedy but the launches do not receive much advance notice now that the Texas Legislature gave The Real Life Tony Stark city status for “Starbase”.
Its about them jerbs son. All about the jerbs. Just like those big AI data centers sucking all of the power off of the grid and water out of the aquifers.
Jerbs. But I digress.
We typically stay at what is now known as the Sand Rose Resort on South Padre Island. The place is a bit old and shows it, but the staff works hard to keep it decent. The Hilton Garden Inn next door is nicer but costs more.
Spend an hour or two at Sea Turtle Inc across the street. They’re serious about what they do over there, and maybe you’ll start to get the true cost of them jerbs across the channel.
Go look at the steam iron selection in Tar-jay.
Houston and Austin are being colonized. The Colonists prefer Austin, but they will accept Houston if necessary.
Colonization will continue regardless of the economic situation.
74F with RH in the low 90s.
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Kids are testing today, so half day. PSAT. Dunno if they do the NMSQT too, or if only one of the kids will.
Texas or the district uses it as an evaluation of the schools and districts.
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The ‘pinch’ in my back is back. I may take a short break before trying to start my day.
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For now, coffee…
n
@greg, people do need jobs. Texas fought long and hard to be part of the space industry, I wouldn’t have expected them to walk away from that, nor would Florida. Cali might, but for green reasons. They already tried to kill their aerospace industry.
Data centers don’t create many jobs on site, once they are built, and they do suck up a lot of water and power. Apparently they suck up much more doing AI versions of stuff they used todo without AI. I think we’d be fine without AI. I have read enough SF that I’ve got serious reservations. It may also be the only way to maintain a high tech society if IQs fall or there aren’t enough high IQ people to do the foundational things.
However, the internet has enabled a lot of jobs and a lot of wealth creation, which makes jobs too. Wealthy people spend a lot of money, they’re the ones that have it after all. Without data centers we don’t have the internet as we know it.
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Refineries don’t employ many people relative to their physical size and resource use either, but without their products we don’t have our world. Data centers are the new refineries.
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n
–What’s going on with starbase and the turtles?
Indeed, jobs are important. In some sense, they are the foundation of everything else. SpaceX picked a remote spot, and they really should be able to launch almost whenever they want, coordinating only with other air and space traffic.
I’ve been on South Padre – nice enough island – I would love to watch a launch from there. If Texas is halfway clever, this could be a big tourist draw.
Yeh, that will start some angry conversations.
I understand what you are saying. I have often wondered about this myself. Where is the line drawn? Who makes the decision. If it were your child would you make the same statement? Could you make the decision?
We, well in the U.S., do the same thing with our aged adults, keep them alive using whatever means is necessary. At tremendous cost for someone that will never improve. My aunt was a case in point. She spent four years in a nursing home doing nothing by lying in bed. Mostly unaware of her surroundings, a vegetable. Sometimes violent but easily contained as she was frail.
In her case she would never improve. She had often stated she did not want to live as a vegetable. But she did. Would it have been the correct thing, based on her wishes, to terminate her life? I would have had no issues with having that process accomplished in a painless and easy manner. In my mind, it would have been much better than her current situation.
Nature does this to their offspring by tossing the youngster out of the nest. Nature is ruthless. Should humans, with thinking capabilities do the same?
In the US there area facilities that will handle extreme cases with specially trained staff, properly configured facilities, and speciality equipment. I am surprised that in the country of your colleague there is not the same facilities. Maybe the couple have decided to not use the facility by taking personal responsibility for their child.
I cannot imagine someone wanting to destroy their lives, ruin their existence, by keeping such a child if there are specialize facilities available. I would have never done so with my aunt and left her care to the experts.
When my wife got pregnant, we agreed that she would have an amniocentesis to check for any genetic defects. She was at the low end of higher risk age band. We agreed that we would abort if a serious genetic defect was found. Thank goodness there were no issues. Saying you will do it and actually going through with it are two different things, but I believe we would have.
What would we have done if our son had complications and came out damaged/retarted? I have no idea. I am truly glad I don’t have to deal with that. I think having options for parents that do are a good thing.
As for aged adults, that is tough as well. I now have firsthand experience after dealing with mom earlier this year. She had MS and a couple other autoimmune diseases to boot. Her last six month were hell for dad. Mobility was either limited or non-existent. He had to provide all care for her, including changing diapers.
In the last couple of months, she would become altered more often. When she finally had to go to the hospital on a Friday, she was altered most of the time. I drove up on Saturday, and I was shocked at her appearance. I don’t know if it was me being there or just luck with her brain chemistry, but she was lucid when I got there. She was only physically able to say a few words, but she knew who I was. Small gifts.
Dad and I spent most of my time there over the next couple of days. Tuesday morning, she was holding on, but I knew the end was near. Dad and I went home around 6PM. Around 8PM, the nurse called him and said we should come to the hospital. I went, and dad stayed home. I completely understand why he did. I think he already said goodbye, and the last 6 months were tougher than I can imagine.
Mom was gone before midnight.
After saying all that, I learned a few things.
Having a living will is CRITICAL. Mom wanted no life saving measures, so she was only given medicine for pain. She could probably still be alive today on a ventilator, but what kind of life is that? She was a nurse, she knew the deal.
Equally important to having a living will, is having someone who will enforce it. That isn’t the hospital, it is a family member. Dad had to tell the nurses several times to take away food they brough her to try and shove down her throat. When I got to the hospital the evening she died, she was on oxygen. I pressed the nurse call button, no response. I pressed again, no response. I then just kept pushing it over and over. I fat nurse with a bad attitude came wobbling into the room. I gently explained mom’s wishes and told her to remove the oxygen. Now. I never saw that b!tch again. Luckily , the head nurse was fantastic.
Death isn’t pretty. I do feel I provided mom some comfort in her final hours. I think there were even moments in the last day where she know I was there.
You did the right thing. When my mother was in the hospital, dying, her wishes were no extraordinary measures. Myself and my two brothers knew this. I was not there as I was having to travel to California. My two brothers told the hospital do nothing but make their mother comfortable.
The hospital did use oxygen. It was protested by my brothers and it was explained to my brothers that the oxygen was to make her comfortable, not to extend life. Apparently breathing would have been difficult and painful without the oxygen. Both brothers felt better about leaving the oxygen. But nothing else beyond pain medication was provided.
My mother did ask my brothers where I was. They said I was traveling and would be there the next day. That seemed to calm her and shortly after she passed away. She did not suffer.
However, because of some screw up with contact information, my mother spent three days alone in the hospital before my older brother was contacted.
I did not see my aunt for her last six months. She did not remember me and it just made her upset. I did visit the facility the day she died as I was contacted by the facility that my aunt was non-responsive. I stopped on the way back from Nashville. My aunt was a shell. She should have died years ago. She did not want to “live” like that. Assisted death would have been a good option. Myself, her sister, two doctors, making a decision, all in agreement, to end the life early would have been a good, probably the best, decision. But, laws.
With current medical technology it is possible to keep someone alive for years as nothing more than a blob of flesh. It is extremely expensive. Decisions need to be made, changes need to be made, in that entire process. If someone is aged, frail, immobile, or otherwise at the end of their life, let them make the decision. Let them depart on their own terms, in dignity. Rather than in soiled diapers, with multiple tubes, force fed, forced breathing.
Ok, more stretching, a bit of laying out flat, and I’m fit for duty. Light duty, but duty.
Time to head out, and get ready for the craigslist guy.
n
The AI monkey trick is just that – a trick. It won’t run society if the C suites achieve their goal of eliminating the bulk of their white collar domestic workforce.
I noticed several media reports of the arrest of a suspect for starting the Palisades (LA County) fire. He was arrested in Florida.
Evidence pointed to him by analyzing cell phone tower records, with his phone being seen within 30 feet of the fire starting location. And his 911 calls ‘reporting’; the fire. Along with social media chats indicating his involvement.
Coincidentally, I am still binging the “Person of Interest” TV series (a Jonathan Nolan creation starting in 2012). Excellent series; not just a ‘criminal of the week’ show. Touches on many aspects of current life (social media, government eavesdropping, AI, and more). Very good show.
The beginning of each episode starts with the main character saying “You are being watched….” And this from a show that started airing in 2012.
Eventually, all the launch activity will have to move to Florida, especially if The Real Life Tony Stark is serious about passenger service within a couple of decades.
In the US there area facilities that will handle extreme cases with specially trained staff, properly configured facilities, and speciality equipment. I am surprised that in the country of your colleague there is not the same facilities. Maybe the couple have decided to not use the facility by taking personal responsibility for their child.
Medical expenses in the USA are rising at my SWAG of 20% per year. I suspect the rest of the Western countries are like this also. This cannot continue forever. And note that I am not including the cost of unpaid caregivers like my wife and I for our daughter.
I am amazed at how many people work at the little hospital in Port Lavaca. 12,000 people in town and 24,000 in the County. My father used to tell me that the 50+ bed hospital was the number one expense in the county. I believe him.
Boca Chica is an extremely fragile ecosystem, and the specific species that Sea Turtle Inc. is dedicated to preserving, the Kemps Ridley, has a fondness for the rocks around the launch site, especially in cold weather.
Back in WA State, my wife’s employer was the largest private payroll in the county of … 500,000 … ?
Just across the river from Portland, with a large HP facility, SEH America (think silicon wafers), and TSMC’s WaferTech subsidiary.
That population only merited seven weed store licenses for the county under WA law.
“Wikipedia Editors Attack Co-Founder Larry Sanger for His Reform Proposal, Attempt to Censor Him”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/10/08/wikipedia-editors-attack-co-founder-larry-sanger-for-his-reform-proposal-attempt-to-censor-him/
“Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger early last week published his “nine theses” to fix the online encyclopedia on his blog and Wikipedia itself. His collection of essays on Wikipedia criticizing the site was subsequently subjected to multiple deletion attempts with editors censoring content over criticism of specific editors. Some editors appreciated Sanger’s criticism, but many viciously attacked him, accusing him of fascism, and suggesting he could be banned from the site.”
Yup, Wikipedia needs to be made neutral. But, it looks like a secret cabal is running it.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Unemployed and desperate young men are dangerous to world peace.
n
it looks like a secret cabal is running it.
– not secret that it’s being run and shaped. The particular people doing it might be a secret, or at least obscured.
n
I was listening to Michael Berry driving to Port Lavaca last Friday and he was talking to a lady who worked for Social Security. She is claiming that 10 million illegals were given Social Security numbers during the Biden years and registered for SS Disability and Medicare. If true at all, this is a travesty.
it looks like a secret cabal is running it.
– not secret that it’s being run and shaped. The particular people doing it might be a secret, or at least obscured.
n
“Wikipedia Editors Attack Co-Founder Larry Sanger for His Reform Proposal, Attempt to Censor Him”
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/10/08/wikipedia-editors-attack-co-founder-larry-sanger-for-his-reform-proposal-attempt-to-censor-him/
That what Sanger’s complaint is, the top editors are not generally known and they are all ultra liberals.
The irony is they made Sanger’s point by editing him, and trying to ban him.
n
“Relentless (The Lost Fleet, Book 5)” by Jack Campbell
https://www.amazon.com/Relentless-Lost-Fleet-Book-5/dp/0441017088?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number five of a six book military science fiction series. Plus several sequel series consisting of fourteen books total. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2009 that I bought on Amazon. I have purchased the sequel book in this series and plan to read it soon.
I did not know John G. Hemry was the real name for Jack Campbell as I purchased the Stark series quite a while back and enjoyed it also.
The Alliance sent a war fleet into the Syndic home star system via the new FTL network to defeat the Syndics once and for all. However, the Syndics knew that they were coming and destroyed many of the Alliance space warships. Now the Alliance warships need to leave or be destroyed one by one.
The Alliance admiral left Captain John “Black Jack” Geary in charge of the Alliance fleet before he and his staff were murdered by the Syndics in the negotiations. Captain John “Black Jack” Geary was found by the Alliance fleet on their way to Syndic space, in stasis in an old emergency pod. A hundred year old emergency pod. Captain John “Black Jack” Geary may be a hundred years out of date but some things like tactics of war spaceship fleets never go away.
Captain Geary is leading his fleet of warships and supply ships through old wormholes, trying to anticipate Syndic attacks and gather raw materials and feed his crews. Moving into the Heradoa star system, they find a huge POW camp that they must liberate even though they are rapidly running out of food and fuel.
The author has a website at:
https://jack-campbell.com/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (3,551 reviews)
Lynn
Unsung Hero: Dean Phillips, Democrat From Minnesota
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/10/08/unsung-hero-dean-philips-democrat-from-minnesota-n3807589
Sitting on Dean Phillips couch in (roughly) 2014, there was decades of evidence that Joe Biden was a venal thief and liar, and claimed despite ample evidence to the contrary to be a foreign policy expert*.
Sorry Mr. Strom–No Sale. The charitable interpretation is that Phillips was woefully ignorant (which ipso facto impugns his credentials for running for congress) and perhaps dazzled by the Scranton Joe act. The non-charitable interpretation does not need delineation.
The persistent “I did what I did in conscience” schtick carries the scent of a man who is massaging history to keep his options open for further “service” to his country. The only service I see here is self-service.
*Fast-forward to 2025 and we have over-flippin’-whelming evidence to reinforce the conclusion that should have been drawn in 2014. And we’re continuing to get more on an almost daily basis.
X Users Compete to Come Up With Title for Joe Biden’s $10 Million Memoir
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/10/08/x-users-compete-to-come-up-with-title-for-joe-bidens-10-million-memoir-n3807628
I’d vote for “The Autopen Diaries”, but my subtitle would be “Every Word Plagiarized”.
Look for Jill’s book deal next year–she will run through Joe’s $10 million and need another $10 million of her own to keep quite, unless she has enough dirt to eclipse Harris and get $22 or 25MM.
Hunter will try but his number will be about what David Hogg’s would be–any serious threats about revealing anything would result in a Clinton solution.
Is Jay Jones About to Drop Out of the Race?
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/10/07/is-jay-jones-about-to-drop-out-of-the-race-n3807600
I’m disappointed. I’ve read a number of Baldacci’s books, and have a small pile in the stack to be read. The books feature upright men of courage and conviction doing their duty to further justice in the world*–everything that the Democrat Party has abandoned for decades. I’d like to hear the reasoning behind this.
*yes, he writes thrillers and there are a lot of dirty gray areas that dim the purity of the heroes, but so far he has avoided the yellow-dog hypocrisy of Stuart Woods’ valiant Democrat president covering up and pardoning the rogue CIA mass killer because he was killing the right people.
missed it by that much…
Level up your Knipex Pliers: Add a rachet, screwdriver, tweezers and more! [SOLD OUT]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh-KZcN_5tI
Legal Weed Was a Bad Idea
another study:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/10/07/legal-weed-was-a-bad-idea-n3807587
How is that a bad thing? Stupid people are killing themselves off. They incur some cost in killing themselves, but probably less than if they’d stayed alive for another 40 years. (That’s a SWAG based on no hard evidence. I’d be surprised it’s not correct, though.)
“BREAKING: Appeals Court Lifts Judge’s Order Blocking Trump From Mobilizing Oregon National Guard Troops”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/10/breaking-appeals-court-lifts-judges-order-blocking-trump/
“A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from federalizing Oregon National Guard Troops.”
“On Saturday, Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocked President Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland.”
There needs to be consequences for these rogue judges for their unconstitutional TROs.
How is that a bad thing? Stupid people are killing themselves off. They incur some cost in killing themselves, but probably less than if they’d stayed alive for another 40 years. (That’s a SWAG based on no hard evidence. I’d be surprised it’s not correct, though.)
I am almost to the point that we should supply a fentanyl kit for people to off themselves if they want one. I am not there yet but I am getting closer.
Too many of these people take out other people with them when they are trying to off themselves.
I’m in favor of making kits for painless, quick suicide available at no cost all over the place, including high school bathrooms. The only trick would be making it from inexpensive ingredients which are not easily repurposed (probably easy enough), and making it so the kits can’t be used to murder (kind of tricky). Alternatively, some kind of suicide booth but, again, there needs to be a safeguard so it can’t be used for murder and can’t be broken down for valuable components.
The improvement in the population should be visible very soon, possibly under a year.
They don’t always die in a one-car accident.
I have a couple of ideas…
Needlessly complex.
Set up public booths where a person can identify themselves, declare their intent, and be assigned and appointment 48 hours in the future. If they show up at the appointed time they sit down and record a final statement, their ID is matched, and they are given a button to press that exchanges the atmosphere for pure nitrogen. Out immediately, gone in a couple minutes.
Paper Chase: A Global Industry Fuels Scientific Fraud in the U.S.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/08/paper-chase-a-global-industry-fuels-scientific-fraud-in-the-u-s/
Sage Journal 1-15-25, Retraction list:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3233/JIFS-219434
Amazing coincidence: >>90% Asian (Chinese and Subcontinent) surnames.
Now French “Experts” Say Our Teddy Bears Need More Diversity and Realism
OTOH, most papers published in journals are trash anyway, so why worry?
BREAKING: Pfizer just announced that if the government shut down persists, they may be forced to lay off up to 200 members of Congress.
Needlessly complex.
Set up public booths where a person can identify themselves, declare their intent, and be assigned and appointment 48 hours in the future. If they show up at the appointed time they sit down and record a final statement, their ID is matched, and they are given a button to press that exchanges the atmosphere for pure nitrogen. Out immediately, gone in a couple minutes.
Can you imagine being the body service personnel ? How many bodies would the booth store before not accepting any new clients ? Creepy.
Would you store the video of the procedure ? And forward it to their loved ones ?
most papers published in journals are trash anyway
– I was going to make a joke about not wiping my backside with a scientific journal because it would lower the IQ of any exclamations from down there…
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Nice night. Breeze is variable and gusting, acorns are crashing down, some with enough force that I wore a hat to protect my head.
It’s not as nice as the dock but I like my new habit of reading out there for a bit.
But it’s past time for bed.
I’m not as young as I used to be.
n