Cool. Later it’ll be warm to hot. Although the hot isn’t as hot and the cool keeps getting cooler. It was really a very nice day yesterday despite some occasional dark clouds. No rain on my patch.
I slept in and decided to do some work around the house. D2 wasn’t excited about heading to the BOL, and I convinced myself it wasn’t a good use of time. I wouldn’t get an real projects done with the late start. That’s my story anyway.
I did clear out a spot where a pantry cabinet is supposed to go. It’s the corner where the water heater used to be. I haven’t done anything to advance that project because I only tacked up the drywall repair because I needed to do some plumbing and insulating behind there. Then a dark stain appeared on the ceiling and I was sure something died there, which I really didn’t want to disturb.
Turns out, it was just from water coming down the open exhaust vent from the old water heater. Once I close that up, I can fix the ceiling. And once I insulate, I can fix the wall. Of course, the fractal nature of my tasks means that I REALLY want to put some pex in that wall and up into the attic while it’s all open. At some point I’ll need to make the connections, when I pex the whole house, and re-opening the wall would be dumb. Especially if there is a cabinet full of stuff in front of it.
So, I’ll try to stub up into the ceiling for the hot water line to the rest of the house, and the cold water line that feeds the heater. And I’ve got to install some hardware cloth to close up the wall and attic from the open soffit. I know that critters used it as a highway around the house, and they used the open wall to enter the house and eat dog food. That situation needs to be addressed. My tasks are fractal in nature.
So is prepping at an advanced level. Once you have the basics covered, you see that to advance there is always something else than can be done first, or to support the prep, or to leverage the prep. It’s like the first time you write an algorithm in school*. Pretty soon you realize that every task can be broken down farther into tasks which can be broken down farther…
Since there is an infinite number of things to do, you better get to stacking….
nick
*in my school daze, it was “write the algorithm for changing a car tire.” ‘Take the old tire off, put the new tire on’ expands pretty quickly…
In high school, IIRC in science class, we were directed to write out the steps to do something or other so that someone who knew nothing about the task could do it. The teacher criticized me for going into excessive detail.* “You’ll never need all that.” A couple years later I was programming computers and a decade later I was programming robots, needing to go into even greater detail.
Don’t pay much attention to the advice from anyone whose entire work history was for government agencies.
* A number of the teachers throughout school told me, in effect, “sit down and shut up”. Sometimes not in effect that but literally that. I was disrupting their canned presentations and making them think about what they were (allegedly) teaching. If anyone had taken the time to say that, yes, I was correct that different geometries with different rules exist but for 9th grade geometry all we care about is 2D Cartesian geometry, I’d have accepted that. Instead, all that “stop disrupting the class” or “no one care about that” resulted in was a distrust of and disgust at authority figures.
Good morning! SteveF beat me to it on this page. 😉
Friday the 13th falls on a Monday this month. Be careful out there.
Half a day’s work done already. I finally did something I have been putting off for years – reorganising my home-office desk, to get the two monitors up to a comfortable reading level and to tidy/hide the cabling. What a difference! I have noticed, however, that I really, really want to get myself a “work” monitor that matches my nice Samsung instead of the rather utilitarian item provided by my work, which is nowhere near as nice to read on on as my own. I see that my model is no longer for sale new, so I will be off to ebay and the small ads to find a match.
I was very fortunate that my lovely parents scrimped and saved to send me to a school where the teachers were capable of independent thought, and that kind of self-learning and insight was not only tolerated but encouraged. If someone showed aptitude, he was given additional interesting and challenging things to do, and so not allowed to get bored.
For those interested: Starship Flight 11 coming up today. Too late for me to watch in my time zone – I’ll watch the interesting bits tomorrow…
So much depends on the person. If they truly know nothing, and lack related experience, it may simply not be possible. At least, not if anything unforeseen happens.
Current example: My brother-in-law called me up a couple of days ago, and said he wants to install Linux on their Win10 computer. If I didn’t want to come over (they live a few hours away), could I just tell him how to do it? The guy is pretty smart, but he is fundamentally a combination artist/therapist. Tech skills zero, he doesn’t even have a mobile phone. Sure, I could give him a list of steps, but you just know that something unexpected is going to happen, or he will get different prompts than what I see, or something.
I’m going over next week…
News this morning:
Israeli hostages have been released—GOOD
Egypt wants U.S. to send peacekeepers to Gaza—NOT JUST NO.
Happy Columbus Day!
I honestly did not believe that would happen. Good news!
Pretty sure that has always been part of Trump’s plan. Someone has got to basically occupy Gaza and prevent Hamas from rebuilding their terrorist infrastructure. The UN cannot be trusted: remember UNRWA helping hold the hostages for HAMAS? I suppose you could put blue helmets on US troops. Or maybe a few other countries, but you’d have to be careful who you pick.
Also note that one of Trump’s conditions is that Hamas disarm. Hamas has already said that they will not do so. It’s not clear how one is going to get past that little problem.
Kill everyone.
“I suppose you could put blue helmets on US troops.“
Not possible. The U. S. will not put our troops under command of a foreign entity.
“Kill everyone.”
Removing the operator from the weapon is a viable solution.
It’s just a matter of time before Hamas breaks the truce. 🙁
As usual put my flag out yesterday
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l6nkxMm1tTSX2C6gHlPxSAqnU3IYoume/view?usp=sharing
about half think it’s Mexican
(and no mail today)
Hovering just below 70F at 9am. That’s Fall for sure!
—–
Fed the kid (and myself) french toast. Time to get dressed. She’s got friends coming over to watch Hamilton.
n
Local news interviewing family about the explosion.
Why did the person take the job if it did not pay enough? Based on the names some reasonable assumptions can be made about the family.
I am certain that many lawyers have descended upon the scene. Not so much to help the families, but to get their 40% of any settlement money. The remaining money to the families will be gone within six months.
Did Benny Crump roll up from Tallahassee?
We stayed overnight in Cleveland, TN a few weeks ago, and the town was a lot more affluent than we first imagined thanks to the big Mars plant.
Publix was there and, unlike the Clarksville store, the bakery department had mango pastries.
”Fresh start”. I’ve been over that phrase for twenty years. My wife’s father’s white trash family use the line way too much.
Just exactly what sort of help did MS provide BEFORE the end of support?? For most people, like five nines of the people, nothing. Usually worse than nothing if search turned up “answers” on MS webpages.
Urgent warning to millions of Microsoft customers as support for Windows 10 ends TOMORROW – leaving users without any help if something goes wrong
As of tomorrow, Microsoft will officially end support for the Windows 10 operating system – potentially putting millions of customers at risk of being hacked.
– and all those customers were at risk of being hacked, and will remain at risk. That is little concern for most people, as they willingly install apps, spyware riddled crap, and tracking software that exists to do all the things “hackers” would do anyway.
If you use FB, TiTock, or Insta you can’t really complain about security.
n
”Fresh start”.
– so she was one of life’s losers, with a long history of mistakes and poor choices? 8 months is more than enough time to learn a job, especially one in manufacturing.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tragic loss of life, and I’m betting it was preventable. But the cliche’s write themselves.
n
You can’t outrun you. For most people in need of a “fresh start” their biggest issues is themselves.
n
The probability approaches 100% that employees smoked on the site despite the rules, and the probability that management was aware is pretty close.
Is a cigarette suspected In the explosion?
The smoker cabal at a workplace always makes their own rules and covers for each others‘ stupidity in my experience.
My current employer is militant anti smoking to the point that those who indulged are bannished to the edge of the parking lot, near the four lane highway running through campus.
Baylor Scott and White healthcare is more brutal from what I understand, banning smoking in their properties completely and subjecting anyone claiming non smoker status for benefits to regular blood testing.
No one knows the cause of explosion. I don’t think anyone (that are still in one piece) will ever know. The entire site is leveled to the ground. There will be lots of finger pointing. If a person was stupid enough to smoke around explosives, they deserve to be “Darwined”, but not the other people. Unless the others knew. It could have been a disgruntled employee that decided to end it all.
I am certain that there is a lot of investigation of any social media, emails, browser history, purchasing history, cell phone records, etc of anyone that was rapidly diss assembled due to the explosion.
Prior to hiring, and annually for the first couple years there, Houston Methodist Hospital did actual saliva testing for tobacco use. New hires were required to be tobacco-free. Premiums for health insurance were higher for existing employees who were smokers, and cessation programs were mandatory. There was no smoking on any HM property, anywhere.
The tests were scheduled in advance, and so I did my research and knew when to stop my cigars. IIRC, it was about a month to clear your system. I don’t know what product they were testing for, only that it was a downstream breakdown.
I wonder if pure nicotine pouches would trigger a positive. There is some evidence that nicotine, absent the chemicals of combustion, can be health-enhancing.
The before and after pics make me think the place was filled with explosive dust particles. The place is non-existent.
I am getting something delivered today by USPS from Amazon. My two pending orders from Amazon are still in transit, one still in Florida (an item ordered from China), the other order is still in Dallas. I have no idea what is arriving. It is not anything that I have ordered. Strange. Did one of y’all get me a surprise?
If it’s a seat cushion, have someone else sit on it while you stand back and hold your breath.
“Did one of y’all get me a surprise?“
Might want to open that outside and upwind.
There is no “upwind” of Mr. Ray, if you know what I mean.
I worked for a guy while in college whose partner worked in a Motorola bomb factory. Actually it was detonating components, iirc. He worked in a room with walls lined with frangible discs as armor. The design was supposed to contain any mistake he made, and save the rest of the facility.
Is there any info about what the plant was making? They don’t describe it as a ‘fireworks’ factory, like the last one that went up. The fireworks places have each step or product in widely separated bunkers to limit a problem to one place.
In other words, losing a whole plant like that is kinda unusual. The aerial photo is nuts.
n
All that I have read is explosive stuff for the military. Some of the stuff is probably “hush-hush” and will not be released to the public. I don’t think it was weapons as there is not enough security around the location. It more than likely the stuff that makes the weapons go “boom” when needed.
The package arrived. It was a replacement protective case for my MacBook. I had filed a warranty claim with the company that makes the case because the two back corners on the bottom part broke off. The laptop had never been dropped. I did get the shipping notification from the company but never guessed they were using Amazon to ship warranty replacements.
In fact, that was my initial thought when I go the notice from USPS. But I expected the package from the company, not Amazon.
There is when I am exiting the airplane, walking in the aisle to the exit door. Leaving my fellow travelers in misery as they try and guess who made their exit memorable. I had the opportunity 10 times this years (three trips, two with plane changes). That long corridor from the gate to immigration in Atlanta was also blessed.
It’s sort of like spreading rose petals along the path so the people walking on them feel special. Sort of.
banning smoking in their properties completely and subjecting anyone claiming non smoker status for benefits to regular blood testing.
– shite like this is just one reason there are questions I don’t answer when my doctor asks them.
There is a whole section on my electronic medical record devoted to the topic and mine says “unknown”.
History shows that authorities will ALWAYS expand the usage of things they collect and it never benefits you.
n
I‘m already regretting getting involved with the CPAP Industrial Complex at the request of the cardiologist, who wanted a sleep study in return for temporarily eliminating one of my hypertension pills.
The ultimate solution would be the monkey trick crashing and burning soon.
It isn’t a question of “if” but “when”, but what do I know.
Never say you smoke(d), drink, partake of weed, or used any illegal drug. You’ll be in a goobermint database forever and it will lead to denial of insurance claims. Always answer “no” to the guns-at-home questions or “do you feel safe…”.
“White Hot (Hidden Legacy, 2)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/White-Hidden-Legacy-Ilona-Andrews/dp/006228925X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a six book and one novella paranormal romance fantasy series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Avon in 2017 that I bought new from Amazon in 2024. I have the other four books and the novella in the series and will reread those soon.
Totally cool start to a new series for me. This makes the fourth series that I have read from Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife writing team. The Innkeeper, Kate Daniels, and The Edge are the other series of books. They are now starting a couple of new series of books.
The Hidden Legacy Universe is a complex place. The Osiris serum that induced magical powers in humans was released to the general public in 1863 and the world was never the same. The serum was banned after a while but the world was irreparably changed. Families starting breeding children for strength in magical powers with breathtaking results. Magic users are segregated into five ranks: Minor, Average, Notable, Significant, and Prime. The Prime families operate mostly outside the law since they are so powerful and incredibly dangerous.
Nevada Baylor runs a very small detective agency in Houston, Texas ( ! ) that usually works on scammers and divorce cases. She is a 25 year old hidden Prime Truthseeker, she can unerringly tell lies from truths and can sometimes force people to emit truths. Her mother and father started the detective agency but there is a huge mortgage to a Prime Family that funded the effort to try to save her father from cancer. The effort failed and left them with a huge mortgage when Nevada was 17.
Connor “Mad” Rogan is a Prime Telekinetic and a noted combat veteran, famous and feared for leveling a village in the Mexican-Belize war by himself using his powers. He is a billionaire with a private army and wants Nevada Baylor very badly. So badly that he bought all of the property around the Baylor household in a one mile radius so he can protect Nevada and her family.
Several of Connor’s employees and protected persons were murdered in a meeting to discuss a large transaction. Nevada is brought into the investigation by the husband of one of one of the protected persons. Where, she finds that Connor is involved and incredibly angry.
And we find out that the Pied Piper of Hamelin was not a man to be trifled with. His magic preceded the Osiris serum and was fully represented in his many descendants.
The authors have a very active website at:
https://ilona-andrews.com/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (16,525 reviews)
Lynn
“There was once a time when Congress cared about literally every penny” by James Hickman
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/there-was-once-a-time-when-congress-cared-about-literally-every-penny-153699/
“As the clock struck midnight on July 1, 1848, Ohio Congressman Samuel Vinton probably started having a minor panic attack.”
“Viton was Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the Congressional body that, at least at the time, was responsible for all taxation and spending appropriations. Anything that got spent– or didn’t get spent– was Vinton’s domain.”
“The United States was just coming out of a war in the year 1848– the Mexican War, in which the US invaded Mexico and wound up with 525,000 square miles of new territory as a result.”
Wars are incredibly expensive. More so if you lose one.
Also note that one of Trump’s conditions is that Hamas disarm. Hamas has already said that they will not do so. It’s not clear how one is going to get past that little problem.
Kill everyone.
Explain to me again why Hamas is still alive and in control of Gaza ?
It’s just a matter of time before Hamas breaks the truce.
I am surprised that they have not done it already.
Kill everyone.
Sometimes, simple solutions are the best.
Sorry to say but he said it before SteveF. And he has a higher body count, too. Although he cheated and did it wholesale.
He cheated by being born before I chose to grace the Earth with my presence.
xkcd: “Physics Insight”
https://xkcd.com/3154/
“When Galileo dropped two weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, they put him in the history books. But when I do it, I get ‘detained by security’ for ‘injuring several tourists.’”
I have been to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is quite a ways up. Articles can achieve significant velocity from there.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3154:_Physics_Insight
Hamas ALWAYS breaks EVERY agreement. I’d give this “truce” about 3 days.
And yes, the only way to prevent Hamas from breaking an agreement is to utterly eliminate Hamas.
General Jack D. Ripper.
Freefall: Nuclear Vessels
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff4300/fc04281.htm
Oh yeah, that would definitely increase the insurance on the space ship.
Hamas as a group is best improved by killing.
Is deadification a word? It should be.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/10/13/cnns-christiane-amanpour-said-what-now-about-the-israeli-hostages-and-hamas-n2664868
If some unknown group would just arrange for Amanpour to disappear, get beaten senseless, and get tossed into an alley in Gaza dressed as a Jewish woman, I’m sure the Gazans would show her the proper treatment.
Punishing Propagandists Like Stephanopoulos For Playing Dirty Starts With Starving Them Of GOP Guests
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/13/punishing-propagandists-like-stephanopoulos-for-playing-dirty-starts-with-starving-them-of-gop-guests/
Headline says it all. I wouldn’t talk to that p.o.s. if I accidentally stepped on him and he was stuck screaming to the bottom of my shoe like last week’s Juicy Fruit.
But the pols should never say no, just “Can’t do it this week. Why don’t you call me next week?”
Alec & Stephen Baldwin vs. Tree, Results: Tree 1, Baldwins 0
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/10/13/alec-baldwin-vs-tree-results-tree-1-baldwin-0-n2195034
The X comment should have been:
“The prop guy told him the tree wasn’t loaded.”
Craig Fuller is a former trucking and logistics executive who now operates Freightwaves, a publication dedicated to those industries. After Donald Trump’s election in November, Mr. Fuller was thought to be a candidate for Transportation Secretary, and although he didn’t get that job, Fuller has the ear of all major players in the trucking and logistics industries.
In recent days, Mr. Fuller and Freightwaves have been documenting a massive federal effort, ”The Compliance Crunch,” to go after drivers operating illegally. This is obviously also disruptive to those enterprises who put unskilled and illegal drivers behind the wheel of semi-trucks.
With immigration authorities and regulatory agencies targeting any trucks on the road in violation of federal regulations, massive fraud is being revealed, including:
• Carriers bring foreign truck drivers in on tourist visas, have them drive for 90 days, at which time they leave and are replaced by another driver on the 90-day cycle. Per Craig Fuller, “Entire fleet business models [are] built around this.”
• Eastern European drivers are being brought in by organized crime syndicates from their home countries, and operating with little understanding or respect for US laws.
• Because of the crackdown, alien truckers are starting to ditch their trucks along highways, leaving them for the trucks’ owners to come pick up.
• ICE and cooperating police agencies are aggressively patrolling truck stops.
• Carriers that rely on cheap foreign truck drivers are reporting massive absenteeism. Per Mr. Fuller, “This is going to destroy entire business models. Trucking companies only survive through cashflows of running freight. They are toast if this goes on.”
• Truck stop parking lots are suddenly much emptier than normal.
• ICE is also showing up at businesses where shipments are loaded and unloaded, verifying that the truckers have legitimated CDLs. Shippers therefore are becoming proactive in ensuring that only legal drivers are backing up to their warehouse docks, and refusing to load or receive shipments from non-compliant drivers.
• Trucking companies and freight brokers are being advised by legal counsel to immediately cease working with non-US domiciled truck drivers and those who lack a legal United States CDL. Mr. Fuller quotes one of them as telling him, “Plaintiff attorneys will scorch any broker or carrier for hiring an illegitimate driver.”
• Insurance companies are likely to refuse to provide insurance going forward for companies unless they prohibit the hiring of truck drivers lacking US-domiciled CDLs.
As to this last point, Craig Fuller states that “It’s all over” in regards to the business practice of employing illegal aliens and unqualified foreigners to drive semi-trucks on American roads.
https://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=416858
California, Oregon halt non-domiciled CDLs amid federal crack down
CA and OR knew full well that they were issuing in defiance of existing law.
Congress needs to pass a law removing immunity from states that openly violated the law in issuing CDL, and making it easier for injured parties to get trucking companies and others involved in this scam into federal court.
“Tip of the Day: Before starting a project, check if you have the resources available”:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOi_WaBf8kD0w5cmVO_wbReYRhtpC383veNQxOwyjZfUZTUJz-DeyWrpjE2JNpjxJFc4F9zISIEBF0szn_0uoLenVLjfa7d17ymBigpMr7dFHSmy7v12zZIQX5EBkKKDSiL2emgcCd6kUyzI2iDV7mizyZjZu-oAkxeVVr3_1aGf1R1GV-D2XkcoVNG04/s550/Meme%20-%20resources%20available.png
From:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/memes-that-made-me-laugh-281.html
CA and OR knew full well that they were issuing in defiance of existing law.
– gotta keep the destruction of the white middle class moving forward.
n
Republicans Launch New Front in Immigration Fight: Banning Immigrants Who Follow Sharia Law
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/dmitri-bolt/2025/10/13/gop-led-bill-to-deport-illegal-aliens-adherent-to-sharia-law-n2664876
Seeking to impose an alternate form of justice on people within the boundaries of the United States is insurrection. Boot them hard enough to leave a mark.
Just a little bit chilly tonight for my tiny little fire and reading. Some of the acorns came down like a shot, bouncing off stuff with quite a bit of noise.
And there were some actual shots off in the distance. Definitely an increase in gunfire vs a year ago. Not a good thing.
Time for a shower and bed, as the whole pack is together again.
n