Cool getting warmer later. A bit more cool and a bit less warm. And the seasons slowly turn. It was really nice yesterday. Even in the sun it wasn’t crazy hot, although it was 90F at one point. I like Fall. It’s not the sweater and jacket weather I grew up with, but it’s nice when it finally gets here.
I did stuff around the house yesterday. That puts a pickup or two off to today or tomorrow, but it meant getting some stuff done, which is a good thing. I did some rearranging of laundry machines, redid the dryer exhaust, and sanded and primed my drywall repairs. Then I did some cleaning. LOTS of thick dust under my bed. I noticed I was coughing in my bedroom, and the dust has certainly been contributing. Some I vacuumed, some I used the leaf blower and chased it out the door.
Hairballs as big as softballs are no joke, yo.
It’s little stuff but it feels like I’m holding on to a little of the momentum.
Then in the late afternoon, I put out some Halloween decorations. I actually threw away 4 inflatables that weren’t working. I’ve had them for years, they were pretty rough looking, and they had been through at least one round of repairs, so it was time. Still goes against my grain…
Now I need to continue making progress and even accelerate what I’m doing. I think I can crank out a high impact, medium effort task or two and get an emotional reward for doing it. We’ll see.
Today I’ll do a pickup or two, then work the list. Maybe some paperwork first. And I really need to go to Costco.
This stuff isn’t gonna stack itself.
nick
Another day of “holidays”. Today’s jobs at the BOL: relocate the ugly main router from the living room to the IT cabinet, and replace it with an aesthetically pleasing access point. Modify the TV table with shelves to hold the new Denon AVR, Yamaha CD player and satellite receiver. Route câbles for the new Teufel speakers and install same. Go and pick up the new mirror for the guest WC from the glass place. Etceteri, etcetera…
It’s a great life if one doesn’t weaken! Happy days, all.
Mm mm mm. Hunters’ breakfast today. Two of us split a half kilo of my brother’s homemade smoked streaky bacon. Fresh baguette with butter, a drizzle of maple syrup and some black pepper on the meat.
Stupendous sandwiches! Salty, smoky, sweet, umami, chewy and crunchy. The pig lived a happy life, and it tasted like it. Pity the vegetarians.
21 Year-Old Semi Driver Kills at Least 3 in Horrific SoCal Crash UPDATE: ILLEGAL
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/10/22/21-year-old-semi-driver-kills-at-least-3-in-horrific-socal-crash-n3808117
Death and carnage. Identify the state official that issued the CDL on federal charges, arrest and perp walk them.
Then do the same thing all the way up the line to to Gavin Newsome. Transport them to the worst Supermax in the sytem and hold them there out of “an abundance of caution for security” pending arraignment. Screw up the paperwork and accidentally put Gavin in a cell with “Big Sally”.
Trump Authorizes Strategic Reserve Refill as Oil Prices Dip
If the goal was to make the sign unrecognizable, lose customers and drive CBRL shares down to a price point where private equity would be able to acquire the chain for financial strip mining, then Mission Accomplished.
Maybe the all female groupthink in the C-suite did believe the sign would be more recognizable, but the real owners of the chain knew better. Vanguard et al are either bored or embarrassed with the company and the thin profit margins due to food prep costs.
National sit down chain Mexican has never really worked for the same reason.
Darden is going to run Chuy’s into the ground trying again, however.
CBRL has a shareholder meeting coming up in November. The CEO will lose her “job”. Not that it really matters since Vanguard will take care of her, but I imagine she’d rather not be the star of this piece of Kabuki.
Yesterday’s revelation of Jay Jones reminds of the time I went to work for a CPA firm.
The going joke…
A CPA dies and goes to the Pearly Gates and tells St. Peter there has to be a mistake, “I’m only 47 years old”. St. Peter opens his book and takes a quick look. “According to your time sheets you’re a 102!”
Yeah.
I do get a bit tired of the forced romantic problems: Woman thinks man has rejected her, but he hasn’t actually, it was all a misunderstanding…and then it happens all over again in the next book.
That’s a minor quibble – the books are incredibly well written.
– it’s genre fiction, and the genre expectation is for the romantic problems.
What’s driving me nuts in most of the fiction I’m reading lately is that they ALL turn out to be ‘hidden prince’ stories. Very few of them are about an ‘everyman’ or ordinary person fighting against odds, growing, and solving the problem. That seems like an overall change from the classic sf/fantasy that I used to read. Discovering the ‘hidden prince’ can be fun, but it usually leads to pulling bigger and bigger rabbits out of the hat, until the ‘princes’ full power is revealed. None of his/her success if from what they do, but rather because of who/what they are.
————-
63F and 81%RH this morning. Busy day ahead too.
All the creatures are stirring.
n
They tried stunning and brave women for a while, but look what that got them.
Manga has a bigger section at the local Barnes & Noble than Fantasy/Sci Fi or even Mysteries these days.
When retail is reinvented, someone at Barnes & Noble will discover the B. Dalton section of the archives from the era when Target owned the mall bookstore chain and simply stocked whatever sold in large quantities.
In software development, 40 is the age where you are expected to be management or a tester. The HR droids won’t hire for any deviation.
I walked out of a job at 45 when they pulled a bait and switch, developer to tester. The thing is that I needed that job and they knew it.
The ID Buzz may already be headed to the scrap heap. That didn’t take long.
https://www.autonews.com/volkswagen/ane-vw-ev-vans-production-slowdown-1021/
Really, who did they think would buy that abomination for $60k?
Well, beyond the neighbor wife, an aging Xer, who gave up her 2002 Camaro convertible garage queen and a Cadillac SUV daily driver for a Buzz.
Yeah you can’t tell about EVs from out here but the news ain’t good.
From that same source
https://www.autonews.com/rivian/an-rivian-layoffs-1023/
Yeah Greg I sympathize. Coming up on 1 year since official retirement on 10/31/24.
Kinda boring to be honest.
Get my thrills watching the Tehachapi train cams. Derailment this morning just for some excitement.
Ageism is real. I had a heck of a time finding a job at the age of 48. Found a small software company that gave me a chance. My one and only time working as a manager – I did a good job, but definitely did not enjoy it.
Thankfully, only 2 years later, I landed the position I wanted as a prof. In the school, I fended of the occasional attempt to be a dean or some other position with management duties. Not my cup of tea…
Dunno how it is where you live. Where I am, there are plenty of places to get involved, some with pay, some not. I help maintain the hiking trails around the town, I’m teaching part-time at the local trade school. I don’t enjoy it, but I’m helping some folk (like my brother-in-law) move away from Win10 to Linux.
Likely there are lots of people or organization that could use your skills and time…
I’m busy enough. Three grandchildren living nearby. A couple of long time clients I still do work for. Upkeep around the house. Oh and trying to keep the gd medical billing and Medicare and Blue Shield straight.
The Cyber Truck’s Temu cousin. I’ve seen two in the Vegas area and that’s it.
EV’s are going to have a comeback with new battery tech. Sodium is all over the news. The Real Tony Starktm is touting Aluminum ion batteries for the Tesla M2. Sodium supposedly won’t ‘splode, if A– is the same, and has good range, I might be interested in a TM2 for an around town car. The arbitrage price for a TM2 might dampen my purchase.
There are claims Sodium will hold a 85% charge after an average 20 years of driving. Hmm.
I’m really interested in a Rivian R2 when it comes out. I want the 45k version, which you know won’t be available first. Ok, likely never, but I can dream
The Pizza Box Dream dies hard.
The “fire the gas station” part was of the dream is always about new battery tech coming soon.
If the buzz (heh) about the new Sodium battery performance & price is true then all LiFePo battery vehicles are almost obsolete already.
EV manufacturer’s may be just reducing expenses ahead of a big changeover and need for recapitalization.
Or the bloom is just off the EV
scamrose.Rivian would already be out of business if Plugs had not intervened with a $4 billion bailout -er- loan signed on his way out the door.
Rivian needs to hope it wasn’t signed by the auto pen.
Update: $6.5 billion.
Sigh. A beautiful calm day.
Three trips up to the roof already.
—-
Waterproofing the chimney cap is done. Flexseal for the win. Someday I will replace the cap.
I discovered a bit of sheathing on the chimney box side coming off, that will need repair or replacing.
I should clean the flue before first fire this year.
—-
Side panels are off the swamp cooler and water disconnected.
The waterproof gorilla tape has disappeared since purchase yesterday. It goes on last, so no big deal.
I have some solid plastic tarping for sealing the panels, so I just need to cut to fit and install. I may leave a small gap to let it “breathe”. Or not use the tape. Hmmm.
Ding ding ding ding.
I saw a lot of infrastructure being built to support the Rivian factory in North Georgia when we drove up to Chattanooga from Atlanta.
Shaw (the Geico Gecko carpet brand) still has carpet mills in Dalton, but it looked like the rest were being repurposed as battery factories, etc.
As Columbus, GA found out, once the mill machinery is crated up and sent overseas, those jobs, making things people actually want to buy, aren’t coming back after the jerbs, making things people can’t afford or want, go away.
Rivian is building all the Amazon ‘spaceship’ vans too. They’ll be humped if Rivian goes away.
n
Amazon can always go back to Ford or GM and get something made to their specs.
As someone with tinnitus, there are a lot of snake oil remedies out there, and nothing really seems to work, although someone always has a secret cure for you, if you pay…
Wear your hearing protection kids. It will never get better, but it CAN get worse.
What, I can’t hear you over the ringing.
I have a 3,600 rpm electric motor in my right ear. Some days it is loud, some days it is real loud.
Duffy is a clueless empire builder. He is DoT, but was given temporary control of NASA until Trump gets over whatever his problem is with Isaacman. Duffy doesn’t want to let go, so he’s trying to permanently fold NASA into DoT.
Anyway, it doesn’t much matter. SpaceX with Musk is independent. If they want to land on the moon, they will land on the moon – with or without a contract.
On the gripping hand: I worry. Starship is big, heavy, and very long. It wouldn’t take much unevenness on the lunar surface (or the Martian surface) for it to topple over. It’s not like there’s a nice, flat landing pad prepped…
The Apollo 11 lander had this problem solved to an extent. The legs could take up to a three foot ??? variance in the landing site terrain IIRC. Since Apollo 11 did not land on the correct site (the radar altimeter failed and the computer rebooted several times on the way down due to the unhandled division by zero), they used this precaution extensively.
The Apollo program had 250,000 engineers and support staff. Everything got looked at twice and then some. I am still amazed that it worked. But the single shot spacecraft were the failure of the program.
I went to the mailbox today. Uh, property taxes? The last couple of years have been $550 to $600 or so. Before that, several years were a bit over $1200 pushing $1400.
I was mostly cool with about $100 a month. If I can pay that to DirecTV, well. But for the potholes I have to drive around, not a fan.
This year, yeah, I expected “bad”. But they raised the value of the house almost 95 grand. And so, with homestead and over 65 exemptions if I’m reading bill correctly, the bill is $2264. NO ONE HAS INSPECTED THE PLACE. What bragging rights are there to say your house is appraised by the county for $310,000?
The joint was appraised at $55,000 27 years ago with almost $700 for taxes.
Huh. a case of Miller High Life more than my SS check. Almost a 40# bag of Diamond Lamb and Rice dog chow. Interesting. $189 a month and for what?
Nothing is due until January 31. No discounts for paying early, like tomorrow. So I’ll go pay the rent some time in mid-January.
It ain’t much but Savings is paying point five percent. I’ll wait and earn enough from Savings to pay for a bag of dog chow.
Me, making Buffalo Nickles bellow for years.
It’s a comet. It’s coming in from interstellar space. It probably hasn’t seen a star in a few billion years, so it’s emitting huge amounts of vapor in all directions. What a surprise…not.
It is a spacecraft. It slowed down to get a good orbit around Sol at the correct altitude. Now it is retrobraking around Sol. We will know in a few months if it is going to visit Earth.
After all, their preliminary spacecraft has been following Earth around the Solar System since the 1960s.
https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/second-moon-earth-asteroid-2025-pn7-21111804.php
“Millions of Texans risk losing benefits as shutdown drags on”
https://www.chron.com/news/article/texas-snap-benefits-november-shutdown-21116096.php
“The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) said on its website that SNAP benefits for November will not be issued if the shutdown continues past October 27. While the HHSC notes that Medicaid, WIC, TANF and CHIP benefits won’t be affected, the 3.7 million Texans–roughly 11% of the population–who rely on SNAP to pay for groceries will.”
“The shutdown has dragged on for nearly a month, making it the second-longest in history, according to the Houston Chronicle.”
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website will not detail the shutdown’s impending effect on millions. Instead, the website includes this partisan message: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. President [Donald] Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.””
Time for everyone on SNAP to get a job. I am seeing job advertisements all over the place.
EV’s are going to have a comeback with new battery tech. Sodium is all over the news. The Real Tony Starktm is touting Aluminum ion batteries for the Tesla M2. Sodium supposedly won’t ‘splode, if A– is the same, and has good range, I might be interested in a TM2 for an around town car. The arbitrage price for a TM2 might dampen my purchase.
I am not hearing of a new sodium battery technology but the sodium stuff has been experimented with for a long time. Mostly liquid sodium (hot ! hot ! hot !). Some of the first nuclear reactors used liquid sodium cooling.
Aluminum burns too but about 600 F higher than Lithium.
“Sodium-ion battery update, progress in technology and market expansion amid challenges”
https://rhomotion.com/news/sodium-ion-battery-update-progress-in-technology-and-market-expansion-amid-challenges-industry-update/
“On 12th December 2024, Hithium unveiled its first sodium-ion battery designed for energy storage applications, the ?Cell N162Ah. This battery adopts a polyanion-based chemistry using sodium-iron pyrophosphate for the cathode and hard carbon for the anode. Under 25°C and 1P conditions, it achieves a 94.2% capacity retention after 4,000 charge-discharge cycles. The projected lifespan exceeds 20,000 cycles at 70% SOH. Hithium plans to begin GWh-scale production in Q4 2025.”
“This follows CATL announcing the completion of its second-generation sodium-ion battery in November 2024. This technology can discharge reliably at temperatures as low as -40°C and is scheduled for commercial launch in 2025.”
Sounds too good to be true. Must be heavier than all get out. 4,000 charge-discharge cycles is a very good start, the first lithium batteries were 1,000 charge-discharge cycles. Usability to 20,000 charge-discharge cycles is awesome.
-40 C lower operating range is awesome and takes care of 90% of the planet surface.
Um…would you employ them?
This year, yeah, I expected “bad”. But they raised the value of the house almost 95 grand. And so, with homestead and over 65 exemptions if I’m reading bill correctly, the bill is $2264. NO ONE HAS INSPECTED THE PLACE. What bragging rights are there to say your house is appraised by the county for $310,000?
The CADs use satellite images and comparables to appraise properties now. They have a software package that analyzes satellite images and rates properties. It is fairly buggy with my experience.
Um…would you employ them?
I don’t use warm bodies in my business. But grocery stores and gas stations need lots of warm bodies. So do ditch diggers.
The joint was appraised at $55,000 27 years ago with almost $700 for taxes.
You’ve got Austin coming your way from the South and Temple from the North-East. Plus you are smack dab in the path of the I-14. All of those factors are raising your values.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_14
Plus, the 75% depreciation of the USA Dollar in the last ten years is affecting all prices. Hang on, the 30% inflation years are coming.
All the dire noise about food stamps….
My Bro in law and sister lived in Jasper. He was an Army recruiter. His boss didn’t like him. Shuffled all the transfer papers to the bottom of the stack for a few months.
So they had no income for four months. Sis went and applied for food stamps. Her, hubby, a 5 year old and a 3 year old. She said “it’s a lot!”
How often do you buy a spiral cut ham? Or a big brisket? Maybe twice a year for each? She had enough to buy one of each every month. Plus steak a couple of times a week.
The money expired if not spent. Hey, buy canned goods. They keep. Buy a little freezer, $150 back then, stock it full of hams and briskets and the chubs of hamburger.
So…. I have no sympathy for the folks screaming “we gonna starve if the EBT turns off”. Zero. You’re so stupid that you don’t stockpile anything? Starve.
“Life delivers another warning about financial preparedness”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/10/life-delivers-another-warning-about.html
“We’ve discussed many aspects of “prepping” over the years in these pages. Some topics come up repeatedly. One of them is financial preparedness: establishing an emergency fund, getting out of debt, paying cash rather than going into more debt, and so on. Part of that advice has always been to have a certain amount of money available in cash, without needing to go to a bank to get it. If communications systems go down, you won’t be able to verify balances, pay by credit card, etc. Better have some cash on hand to take care of essentials for a few days.”
Monday’s Internet outage provided graphic evidence confirming how essential such a cash-on-hand reserve really is.
Yup.
Not when I had my business.
As for working at HEB, if you’re late to work your ass will get fired after being late or calling sick three times in a rolling month. Your lazy ass and general attitude will be noted and oh, hey, you’re just getting two days a week.
Good luck man. Ain’t a race thing.
Silver spot price under $50 pullback ala “dip”:
Eagles each $58.11 There are quantity discounts…
Maple Leafs each $56.61 without quantity discounts…
at jmbullion.com
All the folks saying that and no one has a solid number. Maybe there is not a solid number.
Oh. And working at HEB, if their system goes down, they have no way to sell you anything. Nothing has price tags anymore. So without the UPC to scan….
And if the HEB system goes down, the gas pumps don’t work. Period. Even with paying cash. It’s fragile.
I suppose I have enough cash on hand. I have, vac sealed and stashed around, three grand of a mix of 20’s and 10’s and a few 5’s.
Easy to hide. Use a hole puncher, take a picture off of the wall, hang pouch, re-hang picture.
I have oh, somehow, $150 in Ones in the headboard of my bed. And $60 in rolled quarters. It just happened. Then there is the change jar. That’s maybe another $600 in coin.
Maybe I need more. Maybe it’s like .40saw and 4000 rounds ain’t enough? Or maybe (last count) 30,000 .22LR ain’t enough?
Dunno. Stuff happens.
Buy a couple of extra cans of veggies every trip to the store and after a while you have a lot. Ditto for everything else.
Toll roads are heading his way, one from the south, in the middle of US-183, and one from the east, in the middle of SR 29.
I swear I remember seeing something recently about a hearing for toll lanes planed on Ronald Reagan between where Parmer Lane swaps names at University running to the point where the road intersects with I-35 north of Georgetown.
Colonist interests are driving the development of the western edge of Georgetown and Leander. They want big, new houses, but they also want to be able to access their jerbs at HP, Dell, Apple, NXP, GM, and Samsung, all located along Parmer Lane.
Parmer is a parking lot from MOPAC up to University most afternoons.
“Houston peak load to grow nearly 50% in 6 years: CenterPoint”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/houston-peak-load-to-grow-50-in-6-years-centerpoint/803600/
“Electricity demand is rapidly rising in CenterPoint Energy’s Texas territory, setting the stage for a decade of investment that company officials expect to fuel earnings growth.”
“Utility officials told analysts Thursday that CenterPoint has connected more than 500 MW of data centers so far this year, and has also seen strong demand from the energy refining sector and the Port of Houston, which saw an 18% quarter-over-quarter increase in exports.”
Unreal.
“GE Vernova bullish on electrical infrastructure as turbine backlog grows”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-vernova-bullish-on-electrical-infrastructure-as-turbine-backlog-grows/803631/
“Strazik said the segment’s combined pipeline, comprising signed order agreements and slot reservations, should approach 70 GW by December “with significant momentum into 2026.” GE Vernova has added hundreds of manufacturing employees and machines as it ramps toward its previously-announced production capacity goal of 20 GW/year by Q3 2026, but does not yet see justification for further capacity increases beyond that, he said.”
At 50 MW per gas turbine, that is 1,400 gas turbines for 70 GW. Their production capacity is 400 gas turbines per year.
I think that GE mostly sells the LM5000 and LM6000 gas turbines, 48 MW and 57 MW, for power generation. They can be started in 6 minutes, very nice.
If they would just sit and watch TV and starve and die, I’d agree. Even the children – lazy, retarded, useless parents make lazy, retarded, useless children.
But they won’t just sit and starve. They’ll steal and they’ll assault and they’ll mob up so they can steal more effectively.
The career leeches need to be dealt with more affirmatively.
I do sympathize with people who are temporarily down on their luck, especially through no fault of their own, and I don’t have much problem with the government providing limited assistance. Six-month lifetime cap, say.
This does not work. Talk to the hand.
TV? Sweet Summer Child, they all have iPhone 17 Pro Max and Tik Tok.
TV is for old white people.
Lots of big TVs being stolen each looting season.
Which county?
A lot of the school systems in Texas have bought into the bond ghouls’ grift where every home in the territory of the ISD becomes collateral for the school systems to borrow money and fund nonsense.
Which reminds me – check with your county’s election office website about what is on the ballot in your precinct on Nov. 4. These off year elections are always loaded up with ballot initiatives supporting the grift.
That’s to match all the PlayStations and Xboxes being stolen.
Since I managed to get ahead of paycheck-to-paycheck fiscal management, I’ve managed to accumulate roughly one paycheck take-home in cash, which lives in a secure location. Well, obscure, anyway. That’s in addition to the walkin’ round money for coffee etc. that seemed like a decent amount, and it’s actually been used then replenished from savings once or twice, because losing the points on early withdrawal didn’t make sense. I don’t plan to have more than that in cash, because I’d forget that I had it or where it was at some point, and then it might as well be gone.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15220649/Secret-Service-plus-size-model-failed-test.html
I’d say that the bloompa was able to fulfill the most important role of the protective detail, serving as a meat shield. Well, blubber shield.
I wonder if they can be bricked remotely, like phones?
@SteveF
The assumption is that it would a) remain vertical, and b) interpose itself between the protectee and the threat.
You want to parse those images for a minute?
@paul, protest your valuation. Either do it yourself or use one of the many firms that will split the savings with you. We protest every year. Some years it helps. Some it doesn’t.
—-
IIRC the consensus recommendation is three months expenses in cash on hand. That is a lot for many people, but they count stuff like netflix subs, and spotify subs. I only count the payments that keep you alive, safe, and warm. House, car, food, insurance.
I’ve got enough cash to take advantage of an item coming up for sale, like a hobby item or a gub. I’d do a lot of cash business in the secondary economy though. I encourage everyone to explore different ways and places to get your various and sundry items…
n
>>I’m really interested in a Rivian R2 when it comes out. I want the 45k version, which you know won’t be available first. Ok, likely never, but I can dream
@ITGuy1998, how many Rivian service centers in your state? How far to your nearest one?
Hey, look over there…yeah, COWS…
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/rivian-layoffs.html
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/rivian-agrees-pay-250-million-settle-ipo-fraud-lawsuit-2025-10-23/
>>https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/alaska-airlines-grounds-all-flights-due-to-technology-outage.html
MegaBus sounds good…
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/alaska-airlines-grounds-all-flights-due-to-technology-outage.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-15221855/Wall-Street-shock-Target-abruptly-slashes-1-800-roles-jobs-apocalypse-spreads.html
n
Maybe they’ll get really brave and admit that they lost a lot of customers with their woke bathroom policy.
Candace Owens Hits a New Low, and Accuses Trump of Assassinating Charlie Kirk
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/dmitri-bolt/2025/10/23/how-far-has-candace-owens-fallen-see-her-latest-wild-claim-n2665395
Owens and Carlson are mentally ill. Their friends and family need to push them to get help. In the meantime, I don’t want to hear their shiite.
Yes, but “smart” TVs are subsidized by the streaming services so the manufacturers still make money as long as the sets are used.
It sucks to be the store owner, but that’s why they carry insurance.
Where I work, ‘shrink’, which includes shoplifting and any breakage, is a line item that comes out of the staffs’ profit sharing. Zero effect on actual profit.
Cue Ted Knight in “Caddyshack”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRGRvE_Wqg
If we assume $250k as the loaded corporate salary then that’s $450M. a half billion of (probably) DEI.
Went out and showed Comet Lemmon to the neighbors.
Moved quite a bit in two days, some more tail, still not a naked eye object, even to the 25yo.
Trying to avoid further enriching Bezos, I went into Target when we needed a new iron two weeks ago.
The selection was awful, but I picked the most promising model. Black and Decker. $30.
When I got the iron home, the cord retracting mechanism broke when I pulled the cord for the first time, and the iron never got very hot.
Back it went.
I hit Amazon, and they had an identical Sunbeam to our previous iron which lasted a decade. $35.
Tar-jay is in trouble.
I do sympathize with people who are temporarily down on their luck, especially through no fault of their own, and I don’t have much problem with the government providing limited assistance. Six-month lifetime cap, say.
I could even go with a two year lifetime cap. But there are people who were born on WIC and then transferred to SNAP and are in their 60s and 70s. That is not right.
Or a cap that resets every other year after three months of usage.
I encourage everyone to explore different ways and places to get your various and sundry items…
Yeah, those different ways and places are called HEB, Sam’s Club, and Amazon. Occasionally Walmart.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-15221855/Wall-Street-shock-Target-abruptly-slashes-1-800-roles-jobs-apocalypse-spreads.html
The oil bust is spreading. You cannot drop five million jobs in the USA over the last 12 years without there being other areas in the economy affected also.
And I am hearing nasty rumors about secret layoffs at the big boys.
Maybe they’ll get really brave and admit that they lost a lot of customers with their woke bathroom policy.
I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT ! Serves them right.
>>When retail is reinvented, someone at Barnes & Noble will discover the B. Dalton section of the archives from the era when Target owned the mall bookstore chain and simply stocked whatever sold in large quantities.
Retail’s reinvention? What exactly does that look like?
>>When retail is reinvented, someone at Barnes & Noble will discover the B. Dalton section of the archives from the era when Target owned the mall bookstore chain and simply stocked whatever sold in large quantities.
Retail’s reinvention? What exactly does that look like?
When gasoline and diesel hit $10 per gallon US and the brown trucks stop delivering to homes.
“Army To Bring Nuclear Microreactors To Its Bases By 2028”
https://www.twz.com/nuclear/army-to-bring-nuclear-microreactors-to-its-bases-by-2028
“The Army is highly concerned about its near total reliance on local power grids to energize its most critical installations.”
Um, that is Real Soon Now. The demo unit comes online in 2026 in Idaho.
1.2 MW each. Can be delivered on a skid by airplane or truck. Uses helium for the primary coolant which does not become radioactive. Uses 5% U-235.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
When gasoline and diesel hit $10 per gallon US and the brown trucks stop delivering to homes.
– do they not have home delivery in the UK? Norway? Gas was $13USD/gal when I was there 15 years ago if I did the math right…
In the US, they are building the distribution centers closer together, which cuts the “last mile” down considerably.
They are also trying to get people to use the lockers to ‘clump’ deliveries, and to ‘clump’ their own deliveries on ‘amazon day’. I even got an offer to pickup my stuff at their depot directly.
So they are working on it. We may go back to a Service Merchandise model of a showroom with pickup of your actual thing in the back. Or some blend of the IKEA model where you kiosk order in the “redemption center” at the warehouse/distro center, and the stuff comes down to you.
n
“Yeah, those different ways and places are called HEB, Sam’s Club, and Amazon. Occasionally Walmart.”
Goodwill, local hardware stores (affiliates ok if they are locally owned), local lumberyards, local restaurants, etc.
“The Army is highly concerned about its near total reliance on local power grids to energize its most critical installations.”
– they are getting experience with directed energy weapons, which need MASSIVE amounts of power. Baby nukes make a lot of sense for them.
n
local lumberyards
– we have these little places that buy and then resell building materials. Considering that a large part of their inventory must be stolen or misdirected from jobsites, there are a surprising number of them. All the illegals and trunk slammer contractors seem to shop there. I haven’t tried one yet.
It’s possible that they provide a legit service, buying the overstock and leftover (10% overage on all jobs) material, getting the contractor some value for the otherwise trash stuff… much more likely that it’s mostly stolen though.
Add the bodegas, swapmeets, yard and estate sales, the ‘permanent’ yard sales, facebrook marketplace, etc… There are lots of places that take cash. My propane guy told me last week that he takes credit cards and several p2p payment methods. I’ve only ever seen people use cash with him though.
It takes more time and effort to use the secondary economy, but if the primary one goes down, it’s a good alternative to have some knowledge of and practice with.
n
Yup. Not so long ago a dollar was more than a franc. Now it’s about 3/4 of a franc. That’s a lot of devaluation.
Cutting the fat? What a concept! My semi-former school, where I taught for 20+ years (and still have a couple of courses), has accumulated a lot of fat in the administrative staff. Surprise – they’re having trouble balancing the books. The solution, of course, is to save money on infrastructure by eliminating permanent offices and desks. Also having larger classes, so that they need fewer profs and teachers.
Oh, and little things: Having just officially retired, my boss is allowed to take me out to dinner on the school’s dime. Which we did last night. He had to ask for a receipt that didn’t mention the wine (instead, just “beverages”), because the school refuses to pay for alcohol. By European standards that is just bizarre. All the more so, because (also last night) the school was putting on a commercial event that included free beer for the participants.
I’d love to go through the org-chart and fire half of the administration. Won’t happen, of course.