And that it would be hot in September in Houston? Oh, everyone? Shii… Because it’s another hot and humid day coming up, following the hot and humid day yesterday. Weatherman. Easiest job in the world. Look out the window. Flip coin to decide if you’ll report what you see, or the opposite. Get paid.
Spent yesterday sweating. Just loading a few bins into the truck had me glistening. Took those bins, dropped them off at the auctioneer, had a few extra minutes, so I stopped at the Mormon thrift store. They usually have very nice stuff. And I got a ryobi chop saw stand, in like new condition, for $20. That’s going to the BOL. Grabbed a CS Lewis audio book, some power adapters, and a couple of DVDs too.
Hit costco for snacks for youngest. She’s never said anything dumb to me, so I’m not on strike for her. Got some steaks for W’s birthday, which is coming up. I’ll have to go back for flowers and cake a bit closer to the day… I’m on strike but I’m not stupid.
Hit the HEB for my groceries.
W now thinks the drip tray in the fridge was the cause of the stink. Hard to tell for sure, but I suspected it from the beginning. Poured some bleach in there, as it was looking pretty nasty. No way to remove or wash it. We’ll see today if the stink got better. The odd thing is that when you get close to it, it doesn’t really smell that strong, but does have a bit of the odor. It seems to get stronger when it’s left undisturbed.
Today I’ve got a couple of pickups to do, on different sides of town. I could put half of them off ’til tomorrow, but I think I’ll just suck it up and do the driving. Can’t make everything into a shared trip.
Then I’ll see what else on the list I can get done.
And how much of it I can count as stacking, or improving my position.
Like you should be doing.
nick
Uh. Look into Ooma. As a start. I’m sure there are other companies selling much the same. Run it all over Starlink.
https://www.ooma.com/small-business-phone-systems/
I guess that I could buy the $80 phones for everyone and pay the $25/person/month fee for the five of us.
I just bought my Panasonic PBX and Voice Mail machine around 20 years ago. I paid over $10,000 for it plus $4,000 installation into my office building. Plus the 15 phones at $200 each.
Sigh. I hate changing technology.
Running an office is expensive.
Could be worse. You could be dreaming about Nancy Pelosi in a bikini.
I probably should apologize for putting that vision in your head but I won’t on account of I just basically suck as a human being.
@lynn, the only things you lose by giving up the KSU is central answering, transfers between extensions, one number calling, and a voice mail directory… which is basically all the functions of a PBX.
Look at asterix or whatever they are calling it. Someone in Houston is probably offering turnkey services. You get a couple of voip lines, and you’re back in business.
n
Hot water didn’t fix itself. Guess that’s def on my list then.
After I get a couple of hours more sleep.
Snack made. Sun rising. Spirits sinking.
n
You’re a miserable SOB. You just ruined my day with that thought in my brain. The one-eyed wonder worm may never come out of hiding. I was going to go out and fix the security light on the corner of the house. I may just electrocute myself while I am at it and put me out of my misery.
When I was with the church part of my responsibility was the phone system, because, being unqualified, I could recognize a wire when I saw it. Anyway, AT&T was abandoning the copper lines. AT&T provided a modem that connected to their internet system, then that connected to a provided switch that connected to the IP phones. There was a one-time charge for the phones of about $120.00 each (10 of them), then no monthly charges for the phones, just the line charges. A couple of numbers for all the phones, intercom, voicemail, etc., all the goodies.
There was a management portal where the phones could be managed, messages to be played when the offices were closed, etc. Lots of stuff in that portal that were over my head, but AT&T support was fairly good at helping me.
You may want to check with AT&T and see what they offer for IP phone service. When it was all said and done at the church, the overall monthly rate was the same as the copper lines.
Way back, when I was in uniform, the base where I was stationed had a volunteer radio station. We had a rebroadcast agreement with a national radio service for times when there was no DJ and also to rebroadcast news and weather on a regular schedule even if we were serving local programming. Fairly standard. Because the local weather we rebroadcast was for a city more than 3 hours’ drive away, it frequently (usually?) did not match our local conditions. On one winter afternoon, after the weather broadcast went on about the glorious sunny skies and unusually high temperatures, I followed up with “Gavin’s Weather Window” where I did just that, reporting on the -30C or lower temperature, 30km or higher winds, and all the frozen precipitation slamming sideways out of the sky.
I really wished I had been able to walk back to my room in the originally broadcast weather.
Why would he need to be in a bikini to dream about Nancy P.?
So kid 2 saw the un powered temperature control panel last night, and told W. No one told me, which, as I’m on strike, would make sense if they were just going to handle it. BUT THEY ARE NOT. They just didn’t bother. Telling me, or handling it.
Internet says it’s a common failure of a fuse on the board. We’ll see. Then I really am going to start generating invoices.
Also, no one put dinner away before bed, so those leftovers are still on the table. It’s getting frustrating.
On the plus side, the kitchen smells like bleach not dead things, so cleaning the drip tray seems like the way to go forward.
n
Contra yesterday’s assertion, sure sounds like she’s part of the truculence against you.
I ordered a couple of parts for the dishwasher. An occasional spot of water on the floor. New door seal and another item. I replaced the door seal and decided to return the other item that I did not need. UPS, $41.00 to ship a 1-pound package. Uh, no thanks. The part cot $39.00. The cost of diesel and the fuel surcharge was the indicated issue. USPS is about the same price.
The wife wanted to ship a couple of items weighing less than 1 pound total, to Germany. USPS is about the only option. The cost is $81.00 as now the post office requires everything going overseas to be shipped first class priority.
And so much for the worthless “Do Not Call List” for which the government paid millions of dollars to some worthless company. Yesterday I got 14 calls about Medicare and the obvious ploy to get me to sign up for Medicare Part C, the HMO crap. Today I have received five calls on the same thing. If I get a call from an unknown number on my cell phone I answer but don’t say a word. Eventually the other party hangs up after the automated voice says “can you hear me”. Every call is from a different number. They may even be valid numbers. Scumbags.
Unleaded regular gasoline is now $3.699 and diesel is $5.759 at my local Shell. The big surge is still coming.
“Branco Cartoon – Mommy Dearest”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/branco-cartoon-mommy-dearest/
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Children, beware: the Lindsay Clancy phenomenon may extend far beyond the courtroom.”
Ugh. That is nasty.
“Their Core Message”
https://areaocho.com/20192-2/
“It is genuinely upsetting how many people celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death with “Kirkiversary” posts. Some here, tons more on TikTok. The message is clear; if you disagree with progressive orthodoxy, they want you dead and will celebrate your murder too. That includes a young father like Charlie Kirk whose major “crime” was engaging in civil debate with them.”
“And these posts have thousands or hundreds of thousands of likes, these aren’t fringe edgelords, this is a major view at least among the progressive base. Violence and intimidation has become an accepted strategy for them.”
“I hate that I have to share a country with these broken people, they must be defeated and marginalized just as much as the brainrotted elements of the Candace Owens right.”
Their celebration of the ultra violent death of a young man, a father, a non-violent person marks them for being servants of the evil one, Satan. Their reward is waiting for them in Hell.
And anyone who wants your guns for “safety” intends to take the guns away from you and use them on you.
“Stepping on Your Johnson”
https://areaocho.com/stepping-on-your-johnson/
“Three times I voted for Trump. He was and remains a better choice than any of the three who ran against him. That being said, the Iran war clearly shows him to be stepping on his d***.”
“Iran is clearly prolonging the conflict until November, because their aim is obviously to influence the election. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out the Democrats are conspiring with Iran to make that happen.”
“Still,this is a disaster in the making for the Republicans. Fuel prices are sky high. Gasoline is averaging more than $4.30 a gallon. Inflation is high, and the Fed is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter percent today.”
“The nation, and perhaps the world, is about to enter a recession. Americans vote with their wallets. Republican lawmakers, sensing vulnerability to anti-Trump election pressures, are beginning to turn on him.”
“All of this signals a return to Democrat control of Congress. Trump is about to become a powerless lame duck.”
“That also means a likely stranglehold of both Congress and the Whitehouse. Imagine President AOC, but backed by Control of both the Senate and the House.”
AOC will be Barrack Obama all over again but more bad things and taking away of our liberties.
“Yet another reason to update your emergency supplies”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/09/yet-another-reason-to-update-your.html
“Yesterday the Dutch railway network was brought to its knees by coordinated sabotage attacks across the country.”
I am seeing many “little” stories of terrorism in Europe and the UK. I am wondering if the muslims are getting ready to take charge of the entire place.
“They Called Refining a Dying Business. Diesel Just Hit $6.”
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/investing/they-called-refining-a-dying-business-diesel-just-hit-6-155873/
“Even before this refinery was taken out of commission, the national average price of diesel went above $6 a gallon last week for the first time ever. Filling up a long-haul semi truck now costs more than $1,000.”
“It’s important to note that a barrel of crude oil is almost useless until somebody turns it into something. A refinery cooks the crude and breaks it apart into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, the raw material for plastics, etc.”
“Everyone knows about the squeeze on oil due to the war with Iran. But the shortage of REFINERIES is another issue.”
“Sure, the wars have taken a toll on refineries and other fuel plants. Iran bombed Bahrain’s only refinery, shut ever since. It also wrecked half of Shell’s Pearl GTL in Qatar, the world’s largest plant for turning natural gas into diesel, jet fuel and lubricants. Ukrainian drones, meanwhile, have cut Russia’s refining by roughly a third.”
“And the rest of the world’s refineries can’t pick up the slack.”
“US refineries are already running at almost 98% of capacity. There’s no spare refining capacity, and that’s because governments have treated refining as the enemy of humanity for the past decade.”
“For example, ten years ago Britain had six refineries. Then the UK government announced a ban on new gasoline and diesel cars and piled punitive taxes specifically on refineries, and today Britain is down to four.”
“I guess the “Just Stop Oil” fanatics are happy now. They actually declared victory last year and hung up their hi-vis (oil-based) vests, and quit (oil-based) gluing themselves to things, because “no new oil” had become official government policy in the UK.”
“California, meanwhile, imposed a new penalty tax on refinery margins, and then passed climate change regulations for refineries that are virtually impossible to achieve.”
“Unsurprisingly, in the past year, California lost two refineries: Phillips 66’s in Los Angeles and Valero’s in Benicia near San Francisco. That’s 17% of California’s refining capacity.”
Restarting a refinery that has been down for a week or two is a disaster. Restarting a refinery that has been down more than a year is just asking to die with all of the leaks. The start of the refining process is converting all of that crude oil into a vapor so you can clean it and catalyze it. Vaporized gasoline is bad news.
“No Pressure: A Massive Starlink Upgrade Hinges on SpaceX’s Next Starship Launch”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/no-pressure-a-massive-starlink-upgrade-hinges-on-spacexs-next-starship
“Next week’s Starship Flight 14 will deploy the first operational Starlink V3 satellites, which promise a 10x leap in bandwidth capacity. A failure, however, could be a brutally expensive loss.”
“SpaceX just announced the official launch window for Starship Flight 14. No earlier than Sept. 22, it will depart from Starbase, Texas—the enormous SpaceX facility near Boca Chica—marking the first attempt to put Musk’s mega-rocket on a true orbital trajectory.”
“But there’s more going on here than cool space launches. The test flight marks a major milestone for SpaceX and the development of its largest cargo-carrying launch vehicle. It’s also an early landmark for Starlink, as the test flight will carry and deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, which will kick off a long-awaited upgrade for the satellite internet service, promising potential gigabit speeds and the biggest step forward since the SpaceX IPO.”
I was wondering when this would happen. The version 3 Starlink satellites are each the size of a 737 when the solar wings are deployed.
Spineless Redumblicans + tRump’s War = Game over, man, game over.
PLTs mock Kirk’s death but expect us to worship the troon way. CWII is inevitable. We will battle the commies, Mooslims, or both.
For real? Potential gigabit speeds from Starlink? Same price? Same hardware here at my house? That would be crazy cool.
Ugh. If it happens I will have to move the flattie McDishy thing to the house. My NanoBeams aren’t fast enough.
I know where to move it to. Might need a new eave mount. Def need someone to, if not hold the ladder, to sit around drinking beer and saying rude things and be there to call for an ambulance if I fall off of the ladder.
I can install the cable alone. Get that done first. Install the mount. That’s an hour of gathering tools and nuts and bolts and such. Then move the dish and router and it’s maybe a whole half hour of down time. Because there’ll be a beer in the middle of the process. And then steaks on the grill.
Plans!
Gig speed from space? Just much wow.
Almost exactly $2/gal below SoCal.
It’ll probably get worse before it gets better.
Almost exactly $2/gal below SoCal.
It’ll probably get worse before it gets better.
Half of that is your fuel taxes.
Someone has to pay for the high speed rail boondoggle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uli5FI_5y2c
It’s not waterboarding if you don’t use water.
Yesterday I got way into the weeds, and the tall, tall grass and thistles. I cut to my current limits, which gives me about half an acre of mowing. Then I decided that since I got the 2 foot hill done in a day, I should start the 5 foot hill. How long could it take, right? I’m on the second day and I think I got a quarter of it moved. I also started screening the dirt to about an inch and a half to keep the big rocks out. I have a plan for them later. The next quarter should give me enough fill to finish the de-trenching on the part of the grass I mow, and enough room to move the project vehicles there. Then I can trim/mow the empty spots.
This is not the life of leisure I had hoped for, but it’s far more interesting.
The female half of my Colonel Bat Guano neighbors ran the snake torture room at Gitmo on the Booz-Allen Hamilton payroll according to neighborhood legend.
From what I understand, most of the time, the bag with the snake doesn’t even make it to their head before they’re crying for their mothers and spilling everything. Why waste good crude oil?
And, remember, kids, the US military does not torture prisoners. Leave that for the ex-Army NCO contractors with … flexible … morals.
It’s a good day. I pissed off another Reddit moderator and got threatened with being banned. I told him/her/shim, “works for me”.
Also, no one put dinner away before bed, so those leftovers are still on the table. It’s getting frustrating.
I would have sworn that you have a couple of teenagers living in your home.
It’s a good day. I pissed off another Reddit moderator and got threatened with being banned. I told him/her/shim, “works for me”.
I live for those days on Reddit. The day I got a permaban lives in my memory.
Vaporized gasoline is bad news.
– I remember from my youth that one cup, fully vaporized, would turn a house into a crater. That’s why we don’t keep gasoline in the basement.
n
Which is why Fuel-Air Explosives (FAE) are so powerful and useful.
“1 In 5 Gen Z Workers Brought A Parent To The Job Interview. Now What?”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwalker/2026/08/10/1-in-5-gen-z-workers-brought-a-parent-to-the-job-interview-now-what/?
“A recent survey highlights a notable trend: parental involvement in Gen Z job searches. Zety found 20% of Gen Z workers had a parent join an interview, 21% had parents contact employers, and 10% had parents negotiate job offers. While parents intend to help, this “helicopter parenting” often backfires, causing hiring managers to question a candidate’s independence and ability to handle workplace challenges. Experts warn such intervention can hinder young adults’ self-regulation and increase anxiety. Employers are advised to clarify interview protocols, politely manage parental presence, and focus on assessing the candidate’s individual merits. Ultimately, parents should allow their children to navigate challenges, and employers should provide a mature hiring process.”
No freaking way!
You know, I’ve wondered why Israel didn’t use FAE to destroy the tunnel networks under Gaza once the hostages were murdered or released.
Turns out, they may have. One of their explosions is reported to have reached 4.1 on the Richter scale.
They’re just not reporting it as FAE.
Speaking of FAE, thermobaric, and bunker busters, here’s an article about the developer.
A hot time in the old town tonight…
n
I had read that they detonated several tons of conventional explosives, after removing and taking back to Israel all that they could carry.
A tiny little fire, and too long soaking up the heat. It was still 86F when I went out, although it’s a couple degrees cooler now.
One big grey tabby cat came by tonight.
Now I need a shower and bed.
Hot water got fixed. No one said a word to me, either asking me to look into it, asking how it got fixed, or saying thanks.
W finally did some cleaning under the fridge, but still hasn’t put the panel back on or pushed the fridge back into its hole.
n