Maybe today will be a bit more Fall than Summer. It’ll still be hot and humid, just maybe a little bit less of both. Spring and Fall in Houston are not what I grew up with in the 4 season midwest, but they are nice.
Slept in yesterday, then finally got moving. Did a bit of hack body work on the truck, really more of an exploration of seeing what I could do with some really basic tools. I’m happy to keep poking at it a bit. Then I did a pickup and headed to the shop for more scrap breakdown. It nets me some cash and clears up space in the shop, so it’s a decent use of time. Pays better than minimum wage…
Got home, ate, read, had a tiny little fire. And watched some new aviation. Drones. Quad copter style movements but clearly not hobbyist stuff. It’s hard to tell size but they made more of a jet sound than anything else. Curious. Two in the sky at the same time, same flight path until they got over the Beltway, then the follower took a more northern station. Saw one hovering and moving back and forth in the distance later too. Very strange. I’m not comfortable with big drones moving overhead. Too many ways that can be bad.
Today, I’ll keep working on stuff. I hope my scrap guy is open so I can empty the truck bed and move the big printer out of my office. If not, I can still move stuff around and get ready to do it Monday or Tuesday. I still need to pull my main PC out from under the desk and install the new bluray drive. I’ll do that if I can’t do anything else, since it will disrupt my office too.
And I’ll be taking a minute to remember OFD, who left this world on this day 8 years ago. I can’t really believe it’s been that long. Poke around in some of the comments here from before then and re-read some of the voices that have gone quiet since then. Gone but not forgotten.
nick
Got home, ate, read, had a tiny little fire. And watched some new aviation. Drones. Quad copter style movements but clearly not hobbyist stuff. It’s hard to tell size but they made more of a jet sound than anything else. Curious. Two in the sky at the same time, same flight path until they got over the Beltway, then the follower took a more northern station. Saw one hovering and moving back and forth in the distance later too. Very strange. I’m not comfortable with big drones moving overhead. Too many ways that can be bad.
I cannot find the youtube video of the Ukrainian jet powered drone at 300 mph or 600 mph taking out the Russian passenger train locomotive on a siding. The people are all screaming and running away from the train. The drone sounds just like German WW II buzz bomb, the jet engine is really loud. But it looks like a terminator sequence from one of the terminator movies. Scary, very scary.
Gonna skip church and lunch with my mother today. And she is not doing well either, having digestive issues. She blaims it on the food but she has been having issues for over ten years now due to having 2X the max radiation to take out the five tumors in her abdomen when she had stage 4 endometrial cancer. She does not remember this of course.
The vampire just came around and got more blood. They gave me antibiotics yesterday after the post surgery blood draw. I do not want sepsis and I suspect that gall bladder was infected. Severe abdominal pain like I had is usually an indicator that something is very wrong.
I still have not taken any pain meds. I should have taken a tylenol last night after I turned out the lights at midnight as my pain went up for a little while to a 3 maybe.
And no, I am not getting my gall bladder as a doggie treat. That would involve the “cooking for cannibals” book that I am not going to ever read.
Lily, our schnaupin, loves chicken jerky from heb. I give her a 1 or 2 ounce piece as a treat for going potty outside.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-texas-pets-dog-treats-chicken-jerky/1964890
“Trump administration uses rare authority to claw back nearly $1B in spending approved by Congress”
https://apnews.com/article/trump-rescissions-fundind-46b356590699e6225f783c74e7ee3597
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress, the White House announced on Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.”
Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.
Hat tip to:
https://jointheflyover.com/sunday-september-27-2026/
Probably more of an excuse than a reason. Cops, being cops, can’t be trusted.
But there’s a nugget of truth in that, too. HIPAA in particular makes it hard to conduct business over an unencrypted radio. Paramedics have to skate close to the line when communicating with the trauma center. The address has already been broadcast, and they have to do an assessment of the sex, weight, and nature of injuries over the air. Just one mention of the name of the patient and you’ve crossed lines.
For cops, the name of a suspect is ok, but that suspect can become a patient in the blink of an eye and the rules change.
Those Motorola radios cost as much as a new car. I eat lunch occasionally with a guy who works for comms in TXDOT, and he brings his radio along (he has to).
re: drones
Most likely not what Nick’s been seeing, but the Walmart delivery drones are interesting to watch. The Walmart near I-10 on Fry has a drone operation, and a time or two I’ve parked in their lot just to watch it.
The drones are VTOL copters, but they also have wings and forward facing props. So they launch and land vertically, but have more efficient point-to-point with traditional flight.
They had to develop a whole flight-deck doctrine and operating protocol for this operation. It’s impressive to see the effort this took.
I still don’t understand how it pays for itself. But it’s cool tech.
Hot Skillz!
A lot of veteran quota hire jobs were probably also involved in the decision making process.
When I worked for CGI in Belton, various government gimmies were the only reason that center made money; the actual work invoved did not generate enough revenue by itself.
@alan
Police Dept. now uses Motorola APX NEXT radios with full‑time encryption.
‘Need to protect identification of law-abiding citizens’ is what I heard.
– I’m calling shenannigans. I never hear PII (personally identifiable information) because it’s already moving over data and the in car computers.
Depending on your scanner, there are lots of things to listen to besides dispatch for your locals. Pure analog, still have ham bands, air, marine, commercial/business, tow trucks, State VHF networks, and the neighborhood watches on GMRS/FRS…
Digital trunk tracking- you get even more. Federal channels, courts, school districts,
During the flooding I was listening to the school district bus channels. They were using the busses to evacuate people, and using the bus radios to communicate. I heard about high water and blocked roads.
The utility companies all use unencrypted radios.
Your sheriff or State boys will probably still use regular digital trunking.
According to FEMA and the national plan, all interop channels are to be unencrypted and users are to communicate in plain language so that they can actually talk to each other.
All the cool stuff I heard, I mostly heard on interop channels because the coordinating agencies had them in common. DEA and local PD and aircraft don’t usually have a channel in common, so for me it’s the Gulf Coast interop channels.
And you might want to talk to some people and ask around as the privacy argument for encryption hasn’t stood up in court when challenged, iirc. There are people who specialize in fighting against this kind of crap. The cops work for the people. The people have delegated their authority to the police, they have no authority on their own, and they need to be reminded of that.
n
BTW, during one big storm when I decided to sit here and see what I could hear, I pretty much determined that you need one scanner for each agency you want to listen too. Otherwise it’s too long to get back to anything you do hear and you miss too much. Monitoring multiple radios is a skill, and it takes a lot of practice to do well.
89F and sunny, with a beautiful blue sky.
I slept in, but now I’ve had a bowl of cereal and half my coffee.
Back hurts from yesterday’s activities, so we’ll see if stretching helps that. Might be a limited movement day.
n
LOL!
Bill Gates issues chilling AI doomsday warning saying one BILLION people will be killed… unless humanity takes his advice
BillyG’s latest grift. “We’re all gonna die…unless you do what I say and put me in charge” mRNA anyone?
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16164141/boeing-planes-jets-software-glitch-airlines-landings.html
– pilots should be flying the jet anyway. Especially on a difficult landing.
n
“bowl of cereal”
Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
Honey Nut Cheerios?
Life?
We watched a documentary on AI last night. Summing it up: “We don’t know what we don’t know”. There were more positives on what AI can bring Humanity than just “it will kill us all”. How? “Um, take my word for it because of greedy corporations and little goobermint involvement. I’m an expert.”
Grape Nuts. Because nothing starts your day like sudden pain and a $2000 bill to fix a cracked molar.
Yes, he is. All you will hear from the LSM is negativity. Not one positive article. “tRump has an inappropriate relation with his aide.” No proof whatsoever. “We, the LSM, have a 1A right to have access to the President!” No, you don’t.
We can only hope Kentanji SkidMark-Jackson strokes out during tRump’s term. The LSM would accuse him of murder. With no proof needed because…
ORANGE MAN BAAAAAD!
Cracked all the way to the root. I have a bridge.
“We can only hope Kentanji SkidMark-Jackson strokes out during tRump’s term. The LSM would accuse him of murder. With no proof needed because…”
Naw. Hope big: Kagan, Jackson, and Unwise go to lunch, get into an argument on the way back, and run into a bridge abutment. Trump nominates two solid conservatives and the Breitbart AI, then calls the senatorial squishes into his office one-by-one and let’s them have a peek at their files, along with the reservation list for remote park benches in DC.
Heuristics are funny.
I have been undecided about the current push for AI, but largely skeptical. Skeptical of actual capabilities, of the training, of the programmed-in liberal bias, and of the threat to freedom.
Nothing objective about the subject has pushed me to support unfettered growth of AI. But there’s one huge influence that has pushed positively towards unrestricted datacenter and AI implementation: The quality of its enemies.
If Kamala Harris, Bill Gates, and the Chinese (and domestic) commies are against US growth of AI, that’s enough to convince me I should be for it.
Fritos. “Stone ground corn” means that, occasionally, a small stone finds its way into the end product and the result is a chipped tooth.
Refrigerators: The Next Battle Frontier?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/09/26/refrigerators-the-next-battle-frontier/
Pass a privacy law:
All products sold in the United States are required
And as always, not of this shiite would be necessary if our lawmakers would pull their heads out of their penumbras and draft a privacy right amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I suspect that only half of the problem is stupidity. For the other half, compare the amount of money you donate to different candidates to the amount of money GE Appliances donates. (Noting also that GE Appliances is now owned by a Chinese company.)
“I suspect that only half of the problem is stupidity. For the other half, compare the amount of money you donate to different candidates to the amount of money GE Appliances donates. (Noting also that GE Appliances is now owned by a Chinese company.)”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys
A rectum pulled tightly over the head gets the job done.
If the debate were conducted in the present I believe Dragomiloff would win the argument and the Assassination Bureau would be offering deep discounts for moral imperatives.
GE decided that they wanted to be money guys above making stuff. Making stuff creates and spreads wealth, financial shenannigans only concentrate it.
SOMEONE has to actually make stuff.
——-
92F in the shade, 102F in the sun.
Spent an hour and a half stretching my lower back and hips. I read while letting gravity do most of the work. I feel a lot better now.
Maybe time to do some driveway cleanup.
n
Trump Cancels $810M for Illegal Immigrants, Race-Based Programs
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
ANY expenditures by congress that are for the purpose of supporting alien invaders who have violated the sovereignty of our country are unconstitutional and should be stripped from any funding bill.
BREAKING: British Police Foil Terrorist Attack at RAF Fairford This Morning UPDATE
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/09/27/british-police-foil-possible-terrorist-attack-at-raf-fairford-this-morning-n3819375
The U.K. is the most heavily camera-tized country in the “free world” and they should have walked the license plates and faces of the miscreants back to some addresses of interest by this time.
If it was up to me I would have had a judge in the field declare them non-persons and set up the water-boarding stations in a tent by the roadside just to speed things along. Local pig farm would have helped, too.
Sunday bedtime. Back at base after the weekend sailing trip. Hotel breakfast was rather good – very nice malted sourdough brown bread. Good just with butter and a sprinkle of salt.
Lunch was a croque monsieur in Bruges. ( Watch the movie if you haven’t already seen it…). Supper was rustic; very old Dutch cheese, apples fresh from the orchard, and Tyskie beer from Poland.
The Bavarian radio choir is singing Liszt’s Via Crucis. Sublime. I think OFD would approve.
I will be in Vienna later in the week. Might catch up with Liszt’s music again there.
Goodnight.
“GE decided that they wanted to be money guys above making stuff. Making stuff creates and spreads wealth, financial shenannigans only concentrate it.
SOMEONE has to actually make stuff.”
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE who led the company out of manufacturing and into financial services was a media darling and frequently appeared on business magazine covers in the 1990’s whle increasing the market cap more than ten times. The wiki page only includes his name as part of lists of past executives. The damage his business philosophy of short-term profits has done to U.S. industry is incalculable.
Six Smegma -er- Sigma.
Fixed it.
Promote the general welfare, not provide for the general welfare.
Unfortunately, everyone in FedGov just got paid on Friday.
“bowl of cereal”
Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
Honey Nut Cheerios?
Life?
Grape Nuts with banana slices!
– pilots should be flying the jet anyway. Especially on a difficult landing.
Not these foreign pilots.
I think I’ve made a decision. I might waffle out.
When I was a kid we moved every three years. So, maybe not much in the way of roots. Two schools in 4th grade still hurts. I’m sort of an outsider.
So we lived in the house at 1003 Space Lane for eight years. The longest I’d lived anywhere. We moved out here to Burnet. Way back in 1992 or ’93.
I like my house. I like my land. I’m getting too old to take care of the land ala mowing pastures and cutting down little cedar and elm trees. I really like my house. So this is hard.
We always told the boys it’s yours when we croak. One kid doesn’t come visit because of allergies. Whatever. Taking a pill is too difficult I guess. The other comes out with a friend a few times a year and maybe they harvest a deer. That’s all.
Both have almost paid off houses. One complains his property taxes are almost 12 grand a year. I just think to myself that moving here and saving 10 grand a year on taxes buys a lot of allergy pills.
Oh, they need Internet for work? Starlink.
So. Why should I keep this place until I die? Other than the “yours when we croak” promise?
I dunno. I’m looking at my age and how long my parents lived and it’s just starting to feel like “why should I stay here until I croak in maybe if lucky 20 years?”
I have a itch saying I don’t have to do this, to be in this jail.
The insurance says the house is worth about $400 grand. That’s house on one acre.
Last I heard an acre of land out here, if you can find any, 10 grand an acre is a great price… and that was 20 years ago. So let us go with 20 grand an acre. There’s another 24.8 acres. Call it about $480 grand for the land.
I figure ya can have it all if I get 800 grand in my pocket at closing. And buyer gets a couple of tractors and implements included.
I think a two bedroom house up around Comanche towards Eastland and westward would be nice. I have a bedroom that is nothing but a bedroom and then my library/computer room. A small yard. Enough space to try to grow some tomatoes. And maybe a few rose bushes.
Don’t know when.
Penny is about to turn 15. She’s lived here her whole life. Buddy the Beagle, I think all he wants is to be with me.
So when Penny dies, I put the place on the market.
800 grand would be good. I’ll take 600 grand.
@paul, it can be difficult to stay somewhere where you spent a lot of time with someone who isn’t there anymore. You didn’t mention that, but it was driving my mom nuts. Every wall, ever room, dad had touched in some way. You couldn’t escape his presence, you couldn’t escape his absence.
I’d think about holding on for the dogs, like I would for an ailing spouse, but beyond that? Maybe it’s time for a new situation. Heck, my mom is 86 this year and she just bought a house and is renovating it to suit her.
n
You’ve got time to sleep on it and decide if it’s the right course or not.
Here’s my bittersweet farm story. The TL;DR is that I waited too long to sell. But your situation is unique to you.
My dad’s biggest wish was to live on a farm but on his terms, not as a farmer. We moved to the farm when I was 12 and it was my home base until I married at 20. It remained a part of my life because my mother lived there, and as she declined, I spent more and more time with her there. When she passed I bought the farm from the estate, my brother and sister. I think it was as much feeling responsible for the memory of the farm as it was enjoyment of it.
My kids were mostly grown when we moved there. Their attachment is primarily due to their grandmother. Looking back, my father died there, my mother died there, my marriage died there, my first career died there, after the divorce I couldn’t afford the upkeep for the ½ of the farm I kept. But I tried to keep it and keep up long after I should have let go. Eventually I threw in the towel and sold it, after my brother died and I had to sell other real estate anyway.
It was a tough decision, but ultimately the right one. I still dream of the place.
It’s on my mind right now because I’ll be visiting the ½ I didn’t get to keep for my son’s wedding at the end of October. The wedding is at his mother’s house, which was awarded to XW1 by the judge.
I probably still won’t visit the other ½ of the farm, that I lived on, even though I was invited. That’s my past, and it’s dead and gone.
Land is hard.
@paul
Tough choices. You need to do what is best for you.
Before you invest too much time thinking about it, I would suggest talking to someone locally who is familiar with local and state regulations. You have a house, and you have land. If it is currently one parcel, it may not need to be. Even if you do nothing, knowing what can be done is worth a bit of research.
@Paul
I bought a small (1620 sq ft) three bedroom, 2 bath house. One bedroom to sleep in, one as a guest bedroom or for my care giver when I need one near the end of my life, and one for my library. I use the dining room as my office. Two bathrooms so that if one fails I still have a bathroom (one sometimes equals none). Enough land that my neighbors are not on top of me. The house is in a quiet dead end (no through traffic) neighborhood just outside the city limits. No HOA. My son thinks I made a great purchase; it is one of the smaller homes and has gone up in value every year.
I added a 54×36 shop and finished the interior myself. You probably won’t do that but I’m still working on a race car – although at a pace that is much slower that it was when I started.
While you’re waiting for your dogs to pass on, locate a neighborhood or two that you like. When the time comes to move on you won’t feel rushed.
Tiny little fire finished.
Lots of aviation tonight. One general aviation jet, low and fast. One of the drone things, definitely at least two rotors at the wing tips, red and green marker lights like a drone. Same path as last night, mostly. Definite rotor sounds. One higher jet sound with a high pulsing whine as well, went by fast. One jet powered helo. Or rather turbine powered, I guess.
5 rounds in the middle distance. One, then 4 more, unhurried. No me gusta.
Having my snack, then shower and bed.
n