10:57 – It was 26.5F (-3C) when when I took Colin out around 0730 this morning. The forecast snow never showed up, at least here. It is snowing down in Winston-Salem. We’re still expecting snow over the next few days, but it may come to nothing.
We’ve pretty much taken the weekend off. Frances and Al came up around lunchtime on Friday and just left to drive back to Winston. We’ve had a nice, relaxing couple of days, except for Colin, who’s had four people to manage instead of just two.
If you need powdered eggs, I hope you got them ordered. Until Thursday or Friday, both Walmart and Amazon were selling 33-ounce #10 cans of Augason powdered eggs at $12.99 each. When I checked Friday night, they’d both doubled the price per can. I ordered four cans at $13, which we’ve received. I was thinking about ordering more at that price, which is probably less than cost, but with what we already had four more cans was sufficient.
Both Walmart and Amazon bounce their prices up and down frequently, often by large amounts. I suspect there’s something going on behind the scenes, with the two of them struggling to get/keep market share. The moral here is to know what a good price is, and when you see it, grab it.
Speaking of which, I’ve been trying for some time to order more 28-ounce cans of Keystone ground beef from Walmart, but they’re always out of stock. Amazon carries it, but at literally twice the price. Walmart was supposed to email me when they were back in stock, but they never have. Last night, I noticed they were back in stock at the regular $6.24/can price, so I added 24 cans to my shopping cart. When I tried to check out, it changed the quantity from 24 to one, with a note that they had only one can left in stock. As I said, when a vendor has something in stock at a good price, buy it. Don’t just add it to your cart with the intention of ordering it later. Buy it now.
* * * * *
I got mine! Hole filled.
Ordered and received the powdered cream and butter I linked yesterday. will be trying those soon.
This weekend I turned 51. Some days I feel decrepit beyond what my 25yo brain could imagine, some days I feel like I’m 8 or 10 yo inside.
The one thing that has been universal, the days and weeks FLY BY. In an eyeblink the day is gone, and the week has passed, and the month is in the rearview.
Prepping, a garden, and especially fruit trees are an assumption there will be a future. That’s a good counter to the doom I feel, I think.
nick
11 here right now and kinda sunny with no wind; back down to zero tonight and big snow coming Tuesday, they say.
…”the days and weeks FLY BY. In an eyeblink the day is gone, and the week has passed, and the month is in the rearview.”
Welcome to our world, sonny. As you get older, they really fly by.
Speaking for myself only; in addition to tempus fugit there is irreparably. Lately, and I catch myself doing this quite often, I think of past events in my life and times I could have made better choices, and also times I’ve hurt other people, either intentionally or accidentally. Then my thoughts glide right into what a rotten human bean I’ve been and a waste of life and oxygen for the past 60 years. From there it’s an easy segue into thoughts of death and the Last Things, quattuor novissima. Christian guilt, maybe? Not all of it; most is factually based; I did bad things and wish I hadn’t but now it’s too late.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programing of FLASHLIGHTS and TOILETS.
Finally collected a bunch of batteries, several FLASHLIGHTS, and a good first aid kit in a cabinet/table thing by our front door at the bottom of the stairs and showed wife the other day. Also got space cleared in the cellar so I can assemble shelving and build up the storage capability down there. And researched various water and power issues and solutions for same. Decided to ditch the security holster I’ve had for the CZ P09 as the serrated lever digs into the roll of flab around my waist and it’s too close to the hammer, even though it’s safely in the decock mode. It’s too easy for me to thumb back the hammer while going for that lever, which would mean I either have to fire it or hit the decock switch again. Fine at the range but in a stressful situation a risk I do not care to take, no matter how much of a fucked-up life I’ve led.
Well, just got my internet back.
Problem was not comcast, but instead was no power at my cable modem. Checking that turned out to be a dead wall wart. 2nd one dead this month. Good thing I buy them in common and uncommon voltages and connectors when I see them cheap (25c-$1)
Didn’t even have to dig thru a box, had the 12v, center +, common size wall wart right on the top of the pile. higher amperage rating so maybe a longer life.
Solved within 10 minutes of diagnosis due to having the parts on hand.
n
(probably 2 day wait for comcast to bring a new box or psu…)
Dad checking in. I am way behind in reading the Daynotes Journal so just a quick update on us all.
Confirmed Norovirus in all of us. Health Department traced to Five Guys. My Daughter spent 4 days in the hospital due to her kidney failure. Fortunately aggressive IV treatments and drugs (including morphine) got her kidneys’ back to working without having to go the dialysis route. We are still on a BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast) Diet with clear both and chicken noodle rice soup. Today we are going to try some mild solid food like baked chicken breast. I have never been so sick. This Norovirus makes the Flu or food poisoning look like a party.
The week has not been without other problems; problems with Social noSecurity and Medinocare. Then the property tax bill and annual irrigation assessment (tax) arrived. To top it all off the dishwasher died last night.
Hope you all are doing well and enjoying my lack of opinions. But wait, I have a lot of opinions built up, just you wait 😉
At least the parakeet has not lost his feathers.
Add: forgot to mention that our TOILETS have been getting a real workout and at times the kitchen sink when both bathrooms have been full.
Glad you are all feeling better, and that disaster was averted.
my 7yo tested neg for flu, but pos for strep, so she’s been sick with that. 5yo is still coughing occasionally but seems chipper, despite waking last night w/ slight fever.
I’m still feeling bad, but better than I should given that I got sick on Sun. Skipped the codone and not really coughing. Yea me. That’s an improvement. Still weak and shaky though. FEEL like I should be better off than I actually am, so I’m fighting to acknowledge the true state of the body.
Got a call to do a service visit for one of my really good customers. Can’t. Can’t drive that far or be awake that much right now. Maybe tomorrow, but then I’ve got 2 sick kids at home. I’m hoping to talk them thru getting back up and running. If you are in a service buisiness and you are hoarding knowledge, it will bite your ass eventually. Train your customers, train their first line support guys. At a minimum you’ll get better info when there is a problem, and there WILL come a time when you can’t make the truck roll, but you can still solve their problem. They are paying for, and counting on the problem getting solved. THAT’S what they’ll remember when it’s time to re-up the contract. Did you solve it when they needed you or not?
n
Very sorry to hear about all that mess, Mr. DadCooks; sounds like a real trial for you all; when it rains, it pours. Damn. And glad to hear you all are coming out of it with no one in real trouble anymore. Gratias autem Deo.
Five Guys, huh? Shit. There’s one in a strip mall just as I get off the interstate for my weekly trips to the vets group meetings and med appointments down in Burlap. Wife said they supposedly have astounding burgers and I’ve been meaning to slide over and check it out one of these weeks if the timing coincides with lunch pangs. Maybe not now.
” Did you solve it when they needed you or not?”
True dat, but when you’re incapacitated and a one-man band, you can’t be on-tap at 100%; no one can.
Glad also to hear you guys are coming out of it. Hope that chit don’t hit us up here. We’ve both had flu and shingles shots, but wife travels all over the country in nasty airplanes and through nasty terminals and quite often reports peeps there and in her classes as coughing and sneezing. Amazing we haven’t been sick more often; I haven’t caught her stuff most times; as SOON as I feel the slightest indication of some kinda chit, I rush to gobble massive Vitamin C quantities, eat like a pig and drink gallons of fluids. And so far I’ve escaped all but the very faintest of symptoms.
“Maybe not now.” ehh, anyone can have a bad day. When I was traveling, I was food poisoned an average of 5 times a year. Nice places, not so nice. Corporate hotels, LUXURY hotels, airplanes, [china], my favorite sushi place, all kinds of places.
It only takes one sick guy who doesn’t wash well, or one shipment of dirty lettuce.
Five Guys is good, but a lot of places are. End of the day, it’s just a burger.
n
We’ve been very lucky to avoid most illnesses. I hope all you guys get back to normal quickly.
Avoiding people will help avoid illness, but with kids everything will come to you. With kids in public school, every third world reservoir of disease will come to you too.
n
Another good reason to homeschool.
It only takes one sick guy who doesn’t wash well, or one shipment of dirty lettuce.
I suspect that in many of those cases I would get by unscathed. I grew up on a farm where our food supply was not exactly sterile. Produce from the garden that was fertilized with untreated manure from the barns, raw non-pasteurized milk from our own cow, beef from other farms that was local slaughter, drank water straight from the creek. Cuts and scrapes were wiped off, rinsed with creek water, bandage was applied and never got a serious infection. I suspect I was exposed to many pathogens and developed some immunity.
I see mothers today that when their kid drops a pacifier they immediately quarantine the device until they can boil it in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes. When I was young the thing was just picked up, large specks knocked off (sometimes) and stuffed back in my mouth. The liberal use of hand sanitizers is also contributing to a full generation with little exposure to pathogens in non-harmful quantities that allow the body to build up resistance.
In my opinion a clean food supply is good, a 100% sterile food supply not so much. People do not get resistance built up over time.
In the words of Colonel Samuel “Sam” Trautman I could probably eat things that would make a billy goat puke. Not that I would want to do so.
Then again I could be so far out of whack that I could qualify as a democrat.
When our kids were still in school, we got sick all the time, and had to go to work anyway, or one of us would have to stay home and take care of the kid/s, and we both used up all our sick days every year. And then some. Also most vay-cay days, now that I think of it. We’ve had maybe two or three one-week vacations since we got married.
“…I could be so far out of whack that I could qualify as a democrat.”
Oh jeepers, nooooooo! Of course by that standard, half the country is out of whack.
I’ve also built up a pretty good resistance to any food ailments, thanks to working for Uncle in SEA and again, like Mr. Ray says, during childhood nobody worried too much about it. Rinse whatever it is off and get back to it.
“Rub some dirt on it, cupcake, and get the fuck back out there!”
Just a couple of quick comments on others’ comments:
Five Guys usually does have great burgers, but on this last visit things just were not up to par from the get-go. Should have been a clue to walk out the door. But the damage might have been done with that first handful of peanuts that they have around for you to munch on while waiting. If I was to list my opinion of the person(s) and sources I would be committing a many microaggressions.
Norovirus is not killed by hand sanitizers. This link on the CDC website has some important points and a good refresher for all of us. What we consider normal strength bleach solutions is too weak.
https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/preventing-infection.html
So far today, knock on wood, everything is working normally for all of us. First time since last Tuesday.
BTW, when my Daughter was in the hospital she was in a total isolation room. Everyone who entered the room had to “suit up” and “de-con” when they left. For awhile she joked that she might have to come home in a “bubble”.
Hey, I need a new lightweight Windows laptop for my Princess. The wife and I promised her a new laptop for Christmas. I am thinking about “ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA-DBM2T 13.3 – inch Touchscreen Laptop (Intel Core M CPU,8 GB RAM,512 GB Solid State Drive,Windows 10)” for $689. I like the 512 GB SSD and 8 GB of ram.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA-DBM2T-13-3/dp/B01GHQOD8U/
Anyone know of any downsides here ?
Confirmed Norovirus in all of us. Health Department traced to Five Guys. My Daughter spent 4 days in the hospital due to her kidney failure. Fortunately aggressive IV treatments and drugs (including morphine) got her kidneys’ back to working without having to go the dialysis route. We are still on a BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast) Diet with clear both and chicken noodle rice soup. Today we are going to try some mild solid food like baked chicken breast. I have never been so sick. This Norovirus makes the Flu or food poisoning look like a party.
Excellent news ! Now you get to stress out with the insurance people. You might want to invest in a biting stick.
Got the business federal income taxes completed Friday. Started work on the personal federal income taxes yesterday. Got far enough to determine that we are getting a refund ! I am so happy. It is the little things that matter nowadays, especially when my income is so variable.
I am so glad that we do not have state income taxes here in The Great State of Texas. I am so paper worked now that anything else would want me to commit Harakiri.
“Anyone know of any downsides here ?”
Windows 10
“You might want to invest in a biting stick.”
And learn Zen Buddhist meditative practice.
” I am so paper worked now that anything else would want me to commit Harakiri”
aka “seppuku”
Indeed. Better to make those bastards commit it.
Having been in the restaurant business, I know that Norovirus is very serious. It’s relatively hard to kill, easy to spread, and it takes only a very few individual virus particles to make a human sick. Alas, all too many restaurant employees don’t wash their hands completely and of course the management can’t follow them into the restroom to inspect. The health inspectors actually would watch the employees’ handwashing procedures. Too many employees refuse to say “Boss, I’ve got a touch of stomach trouble and diarrhea” because they’re afraid they’ll get sent home, and too many managers don’t worry enough about contamination from their employees. Honestly, however, personal hygiene isn’t as big a threat as food coming in the back door pre-contaminated or as cross contamination.
Lightweight?? At $700?
Chromebook baby.
https://www.google.com/chromebook/find/
even less used.
n
“Anyone know of any downsides here ?”
No downsides that I find. The current price of $698.00 is the lowest price it has been at since Amazon started to carry it 278 days ago (information source https://keepa.com/, this is a great price tracker).
The normal clock speed of the CPU is 0.90 GHz. (But it turbos to over 2 GHz!) I suspect those two things offset each other. It seems to be a good machine. It is a 13.3″ Full HD screen, and I’m still getting used to how small things are on a 15.6″ Full HD screen.
Five Guys usually does have great burgers, but on this last visit things just were not up to par from the get-go. Should have been a clue to walk out the door. But the damage might have been done with that first handful of peanuts that they have around for you to munch on while waiting. If I was to list my opinion of the person(s) and sources I would be committing a many microaggressions.
Didn’t WA State recently up the minimum wage to above $10?
Ground zero of Chipotle’s problems was the restaurant in Vantucky (Vancouver, WA) not far from where we used to live. Cleanliness at the chains seems to be where the management cuts corners whenever labor costs go up and even pushing a mop is a $10/Hr position.
Anyone know of any downsides here ?
Nothing I can think of, but max out the memory before DDR3 gets expensive.
Kaby Lake (7th gen) moves mainstream Intel to DDR4.
Also, dump Windows 10 and put Mint on it.
But do the Crucial Scan or Kingston Scan first to ascertain RAM upgrade specs.
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/reality-2/
There it is.
When the Grid goes down, it’s back to manual typewriters, sneakerNET and the Pony Express.
Also: Finding out who yer neighbors are. As they find out about you. Face-to-face.
Somebody mentioned IQ?
http://fredoneverything.org/in-search-of-the-super-race-the-six-percent-solution/
The usual plethora of typos and one really unfortunate one. I wish Fred or somebody would hire a copy editor.
“Something called the Alt-Right that believes the white race to be superior and wants to rid the country of of encroaching dark scum. The Human Biodiversity movement, HBD, more scientific and less surly but picking whites while conceding that yellow are smarter. Finally IQists, who believe that IQ is a reliable measure of genetic intelligence. They too put yellows as more intelligent.”
Someone also mentioned “Christian Mercenary” and his blog.
https://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2017/03/waiting-and-prepared.html
“We have been led along this path, brought to Marxism gently, step by step, but now the whole beast is visible. Of course, I don’t expect anything to come of it, we are settled now in our Marxism. References to the Constitution have been almost laughable for a long time, at least since the Patriot Act was passed. As a Constitutionalist, that is difficult for me to admit, because I still believe in the ideals espoused within, but there is no interest in enforcing those ideals. Because the only way to enforce them now is with a rope and a lamppost.”
There is no way that National Administrator tRump can pull this off. So we will come, at some point, to a national reboot. And it’s likely to be ugly and violent.
OK…we’ve covered IQ. How about ID???
https://masondixontactical.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/so-lets-talk-about-the-states-and-federal-compliance/
Give the bastards an inch and they’ll always take the mile.
Like all the Left activists of the past half-century.
Oh what the hell, yet another post and link; somebody else mentioned seppuku?
http://www.unz.com/tsaker/the-empire-should-be-placed-on-suicide-watch/
We should know pretty soon this year what route tRump is gonna take. And make our plans accordingly, because one way or another, the Murkan Empire is going down.
Regarding the price of eggs, two counties in Tennessee showed up in the news with bird flu on chicken farms…
I’m still getting used to how small things are on a 15.6″ Full HD screen
That causes problems with some software that does not understand high density screens on small devices. Had issues with several programs on my Surface when print was much too tiny, some dialog boxes had fonts that were too large, and some that had information that was off the screen. Some could be fixed with a manifest file, others required updates. Adobe products have display size options but the choice is either too small or too large (typical Adobe, knows better than us what we want).
Also, dump Windows 10 and put Mint on it.
I would keep W10 and see how it goes first. On a device that is designed to run W10 with current drivers W10 does OK. You have already paid for W10 when you purchase the device so use the OS. Don’t introduce yourself to potential problems installing a different OS. Drivers and configurations may become a very real problem.
I have never had a major issue with my Surface. Sometimes the Surface mouse loses it’s feedback click but resetting the mouse fixes that so I think it is a problem in the mouse.
I also do not know how well Mint will handle scaling on high resolution displays. It may be worse than some of the software that runs under W10.
I am becoming more un-caring about the OS. I just need something that does what I want to get done. W10, OS/X, IOS, I really don’t care anymore.
two counties in Tennessee showed up in the news with bird flu on chicken farms
That is like freeze warnings in Florida. Serves to jack up the price of the product already in the supply chain. I am under the impression that some of this is to create artificial shortages to increase the price.
“Didn’t WA State recently up the minimum wage to above $10?”
Minimum wage in WA State is $11.00/hr, but in Seattle it is $13.50/hr. this year and will be $15.00/hr. in 2018. Employers are also required to provide employees with paid sick leave. In Seattle the actual current prevailing minimum is $15.00/hr. and East of the Cascades it is $14.00.
As the pay and benefit requirements on employers become more onerous I see a big change occurring behind the counter at fast food joints and restaurants; until the robots take over the folks doing these jobs will more and more be of questionable quality and citizenship.
BTW, the effort required to get a Food Service Worker (FSW) License is a real joke these days. Long long ago I got a FSW License so I could work my church’s food booth at the County Fair, it was an 8 hour classroom class with a written test and oral test in English only. Today it is an online course that takes an hour and is available in several languages. The real bad change is that it used to be if you worked in a food serving establishment you had to have a FSW License. Now you only have to have an FSW License if you “prepare” food. So that “clerk” handing your burger has no clue as to food safety, neither does the busboy or dishwasher.
In Florida, any time a restaurant is open you’re supposed to have someone present who has a Certified Professional Food Manager ticket. Sadly, this is trivial to get; sit through a lecture in the morning, break for lunch, pass an insultingly easy test in the afternoon. All the other restaurant employees have to have a Serv Safe ticket. This is an even easier test, graded then & there and signed off on by the CPFM holder. The first thing the health inspectors want to see when they hit the door is the CPFM’s license. Usually they want to see that everyone else’s Serv Safe tickets are up to date, so you have to maintain those records. What really matters is that the management actually cares enough to enforce all the rules. Check that proper temperatures are being maintained in hot & cold areas, surfaces are disinfected as necessary, hands are washed often and properly, etc. Pro tip: Next time you go in a restaurant, look for nail polish, false fingernails, and finger rings on the servers. All are forbidden, except a single plain band with no stone for a ring.
I’m still getting used to how small things are on a 15.6″ Full HD screen
That causes problems with some software that does not understand high density screens on small devices. Had issues with several programs on my Surface when print was much too tiny, some dialog boxes had fonts that were too large, and some that had information that was off the screen. Some could be fixed with a manifest file, others required updates. Adobe products have display size options but the choice is either too small or too large (typical Adobe, knows better than us what we want).
This is an incredible problem with software developers. I use a 125% scaling on my 27 inch LG monitor at home. All of the dialogs on all of my software have scaling issues. Except for MS apps and the newest TurboTax which have apparently transitioned to self scaling dialogs.
Our software that we make does not have scaling dialogs yet. This is a lot of work to change !
Having the SSD as the boot drive will speed things up considerably. And reduce the wear/tear on the spinning “D” drive, where you store only your data.
My HP laptop with SSD takes about 5 seconds to ‘wake up’. A full boot takes under 30 seconds. And is much quieter; I only hear the hard disk spin when I am saving something to the data (D) drive.
And, no problems with Win10. Just works for me. All of the apps I’ve tried (including the DOS version of Mrs. Pournelles Reading program) work just fine.
I removed the AV that came with the computer, and installed Sophos AV software (free for home use). In fact, I used a ‘mover’ program to move all of my apps from my prior laptop to the new one. All apps worked just fine on the new system.
RickH,
You have access to a DOS Version of Mrs. P’s reading program. From before the no longer available Windows version? I always thought that program was cool, although I’ve never seen it. I would have liked to see what my daughter would do with the program, not that she has any reading difficulties, just that she’s five and learning. Sadly it’s no longer available.
What is this “booting” you speak of? Are you guys not running Linux?
I was wondering that myself; “booting?” Isn’t that what we wanna do to most of Congress, SCOTUS and the various WH administrations?
And if anyone is gobsmacked about how fast Winblows runs on a SSD, try it with Linux.
Maybe they meant how fast W10 is “looting” you.
@Dave: Yes, I’ve convinced Dr. P. to let me try to update the program to a web-based thing. Been working on it for a while. Got Lesson 1 done (with all of the framework underneath it). Uses the text-to-speech function built into modern browsers. Working on the login process at the moment.
Have written the conversion program to take the 80 lessons (about 3600 instructions) into a database table.
After I finish the login/authentication process, will be putting those 80 lessons into the program, then tweaking each of the lessons (80) and the instructions (3600). Then build the rest of the web site (supporting pages, ‘purchase’ page, etc).
Have a demo that the “Chaos Advisors’ have access to. Not quite ready to show the demo yet. But will be looking for beta testers that will use the demo pages (the first lesson). Will announce beta test program here.
And need to finalize the back-end details with Dr. P. (pricing, revenue sharing, etc).
Glad to hear something is being done with the program. I think that Mrs. P’s program is very cool. I wrote Jerry months ago to ask if I could do something to modernize the program, but never heard back. Although I am sure Jerry gets deluged with email from non subscibers.
I would be very curious to see what my daughter would do with the beta test.