Cold today, but dry. I need the Christmas decor to finish drying out so I can get it down before the HOA sends their nastygram…
Which is but one of my tasks for the day. The others are pickups and continued cleanup at my secondary. ( Pickups are some preps, but also stuff to move along the bathroom remodel, because life goes on, even as the country melts down around us.)
Didn’t do much yesterday. I was really tired and not feeling well so I napped in the late morning instead of doing productive work. I felt much better after. I did get some small things done in between hitting reload on the news and waiting for the other jackboot to drop. It’s like 2021 turned to 2020 and said “Hold my beer…” and we’re barely started. It can get oh so much worse too. I don’t hold out much hope for ‘better’. Not for FBI certified home grown extremist potential domestic terrorists like me and most of my friends anyway. We’re in for a world of hurt.
Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on yesterday’s trial. Well, wrt specifically writing the prepping guide, one chapter at a time, consensus seems to be “not as a regular thing” and “not necessarily in that format.”
Which is cool, as that was why I asked. The audience here is far past the basic levels of prepping. I still feel the need to at least organize the beginning stuff, so I’ll try some more stuff later.
One of the things I thought I might try doing instead is writing an article for survivalblog- because, PRIZES!
There were two ideas I was considering. One would be turning my posts about my visit to the Plymoth Colony last summer into an article. The theme would maybe touch on the complete lack of preparation for the endeavor on the part of the colonists, or maybe the lack of flexibility that let them starve while the native population had so much food they could make art. I can’t find a great hook to hang the article on though.
The other might be a bit more timely, and would be something about “what I learned about the power and tools available to the state in the form of local LEOs by listening to the scanner.” That risks getting into subversive territory, a handbook to partisans… which might be just what is needed for that matter, but IDK how the audience over there would react.
A third article could put yesterday’s comments into more coherent form, and cover how to set up a listening station and some lessons learned from monitoring…
My first loyalty is to this place, but hey- PRIZES! Long form articles take much more time and attention and editing than my usual casual posts to a receptive and friendly audience.
For some perspective, I looked at my posts for the last couple of weeks and an ‘ordinary’ post- something to just get the conversation started each day- usually ends up being around 500 words. A post where I have something to say, or a specific goal, those tend to be around 800 words long. And a fully developed but still short, topical post runs to ~1200 words. Something more long form would probably run 1500-2500 words and is not something I do here regularly. I spent a couple of hours on yesterday’s post and it was 1200 words iirc. AND THEN the BEST discussion happened there in the comments about scanners! Nothing to do with the post! But that is the great part about the ‘conversation’ here, you never know where it will lead.
FWIW, since we’re coming up on the unhappy anniversary, and I’m being all meta and introspective, I’ve done about 1113 posts since Bob got sick, call it average of 600 – 750 words, so I’ve written about 650K to 850K words here in posts alone. That’s kinda a lot. 6-10 novels worth. Add about the same in comments, as that was where I wrote most of my words outside of posts, especially in the beginning. 7500 comments would have to average 100 words each or just total to 700 words over the day. Call it 10-16 full length novels in 3 years. 1.3M – 1.6M words. Holy cow I’m glad my wife doesn’t read the blog.
Although, thinking about it, I wrote a fair number of those comments in the years before Bob passed- so spread the novels out over a couple of more years. Balanced against that, I used to write a fair number of comments elsewhere too. 10s of thousands of words about prepping and ham radio on just a couple of other blogs, for example. I did manage to reuse and recycle some of that, when I could find it again. That is the beauty of working with Intellectual Property, reuse and recycle, and everything old is new again!
It is immensely satisfying to be part of what we’ve continued to build here and to keep the conversation going.
Now I better go do something constructive before I start picking lint out of this belly button I’ve been staring into.
Start stacking. Keep stacking.
nick
(843 words according to WP, 864 according to the tool I downloaded.)
FWIW, since we’re coming up on the unhappy anniversary, and I’m being all meta and introspective, I’ve done about 1113 posts since Bob got sick, call it average of 600 – 750 words, so I’ve written about 650K to 850K words here in posts alone. That’s kinda a lot. 6-10 novels worth. Add about the same in comments, as that was where I wrote most of my words outside of posts, especially in the beginning. 7500 comments would have to average 100 words each or just total to 700 words over the day. Call it 10-16 full length novels in 3 years. 1.3M – 1.6M words. Holy cow I’m glad my wife doesn’t read the blog.
Don’t forget the OFD laptop project timesink.
I still have that machine around somewhere.
“Don’t forget the OFD laptop project timesink.”
–yes, but like this, a labor of love.
n
29F when I went to bed. 27F when I got up. 28F atm…
I got so involved in the belly button lint, I forgot to relate my dinner story.
Baked frozen fish, canned corn, and canned collard greens. Previously the collard greens cans were damaged by rat p!ss, but I cleaned them up and resolved to treat them as ‘suspect’ but still I’m not one to throw out food… and there has been some discussion of bad cans over at CZ’s and Aesops.
Can one, still under vacuum, but rusty rim. Dumped it in the pan and rinsed the can to inspect it carefully. Sure enough, dark spot on the inside corresponded to heavy rust outside. Wasn’t quite thru, but still, not gonna chance it. Dump the pan in the trash, wash thoroughly before re-use. Can two, less visible rust. Still under vacuum. Contents into a bowl while inspecting can.. Interior of can pristine, ok to put in new clean pan and to embellish with saute’d onions, bacon crumbles, a squirt of sweet japanese rice vinegar, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and 20 minutes of simmering. Delicious. Even got unsolicited complement on the dish.
Best by on both cans was in 2018.
This is still grid up, so ‘when in doubt, throw it out’. But use your brains too.
Check for vacuum. Check for can integrity. Check for unusual color or odor. Boil, don’t just re-heat. Enjoy 2021.
n
It is a big club, and you aren’t in it.
Subcontinent surnames doing the dirty work. I’m shocked. Shocked!
Holmes probably isn’t headed for a fitting at the orange suit tailor’s, however. Men still want to have sex with her, and that probably includes the prosecuting attorneys.
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/theranos_database_loss/
This is not going to end well.
—I also note the suggestion that deaths were FROM the rally. As far as we know, one was a heart attack, one a stroke, one an unarmed female shot by COPS, one accidentally trampled in a crowd, and a cop was attacked by someone in the crowd. Only one of those is rightly included in the implied total. Next week they’ll be including the suicide… and note the use of plural of “riot”.
n
Wow, that was weird. I hit reload and timed out. All my internet was down, with error messages I’ve not seen before,
and then it was all back up.
had me nervous for a sec…
n
Despite the current propaganda at Daily Mail, they do usually get the truth thru.
Like in this article
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9138341/Desperate-young-Venezuelans-flock-OnlyFans-survive-economic-crisis.html
–even online pron gets outsourced to low cost countries.
n
So Trump is being cut off by banks now. Yes, he’s the left’s #1 target right now, but how long before attention is turned towards lesser targets?
hmmmm….
Bank loans personally guaranteed by Donald Trump, i.e. no collateral, but backed by his name and reputation.
Bank doing everything they can to destroy said name and reputation, as well as his ability to do business.
Be interesting to see the loan docs, but it sounds like a tort to me.
I just checked the German press. The woman who handled Trump’s account retired at the end of 2020 – she had announced this back in November or so. Apparently, this is the triggering event – I suspect that the timing is more unfortunate coincidence than anything else. She had probably made Trump into her personal project, and now that she’s going, well…
The big loans are all business loans for resorts and hotels – exactly the kind of stuff that Corona has hit hard. They are additionally secured with his private wealth, but there are some concerns. I’m no expert, but I imagine that he is personally heavily invested in his own businesses, which are…hotels and resorts.
In any case, the loans aren’t due until 2023 and 2024. Unless Deutsche Bank sells the loans to someone else (which seems…difficult), nothing is going to happen any time soon.
nothing is going to happen any time soon.
So, grandstanding?
N
Local internet down again
First they came for Orangemanbad….
They’re already coming for the rest of us, we just don’t know it yet.
n
Back up locally, more weirdness.
zerohedge didn’t initially reload. ff gave a ‘not a secure connection’ don’t go there message. I just reloaded again, and it came up fine.
n
CloudFlare issues, possibly.
What’s a good daily dosage. Asking for a friend…
https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Houston&state=TX&country=USA
Obligatory reference…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KtAgAMzaeg
Which reminds me of my favorite one liner: “How’s it going Mr. Peterson?”
“It’s a dog eat dog world, Woody & I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear.”
This is good info for an article. Maybe get Mr. SteveF to edit it and post for $$. Then start a tag here for prepping articles.
I need to dig out my Po Fungs and fire up CHIRP, again. All radios are in a box in SA. Vegas vacay is over and Twins and I heading back to SA on Monday. It’s gonna be great to be in a house again.
Regarding vitamin D-3, I bought these https://amzn.to/35yAdrq , and take one 5000 IU gelcap each day. Along with a Centrum Silver equivalent multivitamin each day.
Not always sunny up here in my corner of WA. And I don’t get outside much, so no direct sunlight on my skin. Last visit to the doc said that most people in this area are probably vitamin D deficient, and the above dosage couldn’t hurt. Vitamin D is good for the immune system, he said, and other studies have agreed with that.
Speaking of San Antonio.
Wife is heading back on the 26th to deal with more MIL issues regarding the house. Wife will fly out of Atlanta, change in Nashville, then on to SA. Was cheaper than catching the flight in Nashville. Wife made the reservations. Difference in price was $30.00. I told the wife that driving 6 hours round trip versus 9 hours round trip easily negates the $30.00.
I will drive her to Atlanta on the 25th, stay with friends, dump her at the airport early in the morning, and get back on the 26th in time for a disability exam for the VA on hearing loss. I get disability for tinnitus, but not for hearing loss. Even though the hearing aids are for hearing loss. The hearing loss is also shown as service connected. The VA has some funny matrix that some hearing loss is OK and something about difference between ears. It is a crazy system.
For MIL she wants to move into a facility. Wife will be in the house to help her get rid of years of accumulation and sell some stuff. Then more looking at the facilities available. MIL is concerned about money. She has $500K in cash (certificates mostly). Facility is $4K a month. I keep telling her she has enough money for 10 years and she is not going to live 10 years. But she still balks. I inform her that it is her money, don’t save the money for inheritance, spend it on herself. But she is from the generation that saved everything and spending a dime was only after careful consideration.
In my opinion the MIL really needs to get into an adult living facility. She is too old and too frail at this point to be living alone.
MIL will also probably have surgery while the wife is there to adjust a mechanical heart valve. Thus wife may be in SA for several weeks. She will call me and let me know when to arrive and I will make the two day journey driving by myself. That will be for the final packing and moving of MIL.
Thus I will be in SA sometime in the middle of February I am guessing. Will be a long drive solo. I could do it in one day, 16 hours, did that once, never doing it again if I can avoid doing so.
–from some random dood at Aesop’s comment section.
From Aesop DESCRIBING what they do at his shop
—not medical advice, never take anything without consulting a physician, etc.
n
Definitely an uptick in numbers but not overwhelming Again, my patients are not dying. Different strain in Florida than California? Perhaps that explains our different experiences.
Different in what way? Florida and Texas fatality numbers, as reflected in the 7 day average of reported deaths, are down significantly.
Local Faux News and Travis County were scaring the h*ll out of people again last night, showing the file footage of the “Mad Max”-style medical contingency facility set up in the Austin Convention Center since March and officials talking up the possibility of opening the ward.
We really mean it this time…
The footage/commentary accompanied a story on Central Texas restaurants being restricted on occupancy again because of hospital numbers.
Unfortunately, local Faux News has decent weather people … when they aren’t baked.
I’m playing with browser cookies.
I have four exceptions. This site, frostbank.com, http://www.frostbank.com, and facebook.com.
The bank cookies are so I don’t have to do the “register your browser” bother.
Now, facebook is interesting. If I delete their cookie, they send a text to my phone with a number. Which is awesome when the phone is at the other end of the house. Not.
I had an exception for https://facebook.com. With that when I open the browser I usually had the choice to click my picture or click the log-in button on the right. Usually I was just logged in.
I deleted the https exception cookie. Facebook knows my browser so no dinking with text messages. I have to log-in after closing the browser but Firefox remembers. Maybe this stops their tracking? Shrug.
On maps it is “San Antonio”.
On Country and Western songs it is: “San Antone”.
Facebook requires ‘two factor authentication’ (‘2FA’). So if you delete your FB cookies, FB doesn’t know who you are when you try to log in again. So, you enter your FB user/pass, FB sends you a numeric code to your phone number on your FB account, you enter the code, and you are authenticated. And a cookie is written to your local computer so it knows who you are the next time you log in.
This is common practice, and 2FA is
recommended for sites.
I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with the Boy Zuck and his minions. The sole exception is WhatsApp, and I’m about to quit that, certainly before the 8th February, because slurp.
G.
Fired … for spilling the beans early.
https://www.rt.com/usa/512321-project-veritas-trump-reeducation-camps/
I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with the Boy Zuck and his minions. The sole exception is WhatsApp, and I’m about to quit that, certainly before the 8th February, because slurp.
I couldn’t uninstall WhatsApp from my Android phone a few years ago when I had the app installed briefly to experiment.
A big problem with Signal, or ProtonMail, or any end-to-end encryption communication system would be the existence of key loggers.
I think you have to assume they are present on anything running Windows, OS X, iOS, or Android.
So what’s the difference between deprogramming and re-education?
Am I the only smart phone user on the planet who still has SMS totally disabled?
This has been a minor inconvenience for 2FA, but I prefer email for the second authentication. I have special addresses set up for such. I doubt this is any better from a security standpoint, but it makes me feel better.
Patch Tuesday reminder:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-releases-windows-10-builds-19042746-183631316—heres-whats-new
A code from the code generator on a phone can also be used rather than a text message.
I use 2FA for many sites, especially my financial sites. Some of them do not support 2FA, such as my credit union. I have sent letters to the CEO asking that implement 2FA as soon as possible. Sites that I visit using APPs on my iPhone are done with biometric recognition. Face ID on the iPhone, finger print on the iPad.
The phone, a Nokia 7 Plus, goes out of software support in March, so even if it doesn’t uninstall from this phone, it will not be on the replacement. I am definitely leaving WhatsApp, that’s a given. I’ll be on Telegram once the uninstall (or retirement) is done.
G.
Totally never thought about doing so. I use it like “quicky e-mail” and the CU sends my balance every week. My bank doesn’t use SMS.
As for using e-mail for the 2nd authentication, I prefer that. However, if someone is on my PC while I’m not home, the phone is in my pocket.
Texas has about 50% of the shipped doses into arms. The number of injections per day is increasing and is now outstripping the shipping rate. The Texas Medical Center hospitals in Houston seem to have finished vaccinating staff and their group practices have started injections of patients 65+ and those with comorbidities. The cities and counties are setting up mass vaccination sites. If a bolus of doses gets released, it looks like there will be ways for people to get shots. (No 51 question with 8 uploads of scanned documents here, unlike NYC.)
I’m weening off. No one posts much more than “jesus saves” and “crappy recipes”. Oh, and pictures of kids and dogs and cats.
Why be there at all? FarmVille. What can I say? It was fun. It’s gone… no more Flash.
You are definitely not alone:
https://www.neowin.net/news/telegram-now-has-more-than-500-million-active-users
Am I the only smart phone user on the planet who still has SMS totally disabled?
I’m not a big SMS user, but it is enabled.
Realize that SMS has zero expectation of privacy and does not require a warrant. The messaging rides on diagnostic packets which have a much lower burden of proof to obtain.
It definitely feels like the cattle have been herded towards the chute when it comes to instant messaging and email. Again, for all the grief they caught, AOL had a much higher expectation of privacy with their mail and chat services back before Yahoo took over.
I used AOL IM almost exclusively until the moment Microsoft pulled the plug on the TMobile Sidekick service.
As the frog boils…
both are already instantiated in “public education” and the institutions of “higher learning”
how do you think we got here?
I wrote this yesterday:
“The Feds should just announce that the shipment rate will be adjusted to send more to the states that are getting their people vaccinated, and less to the rest “until they catch up”. “
I saw part of an interview with Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Fox News earlier this evening. (I can’t find it online yet). At the very end, he makes a statement about prioritizing more supplies to states that use theirs up.
Be interesting to hear the excuses from Fredo’s uglier brother as NY falls further and further behind.
Well, mischief managed. Home and fed. Traffic was really light today. Kinda worried me. And the flags at half staff def had me wondering.
Scored a new in box whole house instant hot water heater for half price. That has been on the list for literal years.
got 3 cases of 4 oz bottles of hand sanitizer, and 2 gallons of refill. It smells like liquor.
n
Tues. Jan. 12, 2021 – 01122021
20210112 for some. Sorts in chron order.
“
–could this sound more like a coup or usurpation of legal power?
n
Re Prepping:
I’m 75 and have “Do not resuscitate” documents in place. I live alone – my son lives 5 miles and 12 minutes away. I have lived here less than two years and hope to have a 54×36 shop up this Spring.
My health is fair with my stamina allowing me to work for 6 hours or so – up from to hours a year ago. I did clear the land for the shop.
I have food for thirty days or so, a 5000 watt generator with gas for two days of continuous use maybe a weeks worth of gas top keep the refrigerator running longer if I tap into the three vehicle gas tanks that I keep over half full. I also have a couple of guns I haven’t shot in many years and a box or two of shells. I haven’t found any more to buy at less that a $2 a round locally since I moved here. I do plan to increase the amount to food, etc., I have on hand. Bugging out is not an option.
I think I want to do more but then what’s the point in a longer term problem. My medicines will run out in thirty to sixty days and Tricare (I’m retired military) WILL NOT let me stock pile any. Without them I get uncomfortable in just over a day.
I’m not complaining. This is just to provide a perspective on the prepping issue.
Bob
–could this sound more like a coup or usurpation of legal power?
The “football” always travels with the President until he isn’t the President. Carrying the football is a plum assignment for a high ranking officer. A friend’s uncle carried it for Bush 41 IIRC and went on to command a carrier.
The Daily Mail will soon be in the position of having to recoup the cost of the lawsuit settlement with the Trump family without the Trump family for source material to sell papers
So what’s the difference between deprogramming and re-education?
ECT? 😛
@Alan
https://aqicn.org/city/australia/western/south-lake
So… even cheese has become “woke”.
Coon Cheese is to be rebranded in Australia to Cheer after a campaign by activists against the word’s racist connotations.
The well-known brand, which has been around for more than 80 years, will disappear from shelves in July.
The cheese is owned by Canada’s Saputo Dairy Australia which announced last year it would “retire” the name.
Coon is historically used as a racist slur, and Aboriginal groups have lobbied for its rebranding for decades.
It is one of a number of brands to face pressure to rebrand following last year’s Black Lives Matter movement.
“The name Cheer has the significance of pleasure and joy,” said Saputo’s chief executive Lino Saputo in a statement, adding that it spent more than six months deliberating over the new name.
The cheese got its original name from American pioneering cheese maker Edward William Coon who patented a ripening process in the 1920s.
In November, global food giant Nestle made a similar move to stamp out some of their Australian product names after they were deemed offensive.
It said Redskins and Chicos lollies will be changed to Red Ripper and Cheekies, saying the original names were now “out of step” with the company’s values.
Let the HEELING & CHEESING begin.. h/t MrAtoz
Cheekies
Really?!!!!!!!1111!!!1111!!!! Couldn’t they have tried harder? 🙂
“So what’s the difference between deprogramming and re-education? ”
–whether they’re talking to insiders or outsiders.
n
Robert V Sprowl… This is just to provide a perspective on the prepping issue.
You provide an excellent perspective. Prepping is different for each of us. I have thought about what life might be like without the modern conveniences, and might not want to live very long that way, even if I could. We don’t talk much about prepping other than in the physical domain.
Jay’s Potato Chips were a long time Chicago staple until they got bought or driven under…
But iirc before WWII they were called “Japs” Potato Chips.
Had a short conversation with the cashier at Goodwill about Mark Twain and whether it should be bowdlerized. Despite being visibly hispanic, his opinion was never. The black sheriff’s deputy standing nearby stepped in to move me out the door after a couple of minutes though…could have just been that it was closing time. Coulda. It’s fairly difficult to find an unedited and unabridged Twain in the used stores. My feeling is the reader (esp. my readers) should be smart and detached enough to read something like an author known for his mastery of language, with out going out and burning crosses in front of people’s homes. How do you know how far you’ve come if you never are allowed to see where you started? And how is it art if you are willing to vandalize it? And, what is the point of studying the master of colloquial english humor, if you aren’t going to read HIS words?
n
(steveF must be busy today)
“We don’t talk much about prepping other than in the physical domain. ”
–an excellent point and now, blogfodder!
n
Just remind me again in a couple of days.
@alan, thanks for the air quality link. Saved me a bunch of time. Funny thing, I know there is another AQM station and there was a guy working in a panel box inside the fence when I drove by today, but it’s not on the interactive map. I wonder if it’s another agency that doesn’t share.
Or if it’s sniffing for something else as it’s right next to the freeway.
n
A code from the code generator on a phone can also be used rather than a text message.
That was new to me, so I looked it up. Hmm. Seems to be a function of the site that has 2FA, so if they don’t allow this it won’t work.
When I set up a new Microsoft account recently, at first it appeared that SMS was required for the second factor unlike in the past. Some searching found that email was still an option, but it wasn’t obvious.
I should have explained that when I originally set up my AT&T cell phone account, I asked the company to completely disable SMS, and they appeared to. A year or two later, it reappeared magically. I knew because my wife (same carrier) received some MMS messages that cost her. These costs were very small, but still it annoyed me. Yes, I could have changed to a different set of options on my account, or I could have complained, but I was busy and ignored it. Later, she had other problems with SMS, so I simply disabled the built-in app. I have no idea if a sender gets some notification that the message was not received, but she doesn’t care. Apparently they don’t because some of her friends have told her she didn’t respond to a text. She tells them she doesn’t see them, and to send her email. I don’t know if she would have charges for MMS messages, but there haven’t been any charges for a few years. I do need to review and update the service options.
I use it [SMS] like “quicky e-mail” and the CU sends my balance every week.
Oooh, I would not want that. It is bad enough that a couple of my billers (a credit card and the electric company) send me emails with my balance in them when they acknowledge my payments. I have complained, but one of them said the emails are part of my auto pay setup and can’t be turned off. I countered that I just want them to not put the payment amount in the email, but that fell on deaf ears.
It amazes me that some in the business world still think email is private. Of course, it could be, but they don’t support that. Arrrgh!
It doesn’t really matter what you use for 2FA – anything at all will stop 99% of attacks. And the remaining 1% are unlikely to be directed against ordinary folk, because intercepting an SMS or an Email is a lot more difficult that guessing “1234” as someone’s password.
What these idiots don’t get: just about every word is an insult to someone, somewhere.
Just as an example: WTF is up with watermelons being associated with black people? I grew up in Texas and NM, and the only association I know about watermelons is that they are nice to eat on a hot summer’s day. I refuse to avoid watermelons (either eating them or talking about them) just because some idiot somewhere wants to tie them to race.
Here, there’s a traditional chocolate product called a Mohrenkopf. Which translates to “Moor’s head”, which snowflakes intentionally mistranslate to n!ggerhead. Every few years, there is a passionate, heartfelt campaign to force the company to change the name. Unfortunately for the snowflakes, the company is owned and run by a no-bullshit hard-ass, and he tells the snowflakes where they can stuff their sensitivity.
Amusingly, after every snowflake campaign, his sales go through the roof. Lots of people appreciate him for standing up to the idiocy.
Whew, 2-1/2 hours shoveling snow, and lots more to go. To make it more fun, we’re expecting as much again tonight, and again tomorrow, and again on Sunday.
It probably wasn’t actually more than about 1 foot of snow, but we’re on a hillside, it was windy while snowing, and apparently our hillside was the “drift” side. It’s not under a foot anywhere, and drifts are probably 3 times that. Can’t say I’m not getting exercise 🙂
The town offers a service, where they will clear your driveway. I figured I’d see how it is for a year, and talk to them about this for next year. The problem may be: Our driveway is supported on the downhill side with a – dunno what you call this in english – a rough stone wall built of piled up boulders. The top row sticks out over the asphalt, and I worry that a snowplow would dislodge them.
Are you up late or up early?
When does today turn into tomorrow?
During the day, the usual: being a one-man operations team for the company while trying to do some programming around the requests and maintenance chores and meetings (god forbid any meetings be cut down) (especially status meetings to ask what the holdup is) and at the same time keep the mother-in-law from burning down the house, flooding the house, or leaving the outside doors open when she goes out or comes in. In the evening, keep an eye on Grandma and make the teenage nuisance do homework and eat and, really, do anything other than Minecraft and social media. It’s an unending joy, except for the joy part.
Ah, meetings… Back in the day, soon after I started at my last employer (is it really 30 years ago?) I was asked to take part in the development and testing of a transmission automation system to handle one channel (we were transmitting 3 channels feeom the same building at the time, with space for a 4th). Part of the tasking was minute-keeper for the daily status meetings, which normally ran about 40 minutes.
My minutes normally ran to most of 2 sides of A4, in 12 point single-spaced Times New Roman (I do like serif fonts) and my normal layout style involves lots of white space, to avoid the wall-of-text effect.
And though I do say it myself as shouldn’t, my efforts were well-received.
But the point is, that’s the best part of an hour a day in meetings – and we’re talking 8 hour days here, including lunch, rather than the 12 hour shift days that are normal in broadcast television here in UK.
G.
“Retaining wall.”
Some places in the U.S. protect their road edges from snowplows with high-visibility stakes, or stakes with reflective markers
e. g. https://www.pexco.com/traffic/products/snow-poles-and-posts/
Are such stakes not common in your area?