Cool and clear again, or maybe damp and overcast, but probably much like yesterday. I sometimes wish the forecasters would just come out and say it that way. Yesterday was saturated most of the day with highs in the low 90s in the sun. I was sweaty standing still.
Got a couple of things done. Moved some stuff, threw out some food that was old or damaged, repacked some too. I need to replace a couple of bags of salt, and one bag of flour. Salt doesn’t go “bad” but it can be affected by moisture from water or “other things”. Oh, one bag of sugar was rock hard too. Not expensive, and I have acknowledged that I’ve got ‘breakage’ due to poor conditions that others might not have. On the other hand, the rice was fine.
Took a load to the auctioneer and he’s still happy to see me and get more stuff. He’s having trouble sourcing his normal stuff, there really aren’t as many returns/overstocks now as there were months ago. He’s glad to have my stuff to sell, and I have more for him 🙂
Get your holiday shopping done early. In fact, get ALL your shopping done early. I’m even looking for a cheap Christmas tree, in case the real ones end up in short supply. If they don’t have labor to cut them, or trucks to ship them, they could be scarce or crazy expensive. Normally you can’t give away artificial trees at estate sales and thrift stores. I’ll be curious if that is different this year. As an aside, it’s the first year I’ve ever actually looked at prices. Hole-y Bat shrub Batman. Artificial trees are expensive! Modern good looking ones anyway.
So that’s it, your secret message. Stack it high, stack it early. All signs point to trouble ahead.
nick
huh, this is the 600th post I’ve tagged wuflu. Tired of this.
Cat food has been a constant issue at the local HEB for two years. At first, I thought it was the remodel moving the section several times, but the shelves are still mostly bare, particularly canned varieties.
Balsam Hill influence? They seem to have come out of nowhere and now dominate the stories about the supply chain and/or labor problems.
The unvaccinated are being set up to take the fall for a dismal Christmas.
https://lmtribune.com/northwest/workers-fed-up-with-scheduling-seek-flexibility/article_8eb2c43d-1160-5318-9070-23fe36eca7c0.html
As with the tiny gag TV or $200 dolls, people need to get a grip.
70F and saturated. Lousy night of sleep, fell asleep in chair until 230, then woke repeatedly until now. Tired.
n
Missed this. One of the classic pin up girls of my generation…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10114351/Tawny-Kitaens-death-ruled-heart-disease-opiates-system.html
n
Pills and plastic surgery. Sad.
The Boomer celebrities live the "full legalization" lifestyle, and their bodies quit around 60.
Kathy Valentine lives locally and gave a lot of interviews last year supporting her book. It is amazing any of the Go Gos are still alive. Anything they wanted just appeared back in the day.
I have high frequency hearing loss, so have, over recent years, dabbled in hearing aids. A few years ago, I obtained free hearing aids from the UK NHS (National Health Service) which did not fully meet my needs, and I was unhappy with the quality of the audiologist. I then experimented with a recommended private audiologist who offered a pair of high end, circa USD4K Oticon units, on a sale or return basis. They were slightly better than the NHS (Siemens Spirit) aids, and as I can afford it, I decided to buy them. Both sets are not user programmable. I did remark to the private audiologist, that whilst speech was significantly improved, I did not find playing music via bluetooth through them acceptable. Not surprising given the small in ear speakers (behind the ear technology).
I therefore decided to try some new to market ear buds, IQBuds Max from Nuheara for circa USD450, which, as part of the user installation, do a basic hearing analysis providing compensation for hearing loss. I have still haven't completed testing the various options the buds offer, but my observation would be that music is so much better than the hearing aids, not surprisingly much better bass given the larger speakers, whilst the environmental audio input allows for substantial improvement in hearing speech. I believe other buds are offering similar capabilities now, but I would look at the Nuheara options when doing a comparison. A worthwhile lower cost entry to hearing improvement for those who want to experiment with some user control.
(Edit: Don’t understand the quote presentation. Can’t see why this should happen from the editable source?)
System is built, works. Windows installed in 42 seconds, boot times about 12 seconds.
Watch out for Marines: https://kutv.com/news/nation-world/video-marine-corps-veteran-keeps-cool-disarms-alleged-gas-station-robber .
Nice. I need to upgrade at some point.
My wife reminded me that we saw Tawny Kitaen on a "Botched" rerun recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DidY7Un8XoY
We torture the kids with "Botched" on vacation at night.
And, yes, the doctors did take the case.
I've been running Windows 11 for a week now on my main desktop. I first tried an upgrade. It kinda worked, though i had start button wierdness. I then did a clean install of Win 11 and its working as expected. Mostly seems to be change for the sake of change. Some things are better. I'm slowly learning shortcuts to get to the things I need. No stability issues so far – knock on wood.
In other news, I went ahead and ordered new tires for the wife's new-to-her car (a 2013 Lexus IS 250C – a hardtop convertible). We got it with 8k miles, and she's almost doubled that. It had the original tires. They still looked ok, and I was going to replace them next summer. With the unknown of availability, I started looking around at options. I wanted Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4 tires. Costco had no availability, and neither did several other local shops, including Sam's. On a whim, I checked with Lexus, and they had them. the price was a little cheaper than Costco as well. the appointment was for today and the wife took it in. The good news is the tires are on. The bad is that the experience was less then what you would expect from a Lexus dealership.
The service advisor had no idea about the appointment, and claimed that it was just a tire order, not an appointment. I then forwarded my wife the email confirming the order and the appointment. They would not give her a loaner car, since, according to them, there was no appointment. They give her the shuttle ride to work. She arranged to have them get her at lunch to pick it up. She got a call around 9 that there wouldn't be anyone available to pick her up. To her credit, she fought back, and they delivered her car to her. This is what should have happened to begin with. And they did clean it. I'm going to write the service manager and copy the gm. This wasn't a great first experience. What makes them think I should consider Lexus in the future (and pay the premium for the vaunted Lexus service) if we are going to be treated like we're at a Kia dealership? /rantover
Driving to/from my optometrist this morning, I noticed that no one was home at Dell HQ in Round Rock. The parking lot was completely empty except for the construction crews installing solar panels above the parking spots.
A co-worker at CGI actually got pretty decent service from his Kia dealer when his car's engine blew up at 20-something thousand miles. The dealer found the replacement engine in a junkyard and even gave my co-worker a loaner.
Yes, warranty repair, but a new engine is not an automatic in those situations. It is an urban legend that the manufacturers have to make new parts available for seven years after a vehicle rolls off the assembly line. Anymore, you are lucky if new parts are available before the end of the warranty.
"Worth Remembering"
"I before e," (except when your foreign neighbor Keith received eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters). Weird, right?
From SRW in the Fort Bend Journal.
I don't usually update my Kindle software because they keep changing stuff around and "improving the user experience" and I just like to read, thankyouverymuch. But yesterday I updated the app on my phone and it's about a hundred times faster opening books and showing and sorting the library. I wonder if they rewrote the whole thing?
Very nice.
Got woken up by the dog, Lily, growling at 7 am. I finally got up and she had retreated from her dog bed to the base of our bed. I looked outside and it was really foggy. So I grabbed my .38 and went walking through the rest of the house. Nothing amiss. Really, really, really foggy outside, could not see the back fence which is 200 feet away from the back of the house.
I went back to bed and admonished Lily not to wake me up again. She snuggled up between the wife and I and went to sleep immediately. Me, I took five minutes.
With Lexus you are deff paying a premium and should expect premium service. Everything degrades.
At in n out buying lunch between errands. As efficient and friendly as always. And delicious.
N
Anyone had good or bad experiences with the various manufacturers of progressive eyeglass lenses? Specifically, I'm thinking of giving Costco a try because my regular optometrist wants beaucoup bucks for the Visio's I've worn before.
My Zeiss progressive lenses from Walmart cracked right near the end the 60 day refund period, just as I was getting used to the limited field of vision. I had them replaced with single vision lenses … which cracked just after the warranty ended.
I don't know whose lenses Costco uses.
I've been wearing progressive lenses for years and will not go back to bifocals again. I get mine from my Optician in my Optometrist's office.
"Are California’s Strict Emission Laws Causing US Supply Chain Chaos?"
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/10/21/are-californias-strict-emissions-laws-causing-us-supply-chain-chaos/
"The NEWS says the California port situation is caused by a driver shortage.
Not so fast: It is in part caused by a California Truck Ban which says all trucks must be 2011 or newer and a law called AB 5 which prohibits Owner Operators.
Traditionally the ports have been served by Owner Operators (non union). California has now banned Owner Operators.
Long term, truckers in California are not investing in new trucks because California has a law that makes them illegal in 2035. The requirement is to purchase electric trucks which do not exist.”
Yup.
I pay the full freight at the Mom/Pop optical shop for the first set and exam, but insist on the full prescription, including Pupillary Distance, to get backups at ~$100 to 150 a set from Zenni.com. Progressives, ultra thin, coatings and reasonably bulletproof titanium frame.
Added: These are a must as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BBVVF8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also: I do get a set of heavy duty and therefore heavy and thick Polycarbonite lenses in large Aviator frame as safety, shooting glasses.
@Nightraker
Those silicon things are brilliant! I'm going to get some just so my reading glasses won't slip out of my breast pocket when I bend over.
Do you notice any difference between the Zenni progressives and the ones you get from your optician? The competition between progressive manufacturers is intense and I'm wondering if there's any real difference, or if it's all marketing.
@Greg
Do you recall the material used in your cracked lenses? Polycarbonate, or ultra thin? I think the ultrathin high-index material is brittle.
@PaultheManc
The weird display of your quoted paragraph was because you manually entered a 'q' tag as the blockquote, instead of using 'blockquote' tag. (Note to others: it was a blockquote-type paragraph, but line spacing was squished. Fixed now, so you can't see the problem in his comment.)
The 'q' code is for a quote within a block of text (like a paragraph or more). It should only be used for smaller groups of text (a few words), not a paragraph.
The 'blockquote' code (or the blockquote button) should be used for paragraphs.
See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/q :
One of the hazards of typing in your own codes (in 'source' mode), rather than using the features of the Rich Text Editor – the buttons.
I fixed your comment so to use the 'blockquote' tag.
I particularly like those glasses retainer clips. In the Miami/FBI shootout, car stop in the 80's, the FBI agent who was good at combat shooting games lost his glasses in the stop and popped off blindly until killed.
And, many years ago, had a night time rear ender wreck in the center lane of a busy urban freeway. Killed all the rear lights on the mini van I was driving. My glasses went thataway in the wreck and when the semi truck behind moved off to the shoulder, my companion and I drove by the committee system to cross the right hand lane too.
Ever since, I keep a spare pair in the sunglass compartment and another set in my day bag.
@~jim I see no difference in the progressive effect between manufacturers. YMMV, I suppose. 🙂
Blame the driver shortage?
Maybe not entirely:
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/10/21/californias-unionized-ports-are-part-of-the-countrys-supply-chain-problem-n423940
Gee, union guys abusing their power. Where do dey tink dey are, Joisey?
Polycarbonate. The high-index material gives me focus problems, and my sweat makes the anti-glare coatings flake off.
>> Anyone had good or bad experiences with the various manufacturers of progressive eyeglass lenses? Specifically, I'm thinking of giving Costco a try because my regular optometrist wants beaucoup bucks for the Visio's I've worn before.
Very happy with Costco Optical, including their progressives, so much so 1that we continue to use them even though they are now an 'out of network' provider with my vision insurance.
When we were still back in NYFC we used a small independent optician that we knew from family friends. Best service ever. And his wife was the optometrist.
"Quest Through Space and Time (Perry Rhodan, 9)" by Clark Darlton, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Through-Space-Perry-Rhodan/dp/0441659780/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
Book number nine of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1971 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I actually own two copies of this book, a first edition and a third edition. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #100.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500.
Perry Rhodan and his crew are now looking for the race of beings who "live longer than the sun". They find out that the Arkonide explorers visited the Vega and Sol star systems almost 10,000 years before and were connected to the immortal beings.
This book also has a tribute essay by Forrest Ackerman to John W. Campbell who passed away in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell
And a tribute essay by Forrest Ackerman to Michael Rennie ("The Day The Earth Stood Still") who passed away in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rennie
One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1961 and translated to English in 1970. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (6 reviews)
After my friends text about Costco last night I decided to poke my head into WinCo while in town.
No problems seen, shelves seem normal.
Even plenty of blue and red C TP.
You guys and your Charmin… We don't need no stinkin' TP!
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eQWMIIvPS._AC_SL1500_.jpg
Dip the spout in boiling water for a few seconds so you can bend the tip upwards a few degrees. Trust me, after you use it a few times you'll like it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ
I have progressive transitions lenses from Costco. They are polycarbonate lenses. As they were my first progressive lenses, I was warned the adjustment period could take a while. In reality, it didn't take long at all – maybe because my vision isn't that bad to begin with. I purchased them July 2019, and I've had no issues with them.
@Rick
FYI – I did not enter any manual html, only used style selector. Thanks. I now see the blockquote option.
After my friends text about Costco last night I decided to poke my head into WinCo while in town.
No problems seen, shelves seem normal.
Even plenty of blue and red C TP.
Who is WinCo ?
Hmmm.
I ran this through my old Enigma Machine, it decoded as:
"Let's Go Brandon"
Makes no sense – I must be doing something wrong…
@lynn –
WinCo is a budget supermarket chain, not particularly large. Cheaper than Albertsons, more than a dollar store.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinCo_Foods
Sort of like Costco, with a normal range of grocery/meat/vegetable items, with industrial type shelving (not the usual store shelving). No frills here.
They have barrels of Fruit Flavored Tootsie Rolls, which was my favorite. Except the vanilla flavor ones. Haven't been one in a while – the closest to me is about 45 minutes, and Wally World is closer (as is Safeway).
Employee owned. National brands. And the meat was decent when we lived in Vantucky.
Dallas has a couple of WinCo stores.
I have progressives from Zenni and they are fine. On my second set as my prescription changed. I have 3 pairs from them. A full trifocal progressives, full trifocal progressive sunglasses for driving, and a pair of bifocals set up for computer use. Inexpensive and pretty fast delivery.
Appreciate the feedback on lenses. I think I'll give Costco a try and a backup from Zenni. I've had good luck with Zenni but never tried their progressives.
@Greg
Odd about the sweat making the anti-glare coating peel off. One thing I really like about the coating on my old lenses is the water and especially oil resistance. It's almost magical. Even a monsoon doesn't faze it! Sounds like Walmart is just sourcing really cheap cr@p and using the Zeiss name just because one of their machines was involved in the manufacturing.
Walmart polycarbonate lenses last about a year for me, usually cracking just outside the warranty period.
I had worse luck with Costco because the lab people in China would overtension the frame when cutting the lenses to fit. The glasses usually cracked *before* the warranty period ended.
Nice. I need to upgrade at some point.
System is fast, as in really fast. Office 2016 installed in less than a minute. Programs open almost immediately.
I have (2) 2 TB M.2 SSDs, and a 2 TB regular SSD installed. The regular SSD is out of my old system and has all my files so it will not be used for anything for awhile. I need to think about how to use the second M.2 SSD.
System is water cooled which makes it very quiet. Three large fans blowing air into the cast, exhaust through the power supply (modular) and the water cooler fans at the top of the case. No fancy lights anywhere.
My only complaint is the lack of USB ports on the back. My old MB had 7 USB ports on the back, this new one only has 5. So I had to install an auxiliary USB 3.0 card.
Currently installing software and doing configurations. That is going to take some time.
That might be caused by a frame that is shoddy or slightly misaligned. I have/had that trouble with my Maui Jim prescription sunglasses. A lens cracked once and I had to complain to high hell but they only replaced the lens. The lens has cracked again, in the same place, and I'm not up for another fight despite how much I like the shades.
(On top of which the polarization planes between R @ L were off by a few degrees, even in the original pair. You can guess how far I got with that argument…)
Even so, Walmart has been nixed.
Interesting (at least to me) little side benefit to my EV – went thru the car wash the other day and was in the vac area drying off residual water and when I went to dry the wheels they were much cleaner than this place usually gets them, same for the tires. Then I realized that about 95% of my stopping is done using the regenerative braking option, hence little to no application of the 'traditional' brakes, which means no brake dust and clean wheels and tires.
My son, who has a VW ID.4 recently drove it from Phoenix to LA (Disney) with the family. Left with 100% charge and just two 30 minute stops to fast charge. Elapsed time was not really much different than if he had taken their ICE vehicle instead. With two small kids in the back you gotta figure one or two stops for bathroom, snacks, etc. and those usually wind up close to half an hour anyway.
Don't tell me this guy is well:
Here’s President Joe Biden doing that creepy whisper again (and making the white power gesture)
No questions, fools! And, yeah, tax the shit out of us doesn't me zero cost. Geez.
Scary (or not since this is nothing new) performance by Uncle Joe at this CNN Town Hall. Several times already he has stopped mid-sentence and just stared into space. And a couple of times Anderson (Cooper) has had to stop him and tell him that his answer doesn't relate to the question that was asked.
Geez
Some more guns in rivers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRaxk0a-Gmo
SACKS full o guns.
n
"TRAGIC ACCIDENT: Alec Baldwin accidentally shoots & kills crew member on set of new movie Rust after prop gun fires off"
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/3909270/alec-baldwin-accidentally-shoots-kills-crew-member-movie-rust/
and
https://deadline.com/2021/10/alec-baldwin-movie-fatal-shooting-director-crew-member-dead-rust-1234860500/
"ALEC Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a crew member on set of his new movie, Rust, The Sun can exclusively reveal.
The tragic death was caused by a prop gun firing off on the set for the actor's latest film which resulted in both the cinematographer and the director getting shot."
You have got to be kidding me. Big screwup.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Yeah, Biden. Trump, tho.
(always spell it t-h-o)
At the current job, we built a basic Intel box to prove the system could run on commodity hardware, and the new i9 chips even impressed the group's AMD/ARM snob.
I was waiting to link to this to see if it stuck around.
So the difference between crazy conspiracy theory and fact is down to 9 months?
n
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Makes me want to watch _Team America_ all over again.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Makes me want to watch _Team America_ all over again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=udS6losK7Ts&t=16
If you find a good optician, it's well worth supporting them. I have a guy I've been going to for over 20 years. One time, I broke my glasses while he was on vacation, and figured I'd go to one of the big chain stores. The difference in the quality of the prescription (I also wear progressives) was noticable. I kept the glasses for a couple of years anyway, but went back to our local guy afterwards. Prescriptions from him are perfect, when I get them, and tend to stay good for 4-5 years.
Unions do important work, but like any large organizations, they are subject to abuse of power. I've told the story of doing a project in the Minneapolis/St.Paul sewage plant. A troop of guys: one to open junction boxes, a second to attach a meter to the right wires, a third to read the meter, a fourth to watch the first three guys. All because the union insisted on finely diced job descriptions.
On the other hand, employers like Amazon show why unions are needed.
I am so looking forward to getting an ID.4. We've decided on Spring. My wife doesn't want to get used to a new car during the Winter, which I totally understand.
And I found a new wallbox that will talk directly with the monitoring box on our solar system, so as to make efficient use of the self-generated power.
I've read a couple of articles about this. Even people who work in the industry are utterly mystified. So many failures have to have happened, it just doesn't make sense.
Bet: there's more to this story that hasn't come out yet.
– – – – –
Colds always wind up in my lungs. The coughing was getting bad, so I went to the doc yesterday. Glad I did – his little finger-prick revealed a well-started bacterial infection. If I had tried to tough it out through the weekend, I'd have been coming in next week with bronchitis, or maybe pneumonia. Glad to have headed it off at the pass.
Does Amazon sell new lungs? Ones that aren't so susceptible to this crap?