Starting the day at the BOL, with nice weather. More sunny and hot is in the forecast. Then home to Houston where it will surely be hotter.
Got a lot of work done over the weekend. Still more to do, so much more, but some progress was made.
I set two of the posts for my garden fence. The hydro-drilling instead of post hole digging worked, but there was a massive web of roots where the post needed to be. First post I may have to do over. Second post I sharpened the end first, then drove it an additional foot with a sledge, 1/16 ” at a time. I don’t know if I’ll be able to move my arms today.
Did a bunch of other things.
Managed to spend a little time on the floaty thing in the water. Water is 86F so very nice.
Don’t know how long I’ll stay today, family is headed out late morning early afternoon.
I’ve got a bunch of stuff on the list for the next visit. I’ll be stacking stuff here.
Y’all get to stackin’ too.
n
As mentioned recently, there was a sky last night? Couldn’t prove it by me.
Good idea. Won’t happen. If nothing else, unions won’t allow it.
I don’t think any government employee unions should be allowed, but they’re not going away until everything collapses.
The DEF technology is mature enough to fulfill its purpose of getting rid of diesel passenger vehicles in the US.
That’s awesome. It must feel good when you’ve built something that works so well. Especially over time!
Hey. Ho, Canada:
Canada to ban sale of handguns and toys that look like guns
Anyone still think our 2d Amendment is obsolete? Only crooks will have guns in Canada. A freedom lost by decree of tyranny.
Gotta love the EBay resellers who try to do it without a PC or, at the very least, a Chromebook.
The phone app is not something to depend on when selling isn’t a hobby.
Making things worse is that I got junk in a box and the seller is picking nits about pictures, probably hoping that EBay will rule in their favor if I request the auction site to arbitrate.
I’ve only lost once with EBay, and Paypal had my back in that case.
When firearms are taken away, crims will resort to less precise weapons, such as poisons and explosives, which are easy to make from widely available materials. The collateral damage will be worse. Society needs to address the true cause of violence.
Handguns have been restricted for quite a while now. The only people carrying a handgun in Canada are either cops or criminals. Carry permits exist but you are more likely to see God (or a smouldering bush) before you actually get one. Justin (the limp) is just playing to his audience. Most illegal firearms are smuggled into the country and it is VERY profitable. Given the huge amount of traffic across the Canada/USA border enforcement is almost (not quite) impossible. Smuggling is about to become even more profitable.
On the other hand, the courts in Canada have consistently ruled that an individual has the right to use lethal force if they have a reasonable expectation that their life is in danger. I have some hope for this country.
Reminds me of my time in the Rust belt:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o1neFbvsqgM
To fix, give car to an enemy, and escape to a dry climate.
Don’t miss it a bit.
Later this week, someone is coming to install an emergency call button for Paul. We’ve kept our landline in part so that he would always have instant 911 access if he needed it. But the emergency call system will be a good backup.
One of the things they do is give us a lock-box in which we can hide a door key, then if the call center has to notify 911, they will tell them where we keep it.
We already have a hidden key, and our local people know where it is. We set that up 8 years ago when he first was incapacitated.
Back in the day when I managed elderly housing, our local PD and Fire Dept had master keys to our buildings, so in case no staff were available, they could get in without breaking down doors.
It is shocking to me that Uvalde school’s special police officers didn’t EACH have a master key on their own keyrings or, if electronic locks, were not EACH and EVERY coded into the system for entry with an access code or their thumbprints.
I imagine parts of BC are similar to SW Oregon around Coos Bay. Outside of city limits, emergency response is unavailable or limited between midnight and 6 AM.
When we left eight years ago, the Governor was trying to force the issue of services by adding a tax on … telephones … ? … to skirt the taxation limitations. The residents of the two affected counties were not having any part of it.
Or they could have used the same unlocked door the gunman did. Just sayin’.
This suggests that you are insufficiently cynical about anything to do with government and government employees.
My attitude was “Disappointed but not surprised”. As with many things. In fact, I have a tshirt with that written on the front.
This situation hit the national Faux News wire yesterday and aired here in Austin last night. I’m sure it got time in other markets.
Pretty typical Grady Judd, who ran unopposed in 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkA0njsxR8
I went out for an hour or so to watch for meteors.
As Nick said, not a spectacular display, but I found it kind of interesting in that a number of the meteors were slow, and kind of a bright flare-like yellow.
It was windy and cool, so that even bundled in wool shirt, jacket and with blankets thrown over me on the chaise lounge I was cold enough to go back in after an hour.
Well. I am in fact stiff and sore. Bluetooth keyboard just doesn’t work this morning, for no reason I can see. Technology. Bah.
Oh, now it started working.
I’m supposed to pick up a jon boat today. Don’t think I’ll make it.
Can’t fit anything on the truck until I dump the carpet and pad.
Another gorgeous day.
Better get hobbling around.
n
Well, you are correct. My mistake is that this was little Uvalde, Texas, with which I am somewhat familiar. A little town, isolated enough that it has to stand on its own, population is mostly stable and permanent. I failed to remember that in today’s world, we have to apply cynicism equally everywhere. Even the sweet old places.
The Uvalde shooting was tragic, but people seem to be skipping over basic facts: the building was supposed to be locked, but wasn’t. The people who should have stopped the guy going in, didn’t. The police force was an embarrassment. Did you read the statement from the chief of police? Our entire department is thankful that the officers did not sustain any life threating[sic] injuries. Yeah, let the kids take the bullets, that’s the ticket.
The kid appears to have been transgender or pretending to be transgender. To me, transgender is a sign of mental illness. Transgenderism will definitely get a kid bullied, especially in a rural area.
Is there any mention of how he got those custom ARs ? Those are hand built rifles, very expensive. Makes one wonder if the FBI gave them to him in an sick entrapment scheme.
I did read that he shot two of the Uvalde police officers but all that seems to be gone now.
“Sump Alarm Water Sensor, Sump Pump Alarm with 16ft Float Switch for Indoor & Outdoor Use, Weatherproof Water Detector Alarm with 90dB Audible Alarm”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UL0RW0A?tag=ttgnet-20/
I have found this product for measuring the sewer level in my 2.5 foot tall sewer cleanout pipe between the house and the septic tank. I am not happy with the accuracy though. And finding a level alarm that is built for the outside is not easy. I am also going to have to run a new power line about 150 foot from the meter box, not cheap. The likelihood of this project happening is dropping by the hour.
I have been checking the sewer cleanout pipe sewer level each night. Just another thing to do in life. Our house guests left this morning so the amount of stuff heading to the septic tank just dropped in half.
Another gorgeous day.
It is 98 F in my backyard already.
ERCOT is heading for 72,000 MW today. The wind turbines are actually still making 20,000 MW, must be really blowing out there. And the solar is heading for 9,000 MW (maybe).
https://www.ercot.com/
For certain values of gorgeous. Here in London, we’ve had hail showers and thunder. 68F indoors.
G.
YT says video is no longer available (to me, maybe).
Unavailable not only to you, MrAtoz.
Though, if I were conspiracy-minded, I’d note that you and I are each hetero, cis-male, Army veterans who feel nothing but contempt for the *resident. Makes you wonder…
Back in the day when I managed elderly housing, our local PD and Fire Dept had master keys to our buildings, so in case no staff were available, they could get in without breaking down doors.
It is shocking to me that Uvalde school’s special police officers didn’t EACH have a master key on their own keyrings or, if electronic locks, were not EACH and EVERY coded into the system for entry with an access code or their thumbprints.
It appears that the school police officers did have a master key. But their boss appears to a total idiot. “’Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Very-angry-Uvalde-locals-grapple-with-school-17209060.php
“UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.”
“It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong decision” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.”
““You sign up to respond to those kinds of situations” Torres said. “If you are scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.””
The video belonged to the Faux News-owned Ch. 13 station in Tampa.
When Faux News first bought out the place nearly 30 years ago, the philosphy shifted right, to the point that they engaged their legendary Chief Meteorologist, Roy Leep, in a public p*ssing contest over hurricane coverage and global warming. The station also bought the “Siskel & Ebert” syndication package every year in the 90s just to bury it at 4AM on Sunday morning, after most of the weekend box office had been decided.
At least they had the video up for a while. The local ABC affiliate, Ch. 10, is TENGA (USA Today). You can forget about seeing anything contrary to the party line from that station.
The rest of the stations in the market lean left to center-left.
My cynical and deranged self had sort of thought the same thing, but in a different perspective. My thought was the school board needed a new school and the district could not afford a new school. Now the feds will tear down the school and build a new facility. I am certain it will be a top-notch facility with the latest bells and whistles. Everything labeled in Spanish of course. All at no cost the Uvalde school district.
“White House eyes restarting idle refineries to tame fuel prices”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/white-house-eyes-restarting-idle-refineries-to-tame-fuel-prices-1.1771160
Amazing.
A lot of states have yet to hold primaries for the midterms.
In Florida, DeSantis is probably safe, but unseating Little Marco with Val Demings would give the Dems a viable VP option for a Jesus Candidate in 2024 or 2028.
The higher gas prices go, the safer Little Marco will be in November. Of course, FL Dems could still decide to nominate someone else for the Senate race, but they ran a known meth head for Governor four years ago.
Plus, my wife’s nephew has done quite a bit of expensive TV commercial work for Demings.
“A World Lit Only By Fire” arrived today. I’ve spent an hour skimming the book. I read the first 20 pages, and skimmed the middle section. It will be a fast read for anyone here – it reads like a novel, and if approached like that, it will be enjoyable for a lot of people.
Manchester allots 20 pages to the entire thousand years from the fall of Rome to circa 1500. That was the era I was most interested in, so my mistake in expecting a good analysis of the Dark Ages. I had also, I don’t know why, expected more about “the mind” of the middle class. This too is missing or frivolously glossed, with the stories focused on the glitterati of the era, names we all know from school.
The rest of the book takes place in the hundred years of the Renaissance, by bouncing around with teasing biographical vignettes that lead to sweeping pronouncements without much foundation for his odd conclusions. It reads like a chaotic stream of consciousness — and without footnotes, what documentation exists is rendered pretty much useless to the reader.
I can see why the author himself calls the book “a slight work, with no scholarly pretensions.” In some ways, it seems an apology for Humanism, over-indulging an antipathy toward the Church in the process.
The last chapter, about Magellan, may be better. From the looks of it, that chapter is the actual book, where the author finally found some focus for his thesis.
I may read that last section all the way through. But first I need to get over my disappointment in the rest of it. That wasn’t the author’s fault, I’d have been better off approaching it without expectations.
I will be VERY INTERESTED to hear from Nick and others who read it. Maybe my first impression is wrong. 😉
My cynical and deranged self had sort of thought the same thing, but in a different perspective. My thought was the school board needed a new school and the district could not afford a new school. Now the feds will tear down the school and build a new facility. I am certain it will be a top-notch facility with the latest bells and whistles. Everything labeled in Spanish of course. All at no cost the Uvalde school district.
“Steve Bannon on Uvalde Mass Murderer: How Did He Get the Guns? How’d He Get the Cash? How Does this Kid Get the Cash to Buy the Ammo? (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/steve-bannon-uvalde-mass-murderer-get-guns-howd-get-cash-kid-get-cash-buy-ammo-video/
We ain’t the only conspiracy nuts out there.
But like so many, he was “a nice guy” so they all thought he’d make a great leader:
Instead of looking for effective ability to actually get the job done, too many people want to hire people they enjoy being around. Both managers and the voting public will go for the guy they like as a person over skill and talent every time.
“WWW: Wonder (WWW Trilogy Book 3)” by Robert J. Sawyer
https://www.amazon.com/WWW-Wonder-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007367?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number three of a three book science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2012.
Caitlyn Decter is 16 years old, a math prodigy, and blind. Not because her eyes are defective but because her retinas and brain do not communicate properly with each other. The condition is rare but a Japanese researcher has created a solution and it worked for her. The result allows her to see out of one eye and to meet an entity on the internet named Webmind whom she proceeds to teach how to be human.
Webmind is an emergent artificial intelligence. The position of the USA government is that emergent AIs are dangerous and must be destroyed. You know, like Skynet (Terminator) or The Matrix. So, the USA government decided to destroy Webmind via Presidential executive order but failed. Meanwhile, Webmind has exposed himself to the world in general, solved cancer, and is helping millions of people daily, almost putting Google out of business. In fact, the author posits that Webmind assists humanity in achieving a new level of peace and prosperity.
This is not the first time that an author has proposed an artificial intelligence on a common platform. Orson Scott Card created the Ansible Network, an instantaneous cross star system communications network, in his Ender books that has an AI named Jane in it. BTW, I do not include HAL 9000 in this list since he was just a computer running a program. But I would include Data from The Next Generation and Mike from “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. And possibly “The Adolescence of P-1”.
The author has a long running website at:
https://www.sfwriter.com/
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 (99 reviews)
Amish, female QWERTY say wut:
Karine Jean-Pierre says inflation isn’t a crisis, ‘We’re just in a difficult time’
“Shut yer starvin’ yaps, dirt people!”
plugs is the worst.
“Mastercard CEO: SWIFT Payment System May Be Replaced By CBDCs In Five Years”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mastercard-ceo-swift-payment-system-may-be-replaced-cbdcs-five-years
“There has been a long list of revelations coming out of the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, but one issue that might have gone under the media radar involves comments by Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach during a discussion on the future of cross-border payments between nations.”
“Miebach, participating in a panel on Central Bank Digital Currencies at the WEF and hosted by the Global Blockchain Business Council, was one of the few participants that was willing to suggest that the SWIFT system, long dominated by western interests, might be made obsolete along with the proliferation of digital currencies among central banks.”
Them are fighting words for the USA government. Stop having to have USA Dollars for every international transaction and the USA Dollar will not be as needed.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”
The worst so far.
It’s not a good feeling when the AC tech tells you he’s never seen a failure like this before.
He and his helper showed up at the door, asked a couple of questions. He turned to his helper and said “It looks like all attics today”.
10 minutes in the attic and he saw the motor was running and spinning freely. But the “wheel”, which I would have called a squirrel cage, wasn’t moving. The center hub of the wheel broke away from the body of the wheel, and the motor was just turning a small piece of sheet metal.
They see blower failures all the time, and when it’s not the motor, it’s pretty much a more dramatic self-destruct of the wheel.
Another night without AC while he tries to get parts, and he’ll try to stop by tomorrow afternoon if he gets the parts.
He’s reusing the motor. It would cost $600 more to replace it with the wheel.
Fortunately, an old mistake of mine paid off. I had a portable AC in the garage from my failed attempt to set up a gym out there. I figured it would cool off the garage enough to work out without dying. I was wrong. However, I moved it to the bedroom, and we have one cool room in the house.
In Florida, the wheel in the unit we had for nearly 10 years ran so much that it eventually deformed, bowing outward around the edge due to centrifugal force, as the unit started to rust. We replaced the wheel, but the whole AC unit was trashed after we sold the house within a few years.
BTW, the Brent (North Sea) price for crude oil is $121.26 per barrel. The WTI (West Texas Intermediate) price for crude oil is $117.17 per barrel. The Henry Hub (Louisiana) natural gas price is $8.70 / mmbtu.
All of these prices are incredibly inflationary and have more than doubled since the beginning of the year. And the prices are predicted to double again before the end of the year.
Very few people in the business are doing very much besides the necessary maintenance and projects that have a less than one year payback. Most people believe that these prices are transitory and will go back to “normal” in 2023. Whatever normal is now.
The refineries are transitioning to making heating oil for the winter now. The natural gas storage people are starting their huge reciprocating compressors and starting to pump their caverns back up to 5,000 psia for the winter. These things take time, months, to achieve, otherwise we run out in February.
It is beginning to look like Europe is going to run out of natural gas in January. They do not have the facilities to store the huge amounts of LNG or CNG (compressed natural gas) needed for the long European winter. And the six ??? natural gas pipelines from Siberia into western Europe have been shut down.
@Pecancorner:
“A World Lit Only By Fire” arrived today. I’ve spent an hour skimming the book. I read the first 20 pages, and skimmed the middle section. It will be a fast read for anyone here – it reads like a novel, and if approached like that, it will be enjoyable for a lot of people.
. . .
I may read that last section all the way through. But first I need to get over my disappointment in the rest of it. That wasn’t the author’s fault, I’d have been better off approaching it without expectations.
I will be VERY INTERESTED to hear from Nick and others who read it. Maybe my first impression is wrong.
I was tempted to buy the book but after reading the one- and two-star reviews on Amazon I decided that I already had so many better books in the to-be-read pile that I didn’t need to purchase another one.
“Summer is really here, Houston. Let’s set expectations accordingly for heat, drought, and hurricanes”
https://spacecityweather.com/summer-is-really-here-houston-lets-set-expectations-accordingly-for-heat-drought-and-hurricanes/
Yup, summer is here. And most of Texas is in a severe drought. And hurricane season is predicted by the dudes in Colorado to be the worst ever as Hurricane Agatha made landfall in Mexico last night from Pacific and may be headed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Fan on the burner unit of my Carrier system exploded into bits. The blower blows air into the burner assembly to, well, fan the flames. Woke up one morning to no heat. It was a plastic squirrel cage. Tech replaced it with a metal squirrel cage. He had to do some modifications back at his shop to the motor and shaft to make the replacement work.
I was under a maintenance contract at the time so the repair only cost me the part. The company was not happy about the time involved, almost seven hours, to do the repair. They were unable to source the proper fan, and motor/fan assembly from Carrier as Carrier stopped making that particular item. Too many failures is my guess. The A/C company would not renew my maintenance contract at renewal time.
Gulf temps aren’t quite there yet for intensification, and the Yucatan is tough on storms. Fort Myers/Naples will be sweating for a couple of days, however.
As much guilt as I feel for wishing hurricanes on anyone, I really hope that prediction is true, and that a couple of them run right up inland to bring rain to the Texas interior and to Oklahoma. It’s not as bad as the Great Drought, but people, animals, wildlife, and our water sources, are hurting from lack of water.
We got 1 ¾ inches a few days ago, and still even the weeds aren’t growing. I haven’t had to mow since last fall. In Feb or March, I mowed to mulch the fallen leaves, but there was nothing green to cut then, nor since. Every time rain is predicted, the clouds act like they are in west Texas: give us a nice overcast day, cool wind, black skies, even thunder … then move on off without releasing more than a trace of moisture on us.
The visit with Val Kilmer was the toughest scene to watch, but nothing like “The Northman”.
I have my own copy of “Real Genius” on DVD.
I noted that “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” made the cut for the soundtrack on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” roller coaster at EPCOT. I see this scene in my head every time I hear the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1FMJdqqLiM
Have you seen his biography? I read about it a couple years ago, and have been looking forward to it. We don’t have Prime, so it may be awhile before I see it.
We have Willow and Tombstone on DVD. I need to get Real Genius and Top Secret, and probably several more, like The Ghost and The Darkness and The Saint. Looking at his filmography, he’s made a lot of movies I’ve never seen.
“Energy Blog: A Call for Dirigibles” by Michael E. Webber
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/energy-blog-a-call-for-dirigibles
“There’s no single action that can decarbonize the world economy. As the old saying goes, instead of a silver bullet, there will be many silver BBs. Some of these solutions are simple, commercial-ready, and cheap: replacing coal-fired power plants with emissions-free wind, solar and geothermal systems, for example. But some sectors remain difficult to abate, including marine shipping, chemicals, industrial heat, and especially aviation.”
“Aviation is problematic in several ways. It’s a quickly growing source of greenhouse gas emissions as people take to the skies. Aviation energy use is growing, blowing past 8 percent of U.S. transportation petroleum consumption in 2018. The altitude at which the emissions take place are even more impactful than ground-level emissions from tailpipes or furnaces. What’s more, aviation is particularly hard to electrify for long-haul flights because the energy density and performance of batteries is nowhere close to what is possible with jet fuels.”
“Perhaps the way to fly is by ditching airplanes, which need the power density available from jet fuel to lift their heavier-than-air frames. Instead, it might be time to consider a whole new approach: lighter-than-air vehicles, or airships.
Airships (or dirigibles, which includes both blimps and zeppelins) don’t need as much power because they don’t have to move air through compressors, turbines, and nozzles at hundreds of miles per hour to get the required airspeed to achieve sufficient lift. Instead, they use the buoyancy of light gases to get airborne. The net result is that airships are remarkably efficient at moving heavy cargo (or people), requiring about the same energy per ton-mile of cargo as rail or only a few percent of what conventional aviation require.”
We stopped using blimps because they are very subject to the wind and crashed often.
Watching “Real Genius” is a moral imperative.
You’ll understand after you see the movie.
The print used for home video and cable in the 80s has an awful color balance. The DVD was a labor of love for someone, nearly 20 years later, and that person/team attempted to restore the way the movie looked in theaters.
“Real Genius” had the misfortune to be released the same summer as “Back to the Future”. *No one* expected “Back to the Future” to work the way it did, and I’ve posted about my test screening experience just a month before the release date, when Amblin was still tweaking the film.
This would be the Val Kilmer whose name appears on the flight log to Pedo Island, right? Along with eighty-‘leven other big names in entertainment. You can separate the actor and the performance if you choose, but I choose not to.
Dr. Pournelle news: got a report from his family that 4 ‘skids’ (pallets?) of his books from the Chaos Manor library are …
The family has also been working through 4 storage lockers of other stuff, including lots of paper, furniture, and other things.
The domains and hosting have been renewed. I reduced the hosting plan to a lower level, since there is much less traffic on the sites than before. That will save about $120/year, with yearly costs now roughly $300/year.
Well, there is a searchable database for the names on those flight logs. Val Kilmer doesn’t appear on that searchable list. Neither does a “Donald Trump”. But there are two entries for “Ivana Trump” on the same manifest on one day. Perhaps there is some obfuscation going on there.
I don’t know? Was he accused of anything or just on the list? I recall some tried to claim that President Trump had been on one of those lists, but it was a slander. We do try to be careful, and there are actors we no longer watch. We threw away our Jeff Smith cookbooks many years ago. We tend not to watch new programming in general and stopped our satellite and Netflix accounts 10 or more years ago. We don’t pay for any streaming, and only buy DVDs secondhand unless they are produced by Christian companies/people we want to support. We are careful of content, and don’t subscribe to or buy products from brands such as Disney & Levis & Kellogg that meddle or promote inappropriate stuff to children. We actively try not to buy from countries that use slave labor, which is why we don’t buy Apple products or Nike and try to avoid Made in China products wherever possible. We also try not to patronize companies that hire illegal aliens when we suspect them of it. Once in a great while I buy a Mountain Dew, maybe 4 times a year, otherwise we avoid Coca Cola products. We never go to Starbucks. We haven’t bought from Target in 15 years, since they threw out the Salvation Army.
My husband uses a Motorola phone. I bought only Dell computers as long as they were Made in USA. Paul’s desktop is one he had built by a local guy.
I try to keep up but sometimes I miss something.
Mountain Dew is Pepsi. Mellow Yellow is Coke’s wannabe.
Well, YAY!!!!! That’s marvelous news. I might buy one a month if I don’t have to feel guilty about it.
Unless Pepsi has turned evil too?
I think I’ve told the story here that Mountain Dew saved my life when I had measles as a child, and couldn’t drink anything for weeks… it was the only thing that tasted good and stayed down. I still love the stuff. 🙂
Jeff Smith was obvious.
We carried all of his books in the showroom of the Service Merchandise where I worked – they were nothing but dust magnets even before the scandals.
A few would move at Christmas, but customers would bring the books back complaining that the recipes didn’t work.
Make enough of a stink in a Service Merchandise store, and anything was returnable.
Fortunately, an old mistake of mine paid off.
— no no no! You need to re-frame that as “prepping” with a back up A/C unit. Then you get to crow about it…
Made it home, dumped a pickup load of carpet and pad and stopped for gas to refill the truck and a 5 gal can for the lake… $4.12 at HEB grocery. There was a crazy long line at Costco so I opted to pay a bit more at HEB. Don’t know how much more though.
WRT A World Lit only by Fire… I’m slow reading it because of when and where I read it. Small sections at a time… What has struck me so far is the alternate history of the catholic church, which mentions all the same things I learned about in catholic high school, but without the minimal detail and misdirection that I learned, in other words, much more emphasis on making it very plain what was going on. The ‘mindset’ of the people is also striking. That everyone had mistresses or was a mistress, that there was a lot of ‘free love’ going around and that virginity wasn’t the big deal I presumed it to be, are just the most salacious, I guess. There is a lot of overlap with the Arturian period too, from what little I know, and some of the stuff overlaps with the King Arthur that I’m reading with D2. A lot of the morals and morality of the day seem to be ripped right from the Daily Mail. I’m enjoying the viewpoint so far.
n
Meteor shower; wife and I went out last night at midnight, and set a couple of lawn chairs to watch. There was ONE fairly bright meteor that streaked across the sky, and about 10 minutes later, the clouds rolled in from the south. So about 1AM, we came in and went to bed.
The “news” had said that this would be a boom or bust meteor shower, from a comet that only recently disintegrated. Perhaps in later years, they’ll have mapped the debris trail.
I’ll admit I actually thought of you and your AC units while I was moving it from the garage to the bedroom.
I don’t need to crow about anything. My girlfriend thinks I’m a freaking genius for having it, thinking of it, and installing it at midnight after traveling all day.
>> Later this week, someone is coming to install an emergency call button for Paul. We’ve kept our landline in part so that he would always have instant 911 access if he needed it. But the emergency call system will be a good backup.
@Pecancorner, if you have an Amazon Alexa it knows how to call 911 as a secondary backup. I presume Google’s version (Nest??) and Siri can also do the same.
“We threw away our Jeff Smith cookbooks many years ago.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Smith_(chef)
I have no idea if the allegations leveled at him more than 20 years after the alleged events were true.
https://current.org/1998/07/cooking-star-pays-plaintiffs-in-sexual-abuse-suits/
But nothing ever went to trial, and the insurance company that forced the settlement did so in their own interest, not in Smith’s.
It’s also worth noting that aside from one later incident which seems to have been fabricated, there were no other accusers. Not a match for the profile.
As a white male Christian and an ordained minister that did not come up through the ranks of the cool kids of cooking, the long knives were out for him long before he retired from television. The level of righteous indignation was palpable any time Smith’s name came up in “real chef” circles.
Ten cookbooks in ten years to go along with ten years on television. Every cookbook an instant bestseller with maximum print runs and reprinted 30, 40, 50 times.
The wiki article is a thinly described hit piece. Read the disdain for his recipes from the pros, then take a look at the Amazon ratings his cookbooks have nearly 20 years after his death: nothing lower than 4.6, and most 4.7 or better. About the same as James Beard. A bit higher than Rick Bayless. Bobby Flay is a trifle higher, but how would he not be with the full weight of cable hub Food Network and 2-3 series a year plus appearances on 3 or 4 more. Buyers evidently are more successful with his recipes than the pros.
I kept my cookbooks.
>> Amish, female QWERTY say wut:
Karine Jean-Pierre says inflation isn’t a crisis, ‘We’re just in a difficult time’
If it gets so bad that we miss Jen then we’re really in trouble.
Say it ain’t so Joe…
Report: Biden mad at staff for constantly walking back his gaffes
Last sentence says it all…
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2022/05/31/report-biden-mad-at-staff-for-constantly-walking-back-his-gaffes-n472953?cx_testId=1&cx_testVariant=cx_undefined&cx_artPos=0&cx_experienceId=EXIO3RTI8YOF#cxrecs_s
I note with sadness that the NBA has hoed their playoffs out until finals are in June, fully a month later than when the Lakers won in 1972, before shorts became ghetto culottes.
It’s interesting to note that golfers on the PGA Tour typically take more shots in a round than an NBA player in a game. They also travel much further and spend more time doing it, although a bit slower.
Something about golfers following the rules, too.
Worlds could be colliding and Jen would be up their claiming VeggieJoe had it stopped until the evil Republicans opened another can of climate change.
It’s telling that they could only get someone who was even worse.
Smith’s were the only cookbooks I remember us carrying at Service Merchandise but that may have been an underwriting deal where the chain sponsored the later seasons.
The books were near the whippets, possibly the most shoplifted item in the store even though the displays were empty canisters.
That may explain the returns, however.
>> The books were near the whippets, possibly the most shoplifted item in the store even though the displays were empty canisters.
No, really, my wife always makes fresh whipped cream when she bakes pies.
@alan:
This may well be true, I have no knowledge, because I don’t trust the Zon, the Chocolate Factory, and the Fruit not to be listening all the time. Because of this, I absolutely refuse to have any such device in my house.
G.