Category: Random Stuff

No idea what the weather is like, probably  74F and 99%RH if trends continue [77F and 90%RH at 6am- not as cool as hoped].  With all the weather in the atlantic and stuff brewing in the Gulf, we could get anything.

So the Iranians used drones to attack the Saudis.  Huh.  Leaving aside for a minute WHY they would do that, did ANYONE here who pays attention see any hostile and aggressive moves coming?  Or is it that it’s Iran through the Yemenis, who the Saudis have been using as punching bags and a way to blood their troops for the last year or so?

I certainly wasn’t thinking in terms of an attack directly on the Saudis.  Where de flock did this come from?

The biggest take away from this for me, is that once someone proves you can do something (4 minute mile, school shooting, weaponized drones) then others jump in and do it again.

I can’t help thinking about the literal tons of fentanyl the chinese have been shipping into North America as their version of the Opium wars.  Let’s just assume for a minute that no DRUG dealer or cartel needs multiple hundreds of pounds of a substance that has an effective dose the size of a couple of grains of salt.  There aren’t enough junkies on the planet for the amount of that stuff the cops are interdicting, let alone what must be getting through.  So why handle it?  It’s like a nuclear bomb in that quantity.  It’s dangerous to handle.   Where’s it going to end up?

Welcome to the drone wars.  Stay away from crowds.

n

Cooler and humid, probably. [well, it’s 94F at 11am, so slightly cooler, and 60%RH, still feels hot and humid.]

I’m sleeping in today.  You should too.  It’s a great luxury of wealth and civilization to be a productive member of society and still be able to sleep in.  Farmers don’t get to sleep in.  Soldiers don’t.  If my kids, bladder, and back let me, I’m still in bed.

Lots of stuff to do today.  Don’t know what I’ll get to.  Some other things that were off the radar have inserted themselves into the queue…

Can’t sleep too late, stuff to do.

n

74F and 98%RH. It did get hot yesterday but not for as long, or as hot. Fall has definitely started.

I got to bed early but drinking a couple of quarts before bed meant getting up several times during the night. I don’t feel a bit rested. In fact, I feel worse than normal.

This week blew by. I didn’t get half my list done. There’s always something else to do… Today I’ve got auction pickups and an estate sale with lots of items relating to my non-prepping hobby. I could skip it, I guess, but I’m going anyway. Maybe the seller won’t have their normally sky high pricing and I’ll get some bargains. Or I’ll just waste a couple of hours driving and looking. The sale is near Lynn’s current residence…

As far as prepping goes, this week sucked. Very little other than food shopping got done. I sold a few small items on ebay, and bought a bunch of inventory. I’ve got to get that turned over and listed. It’s never gonna sell if it’s not listed.

The debate was last night and I care not one bit. It’s such a clown show I can’t believe anyone takes it seriously, and I’m a bit horrified that someone might. As they try to out Stalin each other, at least the masks are coming off. No one can say they don’t want your guns anymore… The extremism and radicalization are very disturbing. I don’t think this is going to end well.

No matter what happens, preps are a good idea. Broken record, I know, but I would hate to see friends suffer if it could be avoided.

WRT health issues, if you have anything nagging you, or anything doesn’t feel right, or if it’s been a while since you had a physical with bloodwork, take advantage of the fact that civilization is still up. Go- see the doctor. Better to know than wonder. You can always make a choice to continue on the way you were, but if there is an issue, you’ll have more choices early than late. Grid is up, use it.

nick

Cooler, and wet [73F and 99%RH]. Sporadic rain throughout Houston yesterday, but I never saw more than sprinkles. Everywhere I went was either just starting or just finished. Huge thunder and lightning a couple of blocks away, but sunny blue sky overhead is very disconcerting.

We got through another anniversary without a new attack, and for that I’m grateful.

My mood should improve now.

As predicted, Dorian is out of the news and so is the tragedy in the Bahamas [not entirely, yet.]   The Epstein story still has legs, but the french procurer has vanished into thin air. Foul play? Or a run for the hills? There was never any mention of concerned family…

I’m going in for some tests this am. Barium is involved and I’m told that ‘could make me want to throw up’. I guess that’s better than an enema? Shouldn’t be anything serious, just some unexplained things that need some ‘splaining. If none is forthcoming, then more tests. Thank [deity of your choice] the grid is still up, money still works, and doctors are still going in to the office. Getting old isn’t for the weak.

I don’t need any prayers yet, but others here do, if you are inclined that way.

More when I get back,

n

76F and 98%RH at 6am.  It did get hot yesterday, but not quite as hot as the day before.  We might really be on the road to Fall.

The anniversary of the murderous attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon should remind us – everything is going along as normal, until it isn’t.  No one woke up thinking the world and the country and the lives of thousands of people would change that day.

Nothing ever changes, until it does.

Keep stacking.

n

Cooler and humid.  Hot later.  ‘Cuz that’s how we roll…. [79F and 89%RH at 845am with mixed clouds and overcast, sprinkle of rain earlier]

I put up a link to some of the video finally coming out of the Bahamas in comments yesterday.   In areas that were hard hit, there’s very little salvageable left.  There’s almost no where to stand to use the lever either…*

My goals for this week involve more rotation of my secondary location, finally getting my primary garage storage sorted out and modified with lessons learned from the rat invasion, and getting more <s>carp</s> er, stuff, out of my driveway and off to auction.  All while trying not to have heat stroke.

Somewhere in there, I need to get the electrician out to hook up the gennie, get some garden stuff done, and get some more antenna work done.  All while gearing up for the Fall holiday schedule and school demands.  Oh, and hopefully ebay sales pick up and I start making money again.  (several small items have sold in the last week, which is encouraging.)

In larger economic news, there is more talk of recession and market flameout in the press.  My personal sense is that the real economy has been in trouble for a long time, didn’t get significantly better, and is in fact bad.

One of my proxies is trade magazines.  I get a bunch of them and they are all getting THIN.  Some are down to almost pamphlet sized, 32 pages.  These were all bound volumes during better times.  Even Machine Design and EC&M are thin shadows of themselves.  Machine Design was always the fattest (and most general interest) of them all.  One other indicator is in bad times, you get solicited for new trade mags.  IE, the publishers of mags you get start trying to increase their subscription base, pushing mags that are only marginally or even not at all relevant to their existing subscribers.  I got a bunch of new .mil, defense, and aerospace mags this month.   I love it because it gives me a window into places I wouldn’t normally be able to see.

Another proxy is getting emails or calls from businesses I haven’t had contact with in YEARS, possibly even a decade or more.  Suddenly, they are mining their old email lists trying to drum up new business.  When times are good, they’ve got enough customers as is, when times are bad, they start reaching deep looking for more.

Closer to home, thanks to Rick for modernizing some things around here, without changing too much.  Anything that helps Rick to maintain this place is a Good Thing ™, and anything that keeps him engaged is also a Good Thing.  I certainly can’t do what he does, and appreciate his efforts.

Thanks also to a couple of new commentors, and people who have commented after a long period of silence.  It is the commentariat and the community here that make this place what it is.  Hearing from someone new, or an infrequent commentor helps me ‘keep the faith’ that this is more than just an echo chamber of and for grumpy old men.

With that, I better get my day started.

n

*”give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I’ll move the world…”

76F and 99%RH at 830am.  That’s pretty cool, and means we may have turned the corner into Fall.

Even a cat1 hurricane will wipe your community off the map if you’re not built for it.  Cat5?  Well, we live in an age of outrage over the tiniest slight, the 24/7 news cycle, and the amplifying power of social media.  Doesn’t mean that SCIENCE is nothing but exaggeration.  F4, richter scale, cat scale-all defined by stoic guys in lab coats long ago.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7438035/Canada-braces-hurricane-Dorians-landfall-damage.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7439991/Hurricane-Dorian-knocks-power-hundreds-thousands-hunkered-Canada-homes.html

Talking with the kids and looking at the headlines from the Bahamas, (which we’ll see for one or two more days, then they’ll get a handle on the press), oldest asked where the preps would be to keep them safe if we lived there.  I told her we’d prep differently if we lived there because the threats are different.  We’d have evacuated.

Take a few minutes to REALLY think through what Abaco is like right now, and in two weeks.  Those people aren’t able to go anywhere.  There is NOTHING there for them.  Imagine a city with all the bridges destroyed, and no power or water.  Lots of cities in the US are essentially islands.

Add people in the surrounding area shooting any infected trying to leave as a plague takes the city.

[Insert clever segue]  to ebola– not an omnibus, but just a few quick headlines from allafrica.com

• Congo-Kinshasa: Ebola Drugs ‘Saving Lives’ After Clinical Trials(Deutsche Welle)
• Congo-Kinshasa: Update on Ebola Drug Trial: Two Strong Performers Identified(WHO)
• Congo-Kinshasa: Breakthrough Trial Shows Ebola Is Now Curable(RFI)

Why is that important

• Uganda: One Ebola Case Confirmed in Kasese District(Monitor)
• Rwanda: Rwanda, DR Congo Agree on Joint Mechanism to Fight Ebola Outbreak(New Times)
• Congo-Kinshasa: Ebola’s Spread to New Area Shows Flawed Response – Aid Workers(Thomson Reuters Foundation)
• Uganda: Government Accuses Medics of Fleeing From Ebola Patients(Monitor)

It’s still spreading.

9-Year-Old Tests Positive For Ebola in Uganda

“The health ministry has confirmed that the blood sample of a 9-year-old Congolese girl was drawn and sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute for testing and confirmed positive for Ebola virus on August 29. In July following the completion of the recommended 42 days without any new Ebola case since the first Ebola cases in June, Uganda had been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organisation.”

–US airports are hiring ebola screeners.

–Africans are showing up in the border crossers from Mexico

and now I’ve got to make some waffles, because life needs to go on.

n

77F and 97%RH this fine am. Probably from the overcast. Got plenty hot yesterday by afternoon.

There are experts who say you can’t ‘catch up’ on sleep. They’re wrong. Oh so wrong.

The dreams were unpleasant, mainly because they involved me doing my old job. I really don’t want to do it again, but I find myself having dreams about it. Bah, the money was terrible when it wasn’t great, the hours were long when they weren’t super short, and you only get ONE chance to get it right each time, but you’ll get another chance tomorrow.

Normal weekend stuff for me today and tomorrow. Some kid stuff involving me as chauffeur, and lots of yard work.

I’ve lollygagged around enough, I better get moving . . .

n