Category: Random Stuff

No rain yesterday, and a nice cool breeze during the sunny and warm day. Really nice day spent at the beach with family and kids. FEMA national forecast has us in a clear pocket for the next two days. Maybe some weather in TX when we get back that will make the final approach interesting…

We’ll leave the Cape today, but have to overnight south of Boston. United cancelled our original flight, and the only options to replace it were bad, so we delayed a day to get back on our original nonstop, just a day later.

I realized today why my otherwise smart and fairly together FIL is so messed up politically- he watches CNN non-stop and listens in the car. He thinks they’re objective news. Really. I pointed out that I watch a guy on youtube fix shoes that has more subs than CNN’s average audience. I don’t think he believed me. Since CNN and their pundits are sure that Trump will lose, I’m gonna call it for Trump. They’ve been wrong about every thing else, why would they get that right? He also reads every tell all book about government that the left puts out and believes every word, while confident that he doesn’t need to read any of the right tell alls, because they won’t be anything but lies and spin. His mind’s made up and he gets confirmation in every broadcast. I wonder if there are enough of him out there to make a difference?

I’ve managed to talk to a couple family members and some strangers, all seem pretty sure something bad is coming- minimum of financial badness, maximum of SHTF. Anecdote not data, but…

I’m ready to be back home getting ready for whatever comes. I’ve let too much slip this year.

Keep stacking, and let me know what you got done this week.

n

Our last full day on the Cape, and forecast calls for rain. Beautiful yesterday, with much cooler temps and almost chilly night. Kids want another beach day, so I’m hoping the FEMA forecast is accurate, as it has us in a little pocket of clear.

Anyone with an interest in EMS response to a Mass Casualty Incident or a Mass Shooting should read this report. It seems that recent events have finally driven home that Mass Violence is a different beast than the traditional Mass Casualty that they’ve been half heartedly training for. I’ve linked some other After Action Reports previously, particularly regarding the murders in Vegas, and the terror murders at the Pulse nightclub. This document synthesizes some of the home truths that came out of reviews of those events and offers recommendations to the EMS field. It’s also very revealing about the inadequate current state of preparedness at our hospitals and pre-hospital response. TL:DR current poorly tested MCI planning is ok for events where the victims will wait for EMS response but wholly INadequate for a violent mass casualty where people are going to flee and self transport.

https://files.asprtracie.hhs.gov/documents/aspr-tracie-mass-casualty-triage-final-508.pdf

Some other topics (wildfires and impacts of a ban on 5G tech provided by foreign and hostile goverments) might be of interest here–

https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USDHSFACIR/2019/08/01/file_attachments/1258899/The%20InfoGram%20-%20August%201,%202019.pdf

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MIL heard about the additional tariffs the Orangeman imposed on china and scoffed, “Great, now our stuff is going to be even more expensive.” I replied that now maybe more of those jobs shipped overseas would return and more of our citizens would be able to feed their families instead of going on the dole. She didn’t think much of that idea. I don’t actually think much will “come back” but better not to enrich our traditional enemy while destroying our own industrial base. Buying chinese if you have a choice supports slavery and a host of other ills. Selling out the middle class for cheaper fidget spinners is criminal. IMAO anyway.

In any case, big changes in the world, and the mice get squashed when the elephants dance, so stack it high people. They do not have your best interests in mind.

n

Supposed to rain today, I guess we’ll see. Hot humid and sunny yesterday, cooler in the evening. House stayed hot though.

Didn’t watch the second debate. Heard about 6 minutes in 30 second bits. Healthcare, evil corps, poor unfortunates, blah blah blah. “We’re doing what orangeman wants! Stop!” Whatever. Republic is dead, we’re just dancing around in the skin.

I’ve been exchanging email with the school coordinator for the volunteering I do with them. Looks like I’ll be doing 2 days a month instead of one, and 2 different programs this year. Starting WAY too soon.

This little lappy is one I put together as a possible chromebook for my daughter. It never worked with chromeOS so I put win7 on it. She got a current model chromebook for christmas (convertable slate, major manufacturer.) It sat on my shelf until I grabbed it for this trip. It gets good battery life, is only a BIT too small for my hands, and is SLOW AS MOLASSES.

I’ve been chipping away at WHY it’s so slow. Previously I’d stopped some process the googles recommended stopping, that will occasionally do something stupid like logging changes in a log file to that log file, ad infinitum. That helped. Shutting down MS update got my CPU cycles back in line. Killing file indexer (normally one of the first things I do, don’t know how I missed that) helped. And yet, browsing was PAINFULLY slow. Turns out it was AVG and Safebrowsing that was killing that. Got rid of SafeBrowsing, then got rid of AVG. If this is my machine I don’t need either. Added AdblockPlus and uBlockOrigin. Web pages finally load about like I expect.

It will never have enough onboard ram, limit is 2gig and it has that. I’ll look at adding a USB drive internally and turning on whatever win7 used to make that stick of memory usable for speeding up the system. I read some online articles about that in the dim recesses of time, when this machine would have been new. I put an SSD in it when I rebuilt it, so that’s already done. Any further changes have to be quick and easy, as this is not a daily driver or even a high priority machine. I have 2 other lappys set up for work, so this is basically just a stock bare machine for taking on trips or out of the house on non-critical stuff. Or I end up using it for ham radio, or giving it away. In any case, not worth much time, or attention, but would be nice to improve it on the cheap.

Now, off to see what we’ll be doing today. I’m pretty sure I’ll find a way to learn something.

n

Very nice day yesterday, sunny and hot but with a cool ocean breeze. Did I mention that this rental house doesn’t really have any AC? In the bathroom, for example, it is very hot. This is the longest I’ve been in a non-airconditioned space, while it was hot, in a long time. No sir, I don’t like it.

Even the Daily Mail thinks the Dems ate their own last night. I didn’t see it. I was busy in meatspace.

Gilroy murderer is already falling out of the news cycle.

Hoping to sleep in today, but the little window ac can’t keep the room cool tonight. Joy.

Maybe I’ll get some seafood tonight, after all, this is the place for it.

If the oceans don’t boil in this latest heatwave that is….

n

Weather yesterday was hotter and more humid, with lots of sun. Weather today? I guess we’ll see….

Had a nice fish dinner yesterday. New England knows fish, you gotta give them that. They don’t seem to know anything about air conditioning though.

This rental house isn’t cheap. It’s had a long series of remodels and expansions, and a fairly recent complete luxury kitchen and general makeover. NO AC. It was advertised with AC. One tiny window unit upstairs and one tiny window unit on the first floor don’t actually cut it. Both are also obviously brand new. Like they put them in yesterday.

The kitchen has Sub Zero fridge, granite for miles, and an 8 burner Thermidor stove. No AC. HOT AS HELL in this house and damp like a fat man’s belly wrinkles. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to put a freaking mini split AC unit in a million dollar house. No window coverings either. Missing outlet and switch plate covers. Peeling paint in one bedroom. And the Sub Zero fridge is currently 67F. It’s “finicky” according to the two pages of instructions taped to it, and often fails if left empty. So some jackass has put a gallon jug of red liquid labeled “antifreeze, do not drink” in the fridge. Who thinks putting a gallon of red poison in the fridge, in a juice container, is a good idea?

MIL arranged the rental and is ranting… booking agent is in Oregon, local management is unavailable. I’m going to put a gallon of poison somewhere else than the freaking fridge this morning and then I’m going to sit back and watch the show.

Vacations, who needs ’em.

n

After several days of great weather, the pessimist in me is set for the rain to start. Both the FEMA and openweathermap people had long range predictions that we’d be seeing rain in this area soon. I guess we’ll see.

Plan for today is to visit a memorial park on the way to the Cape and check in there late afternoon. I guess we’ll see.

I got out the little laptop and had a chance to catch up on some news reading. Karl over at market-ticker.org has been killing it. If you don’t read him normally, read through the last few (3) pages.

I’m currently up and waiting for clothes to dry in the high end Maytag washer here. I’ve just been told that I have to sort my drying into “light and heavy” or it will run forever and never dry. Sweet jebus. It was on the ECO setting which automatically shuts off when the clothes are still damp, helpfully saving you that bit of Gaia destroying heat that would actually, you know, DRY your clothes. And that someone broke a favorite wine glass by NOT putting it in the ONE place at the ONE angle where it could survive in the new dishwasher. And that the new fridge has to have a door closed in a particular way or bad things will happen. This woman is the hostage of her appliances. It concerns me a lot that she lives this way. Every day and every task is a battle for her.

It’s probably gonna drive me nuts, but I guess we’ll see…………….

n

Saturday had beautiful weather and we are hoping for the same today.

Had a nice visit with a bunch of friendly people I barely know. Lots of food and drinks were consumed. Kids had fun chasing their cousins around. Even the mosquitoes gave us a break.

The roads around here sure are winding and narrow. I’m glad i got the offline maps installed. I have no chance of navigating without help.

Had a long dicussion with a young lady about her $200,000 of student loan debt, and her job prospects with a peace and justice degree ( not good, btw, if you had any doubt). She’s very aggrieved that her college degree isn’t getting her hired. I don’t think she’ll enjoy her move from NYFC to San Antonio.

I guess anything is possible, Some things aren’t particularly likely though.

N

Beautiful day yesterday. Spent a couple of nice hours at the local “pond” which would be called a spring fed lake anywhere else. $5 to park and pay the lifeguards. Just a couple other local families with young kids. Water was clear and comfortable.

Then dinner in Rhode island and home…

Weird how close together everything is here.

Family party this afternoon. The local news said cape cod was open for business after the National Guard got called in to help with cleanup. So we’re still on track to head out there in a day or so. Nothing like vacationing in a disaster area….

Now to post this and get to bed.

N

Supposed to be a nice day. Funny how temps here feel hot that would be cool at home.

We are hoping for some sort of living museum today, but it will depend on traffic.

Still havent heard from our rental on the Cape if it’s in shape for us come Monday… I guess we’ll see.

In the mean time, talk amongst yourselves…
N

67F and 68%RH??? Crazy talk. It stayed slightly cooler yesterday with lower humidity than normal. Today looks like it might be similar, so OF COURSE I’m headed to the site of a recent tornado…

On a more serious note, supporting the idea that the world is going through one of its periodic geopolitical realignments, there certainly is a lot of change going on…

Turkey, Russia, Brexit, China, Venezuela collapsing, the whole post WWII world order seems to be shifting. This can be a time of tremendous opportunity, but it is also fraught with risk. Wounded animals are most dangerous and so are wounded empires.

Every thing points to a ‘conservative’ strategy, while staying alert for the big move that might be necessary or prudent.

Be prepared to take care of yourself, since mice get flattened when the elephants dance.

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I’ll be getting packed and then traveling most of the day. I should be able to keep a normal schedule for the next 8 days, but might be a bit late opening the door here if I have connectivity problems or family commitments. If it gets to be 8 or 9 EDT and I haven’t unlocked the door and flipped over the Open sign, someone jump in…

If everything goes to heII I’ll be in the worst possible place, and my options are going to be very limited. Depending on the threat, I’ll be headed for Texas, Michigan, or trying to find security locally. Possibly Canandaigua NY if that seems like a good direction. Hopefully it will just be a nice visit with family, like 99.9% of the time. You never know though do you?

nick