Busy, busy…

Posted on by September 4, 2021

This one came over the transom from the mil string…

SOMETHING IS MISSING
Just a short note of something rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things….
We are told by the powers that be – that approximately 6,000 to 7,000 American citizens were rescued by daring efforts of the U.S. State Department and U.S. military in evacuations from Kabul airport. Okay, fair enough… that’s a good outcome. Happy to hear it; we can debate the other 116,000 at a later time.
However, it seems a little odd now that there’s no videos of the survivors of the Afghan crisis arriving at airports. No crowds or families greeting the extracted American residents; no human interest stories and local broadcasted news coverage of relieved Americans, husbands, wives, daughters or sons arriving back in their hometown…. nothing.
Six to seven thousand Americans saved from the clutches of the Taliban, and not a single story of those Americans arriving home to the waiting arms of their loving family.
Interesting, isn’t it…

In other news, not saying this is true… But…

Go read the folks on the sidebar, I’m trying to get things done!

A phone call to impeach on…

Posted on by September 3, 2021

The “perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” says Biden in the July 23 call. “And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

Whether it is true or not.

From Legal Insurrection, HERE.

But where are Pelosi et al??? Running for cover, and Harris is nowhere to be found. What a @#%#@% surprise…

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. Go burn some burgers and dogs (if you can afford them)…

And go watch the video in THIS article. What America is really all about out here in fly over country.

Grrr…

Posted on by September 2, 2021

I HATE updating electronics…

2 UPS five years old. One started beeping, replaced it last week, replaced the other one today. Crawl under desk, unplug everything, shut off UPS, shut off UPS again. Shut off UPS a THIRD time! Plug the battery in on the new one, crawl back under desk, plug everything back in. Crawl back out. Forget to turn UPS on… crawl BACK under desk, turn UPS on. Yay, lights, power, action!!!

AND had to update a Direct TV receiver that had lost it’s tiny electronic mind. Resetting every hour, more or less, for anywhere from 2-6 minutes. Usually right as a segment came on that I really wanted to see…

Sooooo, unplug the old from everything, plug in the new. Follow the online instructions and guess what… Yep, didn’t connect. Called DTV,  8 minutes on hold, get the ‘auto attendant’ which is going to ‘help’ me. So I decided to give it a try. Of course I get an error that won’t clear. Low voltage on one 13V input…

So, I move the plug to a different output on the UPS and restart.

BACK on hold, waiting for a live tech… Finally get ‘Debbie’. Yeah, right… Redo ALL the steps to verify my identity, address, what is going on, etc. etc. She asked FIVE times for the last four of the RX card, after saying she had my ‘account’ in front of her. Finally got a reset, and a completely different set of cues. She wants me to skip steps to get through the install, but I said no, since she was on the line, I was going to go step by step, setting everything including connecting the TV controller to the remote control. Got that done, and then had to sit and wait for the scheduler, etc. to load. Once that was done, did channel checks, and it FINALLY came up live and operating.

That was a half hour I’ll never get back…

And they wanted me to return the obsolete RX. So I start jumping through THOSE hoops online. And get a cue that I have to call DTV for an RMA. Another 10 or so minutes on hold, finally get a live body, he goes through the whole spiel yet again! Finally get it to the point of connecting to the actual RMA department…except the line is busy. So the live body says he’ll call me back. AND HE ACTUALLY DID!

Now talking to the RMA department, who jumps me through all the hoops YET AGAIN. Name, address, etc. etc. “Oh, according to our records, that item is obsolete, so we will not be recovering it. I will note your record and you can dispose of it at a local recycler…” ARRGGHHHHH!!!

Dumped that damn thing in the trash… I HATE upgrading electronics…

TBT…

Posted on by September 1, 2021

Two days late, but I would challenge anybody to come up with as good a quality set of releases today, much less the quality of the bands…

And this one is just plain funny…

And the early days of the ‘neighborhood watch’… Those old ladies saw ‘everything’!!!

Posted in TBT

Snerk…

Posted on by August 31, 2021

Another one from the mil email string…

A LOT of these are true if you are ‘of an age’!

Random thoughts from people our age…

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid neighborhood of your choice” routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

Do you remember when you were kids playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

Any additions??? 🙂

Dilated eyes…

Posted on by August 30, 2021

Can’t see s**t, so you get green Fords… 🙂

Seen Sunday morning at breakfast. 31 A, driven by an older couple out for a ‘Sunday Drive’…

Complete restoration, including the rock screen for the radiator!!!

And a period correct interior, with just ‘one’ addition, seat belts!

And seen yesterday… 1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone

This one is also restored! 4 speed, 289, but sadly I don’t know ‘which’ one. It is missing the tach, so probably NOT the HI PO 271hp 289.

Love that old green color! And the period correct redline tires and Kelsey Hayes Stripper mag wheels from 1967! The wheels alone are worth a BUNCH… .

 

Update from NOLA

Posted on by August 30, 2021

Just got a phone call from Murphy over at lagniappes Lair. He came through the storm OK, no damage to the house, no flooding. Some minor fence damage, and power expected to be out for two weeks.

He said the dogs are OK he’s doing OK has plenty of food, water, and he’s only worried about possibly running out of booze… 🙂 Said he’s going to catch up on his reading.

Dammit…

Posted on by August 29, 2021
I CANNOT believe Biden et al turned up at Dover and turned the return of the dead troops from Kabul and turned it into a photo op… Much less that Austin and the JCS and hangers on showed up. I guess it was morbid curiosity about those that they’d gotten killed. I did note that TWO families refused to participate in the public spectacle. Good for them!!!
 
Say what you will about Bush, but he met those flights WITHOUT the media, just like his visits to Bethesda and Walter Reed. He was not there for the PR, but to honor the dead who returned on his watch.
 
Never forget these names. They gave their all…
 
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California
Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee
Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, Jackson, Wyoming
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California
Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri
Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio
Hand Salute!  Ready, Two.

Hacking…

Posted on by August 28, 2021

Interesting video popped over the transom from the mil email string…

This was filmed at DEFCON, the hacker conference in Vegas, but was ‘received’ from the middle east… Rather interesting on a number of fronts.

Worth watching to see how easily things can be hacked, even when you ‘think’ you have good security/systems. If you don’t read Borepatch, you should. He’s an expert…

Anyhoo, six minutes of your time. Well worth it…

Interesting…

Posted on by August 27, 2021

Seems that some of the media are now starting to question the whole EV thing…

They drove one from Barstow, CA to SFO.

Whether you want to go green or not, most of us are going to be driving an EV in the next two decades. Automakers are spending billions retooling factories and revamping their fleets to go most or all-electric in the next 10 to 15 years, plans fully endorsed by President Joe Biden who wants half of all U.S. auto sales to be electric vehicles by 2030. That’s a massive goal considering the market, including plug-in hybrids, currently stands at about 3%.

Full article HERE from CNBC.

Note the ‘mileage’ the EV got? Not nearly the range quoted. And what happens if all the charging stations are full when you get there? Take a number and wait your turn?

Now I’ve made that drive more than once over the years, and always made TWO stops for gas/bathroom. And usually made it in around 7 hours, NEVER two days.

But let me ask one ‘other’ question… What happens when PG&E shuts off power? Those charging stations are going to be dead. What then???

As I’ve said before, if you run the calculations, the power grid in the USA is NOT capable of providing enough power to actually charge all those ‘vaporware’ EVs that the left is promising/requiring soon…