Sunday Coffee: Motivation, Work Duds. and Animal Management

Big week ahead:  One week of cleaning before my pal of almost 75-years – the Major – shows up. Getting the shop presentable and lining up the ham radio antenna work plus the usuals this week (like a lube, oil, and filter at the cardiologist’s place for both of us this week…) well, you know the drill.  October thinks Halloween is the scary time. But not really.  The schedule around here is scarier.  Yep, the schedule is King.

Motivation:  Saturday’s epiphany was that “Any damn fool can be highly motivated.”

All it would take for me would be no food for two days, no water for one, loss of my clothing., being dumped above the tree line in the mountains with a dead cell phone, and a light snow beginning to fall at sunset.  (Cue the wolves howling, too, for effect.)

Under those conditions, I decided, yes, even I could become motivated, yes sir.

However, at the very moment I was contemplating the “source of all motivation” it occurred to me that I was laying in the new leather recliner, electric headrest just-so, a bit of lumbar, and a green throw-fleece tossed over me by Elaine.

Still, it seemed a useful insight to pass along for Sam and others under 60.  The worse the conditions the more motivation shows up.  So – it logically followed – if you want to “get motivated” start with “getting uncomfortable.”  Or put an outrageous reward out there half past your obstacle…  Both work although I find high ETOH after is a useful compromise.

Work Duds:  Somewhere – on the wrong side of the Productivity Barrier – it also occurred to me this week that in order to get more done, I needed to spend less time on prepping for work and more on doing the tasks.

This (somehow) led me to inspect the science of work vests. I am now the proud owner of:

• A “general tools” work vest.  This is the “stuff around the house” vest with pockets for a few electrical connectors, measuring tape, markers, screwdrivers, T-25, Phillips #2, and other impact bits which (for reasons I’m not clear on) live in their own 20-inch, 3 drawer “drill and impact bits” toolbox on the main shop bench. I know there was a reason.
• An electrician’s vest.  Obviously with solar galore, ham radio, and more home automation than is rational, this was an easy call.  There’s a non-contact voltage probe, a Fluke meter, and both an LCR meter and a current clamp.
• Then I picked up a “cleaner’s apron.” A little self-analysis – (in the fabric recliner that seemed warmer at that moment) revealed that I am not lazy about cleaning. I just needed to make it more convenient.

That may sound absurd (Elaine wondered if I could get a tutu to go with it…) but the Windex or the 409 is always a Fantastik distance from where the Goo-Gone lives.  Now, with a cleaning products carrying tray loaded to the gills with a roll of 4-gallon trash liners (*no tutu, though) and wearing my cleaning apron with sprayers galore, I am able to get seriously clean.

Or, more correctly, I will be once I get out of the recliner.  Snoozing is more difficult, though, with wire strippers poking at your ribs. Time to invent a “memory foam snoozing vest.” Did I have a Tasmanian in my genetics somewhere?

Animal Management: People pay small fortunes to have their yards sprayed for insects. But here in the past few weeks, we’ve nailed the “secret sauce” behind this one.

It began a week, or so, back when my Postal carrier (Jed) dropped off a truck load of Amazon absurdities.  “Mr. George, what’s your view on armadillos?” he cautiously began.

After explaining (“Well, Mr. Jed, you see…”) they are part of Earth balance, he let on, “Well, you’ve got a couple up at your front fenceline.  My missus would have me after them in an instant.”

Fact is, 9-band armadillos eat most of the bad parts of living in rural East Texas.  They love scorpions, fire ants, grubs, and most anything else that’s a bother. While some “slickers” who fancy themselves golf course groundskeepers decry them as pests, I can take a pitching wedge out front and land a hole-in-one anywhere now.

BTW – here’s a Marlin Perkins note for you: Armadillos can run just over 29 MPH.  Who knew?

Radio Reporter: Been eyeing LOOB’s adventures with AliExpress and I picked up a Xiegu G90 ham radio rig for under $370 including delivery. A matching DE-19 data unit plus the PA100 linear amplifier are both enroute.  It will give the Major and me yet-another radio to assess.

Well, coffee’s cooling and the gray matter needs another coat of sleep on it, so a quick spin of the all-snooze station:

News Compressor: ON

The most important change this morning is the growing operational importance of infrastructure control.

The Gulf conflict is increasingly about airports, pipelines, ports and shipping lanes. Ukraine’s war now includes the operational consequences of satellite-network restrictions. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities can force governments and businesses to suspend services even before the full extent of successful exploitation is known.

These developments are not independent proof of an approaching general collapse. They do, however, reveal a common vulnerability: modern systems are interconnected enough that losing access to one essential component can rapidly affect several others.

Final state: AMBER–RED. Gulf escalation continuing; Ukraine’s communications restored; domestic flood recovery incomplete; election litigation approaching a judicial decision.

That’s Sunday morning, and the world is running about as smoothly as a Chinese chainsaw with a missing carburetor screw.

Front Page

Saudi Arabia: Now Boarding, Please Duck. The Saudis reopened portions of Riyadh’s international airport Sunday while intercepting another collection of Houthi missiles and drones. Nothing says welcome aboard quite like air-defense batteries working overtime. With oil above $116 Friday, the Middle East continues demonstrating that blowing things up is easier than rebuilding them. Especially when somebody else pays the fuel bill.

Ukraine: Your War Has Been Throttled. The Starlink controversy exposed a remarkable modern military vulnerability: battlefield communications can depend on decisions made by a private technology company. Service restrictions, subsequent restoration, and conflicting explanations leave a delicious question: Who controls the battlefield when the communications system has a corporate owner? Somewhere, an old signal corps officer is hugging his field telephone.

Bet me Trump didn’t pick up the phone and call Elon?  “I need you to….”

Four Corners: Waterfront Property, Unrequested. Flooding across Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah has driven evacuations, rescues, and utility disruptions. Water levels may be easing, but damaged infrastructure doesn’t magically repair itself when television crews leave. Nature remains unimpressed by federal budgets, emergency declarations, or your insurance deductible.  See? Wet spots aren’t always a fun indicator…

Britain: OK, so it’s not The Rain in Spain… Another storm, more infrastructure damage. The weather has evidently declined to observe the government’s fiscal limitations.

California: Democracy Requires Administrator Privileges. Federal demands involving suspected noncitizen voters have collided with California election officials and the courts. Washington wants verification; California disputes the lists and procedures. With November 3 approaching, both sides are defending democracy so vigorously that voters may need protective equipment.  PPV call it?

Inside Pages: The Rest of the Circus

Cybersecurity: Critical PHP vulnerabilities have website operators patching systems while attackers hunt openings. The internet remains a magnificent invention built largely on software somebody meant to update last Tuesday.  Halloween nightmare?  It all quits working.  Everyone is broke. Then…

AI Infrastructure: Data centers are looking toward dedicated power generation because electrical grids can’t always accommodate their ambitions. Artificial intelligence may transform civilization, provided someone finds an extension cord.  We’re buying more solar.

France: Hundreds of thousands protested living costs and public services. Apparently, the French have discovered that government promises don’t automatically come with financing. Payback from synthetic growth is an intergenerational bitch.

Brazil: Presidential runoff day. Democracy’s traditional choice: Which collection of broken campaign promises should we complain about next?

Sudan: Another reported mass-casualty attack compounds a humanitarian catastrophe. Sadly, human suffering doesn’t attract nearly the attention of a falling stock index.

North Korea: Kim visits China and celebrates improved connections. Nothing warms international relations like a new bridge between authoritarian neighbors.

Measles, spotted: Thousands of American cases this year. Medical history is apparently being offered as a continuing-education course.

There you have it!  The obvious reasons to do more recliner testing. The World is just all tutu much without further rest.

Write when I wake up,

George@Ure.net

P.S. Oh, look! The AI Proofing Monster is up.

And apparently, he’s had his coffee.

The only creature on the ranch that can spot a misplaced comma at 50 yards while completely missing the joke it’s attached to.

Why just this morning it tried to get me to change laying in my recliner to lying.  Whereupon I explained reporters are never found lying…  that seemed to pacify it long enough to publish.

Please. Somebody get him a work vest.  No, make it a tutu.