Beryl After-Action, Powell Pending, Bubbling Higher

Prepping: At its peak, an estimated 2-million people in Texas lost power as Hurricane, then Tropical Storm, then Wet Spot Beryl wandered through.  Plenty or injuries and up to 9 dead (reports vary).

The only major disruption we noticed was (an hour or two after losing power), we flipped over to the genset, threw the transfer switch and decided to call in our outage.

It wasn’t hard to find the reason. With winds gusting about 40, a top of a large deciduous tree had fallen on the 440 lines from “our pole” up the mountain to my neighbor’s place.  Elaine – this is where the “artist’s eye” catches detail – spotted that our front yard power pole was leaning about 10-degrees off vertical.

I was all set to get a 12+-inch rain reading. Instead, a lousy 3 point 4 inches. Some storm, huh? Tyler Texas Weather dotcom reported 4.39-inches. Usually we get more – not less – than Tyler. With so little rain, no septic roulette, either…sheesh.

Hats off to the local power co-op (Trinity Valley) because when I called them to chat about the downed wires with a side of tree on top, they had people on phones well past normal closing time taking reports.

Procedurally, Elaine had forgotten that due to our over-engineered solar that powers my office, I was able to keep working throughout; from the time of outage until I went over to the house for a periodic patrol after getting a tip that things weren’t right.  “I thought you knew the power was out…sorry.”  

“It’s OK,” I told her. “George2 called and said the surveillance network video was down.”  Nice to have remote eyes at an extreme up-time server farm build.

No harm and the power came back on around 10 PM.

If you are wondering “How do they have phones, internet, and power in the midst of a Hurricane’s leftovers?” the answer is simple.

Voice services only shown. View is on the wireless LANs.

As you can see, the two satellite systems (Starlink and ViaSat) give us access (and this was my consigliere’s idea) to MagicJack. This means even with power lines spilled all over the Piney Woods, we were never without dial tone and two-way calling.

If you live in an area where power and phones fail with any regularity, shop the specials for a MagicJack single line with the USB whizzy.  Then, if you have web access on a computer, you’ve got (geographically offset) access to the public switched telephone network (PTSN).

When our fiber lands (next month, we hear) we may consider dropping the conventional twisted pair since a simple voice line and HDSL is $140 a month. And fiber plus a MagicJack (into the router) will meet the same mission and save $1,000 a year.

As I write (5:30 AM) the HDSL circuit is down, but the voice grade lines are up. I’m guessing HDSL will return this afternoon, but Starlink and a small generator and we’re good to go for about anything man or Nature can throw – at least for a while.  All those solar panels meant the storage building freezer was never offline during this whole little ditty.

You may wonder how the comparison between ViaSat and Starlink was. Well, here’s the ViaSat speed test:

Remember, ViaSat runs about $87/month with taxes. While Starlink is $120 plus tax:

It’s not a perfect relationship, but basically, seems like you get what you pay for, but Musk’s operation has the edge. A Big one.

Other than that?  Chef’s salad (fresh honey baked spiral cut pieces of ham in it) was a great dinner. Today, steak and eggs for breakfast and that back into the routine. Storm cleared out overnight and life marches on.

Powell Pending

Everyone will be watching the television in trading rooms shortly. Powell Speaks to Congress Soon. What to Expect. (barrons.com).

The Big Deal for us will be to see how the (nominally, fairytale) non-partisan Fed tries to bolster Biden.  The stock market hit another record Monday using our Aggregated markets approach and honestly, this is just silly:

Except for some potentially big events – not factored into markets – G.A. Stewart’s work (here) where the Blows of Steel, King of Terrors, and a possible attack at the Paris Games – except for those the Fix is In – higher to Labor Day.  I’m trading in what I’d call “Shimano mode.”  (If you don’t ride bikes, that’s a reference to derailleurs that made Shimano famous.)

Bitcoin is worth a mention: Seems to be retreating a bit now $57,364 at data time. Ahead of any Fed head there are always a few butterflies, so a gander at What Will Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s Testimony Mean for Bitcoin? – Decrypt if you’re a True Believer is worthwhile.  Otherwise, it’s more of the same hysteria: Sentiment: Bitcoin Loses 566K Wallets, Hinting at Market Bottom.  No, not to our charting eyes, but ya’ll have fun. We’d rather look behind the logic in JPMorgan Has Dire Warning for Bitcoin Bulls.

In the background, we would expect the Fed boss to be very measured and talk about a September rate cut only as a possibility. We would expect him to mention the high consumer debt number that came out Monday. That showed annual credit card use (this is in a May data window remember) was going up at a 6.3 percent annualized rate. Until we see the consumer backoff a bit, the storytellers of Finance can keep everyone guessing at when The Top will be in. My consigliere’s “after Labor Day” bet is looking better by the day.

War and Gore Dept

Report from Iron Mountain 101 is before us.  People need to be threatened to remain compliant and handing over an unduly large portion of their incomes to a government that always promises more than it delivers.  Sorry, we do get a bit cynical about this point now and then.

Looking to vacation in Europe with all expenses paid? Up to 350,000 additional troops against Russia – NATO: “We urgently need 35 to 50 new brigades”. with the NATO leadership in DC for meetings this week, do you think they will “have their hand out for more aid?” (Duh…)  I didn’t see Europe send troops to keep Mexico out of the US so if they have a beef with Russia, color me a bit skeptical.

Don’t look for any quick ending to the Ukraine war.  Too much money involved.  With headlines like “Resolution to Ukraine Conflict must adhere to UN Charter” says US State Department as PM Modi meets Putin (aninews.in) spilling truth around the perimeter, the West, EU, and Financial Bubble all need this (pardon) shit show to roll on for a while.  Such that when it all flies off, everyone (or the elites, anyway) will have plausible deniability.,  Lil folks like us? Disposable.

While we wait for the Lebanon-Syria war to light off, Israel’s military returns to portion of Gaza City where it says Hamas regrouped | Miami Herald

Radicalization of Europe is well underway: Antifa Leader on Security Watchlist Elected to French National Assembly (breitbart.com)  Should make a fine battleground next year.

Worthy of Wonder

Saw the story Drugs Like Ozempic Are Linked to a Lower Cancer Risk | TIME. We have to wonder if the MOA (method of action) is in the lowering blood sugar dept which Ozempic is known for. This reminds me there was an article in Pharmacological Research (2022) Berberine for gastric cancer prevention and treatment: Multi-step actions on the Correa’s cascade underlie its therapeutic effects.  Not following? Well, here we have two potent moderators of blood sugar, and they seem to have anti-cancer properties.

Not going to make us popular, but are sweets one of the routes to killing off humans?

Also, along the same line of inquiry, see I’m an expert who helped Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and Ferrero make their  products addictive… here’s how they get you hooked and why I’ve cut out junk food entirely.

At the Ranch: The Uncanceled Chainsaw

Remember recently I told you about the Shindaiwa reduced effort starting chainsaw?  But since it wouldn’t arrive until the 16th, I called Home Depot Saturday (July 3) and cancelled the order?

Well, lookie here:

This is after getting an email on the 3rd that HD would attempt to cancel the order which I did immediately upon seeing that it would not arrive until mid next heatwave.

There was a time – when younger – that I would let the blood pressure soar and be all bent of out of shape over this kind of thing.

But older and wiser north of 75 you just go outside, look at this:

Yep, there’s a lot of clean-up to be done.  The battery powered mini saws are fine for odds and ends, But – says the flow of goods into life today – there’s all these other trees and surely when some of them go…

So I just say to Ureself “Maybe Someone is trying to get me a new chainsaw while Ure’s thinking about it…”

Write when you get rich:

George@ure.net

43 thoughts on “Beryl After-Action, Powell Pending, Bubbling Higher”

  1. I gave up on the landlines a decade ago or so. The hardwired line was copper, with a j-box in a creek bed, and it went out after every big rain. Further, the switching was so old, there wasn’t voicemail available. I have the MagicJack VOIP over microwave, and the $25 unlimited cell phone service, and that has been sufficient.

  2. I think your yellow bucket caption is missing a couple of decimals.

    Beryl cruised through here yesterday afternoon, leaving us 6.2″ of rain and no visible wind damage. We got our power outage out of the way before the storm got here. Apparently a big tree took out the line and a pole or two in the swamp to the east of us. We were in the dark for about 2.5 hours, but Bowie-Cass had us back online well before the actual storm got here.

    Today being the day for our weekly trip to town, I’m wondering how many places the road is washed out between here and the highway.

    • I noticed that too … ~36 FEET of rain … that’s some Noah quantity right there…. LOL

  3. So far, we have 2″ in the rain gauge up here in the greater Little Rock area. A while back our insurance company called asking about our interest in flood insurance. I informed them that since we live on the crest of a Ouachita mountain ridge if we ever got flooded there wouldn’t be anyone left to make good on the claim anyway.

    • I took a week off and canoed around Lake Ouachita, mid 70’s. Couldn’t get used to all those damn chiggers and ticks ! Beautiful country though. Took the second week off at Hot Springs., ended up in a poker game that paid for all of it., but had to make a hasty retreat when I heard that two of the big losers in the game were out looking for me. Good times !

      • I went there once… on the way back everyone was thinking about food… there was a rusty old sign that said the catfish house..the sign had bullet holes in it and I jokingly said hey how about there.. we went to the catfish house…dam one of the best places I have ever eaten it was memorable.. the rust covered bullet ridden sign was not an indication of a run down shack but a real hidden gem in plain sight..

    • we have had rain and more rain.. but.. the last small rain we had.. the garden was looking awesome.. everything going great.. going to get some cucumbers. well at least I thought I was.. went out.. and the plants even the wifes flowers.. are getting ready to go to seed.. similarly I have weed killer that works by brining the plant to maturity.. then the plant dies off natuarally.. so what was in that last rain shower we had.. others are seeing the same thing in their gardens.. green onions t;hat are putting the see flowers on top already Odd and wasn’t expected for sure..

  4. Aaa, d’Lynn looking at his Lady’s Livaboard boat question. As a former livaboard (wife, myself and 2 teenaged boys) on a 36′ catamaran there are a couple of questions to be asked. How close can you live together while rubbing elbows 24 hours a day? Walk through your current house and visualize what will fit inside of a small boat. Not much at all. A box or two so most of your “stuff” will be sold, given away or stored. One of our boat rules was ‘If you bring something aboard what are you taking off’? Takes a lot of flexibility to be a liveaboard and downsizing. Good luck but super investigate as it is difficult. Oh, No Garden!

    • Thanks for the comment.
      – I relayed most of this to the misses.., I’m pretty sure she understands that everything will change. Not sure she like that much.
      – The Garden – is all me. That is one of the very few things that I would miss.
      – I am pretty sure it won’t happen – but it was an interesting, unsuspected, conversation.

    • .., and I meant to add – if it were just me., I would probably be on that Tri right now., somewhere in the deep-south Pacific. It was designed and built for single handling TransPac race. One incredible boat.

    • We have a collection of ‘one gallon gardens’ on a 42′ monohull. A one gallon mayo jar, hole in the top for a cocofiber plug and vermiculite to put the seed/s. Fill the jug with a gallon of water and some good nutrient solution. Wait about a month. The plant/s will be decent sized and the water will be gone. Keep them somewhat protected from salt spray.
      Cayenne, basil, lettuces, cherry tomatoes and more add to the diet variety. Silly easy. Was the basis for a US Patent held by the UofHawaii to grow Manoa lettuce.
      We eventually moved aboard after going from four bedrooms etc one step at a time (3 bdrm, studio, all ‘extra’ gone). Now floating on our marks at 20K lb displacement, means 19k for the boat and 1K for us.
      Got us 4000 NM so far. Especially so far from the upper world madness.
      Also add, everything is damp, always, including you. Being anchored has no guarantee, and it’s impossible to be unhappy when there is so little stress input in general.
      And you are always not a resident. Don’t even try to impose your idea of what should be. They are just fine without you.
      Stiks

  5. Happy to see you made it through the storm OK. I am impressed by your infrastructure on the ranch. It shows a lot of planning and work. Well done. Around here all it usually takes is for someone to think rain storm and the phones go out. I always find the main junction box by the road open and exposed to weather but I have never seen a Century No Tel truck around. Got tired of it a few years back and fired them. The Power CO OP is fairly reliable. Up until my best friend and consigliere Earl, who was a long time member of the board passed away. Since then they have offered internet service over their lines. It was worthless so internet access was kicked to the curb. We have relied on a Verizon 4g hotspot for 5 years now. Not one issue with it ever and it serves our internet needs fully. Knock on wood. Starlink is up next, maybe.
    Diana and I have made it a joint project to keep our power and phone needs to a minimum. We purchased an 80″ Sony TV a couple years ago and immediately decided it was way more than we wanted. Most days or evenings after we watch the local news and weather the TV is off. Reminds me I need to rework the rooftop antennae and think about replacing the old rotor but that would mean getting out the GASP!!! ladder. I know, BORING but happy. That’s us.
    Glad you and Elaine are OK and the storm damage was minimal.
    Stay safe. 73
    Stihl chainsaws and power equipment rock!

    • WE’ve had a lot of problems here over the years with what old-time TelCo linemen called “wets.” The copper is buried in the whole area, and there is a severe shortage of unassigned pairs. There are plenty of dead or useless pairs. We’re getting fibre “soon.” Can’t get a better fix on that. it’s BEEN SIX YEARS of this.

      (Small aside: old time linemen had ohmmeters calibrated in “points.” A “point” is 1,000 ohms I found out. 2 “points,” as a cross-line reading, they called a “two-point short,” and was enough to block one’s line, as “off-hook.”) (Dial tone sparkling in a puddle somewhere, till it times out.)

      Old-time linemen had toolbelts, plaid flannel shirts, were at least 45 years old. (and they never faled to restore your service,) The New Guys are all 22 years old, wear snazzy logo jumpsuits, and have portable small exotic digital oscillloscopes — and have NO idea what the old-time guys are saying. AND they usually “need a part from The Cage,” and will be back later or tomorrow — or maybe Wednesday. Maybe. We’ll see.

      • Our latest landline outage was fixed by a linewoman. Our line has gone out half a dozen times since last November when the county maintainer dug it up. The first repairman replaced the out segment with plain aboveground line lying on the surface. That has since been cut several times. This repairwoman said she found the original cut in the buried line, dug up the hidden end and used a very short piece of line as a jumper between the broken ends. She also replaced a bad load transformer she found in the process. So far it looks like she’s done a better job than the half dozen or so men who tried to fix it.

  6. “There was a time – when younger – that I would let the blood pressure soar and be all bent of out of shape over this kind of thing.

    But older and wiser north of 75 you just go outside”

    You truly have become a wise man!

  7. Hi George

    We live in the sticks here too, Our local Co-op
    Installed fiber three years ago.
    We went with data and phone. Saved money,
    great service, and so far has not failed.
    Made life much more enjoyable. I run remote cameras,
    ham radio equipment, weather stations, lots of fun…

    Jim

  8. Good work on the connections. That’s better than most businesses.

    “The stock market”

    The market is supported. Look no further than Boeing, not today’s wheel falling off or their astronauts stranded in space but the felony Boeing caught.

    “Boeing Agrees to Plead Guilty to Felony”

    “In the deal with the Justice Department, outlined in part in the court filing, Boeing also agreed to pay a $487.2 million fine — the maximum allowed by law”

    So what? Boeing gets a red mark on the articles of incorporation and a fine. .gov already supports Boeing as a ‘national security’ asset so the fine on a liability can now be turned into an asset by .gov, collateralized and leveraged up.

    • Like big banks paying “Fines” to fed gov…Same pair of Pants, different pocket.

      It’s all Bullscheis..

  9. National Hurricane Center updated their weather map at 10:30 this morning. Nothing. Not even a depression has formed in the Atlantic. Looks like we are clear sailing for at least a week, or so.

    • d’lynn, I have a theory inre hurricanes, energy is zero sum game, when a hurricane passes over warm waters it sucks up massive quantities of energy. Ergo, that energy is gone and hurricanes following a similar path will have less energy available to tap into. So, in theory, hurricanes that follow similar paths should be less intense due to the availability of heat energy. Results may vary….

  10. (“Hats off to the local power co-op”)

    that is where I am lucky.. over half of the people here work for the co-op.. so any power outage.. there is a mad dash to get the power on right away.. the co-op is telling everyone to put in a backup power genset.. they made a customer based suggestion for everyone.. we went out right away and put the damned thing in..
    and then when I found out that the unit I bought has a pretty long history of a fuel valve.. it wasn’t working at all.. I had to test it by hand.. they finally fixed it.. but .. it did open my eyes.. so I bought a tri fuel back up for the backup.. if need be I can make the fuel..

  11. four years ago I could get one of these for just over a thousand.. with the electric assist and a solar panel.. you have transportation.

    https://internationalsurreyco.com/product/2-person-bike/

    then I tried to get her to allow me to buy one of these to.. but no go..

    https://youtu.be/YgsDjsMEVDo?si=sat5FGFoFvEepRg1

    the surrey is nice.. when I worked for the grocery store.. way back.. they would keep all the perks that the food companies gave for administration and then at the xmas party there would be a drawing.. there were cars and trips and tvs and just about anything you could imagine.. hang gliders.. powered hang gliders.. or what they call micro lites.. anyway totino’s pizza gave them one of these surreys.. beautiful black and red.. I wanted to get that more than anything.. perfect.. anyway I got a columbia team jacket for the cowboys .. nice coat.. just got rid of it last year.. had it a long time.. but not that surrey..
    https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/4-wheel-drive-pickup-truck-small_1601048820363.html?spm=a2700.details.you_may_like.3.5e3745a7dxnopR
    then again you could just buy a pickup from china.. seen a guy give an evaluation on a pickup like this.. it cost him a thousand to have it delivered.. and he loves it..

    https://youtu.be/u2mYjueIcAE?si=q0YRp7I93DnDAID2

  12. Life is interesting post retirement, still getting used to it. 65+. Use Google voice with OBITALK. Eithernet to router and phone out to your homes phone line. Mine goes out to shop, over 100ft away, and that little device powers it all. Working flawlessly for 5yrs. Have Coop fiber. https://www.amazon.com/Polycom-Inc-Voice-Adapter-PY-2200-49530-001/dp/B07FZYPD8T/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1CAYZ13FRE3TT&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bnq1znqg6e_hRXHd-Zx2Xt19uNQMgLwg0YlsjpujobA.ugyA-13gcHcyBK3OP72D2oBYASwlqdRiQvjd_HR0TBw&dib_tag=se&keywords=obitalk+302&qid=1720539795&sprefix=Obitalk%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-2

  13. I once asked a young woman from china that came to the USA to work.. what they make in china.. the average income there at that time she told me was about ten dollars usa a month.. so to come to the usa.. get a job.. the employer also houses them and pays them a lower wage that they send half of home to help their families..
    Its the same with other countries as well and sadly that is how a lot of women get suckered into slavery and sex slavery.. they come over to work then forced into the sex trade bought and sold to the elite…. before the usa stopped it.. someone living on social security could move to poland or another country and live like a king on their social security income.. the cost of living.. I believe that because of that huge change in cost of living is why we can’t fathom the expansion that china has been making militarily.. the cost of their equipment is just a fraction of what it costs the USA..and since most of the industries we depend on are owned by the PLO.. the products they make and sell locally here to the people the profits all go to their expansion..
    we spend a trillion or just about a trillion.. and they spend a couple hundred billion.. but the price difference.. comes into play.. Just like our VA managed healthcare.. they compete by negotiating for prices… the chinese does the same thing.. but with the industries.. that make products that they sell to the people.. the profits from those products goes right into their military.. in essence.. the USA is funding the expansion of their military.. and other countries that do the same thing all in the name of the business model.. the ninety nine cent brush you bought.. probably cost a fraction of a penny … the hot dogs and the spiral ham.. good stuff.. but the company probably owned by china..

  14. Ozempic (semaglutide) is not a drug, it is a peptide. It is easily available without prescription, and less expensively, from any number of peptide companies like Core, or Peptide Sciences.

    It is becoming clear that semaglutide is a powerful anti-aging therapy that has value beyond diabetes and weight loss.

    Do a deep dive and research this, you’ll see.

    Semaglutide has a very broad range of benefits, particularly for those over 60.

    • Price difference is Shockingly similar to buying a pharmaceutical from another country to the US this is US one ..LOL LOL LOL….like twenty times the price between them LOL.. when they still had the canadian pharmacy here .. the daughter needed an antibiotic.. one was from the pharmacy in town with a discount.. the other was at the CP… where they shipped.. we didn’t have much money.. took the script seen how much it was going to cost at the local of three hundred for five pills.. took it to the CP and the cost for the five pills.. was Zero.. just pay the shipping of fifteen dollars.. It is with a sad heart.. Congress made it so that the CP had to close.. guess the drug companies were throwing a fit..

  15. In two recent polls, Harris beats President Biden for the choice of a match-up against Trump.., and Hillary beats both of them.
    Wouldn’t that be something. Hillary and Trump – once more ‘into-the-breech’.
    – According to Michelle Obama’s authorized biographer, she has no interests in running for President. Her interests lie elsewhere.

    • (“and Hillary beats both of them.”)

      Phew.. … LOL LOL LOL
      OOOPS.. Seriously.. we did enter the twilight zone four years ago didn’t we .. LOL LOL

  16. Naval Intelligence has just arrested “a sailor” as he was trying to access President Biden’s restricted medical records.
    – I wondered about this last week. If someone would ‘leak’ his med’s.

    Almost.

    • LOL who needs his meds list.. anyone that has worked on the dementia wings can tell you.. I spend decades working with them… the same with people with brain tumors.. LOL.. I got a cute story on brain tumor guys..

      when I built our house.. one of the guys in charge of new construction and inspection would stop by and he would go.. when are you going to landscape.. ( we had the contractor take a huge amount of money that they required for a deposit and ran with it.. ( happens a lot) so we were shy money on the finishing.. he stopped by all the time.. when we started to plant the flower bed he wanted.. he would say you need more plants.. so we would add more to try and appease this Azz.. it was frustraiting.. I said to the wife god I wonder what is up with him.. high functioning.. didn’t have the look around the eyes.. then one day I walked into the local post office.. his wife was in tears at her car.. I asked .. what is wrong.. he had baracaded himself in the post office.. positive that she was some criminal trying to abduct him.. LOL LOL LOL she said.. oh he has brain tumor and brain cancer.. light bulbs flashed.. oh now I KNOW WHERE YOU NEED MORE PLANTS came from.. LOL I said hang on hun.. I will get him for you.. went in to the post office.. held the door tight.. looking out as if..someone horrible was out there and then said great here she is.. your wife just showed up to save you quick get in the car.. LOL he ran out jumped in the car and she was happy.. later she asked me.. how did you do that.. people get that missfire.. alzheimers in later stages pick a day or a time.. and they live in that times their inhibitions drop away to.. if in their mind they are violent then they will be violent.. seen one guy that ripped a toilet off of the floor and beat the aide with it put her in the hospital.. it wasn’t her fault.. you see it in the eyes.. we had one that was horrible about being violent.. I played golf with the doctor to this patient.. I would say to him.. they need to be evaluated and get some medications to even out the chemical balance.. ( govt hates them doing this because it is now a restraint.. so no balancing) his response was.. ITS ALL IN YOUR APPROACH…I told him this every wednesday nine am tee time.. every week it was the same.. now he was my grandkids doctor to.. we were friends.. anyway.. he went to do his three or six month eval.. the nurse had to run get a chart.. the room mate was a button pusher so no one ran right away..
      the patient went unglued.. grabbed him my his noose and about killed him.. he was pushing the button frantically.. she got the help she needed and all was well after that..
      He had the hangmans scar around his neck.. so the next week he is walking up to the Tee.. and I being the smart azz I am.. said don’t forget doc.. its all in your approach.. that was funny but a sad day to.. we were good friends after that he wouldn’t give me the time of day.. LOL LOL
      they use to call it the glint in the eye.. it has something to do with the window of the soul.. etc.. I knew a patient that was extremely violent.. ( spent one day to long in nam.. invited his commanding officer to a barbque.. his own..LOL ) anyway.. one of the first ones I ever realized the eye thing.. was he had this funny look.. we were going to an appointment.. and he whispers to me.. they don’t know it but I quit taking my pills LOL LOL… OMG..
      anyway working part time overnights at a seven eleven store.. three guys come in divide and conquer style do the split.. one guy keeps you busy and I see this look.. omg.. we are going to be robbed.. thank god a regular came in after their work shift.. I made sure to keep them busy the guys ran off.. after that I talked them into sticking around for a half hour before the cops came in for their coffee and doughnut break.. cost me a sandwich and a soda.. but worth it to me..

    • Ohhh U sooo funny Dr d’Lynn, so funny…naval intelligence bwahahaha

      Reminds me of Large Shrimp..

  17. Highly anticipated storms are like that… either an unplanned-for disaster or a disappointing “is that all there is?” Making you wonder if you overplanned for the worst. But glad it wasn’t on the ‘terrible’ side.

    Speaking of Shimanos… I’ve been lusting after a bike to exercise my arthritic hip and also plan for transportation in the event of fuel loss here on the island. At our county ‘dumps’ (transfer stations) are bargain goods shops where people donate usable things and the store sells them cheap to keep the operation going. “Recycle-Reuse shops”. Well at the Hilo reuse store I found a fabulous bike, covered in dirt. Hi-tech aluminum, spring loaded frame, good tires, and 21 speed Shimano derailleur in working condition. This is over a thousand dollar bike, new, for…. $45 ! Of course I snapped it up immediately. Cleaned up and oiled up, it works better than my legs that I’m trying to drive it with. One more checkbox on the prep list filled.

    Berberine for sugar control. I expect soon it will be unavailable and made a ‘commercial drug’ like is happening to NMN, and your colchicine for gout. My first clue is that it is now so commonly known that even COSTCO is selling Berberine supplements. That blew me away when I saw it in the vitamins department.

    Did you prepay for the chainsaw? Tell them (again) you canceled the order. Maybe they will cancel the payment… after the chainsaw arrives. No guilt. It will be a write-off for the store inventory, and knowing HD, they may not even know where it went. I hear stories of stuff going out the back door of the local HD all the time.

  18. Glad to hear that you came through the hurricane tail just fine.

    Trees and wires seem to always be the problem once one is away from the coast, the trees just seem to be attracted to that good looking wire down below and wants to mate with it. Darwin’s evolution of trying to create new species at work?

    Markets keep marching higher … model still says higher through July – August even with the chaos everyone expects at both conventions. Logic says “NO”, but that is what the model says. Come Sept 1 … don’t just stand aside but FLEE the markets!! Model says the fall will be one for the history books. (who knows if all the clearing houses will even survive their upcoming fall experience)

  19. instead of Magic Jack I’ve used Voiply for several years. They give you a free adapter that connects your router and home phone. Cost is $8.95/month with 2 months free if you pay for a year in advance. it is reliable and has better call quality than the Voiply service I had though a cable tv provider at twice the price.

    • MajicJack is charging $50 for the adapter with a year of service, but is $150 for a 5 year plan, which comes out to less than $3 a month, and you don’t have to return the Jack if you disconnect.
      Voiply is charging $60 a year, with a free adapter, which is $4.96 a month and low upfront. Good find.
      Neither have free international.
      I use my cell as primary, and the MajicJack as a public number, because it has automated attendant screening. Having said that, $4.96 is not bad for a good VOIP service. I have paid much more in the past.

    • Wanted to add … I do have multiple regular Magic Jack lines for various purposes, one item they do NOT advertise is that MJ works for FAX machines too!!, though not all companies seem to allow a FAX coming from a Magic Jack number to come in. A second unadvertised feature is you can pay for a second Magic Jack line and have it configured to have the same number and simul rign with the other line (great for those who have a summer place and winter place, same number can ring in both places all the time)

      *** For businesses Magic Jack has an entirely separate division, run out of different offices with a different support staff including programers. At the moment they are running a special of TWO separate simultaneous ring IP lines (same number) with all the business features on each line, for $20/mo including taxes (for both). Buy your own IP phone obviously, MJ for Business uses Yealink Phones exclusively so I couldn’t transfer over my unlocked Polycom IP units but those are excellent phones (their business lines have no call limit, NO blocked exchanges, and include Canada if I remember correctly)

      I switched my office’s IP system from Nextiva to “Magic Jack for Business” a couple of years ago during my downsizing (was one of their first customers) due to their much cheaper rates for doing the same thing. Couldn’t speak highly enough about Nextiva, great company and great service only down about 10 minutes in over 7 years of me being a customer – MUCH better than ATT and Spectrum (the two biggies here in the CBD) , but Magic Jack for Business beat them up on the pricing and has NEVER been down in the two years I have now been with them … in fact they rewrote their entire operating software to do additional stuff that I requested in order to match some Nextiva features I wanted, which is imo going above and beyond!! They JUMPED at the chance to help me in fact, no complaining, no arguing, just “What can WE DO to help you”!! and then jumped into rewriting their operating code.

      Voice quality with “Magic Jack for Business” is THE BEST I have heard over an IP phone system, almost as good as the paired copper here in the CBD (CBD paired copper still has the BEST voice quality) (the Polycom IP phones which we used with Nextiva, ATT, and 8×8 were top of the line phones so it isn’t the phones).

      For businesses I highly recommend “Magic Jack for Business” (separate company and run separately from Magic Jack, though same umbrella owner). Best full featured business IP phone system for ANY price out there imo. (ATT is the WORST of the biggies in the IP phone system market imo – ATT, the company I LOVE to Hate! LOL)

  20. how about a weeks notice for the check to get to you rather than an abrupt —- your out !!!

    • Things can get lost when a user has a primary email addy (like yours here) and a different once for their PN account. Sometimes it goes to junk mail files when the pre-expiration notes go out, too.
      Send me an email gure@centurylink.net with the PN email adress and will reactivate pending…

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