If this adds a useful perspective
Click here to send this page to a friend

Durables Today, Housing and Fed #s Coming, Greenhouse Blues

Another World War III weekend, I see:  Ordnance Friday and Saturday then a “peace pause” play. US and Iran pause strikes for third night to make space for talks, US ambassador says.

Our (surprisingly keen) observation that WW III would be played as a “weekend war” is turning into a real “NSS” (“No shit Sherlock”) call.  But there’s the calendar and here’s the Dow putting on more than 500 points of smiley face in futures trading.

Durable Orders Roll

Being a “dumb schmuck in the woods” I’d think that Durable Goods would have to rise –  because America runs on the death industries.  And what do you know?

New Orders
New orders for manufactured durable goods in June, up three of the last four months, increased $1.1 billion or 0.3 percent to $334.8 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 4.0 percent May decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.6 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.3 percent. Computers and electronic products, up nine of the last ten months, led the increase, $0.9 billion or 3.1 percent to $31.1 billion.

Tomorrow is “Bikini Tuesday” – when we do a two-part column due to the Housing data release. Covering everything (but just barely…).

News Compressor: ON

We’re working on a solid PN tomorrow, which subscribers will get Wednesday.  It deals with “Human Life Compression: Limits and Opportunities.” Some of the early work, as you know, was devoted to limiting attention to “news” and we do that via systematic summarization:

What changed overnight is a pause in direct US-Iran attacks for another day after two weeks of intensified US bombing, with Iran confirming it has also halted fire while asserting continued control of the Strait of Hormuz and stating it is not seeking talks.

War marketing stats note: The Pentagon shifted four recent US troop deaths from the main Iran war casualty tally into a new “Overseas Operations” category.

Now let’s visit The War Book.  (Am I the only one who misses the old Frontier Casino sports book?  Aging well is outlasting a casino.  There was the Desert Inn and….)  Odds only, please:

  • A ceasefire without commercial reopening — 83%.
  • Two maritime chokepoints acting at once — 90%.
  • Odds of Fed hike 31.7%

The Daily Warring Form Odds: Brent crude fell 8.8% to about $88.30 and U.S. equity futures rose roughly 1%, but fewer than 10 commodity vessels a day crossed Hormuz over the weekend. Houthi attacks on Saudi Red Sea oil facilities keep a second chokepoint active.

A mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival near the Space Needle on Sunday evening killed three people and wounded four (including a toddler); one suspect was arrested and another remains at large, with investigators indicating the pair were shooting at each other and no ongoing public threat.

Public gathering risk? Not enough to generalize yet but… A van-ramming attack near Berlin Pride on Saturday killed one and injured about 29; the suspect was later shot by police.

A heat dome expanded across the central and southern United States. Large wildfires in France and Spain drove roughly 250,000 evacuations.

Action Figure Plans

The Wild Wild Weather: Category 5 Hurricane Genevieve is far from the U.S. mainland but is producing dangerous eastern-Pacific marine conditions. Hurricane Fausto remains active farther west. The Atlantic currently has no listed tropical cyclone.

Midwest and Ohio Valley businesses: Charge backup batteries, secure outdoor inventory, confirm generator fuel and review employee travel plans before afternoon storms develop.

Western operators and travelers: Check local fire restrictions immediately before field work or travel. National resource competition means small fires can wait longer for outside assistance.

Microsoft SharePoint administrators: Patch CVE-2026-50522, rotate affected machine keys and hunt for persistence. Reporting indicates attackers may retain access after patching when stolen keys remain valid.

Patch-after-compromise is no longer enough — 96%. The SharePoint case reinforces that stolen cryptographic material can survive software remediation. Key rotation and forensic review are becoming standard steps after exploitation.

HF and satellite operators: NOAA places the daily chance of minor-to-moderate radio blackouts at 45% through Wednesday, while forecasting no geomagnetic storm. Expect occasional daytime HF degradation rather than a broad magnetic disruption.  We’re not sure what it means when the Sun is noisy without being stormy.

Wait!  Whatever happened to Stormy?

Around the Ranch: Greenhouse Blues

Our lean-to greenhouse is finally staying in the summer vegetable zone I’ve been chasing. But it hasn’t been easy.

The biggest lesson has been confirmation—again—that you cannot bend the rules of physics. A compact Asian-made evaporative cooler may sound efficient on the sales page, especially when the advertised airflow number is large. But evaporative cooling is ultimately limited by how much water can be transferred into the passing air.

That is where thicker pads, more wetted surface and massive but slower airflow—as used in the Hessaire units—kick the pants off smaller, thin-pad coolers screaming air through at higher velocity.

Headline CFM is not the whole problem.

Sunday, I finally accumulated enough working parts to make one good Hessaire MC37 out of two dead ones. It was not a ten-minute repair.

For starters, the fan-blade assembly would not come off the motor shaft. That became 45 minutes in Adventureland with pry bars, penetrating oil and generous applications of Kroil anywhere something looked dry.

Eventually, I removed the donor motor from its frame and “walked” the old fan assembly off the shaft using the claws of two large framing hammers, working opposite sides a fraction at a time. Primitive? Sure. Sometimes, though, primitive just works.

The replacement motor—by now afraid to cross me—went in and the fan blades went back on without much drama once I remembered the retaining nut uses reverse threads. Then I wrestled the assembled unit into place in the greenhouse, connected the water and fired it up.

It leaked like Johnstown.

Fine. Detective time.  By then I was seriously five pounds lighter from sweating, but the culprit soon revealed itself: the old float-valve assembly had split along the threaded water inlet. Which raised the obvious Sunday-morning question:

“Where do you find a swamp-cooler float valve assembly at 7:45 AM?”

The answer? Ure’s shop. Amazingly, I had bought a spare several years ago. Normally, such a part would enter a quantum storage state—existing somewhere on the property but impossible to observe. By happy accident, the valve was sitting beside a box of fresh media pads.

In it went.

With the outside temperature climbing above 94°F, the greenhouse barely kissed 90°F Sunday. Later, with both Hessaires running, we held 86.7°F while the outside temperature remained in the mid-90s. At that point I was ready to have my Cheap Air Conditioning ticket endorsed.

With my pulse briefly peaking around 130 and five pounds of water sweated off, I spent the rest of the morning in the recliner drinking water and dill pickle juice. Pulse stays high until water’s back.

There, I contemplated the YouTube video showing “How to Replace a Fan Motor in Ten Minutes”—and how I had once again ended up in, drinking and chewing on, a real pickle.

Turgor Tracking

Once the greenhouse began cooling, the plants changed almost immediately. Leaves that had looked tired and limp by afternoon (like the farmer) began standing firmer and moving in the airflow. That sent me off to learn a useful new word: turgor.

Turgor pressure is the internal water pressure that keeps plant cells firm. Water enters the cells, pushes outward against the cell walls and helps leaves and stems hold their shape. High turgor means the plant looks firm and upright.

Low turgor means wilted, soft and droopy. Think of turgor as the plant world’s version of Viagra: everything stands up better.

What helped? A combination of cooler leaves, reduced heat stress and the roots keeping up better with water loss. The plants looked visibly happier once the temperature dropped. Evaporative coolers also perform better as the outside air gets drier. So when the forecast returns to 105°F with humidity around 30 percent?  Bring it.

Turgor may not seem like a critical word today. But if the web ever flutters, supply chains wobble or grocery prices get seriously entertaining, these “pointless” gardening facts may suddenly become indispensable. Especially for people who enjoy eating.

Coffee Jitters?

At breakfast Saturday, Elaine—yes, the one whose Selectric never showed up, although the refund finally did—was offered more coffee. I am an attentive waiter and caregiving hubby.

“No thanks,” she said. “I don’t want to stain my teeth.”

Now, understand that Elaine is past 83. So I pointed out that we get regular dental cleanings, and any coffee stains accumulated now probably would not become a serious cosmetic problem until way after age 90.

She demurred again, shaking her head.

That was when the research brain kicked in. “Alexa, I figure I have consumed about 14 ounces of coffee per day for 70 years. How many gallons is that?”

“Around 3,000 gallons.”

That is roughly the volume of a ten-foot-square backyard plunge pool four feet deep. Then it occurred to me that if you run the lights low enough, coffee stains do not really matter.

Problemology.org

Having more money than sense—and not much of either—I naturally registered the domain name after the word Problemology revealed itself in Peoplenomics this weekend.

Here’s my thinking: We live in a confused world where people rush around measuring skin shading, testosterone levels and dozens of other variables before pausing long enough to ask the most important question:

“What is the actual problem?”

This is where the world repeatedly falls into Test-Fitting Apes mode. We begin fitting solutions before the right question has been asked. Then the meetings begin.

Consultants arrive. Committees form. Grant applications are written. New departments appear. Mission statements are printed. Before long, millions of dollars are being spent to solve something nobody properly defined in the first place.

We now have whole colleges focused on minutiae. Is it just me, or are gender-studies programs mainly showing off that they can count past two?

Our curriculum is more direct: We issue every student a mirror and tell them to return in a year or two. (For another $10, we include a law-school application.)

Problemology will offer discounts to government agencies and higher education because those will be our anchor markets. It may also be a better business than money or finance, both of which have “transitioned” from factual to fictional.

Real problems may be limited, but—like crypto—anyone can manufacture more. And they do, especially inside large organizations.

  • First, they create a problem.
  • Then they charge taxpayers to study it.
  • Then they apply for additional funding to manage the unintended consequences of the original study.
  • Finally, they hire themselves to pretend they are solving it.

It is a wonderful business model.

The greenhouse offers a simpler approach.

  • The plants are hot.
  • The cooler is broken.
  • The valve is split.

Those are problems. Everything else is a committee meeting consuming time nobody can replace.  Which is the real problem Problemology ought to solve first.

Write if Reality is sighted again,

George@Ure.net

Consider subscribing to our deeper work.
If this article added a useful perspective...

Peoplenomics is where George does the deeper work.

For about 11 cents a day, you're not buying another newsletter — you're buying back some of your time.

See what you've been missing.

88 thoughts on “Durables Today, Housing and Fed #s Coming, Greenhouse Blues”

Comments are reviewed by a human because the web is crawling with spammers. Submissions after 4 PM Central usually appear the following morning. After you click Post Comment, you’ll jump back to the top of this article, but your comment is queued up here. We’ve got a robust community and your participation is invited. Some commenters are brilliant. Read a few and judge for yourself. Imagine. You could be one.

  1. yep the old monday yadas . ramping up into the FED comedy show . meanwhile nero sits in the half a house spinning vitriol at official banquets and threatening to blow everything up . wow what a backdrop for an AI rigged market . ronnie milsap , any day now . hey buddy got a spare missile ? we got nothing

  2. cankickers are mad . the nasdaq chart is the ugliest , most broken piece of horse manure i have ever seen .worse than 2002 and 2008 put together . get in your spacex (broke nasa rebadged ) and take off with elon to mars . please

  4. What is the temp of your nutrient solution? We have had 2 bad heat waves this July with heat indexes reaching 115 – 120 degrees. Yesterday the temp in greenhouse 1 hit 122 degrees RH 78.9%, doors on both ends and all vents open, Yikes! Good luck raising greens in that soup. Temps are supposed to moderate by midweek and some rain is possible. I ordered new shade cloth, 75%, for next year. Wait, were retiring right?
    Best wishes to Elaine and you. Stay safe. 73

  5. yep took me a long time . but i think constitutional monarchies are the best way . sorry founding fathers but das presidente has proved in 250 years it always reverts back to feudal monarch with corruption , lies and no regard for the greater population . ohh he threw the kids a $1000 loaf of bread to invest for there grandkids if they survive . goodnight

    • We are in a cycle of history similar to the 1930’s where all of the leaders of Europe and allied western nations are annoyingly bad.

      Think of Euro Empress Van Der Leyen, she is an unelected leader who is raising an army and setting Europe on a course for war with Russia that the EU citizens are not allowed to vote on.

      Who is this weeks British PM?

      What about the French President Macron who is making tough speeches about Putin and is sounding almost Napoleonic in his rhetoric?

      The rest of Europe? It does what the EU and its Empress tells them to do.

    • I will pick our constitutional Republic over your king , who appears to be a mooslim. Yea matey, take it in da heinie do yah.

      • your luv of dictators and obsession with rear entry techniques is strange but normal for guys of your intelligence. where you a regular on that little island ? any photos ? god love you JFK forever and your beautiful son john boy who would have been president . pilot error? sure … wouldnt be an altitude bomb in the luggage . nah of course not . you conspiracy blokes are all nuts . big sheilas i think your tranny friend says

        • WTF
          I come here because most of you folks are more than reasonably smart.
          And then there’s this crap!
          Help George. The peasants are revolting

        • With a grain, Jacksynn. The pezzies are active in Ukraine, Iran AND Ostralia. We are here to observe, wieth occasional baiting and trapping permitted. Catch and release.

        • G.A. STEWART: I live in an affluent area. A few weeks ago, a woman in her late 50s, trying to look like she was in her late 40s, came into my local breakfast cafe. She was wearing a white MAGA hat with gold lettering and sat a few seats down from me at the counter waiting for her date. The news was on the television and she started talking to me about supporting Donald J. Trump.

          I simply said, “He’s an idiot.” My response took the wind right out of her sails. With some hesitation and trepidation, I explained to her that I voted for him two times, but time does tell. At that point, her date appeared. I knew the type, a divorced country club guy in his late 60s with membership money.

          He arrived when I was getting the superficial verbal beat down from his incensed date for not endorsing the savior of humanity, Donald J. Trump. He laughed nervously and said, “Well, there’s no talking about politics.”

          And my response was, “That’s for sure.”

          This is a microcosm of our current reality and there ain’t no fix. The CNN – Fox News Paradigm is soon going to be over. It is just a matter of mathematics and a dying generation. Eventually, starvation will silence all political debates.

          Senator Lindsey Graham’s death was a reality check. Fake tough guys like Lindsey Graham and Donald J. Trump work through thuggery. That history leads back to Trump’s gay mentor, Roy M. Cohn.

          https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2026/07/28/the-crocodile-cometh/

        • A reread of “The True Believer” can sometimes help in understanding the otherwise un-understandable about the rigidity of some people’s belief systems.

          Cults rely upon that human dynamic to retain and even grow their membership. People with questioning minds are NOT welcome to Cultists, only “True Believers” are.

  6. Turgor Smurgor Chief,

    That shit dont do squattaa for Sugaring. It is the Maple Trees that provide us with Sustenance when Hungry Times arrive, every year at the begging of Spring. Winter food stores have run low or out and Mother Nature is still snoozing. Everybody and Thing in the Land is Hungry. Sap runs on pressure gradients and freeze – thaw cycle.
    If look at any old Maple trees in mid west/east coast right around 3foot mark on trunk of tree will be old Scars.
    Maple Sap in March is a Life Saver. Ancient indigenous tale the “great Father” walking the Land checking on the Peeps. They were all fat and lazy, laying in the Tree shade – drinking thick rich free Sap dripping from the tree branches. Legend says great father was upset by this and proceeded to Pour buckets and buckets of Water into the Tree. This why they have to collect so much Sap today and boil it down concentrating the all the yummy goodness – A GIFT from Nature to Humanity, same deal Honey..

    * Why if House of Saud is on Fire this AM, is Oil price going down?

    • re: birds of a feather
      feat: Stormy in Wellville

      It seems that a Rooster T Feathers Comedy Club rules in Sunnyvale, Ca. Googley-eyed patrons had recent opportunity to flock together and shelter amidst Stormy surrounds. Her tour now appears turned east, and is understood on approach into Wellville, N.Y.

      The latest news winds from Wellville indicate a tug-of-war between proponents of either remaining a town or becoming a city. Winging it, Wellville’s moniker suggests a metropolis out of a best-living episode. In fact, it turns out to be named after a Mr. Wells. Historical oil and gas extraction industries have given way to hot air balloon launches.

      Previously Wellsville had been known as Gistaguat (“Pigeon Wood”) by the Seneca tribe. Annual gatherings armed with “stool pigeons” welcomed unsuspecting passenger pigeons perhaps homing in via infrared frequencies. Allegedly the birds’ continental numbers once reached hundreds of millions or perhaps billions. Their species became extinct in 1914.

      The Columbia County Historical and Geneaogical Society offers a downloadable story about the Whitmoyer Massacre of 1780. Two siblings go in search of sap at a Sugar Bush while warriors storm the family cabin. At least one sibling subsequently transits the pigeon festival at Gistaguat:

      https://colcohist-gensoc.org/wp-content/uploads/whitmoyer_saga.pdf

      As an aside, the Lightning/Thunderbolt 12th Roman Legion was homed at Melitene (hittite: “honey”) which is now situated in Turkey. They left their inscription in rock for posterity at Gobustan, Azerbaijan by the Caspian Sea late in the first century a.d.

    • I think US is now the marginal oil producer, gotta take delivery of the product and find someone to retail it to or, close out your position.

  7. Ok home gamers, IMHO we now have an explanation as to why Gruesome was “re elected” after surviving a California recall petition…… strange, in CA, a recall election can only be held if a MAJORITY of registered voters have signed on to remove said malfeasance from office….. funny how that works. The hand collected signatures show a majority of registered voters wanted the gov replaced, yet once it gets into the voting machine apartichik, it’s spits out a win for Grewsome. Funny that.

    https://youtu.be/xroWTxqC1jM?is=0eK8rXniwgxBWr5j

    • S, are you too drunk on the Kool Aid to do math, it’s simple arithmetic:
      https://couragecaliforniainstitute.org/whats-a-recall/
      ‘A recall is a way for voters to remove an elected official from office through a simple majority vote at any time during their term. California is one of 20 states that permits the recall process, and it has been used successfully in California only once before.

      California has a low bar for triggering a recall election, requiring only that supporters of a recall gather valid signatures from registered voters totaling at least 12% of the vote count from the previous election. In the case of Governor Newsom, that signature threshold is 1.5 million. The recall campaign submitted 2.1 million signatures by its March 17 deadline. ‘

      https://roseinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-Recall-Results.pdf
      38% , or 4.9 million voted to recall Newsom
      62% or 7.9 million voted to keep Newsom as Gov.

      • What’s wrong with the other 30 states, and what’s missing intellectually from 62% of California voters?

        Politicians need their feet kept to the fire!

  8. “Think of turgor as the plant world’s version of Viagra: everything stands up better.”

    I will never look at a rose the same way again!

    • Cute story on coffee and stained teeth… lol lol lol…

      When my little grandpa’s girl was about four, she turned to me and asked,
      “Grandpa, why do teeth get yellow?”

      So I told her, “Well honey, as you get older and drink things like coffee, cola, tea… they all have dyes and natural dark pigments. In ancient times, people colored clothes and fabrics using flowers, roots, and stones — beets are red, turmeric is yellow, berries are purple. Those colors can slowly absorb into the enamel coating of your teeth over the years.”

      Then she said, “Smile for me.”
      I smiled… and she looked at me real serious and said,
      “Yup… you’re getting older.”

      Kids don’t miss a thing.

  10. I have started using 30% shade cloth the past few summers and the garden plants love it, helps create a better microclimate for them and they use less water.

    We had to bite the bullet and have a whole house re-pipe done because our 50 year old leaky slab plumbing needed to be bypassed with overhead piping. My theory is the clay soil around here expands and contracts every year with the rains, near Sacramento. Luckily it leaked outside the house…

    The price a little more than doubled since 2012 when we bought the house, I had a good buddy, he was a plumber, always talked shop with me, I got an estimate about doing a whole house re-pipe when we moved in…

    One quote, was $32,000 the other for $23,900 the as the winner, I was prepared, and i payed off the house several years ago…

    • I DIY repiped my house a few years ago and it was affordable, but time consuming and my caving experience came in handy. It can be a lot of work depending on accessibility. You do get to know your house though.

      • Ditto.

        It cost about $200 and took me all of a 14hr day. ‘Twould have been faster, had I torn out the walls instead of fishing the pipe through, and if I’d have had help. Hitting the “Tees” from a 1″ hole in the wall, was a PITA. I *did* have the benefit of working in a basement instead of a crawl space, though. That made “old work” replumbing and rewiring both (long) 1-day jobs…

  11. “Rich Dad – Poor Dad” – Kiyosaki, says ‘greatest depression in world history’ has started, with boomers facing disaster.

    This guy is tens of millions in debt – has he ever been right – on any of his predictions ?? I can’t recall even one.

    “If you guess long enough – sooner, or later you will be right.” Is that what he is hoping for? Let us hope he is wrong again.

    “Stay Frosty !”

    • LOL – guys like us look at the “rich” and what we see is actual net worth. Rich to those types is a big number. To us, rich means what’s left over after all debt is zeroed – thanks for the reminder

      • Apparently, historical measures of wealth are no longer taught to students anywhere at any level. Net present worth has been replaced by the volume indicator. If you live in a warehouse, you must be rich. If Ure vehicle is a 3 ton behemoth, you are wealthy. It doesn’t matter if you are underwater on an excessively long mortgage or loan, or are leasing for double your income. This is a feature of an elitist debt slave economy, being run by leftist morons, who claim to be fiscal conservatives at every opportunity.

    • Silver Stacks & BTC.

      Debt can be an Asset in certain situations..like a Mortgage, an appreciating or “inflating” asset.

      USD is a Note =Debt Instrument.. We bee indebted to Something/Someones.

      Speaking of BIG HOLES, how much of the Gold stored at Fort Knox do you and or jarvis think is Painted/Dipped/Electro Plated Tungsten ?

      • I did happen to ask J.A.R.V.I.S. if there was gold in storage at Ft Knox, or coated tungsten?

        His reply was pretty straight forward – it was something like:
        “It would be an absolute disaster, world wide, if it were proven to be “false gold”. The U.S. economy would end up collapsing and take near every other world economy with it.
        I believe it would change the course of history.”

        That is kind of – sort of what he stated. I go along with it. However, will we ever really know? Trump said he would, but hasn’t – which does make everyone, right, or wrong – comment.

        • Same Exact BS we get from the No Goodnik side, running the Business/Farm/Botanical Garden regards Disclosure.

          thats very interesting .

          thx

        • Since our dollar is based on Texas chili farts and BC is a cartoon rose..they are only valued because someone scratching their ass and sniffing their fingers says so..I suggested nuts..put the mr. planter guy in the portrait section of the nut bucks..lol lol lol…..
          would anyone seriously care if there wasn’t anything at the Knox vaults since nothing is valued by gold anymore.

  12. NHC – latest maps show…,
    HURRICANE FAUSTO is on track to slide on by the Hawaiian Island just to the north and category Five HURRICANE GENEVIEVE appears to be doing the same – but still a couple of days needed to be sure it will miss Hawaii.

    Looks like you may have dodged a couple of bullets from Mother Nature – Hank.

    • Hurricanes pull up moisture from the south, so we can expect some southerly airflow, humidity, & rain, but nothing serious. Storm surf is already up on the east shores. Fausto will be downgraded to ‘storm’ status this evening as it loses strength.

      Strong el nino’ will bring us more yet, thru November.

      • Box Kite Antenna!!!! Back when I was ZF2HD on GCM I strung one out overs the reef, workwing DX ancd a rack of “greenies” while the kids played in the surf.

      • I wonder what would be more fun than listening to ham chatter from around the world..I’d need to get an antenna.. you probably would get a more honest view of regional news

  13. My FB feed had several adds for a freestanding wall mounted room AC (220 powered) that showed a frosty air stream exhausting. I looked on Amazon & didn’t find anything like it, but it’s an interesting concept, although 99.9 of everything advertized on FB is a scam.

    • What is “freestanding wall mounted?” Portable units roll around, but must be vented to outside to function properly, else they’re just really expensive dehumidifiers.

    • I am presently showing the grandkids how to make an air cooler out of cardboard boxes and monster drink cans.. usually the air coolers now only take things down to thirty degrees of ambiance…. but similar to poor mans deep freeze..or poor mans liquid nitrogen you can do better..the coolerado air conditioner is pretty awesome..

  14. George’s recent timely thread about dysphoria preps the group for tomorrow’s new book release by author Annie Jacobsen. In “Biological War: a Scenario” advance review teasers outline paths to dystopia following a viral contagion release.

    The book’s waitlist length at my local library exceeds the number of regular font-sized copies being stocked. However I am top of the list for a large print copy.

    As chance would have it, Ms. Jacobsen examined the Baker atomic bomb test in her 2024 book “Nuclear War”. That test was conducted at Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946.

  15. I did wish to chime in and thank George for all of his Shop Talk Sunday columns. Even someone like me who can’t swing a hammer without hitting my thumb really appreciated them and his practical insights about living, tools, and on occaision how to fix things that broke. I may be a good wilderness camper but in a shop I am worthless. For broken stuff I long ago learned the art of checkbook repair!!, few tools required.

    May the extra time you free up add to the quality of life you and Elaine can live in the piney woods of Texas

  16. “For starters, the fan-blade assembly would not come off the motor shaft. That became 45 minutes in Adventureland with pry bars, penetrating oil and generous applications of Kroil anywhere something looked dry.

    Eventually, I removed the donor motor from its frame and “walked” the old fan assembly off the shaft using the claws of two large framing hammers, working opposite sides a fraction at a time. Primitive? Sure. Sometimes, though, primitive just works.”

    Well, I’ll be…

    You DON’T yet own every tool known to Man.

    Even I have a GEAR PULLER!!

    https://www.homedepot.com/p/VEVOR-Gear-Puller-Set-3-4-6-8-in-3-Jaw-Bearing-Puller-with-Reversible-Jaws-2-3-Jaw-Pulley-Puller-4-Piece-Heavy-Duty-Kit-ZSLBQ3468INCY2G2C001V0-250928/339168087

    The small one is for fan blades or battery cables, or reverse the jaws to pull pilot bearings. The larger ones are for sheaves and engine harmonic-balancers. 3-jaw doesn’t warp the gear or pulley. My Lisle cost 2x the price of this Vevor, and that was 40 years ago…

        • Ah! You recall my first paid job was as a ‘page’ shelving books at Seattle Public Library under the watchful eye of Mrs. O’Brien. 2-bits an hour and all the books I could read. Including first dibs on all the sci-fi books when they landed. All dutifully stamped – manyt by me” at the bottom of page 41. “Property of Seattle Public Library” – knowing the stamp on page 51 established ownership and was hidden from the common book thieves. Since>? I guess there’s something in SSL…

        • But that would require the tools to be put back where they belong, which has been my problem forever. I ask my wife if she’s seen my ***** tool, and she asks where I last used it. If I could remember that, I wouldn’t be asking her!

        • One big problem for tools beyond needing too many of them is that parallel work in progress in many different places makes organizing tools a nightmare. Perhaps RFID chips or some similar means might work.

  18. Well., that sucks !
    Not only was our little turbo charged 2 door run-around car stolen., I just received a “Screw You !” email from our insurer – our claim has been denied.
    It seems that they automatically cancel comprehensive insurance after a vehicle reaches 20 years old – unless that vehicle is State Certified as an antique. [ Like my Studebaker. – and I will be changing auto insurance today, or tomorrow.]
    According to A.I. several larger insurers have started doing this as a means to cut costs and raise revenue. “We mailed you a Policy Change several years ago.” Which I do not remember getting. You can still get Comprehensive., but at a much higher payment. Most of the time this bump in installment payments is simply added on – but not this time.
    So.., we not only lose the car and now also the Comprehensive pay-out.
    Still no word if the car has been spotted anywhere.

    .., damn !

    “Stay Frosty…, and pissed-off !”

      • in the event this is an illegitimate dodge, to avoid claim payment (or any other unfair practice) get in touch with your state Ins. Commission. their power dwarfs the companies.

        rough sledding here. my girl and I are struggling to help my sister. tomorrow we will select a nursing home knowing it to be short term. the “case mgrs” will probably lower the boom soon.

        thought of you with passwords d’Lynn. wish my sister had compiled her PW list … like I asked many times. nope. I pulled out 2 century notes today to cover NSF.

        E2 has all our account #s and PWs. this whole experience makes me conclude one should make it easier for the eventual caregiver.

        we are doing it the hard way. detective work.

        E

        ps – notice the nutters getting wound up lately? including here? big moon …

    • I’m double concerned about fire season. My Homeowners is with State Farm, and I recently read they have one of the worst records when it comes to paying, especially in the event of a fire.

    • FWIW I have State Farm, which just bought Hagerty (classic car insurers.) My Buick’s insurance is $17/mo for zero-deductable PL/PD Collision & Comp, Med, Uninsured/Underinsured. I am limited to 250 miles per month (how would they know on a ’60s car?) I dunno what their rates are without the mileage limitations but I’m driving my Expi or Jetta most of the time so that’s kinda moot…

    • Thanks for the head’s up! A friend had her car stolen and a witness claimed a towtruck took it, but no further info. It’s not been recovered and I doubt it’s intact anymore. It was over 20 years old. My youngest car is 18 years old and everything else is older. I feel really bad for you, and her. It’s not just the car, it’s YOUR car. I have no idea what might be in the car either. I suggest putting airtags in cars, though that’s not a panacea.

      I keep minimum insurance on my cars and keep the better one garaged. Insurance companies exist to collect premiums and investment profits, not for payouts. I never heard of state certification of cars as antiques! I thought cars qualified by being 35 years old or older.

      • ” I thought cars qualified by being 35 years old or older.”

        AAA used to say 25 years = “Classic:” 30 years = “Antique.”

        Each State differs, I think, in their requirements or qualifications. They all differ radically, between their legal definitions, for registration purposes, and insurance company definitions (for insurance purposes.)

        “Classic,” “Vintage,” and “Antique” mean vastly different things to the insurance companies, and to classic car clubs. I’m not sure any two clubs, or two insurance companies agree on either scope or definition.

        I keep $500 deductible, full coverage on the Jetta and Expi because I drive the hell out of both and have logged nearly 800k miles between the two. I am a competent driver, but have no faith that ANYONE ELSE on the road is…

  19. there have always been solutions looking for a problem in my forty years as an engineer.

  20. Fill The Gap !

    Another month , another Big Baby on the way. Parents want to be surprised, so no eye deer whether its a Hotdog or a Hamburger. Terms used for Gender are from birth Mom/DIL. She is a OB-GYN and 8 months pregnant ..with our next grandkid! Better Half and myself are on the bench for this one, we will be there at zero hour, but only in back up/support capacity.
    The new 2 Month old Baby Girl just checked in at docs office last week in the 97 percentile – Length/Weight. We are talking Big, big,big Babies here. We are not big Grand Parents by any stretch, and will soon be Lilliputians and or “shorties”.

    Was up price of Crude Oil ? Strait is closed, red sea/bab al bab closed/ strat. reserve bout empty/ Russian Oil under pressure – gee ya dont think they will reciprocate do ya? Cheapest Gas in my local town today $4.28 -WTF, over?

    Oh well I’m chasing a new fortune in Biotech – tis where my Money and my Body want to be at – cutting edge. The “water” really is delightful..

    • I hear the pedo joe family has bio tech in ukraine. Good trustworthy family with a history in ukraine. Just saying.

  21. “Aging well is outlasting a casino.”
    And old friends… and memorable music stars… and…
    That’s something I told myself early on that I would have to deal with if I planned to live a long life. I remember my aunt at 99 in the care home, lamenting that all her friends were gone, and we were the only family she had left. The cure is to stay socially engaged in old age, make new friends, and especially appreciate close family several generations down.

  23. re: “The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette…”
    feat: C. Hartley, publ. Boston, 1873

    Caspian Sea naming is understood to have reached the English language via Greek and Latin. It apparently derives from the Caspi tribe of some 2,500 years past in the Persian region. Saturday’s alleged Ukrainian attack on an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea had been promised a response by the aggrieved party.

    Iran’s university-backed daily media outlet “Farhikhtegan” (persian: “Intellectuals”) published a range of alleged reply targets on their dot ir website. Since then, “Pravda” copied the list from a Telegram channel. The compilation is published via their Georgian office at the following weblink. Georgia of course is an EU Candidate Country in good standing:

    https://ge.news-pravda.com/en/georgia/2026/07/27/32242.html

    • re: from the Ports mouth

      The President of Ukraine posted his descent from his aircraft upon UK arrival Monday. Two hosting mandarins greeted him followed by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, 4 star General Zaluzhnyi, whose measure offers compliments to an English diet of two years and 17 days duration thus far. Next in the receiving line attired in Ukrainian naval uniform was Captain Donskoi who has held public posting as Ukraine’s defence attaché in West London for at least four years and three months.

      The blooper reel gods shone down as the next in line greeted the President. A Royal Navy member found himself on the tarmac without his jacket having to salute the guest in a shirt. No sweat…

      Shortly afterwards the President posted his meeting with new UK PM Burnham in Portsmouth. First though, he had to walk the plank and board Royal Navy aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth. Then PM Andy attired in top-shelf black business casual attire greeted the President. Clearly this was a tale of two tailors.

      Finally an absolutely mind boggling moment arrived. The two leaders boarded a Ukrainian Navy minesweeper staffed with Ukrainian sailors. Apparently it is one of five minesweepers gifted by the UK to Ukraine, and parked at Portsmouth these last three years. Who knew? The President noted in his remarks that the vessels will proceed to the Ukrainian “maritime area” after “the end of the war”.

      Update from the Ukraine President: “I am now in the United States of America”. His posted video clip shows him welcomed by the Ukraine Ambassador to the USA along with two Ukrainian military officers.

      The only objects American in sight seem to be an SUV limo and driver.

  24. all : witness aggressive futures juicing in the options mkts before the bell. exit liquidity for those risking off (dumping to dip buyers who … were locked out until the rise after open). 500 pts of Comp travel is a lot, hey?

    E

  25. Well, lacking the Selectric tour of USPS from George, it now looks like I can supply some replacement entertainment. My fishing shirts, SPF50, made it from Florida to SanFran where they bounced. Sunday they went to Reno. Today’s tracking shows they then went to Denver. Departed Denver for parts as yet unknown. Stay Tuned…

  26. time to Get Smart

    “KAOS is an international organization of evil bent on world domination. The organization is led by a character known as Mr. Big”

    when the world is in the hands of a vain, capricious leader the only place to look is UP.

    A SpaceX rocket will hit the Moon on Aug. 5th, slamming into the moondust at 5400 mph.

    WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS COMET? Last week, astronomers pointed their telescopes at Comet 10P/Tempel 2 for a special event. On July 20th, Earth crossed the comet’s orbital plane, and we saw its dust trail edge-on as an exquisitely thin line.

  27. When It Rained for Two Million Years: The Forgotten Climate Crisis of the Triassic
    Long before humans worried about climate change, the planet experienced a storm that never seemed to end. Scientists believe the Carnian Pluvial Event unleashed greenhouse gases, volcanic eruptions, and sustained monsoons, reshaping Earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems. The result: one of the most dramatic turning points in evolutionary history.

    just in case the postal office debacle is not enough to give you sleepless nights………….

  28. I actually made the post yesterday to say this but then got rushed:

    State Farm is mediocre. It’s a lot better than the insurance companies that do the heavy rotation on TV but it’s not as good as companies like the Hartford or Western Southern Life. (I don’t even know if companies like these have a Casualty and Indemnity division…)

    State Farm was the principal insurer for last year’s Palisades fires and they pretty much welched on every single one but I don’t know if that’s an insurance thing or a state regulation thing.

    I do know State Farm insurance charges me virtually nothing to ensure a 60-year-old Buick and they paid $7,800 to repair
    my 2002 Jetta 5 years ago, when a guy tried to park his pickup truck in my right rear quarter…

Comments are closed.