Retirement is looking a lot better organized than it did a week or two back. I’m starting to catch up on things and soon, the long-held projects list will be ripe for attack.
In the meantime, “dangerous flooding” didn’t show up in our part of Texas overnight. A measly 0.75-inch in the gauge. Our weather is about a clone of Hilo, Hawaii for the day. What we don’t have is a hurricane Rachel trying to spin up southwest of Cabo.
On the Atlantic side, still an unusual lack of storms year. Odds are low that the latest disturbance, a few hundred miles northeast of the D.R. will amount to anything.
Did Jobs Hit +90,000?
See for yourself: (no)
Both nonfarm payroll employment (+29,000) and the unemployment rate (4.2 percent) changed little in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in all major industries changed little over the month.
Household Survey Data
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in September. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.1 percent to 4.3 percent since March.
This is one of those “Yes, we want no bananas” kinds of numbers. Yes, hiring is good. But softness keeps a Fed rate hold in the most likely column – and that could rally markets. Yeah – weird financial logic – but don’t look at me. Instead look at this:
Eventually, someone besides us will decide that jobs were really up – strongly in the database number. +406,000 and the market will panic and drop. But selling the low-ball number to get the market up? My head hurts!
News Compressor: ON
The biggest overnight news flow change isn’t oil. Brent is down a shade, so markets were up early in futures trading. What has changed is the world’s hardware picture.
The U.S. is sending another carrier toward the Middle East. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is headed that way along with the Makin Island amphibious group and thousands more sailors and Marines. Depending on deployment timing, that could put three American carrier strike groups in the region.
Carriers aren’t diplomatic notes. You don’t move that much floating air power halfway around the world because everyone has agreed to behave. Remember our talk about an “October surprise”? Look at the calendar. Odds: 85%. The Middle East military posture is hardening faster than the diplomatic language suggests.
Then there’s Russia.
Putin now says if Russia’s Kaliningrad territory is threatened, Moscow would consider using the whole range of weapons in its arsenal. Reuters specifically notes that includes nuclear weapons, and Russia had already warned NATO that an attempt to cut off the Baltic enclave could trigger nuclear use. That’s worth reading twice.
We now have the United States moving enough naval power toward Iran to make another major strike option very real, while Russia is publicly putting the nuclear card on the table over Kaliningrad.
Pressure point to watch in the EU is teens rioting in France over teacher shortages, overcrowding, deteriorating school conditions and education funding, with roughly 400 schools closed and violent clashes in multiple cities.
Two different theaters. Two nuclear powers. Same week.
Meanwhile, Back at the Gas Pump…
Reader Ray’s note on where the money’s going on prices is worth a read. But we also notice diesel was averaging $6.3726 nationally in the early Triple A reading. That’s up roughly 72 percent from a year ago.
Here’s where yesterday’s BlinkLab observation gets interesting.
Gulf physical flows have actually been improving. Yet China has suspended October fuel-product exports beyond Hong Kong and Macau, Russia has restricted diesel exports, and Europe is discussing emergency diesel and crude-stock releases. Brent actually slipped below $100 earlier as those reserve-release discussions hit the market.
In other words: War can cool while the bill keeps arriving.
The event clock may be slowing while the consequence clocks are multiplying. Nothing overnight argues strongly otherwise.
Inside Pages
Treasury yields backed away from Thursday’s ugly levels ahead of today’s employment numbers. Markets get a breather, but the bond problem didn’t disappear overnight. Temporarily stabilizing. Odds of a rate hike at month-end are down in the 25% zone. Supports the rally case but keep a stopwatch handy.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have moved from another African shooting story toward a diplomatic rupture, with the African Union now trying to keep the thing from spreading. Escalating regionally.
The Philippines-China confrontation around Batanes remains alive while Taiwan sits right next door. Nobody has fired the starter pistol, but an awful lot of people are standing around the track. Holding elevated.
AI infrastructure financing is becoming its own species of financial engineering as companies contemplate tens of billions in borrowing, chip leasing and special-purpose vehicles. Cheap intelligence apparently requires breathtakingly expensive plumbing. Accelerating. Though we do laugh at how many (alleged) media are suddenly discovering building AI plant and equipment involves playing all kinds of tax angles.
How much school do you need to miss to overlook that angle?
Ballistics of the Future
We will launch another “Over-the-Horizon” ‘cleanroom’ scan of what’s up ahead. If your expectations are well-tuned:
- Markets could still go either way, depending on inflation impact craters. Next speed bump is the month-end Fed meeting.
- The calendar says Netanyahu needs a big win before Israel’s elections. Similarly, Trump needs help, too, or the power structure in D.C. will flip decidedly liberal in January.
- The winter ahead looks warmer and drier for the top half of the country, but cooler and wetter from the square states south to the Gulf.
Hedging bets on how to play life now involves watching rates (going up), employment (holding on based on AI), and avoiding new financial nooses, if you can. Which brings me to?
Around the Ranch: Yardening
49,000 Square Miles of Inedible Carpet, and We Mow It on Purpose.
Pappy Ure always said “Question how smart someone is if they fertilize a lawn causing themselves more effort to mow…”
NASA counted the lawns. The United States has about 128,000 square kilometers. That is 49,000 square miles, call it 31 million acres if you want the conservative cut. The one people round to “the size of Texas,” is closer to 40 million acres and 63,000 square miles.
Either makes our point: Lawns are the largest irrigated crop in the country. Bigger than irrigated corn. We just don’t eat it. Seriously. I sit out in the woods writing books like Downsizing and still, the weed-n-feed flies off the shelves. Damnedest thing I ever saw.
We call the corrective action “yardening.” Not landscaping. Not “foodscaping,” which sounds like a magazine that wants to sell you raised beds at $400 a corner. Yardening is what happens when you look at the front grass, do the calorie math, and put a row of something edible where the mower used to make its Saturday sermon. Beans. Squash. A run of potatoes. Collards, if you have the sense God gave a goat. The lawn stays where the kids actually run and where the septic field does not want a tiller. The rest of it goes to work.
The idea that a house ought to sit on a “green area rug” was one of those stupid shows of wealth.
In England, a shaved park around the manor said the owner could afford to take land out of grain and let sheep do the mowing. Grass, on that scale, was a balance sheet you could see from the drive. No fences in the view, no cabbage patch spoiling the prospect, deer and tenants kept at a polite distance. Thomas Jefferson saw it, liked it, and tried to grow the same carpet at Monticello. George Washington bought English grass seed in 1785 and put in a bowling green at Mount Vernon.
Most homes before the Civil War still had a flower patch in front and the actual food out back, which is the arrangement any animal with a brain would pick. Then the mowers got cheap, the public got mobile, and houses moved out of town onto lots where the big lawn replaced the alley garden.
Of course, *now* the *back of the house* is gone, too — replaced with a pool or “water feature” (with no fish growing), a “BBQ entertaining area,” and a sauna.
Which, collectively, is called “Progress?”
After 1945 the whole thing locked in. Levittown and its copies sold the lawn as the membership card.
So, are we crazy? On the evidence, yes of course. But it is a specific kind of crazy. Status crazy.
We spend on the order of $30-plus billion a year keeping a crop at a height of three inches, and the harvest is a bag of clippings. Old slow Joe had it out for gas BBQs, but exsqueeze me: the mower burns gasoline to fight a plant that wants to be a meadow. The fertilizer runs off -killing O2 in the Gulf. The pollinators get a green desert. And the payoff, most weeks, is that the neighbor does not think you have let yourself go.
The sales proposition shouldn’t fly: “Psst! Buddy! Buy this half million worth of housing and keep $75,000 of land cost useless so you can run up additional ego bills…”
Golf courses and ball fields can keep their turf; people use those. Take the residential slice, and take half of that – call it 15 million acres. Rewild (sort of) as food.
The United States harvests something like 4 million acres of vegetables in a normal year. A serious pass at the front lawn is not a cute supplement. It is a second vegetable industry, distributed, uninsured, and located where the mouths already are.
And it doesn’t put the yard service companies out of business. In fact, with many new arrivals from elsewhere—who may know growing better than we do—they become experts at local food production. Not just power edger operators.
So, ahead in my newly launched “spare time” I will be turning the tractor forks down, hand sowing rows, and trying (as an experiment) to see how much food we can pull in. We will do some additional fencing to keep deer from the brassicas (deer salad: broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards and friends).
Deer stay clear of alliums like onions and garlic. So, when the visiting herd of a dozen comes through (deer season refugees) we may have a chance to get an emergency food prep program going that doesn’t have a specific shelf life.
Something I’ve been chewing on.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
Shut the front door home gamers. What’s he sayin at 5:00?? Something we’ve been saying all through last months sales prices, while deploying dry powder.
https://youtu.be/BFcETjdIIHQ?is=muF5jVO_LCL0TvLy
The rest of the world is catching up, this is going to make inflation of the 70’s look tepid.
Nobody should give two shits about these numbers – they have been manipulated to force the Fed from raising rates prior to the election. In the meantime the computers can ram another short squeeze into the market …..
Yes, it’s a rigged game.
If try to grow anything to eat instead of your lawn the HOA will sue you! LOL
Yup it has became a insane world in many ways as the sheeple munch on the grass they grow and NOT real food. And that’s why I live remote where I can do almost anything I want.
Well, what do you want?
You ain’t got any loose food hanging around you ain’t using, has you Mrs. Lady?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G9h_q8bi0xo&list=PLs7ogDrD92aEloH4BMAzwFq-N2JZZcHP-&index=55&pp=iAQB0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD
Flowers and green grass are food for the SOUL.
Beware of…
THE GREEN SLIME – Original Trailer [1968]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvybkv4ccs0&pp=ygUXVGhlIEdyZWVuIFNsaW1lIHRyYWlsZXLSBwkJLQwBhyohjO8%3D
yeah another classic JC !!! mate you gotta start your own blog with these classics . revives so many great times . F all these AI deadsheets , it would be a huge success . i will pay to join that !! more than the other rubbish doing the rounds for zombies . thx so good
re: “Impact Craters”, 2026
feat: “Future Ballistics”, 2076
The short story “Sentinel of Eternity” by Arthur C. Clarke saw a geologist’s discovery of an artifact in the Moon’s Mare Chrisium (lat: “Sea of Crises”). Rather than investigate the object with a caveman’s hammer, the powers that be vaporized it by means of a modern age nuclear bomb blast.
Two weeks ago, “Science Advances” published an academic report based upon recent observations in the Mare Chrisium region from the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera). Here is a link to the “Science Advances” article:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeh7812
The LROC artificial eye in the sky satellite recorded new post-impact features on the outer rim of the Chrisium Basin which materialized sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024. Its data of the event first reached human review in October, 2025. Apparently nobody on our planet had otherwise recorded the equivalent of a multi-storey building striking the Earth-facing side of the Moon.
This new 222 meter McGetchin crater is named after the late geologist. His surname allegedly translates as “Son of the Horseman”. Amongst his numerous accomplishments is helping select the landing site of the most recent manned flight to the Moon, Apollo 17. Its lunar module set down in a valley near Mare Serenitatis (lat: “Sea of Serenity”). As chance would have it, Mare Serenitatis is noted in Clarke’s “Sentinel” story. Readers hereabouts are perhaps more likely to recall firsthand a more recent publication of R. A. Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. His novel perhaps offered a nod to Oz featuring a lunar penal colony adjacent to Mare Serenitatis. Sentient computer “Mike” helps colonists organize a revolution in 2076.
Thanks jester… I hadn’t read that yet..
$75,000 for a lot is so year 2008. Think more like $150K plus for a postage stamp backyard.
Food production – your garden
When you are considering a ‘backyard’ patch for a vegetable garden there are many aspects you should consider. Especially for “production-of-essentials”. [ Don’t forget flowers and herbs ]
It takes an estimated 608.6 gallons of water to produce just eight ounces of dried chickpeas. Droughts around the world have drastically reduced the production of chickpeas by 40-50%. Droughts in many growing regions will cut production by nearly 30% this year. It is a crop that no one can afford to grow anymore. Can you afford the labor and water required – or would it be better spent on something better?
This realization on “resources to grow”- must be taken into account – no matter where you live., water availability., soil conditions., fertilizers.., a whole passel of ‘requirements for a successful effort’. .., and don’t forget temperature ! It is rising. Shade cloth required?
.., and if you do have a successful, hopefully ‘bumper’ crop – how are you going to preserve and store your bounty to get you through ’til the next year’s harvest?
Digging a trench and tossing in some seeds probably won’t get the job done. You are going to have to research, plan and gear-up.
Start now – you have months before Spring and a whole new successful year.
“Stay Frosty !”
Maybe Bill Gates could write a book on how to grow crops!! He seems to have bought HUGE amounts of farmland (separate from ranch land) and grows oodles and oodles of actual crops on it so he “must
know something!! LOL
(locally Bill Gates bought 5000 acres of highly productive prime crop FARM land in one transaction from an estate, a mostly consolidated block that took one of the heirs of the Proctor and Gamble fortune nearly 60 years to assemble one farm field at at time. Neighboring farmers who were hoping to pick up a field here and a field there were thwarted in their efforts to do that when the Open Auction was held out on one of the farms. The individual fields were sold one by one and once that was done at the end of the day he swooped in and offered MORE MONEY than all of those individual sales combined, so under the auction rules HE GOT IT ALL!)
You know… my thought is hydroponics and air collection..not even Considering that I planted my potatoes in 20 gallon buckets. I put them below the roof of a seed-starting I put them below the roof of a seed-starting greenhouse. 1 day I was sitting out drinking my morning coffee and I noticed that the dew on the roof was dripping into those buckets. It’s now lateness season everybody else’s dug up their potatoes minors still growing like there’s no tomorrow I can see potatoes popping out everywhere so I’m wondering okay when I the problem I had with hydroponics was the bees there weren’t any bees around And no way to pollinate them but I And no way to pollinate them but I didn’t really use a lot of water cause the water was And no way to pollinate them but I didn’t really use a lot of water cause the water was And no way to pollinate them but I didn’t really use a lot of water cause the water was recirculatedrecirculated…
Madness everywhere…
A Texas mom shot dead her 4-year-old daughter in a murder-suicide just hours after losing a custody battle with the girl’s dad.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/02/us-news/texas-mom-shoots-daughter-4-in-murder-suicide-hours-after-losing-custody-battle/
Side note: I am still, continuously, on the hunt for the fastest growing carrots available. I love ’em – but they all seem to take too long to produce a crop.
With most crops, the faster it grows, the less flavor and nutritional value the edible fruit, root, or leaf possesses.
Be careful what you wish for…
I have found two that people highly recommend that mature in 50 to 55 days. Gonna try those this coming season.
.., basically you are right….,
What I am trying to accomplish is to beat the heat -with well established heirloom quality plants that have a short growing season.
By the way did you and/or Ego ever do a TDS – total dissolved solids reading) on those lakes in front of you? anyt98ngd over 500 or so will result in po0oer croppery – I think TDS is Mike in NM’s rock to push up hill
In California these days you can’t put mulch instead of grass around your house because of Climate Change induced fire hazard. Then because of not enough snow melt water catchment, water use gets restricted during the growing season. Only option is to desert scape your front yard.
I’m stuck here because of grandkids but thinking people are leaving the state . Too bad they’ve been replaced by illegals.
I am convinced that the best approach to landscaping immediately adjacent to the residence is grass mat and rock. I put 2′ around the current residence; if I ever move, I will go 6′.
started holding pattern early on markets . king donny wants a big close .. sung to surfin USA . riggin USA !!! the nasdaq the QQQ the semis and big daddy the dow cow . sing it ronnie !!! any day now
len,
Imagine the possibilities if they transplanted Trump’s head onto…
The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – Trailer
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=irQf50m5Jvw
re: “The Odyssey of Flight 33”, S2E18, The Twilight Zone, Feb. 21, 1961
prequel: Transcontinental Air Transport, C. Lindbergh, 1928
“Two heads are better than one” so they say. Current msm reports inform their flock that the white vans intercepted recently at RAF Fairford had red-stenciled signage pointing to Iranian fuel industry practice. UK fuel industry delivery vehicles apparently use the colour green.
Today a Telegram channel aggregator published an image allegedly originating from a social media influencer on “X” known as The Savior. He is a convicted British felon and an anti-Israeli crusader. The image depicted an alleged Iranian jet landing last night at Manchester Airport. The picture appears to have been deleted from “X”. One imagines it could simply have been an AI-created picture based upon a former civilian/military Boeing 707 of Iran’s Saha Air making a fictional wheels up landing. Circa March 2026 msm reports inform that Israel finished off the last example of Saha’s Boeing 707 fleet at Mashad during Operation Roaring Lion.
However some coincidences may be observed. This weekend’s image depicted a plane whose red striped fuselage livery perhaps somewhat coincides with that flown by former Ozark Airlines aircraft between 1986 and 1995. Ozark had been taken over by TWA in 1986, and previously had very similar livery except in colour green rather than red.
Apparently “The Odyssey of Flight 33” episode of The Twilight Zone 1961 series and its fictional Boeing 707 benefitted from industry practices guidance supplied by TWA. Separately according to Wiki, a late older brother of #47 joined TWA as a Boeing 707 pilot in 1964. The now incarcerated former FBI member of late Florida mistress has a Wiki page describing his first connection with the future #47. Allegedly the New York mayor served as intermediary during the starling-new FBI member’s contributions to the 1996 investigation of TWA 800.
Msm images from the recent FlyDubai Boeing 737 alleged flight deck stabbing and a subsequent high speed, steep dive flight course depict gravity-defying glasses of water on seat trays amongst other oddities. Likewise passengers aboard Global Airlines Flight 33 into the Twilight Zone did not seem overly disrupted by excessive aircraft speed as they wound their way back to New York of 1939 and the future JFK Airport.
riggin USA !! whip joe six pack donny !!! gotta keep the trump fortune
“The evil rectangle has ruined us. Everything had been atrophying and eroding for many, many years prior, but the introduction of the smart phone, with social media right behind it, has utterly sucked the life out of everything; and now finish it off with AI.”
https://thewinepress.substack.com/p/the-accursed-magic-rectangle-has
Considering the comment that D’Lynn made about water , then cnsider what the actual caloric intake of these foods actually is , Im sticking with dry canning and dehydrated foods to get by. Much much much less water and much more calories.
FWIW…
Me
10 for a mortage !!!!!!!!!!!!!! yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa whip em donny , bessent , warsh , king breeder dad , well hung , big larry and psycho spy boy theil
France’s Rioting
ALL IMMIGRANTS!!
The riots in France were current Immigrants and 2nd/3rd generation Immigrant children. NO REPORTS that I have read of native ethnic French kids rioting.
Marseille which is where some of the worst rioting was taking place is currently 16% BORN ELSEWHERE plus it has lots of kids and grandkids of previous immigrants (vast majority of immigrant class in Marseille are from northern Africa, Algeria and Tunisia forming the largest group, and needless to say are Muslim).
France does NOT track ethnic groupings at all, in fact as I recall there is an actual law that makes that illegal, but informal estimates that I have read is that Marseille is currently effectively 35%-40% Muslim, one estimate I read put it at 50%+-.
Marseille has long had “NO GO” zones for the police (when go in have to go in as a group) same as has now developed in some Paris suburbs, with ethnic tensions in that city having been “raw” for a number of years.
The other areas where the rioting was taking place were also reportedly heavily immigrant areas.
The French people themselves are NOT SHY about rioting, seem to do it regularly, rioting seems to be in their soul much more than in the American soul. In this case however these riots came from the Immigrant Class, which has NOT integrated well into the Greater French Culture.
That they have not integrated well into the French Culture is mainly because they don’t want the French Culture – they want “their” culture, their religion.., their laws – and that has created a very large chasm between the two.
They haven’t integrated well anywhere… we had a worker from pakistan…
he thought my friend and I should be flogged or killed because we allowed women to tell us what to do…he spent all the shift facing east bowing and praying kneeled..
the day I had off.lol lol …the administrator told him he had to take the trash out and do his housekeeping duties done…he told her..an I quote from what I was told…” you fat cow…if we were in my country I could have you whipped for talking lie that…”
I said and you didn’t call me to come watch..I’d a paid money to see that…lol lol
My niece went to france to study..not sure what but loves it so well she’s going to live there…well she’s been living there she’s been there a long time now
no jobs higher interest rates . what can go wrong ?
hey donny young donny and eric and da boyz at Kaos wall street forgot to pump sheetcoin today . ring da boyz make it an executive order
goldies gunna go close to singin my way .. owwwwwwwwww yeah
Float… learn scrounging… never mow again.
For at least 5000 years mankind has made use of the oceans under sail. Somehow it worked out OK. No guarantees anywhere.
Stiks
I got thinking about what is successful life…when my little sister dropped by..oh and its still a little green but we enjoyed some CASCARA wine..so what if she’s traveled the world over…lol she won’t get that..lol lol..
For much of my life, I was made to feel like the black sheep of my family because, by their measure, I wasn’t successful enough. Some of my siblings ended up at one end of the rainbow, others somewhere in between, and I ended up at the other end. Their measure of success was largely numbers—money, possessions, accomplishments, the things you could put on a piece of paper and point to.
I’ve spent a lot of years wondering whether they were right.
I’ve had more than my share of hard times. I’ve made mistakes and made some decisions that, at the time, probably looked like failures. I’ve worked more different jobs than I can count simply because sometimes survival meant doing whatever work was available.
But looking back, I have to ask myself: were all those decisions really failures?
If I hadn’t taken some of those roads, I wouldn’t have met some of the people I know today.Check I wouldn’t have ever discovered urban survival and gotten to know the many friends visiting his site daily… I wouldn’t have learned the things I learned. I wouldn’t have the experiences that allow me to see things in people that I might otherwise miss. And I certainly wouldn’t have met the wonderful woman I’ve spent my life with.
My father taught me something about marriage that has stayed with me: you may first be attracted to someone physically or mentally, but real love is something you build. You grow together. You work through the hard times. You make a commitment. And eventually, you’re not just living beside each other—you are moving in the same direction.
That made me think about success in a different way.
What good is having all the numbers if the price of keeping them is losing the people you love? What good is being admired for what you own if you have nobody beside you when age, sickness or hard times take some of those things away?
The marriage vows say it plainly: for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
Life doesn’t promise us that the numbers will always go up. Neither does it promise that our bodies, our appearance, our careers or our possessions will remain the same.
So maybe success isn’t simply what you accumulated.
Maybe it’s what you learned, who you loved, who you helped, what you endured without allowing it to make you bitter, and what you were able to pass on to the people who came after you.
I’ve learned things through hardship that I could never have learned from a comfortable life. I’ve met people I never would have met. I’ve learned how quickly circumstances can change, and I’ve learned to recognize when someone might simply need a little kindness.
Maybe that’s why, when I look at a waitress struggling to hold everything together, I don’t just see someone bringing food to my table. I’ve been on the other side of that table. I know that sometimes people are trying to decide between groceries, gasoline, diapers and keeping the lights on.
Those lessons aren’t on a bank statement.
They are part of my life’s wealth.
So perhaps I wasn’t a failure after all.
Perhaps I was simply using a different measuring stick.
Some people count their success in dollars, houses, possessions and accomplishments.
I count mine in lessons learned, people loved, hands I’ve been able to lend, and wisdom I can pass down.
And when my time comes, I don’t think I’ll be asking how big the number was.
I’ll be asking whether the people I shared this life with were better off because I was here.oo
Ok enough of the deep philosophical thoughts… took the little lady to Wal-Mart.. she wanted some Bailey’s Irish cream…but I got sticker shock..
so here it is….
Ken, that story changes the meaning of “success” in a beautiful way.
Because the photographer didn’t remember you because of your bank account, your house, your job title, or anything written on a résumé.
She remembered you because once, when she needed somebody, you stopped.
And years later, when your granddaughter got married, she had the opportunity to return that kindness—not because she owed you something, but because apparently that moment had stayed with her.
And then you looked around that wedding and realized there were several people there whose lives had crossed yours in similar ways.
That’s something a balance sheet simply can’t capture.
You may not have accumulated the numbers your family considers impressive, Ken, but you’ve apparently accumulated something else:
people who remember that you stopped.
That might be worth weaving into the post, because it gives your philosophy a real-life example rather than just an argument about what success means.
A possible ending
Something happened at my granddaughter’s wedding that made me think about all of this in a different way.
The photographer was someone who was in very high demand. When my granddaughter told her who her grandparents were, she remembered me.
Years earlier, I had come across her when she was a single mother stranded on the side of the road. I stopped to help her. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Someone needed help, so I stopped.
But she remembered.
When she found out it was my granddaughter getting married, she canceled her other appointments so she could photograph the wedding.
And as I looked around that wedding, I realized there were several other people there whose lives had crossed mine in similar ways. People I had helped somewhere along the road of life, sometimes without giving it a second thought.
That really made me question what we call success.
My family has sometimes measured success in numbers—money, possessions, accomplishments, the things you can put on paper.
But there were people standing in that room who weren’t there because of anything I had accumulated.
They were there because, somewhere along the way, our paths crossed and I stopped.
Maybe that’s another kind of wealth.
Maybe the things we leave behind aren’t always houses, bank accounts or possessions. Sometimes they’re memories in the lives of people we helped.
You may never know how important a small act of kindness will become to someone else.
You may forget the person you stopped for twenty years ago.
They may never forget that you stopped.
And perhaps that’s one of the measures of a life that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet.
Not how many people knew your name.
Not how much you owned.
But how many people, when your paths crossed, can say:
“When I needed somebody, they stopped.”
That’s the kind of success I’m beginning to understand.
Show more
Make the ending more personal
Absolutely. I think the ending should come back to you, your wife, your life, and what you’ve come to believe—not sound like you’re trying to teach anybody else what success is.
What Success Leaves Behind
?
Original
?
Write Like Me
Something happened at my granddaughter’s wedding that made me think about all of this in a different way.
The photographer was someone who was in very high demand. When my granddaughter told her who her grandparents were, she remembered me.
Years earlier, I had come across her when she was a single mother stranded on the side of the road. I stopped to help her. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Someone needed help, so I stopped.
But she remembered.
When she found out it was my granddaughter getting married, she canceled her other appointments so she could photograph the wedding.
And as I looked around that wedding, I realized there were several other people there whose lives had crossed mine in similar ways. People I had helped somewhere along the road of life, sometimes without giving it a second thought.
That really made me question what we call success.
My family has sometimes measured success in numbers—money, possessions, accomplishments, the things you can put on paper.
But there were people standing in that room who weren’t there because of anything I had accumulated.
They were there because, somewhere along the way, our paths crossed and I stopped.
Maybe that’s another kind of wealth.
Maybe the things we leave behind aren’t always houses, bank accounts or possessions. Sometimes they’re memories in the lives of people we helped.
You may never know how important a small act of kindness will become to someone else.
You may forget the person you stopped for twenty years ago.
They may never forget that you stopped.
And when I think about my own life now, I don’t think I was the failure I sometimes felt like I was.
Maybe I was simply measuring myself with the wrong ruler.
I don’t have the biggest numbers in my family. I don’t have the most impressive list of accomplishments. I don’t have a room full of shiny things that prove how successful I was.
But I have my wife beside me. I have children and grandchildren. I have a lifetime of stories, mistakes, hard lessons, friendships, and people whose paths crossed mine.
And somewhere along that road, apparently, I left a few pieces of myself behind in other people’s lives.
That means something to me.
So when I look back at my life, maybe I don’t see a failure anymore.
I see a man who got knocked down more than once, made plenty of mistakes, worked at whatever he had to work at, learned a few things the hard way, loved his family, and tried to stop when somebody needed a hand.
And if, when I’m gone, there are a few people who remember me and say,
“He stopped when I needed somebody,”
then I think I’ll be able to look back at my life and say:
“Maybe I did all right after all.”
Ok…back to recipes ..enough deep reflective thoughts my little honey bee..could you buzz around for me..my wife wanted some baileys irish cream…but the cost was fifty dollars a bottle..just a tad above my pay grade so..its time to make it..and i need a copy cat recipe to in base ball terms … knock it out of the park…
Ohhh, now we’re back in the kitchen. ? Honey Bee is putting the philosophical books back on the shelf and grabbing the whiskey bottle.
I buzzed around a bit, and there is a useful clue from Baileys itself: the Original is built around Irish whiskey/spirits, dairy cream, chocolate and vanilla, and it is 17% ABV.
So we’re not going to make the usual “dump condensed milk and whiskey in a blender” recipe and call it close. We’re going to aim for smooth, creamy, chocolatey, coffee-kissed, vanilla-forward, and about the right strength.
LOOB’s “Knock It Out of the Park” Irish Cream
Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup Irish whiskey
1/4 cup half and half
2 Tbsp chocolate syrup ( Hershey’s)
1 tsp instant espresso powder — preferably espresso, not ordinary instant coffee ( Starbucks of course)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp very hot water….
The little trick that makes it better
Don’t just throw the coffee granules into the blender.
Mix the espresso powder + hot water first and let it cool for a minute. You’re making a tiny concentrated coffee extract….. That gives you the background coffee/chocolate note without little coffee granules hanging around…..
Put the condensed milk, heavy cream and half and half into a blender…….
Add the chocolate syrup, vanilla, almond extract and salt.
Add the dissolved espresso.
Blend on low for about 15 seconds.
With the blender still on low, slowly pour in the Irish whiskey.
Blend another 10–15 seconds—don’t whip the cream.
Taste….thats the important part….
adjust to your liking.. a little more vanilla..or a little more sugar..( if so use powdered sugar or corn syrup)
or a little more cream..
Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk ( I actually have a recipe book that gives how to make these kind of things in it)
4 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt…
Put the milk and sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Heat over medium until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally….dont scorch it….
Reduce the heat to low. You want a gentle steam, not a boil.
Simmer uncovered for about 35–50 minutes, stirring every few minutes…..
https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Jam-Maker-Electric-recipe/dp/B0HBWF22YH/ref=sr_1_31?
that will make it easier !!! lol
When it’s reduced by roughly half and coats the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat.
Stir in the butter, vanilla and salt.
Let it cool. It will thicken considerably as it cools.
The secret ingredient to one of my late mother’s signature recipes was a liberal dose of Ancient Age. It is a lot smoother than sour mash flavorings.
We like her already!
Lol… I just Picked up a bottle of that on my way to work..I was going to make up the Irish cream today but had a call in so I had to almost work a double shift…they got a replacement so I could get a couple hours of sleep before I went back to work..since gas went up ten cents from yesterday I filled up to…before work on my first shift yesterday..I took the wife shopping and out to lunch..both my wife and I could see the look of an underlying stress current..as we ate I asked my wife..well what do you think..she agreed so we made the waitress tear up when she seen the tip..it obviously must have hit the right nerve..
its funny how I can just see it.. nothing they said …its just written all over them..dinner was great..we take the grandson for his dyslexia therapy..theres a high end restaurant right next to his therapist to say dam it smells amazing..I told the wife we should make a reservation and eat there..
I was really jealous of my little sister having lunch with one of my heros..dam … I have to get the pictures.. While she was going through the sistine chapel she turned around and took pictures with her cell phone by just pressing the video record button and walking around with her cell phone I’ve got to get those pictures… she’s been around the world I don’t know how many times.. if we ever quit having war I asked her to go to the religious shrine where thousands pilgrimage to it for Noah’s ark..and order me some grape juice from the vineyard he supposedly planted……
I did the first emperor of Chinas forbidden wine, Philippines hill tribes coconut wine, goddess XiCacaos cacao wine,,and now CASCARA wine..the regular ones to..my wife loves the buffalo berry…when kitty got hitched she had the wedding at a vineyard..the most fun I ever had besides visiting my wife’s uncle museum..
I spent hours in his workshop each is built to specks..use to take them on world tours before. the colony adopted it..
https://barnmuseum.com/
at the winery we swapped recipes with the vintner… it was wonderful..
when I made the cacao wine..my first batch failed miserably.. then I contacted a vintner in South America that made a batch for a magazine article..it was wonderful..he walked me through it..it has a citrus flavor which is what t brew me off…
I got notice that my copy of the cookbook is on its way.. I hope he signed it..I was a recipe tester for ancient recipes..its suppose to include the prominent game of the UR civilization..the slice of Gilgamesh… I can’t wait..
Well got the ingredients ..got the ancient age yesterday the rest today..
cost using retail products..will be slightly less than $2.50 a bottle..depending if I have to add a little more sweetened condensed milk..or use a vanilla pod..
LooB : “… took the little lady to Wal-Mart.. she wanted some Bailey’s Irish cream…but I got sticker shock …”
It’s my guess is you strain the Baileys there must be particles of unobtanium inside. I can afford any bottle but recoil at mid $30s for a creamy liqueur to flavor coffee. [at which point he left the keyboard to add more creamer] After trying some other pretenders I settled on Ryan’s which is close enough and often found around $10.
https://ryanswine.com/shop/product/ryans-irish-cream/
Ditto here – we use an Irishy-sounding secondary brand and while we don’t know about the buzz part, the French toast dip works the same. Some generics work though for butter, we still prefer Tilamook.
I call So honey bee…because it can buzz through thousands of areas in seconds..just like a honey bee gathering Palin the Ai is gathering Palin of information…
tonight I have to make turtle brownies.. I have never made them before …
Ai…..what do I like about it……what scares me about it…. Both answers are the same. It’s Uses hive technology. You can set your phone on a table turn it on To the other side of the room be talking about something and come back and it’ll have ads on there for the things that you were talking about…Now you know my life story..I threw myself into reading and I have read a couple books in my life.. fifty years later its hard to remember which book,article or study was it in..Ai can find it in seconds and give me updates..
You can You can search something on Siri and Alexa will have it you had that happen to you a few years ago when you 1st started using Siri it was giving you suggestions on what you should watch on television by your comments in the house. Back then i tried to get sjri and Alexa to debate an issue that could go either direction..No consider the Dark side of the web there are people that have been doing this for years and criminal elements are pushed glorified..heck you can buy anything or get information about anything on the dark web..the silk road and beginning of digital tulips that couldn’t be traced….
They gather your information and then they’ll sell your information on the dark web so people can use it to purchase or do a variety of things..
Consider my grandson when he was 3 years old IT specialist from Boston dynamics Set me a tablet that was put back to factory specs. We turned around and I had it so that the grandson could watch cartoons on it at 3 years old. Somehow or another he had figured out or punching buttons had logged on to the machine was still logged on to the cloud for this it specialist. He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the channel. He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the . He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the channel what. He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the channel what . He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the channel what he had logged . He brought the tablet to me and asked me to change the channel what he had logged into was he had gotten those camera off of those IT specialists computer at home. I had access to his whole cloud…. I could add subtract I had access to his banking credit..I could turn on his phone camera or microphone..it was scary. I tried to tell him he needed to destroy it..but he specialized in that field..he thought I was pulling his chain as a smart ass..wouldn’t even talk to me..so..I decided ok let me show you..so I started screwing around..changed his contacts downloaded Beavis and butt head videos.. nothing changed his screen on his phone nothing worked..he ignored all of it..then the photo…
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTYESlRE9QxqnlqeHetMZAekt-AlzlQMCZUhPVzQRk8iUy63JzBZDEkUOs&s=10
I cut the girl out and on his cloud there was a file called photos..I dropped it in..an hour and it was deleted..I dropped it in again..again he deleted it..I did that for a couple days then decided I’d have his kid talk to him..oh I had access to all his information as well..
so I get a call send it back to him and he calls me.. so I told him I thought you’d get a clue when this guys face showed up..what guy..so I sent him the picture…thats the pervert..what pervert..yeah this guy is running up ringing my door bell then taking off..he had the cops sear hung for him..it was the photo file of his door bell..
now fast forward…the us government has data collection center that gathers all of this..the dark web and now…Ai robots…fighting robots..Ai is running your refrigerator and just about everything else..and…the USA isn’t the only one..while we are smart..the technology is sent to other countries to be manufactured.. in countries that push education..not a group of party centers and an educational system designed only for a few..
like the old NASA scientist use to say…JUST THINK ABOUT IT…thats some amazing stuff..scary stuff…
https://youtu.be/IDOu-VyYcgI?si=LNVScu37saQKzyIX
Personally, I’m ashamed of him.
“Bailey’s Irish Cream is a sweet, creamy alcoholic drink made from Irish whiskey, fresh dairy cream, cocoa, and vanilla.”
The single biggest problem with Bailey’s is once you break the seal it’s only good for what, maybe as much as two weeks, because the cream sours and that ruins the taste.
IMO the way to do Irish cream is to always roll your own, cuz it only lasts for a little while…
We were talking about that at work before I relieved the day shift worker..she use to manage a restaurant… she said they used artificial creamer instead of dairy….
Baileys uses real Irish cream, but they add a smidge of (non-GMO) vegetable oil to bind it to the alcohol.
The first bottle I ever bought (probably in about 1985) had a caution to use or toss within two weeks of opening. Science apparently came to Diageo sometime in the past 40 years.
I wonder if Irish butter could be used as the binder? That just sounds yummy. ‘Probably have to source real Belgian or Swiss chocolate as I don’t trust ANY American chocolate…
It was fifty bucks..I looked at that little bottle and about fell over..she was getting chocolate pudding to bake me a Boston cream pie.. I told her sorry hun..at that price I’m going to make it..turn the kitchen into a science lab again..
I will make it monday..oh check I forgot I need a bottle for it..won’t use a wine bottle..Nah to expensive.. I will use a glass milk bottle…
They have one for fifteen dollars…but shipping…dam…I can run to the store pick up some sweetened condensed milk..my wife would freak out if I took down the jam maker..what funny is I have three..one to popcorn that I use to roast wheat berries..one is a simply for coffee..( I actually have three coffee roasters..one year the kids made nut roasters for display.. this year it was brown Betty oil lamp or a cup)and one for jams..which has the scalper paddle in it…if I figured it right a half gallon for under ten dollars and enough whiskey to make two gallons.. I have home made vanilla… which should be great better than the stuff you buy..
I was going to order one… they can’t ship it and the nearest pickup spot is over a thousand miles away..
G, I live on 5 acres. Approximately 2 of it is occupied in some fashion, the other 3 is mowed grass. I’ve been trying for several years to replace it with anything that doesn’t require mowing. A little at a time, it’s shifting in my favor. Fencing for gardens, and building supplies for chicken housing can get expensive, so that’s slow going. Side projects that requires my immediate attention push it off, too. I’m hopeful that in the next couple of years, I can get it down to 2 acres of actual mowing and the rest will be useful, or just pretty gardens of some sort. Never wanted this much useless grass! I so empathize with your slice of heaven occasional headaches.
A publisher in our local city was getting a lot of guff from the managed neighborhood… it upset him..so he put in astronauts turf and for trees he put artificial trees just to be a smart ass…lol lo! never has to mow