ShopTalk Sunday: Retrograde School, Purple, and ‘Puter

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The end of my Personal Retrograde Hell ended about 12:45 PM Sunday.  That’s when the new minicomputer began to function perfectly.  Not a big deal?

This is a tale about Mercury Retrograde.  Retrograde means that if you’re outside and closely watching the night sky, the apparent motion of the planet Mercury seems to reverse and go backwards for a while.  Orbital mechanics lectures about how this works are all over YouTube.

My only contribution to the notion that “things go badly when Mercury is in retrograde” is that not only do events “cluster” but that everyone seems to have a personal retrograde offset.  Must be something that “locks” when we are born.

Retrograde begins tomorrow. From August 5-23, some portion of people will experience huge “runs of bad luck.”  A portion – who nothing seems to happen to – will question this whole Retrograde thing, claiming there is “nothing to it.”

However, on closer inspection, it will usually be found (as you live a long time and can look back at how your life unfolds over decades) that yes, there is a “clustering” though it’s pushed one-way or the other from the astronomical date range.

My Retrograde window is about 3-1/2 weeks before the Retrograde.

As evidence, three weeks back, a freak lightning storm went through otherwise placid East Texas.  That storm (and you talk about bad luck) delivered a power ground strike.  Which zapped:

  • One Outback 2500-watt sine wave grid tie inverter.  Replacement cost $2,000.
  • Also zapped (via the ground current spike) was the power switching circuit in a not-quite-free Ten Tec Omni VII ham radio transceiver.  Replacement cost (if I can’t fix it) is near $1,000.  (Reader Hank may get me into an Icom 7300, yet.
  • Worst of all, though, was the Main Computer was zapped out.  A 2-1/2-year-old Dell XPS 8940 with 2 TB and 64 gigs.  Replacement cost?  About $1,200.

OK, write the check, nod at Universe, right?

No.  That’s not how Retrograde works.  It’s more of a “kick you while you’re down” thing, with a splash of humor.  I had ordered – within minutes – a replacement XPS, but the seller (on Amazon) sent me a totally wrong unit.  No optical drive, no 64 gb, and not an 8940.  Back it went.

While I was playing the “new computer shuffle” we had an unused minicomputer that was planned for the bedroom. It had just been sitting there since April.  But faced with the need to back-up the back-up, it was pressed into service.

Again, Retrograde was at work.  Everything worked dandy, except that Win11 updates took 2-full days.  And, even with the system up to speed, it was nearly impossible to really use it for “work” because email would not connect, no matter what. But I tried, lordy, I tried…

Which gets us to 12:45 PM Saturday.

That’s when – going back through the settings – I found that (due to poor eyesight) I had allowed Outlook through Windows Firewall BUT the nearly invisible (to me) two checkmarks for public and private networks weren’t checked.

Mind you, I had already given up on an IMAP connection and had installed Thunderbird which was great.  EXCEPT that I use KuTools for Outlook because that wipes out the tons of junk mail that rolls in.

Maybe next weekend, we can have the convo about how the End of Life for large format computers may be wheeling into view.  My new computer – plus a massive cooling fan, and 4 TB of storage looks like this:

(Ham radio Morse keys and keyer paddles visible on the right.)

After a ton of (useless) work, I’m finally ready to face next week – just in time for the formal start of Retrograde.

Been there, done that, for this cycle anyway, thanks.

Purple Poles

A reader was wondering if we had poles and trees around our property painted purple.  Which, if you’re not a hunter, is the universal (enforceable by Game Wardens) signal that the land you’re on is closed to the public.

As long as we’re “Out of the Shop” this weekend, how about…

A Tool Review

We’ve had a Black and Decker weed weasel for several years.  But I have gotten sick of changing the fishing line spools because we have serious yard work to do around here.

Here’s the front fence line, for example:

Out here (a Farm School note) the overall credibility of a family presence in the community is based on “How good your fence lines look.”  Some people (looking at you, Oilman2) are pragmatic about fence lines.  Old diesel spritzed along line will kill most anything, is biodegradable, and you can light off the fence line really easy, if there’s rain bearing down.

But for “finer work” – like our front yard power pole with the (still waiting for the installer) Spectrum rural fiber to be installed) so keeping things strack takes a little finesse.

No, the local power company doesn’t take to people tossing diesel around and lighting up the weeds.

The New Tool

While cruising for parts for the B&D whacker, I spied a “new” approach on Amazon, and it looks like this:

It looks a lot cleaner before a half mile of use.  Installation is easy enough; you pop out the “stock” spool cover and the spool and ratchet.  Then this snaps into the two square holes where the (stock) cover was fitted.

You’ll want to make sure the two spool tabs are firmly in place.  (Ask me how I know?)  I found that if it slips out (from not being seated) that the spool will run a half block from you.  Next installation, I was more careful about seating the tabs!

What makes the tool/accessory interesting is it uses a proprietary
whip that is thicker and a hell of a lot longer lasting than the nylon line.

I used the pair on the welding table for almost an hour before it got too short for my taste.  But you see how these work, they go over a pin, fitted into a channel and then you snap it in.

The Amazon reviews on it weren’t that great. 3.9 when I looked. In terms of getting weed and grass cuts back, it works fine for me.  There was one thing I noticed, though: after 40-minutes of heavy-duty trimming, the motor began to smell hot.  Whether this is indicating ‘end of life’ for the motor, or because of the more aggressive work being applied, remains to be seen.

A pet bitch in our shop is that “The tool should never limit the worker.”  In other words, I’m a true believer that “underpowered tools (and dull knives) are more of a source of injury than over-powered tools that can handle anything you can throw at them.

Sunday Fun Radio Project

Another (belated) thankyou to reader Bob O – who lives off east of us somewhere – who came by a couple of years ago and dropped off a classic radio from the World War II era.  It has finally come up to the top of the project list.  And since it’s going to be a hot week, and computer issues are addressed, I’ll be getting into this:

Mint condition BC-348-L.  This was a standard ham radio when thousands ended up on the surplus market after WW II.

And they were great.  Only downside to them is for narrow modes (digital, Morse, SSB and so on) they are “broad as a barn door.”  Reason is that the intermediate frequency used was 910 KHz, rather than the more common 455 KHz used in other surplus radios like the ARC-5 series.

When comes to distance (DX) listening, particularly on the AM broadcast band, hard to beat the “mellow tube audio” with a reasonable speaker on it.

This radio was, and no one under 60 probably knows this, the ‘348 was the companion receiver to the (Collins) ART-13 transmitter that was so p0pular after the way among those with the money to buy one and brains to operate it.  Which had a hand, in the history of ham radio, giving birth to the phrase Appliance Operators – those who weren’t smart enough to pick up the cold end of a soldering iron.

Ham Note: Wasn’t able to pick up Wm of the Radio Ranch despite being on 3806 for a couple of hours this morning. Sunday mornings is the best time to catch me there an hour, or so, before sunrise if you have low band SSB capability.

Off to work on said radio this afternoon. Then it’ll be time to get into researching Peoplenomics for next Wednesday. Before that, the old Main Computer will leave the office and be returned to the music studio – where we’ve had a real shortage of 100 dB rock ‘n roll.  See what a bitch an early Retrograde can be?

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

37 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Retrograde School, Purple, and ‘Puter”

  1. Retrograde begins tomorrow. From August 5-23, some portion of people will experience huge “runs of bad luck.”

    The Israelis?

    Nostradamus and The Third Age of Mars 2024,
    G.A. Stewart, 2023, Page 1,124

    In Nostradamus’ Quatrain V-14, The New Herod flees the collapse of Israel. This will most likely occur between July 23rd, 2024 and August 22nd,, 2024.

    Since 2010, I have written that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was The New Herod, and here we are thirteen-years later.

    Israel will fall once again near The 9th of Av. For 2024, this begins at sundown on August 12th. This is the Nostradamus’ prophecy that ties the fall of Israel to the period around The 9th of Av.

    https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2024/08/04/calling-it-exactly/

  2. While your purple-topped posts MAY prevent folks from crossing the fence, the game warden may or may not enforce it.
    ”
    (D)
    the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are:
    (i)
    vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width;
    (ii)
    placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground; and
    (iii)
    placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than:
    (a)
    100 feet apart on forest land; or
    (b)
    1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land”

    Did you know that your ‘night mode’ presents photos in black/white? I had to go to day mode to see where the purple paint was.

  4. Based on your casualty count, I am of the opinion you have inadequate surge protection on Ure incoming AC service. You fried multiple devices, one with an antenna connection, one with Ethernet, and one with neither, but all had AC connections. Occam. Arthur Bradley’s website is down, so I can’t use short cuts to there for reference, so I’ll try and wing it.

    Siemens has their new whole house surge protectors out, and the price is much lower than the last generation:

    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Siemens-Boltshield-FSPD-140-Amp-120-Volt-240-Volt-Single-Phase-Type-2-Surge-Protective-Device-FSPD140/325123153

    The literature I found doesn’t show a turn-on time for the new devices. Arthur reviewed them , and didn’t address the turn-on time. Puzzling. I am going to stay with my two vintage Siemens FS100 surge protectors, with a 1 ns advertised turn-on time:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kazkHkwoVZ0

    Use of ferrites ahead of the surge protector mitigates the need for ultra-fast turn-on times to some degree. I have Arthur’s high current ferrites on my incoming AC service. I use normal clamp-on ferrites on all the AC loads (3 -mix 61, 1 -mix 31).

    Arthur markets the high-current ferrite that play well with with a whole house surge protector. You can also get those ferrites and other of Arthur’s stuff from Faraday Defense:

    https://shop.faradaydefense.com/product/emp-whole-house-ferrites/

    https://shop.faradaydefense.com/product-category/electronics/page/2

    Standard ferrites DO NOT WORK on line AC (or car 12V power circuits).

    You need three of the high-current ferrites for the incoming AC line. If you don’t know how to work in a live AC panel, get help from someone who does. One mistake or lapse of attention and you are maimed or dead. Plasma from arcs burn, shorts to ground through sweaty appendages fry.

    Individual loads need protection. Belt and suspenders. You need 1 ns turn on for HEMP; 5 ns turn-on works for lightning EMP per unclassified Homeland guidelines which can be found on the web.

    I have several 5 ns Transtector power strips, and I use a single 1 ns receptacle plugged into one slot on the 5 ns power strip to extend the functionality. HEMP is very fast, but very low energy. Lightning EMP is not as fast, but is high energy. Direct lightning strikes which get past your service transformer DC isolation are bad, bad, bad, and surge protection may or may not help much. Luck of the draw rules on damage from a direct cloud to ground lightning strikes.

    I used to be tormented by dead electronics up on the ridge, until I started applying knowledge of surge protection from work experience at home as a hobby. Now I am tormented by old electronics that never rolls over and dies. Pick Ure poison.

    Arthur and Faraday Defense also have neat car surge protection stuff.

    Every antenna or comm source which ties in to devices on your AC panel MUST have individual back-feed AC surge protection to keep an EMP from back-feeding the main AC panel through the device.

    I’ll leave the discussion of comm protection for another day, but there are plenty of ferrites and fast surge devices available for antenna feeds, Ethernet, etc. Watch out for back-feeds into AC and and Ethernet switches. VHF antennas have highest vulnerability. Hank suggested I try a 50 ohm HEMP device on my 75 ohm VHF/UHF antenna feed, and that. and a stack of ferrites, have helped immensely. I still keep a stock of spare antenna coupler boards in shielded storage.

    The solar surge protection is whole area unto itself. G____ has a lot of experience in that, dead inverter boards aside.

  5. Fun near you?
    Chinese nationals arrested in East Texas, $250k in gold bars seized after traffic stop. Math seems to be an issue but who’s counting?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqAG9fIvw04
    P.S. Why were you not there to verify the bars and take them home to clean them? Who needs a job?
    This seems more profitable if they hadn’t got caught. Must be a special gold sniffing dog.

    • Yeah, apparently no one does the math, any more.

      I count 17 1oz bars, 3 1/4oz bars, and 20 1/10oz bars, which is 19 3/4 oz, at (a rough guesstimate of) $2400/oz, yields ~$48,000 worth of gold, but as you said “who’s counting.”

      Just another example of “truth in reporting” ‘cuz the story is more important than the facts…

  6. i am a month a head on mercury. im pulling out of it nicely. i find one i pass my cycle which is 30 days in advance, things start moving rapidly to the upside.

    mercury is not just the god of communication. the first thing mercury is, is the god of
    commerce. that is the first thing mercury is.

    and things have started moving rapidly upward in the arena of commerce for Andy.
    let it be said an equil measure for George and Trump.

    5 days ago when i walked into the dining room. the entire outside was engulfed in a fog. my bible app dinged and gave me the scripture of Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”

    i smiled.

    i took that picture in my last post 2 days ago, of the sun rising from the clouds from my dining room table.

    last night, having stumbled upon the divine labyrinth at Saint John The Evangilist Cathederal in Spokane Washington and finding that gold coin with a crown on it at the center. and living out the Ace of Coins in brilliant symbolism. every detail of the card present.

    the entire city of spokane is engulfed with smoke from the wild fires. a cloud of witness around the divine labyrinth.

    hmmmmmm…….

    i will ya of another interesting thing. my roomates kids celebrated their 5th birthday a while back.

    one night last week at 2 am while talking to Entheos and Trump earlier that day. i woke up and some how my bedroom door opened up and one of the birthday ballons came in and was dancing around my face while i was sleeping. it woke me up. i took it out to the living room. shut my bedroom door. put a chair against it so it wouldnt open up.

    i woke up again later in the morning. when i went out my bedroom door, it was right outside of it hovering 2 feet off the ground. i thought ok little buddy. i put it back in the living room. read my bible did my prayer and meditation.

    went to the gym. then went to the library and did some stuff for BP on their computer. my roomate calls me and said i know you love this sorta stuff. i wached that little birthday balloon go over to your bedroom door and do this figure 8 motion outside of it for about 10 minutes. my girlfriend was going to grab it and i said no, wait. lets see what it does. then we sat and watched it go into the dinning room, hop up on a chair then hop up on the dinning room table. then moved over to your open bible on the table and did the figure 8 motion. hovering a few inches over it back and forth for a while.

    we got goose bumps. like we see it doing all this but its like is this really happening? then it stopped and its little tail lowered and rested in one spot on your open bible.

    i said what scripture?

    he said let me look.

    ecclesiastes 9:7

    Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.”

    he said after that, the balloon floated off the table and went back into the living room.

    he said i never seen anything like this ever in my life. and i seen alot of weird stuff too.

    i said thank you. i said ya. there is something wonderful going on all the time around me. all the time. even i have my moments of whooaa hahaha.

    i have alot of this stuff going on in the last week. way more stuff than these examples.

    i know that it is by Faith that what is Spiritual is brought into what is material.

    oh and @Choices. i also bought a lotto ticket with my birthday on it as well. ;-))

    im excited to see what THE DUDE does next.

      • the figure 8? or the infinity symbol.

        i dont toss boomeranges. i didnt toss a balloon.

        so what is your question, again?

        ya see i didnt say what was on the back of the coin, now did i. and i didnt say everything else present.

        the symbol of the dollar on the coin means, “In God We Trust”.

        ya see the divine labyrinth outside Catholic Cathederals repesents the path to The Promis Land.

        the gold Crown symbolises something else. and i understand all that it means to me. i have a keen eye to the spiritual symbolism within the world around me. and i keep alot of info between THE DUDE and me.

        i sugjest you google boomeranges and find out what that means to you. :)

      • wait a second. are you implying that your hand is as good of shot with a boomerang as the invisible hand of God that guided that balloon? the same hand that wields The Word of which is a double edged sword, sharp enough to cut the spirit from the bone?

        if so, that is quite the boast. i will leave you to work that out with the invisible hand of God.

    • interesting the church i was at was saint john the evangalist.

      he wrote the book of revelations.

      Saint John first mentions the golden crown in revelations 4:4

      Revelation chapter 4 verse 4 says: “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.”

      and the labyrinth symbolizes the path to heaven.

      and the coin i found had a gold crown on it.

      another verse is. Rev. 14:14

      And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

      both examples have Gold Crowns.

      well it will be what ever it is. i dont have to figure it all ou5.

      i just need to acknowledge i5 and accept it.

  7. Morning Again George,

    This past Thursday morning I was working at my desk, getting ready to download a number of large video files from onscreen to an external drive, when I encountered a Woo experience.

    I had a 1/4″ thick 5 1/2″x8 1/2 white paper pad I made notes on so I could be sure of the source paths I typing. After I had made my notes I went back to working on the computer. Then I had to turn around away from the desk top I was working on. When I turned back and glanced down to double check my typing, the note pad was gone. My ball point pen was there. Note pad, gone.

    That puzzled me, I then wondered if I had carried it to and left it in the kitchen earlier and forgot to bring it back. So, I double checked the living room, kitchen, bathroom etc. No pad. See, I was concerned I might have not been attentive and forgotten what I was doing. Because I get so focused on my task that doing habitual things just does not register.

    Needless to say over, the next half hour I made several searches both around my desk top, all the papers scattered and stacked around me, as well as back to the kitchen, living room and other area’s.

    I finally went back to what I was doing on the computer and did what I could. Then I stopped and decided to go to the kitchen, make a fresh cup of coffee and start from scratch.

    I came back from the kitchen with my coffee and right where it had been in the first place was my scratch pad with my notes on it.

    And the problem I had with the computer which caused me to need the scratch pad suddenly magically fixed itself.

    That happened between 9 and 9:30 AM this past Thursday morning. Was that a time warp? Or what? I wonder.

    And this morning before I had read your Mercury retrograde experience, I was working in my email program and up pooped my old…like early 1990’s email address list. And a lot of the addresses were still good because I sent them a Hello note.

    Roger in Tucson

    • Time warp? Thanks for mentioning it, because now it makes me think.

      Yesterday, I was in my garage, it’s a condo, there is a common hallway, my neighbor and her daughter passed by and they both said hello.

      I thought to myself, strange, they both look 10 years younger… and then I also remembered this particular experience had happened previously…some years ago, exactly. The cheerfullness in the daughter’s hello, it was a flashback.

      What does it mean?

    • I had an odd “time warp” last week in a different way. Woke up in the middle of the night Sunday (actually early Monday a.m.). My “atomic clock” said 2:30 am. Woke again at 4:30 am. Turned on the tv news…only to find it was actually 6:30 am. Atomic clock had lost 2 hours exactly…to the minute. Figured the battery was low, but no — when I woke up Wednesday morning, it had already magically reset itself to the correct time. It’s been fine ever since. But it made me wonder: if the atomic “source clock” (wherever it is) ever downloaded the same kind of error onto EVERYONE’s “personal clock devices”… how would we ever know?

      • “Atomic Clocks” are actually radio receivers decoding ultra-slow code sent out by the National Bureau of Standards on 60 kHz (a very low frequency).

        Sometime due to interference from electrical devices like dimmers, or lightning static, or poor propagation of the signals, the de-code is erroneous. I’ve seen it a few times — it’s not that rare. The clocks will self-updtae as soon as good signals are re-acquired. It takes a while. In bad cases, I’ve seen it take a coule of DAYS to fix itself.

  8. its pouring down rain here today in spokane. which is good, for the wild fires.

    hmmmmmmm, oh yes

    ~ Faith will make ya look stupid, until it starts to rain. ~

    Noah

    :)

  9. For “our” purposes — “The Biz-Model Net” — experience and on-air testing and observing leads me to conclude that considering the U.S. is too big for any ONE frequency and time, thinking of the U.S. as six regions will probably work best. Range of both designated channels is more than enough to cover well any one region if normal propagation is in. Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest, Northcentral, and Southcentral. (If you’re on a border, you’ll probably cover two regions with these two frequencies in normal times. (Propagation, Thunderstorms, Solar freckles, etc etc.)

    This same six-region approach is used by FEMA, FBI, USAF, and American Red Cross for deployed field units to cover large areas. (Some use 9 or 10 regions)

    The trip from central North Carolina to Central Texas, is pretty challenging. (For example) Signals DO get through on that path, but they aren’t strong or reliable.)
    I was heard by some of George’s gang on 3.806 — but weakly. I run 100 watts SSB to a diopole — pretty basic and simple. (Never been able to afford a big linear amplifier.) 90% of hamming is done happily with 100 watts. It’s usually “enough.”
    Even so, I can reliably work from Florida to Pennsylvania and as far west as Missouri. You can probably cover your region (or two) quite well.

    3.999 LSB by night:
    7.295 UPPER sideband by day
    (USB on 7 is NOT a common standard)
    ________________________________________
    7.295 is used by AMers. The reason for changing
    to 7.295 UPPER is to permit compat with hearing the AMers in a non-annoying manner. They aren’t usually marathoners.

    • Heard couple guys around 4:45 am today Monday on 3806 mentioning Smith & Weston and Biden.

  10. Yo G,

    Thinks you need moar Purps; GrandDaddy Purps, Purple Kush, Purple Haze, Purple Urkle, Purple Punch! All winna winna chinken dinnas. https://youtu.be/k0MJ4pVxylk?si=EUJsooigw8pMT2fT

    Pennsyltucky encoded the purple paint into law in 2020 – cept for Phila Cnty & Lehigh Cnty (low life scumbags no respect the purps) Of course you would never find one of dem city slickers out and about in the woods, like ever. So no worries there – of course low life scum bag poachers got No respect for Life either, so always have that dark cloud lurking in the shadows.
    Anyways direct from PGC in Harrisburg, PT – https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&cx=007572080359491747877:zbnirfn31dw&q=https://www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/Law/Pages/Purple-Paint-Law.aspx&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwi_vrH749uHAxXSF1kFHdg3BM8QFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3S9f9JDUncQyYBmKkXzkfx

    Get 2 know Ure local hunting laws prior to taking field with long Gun in Ure hot little hands – Deer Season is almost hear..in fact stumbled across 1st road hunted Deer of the year, in local municipal(chestercnty) park (Hibernia) just 3 days ago. Me and the Russels were on it before the Flies, but a Vulture had already poked a hole in its lower intestinals – ewwwww
    To their credit – Park crew had that carcass scooped up, dumped and covered within 1 hr of our discovery. Imagine park Mrg saw it 1st thing in morning, and prolly heard it night before. Can still smell the carrion when we cross that field/meadow…smells like treasury dept, huh I mean DHS, erh I mean State dept, whoops meant to say smells like mossad in GAZA.

  11. George,
    Go to https://www.hubersuhner.com/en/markets/industry/general-industrials/energy/renewable-power-generation/lightning-and-emp-protection, download their EMP guide near the bottom. Excellent reading material.

    Have used their stuff for decades. Swiss quality. Used to have super fast tritium gas discharge tubes but those went away. Note that they use Lightning EMP (LEMP) and Nuclear EMP (NEMP) vs the US terminology. As for power lines, I use the Tripp lite isobars. You were lucky your freezers didn’t fry. Look at their isoblok units.

  12. Forgot to add regarding Huber suhner. They are expensive, but as cell phone towers and their base stations and other microwave towers and their base stations are replaced, the old hardware is salvaged and then sold very cheaply. Even on eBay.

  13. Seems like a couple of days ago, “earthquake tired” was talked about.

    I went to bed early last night. Tired but didn’t sleep well. Can’t seem to do anything but sleep today. Don’t feel sick at all, just dog tired.

    Something is about to happen.

  14. Considering the world situation, and FWIW… GQ has a new geiger counter out. Nice little hand held w/color screen for $99 with a 5% off coupon.
    https://www.amazon.com/Radiation-GQ-GMC-800-Dosimeter-Multifunction/dp/B0CKM8NML7/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.IyVIHTIUpMFRab72NLUxrD3ciBkOnU4OHi1wxR3wv5Hd28SfcqBSXkMJYeors7ysMTHx1dJuSC69ltW81O4HYdZ5e8iYvipUfnFGo3OhaJfyPJiiWuJ8bLHLps7JaGgjcriN7uO-an8eZGVaYeBdscxdhiySe1SY3FuM0kGNj7x1nobuAHpC7vPNfBBd_Dya.O3OOTX_hveSrZao9livPPUxBOKHj2-k82dpHugsjN-Q&dib_tag=se&keywords=gq+gmc+800&qid=1722668068&sr=8-2

  15. “Old diesel spritzed along line will kill most anything”

    Speaking of killing everything I have a zero tolerance insect policy and was using big box whole yard insect control. There are two major brands with different active ingredients and was switching between the two finding the stuff just didn’t work using as directed, 2.5 ounces per gallon/water. After a yard spray the bugs would go away until a rain or two then come back. Now I found a product that works, Talstar P.

    Talstar P sprayed as directed, only 1 ounce per gallon/water is magic. This stuff is pricier than big box but a small amount goes a long way. I sprayed the yard about three weeks ago.

    It took a couple of days before all the insects died off but I haven’t seen many since. No ants or any creepy crawlers. A couple of nights ago I was in my yard because I heard a cicadas, or is it katydid and was wondering where the sound was coming from. The bug was up in one of my trees that I sprayed. The next night the sound was gone. I think the residual insect control is still working because usually when these bugs hop-in they stay for the season. That night I also noticed no crickets or any bug sounds inside of the spray area.

    Since humanity may be on the brink of the 4th turn I mention this product because it can help protect your indoor/outdoor gardens. It works and you may want some in your arsenal.

  16. Dear Sir,
    How do I stop the constant need for my computer to “upgrade”? I have things figured out, I only need the computer to check the weather, this site and a handful of news sites as well as email. I don’t need anything fancy or the latest and greatest of anything. The upgrades are more of a problem then a help. Any suggestions are appreciated.
    Thank you!!!
    Yukon Corneilous

  17. George,
    I can”t believe with all your acreage, you don”t have a big wheel string trimmer. Here its 9 1/2 acres of “us against the weeds.” The only way I win, besides mowing, is the trimmer. I buy the largest line I can, largest spool (lasts for years) and soak it over night in water once a year. Way easier on the back and a real weed slayer. I’m glad my retrograde just got over too!

  18. Evening here, though I know people won’t see this until AM … but Japan is down 5.9% which is NOT surprising since Margin Calls were going to hit this AM (Tokyo time) in Japan.

    Margin calls will be hitting monday morning in the US too … and it currently looks like Bitcoin and Ethereum are being hammered in the overnight market, again margin calls probably part of their problem. As I write this Bitcoin is down $6,747 (11.09%) and Ethereum is down $614 (21.9%). OUCH!!

    Markets collapsing, Iran about to hit back at Israel, Israel probably preparing to hit Iran’s nuclear sites (with nuclear weapons?) … exciting two weeks looks to be on tap.

    The Jewish Day of Mourning, Tisha B’Av, 9th of Av, falls this year on August 13th. That is the day both the First Temple and Second Temples were destroyed (586 BC, 80 AD). Will that again be a critical date for Israel? August 13, 2024.

    (be sure to listen to yesterday’s audio blog by Cliff High which I posted the link to yesterday afternoon in the comments – Saturday’s comments)

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