ShopTalk Sunday: Time-Expanded Wiring & a Media Rant

by

Although I got the major PITA project I’ve been putting off partly done Saturday, the real satisfaction came from wiring up the BBQ outlet this week.

However, it was a fine study in how “little projects” can turn into Big ones on the clock.

The idea sounded simple enough.  We had run an extension cord from the outside outlet over to the BBQ grill.  Except, even though it was bright blue, it was a safety issue.  And when you’re in the mid 70’s and someone near and dear turns the Big 8 zero in less than 10-days, well.

Scope It Out – Ensure Failure

The idea was simple.  I’d go to the electrical supplies chest, take out an outlet box, outlet, and cover.  15-feet of 12-2 with ground and some cable staples.  It was a half-hour project – Tops.

However, about here the “little voice” in my head started bitching.  “You gonna put that outside without a weather cover on it?  You’re NOT going to put in a GFI (ground fault interrupt) to a wet BBQ deck when it rains? You crazy old Man?” Picture the line delivered in Hecklefish deadpan.

So, the project took a four-day delay while I waited for Amazon parts to show up.  Which they did and the work proceeded thusly:

I have long believed – and passed on as Gospel – that new construction is two or three times faster than remodel or repair work.  Putting in a box?  Easy.  Stapling in the wire nice and strack?  No sweat.

But it’s where the “new work met the old work” that trouble was lurking.

Foolishly, I hadn’t noticed that this old fixture (which was a bit challenging to remove)…

Had been installed by someone 18-years ago (me) very neatly packed into a tight corner for best appearances.

Thing was that this corner area was spider heaven and there was no way the new-fangled LED wing lights were going to fit up against the wall here:

Shit-fire and save matches.  The old light box needed to be moved.

Did I mention some over-engineering a**hole used ring-shank nails?  Yes, make no mistake, the old box was installed in a manner consistent with airfoils run at Mach 3.  No way was it moving.

A good half-hour of “arm strong” and two pry bars plus invocations of the Almighty were required to get this piece of shit denailed, flipped into a new position and reattached.

But the result was very pleasing:

As you come up to the stairs, the lights hit “just so” and coming down, the lights are pointed down enough that they don’t blind you. It matters at age.  Not so much 20-years ago.

One of these days – now that there is power at the BBQ – I will put up a waterproof switch (giving the GFI some excuse for work) – so as to attract 30-acres worth of insects hungry from human companionship and pass the salt.

As always, little bit of progress, applied consistently, and the place will be in perfect order, just in time to die.

OH!  But the best sheetrock patch in the guestroom looks great:

Not perfect but not bad, either.

Not as nice in the guestroom bath.  But a color change to something with some color to it and some of Elaine’s artwork on the details and caulking and it will be serviceable as well.

Ure’s Radio Media Rant

As you know, I have been out of commercial radio (on the air) for 20 or 30 years now.  Maturity comes and hanging up one’s rock and roll shoes turned country boots is a natural progression. Management pays better.

But it was with those specialized “ears” that I had to report on a breakthrough programming idea for AM radio stations.  A new format I call “Relevant News-Talk.”

Got the idea when on Friday morning WOR decided to review movies that were showing in Gotham.  One of which was The Pope’s Exorcist – which could have been The Pope’s Attaboy, for all I care.

The point was – for the half-hour, or so into and out of that feature – the radio station achieved something most don’t:  Relevance to our life. Even out here in the woods.

See, we don’t like sloshing around The Village in the rain any more than anyone else.  But even out here in “the sticks” we are pleased to have Big Pipes now so streaming is on everything if we want it.

In NYC a lot of people go out and catch a movie over the weekend.  So, the programming was relevant.

It was then it struck me:  Why had none of the self-proclaimed radio guru’s I’d worked with ever come up with day-specific relevant programming?

I blue skyed it for a bit and here’s what I came up with.

  • Monday:  The weekend is over, back to the grind.  What would be useful? Presents for partner, recipe of the day.  Maybe a new book review.  A little something for each of the senses.  Instead, most Newstalk stations run on a joke service and story tip sheets.  If they relate to your life, it’s likely an accident.
  • Tuesday: Elaine gets creds for this: She’d like a weekly digest of “all new things digital.”  Hardware, software, maybe a Kim Komando story or two spaced out over an hour.  New phishing and trolling scheme, who’s got what new updates, new OS plans, antivirus, hacking – plenty of useful content for “Technical Tuesdays.”
  • Wednesday:  Workshop Wednesday.  A kind of check of the “hobbies and ambitions” people have.  So, we don’t all wonder off the digital cliff into the lost spaces of metaverses.  Keep things a little more real.  New tool offerings, maybe a new Micro Mark catalog is out – a Bob Vila 10-things not to screw up. Best plans for wood and 3D printing projects shared as PDFs and STL files on the radio station website.  Yeah – how much are 2-by-4’s at Lowes this week, anyway?  Also make it “Weather Wednesday” so we can line up how to best use the weekend ahead based on weather outlooks.
  • Thursday:  “Thirsty Thursday” is what Elaine and I’d call it.  A day when the latest developments in food, hospitality, and entertainment would be covered.  A couple of local restaurant/club owners talking about what’s up and talking to local craft beer and small winery operators. Tal to local musicians who don’t get enough press.
  • Friday:  Film and Food.  But light. Going over all the local events – street fairs, renaissance festivals, craft guilds, open houses, art displays, some of the bigger area-wide garage sales, farmer’s markets – you get the drift.

While we heap a lot of crap on the people who live in Gotham, they do get bits and pieces of things right.  So do other radio stations around the country.  Thanks to iHeart and others, you can now sample what it would be like to live in whatever town has a stream coming out of it.

A billion years ago, NBC had a weekend program that ran thinking content like what we’re talking about here.  It was called “Monitor.”  There’s actually a website you can visit and pull out old shows to listen to: The Monitor Tribute Pages – Dedicated to Network Radio’s Last Great Radio Show (monitorbeacon.net).  On this page, check out the late Ed McMahon hosting Monitor ’68. Sounds of NBC Monitor – 1968 Jan.-June.

Summer Ham Static Back+

Wow!  If you click over to Real Time Lightning Map :: LightningMaps.org you’ll see one of the better lightning clusters offshore from Houston.  That tropical front has really messed up the morning chi-chat on 3806.  At times 350 lightning strikes per minute.  Result? Summer-like static on the lower HF bands. At least within a couple of hundred miles of the Gulf.

As this moves along, another cluster in the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) looks like it will push up toward San Antonio later on.  But we’ll see.

Summer’s close when the low bands get full of static on the overnights.  Seasonal far-away AM radio listening rolls to streaming from now through next fall.  Tons of hail reports, though mostly pea-sized.  But an inch or more, so real weather.

One for the Road

Our nominal theme around here is Replaying 1929.  And we figure it is getting much closer now with the big upturn in fortunes for the music group Dustbowl Revival – YouTube. Only a matter of time until “music directly from the big city Bidenvilles” catches on, too, we reckon.

Hard times are only coming for people who aren’t prepared. Still, not likely to be all jollies and fun.

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

62 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Time-Expanded Wiring & a Media Rant”

    • from my perspective everything is pretty bleak.. the best we have to look forward to is a depression worse than the weimar depression.. zimbabwe here we come..

    • Had a brief exchange with a cousin-in-law this past week. She reads a lot of what I do on her own plus what I send her but her husband, my cousin, doesn’t believe much or any of it. He’s a very astute investor, has his CPA, real estate license an a host of other wall-hangers from his career in the business world but none of what I send him resonates with him due to his circle of friends. She wants to buy some PMs but he’s not having any of it. Love the guy to death but we’re just from different worlds and he’s firmly ensconced in the well-educated world of Normies that still thinks conspiracy theories will always remain just that. I don’t know what will happen to them when TSHTF as they’re in San Antonio where the outskirts have grown up around them and it’s one place I WOULD NOT want to be in if they went through an extended blackout beyond what the Big Freeze gave us a couple of years ago. The bad thing is all their kids are there, too, (“Bill’s family took HORSE PASTE!!?? Are they stupid?? Ew-ww!”) so no telling what kind of exodus and culture clash we’d be having in really bad times. They’re all “professional” people but someone’s going to have to learn how to get their hands dirty if they show up here.

      • I get it.. my kids all think I am some barking mad dog in the night howling at the moon..
        they to can’t see it coming.. what they tell me is everything I read is fake..
        they don’t even think printing trillions of dollars is a big deal.. just a way to keep the money flowing.. I say.. remember in ninety.. a bottle of pop was a quarter.. today it is two dollars.. two years ago.. two cheesburgers fries and coke was under five dollars today it is over twelve.. and extra if you want ketchup .. actually two cheeseburgers was on the dollar menu.. I paid thirteen well twelve and change.. on thursday..

      • Ratting out friends, neighbors and relatives is what the townies in brown-shirtville do these days for recognition of their wing-nut wokiness, left or right threaded. I’m sure your cousins are nice people, but you may have inadvertently given the relatives (and their social media-engaged offspring) enough blackmail material to extort whatever they want should the need arise (EW-ww prepper militia!). Opsec.
        Ray’s comments about disappearing for the first six months to a year of any major collapse scenario are making a lot more sense to me than they would have ten years ago.

        • George, you have my permission to publish my essay I sent you 15 years ago, on this topic (if you can still find it…) If not, and you would like to either possess or publish, I’ll see if I can find my original (it was 6 computers ago.) Something tells me it may become prescient to/for a number of people, here in the not-too-distant future…

        • “Ray’s comments about disappearing for the first six months to a year of any major collapse scenario are making a lot more sense to me than they would have ten years ago.”

          The thing is, one has to be really careful. “Loose lips sink ships” takes on a whole new level of importance, when it’s your ship, it’s really only a rowboat, and it can only hold 6 people. If you are “known,” LOOB will tell you that FEMA can come by and confiscate your stuff. What he won’t tell you is: If FEMA doesn’t, your “friends” and neighbors will,

          UNLESS THEY DON”T KNOW IT’S THERE.

          If you live (or are hunkered down) in the right place, “blackout curtains” are for your neighbors, not the marauding hordes of “two-legged vermin.” Your best friend will slip a knife in you in a heartbeat, if his kid gets hungry enough.

          What really sucks, is you will have to decide to let your neighbor’s 8yo kid live or die, armed with the knowledge that if he lives, you die, and in a real crapfest, like EMP (either with, or without an accompanying nuclear war) he’s likely to live another 4 months, then die anyway. You get to make the call, whether your accumulated knowledge and projected life expectancy are more, or less valuable to a future society than granting a child (and his parents) a few more months of life.

          This is why I want to be alone, 100 feet below a mountaintop and 100 miles from any other human, not in my family group.

          I never want to have to make that call…

        • LOL. A lot of good points there but it’s hard to hide or move a ranch. He’s done a lot for us and our Mom on the business end of things over the years but the fact that he doesn’t take us seriously, at least on the surface, may be a bit of a cover for now.

          If all Hell breaks loose and people begin trying to take from us one way or another, even if we offer to help those we can who need it, then negotiations start breaking down really fast and we may wind up “patrolling the perimeters” of the ranch with a few 6’x3’x, mmm, approximately 6′ holes dug where you can easily see them from the gates. Hopefully the hint will be surmised. As I’ve stated many times before here on these pages I’m more afraid of the citified newbies that have moved in around here thinking they’re closer to “FOOD” than they were before. It’s threatening to be another very dry year and the wildlife hasn’t really bounced back in numbers from last year’s drought. The number of people that have moved in could easily eat up every living thing in the South side of the county in a year’s time and leave nothing for the next. I just hope, SERIOUSLY hope, the banking situation becomes a major sink hole in peoples’ lives before the wanna-be movers and shakers start flexing their financial muscles around here again.

          The people across the street have already got their hooks into the new Superintendent so God only knows what they’re cooking up right now. He’s spending a lot of time enjoying their backyard garden lately. We’re already a divided town because of those people. I just hope those currently on the school board are a LOT more cautious about going totally nuts and being led down a primrose path like the last superintendent did. The last supt. even bore a pretty good resemblance to “Trudope” and thought exactly like him. I’ve been assured that the new one is … “normal” …? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

        • Twilight Zone – The Shelter

          It is a typical evening in a typical suburban community outside of New York City. At the residence of physician Bill Stockton, he enjoys a birthday party being thrown for him by his wife Grace and their son Paul. Also at the party are Jerry Harlowe, Bill’s brother-in-law; Frank Henderson and Marty Weiss, Bill and Jerry’s former State University roommates; and the wives and children of Jerry, Frank, and Marty. Bill is well known and liked by this gathering. Moreover, Bill has repeatedly administered to the health and well-being of each one of the guests. Everyone is friendly and jovial, even when mention is made of Bill’s late-night work on a fallout shelter which he has built in his basement. Suddenly, a Civil Defense announcement overheard by young Paul is made that unidentified objects have been detected heading for the United States, indicating a nuclear attack.

          As panic ensues, the doctor locks himself and his family into his shelter. His friends become hysterical and now want to occupy the shelter. Stockton offers his basement to the guests, but the shelter itself has sufficient air, provisions, and space for a total of three people. The once-friendly neighbors do not accept this. All of the previous cordiality is now replaced with soaring desperation: pent-up hostility, nativism, and other suppressed emotions boil to the surface. They break down the shelter door with an improvised battering ram. Just then, a final Civil Defense broadcast announces that the objects have been identified as harmless satellites and that no danger is present. His neighbors apologize to each other, and to the doctor, for their behavior; yet Stockton wonders aloud if they were all destroyed without a bomb dropping.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shelter_(The_Twilight_Zone)

        • @Bill

          It IS hard to move a ranch. In your area, in summer, it’s also hard to dig. Tomorrow might be a good time to start digging a root cellar / “tornado” shelter (like I’ve been nagging George to do for, seemingly forever). 50°-55° year-round, earth-bermed, to start, could be dug with a backhoe in a few hours. Hell, you could put a garden pool/fountain on top of it, so the neighbors wouldn’t connect the machine work with building it.

          I’m pretty sure I mentioned the rich lady up the road from me, who had a swimming pool built last fall…? She had the hole dug about 30′ deep, then had a row of (I’m guessing) 10″x16″ I-beams laid in the hole, before having the (Olympic-sized) pool built on top of them. I noticed there are a half-dozen or more PVC pipes sticking up through the concrete apron (she has an 8′ privacy fence, so I only get to snoop when the crew is working) and that that part of the apron has a 2×6 plate (like for a pump house). While I’m sure that from a mechanical standpoint, right next to the pool’s edge is a nice place to build a pump & filter shack, I’m also sure that it’s a sucky place to build one if you intend to swim in the pool or walk its perimeter. Also, (correct me if I’m wrong, but) I don’t believe it takes that many pipes to plumb a pool pump & filter arrangement.

          I personally believe a camera can be hidden on a post (tree, whatever) and used to feed a vertically-placed LED-TV in such a manner as to make that TV appear to be a window and the view be the same as an actual window would provide. I also believe that such a “window on the world” can be installed below grade, surrounded by curtains, sheers, or blinds, and provide both a “peek outside” and a psychological lift to someone living in a surface-challenged environment…

      • If the SHTF I’d invite her in. If’fn the rest of the clan troops in with her, they’d better all be properly contrite and hard-working, or whomever will get a Dingo up their ass on the way out the door. Chances are, none of them will show, because they’ll stay in town too long and lose their opportunity to escape alive…

        • Here’s a discussion of T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland and The Hollow men, explaining what he meant by indicating that the world might end not with a bang, but with a whimper:

          https://interestingliterature.com/2021/02/eliot-this-way-world-ends-not-bang-whimper-meaning-analysis/

          I bring this up here because of the impressive end time scenarios and plans. Think for a second it might be hardly noticeable, just a continual downward spiral as you are now experiencing no big events.

          Just as twilight bradually fades into night.

        • I think we’re pretty much all on the same page here. The only guarantee is that “things will be bad”. Which way things fall apart is about as certain as watching a well-used deck of cards fall after tossing them in the air.

        • Bill – You took all the dark commentary well. As things deteriorate, you will want to talk to the relatives about teaching the kids (and themselves) not to talk about family business at the club, at the school or on social media. Townies just don’t understand how limited resources are away from the big city, or what sort of people show up unexpectedly packing hardware.

        • I hear from local leo types that it’s a felony here in texas to cross a posted property armed without an invite.
          Stong castle doctrine or who has any business on my land with a gun without my approval? Seems to consitute intent.

        • @George

          “I hear from local leo types that it’s a felony here in texas to cross a posted property armed without an invite.”

          It is in most places, not just Texas — that’s the actual “power” of the “No Trespassing” sign. However, it is not a crime to walk, armed, up to someone’s door, to ask permission to cross (or hunt, or whatever) as long as no threatening move is made. This is the modern iteration of “hailing the fire” which has been the custom for hundreds of years, by people who didn’t want to get shot.

        • “Hailing the fire”. Never heard it put like that but it’s a practical description of “Hello the camp!”.

          The previous owner of the ranch lived all his years without a lock on the gate. He knew people were coming in and taking a deer now and then but I think it was his idea of charity. I tried to get him to lock the gate but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. One character was going out frequently to hunt arrowheads which could be very profitable given what I’ve heard was found over the years by my dad-in-law alone. Many old pieces were sold at fund raisers for the local school back in the day. Every other rancher I knew had a locked gate but he was one of the last hangers-on of that mentality. As soon as it was ours a lock and chain went around both sides of the gate and there was a hue and cry from the usual suspects when it happened.

          We still have to get on to the hunters we’ve had since the 70s about not telling us when they’re going to be there so they don’t show up in the middle of a round up or just so we’ll know they’re coming to clean up the house a little. I’m going to have to dig out the old trail cams and start using them again – and this time not for the 4 legged varmints. We’ve painted the corner posts purple (they need another coat) and have signs out so anyone coming in can’t say they didn’t do an illegal entry to the place but when I upgrade my .22 magnum I usually carry for a ranch rifle to something bigger to really reach out and touch something you’ll know things have taken a turn for the worse. Cue the backhoe!

          My brothers are always razzing me about not telling them where my bunker is. I wish there was one but just smiling and saying nothing is fun, too. I’ve dreamed about digging into the biggest mesa on the place as it would be a natural place to build one but that would be a ma$$ive sink hole. Just keeping the wells going is bad enough right now.

        • @Bill
          “Hailing the fire”. Never heard it put like that but it’s a practical description of “Hello the camp!”

          Hello the camp
          Hello the fire
          Hello the house
          Hello the fort
          Hello the _____

          This dates from the time of the European Highwaymen. You were either “known” or “an attacker.” If you came upon travelers or a settlement at night and didn’t hail it, they assumed you were sneaking around in the dark, getting ready to attack them, and would attack first. “Hailing” didn’t necessarily relieve either party of the need to be cautious, but allowed both parties the opportunity to breathe a little and get acquainted.

          The American Indian added to this custom. If you came voluntarily into an Indian camp — any tribe, any time, even if it was a war party, you were safe from harm as long as you remained, and didn’t try to harm any of the Indians. They might kill you on sight once they came upon you outside the camp, but in camp, you were welcomed, fed, nursed if you were sick or hurt, and so on.

          Westerners and (to a lesser degree) Southerners combined these two customs, and they became a part of the “Code of the West…”

  2. Nice job on the outlet. Is that a pellet smoker you’re using?
    The nearby smallish town radio station had a good lineup of farm and ag related shows along with short clips of cooking, farm and home related projects and a weekly “Tradio” call in show for people selling or trading just about anything. But after selling out to the big boys now all they have is the syndicated spewing heads railing about whatever the daily puke is. All the while selling secret pain relief pills, weight loss tea, gold and silver for less than it’s worth supposedly, cell phones for everyone, boner pills, and don’t forget free whole house solar paid for by “The Government”. All of this with FREE SHIPPING.
    Don’t even turn the radio on in the truck anymore.
    Stay safe. 73

    • One local fm still has a quickie trading and swap show on – but always too busy to catch it.
      The rest is BS and the same yammercrap you speak of

      • That’s because it’s cheaper, buying the canned, prepackaged shows, E-Mailed to a program manager (and station manager) with no underlings (or direct-streamed to a broadcast computer), than even a wall of NAB cassette players. The PM/SM decides on the airing order and whether the audience gets to hear Sean Hannity and Kim Komando live or canned, gets to hear a half-hour of “sports talk” or if it runs 24/7, and whether there’s any live local traffic or NWS (that’s News, Weather, Sports, for the uninitiated) or it’s all canned & shipped from WABC, KNBC, or wherever…

    • See discussion at
      https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/comments/11osi9/is_liquidpiston_for_real_id_love_even_a_doubling/

      Heat is a serious issue; so is pollution.

      The company has been getting loans then not being able to pay the loan off; but have loans forgiven.

      Got Covid $.

      Now running out of money and need to issue stock. Some owners are selling some of their stock.

      No market for the stock.

      Buy using a credit card???

      A buyer pays $10.
      I would want a 10:1 or 20:1 stock option along with it.

      The Big Boys including the car companies, know about this and have chosen not to pursue it.

      Just thinking.

    • It LOOKS good, but:

      That is an “offering” page — a solicitation, and they make everything look super-rosy.

      I question the design’s ability to function for any long period of time without shaking itself apart.

      I question the engine’s ability to run multifuel, the way they say it will.

      Mostly, I question their presentation. They seem to be trying to be all things to all people, and that’s an impossibility. That’s the “COVID vaccine” PR philosophy and that doesn’t cut it.

      I’d not have a real issue with dropping a Benny on 10 shares, but it’d be a $100 bill I’d be planning to kiss goodbye. If it didn’t go away, that’d be great. If it did, no big deal. I wouldn’t sink any more into this company, until and unless I saw substantial, long-term product results. I don’t invest in vaporware…

  4. Why type NM cable for your bbq? NEC 334.12(B)(4) says not in damp locations and 334.15(B) requires protection from physical damage which is a mute point because NM is not permitted in your install. Gray pvc is easy.

    • It’s under a roof, and on the backside from weather, not in sunlight ever and we don’t have building inspectors… But I will get a roll or two of gray pvc – thanks for the tip!

      • Most likely you’d never see an electrical problem, my concern is that bit up the post where it could be damaged and shock someone or worse. We want you and E to live a long time. Seems silly to risk an accident at our age. I meant pvc conduit, rigid or flexible. Put a waterproof j-box (bell box) under the deck and straight up to your ourlet. If you put your romex inside the conduit I didn’t suggest it ;)

        • Joel, (being too lazy to look up the current NEC) what do they require for exterior wiring now, UF in NM conduit?

  5. I learned real quick when I was becoming a landscape contractor to put in contingencies in the estimate. 3 tool projects in the idealized imagination usually turned out to be unloading half the tool chest and some power tools. This was the norm…the ideal ‘precision strike’ in and out job was the rarity though thoroughly enjoyed (like when I bid an irrigation installation and unbeknownst to me the house was built on stabilized sand dunes–the trenching was done in only a half day instead of two for the whole house…just wish I’d gotten more work from that neighborhood).

  6. It is always cheaper to build new.. around the wastelands.. you can’t get a plumber to do a repair.. the closest thing to getting one is roto rooter.. but if you need repairs.. not going to happen..
    repairs. handiman services.. one kid took me up on it.. he gets around a hundred an hour and is booked solid.. he is the only one.. little jobs..
    told the grandkids to do it.. become a plumber an electrician an air conditioning HVAC get big money some make more than a surgeon.. then sell service contracts.. discount in the event they need you.. ten bucks a month… they would have a thousand sign up right away..
    Appliance repair.. OMG.. Maytag’s closest repair man is almost four hundred miles away after a year of trying to get someone to come out to service the unit they just gave me my money back.. I will never own another maytag..their once durable product is now crap in my eyes…. long story but today they just give you the money back because it costs more to get someone to drive to it.. and with parts.. the new cheaper machines are just tossed out.. where in reality.. if they made good circuit boards.. or used more durable parts.. then they would make more money in one way.. by not having to replace items. but on the other hand having a durable product.. you gain reputation but lose new sales..

    • Loob: you are gonna love my story.

      I have a 1972 dryer. Hub changed belt and rollers. It would not heat.

      Called and found a 3rd generation repair guy around 26.

      He found the one wire loose and fixed the dryer said it was worth its weight in gold. I said it dries a load in 20 mins. He said the new ones have a cycle where they put heat out for 5 and air fluff for 15 so they run longer because of that computerized cycle.

      I also have a 1995 Maytag, he said everyone wants those cause you can raise the lid to check on the water level, stop and start it during any cycle, and it is simple, simple, simple to operate, no computer circuitry, no chips…

      Ah, the good old days.

    • Reminds me of when appliances etc went from mechanical to electronic controls, I ‘knew’ that was so much better, thank goodness we’re getting rid of these unreliable mechanical things and now look, no moving parts! Last forever!

      And then the slow dissolution of that idea over a decade or two and now I search for mechanical toaster ovens, washers etc. I think I even saw some appliance on Amazon advertised last week as “mechanical.”

  7. ATL: contractor he** here. Mrs. Egor got turned loose on kitchen upgrades (my fault there, having suggested updated appliances). After agreeing to new flooring I figured it would be months of planning. Samples came home the next day. Purchase went smooth. Install? Not os much.

    I’m on “installer” #2 (dismissed) hoping #1 will come back to repair #2’s mistakes / damage hoping not to go to #3. Were it not my bride is set on material and such I’d a hit UNDO, fired the lot and tried a RESTART. Like Ure story, the worst part are “improvements” I added.

    Homeowners lament: “while I’m at it I may as well _____”

    Write when you find good help,
    Egor

    ps – we are 10 minutes from a city of >50k but treated as if we are in outer Mongolia

    • You are – that city is Ulaanbaatar. Lol. As for help? G2 will arrive inside 3 weeks.
      Then we can get some of the real important shit done. Ham antennas, drone antenna lifting over 90 ft tall trees. Ure is destined to “rule the ham bands” with his bad-ass Texas Kilowatt, yessir…..
      KF7OCD can use it when I’m not, lol.

    • You’re living my nightmare, Egor!

      We’ve been trying to get a contractor in to our house again since before Covid hit. Don’t understand how everyone else seems to do it but their upgrades must be ‘way, ‘WAY more expensive than the ones we hope to accomplish. I’d be doing it myself after remodeling about half the ranch house on my own but the wall we want taken out is a load bearing one and finding the correct type of beam to do so seems to be a secret science. I’ve talked with the lumber company in town and they drew up a projection of a huge constructed support but we really want a raw wood beam like you find coming out of some old Amish barn of a hundred years ago – it’s only about a 14 foot span. One contractor says those aren’t made for support – even though that’s what they’ve been doing in their time on site previously, plus getting the flooring right between the two rooms that will be open to each other needs to be well thought out – and THEN there’s the question of a wood stove being installed properly. (Don’t want a repeat of what we had to do during the Big Freeze of, was it ’21?) The wife is exasperated saying “I don’t care WHO does it just get somebody in here!” but I know we’d better get the guy we’ve wanted all along or we’re going to have a sagging roof line and yellow caution tape around the hole in the floor as a permanent decoration with a lawsuit in the works trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip. ALWAYS give a project the opportunity to be done right the first time!

      • Did a similar job- whole house reno included Amish barn beams across living room and kitchen ceilings. Yes – kitchen is Barn chic” and living is country chic designs..https://www.houzz.com/photos/query/barn-chic – Live in OG Amish country, old barns all over the place.
        Ended up going with the “constructed support” behind the finished ceiling, and cutting barn beams in Half lenghwise. Cut surface of beam faced ceiling and attached. Looks great, nobody can tell they are “half beams” as the illusion is pretty dam “tight”.
        So saved some dough by splitting those beams in half, and got solid ass bones in da house for when the next Nor’easter comes ripping on thru.

    • I did a job some years ago outside Manistee. I subbed the roof to Sheriff-Goslin in Muskegon. Tear-off, repair sheething, 13.3 squares. They started at ~7:00 by surrounding the place with tarps. By 2pm they were gone, along with every scrap of roofing, every nail, even the sawdust from sheathing repair. 30 year asphalt with a 10-year unconditional damage/leakage warranty, and I’m thinking the bill was ~$4200, counting the 180 mile trip up the coast, and back (it’s probably more expensive than that, now…)

      If’fn you can’t get local satisfaction, I’d not hesitate to talk to folks in cities off to your east. They may cut you a deal.

  8. Re: “Time-Expanded Wiring”
    feat. the cosmic conciousness

    Folks,

    After reading today’s ShopTalk, I proceeded to the CBC website. The operator connected me to an episode of the radio program “As It Happens”. It features the researches into a man missing 90% of his brain, but is leading a normal life. It took me a moment to realize that the article is 7 years old although some reader comments date from today.
    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3679117/scientists-research-man-missing-90-of-his-brain-who-leads-a-normal-life-1.3679125

    Here is the program from the 2016 conference in Buenos Aires prompting the radio show.

    http://assc20.org/en/program/

    It appears that New York University will be the site of the June, 2023 gathering of the Association for the Scientific Study of Conciousness.

    https://theassc.org/assc-26/#symposia

    Please press 7 for the previous menu. Welcome back to DJ George’s country rambles from the deck. Here we go on another magical mystery tour –
    “The House Song”.

    https://youtu.be/cRa2QICngkA

  9. Pathologists in Germany are taking an in-depth look at the blood clots people are dying from/with after Covid vaxxination (sic). Dr. Campbell said he’d been told of what appeared to be the long blood clots morticians were finding when embalming people some 18 months ago. Indeed, Texas morticians were talking about this about that time and, of course, the articles were ignored or covered up. According to Dr. Campbell these aren’t really “clots” as we know them. They’re some kind of protein conglomeration, if I got that right, that turns the blood to sludge.

    Dr. Campbell showed some pictures of what the pathologists were finding when they separated the blood in a centrifuge (“spun it up”). There was a blob of some kind of protein that has never been seen before indicating a new pathology appearing in vaxxed individuals. He explains further, and much more competently, in his video released a few hours ago.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEE5OfiVS7o

    Just more vaxx fear-mongering C? Dr. Campbell has come a long way around in coming to these conclusions even though the evidence has been out there for all to see for a long time. Whenever it finally dawns on the Normies they’ve been poisoned I HOPE there will be Hell to pay!

  10. please forgive me for not being around much. I’m keeping less of a finger print on the internet and spending alot of time relaxing, pondering a few things.

    plus I’m very much off grid, most of the time.

    I will not reply or read the responses if any on this thought posted. you know me. chances are I will know your response before you make it, and without seeing it on the internet. the world around me will let me know.

    to the point:

    Two recent alterations to reality noted:

    item #1. in the images that were placed in the Bank of America titled “The future of the United states”. link was already provided in an earlier post.

    in the image of the sleeping giant buried in the red dirt, with the two fella gold panning and one standing looking on holding a shovel. with the sign “EQ” has been noticeably altered in reality. the image from 2 months ago showed men wearing Chinese hats gold panning. the altered realty image now presented shows men gold panning wearing cowboy hats.

    interesting to note: the landmark place I turn to head up to the mountains to work in the Mines is called the Chinese Hat store.
    and all last week we were moving bright red dirt.

    reality has shifted and been altered again.

    item #2. in the song white rabbit by Jefferson Airplane the words at the end of the song have been altered in realty. things are changing.

    “When logic and proportion
    Have fallen sloppy dead
    And the White Knight is talking backwards
    And the Red Queen’s off with her head
    Remember what the dormouse said
    Feed your head
    Feed your head”

    there is two alterations to the song from the original version.. where it now says,
    a) “Have fallen sloppy dead”
    it used to say
    b) Have fallen away dead”

    and

    A)”Remember what the dormouse said”
    it used to be

    B) “Remember what the door man said”

    the common term for these realtiy changes is known as “mandella effects”.

    also Note: bud light. I’m sure you are all aware of what is going on there. another litmus test. as the prejected naritive ny neferious forces is being redacted and disassembled and replacee by a new “authentic” narrative.

    also interesting to note: when arrived back to the hotel after work Friday. I found a new ~ Finger Print of God ~. for those who are aware what that means and as it relates to my personal future. ~ Finger prints of God~ are personal (only applying to me) totems left by angels or elves or time travelers and somebody signal future tense positive events.

    reminiscent of the Eric Church event.

    i got out of my car to smoke. looked over and saw something shiny on my drivers side front tire. i looked and found the totem or ~ Finger Print of God~ (the first one in this new area) is a very old Golden Master Key. it was impressed the direction of the tread line on my front tire.

    master keys open all doors. this one being golden.

    cool. okay DUDE, I’m excited to see what golden doors open in the future.

    I’ve been promoted to Driving 606,000 lb Ore trains. okay DUDE, let’s drive trains. not on cocain. even tho the land scape looks like mountains of cocain. being a miner is a stripper. strippers and cocain. hahaha. which is funny because a little over 3 years ago, I almost married a stripper high on cocain.

    good day to be sober.

    things are changing. the workers are working. butterfly effects are unfolding. to those aware enough to notice. I find it interesting that my life is in now emulating one of the images found in the Bank of America back in 1997 lobby, mining red dirt, down the road from the Chinese hat store, with a bunch of cowboys. hmmmmm. interesting.

    and in the other image. of the moon with an eclipse? it matches my pupils because I have silver halos around my pupils. hmm.

    hope all is well. met some new people. remind me of you people. see what they are about.

    not sure when I will be back. but I do have the master key. the Golden one.

    hmmm…

    what do I know? I’m just the old man down the road.

    https://youtu.be/gzah7VD_PM4

  11. hahhahahahhahahahahaha

    it happened again. my good friend Wendy (the most gifted personal psychic lady ive ever met, and i linked her here on urbansurvival a while ago) said I see in your future, old airplanes and new airplanes having to do with baseball.

    Jefferson Airplane new version
    of a song, after reality altered = different lyrics.

    and my last line in the thought I just made is from an album called “center plate.”

    pretty funny. hahahahah

    well done Wendy. Highly recommend her. very very gifted.

  12. I think I won’t be mining that long here. the reason I’m up here is for Divine timing. although this area is good people. very good people. when the great cataclysm comes, they should all be very much spared. peaceful, God loving, gun owning, respectful, hard working, honest, having high capacity for kindness and compassion. holding a high capability for forgiveness and humility. and yet strong and not willing to tolerate bullshit. very good people. much much different than those in the big cities. mostly Ranchers, farmers and miners. I would consider them ~ the chosen few ~ by comparison.

    I think I came here to see that. I may never leave. may buy some dirt and remain here. find a good woman and settle down. simple man, simple life. good wage, cheep area to live.

    however, THE DUDE decides where I go and when I go. it’s up to Him. my life is not all about me.

    that being said. it sure has been wonderful to see Good people still live in this world and you can find a place where it’d not only affordable to live plus make a really good wage.

    very refreshing.

  13. yes I heard you. “Maturity comes and hanging up one’s rock and roll shoes turned country boots is a natural progression. Management pays better.

    But it was with those specialized “ears” that I had to report on a breakthrough”

    I’m not doing shows anymore. if do end up doing a show. it will be my own show. which a certain Lithuanian princess nagged me about today. I said well, I’m waiting on the funding to do another show and website. I did just find a master key, perhaps it will unlock that door in the future among many many others.

    it will be the new and improved version. not the beta test I did be-fore. doorfore dot. com. I have totally new name and theme on file in the vault of my mind. the Golden Master.

    yeah, cowboy work boots seems the better. buy dirt, and find the one in the red paper wrapper. I already have the same exaxt shirt the fella in this video. and the store front looks very similar to the one in town. by different name of course.

    I’m not really the old man down the road. probably someone else. like Dan said. I’m too honest.

    good talk. m-ore to com-e. I’m sure

    I don’t say as to much anymore. but what i do say, there is much more to it.

    things are a changing.

    until we meet again.

    ~ fire cracker ~

    https://youtu.be/lPOTQBEe2eA

  14. and yes. I saw a miner got killed last week in a mine in northern Idaho. of course it wasn’t me. I don’t die for a very very long time.

    Prayers for his family. mining is a dangerous job. no doubt about that.

    ohhh the sun just lit up my entire hotel room all at once. the entire room completely brightened up 10,000 jewls. very cool.

    Yada yada Yada OK fuck off. I’m busy.

  15. “Had been installed by someone 18-years ago (me) very neatly packed into a tight corner for best appearances.”

    Back in ’86 I installed the world’s first all solid state 22kw TV transmitter. The exhaust fan was a 5-HP rotary behemoth that needed to be hung between the rafters in the ceiling. There were two amplifier racks on either side of the center exciter & control cabinet. When I installed the transmitter the far end was up against the wall, with a little space behind for rack access in that far corner. At the time, I remember thinking that I hope that blower motor at the far end never needs replacing as it would entail moving all five transmitter racks out of place to get at it.

    Fast forward 20 years. I no longer was an employee of the station, but I was the contract maintenance engineer for the place, since I was ‘factory trained’. With a shocking series of power single-phasing events, that 5-HP motor in the rafter ceased working. I had some choice words for the idiot (moi) engineer that installed it there. First challenge was to find a replacement motor that would fit the tight dimensions. (Modern ‘factory replacement’ was larger and would not fit.) The motor had to be removed from the top plate of the rotary blower box, and I had about 1/2 inch of clearance on all sides. I was NOT going to disable the transmitter for days/weeks and move it all six feet and back! Ever tried to lift a 5-HP motor when you are laid out between rafters, prone, with your arms outstretched? I had to install a small rope & pulley set in the rafters to support and lift the beast while I wrestled with those half inch clearances all around. Talk about karmic payback for the installer!

  16. Martin Armstrong is on Greg Hunter’s program again –

    https://usawatchdog.com/ukraine-war-causes-inflation-higher-rates-martin-armstrong/

    The Neo-cons HAVE to start a war before ‘24. The theory is no president has lost an election in the middle of a war.

    What is the story behind the de-Dollarization of World economies?

    Credit Suisse essentially committed suicide due to the new rules imposed on the World’s banking system. They opted out.

    He says interest rates are going higher all the way into ‘24.

    The Dims’ plan is to run Biden again if he lives. If not they’ll try formaldehyde – Biden and Fetterman in ‘24 – It’s a no brainer!

    And much more.

      • LOL. I think it’s a recent memory. Someone was doing a similar spoof on Biden when he was running or shortly thereafter. Maybe Babylon Bee. We may all be tuning in for political ads in ’24 just for the laughs. Kind of like the old variety shows we used to enjoy. I doubt if anyone’s going to take anything seriously by then.

    • “The Neo-cons HAVE to start a war before ‘24. The theory is no president has lost an election in the middle of a war.”

      ??????… I believe that first they have to have the support and respect of the people…
      All you have to do is listen to the general conversations..I personally don’t hear any of that.. sure there’s a few that would be willing to sacrifice their children to the cause but not the average. the allegations and postings of so many questionable and suspected criminal activities and business arrangements..
      1 year ago…the thought of a nuclear war was so far in the back of everyone’s mind it was a non discussion.. today its not only a major and common conversation with the vast majority of the people discussing the effects if it does happen, but also a program selection for main stream media..
      Then prices…every aspect of everyone’s lives has been negatively affected.. the world..all the NATO countries have been pushed into bankrupting themselves for a country that’s well known to be corrupt and many questionable business activities.
      the scary part is..The cards have been played..the dollar,pound,and euro have been put on notice. with the sanctions pushed the bric. where all the countries we have gone into to save.. has joined their alliance.. placing the currencies at question in jeopardy of losing their position of dominance.
      if we fail now that the NATO is totally committed.. the tower will crumble and fall we will lose our status as the world leader..A lot is at stake.. people are not willing to die for some pedo peter..
      I believe that the oligarchs are worried to..2000 years of dominance is on the line if they lose its going to be biblical.. all over their greed..
      an interesting and terrifying future awaits us..
      the best that we can expect is the worst depression in modern history..there’s a lot at stake and a Zimbabwean economy is coming quick to the usa.

      • ” I believe that first they have to have the support and respect of the people…”

        No.

        Obama set the “new standard.” His method of governance was:

        1) Say exactly what you are going to do*

        2) When people freak, tell them exactly what they want to hear

        3) After everybody is talking about what you told them, that they wanted to hear, go ahead and do whatever you said in step one, which created the blow-back. Everybody will be so busy with step (2) they’ll never notice you actually DID step (1)

        * Trump was very good at saying what he was going to do, and then doing it, but he was not the first contemporary Prez to do so. Barack Obama actually began the trend. He was very good at saying what he was going to do, then doing what he said. Because we’ve come to believe nothing a politician says, nobody paid attention and everyone accepted his “step-2” bald-faced lie. AFAIK I’m the only one who noticed, even though Obama did this over and over, and over again.

        Where Trump differed from Obama was he completely skipped “step-2.” Trump didn’t lie to us about what he was going to do (or had just done), a policy which added to his mystique within his base, and the fear and loathing amongst those who hate America and wish us gone (or at least made inferior and subservient to other nations…)

    • 2 cents: IMO just because AM is unmanageable. I am a long time AM nighttime listener/dxer and I can barely use it inside the house anymore, just the accumulation of rf noise. I still can listen well using a magnetic loop about 60′ from the house and ten ft high. Although still works in car sort of ok;.

  19. I ran power underground from the house to the carport a few years ago, with 3-way switch for lights and separate outlet. The fun part was digging under a sidewalk sitting on top of clay. Used a 2″ pipe, sledge hammered into the ground at a low angle, then pulled out with a come along. Rod out the collected clay and repeat. Did this again from the opposite side of sidewalk then fed two 3/4″ ENT conduits through the hole. The second conduit was for camera.

    At the same time, installed switched and unswitched outlets around the deck and under the eaves, using PVC liquidtite and ENT. One switch, labeled HOLIDAY, controls the strings of LED Christmas lights that are around the deck. Just added a string of color changing LED lights to better match the holiday (green for St. Paddy’s Day, red/white/blue for Fourth of July, orange for Halloween, etc.)

  21. Treasurydirect.gov being sabotaged in sales of bill and note paying more than 5% interest by “fascist” banks and phone companys to continue their selling high priced houses and debts and pay 0.03% interests with wall street commissions and control..???

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