The Ultimate Answer to Kings

Look what I got in my mail…

I guess I should click that link immediately, huh?

But how did I keep getting emails after receiving this one?

Regular readers know I have gone without indoor running water for the past couple of months. A week or two ago I repaired the broken valve at the base of the tank on the top of the ridge, but the identical valve in the yard is identically broken and so I have water at the yard spigot but can’t have water in the cabin until I dig up a whole bunch of plumbing. I could do that, but there are also additional improvements I want to make in plumbing insulation at the same time and I’m not doing it in February. So, having no family members to bug me about the inconvenience I’ve just been hauling water for washing and toilet flushing.

I spent all the early morning before the Monday water run and then again all afternoon working on this editing job for Ian’s book (want to know something about the 1886 Lebel?) and knocked off a couple of hours ago for a few minutes before things cooled off outdoors to fill the toilet’s tank and then refill my water bottle at the yard spigot. But to my surprise, the tank was full. It shouldn’t have been: I flushed it this morning but didn’t refill it. So I experimentally flushed again and waited to see if it refilled. It didn’t – or maybe, as I watched, just maybe the level was slooowly creeping up? Interesting. I left the top off the tank to remind me to check it later and went back to work.

Just now I checked it again – and the water level had risen about an inch. That yard valve is broken – but it’s not stuck entirely closed. Turns out it’s leaking ever so slightly. It’s not enough to get so much as a drip at the kitchen sink, but enough to fill the toilet tank over the course of several hours. So I’ve been hauling water to refill it for nothing, and didn’t know it.

It’s the little things. 😀

Dead humpback whale discovered in Brazil’s Amazon jungle puzzles researchers

Biologists were baffled to discover the body of a huge humpback whale being picked at by vultures in the midst of trees and shrubbery in Brazil’s Amazon jungle in late February.

The sea creature, which is roughly 26 feet long, was found dead about 50 feet from the shore of Araruna Beach, the Brazilian nonprofit Bicho D’água Institute says.

Authorities say there is no truth to the rumor that the whale was found clutching a thumb drive containing mysterious financial records.

h/t 90 Miles From Tyranny

Spent a little time updating the TUAK blogroll this evening, and wow have I fallen out of touch. Maybe it’s true that the blog is dead: Certainly a lot of the blogs on my list were. Some of the deletions made me sad, since the blogs might still be there but the actual blogger has died and nobody picked up the slack. Some just faded away – but what struck me is that I used to read most of these, and I don’t really read that many blogs anymore. Anyway, the blogroll is a lot shorter now but everything on it works.

Private to Claire, if you’re out there…

Does this ring any bells?

It’s one of the last pieces of two solar panel racks she and I built in 2009 or 2010. Ian and I put them up on the powershed roof where they stayed until replaced with the current ground mount in 2016. And as it turns out they’d have taken themselves down in another year or two without our help, because there was a surprising amount of rot. Also I must admit that, when I briefly considered rebuilding one of them for my own new 2016 rack, the expression “What idiot built this?” was heard in the land. Yeah, I’m a better carpenter than I was ten years ago – but they did work fine for their whole service life. It’s just a good thing their service life ended when it did.

This is the third winter for the stovewood they became, and what with various changes they got scattered all through the shed so I’m still finding pieces now and then.

With the final passing of the Morloks who did their coding, they swiftly starved into extinction.

I genuinely didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…

$350 self-lacing sneakers don’t work with Nike’s official Android app.

Nike users are experiencing some technical difficulties in the wild world of connected footwear. Nike’s $350 “Adapt BB” sneakers are the latest in the company’s line of self-lacing shoes, and they come with the “Nike Adapt” app for Android and iOS. The app pairs with the shoes and lets you adjust the tightness of the laces, customize the lights (yeah, there are lights), and see, uh, how much battery life your shoes have left. The only problem: Nike’s Android app doesn’t work.

Android users report that their new kicks aren’t pairing with the app properly, and some customers report failed firmware updates for the shoes, which render them unable to pair with the app at all. Nike’s app on Google Play has been flooded with 1-star reviews in response to the faulty update.

“My left shoe won’t even reboot” is not a sentence I ever expected to read outside a William Gibson novel.

It’s late February. I don’t demand Spring, I’m not unreasonable, but this is early January weather.

Actually today and the next few days are supposed to be quite nice. The mud is going to be epic, it was already getting bad yesterday and the temperature never even got into the 40’s. But sunshine, 40’s and no wind is quite acceptable. Almost anything, really, as long as the sun’s out.

Fits, doncha think?

h/t Jim Price

Today’s supposed to be clear and cold, and then things are supposed to get more seasonal which here in late February means not that bad. I can dream.

Yesterday we got about five inches and the sun never peeked through all day – but it was clearing by nightfall and this morning I can’t see a cloud in the sky, so it’s looking good.

This morning I got a link from Landlady suggesting that the Washington state legislature might have problems getting useful effect from their recent ginormous anti-gun law I-1639…

At least 20 county sheriffs in Washington state – more than half of the state’s total – are now publicly refusing to police new gun laws. Several county governments have also passed local resolutions officially opposing enforcement of the laws.

The moves may pose a significant threat to Washington’s ambitious agenda on firearms reform, and some activists say it is beginning to resemble a full-scale “constitutionalist” revolt against gun control.

A growing number of sheriffs, almost all in rural counties, have publicly stated that they will not, or believe they cannot, enforce the provisions of I1639, a ballot measure passed by popular vote last November which aims to restrict access to and use of assault weapons.

Now, I happen to agree that I-1639 is a terrible law that shouldn’t have been passed and shouldn’t be enforced, but the only thing new about the article is that the number of public refuseniks is up over 20. I wasn’t going to mention it on the blog because I’m backing away from that sort of thing, but I was reminded of the link when just now I happened to see the following article…

WASHINGTON MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY VOWING SHERIFFS WHO OPPOSE GUN CONTROL LAW ‘WILL BE SHOT. BY ME.’

Yup, he did that. And guess who’s in jail now. Because – agree or disagree – they get to pick which laws they choose to enforce. And they’ll always choose to enforce the law against threatening them. They’ll drop a donut in a snowdrift in their hurry to enforce that law.

So for the benefit of any anti-gun lefties with their knickers in a bunch: never mind the irony of threatening to shoot LEOs who refuse to enforce a law disarming harmless other people. It’s not just ironic, which I’m told is a left-coast thing. It’s also idiotic – which also seems to be a left-coast thing.

It’s been snowing a lot since daybreak…

…and around the time TB needed his morning walky I started worrying about the chickens’ top cover so I cleaned off the Jeep and headed out to Landlady’s early. Before I left the driveway I knew I was in trouble; there was no trace of tracks in the sand at all and also not a lot of information about important things like rocks and bushes. People in snow country know what I’m talking about: That flat light that filters through a mile of cloud and falling snow just whites everything out.

I wasn’t lost lost, I mean I was in the wash and I know where the wash is. But exactly where in the wash I was, was kind of a mystery. By the time I made it to the horseshoe turn in the wash I knew I was off my line but I didn’t know I was nearly 100 yards off the line until the left side of the Jeep went up on the bank of the new main channel last year’s floods cut – and for about five seconds I thought it was going to roll. I really did.

Turns out the top cover was perfectly fine, not collecting snow at all even though what we’re getting is pretty wet and dense. So I topped off their water and food and didn’t even stir them up collecting eggs; I just cleaned off the windshield and went home by the road, which I could at least see. Naturally the snow started falling heavy again just as I started out, so I had to stop several times to scrape the windshield. You know what would be great? If somebody would invent a way for a car to clean its own windshield. They could call it …

And we have got some snow, though I wouldn’t call it a storm…

It seems almost unnatural to see snow falling straight down. Doesn’t snow normally fall sideways? But the wind has dropped to nothing at all. I don’t know when the snow started – the sky was clear when I went to bed but that was a long time ago. We have maybe as much as 3 inches, which in a normal winter would seem like a lot but right now seems hardly worth mentioning. I’m sure the mud will be more influential.

With the lack of wind it’s not even cold…

…and the cabin is toasty. Not that you can convince my mighty hound of that…

Yeah, Torso Boy went out to pee at 4 and balked at all the snow. We went back to bed for an hour and I haven’t seen him since. You’d think it was freezing in here, which it is not: It’s headed toward “too warm.” Why would a dog with such a thick winter coat hate cold so much? Little Bear wouldn’t have been able to stay under those blankets for a second.

Anyway, the snow has arrived. I’m interested to see how much we get in the end – 6″ to 10″ has been bruited abroad but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Oh! And this is a special day, because Ian’s promised book Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866 – 2016 has completed its technical peer reviews and is heading into copy editing/proofreading. I know this because I’m one of the copy editors, which gives me something to do for the next few/several days. I’m very excited for Ian, because this is a serious work of scholarship: I’m old enough to regard an actual book as somehow more substantial an accomplishment than all his thousands of not-at-all-frivolous videos and I’m delighted to be involved.

I waited and waited, finally went to bed, and the morning dawned on the not-as-unpleasant-as-possible side…

But the forecaster assures me that snowmageddon is coming, I just need to be patient. It’s certainly windy and cold enough on the ridgetops.

So, morning chicken chores being behind me and the woodbox having been refilled, I guess I’ll resume my traditional activity of sitting in my goddam chair, staring out the goddam window and cursing the goddam weather. While waiting for the real weather to arrive.

Scratch that: I’ve suddenly decided it’s baking day, a day or two early. The chickens will get a gift of the leftover bread.

Last winter, the ten pounds of frozen cut-up pork I stocked with Landlady’s help outlasted the winter. Mild winter, and I really only use it for a mood brightener and also to heat up the cabin on bad days without all the woodstove rigmarole.

This winter…

Last of the Mohicans.

Oh, I’ve got lots of canned meat and groaning shelves of other food. I’m WAY not going to starve, in fact I’ve probably put on a few pounds of pudge. But that’s the last of the frozen meat because SCREW THIS WINTER.

In answer to not-longtime readers who will logically ask “Can’t you just buy meat?” The answer is…

…sometimes. Hamburger and cuts of chicken, anyway. You can’t depend on it being there when you’re there, and long bitter experience has taught me to check it well before laying money down. So, having access to the freezer in Ian’s Cave, I tend to stock up for winter over a period of a few months as money and opportunity permit. Last winter and this, Landlady brought me ten pounds of pork cut to 1-pound chunks and already frozen.

Meanwhile…

After yesterday’s windy stormy yuck, today dawned bright and cold but still and very pleasant. I drove to chicken chores because it’s laundry day at S&L’s but I’ll be out in it after it warms up a bit. Need to enjoy it while it’s here because there’s a big storm warning for … well, predictions vary but basically tonight until and maybe through the weekend. No worries, I have plenty of stovewood and plenty of propane but that’s more days of sitting around watching it snow and blow. Yeah, I’ll be outdoors today as much as possible.

ETA: By the way, my connection to the Internet has been on again/off again and especially when the weather changes when it just stops entirely. It’s fine this morning but the weather is reportedly about to change big time, so if I don’t post that’s likely why. I may go off the air for a bit, but I’ll be back.

D&L have to spend the day in the big town about 50 miles away for a doctor’s appointment, so something like two weeks ago I promised to take care of their horses while they’re gone. The weather wouldn’t have made any difference in whether I promised to do it because I owe them many obs and anyway they’re neighbors. But wouldn’t you know today had to be high-caliber winter. By the time I got over there in the wind, then gave the horses their pellets and then their hay and then broke up the ice in the troughs and sieved it out of the water and then got the muckwagon and cleaned their stalls and runs, I was kicking myself for not digging out the snowmobile gloves because my fingers really hurt.

But it’s done, and that’s how mutual-aid communities grow strong – they do a lot for me and there’s not a lot I can do for them in return, but they can be confident that when they do need something all they need to do is say so.

…I will at least consider doing something to help you remember why that’s bad and evil.

To be honest I don’t know how this dog got lost out here; maybe he was dumped, maybe he strayed on his own. He had a collar but no tag, so there was no way of contacting owners. He came into the yard of some neighbors, who called other neighbors, who kindly took him to a vet to try to save him but could not: The damage was too extensive, too far gone, and he was already starved and dehydrated unto death.

I’ve never personally seen one, but we do have porcupines. Unpleasant photo below the fold. 🙁 Continue reading →

Monday morning water run on what should have been a mild day, the temp is in the middle thirties but the wind is absurdly unpleasant. And we basically had to do everything…

520 pounds of wood pellets for D&L. 20 gallons of propane. 10 gallons of gasoline. 21 gallons of drinking water. Plus groceries and a little ammo. I blew out a finger of my unlined gloves loading pellets, so though I did not plan to replace gloves this trip I ended up doing that, and there’s $20 gone. BB always includes some greenstamps with his care packages and the plan was to invest most of that on a new water pump for the Jeep but I ended up leaving most of it in town and not for fun stuff – but the winter is going into extra innings and I must say a whole line of full propane bottles is a comforting sight.

D&L don’t usually buy pellets in town, preferring to order it by the pallet. But they’ve been going through so many there was nothing to do but hit the feed store for 13 unscheduled sacks. D didn’t want help unloading them from the truck but I happen to know he’s waiting out L’s recovery before going in for a second knee joint replacement, so I insisted (hopefully) without being obnoxious about it. If he hands them down from the truck and I ferry them to the rack we can do it in a few minutes without either of us having to suffer for it. So now everybody’s ready for the next cold week we’ve been promised.

Because I don’t remember ever hearing that. But I do remember noticing, several months ago, that I seem to have become allergic to almonds. They upset my gut, causing weapon-grade gas and – well – explosive diarrhea. So I regretfully stopped eating almonds. They’re not my favorite nut but I used to eat them with enjoyment and of course they’re a common ingredient in cheap trail mix, which I love. For quite some time now I’ve been pouring trail mix in a bowl and picking out the almonds.

But all this weekend I felt like crap. No nausea at all, which would have suggested food poisoning, but painful gas and all the rest. It would normally have suggested to me that I’d been eating almonds, which I have not been. But it only just now occurred to me that I have been wolfing these things down all weekend…

…and sure enough these do list almonds among the ingredients.

Now, I truly love granola bars. Eat them all the time, whenever I can get them, and they’ve never had this effect on me. Also, trace amounts of almonds never bothered me before. I used to have to eat them by the handful before they became a problem. But growing evidence suggests I’m about to lose a food I really enjoy, because a formerly small problem is growing.

Yesterday afternoon I wasn’t feeling well, something’s upsetting my stomach for some reason. So I sat inside watching a movie and almost missed the fact that the weather had completely socked in and it was snowing about as hard as it can snow. In all we got maybe two inches over the course of the evening. That got me to thinking about the forecast, so because I wasn’t already depressed enough I looked it up and learned that this cold in the day/colder at night BS is scheduled to continue for at least the next nine days. February is traditionally rather mild as winter weather goes, but this is officially the most suck ever dropped on me in any one winter since I moved here.

Woke this morning to blue skies, but by morning chicken chores that was already changing…

Big scary cloud banks rolling in – by the time I got home the sun was gone from the sky and the last scraps of blue are going fast. So another crappy day in paradise, followed it seems by another crappy week* there. I am truly sick of winter now.

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*At minimum