Does it ever stop with houses? Ever? I’ll give you an example:
Our central air-conditioning unit is…old. When we moved in 17 years ago, the house inspector said he couldn’t give us an opinion on the A/C because a) it was the dead of winter; and b) the unit appeared old enough that it was nearing the end of its useful life. OK, fine, noted.
So every summer since, I’ve crossed my fingers as the weather heats up, hoping it will turn on and work. We had it inspected a few years ago; the guy took a couple of big mouse nests out of it and said it was down a…pound? I think that’s the unit?…of freon, but he wouldn’t add any because “it’s so old, it’s not worth it.”
It kept working. Finally, this year, I said maybe we should look into replacing it. I googled “life span of a central air conditioning unit” and learned the average one lasts about 12-15 years. And we’ve been here 17 years. And it was old when we moved in. So we called some companies and the parade of estimates is starting. In preparation, Alan went out to trim the shrubs around the unit and found the installation date on it: 1988. It’s 34 years old.
But it still works! It’s a goddamn miracle.
So the first guy shows up, goes downstairs to look at the furnace and says nope, won’t fit. The newer, high-efficiency A/C units are taller, and our furnace is too tall for it to sit on top, and so that means that to replace the A/C, we also need to replace the furnace (installed in 1998). So what started as a roughly $4,000 expense is now a $8,300 expense.
So, pfft. I’m thinking I’ll just wait until it finally goes kaput, knowing it will do so on a beastly hot day and who knows, maybe it’ll cost more.
Although three more quotes are coming our way, so maybe we’ll get a miracle. Let’s hope so.
Houses. It never stops.
Personal whining notwithstanding, it wasn’t a terrible weekend. Got some work done, got some socializing done, got some cooking done. But let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about Ivana Trump’s grave:
I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the incredible weirdness of this — to be buried on your second ex-husband’s golf course? At the time — a whole week ago — the discussion was about how the Catholic church had to consecrate the land so “strict Catholic” Ivana (who was married four times) could be buried there. And now it turns out there may have been an ulterior motive? You don’t say!
Looks like Melania did the landscaping there. Seriously, they didn’t even have some sod laid down? Good lord, these people.
Oh well, the week ahead looks good. Hope it does for you. Election Tuesday.
Deborah said on July 31, 2022 at 9:24 pm
I made cream puffs today in keeping with our food purchasing experiment since we already had all of the food ingredients. Everything went wrong, they didn’t rise I think because I lost a half an egg while mixing everything. They ended up more like cookies. Now to figure out what to do with the cream filling that had no place to go. I found the “cookies” actually tasty because they weren’t too sweet which so many cookie recipes are.
We did a lot of work outside today because it was fairly coolish. We did weeding, raking and trimming. Felt good to be active again after Covid.
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Julie Robinson said on July 31, 2022 at 10:27 pm
Geez, they couldn’t even swing for the kids’ names on the granite? I mean, all those husbands would take up a lot of space, but the kids? That is one pathetic grave site, but anything for the grift, I guess.
I hate to say this, but a 1998 furnace is also running on borrowed time. Modern HVAC equipment is crap. Down here you’re lucky if your heat pump gives you five years.
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Jeff Gill said on July 31, 2022 at 10:27 pm
Combo furnace & AC unit replacement, outside compressor and fan unit plus inside coils & heating element as well as blower: just cost me almost $15,000 and that’s dead on median for this area. $8,300 would have made me smile, wanly.
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Vince said on August 1, 2022 at 12:08 am
I’m with Jeff. Your price quote made me envious compared to what we paid in 2014 for new furnace and A/C: $18,000. I will say we splurged on one extra that was well worth it: zone control. Upstairs and downstairs can now be controlled separately. Before that one of the two was too hot or two cold, never matching. I also make great use out of being able to check and control the thermostat from the app on my phone.
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Mark P said on August 1, 2022 at 1:39 am
Thirty-four years? Amazing. I’m of the if-ain’t-broke school, but you’re probably right about when it will fail. And if it fails in a historic heat wave, you will be competing with a lot of other people whose units failed.
Golf course graves are what happens when no one in your family gives a shit. Sad, but all of them seem to deserve each other. When Trump dies, I think they should hang him up naked by one foot on one of his golf courses and let the crows finish off the body. Maybe put up a web cam. Then do the same for Donald “Cokehead” Junior, Eric the unloved, and Ivanka, maid of plastic.
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Dexter Friend said on August 1, 2022 at 4:00 am
It’s rare to see an AC unit atop a house in the midwest but I noticed in Las Vegas they all have them on the roof: “Ease of access: Rooftops offer plenty of open space, which means AC technicians have an easier time accessing and repairing units placed there. Fewer disruptions: AC units can be very loud when in use, and a rooftop placement can greatly reduce the sound that you hear from them. May 27, 2021” (internet grab).
Businesses have them on roof-tops here, but recently I have noticed more AC and heat pump outfits right outside the houses in the yards. And, they are much smaller than before.
My neighbor shoved his noisy little window unit out-d-window and smashed it to smithereens, and stuck a brand new one in there. Best way, surely, but the fucker goddam-nearly had shrapnel hit my Odyssey. No respect, I tell ya….
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beb said on August 1, 2022 at 4:28 am
Deborah — make Oreos out of those cookies. That will use up the cream filling.
We replaced our furnace 4 years ago for four grand. They wondered if we wanted to add, too, but we said, “no.” I probably should have at least asked for a quote. Since we got a high efficiency gas furnace, tall like you say, I assume that their model of AC would have fit on it all right.
Trump is the Ur-Republican because he is totally shameless.
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David C said on August 1, 2022 at 5:50 am
We replaced our furnace last fall and our a/c this spring. They were shitty builder quality units and they crapped out at 13-ish years. It was $10,500 total. We have a 1,200 sq ft house so that, I’m sure, held the cost down.
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alex said on August 1, 2022 at 6:50 am
Dex, there’s another reason for AC units on rooftops: Thieves like to mine them for copper, which commands a high price at the scrapyard.
Nancy, I’ve been in my house going on 18 years and still have my original AC unit and it’s still going strong. I have no idea how old it was when I bought the place, and I’m disinclined to mess with it until it’s necessary.
On the other hand, I’m on my third furnace. The first one was ancient and croaked as soon as the home warranty on it expired. In the dead of winter, of course. The second one had issues due to an incompetent installation and failed after 8 years. So far so good on the third one, although its performance might be better if I’d get some insulation blown into my exterior walls.
Furnace at my dad’s house is 25 years old and the technicians say it’s fine and no need to replace it just yet. These were the same techs who discovered the cracked heat exchanger on ours when it was 8 years old and condemned it.
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Dorothy said on August 1, 2022 at 8:16 am
Alex I had to smile at your aside about the furnace breaking in the dead of winter. Considering you use a furnace in the winter months primarily, it’s a pretty good bet if it’s gonna break, it’ll be in the winter time!
So the Cash Explosion show taping experience yesterday never happened for us. We got there at 11:15 – wristbands were going to be handed out starting at 10:00. The wait line was easily 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile long. I am NOT exaggerating. It was overcast when we got there but the sun came out blazing within 20 minutes of us trying to find the end of the line. We never saw the end. I turned to Mike and said “there is no way I have the patience to wait in this line, let alone getting back in line to get into the auditorium.” It looked miserable to be going so slowly through the fairgrounds in the heat. Plus we would not have been able to enjoy seeing any of the exhibits! So we did that, ate some fair food, and when we came across folks in line again, I asked how long they had been there. “More than 2 hours” one person grumbled. Yeah, we made the right decision.
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Pat said on August 1, 2022 at 8:53 am
I had an old air conditioner in our Atlanta home. When it needed repair, we called in all the “reputable” companies. They all said the unit was old, ‘builder quality’….and proceeded to provide quotes to replace the unit, (and venting which they said was installed incorrectly)…all quotes in $15K range. Then a tennis buddy recommended ‘a friend’….someone that had retired from the airline industry & opened up their own Heating and Air company….Long story short, after 3 hours in a HOT attic researching matters…then came down with their quote: $150.00 to replace some circuit board—everything else was fine. (They did not charge me for the 3 hour in the attic while they did research).
I recommended this ‘friend’ to anyone & everyone over the next 15 years while I lived there. I soooo wish there were more ‘friends’ like these.
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Icarus said on August 1, 2022 at 9:27 am
I came here to point out what Dorothy said. I always advise my friends to test their heating and cooling systems about two months before you actually need them regularly. It won’t prevent an in-season breakdown, but if they are already not working, you at least have two months to start saving for the repairs and it might take that long to get service anyway.
We looked into getting air conditioning in our Chicago Foursquare, but it was too costly, over $20K IIRC. We would have had to do space packs and those can be hit or miss.
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Deborah said on August 1, 2022 at 9:34 am
I was shocked when we replaced our dishwasher this March when the installer told us our old one was at least 40 years old. It came with the place when we bought it, we knew it was old but not that old. Our new one has a life expectancy of 20 years, which according to research we did is quite a bit longer than most.
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LAMary said on August 1, 2022 at 9:53 am
I have a window unit in my bedroom and one in the room I use as an office. We never use the furnace. The thermostat is in a stupid place on the bottom floor of the house so to keep that floor where the bedrooms are warm the upstairs where the living room and kitchen are becomes a sauna. I can live with extra blankets. I run the ac in my bedroom for two hours on a timer when I go to bed. So far this year I’ve only used the ac in my office once. I have little desk fan that has been adequate this year so far. Emphasis on “so far.” August and September are the hottest months.
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Deborah said on August 1, 2022 at 10:04 am
Sorry about my obsession with this story but now I’m reading that Ivana was cremated. So what was the coffin for? That had 10 pallbearers? Who knows?
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nancy said on August 1, 2022 at 10:18 am
You guys are changing my mind. It looks like $8,300 is a bargain, and one we should take advantage of. The second guy’s quote came in a few hundred above that.
The more I think about it, the grosser a golf-course burial seems. Princess Diana was buried on an island in the middle of a lake on a private estate, which I understand. This is just…”Oh, mom is over there. You can see it from the first tee” repulsive.
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Jeff Borden said on August 1, 2022 at 10:39 am
It’s impossible to underestimate just how horrible tRump and his worthless spawn are. . .
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Julie Robinson said on August 1, 2022 at 11:27 am
Pat, we had a guy like that at our old house, and it was a sad day when he retired from his retirement work. He kept our old furnace going several years past when the big companies told us to replace. And then of course, only four years later an $1100 part went out on the new one, the one part that wasn’t covered under the warranty. Had a similar issue with a refrigerator. It seems the companies have figured out what breaks and exclude those parts from the warranties.
In the addition we just built we have ductless mini-splits, on the heavy advice of our architect. Supposedly much more energy efficient, but try finding installers who know what they are doing. Same with our heat pump water heater. Our contractor didn’t have a clue.
Waiting for an electrician to come quote us on a bunch of little projects. We’ve emailed and left messages with several and no reply. This morning a couple are available, one coming any minute and another later today. But now I’m worried–if they’re available are they any good? They were all recommended on NextDoor for what it’s worth.
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FDChief said on August 1, 2022 at 11:37 am
Tubby planting one of his ex’es in a pauper’s grave so he can grift the taxpayers is possibly the most on-brand Trump thing I can think of.
That 70-odd million of my “fellow citizens” would belly-crawl a mile over broken glass to sniff the exhaust of the truck that takes his dirty underwear to the laundry is the most on-brand Republican thing I can think of.
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ROGirl said on August 1, 2022 at 11:44 am
Thread win!
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Heather said on August 1, 2022 at 1:20 pm
I just got the motor replaced in my condo unit’s furnace this spring, which is about 12 years old. It was making a whining sound on startup. Cost was around $900–the tech seemed to think it would give it a few more years, and I trust the company. I think my neighbor paid about $8000 to replace furnace a couple of years ago. I don’t know if that included the AC or not, but yeah, for a house that’s probably pretty good.
My AC unit is on the roof–had them look at it last year and it’s looking OK. I use it maybe 4-5 times a year so hopefully it will last a long time to come.
That picture of Ivana’s grave is grim. I wasn’t a fan of the woman, but geez, at least add some sod or plant some flowers or something.
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susan said on August 1, 2022 at 2:37 pm
All those documents FatNixon didn’t have time to burn, flush, or shred are in that coffin, along with Ivana’s bits.
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LAMary said on August 1, 2022 at 2:58 pm
I read that trump’s golf course/cemetery is for his family and for premier members of his golf club.
I have two cats and one peach faced lovebird buried in my backyard. All of them have nicer graves than Ivana. To prevent raccoons from digging them up we put nice planters with flowering perennials on each burial spot. Amelia, Anna and Corazon all have nice spots near one the olive trees in my yard. Corazon (the lovebird) is in a wooden box that held a Sacher Torte from a jazzy hotel in Vienna.
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Jeff Gill said on August 1, 2022 at 4:09 pm
As a general note, if a casket or casket in a vault is buried, you give the ground a few weeks to settle, then add more soil before you seed or sod. The initial fill will, after rain and temp cycles, compact down into the voids around the casket or vault, and that’s normal. A cemetery on a golf course, especially as a tax dodge, is bizarre and perverse, but putting a golf course on an ancient Native American monument is equally so . . . stay tuned for updates tomorrow, as we have reason to hope for the Ohio Supreme Court decision about the eminent domain petition to open up Octagon Mound from under the lease to 2078 the current lessee, Moundbuilders Country Club, has in hand. Channel 6 tonight in Columbus, OH is likely to carry a story favorable to the country club as the club’s legal team first salvo in the likely next stage, a jury trial to set the compensation amount for eminent domain over the remaining 56 years of the (in my opinion illegitimate) lease. It’s remotely possible the court will return the case to be retried on appeal, but I am hopefully doubtful.
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Deborah said on August 1, 2022 at 4:57 pm
Off topic. Guess what time of year it is in Santa Fe? Yep, roasted green chile time! I think I spelled that right. The city is starting to smell divine, every grocery store parking lot does it. We still have some in the freezer from last year believe it or not. We’ll need to ditch that and replenish. I wanted to take some back to Chicago last year but I hate to check bags so I didn’t.
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David C said on August 1, 2022 at 6:30 pm
When we had to have our HVAC units replaced my brother in law who spent 40 years installing furnaces and a/c units told us there are only two manufacturer’s to consider. One is Daikin which is what we got. They’re a Japanese corporation with the best warranty. They tend to use what most companies consider last generation technology but they believe it has more bugs worked out. I have no idea because we only recently replaced them. The other is a series of brands owned by ICP (International Comfort Products). They sell half a dozen different brands with the best known being Heil. They have a very good warranty too and my BIL said he installed more of those than any other and had fewer callbacks. He said to avoid anything you see advertised on TV because most of them use proprietary parts where the others put together a mix and match set of components which are readily available by anyone. Sort of an Apple vs. PC thing, I guess.
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jcburns said on August 1, 2022 at 10:51 pm
I was with you until the last sentence, David C. Doesn’t sound like an Apple vs PC thing in any way.
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Dexter Friend said on August 2, 2022 at 12:54 am
My last furnace is a Bryant high efficiency. Only one problem in ten years. I have gone through 5 water heaters in 41 years. They start leaking and there goes another one. At one time we had a couple Bard furnaces, but they quit making home furnaces like 30 years ago. The factory is here in Bryan, and they make industrial AC units I was told.
My troubled step-grandson who I had to kick out of my house is in his 4th week as a tire builder at Titan Tire here in town. They make tires for mining operations in Canada, way the hell up there, featured in the old show “Ice Road Truckers”. Each tire retails to mining companies for between $38K to $50K, with some super-large deluxe tires at $100,000 each, but that is just hearsay and may be an exaggeration.
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ROGirl said on August 2, 2022 at 5:15 am
My furnace and AC are coming up on 20 years old. The last technician here made a comment that they are not long for this world, but they still work.
In the thread from 8/2/16, I commented that the fat orange baby was already proclaiming loudly and often that the election was rigged. And here we are 6 years later and nothing that comes out of his mouth has changed.
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David C said on August 2, 2022 at 5:33 am
Could be jc. I don’t know jack shit about Apple computers other than they don’t run the software I use. I understood Apple used a lot of proprietary parts in their computers and PC were just boxes of more or less off the shelf parts. You learn something every day.
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jcburns said on August 2, 2022 at 10:49 am
Pretty sure you’ll find that every laptop is a mix of proprietary stuff and hardware that could (and does) show up everywhere.
Apple’s just smarter than most about their choices.
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Icarus said on August 2, 2022 at 8:42 am
couple of interesting items
https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-next-big-play-scare-105500001.html
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Icarus said on August 2, 2022 at 8:43 am
a couple of interesting items
https://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-skeptical-covid-vaccines-battle-161324320.html
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Suzanne said on August 2, 2022 at 9:57 am
Icarus, those articles are both horribly depressing. I don’t understand the mass psychosis that has overcome “conservatives”. It’s a death cult. I can’t understand it. The US has such great wealth and natural resources and they want to burn it all down.
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Icarus said on August 2, 2022 at 10:20 am
Suzanne, there are probably lots of reasons but the simplest is, that their numbers are dwindling and they fear losing or even sharing power. Toss in some good old fashion racism for good measure.
I read once that we almost had National Healthcare but it was voted down because black and brown people would have it too.
Now there is nothing wrong with a Constitutional Convention, the founding Slave Owners expected us to have (** checks notes) more than zero by now. The problem as the article states is that the GOP doesn’t intend to invite or allow others to contribute.
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Dorothy said on August 2, 2022 at 1:03 pm
I just signed up to be a poll worker! You guys are inspiring, but truth be told, my mom was a poll worker and always enjoyed the experience. She really was my source of inspiration! I’m glad I signed up. I had a conversation when I voted this morning with the woman I met at the check-in desk. It feels good to start the process.
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Julie Robinson said on August 2, 2022 at 1:51 pm
My mom was a poll worker for 30 or 40 years. It was pretty much the same group of people and they got to be friends through the experience.
We’re out running errands and it got so late, we realized we’re officially at hangry. But this area has crappy choices like McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, all the fried chicken places, ick.
Then we see Steak N Shake, and it looks like the best choice. No people up front, just kiosks for ordering, then it asks for a tip. What the what? We had to order, get our own drinks, pick up the food and bus our table. We didn’t give a tip.
Food was good but in noticeably smaller quantities.
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David C said on August 2, 2022 at 2:09 pm
The topper would have been having robots doing the cooking with tips to keep them oiled.
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Deborah said on August 2, 2022 at 2:35 pm
Whenever I’m asked to tip at places where it’s all self service I’m conflicted because on the one hand I want to help out people who work but get low pay, and on the other hand if I tip it just encourages the company to keep paying low wages. I usually try to give them a direct cash tip in those cases but if I don’t have cash, I usually tip anyway, but don’t feel good about it.
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Julie Robinson said on August 2, 2022 at 3:39 pm
Haha, David.
In general I agree, Deborah, and I always give cash tips directly to the server. But what service was provided? They fried our burgers and slapped them on buns. We didn’t get shakes that would have been handmade. No one spoke a single word to us unless you count calling our order number over the PA.
We like to control what goes into our meals, especially the sodium. So we almost never eat out, and when we do I’m constantly surprised.
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Brandon said on August 2, 2022 at 6:10 pm
“Where golf meets the grave:
Golf courses and cemeteries mix more than you might realize.”
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David C said on August 2, 2022 at 6:42 pm
Maybe we should do what was done with Robert E. Lee’s estate. Turn all of TFG’s golf courses into National Cemeteries. I understand space for veterans and their families is running out in our existing cemeteries. Seems a fitting thing to do with a traitor’s land.
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LAMary said on August 2, 2022 at 7:33 pm
I like that idea a lot, David C. Trump’s got golf courses all over the place. I think all the aging MAGA assholes would be eager to prepay for a plot at Bedminster or that one in Florida with the mildew and cockroach issues. Donny Jr. would have a steady income to keep him off the street and Eric could cultivate that understanding sympathetic face that undertakers have. Jared already looks embalmed.
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Dexter Friend said on August 3, 2022 at 12:14 am
The workplaces are hiring, unemployment numbers are low, and still the Covid19 pandemic , with the current variants, is hurting many people. If a single person has to hire a babysitter in order to work a low-paying job, s/he has to work another job as well to try to get by. My gas bill went up 140% and the electric bill is going to be sky-high soon we are told. I am able to cover it, but what does a working person do when this happens to them, and then their rent doubles? It’s almost impossible.
A woman who is an expert in money management for the poor was on MSNBC. I had never seen her; I don’t know he name. She was telling how many poorer folks are getting by nicely on the stimulus checks…whoa! What? That was over a year ago, and what poor person was able to save that money, as it was meant to be spent to stimulate the economy anyway? Then she went on and on how to cut certain things out to squeeze the budget tighter. Then she encouraged poor people to get out to restaurants often and tip large, tip extra even, to help waitstaff as they are suffering too. And all this woman did was run on the hamster wheel. She didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. If the bills eat up your check and tip money, you can’t just go out to eat and tip and over-tip. It’s sad, but you have to stay home and eat what ever is in your fridge and cupboard.
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2022 at 8:03 am
Whoa! Kansas! The women of Kansas have awakened and they are angry!
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Deborah said on August 3, 2022 at 8:39 am
Hurray for Kansas!
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JodiP said on August 3, 2022 at 9:19 am
Indeed, Deborah! I was pleasantly surprised.
Dexter, that woman sounds horrible. I believe most poor people are already very skilled at budgeting. But I would be interested in finding out the level of credit card debt as people try to meet basic needs.
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Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2022 at 10:15 am
One step forward, two steps back.
Very conservative Kansas votes to keep abortion legal by a 20-point margin.
Pro-tRump election deniers and QAnon imbeciles rout establishment QOPers in Arizona, though the governors race may go the nominally more sane candidate. And the DeVos money carries the day in the QOP gubernatorial race in Michigan. Ugh.
I’d say the conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Illinois is burnt toast after a quote from a few years ago in which he declared the Holocaust pales in comparison to the loss of life by abortion has surfaced. It’s dominating the front page of the Sun-Times today. The millionaire downstate farmer is a total Bible thumper who already has been found on tape saying elimination of
Roe v. Wade is only a first step. The usually reliable Republican collar counties of Chicago aren’t going to vote for this goober. Period.
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Jeff Gill said on August 3, 2022 at 2:43 pm
Huzzah for all you election workers yesterday. Hope you got to sleep in today.
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Sherri said on August 3, 2022 at 2:49 pm
I am hereby declaring today National Schaudenfreude Day. We can all wallow in joy at the misfortune of one Alex Jones, whose lawyer mistakenly(?) handed over the entire contents of his phone, including all his text messages in which he demonstrated that he had lied in his deposition and lied on the stand.
And who knows what other goodies that phone might yield?
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David C said on August 3, 2022 at 3:03 pm
Yeah, it looks like a deep state conspiracy to bring down Alex Jones. The main conspirator seems to be Alex Jones. Fun when things work out so well.
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Scout said on August 3, 2022 at 3:24 pm
I’m appalled that Kari Lake aka Kari Swamp is likely to get the nomination for AZ GQP Gov candidate. She has never held office for anything. She is uniquely unqualified given her entire platform is a referendum on the 2020 blowout that her orange overlord lost, and being anti women’s healthcare rights and against drag queens. Another QAnon nutcase, Blake Masters will run against Mark Kelley and J6 insurrectionist Mark Finchem will face off against Adrian Fontes. I sure hope the radical extremists who took part in the GOP primary will be in the vast minority in the general when the huge swath of Independents and Dems show up to kick them to the curb. If any of these people get elected in November we are truly fucked.
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Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Who else chortled their way through the story about Alex Jones? I hope they peel every last penny from him.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2022 at 6:14 pm
I have been watching the Alex Jones trial for days and reading the twitter coverage. That guy is unbelievably awful, I hope he has to give up every last dime he has, this is only the first of 3 trials to determine compensation for the Sandy Hook parents. And now that his phone data for the last 2 years has been turned over to the plaintiffs the Jan 6 committee has asked for them. Stay tuned.
LB finally got her 2nd booster, she’s not over 50 which is the cutoff point, but because she has immunity issues they let her have it anyway. She’s experiencing some side effects from her Moderna shot but she should be OK soon. She and I both had Covid twice so I’m glad she was finally able to get this shot.
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Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2022 at 7:30 pm
My dream is Alex Jones living under a bridge and Dumpster diving for nourishment. No punishment available is equal to the rancid, vengeful evil he unloosed on the grieving parents of Sandy Hook.
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David C said on August 3, 2022 at 8:03 pm
The other shoe falls.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/child-porn-found-documents-alex-jones-sent-sandy-hook-family-n1018541
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Jeff Gill said on August 3, 2022 at 8:42 pm
“Reply all” is not your friend.
In the Alex Jones case, have to wonder how accidental his lawyer’s mistake was with that file attachment. Maybe that attorney had just seen enough to . . . who knows.
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2022 at 8:44 pm
I love the judge in the Alex Jones case. Sometimes, she looks like a mom with a 4 year old who has answered the same question over and over and over and over; other times, her face shows the physical restraint needed for her to not jump into the witness box and begin strangling Mr Jones or screaming at him to please just shut up!
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Mark P said on August 3, 2022 at 9:03 pm
Even if Jones is cleared of child porn charges, he might have made a strategic mistake when he offered a million dollars for information about who tried to set him up. “Oh, you have a million dollars to throw around? We’ll remember that when we set damages.” His lawyer rushed to say the actual amount was $100,000.
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LAMary said on August 3, 2022 at 9:20 pm
The Jan 6 committee is looking forward to seeing the contents of Alex Jones’ phone. Apparently there are lots of texts related to the insurrection.
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Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2022 at 10:21 pm
The level of ignorance displayed by these far right douchenozzles is just staggering. They’re dumber than a bag of hammers, yet tens of millions of ‘Muricans hang on their every word. Alex Jones is such a bag of puke. Truly inhuman.
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Dexter Friend said on August 4, 2022 at 1:44 am
I do not live anywhere near Arizona but my gawd, I can tell Kari Lake is a stupid Trumper, saying she has evidence of how Trump had the election stolen from him, but she is too high-falutin’ to share this knowledge with those fucking low-life ham and egger media.
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basset said on August 4, 2022 at 11:56 am
About to enter my fourth hour of checking voters in at a polling place… 54 so far, out of 2140 registered in the precinct.
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brian stouder said on August 4, 2022 at 3:03 pm
Basset – excellent! I used to work in the polls (my mom was very big on that, back in the day). Tumbleweeds, followed by stampedes (at peak lunchtime), then tumbleweeds again, then more stampedes when folks got off work, ‘til the 6 pm closin’ time
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Jerrie in MidMd said on August 4, 2022 at 6:36 pm
Basset, you can keep your phone on? No cellphones allowed here. I keep mine off and in my bag; the more diligent poll workers leave theirs in their cars. We also have to tell voters to put theirs away.
I also worked on the canvass after the MD primary on July 19 and was glad to see the WA Post call out Governor Hogan’s veto of a bill to allow early mail-in votes to be counted before July 21, as “a gratuitous gesture that was little more than a sop to Republican voting fraud conspiracy theorists.” He just couldn’t help himself.
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basset said on August 4, 2022 at 7:56 pm
Phones are permitted here for both poll workers and voters.
Had to tell one guy to put a piece of campaign literature away, aside from that almost everyone has been well behaved.
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Deborah said on August 4, 2022 at 9:07 pm
I thought this was fascinating, a video from the Lincoln Project “We’re Speaking” crew with Teri Kanefield who explained very clearly what hopefully is going on with the DOJ investigation into what happened on January 6, and how to get to the truth. https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1554965320569221120. It cleared up a lot of my confusion about how it works.
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Dorothy said on August 4, 2022 at 9:08 pm
If I’m not allowed to check my phone periodically while working the polls, I probably will not work the polls. I’m the secondary emergency contact person for both of my grandchildren and if they need a family member ASAP, I’d be the one who would have to go. My d-i-l is a high school teacher and it’s rare she’d be able to slip out of a classroom. Hence my being an emergency contact.
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Dexter Friend said on August 5, 2022 at 5:12 am
Yahoo! News: “Dick Cheney torches Trump in new ad: ‘He’s a coward’
The former vice president, in a campaign ad for his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, doesn’t mince words about former President Donald Trump, calling him a “threat to our republic.”
‘Never been … a greater threat’ »
Liz Cheney and many of us here at this place are polar opposites of Liz Cheney regarding political views, but agree with her about Trump. Geez, it’s still a sad thing she will soon be defeated badly and her career ended by Ultra-Magas in Wyoming.
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David C said on August 5, 2022 at 5:38 am
Dick Cheney is like “I haven’t shot anyone in the face in years, but this guy… …hey, want to go hunting?”
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Jim said on August 5, 2022 at 11:31 am
Tom the Dancing Bug nails it on open carry: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/strips/?name=tom-the-dancing-bug&itid=sf_entertainment-comics
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Sherri said on August 5, 2022 at 12:29 pm
I’m with Charlie Pierce on that Dick Cheney commercial: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a40817924/dick-cheney-ad-trump-liar/
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Brandon said on August 5, 2022 at 3:08 pm
Was Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan worth it? The Guardian: “China halts US cooperation on range of issues after Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.”
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jcburns said on August 5, 2022 at 4:21 pm
Yes, I think Pelosi’s trip was absolutely worth it.
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brian stouder said on August 5, 2022 at 4:35 pm
Re: jcBurns’ reply to Brandon: Agreed! Taiwan is no threat to China, and it is good to remind China not to threaten Taiwan
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LAMary said on August 5, 2022 at 6:45 pm
According to the in house Brit, the Guardian is so bad at proofreading it’s known in UK as The Grauniad. By extension I refer to the team formally known as the Indians as The Grauniads.
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LAMary said on August 5, 2022 at 8:46 pm
I don’t mean formally. Autocorrect strikes again. Formerly.
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Julie Robinson said on August 5, 2022 at 10:49 pm
Mary, does the in house Brit have a funny name for the Daily Mail? I understand it’s funny to call what they do there journalism.
And speaking of lousy proofreading, I’ve caught myself at it. I was filling out the application for Global Entry and realized my passport says I was born in Indiana. I was born in Iowa. I can’t think how it happened or that I never noticed it.
So I have to fill out paperwork and send my passport and birth certificate in along with a photo. After they issue the new passport I can start on the Global Entry process again. It could take some time. Good that we decided against traveling this fall.
And with that, I suppose I must relinquish my crown for being queen of the nitpickers.
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Dexter Friend said on August 6, 2022 at 3:02 am
When I was in Vietnam my special in-country ID read I was born in Gary, Indiana, even though I corrected the sergeant who typed that. He was an old lifer who had a hearing deficiency; I was born in Garrett. The man said, “close enough.” And so, had I bought the farm there, my bones would would still be sitting in a boxcar on a siding in Gary, Indiana.
NBC reported Biden strongly discouraged Pelosi about demanding her trip included TW. What the hell is this about her obsession with TW anyway? NBC stations usually repeat the news cycle with different hosts hour after hour; the little comment about Pelosi was only mentioned once. Was is bad info?
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David C said on August 6, 2022 at 6:10 am
My mom’s name is Mary Lou. On their marriage certificate it was written as Mary Lu. At the time, they told the county clerk or whoever it was that it was wrong. He huffed, said it wasn’t a problem, and asked if they wanted him to have someone type it all over again and more or less intimidated them into leaving it alone. It wasn’t a problem for about fifty years until real ID. I don’t remember what they had to do to get it corrected but it was more than just showing mom’s birth certificate.
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Suzanne said on August 6, 2022 at 8:45 am
We had to send our daughter’s birth certificate back 2 times. First one said my husband was born in Indiana but he was born in Wisc. That was corrected, new certificate sent but it had the wrong birthdate or or a name spelled wrong or something like that. I can’t remember any more. Third time was a charm and they got it right! It got to be kind of a joke.
My dad needed his birth certificate to get Medicare or SS or something but didn’t have it. He’d lived most of his life in Allen Co, IN but they had no record of him. His parents were both dead by then so where was he born? Finally somehow figured out he was born in Whitley County and got the certificate.
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basset said on August 6, 2022 at 9:54 am
I recently learned while doing some genealogical research that South Carolina didn’t issue birth certificates at all until 1915. Woulda thought it’d been earlier than that… Indiana started in 1882, but they weren’t mandatory until 1907.
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Deborah said on August 6, 2022 at 10:10 am
I had never heard of calling the Guardian “Grauniad”. I looked it up and it’s a well known thing in the UK (and other places). I hadn’t noticed that about the Guardian, probably because I’m a rotten speller.
I don’t understand the big deal about Taiwan. It’s such a small place and it has been in existence for so long now, let it be.
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Icarus said on August 6, 2022 at 10:46 am
Deborah, I spent most of my youth obtuse about Taiwan and Hong Kong (which I actually visited for work in 2009) but then I googled and Quora.com has some good answers.
The Republic of China (ROC) was the regime that ruled the entire China from 1912 to 1949. In 1949 they lost the Chinese Civil War against CCP who founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC) later. Then ROC fled to Taiwan.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Taiwan-part-of-or-separate-from-China
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Julie Robinson said on August 6, 2022 at 11:31 am
I’ve been thinking and thinking about the passport. We renewed for three members of the family at the same time, while we were in Orlando for a week a couple of months before the move. We also titled the car, licensed ourselves, registered to vote, got car insurance, and maybe a couple of other paperwork type things. We had piles spread out all over the table with sticky notes for which documents we needed. And of course the horrible contractor was making noise and problems the whole time.
Since it was a renewal, I don’t think it was my mistake–you don’t have to reapply like an original and fill out all the information all over again. But it was my mistake not to catch it earlier. I hope it will be a no harm, no foul, just a delay. I still feel lessened by not catching it earlier.
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Peter said on August 6, 2022 at 12:32 pm
AC Condensers – Newer ones are almost all aluminum with little copper, and your condenser crooks know it, so they cruise around for older models.
Rooftop – In Palm Springs noticed that almost all AC units are mounted on the roof near the front of the garage; I was told by more than one reliable source it’s because a lot of electrical and plumbing is mounted on top of the roof to begin with, and ground space is valuable; people are hyper about well manicured and designed yards. While I get that, seeing a condenser on the roof over the front door doesn’t really look top notch to me.
Many years ago I was on a project to replace a roof top condenser at a movie theater in Englewood. Some thieves climbed onto the roof and cut the unit from the base; it started to slide and one of the thieves fell off the roof. I hope he died from the over 70′ drop, because the unit slid off the roof and landed on him.
By the time the cops were called, someone else opened the unit, took the copper piping, but didn’t bother to check on the human partially buried underneath.
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Icarus said on August 6, 2022 at 2:40 pm
I’m not keen on the terminology but one of our AC units stopped working. The compressor, I believe. Paid a guy $240 to change out the capacitor and top off the freon, and also check the other unit (dual zone). He was here less than half an hour, including BS small talk you are required to do in the South and charged me $240. $120 was for labor. I googled and the capacitor he charged me $50 might be found for as much as $10*
Also, when I told him we bought the house from my in-laws who live 1 mile north, he made a comment about moving further from Memphis, not closer. We are 20 minutes from Memphis; one-mile closer isn’t game-changing. Down here that comment is code for something.
* I haven’t checked model number but most of these go for $10-$35.
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Deborah said on August 6, 2022 at 3:33 pm
I’ve always thought that unsightly mechanical stuff on roofs is unfortunate, especially from the perspective of a high rise. I often wonder why architects don’t design disguises for HVAC and electrical gizmos (or whatever they are) especially in cities where there are lots of tall buildings of various heights. Also mechanical stuff on roofs in residential areas are mostly ugly too. Of course it’s important that things function properly in buildings, it’s just an aesthetic aversion I have.
In NM lots of people have swamp coolers on their flat roofs, and almost all roofs are flat here. I don’t really know how swamp coolers work but I think it involves blowing air through water and creating cooling mist (?), they are efficient in very dry climates. LB has an indoor one room sized swamp cooler for her bedroom. I don’t think it’s necessary because it usually cools off so much at night in this altitude. There are maybe 2 nights during the entire summer that it’s uncomfortably hot here. With open windows and ceiling fans, it’s just fine.
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Julie Robinson said on August 6, 2022 at 3:40 pm
Icarus, you’re probably thinking you’ve could have done it yourself for less, but you have to know what’s wrong. Our neighbor has been having water leaks and one of the plumbers she called charges $109 just to come diagnose the problem. They don’t take that off their final fee. She hung up on them.
BIL is in a condo with AC on the roof, and when it needed to be replaced they had to have a crane do it. I think that cost as much as the unit.
As I filled out my passport replacement form, I looked at my previous passport and discovered it also said I was born in Indiana. My original said Iowa. And I can’t just use the extra photo from when I got this passport, it has to be taken in the last six months. Post Office doesn’t have any appointments available for the next 10 days so I’ll have to go Walgreens or CVS and stand around waiting forever.
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David C said on August 6, 2022 at 3:56 pm
Icarus, if you’re moderately handy checking and replacing the capacitor is having the right one on hand and watching a YouTube video easy. I always kept an extra around because it’s probably the most common problem with an a/c unit. In the 14 years we had our previous unit I had to replace two of them. The new unit is under warranty for the next eight years so I probably won’t do it myself again for fear of voiding the warranty but it’s nice to know I can if I have to.
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Deborah said on August 6, 2022 at 5:44 pm
You Tube videos of how to do home repairs are fantastic. I’ve used them to do wiring in our bathroom to take out an ugly old vanity light and put in a pendant light fixture over the sink. I used it to do the plumbing to install the new sink in the bathroom. Also to unclog the dishwasher tubing to the drain under the sink. Lots of other little things about gardening and cooking, all kinds of things. If I can figure out how to do it from a video anyone can. The wiring scared me though, I must have watched the video 50 times.
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jerry said on August 7, 2022 at 2:50 am
Re The Gruaniad: the proof reading on The Guardian used to be notoriously bad. Back in the 70’s I think it was impossible to read the paper without finding half a dozen typos. The reputation lives on but the typos have pretty much disappeared.
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Dexter Friend said on August 7, 2022 at 6:00 am
jerry, I was elated at the return of football, but not at the result from Craven Cottage in West London, as Fulham and Liverpool ended at 2-2, a draw. Back from being regulated, Fulham looked sharp against the juggernaut Reds. I got to see it on the Peacock network.
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Dexter Friend said on August 7, 2022 at 6:13 am
You may question the veracity of the following. When I played baseball on a team which was 85% African American, I was an 18 year old kid, but I had a draft card I was required to carry at all times. In conversations with teammates, it came up that several of the players my age and a little older had no draft cards, and had no intention of ever signing up for the draft. While the 2 guys from Brooklyn, NY , and the guys playing with us on summer break from universities had complied, the guys born in the rural south had been born at home by midwives or relatives who didn’t take the effort to even obtain official birth certificates, making the babies sort of non-existent to prying draft boards 18 years later. I instantly “got it”…but wondered what sort of crooked pathways a man had to take later in life when employment necessities arrived. It’s a mystery to me; I suppose fake credential were made for a price , as needed. Helifino. I’m the one who went to the army and those dudes kept playing baseball.
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Deborah said on August 7, 2022 at 3:42 pm
I’m confused. What do the republicans have against the insulin cap? How did it get blocked by them. Having a hard time finding an explanation on Google.
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