Life in the Desert Update
Turns out I did have a picture of Saguaro flowers.
The seeds sprout and grow when they are under another tree called a nursery tree (usually, around here, mesquite trees). I’ve been gathering up some of the seed pods from our Saguaros and throwing them under mesquites around our house. I won’t live to see the results (they grow really slowly), but hey, I think Saguaros are really cool.
Also, possibly the most vicious plant on the planet – the cholla cactus.
This one has a couple of bird nests in it, which is great strategy for keeping critters away from your nest. They will drop little branches, which will root. I am gradually spreading these across our yard next to the road. No reason, why do you ask?
This is a Texas Plant, which isn’t a native plant, but they do put on a show in our yard after a rain.
They can get quite large – probably 8 feet tall and wide.
We’re had a decent monsoon this year – probably 8 inches of rain at the Casa Dean, out of a typical yearly total of 12 inches. A little bit of a late start – it seems like when we moved here 10+ years ago, the monsoon would get going right around the Fourth of July, but lately it hasn’t really shown much until the first week of August. Only one semi-bad storm at the Casa Dean (although other places in the area got hammered). That’s one of the things about the monsoon – it is very unpredictable and really spotty – it’s not unusual to have an inch of rain a mile or two away, and nothing where you are. We did have one lightning strike that may have hit the house, although I can’t see where, but it blew up our modem, router, and Apple TV box which were daisy-chained together with ethernet cables.
A Pet Peeve
We’ve all heard about the shopping-cart-corral thing, and I gotta say, I don’t see many stray shopping carts at the stores I go to (mainly CostCo and Safeway). I’ve got another pet peeve, though, that is kind of related.
It drives me nuts (in a stoic-appropriate way, of course) when people fill up their cars, and then leave them at the pump to go into the convenience store at the gas station. Is it really that hard to move your car to a parking place? You do realize that you are blocking off a pump that somebody else needs to use, don’t you? And, yes, I’ve seen this when every pump is being used and people are waiting to get gas. Not that it should matter if there happens to be another pump available when you waddle into the store, of course. There’s just a lot of people who go through life as if nobody else really exists, as if everybody around them is just an NPC.
Voting
In Arizona, Our Masters have managed to arrange things so they are now required to count the votes of any registered voter, whether the voter is a citizen or not. In Arizona, incredibly, non-citizens have been allowed to vote in federal elections for decades. The new ruling just says they can also vote in state and local elections. Note how this guts the requirement that you have to prove citizenship to be registered to vote. As near as I can tell, the state of play is that if you can get your registration through, even if it shouldn’t have been approved, that’s it – you’re a registered voter and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it. To absolutely no one’s surprise, the “database error” that allows non-citizens to vote happened mainly in Maricopa County. I haven’t really studied the court’s opinion, but it’s not clear to me how the ruling that”not allowing the voters who believed they had satisfied voting requirements access to the full ballot would raise equal protection and due process concerns” can be squared with removing people from the voter rolls. Not that the Soros operative now serving as Secretary of State would do any such thing, of course.
The notion that non-citizens should get to vote just strikes me as nuts, even if they are legal residents (and with motor voter registration, you can bet that a lot of these now-perfectly-legal voters in Arizona aren’t here legally). Which got me to thinking, why do I think that? They are counted in the census, they are thus represented in the House, are subject to the same laws, taxes, etc. as citizens, so why not get a vote? To me, it’s because they aren’t Americans, and letting non-Americans have a say in our government strikes me as ill-advised, if not suicidal. Citizenship may be a rough cut at who is American (enough to vote) and who isn’t, but I can’t think of a better one. Of course, Our Masters fancy themselves as transnational elites with little use for such anachronisms as national identity, so it’s no surprise they see no reason to limit voting to citizens. Especially when they believe those non-citizens will cast ballots that are, shall we say, convenient, for Our Masters.
Its just another sign that our government doesn’t even bother to act in the interest of American society any more, but views it as something vaguely distasteful, to be alternately denigrated and milked for tax revenue.
Fucking cholla. I hate cholla.
You don’t care for mexican girls with lots of eye-make-up?
That might stab you?
Will it involve Summer Glau? Because I’d be interested.
I was not aware of that meaning of cholla.
TBF, I believe cholo/chola only has the one ‘l’
people fill up their cars, and then leave them at the pump to go into the convenience store at the gas station
Preach
At a crowded gas station, I will move to a parking space (assuming there is an open space). But the small country convenience store I go to is never busy enough to worry about moving the car after gassing it up.
Am I the only one who first parks, deals with the inside stuff, then finds an open pump to gas up?
Yes, otherwise you’re washing your hands before pumping gas instead of after.
Dude – where’s your gas handling gloves?
What is this pumping of your own gasoline?
It’s too dangerous for people to do according to my betters in Trenton.
Yes. That’s insanely inefficient. Seems odd for you.
Your Gas-Handlin’ Gloves need re-hemmin’.
Who in the fuck washes their hands before/after pumping gas?! And I light smokes on the drive OUT the station! So THERE!
FlagAdmission on the Field: I don’t wash my hands after going to the bathroom! HaHA! Unless necessary, or if for professional reasons or folk/kids are around. Worry all ya like. We, The Unwashed, surround you. Unlike y’all serfs, we learned to aim.How so?
The bladder is less patient in waiting to empty than the gas tank is in waiting to fill. If I’m already inside having dealt with that, any shopping can be done on the way out the door. Having returned myself and any shopping to the car, I can peruse the pumps and pick a good spot.
Steps not required can be skipped. I usually don’t need anything indoors when not on a road trip, so it’s find a pump and fill, then leave.
Cuz we have different needs. I’m just pumpin’ gas, going in for a pack, and heading back to the car. Finished pumping when I get back.
If I’m going Shopping, which is rarely, I get my gas, then park out of the way for my In-Store Needs.
No one has addressed a key issue: Who washes their hands before/after pumping gas? I don’t and I light smokes AT the station. Why the fuck would you kill the Chanel No. 5 of petrol with gas station suds?! Sacrilege. Huge selling point of gas.
Someone has never filled up a diesel. Gloves go on before grabbing the handle. Diesel doesn’t evaporate like gas does.
JP8 is also persistent and won’t go away despite repeated washing if you splash it on yourself. Also skin irritant.
Turns out I did have a picture of Saguaro flowers.
🙂
This is a Texas Plant, which isn’t a native plant, but they do put on a show in our yard after a rain.
🙂
when people fill up their cars, and then leave them at the pump to go into the convenience store at the gas station.
🙁
If one is paying in cash you may or may not have to go inside and pay first. While you’re there may as well do the shopping, wait for the pizza to bake, get in line to buy a couple lottery tickets, use the facilities and finally go back and put in the allowed gas. Wash hands in the windshield water to save time.
Re: Cholla, truly hate plants. That you can’t get rid of. They will come back. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But you will have a full field of them again. Soon.
Re: Gas. I always pull away from the pump and park. Just a habit. Gas related pet-peeve. People who will line up at the Costco pumps, stacked up at the pumps that will put their tank on the same side as the pump. You know those stretch about 20 miles, right? I mean it’s a two-sided coin – makes it hard to navigate sometimes with rows of cars 10 long, but there’s almost always a quick pump available if you can navigate around them. I just grate at the inefficiency and lack of forethought.
I don’t like dragging the hose across the car, so if there is a forward pump I’ll take it. As is with all things Costco, the clusterfuckery is almost entertaining.
“Bits and bobs”?
More transphobic nonsense.
Found JKR…when are you gonna make another series?
Arizona Republicans could have fixed their voting system years ago and just didn’t. Now the state doesn’t even pretend to hold fair elections. It’s amazing. Other places where fraud is likely, at least try to hide it.
Citizenship may be a rough cut at who is American (enough to vote) and who isn’t, but I can’t think of a better one. Of course, Our Masters fancy themselves as transnational elites with little use for such anachronisms as national identity, so it’s no surprise they see no reason to limit voting to citizens. Especially when they believe those non-citizens will cast ballots that are, shall we say, convenient, for Our Masters.
I have less objection to allowing “classical” melting-pot economic migrants who have come here to live and work and be a part of what remains of the American Dream than to vote I do to the pasty self loathing native born “elites” who find the history and culture of this country to be shameful and embarrassing.
How do you sort for that? If you figure it out, let me know.
Dafuq… Evidently Europe is moving to regulating AC temps. In Spain, shops can’t drop their AC below 27c in the summer 😳
How cold is that in American?
80.6 degrees
So the answer is: It’s not cold at all.
The Google tells me that happened back in 2022. Wow.
There is a reason food places and health care places keep the temp low. It doesnt have fuck-all to do with watermelons.
Meanwhile, there apparently is a ballot initiative here in Idaho being sold as “open primary voter justice” hogwash which is in fact some sort of ranked choice idiocy. I have seen lots of ads for, and only a couple against. I suspect the most effective argument from the “nay” sayers is that it’s imported from California.
…”not allowing the voters who believed they had satisfied voting requirements access to the full ballot would raise equal protection and due process concerns”…
“Not allowing boys who believe they had satisfied the requirements for being girls access to the girls’ volleyball team…”
Ownbestenemy was asking last night about folklore from the Appalachians.
Since the Appalachians stretch all the way to Scotland, I think this video qualifies:
https://youtu.be/ZsDEhiN5dhY?si=lU72-Ae_7YJBsJ61
The book Albion’s seed (David Hackett Fischer) goes into that in some detail. My Dad’s side are descendants of Borderlanders, who brought with them their honor culture. Thus the numerous feuds of the mountaineers. I would consider most of my relatives down there good people. Pretty easy-going. But don’t ever ever get on their wrong side.
That’s a great book.
It’s been years since I’ve read it.
Dr. Thomas Sowell used it as one of his references when writing his “Conquests and Cultures” series of books.
All the proof you need that Trump is Hitler. https://x.com/fuzzychimpcom/status/1849218601691086868
That’s a great thread. Interesting how many people thought he was great until he ran for president for the wrong party.
Donald Trump has never in his life come into contact with intelligent successful black people.
Yet another reason not to ever visit China.
The incident unfolded two weeks ago when Sengpiehl landed back in Beijing, where Volkswagen Group China is headquartered, following his vacation. He was subjected to a routine drug test, which revealed traces of cannabis in his system, a substance strictly forbidden under Chinese law, even if consumed abroad.
Another article also mentioned coke.
https://www.wardsauto.com/volkswagen-group/volkswagen-official-deported-from-china-for-cannabis-use
Guessing “routine” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
No way are they testing everyone who lands in that shithole.
My guess is he was important enough that somebody tipped them off about his activities in Thailand.
Hence his being singled out for “routine” testing.
Not just tipped off, but someone wanted him gone or punished. Pissed off a colleague or a supplier?
GL – I like the idea of a connected supplier.
You’d need to be somebody with a connection to the CCP to get them to actually act. It’s possible a local within VW China as well.
Yup. Wouldn’t surprise me. Business disputes in China don’t always end with angry emails or lawyers.
Evidently Europe is moving to regulating AC temps. In Spain, shops can’t drop their AC below 27c in the summer
The Stasi will patrol residential neighborhoods in vans equipped with thermal imaging cameras.
People park at the pumps here but only because there are so few people that it never impedes anyone else’s access.
Some people might also have to go inside to pay for the gas.
Or, to get a receipt, if they are using the company fuel card.
Waa-ri-ors…
Be lame and gaaa-iii-aaay!
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/17/nx-s1-5146509/lin-manuel-miranda-warriors-musical-album-eisa-davis
Bravo.
You, not those dumb motherfuckers.
it’s a concept album, meant to be listened to in one sitting.
Not with my ears.
Miranda and Davis flipped the gender of the Warriors so that, in their version, the gang is all women.
We were just talking about Cholas,… or shrimp … or plate of shrimp.
Stunning and brave.
A few months back I was reading Natural History and came across this plant. Tristerix aphyllus, the Cactus Mistletoe. Only found in Chile. It grows ENTIRELY inside the cactus, except for its flowering stalks.
https://parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/images/Tristerix3.JPEG
Price elasticity
Kayser, who was touring Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with her high school-age son, Matt, is among the many Americans in the middle who earn too much to qualify for need-based financial aid, but not enough to simply write a check to send their kids to college.
That’s a squeeze becoming more pronounced after several years of increases in the prices of many other goods and services, a period of inflation only now beginning to ease.
——-
The anxiety among middle-income families about costs is having an effect on universities and colleges, whose proportion of students from those families has been declining. Their presence on U.S. campuses fell from 45 percent in 1996 to 37 percent in 2016, the Pew Research Center found using the most recent available federal data. Middle-income Americans make up 52 percent of the population, Pew estimates.
Those drops might not seem particularly ominous. But in a complex balancing act, colleges badly need to appeal to those middle-income families that can afford to pay at least part of the price.
“That group of students is their bread and butter,” says Jinann Bitar, director of higher education research and data analytics at The Education Trust, which advocates for equity in education. “That’s why they’re trying to keep this group in the mix. Some inflow is better than no inflow.”
When will the crack journalists at NPR address greedflation in higher ed? Where does all that money go?
Colby is a pretty place when it isn’t freezing. Also a giant waste of money when it comes to a degree that can be leveraged into a decent career.
Maybe apply for scholarships? Don’t those still exist? Did your kid get good enough grades to maybe qualify for one? Have I become Judge Nap?
Next, NPR does a deep dive into the policies they have been cheerleading for decades and which have led to the disappearance of the middle class wherever they have been applied.
They’ll blame it on bad luck, wreckers and kulaks.
What’s the GI bill up those days? Was 100K several years ago, which is more than enough at state U.
Dad took me to MLB Spring Training in Phoenix /Flagstaff area in… c. 1997, when I was ~10. My shitty cactus memory: For some reason I don’t remember, I was barefoot somewhere. I stepped on this bitch and FUCK. Even Dad classed it as a pretty big deal. Multiple spines ‘at least’ an inch each in the sole of my foot. Yuck. That was, indeed, shockingly painful. I rather like cacti, however. Life finds a way. (‘~Life doesn’t want anything. It just desperately wants to be.‘)
(Cursory search yields great result: It was likely a Ferocactus emoryi, “or known commonly as Emory’s barrel cactus, Coville’s barrel cactus and traveler’s friend…” And they even add the applicable FEROCITY to the sound of the bastard. (The root is not the same. Grgle.))
* You’re the “son of a bona-fide coal-diggin’ hillbilly (West Virginia flavor).” I wonder if Dad shares any tales ya might recognize. He worked there… ’73-’87?*
I stretched the truth a bit, he only worked briefly in the mines after WWII. Though it might have been his eventual fate had the war not come up. His father was a full time coal miner until he got blackballed for being a union man, and a number of my other older relatives also worked underground. All gone now, all gone. Some decades back I was on a trip with my parents to the Beckley area and met up with his surviving brother, and we spent an afternoon going to places they had once lived and worked. All trees and brush now, with only ruins to show that people ever lived there. The site I remember most was a tiny hamlet that the only way to get in and out was to walk along the tracks.
No worries! Glad to say high to you (a newish Tulpa?) as one from vaguely my region. Dad is born/bred, to a novelty extent, Appalachian. He went back fairly recently and was saddened by all the (predictable) loss. He wrote feature stories about Folk, five-days a week, for 40 years. (I don’t have that focus.) I remember when he took me down into a few coal mines. ‘Knowin’ folk, he (and I) certainly got shown more behind-the-scenes shit that other visitors could see. It’s also how he knew people with cannon in IL I got to fire.
I’m thinking of how to propose that he publishes his Favorites here. I had a crazy childhood cuz of the crazy things he was able to get me to experience. Almost getting eaten by a (pet) grizzly somehow outranks the ‘almost run over on a bridge by a fucking train’ truth that was fuckin’ REAL. I was still on the tracks; dad pulled me into a bridge alcove and the coal train roared by. Bits of coal dropped on us. Wisely, Mom kept her proper yelling at Dad out of earshot of Bro and me. He scampered off before the train arrived.
Yeah, going barefoot anywhere in Southern AZ is a bad idea. Even indoors.
How the heck did you manage to step on a barrel cactus? They’re not exactly small. Like, say, the nodules dropped from a cholla, the hate plant that hates.
That’s funny. My cousin tripped over a barrel cactus once. She didn’t do it again.
In his previous role as vice president for enrollment and student success at Trinity College in Connecticut, Angel Pérez saw how financial aid calculations can put middle-income families at a disadvantage.
“If you add the layer on top of that of the skepticism about the value of higher education right now, we are seeing more middle-income families just not getting into the pipeline or enrolling,” says Pérez, who is now CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Meanwhile, the disconnect between the prices colleges advertise, and what they actually expect people to pay, appears to particularly frustrate many middle-income families.
The goose who lays the golden eggs is running off the rails.
At Colby, the private, liberal arts college’s published total cost for this academic year is around $90,000, for instance. But half of families already get some form of financial aid.
“I have a hard time with a price tag that’s so high, and they say, ‘Don’t worry, you’re never going to pay that,’ ” says Ryan Paulson of Traverse City, Mich., on a tour of Colby with his wife, Kate, and their daughter, Annie. He says he’s not talking just about Colby, but the college admission process in general. “Just tell us the price.”
C’mon, be a sport. Guess which shell the pea is under.
With an empty tank, I’ll fill my tank up and go in to buy a back of smokes. I wouldn’t do that if there was a line, tho I’ve never encountered such. Similar to a thought about Americans+ thinking Germans+ are being rude when they switch to English when ‘we’ are trying to practice: They are living up to stereotypes and reality: Speed takes priority.
If I saw gas lines semi-like that pic, I would purposefully extradite myself from the neighborhood. Nothing good there. (Ignore the 70s, etc. I wasn’t alive. Suckas.)
Suckas.
+1 Precious Roy Home Shopping Network
My 6 year old nephew is visiting today. He always asks if there is a rocket launch. There happened to be one a little bit ago. Mrs. TOK watched for the first time. She was in awe. It was a secret payload, so no second stage video, but we did get to see the booster land on the barge, and the whole thing took 8 minutes.
Hopefully years from now, the busybodies who nixed more launches over Musk’s politics will be seen as the person who wanted to close down the patent office 100 years ago because everything had been invented.
Non-citizens voting in local elections makes a fair bit of sense, at least, I suppose. Federal? Uh? Monstrously dumb. I’m kinda in the Folk Who Don’t Pay Taxes Don’t Get to Vote kinda thing. Or ‘folk on benefits don’t get to vote.’ Go back, that takes us to only property owners voting. Also has reason behind it. Also fuels the TOXIC MASCULINITY!!! bullshit that needs to be avoided in policy.
(Destroy it in comedy/culture. (Yeesh))
I admit, I gained tremendously from Medicaid+ policies. I’m still leaning Not Voting so I don’t ‘own’ the predictable collapse Blue will ensure if Trump wins. I do not vote in local elections as I admit I should know more. I coulda banged the Lt. Gov’s daughter; she is OK, but was ‘hidden’ for her mom’s gov campaign. Her mother is.. something else.
“Non-citizens voting in local elections makes a fair bit of sense, at least, I suppose.”
How so?
I can see an argument for letting them vote in local school board elections, or maybe city council, but I don’t trust the government’s ability to manage such a system. I prefer simple, clear rules with little room for shenanigans.
If they are in fact living in the local area, they theoretically participate in commerce and are subject to the whims of the local jurisdiction. They would have to pay local sales taxes and maybe even property taxes. More of a could, not a should argument.
If they’re living in a shanty town in a public park and generally being a bum that’s another story.
+1 Texas Plant
I put my credit card into the pump and start pumping gas. Then I go piss and grab a tall boy (Tall cans!) while the car is filling. I pay cash for the tall boy because it isn’t the gov’ts business how many beers I’ve had. Since I never stop till the low fuel light is on, and I have a 26 gal tank, it’s usually close to a tie when I get back out or I’ll hear the pump shutting off while coming across the lot.
So you’re not a proponent that lack of fuel in the tank results in higher fuel pump temperatures and shorter life?
I’ve no opinion one way or the other, but usually waited for for the idiot light in my Jeep JK which came on with plenty of fuel left, but I hate the light.
Manufacturers turned that light from a real warning to a “convivence feature” and I hate it.
Nope. If you truly run out, you’ll kill a pump eventually, but I routinely run them low and have never suffered a premature pump failure (no euphemism).
I pay cash for the tall boy because it isn’t the gov’ts business how many beers I’ve had.
I was in a liquor store buying beer one day, and the nice cashier girl asked me if had one of their loyalty cards. I asked her, “Why would I want somebody keeping track of how much beer I buy?”
Apparently that had never occurred to her before.
idiot light in my Jeep JK which came on with plenty of fuel left
The one in the Element comes on at about 1/4 tank.
I don’t recall external fuel pumps dying from heat stroke with any frequency. But who knows what corners they thought they could cut by putting the pump in the tank.
Part of that is noise. It’s way in the back and insulated by the fuel and the fuel tank.
Manufacturers turned that light from a real warning to a “convivence feature” and I hate it.
I had a rental car one time with the “range” feature. I was kind of stretching a tank, and keeping my eye on how many miles it said I had left, and the stupid thing quit providing info when it got to about 50. I think it started flashing a “low fuel” warning. How very helpful.
Sounds like a GM product. Have that feature in my Chevy.
“KFC, Taco Bell, And Pizza Hut Remove Onions After E. Coli Outbreak ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/destroy-product-mcdonalds-onion-supplier-issues-recall-amid-e-coli-hamburger-outbreak
Yo quiero uno inodoro!
https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1849477905258262859
Seriously? The average American has $37k in credit card debt?
Holy fuck.
Ahh no….
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/chart/#series:Credit_Card_Balances;demographic:all;population:all;units:mean;range:1989,2023
Always be skeptical of unsourced data or “expert” quotes with no sources.
“Why do we allow credit card monopolies to charge such high interest rates?!”
Why do we allow stupid people to have credit cards? Oh, it’s only for emergencies, that’s OK then.
I used to work retail and have customers sort through a dozen or more to find one that still had a little credit left on it.
“Here, try this one. Oops, this one should be good….”
What credit card monopolies?
Collusion!
How many of those bitching about credit card rates have 56″ flat-screens? The newest iPhone? Some sort of Jetski or UTV?
I’m sure there are some true hard-luck folks in the mix but “only buy things you can pay cash for” goes a long way. Lots of people are bad with money.
Today in propaganda:
Just listening in to the wife watching the local news. Flipping through a couple of channels plus CNN.
Every channel had someone discussing why Donald Trump is a fascist.
This is the final push.
Every news organization focusing exclusively on labeling Trump a fascist.
Gotta push those negatives up.
I’m just waiting for Biden to say something about how the trains running on time is a good thing.
Well I can assure you that isn’t the case on his beloved Amtrak Northeast Corridor line that he took from DC to Wilmington as a senator.
Amtrak new which trains he took and made sure those ran on time. The rest not so much.
Just hope the trains run at all.
(I picked a Norwegian site only because they have more photos.)
How many channels are providing a valid definition of the word “fascist”?
They’re just preaching to the choir at this point.
Every channel had someone discussing why Donald Trump is a fascist.
I’m certain they all went to great lengths to explain what exactly a fascist is, and what specific evidence they have for labelling him as such.
From what I’ve seen, it’s a combination of all the hoaxes. and that people who worked with Trump and ended on bad terms said so. Like, when a person gets fired, you can count on them to tell the unvarnished truth about their old boss.
“Fascist” was literally the worst thing that what we now call antifa would screech at you going back decades.
Until it was replaced with “racist” in recent years.
They couldn’t define it then, either.
OM
BF.I’d imagine they’re referring to the political and economic system as laid out by Giovanni Gentile along with a state guided, but not owned, economic plan. What, that’s not it? My bad…
AKA Communism Lite.
I have to trim the hell out of mine every 3-4 month. I hate it.
Well, as with seemingly every plant that grows down here, they do have thorns. I’ve only got one that I trim, to keep it from obstructing a gate. The rest are on their own (pretty much my approach to gardening and landscaping generally).