Hambone v3.0

Tuesday Open Comments Port Bolivar “Lit”house.

It was quite the surprise for BSue and me to drive by the Port Bolivar Lighthouse and see it lit up.  Yet there it was.  So the natural question for me was, Why Now?  I am 67 years old and I have never seen the light on.  Did they get jealous because Port Isabel lighthouse was lit?

 

If I miss my guess it was lit up for a fund raiser to repair and restore the light house.

(EDITED BY ME) The lighthouse has been in Amy Chase’s family since 1947, when her great uncle purchased it from the government…….

The lighthouse been through multiple hurricanes, including Hurricane Ike, and even survived the Texas City Blast. Chase said these happenings have taken a toll on the lighthouse.

MORE | 147-year-old Bolivar Point Lighthouse ‘at risk,’ in dire need of repairs

“There was more and more deterioration to the top of the lighthouse and to the lighthouse,” Chase said. “So in 2015 my cousin, Michael Maxwell, started the Bolivar Point Lighthouse Foundation.”

The foundation was founded by Maxwell and Mark Boyt. Boyt and Maxwell are descendants of the first private owners of the Bolivar Point Lighthouse.

The nonprofit was created with the sole purpose of restoring the lighthouse and opening it up to the public for the first time ever.  

According to Chase, their first order of business is to raise $150,000 to take the top of the lighthouse down.  (Total funding for what needs to be done approx $5 million)

If you are interested in learning more please visit the Bolivar Port Lighthouse Foundation.

 

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142 responses to “Tuesday Open Comments Port Bolivar “Lit”house.”

  1. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Foist?

  2. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Bringing back these old lighthouses is neat. Can’t believe they stand up for so many years under such brutal conditions.

  3. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Great pictures Squawk. Do you know if the young couple that inherited the Bolivar Light House still live there? I saw something in the Comical some years back that they had renovated the out buildings and were living there. I may have the article stored on my computer, I’ll look.

    Oh and we’re on a warming trend, 28 now and shooting for the low 50’s not warm enough yet but we’ll be in the 70’s by Thursday.

    Mornin’ Gang

  4. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    I still can’t believe that they moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 3000 feet to get it away from the seashore. NEVER Ever underestimate the ingenuity of the real people in this great country.

    Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

    Why the Cape Hatteras Light Station Had to be Moved

    When completed in 1870, the Cape Hatteras lighthouse was located a safe 1,500 feet from the ocean. Even then, however, storm-driven tides completely washed over Hatteras Island, eroding sand from the ocean side of the island and depositing it on the sound side. By 1970, this process, which has caused the gradual westward migration of the Outer Banks for at least the past 10,000 years, left the lighthouse just 120 feet from the ocean’s edge and almost certain destruction.

    The key to preserving the 1870 tower is its “floating foundation”. Yellow pine timbers sit in fresh water on compacted sand, with a brick and granite foundation on top of them. This foundation was built because pilings could not be driven through hard sand located barely 8 feet below ground level when construction began. As long as the sand surrounding the foundation remained in place, and the timbers remained bathed by the fresh water in which they were placed in 1868, the foundation was secure. If a storm eroded the sand or the fresh water was disturbed by salt water intrusion, the timbers would rot and the foundation would eventually fail.

  5. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Did they get jealous because Port Isabel lighthouse was lit?

    Yup two words; “Road Trip” we were talking just yesterday about needing to make another Texas Road Trip soon.

  6. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Morning gang.  26 degrees out here as the heat wave continues on.  Looking toward high 60s this afternoon.  I don’t have a lighthouse to look at from my house, but the airport beacon is visible from my back patio, and even more fun, when the clouds are just right, it will illuminate the bottoms of the clouds as it sweeps around.  And if you ever happen to be flying out here at night and are having difficulty locating the runway lights, just click you microphone about 7 times in rapid succession on the unicom frequency and they will light right up before your very eyes.  Of course, almost all untowered airport lighting works that way.

    It’s back to coffee for me this morning.  I made it through the Christmas season and 3 day withdrawal of public coffee consumption, but now it’s back – I hope.  I’ll head down there shortly.  On Thursday I’ve got a return trip to Marble Falls to see the eye doc again.  I think it will go a lot better this time.  I’ve gotten accustomed to my new internal lenses, I’ve tried to reduce the amount of eye strain, and I still use my cheaters for up close work.  Getting a real pair of glasses will be something new though.  Hopefully his measurements will be accurate and my eye problems will improve.

    I’ve got a long story about one of my feral cats, so remind me to tell you about it sometime.  Meanwhile, you all have a good day.

  7. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    The “local” weatherman says it’s 30 in Conroe – I think they keep the thermometer over at the airport in the lowest, windiest spot because ours (sensor mounted above my head on a porch post) says it’s 33.8 here… and for once, I’m not going to begrudge the thermometer for those “0.8 degrees” but THANK GOD for them. Prayerfully, today, we’ll be able to get the forest of plants out of the living room, and give them a drink, and turn the water back on for now. And NO, I won’t be at all surprised to have to turn the water off again this season – after all winter only officially began a week ago.

    SuperDave – YES – it definitely appeared that the lighthouse “keeper’s” house was occupied.

  8. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    No Virginia, the madness will never stop, not until all the greatness of this country is erased. ~SPITS~

    Popular National Park Changes ‘Offensive’ Name

    And here is the most disgusting and sad part of the whole story;

    A formal request for the name change was submitted to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in November, and approval was granted unanimously (19-0).

    19-0!!!! Not one of those spineless toads had the courage to try to stop the madness! ~SPITS~         ~SPITS~      Again

     

  9. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    No, no, no.

    Salsa picante on hash browns, not ketchup.

  10. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Fresh water on the Outer Banks beach ?

    Years ago, I posted here a long front page piece with videos of the Cape Hatteras move.  Remarkable and a once in a lifetime experience for the people involved.

    I did some research and never did discover where the fresh water comes from that “soaks the yellow pine timbers” mere yards from a salt-water ocean.  Fresh water was always kept at some level there ?  Was it well water ?  Was this replenished manually ?  Why didn’t yellow pine timbers rot after 130 years of sitting in water ?  Indeed, I have questions.

    The key to preserving the 1870 tower is its “floating foundation”. Yellow pine timbers sit in fresh water on compacted sand, with a brick and granite foundation on top of them. This foundation was built because pilings could not be driven through hard sand located barely 8 feet below ground level when construction began. As long as the sand surrounding the foundation remained in place, and the timbers remained bathed by the fresh water in which they were placed in 1868, the foundation was secure. If a storm eroded the sand or the fresh water was disturbed by salt water intrusion, the timbers would rot and the foundation would eventually fail.

  11. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    #9
    Incorrect

  12. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Heh

  13. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    #4, 10

    Timbers sitting in fresh water, as an engineering method, for forever? I understand as long as oxygen never gets to them the timbers would hold up, but what a crazy idea. It worked though.

  14. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Ketchup on hash browns?…… Get A Rope.  😉

  15. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Scattered and smothered with ketchup. This is America!

  16. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    #10 #13 As I understand it fresh water is always close to a salt water coast. It doesn’t take that much sand to filter the salt out of the water. When I lived on Fish Hall road in Brunswick Georgia I was a couple hundred yards from South Brunswick River, (brackish water) and I could hit fresh water at about 8 feet down.  And yes, timbers submerged in water, salt or fresh will last a long time. There is a fellow in Florida that salvages spruce and cedar from the Saint John’s river and sells it for astronomical prices. This is timber that was missed when the logs were floated towards Jacksonville to the sawmill, a hundred years ago. The leftover logs eventually became waterlogged and sank. There is also an outfit that salvages old growth forests that sit on the bottom of Canadian Lakes that were backed up after the turn of the century.

  17. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Just use cypress and don’t worry about it.

    🙂

  18. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    I have a question that I’ve not seen addressed in the hash brown debate… What’s wrong with cream gravy on them???

  19. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    And the crowd boos…

  20. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Because the cream gravy is segregated with the biscuit on the opposite side of the plate. Geez.

  21. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    #19 – my bad…. #20 – I shoulda figured that one out myself

  22. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    If hash browns (or latkes, for that matter) are made properly and exquisitely, they don’t need anything else added.

    The whole evil ketchup conspiracy began as a pre-communist, Chinese Warlord project to poison American people.  It’s a sordid history and the Americans fell for it.

    Ketchup is found in 97 percent of U.S. homes and probably 100 percent of barbecues. But there’s more to this sauce than hamburgers, hot dogs and Heinz. In fact, ketchup has a storied past that dates back to imperial China, where it was made with fish entrails, meat byproducts and soybeans. It wasn’t until 1812 that a tomato-based ketchup was invented.

    Ketchup’s ancient history

    The ancestor of modern ketchup was completely tomato-free. Though tomato plants were brought to England from South America in the 1500s, their fruits weren’t eaten for centuries since some people considered them poisonous. (When wealthy Englishmen ate from lead pewter plates, for example, the acid of the tomato leeched the lead into the food, causing lead poisoning.) Instead, the precursor to our ketchup was a fermented fish sauce from southern China. As far back as 300 B.C., texts began documenting the use of fermented pastes made from fish entrails, meat byproducts and soybeans. The fish sauce, called “ge-thcup” or “koe-cheup” by speakers of the Southern Min dialect, was easy to store on long ocean voyages. 

    Hamous had his Devil’s Smegma and I have mine.

  23. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Back from coffee and full of new stories, none of which are very interesting.  Sun is shining brightly, and it’s warming up as we go.  Caution, feral cat story coming up:

    A couple of years ago, I started feeding a feral cat with unusual markings with his white belly mostly on one side rather than underneath.  I named him Crispy Too after the old cat I had named Crispy by my then 4 year old little buddy.  Anyway, during the big freeze of 2021, Crispy Too decided to move on, and I did not see him for a while.  Occasionally, I thought I would catch a glimpse of him in the neighborhood, but I could not tell for sure if it was the same cat or just a similar looking one.  I’ve always kept a little bowl of cat food outside for the feral cats and other animals that come out of the woods from time to time.  I had a little solid black cat that was coming around for a while, but I haven’t seen it lately.  As a side note, I have regular visitors to the cat bowl of 2 foxes and 2 possums in addition to assorted neighborhood and feral cats.  But anyway, back in the day, Crispy Too would come running if he was within earshot when I would rattle the food around and pour it into the bowl, but none of the other animals seem to have made that association yet.

    Anyway, Crispy Too did make the association, so he has been coming around regularly, and he is not afraid to let me open the door and put out more food.  He still will not let me touch him, but he is curious and stays pretty close.  I put food out in the mornings, and again in the evening if the earlier feeding is all gone by then.  Crispy Too may drop by a couple more times during the day, and if the bowl is empty, he sits there and waits for me to go get more food to set out.  Last night, after lights out but just before bedtime, I looked outside, and there he was sitting on the top step of the porch looking in next to an empty bowl, so of course, I made a special trip to dip out a little dab of food for him.  I think he’s getting me trained.

  24. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Super Dave

    Do you know if the young couple that inherited the Bolivar Light House still live there?

    I am not really sure.  Based on everything I have read I can give you a confident I think so.  The place is always well manicured and occasionally I notice signs of life when we go by.  Other than that evidence could be they are there.

  25. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Today’s hamousonian

    Ketchup edition:

    Hammy prolly puts ketchup on a hot dog.
    Philistine.
    And the answer is!!

    Hamous says:
    January 10, 2011 at 11:12 am
    All mayo is evil, regardless of where it’s made.
    I cannot attest to the evils of Hollandaise sauce as I have never tasted it.
    Ketchup goes on meat loaf. Mustard goes on a hot dog.
    Kroger carries Southern Star products. I had a four pack of Imperial Stout this weekend. Tasty stuff.

  26. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Ketchup is not keto, so it doesn’t go anywhere with me.  Neither is BBQ sauce.  Fatty meats are keto though, so that’s all you need so long as it is well peppered with cracked peppercorns.

  27. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Germany has some of the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world but German clinics have a line they just won’t cross – they won’t kill any patients that haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19.

    And before you scan this page looking for a disclaimer, no, this isn’t satire.

    Apparently, doctors in Germany have no problem with helping patients say their final “goodbye, cruel world” so long as they’re protected against Covid.

    In fact, German doctors are now turning away euthanasia requesters who aren’t up to date on their Covid vaccines.

    Sounds a little counter-productive, but OK.

  28. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Hammie and his hipster beers.

  29. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I am 67 years old and I have never seen the light on.

    Funny how all the smart people around here were born in ‘55.

  30. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Boosters have cycled twice and filler valve finally closed.

    I guess we’re good.

  31. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    28
    Oops. That was supposed to be a text to someone else.

  32. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    Good Warming Up Morning, Hamsters

    The temperature here has raced up to 49 degrees from 34 at 6 this morning.  Nice to have a warm spell to see what plants have survived the freezing days and nights.  Pasture grass is mostly light tan under the live oaks where green remains, though it is somewhat subdued from summer’s beautiful green.

    Winter’s sleep has moved in here for the most part, but creatures great and small who manage the cold/warm/cold weather switching seem to be doing well. El Gordo’s attention to the animals makes St. Francis smile his approval.

  33. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I haven’t been on that Bolivar ferry since I was a teenager.

  34. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    I don’t comment on these scrabbles about condiments. Who cares? What possible difference does it make whether you love or hate catsup or any other sauce?

    Morning, chickadees. I’m liking the warmer weather!

  35. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    My immediate neighbor to the south is moving. The house too, lock, stock, and barrel.

    Here’s hoping the woman takes her feral cat farm with her.

    I might see some birds around here again.

  36. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    #32 MHarper – me, too… I mean the warmer weather – we have running water again… Like 20th century urban citizens, all over again

  37. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    MHarper

    I lubs ya

    I don’t comment on these scrabbles about condiments. Who cares?

    But but you just did.  SAYING you don’t comment means you just made a comment why you don’t comment.  🙂 🙂

    What possible difference does it make whether you love or hate catsup or any other sauce?

    This is some important stuff.  Keeping the world in proper balance means setting the rules even about condiments.

  38. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    What possible difference does it make whether you love or hate catsup or any other sauce?

    Yahbutt what about Nutella? As ole Dave opens up yet another can of worms.  😀

  39. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Funny how all the smart people around here were born in ‘55.

     

    Oops. That was supposed to be a text to someone else.

  40. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Nutella!!  That abomination is the true Devil’s smegma.

  41. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    GJT – Does it matter that I only missed 1955 by 9 days?

  42. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    GJT #36

    laughing-cartoon-you-want-it-when - Reading, Writing, Research

  43. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Condiment battles are definitely small potatoes.

    You start talking about putting oysters in the dressing though, its all out nuclear war.

  44. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    1958 was the most refined fine.

  45. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    If Squawk was not suffering from cold weather brain fog, he’d have admitted that there is one thing at least equally awful as Nutella… I used to chat almost daily with a friend in Australia – who always talked about Vegemite… When she visited the states, she brought him a jar of Vegemite of his very own.. which was tasted once, and tossed in the rubbish bin after we all gagged on it.

  46. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    If the world was nuked the only things that would survive is roaches, Twinkie’s and Nutella.

  47. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Shannon

    You start talking about putting oysters in the dressing though, its all out nuclear war.

    You Philistine heathen.  I love oyster dressing.

     

  48. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    37 Bsue

    Your variance is on file and officially approved. It’s got SQK’s fingerprints all over it.

  49. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    #41 ROTFLOL…. Squawk tried to tell me I missed 1955 by 13 months – I reminded him I was talking about the beginning of the year, not it’s end.

  50. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Squack at 11:50 – You forgot about Peeps.  They will survive.

  51. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Maybe we should distance ourselves from 1955.

  52. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I’ll not forget my first and last exposure to oyster dressing.

    I had married into a bunch of Pennsylvania Yankees.

    I never made that mistake again.

  53. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    I make a mean oyster dressing, with egg bread, (cornmeal) of course.

  54. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Oh dear! I was born in 1944. Am I the oldest crank on The Couch?

  55. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    El Gordo

    PEEPS!!  Dang I forgot them.  You are correct that they too are nuke survivors

  56. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Oysters from grass fed mammals might be acceptable in dressing, but not bottom feeder mollusks.

  57. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    #47 MH

    Possibly a race between you and ELG? Don’t know about some of the irregulars around here.

  58. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    I’ll not be doing any kind of oysters, land driven, sea driven, with or without ketchup….

     

  59. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    1946 for me, so mh may win the prize.  I thought for sure it would be me.

  60. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    A quick search indicates the closest places with fried oysters are in Fulshear. I haven’t had any in a coon’s age.

  61. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    IT looks like an oyster, but it’s snot.

  62. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Gilhooleys used to have good oysters prepared any number of ways.  Haven’t been there in a while though.

  63. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Last time we ate at Gaido’s, I ordered the gigantic Grilled Oyster Sampler Platter for my entree.

    They do them four different ways.

    Incredible.

  64. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    @11:52 AM

    Shannon

    You start talking about putting oysters in the dressing though, its all out nuclear war.

    You Philistine heathen.  I love oyster dressing.

    Well, of course, anyone who would contaminate chili with leguminosae would like bivalves in their dressing.  I’m not surprised.  The world is full of culinary deviancy.

  65. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    32  mharper42

    I don’t comment on these scrabbles about condiments. Who cares? What possible difference does it make whether you love or hate catsup or any other sauce?

    This from a woman who could write an 800 word essay on the nuances of cat food.

  66. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Last time we ate at Gaido’s, I ordered the gigantic Grilled Oyster Sampler Platter for my entree.

    They do them four different ways.

    Incredible.

    The Half Shell Oyster Bar in Troy does them that way and Dayaam they’re good. A dozen, 4 kinds each. Wife doesn’t eat oysters but we ordered that as an appetizer and she like all of them.

  67. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    I was once conned into taking a tiny taste of Nutella.  Disgusting.  Also, anyone who would even think about eating anything named Vegemite really should see a psychiatrist.  The British became jealous of the Aussies for inventing something as nasty as Vegemite so what did they do instead of banning it outright ?  Of course, they’re Brits and they invented their own revolting version called Marmite.

    The race to the bottom never ends across the British Empire.

  68. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    If you are indeed the oldest crank on the blog, one consolation is that the winner’s trophy has a statuette of Squawk on top, regardless of age.

  69. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    If you are indeed the oldest crank on the blog, one consolation is that the winner’s trophy has a statuette of Squawk, wearing nothing but a speedo, on top, regardless of age.

     

    /FIFY

  70. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Over 60 firearms destined for street sale were seized during an investigation of alleged arms traffickers, the Toronto Police Service said in a statement released on Monday.

    Investigators seized 62 firearms, the majority being Glock handguns worth up to $6,000 in street value, following an eight-month-long operation titled Project Barbell. Three AK-style weapons and five AR-15-style rifles were also seized, police say. Of the guns, 57 were traced back to the United States. One was stolen in an Ontario break-and-enter, while the others were untraceable.

    If there are Canadians willing to pay $6,000 for an old, used Glock pistol that can be bought in the USA for under $500, then the smuggling isn’t going to stop.

    Also, the fact revealed about the source of the guns is a yawner.  Where did they think the guns were coming from – Turkey ? Chile ?  The USA/Canada border is over 5,500 miles long, for crying out loud.

  71. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Got a little nap in.  It’s 62 degrees outside now.  Think I’ll go out and wander around the neighborhood a bit.  Had a cup of freshly thawed out cabbage soup – completely catsup free although it did have tomatoes in it.  Pretty tasty, and filling.

  72. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Finally checking in.  I had a bit of a recovery struggle yesterday and a different one this morning.  The one from yesterday resolved with a little bit of help from LD while she visited.  The one this morning – it may take some more rest before I feel comfortable with increased activity.

    I need to be careful, because Hubby is in Bryan working on our vacancy.  My neighbor across the street has a key and has told me to call her if I need *anything*.  I know she means it, too.  Since I’ve prepped, I have plenty of easy food in arm’s reach.  I should be okay, as long as I remain vigilant.  I have a broom handle that I use for getting up/down, and I am using it as a walking stick so I have an extra point of contact in case I stub my toe or sumpin’.

    I got my callback from the doctor’s office, and the PA reassured me that I’m almost through the worst of it. “The first two weeks are the WORST,” she said, “it gets a lot better soon.”

    Yeah, I’m holding her to that.

     

  73. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Well, I managed to get my shopping quickie errands done. Now after I finish lunch, I can nap the rest of the day if I want to.

  74. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    BTW – if you find yourself incapacitated, I have found that a broom handle is infinitely superior for changing elevation that trying to hike myself onto a walker.  I put the handle on the floor between or near my feet, and I can drop or pull myself up and down, without the angle I was struggling with when I was trying go from the couch to the walker.  I’m not using the walker anymore, but I certainly don’t want to use my back to get up and down, so I use the handle to pull myself up or ease myself down.

    Works in the bathroom, too, thank goodness.  Trying to get off the toilet and onto the walker required bending (which I’m not supposed to do) and lots of arm muscle to get up and over the handles.  No amount of scooching forward eliminated the forward angle needed for the walker.  With the broom handle, it’s straight up and down, and so much easier.  And much, much more comfortable.  Once up, I could grab the walker and get myself where I needed to go.

    Just sharing my experience, hope it helps someone some day.

  75. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    Tedtam – glad to hear that you are customizing your mobility aids. I’d never have thought about a broom handle but it makes sense, since Mom’s cane that had a 4 poster foot on it so it stood by itself was a great aid to her, and that’s exactly what the home PT person and I told her – put it between her feet and use both hands and the next thing we knew, she was up like a shot.

  76. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    I hate GFIs (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) especially when the builders found it necessary to put the damn thing on a little used kitchen plug near the floor.  The emergency flash light that lived in it for 7 years (God bless my Mom) got bumped and activated the interrupt part.  So I lost a whole wall of electricity in my living room and half of the kitchen.  I just spent near 3 hours tracing wires, checking breakers and repairing a faulty motion sensor.  All for nothing.  No breakers on the main had tripped so I was going to get a new breaker and try that.

    Ever have one of those moments when you look at a spot you have never looked in 25 years and see the problem?  I was checking all the GFI outlets in the house that I knew of and they were all okie dokie.   For some reason I looked down on the far wall of the kitchen and spied that stupid emergency flash light (God bless my Mom who put it there) and there was a yellow light on the GFI saying check me you idiot.  Pushed the button and all is well. I hate GFIs

  77. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    The C&C roundup (we’ll see how long I can sit up before needing to lay down again):

    Good morning, and Happy Tuesday, C&C! Your roundup today includes: more Team Reality twitter accounts restored for Christmas; the Hill tries to debunk the Governor and I debunk the Hill; more sudden adult death syndrome strikes down sports figures and celebrities; an article critical of science actually publishes in a real journal; the latest Twitter files drop exposes covid narrative manipulation; and Name Redacted does some more independent research and easily uncovers what corporate media somehow missed for six years: CIA infiltration at Google.

    First off, Childers rips media a new one for not-covering the DeSantis WLR round table:

    That is all true, he did make those points. But overall, the Governor actually spoke very little at the roundtable. He mainly asked questions and let his public health and infectious disease experts answer. But oddly, the Hill omitted ALL reference to ANYTHING the Governor’s experts said. For all its readers know, nobody else attended the roundtable. It was a roundtable with one big chair.

    This is what is goes for “balance” these days. Maybe the Hill reporter was working at the speed of journalism?

    /snip

    So they were left with this tepid argument: DeSantis “approach” to “scrutinizing” vaccines is supposedly flawed and counterproductive. How “flawed?” How “counterproductive?” The Hill doesn’t say, not exactly, nor does it suggest any less-flawed or more productive way to “scrutinize the vaccines.”

    /snip

    The Hill’s entire premise is wrong. DeSantis isn’t going to scrutinize the vaccines, that’s the Grand Jury’s job. Actually, even the Grand Jury won’t scrutinize the vaccines. They are what they are, and aren’t. The Grand Jury is going to scrutinize the PEOPLE who pushed the vaccines using false information, like the claim that you’d help end the pandemic by taking the vaccine, or that the mRNA would stick in the injection site instead of seeping into your heart, brain, testicles and ovaries….

    So, basically, its media skewing coverage and covering the butts of TPTB.  Childers does a great job of breaking down the news “story” and showing where it’s wrong/lying/stoopid. Like this quote from their story:

    Myocarditis following vaccination is a “transient phenomenon” from which the vast majority of patients fully recovered.

    The heart muscle NEVER HEALS; cardiac damage is always permanent. The Hill’s expert didn’t cite any studies for this, either (he generally cited to a CDC “survey”). And ask all the dead people about how transient their myocarditis was. Oh wait, you can’t.

    And the ending:

    It’s obvious that none of the Hill’s experts actually watched the roundtable, and not one of them commented on what DeSantis’ experts said, even though the story was based on the roundtable. The truth is, all the Hill’s experts’ arguments were rebutted in the roundtable discussion.

  78. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Childers has a whole list of SADS victims – young, healthy adults who died at home without warning.  Probably from that “transient myocarditis” the Hill was talking about.

    Then Childers has this:

    I don’t often suggest you read something outside Coffee & Covid, but there are exceptions, including this October 21st journal article published in Surgical Neurology International titled, “The Pharmaceutical Industry Is Dangerous to Health. Further Proof With COVID-19.”

    It’s an important article. The author, Fabien Durelle, describes all the methods the pharmaceutical industry uses to manipulate science to sell its products, especially (but not only) related to the pandemic. The 167 reference footnotes alone make the article worth saving.

    /snip

     Here is just one of Durelle’s lists of problems of how various industries are manipulating science.

    Big business, pharma, and the government:

    * Fund or create journals to influence what is published.

    * Suppress publication of unfavorable science.

    * Attack individual scientists and whole cohorts of researchers.

    * Remove individual scientists from positions of power.

    * Silence plaintiffs using secret payments.

    * Recruit, fund, and train individuals to be trusted scientific voices for industry.

    * Fund, produce, and disseminate textbooks and other educational or academic materials.

    * Fund media outlets to influence what is disseminated.

    * Co-opt journalists through media training and conference funding.

    * Ensure and normalize industry’s presence in academic settings in attempts to gain trust and scientific credibility within academia.

    Although Durelle touches on military involvement, I believe that, not only are industries like big tobacco and big pharma occupying science, deep state government agencies have also gotten into the game.

    Gee, it sure looks familiar. Then there’s this troubling concept:

    Seeing all the problems enumerated in once article is pretty breathtaking. One begins to wonder: how much of “science” remains trustworthy? As far back as 2004, Richard Horton, chief editor of The Lancet, said that medical journals had become “information laundering operations” for the pharmaceutical industry. In 2015, Horton said up to half of the scientific literature might simply be wrong.

    All science should be viewed skeptically. There’s no such thing as reliable “scientific consensus.” It’s rubbish.

    So, who do we believe?

    Childers then discusses another Twitter dump, but I’ll let y’all go look at it.  I’m going to go lay down for a bit.

     

  79. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Texpat

    Well, of course, anyone who would contaminate chili with leguminosae would like bivalves in their dressing.  I’m not surprised.  The world is full of culinary deviancy.

    Oyster stuffing began in New York.  Along with oyster chowder it is one of the finer delicacies exported from that bastion of culinary deviancy.  BTW I love me some raw oysters with horse radish.  Yummmmm

  80. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Now it’s time for a comfy nap, surrounded by purring cats. Check y’all later.

  81. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Don’t go MHarper

    We have more condiment chat to engage in.

  82. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    I guess I could love a GFCI if it saved my bacon but I agree, tracing where one might be placed can be a bear. The electrician that wired our so called custom built dream home years ago gave us mucho plenty outlets everywhere but I swear, the circuits ran in all directions and GFCIs seemingly hidden, on purpose.

  83. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    The mysterious neighborhood pig is still on the loose from last week, he keeps being reported at different spots and no one can catch him. Not sure if anyone has claimed it or not. Everybody keeps threatening to serve him up with hot cakes and eggs but nothing yet.

  84. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    One lady wants to cuddle up to it and name it Bacon.

  85. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    I went to the ENT this morning for a post op clean out.  My father lied to me, he said it was no big deal.  It was.  It felt like tearing velcro off my sinuses.  Above my eyes, across my cheeks to my ears.  I feel worse today than I did the day after surgery.  I did not go back to work.

    Tomorrow is a new day.

  86. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    All the plants are back outside – low tonight is supposed to be 35 or better, and not supposed to get below 40 for the next 10 days… unless it does – in which case we’ll have to haul all those pots of asparagus fern and the parlor palm back inside… but I’ve learned they tolerate getting a little too cold much better than staying inside where they don’t get good sunshine.

  87. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Starting to cool out here a bit as the sun is dipping behind a high overcast layer that is moving in.  It’s been a nice day though.  I put a little water on my outdoor plants, but I think they would have been OK without it.  As to Tedatm and the broomstick, I used a grubbing hoe handle for basically the same purposes.  Due to my size, I’m not certain that a broomstick could support my weight in event of an trip.  When I’m outside and have to work on an irrigation project or something like that, I put a folding chair on one side to hold the tools and a long handled shovel on the other side.  Between the two, I can usually figure a way to get up off my knees when I’m done.  But yes, I know the drill.

     

  88. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I hate GFIs

    Amen, brother.

    And if you’re going to wire one in a series, you better be sober and fully awake.

  89. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    #47 mharper42

    I was born in August 1941, 4 months to the day before Pearl Harbor.

  90. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Fay’s lift chair got her up to walker height.

    In self-defense I tried to keep canes and other forms of beat sticks away from her.

  91. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Adee slips in under the wire and wins!!!

  92. TexMo Avatar
    TexMo

    There may not have been any room at the Inn for Jesus, but there is plenty of room here. They managed to discharge a significant number of patients before Christmas. Probably only at < 50% occupancy here now. I’m sure as elective procedures pick back up in the new year that it will go back up to 80% – 90% occupancy. Of course I do not want to be here to verify that. Hopefully I’ll break out by the end of the week.

  93. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    At rehearsal this morning, I told them we’d be better off playing this recording rather than having me sing it.

    The Man.

  94. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    Our sunny afternoon with 55 degrees is nice for a winter’s day.  The physical therapist and I mostly walked around inside the house about 15 times this afternoon. It was a bit too cold to go walking outside despite the inviting sunny day.  My last PT session will be next week, and then I’m on my own to keep on walking myself limber again, and/or riding the stationary bike that I wish was a horse outside instead of in the garden room.  She said I am doing exceptionally well rehabbing. And I don’t need to walk so fast. 🙂

  95. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    #82 – Shannon – thanx for the inspiration. I’m always looking for signposts to help guide me in picking the music for “next Sunday…”  And I’m 99% sure we have that in our Karaoke system… One down, 3 more to pick out – that just seems like a perfect one to kick off the new year

  96. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    73 GJT

    One lady wants to cuddle up to it and name it Bacon.

    Every neighborhood has one.  This is the woman who has been rejected by every online dating service in existence.  The world can be a scary place.

  97. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    TexMo, don’t listen to me whine about my schnoz; it ain’t a wart on the dogs butt compared to what you have been going through.  Get well soon my friend.

  98. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Title 42 stands. -SCOTUS

  99. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    But I’d rather have two broken big toes than what they did to you today, Bones.

    /shiver

  100. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Okay televidiot networks enough of Christmas commercials already.

  101. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    texanadian and friends opposing Communism. Wish y’all luck, son.

    Standing for liberty, kneeling for no man.

  102. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Trying to force in two small freezers what looks like small spec in a Costco buggy … that woman, I swear…

  103. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    What a great nap I had! I woke to total darkness, although I soon found it was only 6:15. Cats have been fed and I had a late lunch, due to my errand run today. Not sure what I will want when the time is right.

  104. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Brats?

    We don’t know nothin’ about brats around here.

    But we do know about Pecan-smoked  Double-Black-Pepper german sausage.

    Wish I‘d had the foresight to buy some extra crunchy sauerkraut.

  105. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    It’s so lovely that it’s warmed up enough to come back into the land of hot and cold running water, washing dishes, showers, and laundry… motion sensor on the porch light renewed…  plants back outside where they enjoy being… and projected low’s of 40 or above for the next 10 days – well, after tonight but it ain’t supposed to freeze tonight either – THANK YOU LORD!!!

  106. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Yeah. I’m not going to miss flushing the facilities with water out of the big garbage can.

  107. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    Shannon, did you get those at HEB, or that fancy meat market over there??? They sound delish!!!!

  108. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    With caraway seeds, of course.

    You can’t claim to be sauerkraut if you don’t have caraway seeds.

  109. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Shannon

    BSue says she is not sauerkraut then.  She then said that next you will prolly want beans with your chili.

  110. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    GFI Receptacles

    I think GFI receptacles are great innovations and have saved lives.  However, the architectural/electrical follow through on design and installation has been non-existent.  There has been no attempt to educate the public why they exist in homes and no guidance in the electrical industry to make it logical to the homeowner.  It’s as if suddenly these weird, incomprehensible receptacles appeared with no explanation.  I’ve seen electrical contractors install them and leave those tiny little microscopic font instructions from the manufacturers on the counters for the homeowners.  Give me an effing break.  It’s been like handing a microwave oven to someone in 1918 and expecting them to know what to do with it.*

    If an architect or remodeler is going to design in GFIs, and they are required by all national/local codes now, there should be some way to inform and educate the homeowner how they work and if a bathroom or kitchen circuit is wired into a series and what to do if the mini-breaker kicks off.   These amount to sub-circuits beyond the main panel without labeling or transparency to the owner.  Nobody has had a choice in the industry though, once they existed they were suddenly required, period.

    *It has been a small boon to the electrical contracting industry because they get millions of calls from American homes every year about a simple GFI problem.  The contractors certainly don’t have any incentive to cure this problem.

  111. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I don’t think HEB carries Poffenberger’s Sausage.

    I don’t think he could keep up with that kind of demand.

  112. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Texpat

    Oh I do not mind GFIs you are prolly right about safety.  However this offending CFI of todays adventure is on a wall receptacle,  This thing is on the far wall on a plug we will probably never use.  I know code calls for a plug on that wall but a GFI?  My Mom (God rest her soul) decided we should have one of those emergency flash lights plugged into it.  either BSue or myself banged the light with the kitchen stool that gets moved around bunches.  It tripped the GFI shutting off a whole bank of wall plugs extending into the living area.  I did not even know there was a GFI there.  GRRRRRRR

  113. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I don’t like the GFCI’s because when I decide someone needs a toaster in their bath water, I want it to work.

  114. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    The electrician gets to have fun though searching out GFCI outlets hidden behind heavy bookcases and furniture lol. And it could be in a room across the house where the problem is.

  115. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Texpat.

    It would seem to me that GFI should have been put by the sink.  Seriously am I right in that thought?

  116. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    GJT #100

    Hmmmm sounds like that is what happened today to me playing electrician.

  117. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Shannon #99

    DUDE!!!!!!!

    laughing-cartoon-you-want-it-when - Reading, Writing, Research

  118. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    The only requirement I know of is:

    Any receptacle within 36″ of a sink,  faucet, tub or shower must be GFI.

    There should never be some low level receptacle with a GFI unless it is some unusual circumstance involving a wet area and in that case there should be no low level receptacle anyway.  No receptacle in a bathroom or utility room with sinks and running water should be lower than counter height.

     

  119. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    The Bavarians know how to do sauerkraut. With caraway.

    I don’t know what’s wrong with the rest of those Krauts.

    We lived in a condo in suburban Munich. Our next door neighbors (common wall) were two adorable 80 year old sisters.

    Every three months or so they would spend several days cooking. sauerkraut. My bedroom was upstairs. I could hardly breathe. Then they would line their entire sidewalk with big jars of kraut and let them cure in the sun.

    Great stuff, Maynard.

    with caraway.

  120. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Texpat

    Dumb east county Cut-N-Shoot electricians.  No GFIs anywhere around the kitchen sink.  Got em in the bath.  Guess I should move that one

  121. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    In the houses I have renovated, I never put any receptacle in a kitchen or bathroom, GFI or not, lower than 36″ counter height.

    For some idiotic reason, after WWI the rule of thumb for electricians became “hammer height” about (12-13″) to establish how high a receptacle should be from the floor.  They stood a 12 oz. hammer on the floor and that determined the height of receptacles.  I am not kidding.

    A billion homes and apartments in America have these placed this way and there is absolutely zero reason for it.  Nobody questioned it for a hundred years.  Not one architectural professor, famous architect, electrical engineering professor or CEO of a huge electrical contracting company.  Not one swinging…

    I always had my guys install receptacles 26″ high so people didn’t have to crawl on the floor to plug something in.  It was that simple.

  122. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Mine are 26″ high.  But still a GFI on a wall, no chance of getting wet.  one of life’s little mysteries.

  123. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Pooping back in. One thing that Hubby and I insisted on was outlets installed higher than usual. The carpenter called it commercial height and prepared accordingly.

     

    We have yet, to this day, regretted that decision. It’s amazing what a difference shall things like make. So simple that one tends to forget them. Then comes the day when you need to plug something in and you realize how convenient they are.

    We put in extra plugs in our kitchen bar, too. Another one I haven’t regretted. They are GFI plugs. Because… Code.

  124. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    The GFCI acts as the weakest link in the chain, if wired in series in a circuit. But just glancing around the net I saw several times the GFCI plug itself should be closest to the panel, or IOWs, first in line.

  125. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Squawk @7:35 PM

    Got em in the bath.  Guess I should move that one

    If it’s within 36″ of the sink, I would.  All my countertop receptacles are GFI no matter where they are because it gets a little wild around here bathing dogs in the sink, etc.

     

  126. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    105 GJT

    The GFCI acts as the weakest link in the chain, if wired in series in a circuit. But just glancing around the net I saw several times the GFCI plug itself should be closest to the panel, or IOWs, first in line.

    Correct.

     

  127. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Well now that makes sense.  The questionable GFI is wired in series and is closest to the breaker box aka the panel.

    thanks GJT and Texpat

    I think the mystery is now solved.

  128. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Even old toaster killers love a great dog rescue story.

  129. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

  130. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Even old toaster killers love a great dog rescue story.

    What rescue? Dog belonged to some 90 year old grandma and that woman just took it. Now granny is grieving alone, in her home, with her sole comfort and friendship gone,

  131. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    So grandma lived was locked away in the basement of the gas station?

  132. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    I seem to recall a while back writing a diatribe about electrical outlets and that they should be at least 30″ up the wall so old people could use them and not break their backs.  And now, with wireless internet and mesh networking and the like, I’m getting ready to install a couple of outlets about a foot below the ceiling on a couple of walls to plug in range extenders.  I could put them lower, say about the same as a light switch, but someone would be walking by and knock out whatever was plugged in at that level, so just get them up and out of the way.  I’ll get around to completing that project one of these days too.

    I keep watching videos about how much better wired ethernet connections to high use devices is than using the wireless system, but my speed tests show virtually no difference with my current mesh set up.  And the big deal that I keep reminding myself of is that twice I’ve had lightening strikes that burned up my incoming internet connections and everything downstream of it, including my router and video security system. So given that, I think I’ll skip my plan to wire the house with ethernet and just stick with wireless on everything.

  133. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    109 Shannon

    So grandma lived was locked away in basement of the gas station?

    Forget this old grandma.  She’s probably the same woman wanting to cuddle up to a loose pig and call it Bacon.  There’s nothing you can do in these circumstances.

  134. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    I liked the story of the gas station dog, getting herself a real home!

  135. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    The last two houses I renovated I created a nice homeowner binder that included every manual/warranty for every appliance and device, interior & exterior, in the house.  Included were all the manuals for the HVAC.  It also had the manufacturer and specs for all the tiles, wallpaper and every paint color in the house.

    Also included was a copy of the labeling of every circuit in the main breaker panel with descriptions of each circuit’s components – switches and receptacles, for example.  I even included floor plan drawings and a copy of the land survey.  I don’t know of anybody providing that on an old house and I was proud of it.

  136. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    so is it okay to put catsup….. or is that ketchup…… on a gas station dog?

  137. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Well I’ll be.

    Grandma, too, was rescued, de-loused, and reunited with her pup.

  138. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    113

    The $292.37 profit on the project was icing on the cake.

    🙂

  139. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Too much fun around here. I’m out.

  140. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Been a good day.

  141. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Happy trails to y’all.

  142. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    Bedtime for me out here.  There’s a pretty good football game on TV, but they have some screeching banshee woman announcer on there and I just can’t handle that any more.  You all have a good night now.  More tomorrow.

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