Florida, governed exclusively by the Republican Party for more than a generation, has become two states. One caters exclusively to the privileged, while the other is ignored.

With its embrace of MAGA Trumpism, Florida's malignant indifference to the suffering of others has turned into an intentional effort to inflict suffering. An ideology of cruelty has taken hold, targeting "others" for reasons only the Republican political class understands.

Here is yet another example of how Florida's Republican government intentionally acts to make the lives of its less fortunate citizens more difficult, more uncertain and more painful.

It's infuriating and I'm ashamed and embarrassed to live in this state. I'm tied here because of family, or I'd leave. I have worked to try to change this state, and I continue to support the people who are better able to do that work than I am.

But, let's not talk about politics.

It upsets people.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:23 Sunday, 11 August 2024

Shelley, residing in our neighbor to the north, offers a report on their situation and prospects for the future.

Georgia may be more purple than Florida, politically, but they're just as clueless when it comes to figuring out what the future holds. Development rules.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:52 Saturday, 10 August 2024

The box spring made it safely home on the roof of the RAV4. I had some ratchet straps that I don't use often enough to really understand how to use them correctly. Happily, they worked well enough.

Because we live in an area of suburban sprawl that is still developing, there's a lot of "churn" in the online marketplace. People moving out. People moving in. Buying new furniture and getting rid of old furniture. Wide selection to choose from and many bargains to be had.

We've got to furnish this place up in FLX, and it's not our primary residence so we're not looking to spend big money on furnishing it. Normally, this would be kind of a fun opportunity; but it's complicated by the distance.

We're going to head up there in September, assuming the closing goes through this month, to take possession and basically learn how to light it off and shut it down. We'll only be up there for a week, but we're going to need something to sleep on. And we have nearly enough "stuff" to supply another house. Flatware, cookware, tools, towels, quilts, extension cords, etc.

So we're going to pay some service to drop off a big trailer here. We'll fill it as much as we can and they're going to haul the thing up to New York. We'll fly in and rent a car and be there the day before it's supposed to arrive. Weather permitting. One night on an air mattress.

The challenge is, storing this stuff for now. We considered renting one of those storage units, but it's only for a few weeks, and we weren't certain they'd let the trailer sit there for three days. Frankly, we're not sure the HOA is going to be happy about it. "Forgiveness is easier than permission," and so on.

Anyway, we're stashing it in the garage and Mitzi's office (the spare bedroom) for the time being.

Once we get up there, I've got to figure out how everything works with this radiant heating in the floor. It has a mini-split for AC, but it'll also heat I'm sure. Basically need to make sure it doesn't freeze. Because of the rather unfamiliar nature of the environmental controls, I won't have a smart thermostat to monitor the internal temperature. So I'm going to buy another weather station with an interior sensor. It'll give me data on the local weather as well, which will be interesting to track as time goes on.

I'm also getting a couple of networked cameras, just so I can see what's going on outside the place. Our nextdoor neighbor is the seller's father, and I think I mentioned we met him and that he's a very nice guy. I'm sure he'd kind of keep an eye on the place, but I want to have "eyes on" myself. Mitzi's daughter and son-in-law may come up sometime while we're not there. I'll let them know how to disable the cameras. Ian puts tape over his phone camera, so I'm sure he could do the same but I'd rather not deal with the adhesive residue.

It's kind of exciting. Jack linked to John P. Weiss' post this morning before I could. It resonated with me as well. "Old guy angst," begins to intrude. I think this place in New York is going to be something of an antidote for that, at least for a few years.

I'd told Mitzi that I wanted to cover the front patio or porch. The other morning, on my walk, I realized that that would obscure the sky from the kitchen window. Worse, the stars! We may look into a retractable awning at some point, but for now we're bringing a big umbrella we have out back but seldom use.

Brad, the seller who built the place, estimated covering the porch would cost maybe as much as $10K anyway. That made me swallow hard, but I figured we could swing it. Now we don't have to.

We do want to put in an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) next to the place, in lieu of an addition, to offer another bedroom for family and guests. It won't be a full-on "tiny house." More like a hotel room, though I think we'll go tall so we can add some loft space for kids. Toilet, shower, sink and power. A little closet space, some sort of HVAC. Maybe go with interior wood instead of drywall. Been watching a lot of YouTube videos on tiny home construction and shed conversions. A lot of clever ideas out there.

We could get "really small," (Steve Martin reference) but we want guests to be comfortable too. So we'll see. Again, apart from probably having to deal with a contractor again, and writing checks, it'll be fun and exciting.

It was 100°F here yesterday. Flooding in upstate New York. All things considered, I think I'd rather be in New York. Ask me again in February.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:51 Saturday, 10 August 2024

<img src=“https://nice-marmot.net/Archives/2024/Images/IMG_9370.JPG" alt=“Photo of a lamppost with a street sign reading “GEORGE BAILEY LN” taken in Seneca Falls, NY”> ✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:48 Saturday, 10 August 2024

Kottke pointed to the Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle site. (Or you can follow this link.)

On my way home from Publix, encountering my fellow Nocatee-ans, (not to be confused with Nocateens, the juvenile of the species), a "Tim Walz..." occurred to me, which then prompted a whole series on the way home.

The ones I recall follow:

Tim Walz uses his turn signals.

Tim Walz returns his shopping cart.

Tim Walz polices his brass. (Military reference. "Brass" are spent shell casings.)

Tim Walz picks up after his dog.

Tim Walz recycles.

Tim Walz picked up your trash can after the wind knocked it over and put the trash back in.

Tim Walz let you use his pickup truck to get a box spring.

That's about all I can recall.

I suppose it's possible we can get a little too excited about Tim Walz. All men have feet of clay, after all.

But I'm certain that Tim Walz is among the ranks of the "genuinely nice men" in the world.

Not "perfect." Just a decent human being.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:25 Saturday, 10 August 2024

Been watching some movies lately, and figured I'd post something here in lieu of, well, anything else.

Saw The Fall Guy the other night. Loved it. Ryan Gosling has some comedic chops! Loved the dog too. "Engage your core!"

Mitzi and I saw The Marvels in the theater when it was out, and when I read something in a review of Deadpool and Wolverine about how many references it made to the tangled mess of the MCU, it prompted me to want to see Captain Marvel. So I bought the combo from Apple TV and watched them in reverse order, as one does. Mitzi had gone to the head in the theater during the big song and dance number in The Marvels, and she loves musicals, so I figured she'd enjoy seeing it again anyway.

Well, I also enjoyed Captain Marvel very much, and it got me on a little super-hero binge, a genre I was very tired of.

I had Deadpool 2 in my library, but I evidently never watched it! That's been rectified and I enjoyed it very much. But that made me want to revisit Wolverine's first movie appearance in X-Men, so we watched that next. (I should check the Groundhog Day archive, because I recall seeing X-Men in the theater and being pleased with it. (Twenty years ago!))

That led me to look for Logan, also in my library. But this time I watched the Logan Noir version. I haven't done any background reading, but it doesn't appear as though they did any re-grading of the original, as the tonality seems to resemble something less "noir" and more "digital." But I enjoyed it nevertheless. About a third of the way through it, you kind of forget that it's in b&w and you're just enjoying the movie.

Oh, and we watched Guardians of the Galaxy again too. Fun.

That's where we've stopped for now.

Streaming-wise, it's been pretty dry lately. I started watching the fourth season of The Boys again. It's a tough sell. It's so over-the-top on the violence and gore, but the characters and plot are engaging. And I love the way they kind of dis the whole fan culture. It reminded me of the mainstream press and the way they cover Trump. He shits all over them, but they keep going back for more. Talk about co-dependency!

We saw the Netflix movie Hit Man too. Enjoyed it.

I'm anxious for the return of Slow Horses and Silo.

That's it for now. Guess I've got to go get a box spring for the Finger Lakes (FLX) place and bring it home on the roof of the RAV4. Should be fun. (Not.)

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:18 Saturday, 10 August 2024

Received our flood insurance premium notice yesterday.

$930.

I think that's about $130 more than last year.

But it's probably still a bargain.

I'm not tempted at all to skip it this year. All anyone has to do is watch the news. We are living in a climate that has never existed before on this planet.

Yes, the present CO2 concentration has existed in earth's atmosphere before, but not with these polar ice caps. Not with this human imprint on the landscape.

I don't know if climate models can be used to accurately calculate risk. We're seeing these extreme rainfall events that aren't necessarily incompatible with current climate models. But I don't know that any of them, or any climatologist for that matter, has predicted them. Yes, "more intense," but now much "more"? I think what we're experiencing in these extreme rainfall events is beyond anyone's expectation.

We used to calculate risk by relying on statistics from historical data. Historical data is meaningless now. That climate no longer exists. And we're still changing the composition of the atmosphere that determines our climate. That is to say, we are in a dynamic transient and there is no way to use history and statistics to anticipate the likelihood of some future event, because these future events will occur in a climate that has never existed before.

I know I'm repeating myself, but I don't think anyone's gotten the message.

We could have anticipated that we'd find ourselves in this situation, and we might have made some decisions regarding development to at least mitigate the risk from that dimension.

But, no. We didn't do anything to arrest the emissions of CO2. We didn't do anything to direct development to less risky areas. Worst of all possible worlds.

Stupefying.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:49 Friday, 9 August 2024

The usual end to that phrase is, "dies." But that may be a little hyperbolic. His mob wanted to kill Pence, but they failed.

"Diminished," is a better word.

Has anyone's stature ever been elevated by being associated with Donald Trump?

Ever?

Poor J.D. Vance. (Sympathy can be found in the dictionary, between "shit" and "syphilis.") Here's an ambitious young man, grasping desperately for power and acclaim, having had a taste of it in his association with Peter Thiel and the success of his book. Apparently the movie wasn't as well received.

I guess that hillbilly upbringing left him with the same aching void that Rick Scott has. One that will never be filled. Scott was weird before weird was a Republican thing. It's possible he was Patient Zero.

And shoutout to Jacksonville's own Florida Times-Union columnist Nate Monroe, who'd been calling Ron DeSantis weird long before Tim Walz used the term to describe Trump.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, back to poor J.D. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion. Here's this poor guy, doing an internal calculation about becoming Trump's VP.

On the one hand, it's Trump.

On the other hand, it's one 78-year-old and climbing heartbeat away from real power.

The equation had Trump trouncing poor old Joe Biden, while Vance would get to go up against a San Francisco liberal! And a woman at that! How hard could that be? Plus all that free media!

"Many's the slip twixt the cup and the lip." Or maybe they don't use the old saying, "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched," in Appalachia anymore.

Now he's got to demean himself by attacking another veteran. That's after attacking women, which he actually seemed to enjoy. Still mad at mom? I don't know, I never read the book.

And pathetically chasing after media coverage on the tarmac, while insulting the same media he craves.

I mean, hasn't the guy seen what happened to Guiliani?

"Love is blind." Ambition too.

This thing is still a contest. We have this bizarre, archaic, undemocratic thing called the Electoral College, and there are still a significant number of "Americans" who think democracy is a waste of time, and want to put their faith and trust in a man they watched on prime time reality TV show for so many years. I guess they view the world as a game show.

We could still lose the whole thing.

But J.D. Vance will forever be diminished. He's just smart enough to know it, and it will eat him up from the inside. It'll make him mean and cruel and lonely.

But them's the breaks. He should've known.

Everything Trump touches...

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:11 Friday, 9 August 2024

By now it is a matter of course that what issues from Trump's mouth and his coterie of sycophants and lickspittles seldom, if ever, resembles the truth.

I don't have any problems with the way Tim Walz described his relationship with military firearms in the context of a discussion about gun safety legislation. I didn't hear him making a claim that he served in combat, or under fire, or in a combat zone. He served on active duty, during a time of semi-declared war, the GWOT (Global War On Terror), the blank check that Congress gave to W. following 9/11. So, "in war" he carried a weapon.

The specific construction, which he uttered in extemporaneous remarks, could be construed in a way to assert that he was making that claim; but that requires a good deal of bad faith to do so. Since bad faith is the very foundation of the entire Trump campaign, it's unsurprising they're going there.

It's bullshit.

Regarding his calling himself a Command Sergeant Major, I suspect it's like when I was acting commanding officer of Fleet Training Center Mayport. I was detailed there as the executive officer, an O-5 billet. The commanding officer is an O-6 billet, and is specifically screened and selected for shore command, and gets to wear a device signifying command ashore.

I wasn't an O-6, wasn't screened and wasn't selected. So I couldn't wear the device, and I could never call myself the CO. But for two periods, each in excess of 90 days, I was, for all practical and legal purposes, the CO. I could award step increases to civil servants, or an annual merit bonus, or 59 minutes "early departure." My signature went in all the blocks that said, "Commanding Officer" on every piece of correspondence that left the command that wasn't "By direction."

If I screwed anything up that an O-6 is "specially screened and selected" for, I could go to jail just as if I had been specially screened and selected.

But since I hadn't had the benefit of the close attention and scrutiny of the selection board, I couldn't call myself the CO in any other context. Never wear the device. It doesn't even appear on my plaque.

That's ok. Them's the rules.

Sounds like Walz was the acting Command Sergeant Major, and for some time. As such, he would have been the senior enlisted man within the unit, and acted a special advisor to the CO. It's a pretty high achievement in an enlisted career, and you work closely with the CO on matters affecting the entire command. I had the benefit of a number of good Command Master Chiefs and Command Senior Chiefs. They attended the Senior Leadership Academy and were "specially screened and selected." I don't know how it works in the National Guard. Those course billets are often full, and maybe Guard member don't get as much opportunity as active duty Army. Anyway...

This is from 2018:

Capt. Holly Rockow, a public affairs officer for the Minnesota National Guard, said it is legitimate for Walz to say he served as a command sergeant major. She said the rank changed because Walz retired before completing coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy along with other requirements associated with his promotion.

Trump and the weirdos and lickspittles that surround him are desperate and flailing.

I just sent another $150 to VoteVets.

Ordnance downrange, on target, on time.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:39 Thursday, 8 August 2024

This video.

For reference.

Feeling better. Staying hydrated.

"Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean. Because, no matter where you go... There you are."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:57 Thursday, 8 August 2024

I ordered two from this vender on Etsy.

I have no idea what font to choose, so I picked bold.

Apparently, it's a thing.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:54 Thursday, 8 August 2024

Beware, the stench of "old man" angst lingers.

Browsing Apple News after my walk, I read a piece on Creedence Clearwater Revival that made me smile and visit the iTunes Music Store, something I haven't done in a long time.

Many dollars poorer, I now own most of the catalog and some of John Fogarty's solo stuff, and this makes me happy.

But it was something else I read, trying to find a link to the CCR piece so I could post it here, about the Boss appearing for a surprise duet with some guy named Zach Bryan.

Anyway, back to the store and now I own a bunch of his stuff.

The other day, I was lying in the recliner listening to some music that was once new to me that I now realize is over 20 years old. I lamented to myself that I don't seem to find myself around the kind of people who listen to new music and recommend it to me. Hazards of "over-55" living, I guess.

Anyway, I get why this Zach Bryan guy is tearing it up. Whoa...

And that makes me happy too.

(Sorry for the Apple News links. RS is behind a paywall, but I guess I get to read it in Apple News because I'm a News+ subscriber. Gates just inconvenience honest people. Life is short, get yourself some Creedence, and abide.)

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:26 Thursday, 8 August 2024

Received an email last night from SunPower, the manufacturers of the solar panels on our roof, and a portion of the infrastructure that integrates it with our house and the grid. Tesla is a part of that infrastructure as well, and which part does what is largely transparent to me.

The email was brief and not very helpful. I did some searching and got the story.

It looks like a combination of California net-metering changes and the Fed's high interest rates combined to squeeze SunPower out of business.

Right now, I don't think we have a problem as long as we don't have a warranty issue. We're four years into the installation, and we haven't had any problems, so I don't anticipate any "manufacturing defect" issues that would normally be the basis of a warranty claim.

Our installer, A1A Solar, is a long-established business and I'm fairly confident that they'll be around to address any maintenance issues.

The utility industry is lobbying the state Public Service Commission and the state legislature to change net metering rules, which would significantly alter the value proposition for rooftop solar (minus batter storage) for many, if not most, homeowners. Without battery storage, you can still generate enough power through a rooftop array to offset your electric bill by 100%. Your house will run on solar while the sun shines, and you'd be powering your neighbors as well, but you'll draw power from the grid when the sun is down or it's cloudy out.

FPL was able to convince the PSC to charge rooftop solar homeowners a monthly $25 fee for the grid connection. I'm certain that number will rise as time goes on.

With battery storage, you can be completely self-sufficient. But you have to build in a lot of excess capacity to cover periods like this one, where we're generating less power due to cloud cover. Buying a system to that specification is a lot more expensive, and few people would do that. We're about 86% self-sufficient (14% of our annual power usage comes from the grid), and we make enough excess power to offset the cost of the power we get from FPL, so our utility bill is about $300 annually for the grid connection. (I'm sure there are some taxes and "fees" that get tacked onto that.)

JEA, the publicly owned utility in nearby Duval County, is governed by a different set of rules than commercial utilities. They're allowed to offer a reduced "fuel rate," for net metering. That is, the credit the homeowner receives is only equal to the value of the fuel JEA would have burned to generate that amount of electricity, a fraction of the "retail rate." This has been a drag on rooftop solar installations in Duval County, and the public utility hasn't been very keen on doing utility-scale solar either.

It's a dynamic landscape out there as we struggle to transition to a new renewable energy regime. There's a lot to be said for rooftop solar as a distributed and resilient source of generating capacity. But it doesn't fit well with existing power utility business models.

In our case, the value proposition was always about "doing our best," not "saving money."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:37 Wednesday, 7 August 2024

A reminder that you can get a near-realtime view of Debby and other weather features from NOAA at this address (which covers the southeast U.S.).

I'm pretty sure you have to refresh the page periodically to get the latest loop, which seems to be about 10 minutes time-late. (Close enough to realtime for me.)

A government service provided to everyone at no charge, which would be privatized under Project 2025.

It's 78°F outside, 96% humidity and raining. I'm staying indoors.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:55 Monday, 5 August 2024

I can relate, my brother.

One of the things we did to "make things easier" on the trip to New York this year was to pack many of the items into two large plastic bins. Even with that, we still had a lot of little separate items, because those are easier to stuff into the odd bits of space in a RAV4. it was just a matter of a few steps, carrying them from the house into the garage to load into the car.

We didn't unload the entire car until we got to our vacation rentals. One of the bins held electronics, many with built-in batteries. That bin I didn't want sitting in the car in the summer sun, so it always came into the house or the motel with us at each of the three stops before we got to the Finger Lakes. Motels are great because they have elevators and luggage carts. Mitzi's daughter's house was great, because her son-in-law, Ian, carried it up the stairs and into the house for me.

But, unlike in years past, we couldn't park near either of the houses we rented in Trumansburg and Geneva, so I had to carry each box some distance from the car to the house, usually involving at least a couple of stairs.

My back isn't what it used to be, and it can get "jacked up" (sorry, Jack) pretty easily. So I was always careful to take my time and keep the load as close to my body as I could. Seemed to work. I got a couple of twinges right after each time, but no spasms. (Gratitude.)

At this moment, I find myself feeling much more motivated, more "serious," about losing weight than at any time in the recent past. I'd been making some progress earlier in the year, but kind of went off-track in New York because, well, ice cream.

But when we were gardening, or whenever I bent over to take a closeup of some flower or bug, I could feel my lower back starting to spasm. Often I'd stop trying to get a photo, just because my back hurt and I was worried I'd wind up with a bigger problem. And with the garden, you don't always have the luxury of just "giving up," and I'd end up spending the rest of the day in the recliner.

So far, nothing has put me down for days, but it can ruin a whole day and has.

Plus, I find that getting on the floor or the ground, and back up again, assembling cabinets or kayaks, is so much harder with this spare tire I'm wearing.

I have to believe that my issues might be significantly reduced if I could get 30 to 40 pounds off and strengthen my core overall.

So I'm trying to eat mindfully, (No ice cream since we've been back.) and exercise regularly.

Having just written that, I took yesterday and today off. It's possible that I may be attempting to do too much with the trekking poles and Nordic walking. When I used to train for marathons and half-marathons, I always tried to listen to my body. This can be tricky, because sometimes it's not your body, it's really your mind telling you to go easy. I'd go out for a run, not "feeling it" at all, and end up turning in a really good time. But other times, I'd know to reduce the mileage or the pace, and I'd be the better for it the next time. And back then, I never trained every day.

Nordic walking feels like something I should be able to do every day, but maybe not right away? Maybe I should just alternate days so I can do something every day. I think I'm going to try and do consecutive days this week, weather permitting, and see how I feel by the end of the week. May not be a representative sample, because I suspect Monday and Tuesday may be rained out, though walking in the rain probably never kills anyone. Well, not often anyway.

I need to figure out a sustainable mix of activities so I can do something every day. I haven't ridden my bike since we got back, so that needs to get back in the mix.

But this place in New York has me kind of excited. I figure I have maybe a decade of good mobility left if I can get this weight off. Less if I don't. I want to be able to get out and do stuff while we're up there, though sitting on the front patio watching the sun set sounds appealing too.

And that's to say nothing of being prepared for extreme weather events. I used to mock guys I worked with who owned several firearms and talked about how much ammo they'd stockpiled, when the biggest threat to their physical safety was their diet.

First things first and all that.

Oh, and as an aside, I had my blood pressure taken when I did my last blood donation just before we left for vacation, and most recently, on Friday when I went in for a wellness check or whatever. Both times, 110 over 70-something! I've never been on blood pressure medication, but it's never been that low. It's usually high-120s, low 80s.

Two data points don't make a trend, but it's encouraging. I suspect it may have something to do with my diet. These days, I eat a lot of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I have black beans and spinach nearly every day. My go-to snacks are "deluxe" mixed nuts and carrot chips with hummus. The berries are expensive, and I'm privileged to be able to afford them. I have the berries in plain Greek yogurt with some honey. I'll add walnuts when I think of it. Most recently, I've begun adding them to store-brand raisin bran (lower sugar and prices than the premium brands). Skim milk.

I also drink a lot less beer. Alas.

It's become clear that we're not just feeding ourselves, we're feeding an entire microbial ecosystem in our digestive tracts, which are responsible for a lot of the work necessary to maintain good health. So feed 'em the good stuff, I guess.

Cardio seems okay, and the kidney's still working. If I can just get some weight off so my back doesn't let me down, I might just enjoy my final act in this divine comedy.

Anyway, sorry Jack. It's amazing how small a thing it might take to get our backs to go out on us. Hope it recovers quickly.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:44 Sunday, 4 August 2024

The one redeeming view we get from our bougie upscale suburban monotonous landscape is when the setting sun illuminates the trees in the preserve behind the house. It's arresting, but it seldom makes for a good photo. After trying anyway, I stuck my head out the front door to see if there were any clouds that might be interesting. No. But the light on the wall got my attention.

Cropped from 4:3 to 3:2, otherwise SOOC from the little Pentax MX1 (to be confused with the M1X).

It's a bit weird, we've been kind of struggling a bit to find a comfortable interior temperature. I usually find 77°F the sweet spot for me, but Mitzi finds it too warm. Since we've been back from New York, there have been times when it's too warm for me, too. So we've been kind of hovering around 75°-76°, which was just about at the dew point yesterday. Got some slight fogging on the lens when I went out back, cleared by the time I got around front. Seldom, almost never a problem when the house is at 77°.

When I came in from getting the mail yesterday, the house felt absolutely frigid at 76°. Go figure.

The pod idea for moving stuff to the other house, which we haven't figured out what, exactly, to call yet, is making even more sense. We have two folding extension ladders from combining two households. Seldom use even one, so we'll pack one of them up to go north.

There's going to be a lot of additional expense in getting the place set up for (occasional) occupancy, but it will get some of the extraneous stuff that we otherwise can't bring ourselves to part with out of the house. I find myself eating off of new flatware because our old flatware has been packaged up to go north and Mitzi's using a used bargain set she got off some online marketplace.

The inflatable kayak did arrive on Friday. I set it up in the garage Friday evening. The only negative experience was placing the little keepers over each of the valve connections. They recommend you warm them up with a hair dryer or soak them in hot water for 15 seconds to make them more elastic. I didn't have a hair dryer or a bowl of warm water in the garage, so I pressed on without doing so. My thumbs ached so much Friday night, I ended up taking some Tylenol in the middle of the night. Still sore this morning.

But, I inflated the thing and let it sit overnight and it seemed to hold air just fine. Tropical storm, likely to become hurricane, Debby is going to make the weather crap for the next few days, so a "maiden voyage," isn't on the immediate horizon.

We also put together the cabinet I mentioned last Friday. Went pretty smoothly with one exception, as seems almost inevitable with these sorts of endeavors. The bottom panel had two pre-drilled holes that either went at the front of the cabinet, or at the back. Fifty-fifty chance of getting that right, eh?

One hundred per cent chance if I'd read ahead in the assembly instructions! But no, I was in a hurry, so I got to take the thing apart again to turn it around. "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

That's going in the laundry room on Monday as a laundry sink. I hope these guys know what they're doing, because it looks a bit awkward in there. The drain hose from the new washer just barely reaches the drain pipe, so it would seem to make more sense to put the sink on the side without the water fittings, but there's a dryer vent that may preclude that.

As it stands now, if the sink goes where originally planned, we're going to be looking at some sloppy hoses, which I guess we should have foreseen anyway. We'll see how it goes. Mitzi is excited about having a sink, so maybe it doesn't matter how it looks, even though she ended up going with the more expensive cabinet and sink.

The problems of the privileged.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:24 Sunday, 4 August 2024

Jack sent me an email about "talking politics," which I will respond to directly. (And probably later. Mitzi's on her way home from Home Depot with a cabinet I'm going to have to assemble.)

What has prompted this post is something Amit Gawande posted in his blog, On Politics and Communities. And I think this has helped clarify, for me anyway, my feelings about "social" media and "communities," and the illusions we bring to these virtual spaces.

Amit writes:

After all, social media is a resource, just like a piece of land. You can set up any form of community on a piece of land—a country, a city, or a neighbourhood. With each having its own set of rules. Society functions best when you allow all of that. The same applies to social media. Every person who sets one up should be free to decide on its size and nature.

I don't think this is very clearly written, or well considered. Is "social media" a resource? In what context?

Before going much farther into that, this sentence is also rather amorphous, "You can set up any form of community on a piece of land."

Really? Who can? Who is "you"? I think what Amit's saying is that land is a resource that supports many different kinds of communities in the real world, and that there may be different rules depending on the type of community.

But, "Any form of community?" I'm not certain, since land is a real, finite and constrained resource; and to the best of my knowledge, virtually all of it is governed by a set of rules the proverbial "you" Amit refers to will be constrained by. Else, why would tech-bro billionaires want to set up floating islands where they can indulge in their libertarian Lord of the Flies fantasies?

I don't know what Amit means when he writes "society functions best when you allow all of that." I think he's referring to different forms of community, based on scale maybe? Country, city, neighborhood? Though again, I'm unclear as to who "you" would be to "allow" that.

There are "communities" that aren't geographically defined. I'm thinking of "communities of practice," where professionals interact together to advance the interests of their profession, and presumably the people they serve. These are more like the virtual communities of "social media." They share professional interests in common, some of which might be considered "intellectual property."

I live in a "gated community," not only is it gated, it's age-restricted. You have to be over-55 to own a home here. It has a "homeowners association," which includes a set of governing documents that outline the rules that tell you, very specifically, how you're allowed to live here. To be frank, it often chafes. But "we made the choice," right? Except there are very few homes being built these days in Florida that aren't in an association. So, even "choice," is a constrained resource.

Part of the reason, and I'm not saying it's a good reason, why these kinds of communities are so tightly regulated is because many people regard their home as their most significant investment, and they don't want their "property value," to be adversely affected by the quirks and predilections of their neighbors.

Similarly, perhaps, professional communities don't want to see their "intellectual property" values depreciated, so they have professional standards and licensure to exclude people who may wish to "practice" within the domain of that professional community, but whose quirks and predilections may adversely affect the reputation of the profession, and presumably the people they serve.

Ivermectin, anyone?

But with Mastodon and similar applications and protocols, individuals privileged with the knowledge and material resources can set up small instances of "social media," and then impose rules. "My house, my rules."

Okay, sure. But that's not a "community." That's your house.

And it's not about fostering a sense of community, it's about hosting a party where the guests are only present at the pleasure and indulgence of the host. There is no shared interest among the other guests that are intended to be advanced by attending that "house party." Maybe they all like photography or they're all passionate about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there is no shared interest that they are working together to advance. They're all just guests at the host's party and when the host says, "Party's over! Get the fuck out!"

Well, that's the end of that "community."

I live in a gated community. My wife likes the gates. She doesn't agree with me when I say, "Gates only inconvenience honest people."

I have to say, I actually appreciate some of the rules. You can't fly a Trump flag from your house. I wouldn't mind one or two or three. But if they allowed it, most of the place would be festooned with them. That gets pretty oppressive. (They default to flying the American flag. Last election, they lined the streets. Nearly every house. Once Trump lost, more than 90% of them disappeared. I'm trying to recall when they appeared in 2020. So far, they haven't shown up yet.)

And since I do live here, not just type its address in a browser window, it's more pleasant when we can maintain some sense of comity with one another, and that particular rule seems to help foster that.

As a career naval officer, I understand rules and order and have no problem with them in their appropriate context. "We don't discuss politics or religion in the wardroom."

I do think we ought to be a little more clear about our terminology. These social media instances are not "communities," virtual, online or otherwise. I suppose they could be. A community of interest might use that network infrastructure to support the work of the community, but that's not what much of this discussion has been about.

These bespoke social media instances are not communities, and calling them that is self-aggrandizing.

They're more like house parties.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:37 Friday, 2 August 2024

I think I spelled that right.

Walked this morning with the sticks. Unremarkable performance. Maybe I'm tired.

Best part was a thin sliver of a red crescent moon rising above the trees. I'd have taken a photo if I'd felt more motivated.

So this nondescript bit of nothing, which I shot while getting gas in Maryland on July 21, will fill in. It's as "meh" as I feel.

A good day yesterday for a lot of folks. I think Joe Biden showed why it still matters to have statesmen in the White House. But nobody likes to read about politics, so that's enough about that I guess.

Mitzi's been going through the house packing up stuff to take to the place up in New York, even though we haven't closed yet. She's thinking about using a pod, though I think they're too large. Can certainly carry more than the car, and may be cheaper than boxing stuff up and shipping it. Maybe I'll add some books and radios.

She's getting pretty excited, though we still have some travel coming up.

One thing that was nice about New York was that you could be outside in the afternoon. It might be hot in the sun, but it was pleasant in the shade. Here, forget it. You go out to get the mail and back in. It's just miserable. Some people tolerate it better than others I guess. We have a couple of neighbors who are smokers, who apparently don't like to smoke in the house. They're outside in their screened porch a lot.

It's just as well it's hot and we're staying indoors. If it was nice, we'd be outside and, depending on which way the breeze was blowing, smelling their cigarettes. It's weird, I used to be accustomed to the smell of cigarettes many years ago. I didn't smoke, but a lot of the people around me did. Now, you don't encounter it as much and it feels intrusive and offensive.

I don't think the inflatable kayak will be here today or tomorrow. I didn't get a shipping notice until Wednesday. We'll see. It's not urgent by any means.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:42 Friday, 2 August 2024

This came through my feed today about how Florida leads the southeast in solar capacity.

"Well, gosh Dave. Why so down on Florida?"

Well, it's "the Sunshine State," and it's the third largest state in the country by population. It is one of the most vulnerable states, if not the most vulnerable.

Then check out this little article from a week ago.

Florida isn't even in the top half of U.S. states in terms of renewable energy sources.

Florida isn't leading, it's lagging.

This is a useful site to compare states (solar only), though you have to look at the pdfs to get the details. But an interesting data point in Florida's report is:

At 114 MW, Wildflower Solar Energy Center in Arcadia is among the largest solar installations in Florida. Completed by Lightsource bp in 2018, this solar project has enough electric capacity to power more than 13876 homes.

JEA, Jacksonville's publicly own utility has an 1100+ acre site of a decommissioned and demolished coal generation facility that has been sitting idle for years. It has an existing utility grid connection! The site already has a federal permit for utility scale power generation. That's enough land for roughly 150MW of generation capacity, which would make it "among the largest solar installations in Florida."

But, no.

They're planning to put a natural gas generator there, and sell most of the land for development.

Because, Florida.

We deserve everything that's going to happen to us.

Well, not the poor and underserved. Not the Democrats.

But all those rich Republicans who've been running this state into the ground for more than a generation? They deserve everything that's coming to them, Category 5 storms, "sunny day flooding," "nuisance flooding," repetitive flooding, flash flooding, beach erosion, salt water intrusion to the Floridan aquifer, the list goes on. They deserve all of it.

Bastards.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:39 Thursday, 1 August 2024

Surprised and delighted as I am that the marmot seems to have a worldwide audience, I shall nevertheless continue to write about Florida, the state of absurdity.

View it as a cautionary tale.

Yesterday, this popped up in my feeds, about how disaster recovery gets expensive. Then, this morning, I heard this story on NPR's Morning Edition.

From the Business Journal:

As the Atlantic Ocean shows signs of heating up, potentially fueling damaging hurricanes, a former state and national disaster chief warned Tuesday of working-class Floridians being priced out of communities in post-storm rebuilding.

From the Morning Edition piece:

Nearly two years later, James and her husband are still trying to recover from the financial gut-punch of the storm. Today, they live outside Tampa in an RV with their two dogs, two cats and an elderly bearded dragon lizard named Gary. It’s only in the last few months that they’ve stopped living paycheck to paycheck. James describes her current credit score as “too low to finance a pizza.”

It's the chronological proximity that made me consider posting about it. It's hurricane season, and there is "a disturbance" that's likely to affect the Gulf of Mexico early next week (I haven't checked the latest forecast), so it's unsurprising.

What made the Business Journal piece noteworthy to me is Fugate's comments about Florida:

“They're actually one of the more progressive states in dealing with the impacts of climate change,” Fugate said. “If you look at the insurance ratings for building codes, Florida's No. 1 or No. 2 every time. So, there's this tendency, I think, to get caught up between what are called rhetoric and actions. And the rhetoric sometimes doesn't always match what you're doing.”

Bullshit.

If that's true, then I pity the rest of the states, although few of them are as exposed as Florida is.

The building code work was largely the result of Andrew back in 1992, before Florida became a one-party Republican state. Since then, there have been occasional improvements, but Florida's insurance crisis is largely the result of unchecked, unregulated growth in vulnerable areas.

Because we don't love anything as much as we love growth.

Florida actually did have a fairly enlightened growth management regime, until successive Republican legislatures began systematically dismantling it to facilitate more rapid growth.

I like Craig Fugate, I think he's a pretty savvy guy with regard to emergency management and disaster recovery, but he's a "go along to get along" guy who tries to steer clear of politics. Florida is on the precipice of a catastrophic insurance industry collapse because of, sorry about this, politics.

We are white-knuckling it through each and every hurricane season. If we have another one like 2004, with a couple of the current climate's "rapid intensification" storms, we're in for a world of hurt.

This state has done nothing to address the cause of climate change. It has ignored sea level rise for decades, and it refuses to plan for a future that is growing more clear and more dire year by year. It is by no measure whatsoever "one of the more progressive states" in dealing with anything, let alone climate change.

Anyway, be grateful if you don't live in Florida, no state income tax notwithstanding.

And I'm going to repeat this line, because I think it's a good one...

If you're dreaming of moving to Florida, wake up!

It's a nightmare.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:26 Thursday, 1 August 2024

Jack laments the comments of Kirk Tuck regarding the state of photography today. Maybe "state" is the wrong word. Maybe the word I'm looking for is "value," since "gold standard," refers to monetary value.

I used to read Kirk, back when I had some anxiety about shooting micro four thirds. Kirk would make me feel better, shooting with a little E-PL1, or maybe it was a 2, getting great shots. But he'd often go off on tangents criticizing the apparel of people out and about with cameras. Guy has a real hard-on for people wearing shorts with cargo pockets.

Kirk's a great photographer, but he's a bit of snob and I got tired of those little asides that would just seem to pop in unexpectedly from time to time. Haven't read him in years. The post Jack links to is a good example.

500 word intro consisting of nothing but bitching with "inside baseball" references and obscure cultural allusions.

Not entertaining.

Exhausting.

And the thing is just saturated with old guy angst stank. (Turns up here all the time.)

Should there be a "standard" for "value" in art, especially personal art? I don't think so. But if so, don't standards change over time?

I still love photography, but I'm less passionate about it. Though that's probably the wrong word too, since "passion" is usually connoted with a willingness or requirement to suffer. I'm kind of with the Buddhists on the whole suffering thing, seeking liberation.

But then, I'm not a photographer, I'm just a guy who likes taking pictures. Maybe some people like them. I hope so, but I enjoyed taking them, and that was kind of the point. Isn't it the same with film and prints? For those who enjoy that particular medium. The journey is the reward?

I wouldn't worry too much about what Kirk has to say about anything.

This too shall pass.

As shall we.

(Was that angst?)

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:59 Thursday, 1 August 2024

Put the new boots on the sticks yesterday. Not as straightforward as the round boots, because they have to align with the handles and how you hold the sticks. I'm not sure I've got that dialed in yet.

But, I did get out of bed this morning!

Results somewhat similar to Tuesday's, though I think I had less trouble with landing the poles. I kept my arms more straight and tried to push through more toward the end of the stroke. Not perfect, not graceful, but less bouncy and less noisy.

502 calories, 137 bpm average heart rate, 16'56'' pace. I feel it more in my triceps than in my wrists, which is an improvement, I think.

Anyway... New month. Let's see if this thing works.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:24 Thursday, 1 August 2024

"Is this true?"

"Yes, your honor. This man has no sticks."

This morning's obscure cultural reference paraphrase is sponsored by laziness and indolence, attorneys at law.

Alarm went off at 0500, but I didn't feel like getting up. Finally rolled out a little before 0530. Realized I'd be encountering people (the horror), decided to skip the sticks. I even considered taking the morning off, but managed to convince myself to do something.

Anyway, confirmation that the sticks are useful and effective for better pace and more caloric expenditure and cardiovascular benefit. I wasn't exactly strolling, but 17'57" pace, a minute slower than with the sticks. Average heart rate of 113 bpm, vs 135 bmp with the sticks. 402 calories expended, vs 493 calories expended poling.

Lesson here is to just get out of bed when the alarm goes off.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:50 Wednesday, 31 July 2024

The American National Standards Institute has a blog, and it has an RSS feed.

We're having a reverse osmosis water filter installed in our kitchen and I wanted to know about NSF/ANSI 58. Found their web site and saw the blog. Seems like they post nearly daily, at least in July. Full posts with images too!

Very cool.

Subscribed!

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:37 Tuesday, 30 July 2024

I tried getting some shots from the Auto Train a week ago. It's hard because you have essentially no time to think about composition. (Plus you get reflections from the window.) I thought this one was interesting.

Did the sticks again this morning, with a form that perhaps was closer to "Nordic walking." Wasn't a stellar effort in terms of pace, but it was 493 calories. I might have done better in terms of pace and calories, not using the sticks and pumping my arms. But it did elevate my heart rate more than not using the sticks, and I can feel the effort in my triceps.

Found an old headband I used to use running when I had long hair. Kept the sweat out of my eyes, which was a relief.

I was gifted a book by a gent named Simon who's corresponded with me before. He's from the UK and he linked to a couple of YouTube videos that make the point that "technology is not the problem," with regard to social media. And the context there is that it's human nature that is the root cause of the problematic experiences we have on social media.

And I think that's correct.

The book is How to Disagree. It may only be an audio book. I'll give it a listen.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:56 Tuesday, 30 July 2024