Thoughts On A Sunday

Imagine my surprise when I woke this morning to see that it was snowing. The original forecast by the Weather Guys^TM said little about any snow up here at the lake. Not that there’s been a lot of snow with only a coating showing as I write this, but it is still snowing. (Update: We ended up with almost 4 inches of “only a coating”.) Such are the vagaries of winter weather in New England.

The trusty RAM 1500 is going back into the body shop first thing Monday morning to take care of a loose antenna mount, something they had forgotten to tighten when they replaced the front fenders a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to complete the task which is a good thing as the trusty RAM 1500 will be going back to my mechanic’s later the same day to have its annual undercoating performed. (That will be done first thing Tuesday morning as they will keep the pickup inside overnight to make sure it’s warm which helps the undercoating spread to cover everything being sprayed.)

One thing that has put a small crimp in life is that I haven’t been able to receive any mail for over a week now. New mailboxes were installed to replace the 40+ year old mailboxes that were starting to fall apart. The new mailboxes were installed about a week and a half ago…and they couldn’t find the key for our mailbox. We have no key for our mailbox, so we can’t open it. We keep getting vague responses to our queries about when (or if) we will finally get our keys from our property management company. If it comes to down to it I will inform the USPS about the situation when I go to the main post office to retrieve my mail and ask for a lock change. That will cost $50 to have performed and somehow, I think I’ll be stuck paying for it.

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This is something we’ve been watching develop over the past couple of decades, “this” being the increasing decay of so-called Blue Zones – basically blue cities and some blue states. What’s worse is that this decay is deliberate. “There’s a lot ruin in a blue zone. People in neighborhoods work at the preservation of order while they vote for disorder.”

We see that in cities like San Francisco and Portland and Seattle and Chicago and New York. We see that in states like California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and New York. Policies, laws, and regulations that may sound good on the surface but are seriously flawed are implemented and everything goes just the opposite of what was promised. Increasingly, the Law of Unintended Consequences comes into play and then the folks that pushed the original policies, laws, and regulations double down which makes things even worse. And then they double down again.

And they’ll blame everyone else for the collapse except the person in the mirror. It always seems that way. I doubt it will be any different this time around.

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The subject of Netflix buying Warner Brothers keeps popping up and one of the refrains I keep hearing is that it will lead to end of moviegoing, or so says John Podhoretz. I hate to say it, but the number of people actually going to movie theaters to watch movies has been declining for years. Part of the cause is that movies have been awful lately with only a few hit movies scattered here and there. Another reason is the cost, between the ticket prices and price of refreshments. It’s cheaper to stream a movie even if you pay a small amount above your streaming subscription to do so, refreshments are cheap, and you can pause the movie if you need to visit the bathroom. There’s no travel involved. No worries about parking or other movie patrons causing problems while trying to watch the movie, and so on.

It is true that you don’t get the ‘shared’ experience of watching a movie with hundreds of others which can add to the experience, particularly if you are watching a great movie. I’ve experienced that again and again during my almost 70 years on this planet. Watching the original Star Wars back in 1977 was an incredible experience, one that cannot be replicated watching it for the first time on your 75” OLED 4K UHD television in your living room. It’s not the same.

I’m not saying the moviegoing experience can’t be revived, but it’s going to take some work. Otherwise more theaters will close. (A couple of movie theaters I used to frequent have closed, something that saddens me.)

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Is it just me or does this year’s Christmas season seem more subdued than in the past?

Watching the ads on TV, the holiday specials, decorations, sales flyers, community celebrations, and so on, Christmas doesn’t seem to be as festive as I remember them being. I don’t see or feel nearly the amount of wonder of the season whether we’re talking about the religious or secular holiday. It’s like the volume has been turned down and the brightness has been dialed back a bit.

This isn’t cynicism on my part as I love Christmas and always have. But something seems off about it this year, something I can’t quite put my finger on.

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I found this to be highly amusing.

It turns out the “Epstein” photo released by Democrats turns out to be Trump with Miss Universe contestants in 1996.

I have to guess the Democrats thought they finally had something on Trump with the photo showing him with a bevy of beautiful women, trying to twist it so it was ‘proof’ he’d been a customer of Epstein. What’s even more telling – Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe pageant back then.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the photo.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more snow had fallen, the lake is freezing up, and where I don’t care if Monday is returning because I’m on vacation!

News Coverage Of The Brown University Shootings

It was while I was watching the UConn Huskies Women’s basketball game against the USC Trojans that the “Breaking News” logo popped on the screen to report on the news of a shooting on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the time the news was spotty and not much of the way in details were known or available.

While you will get no argument from me about the tragedy of such a crime nor about prayers for the victims and families of the victims, you will see that I was not pleased with the quality of the news coverage. In this case it was the news team from Boston’s WFXT Channel 25, a Fox affiliate, that was covering the news.

My complaint?

The incessant reporting that they really didn’t know anything other than a shooting had taken place. Oh, there was a lot of speculation whether it was one or more shooters. There were reports of casualties, but that was it. Facts dribbled in here and there, with one of the final reports before they returned to their “regular program” after almost an hour of reporting they didn’t really know anything was that there were two confirmed deaths. There as continuing speculation about motive, suspects, and related subjects ad nauseum which added absolutely nothing to the story. What took them almost an hour could have been handled in 15 minutes with the occasional break for updates. It seemed to me that the reporters and news anchors were more interested in the sound of their own voices than providing any actual news. To quote Don Henley from his song Dirty Laundry:

We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde
Comes on at 5
She can tell you about the plane crash
With a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't really want to know just
How far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your dirty laundry

It’s almost like some of the news media just can’t wait for tragedy, for death, for injuries so they can pontificate about This, That, and The Other Thing. I have no idea how any of the other news outlets handled the report, but I’m going to guess they were no different than the channel I was watching.

What’s the old saying when it comes to news?

If it Bleeds, it Leads.

Am I just being cynical? Yup. But then I earned the right to be cynical after almost 70 years on this earth.

Friday Funny - Dishwasher Is Broken

I'll Tell You The Story - Fern's Tattoo

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s a relatively warm day here at the lake, ‘warm’ being defined as “in the low 30’s”. I was out, performing my usual Sunday morning shopping at Walmart when I realized it really didn’t feel all that cold. But then, the temperature wasn’t in single digits. It’s been sunny, something that will certainly help some of the remaining ice on the driveway, making room for some more snow overnight (though it will likely only be a dusting here) as well as some more snow forecast for Wednesday.

I have three more days of work – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – and I will then be on vacation until January 5th. I hadn’t paid attention to how much vacation I used this year and realized I had almost 3 weeks of unused vacation left, so rather than losing it I figured I’d take it now. Not that things are all that busy at work in December as it is one of our ‘slow’ months.

I won’t be slacking off by any means as I have a long list of “Things To Do” while I am on vacation, one of them being emptying out the Official Weekend Pundit Storage Unit which contains some of the last items from The Manse that I had no room for here at The Gulch. My ex and I have been slowly emptying it out and the few things that remain are primarily furniture that the ex-wife plans to sell. Ony one furniture item is mine – a 200+-year old dresser that was my grandfather’s - and it will be coming here to The Gulch. Rent for the storage unit will be one expense I will not be sad to see go away.

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Here it is, Pearl Harbor Day, “a day that will live in infamy”. It was 84 years ago today that the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the US into World War II. Like 84 years later, it was also a Sunday. Everyone who was alive back then knew where they were when they heard the news, just like those alive on September 11th, 2001 knows where they were when they heard the news about the attacks on the World Trade Center towers.

I’d like to think that we will never have to experience such events again…but I’m not that naïve.

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I heard about Netflix purchasing Warner Brothers and my first thought was “Netflix has enough money to buy them? Really?”

I must admit I really don’t have any feelings about this one way or the other as compared to some folks. I stopped paying attention to the doings in Hollywood, particularly after Disney sold out and went woke as well as Hollywood churning out so-called “message movies” that preach progressivism to audiences rather than entertaining them. (As I have mentioned a number of times before, it looks like Hollywood needs to relearn the lesson that message movies aren’t popular for the reason mentioned above and that they always lose money.)

However, the real question is whether the acquisition of Warner Brothers will be a good thing or a bad thing? Only time will tell.

While I haven’t been in a movie theater for years, I do stream movies now and then or pull out one of the DVDs or BluRay disks from my library. I have Netflix membership so it will be interesting to see what they will offer going forward.

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I mentioned in yesterday’s post that it looked like we’d be seeing an old-fashioned New England winter this winter and it looks like the folks at MIT are saying it could be the harshest winter in the US in 12 years.

I have no real problem with a real old-fashioned New England winter. I’ve lived through enough of them over the past 60+ years and I’m still here.

Heavy snow? Check.

Blizzard conditions? Check.

Sub-zero temperatures? Check.

High winds and drifting snow? Check.

Hunkering down and watching the snow fall while sitting in front of the woodstove? Check.

A 4x4 pickup with great AT tires, tire chains, and a full tank of gas? Check.

Snow shovel, snowblower, and roof rake? Check.

Generator and fuel for same? Check.

Yeah, I think we’re pretty well set for a traditional New England winter.

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This is why we need to really tighten our controls over immigration, particularly when it comes to criminal immigrants (and I don’t mean illegal immigrants in this case):

Muslim Migrant Rapes Woman to Death On Church Steps After Nashville Freed Somali Rapist 16 Times

Excuse me? Sixteen Times?

A 34-year-old woman was raped to death on the front steps of a Nashville church, in public, under streetlights, caught in progress by firefighters.

Her accused killer?

A 39-year-old Somali repeat offender with multiple identities and 16 prior charges for sexual battery, indecent exposure, trespass, drug offenses, and more.

--snip--

Authorities can’t even agree on his real name – Mohamed Mohamed, Mohamed Abdi, “Mdamed” Mohamed, or Ceter Mohammad.

If the courts can’t identify him, how are they protecting anyone?

Despite raping a woman to death, the judge set just $75,000 bond per rape charge, meaning he could have walked free again. The only thing stopping his release was an ICE detainer.

This wasn’t an accident.

It was the direct result of judges, prosecutors, and politicians choosing leniency over public safety.

If this had happened up here in New Hampshire he wouldn’t have been set free on bail after the first rape. And since he killed his latest victim during the commission of another felony, he would be ineligible for bail. One thing Tennessee has that New Hampshire no longer has is the death penalty. I hope this ‘miscreant’ gets the death penalty once he’s properly tried and convicted. Then there will be no need to deport him.

Of course, this assumes a Tennessee judge doesn’t release him on bail…again.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter is making itself at home, the lake is freezing over ahead of schedule, and where Monday is returning all too soon.

It's Going To Be A Normal New England Winter

I don’t know about you, but I have been looking at forecasts for this coming winter and I am beginning to think that the ones predicting a colder and snowier winter here in New England may be right.

Here at the lake we’ve seen temperatures well below average, with one overnight low reaching 0°F just a couple of days ago. (It was 2°F here at The Gulch that same morning.) We’ve seen quite a bit of snow, receiving just shy of 11 inches of snow here earlier this past week. Our local ski resort opened this weekend, with plenty of natural and manmade snow on the trails. We’ll be seeing single digit temps and more snow this coming week.

Another indicator is the ice on the lake and some of the local ponds. One such pond has had ice on it from shore to shore for the past three weeks, well ahead of when we usually see it. The cove where the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout is docked during boating season is also frozen over, again weeks ahead of when we usually see it.

My little town’s road crews had a chance to try out their plows and sanders to make sure everything was ready for the coming winter. We’re also hoping the town’s ice rink will be ready sometime after Christmas after undergoing some major renovations.

Going back to the ski resort for a moment, I’ve seen the major resorts here in New Hampshire as well as Vermont are ready to go, with quite a few of them already open. There’s also more than enough snow around for some of the snowmobile trails to be open, but I don’t know if any are open at the moment.

The heavy winter drapes went up over the slider here at The Gulch last weekend and I’m glad I got them up because we certainly needed it on the single digit temperature nights. I also dug out the el cheapo humidifier I use to keep the humidity inside at a reasonable level which makes it feel warmer. (Humid air retains heat better than dry air and feels warmer even at the same temperature.)

I’ve seen more than a few cars have already mounted their snow tires in preparation for winter snow. It’s something I always suggest, particularly to newcomers who have never had to deal with a northern New England winter. The ubiquitous “All Season” tires are a poor compromise at best and don’t have anywhere near the traction of actual snow tires. I proved that when I used to have my trusty Dodge Neon and after a couple of winters decided I needed snow tires and had it shod with Nokian Hakkapeliitta’s, some of the best snow tires I’ve ever used. I could navigate snowy roads better than some 4x4’s shod with All Season tires. (The trusty RAM 1500 is shod with Cooper AT’s at the moment and I have found them to be pretty effective during the winter.)

One other preparation I’ve made is ensuring the Official Weekend Pundit Generator is ready to go, having changed the oil and firing it up to make sure it works. Hopefully I won’t need it, but when we get an ice storm or a Nor’easter with heavy winds, you can almost guarantee a power outage.

For the moment we’re almost ready to handle the winter. The only thing left to do is to get the trusty RAM 1500 an oil change which will happen this coming week and its winter undercoating which will take place in another week-and-a-half.

Now all I need to do is find the tire chains for the trusty RAM 1500.

Friday Funny - Three Nuns

Thoughts On A Sunday

Well, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is winding to a close. That means no more worries about “Black Friday” or “Local Shops Saturday” Christmas shopping crowds to deal with. Holiday traffic has tapered off, at least around here. Things have returned to normal for the most part. About the only thing we'll have to keep an eye on is a possible snow storm on Tuesday, one that out local Weather Guys^TM can't quite seem to pin down as to where and how much we might expect. But then, that isn't out of the ordinary, is it? For the moment they're predicting between 4 and 8 inches of snow here at the lake.

If you read my Saturday post you'll know that I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday traveling here and there, all of which made for long days. The only 'traveling' I did today was for my usual pre-church shopping at Walmart early this morning.

Things have been settling down back to a more normal routine for now. There are still plenty of things to be done before Christmas, but I'll take those one day at a time.

Tomorrow it's back to work, something I am actually looking forward to despite it being a Monday.

So, how was your Thanksgiving?

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Have you ever noticed just how intolerant our “tolerant” liberal friends and neighbors are should our viewpoint differ from theirs? This seems to be particularly true if the particular liberal is of the female persuasion. They preach tolerance but but I get the feeling that word is misunderstood by most of them as it only applies to those they happen to agree with or those they see as “victims”, even if those alleged victims are intolerant, rapists and murderous bigots who have no problem killing people they disagree with.

Can anyone explain the logic behind why liberal women are supportive of importing Muslims into their countries, cities, and neighborhoods?

Despite all of the evidence that this is a horrible idea, they still do it.

This phenomenon is happening in all white countries.

I have to wonder how many of these liberal women are AWFLs – Affluent White Female Liberals – who always seem to focus on the wrong things and paint too many criminals as “victims” of whichever injustice is currently popular amongst them.

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This isn't all that surprising considering that more people have come to recognize that much of the climate change industry is being seen as a scam that is used only to raise money.

One of the first indications that people aren't buying what the Climate Cult Faithful are selling is that the Sierra Club has lost 60% 0f its members, “proving even the Green left can 'Go Woke, Get Broke.'" Then 350.org “suspended operations” earlier this month.

I have to wonder if some of this might also have to do with that fact that their dire predictions of climate doom haven't played out. Heck, they haven't even come close and people noticed.

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The following is something even the more savvy and open-minded climate change activists have admitted, something that is quite refreshing.

Ecological Impacts Of Offshore Windparks Are Worse Than Expected, New Study Finds

I've been hearing about some of the major negative effects of off-shore wind farms for some time, particularly when it comes to how they affect marine life and can cause warming of the atmosphere and sea surface water. (It's not just that, but also the off-shore wind farms are more expensive to build and to maintain, and don't have the service life of land-based wind turbines and require more frequent maintenance due to the hostile environment.)

How can wind turbines warm the climate? The secret lies in the vortices and the altered air circulation.

1. The rotors extract energy from the wind. This creates vortex structures that spread over wide areas.

2. These vortices weaken the natural mixing of the lower air layers and the surface water.

3. The natural cooling capacity of the sea surface is thereby reduced. Heat cannot be dissipated as easily, which intensifies the temperature increase at the sea surface. This additional heat rises into the atmosphere.

Measurements confirm this effect: there are slight but constant temperature increases near the ground. In densely concentrated wind farms, these effects can reinforce each other.

Moreover, the impacts are not just local; analyses show that the effects of the vortices extend over more than 100 kilometers and cause measurable temperature increases up to 200 meters in altitude.

While I wasn't aware that wind farms could cause warming, I have heard reports of whales being affected by the infrasound generated by the wind turbine rotors which can confuse them and affect their health. But the effects of infrasound doesn't affect just whales and other marine life. It can affect humans as well. (This isn't just caused by offshore wind farms, but by wind turbines in general.)

Read The Whole Thing.

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And that's the post-holiday news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we've had a little snow on Sunday, are expecting more snow on Tuesday, and where Monday doesn't really matter this week.

Observations From The Road

It being an extended holiday weekend, I had the opportunity to travel New Hampshire and Massachusetts highways on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Local Shops Saturday, though only one of those three days was for travel to and from the gathering of the WP clan to celebrate Thanksgiving. Friday's travel was to meet up with a couple of long-time friends for dinner followed by a concert by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, something that has become a bit of a tradition as this was the third time we have done so during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The final trip was down to meet up with my aforementioned friends at one of those friend's home to help raise an antenna to be used for our mutual amateur radio hobby.

I figure that taking in those three days of travel I have driven the trusty RAM 1500 somewhere around 500 miles.

One of the things most obvious things I observed with all that driving on Thursday, Friday, and today?

Just about everyone was traveling above the posted speed limits. Even me.

Speeds I observed ran anywhere between 5 and 25 miles per hour above the posted limit.

On my trip home from the WP Sister's place on Thanksgiving afternoon speeds ran between 70 and 80 miles per hour. On Saturday on my way to and from dinner and the concert, highway speeds had to be between 75 and 85 per hour...even in the 'slow' lane. No one was traveling at the posted speed limits. No one.

On my trip down to my friend's place in the southern part of New Hampshire it was pretty much the same thing, but the speeds I observed people traveling were as high as 90. (The posted limit was 65 for the most part.) I was the 'slowpoke', driving in the slow (right-hand) lane at between 75 and 80 from the time I got on the Interstate in Concord and got off the Interstate in Windham. Traffic wasn't heavy and there were three, four, or five travel lanes depending on where along the Interstate I was traveling. Driving at the posted speed limit would have meant being a moving traffic obstruction and possibly causing a traffic accident. (This goes back to a lesson I learned from a couple of friends of mine who were State Troopers 'back in the day'. They told me it was safer to travel at a speed that kept up with the rest of the traffic rather than being that “moving traffic obstruction”. The WP Dad learned that lesson on Texas when he was pulled over for going too slow – 70 mph – when everyone else was doing 85. The Texas trooper told him the same thing my State Trooper friends told me.)

I don't recall seeing so many motorists driving at such high speeds like I saw over this holiday weekend. I have to wonder if the posted limits are too low, something that is quite possible. The Interstate I usually travel has a posted speed limit of 70 mph once you are north of Concord and people would push that to 75. But it seems like the posted speed limits were being universally ignored during the holiday week.

I wasn't like the State Police in Massachusetts and New Hampshire weren't stopping speeders. I saw more than a few motorists pulled over for speeding. One in New Hampshire blew by me north of the tolls on the Interstate and I'm estimating he was going over 100 mph. I saw him pulled over a couple of miles further down the highway and in this case he was out of his car and in handcuffs. Not surprising since he blew through a speed trap at that speed. With speeds like he was going it is more than just getting a speeding ticket.

I wonder if we'll be seeing this “Everyone Driving Above The Speed Limit” phenomenon during the upcoming Christmas holiday?

Friday Funny - She Caught Me