QCD17

Just put in 160+ gallons at $4.679 yesterday. Crap. Oh well, I guess it averages out with the cheaper oil I got during the height of the pandemic.

I think there is a huge opportunity for electric boats. Most pleasure boats you see at the marina have an outboard, so there is the possibility of retrofitting an existing hull vs. buying a whole new boat. People mostly boat in warm/sunny weather, so solar can be a big part of it.. Some boats have room for a solar panel on top, and most boats just sit in the marina 50%+ of the time, baking in the sun all summer. Those boats could all plugged into the marina's grid, where everyone can plug in and get charged up. The challenge lies with the battery size/weight and how many hours of cruising time you can get. But if I had $millions to invest, I would be looking into it.

Also, how many of the launch commanders are going to actually fire if Putin gives the order? I can see a good % of them not obeying the order or making up some excuse as to why they can't fire. And then let's assume another % of the nukes don't actually work and misfire. Chances are they do more damage to themselves in the initial attack. It would also be the permanent end to the russian federation. China would lose their partner in crime, and India wouldn't have a fence to sit on any longer. So while it's horrific to think about a nuclear attack, were the West to survive it, things would look incredibly different going forward. The main concern, after the sheer loss of life and impact to the environment, is how quickly the West could rebuild infrastructure to keep China and Iran in check.

I'm in ecommerce and we ship from dozens of warehouses across the country and have to decide if a warehouse is going to be shipping out in 24 hours or not. This current event has been fun, with warehouses in TX, IL, IN all being in the crosshairs. If we collect orders that don't ship out in 24 hours we get killed. And if I make the call to not ship from a warehouse that remains open and we lose 24 hours of sales, I get killed. Plus I have to deal with wildfires for CA warehouses, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. There is no offseason for bad weather events in the US. And I have zero met training/knowledge, so I'm just weighing what I read here against what is being put out by the weather networks/nws.

just went from 49.5 to 39.9 in less than 15 minutes. yikes

Headed up to Bromley this weekend. Hope the wind doesn't shut down the lifts on Saturday, as the fam is locked in on tickets/lessons that day. Might have to suck it up and go Sunday rather than head home early to snowblow.

It's crazy how much higher this spike was on the MWRA data compared to the 2020-2021 holiday period.

1.6 for an overnight low here, around 7 when I got up. Now up to 33.3. Chickens are happy to be back outside.

You don't need a star QB to win, though. Tannehill isn't a star. He just has good pieces around him. Give Tua a competent O-Line and a RB who can perform like Duke Johnson has in the last few games and he would be fine. You can't just hope you land a Mahomes or Brady because you won't.

Dolphins fire their best coach since Shula. As a fan of the team, I told my friends this would happen months ago. Why? Because it's the dumbest move they can make as a franchise. Reports are he wasn't getting along with the GM and Tua. So cut the GM and Tua. Grier's roster moves haven't won any playoff games, ever. Tua is injury prone. Funny how Tannehill is manning the #1 seed in the AFC right now and won their division for the 2nd year in a row. Guy took a beating in Miami becasue he had no protection and yet he played pretty much every game and put up top 12 numbers in most categories. Think a new HC is going to keep DC Josh Boyer? Doubtful. So there goes the only real strength of the team, because Flores knew how to scheme like Belichick and Boyer coached them up on it. It's getting close to being the last straw for me with this team at this point. I don't care if they bring in Harbaugh and Deshaun Watson. It won't help.

I've made my peace with the good possibility of not seeing my lawn again until March.

agreed! I would gladly trade the 13" we got at home today for half as much at Bromley last week when we were there. Hoping things turn around for that area soon.

Hit the 13" mark here. 26.2 degrees and light flurries.

We're going on winter 2 with our chickens and they are pretty tough. Started with 12 in march of '20, down to 4 thanks to my bright idea to put them in an enclosed outdoor pen the first summer, which resulted in various bobcats/foxes/weasels/hawks breaking in and eating them. Now they stay in the coop/run and only free-range when we are out in the yard with them. Their coop is an 8'x12 shed with a ridge vent and then I drilled six 2" holes at the top of either side and covered with metal mesh for extra entilation. They have a small door that is just big enough for them to walk out to their run. I have the whole thing raised up on 24" posts so that they have a covered area underneath to stay dry, and to prevent the bottom of the coop from getting wet/flooded. If the temp gets really cold at night, I usually close the door, so that there isn't a blast of cold air coming in through the door all night. I also do deep litter method. Another trick that I do is to get a bunch of hay bales and stack them inside the coop all winter along the walls. This takes up space, and creates some insulation against drafts. The hay also provides some warmth. The other night it got down to about 11 here and I didn't close the door and they were fine. But they refuse to go out in the snow! This spring I'm going to get another flock of chicks and try and integrate them into the existing group. Most expensive eggs I've ever eaten!

We were at Bromley Mon-Wed. We always come up this week and the snow is usually disappointing this early in the season, but it was fine. Pretty soft snow, which helped because it's not getting pushed off the trail as easily. But there are plenty of ice patches. We are going back Friday, then it looks like rain off and on this weekend.

Holy crap, that is scary. I know that corner well, and having a car coming the wrong way there would be a nightmare. Glad you were able to avoid an accident. That will get the old ticker racing for a few hours.

Is there also a liability issue where a company gets in trouble if they let an employee leave during a storm and that employee dies on the way home? I can't imagine there is, but in some of the stuff I've read, the "management" was telling employees that they weren't allowed to let people leave and had to make them shelter in place. That sounds like holding someone against their will to me, but maybe there is a liability issue? The other reports of managers telling people they may be fired if they leave is absolutely horrible, though. That has to be a major lawsuit incoming and I can't imagine that company will ever reopen under current ownership.

Just give us lurkers an endless sea of storms that are 7-10 days away, all of which fail to materialize, and we'll make it through this winter just fine. Maybe throw in a few completely unrealistic clown maps for good measure.

25.9 last night. Maybe now the hydrangeas will stop putting out new blossoms. Looks like the houseplants I forgot to bring in survived the night.

We used to live 4 houses up from that sea wall in Scituate. That kind of sea wall spray/flooding is a normal occurrence between Oct-Mar, which creates a very stressful living situation. The house would shake when some of those rollers would slam the wall. And there was always the threat that our property was going to get put into a new floodplain by FEMA, which would have wreaked havoc on our insurance.

Headed up to Manchester VT this weekend for some leaf peeping and golf/activities. I just hope Sunday stays dry.

We have ivy growing up our chimney on the side of the house, which I have to cut back this week due to the siding being replaced. The ivy is currently flowering and is LOADED with yellow jackets. Apparently they love the flowers. But I've been up on a ladder cutting back the ivy with them all around me and they could care less.

I wonder how much commercial real estate debt has defaulted in the US since the pandemic? I see a company like Simon Properties that has almost recovered back to it's pre-pandemic price, and it kind of confuses me, as I thought most malls were suffering going into the pandemic already. I have to think that private commercial companies that lease office space have lost more leases in the past year and a half than they have gained.

Just saw some videos of the TOR damage in Mullica Hill, NJ. Holy crap.