Posted By RichC on August 11, 2022
As the Biden Admin ignores illegals pouring across our southern borders, cartels are taking advantage of distracted border patrol and ICE “processing” agents to flood the United States with drugs … including some that look like candy.
Posted By RichC on August 9, 2022
Who doesn’t like knowing how a magician deceives an audience, especially when the magic trick is performed flawlessly. Here a behind the trick look at some deception.
Posted By RichC on August 8, 2022
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Posted By RichC on August 7, 2022
While discussing the “will it” or “won’t it” Inflation Reduction Act being pushed by Democratic leadership in Washington DC as a way to replace the failed 2021 Build Back Better spending plan by President Biden last week, I figured digging into the details might prove better than spewing left or right talking points. The bill really has less to do with the “name” and more to do with the political philosophy.
Progressively leaning politicians and their supporters see raising taxes on corporations and successful Americans as just and “equitable.” They use the power of the federal government through carrots and sticks as a way to carry out central planning. Democrats who for the most part support big government, raise revenue through taxation to fund their programs and distribute based on what “they” deem appropriate. The fiscal conservative sees smaller government’s role as focused on national defense and creating economic condition for the individual and business to compete successfully (inefficient government vs competitive private businesses). The preference is less taxation and reduced regulation and a smaller federal bureaucracy. When it comes to freedom, more left to the individuals and their local and state governments.
A few areas being addresses are obvious partisan handouts such as climate change spending and more health care subsidies even though the latest bill “removed the carried interest tax provision” and boosted even more for “our clean energy economy.” But in the end, the increase taxes being collected (with 87,000 new IRS employees) and disincentives for businesses without “green” incentives to expand, will result in higher costs on products and services to all citizens. In other words … indirectly we’ll all pay the taxes.
Lastly … will it reduce inflation? Dubious … but perhaps a country (world) heading into recession WILL eventually reduce inflation as we all get poorer. This is no way to run a country or a government.
Posted By RichC on August 6, 2022
Well if one has to stay at home … looking at our backyard “storm is coming” pool photo … and we aren’t to be out and about, there could be worse places to be isolating?
The summer storms continued rolling thru this past week and and after testing positive the previous week, I thought a week later that we would be on the improve and that both of us would be testing negative. Nope, I’m still positive … and since the cough, sore throat and “summer cold-like symptoms” continue, I’m likely still fighting this virus (perhaps I should have opted for calling my doctor about Paxlovid?) 
Brenda is planning retest this weekend since she was positive after me.
The week hasn’t been a total loss since I’ve felt good enough to work in the home office (and on it – putting it back together), mow and trim the lawn, clean the pool and 
enjoy some evening TV comedy with Brenda; we binge watched about a dozen Gilligan’s Island episodes that I had DVRed some time ago. I need to figure out where to stream them from start to finish without commercials as the song is now earwormed in our heads?
Posted By RichC on August 5, 2022
Not that I use Amazon Cloud Drive for all that much (using AWS S3), but it will be disappointing for those who adopted Amazon for their backups and cloud storage needs … other than Photos (they will still support).
Dear Amazon Drive Customer,
Over the last 11 years, Amazon Drive has served as a secure cloud storage service for Amazon customers to back up their files. On December 31, 2023, we will no longer support Amazon Drive to more fully focus our efforts on photos and video storage with Amazon Photos. We will continue to provide customers the ability to safely back up, share, and organize photos and videos with Amazon Photos.
What this means for you:
You are receiving this email because you have files stored on Amazon Drive that are not supported by Amazon Photos. On December 31, 2023, you will no longer have access to Amazon Drive. Until then, you can continue to use Amazon Drive to manage your files.
If you rely on Amazon Drive for your file storage, you will need to go to the Amazon Drive website and download your files by December 31, 2023. As an Amazon customer your photo and video files have been automatically saved to Amazon Photos. Step-by-step instructions for downloading your files, managing your paid subscription, and resources for additional help can be found on our FAQ page.
As part of this process, on January 31, 2023, Amazon will no longer support uploading files on the Amazon Drive website. You will still be able to view and download files until December 31, 2023.
You can continue to use Amazon Photos for backing up and storing photo and video files. The Amazon Photos app can be downloaded on iOS, Android, and Desktop. Prime members get free, unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5 GB video storage. If you are not a Prime member, you get 5 GB of free storage for photos and video.
Thank you for being an Amazon customer.
The Amazon Drive team
Posted By RichC on August 4, 2022
One never knows who will stop by to join me by the pool on a hot evening (it is hot this week). On Wednesday it was an American Green Crab Spider (Misumessus oblongus).
These little “almost luminous” vivid green spiders move like crabs but don’t spin spider webs. They spend their time climbing through green vegetation to find small insect prey.
Posted By RichC on August 3, 2022
It is likely that I’ve used and cleaned over 100 paint brushes in my lifetime … besides the throw-away bristle and foam versions. That said, I find myself gravitating to a couple favorites that I hang over the basement utility sink. These are of the softer full-bodied brushes that hold paint well, brush smooth and can for the most part be cleaned up.
Not being a painter, I’m unsure why they seem to be easier to use and clean, but wish I could find a couple more or remember where they came from??? I suspect the black one was one of Brenda’s dad’s brushes based on the oil based paint still on the bristles, but it still works great for the latex semi-gloss paint that I use on baseboards and trim.
Along with caulking, I should probably spend more time with an expert or at least find a few YouTube video clips to learn more.
Posted By RichC on August 2, 2022
Learned a few interesting geographic facts about the nation of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean from Brilliantmaps, Reddit and of course Wikipedia the other day and found the timezone oddity particularly interesting. The country is “the furthest ahead of Greenwich meantime at GMT +14, making it the first country in the world to ring-in the New Year. This was done to keep the working week the same for entire country and not have it split over the international date line.”
Here are 10 more interesting facts on the Republic of Kiribati (source Wikipedia):
Posted By RichC on August 1, 2022
Well it looks like COVID19’s BA.5 subvariant has found us … or we found it. Fortunately for us, we have been vaccinated and at least I have one of the boosters 
… so hopefully the more serious and severe illness seen by many can be avoided.
As of my writing (over the weekend) the symptoms have been exactly as described by several online medical sources: “symptoms of BA.5 are similar to previous COVID variants: fever, runny nose, coughing, sore throat, headaches, muscle pain and fatigue.”
I noticed it first, but home tested negative initially, and then positive as my “summer cold” (cough, cough) got worse. I did not have a fever (or at least not yet) but Brenda who didn’t show symptoms until a day or two after me does have a fever. We contemplated calling our PCP to see about a Paxlovid Rx, but since we tested positive Friday night, we made the excuse that it was the weekend and would see how it goes. So far so good; we’ll use this as an excuse to lay-low and rest.