I was in the process of writing a blog about the preparations I was going through to transfer to the new machine.
I was contemplating my next words, when UPS stopped in front of my house.
This is a rare event in my life, I do not have daily UPS, FedEx, or Amazon deliveries.
I thought that Apple had sent me the return kit for my old machine and was concerned that once delivered I’d have 14 days to return my old machine for credit and that this presented a problem since I didn’t have the new machine.
I groaned that I’d probably have to call Apple about it since the new machine wouldn’t be here until Wednesday or Thursday.
Low and behold, the UPS man was delivering my new computer.
I opened the outer box, then stood for a while deciding if I should start the transition process that evening or should I wait until Saturday. It was almost 7 PM. I didn’t really feel like spending the night screwing around with computer stuff.
Then I thought, “It’s here, I know this is going to take a long time. Best to get started,” and I did.
My plan was to bring the computer up without restoring anything from the backups. That meant that I’d be doing a lot of file copying from the server and possibly from the old computer in Target Disk mode.
I set the new machine on my desk and turned it on. I wasn’t impressed with the sound of the startup chime. Somehow it just didn’t sound as rich as the old machine’s.
Not an auspicious beginning. I persevered though.
I answered all the normal startup questions a Mac asks. I decided to link the system to my existing Mac ID. That would allow me access to the password file I’d cleaned up. I told the computer, “No, I don’t want to use an existing backup.” The machine thought about things for about a minute. Then It was up and asking for new instructions.
I went to the App Store. Logged in and went to the purchased software area. I thought this would buy me some time to cook dinner. I went through the list ticking off the applications that I wanted to download.
I’d just gotten up to go fix dinner, when the machine “binged”. “What now,” I thought. Surprisingly all the applications had downloaded. Damn this thing is fast!
“Okay smarty pants, let’s try this,” I thought smugly logging into the server. “This will give you something to chew on.”
I went to the folder containing my document folder. 100GB of files and folders. I selected all of them. Then dragged ‘em to the Documents folder on the new Machine.
“That should keep you busy for at least an hour or so,” I got up to go make dinner. Just a few minutes later I heard the “Thunk” sound distinctive to Apple systems saying the file copy was complete. “WTF?” I was just beginning to heat my soup.
Something must be wrong, I went back to the office to check, expecting only a partial copy or some other pain in the butt.
Nope, everything was right where it should be and the computer was waiting for the next command.
I selected the remainder of the folders to be copied from the server. I dragged them to their correct locations. This time I monitored the data transfer rate. It was astounding and the computer was still cool to the touch.
My older Mac would have been hot in some places and generally warm to the touch during this operation.
Frankly I’m impressed.
I also like the keyboard on the new machine better than the older machine. This one has a really nice feel. It’s similar to the wireless keyboard I recently purchased. The consistency between the keyboards feel is one of those unseen, unnoticed ergonomic touches that adds surprising comfort.
The new machine was up and ready to go within an hour. There are still some tweaks here and there, and there are a few applications that will not run natively on the machine.
I’m having a debate with myself about installing the rosetta application to enable compatibility.
The first backup took about an hour. But I was working on the machine completing some writing that I wanted to get done while that was going on.
Over the next days I’m sure that I’ll find things I missed but I doubt those things will throw a major monkey wrench into my day.
The only thing that is odd, is that the computer had a powerful acrid odor when I first started it up that grew stronger while I was loading software. The odor is much reduced this morning.
New computer smell, is not nearly so pleasant as new car smell!
However, I found that I leaned toward several of the points that he made.
I’m still processing on the points, Here’s a list of what I mostly agree with.
Shootings
The shootings must stop.
An animal that walks into a school or a store and just opens fire, is to my mind rabid. As such, they deserve nothing but to be put down as you would a rabid animal. No mercy, no negotiation.
Something that I have noticed is that these animals always seem to go for “soft” targets. Whether that is a school, a church, a bar, or a shopping center. One thing these venues have in common is that they are almost always a Gun Free Zone.
A notable exception was the church in TX where one of the parishioners dropped a shooter on a sunny Sunday morning.
More Gun Control Laws
I’m not sure that more gun control laws will prevent these kinds of shootings. The so-called “Expanded” background checks I think are toothless.
I can say from experience that the “Gun Show” loopholes are largely red herrings. I’ve never been to a gun show that was “Cash & Carry”. If you purchase a gun at a gun show, you still have to pass the background checks and the gun must be shipped to a licensed federal firearms dealer. The purchaser can pick it up after providing appropriate documentation, and paying a handling fee. The same is true of Online Sales.
Mental Health
Mental Health Care must be expanded. I honestly don’t care how that is done, but I believe it must be done.
Red Flag Laws
I’m ambivalent about red flag laws. I can see the point and their usefulness. Alternatively, I’ve read horror stories where an aggrieved party abused the law to settle a score.
There’s one story that pops to mind where in a bitter divorce, the wife activated the Red Flag law. Her husband’s collection of rare and antique guns was taken, then the guns “disappeared” from police custody. The collection was worth north of 100,000 dollars. The wife demanded her half of the cash even though the guns were gone and therefore couldn’t be sold for profit. Depending on the Red Flag law, it’s possible to misuse it in a way similar to “Swatting”.
Age Limits
I’m not sure about the age limits on gun purchases. I do applaud The President’s speechwriter for addressing the military versus non-military aspects of 18 year olds purchasing guns. Yes, we send 18 year olds to fight in wars and kill people. Then those young people come home and can’t buy a beer. I’ve always found that to be wrong. On the other hand if the drinking age is 21, then I can see the gun purchase age being 21 as well. It is for handguns in most places.
And yet, we still have the weekly Chicago teenage shooting fest. This tends to imply, that criminals will be criminals regardless of the law or their age.
I completely disagree with laws similar to the California law that proposed making it illegal to hand a weapon registered to you, to another person, or member of your family. That disrupts a father being able to take his sons hunting, or to a shooting range. It also creates a complication if, for example, you’re at a range with a buddy and would like to try out his new Glock to see if you’d like it. (I don’t know if that idiotic law passed or not in California. I’ll have to look it up.)
Gun Safety
The President mentioned trigger locks, and safe storage of weapons. I can see that. (Although trigger locks can be defeated fairly easily.) The problem I have with so called “safe storage” is that a gun locked in a safe is no damn good if someone kicks your door down in the middle of the night.
Now you know why I sleep with a baseball bat at hand and some kind of knife nearby as well. Just as with a gun, I hope I’ll never have to use either of them. (Then again, caving someone’s skull in or gutting them wouldn’t disturb the neighbors like a gunshot would.)
High Capacity Magazines
The President referenced High Capacity Magazines again. This time he defined what he meant by high capacity. I lean toward agreeing, that 30 or 40 round magazines are high capacity. I’m not sure why someone would want that kind of capacity. I don’t know enough about that particular subject to intelligently comment.
I’ve been looking a Henry Lever action rifles for hunting. Most of them, top out at 10 round capacities. Several of them top out at seven rounds. These seem like reasonable maximums if you’re hunting.
I remember being told once, (discussing the model 1911 pistol,) that if you couldn’t hit what you were aiming at with seven rounds, you probably couldn’t hit it with 70. In my family, we were taught it was a very bad thing to waste ammunition. So I might be biased about the number of rounds necessary.
Other things said
One thing I noticed in comments that popped up after The President’s speech was that a lot of people were just badmouthing The President based on some of his comments earlier in the week. He said things like he wanted to ban 9mm.
Because of his earlier statements, people heard what they wanted to hear in his address Thursday.
In this post, I’m trying to maintain focus on what he said in his speech.
If in fact some of the legislation his party is proposing contains bans on 9mm, or AR-15 rifle mechanisms then I’ll have to re-evaluate.
9mm is one of the most common calibers on the market today. Most law enforcement use them and honestly if The President did actually ban that caliber, it would create chaos.
Law enforcement goes through a lot of testing before they approve a particular gun and / or caliber for their use. Having to resupply every police force in the country would impose a large financial burden on police budgets nationwide. Including The President’s own security forces. I tend to think The President misspoke earlier in the week referencing 9mm.
Size wise, a 9mm slug isn’t terribly different from a .38 so I’m really not sure why The President spoke about 9mm at all.
Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is the act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news. – From Wikipedia
My Apple News application is configured to show me Science, Technology, and items related to mens health. I’ve blocked CNN, Breitbart, Mother Jones, MSNBC, Vanity Fair, The Rolling Stone, and a plethora of others.
Unfortunately, blocking these publications leaves a white square in my News feed telling me that I’ve blocked the publication and asking me if I’d like to read the article anyway.
Uh… Nope!
What I’d really like, is for the little white boxes to disappear too!
The actual publications that I read for news are more local publications from places that I’m interested in.
Think of it like reading the local news papers from various cities around the nation. The Idaho Statesman, The San Diego Times, The Lexington Herald, there are some Texas papers I’ll skim as well. (Before you ask, I can’t stomach the Los Angeles Times!)
I find that these publication are often a bit more hometown and they’re balanced between human interest stories, local events, and national news.
It’s nice to read about a community rallying behind their high school football team. Or that the local school baseball teams are having a car wash to raise money for a local charity.
I read one article about car washes, being coordinated so that for a period of six weekends, a patron could have their car washed by one of six local school teams and the proceeds would help a community center that had a fire.
It’s that kind of thing that makes the “Bad” news palatable.
It used to be that, only the most egregious faux pas of the D.C. elites would make it to these local papers.
The papers being local meant that the journalists writing for them, were interested in presenting the hard facts and then after the meat of the story perhaps they’d opine about how this, or that, might affect the local community.
I like that kind of reporting. The journalists know which side of their toast is buttered and aren’t necessarily attempting to grandstand to “Hit the big time”.
They’re locals, they’re interested in their town or state and their reporting reflects that.
The papers I mentioned weren’t generally bashing or praising former President Trump, nor have they been bashing or praising current President Biden. They are just reporting the facts. What did the President say, how might the policy affect their particular community.
I guess you’d call it “old school” journalism. Report the story, keep your bias to yourself, if you feel the need to express your opinion then do it on the Op Ed pages.
Lately though, it’s like all the news is just plain bad. Everywhere, (at least in all the papers I read or scan,) there’s almost nothing but bad news. Be it national events like Ukraine, gas prices, or baby formula. Or local reporting of shutdowns of businesses, construction sites, or oil drilling operations, the news is bad.
These local entities are still reporting how the various events are affecting the local community and they’re doing it in personal, first person interviews. Then they move on to the next story.
Stock Photo
The Father of 4 who lost his job because the business he worked at closed, and who said it didn’t really matter because he couldn’t afford the gas to get there anyway. There was a ray of light. He was interviewed in the process of roto-tilling what used to be his backyard and teaching his children to plant vegetables. His wife still had her job, he was staying home watching the kids, instead of paying for daycare. He’d decided that a productive family activity was to plant a vegetable garden. He was going to learn the art of canning later in the summer and fall.
The mother who drove 100 miles one way to stock up on baby formula. She brought light into the story because she shared what she had gotten with other mothers in town who were unable to find formula. She’d then started a formula bank at her church where she and other moms pooled their resources. She thanked the men in the community who were helping by buying a can of formula if they saw one during their daily commutes and dropping it by the church. She commented that many of the men helping out didn’t have children themselves.
The causes were the bad news, the balance was the journalist speaking with people in the community asking how they were adapting, then reporting that, as part of the human interest.
Yet even with the rays of light, the overall news is just bad.
On the one hand, I’d like to look away and just ignore it all. On the other hand I get curious about what’s happening outside my little mountain town.
So I open the News app, and alternately have my heart broken, or become enraged. Sometimes both at the same time.
I simply can’t reconcile that our leaders seem so out of touch, even when they must have the best information flooding into their ivory towers.
How can they apparently ignore the plight of so many who are struggling?
Why are the elites talking about “Taking Action” on issues that don’t directly address the issues that are first and foremost in people’s minds?
You know, minor things like;
Putting food on the table Getting to and from work Feeding the children and babies Paying the mortgage
Right now, the vast majority of average folks don’t give a rats ass about trans-rights, gun control, racism, green energy, CRT, the latest Tic-Tok trend, Hollywood, or even COVID.
Notice, I said the majority… There will always be the few that are so narrowly focused on their cause, that they’ll refuse to see the bigger picture.
Average folks are focused on basic needs. Broadly speaking… A functioning economy.
That requires jobs, the ability to get to aforementioned job, and affordable basic staples in the store. Anything beyond that is un-necessary and complete bullshit.
The elites will no doubt be appalled to discover that all their grandiose “actions”, “plans”, or whatever don’t mean squat to folks just trying to get by.
I’ve got to stop looking at the news. It just makes me sad, and pisses me off!
As I was setting up the BBQ for Summer cookouts. I grabbed the Propane canister and gave it a good shake. It was about half full.
“Oh, I should go have this topped off,” I thought.
Then I thought about the gas in my car and thought, “I should probably fill the tank too.”
Then I thought about the price of gas and how much it was going to cost me. Almost $100, Damn! That’s a lot of cash. I decided to wait on both.
These thoughts inevitably led me down the road to petroleum and the economy in general.
I honestly can’t think of a single factor that has more control over our whole economy with more far reaching effect than petroleum cost.
We’ve all been feeling the pain at the gas pump. Many of us use gasoline on a daily basis. If we’re lucky we only fill up once a week or less. (I’m in the less category thank goodness.)
But it’s not just gasoline.
Jet Fuel is derived from Kerosene (petroleum). If the price of Jet fuels go up, then so do the prices of passenger tickets and air freight.
Kerosene is also used to heat homes in the North East. Even in the South when I was a boy, we had a 55 gallon drum in our backyard. Every fall, the Kerosene man filled the drum and if it was a cold winter he’d come back again in December or January. The big Kerosene heater in the hallway of the house was a center of activity on cold mornings. We’d have our coats draped over it for a few minutes to warm ‘em up before heading out for the day.
Diesel Fuel (petroleum) has seen prices skyrocketing in recent months too. We’re all familiar with Diesel. It fuels the 18 Wheelers that deliver almost all the goods we depend on to our shopping centers, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. If it costs more, then so do our goods.
That’s a simple equation to get your head around.
What’s easy to forget about Diesel is all the other things that it powers.
Most ships for example. Not just your fancy Cruise ship. But those big assed cargo carriers that deliver cars, and manufactured goods, from China and the rest of the world. Yes, even those big oil tankers are powered by Diesel.
Estelle Maersk on her maiden voyage. Credit Simon Burchett www.channelphotography.com
Then there’s the fishing fleet. You know, the fishermen that catch Salmon, Tuna, Crab, Lobster, and Shrimp. If their fuel prices go up, so does the cost of your Summer Seafood festival.
Most farms use Diesel to plow the fields, run irrigation pumps, harvest the crops, dry the grain, and ship it to factories to make bread.
Cattle Ranches, Chicken Farms, Dairy Farms, and all the rest are dependent on Diesel to run the heavy equipment like skip loaders, and backhoes. Some may use Diesel generators to run heaters in the Winter so food animals don’t freeze to death before they’re ready for market. Then they transport those animals to slaughter houses using Diesel trucks.
Even the railroads are dependent on Diesel. Most of the locomotives use big Diesel generators to power big electric motors that drive the locomotive, carrying goods all over the country.
Cranes, bulldozers, Cement Mixers, Dump Trucks, and all manner of construction equipment use Diesel fuel to level the ground for new housing developments, and raise girders for skyscrapers. Those same machines are used to make roads and maintain them. Snow plows, garbage trucks, school buses, and lots of city buses use Diesel fuel to provide necessary services.
Given that Diesel fuel prices have doubled in the past year it’s reasonable to expect for the cost of all these goods and services to go up as well. Or the services will be curtailed to maintain profitability and the ability to make payroll for the entities that provide them.
The practical upshot is that everything will become more expensive. From a box of Cheerios to that slice of ham in your lunch pail.
It’s not just fuel either. The ink in your ball point pen is oil based. Kiln drying of lumber will become more expensive, adding to the cost of lumber. Which in turn adds to the cost of construction.
Plastics of every type become more expensive from the plastic tub your cream cheese comes in, to the wrap the butcher puts over ground beef in the meat section.
Recycling plastic, (Only about 50% efficient,) while a good thing, has an interesting effect. With each recycle, the quality of the plastic goes down. This implies that there is a finite number of times a plastic wrapper or container can be recycled into useful life before it ends up in a trash dump.
Ultimately, new plastic wraps or containers will have to be made from petroleum, and the increased production costs will be seen by the consumer as higher prices.
Even fertilizer is petrochemical based. Making fertilizer more expensive will either translate into higher food prices or shortages. A lot of farms run on very tight budgets. An increase of 1% can mean that the fields in the north 40 don’t get planted.
President Biden has said,
“When it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,”
Well, he’s right about one thing. This is a transition. I don’t know if I’d call it incredible. I also found his choice of the words, “…the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels…” to be odd.
I’d characterize his statement as reckless domestic policy. However, America is not the world…
Thinking about the rising petroleum prices and our government’s hand in those price increases domestically, I have to ask.
What are they thinking?
If the idea is to force America off a petroleum based economy this isn’t the way to do it. First and foremost, the infrastructure isn’t ready for this miracle transition.
It’s almost as if the Administration is thinking about automobiles only, and neglecting to consider the overall impact of their energy policies.
I for one don’t buy into blaming Russia for our energy prices. On the first day in office President Biden took steps to thwart American energy independence and his administration hasn’t stopped since.
All the Biden Administration has succeeded in doing is kicking our economy in the balls, while it was trying to get up after the COVID lockdowns.
In a way, this could be characterized as a “Shadow” lockdown. I know I’m traveling less. I’m staying home because I don’t want to spend the cash on fuel.
All of my household errands are planned to minimize travel and maximize the return on driving. (In truth, this is not terribly different from my normal way of doing things.) What I have noticed is that I’ll put off making a trip to pick up something I need for a project until I’ve got to get several items in the same general location.
That, replicated across millions of households also has an effect on our economy. Couple this behavior with people tightening their belts, the unavailability of some products due to production or supply chain issues, and I start to wonder if people may be simply choosing not to purchase things. In effect making do with what they’ve already got or going without entirely.
That could have far reaching economic implications over time.
Just in housing, we know that recent reports state housing starts are down. But we know that more people are coming to this country who will need to be housed. The cost of my little house has jumped by almost $100,000 (According to Zillow estimates) in the past two years.
That kind of price increase will certainly exclude a number of home buyers from the market. Especially if the cost of living and interest rates continues to squeeze those buyers from both ends.
Rental costs are skyrocketing too. The rental cost of an apartment alone begs the question; How are thousands of people with limited skills streaming into this country going to afford a place to live? Even if the government, A.K.A the taxpayers subsidize these folks living arrangements?
Many of these folks are arriving with no jobs, few skills, and no transportation. While at the same time, this country is generally built around everyone having a vehicle.
When factoring the cost of used vehicles, increasing food prices, along with the gas prices to power them, how are these folks supposed to make it?
I can understand people wanting to come to this country because of the “Dream” of America. The harsh reality of what is happening due to poor government policies is another thing entirely.
It’s been said that midterm elections are a referendum on the current administration. If that is true then the upcoming midterms should be a bloodbath. The question is, will the administration get the message?
Will Washington D.C. understand that the unintended consequences of their actions have been far more devastating, and potentially longer lasting, than an actual attack on our country?
I suspect that the baby formula crisis is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Winter is coming,” as was said so often in Game of Thrones.
This upcoming winter may be long, cold, and deadly. I say that seriously.
Each year we hear of the elderly freezing to death because they can’t afford heating oil. We hear of people being found dead because they used a charcoal BBQ inside to heat their homes. What happens if food supplies run low, while simultaneously more people are forced to curtail their heating expenses? Will this become a starve or freeze situation?
Just how “green” is it having people going into forests cutting down trees to feed their fireplaces?
How will this country react if desperation reaches a level of “Survival, Cancels out concepts like Right and Wrong”?
The die may well have already been cast. Planting season is well underway. Decisions about how many fields to plant and with what crops have already been made. Cattle and poultry production schedules have been set based on current cost and anticipated cost to the ranchers.
All of these producers have to make profit to feed their families too.
Grain reserves may provide a buffer this winter. But by next spring, if nothing is done to address fuel costs, and with it supply chain issues, the following winter may be really hard.
How many Americans is this administration willing to lose in their incredible transition? How much destruction to the economy will this administration do, or idly stand by and watch before they take action?
Only time will tell.
I will not be surprised if soon the Mexican and Canadian Governments have to set up checkpoints to process a sudden influx of migrants trying to get into their countries.
The Canadians already have pretty strict immigration controls in place. The Mexico side of America isn’t too worried about people coming into Mexico. Since most people are trying to get into America they’ve left a lot of the worry to America’s Immigration and Border patrol.
I find myself sometimes wondering how Mexico will react if suddenly, the flow of immigrants reverses? What happens when / if people who’ve come to America decide that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be and head South for a better life lower fuel costs, lower cost of living, less regulations, and a warmer climate?
What would that look like? Would the Mexican army suddenly be patrolling their side of the border?
I’m not trying to be depressing, or depressed. These trains of thought sometimes start in my head and once started, have to run to their conclusion.
This one started with me shaking a propane canister on Memorial Day, in preparation to grill a couple of burgers.
This time next year, I might have lost the 10 pounds I’ve been wanting to lose and Memorial Day lunch might be a couple of wayward rabbits seasoned with rosemary or wild sage.
A lot can change in a year. I hope whatever change comes, it’s for the better.
Surprisingly, this post about excessive regulation has been getting a lot of hits in the past month.
Everyone’s favorite about AT&T is always near the top of the “Popular List”
My view on Busybodies has also been trending lately.
There’s a lot more here, but these are probably among the best of the bunch.
Feel free to browse. The Tag list to the right hand side of the page is up to date for the more current posts. However the Category List at the bottom of a post will lead you down the rabbit hole to older posts.
One of these days I’ll decide to convert the Category list completely over to Tags and then everything will be fully in sync.
Enjoy yourselves and take these posts with a grain of salt, or in some cases… An entire salt lick.
