Cold enough people’s brains freeze, is how we figure it.
One of our 3806 ham radio cohorts (“coffee good…” John) works for one of the Big Box stores here in Texas. And going to work Sunday, you could almost make out the “concern” in his voice. People go a bit nuts when Big Snow or Big Cold merges with Big Story of the day.
Our Cold-n-Snow planning consisted of a couple of additional small 500-watt heaters. Nice for keeping a couple of places above freezing but without doing a “Brinks worth” to the power company. An 8-ounce can of hot/wet quick-set PVC glue as a “just in case”. And the area in front of my “emergency PVC pipe rack” was brush-hogged Saturday when it was still warm (65F). Because it’s a bit cooler at press time today: 23F in the Outback.
Cold is on everyone’s mind: Millions face snow and ice as a major winter storm moves across the U.S..
Wallet Warming
The bigger power bills to come aren’t exactly rare. Last January, our power bill was $337 for December/January. It was January-February when we were smacked last year; $374. A couple of years back (“Snowmageddon” if you remember) we kissed the $590 level.
Through January 4th this year, we were at $166. By the middle of next week, we expect to wolf down at least $200 more worth of power as the cold rolls through.
For some 3-million people, paying the bills will be easier: Biden Signs Bill to Raise Social Security Payments for Millions of Pensioners | TIME.
Snow, then?
By the long-range forecasts here, it will still be nicely below freezing Thursday and Friday when steady precipe is expected. If I am doing the numbers right, looks like we will average 0.03 inches of precip for each of at least 24-hours.
Math-slinger I ain’t., But the forecasts point to a total of 0.72 inches of precip. And it’s here where the weather-waffling begins. If the precip forecast is based on water, then we can apply the (very roughly) 13-inches of snow per inch of rain conversion factor. If this holds, then up to 9-inches of snow might be possible.
But, weather (and climate) being sketchy (at best), if the “precip” the forecasts are talking about are after-freezing snow amounts, then it will be a “Who Cares?” event.
For a “profession” the lack of precision and commitment to a forecast is mind-numbing. Not that we can blame the Climateers because this further erodes the “climate exchange BS.” Which in turn will under-cut leftist bureaucrats anxious to kill gas appliances and such.
One of these days, the ignoramuses in higher edjumacation will begin offering Honestly Named Classes. Instead of alleging to teach English, for example, they will avoid Truth in Labeling suits by renaming a degree Weasel-Wording instead of English Lit.
What really matter is Averaging. And since math is racist, people line up nose-to-butt to follow the people ahead of ’em. Leading to ever more ignorant people who lead us.
On Average, expect a bigger power bill than you were planning on. Except for Reader Hank on the Big Island. Who seems happier playing “Molokai Run Out roulette” than dealing with mainland winters.
Wondering About Markets?
Ah. Just so: What we wrote about on the Peoplenomics.com subscriber site Saturday seems to be appearing. Which was?
Well, as of last week, our Aggregate Index was done “kissing the underside” of the rising trend channel. BUT the tech sector was still below trend. Here, take a look:
If you squint, you can see us going slightly above trend based on early futures pricing. Now, having gotten this far, the next “technical milestone” to watch for would be the recent highs before this.
It’s useful to remember that when dealing with an Aggregate of markets that individual component indices often times will each need to fill targets, and near as we can guess (we don’t offer financial advice, of course, only things to think about) that’s what’s happening here.
It’s still two weeks to Inauguration and desperate people will do desperate things, continues to be the concern.
Scroll ‘Em and Roll ‘Em’s
Wars continue: Ukraine launches new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, Kyiv and Moscow confirm.
With Blinken in Seoul: North Korea launches ballistic missile as Blinken arrives in Seoul.
Look! China’s trying the Open Borders strategy!!! China Enticing Taiwanese to Live There Stirs Concern in Taipei.
Elon Musk has pissed-off the Brit’s political Establishment: Keir Starmer says Elon Musk has ‘crossed a line’ with ‘lies and misinformation’. Try to remember, to Establishments, any view that isn’t echo-chamber of their positions is “lies and misinformation”.
Tempests in a tweet, anyone? Elon Musk ‘locks reporter from X’ after article sheds light on Tesla owner’s alleged alter ego Adrian Dittman. I think the term is WGAF?
Still, Musk gets many things right: US: Joe Biden awards George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Elon Musk reacts. Spoiler: calls it a “travesty.” In fact, as I went over the list of honorees, about the only one I agreed with was honoring Denzel Washington. But, I don’t make electric cars or plan to colonize Mars… so let’s all look up WGAS what George thinks. Still, Slow needs to go as Biden Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Nazi Collaborator. Maybe Biden’s “sunset” is becoming more apparent as Angry Biden Curses White House Reporters, Uses God’s Name in Vain.. Damn shame the press didn’t tell us earlier…
One other Musk note. While we’re not keen on going (back) to Mars, a client note from our consigliere suggests review of Classified CIA Experiment Claims Life Did Exist On Mars And They Built Pyramids.
Q2 Pandemic Plans are moving ahead: (Yes, they are bioweapons and social control tools) China downplays mystery virus and claims safe to travel despite fears.
In the District of Confusion: US Congress to meet to certify Trump’s election, four years after Capitol riot. We are STILL waiting for the role of government agent provacateurs to be outed and punished – and those who led them,
Traffic in NYC today will likely be worse – not better – as the HMFICs try to tariff traffic in the big/rotten: NYC congestion pricing policy starts on schedule amid pushback – UPI.com. It’s as bad an idea of moonetizing wife-beating but somehow they didn’t ask us.
A future of “kinder, gentler” terrorism, anyone? Hamas Is Not ‘Militant’: The Media’s ‘Terrorist’ Cover-up.
People in Seattle still are crazy – the evidence mounts up: Is Veronica Galván the most dangerous judge in Seattle? Releasing a perp who then disembowls a vic? Um…lemme think, now…..
At the Ranch: Woo-Woo 2
Back New Years day, I told you about an odd bit going on with our surveillance camera network. And how it all seemed related to a “mystery rock” that has plagued us since 2017…
“…my buddy, who we will just call “The Major” was down visiting us. We were clearing the land south of the house and in the process, the Major had run the bucket of our small four-by-four tractor into a buried object.
When his efforts to move it didn’t pay off, we worked together (me on the tractor, him doing the “arm strong” and we dug out an odd piece of concrete which seemed to have pieces of metal in it.
As I jumped down to help (and get a closer look at the object) my left interocular lens (from an earlier series of cataract repairs) was dislodged. This set off a sequence of eye surgeries.
Before we went to seek medical help, though, we loaded the concrete into the tractor bucket and I moved it about 75-feet where it was dumped into a shallow wash that flows from our yard area (uphill to the north) and down into a seasonal creek some 400 feet further downslope.”
After the location of this damned (or cursed) object was highlighted on the surveillance cams, I got up Saturday and hopped on the tractor to dig it out and (as advised by the Major) get it the hell off our property.
Here’s where it gets weird. It was warm and the sun was out when I started the tractor and headed down for the wash to dig out the object. As soon as I was within 25-feet of it, INSTANTLY the sun disappeared and the sky clouded up. As I began to claw it out of the wash, I glanced over my left should and was shocked: The sky has turned nearly black and very foreboding in appearance.
I quickly finished clawing the object up the bank of the wash, maneuvering it against a small tree, which I used as a backstop to get it forced into the loader bucket on the front of the tractor.
Turning left, to head up the hill (and back on the driveway, so as to “take the concrete for a ride” the tractor stalled and wouldn’t move. After a few moments fiddling, I discovered the brakes had locked on the steep incline of the wash…
Freed-up, I headed out the driveway but the tractor was laboring hard. It has an automatic transmission (hydrostatic) and even with all 25 HP running, it could not move in high range. I got it going in low, though, so I headed out the gate at all possible speed – which wasn’t much.
Events got even stranger. Because as I went through the gate, light rain began to fall. (I only had a shirt on, it was warm, right?) As the tractor (slowly) ran down the hill with the concrete object in the bucket the rain turned into a downpour.
Eventually, I got to a piece of public land that I had determined would make a good resting place for this cursed object. Just as I tilted the bucket forward to dump it?
KER-RACK!
A bolt of lightning hit the trees not three blocks from where I was relocating the object!
Free of it at last, I got the tractor turned around and head back to our place. By the time I was half way up the grade to our driveway a few minutes later (soaked now) the clouds where breaking up and the one-other stroke of lightning evidenced by thunder was far off in the distance.
It’s gone. Back in the office with dry clothes on, I was left to ponder the whole episode, not sure what to make of it. Are there really “things” around us that can seem to influence the course of our lives…leading to surgeries, sale of an airplane, and other unexpected events? Elaine’s hip surgeries (2X THR’s) followed the first encounter with the object by less than 3-years, remember. Could the cursed object have been part of that?
This week, my buddy the Major will (because he’s a subtle energy medicine practitioner of some renown) will be doing “clearings” of the property.
I know it sounds like woo-woo and the product of an over-active imagination. But the events including the amazingly coincident crack of lightning nearby when the moving was done, well? Hard to deny those things happened, the plane sale, the hips, the multiple eye surgeries…
Things to think about over a second hot cup of coffee on a cold and wintery morning.
Write when you get rich (or warm),
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