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fuggled

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Posts posted by fuggled

  1. I'm looking for any recommendations for a Colorado road trip in early August.  Schedule is flexible, but I'm thinking something like 10-14 days.  We'll be driving up from Dallas (me, wife, kids 6 & 10) and rough plan is to take a loop through the south part of the state to hit the national parks.  Rough idea is something like this:

    • 2 nights: Great Sand Dunes
    • (maybe Durango or Pagosa Springs)?
    • 2 nights: Mesa Verde
    • 2-3 nights: Telluride or Silverton/Ouray - not sure which route to take
    • 2 nights: Black Canyon
    • Then either east to Poncha Springs/Buena Vista or back south through Telluride or Ouray

    We'll do a mix of car camping and hotels/rentals.  Probably camping at Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon and staying at the lodge in Mesa Verde.  Everything else is up in the air and there are plenty of gaps to fill in.  Kids will be happy if they get to spend most of that time in water, whether that's alpine lakes, mountain streams or hot springs.   We'll also plan on a lot of hiking.  Maybe rafting, maybe fishing.  Jeeping/ATVs aren't really our thing.

    What you got?

  2. 1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

     

    If you gave 10 lawyers a house they'd come back with 10 different valuations on it too. So what? We've been taxing property value for decades and yet somehow we manage to survive. We'll find a way to make it if we have to put values on other assets too. 

    And frankly, I don't really give a shit if we overvalue someone who is worth $45 million by 10 percent and they have to pay a million bucks. $50 million is high enough that even if you're within a little bit of margin of error on your valuation, you're still rich as fuck and will manage to put food on your table with your remaining $44 million.

    It's a nonissue. Concern trolling that the 1% has somehow sold to a portion of the 99% that they're bending over the desk and rawdogging. Don't be a mark.

    Just to nitpick, the tax is on net worth over $50 million.  So even if we overvalue your $45 million by 10%, you still don't pay any tax.

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  3. 30 minutes ago, Lobo said:

    And there's often years to prepare in many cases as they pass the 80/85 year old mark.  This proposal would create a shitshow of liquidation of stuff that ain't that liquid every year around the same time.  Explain to be how that is quelled. 

    You're arguing that death is easier to foresee and prepare for than an annual tax.  It's hard to see how that argument holds water. 

    It's going to be an annual tax.  Everyone will know it's coming, there's no reason people wouldn't/couldn't plan ahead for the appropriate amount of liquidity.  Also, don't we already deal with this for income tax?  If you're self-employed you have to estimate your income tax and pay quarterly or else you're hit with a penalty.  I'm not saying that's a perfect system, but you're argument that the logistics are impossible is a bit weak.

  4. Can you give 3 examples of Obama actions that divided the country in unprecedented ways?
    I was curious about this myself so I did some digging. Here's the BS he's ranting about:

    https://www.usapoliticstoday.org/20-reasons-barack-obama/

    "2. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon”
    In another example of unnecessarily inserting himself into a sensitive racial issue, Obama proclaimed after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”"

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

  5. North Texas Municipal Water District calling for the immediate curtailment of non-essential use.

    https://news.ntmwd.com/ntmwd-requests-immediate-curtailment-of-non-essential-water-use

    Quote

    Immediate curtailment measures include:

    Isolate any water leaks immediately
    Do not hoard water
    Do not wash clothes or dishes, wash only when necessary
    Delay showers and only hand-bathe when necessary
    When possible, do not drip your faucets
    If you must drip or stream your faucet, collect the water for other use such as filling toilets, washing dishes, etc.
    Do not use the garbage disposal, place food scraps in garbage can, (composting is a great alternative)
    Turn off the water to brush teeth, shave and soap up in the shower
    Ensure that hose bibs and faucets are protected from freezing weather
    Locate and repair any water leaks
    When cooking, peel and clean vegetables in a large bowl instead of under running water

     

  6. 13 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

    Dare I hope that things are improving ever so slightly? Saw earlier that ERCOT says current load deficit is 11GW, down from 14GW. 

    Centerpoint map showing 51% of customers with power, leaving 1.17M without. That's up from 42% when I woke up this morning, and 1.46M without. 

    Yeah, something screwy is going on.  ERCOT is showing a decent amount of capacity now.  But, the number without power in the state has climbed from 2.7MM to 2.9MM.

     

    image.png.a2135c86e70777c97ddafcb443d96b5f.png

    image.thumb.png.70aa425ac8ff44e32c01fa0050c96852.png

     

  7. 5 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

    DCT_SPECIAL36_1280x720.jpg?crop=16:9&wid

    This forecast is what has me concerned.  Austin/Houston/San Antonio are going to get hit with ice and freezing rain that will bring down limbs and lines and lead to more outages.  Power companies are going to have their hands full for a while.

  8. 1 hour ago, slorch said:

    So 23% of power production is shut off with the turbines. The other part of the power grid should be able to maintain through a weather event on a scale that basically none of us have ever seen in our lifetime. Right?
    LO freaking L at Bloomberg approaching objectivity.

    What in god's name are you slorching about, man?  It says right in the article that wind only accounts for a fraction of the outage.  There's 30 gigawatts from other sources that is down right now.

    Quote

    Wind shutdowns accounted for 3.6 to 4.5 gigawatts -- or less than 13% -- of the 30 to 35 gigawatts of total outages, according to Woodfin. That’s in part because wind only comprises 25% of the state’s energy mix this time of year.

     

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  9. 1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

    According to the ercot graph, demand starts to peak in early afternoon. When it's still daylight and temp should be peaking. 

    Any ideas what's up with that? 

    Yeah, those aren't real projections.  I watched it yesterday and they kept pushing that peak further and further out over the course of the day.  I think that demand is based on turning everyone back on.

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  10. 6 minutes ago, JohnLocke said:

    Nonsense.  Coal plants are working fine right now. So is nuclear.  The more you increase the production of your energy to unreliable sources, the more prone you become to outages. It's not complicated.  And here we are.

    I'm sure others will be along to add more detail, but this is just completely wrong as far as the current situation is concerned.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/frozen-wind-farms-were-just-a-small-piece-of-texas-s-power-woes

    Quote

    While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electricity demand, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid.

    The main factors: Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas, he said. “Natural gas pressure” in particular is one reason power is coming back slower than expected Tuesday, added Woodfin.

    We’ve had some issues with pretty much every kind of generating capacity in the course of this multi-day event,” he said.

     

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  11. To prevent my food from spoiling, I have thrown my Freezers contents onto the patio outside. 
    Recommended practice is to freeze bottles of water outside and use them to pack your fridge and freezer. Then you don't have to worry about stuff like sun hitting your food and warning it or anything like that.

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

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  12. Here's the latest from Oncor.  I think people know most of this, but it's the first time I've seen anyone try to explain what's going on.

    https://thewire.oncor.com/pages/article.html#oncor__emergency_operations_feb_15_afternoon_update

    Quote

    The length of these controlled outages have been significantly extended due to the current emergency grid conditions and severe cold weather. These outages are taking place across the service territory and ERCOT has said they could be required through Tuesday. We are asking all Oncor customers to be prepared to be without power for an extended period of time.    

     

    Quote

    Q: Why are some homes out for hours and others for minutes or not at all?

    Again, there are two major issues affecting many of customers right now: winter storm outages and controlled power outages directed by ERCOT. We are using all designated power lines for controlled outages so that hospitals and other critical infrastructure remains intact and system stability is preserved. This means that customers near critical facilities, or those in limited areas where rolling outages won’t take place in order to maintain grid stability, may not experience outages, while those farther from these facilities or areas may be out multiple times or for longer instances. 

    Additionally, during instances of substantial generation drop, there are safeguards built into the system that drop power loads automatically in order to prevent cascading widespread outages, or ultimately a blackout. These are designed to be shorter term drops that are reset quicker than controlled outages to prepare for the next response opportunity.

     

  13. Not sure where to put this...
    Obviously many people will keep getting sick from this & dying for a long time, but is it safe to say we’ve already pretty much seen the worst that this virus can do? It’s been passed around the world for over a year now, we know how it behaves in every season & climate, and our understanding of how to treat it is only getting better. Add in the vaccine factor and I’d like to think the answer is yes. 
    Not so sure we're quite out of the woods yet. Things could stay bad or get worse for a while. Wear a mark, everyone.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/13/956504515/u-k-variant-could-drive-a-new-surge-in-the-u-s-experts-warn

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  14. I hope Ms. Loeffler is still planning on challenging Georgia's certified votes. I know the irony will be lost on every Trump supporter after last nights election results where she lost, yet hasn't conceded because she wants to wait until all the votes have been counted.

    I mean, she's not a Senator at the moment, right? Her term expired on Jan 3rd.

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

  15. My algae explosion from November seems to be getting under control now.  Thanks to @El Diablo and @PRONG HORN for the advice.  I have the light dialed back to a few hours a day.  None of the nasty black algae has come back and the green stuff is very slowly disappearing.  Last week I started to measure nitrates (just 5 ppm) for the first time in a month, so I took that as a sign the algae has slowed enough to not eat up everything in the tank.  I'll probably give the snails and oto cats a little longer to work on the algae before I start trying to remove much of it.

    PXL_20201218_130943404.thumb.jpg.bc71619361da41cbd5cc0cfaeeb9d648.jpg

     

    I picked up some anacharis to float and start shading/competing with the algae.  You can see it floating at the top left.  My wife doesn't like it floating there so I started looking at options.  Now, I'm pretty sure it was mislabeled at the store because it looks like hornwort.  Are there varieties of anacharis that look like this?  Here's a close up below.  Anyway, not sure what to do with it, so just experimenting.

    PXL_20201218_130954304.thumb.jpg.cd6149e420a9ebb07a8746725677ebee.jpg

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  16. Good fruitcake is awesome. I will slay a fruitcake from the Corsicana Collin Street bakery.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Growing up, my grandparents and great-grandparents would always have fruitcake from Assumption Abbey in Missouri, made by Trappist monks. Been a while since I've had one. Since we're suck at home this year I ordered one from Assumption and one from Collin Street to compare.

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