The saga of “what’s broken now” continues. Yesterday, the plumber finally arrived to fix the outside spigots. I had managed to stay awake all morning waiting for him. Fortunately, Kat was home by the time he finally gathered everything he needed and started working. He managed to finish shortly before the kids arrived home from school. This should stop the constant flow of water outside the house and lower our bill dramatically. The only real challenge is that I’ll have to actually watch and refill the water bowl the dogs use outside.
Today, the same plumber returns around 8:30 this morning to replace the water heater. Why? Because when he opened the closet where the water heater is, looking to turn off the water for the house, he noticed that there were multiple leaks. There wasn’t any question about it. Water was dripping everywhere. This repair is going to be more of a big deal. Chances are pretty high that he’ll have to take the water heaters in/out of the front door. You know, the one we never use because five litter boxes are sitting in front of it. I asked G to clean up around there last night, but I noticed this morning that there’s still a bit of work to be done before they get here. I’m typing as fast as I can.
Kat made a wonderful dinner last night! I have to take a moment and brag. She’s been making homemade chicken broth for the past couple of weeks so that she has soup to take to work with her. The side effect of that was that we had extra chicken breasts that needed to be cooked. The chicken, the wine-based sauce, over very nice rice, beat out any restaurant that I’ve been to. I’m not sure the kids appreciate how lucky they are that their mom is such a wonderful cook.
There’s a lot that kids don’t notice about their parents, though, such as how tired and rundown they get trying to take care of everyone. Everyone knows that being a parent has never been easy, but now it’s been codified. The US Surgeon General made it official that being a parent is bad for your health. Cue the childless cat ladies who are now grinning from ear to ear. This puts a spotlight on how parents are treated at work, the difficulty of getting time off to care for sick kids, the need for personal days away from the kids, and the overwhelming cost of childcare. The entire report is here if you’re interested in reading it.
Have you been following the whole kerfuffle over the Orange Felon’s campaign taking pictures at Arlington Cemetery on Monday? I’d been largely ignoring it because, at its core, it’s just another incident where the Felon is showing disrespect for the military. he’s good at that. The only reason he was even at the cemetery on Monday was trying to score political points over the way troops left Afghanistan. Now, it seems that cemetery officials had warned the campaign beforehand that they were not allowed to take pictures. That takes away the “we didn’t know” excuse. Don’t be surprised, though. This whole campaign is built on lies and deceit. Expect it, but don’t fall for it.
SpaceX had a boo-boo and now it’s grounded. Literally. the FAA grounded all Falcon 9 launches pending an explanation of why one of them fell over and burst into flames while landing. This immediately affects a number of planned launches, including that one where the billionaire is going to try walking in space. No one was hurt in the accident and peripheral damage was minimal. Still, after having completed several successful missions where the returning rocket didn’t fall over, having one do so raises some serious safety questions.
Journalism took a serious hit yesterday. A Hong Kong court on Thursday found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a case that has drawn international scrutiny amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city. Stand News was once a beacon of what a Free Press could do. As China has increased its chokehold on Hong Kong, though, those freedoms have been severely stifled. Be sure that China wants this case to serve as a warning for anyone else who might want to challenge its dominance over the city.
China hasn’t exactly been playing nice for quite some time. Yesterday, a top Chinese military official told White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that the US needs to stop “colluding” with Taiwan. China desperately wants to reunite Taiwan with the mainland. Taiwan, however, doesn’t want to go and the US has long held that China doesn’t have the right to take away their independence. I think it’s pretty certain that the US response to China will be a big “fuck you,” only in more diplomatic language.
Greedy investors caused AI stocks to stumble a bit yesterday after chip maker NVIDIA posted gains that dramatically beat forecasts, but not as much as investors had hoped. Mind you, the company reported a net income of $16.6 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, net income was $16.95 billion. Revenue rose to $30 billion, up 122% from a year ago and 15% from the previous quarter. The problem? “Well, it wasn’t as much above forecasts as other quarters have been.” Greedy much? Growth forecasts for the entire industry are still quite strong. There’s plenty of time here for investors to squeeze out insane profits and buy all their yachts before there’s even a hint of a downturn.
I wish I had something pithy and cute to end with this morning, but there’s nothing really that interesting in this morning’s headlines. The rain that seemed inevitable yesterday morning never developed, staying well to our North. Our next chance for moisture comes with the cool front moving through Friday night. We’ll see how that goes.
I have to get things moved around for the plumber now, so you take the day and run with it, okay? It’s all you. No pressure.
Morning Update: 08/29/24
The saga of “what’s broken now” continues. Yesterday, the plumber finally arrived to fix the outside spigots. I had managed to stay awake all morning waiting for him. Fortunately, Kat was home by the time he finally gathered everything he needed and started working. He managed to finish shortly before the kids arrived home from school. This should stop the constant flow of water outside the house and lower our bill dramatically. The only real challenge is that I’ll have to actually watch and refill the water bowl the dogs use outside.
Today, the same plumber returns around 8:30 this morning to replace the water heater. Why? Because when he opened the closet where the water heater is, looking to turn off the water for the house, he noticed that there were multiple leaks. There wasn’t any question about it. Water was dripping everywhere. This repair is going to be more of a big deal. Chances are pretty high that he’ll have to take the water heaters in/out of the front door. You know, the one we never use because five litter boxes are sitting in front of it. I asked G to clean up around there last night, but I noticed this morning that there’s still a bit of work to be done before they get here. I’m typing as fast as I can.
Kat made a wonderful dinner last night! I have to take a moment and brag. She’s been making homemade chicken broth for the past couple of weeks so that she has soup to take to work with her. The side effect of that was that we had extra chicken breasts that needed to be cooked. The chicken, the wine-based sauce, over very nice rice, beat out any restaurant that I’ve been to. I’m not sure the kids appreciate how lucky they are that their mom is such a wonderful cook.
There’s a lot that kids don’t notice about their parents, though, such as how tired and rundown they get trying to take care of everyone. Everyone knows that being a parent has never been easy, but now it’s been codified. The US Surgeon General made it official that being a parent is bad for your health. Cue the childless cat ladies who are now grinning from ear to ear. This puts a spotlight on how parents are treated at work, the difficulty of getting time off to care for sick kids, the need for personal days away from the kids, and the overwhelming cost of childcare. The entire report is here if you’re interested in reading it.
Have you been following the whole kerfuffle over the Orange Felon’s campaign taking pictures at Arlington Cemetery on Monday? I’d been largely ignoring it because, at its core, it’s just another incident where the Felon is showing disrespect for the military. he’s good at that. The only reason he was even at the cemetery on Monday was trying to score political points over the way troops left Afghanistan. Now, it seems that cemetery officials had warned the campaign beforehand that they were not allowed to take pictures. That takes away the “we didn’t know” excuse. Don’t be surprised, though. This whole campaign is built on lies and deceit. Expect it, but don’t fall for it.
SpaceX had a boo-boo and now it’s grounded. Literally. the FAA grounded all Falcon 9 launches pending an explanation of why one of them fell over and burst into flames while landing. This immediately affects a number of planned launches, including that one where the billionaire is going to try walking in space. No one was hurt in the accident and peripheral damage was minimal. Still, after having completed several successful missions where the returning rocket didn’t fall over, having one do so raises some serious safety questions.
Journalism took a serious hit yesterday. A Hong Kong court on Thursday found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a case that has drawn international scrutiny amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city. Stand News was once a beacon of what a Free Press could do. As China has increased its chokehold on Hong Kong, though, those freedoms have been severely stifled. Be sure that China wants this case to serve as a warning for anyone else who might want to challenge its dominance over the city.
China hasn’t exactly been playing nice for quite some time. Yesterday, a top Chinese military official told White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that the US needs to stop “colluding” with Taiwan. China desperately wants to reunite Taiwan with the mainland. Taiwan, however, doesn’t want to go and the US has long held that China doesn’t have the right to take away their independence. I think it’s pretty certain that the US response to China will be a big “fuck you,” only in more diplomatic language.
Greedy investors caused AI stocks to stumble a bit yesterday after chip maker NVIDIA posted gains that dramatically beat forecasts, but not as much as investors had hoped. Mind you, the company reported a net income of $16.6 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, net income was $16.95 billion. Revenue rose to $30 billion, up 122% from a year ago and 15% from the previous quarter. The problem? “Well, it wasn’t as much above forecasts as other quarters have been.” Greedy much? Growth forecasts for the entire industry are still quite strong. There’s plenty of time here for investors to squeeze out insane profits and buy all their yachts before there’s even a hint of a downturn.
I wish I had something pithy and cute to end with this morning, but there’s nothing really that interesting in this morning’s headlines. The rain that seemed inevitable yesterday morning never developed, staying well to our North. Our next chance for moisture comes with the cool front moving through Friday night. We’ll see how that goes.
I have to get things moved around for the plumber now, so you take the day and run with it, okay? It’s all you. No pressure.
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