Stochastic Contemplations.

[Tormahto]

I was telling my husband -- after I packed up and sent off the MMMM stuff -- how disappointed I have been in newer groups and generations of plant people. Told him.about how a billion years ago, when I first got on the internet in 1996, I found Gardenweb shortly afterwards. Plant people united and traded and did SASE stuff. I am sure people lacked boundaries, but I remember mostly it was respectful. I did so many wonderful trades. I met great people. I know some of them still. I was 18 and one of the younger ones and mostly people I knew IRL didn't care for plants at all. As a shy person, I lurked a lot so many more of the online people didn't know i was there.

About 10 or 15 years later, I had life settle down a bit. I looked for the same communities and found they don't really exist hardly. Everyone wants to sell their cuttings to you. Or whatever. So much misinformation. Greed. Very little of the same spirit. I decided to pull back from online plant stuff as i found it depressing.

I was glad to have found this place and the former place. The trend for profit has only increased. I am sad for what most groups have become and the mentality of most of the participants I have seen. It just makes places and people like this extra special.

...got on the internet in 1996...I was 18...

I did the math, happy 29th when your birthday comes up.

[Tormahto]

This is crazy. And gross. I bet it is going to start smelling around there soon. https://www.aol.com/news/2021-pulling-t ... 41416.html

Gross is relative, and young people pay to be grossed out.

[Tormahto]

I think politicians should have to take an all around competency test.
The outright stupidity of these people is astounding.
Nothing like the mind of Thomas Jefferson.
Not even close.
Some of them aren't worthy of local dog catcher.
I just take it for granted most of the news media are idiots.

Since those politicians are smart enough to get elected, what does it say about the voters?

[Julianna]

...got on the internet in 1996...I was 18...

I did the math, happy 29th when your birthday comes up.

Lol! Perfect. Your math is impeccable.

[rxkeith]

i like when you buy a product, and it actually works.
i spent several hours wednesday blowing snow with the tractor.
thursday, and friday the temp went down to zero, and below. tractor wouldn't start.
must have had enough water in the fuel to cause freezing in the line or just too cold, and the
diesel gelled up in the filters.
DIESEL 911 to the rescue!!!!!!! i added some to the fuel tank, and let it set overnight. today, the tractor fired up.
it took about 20 minutes or so before it was running smooth. increasing rpms to blower speed would cause the motor to stutter.
i added more 911 to the tank, and eventually the motor smoothed out, and stayed that way.
the tractor has to start in cold weather. i am happy now.


keith

[worth1]

We used to use a product called HEET at 30 below.

[slugworth]

When kids delivered the newspaper.
The morning paper had to be delivered before 6am.
Now,you are lucky if you get it at all.

[worth1]

Texas French bread burned down.
We used to go there on Sundays to get pastries for breakfast.
It was down by the university.
It has been there for 40 years.

[rxkeith]

julia dennis, a copper country resident died february 20th.



she was 112 years old.
born 1909, graduated from high school in 1927.

what a life.


keith

[worth1]

In 24 hours there were 18 drug overdoses responded to in the Austin 6th street area.
Of these overdoses I think 4 died one that died had 4 different drugs in their system.
Xylazine.
Fentanyl.
Cocain.
PCP.

[worth1]

I've came to the conclusion people see what they want to see not what they see.
They read what they want to read and hear what they want to hear.
They automatically jump to conclusions before sitting back and actually looking at things.
This can be a stereotype or other things that causes this.
Whatever it is look before you leep.

[worth1]

To my horror I discovered I came to work naked i was in such a rush.
I left my knife at home.

[worth1]

My coworker is 30.
He told me that he felt the his girlfriend and him were mature for their age.
I told him that wasn't quite true that they were a product of their parents.
Their parents ability to raise them correctly made them the people they were.
The byproduct is being mature respectful and responsible.
His girlfriend has a job yet gets uo in the morning to make his lunch.
All is not lost on this portion of my thoughts.
We continued the conversation about different generations.
How older folks are always complaining about younger folks.
I told him that there are a lot of worthless jerks my age and older too.
They were raised as spoiled brats and they will continue to be selfish spoiled brats.
Nothing changes but the calendar.

[SpookyShoe]

Screenshot_20220403-120734~2.png

Our neighborhood had a little parade to welcome back to his home fellow El Lago resident astronaut Mark Vande Hei. He set a record for single consecutive days in space by an American astronaut at 355. This was on board the International Space Station.

His house is less than half a mile from ours.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine it had been reported by many media outlets including Fox News and ABC that Russia planned to leave Mark stranded aboard the ISS because he would not be allowed to make the trip home in a Russian capsule. The reports were obviously false.

Screenshot_20220403-121013~2.png

[worth1]

Welcome home.
355 days means it's going to be a good long while before he can get fully used to gravity..
He sacrificed more than the average person knows.

[rxkeith]

i saw my first coyote of the spring the other day. it is that time of year again,
breeding season for them. the coyotes start looking for easy meals.
my chickens were raising a hula baloo. often times, its just chickens being chickens,
but still, you have to check. when i looked out the kitchen window, i saw the coyote on
the edge of some brush where there is a bit of a ravine a few hundred yards back from the house.
the critter was just standing there not even looking at the chickens, but was taking its time looking around.
there was a patch of open ground to cross, and it may have been super cautious about being in the open.
it trotted off into the pines on the one side of the property, and continued on its way.
you could see tracks all over the snow made during the night, and wee morning hours.
the local coyotes mostly behave, you just have to train them. if they come too close to the house, and i see them,
i go running after them, screaming, and hollering like a crazy person, until they are out of sight. i also take my dog
out, and patrol the property once the snow is gone. the coyotes seem to get the message, and keep their distance.
i haven't lost too many chickens to coyotes. hawks are more of a problem.
i have several older birds with predator experience that know when to raise the alarm, and skedaddle.
life in the wild kingdom.


keith

[karstopography]

Coyotes, smart and dangerous killer canines they are. Here’s a story we got this weekend about coyotes.

Our son and his wife had us over for dinner Saturday night. His MIL and her dog, Mabel, were there also and the two SIL.

The MIL and the FIL live on some mostly wooded acreage near the Louisiana border, not far from Orange, TX. Every morning first thing their two dogs, Gracie and Mabel, would go out the front door to do their business. For eight years this was the routine and nothing had ever happened to upset the routine, until, early last week or late the previous week. Phil the FIL let the dogs out and within seconds the two dogs are set upon by three coyotes. Mabel looks like some sort of Australian shepherd plus unknown mix and pretty close to the size of a coyote. She does battle with one of the coyotes and the other two take care of the 10 pound dachshund. You can imagine how that one sided battle went. Phil the FIl yelled and went in for the shotgun, but by the time he got to that, Gracie had been carried off. Mabel fought with the three coyotes for 1/4 mile, but it was hopeless and thankfully, she came home eventually relatively physically unharmed.

Poor Mabel hasn’t been the same since, though, emotionally. She would not eat for days, finally about day 7 she ate. She didn’t drink any water for 4 days. When Phil would come home for the day, she’d rush out to the vehicle and sniff around and dejectedly go back inside. She’s terrified to go outside without someone. She’s terrified to be alone. She spent the night at my son’s house and tore apart two window blinds trying to see out when the MIL briefly went outside and no one was home. They went to the veterinarian for something to calm her. Sweetest dog ever, so sad to see the impact losing her friend Gracie has had on her.

Watch your small pets in coyote country. These are crafty and cunning killers. Check around to make sure the coast is clear. It happens very fast. My daughter almost lost her chihuahua mix a couple of years ago while at the deer lease. A coyote charged the little dog mere feet from my daughter, just as the daughter and her dog were exiting the deer hide. She shot the coyote dead maybe 10 feet from her dog.

[worth1]

There was one on my back porch in the middle of the day a few days ago.
Big healthy thing too.

[worth1]

We're going through employees faster than they can be trained.
Losing a good one or two also.
They don't hang around at all.
Then they wonder why everything takes so long to do.

To put it in perspective emagin having a nice restaurant and maybe 2 people know what they are doing.
The rest have never done that work ever before.
Then emagin before they are trained they quit and you have to start over every week.

[karstopography]

My son quit the police force, and so did a lot of his peers. The city they worked in is desperate to find officers. My son went into another career path and most of the young ones are doing the same. These young people have better options. My son will do better financially, has better hours, no one is hating him for his new career, the risks are far lower, really why wouldn’t he change directions on this.

There’s a lot of talk that many of the people that are in law enforcement for the right reasons are leaving, plan to leave or have already left. What will come in the wake of that, it is anyone’s guess.