Not really a rant, just an observation. My driveway and yard are crawling. And crunchy.
Poor lighting, but there are about 30 cicadas in this picture.
Not really a rant, just an observation. My driveway and yard are crawling. And crunchy.
Poor lighting, but there are about 30 cicadas in this picture.
Followup... between 150 and 300 on this thing. Big range because I may have counted some 2 or 3 times, depending on if they moved or I accidentally counted a shell. And I got bored and stopped approximately halfway through.
Every time a car drives by, you hear a disturbingly satisfying little pop. A nice little bit of percussion that was much needed in the Song of the Cicadas.
In reply to mtn :
The Dancer and I laughed pretty hard at this over the weekend, and it seems apropos: Two Cicadas on Weekend Update
I haven't seen (or more importantly, heard) any yet around here other than one shell, but I'm not looking forward to them showing up. I imagine The Bat will be far more excited- she loves chasing large bugs around the yard. I just hope that I don't have a repeat of the incident a few years back where one flew into the lid of the grill and fell onto the grill while I was cooking- that was quite unpleasant.
Cicadae are wonderful...with Tabasco.
The lantern fly nymphs are now making their appearance. Despite me whacking down the gigantic berkeleying Tree of Heaven that they supposedly love (and that I took to calling the "Tree of Hell"). I think they seem to like grape vines; ours are getting all eaten TF up. berkeley the lantern fly.
I a new automotive job that I hope to never have to do again. Tyler and I are working through some stuff on his $500 SAAB 900 and I never want to have to replace the DS motor mount again, it is a stupid and infuriating design.
Cicadas haven't made their appearance around here yet.
What is the difference between this year and a couple years ago where we had the really loud constant noise? I thought that was a double cicada year too, but the math doesn't work.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
The electrolyte mix things seem to be the newest thing. Mrs. VCH got me a bag of Morning Routine and they're pretty decent. Cleaner ingredients than most of the other junk out there. The little powder vials are pretty convenient for mixing up on the go. At home, I started mixing up a quart of my own homemade concentrate and add a tablespoon or so of it to my water bottle at every fill up. The recipe I use is:
Dissolve the honey and salt first in ~ 1/4 c warm water, then mix it all together in a 1 qt. mason jar, and refrigerate.
"Switchel" drinks used to be pretty popular back in the day; this is my interpretation of it. You can add a little unsweetened cranberry juice or whatever other juice you like to it, too. I'd really like to add ginger to my next batch.
Sitting in a big medical building waiting to have fluid sucked out of my knee.
🥹. Lights go out, AC shuts down, gets real quiet. At least the windows open.
In reply to Duke :
Dunno about the 13-year brood and any double years, but I know this is the 17-year brood in our area and historically much worse than the 13-years.
Just took these. Almost every tree is like this.
In reply to mtn :
I heard it was an alignment of both the 17-year and 19-year broods this year, which doesn't happen often, obviously.
In 2021, around here at least, was some special brood that sang continuously, really loudly, for a week or more. Like, 75 dB in my normal suburban back yard, all day every day. I don't remember seeing a huge number of actual bugs, but I also never heard a sound like that, either.
TIL that Egopower's Lawn Mower part numbers cover both self propelled and non-self propelled models, with the former having an additional "SP" on the part number.
Going for "right part number, let's pick the cheaper offer" might have been an expensive mistake as they're non-returnable on the River and were out of stock at Lowes.
Reading glasses, I haz them. Maybe I should use them more often.
My nicely sized family owned private company employer was just sold to a private equity firm
In reply to tuna55 :
My condolences.
tuna55 said:My nicely sized family owned private company employer was just sold to a private equity firm
That stinks.
Unfortunately, the current business environment makes that very appealing to owners, including me.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
On the desktop, no problem. But no such options on iPhone. No idea if it's better on Android.
There isn't even an option to close tabs on exit; and even if there were, the bulk of settings are in the menu that is unavailable due to the alert.
Just found out I am on a city advisory committee...that I didn't apply to be on. I've never applied for any of these committees, yet my name is on the meeting agenda for this week as a member. Kind of pisses me off because people are trying to get me to run for council but I just want to walk away and distance myself from city BS for a while. I've done more than my part the last few years, time for others to step up. I'm burned out and I'm about to just start replying to people "DILLIGAF"....
I'm dogE36 M3 tired. All. The. Time. I work from 3:30 to 2:00 5-6 days a week. I also watch the hellspawn from whenever he gets up to when I go to work. Hes usually up by 7:30. It takes me a half hour to get to and from work. On a perfect day, I get 5 hours of sleep. Except my ADD brain doesn't turn off right away. So I'm going to bed at 4 at the earliest. Do the math.
I raised my voice at SWMBO this weekend. She kept badgering me to get up on Sunday. She kept waking me up from uncontrolled naps. I finally said, "let me sleep. You have no idea how tired I am" using The Voice.
Bro calls me at 10:00. I'm half asleep on the couch watch the hellspawn. Starts peppering me with questions. He borrowed my truck. Now he needs to swap out vehicles. Why don't we do it after work? No, I'll get home an hour later than usual. We need to load up some big stuff to get out of Mom's house. You gonna help? No, not today. I don't even have a place for it. I can't think straight. I've had about 3 hours of E36 M3ty sleep. He starts bullying me for an answer.
Y'all need to berkeley off. I'm about to pack up nice, calm, helpful Appleseed and put him back in storage. You ain't gonna like the motherberkeleyer that shows up to take his place.
The she spawn is back from college for the summer. She's moody and quiet in the mornings. It upsets my wife. So, I get to play moderator while also WFH and trying to play manager. At this rate it's going to be a long summer.
tuna55 said:My nicely sized family owned private company employer was just sold to a private equity firm
Time to break out this can.
If you need any references, feel free to use me. My employer might have some openings in the GSP area, too.
Rant: I have never, ever heard of any good coming from a PE firm buying a company. Near as I can tell, they take good, reasonably profitable businesses, wring every penny out of them, and then toss the remains in the dumpster. berkeley PE firms, berkeley them hard. And this is coming from an avowed free market capitalist.
I think you ought to go around to get everyone in your company to quit, effective immediately. Someone needs to send a message. See how they like it when their company value goes to zero immediately after selling out.
In reply to tuna55 :
I am sorry. Having worked for a private equity and ESOPs in the past, the pe firms felt like a had a knife at my back. The knife representing bottom line. Also - from my friends past experience, when someone says "nothing will change", it's time to update the resume.
Scotty Con Queso said:In reply to tuna55 :
I am sorry. Having worked for a private equity and ESOPs in the past, the pe firms felt like a had a knife at my back. The knife representing bottom line. Also - from my friends past experience, when someone says "nothing will change", it's time to update the resume.
Agreed on all counts
volvoclearinghouse said:tuna55 said:My nicely sized family owned private company employer was just sold to a private equity firm
Time to break out this can.
If you need any references, feel free to use me. My employer might have some openings in the GSP area, too.
Rant: I have never, ever heard of any good coming from a PE firm buying a company. Near as I can tell, they take good, reasonably profitable businesses, wring every penny out of them, and then toss the remains in the dumpster. berkeley PE firms, berkeley them hard. And this is coming from an avowed free market capitalist.
I think you ought to go around to get everyone in your company to quit, effective immediately. Someone needs to send a message. See how they like it when their company value goes to zero immediately after selling out.
Thanks Dude. Send an Email if you have any useful contacts for me. You know where I am, roughly. Thanks
Why the hell did GM make it so that setting the OBD-II monitors on the 2007-2013 Impalas takes so berkeleying long? Seriously, I put 90 miles on the car yesterday and it didn't set any of the three that weren't already set. On my Yaris, you could set all 8 in under 20 miles.
CAinCA said:The she spawn is back from college for the summer. She's moody and quiet in the mornings. It upsets my wife. So, I get to play moderator while also WFH and trying to play manager. At this rate it's going to be a long summer.
Don't waste your time. The eternal Mother/Daughter power struggle is going to play out no matter how you manage it. If you get in the middle, they will both yell at you.
The logical thing to do is to sit them both down at the kitchen table, and tell them to smarten the berkeley up, or you will lock both of them out of the house.
That will not go well.
NickD said:Why the hell did GM make it so that setting the OBD-II monitors on the 2007-2013 Impalas takes so berkeleying long? Seriously, I put 90 miles on the car yesterday and it didn't set any of the three that weren't already set. On my Yaris, you could set all 8 in under 20 miles.
Maybe the absurdly complicated Toyota evap system is conducive to fast testing?
I dimly recall that evap monitors on some GMs require driving in 3rd gear for extended stretches because the engine speed must be over X and the vehicle speed must be over Y.
I mean, I know you probably know all this...
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