Report from the OP, August 6, 2022

Show of hands-who is tired of the Dog Days of summer yet? I know that everyone I’ve talked to recently is totally over this hot and mostly dry weather and is ready for it to be over.

I sort of like the “macro to micro” format, and I think I’ll stick to it for some indeterminate time.

It seems that La Pelosi’s little trip to Taiwan has the inhabitants of West Taiwan hyperventilating. I wonder if this trip was made to:

• Allow Pelosi to take a victory lap before her expected disenthronement?
• To tick the Communists off in order to help give the US a casus belli for going to war? After all, given the Biden regime’s current polling, they need to do something, and wagging the dog is a time-honored political move.
• To give the PRC a casus belli for the “forced reunification” of the ROC.

Any of the above would be a stupid move, but at least they make some sort of twisted sense. If none of the above are true, it’s still a stupid move. Given our current military capabilities, we would have been wiser to play for time so that Taiwan, the US and our other Pacific allies could have bulked up. Instead, it looks like we’re getting a dress rehearsal for a blockade and possible invasion. If that’s the case, I expect the outcome will be for Taiwan to fall to China fairly quickly and without a Ukraine-esqe fight. The US and its allies will watch from the sidelines, making toothless statements and enacting sanctions against China while the Taiwanese are rounded up for re-education. But in any event, at least we don’t have mean tweets.

In the “Get Woke, go broke” chronicles, UPS must die. I will pay more and go out of my way to avoid shipping UPS. You can’t boycott every corporation that gores one of your sacred cows, but I can live without UPS.

Closer to home, it seems that even cities that aren’t targeted for immigrant bombing are having problems with the number of immigrants the Biden regime is dropping on them. Given that Charlotte is pretty reliably blue I can’t help but feel some schadenfreude. You people voted for this, so cowboy up.

Charlotte also marks the discovery of the body of Sgt. David Owens, who died in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest in 1944. Sgt. Owens will be laid to his final rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Welcome home, soldier.

Madison County, NC is equipping all schools with gun safes, AR-15s, loaded magazines and breaching equipment. This gear is so the school resource officers will have their tools closer to hand in case of need.

Our Lt. Governor, Mark Robinson, is speaking at CPAC. I bet that will be a barn-burner. Word is that he will be running for Governor. I’ll vote for him if he does. While we wait for the formal announcement, enjoy the speech that started his career. It never gets old.

At home, I’m happy to say my pickup has returned after a 4-digit stay at the mechanics. Still, it’s cheaper than a new truck, and I get to happily do without all the nagging, nannying, surveillance state BS the new ones are factory-equiped with.

Gas prices continue their slow decline, with 87 octane running in the low- to mid-$3.40s and diesel in the mid $4.80s. I’m still irritated that we have to feel good that gas is down to these prices.

I haven’t been to the grocery store in 3-4 weeks. Mrs. Freeholder has been ably handling those duties. She reports that the status quo remains the status quo-spotty shortages and slowly increasing prices.

A couple of projects I’m working on necessitated a trip to Lowes, the best location I can think of for a hardware store. The prices are crazy. A 2x4x93 stud was almost $5. I will admit that the quality of the wood was excellent. Prices for PVC pipe and fittings are stunning when I think back to what I was paying for such things just a few short years ago. 10-3 wire, which I’m watching for a couple of projects I’d like to start, has actually gone down-copper prices have sagged lately and I guess have taken this with them. I may go ahead and buy what I need and put it on the shelf for later. Breakers, another item for this project, are in very short supply. Seasonal items were available in quantities that are unusually high for this time of year.

While making the trip to the Bigger Small City to retrieve my pickup, I noticed that traffic was actually heavy for the day and time of day. The number of big rigs on the side of the road was higher than normal, but at least two of them had service trucks in attendance. I saw a large number of empty flatbeds zipping along, and a number of flatbeds only partially loaded.

The weather here is cooling just a little, and the only rain is from sporadic afternoon thunderstorms. Still, last week’s storms seem to have been enough to partially save the local corn crop. The field behind us looks much better-the leaves are no longer curling up. However, the yield is going to be poor. The stalks have tassled at around 4-5 feet tall and look to be bearing 1-2 ears per stalk. This guy usually fertilizes with liquid manure, and from the small of things this spring, he didn’t fertilize this year.

The soybean fields I see are growing. So are the cotton fields, which I would have expected to be write-offs 2 weeks ago. I don’t know how farmers do it. I would be a nervous wreck if I had to live their lives.

Our grid power continues to be variable. Yesterday it was 120 volts, today it is 119. I was fortunate to find a used PowerTronics PQRD-52 Power Quality Recorder on eBay at a very good price. Mine is older than the one on the website, but has the same features. I’m going to get that bad boy hooked up and see just what’s going on over time. I’ve used these back during my working days and they’re a great item to have if you suspect you’re dealing with dirty power. Electronic gear hates dirty power, and I feel I have too much of it to take chances with.

Of course, things like fixing vehicles and buying test equipment have their costs. Mountain Man was in touch yesterday and he asked about my plans for attending the Shelby Hamfest. I had to tell him I’ve pretty much spent that money.

A thunderstorm is moving our way, so it’s time to hit the publish button. Out here.