also a good plan

Oh great. As if it weren't frustrating enough. Got three emails today from Apple advertising new laptops.

More weird weather. In Oklahoma City, on May 30, 2019 it is 60 degrees outside. Clear blue skies and pretty weather for the next two days.

Then the rains return. We are at over three times normal rainfall for this month alone. So far this year in Oklahoma, over the entire state we have had 191 Tornado warnings, 678 Severe storm warnings, and 132 flash flood warnings.

The average for tornado season of May to August are the peak months, and we average 56 tornadoes per year. This year in May alone we have had 68.

I don't ever remember the flooding in Tulsa like this year. Like so many settlers the pick an area close to a river to for the obvious reasons. Kansas rivers drain into the Arkansas river and goes through Tulsa, and they have had over 18 inches of rain in the NE Oklahoma area. All of that drains into the same river systems, and into Ft. Smith area and they are have historic and record breaking floods. That of course all ends up in the Mississippi and they are flooding as well.

Right now in my part of the city, there is not any sign of bad weather damage. No flooding, no problems at all. We have been lucky with the hail and bad winds.

Morning all. I hope your luck holds out weather-wise. We will have sun this weekend. I plan to get the 911 out.

It looks like we’re starting our typical June Gloom a couple of days early. Completely gray skies, here. Another nice day to work in the garage.

Yep and supposed to get up to the 70's at some point. Right now a good time to wash and wax the car.

Clear and beautiful here. I'll be out behind my DR brush cutter in about 45 minutes. This year is potentially going to be a big fire year. Everybody around here has started on mowing & weed whacking early getting their fire defense areas going.

Sunny here today. Pete, your snow gone yet?

Hey Brent you said once you would copy the vids to DVD. I am not sure I want to send them without back up copies. Can you tell me what machine you would use?

Yeah, I pushed my 280Z out of the garage yesterday and washed it. Unfortunately, I had to push it back in. Oh, to be young again. :rolleyes:

Marv, are you inland a ways? I'm only 1 mile from the ocean, and it's all clouds.

Seems to be a blue skys and sunshine warning for today and tomorrow.

It’s all blue skies now looking inland from my house, but still gray in the direction of the coast. I guess it doesn’t matter...I’m in the garage.

Yup. We've gone from white to green. 74* and the sun is out but only for a moment.
Has been a cool and wet spring so far.

Oh boy, my brother got his Office 365 email account brute force attacked and logged into from Singapore.
He had a complicated password too. BUT no Multi-Factor Authentication.
That proofpoint anti-span the new boss is paying for warned us, but did not block?
When brother gets back home wiill have to go install MalewareBytes and scan his computer to make sure the hack didn't install anything sending password changes.

We didn't have this problem when I managed the anti-spam on our 365 using 365's anti-spam. I blocked forgeigh countries from logging in unless a user specivically asked to travel outside the US. But hey, what do I know, I only have 29 years experice.

David, are you asking what we use to make the copies, or what you would use to make copies of the VHS?

If you want to do it yourself I can send the old card we have and you can do them on any desktop machine with a spare ISA slot and connect your own VHS machine to it. It does not do OTA digital signals is why we bought a new one. For VHS it still works fine. Has S-Video, RCA video and analog coax inputs.

Super pretty day here. So pretty, I drove up to Tulsa in the 911. Well, not just because it was pretty, we finally had the good weather to return one of the leased 172s and that is done. For some reason our pilot wants a trip back to his car. So straight down the turnpike, and continue on across the county to the airport where we keep our airplanes. I drove the 911 mostly because it is several magnitudes better on the turnpike with a 75 MPH speed limit. The El Camino will get to 75, but it is starting to breath hard, and does not like it much. The 911 is wanting a lot more speed. It is a ton quieter as far as wind noise, and the engine sounds really nice back there. I might be theoretically possible that I have a very slight prejudice but I don't really think so. I can't help it if a flat 6 is the best sounding engine on the planet. The whir of the two cam chains is just perfect. You are free to disagree. You will be wrong of course, and I don't really care.

So one down one to go.

Just got an email telling me the SmartHours electricity rate go from June thru September.
From 7pm to 2pm, 19 hours and all weeken it is just 5¢/kWh.
From 2pm to 7pm weekdays the rate is 5¢, a standard 10¢, high 22¢ or critical 41¢ per kWh depending on how hot it gets.

They gave me a thrermostat that cools the house 4° at 11am and shuts off the A/C at 2pm. Then it kicks back on if gets too hot to be comfortable. Mine goes from 72 to 68 then starts cooling again if it gets to 78. If I run a ceiling fan in my office, I don't even notice it get warmer. They also say not to do dishes or laundry from 2pm - 7pm while the rates might be higher.

During the regular rates ie fall/winter/spring, my electric bill runs between $90 and $100/mo. With this SmartHouse thing it stays below $100 throughout the summer with the A/C running as well.

When I started they gave me 10 60 watt equivelent LED bulbs and 2 powerstrips.

They also did an evaluation tha told me I could save 40% off my electric bill if I put in new windows and better attic insulation. Lets see, 40% of $100 is $40 a month, and $8000 minimum for windows and insulation would take me 200 months or over 16 years for windows and insulation pay for itself. And it may take longer, don't have any windows in the afternoon sun.

We have a large electric Koi pond pump running 24/7/365 in the back yard, and the Cichlid aquarium in the kitchen dining room is 100 gallons and has a decent size pump for the main filtration system, a second pump for aeration, and of course the tank heater to keep the water warm. And a big bank of lights to see the Cichlids.

We also have a decorative fountain in the front garden. Once again, a pump running all the time in the above freezing months.

My wife grew up with a dad that worked for the power company and she will walk into a room, and turn the light on, and leave them on when she walks off. I turn off lights all the time. The bathroom floor heaters are on for 9 months of the year. I have a computer on most of the time. Sometimes for days on end.

If I am in the garage for long, the garage AC will get turned on or the electric heater depending on season. So even with my wife's fish hobby and my love of air conditioning our house electric bill for the two of us is $150 per month. No doubt the fish alone are a noticeable hunk.

Overall my utilities of electric, natural gas, water, sewer, and trash pickup and the insurance on the house is less than the taxman. The property taxes are a big bite each year. Since we have no mortgage we "get" to pay the property tax directly and it is a big check. Once again I think everyone should have to pay their taxes personally and not have it "just added in" to the mortgage payments. Like payroll deductions, that just hides the taxes the home owners pay.

Let everyone cut a check to pay their taxes like I get to for my income taxes, and property taxes, and see how many people want more taxes.

that may end up being a problem. They are not VHS but 8mm (tape I think) and I don't know if I even have the camera any more.

Run my servers and network switches 24/7. When I put the Wattt meter on them, they average almost 80 watts. That does not include the two work computers each with 2 27 in monitors goin 24/7.

As for my lights I basically just use 5 bulbs. The rest I just don'g bother turning them on. Inscrew all but one bulb on my bathroom mirror, and use one florecent light in the kitchen.

Learned to have my house fairyly dark to help with the floaters in my eyes.