Wordle 1859 Hint

Hint: Cargo truck (British descriptor).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Wordle 1858 Hint

Hint: A con artist's secret but vocal assistant.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1857 Hint

Hint: Van Halen's is down, Dio's is holy.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

Wordle 1856 Hint

Hint: The process of -- and  the device used for -- producing butter.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Wordle 1855 Hint

Hint: Restaurant alternative to table or counter.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #28

"The Creator dwells among the lowly." (Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahib 10)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

This particular bromide seems common to most religions.

The most frequent interpretation of it is of the "don't think badly of the poor, they're people just like the rich" variety, which seems reasonable in any religion that, for example, holds humankind as created in God's image and therefore of inherent dignity and value.

And, to be fair, Sikhism originated in opposition to the "caste" system that prevailed in Hinduism (that system as it developed "on the ground" is not obviously implied by the Rigveda's division of Purusha's body parts into varnas, by the way), so the sentiment might well be genuine.

That said, it's easy to see how the idea can be abused by institutional religion. It serves the dual purposes of telling the "lowly" to just be content with their lot in life and just accept whatever social system their religious figures decree, and those better off to hand over their wealth to those same religious figures (an interesting variant is the Christian "prosperity gospel" movement of recent decades, which encourages the "lowly" to hand over their money in hope of gaining God's favor and getting more money back in the bargain).

I prefer that more frequent interpretation. 

Sigh of Hopeful Motorcycle Relief

A couple of weeks ago, my son dropped the Italica Bulldog 150 while riding it around the yard (he was considering a scooter or motorcycle; he'd ridden the former before but wanted to see how a taller bike felt; now he never wants to be on two motorized wheels again).

No obvious major damage, just a broken mirror and plastic headlight fairing.

Then the other day I had gone out on the bike and it died just as I got back home. Out of gas.

Had I both 1) forgotten the previous fill-up mileage and 2) failed to notice the gas gauge blink that reminds me I need to fill up within the next 20 miles or so?

Or was there a fuel leak somewhere, caused by the wreck?

The other day I put exactly half a gallon of gas in it. Started right up. Rode it to the gas station and topped it off, rode back home with no problem and no apparent large fuel level fall-off.

Checked the mileage (using Fuelly, which lets me record partial fill-ups, etc. and still keep track of that stuff). 60.8 miles per gallon. That's low. Not just below the bike's lifetime average (66.2 mpg), but below what I might have expected since it had recently mostly been ridden in low speed limit areas where I usually expect more like 70 mpg.

Tentative conclusion: When the bike went down, some gas splashed out of the cap vent. I see that as of the "wreck," it did have about 50 miles since the last fill-up. I usually fill up at 60 miles or so, even though I should be able to get 80+. So it would have only taken losing a few ounces to produce that effect.

That conclusion is, however, tentative. My next few trips out on that bike will either be within a couple of miles of home (so I can push the bike back home), or when I know a family member is available to bring me gas and/or carry the bike home if I'm wrong.

Wordle 1854 Hint

Hint: This type of pad's thickness may vary, but it's usually yellow and always 8.5" wide by 14" tall.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Why Second Opinions Are Worthwhile

A few weeks ago, we noticed that our central air unit wasn't keeping up very well and that there was visible ice on parts of its internals.

Tamara chose a local HVAC company to send someone out (I don't know if she consulted reviews, or just threw a dart at a board with company names on it, or what -- she just said she'd do it, and did it).

The guy was here for about ten minutes before he informed us that:

• The unit was nearly out of coolant;
• The leak seemed to be at the evaporator, which can't just be replaced as a stand-alone job, and therefore
• We'd need a new AC unit, guesstimated costs $6k to $9k.

Not the kind of thing you like to hear, of course.

But a friend of ours recommended a different HVAC guy, because for an expenditure that size it's worth paying a little extra to make sure you're not getting screwed.

The second guy came out. Spent more than half an hour, the last ten minutes of which was crawling under the house to look at the duct work. His conclusion:

• The unit was in fine shape.
• It was full of coolant and there was no leak.
• The coil was freezing up because the duct work was old, partially collapsed in two places, with several holes, so a lot of the cold air was going under, rather than in, the house, leading the unit to run a lot more than it should, leading to the coil freeze. And therefore
• We needed new duct work, guesstimated cost of $2.5k.

And it ended up being $1.7k. He made it clear as of the guesstimate that that was the high end.

And since we hired him to do the work, there was no fee for the initial service call.

Now the house is cool and the unit isn't running all the time.

And we saved at least $4.3k by not just trusting the first guy's claims and forking over.

Not the first time that kind of thing has happened. Back In St. Louis, a chain shop did our annual car inspection and said we needed $800 worth of repairs to pass. A second mechanic recommended by a friend said that was BS. The only thing we needed was a new headlight (the old one's cover had deteriorated with time). $40 parts and labor.

Get the second opinion!

Wordle 1853 Hint

Hint: A mesa's tall, skinny relative.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Other Options for "The Next Home Office"

When I bought the Jayco 806SD pop-up camper for use as a home office, I committed to giving it six months before deciding whether it worked for me or whether I needed something different.

It's been eight months. It does work for me. I don't need anything different, but I'm still thinking about something different.

The Jayco is large enough. It accommodates my desktop computing equipment and doesn't leaving me feel cramped or confined. I've converted one "pop-out" into a storage area and left the other as what it's meant for, a bed.

I'm mostly reasonably climate-comfortable, although it is drafty and therefore harder to cool or heat than I'd like, but not in a deal-killing way. I happen to be fond of warm weather, so even when it's in the 90s I generally use a fan in preference to air conditioning. When it's cool out, I function quite well in low-to-mid-60s office temperatures. Those are good reasons for my office to be outside the main house, since everyone else seems to want to live in Antarctica when it's hot out and in a desert oasis when it's cold out. I've inserted insulation foam board in the side walls -- shiny side out when the weather is warm, shiny side in when it's cold. In summer, I have two fans keeping an air current running through the trailer. In winter, I button up and run a space heater. It wall works out.

It does, however, leak. The canvas "pop-outs" are 36 years old, full of holes, and would cost twice as much to replace as the camper itself, and I'm now on the second set of tarps to address that. Looks like I'll go through two sets of cheap tarps a year unless I want to spend big money on really good ones. If I come across an old military GP tent for sale cheap, I may buy that and use it as a single tarp to cover the whole camper.

And I could just dispense with the "pop-outs" entirely and frame in the main cabin, basically making a tiny (very tiny -- about 50 square feet) house on wheels out of the thing. That would leave only the roof to need covering (roof sealant hasn't been enough).

OR!

I could do something else.

I've been keeping an eye on listings of "real" -- non-"pop-out" -- campers for sale. This seeems to be a high-price time of year, but I'm confident that if I wait until November (which I will likely do in any case -- it's a drier time of year better suited to setting up the new thing and moving into it from the old thing) I'll see some reasonable options in the $1500 range.

As previously mentioned, I've been considering a geodesic dome. A frame for one that would be larger than the current space would only run about $500, including soft plastic covering which I'd want to augment or replace with something more insulating and less transparent. Call it $1k tops ... except that I'd want to build a wooden deck/floor to site it on, and when I checked lumber prices the other day I determined that would at at least another $1k.

Other options I'm looking into include yurts/bell tents and teepee type tents. I can also get those in the $500-$800 range for very large ones (~200 square feet). I'd lean toward the yurt configuration to optimize space (straight vertical side walls a few feet up instead of sloping from the ground up, so my desk could go against a wall). They generally include thick ground cloths, so instead of building a deck I'd just level and de-grass/de-stone the ground and use mats and rugs on the interior. I might get one with a stove jack and then heat in winter with wood instead of using an electric space heater. I've got this one in mind ($659, canvas, "all-weather," 16.9 ft diameter, so about 225 square feet, about 11 feet tall at the center, not an affiliate link):

A tent setup would have advantages and disadvantages. I doubt it would be quite as water-resistant, or stand up to high winds as well, as a geodesic dome. On the other hand, it would be much easier to take down when, for example, I knew a hurricane was coming my way. And I don't think it would be any worse than the Jayco climate-wise. In something like the yurt above would be better for getting a breeze through in the summer, and easily heated with a small wood stove in the winter (we've got plenty of non-pine fallen branches, etc., around the yard and neighborhood to provide the firewood) if I didn't want to run a space heater next to my desk.

If I didn't live in a county with a government that's nosy about people's property, wants "permits" and "inspections" for "permanent structures," and apparently uses drones and satellite photography to find "violators," I'd just go ahead and spend $5-10k turning a shipping container into a real "tiny house" office complete with plumbing, window air conditioner, etc. But because I'm not interested in having the gummint "approve" my stuff, I need something that either has wheels on it or is plausibly "temporary" -- no concrete footings, no wood-framed exterior walls, etc.

I'm happy enough with the Jayco to not feel any pressure about upgrading. But I may, if for no other reason than that we want to get some chickens next spring and the Jayco could be easily re-purposed as a coop.

Wordle 1852 Hint

Hint: Expression of contemptuous dismissal (and a nickname for William Jennings Bryan).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1851 Hint

Hint: When grilling out, this food gets (or at least should get) top billing.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Just Watching, After Ten Days or So

The experiment in retreating from "digital fitness tracker / smart watch" to "plain old analog watch" is going well so far.

I think I'm still getting my usual number of steps in per day, and I'm less stressed by a thing on my wrist buzzing every time I get a phone call or text message, telling me about the variations in my heart rate, analyzing my sleep, etc.

If there's a down side, I suppose it's that the newfangled stuff COULD clue me in early to stuff with health implications, but to be honest its main function on that has been to warn me of possible heart arrythmia events that my doctor can't find any trace of and that I suspect are just caused by me startling at night or something. If the watch tracked blood pressure and blood glucose, it might be more useful on that, but I just don't find what it does useful anymore because I don't see sudden changes (over time, my resting heart rate has decreased and my sleep has improved, but both of those plateaued some time ago).

I'm not in any big hurry to get a better watch ... but I'd like to get a better watch band ... and based on what I'm seeing in the watch market, the band I would want would cost about 2/3 of what a decent watch with a band that looks like what I'd want.

When I was growing up, Casio was known for 1) cheap digital watches and 2) cheap music keyboards. Apparently they're all grown up now and make pretty good analog watches, like this one (not an affiliate link), for about a third of what I thought I'd pay for something like it:

It gets 4.5 stars on more than 13,000 user ratings on Amazon. It's not my perfect watch (I don't need the name on the frame, would probably rather have it just glow in the dark than use a light-up button, and am of two minds about a date window), but it looks fairly nice, allegedly keeps good time, and is reasonably rugged, and I like a hook-and-loop cloth band.

I may grab it the next time I have extra Amazon gift card credit on hand, or cite it when asked what I want for my birthday or Christmas, or find something else as good for the price.  But I'm not in a big hurry, especially if the current El Cheapo watch continues to keep good time and the band maybe softens up with age/washing.

Wordle 1850 Hint

Hint: Dark beer.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1849 Hint

Hint: Often preceded by "clickety."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #27

"Do not look down on any teaching." (Buddhism, Dhammapada 4:6)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

I disagree completely. If a teaching is demonstrably false or valueless, it should be looked down on.

Of course, in the realm of religion, it's hard to get to "demonstrably false" because claims as to the existence of a deity or deities are intrinsically faith-based. They can't be proven or disproven.

In areas such as ethics or economics, teachings can be compared to desired outcomes and observed reality.

For example, the labor theory of value isn't just demonstrably bullshit, it's the kind of bullshit that anyone who has two neurons to rub together and try to light up a synapse with should be embarrassed to advocate for. I look down on it because it's unworthy of respect.

Wordle 1848 Hint

Hint: It's a bird! It's a pla ... nah, not a plane, looks bird-like.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Why I Continue to Resist Four Wheels

It's not that I don't think about giving up the motorcycle for a car or truck. I do, every once in a while. But then I come up against the difference:

• You can still buy a motorcycle, new or used, affordably, that runs on a carburetor instead of fuel injection, rocks analog gauges (including an actual float rather than an electronic sensor in the gas tank) and involves little or no computer stuff. In fact, they're cheaper than the ones with all the "ride mode" nonsense, touch screen, etc.
• In order to get the car or truck I want, I'll have to find a 1970 to 1980 vehicle in decent shape mechanically and body-wise. And those seem to be very, very expensive.

I am not a skilled mechanic, but I'm pretty sure I could easily get back on top of things -- do my own oil changes, my own tune-ups, replace my own brake pads, replace an alternator or starter, etc. -- and not have to go to the shop for every little thing.

These days, it's a bunch of computer diagnostics, and if you have to replace something it seems like often the car's computer has to be flashed or trained to accept the new part, etc. You can't even rely on a trouble light, because it may just be a bad sensor rather than whatever the sensor is supposedly measuring.

But if anyone knows of a 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88 for sale, in good condition, at a reasonable price, let me know. Best. Car. Ever. Other than the gas mileage, of course (12 mpg on the highway, 8 mpg in town).

Good Kindle Book Deal

Fractions: The First Half of The Fall Revolution (not an affiliate link) by Ken Macleod, is on sale in ebook format at Amazon for $2.99.

It comprises two novels, The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal, which sell separately for $11.99 and $14.99 respectively.

The second half (Divisions, comprising The Cassini Division and The Sky Road) isn't on sale, but once you've read The Star Fraction you're going to want to read them all. I've got all of them in hard copy, but having a Kindle version allows me to have myself read to sleep to them by Alexa.

The novels are full of "anarcho-capitalists," commies, and everything in between and far afield from both. The first novel, Macleod says, is haunted by "the uncomfortable question":  "What if capitalism is unstable and socialism is impossible?" He even discusses Ludwig von Mises's "calculation problem" in the introduction.

More than those interesting points, though, what's important is that Macleod always spins an absorbing and rewarding story. I can't recommend the Fall Revolution cycle highly enough (and the books can be read in any order, or alone -- I came across The Cassini Division before any of the others, and didn't need knowledge of the other three to make it worthwhile).

Wordle 1847 Hint

Hint: When a man had a plan in Panama ...

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Unlikely Option, But Option

I've seen pictures of this bike online before --  usually marketed as the Venom or Belmonte Sportster 250, but underneath it's the Chinese Dongfang DF250RTG -- and didn't like the way it looked in photos. But yesterday I happened to park next to one:

It looks a LOT nicer in person than in the ads. It's fairly inexpensive ($2k to $2.5k new, depending on where you find it, and I occasionally see them barely used and quite a bit cheaper on e.g. Facebook Marketplace).

Down sides:

• I've been planning for my next bike to be a 500-750cc engine. This is a 250cc.
• I prefer alloy wheels to spoked wheels.
• I'd probably want to replace the handlebars for less required forward leaning.

Up sides:

• Like I said, inexpensive.
• I've seen top speed, stock, listed as 65-70 in some places and 70-75 in others, neither of which is terrible, and with a performance exhaust, 28mm carb, and performance air I would expect it to manage 80+.
• It's got a plain round can headlight and analog gauges, which I prefer to the weird-shaped headlights and all-electronic stuff on most newer bikes.
• It's an air-cooled engine, which I prefer (one less fluid to leak), and some of the engines are made by Lifan (others are made by Zongshen, which I don't trust as much, but they are all clones of a very reliable Honda engine).

For the moment, I'm still planning on saving up for a reasonably priced, pre-2025 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 (before they started doing all the digital crap). But this is one of the 250cc bikes I'm adding to my "that would work" list. I'd want to find it lightly used -- "bought this bike to see if I liked motorcycling, it took me 100 miles to decide I didn't" -- and at $1k or under.

I saw what looked like a REALLY good deal on a well-maintained/fixed-up 2006 Buell Blast today, and might have jumped on it, but I've learned since my last flirtation with that idea that parts range from "impossible to find" to "very expensive if you find them." From what I've seen, aftermarket parts for these cheap Chinese bikes are plentiful and inexpensive. They sell a LOT of them, just under various private label brand names, so it sometimes takes a little research to make sure you've got the right thing, but the stuff is out there (a lot of the engine parts, you can find listed as for that Honda engine mentioned above).

Wordle 1846 Hint

Hint: Alter/modify, usually through a formal procedure.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Wordle 1845 Hint

Hint: Fallen angel.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

World's Smallest Violin

The people who endorsed and/or voted for Graham Platner in Maine's Democratic Party US Senate primary knew he was a snake when they did so. It wasn't any kind of secret. The information was out there, and it was on bullhorn.

I'm bipartisan on this kind of thing. I hear from people who supported Trump three times whining that "this isn't what I voted for," even though they knew he was a lying, philandering, untrustworthy con artist who changed foreign policy (and other) positions more often than most people change underwear long before November 2016.

Spare me the tears and outrage. Live with the consequences of your actions. You weren't lied to, you lied to yourselves.

Just Watch (Literally)

Last week, my Fitbit Versa 4 started acting up. It's done that before, and there's a good chance that once the battery has had time to completely drain I can re-set it and have it functional again.

But do I really want to?

In theory, fitness trackers and "smart watches" are very useful and convenient. They'll helpfully buzz when your connected phone receives a call, text, or app notification. If you want to set up Google Pay, you can "tap to pay" at the gas pump and so forth.

I find that all a little busy and annoying.

I like having a step counter, but I can just buy a dedicated pedometer for that if need be, and at this point I've got a good handle on where and how far to walk each day to meet my fitness goal. All the other stuff it tracks (blood oxygen, sleep quality, etc.) seem pretty stable to me and I seldom actually look at the stats.

I do like the "buzz on wrist" thing for one function -- connected to Google Maps, it will buzz when I have a turn coming up. That's helpful on the motorcycle, as it's hard to hear the voice coming from my phone on the handlebar. But I can definitely get by without it.

So, while waiting for the battery to drain (it may take a week or more), I decided to go back to wearing a watch. Not a smart watch. Not even a digital watch. Just one of those old-fashioned dials with hands on it.

I wasn't going to waste a bunch of money on one until I decided to stick to this, so I ordered a $10 watch. Green canvas band, white face, black frame and numbering, glows in the dark (but in this watch's case, it's usually dim before dawn).

Three days in, I think I like it. I may never go back to the Fitbit.

If not, I'll just order a cheap pedometer for step count, stop worrying about the other stats (or maybe get a "smart ring" to handle that stuff), and eventually buy a better, more durable/trustworthy watch -- a $100-$200 Fossil, maybe, or if I'm feeling like a somewhat bigger spender, a Timex Pan Am or Expedition or a Citizen/Bulova (the former company owns the latter). I don't feel any need to own an Omega or Rolex, just something that I can expect to still be working when I stop having a heartbeat that a "smart watch" would track.

I'll probably replace the factory band with a wide olive drab canvas band with Velcro cover, just because I found that comfortable and unintrusive back when I used my old Timex with extra sweep second hand to e.g. match outgoing mortar rounds to aircraft time over target for Suppression of Enemy Air Defense missions. Not sure what ever happened to that old Timex, but I suspect it would still be keeping time on my wrist right now if I still had it.

Wordle 1844 Hint

Hint: David's giant-killing tool.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

I Suspect Tears Were Shed in Quantity

Per the New York Post:

A semi-truck leaked a whopping 40,000 pounds of sticky Frank’s RedHot sauce onto an Ohio highway amid a brutal heatwave last week.

That hot sauce is brewed up at the same factory where I worked as a miller making French's mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes barbecue sauce. I never made the hot sauce, but did occasionally help push the carts full of pepper seed that were extracted in the process out to the waste disposal area.

I don't recall how many tanks, or of what capacity, were used to store the sauce before bottling, I can tell you that your eyes instantly started watering when you walked into that part of the plant. Especially when they were making the "hotter" variety, which involved 55-gallon drums of capsaicin feeding extra heat into the basic brew.

This truck leak of 40,000 pounds calculates out to roughly 5,000 gallons of the stuff. Theme song for the passing traffic:

You Had One Job, Starz ...

... and that job was to tell a story that had an ending.

I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods (not an affiliate link), and just as big a fan of the Starz TV series (available to stream "free with ads" on Tubi), which ran for three seasons before ending in a "cliffhanger" without finishing the whole story.

With a novel/show/story like this (one that has a beginning and an ending), there shouldn't be any question of "renewing after each season." You either make the fucking show, or you don't.

If you do make the show, it should start with (metaphorically, anyway) "once upon a time" and finish with "the end," not with "yeah, we know we need a few more episodes to wrap things up, and we know that this show is going to continue making us money from streaming revenues forever no matter what we do, but screw the viewers who pay us every month o and the 'free with ads' viewers who watch after we 'syndicate' it, we're moving on to other things instead."

Just to be clear: I am not complaining about the show. It's very well-made, it tracks the novel well but goes down some alternate plot lines that make a lot of sense, and the people who actually made it ended it as best they could under the non-renewal circumstances. If you haven't watched it, you should.

Rotten Tomatoes agrees with my general assessment -- the show's first season got a 92% rating, and while the second season fell to 61%, the third season surged back to 79%. I suspect beginnings and endings tend to be more popular than middle segments, which the second and third season are.

What I'm complaining about is studios'/services'/networks' approach to whole stories. Sure, renew an episodic comedy or dramedy or action show by the season. But if you've got a full story -- beginning, middle, ending -- commit to making that whole story or turn it down and let someone else do it.

I wish Neil Gaiman had presented the deal that way: "I've got the whole novel. I've got treatments for every episode of the show and can have first-draft scripts (adjustable when it reaches shooting script stage) for those episodes by the time we start shooting. Here's how many episodes it will take to tell the story. Here's how much I'm willing to accept for the rights to the story, but the contract stipulates that the whole story gets made. If not, you pay me a kill fee of four times the original price and release the rights to me so I can continue making it elsewhere. In fact, we should just start shooting and stop shooting when the whole thing is in the can, instead of taking long 'season' breaks, even if you release it in 'season' chunks."

Wordle 1843 Hint

Hint: A hot cocktail.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: T

Wordle 1842 Hint

Hint: Religious teacher/leader a la Prabhupada.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1841 Hint

Hint: If you're the average American, you eat it about three times per month (that seems low to me, so I guess I'm above average).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #26

"Water benefits all things without contention." (Taoism, Tao Te Ching 8)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

Most of the aphorisms on this list kind of explain themselves, but I'll admit I had to read up on this one a little.

The three qualities of water Lao Tzu emphasized were:

1. That it doesn't care whether it's consumed by bamboo, a cat, or a human. It "just works" for whatever needs it;
2. It doesn't seek status -- in fact, it naturally flows to the lowest place it can find; and
3. Although it is  powerful -- it can penetrate and split rock -- it's also soft and easily shaped.

His point being that we should be like that.

It's been so long since I last read Tao Te Ching in its entirety that I don't recall whether he looked at it from the other side. Water is neither always beneficial nor always non-contentious, as anyone who's ever nearly drowned, had a home destroyed by storm/flood, etc., or even just had to treat or drain a gas tank because water got in the fuel can attest.

So I'd say that water is a lot more like humans actually are than like this aphorism implies humans should be. It doesn't just simulate human kindness or a supposedly ideal human placidity, it also simulates human will to power, human recklessness, etc.

Wordle 1840 Hint

Hint: When you're running a footrace and you pass something, but what you pass is not another runner.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Wordle 1839 Hint

Hint: A guru, of the "expert" or "virtuoso" type rather than the "spiritual leader" type.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

Back to the Tarp

Once winter was over and the weather was dry, I hit the roof of the Jayco 806SD camper with two good coats of sealant. That and some caulk along one seam seemed to solve the very minor leak problem (a slow drip in one spot) I observed when it rained.

The other day, though, I noticed a few drops of water in the cabin. I couldn't figure out for sure where they came from, but the roof-mounted AC/heater/fan unit was the prime suspect.

We had frog-strangler of a thunderstorm yesterday, and this morning, as I was working, a mini-torrent suddenly poured out of one vent and onto the top of my mini PC. Can't have that.

I don't use the unit, and it seems like completely removing it would create an even bigger sealing problem. I'll research that, but in the meantime I ordered a new tarp, large enough to cover the entire roof, for delivery later today.

The previous tarp worked OK, but wasn't really very high-quality and was already starting to degrade when I pulled it off in early spring after maybe four months of use. Other than visual appearance (and nobody can see the camper without looking really hard for it anyway), my only problems with tarping were:

1. I thought I might want to use that rooftop unit, but it turned out to be a crappy cooler (I suspect it needs a coolant charge) and heater (no real heat from it at all); and
2. I wanted to get the camper in full "like new" functionality/appearance, which isn't going to happen because replacement canvas would cost twice as much as I paid for the camper itself.

So, a tarp it is. For now. Maybe removing the unit and sealing the roof where it was won't be as big a deal as I think, but this incident increases my interest in either finding a more appropriate camper to use as an office, or moving ahead with the "geodesic dome home office" project I blogged about yesterday.

Wordle 1838 Hint

Hint: To hesitate due to doubt or objection.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

Thanks For Asking! -- 07/01/26

Ask me anything (yes, anything) in the comment thread below this post. It will be my pleasure to answer in, or linked to from, the comments. That commitment applies only to genuine readers/commenters. Pseudonymous trolls only get answers if I find their questions interesting.

I'm Considering a New Office ...

... and instead of a larger camper, I'm considering something like this:

That particular one is $665 at Amazon, but I may just work out the parts list and hit Lowe's if I think it will save significant money. It works out to about 163 square feet, so more spacious than my little pop-up (117 square feet, but that includes the popout bed spaces -- the actual floor space is only about 55 square feet). This would have plenty of room for bookcases, etc. without feeling cramped.

Of course, the dome is not the only cost. I'd need to come up with some kind of deck/flooring scheme. Probably just a flat deck made of pressure-treated 2x6s, sealed, and some rugs for the inside floor.

If I don't buy one of these pre-made ones with a clear PVC cover, I'll have to figure out a way of covering it, and if I do go with something like this one, I'll want to paint it except for a "skylight" up top, and perhaps a window or two.

Then a number of sheets (I haven't calculated it yet) of foam board insulation that I'll cut to fit the triangles inside the cover, and another paint job, this time on the inside.

And if I'm going to do this, I might as well do an 800-watt solar system -- panels, charge controller, battery, inverter -- at the same time, so call that another $1500.

I suspect I'm looking at $2,500-$3,000 dollars.

If necessary, I might wait on the solar setup to keep initial costs down and just keep using an extension cord/UPS setup for a little while, but it would be really nice to have the place be independent except for plumbing.

In fact, I suppose I COULD buy and assemble the dome, use it for storage or whatever (a greenhouse even!), then build the deck and move the dome onto it later. That modular approach would save me money if I decided before moving office into it that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

Not included in the costs above would be, over time, installing a mini-fridge, coffee brewer, etc. Usually if I go in the main house during working hours, it's to grab a soda or snack, and that would cut down on the trips back and forth. I'd also probably keep an eye out at thrift stores for a curved instead of rectangular desk to optimize the space a little more.

I've always thought geodesic domes are cool, so this sounds like a fun project ... as long as I can make the case to myself that it will be useful enough to justify the cost, work, and time investment.

Wordle 1837 Hint

Hint: When the sentence for eating homework is lenient because the perpetrator is, after all, a juvenile.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1836 Hint

Hint: Raw/unrefined (as with oil right out of the ground).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Wordle 1835 Hint

Hint: The "host" at a public entertainment event.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: E

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #25

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit." (Aristotelian Philosophy, Nicomachean Ethics II.4)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

I'm aware of many quibbles with this idea, ranging from religious beliefs in predestination to non-religious beliefs on genetic or environmental affects on character, but it rings true to me.

Ethics, as such, seems to me to presuppose both free will and an effect of "becoming" over time based on how we exercise that will. A "person" who can't become a "better person" isn't a "person," it's a "robot."

From a non-religious perspective, the reward for "excellence as a habit" is no more, and no less, than just living a good life, and that seems a like sufficient incentive in and of itself.

On the religious side, some sects, especially in the far east, encode that idea across more than one life -- actions in this life affect the circumstances/environment of rebirth into a next life, generally as part of some kind of ascent up the ladder of enlightenment.

Wordle 1834 Hint

Hint: Unit of ice cream measurement.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1833 Hint

Hint: Two opposites of today's Wordle, for different meanings thereof, would be "chronic" and "obtuse."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Wordle 1832 Hint

Hint: Aristotle held that a good drama requires today's Wordle with respect to time, place, and action. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: U

Interesting Bike Discovery ...

This is the X-Pro Navy 150 (not an affiliate link) at Walmart:

Looks a lot like my Italica Bulldog 150 (except in gray -- there's not a yellow model on offer).

Because, for all practical purposes, it is an Italica Bulldog 150. Same engine, same frame, structurally identical and, except for some exceedingly minor styling differences and brand name, otherwise identical.

Oh, and it's about $500 cheaper. That doesn't include the assembly I got when buying the Italica through my local dealer, but definitely not a bad deal if you'd like a Honda Navi but aren't willing to pay twice as much for the Honda name and a smaller engine and can do some fairly easy assembly work yourself.

I got my Lifan KP Mini 150 with the X-Pro branding, and since the experience with that has been excellent I'm not scared of buying that brand.

Even after I move up to a larger motorcycle, I think I will always want one of these around the house for in-town and short-distance rides. I might go with this one, or with Italica again, or find a used Navi, but they're just so convenient and fun to ride that I'd hate to live without one.

Wordle 1831 Hint

Hint: It used to be considered an insult; now it's a fairly common self-descriptor. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: Q

Wordle 1830 Hint

Hint: The Portuguese brought chili peppers to India -- then India brought this kind of food to the world. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Decisions, Decisions

My son somehow managed to drop the Italica Bulldog 150. Fortunately, on the grass, in the yard, at slow speed. No major damage -- busted mirror (I had workable replacements), busted headlight fairing.

I'm looking for a replacement fairing, but may just go ahead and replace the whole headlight with a nicer looking round can style as part of my desire to make the thing into a more "cafe racer" looking bike.

Or maybe not. My daughter says she's taking her motorcycle license class next weekend, and I told her she could have the Bulldog if she got the license for it. Maybe I'll just let her deal with the fairing.

Also this weekend, I saw my first Bulldog "in the wild" other than my own. It's the 2025, I think. I'd personally not prefer a white motorcycle, and the post-2024 models don't come in the lovely yellow I have.

Wordle 1829 Hint

Hint: Maybe or maybe not an egg, but definitely shaped like one. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: O

Wordle 1828 Hint

Hint: When you couldn't have done something because you were elsewhere.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Hopefully the Changes Will Remain Minimal

Back when streaming really started to be the big thing vs. cable TV, I went through the three major offerings and quickly settled on one.

• Amazon's Fire TV stick seemed like a natural fit since I was a prime member, but it was kinda meh, and also back in those days Amazon and Google would periodically argue and YouTube would disappear from the Fire TV menu.
• Google's early-version Chromecast was cheap, so I gave it a try, but I didn't like the interface as much as Amazon's and found it basically useless (I never bought the later versions of the device).
• Then I found a TV on a pretty good sale ... and it had Roku built into it. Loved the interface, and the offerings, from the start.

These days, every TV-size screen in our house, except for my two computer monitors (which are Amazon Fire TVs but never used as such), is either a Roku TV or has a Roku device plugged into it. Roku handles all the streaming platforms we have subscriptions to (including Amazon Prime TV), with lots of free options and periodic good intro deals on things we consider trying.

Now I hear that Fox is buying Roku for $22 billion.

Fox seems to be saying that the only really visible change to expect is more emphasis on Fox's own streaming channels (and, I expect, a concomitant lessening of emphasis on its direct competitors -- CBS's Paramount+ and NBC's Peacock) when Roku is making suggestions, and probably integration of The Roku Channel and Tubi into the Fox brand. The devices will continue to be open to all the streaming apps one might care to add.

That seems like the smart way to go. Roku has developed a damn good user interface and made itself (IMO) into the most usable and useful streaming device option by far. If Fox starts messing with that, either someone new will come along, or Amazon/Google will up their games, and the golden goose will end up wounded or dead.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #24

 "The wound of a friend is better than the kiss of an enemy." (Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahib 600)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

I guess it depends on whether the friend in question is really a friend, or just someone posing as a friend.

A real friend may sometimes wound you by telling you truths or offering observations that you find hurtful, but when a real friend does so it's for the purpose of trying to help you fix a problem or correct a flaw.

A fake friend may wound you in the guise of trying to help you, but only for purposes of plausible deniability, when he or she does not in fact have your best interests at heart. That "friend" may actually be an enemy, or just a manipulative type incapable of true friendship.

The aphorism presupposes an honesty/clarity regarding who's a friend and who's not, when such honesty/clarity isn't always the case.

Wordle 1827 Hint

Hint: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck ... and if it's an adult duck, there's a slightly more than 50% chance that it's one of these.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

Wordle 1826 Hint

Hint: Face with tears of joy! Red heart! Thumbs up!

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: E

Well, At Least They Didn't Make Him Do It In A Railroad Car

I wasn't especially surprised when Trump launched his war of naked Hitlerian aggression against Iran.

I wasn't surprised at all when he lost that war.

But I'm at least a little surprised that he agreed to sign the instrument of US surrender in, of all places, Versailles.

Reconsidering Mega

I don't use a lot of cloud storage with sync to a desktop folder (kilobytes, not megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes), and my preference for what little I do use would be for Proton to get their damn Linux desktop client out already.

I've been using Dropbox for most of my needs in this respect, and I have no real complaints with it, but yesterday I decided to have another look at Mega (not an affiliate link). I had largely written it off years ago because I didn't know if founder Kim Dotcom's legal problems would end with the service (and the data stored on it) disappearing.

At the moment, I'm only using the storage/sync functionality, as I'm quite happy with Proton's VPN and password manager offerings.

So far so good. The only down side I see is that there's one application I use that doesn't offer Mega as a cloud storage option for loading/saving. If I decide I prefer Mega to Dropbox, I guess I'll look for another app.

In theory, Mega offers better encryption than Drobox. That's not a big issue for me as I don't store anything sensitive in the cloud.

Mega also offers a lot more storage than Dropbox -- 20Gb vs. 2Gb -- but like I said, my sync data is measured in kilobytes.

So this note is really for you and about your needs. If you need cloud storage and sync, Mega looks like a pretty good option, and its sync client does run on non-systemd Linux distros like MX Linux.

Wordle 1825 Hint

Hint: Like a one-way door opening inward.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: E

Wordle 1824 Hint

Hint: Types within the world of cryptocurrency include (among others) utility, governance, and non-fungible.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: T

Wordle 1823 Hint

Hint: In one word, astonish. In two words, labyrinth.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: A

Wordle 1822 Hint

Hint: Flank steak, cooked London-style.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

IMO, Sewer Politics is a Cesspool

Abut a decade ago, while out on a bicycle ride, I happened to converse with a gentleman who was, at the time, mayor of Archer, Florida. His big goal for the city was a sewer system.

While I'm not a big fan of "collective action" via government, he made a strong case for a sewer system down in the fairly densely populated part of the small town, more for business reasons than due to any residential problems. In particular, he cited the town's only bar/restaurant (at the time), which could only operate about half the week because its septic system couldn't handle the seven-day levels of effluent and apparently couldn't be replaced with a stand-alone system that would. The mayor felt that lack of a sewer system was holding back the town's economic development.

I didn't think much more about that conversation, even after we recently moved to Archer's zip code.

Then, last week, I saw a news story: The town is getting its sewer system.

"Phase 1" of that system will cover the aforementioned densely populated section of the town (population 1,100 or so). They'll be running a main pipe about ten miles to the nearest treatment plant and hooking up that "core" area to it, probably by 2030 at the latest.

"Phase 2," which may implicate my household, is what I'm concerned with -- it does appear to come all the way out to our house.

From what I can tell, it will be mandatory, require the homeowner to pay at least mid-four, and possibly low-five, figures for trenching, septic tank removal, and hookup (either up-front or as a property tax add-on for 20-30 years), and of course come with a monthly bill forever after.

Apart from that initial huge bill, sewer might actually "pay for itself" versus the cost of periodically having the tank pumped out.

But ... that phase doesn't really seem to make much sense otherwise.

The area I live in is most of two miles from any densely populated area, and most of the two miles the sewer main would run to get to this area would just be running through farmland with an even lower population density. We live on a cowpath which terminates at a farm to the east of us, with a tree farm south of us, another regular farm west of us (just past a narrow and poorly-maintained paved road), and a couple of similar cowpaths north of us before yet more farm and high-voltage power-line right of way. The houses out here are all hundreds of yards apart, and (at least according to the testing we had done when buying the house) the water quality is great.

Of course, there's always the possibility of a development explosion and big increase in population density, but most of that, if it happens, will probably start quite a distance from us and take many years to reach us.

It seems like "Phase 2" is more about getting (from federal, state, and county grants) and spending millions of dollars for the sake of getting and spending those millions of dollars than about any "health" or "development" reasons. While the homeowners will pay the costs of trenching from the main to the house, etc., the revenue generated by that main will likely take decades to justify the cost of installing the main in the first place. Having lived in a town ruled by politicians with grand schemes for constantly expanding the things they can be in charge of (is there any other kind?) was a primary motivator for us to get back to living "in the country."

One person I discussed this with wanted to talk all about the environmental damage a leaky septic tank can do to the environment, the aquifer, etc. He suddenly went silent when I asked him whether a leaky septic tank here and there was likely to do as much damage to the environment, the aquifer, etc., as a burst sewer main aggregating the effluent from hundreds or thousands of homes.

Fortunately, "Phase 2" is still "un-funded" and will likely not reach us for several years if it does get the green light. It's one item that will go on the "do we sell and move even further out of town, and if so, when?" list.

Wordle 1821 Hint

Hint: The brown tone of old photographs.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Poor Shipping Practices or Poor Tracking Software?

I'm awaiting delivery on a package sent via US Snail.

It left Miami, about 335 miles from my house, on Wednesday.

It arrived in Jacksonville, about 85 miles from my house, on Thursday morning.

It arrived in Gainesville, about ten miles from my house, on Thursday evening.

It arrived in Archer, about 1.8 miles from my house, early yesterday morning, so I expected it to arrive yesterday or maybe today.

Checked the mailbox (it would probably fit in there), and the front porch. No dice.

A few minutes ago, it arrived in Jacksonville, about 85 miles from my house.

All of that according to online tracking, of course. So it's possible that some or all of the information is incorrect.

It wasn't any kind of important or rush shipping thing, so no biggie, but it does make me wonder what the hell is going on.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #23

 "Let no one be called happy before his death." (Greek Philosophy, Herodotus, Histories 1.32)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

Two things worth noting, to start:

1. Herodotus (an historian) wasn't saying this in the first person. He attributed it to Solon, the "father of Greek democracy."
2. It's not the whole aphorism. There's a second sentence: "Till then, he is not happy, only lucky."

Solon took a ... long view ... of life. Happiness, as an external observation from others, he believed shouldn't be thought of as a judgment of a moment, but as a description of a whole life.

The person who seems happy at noon may have received word that a loved one died, or that his bank account was emptied by thieves, by 1 pm. So while he might appear happy at noon, he was actually just in a moment of good fortune before his luck changed.

I don't personally see much utility in this aphorism. Unless I know others' futures, I'd rather just accept their apparent happiness while it's there, and be happy with and for them. I do find a lot of utility in long-term thinking, but not in this specific case.

Wordle 1820 Hint

Hint: What police try to do versus "unrest," "disturbance," or "riot."

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: Q

Wordle 1819 Hint

Hint: Brief work stoppage.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ad below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B