bobmacliberty

When we moved 4 years ago, we incorrectly thought that our moving quote included packing.  We called a couple of days before the move date asking when they'd be there to pack.  Oops.  We spent the next couple of days feverishly packing and making numerous trips to Lowes for more boxes and bubble wrap.  The movers just loaded and unloaded everything.

The quote that we received from Two Men and a Truck was a bit more because it was 2 dedicated drivers who would drive directly from our old house to our new house after loading the truck, with one stop overnight.  The same guys that loaded would then unload, and our stuff wouldn't get mixed in with stuff from other people.  We preferred this but we weren't going directly to our new house and the truck would have arrived before us.  We instead went with Allied Moving.  They put our stuff in a truck, put it in storage for a couple of days, and then later combined it with other stuff from someone else headed to the same area as us, so get more efficiency from a full truck.  This meant extra moving of boxes and furniture between storage and trucks which caused a lot of damage for us.  I can't imagine that everyone who moves would have the same amount of damage that we had, so we must have been an unusual situation.  Still, I'd make sure that we use the Two Men and a Truck model of point to point moving the next time (although I hope there isn't a next time 😁) to avoid additional handling and damage.

52 minutes ago, DeltaOne said:

 

I found some info here:

 

https://www.frommers.com/tips/cruise/icon-of-the-seas-doesnt-have-enough-lifeboatson-purpose

 

Here's the pertinent part:

 

Icon of the Seas, like an increasing number of vessels, is also equipped with what the maritime industry terms a Marine Evacuation System (MES). When a signal to abandon ship is issued by the bridge, MES systems deploy escape tubes over a ship's sides. Escaping passengers make their way down the tubes using an internal ladder system and descend into rafts that are capable of fully inflating within 90 seconds.

 

Per the article, 17 lifeboats at 450 people per boat equals 7650 person lifeboat capacity.  Also per the article, double occupancy is 5610 guests.  The ship will often be more than double occupancy but still plenty of lifeboat capacity for guests.  I agree that they'd probably use the MES system just for crew, especially if there's some training needed.

14 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

Link has been bookmarked & saved for a rainy day or sleepless night. 

 

The whole premise of Postmodern Jukebox sound very familiar and now I realize I have seen some of their performances when one of my most favorite American Idols to never win Idol "guest performed (??)" on some of their songs.   It seems they have a rotating cast of lead singers.

 

Haley Reinhart performing Radio Heads "Creep"

 

 

 

Haley is definitely my favorite singer in the PMJ videos.  As one commenter put it, "Haley has a way of curling her voice around lyrics like smoke".  Love that gravely tone that she can toss in.  Her version of Seven Nation Army is incredible.  

12 minutes ago, Keksie said:

Not that long ago but classics: Princess Bride, and Blazing Saddles.  

Princess Bride has some all-time great quotes:

"Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoyo. You killed my father.  Prepare to die."

"Inconceivable!"

"You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."

2 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

Does this seem like an excessive price to anyone?

 

 

 

48 Bulk Pecan Turtles In Burgundy And Gold Gift Box 14 Oz. (Bulk)

Bulk These gift box includes 24 mouth-watering Pecan Turtles, seven-eighths pound. Available in elegant burgundy and gold gift box and foil-stamped with your logo on the cover. Get these now have an awesome impact when you use these as your promotional giveaway!

 

$1,648

 

If the box is made of 1 oz of solid gold, it's a bargain!

I'm a Hitchcock fan.  Rear Window and North by Northwest are 2 of my favorites.  For comedies, I always enjoy Some Like It Hot.

Every now and then I go down a YouTube rabbit hole.  My latest journey involves a musical group called Postmodern Jukebox.  They re-arrange popular songs in completely different and older styles.  The first one that I saw was Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me done in a 1960s early soul style.  That led me to Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like a Woman! in a 1950s Marilyn Monroe style and Kiss's I Was Made For Lovin' You in a spaghetti western style (with an incredible singer).  They have hundreds (literally) of songs that they've redone in jazz, soul, swing, doo-wop, R&B...you name it.  They've done songs from Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Lizzo, Spice Girls, Blondie, ELO, The Police, Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, Huey Lewis, U2, Rihanna...the list goes on and on.  

If you're looking to kill some time watching some very talented musicians, their main YouTube page is here.  Don't say that I didn't warn you. 😁

1 hour ago, akcruz said:

 

 

We have it all recorded and started watching the 1st episode but was not in the mood for subtitles that night so didn't finish it.  Keep saying we will try again but reluctant due to them.  Do all episodes have as many subtitles? 

Yes.  The majority of dialog is in Japanese with subtitles throughout the series.  I'm used to reading closed captioning, so it doesn't bother me.  

7 minutes ago, George C said:

I also enjoy Shogun but I would have preferred that there was less Japanese with English subtitles. 

I have closed captioning turned on anyway. 😜  Although it's a little bit of a pain to read the subtitles, I think it's more authentic having 2 Japanese people speaking to each other in Japanese.  It also makes sense when a Japanese person is speaking and Blackstone doesn't understand, and makes it easier to know when Blackstone and Mariko are speaking in English.

20 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

The 2024 show Shogun was very highly recommended to me.It is on Hulu but I do not have that.

We are watching Shogun.  It's excellent.  It's also on FX, if you have access to that channel and can watch the episodes that were aired previously.  The only thing I don't like is that you need to wait a week for another episode.  I've become spoiled binge watching.

9 hours ago, HBE4 said:

I was at the NY Auto Show last week and every manufacture had their electric cars displayed  proudly front and center under bright lights  while the older cars were relegated to the dark, back corners.  While talking with the many automotive representatives there, they told me the biggest obstacle in selling EV is most people have "range anxiety",  that they will get stranded when their car run out of juice. The irony there is that study after study shows that something like 80% of people will typically (key word) refuel their gas-powered car after driving 300-350 miles which is within range of most EV. Again, talking typical range, not maximum range. So their "range anxiety" is really unfounded. 

 

The bigger obstacle is charging time.  Rapid chargers have reduced empty-to-full charging time from several hours to as little as 30 minutes, which is still substantially longer then the 5 minutes it takes for gas cars. One big benefit to EV's is that you can charge your car at home, which you can't do with a gas-powered car. So there's that. People just will need to get in the habit of plugging in their cars at night, just like they do with the cell phones. 

 

And for most driving needs - going to work, school, shopping, etc - that will be just fine. It's the long road trips where you need to fill up 4 or 5 times what it still the big obstacle that the industry needs to work out.

 

All the other "obstacles" being suggested - not enough electricity in the power grid, how to recycle, cars catching fire, etc - are valid concerns that can be fixed just like all the "obstacles" that faced gas-powered cars when they first came out. Not enough gas stations, no paved roads, no traffic lights, no auto mechanics to fix cars , no schools to train auto mechanics, no drive thru McDonalds, no XM radio, etc, etc etc.  It just takes time.   In 1900, there were 8,000 cars in the US. Yet despite all the obstacles I listed, by 1920, there were 8 million and 25 million by 1930. From 8,000 to 25 million in 30 years. Give EV 30 years to mature. and solve the obstacles.

 

BTW, while I sound like a EV proponent, I'm in no rush to buy an EV and I think it's silly to mandate them by 2035 or even 2055.  The technology still needs more time to mature. If the government is going to mandate/encourage, it should be for vehicles that drive a predictable range every day. Commuter buses, school bus's, garbage trucks, mail carriers, delivery trucks etc while the geniuses that invent stuff figure out to to charge a light-weight battery in under 5 minutes giving a car a 500 mile driving range under all extreme weather conditions and never needs to be recycled.

I agree with everything that you've written.  I'm an ideal candidate for an EV.  We have 2 cars and don't drive either one very far, so range anxiety isn't an issue (except for the couple of times a year when we take a longer road trip).  In fact, I have to occassionally trickle charge both of our car batteries since they don't get charged enough from driving.  I could plug in an EV overnight and almost never have to worry.  I'm also a tech geek who likes the tech in many EVs.  For a while, I was monitoring the new EVs that were coming out thinking that this year or next I'd replace my current vehicle with an EV.  I was waiting until the Mercedes and BMWs of the world came out with luxury vehicles designed as EVs from the ground up rather than being retrofitted into a gas car with some compromises (like a hump in the floor for a drive train that no longer exists).  I'm not a Tesla fan...too minimalist for me and not enough of a luxury vehicle with fit and finish issues. 

I'm backing off looking at EVs for now.  If I were to replace my car today, I'd probably go with gas or hybrid.  I'll squeeze a few more years from my current car and see how things have changed both in EV designs and in the charging ecosystem.  We're seeing more chargers pop up in places where a gas pump can't be located (parking garages, restaurants, stores, etc.) which I think is an advantage for the EV market.  It's getting easier to "plug in" wherever you go, although we're far from that being broad enough to impact range anxiety in a big way.  There are also changes being made in where and how EV batteries are being made.  The US may have the largest lithium deposit yet found in the world and environmentally cleaner battery production processes are evolving...just like manufacturing processes for many other products that were historically bad for the environment.  Battery development will also certainly lead to better power density, meaning more range.

One of the things that I'm keeping an eye on is Toyota's hydrogen engine.  Toyota, the largest car maker in the world, has not fully embraced EVs.  They continue generating huge sales with their hybrids while developing what they think will be a better option than current EV designs.  Even if Toyota is successful with their hydrogen ICE, they will face the same challenge of how to distribute hydrogen to consumers who want to refill their vehicle.

I wouldn't buy an EV just because I thought I was helping the environment.  I'd buy it because I like the vehicle.  I can't justify the big increase in price of an EV over its roughly equivalent gas ICE that exists today.  As others have noted, this price increase is part of what's caused the EV market share in the US to level off (depending on what you read).  If I were to guess, I'd guess that the EV market will be much more robust in 10 years.

My daughter texted me about OJ before I saw the news.  I replied that she should expect a lot of white bronco chase videos in the next couple of days.  Since that was before she was born, she texted back that this is what she remembers most about a white bronco chase:

I forget how funny the Shrek movies were.  I love the Puss In Boots line. 

Knight: Catnip. 

Puss In Boots: That's ah, not mine.

4 minutes ago, BonTexasNY said:

I'm asking again if anyone saw @brillohead Debbi post recently?  She's been MIA for the longest time.

Looks like her last activity was on March 16 and her last post was in February.  Hopefully everything is OK and she's just busy.

44 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have always been against a college athlete who attends solely to play a sport.There are many non athletes who cannot get into a college because of this.I am also against the college athletes who graduate but academically should not have been there at all.I enjoy rooting for players who are students primarily.

I don't mind athletes in college, even if they are only a student in name.  If you want to play professional football or basketball, you have to go through college.  This is the path to a future for some of these kids, even if that future is not academically related.  The schools make a LOT of money from those 2 sports, especially the big-name schools.  That money funds scholarships for other athletes in smaller sports who ARE good students, don't have a pro sports option after graduation, and might not otherwise be able to afford college.  Combined with Title IX, this gives opportunities to a lot of girls who might not have been able to attend college.  At Kentucky, profits from sports were used to build a brand new academic building which benefits all students. 

I understand the thought that "student athletes" who are paid to attend a school just to play a sport are overly privileged, but I think it's quite a bit more complicated than that. 

Edit: I'll also add that sports are a fun part of the college experience for those who don't play sports.  It's a nice relief from the pressures of school and helps generate school pride.  Without sports, there wouldn't be student managers, marching bands, cheerleaders and dance teams, etc.  I'll get off my soap box now.  🙂

RIP Bella. 😢

Someone at NASA was having fun with their NASA Moon and NASA Sun Twitter accounts. 🤣

19 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I think they were popular in the 50s thru the 80s.  

 

I think you're right.  I don't think popcorn ceilings were a fashion choice so much as it's much easier and faster to put up drywall that way.  Just spray the ceiling to get the popcorn texture.  No time/skill needed to apply and sand drywall mud multiple times to get a smooth finish.  

4 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

What do you think about Calipari taking over the Men’s Basketball team at Arkansas ?
People tell me that he is burnt out .

3 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

It surprised me. He has done well so far.  If I was burnt out, I wouldn't take another job.

I was happy to see Musselman leave.  He was too much of a whiner for me.  

 

As a casual Kentucky fan (daughter got her undergrad degree there), I was happy to see Coach Cal go.  I was not the only Kentucky fan to feel that way.  He has arguably had the best talent of any college team (NBA teams are littered with former UK players) but they were all one and done.  No matter how much talent you have as a freshman, it's tough to go against some of the more experienced 3 and 4 year players on teams like Virginia, or Villanova, or Gonzaga.  He had a hard time just winning the SEC.  Cal didn't seem willing to move away from the one and done model.  Worse, he complained every year about how his guys had a hard time adjusting to being great team players. 🙄

Hopefully he tries a different approach at Arkansas and has better success.  I think he's still a good coach.

7 hours ago, h20skibum said:

We are about 2 miles from the border, which is nice, because we can get gas $0.70-$1.00 a gallon cheaper than here in PA.

 

The place we hiked was about a 50 minute drive for us.

Mark - Have you guys been to Hocking Hills in OH?  It's a couple of hours south of Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park so I'm guessing a good 3 hours from you.  They have great hiking with lots of caves and waterfalls.  Hard to believe it's actually in OH given how flat and boring most of the OH landscape is.  Definitely worth staying a night or 2 there, especially in the fall.

We had about 60% eclipse coverage here.  It got a little bit darker but not much.  We tried too late to get glasses (everyone sold out) so couldn't look at it.  My SIL, who works in Dayton, OH, took this picture from the roof of his building.  He said it was much cooler to see in person than the picture shows.

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I was going to say that about St. Kitts. It has a similar outcrop of land with the Caribbean on one side and the Atlantic on the other.

Oops.  You're correct.  That is supposed to say St. Kitts.  I've never even been to St. Croix. 🤣

5 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Views on the way up - Pittwater one side and Palm Beach on the other.

 

As always, spectacular photos.  This one reminds me of St. Croix. Atlantic Ocean on one side and Caribbean Sea on the other.

6 hours ago, Jimbo said:

 

Not a Clark hater at all,just see how she struggled with a good defense on her.I really hope she does well. But the others players on her team really stepped up tonight as to why they won tonight's game.

But that last foul on that moving screen call was terrrible.Would have really been a good ending to a game without that to see what really would have happened.

Let's face it though womens basketball wants to see Clark in the Finals.

UConn, especially Nika Muhl, did play great defense that held Clark to 3 for 11 early.  But Clark still managed to come through for 21 points including some big 3s with Muhl tightly in her face.  She can handle good defense.

The foul seemed a bit iffy on first watch, and the timing with 4 seconds left isn't good, but it was definitely a foul when watching the replay from other angles:

https://x.com/IowaSportsGuy1/status/1776467266797785500

Hate to see that at the end of such a good game though.

8 hours ago, George C said:

Billy. Joel will be doing hundredth concert at Madison square garden in two weeks and CBS will have it on tv . 

I have it scheduled to be recorded.  It was actually a concert from last week (Mar 28) that was recorded and will be aired in 2 weeks.  I'm interested in seeing how it compares to the concert that we saw in January.  

I may have already posted this (memory issues can be scary) but if you've got 2 hours to kill, there was an interesting interview of Billy Joel by Howard Stern last month.  Billy is sitting in front of a piano the whole time and often plays something.  It's amazing to see his musical talent and the way that he thinks about music.  

15 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

That is quite an accomplishment, it speaks to his consistency.   Just bought my Ranger playoff tickets for rounds 1 & (hopefully) 2. Fingers-crossed, I don't see Sid the Kid. He's a Ranger-killer.

 

Alex Ovechkin is 46 goals away from breaking Gretzky records for career regular season goals. If he can keep up his current pace, that's about a 1 1/2 seasons away. I wonder if he's going to play into his 40's to set a new record?

Never thought I'd see anyone even close to Gretzky's records.  His assists and points records are probably safe.  Impressive accomplishments for both Sid and Ovechkin.  Between Lemieux, Jagr, and Crosby, Pittsburgh always seems to have great scorers.