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A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Books are my comfort food!

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Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Let there be snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road" / Greetings From the Only State in the Union Without Multiple Weather Alerts

Greetings From the Only State in the Union Without Multiple Weather Alerts

by | 86 Comments

This post is in: ,

I forgot about the time zone thing so I am coming at you a little late, but I did want to let you know that unlike where I would normally be, it is nice outside and I am eating legit ceviche as I write this. In Bethany it is super shitty and the power is out because a tree fell in town.

Spent a lot of time exploring today. I went to the Standard Restaurant Supply store in Mesa, and it was fucking ginormous and one of the greatest places I have ever been. They had everything. I could spend days in that place.

Then I went to the Asiana Market, and just browsed and looked at options for later purchases. Picked up some banging kimchI and some Korean Pears, though.

I visited a couple big box electronics store looking for open box tv’s, but had no luck. Joelle’s tv works but it is 20 years old and the only way to get to netflix on the Amazon Prime is through the Cox Communication app, and basically it takes ten minutes to load a show on Netflix. I have limited funds (the bike is already a fond memory unless I can find one for a steal on fb marketplace), so I want to try to spend 100-200 bucks max.

It just had to be made in the last decade, basically, and big enough to see for me. Not that I am a size queen when it comes to tv’s, but I’m at the point in bifocals that if the tv is really small that means to get a clear picture of it I have to hold my head in JUST THE RIGHT WAY AND NOT MOVE once I am in the narrow range of my progressive lenses. GZetting old sucks.

At any rate, it doesn’t have to be anything special or be a top of the line thing- anything is an upgrade and how much can you really care about the picture when the glare from the sun coming through the windows fucks with the picture anyway. So I think under 200 is doable.

What are you all up to? What is going on with the kitty cat rescue we talked about the other night?

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    RaflW

    Does her 20 year old TV have an HDMI input? I stream tons of stuff to our semi-ancient, weird brand (Olevia) flat screen TV via Chromecast & my laptop.

  2. 2.

    Chetan Murthy

    @RaflW: Hell, if you have a lappie or desktop with HDMI output, you can eschew the Chromecast.  I’ve done that with a lappie to my TV.  Heck, it’s the only way I can play anything on the teevee, since I don’t have and never had cable, never had an antenna, etc.

  3. 3.

    rekoob

    CES in Las Vegas this week had a whole slew of new TVs on display. I’m partial to Sony, but I hear good things about TCL and Hisense. There are some up-to-date TCL TVs that are slightly more expensive (but still under $300) that might fit your needs. Also, there may be some discounts after the Big Game on 11 February. I’ve been pretty happy with Apple TV as my primary streaming device, but YMMV.

  4. 4.

    Redshift

    Got back last night from a quick trip to Valley Forge, which I’d never been to and the Ms hasn’t been since she was a kid. We had a really good time; lot of the museum exhibit in the visitors center focuses on logistics and training for the Continental Army, which are the really important things that got organized there. The outdoor parts were educational and also pretty to drive around, and we visited a very good winery (Penns Woods) afterward.

  5. 5.

    Chetan Murthy

    @rekoob: My eyes are a little older than John’s and …. I suspect that they’ll never be good enoough to actually see 1080p.  I’d bet you can get decent pretty-big-but-not-gynormous 720p TVs used for <$100 these days.

  6. 6.

    CaseyL

    I have a 2018 Vizio 55″ flatscreen that I’ve never even taken out of the box.  I think it would cost almost as much to ship to you as buying a TV where you are, but let me know if you’re interested.  WaterGirl has my contact info.

    (Never took out of the box because I stopped watching TV entirely right around then.  The thing has been sitting under my staircase all these years!)​

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    Chiefs just won.  Bring on the pain of frozen limbs coming back to life.

    (Talking about the team.  I wasn’t at the game.)

  10. 10.

    Redshift

    @rekoob: I’m pretty pleased with the Samsung we got almost a year ago. It’s the first “smart” tv we’ve had that seems actually smart, rather than “smart” meaning “it has a lot of features you have to try to navigate with an inadequate remote.” It does various streaming stuff, HDMI inputs and airplay well, and it’s not too many steps to do the things we want.

  11. 11.

    Yutsano

    Fresh 김치 is a revelation. I can eat kimchi pretty much any way but the true best way is when the batch is no matter than an hour old. Throw some sesame seeds on top with some rice and that’s a happy lunch for me. And necessary: after all the carpetbombing my system has taken I’ll need to reconstruct my gut biome. I’m not the biggest fan of kombucha so a lot of kimchi in my near future makes me a happy duck🦆

  12. 12.

    Poe Larity

    Just build a puppet theater and hire the local kids to perform. They’ve seen all the good shows or have them on their phones.

  13. 13.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: A little follow-up: I bought a 720p TV from a friend who was moving out of the country back in …. 2010 and have used it ever since.  I don’t remember what size it is, but it’s plenty big, and I gotta believe you can get suckers like that for the cost of hauling it away …. b/c everybody wants to get the latest model.

    I used to drive it from an AppleTV 2 (with XBMC on it), and when I finally clean up my living room I might do that again, but otherwise, I’ll just attach my old home server (a lowest-powered Intel NUC) and use XBMC on that.  But I’ve driven it from a laptop via the HDMI port, and it works fine.

  14. 14.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Yutsano: wait, really?  I was led to believe by all the Korean cooking videos that really well-fermented kimchi was the boom?  So I bought a container and basically left it undisturbed in the back of my fridge since late summer.  Should I have just gone ahead and eaten it ?

  15. 15.

    eclare

    Cold weather and snow is supposed to get here tomorrow, so I am going to be up early to gas up the car and hit the grocery store.  And turn the taps on.

  16. 16.

    rekoob

    @Another Scott: He’s in Tempe, part of metro Phoenix. Tucson would be a bit of a haul. As others have suggested, there are probably plenty of folks seeking to upgrade their TVs. Scottsdale would be a happy hunting ground, I should think.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    @Chetan Murthy: Are you serious? Auntie Maangchi has always enjoyed her kimchi fresh right after she makes it. She even says a lot of Koreans like it that way fresh. If you get a fresh package from HMart, yeah you should eat it right away. It’s absolutely delicious.

  18. 18.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Redshift: If you haven’t already been, Cloisters in Ephrata (Lancaster County) are a great historical visit.  I like all the good stuff down here in Florida, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten Pennsylvania.  Suspect you’ll be spending many years enjoying all that PA (and let’s not forget the surrounding states) has to offer

    EDT: Chester County wineries are top shelf….so are Bucks County, if you can find them.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    @rekoob: Thanks.

    Around here in NoVA, there’s a county electronics recycling/disposal place, but big tvs are such a pain to move that lots of people just put them out on the curb the weekend before trash day rather than dragging them out there – with the expectation that scroungers will take it.  So, curb shopping is an option too.

    Agreed, it should be a solvable problem, but may take some time.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    Alison Rose

    @Chetan Murthy: My apartment building is a dump and there is no insulation. Nearly the whole outer wall in the living room is windows which I believe are made of glass roughly the thickness of tissue paper. Which means I have to run my heater a lot. Which means PG&E gouging the fucking hell out of me. I hate capitalism. And being poor.

  27. 27.

    KrackenJack

    NorCal isn’t exempt: “Heavy mountain snow will create major travel impacts over the Sierra and southern Cascades tomorrow [Saturday] above 6000 feet,” the National Weather Service warned. “Travel is HIGHLY discouraged.”

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose: I hear you: the south wall of my apartment is one big sliding glass door.  When I’m sitting near it, I can see the draft ruffling the curtain.  The only thing that makes it OK is that heat is included in the rent.  Of course, for my landlord (they bought the property a few years after I moved in, and are very nice people: I like them a lot) it sucks.  If I were paying those rates, I’d be cursing, lemmetellya.  As it is, until a couple of weeks ago i wasn’t running the heat at night, b/c a blanket was enough to make it OK to sleep.  But when it got a bit colder, that didn’t work anymore.  Ah, well.

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    @Yutsano: PCC has a cashew milk yogurt with five cultures.  It makes my innards happy.  Plain unsweetened with a good jam or preserves is most appealing to me.  The pre sweetened don’t seem so great.  Fresh Kim Chee is a miracle food!

    Keep on healing!!

  30. 30.

    satby

    It’s 8° and though I cleaned off the car after you saw the picture, it’s covered with the same amount of snow. And I’m up too late and will have to go make coffee in the morning for the UUs, so I’m crabby because almost all of them will stay home and Zoom the service instead.

  34. 34.

    Dan B

    @Chetan Murthy: I froze in LA years ago when visiting a friend over Christmas.  We sat under the bathroom heat lamp but the drafts made it inadequate.  It was 50° outside.

    Our power went out today for 3 1/2 hours.  It was 19° out.  We put on sweaters, coats, hats, and down comforts.  The cats were very disturbed that their Mom-Guys had failed to provide the proper level of comfort.  They both parked under the ductless heat pump wash the moment it turned on

    BTW We were the only neighborhood in Seattle with an outage.  Our cats blamed us for that as well

    My partner looked like Cole in his outfit.  Eerie.

  35. 35.

    The Cat's Chair

    The ‘Silver Thaw’ on the coast in Oregon is weighing down the three ivy-choked holly trees overhanging me.  I cut 10-15′ off all of them last summer… but two of them are still tall enough to take out the tool-shed adjoining my house if they fall.

    Please, Dog, let those horrible weed trees make it thru this.

  37. 37.

    satby

    @CaseyL: I did the same thing almost the same year. Now almost 5 year old tv still sitting in the box. It’s a 46 inch though, I think. I should donate it somewhere.

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    @satby: After no one shows up for the service tomorrow you can drink all the coffee and then be manic and crabby.  What fun!

    Alternatively you could defrost and de-ice the car and end up with a lovely iced mocha color car outline in the parking lot.

  40. 40.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @satby:

    Maybe it might be worth selling on ebay or Craigslist? At least that way you could get some money back out of it

  42. 42.

    satby

    @Dan B: eh, I am showing someone else how to do the coffee set up, then I won’t have to do it twice a month. So long as they show up it’ll be worth it.

  44. 44.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Dan B: brrrr, sorry to hear of the power outage today. I’ve been lucky these past couple of windstorms to not lose it. I do have a wood stove now but not much experience with it. I did enjoy a fire Friday night as a second test and finally have the flue settings right.

  45. 45.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Yutsano: ​
    now I’m confused. Is it actually fermented, like sauerkraut? But better when eaten soon after finishing fermenting? It is a lovely food, if a bit spicy for me
    ETA: KEXP played “Kimchi for Christmas” a lot this past season 😸

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Garden variety model Roku box* (I prefer it over the stick but YMMV) will set you back maybe 30 clams – 40 if not on sale for a model that can handle 4k in addition to hi def . Netflix, Prime and any number of other streaming channels (many requiring no subscription) and no cable company app.

    *Unnecessary if you’re buying a TCL or Roku TV.

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @satby:

    nah, it wasn’t that expensive anyway. I’ll see if one of the homeless shelters can use it.

    I’m sure they’ll appreciate it

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    For any newish, the jurassic dude from above has been pulling one or another such begging stunts for years and years. In a word, troll.

  54. 54.

    Casey

    When you budget allows, they make matte screen TVs that don’t reflect all the window light.  My Samsung frame tv room has 6 glaring windows, no problems.

  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    I vaguely recognized the nym, but didn’t know this was something they’ve been doing over and over again for years

  57. 57.

    CaseyL

    @satby: I should donate mine, too, if Cole doesn’t want it.

    @Dan B:  Brrr!  I counted myself very lucky that the power wasn’t out at my place.  Particularly as I was coming back from a trip to Florida, and wasn’t wearing adequate clothing for this weather.  It wasn’t much of an issue at the airport, since a friend was picking me up, but I was very grateful to have a warm house at the end of the ride.  Not to mention my elderly cat, who wouldn’t have been amused one little bit if the heat went out.

  60. 60.

    Alison Rose

    @Anoniminous: Um, but I don’t want to cover my only windows with plastic so I can’t see outside and the cat can attack it and shred it. Also, I’m not talking about a tiny little window like she had, this is like 7 feet by 5 feet worth of glass.

  64. 64.

    SectionH

    @Alison Rose:  @Chetan Murthy:  Alternate cheap window insulation: foam core. You can get 1/2″ depth 40″ wide x 9 feet for, well, I bought one sheet for $15 about 8 years ago, so it undoubtedly costs more now, but I’m heading out to find one more sheet anyway. Serious insulation, but requires putting up and taking down. I always feel like some really excellent roadie moving scenery around. I store the pieces during the day against my desk.

    The 1/4″ inch stuff, which you can find at a Michael’s and places like that* is a lot cheaper. And that’s useful to get right in the cracks where the wind gets in.

    In any case, just cut (exacto knife) to fit your windows where they don’t fit well.

    Also too, I put up with this because I hate curtains.

    *Any decent art supply store should have it or be able to get it for you.

  67. 67.

    Alison Rose

    @SectionH: Okay, please, I was just whining, I’m not looking for handyman solutions here. I don’t want to cover up my entire windows all day. I’m homebound due to disability and looking out the windows is my only connection to the outside world. I have a cat who likes watching the birds, I like being reminded that the sky exists. It’s not like the north frigging pole in here, it’s just a little chillier than I’d like in cold weather so I run the heater more. That’s it. This isn’t a hammer in search of a nail here, folks :P

  68. 68.

    Alison Rose

    @Anoniminous: I don’t want to cover my entire windows in thick plastic! As noted above, I like being able to look outside. My cat would hate it and destroy it. I am not dying from frostbite, it’s just nippy in the mornings. I didn’t need a fix-it, I was just bitching.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    @SectionH

    Mom said she noticed a wintertime draft coming from the space where the twp sections of the sliding door to the balcony meet.

    Bought a pool noodle, carefully cut it in half into two lengthwise pieces, then trimmed the pieces to fit stuffed into the height of the doorway. Voila. Instant insulation. iIRC, only one piece was all that was needed, so she has a back-up. Got a color of noodle that if you don’t look too closely nearly matches her carpeting.

  71. 71.

    SeattleDem

    @Alison Rose: Situations like that resemble the kinds of buildings that tapestries were invented for. Hanging blankets over the drapes can make a surprising difference for keeping a place warm at night,

  72. 72.

    SectionH

    @Alison Rose:  You’re fine. I sure AF bitch a lot. No, you’re kinda great.

    I guess I like the thing I figured out on my own that works for me.

    No I don’t cover my windows all day, this time of year at least. I’ve been watching the sun set a minute/day later, and it was beautiful today. In the summer, I damn well do block the sun. (San Diego here)

  73. 73.

    Ascap_scab

    Greetings From the Only State in the Union Without Multiple Weather Alerts

    One word, Rattlesnakes!

  75. 75.

    Martin

    There’s a nice hashtag that aggregates CA weather alerts, but the problem is that you get alerts from 700 miles north of you. And I’m 100 miles north of the other border. But it’s nice to know there are critical avalanche warnings up in Truckee, with wind gusts up to 120mph on ridges.

  77. 77.

    sab

    @eclare: Thanks for the turn on the taps warning. They revised our weather outlook down. I just checked and although it is 21° now it is supposed to get down to 7° in a couple of hours. That does risk a kitchen sink freeze.

  78. 78.

    Rileys Enabler

    Smol white kitty is ok- still trying hard to find a home for him. We’ve got a heated cat house set up on the protected patio and he’s getting two good meals a day, plus skritches which he enjoys. My boy cats have taken to spraying the glass patio doors in anger, but the rage screaming has dulled which is better.
    Plan is to get him to the vet next week for shots and neutering.

  81. 81.

    BruceJ

    @Ascap_scab: Ehh rattlesnakes are all safely hiding till spring, and don’t venture into urban areas much at all.

    Honestly I’ve lived in Tucson for 50 years on and off and have seen a rattler in the wild exactly once. (mainly because I don’t go looking for them :-) I’ve seen plenty of rabbits, coyotes, javelina, and other wildlife in town (nearly got brained one time by a hawk intent on one of the aforementioned rabbits while riding my bike to work) but no sneks.

  82. 82.

    karen marie

    @jurassicpork: All I can offer is sympathy unless you want to come to AZ. Dealing with me would make your problems feel small. Apparently I’m annoying.

    Have you called your rep’s office? I’ve heard rumors they help people. I’m doubtful but it’s an option.

  85. 85.

    El Cruzado

    Been trying to get rid of a 42″ Panasonic Plasma (old, but well kept and great image quality) for weeks now and no luck.

    Sadly I’m in San Jose.

  86. 86.

    Paul in KY

    @Alison Rose: You need, if you really want to save money, to get some thick, clear plastic and put it over all those windows and seal with duct tape. Will mess up the view, but you will notice the difference in your bill.

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