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Jimbo is visiting Bellingham 2/12 to 2/18, and a rant.

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by JimboPalmer, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    My wife was going to Puerto Rico mid February to work on a US Customs house remodel and was feeling guilty leaving me home alone. (She is not going, the US Government shutdown and no one reviewed her plans. She going to Oklahoma, as the DOD did not shut down and Altus AFB is ready) So I checked when my daughter was off work and booked myself to Bellingham.

    Being dad, I have a whole list of projects I am supervising, donating her car, adding a soundproof door, running gas and electricity to a future kitchenette, new shower door. So I need to stay in Bellingham.

    So come visit, (662) 299 6615, or meet over a meal. We are mostly harmless.

    Now a Rant:

    Some business mistakes are just because you can't see the future. Sears dropped their catalog sales force just before the internet made online shopping a new market for their paper catalogs. Honestly they could not have known, but Sears is all gone now. (Sears franchisees still exist, but they have no way established to get any new product)

    I was trying to buy some thread for a sewing class, and looked up Coats and Clark, a well respected and sturdy thread. They have changed their name to Coats. Ladies and gentlemen, you have all used a search engine, just how likely is it that if you search for Coats and Clark, you will find their company or product? If you search for Coats, how many hits will be for their company or product? They did this to themselves! It is not like search engines have not existed for 2 decades. Later, when they go bankrupt, it will because they hid from their customers. I bought some nice Gutermann thread, when you search for Gutermann, it is all thread!
     
    #1 JimboPalmer, Feb 8, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2019
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  3. scona

    scona Active Member

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    Visiting Bellingham without "Wifely" supervision, with a credit card in the pocket, definitely requires a trip to "Hardware Sales" to get caught up on all that is right with the world. Enjoy the trip west!
     
  4. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    I have a list of 10 projects, but only expect to get to 5 of them, just a week away. Also it is snowing and so i am skipping the projects on outside doors, no sense in letting winter in.
     
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  5. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Have a great trip, Jimbo!

    As to the rant, I agree. Remember the Commodore Amiga? It was years ahead of the competition, but stealth marketing did it in. Other companies died out because they didn't make changes quickly enough. Sears is a great example. They were Amazon before the internet. All they had to do was use it.
     
  6. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    Sitting in Denver, hoping they can fly to Seattle.
     
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    isn't that always the way?
     
  8. kenmce

    kenmce High Voltage Member

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    There was more to it than that. A few years ago I contacted my local Sears about buying their garden tractor, wanted to talk to someone about it. Based on my dealings with them I decided that I'd be a fool to buy their product, no matter how nice it was, because nobody in the company actually knew how to do anything that went beyond ringing up something that was already in the store.
     
  9. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I hear that hundreds of flights in were cancelled. I-90 also closed for 72 miles with poor visibility and multiple collisions. One can get around the trucks partially slid off the road, but the jackknifed units are quite effective at blocking all lanes. Many other roads with problems too.

    I'm back at the farm, snowed in.
    =========
    Update: to 8 pm, 402 flights cancelled, 267 delayed.
    As for the I-90 closure: "The biggest issue at this time is a lack of big tow trucks that can help pull the semi trucks." While I regularly see such large tow trucks in that area, it seems that demand has seriously outstripped supply this evening.

    Some carports and awnings collapsed, but just one residential roof that I've heard in a locality with about 2 feet of snow. But with rain falling atop the snow, more collapses seem likely.
    ==================
    Message from 3,000 crashes: Stay off Seattle streets, use transit
    "Public transit, including light rail, present "your safest options for getting around the region," added Peter Rogoff, CEO at Sound Transit."

    o_O Um, did you see how many of your transit bus (especially the jackknifed articulated buses) were stuck and blocking the streets? Last week, I had to detour around five stuck buses blocking a single hill, and one more closer to my home.
     
    #9 fuzzy1, Feb 12, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2019
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  10. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    I made it to Bellingham, 35 MPH all the way from Sea-tac
     
  11. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    All the best on your trip!

    Since I'm east of the Rockies, I'll have to pop in one of these days when you're in the Delta.
    Bellingham was a WONDERFUL place the last time I was there.
    (30 years ago?? :eek: )

    Enjoy!

    @ rant:
    I was tinkering with single board 'puters a while back, a market that was then, and is now, dominated by the venerable Raspberry Pi which is a $35 unit that's immensely popular in the maker community.
    There was a $9 upstart which claimed to be a "Raspberry Pi killer" - reminiscent of the "Prius killer" articles that I used to read about in this forum.

    Unfortunately....they named it a "CHIP"...
    CHIP (computer) - Wikipedia

    That name made internet searches for this product nearly useless and contributed greatly to it's ultimate demise, IMHO.

    ---"what's in a name?"
    [​IMG]
    :D
     
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  12. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I-90 will remain closed all day today too. First alternate, Highway 2, is also closed for a section, with a no-big-rigs-allowed detour.
     
  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    How deep is the snow down there? On the news last night they said over a foot in Seattle, and more to come?

    Feels like a lot up here, but when I pushed a tape measure into it, read a mere 6", an hour or two back, but coming down fast.
     
  14. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I'm not actually there right now, but am inland at the family farm. Due to wind drifting, depths here are zilch to 3 feet, depending on wind patterns. I am no longer snowed in today thanks to some plowing, but it could repeat tomorrow. 3-axle ATV barely high-centered on me feeding the smaller herd, but managed to grind its way through after several attempts. It has chains on a single axle, I'll try out some other sets to try to get more axles chained up.

    Spouse back home reports over a foot of settled depth from multiple rounds of snow, but hasn't recently taken out the yardstick. Garbage collection cancelled again, same as last week. She used my snow-tired Prius to pack a path down the shared driveway the past couple days (had to broom off a top layer first), but the neighbor's small SUV got stuck in it with today's additional snow.

    A friend reports 32 inches in her yard at Leavenworth this morning. Various Snoqualmie Pass ski resort and DOT stations reporting 48 to 53 inches in 48 hours. Stevens Pass ski reporting 26 inches in 48 hours at the base (Highway 2), a bit more at mid-mountain. Paradise (Mt. Rainier National Park) overtopped their daily gauge that reads to only 32 inches.
     
    #14 fuzzy1, Feb 12, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2019
  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah, the balmy States... :rolleyes:
     
  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    82 and sunny...
     
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  17. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    45 and rainy:(.

    Over 2 inches expected in the next couple of days, so they are opening some of the dams to compensate here;).

    Tahoe expected to get several FEET of snow in the upcoming days:).

    Great for the skiers soon and us later in the year(y).
     
  18. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I just received this image, though through a completely different path:

    Two Feet of Snow in Seattle












    (OK, not real news. Image search finds it >7 years old, swiped and re-copied repeatedly, real source / date / location unknown.)
     
  19. dbf

    dbf Member

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    We were just there in Bellingham in September visiting a couple of our adult kids. We love the area with its hiking and sailing, but the real estate prices have sure skyrocketed since I was visiting there before in the '70s.
     
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  20. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    Priority One - Donate Ford to Habitat to Humanity - still exchanging paperwork.
    Priority Two - Run Gas line past bathroom about to be remodeled. DONE Yearly maintenance on HVAC DONE.
    Priority Three - New Door to Apartment. Purchased not installed. Snowpocalypse hit this project hard.
    Priority Four - Add GFCI Outlets for new Kitchen. Two duplex upgraded to GFCI, two duplex GFCI installed. Did not do another two Duplex (or three way switch to bathroom I did not know about)
    Priority Five - New shower door, DONE after I left today.
    Unknown Project - replace bathroom fan. Did not attempt.

    Anyway, I am home.
     
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