God Bless Mark Kelly

15:32 Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.54°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 4.21mph
Words: 109

I'm not as plugged into the news as I once was, so this story got past me when it broke.

“There’s a real issue there of morale and a feeling like they don’t have a lot of senior leaders who are protecting them,” Ms. Slotkin said. “There’s a lot of folks in the rank and file who feel very alone.”

A lot of retired senior "leaders" who have been sitting on their hands and covering their asses. This isn't as timely as I would have preferred, but these people have more to lose than the professional talking heads who appear on the cable news channels to offer their "insight."

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Little Victories

07:24 Thursday, 20 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 26.74°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 4.03mph
Words: 651

It was a very sunny day yesterday, with little wind, so it was pretty comfortable working outside at 40°F.

Mitzi put my Ridgid Pro Gear System Gen 2 toolboxes up on Facebook Marketplace in the morning and we had them sold by the afternoon. Generally, anything she puts up on that service gets sold rather quickly. The slowest was the set of Makita battery chargers I didn't need (and not many other people do either, it seems). It did generate a lot of messaging, usually people asking if it included batteries.

I worry about reading comprehension.

So we went down to the storage unit to complete the transaction and to look for the Hanukah menorah, which of course was in a box at the back of the unit. But the sale of the toolboxes and that effort yielded a kind of corridor within the pile of personal possessions, which will be useful in the future.

I hadn't heard anything back from Westinghouse, because why would I? Before boxing the thing back up to return to Home Depot, I figured I'd make another attempt to start it.

Several first attempts were the same as the previous ones. No indication at all that it could start. I verified proper alignment, because I was a qualified Engineering Officer of the Watch, and followed EOSS (Engineering Operational Sequencing System), and got zilch in the way of encouraging sounds or vibrations.

On a whim, I cycled the fuel select valve back and forth between gasoline and propane several times. It wasn't so much a whim as thinking perhaps something hadn't fully engaged. There was no immediate sense that it would make any difference. Nothing clicked like it hadn't before, but it didn't cost anything to try.

So, choke out, fuel on, Run/Stop in the Run position, and pull!

It coughed!

Choke in slightly, pull again.

Nothing.

Okay, something happened.

It took several more attempts, with little coughs of encouragement from time to time; but just when I was about to give up (and had removed my jacket and begun sweating), it started.

Woo-hoo!

Quiet little thing. I hadn't anticipated success so I had nothing to plug into it to put a load on it. I went back in the garage where most of my tools are of the aforementioned Makita cordless variety. But I found the heat gun and took that outside. The cord was stiff from the cold, but I got it straightened out and plugged it into the 120vac outlet and turned it on. The generator responded as if it were under load, and the heat gun, well, heated. (Never put your hand in front of a heat gun to see if it's on. That should probably go without saying, and I'm happy to report that I didn't. But I didn't want to leave that out there in the ether without a proper offering to the safety gods.) I wilted and burned some grass with it.

Okay, progress. Now, can I replicate success?

Run/Stop to Stop, engine stops. Let it set for a few minutes.

Choke out, Run/Stop to Run and pull.

It ran.

One in the win column. Now if the power goes out and the batteries run low, I can recharge the batteries right here on the hill. Though, honestly, I'm probably going to look into using an EV charger in the village if they have power. We've had a lot of wind the past week or so and the power hasn't flickered. So I'm optimistic that between last year's snowfall, last summer's thunderstorms and the pruning effort the utility made during the summer, most of the vulnerable trees and limbs are down. There will be outages, but they will be fewer in number and thus quicker to restore, and we shouldn't see another 30-hour outage at least for this winter.

Mostly a good day, yesterday.

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