KN@PPSTER

Some Things Are Just Too Inexpensive to NOT Buy

2026-07-27T08:29:46.565-04:00

When my eye exam last Friday revealed a hole in my left retina, I initially decided not to get new glasses just yet. While my prescription has changed slightly, I get by with my current glasses, and there's at least some chance the surgery I expect will change my prescription yet again.*

On the other hand, I have no idea how long it will be before I get to actually see a specialist and schedule whatever procedure is recommended (or chosen).

So I decided to check out prices at my two preferred online sellers of frames and lenses, EyeBuyDirect and Zeelool. Those are referral links and if you use them you'll get some kind of discount and I will receive points toward my future orders. I've bought multiple pairs of glasses from each company and have never had any complaints with the quality.

Note to "Buy American!" trolls: About 90% of the eyeglass frames sold in the US are made in China, and another 5% are made in other non-US countries. As best I can tell, both EyeBuyDirect and Zeelool use Chinese frames. It's also my impression (based on tracking shipments) that Zeelool grinds the lenses in, and ships the glasses directly from, China, while EyeBuyDirect seems to do the lenses in, and ship from, the US.

Once I saw the price of a pair I wanted at EyeBuyDirect, I decided it was worth going ahead with a new pair. Total cost, including frames, prescription lenses, sales taxes, and shipping: $21.90. Both companies almost always have some frames in the $10 to $15 range, with basic prescription lenses included. You'll pay more if you want higher-grade lenses, tints, etc., but I think the most anyone in my household has paid for glasses from either place is about $40. I happen to like round glasses, so I went with a frame not coincidentally called "Potter."

* According to the web, there are three types of procedures for repairing a retinal hole. For a small hole (which mine seems to be), they'll use a laser or cryogenic instrument to tighten up the tissue around the hole so that it shuts. For a larger hole, the procedure is called a vitrectomy. It involves putting a gas bubble around the hole, after which the patient is required, among other life/work interferences, to remain face down, 24/7, for about two weeks. I know someone who had to have it done twice because the first time didn't work. If I'm told I require a vitrectomy, I will push for a fourth type of procedure: Just taking the eye out, either immediately or when/if the hole becomes a retinal tear. I'm pushing 60 and have no desire to give up a month of my life just to save half of my poor vision.

Wordle 1864 Hint

2026-07-27T04:53:43.758-04:00

Hint: Pretender.

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First Letter: P

Grain of Salt, But ...

2026-07-26T11:29:29.108-04:00

According to The Telegraph (and other sources):

Donald Trump has paused plans to escalate the war on Iran after being warned that the US is running low on missiles.
For the first time in nearly two weeks, the US president called off strikes on the Islamic Republic over the weekend and has set aside plans to return to major combat operations.

I normally take claims of munitions shortages with a huge grain of salt.

In the 1950s, a supposed "bomber gap" versus the Soviet Union was used to justify more US military spending.

In the 1960, the "bomber gap" became a "missile gap" in general and an "anti-ballistic missile gap" in particular.

For the last four years, various parties have claimed the US is in the grip of "severe munitions shortages" as a reason to stop sending stuff to Ukraine ... even as the US military continually promoted various iterations of "the largest live-fire exercise EVAH!" in, among other places, the Pacific Rim region.

So, at a longer-term strategic level, I consider such "shortage" claims as mostly Baghdad Bob stuff.

But this is seems to be a shorter-term claim and that makes it a little more believable. "Yeah, we need to get more interceptors over there before we give the Iranians an excuse to come at us."

Logistics -- the ability to get the stuff where you need it to be, when you need it to be there -- is what wins or loses wars.

And one of the few military advantages the Iranian regime has in this particular war is that it doesn't have to to spend three weeks shipping ordnance 10,000 miles by sea to put it where it's needed.

On the other hand, ever since World War 2 the US regime has been excellent at delivering the goods across oceans quickly. There are always problems (during Desert Storm, my unit was on short rations for a couple of weeks because they had to prioritize the delivery of bullets over delivering beans in case things blew up suddenly), but those problems get solved (by the time the war ended we were getting reasonably good hot chow twice a day, MREs one meal a day, and had all kinds of extra stuff, from pallets of canned peanut butter to cases of "sous vide" vacuum-sealed dinners -- I lost about 20 pounds early but gained 10 pounds back before coming home).

Of course, this could be a ruse ("let's try to bait them into attacking and then surprise them"), but if it's the truth it's not likely catastrophic, or even a sign of some avoidable failure.

Wordle 1863 Hint

2026-07-26T05:50:29.555-04:00

Hint: The larval form of wine.

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First Letter: G

OK, I Made The Effort ...

2026-07-25T08:09:27.326-04:00

... to find an American watch (pursuant to the "buy American!" whining in comments).

So far as I can tell, there are precisely two companies which make their watches entirely in America.

RGM Watch Company makes everything right here in the US. I like their Model 150 (not an affiliate link). Price: $3,450.

Vortic Watches uses antique American-made pocket watch movements and makes the other parts right here in the US. I like their Springfield 178 (not an affiliate link). Price: $4,900.

The cheapest of the two would set me back 100 times as much money as a perfectly good Casio FT500WC (not an affiliate link). In fact, it would cost me less than the Casio plus the 2001 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 (made in America) I'm looking at in another browser tab right now.

I don't know if I'll buy the Harley (probably not), but I'm still pretty sure I'll go with the Casio.

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #29

2026-07-25T07:48:10.482-04:00

"He who has never learned to obey cannot command." (Stoicism, Seneca, On Mercy)

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

My thoughts:

I suspect this one has been misunderstood and misused a lot since Seneca wrote it to Nero. As a young worker, you may have heard it from a boss who wanted his or her instructions obeyed, not questioned.

Seneca, however, wasn't talking about obedience to a person, he was talking about obedience to a principle -- logos, aka reason/logic as the distinguishing factor separating a "good" ruler from a tyrant.

Seneca long preceded and contradicted Machiavelli as a political advisor, treating mercy to opponents as the approach most likely to keep an emperor in the good graces of the public and preserve the perceived legitimacy of the ruler. In contrast, Machiavelli recommended a velvet glove / iron fist approach (bread/circuses, but paired with swift and severe punishment for dissent/opposition).

As someone concerned with dispelling, rather than preserving, the perceived legitimacy of the state, I prefer rulers who let their freak flags fly so that they're more easily seen as the sociopaths they are. Edict backed by the threat of force can never accord for very long with logos -- the second the results diverge from the ruler's desires, force takes the wheel.

But in a third sense beyond the political and bad-managerial, the aphorism has value. Applying logic and reason rather than mere whim gets better results. We didn't learn to fly by ignoring or defying gravity, we learned to fly by gaining some understanding of gravity and other constraints and obeying them.

Wordle 1862 Hint

2026-07-25T06:43:43.512-04:00

Hint: Pacific island greeting.

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First Letter: A

Well, It's Always Something ...

2026-07-24T15:02:26.332-04:00

Got my regular eye exam this morning.

I've got a small hole in my left retina.

Hopefully small enough for the laser or freeze treatment rather than a vitrectomy, which I'm told by people who've had it is a real bother. Hopefully I'll have a referral appointment scheduled by Monday for ASAP.

It Pays (or at Least Saves) to Carefully Comparison Shop

2026-07-24T08:06:04.917-04:00

I've seen various prices on the tent I've pretty much settled on, if I decide to replace the camper with a tent.

So far, the range has run from $600ish at the high end to $300ish at the low end.

Part of the variation is due to different stores having different prices, and different sale prices.

But another part of the variation is that these days, exactly the same product -- usually from China because that's where inexpensive stuff comes from -- gets sold under various brand names.

This morning, I was looking at two tents from the same store. One was prices at $394, the other at $318 (both on sale at the moment through early August) -- either one would be minus 10% because I get a discount at that store.

The entire difference, based on my examination of listed specifications and a very careful examination of the photos, was the brand name. Not only were the numbers in the specs identical, the seller's language in the descriptions was identical or nearly so (example: "With a generous diameter of 5 m (16.4 ft), this canvas bell tent provides ample space for you and your family to enjoy the great outdoors;It comfortably fits up to eight people, offering plenty of room to relax and unwind amidst nature." Word for word.

Don't just see something and buy it. Shop around.

Wordle 1861 Hint

2026-07-24T05:06:36.656-04:00

Hint: Sealer/filler (or, in its silly variety, a fun toy).

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First Letter: P

Wordle 1860 Hint

2026-07-23T04:51:49.129-04:00

Hint: One doesn't really solve today's Wordle so much as one just circles around it repeatedly.

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First Letter: O

Wordle 1859 Hint

2026-07-22T04:52:47.403-04:00

Hint: Cargo truck (British descriptor).

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First Letter: L

Wordle 1858 Hint

2026-07-21T04:44:18.408-04:00

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

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First Letter: S

Wordle 1857 Hint

2026-07-20T04:54:29.309-04:00

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

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First Letter: D

Wordle 1856 Hint

2026-07-19T06:14:26.392-04:00

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

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First Letter: C

Wordle 1855 Hint

2026-07-18T07:30:43.731-04:00

Hint: Restaurant alternative to table or counter.

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First Letter: B

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #28

2026-07-18T07:10:00.000-04:00

"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

2026-07-17T07:26:37.309-04:00

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

2026-07-17T05:37:40.274-04:00

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

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First Letter: L

Why Second Opinions Are Worthwhile

2026-07-16T09:47:20.837-04:00

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

2026-07-16T04:34:27.673-04:00

Hint: A mesa's tall, skinny relative.

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First Letter: B

Other Options for "The Next Home Office"

2026-07-15T10:34:49.729-04:00

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

2026-07-15T05:08:20.540-04:00

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

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First Letter: P

Wordle 1851 Hint

2026-07-14T04:56:09.536-04:00

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

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First Letter: S

Just Watching, After Ten Days or So

2026-07-13T19:57:58.548-04:00

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.