Larry T. Spider

A bit of good news is that Buchanan has gone from about 44% full to 50% over the last 6 months. Slowly been creeping up.

It was announced today that Jacob’s Well is closed for swimming this summer due to low flow. They will check monthly but it doesn’t look great. Thanks Aqua Texas.

Some storms out near Brady making their way southeast. Won’t be a ton but might be one more round for the area west of Austin.

The antics of these protestors with their “send humanitarian aid” bullshit are sucking up all the oxygen in the room. Fewer people are talking about dead Palestinians now than before they started.

When I started this thread, Travis was 38.1% full. Despite being in the “rainy” season, we are now down to 37.1%. Good chance for some rain tonight then it looks dry for the next week. Let’s hope it falls in the right places.

Pouring in round rock. Trying to leave lunch but guess I’ll have to order another beer.

In accordance with Texas Education Code (TEC), §28.0256, beginning with students enrolled in 12th grade during the 2021-2022 school year, each student must do one of the following in order to graduate: Complete and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

We have a neighborhood kid that build a trailer he can pull behind his bike. Has his mower, weedeater, gas can, and other supplies. He works hard but I’m pretty sure he cleans up. Many people prefer to hire him over a larger company even if he can’t do it all year. Doing something like that teaches a lot of transferable skills such as sales, marketing, dealing with customers, managing expenses, cheating on taxes etc.

Need new windows and a guy for Power was going door to door. Let him give me a quote and a sales pitch. It was 46k, which is quite a bit more than I was expecting. It’s a single story house in the burbs and that just seems like overkill relative to the value of the home. No idea what he paid but my neighbor had window world do his a while back and he was happy with them. I was planning on calling them but this thread has given me pause. Has anybody else had experience with them over the last few years? Open to any other recs yall have.

Still steady rain in Round Rock.

I actually see the inflation problem getting solved in 8-12 months, which will lead to lower rates. Unfortunately, it will be because the average American will have accumulated so much credit card and car loan debt on top of their student loan debt, that spending will have to come down.

Futures down across the board. Im going to make a simpletons bearish case for the next 6-7 months. Yall poke holes in it. Inflation is sticking around enough to prevent rate cuts that were somewhat priced into the market. Global unrest is going to persist for at least that duration. Issues with China arent going away. Ukraine/Russia is still going strong and now we throw in a Middle East showdown. Now to tie the two together. Oil prices are going to go up, which will have an inflationary effect on just about everything, further delaying rate cuts, and cementing a shit market for a while. Tell me how I’m wrong and we are all going to get rich in 2024.

Just some friendly unhoused beavers.

Texans won’t go for an income tax because certain groups have convinced people they will end up with high rates for property and income. Who knows, they might be right. I think increasing the gas tax and sales tax are more feasible, but also unlikely. At least those help the red politicians argue that “more people have a skin in the game”. Both act as inflationary though.

Maybe in the vaguest way possible without mentioning that part of our area is already doing this….

A lot of Wilco gets its water from lake Georgetown, which is supplemented with water pumped in from stillhouse hollow. Wonder if we could devise a larger system with non-force field lakes such as Whitney, which is currently 100% full. Also Belton is close and 75% full. Obviously this only works if they receive rain when we don’t.

The pictures are quite sad. I have to assume that very few people rely on the lake for their main source or water, right?

In this part of the world droughts end in floods. The lake will eventually be full again no matter what this summer or next brings. It’s just a matter of the prolonged pain until it happens. Sadly, most of the Austin population is completely oblivious to how this could play out in the very near future.

I started this thread a month ago and we have gone from 38% full to 37%. Doomed.

Can you turn that into something shorter like a haiku?

I was going to say the same thing. No way these guys are getting deals if there is strong evidence.

Lol at 500k being a humblebrag in the Austin area. It’s a 3/2 in the burbs.

Got my Wilco appraisal. Went from 450k to 500k. Not sure whether to be annoyed that it went up that much or grateful that it’s at least 50k under market value. A pretty similar house just went for 600k.

Might just be talking out of my ass here but maybe there’s a middle between backing cops that do heinous shit and getting rid of all police.

First, no need to thank me. I quit after 15 years in public education. Currently work for a company that provides exactly the types of specialized classrooms you are talking about to districts. Most districts just don’t have the capacity to meet the increased demand over the years. Waaaaay more kids need these services than even 10 years ago. See the other thread about kids that’s blowing up. The number one reason teachers are leaving is exactly the scenario you outlined. They can’t teach. Number two is dealing with parents in relation to why they can’t teach. Throw in testing score pressure and needing a second job and we are getting a “hell no” from teachers. FWIW, most districts want to do inclusion in a non-disruptive manner where the sped kids have assistants with them. This allows them to take breaks and only be in the class when they are focused and ready to learn. The reality ends up looking like the teacher being a 3 ring circus master all day then fielding parent complaints at the end of the day. The assistants get the shit kicked out of them for $15 an hour so even if the district is trying to hire, they usually can’t. We can go back to self-contained classrooms for those kids, but then we have to pay for it. I recently wrote a proposal that was for fewer than 50 students and the cost was over 2 million a year. Now, we are taking on the toughest kids, many of which would be in a residential treatment facility without us. But most superintendents just aren’t going to write that check unless push comes to shove - ie the state getting involved.