Edmund Schweppe

Unitarian Universalism no longer officially recognized by Defense Department

2026-06-06T03:04:00Z

Per the Associated Press, Defense Department slashes its religious designations list from more than 200 choices to 31:
( specifically removing Unitarians )

As a veteran of the United States Navy, and as a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation, I am ... displeased, to put things mildly. As near as I can tell, the practical effects of this decision will be (a) belittling faiths rejected from the official list and (b) making it more difficult for chaplains of those faiths to reach out and minister to their co-religionists. Neither of those are what I'd call a good reason to pull a stunt like this.

[1] No, I'm not going to call it the Department of War on Donald Trump's say-so. Maybe if Congress actually passes a law renaming the department ...

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Well, that was painful

2026-05-13T23:54:38Z

First time needing to fill my car's gas tank since Trump started his war with Iran and managed to get the Strait of Hormuz blocked solid.

$4.47 per gallon.

Ouch.

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Good news and bad news, automotive edition

2026-04-29T21:56:28Z

The good news: A couple of months ago, I found out that my car's rear license plate was not merely faded, but was so badly faded that it would fail the state safety inspection. Fortunately, I could order a replacement plate online, and the receipt therefrom was enough to pass the inspection. Today, the replacement plate finally arrived, and I once again have a rear license plate that is both legible and legal.

The bad news: Gasoline prices at the local el-cheapo stations were $3.97 on Monday (the last time I passed through that particular intersection). They're now up twenty cents to $4.17. Yikes.

(And those prices are only likely to go higher, courtesy of our particularly idiotic President and his particularly idiotic war-of-choice which has resulted in the Strait of Hormuz being closed for the last two months.)

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USS Massachusetts (SSN-798) Commissions in South Boston

2026-03-30T01:06:22Z

Yesterday, USS Massachusetts (SSN-798) was officially commissioned into the United States Navy:
( Read more... )

(The Boston Globe story has better pictures, but is possibly paywalled.)

She's bigger and more advanced than my old boat, USS Omaha, which has long since been decommissioned.

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Snow's over, but not the blizzard warning!

2026-02-23T23:56:16Z

The snowfall is pretty much over, but the National Weather Service still has blizzard warnings up for my neck of the woods through Tuesday morning:
( the snowfall my friend / is blowing in the wind )

It's hard to tell exactly how much snow I got from this, because there's been an awful lot of drifting already, but it's at least a foot (because that's the lowest amount I measured) and probably closer to two feet (because some obvious drifts are higher). Still, this isn't anywhere near as bad as southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island; Warwick RI reportedly had over three feet of snow!

Still have power, though, and thus warmth. First things first.

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Doom.

2026-02-22T17:22:44Z

The National Weather Service just upgraded our earlier Winter Storm Warning to a Blizzard Warning:
( now predicting 12 to 22 inches! )
Fortunately, there's no place I need to be on Monday, besides right here. And the power lines in this complex are all underground and thus immune to having tree branches dropped on them; the same cannot be said for much of the rest of the town, so I suspect there will be a whole bunch of outages over the next day and change.

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Guess we're getting a nor'easter after all

2026-02-21T17:41:34Z

Earlier this week, the weather folks were predicting a potentially big snowstorm for later this weekend, but the expected tracks were all well to my south.

Not any more ...
( Winter Storm Warning, ten to twenty inches of snow possible )
Boy, am I glad I don't have anywhere to travel Monday!

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Brrrr.

2026-01-28T02:00:32Z

Last weekend's snowpocalypse ... wasn't horrible, for me at least. I ended up with around sixteen or so inches of relatively fluffy snow; more than enough to need a lot of shoveling, but not too terribly bad.

This week is just going to be really, really cold. Never getting above freezing during the day, and down in the single digits at night. (The National Weather Service is currently predicting subzero lows Friday night. Yikes.)

And we may have a serious nor'easter for the weekend. Apparently the models are in fairly good agreement that there will be a big storm somewhere on the Atlantic coast, but the possible storm tracks are anywhere from way the hell south of here to right on top of me. Unsurprising, six days out ...

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Update: even moar snow

2026-01-25T17:49:07Z

The latest Winter Storm Warning for my locale:
( 20 to 24 inches possible! )

Yeah, definitely delaying any and all travel for the duration.

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It begins ...

2026-01-25T16:44:20Z

The snowpocalypse, that is. Anywhere from twelve to twenty inches expected, according to the National Weather Service.

At least my water is back.

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How Dry I Am

2026-01-24T16:20:03Z

There's a water main break near the center of town - and I'm apparently on the downstream side. As in, no water for me, for now. (Apart from the gallon or so in the fridge. And the jerrycan I keep under the kitchen sink. And the spare distilled water I keep for the CPAP.)

The water district has crews on site, and the snowpocalypse won't start snowing until tomorrow. However, it is ridiculously cold. Still, this will hopefully be a relatively short annoyance.

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And here we go ...

2026-01-23T17:42:36Z

Official NWS Winter Storm Warning now posted for the upcoming snowpocalypse:
( 12 to 17 inches )
Fortunately, this stuff should be on the light and fluffy side, so it won't be quite as bad to shovel.

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Registered!

2026-01-16T03:16:26Z

I have once again successfully registered for the All Star 2 conference on Star Island.

Given the general sucktasticness of the last several months, it's good to have something to look forward to.

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Rabbit, rabbit.

2026-01-01T12:43:51Z

Rabbit, rabbit.

(In memory of Daphne Worth, aka trollcatz, whose habit it was to post thusly to open the New Year. Pay no attention to the fact that she was a fictional character.)

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COVID in the choir. Again.

2025-12-28T00:48:18Z

Once again, one of my fellow choristers is reporting that they've got COVID, and quite possibly spread it at the Christmas Eve service. (Like most of the choir, and most of the congregation, said chorister was not masked for any part of the service.)

Surprisingly (not), we had an outbreak last year around Christmas. And the year before that. And the year before that. And the church's policy is still mask-optional, with almost everyone opting for no mask. We do run a bunch of HEPA filters in the Sanctuary, but the CO2 levels at the Christmas Eve service peaked over 1800ppm by my little Aranet.

The good news for me personally is that I have been constantly using N95-grade singers masks, plus a nasal spray (Covixyl) that has demonstrated some protective properties, ever since I started singing again in-person. And, to date, I'm still testing negative - including just now.

So keep on masking up, folks. COVID ain't fucking over, not by a long shot.

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Sad news: James Hetley, 1947-2025

2025-11-02T00:39:56Z

I found out today that James Hetley, formerly of alt.callahans, later of LiveJournal and Dreamwidth (as jhetley), author and ham radio operator, passed away in early October. From the Bangor Daily News obituary:

James Hetley, 78, passed away on October 8, 2025, as a result of a bike crash.

Born in Illinois, Jim moved to Bangor 50 years ago, after discharge from the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Having a degree in architecture from the University of Michigan, he worked in offices in Bangor, Holden and Ellsworth before opening his own architectural office. He wrote several urban fantasy novels, was a member of the Pine State Amateur Radio Club, and was the home handyman.

The ranks of the old alt.callahans crowd continue to diminish.

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Adventures in vaccination, RFK Junior Follies year one

2025-09-16T00:04:34Z

I got my COVID booster today at the local Massachusetts CVS store; this time around, it was in the in-store Minute Clinic rather than at the main pharmacy/vaccination counter.

Very easy online signup this time around, with plenty of same-day timeslots available. The signup form had a single "are you eligible for this vaccine y/n?" checkbox; no need for us under-65s to elaborate which official risk factors are applicable.

Very quick appointment as well: in, jab, and out. The nurse-practitioner wasn't masked, alas; however, they were running air filters in the little examining room.

Another win for Team Moderna.

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WTAF?

2025-03-01T03:20:52Z

WTF happened earlier today in Washington?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for being "disrespectful" Friday in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting, then abruptly called off the signing of a minerals deal that Trump said would have moved Ukraine closer to ending its war with Russia.

The astonishing turn of events could scramble affairs in Europe and around the globe. During his visit with Trump, Zelenskyy was expected to sign the deal allowing the U.S. greater access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and hold a joint news conference, but that plan was scrapped after the heated engagement between the leaders in front of the news media.

https://apnews.com/article/zelenskyy-security-guarantees-trump-meeting-washington-eebdf97b663c2cdc9e51fa346b09591d

I have no goddamn idea what Trump thinks he's doing. But it sure sounds like it's Vladimir Putin's bidding.

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Crap.

2025-01-18T02:33:44Z

Our choir director missed yesterday's rehearsal, feeling miserable from what he thought was a moderately bad case of the flu. (We're working on a service themed around the Disney movie "Encanto". First time I'm getting to sing Lin-Manuel Miranda's work in choir.)

Today he let us know that, no, not the flu after all. COVID.

The official public health emergencies may be over, but COVID ain't over yet by any stretch of the imagination. Keep masking up, folks.

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Registered for Star!

2025-01-15T22:37:41Z

I've successfully registered for this summer's edition of the All Star 2 conference on Star Island.

In a minor annoyance, Star has joined the universe of non-profits asking people to kick in an extra three percent to cover the credit card processing fees. But that's a minor annoyance.

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Luminous Night of the Soul

2024-12-18T22:52:30Z

Last Sunday evening, my church held what we call a solstice vespers service, where we have a collection of readings and musical pieces, including several choral ones. We currently have a huge choir (35 singers!), and our music director got ambitious with the choral works, including two written in eight-part harmony. The good folks at the local public-access TV channel recorded the service, and have just posted their recording on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni4FxRUz3wQ

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Well, that sucks - version 2.0

2024-11-06T16:11:29Z

Like I said this time twelve years ago, I was not expecting Donald Trump to win the election.

Last time, Trump lost the popular vote and won the Electoral College.
This time, he's winning both of them; the Associated Press is currently showing Trump with 71.6 million votes to Kamala Harris' 66.7 million.

Not looking forward to the next few years.

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They're back! (Free COVID tests, that is)

2024-09-26T16:09:25Z

The US Government is once again offering everyone in the country four free COVID-19 rapid antigen tests by mail. Tests will start shipping on September 30.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

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Loss-of-fiber credit?

2024-09-16T01:10:56Z

This is a new one: the folks at Verizon sent me an email today saying they were issuing a credit to my account "due to a service outage" (presumably this one).

I'll believe it when/if I see it. But I'm cynical, sometimes.

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Return of the Fiber

2024-09-11T12:43:23Z

Monday night around 8:45PM, my Verizon fiber optic internet suddenly went away. Coincidentally or not, the data speeds on my Verizon 5G cell service plummeted to half a megabit/second or less. Which meant I could sometimes load low-bandwidth websites and get some emails.

This (Wednesday) morning around 7:00AM, Verizon services are back.

I suppose I shouldn't complain that much; this is the first serious outage I've had since 2008.

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