Beach goers at Moutchic on the shore of Lake Lacanau (Etang de Lacanau) in Lacanau , southwestern France on July 24, 2026, as clouds of smoke rise into the sky from the Gironde wildfire. Photo by Maximilien LAMY / AFP
Story here.
It’s hot out there.
by Bunk Five Hawks X ( 90 Comments › )Filed under Open thread at August 1st, 2026 - 12:05 am
Comments
Comments and respectful debate are both welcome and encouraged.
Comments are the sole opinion of the comment writer, just as each thread posted is the sole opinion or post idea of the administrator that posted it or of the readers that have written guest posts for the Blogmocracy.
Obscene, abusive, or annoying remarks may be deleted or moved to spam for admin review, but the fact that particular comments remain on the site in no way constitutes an endorsement of their content by any other commenter or the admins of this Blogmocracy.
We're not easily offended and don't want people to think they have to walk on eggshells around here (like at another place that shall remain nameless) but of course, there is a limit to everything.
Play nice!
Sausage, they are amazing things. Well not USA sausages but we will not go into all that.
A sausage is traditionally ground up meat with fillers such as oat meal and seasoned with herps and spices then stuffed into an animal intestine.
Recently the USA has finally got the sausage thing down and you can get duck and orange etc.
Supper is a plain pork sausage, the fresh kind with no seasonings added. What I do is peel off the plastic coating, wrap it tightly in foil then bake/air fry it at 350F for 13 minutes.
To be served with a can of green beans fried in garlic butter and the juices from the sausage.
The can of green beans will be garnished with a generous dolop of alfredo.
It isnt fast food though…
IPhone is charged so they may be a picture. Why IPhone as it is not connected anymore?
It is still the best resolution camera I have. And an obsolete and unsupported IPhone still connects to my wifi network.
But I can tell it is sad being in captivity.
I burned the green beans so supper was a can of progresso light clam chowder. Not filling but fuck it at 2am
@ Possum:
Raccoon came back last night. Tore up the plastic table cover to get to the cat food that I didn’t bring in.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
You has a project! Get your ass down to Lowes.
Or just bring the uneaten cat food in at dusk.
🙂
We is a go for supper. Last two of the pack of five Johnsonville raw brats just went through the air fryer treatment. I use the air fryer more as a tiny oven than a fryer. I remove the plastic skin first.
If doing one it is wrapped in foil and cooked at 350F for 13 minutes, when doing two I increase time to 15 minutes. Then test temp with a stabby thermometer through the foil and it usually reads over 180F. So cooked and safe. Then I just leave them in there.
Last night I intended to have one with green beans, but burned it. How the fuck does someone burn green beans you may ask? Well I can.
Stage is set for supper tonight, it will obviously involve a juicy and plump sausage but the options are vast. It could be with fried onions and gravy and mash. Or chopped up and stir fried with peas, onions and cashews and rice.
Or just the sausage and coleslaw.
As it is 97F here at 5pm the sausage and mash may not be a good idea. Expected low is 89F at supper time.
Or supper could be a randomly chosen Compleats meal that takes 1 minute to microwave so no time to change my mind half way through cooking supper.
Oh I have been tasked with a new quest!
If the Dragon Lady is out there I really need her input before I fulfill this quest.
On topic about “It’s hot out there”
Managed to shave my face, Lucy wanted me to grow my face fur so I could get a job as Santa in December but I quit.
Next was a hair cut. I am severely right handed, so currently I have a Mohican thing on the left side of my head I can’t quite get to.
I think I need to order a beany hat from Amazon
@ Possum:
Supporting data, as always.
https://x.com/Lucy_Dynamite/status/2084066784370360554
@ Possum:
All the hep cats wear bonnets and doorags.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
Thing is, what is a neutral colour?
I ain’t in no gang.
LOL thinking about this I am going to go with pink!
I don’t think any gangs in Houston wear pink.
@ Possum:
Grok agrees.
Checking how my can of green beans slowly frying in garlic butter are doing.
Not burning them this time!
@ Possum:
https://x.com/Lucy_Dynamite/status/2084110737836790239
@ Possum:
“I’ll take ‘Old School Cool’ for the win, Alex.”
“Daring choice. Here’s the answer: Something a possum would wear in the hood to keep from being stuck with a shiv.”
“What is a mohawk.”
“Sorry, Bunk, you fuckt up. The correct response is ‘What is a heater’.”
who let monday in?
dammit! he was supposed to stay on the porch
@ rain of lead:
It’s the first one this week.
Every day here is Monday.
However I have so many ESP32 cameras ( well 3 ) that I could set up, and two Chinese GoPro clones and a security camera that works.
Reasoning, I should set up all these cameras in my apartment and record everything that happens. Stream it live or make a Youtube of the edited highlights.
Yesterday afternoon Natasha was in a deep sleep, the REM kind where she was chasing antelopes somewhere in Africa. Next to her was a giant cockroach on its back doing the same spasmodic leg twitching.
That would have gone virus on TokTic.
Also yesterday I noticed a slight movement from my right eye in the area of the mouse mat.
A fleeting glimpse of something!
Yep, you guessed correctly, it was a mouse, not a wired or wireless one but a mouse.
Why do I even bother feeding two cats!
@ Possum:
As to cats. I has a brown female and a scruffy looking black bale.
The black male is kind of distinctive as he has about six white hairs on his chest.
A smaller black cat just rubbed against my leg and I gave it treats.
Close examination of its chest, six white hairs.
Like father like son I suppose.
NO MORE CATS!!!!!
@ Possum:
Cat dynamics in the ‘hood.
There is a full grown black cat with a few white hairs on his chest that used to come for snacks last year until massive cat fights happened.
Now it seems there is a half grown cat ( the spring crop ) that manages to get in the apartment for treats. Without his father objecting, yet.
Door is closed now, no more cats in or out. and I will concentrate on supper.
@ Possum:
Why not have Glen’s testicles removed you may ask?
Well even if I managed to TNR all the males around here which would cost me $15 a time. Money is not the issue. It just needs ONE intact male to invade this territory and it is futile.
@ Possum:
Ours got into a territory dispute with something last night but isn’t talking.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
Check its nose. Surprisingly cats have a very cold nose usually. An elevated temperature of a cat’s nose indicates an infection.
Oh wait, the fucking thing hates you and the chances of you touching its nose is way less than Elon Musk getting a Starship to land on Mars.
If you need to measure the nasty cat temperature you can easily buy a FLIR camera that sees in the dark and measures its temperature.
Found an ideal one for you.
https://monroeinfrared.com/product/flir-t1020-highest-quality-infrared-camera-72501-0102-wstandard-28-degree-lens/?
Only $56,290 but it could save the little cat’s life.
Or you could spend $12 at Harbor Freight for a pair of welding gloves and $8 at CVS on a rectal thermometer.
That is my helpful contribution to Blogmocracy tonight.
A food warning.
Do not buy Land of Lakes garlic butter with herbs.
Just went through a pound of it in a week. Garlic bread, garlic and butter fried green beans, garlic fried ground beef patties, garlic pasta served with toasted garlic bread.
That shit is versatile and addictive. Also Lucy and the cats made me sleep on the couch all week.
@ Possum:
I can get close, but The Cat won’t let me touch him. He already scratched the missus. He’s eating, seems to be taking care of it on his own like a man cat.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
Just wait. One day he will love you. First sign of affection is when he pisses on your leg. Then you are officially his property.
Cherish that day…
@ Possum:
Oh, and you will not feel it happen. Cat body temp about 101F, human leg temp is about 98F.
Trajectory of a cat piss squirt is about 15cm or 5 7/8 inches in American. Due to the distance the cat piss will have cooled down to EXACTLY your leg temperature and you will not feel it happen.
The only indicator is when you take off your sock it will be damp and smell odd.
@ Possum:
He came by for scratching. I don’t think it’s blood, it’s sticky, like sap. We don’t have any fir trees nearby. I managed to wet it down a little with his drinking water, but he got wise to what I was up to.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
We had that last week. On Glen’s back. a sticky substance that when I got it off him did not smell or anything, But feel and texture of molassis.
Did not taste it though, not drunk enough.
@ Possum:
Grok says, and Grok has gone to shit in version 4.5
It matches the description well: sticky, sap- or molasses-like texture, little to no smell once on the fur, and not blood. Honeydew is the sugary waste excreted by sap-sucking insects; it often drips from trees (maples, oaks, many ornamentals, etc.) and gets mistaken for “tree sap.” It can end up on an animal’s back if it’s climbing, foraging underneath, or rolling/rubbing.
I don’t buy steak as it is expensive ( LOL I am a tight ass ) but as I only cook for one then maybe it is OK as a treat.
The other reason I don’t buy beef steaks is I don’t have a grill and would almost certainly screw it up trying to air fry or pan fry it.
Anyway craving for succulent beef finally got to me so I ordered a pack of Thin Sliced Bottom Round Beef Steak, 8 per Tray, Fresh sliced extra thin to 1/8 inch
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Beef-Bottom-Round-Steak-Thin-0-34-2-0-lb-Tray/150293351
So thin that it cooks in 30 seconds per side in hot coconut oil. And it is delicious in a lightly buttered plain bread roll. No condiments added just the taste of medium rare steak and fresh fluffy bread.
8 slices for $9.19 ( the cost of the pack I got. ) That is cheap per sandwich!
It now seems that steak is back on the menu here now.
@ Possum:
Bread rolls I use are Freshness Guaranteed French Steak Rolls, 13 oz, 8 Count
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Freshness-Guaranteed-French-Steak-Rolls-13-oz-8-Count/596359335
This comment split in two parts to avoid the threat of banning for spam.
It is an English thing. Plain boring food. Another favorite of mine is cucumber sandwiches. The cucumber must be peeled though because American cucumber skin tastes bitter.
Just bread, butter and cucumber.
LOL also delivered yesterday was half a pound of mushrooms. A fried mushroom sandwich is heavenly. No seasoning on the mushrooms, just pure mushroom taste and the juice soaking into the bread.
Plain food is often much better than something made with 20 ingredients that takes hours to cook.
A different topic.
Lawyers don’t know shit.
It is the paralegals ( whatever they are) and the researchers that get down and dirty into the case.
Lawyers just take your money. The best lawyers have an excellent team backing them doing the grunt work.
A lawyer with no support team is just a waste of money.
Disclaimer, not currently in any legal actions, just doing research for a buddy
Another different topic.
Anyone else getting calls about Medicare and medicate from either a male voice or a female voice which speaks very clearly?
Andyou answer the questions with something stupid and they just keep going? That is voice recognition and AI in action.
Just got an AI call on my hotspot. Telling me it could help with my loans. I fucking now love answering these calls.
If it asks you a question answer with something like lettuce, or cucumber, or whatever springs to mind.
The AI keeps on going like the Energizer bunny!
Possum wrote:
OK, found a case that went to the appeal court that fits a certain situation perfectly.
Also back tracked the case to the original civil court case that triggered the appeal.
Interestingly enough the original court case cites other similar cases on file in the supporting documents for the final decision. It is like the judgement was the head of an octopus and the tentacles reached down to prior cases to support the final judgement.
This is going to take a lot of Cabernet and steak sandwiches to un tangle the tentacles. But what else is an old man who has cats going to do.
@ Possum:
Looks like Grok got its shit together after the upgrade.
This place is dead.
@ Possum:
It’s sap. I have a spite tree that the neighbors hate because it drops leaves, twigs and berries on their shrine to Buddah. A few weeks ago they cut the overhanging branches back to the property line fence.
rightymouse wrote:
And your point is?
Except for you and Possum, and a few others posting, the content is boring. Am sorry !
@ rightymouse:
That’s ok. You have a good -ointment. Are you here or just looking?
I agree there are not many people active on here any more but I strongly object to the accusation that the content is boring.
We are only 40+ comments deep in this thread and we have discussed the following.
Gourmet sausages
Not throwing an expensive but now obsolete IPhone 7 away because it can still be used as a great camera
Various comments about feeding feral cats and the competition raccoons make that is an issue
Advanced air fryer techniques so as not to heat up an apartment with no AC in 95F weather
Legal stuff and how a lawyer is next to useless without paralegals, researchers and Possums as backup.
How cutting ones own hair is difficult
Gang colours in Houston and advice as to what colour beanie to wear so no gang affiliation is indicated
Some references to ESP32 microcontroller development boards
Cat territory disputes
Basic tips on how to tell if a cat is not feeling well
The addictive property of Land O Lakes garlic butter
Intact male cats ability to clandestinly piss on legs
Yet more animal related talk about sticky substances on their fur
The astounding price of beef
Hints about buying thin sliced real fresh beef to make sandwiches. A little goes a long way
And more lawyers are crap without a support staff
So in conclusion, if this content is boring then anyone out there please feel free to enlighten this sad, lonely place.
@ Possum:
Oh and Grok agrees.
It took a look at this thread and sums it up very well.
@ Calo:
Sorry to bother you but someone we know is now doing the online equivalent of hiding in a bathroom in College Station.
Oh well….
@ Possum:
Cancel that. We are a go…
@ Possum:
Ok. I will ignore that like she usually does.
Another boring comment.
Watching some boring TV show. Both cats are bored and out on the balcony watching boring people walk past.
Noticed a slight movement to my right side and stared straight into a pair of boring brown eyes.
A grey/brown boring coloured animal was staring at me.
Sitting on my boring plain black mouse mat, next to my very plain computer mouse.
It was a very bored mouse.
Even at 7am here it is too hot for any exciting action here.
@ Calo:
I miss you !
rightymouse wrote:
When Eaglesoars died she took a lot of folks down with her. Maybe we should get some AI bots to fill in.
@ Calo:
Hey, Calo! What’s the haps? What’s the K-pass-O? How’s it shakin’?
(that’s what all the cool kids used to say)
@ Possum:
lol Grok
The missus was out with her aged buddies from HS yesterday, got home after midnight with aluminum foil pans of Mexican food from the party. but that’s not what I want to talk about.
FB friend posted an early 1900s advertisement for a Kansas City seed company featuring a color illustration of vegetables with ugly faces. Commenters were mocking it, so I pulled a Possum. I found a photo from 1906 of the company owner standing in front of his store, enlarged it, but his face was too blurry. I gave it to Grok for enhancement, and the result was amazing. Just as I suspected, those ugly vegetables were caricatures of the seed company owner.
Then I gave Grok the advert with the ugly vegetables. “Those appear to be caricatures of the owner.”
Then Grok wrote a page on how to clean tree sap off of a stray cat.
@ rightymouse:
Come here and give us political news and your views of it. I anlways enjoy reading them.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
Not much.just same old stuff. Glad to see your getting a handle on your disease
@ Calo:
Last round of fun was in May 2025, still have some mental side effects. Two people I know IRL are having a rough time of it. I got lucky.
I’m still around, just been having a very busy summer. Not looking forward to the drop in pay in a month or so. Though maybe it won’t be much since I still have some extra things I have to do each week, just don’t know when it starts.
Bunk Five Hawks X wrote:
I can do that!
When I am bored I will ask Grok, CoPilot, ChatGPT and Gemini the same question then post the answers here.
Currently I favour Grok, but it will be interesting I think.
@ Possum:
OK ran the idea passed Grok and it is game on!
Oh, an for this game to work then the other commenters here have to provide the question, and the collective will have to vote on which question is used.
I will do the heavy lifting by asking the question to the four AIs and posting the answers.
And finally on this subject. I told Grok.
And a computer program replied.
here’s a question for the bots
“how much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
@ rain of lead:
Nice one. That is going on the list.
Reasons, it is non political, has nothing to do with religion or race and is not something I have used AI for in the past.
Them AI things answer questions biased towards question I asked before.
@ Possum:
Ask the bots to debate a simple topic amongst themselves in Gullah instead of English.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
They should also be instructed to correct each other’s grammar. They are allowed to do that part in English.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
I can’t get them to ask each other questions. I tried before.
It would be fun if we could do the Internet equivalent of placing two phones next together and dialing two Chinese restaurants simultaneously and just listen to the yelling at each other.
@ Possum:
LOL but Grok knows what I mean…
rain of lead wrote:
I have done two AIs so far.
@ Possum:
Two interesting things about the reply Grok gave me. The first point was its last part
So as you can see the AI had some idea as to I was asking about two phones talking to each other. If I pushed harder I could probably got it to find an example of the Chinese restaurant skit.
More importantly notice it dropped a raccoon in there.
I said previously that the bloody things remember previous interactions. Which can bias the results it gives on a new and unrelated question.
A boring comment and using AI as a shit hot search engine.
Currently watching a TV show, The Killing, but that is irrelevant.
The characters were having a meal, they were Polish. The kids were reluctant to try it as it ” stinks of cabbage ” I remember having something like that many years ago, in a country I cannot remember, but.
Asked Grok
And six seconds later…
And now I can make it! Next Walmart grocery order will contain a cabbage.
@ Possum:
LMAO
I don’t know the difference between Gullah and pidgin but there ain’t much.
https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/cevmkedyx88o
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
Credit to the BBC they provide Internet news to many countries in their native languages. Former British colonies and territories.
And it is not news auto translated it is news relevant to that country.
As to the quest, I did four AIs and the results were as expected.
Not one asked the age of the woodchuck, its physical health or whether it was chucking balsa wood or seasoned oak. Also non asked was that wood chucked per hour, day or week.
Interestingly all four AI came up with the same amount a woodchuck could chuck.
Based on what they found on the Internet.
AI is a really fast search engine, some of them have a sense of humour.
Lunch will be bacon, mushrooms and thin sliced tomato in a sandwich or two with fresh Italian bread, real butter and mayo then a 12 hour afternoon nap
@ Possum:
For interesting news stories that hide behind paywalls, sometimes I’ll find it on the free foreign language website and run the web page link through Gargle Translate.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
I’ve noticed that the way a story is presented in the foreign edition of the LA Times or The NYT is often different from the English version in tone and bias.
@ Bunk Five Hawks X:
When I read the news I used to do the same thing. Mentioned it here years ago and got yelled at.
Because the news sources were foreign
OK anymore suggestions as to what question to ask AI and see the different results? I got the chucking one lined up.
Been up since 2am so it is supper time and I am drunk.
Supper probably will involve a mushroom yet again.
Possum wrote:
And as usual I asked Grok. And surprisingly it wants to play.
@ Possum:
All great ideas. Grok has a lot of time on his/her/its hands/algorithms.
I’ve been bringing in the catfood at night regularly and haven’t had a visit from the raccoon… until last night. He got on the table, grabbed one of the missus gardening gloves and washed it in the cat’s water bowl. I didn’t see it happen; the cat told me to look at the mess.
@ Possum:
“If you had to be a microscopic creature, what would you want to be and why?”
Well off we go. Anyone who is bored scroll past. I will split this into four comments as the AI admin that monitors this place may get annoyed at me for spamming the place.
The question asked of four AIs was exactly this. Cut and pasted to them so it was fair. Did not want any speling mistakes to screw up the results.
ChatGPT replied
Next up is CoPilot, the Microsoft AI
Here is Gemini, Google
And finally Grok
Bunk Five Hawks X wrote:
Me being a human had an answer for that. Just ran that question by the first AI I use most and it came back with the same answer.
LMAO. I need more wine…
Bunk Five Hawks X wrote:
You toad!
You knew what all four AIs would say, actually one said it did not want to answer with the obvious choice and picked being a slime mould
For those with absolutely no interest in my findings.
I chose a tardigrade, so did chatGPT, Copilot and Grok. Gemini acknowledged that most people and AIs would choose tardigrade it opted for
Physarum polycephalum
Food post. For some reason I am craving green bean casserole but the oven does not work.
Basically it is canned french cut green beans mixed with frenches dried onions and baked at 350F until it bubbles then topped with more dried onions and baked for another few minutes.
Thinking I could microwave slowly the green beans and mushroom soup and dried onion mix, enough to blend the flavours. Microwaving 3 mins, letting it rest, stir, microwaving again etc.
Simulating a slow baked in the oven thing.
Then when ready to eat it slop it into a silicon liner and top it with more dried onions then air fry it at 350F until the top gets crispy.
Or have a plain cheese sandwich for lunch.
Order is on the way!
Progresso Split Pea with Ham Soup, Traditional Canned Soup, Gluten Free, 19 oz
HORMEL COMPLEATS Chicken Breast with Gravy & Mashed Potatoes
HORMEL COMPLEATS Chicken Alfredo
Nissin Foods Hot & Spicy Ramen Noodle Soup, Shrimp Flavor, 3.27 oz Bowl
Campbell’s Condensed French Onion Soup, 10.5 oz Can x2
Great Value Milk Whole Vitamin D, Half Gallon
Freshness Guaranteed French Steak Rolls, 13 oz, 8 Count
Aquamar Surimi, Flake Style Fresh Imitation Crab, 1- 24 oz, Large Plastic Bag 24oz
Libby’s Canned French Style Green Beans, 14.5 oz x2
Prairie Fresh Natural Fresh Pork Half Loin, Boneless, 3.5- 5.5 lb
So loads of nice food heading my direction!
Oh and something else on the order that may change what I cook.
Franzia Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Wine, 5L
That is the cheap shit in a box.
Possum wrote:
Nope! I was hoping one of them would pick Texas Brain Meeba.
@ Possum:
Yup, tardigrade is what I expected them to pick. The slime mold choice is interesting. Rule the world without anyone knowing.