#low cost central heating

[clean-renewable-energy-limited]

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[lloydskywalkers]

moats and boats and waterfalls

Read on AO3

Post-Crystalized — after surviving apocalypse no. 2 (possibly 3, currently under debate) the ninja now face the unspeakable horrors of budgeting.

(Years late to the Crystalized party but here's part one of my seven billion fanfics about this season because there are Thoughts to be had about this one)

As it turns out, rebuilding a monastery is a whole lot more trouble than rebuilding the Bounty for the eightieth time. 

And by trouble, Cole means incredibly expensive.

“Re-installing central heating costs what?!” 

Kai’s horrified cry reverberates throughout the half-constructed monastery, the echo from the noticeably empty rooms only adding to insult. 

Oh, what Cole would give to have his bed back. 

“I guess we’ll have to use you during the winter,” Nya sighs, patting Kai on the back. “Lloyd, get ready to supercharge him.”

“Forget heating, do you know how much Wi-Fi costs?” Lloyd stares at the estimated summary like it’s personally kicked his pet. “Who even has that much money? God?”

“If god had money, he could’ve given Sensei Wu his inheritance and we’d all be loaded,” Jay mutters. “But noooo, ‘material possessions are the death of the soul’, blah blah blah, we’ll see whose soul is dead when the gas cuts out and he can’t make midnight tea anymore.” 

“It does seem a bit extreme, looking at it all like this,” Zane remarks. Somewhat ironically, as he’s taken one look at the bill then wisely retreated across the room. 

“Well, blowing up the entire monastery with us in it was extreme, so it figures repairs are just as bad,” Nya grumbles. 

They all shift, the mood dampening at the reminder. 

Lloyd opens his mouth. “I’m sor—”

“Do not,” Kai stabs a finger at him. “Even try.”

Lloyd slumps. “If I hadn’t gotten caught—”

“We all agreed to the plan, okay?” Cole says. “Also, no one knew we’d be sending you to Harumi, so the whole thing was doomed from the start.”

While he looks a bit miffed, Lloyd gives it up. Though perhaps that’s mostly in part because he desperately wants to avoid any more conversation about—

“So speaking of Harumi,” Jay starts. 

Lloyd springs for the window. 

Unfortunately for Lloyd, said window is currently boarded up by heavy-duty plywood, since quality window glass fell low on the list of priorities, which gives Kai plenty of time to tackle him before he can even raise his leg to kick it in. 

“No!” Zane cries. “We can’t afford anymore plywood!”

“Or like, Band-Aids at bare minimum, so don’t you dare!” Nya adds. 

“—overdramatic phase has gotta go, what are you, five — hey, no biting!”

Lloyd makes a muffled sound as he wrestles on the floor with Kai. Cole turns, very slowly, to glare at Jay.

“Oh come on, we were all thinking it,” Jay defends, reluctantly standing to help pry Lloyd from the floor. “Fine, hey, I promise we won’t talk about certain loser ex-princesses who are nice and cozy in their prison cells right now, okay? There, there, little gremlin, she can’t hurt you anymore—”

“I’ll bite you next,” Lloyd threatens, but he returns to his seat, wincing as Kai scuffs his hair. 

“Turn Oni again, and that might be an actual threat.”

Lloyd startles terribly, staring at Kai with wide eyes. “That’s — not — I wouldn’t—”

“Kai,” Nya hisses.

“Woah, hey, no, I didn’t mean it like that!” Kai says quickly. “It’s supposed to be positive reinforcement! Easing it into a normal thing, y’know?”

Lloyd growls. “Nothing about this is a normal thing—”

“Except none of us are normal, so therefore it is,” Kai interrupts him smoothly. “Also we already loved you when you were a tiny demon, turning into a literal one is nothing. Give us some credit.” 

Lloyd pulls his hood over his flaming face, thunking his head against the table. Kai pats him cheerfully on the shoulder. 

“Additionally, unless we can swindle someone by selling Lloyd in his Oni form on the black market for cold cash before stealing him back, I don’t see how this helps matters.”

Zane finds himself on the receiving end of five blank stares. Lloyd, successfully having been pulled from his hood, whistles. 

“I forget how evil you can be, sometimes.”

Kai gapes at him. “So that makes you feel better?”

“I mean, in terms of normalizing it—”

“Alright!” Cole slams his hands on the table, silencing them all. He glares them down. “Meeting room in five. We’re figuring out how to make this place livable if it kills us.”

There’s a brief silence, then Jay hesitantly raises his hand.

“Hey, so uh, we kinda don’t have a meeting room right now?”

Cole collapses on the table in despair. 

---

Twenty minutes and one session of shoving chairs into what could have been the living room later — it’s hard to tell, with all the construction markings and plywood still up — they’ve kicked off the official first meeting of the Finish-Making-the-Monastery-Livable plan. 

“Alright,” Lloyd announces, brushing his hands as he steps back from the chalkboard that may or may not have been stolen. “At the top of the list we have Wi-Fi, central air and heating, beds — huh, maybe those should go higher — running water, electricity — that one’s debatable, me and Jay can tag-team it if we get desperate — blankets-slash-pillows-slash-etcetera, stuff to cook with, actual food — y’know what, I’m putting that closer to the top—”

“So basically, we have nothing,” Cole says blankly. 

Lloyd glances at the list, then to the sliver of chalk left in his hands. “Uh. Yeah.” 

“Take the weaponry, sure, but all my albums?” Jay mourns. “I spent years collecting those.” 

“I lost the blanket we stole from that super fancy apartment we lived in for like five minutes when Lloyd was a kid,” Kai sighs. “That thing literally made it through the apocalypse, just to bite it now.” 

“Two apocalypses too many,” Nya says.

“Did the Preeminent count as an apocalypse? Like, a minor one?”

“Three apocalypses. It took three apocalypses to vaporize my closet,” Cole sinks lower in his seat. “Man, the hoodie you got me for my birthday was in there.” 

“All of our photographs are lost, too.” Zane stares at his hands. 

Lloyd murmurs something under his breath that sounds a lot like family pictures and figures. 

The mood plummets a bit more, after that. 

“Motherfu—”

“Alright, this isn’t helping,” Cole claps his hands. “We can all cry again later. Lloyd, overall mission status conclusion?”

“Well, like you said, we basically have nothing,” Lloyd sighs. “So unless Zane wants to stop chickening out and abandon his morals so we can just hack into everything and get it free, we need to find some way to pay for all this.”

“Again, I cannot hack in to rebuilding an entire cooling unit throughout the monastery, much less make the latest clothing line from Gucci materialize,” Zane says. Kai swears. “Also, that is called stealing.” 

“You call it stealing, I call it a charitable donation,” Nya says. “I turned into the ocean for this city, the least they can do is cut me a check.” 

“Besides, even if it is stealing, what are they gonna do, send us to jail again?” Jay scoffs.

Lloyd jabs the piece of chalk in his direction. “Don’t jinx us.” 

“Too bad we wasted our chance at crime and didn’t even get rich,” Kai mutters. “All we got was Nya.”

He yelps as she punches him in the arm. “What, too soon?”

“You should be so lucky to have me,” she sniffs. 

“Hey, but going on the donation thought train — do we know anyone who’s rich?” Jay asks. “Why don’t we have any rich friends?”

“Hey, you know what’s rich? That coming from the son of a billionaire.”

“Hey, you know what else got blown up? My inheritance!” 

“Please, let it go,” Zane says. “We do have rich friends, I’ll remind you, we’re friends with actual monarchy. But we can’t exactly go and ask anyone else for money, since they all already helped out so much in getting the monastery rebuilt.”

There’s a moment of pensive silence. Lloyd draws a little sad face on the chalkboard next to ASK FOR DONATIONS. 

“What if we just…sued Harumi,” Cole says. “Like, there’s gotta be some law that could work in our favor here.”

“I don’t think the court would go for that,” Lloyd mutters. “Since they’re all morally corrupt frauds who hate us.”

“Yeah! Down with the system!” Kai punches his fist in the air. 

“Also, Harumi likely has very little in the way of money, either,” Zane says. “Considering she blew up any and all assets she might have had claim to.”

“Haha, what a loser,” Nya crows.

“What if we sued Garmadon?” Cole tries. “The courts have to hate him more than they hate us.”

Lloyd scowls, scrawling a large NO on the chalkboard. “Not worth the effort. Plus, I’m pretty sure he’s still couch-surfing at Vinny’s, which means also penniless.”

“We could sue Kalmaar,” Nya cracks her knuckles.

“Isn’t he dead?” 

“Oh, yeah.” Nya looks disappointed. 

“Did anyone survive that we can sue successfully?” Jay muses. “And actually get money out of?”

“Vangelis,” Cole snaps his fingers. “Wait. No, we ousted him from the throne, so he’s probably broke too.”

“Vangelis survived?”

As they dissolve into bickering over the status of enemies potentially living-or-dead, Kai squints at the chalkboard, where Lloyd is still scratching out letters despite having completely lost the room. 

“We…are…fu—Lloyd!” 

“Well it’s true,” Lloyd huffs, finishing off his message with a flourish. “Tada. There’s my grand plan.”

“That’s not a plan, it’s a pessimistic estimation at how things are gonna go.”

“It’s extremely rude language, is what it is! I thought we taught you better.”

Lloyd simply looks pleased with himself at having recaptured the room’s attention. It is, of course, then that Sensei Wu walks into that room. He stops, looking from where they’re all frozen in place, then to the chalkboard. 

Lloyd pales. 

Sensei Wu pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers and closes his eyes. 

“My dearest nephew, you have three seconds to make that disappear, or I’ll be forced to—”

Lloyd springs for the chalkboard in record time, wiping frantically at his writing with the sleeve of his gi. 

“People would kill for that thing, and here he’s using it as a chalkboard eraser,” Jay mutters. 

It isn’t until later, when they’ve all retreated to the collective mass of blow-up mattress and borrowed blankets they’re calling a bedroom, that anyone breaches the topic again. 

There’s a loud rustling as Cole turns over where he’s precariously shoved between Kai and Zane. 

“…can we sue the mayor?”

There’s a noted pause of silence, only broken by the whirring of the cheap oscillating fan. 

“You know,” Zane says slowly. “In terms of slander and defamation…” 

An evil, sharp-toothed smile spreads across Lloyd’s face. “I like the sound of that.”

“Hey, let’s sue the new ninja, too,” Jay grins. “Can Pixal retroactively trademark our vibe?”

“You cannot sue them based on vibe appropriation.”

“Yeah, but I can sue them for impersonation.”

---

They cannot, as it turns out, sue the mayor, because legal work like that costs even more money. 

They can, however, ruin his year by filing (and forging) every possible insurance claim under the sun, so they all walk out of the office a little more satisfied than before. 

“I hope all your socks go missing in the laundry!” Nya yells toward the building as they hit the streets. “I hope you have a rock stuck in your shoe for the rest of your life! I hope you’re plagued with a mildly inconvenient headache every waking moment and never fully enjoy anything ever again!”

“Alright, alright, we’re getting looks,” Cole grabs her arm. “Let it go.”

“As much as I appreciate it, I am not going back to jail,” Jay shudders. “Twice was enough.”

Kai frowns. “Twice? When else did you get arrested?”

“We all did, re—” Jay cuts off, suddenly aware of the absolute daggers Nya is staring at him. “Uhhh…aw, snap, another mental breakdown, haha!”

“Is this the whole ‘we all have missing memories you guys are definitely hiding from us’ thing again? ‘Cause I swear—”

“I said I’m getting to it, it’s a really boring story anyways—”

“Didn’t you say you lost an eye—”

“Oh look, a window!”

This time, Jay is thwarted by Lloyd, who’s simply jumped out enough windows to recognize when someone’s about to try it themselves. Except Jay is aiming to jump inside a window this time, so they both go crashing into Pixal just as she joins them. 

To her credit, she barely flinches. “I thought I heard clown noises nearby.” 

Lloyd stares at her in such utter betrayal, the mental breakdown thing might become valid.  

“Pixal,” Jay simply begs. “Please. Help your clowns scavenge our clown dinners.”

Pixel surveys them all, a fond smile tugging at her lips. “There is a nice pizza place down the block.”

The cheers she’s met with nearly succeeded at knocking her over where Jay failed.  

Dinner that night comprises of actual, warm, take-out pizza, which nearly moves Cole to tears.

“Definitely changing the priorities order,” Lloyd says blissfully through a mouthful of cheese. “Food goes at the top, no questions.”

“Seconded,” Kai mumbles. 

“Thirded.”

“Fourthed.”

“I cannot believe, that after everything we’ve been through, we did not qualify for the post-apocalypse discount,” Zane bites out. 

“Well,” Jay says brightly. “Pixal hacked the card reader, so technically we got a hundred percent discount.”

Zane stares at her, in equally utter betrayal. “Pixal?”

She shrugs. “They can try to send me to prison. They will fail.” 

---

Two days later, Skylor cements herself as everybody’s most favorite person in the entire world by not only saving them from starvation by demanding they sit their butts down in the restaurant and eat for free, but also donating six pillows and a year’s worth of shampoo. 

“I know it’s not a lot, but I’m on the lookout for more,” she tells them. “I’ve asked other people to help chip in, too, so hopefully that’ll make things a little easier.”

“Skylor,” Cole nearly sobs into his new, beautiful pillow. “If Kai doesn’t marry you, I will.”

“H-hey!”

“No marriage necessary,” she snorts. “Consider keeping you all fed my way of saying thanks.”

“But you already helped out with the monastery,” Nya says, around the same time the rest of them assure her there’s no need for thanks, despite the fact that no one has the slightest desire to relinquish their food. 

“Fine, then,” Skyler huffs, her cheeks turning pink. “Make me say it out loud, will you — consider it my way of showing that I care about you all. Very much.” 

“Aww,” Lloyd says. 

Kai makes a face somewhere between melting and heart eyes. 

“I hate all of you,” she mutters. 

“We love you too, Skylor,” Cole grins. 

“Hate you!”

Despite her words, they all leave with six boxes of leftovers and free dessert. 

This, of course, brings another slightly-pressing issue to mind.  

---

They end up getting a refrigerator for a steal of a bargain, which is probably again influenced by Pixal’s criminal extremely generous activity. 

Given how enthusiastic they all are about getting it installed, Kai is half-expecting there to be no work left for him at all by the time he returns from the food run. 

He’s…not entirely disappointed when he walks into the kitchen, though he is rather baffled. 

The room freezes as if on record-scratch. Jay is perched on top of the counters, Lloyd has a sledgehammer raised halfway in the air, and Cole is on the ground beside the refrigerator crying. 

“What?” Kai asks, blankly. 

“The fridge…doesn’t fit…” Cole moans into the floor. 

“We didn’t leave enough space between the cabinets,” Jay informs him through a mouthful of gummy worms. “So the door can’t open.”

Kai looks at Lloyd. “So the sledgehammer is for…?”

“DIY home improvement,” he shrugs.

“Huh.” Kai glances at the cabinets. “Put some safety goggles on first, okay?”

Lloyd only gets about two swings in before Zane descends with the all wrath of the Ice Emperor and adds to the tally of times-the- Green-Ninja-almost-met-his-doom, but it’s fun while it lasts. 

They were ugly cabinets, anyways. 

---

While his love for his family could potentially fuel a nuclear power plant, Kai does grow tired of being the living team space heater rather quickly. 

The effort of keeping his power going all night just gets annoying (and exhausting) — so by the time he’s tagged in Lloyd to use his power to keep him going, they’re up to two moody ninja short on sleep, and no one wants to deal with that. 

While they’ve scrounged up a few dollar-store quality blankets, Jay takes the opportunity to highlight his accomplishments in arts-and-crafts.

“You mean your mom’s accomplishments.”

“Hey, we made it together! It counts.”

The it in question quickly gains the name “god-awful-t-shirt-blanket” simply because the blinding combination of all their cast-off shirts sewn together is impressively terrible. 

“I still think this is a waste of good clothes,” Kai grumbles. “It’s not like we have outfits to spare these days, you know.”

“Do you wanna keep heating the room at night or no?” Nya threatens. 

Kai quickly shuts his mouth and returns to sewing Cole’s old plaid shirt to one of Jay’s neon blue shirts that features a dolphin printed in enough colors to kill a man. 

“So, what do we think?” Lloyd steps back, wiping at his forehead with his arm as he surveys their masterpiece. 

Staring at the multi-colored mess they’ve patched together into a quilt, Nya announces, “It’s the ugliest blanket I’ve ever seen.”

“Harsh.”

“Hey, we did our best!”

“See if I ever sew for you again,” Lloyd huffs. 

“I didn’t say that was a bad thing,” Nya quickly interjects. “It looks a little like us!”

“Are you saying we’re ugly?!”

“Nya, no, our family genes are enough to carry us through this, I promise—”

---

They’re in the middle of figuring out how to steal Wi-Fi from the government when Tox drops by, Karloff in tow. 

“You really…need…to get an elevator…or something,” she pants, red-faced and sweaty as she hauls several large bags behind her.

In contrast, Karloff looks unfazed, casually toting a hideously floral-patterned sofa over his shoulder. 

“Skylor mentioned you need furniture, no?” he says. “It’s not much, but you need somewhere to sit.”

“Karloff,” Jay tells him, very seriously. “This is the most beautiful sofa I’ve ever seen.” 

“Haha! Karloff is right once again,” he brags to Tox. 

Tox stares at Jay in flabbergasted despair. 

“You can’t put that in your home,” she mutters. “You can’t. It’s a crime against eyes everywhere.”

“Well, it’s better than no sofa, and we’re literally turning down nothing these days,” Nya says cheerfully. She leans over to peer at the bags Tox has managed to drag up. “Speaking of…?”

“Oh, yeah.” Tox heaves the bags in front of her. “Skylor said you guys needed help interior decorating? So I brought a couple rugs. She also mentioned something about the ugliest blanket she’s ever seen, so we called up some of the other Elemental Masters and got like, six or seven together. They’re not exactly works of art, but they’re okay?”

Kai tears open the first bag, his eyes lighting up. “They’re beautiful,” he whispers reverently. “Hey, guys, we got blankets! Dibs on the one with a wolf.”

“Oh, no, not that one, it’s from my awful middle school phase—”

“What do you mean, dibs, I want the wolf one!”

“Oh yeah? Down to fight for it?”

“You’re on. Training ground in five.”

“Absolutely not, we are not fighting over a blanket we’ve been so generously gifted,” Zane snaps, snagging Kai and Cole by their collars. 

“Yeah, we also don’t really have a training ground anymore,” Lloyd says, half-buried in a blanket embroidered with countless bug-eyed fish. “It went ka-boom.”

Nya rubs her temples. “Zane?”

“Already factored into the expenses,” he sighs. 

“Oh wow, you guys weren’t kidding,” Tox says. “Do you want, uh, like a keychain? I have some mints here too I can donate…man, Karloff, help me out!” 

“Does the monastery need a metal helmet?”

“We’re really not that broke,” Nya says hastily, pushing away the offered mints. “But thanks.”

“Speak for yourself.” Lloyd snags the mints, clasping his hands together in prayer at Tox before slipping back into the emerging blanket battle. 

Nya sighs. “Do you guys want tea? We’ve got three whole mugs, now.”

Tox glances from the other ninja, where Jay has been successfully rolled into a blanket burrito and is in potential danger of being rolled right down the mountain, to Karloff, who’s the reason said danger is potential. 

“We can spare a minute, I guess.”

The t-shirt blanket is later relegated to the living room, where it lives as a throw blanket over Karloff’s floral sofa. They unanimously decide it’s the perfect home for it, and the only real critic is Skylor, who’s almost reduced to tears the next time she visits. 

---

They celebrate their achievement of having a living room by all eating dinner on Karloff’s floral-patterned couch. This comes with a good deal of kicking and squirming and the tragic loss of Kai’s fortune cookie, but they make it work. 

“This is kind of depressing, though. Sitting in the dark,” Nya remarks. 

A muscle in Jay’s jaw twitches. “Well, maybe if someone hadn’t melted all our candles—”

“You were the one who had the brilliant idea of trying to barbecue with them, genius!” Kai snaps. 

“It was a pretty spectacular fire,” Lloyd admits. Then, hastily, “In a really cool way!” 

“Perhaps a lamp should go next on the list,” Zane says. “Rather than relying on Kai as our light.”

“Hey, I’m a great light,” Kai scowls. “I’m the light of your life. I could light this place up all day!” 

“Yes, and I’m sure it would end similarly to the time you nearly burned down a building under the belief that you were achieving your true potential, but were, in fact, just dehydrated.”

Kai gapes at Zane in betrayal. “You said you’d take that to the grave!” 

Zane carefully laces his fingers together. “Technically, I did.”

“No you didn’t!” Jay interjects. “We never buried you, so you never had a grave! Ha!”

Zane looks affronted. “I didn’t get a grave?”

“You got a statue!” Kai quickly consoles . 

“Yeah, what’d you want us to do, pick your exploded pieces out of the street for half a year then toss ‘em in the ground?”

“Oh, as if that’s any worse than being left to pour your corpse out in cups of water.”

 “It wasn’t my corpse, I was still alive!”

“You were the literal ocean. Fish swam in you.” 

“Ew, does that mean—”

“Finish that sentence and I will drown you where you stand—”

“You’re all in desperate need of counseling,” Pixal mutters. 

“Tell me about it,” Lloyd says, leaning back on the armrest of the sofa. 

Cole shakes his head. “Lost causes, all of them.”

Pixal stares at them both, expression pinched, before deciding to respect the hopelessness of lost causes. 

“Hold on, I think Kai’s crying,” Lloyd moves to sit up, only to wobble, slip sideways, and go crashing to the floor gracelessly.  

“Just like when I fell to my doom off the Bounty,” Cole reminisces.  

 Pixal’s eyes glaze over. 

---

Later that evening, Pixal adds “therapy” to the list of potential expenses on the fridge door. Regretfully, it loses miserably in the debate against hot shower expenses, so it too joins the pile of repressed memories that will undoubtedly haunt them in the future. 

“But hey, a hot shower can cure depression on a good day,” Cole says, and that settles that. 

---

Hot showers, as it turns out, are a hard-won priority. 

It’s less so after Jay, Nya, and Pixal camp out overnight near the pipeline and perform their own less-than-legal maintenance, but one of Zane’s carefully filed insurance claims actually went through the other day, so they’re taking their luck as they can. 

It’s not until they get working on the bathroom itself that the true difficulty makes itself clear. 

“Hey, uh,” Kai stares down at the patch of rotted floor he’s ripped up, wiping at the fog that’s spread across his safety goggles. “Is the base layer supposed to look like that?”

“Look like what?” Cole abandons the tiling he’s been placing to glance over. His face drops. “Uh-oh.” 

“Is that all black mold?” Nya gags, nearly dropping her bottle of cleaning bleach.  

“FSM, no wonder we’re all crazy,” Cole mutters. 

“Alright,” Kai strips off his rubber gloves. “Nothing for it. Back up, guys, I’m barbecuing this baby.”

“Wait wait wait don’t—”

Ten minutes and a good deal of hacking and wheezing through teary eyes later, Cole murders Kai while they all look on. 

Well, he attempts to.

“You filled the monastery with chlorine gas, you absolute moron—!”

“How was I supposed to know that would happen, I’m not a chemist—”

Nya glares ahead darkly as Lloyd gingerly treats the reddened blisters on her hands. 

“None of you,” Zane says, through gritted teeth. “Are touching cleaning chemicals for a year.” 

---

“Not sure I wanna know how you pulled off poisoning yourselves, but I’m kinda impressed you did a better job of it than most criminals would,” Ronin tells them, once the monastery has been successfully de-chlorinated and the bathroom tiles firmly put in place, sans black mold. 

“Maybe we can hire ourselves out to them when we’re strapped for cash,” Nya sighs.

“We’re literally always strapped for cash. We’re broke.”

Ronin laughs, clapping Jay on the back. “Welcome to adulthood, kid.”

“I don’t think normal adulthood gets their home blown up on a regular basis,” Lloyd hisses.

“Fair point,” Ronin nods. 

“Well, thanks for saving us all from a slow and painful death,” Cole scrubs his hands over his face. “We can pay you back sometime in the next century. Maybe.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Ronin waves them off. “It’d be like kicking a dog when it’s down, askin’ you all to pay. Besides, I probably owe you one.”

“You sure do,” Jay glares. 

“Hey, hey, I said I was sorry for the whole human sacrifice thing,” Ronin placates. “Want some good news, at least?”

“Is it actually good news?” Lloyd eyes him shrewdly.

“Lighten up, captain trust issues.” Kai barely snags Lloyd before he lands himself back in jail. “I looked into some more of those insurance claims you filed, and you actually got somethin’ out of it. I, uh, helped the bank along a bit, with the refund.”

“Bank?” Cole whispers.

“Refund?” Jay’s eyes shine. 

“Yeah, got you all your checks right here,” Ronin says, tugging six neat envelopes from his jacket. “Just don’t blow ‘em all at once, okay? Haha.”

Zane looks as if he might propose to him on the spot. 

“Hey, this isn’t too bad!” Kai exclaims. “We got money!”

“Guys,” Lloyd says, staring at his check. “You know we should probably pool all this together and spend it on necessities, right?”

“Yeah,” Cole sighs. 

“It would be the smartest course of action,” Zane adds. 

There’s a noted silence.

“Or,” Lloyd says. 

---

In their defense, they spend exactly two-thirds of their checks on household items. 

Whether or not these are needed household items remains a debate. 

“If we’re all buying lamps for the living room, can we at least attempt to match?” Zane sighs. 

“Booo, where’s your joy and whimsy?” Jay sticks out his tongue. 

“That isn’t even a lamp, it’s a light-up axolotl.”

“The heck’s an axo-lot—”

“It lights up, doesn’t it? Ergo, it’s a lamp.”

“Ergo, what are you, Sensei Wu—”

“We’re never having guests over again,” Cole remarks, as Lloyd and Nya maneuver a five-foot-tall rendition of Godzilla into the shopping cart that may or may not light up. 

“The monastery’s gonna look rad as heck, we’re forcing everyone to come over and look at it,” Kai corrects as he tosses a set of flame-patterned curtains into the mess. 

“Absolutely not.” 

“I actually might like them,” Zane muses. “They would capture the energy of our kitchen perfectly.”

Kai beams. “Flame curtains are a go!” 

In the aftermath, they total around six individual blankets, five mismatching lamps and one light-up axolotl, a table that no one knows how to put together, one set of flame-patterned curtains, another hideous couch, and enough cutlery and kitchenware that no one has to eat out of Sensei Wu’s incense bowls anymore. 

“Alright,” Lloyd says. “We’ve got three hours until the stores start closing. Everyone take the rest of your checks, don’t think about how much of a disaster the monastery still is, and start thinking about how valid retail therapy is.” 

“Aye-aye,” Kai salutes, before immediately booking it for the clothing outlets. 

---

Three hours later, Kai’s happily blown his entire check on a new wardrobe and exactly one pair of name-brand brand shoes. He’s unreasonably proud of himself for his restraint, until he catches Cole with three pairs of his own name-brand shoes, and immediately regrets being responsible. 

He spots Jay going off in the N-Pop section of a music store, Nya investing in a sinfully-priced espresso machine, and Zane walking toward the clothing outlets himself with a high-quality pair of noise-cancelling headphones. 

He doesn’t find Lloyd until well after he’s picked up his own clothes, already sporting an oversized hoodie he could’ve just stolen from Kai. 

He’s more concerned when Lloyd proceeds to blow the last of his check at the sporting goods section of the local convenience store. Considering how long Lloyd spent looking wistfully at the candy aisle, Kai is baffled by the decision. 

He’s even more baffled when Lloyd proceeds to box up his purchase for delivery instead of keeping it himself.

He’s utterly horrified when he sees who it’s addressed to.

“Are you serious?!” he asks shrilly, torn between ripping the box from Lloyd’s hands or immediately calling the mental health hotline. “You’re sending her gifts?”

“It’s not a gift, it’s — look, it’s a long story, you wouldn’t get it,” Lloyd grumbles, plastering another layer of duct tape over the box. “Just help me deliver it to Kryptarium and I’ll show you, okay?”

Kai very much does not help, because he’s not an enabler and he cares about his brother’s mental health, but he does follow Lloyd to Kryptarium Prison and lurk behind him as he eagerly watches the surveillance screens. 

Harumi stares at the box before her, looking every bit as baffled as Kai is. 

“Who would send me a volleyball—”

She freezes, her face going utterly blank. A muscle in her jaw twitches. 

There’s a brief flash of what could be amusement, a brief expression as if she’s eaten something sour, then a fury like no other eclipses her face. 

“LLOYD! I’LL KILL YOU MYSELF, YOU THINK YOU’RE HILARIOUS—”

Lloyd’s still laughing by the time they’re escorted from the premises, hard enough that Kai has to catch him when he trips at the top of the steps. 

“What’d you even write on the note?” Kai finally asks, a bit in awe. 

Lloyd grins. “I told her good luck getting together her villainous volleyball team in jail.”

Kai blinks. “Do I…want to know?”

“Nope!” Lloyd says airily. “But I’ve made my point.”

---

Regardless of some behaviors, the mental health hotline remains a constant idea. It simply happens to come up at inconvenient times, such as when Cole drops a dresser on his foot halfway across the courtyard. 

He swears so loudly the whole monastery echoes with it. 

“Oh geez, Cole, are you okay? Why’d you lift the whole thing on your own?”

“We could have helped,” Zane rushes over. “You don’t have to do it all yourself—”

“Yes I do!” Cole yells. “I’m stronger than that, I’m supposed to be stronger, I have to be stronger or you’re all going to die next time—”

He cuts off abruptly. Zane looks heartbroken. Jay—

Is suddenly busy smacking Cole upside the head. 

“No, you don’t!” he snaps back, even louder. “You don’t have to do it by yourself! None of you do! Every time anyone tries to do something by themselves it all goes wrong and we lose someone, so we’re never — doing that — again!” 

He seizes Cole around the arms, his wild eyes meeting Cole’s wide ones. “No one blames you for the stupid tunnel. I don’t care how strong you are. We’re all here and that’s what matters, so don’t you dare put that at risk.”

“But I—”

“No.”

“Jay, I—”

“No.”

“I—”

“No!” A manic expression overtakes Jay’s face. “No, no, no! No one’s taking the blame. No one’s isolating themselves. No. One. Is. Going. Off. Alone. You hear me?!” 

The others are frozen, halfway outstretched hands caught as if suspended in ice. Kai’s expression is twisted painfully. Lloyd’s eyes are on the ground. Zane is as frozen as the metaphorical ice, and Nya looks devastated. 

“No more being alone,” Jay says, the fire in his voice giving way to something wetter and considerably more sniffly. “No more. Don’t — you can’t—”

“Okay,” Cole whispers. He carefully takes Jay’s hands from his shoulders, grasping them in his own instead. “Okay. No more going at it alone. I promise.”  

 The monastery courtyard seems a little colder, in the silence.  

“Anyone feel like circling back to the whole ‘suing Harumi’ idea?” Kai finally speaks up. 

Jay gives a wet snort. 

“Well, we’re probably gonna need to afford tissues,” Lloyd says. His own voice isn’t exactly dry, either. 

---

The downside to sticking therapy smack at the bottom of their priorities is that they all really are, in fact, not okay. 

Most of the time, they manage. 

There’s a solace in being together, a comfort in having the people you trust and care for most in the world right next to you when the nightmares get bad. When Jay awakens screaming for Nya or clutching at his throat for air, Nya is already holding his hand and Cole’s holding the rest of him.

When Zane lapses into silence too long, emotions a roiling mess that leave him paralyzed, Kai is there with one-two-three’s for breathing and Lloyd is there to draw little cats with him until the world subsides again. 

When Cole’s eyes shadow in training and his hits grow wild, Zane is there to pin him before he bloodies his hands and Jay is there to sing horrible off-key songs he loves until the panic ebbs.

When Nya stares at the water too-long, her eyes misty and her expression dreamy, Jay is there to hold her tight and Kai is there to talk until his voice goes hoarse and hers returns. 

There are other times, though, when it’s harder. 

It hits Kai this time about halfway through painting the walls of the kitchen a cheerful yellow, said paint splattered up to his elbows, courtesy of Lloyd. He glances down — to joke, to laugh, to not think—

And pauses. With the headband he’s stolen from Pixal in place, pushing back the mass of thick blond hair, Kai can just see the purple-red edges of the swollen, irritated wounds that scar Lloyd’s scalp. The twin marks are a better sight than when Kai first glimpsed them, bleeding circles that looked as if someone had drilled into Lloyd’s skull — but not by much. 

“S’fine,” Lloyd mutters, catching Kai’s devastated expression. “I can’t even feel ‘em. Not really.”

“Liar,” Kai rasps. “They look awful.”

Lloyd makes a face. “Gee, thanks a lot.”

“I mean it. What if they get infected, or worse, or — have you had Sensei look at them?”

Lloyd wraps his arms around himself, avoiding Kai’s eyes. “No. I didn’t really…I did what he asked. What they both did. And then screwed the whole thing up, so it was all useless anyways, so I—”

He bites his lip, hard enough to crack the already dry skin. 

“I don’t really wanna hear anyone telling me what else I’m doing wrong with myself, right now.” 

Kai is angry enough to feel sick. 

“That’s stupid. That’s so stupid, he should — it shouldn’t be like that, it’s — why didn’t anyone—” he shakes his head. “Why doesn’t anyone ever ask us if we wanna be — if we wanna—”

Lloyd’s hand closes around his wrist, gently tugging Kai’s own hand from where it’s clawed unconsciously at his arm, leaving ugly red stripes against his skin. 

“You asked,” he says, quietly. “That meant a lot.”

Kai looks away. “Lot of good it did.”

Lloyd’s grip tightens. “It meant the world to me,” he repeats, stronger this time. 

“But I couldn’t—!”

Lloyd abandons his hold on his wrist to wrap his arms around Kai entirely, holding tight. Bony and strong and familiar, Kai’s little brother to the core. 

“Thank you,” he says, fervently enough that Kai can feel the ache in his voice. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

Kai’s voice is a miserable mess of fought-back tears. “I couldn’t even do anything.” 

“You asked me what I wanted,” Lloyd says once again, and Kai can hear the edge of tears threatening his voice, now. “That was everything.” 

Giving in, Kai drops his head into the mess of blond curls and hugs Lloyd back. Lloyd’s hair smells like blood and paint and steel and the strawberry shampoo Skylor gave them, and now it’s gonna smell like Kai’s stupid snot and tears. 

“Hey, having another hug party without me is lame.” 

Kai gives a wet, broken response as Nya throws her arms around them both. 

“Idiots,” she murmurs, resting her head atop theirs. “I love you both, you know that?”

“Ew, gross,” Lloyd snorts wetly. “Hey Kai, Nya loves us.”

“Little jerk, who you callin’ gross? And here I thought you loved us too.” 

“Well obviously I love you guys back, who’s the idiot now—”

Kai simply clutches them both and cries harder, as if holding onto them will stop himself from falling apart.

It works, in the ways that matter, though it’s always because they’re holding back even tighter. 

Later that evening, Zane bathes Lloyd’s head in antiseptic and Jay forces them all to sit through the PowerPoint presentation he’s made with Nya titled “Every Super Cool Totally Good Character with Horns Ranked”. He loses them the minute he brings anime characters into it, as everyone suddenly develops incredibly passionate opinions about the rankees, but Lloyd’s laughing too hard to have his own opinion and Kai doesn’t feel like he’s drowning under inadequacy anymore — just choking to death under the weight of Jay’s elbow for daring to insult Re:Zero as an anime “since it actually has Oni in it, idiot, your opinion is trash—” 

They get things back to being okay, one way or another. 

---

Somewhere in the third month of renovations, they finally scrounge up six whole beds. It takes a good deal of dragging and cursing, but they finally manage to move into their own rooms, the once-empty spaces looking a little less lonely. 

“Now we don’t have to all sleep together in the same room anymore,” Jay announces. There’s no small amount of celebration at that.

The celebration lasts up until sometime around three in the morning, at which point the  consistent nightmares land them all right back in the pile of communal air mattresses. 

“Just for like, one more night,” Kai yawns, as Lloyd curls closer beneath his arm. 

“Totally, yeah,” Nya echoes, one leg spread across Jay, her arm sprawled over Kai. 

“Go to sleep already, FSM’ sake,” Cole begs, before slumping over Zane. 

For all Cole’s begging, he’s still the first to act when Zane suddenly lurches up from the bed, gasping for air like he’s drowning and giving them all joint heart attacks. 

“—hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s just us—”

Cole’s hands hover, non-threatening, as Zane buries his face in his palms, breathing ragged. The others have begun to get up now as well, the slow kind of approach that lets Zane know exactly where each of them are. 

“I despise this,” Zane spits, as his hand drags down to fist over his chest. “I hate feeling like this. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it—”

“I know,” Cole says. “I know.”

“This is why — it’s so much easier—“

“It’s okay, it’s—”

“It is not! I do not need to breathe, and yet I can’t!” Zane bursts out, frustrated and frightened. “I’m not supposed to break down like this, I do not, I do not—”

“You’re not a machine,” Cole says steadily. “You get to break down.” 

“But if I—”

“You don’t,” Lloyd murmurs. “You don’t have to turn ‘em off, Zane. You’re one of the strongest people I know.” 

Zane’s head lowers, his eyes shadowed. “It wouldn’t hurt,” he says, but it’s reluctant. 

“Yeah, you’d never hurt, but you’d never be happy, either,” Kai says. “And that’d suck.”

“It’d suck for us, too,” Cole speaks up. “We’d have to live without your laugh. Without your sassy remarks. Without your kindness.”

“We’d live without you,” Lloyd says, quietly. “And you wouldn’t really be living, would you?”

Zane crumples, his shoulders shaking as he allows Kai to pull him close. 

“If it gets too much, just come to us,” Jay says. “We’ll be more, okay? We’re pretty good at that.”

Zane gives a wet, stifled laugh. 

“Don’t go, even if it’s just your emotions leaving,” Nya murmurs, her head against his. “It isn’t worth it.”

With slowing shudders, Zane lets himself relax, the warmth of their little family pressing around him. Kai is an immovable barrier at his side, save for where Lloyd’s tucked beneath his arm. Jay’s legs tangle with Lloyd and Cole’s, his hand held tightly in Nya’s.  

“Leaving isn’t worth it,” Nya echoes. “Not in any lifetime.”

---

Bit by bit, the monastery comes together. 

The smell of new paint gives way to a familiar scent of mixing elements and laundry soap, one that’s followed them since the first Bounty. They comb through every online shop until they find the exact brand of sheets that feel like the first apartment they ever lived in together. Thrift shops and sales and birthdays stock closets once again, new hoodies that are quickly stolen and passed back and forth. The collection of CD’s and movies rebuilds into stacks once again through shared movie nights and pirated music.

And little by little, with the consistent passage of time, photographs line the walls of the monastery once again.

 A little older, a little worn, but a collection of family all the same. 

---

“Except we still don’t have damn central heating—” 

“Suck it up and light the fireplace, hothead.” 

“No respect in this city. None at all.” 

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Biologists have created small hotspot shelters that operate like little saunas to help vulnerable and endangered amphibians fight off a fast-spreading and deadly fungal disease that has been a major threat to amphibians for decades.

Researchers from Macquarie University and the University of Melbourne developed the shelters as a way to help amphibians ward off chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease of the skin. 

As explained by Amphibian Ark, a conservation group, the fungi that cause the disease can grow in the skin of an infected amphibian. The fungi inhibit the ability for water to move through the amphibian’s skin, leading to heart failure. Outbreaks of chytridiomycosis have led to major declines in some amphibian species around the world, particularly in Australia, Mexico, Central America, the Andes region of South America and the western U.S., Amphibian Ark reported.

Globally, 90% of amphibians that are threatened by chytridiomycosis have become extinct in the wild or altogether, and 124 affected species have seen population declines of 90% or higher, Macquarie University reported.

In response, researchers found a low-cost way that they determined to be effective in improving the frogs’ resiliency to the disease. They used whatever materials were already available, such as bricks or PVC, to build small shelters for the amphibians. The idea is that the shelters will become warm enough that the fungal disease will not be able to grow or spread.

“The whole thing is like a mini med spa for frogs,” Anthony Waddle, lead author of the study and a Schmidt Science Fellow at Macquarie University’s Applied BioSciences, said in a statement. “In these simple little hotspots, frogs can go and heat up their bodies to a temperature that destroys the infections. As with many human diseases, such as influenza, chytridiomycosis is seasonal. Winter is a particularly vulnerable time for frogs, given there are few opportunities to heat themselves up. By making hot spots available to frogs in winter, we empower them to cure their infections, or not even get sick at all.”

[mariacallous]

Founded only three years ago, Moms for Liberty (M4L) has become a well-known, polarizing organization in U.S. education politics. The group emerged amid heated political disagreements over school re-openings and mask mandates and established itself as a central figure in ongoing battles over how race and racism, gender, and sexuality are taught in schools.

M4L has focused most of its attention on local school boards. It has worked to elect school board candidates who share M4L’s right-wing vision of “parental rights” in education and advocate for policies to bring that vision into U.S. schools.

Central to M4L’s work has been an endorsement process by which candidates can request support from their local M4L chapter. M4L reports that current M4L members can submit a request to their local chapter, which then interviews the chapter membership and votes on whether to endorse. M4L’s website pledges that endorsed candidates will receive “promotion and support” from the local chapter, a listing on the M4L national website, and the possibility of further support from the national M4L political action committee.

Of course, the central premise of a candidate endorsement is that being associated with the endorsing party brings more benefits than costs to the candidate. With M4L, that benefit-cost ratio isn’t always clear. On one hand, local school board elections tend to have low turnout, so persuading just a few like-minded people to vote can sway an election in the candidate’s favor. On the other hand, M4L has become such a polarizing brand—through its abrasive rhetoric, extreme policy positions, and most recently, a sex scandal involving one of the group’s co-founders—that some candidates might find being associated with M4L brings out more votes for the opposing candidate than for themselves.

In October 2023, we (and our colleague Sana Sinha) examined where Moms for Liberty chapters were located, where the organization was endorsing school board candidates, and where the candidates that M4L endorsed in 2022 won school board seats. We found a disproportionate share of chapters in suburban areas, with the bulk of endorsements coming in suburban and politically “blue” (Democratic) or “purple” (politically mixed) counties. A slight majority of these endorsed candidates who lost their races.

Now, with the fall 2023 elections behind us, we can look back at the full 2023 election cycle.

Our approach—and a challenge with studying Moms for Liberty

This analysis mimics part of the analysis that we conducted in October. We collected the names of candidates that M4L listed on its website as having endorsed. We then checked the outcome of those candidates’ elections, looking at both election results and school board biography pages.

We used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to identify which names appeared on M4L’s list of endorsed candidates in 2023. The most useful list comes from the days immediately before the November 2023 elections, when M4L listed the candidates it was endorsing in that month’s elections as well as endorsements from earlier in 2023. M4L removed that list from its website soon thereafter. In its place, M4L now shows a “2023 win report” claiming that 90 of the 202 candidates it endorsed in 2023 were elected (45%).

By our count, only 166 candidates appeared on the M4L website. We don’t know how M4L came to that number of 202 endorsed candidates, nor the 90 wins that it claims among that group. We have reached out to M4L asking for clarification and have not received a response. A PDF of our clipped version of the M4L website’s endorsement list from November 7, 2023, is available here.

Notably, the M4L list did not include several candidates from high-profile races that attracted national attention in November 2023 because of M4L’s engagement. This includes the school board race in Bucks County, PA, where local reporters noted ambiguity in which candidates actually had an M4L endorsement. Also of note, the candidates associated with M4L—many of whom are missing from our list—performed poorly in these high-profile races, including in Bucks County.

A small—and declining—share of M4L-endorsed candidates won in 2023

By our count, a total of 54 of the 166 candidates that M4L publicly endorsed in 2023 won their elections. That’s a 33% win rate. Figure 1 shows the win rates for calendar years 2022 and 2023, overall and disaggregated by characteristics of the counties in which these candidates ran.

We should stress that we can’t determine whether these candidates won or lost because of an M4L endorsement. Too many other variables are involved to make that type of causal identification possible. Still, examining win rates is important both to assess the truth of M4L’s claims and because M4L has become an important player in education politics.

As seen in Figure 1, M4L-endorsed candidates won at nearly twice the rate in politically conservative counties (41%) and moderate counties (42%) as in politically liberal counties (22%). M4L endorsed more candidates in “blue” counties (n=74) than in “red” (n=64) and “purple” (n=26) counties, which could reflect that M4L found more disagreement with school board policies in these areas.

Figure 1 also shows that only about one-third of M4L-endorsed candidates won in suburban areas in 2023. This is notable given that the vast majority of M4L’s 2023 endorsements were in the suburbs (n=127).

Even with these differences by county characteristics, it’s striking that the win rate in every type of county (though 50% may be an arbitrary benchmark). Also striking: the across-the-board declines in win rates from 2022 to 2023. By our count, only 33% of M4L-endorsed candidates won in 2023 after 47% had won in 2022, and a drop of some magnitude is evident in every county type. For example, the win rate in suburbs slid from 54% to 34%.

Numerous factors could contribute to the year-to-year differences, which leaves us to speculate. To begin, the 2022 and 2023 election cycles differ in many ways—including the presence of congressional elections in 2022—and M4L identified far more endorsed candidates in 2022 (n=340) than in 2023 (n=166). We also suspect that M4L learned lessons from its earlier endorsements and the subsequent media coverage of those candidates’ performance. It’s possible, for example, that M4L is supporting candidates without issuing public endorsements in contexts where the M4L brand has become too polarizing. Of course, the changing politics of education in the U.S. and the growing national profile of—and resistance to—Moms for Liberty are also likely factors.

Still, it’s premature to write off Moms for Liberty

It’s hard to think of another education advocacy organization that has grown to such national prominence so quickly. While M4L founders claim that this growth has been fueled by the resonance of their messages, political polls, and election results say otherwise.

Still, M4L is a well-financed group with close ties to powerful individuals and institutions in conservative politics, and M4L represents a voting bloc that Republican political operatives are actively trying to court in the 2024 elections and beyond. Moreover, regardless of M4L’s own motives, perhaps its ultimate impact will have little to do with electoral outcomes. For example, in a recent piece, historian Jack Schneider and writer Jennifer Berkshire argue that M4L is supported by a broader conservative movement that is less concerned with flipping school boards than with sowing distrust in public education to support privatization efforts.

Regardless, M4L has become an important player in U.S. education politics—and one that should continue to draw the attention of researchers and journalists alike.

[razieltwelve]

As An Aside

I have always found it ridiculous that governments like to report the average wage instead of the median wage.

The two are not the same. In fact, the presence of outliers (of which there are many) results in significant differences.

In 2021, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the average yearly wage (pre-tax) was around $90,000. Great, right? Or maybe not. The median yearly wage for that same period was around $63,000. That’s a difference of roughly $27,000, and those two figures paint very different pictures.

The average makes you think that many Australians are earning close to six figures. The median tells you that half are earning less than $63,000. When the discrepancy between the average and the median is this large, I see no reason to use the average other than to obfuscate.

In a similar vein, I find the reporting of only the raw GDP (Gross Domestic Product) while telling everyone that things aren’t that bad to be abhorrent. The raw GDP of a country is largely irrelevant when it comes to how good or bad things are for people. What you want to look at is GDP per capita (i.e., per person) and how that compares to previous years.

Australia’s government has loudly proclaimed that things aren’t that bad. GDP is still growing! But what they haven’t talked about is that we may very well see a GDP per capita recession within the next year. In other words, if GDP is the pie, then the pie has gotten bigger. But how much of the pie each person gets has gotten smaller. In other words, no, things are not peachy for everybody.

What really gets me is that Australia somehow has some of the highest natural gas prices in the world despite being a next exporter of gas. This in turn has led to apocalyptic increases in energy prices along the east coast that are absolutely going to cause real suffering amongst people, particularly those of lower economic means because their budgets are already severely stressed due to inflation, rising interest rates, and housing costs. 

This speaks to systematic and repeated failure at the state and federal level because a net exporter of a natural resource should not be paying higher prices for that resource than the people it’s exporting it too. Previous governments have given companies in the eastern states the ability to export natural gas without having to sufficient reserves to control domestic prices. So of course what do they do? Sell as much of it overseas as they can, which screws over the price in the eastern states of Australia as well. That this is allowed is lunacy. Whoever decided not to mandate a decent level of reserves for domestic use to keep prices low was an idiot. Yes, the gas companies make more money, and you can tax them for that, but the rest of the economy suffers. Every single person and business who relies on energy (because electricity is usually generated with natural gas) ends up paying more.

More to the point, with many countries facing enormous inflationary pressures, increasing energy prices only add to the problem. It’s easy for reserve banks and governments to say to people “don’t ask for a wage increase or inflation will get worse” but at a certain point people no longer care. If renting or owning a home costs more, and keeping the lights or heating on costs more, and buying food costs more, and putting petrol in the tank costs more, people are rightfully going to ask “how the hell do I pay for all of these increase?”. People will ask why companies aren’t doing their part to lower inflation and are instead profiteering.

We saw this in Britain where repeated attempts to control inflation largely failed, and people basically went “screw it” and pushed for wage increases anyway because with inflation continuing to rise, they had no choice. Without increased wages, they couldn’t survive.

It’s really a multi-level failure in policy. Central banks have the equivalent of a hammer (interest rates), but controlling inflation cannot be done with interest rates alone. Too many federal governments (Australia’s amongst them) have simply thrown up their hands and said that controlling inflation is impossible for anyone but the central bank (i.e., the Reserve Bank). But governments have a critical role in managing inflation because they operate the legislative levers that can help to control supply and demand in critical areas like housing, energy, and basic consumption (e.g., food). They can - and must - assist the central bank because monetary policy in the form of interest rates is toothless without legislative support that addresses key areas of the economy.

For fuck’s sake, this shit is so obvious that the government has to know, but it’s politically expedient to do nothing and let the Reserve Bank (in Australia’s case) take the heat because actually doing something might require being unpopular for a while.

Also, I should point out the absolute futility of trying to cool down demand in the housing sector by building 30,000 homes over the next five years... while also bringing in more than a million migrants. Now, I am a migrant myself. I have nothing against migration when it is properly handled. But do the math. If housing is an issue right now (and the rental situation in many parts of Australia has basically become Mad Max) what do you think is going to happen if you continue to bring in more people than you can build houses for?

You get a housing crisis. You get places where rental prices can increase by upward of 25% in a single year. And this just drives inflation higher and higher because people need more money just to keep a roof over their heads.

The saddest thing (and honestly it would be funny if it wasn’t real life) is that some idiot in the government is going to look at the skyrocketing housing prices and conclude that all is well. After all, look at how much Australian’s are worth! Yeah. If you count the skyrocketing house prices as part of net worth, maybe the net worth of Australian’s as a whole will increase, but you’re creating an absolutely miserable situation for everyone else.

[n2qfd]

The tale of a 1/4" of foam..

The top left is one of the foam panels I cut to fit most of a window. It just sits on the sill inside and I keep them in the window as long as the sun is shining directly on that face of the house.

Top right, house thermostat showing the current temp/time 80°F

Bottom right, an interstitial space between the back door/stormdoor 93°F

Bottom left, the "inside" temp is the cellerway just inside the back door 82°F The "outside" temp is a remote sensor in the garage 99.1°F

This is what a little reflective insulation is doing today by mindfully blocking some windows. It's passive and costs only what the foam cost me initially to buy. If I remember, I cut the foam in the Lowe's parking lot with a box knife and duct taped the edges. They don't have to fit the window perfectly or even fill it all to block some light/heat. We don't have central air, our house was built in the late 1930's, just fans. The pannels get put in a closet in when it's not so hot.

I hate to think this might be useful for the future what with global temps rising. We're heading into an El Niño season and it's going to mean hot summers will be normal. So if you're reading this tuck it away in your brain someplace, it might be useful to keep a 10°+ temperature differential on a budget.

[galtx]

GALTx eNews: Bidding Is Open!

Bidding in GALT's 2023 Holiday For Hounds on-line auction is open and runs through November 12, 2023, at 9:00 pm central time! We need you to help make this auction a success!

Proceeds from this auction will help with GALT's ongoing expenses in several areas:

Medical expenses for Injured Reserve greys like Lisa, Twyla, Jenny, and others;

Monthly boarding & staffing costs at GALT’s Houn House kennel;

Special expenses for Australian racing greyhounds;

Occasional capital expenses, e.g. for heating, plumbing and electrical issues at the kennel; and

Other unexpected costs, e.g. tracking fees recently incurred for runaway hounds like Zippy.

Our coffers typically run low this time of year, and you can make a gift to the hounds by bidding on 49 wonderful items provided by our generous donors. At the same time, you can find a plethora of gifts for the friends and family members on your holiday shopping list!

In addition to the usual greyhound-themed art, jewelry, accessories and home goods, we have included several gift cards/certificates and other “non-dog" items as gift ideas for some of your other friends and family members. And even if you don't need more "stuff" right now, you can still help by making one or more gifts of $25 via Lot #50, Thyme’s Holiday for Hounds FAN Club!

Many thanks to all of the donors, bidders and volunteers who have participated in all of GALT's on-line auctions this year. Let's make this last 2023 auction the best ever!

Bid Here

11/2/23

[autisticeducator]

I have an idea New York State should really consider:

So New York has the NY.gov ID system that most state agencies that need to verify your state ID and/or state tax income tap into in order to unify everything (New York has an obsession about centralized control, which sometimes is actually beneficial).

This means if you have Medicaid/Essential Plan/Child Health Plus/Marketplace plan through NY State of Health and you have already filed your tax return, they are linked in the NY.gov ID system so NY State of Health just grabs your NYS tax return and renews your health insurance for you. It is immensely helpful. If you need to register for medical cannabis, that is also under the same system (also the DMV) so you provide your state issued ID number and they can verify your information with the same ID you used to establish your NY.gov ID account.

It has sped up so many things. But I think we can take this further.

The myBenefits applications and any other income based applications should also be under the NY.gov ID system. This would be so much more efficient since the application is already online anyway and a NY.gov ID account is practically required these days for New Yorkers anyway. The application process could be so much quicker and efficient and recertification wouldn’t be required in most cases as it would automatically be done.

Let it also give the person “Hey, based on your current NYS tax return and your demographics, you or your family may qualify for these programs”

I want the NY.gov ID system to tell our low and middle income seniors that they qualify for EPIC, which will prevent them from falling into the Medicare donut hole. I want it to tell low and middle income homeowners that they qualify for clean heat programs to cut down on the cost of making their homes more energy efficient and installing a clean heat source (and that you can stack those programs together). I want it to tell New Yorkers that qualify for HEAP that they actually do.

I don’t want to remove the current ways of applying for these programs because they will still be helpful for some people. I want to add in the option of applying through NY.gov ID to streamline the entire process and people could have a one stop place to go to find out about programs they qualify for and can instantly apply with their state ID and taxes already there for them.

[nvrcmplt]

Master Bedroom is Shane’s room.

Bedroom 2 w/ En suite, is Noah’s room.

Bedroom 3 is Aaron’s room.

1 Kitchen that extends onto the Patio.

Dining / Living Room with a fire place.

Second bathroom, smaller and in the center of the home for guests.

Closet / Linen space opposite Shane’s bedroom

And a large, open Entrance way / with parking space

The building is a modern twist on Japanese life, though western in decoration and living. Wooden floors are non-slip and heated, central heating is expensive but worth it. Air Conditioning is in every room, an electric fireplace and eco-friendly windows to keep heat in and the cold out. State of the arts, almost too much for seemingly three Boys to afford, but thankfully, they don’t pay a dime for the place, as their Parents have built and bought this special place from the ground up.

A small garden, enough for the three of them to have some fun, but mostly to complete the look of the home, as they live on the outskirt of the city, and have neighbors. It’s often used more so for neighbor gathering, drinking parties over the fences, etc etc. Their neighbors are elderly and retired folks that are happy to see the boys thriving with life in the area.

The Leigh’s often get full-blown meals passed to them at their doors from the old baa-baas, it’s a nice feeling of community in the area. ( It’s also a very wealthy area but it’s kept on the hush-hush. )

The Leigh Home, is in the name of their Family.

It was created by approved planning commission for his Parents, when they had Noah. Whilst Noah was in hospital and Shane on their hip at the time, they gathered funds from their holiday plans and instead put it towards buying a plot of land. It took a while, lots of stress and worry but eventually, the Leigh House became what it is today.

The entire home was made with a wheelchair bound occupant in mind, making the door frames wider, ramps to the entrance and backyard, a whole section of low kitchen surfaces and cupboards, with the core value of independence. Noah grew with some confusion in his own bodies condition but with the home being accommodating to his every need, he grew with confidence and knowing when to ask for help and when to rely on himself in a healthy balance.

Aaron, Noah and Shane, occupy the house legally. The mortgage is paid for by his Parents, who are aboard with their jobs and they send living money through Direct Debit every six months in advance.

Shane and Noah, also work for everyday spending and living costs, meaning they have a hefty amount of money saved from their parents to cover costs of any mishaps that happen in the house or medical emergencies. Aaron doesn’t work, but he does get a weekly allowance to spend as he wishes, usually on games or food for lazy nights.

Shane’s qualified to aid with his brother’s medication buying, Noah old enough for his own trips, and Aaron when accompanied to the Pharmacy. Shane is currently teaching Aaron how to read his medication and doctor’s notes to fully understand what and where to buy his meds, and now is currently working on his brother’s confidence in talking to cashiers when getting his medication. ( he steps back at this point and lets Aaron hold his own in the front lines, but he is there when needed. ) This mission was succeeded within a few months and now Aaron thrives during his schooling terms and his hyperactive needs a met well with Volleyball.

When Aaron's volleyball team stop over, they are given futons or the option of using the massive L-shaped sofa to sleep on. Since the house has floor heating, it’s most common for his guests to have the futon since with the floor being a massive heat pad during the night too. 

The Parents ::

Miharu Leigh, Mother, 55, Translator PA

Dave Leigh, Father, 57, Architect 

Both currently overseas, renewing their vows and overseeing their companies newest builds.

[reidio-silence]

When poor tenants were faced with the decay of their buildings and the disruption of services as the abandonment rate accelerated during the late 1960s, some, rather than suffering in silence until the situation became unbearable and then moving, turned to the central strategy of the tenant movement, the rent strike. However, many of those facing incipient abandonment did not achieve the results they hoped for from the withholding of their rents: rather than giving them the leverage to persuade their landlord to improve their living conditions, this strategy often hastened his exit, leaving the tenants still cold in winter but with a large collective bank account. By 1969-1970 some building organizations were responding pragmatically to this situation by spending the rents they had collected to buy oil and make urgent repairs. However, since the experienced leaders of tenant organizations -- notably those associated with Met Council -- initially regarded such tenant seizures of de facto control as too risky, this strategy was not fostered or publicized at that time. Later, as experience in these isolated buildings taught movement leaders that tenants were not, through this strategy, inviting eviction, its use spread rapidly until, by the mid-1970s, it was the most common form of rent strike.

Meanwhile, several activist professionals -- priests and lawyers -- had suggested that one solution to the abandonment problem was to cede abandoned buildings to their tenants, thus creating low-income cooperatives. They raised the hope that owner occupancy could reverse decay and even curb the prevailing civil unrest by giving the poor and alienated a stake in the system. Some of these professionals, each originally acting in isolation, took the initiative in putting these ideas into action. The first low-income conversion to tenant ownership was initiated by a Harlem church in 1963; the second, sponsored by a lawyer, commenced in 1967; others followed rapidly. At this point the concept attracted the attention of the city administration, and in mid-1969 Jason Nathan, HDA administrator, created an exploratory cooperative unit within the Office of Special Improvements (OSI) and staffed it with eight college interns -- but gave them no resources, budget, or support staff.

In February 1970 Robert Schur, a West Side lawyer who had been prominent in promoting the plan, was appointed head of OSI and, having secured the promise of a budget for the purpose, pledged to get a co-op program off the ground. Schur utilized the Municipal Loan Program, which had been designed by the city to help landlords rehabilitate their buildings, and the federal Model Cities Program, to provide loans to tenants for the purchase and rehabilitation of deteriorated buildings. This cost was to be paid off, at low or no interest, by the new tenant cooperators. The extent of rehabilitation was usually curtailed -- "moderate" rather than "gut" -- in order to limit costs and typically was restricted to the "major systems" -- plumbing, wiring, heating, the front door, and roof. All the co-ops were required by the city to incorporate as Housing Development Fund corporations, which imposed income limitations. However, the majority did not take the second step of registering with the attorney general as formal cooperatives and thus avoided the costs of issuing a plan/prospectus and of allocating shares. Content to remain informal co-ops, they granted all tenant cooperators an equal vote at meetings. With Schur, able and committed, in command of an enthusiastic staff, the flow of would-be co-ops in the pipeline strengthened considerably.

— Ronald Lawson, The Tenant Movement in New York City (1986)

[centralacwarehouse]

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Get 2 Ton 14 SEER Package Unit Heat Pump AC by MRCOOL.

Included in Package:

Antimicrobial Drain Pan Advanced Corrosion Resistance Downflow / Horizontal Options R410A environmentally friendly refrigerant Easy Installation & Service Low profile, with compact footprint Superior service access to components Louvered coil guard protection One piece “no leak” top design

PRICE: $3,619.99 ex. tax

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LINK: https://www.centralacwarehouse.com/category/texas-central-air-conditioner-heat-pump-gas-furnace-package-unit-supplier

[clean-renewable-energy-limited]

We supply air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers for low cost central heating, commercial and domestic hot water solutions. We are also experienced in selling commercial swimming pool heating, hot tub and spa heating systems, dairy water heating and milk cooling systems. We use Viessmann heat pump technology; using our heat pumps, you can significantly reduce your energy bills.

[rumade]

All the crazy shit happening in the UK with cost of living, interest rates, weak pound etc make me so glad I didn't accept that central London receptionist position I got offered. Staying at my parents place is honestly the smartest decision. I pay them a low rent (the house has no mortgage), have access to lots or craft materials and other resources like netflix, there's even a wood fire so if we really can't afford to have the heating on we'll be okay

Sucks to be poor in this country and I'm so glad I have this safety net

[otodatatank]

Top 5 Benefits of Using Otodata Tank Monitors for Your Heating Oil Inventory Management

Managing your heating oil inventory can be a daunting task, especially if you have multiple tanks spread out across different locations. Traditional methods of checking tank levels manually are time-consuming and prone to human error. This is where Otodata tank monitors come in to revolutionize the way you manage your heating oil inventory. In this blog post, we will discuss the top 5 benefits of using Otodata tank monitors for your heating oil inventory management.

Real-time Monitoring: One of the biggest advantages of using Otodata tank monitors is the ability to access real-time data on your heating oil tank levels remotely. With just a few clicks on your computer or smartphone, you can see exactly how much oil is left in each tank, allowing you to plan refills efficiently and avoid running out of fuel unexpectedly. This eliminates the need for manual checks and provides peace of mind knowing that your tanks are being monitored around the clock.

Predictive Maintenance: Otodata tank monitors not only track your heating oil levels but also collect data on usage patterns and trends over time. By analyzing this data, you can anticipate when a refill will be needed and schedule deliveries ahead of time, preventing costly emergency deliveries or downtime due to running out of fuel. This predictive maintenance approach helps optimize your inventory management process and ensures that you always have enough heating oil on hand.

Cost Savings: By optimizing your heating oil inventory management with Otodata tank monitors, you can reduce costs associated with inefficient delivery schedules, emergency refills, and wasted fuel due to overfilling tanks. The real-time monitoring capabilities allow you to track consumption patterns accurately and adjust refill schedules accordingly, leading to significant cost savings in the long run. Additionally, by avoiding run-outs and downtime, you can prevent disruptions to your operations and maintain productivity.

Remote Access: Otodata tank monitors offer remote access to your heating oil tank data from anywhere at any time. Whether you are at home, in the office, or on-the-go, you can easily check tank levels, monitor usage trends, set alerts for low levels or leaks, and receive notifications via email or text messages. This level of accessibility empowers you to stay informed about your heating oil inventory status at all times and take proactive measures when necessary.

Easy Installation & Integration: Otodata tank monitors are designed for easy installation on various types of heating oil tanks without requiring any complex wiring or modifications. The sensors can be easily mounted on the tanks' exteriors and connected wirelessly to a central monitoring system for seamless integration. The user-friendly interface allows for quick setup and configuration, making it simple for anyone to start monitoring their heating oil inventory effectively without needing specialized technical skills.

Conclusion: In conclusion, utilizing Otodata tank monitors for your heating oil inventory management offers numerous benefits such as real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, cost savings, remote access, and easy installation & integration. These advanced sensors enable efficient tracking of your heating oil levels across multiple tanks while providing actionable insights to optimize refill schedules and prevent run-outs or wastage. By investing in Otodata tank monitors, you can streamline your inventory management process, enhance operational efficiency, save costs in the long term, and ensure uninterrupted supply of heating oil for your needs.

[beard-marine]

Tips To Purchase a Marine A/C in Fort Lauderdale, Stuart, Miami, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, and Key West, FL

Operating a sailboat, a cruise boat, a yacht, or a huge ship can be different. Having the vessel equipped with the best marine A/C in Fort Lauderdale, Stuart, Miami, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, and Key West, FL, is imperative. Indeed, the heat and sultriness are sure to affect the comfort factor of the users, with boats doubling up as tourist vessels have to answer their passengers about the lack of a cooling system. True, a small-sized boat used for fishing or carrying products minimally can make do with a pedestal fan, but the convenience of having the ship fitted with air conditioning can be highly beneficial for business and pleasure equally. ​ Apart from ensuring appropriate coolness within the vessel's interior, the boat AC also has the following benefits:

· High level of comfort · Controlled indoor temperature · Improved air quality · Healthy environment assured · Prevention of mold and mildew · Increased ROI

The market is flooded with many types of air-conditioning systems. It is essential to pick and choose the right system depending on several factors. Sure, achieving the desired comfort level is all-important, but the suitable AC should also be directly related to the size and type of watercraft. A tiny boat that does not carry passengers may go without one, but a cruise ship/boat or luxury yacht must be equipped effectively to add to the comfort and convenience of the users. Some of the most important factors to keep in mind before selecting  the air-conditioning system appropriate for the concerned boat/yacht include the following:-

· Noise Level · Adequate Power · Purchase And Installation Cost · Space Requirements · Type Of Power Supply Available · Spare Parts Availability · After-Sales Service

There are diverse types of air-conditioning systems available for marine use. The following are the most popular and must be selected according to the requirements:

· Portable System- These are affordable and low-cost units that do not require installation. Sure, the purpose remains the same as that of conventional ACs, but the power needed is relatively low, with the cooling appropriate for a single cabin. Single sailors or a couple of people find the system perfect for their cooling needs.

· Self-Contained Units- This is one of the most suitable units for almost all kinds of watercraft. The advanced models come with reduced noise and size, making them appropriate for small and large-sized boats. Moreover, the pre-charged refrigerant makes installation easy, too.

· Split Systems- The equipment consists of two units installed in separate areas and interconnected to ensure smooth operation. Installation is a bit tricky and requires the intervention of a specialized engineer with experience in AC installations. It can be used to cool the entire boat regardless of its size.

· Chiller Systems- These are akin to the Central air-conditioning systems used in residences and commercial properties. The boat must be huge to utilize the chiller system perfectly.

It is essential to check the available brands and models of marine A/C in Fort Lauderdale, Stuart, Miami, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, and Key West, FL, to ensure an informed decision when purchasing it. 

[bsairtechmumbai]

Comprehensive Guide to AC Repair Service in Thane: Your Ultimate Solution to Stay Cool

When the heat becomes unbearable, a malfunctioning air conditioner can cause discomfort and frustration. Residents of Thane and Mumbai understand the importance of a well-functioning air conditioning system, especially during the summer months. This guide will explore the benefits of professional AC repair service in Thane, why it’s essential to maintain your AC unit regularly, and how to choose the best service providers. If you’re looking for reliable AC repair service in Mumbai, this article will also highlight why choosing an experienced technician can help you avoid common AC issues and improve the longevity of your cooling system.

Why Timely AC Repair is Crucial in Thane

Thane experiences hot, humid weather for much of the year. A functioning air conditioner is not only a source of comfort but also a way to maintain healthy indoor air quality. Delaying necessary repairs can cause larger, more expensive problems in the future. Here are some common AC issues residents in Thane face:

Refrigerant Leaks: A common problem that affects the cooling efficiency of your AC unit is a refrigerant leak. If the refrigerant level is too low, your AC won’t cool the room effectively. This issue requires immediate attention, as ignoring it could lead to more significant mechanical failures.

Frozen Evaporator Coils: If your air conditioner is running but not cooling the air, it might be due to frozen evaporator coils. This issue can result from poor airflow or refrigerant issues, both of which need professional intervention.

Electrical Control Failure: Frequent cycling on and off during high-demand seasons can lead to electrical issues. These could involve the compressor or fan controls, which wear down over time.

Timely AC repair in Thane ensures that these issues are addressed quickly, allowing your air conditioner to work efficiently without the risk of complete breakdowns.

How Regular Maintenance Can Prevent AC Breakdowns

One of the best ways to avoid unexpected AC repairs is through routine maintenance. Scheduled servicing keeps your air conditioner in peak working condition and helps identify potential issues before they become major problems. Here’s why regular AC maintenance is so important:

Improved Energy Efficiency: Regularly cleaning and inspecting your AC system can boost energy efficiency, leading to lower electricity bills. An overworked system consumes more energy, driving up costs unnecessarily.

Enhanced Air Quality: Dirty filters and clogged ducts reduce airflow, which compromises the air quality in your home. Regular maintenance, including cleaning or replacing air filters, ensures cleaner, healthier air for your family.

Extended Lifespan of the AC Unit: Proper maintenance can extend the life of your air conditioning system. Rather than investing in a new AC unit prematurely, regular upkeep can save you money by ensuring your current system runs efficiently for many years.

Choosing the Best AC Repair Service in Thane

With so many AC repair services available in Thane, finding the right one might feel overwhelming. However, here are some factors to consider to ensure you select a trusted and professional service:

Experience and Expertise: Always opt for service providers with years of experience in the field. They should be knowledgeable about various types of air conditioning units, including split, window, and central air conditioners.

Positive Customer Reviews: Customer testimonials can offer insight into the reliability and professionalism of an AC repair company. Online reviews can be a valuable resource to gauge a service provider's quality.

Availability and Response Time: An air conditioning issue during a heatwave requires immediate attention. Make sure the service provider offers quick response times and 24/7 emergency repair services.

Use of Genuine Parts: Using genuine spare parts for replacements is crucial to the performance and longevity of your AC unit. Ask the service provider if they use authentic parts to ensure your AC’s quality and warranty remain intact.

Cost Transparency: Reputable service providers offer transparent pricing with no hidden fees. It’s essential to receive a detailed estimate before work begins to avoid unexpected costs.

AC Repair Service in Mumbai: A Regional Option

If you are living in the Mumbai area and require air conditioning repairs, you can benefit from the extensive options available in the city. Many companies offering AC repair service in Mumbai are also accessible to Thane residents, providing additional convenience. The key is to choose a service that guarantees timely, efficient, and expert repairs, whether in Thane or Mumbai.

Common Air Conditioning Problems in Mumbai

AC units in Mumbai face many of the same challenges as those in Thane due to the city’s similar climate. Regular servicing and professional AC repair services are essential to maintain a comfortable home environment. Issues such as low refrigerant levels, clogged filters, and thermostat malfunctions are common problems residents in both cities experience. Whether you are looking for AC repair service in Mumbai or Thane, the principles of timely repairs and regular maintenance remain the same. Ignoring small issues can lead to bigger problems that require more costly repairs.

The Importance of Professional AC Repair Services

While DIY fixes might seem tempting, AC systems are complex and require a professional touch. Licensed technicians have the knowledge, tools, and experience to handle all kinds of air conditioner issues safely and effectively. Choosing a professional AC repair service in Thane ensures that your unit is repaired correctly, reducing the risk of future breakdowns.  whether you need AC repair service in Thane or Mumbai, investing in timely repairs and regular maintenance will extend the life of your unit and keep it functioning efficiently. Avoid the discomfort of a broken air conditioner—consider hiring a professional service provider today for all your AC repair and maintenance needs.