When I get that learning mood, I tend to move fast. Quantum leaps ahead now, yet sadly a lot of it is because what I need is not being taught in the course. I’m learning because I’ve resorted to plenty of extracurricular studies. It is that, or fail. I play a lot of attention to these moods because they can completely change my life and always prevent any going back to the way things were before. Not always, but often enough.
When The Hippie called, I told him I’d go over to ABC (The Thrift Store) with the repaired computer. Once I got there, it still took another two hours to get everything up and running. He has a copy of Microsoft Works which I’ll need to evaluate. I don’t think I’ve ever used it. Dickens (the owner) got to talking and he ran a pawn shop in Key West for fifteen years. Once he saw the computer all set up with a printer and working fine, the value hit him. Two hundred dollars for what he might have got $40 for in pieces. That is the HP Pavilion computer that was at the shop for a week. I’ve got another to take in tomorrow. He was getting offers on the computer before I could get out the door.He also has a warehouse he isn’t using. Hmm, isn’t that kind of interesting. He says I can use it. Maybe I will, if only for computer parts. It is true I have a long ways to go to meet my own standards of computer repair. That doesn’t mean I’m a rookie. I know one hell of a lot more about computers than most people ever will already, and this most recent ‘learning crest’ is just beginning. It usually lasts a month or two, but can be as little as a week. If the right set of questions shows up on the exam, it is an easy 95% to 100% for me.
Does anyone know about that locksmithing course I took back in the 90s? That was right in the middle of a crest, and I got 100% on both the exam and every assignment. They sent me a free key-making machine and a bunch of stuff if I remember, congratulating me on a good career choice. I was making 50 grand a year sitting around at that time.
I met this lady, Yolanda, and went through her taxes since 1998. She is living on disability, and at 58 she had better start getting her life together. We met because she was trying to talk Dickens into selling her the computer on credit. I wouldn’t if it were my computer. The whole idea is the shock value, which causes impulse buying. I already know you can’t get a good used cheap computer in this area and people do not trust regular computer shops. The atmosphere in the thrifts is far better for selling a computer for several hundred dollars. Turns out she was single, but just not my type. Yea, she wanted a relationship first. No dice. Not at 58, tootsie.
By late afternoon I got over to Mark’s place and finished his taxes. He wants to start a non-profit half-way house. The plan is to give recovered alcoholics a stable home atmosphere to get them back on track. He calls it more of a ¾-way house, which is neat. He’ll be needing some excellent business plans and says he’ll be in touch. He tipped me $20. [Then I never heard from him again.]
Then I get home to discover my Norcent DVD player is on the blink. After maybe 50 movies, it keeps coming back and saying ‘wrong disk’. What cheap crap, that thing cost me $38 new. It’s tempting, but no, I am not going to learn about DVD repair this year. Instead, let’s talk about food. Always an American favorite. Do any other cultures ever write much about food? Or diets? Let’s do both. First, if we bypass chocolate, what food is more favorite than coffee? My coffee levels have gone past the records set in teenage college. This is a sure sign of deep study. I’ve had to tighten the budget and buy generic brands. Publix is not bad. Here are some of my coffee details. I buy the foil packages. You know, the ones that used to be a pound, but have gradually shrunk in one dimension to an 11.5 ounce package that costs the same. I use the famous Black & Decker coffee maker from the early 1980s. Famous for lasting so long and being one of the original articles that has been across the oceans with me. Yes, because there were places in the world I coule not get decent coffee, this coffee maker has often come with me. It has lived in the trunk of my car while on the road.
Normally, my favorite brew, always decaffienated, is either Maxwell House French Roast or House Blend. I make the coffee, four cups (per the non-functional scale marked on the carife) at a time. The capacity is twelve of these ‘cups’ and that means there is company. I have tried using smaller coffee makers, but they make the brew slightly more bitter in the wrong way. I use a real coffee scoop, but I heap the product. This coffee maker is programmable and cost a pretty penny in its day. It was the first LED programmable that many people had ever seen. This is the unit that David Janss fell in love with in Los Angeles in 1991, so when I moved all his friend had an emergency fund to buy him one. He would just drool at the aroma of coffee in the morning.
Coffee, today, costs me $3.69 to $3.89 for the 11.5 ounce package, which I buy two at a time. I keep track of total consumption not by weight, but by how many of the 200 count packs of coffee filters I go through. Oddly, my two best buddies in the state are not coffee drinkers. (They have coffee makers, but if you visit and they offer to make a pot, take my advice and offer to make it yourself.)
[Author’s note: the following refers to my neighbors, who did not cook. They start banging around when I do, which prompts me to write about what’s cooking. Neat circular logic.]
Chicken. I am a great consumer of chicken parts. That’s because I can’t eat the whole chicken unless I max out for a half a week. Y’day I picked up a can of soup and read the recipe on the label. Alas, I threw it (the recipe) out, but it was the Campbell brand that used one can each of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Brocolli. What a feast! Excellent, or what. It was like super Chicken a la King, which I don’t understand what some people have against. Instead of a bed of bicuits, I made my usual rice with a little curry. Add french beans, which I prefer to lima beans, and the usual carrots plus the unusual whole green baby peas in the pod. Don’t forget as much garlic as you prefer, to blazes with the neighbors.
