That chrome pipe is from my new high-hat stand (still no cymbals but I’m working on it). The regular stand is too tall and bangs into the neck of my bass unless I am careful. This means I have to manufacture a, um, low-hat stand. Looking toward the bottom of the picture we see a handy piece of copper pipe, two mismatched pipe reducers and a battery clamp. The long thin rods are the pieces that move the top cymbal and its replacement, a rod of electrician’s no-thread. Total cost of this conversion? $10.13 plus my time, so that makes it $110.13. I take back what I said about the cool weather finally arriving. Since I can’t wait for it to get half comfortable I set up a series of fans near my workbench. I see that over the summer the heat has caused me to swipe tools out of that area, now I’ve go to spend a day rounding them all up again. Can’t find my monkey wrench, can’t find my drill bits, why I’m a mere shell, a shadow of a man.
Back to the trailer park, I have some interesting shots from the satellite. You’ve seen those deforestation shots? It would be too trite to coin the term “detrailerization” so I won’t. I’m still in the process of counting, photographing and cataloging the trailers here. My guess is around ten have already been demolished. The lawyers that own the land are truly cheaping out on the tenants. They are forcing 160 families to move for a total cost of around $800,000 for condos that will sell for that much per unit. That’s why I figure I’m going to stick them with a nasty surprise after I move.The reason is not the poor offer (I feel $25,000 is more reasonable) but because I keep hearing about how “smart” and “brilliant” and “intelligent” the owners are. Yet my feeling is that a smart person might at least consider the benefits of human compassion. Thus, when they are done with me, hopefully they will be just a little dumber where it counts the most.
I missed the [photo] shots, but for the first time I saw two things extremely rare things. I finally saw two young (19 or 20) pretty girls walking down a residential street in Florida. White girls, I mean. Not knockouts but good-looking. I have not seen that in over seven and a half years. In a later unrelated sighting, I saw a scorpion. They are the same color as the local lizards but this had that stinger tail. They must be furtive creatures, as that is the first one I’ve ever seen, even in my tropical travels.
