First, antenna news. Following some tiring outdoor testing, it seems both Agent M and I may live in areas of poor cellular and wireless service. These dead spots are not uncommon in Hollywood, Florida. All of my neighbors get free Internet from the local coffee shop whereas I can barely pick up a 10% signal on the very best days. We have learned to try the cheap fixes first: get a longer antenna or go higher.
Here is a photo of calibrating meters from the most expensive left to right. The situation rapidly is becoming if he can build it, I can make it work, and vice versa. Agent M is wide-eyed that coordinated effort can produce such splendid results. He has never glimpsed the discipline I import [to the situation] and [which I] consider ordinary. He's more trial and error.Progress is more than satisfactory. We are rapidly learning the central facts where too often the textbooks are silent. My antenna mast may be an ordinary dowel placed inside a PVC plumbing pipe. If that does not work, we have investigated rigging up two antennas in tandem, something known as an array. And we’ve learned a lot about waterproofing the hell out of everything. Admittedly, we have little to go on but his designs and my studies, but tomorrow or Wednesday, up go those antennas.
This month the real seasonal downturn begins in Florida. Driving to Wal*Mart this morning I saw seven cars on the road where there should be two hundred. It has been a slow time for me already, but that means you get more music, antennas, robots and model Eiffel Towers. And more planning. I’m $400 short of the funds needed to go to Texas next month. That is not bad considering the circumstances.
Keeping capabilities in mind, I took a very close look at the road atlas. If I had to, I could make it to Texas in five days on the scooter. What an adventure that would be! Furthermore, the entire trip would be on paved highways nearly paralleling the Interstates and I’d see more of the country. What’s stopping me has a lot to do with not having the $400 toward accommodation for the ten-day round trip. The soonest I can afford the trip is November and that is winter in Texas.
Never in modern history has a working man’s future finances been so thoroughly analyzed as my own. I do these calculations around every six months, picking a night when I’m not tired enough to sleep. If I choose to buy a house in Ft. Lauderdale, it is almost assured because I could get a demand loan for the full amount right now despite having zero earned income. Since my first retirement projection at age 27 (although I could claim earlier I did not write it down), I like to compare that amount with the true amount which becomes more certain as time advances. As of today, my total was only $7.12 per month off target if I retire now instead of many years in the future.
Sometimes I wonder how the rest of America will fare without a plan? A good plan is the only thing that really separates those who will thrive from those who will meet destitution. Historically, 96% of people die with less than a week’s wages put away. Although pensions in the western world tend to cloud matters, the poverty line in America is $13,740 per year per adult. If you make less than that, you are poor. And a wanker loser, too, ha-ha.
That 96% ratio has persisted for a thousand years and is not likely to change just because all the boomers want to sell their houses. A big issue is lifestyle. Too many people associate enjoyment with spending money. I listen to a radio station that gives away cash prizes of $1,024. When asked what they will do with the money, most say they will “go have some fun”. Winners, my eye. I state with conviction it requires five years to break that "broke-means-bored" habit, or about the same time it takes from scratch to grow a brain and start thinking, if one applies oneself.
And may I add a few words about lifestyle. I have always suspected that idiocy, senility, Alzheimer’s, and all dementia-like conditions are not diseases but symptoms of mental inactivity. If you sit around thinking your family is the best and the world done you wrong, of course your brain will atrophy. Boredom is merely the worst consequence of that sordid lifestyle. Thinking people don’t have time to get lazy and gloomy.
To me, these things are as plain as the nose on your face. It is no shock that recent studies are confirming these hunches. Just look around. All thinking people are unique in their own way. But the rest are identical right down to their heads full of misinformation, their argumentative natures and the talk shows they are addicted to. I mean think about it, what are the odds of two educated, thinking people having the same prescriptions? Yet the town is full of losers who take identical anti-depressant drugs.
[Author's note: for reasons unknown even the cheapest dollar store digital (I said digital) multimeters proved to be phenomenally accurate. That suggests any meter is better than no meter, so get one if you don't already have. These gadgets are vastly overbuilt and do the job. The one I own was cheaper than the battery inside it.]
