One year ago today: April 21, 2013, Forrest Gump Park.
Five years ago today: April 21, 2009, rant & rave.
To be on the safe side, I ran over all the weaker numbers on the song list for next weekend. If nobody knows it by now, I am not a Rolling Stones fan. Through the bassist’s rear view mirror, they are not that great. Even the mixed up timing of the Beatles is more fun to play. Best tune today was “So Happy Together” (Turtles) which has a two-measure bass phrase, something I know most of the others will get wrong. Because bass players like to play one measure and repeat, which is not at all the same thing. Worst song today? That dreadful Beatles version of “You Really Got A Hold On Me”.
He further says the entire ship is very contamination conscious, down to providing a tissue box to open every door. And that he can see Cuba on the horizon. Oz is the author of the book I was critiquing, which I feel only needs a better few opening chapters to get the reader into the characters. Be careful here, because Oz does describe what people look like much better than I do. But I’ve got more experience describing attitudes, motives, behaviors, I mean, ask any guitar player. By contrast (to Oz) I rarely notice whether women wear jewels or sensible shoes, where he has a lifetime of conditioning to respond to such cues.
The camper pod is not being neglected. But there is no easy way to extend the length to the minimum 70 inches I now know is needed for comfort. Don’t misunderstand me, I had no trouble sleeping in the camper for a month with slightly over 30” of width. What I wanted was more headroom, a full 24”. I was surprised when I found the camper exceeded all comfort expectations. I had thought three days in, one day rent would be needed. It turned out so comfy, the most trouble I had was crawling out of the sleeping bag every morning. I can’t say that about many motels.
So this raises another possibility. The only pod dimension I’d be changing is the height, but that modification requires a nearly complete rebuild. So let’s get practical here. I just crossed the US of A on with no passenger, think. The sidecar chair assembly is held on by four bolts. When removed, the sidecar deck is 80” long, 10” longer than the new pod would be. The useable height would be 30”.
This is only a concept right now, but with the bench removed, would it be possible for me to install a pod directly onto the deck? There is room for 34”, which matches the actual useable width of the pod interior. Why? Because it would make it feasible for me to travel without saving up money first, as I must do now if I want a trip. That’s one of the major reasons I’ve been sitting here at home. My mini-trip to Savannah a year ago still set me back $935 which takes time to save up when you are retired. (Remember, unlike other travel writers, I can and will tell you what things cost.)
Who recalls my saying the last trip proved it was cheaper for me to travel than to maintain a household? It’s true. Other than food, gas, and repairs, my costs averaged only $11.16 per day. That’s how I afforded so much vacation last November, I was spending money freed up by my camper system. When I was able to work, I traveled first class. The important element is that on that trip, thanks to the pod I did not have to skimp. I went everywhere and did everything that time permitted. Not luxury, but I did eat in restaurants and chase a lot of women.
So you ask, why do I want something even lighter? Hang on, I’ll get to that. As far as travel, the only speculation here is my own endurance. And I was totally refreshed when I got home after 29 days. Financially, infinite travel is already entirely doable. Did I run the numbers right? Well, I am a retired accountant. Let’s get back to Howard, who wrote that he’d heard of an English lady who, instead of booking into a retirement home, moved into a stateroom on a cruise ship and was waited on hand and foot the rest of her life. Her income must have been double mine, but what a nice way to go. You must convince yourself how much I like to travel. And I don’t have to buy a house, you know,
Next, I took a break and watched a documentary on the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967. Excellent combat footage, those Israeli reporters sure aren’t the chicken-shits we got in this country. But there was one question that stuck in my head. How did those ancients who built the city two thousand years ago make all the streets just wide enough for an armored personnel carrier? That’s just amazing foresight.
I was the only customer so I talked to the manager, a no-nonsense bar business veteran with no illusions. He indicated he’d overspent for some items, but this guy is knows what he is doing. He formerly ran other clubs on the other side of the tracks. I’ll bet he’s in on the real reason Sweeney’s went under.
He also knows the entire Karaoke and entire bartender circuit. If I never said, there is a curiously small cadre of bartenders in this town and they seem to rotate between the limited number of jobs. I would not be surprised if some of them show up here again. But look at the photo. Bright, clean, they even raised the ceiling a foot. Twenty-two televisions. Matching furniture. Almost like a lounge, you might say. And the bar is Canadian style, a horseshoe shaped counter in the middle of the room.
ADDENDUM
What’s this, Tobacco Road is closing down? The Herald reports there’s a plan afoot for a staff purchase, which sometimes works with drinking establishments. Until they figure out they can “vote” themselves a raise. But the century old club is on the block. Most famous for its 96-cent drinks, the club was my first lounge (the upstairs) gig in Florida. That was back in 2002. I had gone there directly from a job interview and played the show wearing a suit and tie. The location even used to be a main intersection before the city planners got involved. I confess to only having gone there once since. No single women, which is the only reason I’ll travel more than a couple miles to a bar (the downstairs).
If you don’t play darts, watch TV sports, have a dead-end job, hit on the middle-aged waitress, and constantly run a $30 tab, you might not feel any more at-home than I do. It’s just not my crowd, but keep reading, here’s something I may have been waiting for. Remember, in my little robotics club, I am the only one who knows how to program. I have never expected to find other programmers to chum with anywhere except on a university campus.
Arduino. There is a meet-up being advertised at NOVA southeastern. It’s a jaunt from here, up near the places where my scooter throws drive belts, but I’m interested. The topics listed on their agenda show they are new to it, that is, they have not yet learned you can’t tackle all major aspects of robotics and artificial intelligence at a monthly meeting. Autonomous programming, for example, is enough to keep everyone occupied for a year or two. Time permitting, if I check it out, I’ll give you a report. I already know I am unlikely to learn anything at such meetings and you already know my attendance spells ulterior motive. Same as every other person who’ll be there for any serious purposes. It’s like playing in a band, you might say.
While all this was going on, I had a radio documentary describing how everything in the 17 books of the prophets was totally accurate about today’s Israel. Dang, I thought it to be a program about the birth of the nation with all the shooting and such. These biblical scholars are a laugh. The one thing about Moses and his crew is their prophesies don’t have any dates. So maybe Moses did talk about the birth of a phophet 1.3 milleniums in advance. Goes to show, if you don’t give a date and you wait long enough, something will come along.
Allow me to make a prediction for only 10% of that time, 130 years. As things are going, that’s the next two American generations starting now. America will continue its downward slide to become slightly above third world status. The government will declare bankruptcy and bring down all the western democracies and creditor nations with it. A few of the lucky white Anglo rich will leave for Mars and will claim it as their own. There will be war as other nations attempt to colonize the planet.
The infrastructure of America will dissolve as the big corporations leave, having nothing left to exploit. All inner cities will be uncontrollable slums with food shortages. Socialist governments will institute complete worker slavery and mind-control via computerized regimentation. There will be settlements in remote areas of the country that represent the only effective opposition, but they will live under constant threat of arrest. All food production outside of the resistance cells will be tightly controlled and rationed. Revolutionary leaders will arise, but unlike any previous time, they will be readily identified by bio-tech methods such as DNA detectors and summarily executed by nano-bots.
The police and army will become the same in practice and swear allegiance to the government, not the Constitution. America will become a fringe country like Italy, a has-been clinging to a vain hope it can turn itself around. The only avenue to riches will be heredity, luck, or crime. The currency will be the new dollar, revalued at one-million to one. The new nation of Cascadia will successfully split from the Union (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana).
The other states who are entitled to withdraw will do so, beginning with the wealthiest. Texas, Alaska, Vermont, Arizona, and California already know they will be better off on a state-by-state basis. Hawaii will first vote out and then kick out the military, and declare nationhood. If there is civil war, the old north will lose this time.
Hey, did I just hear somebody remind me this blog is not about politics? Correct you are. That is why I am only predicting economics here. It’s not my fault that rebellion is the only thing left that will balance the books. And while you are thinking, how come the video The Breakup of the United States has been blocked from youTube?
And last, there is a term not so many people understand. Balkanization. This means, as happened in Europe after World War I, to break up countries into smaller nations having a more heterogeneous makeup. The idea is to play these off against each other, but the problem is there is no limit to how small the breakup can become as ever smaller groups demand their autonomy (and their "rights"). These new states will “degenerate further into violent conflict”. You see, the best way to remain rich and powerful is to prevent others from doing the same.
Come back here in 130 years and you'll see I'm right.
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