July 31, 2014

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 31, 2013, reads like gossip.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2009, date with Theresa.
Ten years ago today: July 31, 2004, take a look.

MORNING
           Go ahead, make my day, Florida. I wasted $18.50 trying to buy a $21.20 book because some people are so incompetent it is difficult to imagine. I put in my order y’day, they absolutely guaranteed it would be there at noon today. I explained how important their word was as I would be making a special trip back to Ft. Lauderdale for the book. I got there. No book. I got zero use for businesses that arrange their system so that if anything goes wrong, late, or missing, you get stuck for it instead of them. Up yours, West Marine. You lost a good customer, and by this, I hope, many more.

           I might not have told them off as badly had I known that was going to be the exciting part of the day. They wasted my time asking me the same questions up to five times. “When did you place the order?” That’s why I asked them when they would guarantee the book would be there. They appear to be unaware of what “guarantee” means and act like you’re the one being difficult.
           Agt. M and I held the meeting at a chicken burger joint. Nothing was resolved except that the clubhouse needs two air conditioners. I told him to insulate, but no. Then we decided to drink Gatorade and watch a movie since he’s got 400 channels. Yep, all bad. No movies except 30 year old reruns. I’ve heard of the good shows, like Breaking Bad, but he can’t get them.
           I scrolled through to channel 811. Cooking shows, dense comedy, reality poppycock, and have they quit showing beautiful young women on TV? I’m ex-phone company. I don’t even like to look at middle-aged housewife types much less hear them talking you-know-what.
           This is the plotting sheet I told about last day. See my notes, this is all scribbles about stuff not in the textbooks, or worse, badly described. I am now owner of a Nautical Almanac, but with half the year gone, it was hardly a bargain. Two books are needed, the Almanac is the lesser volume. Again, it is like bus schedule of the sun for the year. What I really wanted was the Sight Reduction Tables, Vol. II.

AFTERNOON
           Dang, Florida, make up your mind. Rain or shine, pick one. Actually, please rain so I can sit in the house and chill. My place is about an inch higher than the surrounding terrain, so relatively, I’m high and dry no matter what. Here’s an idea of the force of the water off one corner of my roof after just a few moments of rain that can last for hours.

           This neighborhood has undergone significant (at least to me) changes since I arrived in 2004. Nobody could have predicted this ten year ago, but I could be shopping in Germany some days and not know the difference. The character has changed to European and in particular middle and eastern European. Today I stopped to see the new Europa Market over on Federal and it threw me for a loop.
           No Russian-style lineups there. And the place is huge. Fully stocked and completely computerized, right down to individual re-order quotas that a cost accountant would love. Real time inventory. Spotless, cheery, with dining tables, full deli bar with what I know to be authentic food. I do believe I should learn the Slavic alphabet as most ingredients are borrowed words. Anyway, I’ll get you photos soon, and a lot of established markets in the area should be worried. It is not often I describe a store as beautiful.
           For the record, I got to this neighborhood by mistake. This is where the company had transferred me just before my second heart attack, the one that disabled me. I’ve been stuck here since because I don’t have the cash to move, an old story. I feel I’m doing better than many, but not these new immigrants, who are super-funded, super-savvy, and completely modern and educated. Nor do they take jobs. They don’t even think like lazy Americans. They open a business.
           Agt. M was not home [when I returned from Ft. Lauderdale, I need a lift to Home Depot. For reasons unknown, I had many electrical devices fail this week. My booster battery, my 12V DC/AC convertor, a handful of unrelated connectors and sockets, I know, it’s strange unless there was an EMP, but Agt. M, who has never lived without electricity, would have said something. I dropped a pill bottle full of 2” fine thread drywall screws on his doorstep. They are for the countertop in the clubhouse, 46 screws. He doesn’t know that’s his birthday present this year.
           By late afternoon, I had just three repairs completed. The power switch on the table saw. So I had fun. And the box for the universal charger is complete. Then I fixed the Panasonic, I dunno, what do you call that stupid thing, a tablet? Camera, android software, I use it to play music at bingo but the cheap headphone jack was cutting out. So I soldered a plug permanently in there – and cut that stupid speaker wire. It was still playing when the jack was in use. Not no more. I’m dismayed how poorly they build this rubbish. And how little electronic design has changed in all the years. As I said, my old Sony Walkman worked better.
           There’s some trivia for you. The Walkman almost never made it. Earlier, Sony had made a small recorder called the Pressman for reporters, but the Walkman was playback only. Sony knew the sound was fantastic, but when they added speakers and recording capability, it was too heavy and too expensive.
           But, like the phone company, Sony had a few crazies who did nothing but wonder around the place interfering with others and one of them figured with headphones, the user could mask out the ghetto blasters, which Sony also sold knowing they annoyed people. They never admitted this, saying instead it created “an adult’s own personal music space”, or some similar tripe. Even I bought one for several hundred dollars. Everyone used them at work, which is where I learned the music I play note for note to this day.

EVENING
           Two punk rock songs you might like. Bowling for Soup’s “Punk Rock 101”, with lyrics right from 60’s country music, and “Almost”, with a surprisingly novel video. (Bowling for Soup is from the same area of Texas as myself. Except they were rich enough to not work all day and had money for recording studios. But they are pretty darn good.)

           Here’s a photo of the left-handed guitar and the clubhouse security monitor. That’s the upright computer screen underneath the guitar. Soon the link will be over to my place where everything is recorded a second time. I warned them and I warn you, keep a good old XP computer separate from the Internet and in top-top operating condition. Don't use if for interactive files and you'll have a trusty storage system for years to come. This blog is stored entirely on an XP system. That's how come I know where everything is.
           Here's an oddball item. I submitted some terms to Newton's Telecom Dictionary, the guy who publishes a hefty tome of computer lingo and catch-phrases. Turns out he's for real and personally replied to my e-mail, also stating my submissions have been included. I admit my ulterior motive was to have a second source publishing many of the catch-phrases coined here, so I expect to be sending more.
           I may have watched ten hours of TV in the past twenty years. So, I thought to look back and see if I missed anything. Okay, 1994, top rated shows.

           Seinfeld – okay, I’ve seen this. Reruns. You cannot avoid Seinfeld reruns.
           ER – no idea. Emergency Room? I’ve heard of it. Sort of.
           Home Improvement – Maybe, can’t recall
           Grace Under Fire – I have no idea what this show is.
           NFL Football – not a chance
           60 minutes – is that the old news program? With the stopwatch thing?
           NYPD Blue – ah, that’s one of those lame cop shows
           Friends – I have no idea what this show is.
           Roseanne – took one look, that was enough.
           Murder, She Wrote – did they bastardize Agatha?

The bottom line: if I missed anything, it wasn’t on television.