One year ago today: February 12, 2015, take her to Winn/Dixie.
Five years ago today: February 12, 2011, on juke boxes.
Nine years ago today: February 12, 2007, meet Wain, guitar imbecile.
Random years ago today: February 12, 2009, a rare Miami fog.
MORNING
Ah, she’s warming up a little. So I took the scooter around shopping. And look what I picked up for six bucks at the Thrift. Brand new in the box, these retail for $40. It looks like whoever donated it gave up trying to install the mantles, which I happen to be a bit of an expert at—installing mantles, I mean, not giving up. Works perfect, in fact, so bright I had a hard time taking the photo in the lower panel.
Yes, the one photo shows me operating the unit indoors, which you should not do. These lanterns throw off a dangerous amount of heat. I was only bench-testing for a minute. And they will produce monoxide if you let them. Be advised these units guzzle, gulp, and gobble propane. The claim they last 8 hours on a one-pound tank is bull. Even at the lowest usable setting you might get 5 hours.
[Author’s note: the one-pound tank is the standard cylinder size you buy in a two-pack at Wal*Mart. Remind me to pick up a dozen later today.]
Go get the Tascam. Trent was on the ‘Net, he’s got his good equipment back and set up. We should record this weekend. I gave a listen to Garth Brooks hits on CD, and you know, I’ll stick with my attitude that songs should be sold one by one. Most of his material is just not that great. And some of his farmer songs are worse than grade B acting. While country living isn’t bad, unless your IQ and shoe size are close, there is nothing romantic about farm work.
And don’t even try to tell me otherwise. You weren’t there.
Remedies are underway to correct the worst of the problems on our last scouting expedition to the interior. It seems everybody gets lost in the wierd road system of central Florida. We lost at least two hours because of inaccurate maps and toll roads that went nowhere. I got a GPS account voted in, so that’s $40 per month in operating expenses, but there is no contract. That will also give me a connection to use while on the road, see, the club cannot have the service without me getting a free ride. Yippee! And that means a full office suite installed on the tablet so you, dear reader, need never miss a day just because I’m on the road.
This is a link to a photo of a 1932 German election poster.
It has been censored by somebody who doesn’t want you to see it.
NOON
It’s a pile of pineapples. What do you expect when I’m recuperating? And some stuffed animals on top. This over at the nearest market to my place. You know, I have not bought a pineapple since I lived in Thailand. I’ve skinned a few, but as for purchasing, I get the juice or the ready-made chunks. This is the top news story of this noon-hour.
But, there is talk of another slump. One of our people buys used mobile homes up in Boca and he’s keen on what the tourists are doing. This year he reports some of them are leaving already. The effect of an awkward 65-cent Canadian dollar makes maintaining the property here frightfully expensive. As Miami prices inch northward, the Broward and Palm Beach counties are no longer a cheap place to keep a winter cottage.
Normally, in the March to May stretch, around 32 to 38 properties come up for sale. This time we will be watching with some real cash at the ready. A place in West Palm for the right price would be just as suitable, although it is still 150+ miles up to Lakeland. Mind you, that would triple the amount of time we could spend there on a day trip. Because I’ll tell you another thing that got my goat.
The reason we were a day late getting there was the broken throttle cable on the batbike. It turns out it was the $30 cable and not the $140 cable. Technically, if I had known that, I would have got it fixed and been out there Monday instead of Tuesday. But, not to worry, since all of this chasing around is likely going to pay off handsomely. We are not at all discouraged as far as the big picture stands.
Here’s your green article. Should you give to green charities? My automatic answer is no. At least until somebody invents a charity with verifiable zero administration costs, all volunteer. Until that day, charities are just another big business paying itself exorbitant salaries—and I don’t give a flying eff what their lame financial statements say. Remember, I was a cost accountant and I know an Enron when I see one.
At this time, I consider green to be an individual endeavor. You can join the Sierra Club and such, but overall, conservation is far more entwined with what each person does than by mass donations. If you do join others, I suggest the main objective should be information sharing. And certainly do not associate with any organization that tells other people how they should be living. Those outfits always make you nothing but enemies.
EVENING
More editorial as I shake this jet lag. My system has somehow adapted back to my pre-retirement schedule of waking up automatically at 6:39AM, thinking I have to get ready for work. Goes to show you. And for me it doesn’t diminish gradually. I have to wait it out, giving me spare time. So you get lots to read, that’s one spinoff of time on my hands. Beats heading for the saloon like most men when they get bored.
Here’s an item about why we have 60 cycle electricity. It is simply the most efficient, and although this is often attributed to Tesla, it was an easy calculation already done. As for why Europe chose 50 cycles, my guess is they wanted to be “metric”. The electrical system was also commercialized in the USA at a time when Europe, particularly France and England, were strongly resentful of losing their scientific lead to the Americans. Oddly, they got the voltage right, at 220.
More on navigation. Some say open-sea navigation is a two-person job, but it’s more the situation where one isn’t enough and two is too many. There are also a dozen youTube videos that show the important parts of the operation, but none of them is of a quality I would recommend. They are all gimpy versions because they reveal the illogical way that most people learn complicated processes by rote memorization.
They can’t “teach” a damn thing, they can only show you how they do it. A good example is none of them tell you that the sextant does not measure your position. None of these individuals mention that. So you’ll know, the way it is done is you calculate both the sun’s position and a position assumed to be nearby where you are. The sextant is then used to measure the difference in angle between that assumed position and the angle where you think you are. Most of the work is calculating that assumed position and where you are in relation to it.
I spot the shortcomings of the teaching methods, but unfortunately I can’t write a better version because I know I’m not that good. But I do like the calculations part, especially the modular arithmetic, so don’t forget me, ladies, when you decide to take that yacht trip around the world on daddy’s boat.
Question. If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, will a hipster still buy its album?
Last Laugh
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