One year ago today: September 18, 2015, 65 hours of rain.
Five years ago today: September 18, 2011, the war that bankrupted America.
Nine years ago today: September 18, 2007, on Chinese numbers.
Random years ago today: September 18, 2012, Muksogee, Oklahoma.
MORNING
Nothing like having your own kitchen again. Not so much the kitchen, but the prep space. Here is this morning’s batch of oat-honey buns, except I didn’t have honey so I used maple syrup. You know, if you get any private letters from me with all these food pictures, I’m just doing it to make you jealous, you know. (To any naysayers, that is this month’s calendar along the bottom of the photo.) For all the talk of the aroma of baking bread, I equally enjoy the crisp scent of rising read dough. It’s under-rated.
The move is still playing havoc with the budget. I have not eaten in restaurant since I moved here except grabbing coffee at the Magnolia, from here on in the Mongolia. It’s more a shifting of ballast. The new floor so far has cost $377 keeping in mind some of the small tools and electrical items are thrown in that total. A bargain by any standard. Think of the per-room cost of new houses. It’s outrageous.
Keeping an eye on Trump, I see big trouble for the country. It’s fine and dandy how the system has spent a year down-playing the threat to their comfort posed by any populist, the real threat is that to do what he’s promised, Trump has to dismantle their regime. They’ve made it clear that even if they can’t manipulate the system to block Trump’s legitimate election, they intend to use their massive bulk to let that damn President know they don’t have to listen.
Look what happened in California. When the electorate tried to trim the fat, the remaining civil servants simply slowed everything to a crawl. In 2012, they wanted over a year and several thousand dollars to look up a simple document for me. That’s blackmailing the public and they have every intention of fighting back. The representatives want guaranteed re-election, the employees want jobs for life and fat pensions. They ain’t goin’ down without a fight.
Trump isn’t the first upstart to come along and try to tinker with their little empires. They’ll show him. Alas, he is showing signs of “weakening” although I suspect that is only in reaction to the billions of dollars his opposition has been pouring into smear campaigns. That once he gets in, he will have a long and exceedingly sharp memory for who did what. We can only hope. The American people have had it with forty years of hack Judges and lawyers who cater to them. These are no longer the impartial moderators of the system. Depending on personal moods, they can make law rather than apply it—a situation that historically has never worked.
Judges should be held accountable for any killers they turn back into the streets. To those who say that straps them so badly they can’t do their jobs, I say, “Exactly”. They aren’t doing the job.
I haven’t begun to unpack my boxes yet, but I’ve found enough reading material to keep me occupied. Now I want that private workshop, my “secret laboratory” more than ever. Every place I’ve ever had, my workspace was a desk or counter in a room taken over from something else. Anybody could walk in and see what I’m building. And like many, I don’t always appreciate criticisms of my work in progress. I already know a lot about what doesn’t work.
I see new neighbors across the street, but then, they could be seasonal people who keep the place for the winter season. They certainly appear rich enough to do that. Mind you, look at my place. I bought it in May, didn’t really show up until June, tented for termites in July, and didn’t move in until the end of August. Where was I for four months? One welcome change since I finally got here is my bedtime has advanced two hours. I waited so long for that, and just you see what happens when I get another comfy overstuffed chair.
Then again, anything is better than waking up, say 64 years old and realizing you have to go to work for another year. JZ talks of grabbing his social security as soon as he reaches the minimum age. I council otherwise, since he lives in a condo, the money will just fritter away. When I get mine, the plan to buy and operate a car is already in place. I may even delay applying if things remain secure where I am. And there are plans to start a business in 2020, using a framework that I’m already putting together. I’m not ignoring what’s happening to prices. I’m eating far healthier, but my grocery bill has doubled. There are certain advantages to the closest McD’ s being miles away on the far side of town.
Bear hug?
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NOON
Here is a before and after the relocation of the A/C from window to wall. I could have used some help with that one. In the end, that window has got to go. It faces the useless north yard in the shade and makes the entire wall useless to put the bed. You can see some vines through the A/C cutout in the top photo. I’m hoping that is not kudzu. If so, I’ll see about getting rid of that asap.
Answer key: 1) jigsaw is gone 2) window is lower 3) A/C is moved 4) cord is moved 5) window is moved to right 6) spray paint can is gone.
I roughed in two more duplex receptacles (outlets), which took about an hour each. That includes the drilling and pulling the cable, on average. I’ve gone with one ¾” channel rather than two 5/8ths as in the book. Drilling two sets of holes in old lumber is too labor intensive. This is the largest electrical project I’ve ever done. My previous maximum was one switch and light, or one extra box.
It’s what I expected, lots of bending down to drill and pull, lots of shifting all your tools around the room. My years of accounting for the electrical company helps immensely, if only because I know to the staple how much each stage requires in materials. I doubt I would have enjoyed doing that for a living. The more I read the code books, the more the whole process makes sense.
The window seems to be a unit set into place from the outside. It has trim all around which seems to be the only thing holding it in place. Maybe that’s how they did things in 1946. If so, that will make removing it easier but the dripping moisture from the A/C unit didn’t do the lumber any good over the years.
All this work means the floor stayed the same. I think I’ll call it a day by 5:00PM. Removing that old A/C involved yanking it bodily out of the plywood casing that had rotted through. That nicely covered me with dust and termite droppings. What you can’t see in these photos is the nearly 100°F and the high humidity. So all that dust and crap sticks to you.
Even when you shower later, it’s abrasive grit that washes off like sandpaper. You have no idea how much I’m enjoying this work, even if I cuss every five minutes when I trip over the cord or drop my pencil. Just can’t seem to pick my feet up as high as I used to.
After testing the air conditioner in the new position, I’ve decided to replace it anyway. The cooling effect seems “nicer” with the cool breeze entering at shoulder level. But this old air conditioner is clamped on full power only for years. The remote is lost. Howard reports the former occupant liked the inside weather to be ice cold. All the time. So the machine must be on its last legs. Anyway, I prefer a milder setting that can be left on more of the time. I’ve never liked people who turn the A/C off if they are leaving for a few minutes. Then they re-enter a sweltering room an hour later, crank the A/C, and make a second trip back to adjust it once the room is cool again. Duh.
NIGHT
Yeah, that’s a wrap for the day. The floor can wait until tomorrow. The half that is ready for subfloor has stayed level for nearly a week, a good sign. So I’m making pork and veggie on rice and settling in for the evening. I wasn’t out of the house today except to work on that air conditioner, I’m hoping for many more similar days. Not that I admire people who stay cooped up inside for months at a time. Then again, I never had a room that was soundproof, so maybe I’m secretly hoping my daily sojourn into the real world could more often than not involve my back yard, now that I have one.
Ah, here we go. I do have a picture of the electrical work. Here are two outlets on different cable runs (the little blue boxes). No plunging the whole room into dark by popping the breaker once a year when you plug in the heater. Those who have read the book can testify how close my work looks to the illustrations in the manual. The outlets are 12” and the cable runs 20”. And that wraps up a thrilling day in the renovation trade of Florida, 2016. I bought a Mechanics Illustrated y’day, and I’m about to settle in.
This corner, shown in the photo, is also the area that will be finished first. I’ve decided to go with the tarpaper and single layer of drywall as sound barrier. With the insulation, the noise would have to travel through the siding, then another 4-1/8th inches of material, two of which are tarpaper. If a sound is that loud, maybe I am intended to hear it.
ADDENDUM
On a curious tack, there was an article on bacteriophages. By curious, I mean this was in Mechanics Illustrated when I would have expected to see it in Popular Science. In layman’s terms, bacteriophages are viruses that attack bacteria. The relevance is that when you hear of strains of disease getting resistant to antibiotics, those are bacteria-borne illnesses, not viruses. You get cases of people getting ordinary infections and staying sick for five years due to that resistance.
The point is, bacteriophages can be tailor-made to attack these drug-resistant bacteria. Hence, there is new hope these customized viruses can countermand the problem caused by the resistant strains. It appears that once the bacteria are “bitten” by the viruses, they not only become weaker as a cell, they tend to lose the drug resistance as well. This makes ordinary antibiotics effective again.
My interest in the matter is Darwin. From an evolutionary standpoint, these phages are logical to me. Bacteria and viruses exist by the untold trillions, thus each species walks a fine line in the competition for suitable habitats. A bacterium that gains an advantage must do so at the expense of some other species—the market is that saturated. Thus, the bacteria that becomes resistant had best not make that change permanent. If you suddenly start winning every game in the series, it could spell extinction when the phages catch on where the healthiest meals are. Nature is self-balancing that way. Darwin didn’t say it, but once a species takes evolutionary step, it can never undo it. That’s why you are born with an appendix.
Therefore, if you are a bacteria, it is best to have the resistance to drugs as an adaptation rather than a change to your DNA. Make it the cell wall, or part of the digestive process that “kicks in” once a certain anti-biotic is present. Yet make it something that can be turned off as soon as the hungry phages spot it. Not very scientific, but I’m saying this process would make sense to me.
PS: there is an article about the Ekso hydraulic skeleton in this month’s Mechanics Illustrated. So nobody will say I’m plagiarizing them, I first saw the article a few days earlier on my stock website, concerning that company’s charges of insider trading. The article in the magazine is nothing but coincidence a few days later. Besides, I generally allow for the several months lead time it takes magazines per issue before I even hint at swiping ideas.
Last Laugh
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