February 17, 2017

Yesteryear
One year ago today: , Kyle & Trevor.
Five years ago today: February 17, 2012, non-Millennial selfie.
Nine years ago today: February 17, 2008, I don’t like Berts.
Random years ago today: February 17, 2017, $1 per smile . . .

           Now listen up, in case anything comes of this. As I stepped outside I heard a faint low popping noise from the sky. Looking up, I saw this jet and the contrails stopped. These fly too high to be heard, but I heard. Then, the contrail reappeared and I started walking. Then the pop again, then another and I saw the contrail stop, start, and stop again, you can see me pointing to the area where the noises came from.

           The thing is, the airplane also disappeared. This picture is not so great, but when I was a kid I spend hours lying in the grass watching the jets and they are very easy to see. Not this one. I dashed back to get my camera, but in that minute, the contrail was already spreading out. Moments later, a smaller, faster jet came across in the same heading, I’ve got it all on video. But that first plane, poof! Now I know it’s not a secret mission, they would not do that over a populated area. However, if there was some kind of accident, I’ll l hear about it.

           Taking a closer look at the plumbing needed to add a washer/dryer, I see that the only line that needs to be cut is the drain. That section of the floor will be pulled up as I redo the bathroom, so this could work out okay. I continued thinking about the cardboard concrete pipe, and I’m thinking of a better plan. Since 12” pipe is overkill, what if I just use that diameter to get down as far as I can. Then set an 8” pipe inside. Makes sense to me. The sun room could require as few as six pylons, the porch another five. I’m further looking as designs which “float” these two additions, so if the ground or main building shifts, they remain stationary.

Picture of the day.
Chinese acrobat.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Here’s an earlier mystery solved. This Vivitar-grade arm’s length photo finally identifies the red-headed woodpecker that visited the big tree before I had it felled. The name of this bird is “red-headed woodpecker” unless you want to say melanerpes erythrocephalus. The book nicely showed all the other woodpeckers, such as the pileated, but this is the only fully-red headed species in Florida. So that is the one, and I was right about estimating the size. It is smaller than the other birds, at 9”. They disappeared when killed the trees, apparently they need live bark or something.

           My man, Trump. Putting down the media but the funny thing, these outfits don’t stop sending their half-wit reporters to pester Trump with the same questions, or style of questions, that he’s already answered so many times. The media plainly think the First Amendment gives them the right to spread lies and express their rotten opinions as fact, like they are speaking from the pulpit.

           Farage is tearing into the Eurocrats. This is the year of the end, he says. I hope he is right. Germany is talking of sending some of the “refugees” back. I dislike the European parliament simply because they are not representing the people, with something like 80% against the immigration of Muslims. I actually hope Farage is the architect of their failure. It’s similar to Trump in one way. That even if I disagreed with him, I would still support him because he aggravates the crap out of liberals. That alone is enough reason to support him.

           Zeke cleared out fast this morning, without even thanking me for the $5 flea treatment. He did not take well to being locked up for the night. Do you think he’ll come back to claw my eyes when I sleep? Needing some down time, I took some old Xmas lights and connected them to a 5VDC power supply. I mean, why not, the filament doesn’t know if it is AC or DC. Besides, the bulbs are 120 volt and my heaviest system is 15.7 volts. Not so, they are very sensitive to DC current. Anything much over 2 volts burns them out. Well, it’s the amps, not the volts, but even then I’m at 100mA. Here’s something I can research that will make me happy.
           You see, the bulbs are almost the exact size of the pegboard holes and I was looked for a less expensive way of wiring a grid. The Xmas lights have lots of stranded wire. Stranded is flexible, solid wire is not. As I gaze out my window, I see the Mrs. Cardinal will share the birdfeeder with the tiny birds. Not so the male. Ah, evolution, if only mankind knew how to leave most of it alone. Cruel as it seems, early death is Nature’s way of keeping a species strong and adapted to the environment. Of course, I draw a distinction when it comes to bacteria, viruses, or parasites, but I mean in the higher orders.

           That’s why I’m not keen on these scientists that are a little too close to the edge on growing human stem cells in other species. They all claim to be ethical, but isn’t that how it always begins? The temptation to tinker with egg or sperm cells is too great. If history repeats, then one side of the globe will choose the egg, the other the sperm. Like it was with metric and standard, or left or right highways, and railway gauges. It’s when the two meet that one has to change or there is chaos. I foresee the possibility of a human being conceived by two modified pigs. That’s what they are using these days, pigs, you know.
           Would a human creature born from two pigs really be human? Insert Patsie joke here, but this is a serious business. Tell you what else is serious, the idea of using the National Guard to round up the illegals. Go for it. The only thing that makes it intense is the damn liberals didn’t do it a little at a time and now the mass has built up. There is some nonsense talk about the states refusing to order their Guards to the task, but I would not worry about that. Their job is to keep invaders out. The sooner they start, the sooner they finish.

One-Liner of the Day:
“The worst time to have a heart attack
is during a game of charades.”
           Here’s supper. Five ingredients. Potato, carrot, onion, celery, and chicken. Roasted for 90 minutes. Wait, there is a sixth ingredient that makes this an Irish dish. A quarter pound of melted butter. The Irish didn’t eat the potato alone any more than you or I. Here’s an old joke. I once at a Ploughman’s lunch. And was he ever angry when he caught me, and did you see that pinga Geraldo saying that the anti-immigrant language of today was similar to that against the Irish in former times? No go, Geraldo. You see, the Irish were white and they spoke English. Do you think I just said that to get his goat? Because I did. Maybe it’s the way he pronounces his name like “Jeraldo”.

           Ann Coulter has told him off so many times, he just doesn’t get it. Racism is between America and former African slaves. It is not for other races to come in here and start piggy-backing (as Ann so eloquently puts it) off the experience. Geraldo is a racist to the core. He’s got white-envy and a vested interest. He’s not exactly supporting Chinese immigration. I wonder if somebody will put him out of his misery? Maybe I don’t like that little Zorro haircut of his. It would be more appropriate if he said what he was saying in Mexico, not here. But as liberals, they never risk their own necks.

           Once more, I resort to thinking when I’m entering unfamiliar territory. That window job in the bedroom has to be done right the first time. I have to measure exact dimensions that can’t be done directly because of existing studs. To the onlooker, it would seem I sat there staring at the wall for a half hour, ha, not that I wouldn’t do that any time I felt like it. I mentioned double studs before, but I think the solution is triple because of the way the old arrangement is so close to what I want to do. It’s not complicated, a jack stud, then a cripple, then the full height stud.
           This is all new to me, I have to build a header 71” long, and I do not remember what dimension lumber is required for that. I think 2x6” can be used up to 8 feet long, but this is the situation where there is no help around when you could use some. It dropped to 44°F last night, so I want that rough opening done and sealed in a day. That’s from the time I cut, not from now. I’ll tell you what was fun. For all I said about TV, I have no problem watching DVDs. One does not “surf” DVDs, at least not me. They are planned out in advance and because of the recent passing of Mary Taylor-Moore, I put on a disk of classic episodes.

           It was the Dick van Dyke show, did I spell that right? I am around TV often enough, I mean you can’t go to the dentist without soaps on the overhead. My ability to blot out stupid when I’m reading is a true gift around television, but I’m aware of the quality. I know that soaps have taken a huge hit because they are so much more expensive to produce than talk shows. And I know these older comedies were significantly better material than anything contemporary. It seems everything on TV these days is done on the cheap. But these old shows, they had some good acting.
           The worst on TV, IMHO, is docutainment. Even the BBC and NOVA had really gone downhill on that count. These days, it is misleading titles (click-bait), half the show is talking interviews, the footage is no longer dramatic, but worst is how they drag fringe operators into the storyline. Like who cares if the cleaning lady is a single mother. It’s bad enough they stretch five minutes of new material into an hour, but when they go politically correct and start with the queers and gimps, let’s quit calling it a learning experience.

ADDENDUM
           Here’s another top event. The Hippie actually sent me a couple of “new” songs that he’s added to his list. And I was surprised to find out they were not the usual slow-poke sleepers. I was not surprised that they were both guitar-centric and have disco beats instead of real bass or drum lines. Guitar players as a rule never consider what roles the other band members will have in playing a new song. Guitarists don’t care. That’s why most of them never make it anywhere.
           Neither of these new tunes, by Train and Mraz, have any bass until over a minute into the song, and after that the bass is so simple a Millennial could play it. And probably would. Ha, I always imagine these hipster bass lines to be played on a synthesizer with some half-brain kind of pounding the same three keys with his left pointer finger while picking his nose with the right. They only put in a bass line because they heard you were supposed to, kind of, like, y’know.

           Cancel the Brooksville party. I thought it was some kind of music festival, but it was a private gig. That’s why I rarely play them on weekends. Too many last minute cancellations. People with smart phones think doing that is kewl. Remember NOVA? What, you don’t check your text messages 50 times a day? What century are you living in?


Last Laugh

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