One year ago today: April 25, 2016, neat movie sound bite.
Five years ago today: April 25, 2012, pre-Trump military questions.
Nine years ago today: April 25, 2008, the Picayune Forest.
Random years ago today: April 25, 2010, Pudding-Tat.
That’s JZ on the phone again. Dude, I know you did drywall for X number of years. But did you do carpentry and floor leveling and all the hard work that’s needed to get the drywall to go up right? So far, it’s been a 3:1 ratio of which the gyproc is the easiest part. Besides, experience isn’t helping me when you are five hours away plus the days are getting too hot to work outside. While Florida is a fantastic source for used vehicles, remember that Miami is not really Florida any more. You heard me.
This is the Peace River, muddy and full to the banks despite six months of no rain in the area. I visited two boat ramps, see fishermen on the ramp. I walked a while where possible along the banks and found no sand or gravel bars. The river seems to flow much too slowly to move much sediment. Then again, I only need one flood a year for a million years. I could not reach the riverbanks in most places and managed only one sample. It was all sand, no gravel at all.
The river does not flow, it more like seeps. The movement is only perceptible if you stop and intentionally look for it. Already it is evident the only viable way to explore is by boat and a trolling motor should be fine. There you have it, I’ve finally done some prospecting. Took long enough. Anybody else got anything useful to report? That’s what I thought. I put 40 miles on the motorcycle and wound up in Ft. Meade. I found nothing that looks like a stream deposit. I’ve now got two hours of field time
So if there is any know-hoe around here, it is my ability to do the focused research needed to keep things on course. Following on closely behind call it my years of savvy at making myself indispensable to the operation. I’m familiar with the adage that when times get bad, the mining company lays off the prospector. Nor was I in boy scouts very long before I found out that being a good cook spares one from details like clearing the poison ivy and digging latrines. Here’s a synopsis of what’s developed since last report.
I’ve identified a segment of river that looks “good enough” from the drawings. It’s just north of the Homeland intersection on Hwy 640. I’ll go out for a look on the motorcycle, the cheapest option. There are no decent maps I can find, only schematics. I’ve also heard the stories of seams being located and not found again because nobody could remember which bend in the river. Thus, I’ve been concentrating on prospecting. Nobody else appears to have taken this into account and learned even the basics of navigation. Get a GPS, I say.
144 hour candle.
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Absolutely no aerial photos of the river. Not even a hobby video by some guy from an ultra-lite. It is a canoe route thoughout, but at this time I have no idea if that is good or bad. It would not be the first time an observant sort found fortune under the very noses of thousands. Maybe I’ll watch the movie I skipped last evening and think of what I will use as containers of sand samples and how I will mark them. For now, my gold pan strongly resembles that tin pie plate that was in the stove drawer when I moved in.
As for working the sluice, I deem anybody who does it for an hour will learn all they need to know. I just spent nearly 19 hours on research and barely getting started. That includes six hours of videos on everything from brands of dredging equipment to how to clean the gold mats. Even if what I’ve learned is wrong, I’m still the expert on what wasting time looks like. For that matter, since wasting time is a necessary component of any activity, I’m even better at it than you’d think. Don’t confuse my reading a book while watching a DVD with the 70% of people who text while watching TV. Because afterward, I can ace both exams, so I’m paying attention.
While scoping the river, I noticed the fishermen pay an awful lot of attention to everybody’s business but their own. To me this means future ops take place around the bend or secluded areas only. I may even check out the times when the canoe and kayak rental joints are open for business. It’s odd to me how the river was so low in December, I was tempted to walk across to the far bank in a few spots. Now it is not only deep, it is too murky to see the bottom. Where does one find information on water levels? If I find out, that also becomes a trade secret.
[Author's note: I suspect there is some kind of feeder canal into the river. The Army Corps of Engineers love to build canals, and the Florida government loves to release the water so the following summer they can declare yet another water shortage. Round she goes.]
Next, the cost breakdown of the lantern was, it seems, something most unusual in these parts. The purpose of management is to get those costs down. It turns out the $35 price tag I was told may have been some ten years ago. When there are no controls, important tidbits like that get tossed around instead of tossed out. Nonetheless, the my background is cost management and the lantern chart provides a solid piece of data to work with. It takes the guesswork out of determining costs.
Most prices have doubled in the past ten years, except for commodities needed to get votes. Gas, especially. Something tells me I had better readjust to the fact that business around here is still conducted on the “let’s try it and see” basis. Which probably doesn’t have the best effect on the failure rate. What I’ll do is run some time and motion what-ifs to reduce the risk. Maybe change a few procedures to match up better with the tools and the space we have. If I didn’t say, we found a neat and solid old router table, which is nearly halves the time of doing the panels by hand.
Make sure to read up tomorrow, as the meeting will be about my findings on the Florida Peace River, and I plan to propose if we go ahead with these lanterns. Productions must be on the basis of four per hour, still requiring 50 hours after the production line is set and the assumption I can produce a proper prototype. I’m confident I can do it because it is similar to robotic parts except these are all neat and rectangular. There is an overhead set of beams where all 200 can be stored in semi-open conditions. It would help if the wood really was a little weathered by February.
You may infer that I was less than impressed by the river conditions today. Resources are always constrained and at this time, lumber, brass, and candle wax are more likely to attract my investment dollar than heading up the river with the skeeters. This is not a loan where I get paid back like the bank whether the project succeeds or not. These are on-going concerns and that explains why I’m learning as much as possible and posturing myself to be an integral part of the operation. Bottom line—even if this lantern project fails, I will retain the tools and jigs. That’s around $800 value of the kind needed when we learn the truth about Social Security.
“When he found out his masseuse was a prostitute,
he was relieved.”
No Karaoke tonight. I kind of raised the bar last time, besides, I got to thinking about how that book on Antarctica was so hard to follow. I’m going to go back and read selected chapters, especially about the connection to Polynesia. Those glossopteris fossils did not get under all that ice by some creationist process. I’m staying home to read. I even got myself a book on how to attract wild birds to my yard. Face it, I miss my Memphis. The only other living thing that I did not mind eating off my plate.
The trees in my yard have to be trimmed back soon. JZ further reports he bought one of the $40 chain saws from Harbor Freight and it was not heavy duty. See, nobody listens to the bass player. I reported that six months ago. I’m reading a booklet on yard trees and hedges, wondering what to do with that neat little fenced garden area in the back. Right now it is overgrown with weeds, mind you, it looks neat. Like those photos of forest groves.
So certain am I that the bank error is in my favor, I’ve again begun looking at the Smithsonian museum, see schematic above. Actually, it is 19 museums, but you can imagine I’ll be skipping the weaker displays. (Renwick Gallery, African Art, etc.) One reason I’m so certain is whenever a check is cashed, I independently record the value in Euros. The check from the previous month, they recorded it twice and did not record the month in question. The weight of evidence is greatly on my side.
Plus, it now comes to light that the executor of my estate (I train them while I’m still alive) reports there is a strange correction called a “mitigated balance credit” at the end of the month in question. Folks, check your bank statements. I didn’t because you recall I was moving at that point in time. There is nothing to prevent the bank from arguing that I did not reconcile by the deadline except that they know I can write awfully damaging press releases, not to mention my acknowledged ability to sewer the careers of those who really need it.
I’ve decided to take down some of the drywall over that 1/2” bend in the east wall. Just two six foot panels, but I don’t like the way the material has to bend into that corner. I know I could skip it as the wall only has to last until my own personal forever, but down it comes. And it is a two-man operation. Since you’ve read this far, I’ll pass on some gossip. It turns out very few people were aware of the background of the all-girl band. I discussed with only one person, who assures me nobody knows.
That’s strange in the Internet age, but then, most of the users are not computer literate. They are smart phone literate. And we know that is as severe as another generation gap. It’s still not the kind of thing you can keep a secret. Here’s something. When I saw the show last weekend, the girl band has totally adopted one of my techniques into their act right down to the same words I use. They now tell the audience to tip the server, not the band.
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