One year ago today: May 10, 2016, hydrovowelated?
Five years ago today: May 10, 2012, an obvious DNS transcript.
Nine years ago today: May 10, 2008,Taylor Dane never showed.
Random years ago today: May 10, 2010, I still have this.
When you see it. Can you tell the object of this motorcycle photo from last weekend? The obvious rarity is the oval speaker on the handlebars. I’ve never used them, but they work find. If you recall, I was on a nothing highway, road 471, through the Green Swamp Wilderness and I mentioned the amount of Sunday traffic. It was also a day of semi-trailers blasting along on what should have been a pleasant country drive. If you look closely, you can see one truck beginning to pass in the left lane. And if you peek into the rear-view mirror, another truck boxing me in from behind. These trucks are the bane of American highway travel.
It was also one of those instances where it isn’t so bad the guy can’t play, but that when you try to show him, you get resistance. That entire false concept of the guitarist as the modern troubadour is ubiquitous with the Guitar Center crowd. These guys learn by rote, which is how they train chickens and lab rats. After enough years, these “guitarists” can each play their twelve songs. And that is where they stay. Twelve is the mental limit for your average guitarist who learns by repetition. The follow-on problem is they think they are talented and expect you to learn their twelve songs while they can’t learn anything back. They’re already at capacity.
And the birdfeeder, now back in it’s place, is becoming more and more of a contraption. Wire screens, squirrel baffles, larger lid pins to foil the pigeons, and now the side posts to block the larger wingspan of the bluejays. Face it, my birdfeeder is more sophisticated than the average guitarist I’ve auditioned in Polk County. True, it’s just a dumb birdfeeder but it has the added virtue of never having lied to me, a trait it shares with Taylor Swift, who I would never obsess over. But I’d damn sure let her play in my band for as long as she can keep her instrument in perfect tune, and a few years after to bootie, I mean, to boot.
So band-wise, I’m right back where I started. Not music-wise, them’s two different animals. And this time I said [if I fail to find a rhythm player] I would try to focus on guitar, as Ray-B said I should. He maintains if you can keep a steady beat, that is good enough. That’s called the “survivorship syndrome” because he is over the top with his guitar chording and unlike many, he does have natural talent. I admit what holds me back is that I am just not proficient on guitar and such a show would be third-place in any music contest. But is that holding me back? It’s not like a bad driver not wanting to get behind the wheel, so I’m not afraid of consequences. I just don’t want to look foolish. Or is it too late for that?
Guitar strumming is an avenue that I’ve gotten half-way down probably 30 times in my life. In the end something with the bass always comes up, and then lets me down, finding here are square one. What would you do? Well, besides hang it up. That is not an option here.
Cheese room.
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She’s another scorcher, so that’s why I got the day’s work done by 10:30AM. This snap shows the south wall duplex receptacles being hot wired. I don’t know if prefab saves that much time overall, but it makes for much neater work and tighter field installation. These are the eight plugs to service the south wall, including the fan, so there is nothing to spare. I also relocated the light switch to the right-hand side of the door and began the rough-in of the north wall boxes.
Ah, some say, but I was already working in the shed before the outlets were installed. Yes, but that was the electric lights, not the wall sockets, and the lights have been operational for months. The saw work was done outdoors. It is only now that electric tools are being moved into the shed.
Taking a noon break, it looks like the power outage y’day took out half the town. Driving south on Hwy 37 I saw dozens of stores with signs saying cash only and the library WiFi is knocked out. It’s hitting 95°F today, so I’ll be in the library anyway. I really want to set up a washer and dryer in the yard. Don’t be thinking this place is becoming a hillbilly shack you know, with the washer and dryer on the front porch. I’ve got an entire back yard that cannot be viewed from the roadway. I could plant junk cars back there nobody would know.
“I don’t have any flowers,"
he said lackadaisically.
The bluejay instantly defeated the new side rails. Didn’t even slow him down. He just stands on one foot and raids the food tray. What’s next? I can see he must fly in from directly in front of the feeder, while the smaller birds come in from the sides. The birdfeeder is looking more like some armored pagoda that ever. Anyway, back to the yard, I finally drove past a building that was being put in to city specs. I stopped and took pictures, which I examined and got the fundamentals of the footings the city requires. It is fairly standard.
The big wedding is in the middle of June, coincidentally the same week I’ll be crashing at JZ’s place. More medical tests and I’m getting a new set of sprockets on the Rebel. So, I’ll crash an extra couple of days, I guess. That will be a nice break, that’s five weeks from now. I don’t recognize the bride’s name, but if it was anything like what I saw at the church picnic, you bet I’m jealous. The only good news today is I heard of a band breaking up for the same reasons I’ve been candid with you about for years now. It is rarely the music that causes the rift.
The guitarist was in a five-piece and the drama was intense. When the majority wanted to bring in a chick singer, the drummer revolted, playing pieces wrong, speeding up, the whole juvenile shot. (Note, sirs, that I am the opposite. When I revolt, I begin to play the pieces exactly right. What, your guitar chord didn’t fit? Time to learn it right, old fellow.) I haven’t talked to him, but the lady’s description of the goings-on would remind you of what I’ve been through. I don’t care how well you can play, my concern is whether or not you can work the room. Music is just the prop.
ADDENDUM
The washer dryer set is going in. The budget is $650 but I’ll likely come in well under that. Judging by Craigslist, there should be some easy pickings and I’ll get in some experience building a lean-to on the old red shed. Remember the tree stump I left standing nine feet tall? Well, inside that tree, if you think back, is a fully functional water tap. And for a drain, the garden is less than six feet away. I downloaded specs for a solar hot water system for the roof of the shed.
Next, I downloaded a series of plans for solar chimneys. These are basically painted metal tubes of anything that gets hot in the sun. Empty tin cans are easy to solder. Because it isn’t tin. What I’m looking into is the possibility of a circulating system that uses the three perfectly good solar panels I’ve got stored away. Those could easily supply some computer exhaust fans and a small water circulating pump. I’ve got all the controllers and can build my own voltage regulators if I need more.
The initial plant is to build a small platform of 2x6” joists on the north side of the shed. That leaves the appliances permanently in the shade. I’ll make the dimensions large enough so there is a comfortable small deck and folding table, and I see the previous owner had a clothesline set up. The possibilities are endless. However, the money isn’t and I just spent $30 on small packages of screws today. Self-tapping metal screws only 14” long are now ten cents apiece.
Having time, I scheduled a DVD movie for 8:00PM tonight, and took the time to closely read over a budget as suggested by the consumer advice people in DC. It was an example given of how a family of four should today budget for long-term security. Those silly bureaucrats don’t seem to realize they are telling people that there is no security right now, any that you get in your lifetime will have to be in the future. What, after the system they endorse collapses. Remember, the USSR disappeared in less than two weeks from the day the first domino fell.
The movie is “Last Stand at Saber River” with Tom Selleck, back when all he had to do was pose. And the budget for the family was $7,000 per month. I looked at that askance. That’s less than I used to make twenty years ago. The numbers were the same, but mine were healthy 1996 dollars and I balked at raising a family on that. Today that’s a drop in the bucket, and the budget said both the husband and wife worked full time to get it. Plainly, they were not civil servants or posties. I read the details to get an idea of how the government thinks people survive. The curious parts of the budget were:
√ a first mortgage of $1,700 per month AND a second mortgage at $627
√ a entertainment budget per month of $52 per adult and $32 per child
√ $30 per month for “house inspections”
Personally, I think it is poverty line to try raising children on $7,000 per month, but the DC budget people made no mention of the children’s lifestyle, only their necessities. And what’s $32 for a teen these days? What’s he or she going to do with $8 a week? Besides the obvious, I mean. What did not surprise me is the government budget list had the parents spending the most money on precisely the items the government would have to kick in if the family went on welfare. It’s subtle, but its there.
Note the supposition that there is a second mortgage and that the family will take such good care of the house that it is regularly inspected for damage. Now way would they paint over water or termite damage and flip the place. Not our highly regimented and budgetized government family, anyway.
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