Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 8, 2025, will silver reach $40?
Five years ago today: August 8, 2021, not a hoot.
Nine years ago today: August 8, 2017, don’t or can’t.
Random years ago today: August 8, 2019, green bananas are evil.
Here we sit for the remainder of the morning, maybe the day. Idiot me did overdo things even as I tried to take it easy. Two consecutive days of working with lumber, one board at a time, then three hours behind the bass. Soon as I got up today, and I had commitments. One was getting the 50 pounds of doggie chow to the pound. I had Wal*Mart lift it into the van and staff lift it out. Am I reduced to getting tired just watching people lift things? (Of course not, the fact is lifting anything, board or bass, puts a strain however tiny, across the chest.)
So I got to the pound, they got one right new gal behind the counter, she’s gonna break a lotta hearts. I was already dragging my ass up to the door, fortunately they sort of know me and got me to the front of the line. Then Steve paged, the Reb texted, it was fluky I got back across the lot. By 9:30AM the Florida mid-summer arrived with a vengeance. Welcome to Spray Paint Saturday.
It’s ironic that the one thing that set off my first emergency was the one thing I can do today without any effort or consequences. Drive. Long –distances or time have no effect, I like driving and now use my monitor maybe every tenth drive to keep an eye on pressure. Nothing for years and no change from the recent happenings. It must seem a bit dicey to see me barely waddle across the yard, then zip away like I was faking disability. That’s not a bad analogy, I see it all the time. I was on my way to the used paint store.
Wow, they now make you sign in. I had my alter-ego comply. Oh, you can say people doing nothing illegal have nothing to worry about. But that would make you one of those simpletons who forgets five years ago they made it illegal to stand closer than ten feet apart. What luck, I got almost a gallon of light colored stain, mostly pecan or pine, shown here. Enough to test out my paint dip process. I’ve only seen it done once before, at a summer job I had in 1974. Wait, I did see a hot oil bath that was similar. That’s why I know it isn’t quite as unexacting as it looks.
Another item I want to follow up is the clove scenting that I mentioned. It does not have to be an aroma, just a hint. I have excellent small boxes that even after weeks, impart a whiff of glue and varnish. I do not like it because neither would a housewife who might like the design otherwise. What luck that I found a spray can of odorless glue, see picture.
I wonder it a shot of that might take just enough of the clove powder to give the box what poets might call a snuff or a balm. Work with me here, we do not know which ideas will win out. Or I could just give up and go into politics. What do you think? Speech-writing?
Nope, by noon I’m tuckered because I had to stop for groceries. I was out of milk, and I’m the only person I know who still drinks it. Steve texted, there’s a chance for an extra session, but did you know he has a rare form of that condition that swells the joints? Not lupus, dang he mentioned it last year and I forget. Anyway, he knows it is hereditary so he has definitely learned to live with it. The tie-in with music is that I foresee the day when I will have to play sitting down and that is something you always discuss with the rest of the band. That is, if you have a band, Hippie.
Let’s end the morning with the news. Qzempic and related weight-loss drugs have been linked to an increase in sudden blindness. Hey, the only people fat ladies who think they are sexy don’t aggravate would themselves have to be blind. I want more information on the proposal to make an underground pipeline that bypasses Hormuz and leaves the Iranians with nothing to bargain with. That could be a winner, underground is bombproof and I wonder if would run through the peninsula. The smaller the country involved the better, we’ll find out just how united the Arab Emirates truly are.
Poland is about to let the army open fire on border-crashers. That’s so sad—that they had to make a law to allow it.
Picture of the day.
Sumatran striped.
World’s rarest rabbit.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Drat, I’ll have to cancel any extra practice, today anyway. I’m dozing off every ten minutes, though I can do that and still assemble boxes. And make decent size helping of fried rice, which I did. Mushrooms or pineapple chunks, decisions, decisions. I went for the mushroom because it makes better leftovers. Good afternoon, for those who foresaw I needed that siesta.
Here’s two more items I scored at the used paint store. Both full and brand new almost. It’s nice you so enjoy these little victories because unless I have zip to grab a beer later, this is my day. To think one day we’ll look back on this and wish we could do it over again. Spray cans, from the blog that dares. What did the rest of Florida get done today? If they didn’t blog it, who is to say?
Agt. M e-mails to say I should arrive a few days early to stay and visit. I should be getting a call for an appointment any time now or at least before the 21st. That would be mostly time with the kids and I do need him for some vehicle repairs. But as the situation is, I also know the huge value placed on getting a band working before September. Leave it much past October and you’ve lost another year.
I also need to check in on my pal, JZ. Retire, they said. Take it easy, they said. Taking some measurements, I calculated it is more expeditious to buy a couple plastic trays to test dipping the boxes. Paint and oil are not as runny as stain so be prepared for more mess. At the same time, this should work on boxes that are already built, a considerable convenience the way my work area is laid out.
Are the various stains compatible? Most on-line advice is off target, so I’ll just mix what is oil based. I bought a wide-mouth glass jar so I can see what’s going on. The question on everyone’s lips is why mix the liquids? It works like this. The dip tray must be long enough to accommodate the largest dimension.
That’s the [size of the] Z-box on its side. The depth must exceed half the width of the widest fence panel so an assembled box can be dunked from both sides. Here’s a better look at the stain, then the store-bought glass jar.
I also figure if that does not work, I can always fill the tank shallower but not deeper. I calculate a depth of 1-5/8” will allow the box to be fitted in every orientation without danger of leaving stain exposed long enough to dry out. The liquids mixes easily, so the next stage could be as early as tomorrow. I schedule both stages with the panels, before and after assembly.
The variable is the availability of the stain, which cannot be guaranteed in bulk. So it boils down to two mixes that can be topped off. Light and dark. We’ll start with light because if I screw up, it is easier to mix things darker. Later, test one piece of wood. Yep, I can’t go back to paintbrushes now. The stain seems to get on everything, my incentive to get that shed finished in the back yard.
No, I didn’t go out. Pity, I was looking forward to it. Instead, I dug out my old resistor book, a photo album where I organized all my resistors in multiples of ten. Made it super easy to find any size—until the seams along the binding all opened with age and I have a mess. Actually, it was not that bad sorting out the popular ones. The rest is a damn mess. But I laid out the circuitry for a bass boost amp to see if that can power what I want for the acoustic bass I designed but did not build. Amazing how quickly things can come back into focus, innit?
Instead, I spent [much of] the evening looking at all those empty pill bottles I have that are the right size for 1/4 watt resistors with a catch. The yellow plastic prevents the color bands from being read from the outside. And everything I’ve marked the bottles with wears off. Mark the bottle, not the cap, as they can get jumbled. So let’s see what the laser can do. I have a nice wooden custom stand that is perfect for the job. First off, you discover that pill bottle plastic does not like lasers.
ext, the plastic reflects an unhealthy amount of laser beam out of the cavity. A shallow burn melts into the plastic enough to color in with a felt pen. It does not rub off easily and that is good enough. I already found something with the right texture, gold tinted paint. But it dries to almost the same color as that plastic. Generally, the process is so far not practical. You can make out this bottle etched 3300 Ω but not contrasting enough to be useful on the shop bench. This also shows gold coloration in the laser channels, that didn’t work either. But we are far from finished with this.
ADDENDUM
Several articles show that, even if Vegas isn’t dying, the rumor that it is losing money is widespread. I’m okay with that as I have a revulsion of the Hollywood image of the gambler as a happy-go-lucky vacationer trying his had at the marbles. Nor do I see losing money as entertainment, the first question I ask anybody in bill-paying troubles is if they gamble. Or the Hollywood gambler profile of a professional as a cool, slick and savvy individual. Here’s where I remind us that the trailer court in the tales is next to a casino, and the shortest walk downtown was through the building. I would often walk around instead to avoid being exposed to the people who worked or played there.
We also texted with Mitch, who is intrigued by the blog in some ways. This most recent bloom is not over yet, just slowing. If I used a day count instead of the calendar month, the past 14 days have been a record. The bulk of my readers in those two weeks have been in America, with the biggest gain from Brazil, displacing Singapore, which has dropped to sixth place. Most unexpected is the Seychilles, which other than a misspelled mention in
2010, has not even appeared after my navigation studies began landing in that surrounding ocean.
The hypothesis is that some school or system in these non-English countries could have found this blog an excellent study in correct English. I aced all the grammar, spelling, and writing classes in grade school, had twenty years writing experience before the Internet arrived and survived the plunge in standards that brought along. Lessons would make sense, but don’t match the hours. I get thousands of readers at 5:00AM local time, which does not match normal school hours anywhere.
A good look at the possible reasons does not provide clues. The only place that makes sense is the Seychelles, but my readership in the last two weeks exceeds the population of all 115 islands. Mitch surmises it must be English lessons, so we’ll go with that. Flawless street English just could be appealing enough.
Last Laugh
