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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
Tales From The Trailer Court™
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
July 1, 2026
One year ago today: July 1, 2025, WIP
Five years ago today: July 1, 2021, WIP
Nine years ago today: July 1, 2017, WIP
Random years ago today: July 1, xxxx, WIP
If you see this, I have not yet caught up with you, but I am in Tennessee. Until I can get time and access, just read the addendums. If silver continues to drop, I may step back in. My target price is $48/oz to buy.
As a reward for living this long, I have decided to read all 480 pages of my "Physical Computing" text book. Give my brain a rest.
Khor Fakkan.
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~ ADDENDUM
I have a USB powered floppy disk reader. It shows up on the disk menu, but it will not read even the filenames. And Win 11 cmd does not recognize the disk drive itself, or just displays an icon that does nothing. I’ve got the parts to build a 386, but what a hassle. It’s a few lines of code in the kernel to run real DOS, but the bastards had to mess with that. They just could not leave well enough alone. They have a degenerate obsession with proving to themselves they are smart or something.
The snag here is that those disks were the standard for years and there are tens of millions of them out there. What’s more, they contain priceless information and files that are untainted by embedded millennialware and worse, cloud stupidware. Some of the 3.5s I kept have printouts of my best COBOL and FORTRAN program dumps and now, with going through hoops, I cannot access them. I’ll get it, I’m just saying these punks deserve every bit of hardship that is surely coming their way.
The period 1992 through 2003 there was not journal. But these disks contain tons of data and information of the day that I had intended to post one file at a time. I even have the original installation disks for both the operating system and the programs, which are now called apps. I only kept around 60 disks, but in those days there was very little file overhead written to disk, so it’s mostly good stuff. The disks are pretty damn old, but kept dry and seem in great shape.
here is the vigilante movie https://old.bitchute.com/video/iLjCEmvPzHjO/
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
June 30, 2026
One year ago today: June 30, 2025, I didn’t say wrong.
Five years ago today: June 30, 2021, WIP
Nine years ago today: June 30, 2017, WIP
Random years ago today: June 30, xxxx, WIP
Am I in Tennessee? We won’t know until I get to library in this new town. I do not know Franklin. I’ve driven around a couple of times. Everybody except me is filthy rich. There is no computer for me at the new place, so if the library is not user-friendly, I may have to drive all the way to Hermitage. You’ll know if you see pictures. Scenery has become integral to this blog. Did know nearly 100% of the photos (excluding graphs, memes, and obvious borrows) you see here are originals by the author? Not bad for a Boomer. Or a Zoomer, even.
Ah, back in Tennessee and what a long and quiet snooze. It is morning but I'm underway, trying to find the cat food. It was in the closet. The Reb left me a present, coffee and Carnation, bless her. But will she be home today? Check in later. I got the old iMac working except it will not Wifi, so I am 35 miles away in the old library. But that means I got most of my chores done. I found out why my insurance was so cheap. Remember that rebate they mailed in January? I never received it, so they applied it to the new policy. I have the Hundy registered, but in my dossier I do not have the plate number of my KIA. So I have to make another trip back here. If you see any pictures, then you know I'm getting somewhere. Sigh, life was better when the Internet was a free-for-all. If you disagree, ae you a brainwashed addict?
What's getting difficult is renewing ATM cards. I aslo discovered it is almost impossible to leave money to a minor, or leave it for a minor now, but not payable until they are over 18. I was hoping to establish an account for our youngest club member. Just check in later, as in a month, and we'll see if there are any workarounds. Meanwhile, hurry up and wait, I'm very busy this trip. Somehow I managed to get here with all power cables, no data transfer models. I think when Europe mandated all deviced must use a USB-C cable, the market has become flooded with models that are power only. I ran into this problem months ago. Now it seems the majority of cables are power only--and there is no way to tell just by looking. If you can see any photos, then you'll know. I tried several dollar store USB-C and none of them worked. I donated them to the library, telling them the problem, which I take it they were having troubles over long before.
I was in the bank quite a while, my conclusion is that there was enough resilience built into my investments to absorb the recent inflation, which for my consumer items was over 60%. But if another bad government takes over, that isn't going to suffice. Thus, a new ten-year plan is in order even I don't make it that long. This theme will probably recur, same as Caltier did for so long. It is a learning experience that had to be taken simply because there was no way to get a straight answer. It's a real ass-clown situation, these on-liners with their invented vocabularies. They know exactly what information you want but fancy themselves clever. And stand ready to be offended at any hint otherwise. This isn't as much of another start-over because we now have experience dealing with these people.
3D topographical print of Ireland.
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This afternoon was all business, but we made a mini-visit out of it by having a bit of fun. First, we decided on some pro photos, considering how close I came to posing for the last time. Chooks is old now and indifferent to most attention. He wags his tail and comes over when I call, but I think his energy lives must be about the same as mine. Since his now a registered support critter, we took him along to the sushi place. I'm not that much into squid, but they always have Thai on the menu. And what a menu it was. Not a tablet, we've seen those around a while. But a real almost paper-thin menu display. If you ask, the meal was $86.
We had a lot of business to go over and have decided to go ahead with the ArriveD account or something similar. The experience with Caltier reinforces my contention that despite all their wild claims, the best way to learn how the software works for a given "e-business" is to wade into it yourself We also kicked around the license to publish from the twins back a couple years, but we never followed up. The license is good for life, so I will take another look to see if A.I. has made it worthwhile. I'm saying I'd trust A.I. to generate a book long before the ghost writers the original plan suggested.
~ ADDENDUM
It’s been fifteen or more years since I’ve assembled a computer from parts. But today I discovered most Win 11 computers will not play a 3.5” floppy. Who would want such a thing. That’s easy, anybody with a brain that knows the world ran on those things before Millennials turned the computer into a plaything. Here is a history lesson the kind you won’t find in the books, and I was there. I hold computers responsible for the sad, almost deplorable state of colleges today. Sit down and listen.
I repeat, I was there. By 1995, I had been familiar with how proper programmed was done for over 20 years. By 1985, I had many qualifications based on courses I had challenged. You still had to pay for the course, but just show up to write the final exam. The schools did not like that, they began to track attendance and pile on pre-requisites. They also began to not recognize identical courses from other institutions. More than once, I had to repeat courses I had already passed with honors, just to be allowed to attend an advanced class required for a degree.
Now you multiply that out to today’s price-gouging low-standard schools, and you see there is a connection. They do not care if you learn anything because computers have changed their fundamental business model. Notice carefully, you now needed the degree on the wall regardless of whether or not you actually knew how to program. I wound up with two senior degrees part-time over roughly nine years. (Part of the delay was the company putting our department on rotating shift work in 1991.)
Already a programmer, I had to return to get those degrees, which as I just explained, became an expensive and tiresome process. I avoided university, having made that mistake once, and went to a top-notch trade school. It was during those nine years that I witnessed the downfall of the programming profession and decide it was not for me—but I still loved the subject and still do today.
I’ve said before how 213 of us began in this then-new faculty. Nine years later there were 7 left. It was a small graduation party indeed. Toward the end, I shifted away from computers only toward accounting, which I use mostly today to lead a pretty darn good life. I’ve worked accounting jobs, but I’ve never been an accountant. I abhor the way schools are run these days, they should be fined for false advertising. Standards are so low you never hear of anyone failing to learn coding, though it probably happens.
Return tomorrow to see how this ties in with 3.5” floppies.
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Monday, June 29, 2026
June 29, 2026
One year ago today: June 29, 2025, WIP
Five years ago today: June 29, 2021, by the thousands.
Nine years ago today: June 29, 2017, WIP
Random years ago today: June 29, xxxx, WIP
If you are reading this, I am on the road to Franklin, TN. Via Gainesville, Valdosta, Macon, and if the mood hits me, through to Montgomery to get on Hwy 65, a slightly more scenic and sane route. This trip will be incomplete before I start. I require a document I cannot find. It is in my black travel case—but were is the case. I tore my place apart this afternoon, so I know where it is not. I probably left a 6:00AM this morning, the good news is I found that clasp with the $35 worth of postage stamps that went missing last year. That helps. Sorry if there are not pics, maybe later. The millennial/GenX heroes have two identical type of USB-C cables. On that transfers data, and the power cable that just sits there.
Arrived in Franklin just after dark, settled in and headed up the road to the Pond, an old club north of downtown. Had one hell of a time finding the new place (it is an apartment, not a condo this time) and the numbering scheme was shacked out. Imagine a town where instead of the houses having orderly numbers, house 101 is on street 1 but house 109 is on street nine. Somebody in Tennessee needs sharpening up with a tire iron.
The trip was the un today, and quite a time it was. I got away 90 minutes late, but traffic was nice and the day was perfect. I have Valdosta just before noon and met up with Tonio in no time. He’s got a major mower, shown here, and was on duty. The object here was to hand him the tool box from last year. I had just got my laser and knew not much about box joinery. This was a utility box, made from what was at hand—not meant to be pretty, meant to be used.
This is a business trip, I stopped only for gas, which I saw as low as $3.21. Hold on, I stopped for some road grub at the Valdosta Wal*mart, a stop I now know from automobile breakdown days. Westbound from central Georgia is though rolling hills, heavy forest like in the movies. I rolled down the windows for an hour. Two-lane most of the way, but I was alone, approaching Eufaula (population 12,882) from the southeast. Through a tunnel of trees. I will remember this trip forever.
Running two hours late, I didn’t stop even for coffee, not at Eufaula is an easy place to find any. The connected road to I-65 is another lost corridor well worth the drive. More forest, rolling hills, and the odd farm clearing. Just make sure you have GPS to get past Albany sideways on the map or you will get lost. What a jumble of junctions. Meanwhile, the day got broiling hot, it just be another summer heat wave. But my A/C is top-tier and I listened to anti-Trump radio (NPR) a few times. It fakes because my aerial is still broken off.
As I passed Montgomery, I slowed down and drove the freeway via “Traffic Jam Birmingham” and past the Decatur ramp. Slower after realizing I was 15 degrees further west and would arrive in sunlight. This route adds less than 30 miles to the whole trip and has a lot more countryside. But just as may jerks on the road, the latest crop with no highway savvy.
Monument, Custer’s Last Stand.
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Arriving in Franklin, this is an unfamiliar part of town, but there is good news in a moment. But at the turn off, I startled a deer on the roadway, yes it froze. I hit the brakes and did a slider through the gravel, yes, a few inches from rolling the car. But it was all instinct that rattled me good for an hour. Welcome to Tennessee. Next, it took 40 minutes to find the apartment. First of all, it looks like townhouses and even people who live there could not tell me where building 9 was located.
The Reb is out of town, but aw, she left me coffee and Carnation, she knows me well. The photo guy was awake and looking out the patio for the view, what do I see? The old Pond, it is a pub known for always having entertainment. You get that in the Nashville environs. It’s in a shopping center almost within walking distance, if I could still walk distances, I mean. So we piled in his Cadillac and got there around 10:00PM. Yep, Karaoke, so I put my name on the list. Turns out the photo guy has never seen my act.
Discovering the Pond does not serve Budweiser and only has Yuengling on draft (what’s become of America?), I went of High Life and did not recognize a single tune from the singers before me. That includes trios who got on stage with rehearsed material. So, and the photo guy has all this on video, I got to work. (The place was a third full, mostly people two generations behind me. I recognized a few personalities from Nashville, but did not say hello as a professional courtesy. )
What can I say? Actually, a lot, because I have the video, I brought down the house. It was stunning to see 15 years after I’ve performed without the lyrics, people still glued to the screen like it was their stage buddy. The stage was 60 feet away, so I saved energy and sang right beside the bar. At first, I had a couple old-lady sourpusses scowling at me, but once I had the entire back of the place singing, they came around.
It was truly a resounding applause, but I was tuckered. I move to leave and the DJ, bartender, and owner rushed over. Apparently I am now welcome there any time and have priority of sorts on that stage. They plied me with another ice cold beer and got me up singing next. Did it again, the whole room singing. I’m invited back, maybe I will. A ton of people introduced themselves to my assurances I would never remember. But not any of the personalities, it’s, um, a professional courtesy.
ADDENDUM
Going over the budget reveals while we are doing better than average, another Biden Administration puts everybody in the doghouse. This November could end the empire, with both sides planning a knockout blow. And if the Democrats try their old tricks, it means civil war or the equivalent. The budget that endured the best is the one here, at the cabin in Florida. It is based on the expenses of operating a household of one or two people.
As such, it includes gasoline, but not the cost of the vehicles. But even those limited categories of food and entertainment, allow for only $1,000 per month. This is why I mention categories that spill over as warning signs. My telecom costs have gone from $20 per month to $133. Gasoline from $66 to $156. Yet the only year in which my “household” income actually fell was 2025, due to a disastrous second half, and even then by just $150 (kudos to my financial resilience).
Now, these do not include investment or business income which has suffered badly for some time. Zero sales, zero gigs—and don’t underestimate gigs just because some items are not recorded. I once lived years on just my tips, but don’t want to be a Boomer accused of trying to turn back the clock. Note both sales and gigs are earned income (an accounting designation), and I drew the line on that. The Reb has not learned to manage financials, yet that is the only portion of the equation I would even bother to trust.
The diagram of this would look like a giant circle. I started off in the early 80s massively in student debt. I bought my cars with loans, paid rent, and relied on credit cards as emergency funding. I knew by 1990 there was no getting out of that in a lifetime without drastic measures. I took those measures, by the way. That includes no mortgage and thus no marriage and children, but as I would point out, even those people who had these things wound up no better than I. What good is an ex-wife, alimony, support, and children who don’t know them? But that is a different issue.
The facts are there, time to presume I’ll live another ten years. That the completion of the giant circle, back to the original starting point where you get rich by getting poor slower than everybody else. My projections show that with my traditional abilities to average 7% per year, a quarter-million is needed to move the needle. But a smaller investment of $50,000 would pay my groceries and gas.
I would point out that I do not directly withdraw investment money to pay such bills. Rather, equate the income to money I would have invested if I had not spent it on, say food. This may sound dumb to outsiders, but it works for me. If I did not have to buy food, there is a 100% chance I would invest that money, since I know it is a sunk cost either way. Shall we say, there are some who would not make it 100%. They know who they are. I got little use for them. They are usually troublemakers as well. Not big trouble, more the water-dripping-at-night variety.
My investments are further conditioned by political “bewareness”, a term you have not heard me use directly. You cannot protect your money from determined clutches, but you can take measures that give you at least some warning before they kick in your door. Like, for example, your big-mouth neighbor with nothing to hide? Watch his door, the government picks the easy fruit first. Ask Bernie. The end result is my curious attitude about privacy. Not secrecy, but privacy. Secrecy implies you have something to hide that is somebody else’s business. Privacy means none of their business.
This also discloses why I relate often back to my formative years. Simple, my upbringing was divided. It was capitalism for anybody who showed initiative, but communism for the lazy. Folks, I was on to today’s America long before the current strife. I had learned by age 8 a number of lessons, which lucky you, I will share at the level where they happened.
a) If you do not spend money as soon as you receive it, that is proof you never really needed the money, therefore you will receive no more.
b) If you invest, that asset becomes the first target of envy and greed. All the lazy see is the cash, never the value.
c) Showing aptitude is folly. Driving a nail could obligate to driving nails for everybody who, it seems, never become as good at it as you, ahem.
d) Do not volunteer for anything unless it extends you the right to exclude those who did not volunteer.
e) People would like nothing more than for you to fail so they can pick your bones clean.
f) Learn your personal limit to getting ahead. When it comes to money, the trick is to out-think Shylock without becoming one yourself.
Sunday, June 28, 2026
June 28, 2026
One year ago today: June 28, 2025, age without paperwork.
Five years ago today: June 28, 2021, trying to sound technical.
Nine years ago today: June 28, 2017, WIP
Random years ago today: June 28, xxxx, WIP
I’m up extra early, so I’ll write a couple letters. This time, I’ll word process, because it’s easier to include pictures. My pal in Miami is practically a shut-in, but you recall my tactic to make sure my letters get read. Include a lotto ticket in the envelope and at least you know it gets opened. What a mean thing to say, but hey, I now admit there is a gambling habit, so here is the ticket I’ll send today. I asked the 7/11 clerk which was the most popular and he pointed, to my horror, at tickets selling for $20 each. No, no, I said, just ten $1 tickets—if they still make them.
But, allow that they might be like me—I’m unlikely to expose any real tricks of the trade. Just stuff I’ve learned that other people probably know already but didn’t consider important. Thus, I’m stalling on the replacement laser. I’ve noticed a 30% drop in prices, signaling there is a pending change in something big, probably an A.I. model or something. On the balance, except for two scanned logos, 100% of the printing I’ve done was not downloaded. And, my unit has no bells and whistles, so how badly do I need them. A more capable laser on sale might match my needs, I would value such a unit to me as worth around a thousand dollars.
Ah, the Sun. I fixed a breakfast of lightly salted potato skins, sausage ends, chicken bones, and an egg that cracked in the carton. For Rhonda, not me. She knows I’ll be away a few days, and I almost thought I heard a second critter in the bushes. There is not that much bush around here but it is definitely alive. As proof, try walking through it at night. You will soon be very popular. And did you see the latest from the journal of psychology, ladies? If you want to meet more people, put your cell phone in your purse. No phone makes you appear nicer and more trustworthy. Of course, that is dependent on those items having any value to the user. So don’t bother in Starbucks.
We have some news, remember Sheba, the 100lb doggie? The neighbor complained the big doggie barked when the small doggie got too near the property line. This is why I disagree with police getting involved. Because the police, despite constant denials, always take sides. And all too often, it is the side of whoever plays the victim the best. I have no details yet, but time to build a big fence.
Also, LizJohn had asked about a pet medicine that was unavailable (she moved to Canada because she has relatives north of Calgary). I spent hours researching but could not get a straight answer off the Internet. Yes, you imbeciles, I know you can get it through a vet, but that is no my question. Turns out yes, it is available by a different name at CostCo, so she is happy to learn that. And, at half the price, and without the $36 per Rx surcharge the vets tack on over there.
More research on the last etcher and once again it appears the hardly economical route is to just buy one and use it. Expert after expert posting crap on-line like how to remove the shipping tabs and print the demo which is produced with hiding any flaws or problems to begin with. I contacted Tonio in Valdosta by e-mail, he is working all next week and timing means I’m in town during working hours. Here is a picture of his Xmas present,
Last for this morning, I think we may have two raccoons because one of them does not like grits.
PPP
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Mitch reports he also was stung by a wasp. He’s seen photos of my swollen hand, you have not. It was serious, but now abating. It took a few hours to get ready for the trip, as the vehicles have not been tended to since before the medical. Nothing will be ready in Tennessee when I arrive, as the Reb has been basically crashing at the recording studio since August. I don’t plan to stay if we can’t spend quality time, but I still have to prep this place for being away. It took me two months just to fight back the jungle when I got back last time.
I’m trapped inside an hour as I found two wasp nests underway in my mini-porch. They like the smallest sheltered area. You see, I have to get at the door frame because while I was way in February and March, there was terrible weather and the house settled again. I can now easily lift a floorboard and fix that, but meanwhile my deadbolt lock won’t line up with the striker plate. That has to be done before I leave.
Here is the box built for Tonio. He can’t take time off work, so the plan is I deliver it tomorrow.
Okay, I repaired the door so the deadbolt works. But this took so long (an hour) that I disappointed myself. That’s it. I’m making a sandwich and sitting down till bed time. Before that (gawd I hate this GenX keyboard, designed by A.I. because only a stupid S.O.B. would locate the home key right next to the Enter, so fifty times a week a slight miss sends your cursor to the top.
How do they even? But then, you look at these pink-hair soi bois and you just know. Anyway, I found a set of speakers and a spare printer for Ricko, to see if he’s serious enough to get going. He’s back from the hospital. Something doesn’t add up, how he is so old but has no computer basics. He would have been only in his 30s during the computer revolution.
ADDENDUM
Here’s a post for Billie-Bill. I did not invent this, but it is a first around here. This is a Z-box with a lid. I’ve made several, the lid is cut afterward. Part of the trick is to make sure there are no staples or screws in way of the kerf. Yeah, you don’t want any kerf in your way. The cut has to leave a rim strong enough to bind the lid boards. This makes the cut through the best place to drill the thumb holes.
The result is shown here, A box with a properly positioned thumbhole that cannot be picked up easily unless the lid is locked. I may pursue this concept but the utility boxes seem to work best with a rope handle.
Whatever happened to Billie-Bill? Don’t know, once he did not catch on to duo work, I never saw him again. Allow me to explain something, as in quite clear in context here. Probably not one person who ever reads this blog previously has ever heard duos except as two guitarists. The single exception is those rare guitar-and-another-instrument combos (like saxophone) that severely limit their set list. And who’s existing list, once the novelty rubs off, will bore you in no time. The combination of guitar and bass duo is relatively rare.
If you meet any, they will announce they are “missing a drummer”. I searched South Florida for a guitar-bass duo and found nothing. My motive was to show the Hippie it worked because he would not even try. This is where the explanation begins. Duo work, with me, is not a matter of learning your part. The music has to be arranged for it to present properly. And it is a step 100% of guitarists I’ve met are not willing to do (some have done it, reluctantly). They have a detectable attitude that they don’t want it to work, and many leave when they find it does. That shared work of a proper do does not at all match their thinking.
The scarecrow for them is that integrating their strumming into a duo the proper way pulls away from their self-concept of what guitar means. The problem is ego, the predilection of guitarists to see themselves as the hero and the rest of the band a support staff. And staff with incredibly bad taste in music, as well. Thusforth, when I state somebody has duo experience with my arranged music, this is not to be confused with what a guitarist would call a duo.
Saturday, June 27, 2026
June 27, 2026
One year ago today: June 27, 2025, he now has duo experience.
Five years ago today: June 27, 2021, expensive and terrible.
Nine years ago today: June 27, 2017, your chore, in Miami.
Random years ago today: June 27, 2006, rare meirl photos.
A pretty typical Saturday around here. Auto insurance, the only US driving product you are required by law to buy. But something is screwy at my Allstate office. They send me reminders of the next due date, but the total price keeps going down with each notice. I was about to mail them $419 and today got a reminder fo $389. Does this mean if I wait long enough, I can afford it? Dang, I left the compressor running overnight again. I really need to put that on a timer. It would not be bad, but there is a slow leak in one of the overhead (difficult to fix) pipes that will eventually put too many hours
One I got outside, I staying in the shed long enough to make a box for my fluke meter, here’s the video. Giving me uninterrupted time to think in the mornings has been a game-changer my whole life. This box marks a long awaited milestone. Yes, I’ve built boxes for my tools before, it was one of my first incentives with boxes. But they were tool box size and that does not scale down to sizes less than (from experience) boxes less than 5-5/8” x 4-3/4”, the depth determined by maximum saw radius. Today was my first box built, though only slightly smaller, it was built to something else I learned the hard way—inside measurements.
It was built from scrap, yet does not look bad at all. The scrap is from the neighbor’s bedstead lumber, which I’m having a hoot recycling. Yes, the boxes occupy a huge central section of my life which I had no idea would happen. But I could hardly have chosen better, here is a clip of the meter box showing the scrap origin while also revealing how the cuts, assembly, and finding a board the right length to make things match plays a part. You know what to look for by now, I’ll bet.
Can you imagine this blog as an illustrated e-book? Good, because right now that is all imagination. Moments later, here is the panel. It is based on the input “boy chasing cat”. A.I. or not this is a superior product to what most amateurs could manage. I think he has two full sets of these stories ready for publication. Making him the most computer-advanced contemporary I know, even if we know he has grandkids who learned this in school. So did all the other parents I know who have never learned past their own e-mails.
The Reb called and we put off the trip until next week, or at least a few more days. I think we are over the broke spell, which turned out much as planned. We may have time for dinner this trip, as usual I’ll be sleeping with the cat, Lilli. I must smell like catnip, if so, make that caramel-flavored catnip.
10559 Choctaw Bluff Road.
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As we slowly return to normal, I placed an Amazon order for my arrival in TN, but shipped to the studio for security. I snuck in a couple of toys, including the Lucida drawing device and portable bass amp. Moments later the amp is canceled, that’s the one that said cordless, implying battery power. Nope, it was a millennalism for needs a plugged in wall wart to work. I heard a neat phrase today that sums up a millennial screw-job. “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.”
It was also budget day, the household operation here is kind of a budget within a budget, a sub module, a subsidiary budget. And we came out ahead enough to set aside the property taxes upcoming in November, or is it October? I pay it when it comes in, I didn’t work my whole life to worry about taxes when I retired. (Mind you, except for medical, my lifetime taxes paid have been a negative. I’ve carried slackers on my back the whole time.) Tampa radio said zero chance of rain, so get ready for it. Let’s use the time to review budget items.
Normally my household budget shows I keep running over, but this is not a bad thing. I could just adjust the budget—but that removes its function as a warning mechanism. This is also the winding up of the “lockdowns” of money since last August, where even my doggie bills had to be approved here one by one. (He’s better now, not limping, but turns 13 or 14 this year.) The only mistake God made with doggies is they don’t live long enough.
My gasoline bill is $240 per month, four times the motorcycle allowance when I moved here in 2016. What’s surprising is my grocery budget has not changed all that much while the rest of the country bends under the costs. My average $270 per month, up only $35 since 2025 and down slightly from 2024 when pet food was quite a factor. My entertainment budget has dropped by 2/3, due to how I just don’t go out any more unless I have a gig or to see specific entertainers. And beers are now $5 or so, which we all knew would happen.
My telecom bills soared from $36 to $133 per month, all due to WiFi bandwidth, which I should reclassify as entertainment. I now download and stream instead of buying DVDs, which I have by the hundreds. I committed to a more sedentary style way back last year but it was really the stay in the hospital that got me to obey. No other budget surprises and I’m looking again at a small investment account in the market, on-line of course, to keep abreast of how the Internet has screwed that up by pretending they know computers.
ADDENDUM
Forget that Fortran job listing. The job was in Dallas and the on-line questionnaire was enough set off my alarms. One thing to watch for in all computer jobs is what they expect you to do when there is no work for the skill you were hired on. Aha, as Pete at the phone place used to say, they want to stick a broom up your ass to sweep the floor while you are walking around. I liked Fortran but it instilled a fear of privately owned compilers. To this day, I won’t look at any software that does not include the compiler.
Fortran is 1950s but you have seen it recently. Climate change is politics, not meteorology. But the language of the super-computers used to model things like weather pattern is good old Fortran. The job ad I looked at was nuclear plant modeling and that’s the connection to Fortran all of a sudden. Mind you, it isn’t real Fortran, it is Fortran 18, which reverts to using punctuation where it should not be. But when it comes to parallel processing or quantum speeds, I just might recognize what’s going on. Fortran is an excellent language for high-speed core. Yes, I have, in my time, programmed Fortran on punch cards.
Way down here, I report that today was completely symptomless. That’s the first this year and it is day 150 since the procedure. A nice round number. If I had my way, I’d admit that it was boxes that saved me and I’d go build them all day. But I have to be ready if the call arrives from Franklin. By the way, I put the photo of Coffee Maker Central in the addendum because it fit better there, visually. It's a hark back to this blog being meant for coffee breaks, and as far as I know, the majority of my readers (in hundreds of thousands) still view this blog on an office monitor. So it is formatted for a large screen. Why, myself alone, I must be responsible for a million hours of lost productivity. (That's nonsense, anybody who reads a blog like this long-term is above average, knows things the rest dont, can tell you about making decisions, and thus productivity soars when they are happy.) It's lonely at the top, but so is it at the bottom.
Friday, June 26, 2026
June 26, 2026
One year ago today: June 26, 2025,a month’s supply.
Five years ago today: June 26, 2021, the complicated instructions.
Nine years ago today: June 26, 2017, they will lie.
Random years ago today: June 26, 2024, when they go insane.
After a night of normal sleep (I love it), I awake to news of the return of execution for certain crimes in America. Idaho for child rape, Florida for murder, but none for treason or theft of public funds. However, it does reflect the changing mood of America, who I feel have been falsely shamed into rejecting the firing squad. This is, of course, reserved only for the most serious crimes where the felon has been caught red-handed and admits guilt. But has there ever been a case where a politician admitted to treason? Hanging them has, no doubt, crossed every voter’s mind since the Biden auto-pen affair. If the US government could be held to obey public opinion, these people would swing today: Obama, Biden, Clinton, Fauci, Gates, Pelosi, and Obama.
I made up a small bowl of salted grits for granny raccoon. Apparently salt is not that common inland, you can see animal trails to faraway sources. Here’s a speaker picture that looks like a radio. Naw, just a generic speaker. Bang, there is the first loud noise at 9:35AM, let me go turn on the compressor. Social media is alive with reports by Europeans they were lied to about America. They love it once they’ve been here and the posts are consistent in that favor. Norway has begun deporting Muslims and the crime rate fell 31%, no link, do your own homework. And how about that pastor who beat the shit out of the wimp who threatened his family. That was classic. Soi-boi beatdown. You can see the wanker take the first swing. Or how about the passenger who “died” after being restrained on Spirit Airlines. He was a prize-fighter, I would like to see how that happened.
As for the rest of the morning, nothing. A miscommunication weeks ago means our schedules barely match this time. There are a dozen issues that have to line up or I’ll be there a week, which isn’t that affordable just now. The condo in France is not selling, which to me means the price is too high, but such things are not up to me. In fact, I’ll give you some hard figures on that. If all goes bad, I will make only $11.000 on that deal. If they go good, I’ve already slated all that for mutual investments in Tennessee, with me at the helm. Either way, such small amounts [of new income] will have negligible influence here.
This phone conference left me dizzy, I grabbed my old red electronics book and laid down. No gumption left, I really have to scramble around at this last minute when I should be taking it slow. The Reb trusts the system more than I do. Example, when I buy from Amazon, I did not know you have a month to pay for it. How would I even know something like that? I won’t touch a penny until tomorrow when I plan to check on the bank account in person. Most people do not know how that is done, no, you don’t just get an ATM printout.
Here’s a terrible pic of the red book, yet it was printed before word processing. It was properly proofread and has no errors. This is the original diagram that motivated me to look closer at the transistor as an amplifier. The book makes assumptions, for instance, you are supposed to know that “dissipated” can mean hot, emitting, powered up, or simply doing something. I may just sit down and look at this book all night. I can’t build most of it because none of the projects use standard power supplies.
This circuit requires two voltages, 22.5V and 2.5V. You can get away with using a similar 24V and 3V, but it throws off the values of any resistors and capacitors, which is just what I’m usually trying to study.
Australian brush fires.
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Alternate planning zipping around in my head means no sleep, so here are some hobby views. With the box, you are looking at a cork bottom. That is to hide mistakes most of the time, but can be there because of wood shrinkage. But this treatment takes time and is reserved for only the best , the rest become utility or in some cases, gifts when the flaw adds to the rusticity. I was on the phone an hour, which follows because there is nobody else to talk to. I live in Florida’s dingbat breeding grounds and all her people are artsy-fartsy libtards who get their opinions from last week’s talk shows.
Nothing to report, so I’m listening to mainstream news. It’s easy, things are the opposite of what they say. After Norway and Swedens’ experience, six or more other European countries are halting immigration and expelling the worst specimens. Trump is going after countries that tax America tech with more tariffs.
I spent the evening at home, painting poly and installing hardware. It’s a shame it took age and health to get me to do what other people manage from birth. I can’t find my free version of the vigilante movie, or as only free for Germans? The Eurocrats are already howling. I’m watching some youTube outtakes and I think it’s well done and accurate. Particularly the scenes where the thugs (and their families) use Islamic culture to rationalize the rape then switch to Western legal arguments to get away with it. Now I really want to see this movie
Scrutinizing the effect of poly on rough lumber, I fine it adds something but not a consistent darker color to the wood. It is the only kind of poly I could consider, which is the kind called “free”. I applied it to the outside faces and we’ll look again in the morning. A slight return of energy is returning, enabling me to move around better. It’s part of documenting my recovery and I’m feeling it every day now. I’ll walk back to the shed for a special tool where for months now I’d set the project aside until the next time I went that way.
The poly always was tricky to apply with a brush and the effect would be nice if I could spread it evenly. And it is slow so if I went for that finish, I’d rig up some kind of dunk tank.
ADDENDUM
I continued my study of Hormuz alternatives and wound up making other conclusions. The fact is no amount of free and easy money can really educate or civilize people. I once laughed upon hearing Saudi Arabia was growing wheat in the desert. Their claim was the farms used desalinated seawater, but that is a crock of shit. Even with free oil, that costs too much. They are pumping groundwater and that will bite them. I subscribe to the ancient theory that there are no true miracles in the desert. Everything good that happens has a hidden cost.
It is hard to get facts through the climate change bull, but it is clear just about everything needed to keep that place going has to be imported. Their populations have grown at fantastic rates, but none of them seem to be farmers or factory workers. It usually doesn’t take much for such economies to implode, which tells me only the export of oil keeps them going. Rumor is the taboo against bombing the water facilities has been breached, but again, no hard evidence I can find.
Mars. How do they navigate when there is no Prime Meridian? Turns out Mars has GPS – sort of. The onboard rover radar continually scans and some features can be seen from space. If an orbiter know a rover has picked out a feature, it can translate that to a bearing and distance, which I now know are called azimuth and zenith distance. You can seek more if you want, it is like a really slow-moving circular radar map.
Back in school, I saw a science film about a robot mouse that could remember a path through a maze. One of the reasons later in life I chose to look at memory circuits came from that. Alas, I never had the money to follow up, it is an expensive hobby. I can build small circuits and was about to build some amp circuits last winter. What I’ve never built is a working memory device, a circuit that remembers its own setting. Put that on my bucket list, that I built such a thing that other people only talk about.
[Author’s note: if you can read today’s pics it’s because I replaced the photos with scans. A blinding rainstorm has the roads closed, so I have time.]
When I worked at the phone company, I saw banks of “Number 5 Crossbar” switches and troubleshot them without really knowing how they worked. I just found that out today. The five switches could be used to represent all the digits on a dial phone. I watched a demo and nobody else I worked with would have known any of that either. The digits were 0, 1, 2, 4, and 7.
While I’ve got you here, how about learning how those magnetic reel computers work, the ones you see spinning in old sci-fi movies? It is not a stripe of data along the tape. It is a row of magnetic heads across the tape that zaps a “word:” up and down. I also looked at magnetic core memory, which is similar in concept to RAM, which I have built before. I’m looking again at the whole subject, but only at the one-bit level. Why? I don’t know. If I had to take a stab at why, I’d say after you turn 50, it becomes more interesting than people.
Thursday, June 25, 2026
June 25, 2026
One year ago today: June 25, 2025, early box news.
Five years ago today: June 25, 2021, never forgiven.
Nine years ago today: June 25, 2017, anti-bachelor policy.
Random years ago today: June 25, 2014, a look at steppers.
My right hand looks like I’m wearing a glove. That single wasp bite swelled up. These have to be changes that reflect a diminishing capacity to ward off minor issues. I sure don’t like it. The short-term answer is, you guessed it, coffee. The “Innocence Project” is back in the news after an expert witness pleads guilty to data manipulation. Yes, this blog warned about this decades ago. Always question the integrity of anyone who testifies only in favor of the police. Demand to know how many people she proved innocent.
My experiment at putty box lettering was a failure, I learned that much. The putty has to be a good 1/4” deep, which is too hard on the laser and would take much too long. (The largest logos you see here take up to 8 minutes each.) I’m holding the unputtied side, a bad view of the problem, it’s the smaller pieces that reveal the poor results. I turned off the radio and moved along at what I figure was a pretty good clip. I measured and moved the cages that I think granny raccoon may be using, she seems too old to climb the trees. The ranger blog said keep the den area dry, so I positioned two concrete blocks into a small stand. Exactly two, as I distinctly recall.
Nor were there any [racoon-size] dimensions given, which tips us off the critter is not too fussy about opening size. Since JeePees Castle had wire all round, it will be easy to use scrap wood to make something which should be comfortable for granny raccoon There is a free round waiting at the club tonight for anyone who figured out that is who the 1/2 pancake was for.
Three hours is an average thinking day and the nucleus of thinking is the lack of sales. These are great little boxes and people who handle them like them. I’ve got the wrong sales pitch. Now India, for all her initial enthusiasm, has not been in regular contact and plainly has a number of concerts of her own. My roadblock is I do not have the time or patience to tend a shop. Here is one half of today’s output. Six boxes.
This is misleading in that such sets cannot be rattled off an assembly line. The match is due to (dependent on finding) a consistent piece of lumber and no two are ever real twins. Each set is absolutely dependent on finding the right piece of lumber and a good eyeball of which size can be cut for the “match”. Because of knots and cracks, the boxes
Why not just list them on-line? Because we learned from tube sales that someone has to mind the shop every day and it is best that [same] person be responsible for shipping. “I was going to send you a box but I could not find anything to ship it in.” Yet involving a sales person eats up a third of the income and even then, they take no responsibility. I’m a whiz at inventory, materials projection, and lately I’ve become skilled enough that even the boxes with mistakes are quite usable. And, we hope, sellable.
Skilled. I say. What’s this, an ad for a Fortran programmer? $47 per hour. I’ve not programmed Fortran since 1989. Says here it is modeling for a nuclear power plant. Put that aside and I’ll look at it again later. My guitar player collapsed and landed in the hospital. COPD.
Oyster Bayou, Louisiana.
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Boxes continue to be top story as I see the day will come when I can’t even do that any more. Until then, it’s a hobby long overdue—or is that only because it matches my shed space, tools, and a bit of my aptitude? Here is a view of some seconds produced today. What? Seconds are an old term for imperfects. But, I’ve moments ago noted how those are still great boxes and you might not find the flaws or even consider them without my saying.
Here’s the unfinished raccoon coop. Fun or not, don’t overwork nothing these days. With a few clamps to hold a frame, you can pin (brad nail) all kinds of keen stuff without needing a hand. This roof went so fast, I had time to make you this video before dark. (As ever usually no sound as I have long surmised people who read my stuff must have jobs. I know how boring most jobs are, so I can get away with all kinds of “top stories” like cloud pictures and bent nails. But safe for work is important.)
ADDENDUM
I’m once more looking for a decent navigational stopwatch. First to be eliminated are any electronic models that do not have one-function buttons. (Have you ever tried to use those bastards? If not, I have a small [wooden] box of them you can waste your time with.) The desirable features would be a unit that displays Greenwich Mean Time and the date at that location. If you want the same data for where you are, go buy a Casio at Wal*Mart.
The second feature is unique to navigation and I cannot find a single mechanical example. All these watches have a resume function- but you do NOT want it to resume from where it stopped, you want it to resume from where it would have been if it had NOT stopped. You want mechanical so you can wind it up. Relying on a smart phone is plain dumb. As the old saying goes, five miles error is nothing in the middle of the ocean, but that changes when you are four miles from land.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
June 24, 2026
One year ago today: June 24, 2025 Jugging.
Five years ago today: June 24, 2021, never-ending needs.
Nine years ago today: June 24, 2017, use what looks nice.
Random years ago today: June 24, 2013, 10,000 miles by sidecar.
The Senate has enacted a law preventing corporate housing purchases, as if the corporations did not see this coming and have a backup plan ready. US forces have killed the top ISIS guy again, that dude has nine lives. And I watched a documentary on “Golden Dome”, the shield that is supposed to protect the USA against a new class of attack, the “non-ballistic threat”. It boils down to the same, using billion-dollar systems to combat thousand-dollar weapons. Back over here, I turn off the cooling in the spare rooms I don’t use at night and the sensor said it got up to 90°F inside at some point before morning.
A brief afternoon shower brought temperatures back to tolerable, so here is me finalizing some jigs for the newest and tiniest fake box, already tagged the “button box”. All from existing wood and equipment, it’s a handy size and fits nicely in one hand. So no thumb holes. The neighbor was over to get some assistance with his new phone. He’s lost three in the past three weeks and does not know how to pair up speakers and such. While walking over, I got stung. I would have left the wasps alone if they’d returned the favor but a big old granddaddy wasp got me right on the knuckle. Now my right hand is swollen, a condition I never had from insect bites before.
Ricko, and this reinforces what I already think, keeled over in his hallway and landed in the hospital. I did not know he’s got COPD, but he’s the spirit and image of the oldsters that surrounded me in the therapy clinic. I was there long enough to see the patterns in the clientele and which were the good and the less good. Possibly I have another guitarist who does not know what I learned fifty years ago—playing live music requires stamina, and if you don’t think so, you are not doing it right.
Hey, from my point of view if this compels him to sit down and play guitar all day, so much the better. I’ve no illusions, I know things are never going to get better. No word from the other guitarist, but I’ll bet he lost the slip with my info. (That is part of the plan, by the way.) And of course, the other Kooters band never called because momma don’t like me. She knows when she’s met more than her match.
“Dune-bashing” safari.
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Cutting is easy with the templates. The L’il Texas sign had no such luxury. It was popular enough (412 views) that it gets extra attention. You see, this is 2026 and if you want something to look rustic, you got to put in the time. And nothing is natural about the appearance of this neat old sign. The stake is from an old bedstead and the crosspiece is carefully selected from an older end of plank that stuck out in the rain for a year or two. To get that greyed appearance.
Trial and lots of error. Thinner nails that would bend didn’t have enough visual and those nails thick enough were so long they had to be introduced to a bolt cutter. Projects like this make me glad I pick up extra coffee most times I’m downtown. And the way that grass in L’il Texas so nicely and geometrically displays. That doesn’t happen by accident, either, sport. Gosh, my place smells like baking pies on a wood stove.
I’m around halfway through the burn, so here is a closeup of the sign. The letters are individually printed at nearly maximum size, so the small discrepancies nicely add to the less-polished appearance. Normally the software that came with the unit would make it factory crisp.
The long burns (which would be impractical otherwise) gave me time to look up raccoon habitats. They live in hollow logs and trees and those around here have no vacancies. I found a forestry site that says they take to any tunnel shape if it has and opening at either end. I never had the heart to dismantle the beautiful dwelling I made for JeePee, who I miss so much. I wonder if granny raccoon would take to those if they were modified a bit?
Just now I saw the headline that the Post Office will not be delivering mail-in ballots to states that don’t enforce voter ID. Interesting for a couple reasons. One is that some pink-haired judge will overrule the President—and we shall see who the Post Office obeys. It hints the postal people just might be smartening up. The second reason is the lack of sass from the USPS. They are the very bastion of leftist vote-stealing. The fact that things even got to the executive order stage shows the Democrat party is crumbling from within.
Here’s a good spot to remind everyone I am not a Trump fan – but I am also a moderate Libertarian (quite different from what you may have been told about that philosophy). As such I believe that all participation should be voluntary, that nobody has the right to compel others (within certain reasonable parameters) into anything they disagree with. Of the two big parties, only one tries to force vaxes, queers, foreigners, and drug addicts into my streets, parks, stores, and work places. This is not my total position, but you get the idea. I would never stop you from helping, but I would stop you from compelling others to help. Enforcing charity is the supreme act of selfishness.
ADDENDUM
Bad news from Las Vegas. It has lost enough of its glitter to cause major losses to the biggest operators. That’s the casino hotel places. I’ve never been there and have no desire to do so. I know only one gambler and you’d pretty much have to pay me to hang out in such a place with such people. Up to recently, I knew as much about Hormuz as most, so I scheduled some videos. I was aware tankers are the cheapest way to move oil and most other commodities. The place has been a trouble zone since day one, so I was looking for pipelines.
Especially buried pipelines, since we know the political climate is hotter than the rest of their wasted lands and, historically, wasted lives. Most of the countries bordering the Persian Gulf would have to build across neighboring countries to read a deep sea port. At some point most of the oil-dependent regimes have built some minor pipeline that is just enough to keep them from starving if the waterway gets blocked. As for serious capacity, they don’t even seem capable of the thought. Trillions for nothing, and what have they done to improve their lot? If the oil ever runs out, they are back to camel-herding. Zero personal initiative is a trait of the third world.
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