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Tales From The Trailer Court™
Saturday, May 2, 2026
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DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
Friday, May 1, 2026
May 1, 2026
One year ago today: May 1, 2025, gumptionless?
Five years ago today: May 1, 2021, a museum-free day.
Nine years ago today: May 1, 2017, cut twice.
Random years ago today: May 1, 1970, the first of many.
Up but not about, today I’m out to locate 5 liters of KIA ATF fluid with a price tag of $80. The price increases this war are different, judging by on-line context. They are not blaming the economy but a certain group. This never ends well. I cannot motivate, so my plan is to build some small boxes if I get back from Winter Haven before noon. Check in on me.
How about the photo of a clock? That is 4:30AM and shows the best general quality of picture I can take for now. Nor was it easy to get even this much, but this is all the camera I can possibly afford. There are just too many eggs in the Tennessee basket and I don’t want to afford anything more. This capture is also a Vivitar but other low-end brands have disappeared in these parts. So much for computers improving the American experience.
Wal*mart lied again. Told me they had the SPM fluid in stock and on the shelves. They had the SPH brand which the manual names as not to use. This lady shopper started talking to me, her grandson is ten and what kind of camera should he have. I steered her away from the printing models that are displayed “in your face” these days. She’s mentioned mainly because for a few moments, we talked politics. Wal*mart had left one TV on a channel that was comparing Trump’s son to Biden’s. That’s a joke, the laptop thing, I’ll summarize the tale in the addendum.
All I got done was mailing some letters and shopping—with a curve. The sheer length of this affair found me buying food that signify my subconscious is preparing to stay at home. It’s subtle but inevitable, right? Everybody slows down, except Arnold. And Taylor. At least I’m not stuck watching free TV, which reminds me, I have an extra DVD setup and I’d like to rig something in the shed.
Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta.
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Nope, today is a write off. Just paying the bills took four hour and half of that I was sleepwalking. I left Winter Haven with six small bags of groceries and got home with five and a half. Small bags so I can carry them and I set one on the stoop to use my key, then left it there as I went to get the last bags from the van. Then I hear this thump. I round the house corner to see the old raccoon making off with a my loaf of bread. Yep, the whole loaf in the bag, and me with my new camera still inside on the charger.
Then, the raccoon has the audacity to wash up after in my fancy birdbath. And I’m too whooped to give a damn. I’m reduced to blogging about frying pans and transmission pans while the rest of the world is having a wild party every day. Wait, slap myself, I was ready for this. I just find it easy to forget. Now I remember, on the way home I took Hwy 60 and stopped at the lumber place for fence pickets. See, the excitement level is picking up already. I sorted out five choice pieces, which I will expand upon.
Our box-making has entered a small form-factor phase. I found making dividers not as wise as making smaller boxes to fit inside the Z-box design. But, I don’t have a nice pattern worked out yet. At the lumberyard, a lift of the pickets has an unusually weathered side, some having a reddish tinge. The crew let me sift through and pick the ten best. Th picketsy are out in the Hundy until I get mobile. Could be any moment now, just not likely.
ADDENDUM
Old Hunter left his laptop at the repair shop and it contained a bunch of porno. But that is not the reason for the scandal. The FBI/CIA had the laptop long before the media picked up the story in early 2019. Somebody sent a copy to a New York reporter, and this is where things get messy. Most Americans are inured to porn, but the files also contained details of Joe’s dirty overseas dealings. And all this had been in the FBIs hands for quite some time.
The reporter published information on Facebook, probably expecting a Pulitzer. Instead, in less than two weeks, her stories were scrubbed. She would have known only the FBI could pull a stunt like that. But before anybody could begin to howl, along came the diversion of the decade: the COVID hoax. By the time the kickback stories were published or posted, Biden was elected and covering for everybody involved behind the blown up fake epidemic.
The MSM buried the laptop and today it is old news. Post election surveys reveal that a full 70% of voters say if they had known about the contents, it would have affected their decision.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
April 30, 2026
One year ago today: April 30, 2025, gates and boxes.
Five years ago today: April 30, 2021, holiday in Palatka.
Nine years ago today: April 30, 2017, 4 retirement dates.
Random years ago today: April 30, 2001, born followers.
Last evening I should have gone out. The last week has laid me low, physically and mentally. How do “they” know when to strike? It’s been months since I could shrug it all off and I’m already missing a quarter of this year. Listen to me crybaby about it, I should know there is nothing unique over my situation. I would like a milkshake, one eggo, and a day of reading.
So far, no luck on quietude. Spring time is also vermin time and my Hav-a-Hart trap is two for two days. My latest blog video will not upload. Ha, blog readership is recovering more quickly than I am. Why the pic of a laptop? Because it is a HP and because they want $15,000 for it. Meet the HP "Fury". Has there been a computer revolution that I have not heard about? I mean, a Hewlett that costs as much as the house I live in? I truly do need a break from it all.
For me, that means reading and I chose to find out what super-heterodyne means. It’s on many stereos and radios and nobody knows how much they need it. Turns out, it is part of the radio reception circuitry. Radio waves get weaker with distance. The receiver strips away the carrier wave and amplifies the sound signal. That signal has a frequency that all the rest of the radio must work with and it gets distorted. Super-heterodyne generates a strong new frequency inside the radio and maps the incoming audio onto that. Then the rest of the radio has an easier task, and now we know.
And I do believe this is the first time I’ve ever become fatigued from just reading. David Allen Coe died today. For some reason I though he was already gone. He was 86. Epstein left $40 million to some Norwegian diplomat’s kids; one of them just committed suicide. That horrid lady who accused Trump of the naughties has had her $84 million upheld despite the fact she admitted lying.
Watching a video of a small conveyor belt got me curious—it was variable speed. I saw enough to know they were using an Arduino. I’ve always watched for applications that use this controller rather than a custom factory board. You know, if I had the gumption, I know I could build that drive unit myself. Not the control and code, I have done that ten years ago, but the interface is a challenge. I know it has already been done and there is a breakout board for everything these days. But to build one, hmmm.
Canada’s Bill Mckibben.
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My day off became a drive to north Lakeland, where I bought the only camera that was even remotely like what I wanted. A Vivitar, which I already hate. But it does take good video. Just be careful, it has that Vivitar defect of showing the scene on the backscreen as crystal clear while the camera is actually way of focus. It also shows a menu option for macros, but lacks the button that turns the feature on. This photo is the first taken with this unit.
JZ returned my calls to confirm the next batch of symptoms I’ve got is normal. It is remarkable how much medical information he has retained since he dropped out of university more than forty years ago. Then again, I can still program, right? He described exactly the pain I’ve got in my footsies, I’ve already forgotten the terms he said, but that is it. He related it to the neuralgia in my upper leg muscles, he has the same thing and it has been 18 long months since his treatment. This does not inspire me.
There is no direct cure for this neural condition, he says only a control, thought the condition is often known to fade away. He also cautions about eating red meat. Well, I don’t much eat that and I don’t around the Reb. Compared to regular diets, I don’t think red meat could be a problem for me at least twenty years now. Of most concern are the bouts of fatigue even if I’m fine and significantly better than since last month. For no reason, I can get knocked on my ass, drained like a dishrag for an hour sometimes. Now another tale.
There is another item, when I first moved here I needed his help to fix this place up, but he would always balk at the expense of gas to get here. Over time, I sent him hundreds of dollars for that gas, but he’s not been here since 2017. Now, the $20 payment is due on the first and I forgot to send it. Because if my van had not broken down last Wednesday, I would have handed it to him in person. You see where this is going. He reminded me today the bill was due tomorrow and that he would “lend” me the money until I sent it. You got it, he never asked for the hundreds in gas money so no way to take it out of there until I arrive. And he’s the richest guy I’ve ever met in Florida that was honest.
Aha, there’s the coffee cup. Can you see how this picture is not sharp? All of it is out of focus by the same amount. That is a camera fault.
On my left arm, where I showed you sort of all the jabs and needle sites, well I now have 13 new and permanent moles. They are tiny but you can see the pattern. Only one on my right exactly where the medline was connected. I also planned wrong in December—over gas prices, which are now $5.21 in some spots. When I mentioned the cost of driving to his place, he thinks I’m dumb to pay that much. He forgets if I had not opted for a Miami hospital, I would just be getting tests now, if I lived that long. He knows the survival rate is 50%. Of course, I’ll pay the $150 in gas because I’m alive to do it.
California prices show $7.79 per gallon. Recession time, you see almost 100% of Americans who can afford it drive to work. There is no option of walking, the whole system is based on the motor vehicle. And every dollar spent on gas is a dollar not spent on other goods. I need to allocate $216 to drive to Miami for my checkup, probably next week. And I arrive back here with gas for maybe another 40 miles. I’ve made this trip around 50 times.
Changes in my routine after that major stay in Miami are slowly wearing off. It’s my blog duty to record those that persist. Soup. I still eat a lot of soup. Two cans today, it was from before they detected any ulcers. Sleep was disrupted and I’ve noticed a trend. I get great sleep, but those afternoon naps are delaying my beauty rest. It took me weeks to spot the pattern, if I take a nap, I fall asleep at night later. Usually 10:00PM and that slowly advanced to 11:00PM, then midnight and today, 1:00AM. At first so what, but now I see the correlation. So, is it soup or sleep? I’ll take both.
This is not for everyone but anybody smart enough to make sense of this blog will be up to this. Two downsides: a membership is required for more than one game per day (and for most games) and often the words have an English twist that’s nearly impossible or Americans. Example, I’ve read but never said “football pitch”.
ADDENDUM
While few meetings rattle me, I am still subject to intensity, and may I restate that I believe the telephone caused my first heart problems over twenty years ago. The conference call y’day was low key but added up for a total of nearly seven hours. I remain bewildered why an ordinary event like ours went to the top.. It is, I think, the future, not the decisions, that are keeping me restless. Without giving away the game, this redemption was due to a contract deadline. Now I will be on edge for the next 60 days at least part of the time.
Who doesn’t like a good snooze, but lately I’m needing down time while wide awake. This morning, for instance, I sat still, and I’m not a sit-still person. I am fully capable of falling asleep on the phone. The van is unrepaired in the driveway, I have not put my hospital clothes away yet, and I have not gone out for that beer I promised myself a week ago last Monday. Or was it two weeks now? That’s life when things come at you at once. My solution is stay put as much as I can, so I can calibrate my recovery time against some peace and quiet.
You know what would be amusing? The Caltier guy was quite attentive to the moments when the Reb & I mentioned impressions of the company. We’ve seen this everywhere, the top guy’s feedback is filtered by his underlings. What if, once the dust settles, I tell him he can answer many of his questions by doing a search on this blog. Just a thought.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
April 29, 2026
One year ago today: April 29, 2025, early symptoms?
Five years ago today: April 29, 2021, no more digi-dog,
Nine years ago today: April 29, 2017, it’s windy here.
Random years ago today: April 29, 2007, visiting the Hard Rock.
Cancel this morning as well, but the stores don’t open for another two hours, I’ll editorialize. Yep, it was around now in 1981 I made my first financial investment, a CD (savings bond). Note, I said financial, I already owned an apartment and two houses in partnership with RofR, both of us had been dirt poor living in my rented attic a few years before. Never talk to me about hard times and no way out. More in the addendum, I’ve got a morning of chasing around ahead.
I’ll share some rare blog stats. I lost 500+ views per day during that time I was in the hospital. I’d planned ahead a bit, but not for months, so it’s logical many concluded I was dead. My stats do not show if any views are repeats but I know from long experience which blog inclusions or changes affect the counter. Food handily tops the list, followed by the picture of the day—but that is very sketchy. That feature is full of links that eventually go dead. Third place could be the Last Laff or Yesteryear. Drop those and lose 177 views per day. The good news is since I got back, readership has slowly climbed back to slightly over 5/7ths of the three-month running average prior to my disappearance. Not bad for a special-interest theme.
The Reb, who has no control over my life and cannot tell me what to do, has advised the morning off. So I did. So there. Y’day was whirlwind, I cannot supply details, but gawd people, I only spent $18,000 on the house I live in. Which is where I’m staying put, my plan is to review game cam footage, which you are used to by now—I’ll publish anything interesting, promise. Here is Mrs. Red at dawn, I’ve looked long stretches how that squirrel is getting to the feeder. This are not nature pics, this is part of my study to catch the little bastard.
The game cam reveals its shortcomings. If you position it too close, it can show either the squirrel or the approach, but not both. If you move it back, wind movements in the tree leaves sets it off and you get hours of nothing (which I’m busy with just now, but what a tedious waste). I’m thinking of a plan to focus the camera on the afternoon shadow. That might reveal something. The real solution is to build a stand for the stand and put the camera fifteen feet in the air staring at the ground, which we hope does not move.
[Author's note: take today's post as uninspired. What follows is not a still, but a still embedded in a video. It show a squirrel hanging off the part of the contraption that is supposed to make it squirrel proof.]
It is now 9:00AM and I am going to brave driving through downtown Lakeland going shopping for a camera that BestBuy has told me they keep in regular stock at the store. We shall see.
Next item caps the morning, nothing gets done much of today. I get a call from the husband of the lady who works the same office as the lady housecleaner next door. The guitar player and that is a tale from the trailer court. He has been looking and asking for a year for anybody with band experience. That, gang, is why they call it the moccasin telegraph—because that is how slow it moves. He phoned as I was about to leave and we were on the line until noon.
Caution, nothing in music is as it seems, but here goes. He is totally into blues, country, and bluegrass. He has been on the music sites for the whole time, which gives you a good idea of what a disappointment those are. Good, he knows there is a reason some people have been running the same ad for five years. The guy is 71, so he’s been through the meatgrinder. And he knows how to sing. He’s played acoustic in many bands and my have played a year with the early Ramones. That says I don’t have to worry about stage presence.
Like myself, he finds studio work dull. He sings and harmonizes, has all his own gear and transpo, so he’s been in this business. He has no e-mail but he will soon. I’ve sent him a list of what I’ve played in the past 24 hours, leaving out the latest material out of respect. He may be a Legion member, so I’ll dust off the Prez’s song list. How many tunes have I played in the last day. Mumble, mumble, hang on, 21 that I know of. No doubt, he has played every last one of them.
“Trenchless” augur.
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Now 2:30PM and I’ve not gotten an inch closer to my chores. This next section is because I promised to keep you abreast of how things went with Caltier. I meant the investment, but you recall I meant also learning more about the procedures—because I could not get any plain talk or text out of anybody, I chose Calter. So you can decide over what follows as somewhere between bragging rights and confusion. So here, chew on this.
In the past, I’ve mentioned (and joked) about Caltier has often mistaken us for accredited investors. You can look up for yourself what that is, but the Reb and I are not rich enough for that label. I regularly chuckled that the accreditation process was mostly conduct that I had already learned long before I retired, which will be 30 years ago next month. I naturally treated the Caltier account with what professionalism I had, even timing the random “Found Money” transfers to emulate how seasoned investors manage along. This had nothing to do with Caltier, just that it reflects well on credit reports and it never hurts to behave.
What the helck? Another message, they want to talk now, the CEO guy. This does not make sense, our account is too tiny to move the Caltier needle. What does the co-founder have to discuss with us? I thought it might be over how there was no contact for a year, then the same day we liquidate 80% of our investment—but as I just said, our share is peanuts. So, I’m stumped, let’s test if I can guess it.
Okay, we’ve been mistaken for accredited before. The corporate side, which we know is not on top of the department that does their coding, has a set of parameters that sets off alarms if accredited people pull out—and that is what they could logically see as what is happening here.. Shift a decimal point and it is an easy misinterpretation. We’ll know in less than 30 minutes, so make your side bets now.
You won the $20. The call was to the point. Caltier is on pause due to a change in their accounting system (you’ll remember me downloading their daily transactions) and the SEC did not like that they changed accounting firms. But, we now have the information needed to plan ahead. The problem stemmed from the fact that the pause on the fund also paused redemptions.
However, I brought up the clause that influenced my choice of Caltier, that is, they had a segregated fund for redemptions. However, it was capped at $5,000 per month—subsequent to my decision. I countered by explaining if they had communicated over the past year, I would have planned serial withdrawals within that parameter.
Last, I was happy with the call, though it was really us who finally pushed through the contact [after a year]t. Parker is a born salesman who got into a good deal. But his support staff let him down on this one. It makes more sense now, information has a way of doing that, at least around here. So we put it to him to make an exception and expedite this one Trust me, he is not going to forget the team Reb & I. Nor his “customer success” lady, who would have been the one to finally get my to-the-point e-mails and who else could prance into the boss’s office and get him to respond same day? Now, if you don’t mind, I am mentally exhausted.
ADDENDUM
Still wide awake, I located a documentary of why there are no longer any Heathkits. A sad tale of a market that disappeared. New components that were tiny coupled by cheap imports meant the company was doomed. Along with it, a huge loss in tech savvy which led to people today who have no idea how their gear works. And you would need a million-dollar factory to repair it. Some, such as myself would say the product is not the peril, but how the user has no clue how it works. This lack of savvy is now three generations deep.
Equally fun were the reader comments, for I had once wanted to learn this skill. But can you just see me saying to my parents I want a gizmo that comes in 300 pieces that does nothing useful around here. I’ll need a clean, quiet spot away from the others for several weeks. Oh, and I’ll need $39.95. Now imagine some loud, severe slapping noises.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
April 28, 2026
One year ago today: April 28, 2025, $67,000,000 splash.
Five years ago today: April 28, 2021, notoriously inaccurate.
Nine years ago today: April 28, 2017, store-bought potato salad.
Random years ago today: April 28, 1981, amazingly prescient.
Welcome, this is the blog that featured 10-inch tires last day. And we could be heading for just such another exciting tour. I awoke with (get this) tender soles. Yep, on my footsies, and this happened once in the hospital, so I’m out of commission. Then again, I don’t need to stand up to fix what’s wrong with the van. Just don’t be planning any victory parades. We do not know why that hose came loose. We don’t even know if the hose is the problem—but if it is, whew! 5:30AM. My driveway is sand. Am I really going to go grovel in that sand before the day gets too hot?
The Panasonic is finally broken, I have no local photos for you today. Here is a member of the press stealing wine during the recent shooting in DC.
Nope, today is not going to work for the van. Since the likelihood is the repair will not cost a bundle, how about we drive up to BestBuy and look at a new camera? I have awful luck with those things. Trust me, the $35 camera that creates blog photos is worth infinitely more than the $399 unit sitting on your mantle, folks. This blog, sad to say, was not much on photos long ago, so you may get the impression daily life was always this dull for me.
Not so, I once had quite the life, held back only by constraints well beyond my control. Okay, how’s this for human interest. I have this empty mayo dispenser. If you see a picture, then I made it uptown. This is supposed to rest upside down to provide mayo on demand. No more waiting while you invert the big bottle. The thing never worked, as mayo does not have the gravity to flow downward by itself. Ah, but does carpenter’s glue? Now there is a project I could manage with sore feet. Who’s with me on this? Good, hop in, let’s go to BestBuy.
Argh, moments later a slack spell hit me so I did not drive. Instead, I went over the books as the trips to Miami are eating up any surplus gained here. That was my choice. Remember that day JZ and I went to Corbett’s for a few. That was four beers each and I paid the $70 tab. Never again, not there. Zero women, an older married couples bar. Mind you, my overall entertainment budget was unspent the entire time I was off duty. Nor am I the only one angry about food prices. Why is food costing me $10 per day? I eat good, but not that good.
Communist apartments today.
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Put everything on hold. We finally got a contact back from Caltier. Nine months, but admittedly the last three have been sub-optimal for me. The easiest explanation is that I was millennialized. They insisted on an e-mail address to open the account, which they then proceeded to use as the account name, without even being asked. Alas, it had the misfortune to be a gmail, that’s another story.
This is a photo of some of the wiring Google claims is their quantum computer. Actually, it is nothing of the kind, but it will simulate the quantum behavior, which is well-known enough. The sole purpose of this development is to enable Google to crack your passwords by brute force. There is no law against this.
Well, this next round in the Nashville investment game wipes out everything. This is, by the way, one of the reasons I know when people are lying about investments. If things go smoothly, you are not doing it right. Caltier makes it very difficult to find their redemption instructions, which makes sense in a way. Talking with the Reb, I’m pulling out all but $5,000 and it is a nightmare. Like how it asks for 10-digit numbers you never heard of, or to click buttons that do not exist. You know, I had a life before I got to Nashville. Isn't there a song or two about that?
Caltier brings everything, including Miami, the van, and any pain, to a standstill. Forget the camera, I was on-line until I got most of it sorted out and on the phone in between. There is a disjoint between the morons who designed the Caltier web page and the morons pretending they can maintain it. “Sure, boss, I can change the button for you.” Without a clue what the button does or what it is linked to. That’s somebody else’s job, you old people don’t get it.
The rush was documents needed by month’s end. There is no indication how much lead time they need, so I put the Reb on hold and waded through the Caltier mess. I got it done and the documents submitted. She wants definites but Caltier has still not answered the requests I put in before noon Tennessee time. Don’t even talk to me about exhaustion. I have invested in a musical career that I know very little about, but it is probably my last kick at the can.
To forget the day, I went back to sight reduction. It’s making so much sense that I believe I can do it without sextant readings, or do the reading afterwards, sort of. Every book on the topic treats this as a sacred ritual, but I see it is just needed for accuracy that isn’t that necessary to work the tables. You choose the AP (assumed point) early in the process, so check it after unless your ship is moving like 80 miles an hour.
As for delivering the pressure washer, maybe not until July. Agt. M is flying to Romanian with the family next Monday. One more thing, we have a potential guitar player, I know, I know. The cleaning lady next door works with a lady whose husband “needs a hobby” and apparently played in bands for years. Tomorrow we find out what kind of band. If you go on-line, you’ll find 50 bands and 50 guitarists claiming to be looking—and every one has a serious flaw that’s been holding them back so long nobody remembers. Yep, many of these people have been advertising on the same boards for years, so you just know there are compatibility issues. Last, a Gunsmoke show, this time a soldier who led a massacre falls for a white gal whose Cheyenne husband he may have killed. Indeed, the writers have run out of material.
ADDENDUM
What’s in the news? Again it is mostly politics and I can’t change that. Anyway. Republicans are the perfect example of cowardice presented as morality. Every time the Democrats fail at assassination, they’ll say it was staged. 55% of Americans say they are financially worse off.
Monday, April 27, 2026
April 27, 2026
One year ago today: April 27, 2025, CDC Wanted List.
Five years ago today: April 27, 2021, my crabby mood day.
Nine years ago today: April 27, 2017, it is 2017
Random years ago today: April 27, 2024, photos from Mars.
Cream of wheat, coffee, and the most boring news day in ages. Melania is 56, the shooting is already old news (three strikes for the opposing team) but sets a record. Again, the MSM has cranked up the anti-war noise, and again at street level there is no sign of a war except gas prices. I went over to the churchyard and found the 24mm cap on the transmission pan. Nope, this will take too long, so I called the tow truck.
When I moved here, there were lots of good radio stations. That was before Biden started giving away free money to non-English buyers. We had Armed Forces radio, always good for old Lone Ranger stories. Interest history and mystery stations but now it is all shigga-booga except for talk radio. There is a phone in sales hour and that is where the neighbor got his dolly. But it is 10:00AM to 11:00AM, so without special occasion, a time slot I rarely hear it.
Let me slip in here that overnight was the first long interval where my leg wound behaved well. By no means back to spec, this is still a good event after a quarter of a year. I had the Reds over for breakfast y’day and had a nice long visit. Today they were happy with leftovers as I got busy with chores.
A bus bombing in Columbia. Strange how that country builds their cities so far away from their “resource-rich” provinces. It means so many road through the jungles and stuff like that. What’s this, Taylor is single again. I told you, she’s saving the best for last. The van, as I get more work done on it, it just cannot be the transmission by itself. Nonetheless, I’m out of theories and I left a message for the tow guy to come by between jobs. He’s the guy who bought his own truck and let me say, he is a natural for self-employment. You can sense that in the right character. Let me add up, he bought the truck in 2019, so that’s a business cycle and he will put his kids through college.
Old flak towers.
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The KIA is in the driveway here and that was a wise move. Here, one can get under the front end proper and assess the situation. You’ll want the tale from the trailer court that led to this. He was busy all day, so we got in the wrecker and talking along the way, he says my description is not that of a broken transmission. We are not mechanics but he says best let him have a look. I’m all for that. He pops the hood and says the leak is on the wrong side of the motor. There are no clunking noises, he checks a few things and declares I am in luck.
It probably needs a hose clamp and I have all those parts in the shed. It got too dark or I would have moved on it. If I made the day sound easy, that’s happy talk. I’m bone weary and feel a hundred pounds heavier and beaten up with a telephone pole. Not sleepy, I studied an intense chapter on sight reduction (navigation) tables until it clicked. It is another instance of the old ASA theorem. The layout of the tables did not help. Once I visualized the two latitudes as flat on a map table, the tedious tables became no easier to read but a lot faster. Just keep me north of the Equator. Should be easy, Tay-Tay has had enough of these dark and handsome types, so she can sail the yacht closer to me in Florida. All for a guy like me she can keep long-term. And who can blame her?
This is not intended to make sight reduction seem difficult. Conceptually it is easy and I could use them [by rote] before. I’m referring to understanding the tables, which for some reason gave me spells. It had to do with the Earth turning and my brain unable to forget that made no difference. I’ll say it again to convince myself, the tables are simply a big set of calculated information about what the Sun’s height and direction would measure like from every integer latitude in the sea lanes. There is some arithmetic involved but it’s nothing compared to calculating it yourself.
For those interested, it works simple in theory. Using a sextant and clock, you take some readings. Then you look up information using the Nautical Almanac. Finally, you use the sight reduction tables to find exact data and compare them with your readings. If you are good, you’ll find the results are quite close, usually within a few miles, which you mark as a line on a chart. You need a second reading, again following some rules. Where the two lines cross is your position. Only took me ten years.
Next, there was a type of voltage regulator called a buck converter I could not understand years ago. Because I had not yet met PWM, pulse width modulation. It would be an expensive waste to use a microcontroller for that, so I know there is more. That is why I made up a double order of pork pineapple fried rice and just sat down. I see I’ve used the term converter and it is really a kind of regulator. It is also a big deal to the people who use them. I’ll look a bit but no taking on something new at this time.
ADDENDUM
Many movies go on about the Japanese Purple Code, so I took time to read its workings. Surprisingly to me, it used English, not Japanese characters. I found out this was split into two groups of six letters and twenty letters. The groups were strangled differently. Once they figured this out, the Americans focused on the six letters and cracked those first. Tedious work. It is often asked, if the code was broken, why didn’t America know about Pearl Harbor. Because Purple was a diplomatic code, not a military code. The Japanese navy used a different system.
Another chapter on FPGA, the field programmable gate arrays. These are beyond me, my study is the gates, and old subject. But I know where many of you have heard of these arrays. Radar jamming. It was once done by sending fake or delayed return signals back at the enemy dish, or even launching a homing missile. FPGA works by stealth. It instantly analyzes the radar signal and sends an inverted copy back, canceling the beam out.
Sunday, April 26, 2026
April 26, 2026
One year ago today: April 26, 2025, such people.
Five years ago today: April 26, 2021, my bass solo list.
Nine years ago today: April 26, 2017, 185x more.
Random years ago today: April 26, 2023, fun music challenge.
So, the 2027 cars will go ahead with biometric monitoring. Watch for a surge in used car prices. This move is calculated, as most Americans don’t want such surveillance—but can the auto-makers survive long enough to force the issue? That takes government bailouts and a critical mass of suckers to buy in, kind of like how MicroSoft works. We have visitors in the yard.
Another PPP is the jack stands. I can’t find them now that I need them. There is not enough room to get under the KIA, though I may be able to locate the upper fill bolt—all of these require wrench sizes I don’t have. The jack stands may be underneath the pressure sprayer in the KIA trunk, and I cannot lift the unit out of the way by myself. Later, it turns out that is not the drain hole. It is just a hole where the on-line expert uber-mechanic said it would be. He lied. Here is a diagram from the official KIA manual to prove the directions are wrong.
Now the ancient raccoon, smaller so probably a female. So old I can see the pain as she moves. Is it the same one, or is my yard the legendary raccoon’s graveyard? She is so old she has to scavenge in the daylight, so I let her wander around between the sheds. Sometimes I’ll put out any stale crusts or bakery crumbs, yet do not want to encourage any wild things. Except Taylor, who we have not heard from lately. Hey, she’s pushing 40. Time to slow down, curl up, get some rest.
How long was I in that hospital? I’ve been consuming much more soup, a product I usually used sparingly. Is it appetite or the pills? Or something even simpler, that I can sit here typing with soup along with coffee and be content for hours? There, I have a reason. My total planning universe centers on right here, so let’s count the change bucket. I’ve been away so it will again be $37.50, which was learned from my years of owning vending machines so long ago. Yep, $39.80 and I’m contemplating a different use for that money. I beat 51 champions on my word puzzle, undated the books, and read a chapter on how to flush empty oil tankers. Not my finest morning.
There is some defect in the game cam that causes a delay of several seconds before recording. That is precisely the footage I want, instead I get lots of view of squirrels already on the feeder. I’m working on it.
I do not know how many vehicles you’ve owned in your life. Myself, I lost count and so the KIA is either a 2010 or a 2012. Why not just look on the door? Because guess which number has been scraped off by the door flange?
In Jacksoonville, FL
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How to waste an afternoon? It’s a snap in Florida, most residents do it without an ounce of training or encouragement. I got out to the KIA with what I needed to assess the unfolding repair. We are still looking to move it, not find out what went wrong. Maybe I did. I tried to manually cut the offending bolt, but it was hardened steel. So I strung out the Yeti only to find the width of the cutting head would not fit up to the bolt. This, I cut off the plastic shroud half way and threw it on the ground. This allowed me space to examine the transmission pan and that’s how I found the next problem.
Here’s a epic fail, in this case it a “beauty filter”. Have you seen the latest in beauty filters? Those A.I apps than enhance your looks, I tried the earlier brands but could not see any difference. Today I ran my old hospital picture through the first offering on my results and this is what they think I should look like. Since the default results in female faces, which makes sense in a way, I looked to see if women had issues with the software. Ha, you bet.
There is a clip of some Chinese super-hot whose filter failed. She lost a half-million viewers in something like ten seconds. If I have time, I’ll make a blog-friendly version of it below, as mostly usual, no sound so it is safe for work.
The Reb checked on me, what can I report? The past week has been remarkable compared to previous entire months. All the baddies remain, tingling numbness in fingers, leg won’t heal, tightness in chest—but the important one is overall strength level. That’s what not only determines general recovery, it makes other associated ills much more tolerable.
In daily news, an Egyptian mummy was found to have segments of the Illiad in the sarcophagus. So much for the theory they were African.
ADDENDUM
Used cars. Consider some of the “features” that will begin to appear in 2027 vehicles, The steering wheel records your fingerprints and the cameras record your face because it can lip-read. All conversations are recorded and the radio, while listening for “wrong-speak”, will play ads based on what you are talking about. Your heartrate and pupil size are recorded by “smart-eye” and you can bet this data does not disappear if not used. Ford is the ringleader but they are all in on it, claiming the data is to prevent an estimated 6,000 to 9,000 highway deaths annually.
But stopping harm is not their focus. They want the right to keep tabs on everybody, cradle to grave. Since that includes the innocent and average, it means you are dealing with an ulterior motive. This agenda has been obvious for decades, they want society marching in columns under their direct and instant control. The existence of dictatorships proves this.
Here is our Chinese model who got revealed. Oh, we know the less-than-sevens will howl how shallow men are over beauty, but men are even shallower when it comes to women who fake too much. That broad was way over the line.
Saturday, April 25, 2026
April 25, 2026
One year ago today: April 25, 2025, and nobody noticed.
Five years ago today: April 25, 2021, playing with boxes.
Nine years ago today: April 25, 2017, windmill tech.
Random years ago today: April 25, 2004, forgotten except for blog.
Who remembers these things? The 276-159B. They are a circuit board designed to connect pins to a generic size integrated circuit. The correct term for these blanks is “unpopulated”. This is my last one, purchased for 65 cents. You wind up gong through these by the dozen. I’m not antsy that they now sell on eBay for $7 each, but that DC claims inflation is 8%. There is a Radio Shack web site, but it retails only consumer junk, no actual electronic or radio components.
I learned my lithium charger is good for 8 zaps and then goes flat without warning on the 9th. Here’s the video of the dreadfully slow overnight recharge.That means at noon today I’m still sitting at home waiting for a recharge, as I have only a new charger, not a booster. PPP, y’know. This convinces me to get the new battery for the Hundy, meanwhile I’m on social media, where they have this contest to name this all-Black teen band. Here’s my favorites.
All Is In ChainsHere’s the prize photo of the week, the squirrel has learned he can watch my work desk through the picture window when the Sun is just right. The curtains have to be open, yet what a clever fellow. Yes, that is the so-called squirrel-proof feeder that is supposed to close from the animal’s body weight.
Metaligga
Rage Against Child Support
Black-182
My Criminal Romance
30 Seconds to Jail
Audioslave
Guns & Rosa Parks
Linkin Dark
Hood Charlotte
Bowling for Crack
3 Hoods Down
Theftones
Smashing Watermelons
Matchbox 20 to Life
A new personality is possible on board, the guy who can design 3D items. His nickname is Mason, easy to remember. He’s a worker, we’ll find out more as the printer here needs to be set up, which means clearing a space, which means fixing a rood, and generally work for somebody under 30. Which I think he is. I walked through the shed area, it would need new roofing and I could not find some of my tools.
That means nothing, as the tools will be in fancy boxes and I just don’t know where the boxes are. Time and energy, if he supplies that, we’ll soon know at least something about the workings. It’s like my navigation charts, nothing replaces hand-on experience.
Roman arch stone bridge.
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Six hours later, my KIA is still in the parking lot. I decided on the new Hy batter, that was $162. Since I have only a charger, not a booster, I waiting for 50% juice and this took us up to afternoon rain time. It was not easy moving and lifting these batteries. Happily this was possible without any chest strain, but neither was there any last time. I was extra careful. This time I took cutting tools in case that last bolt cannot be budged or sawn. My operating speed is still maybe 25% so lugging the battery trade-in and getting help loading the cart, that took most of an hour. The extra yellow wire visible is the ignition switch bypass. Lot’s of bypass going on around here.
The rain finally stopped but that leaves the ground too soggy for work. I hung another sign but the van is way over in the corner of a huge empty lot and bothering nobody. I ducked into the grocery and emerged $60 lighter and dog tired. Kudos, I did not forget the fly strips this time. Yes, those gooey ribbons you pull down from a tack. It looks off when they get full but chemical deterrents are not allowed in the kitchen. The glue does a wonderful job, it’s a surprise they have not stopped making them.
To keep records accurate, I think after you turn 40, it gets 2% harder to lie down and get up again. Freel free to test this on your own time. To work on the KIA, I have to get up and down ten or fifteen times—and I’ve been over there three trips already. This would give me sore muscles any time. So far, I’m lucky, though we shall see tomorrow morning. I saw under the chassis the KIA does have a couple of metal loops plainly meant for some kind of towing. Did I just call it the "Hundy"?
After the battery and that alternator in January, there is $4 left in the vehicle repair budget until beginning of next month. If I had the gumption, I’d go spend it on a beer at Kooters.
ADDENDUM
And what is with these White House “correspondent’s” dinners? Why can’t the MSM get their fake news from CNN like everybody else? Nothing spells media people like the reporters who started stealing champagne bottles as gunfire erupted. And have you seen the nog riots in South Africa? Seems they don’t like the illegal alien migrants from Nigeria, and want them deported. Deja-vu?
Friday, April 24, 2026
April 24, 2026
One year ago today: April 24, 2025, analemmatic.
Five years ago today: April 24, 2021, dragons & superstitions.
Nine years ago today: April 24, 2017, 67 miles long.
Random years ago today: April 24, 2009, I lived in Inuvik.
End of the first quarter, the 13th week of recovery. Lots of hope and disappointment, and now a broken van. Hey, I’m the one who drives used vehicles and calls these breakdowns an adventure. We know from experience the KIA transmission is a “closed” unit, claimed to last a lifetime—of the transmission, not the whole automobile. In that sense, toilet paper can vouch the same.
Now is the time to make an extra coffee and think things through. Here are, in any order, some questions I asked and a sampling of my answers.
Why won’t the van move? Because there appears to be no transmission fluid.
Do I need the KIA dealership? Not right now, I just need the van back here.
Are there any pressing commitments? Nope, just the checkup in Miami.
Will the “Hy” make it to Miami? Easily, it’s only 400 miles and it would make Tennessee.
How important is the correct fluid? For a couple hundred miles, probably no difference.
Is there any fluid around here? Yes, I just have to dig it out.
How long could I use the Hy? Months or more, but not a good idea.
What does the Hy need for now? A decent battery.
If I don’t tow the KIA, how much money do I have on me? $136.
That is the fill plug, I cannot see or find the drain plug. By the pattern of leak, I suspect something in the general area it must be located. The encouraging news is that is at the opposite end of the machinery from where the axle problem was last year. Let’s get back home while I make some plans to avoid spending a thousand bucks over this, or JZ would be laughing.
To keep myself clear on the plan, I want to see if filling the transmission plan with generic brand [fluid] will get me home. I will not look for the presumed leak at this time, as I know it is slow enough to drive a few miles.
Hawkeye Valley, N. Dakota.
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Okay, it is 2:00PM and at least not humid, in fact this township has been declared the middle of a drought. That fill plug is less than 3 inches above the pan bottom, meaning they expect to use a pump to get any fluid through there. Instead, I rigged up this gizmo from surplus hoses, which I cleaned by using a dowel to push through a wad of hospital gauze, which I also have in surplus. That’s my kitchen funnel and the hose is flexible enough, iin theory), to feed down past the battery bracket and into the fill hole, again, guesswork. Either way, the equipment gets transported in a super-handy wooden crate, which you can admire here.
This would be at the low end [of a day’s work around here], yet [it is] at least what I’d get done on a lazy day. As the saying goes, you will die on an ordinary day with many unfinished projects, and the next day the world just carries on. The shroud is covered in what looks like fairly fresh transmission oil. My hopes are up that we are dealing only with some kind of slow leak. Nothing looks damaged. I’m trying to locate that drain bolt—it may not have been tightened, that would be the best-case scenario here.
Two hours later, 6:00PM, I called it quits. That last bolt cannot be removed by a wrench. It’s cut either the plastic or the bolt and I don’t have the right equipment along. However, the church lot is mostly empty except for a construction crew working on an annex. So my van blends right in. Tomorrow it is, I’ll take the sawzall with a metal-cutting blade, and the Yeti. I’ll probably fix the problem no matter what, you do know that starting in 2027, your new car will record your face.
Pressure mounts to ban VPNs, which spells the end of the Internet as we knew it. That turns it into just another government-regulated media. It says here GenX women expect to find mates who are 25% more attractive and successful than they are. (I called it 25 years ago as “dating clubs”.) In the latest climate change claim, the oceans are getting “darker”. Bank of America sees silver topping $300 next year. The US has reinstated the firing squad for certain Federal offenses. I never knew it had been stopped.
Next, I read several accounts of successful inventors. Once again I was jolted by the preponderance of astonishing good luck in their stories. They seem to meet people who believe in their inventions, where I have never met much other than naysayers. Yes, I get encouragement, but this others, they seem to meet engineers, scientists, and factory owners riding in the same rail cars. Kalashnikov, the AK-47 guy, gets thrown in detention and still manages to meet higher-ups at the design bureau.
ADDENDUM
Feeling untired, I studied. For the nth time, I went over the flip-flop, a circuit that has intrigued me for years. It’s simple and easy to understand, but I’ve never built one that works. It is simply a wiring configuration that allows electricity to “remember” if it was last turned off or on. There’s more to it, sure, such as the need for separate on and off switches, but super-kudos to the people who saw this and realized the potential.
I was thrown for years on the theory, but I know the gates worked. What stalled me was lazy teachers. They showed the two diagrams of the before and after states. They did not explain there is a third state. Electricity is fast, but it is not instant. For a tiny moment, there is a change of current, and this alters the inputs in a memory circuit. And it fascinates me to see this happen. This, however, has meant I’ve not really studied other types of latches. (Latch simply means once an output is set, turning the input off and on does nothing. You need a separate signal to unlatch.)
With one exception. I have looked at registers, and one byte of memory is, the way I visualize it, a single 8-bit register. Thus, I’ve at least “read” the logic diagrams of the input for a register. It is called a D-Latch, I suppose D for data. It’s a series of gates that make sure whatever is input is output without any hysteresis, but that is a separate topic. I have never put the two together in my head. I think I can now. It’s my heart getting old, not my brain.
And I have a small box of these registers somewhere, because I once hooked so many together they slowed down enough to see each digit. I know I must have recorded it, but where? When? What file name?
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