THIS IS A HEADER - scroll down one page to begin blog--->

This blog is formatted for a full screen desktop monitor.
VIDEO HAS NO SOUND.

===============================================
THIS BLOG IS NOT FORMATTED FOR ANDROID.
If buying is not owning, then piracy is not stealing.

TMOR (to my overseas readers): this blog
DOES NOT represent any average American life-style.
This blog GoFundMe: Each as if my own.

Warning. This blog has evolved through many phases and earlier posts did not allow for links that go dead or change. I never intentionally link to sites that require memberships, accounts, or log-ins. Same with sites that don't pass my stringent filtering system. Thus, I encourage readers to NOT follow any links that attempt to redirect, use cookies, or are obvious wrong material for this publication, which is essentially PG13.

A reminder to the reader this is not a political blog, but commentary on human behavior. I am not for or against any political party. Liberalism is not a political party, but a social cancer. It is wrong to steal money and it is just as wrong to elect people to steal it for you. One more thing, never argue with a man who buys his printer ink by the barrel.

Amazing action scenes: Infinite (2021).

Be patient, this is a tricky process.
Getting the video to play through my world-class ad-blockers.
Remember to use the back-arrow to return here.
You will forget and get hijacked by Google.

A moment of your time.

Can you spare $1 ?

           The price of quality doggie chow has gone out of my range. I try to donate 50 pounds per month of the best, but this time I had to limit July to 36 pounds. Please join me in providing what may be the best meal many of these doggies will ever have.

You may view more at this GoFundMe link:

Each as if my own.

           My suggested donation is $1. A 1/4 cup of coffee in Florida. If each reader today gave $1, I'd reach my goal. In one day. Send me a dollar. You are in very good company here.

September 17, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 17, 2025, anti-tariff shipping fees.
Five years ago today: September 17, 2021, more workspace.
Nine years ago today: September 17, 2017, I bought a car.
Random years ago today: September 17, 2011, privacy is absolute.

           Welcome to Millennial-Land. An Austin rider got taken on a 90-minute city tour in his A.I. taxi, charged him full price, and would not stop for a bathroom break. It’s Redmond all over again, where they know more about what you want than you do. I see women at York College are complaining about not enough protection from the police they voted to defund. (Besides, educated, strong, independent women don’t need men.)

           This is the dissembled dryer drum, hard to see in the long early morning shadows. I beat the heat and got the pieces ready for the new belt and reassembly—provided I can find a belt. I was correct, go on-line and there is not mention of Series 90 belts unless you order them with shipping from some specialty stores at $25 a pop. Seems everything is a swindle on-line.

           I took a close look at that sorry-ass belt that was on there, thinking it maybe had already been repaired once. Nope, the machine screws were factory new and painted in place. Kenmore really did make this piece of shit. The belt is stamped “Made in America” but bears four numbers, none of which are the length of the belf, which is 94”.
           Thanks, Vivitar, I could not get you a good shot of this terrible product. I tried to cross reference the numbers on-line and came
up with nothing. Remember what I said about the Asshole Age, you see, if Kenmore printed the size, somebody for sure would find a cheaper, better belt that is locally available. Can’t have none of that Boomer do-it-yourself manure going on in Genexville.

           It stayed cool well toward noon, so I did some painting and cut some box plates. Yes, I felt energetic but also know that is not always a plus. So I stapled a few utility boxes together and brought the rest inside for laser work. I wish there was some way to make a little cash at this because a year later it turns out I do not mind the work at all. Today’s fictitious logo was “Valdosta Limes”.
                      We have another varmint. This time I think I know how they are getting in, so the game camera is set up with the trap right on the edge of the kitchen stove. I say possum. Did I mention the neighbor took his dryer to the shop because it would not stop squeaking? This was around a month ago. He got zapped for $675. And the squeak is still audible. It is the drum rollers, they need to be hit with silicon spray, not WD-40.

Picture of the day.
Amish cheese factory.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Here’s the perfect coil for my seismometer, that elusive project I’m looked at for years. There was a website you could load in your location and specify which apparatus you were using. I wonder if it still there, did you know it takes three operating locations to pinpoint a quake? I’d like to see that in action. The shock waves do not travel in straight lines. The principle of the device is a shell sturdily attached to the ground. Inside, there is a magnet on a sting, handing above a coil.

           When the ground moves, the magnet stays still, inducing a current. I’m thinking after that, the process is much like doing a celestial navigation fix except there is no North Pole. The transformer is not used as is, I want only the side with the most windings after I take it apart.

           But not today. That dryer drum had to be lifted just enough to clear the rollers. That sapped me, and it is not heavy at all. By now, I should be well along. This correlates with my appetite, the more tired and activity makes me, the more I gain a yeaning for “grain” foods. Bread, pancakes, muffins, biscuits. I thought at first it was psychological since that’s what we got in the hospital. Nope, it is real and I just finished a bowl of cereal in the middle of the afternoon.
           I’m even too tired for coffee, so let’s see what news interests me, if any. McDonald’s stock in plunging, as expected when their prices skyrocketed. Over $4 for a shake worth maybe 50 ȼ. Paramount studios has had it with California, taking $20 billion a year in revenue with them. And over 50,000 jobs. Georgia’s youngest mayor, a black, made it almost ten months before being charged with fraud. Kamela, a sure loser, is eyeing the Democratic nomination for 2028. Why? Because her name is consistently on top of a list—of nobodies. I read that the word “Czechoslovakia” in Russian is slang for “doormat”.

           Later, a cool evening had me in the shed, where I built two K-boxes, the biggest and latest design, purposely using up all my large pickets. These boxes are big enough to prop the laser on top. They can be constructed outside and brought in for decoration later. While out there, I dug out the two “broken” routers and blasted then clean. One is the original “toothpick” router, which is very powerful. That’s because when I bought it I had no idea about what was what. I worked a construction site at the time, so there was nobody to ask, if you get my drift.
           The other is some kind of super-high-speed, both tools check out fully. They are missing plastic housings but I’ve required them to spec and are destined for table work. One to rabbet my boxes, the final design concession, the other to see if I can make box joints. Why not? I also did some design work on the L-box. It is too narrow on the ends for a thumbhole. They do look excellent with knobs but they are a thirsty stain.

ADDENDUM
           We know what the Arduino does when a one-byte counter goes past 32,767. Pretty much nothing. The program keeps on running and the counter drops to -32,768 and starts counting toward 0. I was up late and saw it, but recorded it anyway. If there’s time, I’ll show you. I left it running. Watch closely, the picture is moving.
           And nine years ago, for the first time since around 1987, I bought a car. I had not driven in 14 years (a car, just motorcycles) and had lost my driving “muscle memory”.

Last Laugh

September 16, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 16, 2025, Jack, the dodo.
Five years ago today: September 16, 2021,only two breaks.
Nine years ago today: September 16, 2017, the panic aisle.
Random years ago today: September 16, 2015, their own kind.

           More year-end planning says times are going to change for the worse, and millions of retirees are going to get caught empty handed. One Catch-22 is that although there may be some inadequate provisions made for them, it won’t benefit me much as I have so little in common with them. I picked two programs to look into. See addendum, for “Plan 75”. Meanwhile, let’s go look why that dryer isn’t tumbling. My bath towels are in there and it is bloody summer in this neighborhood.

           By noon, I got around half-way. As usual, there is no on-line video for your exact make and model, and there is always some design change that you break or bend in the process. This was tough and dull work, the appliance has to be manhandled. Maybe that is why I have never met anyone who repairs these for a living.

           This repair means a lot of back and forth to the shed, an excellent workout. I got two more F-boxes finished with stain as I look at what the capabilities of my system is. I cam product the F-boxes in fairly matching pairs, which might sell for $10. It just seems a more logical package deal. The Morse count is at 26,703 so we may get the rollover some time tonight. I wondered why over the years the texts go on about the maximum number, but never say what happens. Sure, the counting hits the max, but does it start over. Does it stall? Does the code keep running? Does an error result?

           Budgetwise, It looks like time to start over again, even if it’s too late in life for me. It’s more of an exercise for me because I know not just the formula, but how to work the formula. It’s covered from many angles in this blog, but let’s see if you remember how to do it, say, over a lifetime. First, set a goal, call it $50,000 invested at 4% per year, paid monthly. Very easy to calculated, but how do the numbers work?
           They don’t, it you who has to have the discipline to leave the money alone and die with it still invested. You only get to withdraw part of the interest after you turn 65, or older as the case may be by 2099. How much do you earn per hour? If you put 10ȼ of it per hour in the band AND left it there, you would be a more successful investor than the next 100,000 people who lack discipline. Run the numbers, that 10ȼ will get you your $50,000 in 50 years, that is, in 600 months.
           The trick is to get that 10ȼ per working hour in the bank without “peeling it off your paycheck”. You need a lump sum, and that lump sum is, ta-da, $7,200. I round it off to $7.500. The rest is the iron discipline to leave it there through thick and thin. Most people never do. I didn’t. But what I did was supplement the account every month with a deposit of, you guessed it, $19.34. (In the end, it was that $19.34 that paid off.) I quickly had $10,000 in the bank, but thanks to Tennessee and a heart attack it is all gone now. And I don’t care.

           Later, I must include that the energy expended just moving the dryer into place was the end of my work day. I’m by no means well-recovered. Once I plunked down for a rest past noon, I did not get up again except for coffee and (much later) a burger. I did have the gumption to get some video work done, this was a sugary moment for me because I used 2026 tech to solve some 1999 challenges. The only easy spot was that the original files had been digitalized, I just forgot because I was, back then, also recovering from basically the same medical procedure.
           And I realized the know-how had gone full circle. Nobody today who knows damn well all you do is click a couple buttons will ever appreciate the ground that had to be covered. (Nor realize that also prevents him from ever producing anything original.) In 2005, it took an hour for me to create 240 seconds of video. Now, anybody can do the opposite without ever knowing what was lost to make that happen. Mind you, that is why I still laugh when I meet so-called computer experts today. They may know their own software, but experts, they are not.

Picture of the day.
Snap Specs, $2,195.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           While not great, there is some slight good news from Tennessee, let’s just say an obstacle has been removed. But good news is so rare, I call it a victory. I repeat my ancient saying that almost every problem in my life has been from people who want me to do things their way without paying me for it. This requires them to set up an entire system of coercion, so yes, I read more into slight successes against such things.
           I’m having fun going through some old digital renderings of videos in 1999. I found the disk in the shed while looking for a camera driver. These must have been made from my old Parallax gear as this technology did not exist for what I’m posting, if you care to link to August 1999. There seems no theme to the photos, so I’ve divided them into logical clips. All I recall is I drove east for seven days, stopped, and got a job the next day.

           This brings back memories. It would be hard for anyone today to appreciate the effort needed to commence this blog back in early 2005. That was near the time of my second heart failure and I wanted the world, or some part of it, to know my story. There was no A.I. back then, no training manual, now youTube how-tos. And same as today, absolutely nobody with a clue. It all had to be learned from scratch, which is why I captured this still. It shows a fraction of the needed research—and that is when the original Argus 1600 appeared for a moment on one video, see pic. Now I have a date [for this recording], and it was January 2, 2005.
           A fraction, I said. Each required skill or step came with it’s own 200-page manual. My gear could only edit files on disk, so that had to be learned without help. You can see my voice recorder and notebooks, all needed for the most basic video work of the time. That’s the Argus that took 26 pictures and the first digital camera under $200 (I think that was my target price on that) and I found this [camera] on a pharmacy sales rack. Like it was a toy or something. It also took short videos, I would love to someday find that disk.

           This camera is what brought this blog into its current format. Before this date, any digital pictures are injected. It required several days of intense study plus trial and error, but I believe was only a few days later I was finally able to include pics from the same [posting] day, something that seems trivial now. At the time, the Hippie and I decided to check out the possibility of using this new technology, new in that except for the uptown sellers, who knew less than I did, nobody had used it around here. Digital recording and DVD movies were largely something you contracted out.
           Like any such project, the other guy was all talk. And of course, thought it was easy and I was wasting time reading the user manuals. In the end, as ever, I did 95% of the work, so he’s booted off the list. However, once I had covered the entire task, from learning what to buy, how set it up and use it, then learn to work the cameras, both pre-edit and post-edit software, and product the finished project, I hardly needed any help, or criticism, from the computer dumbo gallery.

           It is recorded elsewhere, but that first job in 1999 paid $12.50 per hour, as much as the phone company I had recently quit. I wound up staying in North Carolina for the next five months. That was the same pay as I got after 15 years at my career, and all I ever heard from that company is that I was overpaid. I wrote it all down somewhere.
           These are essentially my family photos, and I’m publishing them so they don’t eventually get thrown out in a box like everybody else’s. Several videos seem scrunched together as my Parallax gear did not like to top and start. So each video is the full 47 minutes and that’s how long it takes to preview. The speed controls do not work, nor any playback settings. So the pics from 1999 took six years to adapt to what appears today.

ADDENDUM
           Food. It has tripled in price and will get worse. Gas is $9 in California, but they deserve it. Like Canada, put a third of your population on welfare and sooner or later the taxpayers give up. The neighbor gets Meals on Wheels, which struck me odd because he has more than once let it slip he has $2 million in the bank. But that is America, welfare eligibility is based on income, not wealth. One’s house, car, investments, interest, and inheritance are not “income”. I do believe his only income is Social Security. He could get food stamps if he wanted.
           I don’t want any free help, at this point it is too “expensive”, but I’m not 75 years old yet. When I do, I will have Plan 75 in place. By legally paying $800 per month rent on this cabin, I qualify for a number of programs. I’ve never asked the neighbor about Meals on Wheels, but occasionally he mentions some of it is pretty good. However, I am put off by the programs emphasis, not on food, but who at age 60 are already homebound, companionless, and “struggling with isolation”. I don’t readily care to be identified with people who own several vehicles and houses, but get their food from a soup kitchen.
           People with $800 phones, Toshiba laptops, seven pets, and $240 per month TV bills are not my idea of who should be getting free help from anyone.

Last Laugh

September 15, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 15, 2025, the 2026 Merkhava.
Five years ago today: September 15, 2021, only 800 to go.
Nine years ago today: September 15, 2017, three blond men total.
Random years ago today: September 15, 2007, the dreamer is gone.

           I’ve decoded to let my “Morse” counter run, to see what it really does at 32,678, the one-byte integer. The textbooks don’t say. Does it stop, or roll over? How many blogsters have ever put it to the test? I suppose there are faster ways to test it, but I prefer using some real code over a projected two-day run. Here’s a photo of Sweeney, just because that is my concept of good-looking. I could use some company like that, there are no single women between Orlando and Tampa that I would give a second look.

           It’s not like the field opened up when I retired and I could check out the better clubs. Let’s not be hasty, I planned well enough that my days can be occupied more waiting than looking. Tired? Program a micro. Energetic? Build a box. Gloomy? Thank gawwed I’m not as bad off as what I saw at that therapy clinic. The walking dead. Pragmatically, their nothingness made sense. If you never really lived, perhaps you never really die. Or something. I was evidently the only patient in that place anybody had ever seen that was not addicted to television. As mentioned, the unit “library” had never been touched before I arrived.

           Let me check the day. This is day 229 and overall I’m healthy, but this is not the gain that was predicted, considering the parts that are worn out are no longer my heart. Thus, a long phone session with the Reb that addresses said reality. Our conclusion is that unless everything goes right from here on in (which is nigh impossible), it is time to tell at least one studio to politely go away. Mainly because I feel, once we have submitted the contract they asked for, changes made after that is something they should pay for.
           One door closes, another opens, hey, they are doors. That is now doors work. It turns out I may have a case against somebody in this loop, as in California it is illegal to cause distress. And I am so distressed I may have to build boxes today.
           The Reb & I have decided on a more realistic division of responsibilities, my role is to become more sit-down until and if my energy levels improve. Without saying too much, there are two different realities in our two lives over the same subject. She knows people who have changed, I do not. Every asshole I met since 65 years ago is still the identical brand of asshole down to this day. And we are talking heels-dug-in assholes. It’s rare, but she knows people who have changed. She proposes the explanation is I do not even associate with people who don’t want to change, whereas she can selectively opt for those that do want positive improvement. It's just a brand of person I have never seen.

           Hence, let her deal with the studio and recording people, an industry that attracts.the under-educated and over-opinionated. She can be nice to people I know have over-charged us. I tend more toward less leniency. The music industry is cut-throat competitive, but that changes in character once you move up the ladder. After some ground work is done, they are not as much of a cohesive unit. They all need another Dolly Parton and Dollies are in scant supply.

Picture of the day.
Laser-cut leather pants.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           My relatively new and not that much used dryer quit tumbling. I hope it is only the belt. It was too dark and too hot to start on it. It would wait until the days are shorter. I have a Kenmore, which I believe is the old Sears product line. The point being that it s an ancient design and should have all the bugs worked out. No so, at about the time Sears was on the decline, America entered the “Asshole Age”. This was the generation who grew up thinking it was “normal” that everybody had a TV and a car and a phone and a summer vacation and went to Disneyland.

           When they got out of school and hit the job market, this was around 1980, it was a wakeup call. No, you could not have all those nice things for the asking. That’s when they discovered getting ahead means innovation, invention, and inspiration. And they did not like it one bit. Too much like hard work. Here is a picture of me opening the housing just enough to reach inside, discovering the belt is gone.
           Somebody went out of their way to sabotage this belt. Don’t argue with me, I used own a Laundromat and know how such machines can be made easy to fix. This is now a major repair that assumes I can find and buy just one belt. There will be a selection of belts for every make and model of Kenmore except this one. Yep, America needs another revolution.

           So instead, America began the slippery slide toward the Third World mentality they passed on to today’s workforce. My first brush with this was with the phone company. I was surrounded by co-workers who had borrowed money for all the toys they felt they had a right to, while I apparently had nothing. Well, except for up to five overseas holidays per year. Folks, holidays when you are still young and horny enough to enjoy to the max are irreplaceable and non-duplicatable. Most marital troubles stem from morons who got this backwards. That's largely why I quit travel by their age. Too many old people trying to get it back.
           The effect is well-documented in this blog, how by their 5th to 7th year with the company they were such debt slaves they would kiss anybody’s arse. It was not just a miserable existence, it was one they forced upon others. Doing what they were told became their reason for living. By 1990 it was so bad, I swear if the company told them to poison themselves with an untested vaccine, they would have done so. Thank goodness the Internet made people so much smarter than that today.

           Hence, the Asshole Age. Everybody is equal or else. Tax the rich until they ship your job overseas. Outlaw abortions and make everybody else pay for it, then 21 years later scream there is no social security for you. Accuse people of murder if they object. Cram political correctness down their throats. Create nothing just keep voting yourselves a bigger slice of the pie. Become oblivious to the fact you are forcing everybody else to behave the same just to survive. Third world.
           I even recall when it started. The day I saw my first self-serve gas station. It should have slashed gas prices in half because of the reduced overhead. Instead, the price per gallon was a nickel less, you can figure out the rest. So, now I have a broken belt. It is not old, or worn, or frayed, it is just broken. And it is engineered as the weakest part of the machine, a frail and spindly belt, where by 2001 it should have been unbreakable nano-fiber. Wait, there is more.
           The motor and pulley are placed to be unserviceable from the rear of the machine and the back panel is irremovable. It is designed so the entire lint trap, wiring harness, and drum must be removed for the repair. Return tomorrow to see how far I get.

           Festus was another boring drama, but by now it is the ritual of watching. Today’s episode was about three teens on probation who rob Sam, the bartender. Ha, you’d get a kick out of my neighbor, who is so brainwashed he does not know it. He paused the screen to explain that the parole officer was “far-right” because he wanted everybody in jail whether they were guilty or not, and the farm couple were fine, decent “far-left” because they wanted to help their neighbors.
           He’s kind of overboard on the proof thing. He demands proof of everything, but will not look at the evidence. Unless it is on Fox, which I have never watched, but he trusts with all his heart and soul. He does not believe the news this morning about all the universities in India being raided for printing fake degrees. When I mentioned it, he grabbed his phone and queried, “Univerisity of Karachi”, which came back with the claim they were “the Harvard of India”, and showed it to me as if it were all the facts needed.
           The guy is harmless. I once asked him if he believed what the FDA says. His reply was that “it depends”. We are not dealing with lot of brain-hustle here.

           What can I sell for $5? Fake boxes. Hey, I’ve sold one. At a quarter the size of a Z-box, two can be made from a single small fence picket, but be damn careful with the cut. You have maybe four kerf widths margin for error. This is also dependent on having the roughly 20 minutes of burn time for the logos. Unless I cut down on the logos. This can be done by making the logos smaller, dimmer, or leaving the wood unstained so the burn stands out better.
           The FBI announces the arrest of another fugitive in the $2 billion Medicare scam. Nobody steals that much without some inside help. Polls indicate most Americans want all the immigrans out, not just the illegals. Reasoning? That America could not be having the fraud and welfare problems unless they lied wholesale on their applications. Good point. I’m watching the version of “Sahara” with the tank and Belushi.            Is it true that tale that if a person dying of thirst drinks water too fast, they’ll get sick? I say it’s Hollywood bulldonkey. Even if they got sick, it’s not from the water. Politico, the media company dedicated to destroying Trump, ran out of money when DOGE put a stop to USAID.

ADDENDUM
           Crappy news of the day. That Jasmine who has been crowing for nears about the unsolved lynching of a black lady has fallen strangely silent. After a black man was arrested for it. Every news report is very carefully worded, something funny is going on. The Mafia hit man in Monaco is set free after Montenegro refuses extradition. Odds are he did more good than the Hildebeest. The latest kid’s movie featuring an orange unicorn is rated R. Probably due to the stabbings, drownings, and swear words, plus that scene were he licks a woman. Creepy. Not the unicorn, the woman.
           Got your phone on auto-download? Google now tracks your vehicle speed at all times. When reporters asked who gets this data, Google hung up. Another fact, the Grinch never hated Xmas. He hated people, which is simultaneously different and logical.

Last Laugh

(Miss Baked Potato?)

September 14, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 14, 2025, the elusive pay-daily.
Five years ago today: September 14, 2021, no anonymous bike-riding.
Nine years ago today: September 14, 2017, it’s a beauty.
Random years ago today: September 14, 2004, I missed work.

           My calendar says mention food, besides, it’s a sorry blog that doesn’t. The birdies are lucky today, I found their favorite in the back of the fridge. That’s dried out corn muffin. They enjoy all varieties but nothing seems to beat corn. Kind of like young women and bass players. So, I have a big pot of spuds on the burner, with dill and bay leaf, ready for a medley of onions and sausage. But I’ll tell you what takes the cake (bad pun?) is Mitch. I have asked him for pictures. The guy buys a pound of hamburger and a loaf of round bread.

           Sweden is gone. They imported enough voters to defeat the local White population in their own home. Stupid, or what?

           I sent the last of the silver money to Tennessee. This might seem odd to many, but let me explain something. That silver was for an opportunity, should something arise in my life. And it sat there for over 15 years. Make no mistake, I am now partially incapacitated and there is an old saying, if you wait for the perfect shot, you will die with a full magazine. My affairs are arranged that I’ll never got hungry and there is not enough time left to get ahead. So, the Reb represents the opportunity I never had.
           Take today, I went to town at 10:00AM and did the banking. You know how I do not use digital transfers, I walk the 1/5 of a block between the banks. And it landed me on my ass. I got home so tired, I skipped the rest of the day. We have another varmint too big for the rat trap, likely a possum, or the same possum who is a slow learner. Setting the trap was my activity for the morning. And I put $50 of gas in at $3.96.
Here’s a twist. Trump has pulled a curious coup. He keeps pointing out that only 2% of American oil moves through Hormuz and that most imported oil comes from Canada. So, of course you get a mass of pinheads blaming expensive diesel on Trump, but this time it is different. There is a general recognition in Trump’s pre-election favor that the Democrats are the ones who have been pulling off these unjustified price hikes for years.

           This should have been an hour’s chore, I did not get home until 1:30PM. Weary isn’t the same as sleepy, I then took y’day’s Arduino sketch and re-wrote it using arrays and for-loops. I was able to get the byte count down from 3,200 to 2,700. For historians, this is an age giveaway. The fact I would concern about bytes means I go way back to the days bytes were expensive. I would have gotten very high marks if this was an assignment.
           Today, it means the code is compact, easy to maintain, and super-efficient. And once I figured out how to manipulate the setup code, now I discover it happens all the time. Learning electronics can be turbo-frustrating that way. What I can’t do is get the setup code to print, but I’m hot on the trail. These mental gymnastics as you imagine, finally put me to sleep.
           Um, I did mention the problem with my medical clinic, on about that Medicare number. Last month, remember, when I walked out. They are going ballistic with the e-mails to get me back. But I don’t know. What they did was pretty deliberate, like I was trying to con them out of a visit. My guess is twofold: somebody looked at my file and realized just how many hundreds of thousands they’ve made off me, and there have been many telltale signs of the place having financial woes. Starting with my favorite nurse quitting there last August.

Picture of the day.
After a farm fire.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I more came to than woke up, what a deep sleep that was, four hours of total down time. It did not help there was an ugly head-on in the south end detouring traffic for miles. Patrick Swayze died of cancer today in 2009. I identify with his career only insofar as he did what I might have had I been athletic. Not true, but I thought that. He smoked 2-1/2 packs a day for 40 years.
           Much later, I did not recoup energy, I stayed put and watched documentaries, or what in our DEI times passes for them. I feel out of sorts, but not enough to panic. My sense of humor, such as it is, has survived. Have you seen the Nigerian (born in the USA) “voted the most beautiful women in Britain”. They must have imported Minnesota ballot counters. Here are my favorite replies:

☆ humiliation ritual against the goyim.
☆ planet of the apes.
☆ like one of those ethnic Barbie dolls nobody bought.
☆ poster board for infanticide.
☆ did ALL the candidates come from the zoo?
☆ how long can it live outside the water?
☆ face like a pair of vice grips.
☆ she got the druggie droop-eye.
☆ this bitch has ull 360 degree field of vision!
☆ she looks mentally handicapped
☆ one giant carnival cruise

           One of my robot club habits remains adding a counter to all beta code to track it is operating within spec. (The counter is later deleted most of the time.) Yes, Redmond, I check operational parameters as well, my code must run at a consistent tempo, something MicroSoft does not even consider. I fell asleep with the Morse test running and overnight it ran 6,109 times. This statistic may be boring, but it is an excellent demonstration of whether some people should even be reading this blog. You see, the topic is a result of the blog selection criteria. It considers only the fastest or slowest, the best or worse, always seeking the unique. Whether another entity might find a topic boring is NOT a consideration.
           That is why you may see items of seemingly negative public interest, and a loop counter may be just that. Until you consider how many other blogs you have seen that have or even could have such an article. (For example, a musician who builds his own doorbells and boxes, type of thing.) Seriously, how many bloggists do you know who publish an article on Arduino code tests today? Well, there you go. A lot depends on what you consider unique.

Last Laugh

September 13, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 13, 2025, it’s my presentation.
Five years ago today: September 13, 2021, tummy aches . . .
Nine years ago today: September 13, 2017, watch-out list, guys.
Random years ago today: September 13,2008, I like chewy.

           Scrambled eggs and Arduino, the Florida treat for good behavior. I had it on the brain, so I had to crank out the code. It worked first time, if anyone thinks it is easy, try it. The video shows the pin test, but no the “Morse” blink that identifies the program. Why? Because it worked too well. The commands will obey in the setup section, the real test here But, they happen at their own speed, which is too fast for the camera. I suspect the delay command, which stops the processor, has no effect in this part of the code.

           But there you have it, GenX, code that needs no debugging. I really does exist. What the working model would do is turn on and flash the Morse signal one time, then switch to the blue LEDs shown here stepping through six of pins. There are workarounds, for example I pause the Morse by letting the processor count to 5,000 just to slow it down. How was your Sunday morning?

           Then I felt like following up on this code. So I sat here with coffee for the next six hours. Nothing worked. I think that is because the setup mode is rigged to execute as rapidly as possible and ignores all pause commands. I did get it to count to 32,768, but nothing. By mid-afternoon I’m tired so I stopped.            Except, I could not stop. I tried every possible combination in the setup, then pasted the code into the loop to proof it. Funny, it works, but the LED is very dim. I rechecked the code in case I was on a PWM pin, I corrected two non-critical logic errors (one of which should have stopped the compiler but did not), and even rewired the LED to the power ground. So we know it is not the code, rather some idiosyncrasy in the hardware.
           Tampa radio has plenty to say about Trump’s meetings these days. It’s zany-funny because their old antics are not working but it’s all they’ve got. Publishing fake headlines about Trump’s popularity when he’s a rock star everywhere he shows up. Even their specialty, fake polls, is failing them. The Democrats are entering the mid-terms with no agenda or platform except “get Trump”, vote against everything and the impeachment threats have started up again. They better pull something together fast.
           Things could not be worse for them if Trump had planned this all himself. The fakest poll is where they claim immigration is good because the White birth rate is rising again. That’s what happens when you reclassify all immigrants as White. And California is pushing on-line censorship and tracking under the guise of child safety. Crap like a message warning if you’ve been on-line longer than three hours, but they are okay with TV. They want “addictive” sites to require parental consent.
I read the first twenty proposals which have one theme in common. Tight government control of the media. Media’s what is costing the Party the most and what is losing them elections. They still control the mainstream, but there are too many other sources nowadays.

Picture of the day.
Starc machine.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Later, I went over the code in such detail that I could have written it again. So, in frustration, I did. I keyed in the entire 3,200 bytes (exactly). Now it works. Ever time the reset button is pushed, the red LED flashes Dash-Dot-Dot-Dot, then the blue LEDs test the pins. Success? Not quite. I had to relocate the red LED because pin 13 twinkles by itself when code is uploading, so I switched to pin 12 and the LED remains very time, for which I have no explanation. But this tells you why I don’t code for a living. Doing it right takes so much brain-thrust you are physically tired at the end.

           And, that 3,200 bytes is a bottleneck. At this moment, every flash is hard-coded and should be placed in a for-loop. That will have to wait until I find out why the LED isn’t full bright. I tend to fall into programming mode and that brings back the A.I. concept. It can be made to work using an array. The sprite (small moving screen icon) has to be a single red LED. The first thing you learn owning an Arduino is flashing an LED is about the only damn thing it can do without a separate power supply for your apparatus. There is no warning sticker.

           Falling asleep in the chair again, I got up too late, another rare day I did not go outside. I read some history, in this case the American army fighting Cornwallis during the revolution. It’s such a Roman classic I’m surprised Cornwallis fell for it. A weak first line than kills a few enemy, then falls back. This encourages the enemy to pursue into broken ground against a stronger second line with skirmishers along the flanks.
           I also did more thinking about the artificial intelligent array. Have I been too focused on the lighting, when the real event is that array. And I don’t have a lot of experience with this type of code. Worse, it is not 3D (at this time), but two arrays that would have to interact for what I want. This is associated with getting commands to work in a novel fashion, and that is the picture shown. This is part of over 1,000 individual photos that had to be edited and cropped to make a 261 frame GIF video that lasts but seconds.

           Next we hear of a Russian lady who “stripped naked” on American Airlines. Videos showed her stripped only to the waist. Hey, it beats any recent Disney movies. Texas has block the muzzie super city, declared some groups as terrorists, and forbids them buying land. All they had to do was run some pigs across it. Trivia: Elon Musk once offered the World Finance Bank $6 billion in food aid on the one condition they make the accounting public. They refused the money.

ADDENDUM
                      Tell you what, you’ve been good so I’ll make a video of the code in operation. There is more to this than the “blinky” demo that I just know somebody will say I copied. Wrong, they have not a single line of code in common, plus keep in mind the rarity of readable blogs about people doing this thing. Nor is it a matter of punching in the code like a computer app. The lights do not just blink, they blink in a precise order and a precise location. For a precise time. (Turns out time is the easiest variable.)

           The goal is to have the device activate, flash a code once (red LED), then begin an infinite loop of six blue LEDs, which is the “working” part of any Arduino program. This loop has to be avoided and the code flash occur only one and only after the reset button is pushed. IRL the button would be triggered by some external event, probably a sensor. And the loop would perform something hopefully more useful.

           Watch closely with the following in mind. The Arduino will flash some lights of it’s own on startup. Also, digital cameras are over-sensitive to LED color wavelengths and you will get some glare. Then the reset is pressed, you can see a red LED flash the code LONG-SHORT-SHORT-SHORT, which is either the ASCII code for “8” or the Morse code for “B”. This is why you may hear me shorthand the code as “Morse” even though there are only 11 letters possible with four blips. There is a separate lookup chart to list which sketch this represents.
           It is tricky to see, but the six blue LEDs blink a sequence and a cycle that repeats twice in this video. It will do so as long as there is power, just take my word because videos like this are difficult to make. The LEDs are very close together to match the pin sizes, to make any changes means moving all the wiring, or re-writing all the code.
           The significance of this [successful] sketch is the Arduino design is similar to COBOL in having a “declaration” section (called SETUP) which is intended to set pin modes and other parameters. I have never seen this used for code operations of this style, but don’t worry, Elliott and Billy-Bill, I don’t think I am the first. But I did it before anybody you know, ha-ha. (In fact, I think almost the opposite, that everybody ahead of me had plenty of opportunities to do all this stuff, but are a disspointment to the world because they didn't.)

Last Laugh

September 12, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 12, 2025, a trip to Miami.
Five years ago today: September 12, 2021, a generic day.
Nine years ago today: September 12, 2017, utter.
Random years ago today: September 12, 201x, early Arduino.

           It should not take 3-1/2 hours to hit the bank and pick up some groceries, unless in the Florida furnace, you maximum speed is DMV. The trip did include a stop for the doggie chow and some used paint. Today you get pictures of almost everyting. And we have another varmint raiding the kitchen and he’s smart enough to avoid the live traps. That seals his fate. I stocked up on coffee and veggies, we have $25 left until Monday. But the nice thing about home ownership is you don’t bleed as much money standing still.

>           I follow military developments without much regard to who is right or wrong. The destruction of the Hezbollah underground tunnel complex registered 4.1 on the Richter scale. This destroys twenty years of digging and stockpiling weapons, evidence to me a big attack was planned. The tunnels were said to be almost 1-1/2 miles and cut into a bomb-proof ridge. That must have cost a pretty penny. The IDF reports finding stockpiles of drones and rockets.
           That’s pictures I would like to see, as the IDF can hardly be trusted by anyone. Instead, here’s a picture of a $15 bottle of vanilla flavoring. What? How do you make something like that cost so much? Simple, look closely, it is “Harry Potter” brand.

           Later, it was rainy so I found and posted several old blogs from 1984. The way computers are designed, and few of us could have known this 40 years ago, the files are very difficult to enter. I will require two computers in tandem. Oddly, older computers were better at this, but I understand the current MicroSoft mentality. They don’t build computers for people who need to know where their files are. Only fapper computers. If you really need a file, MicroSoft will find it for you. Type of thing.
           I also dug out my oldest Arduino, an UNO with the oldest timing crystal I’ve ever used (see arrow). And it was still wired up. But we know long since there is no way to tell what is on the chip. It was wired to the 7-segments seen here, I just ripped them out. Does this old unit still even work. We shall see, but I doubt I even still have whatever sketches were uploaded since something like 2014.

           Later, the card activates, but will not recognize any of the COM ports. Damn you, MicroSoft. I’m checking for virtual ports now. Moments later, got it. Port 14. It is working at a basic level, flashing an LED. The board has a built-in LED on pin 13, but I see I rigged up a brighter blue LED, something I general use to mean a pilot light. My programming since so long ago is long past the blinky stage. For now, I’m designing a quick sketch for something I meant to test back then. See, it’s coming back to me.
           A survey of books and on-line travel tips reveals that 92% of the advice is about avoiding certain colors of people.

Picture of the day.
Swiss highway system.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           We are broke. Tennessee made a withdrawal on the 28th, probably legal fees, and I didn’t get the memo. No problem, I’ve got fifty things to keep me busy that cost zero. One of them is a reawakened interest in that 3D printer sitting in the shed. I will make room, for now I know of many projects I will never complete now. Out they go, something I’ve best get moving on, as I got the news that Bonnie Tyler died today. I only recall her one song, “It’s a Heartache” because, though I’ve never had it on my list, I’ve played it some fifty years and it’s a reminder of my own age. And reminds me of Bill Tronnes, who thought it the best song ever.

           I got to the recycle a bit late and scored barely enough stain for a few projects, but one is this tin of “weathered oak”. I’ve used enough product now to learn what I don’t like, so let’s hope this is a good one. I don’t care for any maple colors. I also found enough parts from the Kobalt compressor, the one that didn’t last worth a shit, that maybe I can rig up something 50 PSI to a basic sprayer. You see, I also checked the prices on the canned poly. Ouch, and it isn’t even brand Harry Potter.

           No work on the doorbell, but a problem appears. I measured the transformer with the el-cheapo multimeter and got 15 VDC. Meh, that’s a bad 12VDC reading, I figured. But turns out it is 24VDC. Twice the power of the coil. I will install a 3300Ω 2Watt, if that heats up, I have some 5Watt in the shed. To get the doorbell mounted, I had to bring out the long drill. That’s pronounced “the lo-o-o-ong drill”, shown here. This is private stock, for company officers only. No touch. What’s it for? To get a pilot hole through two back-to-back 4” fence posts. And stubborn bedroom walls.
           Before continuing, let me get the bass and play that Tyler tune. And I’ll describe the Arduino sketch I plan to test. The bulk of the code is normally in a loop that continues as long as there is power. But there’s a small setup section that runs once, I’d like to devise some way to signal what is on the chip, even if I resort to Morse code. At this time, I do not know if loop commands will even execute in the setup mode.

           It’s early, I’ll tell you what I have planned on that. The Arduino memory is limited, so I diagrammed a way four bits can flash 14 unique codes of long or short flashes. Why not 16? Because I don’t want any sequence of all the same length, each must be a combination of each flash. And, 14 codes is determined to exceed anything I have planned. The trick is getting this to occupy as few memory locations as possible. Of course, it is zeroes and ones, I used L and S just to plan the sequences.
           When the Arduino powers up, a few lights flash. I would add a pattern according to which sketch (program or code) was uploaded. This would require a separate listing, a lookup table, but it is better than nothing. And who do we know that already looks things up in tables. Anyway, here is the matrix of the 14 possible sequences. This could be expanded to five easily, and I’ve entity.

           At 9:00PM I zipped over to the old club in Bartow. It was busy, but a crowd where I recognized no one. That’s not 100% true, I did hear the screech owl ladies. Who didn’t hear them? There was Karaoke, but why bother with that bunch. Josh was on duty, so we know some facts. As predicted, the veternaran who is making a killing at Kooters is the only sincere offer. And he will need somebody to manage the place Good luck, the last manager ran off their local folloing and it will take five years of doing it right to get them back.

           The usual arrangement is a flat monthly lease and a cut of the profits. Then I find out something. The place has two liquor licenses. Beer and wine. And hard liquor. Don’t quote me, but it seems the liquor license is not directly sellable. Each change of management or ownership is independently reviewed. At this time, the answer is apparently “no”, without which the place won’t fly. I knew the “lease” was $1400 per month, I think, That’s selling a lot of beer and wine to break even.
           My advice is stand back and watch. Let somebody else take the dive and fail. My guess is some city outfit will again try to make it into a club. If they raise the prices even 25 ȼ they risk losing the three customers they have left.

ADDENDUM
           Some health issues, I promised to keep records on the inevitable decline, and once again it is items triggered by the hospital. This is day 226, meaning to get back to par by now, I’ll need miraculous mending. That is not going to happen. The last 48 hours brought both gout and arthritis pains. How do I know it’s from the anesthetic? By the location and intensity. I was in intensive care a long time and there is no mistaking the timing.
           My diet remains sparse, but I did change a few things to items easier to prepare. Generally I feel lighter on my feet, but that is offset by the energy drain required to stand up any more. I used to regard home as a comfort zone convenience. Now, sometimes out there I just wish I could quit what I’m doing and head home for the day. This is very new for me. I’m again tracking gas mileage and I ran over by 53 miles last month.
           One of my staples in onions and the nice ones are now $2 a pound. I got fooled by tomato prices, a low-level millennial scam. Two identical bins, identical packaging. One bag was $2.27, the other one was $2.27 per pound. At least they were organic. And not Harry Potter. Don’t hit me!

Last Laugh

September 11, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 11, 2025, get out of Miami.
Five years ago today: September 11, 2021, the guitarist.
Nine years ago today: September 11, 2017, actually, I do play it.
Random years ago today: September 11, 2009, the shoemaker.

           This is the Day of the Doorbell. Not many blogs pay tribute to this wonderful invention, so unappreciated. Now, just because a doorbell works on the shop bench, doesn’t mean it passes muster. With robot club thoroughness, the unit must pass a series of field tests. Shown here is the temporary wiring to the existing circuit. You see exposed wiring because the system uses a AC to DC transformer positioned behind the wall that derives power from the same box as the kitchen light switches. This test worked perfectly.

           While this is going on, I make extra pancakes for the cardinals, it’s a rainy day. I was on-line scrapping with some dude who maintains he was born poor and “worked” his way out of it. Of course that’s bull-donkey, it simply means he was not poor. He takes exception and says it means I did not work hard. Gosh, what if he is right and I should take measures to apply myself. No, folks, if you are really poor, there is no working your way out.
Once you hit half-way, 35 years old, and you are still poor despite every effort, there is no room left for theory. If I had stayed at the phone company, I would not be making $180.000 per year, assuming I kept my old            position. But that would have meant an empty and meaningless life. I hate to say it, but the trick is knowing when to quit. Put another way, to learn to think like them without becoming one of them.

           On the same site, I was amused by the crowd that claims Taylor is a tranny who cannot sing. On they go how she has an Adam’s apple and “knocked up” her high school girlfriend. Now they are on about how the dissenting juror in the Clancy case was a black man, but I don’t see how they got that information.

Picture of the day.
Near Quitaque, TX
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           By late evening last, my spreadsheet tests steered to some grim conclusions. See addendum. The Internet is saturated, it exists as a mercantile entity in the narrow sense that every gain is now associated with somebody else’s loss. Matters like innovation, hard work, and quality have become secondary to carving up the pie. Everybody I deal with in business these days has this attitude, constantly trying to make sure if they screw up, you got to pay for it. One of the worst is the music recording industry. The industry is probably fine, but it has been taken over by spineless bad operators. In other words, business is no longer done “The American Way”, but has degenerated to Third World gouging.

           Next, the Reb called and we have decided to give the studio one more go. After that, they are jerking us around and you will get the report. They have tacked on a host of sub-conditions that were not part of the original negotiations. Now they want money for something I know we could do ourselves for far cheaper. There is also the aspect that meeting these surprise conditions has caused us a lot of expense on their say-so and it simply has to end somewhere.

           Let’s get back to today’s main event. The doorbell is receiving its hard wiring in this photo. I’ve decided to run the wiring through the attic. This ambitious plan has me climbing into the attic sometime this weekend, if not sooner. For unknown reasons, all the attic light bulbs are burned out, so add that chore. See that yellow bell? The date on it is 2014. I knew I kept it all these years for a good reason.
           The final wiring will be exposed along the upper bedroom wall, so I thought why not drill the needed hole while I have the 18V drill in the house from the fence repair. I like the shed, but it is 60 feet away. I have a nice stepping stool, then uh-oh. Gang, I did not have arthritis before that hospital stay. Well, that’s not strictly true, I was told I had touch years ago. But in the absence of pain, it was not an issue. Then I tried to step up onto the stool.

ADDENDUM
           We have a problem, and most people have an even bigger problem. My goal of 7% investing is also a breakeven point in the long run. The formulas I used forty years ago when most folks had never heard of a spreadsheet are just as valid today. At 7% inflation, your income will drop in half over the next ten years. My opinion is one best get something off the ground now, before everybody else comes to the same conclusion. This familiar territory for me, I’ve seen how every time the economy shrinks, the guitar players start appearing.
           Failure is always an option, in fact, let me expand on something most of the world won’t tell you. The reason most rich people look at money differently has a simple reason—they did not earn it. That is why most of them are so leery, cautious, and suspicious when it comes to money. Because they know if they lose any of it, they do not have the wherewithal to get it back. When I met JZ, he would not leave the city limits without $1,000 cash on hand.

           There is a parallel attitude that gets half-explained at best. It is called the “Suvivorship Syndrome”, the attitude of someone who is successful that anybody can do it. This is simply not true. Like the rich kid who did not earn his money, the successful person almost always had more help and luck than they would ever admit. So, what is the other half of the explanation?            I start by pointing out that it is fine and dandy for people like Edison, Ford, and such to ladle out advice about failure. But in reality, most of what they did came after initial good fortune. Most people do not have a fully-equipped laboratory or factory which can absorb the conditions and losses of repeated failures. That is the other side of the coin, the part they are not telling you. Failure has other costs, including social, emotional, and intellectual losses that must be compensated for.
           It is easy for people who can absorb such losses to make broad statements about learning from failure. You know what most people learn? To play it safe and never try again.

Last Laugh

September 10, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 10, 2025, $12 a pound.
Five years ago today: September 10, 2021, I liked that tree.
Nine years ago today: September 10, 2017, the dreaded Folger’s
Random years ago today: September 10, 2015, of excellent quality.

           Another slow day pending, I’m not starting up well this morning but I got a reprieve from Mrs. Red. It turns out she also likes cookie and cracker crumbs and I scrounged just enough in the freezer. Yes, keep you open bags in the freezer if there is room. Or Florida will get you. I had scheduled a documentary on the Great Dismal Swamp. It’s peat bog young George Washington once surveyed. I wanted facts on how they have brought it back after draining it so bad it caught fire. What a disappointment half the narrative the same old. VIDEO HAS SOUND!

           It was a droning millennial spiel about slaves, old Indians, and climate change. It irks me further that this crap is churned out with your tax dollars. I’m crawling back in the sack, talk to you later. What? It is later already? And I have news that I can’t say, but I’ll sure describe the scenario. To start, here is a video of my DIY doorbell. I eliminated the trip switch, reasoning that whoever presses the button isn’t going to stand there holding it. The bell only needs to ring once to get my attention. If they hold the button anyway, it will ring as shown in this video, it has sound.
           Yep, that is my salt shaker in the background, and some other junk. This is my work counter and oft-times breakfast table. I am a morning person, though the latest variation is how I crawl back in the sack till past eight. And the coil in that video is from the old electric nailer that went on the blink.

           This is a fine situation, I have news that makes my day, but I can’t share it. So I’ll describe a hypothetical parallel. Whenever you try to get ahead, there will be people who appear out of nowhere to trip you up. For no reason or gain, they hate you. We have one and she is a 4F (fat, female, forty, flatulent) so I don’t like her. But that just means I don’t associate with her. However, the Reb does not recognize as many varieties of losers as I do. Well, I have some news.
           The 4F just went off the deep end. Causing a big scene, turning over tables, and barely avoiding arrest. We just heard about it because, funny thing, our lawyer in California was at the same event. He won’t say anything much except in person, which will be a few days. The more serious this is, the happier I am. I have no qualms gloating when self-appointed enemies get their due. I promise you the details when it is over.

           In celebration, I wired the Reb a handful of cash to go out on the town. Chooks and Lillie get steak or lamb tonight. Myself, I’m going out to the shed just because. First, I’m going to play bass a bit. Up to ten years ago, I grabbed the bass and played, I did not need to limber up. That’s changed. Five years back I did need to warm up or I’d miss notes or not quite get some riffs. Now, I need to prep [a few minutes] and even then, I’m not what I was. Missing notes is worst. It’s sad what the ravages of time have done to this old paper boy.
           Just a few hours later, there is more news. Caution, this is fourth-hand information. The 4F has proven a master at playing the victim. Her angle was “poor innocent me”. This blows her cover. Innocents don’t upset the furniture. What makes me most happy is that the 4F figured she was immune from consequences, but some smart aleck set her up. That is all for now.

Picture of the day.
Simple black leggings.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Buoyed up with the rare good news, I was three great hours in the shed. Nothing outside today but desert bugs. The shed design has two large doors to swing open, one on the northwest the other southeast. This allows the prevailing wind through. The path up to the north is in complete shade from my wind corridor and the church. The air is already cooled by the time it enters and this effect is enough that one fan is all that’s needed to keep each room just cool enough. So I made up some boxes and small shelves.

           The largest size, the K-box, is not a proven design. So I made one up to test what can go wrong and to make sure my existing tools and jigs will suffice. It appears they can, but the longer pieces cannot be cut even a few hours in advance or the shorter pieces will cup. I’ve learned how to clamp them into place but the extra time pares off value. I was what you’d call jubilant over the news but this is psychological. My health is still a balancing act.

           [Author’s note: these are the first two pre-production boxes that have no designated purpose yet. One has thumb holes, neither have any finishing, not even a light sanding. These soak up too much stain even when it is free, up to eight times as much as the now-standard fake box.
           These are the K-box, which are not slapped together. They must still follow the rules to come out looking like this. For example, they are each from a single picket, an important consideration stemming from differences in lumber dimensions.]

           Because talking to Howie earlier, I notice four of my side fence pickets had pulled away from the rails. This is maybe a four minute job, I walked to the shed, grabbed a drill and four screws, and the pickets are back in shape. I’d been standing still for a while, then fixed that fence and the activity was enough to drain me. Yes, my system is that hair-trigger and I had to stop completely except to shuffle back into the cabin for a snooze. Is this my destiny?

           I’m back with zero energy, let’s check the news. A mosque burns down in Texas. After the protest in Dover, the British government banned the balaclava (ski mask). So the protestors switched to the burkha. Maybe the Brits got some balls left, after all? DOGE is still around and has exposed Chelsea Clinton received $82 million in tax-free government grants. A black couple whose son was killed by another black driving a U-Haul at 100 mph has sued U-Haul. They claim U-Haul was responsible for the truck going so fast.

           Hours later, I’m still weary, but not sleepy. A short time ago, I read about the Knights defending Malta, today I learn Mel Gibson is making it a movie. That cannot be done accurately without revealing it is Whites against non-Whites and the Knights are known to each kill as many as twenty Turks.

ADDENDUM

           I’ve never seen the movie “Red Planet” uninterrupted. It’s the worn out theme of humanity fleeing pollution, but again the cast is more about diversity than talent. Like the way the spaceship showers are translucent glass or the commander saying pretend I’m your sister. Lady, I can’t. My sisters were once virgins. But, I like the special effects, so I’m watching it.
           Another lame production are the government videos about research along the Nazca Plate, the seamount off the coast of Chile that got my attention last day. What useless crap, the area is not undiscovered, it is unexplored because like that part of the world, there is so little there to be bothered with. Okay, so they discovered new species. Of slugs, worms, and bottom-feeders. They could metaphorically do the same in Minnesota. All the narrators have stereotypical accents. Very little science is presented in these disgusting propaganda pieces. Full of token Hindus, Asiatics, Semites, Aboriginals, and mixed-breeds gaslighting the entire storyline.

           Later, I have seen the ending of the “Red Planet, so I turned It off. Instead, I finished the DIY doorbell. Here it is without the wiring, but in working condition. With some decoration, laser-provided. The printing is a generic robot club tag and a small plaque informing the reader that this design has won "0" awards to date.

Last Laugh