Perfect weather, lacking only a good lady to share it with. Speaking of that, there were some lively gals in the shop today. None my type but at least the spunky ones are out there. I dropped into the Panera for morning coffee and Sudoku, which I now do in ink without any cribs. This draws a few looks from other solvers but the majority have simply never seen anyone working one before. Hey, I see the logic. If they [were able to] get by fifty years without something, what good could it possibly be?
Here’s a photo of me in my fat shirt, named so because it makes me look fat. No kidding, and I have some doozies I could show you to prove it. Not until you are ready for it. I left for work at a casual pace, stopping to see Legs and wishing I was 21 again.
I almost forgot. Before leaving I puttered a bit. That means yard-work in my parlance. I trimmed more branches from the coconut palm. Roland came over and told me more of the history. It was not transplant, but a real coconut as mentioned earlier. Enrique put it in water and it sprouted. He eventually put it outside. Like everything else around here, it was pretty much left to its own resources after that.It will take some research into the backups, but I believe the tree has gained close to 25% in height since I took over. It now stands close to twenty feet high and is twice as tall as the trailer. Here, take a look for yourself. For those of you lucky enough to have seen the place six months ago, yes, that is the same tree. We owe it all to Miracle-gro.
Yes, that is the same awning that blew off the window two months ago. I’ll get to it. Um, let’s find an excuse. Okay. JP was supposed to help me fix it. The temperature is perfect, 80 degrees. I left the door of the shop open and spent the first few hours trying to set up the wireless network. For some reason, my Linksys [router] will not work. I even logged in and went through the settings one by one. Nope.
There was a surge of business later in the day. Dickens even called, he returned early. Elly was there being a pest. Did I tell you she has the hots for Dickens? Oh yeah, big time. On the other hand I find her to be a bratty pest, like today. She comes in and buys the very rug I needed to cover the power cables to the Sony computer. A rug that sat there for weeks until I needed it. Recognize the pattern? Anyway, in comes all these black ladies and married ladies while I’m talking to Elly. She has a strange idea that you can learn things by watching me, where in reality since that leaves out the thinking part, it confuses the daylights out of most people. I made some wisecrack about Internet dating because she calls me “stud-muffin”. Well, after she left this brought out all different viewpoints on cyber-dating. The ladies, correctly guessing that I am single, poured out the practical advice about the Internet. The consensus is that it is a poor excuse for real meetings and a primary vector for venereal diseases. Good point.
On the way home, I called the G to get Brian’s number. He won’t give it, but said he would call him and ask him to give me a call. That was three hours ago. The G, even if he was enthusiastic about the idea is still not a reliable person to get this kind of thing done. He actually stated that he thinks we could play a duo. What? I can see that I likely have to find Brian on my own. If I have to, that is just another way the G is distancing himself from the very thing he claims he wants to do – work steady in the music field. You watch, when I eventually talk to him, he’ll say that Brian isn’t interested. I want to hear that from Brian.
Prezzo’s will have to wait. I did a supply run instead, then back here to relax. Ruth called to make sure I’ll be in tomorrow. Yes, of course. The rent is pending. I must commend the bicycle shop on Federal, they do great work. The guy charged me $5 to tighten a cable, but I see that he adjusted the brakes and put new hand grips. This is meritorious in Florida. I will get you the name of that shop soon.
ADDENDUM
Later. I got to wondering where the term “vector” became associated with disease. I don’t have the full details, but apparently this was first used in this way in 1926, not all that long ago as far as things like this go. There you go, it seems a lot happened for a nothing day. I’m going to play bass for a while, then go read few chapters about the middle ages. This prompts me to speak up about my criticisms of the feudal system that has some people off in the wrong direction.
I never said that feudalism was primitive, I said that it was too heavily based on tribal customs for my liking. There can be very little advancement when an entire tribe has to agree to anything new and I strongly dislike the way that all tribes very quickly move to spying on each other for any signs of non-conformity. It was really a series several comments I made about that same point that [the premise of] “Star Wars” was ridiculous.
A feudal society could not conquer the problems of intergalactic time travel. Not because they were primitive, but because they would never agree on any of the progress that would be required to accomplish such a large venture. There is only one part that makes sense. As soon as one feudal segment invented something, it would immediately be used to attack its neighbors or rebel against central authority.
For the record, feudal society was very highly evolved and I am aware of that. It was also complicated enough to make everybody right and everybody wrong at the same time. Sooner or later, everybody owes “allegiance” to somebody else and no independent thought or lifestyle can legally remain. Thus, feudalism and bureaucracy run parallel courses. Those in power seek to stifle all innovation except what suits the tribe and, of course, what suits the tribe is anything that increases their power. Only those begging to be led would agree to such a system but they do constitute a huge majority, the modern trick being to convince them they have a “vote”.
For insight, read “Utopia”. It is a tale about how shipwrecked sailors live some years on an island empire. It was written during feudal times and shows how completely dominated the human mind can become with the doctrine that people require to be led. The author describes perfection as a society where every person knew his place, all government posts were filled by relatives of the king and the national resources were spent on a different ceremony for every day of the year. (Bear in mind it is a long time since I read that book but that is what I got from it.)
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