October 31, 2006

           [Author's note 2016: This photo has no relevance to the blog, it just appeared on a search of 2006 while I was looking for a picture to liven up this page. It says it is some kind of Celtic festival. In which case, cancel Halloween. This looks like plenty more fun. Have you ever noticed there is always a surplus of women whenever these pagans get together? And you voyeurs can look as carefully as you want, this pictue is very carefully posed.]

           Sure, it took me three hours, but I just accomplished something that the factory owners in Jakarta can’t do between them. I built a box. (An ordinary cardboard shipping crate.) Somebody who knew what they were doing would have beat me, but I beat Indonesia hands down. While I could imply that is something you should remember when you go to buy a budget heart-lung machine when you grow old, I note that paying some grade 12 dropout to build it here is not any guaranty of quality either.

           [Author's note: the box was a shipping carton that Indonesia wanted huge money up front to "make a prototype". The old California scam that every inquiry is an opportunity to upsell them to a custom order.]

           Standards have collapsed so badly here that I don’t blame manufacturers for high-tailing it overseas. I’m not exactly on their side, mind you. They are constantly complaining that they can’t find skilled labor, but when you find out what they pay you’ll know the reason why. Ruth did not inform me until today that she had spent $70 [y’day] on the phone to the factory director and have reached some manner of East-West agreement over what constitutes a box. I would have paid admission to hear that conversation.

           Ah, Ruth is also getting tough on the computer, a direct result of my influence. You should have seen this magazine lady trying to get information out of her this afternoon. The bad people have learned to be polite to trick you into being polite back. It still works, just not as well any more. Reminds me of that Polish guy who tipped me $50 last year when I showed him he didn’t have to answer any questions on-line. (Those "required field" boxes.)
           Back to the box. That was misleading about the three hours. That also includes the travel and shopping time to get the thing back here, and the time to design the triangular logo “Wiggles” with the paw print between the G’s. I advised Ruth to hold onto the box, for I am not at all convinced we are done with the Dutch East Indies yet.

           Okay, I’m back. I was called away to Gil, the French Moroccan lady who needs coaching on filling out applications on-line. These can be strange service calls because you meet with strange situations. Example, there is her husband sitting in the living room in front of the TV aware that my fee is $25 per hour. She knows she has hit the jackpot of information while he is convinced that computer lessons should be free to people who never wanted computers in the first place. In that case, we should get free money from the IRS. Why, shucks, computers would not even be necessary if people would just go back to the good ol’ way of doing things.
           It also raises my eyebrow to learn how trusting some people can be about the system. Whereas Gil sees the need for passwords, she has no problem filling out on-line forms that give away information that I would consider highly personal. She is able to deny that there are more crooks than honest people on the Internet because the system or the police or God will protect her 24/7.

           The rain kept falling all day, so I was listening to an audio tape in the car. Gag, I thought it would be a murder mystery. It is called “Theory of Relativity” and it is about the stupid, petty things that bother people who think marriage is the proper way to live your entire adult life. At first I thought it was some lame spoof. I realize once you get married a lot of your behavior is artificial and dictated by tribal custom but I have a hard time understanding those who think it is some pinnacle of achievement to go through the motions for years on end. I know of just too many men who have screwed their wives younger sister to consider it shockingly rare. This story is worse. One entire chapter is devoted to how some 35 year old broad carefully lays out all her clothes on the bed before she puts them on, actually describing the color and trim of each item.

           Reader’s Digest. They have an article on dog wigs coming out in January 2007, featuring Ruth. Actually, it is a new format, a magazine called (I think) “Only in America”. They describe it as humor; I’ll reserve judgment. The articles are limited to seventy-five words, or about one minute’s production time for me. (I don’t know about talking, but I can certainly type faster than a lot of people can think.)

           I made good money today, so I’m hoping for perfect weather this weekend. I think I’ll stock up if the dollar store is still around on Marco Island. That is the place whose lease specified they could not sell food, but they did. Turns out Publix owns the shopping center and you figure out the rest. JP really liked the place, the prices were low enough to justify the trip out there. It was on the last trip back that JP got flashed by three different women (two biker broads and a hillbilly lady). Yet he will not believe me when I tell him we have to travel more often, mainly because women in small towns just never meet men like us.
           Add it up, and I am one tired cowboy this evening. No bass practice as planned. That tune “Momma Tried” by Haggard is still stuck in my brain and will not go away. Don’t listen to it, I warn you. It is deceptively simple.

           [Author's note 2015-10-31: coincidence? The same tune ("Momma Tried") has come back onto my list nine years later almost to the day. I first heard this song as a teenager when this hillbilly at school kept singing the first line. Back then, I didn't identify with "prison" songs. We were taught to think only bad people went to prison. However, I learned quickly enough through reading that prisons are all too often used by the establishment for other purposes. I no longer feel that only bad people are in prison, in fact there are many more bad people in politics percentage-wise.
           Additional note 2016: This tune "Momma Tried" became a big hit on my bass solo repertoire. I can solo all the way through it including the fancy intro and the lead break.]