You know that idiot brake light on the dash that’s been on for three years? Well, it may have been telling the truth. Since the brakes worked fine, after a while you assume the light is stuck on. Nope. The brake lines are shot, rusted right through. This is a major repair because the lines have to be custom bent to fit the chassis. However, Angelo says the major damage is toward the back and he’s heard of a method to splice the lines. He will look into it and save me some big bucks.This took an hour during which we got to talking. All he wanted to do when he grew up in Puerto Rico is join the army. They sent him into the Coast Guard. He bought himself a fancy boat and learned to recognize the radar signatures of all the boats along the south Miami coast. Before long he is chasing drug dealers and getting promoted.
Then one day, sitting in the control booth, he sees the signature of his own boat heading south. Before he can react, his boat is gone but he is able to determine it went to Haiti. One year later after failing to interest the bureaucracy in his plight, he hops a plane over there himself. He drives up and down the entire coast and sure enough, there is his boat at a known drug smuggling cove. Angelo is one tough character. He arms himself to the teeth and takes the boat back, surprising to gunmen on board.
However, the boat is not fueled up enough to make America. He heads straight for Cuban waters, knowing he is registered in Panama. Unfortunately, the Cubans already know the boat is a drug runner and won’t let him land. He finagles enough gas to make it back to the Keys. Unfortunately, his own Coast Guard tails the boat as coming from Cuba. After three hectic months in detention, he is forced to tell them about stealing his own boat back. He gets a year in jail and kicked out of the service.
He can fix anything and he has his own shop. He flies to the islands and comes back with five times as much money as he left with. To really appreciate his skills you have to watch him work. Not a wasted move or wrong decision and all his tools in perfect condition. We’ll be pricing out the brake lines tomorrow.
Since I’ve been asked, I will explain what I have against youTube. Nothing. What I dislike is the watering down of standards. Should youTube do that, I can’t help but dislike it. Before the Internet, only the very best got media exposure. The tradeoff is there were not that many talented newcomers who lasted the distance, causing a somewhat boring conformity at the top. But they were the top and you knew it. Now, everybody is on the bandwagon and I’ll wager every last person on youTube has hoped they will be the next overnight sensation. It shows.
There used to be four or five music charts and one star was at the top of each. Now, on youTube, there are so many categories, nobody speaks of stars. They talk “chart toppers”. Not the same thing. For example, I haven’t any notion who is number one on the “demure” list or the “feelgood” list. But I do know there is only so much room at the top. The more lists you got, the less time anyone can hold their position. Standards have sunk so low, musicians from 40 years ago can still kick Internet butt. Instead of having a dozen heroes that last, we get 10,000 youTube bands with a half-life of six months. Watered down.
That works for women, as well. You look at the top ten of anything. Best waitress. Best hostess. Best obscure something or other. All narrow categories. Before the Internet, some freaky looking head case of a woman wouldn’t get into a studio. Now they have a category for that, too. Example, those two weirdo ladies with the “bad angel” haircuts. (The Progressive insurance commercial and the lab tech on CSI.) Total yuck, but they’re on TV. Thanks to overexposure, there are women winning beauty contests today would not have passed muster twenty years ago.
Between the car and bicycle, I had a quiet day at home. This place is too large for one person unless one has a need to continually be dusting and cleaning. A lamp and a chair are all I need by way of a room with a view. I made a rather novel chili with sausage instead of hamburger and began to re-read “Sailing Alone Around the World” (Joshua Slocum). In January or 1896, he twice describes what could be monster waves. He was near Cape Horn, an area now known to produce these anomalies. Slocum carefully avoids an estimate, stating the crests were above his mast and came from nowhere. What a shame sailor’s had become embarrassed to give accurate descriptions.
