August 5, 2009

           Here’s a photo that underlines the passage of time for me, it was taken three years ago. It is another good demo of photography technique. That is JP in his yellow work shirt walking toward the lawn in front of his father’s house, south wing. I won’t analyze much for you, but notice how the curving driveway and sway of his arms focus on the front doorway. Otherwise this photo would be but a series of straight parallax lines.
           Business has picked up ever so slightly; I may just make ends meet even if the room does not rent out. I’m willing to be flexible, since this place is just a little too big to look after myself when Wallace isn’t here. I wonder how he’s doing, no word since he got to International Falls last week. Hey Wallace, wherever you are, we still need a sofa!

           I’m often the last to know, but I just heard the Space Shuttle program is officially terminated. Hooray! When did that piece of junk arrive anyway? I think it was 1972 right as the Apollo program was canceled after the military found the moon didn’t contain any weapons grade anything. But that damn shuttle doomed the trip to Mars by 35 years. The first shuttle didn’t even launch until 1982 or so, “burning bales of thousand dollar bills”.
           I’ve revamped two hours of my music set containing, you guessed it, Eddie’s material. That’s my backup in case he doesn’t make the grade. I keep a log of the music I play and it shows my song list evolves by 25% per year. That is, one tune in four gets replaced by something else. That means a rate of change that is 20 times faster than the other Florida bands I won’t mention. It’s not all gravy, I’ve had “Long Black Veil” stuck in my head since noon y’day. Argh.

           For the first time in my life, I had a dizzy spell. I said dizzy, not dozy, and I’m serious that I had to take off work an hour early. I had just finished trimming a pair of leather boots and looked at the leather thinking, “Did I just make such a crooked cut?” when I felt my vision grow blurry. Really, it was nothing and it was awfully hot today even inside the shop.

           [Author's note 2015-08-05: this was a symptom of my pending third heart attack. I'm pointing this out not to evoke empathy for my suffering, but to repeat the warning that there are no fixed signals about a heart condition. And they can keep changing on their own. I'm saying do not ignore any unexplained factor because it doesn't seem serious at the time. If it is unusual, it is serious. I very rarely get dizzy spells, so this one I caught in time.]

           I’m staying home in the A/C with a good book and some home made chicken soup, which I just happened to have a pot full. You might question hot food in this weather but soup is about the lightest meal you can deal with here unless you want to sleep all afternoon long. Watching TV is out since the only thing on is endless reruns of “Dances With Wolves”. Even music practice is impossible since I need the computer for that and it is set up on the Florida room.
           You may recall my research from last year, where I measured the temperature before and after insulation and an A/C on full blast in that room. During the day, the combination of these factors only lowers the temperature by 12 – 15 degrees. Occupation in the summer daytime is impossible for more than a few minutes. It is still a Florida room and this still is Florida. To adequately cool that area for permanent occupation will require a 15,000 Watt 220V unit gobbling up $140 electricity per month. That’s why I always watch for new inventions that might work out cheaper.

           How about this League of American Workers? Now that they’ve lost their jobs they are squawking like chickens. Are these the same workers that for the last 40 years labeled everyone who spoke out against immigration as Nazis? The same workers who bellowed everyone against welfare total as rednecks? The workers who called all attempts at categorizing crimes as racist? It appears so. They shot down every voice of reason and now they expect sympathy? I don’t think so. They just spent their lifetimes pretending to be tolerant while themselves being intolerant. Now it’s their turn to lose everything and there is nobody left to listen.
           Last, how about those IBM commercials that want to “make the world smart”? The ones in your face with all the third world actors. Particularly with East Indian accents. Like we are supposed to believe that hype that East Indians have superior mathematical intelligence. Yeah, explain why their country is such a mess. Quick, name ten Hindus who invented or discovered anything that reshaped the world for the better? Who does IBM think they are kidding? It is like those phone company commercials ten years ago, shoving this crap down everyone’s throat. Will the real bigots please stand up?
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