This is a palm tree with a brush cut.
I put the word out that I’m looking for a scooter and it seems there’s a few lean and hungry shops out there. My budget allows only for a used model, the real killer is the $275 fee to register the vehicle in Florida. When the recession hit, Tallahassee raised vehicle taxes. Hooray for the American way, although I can think of at least one other North American country that’s been doing that kind of thing for 94 years.Chasing around for the bicycle conversion motor has gotten too frustrating. Pricing is so secretive you don’t know who to believe. Worst, many stores, particularly on-line, won’t mention up front they are selling two-cycle engines, hoping to snag the sale before it gets mentioned. Used Dneprs and Urals are dropping below $6,000 and will have to keep dropping before I’ll bite. Some of that hefty price must be the novelty value, as units built in 1968 are still costly.
I’m reading Mary H. Clark’s “Loves Music, Loves to Dance”. This was her fictional bestseller based on a television studio that has women go out on dates with men who place personals, hoping to do an expose on the ads. Except, the women start turning up dead. So far, it is one of her more inspired tales. Just me, some soup and the flickering light of my cracked mantles, the modern ones seem to last hours instead of weeks. Or it could be my memory saying the old ones lasted that long.
More info on solar water heating. There are two basic types, one with a pump and holding tank, the other relies only on water pressure from the tap. It is a bit peculiar that all sources I’ve read sing only praises, as if everybody loves naturally heated water. We know this can’t be, so the research continues. In Florida, one does not have to worry about the pipes freezing and I saw one novel arrangement.
The owner had build a frame in his basement and made a huge tank connected to his outdoor passive heating coils. This tank acted as heat storage. Inside the tank was a set of secondary coils that fed to his hot water tank. Thus, he had hot water all night. The water does not boil, but gets much too hot to touch. His outside coils are copper pipes soldered to a sheet of flat aluminum siding. Copper ¾” pipe costs $3 per foot these days.
Limewire is under an injunction to stop supporting or distributing their software. Since that does not specifically state they can’t use what is already out there, I read the list of plaintiffs. Not one musician or independent studio was represented. Nope, just the big boys, namely Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, Capitol Records, Electra Entertainment Group, Interscope Records, LaFace Records, Motown Record Company, Priority Records, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recording, Virgin Records America and Warner Bros. Records. It’s Limewire vs. the Billionaires.
My phone has been accidentally turned off intermittently since Sunday and I did not miss it. Well, not turned off, it goes into that dormant mode where I can make outgoing calls but the ringer is silent. I don’t know anything is wrong until somebody says something. Frankly, I’ve rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. My prescription sometimes gives lower back pain and I can’t lift anything. That also explains my extra time in the movies and libraries. My toothpicks are outside and I can’t even budge them.
On the way home I stopped at Dave-O’s. His truck was there, the lights were on, his boots were by the door. But he wasn’t home. I was going to treat him to Chinese food, another thing I have not had in many years that I’m allowed. It was a perfect day for bike riding and I got in the requisite six miles. I moved so slow some kids on the sidewalk overtook me and passed ahead. Don’t think it a big deal, six miles is barely a one hour ride and only mild exercise.
Later, Mary Clark’s book gets upgraded to excellent. I’ve read her earlier and short stories, nothing compares to the techniques she’s learned by the time she wrote this one. It is exceptional how each of the suspects has a link or motive to the crime (although I’d correctly guessed the culprit). The janitor drove a station wagon. The jeweler went to the same college. The playboy knew the first victim. In all, well done, but again, I had to keep a separate list of the twenty-plus characters.
Temp: 73. Press: 30.15. Humid: 78%.
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