Today started with a test drive of the new scooter, for those who have not been following along, I am testing it as a form of minimal-stress transport. Hint, don’t find out the hard way that car driving is a high-stress activity, like I did. Mind you, this trip was rather carefully controlled and I was wearing a recorder. The destination was a callout I would otherwise have had to pass on, so the scooter is already paying for itself. That in itself has a calming effect, I’d say. Here’s a photo of a truck full of dead trees being unloaded. They are farm raised, which is supposed to make you feel better.
I’ve only owned one small motorbike in my life before, it was a Honda 90. All these years later my right foot still seeks that brake pedal. Another caution is this 150 is correspondingly much more powerful than the 90 and I have to take it easy. This rig can really move and I’ve never opened it up yet. The scooter is related to Project 32, which is now 8.915% complete.Then I loaded up the wheelbarrow with yard trimmings only to find I cannot lift it. No, it isn’t heavy. Mostly dead leaves. My mind says no problem and I’ve heard this happens to people when they get old. Their minds say charge up the mountain but their back says no. Is my condition permanent? I was reading more on the connection between diatoms and nanotechnology.
The nanotubes look like stents but would last virtually forever. My six stents are due for replacement in 2014 at a cost of a quarter million dollars. So you know what I’m rooting for. Here’s some no-tech talk about nanotubes. Keep in mind I’m bending the data to keep it readable.
Carbon atoms operate on a very tiny scale. They can be formed into a tiny ball of 60 atoms, called a “bucky ball” after its resemblance to the housing domes designed by Buckminster Fuller, that guy with no first name. This ball is uniform and stable. Apparently so stable, it can be used to anchor other atoms. For instance, they can be designed to carry receptors that attach to cancer protein walls. By bathing the entire body in the correct frequency of microwaves the carbon would heat enough to “cook” off only the cancerous cells. And it serves them right, too.
During the manufacture of bucky balls, a ratio of the molecules don’t close but string themselves out into tube shapes. Nanotubes. They have the same cell patterns along the surface but different properties. It is incredibly expensive (I read somewhere $400 million each) to build factories that can control this process, hence the interest in getting diatoms to do it. Somebody has discovered by imparting the right “twist” to these tubes, electrical and light resistances can be varied. That is all for now as this is leading edge technology beyond what most of us can come to terms with.
I talked to Enrique today, he’s still a crusty old crank who still knows everything for sure. Well, then, in the circles he moves that may pretty much be true. Between us we’re watching for a bargain the other guy might. This is an instance where the scoort will prove very valuable. He says he sold his place for $3,500 but it sounds like one of the Panera deals where the buyer is “putting the finance package together.
You should gander at the place next to his. Some Frenchie bought it in rough shape and it looks like he sunk $10,000 into it. Best property on the block. There has been a slight delay but tomorrow I learn how to research properties on-line.
Today was a cold snap, down into the 60s. That’s deep freeze weather for this town. It was cold like Montana, where you can feel the heat of the sun but it only helps on that side. I went over to Dunkin Donuts and read my newest novel, “Under the Color of Law”. That title doesn’t inspire but the plot is excellent. Those who say they don’t mind the system keeping records could learn a lot from this book. Keep in mind that every piece of information ever given to the government has been abused in some way. It’s chapter 7 and I still like the style.
What has three arms and two legs? A bass player who is thinking. That drum footswitch is inconvenient. It is hard to see, inhibits stage antics, and it has trouble staying put. I’d considered attaching it to my shoe but that is even more impractical. I need a drum switch that moves with me and does not require an arm or a leg to operate. Believe it or not, I’ve rigged up and tested a successful prototype.
Using a tensor bandage I attached a PS-15 (a small footswitch with a pedal that depresses flat rather than hinged) to the inside of my left elbow. Then by discreetly squeezing that elbow against my torso I can trigger the drums. In fact, the motion is more natural than balancing on one foot in the dark. The idea is not patentable. The point is it works and works well.
Later, I finished the book “Under the Color of Law”. Yes, I can recommend it. The ending is weak, the plot is the time-worn FBI interfering with real police work, and at page 249 the author is still introducing new characters. You have to juggle 42 different names to follow the action. The author, Michael McGarrity, looks, acts and is an ex-cop who likes to serve and protect while condoning illegal wire taps, blackmailing and threatening innocent people, and throwing unwilling witnesses in jail overnight to improve their attitudes. He’d work out in Florida.
Tonight was another test of who’d work out in this town. Something died under the building. It is mammal and it is about the size of a cat, by smell. I have not found it yet. Some people think they could handle an ordinary home-owners situation like this from thousands of miles away. I’d like to see that. It would cost $800 to clean up what I have to do tomorrow but right now it is too dark.
Please, let’s hope it is not Pudding-Tat.
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