What is it? The title kind of gives it away. Remember those measuring blocks that carpenters make of useful measurements? This is the same thing scaled down to sewing kit size. Like the seam ripper, it is dandy when stripping wires to length. It was one of those days where I wanted to take it easy but did not work out that way. Let me check the blog guideline, here it is. Ah-hah, it says today I just list the significant events chronologically. Good. That makes it easy on me.
First thing over to Ruby’s place to fix the fax machine. You recall Ruby the parrot. Dear reader, a fax is outdated technology from 40 years ago. When it jams up electronically, just unplug the thing, wait 15 seconds, and plug it back in. This lobotomizes it, makes it forget everything it ever learned, knew, or remembered. Seriously, if my family could manage this every morning of their lives, it can’t possibly require any measurable brainpower.Next, over to a real sewing machine display center. By chance, the manufacturer’s representative was there and bored. I was able to pump her for the real specs. It turns out all home model plastic-cased sewing machines are cheap and the life span is determined by how much plastic is used on the moving parts. Therefore, computerized machines last longer since you are more likely to push a control button than press a plastic lever. But how much longer? With normal usage, four hours per week, the regular machines are expected to last two years, the computerized units five years. This is not good news as the prices for decent units started at $200, something I still have to gulp at.
Then over to the thrift stores to price shop. The nice one on Griffin is closed, so I went to Dania. They had no machines, but I stocked up on crime and detective novels for a few weeks. I even mistakenly bought one I’d already read, “Cold Blood”, the one where the detective gets a heart transplant from the sister of the lady who needs his help. I think I’ll read it again anyway.
I stopped at the shoemaker. Alfredo is not spending a lot of time there. His wife is still quite ill and he leaves the shop to Boris. I suspect they may not really be there much longer for it is really Alfredo’s personality that kept people returning and Boris does not speak any Spanish at all. It will be the end of a twenty-five year tradition.
My austerity measures are paying off and already my electric bill, which should be $70 to $80 in this weather, is less than $30. I now have access to cheap solar panels and copper piping to build the water pre-heater, so I predict over half my bill is for using the refrigerator, that is, about 50 cents per day. Not bad. I am working my smart fan. In case you have forgotten, this is a fan in every room that comes on when I enter and follows me automatically as I move around. It blows harder as the temperature rises or I move further away so I always experience an even 76 degrees. (These are plans I had for the old place had those people not screwed everything up.)
The (hopefully regular) weekly antenna meeting was super-productive this afternoon. Agent M rewired it to my blueprints and it works, although not yet as well as cheaper antennas we dug out of his kit box. He now has a complete set of resistors and components to rig up his first transistor control circuit and I predict we will have the zig-zag antenna fully functional within the week, if only on the test bench. He is fully aware he is getting the instant benefits of countless hours I spent fighting with those transistors and how useless the owner’s manuals are in real life.
Meanwhile, he is fascinated by how well and fast the computer code I write is duplicating his circuits, but doing so digitally without all the messy components. He states he is dumbfounded, that he has never seen such a thing done before. Neither have you. There is considerable synergy in what we are accomplishing.
For example, he has an iMac, something I can only dream of, which come with plenty of software for analyzing wireless signals. The unsophisticated would call it hacking. It is supplied standard with iMacs. He often looked at the printouts but did not know how to read them until I explained what each column was for. Now he knows what it means and now I have access to an iMac.
One priority for the “club”, I use the term loosely, has already changed. It is no longer a field strength meter or an oscilloscope we hope to buy soon. (It didn't happen until 2015.) It is an iPad at around $500. Why? Because the iPad has incredible capabilities for remote troubleshooting and as far as the meter or the scope, there is an app for that. This means we can reach out and fix your computer without leaving the house. Agent M knows how to work the iPad, I know how to interpret the results. Things were just getting to this stage at the shop last August when we had to close the doors.
The pie is getting bigger without us owing any one in the world a favor.
On the way home, I at long last made it to the Karaoke show at the Mardi Gras. It is an open area on the second floor with a 30 foot projection screen. Six times larger than any club I’ve done since learning to sing 18 months ago. The other performers were excellent vocalists, but to a one chose slow music. After a half hour, the audience starts nodding off. I saw this many times on stage with the Hippie and his tranquilizer guitar.
My tunes kicked everything into high gear but I could not stick around for a second appearance. There were only nine people in a place that had room for a hundred fifty. Eight of them were singers, including this Korean-looking lady who does great (but soporific) Patsy Cline. Many of them sounded like they’d taken lessons. The bartender says it picks up after 10:00 PM. Forget it. I’m rarely out that late unless I’ve got a paying gig.
I went home and made marisco, a fish soup I learned to like in Venezuela during the 90s. How was your day?
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