This is a 1937 Kenmore in perfect operating condition. It has a few things I don’t like, such as a vertical bobbin. Even has the original instruction manual. See how rapidly things begin to progress when the Indians aren’t biting at your ankles? Even though it will get replaced as soon as I can afford it, this was not a bad deal for $25. I have enough left over to buy the Ibanez semi-acoustic guitar for my new act.
A Quizno’s engineering challenge for the day. The large pickle jars up front need replacing, but it costs a fortune to fill them up. The trick is to put an object in the core of the jar, easy enough. But what object? It turns out that many of the newer forms of plastic are biodegradable (not really, see below) and if you use a glass jar, the metal cap is subject to rust even in an environment of vinegar. Don’t use a soda bottle, the glue on the label cannot ever be entirely soaked off. What is the solution? It took me three minutes to solve, so go, see how you do.Biodegradable plastic is a joke. What really happens is the plastic sort of dissolves into ever finer grains until it starts to become ingested by organisms at the bottom of the food chain. Guess where that plastic winds up? Remember that next time you eat your fish and chips.
Well, I won’t be writing for FireHow anymore. They withheld payment saying they did not have enough tax information to pay me for the work I did. None of this was spelled out in their registration process and no warnings were issued that I was to be considered their employee or contractor. Fortunately, I was using their site as an experiment and don’t consider the effort a loss. If I had made any real money, that would be different.
I have no issues with the tax department. But I have issues with people who say they will pay you but then won’t. FireHow, you suck. If you are collecting data for the IRS, or use it for a threat of non-payment, you should say so up front. I suspect there were a lot of writers who put in a lot of time before they found out Firehow did not pay cash as was implied by their advertising. Also, Firehow did not say a word about the tax matters until January 1 of the following year, another indication they are lowlifes.
[Author's note 2020: the complaint about FireHow isn't clear, let me explain. What happened was FireHow declared they would pay cash for contributions. But when it came to pay-up time, they demanded what amounted to a resume of your information before they would send payment. That was not part of the deal and a lot of people got stung rather than give out the information to trolls.
I have no idea what became of FireHow, but they disappeared so completely there isn't even a Wiki listing.]
I am on the side of less regulation. Pay people what you promised and keep your nose out of their business. It is not your concern what they do with their money or how they conduct their personal affairs. Keep what you owe me, you pay so little it makes no difference anyhow. Scumbags. My traditional argument stands: people should pay, but if they do not, it is hardly the concern of losers like Firehow.
Dawn is out of jail, she’s the weirdo that loves the music I play at Jimbo’s. Spiders & Snakes. This is the same lady everyone thought got $8,600 for being hit by the police car, but actually got $90,000. And blew it in four months. She wound up back in the pen and just got out. (This was the girlfriend of Gary, the guy who walked in front of the train on Dixie last year, a suicide.) Firehow should take lessons.
Then I get caught in one of the longest rainstorms in Florida. I was on the return leg of a trip to Las Olas and wound up a guest of the Burger King on Federal for most of the afternoon. I used the opportunity to deep-read another half dozen articles on antennas, and again, all of them left out the important part. I was able to infer that with a meter called SWR for standing wave ratio, one should be looking for the smallest reading. But that’s a guess since nobody would come out and say it.
Here is my diet for the upcoming week. Atlantic farmed salmon, bluefin tuna, mackerel, rainbow trout, sea bass, halibut and catfish. See if you can spot any pattern besides the plastic beads. Ah, you got it, they all contain omega-3 fatty acids, of which I am to double my intake. Why could not Mother Nature with her infinite wisdom include a product like peanut butter, of which I also plan to double starting tomorrow morning? Mmmm, peanut butter on pancakes. Six years is penance enough.
