Here’s another motorcycle pic that has nothing to do with my recent repair. It does have to do with the bad economy, and let me tell you locally, it really sucks. Here is something not seen merely two years ago, a complete row of parked cycles outside Home Depot. My rustic unit is shown in the far background. This is a sign of the times, and they are consistently the 150cc size engine I chose as the best compromise.I am donating my cutoff saw to the club, along with an almost matching transformer from an old HP printer. We are easily past the stage where we can safely and permanently wire such things together. Alas, my poor budget performance this month means the drill press is just going to have to wait. Alaine did call from Coconut Grove for a computer repair, but they were able to get it going again without me. Dang, I wanted to head over there to visit anyway.
The club meeting went well, it was again two minutes of mechanics and two hours of basic robot theory. It’s that the mechanic part is dreary compared to each weeks discovery of new ICs, which in turn explain mysteries. I wonder how many geek types who brag about 64 bit computers actually know what they are talking about. Maybe one in a hundred. We are becoming able to categorize chips by their functions. That’s another skill that is not spelled out in the textbooks.
We are still having difficulties getting easy circuits to work. That is something that time will eliminate. Just like college, it is wiser to forge ahead with new material and let the skipped parts fall into place once the bigger picture is formed. I’d guess we are around half way familiar with the 50-some concepts needed to actually make a robot do something. The hardest part so far? The computer coding. There is a lack of material describing exactly where it fits into the overall scheme of things. What we know, we learned by ourselves because there was no other way.
In a remarkable few weeks, the new pharmacy went from vacant lot to open over on Pembroke. It would be safe to say that was not the work of some Florida outfit. The store is giving away all kinds of free stuff so I’ll be over there tomorrow with the lineups. I am impressed by how rapidly that store appeared from nothing.
Who remembers Capt. J’s? It was a neighborhood pub over on Dixie, now closed up. The clientele has readjusted to the three remaining watering holes. Boston Johnny’s for those who can afford the drinks and the DUI’s. Buddy’s Place with no place to sit, and of course, Jimbos. They are a late crowd so I don’t see them much, but a crowd nonetheless and I’m thinking about Friday’s again.
I was therefore also talking with Rhonda, the Karaoke lady. I did not know she worked a day job. She does drive a nice new van. We are both watching closely the difference the increased crowds make. While the pub does not hire circuit bands, we now rival the places that do for crowd size, variety of shows, and weekly frequency. I’d be ignoring reality if I did not wonder if Capt. J’s had taken my offer three years ago whether the situation might be reversed. Jimbo Fridays are still mine for the taking, but I don’t want to return with my same old show. Plus, most of the singing I do, the audience already knows the material from my Karaoke appearances. It doesn’t deliver the wow any more.
