Here’s a swanky set of wire strippers. JZ and I were truck hunting again and wound up over at the old estate. It is practically vacant to the walls, kind of a sad thing since the home has been in the family since 1968. (Turns out I correctly guessed the selling price some months ago.) My family never lived in the same house longer than two years when I grew up. In a final inspection of the attic, we found this tool and one of those wind-up emergency radios. This gizmo strips insulation off in a wink without nicking the underlying wire no matter how thick or thin.
Until JZ showed me how it worked, I never knew such a device existed. Or if I have, I don’t recall. He said pick one, the stripper or the radio, so you can guess which one would make my life any easier. I blasted over to south Miami on the batbike this morning to visit and look at trucks again. The few models around are not bargains, I told him to not even consider what we had looked at. Until the truck is done, this is about as exciting as it gets.These 4x4 trucks are all pretty to look at, but the last truck you will buy in your life should be chosen differently than the rest. Once you turn 50 or 60, I figure gems like power locks, power windows, great AC, and less to keep clean change from options to requirements. There was also something inflexible about the sales staff everywhere we went along south Dixie. That unwillingness to haggle that you get back on the farm when all the neighbors have agreed on a price before you arrived. They decide between them what you can afford behind your back. That attitude, that's what I detected.
JZ was refinishing an antique chair in the garage. He associates houses with tool sheds and such as working class, but where’s he going to work when the house is gone? Is he intending to haul everything up to the third floor where he lives? These and other vital questions keep our conversation lively but the bottom line is soon neither of us will have space to repair anything indoors.
It was such an early day we had both skipped breakfast so we went to the Deli across from Dadeland for the roast beef sandwich. It’s enough for two, at least I mean two like me. It comes with unlimited cole slaw and pickles. We ordered one sandwich and shared it, shown here in not the greatest picture, but it was just right for the occasion. Plus we had two ladies adjacent-wise showing perky interest. And left when they mentioned their religion.I stopped for a quick visit with Alaine, who was not feeling well. She fell asleep watching documentary video on her iPad and hurt her back. I’ve had that happen since I think everyone here knows how often I nod off sitting up in a chair with a good book. Probably once a week but I have the perfect chair. People often ask why I keep that ancient chair. I advised a day off sitting down except to make tea. Works for me unless it is neck pain. That neck pain is a real pain in the neck, as Dave Berry might have quipped.
It was another high-speed blast north on 95 to beat the rush hour. Friday right here, I made Italian boiled chicken with onion instead of garlic. Phone is powered down and I still have the bottom of a bag of broken ginger snaps. Don’t mistake this with tradition, I never liked ginger snaps for the longest time up until a few years ago. That’s when cookie quality in general declined and Peak Freen’s disappeared around here.
Firefox has replace Chrome and Opera as the most frequent browser of this blog. That makes me happy if only because IE (Internet Explorer) has slumped to 18% and any decline of MicroSoft gets an upvote from here. Stats are misleading. I have one persistent user who once read my article on Axis Sally years upon years ago. He is so unsophisticated, he still uses that as his search criteria to get here. So it appears on my list that Axis Sally is one of my biggest draws. This planet needs a whole new definition of “progress”.
Here is what may be the last photo of the old place, at least with the sidecar parked in front.
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