One year ago today: June 14, 2013, a trip to Miami.
Five years ago today: June 14, 2009, a trip to Flamingo.
Ten years ago today: June 14, 2004, Univac.
MORNING
I’m not going to list the Italian shop in Ft. Lauderdale with the expensive coffee, and I’ll spell out my reasons. First, it was very good coffee. That’s all ye need know. But also, it was a convenient location right on the boulevard, they leave you alone when you are having your sips, and there was absolutely nothing out of line with $5.50 per cup in that area of town. Plus, here is a display case of their goods and the $15 tab included two cookies which I’m sure weren’t cheap. My reaction was that I was expecting $9 instead of $15, but I didn’t ask in advance so that’s my own mistake.
By being the worst. They were such a lousy business that the SEC would not license them to sell their stock. So when the dot-com bubble burst at the turn of the century, the only companies that didn’t lose were the ones that nobody invested in. Google.
This is another incinerator see-saw day, where it is too hot to stand in the sun when it shows and a blinding rain storm when it isn’t. I recently wrote to a few folks up north who were skittish about living in “a trailer”. Allow me to explain that all modern trailers in Florida, such as mine, are built to far more exacting standards than most houses. The trailers are anchored, houses are not. What happens is the roof blows off the house when the wind catches under the eaves, then the rest of the structure is easy to flatten. Trailers do not have eaves. Also, the trailers are rated for 130 mph and above that there is mass evacuation to the inland.
And so you know, far too many Florida houses were built as flimsy summer cottages, often added on with sheds, porches, converted carports, and enclosed patios over the years. You are safer in most “trailers” than in a house. I know I can often see horizontal rain out my patio doors and hear the howling storm, but inside here there isn’t a whisper. My manufactured home does not rattle to the foundations the way "real houses" do.
AFTERNOON
I could not find either a safety switch nor a replacement switch for my new mini-table saw. I finally devised my own. Top photo is pointing to the broken switch, middle photo is under the table, showing the ordinary circular saw with the blade guard tied back. Yep, it’s a 1.5 HP Black & Decker and so far cuts anything I’ve run through. Anyway, this cheap arrangement is what I needed, as my sawing needs are not that sophisticated.
Watching a documentary during siesta, I have some advice for the lunkheads who make videos of WWII as if the Germans were the bad guys. Most German soldiers were not Nazis, they were conscripts who would rather be at home making sausage and beer. In particular, I dislike the bozos who call the V-1 and V-2 the first terror weapons. Like that dork who says the wolves near Chernobyl are “radioactive”. Are those boys that stupid? Apparently so. If they were radioactive, they would die.
Anyway, the V-weapons were no “the first”, not even in WWII. Years before they were launched, the British had been indiscriminately bombing civilian population centers. Or is it not terror when England does it. The English, not the Germans, invented the concentration camp (Boer War) and conducted campaigns against civilians long before the Germans. So, please, little boys, do your research beforehand. If you’ve got the brains to do so, that is.
One more thing. If you are going to call the V-2 a “Nazi” weapon, please remember to call the Mustang a “Democrat” airplane and the Lancaster a “Labour” bomber. I’ve had to go over this with those numbskulls before.
EVENING
I studied so intently I missed the alarm and was almost late for bingo. That would be a pity, since the place was packed. So was the parking lot as a new business has opened three doors down. A boxing ring, and the clientele is totally Cuban. I looked in the door and yep, they really smash the hell out of each other. Not only do I dislike violent sports, I have no respect for anyone who does. They represent the ape-like lowlifes that never did quite evolve into humans. That crude simian admixture of reptilian DNA not yet evolutionarily dead-ended, the Cro-Magnons among us. If mankind extinguishes itself, we already know who to blame.
I toured the casino for live bands and was a mite disappointed. The one spot in the entire complex with live music was not a local band. They play around here, but they don’t live here. I’m aware the casino has a mandate to show as much homegrown job-creation as possible, so I listened closely to the band for an hour. Most of their stuff was unrecognizable. Some of it was terrible.
The band wore costumes. A five piece with a sax player, which restricts what they play to the rare tunes that have a saxophone part. I noticed instantly how the crowd perked up when they played the same brand of old crap that my band plays. I’ll make the approach early in the week. Otherwise, my band is going nowhere. We ain’t getting any better, is what I’m saying. The trick is going to be finding out how much the house pays.
By ten-ish I walked out. Gambling is another primeval entertainment that disgusts me. The activity is mathematically breathtaking, but the people who do it have something definitely wrong with them. You see these sixty-year-old bagged out ladies leading their own mothers through the aisles of slot machines. This is the best you can do, take your mother to a poker game? I know somebody will point out that my bingo game is gambling. But from my perspective, the game is a job, not a social activity. I don’t see my critics out at the breakfast joint on Sundays. They’re home licking their wounds.
By eleven-ish I was hungry. Did I scout around for pasta fazul? Naw, that would be like going to Olive Garden and thinking you’re eating Italian food. Or thinking what you get from Domino’s is pizza. You could not be more wrong. Has anyone seen the Domino’s menu lately? It’s unbundled. All their prices are for the plain and unadorned "cheese-only" version. Should say cheese product. When it says some items are available in other forms for a dollar extra, they mean after dark that is the only way you can get them. As an old programmer, it didn’t take me long to spot everything on the menu is geared to get $15 out of you.
ADDENDUM
Let me glance over my blog rules to see if anything is being left out. I remind all new readers that we do not know much about why people read this blog, but we know that they do. By the thousands. This makes for reluctance to change things even though it is known that slight additions [like the yesteryear feature] nearly always show positive results. Is it content, or that the links make it easier to look back? It is also easy to see how styling changes [in this blog] have evolved since things went on-line [around 2006]. (I further attribute most changes to this blog as being entirely influences from the Internet.)
So let me review my list, see if I'm slipping. Over time, there is a tendency to include a little of everything, because there is imperfect information about what works best. So, have I left anything out recently? Yes, descriptions of characters, the ever-popular what’s wrong with women category, and digs at dumb people. I can’t do it all today, but let’s see.
Ah, of course. Characters. The Hungarian disk jockey at the bakery. Famous all over Hungary in radio, television, and reality documentaries. Picture this person in your mind and you’ve certainly got it all wrong. She weighed in at 300 pounds, stood 6-foot, and could sing like a canary. Which she did several times during morning coffee, when not saying the F-word. The tune stuck in my head all day, Ritchie's “Hello”.
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However, this led me to listen to the song, which I find has two chords, A and E. Wait, there’s D and Dm right at the ending. But you should now hear me play it solo on the bass--and I’m one of those rare bassists who can do a proper six-eight timing, Jaco. So listen out for the bass solo version if it goes viral, that will be me or somebody who copied my idea. Do a lot of people copy my ideas? Yes, but that is because they are written down and can be found.
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