One year ago today: October 5, 2013, routine maintenance.
Five years ago today: October 4, 2009, a generic day.
Ten years ago today: temporarily suspended, I will notify you.
MORNING
Ah, the weather has broken. Now for perfect motorcycle rides until May, barring the odd cold spell. I was up at 6:30AM to enjoy the first cool day. My kingdom for a house with a big north-facing porch. Bingo went well enough for rent week that I’m heading over to Senor for brunch with a good book. Maybe a little navigation, which is so logical and straightforward compared to other company. I’m learning to read the tables backwards, you know. If the table says this or that, I know where to look for things now.
This is a property I actually toured. Two bed, two bath. Not this unit for me, however, because it is on the main drive, the carport is not enclosed, and the price is $21,500 too high. Interest rates causing a sale also tip me off that most buyers still have to borrow money to buy even the cheapest places.
The main drive, now that I have experience with trailer courts, means everybody passes by every day and you get “over-policed” by the HOA (home owner’s association). The other day over here, I used a rain shower to mop my entranceway and left the mop propped outside when Agt. M arrived. I got a notice from the office.
An enclosed carport—why is that important. I want an indoor work area which provides a barrier to the weather and to keen-eyed neighbors. Just you look at the length of the parking on this puppy. Otherwise, I’d live the hell out of a place like that. There’s a 28 foot workshed around back, if you look closely. And it has a porch. Alas, this location does not allow you to plant a privacy hedge. And yes, the properties I look at include ownership of the land.
Here is a special morning report: The kershmozzle over at Nova was peeled apart in layers, as only we can. We opted to withdraw support and attendance until Nova, with its vast resources, can at least match what we can muster over here. Nova seems short of everything and the caliber of their alumni is almost depressing by our standards. At the end of today’s post, see a montage of the super e-Bike we have built—far beyond anything Nova accomplished in eight months.
The vote was we offer a free mini-lecture and our club will donate a new coffee-maker if and when the meet-up people prove they can hold a simple meeting and keep on topic. Also, meeting cancellation by “smart” phone is deemed insufficient notice and unacceptable. We further, as a condition of support, demand a voluntary but private skills inventory. We offer to do any aluminum work at our clubhouse, plus any precision drilling. But until then, that's all Nova gets.
NOON
Where did I spend $96? Another spree, that’s where. Then it is back here to listen to NPR, where 99% of the “successful” musicians had parents who were composers or conductors. Ever notice that? The red scooter has now passed twice its designed mileage, the odometer reads 12,000+. Every major or moving part of the original scooter has been replaced, but other than that, it is genuine.
Time out, all afternoon. Funny, other books seem so uninteresting after the challenges of celestial navigation. I still don’t have it down to a science, but that is due to my insistence on learning the entire subject down to the core. That is why I can state it is like reading electronics books, both subjects have the same “all-or-nothing” approach. Learn it their way, even if what they say is wrong. I’m at the stage when I know an author on navigation is taking the wrong approach to teaching.
A movie was no option, the offerings are pretty bad. Another doll murder thing, the retired cop taking one more case, the mutant turtle theme that will not go away, but what’s this? “From Here to Eternity”. That old movie? Not so fast. This is a limited release of the uncensored version, due for release in 2015. Nothing like the old sanitized black and white reels from too long ago. I was going to ask the price, but then, I remembered what happened at Karaoke.
An aside to those who feel that the conditions under which we will support the Nova robot meet-up means, in effect, they would have relinquish management of the operation over to us, I say, “False”. The logic is impeccable. They can’t turn the management over to us because they never had any. Bwaaaa-ha-ha-ha.
EVENING
Something is cooking. Money is tight, security is increased, I’ll bet you there is another motorcycle trip in the works. However, look at that calendar. I have a new limit of 5-1/2 days. Making the assumption the Karaoke show is a go, I have from Sunday morning until Friday afternoon. And it requires 1.25 days by motorcycle to get out of Florida, and another 1.25 to get back. That leaves me three days to see anything. What can I see in three days? See what you come up with.
The only rule is you must buy the best of these as are available on short notice with a limit of $46.50 per item. I’ve never reached that limit yet. If you can’t have a good time on that, you are putting on airs. You are allowed to eat corned beef and cabbage no matter what it costs.
This Karaoke casts a long shadow. I’ve toyed with the idea a long time, and the initial success is not that surprising. What the surprise turned out was the big size of the crowd. You see, the the other lady had the invitation list so we could not contact anyone by standard texting. Lee-Anne did some phoning yet I suspect the bulk of the crowd came in simply because there was nothing better to do. This is not uncommon in this town, which contributes greatly to my contention that we need a country music bar.
Thusforth, I’d wisely best not take any time off that show for as long as they want me until a future date when nobody else can compete. I have to make it like bingo, where nobody but nobody can walk in and do my job. There is no yardstick how long this could take. With bingo, it was four long months. The Karaoke show also revealed a number of shortcomings on both sides of the fence, but that my operation is vastly ahead in terms of organization and spare parts inventory. I had to soul-search some before I used the adjective “vastly", but from what I've learned, the other people were scraping by.
Consider also, I have not plumbed the possibilities of a country sing-a-long in combination with Karaoke. Follow my logic here. Even the successful (five years now) bingo show had roots in what went before. During my (three year) solo house gig, I played a 40% country mix. This was an evolution, for music is like the definition of maturity that says you never grow up, instead you learn how to act in public. I learned which rock tunes not to play. Then along came Karaoke.
For clarity, I played old country music over the PA system in the intervals, thinking it would be so different that what people were singing, everyone would recognize it was “elevator music”. After all, this crowd is a good twenty years younger than bingo, and my country is not hit parade. So imagine my surprise when even the audience began singing along to the classics. None of this, not one molecule, escapes my scrutiny.
Trivia. I always wondered what “bully beef” was, I hear it in old Brit army movies. It is a type of corned beef. I didn’t know that, I suppose. I sometimes keep corned beef on hand as emergency supply but have not eaten it in years. First, it is beef, and no that much cheaper than real beef, and it is brisket, commonly called dog food. But for quick sandwiches in college, you can live on it.
A persistent rumor is that the beef was corn-fed, but in reality, the term comes from the times when the meat was preserved by packing it in salt. The salt came in kernals, called “corns of salt” in Ireland, where the term bully beef was first mentioned in 1621. It became a staple for the army during the Napoleonic wars. Bully beef is generally only called corned beef when it is canned.
