MORNING
How slow is the day so far? I read the Miami Herald, that slow. I did check in on Agt. M who wasn’t home again. To see if he’s fine, make sure he doesn’t have the flu. That, and because he still has my circular saw. The Herald says Hertz found $87,000,000 in accounting errors on their books. Here’s a dumb question: “In whose favor?” Or how about those three men in a bar fight? The city commissioner, the bartender, and a local hit man. Turns out in Key West, they are all the same person.
This rankles me, a man was indicted for training people how to lie on polygraph tests. They labeled it obstructing justice. Don’t you know only the police have the right to manipulate and create evidence? Anyway, I disagree with that decision because it is not, in itself, illegal to lie during a lie detector test. Did you follow that? If it isn’t illegal, why is it illegal to teach someone how to do it? This is not the America I grew up in. The bastards who don’t belong in a free country have won, because everyone is apathetic.
The same authorities are claiming a toddler who had a plastic gun in his knapsack is “not cooperating with the police”. Meaning he did not immediate confess or incriminate himself. Seems he is one of those nervy little pricks who knows his rights. And how about that cold snap up north, colder than Mars. Canadians are advised not to go outside except for the most basic of necessities, such as food, Labatt’s Blue, and making promises they have no intention of keeping.
NOON
Headway. Here’s a shot of the work on the electric, I’m pointing at the rear side marker light. Only some gear is visible here, like the portable test battery, it is crazy how much equipment is needed to rewire these trailers. They are not designed for lighting. I had to drill 18 holes of 10mm so far, plus many 1.25mm. There was no way to get the front amber and back red on at the same time, shown here with the amber light on. Can you see it? It took time to discover the wiring diagram was for a different wagon and I finally disassembled one of the tail lights.
Ah, there is the problem. There was no marker light inside the casing. What’s happening was a reflection of the tail light, not bright enough to see in the daylight. Looked okay in the dark. There you have it folks. Before you can turn on a marker light, you have to have a marker light. Damn Chinese diagrams.
By late afternoon, the entire wiring is routed through the steel beams of the wagon instead of exposed to the elements. Consider this: if I consider the time and effort required for this wiring, that already makes it the most expensive part of the trailer. Yes, that has me thinking.
Can you see the relocated fender? Moved back to intercept any road debris from fling upward at 45°. And the long blue rear wooden “bumper” is installed. During this project, I’ve upgraded many key parts of the structure, including lock washers on all major bolts and removal of all visible rust spots which occurred wherever the factory paint flaked. The black over paint is my doing, to coat areas that were suspect.
Relating to the addendum below, I discover that the wreck of the Graf Spee reveals it was considerably lighter than what the British claimed and it may not have exceeding treaty limits. As with the Bismarck, the Brits took full liberty to gloss over the facts, such as the claim that Langsdorff scuttled the ship to avoid a sea battle. Complete lies. His diary reveals that the diesel engines on his ship were faulty. His orders were to avoid pitched battle and without the motors delivering the speed to outrun more powerful ships, his decision was not cowardice, but to avoid the ship falling into enemy hands.
I continued watching the Graf Spee movie. Although everything is faked, it is done so quite accurately (barring the pro-British bias). My work [on the trailer] continued along, since I didn’t have to actually watch the movie. I could tell by the music whether it was the heroic Englishmen or the cowardly Germans. Those rapacious Huns, trying to take over the world when everyone knows the world rightfully belongs to the Queen of England.
Not having read the Hague Convention, I was curious over the argument that certain repairs to battle damage not permitted in neutral harbors. However, Montevideo was over 300 miles from where the battle took place. Thus technically, those repairs were not necessarily directly attributable to that or any battle.
All this thinking goes on while I’m unraveling the trailer wires. And listening outdoors to NPR. Those NPR people are already unraveled, today featuring a wine tasting contest in which red wine is masculine, white wine is feminine, and the lesson is that there is a third wine “sex” which is a mixture of the two—and you, not they, cannot always tell the difference. You are supposed to practice scenarios at home to develop your “self-awareness” of these “important issues”. And that’s how come I don’t send them any money.
I have this proposal. You know how people who call in to talk radio always waste opening time with a round of asking how everybody is today? Hey, the DJs are on the job, so leave them alone, and my idea is the rest of you ignorant-sounding people don’t call in unless you are already okay. Right? Then we don't have to listen to you say you are okay. Then we are all spared a round of insincere questions and get right to the topic.
Wait, here’s another, NPR says you should never compliment anyone by saying they are “clean”, “articulate” or “wise”. Because that implies that you doubted they were. Well! Allow me, NPR, you are, beyond doubt, very “clever”.
NIGHT
As I pulled into my driveway after bingo, I heard the sound, how embarrassing. In haste, I had forgotten to turn off the radio. My milkshakes, I hope the neighbors don’t think it was me listening to jazz. Especially not Saturday night jazz where the musicians are all named Randy and take a bow before they begin to play. I don’t hate all jazz, only 90% of it. In particular that low-brow jazz where the bassist joined the band five minutes ago and they handed him a “chart”. And, by God, it sure sounds like it.
Word is one more week of bingo, as the final Saturday falls at month’s end and it is clear by now the landlord does not want another bar in there. We’ve seen the results of this type of third generation smart-aleck business plans before, so shall we wait and see. The place has been a bar for 55 years and they are going to mess with the formula? Either way, I only need an hour’s notice to get my gear. It might be seven years old, but it cost me $1,200.
Rumor is there may be an upholstery shop taking the location. Great planning ahead, landlord, like that kind of business will still be there in 2069. I have confirmed nothing, but talk says the building is owned by the original owner’s grandson, who, having access to large sums of family equity, is going to dabble in the market himself. And we all know how those things work out.
Sniffles. That’s what I’ve had since I returned from Maker Faire. And sniffles is what I have for anyone who thinks there is nothing wrong with allow ebola cases into America. Another doctor from Africa in the full blown infectious state. You know, I would not be too bothered if a few million liberals die just to prove how tolerant they are. But the snag is, so many innocents will also die. (Later evidence would show the virus can remain dormant for many months.)
ADDENDUM
Two things to clarify right off, I do read my fan mail, just not always right away. One, there is no formal “stockpile” of food here. That’s not something I believe in, you know, hoarding food away for a disaster. Instead, what I have is a five or six week supply on non-perishables that is constantly rotated. You might say all I do is shop a month in advance. Food kept specifically in storage has a shelf-life, while all mine is consumed well before any best-before dates.
Trivia. Did you know canned soup is cooked after the can is sealed?
Two, the delay on the camper is the electronics. They are slated to be completely redone, this time with redundant brake lights and I’ve drafted a plan to put a secondary coupler in the front corner which acts as a test system and a battery bypass if necessary. This is a more complicated undertaking than first glance, as it must allow the solar panels to work when they can, but to over-ride them at other times. So complicated, in fact, that I have opted for a manual system. It’s better than nothing, when the panic switch is hit, the camper lights up like an Xmas tree.
This is on paper. I have not yet decided to add this expensive system to the camper yet. It works as it should, but is totally reliant on a good juicy battery supply. While planning this, I watched two documentaries last evening. The collapse of the British aircraft industry, post-war. Man, those dudes made every mistake in the book. Then again, everything needed government approval, just like in Russia. The same Brit bureaucracy originally rejected the machine gun as a waste of ammunition. (I found out later that was the King of Belgium or something.)
I next dissected a camera, one of the dozen around here that have let me down. The more capable a digital camera, the less rugged the construction. Nikons that are not waterproof, Panasonics that eat batteries, Sonys and Canons that take nearly a minute to fire up. All junk, and I can’t find one person, young or old, that has a paid up PayPal account to get me an Argus. I have $600 worth of cameras that are junk, junk, junk. Even my newest, the Jazz, has a tiny pinhole lens that is impossible to clean (that’s why you see slightly blurry, overexposed pictures these days.
There was not one familiar component inside the cameras. I mean in design, of course I recognized the small motors and such. I was surprised to find the ranging device is an ordinary white LED, where I had thought they were something fancier. It works by detecting the reflection of a specific light frequency. Meanwhile, a documentary of German armored cars had me discern a pattern I’ll bet few have spotted before. All of the newsreels except when heading eastward, in say Tunisia or Ukraine always carefully show the armored cars advancing in single file in a straight or nearly straight line.
This convoy pattern is not the best, as any enemy would seek to brew up the lead and tail vehicles, then work down the column. For arguments sake, single file mountain roads are still a straight line. I’m just saying why would the cameramen go out of their way to only film one style of advance? Or is there some other reason?
I could follow the German navigation charts in the background. Without intending to, I’ve learned the mechanics of interception. In this case, it was just a rendezvous with the supply ship. But I believe I could do this if I had to. It is really two LOP (line of position) calculations and a line called CMG (course made good). That’s a chapter I sped-read. You can bet I will now go back and deep learn it. The procedure looks pretty amazing. Why, if I had a radar . . .
Author’s note: neither the Graf Spee or the Bismarck or any German ship was ever the “biggest” in the world. That is absolute British wartime propaganda. Dubbed “pocket battleships”, they were nothing of the kind, lacking an effective armored belt. In fact, the sides and deck were thinner than on a Tiger tank. That’s why Royal Navy 8-inch guns were able to damage her so badly. The Graf Spee was a commerce raider, designed to attack unarmed merchant vessels. End of story.
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