February 2, 2015

MORNING
           JZ and I headed for breakfast at Denny’s. Sigh, remember when Denny's used to hire waitresses for their looks? It must have rained fearsome overnight, but it was a perfect day for motorcycle travel by the time I headed north on 27th. I’ve really got to get up to Boynton or Boca this year. Face it, Miami is becoming as unfit for habitation as Detroit. When I got here fifteen years ago, the bad part of town ended around 72nd north, now you have to get all the way past 135th before the sidewalks are clean again. Downtown and North Miami even smell funny these days.

           Part of breakfast was discussion of that condo we did not buy last month. That’s the one where we had the money together within minutes, but it [the condo] turned out to be on the wrong side of the canal. Do not buy property anywhere in the USA in an ethic neighborhood. They will gang up and lose you money at sell time. But don’t blame the situation here, I first saw this practice in western Canada. It’s how the minorities take over a neighborhood. They hang their washing on the front lawn if you hold an open house.

           Why am I grumpy this morning? Penguins. That’s why. Dumb birds. Can’t even chirp and they eat barf. I mean they feed fish barf to their young. And rocks. They build their “nests” out of rocks and what kind of parenting skill is that? Huh, anyway? Then they fight over these stupid nests like the you-know-whats do up in you-know-wheres. And they dive into water so cold there’s like icebergs floating in it. They all look alike to me. Stupid birds. Can’t even fly.

NOON

           "I have a seashell collection; maybe you've seen it? I keep it on beaches all over the world." –Steven Wright

           I’m staying home this afternoon and drinking tea. The only movie uptown is French with subtitles and I’m not ready for that right after watching a penguin documentary. To cheer me up, Harbor Freight just put the belt sander I wanted on sale for half price. I think I’ll treat myself, since I figure my nice hobbies actually wind up saving me money.

           See photo. This unit is actually much smaller than it looks, the belt is only 1” wide. Harbor Freight, who are otherwise quite intelligent people, don’t stock these spare belts. This could account for the sale, but I’ve found MicroMark sells replacement belts, albeit for $4 each. This is not a heavy duty machine, which is why it is destined for my kitchen.
           Yep, that is correct. Just like my other place, there is a dining room off the side of the kitchen that, in the end, I never used for dining. But that is where all the outlets and coffee maker and sinks are handy, so it eventually becomes a small work station. That is where tools nobody gets to borrow are located.
           You may remember MicroMark, they are the outfit that sets small but fearsomely-priced tools for model railroad builders. As in six times the Harbor Freight prices, although the better quality is evident just from looking.
           And I wish I could find out how to permanently disable auto-hyperlinks. These is the dumb feature that turns any URL you type in your document into a blue-colored HTML link, which you do not want floating around on stored files in your computer. It’s under what MicrosSoft calls the “Tools” option despite the fact there is no such option in Word 2010. For some reason, every few weeks, it turns itself back on. And you better like today's quote, that semi-colon in Morse code caused me a headache.
           Don’t bother going to the MicroSoft site for directions. They not only inventory your software, they ask you some identity-leaking questions claiming they need to know who and where you are to “give you the answer that most fulfills your needs”. Yeah, like the small shop owners they have been suing all over the USA? That kind of thing? There are no friends of MicroSoft in my neck of the woods. As far as I’m concerned those useless twits are worse than a herd of stinking penguins.

NIGHT
           This is a 1:10 model stage coach, it is laser cut and slated as “museum quality”. Yours for $145, plus the only two things certain in American life: shipping and handling. This captured my eye because it is quite a detailed model with features you don’t get in oaters. For example, the mail is in a leather pouch on the side and there are small gun ports astride the door.

           Now, I could not see it clearly, but there is an anti-runaway lever under the hitch. At least I think that’s what it is. I’ve never actually seen one, but it was supposed to be a lever that clamped upwards when the horses pulled on the hitch. But if the driver ‘s position became “weightless” and this did not slacken the pull, it released the hitch. Is this a fact, or just some crazy talk?

           I put another planning session into the cPod. Once I get my clutch cable, I can go get materials again. The sidecar is fully capable of hauling a [small] load of lumber back here. There has been no wasted time on this, two tests have shown that ordinary 3/8” plywood is an adequate wind barrier and pretty good insulation. It does, however, have a flimsy feel to it compared to 3/4", as expected. As I'm three months behind schedule, I'll deal with reinforcing the cabin as I go along.
           I'm leaving out the gunports, since global warming has reduced the odds of penguin attack.


Last Laugh
This is the only picture I could find of someone dumber-looking than a penguin.
There's no "baccy" in his pipe, either, as they say.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++