March 9, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 9, 2014, a rambling post.
Five years ago today: March 9, 2010, the Russian shoemaker.
Ten years ago today: March 9, 2005, a generic post.*

MORNING
           This is the pretty city of Calgary, Alberta. I’ve been there, you know. Then again, I’ve been most everywhere but that is another story. I was looking up details on the oil tar collapse mentioned in last evening’s post (you should read that) to find the news is almost completely censored in Canada. The media there is government-controlled and has always been untrustworthy on that count alone. But that’s where I found this government-approved picture. All Internet photos of Canadian cities tend to avoid showing panoramic scenes in the winter time.

           I do not recognize anything in the picture and I don’t see the Space Needle, but maybe it is behind the tall buildings. It was the tallest when I hitch-hiked through as a teenager. Calgary is unofficially the largest American colony on Earth. Hundreds of oil companies, mostly American, are based there although there is no oil in the vicinity. The controllers of Canada in the east do not like to admit it is the richest city in the country, according to Wiki it has “amassed US-like wealth”. It’s about half the size of Miami.
           And I think it is headed for a US-style bubble. On the way home last day I stopped in at the old hang-out on Dixie, the one I used to stop after Bingo. Man, has that joint gone downhill. It is now a tough joint, similar to Willy’s across the tracks. The main activity is the pool tables and sporting tattoos. I predicted this when I saw the new owners. They look and act like they attract and prefer that kind of crowd. Never again.
           Have you ever heard of rye porridge? It’s not bad, product of the Ukraine. Turns out to be a blend of wheat, oats, etc, There are no directions on the package, but use a little less liquid. It doesn’t swell as much as oatmeal. My heart’s thanking the porridge already. Never ate so much porridge as lately, when I have to. Do you think my brain is turning into porridge? If so, you are probably got here by mistake.

NOON

           “Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.” (Farm wisdom)

           Here is Agt. M finally managing to separate the halves of the turbine blades. He is more willing to use force and grind off pieces, as shown here. You have not heard about the disk sander project recently because I could not get it to work. This turbine is intended to investigate using such a device to charge the battery on a moving motorcycle. Two blades were too powerful, but they were fastened together so well, I had to call in help.

           I finally gave up on finding the facts of the big Alberta layoff. My guess is the layoff was around 10% of the workforce in one stroke. But another story is emerging. The police (RCMP) are really cracking heads in this Alberta place. Not a peep in the media as they cordoned off an entire town (High River), using police and armed soldiers to force evacuate the population, then broke into the houses to seize legal weapons. (Legal in the sense that they were properly registered, so the police knew they were there.)
           In the High River case, there was a flood going on, but still, the residents were not allowed to return home for a week after the flood, during which time their homes were repeatedly ransacked by the authorities. Apparently no charges resulted and the government news agency said the problem was the that the homeowners were “confused”.
           Remember, Alberta is the scene of the infamous Charles Vernon Meyers arrest and Canada is guilty of holding secret trials. Canada has political prisoners hidden in nameless jails. The “free” health care accounts for 45% of government spending and you can bet they aren’t using their own money. And in the sense that the police are never charged with anything, tasering suspects to death is quite legal in Canada. I would not live there if you paid me.

AFTERNOON
           Hello? Did I fall asleep in the chair? Where am I? Yes, I did and it is now 5:00PM. For those who interpret dreams, I had one over an incident at the neighbor’s when I was a kid. The father was installing a metal sliding door and it would only open so far, then it would jam. The space was too small for any of us, so he told his son to squeeze inside and see what was blocking the track. The kid kept came out and would say “It’s okay.”

           Not matter how many times the father told him “okay” was not the answer, he wanted to know what was blocking the track. For some reason that kid would not say. It finally got to where the father was beating the kid silly and sending him back, but the little prick would not say what the obstruction was. To this day, I have no idea why on Earth that kid kept refusing to say.
           Then, to keep things exciting, I watched a documentary on two guys repairing a spotlessly clean tank tread. And old tank, like World War II, but it still did not look much like fun. But that’s as much fun as went on here this afternoon while I was snoring like a buzz saw.
           But if you have time, by all means watch this video. It gives you some idea of the amount of training that goes into operating complicated weapons. The government always has tons of money to train these crews, but never enough money for anything else.

EVENING
           Something’s wrong. Even an hour later, I’m off balance here. No, not my ticker, I mean I may be coming down with something. Do I okay you sound to? Little joke there, Ken. Seriously, let me see what was different today. No, not my new prescription. I’m woozie as if it was something like that. When that happens look for a change in routine. I did eat rye porridge but that was nearly twelve hours ago. Tell you what, I’m going up to the library, so tag along and let’s see how this goes.

           Nope, I couldn’t stay at the library, I kept nodding off. So off I went to the health food market and bought this cherry juice from Georgia. That’s the Georgia in Russia. See, it says sugar 0%. And they mean it. It’s got quite a kick like pucker you right up, but on the bright side, it only has one ingredient. How the world must laugh at what we Americans will eat if it’s cheap enough.
           I also found a product called an “After Party Pickle”, I may have mentioned this before. It’s in a jar with some sprigs of spices and a small garlic. All natural. So I bought one and walked to the club and gave it to the barmaid. She asked what it was and I told her I had no idea, but I brung it over because it was “about the right size”. And left it at that, she is not my type. But it is well known in that place if I want to do the wild thing, I outright tell the lady. I have not told anyone there yet.
           Now I’m home, convinced whatever is wrong is dietary--is there something about rye I can't digest? The big accomplishment of today was to put in place a new and somewhat better system for tracking my own finances. Remember, the biggest difference between me and all the big shots in this town is that I can have seven times (on average) as much fun on the same money. True, I don’t have a half-million dollar condo on the beach, but I don’t sit in one alone all day because I don't have five bucks to go out. Heck no, I can sit alone right here where it costs dick all and when I want--I go out.
           That’s not to say there is anywhere to go, but you get my point. There is nowhere, if you are out past dark anywhere in most of south Florida, the only things open are drinking establishments, over-priced restaurants, and a Starbuck’s every four miles. Absolutely nothing to do, except maybe that bowling alley, but I have not made it there in 15 years. There are no coffee houses or bookstores anywhere along the coast anymore. The cruise lines killed many businesses besides the on-shore club scene.

           * [Author's note: these early entries, from around 2005, are very typical of how I kept this log back in the day. These can be dry reading without knowing the bigger situation, but it takes time for a blog like this to evolve.]


Last Laugh

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