One year ago today: April 9, 2014, I coin a word?
Five years ago today: April 9, 2010, job hunting.
Ten years ago today: April 9, 2005, repetitious.
MORNING
I got half-way to JZ’s place. Then I took out the muffler and the drive belt. Me, who rags on the guy for years to get a new truck and then my own vehicle is a worn out junker. The muffler? Once again, because I am not a mechanic, nobody listens to me. It cannot be hung from above, it must be suspended from below. Now I am out $250 for a “racing” muffler because that is the only one left that will fit onto the chassis.
.Bmp)
Fine, JZ drove out and we loaded the scooter into the truck bed and headed back to Hollywood. So I’m stuck. Three vehicles and I'm walking. The scooter in the shop, the batbike doesn’t go in until tomorrow, and my bicycle needs a new front sprocket. This is the triple whammy that happens freakishly often in America, the motor car capital of the world.
We (JZ and I) also talked houses, women, investments, and eventually made it over to the bakery for a late afternoon coffee. Where we normally would have made it to Naples by now, we settled for a snack and he headed south to avoid the traffic. Miami traffic is third-world in volume and style.
It is agreed we'll take a look at two of the properties in Lake Worth and West Palm. Meanwhile, I continue my search for something nice for me. I've got the financing for a shopping trip to Harbor Freight but no vehicle to haul my loot back. Don't it beat hell?
NOON
“There is no movie good enough for me to wait in line longer than the run time of the movie. Either we are seeing something else or I’m leaving, and you can take a cab home.” --Sam Halpern
Zap. $800 down the drain in one afternoon. I’m okay, most of the expense was expected so it is not like I’ll have a heart attack over it. Speaking of that, my appointments (the treadmill test) are now annual (instead of semi-annual) and that should be any time now. The point is, I’m no longer living on the edge. I might see a few more turns yet. (I’m due shortly for my stress test, which follows a pattern. I’m stable, but they will still not take me off this zero-fun diet.)
Maybe now I’ll break down and buy a proper camera. It highly depends, because it may surprise folks to learn that this blog is not a priority for me. It is a journal because my own memory is so bad. It is just a convenient habit and the moment it becomes inconvenient, poof.
Much thought has gone into the limitations of our club welder. I’ve decided against another purchase. The purpose is to learn, not to set up shop. And there is still a lot of ground to be covered. Our welding needs do not justify a larger unit, much less the need to set up a 240 Volt source. Nothing will happen with welding until after the new cPod is built and tested. That is due to begin soon, just not right away.
The snack mentioned with JZ and I this morning was in the bakery. Did I mention that? It’s about the latest in the day I’ve ever gone in there. As luck would have it, most of the ladies I’ve met there came in and all said the same thing when introduced to JZ. That they’ve heard so many good things about him. Yet, I don’t recall hardly every mentioning him, except maybe to say I was going to visit or something. But four ladies who don’t know each other said the same thing. How about that?
Still smarting from the $800 loss, I consoled myself by mapping out the flowchart for converting the camera to time lapse. It’s an interesting mental exercise if only because you can predict the interval required to play back the photos only by knowing the refresh rate of your playback software. They are not all the same, nor is the desired “speed” you want the final product to appear. Like the unfolding of a flower. This kind of art requires alert planning to get it right. There is more to it than I thought. And you too, unless you are an artist type. I'm not.
NIGHT
I went through my old song list of standards for my voice. Using just the drum box, which is still the weakest link in the chain, I picked out six tunes suitable for solo presentation. These are all pre-1980 tunes, although I’m looking at one from the 90s. It is sounding good, just bass and drums. The market for this music is
My quest was to find out about the BeatBuddy. Remember that? I didn’t buy one when they were cheap and they have dropped to $250. That’s about a hundred off. I have not heard of them since and could not find any real reviews on the thing, not even on ePinion. Nor have there been any used units advertised and there should be by now.
My position is quite simple. I like the concept and the display screen. But I’m not shelling out the two-fifty until I hear what is not liked about it. For some reason I cannot find any negative reviews, yet I recall looking at the programming interface—it was designed by a C+ lunatic. I thought, where could I find all the negativity I want? So I posted on Craigslist for who did not like the unit.
Of the twenty-odd songs I can sing, I hesitate to do them all as a bass and drum presentation. My music is geared toward duo arrangements and sometimes the guitar part should not be left out. At the same time, I’m finding something new among singers that I was unaware of before. Ready? Some of them cannot sing unless they can hear the full orchestral arrangement behind them.
It’s something I never thought about, as in either you could sing or you could not. When I sing to the bass, I necessarily have to find all my harmonics while hearing only the single note of the bass line to keep on key. Since I had to do this or not sing, I quickly forgot in the early days I had to “memorize” the starting pitch. It never occurred to me others could not do this without hearing a full chord.
Last Laugh
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
