September 6, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 6, 2014, on dating younger women.
Five years ago today: September 6, 2010, City of New Orleans
(It took another three years to ride the thing.)
Six years ago today: September 6, 2009, visit Young Circle.

MORNING
           Automatons, those mechanical robots. During research, I watch a video on 18th century devices, that’s the 1700s, Ken. Amazing contraptions, but they quoted “The Turk” as the ultimate. That’s the life-size clockwork automaton that played chess and beat most opponents, including the czarina of Russia. I often wanted to pit all the nephews who became chess champions in modern bragging contests against this 250 year old machine.

           But, alas, it was a fake. Then again, it is doubtful that most aunts and uncles of today would know that, if you know what I mean. Because, Wallace, fake or not, my money would still be on the machine. And nobody in your entire family history ever amounted to a hill of beans, must less a chess champion in any reputable circle. I know all about families that are all talk and no action. Had one of my own, y’know.
           I’ve got this dumb theory that as you age, you get fewer illnesses, at least the communicable type. I rarely get anything so you bet I have a heightened alertness when I do. Like today, all day a general feeling of coming down with something. I say the reason one stays healthy that way is because of built up resistance and less contact with carriers.
           Hence, I resorted to my oldest remedy, which is to bike up to the local library and read through five or more books on topics I would not normally bother with. That’s one thing this town is good for—useless books. Now I know something about pressing flowers and making your own dill pickles. Anything is better than feeling queasy all day long and not doing anything but worry about it.
           And I read up on various scientific principles that are against any type of religious beliefs. I can’t support that viewpoint, although I’m as put off as anyone by the “scared monkey” type of religionist, the ones who regard anything scientific as belief in the wrong kind of proof. I’m not against religion, in that it provides a necessary outlet for those who have great difficulty following alternative explanations. I think I said it before, but to me religion is like astrology. I don’t believe in it much, but I’ve known a lot of sexy women who do.

NOON
           Here is something that impressed me. Remember, I’m not keen on smart phones for a number of valid reasons, so this might be old news to you. This smart phone is aimed at the paper on the counter, with English words. On the screen, in real time, is a translation into German. And I mean perfect German. It apparently works on seven languages so far. Including Siamese. And to think I was almost foolish enough to become a translator.

           After investigating several glues that purport to “sink into” the material being bonded, I’m stumped by how I can easily peel away rubber patches from my Honda tire. My imagination tells me that there are dedicated people who spend lifetimes finding new and better glue. So why can’t I find something that actually works? Do I keep looking?
           But the declining quality of adhesives is not my imagination. It turns out most industrial strength chemicals have been weakened over time by the removal of volatile or reactive ingredients. It’s that consumer protection thing again. Some people are too stupid to read the directions, so everything gets watered down. The entire system suffers because a minority doesn’t have the sense to not stand on top of a ladder.
           One topic in the news gets me. We know about the Greek money crisis, but it seems the average Greek in the street blames Germany for the problem. This is the same bass-ackward logic that permeates the American & Canadian former middle class. That it is somehow the other guy’s fault that they borrowed too much money. That one had to borrow just to keep up because everybody else was borrowing just to keep up. A society of retards whose vote is just as good as yours.
           There is also another aspect that is being kept out of the news. Greece is also the forefront of the “migrant” problem. It is your first example of a predominantly western nation being “browned” or “assimilated” or “culturally enriched”. That is synonymous with being dragged down to the poverty level that so-called ancient peoples have adopted as tradition. Greece is the crossroads into Europe and I was shocked to see the extent to which they are burdened by refugees.
           I think anyone who believes that the west is helping out should go spend a few days in these third-world cesspools. Those people do not want a better life—they want to help themselves. Listen to the talk in the street. Did you know, they say, those Americans are so stupid they have color TVs and computers and they don’t even put bars on their windows. They drive expensive cars and leave them parked outside overnight. Why, you have never seen such trusting, unsuspecting dupes. I firmly believe, as do most, that for all the blather of diversity, America would overall be a nicer, safer, and richer place by tomorrow if all the immigrants of the past twenty years were instantly deported. All of them.
           And I think no more telling horror story exists over the lack of societal contribution by sports than the ultimate waste of $12 billion on the Greek Olympics. But I cannot side with the crowd that makes excuses for borrowing money. I lived through several generations of a spendthrift mentality. I’ve worked with people earning $25 an hour who were $450,000 in debt and bragged about their credit cards. And who, today, blame their dire straits on others. I side with Germany, saying let these lazy bastards go to work and pay it all back.


NIGHT
           At the club, who should I run into but Skip, with a broken leg. He drives a motorcycle without a sidecar. Skip is the regular from Jimbos who went north, Philadelphia or something. And he’s got what looks like a broken leg. Folks, my view is that without some form of stabilizing device (like a sidecar), a motorcycle is dangerous. Nobody really knows if the peril is the rider or the machine, though I do feel motorcycles are inherently unsafe. Yet I drive one.

           I wish I had a place of my own. Then I would have bought this once-in-a-lifetime find at the Goodwill. A mint condition American made piano. It was only $2,500 and I doubt it had ever been used for more than holding bowling trophies. What a sad fate, the staff could care less about an old piano, so the kids were bashing away on it and somebody had already stolen most of the wooden pulls. My ten years in university and college was the longest stretch in my life I never had a piano in the house.
           In Florida, a quiet town is a dead town. And this is the first time I have seen no traffic over on Federal for almost an hour. I took an extra hour and went downtown to the Starbucks on Young Circle. The one that used to have the wobbliest tables imaginable. Funny, how that went on for years and suddenly everything got fixed a month ago. You don’t supposed the owner actually came into the place and tried to balance a mug of joe on one of the things?
           And a parting thought about Greece and Germany. Not many people remember how in the 1990s the Germans froze worker wages, curtailed social security, and cancelled annual paid vacations for around 15 years. In other words, they bit the bullet. But those Greeks, raise their bus fare by fifty cents and they are rioting in the streets. The view in Germany is that southern Europeans are all lazy and should have to all get real jobs.
           Much like I view anything north or east of Memphis.


Last Laugh


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