October 25, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 25, 2014, my Yankee screwdriver.
Five years ago today: October 25, 2010, canned salt.
Six years ago today: October 25, 2009, mini barbeque.

MORNING
           What’s this then? It’s an early morning photo of hand-made Xmas ornaments with the glitter paint drying by hanging off the knobs of an oscilloscope. What? Okay, I'll allow that this type of shot may not be quite as familiar around your place, but I’m leading up to my trip to Miami. I needed these to be dry for transport. I made the Fall Festival in just 21 minutes travel time on the batbike. These wooden snowflakes are a gift for Alaine, I thought she’d like something special. It seems to have really taken people at the table, but sorry, there’s only one set.

           What a day, and a day at the festival, though I could only stay three hours. That’s a 45 mile round trip and there is never a chance to visit as much as I would like. That is because Alaine is always busy volunteering. But we did have maybe ten minutes which is not much for us, but still it was a visit. She has the one-of-a-kind ornaments and JZ never showed up.
           Too bad, it was a fun day and he missed out. Major food, but I could not partake. Now something worth mentioning from my point of view. You do not, you just to do not enter any church without wearing a tie. Show some respect, man, I will not even walk into a Buddhist temple without el carbato to apple. I’ve forced JZ to stop and buy a tie before. That’s simply the way things are done yet I was the only one in the building wearing a tie. Am I a little too tradition-bound? Just asking, because I’ve never been accused of that before.

           For those who peek back at the Yesteryear links, it was December 26 last year when you saw the prototype of these snowflakes. It took longer to make that one flake than this set. And on December 9 you can see both the “sewing machine saw” and the various models of ornament that got rejected in favor of this snowflake design. The other shapes were too simplistic. The snowflake, that is real work. Those cutouts are done individually.

NOON
           Here is the batbike, slouching outside some condo in Brickell. Yuppie town. Neat, the bike is so distinctive, when I got back to town just before sunset, I met people who had seen me barreling down I-95. JZ phoned to tell me to park over in the Lutheran (parking) lot, but he forgets the easy charm of this unit and how it always draws a crowd. There are some copycats already, but this is the original. See the ammo box saddlebag?

           The trick to the festival is to be sparing with the food. There is no such thing as diet Lebanese fare. Alaine invited me to have a bite later, but darn, I had to run. I didn’t want to tell her part of my rush was the roads in Miami are in such bad repair I feared to drive after dark. Her next get-together is Super Bowl, but maybe I’ll visit the café.
           I bumped into that lady from the Xmas party last year and she was like a different person. (The poor lass had just been widowed, but I knew she was basically a cheerful sort.) Don’t tell anybody, but we spent a half-hour talking politics. We even touched on some of the newer discoveries in genetics. For example, a “smart” gene has been isolated, but the news is totally suppressed because it is also a gene that is predictable (corelated) to race.
           Fascinating, because not that long ago, when I was growing up, heredity was thought to be carried by proteins. And of course, we were brainwashed far more that ever necessary that all humans had the same proteins. You had to write that on exam papers in order to pass. Which is true, the proteins are identical. But they got the rest of it wrong. There is even a gene that determines religious fanatacism.

           The sidecar performed admirably and actually perfectly. So now I am pining for a road trip. You got any money? I do, anyway, give me the growl of the gears on the open road. While the other travelers are locking inside their metal shells, never to experience the freedom of just going and going. Over the horizon, that’s the joy of a motorcycle. Maybe I’ll consider a short hop to the Serendipity (Okeechobee coffee shop that is really called the Serenity) just to get the travel bug out of my system.
           The jaunt to Miami was also to test the new solar powered panel system on the larger platform of the batbike. It works wonderfully, but will require a scaled up battery. For those following along, this is NOT new technology. It is merely the pairing up of some components meant for other purposes. All I did was tweak a controller to work on a car battery placed into a motorycle. Because motorcycle batteries are anemic these days, they go dead in an hour. Inside one of the saddlebags is a deep discharge marine trolling battery that is kept topped off by a small solar panel. I’ve merely added components that let it supply current to, but never draw current from, the existing motorcycle circuits.
           It also isolates the towed wagon from the factory electronics, although this does draw a small amount of current, measured in milliwatts, to operate the relays. There are four relays. Brakes, left, right, marker lights. These lights, other than the relays, draw zero power from the motorcycle. On bright days they are totally sun-powered, in dark, they use only power from the marine cells. Quite the system.

EVENING
           Here is the children’s hula dance from the Church festival this afternoon. This is always popular entertainment. The more so for anyone who has ever tried to get a group of kids to all dance the same way. Shown also are the chandelier and stage from the Church hall, where I did bingo so many years ago now. The only family present was Alaine, although there were a few familiar faces.

           But wait for photos. None of mine really turned out because the hall is just dim enough to not trigger my camera eye. The vocalist was same as last year, but has she ever come out of her shell. Last time it was nice, but like listening to somebody from a music academy. No oomph. This time I told her she has what it takes to deliver the wow, but she has to come up with a gimmick. That may sound rough, but singing to pre-recorded tracks is a good way to have my show next door wipe you out.
           Is that phrase (“wipe out”) still valid? Musically it means to steal the crowd from another band in the area by putting on a better show. I think it is borrowed from surfing lingo. And I’m the one to talk to about stage presence, at least in this town. Ah, I just remembered, she has pictures of us on her camera. This year, she was doing a Disney theme for the youngsters. I no longer follow Disney characters. They’ve gotten too meh since Walt passed on.
           And have you seen the critics on the latest Star Wars. Apparently it is so politically correct as to be obscene. All the white people are gone except the black male and the white princess. Bill Cosby would have approved. If these rumors are true, that anti-white racism has gone off the deep end. But not in Germany. Have you heard what is happening there? Look out.


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