November 20, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 20, 2014, call me Fishmeal?
Five years ago today: November 20, 2010, wow, predicting legalization.
Nine years ago today: November 20, 2006, setting the record straight.
Random years ago today: November 20, 2003, house-hunting, already.

MORNING
           JZ called to emphasize he does not like Puerto Rico. Okay, so cancel that. I could care less about yet another Caribbean island. Dime a dozen. He says he’d rather go to Bartow. So I looked it up, it’s near Winter Haven, but other than getting lost there on the batbike in 2013, I can’t recall the place. Population 16,000. I’d like the visit the area, which is wise because we’ve learned the ONLY way to check out a neighborhood is to go look for yourself. Between the Libtards and crooked agents, you don’t want to find yourself in a war zone. (The Bartow jail has its own website.)

           Here’s a repair job in progress. You can see the cheap plastic handle of my back saw resting on the blade. And in the foreground, an odd piece of lumber I had with a slight rightward cup. Inscribed on it are the cut lines to replace the plastic. The rest was described last day. Note the careful orientation of the wood grain. I’m learning.
           Buried deep at the bottom right of page 14A in today’s Miami Herald, the voice of the Queer Cuban Liberal, is the announcement the US government has approved the first genetically modified meat product for humans. Salmon is now off my diet over that. I’m convinced the modified food eventually contaminates the natural food in the wild, like the Mexican corn now tested as polluted by American Monsanto frankencorn.

           I got my saw blade from Sears at Aventura and finally found the new library. Looks nice from the outside, with a tiny sign on the door saying “Closed Fridays & Holidays”. So tiny, you have to park and walk up there to see it. Attaboy, Aventura. Good going. So I went food shopping and bumped into a lady, 40-ish, and man, did we hit it off. In seconds it was like, where have you been all my life. A lady doctor, she was like finally she said, somebody to talk to. Alas, one of the first things she talked about was her husband. Bye-bye.
           What’s this I see appearing on the shelves? Coke and Pepsi with cans marked “made with real sugar”. I’ll have to find out what the catch is. I don’t believe it is just popular demand. Those companies are too crooked for that, so I’ll bet there is some definitional quirk in the term “real sugar”. Like ReaLemon, it’s reconstituted, so it isn’t real lemon. I’ll hold off buying any soda until I find out. If I wonder what they are up to, who’s to blame for the distrust?

           And you are lucky to get anything these days, with the Frenchies mucking up the router with their Skypes. But the hymie at the office has to pay for service year round so he’ll never upgrade for the months the frogs are in town. He just unplugs the router every few minutes while he needs to be on-line, then lets it overload.
           Here are my little friends, birdie num-num. The bravest is the female furthest left in the photo. You cannot make it out but she has a slightly orange beak. Wild birds are a challenge and these took eight weeks to get used to me.

NOON
           Lake Placid, Florida. Trent says a skookum little town, but I had a hard time finding the place, it is so small. I kept getting the name up in New York. I can find it on the map, south of Sebring and the name rings a bell from the few times I took that highway. (I dislike the route because it takes forever to get through the towns. Each place has the lights timed to keep you in town as long as possible. Like Denver.

           Billed as “The Caladium Capital of the World”, I consulted a mining digest, a chemistry text, and five minutes on the periodic table of the elements without finding any caladium. I then thumbed through my list of common alloys. Nothing. Rare earth elements? Bicycle frame compound? Caladium? Ah, here it is, a flowering South American plant with colored arrowhead-shaped leaves. Caladium. Got it. No need for comments, guys.

           The bandsaw blades are $10 each, not $6.99 as advertised. The argument is that these blades are ¼” shorter. I’m glad I don’t have to shop at Sears, they are simply priced out of orbit. And it is no sense saying the quality is there, since the product comes from the same factories in China. Evidence of a top-heavy corporate management is also present in how the ground floor of Sears still has racks of long-sleeve shirts and winter jackets. In Florida?
           Um, guys, when I showed the picture of drying out the chalk line, I didn’t mean any dumbie should copy what I do, In fact, I state again and again don’t try what I do at home. If you look closely, the string in the picture is very carefully laid down in a single strand. You know why, Hector? So it doesn’t tangle and knot when you try to draw all sixty feet of it back onto the spool.
The day was spent on routine projects, so I never got to work in the yard. I stand corrected about DC transformers, I’ve learned there are devices that can take 3 volt inputs and step it up to 30 volts. I don’t know the theory, but I’ll try to make time for it.

           If I don’t like the Herald, why do I buy it? Because they have the best puzzles even in their new toned-down entertainment section. Toned-down to a lower IQ with fewer “smart” puzzles and more word search and scrabble-types. One of the clues was a Britney Spears hit, I hadn’t the foggiest. But the bakery staff, from Hungary, easily got the answer (“Oops, I did it again”.) It transpired I could not name even one Spears hit. However, I would like to speak in my own defense.
           As a bassist, I do not listen to music the same way as other people. All my life I have played tunes I could not tell you who sang them, or what year they came out. This is completely normal for a good bassist, although a bassist who is a wannabe would deny this. What I’ll do is go look to see if any tunes I’ve ever played were Spears. In other words, I may very well have been playing Spears without knowing it. This reveals how little names mean to me. If I ever meet anyone who as good on guitar as I am on bass, I’ll reconsider that. But it has never happened yet. Oh, they are out there, but I’ve never met them.

AFTERNOON
           Finally, I got the smart mouse. It was a she, and so trap-shy that I finally had to set bait without the spring for three weeks before she dropped her guard. Gone, but sorry, mice in Florida carry communicable diseases and they cannot stay. Blog rules anything unusual may take top story and a death in the house on a nothing Friday like this easily rates. A close second is this board I am holding.

           Recognize the shape? Of no, see the photo upstairs today. This is where my new saw handle used to be. Ah, it is so nice to have the right equipment. I’ve been home most Fridays over a year now, since I’m not out gigging. It’s been a rule for decades, I don’t go out on Fridays or on payday unless I’m paid or somebody else is buying.
           On the other hand, when I do go out, I spend probably less than 90% of men, because even if I go for a beer, my intention is not to get buzzed. Remember that lady from New York who always wears her hair exactly the same way? Last day I asked her when we are going to the movies.
           To my surprise, she said she has relatives in town until December 2, but after that is okay. I meant I just would like company to the foreign cinema, but she didn’t let me finish, she responded so quickly. Um, does this qualify as a play-date or something more intense? I’ll go for the play-date.
           Home alone, but making rolls in the toaster oven and I may try for biscuits in a bit. I like biscuits. I don’t have a mini-cookie sheet, but I have the gear to make one. The oven cavity is relatively shallow, meaning I’m better off with flat shapes than loaf shapes. I’m saying I really like my toaster oven. How many people can say that about a late Friday? You know, I went out every Friday in my life for several consecutive decades. That’s every Friday, so don’t be calling me a homebody. I only tapered off when the supply of decent women dried up.
           And to anybody out there who laughs and says this will never happen to them, place a mark on your calendar. Same with anybody who thinks it will happen, but they will be the exception. The one who can still pick up women without being a sugar daddy. The one who thinks he will be the exception. The one who thinks he’ll beat me at my own game. Go get that calendar, son.

EVENING
           Here is a photo of the little coppery pins I’m talking about using as electrical battery terminal posts. These used to be very popular. I’m sure they have a real name. No, Ken, not the picture of the copper nails in the same tray. Those are for soldering test circuits. I think this photo is the 10,000th picture that belongs to me which I have posted on the Internet. What Glen? Well, Glen, there is talking, and then there is doing. Yuuuuge difference.

           The op amp is still something I do not grasp well. It compares two voltages and does something or other when they are relatively positive, negative, or equal. Texas Instruments has a full on-line tutorial but clicking on it sets off all my anti-virus detectors and malware blockers. Ghostery (which you should have on your computer) won’t even consider running Brightcove. I figure if the tutorials stink that bad, don’t go near them.
           I wrote two long letters (15 pages total) to a friend who needed information (of an historical nature), so don’t go concluding just because I stayed home, I lolled around waiting for things to happen. That’s a half pot of tea per letter, not bad. Anyway, I’ve been struggling with this op amp for years and can’t find anyone who teaches me what I need to know. That’s the same with differential equations. Everybody I ask explains how they work, but nobody will solve one right in front of me and explain what they are doing.
           Near as I figure, op-amps are the core of the analog electronic world, corresponding to transistors in the digital. They measure to voltages and react to differences, which I grasp. But the idea is to connect the output back to the input, so the result is the component is constantly trying to make the two voltages equal again. There, I wrote it down, so I can see how wrong I was when I eventually find out.
           What? Speak up. Oh, that, well, I figure anybody with any brains should be able to sit down and write 15 pages of historical information right off the top of their heads, and have done so at least as many times in their lives as I have. So 15 pages in one evening is nothing, really.

ADDENDUM
           And one thing I think we can all agree on is the on-line humiliation of these imbeciles who write articles titled DIY or build-at-home projects. Then when you open them, they start talking about CNC or laser cutters. Yep, I suppose you could, conceivable, do it at home, especially if that home has your engineering degree hanging on at least one of the walls. Read my lips, a $20,000 CNC machine is NOT a household given.
           What are these turd-brains thinking? “Gee, I knew I was missing something, where IS my CNC machine? It’s around here somewhere. Just you watch, I’ll find it at the bottom of some tool box and it will be missing the computer and monitor and cable parts needed to make it work. Dang, isn't that just how it always works when you misplace a tool!”


Last Laugh


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