May 22, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 22, 2015, Dump her, man, dump her!
Five years ago today: May 22, 2011, more SPAM.
Nine years ago today: May 22, 2007, hand-writing this blog.
Random years ago today: May 22, 2009, 300 cattle per acre.

MORNING
           I returned home in a record 3 hours 40 minutes driving time. That’s possible on the Goldwing when not towing a load, but I don’t like punishing the old girl. That’s commuting distance yet a different world. It is green, cooler, and populated by people who don’t have to shaft the next guy for a living. It is turning out to be a well-planned community. And a community where people remain as integrated as they care to be. As for atmosphere, well, I have not lived there yet.

           Shown here is the bedroom, complete with mini-chandelier. I’ve determined the interior is drywall, a strong indication that the bedroom was added on much later. When did drywall get popular? It was the 1950s I think. I spent much of last evening taking measurements and reading the local newspapers. The edition from Tampa Bay is the only real contender.

           There was a lengthy article about Airbnb, stating the government’s position that it should be taxed the same 6% as hotels and motels. Bureaucrats are so damn brainwashed on that topic they can’t see how despicable they’ve become. I, of course, and against any tax or law that can only be enforced by monitoring what people do in the privacy of their homes. The one consistency with these tax laws is at the bottom line, they want the identity of the people who you rent to. You’d have to read the article to pick that out, but it is the one constant in the bureaucratic mindset that they cannot just outright tell you.
           Those insisting on the tax say there is no way they can tell if the homeowner is reporting the “correct” amount without getting the identity of the guest. Hmmm, maybe that is the precise reason some people are using Airbnb? Those dirty rotten traitors think it is none of the government’s business when they go visit Aunt Sally. But what riled me is the Tampa contention that the tax was needed for a new sports arena. Bull! Sports arenas are the primary example of what should be user-pay.
           The bureaucrats argue that the whole community benefits from the arena. Not so if you have every come home to find your driveway blocked. Anyway, I am against all such thinking. Let those who want or use an arena pay the full ticket price and leave the rest of us out of the equation. I don’t need some government twit deciding what benefits me. I’ll watch that issue, I think. See how it compares to the same entrenched corruption surrounding Uber taxi.

Wiki picture of the day.
Worst ever movie.
NOON
           Getting the jump on jet lag, I sacked out for seven solid hours, except for here and there waking to continue reading “The Striker”. It’s getting convoluted a bit, with people always managing to find each other all over the area between Pittsburgh and New York City. It smacks of “Ivanhoe”, where they keep meeting in the middle of forests. The book is a good education of how it was done, mind you. I’ll bet you don’t know what a grasshopper telegraph key is. Or that dynamite can explode by itself if it gets wet.

           I did not know that the telegraph key design was to prevent the operator from getting a shock if the line was hit by lightning. Duh, okay. The keypad, visible here, was made of “high resistance” material. The book gives the impression that the term has another meaning, which is to connect one of these keys to a telegraph line and listen in on the traffic. This is the reason most messages were sent in cipher.
           I’m also back to the news feed computer. I see the banks have gone ballistic to pound silver down by another dollar while I was away. Good, I like it when the establishment goes into panic mode just when they thought they had the system running so smoothly to their advantage. I used the trip and the time to plan the best way to get myself moved. I think I should complete as much of the work in advance, kind of make it into a summer project. I’ll keep the existing storage sheds, one of which is big enough to house the sidecar.

+++ Ig Nobel Prize Winners +++
           Richard Seed: Economics, 1998. Rick wanted to clone himself and his wife by the millions to populate the world. Wait, didn’t he get the award for economics, not biology? Correct, because immortal clones would create markets for products unheard of by ordinary people who insist on dying once every seventy-odd years. On average.
           The banking system quickly moved in to have their puppet governments ban human cloning. It would wreck the monetary system which is dependent on each generation repeating the same mistakes, the largest being a 30 year mortgage.
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NIGHT
           I reviewed the ins and outs of pumping money into the house before I move in. That move is slated for July 1, 2016. But that’s not a commitment. That termite tent is a necessity, folks, all older Florida houses have termites and I’m not about to take a chance mine is the one that doesn’t. I may pay extra to have an annual inspection to get the longest available guaranty.

           More research shows the entire area is built on mine tailings, the “sugar sand” that allows surface foundations to sink. This accounts for the uneven floors. I have not identified the hard wood that those floors are made of, but that comes later. Until then, I’ve told people they can’t play marbles. And I’m not doing any renovation work until I figure out the cheapest way to get a solid foundation under that puppy.

           Shown here is the living room looking in from the kitchen. See the old double-hung windows, that will make me feel right at home. Yes, I get the double entendre. That gleaming hardwood floor has to be kept at all costs, that’s the item that will eventually flip this place for three times what I paid.
           That’s the planning part—what to modernize, what to restore. For openers, I want the heat pump and air conditioners moved to proper wall brackets on the north side of the structure. Hey, that’s another double, get it, “openers”? The heat pump can be seen in the photo blocked the bottom half of one window. Incidentally, that’s a $700 extra that came with the place. For my northern friends, a heat pump will both heat and cool a place.
           May I add that on both nights so far, I had to get up and turn off the circulation fans because the room got cool enough by itself. That just does not happen in South Florida. I paced out the lot; it is 55 paces by 26 paces, so make that 150’ x 75’. Lots of room for a double garage around back. And I’ll get you a photo of the water tree. That dead tree mentioned before grew around a water pipe, so it how appears to have a fully functioning water tap coming out of the old tree. Therefore I will leave the stump a few feet high and think of something to make out of it.


Last Laugh

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