One year ago today: August 24, 2015, Necker Island.
Five years ago today: August 24, 2011, a spotlessly free mind.
Nine years ago today: August 24, 2007,fire them all!
Random years ago today: August 24, 2012, Golden, Colorado.
MORNING, NOON, & NIGHT.
It wasn’t the same thing, but I stopped at the old bakery for coffee. The new owners are Venezuelan. The pastries are, typically, light and fluffy, in fact too much so. I tried a cheese stick, like a tequeno, and later a lemon puff. This came to $5 with the coffee, so it’s not a place I could hang out. Same everywhere, I’m not saying too expensive, just that if it’s going to cost over a certain amount, I’ll spend yet another dollar and go get a proper breakfast.
A guy came by with a cash offer. And it is too low, but you know, cash always turns up the volume. I can hear a cash offer from across the county line. I told him I need time to think it over. He’s certainly a seasoned buyer and saw the spots where I declined to put any money into the place. The older A/C units, the small water heater, the tiny bedroom. But I think if he comes up with enough moolah for me to see the Smithsonian, it’s his by tomorrow. He wanted to buy the red scooter, too. I said no.
On the flip side, it is now costing me a daily stipend to stay here. Nor can I get anything done with my now hobby-based lifestyle. This is no joke, I know too many who retired without sufficient distractions and they are suffering mentally and financially. Oh, they claim to be happy, but they’ve become horribly boring people, and financially because they have little to do but sit in the bar or the casino all the time.
He really gave the place the going over, which is fine since everything works. His dilemma is he’s got a female relative who wants to live here and that is a different story. A woman is going to want long showers and ice-cold A/C. When I added up just the numbers, right there I balked. Without even considering the time and cost, I dropped the price instead of sinking money into something I may not recover. He knows that.
There is further the incurred costs of selling. Every day I sit here waiting for an offer accumulates my overhead. Enter the much-heralded van that JZ is operating. I have it on weak report that the van will ably make the trip to Lakeland despite “a small leak in the power steering”. I’ve driven many times that distance with defects that eclipse some dumb hydraulic seepage. I asked JZ to be ready by the weekend. He knows Fridays are better than Saturdays in Lakeland.
Himalayas, from space.
Midday was dedicated to porch research. I knew before [this time ] a porch was a major addition to any house, so I took care to plan out the footings, deck, walls, and ceilings as independent considerations. I’ll pull them back into a compatible arrangement at a later point in time. It was during this study that I discovered the “smart stick”. It’s the way things were done before lasers, you might conclude. I thought to find the high point on my uneven floor, and work downward. I am still finding it difficult to locate porch designs for single story buildings.
I stopped at the club in mid-daylight with my pencil, rulers, and notebooks. I don’t know the afternoon crowd, but after an hour, the women started buying me beers. I made it clear I was not company and preferred to be left to myself. I still got four free beers, just so you know how often this happens. I would have jumped on any one that was my type. I guess if there is such a thing as women leaving a dumpy bar disappointed, this could have been one such occasion. Let’s be clear, I declined the beers and only accepted once the barmaid said they insisted. Disbelieve if you want, and I’m not even going to tell you the good parts.
Due to the pending offer, I’ve stopped putting any more effort into this place. Let the new guy worry about the loose door on the shed and whether some of the layers of paint in the old kitchen are chipped. Take it or leave it. It’s approaching the point where my hunch tells me to get to work on the new place, although business-wise that may not be optimal. I imagine my ulterior motive is to be enjoying the new property, maybe because with age one never knows when or if the mind will begin to shut down. And throw in impatience; it’s only been three weeks I’ve been seriously trying to sell. Nothing these days is moving fast and I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing. Why, I had four to five times as much stuff to move as when I arrived here in 2011.
ADDENDUM
Book Twelve and things are winding down. It covers Darwin as he takes criticism that has a surprisingly contemporary feel about itself. In other words, the same arguments we get today from the uneducated who have not read the books, but are so self-absorbed with religion that they don’t want any facts. This section of the book continues with various descriptions of life in England as the country heads for world domination with wars that will bankrupt it.
Darwin hears of a new invention and has one added onto the side of his house. It is a new-fangled thing called a “verandah”. And he is dismayed by having to pay something called “income tax”, fearing it will cause government to become unaccountable and embark on political adventures.
Darwin continues to publish books on plants and animals that are possible not just because he is probably right, but because he is also first. And like The Beatles, by later on his sales are more determined by his early reputation than any quality of output. Yet one can’t escape the impression that his situation is like yacht sales. In other words, it is something that takes place between millionaires without regard to the fact in the 1800s, poor people could not even afford newspapers, much less books.
Some of his follow on books include the topics of the descent of man from lower orders and displays of emotion in animals I have not read any of that material, which even to me would be dry and technical. The plot does go on about his life and times, an era where England is actually beginning to notice that most of its people are poor. In fact, they are beyond wretched in a system that purports to give men freedom but is mainly concerned with preservation of inherited wealth. Like the USA a century later.
By now I’m convinced there are no genuine and unbiased alternatives to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. I was hoping to see some real counter-argument instead of the constant and shallow squabbling by religious fanatics who appear to think indignation is going to win the day. My feelings on evolution is that Darwin’s theory was a superior work that replaced previous theories, just as one day it will itself be replaced by something of the same manner.
The book (Irving Stones, “The Origin”) will leave a familiar aftertaste—the sadness I’ve always felt about how poverty crushes ambition. Darwin was otherwise an unremarkable entity who had a frail constitution and was mostly seasick on both land and water. He had no special ambition or brain power. The money and position that got him on that famous voyage can only leave me wondering what might have been if a man of true merit and skill from the working class had been given any such opportunity.
Instead, Darwin was just one of many fat cats of the day. While history tries to pretend the upper crust is benevolent, they are in fact scrambling for position in a society based on wealth difference. I doubt Darwin would have succeeded at all if he had been a poor man espousing his theories at the coal mines. One could speculate his true accomplishments came because he had the cash and connections to get books into print, a frightening expenditure in that day.
Last Laugh
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