One year ago today: September 10, 2015, at the robot club.
Five years ago today: September 10, 2011, 3,000 miles on the scooter.
Nine years ago today: September 10, 2007, remember George?
Random years ago today: September 10, 2012, the sidecar hitch.
Since I didn’t go out carousing last evening, this is my reward breakfast. Apple pie, in the nice sharp focus of you standard Vivitar camera. Fresh out of the microwave and awaiting a dollop of whipped cream. Next to it you see the black oil sunflower breakfast for my cardinals. Soon to be the most famous cardinals in Florida, if the feral cats don’t get ‘em. I’ve heard that cardinal’s preference for this brand of seed is not the oil, but that the seeds are easier to crack. The birds are still too skittish to get a photo, as I have to move the blinds ever so slightly to position the camera.
I think it is something in the water. They have to add a stupid comment even when they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. (Again, nothing new, I’m referring to the degree to which the Internet gives those dunces a forum.) Possibly the education system is at fault, teaching them that a confident sounding wrong answer is better than no answer. This clueless behavior is very common in third world countries, where they prefer to lie rather than admit they don’t know something.
I thought maybe I should panic and call the place haunted, you know, get my 15 seconds of fame. But I’m not a hick, hillbilly, housewife, or hapless family moving in next to a cemetery. The beeping was muffled enough that I could not get a direction on it. Then I looked behind the stove.
As you see, some kid’s wrist watch had fallen behind the appliance some time ago, and the battery was going dead. Here’s another Vivitar photo, blurry at one foot from the lens. The ghost story sounds better, and you know, these ghosts really need to work on their image. They are so, like, outdated, with the boo sound and the white sheets. They need to get more into the ectoplasm and electromagnetic spectrum, bring their persona more in line with what’s been happening in the past 500 years, type of thing.
Low tide.
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NOON
Meet lunch, bass player style. Iced tea and chicken jambalaya as a main course. In fact, the only course. I ran through my song list and then went out and worked in the yard until it got dark. May this be the way I spend my days. My ad for a guitarist has a reply, and like myself the guy is new to the area.
Take MicroSoft and their damn updates. Automatically suspect. Not the updates themselves, but the degree to which MicroSoft insists on them. Every trick in the book to force you to download them and reboot your computer. Folks, any time somebody you don’t know wants you to reboot, you are being played for a sucker. How many people notice when MicroSoft disables the Shut Down button on your menu and replaces it with Update and Shut Down. That’s the equivalent of tricking you into rebooting, only later.
I finally unpacked my Internet computer, which has updates disabled. MicroSoft doesn’t get it, when they install unwanted apps on your system, even if they are beneficial, they are viruses. When I went to reboot the Internet computer, the update sequence took over for 45 minutes before I could use the thing. Turning it off simply delays things. That folks, is some serious tinkering with your computer system—and you should be asking why.
AFTERNOON
Agt. M was merrily chatting with women on the Internet while he was here, but I cannot find that free service he was using. Nothing of the kind in the area, but then, he will sometimes call Internet over his cell phone the same thing, and I don’t think it is. Anyway, this lack of service is going to be a problem, it is not a simple matter of signing up.
So I zipped to the library and checked the videos of the guitarist just mentioned. Hmmm, he’s from Nashville. So let’s accentuate the positive. He played only slow music, which is great because it makes me the fun guy. As always with me, stage presence is much more important that recording abilities. I’ve had it with these heads-down, neck-bobbing, Mr. Kewl, virtuoso guitarists. Dime a fucking dozen.
And with all bands, you must be able to deal with the inevitable personality clashes, which was impossible in the five-piece I was last in. Put it this way, as for resolution skills, my last drummer was a karate instructor. So I watched the new videos less for music than for how he interacted with other musicians. I don’t think the guy is a stage hog, and in each recording, he played strictly rhythm. This, my non-musical readers, is a YUGE distinction. Every band has quarrels, ask the Beatles.
This has always been a given to me. I first opined in my early teens that it was not only the music that impressed the babes, but the display of a group of young men working for a common cause. The world knows as long as those men keep at it, anything is possible. My first two bands, “Ides of March” and “All The Kings Men” held together only as long as I was the calling the shots. As soon as the other band members began to exert their wills, things fell apart. That’s understandable, since I had single-handedly created these bands out of thin air. Once that influence was gone, so was the band. But when you are still young, these are issues too complicated to learn from. And
It takes years and is difficult to admit that in a band, music is neither the deciding or determining factor. It does not matter if you can outplay me, or how great your taste in music may be, that in itself will get you nowhere. Yet who wants to give up the concept that music is everything, especially after you’ve poured thousands of hours of (usually) your irreplaceable youth into it? Then to have somebody like me come along and tell you we are not going to learn your favorite song, because it is too slow or because it takes a slot away from learning a song with more audience appeal. Oddly, only guitarists crop up in this example.
NIGHT
I made a pot of chicken soup and sat down to do some calculations on the new cabin. Analysis of the daily temperature cycle shows that even my powerful 220VAC A/C air conditioner cannot keep up with anything over 79.5°F. I’ve been getting away with it because I’ve had curtains sectioning off the areas I spend time, same as back at the trailer court.
Now that the kitchen is brought on-line, that means I need more power, Not only is there the heat from cooking (there is no kitchen exhaust fan) but that is the primary section of the structure that is in full sunlight all day long. Even with two 20” fans dedicated to hardly more than equalizing the cooled air from the living room, there is a marked difference walking into the much smaller kitchen area. It’s tolerable, but guys, I did not stay out of trouble my whole life to put up with a less-than-comfy kitchen situation. And the time to tackle the matter is now.
Next, I mapped out the insulation of that attic. I’m going to have to crawl in there twice. So I’m going to do it at presumably the coolest part of the day. Just before dawn. There has to be a vapor barrier stapled in and after that it is twelve batts of insulation for the first layer. You are welcome to give me a hand. At least the structure has no soffitt venting to complicate the chore.
And the floor is working out to four hours per joist thus far. Unacceptable.
Last Laugh
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