One year ago today: September 25, 2015, the $15/hr job.
Five years ago today: September 25, 2011, more electronics study.
Nine years ago today: September 25, 2007, sacrificial anode.
Random years ago today: September 25, 2004, the elusive giant squid.
MORNING
Is it 11:00AM already? You mean I put in four hours of yard work? That has got to be a record for me. That’ real work. I ripped up the old logs in the back that were nothing but ant nests and converted the space to a motorcycle parking area. I moved that lumber pile from beside the shed to the north side of the house, raking four bags of leaves and trimming all the oak limbs growing in the shade. I found another dead oak on the property, directly behind a larger specimen. For that, I’ll need a chain saw. I also raked the front yard and dug in a large paving stone to hold up the kickstand of my scooter.
Next to arrive were the two juvenile cardinals, both appear to be females. For about 30 seconds, then mom arrived. Here she is, the grand old matron. Just look at that picture of perfect health. The young’uns, knowing what’s good for them, scattered pronto. Moments after this, both mom and pop were at the feeder, but not long enough for me to snap their picture.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go soak in the tub and get this layer of insect repellent off me real good. I do believe I’m going to get me a crossword puzzle, run a load of laundry, and grab a chair at the Dunkin until later.
What’s for lunch?
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
NOON
Do you want the bad news? I got taken on my Fishman Solo PA system. I only tested it for ten minutes when I bought it and never played it more than fifteen minutes at a time since then. At that point (around 15 minutes), there starts a loud popping crackle sound through the speakers which makes this unit completely unusable. That prick who sold it to me for $400 must have known it was broken. But that’s South Florida for you. I will try to isolate the problem. However this is the sort of symptom that happens when the electronics get wet and such are usually unrepairable.
You can’t trick it by turning it back off, once warmed up, the sound comes back immediately. I remember the guy selling it, kind of hinting to try everything quickly because his wife had to get to the clinic. Now I see the scam, and according to the PC rulebook, I’m not supposed to notice that the guy was Jewish. So I won’t say a damn thing about that Jewish prick.
Ah, some say, that is racism. Nope, there is no such thing as a race of Jews, the point here is I did not care he was a Jew until he pulled a fast one. Whose fault is it now? He told me he was selling because he wasn’t playing out any more, and I asked him if that was the only reason. His answer was that he “didn’t need another reason”. Anybody who doesn’t associate such behavior with the speaker’s person, attitude, and behavior isn’t being realistic. You’d have to be unbelievably stupid to claim you didn’t notice the religion of a person who cheats you.
And speaking of blind stupidity, here’s a clipping from the local paper touting a “robot” show called MOSI, with lots of pictures of white teachers and black students. They were not robots at all, but Lego kits of remote controlled toybots and pre-programmed kits. I still don’t like Lego because they have displaced other, better construction sets. Like Meccano/Erector.
Here is the old garden rail, or at least the edging. It is totally rotten ant-infested round sided 4x4s. They are rated for ground contact but these have been out there too long. .
I will have to revamp my plans to put in a simple footing. Can you see the metal pins holding the log down? They extend six feet into the ground and it is still soft mine tailings. I pulled these stakes out with one hand.
Vines. It turns out none of the vines in the yard are native. However, some are ornamentals. It’s quickly getting to the point where the decision over whether something belongs is whether or not I like it. I also read another chapter on the American Left. The plot is now at the stage between 1900 and the Great War. The now-permanent political class has conjured up the Federal Reserve and is voting themselves largesse, also paving the way for today’s establishment fear of Trump by enacting a system vastly favorable to incumbents and a system rigged against outsiders.
AFTERNOON
I learned some interesting trivia. Secret ballot was not what you think it is. Voting always was done in at least semi-private conditions. The problem was, while the voter marked his ballot card while alone, he then had to cross the room to place the ballot in the box. These ballots were printed on different color cards for each candidate, so anyone in the room could easily see who the ballot was for. Finally, in 1888, some inspired soul put up a curtain around the box.
Nor was giving the women the vote some great move toward equality of the sexes. The reality of the situation was that after the Civil War, the northern states were unprepared for the influx of blacks fleeing the still-segregated south. Oops! In many of the smaller counties and cities, the blacks had already formed majorities.
You see, the northern unionists didn’t think the black problem would ever land on their doorstep. The real reason women were given the franchise was the Yankees suddenly realized they had to quickly double the number of white voters. After extensive studies in England and New Zealand had proven that women overwhelmingly vote the same way as their husbands, the passage of the bill was a shoe-in.
I’m beginning to like this book more and more.
One point I disagree is the portrayal of the religious as seekers of truth. Everybody says it but my experience with religious people is that they are unconcerned with either truth or facts. Religious types consistently believe whatever it is favorable or beneficial for them to believe at any given moment. The majority are socially inept to a degree that forces them to put on a good public show, then later in private curse the system.
And ha, did you see Trump cash in on Hillary’s blooper calling his supporters “deplorables”? Poor Hillary must have been watching Fox and thought she was referring to tiny minority. Folks, the establishment-controlled media want you to think only a few people are behind Trump. As I said the day he came down that escalator, this will be an historic landslide. And there will major discontent if the establishment tries to block his presidency by manipulating the electoral system. Gravely, they show every sign of intending to do so.
NIGHT
Not that many things typify the difference between ordinary dudes and robot types than planning. Yeah, go ahead and buy tools as you need them. Then throw ‘em in the shed and hope they work the next time you ever need them. I purchased an electric chain saw, knowing in advance it may only be used for seven cuts this year. Or, about $7 per cut. So there you have it, a type of efficiency that spills over to other areas where it does pay off.
Then I priced out the sheds at the lumber store. The kits cost as much as I’d expected a completed shed delivered. A structure of maybe 88 square feet consisting of maybe 22 or 24 studs, plus a roof with no eaves or soffitts, came to $800. Prepare the site at your own expense and still slap on another $1,000 for them to add the 64 nails that hold the thing together. The materials, purchased separately, come to less than $200. Let’s have us a show of hands which way you think I’m gonna go with this.
JZ added that he can’t get away at all, even for a few days. That’s why I planned long ago to take the batbike south in a week. It’s a series of appointments that as long as I make the deadline each morning, I can fritter away the day. With no reliable van, I’ll stick with the batbike. By the same token, if JZ gets up here, he remains entirely self-dependent for local transpo. One thing is don’t have to rely on him for directions in either town. He’s terrible at finding his way around new places.
ADDENDUM
Since I could not follow PWM y’day, I also read more about the American Left. You correctly surmised that since the Civil War, the information becomes more relevant. This coincides with the change of the government “from a referee to a participant”. Now you begin to get home-grown crackpots playing do-gooder with government money rather than communes springing up funded by insular European immigrant groups. The book never manages to say it so bluntly.
I was surprised to learn in the 1890s, there was a major recession. I had not learned that from history books. Wasn’t that the prime era of Victorian prosperity? I have long been satisfied that the government faked the Maine incident to start the war over Cuba, but I did not know it was to take people’s minds off the competing philosophies for the use of this new tax (the Civil War tax) that only needed a conflict to become law. A war unites people against an outsider and any disunity to the regime in power becomes akin to treason. Works like a charm, if the war lasts long enough, the government itself gets kick-back rich and the opposition gets quashed.
It took only a generation more to turn the Civil War tax into a national income tax; this time they torpedoed a passenger liner. So the book should start getting to the good stuff pretty soon here. You get tired of character with names from gloomy bible chapters. Zebulon. Ignatius. Horatio. And talk about strange women. We get them today, the ones who want to do as they please while young and pretty and still absolutely expect a traditional outcome. But these women don’t become presidential candidates, present election excluded.
In a way, it reminded me of the ads on Craigslist. They are no different than any other women’s ads, just that Craigslist is more accessible. Whenever you are feeling low, read the W4M. It will make you wonder what planet those women are from, because it sure as hell ain’t Earth or Venus. I mean, listen to these crazy witches, “My children come first and foremost above all, but other than that I want a tall, handsome, rich man who treats me like a lady blah, blah, blah.”
Always remember Tony, our old drummer, who married April. And got ordered by a lady Judge to provide April’s ex-boyfriend with a key to the apartment so he could “visit” his kid while Tony was away at work. Because, get this, the ex-boyfriend was a welfare bum and therefore “had difficulty” coming around only when Tony was at home. (In 1994, Tony asked me how to disappear. I told him. He did.)
Last Laugh
Studying . . .
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