One year ago today: September 29, 2015, then, the fraud disappeared . . .
Five years ago today: September 29, 2011, got lice?
Nine years ago today: September 29, 2007, reads like a dragon transcript.
Random years ago today: September 29, 2010, real estate commentary.
MORNING
Up at dawn, again—I’m not boasting because I never thought I’d be doing that regularly again. Yet why waste a single day around here? I even fit in an hour’s yard work, basically sawing the felled tree limbs into foot-long pieces I can work with the bandsaw. That would be sections from an inch in diameter and up. I keep reading these radiant accounts of small lumber cut by others on a bandsaw, so let’s see what I can come up with. Just never done it before.
First things first, I went to the library to see how other people cut logs into lumber. This guy makes a wonderful video, I missed the link, but you can find it. The subject is quarter sawn logs. He’s drawn a diagram on the end of the log and he’s got the perfect teaching technique. Never gets off the subject, tells you what he’s going to do AND WHY, then shows you how he does it. He’s got this massive horizontal band saw that slides on rollers and does some fancy log slicing.
He’s sharp and educated both. I learned what medullary rays are and why their presence in oak trees is important. If you look closely at his diagram, the right top half of the log is marked to be “quarter sawn”, which is different that the much easier “plain sawn”. With a single saw, getting a log quarter sawn involves quite a bit of shifting the remaining piece of log around before each cut. Lots of work.
The result is a different grain in the wood due to the way the growth rings and medullary rays are exposed. I found both types of grains to be attractive. That’s why I’ve always suspected that “refined” tastes would be different if the viewer was unaware that one type cost more. I further learned that lumber has to dried one year for each inch of thickness. There were instructions how to dry it in a microwave, I passed on that one.
Hong Kong.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
NOON
It was short projects outdoors only with the sky dark and sultry. I cleared up the sidecar bucket and fitted in the mattress from the lawn chair for Mitch to ride in. There is no windscreen, so he gets a pair of goggles. As long as he doesn’t look under all this and see the 2x6s and the old Jimbos bar chair, we’ll be okay. Take a look at the custom cushion on this sidecar. He called finally and like most tourists, was totally confused by the streets each having several names. The Tokyo of East America.
Next I moved some gear into the storage shed and tightened on the electrical connections on the batbike. And fixed the seat rips on the scooter. And made a diced pork and cheese casserole. And some cinnamon cobbler. And tried unsuccessfully to get the flat tires off my wagon. We, ahem, Florida landowners always have plenty of chores.
Taking a hint from JZ, I’m going to see about burning the twigs in the old barbeque that came with the place, that is, an old barbeque that got left behind. There’s a constant supply of them [twigs & leaves] from the trees, though that will dwindle as I prune the dead branches. I took a break to read the latest Harbor Frieght flyer. Prices have tripled and it is all Chinese manufacture. The scroll saw I got for $29 is now $99.
Just as I leaned back from that wire, there was a massive wallop of thunder directly overhead, rattled the floorboards. No, I’m not kidding. Then again about a minute later a rumble north to south that went over like a sonic boom. It’s those thunderheads that pick up moisture all day over the Gulf of Mexico. The clouds cool moving inland and you get the regular afternoon downpours, right around 5:30 PM. Then you get a pleasant evening, much more amiable than the dank Miami summer sweats. I can’t believe I lasted 17 summers down there.
That doesn’t mean it is cool all evening. Any yard work is still a sweaty proposition. I’ve lived and worked in tropical and semi-tropical countries before arriving in Florida, but I never required extra salt the way I do here. A glass of clamato, ice-cold, supplies 43% of your RDA and I don’t always stop at two.
Something that always mystified me is these warnings in survival magazines that people can get dehydrated without getting thirsty. It must be some kind of condition a few people get. Myself, I have no problem being thirsty in the heat, nor does anyone I know. Also, salt pills. Are they really salt pills, and if so, why do they cost eight times more than salt?
NIGHT
Five hours. That’s the time to connect one outlet. But it was something else. Have you ever seen a professional job done, but wrong because the guy tapped off an existing circuit? Without checking where it already served. The entire living room, hallway, bathroom and old bedroom sockets and receptacle were on the same breaker, along with the exterior yard light. When I went to kill the juice to what I thought was the bedroom, off went my computer, radio, and all my battery rechargers. The bedroom air conditioner was also on the same run.
Note how it is beveled to fit into the notch cut on the last piece as you move up the wall. My understanding is that clapboard is neither notched nor beveled, but simply overlapped. As for the shiplap, I see it could be duplicated in the quantities I need by a planer and a router.
Mind you, in five hours plus just another 15 minutes, I had yet another outlet working. Toughest part? Drilling through the studs to run the cables. The last guy ran them under the floor along the joists, but he didn’t use regulation exterior conduit. The workmanship was great, it’s just that he didn’t follow the rules. There is one outlet left to install, but it uses the already drilled studs. There was an exterior grounding wire as well, I’ve never seen that before. A grounding wire that ran through the wall to a clamp on the back yard water pipe. I left it in place.
The room now has seven outlets, that’s an additional five and they are a matching set symmetrical around the perimeter. I had considered some of those special outlets for my computer, since I will have a writing desk in the room. But naw, I figure I’ve done without special wiring for 30 years, I just don’t see the value added by it.
I removed the chandelier dimmer, now I think I’ll put it back.
ADDENDUM
I took a break from reading the “American Left” right at the chapter beginning 1950. While the reading is not intense, it is voluminous. Off to one side it goes for now. I’m reading military history, a favorite. This time, I’m examining the early European settlements in America, and why they build forts in the north, but not in Central America. It would seem the Aztecs and Incas never attacked the Spanish or their towns. The Iberian cannon all faced the sea, where the threat was obviously other Europeans.
That the entire races of the Mezzo-Americas, except for possibly a few of the ruling class, were abjectly retarded or had some equally debilitating genetic disorder. There is no way some gang of illiterate Spanish syphilitics conquered anything that resembled a real empire. Throughout the rest of history, the only times the Spanish ever “won” were wars of self-preservation in their own back yard, where they had little choice but to fight.
The concept of “conquistadoras” sniffs of whitewash. What happened is better explained that the Spanish stumbled across a child-like race so backward they had no wheels, did not recognize gold and still worshipped the sun a thousand years after the rest of the planet quit with that. The very structure of Caribbean civilization was that of an idiot child. The Spanish had a few borrowed technological advantages, but militarily, they have always been the cesspool of Europe.
The existing literature is trying to tell me the Spanish, outnumbered a thousand to one, went into a lengthy war and won every battle with nearly no casualties. Give me a break.
Last Laugh
Motorcycle Heaven.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
