One year ago today: October 2, 2015, redneck tire repair.
Five years ago today: October 2, 2011, Colorado on my mind.
Nine years ago today: October 2, 2007, my politeness quota.
Random years ago today: October 2, 2006, redacted material.
MORNING
Nature’s balancing act, this morning is an after-storm dead calm. I took the time off to study light switches. I don’t know where anyone would install a four-way light switch, but I suppose it happens. Maybe in an auditorium with widely spaced doors? On the way to Haines City last day, I passed a business that was building small mobile homes. Unlike the traditional models, these had decent eaves and actual recessed doorways. That’s something other places seem loathe to do, giving all their products a boxy look. I plan a trip out there to see what prices would be for a shed-sized unit, maybe steal an idea or two.
Back to the electrical book. What’s interesting more is the book covers the styles of electrical wiring you might find in houses eighty or more years old. You can read between the lines to see how the power companies then, like now, wanted complete information about how you used electricity inside your own house. They presumed every room would have only one outlet, and it would be a light socket. If there was a receptacle in the room, the power company wanted to charge a second, higher rate for the electricity.
So you got a proliferation of devices to fit into the overhead socket for such things as coffee pots, irons, and hair curlers. People back then apparently liked curly hair. And if you’ve ever looked at a 1950s yearbook, they also like large proboscii, beehive hairdos, and no mean degree off malocclusion.
Japanese exhibition.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
NOON
Some time later, I still cannot locate any source for that drip. It must be one of those leaks that only happens when the rain or wind hit at a certain angle or velocity. I’ve seen that before back in my phone repair days. (I did not actually repair anything, I was the person who investigated what needed repairing, then referred the grunt labor to a grunt laborer.)
Is it maybe an internal plumbing leak? Or seeping over horizontally from another leak? It was not a problem for months and only discovered when I took some pillow cases out of the closet to notice they were just noticeably damp.
The good news is the leak cannot be JZ’s famous footprint. Although the broken plank is nearby, unless water has learned to flow uphill around each rafter, that is not the problem. Plus you can see the hole in the first picture predates anything we’ve done. You know, Mitch reports the master bedroom, still unfinished, was quiet and peaceful. Since day one, I’ve always crashed on the sofa in the living room so company could have the nice spot.
Maybe this evening, for the first time, I’ll actually sleep in the fancy part of my own house.
AFTERNOON
Mitch, you left too soon. The blonde lady from downtown was giving away free sweet corn on the cob, ten to a bag. Not sugary sweet, but man, the kind of sweet that gets me to eat four ears. You just keep going back for more because you don’t believe what you’ve been missing. Plus, since I didn’t know for sure how long you could stay, I made up on advance three pounds of curried chicken strips. I’ve got six [strips] on the grill now. Sorry, you gotta be here to win. But I verify personally the results were “tender and scrumptious”, oh yeah.
You’d be hard pressed to find healthier fixin’s in Florida, specially if you are as non-GMO as I. As you now know, I don’t even allow GMO products on my property.
The gap (two days) of driving the batbike let that slow leak on the scooter catch up which got me to drive to Wal*mart and finally buy a foot pump that fits in the jockey box. My new Virgin “One Touch”: phone gave up from the moisture of the trip home. I popped it into the sealed ammo box to keep it dry, but you know Virgin. It was such cheap junk the humidity fried the circuits. Sorry to anyone who tried to call. This is no area to get a phone switched over on a Sunday, so wait until tomorrow [Monday] for me to return anything.
NIGHT
The wait in the rain y’day caused me to review the philosophy of the motorcycle tow-behind camper. The original idea was to pull over, set up the camper, and sleep until the rain quit. The reality is you drive into sprinkles all the time, but never really stop unless things really get bad. So you are either setting up the camper in unproductively most of the time, or setting up in the rain after the main downpour has begun.
I wonder if the answer might be some type of canopy that can be quickly unfurled over my head and rapidly attach or be supported by the windscreen? I was already at Wal*mart, so I drove out the Kensington for a few. The place was lightly populated by ex-cons playing new country on the juke box. You know, if I had that sissy bar I always wanted, I could rig something up. Just enough to keep me warmer and dryer if I have to wait out some termpest by roadside—easily the more common occurrence.
Another slow realization is that when the batbike conks out in wet weather, it is due to splashing as much as rainfall. Yet there are no wires in the parts of the machine that are exposed to the splashes. It is only known that slowing down can delay stalling in severe wet conditions. The electronics are concentrated in a pocket on the left side of the gas tank.
ADDENDUM
As I continue my reading on the Spanish “conquest” of the “empires” of the Americas, I was looking for evidence that the natives adopted the tactics and weapons of the enemy. This happens in every war, every campaign, throughout history. Except then. It was a case of iron-age Europeans against stone-age primitives and it seems at least the Incas figured out the usefulness of captured iron swords. Or, since the southern parts of their territory was furthest from the early attacks, maybe they just heard about it.
However, I don’t unsay one word about the backwardness of the Middle and South American tribes. The learning curve between the sieges in Mexico and the battles in Chile was something like 57 years. Anybody who has worked in an office can testify taking that long to learn anything is indistinguishable from being mentally retarded. The accounts of the sizes of the Indian armies are all round numbers, but they still must have been large. The population of the area is estimated at 27 million against 450 Spaniards. Mind you, the Spaniards played the enemies off against each other, English style.
Another disadvantage to the natives, although this is everywhere, not just this instance, is that primitive tribes do not fight to kill. They fight to capture. Then the enemy is enslaved, sacrificed, held hostage, eaten, or in the case of North American Indians, tortured as a form of entertainment. Still, it does not take more than a couple of encounters with a ruthless enemy to switch one’s thinking on that. I still maintain too much emphasis is placed on the weapons and skills of the Spaniards, while the real disparity was the condition of the Indians. Something prevented them from smartening up.
But the theory is not worth pursuing. So I’ll plant the idea and move on. Stick around and maybe I’ll explain to you how banks cause wars. Everybody knows it, but how do they do it and how does it work? It is actually similar to conducting business on credit. Gunpowder changed war from a cash basis to fighting on credit.
I also learned the purpose of many forts is not to defeat the enemy, but to ensure that the entire kingdom does not fall over losing one major battle and secondarily to limit the amount of territorial gain if the siege is successful. So you get areas like Holland, Wales, and Spain, with a castle every twenty miles, that is, a day’s march.
Last Laugh
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
