One year ago today: October 26, 2015, on attacking barbed wire.
Five years ago today: October 26, 2011, a very popular post (1,370 hits).
Nine years ago today: October 26, 2007, DVD players under $25.00.
Random years ago today: October 26, 2008, 6,000 times the price . . .
MORNING
In the cool before mid-morning, I went through the back yard and raked out as much of the Spanish moss as I could reach. That’s the fuzzy pile in the middle of this picture. I had the window open to listen to the radio. My Lone Ranger station is off the air, so it was mostly talk radio, and man, are the anti-Trump minority getting scared. Putting about that Trump is “five points” behind according to those phony polls they were conducting. Trump knows he’s got them on the run.
If you lie once, what are people going to conclude? Or take that Bernie guy with the free education stance. He only made the statement for effect, the country cannot afford it. But guess what statement sticks in the minds of a few million Liberal Arts majors who just turned voting age? Smooth move, Bernie.
The biggest issue seems to be Obamacare. The only thing going for it is twisted statistics. Sure, there are 20 million more people with insurance, but they are the sickest and that’s created an equal number of underinsured young people who can’t afford full coverage. I read somewhere the deductibles are at least $6,000. The soaring premiums are what you’d expect when the government tells people they have to buy a product from a private company.
People should also be leery, as the government doesn’t like to admit failure and will often step in with advisors. But temporarily, until the program turns itself around. Like they did in Vietnam. Folks, the government has abused every type of file kept on its citizens. Imagine this scenario when bureaucracy becomes the record-keeper. It’s 2036 and you are diagnosed with cancer.
But the new rule says you cannot get treatment because your smart-phone file from 2015-2020 shows that you bought a pack of cigarettes a day in that stretch. Doesn’t matter if they were for your brother, you are disqualified. It has been made mandatory to carry your “voter registration card” as identification and protesting is unpatriotic—they know where you live and you’d best remember that.
And they still haven’t brought Jason Derek Brown in for “questioning”.
It’s only one small step from the government administering health care to the government telling you what you can’t eat or wear under threat of exclusion from medical treatment. One very tiny small step. This is how all governments think and there is nothing, repeat nothing, holding them back.
Tibetian ice avalanches.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
NOON
Okay, who’s the pretty blonde babe walks down my street these days? I’m working in the back, but I have X-ray vision. I wonder, since there is nothing down that street and it isn’t a shortcut anywhere. Say, how did you do with the tree height? The angulator isn’t all that accurate, but the opposite angle is between 50° and 51°. That makes my estimate of the tree height off by over 40%. That tree is somewhere between 89.38 and 92.62 feet tall. A monster.
I broke down and bought the gourmet birdseed. No milo, it looks a lot like granola with thistles. Let me get the non-additive ingredients for you. It’s called Pennington Ultra Nut & Fruit Blend. Sunflower, peanuts, safflower, raisins, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, almonds, pecans, walnuts, dried cherries, ground wheat, ground corn, salt, and soybean meal. Wow, they damn well better like that.
So the birds get five-bucks-a-pound top diet and I get ramen noodles. This birdseed has a coating of “minerals & vitamins” claimed to turn by backyard into a year-round natural habitat. That’s a neat trick since I put the food in my front yard. The manual says to offer a fresh water supply but you know, considering the Florida climate, how about we assume the wild critters get all the water they could ever want. Having a single feeder keeps all the action in front of my window. I’ve now had occasion to watch the feeder at most times of day. Morning and evening are the big feeding times for the prettiest birds.
I happen to like ramen noodles.
[Author’s note: the design of the birdfeeder seems to be ideal for the yard. Considering I did not use a blueprint, but cut the pieces from a surplus fence picket, that was lucky. The unit was slapped together more as a decoration because I had some copper nails I wanted to use up. While I may have read some specs on feeders, this one was not made to attract any given bird.
Turns out the perches and feed holes are the right size for cardinals and smaller. And the pizza plate squirrel guard was another bonus. It is fun watching each new bird learn that it cannot get purchase on that metal. Normal feeding is one of the cardinals on one side of the feeder, with smaller finch-like birds back and forth on the other side. These little birds take one seed at a time and fly away to eat it. The cardinals stay as long as they please.]
The scooter is also getting pampered. That’s top grade synthetic oil and a six-dollar additive said to coat older parts with pitted metal. It causes the exhaust to smell a bit like Mazola cooking oil. It audibly makes the motor sound better as soon as you add it. Since the odometer is broken, I have no accumulated databanks to estimate my scooter mileage in the new location. But my guess is the mileage is now well over 26,000.
While I felt the pinch big time this month from the motorcycle repair, November is already shaping up to be the first month with a surplus. Won’t that be a treat, the first time since bingo closed down. Too bad I can’t post videos, I caught a full minute of a cat slinking up on the birdfeeder across the lawn. Just like those tigers, except this cat wasn’t fooling anyone. There is a fifteen foot perimeter they cannot get past, plenty of time for the birds to scatter.
NIGHT.
A cup of tea and I was out like a light for eleven hours. Must be in anticipation of a big day tomorrow? The high point was vivid dreams, one of which was the piano lead break of my second band, “Ides of March”. Not to be confused with the real band who had concerts and tours. This was my first teenage throw-together, and nobody, including the guitarist, knew how to play a lead break.
Back then, nobody in the territory knew anything about scales and notes, much less the patterns on the guitar neck. We played as many tunes as I could think of that had no lead breaks, but there was one that we could not get around. Give me a second, I might even remember the name. It was one of those easy-to-play early Stones songs. Anyway, since nobody else could do it and I knew zilch about guitar, I sat at the piano and figured out some notes that would fit.
Not the lead break itself, not even close. Just a series of notes that didn’t clash with the chord. Then I placed those notes on the neck of a cheap guitar I wish I still had. Then, like with all the other “musicians”, I taught it to the lead player, Barry White. It was a difficult learn for him, but I had intended this music interlude to be just a fake until he learned the real lead break on his own. That is, just a fill to be used for practice.
Wrong. It was the only lead break he ever knew. He not only used that version on stage when we got a singer, he kind of used it in every song thereafter. I realized some two decades later I had, without a lick of training, figured out the pentatonic minor scale. Not bad for a 13-year-old. The important part is how I translated the keyboard notes to the neck. When I get stuck on a bass riff, this is the exact technique I use down to this day.
ADDENDUM
Remember the milo seed that gives birds diarrhea? Don’t throw it out. It seems squirrels have no problem with it. And don’t eat what’s boiling on the stove. Because it is metal. Every farm boy knows the trick to getting paint off old hinges and brass. You know, because lazy people paint right over the hardware. You get some salty water and boil the hinges. Could be five layers of paint and it will peel right off. You’ll see.
Last Laugh
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
