October 5, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 5, 2015, on 3D printers.
Five years ago today: October 5, 2011, Facebook wipes out MicroSoft.
Nine years ago today: October 5, 2007, one new Beatles album today . . .
. . would outsell all the on-line music in history combined.
Listen up, greatest generation.
Random years ago today: October 5, 2010, replaced by frog juice.

MORNING
           I’ve decided to proceed with the radiator repair. Here’s a classic photo of the batbike next to the Sunbeam. I made my early medical appointment (another series of blood tests and I have small veins), leaving me time to get the batbike into the shop. That radiator is a major repair and it is draining this month’s reserves.

           Ha, but not as bad as over at my pal’s place. Like most Floridians, he has no reserves. Now, with no A/C, he has no vehicle to make money to repair the unit. And it now appears that the entire system except the roof compressor is going to need service or replacement. It is only three years old. What did I tell people about turning your air conditioner off and on instead of leaving the house cool when you step out for a few hours or less?

           Think of it this way. JZ is in the throes of learning that you cannot suddenly decide one day to start managing money. The painful lesson is that you must revamp yourself to money, not the other way around. You have to completely clean up your own act. Alas, too many people put this off because they cannot see themselves having any fun in life if they have to behave themselves. Define fun, I say. And in some cases, merely knowing you have the money to do certain things is at least as much fun as the certain things. You can quote me on that.
           The shop lent me the Honda Fusion again. It does look like the entire fan and assembly is on the fritz. If so, the estimate is $350, or about half what the bill is going to be for JZ’s air conditioning unit. The difference is, I have the money. I’ll point out here that this does not include the required replacement of that rear Goldwing tire. That’s extra.

Picture of the day.
Mt. Grinnell National Park.
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NOON
           Since we could stand a little good news around here, it looks like having that first set of blood tests y’day may get me back on the program. Apparently there is a chance they’ll remove some deadbeat and put me in a slot. It turns out they decided to put only 5,000 people on the test program instead of 30,000. Meanwhile, these back-to-back tests mean I have been fasting since Monday. (That’s why my appointments were originally a day apart.) I drove to the Taft Café and ordered the biggest meal on the menu. It’s true, folks, I have a touch of arthritis. This should surprise nobody.

           There is no sign of the hurricane named Matthew, but you can easily see the chaos of the gale-force winds of television commentary. Again, the media has a heyday, get out the Thesaurus, it is weather time. A Wednesday appointment finds me way out in the west end, so afterward, I stopped at my old Barnes & Noble for a couple of hours. I have five bruises from these recent tests and I just went 48 hours without coffee. Don’t anybody get in my way.

           Who remembers these instant cameras from the sixties? They were the only way to get your home collection, since the Kodak film stores would not develop even partially nude photos. There’s nothing like the local pharmacy censoring your camera work to let the peasants know who is in charge. Well, the “polariods” are back on the market. These are refurbished instant cameras and they are not cheap. This one is $200. The film is also expensive. That’s partially because the use-once battery pack is inside the film cartridge.
           The marketing ploy is incredible. Millennials have no apparent clue they are being sold completely recycled crap from a single generation before they came along. They think these “infinite pixel” cameras are something new. They fall for that because they have no idea what film resolution is. Millennials don't like to admit they don't know everything so these fads propogate. (For those curious, a polaroid instant camera is about the same quality as 8 megapixel, on a good day.)

NIGHT
           I decided to be nice and fill the scooter with hurricane gas. So I waited in a two-hour lineup. It is still broiling hot during the days, so you get long lines of cars burning a quarter tank of gas to stay cool waiting. A lot of stations are already sold out. And many of the remainder have something you didn’t know about. The electric gas pumps are wired in tandem. So the more pumps that are in operation, the slower they all become. The economic concept of surplus capacity does not take this into account.

           Thus, when all eight pumps are in operation, it takes almost a half hour to fill a 16 gallon car tank. Fortunately, the lady manager keeps a small amount of gas in tanks around back and gave me two gallons. Awful nice of her. She’s married. But the wait was so long, it finally clouded over again and forced me, just forced me, to stop at the old club yet again. And by the time I got home the neighbor was blocking my parking spot. That’s the same bozo who gets in everybody’s way sooner or later. He thinks people in the hallway can’t smell him and his ugly wife smoking weed.
           To keep the record straight, my "medical" y'day was a test program I've been on for years. The checkup today is routine for my insurances. I passed with flying colors. Stable three consecutive years, but I am developing a touch of arthritis.
           This [picture] is one of the flood barriers on the ground floor of JZ's complex. He warned them years ago not to remove the sealed stairwell enclosures at the hallway ends. They didn't listen. They wanted "open breezeways". And now the ground floor condos flood every storm. They stack sandbags along the board, which really adds to the ambience of the place. Your condo association at work.


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