One year ago today: November 23, 2015, 35 years ago today, I dropped out.
Five years ago today: November 23, 2011, the missing post.
Nine years ago today: November 23, 2007, early Jimbos photo shot.
Random years ago today: November 23, 2009, it’s not a steam engine.
MORNING
Fully aware that most guys do not like clearing a space to work, I went ahead and prepped the floor (interior) where the first jack is positioned to lift. It is the
Zephyrhills scissors jack, but it was missing the lever. It turns out to have an odd size port that doesn’t match any pry bar I own. Shown here, I tried a variety of combinations to no avail. You can’t see it from here, but the big work is inside and since it’s shifting things around, Idon’t get credit for that thankless chore.
Damn. The establishment has gotten to Trump already. He’s already reneged on his plan to put the Hillary on trial. And he has not brought back torture. This is not what was promised, Don, you know better than to be all talk. Don’t lose your cajones just because the insiders start squeezing you on day one. 
You let these people go and you better thing twice about what kind of example that sets. Don’t be yet another president who gets into the White House and turns chicken to the Zionist Industrial Military One World Order bunch. Or else more people will really start believing that conspiracy is more than a theory.
I heard the statistic that 43,000,000 Americans will be driving to Thanksgiving. I think that is a telling statistic on the degree to which people hate the security checks and lineups at the airports. Come on Trump, check wierdos and you-knows only. Enough of this check everybody, because everybody isn’t a terrorist and you know it. The system already has far more than enough files to know who the suspects are. So quit using terrorism as an excuse to shake down everybody. Come on, Don, you can do it. Time for you to start reading Ann Coulter again.
And what is with appointing people to the UN? Get rid of that useless organization or start collecting membership dues. They are nothing but a parade of jokers with anti-American views. It’s been a festering sore on the American system long enough. It wouldn’t take much to find out who’s for us or against us. But Don, are you already showing a nasty streak of cowardice? Have you sold out already? If so, that sure didn’t take long. America is watching.
In contrast to driving is the number of people riding Amtrak. Over the entire holiday, there are only 250,000 seats available in the Atlantic northeast, the only area of the country it is even possible to travel by train unless you live in a major city. Amtrak keeps going downhill because they make the worst decisions possible. They lost my holiday business by refusing window seats to single travelers.
The bright side is more Americans will be driving around than the entire population of most countries. I shrug when I hear that the world would be in such bad shape if everyone tried to live like Americans. You are talking about a lot of societies that think their cultures are superior to us, so what’s with their stop-at-nothing rush to have American possessions? I’d say it is clear nobody ever intended for primitive savages to be driving Chevrolets. I’m just sayin’.
Another thing people don’t like is that Trans-Pacific Partnership. There’s not a factory worker out there who doesn’t know what NAFTA did to the jobs in America. The TPP seeks to allow each country to export the commodity that it produces the cheapest. Sounds good, until you realize countries like Chile and Viet Nam are part of the deal. And the contract would give them the right to sue for lost profits.
Suppose you invent something that works better and cheaper in America. If Borneo had a competing product that started losing to your new business, they can sue. And it is not clear if they will sue the USA or you personally. You see, the TPP agreement is not open to the public. It was entirely negotiated behind locked doors. Wake up America, or within four years you may be wishing there was some firewood in your own back yard.
Painting of Nebraska.
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NOON
Aren’t I swell for avoiding Thanksgiving pictures? Those who don’t have an invite don’t want to see them and those that do have already had enough. I carried on getting the building ready for the jacks and found this okay and salvageable set of metal shelves in the older shed. You might want to return tomorrow to see what else I found. This could save me some money in the short run. See beside the shelves the branches from the top of the 62-foot chokecherry I saved as a souvenir. It Is not treated with insecticide and wood preservative, pending what I decide to do with it. Neat shelves, huh? I may paint them.
Yet if you do decide to cut timber, the chain saw is a decidedly better tool than the band saw. Neither of these are any good for business, they are strictly backyard tools for occasional use. To do commercial work, you need a big circular saw and some way to move the logs without busting your balls. I later estimate the Portamill 14 to be worth around $300 new.
The new place is harsher on my tools. That was expected sometimes. My B&D 7-1/4” saw now binds half way through a 2x4”, even with a brand new blade. I cleared more room near the wall I’m raising tomorrow, always a dusty chore. I’ll use the table saw to customize the shims.. There’s a good chance this repair could turn into a real adventure. It depends a lot on how well the house stands up to being lifted on corner at a time. If it works, the rest of the house gets the same treatment.
Meanwhile, I’m getting grubby working on the easy parts. The floor comes up on the interior tomorrow, relax, it was never nailed down. I’ve noticed that if you walk into certain places in this town covered with sawdust, wearing gloves, and look like you know what you are doing, everybody clears the hell out of your way. I like it. I stopped for a cold beer after the lumber yard, and picked up on something else. The pub sometimes has early entertainment when the following day they are closed. Here’s the thing.
I have not been here all that long, but certain tunes have become solidly identified as mine. These are a number of tunes that were just not done when I arrived, prime example “Here’s A Quarter”. Several guitarists now play it, but as I’ve said, these people are no good at learning new material. Even when they play it wrong, the audience identifies it as my tune and expects me to sing. Nobody on guitar can play “Jambalaya” like I do on the bass.
It was early dusk before I got back, upon which I decided to take the long weekend off. I’m the only one spending Thanksgiving alone by choice. I took a big plate of turkey out to thaw. Hey, I go a week’s head start. I mean really take the time off unless I feel like working. I promise to complete the religious book and give away the ending.
I’d better say something that’s long overdue. You know about Interactual? This is the program that will play a DVD on your computer if you don’t have software to play it already installed on your system. I took one look at the changes Interactual makes to your computer and I won’t touch it. The danger is when you later use the same computer to connect to the Internet.
AFTERNOON
I installed those solar walkway lights in my front yard. It is so dark by 7:00PM you got nothing out the window. I love it compared to the light pollution of southern Florida, but I’m a half block away from the street lights and have to carry a light to find the house key. Since it’s dark, I played the DVD “Auto Focus”, the documentary of Bob Crane. The guy who played Hogan’s Heroes. The acting is quite passable but some of the mind-sets portrayed are disgustingly hilarious. Filmed in 2003, it has some real 1950 idiotic themes. I can’t tell if they are intentional.
Don’t look at me, I don’t find married women the least bit sexually attractive and never have. The two divorced women I’ve know in my life were hardly in my league (although I really did like them or nothing would have happened. And I would point out I met them both years, not weeks, after the divorce.).
More interesting in the video was the information about Sony and stats on the show. The series ran from 1965 to 1971 with 180 episodes. I didn’t know Crane married the second actress to play Helga (Klink’s secretary) and that was just plain dumb. You poink such women, you don’t marry them. She was also a divorcee. By 2003, this was not shocking, yet the movie is targeting the audience that would think all this is so naughty. It isn’t. I was around and the time and that’s not how it was—except for the loser crowd who bought into the “sex ed” that was available during that era. The whole bunch of them grew up a little strange and over opinionated on what other people should like—which seems to include none of the thrills they missed out on.
The producers did a credible job of finding close resemblances, the closest being Col. Klink. You might like the stereotyped portrayals of the strip clubs and hair styles of the time. There was a better market, I think, for the bigger-thighed women at the time, the “mature” Playboy bunny look. I never personally cared for it. Even when I made a pile of money now and again while I was young, I sure never blew it on strippers, probably because I never had to. Just being myself was all I needed until I was nearly 30. After that, I didn’t want what it took to date women my own age. Oh, I knew exactly how to play the game, but I didn’t want to. Still don’t.
So if you want a good portrayal of the way “older” people fooled around when I was in my my prime, watch this video. It’s got some funny parts, like the Sony salesman who is color blind, the eternal Jews getting offended, and the enduring concept that porn leads to infidelity, then big sex parties, then drug use, and then either salvation or death. Meh.
NIGHT
What have we here? Looks like a Vivtar-grade photo of the scooter speedometer. It’s past the 27,000 mile mark these days but nobody cares any more. It makes a daily run to the library and the odd shopping trip. So, how did it make the blog today? Well, blurry or not, you can see the orange needles. The speed is stuck on zero since the cable gave out, what, a couple years ago already? Nothing around here seems like just y’day, that attitude is for life-wasters. What you do see here is enough clarity to make out the gas gauge.
The trick is to find a material that protects the lens from the direct sun and air. I have tried at least as many products as the rest of you. I was tempted to make a wooden outline of that chrome ring and replace the lens with real glass, or at least something that could be replaced without dismantling the handlebars. That’s pretty much what has to happen to get at this part of the machine. That designer is another ass-clown that needs to go piss on the electric fence.
ADDENDUM
I finished reading “The Name of the Rose” and it gets an “Abe Lincoln” C-. The author is an obvious student of medieval history and not about to let you forget it. While there is insight into the workings of abbeys, the personal foibles and shortcomings of monks just does not have a broad popular appeal. The hero shows up ahead of the inquisitor and tries to solve some murders by coercing people into conversations they’d rather avoid, and by traipsing around forbidden zones in the library at night. The plot contains nothing novel or original; it lacks in most areas and has difficulty staying on course.
The real mystery is how this book became a bestseller. Even the title has no bearing on the book, there is no rose. The abbey contains a library with a book that contradicts Papal decree. The pecking order of the monks means each wants to become the abbot and live in the fanciest apartment. But in the end, the entire place burns down. So you don’t even get to see the secret writings.
My conclusion is don’t waste time on this book, time you could use reading something worthwhile. The book would be better formatted as a fifty-page comic book. Passing itself as a detective story, the entire tale is more concerned with Vatican intrigue and murky, contrived pseudo-religious issues. In that sense, it serves as a documentary over all the abuses you’ve heard of these religious orders over the centuries. If you wait for the movie, try to park near an exit.
I won't have access to the Internet until the 28th, so don't find alternative reading. They are all shallow and short on facts. Here is a preview. Be ready for a full report of the Thanksgiving holiday. It is not a big event in my life and I've got a house to raise.
Here is an interesting mini-sawmill that Mitch & I researched (see above). It clamps onto an ordinary aluminum ladder and guides your chainsaw through the log. It retails at Northern Tools for $999, but watch for it on sale for $799. Note, do not be sold by ads showing these band saw "portable" mills. The ads are designed to sidestep some very serious faults. For starters, they are hardly portable and there have been just too many complaints about the blades going dull after each log.
Last Laugh
This classic placed here for posterity.
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