February 25, 2017

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 25, 2016, I built this myself.
Five years ago today: February 25, 2012, Mennonite vs. Amish.
Nine years ago today: February 25, 2008, see that sign . . .
Random years ago today: February 25, 2015, “National Gas Service”.

           It was another foggy morning off the gulf and I take it such weather isn’t that popular. But I could care less, I tried to start the batbike this morning. The battery was dead. This happens, as there are still lots of wires the last owner strung in there himself. So I replaced the battery, a reminder that when you pay the compulsory $12 core charge, you have to pay sales tax on that, too. I wonder how many pennies of that $12 actually makes it to the intended purpose. Then I hit the starter and my solenoid is shot. It was the original, so it lasted a little less than 40 years.

           It looks fairly stock, I know that in the early days most Honda parts were shameless copies of American designs. Alas, I missed my breakfast date in Lake Placid. That’s where I was heading until I got into the repair. It’s a $20 part, but I wonder what it will cost me in this town. There is a Honda motosport dealership, but they tend to not stock parts for street bikes. Maybe I’ll use a Ford alternator, they seem pretty universal.

           That means a morning off. Good, I need a turn at doing nothing. I went on-line and checked out a dozen videos of the band from last night. All live recordings, not that impressive, and only one had a bass player. He was on key, on beat, but faking it. And the riffs he was using show he hasn’t put in his 10,000 hours. Nice, but like listening to somebody play piano at maybe a third grade level. By the way, most guitar players no matter how good they are, play at around the level of fourth grade piano.
           Thinking over what I heard last night, I could tell the core group knew the music. Thus, they are aware when they leave out riffs and instrumental breaks. That’s rarely a good idea, and it’s an area I specialize on the bass. They played that Parton tune, “Jolene”. Bass players tend to fake that one, thinking it is an easy comp. Wrong, the proper bass has quite a busy arrangement. Now the song is stuck in my brain.

Picture of the day.
Halifax, 1917.
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           This is a repeat photo, but this one is on purpose. It is for real, not posed, I saw this car that very morning with the $1,000 rental mag wheels. It holds the record for the most views here of a vehicle I don’t own. That’s 1,811 views. The location? Near the Young Circle park in Hollywood, Florida. This is the area I decided to move out of around that time, as the area has become a little too multi-culturalized. This picture testifies to that. I didn’t say it was third-worlders, but that’s how you bet your money. I can’t believe I wound up living in that place another five years, but hey, I was comfortable.

           I lose the day chasing around and guess who decides to call in the middle of it to tell me I’m using the wrong kind of paint? At least the guy is reading his mail, see, that’s how he knows what I’m doing. Dude, that’s not paint, it is $36 per gallon primer. I read the instructions and I’m not the zero-experience guy I was three months ago. JZ says to use the belt sander. Way ahead of you, guy. And he wants to know if I’ve ripped up the living room floor yet. No, guy, that’s your job.
           Yep, JZ finally has been in touch. Two months, and like we figured, still no replacement truck—but hey, the guy is new at saving up large sums of money. I couldn’t believe my ears, he said he’ll head up here on the train if he has to. The guy hasn’t been on a train since bible camp. Really, I surprised because I think he has something against trains. Myself, I have something against Amtrak.

One-Liner of the Day:
“I’ve had amnesia as long as I can remember.”
           I replaced the solenoid with one from a lawn tractor, and it’s making the same clicking noise. Did I just remove a perfectly good solenoid? I’ve still got it just in case. That repair is basically how I spend the day I was planning on visiting some country roads and the weather was perfect for it. In other news, some kids knocked on my door. They were playing soccer in the church lot and kicked the ball through all those tree and limbs and through my yard. In that entire yard, there is one tree where I have my tiny temperature sensor. Guess what the ball hit?
           I told them I wasn’t angry because they did the right thing. I got inside, propped up my feet, and threw on a DVD. One weird tale, “Talk Radio”. This show host insults the callers and cuts them off, generating his share of death threats. The last one wasn’t a threat.

           Here’s a semi-finished picture of the double windows. This is not the final product. What you see is the unpainted and untrimmed version buttoned up so I could take off out of town for a day, maybe two. The measurement error was that vertical piece down the center of the two windows. I’d originally planned to use the existing house framing, which meant two cripples. I forgot to adjust when I decided to go for a built up header, you know, in case for some reason I ever decide to put a sliding door in this position.
           With the header, I no longer needed anything but a shared kingpost, leaving this gap 4-1/2” too wide. It’s framed in now, but I’ll need some time next week to custom cut some trim pieces. Also, I found the problem with the illusion of off-square. On the window on the right, also the same window with the backward pane of glass, the trim on the side is off angle. See it? Not much, but enough to get me running around for half a day. I would not make money as a carpenter.

           Here’s another picture of the window installation. The shutters on the other window are slated to be moved to the double window. The single window will now be moved around front, remember what I said about curb appeal. The observant may notice that this is the most worked-on wing of the cabin, now square and level at the foundation as well.
           As intended, this really makes an appealing window arrangement from the inside. There is plenty of room for a chair anywhere along the length of that wall, which should have a real view. Most bedrooms face a fence or the neighbor’s wall. In contrast, this should be quite a attractive, now that we have a panorama instead of a peeky-hole.

           The great window move of February 2017. Twenty-two hours labor for me. And two gallons of hand-squeezed lime juice, which tasted exactly like lemonade. Is that why they were on sale?


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