One year ago today: May 30, 2016, no such thing as “used to be”.
Five years ago today: May 30, 2012, ducky scrollwork.
Nine years ago today: May 30, 2008, the Delta Incident.
Random years ago today: May 30, 2009, “married guy bands”.
Here’s another blog exclusive for you. This is a real wood clamp, you can figure how it works by examining the photos. Top is the assembly, you can see it is a 2x4” with two metal pieces. One end of the 2x4” is a little chewed up. The rightmost photo is a moveable piece that you tilt slightly and move into position. Then, using the heavy duty crank at the middle, cinch up your work. Aesthetically, this is a far tool than those horrid pipe clamps they have today. We will try to duplicate the 2x4” and shine up the metal because this clamp is in perfect working order. Not for sale.
What’s this, Taylor is having a spat with that soap queen, the one with the name that sounds like a Star Trek alien. Kardashian? No, I don’t know what she does nor what she looks like, although like so may other TV people, I’ve probably seen her before without knowing what she represented. But I do know I’ve heard that name in the news long enough to know she’s got to be mighty old to be picking a fight with Taylor Swift. Something to do with inappropriate song lyrics.
Atta girl, Taylor, stand your ground. I’ve read a lot of what you write and you’ve got more smarts than the entire television acting set put together. People like Ramos and Kelly are proof of how little brain drive is needed to appear on the boob tube. Besides, I identify with Taylor not because she’s a babe, but because she succeeded in a career that I knocked myself out with and failed. The fact that she was also talented and beyond sexy no doubt helped, but I still admire her.
Jump rope.
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New rule number one. Never listen to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” just before you are about to spend a few hours painting a room. I was too busy to stop and hook up the radio so it was a few hours of “please don’t take him just because you can”. This photo is the north wall with one coat. This is the wall where the window used to be. I remain displeased with this undercoat primer, is going to require two heavy coats and that takes time. It is thick in the can, but does not stick to a roller and the hiding quality doesn’t act like a sealer.
Something else about Trump bumping into the French ambassador. Or some other personage vital to the survival of the US of A. I never heard of the guy and neither did any of the liberal media making such fools of themselves over it. What was he doing in Trump’s way anyhow.? My opinion of diplomats, ambassadors and embassies has been the same since day one. Fire them all and send them packing. Then outlaw the position and make it illegal for anyone to propose it be brought back. Diplomacy is a farce, the only thing it brought us was two world wars. It’s as up there useless in my opinion as military balls and foreign aid.
The libtards had their chance to make things work and they screwed up 9/10ths of the world. The planet is a mess. They can’t face the fact that they got dumped and are now whining that Trump is not continuing their diplomatic nonsense. They wanted another grinning puppet leader who shook hands the “right” way and visited foreign countries only in alphabetical order. I know, it is kind of hard to believe the media would even give such idiocy a forum, but then, they are part of the game.
They can’t face up to the fact that ineffectual baloney is gone, and Trump means to get down to business. Merkel stained her panties when Trump said time to pay up. She’s talking nonsense like “ending” the alliance. What alliance, old lady? America is the only thing that kept you alive until the Ruskie empire imploded. Now listen to you. ‘S’matter, didn’t realize how fat you were getting until you tried to carry your own weight, huh?
As you see, I can be in a foul mood after two hours of Dolly. I once saw a picture of her without the wig, have mercy on me. But I will say one thing. Trump had better start making good on his promises or he will have his electorate turn on him. He was elected to put a stop to the lying and corruption. It’s simple, you start building the wall and you print the name and home address of everybody who openly opposes it in their home town newspapers. Starve out the sanctuary cities, start by demanding the Social Security number of anyone who receives welfare, food stamps, or goes to school. Anyone who doesn’t have a number has to come forward and be documented. After all, they are wards of the state.
“If you were right, I’d agree with you.”
~ Robyn Williams.
Talk about fun, I’d mentioned to Agt. R that I’d read everything in my house, so he lent me a “non-electric” catalog. It’s the Lehman’s Catalog and they’ve put together a marvelous selection of things I have not seen since the farm. Yeah, a plus a lot of things we could have used on the farm instead of back-breaking labor. Waiting for the paint to dry, I curled up by the light and like a kid, I read the catalog. Most unusual were seeing things we had, but I did not know what they were for. Examples are a square corner chisel and a corn kicker. Nobody knew what they were, but nobody ever dared ask.
It reminds me of that backgammon game at the Robertsons. Not a clue, but five years later it was all the rage. The guys in my scout troop held study sessions and read “Backgammon For Blood”, the book. We never actually used any of these old tools, the ones I saw were generally rusted scrap, but at least I now know what I was looking at. And the prices, yee-gods! You mean my old wagon I leave outside is now $180 new? And straight edge razors really are $200 for an ordinary cow-bone handle model.
One thing we must have had one of everything was axes and saws, even if they were all junk by the time I saw them. The old man had a chain saw but we still had to split and pile the firewood. We were the last people in town to have a gas furnace by around twenty years. That is, every other last house in town had gas heat twenty years before we did. The catalog intrigued me because what it said as selling points were, to me, long lost analog technology. Like why do old saws have a hole at the other end of the blade? What makes a milk can safe? See addendum for answers.
[Author’s note: this is the model of cookstove I grew up with—no, I’m not ancient, everybody around us had electric stoves since day one. This picture shows a model that was neglected, you have to polish them with carbon black before leaving them unattended. The box hanging on the right was the water hopper, often used for heating dishwater. The reality was without the water box, the stove was always too hot or too cold and the oven was impossible to bake in.
The firebox is the tiny compartment on the left just under the burner lids. Below is the ash bin, as wood leaves a lot of ash. The stove will burn coal, careful, not all wood stoves can do that. But my family was totally too cheap to buy coal when impressed child labor was available.]
I see the hopper is now called a reservoir, lah-dee-dah. They don’t tell you how wood stoves dry out the air inside your house or how easily a stove left alone will rust—and you can’t get rid of the rust once it starts. If you try what you are thinking, it will stink up the house for years even after you try to wipe it off. The catalog has an excellent section on gas stoves and refrigerators, but I’ll read that separately, since I’m interested. There is also a type of water heater that turning on the hot water spins a turbine that ignites a gas blower. This is new to me, so drop back later to share what I’ve learned.
The book section of the catalog was fun because it goes overboard with the no electricity thing. Folks, I have lived without electricity and I have no intention of ever doing it again. Screw that, pay your electric bill and be thankful you’ve got such a convenience. That’s where the catalog and I part ways. I am not against electricity, I’m just all for being prepared as hell if you ever go without.
ADDENDUM
Answers: the hold in the saw blade is not, as some contemporary sources say, to hang the saw for storage. It’s true purpose is to attach another handle. Sawing is tough physical labor made easier when two men work one saw, each only pulling the blade. And the milk cans, you better read this before you ever actually buy one and put milk in it. The inside of the can has to be pressed out of a solid sheet of metal so there are no seams. The tiniest seam or crevice will grow bacteria.
And now for something hard to believe. By coincidence (and I do not believe in coincidence), I picked up a video at the thrift. One I’ve not seen but I liked the originals [that it was based on]. The DVD was “Alien vs. Predator”. What I’m saying is whoever wrote that script was familiar with the book I just read twice, “Out of Antarctica”. I’m not saying there is any overlap in the workings of either production, only that the writers of that movie script knew about the book.
Last Laugh
