One year ago today: June 12, 2016, the bible belt.
Five years ago today: June 12, 2012, the original Trump-the-Trump.
Nine years ago today: June 12, 2008, the damage Wallace denies.
Random years ago today: June 12, 2007, an interesting Tuesday.
Here are some of the soon-to-be mass produced rails and stiles. Yes, I did get the terms exactly backwards. Hey, at least I didn’t say “sides and tops”. The upright pieces are the stiles and I did get that right once in a while, but started calling them rails because it sounds better. That brings up another point, the ratio of completed projects I blogged last Saturday. It was some guy named Eichten who did an independent study of why projects don’t get completed. His article is a little subjective and intended to be funny, but he does categorize the stages of completion.
No, I didn’t forget to tell you about the sale [of the flower shop], I just found out about it myself. And that was when JZ called to say he’s out of cash. (Don’t worry, he just means this month’s allocation.) Sure enough, he’s now my age and has nothing to do whereas I can’t find enough hours in the day. Thanks to me, he can’t even claim this took him by surprise. Don’t you underestimate the seriousness of this condition, it’s a major disorder of men who don’t plan ahead. This is why bars open at 11:00 AM, why casinos have restaurants, and why cable TV is big on sports.
I’m not picking on JZ, I knew of this destiny forty years ago, and personally warned by own brothers about it before I was ten. They didn’t “like to read”, whereas I would read anything that doesn’t bore me (although Smithsonian and Scientific American continue to trick me on that account). Another dynamic at work is that JZ and I are not similar characters. I have no hesitation to go to a movie myself, or take a 100-mile solo trip through the countryside. On the other hand, I would not walk into a gambling join alone. You know, the guy won’t even go grab a coffee and a magazine, where I work the crossword every day.
He’s also done set himself up to miss out on the few good women left. I won’t delve into that since most men already know what I’m talking about. There are good women around but subject to availability. Just read the want ads. Did you know that a woman being naturally blonde is the financial equivalent of an advanced university degree? Theses seemingly disjointed items are plain if you’d care to hang around with JZ and I when we go prowling. I know dozens of great women who are already taken, but I don’t know even one bad girl. JZ knows them all on a first name basis, as do most men. I don't personally know any such women.
This is where you’ll see me turning women down that other men are afraid to even break the ice. Happens all the time, I put a stop to any situation that I know will lead to disaster. Don’t listen to the man who says there are all kinds of good women available. He’s either a seriously disillusioned married sap or the type that heads straight for the whorehouse. To him, a good woman is one that doesn’t instantly spit on him.
Somewhere in Maryland.
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Wouldn’t you know it, the forecast is for the worst thunderstorms yet. I just need that three hour window to get to Maimi, so if I see any clear sky after dawn tomorrow, away I go. I looked ahead to August 21, 2017 to the path of the eclipse. The only territory I can make it to totality is right in Nashville, where I have not been since 1999. I don’t care for Nashville, but the map shows a stretch to the southeast, a forested area if I recall. My plan is to get there early enough to find a good spot a few days in advance. I was going to stay a month, but that’s before I saw the path goes directly over the city. But some of those small towns have real rustic hotels that still rent rooms. I may stay anyway, so keep the fingers crossed.
When I was a kid, I only met one guy from Nashville. Orest? I can’t remember, was he the one that used to put a tablespoon of beet juice in his eggs to turn them red? Anyway, unless I win the lotto, this is the last eclipse I’ll ever see. I just know the hotels will be clogged with tourists, so I might throw something onto the cPod, which is no longer wired for comfort. But it does light up and a fan is easy to install. It’s fairly versatile and I’m happy with it. I need a batbike vacation, I haven’t really been anywhere new since Savannah. When was that, 2015?
However, the batbike does need new shocks and a new rear drive thingee in the axle. What I should do is make yet another trip to the Hollywood shop and spend the gas money on that upgrade. That would be timed right before the eclipse, say a week or two, and I could take the west [Florida] coast roads to the Chattahoochee, then head north through Alabama. There are ten thousand road in Alabama, I would just keep northerly until I hit old Highway 11, then go to Chattanooga.
I wanted to travel in the Autumn, see the covered bridges, but that’s where my planning cuts in. If my application [of last week] is approved, I can go anywhere I want around that time. It’s been 39 years since I’ve watched the leaves change. It’s not like Miami is dead time, if I hang around, I need to go get that Fender guitar, possibly attend a wedding, and get my prescriptions ahead three months. The real implication of getting total approval, including my 15% for being a pioneer, would mean I would never have to conserve for the future again—unless the system collapses, but at that point money is meaningless.
Have you heard the ugly rumor about how many pension plans are bankrupt? The stat I heard was 70%, including the teachers, the autoworkers, the big electric combines, and half the states. Some of these operations have been borrowing to play their pension commitments for years now. My old union is one of the few fully funded trusts left in North America. What will the chain reaction be when any one of these other companies gets refused a loan to pay their old pension plans? (The fact they have not already balked at lending this money, which they know can never be paid back, smacks of government interference.)
“If men are all the same,
why are women so picky?”
~ Unknown.
It’s not all going my own way. I went to pack my favorite green shirt and it had fallen behind a sofa cushion. All wrinkled. There, so I have hard times, too. Earlier, I checked in with the neighbor who really liked the idea of the wood pile fence. But that was before I discovered I don’t have anything that can cut or chop that size of wood. The deal is the same, people like to lend me things because they get them back all shiny and oiled and tuned up. But he doesn’t have such gear either. So there you have it. No fancy woodpile fence, unless you show up with some lumberjack gear.
It works, but needs new switches and I found a whole box of the right ones. To test it, I put on an old John Wayne movie with Dean Martin. You know, I never could much tell Dean Martin from Frank Sinatra from Bing Crosby. They all look and sing alike to me, especially when they play their typecast roles as alcoholics.
ADDENDUM
Trump is dragging his feet on health care reform, but the fact is not all of the Obamacare’s provisions are detrimental. One thing too many people fail to realize is that it is not the government’s job to provide either healthcare, nor the facilities to keep people alive regardless of cost, or beyond the time they would have died a natural death. Tell you what, let me skip down the scorecard and tell you what I’m for or against.
Section (152) provides health care to everybody in the country, including illegal immigrants. Totally against. They should not even be here.
Section (1152) will ration cancer care according to the patient’s age. After age 76, no cancer treatment. I am totally for this provision. After age 76, no taxpayer funded cancer care, though you are free to pay for it yourself. The age is arbitrary, but at some point cancer becomes a natural cause. It sounds tough, but the concept of keeping people artificially alive in a catatonic state should be the burden of the family, not the government.
Section (164) the government will subsidize all union and community organization medical. Totally against, no playing favorites.
Other provisions:
a) Government access to the patient’s bank account. Totally against, although they already have it, the potential for abuse is too great.
b) Government prohibition on hospital expansion. Partially for. This amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to a private concern. That is theoretically always wrong.
c) All doctors get paid the same, regardless of specialty. Totally for. Over-billing the Fed is a standing evil in the medical system that has needed addressing for decades. The doctors are still free to overcharge the public; let’s see how well that works for them.
d) These above restrictions are not to apply to members of Congress or their families. Totally against. No special treatment for anybody at taxpayer expense.
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