One year ago today: December 18, 2016, a great audition.
Five years ago today: December 18, 2012, years of unspent loot.
Nine years ago today: December 18, 2008, redacted from something.
Random years ago today: December 18, 2007, please ban “side effects” ads.
Welcome to one of those days where everything went wrong, but no worry. My infrastructure in being completely absorbed the blow, which is nice or what. This is an extremely important concept. Without that buffer, the system has most anyone by the balls, but they didn't get me today. You’ll excuse if today’s entry is sparse. I still had to contend with the losers of the world, local style. I’ll complain and let you fill in the blanks. Psst, I’m only giving you the easy stuff, like the following.
There, I feel better already. The picture is the scale model of the porch. Alas, it was modeled at a time when I knew very little about porch design. Today we are dealing with reality and that’s something that rarely cooperates in these ventures. A porch was just the first thing that came to mind to make the building more attractive on that side. Who remembers I tinkered with putting in a double window. But the one in the bedroom proved so difficult, this time I would bring in some help.
Sincerely needing a break, I took a few hours off and re-read one of my books on celestial navigation. I had to get straight the concept that the sextant reads the angle upside-down. That is, you get a complementary reading. You have to subtract if from 90 to do the calculating. I have no ocean handy to practice on, much less something that floats to get out where the horizon is flat. I practice with the Florida skyline but that’s a poor substitute. I’m struggling with the northern hemisphere, the readings are handled differently if you are in the south, or between the tropics. But I’m getting it. I know I’m out of practice, but what did I just say about reality?
I’ll tell you what got done all day. Agt. R and I moved the old concrete steps from my porch area. That’s it. They are precast pieces, heavy enough that they cannot be lifted, so they got dragged along the dirt out of the way. In fact, they are in surprisingly good shape that I may re-use them for the porch entry. These days, it’s all about the porch. Here, help me make a decision on the flooring material. There are two schools of thought.
One option, we’ve already looked at. Decking material. The logic flows that after all, it is a deck and should be built like one. Use 5x4” deck planks they said. That’s the planks we already know will cost nearly $400 for the wood. And deck screws are not cheap. Nobody recommends using plywood, saying it won’t last. But I know it does because I’ve seen it. That’s the alternative. The rest of my floors are ordinary pressure treated plywood, which would reduce the materials by half. I’d still use exterior screws, but fewer of them.
[Author’s note: don’t take the photos above to be accurate before and after shots. Nothing of the kind. There is no cupola yet and no, Ken, you can’t really see right through the house out the back door. That’s the hallway to the east side, removed for convenience. The screens are meant to be dark colored, which will do a lot to jazz up the property.]
That is the floor.
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Here’s a nice picture of a place in the east end. Note how the porch is kind of like a sun room and was built as part of the house. It is that window arrangement that has my attention. The rulebook says except for purpose-built metal, screen and window frames are “not to be” more than three feet in any dimension. Makes sense to me, look at how quickly my screen door warped. This house appears to have wooden window frames six foot wide. Ah, but closer examination shows there is an upright cleverly placed between each section. My scale model, built over a year ago, does not help with such small detail.
At least initially, the porch is intended only to be screened in. That means to an extent it will be exposed to the elements. As long as it is covered by a good roof, what are those elements? Wind and humidity. And the next New Madrid earthquake. I have driven past construction sites where the plywood tongue and groove decking has been left out in the sun and rain for months. I knew a guy who’s half-built garage is still waiting years later for him to put on the siding. If the porch is enclosed, I don’t care if the floor is visually appealing. I say we go for the plywood. All in favor say, “Aye.”
All opposed say, “I was just leaving anyway.” We executives have to make tough decisions.
ADDENDUM
There was a newspaper article today that stuck in my craw. It’s the traditional stance I have about people who devise a system that forces others to comply against their will. I find that to be pure evil, the most loathsome form of business monopoly. It should not be allowed in a democracy. This can get tricky to follow here, so pay attention. I am not necessarily against the product or service, but the system that seeks to guarantee the practioneers a profit. Nobody should be guaranteed a profit, ever. The basis of all progress is fair competition. It’s too bad the unseen hand can’t slap some people.
I’m talking about the concept that people should not be their own lawyer. This should be a thing that is made very easy to do. Tremendous resources have been spent to make it needlessly difficult. The news I’m referring to is the trial of an accused murderer who is defending himself. He—and every accused person--should be given the leeway to state his case without any artificial restrictions or knowledge of how a trained attorney might go about things. Why? Because of the premise that nobody should be allowed to make a law so complicated that the average person cannot understand it.
I maintain that at heart, most law is fairly simple. But the profession has been allowed to establish so many rules and regulations solely to create administrative complication—and that this has been done deliberately. It gives the illusion of competition, but in fact excludes non-attorneys from the running. I could understand how if the two opposing parties are lawyers, then the rules should apply. Otherwise, the procedure should be easy enough for any prudent person to understand and conduct his own defense.
Referring back to the trial just mentioned, what apparently happened is the defendant was told that he had to submit something he’d never heard of. He asked what it was and the judge snapped at him saying that’s a question he should ask his lawyer. This is wrong on so many levels. While the court is not there to educate the accused, nor should they be allowed to pull this kind of stunt on him. There is no reason the lady judge could not have taken a few words to tell him what was required or at least steer him in the right direction. After all, I've heard judges do it with rookie lawyers.
Why didn’t she just outright tell him she’s on the side of guaranteeing the legal profession a profit.
Last Laugh
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