One year ago today: December 8, 2016, she can’t blink anymore.
Five years ago today: December 8, 2012, humor in 2012.
Nine years ago today: December 8, 2008, Millie-Belle, before the crisis.
Random years ago today: December 8, 2003, almost my last post.
Here’s a misleading photo. You are supposed to compare this to y’day’s morning picture and wait for me to reveal what’s misleading. The concept of the porch extending out from the living room floor is evident here. This is not a shoddy slap-together repair, rather represents an investment of real value to the property. It’s only so far around $250 in lumber, each plank meticulously chosen from the pile. So how come the photo isn’t factual? Because what you see here is just the trial run. Nothing is fastened yet. Each joist still has to be hand-fitted. Nor are those pier blocks leveled. That’s the mistake I made using string. Lesson learned.
Each pier has to be dug up and reset. Every scrap of work shown here has been done by myself since what you saw before. That was written in case anybody doesn’t believe I was tired afterward. I’ve never used a water level yet so I’ll have to invent as I go along. What’s seen here is temporary. Each of the joists can be slipped out of the wall to give some working space. The new joists extend under the house by four feet, well past the existing good parts of the old joists. These will be glued and bolted together. And I mean really glued, with European composite guaranteed to outlast the house. The goop they used on the Chunnel.
And here’s something to consider. This perfectly adequate blog photo was taken by the little dash camera. Nobody can tell me the camera manufacturers can’t build a good $40 camera any time they want to. Instead, they are deliberately flooding the market with the same junk as I pointed out some ten years ago. There’s an economic term for doing business that way. It’s done with hard drives, where they could easily fill the spindle with platens, but they don’t. I don’t recall the word for that, which shows you how much use I get from all those economics courses I studied.
This type of sales was used on cars for the longest time. They add one or two new features per year at most. They trickle them on to the market, but I’ve often felt they are at the end of their rope, which I’ll now explain. As with electronics, science, computers, and airplanes, the supply of new inventions has dwindled to zero. Since 1980, the succeeding generations have not come up with a single new product or idea. Yes, Sally, even the Internet was invented before that. I blame the education system which has clearly been broken for decades. I fault the millennials extra because they are the first mass generation to believe they themselves can all milk the system.
But getting back to cars, this means the factories have added most new things that they possibly can. My 1997 car has nearly every feature as did my 1985 Cadillac, right down to the power seat, a luxury most car owners use once. It is with this knowledge that I smile when I see advertising for new cars. They are not really new, you see. The entire North American auto manufacturing system still functions the old way. Nothing new means they have to sell the cars using gimmicks instead of features. So they resort to the lame tactics used to foist cellular service contracts. Leasing, low buy-ins, and service contracts, all promises they hope they never have to keep. Talk to anybody who tried to get his car in line for the “free” annual servicing. It’s not like they come to you.
Saskatchewan movie set.
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It was the annual Xmas parade and I forgot it. There I was in my favorite Friday afternoon coffee shop. Mainly because it is the only place anywhere near here that will sell you just a coffee and leave you alone. Unless you want to drive downtown to the yuppie joints. In Lakeland, you don’t want to drive downtown. The day was perfect for the parade, which I could see from the window. Same floats as last year. The military schools still hasn’t taught the recruits how to march. And the circular parade route sealed me off from home for two hours. Unless I drove all the way out to Hwy 60 and went around the town. I had a refill and solved the cryptogram.
Listen, I’m turning in early. There is a terrific wind storm picking up and I have no gig. I’ve been totally faithful on my diet, so I’ve earned myself a helping of Ramen noodles. With added items like diced ham. When I was young, I could never figure out why anybody would prefer to sit at home instead of party on a Friday night. Now, I can’t figure out why they’d go out unless they were getting paid for it. You know, I should actually drop in at the club as I heard Agt. R. is working there again. Sometimes they have decent entertainment. Give me ten minutes to decide.
Okay, I went to the club for an hour, spent $15. That 30-something blonde lady that has begun recognizing me was there. But I saw her the first time I was in the place and that was the time to be smiling and saying hello, there Toots. Not a year later when I’m just one of the boys. And I do notice she does know all the boys. By name. Except my name, unless somebody else told her. The entertainment was those two guys with the guitar and that contraption drum box played by tapping the sides. Pat-B told me what it’s called. He should maybe tell the guy he was playing it too loud.
Last Laugh
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