March 2, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 2, 2017, and she’s offended?
Five years ago today: March 2, 2013, lobbies with potted palms.
Nine years ago today: March 2, 2009, Florida, land of the flat tire.
Random years ago today: March 2, 2003, yeah, that’s me.

           Skip today if you want action, travel news, music, all the good things in life. I redid much of the wiring since it bent some of the rules. Now that I’ve read the rules, I mean. Minor stuff, like my staples were 12” from the boxes, now they want 8”. It was mostly electrical, though I took down more of the old bathroom wall, which commits me to get to that plumbing since I managed to crack the sink trap. Just a crack, but these things never get better. I’ve also decided to add an exterior receptacle for the north side of the building. I had to run almost 100 feet of extension cord last time I worked there.

           Nor did I listen to the radio. Just my day off and seven hours of peace and quiet. I might even have enjoyed being an electrician. Once you learn the basics, it’s a routine way to make a living. I never had the option of trade school, so we’ll never know. I’m only working on the receptacles, you know. The lighting and switches have not even been planned out yet.

           I’ve been reading on the drought in Australia that started in 1999. I thought is was over, but an article on water management tweaked my interest. At the time, I considered it like California or Okalahoma, that people who lived there knew that earthquakes and tornadoes were to be expected, so nobody wants to hear them complain when they do. We had studied the Murray-Darling river system when I was in the fourth grade, so it never occurred to me anyone would go farming in the area. What Australia did was create an investment program. Unlike establishing a government water department, the arrangement seems to be working.
           “Chromosome 6” is getting interesting, but it won’t have an appeal for the era it was written. What I mean is the subject was ahead of its time for the intended audience. This is comparable to my generation, which was alive when computers came along, but during their lifetimes, they never really learned more than the basics. While molecular biology was known by the 1990s, not many of the masses thought in those terms. Neither of these groups would have gotten a lot out of reading a contemporary book on the topics. I was unaware of much of the technology until I read a bit on it during 2013 and 2014.

           The plot is a major corporation was investing in research with monkeys (bonobos) as hosts to grow human organs for transplant. But the scientists are all, if you’ll appreciate the pun, dupes. The corporation is really growing human twins for transplant, and have already sold four. Problem, the procedure is so expensive. In one instance a mobster gets a new liver, then he gets whacked. That’s the book so far. The corporation had not anticipated one of their customers would get an autopsy, so they have to steal the body from the morgue. My guess is they haven’t told the scientists they are growing the body parts in real humans and now corpses are showing up missing heads and hands.

Picture of the day.
“The Amateurs”, Act 1, Scene 4
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           So little happened, I skipped my daily to the library. I felt like working even if my shoulder didn’t. I miss going to the movies but don’t feel up to the round trip through the city. Lakeland traffic is so bad, I regularly drive south to Highway 60 to get anywhere east or west. And I’m out of DVDs unless I want repeats. Remind me as soon as the new room is drywalled to get me a nice fancy recliner like the one I left behind. So I can fall asleep in the chair like I used to. Hey, I worked hard for the privilege. I like reading and you don’t have to live in America to know that every time you set foot out of the house, it costs you money. Try it.

           In fact, let me check 2017. There were only 8 days when I did not spend any money, and some were circumstantial, like the day after Christmas and the day after I lost the Honda. There were 15 days which I spent only $1.00, meaning all I did that time was go to the library. The effectiveness of a budget for me seems to center on how willing I am to alter my spending to meet my goals and/or seek alternatives. For instance, should my coffee expense stay up around $100 per month, I may consider having Internet service installed here.

           This here a six blade razor. I saw it at the thrift for a buck, so got it for examination. The package front says the razor blades are made in Sweden. I dunno, does that seem right to you? I was unaware the Swedes had such industries, but they do build great cars and combat aircraft. Maybe they run these off on the night shift. There’s two razors here, with that useless aloe vera lube strip. Ah, here it is in the fine print. Distributed by Tella-Tech, a US corporation and manufactured in China. To me that means the whole thing is Chinese.
           Now it makes sense. I never kept up with speaking Mandarin, since there was never anyone to talk to. But I’d long noted in Eastern cultures, more of something is always considered better. Whereas Western culture wants to see something bigger and better, in places like India you can find a temple with 1,000 identical archways considered greater than the temple with only 999. I don’t know the connection, but I know it works like this. If you can make a five-blade razor, well, they’ll just make a six.

           Speaking of six, did you know that a six-shooter was normally loaded with only five bullets? That’s your trivia. The reason is if the gun was dropped, the exposed hammer was not resting on a live cartridge.


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