July 22, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 22, 2017, the microscope journey.
Five years ago today: July 22, 2013, remember Crackle?
Nine years ago today: July 22, 2009, high prices, slow service.
Random years ago today: July 22, 2013, predicting the fall of Sears.

           Nothing notable happened today. I have the flu, it is storming, I’m living on thin soup, and it is day 203 says my Almanac. Reading is the only gumption I’ve got, I’m feeling pretty rough and sound like a frog. All the classic symptoms. A zero day like this means the mundane becomes the top events. So I’ll once more just record what happened, betraying the roots of this blog as a journal. Did you know that’s how I used to compare my nothing days with other people’s nothing days. And my motive was different that anything that might spring to mind. Hint: I do not sympathize with people who have nothing but nothing days.

           I stayed put most of the time and sketched out a better electrical system for the cart. I’ve decided on two kill switches, but one is an ordinary single pole latch that does not require a key. It isolates the pump from everything else in case of a low voltage problem. I got word from the state, the application and health inspection are proceeding on schedule, which means it’s dragging along.

           Here is a pair of sunglasses comparable to what is sold at the flea markets for $5.00. It’s got the ultraviolet light sticker and another that says polycarbonate lenses. But these are made in China, so who knows? Remember India, where you buy the “Government Approved” signs at the marketplace. The sunglasses are imported by some company in Virginia. Five bucks sounds like a good price considering your landed cost would be around 61 cents. I’ve inquired about buying a case of 244. They appear to be excellent quality, but how many of us are judges of plastic? Oops, pardon me, polycarbonate.
           Nor is the weather cooperating. I’ve got four batteries to repair but we’re getting some Texas style lighting storms. Horizon to horizon lighting up the entire sky for five seconds at a time. Even inside my soundproof back room I can’t sleep through that. Let me grab that Almanac again. There it is, “thunderstorms”. Summer will be slightly hotter, they say, and they got that right. Florida is what, region 5 on the weather grid. Are things so slow I’m reading the weather? Here it is, 17 – 26 of July, daily t-storms. Since I can’t take the camper to Tarpon Springs (that was the intended destination), I may just go crash inside it overnight. Testing a new camper has been the tradition here but no longer the customary trip around Lake Okeechobee.

           [Author’s note: the astrological section of the Almanac says this is the best day to go camping. It also says it is the best day to straighten your hair, demolish buildings, and brew beer. And the average lifespan of a domestic goat is 14 years. It says here Lucia, from Cockeysville, Maryland, won $150 second prize for her sweet potato lentil coconut curry recipe. Ha, and you thought my day was boring.]
Picture of the day.
Indian boarding school.
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           What’s next? Okay, and it doesn’t get any better, so listen up. The meat thermometer. Ten bucks with the built in timer. It takes 7 minutes 20 seconds to completely cook a frozen hotdog in boiling water. I opted for the instant read model, even if it requires a battery. Am I saying I don’t trust batteries? Naw, what gave you that impression? Now that I mentioned Tarpon Springs, what is up there? Nothing but apparently a sponge museum and a large supplier of barbeque parts. That would mean acquiring the diffuser rings becomes a major expedition. It’s up the coast from St. Pete’s. All I can say is I think this week some time we are going to have a cookout. With luck by then I’ll have my sense of taste back.

           Last, this afternoon was rehearsal #7 and it was iffy. But we were all warned that stage would happen. The music just will not go right. I’d prepared everyone for this, so used the time to pencil in the parts that needed work. In total, to get things right, a new band should go over the tunes a total of 1200 times and we have not yet reached 100. time, I think, to go over the tunes one by one again and make sure he is practicing the right things. We did this before, but he didn’t know the music yet.

           And be patient. While I did not post the picture of the screen door catches, it seems the ladies framed it and hung it on the wall. It’s actually a montage of nine small photos printed up to 8x10 photo size. Let’s see how that goes. They asked me to initial it.
           When I got home, I see Agt. R has scrounged me a cabinet. Excellent, it’s old but solid wood and it is destined as prep counter for now, and if it fits, the new bathroom cabinet once I get around to that. There, that’s my day. Or let me think. I did drop of some supplies, fix my butane torch, visit with Char who mistakenly thinks I’m a boob man and I don’t have the heard to tell her. That’s it, the main activity of the rest of the day was hack dry-coughing and using boxes of Kleenex. It sounds boring, but not as bad as some days back on the farm. What? Well, that’s because this blog rarely touches that subject. You can get that kind of bloviating anywhere. Unless you are like, really ugly or old or something.

Last Laugh

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