October 2, 2018

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 2, 2017, I'm not anti-social . . .
Five years ago today: October 2, 2013, I drove it today.
Nine years ago today: October 2, 2009, the lowest form of . . .
Random years ago today: October 2, 2006, Florida - bridges without sidewalks.

           Now for the bad news. It’s true, none of the locations scouted by Agt. R turned out. Many already had all the food vendors they wanted, in some cases a lineup, or politics was involved. For example, the Friday Toe Jam has a stall that sells hamburgers. But he could sell hotdogs if he wanted to, so therefore he said no because he had the veto power. It’s back to the same old scenario, things get done when I bloody well do them myself. So that’s why you get to hear about things other than the food wagon. For instance, how do you like this Florida picture. See, that’s what I should be doing and I don’t even fish. Here’s a photo take by binoculars across the library lake through a window pane. I thought it looked, what’s the word, keen?

           Putting the brakes on other matters brought instant results. Within a half hour, the electrician was over here giving the place the eyeball estimate. My oath, has he got himself a good-looking little lady. Nothing compared to what I had at his age, mind you, but as for today all I could do was stop my eyes from watering. He okayed the location for the panel, which I was unsure about because it is behind a washroom wall. And he doubled all my specs, saying I needed a 24 circuit box, 6/3 Romex, and a host of other items that were also double in price. I spent the remainder of the morning clearing the spot for work.

           Back downtown for some comparison shopping, who do I see but the lovely Stephanny. Never mind that, let’s get to prices. I found the Romex cable for $3.50 a foot, quite a bargain in the sense that they usually only sell it in 100 and 250 foot rolls. I need around 30 feet. I’m also back to the confusing selections of different breaker boxes and incompatible parts, often from the same manufacturer. Running electrical is by now routine over here, nearby is a compound picture, looking down the hallway at the drywall being removed, and a closeup of the panel location. Directly behind that is the tub enclosure, so I dared not go ahead until I got the okay on that. Who knows, by the weekend, we may have things back on track.


           I also visited two offices looking for locations. The mainstreet committee has no openings at all, but had an extensive list of where not to set up. And the parking lot at the lumber yard. The manager said it was a “head office decision”. That’s a strong indicator they’ve had liability troubles. Aha, I immediately handed him a blurb sheet to forward to headquarters. That would be a semi-permanent location, and if we get it, the paramount reasons would be my much-criticized insistence on registration, insurance, inspection, and certification. Not that it would shut up my critics, but they’d be forced to think it, which is akin to torture. Not that I’d rub their noses in it, but nothing would be stopping me from gloating. Just think, an idea of mine living rent-free in the fewer than normal brain cells of my detractors.

           And now, ladies, the part you’ve been waiting for. I mentioned that I got some attention lately, so checking my trusty calendar, it is day 307 of my diet. What? Oh, I call the calendar trusty because it is the one used to schedule my Star Trek injector days. Which reminds me, today is the day. Anyhoe, back to the diet. The long awaited inch-pound barrier may have been crossed. That’s the situation where I loose one or the other, but not both. It appears it takes 100 days to loose 10 pounds and keep it off. It is not steady and there are stretches where the impossible seems to happen, where you gain a pound or two in a single day and it stays on, for weeks sometimes. Very disheartening.
           The last month, I’ve gained four or five pounds, which can’t be on my diet because the calories just aren’t there. A week ago, the inches began falling. Along with most of my pants without a belt. No partying yet, I still have 45 pounds to go to reach my correct BMI. I was always slim, but not skinny, until I hit 50. Huh? Oh, it means body mass index. Without it, you may lose weight but you will look funny and be just as unhealthy. I’m dropping pounds and inches together, ever so slowly. Will it continue? The thing that remains constant is my advice. GO ON A DIET. Folks it has all the plusses. And if you are wise, go on it before you have to. Start with cutting out hamburger, pizza, and as far as possible, all HFCS. Read those labels.

Picture of the day.
Memory foam padded cell.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Have I kept you current on that first house I almost bought, but decided against because of the Jack & Jill bedroom? I’ve documented the place elsewhere so maybe there are gaps in the blog. Essentially, I didn’t like the layout, but it is on a side road near downtown that I regularly pass on the way to the lumberyard. I chuckled because it had a massive dead tree in roughly the same location as the place I bought, and my first priority was to get mine cut down (in October). Whoever bought the Jack & Jill didn’t bother. And the big next February storm brought it down on his roof.

           I have a video tape of driving past, noting how he was going to have the same run-in with the city as I did. They won’t let him repair it himself. Worse, it was on the north side of a zoning line, meaning a new roof would cost twice the price of the house. It sat there, blue-tarped for the better part of 18 months until I saw this y’day. It’s demolished. Worse for the owner, the location is near downtown, but too inconvenient to flip. Unless he had insurance, and it is very expensive to insure older houses in this state, the place is not just a write-off, but a real, biting loss.

           Speaking of tarps, the canvas model I looked at was priced wrongly. For an 8 x 10 footer, they want $50. Forget that. One can buy a ten year supply of Harbor Freight worse-than-Chinese tarps for half that. So I picked one up, which had interesting advertising. You know how a tarp has a good side and a bad side. This one didn’t, it explained. One side was camouflage and the other was neutral green, it said, letting you have a choice. Golly, the millennials must be ecstatic. But the next picture will give them the melancholies, because it involves looking, thinking, and laughing at misfortune.

           This is another surreptitious telephoto shot. The forklit operator drove up to the sidewalk to move a lawn tractor on display. But the tractor would not move. They stood around scratching their heads. Can you see the problem? It’s a bit hard to make out, but when the forklift had no load, he drove up to the curb, see it? When he lifted the tractor, the fork channels dropped just enough to raise the forklift wheels a fraction of an inch off the pavement.

           And forklifts are front wheel drive. The wheels spun away, but when he got off the chair to see what’s wrong, they had already stopped. It was a Three Stooges classic. Eventually they did things the Florida way. Some burly dropouts from the shipping department came out and shoved it back onto the street. See? Don’t use force, get a bigger hammer.

ADDENDUM
           Four consecutive times. What am I doing right? I’ll explain. You know my aversion to slow music. It means a limited selection of tunes, but one of them is Buffet’s “Pirate Looks At Forty”. It can be years between times I sing that at Karaoke, and that’s what I’m referring to here. I’ve played it in my regular act without the same results. Somehow Karaoke is different with this particular song. And it happened again tonight. Thinking it was Wednesday (I’m a Wednesday person), a walked in to find that loopy guy set up to a sparse house, mostly itinerant Karaoke singers. A couple of my fans were there, so to keep the evening mellow, I sang the pirate song.
           And it happened again. The place stopped, including the barkeeps and all turned to watch and listen to me sing the entire song. This is no longer coincidence. From my perspective on stage, this song is no different than any other, I don’t even feel I am that good at it and I regularly flub parts of it. But that is now four for four, and the people and places I’ve sung the number don’t know each other. The house goes dead silent for the entire song and even people moving around stop and stare. That’s it. The applause after is about normal and nobody congratulates me afterward. The other instances are blogged, the first time was at Jimbos, but that could have been eight years ago by now if you want to confirm any of this. I have no explanation why this specific song only at Karaoke.
           As for the Last Laugh today, I hope you get it. I’ve never seen or heard Fox News, and yes, I’m aware of their reputation for slanting and spinning. I had the radio on and got the CNN version which was not much better. Again, they are not letting up on the illusion that there is a broad united front of people against Trump so don’t support him or all these nice liberals will hate you. I dunno, is liberal a proper noun. Even if it is, I would find it an intellectual insult to capitalize it and the same goes for millennials. Particularly the type of millennials who place bar codes where they are likely to be covered by any packaging straps.

Last Laugh

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