One year ago today: October 26, 2017, lots of potatoes.
Five years ago today: October 26, 2013, Demopolis, Mississippi.
Nine years ago today: October 26, 2009, the Hialeah Five-Oh-Five.
Random years ago today: October 26, 2011, early on-line dating comments.
Library time, and it took a half day. I’m anxious to leave for holidays, but as it stands, I may have to run back to Miami again for another set of tags. I’ve noticed the DMV website, though it is consistent across the state, flags any registrations that take place in or from other counties. That’s an obvious setup to catch people who have vehicles registered other than where they live. It’s not illegal but the DMV plainly does not like it. The downside is while the motorcycle was $38 round trip, this last car trip was slightly over $80. Whatever I said before, it was this new figure.
Next, I grabbed the bass. I’d gone through my older song lists, many of which I changed keys a tone or two back before 2009. I didn’t sing then, so what gives? I was still weak and recovering and made the tunes easier to play. Today, I not only breezed right through them in the original keys, but noticed a long-term change in my style. There is a difference between the fretted and open notes in tone quality, mind it is doubtful anyone ever bothered over it. But I can hear it enough to have gotten into the habit of avoiding open string work.
Now, I hear the inconsistency clear as ever and I don’t like the sound. I find myself fretting everything. This can be heaps of work on tunes like “Fire” by the Pointer Sisters, but I did it without regard to the effort. Couple this with my oldest ranking stage caper of playing certain tunes on one string, and I’ve found a lively, flashy way to keep the tones uniform. I never thought it made enough difference to bother, but between the split second hand movements, I hear it now. Imagine, still finding out such things at my age. Folks, get yourself a no-ceiling hobby and keep at it while you are young. You’ll thank me for this advice.
I’m back at home, in my soundproofed, insulated bedroom. Even so, I can hear the train whistle, the neighbor’s dog, and the church bells. The A/C units rated for twice the square footage can’t cool even one room in the afternoon, on full blast it gets down to maybe 85°F. I’m running in another 20 Amp line and I will put in as many big A/C as necessary to make that room nice to work in. It’s the focal point of the building, now that the city won’t let me build a Florida room.
It was me, Boss Hogg, pencil and paper. Yep, the electrician guy was right, I need a full 24 circuits in the sub-panel to meet code. Around half are dedicated appliance lines, and I have the materials to run in the laundry room, a misnomer since it will be outside. I positioned it so that if, in the future when I win the MegaLotto, I put in that Florida room at three times what I paid for the house, I can locate the water tanks and such in that spot. Here I am, with a few years to live, planning to conquer the world.
It was with immense interest I read this article about Virgin Orbit and Cosmic Girl. A short time ago, I toyed with the idea that I could, if I had the right launch platform build a working space payload for less than $100. The cheapest working piece of space equipment ever designed and built on that budget. Well, dear readers, take a gander at what Virgin is doing. They are estimating $12 million for a payload of 1,100 lb,and as small as a breadbox. I could work with that.
It would be a number of firsts, like the first blog to be transmitted entirely from outer space. This is not conjecture, I have the parts in my work desk and the algorithm in my head. My plan is to program and Arduino Uno (I have many spares) to Morse Code all the text of this blog from space using a solar battery and an SD card, all on an infinite loop. If this goes any further, I have an "adopt-a-post" plan already in place. Not really a full post, but for $10 you sponsor a certain number of words.
There are 5,000 posts, so such a plan could potentially bring in $5,000,000 and I could be ready as soon as Vrigin is. In return, I will transmit any appropriate short message you would like. Sounds like a real novelty and a gem of an original blog idea.
The idea is still inchoate, I could transmit ASCII text just as easily. There is no reason this could not work as planned, I ask Virgin to notify me of any extra room on some launch, and I could cram the pieces into most any shape they'd like.
I would need some help with the engineering to harden the parts for orbital duty, but there is nothing new about that.
Marching past the Kremlin.
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I’m waiting for the morning before working on the scooter. It kind of makes sense to have a lot of light when you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m fixing it, the darn thing has paid for itself probably ten times over. Yes, that’s reasonable. Using the scooter since 2012 has saved me probably $6,000 in gasoline, wear and tear on other vehicles, and for the convenience of not having insurance, up to 2017, you could add another $5,000. Right now, I have bran muffins in the oven and I’ve got to run over to Winter Haven for some materials before dark. And, since I forgot to stop at the mall, we have a Carnation crisis. This household never runs out or even low on Carnation, it’s an edict from above. How this happened is one of those mysteries for the ages.
Over now in Winter Haven, I forgot my favorite coffee shop closes early on Fridays, so there I am at Dunkin. Don’t mix this place up with the horrible Dunkin beside the old trailer court, the source of so many tales. Somehow, after it was renovated, that place became a hangout for all the off-duty barflies and Wally-types from over in Hallandale. Noisy, over-opinionated television addicts who used $2,000 computers to check their e-mail and for it considered themselves power-users. This new Dunkin is more upper-middle, with sometimes a family having a birthday party. If the shop was closer to the library, it would be a contender.
Speaking of the library, which is called Kathryn Smith Memorial, like a hospital, I was there until closing. Across the street I heard a live band, and they were bad, which attracted me because that was their sound. A ten piece orchestra, but it could have been anywhere from 4 to 8 with some passersby jumping in. I’ve seen their ad and the band, which I’ve never seen until tonight, is on my tracking database. Called “Naked In The Park, they had the tinny sound of my first band. We had no decent equipment and sang through catalog amps, which we called “twiddle-tones”. Here is a picture of most of the band, I think. Not everybody played every song.
From what they said, I gather this is their gig. They play in the park on Friday evenings, which explains why I’ve never seen them. They play obscure music and I could not stay. I was there long enough to hear most of their music was C-F-G. Which I can follow in my sleep. I’m thinking, in the sense that I’m still convinced there is somebody in Polk County who would play in a band given the opportunity.
ADDENDUM
I picked this book up at the Thrift. Navigation has been reduced to calculating a few values and looking the answer up in a table or two. Still, I like to learn how others approach the subject and this book carried a $2.25 price tag back in 1953. This was a gem, the author builds on the technique that the stars are so far away there is very little angular difference between your position and the center of the Earth. I doubt you could read this book and actually navigate today. I’ll even tell you why. Navigation is one of those topics you learn in little pieces and it can be a while before they form a picture. I can use a sextant to figure out where I am, that’s good enough for me.
The water bill, and the pains of being a homeowner. I heard the leak as I walked out the door, but it sounded exactly like the toilet tank refilling. Nope. 60,000 gallons and the bill comes to $451.00 Fortunately, I keep a reserve of $280 and an active amount of $140, so it is all but paid. This place is so economical compared to renting, I’ll likely just pay it. The rumor is if you argue with the city, they’ll cut the bill in half. For $225 I don’t argue.
We are on a roll. A week since that stint with the food cart and my energy level is still boosted. I’m not doing anything different, so let’s hope this lasts. The results of my tests showed stable again, so ignoring a few minor twinges, it’s been four years. If I count since the last time I physically had to stop and recover, close to eight years. Mind you, for the first while I took it super-easy even getting up in the morning. Best part of the few years just gone—no hesitation walking anywhere any more. Range gone from half a block to infinity, I gotta love it.
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