One year ago today: October 30, 2017, twice as much.
Five years ago today: October 30, 2013, the Wichita Mountains.
Nine years ago today: October 30, 2009, ask Hannah Montana.
Random years ago today: October 30, 2008, Pudding & Millie.
I’d say get ready for another regular day around here. I can say that because I don’t have much to compare it to. That’s the problem with doing all you can do—you’ll wind up doing it alone. Here’s the now patched up scooter, with the body panels all strengthened and all accessible bolts and screws tightened back up. To my Canadian readers, this is year-round transportation in Florida. My red paint job has, in the prior six months, faded to this orange hue. Visible behind and to the left are the solar panels on my cPod tow camper. They run a 12 volt fan continuously on the interior, preventing any mustiness during storage.
Today is day 365 of my diet. The majority of the weight has stayed off, a lousy 30 pounds. This is depressingly little and these results are not congruent with the effort expended. I understand now why most diets fail. I don’t excuse failure, I just understand it better. Let’s step through the math. One pound of fat is around 2,500 to 3,500 calories, depending on your source. To maintain a given weight, multiply that [weight] by 13 to get the daily calorie intake to reach and maintain that weight. For me, that is 1,820 calories per day, but over the previous year, my average intake has been only 1,181 per day.
Using the least optimistic figures, I should have lost 67 pounds by now. My diet is revamped to less enjoyable food, so even the source of the calories is healthier. No beef, or whole milk, or snacks, my one treat is cream in my coffee, at most two cups per day. It’s therefore imaginable that I’m unhappy with the results. What’s more, I’ve been on a plateau for five months, hovering between 185 and 190. The one happy result, physically, is that I’ve dropped a lot of inches. But whatever is causing this to happen should have worn off by now, I mean a year is a long time. The yardstick here is that I do not consume the quantity of food that could possibly result in any gain at all, even an ounce. Yet on June 12 I weighed 179 lb and today I measured 188. I intend to carry on. I know I’m not the only dieter who has contended with this, but I’m using recorded facts that could easily cause despair.
To celebrate the year, I went through my lists and picked the song with the dullest bass line. That would be “Fishin’ in the Dark”, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They are a band like the Eagles, you can filter and crank the music through headphones and all you get some bleak guitar-like bass work. I worked up a complete bass accompaniment that captures that rhythm feel. The song is in D, a traditionally poor key for low end basswork as the instrument is tuned to E. However, it’s the easiest key to play double stops, to me, the mark of a top-notch bassist. So you can imagine what the bass now sounds like. I’ve finally got enough set aside for a decent camcorder, so check in later today to see if I drove to Davenport. The town where unemployment insurance is the only vacation most people ever get.
Next, I finally bumped into someone who has one of those “free” television antennas. If you are like me, you guessed right about the claims on the store packaging. He says from his place, a mile from mine, that he put up a claimed thirty mile antenna and got nothing. We know there are transmitters within 15 miles. He said he even strung it up high outside to no avail. This is what I needed to know. He said he finally got a ninety mile model, the best that was available at the time. He can pick up weak signals from around twenty stations, of which half are novellas (Spanish soap operas).
Maximum capacity.
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Hello, Davenport. And while you are at it, say hello to Chumley, the stray cat. I didn’t find a suitable camcorder, but I’m now the owner of a talking GPS. It’s the Garmin brand where you need to know the exact address of your destination unless you know there is a setting for “city center”. Yeah? But you need the equivalent of another GPS to find it in the menu. Avoiding the interstates has become instinct for me. The ideal road for me is still influenced by motorcycle travel, a secondary paved four lane in somewhat hilly, treed countryside. The Garmin lacks a setting for this.
While I’ve got you, let me explain Chumley is one of two very similar cats. I was unaware of that until I saw them both at once. Chumley is the one who has taken over my front yard. He sits on the bench, eyeing the bird life. He patrols the perimeter regularly. I’ve never fed or encouraged him. The neighbors keep these strays well fed and for the most part, have had them neutered. I don’t know if that has anything to do with how it took Chumley two years to quit diving for cover when I rounded the corners.
The camcorder was a challenge. I know the cameras in smart phones are quality enough for most people. Stores don’t carry as big a selection of handhelds as they used to. Even then, it is usually Sony, which I do not like nor trust. I tested three brands (Sony, Panasonic, Canon) with nearly identical performances and remain undecided. Once again, each product had a significant design flaw consistent with the brand. These range from eating batteries, to slow boot time, to incompatible file formats, or on-line requirements. Here’s a snapshot of the Garmin charging inside the cPod. Do not, repeat do not do this unless you have and understand a charge controller.
Let me tell you about a wild goose chase. This got me going until I figured it out. There was a spot in my house you could sit and hear a faint ticking noise. Only at times, only if you sat there. It appeared to come from the right side, but if you turned toward it or moved, it would disappear. No, the house isn’t haunted but the mystery is solved. Sometimes I take my wristwatch off and set it on the counter. Be danged if my quartz watch does emit a faint tick. I’ve used this identical brand for years, I’ve been in South America and Thailand with it, and I never knew it ticked. It turns out if I rested it on that counter at the right position, the hollow drawer underneath made it just audible. Dang, Halloween, and no ghosts.
ADDENDUM
I again commend the electrician for telling me to put in a 24 circuit sub-panel. In the end, to meet code, I have two blanks left in case I ever get that Florida room. Most of the slots were taken by requirements for dedicated appliance circuits. Today, I have to buy ten more 20 Amp breakers for that purpose. At $9 each plus tax. The wiring is not completely run in yet, but most are terminated at the first junction box, another lesson I learned myself. Get your basic power working first, you can finish the run later.
Here is a picture of the sub-sub-panel going into the white shed. Look familiar? It’s the original six-circuit box I thought I’d be able to use in the house. Boy, was I dumb. This shows the box being fitted, not installed. With the welder pending, along with the fridge and freezer, all six breaker slots are already used. But I’m done spending much more on electrical. The plumbing needs work. I’m also classifying the plumbing as a repair, not new construction.
Just when you think these Millennials can’t get any more insipid, there they are. MP3s are a daily essential for me. Imagine you are in front of a display and you see a list of your songs. In the pre-Millennial era, when you clicked on a song title, by golly, it played the song. Now, it enters some damn edit mode. Same with my telephone contact list. Click on JZ’s entry and 7 times out of 10, it does the wrong thing. This was designed by the same MicroSoft team that put the Rename and Delete buttons beside each other. Insipid is a mild word for such people.
I can see the backwards logic they used, but folks the fact is, these Millennials are not juveniles any more. I mean, listing the commands in the order the idiot sets up the file rather than thinking ahead one day and putting the most used first. I suggest that brand of defective mentality is inborn, that is, they can’t get that stupid on all on their own. People who carry such errors on into their adult job performance are probably predestined to lifelong stupidity. If you think I’m being too tough on that bunch, remember they are the ones who designed my cell phone, where you have to push 11 buttons to use the speed dial.
Chapter 29 is as far as I’ve gotten in “Lethal Circuit”. It has become trite, like it was following some unspoken Internet manners or something. Some of you may remember years ago there was an article about the Horten glider being the first stealth plane. The article was ridiculous, pure conjecture by some half-brain who read modern technology into what wasn’t there. For some reason that post was exceedingly popular, showing up on all manner of unrelated searches. Well, this book has now shown itself to be based on those misconceptions. I’m even wondering if it might be the same author. The goof-bucket American school system has produced so many mental clones that I won’t even bother to look that up. Lars Guignard. Sounds Norwegian and French to me.
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