One year ago today: November 6, 2017, what $850 gets you.
Five years ago today: November 6, 2013, day 14.
Nine years ago today: November 6, 2009, on political correctness (check the date)
Random years ago today: November 6, 2007, discovering Sudoku.
Dropping by at Lowes, who just closed 50 stores, I see this display. Bundles of old corn stalks, $9 a throw. Liz, get the wagon, we’re rich, I know a place in Texas with a million bucks sitting in the fields. Imagine this society, people buying straw and corn stalks. Of course the money is due to the distribution system, they probably get paid to haul the stuff away. I dunno, it just seems to me if you’ve never been on a farm in your life, what’s with doing farm decorations? You don’t see small towns decorating like a skyscraper.
Pitch black outside again, so I get to grab an extra morning coffee until I adjust to waiting for dawn to crawl out of the sack. The only thing better than home made coffee (by someone who knows what they are doing) is free coffee, which all depends on whose on duty. They have new people in there who don’t sweetheart me yet. Hey, it must be my age. Yeah, then how come nobody else . . . .
[Photo delayed]
I answered another CL ad, since my Plant City guy disappeared. Actually, I know what happened. He thinks he got a better offer closer to home. That will waste a few months of his time, but at least I won’t be around to see it. The ad said a snowbird, so that means he’s not looking for a big or permanent situation. And he doesn’t have six months to rehearse. I asked him for a song list to see what materializes. The zip code given is over in Lake Wales.
My phone received another 30 messages, don’t people know that is not allowed on election day? Look it up. All posters are supposed to be taken down, there are a lot of rules not being enforced. Four out of five calls were from Democrat sources, reason enough right there not to vote for them. No political party who gets votes by telemarketing is ever going to get a thing from me. As before, the liberals can’t win fair and square, so they are pulling all kinds of goofy workarounds, like “taking control of the Senate”. My point is that the framers of the Constitution were fully aware that down the line there would be packs of organized idiots undermining the system. People who seek to change the Constitution to “fit the times” should get themselves educated enough to know the boys of ‘76 seen ‘em comin’.
I turned off the radio. I put the finishing touches on the camper. The consideration here is that if I leave on a trip, I cannot go any time I please. You see, I’m on that cholesterol study, and the shots are every two weeks, on a Wednesday. Over the years, I’ve learned there is a four day grace period after a due date, but the following shot must be to the day. That works out to a prime begin date every two weeks or I have to make special arrangements to keep the syringes refrigerated. They are more sensitive than the previous program, nor can these ones be allowed to freeze.
My kind of day, plenty got done. Yep, I’m still hoping this ramped up energy level is permanent. You don’t miss the energy until the well runs dry. I like it finding myself naturally doing things that require exertion, and not realizing until afterward. To me, permanent means like six months, not six days. When the books were settled for the water leak, I was out just $261. I slightly overpay each month so there is always a surplus for this kind of problem. I got the details on the 1/2 forgiveness. You have to show a plumbing bill from a locally licensed plumber. Screw that, it was just a broken toilet float. I’m not paying a plumber for a service call that works out to maybe fifty bucks less than I’d get back. Just pay the bill and write it off.
This brings up a topic I’ve always squirmed over. Lots of times in this life I’ve gotten good advice and ignored it. Duh, why would I do that? The answer is quite easy. It’s easy for anyone to dish me out some free advice as long as they don’t have to give me the money required to follow it. All the good advice in the world isn’t going to help if you don’t have the cash it takes. My first car, I changed the oil at twice the recommended mileages. I went to university when I could only afford trade school, because I know I’d have just one shot at an education. Under the circumstances, a garden variety idiot would conclude I don’t listen so good.
California landslide.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
The electric sub panel is finished. That the panel, not the runs. I’ll get to those in good time. I came in $12 under budget, the total was $1,238 parts and labor. Shown here is advice I did follow, and did so because I had the money. I had calculated six circuits. Count them, there are twenty. This place will still be adequately serviced in 2118. And I have an apology to make, but softened by a legitimate excuse. When I first examined the wiring, I complained how they ran in 14/2 wire and energized it with 10 amp fuses. Today for the first time some sections of that wire got pulled out into the daylight.
My mistake. It is the proper gauge but it was so dirty, the color did not show through. It’s already covered over but I may be able to get you a picture (from under the house) to prove I’m not exaggerating. I also found out that part of the bedroom circuit taps off wiring in the attic, which I will have to correct. Later, I mean. The job is professionally done and looks it. The electrician drives one of those monster trucks. Funny, most of this town drives these, but you never see them hauling anything.
[Photo delayed]
While he was terminating the cables, I ran another four lines under the house. That’s the dirty work that I’ll bet you is the real reason electricians hire helpers. There remain two circuits and the shed wiring, but we are good to go in this place. The code indicates up to 13 devices can be connected to each 20 amp line. Inside my place, the average is half that. Pop a breaker around here and you are up to something. It’s the wiring system that would make a west coast grow operation pray for.
I did not have time to enlarge the battery case, but the test is completed. It does charge up, but takes a few flicks of the switch to get it to recognize the new battery. Charge time is the standard two hours and the amp will run for close to ten. It’s coming with me, ready or not. Let me check my long-term calendar. Okay, in twenty days, that jackhammer probe should be on Mars. I will be following that intently, even if I have to watch TV. I’ve read most every article on Mars I’ve encountered in my life and I know there is something there. Under the surface is as good a place to look as any. The surface is too bombarded with cosmic rays and such.
I’m looking for another word processor than Jarte. It has just to many serious shortcomings to warrant learning it in any more detail. It becomes annoying quickly. Dozens of commands that can’t be reversed and there’s a seemingly random chance of ignoring embedded photos when importing a MS document. I speaking up now because if I travel, I’m stuck with Jarte for now. As usual, expect spotty posts and erratic reports until I return. I usually stop at libraries along the way, but this trip I’m taking unfamiliar roadways, at least after I leave Nashville.
The Garmin GPS is still a garbage millennial design. There seems no way to remove the restaurant icons from the main screen. I dunno, driving around looking for random places to eat sounds pretty damn millennial to me. Yet libraries, museums, and post offices can only be searched by pulling over and fumbling through an Android-like menu. That’s a menu that never quite displays what you asked for. The voice can often be a block off, which is odd considering GPS is reputed to be accurate to ten feet.
ADDENDUM
If I do leave tomorrow, it is due to disaster planning from the past. I got hit with surprises left and right the past month. On the surface, I should not take a vacation, but it is a matter of principle. Each trip could be my last and I take that kind of personal. It was only the slack built into other areas that I can get away, and it will be a budget trip, with several large bills waiting the day I get back. I have, let me check, 11 hours left to change my mind about leaving.
My fiscal year is over, but that refers to financials only. Here are other ominous signs, seemingly insignificant changes added to that now-colossal mountain of annoyances that have been steadily creeping into American society through the abuse of database records. Let’s go through the mail pile.
What’s this? It looks and feels like an ordinary monthly bank statement. Show of hands, who reads those? That’s what I thought. But look here, it says that they “may” use voice recognition. In America this means this year it is optional, next year it will be required to open an account, and shortly thereafter it will become, not a crime, but a “jailable offense” not produce a voiceprint on demand. All for the protection of perfectly innocent people, hell, that goes without saying. That’s even if, like me, you have never phoned a bank.
The same letter states that if the account owner dies while outside the county, the bank may require a court “representative” to be appointed. There’s that “may” again. And deposits by mail “may” be diverted to the “National Bank by Mail” facility. Wha? There is also a reminder that your “Agreement” with the bank is not an agreement at all because the bank can unilaterally update it any time in any fashion they please without notice.
Next, we have a confusing as hell nine-page printout from my health coverage provider saying I “could” be billed up to $1,620.00. It seems they have discovered I take other prescriptions that I pay for myself, for example my diet aid. The reason given is that if I do not provide them with proof that I personally make those payments, they will assume that I am receiving coverage from other insurances they don’t know about and they don’t like that. This is only one sinister part of Obamacare. I’m changing providers. Also, for some reason I am receiving an inventory sheet of pill quantities at my pharmacy. I’m probably not supposed to see that. (None of the items shown are my prescriptions.)
And that new bank clerk has messed up my account again. She’s been there a year and this is the fourth error I am aware of. My balance is missing a $300 withdrawal. Banking is not her forte.
This is the end of your glimpse into contemporary American daily life. Yep, welcome to the era of the bureaucrat. The problem is not the laws meant to catch criminals, the problem is how the bureaucrats turn those laws on everybody else for the purpose of mass surveillance.
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
