One year ago today: December 14, 2017, is the porch coming back?
Five years ago today: December 14, 2013, Billie-Bill, still no band . . .
Nine years ago today: December 14, 2009, at the bookstore.
Random years ago today: December 14, 2006, habeas corpus, Ottawa-style.
Write this day off to jet lag. I got home by morning (see addendum) and zonked until past five. The event of note was stopping in Clewiston. This is the halfway point between my destinations give or take five miles. Ah, say some, but didn’t I always say that midway was north of Moore Haven, near Palmdale. Yes, but that is to the trailer court, not all the way through or past Miami to Snapper Creek. “Clue-less Town” has never been a popular stop but I saw a mom & pop coffee shop on the main road. Nicely lit up, there were locals and I could see blonde waitresses with pony tails. My kind of place.
What a glorious morning, indeed. I got the full view to the east as I drove north toward South Bay, that town at the bottom tip of Lake Okeechobee that nobody can ever remember. I wasn’t on the road much over an hour before I felt ill, at about which time I get calls from JZ and Nashville, it seems everybody is coming down with something. I’ve now got a massive case of the sniffles, no sense of taste, and have already consumed over a quart of ice tea.
This thirst continued throughout the journey. Explain that one, and when I got home, another three tumblers of liquid. I call it jet lag, but since I get it when I should not, it’s m ore likely some form of mild motion sickness. I say mild because I never feel queasy. Today’s featured picture is the tile denoting that Alaine is a life member of the Animal Welfare Leaque, the spotless dog kennel in Punta Gorda. That is the official title, ‘Animal Welfare League’, you can search on that.
Toilet at Buckingham Palace.
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Not shown here are a batch of other pictures taken during the get-together after the hand bell concert. These are taken with the Sony in still mode and are representative of my ability when using the proper equipment. Here is the Peace boat, called that because it is on the Peace River.
Interestingly, a series of 14 of the best pictures got into the Xmas e-mails and I got my just reward. A lot of phone calls congratulating me on these pictures. Have I finally developed a photographer’s eye? Good question. I believe my reading on the topic has greatly improved my composition skill and many of these pictures are not shopped or cropped nor selected from a batch. This is the boat as I saw it in real time.
The Xmas concert was a landmark occasion by the sounds of it. Just five of us were there and the party afterward was combined with Alaine’s birthday. It was truly a delight for everyone, sorry but you missed a good one. The follow-up event is day after tomorrow, I think.
The nice lady I met that walked home alone may or may not be there. I left an e-mail with Alaine that I would like to see her at the next concert and I would be “really okay” if she became aware of that. I know some will say that’s a wishy-washy way to ask for a date. Yes, but that is from the outside looking in. I’ve never had to be more aggressive than that, and in my opinion those who do are needlessly stressing what should be a comfortable situation for everyone involved. Comfortable and potentially memorable.
By mid-morning, I admit I’m down with something, and it is contagious. Here, Dawn, gimme a kiss. I’m ambulatory but the symptoms are gathering. Sniffles, sore back, joint aches, the consolation at my age is my built up resistance usually means a short spell. See, somehow I knew to buy a lot of extra reading on this trip because that’s what I’m about to do all day.
Where’s my Galileo book? I’m beginning to identify with the dude the way the masses who already know everything are ganging up on him. I would name names, except all the names are in some confusing furrin’ language. Worse, they all start with a “G” and every one of them was such an important big shot that nobody remembers one of them today, though the names live on in stand-up comedy. “Ayyy, Guildo, s’matta fa you?”
What’s happened so far is they did not go after Galileo, but the teaching of ideas that contradicted the bible. As usual with enemies, they did not have to actually read the books they banned. By now, his shack-up Marina Gamba has found a husband “of her own status”, whatever that means. Maybe water seeking its own level, but in a system where dowry is paid, you can’t tell what the smuck is really going on.
I finally got out of the house. I drove all the way to the Dunkin in Bartow, where I wrote letters for two solid hours. My air conditioning (the car) is on the blink, it was just repaired last week. So that’s another day down the drain. You live for 39,420,000 minutes, it’s best not to waste any. So don't move to Florida where you have little say in the matter.
ADDENDUM
The car trips are similar to motorcycle travel only in that I have undistracted time to think. It’s not the same, in a car. I made the 219 mile trip home this morning in three hours plus a half hour for coffee and toast in Clewiston. Left at 5:00AM and was home at 8:30AM, but with major lag, so I just got up and it is nine hours later. I had been dreaming again, indicating a number of things I don’t have to tell you. Riding in a car is a dull comparison to me. It reminds me of giving JZ directions on a road I travel by sidecar.
“Okay, JZ, turn left here in 9 miles, 257 yards feet and 4 inches. Avoid the potholes at miles 4.672 and 8.861, watch for that protruding mailbox on the right at 5 miles, 1108 feet and 3 inches.”
It is just not the same experience in a car. Anyway, I got to thinking about transformer design, how it has not changed since its invention. If I had a microcontroller instead of a set of diodes, why could I not use a transistor system to emulate 120VAC? I’m going to mull of this one to keep me distracted. If I had a set of power transistors, why not use the microcontroller pins to fire in the correct sequence. It would be like super AC, to the split second with no phase or fade concerns.
Once again, I’m not saying I invented a thing, only that this idea was independently derived. Maybe such an apparatus gets too hot, or is too expensive, but until I give it a stab, how’s to know? The idea is to digitalize the alternations, making them precise.
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