February 17, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 17, 2018, a year on that wall!
Five years ago today: February 17, 2014, no coconuts, no grove.
Nine years ago today: February 17, 2010, remember this condo-fiasco?
Random years ago today: February 17, 2012, me at 200 lb.

           That’s the router table that I’m returning to Agt. R. Since I’d received it in non-working condition, I got the impression if I fixed it, now it was mine. Wrong, the son found it and he even wants the burned out router blades back. Shown here is the complete fixed up unit with new power cord, a proper fence, new wing-nuts, a oiled and working slide, with the table all tightened up and I even cut new countersunk router holes. This will prompt me to go build or buy one of my own. When will I learn?

           Agt. R was also supposed to call either Friday or y’day to get over here to help with trimming back the trees. But we know from experience he’s not the type to meet commitments or keep appointments. Doesn’t bother me because I just work around it, but I have vivid recollections of my working career where I was forced to associate with such people. And the career I had wasn’t that bad for attracting such types. Anyway, he’lll get around to it because I have his pole saw, the one that requires a custom chain. He say’s he’ll sharpen the blade but I say I’ll wind up buying my own saw not too long from now. I cannot leave the house vacant for weeks at a time with those overhanging limbs.

           Here is my future avocado tree, in this little milk bottle. I like avocado ripe out of the shell with just a little salt. I think avocado gets a bad rap for calories. Here is my starter kit, aseed in a jar of rooting liquid and in direct sunlight at least 14 hours a day. My south door stoop. Don’t look too closely or you will see what I meant years ago when I said the place needed painting. I’ve tried sprouting seeds by this method before and always failed. This round, we watch it daily.
           Memphis. It has gone from mention to now a distinct plan for a visit, but I don’t know how soon that can be. Like Nashville, once you’ve seen the one or two famous spots, the town is boring. It’s too far from Nashville for a single day trip, so make it a weekend, ride the trolley. But this time, I’ll have to skip the catfish meal, now hold on. When was I there, let me check this blog with no table of contents. I just discovered my archives are missing the last four months of 2013. I hope I don’t have to download them from Google.
           This is weird, I’m doing a search on Beale Street and coming up with nothing. Have my archived files been compromised? And this is a deep search looking for the words inside, not just the titles. I’m running it again because you just cannot trust the slipshod search function from MicroSoft.

Picture of the day.
Lady Luck private cinema.
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           One thing easy is chicken pie. It always takes me an hour when the recipe says 20 minutes, but some things just have to be done right. I’ve made up 16 servings no matter how you count them. This was a masterpiece and I added mushrooms. I like mushrooms with chicken dishes and decided now was the time to add them to the pie. With the ingredient mix I use, I’d estimate this comes in at around 450 calories per serving. So you can have a salad on the side.

           Yes, that crust is natural, not brushed with anything. I have a fast oven and I like meat dishes well done. I’m easier on dessert pies, but they have not been on my diet in ages. Return tomorrow and I’ll have a production panel of this pie ready for you. Today for siesta I threw on a movie “Anzio”, a sort of critical production of the war. That’s odd for the era, since the Allies were still patting themselves on the back for winning. Starring Robert Mitchum in the one role he could play, basically himself, he was a reporter who covered the landing. The movie portrays the mistakes made at the top level that cost a lot of lives.

           I will commend the special effects, at that time they necessarily cut corners. Blowing up real Italian villages, much as they need it, does get expensive. Some inaccuracies are glaring, like using Pershing tanks as panzers and showing the Germans riding around in trucks during a critical late-war fuel shortages. The movie got the basics right, that the landing was unopposed and the Allies dug in when they could have marched straight into Rome, which at that time had only a few military police by way of Germans. The Allies gave the Germans plenty of time to prepare a defense where at first there wasn’t anything. The Germans didn’t even patrol the area.
           Make no mistake about it, Anzio was an Allied flop. Like the Germans said, it was their biggest prisoner of war camp and the inmates fed themselves. I think it portrays the overall bad leadership in the American army, and that can be explained. After the first big war, the Americans cut back on everything, leaving only a small officer corps. Since there was no money for training, the officers mainly played sports, attending balls, or just made a nuisance of themselves at civilian functions. Alcoholism was rampant and promotion was based on seniority, one of the worst systems imaginable. There were exceptions, and between them they managed to predict the entire lead-up to Pearl Harbor, had anyone cared to listen.
           America also indulged in another crackpot scheme, that of limiting arms by treaties. This had never worked, it merely channelizes the military into areas not covered by the treaties. Or, in the alternative, an upgrading of existing material and phenomenal costs. I mean, can you imagine the cost of refitting a battleship? The Americans negotiated away their right to build more and bigger ships, much like they did with their industrial rights forty years later. Germany had it easier in that they had no old material to replace. The Americans, by the time the shooting began, were installing battleship grade fire control radar systems on ships as small as destroyer escorts.

ADDENDUM
           Here’s some cookies that went viral. Make as a Valentine’s special, these apparently offended all the libtards. So they offended all the wrong people, or if you are educated, all the right people. Build the wall, and the wall is going up. Watch the liberals go ballistic. I’ve never been that great at baking or I’d have a go at a batch myself. Only my message would be considerably more direct as to what I think of people who steal money. Yes, taxation is stealing, and doubly so because it is legalized stealing not for the benefit of the payer.

           Blog rules I have to tell you anything unusual. After siesta, I got up, walked to the kitchen and my beard felt like it was on fire. I mean the skin under the beard. I immediately crawled in the shower with my baby shampoo, which abated matters. I’m not given to such conditions so I can only presume during the installation work in the shed, which kicked up a lot of dust, I got a coating of something that didn’t agree with my dermatology. But why only the beard? Does somebody hate my rugged, yet handsomely boyish good looks? I’ll keep an eye out for saboteurs. They’re everywhere.

           Music. The bass lines for my two demographically newest pieces have progressed to solo grade. I suspect the original bass lines, which sound synthesized, are overly syncopated. They need other instruments to fill in the sound, and who is the pro at recombining such things back into a solid bass line? So, “Exes & Ohs” and “Blurred Lines” enter my bass list, although that last one is just too long and has some weirdass discro-rap sections which I’ll gladly cut out. Since my neighbor began running his noisy power tools at dawn, I got to practice full volume all day. It doesn’t quiet down his rat-dogs, but it displaces them to the front yard far to the north.

Last Laugh

Karaoke gone wild.