One year ago today: February 24, 2018, the crowd has changed.
Five years ago today: February 24, 2014, powdered milk ain't milk.
Nine years ago today: February 24, 2010, HP always did suck.
Random years ago today: February 24, 2011, 13,443 miles.
A glorious spring day. I took the whole morning to putter in the yard. I transplanted 40 mother-in-law tongues along the south fence and around the mailbox. Alaine donated two poinsettas to the yard, a plant I’ve never had before. So I set them where they’d make the most contrast until I figure out a spot. For those keeping track, it was a one-gallon day with the iced peach tea. Darn rights I’m happy, fourth day after heavy labor on the tree limbs and no backlash on the muscles and such. You don’t miss hard work until you can’t do it any more. I went right to work this morning without having to psyche into it.
Hmmmm, I’ve got another coincidence. Whenever I use my phone in some location after a period of absence, or when I use the phone for the first time somewhere I’ve never been, I get a flurry of telemarket calls. But there is a difference. The calls come from “permitted” outfits, like churches, surveys, political sucks, and charities. Does this mean they are able to detect a new location or a dead space, and possibly think the number has been re-issued, hoping to find somebody like me who can’t insult their mothers in their native tongues? I’ll watch for this now. I don’t buy the argument that they have to permit certain places to continue with telephone soliciting because they’ve “come to rely on it”. It’s a learning process, right? Just like they learned to rely on it in the past, they can bloody start today learning to rely on something else.
I found an hour to play bass. I dug out my tabs and learning notes for a dozen more songs. Mostly music I would not bother with. Over time I’ve amalgamated lots of crappy, amateur tabs into some pretty slick bass lines to everything from Eagles to Simon & Garfunkle. Bass lines intended from the start to impress, and if need be, keep the lead player in line. The new guy I’m communicating with does not play lead.
Trivia. In America, bicycles only require a bell when they are in the shop. Not on the road.
Truk Island, 2018.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
How’s this for a shell arrangement? This is by Alaine at the entrance of the new place in Harbor Heights. It’s flatter than glass and there is no harbor. But some may recognize the porcelain swan and these shells can be collected on any Florida beach. What gets me is how she took the pains to get so many tan-colored specimens. Boss Hogg is now being drowned out by one of those Jamaican monkey-talk stations. Constant jabber about their rights and issues, no music but they clobber 1360 AM after around 6:00PM every night. Yep, you people, that’s how you get your word out, that’s how you get others to give a shit about your causes.
What’s more, most of the talk shows are only able to help the simpletons who call in the first time. You get the occasional bit of useful info, but I get a lot more ammunition against credit cards. When younger, I presumed most people would eventually figure out credit cards are a scam and quit using them. Turns out most people eventually figure out nothing. Americans pay the highest credit card fees in the world, by a huge margin. That’s how ingrained credit has become to small minds. I pay such bills as I have by money order. The recipient does not even know if I’m the one paying it or if I have a bank account. Pssst, Ken, that’s called “Identity Protection 101”. Ken’s thinks anybody who has a system is anal-retentive. But that’s because every time Ken Sanchuk tried a system of his own, he fell flat on his face, snuffing out his doobie.
There are the odd gems, like if you shop around for mortgages, your credit score suffers because they don’t like people who do that. The trick is to plan ahead, geez, I’ve lost Ken already. Plan to make all your applications in the same month, or two weeks is better. Credit snoops log all attempts within a single calendar month as one application. Also, beware of flat user fees. My bank charges a flat fee of $6 to use a non-associated ATM, so I don’t use those ATMs for less than the maximum. Which for me is $800 per day, or none at all.
ADDENDUM
What’s this about automobile on the rise that you can use the vehicle you want within the parameters of your plan. You pay a monthly fee and get to use a similar class of vehicles. I like the sound of it but cannot offer many details. The broadcast I heard was more concerned with the expected backlash from the bloated auto insurance mafia. Part of your payment would be for insurance that follows the car, not the driver. The change to tracking the driver occurred in my lifetime and I never liked it, but was the only one because most people were not even aware of the change.
I don’t know if they’ll do this, but it would be a simple formula to know how much extra would be needed to offset that, or maybe use the car less over the subsequent week. What I like about the idea is it breaks the stranglehold a lot of the big players have over the auto and travel systems in America. Let them fail, let them suffer. The general attitude is that they lobbied and manipulated the system to get big, now they can’t change with the times.
This photo is the progress with the Asian lily. There are four of them this one was chosen as the representative. This little guy has the weeds around him hand-pulled by the roots on a daily basis. Remind me to pick up another four bulbs next time I’m down Highway 60. The mother-in-law tongues went around the mailbox and between the porch blocks, which are not being used except as planters. I never left the yard today. The budget is reflecting the significant impact of Tennessee in dropping costs. In 2017 I was an average of $376 over each month, in 2018, an average of $540. This are not deficits, it means only that I spent money that was not allocated for retirement. It means I dipped into funds that were normally slated for other things which I had to forego.
That $540 is directly attributable to the car. Around $200 is gas over-budget and another $114 is insurance. The car requires more repair and I’m more likely to take the car for supplies than carry them on the bicycle (the scooter is still gathering dust). Plus, I will travel further and make more side trips in the car while I’m on the road. I would say overall, the car counts for $400 of the deficit.
By late evening, I gave the new window trim another coat of bare wood primer and listened to talk radio. TMOR, this squabble about Supreme Court Justice appointments makes more sense if you know the basis for the conflict. The US is not a nation run by politicians. It is a nation of laws and those laws are in the Constitution. The Constitution was intended to prevent the county from being run by any small group who attempt to stage-manage the Constitution in their favor. The founders recognized that over time that governments who could change laws for their own purposes have ruined every nation, empire, and society in history. The Constitution is not meant to be tinkered with—it was meant to prevent a strong central government.
That’s the conflict. For an evil government to take over the country and enslave the population, they must first gain control of the Constitution. They must be able to change it whenever they please. Only the Supreme Court has the right to make those changes. Thus, when anybody starts appointing Supreme Court Justices based on political idealism instead of knowledge of Constitutional law, there’s trouble brewing. Can anybody name a political party that regards the Constitution as “a living, breathing document . . . intended to be [changed] . . . “? Right, the Democrats. They call the Constitution outdated and irrelevant to modern society. They would like to see America reduced to another Brazil with their families firmly in charge.
As if society is any different now. The toys are different, but the rank and file have not evolved much from their most ape-like tribal ancestors. The way the Democrats propose to enslave America is by packing the Court to change the Constitution to make everybody dependent on the government. Put everybody is on welfare (via food stamps, medicare, ID cards, etc.) and make the look to the government for job protection, safety, environmental control, airport security, well, you get the idea. That’s the modern form of slavery. The Constitution was designed to prevent that.
If the Constitution is strictly obeyed, the federal government in America is restricted to operating the post office, taking care of national defense, ensuring the courts and justice system behave (and vice versa), and running itself but not much more. Myself, and many Americans, would like to see that enforced. We are called Libertarians.
Sadly, the liberal-commie rot is fifty years deep into the American infrastructure. Government interference and presence everywhere. Birth certificates, death certificates, ID that expires, mandatory car insurance, mandatory health insurance, fifth generation welfare families, confiscatory taxation, on and on, and in most cases some form of government controls even the libraries, and what movies you can watch. For your own safety, of course. Because their control of the school system indoctrinated you that you cannot protect yourself.
End of lesson.
