One year ago today: April 18, 2018, a question about plastic.
Five years ago today: April 18, 2014, I built this.
Nine years ago today: April 18, 2010, my definition of shredding.
Random years ago today: April 18, 2007, just many who claim so.
Up at dawn, fasting, and into the clinic for my tests by 9:30AM. Another perfect checkup, but they seem to want lab tests every second visit as a preventative measure. As I wrote last year, they have found some other opioid-free people to test. But today I found out I am the one that shows the best results. Further, they know I keep to the schedule religiously enough to give me six of the very expensive injectors at a time. I’m not due back in Miami until the middle of July.
New Rule: Stops saying athletes do it for love of the game. If pro sports paid minimum wage, Shaquille O’Neal would be a bouncer at Scores and Anna Kournikova would be a mail-order bride from Minsk.
New Rule: Tipping is for waiters, bathroom attendants, and lap dancers only! If your job involves standing behind a counter cutting bagels in have, you’re not waiting on me; I’m waiting on you!
Yep, I like this guy. It’s up to you to spot any similarity in our styles. I was also in to get my meds refilled. Unless somebody invents a cure, I’m on blood thinners, water pills, and pressure controllers for life. The good news is they work on me. There’s an interesting commercial on my car radio about not allowing America to import foreign pills. While this smacks of protectionism, the content is highly focused on the economics of such imports. I never thought about how countries like Canada and China have price controls on their medications. This stifles research, but the serious downside is in the long run you get pill shortages and poor quality control. That’s okay for skateboards, but no so much heart prescriptions.
The surprise was the ad was from the committee for tax reform. I don’t know a thing from that outfit, but that is a noble cause. I’m still a supporter of a flat tax on sales, with generous exemptions for items like food and books. That nonsense about a flat tax hitting the poor proportionately more doesn’t impress me. With the right exemptions, you would be taxing items the poor don’t, or normally should not biu. Got that, President Trump? I don’t see how a 17% sales tax on yachts, Picassos, and club memberships is going to hurt the working poor at all.
Plus, there is a secondary effect in that a sales tax only on new items would encourage such activities as recycling and innovation. The poor ought to be encouraged to avoid sales taxes by making things on their own. As it stands in places like Florida, cars and houses are taxed every time they are sold. Please, nobody out there quote that the situation in Canada proves that sales taxes don’t work. The Canadian system is disgusting in that the 14% sales tax is paid with money that has already paid an income tax of up to 43%. It’s a matter of degree. We have the same system in Florida, but income taxes are low, there is no state income tax, and the sales tax is usually around 6%.
Barbershop Vocal Society (2018 Champions).
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Lacking any photos from today, here is a street in downtown Puerto Vallarta from my pal. He never mentioned a trip there. This does remind me of Mexico, where I have not been since the 1980s. You know, back when it was Mexico. I spent enough time there to learn I would rather not any part of America become like that place. It never was a place most people would want to live. It is difficult for me to imagine anybody who got out of there to America would try to continue with the traditions that created that place.
Should it happen, he will still run out of cash first and have to leave. Then, I’m without a way back here, but I believe there is an Amtrak connection in the area. If I did not mention it, the neighbor borrows her car when she’s away and I’m not comfortable with that. I’d put a stop to that. Anyway, just letting the blog-o-sphere know that there is never a shortage of plans around here. Interesting in my vast collection of such files I don’t have a map of the Amtrak route.
Which leads to another sort of related item. Everybody is curious about the lady and I, but there is nothing to tell. It’s the wording of the questions that amuses me. All I can say at this time that never, in the entire years we’ve known each other, have Robynette and I ever had a boring moment together. It is a situation that simply does not exist when we are near each other. It could happen, just never so far.
I grabbed coffee at Starbucks in Hallandale, not their best location. Seating is too limited inside for this climate and made worse by the number of people who pretend to be on-line but are actually sleeping. Before I forget, Alaine received her gift in the mail, a box of fudge from that plantation store in Georgia. Once more, I made no plans for Easter as it is not a big deal in my persuasion. Trent called as I passed Clewiston, we missed meeting up for coffee. I didn’t stay my usual couple of days, both due to finances, and notwithstanding I got excellent sleepful nights in Nashville, I still returned with jet lag.
On the other hand, Trent had no trouble crashing here when the place was not insulated, had bad A/C and the floor was kind of shaped wrong. That would be great if he could show up for the weekend, plus I’m half expecting an Easter invite. The emphasis on music in this place could give us that much needed chance to see where the material we developed so many years ago has led. Bear in mind, I’ve had infinite time to practice, he’s had practically none.
ADDENDUM
I repeat, Tennessee costs a lot. I’m running the numbers and my original hunch was right. Prices are around 25% higher, but the real killer is that things cost more than they are worth. That’s no faint distinction. I don’t mind shelling out if the quality is there. This explains why I’ve been on so many dutch dates in my life. (Actually, it was because the date was probably not my idea, but let’s continue.) Other women, who have quality to me, hell, I’ll buy their cats the gourmet brand to snub noses at. Tennessee is fast becoming just another party city. The wasted youth of America takes the bus there for a party weekend. My guess is they consider wild sex just another entitlement. I know I did. And that was long before it was cool.
The primary example remains the $27 parking fee. If I didn’t say, it would make a difference if the lot was clean, patrolled, well-lit, and everything clearly labeled. These party cities go through a fixed evolutionary process and Nashville is well on the way to becoming yet another “yeah-but-no-big-deal” destination. This is the impression I first got visiting New Orleans for the first time, and that was back in the early 80s. Its reputation was for being raunchy, but as RofR put it, “Only in a 1912 sense of the word.”
That description is not a recommendation, no sir. As each American generation re-invents partying, it imparts a sense of loss on their predecessors, who start showing up looking for what isn’t there any more. Did that come out right? What I mean is if you go to places like Beale Street, the French Quarter, Ybor City, Ft. Lauderdale, Broadway, or Daytona, it is wisest to take everything you need to have any real fun with you. Because paying for it once you get there is, if the truth were known, the primary cause of those bankruptcies that don’t have their own category yet.
I’ve discovered a partial antidote to that scene. Show up late. I don’t mean on closing night, but my peculiar inclination to ignore calendars taught me a lesson. Many a time I’ve shown up the weekend after the big event. You’d think this means you catch the dying embers, but quite the contrary. Showing up a week early doesn’t have the same results, mainly because that puts you in the company of kooks who did so intentionally. But the week after, all the Kens and Barbies have paired off faster than when you were in ninth grade. And just occasionally, you meet someone genuine. A lady you can relate to, talk to, take out places. For the weekend, I mean.
And we have another bizarre coincidence. Who recalls before I left southern Florida how I had to pay so much attention to the daily cost of living? I used to say it cost $35 a day to stand still in Miami. That’s correct. Even if you do nothing, in the long run that is the price you pay for living there. That is in addition to items like rent and utilities. The figure may not be exact, as it wasn’t always calculated to a formula. Upon moving back north to civilization, the number did not change, but this time, the $35 had no exemptions.
Guess what Nashville worked out to? The comparison stops there, mind you. Spending $35 a day in Nashville is great. This cannot be said about Miami-Dade, whose business community can only dream of the crowds that flock into downtown Nashville no matter what the weather. Before you start packing, remember that here and in Nashville, I pay no rent and stay in places fully equipped to be enjoyable and extra comfortable for days on end, only going out things like the movies, the mall, or the lake. I’ll have the figures soon. But the most memorable time of this trip was the $6 merry-go-round ride.
