One year ago today: April 28, 2018, another quitter.
Five years ago today: April 28, 2014, some skinny on cruises.
Nine years ago today: April 28, 2010, Firehow sucks.
Random years ago today: April 28, 2009, . . . including their own.
Take a look at this. One of the reasons I need to master box building is to keep my supplies safe. Some rodent got into the emergency supply and gnawed off the tops of all my juice bottles. There is always a liability keeping anything in plastic containers, but there were high on a rack. He did not get at any of the juice, but it is considered contaminated and so the squirrels drink well for a while. He tried to get at my coffee creamers, too, but was foiled by the foil. Rats will gnaw through wood, but only if starving. Otherwises, they seek easier sources.
At the coffee shop the overhead was playing a movie, “Chasing Liberty”, about the trials of being the president’s daughter. I learned in my early twenties when I worked the lumber mills out west what tired was. I further learned that no matter how easy other people have it, they will always convince themselves that anything they do is hard work. The “first daughter” has an “exhausting schedule” of embassy balls and palace tours. Poor little thang. That’s America, people who have never seen the inside of a factory are dog-tired at the end of the day.
Yeah, well try working a nine-hour shift at the mill before you get around to any diplomatic functions before you talk about hard work around me. The mill was a half-hour drive each way, and it’s not like mom was there to get the groceries and pack your lunch. I was lucky to have a half-hour a day left over for anything. Now you know how I once went ten years without playing bass.
By later, I braved the heat and ran in the dryer receptacle. It works fine, but do read the aftermath below. I will have to stop, go downtown and buy another receptacle, rip out the one I just installed, and start again. Bloody waste of another half day. Having said that, the dryer works perfectly, and the heat is instant on. There is a courtesy light inside the tumbler. And it runs amazingly quiet. Here are some pics of cutting the port and fishing the cable.
Note the plug design means unless you run cable past the outlet and back, the plug goes in “upside down”. No, you can’t just flip the gadget over. The thick 10/3 cable means no wiggle room and even the wires have to be pre-bent to fit back into the electrical box. Engineers today are obviously no smarter than they were fifty years ago. They must all get an A in Deniability 101, that’s where you were only following orders.
Excellent tepui view.
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There’s stupid, and then there is engineer stupid. Now, there may be a reason for what I’m about to describe, but if so, it does not appear in any of the four electricianing books that I have on the subject, including my trusty Black & Decker. Ready? Okay, 240 volts is enough to kill you instantly. That’s why there is a 10 gauge grounding wire in the cable, and that solid grounding bar in the panel. I’d say grounding is particularly important around laundry, since there is a possibility of leaking water. Are you with me so far?
Way to go Utilitech, whose motto is “grounded in quality”. The irony is not lost, but the grounding screw is. Lost in the same wilderness as their alleged IQs.
To wrap up the day, I closed the books early and I’m down to $85 cash until the first (of the month). Nashville was as expensive as here, but more fun because it was all new adventure. I need a canopy over that dryer, which I may scab together since it cannot be seen from the street. Here I am, half awake from a full day’s work. I’m rambling, so check in later.
It was a full day and shortly I’ll have to look at a lean-to for the dryer. The nook cannot be seen from the street, so maybe just a small canopy. I checked the finances and the replenishment check is late. That’s the one I took a chance on and now I’m seriously down to $85. This is not as bad as it seems, gang. Being broke and being out of money aren’t the same around here. Nashville cost the same as the same stretch here. Prices were higher and that’s the longest I’ve been away from home since 1999.
ADDENDUM
Suffering that disappointment (being broke), I drove over to see Charla. Except Sunday is now her day off, so I sat around for a few in order to accomplish some deep thinking. Last month in Nashville, I got a sharp reminder concerning my game plan from when I was 21. That’s the age I decided even if I never married and had children, I should still conduct a few situations as if I had [married]. There were some obvious benefits, such as my pension today. It was the social side of things that had me pondering the last 48 hours.
Sure, at 21 I understood marriage was a lot of heartache, disappointment, and “the bittersweet unexpected”. Money is a fixed commodity in the sense you either have too little or too much. It was the experience of pet-sitting in Hermitage that got me self-examining today. Darn rights I adapted to the pets in a wink, but I also glommed onto the routine. I got attached to her pets in 1991, but easily wrote that off to “habituals”
What I’m thinking is, this is a derivative of my plan at 21. I knew I would adapt quickly. I did not expect it instantly. I’ll take tomorrow off or mostly off and do some thinking. Because if this goes to a logical consequence, it could be a game-changer. Only this time, I have a house and a life to fall back on.
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