June 24, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 24, 2018, some equivalent bullsh . . .
Five years ago today: June 24, 2014, on German sculture.
Nine years ago today: June 24, 2010, all drum boxes suck.
Random years ago today: June 24, 2008, I’ve leveled floors before.

           Back in the furnace, it wa 94F out there, despite which I spent an hour yanking the more aggressive weeds. Not one of the 5,000 wildflower seeds were able to compete. The bird feeder is hanging lower, and the back yard has reverted to jungle. Until I talk to Agt. R, I’m not up to figuring any of it out. I was gone for 39 days. This was not near enough time to break my retirement habit of an afternoon siesta. It’s just that “afternoon” is not a distinct term and I woke up after dark. If you see any pictures today, I had to hunt around for them.

           One incident. I had to get some financing in order and on my way to the bank I see this red truck stranded. The guy has one of those weirdo Cuban haircuts that nobody is going to help him. So I pulled over to see the trouble. That battery is stone-cold. I had cables and raced my motor but boosting was not going to wake the dead. I asked him if he needed a lift to town, but turns out he’d already called somebody. Now, he’ll have to call a towtruck, too. We traded business cards. He’s the vice-president of the local Dunkin Donuts franchises in the area.

           A tad on the jet lag side, I was up early and used the time to learn to read those weather station symbols. This goes way back for me. Those of you here long enough know that I would have become a TV weatherman back in the days before they hired bimbos. And I didn’t because nobody told me how much money those guys made. Look it up, it is shocking. The reason they got paid ten times what I ever earned was because more people watched TV for the weather than anything else. (This is a while ago.)
           This symbol, an easy example, tells the temperature is 28F with a half inch of snow. The barometer is 1919.6 mb and rising, the dew point is 27F. The wind is from the SW at 15 knots and there is 75% cloud cover. Other than learning to read the millibars, it’s a no-brainer. But for $80,000 a year when I was 20, who knows what I would have done? That was twenty years pay. I repeat, this is a simple example. But really, how many people need to know the dew point?

Picture of the day.
Charterhouse garden.
(huge file)
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           Market niches are the norm. in startups these days. All the mass markets in America are pretty much tapped unless yet another new technology upsets the status quo. Here’s a store that specializes in monitors, but no for your computer. They mean ankle bracelets and house arrest monitors. Yes, in America you have to pay for those things yourself. Since it is literally a “captive” market, I wonder what the margins are. If Trump would get off his tush, there would be 1.2 million fewer people in jail by end of the month. Er, American jails, that is.

           Too late by now to get much done, I pulled into the Fubar for a couple. Charla always brings me back Earth, but once more it’s a different planet. However, I like the treatment because it keeps me on my feet. She’s the right amount of cynical in love. She can read anything into anything, but I like that because she forms a barometer of what the temperament of Florida has become. How’s that old saying go? People believe in dumb luck because it is the only way to explain the success of their enemies? (That was the crypto-quote answer a short while ago, and I just plagiarized it.)
           She’s received the first offer on her property for the expansion of the highway. It was a ridiculous low-ball offer that would not cover her relocation expenses. Time to lawyer up. Ten times that would not be enough, just for the property. There was a time I would have taken the other side, but eminent domain laws have been used to expropriate private property. There today exists a constant danger of the laws being re-written to make all land the ultimate property of the state, Canadian style.

           Up there, you only think you own land, but in reality you are renting leasing it from the government. That system is based on old English law where land ownership equates to wealth. In reality, the crown (English government) can take any land they please. In America this is supposed to be prevented by the laws of eminent domain. It is the “progressive” movement using it to expropriate private property, and those not opposed to this are enabling it. The Constitution reads the land can only be forcibly taken for public use, the key word is use. Not public safe, intentions, or at all, but you can look up those shades on your own. The law demands just compensation, but what price do you put on your land if it is lost to you forever?
           The only actual example I’ve seen is the land seized in Hollywood, FL. While public use is not defined, the law certainly never intended anybody’s land to be taken away for a parking lot. Land taxation at the federal level has also taken away any semblence of private property in the USA, though not to the degree seen elsewhere. Even vacant land is taxed, that that leverage can be tweaked any time.

Last Laugh