One year ago today: July 10, 2018, Florida' worst highway.
Five years ago today: July 10, 2014, things that take time.
Nine years ago today: July 10, 2010, not for amateurs.
Random years ago today: July 10, 2009, “a peculiar eccentricity”.
If you are reading this, it means I’m in the car and on my way to Miami. Look for some video of typical Lake Okeechobee afternoon rainstorms. Here’s a picture that shows I’ve learned to seriously reinforce these plastic boxes. Metal is too finicky to work with and I found I was often shoring those up anyway. This is the basic design I use, the vertical piece where my thumb rests is easily moved and the box itself both steadies and neatens the wiring. Lumber cut to custom fit each box is cheap and available around here. The electrical crews were making all kinds of noise this morning, so I go them to trim all the branches near my service wires.
The rest of this morning, you get politics. Ross Perot died this week, but he broke down enough barriers to put the fear of God into the political class. It was a while ago, so I’ll summarize it from street level. Perot ran as an independent, meaning both sides ganged up on him. He was a billionaire who wanted to restore accountability to DC. Sadly, he lacked the hard bark and gruff manner needed for the job. He lost, but he pried open the hatches for Trump by scaring the shit out of the professional politician class. You see, he not only garnered nearly 20% of the vote, the composition of those voters caused a near-panic throughout the power structure.
Both parties worked to prevent an outsider getting in, but alienated a lot of voters who saw what they did. For the next 25 years, both Republicans and Democrats had an unspoken agreement to never field a candidate who championed any real issues. That 20% consisted mainly of disgruntled taxpayers and other net contributors to the system, and they must not ever be allowed to get that close to swaying an election. If Perot had one accomplishment to show, it was how he demonstrated the pent-up frustration of the average man would eventually become a decisive force. No matter how you slice it, getting 20% of the electorate to vote for change is was an incredible achievement.
Perot taught the welfare class they could never win against an honest candidate fair and square. What must infuriate the Democrats is their bag of tricks isn’t working on Trump. They’ve tried the tax return scam, the prostitute from Vegas sting, the Russian election fiddle, and now the shameful pointing fingers at his ex-acquaintances. Next election, Trump really hands them their asses.
The biggest worry is that he will soften on immigrants so he will look good in the history books. Why is this any concern? Because Trump has shown an independent can take the lead, but he doesn’t want to be seen as non-humanitarian. However, the die is cast. Should he not kick out the illegals, there is a good chance the people will elect somebody who will. History can repeat itself. What Trump should do is the unthinkable—thrust the financial burden onto those who want immigration. Watch that bunch change color when they have to pick up the tab. You know the old joke, what’s the definition of a Republican? A Democrat who just got mugged.
Trump would be a clever man if he devises a way to take the burden off the taxpayer for these millions of illegals. We got a problem if he doesn’t start doing something soon. There is no acceptable alternative to mass deportations. Start at least with the jails. It cost $65,000 a year to keep each one in jail. If Trump does not begin soon, that hard-nose that will may soon arise from as out of the blue as he did. Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Should that person appear, he is going to run on a much stronger slate and this time the voters won’t accept any foot-dragging. Trump has breathed new life into the American electorate—and to the horror of the so-called progressives, he has done so while the people that really built this nation are still a majority.
Coffee shop in Madrid.
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Arrived in Miami, safe & sound just after dark. Astonishingly, the highway was empty, maybe 200 cars in that many miles. Yeah, and ten of them either tailgated me or drove in my blind spot for five minutes each. They usually brain up when they see me haul out the camcorder. JZ wants me to take a load of mangoes to his sister, which means he was out picking the stuff. Now his condo smells like mangoes. Which I don’t care for. He was on about how many people im Miami who stutter and related speech impediments. I had to roundabout inform him it was not a physical disability, if you see where I’m going with that. I don’t like mangoes, two boxes got delivered (though not until tomorrow).
JZ and I wound up at the Titanic where we got caught up on everything while listening to the house band. In a typical fashion the band that I at first liked has become the house group, and quality has slipped. The cause is simple. House bands have no incentive to learn anything new. This one, however, is one of those three-piece groups on Monday-Thursday, but a four or five-piece on the weekends. That’s another problem, and one this blog is familiar with. When they play as a trio (drums-bass-guitar), they play the same parts as the full band. So it comes across thin and reedy.
The barmaid, well, nobody liked her enough that she gets mention, if you follow. The old 28 and already missed the boat type, dour, into the like-me-as-I-am mode. And bitter because so few people do. Back in South Florida, you take what you can get. Here’s the bench in the common area at JZ’s condo. You never had to chain furniture to the wall until they let in all the ethnic diversifiers. Now, they would yard off with this $200 bench in a wink. In the America I grew up in, you didn’t even have to lock your door. Ha, but if you think we have problems, look at what the socialist liberals did to Sweden. White women who report rape are charged with hate speech.
On top of this, lots of earthquakes out west. Once again, go save anybody dumb enough to need saving, then send ‘em the bill. I’m mostly aware of this because everywhere you go in Miami, you get bombarded by cable news. Disaster news as entertainment, there’s your proof America has lost the lead. And did you hear about some soccer player women won a trophy in Europe, then refused an invitation to dinner at the White House? Screw ‘em, but Trump may have to last laugh on that. One of the players had her hotel room burglarized. Let’s hope it was by an illegal alien.
JZ once again says he will head up here and help me finish the plumbing. That will be the 21st time since August 2016. Meaning I will doing it all myself. He assures me that feeble-looking coupling is adquate, that he’s used them for ten year now without problem. I picked his brain for the how-to details that the how-to books and videos always seem to overlook. He says cut the pipe with an angle grinder, not any kind of saw.
ADDENDUM
I found a coupling that says it will join iron pipe to pvc, but it looks flimsy. Plus, the iron pipe is in fairly poor surface condition. I hear there is a compound for that, but no info on how long it lasts. The solution for now is to leave an access panel on the floor, but that prevents me from laying down tile. It is just a drain, and should it break again in even a year or two, by then I’ll have the money to get a plumber in there. This is the only temporary “repair” I’ll have made on this place, and even that depends on what I find when I cut that pipe.
As for the hot and cold lines, I was right, they are different sizes. I may be able to tap into them directly, and if even more lucky, there is a spot on the floor where the old sink supply lines jut up between the joists just high enough to put an elbow in place. This frees up having to run lines under the main building, and makes it super tempting to re-consider options like an entirely new hot water system with both an ambient tank and a solar heater. For you renewable energy buffs, the heat index today was 104°F, and that would mean washing my car in hot water if it so pleased me. Once this bathroom is in working condition, I may do nothing for a while.
19.242%
Here’s a new, but temporary feature. My degree of readiness for the Nashville band [is printed below]. So you’ll know, Dood is in contact every other day. This could be interpreted a variety of ways, but applying Occam’s Razor, they are having the traditional big-band problems finding and keeping a bassist. At the other extreme, he has heard me play and seems focused on getting some recording done. I gather he owns a studio. A reminder to all, many things can still go wrong.
Today I am 19.242% toward my goal (of deep learning all songs on the supplied list). That is overall, it does not reflect that I can now absolutely ace around 15 of the songs. Staying on the careful side, I did not say I play anything original or better, but what I do is independently derived. As for better, well hell, I’ve been playing bass a long, long time and learn something new every set. In fact, how about I give you a bass tab that is better than anything on UltimateGuitar, or BASStab, or Songsterr? Okay, one chorus of one song. I just learned it this week. The Eagle’s, “Already Gone”.
Author: Give me some time to figure out how to post proportionate fonts here
First, here is the best of the best that is out there:
[Chorus] 4x
G||--------------------------------|----------------2---2---4---2---|Now, here is my version. Try it and you’ll be surprised.
D||----------------0---0---2---0---|0-------4-----------------------|
A||--------2-----------------------|--------------------------------|
E||3-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
G|----------------0---0---2---0---|--------------------------------||
D|--------2-----------------------|----2-------3-------4-------4---||
A|3-------------------------------|3-------------------------------||
E|--------------------------------|--------------------------------||
[Chorus] 4x
G||--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
D||--------------------------------|--------4-------7---7---9---8---|
A||--------2-------5---5---7---6---|5-------------------------------|
E||3-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------|--------------------------------||
D|--------2-------5---5---7---6---|--------------------------------||
A|3-------------------------------|3-------------------------------||
E|--------------------------------|-0---1-----0-----1---0--1---2---||
I’ll point out the major differences. First, avoid open string work. Regard every note as precious and keep it under control. Next, most measures end on a “wrong” note. Yet that is a distinct sound of this song that seems to have escaped everyone else. The last measure drops to an open E, but this is to emulate an impossible D note. It’s okay, audiences are conditioned to hear this. And last, if a guitar player tries this and says ouch, your fingers don’t go to the right places, he’s right. And that’s why he thinks bass is easy. And the last measure, play the notes in any syncopation, that’s how it goes, but use the octave higher walkup to get to the verses. $80 please.
