October 17, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 17, 2018, tred scooter, blog anniversary.
Five years ago today: October 17, 2014, unwelcome conciliatory.
Nine years ago today: October 17, 2010, oh no, another hero.
Random years ago today: October 17, 2007, Revews? Never paid enough.

           In an instant, I’m back to my old scooter routines. That means lots of small things start getting done. At this time, that isn’t a good thing. I never liked having to schedule shopping for the next time I take the car downtown and park it. Here’s instant results, I’ll now stop at the Thrift every day because I now I know I can always park near the door. I scored this set of Craftsman (Sears) router bits for $15. I didn’t even haggle the price, since bought individually, the bits cost more than that each. And in a nice wooden box, which I am examining for excellent construction.

           TMOR, Sears was a company that embodied the American concept of good products, low prices, excellent service. Alas, assimilation to America is a step down in the world, and they are now gone from everybody undercutting their prices. It’s the old story; my generation was the last one that grew up expecting high standards to be met. But the third world importers took advantage of that ingrained level of trust. Americans saw only the low prices, never suspecting anybody would be slimy enough to do it by cutting out the goodies.

           They timed it right, as well. The generation after me appeared outwardly accepting of all this imported nonsense because they had grown up subjected to a constant bombardment of political correctness. I wonder if even now they have caught on to what hit them. Things are now on a steady decline to the hit-and-run of third world business levels. Americans are still far too tolerant, not realizing it as a deliberate plan. Like the McDonalds’ that purposely don’t put ketchup or napkins on your tray and require you to go back through the lineup a second time to get them. By which time your food, if it is still there, is cold. Utterly slimeball.
           And I’ll tell you who is losing his shirt for trying that stunt. I’ve given the green light to Richard’s coffee over at the Winter Haven library. Change to red. Y’day, waiting for my car, I dropped in and spent $2.02 for a coffee. The place is mostly empty at noon. Where are the usual groups around the tables that have free USB power ports? I go to log on and see there is no Richard’s wifi. Noticing Richard himself is bussing the tables, I ask what gives. He says everybody is now using the library wifi from just across the hall. I looked and it had two bars. I said to him, you know, the reason I come here and pay two bucks for coffee is so I don’t have to use the library service. He failed to put two and two together.

Picture of the day.
Clive Cooper food carving.
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           Lots of small chores taken care of, but no work on the bathroom floor. The scooter battery tests weak under load, so I may get some life out of it. I noticed the battery has a build in toggle for a trickle charger. Unlike the red scooter, there is no room to put in a full size battery. However, what I do have is the technology to keep a weak battery topped off. I have spare plug-in chargers and if the fails, lots of solar panels and a charge controller. Remember, never connect a solar panel to a battery without a controller.

           Agt. R says he’ll plant the tree or trees for me while I’m away. For free, which is jolly decent of him. Since I was there to tell him to start making those damn deposits again because there is no third chance when it comes to mortgages. Rent is averaging more than twice his payments so that is not an option. I have to buy the trees, so I’ll zip over to Tractor Supply with my handy scooter later today when I can now go for a convenient evening coffee again. Or the local library. I like my nice 49cc scooter. It’s anemic at every speed and top ends at around 38 mph, but I rarely push an engine that much.
           The cooler weather has arrived early this season. It is still too hot in the mid-afternoon. I went hunting for my new battery charger and it isn’t in the shed. Where did I move it? Meanwhile, I have these solar panels rigged up and notices that the pair form a shape around the same size as the basket, which has no lid. And who has just decided to learn lid-building? This photo reveals the condition of the older equipment, some of which dates back to 2012. These two solar panels (see below) have been across the USA several times by motorcycle.

           For siesta, I’m reading the motorcycle manual. (I depart from tradition in that a nap is only one of several ways I’ll take this break. It’s more of a time slot than an activity.) I didn’t move fast enough to get a picture but I finally saw Mrs. Red at the window feeder. These are the pickiest of feeders, so that tells me they don’t care for the style I have on the tree. Normally they won’t feed two feet from the window, but she was there this morning. I’d love to build another feeder like the one they liked so well. But I’ve got things backed up for the next week.

           What’s this? Vinyl record sales are up again? Still a tiny fraction of the market and I wonder if that includes the new 4-inch format that requires a $750 player. These changes of format are not always a blessing and when it comes to digital, some of the changes are beyond the range of human perception, making them highly questionable. Remember those bulky camcorders that fit over your shoulder? I purposely did not buy any such equipment until the ability to edit the product came down to earth. I dabbled slightly with Dazzle, which used two video players and never produced a thing except a firm decision to go digital.
           I arbitrarily chose Windows Movie Maker because it was free. The process was the same as the analog equipment but cleaner and neater. Movie Maker has it’s drawbacks, such as inability to make decent sound levels, the incompatibility with MP4s, and of course, that weird ass system that won’t let you delete your old work. It’s called collections or something and won’t go away when you don’t want it. As far as I know, you have to go into the folder and delete each unwanted file manually. I’ve never found the time.

           Much later in the day, I got the hallway cleared out and only had to take out half the oak floor to get at the spot I need to raise. I may be able to replace that single spot in the whole house with the original wood floor. I’m past the point of no return in moving things around inside the house. From here on in it will take more work to move things than to throw them out and replace. The radiator place was closed, so I cannot take chances with the car. I’m taking it to the expensive place tomorrow morning. This cancels another day of working on the floor. I am getting close to laying down the subfloor and once that is in, it’s carpet everywhere while I tend to other things around this house. Like those overhanging branches.

           I charged the Yamaha battery and it starts fine. It’s a tiny thing like a toy battery and the starter motor looks like it’s made for an electric drill. The throttle gives uneven acceleration but I’ll quickly adapt to that. The rear cargo carrier is rated for a lousy 7 pounds. No place to even prop your glasses on the dash and the helmet lock involves opening the seat, which is a hassle but probably helps you keep an eye on the engine oil reservoir.
           And I think I see why the signal brackets have never been repaired. When you go on-line all the places that have parts are all singularly missing that piece. It is in the diagrams, but not labeled, so no part number. That number is required to fill out the order blank. Site after site has this same diagram, the arrows show the piece with no pointer to it to reference the number. Yep, it’s our crumbling infrastructure. I think I have the tools to fashion a replacement part myself out of ordinary garden hose.

ADDENDUM
           Who likes lime-ade? I do, and I also like a spot of lime added to other juices that can be less than zesty. Or, since I drink tea-flavored drinks, a little zip in the mix doesn’t hurt. That’s where I noticed the artistic side of these squished key limes. It can take up to eight of these per gallon to get that proper sweet and sour tang. It’s lime season and they can be as cheap as eight for a buck. This is how you get your vitamin C direct from the manufacturer.

           Later, I watched the DVD “Manhunter”, thinking it would match the quality of other Hannibal killer movies. The plot is intense but the acting is third rate. It’s like the all went to the same non-accredited acting school. It’s also a very long movie dated by the technology of push-button desk phones, 8mm projectors, and hair styles that were strange even in the day—though I did once date a gal who naturally looked like Farah Fawcett. Remember her? They (the producers) could have done much better (the script is quite good) and they had the wrong guy portraying Hannibal. They know who we wanted to see and it wasn’t him.
           The background music is so bad. It has that artificiality of made-to-spec brought to new heights, or lows, depending on your perspective, by McCartney and Jackson. There are still producers who have not learned this doesn’t work, especially when stretching out love scenes to match the music, which does carry on.

           A few of my comments concern the Thrift guy I don’t like because he now takes the hardware off donated junk furniture and sells them in baggies. The thrust is that he is just doing what I was doing and I should not be miffed. That viewpoint is a small-minded analysis of the situation. The guy is not copying me at all.
           If so, he would go find his own independent sources and leave mine alone. Now that would be flattery. But he isn’t, he’s fully aware that he is taking away my primary source. And that is greed, not copycatting. We’ve been over this many times before—there is a major difference between copying an idea and stealing it. That doesn’t mean the people who get away with it are clever. Right, Zuckerberg? I didn’t say the Thrift guy did anything wrong. I said I don’t like him.

Last Laugh