One year ago today: October 23, 2018, a huge head start.
Five years ago today: October 23, 2014, range 4,200 miles.
Nine years ago today: October 23, 2010, predicting 2012.
Random years ago today: October 23, 2006, kickstand malfunction.
Today is national Boston Crème Pie day. If I’ve had this even once in my life, I don’t recall. It’s not even on the menus much any more and if so, there’s always something I like better. It’s 5:31AM and I’m off to Winter Haven in an hour to pick up the money for the radiator. This changes my plan from a three-day trip bad to a two-day. That still gives me room for a second driving mini-vacation. Here’s a photo of my motorcycle tent. A good wind would blast it to smithereens, so keep it down will you?
This meant a wasted morning, while I sat in the car listening to our smallpox people “Saving the World”. The plot here is this neurotic lady author writing a tale of the smallpox vaccine, but continually flashing back to modern times when her husband is off do-gooding in the Caribbean. He gets killed when the government shoots up the compound where he’s been taken hostage. Two disks to go to find out how the Spanish galleon with the orphan boys fares in 1806 A.D. Avoid this book, the sole undercurrent turns out not to be the intrigue of the vaccine journey, but a that feeble aught years bullsh about continually pretending AIDS is “just another virus”.
Particularly bothersome is the constant message that “we” can beat AIDS if “we” work together, so if AIDS wins, it is because you didn’t kick in enough. Toward the end, this nonsense builds and builds until you want to throw the tapes down a well. You are supposed to believe there is a huge sympathetic movement amongst the medical community. Total . And they are so, so, so frustrated by how AIDS cannot be contained by the usual methods of quarantine and vaccination. Yeah right, what America needs most right this moment is an AIDS vaccine. Drop what you are doing and let’s get behind this thing. Ooops. Did I just make a pun at the expense of this nation’s dearly beloved queer community? Well, pardon me all to hell.
Like Clint Eastwood said when informed he’d shot an unarmed man, “Well maybe he oughta have armed hisself”. People who deliberately get in the line of fire shouldn’t expect a lot of compassion.
In my vast collection of adapters and cables, I seem to lack the ones that are in vogue these days. Here’s a plug end that I’m sure must fit some oddball Sony product. There is such an array of these cables, but since they are all similar in size and shape, it makes me wonder why the concept of a universal model hasn’t hit upon them. This morning took forever, so I began reading a book on old hand tools for shaping wood. This was interesting. The settlers built log cabins with timber that was squared with a variety of axes, adzes, saws, and chisels. But why?
It turns out because there was a shortage of timber in England. Only the frames of the houses could be made of wood. Hmmm, that makes sense. So the British household had woodworking tools to notch and fit frames. These are the tools they brought with them to the new world. They found an abundance of wood, but were trained in the techniques of scarcity. I’m finding the book fascinating on this count. I’ve decided to put some extra study into a chapter about building a wooden fort.
Blueberry white chocolate cheesecake.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
That radiator repair upsets a month of scheduling. The original cause was the bank’s refusal to accept that check that “might at some point in the future become stale dated”. I know never to count on a bank to do the right thing, but sooner or later, they’ll get you. Contemporary American standards are that if you keep your money in the bank, it is subject to their rules, not yours. If you keep any sizeable amount out of the bank, it is not protected by law, raises suspicions, and is subject to confiscation. This is part of the reason for the statistic that most American families could not come up with $400 cash in an emergency. Take a moment and look at this cardinal perch. I want to build one. Now back to the radiator.
We chatted for half an hour since he is interested in entertaining at community events and concessions. I happen to have a hotdog cart so I heard the guy out. I’m amenable to the idea, and the concept if you can’t find a location, create one. Look what I did with Jimbos. In the process we agreed on Trump kicking out the illegals, the dastardly agenda of the Democrats, the danger to the Constitution from the so-called Progressives, and the lack of good government. He was intrigued by how I tended to agree but for reasons he’d not thought of. Like police quotas.
Are there police speeding ticket quotas? Yes and no. Here’s my reasoning. It is not the institution of penalties that is, in itself, wrong. The penalties are a deterrent to anti-social behavior. But that’s where the good part ends. The problem arises shortly thereafter when the state begins to rely on penalties as a source of steady income. It would not matter if everybody obeyed the speed signs, the government would still want the money. There’s your anti-social behavior and to the outside, sure it stinks like a quota.
Like many Americans who feel under siege by illegals, taxes, and big government, he questions the construction of the FEMA camps. They are for real. The big deal about that is nobody knows why they are being built. Why in such remote areas? If they are to protect us in an emergency, why all the razor wire and guard towers? One more chilling aspect is why the crematoriums? Theories are everywhere, the scary one is that the government has stockpiled the material to construct “ten thousand guillotines”.
My viewpoint is none of the theories make sense unless the government succeeds in disarming the population. This will never happen. Even if they try, it will force millions of guns to be hidden away. It would be strange if that was the one provision of the Constitution that gets tested to the limit. This is the only time and place in history where a big population is collectively better armed than the state. That means nobody knows for sure what would really happen.
TMOR, I stress again that it has always been illegal for crazies and criminals to own guns in the USA. That is who is doing the shootings and they are a tiny, tiny minority. Rather than enforce existing laws, the radical left is pushing to confiscate all guns. Especially those guns owned by decent, law-abiding citizens. How do you spell “h-i-d-d-e-n” “a-g-e-n-d-a”? No wonder people get suspicious.
