One year ago today: December 5, 2018, on modular arithmetic.
Five years ago today: December 5, 2014, my first fancy saw.
Nine years ago today: December 5, 2010, maps, books, & photos.
Random years ago today: December 5, 2006, “that kind of thing”.
Hello world. I’m back in the saddle. Did I miss anything? To update the spotty coverage of the past two days, here’s my random comments. I drove back into town and a cold snap, colder than when I left Tennessee. The damp Gulf air bites through anything, and I must have mentioned my rotten car heater by now. I have heat, but it’s more by conduction than convection. And after twenty years in Florida later this month, I own very little winter gear. What I do own is returning to Tennessee with me very shortly. Keep reading and ignore any repetition, it’s the nature of large blogs.
This view shows the saw, well-used, but I tested it. The quality is there, see the bottom panel that shows the rule for rough cuts. No plastic parts. Even the crank wheels are metal and the handles are wood. That fence is solid metal and can be adjusted to exact tolerance.
Finally, I find out that with zero electric and zero water usage (both were turned off for six weeks) that my monthly utility bill is $77.85 per month. This includes garbage disposal and various fees like recycling. I don’t mind at all, since living here ultimately creates a direct savings of some $6,000 per year. Even my taxes are less than $500. I paid up everything, including my phone, and I’ll get back to you on that in a moment. I zipped over to chat with my real estate lady. She no longer manages my property, but like I told her, how was I to know she would be the only reliable and competent person I would ever meet in central Florida?
In general, the American people are sick and tired of the leftist Democrats and their lame attempts to attack Donald Trump. Thus, our conversation quickly turned to that and I discover she is an ardent Trump supporter. My views are more populist, that is I do not support Trump as much as I admire what his very presence is doing to the left. Who’s that guy at the impeachment hearings that said it right, the Democrat Party has never respected the will of the American people?
The consensus is the libtards have really done it this time. They tried their old bag of tricks on Trump, who is not an Establishment insider. The tricks don’t work and they are flailing about in frustration and making asses of themselves. For clarity, they have talked themselves into a corner, promising time after time that this “impeachment” is a sure thing. In other words, if they don’t impeach, it could spell the end of them as a political force. In harsher terms, there is talk that their real goal is preventing Trump from running in the 2020 election at all, because if he does, the so-called liberals don’t stand a hope in hell—and they know it.
Thusforth, I am not following the hearings because that’s all they are is hearings. However, it is with great interest I watch what is happening to the tax-and-spend Democrats. They all break under questioning, resorting to ridiculous circular and rehearsed statements that fool nobody. They have not produced a single witness (their whistle-blower was exposed as a liar) and have resorted to bringing in “expert witnesses” who are all avowed and acknowledge left-wingers who infest the US university empire. They are known to fail students who adopt anything but the party line. They are not witnesses as in having first-hand exposure to the facts, so everything they say is merely opinion and you know how far that gets these days.
$4 million quartz found in Arizona.
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The phone bill. While I was there, I picked up a small pager-sized gadget on the shelf. What is it. The gal explained it is something new, a mobile hotspot that works on the cell phone system. Myself, I never really understood the whole mess of how WiFi works because you could not get a straight answer without some knot-head handing you a sales pitch. Nor was it easy to get a firm and final price. This device has a phone number, and you pay a monthly fee of $50. She says it will work for Internet service anywhere there is cell coverage. If I had known such a device was possible, I would have invented it myself.
Here is a snap of an ingenious invention. Push pins with a little hook. For years I’ve used regular pins to hold things on binder clips. Calendars, reminders, hundred dollar bills, you know that kind of thing. These are so neat, and only a buck at Dollar Tree for a pack of 40. Back to the new device, which I could purchase as soon as tomorrow. Since they outlawed snfifers and scanners, cell phone transmissions are probably more secure than land lines.
To date, I’ve hesitated to get home service because of the nature of the contract. It involves revealing your bank account or credit card numbers, a really stupid thing to do these days and giving strangers the right to take money out of your bank account. A truly idiotic concept if you think about it. Do you even want such people knowing you have a bank account? Or trusting one of these fly-by-night operators who advertise with foam lawn signs. I’ve already made my decision to try this item, called “CoolPad”. I spend at least $50 per month going for coffee out in Bartow mainly for their free WiFi, but even they monitor what you visit and post warnings how unsecure their system is. My thinking is also that if this 50 Gs turns out to be not enough, I could afford two of the units, canceling one for up to three months at a time before they recycle the phone number.
The gal says I would pay monthly, which is how I was raised, and it would also impact areas such as my travel. I regularly stop mainly at places known to have WiFi, so that restriction would be removed. And the number of times that scummy Garvin GPS has let me down is legendary. There, how was this for a catch-up post? Glad you liked it.
Following tradition, I will record any minor changes that may have long-term effects. One is I’ve slightly changed two parameters behind this blog. One is the file-naming system for pictures. Up to now, there has only been a rough categorization by month. If asked for a copy, I would first need to locate the month the picture got posted. See, I told you this blog was text-based. What I’ve changed is the file name will now indicate what type of photo. P is for panel, S is for still, G is for gif, and so on. But it remains a monumental task to try and index the bulk of files.
ADDENDUM
Here’s the old red scooter, now kind of overgrow in the back yard. It is sad that in America it costs so much to obey every law. The connection here is that it will take until the end of January to license the new scooter. Florida licensing laws are predatory. I won’t get into it, but licensing the new scooter involves a heft $375 “new vehicle registration” fee. Plus proof of a one-year insurance policy if they want to get sticky. Soon, there will be a monthly check that you did not cancel after the first payment.
Now, they demand to see ID, specifying a driver’s license. They don’t just look at it, they key in the license number for “verification”. Fortunately, I have never driven my car up to an ATM. I park and walk over. But in January, I may have to show ID to get my own money out of my own account despite the bank knowing me personally for sixteen years. If you use the teller, you must still present an ATM card, so there is no getting around this. The last thing I want a damn bank knowing is that I have a Texas driver’s license, or even that I have a license, or have a car. It is simply not the banks business—they are insisting on it for some sinister reason. Bank security? That is not my concern, my accounts are insured against theft and that’s all I care about. They started it.
As it happened this is another topic discussed with my real estate lady. Again, not that I would ever do such a thing, but how do you prevent the bank from taking a picture of your license plate when you use the ATM. I just told you. But yes, there is another way, though a bit cumbersome. However, I will explain it because there may be times you want to travel without it being recorded. The law states you must have a valid license plate to travel on all public roads. I know I always do. But, when you pull into a gas station or bank, you are no longer on a public road.
There is nothing to stop you from gluing four of those tough little magnets on to the corners of some old license plate you found at the flea market in South Dakota. Simply stick it over your other plate for the duration of the transaction. Remember to remove it at the first opportunity by having something on your dash that you turn upside down to remind you.
Oh, and another hint. I do this all the time and I’ll let you figure out the reason. Whenever possible, I turn around at gas stations and exit by the same path as entered. Even if the camera catches you turning right instead of left, the assumption is you were heading back the way you came. Sneaky, but not as sneaky as unauthorized people who record you without your knowledge or permission. Their security is not, repeat not, more important than yours.
Here’s that video of starting the two-stroke engine after 43 days sitting. Cough, cough.
One more note. I regularly asked how to deal with electronic surveillance, and I have no answer. The best thing is you notice the term “conspiracy theorist” is not batted around anything like it used to be. That’s because everything they predicted came true. My best answer on how to protect yourself today would be to start thinking like a conspiracy theorist twenty years ago.
