One year ago today: May 10, 2019, a generic day.
Five years ago today: May 10, 2015, Margaritaville prerequisites.
Nine years ago today: May 10, 2011, my favorite missing tool.
Random years ago today: May 10, 2016, quantum fladoodle.
I got the drainage trench enlarged had ran in a temporary water supply to the washing machine location. The chickens were amused. The temporary parts of the water system all leak, but I’ll tend to that later. I installed cutoff valves for now. Then came a terrific downpour which caught me under the lean-to roof and let me know just how much work there is left to do. Lots. But the basic plan is fine, the only tricky part will be where the two roofs meet. A lot of flashing and roof tar, I suspect.
Forex trading has commenced again. My understanding is gaining but there are still a dozen things that need explaining. Like how to stop the trading if the market is falling. It seems there are two types of “trading” with the software. One is where you are accepting or declining trades, which is easy to understand. The other is automatic, which is how the software is designed top operated best. So, when I set the parameters to stop trading Thursday, I see that it keeps on going. The notifications continue and the screen numbers keep moving.
Thus, I watched my Equity Balance drop steadily by $117. I tried turning off auto-trade, but it had no effect. Again, I don’t want to use the X button to cancel the trade until somebody tells me what happens to the value. If it puts the trade on hold, which is what I would like, where does it go? It doesn’t appear on screen. Hence, I began this week $12 in the hole [over last week]. Another missing figure is the number that tells me how much money I have if I quit it all right now. Every time I’ve asked, I get nothing but an “it depends”. I want the number that depends on how much money is in my account.
I’m out of 2x3”s so off to the lumber yard. They are out of them as well. The building supply places are experiencing a boom as out-of-work people turn to repairs and stuff you just know they’ve been putting off. Every store I’ve been to has a lineup. Interesting how that works. Things will equally quiet down just as fast once a routine is restored. For me it is just another inconvenience. However, in the big picture, this virus scare has caused deep-rooted resentment of the bureaucracy. Not the government in being, most people recognize an anti-Trump operation when they see it. No reasonable person wants the country to go back to the liberal-backed politically correct fiasco years. Where every criticism of government policy was deemed racist, homophobic, or Nazi.
The turning point seems to be when the police put that Texas lady bar owner in jail for a week for opening her business. The media is trying to move on from their shameful presentation of that a public health measure. The issue raised was not whether the police had the authority to arrest her, obviously they can and did. That is an ancient talking point in America. What happened is a much broader awakening than anyone planned on. The talk has changed to the fundamental issue that in America the government is not supposed to have that much authority. It’s pretty clear the civil servants did not position themselves to do as they please just since Trump came along.
And there is even more talk about using the police to enforce these business closures and distancing rules. I won’t pursue it now, but I remind the reader that I am populist. Not for Trump as much as I am against communistic liberalism and the shallow minds that cannot understand how necessary “inequality” is in the formula for freedom. That I am against lawyers becoming President. That I am very worried that if Trump does not get in again, there will be some real trouble. See addendum.
Prison graduation ceremony.
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The washing machine. I did not know so many people use this model. There is no user manual and many people use it wrong, so I will do a review of the unit here. The brand name is Zeny—and don’t use the machine until you learn how the drain works. The appliance has two motors, so you can wash and spin at the same time. It is quite rugged but don’t force anything. The timers are manual; common sense tells you the higher settings are for heavily soiled clothes. Cold water works fine. The internal parts are plastic, so don’t use water hotter than 120°F. The knobs are spindly, don’t overload the machine. That means ignore the claims you can put 13 pounds in there. This picture shows, left to right, collard greens, off season chrysanthemums, devil’s backbone, and mother-in-law tongues.
There are two water inlets, but only one hose. These are NOT hot and cold inlets. The left inlet fills the tub, the right inleft pours water into the spinner. Again, there is no automatic shut off, so you must attend the unit whenever you are running water. I think the concept here is that you can pour water into the spin cycle instead of putting the clothes back into the washer compartment for a rinse cycle, the normal procedure on many portable washers. You keep rinsing until the water runs clear.
Not that the tub will only drain when you put the selector on that setting, but the spin cycle drains water all the time. There is no drain pump, but there is some kind of assist mechanism to drain the water faster than by gravity alone. This means the drain hose must be located lower than the washing machine tug. I found it more convenient to raise the entire washer up a foot, which makes it easier to use. With only one hose, you have to switch it between inlets, but since I got the washer second hand, I don’t know. The hose has two different ends. The small end goes on the machine, it is a nice snug fit. The other end has a pinch ring and fits nicely over a 3/4” or 2” CPVC water pipe.
It is no automatic, you have to stand there while the tub fills. You are the judge of how much water to use. This is a small machine for doing a single load of work clothes at a time. There is no dryer, just a spin cycle. It does a good job but is only 1/3 the size of the washer and works best a garment at a time. There is a plastic disk in the spinner, it is used to push the loaded garments lightly into a more balanced load but is otherwise pretty useless. There is a delicate wash cycle but I have no delicates.
The spin cycle always starts with a wobble but smoothes right out in a few seconds. It has setting up to six minutes, but the discharge at the drain pipe says it’s done in one minute. This is why I suspect the second inlet hose is for introducing rinse water during this cycle. It gets messy moving clothes back and forth to rinse in the tub. The spin cycle has an excellent brake that stops fast when the lid is opened. If you want a video, there is a very similar machine called “Good Ideas Twin Tub Washing Machine Streetwize Accessories Portawash Plus”, a name longer than the wash cycle.
[Author’s note: the video shows the spinner is used for the rinse cycle. Dang, I didn’t see the video until I figured it out on my own. They say keep spinning until the rinse water runs clear. I usually give up after five minutes when the water is clean enough. This machine is likely to be tested using passively heated water.]
ADDENDUM
What could happen in November? What won’t happen is a return to business as usual for the Democrats. Their co-opting of the liberal movement into one of the most corrupt political machines ever allowed in a western nation has their own members changing sides. The Democrats know if they don’t get in this time, their reign of terror is over. They have to try every trick in the book this time, but they’ve used up most of them already. Repeating any one of them would be too obvious, so they have to invent a new “virus” scare and do it now.
For Trump, there have been some real changes for this election. Before, he was running not just against the usual circus of hacks and glad-handers, but a complete civil service stocked with liberal cronies Trump did not arrive with a list of patrons to appoint and was occupied on delivering his political promises. Not now, he knows exactly who the Obamaphiles are. Trump has learned who is allies are and that his enemies can be identified by the pace they get things “not done”.
My concern remains if Trump does not get in. The pendulum will swing toward somebody who is really going to fight back. A candidate who owes nothing to either party, nothing to the Establishment, and has nothing to lose. The sort of candidate who was supposed to go into politics all along, if you read the Constitution. My support of Shkreli for Prez is more for readership than reality, but it could very well become that, by 2024 his best utility will be preventing some dangerous strong-man getting into the White House.
Or, as Uncle Adolf put it, “A hundred years from now the World will know I was right.”
It has become impossible to find that quote on the Internet. Hmmmm.
