October 1, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 1, 2019, 99 & 99.
Five years ago today: October 1, 2015, the ugly Zundel affair.
Nine years ago today: October 1, 2011, it never works with me.
Random years ago today: October 1, 2004, I chose nine years . . .

           Didn’t I just finish saying trouble comes in threes? This morning the battery on the Taurus died. Usually you get some warning, like a day or two of hard starting. No such luck, it went kaput and I mean dead. It took fifteen minutes on the 50 amp charger before it would turn over. Let me check the records. Here we go, this is a 2-year battery bought in September 2017 for $66.25. We are not mechanics, but we know about batteries, so I ran this one through the tests to find there is no reason for it to die like that. I was lucky it happened in the driveway were I have access to all my tools. Here is the old battery on th charger.

           This failed, so it was off to Wal*Mart, where the replacement cost $109.83. Trump tariffs to blame for that. The troubles are not over, since the system has to be checked in case the failure was due to other factors. Like a bad alternator, or voltage regulator, these are easy to check if you know your multi-meter. I already tested the positive terminal for alternator output, which read the proper 14.4 volts. Rather than track everything down, I just bought the new battery because I need the car to get to therapy.

           That means this year the total repair bill has already amounted to $617.87. (Not including the $86 for the scooter battery, which is a different budget category.) Let’s recap what the expensive items were, we are not doing too badly considering the true costs of a newer vehicle. That flat tire in March cost me $94. I put $75 in tranny fluid in before we found that leaking hose. I had to replace the ruptured donut spare for $20. The water pump totaled $84. There was the big bill for testing the transmission to find it was a result of the radiator repair, but that is classified as “extraordinary expense” of around $460.
           How does this compare? Well, each trip to Nashville, all inclusive, costs me around $654. All told, not to bad. I’m more concerned about the 75% increase in battery price. As American manufacturing returns, I expect much the same will happen with many prices. It won’t matter who gets in, Trump will keep the tariffs so people in Minnesota can build things and Biden will tax the snot out of us for his crackpot redistribution schemes. Have you see that ad where he promises everybody a guaranteed income and $15,000 tax credit to buy a house? These people don’t have the money, they are hoping to get it after they are elected—from you. I don’t know if lying to get elected is going to work this time.

           Here’s a view of working on the car. That’s the new battery in place and some of my tools. Note the nice wooden tray for the sockets? I built that. This repair took most of the morning. I managed to get some organization done in the shed. Other than the listlessness, the shoulder injections have another side effect. Appetite is unaffected but you never feel full. Not any hungrier, you get used to that, but you lose the advantage of taking all that time to get used to smaller portions. It makes things just that wee bit more difficult that it has to be.

Picture of the day.
Nintendo 1969.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           The Google thing with news. It seems some of the bigger news corporations, Europe in particular, don’t like the way their top stories are rebroadcast over the Internet for free. I’m no fan of Google, but in this I see a real conflict that in a way I support. I’ll explain my position even if it doesn’t make sense to some. Big media wants to be paid when Google allows copyrighted material to show up on their searches. There is a split with me right there. Google is not the source of those posts, they are the destination (so to speak). So I am on nobody’s side so far. Big media is complaining the Internet is encroaching on their revenues, and I say they had it coming. Their monopolistic practices were a major cause for the success of the Internet. The first hurdle is their stance on revenues.

           I say they are somewhere between wrong and lying. I base this on what I call the “Sony Assumption”, that states it is wrong to calculate that every person who has a free copy would otherwise have purchased it retail Wrong, wrong, wrong. I say the majority of people with a pirated copy would have nothing before they’d pay $19.95 for a CD with one good track. That leads back to what the media is really saying—they lose advertising revenue. And to me, that’s another category of contention, but related in the following manner.

           You see, advertising is not popular over here, or more exactly, what advertising has become. In my lifetime it has gone from annoying, to pervasive, and now invasive. And the people doing it have the attitude it is their right, like it is freedom of speech. The old-time publishers have a quarrel with the new-time publishers who use content without paying for it. To me, that is just their wake up call. However they settle things, it will not be in favor of the consumer, who gets bombarded by advertising—a practice I feel should be curbed. My stance is that if you want me to pay attention to your advertising, you should pay me. I even feel that way about junk mail. I should be compensated for having to throw it in the trash.
           My suggested solution has always been the catalog shopping format. Put all the advertising in a “catalog”, so people who want it can read the catalog. Got that, Google, Facebook, youTube, people who WANT it. But that stops short of the Internet practice of throwing the catalog at people’s heads until they comply. Revenues will suffer, they shout. I shout back that’s better than having the people suffer. Some of us don’t want to hear about diarrhea symptoms every time we turn around. Hell, charge people for the catalog to make up the difference. Will people pay for a book full of advertising? Of course, pick up any photography magazine and that’s 90% of the pages.

           The picture? That’s the old robot club charger trying to rejuvenate the $100 marine battery purchased for the batbike somewhere in Oklahoma, I think. I was hoping it would take repeated deep charges as claimed. No such luck. It retains around 30% of the original charge and can be zapped up to 50%, but dies again too quickly for any use. I’m considering using the old chalk table as a stand for battery storage and maintenance. The only dry space I have for that is the scooter shed, which at this time has no electric service. The writing on the side of the charger is the dates it has been tested.
           Speaking of tests, have you seen the new $23,000,000 NASA toilet? Hark back to the ancient post right here about Antarctica. How it costs seven times more to station a woman in that environment than a man. This cost has never been properly explained and now we have another confirmation. The space toilet is “better suited” for women. They can now poop and pee at the same time. Better suited, they say, but not ideal, nobody claimed that. It will ever remain overtly insensitive to their needs and desires. Twenty-three fucking million dollars. Brings a whole new meaning to the pay toilet.

ADDENDUM
           Bradford never showed for rehearsal, so I used the time to map out what remaining things I need to get my solo act going. I have one set of mediocre music ready and another on the verge. If I try to go just solo, my lousy guitar ability is going to compete a little to directly for the same crowd as roughly two dozen other acts. I’m banking a lot on my observation that I am the better showman, yes, I’m fully aware that is a self-assessment. Still, I need something to give my show an edge and it’s come back down to that drum box.
           Without committing, I will give this a try. It sounded corny even to me, but think about it. This blog has long ago pinpointed the chief dislike of these machines is people try to play them right out of the box. This slows things down a lot, but I look at it this way. I learned to operate a drum box properly, which includes stopping and starting during a song while playing bass. What I have not learned is how to do the same while singing at the same time as playing an unfamiliar instrument. That would make my act unique. There are a few solo acts that use backing tracks. Those lack any “live” feel and there are fewer around these days than a couple of years back.
           I’m counting on two things I have yet to try. One is how, despite my untrained voice, I can keep on key once I’m started. That means I can sing along to the drum box. Two, the switch is hidden under my left arm, which is uncomfortable but I now have the tools to modify that.

Last Laugh