January 16, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 16, 2020, cheaper than real food.
Five years ago today: January 16, 2016, three worst computer mistakes.
Nine years ago today: January 16, 2012, Miami’s most useless restoral.
Random years ago today: January 16, 2008, storm in Lake Worth.

           What? No oatmeal in the house and it is Saturday morning? That’s a fine start and no, grits is Sunday, so I had to settle for cream of wheat. Yeah, they still make that stuff and it is actually okay in moderation. The changing eras of this blog means the high point today was work on the window and the van. If you do things right, you don’t really slow down as much as take more gratification in logistics—that’s my opinion. And, see, I’ve got a blog. Ha.

           This section shows progress on the exterior window frame. You are looking at the far east side of the building, the wall used for testing what works. Lots of paint peeling, non-working lights and cracked siding you cannot see from the street. I’ve decided on this wood, which I think is pine, for the best appearance. It’s $12 per board nowadays, so the entire window comes in at around $75 including the boiled linseed oil, shown here being applied. The board on the left is coated. Sure, it’s overkill, since that window will outlive me, but I never want to have to deal with it again.

           The original frame was too brittle to rework, so I’m replacing the pieces with these planks. At first, I put a single 8” piece between the windows, as this width had to allow for the counterweights. I left the 4” pieces on the sides. But then, take a look at this next picture. I put the leftover 8” plant on the left, leaving the 4” on the far right. I think it gives the window a much more sturdier look. Can you see the difference, it’s a bit tricky with that ladder in the way. This gives me an excuse to drive to Bartow, where the planks are on sale tomorrow. This means the piece across the top also has to be 8”, all for looks. But I like powerful windows.

           The photo also shows the windows squared and fitted into the cutout. One of these was the frame destroyed by the window A/C over the years. The other had gone off square and I did not notice until it was mounted as shown here. The challenge to fix this is removing it without throwing things off square. The centers of the sills and sashes had bowed out slightly as well, which I may have to shim and plane square again.

           Rumble dot com, I don’t like it. It destroys the first rule of the Internet which is to stay anonymous. Want to get rich? Devise something that makes your electronic profile look like somebody else. The next thing is the Rumble filing system, there isn’t any. Videos are listed in order of views, making today’s stupid-ass picture of a dog jumping in the snow ahead of the 40,000 troops deployed in DC. And without bookmarking it is nearly impossible to find anything a second time. There is a random-looking list called “Featured Channels”. Sometimes Hannity is there, other times you scroll. Because somebody’s dog is taking a dump.
           Anyway, Hannity has really toned it down, enough to often miss the topic entirely. What most Republicans don’t understand is how the Democrats can make some hair-brained suggestion and the police and authorities act on it instantly. But when Trump issues a direct order, he has to go through hoops for weeks to get anything done.

Picture of the day.
1 centimeter = 10 millimeters.
(for those who can’t figure it out for themselves.)
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           I got things done fast since the minivan is now much easier to load. Shown here is the plywood sheet I will fit over the very uneven floor. The chair anchors just up too high and I could not find any easy method to remove them. Like the seats, there’s probably a way, but that would still leave the patchwork of carpet and cavities. This plywood is not attached, I’m just using it to get the template of the cutout. It must still allow access to the front and back floor storage bins.

           The afternoon turned warm enough to work with window putty, except in the end, I could not find any. Instead, I’m using a plumber’s putty that says it “may” be used for windows. Along with “free”, the word “may” has been totally millennialized, in keeping with their culture of built-in deniability. I even had difficultly explaining to store employees in the paint department what window putty even was. Other than the fact it does hold the glass in place, I am unhappy with tubes of the acrylic stuff. Here’s a picture of the glass getting the first new glazier points in up to 40 years, I suppose.

           Note the reconditioning of the wood, not yet completed. Normally I would sand and paint these pieces while on the sawhorses, but the need for security while up in Tennessee last trip means they will be done in place. It’s only mild extra work, since all the pieces move easily again. Notice the slightly darker band of filling across the picture? That is water putty not fully dried after nearly a month, despite being applied in several thin layers and given plenty of time to cure.
           And, I spent the extra cash and purchased the Kreg pocket-hole jig. At least, I think I got the right kit. They have several different models advertised, but they don’t like to specify what each does that the others do not. I’m reading the manual and will get you pictures of this contraption in a while. Normally I avoid products that require special parts to be purchased later, like the unique screws for this device. It always means extra care and planning is required to use the equipment. The price was $100.

ADDENDUM
           Picking up supplies gave me the chance to stop here and there to show off, er, I mean demonstrate the handiness of my nice new van. And talk politics with Agt. R if he’s ever at home. I’ve taken the opinion that Pence, even if he did not have the authority (as he claimed) to not certify the vote, he should have done so just to throw the Democrats into more disarray. I’m wondering how they got to him? He parroted what he was told until the last minute, some say it was part of a bigger plan, but Pence will go down in history as a coward.
           Something I find odd is not so much the way the radical left stage manages their affairs, but now they cannot react well when things don’t go as planned. Now they are reading the riot act over the incident in DC, saying Trump caused an insurrection. Led by an un-armed actor in a Viking helmet? Give me a break. The protest was several blocks away. My guess is the Left was hoping their stunt would trigger more violence but it didn’t. Now they have to follow through with this “insurrection” ploy that only their diehards are going to buy.

           Trump is declassifying lots of documents the Democrats and Establishment Republicans would rather have buried or burned. It relates to what I just said, that the Democrats are accusing Trump of doing things that require years of collusion and sophisticated, clever, underhanded political maneuvering. The Leftist plan was to set a ready-made trap for a much bigger and different enemy than Trump, but it was the only plan they appeared to have. To make it work against an upstart, they first had to build the guy up into a much bigger threat than he actually was. That’s about the only thing they did right.
           Russian interference, insurrection, rioting cities, and impeachments is just not something a newbie like Trump could have come up with entirely while announcing his candidacy on a down escalator ride. These laws were put into place to combat misconduct by a sophisticated political faction, where Trump viewed the Presidency as just another executive job that needed doing better than the last guy. They pounced on him over things that, like most Americans before the election, he had only a vague idea what the terms even meant.

           The left have another self-inflicted problem. In their fervor to cancel Trump, they’ve accused him of everything they can think of. But much of that body of law only applies to a sitting President. By next Wednesday they will have to either try applying that law to a civilian, known as a kangaroo court, or lose face when it comes to Trump becoming the opposition. This means, the way they created one set of laws for themselves and another for the others will result in a show trial of epic-comic proportion.
           And the released documents have not even been read yet. But the Left is already defending themselves. They are saying if the documents reveal they acted wrongly, they should not be prosecuted because they were “lied to”. Then they only have to cover up the fact that they were lying to each other and knew it. Let's see if they can deflect this one.

Last Laugh