One year ago today: March 24, 2020, carefree plant.
Five years ago today: March 24, 2016, cart or wagon?
Nine years ago today: March 24, 2012, code vs logic gates.
Random years ago today: March 24, 2013, the Johnson counter.
Being first in line for labs meant I was on the road by 8:00PM. Fasting made it okay to stop at Panera for a sandwich you might not like. Scrambled egg with horseradish. Clears the sinuses. Anyway, it was a beauty of a day to check the van repairs, so I took the route east of Lake Okeechobee, via our old motorcycle trail. That means a stop in Pahokee, yippee. It would be even nicer if there was anything to say or do in that town. One thing, every available square inch of non-agricultural land now has something on it, usually a manufactured home. The city is wedged between the levee, which blocks all view of the lake, and the cane fields to the east.
I met a whole group of tourists who had been sold a trip to an around the lake. It was my sad duty to tell them right where they were is the only real spot the lake can even be seen. Almost the entire rest of the levee is off limits, except for a couple spots near Clewiston I’m told. Never cared much for Clewiston. There has been a noticeable improvement in the flora of the surrounding terrain now that the flow of water through or toward the Sea of Grass is partially restored.
Older maps show a town called Taylor Creek, which I thought I’d try to find. Instead, I discovered a lot of unmarked dead end roads. Around 10:00AM I reached the city of Okeechobee. The sort of downtown has been gutted by COVID shutdowns. Such stores as remain open are pawn shops and second-hand stores. These are traditional cash-flow enterprises, the nature of which I mentioned a year ago. They are the ones that survive, but that will now have the shit audited out of them for being able to survive.
I’m keeping a close eye on the temperature gauge, I insisted the bypass wiring be left intact, since it is established club policy to test all cause-and-effect repair situations. Did the water overheat because the gauge failed, or did the gauge fail because the water overheated? By the time I left Lake Placid, there was something wrong, but I could not find anything. Ah, but as I neared Lake Wales, I saw the needle move slightly.
Instantly, I clicked on the bypass and limped into Lake Wales. A complete examination of the system showed no signs of leakage, but when I removed the pressure cap, that water level was too low. I topped it off, then drove around the town for 30 minutes with two motives. To see if the temp stayed right. (It did.) And to scout that $36k house. I found the reason for the price. While the house is located in a good area, it was situated where foot traffic from the bad side had to go past it to get downtown. That place has just been cancel-cultured on my books.
Lunch on the space station.
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West from Okeechobee is motorcycle road but not that great for car travel. It’s a two-lane with no passing zones. By now I’m famished again so thought to stop in Lake Placid at the mom & pop on Interlaken. Gone. Closed up and looking vacant for quite some time. The scene was too sad to take a picture. That’s the place I often stopped for fries and gravy and there was always a newspaper around with an intact crossword. While many Florida types still read newspapers, it is rare for them to do the puzzles. That tells you something.
As is standard, I stopped to mail some non-essential letters at wayside post offices. All addresses and return addresses in the USA are scanned and recorded, so I’ve always made it a habit to throw them off the trail by using zip codes I rarely frequent. This is in Canal Point. It is probably the fanciest building in town.
Ha, let me tell you again about the opposite takes JZ and I have on any given topic. He says I buy old wrecks and am constantly fixing something. I remind you he sees this as a hassle, I see it as routine. You want to make monthly payments on a car, you go right ahead. I’d rather use that money to travel around and if you say the cost is high, you have not recorded the true totals you are paying for your own vehicle. Few people are even capable to finding this total, but the American system is designed to take 30% of your home pay over a lifetime keeping an auto on the road. My total is down around 20%.
And not only that, JZ, you know that fan bypass wiring I left in place that you thought was overkill? If I can’t find the matching ballast for that $99 headlight, I’m going to run the wire to put in a regular headlight meanwhile. So I don’t wind up getting $400 fines from the State Patrol like some people I know. That also explains why I left all that slack in the wiring. This robot club may not build robots. But we could.
ADDENDUM
Rumor, but just rumor, some people are getting their stimulus checks. If I do, how about we take a day trip to Clearwater. Or how about a date with that gal from Bartow who’s mentioned it so many times. Um, guys, that’s a real date, not what you are thinking. She is not my type, but I know very well how impossible it is for most women to find a man they can date without consequences. Did she not mention she likes museums? Okay, it’s a deal, if she likes museums, we’ll see about this over-40 dating mode. It is truly fun for the few who manage to find it.
I’ll let you in on another trade secret. Women are like men in the sense they think if they get certain things right, they would be meeting all the potential mates they want. But unlike men, women to not go that many places stag. This lesson I learned at the phone place. Women, even some that don’t care for your company, will gladly use you as bait. Yes, I’ve said I don’t like it when women accept passes, but that is when I’m paying. If they are up front about their intentions, hell, I go along with it. Lady, just point at what you want and I’ll have him at your table just in time to remember I have to go check something on my car and apologize I was so late getting back.
