July 11, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 11, 2020, standard measurement skills.
Five years ago today: July 11, 2016, early political names (for me).
Nine years ago today: July 11, 2012, I like Marmite.
Random years ago today: July 11, 2005, a couple of tarts.

           A morning look at real estate and anybody who doesn’t already have something is pretty much cooked. Listings of anything serious begin at $200k and forget that if you can’t plunk $50k down. There’s an old house in Mulberry I’ve kept an eye on just because it has been boarded up for so long. The boards are gone and the front has been spruced up. Why Mulberry? Just because it is where I kind of first looked around this area. Vacant lots are $25,000. It is hard to believe houses there are selling for over $200k, it’s a nothing kind of industrial area with one restaurant in town. And five out on the highway. Anything else under $120k is a mobile home on rental property. But, people with a gig mentality probably need gig housing.

           This led me search what gig workers with my computer skills are making. You get job titles, but not job descriptions, so I’m winging it. Let’s presume I’m not into delivering packages or pizza, don’t walk dogs, and that I prefer working with computers more than with anyone born since 1996. That leaves huge opportunities, of which I would pick what they are calling “artificial intelligence”. Hmmm, starting salaries run $146,000 per year. For that kind of money, sure, I’ll go work in the office. But I’ll stick with my current venture of looking closely at publishing. Not writing, that’s incidental to what I’m considering here. I don’t have to make very much for very long but I know that is going to rapidly change in the next ten years even if my health holds out.

           There’s a sight for you, my stone dry dead peach tree. No fruit yet but those leaves are brilliant green in the bright sun. The elm tree is recovering as well, but not in glorious fashion. The branches shown here were trimmed as specified on-line, so we are watching for the lower sprigs to develop into branches. The tree is trimmed everywhere it reaches over nine feet. Keep-um fingers crossed, those few peaches last year were mighty good.

           I was gathering tools in the shed when the afternoon rainshower started early. So what the heck, work on other stuff. I wound up making up the panels for the chain saw box, built up from scrap lumber. That biscuit joiner is rapidly paying for itself. This is the largest box I’ve made to date, shown here the pieces are just being dry-fitted. It’s go the proper joints and strength and is one step more toward building a box to fit around a pre-existing object. That’s correct, up to now what got a box depended on what fit.

           It rained six hours. The radio spewed anti-Trump ganda the entire time. The Democrats have always counted on people being too busy to pay attention to everything they are up to, but those days are gone. DC seems frantic about something, probably the Pennsylvania audit. Again, I’m waiting for one person to turn themselves in and blow the lid off the entire Obama-Clinton-Biden escapade. Trump is wisely doing nothing, so I won’t say how this blog advised the course long ago.
           Americans have known for decades that no amount of money poured into the Caribbean ever produces any results. The Clinton Foundation is known to use the islands as a massive money-laundering scheme. Now their head honcho is gunned down by mercenaries, a 1960s pattern that has Pinochet-Samoza-Allende written all over it. There was instant talk he was about to expose the Clinton’s and now, like so many others who tried, he is dead. I know, it seems contradictory because it’s looking more and more like the Democrat party will soon need all the Caribbean islands that money can buy.

Picture of the day.
Trempealeau Mountain.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Rain was also time for some tool maintenance and here is a smudge across the plate of my hand planer. It will not clean off and seems to stick on certain surfaces. There are tiny grooves across the plates shown here. Neither wire brush nor solvents make any impression on these marks. I never understood why power planers don’t have a grip that retracts a blade-protector before you set it down.

           Branson, the Virgin Billionaire, flew into space today. Well, at 53 miles, call it the very closest part of space. That makes him the second oldest guy (after John Glenn) to fly that high, even though it was sub-orbital. The plan is to commercialize the trip for thrill-seekers who have a quarter-million bucks to play with. I don’ t know about the scenery. Mind you, if you know where and how to look, you can make out the curvature of the Earth from 60 miles up. I’ve been toying with a theory about billionaires. The ones who inherited it in some way don’t welcome changes in the system. Those that achieve it on their own are the ones who cash in on changes. Am I right?

           I was in the mood to watch a documentary. But I see the world has run out of topics. Check BBC, NOVA, PBS, you find the same tired old themes. Dunkirk, Alcatraz, Antarctica, Pyramids, Barrier Reef, Serengeti, Aztecs, Acupuncture, and lots of secret codes and meanings. Has nothing new been discovered since 1980? Maybe it is a move to documentaries for profit rather than spreading knowledge. That would explain the weak plots and lack of content.
           But it would not explain the annoying practice of using only narrators with foreign accents and the focus on their petty problems at home and the office. People only want to know if you brought home the ship. Here is an ad for the next Maker Faire in Orlando, due this fall. If you can’t spot what is missing from this picture, you have never been to a real science fair lately.

           The best I could find was short documentaries on gemstones and jewelry. There is lot of emphasis on the hard life of the miners, but you always notice a glittering temple in the background. One of the scenes showed Bangkok a couple years ago. I am so glad I visited the place before it became what it is now. Same with Singapore and Manila. They are not there any more, and neither are the beautiful, available, eager-to-please young native women. Sigh.
           Later, I decided to stay at my desk and catch overseas news reports. Joe & the Ho have made us a joke for the world. Like most, I’m not saying who is right or wrong, but I know desperate people when I see them. Everything the Democrats tried to pull off is back to bite them in the ass. The laptop story will not die, the border remains a shambles, the crazy bills are being blocked, Trump is quashing them more each day, the audits are proceeding, half the population refuses vaccines, election laws are bolstered, the military threatens to quit, inflation is rampant, the opposition is no longer afraid to speak, the insurrection is debunked, Biden is impeached, Fauci is afraid to step outside, CNN ratings have tanked, Pence’s approval rating is 0%, the Supreme Court are called out as cowards, teachers are put on notice, and RINOs have been put on notice.
           No sir, this is not working out at all well for the people trying to pull a fast one on America. They are making fools of themselves trying to pretend Trump isn’t making them fume. Liberals are the only form of life everybody else loves to see in pain.

Last Laugh