One year ago today: July 13, 2020, complementary conditions: fat & stupid.
Five years ago today: July 13, 2016, statistically impossible disability.
Nine years ago today: July 13, 2012, early circuit builds.
Random years ago today: July 13, 2010, my bonus was $0.
Will you look at that. I shut things down for a half-day to get caught up on the computer wall and I miss the good news for the week. Biden is flying to Pennsylvania in a desperate bid to stop the pending audit. Georgia’s Fulton County reports a 60% “error” rate in favor of Biden. The Democrats declare war on women Republican candidates. Texas declares open season on fleeing Democrats. And the terrible mess of the Democrat administration shows the fundamental flaw of socialism—party hacks are rarely qualified for the positions they are shoved into.
Here is a view of the box edge joinery, simple and effective exterior screws. Some may notice these screws don’t go near the top and bottom edges. Yes, so they can’t potentially interfere when the lid is cut from the solid box later. Instead, these edges are glued and clamped for assembly, then fastened with screws later. This unit was purposely made strong enough to stand on. You also get a good view of the tight seal of the biscuit joints. They can be amazingly strong.
The Reb called and I guess the sooner I get up to Tennessee, the better. The new foster dog part bulldog and she’s worried he’ll spook easy. He has to be walked on a hard leash, but I’m confident the transition will be fine. Charlie was raised as a guard dog and pushing nine years old. On days like today, I work until I make one bad screw-up, then call it quits. I cut a strip of flooring measured with a square and forgot to allow for the offset. Good, that means I quit early on a Karaoke night and I have not been out of the house since late last week.
I further put in an hour on designing my own navigation sheet. I learned from three different books and each had differing approaches. Example, some said to ignore the declination offset, others give elaborate calculations. When in doubt, I choose the method that seems most accurate. Declination is geographic position of the Sun from the equator, and it varies ever so slightly during the day. The various tables give celestial positions only on the hour, so there is an offset for minutes and seconds. The relationships can be hard to follow, which is why I early on chose to gain the knowledge rather than memorize the steps. So how am I doing?
I chose to study only the Sun. It suits my schedule and once you get that, the rest fall into place. The Moon is a hassle, it is the fastest moving object in the Almanac and you have to allow for two extra motions. I only get up at good Moon-shooting times by coincidence. I understand the theory now, but there are many pitfalls which have to be conquered, the trickiest for me is mistakes with the tables. I still read them wrong too often, but that’s where theory comes in—I quickly spot there has been an error.
Meanwhile, I left the Morse software running and picked up a whole range of practice streams on the same frequency (as it were). My favorite are the most popular words. I’m convinced the people who “listen” to 20 or more wpm are recognizing word patterns over individual letters. I’m saying the books are wrong. Now, anticipating what’s being received is probably not a great idea in critical situations. I’ve got a handle on numbers and most punctuation. What throws me is station call letters. I can tell when one is being sent, but invariably miss. Yet I’m mostly okay with strings of random characters. If I find a good practice site, I’ll post it.
My interest in weapons led my search to the specs on the bunker buster bombs used in the early Gulf wars. These are the metal tubes packed with explosives that sunk way into the ground before exploding. I learned the casings were old howitzer barrels. I though it was rocket-assisted but videos showed it is a gravity bomb. These are not the 15 ton fat bombs, but a smaller unit that can be carried on fighter bombers. Apparently they are accurate enough to send one after another into the same opening but if so, details are hush-hush.
Sultan of Brunei.
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The cardinal juveniles are nearly full size and ready to move on. They appear to be two females and they love the peanut crumbs. I’ve got two of the feeders ready to be moved. The new location is under a window canopy at the front bedroom. The original feeder was near there and it is a much better camera location. I don’t know if the birdies will stick around long enough for me to take any footage. The priority is getting underway with publishing. The program wants progress reports while I am still learning their totally alien software. They presume you know how everything works because they were raised in that haphazard environment. They never say what to do when things don’t go right, indicating most of their software is something they just installed and it either worked or it didn’t.
Here’s a view of something I don’t have—allergies. Other than the odd sneezing spell, I am luck to have no real complications. But I’ve seen what happens to others so I pay attention to insect bites and this one was (for me) one of the worst. Relax, San Francisco, that’s a photo of my inner forearm. I felt nothing until later, when at my desk I leaned forward and this part of my arm hit the edge. Yeow! It looks like a pimple but the entire slightly red area around is swollen and there is a sensation of numbness through my wrist. Do you think I’ll make it? Or is it amputation time?
