July 17, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 17, 2020, radishes & beets, both red.
Five years ago today: July 17, 2016, JZ on the roof.
Nine years ago today: July 17, 2012, when quadcopters were still new.
Random years ago today: July 17, 2004, maybe he plays crokinole?

           Up early, but I spent the morning inside. Listening to the cardinals. I can’t find the stick I was going to trim to put the second feeder up. But I’ll tell you what I did find. First, tucked in a corner in the back bedroom, my Fender guitar in the $100 case. This is the instrument I bought in Aurora, when was that, nine years ago now? Here it is, seeing the morning sunlight for the first time in years. I simply don’t play it because it has no pickup. And, the guitar was still in perfect tune. Amazing. Another find, when I went to clear out the corner further, I found that missing 32 GB Micro SD card that went missing way back when. This calls for, you guessed it, another cup of coffee. And click on the news, since the Arizona audit is turning into the liberal’s worst nightmare.

           That’s another thing that irks the populace. This law that says nothing can be done because “the election is certified”. It reveals how the liberals operate, I mean, who at the time would have objected to a law with a title like that? Nobody, but they slip in as a subclause, and they are nasty for this, that it cannot be uncertified. Only people planning on something nefarious do things like that. Sounds to me like how dictators do things. Set up the game so if they ever get in once, you can’t winkle the bastard back out. And shame on useless Republicans for allowing such things to creep in.
           And another thing, I have a note that back in February Arizona threatened to arrest election officials who did not comply with the audit. Well, where are the arrests? Unless you were just bloviating, we want to see some Democrats behind bars. The same goes for Texas. Don’t be chickenshits about this or you’ll never get your reputations back. You blind & deaf people, there’s a big ole train comin’ down the tracks.

           It’s now mid-morning and I can’t get motivated. Not being a millie, I can’t blame this on anyone. Maybe another coffee? Work with me here, and I’ll get you pictures of what I do get done. Yard work, I mean. I already wrote JZ instructions to get to Nashville and make an excellent breakfast of rice, eggs, and cheese. I’ve just wasted a wonderful summer morning, but at least I didn’t spend it in some cubicle. Did you hear, Apple is trying to get people back into the office. That means things are going differently than they’d planned. I wonder.
           It may be gauche for a blog to talk about itself, but my readership just dropped in half. On the first, I mean. Poof, 50% gone. Is there something out there I’m not aware off? Some new competition? We’ve weathered such things before but usually there is something to suspect. Then I fell out of my chair at a Reddit post. This millennial reports he screwed up by recognizing a real estate agent who used to be a porn start. Um, dude, you embarrassed the wrong person. I, for one, could not possibly recognize a porn star.

           How about this item? Wikipedia has finally admitted what this blog stated long ago—the articles are heavily biased. The concept started okay, just after the dot-com bubble. The original writing seemed to be reviewed and balanced. But it became obvious to me by 2005 or so that three distinct religious groups were going in there and both changing articles and entering new items that glossed over their pasts and embellished what they were up to. If I recall, by 2006 I stopped using Wiki for any original research. And these days, I zip over there on rare occasions just to fill in some details, nothing important.
           Here’s that pic of the dryer canopy. Yes, it is flimsy and this is the hidden north side of the cabin where nobody can see unless they walk way around the house. So it is the last area to get anything. There’s other reasons for the temporary look. There is no base to put anything on. The dryer is resting on some planks. Since this area is destined to have the new hot water tank and a washer, no sense making anything too fancy until I get some kind of solid decking in place. Now be fair, how many blogsters would take the time to honor you with a picture of his outdoor clothes dryer? Its cuz dem other blogs don't got no class.

Picture of the day.
The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Here’s a view of the trim on the office doors. Don’t look too closely, as they are just tacked in place until I get the right finishing nails. Nor is there any real effort to be made getting things just so and the reason is simple. The cabin moves. You can do all the expert work you want but the walls still settle enough to cause hairline cracks. These casings are real wood, so the trim shown here cost more than the doors. While I had all the pieces and tools out, I fixed a batch of things I’ve been putting off. So today’s siesta is well earned. I also repositioned the bed so it is more comfortable to use as a bench to this desk. All the joints have been glued up again.

           Kudzu, the vine that never quits. It’s growing season so I’ll have to cut it all back or I won’t have a cabin to come home to. Fortunately, this plant is not a tough vine if you catch it in early stages. I took some time to begin learning a tune I never played when it was a hit back in the 1950s. I didn’t care for Elvis music but I remember when he switched out his stand-up bass player for an electric, at least in the studio.

           Some of those pieces were real gems because unlike the standup, fast runs through a whole piece of music were now possible. This was momentous to me. If it had been five years earlier or later, I would have probably never touched a bass. I never did like the sound of shoo-wap jazz bass. had to travel 100 miles to the nearest city with a music store that had any of these new-fangled instruments. The Beatles were huge at the time, but their bass lines were more novel than great, I just knew there was something better. But everybody I talked to said I was wrong about that.
           Ha, then along came the proof in the form of Blue Cheer playing “Summertime Blues”. To me, that single tune blasted the critics out of the water. You can find the tune yourself, that was 1968, although I did not hear the tune until quite some time later. It was the right mix, a truly active bass line that was an equal partner in making the song a hit. That’s how I played bass for the longest time, I loved long single not passage. This is also what began my thinking of the guitar as just another rhythm instrument, which is what I consider it today. I know a hundred guitar players who can play every Clapton lead solo note-for-note, but can’t strum a single tune all the way through.

           In later years, recording studios began to release re-mastered Elvis music and now you could hear the bass, muddy as it often was. There was one song that the bass stood out, far ahead of its time if you ask me. It is the hit, “Suspicious Minds”. No matter how much you’ve heard it, give it another listen paying attention to the bass. Not so much the slow verses, but where the chorus picks up. It’s not easy to play because the runs require awkward hand movements. You can imagine how it sounded impossible to me when I was a pre-teen. Awesome.
           That was an interesting phone call just now. I am moved to point out the exact same four talking points appeared in this blog over six hours before they appeared in Gab.com. Same topics, same order of appearance, same message, and in the case of where are the people being arrested, much the same wording. I’m reserving judgment since this sort of thing, as my long-tern people know, happens rather more often than statistically it should. And I’m turning my short-wave detector off. I don’t mind listening, to a Morse conversation, but one-sided transmissions are too much like code practice. And it definitely was practice, with strings like “been even with some just that’. These are common words that you can guess at a higher speed than you can usually receive.

ADDENDUM
           In this typically useless CBS fashion, here’s a news report of three brothers arrested for illegal robocalls. In New Jersey, of course. But what is rare is that the names of the men were published. This only happens if they are white males who, even if they are acquitted, will have the arrest record follow them for life. Meanwhile, I continue to get calls for car insurance from these three goofs, whose names will never be published. So I publish them.

                      1) Pappu “Poon” Agarwali
                      2) Gondwana “Jaheel” Amandeep
                      3) Paki-waki-waki Booboob

           Ah, I heard someone in the back row say these aren’t real names. That Gondwana was a landmass during the Preterozoic Era. Even if the names aren’t exact, these are, after all, boojie-grade telemarketers, so like, who the eff cares? I mean, they can’t all be named Muhammet, can they? I ask, can they?
           Note how I distinguish between fine, outstanding people, and telemarketers. This also applies to car thieves and single mothers. The less you have to do with them, the better.

Last Laugh