July 31, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 31, 2020, shovel, wheelbarrow, chainsaw.
Five years ago today: July 31, 2016, we paid a toll. Dang!
Nine years ago today: July 31, 2012, early peek @ 3D printing.
Random years ago today: July 31, 2004, the surplus English daughter.

           Here’s a classic shot of the Reb & Chookie on our first walk. He’s part pit-bull and still gives me the “who-is-this-guy” treatment. He’s older, eight I believe. While he was kept outdoors, i don’t think he was walked that often and totally behaves compared to Sparkie. He’s considerably heavier but took to the same sleeping spots. He’ll adjust to the situation soon enough and he would be one ferocious guard animal if need be. I still don’t like here walking them alone, so I get my exercise as well. Hello to the family, Chookie.

           The guy from Goodlettsville contacted me back, I want to buy his computer. Then he tells me he is 30 miles north of that town. I wish people would not do that, so I’ll probably have to make it tomorrow. I told him even with GPS I don’t know the driving time so I would not leave unless he said for sure h’d be home. Then, no answer on his phone. The solution, of course is to take the Reb to dinner. My first priority is to get into this time zone, so, nothing happened until I went shoppin this morning. Out of all my stuff I keep stocked around here, the crisis was no Carnation. That’s correct, my Carnation was all gone. You cannot explain to me how that product gets used in vegetarian households. It’s one of those Churchillian enigmas wrapped up in an egg roll. Call Scotland Yard, find my evaporated milk. Wait, there’s more.

           Once again, I found an undocumented phenomena that accompanies inflation. This theory should also be investigated, proven, and then named after somebody I do not like. It goes like so. It is the part of inflation that really pisses you off, like bigger packages and smaller contents. That form of sedition.
           My theory goes that this spreads from places like New York City outwards. It works like so. They keep teaching us inflation is more money chasing the same amount of product. Bullshit, and I’ll tell you why. If you and I both suddenly had twice as much money each, it’s a zero-sum game to raise our prices when we know doing so will cause the other party to do exactly the same thing. It seems to me it is people who live in or near New York City are the ones who never quite figure this out.

           Thusforth, it makes logic to me that in most cases, inflation starts in that New York evil part of the world and spreads outward. I did not notice the leap in grocery prices really until today. Everybody knows by childhood there are certain short-terms gains to be made by being the first a-hole. Be the first to steal a bike, or first to nick the Fedex package in your neighborhood, and you may well get away with it. But only New Yorkers would be proud of this as adults. Some may say Californians do the same, but the difference is fundamental. People from California have some vague idea they are being pricks, something to with how they voted in the past. New Yorkers have no such feecback mechanism.
           And don’t make out like I’m picking on New Yorkers. Those people there are different than people here on an elemental level. Defund the police here and it’s likely nobody would notice for months. The nearest welfare office is 44 miles away, you might hear a car horn twice a year, and there are no payday loan shops in the county. So I’m not picking on anybody, those people are different at a molecular level or something and it is useless to try reasoning with them. Speaking of differences, I don’t care for people who mingle the abortion issue with Trump. I see a difference between the traditional Republican stance and Trump.
           I think the anti-abortion bunch should stay the hell away from pro-Trump issues. I want to hear about Trump on political, not social issues. I think the government and other people should not stick their noses into that issue, but at the same time, I don’t think they should fund either side. But if there is funding, it is like one free before you are 21, after that pay for it yourself or get the girl operation, either way, no cash welfare. By then, you’ve demonstrated how much responsibility you can or can’t handle. I’m not a dictator on any of the above issues because I am no against any private funding for their causes—unless that funding passes any negatives onto the public. That is, you can sponsor all the clinics you want, but you can’t sponsor terrorists, or traitors, or anything totally annoying, no examples on that last one but you know who you are.

Picture of the day.
Horseradish ice cream.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           Enough has changed since I was away that I took a while to chase around. Our favorite grocery took out the organic food section and spread it around with the frankenfood. By noon, I was hopeless formore work and got home to such chores as I can manage in this state. I scored some bargains first. A 25-foot exterior extension cord fo $1.99 and an iLive speaker box for $3.99, both brand new in the packaging. I’m old enough to experience changes from altitude and weather, so here’s pictures before I go for a siesta. The Reb, knowing myadaption process, brought out a shoulder heater full of buckwheat and draped it over my, what, clavicles?

           So, fine, that put me out until nearly dark which means even more of nothing happened today. I watched Tommy’s Garage, baked chicken, and began to trace that recurring problem with the back porch light. It loses power when I’m not here and takes time to find the open. Without really knowing, I can guess it is behind the heaviest piece of furniture this time. I found it, fixed it, and here is a picture of the excellent extension cable I did not have to use.

           I’m not getting into the swing of things easily this time, twice I’ve had to cut my walks short. What’s changed? Just the venue. We’ve planned a dinner for tonight, something super nice. The Reb remains the one woman in my life with whom things like money has never been an issue. So let’s see where it we get to. Want my guess? We’ll wind up going some place familiar rather than opt for adventure. But one day soon, I’m gonna take that gal to the swankest joint I can find. Some place with the new $100 miniimums making news these days. I’ll be that keeps out the riff-raff but don’t be too sure. In America, even those types can get credit cards.
           And just when you think you’ve heard it all, did you catch the Democrat’s latest anti-audit tactic? Seriously, they are claiming to possess “super-secret” information that proves all the audit results are wrong. No you cannot see it. What part of super-secret” don’t you understand. But I wonder, how can they be so confident the audits will reveal what they are intent on disproving. They are indeed a shameless lot. The mid-terms will be a Democrat bloodbath.
           I watched the video of the police firing flah-bang grenades into the crowd on January 6. The police have repeatedly shown they are not worthyof trust or respect when it comes to political issues. Of more concern is that even after the horrid behavior of police all this time, protestors still come across like a disorganized mob. It would only take a core of them to stand up to police brutality. I don’t go near mobs, but if I did, I would carry a gas mask and a slingshot to return any property projected at me from a distance.

           By dusk, we decided on Japanese food, she’s the gal that likes wasabi. I went for a Thai dish, seafood in brown sauce. The restaurant added a touch by serving this in a “bird’s nest’ of fried potato. In theory it is edible, but it is unseasoned. If you ever eaten potato without even salt and pepper, that’s it. Shown here are some side dishes. This was over in Mt. Juliet, always a first choice for us in the absecnce of definite plans.
           We again got chatting about our long-gone hopes to put a small music act together. We know how much work it is and it would flop unless we get paid. But a full show band again after all these years is a dream only. There are as many strikes against us as in our favor, including that 30 year gap in music direction. She’s recording amazing albums, I’ve had some amazing stage shows. Our musical pasts crossed only so briefly but what a profound effect through all these years.
           So much has happened from that single bass & vocal warmup at the Commodore in 1988. I could not sing back then but I could hear the notes in my head. It was only around our fourth or fifth gig and I did not know if just it could be done, but I recalled she told me how she could sing naturally and if she had started in another key, I would have transposed. What happened next became part of our history. We were surprised at the sound, then more surprised minutes later when the audience agreed. It would be twenty more years before I discovered I could sing those notes that were in my head. This dinner was about future plans, but the music part reached deeply into our pasts.

ADDENDUM
           We have an AOL of the month award due. I had to install Google on this tablet to get some of my purchased code to work. This in turn caused a display a third the size of my monitor to block my desktop. Itt was taking over a minute to fully appear, locking up my computer and wasting my time with junk like the Tampa weather. I was finally able to delete it. But that process aslo made my computer date and time icon disappear off the task bar. I still have not got it back. There are as many explanations for this as there are AOL who write this type of code. But each of those is but a partial explanation. There is only one explanation that fits all the cases. It is that millennial coders are inconsiderate AOLs and alway will be.
           I fianlly got it working again by going into Windows personalizaton and setting the clock slider on day after day until it finally stopped turning itself back off.

Last Laugh