One year ago today: October 22, 2020, Sparkie falls ill.
Five years ago today: October 22, 2016, Trump might just win . . .
Nine years ago today: October 22, 2012, they’re off—to Siberia.
Random years ago today: October 22, 2009, yes, they are bullet holes.
The roof is on and tarpapered. The walls are also tarpaper and that was muggy work in the morning heat. The hillbilly brought along his doggies and girlfriend. They had to sit in the shade while we were up and down that ladder. The major part of the shed is done. Here is the shed looking northeast through the pistachio trees. Long and tall and the roof is not symmetrical because it rests between tree limbs. No entrance is visible from the anywhere at this angle, it is around the corner on the right. Today’s breakfast was pancakes again, the doggies got liver and rice. We heard the weather report of rainstorms but so far the day is cloudless and you can see the morning sun already baking the work area.
The remainder of the day is slack time, I’m feeling the number of hours put in the past four days. Time to read another few chapters of “Stigma”, which took a long time to get to the issue. It isn’t a malaria vaccine mosquito, but one that spreads a protein that causes people with birth defects to become infertile. Kind of a fake Hitler crossed with a real Bill Gates. It is a strange human trait to not want children with hereditary defects, but yet not want anything done to prevent it. They have tons of money to treat the conditions and not a penny to try to wipe out the genes that cause it.
This is not Nature’s doing, but mankind. Rather that focus on keeping the best and fittest to carry on, they allow weaklings to prosper. In itself, that would not be bad if the parents of such would have to completely bear the burden themselves. But we tax strangers to keep people alive who, for example, have been in a coma since 19-something. I know that in my lifetime, I’ve paid over a half-million dollars in taxes for things I do not believe in, such as raising other people’s children. It could be factually argued that a major reason I do not have children is because I know I could never have afforded it.
Keith was in contact, I probably referred to him as just another guitar player. Well, he turned 60 this year and for some inexplicable reason all the things I said five years ago began to make sense. Now he wants to settle down, form a duo, and play the local country circuit. Basically, I told him he was five years too late, that I was with another band, but give me a phone number and I’ll call if five years ago ever comes around again. In music, it is possible.
Game of Thrones scene.
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Here’s the first shot of the shed interior. The ultimate interior decoration on these walls could be “early cardboard. Not shown there are now fans and light inside tough not the best. Shelves are slated for tomorrow. I could not find any shelving material so I may have to use whatever is available and ignore how often temporary becomes permanent around here.
Um, the predicted heavy afternoon rain showers never did occur and we worked all morning until it was over 90°F out there. It was a particularly cloudless day. I priced out the cheapest siding and it is $29 per sheet. Time to scrounge some plywood as I don’t much care what the back or sides of this shed look like. Somebody should invent a machine that makes a shingle-like siding out of scrap lumber. With the wall and roof up, things have to slow down for my sake. I’ve put in nearly 30 hours this week in labor. That’s not counting music rehearsal and regular yard maintenance. If I forgot to say, that water tap I fixed somehow restored better performance to the whole plumbing system. This is nice, but it could also be good or bad.
I took the van on a test run to Winter Haven and performed fine. I would still like to have that last shot at fixing the A/C and the brake warning light is beginning to wink. Brake jobs are common on my vehicles, so slate that for early November depending. I was put off by prices, I see a cup of coffee is now pushing $2.50 at a mediocre shop, think Dunkin Donuts. These politicians speak of the great reset, but we’ve seen this before. To me, it is not a reset unless it also causes businesses to reform. Instead what happens is the shops that are behaving and giving great value wind up losing to those who can have access to cash during a slowdown.
Why is this bad? Because some guy who performs lousy but can borrow money from his uncle or get a government bail-out can survive by outlasting people who were providing real worth to the system. It perpetuates bad performance because survivors need to raise prices to pay back their benefactors. And it isn’t just corner stores, think Goldman-Sachs.
Later, I got a call from a guitarist from 2017, now realizing that a duo is the way to go. He’s years too late (are you listening Space Hippie?). It was a great conversation, but I don’t play for a living. I rejected that idea when I was 20, realizing I was not good enough. Until your day job pays more than enough, music isn’t my priority. My life has never been that comfortable. He’s great to talk to about prices and what clubs are hiring. He’s also right on top of the local groups that truly suck. I’ve commented on how recessions bring out the wannabes. This guy has to live and deal with them.
We talked nearly an hour on breaks, which was conspicuous to the audience. I have no aversion to playing gigs for tips only, we’ve talked about this you and I. If I never said, the band circuit of Winter Haven-Auburndale-Lakeland is dominated by groups that do the circuit. I have exact and extensive experience dealing with this situation. And I now have the info on eight new clubs that hire, clubs I never heard of before. My guess is they have a common ownership. And I know about dominating a circuit in the sense of what the competition does not like.
ADDENDUM
It is curious to see the number of news sources suddenly coming up with warnings about big tech data collection. Why now, when this has been a problem since 1998? I watched the cattle and sheep people ignore the warnings, thinking all is fine since strangers already have all their data. They are a pitiful lot but now it is even government agencies saying the amount of data being collected is “staggering”. Myself, I say tough luck but what I don’t like is how their complacency allowed tech to get so big it can scoop up data on people don’t even participate. I should be able to sue any private company that I do not deal with that keeps data on me, including the likes of telemarketers.
And what is with the crappy Internet service these days? I admit to having a slow system, but it usually works fine even for watching documentaries. My favorite news release of this day is the headline that ransomware outfits are posing as legitimate companies to recruit talent. Hmmm, if you define ransomware as holding customers hostage, MicroSoft has been doing that since 1980.
