One year ago today: October 31, 2020, we walked a long way.
Five years ago today: October 31 2016, that real cardboard taste.
Nine years ago today: October 31, 2012, on radio snooping.
Random years ago today: October 31, 2013, Amarillo to Denver.
This is the night, my first legitimate paying band gig in three years. My definition may vary and it’s also my first big band since 2014. You can read up on that yourself, I’m busy. That’s the band that said they were working, but later you find out that means only if the gig pays more than the lead player makes at his night job. Which turned out to be the only thing rarer than good women in Florida. It’s at the community center of a trailer court 12 hours from now, you can expect my usual debriefing soon after. Here is a sneak preview.
Up at dawn, the doggies got an egg omelet with chow and I made biscuits again. Nice guy that I am, I used a rolling pin and the only cookie cutter I found after the move. Biscuits taste just the same even shaped like Xmas ornaments. The doggies were not as enthusiastic as normal, do you think I’ve finally fed them past their doggie appetites? A cool front has moved in so if you see pics of the shed, I was out there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Remind me to get a lock for the shed as by later today, things may begin piling up in there. Hint, the food is hidden behind boxes of old stuff, like cookie cutters. A stepping stool is needed to reach up that high.
In other matters, mainly important to me, the strangest thing—Gateway Pundit has still not figured out a countermeasure. I can go into their main listings and post highly critical articles that piggyback on their own best efforts. They have evidently sent a memo telling their “reporters” to avoid chat exchanges with my avatar, but that is likely because they always get a verbal bloody nose on that. So y’day, I published a full-fledged article on how they bleed off the work and headlines of others but contribute no new information. I thought that would be the final straw, but it is still there 16 hours later.
They cannot really retaliate, since I have no pro status and my listing originates in Poland. What do I have against Gateway Pundit? Nothing I don’t have against all low-effort posters. They intermingle their empty, shallow clips with real news and fake you out. I never did like these small minds that exist to rake off brownie points. And while I’m crabbing, screw those new wheelchair modifications for airplanes. Have I got something against people in wheelchairs? No. Except when they force the cost onto the unwilling. I would have no opinion if you left others alone. Asking for help (discretely) is one thing, demanding it is another.
Drone photography.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
That was JZ on the line. He’s once again promising to head over this way so just in case, I’ll get more done on the shed than planned. Lots of stuff is going out of the house, from spare guitars to music gear. The new shed is much more safe and dry. Let me find another dozen pallets and we’re good to go. The gal he met five years ago is also back in town, I’ve seen her over at Agt. R’s place.
[Author's note: this structure turned out to be remarkably stable. Enough so that maybe the 2x3" framing can remain. It looks rickety because of the vertical gap down the center, but from inside, where the shelves are braced, this is tough and solid.]
My fiscal year end passed without a whimper. But I’ll tell you what is going to implode. The housing market unless something is done to forestall the millions of evictions and foreclosures now being held back only by COVID anti-eviction edicts. Not only are the renters in arrears, so are their landlords, a situation which delights big property owners, such as Black Rock. They can swoop in and buy up everything at a bargain. Former mortgage holders will by then have their credit trashed, so there will be no competition.
This won’t directly affect those 9% of the old middle class who were wise enough to live within their means. I wasn’t even middle-class and I knew better than to saddle myself with a mortgage, which had long since become the situation of the bank telling you how to live. Some budget highlights are not reflected in the numbers. For example, every third day I now drink tea instead of coffee. It’s four times cheaper. Not that I need to, but think ahead. Odd I have a category for coffee, but not money made playing music.
The income from music has no allocation. My equipment has paid for itself hundreds of times over. It is mad money to do with as I please, though I do welcome how it takes the pressure off my entertainment budget. I was over-budget this month by the extra food stored away and the $127 bill for the scooter carb, but those represent value that is retained. The scooter dropped my gas bill by a third in sixteen days, though that barely keeps up with Biden-era gas prices. My worst year for over-budget spending was 2018, somewhat due to having to buy and operate a vehicle, and the Great Trek West that year was by car, not motorcycle. Let’s see if I can get you a number. Yes, on average that year, I was $521 per month over budget.
