November 26, 2021

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 26, 2020, I buy, he cooks.
Five years ago today: November 26, 2016, lots to read.
Nine years ago today: November 26, 2012, tranquility & vivid dreams.
Random years ago today: November 26, 2010, Temp: 76.5. Press: 30.0 Humid. 88.

           Good morning, except I guess to all the pro athletes who are collapsing on the playing fields. Until they prove otherwise, they are all vaxxed, nonsayn? Our first clue is the news feeds going dead when the question is asked. Here’s the healthy one, good old JeePee enjoying his turkey dinner. Other favorites are peanut butter, blueberries, and egg shells. Judging by pictures alone, this turtle is healthier than most middle-aged housewives. Say good morning, JeePee.

           Dang the cold, because while I’m here there is time to pursue my hobbies, and I found a loc joint miter bit. I’d love to try it out. It’s made me realize a lot of the back and forth with my wood joinery is because of trail and error. It’s like admitting incompetence for some peoplel to say they nee better equipment, but I have no such hesitation. I’d rather wrestle with complicated tools that with finicky raw materials.
           So this frozen morning I am going to a music store that advertisies they have Radio Shack parts. I need some basics only and the guy on the phone doesn’t know for sure what he has. Before I go, I’m jotting down the steps to setting up a miter lock bit. Teh video I selected is on youTube.
                      1) find and mark the exact center of your board.
                      2) mark the center of the metal cutting bit (go on-line).
                      3) line the table center mark, your board is flat on the table.
                      4) set the fence to just shy of the 45 degree cutting edge.
                      5) make two test cuts (table cuts), clut off the piece, slice it, and fit together.
                      6) fine tune the cutter until you get a fit.

           The video then checks the alignment with a metal ruler. I’m taking the doggies for the ride, reminde me to price out the lock bit and look for scrap lumber. And get some dish soap, and get some other stuff. We are down to $100 spending money until we drive up to Lebanon Pike. The Reb left y’day to go visiting so me and the boys have been feasting and sleeping a lot. This is the perfect game plan once your carousing days are over. I said carousing because unless you become a blind basket case, you never stop looking.

Picture of the day.
Adding machine gearbox.
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           Looking for some components, I found a music store on Old Hickory that is a Radio Shack dealer, see addendum. That’s where I saw this ancient but fully functional tube tester, build in America back when we were known for such things. Prices for these tubes skyrocketed decades ago but are still used in guitar amps. Not so much other types of amps, as some swear the tone is “warmer”. The technology is something I always wanted to learn and this is the first place I’ve seen with a stockpile of the necessary tubes.

           The owner was unaware of the large number of Arduino gadgets he had on the shelves. I was only looking for discrete components, but wound up spending a lot more on rarities, such as wire-wound resistors. I built a small AM receiver a few weeks ago, if I forgot to say. Just an untunable tank circuit, but it worked so I’m still tinkering with the design. Oddly, I wound a second coil out of the “wrong” kind of wire and it also picked up an amplifiable signal.

           I took the doggies for a romp near the recyling area onto do discover I was in the middle of a field with a huge no trespassing sign facing the other way. We are still far enough in the country to have small farms surrounded by condos, but they are becoming rare and it is kind of sad. I picked up some cull lumber to repair the back yard dog fence, and Lowe’s only gave me 50% off because I did not buy the whole cartload. Oh well, it is turkey time, innit?

           Next, I fed the dogs and then went downtown to surprise the Kaiser at his gig across from the arena. I got there too late again to help move equipment but after just a few tunes, the management decided to put on the game. There was some event at the arena so they had no business. So we packed the gear back up, charged them the full amount, and said goodbye. I had to park way over on Peabody, shown here. Proof that one can park an eleven foot van in a twelve foot space. It was not that cold downtown and I thought of walking the extra block to Broadway. I decided no, the women I like would all be wearing winter parkas.

           I drove back to Shooters and had a few, saying hello to such staff as are still left there. A lady not my type tried to get me interested. I swear, she was wearing one those padded jackets you see on North Korean propaganda posters. That’s twice this week women dressed that way have hovered on me. No, Ken, it is not my imagination, I have a spot way over in the corner that is well out of the traffic areas. From these women’s perspective, I may be the only man they have seen in years actually reading and writing. I was sketching a dog fence.
           Earlier, I went to put the lumber over the back fence. I had just layed it down and bent up to find I was staring a juvenile doe in the face not five feet away. She was equally startled and froze, what a sight. In a moment she defocused and was gone down the yard and over the fence with seemingly zero effort.

           The political tide has turned in the USA. Nobody is being vaxxed voluntarily. Ordinary citizens are refusing to be pushed around. Mandates are being rolled back. News is filtering in from overseas of violence. The mainstream media us a standing joke. Every mid-term election is demolishing Democrats. The majorityrecognizes the Biden regime is a disaster. There is a sense something bad is goingto happen any moment. Myself, I’m going to walk the doggies and watch a DVD.

ADDENDUM
           Radio Shack. I still have oodles of stuff I got during the big sale, but here is the rest of their story. The guy that bought them out decided to close all but the most profitable locations It was a necessary plan, and he teamed up several ideas. One was to sell the parts mostly on-line except a few “dealers” which are normally guitar and repair shops. All else to be sold on-line. However, it also meant these shops stocked mainly the components they needed. And prices became phenomenal. A classic $3.99 solderless breadboard is now $13.99.
           They resused the same shelf of drawers system as the old Radio Shack. It was sad to see all the popular components were sold out and, according to the owner, unavailable for resupply. He said the company had been bought by another outfit that is opting to close the dealers and sell everything on-line. That will effectively be the end of Radio Shack. On-line business was supposed to lower prices. Instead it tripled them. Ironically, if Radio Shack had charged only twice the prices they had been, they’d probably still be in business.

Last Laugh