January 8, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 8, 2021, not one song survived.
Five years ago today: January 8, 2017, early shed wiring.
Nine years ago today: January 8, 2013, zillions in interstellar credits.
Random years ago today: January 8, 1980, I visit Canada.

           Silver price drops below $23 again and the Webb telescope has begun the mirror deployment. K-cup, the style of my coffee maker, is in trouble. They say it is because the original, Keurig, claimed its pods to be more recyclable than they were, but I think the real reason is because I like the concept and bought into it. The environment angle is just the cover story for pissing me off.

           It's now a fact. The people that study such things have found that people who wear masks are generally real assholes to begin with, although they used softer language like “meaner” and “more selfish”. Here is a view of the robot club charger still in perfect shape after all these years, giving a trickle charge to the van battery. Too many folks don’t know the difference between a slow and fast charge, seemingly unable to make any connection when they have to replace the whole battery a few weeks later.

           For anti-squirrel defense, I cut a tree limb so that the new bird feeder would be just a few inches more than they are able to jump. Man, are they pissed. There’s one feisty who tries to climb the window glass. I’m working away, my back is to the window, and I hear this racket like nobody’s business. Yep, she’s mighty pissed. Remind me to check in with Agt. R, as Rendezvous is over this week. That’s the Civil War camp thing that he never misses. I heard some gossip, it’s harmless enough I’ll repeat it.
           Everybody knows he is a pack rat. I’ve got stuff he left here five years ago that I can’t return because there is no room in his garage. Guess what I found out. He gets it from his mother. She has not yet sold her house to move to Brooksville because, I heard, it is 3,200 square feet with six bedrooms and she’s been there forty years. When informed of this potential house-clearing, I asked if I could get first pick.

           This view shows a couple of the 5/8” lag bolts that will secure the new roof to the bearing wall. Note the metal hangers on the 2x3” which now serves as a reinforcing member along the front wall. I ran into a small problem, there is a gap between the roof and the rafters, probably just a warped pit of lumber. Still, it’s the roof, so I will have to get up there and squeeze the wood back into shape. There will be nine of these bolts holding ten feet of roof, it is not going anywhere.
           How about them Europeans? Their airplanes are empty because of the latest pandemic hoax. Nobody has died, but nobody can get on the airplanes. But why empty? Because if they don’t use their airport slots, under European law, they lose them.

Picture of the day.
Northern Portugal.
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           I may have had just too much faith in the millennial class. None seem to have addressed the problem of an Internet fax machine. Then again, why bother when people are stupid enough to “fax” legal documents to their “secure” web sites and nonsense like that. After scouting around, I may consider alternate technology, like having the notary send me the scanned documents. And I just came from Wal*mart. Did you know ordinary printer/copier paper is now approaching 1¢ per sheet? Ten times what it is worth.

           That’s one thing about America, the competition is rarely on price levels. You’d think once a crisis is over, prices would return to normal. They never do. The business community and the government know all too well once the public has accepted a degree of suffering, you never need to roll back prices on the tacit understanding nobody else does either. This is not England. My utility bill was just $86 this month. That tips us off the city doesn’t read the meters every billing period. They are supposed to, in the sense that equal payments is a plan you have to sign up for. I’ll keep an eye on it. My grocer bill this month is already near the budget, and remember I don’t tend to buy ready-to-eat food.

           In fact, this morning I made a big batch of chicken fried rice, with mushrooms. I even stood over the pan for five minutes hand shelling the peanuts. Chicken has nearly doubled in price. Let me explain this picture before I get too far away. This does not show all the drills I have. But it is not odd for me to have this many on a project. You see, I long ago wearied of finding, storing, and changing drill bits. Except for the battery models, non here cost me more than ten bucks. This is the set for the rafter I mentioned this morning. On the left is a screw pilot hole drill. I’m the kind of pilot holes. Then a nut driver fro the lag bolts. Next is a #2 Phillips for most screws, since I avoid nails. Last is the small pilot drill for wood screws. There you have it, job done in a wink.

           A last minute development in the training modules. They shift away from picking the highest dollar amounts to maybe trying some smaller test cases first. This fits exactly with what we had derived on our own over here. The first county we picked (I should say I picked since I’ve done 95% of the work so far) is reticent about telling what documentation they require. The next county over seems a better bet to start. Thusforth, I put in another four hours revamping the plans. I hope to send out a contact to the agency office in person to get a complete list of what is required. You see, now that I get a handle on this business there are a few glaring points of contention.
           Foremost is that their description of what is going on is far too flowery and off topic. I know they have to sell a package but I did not appreciate having to figure out most of it myself. Here are the three major points they never outright state.

           1) The client is basically held hostage unless he signs, because odds are he would never find this money by himself within the deadline.
           2) The agency is kept in the dark that it is not the client behind the claim, thinking they are dealing with his latest address.
           3) The Power of Attorney form is presented like it exists to assist the client, but its sole purpose is so we can cash checks made out in his name.

           Having said that, there is nothing illegal or even questionable in the process. So why do they waste twelve hours of lessons without getting to the point on this? It literally took me three weeks to deduce what was going on from the instructions they provided. I also figured out you don’t really need to know how it works, but that is a hairy situation for those who try it like that. The mistakes of people who do not see the big picture must be a circus. Example, the instructions leave you thinking you just walk into the agency, announce who you are, and ask for the blank forms. The last thing you want is them knowing what's up. You are taking money they intend to steal in the near future.
Last Laugh