One year ago today: June 17, 2021, the A/C lasted one week.
Five years ago today: June 17, 2017, sigh, the Rebel 450.
Nine years ago today: June 17, 2013, the result is . . .
Random years ago today: June 17, 2020, planning – for a truck.
Am I imagining it, or has Mrs. Red learned to signal when she wants the mister turned on? We’ll watch because the profusion of feral cats has made all the birds skittish and untameable. It’s early morning and she wants her bath drawn. I put the new kitchen radio (from Lem) on a timer only to discover it will not pick up the same station as the rest of the building. The sun is up, two coffees later I’m about to get underway in the yard. This has the makings of a generic day.
The yard is becoming overgrown, a summer thing. This photo was to show the new overhead mini-beam. It also shows the scooter, where moved the clothes dryer, and the spectacular growth of the pistachio trees that provide the shade. Shown here at two-years old, this remains an unknown I simply need the shade. That’s how I got half the lumber cleaned. The overhead now provides better cooling spray in the shade.
Such work ended at noon, with 91F° and humidity up to 66%. I lasted because the pistachio trees have the entire back area mostly shaded and I could duck in front of the shed fan when needed. Moving the weaker fan to the white shed works great and I was able to determine the weed eater has a faulty spark plug, I think. The cap wire was too short to test it like Lem’s shop. I used one of those Harbor Freight testers.
What’s new in housing? The places I use as benchmarks have all posted reduced prices since early May. The average markdown is $11,000-ish. Mortgage rates have doubled in a wink and prices have dropped by as much as 20%, but only on the high end stuff. I need another 2008 before things get into my price range. Housing is too complicated to predict, but a 3% rate increase historically blots out 50% of potential borrowers. You watch, they’ll make a big deal of reduced housing starts, but that’s a stat that takes so long I don’t care about it.
Reports are that 10,000 head of cattle have died from “heat stroke” which fools nobody. Maybe I should do another supply run, this is no longer for food I’ll need myself, but trade goods. Gas went down one cent and the leftoids are claiming it a major political victory. Everybody knows it is the climate change people killing the cows.
Here’s an item. Virtual reality (the metaverse) works better the more stupid the recipient. Makes sense. VR is nothing new, I think in some ways it pre-dates the Internet. And the stupid have been here since Generation A. We have entered the VR headset era, the only notable development. I went on the swing ride at the fair, and I think I’ll take the Reb to the elaborate unit at the arcade next visit. Mainly to say we’ve experienced it because, face it folks, no matter what they tell you, it works by overwhelming the senses.
The headsets will only get better and this is a technology ripe for abuse. Thus, assume it has immense eFAG backing. (eFAG is my shorthand for eBay-Facebook-Amazon-Google.) Most everything you see will have manipulation as the motive. For now, the experience is IMAX style 3D and likely to stay there until that is totally milked.
Probation blood test strips.
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Downtown shopping, I got what I thought was a close enough spark plug. I’m suspecting spark plugs are like printer cartridges. All about the same, they are, but they quit making what you need to get you to buy a whole new lawn mower. I read about legislation to limit device recharges. Well, do the same for spark plugs, fan belts, and oil filters, dammit.
After stocking up, I took two hours off and read more of “Mindbend”. It’s well-written and paced, though I’ve figured out the crime a couple times over. The book is worth a read because the protagonist is so believable. No luck, no tricks, he manages to get along without the usual superhero fudge. One annoying facet which you just know he had help from, is the portrayal of his wife’s pregnancy. The old failed IUD slash condom slash pill whatever. These very things are enough indication that a pregnancy is unwanted.
But suddenly the woman-thing takes over. Forget the plans, the hopes, the agreements, and the promises. That is out the window because she is pregnant. Emotion is instantly important, hers but not his. Suddenly every decision is no longer mutual, for any disagreement now means he doesn’t care about the baby. The book is from 1985, but contains many concepts that are people think are more recent. Like stem cell research.
The new radio picks up best a broadcast I call “Pfizer Radio Hour”. Every second commercial is about how recent tests have show you and your family are now in some new “high risk” category, so go see a doctor and ask about this or that product. And please hurry, Pfizer needs money for lots of lawyers. Today they are on about suntans, the new deadly form of creeping cancer, they say, especially if you are a high wage earner in a city. Because you spend more time in a tanning booth and pollution is on your hide. Every commercial begins with the announcement “COVID is back”. More in the addendum.
Who remembers Will, the guitar player? I don’t, but he showed up with a renewed interest in getting something underway. Or shall we say, he may have taken my advice about the do-nothing time-wasters that constitute Polk County’s musician pool. All I remember is that he can play “Dust In The Wind”. If I recall, Songsterr has an excellent bass tab for that tune, it’s the sort of bass I can’t naturally play, so I’ll memorize it if we get that far.
ADDENDUM
Lord of the Rings, the re-make with black actors. I never paid attention until I saw the ratings. Now displaying 1.6 million dislikes, this could be the most hated movie to date. In honor of this event, I have coined a new phrase, “White Envy”. And posted it. You may have to think that one through, but it is not racist. It is a commentary on the human behavior that turns imitation into envy, a topic on which I am misfortunately world-class as a recipient.
For the record, I do not know of a single American who believes there was ever a pandemic, or that COVID was ever anything but a government power grab. Nor do they believe any of this ever existed in any other country, especially Australia. The Aussies are considered fools for turning in all their guns.
The radio timer has me catching random newscasts again and this FoxNews (which I know little about) is the joke the media has become. They plug the “pandemic” as if it is real and still ongoing. One announcement said the stock market will bounce back but them geniuses gave no time frame. The one that got me laughing was their announcement that 2,500 airline flights have been canceled due to “inclement weather” and “pilot shortages”. Horse hockey, the flights were canceled because the airlines sold the tickets before the fuel price hikes meant they’d lose money on the deal. I say they should have been required to fly, even at a loss. It was once the American way, you know.
