June 6, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 6, 2021, their most useful tool.
Five years ago today: June 6, 2017, yep, $800 per year.
Nine years ago today: June 6, 2013, 19 different prices.
Random years ago today: June 6, 2011, every 50 years – until now.

           Happy D-Day, and once again the airwaves are flooded with i accurate accounts of the event, which for openers was not an invasion. I left Nashville a few minutes after 7:00PM for an uneventful trip via Cookeville, Hixon, Macon, and took the Sumter turnoff. Lighter t hat usual traffic, only a couple of delays near Atlanta, and I stopped once for gas, arriving on fumes at the cabin. That was after dark, but a quick inspection shows everything is as it was left, excepting the plants which are overgrown. This photo is hard to interprest, but that orange and yellow plant behind has been overtaken and shadowed by the flowers, which have not bloomed.

           While not detracting from the bravery of the soldiers who were there, I feel the facts are best not embellished. For example, the enemy was neither crack SS units nor were they fully equipped, and there were no “panzer operations” that the BBC broadcasters say they heard. The fact is the best enemy units were on the Eastern Front, Fortress Europe was largely propaganda, and no way were the Germans fooled by the fake “Patton” army about Calais. The fact is, the Germans were not so much beaten as they were overwhelmed. Nonetheless, it too brave men to hit those beaches given that defense is much easier on that terrain. It says something the Allies were prepared for ten times the casualties that happened.
           And that is another piece of brainwashing, that the SS were evil, drug-infused fanatics. Not so. They were an elite military group no different than the Rangers or Commandos on the Allied side, but it is best not to point that out after 80 years of bitter vilification from the Allied media machine. Even more worrisome for the historians is the growing mountain of evidence against the one-sided accounts of the concentration camps. It seems somebody is lying to high heaven, at which point it becomes a search for the motive for lying.

           The van behaved wonderfully. I missed getting that cruise control fixed. Once that is done, it should be a treat to drive. Other than checking in with the Reb at the usual times, I listened to the news when I was near enough to any city. A shooting in Chatanooga is being downplayed because it was black gangs, some of the injured hit by cars fleeing the scene. It’s most scenic in Tennessee in the summer, I had planned on a longer trip back through the mountains around Dayton, home of the monkey trail (1925). Rents even in these remote areas are soaring with the cities hardest hit. Reportedly worst was Atlanta with an 83% increase. I have not closed the books for this trip but as the Reb puts it, she got home with a shopping bag with no item under $5. I looked. Seems non-GMO grub as tripled, with pet food not far behind. I’ve spent $595.67 on pet food this year so far, mind you, the cupboards are very well-stocked.

           No way would that scooter start and I was not about to mess with it in the dark. However, I arrived this time with the know-how to get at that troublesome carburetor. Something that always made me curious is how none of the manuals for these small motors show or give any directions on how to spray start. Yet, not firing up is probably the most common complaint with these contraptions. I know the air cleaner on my Zuma is designed to be difficult, requiring the removal of six screws to get at the filter. On my old Chau, I drilled a small spray hole which I plugged with a screw when not needed. Can I get away with that on the Yamaha?
           Here’s a picture from tomorrow. The air cleaner is off and soaking in solvent, I see this fitting isn’t so great, that’s the open throat of the carburetor just above dead center. I’m going to invest in a parts cleaner, but the smallest made seems to be 20 gallons, or four times what I want. The scooter has to be spray started once cold, so I’m devising a way to put a permanent spray port.

           It’s amazing they still have not designed a laptop or tablet that works right every time, with the exception of the impossibly expensive Apple equipment. I sat down to the task of copying the 1,237 files created in Tennessee this trip to the main desktop. Nope, that is not a lot of files for a month around here, and a third of them are this blog. You don’t see every picture, let me do a quick count. Yep, 466 photos including videos and work-related pictures. I think files would transfer faster if MicroSoft didn’t was core space displaying that stupid graph, you know the one, that shows “progress” and speed, even though there is not a damn thing you can do about either.

Picture of the day.
Wild geese in Helsinki.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I arrived at dusk, to be more accurate. A rat has gotten to one of my birdseed containers. I was away a week longer than planned and am in no rush to do much except work. Driving time was twelve hours and the day was uneventful. Time to plan and think, which the world won’t give you enough time to do unless you grab it. It takes 33 gallons of gas for the trip, the average price was $4.70. That cranks the trip each way up from $81 to around twice. I stopped twice for a to-go coffee. It rained heavily through most of Georgia. There are not good radio stations still on that long haul from Atlanta to Valdosta and twice as many Spanish stations as six years ago. I’ve now driven the eastern route eight times. And my cabin has moved 18.6 miles further away.

           Here’s another pre-emptive photo of the appliances unloaded in the driveway. Of course, nobody is around to lend a hand. I’m investing in a dolly, more correctly known as a hand truck. The starter cord came off the mower first thing but all this stuff is getting easier to fix. I’m also investing in a set of nut drivers, the manual kind. Oh, and that small cordless scre
wdriver I now have a use for decided to quit on me. I wonder how Harbor Freight and Wal*Mart know to do that so regularly.

           I had to throw $70 of gas in the van although I’m not likely to drive again for a while, That got me downtown and I visited a few moments with the locals to see if I missed anything. No. There’s a band this Friday and Karaoke Saturday, that’s it. One of the regulars has been ordered to quit drinking entirely by his doctor. Too bad, the guy had excellent choices on the juke box. From what I hear, he’s only medically allowed to drink water. It’s a factor as well that there is not much else to do in these small towns except go out for a beer, you know that, but don’t blame that on the town. Even in the biggest cities you still get the crowd that don’t know anything else to do, even if it is there. Ft. Lauderdale is bad for that.
           That town has empty libraries museums, parks, bowling alleys, theaters, bookstores, and coffee houses. There are a few clubs but careful of the lunatic fringe. The point is, so many drink for lack of other pastimes, and you know me, as far as I'm concerned that is a self-inflicted wound.

Last Laugh