July 8, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 8, 2021, population 114.
Five years ago today: July 8, 2017, why she’s called Whoopie.
Nine years ago today: July 8, 2013, on 3D printing.
Random years ago today: July 8, 2010, a key ingredient.

           Stand by, but I think we got the new motor. CarMax will instantly flag that as a frankencar and it’s value will plummet. I know the Reb really liked that car and may not want to sell. Myself, I consider that car the reason we missed out on buying that church on an acreage, but that final decision is hers alone. Good morning, and time to fly at that door step, after coffee and a refill of course. I can live with a little inconvenience just not when it comes to my morning coffee. Shortly I will throw on some freshly-laundered work clothes, smelling of spring blossoms with an undercurrent of alpine spirits. Expect extra pictures today.

           This is my first full size marigold. Sadly, it is not the flower I’m looking for. It took nearly two months of coaxing, pinching, and daily waterings when possible to get this single bloom. Unless these start growing like dandelions on their won, there’s scant hope I could give them so much attention. There have been smaller blooms but they don’t last more than a day or two.

           I had to lean into the door steps to get as much work done as possible before the temperature climbed but I got caught in the heat anyway, as this type of repair is full of delays. Here I’m noting the person before me cut one of the stiles short so he would not have to dig in the dirt. A radio program had me laughing, it was about some secret ingredient Amish women put on their skin to look beautiful. Yes, ladies, it is called “nothing”, except maybe soap and water. I took time out to string up a special bird feeder for the new small birds. As with all changes, watch for squirrels. They are first to check out most anything around here.

           Good news for yacht owners. Starlink is now available for $5,000 per month. There’s an additional $10,000 for the special antennas and gears needed for service in “choppy seas and heavy storms”. The Japanse ex-prime minister is dead, killed by some useless runt no doubt. I say that because it has become just too obvious the latest bunch in Japan have become as millennialized as the top-knot public school issue swine we have swarming around America. Mercifully, they are a tiny minority, so they are constantly trying to get in front of news cameras.

Picture of the day.
The London Hammer.
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           I could not stop this project halfway and that placed me directly in the noon sun. I kept track of this project and I would have had to charge $940 to do this for somebody else and make and break even for my time and effort. I told you I’d document the tough changes about getting old and the most glaring so far is how long things take. This three hour project required nine hours, including a trip downtown for the stile.

           Here’s a view of the early beginnings, where I had to remove and dig to see what was under there. I found bricks buried 8” not doing much good. This part of the house is next for leveling, so I designed the steps to “float” a bit. Note the dead-blow hammer and claw pry bar, both proved essential. The heat became scorching so put some of the old treads back in place temporarily and quit for the day. This wasn’t as much fun as it looks from here.

           China has launched a satellite that deploys a mesh screen designed to sweep old space debris out of orbit. While it’s true purpose is to snag a satellite, it is a first to address the problem of 5,000 satellites out there with 3,000 of them dead. That sound like a lot of clutter, but in reality the pieces are mostly hundreds of miles apart and collisions are rare. The row between Musk & Twitter continues and even if that sputters out, Twitter was definitely lying about how many users it had when fake accounts numbered in the millions. What’s the problem? Well, if Twitter knew there were so many fake accounts, then they vastly overcharged their advertisers by quoting false statistics.

           For a break, I tried reading a history of Mayo county in Ireland. It was such a confusing mess I gave up and read a booklet on bird baths. Can’t them Irish do things plain and simple like the folks they are? Then I listened to an audio clip of their language as it was a hundred years ago. The birdbaths made more sense, but it is a quaint tongue sounding like Celtic. None of these held my attention so I read up on how often the British navy used the trick of flying enemy flags, hoisting the ensign only at the last moment. They did this so often I’m surprised there are no instances of two British ships doing this to each other.

           It didn’t take long for the steps to settle. Three hours later, there is a noticeable slope. I wonder if I should put something across the entire bottom length? I’ll resort to digging and leveling, just you watch. Realizing I had that batch of good coffee, I took Friday night off to learn “Devil Inside”(INXS) and then stumbled across a series of videos based on the fictional Horatio Hornblower. Why not, I thought. Actually the production is rather good and the depictions of the ships and battle scenes very well-researched. It’s not a bad portrayal of the life of the gang-pressed English sailors, either. Overall, the acting is impressive.

Last Laugh