August 19, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 19, 2021, good but not impressive.
Five years ago today: August 19, 2017, another useless guitarist.
Nine years ago today: August 19, 2013, the early wagon.
Random years ago today: August 19, 2004, early Hubble.

           I awoke to turmoil and upset, so I turned off the radio. It should be light in an hour, at which point I’m crawling back in the sack. This morning I brought the ladder inside in order to catch the super-rat. That’s my terminology for a rat that has learned to defeat regular measures. These can only be caught by a new unscented trap set in the attic, hence the ladder. You have to crawl up there wearing gloves and remember to turn out the light. This is one smart rat, been on the loose two days already.

           Then I learn why I got that extension ladder for free. It’s designed funny so every time you move it, the act of picking it up the obvious way collapses it. Likely it is some safety feature because millennials are so stupid, but you actually have to pick it up from behind to get it to work right. I’m back to myself so we’ll get some work done today. Stepping outside for that ladder tells me the humidity is already over 90%. That’s heavy air you cannot imagine without experiencing it.

           First project I installed a separate outlet for the workshed fan. So it comes on with the lights instead of walking to the far end of the shed. Two and a half hours. Part of the task was to test each segment of the circuit, you have to walk back to the shed door and flip the switch. The alternative is to risk a shock, so you know what I did? That unused switch where the chop saw usually rests, well, I simply wired it to short. Now, anything goes wrong just hit it and it trips the breaker. The poor man’s safety cutoff. I have a choice to continue wiring or get more of the silo done. Which? Return for the exciting results.
           Next I got another 3 feet of silo done, on the west side that shows. I underestimated how much wood I had and had to cut pieces that were barely too short. So it’s another trip to the pallet place. The first few splatters of rain were enough for me to call it a day. After just 4-1/2 hours. No before and after pics because they would just remind of the same work last year. Let’s see what got past my filters.
           Later, here is a picture of the silo siding. There was a break in the work which reveals something here. Can you see the difference in experience from the lower pallet pieces in the bottom third of the picture? That was early this year. Then the middle ten or so rows was this spring. How look at the top ten rows from y’day. I’ve learned to custom fit the pieces. So, even though this is a rough shed, I’ve picked up how to work with these pallet pieces. And I have some ideas I’d like to try. I need another five pallets to finish this west wall and summer is not pallet season.

Picture of the day.
Mike Tyson’s abandoned mansion.
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           Perovskite. It’s a newer solar cell material that can be layered to produce efficiency up to around 40% and it’s cheaper to produce. I looked but did not get into the details. At this time a phone call tells me Sam, the small white doggie, slipped a disc during a walk. He’s up there in years and the tyke collapsed just like that. The x-rays show no damage but his long walks are over for a while. He’s developed a slight heart murmur, like myself and I’m fine nearly twenty years later. It’s stress for the Reb and it cancels any travel plans. If I’m going to Texas, chances are I won’t be back in Tennessee until Autumn now, as in late October.

           By late afternoon I got to sit down. The vet bill for today is estimated at $600. Maybe I will go downtown for a few beers earlier than usual. Here is the big tree felled first year I was here. It was left nine feet high as a habitat, but it is now coming down. Bye-bye to that birdhouse location. This tree has a water pipe embedded in the base, so it will just be shaved down to that height. It frees up space in that area behind the tree which is covered and wired.

           I did make it downtown and sure enough it was payday. The club was packed and once again, lots of blonde women. I’m still happy they are not my type, not one of them. Bradford was there getting an eyeful, he’s the only 40-ish single guy in town who has his own house. He’s not taking advantage of that like I did in my day, but then again, he plays guitar the wrong way, too. I should mention all the women are married or paired off, but that’s what you get in these small towns.
           The club cheaps out these days and every second Friday is a DJ. He did get the crowd hopping but no more so than the jukebox on other days. The atmosphere was people having a blast, so I stuck around, in the process I wrote a two-page letter to Marion. Bradford mentioned he sunk a hundred bucks into his guitar to have the pickup jack moved. This takes five minutes on your own.

ADDENDUM
           The 5G cable people got me back, in a sense. My driveway is right up to the property line of the church, giving me just enough leeway to put my trash for the garbage truck. That’s where they installed their big distribution box. Now there is no place to pile any larger stacks of refuse without blocking part of my own path. Welcome to Florida.
           I don’t like to sites that require a “membership”, but think for a moment of all those “updates” you keep getting from MicroSoft, Google, and Facebook. There is a government-funded effort to make those updates compulsory. Like I warned you would happen. This is not being done for the heck of it, and certainly not to serve you better.

Last Laugh