One year ago today: September 25, 2021, DC begins long withdrawal.
Five years ago today: September 25, 2017, poorly maintained.
Nine years ago today: September 25, 2013, so it was junk.
Random years ago today: September 25, 2008, is there any truth . . .
Another great morning, dead calm. Fortified by a big plate of leftovers, let’s see what I get around to today. First, check the budget. You have $72 to play wth. The gas tank is full, everything is caught up, the day is yours, if you want it. I glanced over social media, again that is often the first place I’ll hear of events because they use headlines instead of propaganda. Nothing today, but people are riled up and there’s a pending upset in Italy. For no reason I was thinking about Sundays and back when I was 24. There was only one place besides the local hotel café that was open Sundays. It was one of Montana’s first 24 hour gas stations. Bill & I thought nothing of making that 50 mile round trip for coffee.
Who knows their linden trees? Here’s one of the seeds that sprouted and a view of the nice flowers. Downside with the flowers is they don’t bloom at once and form a nice view. One or two per day and they quickly drop to the ground. But it is a nice enough white flower with yellow stripes inside. As for the see, I planted this one to see if it sprouts. It would make a difference if I could control where these grow. For now, I just don’t cut down the ones that sprout sort of where I want.
As normal, not one of the on-line how-to posts on how to plant a linden tree show useful diagrams. Usually some jerkface with a fuzzy tree in the background talking about mulch and temperature. When what I want to learn is in this picture is that a stem or a root, as in which end is up. But no, in millennial land, they all have the MicroSoft Sydrome, where they know what you want better than you do.
I can tell you who really doesn’t know what anyone wants. The Cheney woman, the one they call Miss Piggy. She has vowed to do everything in her power to block the human dynamo Kari Lake. While still maintaining she is a Republican. Talk about an easy way to make enemies. Fact is, we live in an era of women politicians because there are so few men anyone can agree to elect. The lady head of the EU is threatening the lady about to be elected in Italy and the rest stand back laughing at them. I suspect the bottom line is that men leaders will fight to defend turf and family, women leaders will try to sit down and reason with the enemy, who instantly spots that as a sign of weakness.
Wooden gate.
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Four hours of great exercise and the hurricane strapping is done. Every ten screws have been replaced b 44 and those are through metal straps. I was finished long before dark, but I’m sticking to my formula of don’t start outdoor work unless you are certain you’ll finish before dark. We now have two sheds, a canopy, and a small storage area double strapped in. A reminder, most damage is not wind, but water. Still, I had to make the wind didn’t decide to show me a thing or two. And here is another view of the yellowing leaf problem on my peach tree. I presume it a problem even if sources say it is natural in the fall because it never happened in years past.
And that’s what JZ was talking about. He’s stuck in the past but there is nothing unusual about that in my generation. The real problem with being stuck is the tendency to make the same assumptions later in time. You could assume twenty years ago that the women in casinos were nice girls and get away with that. But to think such a thing today is announcing you are bonkers. Wallace had that condition so bad you could not let him talk in public. Remember Wallace, who thought being a stripper or hooker was a matter of degree? How he could go on how the girl who is 45% hooker is nicer than the one who is 58% hooker and so on. He was like the guy who said in a group, “All guys smoke weed.”
You had to stop him right then and there, even if it meant an hour-long argument in public. If you knew what was good for you, you’d halt everything until he retracted that statement. It’s the same old, men who smoke weed and gamble and hire prostitutes cannot believe other men don’t. Or that other men are sissies, same thing. Make them take the accusation back and they will still think you are lying but it beats having junkies or narcs come knocking on your door at 3:30AM. JZ is stuck in a whole city of that sort of people and I think he needs to get out of there. Two months in my town and he’ll find a nice girl with a career and be happy again. But I can’t twist his arm. Both mine are permanently strained and he’s in a different weight category.
Later in the day. It looks like rightist parties have won in Italy and Sweden. Notice, I said rightist, meaning they could be barely right of center. However, do not confuse what has happened with a swing to the actual right. For example, in Sweden, the rightists won because the growing Muslim party took votes away from the left. And in Italy, the new lady has not outlined the drastic measures needed to keep her promises. Did you see old lady Pelosi getting booed on stage, and that was in libtard New York City. I told you soon these people will not be able to walk down the street.
Did I catch some flak. Upon watching the video, I asked who the monkey was in the tie-dyed parachute garb, the one who “came in second in a Kirstie Alley Gravity Contest.” Turns out it is some famous Indian-dot beauty queen named Priana. Sorry folks, my idea of a babe isn’t someone who has to shave more often than I do.
ADDENDUM
A recent round of studies on true costs show that electricity windmills will never recover the cost of their manufacture even if left running forever. Years ago I tried to find info on “Bombadeers”, a tracked snow vehicle used in the arctic in the 1950s. There was almost nothing so I was mildly astonished to find entire sites now dedicated to their display and reconstruction. It didn’t take long to refresh my memory of riding in these things. Officially, a Bombardier B-12, of 1940s design, these were the only form of ground travel at the time during winter. They have winter skis interchangeable with summer tires, but I have never seen these
used except in snow. They are listed as seven-passenger which is easily exceeded. Here’s what I remember.
Also common was the field modification of a small wood stove with a regular chimney installed by removing one of the glass portholes and sticking the stovepipe out through a plywood baffle. Neither system could begin to heat the interior when the vehicle was underway and there was competition for the seats away from the windward side. The contraption was noisy and the compartment always smelled of diesel or wood smoke. It rose by convection to the top of the passenger compartment while the floor area remained barely above freezing. It was forbidden to ride in them alone, so trips often depended on the availability of a soldier from the nearby military base to go along for the ride. In any case, if the unit threw a tread, which was often, repair was a two-man job. Few had radios so they rarely ventured outside of walking distance from camp.
As for the ride, it was rough. The most effective suspension was how soft the snow was that day. For most people, the experience would induce seasickness in less than two hours. The overall design and construction was clearly from people who had not used them in realistic conditions. The headlights were so weak that any speed at night was very limited and their location made them vulnerable to breaking off. The windshield wipers were hopeless if snow got heavy. The vehicle constantly skewed due to minor differences in the track speeds. Nor was the hull windproof, the doors and hatches were as ill-fitting as any other plywood designs, often allowing snow drifts to form inside near cracks.
The interior was, what’s the word, Spartan. The steering wheel was mounted in the center of the dash, which normally had three or four gauges and a choke. These were all Chevrolet standard issue, the largest dial being a fairly useless speedometer. The starter was an ordinary pushbutton and the separate ignition switch usually sported a set of dogtags. Shown here is a later model with added gauges, upholstery, and for pure luxury, a cigarette lighter.
Under the dash was barely room for a short driver’s legs, plus the regulation first aid kit, always army surplus, and a fire extinguisher because yes, the things often caught fire. They were built in a government subsidized factory in Quebec, so go figure. The floorboards were boards on the floor. Most electrical wiring was exposed and the gas tank was often a side-ways mounted 55 gallon drum. These contained foam balls to cut down on sloshing, but over time they disintegrated and clogged the lines. The fuel filler cap was four times normal size allowing for removal and filling with hands inside huge fur-lined mittens.
One oddity was the driver and passenger doors were not only bad-fitting, but changed between vehicles without regard to paint color. They must have failed often judging by the number of unmatched colors and it was customary to enter by the door leeward of the wind. There was no designer winter clothing making it wise to keep inside warm Eskimo parkas. There was no navigation gear and whenever possible the route followed older tracks. These were not fun machines and if you saw one, it was hauling supplies, gear, or sacks of mail. I mentioned never seeing one travel in the summer, I imagine the tundra would quickly bog these things to a standstill, so most transport in that season was by seaplane or helicopter. Everything was expensive.
