October 19, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 19, 2021, they don’t practice at home.
Five years ago today: October 19, 2017, Hmmm, van troubles.
Nine years ago today: October 19, 2013, tipping is optional.
Random years ago today: October 19, 2006, reads like a lecture.

           An octave long galvanized screw. There’s measure universally understood around here. This is what I’ve resorted to fixing the fence. That’s the final chore slated for this visit and it would be done except my drill battery went dead. So I piled the boys in the van and drove to the library for an hour. They know there is memory foam under the blankets and can’t be coaxed outside easily. I left them in there and if they had not been blocking the bed, I’d have crawled in there with them for an hour.

           I had to get to Harbor Freight to buy a socket wrench adapter. You know, the little piece that converts 3/8” drive down toe 1/4”. Lose that piece and half your sockets become useless, how I loathe this form of planned obsolescence. The only replacement piece is part of a $34 set, so it’s cheaper to buy a whole cheap $7 kit. Strange no millennial has thought of selling the adapters by the pound. This all ties together, just be patient. You see, the dogs will not get out of the van, so I did this chasing around so maybe I can get out of here by the weekend. Tennessee is nice but they have this bog downside called winter.

           See these energetic dogs? That’s what I’m talking about. Once they plunk down, they won’t move until poop time. I cranked on the radio to hear the news that there is finally a strike at Apple. That indicates the American 40 year labor situation, where a new company grows by not having to pay employee benefits. Except over time, the employees begin to expect benefits like medical and dental that they should be looking after for themselves. But the only organization in such people’s lives is their jobs so it makes sense to let the boss do the bargaining.

           This strike was in Australia. It made headlines because the affair was coordinated nationwide, I hear that is a first. The issue is working conditions, though it is odd to my ears that anybody working in the comfort zone of a computer office would know anything about sweat and hard labor, as it were. It’s not like they were up and down a ladder for hours on end fixing a fence. The hard part is done, I just have to get it cinched more permanently with screws. Nails don’t work on old fences.

           Ha, I read a series of complaints about Airbnb prices which makes me a hundred percent happier that I can crash in the van. I see two facets of the problem. First, that sooner or later the concept of bnb would follow the hotel/motel model of vastly over-financing which leads to charging outrageous prices. Second, there are not any effective laws enforced that blacklist and single out bad customers. You hear of a couple renting a cabin only to have fifty rowdy friends show up and trash the place. Instead of going after the couple and making them an example, the owners raise the rents on everybody else.
           The complaints are that prices of an Airbnb stay have inched up to as much as $500 per night. It kind of destroys the concept itself. You get areas like the Florida west coast where Airbnb speculators have bought entire blocks of houses at premium prices, and I certainly do not mind if such people suffer and prefer that they do. Renting a room in your house is one thing, intentionally bypassing laws and overstepping public opinion is another.

Picture of the day.
Texas Hill Country.
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           Here’s a better view of this repair, taken from the neighbor’s side of the fence. You can see it already looks sturdier than before even if you haven’t seen before. Trust me, it needed repair. You can see the scab pieces across the rails where the fence posts are not that bad. The top panel shows the unpainted scab pieces holding the rails, the bottom picture is a close-up of how this works. I’m pointing to one of the long screws driving through the rotting spots where the rails meet, and how I dealt with the whole joint. This is due to the worst wood rot on the other side being where water could get at the sawn ends of the lumber.

           The pickets have also distorted. I’ll find the worst examples and refasten them with any cheap fasteners I can find, probably drywall screws. But that screw in the center is the one that sinks into the post so no skimping. They cost a couple bucks each and the washer is extra. During this activity, I’m watching for where the dog is getting out of the yard again. Dang dog knows when he’s being watched. Yes, those slats I’m using are from the cull cart over at Home Depot.

           The afternoon weather was brisk and I was out there most of it. This means I’m doing chores instead of visiting, so the Reb is hinting I should stay on. Maybe. A month from now I finally admit that I’m old and what a ride it has been. I had the option to become another typical American couch potato but that formula never worked for me. As I put it long ago, I’ve never associated relaxing with doing nothing. It’s simply a waste of life. So, while this trip is my Autumn break for 2022, there I was putting in five hours fixing a fence that doesn’t belong to us.
           But that’s the social side of the Reb & I. There is nothing like a gal that is a willing participant in anything that’s fun. I’ve shown her my idea for a remake of “Hot Dog”, which I had to emulated with nonsense sounds because I can’t play it on guitar. This has become a standing joke around here and the dogs have learned to participate in our a cappella versions. Too bad my Sony battery went dead again or you’d see it too. Tired from the work, I plunked on the sofa, so she played a lullaby on the keys and I nodded off. Except I fell asleep with my head with the big dog as a pillow. The small dog gets jealous, jumps on my chest and away you go.

           The result was a half hour of singing on the sofa with the dogs. Now me, I have to compare this to the other women I’ve known in my life. Most of them could not sing or dance and had no inclination to learn. At this point, I’m famished from outdoor work and her appetite is back so we decided time for Thai food.
           Shown here is the aftermath and blog rules say I must report the unusual. By far, this was the most expensive meal we’ve had in Nashville, otherwise I would not mention the prices. I will add, however, that the Reb will not allow many people to spend too much money on her, maybe that’s one reason I love that woman. Here’s your proof I can be opposite of my brothers, who will shower women with gifts until they get the goods, then never again. I deplore that approach, it is once I like a gal that I open up and tonight was a feast. She had the sushi part which I don’t much like to even sample. This was my portion, chicken and veggies and rolls and extra peanut sauce and I can state I am finally full to the gills.

           What’s the immediate future look like? Much as I’d like to stay on, I have work to do back home. She is planning a memorial for her parents and wants to coordinate it with my schedule. I’m telling her to go ahead, at this point what does it matter if I’m back here next month or the next? I had planned for three years of this arrangement and it has, on this Thanksgiving, been six years already. People who say time flies are not living life to any full degree. I can barely imagine all we’ve done much less remember it and the consensus is neither of us wants to change any of that. You know the old song about spoiling it all by saying something stupid? If not, you missed the high point of the American experiment. And while you weren’t looking, I blazed that new sixty-foot doggie trail through the woods this afternoon. See pic.

           Even this late in the game, you still get problems with Win XP that are the result of all the dorks that company hires. They play stupid games and win stupid prizes. One of my all-time miffs with MicroSoft is their inane help feature and the number of times they say to click on a feature that does not appear in the menu. So it is with my pictures folder. For reasons unknown, the file names have quit displaying in thumbnail view. True, the person who came up with that one should receive fifty lashes.
           Nothing seems to work, the instructions keep saying Shift and Right-Click on an option that isn’t there. They never get it right and yet complain when people won’t pay for something they can pirate. I know it’s circular thing, but nobody by 1990 thought giving MicroSoft more money was going to solve a thing, and they were right. MicroSoft just kept adding more and more gimp features that contributed to this problem. What part of “cancel print” and “end program now” don’t these MicroSoft people understand?
           In other news, the World Health Organization has stopped classifying “transgender” people as mentally ill, but added “gaming disorder” to the list. Hmmm, where was the WHO back when I was addicted to pinball machines? Oh, that’s right, I also owned the laundromat next door and always had $50 in quarters on me, ah, but they never look that deeply into the matter. It's easier to classify it all as one. Therefore, I must have been addicted, except that would not explain how easily I quit when I sold the laundromat, right?

Last Laugh