January 14, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 14, 2022, pretty much screwed
Five years ago today: January 14, 2018, robin invasion.
Nine years ago today: January 14, 2014, a third of downtown.
Random years ago today: January 14, 2008, Lake Worthless, FL

           Hmm, is frozen papaya considered a treat? Anyway, help yourself once they ripen as I’m not into bland-tasting fruits or vegetables. One hell of a windstorm overnight, but I brought the quilt out of the van and snoozed right through it, to be awakened by some hungry birds. There should be a morning picture of the birdfeeder showing adaptations for woodpeckers. They like the cardinal seed but will only take it from the lower two feeding ports, as can be seen by the fill line. I have to set the suet feeder out daily as the neighborhood raccoon continues his nocturnal raids.

           I have some tin cladding for the trellis poles to foil (ha-ha) the critter but not until it warms up. He’s a large old male, probably has arthritis and I cannot afford to feed him precious bird seed. It was down to 38°F before dawn, so it’s a day of playing some new bass. I was never that much into tourist music but then, I never had a talented enough guitarist who didn’t think he was the next Clapton. Giving a close listen to “Take It Easy”, there are some bass runs in there that could just be in my ball park.

           The Reb & I went over some real estate plans. If things stay the same for us (financially), we gain this year by, you guessed it, not losing as fast as others. I presented the topic of “walking money” as applied to buying out somebody’s mortgage. Somebody who’s balance is small but they cannot afford the payments at the prevalent high interest rates. It sounds cruel, but I am not the one who spends money I don’t have. Here’s the hypothetical scenario.
           Somebody still has a, say, $150,000 balance, on a mortgage of an originally $400,000 house. But at 6.7% this renewal, his payments leapt from $1,200 per month to $2,400. Good luck trying to sell that house, unless he can find somebody to take over the payments and walk away. He’s going to lose something no matter what he does. This is in theory only and it is more complicated than that. Nor is it the easiest way to go about it. I think if there is no bail-out this time, it is open season on suckers.

           It’s amazing to read the feeds, these cowards are screeching at the purebloods instead of the people who injected them with poison. It proves to me there are two species of humanoids on this planet, the parasites and the hosts. They don’t want equality, that’s the cover story. As I’ve put it before, they don’t want their own bicycle, they want yours. The stats are now undeniable. The vaxxed are dying wholesale and they are not dying of COVID. They are lashing out at the world, blaming everyone but themselves. Big media used to publish daily COVID tolls, now they are silent, except when pro athletes and celebrities croak. If the super-healthy are keeling over daily, what are the ratios for couch potatoes?

           In a similar vein, the White House is denying Biden wants to ban gas stoves. It seems they are right, it was a warning about poor ventilation—but a success letting the Biden people know their tactic of fake news releases can cause damage both ways. The first bank entirely owned by black people has collapsed after being looted by the owners. In South Africa.

           That was the Reb. The doggie goes in on the 19th, removal of a lump on his foot. Probably nothing but no sense taking chances. We’ll have to meet again, she knows I won’t talk money much on the phone. Then I mentioned I’m learning “Take It Easy” (Eagles) and we spent the next five minutes singing. This, my friends, is why I cannot waste my time even meeting 99% of the women in the world. They are too uptight to have fun all the day long. Or worse, [they] think that those [like us] who do are avoiding their duties.
           Malaysia has executed a doctor for administering a fatal COVID shot. Some say it is a dire warning to anyone involved with the vaccines, from doctors, to pharmacists, to lab techs, to school boards. Meaning they are about where this blog was in 2020. Harm is harm, it does not matter who is right or wrong, you do harm, you get punished.

Picture of the day.
Russian solitary confinement cell.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           As the needle dropped into the 40s, I hauled out the bass and finally began learning some of the other songs on the “Key West” list. It’s going to deep freeze all weekend, so let’s use the time productively. That’s my version of a day off and it does not involve doing nothing. Tennessee may become the first state to require child support from drunk drivers who kill parents. I’ve always felt people who commit certain crimes should have to pay for the rest of their lives and so I see it as a good move.

           Now, if they could apply that to burglars and personal injury lawyers who lose speculative suits. It’s likely nothing, but membership in Morse code clubs is up 10% over 2020. Survivalists? I clicked on my old Koch trainer and I’m still good at most regular text and numbers, but I never was any good at the glop most “club members” send. You know, the call signs, prosigns, Q-signs, and a lot of the lingo that can be as bad as text messaging. I mean, I guess it is okay, but to me if you can’t write it out properly, why bother sending it anyone? Although I find them as useless as golfers, the largest club is SKCC, who I have nothing to do with. Like most clubs, you are welcome to join as long as you think the same as everybody else. (My robot club has the opposite parameters.)

           A.I. generated a model named Alice using setting that statistically was most attractive. She turned out such a gorgeous blonde babe that moments later she was banned in a country I can’t name in the Middle East and 14 hours later taken off the Internet. Alice caught my eye because she was designed to appeal to stupid jocks, you know, pretending to be into rock climbing and sky diving. One pose did show her holding a semi-acoustic guitar the wrong way. None showed her reading, writing, or any other intellectual pursuit. Not even singing.
           All but one local radio station has faded off the air, gone Spanish, or suffers bad cross-fading with distance frequencies. The survivor is WWRN, the anti-Trump feel-good NPR-wannabe outfit from Clearwater.

Last Laugh