February 19, 2023

One year ago today: February 19, 2022, an Opie convention?
Five years ago today: February 19, 2018, at the Olga Mall.
Nine years ago today: February 19, 2014, the illusion of wealth.
Random years ago today: February 19, 2008, we still have that trailer.

           We awake to news the banks in Lebanon have been shut down and the ATMs turned off. This is why you keep a stash of cash, folks. There are riots and some banks have been set on fire. Notice, the ATMs are built in America and work on American software. Another mall shooting with the victims and suspects referred to as “teens” and “youths”, because the media thinks you don’t know what that means. For old times sake, we took a 30 mile drive this morning and bought some sweet onions for a big salad at noon.

           The lawn tractor is about to be given the robot club treatment. I’ve studied the symptoms and gone on-line to narrow it down to the long-suspected governor. There has to be some setting that changes as the motor heats up. The engine then begins to sputter, which you can override by giving it more gas. But after around five minutes this becomes less and less effective until you get a stall. Then the unit will not turnover until you let it cool at least 40 minutes. It’s a governor until further notice. Yes, that is the Town & Country in the upper right background.

           I’ve got an anti-squirrel assembly slated for this afternoon. The squirrels are able to cling on to any perch I’ve made for the birds, no matter how small. Small feed ports don’t work, they just chew them bigger. Blocking them with metal washers is out, they just chew around the washers. This time, I’m trying a per made out of two diameters of loose-fitting PVC. The small inner piece fastens to the perch, the outer perch is free to spin. With luck the birds will just have enough purchase, but the weight of the squirrel will cause the larger tube to spin. If it fails, I can increase the diameter or material until something works.

           The theory is that the squirrels must have a firm place to lodge themselves to attack the feeders like they do. I’ve rigged up a bell so I’ll hear them, if so, I’ll get you some footage of them on the perches. Because I now that is how they must be doing it. That’s not just deduction, because I would notice if they had begun carrying out stepladders. One would hope. The robot pet ball has not arrived, so I fired off an e-mail to the company. It should not be taken that because all this paperwork happens that I enjoy it. Heck no, I did if for a living.

           Ha, Biden is trying the old bandwagon tactic on women, announcing that the Republicans had better watch out. Because all the women of America are against them. The on-line response was a universal guffaw, that Biden can’t even define what a woman is. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion somebody is going to go after Biden or Fauci, the mood out there is that ugly. But in here, we have the aroma of butter and sweet onion.
           Here is a view of the messy back yard with the new backstop in the background. That’s the grey rectangle. The distance is exactly 33 feet, and that material is carpet as anti-ricochet padding. That’s slightly more than standard target practice range. I have not tested it yet but this setup would shop a .22 short, but they no longer make those I heard. Visible as well are the burn barrel and the old cinder blocks from the former fire pit. They will soon be repurposed as flooring for my emerging table saw work area.

Picture of the day.
Sandymouth Bay.
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           Well, bad news for security. Google has figured out I’m using a gmail address in Nashville. It just moves the game to the next level, but it confirms some people never learn. I had specifically asked not to use that email to confirm the Caltier deposits. As usual, others don’t thnk it is a big deal. I understand that, because when you live in a financial cocoon, you can go for years without any “problems”. But when I hear somebody has never had anything go wrong, I know that is a person who’s biggest experience at investing is bank interest. Without going into detail, I had to get a security code texted, which linked to this computer and thanks to the PLAID security system, Google now knows where my bank is located.

           There’s little to worry about, since all accounts with connections to the outside are designed to carry no useful information. But the point is, Google now knows where to look. To relax, I designed and cut some PVC bird perches. Here is the working model, you can see the inner piece is what gets fixed to the feeder. The outer tube is free to spin. The concept is if a squirrel tries to grab onto that, he will rotate himself right back off. I saw a similar concept on-line not long ago that would not work with my setup, so I adapted it.

           There are several options if the squirrels get the better this design. Bigger outer rings, or slice the rings into much smaller pieces to they turn easier, and so on. The wooden plugs look rough because they are. Turns out the plug cutters from Harbor Freight don’t like anything over a quarter-inch thick. I’ll figure something out. And walking into the shed with the fan coming on, that’s a treat.
           After four hours, I shut down for the day, but then decided to take some potshots at the backstop. You know, check for the unknown factor. It’s really for pistols, but I don’t have $600 for the pistol that I want. They really make some nice models these days and it is the only way I could afford target practice. Here are two view, the front and back of the stop. The front you can see the two pellet holes, the scope is down by 4” in just that short range. Ah, so, it has not been calibrated in years, although it was kept in very good storage. Who knows, and it will need oiling when I have time. The red metal is the backing and as you see, none of the pellets even got that far or they would show a dent in this material.
           The pellets should have struck level with that black screwhead. Don’t panic, the screw is temporary and in any case is at an angle that would send any pellets off to the side, not back they way they came. Don’t expect any long sessions, as the rifle is hand pumped and can tire you out in no time at all.

           It’s now 7:30PM, dark and time for an extended coffee break. Maybe practice a little Morse. I’m satisfied with 10 WPM and that is because recording devices are so common that anything faster I would just play it back at 10 WPM. Maybe I’ll get you a picture of my practice material, it is just a booklet full of random nonsense letters with orange markings where I make mistakes. These days it is mostly mistakes in breaks between words. My mind tends to hear breaks after sentence punctuation and that is a bad habit.
           Now hold on, let me refine that. I meant bad habit in the Morse code sense. Doing a full stop after a sentence period is a good writing habit, but a bad code habit. Lucky you, I’ll now give you some examples that are not in any training manual, yet items only a real student could relate. The most common is consecutive same letters. While you may easily write lots of the same numbers in a row, I get some hilarious results when I get, say, five letter “e”s in succession. They begin to sound like “i”s and even dashes. You have to turn off that switch in your brain.
           Or three letters in a row, particularly “m”s for me. The brain says expect something different, yet in code transmission three or more consecutive letters are nothing odd. Expecialy if you are receiving cipher. Letter endings can also stall you. There are no words that end with double k or double b and you have to train a bit to accept it without your subconscious treating it as a mistake. These days, I try to receive at least five minutes per session of code that has a weak signal with plenty of background static It seems more important than speed.

ADDENDUM
           Cheese. I found a documentary and now I’m in my chair taking it super easy and learning about cheese. It’s not all that exciting because it mostly happens by itself. There are maybe five cheeses I like, the top being cheddar. Nope, I was not raised on it. Next, I like Swiss, after that unless it is Bleu, it has a mild flavor to me. The series is Weird History, or something like that, well done with inserts of wry humor.
           PS Yes, I realize I'm an old-fashioned, out-dated, suspicious, out-of-touch, paranoid, conspiracy theorist who knows nothing of the way modern computer systems work. The Internet did something to people's heads, the people who got into the game late. I like the analogy of driving a car. If all you can do is drive a car but have no idea how to repair one, you should listen to somebody who does. When he says get that rattle checked, you would. That formula changes when it comes to computers. If all you do is go on-line, that is one shallow part of what is going on. Yet, they will not listen to warnings. That's one thing working at a computer shop 2005 - 2013 taught me. Internet people run the other way when you try to explain or teach anything.

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