One year ago today: March 26, 2022, pot luck.
Five years ago today: March 26, 2018, with surprising success.
Nine years ago today: March 26, 2014, Brainiac dating, the fiasco.
Random years ago today: March 26, 2007, the moron State.
Going for a soft landing, this trip and visit has been exhausting [for the Reb]. So I made muffins and took the dogs out all morning. Out to the recycle to find all the bins crammed full. I managed to squeeze our stuff in but dammit, Tennessee, if you are going to recycle, do it right. Then I had the doggies out for an hour to find my lower back pain does not like even warm days around here. Did I mention the quilt? Probably not, just an ordinary quilt I picked up at the local Thrift in Lakeland because I needed one. It does get chilly enough and somehow, I got the magic quilt. It is some kind of microfiber that heats up within seconds to body temperature. So the dogs and cats love it. But so do I.
Here's an eye test for you. And for the Reb. You see, the little dog is old and going blind. Well, I’ve often suspected the little guy has learned to fake blindness. It leads to a lot of extra attention and he is not averse to that. Why, Sammy does not even like it when you pet other dogs. So, because of my back pain this morning, he's waiting with me on the rock, a common spot for us to sit. She went on ahead for twenty minutes, down the boulevard shown here. Now, can you see her? She’s on the way back. Walking with the big dog. Can’t see her, right? Well, blind little Sammy can and he’s whining like a baby.
I’m forced to take the day off, but we did manage to tour the motel project along Hickory. They’ve renovated them completely into tiny day rooms with a small stove and fridge. All rentals and around the size of what I rented while I was in university half a century ago. What a way to wind up. My school-boy Mexican got us a tour. You walk into the single room, the door bangs against the edge of any bed larger than a single. There is no room for a sofa. The kitchenette is the back wall, with an even smaller walkway into a closet and bathroom with shower. There were two motels, so a total of 72 units.
Multi-tasking, circa 1963.
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The Reb needs peace and quiet, I well recall the effects of jetlag on short trips where there is not time even for a power-nap across time zones. I took the doggies out and stopped at Dunkin. They would not move off the quilt and memory foam. The van thermometer says 102F which the Reb says is their body temperature. Couple that with the quilt and they would not move. Even to pee, in Sammy’s case. He got the corner of the quilt and by the time I finished coffee, the interior of the van was pretty ripe. I snuck the blanket into the washer quietly, then got out my book on electronics and read for the afternoon. It’s not your imagination, budding Tesla-types. Most of the textbooks are wrong in important areas.
Here is a spring from a retractable ballpoint pen. I save my old ones for quick connections on breadboard projects. Like myself, you imagine these things are sold in boxes of 1,000 or so. How else can they sell five whole pens for a dollar? Look on Amazon, there are ads for these springs priced at $2 each. Labeled “just in time for Christmas” and “great gift idea”. I’ll find a source, but the very existence of some ads show how far the Internet as drifted from what was intended. One outfit is offering the replacement springs priced at six times the cost of a whole new pen. After considerable digging, the chore the Internet was supposed to eliminate, I found a source in India for 0.000097 cents each, but could not find any ordering details or US suppliers.
PS: the Reb is on the center right of the photo, just appearing around a tree trunk. You may not be able to see, but just beside that white house with the brick chimney. And the "blind" doggie spotted her, ahem.
