March 9, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 9, 2022, but I like oatmeal!
Five years ago today: March 9, 2018, the aging scooter.
Nine years ago today: March 9, 2014, an hour late.
Random years ago today: March 9, 2021, a crabby Florida day.

           My news bin flooded with media attacks on Tucker, as if he’s responsible for what the tapes show. Everyone knows he’s an entertainer, not a journalist, but damn, them tapes are not doing the Pelosi camp a lick of good. And the leftards are making it worse by making scripted accusations and bringing Trump into it. I’ve not had this much fun watching news since that time Hillary tried to sidestep the Monica thing. Pocahontas wants to make March 1 into COVID-19 Victims Day.

           It was chilly this morning, will be a great workday in? Yeah, yeah, they’d all be great days if I could ever get any damn help around here. The goal for the day is to run that conduit under the flooring to the old hot water junction box. Why the rush? Because I know myself and I’m apt to just start driving for Tennessee on the spur. If I’m going to feel tired all day, Nashville is a better place for that. Plus the doggies know afternoon naps always last longer when I’m around.
           Let’s start after 9:00AM when it’s light enough. Part of the floor has to come up. First, a nice big breakfast and enough coffee. Then more coffee. I put in four hours electrical, which confirmed my formula of my working speed. True, not all my movement is direct labor, but the average remains 3-1/2 hour per fixture installed and finished, including running the wire when necessary. It wasn’t this time. Rather than bore you with a picture of what I ran into, here is a nice view of the latest Madagascar periwinkle this morning, basking away.

           What’s the slowdown with the wiring? A couple of things. The pullchain socket for the extra bulb is (as mentioned) controlled by a master switch. But it lacked the double pins needed for such a run. And that run is switch at the end. Anybody can run a switch from the start to the light, but this switch goes through all the lights on to the entrance some 18 feet past all the tough wiring. Now I have to tap that pullchain of the nearest junction box. Fun.
           Nor was that the only snag. The pullchain socket had the usual two cover screws to hold it onto the box, but the last screw would not fit. There are two sizes and one was to big, the other too small. Maybe that’s why the pullchain was on sale? I finally got off the ladder, walked to the work table and made a screw. I drilled out the box threads, punched a pilot hole, and the custom screw now goes through the box into the wood ceiling bracket. Only the trained eye can spot the fix. The most expensive screw in this building.

           This manner of work involves a lot of walking back and forth to the shed. That means I picked up yard twigs, watered the plants, cleaned the birdbath, wheeled out the trash, and finally got the lawn chair slats ready. It’s been something like two years since I started that. But hey, nobody sits on it and it worked find as a plant stand. And I’m again stuck with plants that only grow when they have attention. See that periwinkle? If it isn’t trimmed regularly, it grows spindly and falls over. If it is trimmed, it quickly gets root-bound. I rigged up a leaking bucket as a drip irrigator for the peach tree, which blooms soon if it is going to.
           It’s now afternoon and I have not touched the hot water wiring. Ah, but I believe I got a glimpse of the rare indigo snake. It was just a dark black tail section sliding into the underbrush as I rounded the corner, but ain’t no other animal around here comes close to looking like that. I heard they are an indicator species and they control rats. That is always totally welcome in Florida. They are a marauding breed in these parts, just up the river from the coast. Remind me to set the trap in the shed just to see. Later, it’s done. And we have another squirrel, this one bigger than the rest. And I found the 18V Warrior drill, same old story, fell behind something.

Picture of the day.
S. African daily gold production.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           An extra break, I tried to find the recipe I lost for a creamy curry sauce that did not use coconut milk or yogurt, two foodstuffs I rarely keep on hand. No luck, has the world moved on from plain sauces? In the background I had a documentary on ancient wells and this scene caught my attention. It’s a railroad through the desert, but I’ve never seen anything like it. Perfectly straight an level horizon to horizon. It must have been built using lasers. The only clue the video gives says it is somewhere in the Negev Desert. Abraham’s well, but we know everybody in the Bible has a well, city, lake, wall, and grave named after them.

           I worked until 7:00PM, which will become 6:00PM this weekend. It’s amazing how many people don’t like daylight savings because they don’t have the IQ to understand it. The reason I don’t like it is because my schedule is my own. The mosquitoes come out at dark. My irritation this time was a wire being 11-1/2” too short. The 3-wire piece needed for that end-of-run switch was just shy of the post it has to reach. To keep cheery, here’s a view of the chicken baked in gravy. It’s chow, dig in. I sent a copy of this photo to many a friend.

           To recount what I got done, you musn’t think a slow day is a nothing day. I cut a custom piece of plywood to fit my control console into the van. I found I don’t use the fold down piece built in because it is handier to get out of the van and use the side door. I may duplicate a small shelf where the console would be if I did use it. This amounted to puttering, but I’m in the process of figuring out a new trigger for the second Hav-A-Hart trap I’ve got. There is no consistency to the way these are made, they don’t stamp a model number on the unit, and some of the triggers just don’t work as well.
           Rats will avoid a trap that’s been used. I’m thinking of a way to use the mechanism to spring the live trap. I found one on-line but it kills the animal, negating the concept. Now if you go on-line, the factory will have a how-to for every make & model except the one you have. Sure enough, I confirm. I’ll devise something, with these traps now selling for over $60. I’ll install a better treadle where the weight of the animal pulls a string or something. Aha, just now I got it. I don’t need a string.

           This next picture is something you’ve never seen before. Now, doesn’t that alone make your trip to this blog today worth it? You decide, these are not potato chips. My plan to produce 3D “eyeglasses” is stalled for lack of design know-how, the experiment continues. Here’s one that failed. These are the “glass” lenses from a pair of Thrift eyeglasses that matched my prescription. I have dozens of these pairs, which I test to see how my planned “stickers” will adhere. Since the inserts should be removeable, the glue is whatever I have on hand that remains clear and flexible. This is what it did to the lenses after two years.

           If I’m still busy at this by 9:00PM, I’m going out to Bartow for a couple. I have to map out the schedule in case Caltier has permanently changed their web site to accept only equal contributions. I’m well past the stage where I need long steady sums to keep up with an investment, it is harder for me to match other schedules. Commit too little, it takes forever, too much you run the risk of an overdraft if you don’t monitor your account or keep a large enough balance that you wish you could invest it. Give me a thousand bucks and I’ll invest it. Because it took me 50 years to get to that stage. Only to have them revert to the very system that is groomed for failure.
           What interests me? Most everything but boredom, and today I looked at a variety of menus to compare to my own. Guess which one was the closest match to my diet? The servings on US nuclear subs—or at least the way they are portrayed. The cooks mass produce a diet for people under what I would consider to be a situation toughened by isolation. That is, I would ignore any “official” guidelines and eat only what my system said was right. So I’m okay with how the sailors dine in the videos, and the food seems quite properly prepared. Yes, I noticed the officers ate the same ration of pancakes, grits, and oatmeal that I do—despite being tempted by steaks, bacon, sausage, and all kinds of sweet pastries. I was amused.

ADDENDUM
           About to turn in, I see 20 messages in my feed. What’s this? Due to the J6 tapes, the MSM is demanding Trump go to prison? Why? Because the tapes don’t support the insurrection narrative. The left is desperately trying to distract from something. But what? Maybe that GM is offering to buy out its US workforce of about 58,000? And how about “dynamic security”, the process of implanting chips in products to block competitor’s replacement parts. When was it, 2002, that I investigated HP for their original ink-cartridge scam. Hundreds of cartridges whose only difference was a pattern of notches on the cap.
           Well, they’ve gone digital. The printers will reject third-party cartridges due to an embedded chip. As usual, folks this is just the beginning. It’s industry fighting back in the right-to-repair wars. This activity is often erroneously called bricking, but that is when the product is rendered useless, whereas these printers can still be used if you shell out for the HP brand name.
           As for the enzyme that creates electricity out of thin air, I’m reserving judgment on that one. Some Australian outfit makes the claim but they don’t appear to have a working model. Last, Ford, the American icon car, is finally removing AM/FM radios beginning 2024. There is some objection as the US Emergency alert system works on AM. But maybe one person in 10,000 knows that and none could tell you which frequency.