July 2, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 2, 2022, more oregano.
Five years ago today: July 2, 2018, the battery tester.
Nine years ago today: July 2, 2014, why criminals have rights.
Random years ago today: July 2, 2009, forward, then backward.

           We have an adventure for you. The extra trip to Tennessee is postponed, so it was off at 9:30AM until noon today. Following the exact route of the motorcycle plan with two side-trips. One from a missed turn, the other to go past the turnoff to drive into Wimuama to see what is there. It was ideal motorcycle weather, surprisingly low humidity and in the mid-80s, likely caused by a 60% cloud cover. That really helps as the clouds don’t drift across the sky like on the prairies, so you get half-hour shady spells. I’ll describe the route, for those who’d like to chum along vicarously. The planned trip was 67 miles. There are two types of side roads, the lovely but rarely used routes the government requires the mining companies to maintain, and the crappy pot-holed county roads. We had plenty of both.

           Starting out driving west to Agricola, on your map it says Route 555. Southbound to 630, then west to Hwy 37, jog south to 674. I missed that intersection and had to drive 10 miles before I could turn around. Narrow roads with no shoulders and always some Florida arsehole taking a shortcut at 90 mph means drive until you find a safe spot. Then past Fort Lonesome and on to the Balm-Wimauma, north to Boyette, east to Lithia, and then to Keystone, which is familiar territory. A great little van trip with the air conditioner just right, now here are the details. I sound grumpy but that is partially the reason for the trip.
           Before we continue, here is a shot of a fail. This is a simple circuit intended to have nine resistors between those sets of pins, which then drives the LED, which is really a pilot light. The purpose is to test brightness of LEDs which are connected off to the left of these pictures. The various colors, usually yellow and blue, have very conspicuous differences in brightness at any given voltage. The problem here is the components shown wired up. They won’t work. It’s a bafflement because I know exactly how to wire and solder up these components. It’s a resistor, a safety diode and a red LED. Each test fine but the thing will not light up and I’m running short of LEDs unless I find the missing big package.

           Still unfamiliar with the camera, I over-wrote the initial part of the trip. Fine, it was a lot of repetitious local road I’ve been many times. Agricola was, in my motorcycle days, the start of 90% of my trips south, it goes through what was once intended to be the populated heartland of Florida. You know the history, the Federal government built the Interstates along the coast and turned this area into one big ghost community. And the most barren place is to the southeast of Tampa. The area is full of small farms and acreages. If you go south or north 40 miles, you will find the multi-million dollar agri-farms.
           Sadly, this still-rural area is on the edge of the expanding coastal cities. Within ten years very little of this will be left. I drove an hour through small farms and saw signs of corporate takeovers. Wimuama surprised me, it was once a thriving White community, you can tell by the houses and design. It is now taken over by Mexican farm laborers as the Whites have fled. I don’t like that term, as it implies they left out of fear. No, they just grew weary of the nonsense and left. Some trivia , the word lantern. I thought it sounded Latin, but it is really based on lanthorn, from a time when the light was reflected from a pieces of stag antlers.

           I stopped for a coffee at a supermarket. Latino markets have it if you know how to ask, and they were selling roast chicken. A leg quarter cost me only $1.99 and the coffee was excellent. It’s Bustelo and there is a trick to it even most of them don’t know. Oh look, there’s my stunt double standing in front of the van in the heat. Sampling the goods. I also bought a package of wheat crisps. It’s not as flavorful as corn. Comes with a pack of hot sauce, but what Mexican food doesn’t? The farms around here are doomed as they are too small unless they specialize and that’s rarely a wise plan with A.I. on the horizon. The only unusual crop seen was a half-section of rapeseed. That’s the mustard plant marketed as “Canola oil”.

Picture of the day.
Real off-grid cabin.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Driving north from Wimuama, you get some undeveloped land, but it is being broken up by subdivisions of the worst sort. Cookie-cutter communities of old people who are all from someplace else. It’s haphazard like a lot of Florida, half-million dollar houses two hundred yards away from seedy trailer parks. I passed through a settlement called Boyette. There was a sign saying Hawk something nature preserve, but I didn’t stop because that’s what it looked like. A half-mile dirt road into the dry swamp. It’s like a wet swamp but dries out often enough to become a brittle, cactus-like scrubland. Too bad that store is so far back, I could have used another coffee.

           Here’s a short video of parts of the drive. Two-lanes so leave early if you need to be on time. This road goes north to the Lithia intersection. Turning east, as soon as we get to Keystone, we are back on familiar turf. I see somebody new is trying to make a go of that second-hand store. It’s Hwy 640, which is in fine shape due to the mines. It has a zillion dollar railway over pass that should be four miles north on Hwy 60 where it would cut down on the daily traffic snarls due to the ore trains. But you can’t fix stupid.

           It was too hot to take any walking tours. It was fine from inside the van. If we get a cooler afternoon, maybe I’ll get outside. I’m installing a new hasp lock on the red shed where it can be seen from the far end of the driveway that it is padlocked. Before a nice siesta, I checked on the shade seeds that have a 21-day sprout time. I do believe there are already tiny shoots, though it is hard for me to say. They are identical, we’ll take pictures. In the more sheltered space the oregano really puts up an aroma. That and the magnolias are flowering, they have (to me) a lilac scent. If the oregano takes off, I have a plan to make some planters along the fences.
           The Reb called to report a four-hour thunderstorm. Odd, in Tennessee? Must be Russian weather control. The riots continue in France and I say they are a little too co-ordinated to be pure chance. That’s what you get when you allow 800,000 military-age nogs loose on your streets. If you don’t follow those stories, it’s an old trick. You let the bad people riot. The good people eventually fight back. You swoop in with martial law, which was always the plan.
           France did not learn from America what happens when you let large numbers of foreigners into your midst. One they reach a breeding mass, they have no intention of assimilating or becoming good citizens. They will turn your country into the same form of hell-hole they come from. I’m not the person who said that, it was Polydorus of ancient Sparta.

           In all it was a needed day trip to let off steam and do some critical thinking. I returned to find a story about some lady who refused to invite her uncle to her wedding over political beliefs, but still expects him to send a cash donation. Here are my favorites of the replies.

1) I hate Leftists so bad if I was left-handed I would not let it be known.
2) Send her an IOU with an open date of payment.
3) Mail her a receipt for a $1,000 donation in her name to Trump re-election campaign.
4) Give her a dildo since only a soi-boi would marry something like that.
5) How about an envelope full of Monopoly money?
6) Two words for her and it’s not “Let’s dance.”
7) Bridezilla.

ADDENDUM
           Here are two views of the 1-1/4” PVC rings I’ve got on the shop bench. I don’t know how “deep” to make them. These are probably too thin as I’m seeking the best way to get them into a shape that fits around the feeders. I’m assuming there will be a glue that suffices for this task. To me, the holes look too small but I’m not a bird. Since the snout on a squirrel is kind of pointy, I suppose the ring have to hold him back by the shoulders.

           The squirrels are not tough but they are persistent. The best feeders are metal but they take beating. It’s indirect, as when the squirrels swing on the sides so many times the hook comes loose and the feeder falls to the ground. This is a bit of a brute force solution that I know has been tried countless times. If it works, why is there not something for sale on-line?

           The next picture is an old clock frame I’m using to construct a trial frame. This is just the first ring, I don’t have a process in mind yet but you get the idea. The birdies should be able to feed through the rings but not the rodents. The regular bird feeder fits down the middle of this configuration. We discovered a half-hour later that crazy glue does not work on PVC. Won’t hold, won’t even grab. That includes both the smooth sides and the rough edges from the saw cuts.

           We are leading up to the most expensive option which is PVC glue. It’s $11 for the small can now. Biden is doing his best to wreck retirement for a lot of folks. Sadly, inflation is normally a ratchet effect. Even if expenses go down in the future, it can take a long time for prices to come back down, and with foodstuffs, it may never return. For example, a package of muffin mix now makes six instead of a dozen, but the package size remains the same.

           I’ve tried the last cheap option, which is dollar store craft glue. It has a long dry time that may prove unacceptable. I’m not averse to using PVC cement, it’s a longstanding habit of mine to see if cheap and easy materials will suffice. So far I’m happy with the work. Shown here the rings are easily made by clamping a block on the cutoff saw. See also the application of glue. I doubt the squirrels are aware of the technology behind the efforts to return them to Nature for their feeding habits. The glue is applied liberally but is it flexible?

           The situation encountered is, if you look closely, the curve in the shape of the rings means that the surfaces don’t touch flat like they do when you are joining the pipes. The contact point is tiny spot. For all I know, PVC is designed to not stick together in this fashion. Have you heard of HH-66? It’s a glue they claim is flexible and used for PVC furniture. The whole concept is called “cold welding”. It’s also $20 per can. We’ll know by morning if this white glue takes, I’ve used it before and this contrivance does not really have to be flexible all that much.

Last Laugh