July 4, 2023
Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 4, 2022, kudzu city.
Five years ago today: July 4, 2018, offer a reward.
Nine years ago today: July 4, 2014, “new” – in 1979.
Random years ago today: July 4, 2004, JZ smacks his ankle.
Happy Independence Day, except those who think that means the movie. It looks like a “work to relax” day around here, so let’s keep track of what gets done. Here’s a peek at the north garden alcove. Is that rustic enough for you? There is a two-tier shelf going in under the oregano pots on that ledge. You can’t see it, but there is a tiny string that marks the angle of the sun at solstice to ensure no shade hits the garden bed. You can see a layer of capstones from the old incinerator, but none of the half-ton of dirt to be shoveled into this bed. I’m ambitious, not Charles Atlas.
This view is 7:30AM so it was still damp everywhere. I’ll continue until that dew is absorbed by the air. Such humidity has a side-effect, if you leave a hot coffee or a cold soda outside, it will be tepid within five minutes. I hope the yard rules the day, you’ll be able to tell by the number of yard pictures later, I’m sure. Somewhere nearby you should see a companion photo of the silo, now over a year in place and looking like it’s been there forever and a day.
Disney continues to bleed out, releasing movies that gross half what they cost to produce. At the other extreme, the Mel Brooks’ anti-child exploitation movie brings in millions before it is released. If you are not following, Disney is repeated releasing remakes of old movies using queers and ethnic actors. Their latest, Indiana Jones 5 or something, is said to be woke garbage. Elton John vows never to return to America and nobody cares. Where, America asks, are this season’s COVID variants, or have the Leftists realized that doesn’t work any more?
Now the rumor that the Bidenistas have been a little too quiet, because they are planning to force digital currency on America at the end of this month. I’m not too sure that would work in America, where there is already an ultra-huge underground economy. The flea markets and junkyards alone pull in ten times the economy of many countries. Fireworks kept me up most of the night, so I watched several videos on circuit components. While there are many descriptions of the variations in component performances, I can’t find a single work on what happens if each component is hand-picked. What was clear was the infrared signatures were smaller. It causes me to wonder if we are on a edge of a new class of electronic gadgets chosen by A.I. for superior performance.
Now California is trying to change their laws so Trump can’t get elected in 2024. That pretty much announces they can’t win legitimately and they expect Trump to spring something at the last minutes when they try to cheat again. Trump knows where to spend campaign funds for the best results this time around.
We tackle the plastic “onion rings” again today, seeking the best way to permanently affix them. Permanent in the way that applies to plastic, I mean. Here is a view of two rings riveted together. We may try cement again, in a row, and see if they can be bent into a circle. We are by no means out of ideas. The shortage around here is things that work, not ideas. It’s a lazy day and I have to pop inside to cool down at short intervals, consequently you get lots to read.
An hour later, here are two of the rings joined by a rivet. This method works, but it is a no-go. It requires dozens of the smallest rivets, which you can no longer buy without the whole package. It is labor-intesnive and the tool does not fit inside the ring diameter. You have to bend the plastic away and I already broke one. Even then, the nib does not set right square on the pin and it won’t cut completely through. Snipping it off later leaves a small sharp metal peg I don’t want around my cherished birdies.
I’m half-way through “Christmas In Carol”, which I thought would be a comedy on dysfunctional families. It was, until the chapter where she meets dad’s new girlfriend. The comedy ceases and she gets into that weird space of older men and younger women. She spends several thousand words about her feelings, nothing about dad and his date. Oh, I’m aware of how women obsess over the age thing. (Yet if it is the woman who is older, it is experience changing hands.) I’ll continue reading in hopes this vile, bitter sniping gives out. They say women are more supportive and stick together better than men. Maybe, but this entire age thing is a waste of their own time.
A characteristic perpetual question is what do older men find to talk about with younger women? The answer is, of course, nothing. One of the most enduring female fantasies is that as they get older their experiences, or at least the ones they are responsible for, make them more interesting to talk to. Not so. If you are stuck talking nothing it’s plain common sense not to do it with somebody old enough to know better. Circular logic, sure, but put it this way. In my twenty years in Florida, I’ve met maybe that many interesting people to talk to total. And none of them were single, available, charming older women. (I did meet a few but they were not available.)
It’s still mid-morning and here is the base for the shop vacuum, made from broken cinder blocks. You can spot the major components laying nearby. The cone, the blue tub, and the grey collection box. It’s proper to add all the word shown this morning was possible because of shade. These projects are on the north side. Why did it take me so long to discover that’s the best spot to work in the summertime?
Hmmm, I’m not the only one who is using this day to catch up on things. I may even put that temperamental lawn mower on the bench. Tampa radio is on another anti-Trump rampage, I guess his rallies are blasting the opposition out of the water and he’s becoming more of a fire-breather with time. I say the Democrats are a little too quiet. They have undergone the Law of Diminishing Returns with all their hoaxes and indictments. Gone are the days they could buffalo people by having their media bum-boys behave as if something was a given and if you don’t agree you are out of touch. Half the media BS in this country consists of fooling people into thinking they are alone.
Another change I enact is making it far easier for people to act as their own attorney. For example, I would make it mandatory that, if the court requires a given document, the court must inform the defendant a month in advance, supplying both blank copies and completed examples of what worked properly in the defendant’s favor in the past. If the court requires a document, the court must take pains to meet that requirement when a non-lawyer is involved.
Lots to read, I have taken at least ten breaks today, and at 65 wpm it adds up. Couple years ago I commented on carbon fiber as the closest thing I can relate to in the nano world. I still have my nano book but I can’t read it. Too deep for me. Last I heard they were planning on replacing titanium parts in jet engines with carbon fiber. Today I heard the engines are 10% more efficient without any weight increase. The means the Air Force is likely to go ahead with the planned engine replacement on the B52 fleet. Yes, we are still flying around 75 of those things. They have carbon fiber wings, carbon fiber bomb bays, and now they’ll have carbon fiber engines.
Picture of the day.
The Montroy Cube, a flower pot.
$2,495. Free shipping.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
The fireworks have begun again. I slipped on some headphones and reviewed my oldest music files for anything worth learning. The challenge is two-fold, finding tunes that still have relevance and finding a guitar player who can play them. Relevance isn’t trivial, you need music that can be upgraded and some of the older lyrics come across as corny. You gotta expect that, for you see, that was back when there were good-looking women everywhere, some of them virgins before they met me. It was not until 1991 that the entitlement class began turning sex from a participant sport into the mechanical freak-show of uglies you get today.
Howie was over, he’s like me in that enough woes with millennial designs had him haul out his 20-year-old Troy-Bilt and get that going again. He says it isn’t as powerful but it is also quieter, I almost napped through it. Braving the furnace, I was out there putting a new hasp on the red shed. It’s past repairable so I scabbed on some Tennessee pallet lumber and braced it across the middle so it looks and is one solid barricade. Most of the screws go through the sheet metal and that’s plenty for around here.
Remember the old pinball machine parts in the shed? Rusted to hell, but one shiny piece caught my eye, this solenoid. Copper doesn’t rust, but the mechanism was seized up from gunk produced by rust. It was a challenge, but with creeping oil and a tap with a mallet each time I walked past for a month, the center plug finally released. I polished the plug and coated the working parts with oil. Even taken down to mostly bare metal this took 48 hours, during which time I chiseled away all the rotten wood and came up with the original mounting bracket, although the screws are still frozen.
When wiped clean of excess oil, I had this puppy on the test bench. Not knowing pinball specs, I first tried attaching five volts. Wham, worked like a charm. I supposed it would need a higher voltage so I was impressed. It’s too late to open the shed to clean up the other parts, but I want this thing working. Not that I have any projects to use it on but I’ll think of something. Either I don’t know my stuff or the thing may be broken. Take a look at the video. Two things I don’t understand.
As soon as the plug is retracted into the coil, the circuit shorts. The other is that, in my mind, if the current direction is reversed, the bolt should be shunted the other direction. This one retracts the bolt with either a forward or back voltage. Maybe that’s how these things work and it makes sense. This device is entirely electric, it has no magnets, so to the plug, a magnet is a magnet. Remember that “V-8” motor made from solenoids? I’m certain there was a one solenoid model, now where was that? Ah, here we go. Turns out building these solenoid engines is a common hobby. I wasn’t paying attention. Later, yes, it is one-way, a spring is used to retract the plunger.
Inflation. The pundits are saying if you don’t have 10x your purchasing power by end of this decade, what little you have will be confiscated by inflation.Inflation. The pundits are saying if you don’t have 10x your purchasing power by end of this decade, what little you have will be confiscated by inflation. Here’s the latest booklet I’m reading, a soldier’s account of the Civil War. He describes horrible wounds and how, as a sniper, he killed hundreds of Yankee privates. He did not shoot officers on the theory it was the privates who did the killing and the Union officers were so bad they did more harm being alive.
Once again we slam into the Internet wall of experts. The query is straightforward, how do I mix up a small batch of mortar for my planter blocks? Fifty replies, fifty answers, most of them useless, half of them contradictory, and most far too long to stay on topic. Why post a twenty minute video for a three minute topic? Because they are selling something, that’s why. I see my first plan for the shop vacuum isn’t going to work. There is a post in the way and the planned sawdust bucket is too tall. I got some of the shelving done and fixed a power bar in place in the north work area. Listening to Tampa about the Democrat trickery at work. They know they can’t win a fair contest.
What is with all the Trump indictment issues. Why now, why such a big deal? Indictment isn’t a trial and nobody’s been convicted of anything. Ah, you see, the word “indictment” in English carries very negative connotations. Years of Hollywood movies and TV dramas have given it a scary sound. Now we get it. Over the past six years since Trump was elected, the blue (Democrat) states have been busy. In case theyfail at stopping Trump from running, they quietly enacted laws saying that anyone who is “under indictment” cannot have their name appear on a ballot. You can run, you just can’t be on the ballot. There you go, you can’t vote for anyone whose name isn’t there. Sneaky, indeed.
A seven-hour day, punctuated by nearly three hours of breaks. That’s still a recent record, though most of the work was in one spot. The oregano garden. I got the base for the lower shelf in, a lot of back and forth because I used scrap lumber for all but the longest pieces. That’s just the frame, I don’t have anything to lay on it for the shelf part. To the accompaniment of the Mr. Red, who remains well back but has learned my motion in the yard means food and no cats.
Want to know about an odd-ball situation? Mingling with blacks is a big city affair, you rarely see any in this neighborhood. On holidays, they like to pretend they are driving up and down all streets with patriotic music, but this fools nobody. They are casing the White part of town. How do you get rid of them? Grab your camera and start taking their pictures. They split fast. Today we had four carloads that I saw, or rather, heard. It’s not racism, it’s that there is nothing for these people in this part of town and they know it.
Howie reports his band and several others have broken up. It’s to post-COVID doldrums, the clubs have discovered they can do 80% of the business by skimping on entertainment. As I’ve explained, that works for a while. I know all the groups he means and none of them are suitable for a duo, plus the factor that if it was a duo, they would constantly be trying to expand. Bradford has disappeared again in keeping with his reputation for not keeping up with what’s needed, but always thinking he’ll find the right ready-made band.
Indications are the Democrats and their propaganda arm are stunned to immobility that Trump or Tucker may schedule events during the so-called Presidential debate. I hope they do, as both big parties have long manipulated the debates to steer Americans away from real issues. Was it not 2008 where the debates never mentioned immigration, like it wasn’t a big deal. Another reason I think Trump should do that is to teach the Democrats a lesson. For example the Koch brothers have donated $70 million to block media coverage of Trump and urge people to “move past Trump” to a new and brighter future, ha-ha. Hold a rally so places that rely on such anti-Trump funding, like Fox News, wind up wasting that money because nobody’s watching.
Word is the Indiana Jones 5 Disney release is so bad I might consider watching it. According to those who’ve seen it, they haired some unlikeable 35-year-old feminist to rudely lecture and insult any White people in the audience.
July 4 is a semi-tradition for checking the budget. You can see a list of the essentials by linking back, here are the figures for this year. I may add some editorial tomorrow, but we are looking good as we pass the half-year mark, and even better considering what inflation is doing to the middle-class.
Food 2022: $319.00 down to Food 2023: $216.95
Gasoline 2022: $184.04 no change to Gasoline 2032: $184.40
Office 2022: $137.08 down to Office 2023: $85.88
Entertainment 2022 $266.40 down to Entertainment 2023: $219.19
Food is easy in that I cook most everything, cuts a budget in half but you must have the time to cook. Gasoline remains the same, twice what it should be. Office expenses are down because we are no longer seeking to open an on-line business and that’s curious, why is entertainment down? Ah, because I am no longer pet-sitting while the Reb is out of town. When she’s gone, I’ll head down to the pub 2 or 3 nights a week. That rarely happens when she’s here.
ADDENDUM
Will I ever find the motivation to put work into my bass-player’s book? When you hear author’s say it took so-and-so many years to write a book, this is what they mean. No substantive book is ever written in one long session. During the process, there are distractions and they are a major slow-down. I don’t just mean the delinquents shooting fireworks at each other, but topics that come up and fleeting other memories that you don’t dare forget or its forever. Want an example? Okay, band formation competition.
Newbies may think the rivalry consists of style and music, but it comes at you from all sides and the start-up process isn’t immune. You get two main forces working against you and consider yourself lucky if you don’t get both. Foremost is the “other band” that’s been together forever. My recent guitarist never called back, the one I dropped the material off for last week is just the latest example. The worst are the bands which are held together by some exterior factor, in this case it is his church band. Another hard-to-clash-with is the family band—recall the Campbell brothers and Karroll brothers. They can’t fire each other.
The other dominant antagonists are the bands that are “not in it for the money”. It’s true, what I’ve said, these bands rarely last or go anywhere. But, and that a “yuge” but, they exist in a non-ending supply. It’s like starting the landscape business I describe at times like this. Your competition is the countless startups who undercut your prices. They fold quickly but the overall effect is one of a constant and ruthless competitor.
Sunday’s day trip was planned for 67 miles, I may have got that wrong earlier. The total trip was 88 miles due to that wrong turn. That was my last planned local trip, but I did have another final trip planned out to Seattle. I found the outline, it was to be a trip of 3,296 miles each way, though always longer on the return due to winter. So, around 7,000 miles, possibly for nothing. (I lost my last solid contact out west in 2019.) At today’s prices the gas for this trip now would be $1,250 for 320 gallons, presuming I get 350 miles per tank. This was a bit of the scenic route but it remains the best plan I have left that’s been studied and committed to paper. An early winter again this year would cancel this plan if not for the van, which by the way is running top-notch.
Last Laugh
x
margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em; margin-left: 1em;
