One year ago today: December 13, 2022, walkies.
Five years ago today: December 13, 2018, few things shallower.
Nine years ago today: December 13, 2014, a borrowed Sunbeam.
Random years ago today: December 13, 2003, further is better.
Here’s that eerie silence again, it lasted from 5:30AM onward. I could hear some morning traffic from way over on Floral. The only other sound is a gate whistle from the canning plant over two miles away. The birds chirping at feeding time and that was it. I clicked on the radio for the ten o’clock news. It was all politics but there’s been some sort of furor and I wish somebody would turn A.I. loose on the voter registration rolls. It seems the Democrats have been forced to purge 100,000 names from their lists. I’m surprised I can’t hear that wailing over the horizon.
The morning was ideal for work, here is a view of the drawer I built in October. The best I have build yet but not something I could sell. It’s starting to cloud over, which means yard work without the sun. I won’t miss that opportunity and it would stall my work on the shop vacuum. Folks, you can’t pass up a cloudy day in this part of the world. Later, here is a photo of the front yard after I went on an anti-kudzu raid. If you look past the fence line, that was formerly the depth of weed on my side.
Some of it was also attacking the trees. That is all cut down to ground level but often the kudzu vines have to be left where the tendrils have grown solid into the tree bark. The green cuttings on the ground show mostly where the incursion had gone. I’m fortunate this species does not grow anything like North Carolina. This was aerobic work with a grass whip, causing me to opt for a nap and that put me out until 1:00PM.
They were warned. Push notifications are kind of like pop ups that work on a smart phone rather than a computer. Since they follow buying habits, police have used them for years to track people. The snag is that instead of the proper warrant, the police have used subpoenas to the service provider. I know, it is strange how many people still think the police are the good guys because they’ve not been arrested yet. A new Apple company ruling makes the police provide a warrant—but this is not as big a victory as it sounds. The warrant is served on the provider, not the user, in complete contradiction to American law.
And Left has switched tactics yet again. The Democrats don’t seem to grasp that people are aware of their habit of accusing other of what they themselves are up to. Now they are using the scare tactic that if Trump gets in, he will become dictator for life. Actually, that doesn’t resonate with voters because he’s pushing 80. Besides, if it was possible to do just that, the commies would have done it already.
Glastonbury Tor.
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Coffee kept me going for five full hours this afternoon, I didn’t otherwise even think of a break. I cut the pieces for the vacuum base and took down a section of wall so I could line up the tubing. I see some aluminum piping that is even cheaper than EMT on sale, I wonder. Here is the “ready-access” wall of my work area, showing a workshop that is slowly taking on the character of a small factory.
Fast forward to the jam session at 7:00PM. You’ll read more than you need about the vacuum system tomorrow and such. I wound up taking down a wall to make the parts fit so far. The jam session was dullsville as the audiences are not there on weekdays. Such under-30s as show up don’t know the music, although I pay attention to an extent. Tonight it was mostly that gal with the really loud voice who mentions several times per evening that 26 “isn’t that old”.
It’s become usual as the Prez and I dominate much of the show—but careful, not because we over-play or upstage. It’s because we now know most of the other regular’s material. It’s because we do homework, learn their material, and get better at it.. It’s an easy learn, if you let us know in advance what you play, we can back you up to a fine degree. If you surprise us or say “follow me”, you are on your own. This isn’t malice, this is because we don’t fake material we don’t know, though we do okay on stuff we’ve at least heard before. Tonight was not such a time.
The others play the same every week, fortunately the audience varies just enough for that. The successful catering lady was in, I chatted with her about wedding parties. The cheapest packaged wedding out of Tampa is $10,000. Mind you, they take care of everything including cleanup. Part of my job is to think these things through and there are many factors. The Prez’s temperament is mild-mannered it’s-all-good and he’s probably “twice” as easy to get along with, so wedding parties are more to his liking. I have very little idea of how such parties work in the long run, having played maybe eight pools and weddings in my long career.
The Prez, having just recently doubled his lifetime hour toll on stage, is racing ahead. Part of that is my doing, as the new-found changes to his guitar playing can fit it very well with other instruments beside my bass. I have to hold him back from wanting to play all manner of wild tunes because he does not yet know which ones deliver the wow. Old Creedence Clearwater doesn’t.
He does not always know I’m making a management decision, not a music decision. Until around 15 years ago, old CCR was overplayed time-killer on stage. Who didn’t play “Green River”, “Proud Mary” and “Lodi”? I thought this through and these have fallen largely away since then. Maybe time to re-consider? At some point I’ve played most CCR so I would favor any that have better bass lines. Too many audiences recognize “Bad Moon” as being filler music.
ADDENDUM
I went to a separate school for my last five years until graduation, so I don’t really know that much about English history or which Kings go with what century. The few I know are from movies like “Braveheart” but could not point to a map. English was not shoved on us as much as the government schools. I’ve decided to watch another movie I’ve heard about, “Cromwell”. If I can find the free version, of course. It’s like my policy of shopping, you only buy it elsewhere if they don’t sell it at Dollar Tree.
Yet, it’s ironic that I never understood the mentality of people who do nothing, but demand a share. You know the ones I mean, they can sit there for years because they know the odds are somebody around them is going to eventually try to get ahead. Then they scream like wolves that person owes them at least half. They report him to the authorities for taking unfair advantage. Did you know that I thought this mentality was rare until I visited India, an entire culture founded on that sick philosophy? So, if I will watch a pirated movie, how can I justify dislike of people who steal from me?
It’s like so. While they are laying claim to a direct share of my hard work (usually through taxation), I am actually buying something second hand and paying, as is my right, what it is worth to me. I’ve explained my SONY theory before. This is where the digital rights people base their valuation of piracy on the very false assumption that if people did not pirate something, every one of them would go out and purchase it retail. That’s completely bogus, I would not watch any Disney movies unless they were free, Disney makes enough money on park fees if you ask me. So, right or wrong, the fact remains some things I won’t pay for if they can be had for free. It keeps the other side on their toes.
And before anyone gets on my case over MicroSoft, who I have never paid a cent, your time is better spent going after non-profit CEO salaries. They should be capped at $500,000 per year. The other day I was approached for a donation to help autistic kids. No way, not since they changed the definition of autistic to include just
plain stupid and lazy. (They claim close to half the child population of the US is “affected”. Maybe the stupid part.)
