One year ago today: December 31, 2022, a few get lucky.
Five years ago today: December 31, 2018, WIP
Nine years ago today: December 31, 2014, WIP
Random years ago today: December 31, xxxx, WIP
Here’s our last message from the Florida of 2023. Enter a year of destiny. I think that for the simple reason is the country cannot afford to continue without a clear winner. What’s emerging is an unpredicted weakness in the Democrat structure, they have never been a real majority. They are experts at appearing so, but even their support seems now to be two factions. One are the traditionalists who remember what the party used to be, and the other a hard core of near fanatics who still deny anything is wrong. The behavior of this shrinking band of kooks is driving the moderates away and polls show Trump is now untouchable. Folks, 2024 is a year of destiny for this country. If they don’t defeat the liberals there will be no country.
Reddit asked for the saddest song I ever heard. I did not reply because I dislike text-based sites, but the answer is “Yesterday” by the Beatles. It is so un-Beatle-like I did not know it was them until years later. Apparently its charm was that the string ensemble at the studio was using vibrato and McCartney told them to “stop doing that” so he could hit the notes more exactly.
Carbon nitride. Somebody finally made it, a material heralded 30 years ago as a replacement for diamond. The problem is, the cost of making it is higher than diamonds. The search was prompted by the lack of materials between diamond and the next material on the Mohs scale, carborandum. Nothing in between, but theoretically carbon and nitrogen should combine. At the time, I doubted it because the atomic bonding of other elements can’t compete with carbon. This led me to read up on the Argyle mine in Australia, which produces the rarest diamond color, pink.
I’m going to skip all plans except maybe over to Bartow for an early New Year’s. I’ll be home early, unless I’m on stage, these events are not that big a draw for me. This includes the ribs I was going to try. I’m not zonked or anything, just the pace of work was going to catch up sooner or later. Tomorrow means back to my own chores. I got the Prez’s hamburger pizza recipe, he used white cheddar from Ireland. That’s a new one on me, but I looked it up and seems I thought it was something they added to make it white. The pizza filling included mushrooms so I like it already.
This photo is son of agave, who you can just see to the left. The only plant that grows so well that isn’t a weed and it something you can’t touch and does not really grow flowers. All other plants wait to get here because they want to die in a place that reminds them of home, I guess.
Chinese jet fighter strip.
(South China Sea.)
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This was my New Year’s Eve accomplishment. You can see the pilot hole, the patch, the solvent & glue, and the straps that will last longer than anybody around here. I shoveled the thousand pounds of dirt and pebbles back using muscles that have only come back to life this week. I drove two metal poles into the dirt to mark where that tank is. I repeat, I’m no plumber so I’m making a presumption the problem is all fixed.
It stayed mild after dark, so I drove over to Kooters. No entertainment, in fact, I don’t think any place in this area did New Year’s Eve. I didn’t stay long but I met this dude who plays drums and invited him to the jam. He was young, but old-school in his thinking of the band-formation process. As usual, his concept of playing in a band was that of a dedicated flunky backing up a guitarist and hoping things worked out. No, no, good fellow, music is fun and you can cast off that nonsense. Bring an abbreviated kit, I advised, there is no room as it is. Did I tell you I bumped the mic stand into Keith’s tooth last week?
The entire town was Deadsville, but I still took the side roads home. Good move. I’m okay but it is never wise to have anything to do with the police if one can avoid it. They have what is called a Luca Brasi mentality about following orders. Every main road was checkstopped and I could see from a mile back there was already trouble by 9:00PM. I didn’t stay up for midnight, preferring to read tech and science articles I requested last month. NASA has successful fired a rotating detonation engine, an offshoot of the pulsejet. The fuel is sprayed around a nozzle and the result is a supersonic thrust wave. Think very loud and Mach 5.
ADDENDUM
Ensconced warmly inside my back office, I’m still not fully adapted to living above the Florida frost line. I’m looking into a propane heating system into the kitchen that would keep the whole place toasty by leaving the doors open. Things would be a hell of a mess right now if the electricity went out. I’m open to a portable forced air heater. I’ve got two full propane tanks on the hot dog cart. I don’t really trust large indoor heaters that require venting. I’ll check Harbor Freight. Meanwhile, I’m watching documentaries stressing these directed research viewings are nothing like watching television. Like books, I choose in advance what I’m seeing.
The West Wall is the German name for the Siegfried Line, a defensive belt of mainly pillboxes built facing the French Maginot Line. I noticed Germany had a mortar training school in the area, which got my interest as that’s the Americans attacked in 1944. Also, there was a seasoned SS force who had experience operating heavy machine guns at the Russian front. I’d previously read about American squads disappearing completely and how 58 Germans help up an American division for six hours. Were these situations connected? Pillboxes have are immobile with limited arcs of fire, so why so many American casualties?
The pillboxes and bunkers were built in the 1930s when you could not drive a tank up to the doors and blast them in. Ah, the casualties occurred when the Americans sent soldiers toward what they were told were a cowardly and defeated enemy who had just retreated across France. Wrong, the Germans were always short manpower and strongpoints were a known substitute. The West Wall was not a last ditch anything. While the American field reports keep saying fire was light and airplanes dropped a few bombs, one must wonder how that killed 800 Gis. Something does not add up.
Mortars are an under-rated weapon. My theory is there were troops from that nearby mortar school who could lay down a ferocious barrage from any of the wooded areas that flanked the approaches. This herded the Americans into machine gun killing zones. The 2nd SS was not some “Nazi SuperHuman Devils on drugs”, they are an elite force like the US Rangers or British Commandos. Today, they’d be akin to the Green Berets.
Here’s where the Americans begin to say they were outnumbered, unsupplied and without adequate air support. The fact is, they were outfought and covering up for one of the largest defeats and retreats of the war. It was Patton against von Rundstedt and I can tell you right there where to bet your money. Even with superior American firepower, I have doubt about claims the Germans had tens times as many casualties as the attackers. This is the battle zone that contains the talked-about Hyrtgen Forest where it is known the Americans lost six thousand in one attack. Nor do I trust other American statistics. I suspect the ratio of tanks, men, airplanes, and logistics against the Germans averaged 14:1.
