One year ago today: January 13, 2023, a better stopwatch.
Five years ago today: January 13, 2019, major construction.
Nine years ago today: January 13, 2015, the last $2.75 tank-up.
Random years ago today: January 13, 2001, jammed at 906 (?).
Amtrak just doubled their private car rates to just over $5 per mile. That’s just the beginning, all other aspects of owning such a car have skyrocketed. In case you wondered, yes, you do have to license and register your rail car. It costs $913 per day to park in Chicago, I wonder if they get any takers. The $5 is your basic fee, if you want a locomotive to move it, you’ll have to cough up another $8 per mile. Millennial pricing. I mean, why should they just openly tell you it is $13 per mile? No need for up-front honesty when you are America’s greatest generation, right?
The Gigrac PA acted up at the gig, so I hauled all the speakers and cables into the house and tested every link. Alas, it is the PA, which really disappoints me. It was used once a week for ten years, the rest of the time in climate-controlled storage. It seems channels 5 and 8 are somehow tripping the internal breaker, which can be reset by powering down and up again. Not the best plan for stage work. The system is overkill for the gigs these days, so possibly a nice powered mixer is in the stars. Here’s a picture of the testing setup, this is a lot of labor for me and I no longer like moving gear.
The duo has chosen to play McCartney’s “Ive Just Seen A Face”, which I sing but the lyrics give me the jeebies. Not the meaning, but the rhyme scheme does not match rhythm. So I go looking for maybe he did other versions of the song and find out the tune has been critically acclaimed for those stilted lyrics. Dang, so he did that on purpose.
Remember Cindy Morgan, the babe on Caddyshack? She died alone in a Lake Worth shared apartment at age 69. Fortunately, this does not happen to people who can sing, dance, and play music. What a way to wind up after what appeared to be a dream career. She was the Irish Spring girl and landed a well-paid spot on some soap opera. This is why I say, after age 40, either you are on that stage or you are not. Doesn’t matter what else you’ve done, you are not going to meet anyone. And even the stage is no guarantee you’ll glom onto a great bass player, I mean look how long it is taking Taylor.
Tooled leather holster.
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Mild news from Tennessee, things are moving slow. I had similar challenges in 2003-2006 when I was recovering. I made it okay but it left a huge gap in my life and my plans. Medically, I did recover to a remarkable degree, but you come out of it so old and tired it is understandable some never get back in the saddle. The Reb reports the doggies miss me but they’ve just learned where my boots are when I’m in town and check for them. Still, what a nice thing to say. I wrote letters to Hersh, Marion, JZ, and JeePee this week. Only JeePee has to read them because the information will be on the exam.
I’m lost as to how this diamond is made into a suitable semi-conductor, though I recognize the technology is used in transistors. They’ll have to ramp the power up quite a bit to get useful and hope that nobody figures out how they are manufacturing the diamond. It would work with other less friendly isotopes like strontium, with a battery life exceeding 200 years. I’ll keep an eye on this, but I remind you it is not a new idea and other than the manufacturing process, it breaks no scientific or theoretical ground.
My guess is this battery will retail for $5,000. How do I know that? Because pricing is based on what the next best alternative costs.. I spend arounf $50 per year on batteries times 50 years and double that for the “convenience cost”. It is an illusion that prices are based on manufacturing costs plus a profit tacked on. When airlines raise their prices, so does Amtrak whether it is justified by costs or not.
Karaoke. Some new lady is there, seems nice, but keeps the music loud all the time. Without even a fade between singers and fill music, it’s sometime tricky to figure out when somebody is up. Tonight was that crowd of old millennials I’ve mentioned, the ones who sing their teenager’s indie music. They can be fired up and I did my famous Karaoke hit where I don’t sing, they do. Tequila. My tiny fan club was there but they still have not adjusted to how I’m no company for most paired off couples. But, they got me on stage twice and mentioned that there is a posting on Facebook with pictures of the Wednesday jam. I’d like to see that, but they could not find it. I don’t have an account.
Putting another nail in their own coffin, the Feds sent the Department of Agriculture to raid an Amish farmer’s freezer. He was selling and trading ice cream and chocolate milk to private clients. The State slipped in a quiet law that farmers who sold to the “non-public” require a special business license. The raid was conducted under the disguise of a food safety inspection. It seems a couple people in the area had tummy-aches and that as all the excuse they were waiting for.
Latest news today is some city council member in Alabama may run for leader. He was acquitted of charges over punching the black mayor and calling him the n-word. Apparently it was over some insult to the member’s wife, but that is not the issue here. If he wins in a landslide, it opens a door that will cause liberals everywhere to shit their pants, big time. It is not morality, but political correctness that’s been blocking people from telling it like it is. If he’s elected despite using the n-word, the libtards are set back fifty years.
ADDENDUM
How horrible, the story emerging about the underground tunnels beneath synagogues. This will be a tough thing to explain and the tenants had best come up with some cover story. Worst facet is the stained mattress, but to make things worst, it turns out the first thing they did was try to get rid of the mattress. This does not look good. How about the proposal to evacuate all the Whites out of South Africa and ship the illegals there, let them see how that works out.
What’s worse, the DOJ has just announced they will begin arresting “thousands” of people who were in the Capitol on Jan 6 but did not enter the building. I could care less, in fact, I get a laugh over it. These are the people who had “nothing to hide” and did not heed good advice. The type who called me a conspiracy theorist as an insult. I mean, think about it, how do the authorities know who was nearby on that day? Cell phones, license plates, street cameras, ATM records, Visa transcripts, 3D parking meters, drones, facial recognition, and fingerprints for starters.
The exact items this blog and many others specifically warned them about before partaking in any such activities. But no, they were smarter than us and now they can be smart rotting in jail. No mercy. They don’t want to learn that the trick is to take sides without be stupid about it. The other side of the coin is this move reflects the near total desperation of the regime, they have to double-down on this insurrection thing. The only unarmed insurrection in history. What happens if they go too far? They are pretty close to the wire already. This is why I’m going downtown for a beer later—I moved 200 miles away from all that political crap, not to get away from it, but so I could have a better view.
