January 27, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 27, 2023, fled for her life.
Five years ago today: January 27, 2019, no, not COVID.
Nine years ago today: January 27, 2015, neither rare nor glamorous.
Random years ago today: January 27, 2001, a 7-hour gig.

           Last evening I went to a comedy show. Stand up commedians from Tampa, they were certainly loud. I found most of the material to be TV humor, so much got past me. I don’t get Kardashian jokes and I have no idea who Drew Schmidt is. Wilford was on duty, who got it all. During the dull moments, I gave him a small kit of electronic components and some diagrams to see if he gets anywhere. The guy would be a success if he could focus on fewer things. Today, we fix the radiator heater, a cold spell is moving in soon and this one will stay for at least a week. Temperatures below 50 kind of kill Sunday band practive. The Prez & I are fine, we did our homework and can learn new tunes over the telephone. The other players, well, you-know. I put in more time connecting this light bulb than they do practicing.

           Here’s one for you. While Wilford and I were sketching the circuit, guess who barges in and wants to talk with me? The one-chord lady. The one who never fails to mention she could not play guitar a year a go. I’ll dub her Tonya since she has a Russian name. Friendly enough but way out in left field, the kind I figure got married far too young. I honestly do not recognize anything on her song list, but it’s real because other people will sing along a bit on the chorus parts. She asked a few questions that surprised me because at the jam she did not appear to be paying much attention. One answer she really liked was why I sang so many “chick songs”. It’s called 30 years of playing in all-girl bands, sweetheart.

           Oh, this just in, on Monday it is dropping into the 30s, I shall double-check my coffee supply and maybe stay a day or two longer in Miami, where it tends to be ten degrees warmer. This found me out in the shed fixing the radiators, which I may wind up with only one instead of two. By cannibalizing the parts, I can get it to the lowest setting. But I don’t dare bypass the thermostat because that is also a safety cut off. While this is happening, I worked on the sandpaper box and discovered a new problem. Despite using a very nice jig to cut the panel slots, sometimes they don’t match up. Even when cut from the same pieces of lumber, there is a way for the slots to misalign at final assembly.

           As normal around here, there is no easily found website that addresses this issue, but tons that show how to cut the slots. It’s so typical of the shallowness of web information, no depth. While I’m happy I got to the stage of this advanced problem, I would still like a little help around here. I was back and forth to the yard so often my habit of picking up one thing each pass means I finally got that old door frame cut up and thrown out and found lumber for yet another small shelf, or ledge really, in the compressor shed. I will never own enough ledges. When I die, the number I own will be “ledgendary”. Hey, it’s my blog and I can say things like that.

           This closeup [picture] shows the problem but you’ll have to squint a bit. The two light-colored strips, one down from the top, the other along the bottom toward where I’m pointing should match up exactly in this corner. It’s evident the slots are a full width apart. Yet the lumber size is not the problem, they are cut from the same plank. There’s some factor at work here and I’ll find it. Both end pieces are the same, so it’s not something obvious, did I mention these slots are cut on a jig before the end pieces are sliced, so the wood has no way of “knowing’ which pieces become the ends.
           However, working on fixing the heater gave me time to think on this. You know, I have narrow strips from my old shutters that look around the right size for the slots. Why not just trim those and slide them in, since this box doesn’t really have to support any weight. I’ve decided to build shelves for the small tools in the space above the air compressor. This would include things like my router bits, 12V drill case, this sandpaper, and my tray of Allen wrenches. Right now, most have custom cases, but the big ones make the small ones hard to dig out every time.

Picture of the day.
Propellor polishing.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           We have a return visitor. One of the red cardinal juveniles. Still a bachelor and feeds alone, he is the closest on to tame and the one who learned quickest to make noise when I’m in the yard and the water spray will get turned on. Normally I work until something goes wrong. Lately I’ve been luck but today I dropped a jack handle on my little toe. But I must keep moving on these heaters. It only looks like I have three. One is smaller, just enough for the bathroom, and if I get this one repaired, I have enough for one room only. Good thing my coffee inventory stands at 85 cups.

           Here’s the oil radiator heater on the bench, partially disassembled. I bypassed a faulty plastic switch with a metal off-on model. My logic is I didn’t need a three-position switch as I’ve never run these heaters except full on. Off-on is brute force, it either works or not and this one went on the blink. The other identical unit had broken control knobs jammed on the low position. It took an hour to find the problem, always somewhat frustrating when the wiring all checks and it still won’t fire up.

           Ha-ha, Wilford was on the phone for a couple minutes. It’s a common thing nowadays to find people who are sure they know something inside out—until somebody like shows up and says what about that. Lots of people think my approach is short-sighted because I rarely build projects like most hobbyists. But too many of those same people can’t tell you much more about transistors than that they work when you hook them up. Rather than connect ten transistors and make a radio, I’m more likely to take one and learn all about it. And the one this time is that PNP.
           He’s working tonight, so I might go downtown but the last Thursday of the month tends to be disk jockey time. What sort of moron thinks that is live entertainment. I worked until past dark and fot the heater working. It was a small missing piece of wire. I did hear something rattling loose before the heater broke, my guess is the faulty switch finally melted the solder and it fell through the vent holes. Once I spliced the unit, it gave no trouble. Shown here is where I soldered in a new piece, which is child’s play for a robotics guy. The challenge was finding the fault and I don’t claim to know a lot about A/C wring like this.

           Here is the picture where the problem was discovered. You can’t see it because it isn’t there, but there should be a ground wire attached where the arrow is pointing. It was not inside the casing, so we got one of them mysteries. While I had the shell off, I daubed a spot of fresh solder over each junction that did not have a proper clip. We are back to 1-1/2 electric heaters plus the propane space heater. But used full blast, it used a $5 bottle every few hours. I use it to heat one room rapidly, then the electric heaters to maintain a comfort level. I really must install a propane furnace some year. Even an ordinary garage heater would be enough. Winter doesn’t last that long, usually three months, sometimes close to four, but the days stay warm.

           Tampa is part of the growing Democrat panic. The liberals have an agenda of increasingly serious tactics and accusations, now it is that Trump will be a dictator. Considering he’s stated he will put them out of business, it must look that way from DC. Ha, that’s the same reasoning whereby motivation seems like an unfair advantage to lazy bastards. The problem is that their game plan with these attacks is cumulative, each new accustion is partially based on the success of earlier ones. With Trump, none of the hoaxes, indictments, kangaroo courts, or media onslaughts have worked. There is no earlier successes. So the crazy mechanizations of the left are now beyond making sense.
           And they’ve got themselves into a situation. Texas called their bluff. Texas is recruiting and deputizing volunteers by what looks like tens of thousands. Other states seem to be sending aid, but it’s hard to follow what they are saying. And some border patrol people have openly turned on Biden by saying they will not follow orders to arrest Texas authorities doing their job. This creates a problem Biden cannot ignore. He has to start throwing people in jail for a very long time or this becomes the rallying point for his own destruction. If Biden dares to arrest a State Governor, there will be hell to pay.

           I stayed home. My toe is killing me. I was wearing tough leather shoes but it got me anyway. Let’s check the news. Trump has vowed to begin mass deportations on his day of inauguration. It won’t be that easy because they are not going to leave without a fight. That’s why I support a bounty system. Nothing works like capitalism, and making a profit assures we’ll get every last one. Where to? Mexico, that who let them through once, and they can let them through again the other direction.
           Oooh, what’s this. The judge in the fake rape case against Trump has been exposed as mentor of the accuser’s lawyer. They are supposed to disclose any such relationships and he should now be removed from the bench.
           Last, I found this blog listed as a link under category “Mystery” at a Portland bookstore, price $0.00. I've noticed another unexplained upsurge in readership, I take this moment to remind newcomers that this blog is a daily record of the most exciting events of the day even if that makes the post bland. This blog does NOT represent the way an average American spends his day.

ADDENDUM
           We’ve hear enough of these posts about what women look for in men. They are either written by men or by women who think they know what men want to hear. So I was surprised to find this list of what made women actually choose a man:

1) Large private library that he’d actually read.
2) Makes food for the dogs at the shelter.
3) Cuts and chops his own firewood.

           Yes, it was a very short list. Building boxes was not on it. Neither was bass playing, writing, stability, singing, travelling, study, planning ahead, curiosity, honesty, or good taste. My advice to women is the top quality you should look for in a man is a quality they call “sense of self”. Most everything else worthwhile stems from that.

Last Laugh