February 10, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 10, 2023, locked from the inside.
Five years ago today: February 10, 2019, 1950s EV dashboard.
Nine years ago today: February 10, 2015, on my gift of gab.
Random years ago today: February 10, 2012, college babes need tutors.

           Just my luck, somebody showed up at Lowe’s a couple days ago and bought all the packages of opened shingles. What’s left starts at $39 a pack. I got the shingle nails, I noticed they are sold in lengths up to two inches. Who needs a two-inch shingle nail? (No, they don’t hold better. The lengthholds nothing better if it pokes through the underlay and the head of the nail will tear out just as easily.) The neighbor started using power tools at 8:00AM, so that was my cue to start practicing bass full volume. Turns out the Prez does sing that Nelson tune “Gotta Get Drunk”, makes my day. I remember hearing that tune somewhere near Seattle forty years ago. The Prez is doing his homework and getting better finding an individual strum to each tune, it’s paying off well. I told ya, if you explain the guidelines, you can leave it up to others to try sounding as best they can on stage.

           Here’s a view from my rooftop last day. The overcast made it perfect for this work, just get it done fast as this is the middle of winter. Left to right, you can see the neighbor’s barn, and the double size lots. Those are not vacant plots, this is the typical size of land where homes were once build in America and probably still should be. Some of these had outbuildings that were since torn down. The field shown here was the site of the Civil War kitchen. It is common for people in this area to buy two houses where they are too close together and tear one down.

           The mandolin player may be in town a while, the feedback is he’s been playing with bands from the Auburndale area. This is no mean feat, that town is famous for super-groups. Ah, but he’ll never have as much fun or leeway that jamming with my duo. Not every participant knows the ropes, to this day I get a kick out of ladies my own age who know zilch about bands but want to know why we don’t play any Kingston Trio or Bellafonte. Duh, for the same reason they don’t do any Deep Purple? (It’s best to let them figure that out on their own, though most of them haven’t yet.)

           It was maybe unwise not to take y’day off like I should have. You get weary not budgeting your rest. This morning I did a major shop and got myselft dog tired. I scored to pallets of thinner planed lumber. That’s a commodity I’ve been keeping an eye out for quite a while. It’s to apply what I’ve learned about building smaller boxes and finer tolerances. What’s more, these were covered with brand marks, these are the most coveted pallet slats around here. See photo.            Rounding the corner last few days, I frighten the new bird. We have a third juvenile squirrel discovering the pitfalls of raiding the birdfeeders. He’s already tripped a few of the mousetraps. He’ll get run off by the bigger couple as there is not enough food around for him at the best of times.

           We also have a new bird with a horrid chirp in the back yard. Sounds like somebody stepped on a puppy’s tail. I’ve not seen him yet, as the red cardinals are very protective feeders. They will work as a team to fend off solitary intruders. They are very healthy and well-fed, I’ve learned to specialize in what they like. In media events, the Tucker interview with Putin draw viewers in the hundreds of milions. It cannot be lost to us that this is putting the gears to his former employers, the ones who fired him for not being woke. The guy certainly resonates with people who are fed up with the way the Democrats have taken the country. DC seems to be acting out of sheer desperation. One of their kangaroo courts declared Biden too senile to stand trial but still okay to be the President. Thanks to the Internet, this no longer flies. America is disgusted by the whole Democrat spectacle but they let the Deep State take over and now will have a devil of a time doing anything about it.
           There is even a Democrat in Colorado introducing a bill to tax people for pets, with fines up to $100 for each unregistered animal. Plainly another intrusion into privacy and a tax grab, the bill does nothing for animal welfare. It is just another database to track private citizens.

Picture of the day.
Smothers Brothers, 1967.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Shopping took until past noon, yet I still managed to get up there and finish nailing all the shingles I had. The other neighbor said his key would not work in the lock after I fixed the door. So I went over to look, as I took a locksmithing course years ago and had not touched the lock. Aha, he had not used it so many year it was gummed up. Now that it latched again, he was using the key which turned the opposite way and it was seizing after years of disuse. I oiled it and got the WD-40 to free things up. How do people manage when there’s nobody like me around? Take Arkansas and Rhode Island, in a dispute which state has the shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
           Environmentalists are getting antsy over NASA launching rockets near a “shallow-water coastline”. It says here cheating and lying in Wisconsin is so bad the State has set up a database to confirm who really does have a high school diploma. Ha, makes you wonder who they hired to do that. Myself, I got out the prybar and took apart two pallets in the fading light, the warmer weather bringing out the mosquitoes. I clamped the battery charger on the Town & Country but not even a spark. So much for that new “lifetime guaranteed” unit, it did not hold a charge for 18 months. In my old Mustang, a regular battery used to fire right up after being parked for years.

           NPR radio had a broadcast saying that the purpose of income tax was to make the system equitable. If so, why am I dismantling pallets for free lumber at my age? Those born rich pay almost no taxes on free money, but the poor kid pays maximum tax. Ever wonder why there are no tax specialists for the working poor? Because there are no favorable tax treatments that apply to them. Who recalls the tax course I took back in 2000? A foreign tax course was required for my certificate, so I chose Canadian because it is based on American tax law. Was I in for a surprise. Canadian law is made to amplify the differences between rich and poor. Did I tell you about the textbook? I’ll remind you.

           The textbook was full of examples of what to expect practicing tax accounting in Canada. I don’t know if I blogged it, but a typical question would be a “Canadian” named Ragdarhan Bakshi was asked you to minimize the tax on a $50,000 bond. Then they throw in the deadline is because next week is “her 18th birthday”, you can’t make this shit up. You don’t read many chapters of a book like that before you learn to despise people who live in that rarified atmosphere. It is no wonder people born and raised in abject poverty have such dislike for people who support a system I so deeply distrust.

           Gumptioning up, I headed to the old club for Karaoke. Cathy’s husband was the host and even Bradford was there. I did my two top Karaoke hits, “Jackson” and “Tequila”. Brought down the house, a curious expression because it does not mean you trounced anybody, just that the audience was engaged. I had five tables of housewives living it up. Once again, I was taken aback by very bland indie music that had lots of the audience singing along. You wonder if you’re getting old when all the music sounds alike, but does that apply if it really is alike?
           My fan club was present, so the evening cost me practically nothing. I had intended to sing “Spiders & Snakes” but there was no time. Of the thirty people present, around twenty were regular Karaoke singers. Add a few out-of-towners who’ve been around lately and there is not much rotation. With that many singers, you're lucky to get two tunes in all night.

Last Laugh