April 8, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 8, 2023, stlll playing with blocks.
Five years ago today: April 8, 2019, Sparky at the marina.
Nine years ago today: April 8, 2015, for forty years.
Random years ago today: April 8, 2011, working class women.

           How about we start with food? That’s what I did, a batch of real Texas spuds. That’s the kind that have zero Mexican ingredients. Here it is, no green peppers, no chili concoctions, just diced chicken, onions, butter, oil, garlic, and a dash of herbs. The fried egg is just a last minute addition for this morning’s chow. And lots of coffee, all you want. Howie was over to visit and he’s brining the tube tester around. He has not used it but says the instructions are stamped onto the metal casing, American-style. If I need help, the guy at the tube store knows all these gadgets.

           I tidied up the yard and ran the chain saw, a lot of the routine stuff. Remember that pricey wood conditioner I tried? I built a small bos specifically to test this product and I decided on cherry stain. A light enough tint that allows us to see the wood. It goes on smooth and even, the difference is noticeable. I use the word difference because I’m not so sure it is the improvement everyone would like. Wait for pictures when it is done, it has a “store-bought” appearance which may not be what I’m shooting for.
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sp;          I also got enought hardward to finish the first matching set of boxes, you’ll recognize those. They should have routed insets in an attemt to get a tighter closing lid. Ideally, it should be seamless and I can’t achieve that with a chisel. On-line I learned the recess is mortised and the thin line whenr the wood meets is called a reveal, which I formerly thought were door-building terms. Later, here is a picture of the cherry-stained wood. This camera has no macro capablity, but the smooth even coverage is present. It darkens a bit with a poly finish, but again, the effect is somewhere between shiney and mass-produced.

           Instead, I spent six hours in the yard and have some bad news. Another of the neighbor’s big trees was uprooted in the storm last week. And it was a big one, just missing his barn and my workshed by wedging itself between two other trees. I got some of the limbs with my 14” chain saw, but that trunk is nearly two feet in diameter. And hanging at a recarious angle where it could fall if you try to cut it up wrong. The whole tree wouls weigh over a ton. It took out part of his wire fence.
           I will have one more go at it from my side of the fence, but if that is futile it becomes a major operation involving a ladder truck. Then, I measured out and roughed a cutout for a window in the silo. For the outlet on the chop saw, I have to cut an access hole right where I originally ran in the elextrical wiring. I’ll do both jobs at once since that outlet is foing to be eight feet off the ground from outside.
           My test results are back and I’m due in Miami some time in the text two weeks. Summer is finally here so we’ll see about making it a several-day excursion, maybe visit Agt. M, who how as three sons. There’s a slim chance Trent will be in town and if so, there is a robot club reunion planned at the Wiley Street Tavern. Trent is also privy to inside information about the Caltier investment but I remain the only one who has actually done it.

Picture of the day.
Chinese temple.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           That does it, we need another notch up in security. We’ve begun receiving e-mail from a source that should not know we exist. Rather than deal with the bank, I’ll just close the account. Why are some people such dicks? It just be the ones whose mothr never picked them up. The Reb, called immediately. I’ve already made the changes, and now I’m tired again. Is that how these things work? Let’s have some trivia. Women who own a house weight twelve pounds more that renters. People who walk fast have higher Iqs. And have you noticed when you hear a rotary engined airplane, there are two distinct noises? I found out that has to do with the engines having an odd number of pistons.

           Labs, I’m twenty years late, but I have Type II diabetes, the junk food condition. But I never ate that much of it, so the regular supply is contaminated. This, despite taking the preventative control for some ten years now. So how were they on to me? My slightly puffy left leg, shown in this photo. This never did return after I fell off that stool two summers ago and got a little swelling. Alls I can say is if medicine worked, you would not need refills. To think that rated a blog mention, but nothing else happened Everybody else was watching the eclipse. The next one around here is 2045 and I’ll be long gone. I saw a total eclipse once when I was a kid. When you’ve seen one.

           The Reb called back, the paperwork for the Civic was not completed until today. We have the written confirmation, so they can come tow the car. I went back out to the shed and put another layer of cherry stain on the box. In the end, I ran the chain saw for a half-hour found the exercide and buzzing vibration rather therapeutic. She reports the new printer has the same problem as the old one, which I have here. It has to be her system, since the odds of two identical conditions on two different models isn’t easily explained that they are both the same brand. And I can’t test it here because I have that pukey Win 11 that won’t use the right drivers.
           For the record, all the Hollywood movies you see about Americans in Normandy fighting Tiger tanks are false. The Germans never deployed and Tigers in the American sectors. While several disabled Tigers were captured on freight cars, there was no combat until months later when the Americans crossed into Germany. Every one of the thousand American reports of fighing Tiger tanks is bogus. They called it Tiger Fever, which to me explains maybe 10% of the errors.

           Moving on to music, I finally leared the Brooks & Dunn “You’re Gonna Miss Me”. To me, what a dreary song, but got to keep my band happy. It’s typical country album-filler schlock. I spiced up the bass line with some 6th notes where the original uses octaves, and added maybe a dozen passing notes that have to get missed on guitar. It has a complicated instrumental that I already know gets replaced by verse pattern, something that is never a good idea. We have more than enough for the two hour show where others are constantly repeating. I sent a note to the xylophone couple who have already stated the place is not their cup of tea. But they know it was a dynamite show once we got the wannabes off the stage.
           Drat, I did not video last week’s show. Too bad, the Prez’s wife is skeptical we got those curtain calls. But it is a great morale booster because by now he knows we get them many times more than other people he jams with. Our sound has progressed to where we now sound like nearly a full band that’s missing the drummer. He’s caught on to the technique of “capturing” the theme of each song, so my guess is that he knew of the method before but never had the opportunity to exploit it. And, he’s learned it on stage, one of the harshest of tests.

ADDENDUM

           An article in LiveScience (no link) states this is a likeness of Emperor Wu as he looked 1500 years ato. They claim the DNA was found in his “nearly complete skull”. He died at age 36. So he looked like this. [Insert how-can-they-tell joke here.] Does this mean the technology can be used forensically? That would worry a lot of people Remember long ago when the hospitals used DNA tests to predict birth defects? Well, I remember when the government decided they had to keep all those records on file.
           I’m still on a lite but on-going search to find any truly new invention or discovery in the past 40 years that matches on a scale with the airplane, telephone, or computer. This DNA does not count as all the new techniques do not compare to the discovery itself.

Last Laugh