May 2, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 2, 2023, rabbet joint anniversary coincidence.
Five years ago today: May 2, 2019, sure, they sprout . . .
Nine years ago today: May 2, 2015, building a propeller.
Random years ago today: May 2, 2004, Moccasin? I meant mukluk.

           My plan for this morning is grits, eggs, and a chapter on dead reckoning. The concept is easy, but I’ve thumbed through a few of the advanced chapters and see it becomes more accurate the better you know the system. It requires more guesswork but at least we can say we did the reading. Are you with me? What’s this, a second Boeing whistleblower has died? A sudden illness, they say, at age 44. Bumble, the dating app, after losing 86% of it’s IPO value, has decided it will remove the rule that women must make the first move. And to documentary makers, I remind you your work gets my delete button at the first mention of “climate change”. There was enough BS in the world already before you came along.

           That’s my birdbath showing the dripper system. I liked this still picture showing the works. The top corner shows the anti-squirrel mesh. The dripper sends the ripple in the pattern shown. The design allows small and mid-size birdies to get right under the dripper. It’s a favorite of the sing female red cardinal.

           Cancel most of the day, as I found a discrepancy in the books that could not be postponed. Took a while, and this is why I do not trust any spreadsheets except Excel. Now, Excel is far from efficient, but they’ve ironed out the bad patches long ago. When outfits like LibtardOffice try to copy the design, they rarely get the invisible parts right. I get it, they want to make the apps easy to use, but there exists an IQ limit below which you are not helping these simpletons who you should not be letting near your data in the first place.
           I found it. When you are entering a formula into a cell, the normal procedure when you are done is to click anywhere outside the cell. This accepts the formula and closes the text window. Then along comes LibtardOffice. When you click, it appends the random cell you clicked on to the end of your formula. This created a logic error that goes back on my books several months. I will be so glad when I find my old Excel install disks. Since the account numbers have changed since that error, I shall have to go back and filter every transaction until I find the $266.45. Up yours, LibtardOffice. It’s not the feature, it’s that you cannot turn the damn thing off.

           Off to Winter Haven, where things are cheaper enough to justify the trip, especially groceries. I’ve no explanation for the high prices downtown in Lakeland. I picked up other supplies, all of this taking most of ttis sweltering afternoon. Birdseed has doubled in price, now that Biden jerk has gone too far. I see the trouble-making and agitation has started up again, but that dang old Trump is not doing anything except talking about the issues and getting out to meet people. How can you declare martial law if the guy will not cooperate? Anyway, I picked up some spray foam to finish the neighbor’s carport and some extra small screws I’ve planned for some plywood boxes and such.

           This had me listenting to Gore Vidal on the CD player. Not that I dislike the guy, but his style grates on me. In case you’re wondering, I got the audiobook because the title had the word “navigation”. Vidal was a contemporary of a politician whose surname was Gore, which does not help. The most irksome thing about Vidal is his completely polished manner of systematically slipping in his own conceited remarks. It’s there no matter what the topic and reminds me too much of my brothers, I guess. Example, he mentions a single visit with Johnny Carson, who was an icon of his day. There after, Vidal can’t say “Carson”, he deliberately says “John”, it’s annoying as hell. We all, I suppose, do this to an extent. But we don’t write books about it.
           This pic shows how I know how long light bulbs last. And this is a common example of how these new LED bulbs do not last. Even the $5+ brands have a life span of maybe 8 months, like that one shown here. Higher prices do not translate into better quality, I simply buy the cheap ones and replace. This is a shed bulb, so on the maybe four days per week it is used, it would be turned on and off once per occasion. Virtually and ideal indoor location and they just do not make the grade.

           Solar flares could wipe out the Internet for weeks, say the scientists. Starting in late October, say the memes. The latest bill passed by the radical left outlaws anti-semetic speech, even if it quotes Bibilical passages. The desperation in DC soars beyond belief. Big Media has refused to publish news that the Oregon Attorney-General was arrested for treason this morning. She illegally tried to pressure local police to seize firearms in pro-Republican ridings. When the US Marines arrested her as she stepped out her door, she flew into maniacal rage, attempting to claw them with her fake fingernails. Until one Marine plowed her in the face.
           She has been using illegal pressure to disarm Republican voters, including taking away their hunting rifles. The Marines found pistols in both her purse and glovebox. If convicted in a military court, she could face life imprisonment in Gitmo.

Picture of the day.
Texas hill country.
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           Summers here and it was a broiler out there. I did not enjoy the day so help me stay positive here. Okay, it was a quart of peach tea, from a mix. How come so refreshing. The trick is one freshly squeezed line and replace half the water with leftover tea. Gives it a tartness, see, you like it already. The birdseed this morning was the fiery hot blend to ward of squirrels while I find out how they are getting past my baffles. In fact, let me throw on some ribs and sit down in the swivel chair to watch. It won’t work because these smart ones know when you are watching. My lower back says give it a try anyhow.

           Here’s the agave chutes and they appear to be thriving and happy. Vibrant growth is visible after a few days. If this keeps up, I’ll plant another dozen to see if it’s a fluke. These are planted in potting soil, I have several others planted directly into the yard dirt that don’t look as well. I sent a note to Electro-Harmonix concerning the tubes and got a seriously lackluster reply. The human canned response, no wonder robots are taking their jobs. The purchasing agent does not appear to know how to interpret ordinary sentences like, “This is a sample”, writing back they don’t want to buy just one tube. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked with many people like that. But the company never made them the purchasing agent.

           While in Winter Haven, I took an hour’s break at the library. Glancing through the 2024 Guiness Book of Records, I see the’ve sadly gone woke. No mention of the Webb telescope but a full page on some queer with the largest care bear collection. Equally bad is the focus on “special” athletics, trust me, most people don’t even want to hear about it. That and an obvious blind eye to cheating, since the limits of human performance have a cap. It was news a century ago with the 4-minute mile, but no normal human can make the 3-minute. I’m suspicious as hell about these times below 3:50, there something funny going on and if they can’t find it, they are not looking hard enough. If you ask me, always if you ask me.
           And the same goes for these special races, showing some guy who wins but he’s strapped to a $200,000 custom made titanium carriage or something. It’s like the guy with a fully-equipped $200,000 workshop who posts a video that he can make his own furniture for fifty bucks. Yeah, and Eatmore’s dad saying he can make a cup of coffee for 5 cents. It’s not easy to stay positive surrounded by losers.

           I saw an interesting design for a float made from plastic soda bottles. One of the challenges of an underwater camera is controlling the maneuvers. This one, instead of an underwater propellor, employed a pair of drone fans and behaved remarkably. It was a toy, but it was easy to imagine the platform having a cutout where a camera could peer down at the lake bottoms. Most lakes in Florida are quite shallow. This model used model airplane radio control. What I saw was how the operator was able to keep the float stationary in a crosswind. Aha,you are thinking what I’m thinking.

           An Arduino could automate that control. I read the latest GPS shields are very accurate (shields are the extra devices attached to the basic Arduino). There has always been talk that there are so many “things” at the bottom of Florida lakes that the overburdened police don’t even want to look. If anyone has the cash and time to go there, I can write the software. There are glass bottom boat tours on several Florida rivers. But a boat with 26 people and a captain can’t be hauled over to a lake, where rumor say you’ll find the goods.

           There are single-person clear plastic kayaks that vary wildly in price, as in $300 to $2,000. The lowest price I found to rent one was $65 per hour. Pardon me, two hours. Beware, the lower sale prices are Alibaba, who are notorious for inaccurate price quotes, as in $300 if you buy a thousand. I reckon I could build a search float drone for $1200, maybe three feet long and a foot wide, in about three months. The same book showed me that wooden stick airplane I build before I moved here was quite realistic. You know, to build a crone that shoots down drones, or crashes into them.

ADDENDUM
           Caltier. It’s a complicated investment made easy. Until tax time, that is. You are joining a limited partnership and the accounting is a nightmare. I track the returns as dividends but they are not [dividends] so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Mind you, if you want to play ball, you’d be wise to learn the rules of the game. My investment decision on this company is not based on their advertising or on the industry image as a whole. For example, the commodity fund. I’m not there for market volatility, but to protect myself from market volatility. I’m also there because I am not a commodities expert. What do I know about wine and 1947 cars? This is why I cannot answer investment questions. The major influence on my money attitude is motive, not conformity. I rarely go with the flow so my advice is good for me, not for the world.
           From the questions and comments I receive, it is evident people do not follow what they invest in. which I call gambling. For me, Caltier is a good fit because they move at my pace, make decisions I ken, and (odd enough) they speak in the same terms and framework I use. I’ve learned their “product cycle” is 18 months. Get in, install them marble countertops, get out. Quick check, take the total in your REIT portfolio and divide it by 150, and that’s your estimated dividend for the month.
           Caltier has no standard method to report their activities. Some are by the unit, others by a percentage, and sometimes a net selling price. I know they’ve made $33 million over the Solano and Vue sales, but I had to extract those figures. Are they net or gross? Who knows. But you can scan their blogs for performance and guess what they are selling next. There is a lot more to Caltier, but yes, you could just put some money in there and hope for the best. It appears most of their investors are using that strategy, or lack of it.

Last Laugh