One year ago today: July 21, 2023, the ongoing squirrel wars.
Five years ago today: July 21, 2019, rhymes with ‘wasteland’.
Nine years ago today: July 21, 2015, my best worst scooter.
Random years ago today: July 21, 2007, gig-hunting at the Legion.
I’m not against beef, I just as a rule don’t eat it any more. This last shop, some beef ribs got into the shopping cart. Having no experience with these, I prepared them like I would pork ribs. What a waste of $12. They came out like they had been in the oven an hour too long, and that set my mood for the day up until now. The high points of y’day are the Prez & I agreeing on some new tunes on the assumption the Legion will call back. I should record the impact this gig has on the duo, as I mentioned, we are looking for a home base, a place we play by default.
Here is the newest picture I have, it’s the Honda mower. It’s in nice shape and will give me a chance to blitz the kudzu. While Howie likes his ride-on mower, I can’t expect him to run over the rough spots, which I would have no problem even if it wrecks the mower blade. Teh blog that dares to feature a second-hand lawn mower.
Finally catching up on the books, I’m “overdrawn” $591 after all is said and done. That’s a budget amount, I’m not really in the hole, but minimum balances are now below established thresholds and face it, the reason I have any spending money this week is that Friday gig. Yeah, so I’m glad it went fine. That might constitute my own entertainment for a while, since I spent that budge amount as well. I’ve drained the Regions account to the bare minimum, as they cannot be trusted to do the right thing. My records show there is always a hassle of some kind taking money out at the teller, even it is only some file they want updated that you don’t. Does the bank really, really need to know my phone number? What for?
Except for the Reggae Fund, Caltier is at a standstill. This is now approaching two months the REIT fund has been “paused” and they have not returned any calls or requests for an explanation. All seems okay but this sort of nonsense was never part of the deal. We own a measurable percentage of that fund and would like a bit better response to inquiries.
What’s in the news? Biden freaks are saying if he survives COVID, it should be compared to Trump surviving the assassination attempt. They really said that. And the report that Iran was behind the assassination has been scrubbed off the media, it seems that statement was the one prepared for a successful attempt. Several companies put out huge stock orders that morning and after Trump survived, began to back out of the deals which would have earned them millions. And, note many, Biden did not drop out of the race until they failed to imprison or kill Trump. It looks like the Democrats are going to save democracy by committing their own little insurrection against themselves.
Biden is out, his own party giving him the boot. He’ll barely have time to fill out blanket pardons for all his family and immediate cronies. The memes are flying, how the Democrats how have 100 million fake 2024 ballots with the wrong name on them. Funny, some say, how Blackrock and Crowdstrike both went into shock right after Trump survived. Whoopi has attacked Trump’s granddaughter for attempting to “humanize” him. One suspects that the granddaughter, Kai, has something Whoopi hates. A good self-image, a slim figure, and ability to be nice.
Anyway, here is the Democrat plan. The Democrats will insist Kamela is a “natural born citizen” until they steal the election. She will then select Hillary as Vice-President. Then the Democrats will decide Kamela is not eligible after all. When she steps down, Hillary gets the job.
Paris toilet paper store.
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By late afternoon, we got some cloud cover. That allowed me to get some cardboard “siding” on the tube shed, which in turn meant the window is sort of installed and I hauled seven boxes of tubes out onto the new shelf. That’s one shelf, I’m planning on eight. Fnally, I can move around in my bedroom again. I’m in no mood for anything now, for once this year, I’m experiencing something akin to boredom. Here, of all places, in the very midst of fifty things to do. Maybe it’s a sign. I still cannot upload photos, but when you see them again, remember to browse back since the 18th when the trouble began. I told you I was out of photos, so here is a picture of the abandoned control room at Chernobyl. Looking a lot like a Simpson’s set.
At this time, I have around 200 tubes listed. Following Stew’s advice, I’ve begun picking the expensive units because I did not know eBay charges a fee for unsold items. That means I could be taking down a good half, that is,100 listings of tubes that sell for less than $10. I estimate it will take 600 to 700 listings to average one sale per day. In that sense, eBay is a lot like buying yourself a job. It makes demands on your time, the process is needlessly labor-intensive, and there seems to be a time limit on everything.
There is a part that will come to an end eventually that, once accomplished, will smooth out the ride. It’s that inventory and the need to photograph each unit. It is the database that enables the sales, and right now I have to key in entire batches of tubes to find the few nuggets. Today I entered a hundred tubes to find six worth selling. Once they are all keyed in, that puts you over the hill and you can coast a bit.
There is competition and they are experienced. Having said that, it is evident they do not have a database. I’m selling articles that I don’t know that much about, yet that does not seem much of a barrier now that I know (or suspect) others don’t have much of a clue how to streamline things. I get asked the odd question I don’t understand, like does this tube have a coin-base. The tubes are best sorted by brand name but sold by product code. Do I have a matching set of 6EM7? I consult the database, which is designed for such a search. It is not designed to scan all the tubes to see all the different brands of 6EM7, though I may address that later.
The difference it makes is people who contact me asking why the same tube has four different prices. Because they are not looking for the brand name, again indicating they have no database and anyway, the eBay listings are a crude and arthritic flat-file anyway. I might point out that my listings are also flat-file but, and it is a big “but”, my fields are designed as if they were a relational database. By deft application of filters and sorts, I can emulate global searches. The trade-off is complexity. It would take too long to train somebody else how to run the thing.
When I began, I did not know the best ways to track inventory, so a good 25% will have to be counted a second time. You see, once they are counted, they have to be sorted. That is, sort the database and put them back into boxes in order. That’s because there are too many of them to go looking for them randomly, even in small batches. The last thing you want is jumbled inventory, I suppose once I get much further, I will have to devise a method to store the batches as well. Right now, I have [only] around 15 boxes and can remember where to look.
