One year ago today: August 2, 2023, same diagnosis anniversary.
Five years ago today: August 2, 2019, motel-like complexes.
Nine years ago today: August 2, 2015, in my humble pinion.
Random years ago today: August 2, 2022, one busy day.
Here was a classic day in the style of the old Robot Club days. Off to Miami via Zolfo Springs, Arcadia, Clewiston, and South Bay. The longest stretch of road where you cannot get a decent cup of coffee until you arrive in Clewiston. This is a day trip to get my latest prescriptions and yes, I got some bad news, see addendum, this morning is cheerful. The van is running like a charm, this being it’s final long-distance test run before we take it on the road. If it keeps up this well, that would make it a real find. Get ready for a fast-paced day, I was back here by dusk.
It was a tight schedule and proof once again the trip in takes only an hour longer than from JZ’s place. I did nto stop in this trip fore aforesaid reasons. I shoehorned in my medical, getting the van radio replaced, and checking my mail. I was back on the road by 3:00PM. Agt. M replaced the radio (it was the CD player that was cratered) and we loaded up van with stuff he can’t use any more. His work space is now not much larger than a closet. Expect pictures over a few days as I get to unpacking it all. I know for sure the belt sander (from pics you’ve seen here) is in one of the boxes. Trust me, there will be goodies in there, those are from the heyday of the club when the dollar store was really a dollar.
While this is going on, I looked closely at the trailer he has for sale. It is the same small unit I got from Harbor Freight twenty years ago. If you recall, I modified it to half-size and I still have it in the back yard. This newer trailer has a box built on, just half height. Alas, it has the small wheels which I know will not endure highway travel. But it has a jockey box, spare tire, and has been rewired, somebody put a lot of work into that. That reminds me to get a trailer hitch rigged up on Unit 35.
The McCormick Brothers.
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We took a closer look at that monster TV screen. Hard to believe somebody just threw it out. I have the old club vacuum, finally one that I know works like a hot damn and out old shed lamp. It’s a pole lamp that’s needed the switch replace for such a long time. I had time to stop and see Fred, like me, he’s kept active way past our best-before dates, so he’s getting around. Still driving that big old Lincoln Continental. Here’s a later view of the installed radio. Bet you can’t even see the part I broke.
You can tell I was checking out the radio and NPR was the only station. The Democrats have pretty much announced they intend to cheat, but they have a number of problems over last time. There are notices appearing on-line how to deal with the boxes and it just takes one mule to suffer a grisly fate to throw the rest into a panic. But the biggest threat to the regime is that Trump’s margins make this election “too big to rig”. Their standard tactic of announced the race is very close isn’t fooling anyone. Kamela is a laughing stock, sometimes polling in the single digits.
I took the high-speed route back where I had planned on a leisurely trip again. My incentive was this photo, an approaching gulf storm. I got part of it on video, but without that SATA drive, I have no editing software. Storm clouds so thick they turn the sky dark grey. Nothing on the radio except the normal afternoon rain warnings, but I know a tropical storm on the horizon when I see one. It’s likely a “tormenta” that turned ugly and coastwards at the last moment. Needing to get around Lake Okeechobee quickly, stopped at the Loves and spotted a clearing on the far west side. Ah, we got the arm of a storm. I zipped on the Parrish road and got around it.
Footnote, my aversion to driving in the rain is not what you might think. I’ve driven a motorcycle through downpours. It’s the panic and sheer stupidity of other drivers who onl think they can drive. I believe JZ took a video of some moron passing us at 90 mph just east of the lake. Well multiply that many times as the GenZers start getting their licenses. Get home, bet inside, where there is one storm arm, there are more.
One of the first places I stopped was the Legion. And if all goes well, we are booked for next weekend, our first real-money gig. I usually target price so my band makes a minimum of $65 each. There is logic to this, which I’ll take a moment to share. Overall, you never make a good living in a part-time band, but you do make something.
My pricing takes into consideration making $65 at a part time job. Have you considered everything? Setting the alarm, getting up, making breakfast & lunch, getting in the car with gas, insurance, plates, and fighting the traffic back home afterward. If a Florida job pays $15 per hour and you take home $10, how much did you really make?
ADDENDUM
Two items I was not looking forward to. My back has healed, but it did not mend right, I will require some kind of procedure. Next, I have a mild liver condition influenced mainly by age. Overall, I’m fine and have been expecting the onset of such things. I do not lead a sedentary life, but on the other hand, I am no athlete. It’s all predictable except for the timing. Nothing is scheduled yet, I want the work done in Miami, where if something goes wrong I’ll be fine and not hitting up my neighbors here for anything.
I received a stern warning not to pick up any heavy objects. That’s dandy, the tubes may only weigh a few ounces each, but how many are in a box? Another concern is the psychosomatic effect of learning the causes of each new ache or pain. I’m over the hill, you know. I’m not forgetting that four-month interval where I had a slight head-ache the whole time. This blog has a provision I record anything of that nature, because one of them will eventually do me it. Ah, but think of the historians who “discover” this blog, maybe Martian settlers returning to look over the ruins who uncover the coprolite MSM files but want to know what life was really like for somebody who watched something other than TV and conclude there really are two species of man.
