August 27, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 27, 2023, remember Synthesia?
Five years ago today: August 27, 2019,a turtle food quest.
Nine years ago today: August 27, 2015, the after-shower flood.
Random years ago today: August 27, 2014, Hemmingway said that.

           I’ll not soon forget August of 2024. The recent “chain of events” as some call it, has changed more than I would like. The economy is in agony, for those unaware, the increase in gas prices is the primary cause of the woes. The higher prices are main due to taxes and the price increases flow from that through the entire system down to the end consumer.
           Maybe I didn’t plan adequately, but I did plan. It’s an America swirling around, a controlling regime and a majority who by now hate what’s happened and knowing it’s their own damn fault.

           The heat came on rapidly after sunrise, making up my mind to spend the morning in the library. I’m a fixture there but I wish they would do something about those whiskey-voiced old ladies who come in and need help with everything out loud. Nobody at this local library knows enough about matters to censor anything, I doubt they know how. So I logged on for an extra hour and surfed social media. You may not give that activity a second thought, but for me it is pretty deliberate when I get around to it.
           It was a library morning as I have no Internet and no 386 computer. Read the addendum for details.

           Wow, these Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot. I’ve seen most people scan this media and only view the items that support their own viewpoints, where I read them all including the screwballs and fanatics. The level of panic on the left is now accelerating what they are trying to prevent, which is shaping up to be a wipeout unless they can stop the process. For instance, Poon has begun claiming Trump talking points as her own, such as not taxing tips and (get this) building the wall. Problem. They’ve lied too often to get elected and then renege on the promises, blaming their opposition.

           The ruling party in England is doubling down on resettling illegals into the heart of the country, leaving violence the only way out now. They have basically stated they will not allow the election of anyone who opposes their agenda. The Zuck sees the writing on the wall and has now begun a known process to claim he is the victim. First he’s saying he was pressured to censor, then it will become forced to censor in a few days. Then he will play the victim, that he feared for his safety. I don’t think this time-word fake flip will save him, he’s one of the worst of his kind.

           Time has run out for that bunch. Evidence has now surfaced that Poon may not even be an anchor baby. Turns out she was born five days after the family was expelled for changing the dates on government forms and claiming her race as White. If she is stopped from running after the party faithful just spent millions hyping her up. That is it and such muckraking is seen as the Democrats getting a taste of their own medicine. They don’t even have a back-up candidate they could field. It’s a good thing this is Festus Tuesday or I might get depressed.
           My entire Internet connection is down and I am not going to start looking for the spares in this heat. I need down time, and to help with that, I went for another of those $10 hamburgers at the Mexican market. They are good, just not worth ten bucks, it’s treat to help me peg this afternoon for siesta. That’s probably 1,200 calories right there. They have a real cutie working the cash register now. Too cute, she won’t last long.

Picture of the day.
Ile Amsterdam.
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           I threw the CoolPad battery in the freezer as a last resort and the book on Rommel has become hard reading. So many of the British have German surnames it is hard to follow. The story is great for being a rare perspective from the men inside the tanks. Things you don’t think of, like a crew getting lost because the compass in a Matilda is between the driver’s legs and he had a watch in his pocket. Or through codebreaking the Brits new exactly where an attack could begin and still lost. Why German crews would patch up their own tanks rather than take them to the shop. How about the British crew who lost a road wheel, so they cut it off and shortened the track to fit the remaining bogies. A bit hard to steer, they said, and got home.

           Next stop, the Thrift but nothing of interest today. The staff always asks how I’m doing but after you hit 55, that is a trick question. It’s not like nothing got done, for example I took inventory of my last bits of electrical parts, that’s big electricity as in house wiring. I’ve now used up the last of that big box of GFCIs, meaning somewhere in this place, there are now 18 of them. Where possible, I put them where they would trip a single arm—and this has saved the situation many times already. I’ve taken to labeling the shed outlets as to which outlet supplies them.

           Later. I braved the heat for an hour and got some work done, including a tally of these GFCI outlets. Yes sir, I did use up all 18 of them. As this photo shows, they are very high-quality and I was hoping to save them for an upgrade around the house. Nope, except for the air conditioner outlets, they are in the sheds. See this quadruple outlet. I’ve learned to use these even if they don’t make plate covers. They make four-ups for rectangular plug-ins like the GFCI, but not for regular duplex, three of them shown here. Yet this eight plugs are the minimum for a work bench and today, that is where the computer is sitting.

           After deep pondering of the Sight Reduction Tables, I’ve come up with an alternative way to leaming that complicated procedure. It accomplishes the same and you can cheat by memorizing, but I find any alternative worth a try. This two-triangle solution has been kicking around in my brain for some years. What my idea entails is drawing an triangle of what you think is the relative positions of yourself and the Sun’s GP. (The third point of the triangle is fixed at the north pole. Next I sifted through all the heaps of instructions given in the textbooks and picked out the few that help you identify the other two points. The GP is relatively easy, you look it up in the Almanac. The other you follow a simple set of rules
           Then you repeat this fifty times until you can do it in your sleep. My other books give two or three examples that are progressively more difficult. You will need many more than three. The process is actually simple but repetition sure helped in spotting the subtle relationships present, that not every step is logical for a while, you have to dwell on the interconnections.

           The heat indeed sapped the last of my gumption. I got winded walking across the shed, which reminds me, I need to find a local doctor. My left leg is getting “fuzzy” on occasion, seems I read about that somewhere. I’m way past my best-before date and the system owes me. Turns out they are giving each illegal immigrant the equivalent of $69,000 in cash and benefits while I get only the average social security. That ain’t right—and Trump says if he cuts off the illegals, he gives the money to vets, which helps me not at all. I respect the vets but do not buy any theory that they are fighting for any brand of freedom that most Americans would recognize. Congress has declared no wars in my lifetime. Zero. None. The military has become little more than an alternative to very low-paying jobs. As I said, respect.
           The north of the house, being shaded and cooler, got me to throw an electric blanket in the wash. This is a delicate operation when done right, you must use a cold gentle wash and time the dryer, also set on tumble only. This should be nothing but I got winded. By Festus time, I was afraid I’d fall asleep. But we got the episode “Pariah”, where the guy who shoots an outlaw gets in deep doo-doo over the circumstances and the outlaw brothers burn down his barn.
           The sub-plot of tonight’s program was that $5,000 rewards can wreck your life. I say it is not the reward, it is letting people know you have it that gets you wrecked. The neighbor knew a guy in Lakeland who won big money and “the women fell all over him”. Well that was his own doing, hanging around places where such women congregate. Anyway, the guy took up with the wrong crowd and got shot dead in a cabin in Plant City.

           As I look back on what should have been a lazy day, I’m ready for a movie for the evening. Here’s something called “Exorcist, the Beginning”. The jacket says it’s what led up to the famous movie. That’s a bit of a twist, a sequel focused on the past. I’ve got some Maxwell House and that cinches the deal for me. I have a backup phone, ten bucks a month, and it rarely gets calls. But every six months or so I get this wrong number from area code 813. Finally, fed up, I told the Spanish lady I knew who she was and if she calls here again, I would do horrible things. I think she believed me. Anyway, I know her voice and number and I’m done telling her it’s a wrong number.
           Twenty minutes into the movie, I like it. Right pace and there is a certain realism to the scenes and historical questions. You overlook the standard lady doctor who never sweats and wears white blouses that never get dirty. Ignore the obligatory dig at the Nazis, it’s expected. Do you think they film a lot of the 1910 bar scenes in Cairo mainly because it has not changed much since then. The move begins to drag toward the end, the special effects are mostly used up by now. Lucifer does have a thing for Catholic priests.

ADDENDUM
           The Dell 386 seems to have problems that I cannot fix. I’ll go back at it tomorrow but it is not picking up the new drive and there is something wrong with the video output. This mornings picture shows the unit on the bench, I’ve swapped out all the cables to eliminate that as the trouble. The boot sequence and fans come on, but I get two beeps and I’ve long since forgotten that indicator. It isn’t the RAM, I reseated those. If nothing by tomorrow, I need that unit so badly, I may take it into the shop if I can’t get progress. But in the morning I mean, for all I know that drive is formatted wrong.

           I take back what I said about the drive brackets. Turns out there were two adaptors shaped like peripheral covers, so the drive is properly anchored—but the unit does not see it. I swapped out the keyboards and mouse but you know, the shed is properly wired and has great big fans, but I don’t recall the last time I ever got out there and worked after dark two nights in a row. You can just see the corner of the double quad outlets in this morning’s picture.

           Here’s a better shot of the “dual quad” with fake cover plate. Within minutes of installation, you see 25% of the plugs are already in use. There is always something needs doing around here, which I am proud of considering the other option, but I’ve now entered a phase where too many things are getting old on me at once.
           All the batteries died in my voltmeters. Two of my emergency lights, same thing. Are they wearing out, or is this just long term neglect because I’m away so much? Add another dozen small chores a day and where is my spare time? Eating hamburgers does not count, if you look closely, you can see the telltale marks of a man who does not waste time. And open book of nautical tables on the left and a navigation chart on the right.

Last Laugh