One year ago today: October 13, 2023, an estimated 200,000.
Five years ago today: October 13, 2019, how do they know?
Nine years ago today: October 13, 2015, Ah, silence.
Random years ago today: October 13, 2008, a calendar transcript, obviously.
What’s this? News that Trump’s big “conviction” may be over turned, and just before the election, too. That was well-predicted. This is not justice being served, rather the appeals people terrified he’s going to win. The Judge (Engoron) may face consequences but my opinion is he’s a failed old shyster who took the bribe of a lifetime and now could not care less. And in a lame effort to prop up a flagging franchise, Starwars has introduced its first transgender stormtrooper. That’s your reminder everything woke turns to you-know. I just slept half a day and I’m grumpy, thirsty, and famished. Will I make it through today?
I need it for accurate marking, hence it’s tool rather than a knife. Threw the millennials for a loop. Prices range from $9 to $125 for a 14C28N Erie Tools in four payments of $31.24 and requiring 6 weeks lead time. All are equally easy to lose. I could not help but notice this week on my wall calendar, which contains all my yearly reminder and anniversary notices, is blank. There are so many anniversary coincidences in my life that this whole week may traditionally be my annual do-nothing opportunity.
Time to take a closer look at a generator system for this house. While the hurricanes have been infrequent, the power outages have not. I’ve learned a small generator, say 3000W, is enough to keep the basics operating. But I sure did not like having to lug out the machine and string hundreds of feet of cable, then reversing all this when it’s over. Furthermore, I came here to retire, not work. There will come time when I will be helpless. Nor am I helpless when it comes to the wiring. I would opt for a backfeed system, where the generator feeds the house wiring. That is accompanied by some good news.
The trick to a backfeed is to make sure no 15 amp wiring gets zapped with 30 amp juice. Ah, but when I ran all the new wiring, each leg is a carefully planned sequence. I would not use a suicide cable, but one of those direct connect kits at the main panel. Then, it is easy for me to use the breakers to activate only those segments I need. For example, all the appliances and A/C are on dedicated ciruits. This would all have to be planned and budgeted, as none of that portion has even been looked at in detail.
I also know that the generator alone isn’t an ideal solution, again because gasoline runs out and the machine still gobbles it by the gallon even in standby mode. I’m looking at a battery system that could be charged in the day and runs only, say, the fridge and fans at night. Listen, I’ve only been up a few hours but I feel like I could crawl back in the sack for another half-day. This doesn’t happen as often as when I worked for a living, but it’s slowly coming back. Maybe after a certain age, just staying alive is like working for a living?
This just in, the Trump conviction has been overturned and, it says, he’s getting his $500 million back. Now we’ll have to listen to the Demtards scream the opposite accusations. It’s so wearisome. Wait for confirmation. Budget update, there is no more separate category for building supplies. They will be included as household repairs, hobby, or extraordinary expense. Since January 2017 to today, I have spent $20,795 in materials on this cabin. I now have a fully comfortable place to live including a good sized work shed and a storage silo. I have a lanndry deck and if anything, my place is too small. So, including the purchase price, this cabin has cost me around $40,000 where rent anywhere else would have cost me twice that with nothing to show for it.
I have purchased $2,944 worth of tools, more than I had ever planned on. But I could start production if I ever found something that sells. The surprise was working on the plumbing. Moving that wall and adding the drains cost me $2,994 in materials. And I’m still not finished. I may have to get rid of that 30-foot ladder. It is too big for two men to use, or I may repurpose it as a long planter, a super outdoor work counter, or a sturdier-than-usual radio mast.
Coprolite.
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How about a movie? After seeing the listings, I decided not. There’s “The Apprentice”, a somewhat fictionalized account of Donald Trump that both sides dislike, but I’m not driving 38 miles to Davenport one way. One fiction-horror “The Substance” sounds great but it isn’t playing in this county. How about I go work on something useless in the shed, since I have a full work week planned. Glancing at Caltier, which is still paused (but paying) I was not surprised to see them now offering shares to individual buildings. I looked at one paying 10%.
Generally, they want you to have an income of $300k or more and/or a net worth of $1 million not counting your house. They perceive this to mean you can tie your money up in highly illiquid projects and are able to absorb losses. It’s all too risky for me.
So much for a quiet post-hurricane Sunday. The trees I cleared in the neighbor’s yard are gone, he hired the other neighbor’s kid, who also picked up all the avocados. The fund began when they started up the lawn tractor. Nobody told them we had siphoned that gas into the generator. So we topped it off with the gas left in my clean can, the one I use for unmixed gas. And the tractor stalled. Bad gas, but I had just bought it last month and it works fine in my chain saw. It took me a while to figure out what went wrong.
I lent that gas can to somebody I think may have used it for diesel. Still, the mix of new gas would be so thin as to not matter, But we all heard the mower begin to sputter soon after the gas was added. And guess what? That’s the same gas in the generator. So we pumped that one dry. Not a happy camper, I went to my shed and spent two hours sanding a box I may never use and cutting a new doorway into the compressor lean-to.
How did you spend October 13, 2024?
ADDENDUM
I fixed up a batch of pineapple fried rice and plunked down for an evening of reading. Checking regularly for newly released war archives, I saw a documentary on the railway lines to Tobruk. Two of them, still flanked by the same telegraph poles seen by the Afrika Corps. Plus a Thames documentary which offered only a rehash of wartime propaganda. I’m no fan of Montgomery and I wish somebody would make a factual presentation minus the hype. It must be terribly embarrassing to watch for any soldiers who had actually been there.
The two items that irk me most is the claim that success at El Alamein was due to his inspired leadership. How his assortment of funny hats gave the troops something to admire. I say that most any officer who had been allowed to stockpile an overwhelming force could have accomplished the same. The Germans did no so much lose because they were bowled over by World War I attrition tactics. The British generals before Montgomery were goaded into attacking before they were ready. Monty had the luxury of waiting, knowing the Germans were at the end of their supply chain.
The second thing to annoy me is the British claims to organizational superiority. That is simply no true. The Germans repeatedly knocked them on their asses with a fraction of the men and supplies. This often repeated quip that Monty made sure every man in his army know exactly what his objectives were is not believable. In fact, Monty did not even beat Rommel, who was away in German on medical leave at the time.
Dozens of other bits of nonsense make these documentaries fall short. The idea that Rommel had no idea why three-quarters of his supply ships were being sunk is absurd. The Brits go on about the effectiveness of their patrols, but never admit the truth. The Germans did have an effective code, but the cargo ships were Italian, who took the German secret messages and broadcast them using the Italian code, which the Brits had been reading for years.
