One year ago today: October 26, 2023, we have a sound.
Five years ago today: October 26, 2019, 41 lines of warnings.
Nine years ago today: October 26, 2015, early 3D printer review.
Random years ago today: October 26, 2006, I never noticed until . . .
A quick morning chore turned into seven hours. Nothing else happened, so I’ll explain. I got out there before dawn and estimated two hours work left, including packing up the tools. So, why not light the burn barrel, since I can keep an eye on it the whole time. This means stringing out the hose. The barrel took forever to fire up, so I used the time to begin chain-sawing the deadfall that’s blocking my way to the shed. And the papaya, which I found out even bone dry to the touch, does not like to burn.
Here is a pic of the papaya stem, where the bark has worn away. It’s a very sinewy and regular mesh formation and this is the part that is tough and won’t burn. The innards of the stem are more fleshy had easy rotted away. This outer dermis or whatever is called won’t chop, it has to be cut with the chain saw. Well, I mean you could chop it but the wood is so springy it likes to bounce instead of cleave.
The Bartow radio station came in great, a welcome break from NPR, the anti-Trump station funded by you. It is old rock but that is also the station that ponies up royalties for only three or four tunes a month and plays them to death. This month’s selection is “Roxanne”, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “If I Could Turn Back Time”, and “One Way or Another”. After a couple hours, I made a special trip down the ladder to turn that off. Howie was over with sad news. Angel, the friendliest cat, is gone. She stopped eating well a few days ago, he took her to the vet, and her core body temp was down to the low 90s.
Not eating but drinking lots of water is, to me, the end. She was only ten, but feral cats don’t live as long. How about some gossip? You know how the neighbor ladies house burned down at the back? Seems there’s more to it that faulty electric wiring. She was out of town and the time but the daughter was there. It seems there was a batch of “volatile fluids” near the back door. Also, I did not know she was in the house when the fire started and ran outside and down the street. But the whole street knows and I’m always the last one to hear any gossip.
In no rush because of the barrel, I edited a couple of video (gifs), you may see the view of the shingle WIP as it got dark evening last. The final six rows of shingles took me four hours. Mind you, that includes carefully walking them from the van to the back yard in pair to spare my back and the need to slowly peel them apart. I was reminded that the world still has not invented a set of knee pads that stay put but still easy to strap on. That doesn’t mean those $50 type with gel that don’t let you stand up without grabbing something. And I see the barrel is now nearly half full of ashes, another chore. Buy a cabin, they said.
Miss Finnland, 1919.
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I ducked inside when it got to 90°F, and it was 95°F by mid-afternoon. Good timing, plus once the burn barrel flames are level with the rim, I can monitor the fire from indoors. Next to my puny A/C and lots of good books. In the fridge I had half a tray of leftover grits and onion casserole. Unable to find any self-control, I downed the whole thing and it is siesta time. That’s my plug for retirement living. I have not touched my bass in a week.
What’s this? In Houston, Harris tried to fill an arena by billing her rally as a free Beyonce concert. Then Beyonce didn’t show up. Stunts like that ten days before the big election are not good policy. Harris trotted fifteen pro-abortion doctors on stage. When an audience member needed help, none of them knew what to do. They had to call a medic. The video is all over Gab.
Talking to Howie, there may be another option with the cracked manifold. He knows guys who work at the airport who encounter this problem frequently with airplane engines. Makes sense, and I’ve heard of this. Apparently it requires a guy with a “stick welder” to braise the crack shut and it is said to be a permanent repair, that is, lasts the life of the engine. Now, who do I know that can stick weld. Okay, what it stick weld.
It is now past dark and I just got the last barrel down to a warm glow. That’s I hours of combustion. I’ve got most of the pathways cleared. Another major burn is required to get things tidied up. Right now, I’m crawling in that shower for a half hour until the last molecule of burnt wood aroma is down that drain. What’s this, there is a picture making the rounds to prove Harris worked at McDonalds—but it’s been photoshopped. I don’t know enough to spot the details but being that Democrats do such things, I’m not sure on this one.
According to Morgan Stanley, 45% of women between 24 and 45 will be childless by 2030. To me, that is just a reflection of the ratio of women than make good wives. I was raised in an era when it was presumed all women were automatically good wives and it was always the man who caused any riffs. The “Ann Landers” model. Let’s just say I knew there were a lot of unsatisfactory women out there, so it being almost half does not surprise me. As for the women who never find anyone, hey, they wanted equality, now let them deal with it.
That’s it for the day. I had been invited to Karaoke. I’ve described how it isn’t the same any more. It was a quiet evening, and since Taylor never dropped in to visit, I drank coffee, wrote letters, and fell asleep in my chair until it was too late anyway. Money, or lack of it dominated my computer time but I think I can get away to Tennessee if I can manage to get the taxes here paid early. As of this year, I will have paid a third of the purchase price of the cabin in property taxes, around half of it for things I don’t need and don’t want, like buslines, building inspectors, and tax collectors. Of course I support the plan to cancel house taxes for anyone over 65, but unless they also dismantle the bureaucracy, the fees will just be transferred back at you double elsewhere.
There is a shakeup due in the system. A lot of eyes are on Argentina, which is doing what America needs to do. Get rid of the civil service and quit buying the lie that they provide essential services. Nonsense, I play extra for the utilities, gas, garbage, and I don’t believe in paying for secondary benefits. That’s where the tax man argues that I benefit when some family across town in happier than they used to be. Nope.
That’s one positive aspect of Bidenflation. It’s revealing how helpless so many people have become via paying for things they ought to be doing for themselves. It’s hard to define but you see it everywhere. Now that it costs too much, they lack the know-how. I say positive because these people needed the wake-up call. Just “put it on your card” has been a standing joke since at least 1980, so let the credit junkies suffer. I’m on the other side, hoping silver will blast off.
And Michelle “Mike” Obama has publicly stated anyone who does not vote for Kamala is racist and sexist. He would say that, wouldn’t he? Yet I maintain this is not really a political blog, not unless you consider politics on a par with birdfeeders, yard-rakings, and barely-disguised invitations for Taylor to move in with me.
