One year ago today: December 12, 2023, I've seen zero, pal.
Five years ago today: December 12, 2019, until he's 81.
Nine years ago today: December 12, 2015, laced with spyware.
Random years ago today: December 12, 1981, 44 years ago, already.
It was almost like a traditional motorcycle tour this morning. We wound up near but not in Ruskin, Florida. It's the town nearest the Sun City shopping area and I've been there before. I left through Mulberry through to the Wimauma corner. I allowed time for a leisurely trip but got caught in traffic anyway. Here's the tale from the trailercourt. JeePee had a full breakfast of chicken, carrot, and a single blackberry. One only because once again the Internet does not result in any specific info on this berry as turtle food. Instead, it's like talking to a Canadian, tons of shallow data, most of which you know is wrong, hearsay, or old wives tales.
This is a view along the way, laser-leveled radish farms, one of four big fields visible from the roadway. The trees on the horizon are along the Alafia River. It's only 25 miles long but has something like 29 branches and lakes an is one of the oldest settled areas in Florida. Much as some would like to change it, most of the best spots are private property. Sometimes you can see abandoned pilings and docks that reveal just how old the area is back in there.
Florida's twelve-month growing season means these few farms product almost all the radishes in Florida and tons for export. I believe it has to do with the soil, as there are springs that feed phosphates and other nutrients (and toxins) into the stream. It's unverified, but the word alafia is Caloosa for “River of Fire” which stems from pebbles in the water coated with phosphates that under the right conditions will glow in the dark. Say it, how many turtle-friendly blogs would get you such a lovely photo of a radish field?
The way inbound was smooth sailing though it never did warm enough to open the window. I had two quests. The pneumatic brad nailer, and a rectangular water dish for the big guy. His new digs are longer but not as wide, making cleaning and maintenance easier. He formerly had a surplus pie plate but that took up a lot of width. (The paint tray dish is for his playpen, not the habitat.) I had to find a tray with just the right dimensions one TW (turtle width) wide. Success on both the nailer and the dish.
I go out of my way to get you new and interesting pictures but today was not the day. I got the shopping done but when I started east from Ruskin toward Wimauma, the entire city was out Xmas shipping. I drove just to old Highway 301, where I knew the motorcycle trails and that saved me. The GPS and de Lorme are useless as their rating system is bad and so are many of the side roads shown in their systems.
The trip took me within ten miles of Tampa, so I turned off the radio. The Democrats have gone on a last minute spending spree. The plan is the usual, to compel Trump to spend most of his term patching things up. But Trump is smarter than they are, so let's see what measures he comes back with. He could, for example, warn anyone who accepts such money that they will have to pay it back. Nothing hurts the corrupt like being stung like that. Or fire every bureaucrat or civil servant that even tries. There is something cooking. Why has not the Left gone after Musk with the usual hoaxes, prostitutes, tax investigations, and home raids?
How about the mystery drones over New Jersey? These college pranks have gone too far. Maybe it's an attempt at distraction, but from what. Everybody knows the Democrats are looting the treasury. Biden is even auctioning off Trump's wall materials amid rumors Musk is secretly buying them. America is wondering why the government, which can crush just about anybody, is doing nothing while the Democrats steal Arizona. I could care less about the politics, I'm just fascinated by the process. Obama is back, making speeches that America should not be “hasty” about going after people who caused the health care crisis. Politics. It has become impossible to ignore it. My interest is the human behavior, but this could easily be defined along political lines. For example the FBI has reluctantly admitted it did have 26 agents in the Capitol on January 6. But covering it up for four years is the equivalent, in people's eyes, of denying it.
The Silfa Rift.
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JeePee's dish is from a Thrift in Ruskin, which almost didn't happen. You see after paying for the nailer, all I had left on me was a $50 bill, which due to diversity, very few stores will accept and the rest don't keep enough change in the till. I cobbled together $8.11 from my pockets, cigarette tray, and change jar. To make the sale, they took that. There were some real yahoos on the road today. As I pulled in to park, the two angle spaces beside me were open and just as I was about to open my door, some jerk sped through the slot. Back on the road out of town, some lady drove off a side road right across both lanes of oncoming traffic. Two seconds more and people would have been killed. As soon as I saw the road to Turkey Creek, I got off the main roads and took an extra hour and a half to drive the remaining 31 miles home.
In the past couple years I've gotten to know the main roads around the Parrish area, but still not Tampa. The traffic 15 miles out of that city is back enough. I got home past 3:00PM and you know, the nailer is still in the box, but I'm crawling under the covers. So much for a big day when I had planned to at least install the overhead heater bracket. I used some of the leisurely trip to plan out a change in the way I invest in CDs. The bank rulebook pretty much takes advantage of how most people can't be there on the maturity date, but I know the bank has to obey a letter saying do not auto-renew. For most, it stops there.
But I notice when you don't renew, one month later along with your statement, there is a card advertising the higher first-time rate. My plan is to see if I can use that to my advantage. If the certificate is not renewed, then it is a new account, based on the way the bank does things, I've mentioned this before. At the moment, I finished my coffee and I'm about to crash. I think JeePee is learning my sleep habits.
Now might be a good time to remind us that I warned against Blackrock. They do not own $13 trillion, they manage it for other people. And they gambled heavy in real estate, instead of buying outright they put downpayments, planning to flip the properties before reality kicked in. Today we hear their CEO has dumped $50 million in stocks. He knows something and he's dumping fast. A closer look at text-to-video reveals my first choice of Synthesia may be the best, but that all of these sites place severe restrictions on usage. The $18 beginner's monthly fee limits you to an average of 10 minutes video per month. Design.ai generates its own backgrounds but cannot cope with my choice of words, often auto-creating scenes that have nothing to do with my topic. I plugged in the above few paragraphs to discover it balks at words like “yahoo” and “jerk” and has no idea where Tampa and Parrish are. Most offer a choice of avatar speakers but there is something annoying about the results, some underlying aspect they are pushing that leaves an aftertaste.
I may still go ahead anyway, as there are entire processes that they do not cover or assume you know. Like how to upload, publish, monetize, or distribute the results. It may be there once you sign up, but if not you be careful if you are a clear thinker that was not raised around the wrong way of using computers.
ADDENDUM
JeePee & I finally read the articles about the proposed future train tunnels. With centers of finance moving away from the USA and presuming Trump does not put a stop to that, these projects would entirely be build with foreign money. There is no shortage of the plans following the success of the Eurotunnel at generating billions in revenue. This blog predicted a return to rail travel would cut costs and tunnel operations, making it therefore natural to harness the two. I'm looking only and passenger and freight tunnels, not partical accelerators and water ducts. The longest train tunnels are in Japan. The more intriguing of the new proposals are:
Gibraltar – Africa. It's been on the table for years. The snag is that once you get to the African side, there is no infrastructure, no goods to transport, and the Sahara Desert. By the way, the Sahara is the source of the Spanish word for desert, “sierra”. Morocco built a high-speed train (200 mph) called the Magic Carpet or something, but it just goes to yet another nothing town. And as of late, Europe does not need another link otoBlack Africa.The shorter tunnels like Japan and Korea, coastal Norway, and Denmark to Sweden were not part of this short study as they presented no new technology. I'm too old and too broke to see any of these tunnels unless Taylor says she'll pick up the tab for me being her mentor in the real ways of the world. Any gal who can sell ten million concert tickets is okay by me. Just remember, she's waited over-long and now has to pass the JeePee test.
Alaska—Russia: Again, the remoteness of the link negates any savings in time and the sub-zero conditions on most of the route make it unlikely that much new settlements would be spurred. This makes more sense as a cargo route linking northern Canada to the trans-Siberian railway. While shipping by sea is cheaper per mile, costs pile up at ports as ships queue for dock time and the huge costs and delays of cargo transfer.
UK—USA: This is the most likely, the trans-Atlantic tunnel. Proposals range from a tradisional dig to a tube anchored 300 feet below the surface. A vacuum system would allow speeds of up to 5,000 mph but as always this poses the problem of slowing the trains down at the far end. I see this one as the only instant money-maker but the cost is beyond comprehension and I think the bidders are lying like military contractors.
Persian Gulf—Turkey: Long eyed as an alternative to the Suez, this would be funded by oil money. That means it might go ahead even if it proves a loss. Most Arab states have long been jealous of the Egyptian cash cow. Information is hard to come by as this tunnel would also be militarily strategic and since it is not underwater, it is not all that fascinating to me.
