December 13, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 13, 2023, 100,000 names.
Five years ago today: December 13, 2019, sigh, remember Matilda?
Nine years ago today: December 13, 2015, Sundays, back then.
Random years ago today: December 13, 2012, we took the bus.

           Fifty degrees this morning as JeePee and I decide what's for breakfast. I fancy cream of wheat, coffee, and maybe an egg. Cold doesn't get me moving. The satellite say up to 74F, so we'll get something done today once the chill burns off. My plan for JeePees playpen is now 36 square feet, up from the 15 in Tennessee. I can't find my spare roll of wire cloth but I have a budget of $21 for the frame. Are you with me? Then JeePee can romp around the front yard almost on the ground. I've sketched a removable lid, as I suspect the little guy likes to solve mazes. I would cut re-arrangeable pieces out of cardboard.

           He is visibly livelier in his new environment, that makes the Reb happy. She's never been here, so it's a leap of faith for her and she's had JeePee most of her life. His new cage is custom-designed for better efficiency. There is now a direct path for him to bask or bath. Can turtles skinny-dip? Also, the new water dish makes it just deep enough for him to get submerged to the brim of his upper shell. Is he trying to swim?
           Here's the new brad nailer unboxed and getting its first oiling and test. It stayed cool enough to do some yard raking, laundry, and some computer testing in the silo. The nailer is easy to load and has a proper slot to see how many nails are left—but only the longer pieces. I used the time to unload the van and get things ready for the next trip. There were enough small repairs today that I did not get a chance to used the nailer, but I did test some 1-1/4 brads, the maximum size the electric too would handle. You can probably guess, no comparison. The air tool is markedly superior, easily punching the nails through 3.4 inch stock. See nearby photo it then drove the same through this piece of 2x4.. The trigger has a way to set the tool so the brad heads are flush, but it looks finicky.

           If he likes mazes, the outdoor playpen will provide him that opportunity. It will have the paint tray watering system. For clarity, in his new habitat, his water dish and basking brick are side-by-side, making the natural temperature regulation activity quite active to observe. I may rig up the camera to see more of his behavior around water. Could be this is something he never had before, who knows? He gets into the water as deep as he can, with his head under the surface, then under the basking lamp, back and forth. D'think maybe he's a Finnish turtle? You know, the sauna and snowbank bunch.

           In the end, it was cream of wheat and coffee for me, chicken and yams for JeePee. There is no heater in the kitchen, a Florida tradition. But it meant I added the wheat a little quickly and it was lumpy, another sure sign of how life has slowed down, telling me I'd better find something to make today at least semi-interesting. Other than turning on the radio, which is nothing but leftist propaganda and Biden issuing last minute pardons as well as taking credit for leaving Trump such a wonderful economy people don't even know it.
           The lady who accused three white men of rape 18 years ago and ruined their lives has admitted she made the whole thing up. Her video reveals she is such a low-grade liar that the people who prosecuted these men should be held to task.

           I tried to make you a couple short videos but Win 11 has a bastardized version of Movie Maker. It seems to have no titling or other features, rather just takes video files and, well, that's about it. It's 8:00AM, I'll give a listen to Tampa radio. Los Angeles has voted that airport workers get a minimum wage of $30. That's the “wage” my salary worked out to in 1996, but my job entailed more than bussing tables, let me tell you. What's that in today's money? It's around $60 per hour, which seems fair unless you factor in minimum wage. For me to fix your satellite circuit, I was paid 5.6x minimum wage, which is totally justifiable.
           There is also another principle here, and it is related to opportunity cost. I am a highly qualified technician who on a regular daily basis regularly out-performed the other 14 men and 2 women in my department combined. The operative word is “regularly”. Yet we all got paid the same, which is one of the reasons I left the company at the first opportunity. The principle is that if I am required to do work of a lower category or pay scale, I am still to be paid the full 5.6x minimum wage, or get somebody else. Thus, if I was serving soup and assuming I was only at the airport minimum wage (unlikely), I should be paid $168 per hour, because I am paid for what I know, not what I do. And my duties are not to include listening to anyone who bitches about it, for they are being paid what they are worth.

           My research for video-to-text continues. I may have read some advanced features into the learner's mode I would need for starters. One that I got wrong was the ability to post a custom background, which would include my own graphs and charts. Even where it can be done, it doesn't seem that easy. What else? Well, Canada says they will stop importing US whiskey if Trump imposes tariffs. Hey, Ottawa, let us know how that works out for you. The OnlyFans gal who bopped a hundred men has broken down in tears. Seems she never planned on being alone for life, but hey, she should have done it privately in a college dorm like most other Plain Janes.

Picture of the day.
Statue in Luxemborg.
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           Shelly Duval has died from diabetes complications. I heard she had that so long ago I don't remember. I recall her as one of the “younger” actresses when I was growing up, even if she was born in the 40s. So sad. Trump is still talking like Americans should pay for the deportations. I say no way, they can pay their own way. Here is the nailer later in the day being sized for a box. The extra space is for accessories. That would include the Allen wrenches, a small oil supply, a six foot travel hose, space for the brads and staples, with a bit of room left for surprises.
           The star of the show was JeePee. He is not startled by loud noises and is drawn toward electric motor sounds. I think he hears them differently. I know he loves the sound of loud bass playing. His camper in the shed keeps him high up off the work space but he moves toward the sound of any sound of a rotary tool. I also gave him a run in the yard, closely supervised. This is the logical place for the playpen so make sure he likes it first.

           And he loves it. He gets up to a turtle gallop across any shady part of the yard toward open sunshine. This would not be possible in Tennessee where the ground is not flat, so the 150 feet he sprinted today may the the longest run he's had in twenty years. He relishes in the attention, he knows after a run he will be picked up and won't settle down until he gets that. I'm learning turtle ways as they apply here. For example, in Tennessee you must be careful when feeding him chicken, as the dogs are forbidden to have any chicken bones. Here, I toss JeePee the left over drumsticks whole. He drags them around to where he wants.

           You will have to wait for any videos, as Win 11 has totally screwed the pooch on editing sofware. The “new” movie maker lacks a title feature, although with MicroSoft, it could be there but the AOLs have hidden it. I found the shortcut icon to rename files but is barely any improvement. I'm also using the Dell desktop, another rotten piece of equipment that won't run a lot of legacy software. It lacks an SD card reader, usually the brain-fart of somebody who says just use a USB reader. Duh, the readers are too wide to place beside any other USB plug, so either unplug something or buy a hub, which is the definition of a millennial—make the other person go through hoops instead of taking any pride in your work.
           Last for today, I used the warmest part of the day to survey the fence and the hurricane damage is more extensive than I thought. Some of my fence posts are off perpendicular and I did not see pieces that had been torn off until I walked the perimeter. I had braced some of the oldest fence to tree trunks, the only places with no damage at all. There is also the spot where I built shelves to see if I could use the area to start plants where they would not shrivel in the sun. But those are also damaged because I think the fence panels may have been swaying more than it seems possible. I estimate around fifteen hours of repair work, so it won't be any time soon.

Last Laugh