One year ago today: December 15, 2023, a generic day around here.
Five years ago today: December 15, 2019, nothing of chickens.
Nine years ago today: December 15, 2015, a Florida accident.
Random years ago today: December 15, 2010, six years, folks.
If you don't mind, I'll post today events. There was a pre-dawn fog off the Gulf the past couple days and the robins stayed barely a half-day. The new pair of beige-white birds seen to have stayed on and the cardinals are finally back. After 22 years of daily use, my Danelctro bass has developed a problem with a humming sound that is not from the pickups. I was at the St. Charles vet hospital until late last afternoon, they are turtle specialists. I opted for cremation and will return JeePee's ashes to Tennessee next trip.
I'm just catching up on things but the mood is still gloomy. I spent time in the shed doing some light work on tool boxes but found I was unable to concentrate. I will terribly miss JeePee, as he represented a permanence not possible with the other pets and was one of a kind. I will carry on with minimums for now, such as vacuum tube orders and yard work. I don't know if the north fence is repairable. Forgive if I stay in the house today drinking a lot of coffee. I have chores to keep me distracted.
Later, I'm not dealing with JeePee's loss well at all. I'm dropping things, bumping around, and making mistakes by not concentrating on what I'm doing. This photo is from this afternoon, where I stumbled on a stain that I like. more appealing than usual. This box was for the pneumatic punch, but now I don't know. Yes, those are expert-looking rabbet cuts around the entire rim of the end panels. So the whole box has recessed sides. I'm learning.
Also later, I am going to have to sink some new fence posts along the north side. At least four. The last of the hurricane branches and limbs are finally raked and it will be two full burn barrels. Look into these things before you move to Florida, and yes, I have now spent half the purchase price of this cabin in property taxes. The account to pay for that, Caltier, is still “paused” without explanation.
Two other tasks took an hour. One was to disable that annoying Windows 11 screen that slides in from the left. The first ten minutes is wasted with a MicroSoft classic—trying to figure out what those Redmond AOLs call the damn thing. It's a “sidebar” and is controlled by a widget, deeply hidden in the “personalization” sub-sub-menu. It goes to show how in 40 years of operation, nobody over there figured out each item on your screen should ha have a name that displays when you hit one of the rarely used F-keys. The other was a two-step process deleting all the garbage on my smart phone screen, like Candy Crush and Temu. Could not be done, the only way to select the app is to tap it, which does not give any option to remove. I'll have to find an idiot to help.
The other fail was how to activate call blocking and call display. I have dropped every menu I can find, so if it is there, it is hidden well. I should be the one who decides if it displays, but they may have taken that away. Better yet, I should be the one who controls what it displays. And there is still no option to limit incoming calls to your contact list. Those people hate you. Also, these games keep beeping the phone and flooding the screen so you can't turn them off without turning off the phone. I'd like to cattle prod the XYZers who come with this kind of crap. How did they know I wanted peace and quiet today?
Seeking distraction, I watched a documentary on the South China Sea. I was surprised to learn the audiobook I recently had in the van is based around actual incidents in this area. The island chains around the sea are generally US-friendly. This is where China is building up atolls like the Spratly Islands. These have airfields that extend the range of jets to cover the entire sea and coastlines. The Chinese claim all the water including those recognized as territorial The Chinese send in fleets of “fishing boats” which appear to be steel-hulled with uniformed crews. These clash with local fishermen and the Chinese Coast Guard is just over the horizon ready to “protect” the fishermen. They take care to keep each incident too small to elicit any military countermeasures, as all the local navies are too small to tangle with the Communists and the US Navy is hardly about to start anything over a fishing boat.
Fuerteventura Island.
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Teams of volunteers arriving in Tennessee to aid families living in tents during freezing weather report meeting townspeople in the area who have never heard this was going on. That's the MSM for you, and their anchor who just got sued for $15 million over slandering Trump seems to have disappeared. I found myself too saddened by the loss of JeePee to do anything much today. I watched a documentary on the latest generation of electric freight locomotives in Germany, Fascinating, but my thoughts kept returning to JeePee.
While on an assembly line, the locomotives are still made by hand, producing only 200 per year. But they can apparently adapt to fit every European track gauge and electric power supply. Yes, they do have a small diesel donkey engine for those backward places without electricity [insert Albanian joke here]. I best liked the system used to align beams and flanges. It is laser that projects an outline of the part in the exact position and further insures the parts are added in the correct order. Ingenious.
Equally impressive was the paint shop. The four layers of undercoat serve a number of purposes, the one that gave me a chuckle was the layer that “facilitates graffiti removal”. There is a great-looking compressed air braking module and the underside of the floor is lined with sensors, though they don't specify what for. The price tags range from (harumph, Win 11 does not have a Euro symbol) 3 to 5 million Euros each. The wiring is in its own league and some of the harnesses and parts look 3D printed, while others look like 1980s IBM computer surplus.
Later in the video, it mentions the cab can “communicate” with the tracks. Now that, I'd like to see. But what sold me was the scene (26:10) with the coffee maker – it that a Keurig? These Europeans have classy coffee gear. After a slow start, I recomment his video if you have time. It moves a bit slow but is worth it just to see the quality control. Very well done and rightly avoids any climate change or green bullsh. The scenes of the interior gangway are reminiscent of submarine movies.
There are a couple mentions of carbon dioxide emissions and some green posters and paint jobs in the backgrounds, but a least nothing like the Biden-era in-your-face gimme money propaganda.
Unable to shake my gloom, I went out to the shed and worked a couple hours on the brad nailer box I seem to prefer rabbet joints and medium dark stains. I use the neighbor's table saw for all the joint cuts, it's a mere 30 paces from my shed door to his barn. I checked in on him later when his light didn't come on after dark. He was just snoozing extra, the privilege of a planned retirement. I talked with him about JeePee and he explained the process, why this one gets me. First, it happened on my watch, and second I was present. Of course I'm full of doubt. Could I have checked sooner? Should I have driven 100mph instead of 90mph? Did I miss something?
I've lost count of how many boxes I've built, which is a good thing. It's the only time my mind didn't wander today. My focus is now more toward finishing touches but the boxes remain many times sturdier than needed for storage and tools. I've no plans to alter that feature in any way. My best work is on medium sized boxes, at least 8 inches in at lease one dimension. Bigger boxes, like my chain saw and footlockers are showing signs of age after just a few years. I've learned to reinforce corners like you see on old steamer trunks. Thanks for listening to more box lingo as I am still off balance and on my ninth cup of coffee today.
ADDENDUM
The Perserverance rover has reached a region of hills in the Jezero crater on Mars. This is the area often shown which contains that river delta formation. A region of sedimentary rock has been dubbed Valinor Hills and the terrain is similar to Earth, where we know that fossils can be found. The rover is collecting core samples but they won't be returned here for many more years.
Extrapolating from a sample of NASA statements (it would be unfair to call them promises any more), there will not be a manned mission to Mars until 2042. If I make it that long, I'll probably not know what's going on anyway. NASA dashed my childhood dreams all for their own fat paychecks.
