One year ago today: December 21, 2023, ten bucks each.
Five years ago today: December 21, 2019, the other Andersonville.
Nine years ago today: December 21, 2015, at Margaritaville.
Random years ago today: December 21, 2014, expensive activites.
Not a peep out of the State media, but pictures posted on-line show that the Amish have ignored orders to cease building emergency housing in North Carolina. This is but one of dozens of emerging examples of that show the old regime was largely bluster, that they don’t dare arrest such large numbers of people. Especially not the Amish, who have a special respect from most Americans. Good morning, I was out for 13 hours and it is freezing cold. In Florida, that is 49°F. I predict a quiet day at home regretting I did not connect the heater when it was warmer. Remember the idea I described about digital license plates back in 2005? The plates are real, but not the security system I would have built in. One popular hack is getting other people to pay your tolls and fines. (The manufacturer insists the plate has to be removed to hack, but I know better.)
Here’s one to ponder, for although I doubt all coincidences, they rarely go unnoticed. I have the funeral account, the one with all the CDs (Certficates of Deposit) which also was to include a budget to take JeePee back to Tennessee in the event of my demise.
That account also includes any of my quasi-famous “found money” that is not clearly attached elsewhere. This account was established in March 2020 when it became apparent the economy was going to go bad, what, with Biden canceling pipelines and laundering billions through the Ukraine. That was some 45 months ago and I had to establish a system to prevent the account from going dormant. You can find references to all this somewhere in this blog. Somewhere. The easiest way to implement that [plan] was to throw my spare change in a bucket and make a small deposit every month. Today I noticed there were 25 such deposits on months where there were no other deposits. That’s what they are for. And that is the source of today’s coincidence. Ready?
These amounts could not be more random. If I’m near the bucket and (if I remember) I'll empty any change in my pocket into the bucket. Pocket to bucket. I record that monthly total, it’s one of the truly efficient things around here. The deposits range from $9.23 to $56.60 but average around $34 in coins that I never miss. Alongside this list of deposits, I type in the monthly inflation rate as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Be careful here because the Consumer Pride index others use has quit reporting inflation and now reports its first derivative, the rate of inflation, a much smaller number.
We’re getting to the coincidence. If I take the $34 average and spread it over all 45 months and then weight that average, it much too closely approximates the amount I would have had to add monthly to keep pace with inflation. In other words, I’ve barely, with these deposits, broken even on the cost of dying. Um, here’s also a good spot to ask everyone if they have a long history of saving $34 per per month. Of course, the answer is no. Too many broke people, because theyr regard this type of saving as so mundane.
Any news? Dr. Jennings, the one who was constantly shaming the unvaxxed, has dropped dead at age 46. Finally, felong charges against somebody registering dead people to vote. Yes, it was a Democrat. A comical aspect to Trump’s election and takeover is how the radical left has published poll after poll showing him in a negative light. They do it by ceremony because it used to work. But Trump does not care about polls, he just shrugs them off and they can’t stand it, for it is one of their most precious tactics.
The DEI-infected US Navy has just used a multi-million dollar missile to shoot down one of its own multi-million dollar airplanes. They can’t lie their way out of this one. Trump has reminded Panama that the US turned over control of the canal, not ownership. It was understood they have control as long as the behave. Instead they have been overcharging US ships. (It was that zero, Jimmy Carter, who gave this American-built canal away for one dollar.)
Model airplane engine museum.
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It stayed too cold for yard work, so I went through my New Year’s resolutions. This is in light of the checkup results y’day. For me, average is not good enough. Today’s average weight is 40 pounds to heavy because of all the fatsos out there. And I rated close to average on all vitals and one slight improvement in that I am not diabetic, just this side of it and under control. Twice in my life I’ve gone for stretches of “average” and for me those were preludes to heart attacks and weight gain. Average is not my friend. Too bad if this bores you, this blog was originally prompted to document such things. I’ve always had a terrible memory but the worst fact of that is remembering how long ago things happened. My last great motorcycle trip was not 2017 like my mind says, but way back in 2012.
I have failed several times trying to intentionally slow down. I even tried training myself to watch television and take Saturdays off. That lasted maybe a couple months. So my planning today centered more on what I can do at my current energy level. It’s not great, but I did recently shingle a roof and chainsaw down a major tree. My plan is to take on no new projects except the acutely necessary. I have more than enough to do around here and even that has lapsed because of so much time in Tennessee. Aware of all this, for the past couple weeks I’ve paced myself and compared my performance to stats available on-line, though only a few minutes each day.
I’ll log today’s activities because it was as typical as it gets. I do all my own cooking, which I try to keep healthy. My big meal today was chicken-fried quinoa. Nothing heavy, Texas corn pie for breakfast. The doc put me back on nasal moisturizer which kills my taste buds for an hour. I got a load of laundry in the dryer, whick entails carting the basket around the house to the deck, where I also rigged up the new LED “neon light. Yes, it was still cold this afternoon, but I was standing next to the warmth of the dryer.
Next, I worked inside the shed for 3-1/2 hours, light duty. I sawed some lumber, which I had to move from the yard rack. Another coat of stain or poly on the three boxes that are WIP. I used the new stapler to fashion a small shelf, noticing it taxes my air compressor. One fitting as become loose. It’s a large 120V unit, so while the nailer is powerful, that is the trade-off. Paying close attention to a calorie chart and a downloaded guideline, I get far more exercise every day than most, yet this is not producing the results I’d expect.
That is, I’m now always tired in the mornings and slow to get started. I used to do yard work at dawn, now most of my mornings are for reading and writing. The onset of warmer weather hardly makes a difference any more, it is progressively harder to get underway, but once I do, I tend to work until dark, like today. I also tidied up but still have things piled on my sofa since the last time I worked on the floor. So this is what I mean by keeping the same level of activity for as long as I’m able, knowing that is likely to be less than five more years, and a complete stop to taking on anything new.
Another thing is how I’ve accumulated stuff since 2016. I always wanted a place I could do that, and I have it. The snag is that I’m lax throwing things out, but not from hoarding but from lack of experience. I just don’t have the patience for yard sales or placing ads and waiting for the call.
Which brings me to music. Face it, in the 25 years less three days that I’ve been in Florida, I’ve never had a band I could call my own until recently. And that is being hammered by the fifth year of a fake pandemic that changed the party habits of the crowd I’m best suited for. I’ve played out, not counting jams, in seven bands that lasted more than a year, but all folded for the usual reasons. And none, including my current duo, were money-makers. I’ve jammed or played with maybe 30 bands but I know jamming rarely get results. You meet lots of useless people. Either the house or the guitar player usually just wants some non-paid entertainment help.
Yet I’m kidding myself to say I could ever give up. In keeping with my current planning, no new projects. I’ll either work with what I got, or wait until something falls in my lap. This is my admission that since I arrived in 1999, I’ve put twenty times as much time and energy into music than I ever got back out. The best guitar players I’ve met were all soloists who sang, a combination which dominated the live music industry for the past 30 years. That’s how bad my timing or luck was with music, and nor did I meet even one keeper lady. Let’s see, how many women have I met via music since September 2000 when I first played in Churchills. Eight, no pardon me, ten if I count the two I met through the Hippie.
I’ve also sang with or gone to Karaoke with another dozen or so gals, but I don’t count that as none were dating material. For me, these are terrible rookie numbers. Back in my 20s and 30s, that was a year’s totals. True, the babe supply dries up after 35, becomes a matter of sheer luck at 45, and after 55 I strongly suspect availability goes negative. At the same time, I can’t imagine how tough it must be for men who don’t have any entertainment value. But that serves them right because they don’t try, or if they do it is money-based and that’s where all the sex-traffic hollering must be coming from. They are not on about sex on private islands, but that they are such losers they were never invited. They don’t fool me for a second.
ADDENDUM
At 11:00PM, I went over to Karaoke and ran into my fan club, who are usually gone home by that late hour. By request, I sang a duet and I am way out of practice. I never sang naturally and have no talent at it, I have to focus. And I could not. Missing cues, lyrics, timing, I was a mess. Good thing the crowd loved it. That’s the second time I got the harmony part wrong. Nothing has "added up" this last week, it just went by for nothing.
