One year ago today: December 28, 2023, millennialware.
Five years ago today: December 28, 2019, never intall “on-line”.
Nine years ago today: December 28, 2015, a generic day.
Random years ago today: December 28, 2010, disjointed ramblings.
What a perfect winter day. It’s 70°F and 9:30AM. A hearty breakfast and the same for Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal, shown here. Except this is late y’day afternoon. Somewhere around here is the best shot I have of the beige bird, turns out to be an ordinary long-time visitor who moved too fast to see. All are in birdie paradise with the birdbath that is doing night shift as the raccoon fountain. All the logistics are taken care of until past New Years, so maybe we can find something for distraction. I drove past Agt. R’s place to say hello but there were seven vehicles parked. So his kids are home for Xmas and I don’t really know any of them. If it stays this warm, I’ll try to get some vacuum tubes sorted, which is a nice break from digging post holes. And we still have 300 tubes not inventoried. I think I’ll play bass a bit before getting underway, you can join in , y’know.
Here’s the latest in cardinals in the yard. I’ve lost track of the generations but they have been permanent residents since I moved in. They still feed separately and to no let other birds around. Morning feeding time is 48 minutes before sun-up. While I do not tame wild birds, they know to let me know if they are waiting. I just learned today that Melanie Safka passed away last January. And the article was about how she was the highest paid entertainer in history in her field. That’s the “I got a brand new pair of roller skates” lady, she was 76. I don’t identify with her as a musician, but I like several of her more popular tunes back in the day, but nothing since.
That’s the passing of another icon of my era and she was not that much older than me. I don’t really identify with her situation, probably because I lack the usual background of that time slot. I was not born into a musical family near a city full of recording studios. I never performed on stage since the age of four and while she was receiving “positive reviews” from Billboard, I was picking rocks in a muck-field out in the prairies. Nor did I have the money to run away to California or show up at Woodstock. In some ways we were opposites, for instance, it was me who rejected the gang of goofs I went to high school with, not the other way around. According to Forbes, in the last year of Melanie’s life, she pulled in a cool $46 million. That means she probably does not identify with me, either.
Take the Brit offensive at Caen after D-Day. The story always backs up a few weeks to point out that Monty’s plan was “agreed to by other generals” and this is where things invariably zoom out to stress that other attacks by other generals were all part of Monty’s plan, of course. It seems no matter what other priorities might be, everyone should focus on cooperating with Monty. And A.I. is reinforcing that myth and a lame attempt to disguise the fact that the tactics were right out of WWI. Creeping barrages and such. While his tanks and men were numbered by the thousands, he was always up against “formidable” defenses like a German unit with a lousy 44 cannons.
Watching the news from Pretoria it’s hard to remember that South Africa was once a nuclear power with a Space Program. It was sad to see how the world ganged up on them for having the same laws everybody else did. It’s only later in life you realize there is a pattern to those laws, and they were applied to America by the Biden regime, who are stealing as much money as they can before January 20.Today saw Biden claiming if he and not Harris had run, he would have defeated Trump. There is a mad scramble amongst the Democrats to curry favor with Trump, but as of yet, none of them have really squealed. The likeliest reason for that is it would expose that they were in on it.
Historic general store in Wisconsin.
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The Reb likes raccoons. To me they are just other visitors. Here’s the latest, they turn my birdbath into a spa. I was wondering how posts and such in my yard get off-perpendicular. These raccoons are heavy beasts when full grown. I suspect these two are the survivors of the quadruplets of early summer. The city has no choice but to trap them. There should be a photo of night vision binoculars in today’s post. You may recall I have a price list that marks prices at which I will buy, such as the digital cameras that took most of the photos in this blog. I did not buy one until they dropped below $100. We have another today that went to $99.
A busy afternoon with zero productivity. All yard work and repairs which does not count. I go the fence posts sunk and leveled. They are braced and I got that section of fence back up into place, just not very nicely. That’s because I had the gas chain saw out and got two barrels of branches, limbs, and raking up in smoke. And indeed, that was smoke. The wind kept shifting so you got it in the face no matter where you stood. I measured the burning temp to vary between 584°F and 624°F. It never got hot outside so it was pleasant, I cracked an ice cold Yueng-Ling around 6:00PM.
I slapped more rough boxes together and raked some of the area by the laundry deck. Everything that falls off the trees gets funneled into that walkway out there. That north fence is really in bad shape, I think I’ll see if I can brace it to the tree trunks. I’ve failed digging new post holes anywhere near the root system along that edge. I’d have to pull out the old posts and that would be work.
Their car in the shop since before I left. Kind hearted Reb will let them borrow, I absolutely will not. These are work vehicles that (in the end) belong to me and the answer is no, don’t even ask. This is America and a car is a necessity, if you don’t got one you screwed up. They could walk or conform to my schedule, but no free rides. (Another point, if they got time to watch CNN anti-Trump ganda all day, they can get their own wheels.) So, what is shaping up is that the trip was only postponed. The Reb has to go to California and she has to drive it this time. As before, we don’t know how long, but a couple weeks minimum for an expensive excursion like that.
This means the pets, diminished in number as they are, will have me present. Other folks are nice and well-intentioned, but I was there a month and not once did they ever give the dogs a proper walk. Get the dogs harnessed, put on a winter jacket and twice a day out there for at least an hour, rain or cold. It never happened, they are more likely to let the dog out into the back yard like the neighbors do. Imagine that situation, where I’m present and they have no transportation. It could happen soon enough, I do not lend out vehicles, it’s a lesson I’ve learned. Those who don’t own a car in America share a distinct set of traits that is not popular in my circle.
It’s likely more than coincidence these sort of people also make bad business partners. It could be pointed out that I sometimes talk about what I would do if I had the money and so do they. But the comparison stops there. Let’s look at what they accomplished when they didn’t have the money. Take stock of what they’ve done the past fifty years and you’ll get my point. The company at the Reb’s have often seen me write letters. That’s how I know in any given month, I write more personal letters than they have combined in their entire lives. Nope, you do not go into business with such people.
ADDENDUM
Honey, the PayPal browser extension, has been exposed. It is supposed to steer users to the best deals and supply discount coupons. But there is no law says they can’t sell out and they did. This is the type of low-level scam that today’s computer users consider high-level because it is on a computer. Such a typical mentality of the times, it’s painful to anybody with a sense of decency, yet 100% a valid business move to the entitlement class. I’m amused by how they claim they inherited a world full of wars, debt, unaffordable housing, and lack of opportunity from the Boomers. Because I felt the same at that age. Anybody was even one day older than me was more responsible for the screwed up world than I was. So there.
Meanwhile, in Tajikstan.
