December 31, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 31, 2023, the answer is Yesterday.
Two years ago today: December 31, 2022, the year of Chooks.
Three year ago today: December 31, 2021, my last New Year’s playout.
Four years ago today: December 31, 2020, major propaganda begins.
Five years ago today: December 31, 2019, my last planned year.

Seven years ago today: December 31, 2018, my last hangover.
Eight years ago today: December 31, 2017, the lesson’s not universal.
Nine years ago today: December 31, 2016, finally, my own yard.
Ten years ago today: December 31, 2015, pay your dues.
Eleven years ago today: December 31, 2014, until I was 25.

Twelve years ago today: December 31, 2013, a duo, you say . . . .
Thirteen ago today: December 31, 2012, life-size.
Fourteen years ago today: December 31, 2011, 99% the same.
Twelve years ago today: December 31, 2010, sigh, no Arduino.
Sixteen years ago today: December 31, 2009, it’s beginning to show.

Seventeen years ago today: December 31, 2008, no pancakes.
Eighteen years ago today: December 31, 2007, Hallandale, 5:33AM.
Nineteen years ago today: December 31, 2006, I went out drinking.
Twenty-two years ago today: December 31, 2003, I try on-line dating..

           Do I owe red mahogany stain an apology? Here’s me applying it to a small box about the size I’m just beginning with. Some things make sense, like the way it hides a host of imperfections. Watch for a series of boxes as I learn more about applying this finish. It is not only working much better than I expected, I also have a half-gallon of the stuff. It was pancakes for breakbast and baked chicken for lunch, which meets my quota for mentioning food. All fresh prepared from scratch and I put on a big pot of spuds for late.

           A balmy day, I was again in the shed instead of fixing my fence, so today’s report is mostly the activity of building boxes. I also ran in most the electric cable for an overdue exterior light at the shed door. And I cut some lumber out of the pathway to the compressor shed, which needs to be soundproofed. It really does reverberate off the neighbor’s barn into the other neighbor’s back yard. I am planning on how to repair the red shed lean-to, as it is leaking due to inadequate slope. It measures okay, but I can see the water doesn’t run off like it should.

           I have many of the tools and clamps for making small boxes. Shown here are some corner clamps but a bad design. The smallest box possible is where the metal of the clamp barely fits the interior. This was another fast box, where the only tricky cut is the rabbets. The top and bottom are just recessed plated, you saw these in y’day’s post.

           Most of the process is just from experience and eye-balling for accuracy. The fireworks began around noon, so no siesta. But plenty of coffee. As the meme says, one day soon you will wake up to the realization 1975 was fifty years ago.
           Hmmm, why is my in-box clogged with properties in Birmingham for sale? What’s going on over there? SpaceX launched 134 Falcons in 2024. This was a quiet New Year’s, maybe people can’t afford the fireworks. I opted to stay put, since the only place I’d care to head is the old club and that place has lost its direction. You can no longer get far enough into the country to avoid Karaoke on the traditional live band holiday. December 30, 2024 (yesterday) marks the lowest blog readership in memory, at just 16 views. I was late with the post but 100 is kind of a minimum. Who knows. Google’s changed the stats parameter. It only goes back to 2011 and even that will not show daily totals. Is this the oldest daily blog still in existence?

Picture of the day.
Ballroom at the Crazy Water Hotel.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           This is the “summer oak” stain which is not as nice when dry. I was testing a template to joint this box with dowels. It is for my map and navigation tools. Yes, the wood did chip near the pilot holes, totally my fault. The reason for the pegs is to minimuze the number of metal pieces that could throw off compass readings. Despite taking extra care to make this box there are still gaps and lumber that measured 14% and still warped noticeably.

           Tampa radio played real music for a change, maybe to avoid mentioning the number of whistleblowers coming forward to say their own necks. The question of the day concerns the space station couple celebrating Xmas. If they were due to be home months ago, how did they know to bring their Santa hats. Or why the latest avian flu only affects chickens and not ducks, quail, or turkeys. It seems A.I. checks on reported viewership of the last Superbowl, the figure used to base advertising revenue, could be as much as 76% fake.
           Democrats are commiting political suicide by interfering Amish aid in North Carolina. The Amish just ignore them and thus showing America how powerless bureaucracy is against a united population. Mexico is hiring hundreds of lawyers to defend the millions of Mexicans in the US illegally. Because they sent home $63 billion per year. Isn’t it illegal to aid and illegal? The cool dry fog I reported last week has mysteriously spread over several states.

           Here’s a project in the making. These are the wooden handles from thos dollar store sponge paintbrush thingees. They are too large for dowels so how can they be recyled. Lincoln Logs is already taken and sorry, Ken, we already thought of dipping them in mahogany stain.
           Since 2016 it is impossible to ignore politics and the Year of Trump begins. While it is understood he’s not everybody’s favorite, it is hard to fathom how anyone can still believe the other side is better. But then, I’ve never had a free ride either. The countdown to the 20th begins with massive propaganda that Trump has sold out to Israel. It’s a worn out theme, most people now recognize it as just another left-wing tactic to foment divisiveness.

           Instead we watched a big drama with Festus going after a killer who was being pursued by the son of his brother. Great acting from the peak of the TV western. Actors actually had talent, even if their style pegged them as 1940s actors who acted like they were told to act like actors. You know what I’m talking about. In the end, Buck Henry gets the bug-eyed gal and Festus falls asleep on Doc’s operating table.

ADDENDUM
           The following is absolutely unconfirmed rumor, but the Hillbilly is put away for, they say, twenty years. That would explain why we can’t find him on-line. The last three weeks he was living in the barn, he apparently had a job at the boat-making place, who spoke highly of him. I confirm he was a good worker as long as it was simple laboring tasks where the assigned goal was in sight and you checked in on him. We knew he had been questioned over an incident where some gal smoked all his weed and then changed her mind about the bargain.
           However, right afterwards she ran to the police. That’s two marks against him. One, an unwilling participant and two, an era where such accusations are very much in vogue. That’s still not worth twenty years, but then his brothers came to get his things. Turns out the gal was also underage, as in 13. And American culture deems that young women are innocent no matter what they get up to. That’s three marks and if the rumors are fact, he will not be out until he is nearly 60. Can't make a living doing yard work at that age.

Last Laugh