January 25, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 25, 2024, roads, weather, women.
Five years ago today: January 25, 2020, wider, not deeper.
Nine years ago today: January 25, 2016, the $30-$40,000 range.
Random years ago today: January 25, 1980, beers at the Buck.

           Brrrr, and good morning to all the millennial smart-boys who think my spelling out each days blog title as the full date. Why bother when Google puts the date there for you? Ha, do they now? Google has again mucked around with the fields and their search field treats every comma as a delimiter, including those inside quotation marks. My searches still work badly, but they still work. It is 42°F out there and we are going to look for that trailer hitch over in Auburndale.

           Later, at the Swap Meet. I could not find the hitch place, so set out looking for a stove. It was a bit farther walking than good for me but I found two places. This is the stove I want, but a model with the knobs on the front. No rush as I’m unlikely to have the $350 until early February. Did this blog just feature a used electric range? Yep. I did glue a box together, but was afraid if I said anything, somebody would throw it at my head.

           I stopped there for brunch, $7 for a burger and fries. It’s home made and fills you up. The grounds are even larger that appears from the highway. I’ll need to spend a day there. Prices, well, not that cheap. The west side is all rental and storage meaning that’s likely where I’ll find the hitch. It is not a classic swap meet, most of the booths are permanent retailers of new merchandise. There was a noticeable lack of Central Americans. I wound up buying nothing, rather plan to return there when I have some spare cash. There is an outfit that sells nails by the pound and I need box hardware.
In a wordless classic, Trump made the California Governor wait outside on the tarmac for over ten minutes—then fold him what he’d have to do to get any federal money. The rest of the news today was much the same. Former staunch            Democrat supporters flipping sides. Trump has seized the $300 billion in Biden’s Green New Deal fund. People who grow worms for composting complain that the worms won’t touch McDonald’s fries. Unverified sources report that over five million Mexicans have voluntarily gone back.

           Don’t celebrate. That is only 1 in 6 of the illegals. Of the other nationalities, the nasty ones are all still here. The nation awaits for news of the first sanctuary city mayor getting arrested for interfering with deportation. Some time ago I tried ChatGPT on Ray-B’s computer. It provided only shallow responses, so today I returned to it for an hour to see if I could get anything better. Nope. Not one new or novel piece of information came up, so I quit the app. I will presume I am using it wrong, I find the responses even on technical questions to be around eighth-grade level at best.

           No word from JZ, meaning he is still taken up with that woman. It was tradition to call on birthdays. Nothing this year. She is not a good influence. Best I can do is leave the odd message with his sister but that trust me, that takes forever. This is terrible because without crashing at his place, it is not worth going to Miami more than a day trip—and I have no idea what this back surgery would involve. Reading up on what info they provided from my X-ray, this type of operation is rather common, as in up to 150,000 per year. But it also says recover could last six months to a year wearing a brace. That’s probably for severe damage, but you know my luck.

Picture of the day.
Norwegian flea market.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           The next audiobook is already better fare. It’s about an English lady who marries into an American coal mining family from the perspective of the bored, unfulfilled housewife. To just get out of the house, this is in the late 1930s, she signs up to deliver library books on horseback. The jacket says it is a mystery but nothing of the kind has happened yet. Actually, this is the second audiobook. The one I selected first was in an orange plastic case which contained a single disk marked MP3 with a play time of 7 hrs 55 minutes.

           Called “Racing The Light” I inserted the disk onto a desktop and found that rather than the usual WAV files, these are all MP3s. Do I have the only tape deck Wal*Mart sells that will not play MP3s. There is no USB port, making that a possibility. It’s one of the free disks from the Immokalee library, so that’s why I had “Maker of Stars” to carry on. I say again, surprisingly well written. That last story was exhausting. Where you or I might say the Russian gal brushed her hair, this became “she brushed her hair with a long handled brush make of porcelain that had been in her family since her grandmother received it as a wedding gift in the Caucasus Mountains during the reign of Tsar Nicolas”. And on, and on.

           Music. Have I chosen the wrong time to get a band together or what? Not one reply to my advertising and I finally checked the last club on my 2017 list. It has switched to Karaoke. The area is a total wasteland for music gigs. I have not been to the old club since a month ago, when they announced it was recorded music only. Does this mean the end of this venture? Of course not, we’ve been through this crap before. If there are no clubs hiring, the solution is to create a club. Remember Jimbos, that wound up lasting for years and in the face of all sorts of competition.

           One certainty is what I find will not be on the local A-circuit. The logical start is that Tiki bar at the bowling alley that never called back, so I’ll contact the Prez for a rehearsal. It’s just a couple miles from his place. Also, the park club where we backed up Dave Parsons paid us well. But we were a four piece. It’s also a large room, but maybe something can be worked out. I’m nowhere near done with music yet.
           So instead of practicing what I should, I played “Only Daddy”, “Diggin’ Up Bones”, and “Chain Gang” for an hour. I forgot to disable autoplay and was across the room when that Jack Black movie “Year One” Did I mention I filled the birdfeeders with a known favorite of my regulars—orange juice infused budgie food. The back hard has been alive all day, including our newcomer rare woodpeckers. If it is warm again tomorrow, they are going to have a feast.

Last Laugh