March 13, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 13, 2024, his sliced blueberries.
Five years ago today: March 13, 2020, questionable banking rule.
Nine years ago today: March 13, 2016, Plant City by motorcycle.
Random years ago today: March 13, 2005, more Venezuelan.

           Is it true good blogs randomly mention food? Taking no changes, here is the burger from Smokin’ Joe’s y’day. So many fries I took some home for granny raccoon. Trump finally signed an order he will ignore all lower court rulings until the Supreme Court rules who wields true executive power. Bondi has not released any files. And Europe continues its slide down to becoming Europe. This explains the need for this picture, it’s hope, American style. Speaking of food, my new arrangement of birdfeeders allows three species to feed simultaneously, and it seems to be working well. They only need to be a few feet apart to quit squabbling.

           It is 08:08:47AM today and I will calculate the Sun’s position (using an eleven year old Almanac). I’m practicing the calculation, not navigation. On the hour, it was at 297° 37’ and the declination was S2° 55’. These numbers are rounded to the nearest degree. At 8 minutes and 47 seconds after the hour, the offset is 2° 11’. This works out to 299°48’ west of Greenwich, a measurement known as the Greenwich Hour Angle. And it makes sense the Sun is still just south of the Equator as we approach the Spring Equinox. As usual, we fill find the closest land mass and learn something about it, see addendum.

           My hallway and bathroom are equipped with sensors that turn on the light, fans, and music. There is no light switch in the hallway or A/C in the bathroom, you need both. The music is a convenience and is set to a different popular station. And it is how that popularity has changed that both amuses and horrifies. Example, tomorrow is spring break and the station is going to broadcast methods of “dealing with it”. How to stop the kids from interrupting and bothering you. So far, not one hint of actually listening to, interacting with, or attempting to communicate with them. We are dealing with millennials here.

           Hmmm, the morning off as my shoulders complained a bit. Both shoulders, including my left side which has never been damaged. Last day, my failed tour of SR 664 took me through the area north of Bradley Junction, another Florida non-town. Here’s a view of $50,000 beef on the hoof I passed, but of more interest was the acres of a new crop called solar panels. Most are new enough to not show on the latest satellite photos. They are fixed panels facing the southwest. I will research that a little, but that area is all beef pasture and open pit mines.
           In one of those Ethernet unsolved mysteries, I was bombarded this morning by recipes and offers for peanut brittle. I don’t even like that confection. If it’s a new advertising blitz, why me? Or has Elon implanted A.I. chips in the squirrels and they know I’m going shopping later today? The odds of this happening are low, but never quite zero. What I have planned is three small boxes for the silver. One box is too heavy for the Reb to carry any distance. And I should plan for the day when I can’t, either. I didn’t ask for sore shoulders.

           I also read a chapter on the style of Sight Reduction that I did not choose when I first studied navigation. Turns out that was a good idea in the sense that the way it is taught is as bad as I’ve seen. Once you learn it by other means, it is like electronics. Then, you can go back and make sense of what in tarnation they were talking about. One of my books requires 27 pages to describe the procedure. It is, in hindsight easy. You are using two of the three triangle theorems from grade school. Side-Angle-Side and Angle-Side-Angle.
           The sextant is used only in the second case just mentioned. All the other information is from your clock or a table. For brain exercise, I plan to work a couple of examples using this other method. Beats watching TV, I’ll wager.

Picture of the day.
Alexandria’s thin apartment (Egypt).
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           No work on the floor today, but I made a decision that will triple the work and cost. I’m going to reinforce the joists before I raise them. I’m allocating another $160 for lumber, the rest of the materials I already have. This will put new joists alongside that is there before I attempt to level the floor. Shown here, if you can see it, is a 5/4 plate I put under one raised section and it just separated from the rest of the structure. With new joists, I can set the 30-ton jack back a few inches and raise the portion on the joists, rather than the walls.

           I reconnected most of the old wiring so we have full use of the kitchen again, since there is no easy estimate of how long this part will require. My guess is at least a week. Just gathering the materials at my pace is a joke compared to just four or five years ago. While doing this thinking, I was not lollying about, but putting some finishes on boxes I complete this afternoon. The cost of the propane is now known, but I can tell you this burnt finish is a lot quicker and it is ready now-now-now.

           Let’s cook a meal and see what’s on the news. Trump just fired the attorney blocking access to the IRS and is expected to invoke the Act of 1799. It clearly gives the President the right to kick out any persons who even attempt to harm the US. And, it gives him the right to use the military—whether or not war has been declared, if the illegals are on American soil. I am still disappointed at the pace of the deportations, he’s a million behind. I understand the need to uproot the Deep State and put the fear into those who remain, but meanwhile 30,000 per day need to be ejected. Ha, did you see the canned Fed workers threatening to shut down the government? They are just amplifying the effect of DOGE and proving they are not needed.
           The New York Times just fired a third of their writers. Egg prices fell 15% in two days
.

           Here’s my repaired bubble level. Do you know what these cost these days? It figures it would break when I need it most. Timing is everything for this, once I commence the entire job just be finished without delays for material or tools. We learned in 2019 that a newly raised section will settle more rapidly unless it is a part of the whole group of pylons raised at the same time. Yep, it’s work, but so is paying off a $150,000 mortgage on some place half as nice as this cabin.
           Such as easy day and I was still ready for a quiet evening, opting for an old movie. The “Legend of Ron Burgundy”, mostly to see the shape of Christina Applegate. Rare in America, she sure kept it a long while. But so did I, same weight for 32 years, kept a trunk of the same t-shirts just to prove it. Yet, I’ve never had any woman tell me I was handsome because I have a plain face. I’d thought of a few changes, a chin button, but always had enough variety and new women to not bother. And after 50, why bother at all? There is nothing out there except Taylor and she’s taking her bloody time about it.
           And you know another movie I’ve never seen? “Dune.” Just never got around to it. After the first twenty minutes, I see why. Another intergalactic society that still has a medieval government system.

           Now a treat because you read this far. While I’m setting up to build some rustic boxes to sell (always the hardest part for me), I’ve kept up with the technique of better boxes. Here is one that is to the best of my abilities to date. It’s got most of the skills I’ve learned and is approximately the 35th box I’ve ever built in the shed. So this might be a good spot for a progress check. This box shows only the jointing and panels, I have not done much to finish the inside or add any hardware, which I still do by hand. I’ve seen excellent work staining the wood both before and after, but after is easier for some reason.
           This larger than usual box is again for storing smaller valuable tools in the shed. You’ve seen how this results in rather fine-looking containers for odds and ends. In most cases, there are some defects if the box winds up holding drill bits or leftover components. This box had a couple of staple poke-throughs and a glue stain from a lumber label which will have to be removed. The other thing to watch for is days when a bunch of boxes appear. It just means I’ve assembled them that day. I’ve learned to have multiple boxes happening at one, where I can make all similar cuts or use one tool on several at a time.

ADDENDUM
           This location is northwest of a place called Manuas. Capital of the Brazilian province of Amazonas, this is near the Roriama plateau I visited in the 90s. It’s south of Angel Falls, in Venezuela, which I saw when it was still safe to do so. The city has an opera house, that is most needed in the middle of the jungle, one would suppose. Founded in 1669, two million people live there and I never heard of it until today.

           This opera house, which looks suspiciously like this public market photo taken in 1906, features performances that TripAdvisor describes as “tear-jerking”. The city grew mainly during the heyday of the rubber barons, which ended when somebody smuggled the tree seeds to Asia. It is that situation that caused me to read for an hour about this city, the seventh largest in Brazil.

           It got my interest because as I read more, I realized this city was the story of my financial theories applied on a massive scale I knew existed, but had no specific examples. Now I do. Manuas. This is what happens when you have no infrastructure. The opera house was not due to a love of European culture, but fantastically rich people trying to outdo each other. These are the folks who watered their horses on champagne, and once Asia began to produce rubber, Manuas collapsed. No infrastructure.
The place fell off the map, even the electricity was shut off, not returning until the 1960s. The place was once so rich, they sent their shirts to be laundered in Paris, then reduced itself to a rotting hulk. If you’d like to learn more from my description, here’s a link to an article about Manuas from the Telegraph.

           If you have no time to read that, Manuas is best known since its implosion as the start of the massive prison riots in Brazil in 2017 and the area where the billionaire Ludwig towed a prefab lumber mill across the Pacific. It’s also the area Henry Ford failed to grow his own rubber.
           Ludwig, by the way, was one of the first to figure out DNA could be useful. He had blood samples frozen that successfully challenged claims on his estate by the daughter of a total sleaze he had married in the 1930s. And some people thought celestial navigation was boring.

Last Laugh