One year ago today: March 7, 2024, dogwood season.
Five years ago today: March 7, 2020, only $23 trillion.
Nine years ago today: March 7, 2016, MicroSoft sux.
Random years ago today: March 7, 2010, I don’t play jazz.
What is this tabloid headline doing in my inbox? Seems Hunter Biden hasn’t sold anything since his daddy was ousted. Millions in debt, it seems the insurance won’t pay for the paintings moved to his LA mansion just days before the wildfires. It’s an icy cold morning and my shoulders are letting me know to not stray from the coffeepot. My one planned chore today is to see how much or how little wire is needed to reach the new water heater. I was up late writing letters and studying the relationship between registers and machine memory.
Here’s the reason all previous owners shied away from fixing this corner. All the utilities and repairs and most of the damage is right there. The section I cut away was rotted completely so I had to get far enough under the building to find something solid to catch the jack. Eight and a half hours and I raised one beam just 1-1/4”. The wood is brittle so I cannot just jack up the corner and slide some braces into place. Much of the blocks seen here are temporary, as I have only one jack.
I raise one section and adjust the temporary supports, each section an inch at a time so nothing gets super-strained. It is as messy and tiring as it looks. It also scares granny raccoon, who I see had regular spots under both my place and the neighbors. She’s hungry enough to forage in broad daylight and often sits back forty feet giving me that hurry up look.
A message arrives from the Prez. He’s putting his house on the market and moving to Pennsylvania in a couple of months. His wife, from England, likely knows people up there. Most who move back north only last a couple of winters, but that puts yet another band out of business. And the Kaiser moved win with a girlfriend who has a house, he doesn’t know it yet but that is the end of his solo career as he knows it. But that’s the thing, right, he doesn’t know. Gotcha!
So band-wise, I am back to where I was in January 3, 2000. Reading the music want ads and doing my best to avoid the flakes. It took a while for me to realize 99% of Florida guitarists who are not already in a band are some unpredictable combination of freak, pot addict, and/or social reject. Don’t blame me, I can and have worked with them all. All of them, unstable and stuck in their ways, mostly in a very tiny part of their own little worlds. They do have opinions, but I well know the television mindset. Very firm stances but no knowledge beyond what they just heard.
Ramen factory.
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What a day, under the house for hours. I got the wiring mostly mapped out but a coupld of the runs were so wrong I had to trace them by had. I have my detector but it can be fooled by nearby cables. Here is a closeup of the work in this morning’s photo, I have to be very careful not to snap anything. In a way, it is fortunate the house settled enough that when I insert new sole plates they are at least 1-1/2” thick. When the sub-panel electrician was here, I had him run in an extra 240 volt line and I am now super glad for that.
Maybe on the weekend I’ll drag it in front of the old unused front door. Then again, remember how when I leveled the back bedroom how all the windows around the whole house became unstuck. It is a nice door, but right now I think it is holding up its own frame. I had to destroy a cactus plant that would not uproot and saw up some perfectly good planks to shore up the weaker spots. I could have kept working, I felt fine, but obeyed the counsel of my age and knocked off at dusk. You can tell in these photos the light is facing.
There was also a load of laundry, which reminds me I have not bought new clothes in years. Not that I’m a fashion maven and admit that I will often choose what, in later years, is good for work garments. I’m more likely to pick up something at the Thrift following my unexplained weight gain in the early 2000s. I had to fetch the dryer load at the last moments of sunlight and the skeeters tried to massacre me.
Nothing else to report, the day was long but easy enough and we are now squatting in front of my DVD player with my second mug of coffee in an hour. Do I work tomorrow again or play it safe? My accumulated experience says no matter how well it seems, do not push my own parameters. Running the electric cable would be nice light duty, but I would first have to crawl around to find out what is where. For example, that fridge circuit was not dedicated, it ran through the wall to the microwave, over to the hall ceiling light, then back down another wall to behind the appliance.
Most people can sit and stand forever, but after a certain age, just getting up from prone is strenuous, and that is the normal position for this work. I often wondered why so many people get winded tying shoelaces, I know I do. What’s the theory on that? Right now, I’m sitting so I updated my music dashboard to seek another acoustic player. What’s creepy is these people who go through obvious lengths to be what you want, but slip in just at the bottom of their profile they are a Jesus freak. As in, “just one more thing”, kind of the Columbo thing with bands.
Two more things to watch for, but they are not deal-breakers. Fat chicks. They go crazy when the bass player shows a preference for skinny women half their age. Also, if they list playing more than three instruments. This is not versatility, but a signal of lack of specialization. I’ve met too many such people who play lots if instruments—all the same way.
What’s this, Trump is inviting the farmers in South Africa to America on a fast track to citizenship. This is specifically aimed at those who are afraid for their safety. Smart move—and a clever way to insure Whites only. Canada has thrown Trudeau out on his, er I mean, replaced him.
