May 24, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 24, 2024, more about tubes.
Five years ago today: May 24, 2020, unbreakable.
Nine years ago today: May 24, 2016, [Unavailable]
Random years ago today: May 24, 2007, typical calendar entry.

           There is no side-stepping politics, you just cannot do that any more. Negative Trump propaganda bombards you from all sides. I’ll tell you what worries me. The Democrats are in a pickle, their pardons are revoked, the auto-pen people are exposed, and there is no way they can effectively counter Trump’s tax breaks on tips and overtime. That's millions of people who will never vote that tax back into being. I know the Democrats have a plan to grab back power—but what? They are not campaigning or even trying to disguise some of the really evil things they are up to. To me, it just means more coffee this morning, but there are lots of warning signs.

           I tiptoed over and took this photo of the house up the way. That plywood shows the structural wall that has been torn out. It’s tricky to see, but the house has buckled about 2/3 of the say over from the left. It looks like a corner, but it isn’t. The noise has stopped, but the odd work truck shows up anymore.
           Google is on another phone number stunt, trying to get your tracking device on file. My blog has been flagged for “sensitive content”. Again. You must verify age to look at it by clicking on a button, duh. So, I’m locked out until I get around this. Up yours, Google. Security, my eye. Protection racket is more like it. Trump unleashed a 50% tariff on Europe, who tried their old tactic of stalling talks while the damage continues. As Trump pointed out, the EU was formed as an anti-American trade alliance.

           Say good-bye to the one-cent piece. The penny soon ceases production. There’s over a billion in circulation, so they’ll be around. When it comes to bank interest, do you think they will round up or down? I say both. Up when charging, down when paying. We got two boxes built this morning, at which point we blew a fan belt. This was that very expensive Granger “duraflex”, which I believe was something like $35. It did not, over these 15 years, last more than maybe 2,000 drills and except when new, was never quite tight enough. Here it is, Duraflex 2L260. This time, I’m going to NAPA for a belt off a good ole Chevy.
           Another round of layoffs, this time Wal*mart, Amazon, Panasonic, but who knows, I’ve lost track if that is now or last month. It’s by the thousands but that was also the case when I was growing up so to me it is nothing new. The big companies created statistics of their own to match the marketplace. Wal*Mart knows they’ll be hung out to dry if they raise prices.

           You can skip the rest of this morning if you don’t like accounting. This involves pricing and it has to be done right the first time. I had planned six boxes this morning and that replacement fan belt was $17.85. This is a fixed cost, which is difficult to allocate. If it lasts 10,000 drillings, that’s 5,000 boxes and that adds nearly 4/10ths of a cent per box, not counting the time, price, gasoline, insurance, and related costs to go shopping for it. We know from living in Miami, the cost of just standing still, doing nothing, based on a 40-hour work week is around $6.94 per hour not counting rent. I don’t recall the exact number, but if you don’t bring in at lease $294 per week spending money, you are losing ground in Florida.
           My books are deadly accurate. I dropped off the two boxes that were finished and was darn lucky to find a fan belt that fit and only putting 3.7 miles on the van. I can project the costs from very little data and lost of experience. It is going to cost $3.082 per box in direct and indirect materials. Based on a reasonable output, I need to gross around $8 per box, of which $5 is my operating capital. The good news is, when I dropped off the boxes, the lady was not there but the rest of the staff absolutely loved them. Good, maybe I’ve stumbled across something.

Picture of the day.
Large rubber stamp.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I had to use the library computer, I am reinstalling my opsys, which seems to clear the baffles. Part of the problem is MicroSoft forcing itself to become default browser, and of course, you cannot delete it. But you can disable it in the startup menu. The afternoon was totally taken up with building boxes. Expect this for a bit, as I have now made more money selling boxes than I have playing music in 2025. This is why you like this blog, in a few minutes you will know more about building boxes than any hour-long youTube blabber begging you to subscribe.

           Here is a view of today’s production, or most of it. Every fourth box exhibits some defect that cannot be undone. This variance is usually due to lumber warping. Shown here are the Z-box Model B, with anti-warping features. They use top quality glue and have forty staples per box. Also, you can see one of the bottom panels installed on two of the boxes, the other is just facing the wrong way.

           This bottom panel has to be custom fitted on each box, which I have down to just one more cut after the sides are assembled. It is an important cut, as it is what is holding the boxes perfectly square in this photo. I no longer use corner clamps which take many times longer and can leave clamp marks on the lumber. These boxes are still built “by hand” and not assembly line. The reason is, once more, the lumber dimensions. Each box is now cut from a single picket which unfortunately takes time and wastes the end pieces.
           I’m putting together a short video of the yagasuki finishing process, look for it tomorrow. Yes, I know that is the wrong term, but I prefer a single word to describe the scorching process. Am I about to be glad I save those 12 1-lb propane canisters? Here is a better view of the afternoon’s effort. Four boxes but notice only three are yaga-suki-ed. The unit in the upper right has a defect, so why waste heat?

           While most defects can be repaired or covered on-the-fly, that does not apply to a joint or corner that won’t fit. The boxes are still completely usable because the joints don’t matter so much. This design was inspired by old orchard fruit containers and a pear or plum is not going to fall through a 16th inch crack. A total of six boxes were completely cut, assembled and made ready for sale today, two are already at the market.
           Visible on the bottom two boxes is the missing final piece and this one is the most difficult. It cannot be pre-cut. I tried that but 50% of the pieces, even when marked instead of measured, come out a hairline too short. Can’t use those, the side of the boxes must be tight; I tap them into place with a rubber mallet. The bottoms are not glued, but held in place by twenty 1-1/4” staples. Larger staples poke through, smaller staples won’t hold snugly until the glue dries. This is a quality product and that has proven a boon when people examine it closely. I’m telling you, it is the old robot club standards showing through.

ADDENDUM
           The Sons of Liberty (no link) has published a street level documentary on the housing market, garnering my attention since it is warnings I issued in 2020—that although everyone knows a burst is coming, they don’t understand this time there is no bailing out. All the tinkering with the numbers is over. The average home buyer is now 56 years old, and since he won’t get a mortgage, he’s got the money and you don’t.
           I know prices are falling, I turned off my filter months ago. Too many hits, and since nothing is selling as inventories rise, we know it’s gotten worse. Prices fell worst out on the Demtard states of the west coast, probably because nobody with the brains to have money wants to live near those people anymore. Florida is also hit, but there is no cause-and-effect you can point to with the Florida market. People move here to die and that is often the only growth industry.
           What will happen? I’d watch for an increase in numbers of existing homes as speculators and a generally distrustful public unload on an empty market. But unlike 2006, there is no pretending it’s just a phase—if house prices fell even by half, most people still could not affort the payments. Rents are already too high to listen to the blabber that renters can pick up the slack. I would like to see a 65% drop in prices that wipes out all the paper gains I’ve listened to for a lifetime. I’m done listening to loudmouths bragging how much their house is worth while making mortgage payments.
           This, of course, does not apply to me, since I have no mortgage.

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