One year ago today: May 4, 2024, #1134, now $5,300.
Five years ago today: May 4, 2020, chicken approved.
Nine years ago today: May 4, 2016, 38 million new people.
Random years ago today: May 4, 2004, more scenery, less excitement.
What an eerie morning. Dead calm, dead silence. At 5:30AM I left the hall door open and could hear the kitchen clock faintly ticking from forty feet away. I swept the area with binoculars, there is not a leaf or blade of grass moving. Finally, at 8:40AM there was a distant truck motor from the distant southeast, where Hwy 60 is closest. We know where there is lots of noise. Over at Democrat headquarters. That White lady who said the N-word has received $605,000 in fundraising. The Democrats cannot allow that.
Here’s today’s accomplishment, the new kitchen fridge dedicated circuit. For now, it is the microwave outlet. It follows the pattern where appliances used the most are last to get any attention. This circuit has been waiting over five years, and still must wait until I finish the flooring. Which I got to a bit, putting in cross-braces on some of the joists and reinforcing seams where I plan to put half-sheets of plywood. In the future, if things need attention, I will only have to wrestle with a 4x4 piece.
For example, while in the pit, I examined that water joint repaired just months ago. I reinforced it with a half-inch bar of angle aluminum to prevent any strain. But looking at it again, I see that it is already warping. I’ve decided to spring for a 3/4" Shark union and bolster it with solid iron. It has to resist the shifting of the building, which has moved a half-inch since 2019 even after doubling the number of pylons.
Work took most of the day, so that’s what you get for news. I tidied up, including roach-bombing the KIA, dragging lumber over to the shed for the roofing, and slicing up custom pieces for small repairs as needed on the flooring. It was around twenty pieces of lumber and that got me winded. Then as known by now, it took 3-1/2 hours to run in this outlet. Yes, I know it is the wrong receptacle, but have patience. I price by the outlet, not the individual time and almost a half-day per unit seems my maximum.
This one took extra work, so I’m happy with the time it took. I had to pull the wiring under the floor to outside the building. Then drill up through the old lumber, thatwood can dull a drill bit easy. Then pull it up the wall, which is behind the current water heater, so I had to work on tip-toes. It’s dedicated 20A wiring for just a fridge, so I may consider adding an A/C on the same branch.
The bee colony is expanding and they are now buzzing in the footpath. So far, harmless but what do I know about bees? The Internet says cut off the water for a week. The birds will find alternate sources and the bees will also seek a new supply. Tomorrow, we give it a try. They cannot stay. What’s this, Target is removing self-checkout due to theft? I thought Target was only too glad to help these oppressed minorities. Or was that like liberals, only if it doesn’t personally cost them anything?
Lab-grown chocolate.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
I skipped lunch to get that circuit finished, stopped just after two because I was famished. I grabbed some chicken thighs donated by the guitar player and tested the microwave by nuking them up. Too dusty and worn down for anything fancy I slapped the two thighs between a sliced Cuban loaf and that was one great snack. It was then I saw that may have been the most expensive sandwich I’ve ever had.
You see, the Prez lived near Publix, the highest price grocer in Florida, plus he was no bargain hunter. I’d seen some price tags on the other packages and still wasn’t when I went to toss the package. Those two chicken thighs were $24.05. They were good, but they were not big or fancy or special. Meaning I just scarfed the sandwich of my dreams in five minutes, with a mug of masala tea in my other fist. Yes, it was pretty good, but is there such a thing as a bad chicken sandwich?
We have planned to continue practice on the patio where Roberto lives, I think it’s his brother or something. I’m fine with that, since soon I predict we’ll find a club. Roberto is impressed by the sound, it’s much better than he was expecting when looking for a second guitarist. It seems he really likes the fills, which means he likes the sound, which also means it should not be long before he’s rarin’ to find a stage. With luck, I won’t have to do any of the pounding around.
Y’know, I don’t really grasp tariffs. They were a complicated course toward the end of my accounting program and I don’t think the professor understood them either. I view them as just another type of sales tax. I don’t believe we are suddenly surrounded by experts. The most compelling argument making the rounds is the tariffs will bring in enough money to eliminate income tax, so you will have more money to pay increased prices. How this benefits anyone isn’t that clear. What good is a raise if you have to spend it all as soon as you get it?
What I do know is all these taxes distort the Law of Supply & Demand, which always leads to woe—but in the meanwhile it favors those with the money to own the means of production. The exception is America, where often such money can be borrowed. Let’s see if anything got past my filters. The “wrong number” scam is on the rise again. It works because there are people out there who believe that rich and successful people find random idiots nice to talk to.
Confirmed, a Houthi rocket hit Israel’s biggest airport. The media report it was a missile but it’s doubtful there was any guidance system. The war in Gaza continues and while I don’t take sides, the tactics make since when viewed strictly from military logic. If an enemy is engaged in a deliberate multi-generational war, then the war will last forever until you wipe out the enemy’s breeding mass. And anyone who hides behind his own women and children relinquishes his right to complain when they become casualties. Note I do not even pretend to say who is right or wrong here. It seems to me, unable to sustain a drawn out war, Israel has opted to wipe out the enemy’s capability to continue the conflict once and for all. Move out or be killed and the world is watching.
How did this rocket arrive undetected? Have the terrorist learned to build them out of plastic, or found a way to launch them nearer the target? I’ve never built a big rocket but I know what’s needed and have all the necessary tools. In fact, a couple weeks ago I was searching for stump remover per that linden tree, and glanced at a site listing what’s needed to make black powder, which most people just call gunpowder. Stump remover is an ingredient, the other two substances are sulfur, which I’ve seen in bags at Wal*Mart, and charcoal. I watched people making their own charcoal in Thailand forty years go, using old paint cans.
The government road crews had chopped up brush they gave away for free. The farmers put it in paint cans and once a week stacked them all in a big bonfire. The cans made a whistling sound and when that was done, the charcoal is inside. Here’s a video that gave me an old-time laugh, these two totally Texas hicks showing the right way to make up a big batch of charcoal using the open can method.
ADDENDUM
Over the years I’ve told you how I once loved and admired and envied Sweet Judy Blue Eyes. But I never told of the exact incident that broke us up. This was a lifetime ago and I only have my side of the story, so here goes. Judy was the first big city girl I dated and she had a nasty habit I later learned was not that uncommon. I learned to quickly dump women who do this, but I was teen when I met Judy and knew no better.
When we were out on dates, she would entertain approaches by other men. Today I recognize that as a need in weak women. They want a man who shields them and protects them. The catch with Judy is she would do it with men a head taller than me and twice my weight. We had gone to a cabaret a few weeks after my 21st birthday. All too often I would come back from the men’s room and find some stranger at the table chatting her up. Her explanation was always the same. He was just a nice guy being nice and she was just being nice back and I should be nice, too.
This time was different. The next morning when Judy and I were in bed together, the phone rang. It was him, asking for her. She had given him my unlisted private home number. Four months later was the end. I have not seen her in nearly fifty years. Why now? Because she had me promise to contact her before the end to see what happened in my life. Boy, if she’s around, she’ll get more than she’s bargained for. More than half a million people know what my life has been like in the past twenty years alone.
I add that she is the second last obligation I have made as well as the longest outstanding. I had also promised to contact her on her 30th and 50th birth days, but both times her father answered and refused to put her on. He’d be long gone now. He always saw me as that bad boy all parents fear for their daughters. But hey, I was the best bad boy she could have picked. You should have seen the others that were after her. Pops should have written me a thank you note.
