June 18, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 18, 2024, 13-1/2 hours.
Five years ago today: June 18, 2020, still testing Forex.
Nine years ago today: June 18, 2016, I miss Palmdale.
Random years ago today: June 18, 2007, took me four years.

           Let’s take the day off, insofar as what a day off means around here. It means coffee for sure, and I was up early, then rolled right over under my now returned-to-service weightless blanket and am now ready to find a star. It is 13:05:31 GMT on this date so let’s locate the geographic position of Capella. Aries is at 101°41.6’ and Capella’s sidereal hour angle is 280°33.9’ at N46°0.5’. The Earth has rotated 1°23.0’ since the top of the hour.

           We have hit water. The bow compass shows the Azores is closest again, but we’ve been there. Next totally new land for us would be the northwest point of Portugal, no wait, that is where Spain curves over the top. Let’s zoom in. We have a magic fountain north of a sheltered town called Muxia. It’s small church where you can cure your kidney problems by crawling under a rock nine times. That would likely cure my back pains. The place is named Sanutorio a Nosa Senora de Barca, who arrived there in a boat (barca) made of stone and chased away some pagans who were using the site for, it would seem, less-Catholic things.

           Finally, mid-morning and I’m moving. Checking the news, I see some more fat guys learned if you attack or block a car in Florida, they can run you over. I made a refill and watched the fat guy learning to fly six times. He had been pounding on the lady’s vehicle window, stupid lard-ass.
           In other morning news, the mangos continue to ripen under the newspaper at only a marginal rate faster than the ones left in the open because the box was full. My kitchen kind of smells like the grocery aisle and can anyone remember what happened to my blender? Maybe mangos are tolerable as a liquid. Here’s a happy note, this just looks like a photo of a chair. It is a special chair. For over year, my old chair was a pain because the casters were broken and a new set costs $12. Instead, today I replaced the whole chair for $4, but that still isn’t the big news.

           The old chair had to be removed. So, this new chair represents a giant step for me. (What a terrible picture, but that is a chair.) It had to be manhandled out of the van, up the stoop, through the kitchen, down the hallway and into through the old office door into this spot. That’s after getting the old chair out into the kitchen. The point is, I did this [job] non-stop in around eight minutes! It really winded me but I got it done as one job and I’m now plunked down long enough to notice it has better lumbar support. Now that I know what such things are possible again.
           My goal was to pick up some new work pants and I got lucky. Three pairs of jeans, all nice than the ones I had before. Those will now become my work jeans and these replacements are casual wear. Really nice, new (about ten-wash faded) with not snags or visible defects, these are three pairs of nice jeans.

           Another change is that knowing I’m out of exercise, this time I got the whole chair replacement done before I needed a breather. This brings back an overall increase in activity for me, most welcome. For example, it helped me spot a small cache of 4” screws I needed to really fix that backyard fence y’day. Dare I hope this gets me back on track with some weight loss? Don’t take bets, as my appetite is also returning. And not everything is right with my whole back yet.
           I have received bad news that my executor can no longer manage my small estate. No reason given, but I’ve had misgivings over the changes in the system for some years now. The rules and laws keep changing and I cannot expect her to keep on top of it. I hate to lose an ally after 40 years, but of course we will still be friends. I’ve lived so long now I don’t care so much about everything that goes wrong and I hope she is in excellent health. Things will get difficult for me now. I’ve lived longer than I planned for and this is catching up with me. I’ve outlived all my friends and now I’m outliving everybody else, too.

Picture of the day.
USA coastal parking.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Also at the Thrift, which has been getting fewer tools these days, I picked up bin next to the tools, something Iearned long ago. Stuff gets put away wrong and under a pile of slip covers I found this chuckless drill in perfect working order. It’s a Skil, so it goes into the main work area where I like tools that can deal with big lumber in one pass. Battery drills are handy, but they tend to go dead when used on bigger lumber, which leaves you with a drill bit half way through. You can reverse it out or release the bit and you can’t charge it while stuck in that mode. With a real titanium bit, these old Skil models punch through a 3-1/2” board as fast as you can push it. And I have just the box to keep it in.

           The remainder of the day went equally nice. I got loads of wood scraps cut to fit the burn barrel, which I ran for three hours. I used the time to pull all the old hardware off the old motorcycle camper. This was made easy since I could bring out all the tools needed in a handy box, and another box for all the spare parts. I cleared a space more box shelving before it got dark. The deal is all of this was work that I had been putting off because of my back.
           Later, I found what was wrong with the drill. The power cord had been nicked. It is now repaired to robot club standards. Otherwise, it s a heavy duty beast (and also physically heavy, that instantly drills any wood, no full.

           For instance, running the chain saw means bending over continually to pick up pieces. It has been months that I’ve avoided said activity, both consciously and subconsciously. I impressed myself with getting a lot done I can’t list. The back fence how has a more permanent repair, these required bending and twisting, which I managed without any difficulty. Things like picking up the dozens of drill plugs from the box thumb-holes was short work. It also works my midsection which I could always use. I’m back inside now, watching the barrel die down from the back office window.
           What got past my filters? There’s this article accusing Trump of tampering with 2024 voting machines in ways they claimed was impossible in 2020 when Biden was running. Another eruption in Indonesia. Another spot on the guesswork evolution charts is filled with the discovery of a large-bodied lizard skeleton only 76 million years old. It’s amazing how many people discredit Darwin for these gaps, when in fact it was Darwin who pointed out they existed. NASA suddenly has dozens of projects we never heard of in danger from budget cuts. None of them involve trips to Mars. I see silver is staying over $36.

           Later, I was on the blower with the Reb for an hour. Much as she likes an outside space, it looks like an apartment is in the works. She likely still thinks I planned my way around the current horrible housing and rent situation this country has been thrown into. The reality is my motives in 2016 had little to do with such fancy planning—I just psychologically did not want to die in a rental place. Maybe I didn’t recognize how good I had it. That was, by any standards, the best trailer court in south Florida for neighbors. The management not so much.
           She’s going to have to find a place on her own. Even if I can be there a few days, we cannot coordinate anything from here. I’m no longer needed to pet sit, which was a big part of our situation for a while there. That’s changed, there are no cheap and easy trips to Tennessee any more and now just two pets instead of five. I didn’t offer the advice, but I think she might opt for a studio until there is some upset in the housing market.

           We did not discuss Caltier. I laugh at their two-bit “new” web page. It is cluttered with millennial brain-fart nonsense. There is no way to view a synopsis of your own account, but I get it. Dorfs only want to see their sum total, not any balances or how it got there. The new reports are designed to fit into screen frames rather than the size that gives all the relevant details at a glance. Their coding team also has real problems with accumulated sums. This does not surprise me as it was the hardest damn hurdle for most students while I was in college. But Caltier should not be hiring students, this is the real world for professionals.

ADDENDUM
           You were warned right here, Win 11 is not to be trusted. Nothing after Win XP, either. These products install a BitLocker app in your registry and can lock out of your data any time MicroSoft pleases. What got my attention is MicroSoft has just achieved the legal right to do this too you and destroy your data if they feel like it. The legalese Redmond uses to block you account is “violation of terms of service”. MicroSoft can now make a new rule that affects what you did under the old rules. Anybody who keeps valuable data on somebody else’s computer has shit for brains.

Last Laugh