June 30, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: June 29, 2024, a croon band.
Five years ago today: June 29, 2020, I tolerate losses, you see.
Nine years ago today: June 29, 2016, dirty, dusty work.
Random years ago today: June 29, 2012, avoid the BR-6000.

           The woodpeckers get a Sunday treat. This is suet with blueberries, almond slivers, and black oil sunflower. It’s a half-ration because they will take their time if peanuts are available in the tube feeder. Too much and the suet goes bad. No plans for today means a list of unplanned things to compare to other unplanned days. Let me play bass for 30 minutes and decide if I want to go downtown. I’m not happy with my stereo giving out.

           I wanted to hear another chapter of “Justice Denied” so I rechecked the wiring on my invertor. That red fault light also stops the unit from working, so I double rechecked. Got it. When the van is idling, the charging system can’t quite activate the device, so tap on the gas and it works. When there’s time, I’ll install a capacitor. It’s that once a system lets you down in this fashion, it can never be trusted again.

           Our cops are closing in and I wanted to hear about their tactics because I do not believer cops should be allowed to break the law. And these two broke them steadily, smug in their belief a conviction would absolve their wrongdoings. It irks me so many otherwise intelligent people think that is okay—and are the first to be outraged when it happens to the. For example, they corner this guy who is under no obligation to talk to them but so they “blackmail” him. He has a plane to catch and they illegally block his way. They demand to know if he knows so-and-so. He is under zero obligation to talk to them, but they won’t get out of his way. Here is how the blackmail works.

           He is under no obligation to answer anything, but if he doesn’t he misses the plane. If he says he does not know them, he’s arrested for lying even though he is not under oath. If he say yes, he’s arrested as a suspect and the Fifth Amendment says he does not have to testify against himself.
           And if he says nothing, the cops have the TSA impound his beautifully restored 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. If he asks for a lawyer they foot-drag until he misses the flight. No, I am no okay with this type of tactic and he should be able to sue for damages if, in fact, the police pull this stunt on him. I remind the reader I did not say it was wrong, I said I did not like it.

           There are several counterplots coming together, as the Mexican police say a nun is one of the suspects. I wound up driving for over an hour, to Ft. Meade, getting caught in a forty-minute cloudburst that had freeway traffic down to 15mph. This was a downwash of great proportion. When it lightened, I drover 40mph to the next town and mailed some letters. And relaxed finally enough to feel creative. I thought about the planter some more and have the plan clear in my head. The box ends are 8-1/2” side at the ends, and a concrete block is 8x8x16”. I have a cozen of them by the failed potato ground.

           It the ends are cut at an angle to just fit over the block, say one at each end, you would have a solid planter hard to tip over. The box is 32”, two blocks means a symmetrical 16” in the center. If I get the angle right, it should look fine. I see there are quite a number of common sizes, but I do wish these metric people would go get their own Internet. You know, so people who want metric can go there. And I got another question the Internet does not want to answer. I know I can’t be the only one who hits this barrier so often because that would mean the Internet is chock full of stupid.

           The question is how to set the depth on my pneumatic stapler. Right now, it drives the staples and nails too deeply into the wood, leaving a scar. There is a nut with an Allen head on the safety slide and an adjustable nut on on the trigger assembly, but no instructions. The on-line literature mentions a depth setting but that’s it.

Picture of the day.
Native Indian “bent tree” trail marker.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Tomorrow is my last appointment and I believe I will bring these side effect to their attention. They’ve read my reports but there is a routine to the sessions that say they are used to side-effect, but a the same time I know too many other people would be howling and screaming for pain-killers by now. I don’t expect comfort, but some of these pains have persisted nearly a week now. I did some shopping and walking without difficulty but not without pain.

           I stopped for a two pieces of lumber and the people there noticed that cold blast and that nobody even a few blocks away had any such chill. Must be one of them-there anomalies. As a treat, I bought myself a 240 watt version of my 400W inverter. It’s rated for a laptop, so it will run my CD player in the Hyundai without the mess of wires from my handiwork. I may even build a box to hold these as a portable unit. I do not know if it will operate my bass amp.
           On the way back, I stopped for a loaf of garlic bread at Wal*mart. The usual bustle is gone and higher prices very evident. I got twenty bucks says the snipers killing firefighters in Idaho are Democrat fanatics.

           A word of caution, these invertors are not what most people think they are. They can and will wreck your car battery if you leave them plugged in. Car batteries are not made for recharging, but marine batteries are—if you can afford them. However, marine batteries do not like invertors and will get harder to charge. My unit is not connected directly to the car system, but through a separate panel with an lighted kill switch which must be operated every time the van is started. It’s a bitch because it means the CD cannot remember where it left off, but such is life in super-modern hyper-connected millieXYZ America.

           Um, maybe another word of caution. The invertor does not produce a pure sine wave, yet for some reason there are still a lot of products at require it. You’d expect “dumb” devices to work well, since they don’t have sensitive parts, but not so. You can’t get much dumber than an electric blanket, but they are very sensitive because of the thermostat control. I’ve been meaning to test this, but I have left my blankets on low setting before.
           For those curious what the incompatibility is, a modified sine was is a series of “block” steps up and down, trying to emulate the smooth pure sine wave. That means when it hits the zero mark between positive and negative, there is a very short moment when the power level is flat and I’ve read that this can damage sensitive gear, as it is difficult to get it to stay at exactly zero. Don’t quote me on this.

           Here is the pretty but still unidentified orange flower that takes over the back yard. The closest I find are the Lantana and Sahuarita, but they don’t have as much color variation. Any news? The fine for overstaying on immigration is now $1,000 per day. Some say the way you behaved in the early COVID days is a revelation of your true personality. That scares a lot of people.

Last Laugh