July 13, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: July 13, 2024, WIP
Five years ago today: July 13, 2020, WIP
Nine years ago today: July 13, 2016, WIP
Random years ago today: July 13, xxxx, WIP

           It was a nice enough trip back south, but we missed Tonio. I did originally say Saturday. Seems loading up the van was a day’s more fun that I thought it would be. Once more, the trip back along the same route is longer. Two stops for gas and a small detour at Dalton added 58 miles. Once again, we had a burning truck on the side of the road causing an hour’s delay. In all, this was a pretty generic trip. Nothing special at all, one way gas was $160. I used the 13 hours to mull over this most expensive trip of my life. Even my great overseas travels of the 80s and 90s didn’t force me back to square one.

           No details, I don’t know you that well, but August 1 will be the equivalent of starting over. I have some experience at this so there is no panic. Plus after a while you can get used to it and dare I say it gets easier. Some of it is familiar turf, like my rule that it takes $10,000 invested dollars to make $1 per day. This can be taken wrongly, for instance, I could buy $10,000 worth of equipment, set up shop and gross $200 per day with $199 in expenses. You’d still get the dollar, but that would be hardly worth it. Time has also marched on, I no longer have enough days left to really do it over again. That’s why I now stress it is the ownership of the money that must do the work.
           As I mentioned, another truck on fire, a box carrier. The driver had a fire extinguisher but only a toy compared to what he needed. That’s fire number three I’ve seen at or near Atlanta in the past year, more than the rest of my rather long life combined. I’m just sayin. Back to money, I have two large boxes of slides from the Reb, much of it her parent’s travels I think. Time to take a closer look at a quality slide scanner. And that 3.6% savings account offered by Amex, even if it is changeable, still compares well with regular bank CDs, I was able to map out ten years in my head as I slowing inched through the Sunday traffic around Atlanta.

           I got into Valdosta at 5:30PM, two hours late. It always takes an hour longer than planned to get out of house up there. And now, there is no more house. I burned seven barrels and a twelve-foot stack of bamboo. Yet, it was all lighter work than the thinking I was compelled with today. The trip had to be fast due to daylight, I have one turn signal. and one brake light out on each side driving across Georgia Patrol territory. Fortunately, there were enough speeders to keep the boys busy the whole time.
           I finished the spy audio book and can only barely recommend it. “The Alice Network” is a history lesson and I confess to disliking that frog (French) accent. The narrator is plainly fluent in the language, but is this the time to demonstrate it? Grace is pronounced “grass” and the way they say Grenoble is irky “G-r-r-nbl.” Also, the portrayal of Germany as evil for doing exactly what France and England were doing earns a demerit point. So does the portrayal of young women as never being willing participants in sex. That includes the ending where the excuse for sex is, well, marriage.

           Finishing that story near Soddy-Daisy, I found a murder mystery that, while already suffering character bloat, is a novel twist on yet another lawyer story. Titled “Fugitive” (how novel), this con man turns evangelist after adopting the crimes of a cellmate, becomes a millionaire, and gets involved in a murder. He flees to Batanga, an African dictatorship based on Uganda, where he points the wrong dame. Wisely concluding American prisons are better than foreign dungeons, he cuts a magazine deal and decides to stand trial. And sure enough, his lawyer is the daughter of the big-shot on the defense team of the original trial. She’s not quite an Olympic athlete, but has the body. Reminds me of the real life Lauren Landers, see addendum.

Picture of the day.
Frozen damn in Oklahoma.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Finally back home to my quiet and predictable little world, I find the guitarist may have found us a couple gigs. Factor in that he is very new at this and that it is not as easy as appears. But yes, it boils down to you grab a guitar and go play. Few things would make me happier at this point. I have a van full of lawnmowers and I rescued the two oldest bird houses. I remain so far behind on this cabin, it may never be done. Tomorrow is dedicated to finding the van electrical problem as the cruise control quit again. I need that feature. And I’m afraid to do the books on this trip. My guess is over $10,000 and not even a single party, sigh, age.
           Here’s some on-line instructions on how to write “Kermit”, for those who cannot figure it out for themselves, I suppose.

           Where I saw improvement was my back, that’s welcome. I was able to put in fairly good stretches and got a lot done. I still have the original pains at roughly 40% after long walks or a lot of flexing, but that’s minor, which makes the program an overall success. On the entire return trip I was unable to find a cup of coffee except the McD’s in Sparta. How can you trust generations of people who don’t drink coffee? And no, the purple floof drinks at Starbucks don’t count.
           Here’s a high point of the day. When I’m traveling where there is no “organization” by my definition (TN qualifies), I tend to throw all odds and ends into a box until I find time. Two factors make this time unique. One is the beauty of a box, you guessed that, and the other is the weight. I’ve been throwing my coins in there, so return tomorrow for the spare change count. Since it is likely going to be closely monitored shortly. Who says there is more than ten bucks in there? You’re on.

ADDENDUM
           Lauren Landers. I don’t know her, but she fits the mold of the travel writer who, dear gawd, will never, never, never tell you what it costs or where she got the money. Now, you are expected to believe she started with nothing and by age 24 bought a 50-foot yacht (a 1993 Beneteau Oceanis 43). She claims she “just worked really hard over the past five years without a boyfriend or children to worry about.” Okay, how do we know she’s lying? Because nobody works that hard without some complaints or beefs, that’s how.

           I worked “that hard” at a lumber mill in Montana all the time I was 23-24-25, and it damn near killed me, I still have aches from it today. Peeps, I know very well what the highest paying jobs are in Ft. Lauderdale are, so don’t hand me any crap about working up from the bottom. And I guarantee you there were no Lauren Langs working next to me at that mill when it 25 above or 25 below, or anywhere in between. However, we’ll assume she had some magic wand allowing her to miraculously acquire the means and materials to fix it a yacht and sail it across the Pacific Ocean by, as she says, "not spending money on other things".

           I would have written it off, except she has a nearly perfect body by my definition. (Seems most the other guys who hand you that "personality" bunk seem to agree.) She posts on-line videos that feature it. Some say she is flat-chested, but I don’t like them on the floppy side. She does, today, claim to make $7,000 per month from her youTube channel and Patreon, but that is average and does not account for her $685,000 net worth. She is clever in one aspect, playing up the "single" role, although I suspect she’s lying about that, too. Her readership is 94% single males.
           Claiming she is not looking for a boyfriend and carefully inviting only other known single women onto her boat, she plays the image to a tee of the gal who has not yet had her head spinning for the right guy. Clever, but it is commonly agreed when they find out she’s doing somebody, she will lose most of her audience. Right there, I know there is a man mapping this out for her. I spent/wasted a lifetime looking for a gal like that who was for real. So pardon me if I catch the whiff of secret millionaire husband/boyfriend behind the scenes. Here’s a picture of her two years ago when she was 26 (she maintains to be four years younger than she is). Again, I truly wish the world had some real women of this calibre. Ain’t happening, guys.

Last Laugh