August 4, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 4, 2024, I wasn’t first.
Five years ago today: August 4, 2020, don’t need it.
Nine years ago today: August 4, 2016, as newspapers disappear?
Random years ago today: August 4, 2004, it’s a political thing.

           Some people just do not naturally complain when it is warranted. Seems I’ve got just such an inner circle of friends. The bad news is they let things build up before they ask for help and here is a situation where they could ask and get it. The requested files from back west arrived this morning. Face it, I’m besties with people who will get sick before the see a doctor, get stalked before they will call the cops, and put up with family so long it begins to drag down their other friends. On the other hand, that’s better than any alternative I know of. Good morning.

           This video on African economics was amusing, because it blames the lack of improvement entirely on geography. The lack of rivers, ports, and coastal plains are the cause of backwardness. Yeah, well explain why they remain primitive even when presented the finest of opportunities. The good news is just up the road in Nashville, ICE just snagged 800 illegals at the Costco. Let them live in fear, they were given the opportunity to leave peacefully.
           Here is one of the lawn mower batteries being processed. They are two expensive to replace and some locations that sold them no long stock them. It’s a practice I would curtail heavily if I was in charge. Say, for example, they would have to order and deliver any part like this to the customer, not the store, within 24 hours, or pay him to show up a second time. Talking with Wilford, the plan is to give these batteries the old Epsom salt flush and hope for the best.

           Is it progress. I had to call the physio session short today from sheer exhaustion. I crawled in there and could not complete the basic routines. But talk about limber, it would seem to reinforce that I do not get the full benefit of the exercises at home for reasons stated. The staff knows me well, so I had them check my weight in case my home scale was lying. Yes, I’ve lost a couple pounds. This makes me happy, as visually 90% of anything I gain is on the midsection since I turned 48. I’d give a lot to drop 50 pounds of it, which would still leave me 30% over my ideal. That’s it, I have nothing else for you this morning.

           Except Amscot. I wanted to replace a money order. They will not do it unless you are “in the system”. It was for $8.50 so I threw it on their counter and told them to eat it. My money might be to buy an airbike from Volonaut. About $900,000 each. Taking some down time, I read another chapter of “1421”, but it is about Chinese trade missions to India and Africa, which were already known posts. I want to learn how they got to the Americas from both directions.

           Here is a linden tree that sprouted in five days. They are so prolific, I just wait until one of them appears where it will give some good shade and let it grow. This one will provide late morning cover for the south bedroom window, so it is a keeper. The catch is that if you change your mind, you can’t get rid of the tree without digging up the entire root system. I have not successfully managed that yet, but there is a commercial herbicide.

Picture of the day.
Eastern Montana, I think.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Unable to gain any speed today, the only activity after noon was a late night trip to the old club. Where there were zero customers. So Wilford and I were able to go over a number of topics. I may have a customer for some custom boxes with a logo, but not the type made from fence pickets, which have a characteristic size. Then we looked at relays, imagining if they could be somehow connected with A.I. but came up with nothing. We further looked at my concept of wiring two analog RAMs to multiply numbers. Our decision was, that while it could be done, it was not worth the intense design involved.

           This made me realize how likely it was that one of the earliest digital concepts was a far easier way to perform arithmetic. It’s a topic I’ve never heard discussed, but I do hear the vastly louder calls for western Canada separation. Here is a still showing a package of Alberta beef priced at $80. People who live there know that is caused by eastern corruption. The hurdle is that Alberta is landlocked—and the barrier is the highly welfarized province of British Columbia.
           Mind you, separation would also block BC from Ottawa, so there is plenty of bargaining power. Alberta’s only other logical access to the world market is south, directly into Montana. But don’t discount anything, the situation is much worse than appearances. Few Albertans forget what Ottawa did to their convoy. In the US, when ICE advertised they received 78,000 job applications the first week. The old “liberal” world order is collapsing.
           Arrest warrants are about to issued for the 51 Democrats who fled Texas to halt redistricting. The joy is that the Democrats themselves thought this law would only ever be turned on their opponents. You see, the Left also pushed through a law that anyone who stages a walkout cannot run for re-election. And it’s back to bite them.

           Then last, Wilford has a new fisheye lens. Myself, I always felt that this lens was more popular with photographers than clients. What’s new is a variety of software apps that turn the fisheye photos into panoramas. None we looked at did a great job but were better than nothing for getting a lot more into the picture. On the agenda was more about what the customer wants in a box. It’s a real estate office, so they will want a logo with their phone number. This is where the cost becomes a real factor.
           There is no ready source of lumber less than 3/4" thick. Even the cheapest yellow pine or whatever makes the box a bit too thick, heavy, and expensive. The picket lumber is slightly thinner, averaging 5/8” and it makes a surprising difference. I do not know what the office is willing to pay, but they like the design. I tried a slab ob built-up lumber, shown here. No good, you can see the seam and it takes a lot of effort with the biscuit joiner.
           One potential answer is the planer, which I have not yet unboxed. The literature says it is designed to take 1/32” off the lumber surface, meaning both sides total 1/16th. Can this work? If so, is it expensive or time-consuming? There is a lot of talk and suspicion I am about to find out. Nor has yagasuki been tried on planed lumber, which may require extra sanding as well. Always back to price, welcome to capitalism.

           Some trivia, I was surprised to learn the trans-Siberian railway remains the only link in the area and moves $100 billion in goods annually. The American railways have fallen to somewhere between contempt and horse hocky.

ADDENDUM
           One of the off-shoots of not watching TV is a lack of focus on the humdrum. From Mercurty news, here is a list of people who have birthdays tomorrow. I do not recall ever having heard of any of them. Wait, Loni Anderson, wasn’t she on BabeWatch? Don’t know, I’ve never seen that, either. This just in, she died y’day.

• Country music songwriter Bobby Braddock is 85.
• Actor Loni Anderson is 80.
• Pop singer Samantha Sang is 74.
• Actor-singer Maureen McCormick is 69.
• Rock musician Pat Smear is 66.
• Author David Baldacci is 65.
• Actor Janet McTeer is 64.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing is 63.
• Actor Mark Strong is 62.
• Director-screenwriter James Gunn is 59.
• Actor Jonathan Silverman is 59.
• Actor Jesse Williams is 44.
• Actor/singer Olivia Holt is 28.
• NBA guard Anthony Edwards is 24.
• Actor Albert Tsai is 21.

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