One year ago today: October 2, 2024, they're a majority.
Five years ago today: October 2, 2020, silver at $24.
Nine years ago today: October 2, 2016, a boxy look.
Random years ago today: October 2, 2006, These Boots.
It looks like another beaut of a day, so here’s breakfast in the making. That is my blog food mention, WIP, so use your imagination. It is real French toast, or is that Freedom toast? This is how a camp cook makes it, and note the coffee. It’s expensive but comes with a tale from the trailer court. I could be the reason McD’s has excellent coffee. The details are buried deep in this blog somewhere, but here’s the short version. A McD’s manager asked me why I ordered my McMuffin and then bought my coffee across the street. His coffee was half the price, but I told him I’d pay top price if their coffee was as good. He asked if I’d put that in writing, I did, and since 1984, McD’s has had great coffee.
That’s ten times the size of Fund 1, which I invested in, so they are now a big player in a big game. But they close it to non-accredited investors, the opposite premise of what Internet investing was supposed to offer. I have money in the Income fund, which closed end of last year, but it shows as still active and operating. However, that’s the fund that speculates in paintings, rare cars, and Swiss watches, so don’t expect dividends.
The fake news is crowing that employment fell by 32,000, claiming it signals a Trump failure. They forgot to mention most were caused by one or two companies—and America is hoping this shutdown results in 750,000 civil servants getting the boot. Good morning. It will be if silver tops $48.
No dice, the stamps are huge, as in 4” square, useless really. And pricey, $16 each. So next time you need to stamp a full sheet of paper, Office Depot has you covered. I had other plans for the blanks but now it my brain that is blank. I don’t remember. They talk a lot about the aroma of burning the rubber and specify the depth of cut, something I can’t do with my toy unit. But I have the option of making many passes. I remind all that this was the purpose of buying this small unit—to answer this type of question. Would I share this technology? Sure, but only with all the fantastic people who have helped me out so far.
The shutdown has zero effect at street level so far. Although I am not a strict Trump supporter, I am 100% behind his agenda of destroying the left. Good way to answer anybody who thinks I support Trump is that I consider him to be right 51% of the time. He is too friendly with certain groups Americans hate and he should at least never talk about his stance on vaccines. The more I read about the rules of a shutdown, the more it appears Trump has methodically backed the Democrats into a corner—and by using their own duplicity against them.
For instance, it was Democrats themselves who championed the bill that if a shutdown lasts 61 days, the whole bunch can be fired. That means Trump need only stall them until December 1 to do to them what they planned to do to his people. Worse, Democrats are stuck trying to sell voters who are being bled by Obamacare on providing free medical to illegals. They are so screwed they don’t know it, but they know who to thank, and worse, why. They should never have attacked his family, that was stupid beyond repair.
AC transformers, I have the very high-quality one salvaged from the old kitchen store. The theory I knew by the sixth grade, but I’m determined to find out the practical side. The first thing I learned, just today, is why so many transformers have so many pins. The one I want to test has twelve. It is because the transformer can be configured in many ways. Different input and out put voltages, but that explains only eight pins. Maybe these things are also “metric”. We shall find out, and, as ever, provide the simple explanation.
The first challenge is predictable—Internet experts. The ones who have only transformers with clear labels showing all ratings and pins. Must be nice. I had to scan mine at 600 dpi to get this information. No indication of voltages, which is primary, no amperage, nothing. Neither of the apparent part numbers (Invensys 010-00126-00, or Eaton 2510013A01) brings up a datasheet. The Eaton number appears on some order sheets, but it’s the old give us your life history and well contact you back after they calculate how much transformer you can afford. I did once see the video I wanted, but A.I. has made it impossible to locate it again.
Chinese rapeseed farm.
(a.k.a. Canola oil
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Out to the shed, a wonderfully cool afternoon. I’m putting bottoms on some unfinished boxes. Take it easy, and so should you, easy for me to say as tomorrow is my day off. I’m looking more closely at the variations in pallet lumber sizes. I built the bottom plates separate and individually, which takes time and labor. If you see pics, then I kept busy. It is just past noon and I’ve got five things on the go. Charging auto batteries, laundry, moving lumber, you know, busy stuff.
Music. No gig lined up tomorrow, so time off. But you know, I’d rather just spend time in the shed. Steve was in contact to mention his new place has a garage we can use. He’s till stuck with that terrible truck his brother gifted him, so unreliable I don’t dare rehearse over here. I discussed the logistics with him, correctly guessing he finds my material overwhelming. If you are thinking that’s funny because most of my tunes are uber-simple, well, not if you didn’t grow up with ir. I hit this same barrier with other guitarists—they don’t normally sit down and play my selection of music. As the Hippie pointed out repeatedly, my taste in music sucks.
The guy’s problem stemmed from never really listening to my bass, he heard only the same generic playing he expected from wannabes. Now, Steve, he’s worked with me on arranging and he’s one of the fastest to catch on I’ve seen. You’ll never him say things like “bass is easy” because he’s seen it done right. So, here is the situation from my side. If he plays his own material, get me a list of it. Maybe he has enough for a set by now. I see two outcomes, both with several facets.
More music follows, but first have a gander at this laser blueprint for a working rubber band piston. You may recall I made of these years ago cutting the layers with a scroll saw. If you missed that, you cut all these pieces out of thin plywood. Then you fasten the layers so the inside is the moveable trigger mechanism. I wonder what I did with it? Back to music.
And two, if I don’t have to sing, I can zoom in on arranging bass lines. I know that over the short run, my bass playing gets progressively closer to playing more of the fills the other guy can’t. As long as we are concentric about putting on the best possible show, the overall act improves into the impressive. Bradford hated to get on stage after us, but since he never played anything I knew and never did like practice, there he was. It would take some slick solo playing to match the sound of the Prez & I, who practiced every week.
The neighbor was over to chat, he’s got a system to record movies off his TV. I know the science but it is something I’ve never done. He mentioned a Bill Murray movie I could not place, name’s “Quick Change”. Some kind of bank heist. That’s an option, for how rare I never heard of a Bill Murray film—unless it is a total dog. I think I’m good motivation because I can see the neighbor’s door from my shed window, and he gets up and moving around when he sees my lights on. Hey, this is important therapy for some.
Soon, I’m fixing the fence on my grey table saw which will have one job: cutting box bottoms. It’s the slowest part of the assembly process, made slower by how often I have to walk out to the neighbor’s shed to make a cut one kerf width.
ADDENDUM
Civil servants are not the object of my pity. They produce nothing, and every one of them that exists takes away a part, however tiny, of your freedom. They number about the same as the homeless, who also lack my sympathy—but I have reasons for this. I knew very well what it is like to be young and in the situation where there are no prospects of ever getting ahead. You know the minute you quit school, voluntarily or otherwise, you are facing a lifetime of drudge labor and debt. The problem is that welfare has grown so luxurious that it has become a career choice.
When I look back on my early life, if welfare back then had included an apartment, food, phone, cable, microwave, and half the things you get today, I would have opted for it. Why punish yourself with the freedom of working in a lumber mill? Why work your life away when you have the option to merely waste it? And in comfort, too.
I’m saying I was there and know what it was like to be forced not to give up. And people today should be allowed the same choice in the matter. Everything I have around me today that I worked a lifetime for, you can now get for free by going on welfare. And I’d have a good back, good shoulders, good eyesight, and more spending money.
