November 2, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: November 2, 2024, naps are now 2hrs.
Five years ago today: November 2, 2020 them smarty-pants ducks.
Nine years ago today: November 2, 2016, early yardwork woes.
Random years ago today: November 2, 2006, Rose Mary Chimko.

           How tempting to restart my Karaoke show, I stopped in last evening near closing time. My fan club no longer goes there because of the lack of country music, but the room still loves me. I was fairly much dragged on stage for the last song of the evening, a duet. The lady lied, she dis not know the song and apparently could not read all that well either. But it brought down the house, a vindication that it is a country bar. But, the two Karaoke ladies they now hire, while clearly having been around a lot, play a ton of shigga-booga and don’t see the difference.

           Both bartenders being in their late twenties have no notion that rap isn’t on the local menu and do not know that the recent crowds are from out of town. However, I had told them a year ago this path would slowly turn this into a queer bar and last evening there were three of them, dominating the last hour with Zolita and Etheridge. They plan ahead to take over the list that way. And odd as it is for me to complain about it, the music is too loud. The speakers rattle.
           This photo is unexpected, the temperature stayed below 70°F well into the late morning, allowing me to get a start on the last of the floor pylons. This shows the timbers I’m using and this is the usually blazing cauldron of heat on the south side of the building. It was a heavy overcast or such work would not be possible. Check later to see how far I got, it will still get too hot by the afternoon.

           We awake to news of the Leftists screaming that the media is “reporting things that are simply not true” while there is a trial going on. Golly, it’s almost as if this happened so often before that they recognize it. Maybe I’d down with something, America is told no symptoms is a symptom, so it’s pancakes and coffee and here is a video on how to meet women if you are over 60. I will report the findings next, whether they are good or bad. Fair enough? Here’s the highlights:

           Relationships will give me longevity and a renewed sense of purpose.
           Presume older men do not know how to “combine purpose with possibility”.
           Also presume they are too dumb to have already tried all this.

           The video wound up listing the places this blog has denigrated for very valid reasons. The dating game changes after you hit 40 and all on the list are passive measures. I told you how, when I was middle-aged, I wrote how the trick was to read women’s magazines with articles on where to meet men, then go there to get met. What I did not say was that I had learned to give those places a wide, wide berth. All on the following list are for passive men who, I’ll wager, were never that good at the whole dating scene in their primes, much less now.

Community Volunteers
Adult Classes
Hobby and Club Memberships
The Church
Senior On-Line Dating

           Amusing, that’s the best I can rate it.

Picture of the day.
Houston rodeo parade.
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           I’m not underway yet, other than moving some junk around the yard and I’m going to donate my Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) jigsaw to the new bartender guy. In return, he helps me ditch my old stove, which a manhandled into the back yard, but cannot lift by myself. Then the neighbor came over, neither of us are supposed to know that “Central Florida Property Investors” represent the two churches adjacent to our respect properties. We’ve again received offers on our buildings but the answer is no.

           My take is that churches are big business and that makes this valuable commercial property. If the two of us were to sell these small churches could become large churches. It’s only a spoken agreement so I probably did not mention any numbers. We have agreed not to sell for less than $200k each. He got another offer, so I went out to check my mailbox. Here we got, an offer of exactly, to the penny, $10,000 less than my recent tax appraisal.

           Even if I was not solidly against this abuse of records, it is amusing to see how these people operate. Hitting people with an offer just as their property tax notices arrive. I know what they are thinking but not how. I mean, supposed I did sell this place and net $100,000. Here’s a photo of a cramped studio in Winter Haven, average rent $1,263. If it never went up, my hundred grand is gone in rent in 79 months, about 6-1/2 years. No workshed, one parking space, company must show ID at the office. Gosh, what a deal.
           So I checked on Craigslist, yep, it is still around. But toned down to utter boredom. The real estate is kind of fishing expedition for lower end pricing. The only change is the amazing extent they go through to avoid saying it is a mobile home or list the pad rental.

           Later. I got after the floor, just over 3-1/2 hours, and see that coffee pot across the room? It’s best if you value your appendages to not get twixt me and there. You know that last 10% of the floor, the worst part I’ve been stalling? I got it level, and if one simple item had not gone wrong, I’d have had the first of the permanent flooring down.

           This is gronk work and I will be sorry tomorrow. If Taylor showed up this moment and wanted to go bike riding, I’d say, “Tay, I love you to death, but unless you want to do all the pedaling, this is going to have to wait.”

           What went wrong? You can see part of it in this video. You know those concrete blocks an boards didn’t get there by themselves, y’know. The jack is living one of the new structural beams, I chose solid treated landscape lumber. This is the last and worst section of the building whewre the original supporting plates have been so badly termite-eaten, they were supporting nothing, but they also could not be replaced. So this beam runs along under the old plate, which meant extra work.
           Looking closer you see the beam has to be raised with the house, rather the easy method of just running the beam close enough and shoring up the pressure points. The beam has to remain in full contact of the rotten place, you can see me trying to fit a concrete block. So what was the problem? The jack had to sit on a soft spot. I ran into this regularly. The jack must be placed where the handle can be pumped and sometimes the jack sinks rather than lifting anything. This means repeated pulling the whole jack out, layering in some spacing blocks and starting over. No, you can’t add blocks on top or you cannot get at the release valve.

           This is nasty, backbreaking work, so easy does it. I got all of it done except for any overnight settling. We may be baking pies again soon. No oven since April, if I had a crew they’d have quit by now. I had to settle for mashed potatoes, baked ham, and red beets. Now it is coffee time and the stay clear alarm has been sounded.
           I made the trek to the coffee pot, then plunked down here three hours ago. I cannot move, what a fool I am. But that whole room is now level and it is visible along the ceiling lines and the door are now difficult to close. I added some extras, like channels for all the electric cables. Keeping it mild, there was no way to avoid bending and turning, so I decided to make the effort now, so I don’t discover I have to do this when I’m like 75 or something.
           Now six hours [since I've moved a muscle], it’s a balance between my promise to document my own aging and not liking how it takes longer to recover. It wasn’t a smooth thing either, like you read about. Instead, you go along fine and then pow, one day something gives in. Good, make it tomorrow, where I plan only to check how much that floor has settled. I expect not much, I did a fairly good job on it today. I admit, if it’s an easy chore, I’d like to take another drive, just nowhere near Thonotosassa.

ADDENDUM
           Ground (news) reports for the first time in 35 years, there are no rap songs in the Top 40 charts. The nation is healing. Let’s see what news got through, I see Denny’s is shutting more locations than they are opening. It was over when they took out the stools and counter. 7-Eleven is also closing bad locations, but opening bigger 5,000 square foot c-stores (that’s their parlance for convenience stores) now focused on “grab-and-go” food rather than merchandise.
           Reports from Arizona say some gas stations are not allowing “walkers”, that is, to enter the store area, you must drive up in a vehicle. The four suspects of the Louvre are in custody, nabbed for suspicious activity such as trying to leave the country with a one-way ticket. France is weird, they are allowed to half-confess to crimes. Oh, and I may be wrong about the filibuster. I always thought that is where the 60% vote rule applied. Today, I heard otherwise—but I’ve never claimed to be an expert n poli-sci.

           Drones. I learned today it is mostly illegal to shoot them down. While there is no drone law, there is a law against shooting any aircraft. Then there’s the law about spend ammo falling back to earth. Jammers are totally illegal. Using a net gun or a laser is also illegal, again by laws that were meant for other purposes. Same with the law that you cannot use another drone to down a drone, because that’s covered by laws against causing things to fall out of the sky. So, there’s a challenge that could make you rich. Come up with something. Barrage balloons?
           Trivia, the biggest purchasers of unpopular drones are photographers. The first person killed by a robot was a Ford employee back in 1979. Struck by a swinging arm.

Last Laugh