One year ago today: December 11, 2024, JeePee in paradise.
Five years ago today: December 11, 2020, she’s getting louder.
Nine years ago today: December 11, 2016, nine bags of leaves today.
Random years ago today: December 11, 2008, must be my turban.
Good thing you did not move to New Zealand, it will be less than 50% White 35 months from now. Unless there’s a right-wing coup, but that is the problem on the right. People don’t unite unless everybody is in 100% agreement, which never happens. My hobby interest in old trains got us this morning’s trivia. Around the world there are around 30 examples of steam locomotives in operating condition, some still actually in use. Trivia is that all of them exceed the most modern safety standards of today. From the era when craftsmanship meant perfection. Ooh, $62.92, looking good. $63.55. $64.24
Much more recovered by noon, I’m off to the city for some logistics. You’ll want an update on the French condo. First off, let me confirm I was against this investment. If you think Florida HOAs are a pain in the neck, try the Europeans. The authorities determined that the common area, a courtyard, had to be redone before any of the units could be re-sold. Ouch, this is the month it should have moved rather than being hit with a €22,000 Euro special assessment.
In US dollars, think of these places as around $6,000 per square foot. It’s unrelated to the sale but during this assessment process, it was found one of the occupants has been there for 20+ years as a squatter. Still, the unit is within walking distance of the Monaco Riviera, where 30% of the residents are millionaires. Housing is so expensive most properties are sold by Sotheby’s. The cheapest current offering is a former maid’s quarters just listed for €268,000.
Having said that, I think the best this project can now do is break even. But, it serves as a wake-up call that I have been right about a lot of things for a very, very long time. And that is how I know I had better have enough put aside because I know that others do not and in too many cases, cannot. I just paid $11 for a $4 tray of frozen chicken.
The good news is we still live in a society where one good idea is the difference between wealth and poverty. So, here’s a good idea. I will need some method to test my first “on-line” Arduino link and my idea is silver prices. The run will be over before I get anything going, but hear out the idea anyway. If you search silver prices, you’ll find almost anything except that. The top two pages of sites, especially the sponsored ads, are all so bastardized you’ll be clicking and scrolling a while to get your info.
With luck, you will hit a page full of charts, sales pitches, other metals, and general clutter that actually has your information. But what a millennialized hassle. There is no place you can go that displays just the single number that you want: the current asking price for an ounce. From experience, I know the banks will commence a deliberate price attack, it was just a week ago the pundits were saying silver might reach $60 by the end of 2026.
Live Moscow cam.
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So as to not have a cold winter day without learning something, I dug out that old gear making program. The one I painstakingly used to cut my original gears with the scroll saw. I see that it will export a number of formats, all of them unfamiliar, so I saved one of each and found one that would export and pick up with the laser. And it is some sort of vector file so it cut these cardboard gears in a minute each (pair). As with other equipment like this, I would have trouble cutting matching sizes in more that one session.
Getting back here took hours, Lakeland roadways are a horror story. This time, a lane closure on my way to the doggie place. I know the shortcut via private property but this lady on a golf cart started getting suspicious when I took another shortcut that’s supposed to be unknown. It’s through the huge Sanlan Golf resort, which takes up a huge chunk of SE Lakeland. It’s posh and has a RV court for winter residents. Pretty nice but not as high class as they like to pretend.
vBeing this far behind schedule, took the long road to the pound and inquired about the open house. It’s this weekend which would be highly therapeutic for me. As I was waiting for help to lug my 44-lb donation, I got a listen to their staff meeting. They have a list of bad actors and known animal cruelty types they will be on the lookout for.
I deposited $1,500 in the joint account knowing this is not a fraction enough and got myself stuck in rush hour. That insane no-need-for-it jam on Highway 98. Say goodbye to my laser cutter for a while. I got through another disk of “Paris Echo” to realize I’ve been suckered into another holocaust sob story. Now, I must listen to find out what convoluted route they must now take to tie Tariq, the Algerian, to 1940s France. The book has to be clever on this. But what tips me off is that this brand of spin rarely happens in isolation. And sure enough, they began with the other lines of comtemporary bullshit.
Examples. The myth that speaking French is exotic. That plain Jane women over 30 still got it. That Arabs have no choice but to hate Whites. The audiobook continues with that irritating European gaslighting every sentence. Plus the plot weakens as there are already several spots angling toward the black and white relationships being the inevitable outcome for all, but only if the women are White. There is no mention of the fate of the surplus African some. All this we recognize as merely setup, there is no such thing as half a liberal.
I pulled up that old Quinn movie, “Lost Command”, about a troop from Dien Bien Phu to went to Algeria. That’s where the claims began that after WWII, the Arabs spotted the weakness of the Europeans. However, the Arabs are disorganized tribes, so they began pushing the concept that they only flag they could unite under was Islam, thus uniting their politics and religion, which we see to this day. And I see MicroSoft, who just laid off thousands, is about to spend nearly $20 billion on a new operation in India. It makes sense in a way, the quality of MicroSoft products has sunk low enough to make such things possible.
ADDENDUM
Recording my symptoms, per my own rules. The roots of this blog remain a journal so I often track what I don’t like about getting older. My appetite is back with a vengeance. By 3:30AM I was raiding the fridge. Those meatloaf I froze last week lasted for barely four subs and now I’m out of buns. Four slices of French toast for breakfast. If I had a large everything pizza right now, I’d scarf it in ten minutes. Aha, I just found another meatloaf in the freezer. We’re set for the day. Where’s my horseradish sauce?
Later, I had turned in early on this chilly night, with the overhead heater and the electric blanket. I was thus very comfortable until midnight when a pain in my arm woke me. Remember I mentioned that first catheter? It has collapsed a vein and I now have a four-inch circle of a bruise on my inside right elbow. The sort of injury I would have laughed at just five years ago.
