April 16, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 16, 2025, still needs new tires.
Five years ago today: April 16, 2021, Jag, most successful.
Nine years ago today: April 16, 2017, tea & DVD.
Random years ago today: April 16, xxxx, WIP

           Here’s some yard pics. That’s all I got after 13 hours in the sack, good restful hours. But not so much so Mitch, my oldest pal from high school. The guy is a rugged athlete, that’s him taking a selfie y’day in a window reflection. Note the heavy duty Tryke and cross-country gear. But every year in the previous ten, he gets the flu or a cold or some form of lung congestion. And this sort of news is of great concern to me lately. Go figure. In that photo, it was 5 below zero, centigrade.

           For me, a hearty breakfast and outside to check the bird feeders and take pictures. That the only treat I have for the blog this morning. I decided to take a mini-inventory of the exterior around here. Some things I finished, others show here may never be. These are generic photos, I’ll go get a coffee and have a go at explaining them. This is a post-operation archive, I’ve planned more—but this reveals how far I’ve gotten behind.

           The shots are a bit blurry, my fault. First is my best bird-feeder being filled. It is resting on boards that have lain in the sun for years and now need throwing out. Next photo is the back “picture window” and house siding that never did get painted. If you look at the low right corner of the windo, you can just make out the game camera on a tripod. Forgetting to turn that camera off is the source of a lot of the clips you see of me pottering in the yard. Then, the other side of my privacy fence, showing the shovel and hoe and sometimes lots of other yard tools when I’m not too lazy to hang them there.
           How about the Roman AC pipes. Remember these? The pipes heat in sunlight, shown here, and draw cooler air from ducts on the other side in the shade. Some are painted black, this experiment showed this system does not work on a small scale. However, they do contribute well to a lower temp inside the silo on a hot day, so I left them in place. It’s neat, on cool days they make no difference. The silo is majorly braced against all but fierce hurricane conditions. The next photo shows my back fence which is being taken over by vines. It’s nice so I don’t want to take down some structure shown here—but the vegetation is heavy and that fence needs bracing.

           Even harder to see is the red table saw, because of all the stuff piled on top. This was the saw I had hopes for, but the blade wobbles after a few minutes use. I may convert it to cut a standard side rabbet and move it out of the lean-to. Because that space has proven an great spot to work on lumber too long to take inside the work shed. The last two months have been the most ideal winter weather since I got here and I’ve missed most of it.
           Then, shot of the long narrow window on the red shed, showing part of the tin bent up for an awning. I had intended to put a small work bench on the inside, but never got around to moving the shelving to make room. That’s shelves put in when I first got here to store stuff from the move. A lot of that stuff is still there. The last pic is the overhang on the scooter shed, unsupported and dangerous if anybody stood up there. This is where I’m clearing space for the grey table saw with the bad fence I’m trying to repair.
           End of morning archive. How am I doing? Way down here I’ll slip in another concern that I probably nothing, but still. I have, on the back of my legs, marks from the hospital bandaging that should have rubbed off by now. It’s not just chance, as the marks are more than one layer deep. Like motorcycle rash, it discolors the tissue itself, but it can be removed, if a bit painfully. Work with me on this, but tomorrow, not right now.

Picture of the day.
Sand dunes in Idaho.
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           The on-line term for the business lootings in Caliornia is “street take-overs”. It’s fine because California is getting what they voted for, however they’d best not export it. Not just gas stations and groceries, the gangs are raiding auto parts and what looks like large pharma outlets. America does not have to live like this, folks, it is not like the looters are starving or ill-done by.

           Here’s the battery I mis-remembered. The one I thought I was donating to the club, resulting in a wasted bracket removal last trip. Is this old age, or information overload, or a result of recent events—I did not recall this battery until I found it. Yet I knew which battery I had been thinking of. I’ll put myself on report.

           It was three more hours in the sunlight, a truly good sensation on how pale I got in the past three months. Part of it was this latest anti-squirrel pipe. The over-anxious feeder gave himself away as I was setting up the game camera to catch him. Indeed, the spry guy was able to make the nine-foot leap to the birdfeeder by launching from this tree trunk. Now he has this green pipe to contend with. Let’s see how long this round lasts in the never-ending Squirrel Wars.

           Then I moved the KIA into the shade. We are going to attempt to fix that windshield crack with the $15 kit from an Autozone that has not been looted yet, ha-ha.. I’ve memorized the instructions, which were surprisingly good, and will do as best as a layman can with ten pounds of heart monitor hanging on his waist. Check back later, but I got another $15 says this does not work.
           Again, I skipped the prescribed exercises in favor of light work and was on my feet another three hours this afternoon. The game cam catches me crossing the yard and [I see] I’m a long way from myself. Here’s today’s quick report. It requires a third to half of my perceived daily energy for logistics, for instance, breakfast today sapped my morning. I was outside for quite some time, but that slowed me to nothing. What a crazy recovery.for a guy that tries to plan ahead.
           Still of concern. Mild paralysis of left & right ring and pinky fingers. Slow-healing leg wounds. Numbness on left thigh. Mild gout. Tightness in pectoral muscles, sometimes fading to a temporary sharp pain in spots. And, after end of anti-ulcer pills, lots of fast and slow stomach issues making life very uncomfortable.

ADDENDUM
           Let’s have a show of hands, who is the best at following written instructions? Now that’s settled, let’s look at the windshield resin repair. It has two modes, a splatter and a crack. We are concerned only with the crack, you’d think the thinner, the better. Wrong. It says to park in the shade and slowing daub the resin along the line, watching from a 45° angle until the crack disappears. It does not disappear until a wider part of the crack, and even then, only in short sections, maybe 10% of the crack.
           Then, it says, apply pressure from the inside (making it a two-man job), wiggling out air bubbles, air being the reason you see the crack. The bubbles are there, but they do not work out under pressure that you must make sure is not enough to extend the crack. It may well be my crack is too fine to let the resin soak in, but it would be dumb for them not to mention that. I tried a second application with no success. Finally, I put the “curing strips” across the crack and parked in the sunshine like they said. Probably most of the crack was still visible at this stage. Let it cure and I’ll examine it.
           If it still shows, I will try the old crazy glue tactic of urban legend.

Last Laugh