April 7, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: April 7, 2025, a good old wristwatch.
Five years ago today: April 7, 2021, the phosphate museum.
Nine years ago today: April 7, 2017, passing on the cost.
Random years ago today: April 7, 2008, it isn’t really digital.

           French toast and look at today’s crop of celebrity offspring, the children of famous Boomer personalities. Pretty sad, and talk about mousy women. It’s a soggy day, I’m low on coffee, and my phone bill is overdue. Perfect for a small project, I think. Incoming calls work and I just used 13% of my battery on the phone to Tennessee. To discover anew how slow things move in the music industry before you get a hit recording. I’m cheered up, today’s “medical” is confined to the addendum below.

           Knowing I’d tucker out early, I still got to the lumberyard for pickets, only to discover (same as months ago), everybody is out of 1-1/4” crown stables. So over to Harbor Freight where I found a box of 2,500 half price. This saved me enough for some goodies, then over to the Thrift before closing. I scored a brand new toaster for five bucks. Meh, they are all cheap these days and take far too long to pop the first slices.

           Here it is, from the blog that dares. Our feature this morning is the box of staples. Vigilance is more important now than ever, for nobody can foretell which such event will be the winner. It depends, how many people today bought staples and a bundle of test leads? These are the second-worst brand out there. I cut most in half for power supplies. The worst brand are the type with alligator clips are so bad it hurts your fingers to open them—but then slip off by themselves when used.

           At the tool store, I saw this item on sale. What used to be a fairly expensive gadget now sells for less than a bottle of beer. It’s an A/C voltage detector. Cheap enough to leave in the tool box. But here’s something, I set it on the tray next to my bass and it sounded. Huh? There are no live electric circuits on a bass and if there was, it must be a tiny inductance. Nosiree, shown here I ran the length of the strings and cables. In theory, unless a string is vibrating, there should be no signal at all.

           For the moment, I have no way to test if this is possibly something dangerous on my instrument. It poses some interesting theories—unless there is movement, there should be no inductance. It’s a crummy video, but that AC flasher follows the strings, pickups, and photo cable into the amp jack. I did not know that. My presumption was the system was idle until the string generated a tiny signal across the pickup magnets. Wrong, it is a strong signal present when the cable is plugged into the amp when the power is on.

Picture of the day.
Only in New Zealand.
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           I’ve begun a new audiobook, details to follow. So far, it is about four girls who killed somebody in Canada. It’s laughable to hear them go on about suffering when such deprivations were everyday for some of us. It’s relative, but I don’t consider hardships to mean not enough .22 bullets for target practice. I read some critiques on Nashville bar bands, a bit of humor, since the reviewers are rarely impartial. Telling a country band their setlist is the “wrong generation” while extolling the virtues of a Grateful Dead tribute.

           The evening began with a Festus movie. This one had Kitty doing some real acting, Matt managing a couple cameos. Kitty shoots a bad guy whose brother comes after her. It was a rainy day kept me inside, so after I tinkered with some electronics, wondering where my fancy Radio Shack breadboard has disappeared. Tennessee? I’m sketching out a battery supply I can switch up to 12VDC in increments of 3VDC. It’s the same old, most of my test circuits are 5VDC and they don’t make such a battery.

           What do I do to run low on coffee? I stay put and go on-line. This activity will always assure you there are people far worse off. Here is Paris Hilton proving she got a Thigh Master for Kwanza or something. She’s 42 now. Dang, the link got lost, so see the substitute pic below.

ADDENDUM
           Politics. Georgia’s Democrat candidate says, if elected, those who voted for Trump will lose Internet access for four years. NASA cannot even video their own launches without glitches. And pooh-pooh to people who did not listen to warnings that having a 401K these days brings in the government as an unwelcome partner. Seems there is trouble in New York, but those people get what they vote for.

           The Kimberly-Clark warehouse has been hit by arson, threatening half of America’s supply of toilet paper. I watched a video of a modified paper shredder turning old plastic into pellets, which were then fed into a heated hopper. The resultant thread went to a 3D nozzle which printed out building blocks. Then another video of 3D “trimmings” chopped up in a blender and remelted. Maybe time to look at my printer again?

           Medical stuff still takes a chunk out of each day. Reb’s best friend is not faring well out in California. Remember the metal rods placed in the Reb’s arm? One has to be moved but that presents a big money problem—exactly as I warned if you don’t have a big cash reserve. I sent money for Chooks to get blood tests, but there is not enough for any vet bills that would ensue from that. I’m planning on a one year recovery after April 26, so I’ll be little help. If I’m here in April 2027, I may eat a steak. You know, to test my system.
           We further talked about how dependent I am on music and even good advice does not help because there has to be a spark before any new hobby starts. She understands that even the best hobbies quickly become solitary as you get older and the ranks thin out. I have a sad tale on that one, her mom collected stamps, a pastime that has fallen off. There were great volumes, leather bound, but none of the stamps had any real collector’s value. Kind of like vacuum tubes.
           When in Los Angeles, she had the books appraised and, well, they replied the best thing would be for her to donate the set to a younger enthusiast. I have about the same odds of meeting anybody into electronics or navigation, so music it stays. And even with entertainers, few are on the same wavelength.

Last Laugh