May 21, 2026

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 21, 2025, like briquettes.
Five years ago today: May 21, 2021, twice a year for me.
Nine years ago today: May 21, 2017, in the new workshed.
Random years ago today: May 21, 2015, --if you have faith.

           Biscuits and gravy, I’m getting more ambitious with breakfast and more exposed to Tampa radio. Here’s hot biscuits, help yourself. This morning’s talk show was about how people disappear from your life. I say so what, others seem to traumatize over it, so I had to listen. This one crazy lady said she was “evolving” as she flipped from one shallow trend to the next. Her friends didn’t like the “changes”. Makes me wonder if my predilection for new things falls into the category of trends, but then I remember I don’t really rub elbows with sketchy people.

           I got some extra fence panels, the small ones, which made today’s post because I carried them five at a time without effort. To be accurate, the is the first day that I’ve not been anxious over my exertions, mild as they are. The doctors y’day bolstered my confidence I took a movie, but it didn’t turn out, so here is a picture of where the cardinals live. These trees are a type of hedge left growing along my south perimeter.
           The moss is left because it prevents and larger or predatory birds from getting into the thicket. See video. The cardinals are clever, they don’t fly directly to and from the nesting area. They go through the branches on the adjacent tree, then across the northern trees, approaching the back yard from the north east. Still insecure about my endurance, I spread the pickets out in the sun to get a more accurate moisture and thickness measurement. Lady Raccoon also eats well, and when I was away, a mouse got the loaf of bread I left atop the fridge. Lady gets it.

           Iran places a $57 million dollar bounty on Trump, then claims to want negotiations. Russian nuclear missiles no longer target US cities in the first strike, but the massive sitting duck bases the US needs to field world-wide power. All such warheads must have some form of satellite guidance, so keep an eye on those as a first indicator of attack. To those who laud Canada as a “free country”, there’s the man who decided to fight a traffic ticket. He appealed and went through the Canadian justice system to be finally vindicated—which took 19 years.

           Speaking of Canada, what is with the rumor of crashing real estate prices. Probably nothing, but there seems something behind a stock of surplus condos unsold due to fees and costs that have increased out of sight. House prices have been so out-of-sight for so long, the condo market is what’s left up there. And now that might be in trouble.

           Be assured I read up on anesthetics before my recent and by far most serious medical affair. The one that scared me most was loss of brain function, which apparently is one in every thousand. Today, for the first time, I was able to step through an entire celestial navigation example without notes or double-checking. This is a careful statement, because most people could readily memorize the formulas—and unfortunately, that is how the subject is taught. I set out to avoid that by understanding what is going on. And today I managed all the “paperwork”. That means I did not physically take a sextant reading or draw the chart. But those are routine mechanical affairs that fade compared to the logic involved in the calculations.
           All on a scrap of paper and in my head. I was only 400 miles off. The real practice in not the readings or charts, but using the tables. And my advice is you scrap the GPS and get an Almanac and a mid-latitude Sight Reduction book. On the drive back, a thought made me chuckle. It hit me how Sight Reduction, once known as the St. Haillaire method, but have formed. The guy was on a ship trying to maintain position while subject to tides, currents, and drift. He did a fix, then later noticed the shift. So he thinks, instead of doing the whole calculation from the stars, why not use the last position and measure how far from there?
           He would quickly spot that having a known calculation from where he last anchored made life easier. From there, it is not a big leap to realize the need for a book of every possible position on the exact hour the world over. That is what Sight Reduction is.

Picture of the day.
Illegal “manjha”
(Glass coated kite string.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Not out of the weeds yet, my siesta turned into five hours in the sack. This would be great retirement news for some people I know. And this, after my first seven-hour snooze last night. That left me enough daylight to create these two boxes. See any difference? Of course not except for the divider inside. These are prototypes made from one picket. There are slight dimensional changes. The total materials cost for each unit is $0.9623 including glue and 26 staples. Construction time, including moving the lumber and a couple mistakes was 54’52”. It does not include preselecting the lumber to have no side knots, or the time and transport. The point is, we have a box that could sell for $5. As always, the boxes are very strong.

           The other invisible change is that I planned and made this boxes with having to pause. I’m not the human dynamo yet, but able to sustain two hour to say the day was not wasted. That’s it, except for another picture here of “marine rope”. I recognize it but do not know why it is called that. I’ve seen it made of poly and of hemp, I suppose it is resistant to environmental factors. I use if for box handles and picked this up last week. Yeah, and then forgot it in the van.

           Ignoring my over-consumption of coffee lately, I got in by the air conditioner and found a Sheen movie, “The Arrival”. Not a blockbuster but well acted. I’m just at the pat where these guys always have a rich but ununderstanding girlfriend. The old plot, scientist makes contact but nobody believes him. It moved slow enough that tested 8 laser logos on these boxes. The best results are the menadala (round) patterns. I’ve found the patterns look less “Wal*Mart” if you put a pencil strategically where the moving laser head will rock the unit. And the favorite of the favorite patterns is that “Fake” symbol from last day.

           The bottleneck remains the time required to position and burn the logos, but as Bryne from Texas advised, it adds real value to the object. Sort of confirmation that at least somebody once had a use for it. Taking a break to scan the national headlines, what a fury over the election in Kentucky, with the Democrats focusing on ballot-cheating. Too bad for them, comes across like they sure know it when they see it. Fact is, the loser, Massie, was voting against Trump. I only recall him from how he voted against the border wall funds, when was that, 2019?br />
           Digital pricing, have you followed it? If you signed up for things like grocery cards, it has been following you. This is where the price changes based on your profile. With face recognition a reality the price you pay is determined by your shopping history, income, location, and routines. Where did they get all this information? You gave it to them. They know how much can be extracted from each customer without losing the sale. The price you pay is factored on data such as

• Your health
• Your income
• Distance to shopping location
• Pay dates
• On-line search history
• Car model
• Religion
• Browsing activity

           Then you’ve got A.I. about to enter the game. Nobody can predict that impact, especially because corporations won’t admit where things are going until after the infrastructure is already installed. And you know who is really responsible? Pay up.
           Around the 1:00 hour mark, I realize I have seen this Sheen movie from this part on. Much later, around 3:20AM, I was awakened by searing pain in the ring fingers of both hands, around 5 or 6 out of 10. But just for maybe two minutes and faded away along with most of the numbness from the past six months. Only a slight sensation remains, barely noticeable. I love it. Since I was wide awake, I did a plot for Arcturus, again by memory. That is, not by memorization, but by knowing the theory behind each step. Wow.

Last Laugh