One year ago today: August 1, 2025, too much work.
Five years ago today: August 1, 2021, in his castle.
Nine years ago today: August 1, 2017, here’s their leader.
Random years ago today: August 1, 2003, do you see the million?
Tampa radio was politically silent for hours this morning. That’s rare. My theory is Trump has done something they don’t like. There are irregularities all through the States in voting procedures. But those irregularities only become super-important when there is a very close race. It is in the Democrats interest to keep the voting 50/50 to take advantage of those quirks. I got ten bucks says that’s what’s going on today. Trump has done something to upset that balance.
I’ve nothing else for you, but here is something I built long ago that proved much handier than metallic “quad boxes”. An ordinary but heavy duty duplex outlet in a sealed wooden box. There are unseen quality to this box, as I build it because I was short the usual metal type. I believe this was 2019 or so, the point is I was very impressed by how strong this was. Even metal would have bent some had I stepped on it as much. Hence, this box was influential on choosing to build more. The seams are waterproofed with Titebond, making this superior for Florida yard work.
So allow me to dedicate this day to laziness, my style. I got the lumber out of the front yard and drying in the back driveway. Let it bake in the Florida sun, it will dry. Today was not that bad, some cloud cover let me get back outside in the late afternoon. I sawed up some pieces for my cat box, with no assurance the cat will like it. I took the tarp off the electric lawn mower and ran out the charger, it’s time to trim my walk paths—I brushed into some poison vine and had to break out the calamine lotion. I never did figure out why that stuff works.
A documentary on Denny’s, the restaurant, brought back memories. I did not know anything about the history of the place, just that it was always there and had good coffee when I was alone and broke in the 1970s. There was a Denny’s walking distance from the university, where I could not afford the coffee, which I basically lived on every winter. Denny’s would let me read and do the crossword puzzle.
Years later, I was still a patron because the coffee was consistent. I don’t generally like surprises with my coffee and I stayed a loyal customer well into the mid 80s. Then Denny’s began to change. It became “too franchised” and got expensive. They had a counter with stools that you could walk in and seat yourself. And payphones. That was my only way of getting a job in those times. I never had a car in university and my insomnia was somewhat worse, though it never was the bother for me as other people.
The final break came in 2002, when I stopped at a Denny’s on Biscayne Boulevard, not knowing there was a campus nearby. The place had a rule that students could not hold study sessions and drink free refills all night. I had been reading books at Denny’s for years and was asked to leave. I did, and it ended my 30 or so years of loyalty. JZ and I have been there a few times for breakfast specials, but the atmosphere and customers have changed. To me, the word “diner” on their signs just means they’ve taken out the stools. It’s just nt Denny’s anymore.
Ybor is okay.
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This afternoon continued an easy day, this is what I once imagined every day would be like after retirement. Easy does it and only when you feel like it. I got a lot of small things done, paying attention to which ones I will not be able to do that much longer. The activity was slow and fun, that’s a good sign. But it is also everything I have to report today. Tampa was non-stop mean-mouthing everything but their own kind, so I turned off the radio. Here’s a nice video of something I’ve head many men talk about, but have never seen until I did it. My egg-beater paint mixer. Hang on, let me go check, I’ve got ten pounds of chicken on the stove.
So I strung out the extension lights and worked past dark. I even got a two-beer fire going, mainly because that is all the Yeung-Ling that I had left. I managed to put up the main roofing cross-member, normally a two-man job. The trick is to find that second man who is not in jail, too busy, sober, and not fifty miles away whenever you need some help. I got up the stepladder and used clamps and got the job done. I found wasp nest number ten before it found me.
Another WWII legend I am beginning to suspect is the battles of Admiral Halsey. If the guy had been any luckier, I’d suspect him of being a Japanese spy. Even his bad luck saved him more than once. For example, if he had not hit a storm, he would have sailed the Enterprise into Pearl Harbor the afternoon before the attack. But I concede most American commanders relied on luck, often in the form of reading the Japanese code. Still, with Halsey, I’m suspicious.
ADDENDUM
The Battle of Wizna. I’d read of this minor skirmish back in my early teens. It seems now it has been hyped up into a Polish victory. A few hundred soldiers in fortifications held back a larger German force (which soon became a “nazi” force) for three days. That is what fortifications are all about, it is what they do. This is now being hailed as a valiant Polish stand that prevented an “encirclement”. Here’s what really happened.
Wizna is on land that had been German for 300 years until the end of the First World War. It was a minor town between two major invasion corridors and was thus lightly staffed. The approaching German forces had brought no tanks with them. They had been ordered to avoid costly attacks and, in fact, this is precisely the role the Germans had built a tank force. Tanks were bunker busters, to blast through old-style fortifications into the open territory behind.
So the Germans kept up some infantry pressure while waiting for tank support, as they had been trained. Their 350 tanks were busy elsewhere, but seriously, these six concrete bunkers did not hold up “42,000 Germans”. They were newly constructed and did not appear on German war maps. Finally, three days late, a few tanks showed up, low on gas. No information is available, but some of these tanks were disabled by minefields, not Polish anti-tank fire.
I was frustrated trying to find the numbers, but the Germans suffered around 900 casualties, an expected result of the effectiveness of bunkers. But we are expected to believe 700 Poles outnumbered 60:1 held up the world’s most professional tank force? The Germans were commanded by Guderian, the father of the Panzers. Something smells about the version plastering the Internet.
If the Polish account is true, then 42,000 Germans forgot their training and disobeyed orders from the High Command, and on the same day, too.
