Where's Orca? Pet Orca and she might wake up and
chase your mouse around.
Spring Ahead and Simmer Slow?
I think I have misplaced an entire season. Then again
considering the day to day temperatures and the lack of wild
flowers and songbirds these days are like Spring never
happened.
Marching On
In response to my “interesting time in Yuma...” one Gentle
Reader wrote:
> Is Yuma still as crappy as ever?
I don't know about "crappy" other than the noise from the
Marine Air Base. I come in low on the southeast corner to
the fairgrounds across the street to the Yuma International
Airport and Marine Base and after a few days of basking in
the glow of sodium vapour and the fumes of JP4 depart by the
same route so I don’t really know about if there is a yucky
part.
It's not just a motorhome - it's a car you can go to the
bathroom in! —Homer Simpson
Must Be The Ides
Yesterday was warmish and coolish at the same time and
partly cloudy mostly but I don't remember much else other
than spending several hours on phone calls with various
buck-passers in my SNAFU'd HMO. What a runaround! No medical
issues fortunately. Politics and administrative. Lots of
vocal frustration and name-calling eventually resolved at
least part of the problem. More of the complexification
prevalent in the organization that supposedly is dedicated
to simplifying access to their services. What used to take a
phone call, a short email, a few hours, now requires six
layers of multiple-guess menus that never offer me the
choice I'm calling about, two-factor login (and a time-out
if your hasty is not hasty enough), then a week or so of
waiting for what used to take a day.
Mar10 Day Forgotten
 Sorry
about that Mario. No pizza for me today. Slowly I am
rebuilding my confidence in the The Cat Drag'd Inn
as well as my ability to pilot her. But then there
were other problems when the house battery failed.
2000$ for a new battery. I'd been expecting that, was
saving for that eventuality, but still there is all the
hassle of remove and replace and reprogramme as I move from
conventional AGM to Lithium. Then the battery in TinyTruck
decided to fail. That one was 16 years old!.
 Day Yet?
Not yet. This is the Ides of March. Today I worked on a
wiring issue in an upscale RV at the garage. Neutral busbar
in the AC distribution box had overheated, no fire however
some seriously charred insulation.
Now! Today Is Day!
Thanks to Betty for the reminder; I was up early enough to
build my Whirled Famous Male Apple and share
slices with Sue and Toby and Paul and my Self. Any
snake you see in the Grasse today might be a Tyson thon especially if the snake be 3.14 meters
long. Thanks for that Neil.
 Eating
too much cake is the sin of gluttony.
However, eating too much pie is
Ok because the sin of is always
zero.
—Robin
Palm Sunday
Date Palm Tree here along with Sunday chores. I trimmed the
tree and the chores. Some sort of 4-leg critter living under
the instrument panel, one of Orca's friends no doubt. Rain
in the neighbourhood but nary a trace here for 40 days. And
40 nights as well.
Thank You Mr Hayden
Orca is One and ajo is eighty-five and Susan would have been
76.
J.
Haydn - Hob I:85 - Symphony No. 85 in B flat major
"La Reine" (Brüggen) (1785)
Thank you for your birthday greeting. I've been collecting
significant songs since When I'm Sixty-Four. 76
Trombones was a good year. And 33-45-78
was good for more than one year, retroactively. My b'day
music this year is Haydn's
Symphony No. 85 "La Reine". The entire
collection thus far is an eclectic assembly of Oldie But
Goody recordings.
Coin Collecting 
Collecting coins is somewhat akin to
collecting clocks. They are both round—well, real clocks
are—and coins in a manner of speaking also tell time. I
never collected coins like I collected stamps. In Scouts my
first Merit Badge was "Stamp Collecting". I still have my
collection and still collect some new issues. But
coins I never collected. I hoard coins, amass coins,
congregate-cluster-convene coins. I have 13.4 pounds
of rolled coins—mostly quarters and pennies—not counting a
couple cups of change yet to be sorted and rolled. One
of these days I need to sort and examine the pennies.
Long ago and far away I started to "collect" one penny for
each of my years. I have 1940 to 1973 with some missing. Now
I want to fill the holes and complete the set.
I saved coins from hither and yon when I travelled.
Herewith are photos of that set. Click on a quarter to view
the detail. The detail images will be about 7MB files to
download. Some coins are rather special such as the Canadian
Victory Nickel with a message in Morse Code on the reverse
and one from Cook Island showing a man with a long penis.
(That coin was banned in Boston.) I have two "One Troy
Ounce Silver Trade" coins. Interesting that the two
Silver Trade coins weigh 1.1 oz on my postage scale while
the 1924 "Peace" dollar weighs in at 0.9 oz.
April 12 Is Happy Big Wind Day
Mount Washington New Hampshire 12 April 1934 the wind of 231
MPH was recorded, a record which still stands for a wind
measured by a rotating anemometer, at a maned station, on a
Thursday. And while I'm on the subject of April: The
Feast Day of Saint George is on April 23rd, also on a
Thursday (this year). My max wind today at Tonopah
AridZona was 19mph and 86f from the southwest.
2026 April 20
Yesterday I worked on a well controller. The main point of
the failure was a loose screw in the controller, a simple
enough fix. But once the pump was running we found a small
leak that wasted enough water that the pump never turned
off. After two trips to Lowe's and three hours under a
blazing hot sun we had the leak repaired and several yards
of wiring replaced. The water was on. I do a lot of
similar jobs that are not quite code however safe enough,
however this installation was a mess of poor construction
practice and unsafe wiring and plumbing.
I figured out how to use a small window mount room a/c in
TinyTruck. Perched on a crate by the rear window and powered
by two huge batteries and a 2kW inverter in the bed. Should
tide me over until the LornRanger is ready for the road.
 Feast Day of Saint George—Take a
Dragon To Lunch
I think I am sitting too much. Some days, except for getting
up to pee a few times, I spend too many hours sitting at
this keyboard reading and writing. My fingers get more
exercise than my feet. Two of my peer-group friends had
“brain bleeds”, one a few years ago, one a few days
ago. Just for my ongoing education here is a
treatment of the subject.
What Is Tarnishing My Silver
Sunday chores this week: Dishwashing and all the silver
which has been soaking in the dishpan for several days is
various shades of tan-brown-almost black. This happened once
before, months ago, but I didn’t think much of the matter
since the time was nigh for my annual silver polishing
holiday. But this time was puzzling since everything was
sparkly polished just a month ago. WTF Over? So
I asked DuckDuckGo: https://duckduckgo.com/ what is in my
dish water that tarnishes my silver dark brown? And the Duck
replied: “Chlorides
or sulfides are in the water, possibly from food
(salt, eggs, mustard, etc.)” Well,,, salt on
watermelon... dregs of mustard from hotdogs & beans...
eggs hardboiled in a salad and fried for breky a few days
ago... I may have to do some experiments.
May The Fourth Be With You!
 I remember Eeyore and Piglet and
Pooh. And I have a rotary dial telephone on my wall with
dialtone and a bell that rings.
https://thecatdragdinn.org/13a10_wallphone01.jpg
All the pictures are a sad commentary on the ubiquitous
"phone". "More people have mobile phones than toilets." And
that brings up another point: Oblong. Cellphone? Ha! Tablet?
Double Ha! A camera you talk to, a road map that plays
music, a calculator on which you compose messages... Phone
is the least of the functions. One might just as well say
I'll write you a message on my camera. Let me ring you up on
my GPS. I'll take a picture of that with my roadmap. Oblong
for the shape of this communicative Swiss Army Knife makes
so much more sense. And of course I remember the Model 33 as
well. Which has also been replaced by an app on your phone.
Thanks Jane & Ken and May The Fourth Be With You!
Update penny collection
Over the past three days I have sorted through about 942
pennies to find one for each of my years. The photo shows
the best one for each year—in some cents I held out two "for
my two-cents worth", eh—and the rest are rolled. In the
photo many years have two coins just to sort of give me a
choice when I come to mounting them is some formal
arrangement. In some cases I found only one of a
particular year.
Interesting that I found none for last year nor this year.
Perhaps I will fill the gaps with nickels or dimes. Even
more interesting is the relative rarity of pennies—in this
pile at least—for the decade of the 60s and especially the
latter part of that period.
Most interesting is the evolution of the reverse of the
penny. From ? To 1958 the "Wheat Penny". Then in 1959
the Lincoln Memorial until 2008. What was so special about
2009 that the penny had various scenic views on the reverse?
Ahhh... " celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday." Then 2010
to present the ugly shield.
2025 pennies should be out there someplace. There won't be
any 26s since production ceased last year. I have ordered an
official penny coin display book. Perhaps my penny
collection will have to be rounded off with nickels; I'm not
ready to follow the demise of the penny. Henceforth my
two cents worth is going to cost you a nickel.
a fait accompli
The Secretary
of the Treasury has decided to suspend production of the
one-cent coin (penny) upon determining that it is no
longer necessary to meet the needs of the United States. The
decision was influenced by the rising cost of producing the
penny, which has increased 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents per
penny. Interesting that one would offer you "a penny
for your thoughts" but when given the opportunity wants to
put in "my two cents worth". Understandable that
thoughts should now cost a nickle given the rate of
inflation but one will still be able to give their "two
cents worth" if done by cheque or credit card (or PayPal as
well I suppose...)
My TinyTruck, a 1986 Isuzu Pu'p, faithful conveyance for 29
years, is about to follow Mikey into the Great Beyond. I've
managed to sell off most of Mike's Ham radio equipment and
pay for his incineration.
And Another Thing
...about not travelling this Simmer. As if
outrageously inflated Fuel Prices are not sufficient
deterrent I have just noticed that two tyres on The Cat
Drag’d Inn, one front and one rear, are showing cracks
in their sidewalls. That is a giant Red Flag.
All six tyres have been on the road for nine years and cost
$2049.21 installed in May of 2017. Guesstimate
replacement cost today: $3,000 at least.
May 24 Sunday Chores
Two nights ago just as I was dropping off to sleep two text
messages beeped into my oblong within seconds of each other:
"How are you doing?" "Nice to meet you." From strange
looking numbers. I did not respond to either. Next morning I
looked up their prefixes: One was Djibouti, the other
Nigeria. Despite rumour of Humanity’s origin there I do not
believe I know anyone in Africa.
My new old Linux Mint box (MMii) is almost ready to actually
put in service in place of this old-old Ubuntu
MikeMachine. "MikeMachine" is the name of my primary
floor model tower computer (running Ubuntu16 & Windows7)
too old and slow to upgrade (like me...). Ergo MMii is
"MikeMachineTwo". Still not cutting edge newness but newer
enough.
MM: Memory 5.7GB, Athlon Dual Core 4400+ 2.2 GHzx2, 64-bit,
79.8 GB Drive.
MMii: Memory 8GB, Intel i5-2400 3.1 GHzx4, 500GB Drive, 8
USB ports.
Same sort of thing with 1986 Isuzu TinyTruck and 1997 Ford
LornRanger.
I am feeling badgered by these entities who insist I can
save time by "Going Paperless" and get a discount (one time
only of course) by signing up for "Auto Pay". None of these
things save me any time; they only broaden my arse from
sitting long hours in front of the computer waiting for
two-factor identification and click the squares that contain
traffic lights...click the squares that contain
stairs...click the squares...
My medical insurance is offering me Extra Help with medical
expenses if I will send them my bank statement and household
utility bills. But they don't allow for fuel costs to drive
a hundred mile round trip to the doctor for a wellness
checkup they insist on. I suppose I am well enough to bitch
about it...
Not trained but bonded.
 This thing of walking with me
was the idea of the cat. At first when Orca was outside and
I walked around the yard she followed. Longer and
longer walks over a period of days and she followed and then
as the routes became familiar she sometimes led. Eventually
two or three of the other cats followed as well. Today Orca
was accompanied by Linda and Knot. When we returned
Orca complained that something was swimming in her water
fountain. 3MB Video>>
Another Neat thing:
In some fonts M and W are invert to one another.
M is the 13th letter. W is the 23rd letter.
13 and 23 are Prime Numbers.
Their mean is 18 which when halved is the number of digits
between 13 and 23.
Something
mystical about all this numerology.
To Vote Or Not To Vote, That Is The Question
I'm having issues with the voting rules in this Maricopa
County. I am registered "No Party" which used to be called
Independent until some wag decided that Independent meant
just that and we cannot have thinking persons in a Two Party
System. At a primary election there is no room for
Independence. In order to vote one must select a party
ballot. Actually there are more than two parties but they
rarely have any candidates running.
D-Day?
Yesterday was a mixed bag. Good cat walk but later in the
afternoon Orca was limping. Her left front paw and lower leg
are swollen a bit. Made great leaps of progress with
my new primary computer. About ready to move the box into
the house and begin the transition of operations
thereto. And another hour or two with poll worker
training. Today I need to concentrate on sunday chores
and keep an eye on Orca to decide if she will need to visit
the vet tomorrow. Interesting about yesterday. Lazy
unproductive day here. Am I depressed? Maybe tho I try to
avoid that concept. If anything there is so much I should be
doing that I bog down thinking about what to do first. In
the end I pace to and fro, take a nap, and soon enough the
day has devolved to G&T Time. I think partly I am
searching for a new community to take the place of my
missing friend Mike. We never were a couple, nor really
companions beyond common interests, but I really miss our
occasional chats, set-tos, and once in a while a meal
together. Orca at least is doing better.
Damn The Torpedoes Full Speed Ahead!
Strange dreams the past few nights. Enlightening or
challenging? I need to write more about them.
Whatever you do will be insignificant,
but it is very important that you do it.
—Mahatma Gandhi
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for
you'll be criticised anyway."
~Eleanor Roosevelt.
Ham Radio Field Day
Well, I had a half-assed field day. not my usual level of
involvement. Enough to see the equipment works. Made a few
contacts but kept no log and so no report forthcoming.
About Hanging Up The Keys
Ich habe genug gehabt. Tomorrow I will more or
less formally retire TinyTruck and put The Lorn Ranger on
the road. Gonna be a week or three moving radios and solar
and tools...There will be a ceremonial siphoning of gas from
old tank to new.
I am replacing TinyTruck, a 1986 Isuzu P'up which I have
been driving for 30 years, with LornRanger a 1997 Ford
Ranger. Lots of things to change and get used to. The muscle
memory involving the parking brake is particularly
thoughtless. “When a movement is repeated over time, the
brain creates a long-term muscle memory for that task,
eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no
conscious effort. This process decreases the need for
attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor
and memory systems...” – Wikipedia. Problem is when the task
is in a different place... Every time I stop the truck to
park my right hand reaches to set the parking break except
the pull handle is not there. My left foot now has to be
called into action to find the pedal to step on.
Clutch and accelerator coordination is another muscle memory
that has to be reprogrammed.
Yesterday after Food Bank I visited my auto insurance agent.
That meeting went well. Then on to the DMV contractor to
take TinyTruck off the road and move her tags to The
LornRanger. First question the clerk asked: May I see
your Driver License please? OMG! Where is my Driver
License? Not right there next to my Insurance Card. Not over
there mixed in with several credit cards. Nor in the other
slot with the collection of membership cards... I emptied my
wallet on the counter. No driver license.
3 July
Off to get new tyres for the bus. As soon as I can get the
cat for the front in and the Cat in the back started.
Accumulated total mileage 1997 to date: 1st odo 5000; 2nd
odo 81,678; 3rd odo 69,098=155,776. Previous Tyres
from May 2017: 9 years, 14,051 miles. What a waste.
Orca chose to stay behind when I moved The Cat Drag’d
Inn out of the yard, onto the street, up the road, to
the Tyre Shop. $2100 later the bus has new sneakers.
Heavier and harder than the previous edition, very smooth
ride on the return trip to the yard where Orca was waiting
for her breakfast.
Found my lost license. A thirty-seven dollar memory
mismanagement. Somewhen in the past week or three I must
have had cause to email a copy and last night I found the
license on the scanner/printer glass when I was adding
paper. Well, this will be interesting to see how the
replacement differs to the original.
Ordering books from Amazon may be a symptom of “tsundoku,”
the Japanese term for collecting books and letting them pile
up unread .
First Encounter With A Road Hazard
Off to visit my DermaDoc and shopped at Auto Zone on Watson
for a door handle. On the return trip, between Miller
and the 85 underpass, there occasioned the singular event
that most bothers me when being passed by a semi. A tanker
in the middle lane lost a tread not two truck lengths ahead
of me. The wriggling black carcass flew through the air
above my lane and hit the ground below my line of sight. The
Lorn Ranger thumped and lurched over the carcass before I
could think of any evasive action. The whole thing happened
so fast. I thought of stopping but everything felt OK so I
kept going. Back here I see there are scuff marks on the
right side of the air dam below the front bumper, on the mud
guard behind the right front wheel, and black marks on the
fender in that area, but appears to be no real damage.
So now I have a new door handle and a couple videos
explaining the installation steps.
260712 What Is Under Your Bed
Removed the bed liner from LornRanger and cleaned out an
archaeological dig site from underneath. Looked like a
prehistoric midden. Radiocarbon dating of the debris
indicated origins in the last century.
The Ides of July And Other Assorted End-Notes?
  Of Tyres and Blowouts. I just read an article
about my antique Singer
66 My Singer has been in the service of three
generations of my family. Still has a tin of Official Singer
Oil in the carry case. My Singer
serial number on the base is G9758555 indicates that
is a 1923 model 66. Over the years I have built tents,
sleeping bags, hundreds of stuff sacks, repaired
clothing, bedding, tote bags. My current project is to
build awnings for my Residence Vehicle for which I have
found some UV resistant thread and heavy duty needles.
First I have to replace the tyre on the bobbin winder. The
tread is worn away after an hundred years of winding.
July 15th was Food Bank Day and my 35# of grub sat in the
117f sun for a few hours of shopping and driving. Back
at the yard, unloading and sorting there was a POP
and brown fizzy stuff was dripping from the tailgate. The
ants are having a feast.
Mid-Term Primary Election
> Fair election ?
In what sense are you using the word "fair"?
The weather was fair, tho hot. The A/C worked just fine.
All the equipment worked but instead of an eight person team
we had only three so we each were working fairly hard doing
two and three jobs—but I'll be surprised if we get two or
three salary checks.
As far as the fairness of the election process? No. As usual
the acrimony and stupidity of American mentality wins out
over rational treatment of the issues. The greed of
politicians and big business overshadows the needs of the
community.
"The irony is that most Americans think they are
moral, yet remain unconcerned about the immoral way
their [representative] government exercises power [on
their behalf]. That's what I find hardest to
understand: the level of self-delusion that Americans
allow themselves. Then again, I suppose that if
Americans really thought about what their government
is doing, they might go
crazy."
—Ebrahim Moosa, April 2006.
"If voting actually made a difference, they wouldn't let us
do
it!"
—Mark Twain
|
2026 Winter Spring Summer? — Greetings Virtual
Travellers and Pen Friends: 
