And the world turns on
I’m actually in a fairly good mood today. Took Blue Jean to Laurel Lake and put a few miles on. Several broad reaches across wide open water: quarter mile and half mile types. Then the sea-doos and yayhoos started running amok, and while I am well used to the waves, what I could never get over is being ran over by one of those fast movers, and from the way they operate, I don’t think they watch FORWARD too well. Saw one fast mover catch air off a wave and the way he landed, I don’t think it was an intentional ‘jump’. No thanks, I’ll get my narrow long self off the water and let y’all play. I had a few hours of goodness out there.
Came home, and took the new to me boat back on the river for small spell. Last night, talking to B, decided to try moving the seat position back a notch (1″) and see if that slows down the turning transition in her. Not that it was out of control, but I had to make a lot of corrective strokes to keep her in line, Moving things back did seem to help ‘some’, but I think the nature of the boat is for that sort and nothing else. A boat I have to grow into,,, That ain’t a bad thing.
And kittehs,,, The boys are off sowing their wild oats. Grizzy finally hit his hormonal levels, and is staying out all night now. Haven’t seen him or Zooms in two days, with the exception of a few minutes in the wee hours last night: Grizz came in around 3 am and greeted me/demanded more food in the bowl. I’m hoping the little rat will keep out of trouble, but he is a Tom, with the gear, and I know better. He’ll get his butt kicked and come home to be tended to for awhile, then when he gets that urge again, back at it. I know that one day, one or both of them won’t return home because they went ‘too far’ and met an end. I could ‘alter’ them, but after the experience with Voodoo and his alteration, I swore I would never subject another animal to that travesty, no matter what, and all the ‘its better for the animal’ arguments, won’t sway me an inch,,, IF God had intended them to be ball-less and hormone neutral, he’d have made them that way: Who am I to think I know better. The only argument that might sway me is the “so many homeless pets”, but when all of my pets have been abandoned by others,,, That argument is bunk as well. My boys have a good home, if they chose to stay here 24/7 and its far enough out that their efforts will be few and far between in success, so even that argument doesn’t hold a lot of water with me.
ON THE HOME FRONT,,,, As if I needed any more incentive to want to move from my location,,,, Who ever said that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. One rather like my Da’s: Morbid and twisted, but kinda funny after the fact. The property next to mine was owned by one cousin for years. He never did a danged thing to it. There is an old abandoned house on it that finally succumbed to gravity a couple years back (after a couple of poplar trees had grown through the roof). 3 acres, mostly returned to a natural state.
Well, Seems Cuz 1 needed cash in a bad way. Cuz 2 just sold a house in a neighboring town and wanted to buy something ‘closer to his roots’. Doesn’t sound too bad so far does it? Problem is, Cuz 2 is a wastrel, and his kids are known thieves, and there have been several instances of him and Ol’lady having rather loud and intense squabbles that usually involve police. (and this area is on the edge of two counties, so jurisdiction gets questioned or shunted off a lot, and State Troopers have to pick up the slack. Time to response is usually measured in HOURS and occasionally in DAYS unless a body is involved.)
For the first time in seven years, I started locking my house and shed. I had to shift some things around in the shed to store the tools I used to keep on my porch for working on kayaks. I’m locking my truck and its tool box up, at home, where I used to not worry about such. (I had to dig through keys to find the door keys, if that says how comfortable I have been leaving my place unlocked. Not anymore,,,)
He moved a fifth-wheel camper in last night, says he is going to build a house there. He is a masonry guy, but knowing some of his history, I see that camper becoming ‘the house’ and a shed or two added in to spread the family around, but a house??? Not so much. At best, I expect him to lay a block foundation and move in a trailer, maybe. Yeah, its family, but being family does not automatically earn respect, it only gains you forgiveness others would not be given. This particular case has, in my opinion, worn that forgiveness paper-thin. Also, my opinion: He and His are the epitome of “White trash”,,, I don’t hold it against Cuz 1, but danggit, my little corner of the world just shifted in a bad way, and I don’t like it.
At least I don’t have to worry about him or his stealing my kayaks. There is no way they could sneak them off this hill without passing 4 places that would see it. It’s the little stuff like tools and computers that I worry about. And the pets. Not sure how the brats will act around animals that aren’t people shy.
Elsewhere is sure looking damned good to me right now,,,, And I don’t even know where that is,,,
But I am still in a better mood than I was 12 hours ago. Water therapy is a wonder,,,, Wave actions do amazing things to lower back pain too.
Mi vida loca
Man, if there was a way to get something completely F!ed up, I found at least one alternate version today. Even managed to cut the cables to my solar panels while I was out shaving the rocks in my Minefield/obstacle course that is loosely called “the yard”.
Easy enough fix, but dang-it!!!, I know I buried those daggum things when I put the panels on a rack. (formerly installed on roof. NOTE: do NOT do that. Bad bad Juju happens to people that do that!!!). and I know it because there was fresh dirt where the mower grabbed them and pulled the remainder out of that trench. That’s part of the problem living on this hill. Nothing stays buried. Rocks grow better than weeds, and the weeds grow better than anything that resembles ‘grass’. Every spring, my liitle rock retaining wall grows a little bigger as I add rocks to it as they pop up in front of and underneath the mower. I replace the blades on the mower at least once a year. Twice last year as I broke both. Amazingly, I didn’t destroy the engine.
In about 20 years of annual mowing, this yard may become civilized. Sure as heck isn’t right now. Maybe I just need a herd of sheep to keep it trimmed,,,,
Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I just needed to take a break from things. I didn’t even take the phone to work with me on Monday. Left it here at the house and reveled in the peace of mind that settled in without the deluge of email notices, and other things.
As was quoted of John Ross, RIP, talking about his sequel to Unintended Consequences: He said that he hadn’t been able to finish the book because the FRAUD kept giving him new material every morning. I know exactly how he felt: I have the same problem coming up in the sequel to Wings for that very same reason. I guess I should have written the whole thing further into the future or just ignored ‘current events’ while writing the original, but now I feel like I am locked into using our ‘history’ as it unfolds, and the FRAUD just keeps piling on more crap. Even when you think things can’t get any stranger, they dump a shovel load of “WTF?” on and turn the valve open just a little further.
Ok, Confession time. I am HIGHLY distracted right now, and it has NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, to do with world events or any of that. My distraction explains why I am having little “oops” factors popping up on me too. Nopes, I found another deal of the century in kayaky goodness, and I am trying my dangedest to make the connections that make it MINE!!!! Don’t want to go into too many details, like make and model, or what not, but I can tell you it is a legitimate Seakayak, 17′ long, and honest to Dawg fiberglass construction. Need some TLC, but from everything I can see in the pictures i have of it, the TLC is outfitting only. The glass appears ‘factory fresh’, and I can see that the skeg is in working order. So, new deck lines, possibly new hatch covers ( most likely) and I would have a ship-shape seakayak for a tenth of the price of a new one. No, I am not kidding, ONE. TENTH. 
(not the exact version, but a good example.)
yup, its eating me alive trying to figure out how to get tab A into slot B and make all of this happen. So, apologies to you all for my lack of focus on the bloggy stuff.
Last of the ooff!!! posts(and a detour)
short by long day today(read BORING) at the salt mine. four hours, *sigh*…
Lats are letting me know that we paddled 6+miles Saturday, but that seems to be the worst of it. Good to go otherwise.
Spent a little time surfing the nets today, and while yeah, not much is going on, a shit ton is going on at the same time, and not a whole lot of people seem to be putting the dots together.
Some are though, and when it goes sideways later this year, say around late September, early October, a LOT of people are going to be looking around and asking questions. There are solutions that can be implemented RIGHT NOW, and to work, they would need to be done, well, yesterday would be best, but right now would work too. The biggest thing that could be done right now is for the asshats that are causing shipping issues in Grain and Fertilzers to unshackle the rail distribution. That ain’t gonna happen though: As BCE states, “ I mean WHO ordered this ‘force majeure’ measures? Someone Somewhere knows Something “. Looking at the ‘accidents’, and how they are spaced with increasing regularity, we ain’t seen the end of the funhouse games either. Wait until Smithfield packing starts shuttering plants for the coronaphobia. Chinese owned plants spread out around the country and already (witnessed by mine eyes, Had a gate install at one recently) a very totalitarian lock down. Surprised I didn’t see employees in full on level 4 Bio gear, but it wasn’t all that far from it either.
Its not the actions that worry me, its the timelines. They are stretching this fuck up out over as long as possible and the longer it takes to hit peak, the worse it will be, and the harder to correct. That they can’t win is simple reasoning: Reality ALWAYS wins and their plans are NOT based in reality. But man!!! they can sure leave one hell of a mess for the survivors to clean up.
And I worry about friends. I am set up pretty sweet, in an out of the way place, with quite a ‘buffer area’ between main roads and myself. I’m elevated with a good undeveloped area behind me that isn’t easy to traverse without making a ton of noise. My biggest issue is my ears: they suck. I can’t hear said noises easily, (unless its really low frequencies, like helo blade thumps) and Voodoos ears are purt much ruined these days as well. Kittehs have been pretty good about letting me know when things are moving (when they come racing into the house, skid to a stop and all ears and eyes and whiskers are pointed outside, Sumpin’s up!!!). But my friends are NOT set up as well. I don’t preach, no point in wasting my breath and alienating someone at the same time. That ain’t my style; I try to lead by example, and in this case if example is ignored, so be it. An offer is out for sanctuary (to a very few) if it gets to that point, but there will be no luxuries or amenities to be taken for granted: Rationing is a must, and the more mouths, the slimmer the rations. AND NO DEAD WEIGHT. You don’t work, you don’t eat.(and if it gets real bad, dead weight becomes fertilizer or dog food. Voo won’t mind long pig,,,)
Harsh? Harsh times require harsh methods, and hardened hearts. Thats LIFE. I have stated here many a time “Best get it in your head NOW, how you would respond to hard choices.” and there is plenty of Survival Pron out there in fiction to get your head around what could be ‘worst case scenario’. (example is what happens when one of your littles gets wounded in a fatal way. Not a quick fatal either: more like getting their liver or kidneys shot up, and there is zero chance of getting to a Trauma Unit. Slow and painful. How are you going to deal with that, and NO, folding up in the fetal position is NOT an option.)
deep breath. relax. Think water,,,,
I have thought about these things. Hell, I am always running worst case through my head every day, even on the day to day. That I haven’t gone on a shooting spree doesn’t tell you I am not dangerous, it tells you that I keep the beast on a very short leash, made from the anchor chain of the Tarawa. And I look for people who aren’t ‘safe’. B is one such: I have seen it, He WILL run to the sound of gunfire if needed. He won’t balk when the shit is getting heavy, and he will stress and strain so long as ANY of his PEOPLE are in even a limited amount of danger. My brudderbyanuddermudder is good people and I will happily bring him in if need arises. He and his are where my worries orbit these days. Their location is not good, IMO, but it is what it is and all of my worries may be for naught.
Anywhoos,
I need to break off from this line of thought or I won’t get any sleep tonight. Here’s sumpin funny for y’all.
Follow up on Oofff!!!
Hate to say it but the medal was kind of a “Gimme”; There were only two of us in that class. So, last place, woohooo… With that up front, it was competitive. I never lost sight of the other paddler, but he was running a home built Night Heron Design which Nick Schade came up with to improve on the Greenland Inuit designs. Hull speed is about 3/4 mph faster than mine and it showed. I never lost sight of him, but he continually pulled ahead of me and by the end of the race, had near a half mile lead on me. Neither of us EVER stopped paddling (other than to grab some water ’cause that wind was drying everyone out. Dry enough that you couldn’t spit!) and he was using a Wing Paddle where I was using my Greenland. There is a performance difference, but I am still impressed that a GP can still compete with a Wing: maybe not beat it, but it will give it a run for its money. Considering the GP was designed by primitive peoples using anthropomorphic measurements, and the Wings are computer designed high tech paddles, I think that says more about “human ingenuity” than mere words here can express.
And there were participation awards as well, but In this case I ain’t giving the promoters any shit about it. Just showing up at the finish line was a challenge and a half!!! There was a kickin’ wind coming out of the west, straight into our faces for the return trip and getting through that was no fun. Cooling, as the splash from the paddles kept the quickly drying sweat washed off the face, but damn!!! what a battle heading up-wind.
Selkie did frigging PERFECT. No splash off the bow!!! She just sliced right in and didn’t matter if it was glass flat or chop or wave sets. Chop did nothing against performance while wave sets played with her stern a bit, and she did surf a wave face or three. Not much, but enough to give the old dude at the paddle a momentary respite, and a small ‘turbo boost’.
What needs changed though? 6.5 miles will tell you something about your design that “isn’t quite right”. In my case, its the bulkhead footrest I came up with. It worked, worked well, but the angle is ALL OFF. My heels went numb fairly early, and I started shifting around trying to make them comfortable and that put the strain on other parts and by the end of the race, I felt like I had a hole bored into my left asscheek. Nothing wrong with my seat pad, it was all about the footrest and that is easy enough to fix.
Even though I felt stiff and unstable for the first mile, that wasn’t ‘a boat issue’: that was a “I’m in need of seat time” issue, and by the end of the first mile, my hips had loosened up and my mind put into ‘sea-legs’ mode and I was fine. Wave-sets off the rear quarter didn’t goose me after that first mile like they did when I started out, and I was paddling smoother with each hundred yards traveled; not the epileptic seizure splash and churn that I started with. I really needed to get A LOT more seat time in before this race, but is what it is, and now I have my mind conditioned for the rest of the paddle season.
B, the indomitable, stubborn persistent bullish paddler he is, came across the line last of the entire group. He had done the long distance run so had to do two laps to my one, and that wind was kickin’ EVERYONES ass. Even the surfski’s were looking rather dogged out when they crossed the line at the last. B was in a Perception Vizcaya (yeah, the blue one I used to own.) and while its a great little recreational boat, B (and meself vicariously) found it ‘It ain’t no race boat’. Great hull design for shallow waters where you want to ride over debris and what not, but seeing the double wake pattern along its gunwales tells me it creates its own drag.* You are fighting the boat to move forward at anything over ‘mild cruise’ (3-4mph). if you go for higher, you have to double your efforts to hold it and that wears you down. B did that for 13 miles of open water, 6.5 of which was in a head wind of at least 8mph with gusting up to 25.
And this was the first big paddle of the season. Wooofffff!!!!
T, bullheaded and stubborn herself, chose to do the same lap as I did, but she did it in her Duck; An inflatable whitewater ‘kayak’. She fought probably twice as hard as B and I did because she was still set up for whitewater, not flat water and the bow of her Duck kept trying to fly off the water when she was headed into the wind. I watched her crossing the bay towards the finish line and a halfway serious gust would lift the front and turn her boat ninety degrees to her heading, and she would have to fight to correct it. She paddled half the race from the kneeling position to keep her weight forward and stop that, but that’s a very hard position to paddle in if you don’t have the ‘saddle’ for it. She did finish, and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice while talking to her afterwards.
That fight she had was why I am saying not giving the promoter shit for the participation awards. Just crossing the finish line yesterday was a challenge and those that did, deserve something ‘just for showing up to the fight’.
Damned good day out, and I mentioned to B that I hadn’t felt this relaxed since around August of last year. I need to get out to the Church of the Two Bladed Paddle a whole lot more often. The world seems brighter today for it.
* In comparison, in Selkie, I didn’t see the first wake wave until well near my cockpit, while moving at nearly 5mph. And it was a lot smaller than the wave the Viz was making: it never rose to the gunwales like what I saw on the Viz. No way to change the design of his boat, but I am certain he will keep in mind what its capable of, and more importantly what it is NOT capable of, in the future.
sumpin to lead into a positive weekend
What if, the adage of “If its from Government, its all bullshit” is more true than you understand and far BIGGER than you ever suspected?
I refer you to the post by the indomitable Sarah Hoyt so you have something to work with. It’s on the long side for some of my readers, but I highly encourage you to do so. PLEASE RTWT.
What if, and I have no way to verify, no one does, but logic and historical precedents tell me its highly likely, that UN figures are complete bunk and Sarah’s estimate of Less than Half stated figures of world population are correct, then literally every talking point on Gorbalworming/Peak Oil/GreenEnergy will save the planet/we need to reduce the population (why if its already half of what they claim?) etc etc etc,,, Every! Single! Point! they try to use to keep things in line is bullshit if just that number is off by half. And I have every reason to think Sarah is center target from 10000 yards on this one. I have seen US examples of her examples from Portugal, where people would ‘borrow’ children for census purposes to get a little more on the dole: I have seen it our own ghettos here, and I would bet there are more than a few Social Service workers that ‘turn a blind eye’ on it, yet know full well what the game is. And of course there is the padding of the numbers by representatives to make sure they can rightfully claim proper share of the spoils of FedGov. Most of that crap is based on census numbers. Heck, I recall in 2010 me having a fight with a census taker over how many times they were going to count my household. I saw 7 census workers in less than two weeks and none the same and they counted the people in our apartment each time. What if the actual numbers of people in the US is closer to half the 330 million they claim. Maybe not 1/7th as would be indicated by how many times they counted heads in my ‘hood that year, but half could be expected from such heavy handed applications of number counting.(half would be 165 million. 1/7th would be roughly 47 million. Claimed Census numbers when I was a pre-teen were 226 million. Dunno, but it seems to me that even with ‘urban sprawl’ there hasn’t been that much growth. Less people living in inner cities these days as there were when I was a kid. That exodus from the cities was evident by the Mall, suburbs, and a growing network of highways and loops to make urban areas more accessible for those that required commute to the inner city where the offices were still located. )
One quote hit home in an almost personal way, though it was written broad brush.
In other fields, I have friends who overshadowed by the big-group-of-boomers, were treated as “the young kid” well into their fifties, and now suddenly find themselves being called “the old man/woman” and finding they are too old to be affordable.
I have been ‘The Kid’ at so many jobs, and now, suddenly, I am the “greybeard”. I knew I was on my way out in the Audio field when I was called ‘Granpa’ on a Gospel tour. It wasn’t a one time thing either, I carried that title the whole tour. (and I wasn’t a grandpa YET, that came a few years later after I had moved on to I.T. at the hospital.)
And that last sentence ‘and finding they are too old to be affordable’,,, I fear having to find a new place of employment because of my age. I know most managers would see my DOB and think, ‘too old, gonna cost us a fortune in medical insurance coverage’ or sumsuch. OR, Too much experience for this rate of pay,,, (and I have tons of experience in many different fields, and refuse to list half of them, for that very reason.) I found out early forties that people don’t believe I have done a third of the things I have, until I start pulling out the medals, certificates, pictures with entertainment peeps, and backstage passes, or pictures of my builds, like my house and kayaks.
But I digress,,,
World population as I am writing this is Guesstimated at close to 8 billon people. That number is up 2 billion since 1998. This link will open up a wormhole for those so inclined. (I know, wikipedia, *eyeroll* ).
I think their model is WAY off, personally. and the world population sure looks suspiciously like a certain ‘hockey stick’ graph that has gained a bad reputation the last decade or two.
And I drive backroads around SE KY a lot. I don’t see a lot of Urban Sprawl going on in most cases, but I do see a buttload of Abandoned homes, burned out shells, and vacant foundations that never were rebuilt. I see empty barn/warehouse/business buildings that haven’t seen a key in the lock in decades, as indicated by the Kudzu growing over the building. If we were expanding at such a rate, don’t you think we would have more need of those residences and businesses to keep things up?
I know when I was at the Hospital in the IT department, we had a HUGE ObGyn department. I think there were over a hundred cribs in it. I know there were 40 in NICU. I never, NEVER saw more than a handful of cribs with occupants. And NICU virtually matched the regular ward, because we were on the edge of Ghetto/Whitetrash areas and there were always Preemies and babies born addicted to some substance. This in a city with a supposed population near 2 million. Granted, this was ONE hospital in an area loaded with hospitals (I recall I could look out our office windows and see three others, and that was in ONE direction. Still, a hospital that was seeing less than 5% occupancy of its ObGyn units, while seeing near full occupancy in its Cancer wards and Heart wards,,, Seems to me we are better at keeping people alive than making new ones,,,,
And that goes right back to what Sarah is talking about. Our current FRAUD is part of that.
And if those numbers are as skewed as Sarah, and now I, suspect,,, Makes ya wonder just how F!up the numbers are when you see our Deficit spending, National Debt and GDP. Something is off, WAY OFF.
Have a good weekend all. I have a race that needs to be attended to, and a kayak that gets her cherry popped in it. I’ll have some more up as I decompress while off doing frivolous things, drinking beer and conversing with NOT KATS, (and I have a short story I am plugging in and editing right now about a KAT conversation,,,, Tease!!!!!)(seriously, there will be a shorty on that.)
Post easter thinks
Looking around the spheres today, I see a growing line of thinking that revolves around financial collapse. Not wanting to fall into the vacuum of a think tank, but knowing that we have been swirling that drain for over a decade (and it started BEFORE 2008, the QE to infinity just put the spurs into the old nag,,) I started thinking about “whats next?”.
Well, I have no solid answer and I am in no position to say that ‘this’ is definitely gonna happen, so take all of my thinking here as mere speculation, with several drams of salt to season the after taste.
I keep hearing mention of “digital Currency” as the next phase of the collapse, and believe me, if the Fed decides to do away with paper, things are going to go froggy faster than you can blink. But why now, why would it be so bad, since we are seeing digital currencies already in place. First off, those digital currencies are what we call block chain currencies. The Security in them is bottom up, not top down. YOU control the security of your currency, NOT some Banker type in a far off office with no reason to be fair or balanced. IF the FED were to create this currency for the masses, it would mean complete control of the monies you use to get through your days. It would mean that government could control EVERYTHING despite things like the 2A. If they decided that they didn’t want anyone to buy ammunition, they would just suspend all sales for such with some arbitrary move and no one could buy ammunition, period. No need to pass some law, or amend a Constitution. That level of control is exactly what they want. If you have counter political views, they won’t need to do more than freeze your accounts for 90 days. If you don’t fall in line by then, they have other means to mess with you: means that are more kinetic in nature, but most people would fold like a cheap suit long before that were needed on their part.
Can they do this? Yes, and no. Yes, they could create some alternative digital currency to replace the paper forms, and most people would jump on board since they are so involved in the system already, they would have no choice. NO: because there are already alternative systems in place outside of their influence. Grey markets, Black Markets, etc. And there are TONS of paper bills in circulation that many people would continue to use in lieu of that “card swipe” for the stuff that would remain out of the conventional market. Think Drug Cartels, but in all other aspects of your living. Farmers markets would be one such, and they would become very mobile, and go grey quickly. Service industry, like what I do in my day to day, would become underground industry ‘for cash or barter’ only. The outside systems would expand rapidly, and may even become dangerous (like the drug cartels, and for much the same reason.) but they would not wither away and die like the PTwB dream they would if they remove the paper.
Coinage would become ‘normal’ again, especially those with honest to God gold and silver coins: even the Junk silver coins of pre-1965.
I know, it sounds optimistic in some ways, but what I am seeing is not some “Great Reset , though I think there will be a Reset of some sort. Just not the one the PTwB intend. What I see is Big Gov failing on levels never before seen without major war. The legitimacy of all the “Democratic” nations has faltered and is showing just how farcical they are. We aren’t seeing forced removal of the culprits at this time, but even in Revolutionary France, that took time to build up. When things get to that stage, the bloodshed will be epic. My only worry at this stage is that the REAL puppetmasters will get away scot free, since they are not in the lime-light and most people don’t understand that our ‘figure-heads’ are just that, not the real powers at the controls. (though I think Oblammy-o-boy tipped his hat recently.). Time will tell, obviously, and until then, things are going to continue to get worse, harder, and scarcer. Like this meme.
What it costs us to get through till then, may seem outrageously high, but in actual values, nothing will change except what we are using to ‘buy’ with. Like looking at housing right now. Da is talking about moving, and I have been doing the leg work of finding ‘new digs’. Houses that a year ago were 150K, are now over a quarter mil. Nothing has changed in the value of that place, its just what you are buying it with is worth LESS, and everyone knows it. My truck still gets 19 miles to the gallon(hwy), so the value of a gallon of gas is the same, its just what I use to buy it is worth less, so I need more of them. And this is all by ‘the PLAN”, the plan with too many moving parts, designed in a vacuum by idjits with no real world experience or understanding of people. Human Nature is not going to change just because these idjits think they can manipulate currencies and resources. Human nature is not going to change that quickly, nor at their ‘direction’. Said “PLAN” can’t work because there are people like me out here still, and I may be an odd, but I am no where near a minority.
SO, While it looks like SHIT is getting really-realz; LIFE goes on, and people carry on, and even when things look bleak, “THIS TO SHALL PASS”. Whats on the other side of it is going to depend on how much we stick to OUR morals, and not those that the creators of ‘The PLAN’ want us to have.
prepare for the worst, work towards better, and NEVER EVER give up your guns.
Cynic!!!
I don’t like being the cynic, I don’t like going through my days always seeing the negative. I have to make effort to see positives and BOTH wear me out. One because it burns energy to keep moving, the other because it takes energy to wade through the mess of the world to find the diamonds.
Maybe thats why I like my four-feets so much. They don’t have a malicious bone in their bodies, and everything is fine in their world so long as Dad is around and the food bowls are full. I can just relax around them because they don’t give a rats ass about the world at large. And they make me laugh with their innocence: very few people other than children have the same effect.
I try to emulate the approach to life of my fuzzies, but the world refuses to go’way. (I’d have to find a retreat REALLY far out to do that)
There IS good in the world, and every-time I find it, it has one aspect that reinforces my view on things: NO GOVERNMENT. People are basically good at heart, and it shows in how we interact on a personal basis. Not all mind you, but MOST. There are the evil shits of the world at the local personal level, but they can be avoided or dealt with, again at the local personal level, and they have little effect over the bigger picture. Unlike Xi-den, and other world leaders pretend. Those shitstains make choices that affect millions of innocents directly, and yet are never held accountable. Seemingly: Their time will come, and NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE. Whatever ‘maker’ you believe in, there will be a reckoning for them, and I hope such entities will find that the penance is far worse than the crime. Maybe they will return as a lab-rat in one of Phizers lab,,,, or as a beagle pup with its head locked in a box and its vocal cords paralyzed (looking at you Faucocini!!!).
Again the Taxicab Confessions from 2012 is making it rounds again, and is still as relevant now as it was then(HT to Francis for linking this again) That the troubles of the country could be resolved by ‘noon tomorrow, just by dragging 100 people to street and putting a bullet to the back of the head’,,,, I think the number is closer to 535, but we all know that is just the visible part of the problem. It may put the “Skeered” into those NOT visible, but I would be surprised if that invisible sector doesn’t have back up plans in place for ‘that day’.
Yeah, I’m a Cynic. I would cheer the event, but I would be looking for the snap-back to happen at the same time.
The worst part of being the Cynic: When I have ‘had enough’ and wish it would all just burn down. Happens often enough that I know how to fight it back, but there are days where that is a struggle unto itself. Those are the days where I pull out certain books and delve into knowledge reinforcement: I know there will come a day where the rebuild begins and people like me are going to have to do what we can with what we have and the ‘what we have’ may be a whole lot of nuthin’. The advantage is that we are not starting from ground zero, IE, in a cave with a stick and rock and no knowledge. We still stand on the shoulders of Giants and their accumulated knowledge is all around us. One of those books is “build your own Metal working shop from scrap’ by the late Dave Gingery, RIP. Now, I know many a machinist that see the Gingery builds and give them the side-eye, but when you are starting from nuthin, I can’t see where the Problem is. You can use the first build to build better(including getting rid of that RH threaded lead screw for a proper LH thread one) and each evolution resolves to higher accuracy. You could build those ten thousandth accurate machines from the one you built from scrap, you just have to be meticulous in your efforts and advance your skills to harder materials(IE Cast Iron). And it all starts with a home-made foundry using materials that are ubiquitous in the world. Aluminum scrap, Sand, Clay and Charcoal. (and yes, his stuff is clonky, and over-engineered, but some of that has to do with the strength of Aluminum versus Cast-Iron. ). (another source for stuff that can be done in the ‘backyard’ is ClickSpring on UToob. Do a search for that name and the AntiKythera device and you will find a rabbithole that will swallow you up for DAYS!!! link is to the first in the series.)
Not that we would ‘Need’ to go that route; there are many a home machine shop scattered about the country, and many a ‘hobby machinist’ that could/will fill (some of) the gaps of the JIT system as needed when such time comes. Even the 3D printers will be useful so long as they can keep in feedstock. (and I have been looking into a 3D printer for making my patterns for casting. Been using wood, bondo and wax, but they tend to be ‘clonky’, not the materials fault, but the pattern makers fault.). and there are benchtop CNC machines that make detailed milling of soft materials fast and plentiful. There is a growing list of ‘Makers’ out there that will fill the gaps when things get downright stupid in the global supply market. (there is an app where you can order custom made parts, in bulk, for your idea from such ‘makers’, though I don’t recall what that app is currently. I need to research that again and get digging.)
My “Cynic” takes a break when I pick up the tools and books; Thats when the Rational Optimist in me breaks its chains and surges to the forefront, knocking the Cynic on its heels. I have so many ideas in my head that the RA wants to create, yet the need to eat takes precedence. Maybe I could sell my products, but there is ZERO market here local for such as Kayaks, Greenland paddles, or homebuilt tools that you can buy at Lowes or Harbor Freight, cheaper than I can buy the materials to make them out of. So, I work for others for now, doing what I do, including making tools and jigs to make my job easier, faster, more accurate. At least in writing, my works are selling (some, but nowhere near enough to count on.) and I keep plugging away here on the blog; venting, waiting, watching,,,
And that watching and waiting,,, Can’t trust much of anything these days. So many sources are compromised, and yet so many still trust the Enemedia to do the right thing, which they have proven time and again since 2008, they won’t do: TELL THE TRUTH. BCE and others have shown that the whole missile on a train station in the Uke is most likely a false flag done by Krainefeld to genny up support from the ‘free world’. (note: I say ‘most likely’. not a claim to fact, but the evidence is pretty damning.) Seriously, NOTHING about the current distraction of the week/month rings true; doesn’t matter what side you look at. And the fact that of all the wars in the last 40 years, THIS ONE, is the most obscure and obfuscated one we have ever seen, even with the plethora of smartphones and cellular/internet services. Seems to me that there are underground actors at work suppressing and massaging the messages, long before the Enemedia get their grubby tentacles on it.
And it is all to hide the fact that the VaxxnottaVaxx is literally killing folks, and not just a few, but in gobstopper numbers. The Reports for “All causes” as listed by the insurance agencies is going off the charts, and that is causing many agents to peak blood-pressure levels. (and probably creating more deaths from the BP spikes when they see the P&Ls for the last year.).
and to hide the shenanigans of the FRAUD from the eyes of the sheep. Can’t have the Gaffs and what not hitting the plebes full in the face: Pitchforks and torch sales might go up. As well as tar, feather pillows and fence rails. They definitely do not want to see a surge in Hemp Rope sales,,,
But people are becoming ‘Woke”, and not in the sense the Lefties have claimed as their own. Oh no, quite the opposite in fact. Disney is in for a make-over if they keep up their Grooming standards, and when the dam breaks, Pedo’s around the country are going to be scrambling for outbound flights in record numbers. Or dying,,,
UPDATED
Thanks to Irish for posting this. Perfect addition to this post
Dio's Workshop 