What? ME Do Stupid Things? Surely You Jest!

Yeh, yeh, OK, so sometimes I do do (yes, I said “doodoo” 🙂 ) stupid things. . . Aussie Lap Puppy (all 65#s of him) is at that gangly youth stage where he’s sometimes a bit clumsy from growing into his size, hence a (very welcome) jump into my lap having him knock into my not quite far enough away “chair desk” dumping my coffee ALL over the place. My fault (I certainly knew he had recognized an empty lap and pushed-away “desk” as an invitation), but a bit irritating. *sigh*

I’ll learn. . . or not. *heh*

Diversions. . .

Shopping can be. . . fun? Well, at least it can be amusing. Huckster sites (always view in a TOR browser/browsing session!) offer an interesting product? Do your omework. Find it elsewhere. Check some more. Oh, found it, three for the price of just one at the huckster site. Sweet! Wait. $5 shipping added? nah, look for same or lower price shipped at no additional cost. . . for exact same product. Found it! Three for 2/3 the price of one at the huckster site AND free shipping. That’s the one.

Two extra minutes. Big “discount.”

And that is just one example. It’s not exactly fun, but can be rewarding IF the [whatever product] solves an issue you need solving or fullfils a purpose you have already been seeking to fill. If it’s just some cool thing to add to your collection of junk, a better Shopping Sense will tell you to skip it entirely.

Graduation

I was about to go down for an “enforced” nap (enforced by my body, ‘cos my eyes refused to stay open *heh*) when my butt buzzed. Text from one of my oldest friends (Son & Heir named for him) letting me know his wife, another dear friend has “graduated”—slipped this mortal coil.

She was one day younger than me. Alzheimer’s and stage 4 cancer. We all had a good visit recently (coupla weeks ago) and they have both been on our minds both before and after that last visit for some time.

Words fail me. But life goes on.

Making New Habits

Apropos of nothing in particular, I am greatly encouraged that “instinctive shooting” works the same for me whether I shoot right- or lefthanded. Nice. . . as long as my right eye (dominant eye) remains good and my left eye stays pretty much in the same relation, between them, my binocular vision allows me to acquire my target well w/o focusing my sight on the. . . urm sights, just by focusing my eyes on my target and maintaining a proper grip alignment. It’s the latter that’s a bit more difficult for my lefthanded shooting. Just needs more drill. So, drill, baby, drill. *heh*

*sigh* More Stuff for My Stuff

I just decided I need an electroplating kit to rehab the grip on my 1930s German Fireman’s Dagger. The knife has a blade that edges toward short sword length and (apparently—I have not yet disassembled the grip) seems to have a rat tail. The grip is composed of two parts: an unknown metal alloy with two plastic scales pinned to it. The chrome plating is almost entirely worn away, so. . . silverplate!

Drilling out the pins and removing the grip is a trivial operation, but the electroplating. . . yeh, with the right equipment and supplies, also fairly simple. So. . .

After that? Yeh, small repairs to the steel sheath and to then reblue it. Fun, eh?

Back burner. I have too many other projects in line ahead of this. 😉

Looking Forward Into 2025

Going into 2025, one sentence keeps echoing between my ears: Let hope be not dismayed. It’s not scriptural (and, frankly, I know not whence it comes), but it does remind me of Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

It’s Not Even Ikea-Level

Assembling a moderately large piece of furniture from a kit with more than 200 parts (plus hardware *sigh*). I’d almost rather just build one. The “instructions” are primitive pictograms that aren’t anywhwere NEAR “Ikea level” pictograms, and include parts that are not in any way needed for the piece and pics that. . . no, that canNOT fit that way!

Once I figured out the particular perceptual defects the creator of the instructions was laboring under (“No, your OTHER right!”) things began moving more smoothly, as I could more easily discern which pictograms to ignore, flip, laugh at, or whatever.

It does help to use things like a power drill that allows at least rough torque settings. The wood glue provided with the kit was trash, but that was all right, too.

Chinese, of course, but well-made parts. Instructions, though? Almost total crap.

When DidGeorge III Actually Go “Round the Bend?

Apropos of nothing in particular apart from a wandering mind, I have long wondered if England’s Regency Period should not have started MUCH earlier, given the acknolegement of Georgie Porgie’s mental instabilities, which could have had a hand in him losing the American colonies. . . That he was whacko by the time of the Constitutional Convention, there is no doubt, but did his cray-cray start earlier? Maaaayyyyybe. . .

(Yeh, I think maybe he was the very model for CwaZy (pervy, racist) UnKa JoE, ZOMBIE POOPY-PANTS President in Name Only’s “reign” in the Oval Orifice, hence the last four years of a “long train of abuses”?)