More than almost anything else, I fear Trump taking over the Federal Reserve and declaring cryptocurrency to be legitimate coin of the realm. Because it’s anything but legitimate. Regular folks should go nowhere near crypto, but some see it as a get rich quick scheme opportunity, and the suckers will take the bait.
So far, 60 Minutes journalism does not appear to be compromised. As seen in this crypto-related story.
Now that I’m using the Hoopla library app in addition to Kindle, I wanted an e-reader downstairs in my mancave reading spot. What about carrying the Fire HD10 tablet downstairs then back up to the kitchen? Nah. Something bigger than my phone is needed, but not that big.
Wait. What about the Lenovo Yoga 8-inch tablet that saw me through many trips to Arizona?
I put the tablet away almost five years ago, after system updates ended with Android 6, and it slowed down to the point of being useless. Does it have enough life left in it to run a couple of reading apps?
After all this time, when powering it up, the battery was at 63%! Unbelievable. Once connected to WiFi, it started taking a lot of Google updates, including a system update. Whatever it was, Android 6 remained.
Eventually, the updates were done, and I was able to install the two apps I cared about. Hoopla complains about its updates requiring Android 7 and higher, but downloading and reading books is working.
One more piece of otherwise electronic waste has been forced back into service! This is nice, but not enough for me to reconsider my boycott of future Lenovo purchases. I’ll only do that if there’s a way to wake up the touchpad on my Yoga i7 laptop PC.
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.” – Kurt Vonnegut, 1997
I’ve always been as much amazed as amused by the British comedic thread running from the Goon Show with Peter Sellers, to the Beatles, then to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Monty Python.
Michael Palin has said there wouldn’t have been Monty Python without the Bonzos. Would the comedy troupe have existed if the Beatles hadn’t first changed the world? Palin talks about what the Beatles made possible for others in their wake, in this 2012 interview.
I got good at guessing when it was time for the septic tank to be pumped out. The situation being what it was, for the next year I usually kept the cover of the tank exposed. Fortunately, the washing machine had a dedicated dry well. Don’t know what that is? Look it up! Without the dry well, the tank would have needed pumping far more frequently.
About a year after failing the percolation test, just as the town inspector had promised, lines were being spray painted on the street for the sewer line extension. By that time, we were actively looking for a house in another town.
We weren’t having any luck finding something in our price range. Then, during lunch one day at work, a friend and colleague came up to the cafeteria table, and instead of joining us, he said, “Come on, there’s a house I want you to see.” His neighbors across the street were putting their house on the market. It was perfect for what my wife and I wanted and needed. I made sure that weekend’s open house was canceled.
Now I need to backtrack to a post from a few years ago.
Here be the cremated remains of old bills, receipts, bank statements and insurance policies from years gone by. They will not be missed.
When our son was five, we wanted to sell our first house and move closer to where I worked. But we couldn’t do that, because the septic system had failed. I’ll spare you the unpleasant details of how I knew that.
Massachusetts Title 5 regulation requires a functioning septic system, or municipal sewer hookup, to sell a property. The first step was calling the town and requesting a soil percolation test. A licensed inspector with a clipboard and stopwatch came out with a guy holding a shovel and bucket, who requested a hose. He did the digging then poured the water, while the inspector tracked the drainage time.
The soil in my backyard failed the test. The inspector said a new leaching field would require removal of the 24-ft. above-ground pool, along with a big tree. The backyard would have a huge mound with a vent pipe. The estimated cost would be at least $25,000 (equivalent to $50,000 today).
My thought was that, in addition to the cost of a new septic system and leaching field, the backyard would make the property extremely difficult to sell, even at a financial loss. During the recession of the early Nineties, the house had narrowly missed falling into negative equity. For a moment it seemed the best thing to do was get a new septic system, stay in the house, and continue to endure my commute.
But wait, said the inspector. A sewer line would be coming to the street the following year and the town wanted everybody to connect to the new system. Would I be willing to delay putting my house on the market and keep the septic tank pumped out as often as necessary, until the sewer line came to my street?
ABSOLUTELY YES!
He torn up the paperwork for the inspection and said, “I was never here.”
