TubaOrNotTuba

While watching a video this morning I came across a new word: quintal. A unit of measure no longer ordinarily found that was common when people were salting fish. I have only one memory of salt fish. Many years ago a coworker gave me a gift more to test if I was too stupid to know what to do with it. This offering came with instructions. Soak, rinse, repeat period. After that I was on my own. I understood what I had in hand, salt cod, and with potatoes, I was able to prepare a meal and then the next day report that it had been very good. Anyhow, the video I watched today was of an old fisherman who talked about the days when he would quote in his story fish by hand line all day and then come back and spend the night in the hold of the ship splitting his catch and salting it. This would go on for days. Turns out that there’s not much salt fish around anymore and if you did have a quintal you could sell it easily. In boutique shops. A delicacy for many. I think I’ll stick with my current diet. Apparently too much salt is bad for you. The idea of spending all night cutting fish and storing it to be dried seems like more work than any of us want to do now. But, we now have refrigerators. As someone else might say count your blessings. I’ve only seen cod drying on the flakes one time. Not around here. We used to catch enough fish like that to do a meal or two but no large productions. We left that to folks in other provinces. We had potatoes and they needed our food as much as we needed theirs. Happily, potatoes took little preparation for storage. Just some big bags and a cool cellar. Also, I have never had to measure any food in quantities of 100 kilos at a time.

One of the cell phone companies used to have a series of ads where the tagline was can you hear me now. It was fun because we could all imagine how you end up in such a situation. Well I am now trying something similar. Not with cell phones but with walkie talkies. Three of them arrived yesterday and we do not know how long the batteries will last. We are now doing this simple things. One person drives up and down the road talking at intervals saying can you hear me now. Well I can tell you with a walkie-talkie is that the reception varies constantly. Each time you go around a curve or down a hill things will change. But that has little to do with battery life. Instead we will try to figure out whether or not the batteries under charge last for enough time for us to use the radios while traveling. The kind of thing where one person goes into a mall and talks to the other. This is not military discipline. What I do know is that having a radio can be a lifesaver in certain conditions and it can also be a way to raise your aggravation level two extraordinary points. Am I not hearing the other radio because the battery has gone down or because the person is actually out of range. Something you learn from experience. When I first started playing with radios we did very little point to point work. Usually we had a repeater in the middle and that changes the whole game. If I was more concerned I could get a small repeater going here but that would serve little once we started traveling. So we’ll go with our tests that are far from being scientific but that will give us a baseline for saying whether or not we can go beyond the limit of the property while talking to the other. Just to note our property is not large. For those of you who say why don’t you just get a cell phone the answer is simple have you looked at cell phone charges recently. I am not rich enough for that. I really shouldn’t talk about cell phones because that too, is far from being constant. I live a long way from that tower and if I turn my back the cell phone reception can go away. I no longer want to climb trees. But we shall see or hear. And perhaps by the time summer arrives we will have a system in place that makes sense to us.

We returned from our road trip with some issues to face period. A whole house full actually. The floor is cool. Not cold because that would be exceptional but cool. And so we did the only thing we did could do we called someone who knew how to fix it. Called this morning by breakfast and they were here just after lunch. With all the necessary pieces. And now the floors are getting warm again and I can move on to other things. It did not require much effort on my part I have to admit. As well we have received a small box of radios. Not the kind that bring you tunes but the kind that you carry around with you and talk to friends with. We just have to wait for the batteries to charge. There were some initial tests come by someone driving up the road in my listing and for the first few minutes we could hear each other fine but then the battery from the factory went to zero and now we’ll do test tomorrow. I have had small handheld radios before and these seem to be well made. At a reasonable price unlike some of my others. A step forward towards the next step if you understand. It was fun to see the guys that came this afternoon to work on the floor. At least one of them has been here before it was good to show him how things have evolved since last visit. We’re lucky because locally, there are some very qualified people who undertakes things like repairs to cold floors. On the same day. Imagine for someone in the big city getting repairmen in can take a long time. Enough to make you want to learn how to do it yourself. Mind you that’s not the only reason but most of us aren’t willing to take on a career in plumbing or electricity. A shadow to my kids.

All that is really needed is a seat in the lobby. Near the reception desk. That is where all the answers will be found. For example this morning we had no coffee. A rare thing in a large hotel. But then, later in the afternoon I learned that the water softener had broken. Turn the coffee they did make into something salty. I would have used fresh water if I had been asked. I was there for most of the afternoon and after the first few minutes no one noticed me I was just that little old man sitting on the couch quietly. And so I did I stayed put and waited to see what else goes on in a lobby. Did you know that hotel has different rooms for everything. And that they have a different price for those rooms. No wonder it takes so many people around the desk. Basic accounting. I learned that if we wanted to stay for another couple of days we would not have been able because they were down to nothing left except the bridal suite. That did not interest me much. Our trip in the area was done and within hours we were back home. Good weather all the way except for darkness. I know darkness is not weather but when there’s nothing else going on that’s all you notice. And by the time we got home and unpacked and got in the house it was still dark. We’re getting very good at this kind of thing. Still have to deal with some minor problems. The floors are still cold. Outside there’s still work to be done only under the house but that’s the materials problem. I’ll just go to bed tonight and let that be something to think about in the morning.

We will be spending a second night here in the motel. I could say it’s because of the breakfast that was eggs and bacon but it also goes to the rules of a corporate day. The RV is in for service and once the day ends for them they go home while we wait. No big deal. Vacation if you will. I have Wi-Fi and TV and no need to get wet if it decides to rain so all is good. Today is budgetary at the federal level. I remain amazed by the budget process. We have been getting leaks all week long telling us what the government would like to do and how many billions of dollars will have to be spent. This is just a set of promises. It must then be voted upon end and if it passes we go on to negotiations and what we actually will spend the money for. I suppose the budget process works like that for most corporations. For us on the outside it’s nothing more than a shopping list. If the government decides to buy a bunch of ships or planes or whatever we all just look on much like puppies at a feast. A whole different world if you will. I know, that is unreal. No one will ever ask us to pay up. It does provide months and months of talking points for those in the political class. And if they put up a big sign by the side of the road saying that we have now over spent all our money for the next 10 generations who will know the difference. After all for as long as there have been governments there have been budgets and rarely has a government ever shown they can spend less than it once. Just a process. I will not be turning on the TV to watch the rhetoric. All that I need to know will be reported in due time. Let me rephrase that all that I am permitted to know because government spending like everything else is shrouded in secrecy.

Dorothy said it best. We’re not in Kansas anymore. At least I am not. This was a road trip day and now I am over in the next province in a motel trying to decide whether or not I can do the blog with the sound of the bathroom fan in the background. Probably. The whole trip went without any real measure. I spent the whole time wondering where I was because I could not read any of the signs. There was local radio but they also managed to forget to give the towns names. And so we did the whole afternoon and then arrived in a small town just in time for supper. Mine involved brisket so it was good. I do take measure or issue with the music though this is another one of those areas that has hardwired their souls to Nashville. The music is fine but you could cut the accent with a knife stir it around put it back on the slice of bread and no one would be any of the wiser. I wonder why they do that. I mean, I listen to music from all over the world and Nashville is the only place that puts on a fake accent for every song they do. I’ve taken the time to listen to some local TV. They don’t talk like that. I’ve listened to some radio and they don’t talk like that. It’s only in the musical studio. Do they get paid by the syllable? Oh well, by the time I figured it at all, time to move on to something else. Tomorrow we have some repairs set scheduled on the RV and so given the way things work I will spend the morning here on the free Wi-Fi waiting for the day to finish. No need to go and sit in the garage. Did I notice anything along the way? No, nothing other than the fact that the traffic goes from nothing to heavy just like that. I will probably sleep very well tonight because I was up early and the usual dose of coffee was missing from my diet. One of the downsides of travel.

Being a consumer is really really tough. Not only do we have a myriad of choices but we have an equally large number of people out to take our money. Nothing for something. I watched a national show dealing with ticket sales. Not because I want to buy tickets or have any intention of doing so because I’m always curious. How many ways can you empty someone else’s pocket. And believe me the large companies have it all figured out. We make laws calling them anti trust but in reality if you are there first with a good idea to take someone else’s money, the chances of the law ever stopping you, are low. When the venue and the contracts and the cost of tickets are all set by someone else, you as a consumer can only sit back and hope to watch. That expression Nosebleed seats? It’s real. In the larger venues they will sell you something close to the roof and then let you pretend you saw what was going on down below. Meanwhile down below, those are platinum prices. Let that mean what it will. Certain parts of the world have put into place legislation to protect the buyer but in certain other parts of the world the seller owns the government. Rather obvious when you check on it. No rules are too big to not be broken. You may guess that I am not in the part of the world where going off to a ticket site and spending $1000 for a couple of hours with thousands of others is something that happens often. I am not in the market and it has been reinforced by watching consumer programs. I also learned that sites where you can buy at a bargain cost open box or returned goods, supposedly being sold by large companies are often nothing more than a joke web pages created by companies to sell goods that are inexpensive to produce. Before you drop your money try to get your hands on the object. It’s the weekend forgive me if I seem a little anxious.

How many gadgets do you need in your life? Let me narrow that down. How many gadgets do you need in your kitchen? Let me narrow that down how many gadgets do you need in your refrigerator? Let’s try this one again. If you go out to buy eggs how many do you buy at a time? Unless you run a kitchen the odds that you will buy dozens and dozens at a time is probably very low. For some reason the industry has standardized on a dozen as a great number for the kitchen. Even though after one meal you’ve already reduced that amount to probably half. So let’s imagine you’re trying to store eggs in your refrigerator period. How many eggs do you want to keep around. Probably depends on your diet and your willingness to feed the fox is. Please don’t snicker there are people that feed foxes. And I imagine raccoons without knowing it. Assume that you have a dozen eggs and you buy a container to keep those eggs safe in your refrigerator. The next question is for how long. If you’re treating this smartly you probably never have a dozen eggs on hand for more than one day at a time the number goes down and down until you finally go to the store and buy more. I have never tried to keep hands because that strikes me as way too much work. Although the foxes might like the idea. But assuming you’re in your travel trailer and you have a dozen eggs. What is the first thing you should do? I suggest making an omelet. Reducing the number of eggs so that you can store the rest easily and minimize breakage. For those of you who are unfamiliar raw eggs are messy. And if you decide to hard boil them first then you start trying to decide how you tell which ones are uncooked. I know, there are tricks. I hope they’ve given you some food for thought. If you bring home a dozen eggs start by cooking some because it doesn’t is too many at a time. And what about those stores that will sell you eggs by the unit? That’s just another way of keeping their problem out of your home temporarily.

As we slowly shuffled from room to room we kept our feet close to the floor. A particular dance peculiar to see but necessary in this house because we have radiant floors. And the real question today was whether or not the temperature had dropped inside or out. If we were more scientific we would have thermometers and we do but each one gives a different reading and now all we can do is watch for changes. The invisible comfort of water beneath our feet leaves more questions than answers. Is the system working as it should. We have done this before. Several years ago a circulating pump failed and the only reason we knew was that they were cold spots. Many cold spots. Today we’re not at that decision point. Should we call in the HV AC technicians? Not yet wait until next week. Meanwhile you do realize you’re dealing with older people. We are more fragile. Sensitive to temperature changes. Hence the shuffle in bare feet. Face it there is nothing logical in play right now. Just sensations. At least spring is here and the odds of the house freezing solid are taken off the calculation table. No sense of danger. I feel like getting back under the covers I’m waiting for the afternoon. What is odd about our heating system is that there are places that are warmer than others. Near the counter walls or by the refrigerator. Hard to see why a system being heated from a central system would have such variations. I know, minor variations. A degree or two at a time. Just like the ones shown on our multiple thermometers. We really should do something about that. Set up a system where we can actually know if something has changed. I did go downstairs and touch the heating manifold but it was hot and I’m less sensitive to such things. At least there is no big storm on the way. The risks of living in the north. Meanwhile there’s lots of coffee because we know our priorities.

Do you remember that first aid kit that your mother kept around the house. The one with band aids and that whole spool of salve and just things that you didn’t ever think you use. Well it turns out that for doctors there’s a whole other level. They actually make specialized first aid kits for EMS. Enough equipment to do roadside surgery. I find that so interesting because it is so far outside my level of training. I mean I can apply a Band-Aid with the best of them but please do not ask me to fix your broken leg and stop the bleeding as we sit beside your car. Not going to happen. Call someone else in emergency. What brought this to the front was an ad in a video. I know I should pay for ad free video but I’m too cheap. This was a medical video with inserted ads for things that a doctor might want. Magical. I worked with computers and we had none of those things even though it would have been nice to have. Imagine a little kit with an extra motherboard. Or something to fix a broken hard drive. Or even spare power supply. That would have been helpful where I worked. Instead I had an inventory of parts from old machines. I wish I could include a photo because my cubicle was filled to the level of my shoulders. I would arrive in the morning insert myself into my chair and then hope that nothing fell on me during the work day. In a better world we would have had a storage space for such things but we didn’t so when something was no longer of primary use it went to the secondary storage under my desk. I could probably have made a working machine with that pile of parts but I never did. Budgets were good and if we needed something there was a number you could call and the courier would drop it off at the front door. However unlike people who sell me appliances in my home those delivery people never took away the old stuff. It just accumulated until someday on a spring afternoon I would be told to move what I could out to the back door to go to I assume a landfill. Not the best model for the environment but you do what you do. That’s why knowing the doctors can have specialized first aid kits is inspiring. Someone is actually thinking outside the box on this one. Just for the record I cannot afford to buy one of those kits. You have to have a salary at a doctor’s level. But if I ever make a movie I will try to get one of those in the background shots at least. And with that I’m going to turn this back to a text in waiting. The way I handle most days.