2024 June - 5% diary

It's a diary of my normal life, the 5%. Just posting my replies to the monthly newsletter questions between the family and cousins. Dragon comments are after, "in the record".

David --  

 

My Mom read this story to me all the time. In the record, The Lord of Flames read Ibol the story to help her overcome the trails of this human existence. When I look at the timeline of the story reading I see both of them in a third person perspective.  The reason I do not remember the story was because my soul was still growing. See human development chart.

Again, my Mom read this story to me. In the record, Ibol need to hide the breast of a cow maiden which were larger than the other Venusian. Having pockets made it easy for her to store various items which justified wearing a smock when others wore no clothes. Here again, The Lord of Flame read Ibol the story to help her find a solution to here problem. 

I remember this story clearly. I remember reading the story and see the pictures and studying how it worked.  In the record, I was still a child with an growing soul. I grabbed onto this story and wanted it to be me that saved that ship.

In your younger days, childhood, did you have a favorite story that you loved to re-read or have read to you? Well my Mom says that it was The Little Engine That Could. She said that I had her read it to me many times. Funny thing is that I only sort of remember it. I only sort of remember Katy No-Pocket which is another book I like to have read to me. But the one I remember liking the most was Look Out For Pirates! I love the MacGyver of the deep dive suit to get the wasps to get back their boat from the pirates. (MacGyver is a verb meaning "to make, from, or repair something with what is conveniently on hand.")

Flag day is June 14th do you do anything special on that day? Don't even have a USA flag.

Father’s Day, June 16th, do you have any special stories to share? I told my Kids what I wanted. I am hoping that they will get it for me. We will need to celebrate it on the 15th though. I guess we could do take out from Zachery's Pizza. (If you folks ever come to Berkeley, you must try out Zachery's Pizza.)

First day of summer, June 20th, do anything special on that day? It's my day off. Perhaps I will go for a walk.

People even came the night before to camp out so they could be first in line. Did you ever do that for any event? Nope. I like my bed.

Are you having any trouble getting any special brand you like? I stopped buying eggs because of the cost. So I switched from my egg and potato burrito to a smoked chicken, potato, and stir fried green beans and onions. Most delicious.

Holiday countdown to Independence Day? I am more interested in the 4th of July, which is 27 days away from this typing. The 4th lands on a Friday. So I am not sure what day the Hallsteds are going to do the 4th on. Ben, Jon and I will be coming up to Sacramento for the fun and B-day.

And as always, how is your life going and any special travel plans? Three stories: 1. Somehow I paid 2024 taxes with the 2023 tax money. I am not sure how I did that, but now I have interest and penalties to pay. So I called them up to see what I could get cleared up. It took me a half hour to figure out how to talk to someone from the IRS to explain that I did a mistake. Then another 2.5 hours on the phone while they moved my 2024 money to the 2023 payment. I have also petitioned to have the penalties erased. So, maybe it will be cleared before the June 24 due date? It was not so bad waiting on the phone because I was working on the computer while it happened. 

2. Time for a story about a nightmare delivery. So, I ordered a rebar bending tool from Home Depot. I often have it free delivered due to the cost of gas and Home Depot is warehousing many of their tools in a central location. The tool is in Raleigh, NC, on May 21st, which is okay. The tool finally arrived at San Pablo which is north of Berkeley. Then it was sent to Oakland, which is south of Berkeley. I am thinking, "What is going on?". All of a sudden, it is shipped to central CA to Lathrop. I am thinking that maybe they are centralizing the shipment with other stuff that is now in Lathrop. Then I get this email that says it is delivered. Ben and I look everywhere and cannot find it at the house. I called them up, but in looking at the delivery email I see that it was delivered to 912 Shattuck in Emeryville which does not exist. When I purchased the tool, I used the pre-existing shipping address which is Berkeley. Both the Home Depot person and I do not understand what happened, so I ordered the tool again but to the correct address. Then a thought comes to me that no human could screw that delivery up that bad. So I type on Google, "does Home Depot rely on AI for shipping and handling". Yes! See pic. AI can only do what it is programmed to do. All a human would have done was checked previous orders for the correct address, but not an AI. As for how Emeryville got into the shipping address, I do not know. 

3. Last news letter I added a retaining wall at the bottom of your fence. It was genius to do that. After seeing the wall I said to Ben, "I am putting a garden in." Here are the steps to putting the fence garden in: Dig out extra gravel. Rubberized wall. Cut fabric to extra long. Rubberized the fabric to the wall. Go to Berkeley Marina to pick up free soil from the City. Add dirt to weigh down fabric. Cut fabric to wood steps. Stainless Steel staple fabric to wood. Cut off extra fabric. Cut wood 1x2 furring to cover fabric end. Drill out nail holes in furring to avoid wood splitting. Use 2" roof nails to nail furring. Pressure treated the furring 2 times. Route a 45 degree bevel furring edge, see video below.

Black caulk gap between furring and wood. Pressure treated it all again. Time to make an inexpensive trellis with 1" roofing nails and #30 twine. Tie a knot around a nail. Hammer nail into top fence rail. Start a nail in the bottom rail. Wrap twine around the nail three times and pull tight. Hammer bottom nail. Extend twine until it is several inches in the dirt. Cut twine. Repeat stringing every 3rd picket. Fill with dirt. Transplant all the free nasturtium from the side yard into the planter. Water daily for a week. Have the deer walk up and down the garden to tamp the soil down. Done. Yeah I keep seeing deer tracks in the garden. I am okay with it. I expect the deer to eat the nasturtium.

Well, that is it from me.
Stay safe and cool everyone.