I recently ran across some Youtube videos of Don Rickles on Dean Martin's "Man of the Hour" celebrity roasts. I guess I am a bit young as I never really heard of him (that I recall), but man did I laugh at his roasting of Ronald Reagan (still as governor). I think seeing Reagan almost in tears (and I believe Benny Hill beside him) is just glorious.
Benny Hill had some pretty funny stuff going on. Not to be confused with Benny Hinn, who would be a lot funnier if so many people didn't take him seriously.
Been a while since I did any home renovation. Over the last couple of days I disconnected the switch that controlled one of the outside lights, replaced it and the switch that controlled the other outside light with three-way switches, joined them together with a piece of 14/3 cable and rejigged the far one. The switch in the half that's ripped apart was easy because getting at it is a doddle. The other switch was more troublesome - I had to drill a hole through the floor from underneath in the basement, then feed a cable through and try to fish it out through a 2x4-inch hole. Having tried and failed several times because the cable sagged under its own weight and went sideways instead I finally dug out my fish tape and fed it through remarkably easily. Then it was just about drilling holes from the other side so I could feed a new cable through. One of the outside lights was fed by a couple of nasty old cables that went through a big hole in the outside wall of the house. Whoever installed it clearly felt the need to leave a hole about an inch wide and the full height of a concrete block. It's tucked behind the porch ceiling but even so it's a big hole. So I cut those cables off, poked the ends back through the hole as best I could, and filled the hole with cement. When I fix up this room I'll pull down the ceiling and fix the hole from the inside as well, but for now there's one less hole in the exterior wall, as well as a bit less of the nasty original wiring carrying any current. Now I just need to run the cables to power the outside lights from the one that is currently powered. I plan to replace the outside lights while I'm at it, to use LED-powered lights rather than traditional fittings. While I'm at it I'm going to fit a fan to give us a bit of airflow when we sit outside on the porch. And all of it will be powered by the switch that's right by the outside door we prefer to use, which is good.
Someone asked me about this. Last Sunday's sermon.... if you have 1:12 (that's an hour and twelve minutes) of your life to waste.... or if you are suffering from insomnia... Yes, that is the RabbiKnife in full regalia...
Having run the cable to the switch that proved tricky - the one that required me to drill a hole through the basement ceiling in a very dark and awkward corner and run a fish tape to reach a 2x4-inch hole five feet above me - I remembered that was the job I needed to get done before I could hang wall studs and look at mounting some wall units. So yesterday I got four wall studs screwed into place. Maybe later today I can cut and fit the cross bars that I'll use to support the weight of the wall units. I need to clean the handles of the wall units - they spent the first 20-odd years of life in a kitchen so they are greasy and kinda gross. Hopefully I can just soak them in boiling water for a while and get the grease off that way. The units aren't particularly pretty - they are pretty dated - but they'll work for a basement workshop.
Oh yes. As part of the wiring job I cut off the nasty old wires that once fed an outside light, poked the ends back through into the house as best I could, and then filled a gap the best part of an inch wide and the height of a concrete block, all by reaching through a 4" round hole I drilled into the porch ceiling. Getting the cement in there was interesting - the best I could do was get a brush into place to clean it reasonably well, then get my water spray bottle in there and take a best guess as to where I was spraying it, then mix the cement and press lumps of it into place by hand, hoping I got all of it. As far as I can tell I got all of it but it's far from an ideal way of working. I'd really like to fix it from the inside but that would mean making an unsightly hole in the ceiling of our living room, and it would be a while before I was in a place to patch it up. I don't feel like making any more of my house into a bomb site before getting some more of the existing bomb site turned back into usable living space.
I got three wall units hung on the wall. I made the first one far harder than it needed to be - having spent an age trying to support the thing so I could align the holes in the back with the holes I drilled in the cross-bar I fitted I concluded that the next one could be so much easier. Because the units are so old I don't need to worry about things being pretty, so I could just drill new holes in the backs of the units. Not only did that make the need for cross-pieces go away it also saved me a lot of hassle trying to align things just so. So now my wall units are out of the way in the adjacent room. I have another unit there, which is shorter and wider than the others. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with it.
Flying & airports no longer holding the slightest appeal, I will prepair to drive to the Bay Area Cal & back. Have done it, one way, in 17hrs. For old times sake, maybe.
Fly just enough to be semi-frequent, but not frequently enough to get seat upgrades. My favourite part of COVID: lack of flying.
Haven't had to deal with an airport, TSA security, or being squeezed into an aluminum tube for about three years now. I'm a Silver Medallion member on Delta, but can't say that I've missed it. With the increased security times and frustrations of parking, anymore, if I can drive there in 6-8 hours, I won't even consider a flight, unless there are special circumstances to the contrary.