Check your brains at the door

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As mentioned previously, up in the mountains where I live, there is no mail delivery to street addresses.  We all have PO boxes.

On Friday I went down into the city to renew my driver’s license.  After waiting for over 90 minutes for my number to be called, while subjected to some idiot in the waiting area who was clearly very sick and coughing up a lung, I was informed that I needed proof of my address.  They suggested I go out to my car and get my registration.

I come back with registration in my hand and the guy shakes his and says “no” because it has my PO box on it.  I need something that shows my physical address.  They recommended I bring in my utility bill.

This morning (Monday) I drive back down there with utility bill in hand.  I take a number and wait all over again.  I get called.  The guy asks me for my address and I state it for him and he checks it against the bill.  The bill lists my address as 123 Elm St.  But the address I gave him was 123 West Elm St.  It doesn’t exactly match.  No, the utility bill won’t work.  I’ll need to bring my rental agreement.

I started yelling at the guy.  He was defending himself saying it was federal law.  I told him I didn’t give a shit what fucking law it was.  The point was, I had followed their instructions and brought my utility bill and I had waited in the fucking waiting room two days now.

He then suggested I go over to the county vehicle registration office and see if they would print a registration with my physical address on it.

The county office is less than a mile away.  I took a number and waited. Fortunately, there weren’t many people there.

I told the woman I had a strange request and explained the situation to her.  She was extremely helpful.  She pulled up my registration info and asked me what address I wanted on it.  She changed it, printed the registration, then changed it back to my PO box.  The funny thing is I could have given her any address.  No verification at all.

So back over the driver’s license office.  I handed the guy the registration and walked out of there 10 minutes later with my temporary license.

Since 9/11/2001, this country has lost all sight of the constitution, all sight of logic, added so much needless bureaucracy, and instilled in us that the boogie man is out there to get us.  It’s the Cold War all over again.  There will forever be a war on something.

Below is a link to a well written article about the state of the political circus in this country.  The guy writing claims to be a republican “30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill.”  It’s a very worth while read:  “Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult“.

Thanks to Besty for the link.

Seeburg Jukebox Restoration, Part 4

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It seems like very little forward progress is being made on the jukebox restoration project, despite the time I’m putting into it.

A lot of things are fighting me.  Interestingly, it’s not the old stuff that fighting me, but the new stuff.  I’ve been really disappointed in the quality of reproduction parts from Victory Glass.

  • The side plastics are not cut the same way as the originals, which will cause me to move the side chrome pieces up a little.
  • The speaker grill cloth is not like the original which causes it to show the imperfections in the metal behind it because it’s highly reflective.
  • The blue mirrors have a crinkled reflective background rather than a smooth reflective background.

A “reproduction part” should be a faithful reproduction of the original, not something that only vaguely resembles the original.  Unfortunately, Victory Glass is the only game in town (the world).  And I imagine the demand for reproduction jukebox parts is falling as most of the old jukeboxes have already been found and restored.  When I was restoring my Wurlitzer, I don’t recall these issues.

Another thing that has been fighting me, are the stains, paints and finishes.  The overall quality has really gone down since the last time I restored a jukebox.  A lot of this has to due with environmental regulations that limit the evaporative solvents used in a product.  Nothing is very durable.  Also, I suspect that a lot of it due to the corporate mentality of using cheaper chemicals.  I had to redo a portion of the wooden cabinet twice now.  I’ve redone parts of the metal selector panel nearly 10 times or more; I’ve lost count.

Slowly things are starting to move towards going back together.  I’m glad I took a lot of photos before I took things apart so I can go back and  look at how things go back together.  I wasn’t expecting the cabinet to be apart this long.

A damaged piece of molding that had to be rebuilt.

See all posts related to this jukebox.

Introspection

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I hiked up to Pawnee Pass (elevation 12,700 ft.) this week.  The tundra above tree-line is entering its autumnal phase of dark reds and browns.  Coupled with the rocky aspect of the area, things were not looking very verdant. It was a cool 55 degrees up on the pass.

Niwot Ridge above treeline. The gold colors are a harbinger of autumn.

It’s seems like every year at this time, I become a little bit manic, oscillating between angsty elation and quiet introspection.  The volume control on my dreams is cranked way up. I need some quiet inside my head.

Mother Ptarmigan keeping an eye on me and her three chicks that are nearby. In the winter she will turn all white.

I have a big birthday that ends with a ‘0’ coming up. I know it’s just a number, but I’m starting to feel a generational gap. I used to feel that pretty much anybody over the age of 20 was still in “my group”.  Perhaps being single makes me more delusional in that regard.   These days I’m starting to feel there is a more of a boundary to the lower end of “my group.”

At the top, Lefthand Reservoir. Below that is Long Lake. Unnamed lake at the bottom.

I’m okay with that. It’s just a bit of perspective shift. The views of life from up on the pass were great!