70 miles, 3 Useless Hours in Traffic

Winter is over. Hottest day of the year so far. Got to spend two hours of a gorgeous weather in traffic. I would otherwise have stayed at home and didn't see it.

This afternoon i went again to the junkyard to try and get a spare wheel/tire. That is exchange the wrong one i got. Couldn't find the receipt (i keep all receipts for all the years i've been here). In there a bearded guy who look familiar let me in to try and find an different one. But for that i had to sign on a sheet of paper with many other signatures.

Couldn't find one in time. Tried to get back home before Angela got here (got a sign at the door, she ignores it). The guy at the counter dragged me into a long conversation when i left. Asked him if he could give me in store credit for the wheel, he said no without receipt. Got behind a slowing moving vehicle on long Sherwood st and got here right after she came. Could have stayed more at the junkyard and measure wheels. Though only when i left i figured how. Wheel diameter is not the biggest diameter you can measure but one inch smaller. Don't know why.

Inside the junkyard. Sexy models walking on alleys while guys where showing in the same ling of sight. I heard a woman yelling in a conversation on the phone or with someone else. "Money first!".

Earlier i spoke with a guy at Les Schwab i knew since 97. He was ambiguous about possibility of swapping the one i got, he said i got to talk to the supervisor, put me through but nobody came at the phone for several minutes so i just hanged up.

So after coming from junkyard i took Angela's car and just went there. Don't know, 20 miles or so. Took the long way on 26. Right when i wanted to get out of the complex, a young woman with a tan Volvo coming from right entered the alley unexpectedly, haven't seen her due to a complex traffic situation. Had to hit brakes to avoid her. Again the extra wide and long windshield pillar played a role. (Not my car in the picture, but similar).

Got there only to see he went home early. Talked to a young guy who ran to my trunk and grabbed one my grocery cardboard boxes (got two to avoid groceries rolling around the trunk) before i had a chance to pull myself the spare wheel to show it to him.

Said they cannot accept those, only if i wanted to buy a full size wheel which would cost me more than on Amazon.

Asked him if they where any red light cameras on 185 where i came from, he said probably not. Got into a long conversation with him about legality of red light cameras. BTW i think they are not legal since only cops can issue tickets, not out of state contractors. I noticed he was talking faster and faster until i could not catch up with him in conversation.

Came back home, i knew at that hour 217 was very slow and i tried 26 and I5. Haven't seen a map of the area in while, have never been on that route at rush hour in the last 10 years maybe, now i realize it was stupid, especially that it was so slow. The only place where it got faster was at the Terwilliger curves, most dangerous curves on I5, and after.

Last night i figured there might be too much oil in the catch can and at bumps and sudden maneuvers it can just splash in the intake pipe. I pulled 2 ounces of oil or more with a 5 dollar garden pump i got from Walmart for this purpose.

Car never drove this smoothly, either because of that or because i torqued the wheels correctly yesterday after the guys at Les Schwab in 217 and 99 missed to torque one nut per each wheel two days ago.

https://goo.gl/maps/dQz3zNKZ9fXWHiiUA

Cadet Heaters and the Mystery of the Howling Dog

I don't believe it exists a company with more health damaging power per size than Cadet Heating Company of Vancouver, WA.

They manufacture heaters mainly for apartments.


Small, cheap, they are great for landlords. Here are some of the health hazards that those heaters pose.

The ones with forced heat, have a hot resistor and a fan. The resistor's temperature is close to red hot. If the fan would stop, the resistor will glow. Made of high chromium and nickel alloys, they in time evaporate (resistor gets visible thinner in areas blown by fan before finally breaking). As a result, you get to breath heavy metals, a situation very similar with when vaping (the resistor, made of a similar alloy, is a consumable). Besides they burn whatever dust gets sucked in by the fan.

Easily installable inside the wall, that is you cut with a box cutter a rectangle in the inner wall  (usually 3/8-1/2 inch soft drywall) next to a stud and nail the d... thing on the stud with a couple of nails using one of the pre existing holes in the thin sheet metal. However the box have like maybe 20 holes for different installation position that remain open. Thus the fan also sucks "air" from inside wall and blow it inside. Could it be mineral insulation breakage or simply dust fallen from the apartment above from the space between wall and floor. Vibration from high rpm unbalanced fan helps shake and brake the insulation inside the wall.


In my case, litter dust.

I was intrigued yesterday by a howling dog in the neighborhood.

I don't use those. I covered the grills with tape. Instead i got some even cheaper heaters from Fry's. Of Italian design, they are the best. Low temperature convection heaters with oil inside and covered with ceramic. I move them around in places where the floor bulges to help dry it faster.

The neighbor upstairs use them. Actually only one. The one in the kitchen. Because of that it runs almost all the time, per thermostat.

Two days ago i saw some imperfection in the way i taped the grill for the heater in the same position or below hers. Small gaps, etc.. I removed the tape to put some new. Done something else in the meantime, forgot about, i re-taped it several hours later.

It was only last night, after more that 24 hours that i realized what happened. Though i covered most virtual nail holes inside the black box, there must be gaps cause without tape the whole place started to stink again like the litter dust that is still abundant in the wall since last summer's neighbors.

Face burning, dog stinking, it must have triggered the senses of the dog in the apartment at the other entrance.

Today i opened the back sliding door again and the dog started to howl again. Tilted the fridge, washed it under, mopped the floor, yada yada.

Modern Interpretation of Wadjet

REX NON POTEST PECCARE

Re-edited April 08 2020.

«In the linear, global, historiographical approach, modern history (the "modern period," the "modern era," "modern times") is the history of the period following post-classical history (in Europe known as the "Middle Ages"), spanning from about 1500 to the present.»

According to the site oldest.org, The United States is the first democracy of the modern world, because it started in 1788.

Many of the principles of the previous oldest democracy according to the same site linked above have been simply transferred. One of them was the principle of sovereign immunity.

As a result some of the attributes and privileges of the King from British Constitution have been transferred to the president. One of them is the power of pardon.

However, presidential elections had to be invented. Due to vastness of country, the great distances and lack of means of communication at the time when they where first held campaigns still last 384 days and they still do so. A very complicated process that few understand. With existent "modern" communications, US election system is now outdated. Nominations are mixed with elections. «The presidential primary elections and caucuses held in the various states, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States form part of the nominating process of candidates for United States presidential elections.»

Some of the issues with elections being such a lengthy process is... well, people can change their mind. After one year, people who voted for one candidate in one of the first states during primaries may wish to have voted with another! Some die, some come to voting age. Primaries not being held simultaneously in different states, results in the one state voting may influence the next one.

But in the end the weirdest part is people who are not registered with the only two parties get to choose from only the two "remaining" candidates after primaries.

In most modern European countries campaigns length varies but do not have an official time frame, state does not get involved in nominations and elections themselves last at most a couple of weeks, in one or two rounds. In the first round participate all candidates that have gathered a number of signatures and if none obtained 50% of the votes the first two go in the second round.

In France by example, primaries are still held within the big parties (to avoid of course having more than one candidate) while anybody can candidate if they can gather more than 500 signatures.

But there are other aspects regarding this lengthy process that imitates... a sports championship? Candidates during debates eliminate each other in debates from state to state. The rise of a new occupations.

The professional candidate. Today's drop of Bernie Sanders reminded of this. He was a candidate for many years. With him, there go away some of the best ideas i ever hard of which some maybe would have been survived in other forms with other candidates. I call him "an issue killer". Here is another example:

"Harold Stassen is perhaps the most famous and distinguished perennial presidential candidate in U.S. history, along with Ralph Nader. A one-time governor of Minnesota and former president of the University of Pennsylvania, he ran for the Republican nomination for president nine times between 1944 and 1992."

The protesting candidate.

"Pat Paulsen, a comedian best known for his appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, first ran for president in 1968 as both a joke and a protest. He ran again in 1972 and in succeeding elections until 1996, one year prior to his death."

Another consequence is US cannot hold what is called in other states "snap elections". Something that by example in the UK has happened 3 times within last 5 years.

The age old questions about American elections. Can a (still sponsored) "independent" candidate win against one backed by one of the two major parties? I don't think it ever happened. The reason. The same one year long campaign. Only those having a big party to back them up can afford the costs to the end. Traveling campaign tradition these days implies huge campaign teams with big expenses. I think, if we say there are 20 candidates with 500 staff on average, there are  up to a total of 100.000 people employed by the elections. To those we need to add local organizers and why not, people employed by media to cover each event.

Writers (not mentioned in the article), communication director. Speeches are read by candidates from prompters. The issue of how their donors and volunteers are going to be of course repaid, if.

"A communications director who oversees the entirety of the campaign's messaging, message planning, media relations, and the whole communications staff."

The alternative, a one month long campaign with debates, with two election rounds within 2 weeks would allow way more candidates to participate in the first round, less one year long distraction and fewer illusions because anybody knew from a long time ago Sanders will not going to go into the finals.

And the issue of the campaigning president. Isn't 384 days campaign too big of a distraction for the current president.

McNeeley Real Estate

Name says a lot. For many years i used to believe it has something to do with kneels. Makes you kneel that is. I know one guy there. Mark Hessel. And there was another woman i spoke with in the agency, short, fat, looking Japanese.

 
In January 2010 we've been kicked from Sussex. There was a guy there Kaleb whom i knew only by seeing him and seeing his name on the mailbox.

At Sussex there was an episode that just came to mind. The 2002 Seattle earthquake. There was a handyman scheduled exactly at that time in the apartment. He went outside to pick something from his Volvo, i went to the door to see what he's doing. Then the earthquake started, a series of ample movement, i stood in the door frame when i heard somebody running on the roof. I looked at the handyman while he was staring the roof.

There was a broken pipe in the wall in there that got never fixed. Every time i was opening the water at the bathroom sink, a pipe was moving in the wall. Probably leaking in the wall and making mold.

While i was there at first i was not aware of the mineral insulation problem. After, or when when i realized the attic was full with loose mineral insulation, i taped the lid to the attic so it won't fall down at least through there.

There was this guy with a red Toyota Supra i guess who looked like a South American drug dealer who was showing from time to time, pretending living there. La Tuta i guess.

Christine McVie, Carole King acting like managers. John Winquist, owner of Regent, the management company i think is a now Hungarian top politician.

Across the street, BNC. A church that looks like an UFO.

And Tom Cruise, the mechanic.

That's all about Sussex, here and now.

So we've been looking for a place to move. Actually applied in two different places. One Saturday in February they called us from Sunflower Apts, i believe we were approved there too but for some reason i can't explain right now none of us wanted to answer the phone. Monday (hopefully i will come with the date, it think it was February 2010) i had appointment with Mark from McNeeley, i went at the apartment in Lake Oswego and signed the papers. As we climbed in the truck to go in Lake Oswego they called us again from Sunflower and told us we were approved but i already made my mind. I was moving to Lake Oswego. Rent was about similar but location, one of the best in Portland area. Not knowing it was actually on the top of an extinct volcano.

Don't know what was wrong with me in that day. I didn't feel the terrible stink in there. Maybe because window was open. Maybe i was hypnotized (to us, Mark appeared like he had severe strabismus (not seen in the picture above). All i saw was the view, the pool (which Mark told us wasn't "ours", the apartment was the only one rented in the building, the others were individually owned condos). The place was a dump. I will select some pictures. The pan of the fridge filled with some sort of glue that resulted from combination of asphalt and silica from roof shingles. Hardwood floor was stinking so bad from being contaminated with that stuff and food that i had to cover it with shelf liners.

The rusty, leaking toilet, discoloration of the vynil.

Everything was leaking under the kitchen sink

And the endless hole.

There are many other things to be said about that place before i start getting to the reason for this post. But before, a word about Apt.9 or next door. There were a couple of celebrities that were showing as Anna, the young single neighbor. One of them was Kelly Clarkson.

And the guy at Apt.2 (two levels down) who looked like Jinichi Kawakami posing for a young single guy who was never cleaning and smoking the stinkiest cigarettes (natural tobaco, not treated for burning faster like most brands). There i found out for the first time of the existence of ninja dojos in the US.

The woman who lived at nr.6 (right under) left after one week (came back at times). I forgot where she said she was moving. The apartment was vacated for a long time, more that a year. Then the short old man with the green van moved in. He lived there for about 6 months. On June 6 2011 i took this picture.
And this one on July 2nd the same year.

I think he left in September that year. That was after they poured asphalt on street. Because the day after he dragged me into a short conversation.

What was about him. As you can see from the first picture he was handling some high tech tools. Sometimes at night i head what i though him was chiseling, maybe the walls.

After him i remember Christina Minnis moving in there. Found the name on a site that gives you names of neighbors and googled and found this.

She was wanted in Texas for some minor offenses and she found shelter here. However, she was living in that dump with a guy (i forgot his name now), black, who was working for a British company, somewhere in Downtown Portland.

She found a job here in Portland at David Killer Bread. I remember the day when Dave Dahl, the owner, was arrested. A few days later they started the bathroom fan downstairs and was on until December 2014.

They had a dog probably she dog, probably sick cause it was actually crying every they after they left in the morning.

Story is much longer. To make it short, today i figured the purpose for that fan to be on for so long was to pump in the floor (or their ceiling) and into our apartment the same stuff they pump in here for more than a year now or since i heard upstairs the same chiseling sound, December 2019 and then i heard the dog making the same crying sound as the one down stairs more than 6 years ago. That is litter dust. When those neighbors moved in spring, i saw the woman carrying a small dog in a pouch at her chest, like a baby. Both dogs were probably sick, probably infected with some parasite that eliminates in the feces and ended up in the dust that gets in here, that gives me the same symptoms and probably.

This summer upstairs moved a woman who looked like a Japanese actress. They also had a dog and they had a portable AC in the kitchen area vibrating the walls and floors and allowing litter dust to get into the walls and from there in here. The current neighbor does not have a dog but a cat and uses only one "in wall" heater, in the dining area or about the same area where the AC was and for that reason (the others are off) it runs a lot, that also vibrates, in about the same area.

Last night i covered more holes and cracks in the laundry closet area because after cleaning for many days it started to stink after i used the washer and drier yesterday which shook the walls and more stuff came in. But i believe somebody was in here last night and took out of the sealed bag an old injector (forgotten from Nissan) that today started to stink to mask the hole story.

Both stinking places are responsible for creating and maintaining my diabetes.

The woman at Apt.9 driving a blue Jeep reminds me now of Christa Jacobson. After her in that apartment moved in a guy who resembled Andrei Postelnicu whom i saw last time the day before he went missing in Florida. In the spring of 2014 i believe Bill Cosby moved in there.

The apartment nr.7, next wall, slightly below, had a chimney. I believe this is where the smoke came from. When i moved in here the smoke didn't get out of our clothes until i washed them at least 5 times each. I believe in there at times was a woman from Hungary, Nora Gorbe.

I once called Lake Oswego Police. The guy who came, Sergeant Sparkle, was looking exactly like the President of Hungary, János Áder.

One more thing. The more i look at Jim McNeeley's face the more i think he looks like the old man who moved lately at Sussex in the apartment under. I don't know, it's been more than ten years. I think it was around 2007 when he came. He parked some sort of old RV vehicle and had it parked there for a long time. Then he got an old car. Lately he put a blanket in kitchen's window and i think he was not airing and cleaning a lot and the whole place started to stink.

To be continued (having a break).