Crazy Times

July!  It's  been less hot than the usual Julys of late, but still too hot for insects.  So that explains why this venue is not featuring insects.  We don't have many.  Luckily,  sak collecting is one hobby that's independent of weather conditions.  An average person can collect saks in any weather almost, except maybe tornadoes. Which is good because a hobby is way better to spend time on than say,  watching TV news.  Ugh.  This morning Crumby accidentally watched some of the fish in a barrel scenario in Palestine.  Ugh.

So after that gusdusting experience,  Little Beaver, I mean Crumby decided to figure out where the saks that get confiscated at the airport get vended.  Turns out they get vended at a State Surplus Store located on Bolm Road.  And these days, that store on Bolm Road is easily accessible from Stinky Valley.  Not that the trip over isn't perilous in spite of being easily accessible.   It is.  Just less perilous than formerly.

Having gone on a perilous trip Crumby was determined to bring home a sak or two. Here those are:  a Vic Signature Lite and a Minichamp II.  The price was $8.66 including tax.  What a great hobby!

A Hobby Bonanza or Cornucopia

Crumby's sedentary hobby, sak collecting,  took a new direction when Crumby realized that the designs of the many sak tools have evolved or changed over the course of a few decades.  Like for example the tools on this particular 1968-1973 Spartan are way devolved compared to the modern equivalents.  Some might opine, devolved for the better.  Here's why!

The old sak is 6g heftier at 65g than its descendant. The main blade is thicker or fatter.  The bottle opener features a wire stripper.  The can opener has a tang stamp.  The groovy corkscrew makes five revolutions, not four.  And the small blade is a totally different shape.  Course the reamer is the one without the sewing eye, but Crumby already had that iteration in his collection.

So this one Spartan features five new tools for Crumby's collection, and incredible bang for the buck.  Hmm. Crumby wishes he hadn't broached that topic, bang for bucks.  Cause from now on,  the acquisition of more old or even older tool iterations  is liable to have the fixed income ovate in a poor house.

Lazy Boy Technology

This picture illustrates what Crumby can do these days combining recent technological acquisitions with his trusty Lazy Boy recliner.  That's right.   Crumby can now edit pictures of bugs while he simultaneously watches important TV shows like Le Tour de France;  all from his Lazy Boy recliner.

The featured items are a Chromebook with slots for USB and a SD card.  At this nonce,  Crumby has an SD card plugged in which holds the featured picture of the technology, a new Victorinox USB slim flash which holds the picture of an eastern amberwing, and a USB mouse, totally necessary for photo editing because the track pad on the Dell totally sucks.  The free photo editor is Pixlr.  It's pretty good.

Important Goal Reached

Some struggle all their miserable lives, never reaching any goals.  Not so Crumby.  Like Crumby has already met his important goal of receiving a Social Security check.  He achieved that goal a while back.  No what that means?  Ha!  In  the interim since the first check, those checks have just kept on coming.  Ha!

Yet today Crumby is celebrating the arrival of the final tool needed to complete his Wenger sak tool collection.  Yes.  Crumby now possesses or hoards a telescoping pointer tool housed in a Wenger Manager.  So now Crumby has all the Wenger tools consistent with the Crumby Ovate Sak Tool Collection Guidelines (COSTCG).  Ah!

The Wenger Manager is an 85mm knife weighing 130g.  Among the tools contributing to the bulk is the almost useless Wenger magnifying glass.  The featured telescoping pointer is 270mm long when fully aroused.

Crumby's Most Sedentary Hobby

Just the other day we were discussing how nice the weather had been up to that particular point in time.  Yet, as anyone with a lick of sense knows, you should never speak good of the weather in these parts. Cause, it will turn on ye.  Turn on a dime.

That's right.  The weather is  too hot fer Jesus all of a sudden.  There he is, fetched up next to the AC in his undears.

And Crumby needs to stay in too, with his sak collection where it's cool.  See below how Crumby has fixed up a cliff dwelling or housing project for his collection of saks; many Swiss and one Spanish army knife.

Sometimes the Swiss can be heard calling to one another as they play simple games.  "Hans!  Toss me the cabbage.  I'm open."

Out front of the housing project are Crumby's latest acquisitions.  On the left is a Victorinox Voyager featuring an alarm clock built in.  On the right is a Wenger Highlander, an elegant pocket knife.

The project building blocks were pre-fabricated and transported to these shores courtesy of the People's Republic.

Alas, Crumby has almost run out of saks to collect;  those that meet his hobby guidelines.   Let's recall those guidelines we are now discussing.  The sak must contain an interesting tool or tool configuration and the tool or tool configuration must be one that Crumby would actually use, at least theoretically.

A discontinued, supposedly rare, sak that Crumby is considering for his nice collection is the Victorinox Whistle.  The Victorinox Whistle features a whistle built in to a scale or handle.  The other tools,  small knife, scissors and nail file are mostly for nail maintenance.  So,  the guidelines are met.  All except that Crumby would need to put the handle of his nail maintenance tool in his mouth to blow the whistle.  Hmm.

Argia sedula

The CB is a ways from any standing water.  So Crumby is always surprised when a new damselfly species turns up.  Here's our fourth recorded species.  Or maybe fifth.  Pretty.

Microstylum Maybe

Having  300+ native plant species at the CB is good, just for all the interesting plant species diversity.  But maybe, the plant species diversity also boosts insect diversity which is also good.  Good!

Good diversity at home, keeps Crumby from wandering the dangerous environs outside the CB, searching for this or that.  But danger aside, what's more evil than traveling a long boring way, burning up a bunch  of expensive fossil fuel,  and then not finding what you were after in the first place.  Evil!

However,  evil may afflict an average Ovate at home, also.  This picture is of a Microstylum maybe.  Alas, right after this picture was took,  the Microstylum maybe took off.  And hasn't been seen since.  Mercy!