Day 522/67 = 8/21/21
The new cases curve has finally reversed. And pretty dramatically. Hospitalizations are still going up, but that’s to be expected. I’m actually thinking I may drop back to a single mask for the final Stern Grove concert.
But that’s not why I’m writing: I am still reviewing my old blog posts and came to another assessment of Japanese ship building decisions leading up to WW2. Drachinifel has also talked about this in a Drydock episode or three. Latest thought: what about a scaled up Tone class ship instead of the Yamatas? Not sure about the actual gun size, but there would be six grouped in three twin turrets with a small citadel. The rear would be AAA and float planes. The speed would be at least equal to the Kongos. The protection would be better than the Kongos. It would have torpedo tubes deep in the hull. It would be hard to argue for anything below 15”, but 16” would probably make it too large a ship. You probably couldn’t get double the ships, but you probably could have had three by the start of the war and maybe one or two more during the course of the war.
Now that I think of it, if you really do this knowing what the war will be like, you could argue for going with a well protected 12” armed ship -- the ship the USN thought the Japanese were building and built the Alaska’s in response. So a ship between the Tone and the Kongo. Smaller but still powerful guns. Similar speed. Better protection. Full load of torpedoes. These ships would have been perfect for the Solomons and for carrier escort duty. And they would have saved fuel oil over the Kongos in those roles. So if a ship like this could have been built on 20,000 ton displacement, then you might well have had four of them by the end of 1942 and six by the end of 1943. Maybe.
Day 530/75
The final Stern Grove Festival concert (Tower of Power) had to be cancelled after a burst water main flooded the venue bringing down some trees and doing extensive damage. They will be lucky to have everything repaired for the 2022 Festival season. I’m already signed up for a number of events in September, so this is not the end of my greening work, but it was significant as the resumption of my greening work after the unprecedented pandemic break, I was actually looking forward to that final concert. I’ve yet to work a full eight hour shift, but that’s coming up soon. We will see how I hold up. For the businesses' sake, I’m glad to see so many events are happening. Most of them have been up north and I haven’t worked them. I still think these gatherings are a little nuts, but at least it’s outdoors.
At the moment it looks like I could end up making about half my usual greening income this year, which would be nice. More than I expected to make this year.
Day 545/90
Now I feel bad about something beyond being slow to continue this blog. The neighborhood restaurant that contributed the most to making last year tolerable, was Beyond Burma. While their tea leaf salad was disappointing, everything else was excellent and I went there about once a month and picked up food for four or five meals. Post-vax, when I could move around more, I returned to my previous favorite Burmese restaurant (with the amazing tea leaf salad). I just walked past Beyond Burma and they are closed and the room emptied out. They had spent most of the pandemic redecorating. I just checked my records, and I hadn’t given them any business in five months. I didn’t even get a chance to say thanks, and goodbye.
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