Send in the clowns..... They're already here.....

Oh No!!!!!

Bad news on the horizon guys, get youseff ready!!!!!

 

I got a good belly laugh just now.

Vox dot com said the gas stations will have to adapt or face death due to EV's.

My first thought was, they'll die with the economy any way, so what?

 

***(Strike through is an error, see updated 4-18 post)***

 

My second thought was, there will have to be seventy eleven different charging adaptors at every location, cause you just know, Tesla won't interface with Ferd, Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Toyota...... yadda yaddda..... Oh, and the small ones will have 30Amp NEMA 4 pin twist locks while the bigger trucks will require 200Amp Amphenols... polarized dontcha know.  AND AND there is no way you could put the Leaf charger on a circuit with a Mack Daddy Dieseless cargo transporter....  Circuit breakers are sized for the load, thank you NEC.

And, no electricity anyway....  Or batteries.....

Hey, what about the tire shortage?  Do EV's use those?  I think they float around on blue hazy ozone... right?

They are smoking so much dope on the ecology activist front there isn't enough for stoners....

Scruel Time 

At my old scruel, we had tons of kids of migrant workers.  Cotton was king back then.  And farm hands were everywhere.  The last days of big family farms, medium sized families, and loads of menial laborers with big families living hand to mouth. Now, they are almost all either corporate owned or layout ground that farmers get paid not to farm.  

 

I didn't know what "migrant worker" meant.  First day in the new school, a counsellor caught me in the hallway.  "Mr. STxAR.  I see you are a transfer student from Lubbock.  I have some questions for you.  Are you the son of migrant workers?"  "No ma'am.  My mom works for the Lubbock ISD, and dad is a Texas peace officer."  "Oh, well, since you are new this year, I'm gonna mark you down as a migrant...."  "I AIN'T NO MY-GRUNT. I was born just north of here and lived in Lubbock county my whole life.  You better call my folks before you mess up."  And, as they say, the rest was history.  I had five difficult years in that hole.  Migrant kids moved so much, they needed remedial everything.  The government had special extra money for school districts if they could put you in that classification.  

 

The others were rich farmer kids.  Just a few of us had a real middle class type life.

Several of those migrant kids and some of the less capable were shunted post haste into vocational programs.  I had a neighbor boy back then that went to barber college at 14.  He didn't even go to school after 16, worked in his dad's barbershop full time.  He graduated on time.  The other option was a varied class on restaurant operation, sewing, and I don't know what else.  In high school, I didn't even know it existed.  There were 52 in our graduating class.  I don't know how I didn't know about that course of study.  

FFA was there to give you some basic skills for farm life.  Vocational agriculture they called it. But it was a graded class, in the normal rota of elective class we could take.  No vocational track kids were in there.  So the kids most likely to need it couldn't get it.  Government education, what a country.  But I really enjoyed it.  Livestock, farm methods, wiring, welding, cutting torch..ing?  All kinds projects to do.  Wood working, too.  

 

First freshman year project

I gave it to mom.  She went on ahead in 94.  Dad caught up to her in 06.  I got it sometime in betwixt.  It's a bit dirty and the finish is worn.  Look at those screw heads.  I didn't know to line them up.  Mr. R taught me that.  He had some craftsman in him.  We all made these in that class.  Hand rubbed finish.  When it was brand new, you could see into the grain.  I was mesmerized by that.  One of those legs took on a little cup, and when I seated the bottom shelf into the dado, it cracked.  I didn't change it.  Still there to the right of that knot... still remember the sinking feeling, then realizing, it wasn't going to be a problem.  It was finished with a clear varnish.  But that color!!  I love the way pine pumpkins out over time.  Orange wood fills my sails....

Plasma Table

The table is up and running.  The software is fairly easy to manipulate.  This thing for a gate is nearly four feet across.  Old Timer Stockman for scale.  Took about five minutes to burn that out.  Need anything cut?  Steel is outrageous in price now.  Perfect time to stock up!!

Lathe

Mission creep is a booger.  I got the VFD mounted in it's spot.  But I needed to upgrade the wiring to it.  I wanted a fuse at least, oh and a contactor!! yeah!  Wait, that means wiring and buttons, and a pot for the rpm adjustment to the VFD...  Power AND control voltages??  In the same chase, no, crosstalk is bad.  Induced voltage and all that..... crap... Dang it.   Switch has a busted button, I have a start switch (guarded type), but the off needs a mushroom head.  What about an E-Stop?  Load resistor.... 100 bucks?!?!?!??!  REALLY????  How about...... and then.....  (loud autoplay link) "I'm sorry but the project you reached has exceeded its budget, please try your call later".  I hope to have some time after dancing to Uncle Sugar's demands for more mattress stuffing.  Baby steps this time.  Just a fuse at first....