It has been a while.
Last year was rough.... rough as a cob.
There is a move coming up and a bit of a gap until I can get the shop back up to speed. I'm working on a plan to rent the old house for a bit to have the shop down for the shortest amount of time.
More To Follow.
I've been running like an headless chicken, but not much seems to be getting done. I'm working to get my house fit for human habitation. I finally got the "roundtuit", I guess. I'm rearranging to make it my home. Now that there is no female in the cottage, I figure it outta fit me. I've gotten rid of most of the old interior decorator's work.
I think I finally found an accurate representation of my work here at home.
Enjoy!
Had too much family drama. Something had to give, and this blog was among the set asides. Hopefully, I'm rested and on my way back to some version of normalcy.
I read something at Peter Grant's place, and it reminded me of the only animal I'd consider hunting in Africa.
Happy Saturday!
It was strange to see Dad's Deadpool go dark. Another one headed off to his reward. He was a daily read for me. And I will miss him.
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| To the Memory of The Man |
I do like Rex Allen. He has a clear voice.
Useful.....
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Family member is doing better, but I was worn to a nub from all the watchfulness and work to keep them safe from themselves.
Then, I started to sag. Sneezing, the constant flop of temperature, humidity and barometric pressure was starting a packed sinus that would wind up in an infection. It was dragging me under....
THEN.... my sister told me about something she made. She brought a tiny bit by the house and I tried it.
Play by play:
1 - tasted really good, and felt good the second I swished it around in my mouth.
2 - felt good when it hit my stomach. An odd feeling to say the least
3 - was kind of rude, in that it pushed everything ahead of it out, mo ricky tick.
4 - sinus pressure began to decrease, and drainage picked up.
5 - Overnight, sinuses started to work like normal. Lots of leftovers in the morning kleenex, but I could smell again!
6 - No sneezing, little coughing, and the cough is more productive than it has been since July 2021. What?!?!?!?
7 - You gotta try this stuff.
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| Elderberry Syrup |
Life is moving quick. Got a major hurdle over with, and now comes the last sprint to the finish line. Got certified copies of the decree, now I have to do the leg work (hey, sprint, leg work... ) to get all the things done that have been ordered done.
I have always been a frustrated perfectionist. I want to do things to the standard I know I can achieve. But that usually holds me back, because I may need parts, information or something to make it "perfect". And that holds everything up. It's been that way as long as I can remember. Frustrating.
Progress not perfection is the new motto. I can do a lot with what I have on hand now. So, I'm getting after it.
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| west bound on New Year's eve out near Guthrie, TX |
There is a lot of sand in the air right now. Family member is having issues. It's unfortunate because it appears to be worsening. Not much can be done, they only receive help involuntarily.
Life can really suck at times.
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| New Year's Eve 2022, Lubbock County |
But there is beauty to behold. I'm trying hard to keep my eyes on it. And hope springs eternal, when your hope is on the right Person.
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| Gravity storage facility. Man, that's tons of iron. Me want! |
It after near being time to be in the shop, and I'm just flat busted on energy. Family issues keep pulling all the oomph out.
Progress..... not perfection.
One step, then another.
I was eating Chinese tonight. The fortune cookie was...... illuminating.
THAT is pretty wise. I don't normally see that type of content in a cookie. I have been way out of my comfort zone this last week. I don't really understand why this is happening, but there are always things to be learned... if you have an open mind... Just not too open. Brains on the floor aren't pretty.
Got a fambly member that is getting ready to mark another circuit around el Sol. I decided to make a little fixture for their hobby.
It'll be my riff on a mini pallet. And it's a good first run for making one of my own.
Part one - squaring the stock.
Part two - finding the edges and adding the tapped holes.
I got a bit worn out today, just doing the normal things. Cold front is coming, and that is a hard thing for my noggin. After it passes tomorrow, I'll be better.
I have a confession to make. I do my best to do everything correctly, because I seldom get away with anything. If you can drive 90 down the sidewalk and have done since Methuselah was a pup, the first time I try it, the drones are up, and forty eleven troopers are waiting for me in my own glovebox.
I traded for a trailer a while back. Got it from the welder I was helping out a year or so ago. Did you know that Lincoln made a trailer?? Yeah, I didn't either. Traded a couple old things I wasn't using for this rig.
I can't pull it without supporting the local government via it's revenue officers, so I needed to register it.
Here are the steps you take for an out of state trailer, with a VIN, that has never been licensed.... anywhere. Per the STATE OF TEXAS DMV:
1 - Evidence of Ownership- I have a signed bill of sale and a copy of the owner's DL
2 - VTR-141 Trailer Statement of Fact - I read the definition of a trailer and this IS one. Signed and dated
3 - Weight Certificate - 20 bucks at the local feed store, a must for an out of state trailer without a title, empty weight 1100 lbs.
4 - VTR-68-A - Trained Law Enforcement officer runs the VIN to make sure there aren't any warrants. No charge, but if it comes back with a warrant, it's impounded. So don't be an idiot and put your welder on it BEFORE you take it. (Like I did, boy was I lucky)
5 - VTR-270 - VIN Certification - I found a tag and this is the number on it. Signed and dated.
6 - VTR-130U - Title Application. Registration only checked. Signed and dated.
6 - Take the info to the Tax Office, pay the money and get your registration and tag
But WAIT! Can the local Tax Office allow you to do this without putting their own rules and regs on it? Oh heck no. Even the TEXAS STATE DMV said this next bit was unnecessary as trailers less than 7500 GVWR don't require a title, even if they have a VIN. But the county plutocrats won't move forward unless I:
6 - VTR-130-SOF - Application for Bonded Title. signed and dated
7 - I put pictures of each side to assist the DMV with their appraisal of value. It'll be the minimum $4000.
8- Submit all this stuff to the Regional DMV office, $15.00 check, and $9.90 at the post office.
When / if it all comes back okay, I get to spend an additional $100 for a bond, then, it's off to the Tax Office to try again. That'll be another $100
My irritation level was "majorly chapped buttocks" today. It was maddening... But why not. I may need to sell it. It'll cost someone a cool $10,000 to pay for my aggravation and bp meds.
After this is done, I should have a nice little portable welding rig I can drag around for who knows what. I had the welder from a different trade several years ago. It's a
Miller Roughneck 2E (the manual says December 1973) Mine looks pretty
nice. (I found a date on it, Nov 1980)
Well, after I get the new tires for it.... and paint it.... and finish the loom for the wiring....... then.....
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| Cute but heavy. Pulls pretty nice, even with ratty old square tires. |
Every time I walk by the green bolt bins I got a couple weeks ago, I stop and think about why they are in this state.
I think I figured it out.
I think the thing was spilled or maybe something else was, and they just picked everything up and threw it in here. There is one mangled drawer, too. That kind of makes me think it fell over.
That is one heck of a load of pins and set screws. There's dog point screws in there as well. It's half a hardware store... run through a milk shake machine.
I spent a few minutes picking out the dowel pins of one drawer. I gotta make a sifter to get them sorted. This by hand stuff is a bit much.... But it's not like I'm doing anything else at the moment....
Maybe small sorting boxes, or big ones. Maybe just dump it all in a big bucket and take 15 minutes a day to sort. I should be done by Christmas... 2099..... If I'm diligent.
May need this to keep my head screwed on straight.... hahahaha..... made myself laugh.... I crack myself up...
Got a chance to help out a new college student. My niece is starting school next week. It worked pretty oka except for a hesitation during shifting from 2nd to 3rd. It's an older Lancer. Then it quit on her last week.
It quit going forward. Wonder why? I tried it and it felt like limp mode in reverse. Very harsh shift. And a gray flash from under the passenger seat to the dash.... rodents. Great.
I pulled a P0705 code out of the OBDII port and did the study. Probably was a gear position switch. On top of the transaxle and under the battery. Nice....
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| grimy. took a bit of work to get the arm off it, too. |
So, I removed the switch, it's shaped like a piece of pie . It was stuck down on the rusty "bolt" in the middle there. But it finally gave up. I wanted to quit right then, but you have to be thorough. And I saw Ricky Rat run under the dash... So I rested for about 15 minutes and then went back to work.
While I was checking out connectivity between the plug that goes on the left above, and the connector under the dash I found this modification:
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| wunderbar 😑 it's been gnawed up and is that POOOP on the carpet???? |
I didn't have my heat gun with me, and I needed some spare wire, too. And the switch. "Ah'll be bach." I told my sister about the gray ghost, and she said she'd work on it.
20 minutes later I get this picture:
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| That was fast! |
I ordered a new switch, and it showed up on Saturday. Two days early. Replaced without effort today. Got a new heat gun yesterday and fixed the rat rod mod after the switch replacement. And it's a runner!
Niece drove around the block with it. No shift issues either. God is good. And her smile lit up the day!!
I'm bushed.... good night ladies!
Spent a week on the road visiting family. I hadn't seen some of them in a dozen years. Nothing was really holding me here. So why not?
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| Northbound on the Pickle Parkway |
The drive up north was pretty easy, and I stopped by my favorite used / surplus machinery supply warehouse. I wasn't disappointed. Got some new to me shop supplies.
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| Most are still half full of hazmat |
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| All dead, morse taper 5, 4, 3 and 2? There is a 3-5 adapter. Hard lives, who chips a carbide tip? |
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| empty weight about 50#, loaded it's 300#! full of pins, set screws and such like |
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| West bound |
A few days later, went west to the home stomping grounds. Easy day of travel, followed by some emotional days driving around to see what hadn't changed. Mother in law was happy to see me. We had a great visit. She said I'll always be her son. That was pretty cool. She'll hit 80 this year. Seems impossible...
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| Just like I remembered |
Older sister got hit with the lung damage last year, and is still fighting hard to recover. We both had similar reactions. Spent a good bit of time comparing notes. She's in a tough place.
Stayed with her oldest daughter. The Wu-flu took her husband. Left her with a 2 year old, who is 4 now. That kid is a pistol. We sat on the floor and played and had a real great time the few days I was there. Made biscuits with her one morning. THAT was a hoot. The niece and I compared notes on life, and wound up talking until 0400. It is refreshing to realize your niece is a quality lady. So many "kids" are dinks now. Yeah, she'll be 40 this year, she's no kid.
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| family reunion |
The trip home was long. 450 miles. I had to break it into sections to make it in a day. It used to take 7 hours max. This time was 12. But I arrived in pretty good shape. I did sleep good for a couple nights.
I figured out this house is trying to off me. I hardly coughed at all at my little sisters, only a little bit more out in the dusty high plains. I started coughing non-stop when I got home and coughed for a few hours until I went to bed. Not good.
Things gotta change around here. Time to get serious.
I got invited to a candle light service today. I went and it was a very nice time. Got to eat at someone else's house, too. Great conversation and fellowship. I just about got hypoxic. There is a definite limit to how much I can talk and laugh now. I almost turned into a pict.
But the candle lighting reminded me of a great Christmas story from my youth....
I met this cat name Deberry in eighth grade. He wasn't a very big guy, but his wit was huge. He was the type that funny stuff just swirled around him like millers around a porch light. Think mid 1970's.
He was talking about a candle light service at the First Baptist Church a year or two before. Almost every Southern Baptist Church had the same general layout. Like
the soviet gulags, the floor plans were in a big book of standard facilities for
different size populations. This "youth room" had the accordion room divider and the
gray tiles on the floor. Gobs of those gray metal folding chairs in rows, too.
Seems this big kid was bugging him. Manhandling him, pushing him, hitting him and generally being a jerk. So the youth director settles everyone down and hands out the unlit candles.
They sang Christmas carols and had Bible passage readings. The lights were lowered and each kid would light their candle from the kid next to them, and say a prayer (free style praying, no rote memory in the SBC). The next kid would light his candle, and it went across the front row and then looped around to the back row. As the candle lighting got close to Deberry, he closed his eyes. *BANG*, the jerk in the front row slapped him upside the head. It was dark, everyone heard it but no one saw it. So, they just carried on. When Deberry lit his candle he had this thought wash over him. He extended his arm and put the candle just under the hair of the jerk.
There was a flash of light in the darkness, then FOOM! WHOOOSH! the fire ran up his head fast as lightning! Deberry reacted like we all would, he unloaded a slap and hit the jerk right above the ear, trying to put out the fire. The jerk sprawls out and hits those metal chairs. The noise is unmistakable as they skid all over the floor. Then the thud as he falls over and the "UHHHhhh" as the wind is knocked out of him. He is sitting there, spradle legged, with his hair smoldering...
Without missing a beat, Deberry says "AMEN", then turns to light the other kids candle.
Got the chuck rubbed down some. Lathe chuck jaws needed to be reversed first to hold the smaller chuck body, then, used a bit of sandpaper on a stick to rub the spigot down so the scroll fits semi-perfectly.
75 degrees and humid next week, so everything metal will sweat like a glass of iced tea. I gotta paint the tools up with some oil to be sure they don't start to rust. Such is winter in south Texas.
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| Needs another bath now |
The heaters are running, got some quiet Christmas music playing in the background. Dog is curled up on the carpet, and I'm close to calling it a night. It's cold and clear outside, just like a Christmas eve should be. I'm wore out and ready for a nap.
Happy Christmas to you and I hope you get what you want, and not what you deserve. Unless you still burn coal, then a whole truckload would be great.
I gotta have a plan. I really need direction. I don't 'exist' very well at all. I have an engine in my head that can't let me just sit and rest. At least, not without tremendous guilt and self-berating. Gotta figure out what to do and get it done. It's always been that way.
So, tomorrow is shop day, I hope. I have that chuck to finish up. Then there is the dividing head to finish cleaning as well. After that....
I've got to get this lot wired and work out an attachment for the dividing head. I've got a wacky idea for LinuxCNC on one of the ancient abacus based laptops I have. I didn't buy the dividing head to do this, but it sort of popped up shortly after. I wonder if I can duplicate a universal head with this setup?
I still have the two casting kits as well. Important family issues jumped to the head of the line. Almost complete with those. But it's getting close to time for these projects to come back up.
I posted a bit of personal thoughts below the fold. Sit in the parlor and visit if you want.
Got the holes boarded up. Just. Ran outta steam about halfway through. I used to have a granny gear. When I got too tired to go much farther, I could put it in low range and just plow on through. I don't have that anymore. And trying is a sure way to go down for a week. I found that out earlier this year.
So yesterday, I got the last bit on the north side covered, then went after the south side. Plumbing for the tub was on that side. Made some insulation for the pipe coming out of the ground. Got the siding hole covered, but had dug a hole so I could get under the sill plate. I didn't want to fill it just to dig it out again, so I got a leaf bag and cut some of that tall grass around the fence. Filled the bag up and rolled it into the hole. That'll keep the wind out. Thought about that plexiglass window on the east side bedroom. Looked at it, and just as I touched it, it fell out of the frame. Not the day for a pneumonia hole. Found some foil backed foam board leftovers and made a window pane. It worked well last night.
Figured to do the same grass bag insulation with the hose bib out front. Got that done, when the clouds blew south and the sun beat down. Very nice and warm, if a bit humid.
There were multiple rest breaks, but I beat the weather. After the winterizing was done, I started working on trailer lights for the yard art. Don't ask why, I just started in and that went quick and easy. Then, "why not move it to the other side of the yard? I can finish the wiring over on the flat spot with the sun on me? " THAT just about ended me. Brother, that little trailer is nose heavy. But it's moved. Wind shifted about a quarter after 3. It got cold quickly. I had the
doors open to air out the place, but that didn't last long at all. Almost 60 to 32 in a couple hours. Down here, that's fast. Up in Lubbock county, that is very slow. Temp drops of 40 to 50 degrees in an hour are not uncommon up in the panhandle.
Today, I'm gonna do some house work that's been waiting for a few weeks. Maybe even make some cookies. Good baking weather.
With all that snow on it, it reminded me of my old 1974 Plymouth Fury. I got all homesick. I do miss that car. She was fast and agile. I learned a lot of good things in her. Power slides, reverse 180, fishtailing, flat track turns, J turn... the proper way to float over RR tracks and other lumps in the road. Very little body roll, handled like a go kart.
360 small block, two barrel carb, 727 Torqueflite trans. Speed rated police tires, and those little hub caps. Very neat car. I have always regretted not fixing it after the accident. I know how, now. Such is life.
Happy Christmas!
Been trying to get ahead of this winter storm. I pulled siding off a while back to work on the plumbing. I got a bit left to replace and fix today. It's been slow going. I can do about a good hours work a day, an hours worth of what I used to do. Now it takes all day to get it done. Spurts of 15 minutes or 10 minutes then rest up. I don't get cold much anymore, I'm constantly steaming about the limitations!
I've got a couple hours left to do what I can before the wind kicks up. You would hope, after having raised a family and helped out however and where ever you could, someone would help you out... hmmmm..... I guess not.
Off to the time crunch salt mines....
Take care out there.
Anyone that grew up on the high plains of West Texas will remember the colors of Christmas: tan, yellow, brown and bright blue skies. The wind was always blowing, and it was usually very cold or quite warm.
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| View across the county road from October to January: cotton modules |
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| If we were very lucky, we avoided this at Christmas |
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| Magical winter neighborhood scenery |
We were visiting my suegra (mother in law), and I was out on an errand on Christmas day. I heard the craziest story from a couple of radio personalities.
One of the guys was talking about Christmas day in the 1930's when he was a little guy. He and his brother woke up at the butt crack of dawn. it was really cold in the clapboard house and still dark. They ran into the front room and looked under the Christmas stick tree. There were two presents. They couldn't wait, so they ripped them open. He got a pack of fire crackers, and his brother got a rubber kick ball. He said he went to the kitchen and got some matches, and they both went out the front door in a run. He lit the firecrackers and they were crazy loud. It scared his brother and he took off running and tripped on something. He fell on the ball and it popped. Christmas day wasn't even 10 minutes old and they had shot off and broken everything. He remembered being pretty glum the rest of the day.
My dad told me few stories of his youth, but never a thing about a Christmas. I figured his were a lot like that radio guy's. Dad lived on a farm that looked really similar to this.
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| I saw a pic of my dad when he was a boy in a place just like this. No green at all, just dirt. |
Happy Christmas.
