Musings of a minor megalomaniac
Sometimes the physical match-up is just too lopsided. No way McDonald was getting tackled straight-up on this play:
Our little Skipperke Shelly, gave up the ghost last night. She lived to be 14 and was just a great little pup – never any trouble and ruled the zoo like a queen for many years. The worst she ever did was getting in the bathroom trash can and chewing up Phoebe’s underpants. I thought that was great, assuming it to be an excellent lesson to learn about picking up her room. Nice try Shelly!
Despite starting to lose her eyesight to cataracts a couple years ago she was still getting around quite well in familiar territory. As recently as this past spring she would go with Jax and me on what I call “the Creek Walk.” A few times a week when I was up for it, we’d take a little loop around the neighborhood along NoName creek. She really seemed to enjoy it as long as we stopped every so often and made a little noise so she could hear us. But lately she’s not been wanting to go.
Bye-bye Shelly – we’ll miss you!
My vehicle lineup has been pretty stable for the past few years. The women are driving new Jettas, and I’m like the neighborhood truck guy who keeps a radical BMW hidden in his garage.
The ’91 is about done, for the time being. I still need to put some more time in on that door to get the lock working correctly and it needs a trim moulding after painting, but that stuff can wait. I think I will prioritize work on the Chrysler going into 2019. It needs the electrics gone through to get the windows working again and a few more things sorted. The rear axle will get a 3.91 Richmond locker and new set of Caltracs. Then I’ll finish it up with frame connectors and seal the underbody. The factory paint will stay for now and no fancy interior work – it is and always will be just a driver. I did find and remove a broken sway bar link after taking it for a warm-up yesterday, so I guess that project is now officially underway…
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Sometimes I just feel cursed. We had a devastating hailstorm a couple months ago. Then in the wee hours of the morning last Thursday the 6th of September, lightning struck the neighbor’s house. Yeah, they got it worse – blew a 3-foot hole in the top of their roof. But the effect of the strike impacted us harshly, as well. Here is the complete list (as of mid-November) of the electronic equipment lost:
Solar Inverter ($$$)
Sunfire Subwoofer ($$$$)
Both TVs
Server (recovered just last night – so you can see this! 😉
2 PCs – not even turned on
Garage Door Opener
2 UPS
Wineguard 8200U Long-Range Antenna
Aquarium Timer
Hot Tub Breaker (tub survived – yay!)
Security Cam DVR
8 of 10 Security Cams
5 of 6 network switches
Cable Modem
UV Sterilizer in the pond
2 Outdoor lighting transformers
2 Outdoor Lighting Timers
2 Outlaw 975 Preamp/Processors
2 Surround Amps
1 circuit in the garage (loose wire knocked clear out)
Numerous Wall Warts
Recumbent Exercise Bike
Elliptical Exercise Machine
2 USB chargers
1 Nano iPod
1 iPhone6
6 cans of beer
It was a big one – enough to open up the neighbor’s house and disintegrate the light pole on the corner it arc’d to ground on. It blew the nails out of the drywall in the rooms near where it hit and left black marks around the electrical outlets throughout their house. I can’t imagine what they are dealing with right now. Fortunately we had only 3 big ticket items not covered by warranty – the Sharp 70″ TV, Sunfire Sub and the server. The rest of it is either being replaced under warranty, or out-of-pocket. After a little fuzzy math, I determined the tipping point for filing an insurance claim considering expected future premium hikes was not quite reached. I would recoup only a couple thousand $’s after the deductible, so it’s just not worth the hassle and time spent doing that.
Basically anything with a chip in the direct dissipation path got smoked. The garage door and track seemed to focus the blast into the garage, despite being farthest from the strike. Only the parked cars and a couple primitive pieces like the bench grinder and compressor were OK, but everything else in there was fried. The basement was also hit hard, where it came in right through the ground. The last item on that list is telling in the nature of the strike on us. The blast effect did not appear to travel primarily in the wiring. It was ionizing radiation dissipating directly through the air and ground. It literally opened tiny pinholes in cans of beer sitting on the floor in our basement. Some of the damaged electronics was attached to apparently unhurt UPS units.
Sounded like an artillery shell hitting right outside the house. Scary. I’m tired.
Volleyball season starts tomorrow with the first televised stream on the 4th. See a 2018 PSU V-Ball Schedule for all the details. Francie is nursing a sore shoulder from a summer injury and won’t be playing in at least the first match tomorrow. Her and 3 friends are in an apartment-type residence this year. I guess 1 year of dorm life was enough.
This 5th year for our backyard pond should be the start of really getting it right. I struggled with an all-new learning process from the time I began digging the hole five years ago. Issues ran the gamut from fluid dynamics to aquatic botany to stone masonry. It started small, growing bit by bit each year. Five of the original ten goldfish, now at 10″ in length, have four new youngsters bringing the school back up to nine this year. We lost one of the big fancy white guys to a random die-off over the winter. Liner problems are resolved and incremental upgrades to the pump and filter system are now set for the long term.
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The main improvement this year involves going to a dual-tandem internal circulation pump setup. This enables much greater fountain flow under normal conditions. A 3-way valve allows just one pump to maintain circulation internally, with the fountain turned off. This comes in handy for saving water on windy days. Ultimately I expect it to be the bridge to full 365 days/year operation. The filter design was always good. The only issue there was tweaking the media pack for optimal performance. I finally found the right stuff for that. The coarse malata provides a flat, firm porous surface with which to sandwich finer layers to mitigate channeling.
Only a couple days of stone-work along the bottom wall and BBQ flowerbed remain to finish this long-running DIY project.
So I was left with a 80lb, seemingly useless ’91 Dodge truck bench seat in near-new condition after the interior upgrade. I offered it for free on the truck forum sell/trade pages, but nobody wanted it. So I scrapped it. In the process, I noticed that with a bit of cutting, bending and welding the large back frame piece might be a good candidate for a headache rack. I had more steel tube from some other scrapped furniture, so another fabrication project took shape.
The main front section is 1 1/8″ O.D, the sides are 1″ and the braces 3/4″, all assembled and contoured to match the cab shape(s). I spent a week putting it together with most of the time invested in grinding and going over the welds for a smooth, 1-piece look. The headache rack is nice for carrying long pieces of pipe or lumber more securely. But the two really cool things about it is how it works with the toolbox and being the mount for a new LED light bar. Every rack I’ve seen for sale involves some sort of compromise with the toolbox, either needing it moved back or just won’t work at all, depending on the design. Custom was really the only acceptable answer, to me. The light is a 150-watt Cree spot/flood combo and really lights things up well.
The light cost $49.99 off Amazon, bringing total project cost to 30 hours of my time and $80, including maybe $30 worth of welding wire, gas, sandpaper and paint. The truck now only just fits in kissing the weatherstrip under the 8-foot garage door after another rear spring adjustment. The skyjacker springs held up well in front, but the rears sagged quite a bit over the years, requiring several adjustments. So it is staying outside from now on while Phoebe’s new Jetta gets the CTD’s old garage spot.
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We had little send-off dinner at the Mt. Fuji Japanese Hibachi joint with a few of Francie’s friends, Avery, Lauren and Geo. She flew back to New Hampshire yesterday, now with her eastern friend Annie for a couple days before moving into their new PSU digs. This year she leaves the old-school dorm for a little bigger condo-style unit. They plan to rent an off-campus house next year. Fun times.
Francie & Michelle spent a couple days in the mountains just prior. Here’s them at Hanging Lake:
This little branch of the Shaffer family has a new Panama connection. Kimberly spent a week there last month with the Global Brgades and Doctors without Borders program(s). The place they worked is a remote region in the eastern part of the country. Way to go, Kimberly!
It was the 1st car I ever bought new, back in 2002. Made it to 195k miles including a tough last few years with the girls driving it. It was a fairly good car and I intended to keep it going for as long as possible, but finally got to the point of being plagued by too many issues to make further repairs palatable to me. So we donated it to the Colorado Make-A-Wish charity for children yesterday, with a cracked windshield, weeping water pump seal and the last straw appeared to be either a serious transmission issue or possibly a wheel bearing. They evaluate them for possible repair and then either re-distribute to a needy family, or sell them at auction donating the proceeds.
It took us to the Grand Canyon and many other places over the years. I felt like we should have had a retirement ceremony or something while I performed the annual ritual of swapping out wheels for the near-new Blizzak snows. Those American Racing wheels are for sale cheap, if anybody wants them:
Drove up to Cheyenne this morning to see the Thunderbirds. They were performing for their annual visit to the Frontier Days rodeo. I missed 2 of the last 10 year’s shows, but it’s become sort of an annual “thing” for me, as well. I can really appreciate what it takes to operate those jets after spending 20 years in the Air Force. Look no further for the true definition of badass. You can have your fast cars, big trucks and UFC fighters, whatever. Nothing holds a candle to the moxey and skill our pilots demonstrate. They truly are the best of the best!
I still want a winch under the front bumper and there are a couple miscellaneous upgrades like a front diff locker and a new dual steering stabilizer I’ve had sitting in the corner of the garage for probably almost ten years now. The old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra will start getting overruled if time ever gets on my side. But the console/cupholder was the last thing I think it really needed. It was put together with just metal scraps I had laying around (never throw anything out!). The lock and cupholders were the only parts purchased for the project:
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Our location normally sees a degree or 2 more or less than the Denver Metro and surrounding areas. I imagine that is just something to do with this specific locality being on the edge of the the prairie in the arid steppe climate zone. We saw 102 yesterday and expect to be around the low triple digits for the week. We also saw the highest temperature ever recorded here (107) about 10 days ago, but that was only a 2-day period with the 1 really hot day.
It is making for a very bad fire season. Farmers and ranchers are hurting in one of the worst droughts ever. Some large percentage of southwest portions of the state have been in the exceptional drought category since the middle of last winter. It’s now a macro climate phenomenon being called the aridification of the Southwest. Climate change? Global Warming? Whatever you call it, I’m not enjoying it very much.
Looks like the scholarship is secure at this point. The Kid scored >3.8 GPA her Freshman year, landing on something called the Plymouth State President’s List.
Took me a few days to get around to the pics I took at the RMSRN 2018 car show last Sunday. My favorite was the 1970 Charger. The interior in this car was the nicest I have ever seen. Pics from the day are in the 4th, 5th and 6th row of this page.
It was gonna happen sooner or later. And no, Herr Trump did not make another executive order and the Supreme Court hasn’t had anything to say about it either. But the wheels of government turn slowly – when they move at all. Anyone with their ear to ground on the Cannabis issue saw it coming years ago, and like the article says, June 2018 was a banner month.
I know it saved me. I have such an acute case of full-body arthritis and lesser neuropathy symptoms, doctors were prescribing a max dose of Tramadol for years, along with shot-in-the-dark attempts at things like anti-depressants and high-strength prescription anti-inflammatory drugs (one of which induced coronary symptoms). It continued being a downhill slide, health-wise during that time. I was just drugged out of my mind, not feeling it so much. Now after a couple years of learning how to use weed, I can say although not recovered by any means, I am myself again and can live a somewhat physically less un-comfortable life – without dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.