One year ago today: October 23, 2014, a natural bassist.
Five years ago today: October 23, 2010, KFC – never again.
Six years ago today: October 23, 2009, South American tours.
MORNING
See that band-aid on my knuckle? Of course you can't, but it is there. That is proof that at least in some parts of this town, it is possible buy Miller beer with non-twist-off caps. Strange as it seems, they must still have a factory somewhere that caps them so. This is Agt. M over this morning to propose a trip to Harbor Freight. That’s no decision I’ll make before morning coffee, so we adjourned to the bakery. For a minimum hour.
Besides, I think the world has long since had its fill of people who talk about what they are going to do. You know, men in their sixties talking about opening pizza parlors and poker halls. Women in their seventies advertising for tall, handsome, romantic men. That type of goings-on.
May I state that some people still think driving like a maniac will get you across town any faster. By going through two different checkouts and doubling up my 20% coupons, I arrived back home with everything from motion alarms to a type of anvil for bending metal. What a scoop for $44. That includes the solar recharging panel for the new sidecar saddlebag battery.
It does not include the precious controller. Thieves, that is the part you want, not the solar panels. Connecting panels directly to batteries will work, but they wreck batteries. Agt. M says you don’t need a controller, but maybe he has money for new batteries all year round. I know they can damage the battery cells and boil the acid if connected directly. And it gets pretty hard to unconvince me, since I did the experiment three times on my own. Let me spell out once more why you need that expensive controller. (Starting at around $25.00.)
All batteries have a touchy range over which you should not recharge them. For a 12 volt battery, it is around 13.7 volts which is average. Calculate that percentage and stay below it, you are okay. It does not matter if your alternator or whatever goes over (14 volts) momentarily. As long as you don’t leave the overvoltage condition long enough to heat your acid or gel.
Yes, there are “fast chargers”, but these include a sensor to measure the “back voltage” the battery produces when it is nearing its maximum charge rate. Not maximum charge, but charge rate. My experience is that the cheaper models don’t work well, but as it is a printed circuit, the reason for this is not easy to explain.
In bright sunlight, a solar panel can easily output 22 volts. Who remembers the elaborate test system set up on my porch? That’s what that was all about. And there is yet another reason for the controller. At night, if the output of the panels drops below the battery level, you must prevent any currently from flowing backwards into your panels. It wrecks your panels.
Bottom line? Get a good charge controller and learn how to use it.
NOON
I got two replies from bands [from whose] ads I responded to. Ouch, one was way up in West Palm, and they featured a harp player. That is strangely familiar, but in any case I said no. Unless I move to that specific area and there are no “party” bands that need me, it is not something I’ll consider. In a sense, it is like book publishing. Whatever gratification you may get from being unique won’t justify your effort.
I’ve five or six of these, I happen to like lots of small plants over big ones. By mid or late afternoon, I took it upon myself to make some Xmas ornaments. This is a consequence of that first set of six patterns off the Internet, one of which I liked because it resembled a snowflake. I painstakingly cut out one example, without a clue what I was doing.
Today’s effort produced nine prototypes, I may shortly up that to 54 in a batch shortly. Say, that would make an interesting documentary in itself, how the process went from one cut, taking hours, to over fifty in an hour, limited only by the tool throats on my small home kit.
EVENING
Aw, look at the nice rare morning rainbow. That’s the view down my back alley toward Lake Okeechobee. The weather has certainly broken and it is now autumn, and time for a trip to Miami on the batbike. That’s almost a 70 mile round trip, you know. And the last attempt at that cost me, what, $625 or something. My travel budget for the entire summer. (Not my holiday budget, that is still sitting around unspent. That’s something people like Theresa will never understand. An unspent dollar.)
That is, I am not going to exchange the 30mm box for a 20mm. The larger box was so hard to find and so expensive, I’ll keep it. It can serve as storage until needed. And I’ve found adequate 5 gallon metal gas cans on eBay at half the price of the surplus store. In all, we should be back up to speed here in short order.
The question trickling in under the door is should I buy another car? I’ve been a driver and passenger more frequently lately. In fact, I wonder if the whole trip this morning was just to impress me how smooth the white car runs after the repair. Anyway, I know with the windows down and driving in the country, there are no side effects. That didn’t happen overnight, mind you. It took years of desensitization. Anyway, if I get a car, it would be a station wagon. Definitely a station wagon. I loved my Ford Taurus. Drove it to San Diego in 2003 with a load of toothpicks, y’know.
Last Laugh
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