October 30, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 30, 2014, I actually welded.
Two years ago today: October 30, 2013, Roger Miller museum.
Three years ago today: October 30, 2012, on fake student loans.
Four years ago today: October 30, 2011, read the last sentence.
Five years ago today: October 30, 2010, even lost my sunglasses.
Six years ago today: October 30, 2009, early Kinko’s employees.
Seven years ago today: October 30, 2008, Millie & ‘Tat.
Eight years ago today: October 30, 2007, tutoring is extra.
Nine years ago today: October 30, 2006, box? What’s that?

MORNING
           I’ll make a prediction. When Trump gets in, he will create jobs on optimism alone, but his plan to bring jobs back to America can only be done by placing tariffs on foreign goods. Also, his speeches make it clear that government regulations are counter-productive, but he does not address the fact that they also cushion the American worker. That worker wants benefits and paid holidays. My prediction is that prices will soar, up to five times their current level. Americans have no experience with deflation.

           This morning I met a 20 year old college student studying math and science. I asked her if I could borrow her text books, one each week. She informed me they do not have any textbooks. That folks, is the generation that will help Trump take back America’s standing in the world? Until there were textbooks, there was no math or science in the real world, and without the books, it is likely to return there.

           All is not lost on the tablet computer. It seems yes, you do have to download an application to see the files in your own memory. The hipsters apparently just trust Android to put it somewhere and never need to think about it any deeper. Agt. M was surprised that I wanted to store pictures in the memory, which I refer to as “the drive”. Why would anyone want to do something like that, he wants to know.
           But it seems there is a version of XP that does run on these contraptions. It has to be downloaded, however, you even have to install an application called a “store”, being very careful to find a “trusted source”. Again, not that I can’t believe there are still viruses, but that they still build computers that can be infected. I was certain this was already 2015.
           If I can get XP on there, I can install a word processor, spreadsheet, and a small database. To Agt. M, this amounts to “totally wrecking” the computer. How can one play games, buy things, and send text messages? What good is it without apps like “People”, “PlayTV” and “Hangouts”? Without Google+, why, that’s just a waste of money. What good is it? (I asked him what the hell Google+ was.)

           Meanwhile, same as last year, the onset of mild winter weather means projects and probably the camper will dominate these blog posts until I either take a trip or the monthly budget runs out. There is a pattern to these things, for instance, I plan on working on the camper all day tomorrow, enlisting JZ to go get the plywood. He’s said he’ll drop by during the day to visit and I want to go over some plans anyway. I know he has to retire for real sometime reasonably soon. That is not to say, like myself, that he won’t continue some kind of active trade. Ah, that’s where the plans come in.

NOON
           This was all going on while we were fixing electronics parts. For example, he has a burnt out controller for an electric bike that we determined was an odd-ball resistor size. Shown here is the process of building 377 ohm resistors. I took some 220s and tested a few 160s until I found some with near enough tolerance errors.

           In return, we drove over to my place to look at the cPod progress. While I was working with what I had, Agt. M remembered he had some heavy duty drawer glides left over from installing his garage door. I said I had considered those but felt they were too flimsy. Not like these, he says. He used one set to build a sliding drawer that he said he was able to fix a motor on.
           Later we will go over there to see these. He further reports they are easy to work with, which is likely the case since I was using angle iron. Somewhere around here you’ll see a photo of the mockup I was working on. It will be sideways from y’day’s diagram and missing one wall panel. See me pointing to the arrangement I devised? I was quite aware this was overkill and took a noticeable amount of interior space from the cabin. Again, working with what I had and it took me a few hours of thinking to come up with this.

           Agt. M says write off that thinking time, because these drawer glides are so expensive retail that if he had not found them, we would never have afforded them. Plus, he says he has so many that if one set is not strong enough, it would be easy to use another set. And, although he doesn’t know much about camper trailer design, he says you can build a drawer within a drawer. That’s an interesting concept.

           And that folks, is why we have a robot club. Two brains are always better than one, but that is predicated by having brains to start with. In how many years now we have failed to find even a third member? And the club still has no president. It might further be noted that in all those years, we have failed to come up with a single money-making idea. Which should give you some inkling of how difficult it really is unless you have daddy’s money or get equally lucky in some other category.
           I mention that because there is always a constant stream of ideas. It’s silly to conclude since there has been no winner that we do not go through losers at a far higher rate that a lot of less organized situations. For instance, today I devised a way to make waterproof matches using old candles and one of those heating pad thingees that people put under their coffee mug to keep the java steaming. Because I saw Wal*mart selling those matches for a dollar for 24. “Emergency matches”, they called them. What? Okay, I’ll take pictures and show you the process, maybe on the weekend.

AFTERNOON
           Because this weekend, I’m going nowhere. My medical insurance outfit botched some of the files and the doctor’s computer monitor showed a different number than my card. In the weeks it took to plow that ground straight again, I had to cancel a series of appointments. Now, they are all re-scheduled for the first week of November. A lady friend of mine says her mother had to get the same operation as I did on her leg veins. I thought no big deal, but then I found out the bad news.

           For me, it was preventative. For her, the damage was done, so it was a major operation. While I had a long series of minor procedures over years starting from a [much] younger age, she had to do the surgery route and can’t walk for two weeks. And I don't have diabetes. That made me think maybe it isn’t so bad I can do the trailer repair thing today, I'm healthy enough for it. Hooray!
           Ah, what’s this? Okay, we have some pictures of the drawer glides coming in just now. Okay, that is the first one being cleaned, look at that beauty. Is that fancier than my iron-work or what? Note the air tank and the brush. You can make out the ball bearings, they look like a string of small beads.

           This is a tremendous savings in time and design effort, and I see no reason something this substantial should not work perfectly. Look how ruggedly built that sucker is. And as matters worked out, the club has a nice big bucket of the exact correct size mounting screws. These brackets have been out in the weather a bit so they will take a little rejuvenating. But we are admirabley equipped to do just that.
           Mind you, I still cannot go full steam like I was not so long ago. Thusly, I take regular breaks to read and I’ve stumbled across “Harm’s Way”. This is the recounting of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during the closing days of WWII. You may not be familiar with the tale, and I only remember it as the only case in history where a Captain was ever court-martialed for having a ship sunk by enemy action. I’m only on page 23, but it seems well-written. This is the battleship that got torpoedoed and nobody noticed it missing for days while the sharks circled.

EVENING
           Stopping at the Senor for coffee and toast later, I went through my hard-copy records and found the plans I had mapped out for the trip to Athens last October, including the price projections. This is the trip where I got as far as Ft. Lauderdale and a piston misfired, which canceled that adventure. It’s 571 miles by freeway, add 15% for the by-ways. I can’t quite afford that and the camper, but I think I’ll review the costs to see what’s changed in just a year.

           Lookie, another drawer glide picture. These are really sturdy and you can see this one (of four, I’m going to use four) is starting to gleam like new again. That’s with the application of a lot of elbow grease. Okay, and a smidgeon of axle grease, shown here. This is the casing reassembled, so you cannot see the roller bearings any longer.
           I see that these are designed with an ingenious way of placing the rails in the correct positions. And with the option to reinforce them with a sturdy plate on the other side of whatever they are attached to. In this case, that is 15/32” plywood. It is nice to know that option exists. I haven’t quite figure it out yet. See, I told you that can of axle grease would come in handy. At least for getting my clothes, hands, and hair all slicked up for nothing. The main purpose of this goop is on my trailer ball hitch.
           Also, in this design, there is no need to extend the glides as deep as the drawer. In other words, the drawer can be made somewhat longer than glides themselves. I plan to extend them around 10 inches of possible, which could make the camper as roomy as the old model. Remember how some considered that one claustrophobic? Although it had twice the interior space of a pup tent, I understand to solidity of the walls is part of the effect. This camper is also 7 inches higher inside, making it possible to sit up on one’s elbows.

           I saw the light on at the club. I wandered in to discover that Hayley is no longer there. A dispute with management. Some time last week there was some episode and she is gone. Oh well, it is up to women to keep in touch with me, not that many ever do. Also, folks, I am wary of people who do things like [this one guy] want me to meet his landlord. Maybe his landlord is a genius, so what? Many times, people who do that have seen me writing in my booklet over a period of weeks and months. They’ve overheard conversations, that and a host of exposures to my behavior.
           The landlord, on the other hand, meets me and thinks I’m the local schmeeb. I have ten fingers and ten toes. And he’s busy collecting the back rent from the burnouts in 409. This is similar to the reason I don’t pursue women who don’t latch on to me directly. Whenever you date some broad like that, remember, after the fire dies down, sooner or later, she will meet others whose qualities she appreciates more instantly. The last thing I want is some old lady who takes a month to decide whether she likes me or not. I got well fed up with those broads when I worked for the phone company. When I look back on my life, those are not the women I remember.
           Got that, Sandy? Lynette? Theresa? Rossie?

Last Laugh