Say goodbye to one of the most practical cars I’ve ever owned, and by far the most cost-effective. For $1,400 this vehicle was a workhorse for seven and a half years with only routine repairs and very little maintenance (since I drove the Cadillac mainly). I didn’t even know until today about the fold up child’s seat shown here, complete with seat buckles. That car was particularly comfortable as well. Power everything, including seats and windows. The A/C was wonderful, although definitely designed for a sedan rather than a wagon. The ending mileage was 163,197 meaning I got 108,000 miles out of it for around gas and the minor repairs mentioned. That’s one cent per mile, only the bicycle is cheaper (by 2.75 times).
I bussed up to Ft. Lauderdale for the afternoon. The library is still half torn apart and the computer text section is now tucked behind the fiction. So I walked over to the IMAX and saw “Hubble 3D”. Unbelievable. No hint of the television-like layering. It was hard to tell where Hubble left off and the computer graphics began but the show was astonishing anyway. I recognized many of the galaxies and can verify the scenes are authentic. There was only one other customer in the theater besides myself.Even the wishy-washy parts about the astronauts where easily offset by excellent footage of the launches and facilities. NASA, like the US Army, thinks people actually care about the names of their gronks. The Hubble was focused on one patch of sky in the Virgo cluster. This produced a simulated 1,500,000,000,000 mile per hour trip to the star factory. That’s one and a half trillion miles per hour. The scenery is flying past your ears, this is a true effect, not just my opinion. IMAX in 3D is a must see.
It was also nice to get in for half price. Eight dollars makes it competitive with regular cinema. The bus ticket or the parking probably work out the same, knowing Ft. Lauderdale. I was in the library researching solar hot water heat. It seems to be the simplest of the technologies. A simple box with a sheet metal backing, PVC pipe painted black and a cover to create the greenhouse effect. The unit is connected in series with your existing hot water tank and apparently heats the water to hot bath temperature.
That would be nice, but nothing will get touched until Wallace arrives. The office came by and wants to see the ownership papers. I’ve said or done nothing to cause that, so something’s up with that. Fine, it costs me nothing to wait. However, I may build the unit whether or not it ever gets used. During this study, I found several windmill designs that use everyday materials. Let’s talk windmills for a bit.
When used to generate electricity, they produce DC and that in itself is a problem. Not only are the generators hard to build, they need constant maintenance. DC gets weaker the longer the wiring and all appliances on each wire must have the same voltage. If the DC appliance needs more voltage it won’t work, if it needs less it will burn out. DC transformers are also tricky devices that get hot. I learned all this in college and I’m surprised the booklets of today don’t carry warnings about these conditions.
Which brought me to the realization that I don’t know or don’t remember how DC transformers work. (Turns out later DC voltage can only be stepped-down, with the extra volts lost as heat.) All the diagrams you see with the wire windings are AC. The current is constantly moving between positive and negative peaks, causing inductance in the core. But in DC, nothing “moves” once the current reaches its single peak. And if the current doesn’t move, the iron has to.
I may have found some software that prints booklets. It is shareware that claims to coordinate printing so that the sheets, when later folded and cut, become booklets. It is called BookPrintXP. I have not tested it yet. Again, if I could find one person to show me how to get one program to run, I would be creating this kind of software. I know how to program, I don’t know how to write programs that run on a PC. And nobody will help. The people that know either want money or to sign me up for an expensive course.
The mechanic never showed up for the car. But I know he is serious, he’s called almost every day in the past week. Or is that passed week? Soon.
[Author's note: during the 50 minute Hubble 3D presentation, only six minutes was actual photographs taken by the scope. The remainder of the show was that disgusting contemporary BBC-grade production full of shots of astronauts eating, dressing, or servicing the telescope. Hardly worth the adult price of $16.00.]
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
