October 5, 2013

           This is fixing a flat tube on the eBike. Not so easy on the rear wheel. The motor gets in the way. This took nearly an hour and I had to be super careful to replace all the fittings exactly as they were found. I reinforced the new tube by raiding parts from my old Jamus, which I keep in the shed. My calendar says today I list what I did in order, it’s one of the rules I use to keep this blog on topic, or a variety of topics, actually. First, the bakery. Of course, then a few hours of work on the camper wagon. Next, this bicycle. Then to Jimbos Famous Left-Handed Bingo.

           Last, a stop at Buddy’s for a special guest appearance. The server knows who the best guy in town is for singing a duet. But he couldn’t make it, so she asked me. We sang “Jackson”. Here’s an observation. It has been 23 years since I was on stage with a 23 year old lady. I cannot imagine my life without music. (As an afterthought, I would remind everyone not to get the impression mending a bike tire is some big blog-worthy event in my life. It would not be mentioned except for the extra element of it being an electric bike.)
           Time to get the robot club involved. While visiting at the shoemaker, I examined their TV and could not figure out why it quit. They have an antenna connected to a converter box to the TV and it worked until a few months ago. I don’t know from TV but I heard in the news many people are switching away from cable to free broadcasts which involve some new type of antenna. Yep, time for the club.
           There are two issues I mention almost exclusively because they are of importance to me. But my feedback says a lot of readers agree and often strongly agree. That earns a mention in today’s blog. First, my contention that a lot of today’s experts are no such thing. Even if they know their field, they are clueless about how it interfaces with the real world. This arose from my findings concerning the reality of solar power. Second, it looks like I’m not the only one who doesn’t like the growing trend of hotel-motels keeping tabs on people’s travels.
           Both these concerns are intertwined with the camper. That Motel 6 database was influential in deciding to build. I don’t like the idea of strangers tracking my whereabouts, particularly when they do it in secret. It got me thinking about where they are going with that and I realized that since I pay cash, the only records of my trip to Colorado were that Motel 6 database and a toll booth camera shot.
           Whereas I had not set out to make the trip in stealth mode, I’m now thinking it might be a handy capability to work on. Try to realize these databases and license plate recognition systems cost tens of millions of dollars. You’d have to be a complete idiot to think they are spending that kind of cash “to serve you better”. These people are out after information about you that they don’t have right now and they friggen mean business. Thus, I’m adding the dimension to my upcoming trip to do it anonymously if possible.
           How’s the camper coming along? You had to ask? Just kidding. It is difficult but not impossible for an amateur to make these things weatherproof. One man’s cramped is another man’s cozy. It stands to reason claustrophobics would not have trouble sleeping inside, only trouble falling asleep. The width and length are not issues, only the headroom. There are probably a dozen alternatives to closing the hatch, but not for now.

           The flat black exterior paint, “America’s Finest” is chalky and dries too fast. Really fast, as in the time it takes to apply a tray-ful, a scab forms inside the can even with the lid on. But we have progress as I put in five hours in the bright sun. The seams and the more exposed areas such as the roof will have six layers. Three undercoat, three overcoat. Here is the unit as I cut in. Goodbye beautiful blue.
           Argh, song-stuck-in-the-head today was that “Wake Up Little Susie” again. That tune was already stale when I was a teen. I was surprised how many kids I grew up with took the lyrics seriously. I didn’t, but then again, I got an early start in that department. Whaddayah gonna tell your momma? Don’t tell her anything. It’s not that the song didn’t have a morality lesson but to me that was just a byproduct. If any of my friends had said “Oo-la-la” about what I did with my girlfriend in private, they’d quickly become ex-friends. So not only is the tune jangling around in my brain, I find the words non-sensical. My milkshakes, the spellchecker don’t like that word.
           Trivia. Celestial navigation used 58 stars with positions contained in nautical almanacs. This is often listed as Polaris and 57 other stars, which represent the brightest of the 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye at night. I also learned using a sextant results in two large circles offset by the moon and sun “line of position”. These circles intersect when drawn on a map, and since the points are thousands of miles apart, the navigator can generally guess which is his. I’ll stick with my GPS.

ADDENDUM
           Steam engines have temporarily got my interest. I noticed but never thought about how in the old cowboy movies, the train pistons were out of sync. This is intentional, I found an animation site that explains the steam piston has a “dead spot” at each end of the cylinder. Arranging the pistons 90 degrees out of phase allows the train to start from any position. For a look at various engine inventions, go here.
           I was surprised to find so many places that offer miniature steam engine kits, and blueprints which claim building your own is easy. Some have boilers made out of sections of gun barrels, that sounds nifty.