MORNING
You may get some repetition today, I was up really early.
There’s a saying around here that it takes a lot of brains to be stupid like me. I got covered to the elbows road grease last evening, as I was untwirling blind bolts, which shred plastic gloves. So afterward, I washed three times with goop. How greasy? Well, in this photo, the frame used to be red. Washing never took all the grease off and got my sink heap dirty. I gave up trying to get my fingers spotless. Besides, I was famished. You know, like only we working men can get.
Have you seen the proposal for the car lock? It is a device they, the system, would like to incorporate on all cars sold after 2015. It detects when your car is parked in your driveway by GPS. Then, if you are late on your car payments, the car is disabled until you pay up.
My contention with that is the lock is designed to work on every car, even if you buy it for cash. It is then a minor step to linking it to all your payments. Rent, utilities, insurance, and all those other things that people who said they have nothing to hide will wish they’d kept their damn mouths shut. I got to thinking, maybe that is something that will do one hell of a lot of people one hell of a lot of good. Still, it’s Big Brother.
The new oscilloscope is set up and I’m today searching for a probe. They run around $10, but just you watch somebody try to charge me $100. I still have no clue how to use the instrument. The user manual assumes you already know the what and how, so gives no realistic examples. And on-line is the usual cast of idiots.
Speaking of idiots, I wonder if the people who phone in to radio talk shows know how stupid they come across? There’s an inverse ratio to sounding stupid and not knowing it, but did you know it was even worse in the past? Here’s why. Long ago, most radio was AM instead of FM. (American Music instead of Foreign Music.) People who called in would place their radio set near the telephone so they could hear themselves on the radio. What they heard was major feedback. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumber than a sack of wet hammers.
NOON
I almost didn’t recognize Christina Applegate. Her Wiki photo, now that she is 42. Sigh, Kelly Bundy was everyman’s dream, the way she used to hop down those stairs with no bra. I’m not even a boob man and that was so fine. I have a theory why she was so attractive. It’s because the only decent fun times you will ever have with a woman is when you catch her in that early stretch when her body outgrows her experience. And just after that point where she’s learned that there is no such thing as a man who is just her friend. That’s how these things work.
All this is going on in the background as I learn more about oscilloscopes. I’m missing a cheap probe, I can begin with one as for now I don’t need both channels. Every feature seems to work according to the tutorial, still, I’ll wait till I get a probe. See, now I know it is called a probe. There you go.
As for price, I see the same unit for sale from the manufacturer for $600, but I see a slightly used model like mine on eBay for $50, which is what I paid. So I’m happy I got a deal. Now to find some place that sells the probe and this is Florida, so get ready for the runaround. Then when I finally get one, all the experts who led me astray will say, “Oh, THAT’S what you meant.” Yep, Florida.
Before sunup, I put the solar power components on the bench, reasoning that they had also experienced the road vibrations that loosened several parts on the cPod. I was right, the solar parts are not ruggedized and many are held inside their instrument cases by nuts and bolts without lock washers. The nuts can come lose (I found three) and it is not good to have small metal parts rattling around near electricity. It took careful work with needle-nose pliers to bring things up to club standards.
Because I uncovered a few loose parts on the cPod but to road vibration, I extrapolated the same conditions would affect the frame and have opted to weld gussets at every corner, practicing my welding in the process.
AFTERNOON
Cutting disks, they are not all made alike. I left a chopsaw behind at the old place because in two years I never could find a blade that properly fit the thing. Well, now it turns out instead of a saw blade, it would have worked with a cutoff blade. This made for a “sprinkling of Gaelic oaths” and a rare discussion of religion. Was Galileo heretic? Yes, he was, hence we were, roundabout, talking religion.
What, then was the question, was the murder of the Christian couple in Pakistan all about? It is about the fact that in 10,000 years of recorded history, these Eastern civilizations still live in squalor and die of unspeakable diseases. But on top of that, the issue is not heresy, but blasphemy. Quite a different topic. Blasphemy does not have to offend religion, per se, in these primitive cultures, it need only offend an enemy. Now you know.
NIGHT
A few hours on the new cPod, now often being called the miniPod, shown here. The frame is shortened by two feet, you can see the old portions of the frame jutting forward like horns. These will be cut off. That was slated for today but Agt. M did not get back from the doctor until too late. So I proceeded on my own, again getting a good coating of road grease. You can see the shortened tongue as well, it has not yet been drilled and fixed in place.
That’s one thing about the study of robotics. You will learn an extraordinary amount about weight and balance. Plainly, I did not have to go through so much trouble on this project, but it almost becomes natural after a while. The box is once again square to the 64th of an inch.
A trip to Home Depot to check out prices shows that I need only one sheet of ½” plywood, down from the ¾” of the original box, the sarcophagus. Since the headroom of the new box is 24”, it may not be necessary to have a caboose, but it is in the works.
Agt. M is a pro at installing drawer glides. This may be an option instead of swinging the camper up and over. The guy is a real whiz at this hardware, the swinging doors to the clubhouse appear weightless, but are more than 200 pounds. The idea would be to have a large “drawer” slide out of the box to form a 74” long interior compartment. That would further simplify the waterproofing.
It’s dark by 6:00PM but the day is not done. Check back in the morning.
