One year ago today: June 23, 2014, “farmer’s” almanac, my eye.
Five years ago today: June 23, 2010, a portrait of Chet.
Six years ago today: June 23, 2009, “indie” music goes boring.
MORNING
Between Saturday’s flat tire and two days of fun with that, I seem to have picked up a nice Florida sunburn, approaching second degree. So I’m in the house for most of the day. That suits me fine, I was watching Ann Coulter videos as these government pro-immigration types make complete jackasses of themselves. Guys, you don’t go up against Ann unless you have actually read her books. That’s probably a good start.
Ann says it is the Liberals who want to bring in the poorest of the poor that are running the immigration as a charity, the plan is to guarantee themselves a huge voter base for eternity. I tend to agree, but I also think that is far too complicated a string of causality for the average American to follow along.
She tore the “officer” to shreds, he was such a wimp. Since his name was Francisco Hernandez, it is not difficult to guess where he was going to try to steer the conversation, and he tried. But she cut him off. He kept trying to say there was no evidence and would not answer direct questions or admit facts. I like how she told him to "quit mumblin"g when she was talking because it was very irritating.
It is doubtful he’s ever been to a border crossing or welfare office to see for himself. It was clear he’d deny what he saw anyway. How do you like this picture of an actual attempted border jump. Then there is the school of thought that America “stole” the borderlands that really belong to Mexico because they stole it from the Indians who stole it from the Clovis tribes. There are Millennials who actually believe that bunk.
Come back after morning coffee to see it I’m in a better mood. The sun seems to have attacked my right shoulder worst of all. Maybe it's a secret message telling me to take the morning off. Okay, I'll obey.
NOON
“When in Rome, do as the Texans.” ~Anon.
Listening to Ann Coulter again. I wish, during her interviews, she was better at shutting people up while she is talking and exposing their biases. Because interviewers are not supposed to be biased, that’s why. Especially the ones who try to point out that her ancestors were immigrants. Not so, as she explains, there was no country here when they arrived. They were settlers. There were not immigrants until the United States became a country.
Now we get the governor taking down the Confederate flag. He seems to think that it is “oxygen” for hate groups. Oh, well, then, taking down that old flag is going to be such an immense help. I call it jockeying for the minority vote. Not because they give a twit about the minorities because they don’t. They merely recognize it as a the path that gets the most press coverage.
Back to Ann, I see a pattern emerging. Whenever she makes a point, the person that is interviewing or opposing starts to talk on top of her. And she tends to let it happen. Having considerable experience with such talkers, I immediately side with Ann. They are trying to drown her out for a reason. I just find it strange she hasn’t developed a better strategy to deal with these small-minded babies. Right or wrong, she is one brave lady to go up against the establishment. I do not say she is correct, only that she raises the correct points and asks the right questions. And I love the way the institutional media can't deal with her over it.
Did you see that fat little Arab girl try to sass Ann? Should I become a Christian, she wanted to know, and how was she to travel as she had no magic carpet? Well, stand back and look at yourself, Fatima. Ann’s point is that if you don’t like America, why are you here? You don’t seem to like free speech when other people do it, yet where you come from speaking at all could get you stoned to death.
Alternative transportation? Take a camel, nobody cares. Be thankful you can even attend university because back home by now you’d have been sold for five goats. I wonder, Fatima, did you clearly tell the immigration officials about your bias against free speech before your interview was finished?
Hold on, the camera just panned backward and I saw your thighs. Make that one goat, maybe two.
EVENING
What did we learn today? A bit. I tackled the problem of the air hose not having the instantaneous blast to pop the tire (bead) back onto the rim. What I needed was a rush, not a flow. So I went about it as a robot builder with programming experience might. That’s logical, since I have no other kind of experience. Here are the steps I took.
Unscrew the cap, careful no damage.
Empty the baking soda.
Wash and dry the can.
Purchase a tubeless tire valve stem.
Note the recommended rim hole size.
Drill a pilot hole.
Enlarge the hole to the correct diameter.
Install the valve stem with pliers.
Screw the original cap back on.
Inflate the assembly to the green arrow.
Measure the pressure with a tire guage.
You can see photos of the progress nearby. First photo shows the diameter gauge. Everybody should own one because you cannot borrow mine. Make sure you get the diameter in standard but marked in decimals. If you peer closely, you can see the sheet metal “arrowhead” bit used because I don’t have very large drill bits.
The bit is the gold-colored object (top photo)with the black marking to show me where to stop. These bits are marked, but the print is too tiny for most people. Second picture is a closeup of the tire valve stem installed. Beware, these come in different sizes. I arbitrarily chose the small one, a standard robot procedure. You can’t drill a smaller hole later.
Last photo is the finished product and it does not work very well. It only holds 60 pounds pressure, which is not much. And you can see the act of measuring it moved the pressure needle out of the green zone. It is too dark at night to try it, but it does give quite a blast of air.
You learn that the air bottle gets hot when being filled. And that there is some trick to replacing the extinguisher cap, because once you remove it, there is always a slow leak in the system. Doesn’t matter how hard you recap, there is an audible hiss. I suspect this is some type of built-in design so the extinguisher depot always knows if the can has been tampered with.
Return tomorrow for the test. I’m unwilling to crawl under the motorcycle chassis after sunset. This tank only has to pop the rim, it does not have to inflate anything. This reminds me of one of those soda water spritzers. That’s funny, because except in old movies, I’ve never seen them. If this system works, I’ll keep the bottle and try to discover how to reseal it. And try it with water, see what happens.
I hope it works, because it took over an hour to invent it. Then another hour to build the thing. If you’re thinking, gee, if it leaks and I get a flat in the middle of nowhere, there is no gas station to fill the bottle. That’s why I carry a bicycle tire pump, son.
[Author's note: Yes, I noticed some of my gif links are not working. That is one of the reasons to be careful in your choice of blog designs. Those items cannot be downloaded and inserted in code. They are links only, and if the other guy decides not to keep paying for a web host, they are gone. There is no provision over here to recheck links in case they go poof.]
ADDENDUM
Trivia. Recently released German archives of the Second World War indicated that by the end of the war in 1945, most German generals had never heard of George Patton. The concept that he was a famous general who scared the Germans was one of those fallacies called “truth by common knowledge”.
http://talesfromthetrailercourt.blogspot.com/2015/06/june-23-2015.htmlSome say that is the definition of Wikipedia. Hitler knew Germany did not have the military strength to rule the world, yet our textbooks keep repeating that was his goal. And millions of other examples. Some other popular false notions about the Second World War include that Hitler started the conflict by invading Poland in 1939, that the sideshow in North Africa was a major Allied victory, and that Hitler was a dictator. Look it up, he was democratically elected. Oh, the newspapers say, but once the "gained power", he began to rule by decree. Really? Just like President Obama and his executive orders? Funny you should mention that.
Last Laugh
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
