December 5, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 5, 2014, my "sewing-machine" saw.
Five years ago today: December 5, 2010, maps, books, & photos.
Nine years ago today: December 5, 2006, on ginger snaps.
Random years ago today: December 5, 2008, “. . . too branchy”.

MORNING
           Moments after I mentioned the potential battery problems last evening, guess what? My hundred dollar Wal*Mart scooter deep start battery went dead precisely two years and one month after purchase. That’s approximately precisely one month after the warranty expired. This is the battery bought on sale in 2013 on the road to Yak-Yak-Yakima. It still has the “10/13” sticker on it.

           Now this battery led a perfect life. Stored indoors resting on a cardboard mat and connected to a trickle charger when not in use. Except when new, it has only been used consistently when it was installed in the scooter a short time ago. The meter shows the testing in progress that determined whether the battery at fault.
           I repeat my findings. Batteries have become a major consumer rip-off because the manufacturers have collectively conspired to build them to a minimum standard at ever rising prices. The battery on my 1972 Mustang lasted twelve years, and it was parked most of the time. This battery lasted two years sitting on its ass in a climate controlled room.

           As it were, I believe that I drive both the oldest motorcycle and oldest Chinese scooter in regular use in the State of Florida. Not the oldest registered or calendar dated, but “in regular usage”. I am doubly surprised because that is the solar-powered conversion, meaning the battery was actually stored in better than optimum conditions. It could still be anything, including a bad circuit. It cranks down to zero and sits there, but these are special marine batteries designed to handle that event up to 50 times. Even a dead short doesn’t behave that way. And it is the deep start model, not the deep discharge model on the sidecar.
           Leaving me only one thing to do. I swapped it out with the deep discharge battery at 10:20AM and went for coffee. This is a terrible disappointment, Wal*Mart. Don’t tell me you could not have known. I’m tired of excuses. Just ask that oaf, Brenda Jannsen.
           Not only that, the past few mornings indicate my blood pressure may be abnormally low for a few hours after I wake up. Ha, ha, I just got that. For clarity, Ken, the time I get out of bed and the time I wake up are not as widely separated as in your case.

NOON
           This is a picture of the new Aventura library, with the low shelves for gimps. To balance the blog presentation, that’s all. What? No, I don’t disrespect gimps. I disrespect people who inconvenience the majority for their own selfish gratification. If you want a library for a special group, build one—at your own expense. Doing it at public expense makes one anything except compassionate. The public doesn't like do-gooders.

           Scary. DC chose Texas as the target of lawsuits over the unwanted Syrian immigrants. It was buried at the bottom right of page 18, where papers traditionally report that which they do not want to become an issue in the public eye. This placement is referred to as “beneath the salami ads”. The fact is the majority of states, 29 at last count, have vowed to bar the Syrians. How well the states remember when integration was shoved down their throats by similar means. The establishment chose to confront Texas first.
           What amazes me is that Texas caved so quickly and quietly. Doesn’t add up. I say all that has happened is the issue has been forced underground. There have been armed protests outside mosques in Texas. I believe this may be the beginning of a far greater problem for the federals. This time, the secessionists are alert, armed, and very ready. If I was Texas, I’d double the rent on the military bases and use the funds creatively. No way the Constitution gave anyone the right to dictatorial powers.

           As it were, I believe that I drive both the oldest motorcycle and oldest Chinese scooter in regular use in the State of Florida. Not the oldest registered or calendar dated, but “in regular usage”. Which is why I am not all that surprised that my solar-powered scooter conversion with the really big expensive battery had a hard time starting today. It could be anything, including a bad battery, but I only bought it last month or so. It cranks down to zero and sits there. Even a dead short doesn’t behave that way.

           Secondarily, when I removed the dead battery, I noticed a coarse but weightless powdery ash, a residue, under the compartment that should not be there. I am going to investigate the option of installing oil and ammeter gauges on the scooter. While it is past its prime, I’ve decided to try to get 20,000 miles out of it. This material is dry, not like the particulate from evaporation. You can see a bit of the battery cavity in this photo, clean and dry as far as these things go.
           I have no capability of analyzing this material, nor do I know anyone who does. This is Florida. The replacement battery was larger and at first would not fit past the protruding seat retaining assemblage. My bolt cutters took care of that trouble.

           Nonetheless, whatever that silt is, it should not be there. I will disconnect the solar recharge controller until I can monitor the battery condition more accurately. What am I confronting here? One thing for sure, I won’t be asking any of the professionals on the Internet. Because a real professional would have told me whether or not this was normal before I rigged the thing up. If it wasn’t so damn expensive, I could easily program an Arduino to complete watchdog the system, even the temperature of the battery itself.

           Next, JZ and I canceled the drive (to Dleand). Neither wants to shell out for gasoline to Deland while the scumbag real estate types won’t tell us basic information without laying the upsell trip on us. You know the story, the 1960s “treat every customer question as a selling opportunity” nonsense which leaves what the customer might want out of the sequence. In a nutshell, if the real estate agent wont answer the most fundamental question (does the sale include the land), assume she’s a liar. And lost a potential cash sale.
           You really will never go wrong in Florida treating every similar stall or misdirection with the utmost suspicion. Meanwhile, we wait in the rain. Watching documentaries, and it is ever a source of wonderment to me those people who make any kind of recording who claim it is “Secret”. You know, “secret” CIA files. Duh, if it was secret, why are you posting it on the biggest network on the planet?

AFTERNOON
           The dead battery appears to be responding well to a graduated recharge. Seen here, this is computer controlled and in “a well-ventilated location”. I suspect a potential problem with the solar recharger. Notice the dampness about the cell plugs? Has something boiled the battery acid? If so, was it the controller? I need to know. Hence, the urge to install that ammeter—and possibly a battery monitor. I can build those, but must learn how they are connected to a scooter.

           I would love to get some chores done but wound up indoors, cutting the metal for my cPod rear panel. I have only my Harbor Freight hand wheel, so each cut takes around eight minutes. About twice that total because you can’t cut continuously for that long.
           By dark, my Florida room smelled like burnt abrasive, my work desk was covered with fine metal cinder, my hair at teeth were gritty and I was happy as hell. This is retirement as it should be. Let’s see, in what, two months or so, I’ve been retired ten years and I’m nowhere near 65. The system is designed, I postulate, to keep the unwary toiling away for life for the slave-masters of banking and industry.

           Some say all happiness is transient, that this could be taken away in a wink. That’s true, but it is like the years I had with the four best women in my life. That happened, and that cannot be taken away. If we all wind up in the same lifeboat, I’ll still be happy enough that at least things went my way long enough that I won’t die wondering if there is such a thing as others only dream about.
           But, you have to make it happen. Sitting around waiting is not the answer. My productivity in life soared only once I didn’t have to get up and go to work. My return to music as a way of life didn’t happen until after I no longer did it for a living. A large part of it is realizing how much of what people consider enjoyable in this life is dictated to them. They live afraid to try anything that is not prescribed by a travel agency or portrayed as clean fun on television.
Enough philosophizin’

NIGHT
           Whenever I have a sneezing fit, I think of the arena in my old home town. It’s probably not there any longer, but in its day it was the best arena anywhere in a 300 mile radius. I saw my first music concert there and it was large enough for indoor rodeos. It was first to have artificial ice in the area and it was a money maker. Arenas were more general purpose when I was a kid.

           It was another arena where I saw my first country-western show, Tommy Hunter. I had to go look that up to make sure I got it right. I got free tickets from a Canadian friend to the show. Hunter’s sidekick was Debbie Lorrie Kaye. He’s only 78 according to Wiki, but he seemed ancient to me when I was a teen.
           But not Debbie Lorrie Kaye. Hang on, I need to look that up as well. Okay, it is Lori. Well, she came on stage and shocked the hell out of me. She was about my age, 4-foot-7, rich, talented, and I was stuck with nothing. She wasn’t all that pretty, but I didn’t know she came from money (Portuguese descent, raised in Bermuda) and could not figure out how she did it. She was rich enough, it seems, to do something Canada is good at: keeping all her information including her birth date off the Internet. She must be about 70 now.

           While searching for her bio, I found the country list of 1965. There’s a tune there ideal for adaptation to electric bass. Buck Owens and his band playing “Buckaroo”. By the next time you get back to us, I will be able to play that song as a bass solo. Half a century too late to make a difference, but at least I’ll finally do it.

           It seems there are two types of oil pressure meters. Mechanical and electric. Both require the removal of a plug or screw, and which screw is not defined for a motor scooter. There is either a pressure sensor or a vacuum tube in tis vent which runs back to the display meter. I would not be surprised if there is no plug on a scooter, but what I would then do is adapt the meter to the oil fill cap.
           Then, with the recommended amount of oil, simply run the engine and see what the meter reads and take that as normal. The battery meter is another matter. It takes some skill to interpret the readings and a knowledge of what the motor is doing at the time. That means one could not connect a meter to and ISP and read the volts from a distant Internet site. You have to know if the motor is running, is it revving, are the headlights on, etc.
           This meter does not provide enough information about the condition of the battery itself. I’ll devote some time into whether robot-style battery monitors could be adapted for such a purpose. That would justify a $35 Arduino. I never did follow up on how to make the clones for $5 each—but largely because I had nothing I could use or sell them for once I had a trunk full of real Arduinos.

ADDENDUM
           The Miami Herald fag rag headlines yet another nobody opposing Trump. Front page. It’s just more confirmation how terrified the proponents of existing corruption are that Trump will win. And he will, again, these people are not “for” anything anymore, they are only “against” Trump. This time, it’s another nobody with another Spanish name who is “outraged by Trump’s unimpeded assent”. Unable to appeal to those millions of people who caused that assent, he attacks Trump. Typical.
           The anti-Trump attack will center on the two Liberal attack themes because Liberals lack the imagination to come up with new ones. Namely, that his popularity is a manipulator fooling all of the people all of the time. Ho-hum. And the ultimate Libtard last-ditch compare him Hitler and playing America like a patsy. And those who support the status quo would know that when they see it.

           And they will boringly all “conclude” the same thing. That Trump can’t possibly win but he will cause other “good people” to lose. Presumable "good", like Hillary, whose life has been based on one scandal after another. I’m not worried for the simple reason all these opponents, sooner or later, have to do the one thing Trump merely has to point out: BORROW MONEY. Since nobody will naturally listen to those jackasses, they will have to spend millions and millions on media ads to slander the Donald.
           All he has to do is ask where they got that money. The wise newspaper would pick up on it and go after the donor, not the donee. Ha, I’m lovin’ ev’ry minnit of it. Keep going with the swift kicks in their asses, Don.


Last Laugh


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