One year ago today: July 27, 2016, I’m insulating that floor.
Five years ago today: July 27, 2012, Alaine & batbike.
Nine years ago today: July 27, 2008, why this blog rules.
Random years ago today: July 27, 2007, I prefer money to compliments.
I finally invested in a battery load tester. Even if you are unfamiliar with the theory, by now you know that batteries can be nearly dead and still test full voltage on a meter. You need to get a current flow to measure the amps. That’s what this device does, I got the Harbor Freight model that has a calibrated needle instead of a readout. I looked into the centrifuge schematics and I think I can build one without the Arduino. Instead I have this big fat capacitor from a dryer. The primary reason for the Arduino was to prevent a massive jerk when the power is turned on. Anyway, humor me along with this project a bit, it keeps me out of the coffee shop.
This is the type of machine I wanted before I got the electric bicycle. The gasoline type is not for everybody and the shortcomings of this adaptation are rarely published. You should know the 80cc is a bored out 50cc motor and as such, it gets very hot. So does the muffler and muffler pipe, which have to port where you pedal. You will get a nasty burn until you learn to avoid that position. The gas tanks have a tendency to leak, chances are you will replace the factory model with something better very soon. Unlike the electric bike, there is no pedal assist. You get a clutch lever to release the drive chain.
Other than that, there is no gear mechanism. If you want to go fast, you have to a feed it more gas. The whole arrangement is a bit harder to pedal if you ever run dry due to the weight of the gas engine. There is usually a built in cargo rack, but what kind of box you want to mount is up to you. The owner of this pictured unit says on occasion he has got it up to 26 mph. As usual, I question the wisdom of traveling that fast on any bicycle in Florida. That’s due to the less than satisfactory situation with the roadways and the other drivers.
[Author’s note: here’s a aside to people on the mailing list. The reports you receive are identical to this blog, but in monochrome. This is stated top of the first page. As for the quality, it is not set low because you are second-class on the lists, it is because anything sent by regular mail is designed to be easily replaced. I have not, in a half-century of writing, ever had a letter come back to my return address, so I quit using them in 1999. That’s how I found out letters missing a return are intentionally delayed by the post office for up to nine days. So the presence of a return address means nothing. Not one of you except Harry has ever sent me a letter, meaning the return address is wherever I was living back in the days we met. If you want to contact me, you know how, and it ain’t by mail.]
Trivia. The word “nerd” was invented by Dr. Seuss. And did you know the Mayflower was eventually dismantled and the wood used for a barn?
Akureyri.
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Okay, ladies, this is why men don’t stop and ask for directions. At Key Largo weekend before last, we had originally thought of stopping at a sort of famous place we’d been before. The one with all the different drinking levels, like a playhouse for adults. Some name like “Biker’s Heaven” or such. But by the time we’d traveled almost to the end of the island, we didn’t see it. That’s when we stopped for directions. Not just random street people, who might be tourists, but the local Publix market, where the locals shop. The island has not yet been touched by multi-culturalism, so the crime rate is low and everybody speaks the official language. All told, a safe bet on who to ask, the more considering the lack of jobs on the island, anybody who works there is probably a local.
Not that we missed a good time, but there was a chance of meeting women at the biker bar. There is no chance at Alabama Jack’s. Any unattached female at Jack’s would be there with her parents or her grandchildren. However slim the odds of connecting, JZ and I would still have taken the chance. You don’t give up hope just because nothing worth keeping has come along in twenty years. Guys, over fifty is not the time to be meeting women by asking them out to dinner. You’d better devise some smarter strategy. I say that because both the women near our age category at Jack’s behaved like they were there to get the free meal out of somebody they’d met on-line.
I’m serious. These women would remind you of ninth grade guidance class, where the counselor tried to convince the girls they could take lessons on being good company. Remember those sessions? Where you were supposed to be attracted to a girl’s personality? Just you head over to Alabama Jack’s and see how shaky things get when that theory is put into practice. My idea of Internet dating is you will be the first man she never hopped into the sack with on the first date, and will cost you a C-note as she cross-examines you on all the bullshit your wrote in your ad.
Here is your unknown microscope object for the day. This is at 1000x, so it is tiny. It’s not a virus, but I suspect it is crystalline in makeup. See addendum for answer.
Having some paperwork to finish, I put on the old move, “A Bridge Too Far”. I’ve only seen parts of it before, but it contains many classic lines. Like the German general who watches the airdrop who says, “Just once to have such power in my hand.” Or the immortal reply when an underling suggests to Model that instead of Patton, the attack might be led by Montgomery, “Even Eisenhower isn’t that stupid.”
This is a good spot to remind the reader of the huge propaganda element of the western version of the war. In the post war interviews with the roughly 800 German military brass (the generals and admirals), only six or so of them had ever heard of George Patton. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I have written them in this blog before. My point is, our big war heroes were practically unknown outside of the Hollywood movie studios. The war was really fought in Russia, all after 1941 was pretty much a sideshow.
This quiet day was also a chance to deep listen to some of the newer tunes I’ve got on my list. I didn’t want to tell you, but last Tuesday I did not go to the open mic. The excuse was that the trip is too far, but the reality of it all is I was too tired. If this happens more than twice a year, I’m concerned. That’s once. When I deep listen, it is to catch any nuances that I missed in the first passes. That’s how my learning curve operates. A quick series of end-to-end listenings to get the song structure and feel. This is where I found most guitar players stop.
I like to go further, to listen for any tiny idiosyncrasies, such as the way the Judd’s change notes slightly ahead of the chords or the way that Bobby Darin slides into the next phrase without taking a breath. This follows my tradition of trying to include these details because you can never be sure if that isn’t what made it a hit. Just you try to explain that to some guitar players. Especially the ones who leave off the intros, drop chords, or comp behind the vocals. They are so hopeless they don’t know.
“Nothing is fun until you are good at it.”
~ Amy Chua
Here’s a Vivitar (out-of-focus photo) of the battery load tester. I’m surprised by my fan mail how many thought I meant a charger. No, this is the device that measures the amount of electrical pressure the battery puts out. You’ll know this by the presence of a spring-loaded normally off switch. See lower left. I should be Mr. Nice Guy and tell you how to work this puppy. The manual that comes in the package is worse than useless. For now, you hook up the battery and hold the button “on” for a few seconds. This allows the battery to “push” electricity through the copper wire inside the grill on top, by my thumb. You read the needle, hopefully it is in the small green area at the 1:00 o’clock position. That’s your cranking amps.
Okay, my new scale. This should be an Internet first. How difficult, on a scale of one to ten, is it to operate battery diagnostic equipment? On this hypothetical scale, the one position represents playing billiards and ten represents proof-reading machine language computer code. I chose those because they are familiar enough to imagine even for people who haven’t done either. So, where does battery diagnostics score? I’d say around 3.1, which still puts it out of range for most people. On this same scale, I would put celestial navigation, or at least the part of that topic that I studied for a year, at 7.8 or 7.9.
Now don’t get discouraged, anyone. I’m talking about learning the subject well enough to have in-depth understanding of the theory to the degree necessary for independent thought. That extreme isn’t necessary to get a job. So relax, millennials, this and any skill can be learned by rote memory as long as you have enough time and student loan money. What’s this I hear of a mass movement to collectively default on all student loans? You types never did have the lerts to know when you are setting yourselves up. Default, and in the end you’ll wind up paying triple.
ADDENDUM
Admittedly, this is not a mystery object. But what is unknown to me is how it is actually used. It will open a can like you see in the movies, by zig-zagging it around the rim, but this is so cumbersome I must be doing it wrong. I want to know what all the other parts are for. I think the bent piece is for non-twist-off soda pop caps. Now explain the pointy piece on top.
Put the DIY centrifuge on hold. There is a doctor’s office an hour from here that has two for sale, plus the tubes and beakers. Brand names, so I might treat myself. If you want to help, one thing I’m can’t find at the library or on line is a beginner’s text on how to test things like blood. I already know what the parts look like and their names, that’s the easy part. I want to know how a lab tests this stuff. I was on the verge of learning that when I lent out my microscope. Now, a search just brings up a ton of grade-school mind-clutter, like NOVA or BBC hogwash.
The mystery object under the lens is a particle of dust on the surface of a DVD disk. At first I mused it might be an inclusion in the material, but then I remembered these disks are made in a clean room. I can’t view opaque objects at any higher resolution so it seems to me if this speck was anywhere near the size of the pits in the sandwich, it would be service-affecting. But it isn’t because this disc of classical music plays properly. The pits are far too small to view with an optical scope. Still, I had to try, didn’t I?
Last Laugh
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