August 21, 2017

Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 21, 2016, she shut up, didn’t she?
Five years ago today: August 21, 2012, justice for Ryan Craig?
Nine years ago today: August 21, 2008, 19,537,400 inches.
Random years ago today: August 21, 2010, laws that prevent foreclosures

           Here I am in Lakeland instead of Nashville. Fifteen years I planned on watching that eclipse over there. Instead, here are my old welding goggles with the lenses removed (to place on the video camcorder), and wondering how this could have happened. The way it went down, I could not have the motorcycle, the trip, and the work on my living room in the same month. If you would know, I took the cheapest option, which was to work on the house. And view the partial eclipse from my nice front yard.

           I tried to video part of it, but my equipment (Vivitar) was not up to the task. All that was futile and reminded me of how preoccupied I’ve become with this house at the expense of my diverse and challenging hobbies. How I would love to take time off and work again with small pieces and small ideas. What? Oh, if you want big ideas, go on-line. Every two-bit operator over there will give you all the big ideas you want. I prefer the smaller ones that have a chance of success. I drove all the way to the library in Bartow because they have better coffee. It’s one of those K-cup machines, top of the line. Good move, today was one of the summer broilers.

           Here’s something you’ve never seen before. This is a radar chip and if you buy a hundred-lot, they are less than $10 each. It’s not the same quality as you’ll find in police radar, but the chips they use sell for $2,950. And that’s just the chip, not the whole radar gun. This less capable chip caught my eye because it can be operated by the Arduino. It’s a full Doppler radar and while it is designed for measuring the speed of moving objects, if I had one, I’d be more inclined to program it to measure distance and direction from a moving base. That is, a robot. Alas, the specs for this chip are Martian to me, that is, too complicated for me to follow. You can buy them from an outfit called Quonset Radar or something like that. Go look it up yourself, I’m too pooped today.

           I found a DVD with a series of TV episodes called “Bordertown”. It seems to be about the adventures of a US sheriff or marshal, I don’t know the difference. He lives across the line from a Canadian border crossing. Sounds like a government sponsored production. But I could not watch more than the first ten minutes. The leading lady spoke English with that horrid eastern Canadian French accent. I can deal with it live, but not a fake version made-for-TV. It was intolerable.
           Fact is, I thought it was a DVD with the series of crime stories from Finland. Where this detective moves up north along the Russian border because he figures it will be quiet. Ah, but you never know the debauchery that goes on in the northern pine forests until you get there. Bedamned if he didn’t pick the major artery into Lappenranta, a Ruskie tourist hotspot complete with illegal dog-racing. If you thought Canada was fun, you haven’t seen Finland.

Picture of the day.
New York City subway, 1969.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           This is termite damage, from y’day. I don’t know from termites, but the damage is always where the floor joist meets the plywood. So far this one area is the worst of the harm and this can be repaired by a sister joist with the new hurricane type hangers. That makes the assumption that the existing floor can be leveled. And I think it can.

           My renovation, as it edges along, will slowly uncover more of these termite nests. What’s seen here is the perimeter of the bathroom wall. Today I crawl under there and examine the plumbing. I already know it is cast iron pipes. If I’m energetic, I’ll get you photos of that. You see, if you find out from me how dirty and dusty this renovation business can be, you will be discouraged to arrive here with a boxcar of daddy’s money and wipe me out.

           But I could have used a hand standing up that wall. It’s quite hefty but you know what I can’t find? My vibrating saw, you know the one that has the 20,000 rpm cutting bit. It’s in the shed, I’m sure, but where? I need it to remove some trim work that will butt up against the my new work. I’ll get some more progress photos, just don’t be expecting anything momentous to happen unless I uncover dinosaur eggs in the walls. This house-upgrading field is monotonous. Feel free to contribute anything stories you’d like to pass the time. I had to make a special trip downtown just to get more 3-1/4” spikes and that tired me out. Siesta it is.

           Later, maybe standing that wall by myself wasn’t such a smart idea. A better plan might be to sit in an easy chair and read complicated textbooks. I made two or three stabs at setting the wall upright but did not succeed until later this evening. I don’t even have an easy chair since I left Broward, so I settled for reading information about how these people calculated the eclipses and their paths. My aching back later, I still have pretty much no idea how they do it. No easy chair? What kind of lowdown is Florida trying to make me? That does it. Soon as I can, I’m buying that rock-a-lounger chair of my dreams, mind you, that is contingent on me finishing this new bedroom. Then even later I found the vibrating saw when I stepped on one of the blades. So things worked out after all.

           This is the 2x6 header being built up, shown here is the 2x4 spreader between the planks. You get a good view of the quality of the oak flooring here. That’s all coming up in a few days. I did frame this wall but it took three days. I’m fine, but I know not to push the parameters and about 15 minutes of this brand of labor is my limit on a really good day. The great progress this past few days is more from lining up the work so the 15 minutes is the most productive.

Quote of the Day:
“Repeat after me,
‘We are all individuals’.”
~ any college psych class.
           It went over my limit, but I did get the wall stood up in place. Nearby you should find a composite photo of this, part of a progress report sent to JZ. As stated earlier, both walls are in place simultaneously to make sure the rafters are always supported. It looks like this arrangement will work fine, the wall fit right into place, although the un-even-ness of the floor means I will have to tweak things a little.

           The bad news is that I pounded twelve nails into this built-up header and that was my limit. Twelve lousy nails. This, peeps, is why I underline that I am learning the process, not intending to do it for a living. Yes, it seems unfair to me that I can’t do any of the kind of work I like, such as this framing carpentry. But I can hardly supervise others to do it if I don’t know how myself—although I’m certain I’ve worked for people that were bastard enough to try such things. This type of work is around the only arena where I can handle the stress level and that leaves me nowhere. I can’t support myself on 15 minutes work per day. I am, however, pleased with what I’ve accomplished here. It surprised me.

           If you see the photo, I was able to stitch it and you’ll see light from parts coming through the old wall from parts of the drywall knocked down in the old bathroom. The obvious feature is the big cutout for the new medicine cabinets. I’m looking for the ones that lock. I’ve heard of them but never seen them. Anyway, I respect that other people may not want everybody reading their prescription labels and expect the same in return.
           That’s why locking medicine cabinets are a boon. In the alternative, the walls on either side of the new cabinets are large enough for recessed shelves the size of small cabinets, so that is another option: locking cabinets along the sides, regular cabinets in front. I still don’t know if the new space created by the wall will be big enough for two sinks. It’s exactly five feet wide.

           So you’ll know, I e-mailed everybody I knew about my decision to use this wall to support the overhang created by the bathroom extension. I don’t really know any engineers, but the consensus is I’m okay here. The thing is, nobody knows any more about it that I do, so I handled the situation as best I know how. That means I bought a bag of trail mix, walked out to the front yard and sat there for a while. How was your Monday?

ADDENDUM
           Then I thought of something. I’m still a rookie at celestial navigation, but I know how to calculate the “geographic position”. That’s the spot on the Earth’s surface that the Sun is directly above at any moment. Well, that means that all of the other sky objects follow the same rule, including the Moon. Ergo, why don’t I calculate the GP of both objects, as an intellectual exercise? To see if, during an eclipse, they are both, at least by calculation, roughly above the same spot on the Earth. I mean, obviously it will work out, but how many blogsters do you know that will attempt this computation? I mean, just to see what I come up with. Maybe gain an appreciation of what the people who made the Almanacs were up against?
           To assist with this calculation, which will take around 15 minutes, I re-read several of my books on navigation. I don’t have any current-year Nautical Tables, but they are available on-line. The real tables have become rare and expensive thanks to GPS. This eclipse is, they say, the most viewed in history, and also the most commercialized. Thank the Internet for that. There are countless maps that show the path of totality. If I know the diameter of that “dot”, I could find its center and, in theory, calculate the distance to the Moon based on the assumption the Sun is an infinite distance away and also a single point.
           Oh, and before I get the anticipated flak from the cynic gallery, I point out that I did not claim I was first or original with this calculation. Only that I came up with the concept without any outside influence. As far as I know, which is a considerable condition I’m placing on myself here, I would to the best of my knowledge, be the first and only blog to make and publish this information. That’s if I do it, I mean, this does involve celestial arithmetic.


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