One year ago today: July 8, 2017, make that “older women would”.
Five years ago today: July 8, 2013, early thoughts on 3D printing.
Nine years ago today: July 8, 2009, not all trivia is knowledge.
Random years ago today: July 8, 2015, must learn 30 songs.
Here’s a shot to wake you up this Sunday morning. The repainted scooter that is red in this photo, but more orange in real life. This is the battery key inserted in the cutoff device featured y’day. The key will fall out by itself in this “off” position, so it will be hard wired into place shortly. I cannot think of any other way to not wind up losing the key, so the challenge to the potential thief will be to figure out which order the four steps are needed to get the motor to fire. They are ignition key on, motor cutoff switch on, battery cutoff switch on, and finally hit the starter switch which is wired in a similar fashion on the left side of the scooter. The starter button quit working years ago and the only easy way to stop the engine is the cutoff key. Nobody uses that, so it can be baffling to even an experienced scooter driver.
[Author’s note: here’s a better depiction of the cutoff key being installed. These are representative photos of the visible part, the actual installation and wiring is more involved. These photos are not a matching set, either. The last panel shows a keychain not fitted until the following day.]
I was up early reviewing the mortgage reinstatement documents. They are comprehensive and best read start to finish, then back over clause by clause. The logic is often circular. Without giving away any identifying information, basically, it is a government program to help people whose income dropped (but did not stop completely) after they signed a mortgage. I disagree with this in theory, they hired the money, didn’t they? But carrying on, the money is in the form of a forgiveable loan, backed by both a promissory note and a subservient mortgage, in this case it is a second mortgage.
The way it works is the mortgage is reinstated, then the homeowner, now in the black, makes 18 consecutive payments, at which point 20% of the loan is forgiven. The annually for the next four years of successful payments, an additional 20% is forgiven. Thus, 65 months from now, January 2024 I believe, the loan becomes a grant, and, if my instructions are followed, the house is paid off. Remind me to run a spreadsheet on that one. Anyway, the note and the second mortgage tell us the fund has been ripped off before and these are astute measures to make sure things go as intended.
I sketched and laid out more of the plumbing and I see that rather than just fix the broken hot water line, the idea is to completely rough in the entire system. It saves work in the long run, and trust me, anybody can run in plastic plumbing lines. Now, we are talking water lines, not drain lines, which follow a more stringent code. Incoming lines are pressurized and don’t need slopes and traps. And stick around for the fake “dovetail box” I built, it is in the shed drying the glue. It is to become a “medicine chest” for small parts. I have lots of those trays for nuts and bolts, but for medium size items, I’ve always used recycled pill bottles.
And one of those bottles contains the valve stem tool I can’t find. So, time to build a custom box that holds lots of medicine bottles. Twenty-eight of them. I’ve got lots. A simple diagram on the inside of the lid tells me where to find the contents. It is a rough construction, a first learning project, and I think it will work out neat. I leave for band rehearsal in two hours, so how far will I get with this?
Later, no rehearsal. Twood did not answer his phone for the confirmation call, so I wound up in the east end coffee shop a couple of hours trying to reach him. It could be anything but I doubt he’d quit. I’ve always got something to do but I’d rather be playing music. After nightfall, I began feeling queasy, a symptom I so rarely have that any instance is concern. An upset tummy on and empty stomach? I’ve got the dang influenza. A massive sneezing bout confirms this. Don’t we all love a summer cold?
Airport, Beijing.
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Sniffles or not, I continued with the water system, drawing up a list of materials. I curled up with the old chicken soup remedy and actually read the chapter on what is fashionable to wear when invited onto a yacht. My condition is what they’d call steadily worsening. And it’s the sort that goes straight to the upper shoulders. No sleep for this puppy. Let’s recount what I did for excitement in central Florida. I called up some gals and chatted them up, but nobody wanted to catch anything. Then, I went through a box of old locks and matched them up with keys. How much longer can I keep up this wild pace?
Odd symptoms, a stuffy head, tommy ache, but no fever. I played it safe and worked on the house. It would require just one additional line to have one of those recirculating hot water pumps. The one that keeps hot water flowing in all the lines so that every tap is instant on. I went through the Grainger catalog and found every kind of pump imaginable. Pool pumps, spa pumps, bilge pumps, fountain pumps, fire engine pumps, fuel pumps, mining pumps, barrel pumps, and washing machine pumps a.k.a impellors.
I rarely buy anything from Grainger, I think I told you that. Their prices are too sky-high. But their catalog is a dandy reference manual before you head over to Harbor Freight for the cheap knock-offs. This was the quiet evening off I missed last Friday. I’m still convinced American manufacturers have plotted together to quit putting a decent brand of instant coffee on the market. The quality of it all is horrid compared to what I remember.
This is one of the racks intended to hold the bottle in my ‘medicine chest’. I have two of those trays with the plastic slide-out drawers. But they are flimsy and the drawers are not easy to slide out and take with you. On the other hand these bottles have proven to be the right size for hardware on most small projects. This is one of two trays that will hold 28 bottles. Don’t look too close, these have just been rough drilled with my birdhouse door bit. They are a perfect fit for the bottles from CVS. And that is the motive for this single large box. I’ve wasted too much time hunting down the specific bottle I need.
What’s more, these pill bottles have the adult-proof caps. They are an idiotic design, anyone who travels knows these caps will come loose inside your luggage. The lid on this chest is measured to keep the caps in place with a fitted swatch of foam rubber. For hardware, I’ve long had a habit of stripping the door handles and such off curbside furniture. This is detracting me from working on the hot water, but do I sound worried? I need these side hobby projects to keep me happy.
Why did I slip on that terrible DVD “He’s Just Not That Into You”. It was as bad as the first time, the ancient meaningful relationship theme. Marriage is not what it was, and I’m not specifying good or bad. The pill, equal rights, and turning it into a legal contract have made it dangerous territory for men. This movie ignores these harsh facts and dwells totally on the woman’s view of a relationship. I’ve had perfectly satisfying relationships with women where marriage was never discussed. Nor did we photosynthesis, tapioca pudding, or flying to the moon. It’s these women with a hidden agenda that cause the problems. On the other hand, I’ve dumped a goodly share of women who too obviously wanted a commitment so they could quit having to be so nice all the time.
So, do I believe in marriage. Yes, but only if the man wants it. One sided? Not really. I think, on average, both parties in a divorce are emotionally stung, but that cannot be quantified. Not so with the financial part. When half the time the woman gets stuck supporting the man after a divorce, I’ll take another look at equality. That last year I lived in Los Angeles, 1991, I saw the results of serial divorce, childless women collecting alimony from five or six ex-husbands. True, the men were stupid, but the system wasn’t helping the matter. Children do complicate things, but all too often I’ve seen child support go to boob jobs, facelifts, and spa memberships.
Advice? Sure, ladies. If your objective is a marriage ceremony, state it loud, clear, and often right after you meet the guy. But that scene with Aniston railing on the guy after seven years, what the hell? She tells him she is tired of living a lie, like it was his fault she did that. Women who pull that stunt deserve to live with cats. But one thing I can tell you after 15 years at the phone company, there are few things more annoying than being around women over 25 who are husband-hunting. They are one conniving bunch and they have a lot of nerve blaming men when they lose a game or two.
While all that drama is flying around, I stubbed in the water heater lines. Doing it right takes a little longer. While I’m crawling around under there is the time to fix it permanently. I salvaged a bunch of copper fittings, all of which require a flaring tool that I don’t have. I almost have enough parts to finally construct that passive solar water heater. And soon I’ll also have the know-how. There’s a photo of me using one of those PVC cutting tools. They work neat.
ADDENDUM
Now I have one of the strangest coincidences I have ever seen, and you know my feelings on such twists. This dates back to last August 28. You may have to think this through. Okay, that date last year was when I decided to coach Agt. R to begin putting money away at a certain rate, every payday. The amount was instinct alone, since I knew nothing about his finances, mortgage APR, balances, nothing. He was to report to me every Friday with the deposit slip and has done so. He has since become the only person I ever knew whose bank manager personally congratulated him.
By Sept-Oct of 2017, he was swamped with buyout offers from the bottom-feeders, which went into my trash. As you know, one of them had said something about ‘funding available’, so in an uncharacteristic action, next day I fished it out. We sent if off, it was the only one of dozens we responded to. By December, they were asking for more information, and who do we know that has a knack for filling out forms? Sign here, here, and here. One thing led to another, and it was not until y’day morning that the documents arrived. The only number I knew before was the amount the mortgage was behind, called the arrearage. So, I took that amount and subtracted it from the principle balance after the loan was applied. That leaves the amount he must pay to get rid of that mortgage. How long should he plan to pay it down? Well, the first spreadsheet I ran was the period of the loan forgiveness, that is, 65 months.
Are you still with me? Basically, I ran a mortgage what-if using numbers and conditions that were unknown until a day ago. I’m seeking the amount that he must put away weekly to make monthly payments until January of 2024. My goal was to maximize the terms under which aforesaid loan is 100% forgiven and get that mortgage off his back. I wanted to compare that solution with the number I had picked out of the air ten months ago. Are you ready? Believe it or not.
I was just 16 cents off.
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