September 22, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 22, 2019, on memory requirements.
Five years ago today: September 22, 2015, 50/1000ths of a second.
Nine years ago today: September 22, 2011, the average is “broke”.
Random years ago today: September 22, 2008, less overhead, that’s why.

           What morning? Ha, it was taken up putting the car back together. What? No, I never said the job was complete last evening, only that the water pump was installed. That alone takes something like 13 bolts, around 4 of which cannot be seen when you are holding a wrench. Fun. But if it works, I’ll have just saved $500 and the car is slated to operated for another 22,000 miles without major problems. I don’t like how the radiator people forgot that transmission hose and I had to drive 2,000 miles before they fixed it. The good news is of the $1,000 per year budgeted to keep this car on the road, this year I’ve spent less than $130 (flat tires are not classified here as maintenance).

           Here’s the water pump installed, it’s all bright and shiny compared to the rest. For the non-mechanics like myself, that’s it just slightly below left center. The pulleys and belt are not installed yet, which took two hours for me. It’s a Ford, so often a mistake is not obvious until you’ve gone past it, which twice meant taking a part back off. I’ve said it before, I don’t participate in the argument which is better, Ford or Chev, as they are both difficult-to-repair and built as cheaply as possible.
           Wait, there's more. Moments later, the water pump shown here had to be ripped back out and re-installed.

           There was a rattle when first started up, turned out to be a loose pulley, the exact type of mistake I make so it was easy to find. Another problem, however. You know how over the past few trips, I’d get an overheating problem, which I’d top up and it would go away? This was considered part of the water pump needing replacing. Then today, on the test run, what do I find but a solid leak and it is under the radiator area. Since we did not touch any of those hoses, I wonder it was a slow leak now made larger by the new water pump. Actually, I know hoses are expensive, but I hope that is all it is.

           No, I won’t buy a new car, probably ever again. So accept this manner of repair as normal. I talked to JZ again and he thinks he got a good deal spending $500 on his new pump. That’s one substantial difference between that man and myself. He would see this whole episode as a foul-up and a nuisance, where I see it as adventure. If I can’t find that leak today, it might spur me to buy those ramps I’ve always wanted. Anything is better than spending hundreds of dollars every month just to have something new. Afterward got me thinking, if it was formerly a slow leak just discovered now, it would explain more than a few things.

           This is later, and you may hear more about it. The car ran, yet there was an annoying small leak nobody could pinpoint. So tomorrow, I will tell you American style how the problem was solved. Yes, we found the leak, which involved completely tearing off al the previous work and starting over. Only because there were so many people involved, I took no pictures of my own mistake. But all the work of y’day had to be taken apart and put back together. That’s a ton of hard effort, but it turned into a block party. I am completely out of chicken, corn, and iced tea. Nine cobs of corn, actually 18 half-cobs between 12 kids. Keep reading, I mean roughly 12 kids. They don’t stay still long enough to count them.

Picture of the day.
2nd richest person in Ireland
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
           What is the definition of a block party? We kind of found out the easy way. I could not find the leak, which meant the neighbor was over, who called his pal for a look-see, which led to a mechanic type guy, who would not take $5 for gas. Here’s what happened, you can decide for yourself, I’m just writing down the parts I think were the best. This is spur of the moment, unedited, so screw anyone who forms an opinion beyond what I say.

           Stay with me here. Initially we could not find that leak, everything checked out. Dave called over his buddy, who knew a mechanic, who showed up not alone. Shortly thereafter, things transformed into the fabled block party. I’ll can provide the stats, you can fill in your own blanks. I’ll make this brief. Present were 3 hillbillies, 2 wives, 1 girlfriend, 12 kids (maybe 14), 3 kid-sized motorcycles, 32 cans of beer, 36 chicken drumsticks, 2 quarts of iced tea. 3 dogs, 3 guitars, and Matilda, of course. Again, few pictures but this shows Dave & his wife, suitably blurred, and the hood up on the Taurus.

           This is why I allowed 48 hours lead time. I’ll do some shopping tomorrow, I think I have like one potato left in the house. What happened was on the first try, one tiny piece of the gasket got folded back on itself. Yeppers, all that hard work from y’day had to be ripped back out, the alternator, the pulley, the tensioner, and the hoses as well as the radiator tank, yank the pump, and put it all back together again. Fun. But since we’d done it before and a mechanic was present, it was three hours and done. He had the old piece off in the time I scootered downtown to get the new gasket. Shown here is the gasket removed, I’m pointing to the tiny spot that got folded over on itself. So technically, if I had paid for this chore, it would have cost $1,000. (The other damage to the gasket was from removing it.)
           Kind of imagine the scenario, everybody talking at once and the only toys I had for the kids to play with were three old guitars that would not really stay in tune. Mind you, I got the only girl present to actually play a song (Jambalaya) which got everybody singing and doubled the size of the party. She’s got actual real talent, so I’m going to have one of the guitars fixed so she can continue. By now I was out of house and home, so the last batch of iced tea I froze in styrofoam cups, the closest thing I have to Halloween treats.

           Now the dogs, including Cash, the neighborhood watch dog, thinks he’s one of the kids. Two guys are working under the hood while I’m on the ground looking for the source of the leak and the dog thinks I’m playing. I got dog slobber on my head and behind my ears. Dave has just inherited 56 acres up in Tennessee, turns out that’s what he was doing there. He cannot subdivide, but he is allowed to develop. I explained how the law worked because he thought the no-divide rule meant he could not build anything. Um, a man can never have enough small barn buildings on his land in Tennessee. Then his face lights up, he remembered that he had also inherited a small log mill. It’s like a lumber mill for cutting logs. I had better talk to the Reb about this.
           I had years ago done a study of log cabins, which I still have, and a spreadsheet on the costs per log of running a mill is nothing for a management accounting. If I recall, it takes just 64 logs to build a really decent cabin. The wood has to be stacked and seasoned a year in advance. Apparently the land is mountainous, but has plenty of flat spots. For a guy like me, such an inheritance would have been a goldmine. For all I know, he inherited one of those, too.

ADDENDUM
           How do you like the new libtard “home education” software? The on-line test exam feature says it is designed to “prevent cheating”. Sound familiar? In reality, it installs itself on your computer and alters your registry. It locks your camera to stream directly to teachers and shuts off social media, ,ncluding Zoom. Many sources say it has no privacy mode or privacy policy. This, folks, is what the Biden-Kamala admin has in mind for your future—although they would howl like crazy if somebody tried to apply the same stringency to the November voting.
           Economists are saying Trump’s first term is “bleak” because he curbed globalism and put in tariffs. I think they mean Democrat economists. I’ll gladly pay $86 for a $40 battery if it means America does not become like the most of the world. A former youTube moderator is suing for PTSD, saying constantly viewing graphic images is harmful. The solution, of course, is to let people who enjoy murder, beheadings, and child abuse staff the position. Move the headquarters to New York City with it’s ideal labor pool. I’ve got ten bucks says the plaintiff is female.

           As for the report of a second-hand TV knocking out Internet service for 18 months in Aberhosan, Wales, the old couple promised not to use it again. The problem occurred every morning at 7:00AM sharp. The old couple don’t know what they’ve got. On that television set, I’ll start the bidding at $1,000. And how about Civvl, the latest American company specializing in evicting people behind on rent due to COVID. You think Biden is bad, you should see what the milliennials have in mind for their long-term business model. Hint, it is based on knowing every aspect of your privacy and the threat of cancel culture if you dare to oppose them. Sounds even more familiar.
           Another NASA disaster plan. They want nearly $30 billion to got back to the Moon, when for a fraction of that we could have been on Mars by 1978. Why so much money? Because NASA has been millennialized. They no longer want to put a man on the Moon, they want to put a “human” there. Like all the real scientists in the world are so concerned a woman gets there. That will be the most expensive factor, since the flight is planned for “the end of 2024”, so Trump will be gone and she can be a lesbian. Am I against lesbians? Nope, I’m against astronauts making it an issue.
           But I’ll tell you something. The Democrats are crooked players, but they are fantastically bad at recovering when anybody else plays their own game back at them. Trump has shown that a amateur can do a better job than the most seasoned professional politicians, who’ve had their chance and blew it. Besides, in 2024 our first woman President just might be Melania. How sweet that revenge would be for what the liberals have done to this country. The liberals have undermined out system, so other reasons the Moon flight will cost so much include:

           The caliber of education is so bad there are no longer a pool of Neil Armstrong types.
           The crew will be chosen for their compliance to imaginary social norms, like Facebook.
           Low IQ crews means increased reliance on automated systems programmed in C+.

           NASA will never admit the Space Shuttle was a fiasco. Just you watch, the Moon plan will include yet another expensive shuttle-supplied space station, money that is as good as poured down the drain. There is even a plan called Gateway(?) to put a space station around the Moon. It’s money that could better be spent establishing a permanent Moon surface base years sooner than planned, if only because such a base is necessary in the first place if we want to go to Mars. I believe most of what is needed to survive on the Moon exists in its structure, including oxygen, water, and gravity. Besides, isn’t Gateway a computer with a cow logo?

Last Laugh