May 27, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 27, 2021, equal but separate.
Five years ago today: May 27, 2017, my first terabyte drive.
Nine years ago today: May 27, 2013, but it’s an American holiday!!!
Random years ago today: May 27, 2007, never trust MicroSoft.

           I knew it wasn’t that difficult just like I knew they tried to make it so. Today, on my first independent try, I got a dead lawnmower running. There’s more to it but the guy showed me once and I was on my own. It finally happened that I got the needed two hour instructions on how to actually do the job and from here on in all that’s lacking is expereience. This picture shows the air cleaner assembly from the Reb’s Honda mower. I guessed right that most of the time these things don’t run it is a carb problem. Who remembers when I tried to learn carbs on my own? Every source knew what I wanted to learn and every one let me down.

           Worst were the on-line how-to videos. They show you a carburetor already taken off the mower and on the shelf bench, duh. True, technically the video did not lie yet they were still azzclowns with that stunt. Or the shop that sold me an old carb to work on myself to see if that helped. Now I know it was just the housing, they had stripped all the working parts away knowing damn well that was wrong.

           Today, I met Lem, a backyard mechanic up the street, and his wife. He’s got the workshed to dream of, including overhead hoists and plenty of indoor work space. Over time, he’s got a reputation for fixing things and sometimes he’ll return home to find mowers and such just left in his driveway. People donate it, for like myself, it is just something they cannot fix. Today, I watched—and--learned the complete process from see it it will fire up to test-mowing strips of the back yard. Alas, in a day or two, I’m out of here not to return for months. So I had to learn fast.

           Importantly, I also picked up on which conditions were fixable by what was covered today in six hours. What parts are needed, where to order others, what to salvage if the machine is cratered, and a good idea of how much time to spend on each phase. Predictably, the carburetors were the most interesting to me. Mechanically they are ingenious and I still don’t have the feel for fine-tuning them, but I can get them to work and that’s the end of a barrier that’s existed for me seemingly forever.

           In the process, I found the tiny parts inside the carburetor to be the challenge. If you can see it, this next picture shows the aluminum cup that contains the float valve that regulates the fuel flow to the spray nozzles. Funny how I knew the parts and principles but until now, not the procedure. Other than some specialized or handy tools, the shed back at my cabin has everything needed to get this type of work done. Before any dancing and drinks, let me explain something. I don’t intend to do this even as a hobby.
           What’s happened so often is I’ve turned away an easy hundred bucks because of the above situation. I’ve also witnessed men get greasy and grimy from doing this for a living. I lacked the knowledge how to cherry-pick the easiest repairs over others who didn’t know what I just learned, if that makes sense. I never intend to get into it up to my elbows and for that matter, I don’t like even the image of the sweaty mechanic covered in oil. Since I last looked, lawnmowers of any quality just went from $135 to $450 and that’s enough to get my attention. Remember that weedeater that would not start? I’ll get it running now and report back to you.

Picture of the day.
Japanese scarlet maple.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Six hours. That’s how long I was on my feet today without a rest, which is another record. I have not spent that kind of time working standing up since my 30s and would not have liked it that much even then. Here’s the serial plate info from a mystery mower that the Internet will make much easier to troubleshoot. I’m already able to notice parts that share a source, like that Honda motor on a Ryobi mower. This apprenticeship blitz was so important to me I got myself in hot water. I neglected some other chorese, one of which was not feeding the turtle this morning. You don’t do that without repercussions. I got the flak, yessiree.

           I got home by mid-afternoon and packed for my trip. Computer torn down, stowed in the shed along with the tools from last week. I put some work into the Taurus to fix up small parts like that loose ash-tray cover and shined up the windows, plus putting the ad on-line. I did not care for Facebook marketplace so it was back to good old CL (Craigslist) with all the scammers and slopes, the first wholesale American generation of scammers. I further got the van loaded, including the washer and dryer. They fit with enough room to spare for the mini-fridge and other things I’ve long intended to haul back. But this means a direct run home, no sightseeing or stopping for more than coffee.

           Then the Reb got me out for dinner. I was exhausted by evening, but shown here we worked out way through $50 in Thai food. Yes, these are the empty dishes, you’ll have to look much faster to see any food when I’m this hungry. My old-fashioned Thai phrases and such came back to me and I had the staff singing old songs (we knew everybody in the restaurant). I’m pretty rusty, though, often recalling only the first lines but it was still quite the shocker in a way. As Reb puts it, some guys have to be different even if they have to be different to do it.
           It turned into a larger gathering as other people we know by now showed up. By now, I was zonked and no company, especially with noisy kids. While the Thai food was super-authentic, they’ve toned down the spice levels to Yankee tastes. I had a red curry paste rated 4 out of 5. On the real Thai scale, it was a 1. Thai food has a balance to the way it is prepared, so adding hot sauce afterward does not produce a blended result, but go ahead. The place also serves sushi so you can scorch your tongue ten different ways.

ADDNEDUM
           Wal*Mart finally announced drone delivery, partially. Here’s a pic of something in your future as well as the drug trade as we know it. There can be no doubt this system will be abused and in true milliennial shit-for-brains fashion, there will be zero standards set in advance and the cstrategies that emerge will be Kindle-style incompatible. These things will crash and burn and be used to deliver things much more dtoxic than GMO tomatoes.
           Called DroneUp, the contraption does not actually land. It lowers the payload by winch. Either will be great target practice. The groupthink design and implementation has already begun to show its flaws, in that while the flight time is up to 30 minutes, it can be three hours before your order arrives, not that great when you ordered bog roll. Some might argue that the concept is still in its infancy. But they are thinking of the way America used to be, when time brought improvement.

           The $15 per hour crowd is blubbering again, that workers deserve a living wage. That’s bull, the worker has a duty to learn a trade or skill in return for such a wage. I never groused because of my wage, but because I was not allowed to learn a skill—the opposite of millennials and hipsters who want something for nothing. The reason earlier generations got paid more for the same work is easy to explain. They had the brain power to make decisions and make exceptions. Today’s “customer service” jerkwads can only quote the rulebook.
           Which raises an issue I read a lot on my feeds lately, that Boomers are responsible for the job shortage. Nonsense, over my career the majority of my audience has been Boomers and except for a couple of real write-offs, I’ve never met a Boomer who was in favor of immigration. They all wanted to slam the gates shut knowing that people no longer came to America to be Americans. Until somebody can show me a sizeable faction of tax-paying Boomers who favored immigration, that concept remains an urban legend, and for the Democrats a convenient one.

Last Laugh