February 27, 2023

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 27, 2022, $4.50 a gallon.
Five years ago today: February 27, 2018, 1-5/8” out of square.
Nine years ago today: February 27, 2014, the dreaded gasohol.
Random years ago today: February 27, 2003, dislikes educated people.

           Finally, (Internet) service is restored and my news feeds are backed up. What’s this, people over 40 who are single are not as bothered by it as they used to be? These millennials turned out to be real research hounds, always delving into the relevant issues of our day. I got to missing the old home-spun radio shows with phone-in shopping so I tuned into a Texas station. The state where callers routinely forget their own phone number. The fifth caller was selling a used fire engine, asking $75,000. Certified for use by the Air Force. Thank goodness I have some yard work to get on with.

           I’m checking in with Caltier, that’s caltier.fund and notice that the domain name caltier.com is upped in price to $15,000. Good luck, the people smart enough to have the bucks to invest in the real Caltier aren’t likely to fall for that. But there’s always newcomers. The Civic needs a battery and I did some reading on lithium models. The word is the car has to be driven at least once a week to keep it charged. New batteries are designed to give almost no warning until about to die on you—and there has been no work in the consumer reports if lithium requires the extra maintenance. Has anyone else heard about this serious shortcoming? Let me know!

           I got back to working on the table saw electrical, where my time limit does not seem to apply. Knowing better than to play tough, I stopped after 3-1/2 hours and went on light duty. Duh, isn’t electrical light duty. It probably is if you don’t have to move lumber out of the way, set up the sawhorses, and everything you need fits in a pouch. I wound up using the oldest light cans I have, at least they are a matching set. I ran out of sockets, giving me an excuse to test the cruise control. This photo shows the final test setup, that exposed wiring will later be inside. If the whole installation looks nice, thank you, I’ve been practicing.
           In other automotive news, Ford has applied for a patent saying if you miss a payment, the vehicle will drive itself to the repo depot. Gizmodo says A.I. smart drones are soon to be using facial recognition to go after the Most Wanted List. It’s your usual cover meaning everyone will be recorded, you know, just in case. The Starbucks pansy just told normal people not to buy their product, so there is some question as to whether that’s doing a Salvation Army or a Bed Bath & Beyond. I credit the Internet with stopping these jerk-offs cold in their tracks—the old bandwagon appeal just does not work on people who can check things out for themselves.

Picture of the day.
Restored Occidental Hotel (Wyoming).
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           Sighting the rifle a half-hour and I still can’t center. It’s something I don’t do every day and for starters, this is not the first time I’ve mistaken L to mean “Lower” when it means “Left”. Here’s the pattern as I wandered in. Note the outliers, this is not poor marksmanship but due to the targets moving in the breeze. These targets server a purpose. Fold them up and send them to JZ as a letter so he knows what he’s missing out on in that shit-hole called South Miami. At 3:00PM I’m off to the hardware store on this beauty of a day. Until then, I’m inside check components for my NAND gate.

           I found a pack of 4 LEDs made in Mexico rated at 2 volts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that works on that. I tested on up to the club standard of 5 volts and it held. I should say lights, not LEDs, as they measure infinite resistance, but they are diodes because the brown wire is the ground. It’s a mystery how current can flow, a challenge to learn but not now. I did spot that stepping through the entire range of meter settings, I notice the meter displayed two dots that are not mentioned in any of the manuals. We robotics types are so observant somethings, bwaaaa-ha-ha-ha.

           Just before 3:00PM a nice breeze came up so I went back to work. The whole new circuit to the saw is in, including the switch and two exterior lights. But the duplex outlets quit. I know exactly what that is and it can wait until tomorrow. I ran into one snag. I decided to run the wiring through the interior and drilled all the nice holes. However, one set came out too near a beam on the inside. So I had to either move the circuit or move the beam. I moved the circuit. That’s probably the cause of the loose wire. Later, I determined in the fading light I had somehow inserted a screw into the grounding port and ruined the outlet. This should not be, since those devices are a simple as you get, I may even dissemble one to show you later. Rather than mess with it, I removed the entire piece and replaced it with new. The light sockets work fine but I have only one bulb, so wait until tomorrow for a full test.

           I drove to the lumber yard, this time carefully watching the mileage. As I suspected, I live exactly 6.2 miles from both places. But the Lakeland drive is much nicer. Everybody tells me it is further away and now we know that is an illusion.

           The Reb called, the Civic checks out totally. There seems to be no cause for the battery problem. Good charge (under load), wiring, alternator, everything checks out. To the robot club, this means an intermittent problem. These testing devices are digital and will often show a good reading unless you catch the problem in the act. We’ve decided to keep the second car ready until I get there, which I can tell you is not going to be within the next week. I’m swamped with chores that are not blog material. At least we have the resources to keep another car on standby, the rest of America seems to be getting progressively more desperate.
           What’s more, 2016 seems to be a dividing point. Buy a car newer than that and you are getting yourself a whole new batch of headaches. The Reb’s friend bought a 2017 Nissan (payments of $500 per month) and within the month, dozens of electronics quit, including the radio and CD player. These millennial coders are not programmers and they never will be.

           Not another Avatar movie. Yep, maybe you know of Avatar 3 but it just got into my list today. They are really going to milk this “space apache” theme to death. As if some civilization out there would be foolish enough to have tribes, chiefs, and initiation ceremonies.

ADDENDUM

           Here’s a no-filament little light I found in the parts bin. It appeared to be just these two “posts” so I put it under the microscope. It is broken and I have no working bulb to compare it to. I’ll break the glass later and see what that reveals. It seems I have more of these bulbs so maybe one will turn up.
           This view shows a 60x magnification of the posts and an unknown size showing they are not touching. Is this some form of arc? The bulb is hollow and there is a resistor wired to on leg, meaning we have a diode of some sort.
           Gizmodo reports the invention of a 3D printed basketball that never goes flat because it is just the outer shell full of holes.
           The Webb telescope has taken this amazingly clear photo of a supernova known as the Spanish dancer, it is 40 million light-years away.

Last Laugh