One year ago today: August 17, 2022, gas prices cancel Texas.
Five years ago today: August 17, 2018, the last camper.
Nine years ago today: August 17, 2014, another “X” company sign.
Random years ago today: August 17, 2006, many photos.
Shaft couplings. That’s this morning’s quest, to learn the basics. It is another technology I am unequipped for, this is the connection of two shafts, in this case electric motors. There appears to be no standardization of the diameter of these shafts. When a motor fries, few people have the wherewithal to replace the motor and there is also no standard for motor mounts. I’ve seen some elaborate and expensive designs, so it is time to peek at the science. The monsoon has begun, so grab a coffee or sit there and watch me have one, hey, I’m the one who can’t sleep. Two minutes into the research and I can tell you it is expensive. The smallest good couplings carry $20 price tags.
It can be done, if you are not too fussy about motor tolerances (I’m not). All that fussy rain this morning amounted to only 6/10ths of an inch. My bathroom scale show I’ve gain six pound overnight and my budget says reserves are nearing lower limits. This is a calculated risk, in that Tennessee means there are some other factors in place to rely on—but I’m still hard-nosed about relying on anybody outside the immediate fold. That’s the morning so far, it just passed 9:00AM.
The Hag, that’s Merle to some, shows me why so much of his music is vague to me. I’ve never been keen on self-absorbed musicians, it would be like me writing a ballad about navigation or staining wood. He produces music I don’t identify with and it startles me how many people identify with being in prison or on the run. Losing everything I’ve got to dumb, repetitive errors is just not a big missing chapter of my life—and I’m very tolerant of wrong decisions made due to poverty. I’d have five more teeth than I do if I’d been born rich.
As mentioned, I know these songs only from a catchy lyric or two in the chorus. The Prez, like many solo guitar strummers, often leaves out intros, which is where I enter the picture. If you let me play a few of the notes on bass and you can add them back in. Most Merle tunes have an intro and I’m looking at them closely from my unique perspective. While all is fair in the music game, you can’t fool me when somebody is copycatting Charlie Daniels. Merle’s bass lines also tend to be simple—but they are easy to improve by technique, one of which I’m using quite a bit. Make the notes legato, so each never quite decays before the next. I consider this an advanced technique because the fretboard makes it so easy to do most anything else.
It was 17 years ago today we got the first dedicated digital camera to work with this blog. There were earlier stabs at using a digital, but nothing could outperform the Argus. It was not until that model arrives that you see reliable photos here—photos that somewhat match the text.
The classic Argus 1600, and what a treat that was. Don’t underestimate the leap this required, again, there was nobody to ask. The camera was below my established price ceiling, but it came with zero directions on how to use the unit for uploading pictures to a blog. There was no information if the photos would even be compatible. This was the situation behind me turning in Broward Community College for abuse of the government adult education system. (That’s the outfit that tried to shaft me for $48,000 to take the digital camera course.)
In the end, all of the technology and process had to be worked out by myself—which is one of the reasons I do not believe your average whiz kid or millie or XYZer really does much on their own. They would have better attitudes if they really knew how things were supposed to work. My standard benchmark is the number of keypresses required to use their version of speed dialing. Dumber than a sack of wet hammers, most of them.
Canada now has approved 80 year mortgages. It now takes three generations to pay for a house that freezes you in eight months of the year.
Wiki on blue Smarties.
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This afternoon was a day in retirement paradise. Exactly what I would have wanted so long ago, a private, equipped shop to wile away. I always wondered what was inside that compressor unit of an air conditioner. On the bench it went, for some three hours. Man, those things are built tough. I wore down three cutting blades just cracking the case. I was expecting some sort of piston but it is a Whittle style compressor (in the sense it is axial). The shop floor is dirt, so dropping a tool means a quick sweep with a magnet, which often turns up things you did not lose. Here is today’s treasure.
Using cutting blades and pry bars, I got the compressor apart, but the inside pieces are solid and I set them aside. The motor is encased in heavy duty metal, probably steel. It’s the most substantial part of the device. I can’t visualize how it compresses, but that will have to wait until I get curious again. I also dismantled a series of electric motors seeking any couplings or such parts. And accidentally fried an 18V motor accidentally plugging it in to 110VAC. My mistake.
There’s a song on the list I outright do not like. It’s what I call spastic guitar, a tune that changes chords to almost randomly to match vocals that have no real structure. That “Christine’s Tune” by Gram Parsons. It has appeal to some but I’ve met guitar players who do this and generally, they are a mess. They too often can’t play the song the same way twice and blame other if they “can’t follow”. That song is, to me just generic strings and Parsons could not even come up with an original title, calling it “Devil in Disguise”, which is an old Elvis title.
Thinking he may also have lifted some meaningful lyrics, I read those. Nothing. The new guy loves that song, so I’ll learn it. Filler music. It just doesn’t deliver the wow.
