One year ago today: February 8, 2024, none of the above.
Five years ago today: February 8, 2020, could be weeds.
Nine years ago today: February 8, 2016, the corridor.
Random years ago today: February 8, 2010, bloody Canadians.
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A day under the van. Yep, I got the starter out and back on again. From 9:00AM to 5:30PM and I got covered in grease and grime. The van still won’t start. Here’s the saga, since nothing else happened today, there was not even a single car drove down the street. I paced the day well, with bass-playing, coffee, peach tea, and two short documentaries. Here’s a still from a short video just after the moment I got the starter off the housing. My hands were just small enough to feed the assembly out without having to move the exhaust pipe. Those are put on there by impact wrench, something I don’t have.
Finally, there was a short post showing how the motor could be triggered by supply a voltage from the positive lead. From that I was able to infer the solenoid both closes a relay and cranks the motor as long as the key is held. Simple? No, because this is the first time I’ve seen the solenoid fastened to the motor, when the solenoid is a separate relay, you don’t see that third wire. I don’t have any 12V power supply in the shed and no, I’m not lugging a battery all the way back there. I used my battery charger.
It [the charger] works fine for 12 volts, but has no lasting power. It trips some kind of internal breaker inside the housing. I rigged up this power supply just long enough to see it [the starter] is engaging. What a grim five or six hours to find out there is nothing wrong. But for crying out loud, Hyundai, did you have to make all the wiring so short? No wiggle room at all.
One realization is that I don’t have any work area set up that allows me to do this sort of work. I’ll have to move the big bench vise. Remember those oil heaters that got the though last winter? They turned out to troublelsome to keep in good running condition. I took all the best parts from three and have now one working model, which I will place in the unheated bathroom. That’s Florida, but biting cold three days ago to having to run the air-conditioner today.
Last Monday, I was invited to Karaoke in Bartow. I’ll pass and play bass for an extra hour instead. The latest batch of coffee is quite good and I’m more in the mood for a good movie. Remind me to set up an entertainment center in the shed, I found my old portable DVD player. In fact, spending less time in Tennessee has allowed me to get better organized and I’m finding lots of misplaced items. I will check the news but first, I figured out a way to use cupboard hinges on medium-sized boxes.
These hinges are quite sturdy, which makes sense. They are designed to look pretty and can only be used on one style of lid so far. It’s one of my favorite styles, so expect to see more boxes appearing soon. This also helps with tidying up because my early boxes have outlasted even the best thrift store trunks I was using and wood stacks better.
Chinese “Crazy English” class.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Size C, the dry cell that was once hard to find, seems to be making a come back. The D’s were always on the heavy side and the smaller batteries never did have staying power. Plus th e need to replace them all when on goes dead means zero savings. My CD player in the van used the Yeti power supply (which is an expensive disappointment) but can use six C cells. Why bother? Because the unit has no track display and loses it’s place when the van is turned off. I’m hoping the batteries will at least solve that. How many times I’ve pulled into traffic and switchon on the deck to have it start at the beginning.
Tomorrow, I’m pooped. Glad I canceled the evening, give me coffee and a sandwich and a place to sit down for a long time. Both my thumb-pits have blisters and my energy is down to 10%. In fact, I’ll make up said jumper wires now instead of tomorrow. Sitting in my office chair which is comfortable enough to sleep in sitting up. What? Well I don’t know the correct term and it’s my blog so I can call them thumb-pits, geez some people are picky. Let’s read the news, why not face the fact that I’m in a life phase where news has become sort of important than before I settled down. There’s probably a term for that as well, other than “getting older”.
So the crumbling Democrat empire continues to lash out, not realizing it is not only dead, but extinct. They are embarrassing themselves, like trying to say these audits will “catch Republicans, too”, as if America cares who is stealing the money. Trump is preparing to axe Health & Human Services by the thousands. Good news, as each dollar saved in wages adds another two in support costs. However, deportations news and numbers are lacking. DOGE is using A.I. to create algorithms to snag fake Social Security numbers and Democrats who register more than once to vote. The walls are closing in. I think people who vote more than once should get an automatic $10,000 fine and a 50% cut in their pensions. The money to be used for relocating Boer farmers to siezed Chinese farmland.
Trump removes security clearances from his New York attackers and indicts and disbars the worst of the lot. Since that means they cannot enter Federal properties including courthouses, that puts them out of business. Musk may appoint Ron Paul to audit the Fed. I think they mean Rand.
ADDENDUM
You like complicated? It’s not my favorite unless the rewards are commensurate. Caltier has not paid the January disbursement yet. Since they make such a big deal of not having missed a month 39 times in a row, 40 is likely a given. They are still on “pause” but continue doing business and I see they have a new offering, a standard REIT with a target return of 6% to 8% for a period of ten years. That’s over three times my CDs. This brings two topics to the forefront.
Firstly, the Fund 1, which I mistook for an REIT (what, with all the help I get around here) is really something called a K-22 which is one of the “flow-through” tax shelters that some entities want Trump to abolish. I saw the paperwork and it is formidable. And it has been on pause since April last year, which leads to the next issue, timing.
Secondly, my investment schedule is very budget-like, and one primary aspect is regular monthly layouts. The amount can vary but the cycle is something put away every month. This is how my “funeral fund” grew to over $5,000. That’s were the CDs are languishing. Let’s look at this new Caltier REIT offering.
The ad says “reservations only”. You are supposed to know what that means, again by osmosis. Here is my best-guess of what they are talking about. The fund is not actually yet active, it’s in the planning stage. But they want to know who is interested and by how much. When you click on the site, there are two radio buttons, “I’m interested” and “Contact us.” You are also supposed to know which is which and what for.
The plan is to tell them how much you would be interested in contributing at some point in the future, that is, make a reservation that has nothing to do with hotels, Indians, or instinct. That means the first button, you are interested and going to tell them how much you would cough up, but it is not a commitment. Choose the “I’m interested” option and a small window opens where you indicate how much, minimum $500. To test this feature, I entered $1,000 as there is more than that lolling in the no-interest bank account for Fund 1 (the original investment). That’s on top of the pitiful-performing CDs.
I said it is not a commitment but the way my books operated, it is like one, involving the imprest account and full account tracking. I know a lot of people where this would be one single entry. On my books it would be a full-ledged account on a balance sheet that has grown to 13 items—but there’ll be no Enron here. Return tomorrow for more info on this type of investment.
