08:37 – The cold weather has moved in. Our overnight low was in the low 20’s F, with wind chill down in the single digits. Our forecast low tonight is 14F (-10C), with wind chill down around OF.
I plan to spend today getting set up to build more science kits. We’re in decent shape on chemistry kits, but getting low on biology kits and forensic kits. We’re out of stock on both of the forensic kit supplements. The top priority is to build all the subassemblies we need to assemble the various kits, but before we can do that we need to get the work area set up.
Barbara made dinner last night using only shelf-stable long-term storage foods: pasta, Keystone canned chicken, and Bertolli mushroom alfredo sauce. It was excellent.
13:38 – Email from Jen. Short take, everything went pretty well. They had some cold weather, but everyone managed to keep warm by clustering in the couple of rooms nearest the woodstove. The remainder of the house stayed well above freezing. Jen said that trying to cook on the woodstove was a bit of an adventure, since there aren’t any knobs to adjust temperature. But they tried several LTS food recipes, and managed to get through the weekend without any real problems. They did decide to lay in a few more 20-pound propane cannisters so that they could continue using their propane campstove as long as possible. Either that, or they may get a propane heater and a 250 gallon propane tank installed. They kept watch 24×7, but no one “attacked” them other than the mailman on his regular Saturday route.
We’re making progress on getting the unfinished basement area set up for making kits, although it’s slower than expected. Still, getting this stuff organized, labeled, and stacked is a big part of the job.
Well, the new year looks to be starting with a bang.
Financial markets are down ~2%
Middle east is heating up
Domestically things are getting sporty in Oregon, while jugears is waving his pen and phone…
Oh my…
nick
Indeed. Sporty in Oregon and several other places this week, Sandbox region smoldering, we’re still poking the Russians and the Iranians in the eye, financial speculators churning up the panic, and we can certainly count on Bolshevik Barry and his minions to make it worse. This winter could be interesting.
There is a bright spot in today’s market, Smith & Wesson was up 5% earlier (via Fox Business Network, FBN).
Stopped by my two favorite gun shops this past weekend, busy busy busy and stock low low low.
Yesterday’s many discussions regarding religion (or lack thereof) got my head swimming. As one who feels that the Episcopal Church left me I am having less and less use for organized religion. Sorry, but they all have an agenda and I do not see that it is leading to discernment or tolerance. IMHO the greatest threat to this year’s election will be the pig-headed intolerance of the so-called Evangelicals. They will be the ones that hand the election to Hillary.
Back to doing some clean installs of Window$. Haven’t done that in at least four years (used to be an annual routine) so I need to get back in practice. Completed one machine yesterday and it runs noticeably better.
Keep your powder dry.
“As one who feels that the Episcopal Church left me…”
Ditto, to some extent; I was High Church and Anglo-Catholic anyway and was already making inquiries to get out and move to Rome. Done, as of Easter, 1996.
As for any threats to the coming elections, I feel they’re moot. Tempest in a teapot. Of no account or importance whatsoever. But I’ve blathered all that at tedious length here already, as has our host.
Yup, the gun makers are doing swell, as are gun retailers; just read a nice long piece in the newly revamped Firearms News, formerly Shotgun News, on the S&W Shield. I like mine as it is but if the new Performance Center had been out a couple of years ago, I would have got that for the extra fifty bucks.
I do the Winblows updates occasionally but that’s it; we’re down to one Windoze desktop and one laptop (for wife’s work) and the rest is Linux or OpenBSD. And 95% of the IT jobs I’ve been seeing in my email for the past six months are for Windows shops. No thanks; I’ll find something else or do something else. Unless you’re at the server architect level and can insulate yourself from the prolecube farm, you’re gonna be doing help desk shit all friggin’ day for the office drones. Writing scripts in PowerShell will make you feel like a developer/programmer, I guess. If you have time for that, or the endless patching.
Well it’s settled. Obama says WH lawyers and DOJ (no bias there) have told him it’s within his powers to pass new gun rules even if congress has voted them down.
63 and sunny here ATM, but got down to 34 last night. That’s freaking cold for Houston. I wish I’d covered my citrus and raised beds.
Had the starter go out on my Expy so I’ll be changing that this afternoon.
I see that the market managed to get back a half point. When you see headlines like this ”
Global Stocks Tumble Following Shanghai’s 7% Crash ”
You wonder if it’s 2008 again. And if this is IT.
Glad we have some more time…
And make no mistake, even if YOU are completely out of the markets, you will be affected by a crash. Unless you are already living the off grid life, and even then, you might be seeing some of the effects.
I’m not ready! so I’m glad to have more time.
nick
Reminds me of a saying: “You may have no interest in politics, but politicians most assuredly have an interest in you.” I’d guess the market is similar.
Well it’s settled. Obama says WH lawyers and DOJ (no bias there) have told him it’s within his powers to pass new gun rules even if congress has voted them down.
Plus, if it only saves one or two lives, Ofukstik wipes his ass with the Constitution. Next up, cars are required to have 5 feet of impact foam around them, it’s for the kids, you see. I wonder if The Might Trump ™, when elected, will have the balls to revoke Obummer’s edicts. Will it be a first?
Trump 2016!
Well, looks like I”ll be paying someone to change my starter. There’s a bolt I can’t even figure out how to touch, let alone remove. It seems like half the exhaust needs to be removed, but that can’t be right…
nick
Oh, it can be right. Some of the “Engineers” getting through school today can’t even spell “STEM”.
But before forking out the dough, why not check it out on YouTube. I found several videos on how to handle repairs on my truck that saved me a lot of trouble. Some of the auto-parts places even do the videos as a promo to get you to buy their parts. I haven’t been sorry yet.
“…it’s within his powers to pass new gun rules even if congress has voted them down.”
Blatant lying. And how would they be enforced, in any case?
“I’m not ready! so I’m glad to have more time.”
Ditto. But we’ll never really be ready. If it all blows up tonight or tomorrow AM, we’ve got two months survivability here; after that, a giant question mark.
“…but politicians most assuredly have an interest in you.”
IIRC, the original quote is one of Trotsky’s, regarding war.
“Ofukstik wipes his ass with the Constitution.”
Other Presidents were wiping it before him, the most egregious example being, of course, the Great Eliminator.
“But before forking out the dough, why not check it out on YouTube.”
+1
Yeah, mos def. Worth a few minutes of checking to possibly save beaucoups piastres.
Well, I watched the youtubes and there were a bunch of ford 5.4L V8 starter replacements. Mostly on F150s which have more room. It looks like removing the wheel and inner fender might give me a way to see the bolt.
Most of the vids and forums say you have to have the exact right combination of extensions and universal joints, and there will be just enough room to break the bolt loose, then remove it 1/16″ at a time, turning the extension with your fingers.
One ford tech even says don’t bother putting it back.
If my mechanic can get me in tomorrow, I’m gonna let them do it. I don’t have any safe way to elevate the truck enough to work under it, and have the front wheel removed.
What should be a half hour job for anyone with any mechanical sense, is a stupid nightmare. Def not designed for service.
nick
Well, looks like I”ll be paying someone to change my starter. There’s a bolt I can’t even figure out how to touch, let alone remove. It seems like half the exhaust needs to be removed, but that can’t be right…
Yup, I paid someone $430 to replace my wife’s alternator last week in her 2005 Honda Civic. You start with removing the hydraulic pump…
If my mechanic can get me in tomorrow, I’m gonna let them do it. I don’t have any safe way to elevate the truck enough to work under it, and have the front wheel removed.
Do you have a cinder block?
@nick shook a recollection out of my cobweb filled brain:
I had a 1986 Ford Aerostar van, to replace the headlight you had to remove the entire grill which required the removal of a lot of screws/bolts and a third hand. I seem to recall it took more than an hour for what should have been a ten minute job. The next time I went to the dealer for routine service I asked how much to replace a burned out headlamp. They quoted be a couple of bucks for the lamp and 1 hours labor for installation, explaining that on most vehicles there is no charge for the installation but the Aerostar was an exception.
Ever since then whenever I am looking at a new vehicle there are certain no-goes, one of which is ease of replacing a lights.
Just went and saw “The Big Short” with my dad. Seriously good movie there, all about the mortgage market failure in the USA in 2008.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Short_%28film%29
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_big_short/
Guess what, probably gonna happen again. Just like the fool with the burned fingers sticking his hand back into the pretty flame.
They did decide to lay in a few more 20-pound propane cannisters so that they could continue using their propane campstove as long as possible.
I’ve got three of the 20 lb propane canisters and 12 of the small 1 lb canisters. I’ve got a coleman propane camp stove and a large outdoor propane grill. And one of the 1 lb to 20 lb hose adapters. I wonder how many 20 lb canisters one should really have, 20?
nick, don’t you know that SAE stands Society of Asshole Engineers?
To be fair, a lot of the problems aren’t really the engineers’ fault. They’re greatly constrained by economic concerns — reusing existing body parts and assembly line components and generally getting the car together as cheaply as possible. Engineering is all about trading off different priorities and applying constraints, and serviceability is low on the priorities here.
I don’t have any safe way to elevate the truck enough to work under it, and have the front wheel removed.
ObungMa has made the US Constitution available to drive your Expy on for elevation. If additional elevation is needed, the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence are available in Obuttwads bathroom.
Woof! Go Baltimore!
Blood was shed in Baltimore at an unprecedented pace in 2015, with mostly young, black men shot to death in a near-daily crush of violence.
On a per-capita basis, the year was the deadliest ever in the city. The year’s tally of 344 homicides was second only to the record 353 in 1993, when Baltimore had about 100,000 more residents.
The killings were on pace with recent years in the early months of 2015 but skyrocketed after the unrest and rioting of late April. In five of the next eight months, killings topped 30 or 40 a month.
Black Lives Matter!
But they tried several LTS food recipes
Should that be LDS (latter day saints) ?
I hate working on cars. Electrical, carpentry, even plumbing, no problem. Cars have more effin’ gotchas than illegals at Pick-a-Part.
Several years ago my Accord had the radiator plastic tank start to split open. Talked to my nephew the mechanic who lives too far away to do the work. He assured me I should just change it myself, no big deal. Now I have lots of tools and I can use them so I says to self, Okay, save some bucks. Found a part store that had one. Of course not the closest but $200 later I had it. Stage my tools and drop light in the shade of the garage all set. Two hoses, two trany cooler lines and top two bolts, all came off easy peasy. Bottom two bolts way down and cramped as an economy airline seat. Can’t come underneath due to air damn. Can’t swing socket or wrench more than about 1/8 arc. Hell damn shit. Banged up knuckles and no patience. Took several minutes to back them both out. Pulled up the radiator and the bottom flange had u-shaped slots, not holes. No need to remove the bolts, just loosen them.
Of course I still had the new one in the box and hadn’t looked at it. Yeah I was Mr. Stupid, but it’s exactly why I let the pros work on cars.
Do you have a cinder block?
When the wife and I moved to Colorado City, Texas in 1982 for my first plant engineering job, we drove in from the south side. My first surmise was that there was a city ordinance that each home should have a car up on cinder blocks in front of the living room window. Furthermore, each home should have another car on cinder blocks in the driveway if at all possible.
The wife did not think that this was funny and thought we had entered hell. Which was funny since she grew up in Abilene, Noodle, Snyder, and Farmers Branch and should have expected the various car parking applications.
So much fun to screw around with cars, ain’t it? I thought replacing headlight bulbs on the wife’s Saab convertible would be a snap; passenger side was. Not so much on the driver’s side. Why is that you ask? Because some genius made sure the battery was backed up so close to the headlight assembly that only a very young girl could have got her hand in there.
And the radio antenna on the back snaps off if you look at it wrong and to replace it you basically have to dismantle and disassemble half of the rear end of the car and string wires every which way. And since Princess had it for most of the summer, there is now a problem with the gas tank intake (can only put three or four gallons in at a time) and there’s a dent in the passenger side from where she banged into Grandma’s car. Plus, of course, the pile of rubbish and garbage left inside it, which she does with all our vehicles. Tell wife not to let her drive them unless she cleans them and that goes right out the window the next time she wants one. I should get my RAV4 back Thursday night after she’s had it for three weeks in Montreal and I’m not even gonna say anything; I’m gonna clean it out, vacuum it, clean the seats and put new seat covers on, and then lock The Club onto the steering wheel and she doesn’t get it again.
“My first surmise was that there was a city ordinance that each home should have a car up on cinder blocks in front of the living room window. Furthermore, each home should have another car on cinder blocks in the driveway if at all possible.”
We have that ordinance here in most parts of Vermont but the cinder blocks are optional and you rarely see them thus. But in this town the minority of voters who came out made damn sure the junk ordinance got passed finally but vetoed the new highway department garage and salt shed. So those remain right smack on the lake shore about 300 yards from us. They’ll come out for the useless national election, though, just you watch. Typical Murkan derps; illiterate, ahistorical, and innumerate. Won’t last long after SHTF.
Yeah, I thought about the cinder blocks. I’ve got them for my rocket stove…
For my first attempt I just drove the passenger side up on my curb and slid underneath. The curb gave me enough height to work underneath. To do it in my driveway, I’d need actual ramps for one side, and something to hold up the other with the wheel removed, and I just don’t have anything I trust with ME under it. That Expy is heavy.
For a couple of years my wife had the cadillac crossover suv the SRX. To change the passenger front marker light, you had to remove most of the front end. Dealer service under warranty to change the $1 bulb. Every other owner I talked to had the same bulb burned out, so there was more to it than met the eye…
I had a 70’s era New Yorker that had never had one spark plug changed by any of the previous owners. It was hidden behind the steering column. My dad finally got it out and there was nothing left of it. I mean, really? A car you can’t even get to all the plugs?
nick
In other news, Obortion is leaking his gun grab plans and it looks like he’s gonna try for NFA trusts, and the Curio and Relic license, along with 8 other points.
Keeps repeating the lies of the ‘gun show loophole’ and no background check internet sales.
Says he’ll force dealers to report lost or stolen guns, which they are already required to do.
Wants to add BG investigators and possibly have them work 24/7 to avoid the 3 day delay default, never verbalizing that the workload is because so many people WANT TO BUY GUNS and they can’t keep up.
Wants a constellation of things they can distort and tweak and apply capriciously instead of a clear test for whether someone is a ‘dealer’ or not. Would require more casual sellers to become dealers. Even selling a single gun might make you a ‘dealer’. Wonder if he talked to the atfeieieio about that, since they’ve been trying to reduce the number of dealers.
I guess everyone who got their NFA trust paperwork in thinking there might be an April 15th action, got the timing wrong, but the idea right.
He’s confident the new laws won’t infringe on the 2nd A.
fuckin a this guy has to go
nick
@lynn,
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/alternative-energy/how-much-coleman-fuel-do-i-need/
@steveF, yep, SAE, makes sense to me. Hey, that part is accessible when we assemble the thing on the line. Whadda ya mean youse don’t wanna pull the engine to change the oil? Wadda ya, some kinda pansy? You should have your tools taken away…
nick
“…then lock The Club onto the steering wheel and she doesn’t get it again.”
If you maintain your resolve and that actually happens I’ll kiss the Pope’s feet.
DadCooks wrote:
“Ever since then whenever I am looking at a new vehicle there are certain no-goes, one of which is ease of replacing a lights.”
I don’t even know where the latch to release the hood is on my car (Subaru Forrester AWD). Everything just works.
Do you have a cinder block?
Really bad idea. Cinder blocks can fracture without warning dropping the vehicle to the ground. Safest is steel support stands. Next best is wood blocks, preferably not soft pine.
I used to own a 1980 F-100 inline six. The rear spark plug was extremely difficult to change and generally was the first plug to go bad. The only good part was that you could climb into the engine compartment.
My 1993 Astro van, V6, was difficult to change the plugs. You opened the engine cowling and had very little room to get to the plugs and move the wrench. The ultimate solution was an air ratchet which required little to no hand movement.
I seem to remember a story about one of the early model Mustang II when they shoehorned a small V8 into a very cramped space. One of the rear plugs could not be reached with the engine installed. Ford’s recommended procedure was to remove the engine mounts and lower the engine to change that plug. Some mechanic figured out it was easier to just cut a hole in the wheel well, change the plug, and then cover the hole with a small piece of metal.
I used to do most of the work on my vehicles including A/C repair. But no more. The systems are too complex with multiple sensors and specialized tools required. I just take it to the dealer and have the work done. Even oil changes are no longer worth the hassle of disposing of old oil and the mess you can create by having to crawl under a vehicle.
LTS = long-term storage
@steveF
Added here, so it wouldn’t clog up the info pages:
Our host talking to Makezine about vintage home chem kits:
http://makezine.com/2008/11/25/great-balls-of-fire/
and the pdf version of The Golden Book of Chemistry is available from the link HERE:
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2012/10/01/download-the-golden-book-of-chemistry-experiments.htm
BTW, @RBT have you looked at The Golden Book? My scan thru it looked pretty serious for kids, with little in the way of modern safety. Any thoughts?
nick
I started with the Golden Book soon after it was published. I was about 8 years old. I haven’t looked at it for a long time, but I remember it as an excellent introduction with, as you say, little emphasis on modern safety standards. Some of the chemicals are now very hard to find, but you can get most of them from Elemental Scientific, Home Science Tools, and so on. If I were going to use it to teach a young person, I’d buy real lab gear instead of using the substitutes they describe.
I used to do most of the work on my vehicles including A/C repair. But no more.
Ditto. I gave up in 1981 when my responsibilities in the Army made sure I could only work on the car on the weekends. I didn’t want that, so gave up and found mechanics and dealers.
MrsAtoz makes enough $$ we always buy a service/maintenance plan on our vehicles. I also get a wheel package. A couple of years ago, one of the kids ran my Caddy SRX into a curb destroying the wheel. My service guy at the Caddy dealer, Al Smith, a great guy from England, said “Oh, she really hit a pothole, right?” in that great British accent. An $800 repair that I would have had to pay for. The wheel package paid for itself plus a dent/ding package.
When I was growing up, my dad was always working on our cars. Late at night, and in the cold. I had no interest in even holding the light for him.
Despite really liking fixing things, I was soured on fixing cars by my childhood experiences. I had decided that that was NOT something I was going to do.
Circumstances have changed, and pretty much if I can do the work, I try. Especially if it’s mostly labor on something tedious but not technically demanding.
This week I’ve got one paying gig finishing up, and 2-3 others in different stages of design or support, so I can’t really afford to have the truck down for a day while I mess with it. I’ve got too much going on this week. In a different week, I’d probably figure out how to do it myself.
Not today.
nick
Exactly. I figure out how much it costs to do the work myself (if I’d have to give up income, what my time is “worth”, etc.) and compare to what the shop would charge to do the work. There have been times that it was worth $500 to have the shop do a spindle assy. Other times I wouldn’t spend $100 on a brake job or even $30 for an oil change.
I count time spent working on things as education – as in knowing how to do it when I _have_ to do it. It can be worth something to me.
Yeah, in this case, I know how to do it, but the tools I need are sitting on a jobsite, and I don’t have some of the things I need to do it safely.
It’s gonna cost $250 and should be ready for pickup in a couple hours.
I really need it for work tomorrow, and for kid transport on Thursday.
Plus, it’s bitterly cold by my standards, and my hands HURT.
nick
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/alternative-energy/how-much-coleman-fuel-do-i-need/
Yup, about what I thought. 20 of the 20 lb propane containers.
Plus, it’s bitterly cold by my standards, and my hands HURT.
Everything hurts nowadays. Worse if you do anything. My lower back on the next day is always a disaster now.
Back in 1991 or so, my middle bro had a Nissan 280ZX turbo. Amazingly fast car. Anyway, his power steering rack developed a leak and when it got to a can of hydraulic fluid per ten miles, he bought a new rack and went about to replacing it. We had his car up on jack stands and were loosening the power steering rack bolts. All of a sudden, the engine dropped eight inches onto us. Since we had the front end suspended up on two foot of jack stands, we did not get squashed. I screamed like a girl and rolled out from underneath the car.
It turned out that Nissan had very cleverly merged the hydraulic power steering rack and engine mount bolts. That was quite exciting. It was almost as existing getting the engine back up using a hydraulic jack without crushing the oil pan.
@lynn,
With the lower back pain, check your shoes. If the pain accompanies your work shoes, it could be the shoes contributing.
I finally figured out that my favorite pair of work boots was hurting me way more than other shoes.
nick
“I screamed like a girl…”
Did you just scream like a girl or like a LITTLE girl?
I wanted to moan like a little girl when they stuck a big fat needle into my left hand at the base of my middle and ring fingers, TWICE. I know my face turned beet red and felt like it was on fire but I manned up and didn’t make a sound.
Yup, stacking firewood for an hour pretty much does me in; if I take an hour break I can go back out and do it for another hour, though. Ditto shoveling heavy wet snow. But now I have a cordless electric snowblower that I can’t wait to try out.
Little girl!
But now I have a cordless electric snowblower that I can’t wait to try out.
Ok, the cordless part is freaking me out. Does it have four automotive batteries in it?
Whoops, I made a boo-boo; it ain’t cordless; I was thinking of another yard tool here. No, this is plugged in, currently via a 100′ insulated blue cord with an LED on the end to indicate power.
In very distantly related nooz, wife here saw waterspouts on the lake yesterday and posted pics taken by somebody else on her FB page. I’d seen snow fog and powder blowing around earlier but not those, which were apparently just south of Grand Isle, one of the Champlain Islands. That is CRAZY!
I do our car work if I can. If the damned mechanics would do the job right and not break anything else, it would often be worthwhile to pay someone to fix it, but that ain’t the case. Doesn’t matter if it’s a dealer, a chain shop, or an independent shop, there’s a good chance they’ll screw something up. Even if I can get them to re-do it right, it takes an hour of arguing and threatening. Not worth it.