Shot of Alaska from my trip last August. The weatherman yesterday said not only was it a record breaking cold, the Chicago temps were about 40 degrees colder than Anchorage. Tuesday night I lit a fire in the fireplace and stayed up late feeding it and finishing off a book I was working on. I turned the light off about 2:00 am and decided to just sleep in the recliner. I woke up about 6:00 and decided to jump back in bed for a bit. I woke up about 8:00 only to find the power was out and the temp was about -20 outside. I tried calling the power company to see what was going on but couldn't get through.
I relit the fireplace and lit a couple of burners on the stove to get some water hot and to generate a little bit of heat. I've got a small propane catalytic heater I lit off and put some long johns on since it was only 52 in the house and the furnace can barely keep up when it's 10 degrees. The power came back on about an hour later but it was a chilly day in the shack and they were calling for even colder temps last night. We make it through today and we'll be fine, though. They're forecasting temps back in the 40's in a couple of days.
The temperatures around the mid-west these days are going to require a bit of masculinity regardless of your actual gender. The Missus fielded a phone call from the county sheriff's office notifying us of the closing of county offices and the usual warnings and alerts. When you get to be my age, you've been through some cold weather so you should know how to dress and plan ahead. Plus, if you drove a car from the 50's or 60's, you never had better than a 50/50 chance of the thing starting when it got this cold. Block and dipstick heaters, heat lamps, set the alarm and start the car during the night so it never had a chance to cool completely down - whatever it took to be able to get to work in the morning.
One of the great things about teaching was school closings on the real cold days. Now, however, the state mandates the days be made up. Kind of takes the fun out of it, knowing you get a day off when the temperature is too cold to do anything but sit around the house and then have to go back in at the end of the year when the weather is nice and the students have absolutely no interest in being there. The one year at the high school they were looking at rescheduling graduation and there was all kind of grief due to the fact many of the seniors had their announcements already printed, venues rented for parties and relatives had airline tickets that were going to have to be exchanged. The following year they added a couple of days to the schedule that became vacation days unless they needed them as makeup days.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday shoveling and plowing, most of the day today riding the recliner and I'm looking at a repeat the next couple of days. I might start working on organizing the box of tax receipts but nothing outside except fetching the mail and checking on the chicken. I picked a good time to retire it looks like. For those of you who do have to venture out, be safe. You don't want to get caught short in this weather.
I went to Indy Saturday night with one of my "saddle pals" that I rode the Cowboy Trail with last summer. The event was held at the Grant King race shop and featured Donald Davidson as the speaker for the evening. I've followed Indy car racing here in Indiana for a long time but I must confess most of my knowledge has been from watching or listening to the race on television or radio. The media never goes into much depth as far as the constructor, owner or crew on the cars so I never knew much about Grant King - still don't as far as that goes - but the shop is a cool place. It's a working shop and a museum combined. It's what I'd have if I hit the lottery. There were quite a few cars on display and they, along with all the equipment and tools were out where you could check everything out up close and personal.
The top photo is of Donald Davidson and John Martin behind a car like I'm planning on building some day. The car appears to be built off the print that I've got. The car is beautiful both in its appearance and in its simplicity. I'm thinking it's well within my range of ability to fabricate. Maybe get the plans out this week and start putting a list of materials together. John Martin, by the way, is an accomplished race car driver and builder and I think he restored it. He said the color is the same as Chevy engine orange. My buddy Don and I had a nice chat with Mr. Martin. I learned a little something about welding in our short conversation - he built a car that he gas welded together using white coat hangers for filler metal. I've always steered clear of coat hangers due to the excessive amount of carbon they have but he said the white hangers rather than the black ones were the way to go.
The bottom photo is Donald Davidson and the host and owner of Grant King race shops, Bob Throckmorton. The format for the evening was Mr. Throckmorton would toss out a question and then Mr. Davidson would run with it. Quite a bit of what he talked about was his personal history and how he got involved in Indy car racing. Great story and a great story teller.
Very nice night out for both Don and I. Cuzzin Ricky couldn't make it due to illness but he would have loved it. If they have another one of these, he'll have to make sure to attend.
Didn't get a whole lot done in the shop the last couple of days. I ran out of propane for the heater and the tank for the house was getting low so the Missus called the gas guys and she asked if they could fill up my shop tank while they were here. No go on that - they don't do that any more so I had to take the tank for a lovely drive in the country and get it filled at one of their other places instead of the one that is within walking distance of the shack. Things went smoothly enough but when I went to pull out the credit card the lady said cash or checks only. Fortunately, I went to the bank the other day and hadn't spent all my cash yet.
The guy at the gas place gave me a hand loading the tank back into the truck. The tank weighs 70 lbs empty and 170 lbs full. If the truck sat about 5 or six inches lower I could muscle it in by myself without straining myself but I was glad for the help. Getting it hooked back up at the house was a bit of a struggle. With the snow, rain, warm-up, and refreeze, the ground is covered with a couple of inches of crusty snow. It's hard to shovel and even harder to roll a 170 lb tank across. After all the years of rolling tanks, I don't have a bit of trouble on concrete but the propane tank kept breaking through the crust, plus there's a couple of obstacles to work around. Just one more thing that's going to be a deciding factor one of these day when I have to decide if I should move into town.
I am kind of curious what other people do if they have a tank like mine. It used to be anyone with a house trailer had a couple of these tanks to supply them. I'm sure some folks with cabins around here have these as well. Maybe they just use a different supplier. I can't imagine everyone taking their tank in every time it needs a refill.
Anyway, my cinch straps came in the mail yesterday. These should work well to strap things down on the Himalayan panniers. I ordered these from Strapworks.com. They've got all kinds of webbing and hardware for most any type of strap you could imagine. Mine worked out to $12.00, shipping included. Hard to beat that. I also ordered some plastic tubing for the bike so I can mount my bicycle panniers on the side of the gas tank without scratching anything. I was planning on splitting the tubing and fastening it on and make it somewhat permanent since it's clear and wouldn't be too noticeable. I ordered 3/4" OD x 5/8" ID and that's what the package said. Only thing is, it's actually 11/16" OD x 9/16" ID. It's not worth the hassle to send back so when it warms up a bit I'll look into another solution. I'm thinking now just cut a piece of bicycle inner tube and wrap around the tank protector when I put the panniers on and then take the inner tube off when I'm not using them.
The other photo is how I spent the rest of my day after fooling around with the propane tank. I finished off my book and then put the jigsaw puzzle together I got for Christmas. With the cold weather we are supposed to have the next few days, I'm thinking another book, another puzzle and some work down the basement on a couple of things. Mostly concentrate on staying warm.
The parts for the slip roll showed up - sprockets, hubs and collars. They're sitting on a piece of 3/4" plate that will be the end pieces. I've got my lay-out done but still need to drill some holes before heading off to the college and the track burner.
That's a piece of 3" channel behind the plate. That's going to be the base. I found a mistake in the plans while laying out the holes in the channel. The print calls for holes 2-5/8" on center but the mating part has holes 2-1/4" on center. Not that big of a deal but glad I found it before I made the mating pieces and had to backtrack.
The plans call for two pieces of angle welded to the ends of the channel to fasten it down to the benchtop. However, that means the handle has to stick out an extra 1-1/2" to clear the angle and the shaft the handle mounts to is only 1/2" in diameter. That's going to be a little "spindly" so I'm going to weld clip angles on the front and rear to bolt it down allowing me to shorten up the shaft for the handle. I'll probably just shorten it an inch which will also give me a bit more clearance when working the handle so I don't whack a knuckle.
Since bench top space is at a premium, I think I'll drill a couple more holes in the channel so I can bolt on a mount that will fit in my vise or I could make something to bolt up to the frame I made for my shear and bender.
I made this frame to accommodate my Hossfeld style bender, stake plate, tubing bender, and Beverly style shear. Normally I keep the bender and shear bolted up at the same time. If I rig something up for the roll to bolt to this, I'll have to unbolt everything else and then bolt the other tools back on when finished. Plus, I'll have an issue with the handle unless I make the roll with the handle on the left side. Don't think that will work good. First off I'm right handed, secondly I've broken my left wrist twice over the years and it I'm pretty sure it would complain if I put it to work on roll duty. Looks like that's out then. Always good to talk it out before jumping in. I'll see about some sort of bracket to clamp it in the vise when I get it finished. That's what I do with my bead roller and that works OK.
Anyway, progress is being made. Cold weather's back so I don't know how much I'll get done in the next few days. Cold like single digits and negative numbers at night. That takes the fun out of working in the shop unless I want to run the heater all day. which I don't. I'll just take it day by day and see what happens.
Duke Robillard with Madeline Peyroux from the Duke Robillard and His Dames of Rhythm album the Missus got me for Christmas. There's some very good stuff on this one.
The weather was supposed to turn cold so I went to the library and got a couple of books the other day. Wise move since the temps went down to single digits. One of the books I picked up is American Overdose - The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal. I'm about two-thirds of the way through it and it's been a real eye opener. I knew areas like southern Ohio, eastern Kentucky and West Virginia were being hit pretty hard by opioids but I didn't have any idea how many people were affected and what was behind the epidemic. The book lays out the role big pharma has played and the lack of response from the federal government.
Here's a couple of quotes from the book to give you an idea as to the scope of the problem:
"Rogers said that if the agency needed more evidence of the destruction wrought by OxyContin, it should look at the corruption of the medical profession. Take the doctor who wrote 800 opioid prescriptions a month - one every ten minutes of the working day."
"The congressman had other examples: a Kentucky doctor who prescribed more than two million pills to 4,000 patients over 101 days, and the physician who saw 133 patients in a day in an office without electricity and was prescribing OxyContin and Viagra to teenage boys until the feds locked him up for twenty years."
I had no idea of the extent of all this. I've had several of my students die from overdoses over the years. Terrible tragedies, each and every one. And since this is still an ongoing problem through-out the country, we should all be better informed on the issue. Read the book.
Changing the subject, I received a letter from my congressman in response to my email I sent concerning the shutdown and the border wall. I wasn't looking for a response but it's nice to know it was received and he outlined his position on the matter in his reply. However, the best statement I've seen so far on the shutdown comes from Ol' Remus at the Woodpile Report.:
For nonessential federal employees the shutdown is a vacation with deferred payment, yet we're expected to weep in solidarity because they're being inconvenienced. Welcome to the real world. We Deplorables work without pay for the equivalent of several months of every year to fund DC's parasitic bloat. And we have to show up every day.
That's one way of looking at it. And now that the tax statements are starting to roll in, pretty easy to fall into that camp.
Planning on doing some work on the slip roll today. The parts I ordered should be here in a day or two. I've got to cut some parts out of a 3/4" plate, so I'll get them laid out and drilled, then go up to the college one of these cold days and cut the pieces out on the track torch, along with using the band saw to cut a few of the other parts I need.
Fairly productive day yesterday, even though it's winter and there's snow on the ground. I brazed up the clothes line prop, put a new tire and tube on the recumbent, a couple more little things around the shack, and ordered some parts for the slip roll. I found them at a much lower price than TSC so I'll get to work on that one of these days. I also went to the lumber yard to get a 2x8 to make the hammer form for the BSA sidecovers. I need about six feet, so I was going to pick up an eight footer but the counterman said the shortest he had in stock was a ten footer. He double checked with the guy in the yard and then it was up to twelve foot. So no go on that project for a while.
I made the recumbent at least ten years ago. I bought the plans and then put it together at the high school out of scrap materials, an old department store 26" and a 20" BMX style bike, and a chair from the cafeteria. It's not practical for anything but the grandkids fool around with it occasionally when they come down. It was still running the original back tire but it finally gave up the ghost. I bought a cheap tire and tube, but as little as it gets ridden, it'll probably outlast me.
When I went back in the archives here and did a search for that photo, I came across a post from 2010 that mentioned my chest pain. Not the heart attack chest pain but something else. It gradually lessened over the years but never went totally away. I went to three or four doctors, had a chest x-ray and a MRI, went to therapy, acupuncture, but no-one ever figured out what it actually was. If I ran or did something like try and pound in a steel fence post or do push-ups, about two hours after whatever I did, my chest would hurt and then if I drank something hot or cold it would burn on the way down. The chest pain would sometimes last the better part of the day. However, after falling off the motorcycle recently, the chest seems to be cured. I felt a pop when I hit the ground and I had a sore spot on my ribs pretty close to my breastbone. The rib pain went away after a week or so and then I noticed the other chest pain seemed to have gone away also. I've been doing a few sissy push-ups and so far no pain. I haven't tried any running yet but next time the weather's decent, I think I'll give it a try. I'm going to try a few bench press moves, with a light weight of course, and see how that works out. I can't explain it but if I knew that falling off the bike was the cure, I'd of had someone pick me up and drop me about four feet years ago.
More snow this morning - just a little accumulation but more on the way this weekend along with some cold over-night temps. Might see negative numbers. I'm ready for it, regardless of what shows up. I got a kick out of the guy on the local radio station last weekend when it was snowing. Rather than being a crier of doom, he was saying it's just a typical winter day for us and so be careful when driving.
I spent most of yesterday on the road. Cuzzin Ricky had one of his trucks worked on over at the neighbor's house, so I drove one back to his house and then he brought me back home. As soon as I got back it was off to the bank, library, post office, Tractor Supply, Target, Menards and then the college. I got the keyway broached for the high mileage project, dropped off a couple of things for one of the instructors, ran into one of the guys I rode the Cowboy Trail with last summer and then hit the Weld Shop and made the little part you see in the photo below.
That's a replacement for a piece on my clothesline prop that broke last year. It came with the house and I've never seen another one like it. The metal clip fits in the end of a piece of galvanized tubing that's about 7' long. The original clip looked like it was a manufactured item rather than a one-off like mine. Regardless, I should be good for a lifetime once I cut the clip to length and braze it in. I do find it interesting with all the climate change hysteria you're always hearing about, you never hear about anyone campaigning for the right to hang your laundry outside. When I moved in here there was a clothesline but it was in the front yard. A bit tacky even by my standards. There are places that won't allow you to hang the laundry outside at all, either by ordinance, codicil or home owners association rule. Silliness.
The stop at Tractor Supply was to check on some parts for the slip roller. I need some sprocket hubs and sprockets - roughly $100.00. The plans call for the rolls being made from 1-1/2" pipe. $32.00 from Menards for a 10' section. In addition to the steel parts I'll need some bronze bushings and some bolts but no great expense there. I've already got the material for the end pieces and the base so I'm looking at about $150.00 - $175.00. I found a place that had the sprocket hubs substantially cheaper. I'm going to look a little deeper into ordering from them. If the shipping charges wouldn't be excessive, that would bring the finished cost down to about $100.00. A roller would be real handy for the type of work I do.
It was a cold one yesterday - in the teens when I finally rolled out of the sack. It was quite pretty though with everything covered in a layer of frost, sparkling in the sunshine. I still decided to take another day off from working on anything in the shop just the same. I did manage to get a little more done on the family history project. Every time I get any new info on people and I add it to my family tree on Ancestry.com more hints pop up, so then I chase those down. Sometimes there will be something useful, sometimes not but at least until I hear back from the last few people I've contacted, I'll keep pursuing new leads.
In addition to family history research, I came across this item in an email from Grizzly: English wheel for less than $100.00. It's a small benchtop model but might be OK for motorcycle work. If I was thinking about getting into doing some metal shaping work, might be worth picking one up. If you decide that type of work is not for you, I'm sure you could recoup your investment easily enough.
These are from Luc De Ley from Facebook. His father was an accomplished metalsmith and the son obviously is also. He's constructing a body for an old Bugatti. The body he's constructing is similar to what I want to build. With years of practice and devotion to the trade, you too could do similar work. Buy that wheeling machine and get started. I've got no idea when I'll get started.
I bought myself another caliper - as an aside, like most people, I say a pair of calipers like they do with binoculars. Not sure why that is, they don't come in pairs. Anyway, these read in fractions of an inch on the outside of the dial. I figure they'll be handy for measuring stock and quick measurements that don't require a real accuracy. They read to .001" on the inner dial, however, so you can use them for more precise measurements. Less than $30.00, so a small investment for something that should be somewhat handy.
I lost the screw somehow on my 6" Vernier calipers that I normally use for my machine work that locks the sliding jaw down in position. I also have a 6" digital set that I haven't used for years. The battery went bad in those a long time ago but I pulled them out before ordering the new one and saw some corrosion where the battery goes even though I pulled the battery out way back. I assume they would still work if I cleaned them up but I think they might have the same size screw I need for my Vernier calipers. If so, I'll swap out the screw and scrap the digital ones. I'm not big on things that require batteries.
Winter has arrived. It's snowing now and it looks like a total of maybe four inches will be heading my way. I don't have anywhere I need to be, the wife baked cookies last night, I've got books to read, so I'm set.
My wife tipped me off to the obituary of one of my old bosses from way back. I worked for him at his welding shop back in the 70's. This was the last full time job I had before I started my teaching career. It was a great place to learn the trade. The shop did a lot of trailer hitches, ornamental iron and general fabrication and repair. The money wasn't the best but he was a decent guy to work for. He took all of us and our wives out for dinner at Christmas and wrapped up the evening with a bonus check. He had a nice place outside of town with a pool. We all went to his house one Saturday morning to clean up the place - paid us time & a half - then we all came back with our families later that day for a party. I worked a couple summers for him after I started teaching as well. RIP Adolph.
I dug out the print Surly made for the BSA sidecovers. I need to pick up a 2x8 so I can start making a hammerform for those. I can do some of that work down the basement where it's warm, so I'll pick one up next week after the roads dry out. The new pickup seems to slide around fairly easily. Either I need to get some weight in the back of it or stay home when it's slick out. Staying home is my preference.
I see where more stores are closing. I can see why. I ordered a tire and tube for my recumbent bike from Amazon. It takes a 26 x 1-3/8 which is not too common any more. So instead of driving 25 miles to the bike shop and then have him order one in, just place the order with Amazon. If you're a prime member, the order's at the house in a couple of days and no shipping charges. I ordered some cinch straps this morning to tie things down on top of the panniers on the Royal Enfield from StrapWorks.com. Four straps for $12.00, shipping included. Your choice of width, color, length and buckle. Again, if I could find them it was going to be a 25 mile drive with the best option being Dick's Sporting Goods and I don't care for their business practices - apparently I'm not alone - I see where they are going to be closing quite a few stores.
So living out in the country keeps getting easier all the time. There is a decent hardware store a lumber yard and a grocery store all within about 10 minutes from me. Everything else I can get when I take the Missus to the doctor, go to the college or order online. Not a bad life.
First off, I don't usually comment about either religion or politics here, but I'd just like to say: Build the damn wall! It'll create jobs, slow down the flow of drugs and gangs and make the immigration process much more fair for others trying to become American citizens from Europe or Asia. The cost for a section of the wall is 5.7 billion and of course like most government contracts, there will be over-runs but that's OK. 5.7 billion seems like a huge amount of money until you look at what a small percentage of the total federal outlay it is. In fact, it's not much more than a rounding error to the clowns in Washington.
A partial shutdown of the government is certainly going to effect a lot of people, both directly and indirectly. It's not the way I would want to start my New Year. In fact, I did start my new year that way a couple of times many years ago. The government employees who are going to come up short should be able to get a short term loan but the last administration decided it would be a good idea to shut down as many payday loan outfits as they could. Those of you on furlough should remember that when if comes time to vote. Everyone out there should also remember what Charlie Reese said about how 545 people control the remaining 300,000,000 of us. Shutting down the country because of some infantile pissing contest is just plain ridiculous.
Next order of business: I bought the new bike and got it titled and plated. However, it cost me a little over $130.00 to make that happen. $76.00 of that was for excise tax and $15.00 was for Transportation Infrastructure Improvement. And that's on top of the roughly $350.00 I paid in sales tax. Since Indiana staggers the renewal dates on the plates, I went ahead and renewed for 2020 while I was there but still. Nearly $500.00 for the privilege of riding my motorcycle on public roads. Is my motorcycle and other vehicles worth 7% more in Indiana than in say Montana? Not only no, but hell no.
I just got my first Social Security check of the new year. I got a little raise which is nice. It was roughly the same amount as inflation was last year but I doubt seriously if it will ever keep up completely. When Social Security was initiated it was supposed to be free of federal tax, which made a lot of sense. They were taking your money as a tax along with the matching amount from your employer. Now with Medicare thrown in that's about 15% of your earnings, then when you retire, they tax your money again at what ever tax bracket you happen to fall into. I read the other day a hypothetical case where a couple pay into Social Security something like $850,000 on their lifetime earnings and then receive $1,200,000. Pretty lousy return on that investment, especially when they have to pay taxes on it when the feds dole it back out to them one month at a time. And if they die shortly after they retire, the money stays with the gov rather than going to a beneficiary. If I had been given a choice, I think I could have done much better on my own.
So, you've got 500 and some people who are supposed to be representing you and I, probably a third of which are millionaires. I pay taxes and licensing fees on damn near everything thing I do or I earn. Those of you still working will have to work until almost the first of May or about a third of your annual income just to pay your tax obligations, by the way. As a tax paying citizen who has been paying into the system for over 50 years and will continue to pay until the day I die, I would like to say to those who are supposed to be representing me, just build the damn wall. Balance the budget. Try and act like grown-ups for a change.
I did contact my Congressman about this, by the way. I would urge you all to do the same.
Care to become better educated without taking out a loan? Here's a list of schools offering courses on the cheap. I just glanced at the list briefly but there's a bunch of them covering a wide variety of subjects. Since most of these would be taken as an audit, I don't know how much value they would have on a resume but maybe this is going to be the future of higher learning. Because the world is changing so rapidly and education has gotten so expensive, why not just take the courses pertaining to your specialty and forget all about the whole "campus experience"? As things change, take another course or two to stay current. Makes all kind of sense to me. In fact, I'm planning on doing a bit of this myself this year.
In my case, getting smarter also includes getting more organized.
When I went to Harbor Freight last week I picked up this little small parts organizer - only five bucks. I bought some more metric hardware that I needed specifically but figured I should get a few more pieces to keep on hand since the selection at the local hardware stores is pretty weak. The ones I usually go to both stock the same items, so if one doesn't have it, the other one won't either. Menards has a relatively good hardware selection but invariably, they'll be out of the item I'm looking for. Now I've got a designated place for the 6mm socket head screws instead of the soup can. Next time I order I'm going to add a couple of additional lengths in the 6mm size and get a few 8mm as well. I also re-supplied the metric cap screw organizer that's sitting underneath the new organizer. I bought the hardware from BoltDepot.com. I'm real happy with this outfit. Prices are real good, no minimum order, and shipping is about as good as it can get, both as to price and delivery time.
I've got the job for the high school's high mileage car just about done. The only thing left is to broach the keyway. I'll take that to the college and do that there. I've got a 3/16" broach but it's too large to fit in the bore. The one at the college will fit, has the proper bushing and shims and the big cheese said sure, bring it in.
This has been an interesting project. I threaded the bushing with a 3/4-16 left hand thread on the old South Bend lathe. Left hand threads are a little tricky, especially when you need to start the thread against a flange. I made the part in one chucking so the bore and the threads would run true. The carrier I clamped down to the milling table and then indicated the edge where the sprocket bolts up to make sure it would run true to the bore. Because the bore was a little out of whack and it had a keyway, I used a milling cutter to size the hole for the threads and then tapped the hole while using a center in the mill spindle to keep the tap running true. After threading the two parts together, instead of pinning the two pieces to prevent the bushing from loosening up, I drilled and tapped a couple of holes and then put a couple of set screws so the piece is actually bolted together. I used thread locker on the center hole and the two screws acting as pins as well. I also drilled and tapped the bushing for set screws to secure it to the shaft and to keep the key in place. The job was a little time consuming but I had everything pretty well worked out in my head prior to starting. Good job to keep my skills sharp. Hopefully it will function as planned.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of days. It was sunny and in the 50's yesterday. After taking the cat on it's last ride, I needed something to do so I tackled a couple of little chicken shit jobs around the shack. I had installed and caulked the new trim over the service door previously on another nice day, so I touched up the red paint around the trim covering up the caulk seam. Looks A-OK now. I'll paint the grill come springtime. It doesn't look like it but I put a coat of spar varnish on the door itself last fall. I should probably put another coat on that in the spring as well. I also caulked the holes the woodpecker made on the house trim and painted over them. I don't need water getting behind the trim and rotting things away.
While doing my inventory on the fire extinguishers recently, I figured I should have one on the old tractor. I don't have any in the barn where I keep it, so this way there will be one handy in there if ever I need one. I made a little back-up plate with threaded holes that goes on the inside of the frame rail. The spot I chose to mount it was a place where there was already a couple of holes in the frame. Easy enough.
Took the new motorcycle out for a little spin as long as it was nice. The manual gives the break-in speeds and revs and they are pretty low. Especially the mph. Might be a while before I can run it at highway speeds but that's alright. Put-puttin' around on the backroads or chasing parts doesn't require any blistering speed. It's supposed to be warm again today, so maybe I'll get it out again and put a few more miles on it. I did get my plate transferred and the insurance taken care of Friday so I'm set for at least a year in that regard.
Friday I also got the truck washed and cleaned out after making a trip north. Picked up a few things at Harbor Freight and Menards. Friday was my last paycheck for awhile so I figured I should stock up on some of the items that I had coupons for at Harbor Freight - like flap discs for 99 cents each - and a couple of sale items at Menards. Lots of running around but pretty productive couple of days. It's supposed to be warm again today and Monday, so I'll tackle a couple more things outside and then work on finishing up the machine work on the job for the high school.
I'm working on putting the finishing touches on the family history project. I started collecting information way back in 1977 or so - inspired by Alex Haley's Roots as were so many others. I'm really glad I started working on it when I did because I was able to get first hand knowledge from my grandmothers and other family members. Not only did this simplify the research, it allowed me to get to know my elders much better. No royalty or anyone famous in the clan, just common folks trying to do the best they could. Looking back, a couple of black sheep but mostly all good people, though. Other than my one aunt and her husband the dentist, I think my older brother and I were first of the family to get a college degree. Not all that surprising I suppose. My dad's generation could make a good living without one and my generation could get one by working part time jobs and graduate without a ton of debt.
That photo above is of my dad training for the Golden Gloves. That photo actually appeared in his local paper (and soon to appear in the family history book). He went on to win the championship in Michigan City, Indiana and then fought in the Tournament of Champions in 1940 in Chicago. He's listed in the program above fighting in the 147 pound class. He was a tough old bird but he never really talked much about his boxing career, his Army service or how things were for him growing up. He was born in 1920, so his formative years were during the Great Depression and from what I've learned over the years, his father wasn't the greatest role model. My Pops turned out to be a pretty right guy, though. I think Mom gets most of the credit for that, however. The same thing could be said for my house also.
I've decided to add another generation of the relatives to the book before it goes to press, so I've got to contact a few more people for some birthdates and other things but it's time to put this job to bed. It's been a fun experience. I'm glad I took the opportunity to talk to the old folks when I did. Unfortunately, as I finish this thing if I have a question now, there's no longer anyone to ask. Everyone except two of my aunts - one of my dad's sisters and one of my mom's sisters - are gone. That makes myself, my brothers and my cousins the old generation now. We've become the elders. And if it's the job of the elders to pass along the history and traditions, at least I've done my part in keeping the memories alive of those that made me and mine what we are.
I would suggest in this age of digital photography, print out some of your family photos and identify the people and when the photo was taken. Also, whenever the technology changes, update your files to the latest storage technique. Genealogy research is much easier today. If you are considering starting a project, talk to your family members, tape record your conversations, and start yourself a genealogy chart. Ancestry.com is having a promotional sale now. $49.00 will get you six months and you can enter your info and hints will start popping up with records applying to your clan. If you get your DNA tested, you might find relatives that have been working on the same project that you can share information with.
Hard to beat hand made gifts, especially if they are a useful tool. Surly made me a marking knife. Most of the things I make when working with wood as well as metal are made to "soapstone tolerance", but occasionally I need to work to a closer tolerance. There's nothing better than a marking knife if you want an accurate layout on wood. I normally use my Stanley knife but this will be better, not only in function, but because it was made for me personally.
And speaking of Stanley tools, Surly also got me the Stanley tape rule in the photo. It's a limited edition to celebrate Stanley's 175th anniversary. 175 years is a long time to be in business. The company is now listed as Stanley Black & Decker, so there must have been a merger sometime along the way. Not surprising in this day and age. I don't know what all they still make but they're still pumping out tape measures, that I know, and they must have made a million scratch awls over the years. There wasn't a middle school or high school shop class that didn't have at least a few of them for layout work. I don't know what if anything is still made in the U.S. The anniversary tape is made in Thailand. The company was originally in New Britain, Connecticut but the tape box has a Maryland address on it.
In addition to Stanley tools, New Britain also was the home of New Britain tools. I've got a set of New Britain metric sockets that I bought from the NAPA store back in the 60's. According to the Wikipedia article, New Britain made tools that were sold under a lot of different brand names including all the big name department stores like Sears, Wards and J.C. Penney. If I was to go through the tool boxes, I'd probably find a few of them. I'd like to know a bit more about the industrial history of New England. Machine tools, precision tools, hand tools, firearms - that was the place. I know a bit about the area from my reading and travels but I'd like to find a good book or two about the subject.
Here's hoping to a good 2019 - and as always, measure twice, cut once.
