Pretty decent day yesterday - mid-twenties, still and sunny. I made a grocery run, returned some library books and picked up a couple of things from Menards in the morning, had a bite to eat, and since they're forecasting a foot of snow in a couple of days, I figured I should see what it was going to take to repair the blade on the old Allis.
The pin in the photo above is the lock pin that holds the blade at whatever angle is chosen. It's supposed to be straight rather than the 45degree as shown. I separated the blade from the frame so I could cut the bent part off and remove the rest of the pin.
I had a piece of 3/4" cold rolled, so it was pretty easy to make a new piece. I chucked it up in the lathe and put a taper on it, drilled the hole for the cotter key to hold the spring in compression, welded the lifting ring from the old one on to it and it was ready to go back together. It was a little tricky putting the blade back into the frame - would have been easy-peasy with someone else to work the hydraulics to lower the frame but I got the lever set to where it was just creeping down and I walked it into place. The blade still has a twist in it but I'll tackle that at a later date. It's going to take some heat and my acetylene tank is about empty. I don't want to run out in the middle of the job and I can use the plow as it is, so good enough.
The Missus showed me a post on social media recently from the outfit that put on the steam launch ride I went on last summer. Seems they were looking for scholars to write letters about the event to include in an award proposal. I volunteered and had to send a copy of my resume or CV. And because I'm a scholar, I actually knew that CV stood for curriculum vitae and not constant velocity, as in carbs and u-joints.
Fortunately, I've kept a copy of my resume, even though I doubted I would ever need it again other than in preparing my obit, that is. After sending in my bona-fides I got the approval, so I spent the biggest part of yesterday writing the letter. I'm hoping it does the job for them. Of course after reading my resume, the lady in charge asked about me doing a repair job on a small-scale boat similar to the one in the photo. It's a curse, I tell you.
I picked up my veggie allotment yesterday and made a big bowl of soup using the root vegetables along with the "holy trinity" of onion, carrots and celery. I'm getting pretty good at whipping up vegetable soup out of whatever comes my way from the CSA. Hard to beat homemade soup with all this cold weather.
It warmed up yesterday so after I made my soup, I made it out to the shop for a bit. I drilled the rivet holes in the shock towers. The rivet on the big end of the piece is just in the hole to keep the part in alignment. I ordered a couple of headlights. The description says the mounting bolts are 10mm but I'll wait until they get here before I drill the holes. I did a couple of other little jobs while I was out there as well as eyeballing up what I need for a brake pedal and master cylinder. I think I've got it figured out what will work, so I'll get that ordered.
Eight below zero this morning when I checked at 7:30. Looking like a day of staying inside, other than a brief trip to take care of the chores.
I hooked the edge of the plow the other day when clearing the snow and bent the lock pin that holds it at the correct angle or the actual pivot pin along with putting a twist in the blade. I farted around trying to get it straightened out just enough to aggravate the mystery pain in my chest. It looks like I'll have to cut the locking pin out. I might be able to reach in with the reciprocating saw. If not, I'll pull the tractor over by the shop and use the torch. Have to wait for a warmer day, though. Hope it doesn't snow much in the meantime. Weatherman says we've got a couple of 40 degree days in the near future.
Amsoil Inside the Oval shirt - actually I've got two of these. There's a young guy and his lovely wife who set up a stand at the sprint and champ car races selling Amsoil products. They have a drawing and if your name is picked, you get to watch the feature from inside the oval, rather than from the stands. Cuzzin Ricky and I got our names drawn at Kokomo and had the best seats in the house along with free tee shirts. We got picked again at Terre Haute but actually, there the view wasn't as good as our seats in the stands. But we got another shirt and our photos taken with the winner. Can't beat that.
Amsoil products are not cheap but are of good quality. I bought some two-stroke oil that I use in the chopper motor-bike I built. I mix it a little richer than the 100 - 1 ratio it calls for but no obnoxious smoke trail when I run it down the lane to get the mail. Of course it doesn't have that lovely "bean oil" smell that used to be a thing back in the day, but I don't think I have to worry about a seizure or fouling a plug - nice trade-off there.
I watched Electra Glide in Blue the other night, the film starring Robert Blake made back in '73. A much different spin on biker movies that were popular in the late sixties, early seventies. Not necessarily a cinematic masterpiece, but worth watching once every 25 years or so. Since it was on TCM, I was able to watch the credits all the way to the end - mostly to see who did the music and songs in the film - but I saw some interesting names pop up that I recognized as a long-time fan of movies and motorcycles.
Three heavy hitters in the movie stuntman biz as well as being real deal racers. Hickman is probably best known for his role driving the Charger in Bullit, but he rode bikes as well.
I found an interesting motorcycle site by way of Pergolator the other day, which posts some interesting stuff as well. Lots of stuff about hundreds of different marques.
I made a couple of pieces to go on top of the shock mounts Saturday but I didn't like the way they turned out, so I need to remake them. I decided to rivet them on and the proportions were wrong for the size of the rivets I have. I need to either increase the size of the parts or use smaller rivets. Nothing serious and only about an hour wasted.
I've decided that since my birthday is Labor Day Weekend, that would be a great time to take the maiden voyage of the jitney - maybe not have the paint job completed but have everything put together to the point I can test drive it and then take it apart and finish things off after making sure it all works as planned. As long as there aren't too many hold-ups due to parts availability, that should be a reasonable goal. 224 days. Let the countdown begin!
I welded, ground and filed the shock towers. I'm going to make a piece for the top of them where the headlights will mount. I was just getting ready to cut them out when the Missus summoned me to the house. A guy I used to work with way back when had called to let me know of the passing of one of our fellow vocational teachers.
Ray the "Polish Prince" passed away in his sleep yesterday at the ripe old age of 92. Ray was the machine shop instructor when I first started teaching and was later the second in command at the career center where I was transferred to. Cracker Jack machinist, teacher and all around great human being. I owe him an awful lot. I used to go into his shop on my prep hour and take lessons on machining. Every once in a while I'd get in over my head a bit on one of my projects and he'd come to the rescue. Rest in peace, Ray. Like the rest of your students, we all owe you a big debt of gratitude.
Love & happiness - that's what makes the world go 'round. I listened to a bit of the speech by the "President" the other day - can't say that I was inspired or felt any love & happiness. Seems he forgot to mention a few things when he was bragging up his accomplishments. Things like the fiasco of the pullout from Afghanistan, the 50% increase in gas prices, 7% increase in inflation, 2 million illegals invading the country at the southern border, and his throwing in the towel on covid-19 at the federal level.
However, while I was waiting for my tires to get mounted on Monday, I ran down the street to the library and came across this little gem. As a heart patient, I'm very interested in all things pertaining to heart health. This book goes into a lot more than just the mechanical workings of the heart. The title is an apt description of what's covered. Very interesting read and if you're looking for love and happiness, he explains the "love hormone", oxytocin and how it gives us the "feels".
I got my grow lights all set down the basement. Simple set-up. A couple of small clamp lights that are clipped to a 1x4 hanging from a couple of short chains. This will allow me to easily raise and lower the lights and move them to another location to supplement the small amount of daylight I've got coming in the basement window as necessary. Now I just need to find the African Violet seeds I put somewhere for safe keeping and get those started. The tomatoes are up, though. Hope to have homegrown tomatoes by April. That'll bring the love & happiness. As the song goes:" only two things money can't buy, that's true love and homegrown tomatoes."
The bulbs are LED rather than incandescent. They give off a blue light with a purplish tint, at least as far as I can tell with my color deficient eyeballs. The tintype kit I bought mentions that the photo chemicals are sensitive to blue light. I might be able to supplement my regular photoflood bulbs with these to allow me to take photos indoors. Might want to experiment with that.
Shock mounts under construction. I cut them out with the plasma cutter, clamped them together and then ground them all at the same time. I then drilled the holes and bent the pieces to tie the sides together.
I bolted the parts together and tacked a spreader on the opposite end. It's supposed to be cold today- might turn the heat on long enough to get them welded together. Might stay in the house and finish my book.
I got the jitney tires mounted on Monday. The tire shop had tubes in stock so they're mounted and balanced and ready to go. I was talking to the counterman and he said they have plenty of work but they're short on tires. They're also short on Rotella oil for one reason or another. He told me he had heard that a lot of the CEOs from big outfits are getting big bonuses for trimming the companies' carbon footprint. What's the easiest way to do that? Cut production. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but nothing would surprise me anymore.
Egg production's on the rise here, however. I got the first egg in about two months Monday and another yesterday. Doesn't make up for the food cost but I can't see me living here without having chickens.
It was a nice day yesterday - 40 degrees and sunny. Did some grocery shopping, ran to the hardware store and ran the truck through the car wash. Came home and worked a bit in the shop. I worked on planishing the seam on the dash hood. It still could use a wee bit more but I'll wait until I roll the bead on the dash side on the joggle on the firewall side. That'll stiffen up the sheets and maybe wrinkle them a bit. It won't take much to finish them up, regardless. I want to metal-finish all the sheet metal - no filler.
We've got more cold on the way, but I want to get the pieces for the shock mounts cut out and ground down. Maybe get that taken care of today. I picked up the chain and hooks I needed to hang the grow lights down stairs. I've got a couple of tomatoes that have sprouted already. The plan is to get a couple of tomatoes and peppers growing in big pots that I can take outside and then start a couple of more about June or July so I've got fresh produce year round.
The Missus got this one for me after I got the Himalayan. It's like the Harley guys - if you've got the bike, you need the shirt. Royal Enfield has been around two years longer than the Motor Company. In fact, they've been in continuous production since 1901. They're now made in India rather than England like they used to be but even though you don't see too many of them in the US, they're a big outfit.
They've added a couple of 650 twins to the lineup in the last couple of years. Nice looking bikes - classic looks like the old Brit bikes from the sixties. I'm a member of an Enfield group on social media and everyone seems to be happy with them. Bargain price too - $6K +/- depending on which model you get. They've also brought out a new 350cc model.
They've also got a line of Royal Enfield apparel. I don't need another tee shirt but if I was going to buy one, it would probably have Royal Enfield on it. I should take that back - I've got one of Bazooka Joe's new shirts on order. Need to support the local boxing pro.
If you're not familiar with Itchy Boots, you should check her outhere. She's a young lady traveling the world solo on her motorcycle. She did much of her initial travels on an Enfield Himalayan like I've got. It's interesting to note that all of the bikes she's been riding are small displacement machines. The Himalayans are 411cc. but with all the miles behind her, it's obvious they are capable of carrying the rider and equipment to the ends of the earth.
Small displacement motorcycles have always been looked down upon as anything but beginner bikes or "girls" bikes in the US, unless you're talking dirt bikes. However, if you're looking for a commuter, something to just jump on and go every once in a while, small bikes are perfect. Better mileage, cheaper insurance, easier to handle. You can pick them up by yourself if they fall over and you don't need a reverse gear to back out of a parking space. They're not for long distance touring if you plan on travelling by Interstate, but that's no way to see the country, anyway.
Itchy boots also sells tee shirts, by the way. You could buy one and help pay her way to Alaska.
I got a call from my running buddy on Saturday about going for a hike on Sunday - sounded good to me, so four of us went to one of the State Parks and did just that. We hiked nine miles on a nice winter afternoon. The temperature was just a little below freezing but the sun was out with little to no breeze. Running buddy is talking about doing some sort of hike at the Grand Canyon this fall. I might be talked into that after I hear a few details. If I commit to that I might train by doing the 50 Mile Challenge.
Didn't get out to the shop yesterday due to the hike, but I did get a little done on Saturday. I worked on filing and planishing the dash hood. You would think by now I could knock down a weld seam on a relatively flat service lickety-split but getting the sheet flat next to the weld after it puckers a bit from the weld shrinking still takes me a while. I'll probably never live long enough to master the metal shaping trade but I'm going to keep after it.
Oh, Hell no! No blues yesterday. I had to head north for a test in the morning. That's test in the singular. As I recall from my teaching days in the Harbor, the plural of test according to a couple of my students was testes - that one was always good for a chuckle. Test results came back in the afternoon and everything was Jake. That's always good.
And then, lookie, lookie what showed up - tires! Only took about four months but here they are.
The one tire had a "LAST TIRE" sticker on it. I'm not sure of the significance of that but that brings to mind another Billy Holiday song:
Yeah man. I've got my own and they'll be heading to the tire shop right quick like. The tires are 30" tall versus 26-1/2" on the fronts. If I can get the car set up level while on the horses, the larger rears should give me a little nose down rake, especially with the extra weight from the engine up front. Even though I don't have a differential yet, I can do some head scratching and number crunching to get an idea where it will go.
I didn't get much done in the shop - mostly because I was worn out from doing the happy dance when the tires showed up. I did bolt the cab sheets together and throw them up on the frame rails to eyeball them. I'm real happy how it's coming together. I still have to weld the rod splice where the two sheets come together. I used fender washers on both sides of the sheets when bolting them together. That drew the sheets together nicely, which should make the riveting go smoothly.
I also annealed the dash hood. I'm going to planish the seam and then draw the layout lines for the bead to continue the wired edge all around the cab. Rather than forming an upsweep over the dash, I'm going to leave it like it is in the photo and then make a windshield in a frame maybe 8"-10" wide that will tilt rearward. I haven't got the design worked out yet but I'm a ways off from needing that. I'll probably need to stiffen up the sheet on top of the dash hood to support the frame, so I need to decide how I'm going to do that.
I'm taking the Missus back to the dentist today, so that'll blow another hole in the schedule but I'm seeing some real progress of late. And that's always good.
The Last Waltz was on the telly the other night - been a long time since I'd seen it. I was always a big fan of The Band and The Last Waltz featured them, of course, and a lot of the greatest musicians of the time.
Levon Helm played the drums and the mandolin with The Band. He also did the vocals on many of the numbers. He also cut the CD in the photo along with some other heavy hitters. My kind of music.
I worked on the cab sheets yesterday. I got the filler pieces riveted to the cab sides, tacked the round bars to the sheets and drilled the holes in the sheets so I can rivet the two halves together. It looks like there's a dent in the sheet but it's a shadow line from where I ran the Scotch-Brite pad across it.
I'll anneal the dash hood and get the layout line on it to roll the bead around the edge of it. When some help shows up, I'll get the bead rolled in and get the cab sheets riveted together.
I've got things to do this morning, so I don't know what, if anything, I'll get done in the shop. I might put a couple of temporary screws in the cab sheets so I can put it on the frame and see how it looks. Then I can start thinking about the seat mounts and the floor.
Top photo shows the thrust washer for the vise job and a couple of parts for Surly that needed some welding. The piece on the left was a bit of rework. I welded around a slug that was pressed in but I think I had a cold start at the beginning and the weld didn't penetrate fully. There's no pressure behind it or anything structural so I was concentrating on getting a pretty weld and not leaving any tracks on the surface of the part. If you leave arc strikes on a surface that's going to be machined, it will leave a hard spot that won't machine properly. In fact, if you strike outside the weld groove on a guided bend test, that's an automatic disqualification.
Bottom photo shows my wiring supplies for when I get ready to wire the jitney. Copper wire has gone up in price but the 16 ga. wire I got at Menards was reasonable. The ring terminals pictured have heat shrink insulators and solder built in as well as the usual mechanical crimping. This should eliminate any problems with moisture or loose wires later on.
The vise is all finished now. I had to sand the OD of the thrust washer a bit but that only took a couple of minutes. I can put this one in the finished column.
I dug out the can of rivets and the rivet set. The dimple in the end didn't quite match the profile of the head on the rivet so I chucked it up in the lathe and put a new radius in it. The radius is 1/2". It would have been real simple with a 1" ball mill but I don't have one of those. Likewise, if I had a 1"ball bearing I could have done it blacksmith style by heating the bar up red hot and then driving the ball into the end. Instead, I free-handed the radius with the help of a 1/2" radius gauge.
The practice piece looks good - no marks on the rivet head. There was a bit of marking on the sheet around the head, so I chucked the rivet set back up in the lathe and rounded the end a bit more. I should be ready to rivet the sheets on the cab now.
My buddy Jimmy, who I coached as an amateur, helped work his corner as a pro and started the local boxing gym with, got this one for me. The gym's been open for 13-14 years now but I worked with a few guys before we had an actual gym. I'm a big fan of amateur boxing and have missed going to the gym the last two years due to the cooties. I don't know when it'll ever be safe to go back but I renewed my coaching license again this year, so I'm ready when the time comes. As for putting the gloves on - those days are long gone, I'm sorry to say.
I finished wrapping the sheets around the round stock on both halves of the cab sheets except for the section where the sheets overlap. I need to cut the rod where the splice is and then I can rivet the two halves together along with the filler pieces. I left the rod sticking out of the filler sheets but I'll trim them back to about an inch. When I roll the bead around the dash hood, I'll leave the rod inside short by a corresponding amount to help support the splice. The overlap of the sheets will be fastened with Dzus fasteners.
Here's a rare look at Shop Teacher Bob. In this case dressed for the daily trip to the chicken coop and the walk down the lane for the mail. It was about 10 degrees at the time. The wind was calm and the sun was out, so it wasn't bad. The down coat has a hood that can be unrolled out of the collar which would be useful if it was windy, since the new hat doesn't stop the wind. If I had to be out in the weather all day, I would have put on some warmer socks and a flannel shirt under my sweatshirt.
The only time I wear this coat is when the temperatures are approaching zero. I wear long underwear as a matter of course from the first of November until the first of March. My standard winter daytime attire is a sweatshirt & bib overalls. When I go outside, depending on what I've got planned, hooded sweatshirt and a blanket lined chore coat. When plowing snow on the tractor, hooded sweatshirt and insulated coveralls. Footwear is hiking boots or pac boots with felt liners.
Even though the bender is in the back part of the shop that's not heated, I put on the work clothes yesterday and bent the second rod for the cab sheets and closed up around the rod on the first half. Looks pretty sexy, if you ask me. I'll move the saw horses up front today and work on finishing it up where it's a little warmer. I would have gotten a little more done yesterday but I had to fix up what appears to be the handy work of another raccoon. If there was a market for raccoon fur, I'd start trapping these things in earnest. As it is, I'll bait the trap again and see what happens.
Now that I'm retired it would take some sort of emergency to get me to leave the shack here and go out in the cold, which is why I missed the local appearance of the Weiner Mobile on Friday, by the way. Yesterday afternoon we got a heavy mist that turned to ice on the roads, creating havoc. All of which is a long lead into This and the necessity of being prepared. The Silicon Graybeard addresses the subject of electric vehicles and sheds some light on what happens when you and your EV are stuck in traffic for almost a full day when it's cold outside. If you take the time to read his article, be sure to read the comments as well. Very interesting and well worth your time.
You can fill in your favorite - well digger, witch or brass monkey.
I watched the Outdoor Classic on New Year's Day and the Minnesota Wild were wearing hats like this one during their warm-up on the ice. I commented to the Missus that I should have one of those - it showed up Wednesday.
I wore it to breakfast with Cuzzin Ricky and TVI and later in the day when I walked down to get the mail. It was about 6 degrees when we went to breakfast but I was only outside for a few minutes. Later when I walked down the lane and checked on the chickens, it was only a few degrees warmer, overcast and breezy. I was dressed plenty warm but even with a balaclava/head sock I could feel the wind on my head. So it's a cool looking hat, but it's more like a 30 degree hat, rather than a 0 degree hat.
My breakfast companions both spent quite a bit of time outside in the winter before they retired. I never had to spend any time out in the elements as a shop teacher but I did spend some time working outside prior to starting my teaching career and working side jobs. I respect everyone who has to work out in these conditions.
When the weatherman is talking wind chills of -25, it's dangerous cold. This is the time of year when you should dress for the conditions, fashion be damned. I bet there were a lot of people stuck in the traffic jam on I-95 recently that wish they would have had some additional clothing along with some food, water and a way to relieve themselves. I would like to know how those folks driving electric cars made out while parked for 18-19 hours trying to stay warm without using up all of their battery.
The temperatures are supposed to be about the same today as yesterday - high in the mid-teens. Rick drove me to the steel supply while we were out and I picked up a sheet to make the shock mounts. The weekend is supposed to be warmer, so I'll get out to the shop and work on those and finishing up the cab. In the meantime, one more day in the house.
One year anniversary of the "insurrection" in Washington today. Since for the most part the majority crime committed was trespassing, I'm thinking those in charge should be remembering the Lord's Prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us
Or maybe just a refresher on the definition of Karma. It'll come back around one of these days. Same thing for those in charge of the "Science".
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Made some progress on the cab sheets. I've got the rod for one half bent. Not too tough to follow the rolled in bead. Mostly it's a matter of patience and bends that are spaced close together so you get a smooth radius. The rod being 6' wasn't long enough to go all the way around so I cut it at the halfway point. The stub sticking out is for the filler piece. If you enlarge the photo, you can see where I hammered the sheet over the rod up to the first bend. It goes fairly quickly. Again, have the patience to work it down evenly in stages, then finish it up with the planishing hammer while leap-frogging the clamps. It's looking just like I had envisioned it. When everything is riveted together I'll put a few tack welds on the rod when I splice the two halves together.
Super-dooper cold now - temps in the teens with strong winds. My bender is in the back half of the shop that isn't heated. That's going to slow progress for a few days. The second vendor on eBay contacted me and they don't have the headlights either, I'm going to pick up material today to finish the shock mounts. It's supposed to warm this weekend. Hope to get those and the cab sheet metal wrapped up then.
I followed a link at WRSA to some info about preparing for a nuclear event. While I consider myself only slightly paranoid, I guess the reality is that depends on who you ask. Anyway, since I live within 50 miles of a big city and a large oil refinery, I would guess my place qualifies as one of the areas "close enough for an atomic bomb". Having grown up in the era of "duck and cover", is it time feed the paranoia once again?
Speaking as a guy who enjoys making things, especially one-off esoteric items, maybe a Kearney Fallout Meter would be an interesting winter project. I've only given the thing a quick look-see, but it looks like it could be an interesting and useful project since it's capable of measuring radon gas as well as the fallout from a nuclear attack.
The link here will take you to a pdf of the book Nuclear War Survival Skills which has instructions for making the KFM. I don't like reading that much info on a computer screen, but I'm going to read this just because, besides my paranoia, I find information from that era very interesting. And, it just might come in handy someday, God forbid.
Souvenir from the ruck march I did in November of 2019. Ten miles with a pack on my back. Not a lot of weight in it - mostly just some fluff to fill it out so it didn't look like it was empty. Actually, other than food and water it was close to the weight I usually carry on my bike trips. Even though I'm pulling my duffle on a trailer, it normally only weighs about 22 lbs. I carry some additional things in my panniers on the front wheel - photo stuff, rain gear, cooking utensils, along with tools, first aid kit, etc. in my saddle bag. Altogether, probably not much more than 30 pounds for everything I need to sustain me almost indefinitely out on the road except for food and water with water being the most critical as well as the heaviest item.
I've been camping since I was a kid and have refined and upgraded my equipment over the years. I had a Ford van years ago that made "camping" easy - find a nice place to park, open the big door on the side, snap the screen door in place and I was pretty much set. When I made my bike trip from Portland to Missoula, I upgraded my tent to a good 3-season tent. We were out on the road for about three weeks. Nice to be able to sleep when it's raining out without all your gear getting wet.
I'm going to be getting the pack out again and start hiking around the field now that the ground is frozen. I'd like to do some hiking and backpacking this year. My running buddy's been doing some hiking but an overnight camping trip together is probably out of the question, if we want to stay married that is. Regardless, getting outside and doing some "rucking" is good for the body and good for the soul. I could use a bit of it.
We got about 3" of snow on New Year's Day. The nice big flake type of snow. Winter wonderland in the back yard.
Surly came down yesterday and helped me roll the beads and the offset in the cab sheets for the jitney. They came out looking good. Next step is to temporarily join the two sheets with some Cleco fasteners and then start bending the round bar to fit inside the bead we rolled in. By doing it that way, I should be able to make the bar go all around both sheets without having to splice it. It'll be a lot easier to check the fit on one half at a time than trying to fit it if the sheets are joined together. At least that's the plan.
Surly brought a couple of late arriving Christmas presents down when he came. He and I were discussing Dick Proenneke not too long ago, so Surly found the book and bought it for me. After thumbing through it briefly, it looks like a really good read.
The bottom photo shows a pair of scales of G-carta for making a knife handle. I had never heard of G-carta until recently when Surly sent me a link to the guy who makes this stuff. I've made several knives in the past but they were a little amateurish. I think I could do much better these days. I've got a couple of store-bought blades in house, but not the kind of blades that would suit the G-carta. I might need to make or buy a blade for these.
It's actually winter-time cold now and probably will be for the next two months or so. Hopefully it won't get as cold as it was in Minneapolis the other night for the hockey game - 6 below when they dropped the puck. The cold might slow my progress in the shop a bit but I'm hoping to keep pecking away at the jitney. I got an e-mail about the rear tires about the same time I was expecting the tires. The crux of the matter was no tires, we'll let you know when we find out more. In the meantime, I'll work on the cab sheets and the steering - then get a brake pedal assembly and start fitting the floor and seat.
Lots to do but the year's starting out well, at least for me. Hope it stays that way.
Namesake of our dog - sort of. The dog's name is Larry, but since he's half cocker spaniel, his full name is Larry Joe Cocker. The other half is French poodle, but we don't hold that against him.
I ordered headlights from eBay and later received a message that they only had one with the amber lens. They proposed sending me one amber, one clear, but since they're going on a car, two that match would be nice. I'm getting a refund on those and I found another vendor that had a pair of the amber ones, so those have been ordered. They should be here in 2-3 weeks.
My rear tires haven't shown up and I haven't received any notification one way or the other. The quick change rear end is still unavailable from Speedway, so don't know when I'll be able to order that. Since I've got plenty left to do, I'll just play it by ear. The more I think about it, the more I want one of those, however, I might change my mind if it prevents me from finishing the car up in a timely fashion.
Made it to the barber shop Thursday - first time in almost two years. There's a new barber shop with a boxing theme - Uppercuts. Bazooka Joe has a pair of his trunks hanging in there and there are a couple of murals - one with Ali, one with Tyson. I got a haircut and a beard trim. The young lady did a nice job. Even though the Missus has been keeping me trimmed up, she was glad to turn the job over to someone else - she even offered to pay.
The big thing about all of this is getting back out again. I went out for breakfast with Cuzzin Ricky and TVI prior to the barbershop. I used my covid-killer nasal spray before going out and my hand sanitizer after getting back in the truck after each stop. I'm going to continue avoiding crowds but it might be time to start easing back out among the unwashed.
Like a lot of folks at this time of year, been thinking about the diet and exercise plan - mostly diet. I just finished the book Longevity Paradox and I'm currently reading The Plant Based Athlete. Lots of commonalities between the authors as well as what I've read by others on heart health and diabetes. I've got a pretty good handle on what I should be doing, Now it's just a matter of doing it. Stay away from the sugar, chips, seed oils and late night snacks.
I've been working on some strength training - not a lot but enough to prevent any more muscle loss. I'm thinking about loading up my pack with about 20 pounds and start hiking around the cornfield a couple of days per week after the ground freezes and getting on the bike trainer a couple of days. I'd really like to get back into the boxing gym but I don't think it's safe enough yet to do that.
Looks like there's plenty of storm clouds on the horizon. Time to get in shape so I can meet the storm head on. Best of luck to all of you in 2022.
