Fine Day at the Shack

 

Surly came down yesterday to give me a hand turning the garden over. By giving me a hand I mean doing all the work. I'll need to finish up some things but the strip on the left was sod, so the help was greatly appreciated. The lower right spot has some strawberries. I'm going to put some type of edging around them. The green spot in the middle has asparagus plants there. I'll clean that up with a hand trowel and get the edge next to the rhubarb cleaned up as well.

While Surly was here I had him help me load my "T" argon cylinder in my pickup. In this case I actually did my share. A full tank weighs about 130 lbs. I used to hump those things around solo, but as Clint said, a man has to know his limitations. The big cylinder holds twice the gas as the "S" cylinder I just refilled. Since my torch is no longer leaking, I just might have a lifetime supply now.

It was cold Sunday night. The water in the birdbath was frozen yesterday morning. I gave a quick glance at the fruit trees, and they didn't seem to be hurt but I'll know more in a couple of days. Lots of work to do, both inside and out, but I'm looking forward to knocking out a few jobs on the "honey-do" list. 

Corvettes

I was looking through Market Place the other day, primarily to find a used rototiller cheap and close to home, and a couple of early eighties Corvettes popped up. I'm not in the market for any automobile presently but I was surprised at the prices - $5,000 or $6,000. I always thought a Corvette would be a good investment and would appreciate in value. I knew they were slugs as far as performance went. They were no longer "the only American sportscar" as they were once marketed but became cars old men with deep pockets bought. 

I looked up the specs on these dogs and it's pretty easy to understand why they're selling so cheap on the used market. A 350 CID engine making 200 horsepower with an automatic trans behind it. If you were to compare the specs of a 1962 Corvette, you could get a 327 with the solid lifter cam that was making 340 horses and a 4-speed trans.

I had a '62 Impala like this one. It also had a 327 and a 4-speed. There were several engine options, including the 327 in two different states of tune - 250 hp or a 300 hp version. The straight six with the 3-speed had about the same performance as the '82 'Vette.

So going forward twenty years, it appears the Corvette went backwards in performance, rather than forwards. I realize much of this was due to federal smog requirements, but it seems like GM decided the answer was to shave the lumps off the camshafts, lean out the engines and make sure you couldn't adjust the carburetors. 

Fortunately, Corvette went back to its roots and decided to build real sportscars again. The bottom of the current line will run you about $70,000 but you can go up to over 1,000 horsepower if you're willing to part with $200,000. Personally, if I was going to consider buying a sportscar that would be fun to drive and wouldn't break the bank with selling price, sales tax and insurance, I'd look hard at a Honda Civic Type R.  315 horsepower, 6-speed transmission and less than $50,000. I'm thinking the fun factor would be right in my wheelhouse.

Too Old for Late Nights

 

I went to the Golden Gloves in Indy Thursday night again - late night. There were 30 fights on the card, but several walkovers, we left with a couple of fights left but it was still after 1:00 by the time I got home. Being retired, I took advantage of the opportunity to sleep in and finally rolled out of the sack about 9:00 yesterday morning.

It was a nice day to be out yesterday - sunny and warm. I installed the newly sharpened blades on the mower and cut the front yard. Did a bit of puttering outside and mostly just kept my feet moving the rest of the day. Got some errands to run today. Just what gets done will depend on the weather. Big storm rolled through again last night. They're calling for frost coming up. I hope it's not bad enough to harm the fruit trees. Mother Nature seems to be a little cranky this spring.

Finished Fenders

 

I picked up a fresh argon bottle yesterday and finished the fenders without any further drama. I picked up an "S" bottle which is just about the limit as far as me manhandling a tank into the back of my truck. I have a "T" cylinder I should drag out, get some help loading and get it refilled. It's a big-un and now that I have no more torch leaks, between the two bottles that'll probably be a lifetime supply for me.

I was staring to work on the weed-whacker the other day and thought it might be helpful to find a parts diagram to see how everything goes together. I found one but it seems the site was infected and passed it along to my laptop. However, I tried the computer again last evening and it told me to reload Edge and that should take care of the problem. Low and behold, it did. So, I'm hoping it's a lasting fix. I did talk to a computer wizard at the ham radio meeting the other night who said he'd take a look, but I don't want to put anyone on the spot. Anyway, I got the weed-whacker apart. I'll see if the tank's the leaking part or the rubber piece feeding the carb. The rubber piece is in stock uptown for $17.00. That'll be cheap enough.

It's supposed to rain the next couple of days, so I'll get the mower in the shop and get the blades swapped out, change oil and filters. The grass is really growing now. It'll be fun putting that $4.00 per gallon in the tank.  

Surly & Rube Goldberg

 

Surly sent me a pic of his latest leather working job. Besides being a good craftsman, he's got a good eye. Must have got that from his mother, because I don't have the eye of an artist.

However, I am pretty good at problem solving and cobbling things together. The torch on my TIG machine developed another leak while trying to weld the aluminum fenders. Actually, I think it started while welding the bike radiators. Since this is the second time the hose sprung a leak and it's not really made to be repaired, I pondered the situation for a bit to come up with a permanent and expedient solution. A new 25' torch and hose is $159.00 from Everlast. I wouldn't mind spending the money, but I'd want some assurance the rubber hose inside the braided outer cover wasn't going to give up the ghost like the other one did. I got to looking at the torch set-up from my old welder and decided I could make that work.

The new machine is set for the Dinse plugs, rather than studs like on my old machine. I did purchase a pair of adapters to hook up my long leads with male Jackson plugs right after purchasing the new machine. Using the Dinse to Jackson adapter on the machine, I tapped the inside of a male Jackson plug for a 5/8" bolt where the cable usually goes and bolted the end piece of the old torch to the machine. I shortened up a hose barb and hooked up the gas line. Voila! Done deal and easy to remove from the machine with just a quick twist if I want to change over to stick welding. 

No expense, no trip to the hardware store and it literally should last me a lifetime. Just need to get another bottle of argon and I'll be able to finish the fenders. 

Insurance Thoughts

 

I had to go to the hospital the other day to pick up some medical records for the Missus and they were making a lift on the new addition while I was there. That telescoping boom is pretty impressive and the cab appeared to tilt to enable the operator a better view when setting the lift up on the roof. I don't have any idea what it would cost to rent that crane, but added in with the rest of the expenses, it would help explain the cost of a hospital visit. My recent emergency room visit and overnight stay was a tick over $100,000. The ambulance ride was $2,400. I don't have any idea what the rehab program cost but as much as I bitch about the government and the wasteful spending of my tax dollars, Medicare does a fine job of picking up the tab. The doctors take a beating, but old farts like me with Medicare and a supplement insurance policy, don't have to worry about medical expenses in our retirement. 

I had to go to the dentist yesterday. That's a different story. I've got dental insurance but it's pretty limited. Likewise, my eye insurance. So even though Medicare takes care of the majority of the bills, when you add up all of the costs for insurance policies, you better have a source of income besides Social Security if you want to retire comfortably or hope you never have a catastrophic event, whether medical or with property damage like the folks around here who were hit recently with tornado damage.  

I bought motorcycle insurance the other day. The outfit I had the Himalayan insured with, along with car, truck, trailers and property, didn't offer a discount if I added the Sportster in. Four vehicles insured, with only two operators, and only one of us riding motorcycles, they could have thrown in the Sportster for free as far as I'm concerned. After all, I can only operate one of the vehicles at a time and the book value of a '77 Sportster isn't much. I switched to Geico and the premium for both bikes is next to nothing. My coverage is at a minimum, but I don't ride much anymore, nor do I ride like I did when I was a young man.

Insurance is a racket, no doubt about it, but you need to protect yourself. The combined premiums on all of my policies is my biggest monthly expense. I never gave that much thought when I was doing my retirement planning. Something to think about, though.  

Radio Remembrances

 

Very much under-rated singer. I think like a lot of blues/soul artists, she just didn't get a lot of airtime on mainstream radio back in the sixties. There were a couple of AM stations I used to listen to back then that played a lot of black artists, but radio was moving to all mainstream rock and roll, and album cuts on FM, as I recall. WLS was the big AM station in Chicago with Clark Weber when I was in high school and for a few years thereafter. I think they were still broadcasting the Breakfast Club and The National Barn Dance at that time as well. One of my alternative stations featured Daddy-O's Jazz Patio. That's where you could hear Carla Thomas and other Jazz, Blues and Soul artists back then.

 They just don't make 'em like this one anymore. And if they do, I don't know where I would go to listen to them. The public radio stations I used to listen to went to a talk radio format. Shame really. If I wanted to listen to people yapping for hours on end I'd sit on a barstool.

I was on the road yesterday and got a call about fixing some aluminum fenders. The photo doesn't reveal the extent of the damage, but lots of cracks to be fixed. I'm guessing some of the cracking was from vibration but judging by the way they are bent, someone was standing on them. I wasn't looking for any work, but he came to me by way of a friend of mine. I still find it odd a small city where he lives doesn't have a weld shop. That's how I ended up welding the helicopter tanks.

Picked up the air and oil filters for the mower and got the first mowing of the season done. I'll get the filters changed and swap the blades out in the next couple of days. My weed-whacker leaked a puddle of gas on the garage floor, so I need to see about fixing that. I got the pickup in for service yesterday, picked up some medical records for the Missus at the hospital, and did some grocery shopping. Doing some household chores and driving the Missus to an appointment today. No rest for the wicked.