A Little Bit Of Progress & Some Real Good News

Photo From Here

Don't know who that is in the photo or what he's riding - British twin, no doubt - but Indian has sewn up the flat track championship for this year in a big way - 1st, 2nd and 3rd place with riders Mees, Smith and Baker respectively.

I've been busy of late. Had to get the final exams graded and the grades posted but got the new class off to a flying start. It's a small group and I had most of them last semester, so the remaining seven weeks should go smoothly. I have to do some more touchy-feely training on the computer for the college in the next few weeks still but that shouldn't be too tough. I'm liking getting home during the daylight hours, by the way. I was leaving the house at seven in the morning and getting home a little after ten in the evening the last eight weeks. Getting home six hours earlier makes a big difference in my energy level.

I made this throwing knife the other day. I don't know jack about throwing knives but I've got several old mower blades that I was wondering what to do with besides tossing them in the scrap bin. Only took me about an hour to make. I tried throwing it at an old dead tree out back and never did get it to stick with an overhand delivery. I didn't do too bad with an underhand style of toss, however. I've got a few more old blades still. Need to come up with something else to make that could profit from some good carbon steel.

Got a little more done on the motorbike. Bottom photo are tabs to bolt the chainguard for the engine drive chain to. I wanted to see what I was going to need for the other side before I welded them on. As you can tell from the other photo, this side is going to take a bit of finagling to make the pedal chain work. If I put a roller right behind the engine, that'll keep the chain down low enough to clear it. I'll still need to install a tensioner on one chain or the other. One of them I can adjust by sliding the wheel back in the dropouts but I'll need a tensioner for the other side. I was planning on putting the tensioner on the pedal side initially but I'm going to take a good hard look at it before I go any further. I might be able to make the roller on the top of the pedal chain work for that. I think there's enough adjustment to keep the chain under the engine and clear of the frame tube. I'm not planning on doing much pedaling anyway - just enough to start the motor. 

The weather has been fantastic around here of late - temps in the 70's with lots of sunshine. 45 years ago Wednesday I remember it snowed after a couple of similar sunny, warm days. The only reason I remember is that was when my son was born. Hard to believe he's 45 now. Time marches on, as they say.

Took the Missus back to the doctor to get the test results from last week. Good news there! She's still cancer free. That's a load off of both of us. Hard to concentrate on things while you're holding your breath.

Count your blessings people.