Financial Help

 

Beautiful day yesterday, especially after the storms on Monday. I had an appointment with a financial advisor about 10 miles from the house, so I rode the motorcycle over. Since I'm turning 72 in a few days, I need to figure out the Required Minimum Distributions on my retirement accounts, and if I don't get it right Uncle Sam will be kind enough to charge me a 50% penalty on the screw-up. Hence the need for some professional help. I need to get some paperwork together and drop it off at his office before we come up with a plan, so I worked on getting most of that collected later in the day. On the way home from the meeting I passed this Jeep truck on the trailer down the street from the shack. I don't know the guy but from what I've seen of some of the things around his place, we probably have a lot in common.

I stopped at the library after my meeting with the financial advisor and parked next to a little scooter in the lot. As I was getting off my bike, a former student of mine was coming out, he being the owner of the scooter. Like most people riding around the county on scooters, he'd had some trouble with alcohol and no longer had a driver's license. I remembered making an expansion chamber for another of his scooters while he was in school and asked him about it - said he still had it. That's it in the above photo. We built it to his specs that he came up with. It was noisy as hell but I don't know how effective it was. Probably needed some carburation tuning to optimize the performance. He was surprised I remembered the project but I always like working on the oddball jobs.  

The sheet metal for my collector showed up yesterday. Might not be as cool as an expansion chamber on a motor scooter but same skills required. The tubing should be here on Friday, at the latest. I still haven't decided what to make the pipe the collector will dump into. I'm thinking 2-1/2" or 3". I'm going to try to spend a little more time in the shop the next few days. I really want to see some more progress on the jitney and a couple other things that have been neglected for much too long.

Besides the projects, time to ramp up my training for the race walks I'm planning on competing in. I've got my weight down lower than what it has been in years. I managed to keep from gaining any weight while in Tulsa. I did break training at Oklahoma Joe's. We went there for lunch one day and I had sliced brisket, their spicy slaw and the cowboy or trail beans. I couldn't pass up the brisket - cattle country after all. I don't normally miss eating meat, but man-o-man, that brisket was killer. 

Tee Shirt Tuesday #44

 

I don't remember doing this event at all. I checked the archives here and I didn't find any mention of it. Not that it matters 13 years later, I suppose. The real issue here is that it's tee shirt #44 and I'm going to call it quits when I hit #52. I'll have a few more but one year of this is more than enough. I did sign up for another 5K yesterday but I passed on the event shirt. I ordered the material to finish the header job yesterday as well. 

I was headed out to the shop when I received an alert from the National Weather Service about a storm approaching. Big wind, maybe 75 mph and some rain. Power was out for a while, so no shop work until later in the afternoon. More storms later again, though. Power was out at the gym, so it was closed. I was all set to start getting back into the routine. No reason I can't do a little workout around the shack, however. My arms have gotten pretty puny the last couple of years. That two weeks to flatten the curve really threw me off my game.

New Things

 

I saw one of these Rivians on a car hauler on the way to Tulsa. 0-60 in three seconds, $80K +. Cool truck but you couldn't drive straight thru to Tulsa with one.

Hyundai Santa Cruz. I saw one of these in Tulsa in the parking lot next to the hotel where we were staying. Top of the three possible builds half the price of the Rivian and you could drive it straight thru to Tulsa from the mid-west. Probably get 27-28 mpg on the highway. Couldn't carry much in the back, however. Four adults and boxing gear would be a load. Looks like it would be a fun rig around town, however.

Royal Enfield Scram. Based on the Himalayan, like mine. I don't know how much difference there is between the two models but probably not enough for me to want to trade. I'm not in the market for anything with wheels under it and probably won't be for any time in the foreseeable future. At my age and as little as I've traveled the last few years, all my wheeled conveyances will probably last my lifetime. I'd still like to have an old farm truck, and the XKE I've wanted since the late sixties, though. 

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I did a little more on the header for the jitney but not enough to brag about. I'll get the rest of the tubing ordered in and tinker around with something else on the car while I'm waiting for the parts to show up. Since the grandson asked about the trials bike, I've been thinking about trying to finish it up. 

Did walkies with the group yesterday. Need to decide what I want to do about a couple of 5K events coming up. One really should train for these things. I am planning on getting back to the boxing gym starting this week. I got some work done around the shack last week but I've got plenty more to do. Need to prioritize things and start picking away at them in earnest. Something I say about every six months but rarely do. 

Student Loans & Header

As you would expect, the subject of student loans has been a pretty hot topic in social media lately. This is a post I saw from one of my "friends":

This is my situation in a nutshell. Been paying my loans since 2009. But my numbers are bigger. I still owe $263,000 and they get bigger by over $1400/month (just the interest). $10k makes zero difference, it's almost insulting. 

For me to pay them off, I need to pay $3,500 a month for the next 25 years because I just changed servicers. I'm 50 already and graduated with my second masters degree when I was 37. I don't even make $3500/month. The interest alone is 40% of my take home pay. I'm never paying these off in my lifetime unless I hit the lottery. I'm also never buying a house because my debt to equity ratio won't allow it. So here I am stuck in perpetuity in a rental cycle paying someone else's mortgage.

The only solution for me is if they change the laws and allow them to be forgiven in Bankruptcy. Otherwise I'm screwed.

I left a comment and he replied with an explanation of how the system works. Basically you borrow the money with no real information on what it's going to cost you in the long run - no monthly payment or interest rate, until it's time to pay it all back. Then you're just SOL. While the explanation made sense, signing on the dotted line without knowing the actual amount you're going to have to pay back is in my opinion, just plain foolish. Nothing like selling yourself into debt slavery. And like the case quoted above, a mistake you'll never be able to recover from. 

I started on making the tubes for the header on the jitney project. After considering making some sort of tool to fit the round tubes into the rectangular holes, I decided to go after it with two of my favorite tools, a ball peen hammer and the oxy-acetylene torch. 

The job went easy enough - squeeze the tube until it fit into the flange the thin way, tack it in place, heat and hammer until it filled in the gap. I'm going to cut the tacks loose and then even up the edge of the tube so I can get a nice fit for welding inside the flange.

I've got enough of the larger radius bends to make all six stubs off the flanges but I need to order a couple more of the smaller radius bends to make the remaining bits going into the "collector". I also need to get a piece of cold rolled sheet to make that. I doubt if my local guy will have cold rolled, so I'll have to order that or take a trip north.

The whole operation shouldn't be too difficult, just time consuming. I'll probably need another pair of hands to hold some of the tubes in place. Might have to give Cuzzin Ricky a call.

Thursday Thoughts

 

There was a Mickey Rooney movie on TCM Tuesday that featured Louis Armstrong along with Jack Teagarden on the trombone. I'm not familiar with too many trombonists, but I'd hazard a guess most everyone in the know would rank Teagarden right up near the top.

From Here

And for additional proof, look no further than your gas can. But now, Slo-Joe wants to forgive up to $10,000 of student loan debt for people who never grasped the two most important economic concepts they should have learned in high school, opportunity cost and compound interest. I've got nothing against getting a college education, I just don't feel that I need to pay for theirs. I managed to get three degrees all on my own.  And since the country is flat broke and the government will have to create more money out of thin air this will just add to the already exorbitant inflation rate. Whores for votes - that's all they are. They damn sure don't care about the working man.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the little kitchen garden is producing a bumper crop of salad tomatoes and peppers. My cold or flu has pretty well subsided. Still coughing just a bit but the soreness in the back and ribs from all the hacking is gone. Only left with the normal aches and pains a guy who has abused his body over the years has to deal with on a daily basis. The Missus has come down with covid, however. The symptoms are different than what I had but she's a sicky just the same. 

I've got to mow some grass and catch up on a couple of things around the shack still but I'm back on the projects. The youngest grandson was here the other day asking about the vintage trials bike. He's been riding a little dirt bike and wants to give the trials bike a go. I don't want to put the jitney on hold but it would be nice to finish the bike. I'd like to give it a whirl myself.

Tee Shirt Tuesday #43

 

Souvenir tee shirt from my recent trip to Tulsa. Since this is the 43rd tee shirt I've posted, it's pretty obvious I didn't really need another one, but why not, right?

Here's the crew from Tulsa - Ethan the 156 lb. contender, Shop Teacher Bob, and coach Jen, who is also my running buddy. We've got some things to work on with the boy, but I think we can get him back to the Nationals in Pennsylvania next year. He weighed in on the low end of the weight bracket, so he can afford to put on some more muscle. He also needs to work on his hand speed and foot movement. 

We visited the Tulsa Historical Society Museum while we were there, and this was playing on the speaker inside. 

The museum had a nice collection of artifacts. I really dig the pinstripe overalls. I used to have to wear a hat like the one in photo when I worked at KFC years ago. However, it was paper rather than cloth.

Route 66 - "The Mother Road" - runs right down main street in Tulsa. When cars started becoming popular back in the early 1900s, Tulsa was positioned in the right place at the right time. You can't run cars and trucks without petroleum products, in spite of what the crazy bastards in Washington keep telling us, and Tulsa had plenty of it. Lot of fortunes made back then from the oil industry. 

And they weren't cheap when it came time to build houses of worship. There's a bunch of them in a relatively small area downtown and they're all impressive structures. This is the second Methodist church we saw. 

I caught some kind of bug when I was there. Initially, I thought it was covid again, so I ran a test, and it came back negative. Just some kind of old fashioned cold, I guess. I was hacking and coughing starting on Saturday afternoon, a little less on Sunday and pretty much OK on Monday. My throat was a little sore still along with my ribs from all the hacking. I probably would have been fine if I had been out among the "unwashed" a little more often than what I have been the last few years. Apparently my immune system isn't up to snuff these days. Definitely need to get out more.  

Tulsa Trip

 

In addition to the normal vendors one would expect at a boxing event, there was a representative from the Sprinkler Fitters union set up right inside the door. He was giving away some freebies and answering any questions anyone might have about the trade. Journeyman rate for the Tulsa area is a bit over $34.00, higher in other areas of the country. I don't know how successful he was with his recruiting efforts, but it's a good trade, just not one that you often hear about. If you click on the picture and make it bigger, you should be able to read the contact information.

There was also a gentleman at a table near where our group was clustered promoting boxing as a way to deal with Parkinson's Disease. I had a nice chat with the man and learned a bit about him and Parkinson's. He told me working the speed bag and double end bag has helped him quite a bit. I can't remember the exact name of the organization he was promoting but there was a young lady who fought professionally from my area who started a similar program in Indy a few years back. I asked one of our coaches who's from Indy about the program and he thought she was still involved in it. Like a lot of things, diet and exercise should be part of your daily routine.

I'm going to try and start getting back to the gym on a regular basis. My running buddy was the trainer for our guy at the Nationals. I went along to wrap hands and moral support. At the gym, however, she needs some extra help on a regular basis to do the fighters justice. The Nationals are in Pennsylvania next year, it would be nice to have a couple fighters in that tourney.    

Nationals

 

Made it back from the Golden Gloves Nationals last evening. Our guy made it to the quarter-finals and then lost a bout by decision. His opponent was a smart, tough fighter. I won't be surprised if he wins that division. 

We got a chance to do a little sight-seeing while we were there. The first part of the week the temperatures were over 100 degrees - kind of limits the time spent outdoors. 

I'll have a more complete report after I get my laundry done and get unpacked.

Resistance

Looks like it's getting pretty close to that time. Whoever is calling the shots in Washington must be awfully worried about Trump running for office again for them to continue attacking him on multiple fronts. The Epoch Times had a couple of interesting op-ed pieces about the January 6th inquisition and the state of the Republic, such as it is. It would be real nice if their side of the story was more widely circulated. 

I don't know how all of this is going to shake out but I'm more than a little concerned. With 87,000 new IRS agents and 5,000,000 fresh rounds of ammo, definitely gives you something to think about - and not just about cheating on your taxes. 

 

Tee Shirt Tuesday #42

 

This one came straight out of the tub - never been worn.

I came in second overall walker. The trophy is pretty nice. A couple years prior to this race the trophies were big horseshoes with a medal affixed to them by a small chain. I've got a couple of those and at least one of the event shirts still.

I'm looking to do a couple more 5Ks in the not-too-distant future. My running buddy is doing a half marathon, so I'll do the 5K that's running in conjunction with that to keep her company. A couple weeks after that is another 5K practically in her backyard, so we'll do that one as well. I don't know how competitive I want to be any more. I don't mind training but since I've done so many of these events over the years, hard to get too excited. Especially since I've always got plenty going on.

Living on Tulsa Time

 

Greetings from Tulsa, Oklahoma, home of this year's National Golden Gloves. The tourney runs for a week but not sure how long we'll be here - that'll depend on how well our fighter does and how long his dad wants to stick around. I'm just here to wrap hands and hold the spit bucket.

Pretty happy to get away, regardless of the outcome of our fighter's bouts. Like a lot of people, just real tired of the covid fear mongering, the misinformation and outright lies. Not to mention all the rest of the craziness that's currently going on.

  

I left my computer at home, so there won't be much to report, other than a couple of posts I have scheduled. I need a break from all the current events - good time to make it a real vacation.

Starting to Look Like an Engine

Finished installing the alternator bracket on the jitney and with the intake manifold bolted on, I can see what I need to work around to make the header. Not much to work around - just a little jog around the alternator and drop all the tubes under the intake manifold. I'm planning on making a six-into-one, with a straight pipe running along the side of the car. I'll need to make or buy a muffler insert to quiet things down without being visible. I've got a couple of pieces of tubing, both straight and with bends. As soon as I figure how to get them to fit nicely into the hole in the flange, I'll make a couple of pieces and see about ordering in the rest of the tube to complete the job.

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 The Missus' birthday today. Happy birthday Baby!

Jitney Progress

 

I had to modify the alternator bracket. I wasn't paying enough attention and somehow got confused on which of the crank pulleys I was using to drive the water pump and alternator. Two out of three of the pulleys are for a 3/8" belt, the other is for a 1/2". I originally made the bracket for the 1/2" belt rather than the 3/8" one that lines up with the water pump pulley. Fixed now, though.

While waiting for the paint to dry on the alternator bracket, I bolted on the header flanges. The openings are 1-1/4" side to side and 1-3/4" top to bottom. I'll need to make a 1-1/2" round tube fit in those nicely. Since I'll need to do that six times, might be worth the effort to make a hammerform of some type or a collar I can use to squeeze the sides in and then hammer the tube to flare it out in the other direction. 

I took the manifold off the spare motor. Surprisingly enough, most of the nuts broke loose easily enough on the studs. Two of the nuts on the bottom row were tough to get at. The one I could see from above, so I put a chisel on it to get it starting to spin, which it did, but then after a couple of big whacks, the stud broke off. Good enough. The other one I finally got a socket on it with the help of a universal, an eight inch extension, and a breaker bar. I am going to invest in a new 1/2" socket and a couple other things. The 12 point socket is worn to the point it slipped on a couple of the nuts that had changed size - not unusual on exhaust fasteners. 

I've got a few things lined up for the day, but I'll get the alternator bolted on and think a little more on the header tubes.

Tee Shirt Tuesday #41

 

Last week's shirt was one I didn't have and this week it's one from an event I signed up for but didn't compete in. That's a pretty rare event for me but my running buddy and I had signed up for the run before Bazooka Joe won the Indy Golden Gloves. Joe and I had to leave for the national tourney in Louisiana on the morning of the event, so I made arrangements to get my shirt picked up and called it good. Going to be heading out to Tulsa soon for another national tourney. By the way, Bazooka Joe fought last Saturday night with the same outcome as he had in Louisiana, split decision loss with many folks thinking Joe was the victor.

I got an email from my brother from a different mother the other day. He said he was rummaging around in his garage looking for something and came across these collectors he used to run on his Camaro at the drag strip back in the day - that day being 1978. I made these to his specs and he said they worked well. He got his best mph with these on the car. I've been making parts for a long time.

I finished machining the coupler for the upper radiator hose on the jitney the other day. Quite pleased with how it came out.

Finished hose looks good. Should work as intended also. About time to see about making some header tubes, along with a ton of other things on the car and around the shack. 

Had a delightful visit from a former student and his wife the other day. He's a railroader, both professionally and as a hobbyist, so I sent a care package home with him with some of my stuff. In addition to being time to finish projects, it's also time to downsize a bit. I'll go through some more of my railroad stuff and put another box together for him. He can pick through it, keep what he wants, pass the rest along to some of his railroading buddies, or throw it in the firebox of the locomotive he's been involved with.

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Brief political item to chew on: The senate passed a bill over the weekend that spends a pile of money that will be printed out of thin air on the pretext it will reduce inflation. While I appreciate the humor in their naming of the bill, what I don't find especially humorous is the fact the bill contains funding to hire 87,000 IRS personnel. Especially since I read "The IRS has stockpiled five million rounds of ammunition and spent $725,000 on bullets this year". They planning on collecting taxes at gun point now?

Hose Job

 I took the wife to the dentist Thursday to get her implant taken care of. The chemotherapy did a number on her teeth, so she got a bridge with a couple of posts to hold it in place. They gave her some dope to take 1-1/2 hours before the appointment and some more when she got there. She didn't feel a thing but she couldn't be left alone for the rest of the day, so no shop work. However, while she was getting worked on in the dentist' chair, I went next door to the tavern to get a sandwich, since I hadn't eaten anything all morning. 

Bar food is not the thing a vegetarian would normally pursue but I had some fish and chips with a side of coleslaw and a draft beer. The food was really good and as a bonus, there was a baseball game on. I've pretty much given up on the sport of baseball, but it was the Cubs versus the Cards in St Louis, and it was a day game - something that seems to be a rarity these days on a weekday. 

As a school teacher with summers off, if I wasn't working I'd try to catch a few Cubs' day games during the summer - since they didn't have lights, there were a lot of them. They were always on Channel 9 out of Chicago and I grew up with them. The early days it was Jack Brickhouse on the play-by-play with "The Good Kid" Lou Boudreau, later Harry Caray. Brickhouse broadcast not only the Cubs games but also the White Sox, Bears, Bulls, and the occasional boxing match. Before the internet and cable television if you wanted to watch sports in the Chicago area, it was Channel 9, WGN. I don't even know where I would look to watch a Cubs or Sox game on television anymore and I'm not planning on trying to find one. I did enjoy sitting on the bar stool watching the game the other day though. 

Since I got the upper radiator hoses for the jitney, I decided to get the connector to couple the two of them together done. It's about 90% finished. I'll finish it up today.

If I was planning on making a few more hose fittings, I'd make myself one of these. It would make short work of putting a bead on radiator hose fittings. Looks like it would be easy enough to do.

I need a redo on the alternator bracket I made. I made a piece for that yesterday while I had the collet chuck in the lathe. It won't take too long to finish the rest of it. I should get that done today as well. As soon as I get those two items finished, I'll bolt on the plates for the header and start thinking about what I need to do there. I also can't postpone finishing up the steering much longer. Things are taking shape.

Made In China

 

I'm sure all of you have heard about Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan in order to deflect interest from her husband's DUI hearing. Might as well risk WWIII rather than have anyone focus any attention on her millionaire hubby, right? However, there's a serious problem with that. Damn near anything you want or need comes from China. If we can throw an embargo on Russia, why can't the Chinese do the same to us? I won't be at all surprised if the Chinese retaliate in some way. In the photo are three items I purchased recently, all of which came from China.

This is the third time I've bought a 10 pack of those socks. They're comfortable, fit well and wear like iron. I should have probably bought another 10 pack when I ordered them - since I don't know for sure if they'll be available when I need them next time.

Heavy duty adhesive bandages in the one inch wide version. I'm pretty well set on first aid supplies, however, I read the other day that 70% of all medicines in the USA come from China. I take a couple of prescription medications but if I was to follow a strict diet, I probably wouldn't have too much need for them. I'm back exercising on a regular basis and my weight's pretty close to where it needs to be, so if the medicines quit coming, it probably wouldn't be a matter of life and death for me. Might shorten the life span but who knows how long I've got anyway. If your situation is more dire, you might want to talk to your physician to see about getting some extra you can squirrel away.

The moth traps are for keeping the little moths out of the flour, pancake and cornbread mix, etc. If you get these things in the house, they're a real PIA. They'll get in sealed bags and boxes and leave little moth turds and eggs in your grits. If you want to stock up on flour and similar items which you definitely should do if you haven't already, you need to store them in a container that's impervious to them. I store my waffle mix in a zip-lock bag in the freezer. You can get 5 gallon food grade buckets with lids that snap on tightly but have a screw on cover with a gasket. Good place to keep your rice and beans. I've got one of those with a small bag of dog and cat food in it.

The almond milk doesn't come from China, is not bothered by pantry moths and has a decent shelf life. This quart has a best use-by date of next April. If you want milk on your cereal after the Chinese have nuked the big cities, it would be nice to have some almond milk on the shelf - no refrigeration necessary. There is always powdered milk like the Carnation brand but I would imagine the moths might take a shine to that. That, plus the fact that it's pretty watery when mixed makes the almond milk look much better in the bowl of granola. Almond milk also has more calcium than cow's milk. I don't drink it by the glass full but I don't drink cow's milk that way anymore either.

Get your preps in order. Even if you won't need the extra food to deal with some type of natural disaster or act of war, might as well have things on the shelf before the price goes up again. There are plenty of resources available at the library and on the internet to get you started preparing. If you haven't yet, make a personalized list of things you'll need if the power goes out and you need to hunker down. If you commute beyond a reasonable walking distance from your house, get a survival bag in your vehicle as well. Around here I can't keep water in the truck in the winter time due to its freezing, but I've got a bag with a couple of bottles I throw in the truck when the temps fall.  

Trailer Thoughts

 

I spent a few minutes the other day looking at the old boat trailer again. The suspension has two coil springs, shock absorbers, a panhard bar to keep the axle centered and two control arms that the axle pivots on for its up and down movement. The control arms and the panhard bar have rubber bushings in the ends of them. Those would need to be replaced as would the tires and lights. It might be a little tough to find the correct bushings but the rest of the fab work would be pretty straight forward. 

The crossmember that the top of the shocks and springs mount to sits on top of the frame rails. It's 2" thick. If I cut the other crossmembers loose and raise them up 2", I'd have an even surface to mount the decking to. Trim the back off even with the rear crossmember, take about 42" out of the tongue, weld some tie-down hooks and Bob's your uncle.

The trailer is equipped with a tilt top now. It would be easy enough to keep that function by just adding a bit of length to the ears the tongue bolts to after raising the cross member up. One piece of 5/8" or 3/4" treated plywood would take care of the deck. An 8' sheet would extend beyond the front crossmember about 16", so the sheet would need to be cut at the angle of the side rails where they taper in. Bolt a motorcycle chock in the triangular nose section, maybe wrap the nose with a short wall to protect a bike or other cargo from rocks being thrown up from the truck. I could probably bring the finished project in somewhere in the $250 - $300 range if I don't wait too long to start buying materials.

I got a little bit more done on the jitney. I'm working on getting all the engine parts mounted up so I can start building the header. Not exactly burning it up, but getting things done just the same.

Box & Belts

 

I got the bracket for the steering box tacked on yesterday. I bolted on the box using the top bolt as a pivot, leveled the box off the output shaft, clamped it, and then tacked welded it in place.

I also tacked on the brackets for the lap belts. I had made these up a while ago but couldn't locate them until I had the seat in place. 

The two shoulder belts are sewn together after going over my shoulders, so I'll only need one tab on the roll cage cross tube for mounting. However, I won't be able to tie down the shoulder belts until I have the roll cage done. The belts should be on a 20 degree downward angle after crossing over the shoulders. That means I'll have to cut a couple of holes in the back of the cab similar to what's in the seat. Maybe just one wide slit. Cross that bridge when I come to it.

The auto parts store had to order the radiator hose I need. Not much of a surprise there. That outfit doesn't seem to carry much inventory. I think they go by the motto "If we don't have it today, you don't need it until tomorrow." However, there's another auto parts store that just opened in town. That makes five now, so if I needed something in a hurry, I could probably find it at one of the other places. I'll get the hose and some clamps today along with the sheet for under the seat while I'm out. Steady by jerks!

Elvis & Tee Shirt Tuesday #40

 

TCM was playing Elvis movies and a documentary yesterday. I'm not sure what the occasion was. It wasn't the anniversary of his death, that's in a couple of weeks. Surly and I, along with one of his buddies were in Memphis on the tenth anniversary of his death for a motorcycle race. The race was at Memphis Motorsports Park which had just opened that year (1987). It was hotter than the hub bolts of hell while we were there. Shade was non-existent and initially the track wouldn't allow any coolers in. With temperatures well over 100 degrees, they relented the next day and allowed fans to bring in cold drinks. After leaving the track the first day, we cooled off in the mighty Mississippi which flowed by our campground.

We were going to visit Graceland while we were in the neighborhood, but due to it being the tenth anniversary, people were lined up around the block. Much too hot to be standing on the sidewalk for just a quick peek. However, on a previous trip Surly and I stopped in Tupelo. We went to the hardware store were Elvis bought his first guitar and to the birthplace of the King. We also saw Elvis' K Model at Niagra Falls. I was in Tupelo when I bicycled the Natchez Trace trip and we stopped at the house and gift shop. When in Rome, and all that.

Elvis had it all but fame and fortune got the better of him - died at 42, so I've outlived him now by about 45 years. Don't do drugs, kids!

I'm cheating this week with the tee shirt. I don't have one of these but Surly did when he was a teenager. This was at the height of his skateboarder phase. He had a pretty wild haircut at the time as well. One side of his head was cropped close and the other side was long. We used to get some looks when we traveled.

Want A Teaching Job?

 

This is a screenshot that was included in a Facebook post one of my former colleagues at the high school put up the other day.  I haven't researched what someone would have to do after being hired, as far as working towards a degree or a traditional license, but apparently all you have to do to get a teaching job now is just show up. It's going to be a real interesting school year. I can't imagine all of the teaching positions being filled in the next two weeks, even if they hire any mope that shows up. These new hires won't be on the same pay scale but I don't know any of the details on the money or benefit package. Yep, going to be interesting.

Worked on getting the steering box on the jitney squared away yesterday. I made a bracket a while back but it needed a little tweaking. It hangs down below the frame rail and has two bolts for the box, but I needed to drill through the frame for the top bolt. The box is threaded for a 7/16 bolt, so I machined a spacer to weld in the frame - 7/16 ID x 5/8 OD with a 1" flange to weld around on the outside. The spacer will prevent the bolt from trying to squeeze the sides of the frame tube together. 

I'll keep picking away at things. I need to grind off a little material on the one shock/headlight mount. Need to see about getting the brake lines hooked up on the front and make a panhard rod also.