I saw this the other day at Coyote Prime/Running 'Cause I Can't Fly. Lots of philosophy stuff there, as well as other items dealing with what's going on in this country and the world today, some of which is pretty scary like the Fukishima updates.
I would say I'm definitely in the afternoon of my life. When I was in my late morning/early mid-day I took some psychology & philosophy classes and while I studied a bit of C.G. Jung, he never made much sense to me. Now some of it is starting to come into focus, which probably verifies what he's saying above. So now I look at life a bit differently with the Zeigernik Effect also taking on a little more relevance. I seem to be more concerned about the unfinished things than I have been in the past. In a few years it will be time to downsize so I need to start getting rid of things and, of course, it's much easier to get rid of things with wheels if they are operational or at least all together. The list of things that need finishing around the house is shrinking, however. I've gotten quite a bit done this summer. My "punch list" no longer looks like a 15 round main event but more like a prelim, so as I go into the evening of my life I might be able to ride there in/on a vehicle of my own construction.
I guess like most of us old farts I'm becoming a little more philosophical as I age, which is probably a good thing. I'm still developing my skills and looking forward to the future while appreciating what I have, just looking at things from a little bit different point of view.
to whup somebody's ass. Not because it's a bad day but rather the opposite is true. Probably the old boxer coming out in me. I was feeling pretty froggy last evening when I wrote this.
First thing, I took the wife to the oncologist yesterday and everything is still good - CT scan and the blood work were all aces. Hallelujah!
And now it's pickin' time. Our field got picked about a week ago but when I went for a bike ride last evening I went past three fields that were being picked and I had to pull over for another big combine that was moving down the road. Actually, it was more like he pulled over for me, thank you very much. Those big combines take up most all of the road even without a grain head on them. The farmers are looking at three or four good days in a row for harvesting. There probably won't be much left in the fields around here after that, with the knucklehead behind me being the notable exception. I'm looking for him to pick the corn someplace close to Thanksgiving.
Surly brought me a fender to throw on the sidecar to either use or to mock something up, or to get out of his garage - the last one probably closest to the truth. However, the radius looks about right and the width is surprisingly close to what I need, so it might be helpful from a design standpoint as long as I don't have to move it around much. The damn thing ways a ton.
I got the frame for the windscreen made up. Since I had made a pattern when I made the fairing for the road racer, I used that for my layout for the frame - drew a line around it and bent the flat stock to fit inside the line. I welded the frame to the table and then heated up a strip about one inch down from the top edge and used an adjustable wrench to bend the edge inward to match up with the taper on the windscreen. It took me a couple of times around the perimeter and a little hammer work but when I checked it after it cooled it was just about dead on the money. Sometimes you get lucky. I'll get it tacked on to the sidecar frame later today.
I did the heating and bending at the college when there was a high school class in there. With the exception of one kid, none of them seemed to be interested in what I was doing. The windscreen is clearly a motorcycle part. I figured that would have aroused a little bit of interest. Apparently not. Seems like more and more of them are just too wrapped up in the smart phones to take an interest in what goes on around them in the real world, and these are guys that are getting college credits while attending. The school is currently going through an upgrade to insure that the cell phone coverage is state of the art. If I was in charge I think I'd be going the other way - make it a dead zone except in a designated area like the commons or the cafeteria.
I've got a lot lined up the next few days. I need to make a couple of decisions on the sidecar project before I continue on that but no shortage of things to do while I'm thinking about it. The temps are getting down in to the thirties, so time for a bit of winterizing and outside work before the snow flies.
I had seen where the Jungle Park Reunion was coming up on the 520 Chain Cafe blog. As soon as I saw it I called Cuzzin Ricky and we penciled it in on the calendar. Yesterday was the day, and a what a beautiful day it was. There were quite a few cars on display - midgets, sprints, hod rods - a bit of everything. Several former and current racecar drivers. I got autographs from Dave Darland, Tom Bigelow, Billy Vukovich, and Donald Davidson, the official historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I also managed to run into Joe from 520 Chain Cafe and we had a nice chat. I'm sure he'll be posting a lot of photos, so check his blog out in the next few days.
There was a short ceremony concluding with the unveiling of a historical marker by the Indiana Racing Memorial Association that recognized the significance of the Jungle Park track through the years and the people associated with the track. They were going to have a parade lap for all the cars in attendance but we didn't stick around for that. Cuzzin Ricky and I were down that way something like 15-20 years ago and took a lap around it in my pickup truck, so we've hot lapped Jungle Park. Not everyone can say that, I'm sure.
It was a good day out for a couple of old race fans.
I just finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. Quite the interesting story. The story is of his dysfunctional hillbilly family with roots in eastern Kentucky and his growing up in southern Ohio. Dad was no where to be found, mom was a bat-shit crazy woman with addiction problems, so he ended up living with his grandparents much of the time. Of course, this was the same grandma that had once set grandpa on fire by dousing him with gasoline. How he managed to escape the poverty and lunacy of the situation is what the book is all about and the story goes a long way towards explaining how these things come about and are perpetuated generation after generation. He also does a good job of explaining the failure of schools in these areas. In fact, his explanation is probably the best I've seen as far as explaining the relationship between poor communities and lousy educational outcomes. Remember the words Social Capitol.
There is a TED talk here that compresses the things in the book into a 15 minute synopsis. I would suggest you read the book, but if you can't find the time, at least check out his TED talk.
I got the floor cut for the sidecar. I still need to do just a bit of filing and trimming but it's looking pretty tasty. I was able to crawl out the front and get a better idea as to where the hand holds need to be. I'll work on mounting up the windscreen and then I can be a little more definitive with placement but it's coming together right smartly.
I took a few measurements of the hack wheel and it's location in the frame. I'm going to draw up a couple of ideas to scale and see what I can come up with for a fender and braces.
I got the remaining bracket tacked on to the bike frame so it's a roller now! I sat on the bike and leaned a bit to see how it felt and it's pretty easy to lift the side car wheel. The frame is set up pretty neutral now. I might need to have the bike lean inward toward the chair a bit more. That should be easy enough done with the knee braces/support rods being threaded both left and right handed - loosen the jam nuts and twist them in or out. If they don't give me what I need that way I'll machine up a couple of wedge shaped washers to put behind the lower mounts to facilitate the bike leaning inward. I don't think that will be necessary, however.
Next up is to mount the windscreen. I've got a piece of flatstock cut and ready to bend. I'm going to get it bent to the desired shape to fit the windscreen and then I'm going to have to put a little angle on the top edge to accommodate the angle of the screen where it will bolt up. I can cut the tread plate for the floor now and I'll keep thinking about the handholds/grabrails and the fender design.
I got the sidecar frame welded up - good practice for me. It's been a while since I've TIG welded any tubing project. The welds all look acceptable and the frame fit back on the bike after I welded it up - so I've got that going for me. The next step is to weld the bracket for the rear knee brace onto the bike frame. The hardest part about that will be holding it in position while I tack it - that's the trouble with TIG. It takes two hands to weld, so you're always needing a third.
After I get that last bracket welded on I'll see about mounting the windscreen on the front of the sidecar frame. That might be a little tricky the way I'm planning on doing it but I think I can pull it off. I'm still not 100% on what I'm going to do about the grab handles and the fender but I've got a couple of ideas. Time has been a little bit limited the last couple of weeks and will be the next couple as well. We've got some medical things going on with the Missus that require my time, another bike ride, the normal day to day things, plus the grass keeps growing - I don't remember ever cutting this much grass this late in the season. It's October, I'm still cutting grass and the Cubs are still playing baseball. Might want to check and see if there are any pigs flying around the local hog farms.
