Hose Job

Photo From Here

I've never been much of a chopper guy but if I was to ever build one, it would definitely be something along these lines. As it is, if the weather doesn't improve some I'm never going to get anything done on the projects.

I did manage to get out and replace the hydraulic hose on the old tractor the other day - explains the loss of fluid I had last time I was using it. Wasn't too bad working in the barn, even without heat. The temperature was something like 25, I was out of the wind and compared with the temperatures we've been having, it felt almost pleasant. It was a pretty easy job, though. One end of the hose I could take off while standing up and I only had to kneel down to get the other end off. No laying on my back in the gravel with oil dripping in my face. Nary a cuss word was uttered and I'm set to go for the next batch of snow they're predicting. Somewhere between six to ten inches, and maybe some freezing rain mixed in to that as well, as if you cared. Oh, and then it turns really cold again come Tuesday.

I picked up the parts to get my light situation with the little wood lathe plumbed up. That's next on the list of "cold" projects. Harbor Freight had the 8" grinder on sale that I've been keeping an eye on for sharpening the lathe tools. I also had a coupon to get an additional 20% off. I wasn't sure if I could use the coupon with the grinder already being on sale, so I went to the website to see if it would work before driving up there. Come to find out, not only would they accept the coupon, they'd ship it for $6.99 as well. Since I can't drive up there for that price, I went ahead and ordered it in. Should be here in a couple of days. All that's left is the sharpening fixture and I should be ready to turn.

Stay warm, and if they're predicting snow, stay out of Atlanta.

Travel Dreams (Again)

Graphic From Here

I've been all over the United States but have never really taken the "Big Road Trip", as in a coast to coast or border to border trip. When you live in the Midwest, it's a long trip just to get to the coast, let alone turning around and running back the other direction. I have fancied for quite some time taking a motorcycle trip across US 50. I could pick it up in southern Indiana and head west from there - basically Route 9 on the map above. I've been on the Santa Fe Trail section out into Colorado, I'd need the Utah, Nevada and California parts. That would also help  finish my quest to see all 50 states. That'd leave only Alaska and Hawaii after that. Probably never happen but since I just finished a dream trip, no reason not to start dreaming of another. 

Speaking of which, here's a shot from Rothenburg, Germany I stumbled across:

Photo From Here

I've got a couple of decent black and white negatives I shot while in Rothenburg. Since it's just been too cold to do much else, including going to work, probably be a good time to print a few of them and others from the trip. 

Here's a reason for me to head back to Europe, like I needed another one. I'm assuming that's where these doors are located, I forgot to mark where I found them when I was saving the photo. Regardless, I'm a huge fan of the Art Nouveau style in general and the metal work in particular. However, I think the next big trip is definitely going to be out West, even if I don't ride the motorcycle. I'm currently reading Sequoia: The Heralded Tree in American Art and Culture by Lori Vermaas and it's time to see the Big Trees. Round trip to Reno on Southwest or maybe take the train. Rent a car and head to Yosemite and/or Sequoia National Park. Gawk at the 3000 year old trees and then scratch another one off the bucket list. Better start saving my money.

But for some natural beauty closer to home, saw this looking out the windows the other morning:

The double sun dog. I couldn't get both sides in the photo without going out side and me being the big sissy boy that I've become, I just shot both sides separately from two different windows. It was a neat sight even if my pictures don't do it justice.

Supposed to have some "normal" weather tomorrow. Maybe I can get out and do a little ice skating. Even though it's a big house we live in, after a week inside, except for shoveling and chores that is, the walls start closing in a little. Do me good to get out. Probably good for the Missus, as well.

BSA

Photo From Here NSFW

Ain't that a pretty little thing. Swept back exhaust, rearsets, clubman bars and not a speck of dust on it. But you can tell it's British, there's a puddle under it.

I did make it out to the shop on Saturday and gawk at the Beezer a bit. Actually just long enough to make a couple of cardboard patterns for a sidecover. I was going to try and get out there again on Sunday but by the time I got done shoveling/snowblowing and bringing in more wood I said the heck with it. I've got the patterns in the house so I can think about the design while I'm waiting for the temperature to climb back above zero. I've got a rough idea of what I'm looking for now and I think I've got it figured out how to make them easily enough. I'll have to make two hammerforms - probably take as long or longer to make the forms as to knock out the sidecovers but that's OK. Every thing else on the job looks to be pretty straight forward mechanical things and then paint. A pair of those sweptback pipes would be nice also.

Keeping Warm

Photo From Here

Photo From Here

Multnomah Falls - both frozen and flowing. I had the good fortune to ride by and see the Falls when I did the Portland to Missoula bicycle ride a few years back. Nice and warm on the day we rode through, unlike the weather we've been having around here.

Photo From Here

I worked as a welder for a short time 43 years ago when the weather was about like it is here these days (that being a temperature of -1 and a 20 mph wind).The only heat in the plant was a few 55 gallon drums with a gas jet in the bottom of them. They made big storage tanks, so material was shipped in on railroad flatcars and the finished product went out the same way. They'd open up the doors to let the trains in and any heat that was in the building all went out. All of the welders had some type of device like the lady in the picture is holding for warming up their lunch. Most of them were made from brazing rod or TIG filler rod. There was a lunch room that was heated but by the time you took off all your heavy clothes and left enough time to put them all back on again, you didn't hardly have enough time to sit down and eat, so most guys just ate in the shop sitting on a 5 gallon bucket next to the salamander. That was the coldest place I ever worked. Some days it was warmer outside than in. 

I'm currently reading a book about Roald Amundsen, the first man to set foot at the South Pole, among other things. Hard to bellyache too much about the cold around here when he had to suffer through temperatures of - 70 and colder and eat seal and dog meat not only for sustenance but to prevent scurvy. Hardy souls, those explorers. I read the Shackleton story a few years back. Amazing what those men went through. At least Amundsen and Shackleton made it back and got to bask in the glory for a while, unlike Scott. Amundsen's life story doesn't exactly end on a happy note, however. I should probably be reading Robinson Crusoe or something now and save Amundsen for this summer when it's about 95 degrees out, but if he could take it, so can I. 

Stay warm.

Cold Hard Truth

I saw this financial advice from a Kevin O'Leary book at Bookpuddle the other day:

I pledge to make no purchases unless I can answer TRUE to the following FIVE statements.
1. I have given this purchase sufficient thought.
2. Buying this item will not create debt for me or anyone else.
3. I not only want this item, I need it.
4. This item is more valuable than the interest I'd earn if I saved the money instead.
5. This item will matter to me in a year.

I was not at all familiar with Kevin O'Leary prior to this but since he's a billionaire and I'm not, it just might be worth taking a look at what he has to offer. In this day and age, item number four might not carry much worth since it's nigh on impossible to earn any interest on any investment placed in a deposit account or CD with a bank. Item number five, however, strikes a chord with me. How many things are we going to buy that actually matter a year later and why will they matter. Big ticket items like a house or a car, certainly, and small items such as tools will matter a year later and many years beyond that.

Every time I stop for gas at the local station, the pump asks me to insert my "Perks" card. If you buy enough items inside the station with the card, you'll eventually receive a few cents per gallon discount on your gas. I used to have one before the heart attack. I used it when buying a cup of coffee and a doughnut or a sports drink in the summertime. Since I've quit eating doughnuts and drinking sports drinks, I now have no reason to go inside the gas station at all so I tossed the Perks card. Since I'm now looking at a purchase from a gas station or convenience mart from a health perspective, not buying the item will matter to me in a year. However, next time you're at your local station take a look at the number of people who buy more than gas or don't even buy gas but still make a purchase anyway. Probably 99% of all of these purchases would fail test number three. A pack of smokes or a doughnut is a want not a need regardless of how bad you are Jonesin' for a smoke or a sugar fix.

I've put a list together of big ticket expenditures I'm going to budget for this year. Most of them pass the five point test above but I'd have to use a pretty loose interpretation when it comes to number three for several of them. Grinding fixture for lathe tools? That's a legitimate need even if the lathe might not have been. However, do I really need a $370 seat for a 40 year old motorcycle? My old pal Joey B used to use the logic of "Pride of Ownership" to explain away some of his purchases - things like an Uzi and Thompson submachine gun for example.

To me, fixing up an old motorcycle or tinkering around with some of my projects is certainly more than a want. There's a certain intrinsic need beyond the dollar value - Pride of Ownership or Craftsmanship, if you will. Will this item matter to me in a year? If I've been tripping over it for thirty years, it'll probably matter next year as well. I will admit that I'm starting to look at the pile and see it less as what it could be and more as what it actually is: a collection of items that are about two days away from being junk and that are going to require an enormous amount of time, labor and money. Probably should have read the list before I drug them all home.

Since it's essentially too late to turn back now, however, and it's too damn cold to do much more than just huddle around the fireplace, I've been thinking about one of the items that actually satisfies all five of the above requirements, that being the BSA that my late brother left to Surly and me. Brother Johnny talked to me about making some sidecovers for him but only in the general sense. We never got around to any specifics, but from what I've gleaned from his old blog and the fact that I was around the dude for 58 years, I think I've got a general sense of what he was looking for. What I need now is to finalize the design or something close to it and make a prototype or if I feel I'm where I want to be with it, make a hammerform and get to gettin'. I can run it by Surly and if we agree, proceed. Like me, he's currently waiting out the weather dreaming about motorcycles in general but rather than sidecovers, it's Sportster pipes in particular.

Filling the space there won't be hard, just need to come up with something sexy to match the new tank John had bought. It'd be nice if I had an air cleaner to stick on there while thinking about this. 

There's supposed to be a brief respite from the cold weather this weekend - see if I can't do something, even if it is wrong. 

Real School Reform

There was an Op-Ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal written by Peter Downs addressing the shortage of skilled workers. His solution? Start an apprenticeship program.

In Switzerland, 70% of young people age 15-19 apprentice in hundreds of occupations, including baking, banking, health care, retail trade and clerical careers. In Germany, 65% of youth are in apprenticeships; in Austria 55%. All three countries have youth unemployment rates less than half of America's 16%. 

There is evidence that such apprenticeships can do more than just train young people for future careers: They can also improve student academic performance. In the few U.S. school districts that have offered apprenticeships, high school juniors and seniors who have been apprentices have improved in the classroom. 

In the Bayless School District in suburban St. Louis, for example, students who entered the district's Middle Apprenticeship Program with the Carpenters' Union had better attendance than before entering the program. The mean grade point average for these students 1.7 at the end of their sophomore year, before they entered the apprenticeship program. By senior year, it was 3.13. They graduated with better attendance and better grades than did a group of similar students who weren't in the program. 

To the extent that the American business community is involved in education reform, they are typically investing in faddish reforms such as banning tenure, that, even if passed, would do little little to ensure the competitiveness of the nation's workforce. If this same money and effort went into pushing for a two-track education system - college or apprenticeship - it would do far more to produce students prepared to compete in the 21st-century economy.

That's the condensed version but you get the picture. It's all about relevance. Students go to work at jobs they like, come back to school and get the education they need to get one of those jobs. Pretty simple - direct cause and effect. And, of course, employers get students that can perform the tasks the job requires with minimum additional training. Everybody's happy. So why don't we see more of it? Mr. Downs doesn't really hit on that much but he's authored a book with the title Schoolhouse Shams: Myths and Misinformation in School Reform that just might. There's an online review of the book here that, like the Diane Ravitch book I just finished, says the book not only addresses the silliness of all the testing and charter schools but comes right out and states what most reformers never mention: It's not reform, it's privatization. Looks like another book I should add to my reading list. Might have to double down on my blood pressure medicine before reading it but that's OK. According to the reviewer, the book doesn't cover the Common Core standards but I read in the paper the other day that Governor Pence in his State of the State speech says that Indiana is going to develop its own standards rather than adopting the Common Core. That and his positive stance on vocational education are about the only things I agree with the governor on as far as educational issues go but it's something.

So once again I say to you, if you want a decent education for your child, get some tools in their hands. With apprenticeships, they'll learn skills that will help them get a decent job and they won't be saddled with huge amounts of college debt. Get them into the habit of reading, have them listen to and play music, get them outside and play. Have them do some chores.Take them to museums and sporting events. Develop their minds and bodies. Invest time in your children and their education but beware of the reformers.

Davida Helmet

While waiting for my chili and cornbread pie to bake the other night, I was buzzing through a few blogs that I follow and I found this:

Photo From Here

That helmet is just what I need to ride the BSA. Get myself a Davida helmet like Jim Redman and stick a Mooneyes decal on it and I'd be hooked up solid.

 Brother Johnny used to post this photo of Redman on his blog every once in awhile:

Davida helmet, Gasolina boots and a Corbin seat and I'd look real good sitting on the BSA out in the shop. Actually I could get a helmet and the seat with the black and white checkerboard stripe down the middle of both of them. There's a thought. Might be better if I took that thousand bucks and got the thing running first. About the only thing this cold weather is good for is planning and dreaming. I have been giving the sidecovers some thought. Next time it gets above thirty, I'm planning on making a move.