Sunday, November
1, 2020
The new month brought a chilly but sunny day and a forecast that predicts a return of freezing nights next week. But first we get a few days of highs in the low seventies. I'll use some of those nice days to finish the shingling project and lay in more firewood. I have a hunch I'll be burning a lot of it this winter. And what about today? I did hardly a lick of work. I did add talcum to my web page listing flat tire tools, and I made a photo comparison of the two Model T crank pulleys. I never take the time to watch movies online, and I even watched a movie today. Monday, November 2, 2020 Drat! I had only enough shingles left to finish the bottom row. I'll have to buy another bundle to finish this job and do the front of the front porch. That will take a drive to Wichita and a pile of dough. The last time I bought shingles they were over eighty bucks a bundle. While I'm on that trip I'll pick up a couple of sections of rain gutter for the porch on the south side of the shop. I could get them at the lumber yard in Winfield, but they would cost double what I'll pay in Wichita, and I'd still have to go to Wichita for the mounting hardware. I was dumbfounded to find that Home Lumber sells the guttering, but none of the hardware to install it. The guys who work there didn't seem to think it strange at all. We live in a crazy world. |
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This morning when I walked over to the city building to vote, I found several big branches and small trees fallen across the wood lot road. Clearing those away will be another fall chore. The plan today was to go to Wichita for shingles. But first I had to gas up the car. I went down to the Gasino and filled up, and had an unhappy surprise. When I checked the oil I found that I had forgotten the oil cap the last time I added oil and the engine had thrown out so much oil that the level was way down below the end of the stick. After going to three different parts stores before finally finding a new cap, then replacing all that lost oil, by then it was late enough in the afternoon that I decided to delay my Wichita excursion until tomorrow.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Curses! Foiled again! I drove to Star Lumber in west Wichita to buy more shingles and found that after I called to be sure they were in stock somebody else came in and bought them all. I suppose this means I will be nailing up shingles in several weeks while dressed in winter overalls as the snow flies, with fingers numb from the cold and my nose in full snot fountain mode. At least the trip wasn't a total waste, as I stopped at the Lowe's in Derby and picked up some rain gutter for the shop. I also found that Diet Squirt was back in stock at the Dillon's on Rock Road, so I bought enough of that to last a few weeks. That's another of the things you can't buy here.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
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Friday, November 6, 2020
With just one more pair of clean sox left, this was laundry day. After the wash was on the line I did the grocery shopping, then spent the rest of the afternoon with more road clearing. What I cleared yesterday was too green to be firewood this year, but what I cut today was dead, so I'll bring it up to the house tomorrow. The forecast says we'll be back to the cold next week.
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Two roads diverged in a wood...
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Done! Today I finished
road clearing. I cut up some of the dead stuff for
firewood, but just set aside a lot of it to cut up later.
I wanted to get the clearing all done today and use
tomorrow for bringing in and splitting wood for the coming
chilly weather.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
As planned, I brought up a load of wood to split. I was delighted with how the splitter started easily after sitting unused since last winter. The split wood is stacked in the truck ready to unload, but that's as far as I got because I spent some time earlier cutting up more fallen branches in the back yard. I'll unload tomorrow or Tuesday.
Monday, November 9, 2020
There's not much to report. I had an appointment with my eye doc in Wichita, and that pretty much shot the day. In fact the appointment took so long that I didn't even have time for a shopping stop I had planned at the Big Tool Store. By the time I went through Derby it was past their closing time. I have a repair job to do that will take a tap I don't have, but that can wait. It's not urgent.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
For the third time, I've worn out an Apple Mighty Mouse. So I went on eBay and bought a lot of eight for $75. That should be a lifetime supply. Until they arrive I'm using a Windows type mouse, and like all things Windows it is colossally annoying. It does the normal function I want, most of the time, but it also interrupts with seemingly random functions that make using it an exasperating chore.
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
When grocery shopping I always specify paper
bags. I use them as can liners for paper trash. When one
is full it goes into the fireplace (winter) or the burn
barrel in the yard (summer). This year I've added a new
use.
I
cut up twigs and small branches to make kindling bundles
that will start fires in the kitchen stove and the
living room fireplace.
They
stay dry in a large box in the garage, next to the
recycle boxes for bottles, cans, etc.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Oh joy! Oh rapture unforseen!
The cloudy skies are now serene...
The box of Apple mouses (?) — mice (?) — I bought day before yesterday arrived in this afternoon's mail, and I am now back to computering normally, without that damnable Windows piece of crap making it an exasperating ordeal. When I went to town today I had to get dog food, and stopped at the local Walmart where face coverings are "recommended". After the first dozen local geniuses I saw walking around barefaced, I quit counting. I just made sure I kept plenty of distance between us. Kansas and the rest of the country continue to set new records daily for infections and deaths, and these anti-science yahoos pretend it isn't happening. I guess all I can do is stay home as much as possible, mask up and keep my distance when I shop, and hope they don't kill me before a vaccine becomes available.
Friday, November 13, 2020
This morning somebody in one of the Facebook Model T groups asked about air filters. I didn't have a web page on the subject, so today I made one. http://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG116.html
Saturday, November 14, 2020
On a windy but warm day with a high above 70º F I dealt with wood. I brought all that was left in the truck into the house, then hauled up some pieces I cut several years ago which have been waiting for me to remember them. Most of those are large enough to go to the splitter. This evening I found another job I need to do. Sitting in my office I heard noises overhead. It sounded like some critter was crawling around in the attic. So I fetched a ladder and went up to take a look. It turned out to be a branch scraping the roof in the wind. So I have a bit of tree trimming to do.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Beware the Ides of November! I'm time traveling back to 1950. The only modern communications I have are the phone and the radio. No TV, no internet. Unfortunately this version of 1950 doesn't include Fibber & Molly, Jack Benny, or Miss Bankhead. A Cox technician is scheduled to come out and restore cable service Tuesday, so I won't be able to waste my time online until then. I spent the morning working on a new Model T page for the website, this one about magneto headlights. I won't be able to post it until I get my internet connection back, but I can get it ready. While I was at it I hit on a solution to a longtime minor problem. When I post a link on Facebook the live link appears and has the first photo on the page with it, but not the title of the page. So on each page, instead of the title being in text I'll make it an image. It can be an image of the title, or it can be a photo with the title superimposed on it. Either one will show up with the link. It's taken me only years and years of posting links on FB to finally think of this brilliant idea. In the afternoon I cleared away big fallen branches in front of the shop, cutting off the smaller twigs and branches and hauling the trimmings to the brush pile. That last part required cutting up a dead tree that had fallen across the road. So after emptying the truck I hauled those cut up pieces to the splitter and ended the day splitting firewood.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Job One today was working on that new website page about magneto headlights. I kept at it until about 1:00 PM and stopped with most of it done. My afternoon chores were a trip to town for groceries, laying the evening fire in the kitchen stove, and something I should do more often — house cleaning. I didn't do all that needs to be done, just moved things out of the way and swept where the cable guy will be trying to get me back online tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Greetings to all my adoring fans! Did you miss me? You probably didn't notice that I was gone. Anyway, the cable guy came this morning and put me back online, so here I am. Did you miss me? Oh. I already asked that, didn't I? It's hell getting old. Maybe it will be better when I get to where I don't realize I've lost it, like our soon-to-be former president. The cable guy came and he didn't have much to do. Before he arrived I found that the cable coming up from the cellar had pulled loose from its connector. All he had to do was install a new connector, hook it up, and restart the equipment. So today I was able to finish that new page and upload it to the website. I also found that when I posted the link on Facebook the first photo on the page showed up with the link as usual, but it didn't show the text I had superimposed on the image. I tried making a screen shot of the image with text and posting that, and got the same result — the photo with no text. There has to be a way to beat this crazy FB quirk, but I haven't figured it out yet.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Again I worked on adding text to the first pictures on Model T pages, and it just gets crazier. When the links are posted on Facebook some of the pictures show up with the text on them and some don't. If there's something I'm doing different from one to the next, I can't figure out what it is.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Friday, November 20, 2020
Never went off the place today. My little bit of work in the shop was gluing a layer of cardboard on my coil winder to make it a little thicker to wind the coils slightly bigger. The first one I tried was too tight a fit on the core, so I need to make them with a little more space in the center. My outside work was firewood. I finished splitting the pieces I was working on last Saturday, then a couple of big chunks that have been waiting by the splitter. I put a lot of the split wood in boxes. Two went into the house and two on the front porch where they will be handy to fetch. The rest of the wood went to the stack in the garage. The last chore of the day was tarping some things to stay dry if and when the predicted weekend rain arrives.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Today I had to go to the pharmacy for more pills, and it seemed to me that there were fewer barefacers in town than I've been seeing. Maybe the quickly accelerating rate of infection and the rapidly rising numbers are persuading some of them to mask up. Last night I was congested, with an occasional cough. Uh-oh. Am I infected with you-know-what? If I am, it seems to be moving in the right direction. Tonight the congestion is less and I'm not coughing. Maybe I'll survive long enough to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, the usual stuff continues. While the rain fell outside today I worked in my office making and uploading more title images for the Model T pages. On one page I removed the only photo that was there and made the title photo the only image on the page. So when I tried posting a link to the page on Facebook, what showed up with the link? The previous photo that's no longer on the page, of course.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
The plan was to get some work done in the shop today, but the computer ate up my day. Some of that was working on more website pages, and a lot of it was answering questions from folks who just bought their first Model T or are shopping for one. How do I do so-and-so? Where can I find such-and-such? What year is this car, and how can I tell? Etc, etc. By the time I went to the market for celery and down to the gasino to fill up, the day was pretty swell spent. The lung congestion and occasional cough continued but were no worse, so if I have the virus it appears not to be a serious case.
Monday, November 23, 2020
This was medical/dental day. In the morning I went to see a PA at the clinic about my blood pressure. It's been higher lately, but he didn't think it's been high enough often enough to change the dosage of the pills I take for it. I took a blood test to see if I'm anemic, and should find out the results of that in a few days. In the afternoon I relaxed in the chair at the dentist's office for over an hour for a tooth cleaning. By the time I laid the evening fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace the day was spent, and it was time to feed the varmints and me.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
On a rainy day I stayed in my office and worked on the website. In the afternoon I went to town for groceries, then worked on the website some more. When it came time to lay the evening fires I went to get some of the wood I had left on the front porch. I found that the tarp I had put over it had blown off and it was all wet. Drat! Fortunately I have plenty of other wood staying dry under cover.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Laundry day. After the clothes were washed and I started putting them through the wringer, it had trouble wringing. The rollers weren't tight enough to grab an item and pull it through. I had to lean down on top of it to make it work. After the clothes were hung out to dry I went back and inspected the wringer. I found four large springs that put tension on the rollers, so I got a wrench and tightened the adjusting nuts. Next time I wash I'll find out if that did any good.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Not much to tell. As usual, Shorty and I went to have Thanksgiving Day dinner with my cousins Pete Nichols and Wally Brickey. Pete likes to cook and is good at it, and she always sends us home with leftovers that will last several days. For the next few days turkey sandwiches will be a regular item on my menu. In the health department I can report that the lung congestion that came on last Friday continues to improve and is almost gone.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
As planned, I brought up a load of wood to split. I was delighted with how the splitter started easily after sitting unused since last winter. The split wood is stacked in the truck ready to unload, but that's as far as I got because I spent some time earlier cutting up more fallen branches in the back yard. I'll unload tomorrow or Tuesday.
Monday, November 9, 2020
There's not much to report. I had an appointment with my eye doc in Wichita, and that pretty much shot the day. In fact the appointment took so long that I didn't even have time for a shopping stop I had planned at the Big Tool Store. By the time I went through Derby it was past their closing time. I have a repair job to do that will take a tap I don't have, but that can wait. It's not urgent.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
For the third time, I've worn out an Apple Mighty Mouse. So I went on eBay and bought a lot of eight for $75. That should be a lifetime supply. Until they arrive I'm using a Windows type mouse, and like all things Windows it is colossally annoying. It does the normal function I want, most of the time, but it also interrupts with seemingly random functions that make using it an exasperating chore.
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
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Thursday, November 12, 2020
Oh joy! Oh rapture unforseen!
The cloudy skies are now serene...
The box of Apple mouses (?) — mice (?) — I bought day before yesterday arrived in this afternoon's mail, and I am now back to computering normally, without that damnable Windows piece of crap making it an exasperating ordeal. When I went to town today I had to get dog food, and stopped at the local Walmart where face coverings are "recommended". After the first dozen local geniuses I saw walking around barefaced, I quit counting. I just made sure I kept plenty of distance between us. Kansas and the rest of the country continue to set new records daily for infections and deaths, and these anti-science yahoos pretend it isn't happening. I guess all I can do is stay home as much as possible, mask up and keep my distance when I shop, and hope they don't kill me before a vaccine becomes available.
Friday, November 13, 2020
This morning somebody in one of the Facebook Model T groups asked about air filters. I didn't have a web page on the subject, so today I made one. http://dauntlessgeezer.com/DG116.html
Saturday, November 14, 2020
On a windy but warm day with a high above 70º F I dealt with wood. I brought all that was left in the truck into the house, then hauled up some pieces I cut several years ago which have been waiting for me to remember them. Most of those are large enough to go to the splitter. This evening I found another job I need to do. Sitting in my office I heard noises overhead. It sounded like some critter was crawling around in the attic. So I fetched a ladder and went up to take a look. It turned out to be a branch scraping the roof in the wind. So I have a bit of tree trimming to do.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Beware the Ides of November! I'm time traveling back to 1950. The only modern communications I have are the phone and the radio. No TV, no internet. Unfortunately this version of 1950 doesn't include Fibber & Molly, Jack Benny, or Miss Bankhead. A Cox technician is scheduled to come out and restore cable service Tuesday, so I won't be able to waste my time online until then. I spent the morning working on a new Model T page for the website, this one about magneto headlights. I won't be able to post it until I get my internet connection back, but I can get it ready. While I was at it I hit on a solution to a longtime minor problem. When I post a link on Facebook the live link appears and has the first photo on the page with it, but not the title of the page. So on each page, instead of the title being in text I'll make it an image. It can be an image of the title, or it can be a photo with the title superimposed on it. Either one will show up with the link. It's taken me only years and years of posting links on FB to finally think of this brilliant idea. In the afternoon I cleared away big fallen branches in front of the shop, cutting off the smaller twigs and branches and hauling the trimmings to the brush pile. That last part required cutting up a dead tree that had fallen across the road. So after emptying the truck I hauled those cut up pieces to the splitter and ended the day splitting firewood.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Job One today was working on that new website page about magneto headlights. I kept at it until about 1:00 PM and stopped with most of it done. My afternoon chores were a trip to town for groceries, laying the evening fire in the kitchen stove, and something I should do more often — house cleaning. I didn't do all that needs to be done, just moved things out of the way and swept where the cable guy will be trying to get me back online tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Greetings to all my adoring fans! Did you miss me? You probably didn't notice that I was gone. Anyway, the cable guy came this morning and put me back online, so here I am. Did you miss me? Oh. I already asked that, didn't I? It's hell getting old. Maybe it will be better when I get to where I don't realize I've lost it, like our soon-to-be former president. The cable guy came and he didn't have much to do. Before he arrived I found that the cable coming up from the cellar had pulled loose from its connector. All he had to do was install a new connector, hook it up, and restart the equipment. So today I was able to finish that new page and upload it to the website. I also found that when I posted the link on Facebook the first photo on the page showed up with the link as usual, but it didn't show the text I had superimposed on the image. I tried making a screen shot of the image with text and posting that, and got the same result — the photo with no text. There has to be a way to beat this crazy FB quirk, but I haven't figured it out yet.
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Again I worked on adding text to the first pictures on Model T pages, and it just gets crazier. When the links are posted on Facebook some of the pictures show up with the text on them and some don't. If there's something I'm doing different from one to the next, I can't figure out what it is.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
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Didn't do a lick of work today. I went on a shopping expedition to Wichita. The first stop was at the Winfield Walmart for a few boxes of Crunch & Munch toffee popcorn. That's my usual Saturday night dessert. Stop two was at the Winfield Goodwill store to look for a robe, as my old one is falling apart. The Walmart stores aren't selling them because they're "seasonal". I don't know what season they're for, but apparently we're not in it. None there. Next was a Dillons store in Derby for diet Squirt, which isn't sold here. Sold out. Next was the Ross store near the Dillons. No robes. On to Target. Yes, they had a robe. It was big enough to fit me, and I bought it. The next stop was at the Big Tool Store in search of a tap. I have a Rayo lamp with a cap that won't quite fit the tank. I wanted a tap the same size as the cap to make the hole slightly larger so the cap will fit. No soap. All their taps are standard sizes, and this cap isn't. So on to Wichita's Grace Korean market for two gallons of sliced cabbage 김치. That will last me a couple of months. Next was a Dillons store in Wichita. Yes! They had the Squirt. I bought all they had, four twelve packs. It turned out they were on sale for less than half price. Now I was on the home stretch, headed for Arkansas City. There I stopped at the Walmart for a blood pressure check. It was 124/74. That's not as bad as most of the readings I've been getting lately, but it's bad enough. I have an appointment at the clinic Monday to see if the doc can get me back to normal. I arrived home with just enough time to put stuff away before feeding the varmints, and then me. |
Friday, November 20, 2020
Never went off the place today. My little bit of work in the shop was gluing a layer of cardboard on my coil winder to make it a little thicker to wind the coils slightly bigger. The first one I tried was too tight a fit on the core, so I need to make them with a little more space in the center. My outside work was firewood. I finished splitting the pieces I was working on last Saturday, then a couple of big chunks that have been waiting by the splitter. I put a lot of the split wood in boxes. Two went into the house and two on the front porch where they will be handy to fetch. The rest of the wood went to the stack in the garage. The last chore of the day was tarping some things to stay dry if and when the predicted weekend rain arrives.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Today I had to go to the pharmacy for more pills, and it seemed to me that there were fewer barefacers in town than I've been seeing. Maybe the quickly accelerating rate of infection and the rapidly rising numbers are persuading some of them to mask up. Last night I was congested, with an occasional cough. Uh-oh. Am I infected with you-know-what? If I am, it seems to be moving in the right direction. Tonight the congestion is less and I'm not coughing. Maybe I'll survive long enough to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, the usual stuff continues. While the rain fell outside today I worked in my office making and uploading more title images for the Model T pages. On one page I removed the only photo that was there and made the title photo the only image on the page. So when I tried posting a link to the page on Facebook, what showed up with the link? The previous photo that's no longer on the page, of course.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
The plan was to get some work done in the shop today, but the computer ate up my day. Some of that was working on more website pages, and a lot of it was answering questions from folks who just bought their first Model T or are shopping for one. How do I do so-and-so? Where can I find such-and-such? What year is this car, and how can I tell? Etc, etc. By the time I went to the market for celery and down to the gasino to fill up, the day was pretty swell spent. The lung congestion and occasional cough continued but were no worse, so if I have the virus it appears not to be a serious case.
Monday, November 23, 2020
This was medical/dental day. In the morning I went to see a PA at the clinic about my blood pressure. It's been higher lately, but he didn't think it's been high enough often enough to change the dosage of the pills I take for it. I took a blood test to see if I'm anemic, and should find out the results of that in a few days. In the afternoon I relaxed in the chair at the dentist's office for over an hour for a tooth cleaning. By the time I laid the evening fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace the day was spent, and it was time to feed the varmints and me.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
On a rainy day I stayed in my office and worked on the website. In the afternoon I went to town for groceries, then worked on the website some more. When it came time to lay the evening fires I went to get some of the wood I had left on the front porch. I found that the tarp I had put over it had blown off and it was all wet. Drat! Fortunately I have plenty of other wood staying dry under cover.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Laundry day. After the clothes were washed and I started putting them through the wringer, it had trouble wringing. The rollers weren't tight enough to grab an item and pull it through. I had to lean down on top of it to make it work. After the clothes were hung out to dry I went back and inspected the wringer. I found four large springs that put tension on the rollers, so I got a wrench and tightened the adjusting nuts. Next time I wash I'll find out if that did any good.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Not much to tell. As usual, Shorty and I went to have Thanksgiving Day dinner with my cousins Pete Nichols and Wally Brickey. Pete likes to cook and is good at it, and she always sends us home with leftovers that will last several days. For the next few days turkey sandwiches will be a regular item on my menu. In the health department I can report that the lung congestion that came on last Friday continues to improve and is almost gone.
Friday, November
27, 2020
Dried out cedar twigs and small branches are good kindling. In the woodlot I have several stacks of them, the result of road clearing. So today I fetched a truckload of them and stacked them in a handy spot east of the house. What I brought today may not last until January, but it will keep me going for a few weeks, then I'll bring another load. Of course I have my big box of kindling in paper bags in the garage for days when everything outside is wet from rain or snow. This pile outside is my fair weather kindling. This afternoon I suddenly remembered that I am now in leftover mode, which includes turkey sandwiches, so I made a run to town for lettuce. While I was there I visited the pharmacy for a blood pressure test, and was not a happy camper when I saw the results: 143/86. Not good at all. My PA said I should keep testing and if the results don't improve come to see him again in two to four weeks. Looks like that's what I'll be doing. Saturday, November 28, 2020 The UPS man brought my trees from the Arbor Day Foundation yesterday afternoon, so this was planting day. In the morning I set them to soak, as the planting instructions say, and planted in the afternoon. There are two American sweet gum, two forsythia, and a bonus red maple that comes with every order. I put the sweet gums and the maple west of the west drive. The forsythias will go on the east side of the drive. My other job today was going to be installing new brake pads on the Camry. But when I got the right front wheel off and got a look at the rotor, I just put the wheel back on. The the rotor is toast. I stopped at O'Reilly when I went to town and got sticker shock. A new rotor there would be $58 and change. So I came home and ordered one from Rock Auto for $27.32, shipping included. Sunday, November 29, 2020 Braving the wintry blast, I planted the two forsythias. I put them on the east side of the west drive, along with some others that were already there. They will all make a nice display every March. The thermometer on the north side of the shop, shaking in the wind, read 46º F. Of course the blustery north wind made it feel much colder. Dressed in winter gear, I memorialized the job with a photographic shot on film. There are four shots left on the roll I started in April, and I'll probably finish it in December and get it developed. |
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Monday, November 30, 2020
It wasn't the plan, but I spent most of the day online. Some of it was for research, and some of it was being sociable with relatives, but the bigger part was answering questions and otherwise helping guys who recently bought a Model T and wanted to know about something mechanical or historic, or who are shopping for a T and want to know what pluses and pitfalls to look for. I enjoy that, but tomorrow I need to cut way back on my computer time and get some work done. This afternoon when I laid the evening fires I timed the job just to see how long it takes. Crumpling newspaper, cutting up and putting in kindling, and stacking the wood in both the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace took half an hour. I didn't realize it was that big a job.
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