blog1218

Sunday, December 2, 2018

On a lazy Sunday morning I played internet. About noon I stirred from my chair to get something useful done. I spent the afternoon sharpening the chain saw and replacing a leaking water jacket plug on the 1923 touring car. I'll let the sealant cure overnight, then see if it holds water. One other chore is daily this time of year—bringiing in wood and laying fires for the evening in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Never went off the place today. With the temperature never climbing past the mid-thirties, I spent the day in the shop mostly working on my speedometer improvement for the touring. I made the magnet holder that bolts to a front wheel, and the bracket that attaches to the spindle to hold the sensor. The tricky part of that was welding the thin tubing without burning holes in it. I've bent the tube that will house the wire running up into the engine compartment. About all that remains is figuring a way to mount the tube, and then painting all the parts. I should have the thing done, painted, and installed by the weekend. I'll show pictures when it's done.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

With time out for a grocery run and an hour of firewood sawing in the afternoon, I spent the day finishing up the new speedometer hardware, and this evening I painted it. I may wait a couple of days for the paint to dry before I install it in the car, hook up the speedometer, and see if it works.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

This was going to be another day for cutting firewood, but somehow I never made it out there. I did refill the radiator on the touring car to see if the new plug holds water. It does. My other chore in the shop was splicing enough extra wire on the speedometer sensor to reach all the way trough its new protective tube. Tomorrow, if I have time, I'll assemble the various speedometer parts on the car. I didn't get more done today because of grocery shopping, which used up more than an hour. Sometimes a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

Thursday, December 6, 2018

This morning I went for a ride. I went with my cousin Pete to a medical appointment near Wichita. I was to drive her home after surgery. But it turned out there was no surgery yet. The doc wanted her there just for more testing. So she drove and I rode, going and coming. When I got home I got back to work on the speedometer modification. Trying to install the biggest part I found that it would't fit as built, and I had to shorten the tube. I finally got it installed then proceeded to setting the little computer. That's where things bogged down. When I tried to print out the instructions my Kodak printer wouldn't make a good copy. So I went to the Kodak website, found a phone number, and called. The "associate" told me I needed to call a different number, which I carefully wrote down. The number turned ut to be for Lexmark. Of course nobody there had any clue about a Kodak printer, and wondered why I called them. I wondered the same thing. So back I went to the Kodak website. Finally I found a support page that offered the choice of chat or email, no phone support. I chose email, and submitted a report on my problem. The automated system says I'll get a reply within 48 hours. We shall see. Maybe I'll finish the speedometer tomorrow.

Friday, December 7, 2018

I did finish it. This was one of those jobs where you know what you want to do and you start making the project, and as you go along you find things that cause you to make changes in how you planned to do it. Anyway I got the thing finished and installed and it works, so I'm a happy camper.

Saturday, December 8, 2018

The main project of the day was updating the Cheap Speedometer page on my website. This evening I made another Wichita trip for a movie unlikely ever to play down here in Podunk. This time it was Boy Erased. There were several good performances. Russel Crowe as a southern Baptist preacher is very good, and so is Lucas Hedges as the son. But the standout to me was Nicole Kidman as the preacher's wife. Watching her portrayal was a pleasure.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

On a lazy Sunday morning I slept late, not getting up until after eight. In the morning I played online. By noon the outside temperature was up to 40º, and I took the chain saw out and spent much of the afternoon cutting, splitting, and hauling in firewood. I also took a half hour with the watering can, watering the recently planted hydrangeas and American sweetgums. This year I want to keep the newly planted things watered all winter so they'll be alive and ready to take off in the spring.

Monday, December 10, 2018

After breakfast and a shower and a check of email and websites, I was off to Wichita for an appointment with the eye doc. The appointment was at 1:15, and I left the doc's office at 3:15. With a couple of shopping stops on the way home, that was my day.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

All morning and into the afternoon I worked on my apparatus for photographing small objects. It will have three dimmers to adjust the lights from the top and both sides, and another to brighten or darken the background. I had to stop for a drive to the county seat to pay the property taxes, then did the grocery shopping. I got home in time to lay the evening fires in the kitchen stove and the living room fireplace. Maybe I'll finish the project tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Not quite. I installed all the upper lights, wiring, and switches, and much of the lower. The upper lights will be for the subject, and the lower ones for the background. A dimmer switch will make the background brighter or darker, and three other dimmer switches will adjust the lights on the subject from different angles. I still need to install a little more wiring for the background lights, then I'll be ready to try the thing out and see if it works as planned.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Done! I got the project finished this morning and tried it out. The results are pretty good. I posted pictures here. I'll need to make a little tweak or two, but the thing works pretty well as it is.

Friday, December 14, 2018

I was asked why I separate the subject from the background when shooting a close-up instead of just laying it right on the background. So I shot pictures both ways to show why. My method eliminates distracting shadows, allows me to brighten or darken the background separately from the subject, and eliminates background texture. In this case that last reason isn't particularly important, but sometimes it matters. And what else did I do with my Friday? I installed one of my "new" light fixtures in the living room. That involved going upstairs and drilling holes through a few wall studs and putting in a few feet of Romex. This was one of the two old porcelain fixtures I bought at the Patterson auction in Shidler last month. With that one in and working, I should get the other one done tomorrow, as the wiring is already in place.

My 1923 touring hasn't run since the unfortunate incident a year ago. I made a new left front wheel for it, but it sat waiting for a new fender for several months, and is still waiting for a top. For all that time I've been driving the 1915 runabout. But next month the runabout's engine will be coming out to get a new crankshaft, and I'll be driving the 1923 while the 1915 is down. So today I put some gas in the tank and started it up. With less than a mile on the new engine it's mighty stiff. Even with a fully charged battery the starter struggles to turn it over. I moved all the running board accessories (gas cans, tool box, luggage rack) from the runabout to the touring. Tomorrow I'll wash the dust off and take it for a drive.

Monday, December 17, 2018

Well, I didn't take time to wash it, but I did drive the touring to town to do laundry and buy some groceries. I drove reeeeeal slow and kept a tight grip on the steering wheel, because it felt like the car wanted to veer randomly to one side or the other. I'll check front end alignment tomorrow. I didn't have time to look at it today because I had to drive up to Andover to bring my cousin Pete home from the hospital. The paperwork to get her checked out took over an hour, so we got back well after sundown.

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

This morning I checked the front end alignment on the touring. It's supposed to have 3/16" to 1/4" toe-in. It had over half an inch of toe-out! No wonder it felt so squirrely. When I started to correct the adjustment I found that the steering connecting rod yoke was badly worn, so I found a better one, cleaned it up, and painted it. I'll install that and finish the adjustment tomorrow. My exciting afternoon was spent taking Shorty to the vet for shots, buying groceries, and doing the firewood thing.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

My morning activity was adjusting front end alignment on the touring car. It's not a difficult job , but it's time consuming and tedious. Adjust and measure, adjust and measure, adjust and measure. I spent the afternoon addressing and writing on Christmas cards. It's tacky to send a card with nothing but a signature. I have to write at least a brief note.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

All morning and into the afternoon I worked on Christmas cards. I finished and mailed all the ones going to distant locations, and will do the local ones tomorrow. My other project of the day was getting my stove ready for cooking. For several months one burner hasn't worked due to a bad switch, and last summer the oven heating element went bad. The new replacement parts arrived this week and I installed them today.

Friday, December 21, 2018

On the first day of winter I finished the Christmas cards, took them to town and mailed them, and bought a new chain for my saw. In the afternoon I drove my cousin Pete to the clinic for her doctor's appointment. After major surgery last week, it will be several weeks before she's able to drive again. Now that winter is here the countdown has begun. It's 89 days until spring.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Cooking and housework were on the agenda. The cooking was corn bread for Tuesday's feast at Pete's place. Unfortunately I overcooked it. It wasn't bad enough to be inedible, but I can do better. I'll try another batch tomorrow. The house work was just bathroom cleaning. In the afternoon I headed for Wichita to buy kimchi, have dinner, and see a movie. I get 김치 at the Grace Market in Wichita beause they sell it in gallon jars that will last months, which is the least expensive way. Dinner was a tasty meal at México Viejo, and the movie was The Favourite, another of those films unlikely ever to play down here in Podunk. It was worth the trip to see Emma Stone, a wonderful actress who speaks with her face. She would have been a great star in silent movies.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

After I finished putting the stove back together I devoted the rest of the day to cooking. First I made another batch of corn bread. This was much better than yesterday's attempt. Next came the main project of the day, pumpkin pies. I thought I was making three, so I tripled the recipe. It turned out that I had enough mix to fill three pie shells with enough left over for two more, so I'll have to get a couple more shells tomorrow. That's OK. It doesn't bother me to have a couple of extra pies.

Monday, December 24, 2018

It's great fun sawing firewood with a new blade that cuts through hardwood like a hot knife through butter. In the morning I used up the leftover pumpkin pie mix to make two more pies. After two days in the fridge supposedly thawing, the turkey was still hard as a rock. So I put it in a tub of water to thaw faster. By the end of the day it was much improved. It will sit in the refrigerator overnight, and I'll get up early tomorrow morning to cook it. In the afternoon I cut up and split enough firewood to last at least a week, or maybe two. In the countdown to spring, we have 86 days to go.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Up at 5:30 AM, I got the turkey in the oven by 6:30. I had it and everything else ready to go by 11:30 and headed for Pete's. Wally did a great job on his share of the fixin's, and we had a swell feast. I expect I'll be dining on leftovers for at least a week, or maybe two. When I got home I did a bit of catching up online and checked my website statistics. I'll end the year with a little over 60,000 visits, or a little over 5000 per month. Most of those are to this blog and/or the Model T pages.

Wrong!

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Rain all day had me in the shop. The main project was replacing some carriage bolts on the 1923 touring. The guys who "restored" the car used mostly correct parts, but they were dreadfully careless about fasteners. So for several years I've been replacing Phillips screws and other modern fasteners with items more suitable for a Model T. The subject of today's correction was the modern carriage bolts with numbers on the heads which they used on the windshield stanchions. Fortunately I have a box of old hardware that includes some correct unnumbered carriage bolts. So today I cleaned up four of those, cut a couple to the proper length, and painted all of them. I'll install them tomorrow or Friday. My other project of the day was salvaging parts off the $2 front axle I brought home from an auction last month.

Right.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Most of the day I was gone. I drove down to Stillwater for a showing of They shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's remarkable WWI documentary. It's wonderful, but I don't understand why they gave out 3-D glasses, because it wasn't a 3-D film.

Friday, December 28, 2018

My only work of the day was putting away and cleaning up in the shop. A fellow Model T aficionado from Oregon was traveling in the area and stopped for a visit, so we spent a few hours blathering. By the time John left in the afternoon I had just enough time to bring in kindling and lay the evenng fires. Maybe I can get some real work done tomorrow.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Dismantling a car was the centerpiece of today's activities. Not completely dismantling, of course. The 1915 runabout will be getting a new crankshaft in January, so the engine has to come out. Today I started the process of removing the parts that have to be out of the way for pulling the engine.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

More of the same, at a very leisurely Sunday pace. I spent more time online than I did working.

Monday, December 31, 2018

I use these bills all the time. This weekend I spent the last ones I had, so today I drove up to Winfield to buy another $100 worth at the former Corner Bank. That's the only place I can buy more than a few at a time. I was afraid that would change when they were bought by RCB Bank, but so far I can still buy twos, halves, and rolls of dollar coins there with no trouble. It's remarkable how many people are unfamiliar with all those denominations. Six times in the past year young folks selling theater tickets have asked their managers if they were allowed to take twos. Sometimes folks are so confused by a half dollar that I have to tell them how much the change is. While I was in Winfield I went to look over the stuff that will be in Defore's auction tomorrow. I saw several things that told me yes, I want to attend and bid. At home I did a little more dismantlement on the runabout, and took time to wire brush and repaint the throttle rod and timer control rod.