Saturday, January 1, 2022
79 days to spring
I hate it. Numb, stiff, fumbling
fingers. Dripping nose. Digging through extra clothes to get
anything out of a pocket. When I went to town this afternoon
for groceries the car thermometer read 14º F here and 16º F in
town where it's always warmer. The temperature declined all
day, headed for a single digit tomorrow morning. At least the
digit will most likely be above 0º. Snow fell most of the day,
but only a few flakes at a time, so in the end it didn’t
amount to much. Somehow I’ve managed to lose the mounting nuts
off two of the switches for my new control panel. When I went
to town for groceries I stopped at the hardware store for
replacements. Among the dozens of switch nuts, all mixed
together by somebody who couldn’t tell the difference or
didn’t care, I found one of the right size to fit my switches.
I can use a plastic nut off an indicator light temporarily and
get a proper nut when the store restocks. Saturday treat night
being on January 1 this time, the treat was the traditional
New Year’s meal of corn bread and black eyed peas. This time I
cut up an onion and fried it and mixed it into the peas. Very
nice. I need to have this meal more than once a year. This
week’s movie was The King’s Man, a fantasy action
adventure with Ralph Fiennes up against a conspiracy in which
Princip, Rasputin, and other notorious characters take orders
from a mountain top mastermind out to destroy England. Fiennes
leads a very good cast in a picture I found quite well made
and entertaining. It’s not real history, but it’s fun.
Sunday, January 2, 2022
78 days to spring
Today I was in Walmart and was reminded of the Soviet Union.
In the paint department there were empty shelves where there
should have been Krylon, and when I went to find olive oil I
found empty shelves there too. It reminded me of the old days
when Russian stores were
notoriously bare of goods, and when rumors of shipments
arriving at the stores circulated, big crowds of people lined
up at the doors waiting to get in. There was a story of Leonid
Brezhnev or some Soviet big shot visiting a
Houston department store and seeing the profusion of goods
filling the shelves. According to the story, on the plane back
to Moscow he was weeping, and when asked what was the matter he
said, "We have lost." Soviet leaders knew their system was
a failure years before it finally collapsed completely. My
second stop in town was at the hardware store, where I consulted
with a couple of the managers about the switch nut I need. None
of us could figure out the exact size, so when I got home I did
some measuring. It looks like the correct size is 15/32-32. I'll
go back tomorrow and look at the sizes listed on the drawer. If
that's one of them, that's the nut they need to restock.
Monday, January 3, 2022
77 days to spring
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Work continued on the lights project for my
runabout. I installed nearly all the control panel parts to be
sure they would fit. I still have to finish one of the two
clamps that will hold the panel in place. The flasher module
will sit between the two power sockets. Those are for a phone
charger and a GPS device. The switches will control the power
sockets, emergency flashers, turn signals, and tail lights. Now
that I'm sure everything will fit, I'll take out the sockets and
the switches and install everything one piece at a time with the
wiring. I don't have a sheet metal brake, and the picture
clearly shows that the bottom corner of the panel isn't
perfectly straight. Fortunately that's not so obvious when the
thing is viewed from the front.
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
76 days to spring
The Maintenance Required light in the Camry told me it
was time for an oil change. The weather forecast told me it
should be today. Not liking the idea of crawling on the ground
under a car in freezing temperatures, I took care of it this
afternoon while we were having a balmy 54º F. Tomorrow we will
plunge back into the freezer. I did a little more work on the
control panel, stripping and painting some washers and buying
parts. Specifically, replacements for a couple of screws I
somehow managed to lose, and a thirty foot roll of 16 gauge
automotive wire. While I was in town I stopped at the newspaper
office and paid for another year of the Cowley Courier
Traveler. That's a combination of the Winfield Courier
and the Arkansas City Daily Traveler. The Traveler
began in 1870, and I think the Courier wasn't far
behind. For well over a hundred years, the two towns each had
their own papers, but a few years ago the changing business
environment dictated a merger for survival. So now the county
has a single paper.
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
75 days to spring
There's not much to tell. After a trip to town for a couple of
prescriptions, a few groceries, and another switch for the
control panel, I worked on said control panel until chow time.
After dinner I came back to the shop and worked on it again
almost until midnight. There are a lot of little bits I have to
solder, and I've become infuriatingly clumsy, so it's mighty
slow work. No telling how long it will take to finish this
thing.
Thursday, January 6, 2022
74 days to spring
Well, I got the turn signal part of the control panel wired up,
some of it temporarily for testing. It sort of halfway works.
The left/right switch operates opposite to what I expected. Flip
the switch to the left and the right indicator lights up.
The left signal doesn't work at all. The emergency switch
flashes the emergency indicator but only the right turn
indicator, not the left. They should all flash. At least I
figured out how to use a diode to keep the turn signals from
lighting up the emergency indicator. I suspect the non-lighting
left side may be on account of a defunct indicator light. The
little things are so delicate that two of them went to pieces
when I was trying to install them. Maybe that's why they're sold
in packs of seven.
Friday, January 7, 2022
73 days to spring
Two more steps done. Today I finished wiring the turn signal
part of the control panel, and it works as intended. The
indicator lights are really bright. I don't think I'll be one of
these old people who drives down the street with his signals
flashing. After dinner this evening I worked on the project some
more, installing the tail light switch and the wires out to the
tail light and turn signals. All that's left to do on the
control panel now is to install and wire the phone charger
switch. That will take another visit to the hardware store to
replace a lost screw on the switch. Speaking of hardware, when I
went down to Ponca City this afternoon to pick up the chain saw
parts I ordered last week, I stopped at Lowe's for some #10
tooth washers. I found them done up in little plastic bags, four
to a bag for $1.18. That's 29½¢ a washer! Ridiculous. I may end
up buying them online for a lot less, even with shipping. Could
I easily afford the $1.18 plus tax? Sure. But I'm not going to.
Saturday, January 8, 2022
72 days to spring
It turned out to be a day off from work on runabout lights. I
took glass and plastic to the recycle center. I watered the
little trees. I installed the motion light I bought yesterday to
replace the one outside the shop after it went haywire. I took
the defunct one back to Walmart and was told that since I bought
it more than ninety days ago (last February) I will have to
return it to the manufacturer, not Walmart. I spent over an hour
installing the new starter spring in my chain saw, then sawed
and split some wood. For chow this evening I made corn bread
again, cut up an onion, fried it, and mixed it with black eyed
peas. Tonight's movie was the new Spiderman flick. Tom Holland
is a good Peter Parker, Benedict Cumberbatch passes for an
American very convincingly, and an all star cast does fine as
various comic book characters. I had never seen Zendaya, who
played Peter Parker's girlfriend, and I thought her performance
was first rate. The picture was entertaining but it would have
been OK with me if the fight scenes hadn't been so long.
Sunday, January 9, 2022
71 days to spring
As the old cliché has it, this evening I am a happy camper. I
finished the control panel and it works. Now I'm on to the job
of installing it and the wiring in the car. Of course that will
take longer than expected. I had to go to town today for a
terminal block for the wiring project, and stopped at the
Walmart for a few things. It was another Soviet moment. All
three things I wanted were out of stock. The chain saw parts I
picked up Friday included a bag of stuff that was obviously not
for my saw. I didn't even open the bag. When I return it
tomorrow I'll stop at the Ponca City Walmart and see if anything
I want is in stock there. Ponca City is more than twice the size
of Arkansas City and their Walmart is much bigger. We shall see.
Monday, January 10, 2022
70 days to spring
Well, the big Walmart was out of butane and Super Tech silicone
lubricant, just like the one here, but everything else I wanted
was in stock. When I got back from Ponca City I fired up the
chain saw and cut up some of the oak pieces stacked in front of
the shop. Those are the remains of a big branch and some smaller
branches I had trimmed last spring because they were threatening
the roof of my shop building. I did the cutting today and will
do the splitting tomorrow. In the shop I worked on the car
lighting project, installing some of the wiring and trying out
the front turn signals. They worked perfectly, and they are nice
and bright. Best-laid
| Tuesday,
January 11, 2022 69 days to spring Best-laid plans. I never made it out to the splitter or any other outside work. After a trip to town for more shrink tubing and a switch for brake lights, I spent the rest of the day working on the runabout lights project. Not wanting to drill any holes in my frame, I made some clips from pallet strap to hold wiring. Some of the installation was infuriatingly slow work, fumbling with small parts in very awkward places, but I got the tail lights mostly done. That leaves the left and right rear turn signals and the brake lights still to do. As slow as I am, that may take the rest of the week. Wednesday, January 12, 2022 68 days to spring As Midnight the Cat used to say, "Nice!" I got the turn signals, tail lights, and brake lights all installed, and all the wiring done except for the brake lights. The turn signals, emergency flashers, tail lights, and phone charger outlets all work perfectly. I still have to do the brake light switch and wiring, and make a bracket to mount the control panel on the cowl. My first try at that last item had mounting cap screws hidden behind the panel, but that didn't work in the small space available. I'll have to put them out in front. |
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Thursday, January 13, 2022
67 days to spring
Progress. Today I made a mounting bracket to attach the control
panel to the cowl. It's painted and will bake overnight, and
I'll install it tomorrow. The other work on the car was
installing some of the brake light wiring. My outdoor work was
splitting firewood and taking three boxes of it into the house.
It seems I should have more to report, but those two jobs pretty
much filled the day.
Friday, January 14, 2022
66 days to spring
Drat! I forgot the old adage, "Measure twice, cut once." Or
maybe I measured twice, badly. Anyway, the mounting bracket I
made yesterday didn't quite fit the control panel. I didn't have
to start from scratch and make a new bracket, but I did have to
do some grinding, fill some holes, drill and tap new holes, and
repaint. Once again, the thing will bake overnight. I hope I can
get it installed tomorrow, then I'll remove the seat and
floorboards from the car and go to work on a brake light switch
to finish the lights project. My evening job after chow tonight
was making a shopping list. I can no longer buy slotted machine
screws in these parts, and a lot of other small hardware is
crazily expensive if I can get it here, so I looked through
drawers to see what's in short supply or gone, and made my list.
I found everything on boltdepot.com, but the website would only
let me buy a single item at a time. Bags of 100 pieces were
listed, but I couldn't buy them. I suppose I'll have to wait
until Monday and order by phone. This is why I don't believe in
the plot theory of history. The existence of vast conspiracies
would depend on a sudden, widespread outbreak of competence.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
65 days to spring
A freezing day (23º F) isn't so bad, but when the temperature is
delivered by a strong north wind, that's bad. I went to Winfield
to check out the Defore auction. Seeing a few items I wanted, I
stuck around. But it turned out that other folks wanted those
things more than I did, so I ended up buying nothing. When I got
home I worked on the lighting project a little, but didn't get
much done before it was time to get dinner. Having milk left
over from making corn bread, I mixed up some instant mashed
potatoes which I combined with fried onion, garlic, and jalapeño
slices. That was a right tasty meal. This week's movie was
Spielberg's West Side Story. A gem in this version is
Rita Moreno in a role written for her that was not in the
original production. So she was a star in different roles sixty
years apart.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
64 days to spring
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Never went off the place today. Shorty and I took a
little walk down in the wood lot to admire the frozen fog on the
branches, then I got back to work in the shop. I worked on the
lighting project, of course. I installed the control panel in
the car, then the wiring for brake lights. The time consuming
job was making the mounting bracket to hold the brake light
switch. I finished painting it just before chow time, when I
feed the cats and me. It will bake overnight, and I'll put it in
the car tomorrow. I'll need to go to town and get a clamp to
attach a linkage to the brake pedal. Mounting the brake light
switch and clipping all the wires to the frame will wrap up the
project for now. I'll need to install a tube for the wires up to
the control panel, but that will have to wait until I get the
new firewall in the car.
Monday, January 17, 2022
63 days to spring
This morning's Job One was writing checks and paying bills. One
check was to the county for my trailer registration. I was going
to drive up to the county seat and pay it, then I remembered
today is a holiday. I also did some online shopping for machine
screws and other small hardware. I got sixteen bags of 100 items
each. That should be a lifetime supply, and will save me a lot
of frustrating trips to town. I did go to town, though. I got a
small eye bolt and a clamp for the linkage between the brake
light switch and the pedal. Tonight I stripped off the plating
(paint won't stick to it), prepped, and painted the pieces. They
will bake overnight, and with any luck I should finish up the
lights project tomorrow.
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Tuesday, January 18, 2022
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The magnum opus of the day was sewing the Ford patch on a new shop coat. I didn't keep track of the time, but it was hours longer than the same job would have taken several years ago. Most of being old doesn't bother me, but being so clumsy and fumble-fingered that a formerly simple job takes forever is infuriating. I used to start a nut on a bolt without looking or even thinking about it. Now I struggle with it even when I'm looking dead at it. Saturday, January 22, 2022 58 days to spring This was the day of the annual midwinter Model T clinic at McPherson College. I've been attending and enjoying this event since 2009. It was originally held at the high school in Hutchinson, then for several years at the college in Hutch, and in recent years in the restoration shops in McPherson. The four-year McPherson restoration course currently has 150 students learning all aspects of automobile restoration. They work on cars from the 1800's to the late 1970's. There are always Model T's on display at these clinics, and this year some of them were cars owned by McPherson students. This year the morning session was about maintaining and operating the fleet of Model T's and Model A's at Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. Years ago the village had a variety of cars of different makes, but as the cars came to be driven thousands of miles a year the fleet was standardized to T's and A's to reduce the number of spare parts that have to be kept on hand. The afternoon sessions this year dealt with maintaining paint on elderly cars, and front end alignment and maintenance. The pictures are here. Sunday, January 23, 2022 57 days to spring This morning I put on my last clean sox, so today was wash day. I finished hanging the clothes on the line a little after noon, then did a little catching up online, went to town for groceries, laid the evening fires, and did the small tree watering. I'm pleased to report that so far I've been good at keeping up with the watering, and I remembered to give the grandfather clock in the living room its weekly winding. I don't know exactly when that clock joined the family, but it was over 75 years ago. During the war Mom's sister Jereldine lived in Long Beach with her husband Charles Miller who was in the Navy and stationed at the navy hospital there. I assume it was Jerry who bought the clock. After the war Charles got out of the navy and Jerry lined up a job teaching in Spokane. The morning they left for eastern Washington they stopped at our place in Wilmington before heading north. I don't remember exactly what Charles said, but he did not appreciate having to rent a trailer to haul that clock. They were in Spokane for a year, then came home to Kansas. When I came to the farm again in 1949 the clock was in the southeast corner of the living room where it still sits today. |
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Tuesday, January
25, 2022
 55 days to spring First thing after breakfast this morning was a waste of over two hours driving to Haysville and back. I took the chain saw to the authorized Husqvarna repair shop there and found that the repair guy was out for surgery and might be back to work in a couple of days, or might be gone much longer than that. I need my saw, so I decided to take it to the Ponca City shop, an equally long drive in the other direction. On the way I stopped at the court house annex in Winfield to renew the registration on my trailer. Also in Winfield I stopped at the main bank to replenish my supply of $2 bills. I often use those, dollar coins, and halves for small purchases under $5. I found the bank door locked, and a sign directing all business to the drive-through down the street. When I buy twos I always get $100 worth so they will last a long time. No such luck today. The drive-through was able to come up with only $26 worth. Another little inconvenience of the Covid Age. Maybe by the time I need more the main bank will be open again. Back at home, after all morning and part of the afternoon on the road, I took all the newly painted hardware out of the oven and put some of it to work. Specifically, 5/16" toothed washers. During my most recent drive to Michigan last September, two screws fell out of the windshield hinges somewhere along the road. I hope adding toothed lock washers to all of them will prevent that. |
