Well, that was disappointing. I was going to clean up piles of yard waste this morning,  but the truck wouldn't start. Trying to get it going I ran the battery down, so I put a charger on it and went about other chores. I paid bills, filed some of the stuff that's collected on my computer desktop, and put together and posted a new Facebook album. With the outside of the house nearing completion, this afternoon I decided to start preparing to attack the inside. I intend to do the southeast bedroom first. That was Ernestine's room. She was organist at Trinity Church for sixty years, and today I started boxing up organ music. I'll give it to the music school at WSU. I'll never take up organ playing, so it might as well go where somebody may be able to use it. This evening I went to eat at Amore's, the new restaurant on First Street. That's off the main drag, and at least three other restaurants have failed in that location, so I wish them luck. After dinner I went to see Deepwater Horizon. I was very impressed. It may be the best movie I've seen this year. Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, and the rest of the cast are excellent. The photography, special effects, sound, sets, are all spot on, and director Peter Berg makes it a moving and fast-moving experience. I'll be disappointed if there are no Oscar nominations for this one.

 
Today's main activities were three jobs. First was doing laundry. While I was out doing that, I bought a condenser to do the second, which was to get the truck running again. The condenser did the trick, and I made a little video. Third was getting ready to leave for Hershey in the morning. I've probably forgotten something, but maybe I'll get lucky and remember it before I go.



Monday, October 3, 2016

On the road to Hershey. Just one little glitch. I missed a turn and found myself on the way to Chicago. Fortunately I noticed it early and didn't go very far before getting back on I-70. I got as far as the mile 107 rest area east of Indy and bedded down in the Camry Motel at 12:15 AM.


Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The only holdup of Day Two on the road was hitting Columbus during the morning rush. That's a poor name for it. A more accurate term would be morning crawl. Fortunately its a smaller town than New York or L.A., so I was in it for only half an hour. I stopped for gas in Mercer PA and experienced a bit of sticker shock. The price in Missouri was $1.959, and in Mercer it was $2.499. Welcome to the East.


Wednesday, September 5, 2016   

I'm not taking a lot of time for picture editing on the road. A brief report on Day One: I did a lot of walking, met and visited with some forum friends, and bought some good stuff. The buy of the day was a "new" cylinder head for my runabout for $40. That made me happy. I also bought a new tack strip for the runabout, and a few minor items. At the end of the day my feet were killing me.


Thursday, September 6, 2016

For Day Two I installed some foam pads in my boots, and that helped. My feet are starting to recover from the first day. Again I covered a lot of ground, met and visited with more forum friends, and bought some goodies. Today's haul included a couple of Holley G carburetor bodies, an unusual timer, and several interesting spark plugs. The weather forecast is good, so with no rainout this year I expect to cover the entire meet.


Friday, September 7, 2016

Much better.  Those foam pads in my boots, plus nine hours of sack time, had my aching feet almost fully recovered today. The remarkable three days of perfect weather allowed me to cover the whole meet this time. I finished up this afternoon and had plenty of time to visit at the MTFCA and MTFCI tents and rest up. Three of us went from the MTFCA tent to help one of the guys check out a car he was considering. It turned out to have way too much wrong with it for the money asked, and he decided to hold off and find a better one.


Saturday, September 8, 2016

The Hershey car show always has some wondeful things to see, and this morning was no exception. It was a cloudy morning that threatened to get wet, and it did. I looked at the cars and visited with folks until about noon when it was getting pretty drizzly, then headed for home. Pictures are  here. I drove to Akron, ate at Azteca, and went on to Uper Sandusky, Ohio, where I bedded down for the night.


Sunday, October 9, 2016

I was up early and drove all day.  I hit Des Moines at dinner time, and ate at my usual meal spot there, Buffet City.  They have  a couple of items not usually seen in Chinese buffets,  and I love the spinach dish I've seen nowhere else.  After dinner I went on to  Omaha, where I picked up some Model T parts, and continued on to Beatrice.  By the time I hit the sack there it was one in the morning. It was a long day, and I slept like a rock.


Monday, October 10, 2016

The final leg ofmy drive home was by way of Wichita, where I shopped for small aluminum tubing and quarter inch black pipe. Neither store I tried had what I wanted, so I suppose I'll have to buy online and pay for shipping. I got home about one and spent the afternoon gassing up the car, buying groceries, and starting to get unloaded. Lizzie was nowhere to be seen until meal time. She showed up as I was feeding the cats, and went bonkers when she saw that I was home.


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

I spent a good chunk of the morning editing and posting about half the car show pictures, then finished unloading and started a bit of cleaning up in the shop.


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Shop cleanup continued. With sufficent space cleared, I put the roadster engine/transmission on the stand where I'll work on it. I need to get it ready to go to Mike and have its broken valve lifter replaced. He wants to have a look at it and see what went wrong.


Thursday, October 13, 2016

Today's main activities were finding a good Holley NH carburetor body and shipping it to a new Model T owner in New York who needs one to rebuild, taking an inspection tour of the johnson grass I recently sprayed (one more spraying may finish the job), and more dismantling of the roadster engine/transmission with the broken valve lifter. With a high around 60º it was a day to wear a coat. In the current up-and-down weather pattern,  the highs will get up around 90º for a few days, then we'll be back around 60º again.


Friday, October 14, 2016

The main job of the day was dismantling and cleaning engine and transmission parts.


Saturday, October 15, 2016

One more day of work on the roadster engine has it almost ready to go to Mike. All that remains is to mount it on some wooden skids and load it in the Suburban. This being Saturday, I followed my custom of eating in town and taking in a movie. It was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Fantasy films are not my favorite genre, but I enjoyed this one. At age nineteen but looking younger, Asa Butterfield has ten years of acting experience, and is already very good. I was quite impressed by his convincing American accent.


Sunday, October 16, 2016

Today I finished preparing the roadster's engine for its trip to Tulsa, putting it on a wooden platform and loading it in the Suburban. Next I need to get parts for the touring's engine and transmission ready to go. I'm still looking through my parts supply for a good low drum with a good gear. Then I have to blast a bunch of parts and balance the transmission drums. I hope I can have everything ready to go sometime next week.


Monday, October 17, 2016

After a morning run, breakfast, and a shower I spent the morning online, catching up on the Model T forum, forcing myself not to comment on Facebook political nonsense, and deleting emails. At noon I started filling out forms for tomorrow's appointment with an eye specialist, and  by the time I looked up all the requested information and filled out the medical history, I had spent nearly four hours at it. I finished up the day in the barn, looking through Model T parts for a good low drum. I didn't find a loose one that I liked, so I'll dismantle one of my spare transmissions and see if there's a decent low drum in it.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

I brought three transmissions from the barn over to the shop and spent most of the morning dismantling one of them. I had to quit and go to Wichita for an ophtalmologist appointment that took up the rest of the day. While I was in Wichita I bought one more bundle of shingles to finish the outside of the house. There are a couple of downstairs places that need new shingles.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Well, Rats! I'm dogless again. This morning Lizzy got careless about running out in the road, and got hit by a passing car. That's two dogs killed by vehicles in four months. I hope I have better luck with the next one, or that the next one has better luck with me.  In the shop I finished  dismantling the transmission I started on yesterday. The driven gear that holds the three drums together didn't want to come off, but the impact wrench and the biggest three-jaw puller I have finally did the job. I had another set of drums with a stubborn gear that wouldn't budge for months, and with the big puller I managed to get that one off too. In the morning I'll clean up some of the drums and start sandblasting.


Thursday, October 20, 2016

That's what I did. I spent the morning cleaning transmission drums, and set a couple of them boiling in lye to remove any remaining oil. While those were boiling I sandblasted. I did the hogshead (transmission cover), all three pedals, a couple of crank pulleys, and some smaller parts. I started blasting at noon and finished up about 4:30, and was pleased at how much I got done.


Friday, October 21, 2016

I spent the morning in the shop, preparing transmission drums for blasting by covering the parts I want to protect with Gorilla tape. While I was doing that, occasionally I took a few minutes to paint some of the parts I blasted yesterday. In the afternoon I drove over to Oxford and picked up a new pup. She's supposed to be a lab mix, but she seems pretty calm and quiet. We'll see how she is when she gets used to her new surroundings.


Saturday, October 22, 2016

Auction day.  I got in a little shop time this morning, but spent most of the day at an auction where I spent $10 for a good nylon rope,  $1 for a welding clamp, and  $1 for a  Model T wrench in  a box of miscellaneous  stuff. This evening  I met two disappointments  and two good times. The disappointments were the best local barbecue place being out of business and La Fiesta still being closed for remodeling. The good times were dinner at the Chinese buffet and The Accountant, a good movie.


Sunday, October 23, 2016

In the morning I went out with the sprayer to attack the johnson grass and other undesirables, then did a little more preparation of transmission drums, getting them ready for blasting. This afternoon I went to town for a show. The newly restored 1924 Burford Theater had a showing of Disney's Snow White. After 79 years, it's still a great movie.


Monday, October 24, 2016

This morning I sprayed again.  I'm making progress on the johnson grass, and I hope to have it pretty well killed off before cold weather puts the plants to sleep for the winter. If any of it starts coming back in the spring I'll hit it early and hard. This afternoon's work was sandblasting transmission drums. The brake drum and the two low drums look OK, but both reverse drums have cracks in them. I hope I don't run out of old transmissions to dismantle before I find a good one.


Tuesday, October 25, 2016

All morning I dismantled another transmission, and in the afternoon I sandblasted more drums.  As usual, today's reverse drum had a flaw. Not cracks this time, but a chipped tooth.  This is getting really annoying.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Rain in the morning kept me inside.  I cleaned transmission parts, put them in plastic bags,  and  filed them by part number.


Thursday, October 27, 2016

Not much work done today. I did pull and stack some weeds, but  doing lundry and running errands used up most of my day.  Maybe I''ll get more done tomorrow.


Friday, October 28, 2016

If variety is the spice of life, I had a spicy day. I repaired a couple of downstairs window frames, pulled and stacked more weeds, and tied plastic strips to redbuds.  The strips are to identify them for transplanting after the leaves are off and the plants are asleep for the winter.


Saturday, October 29, 2016

More spice. I finished pulling and stacking yesterday's weed patch, finished sandblasting one head and did about two thirds of another one, and painted a transmission inspection cover. I cut up a bag for more plastic strips, and will ID more redbuds with them tomorrow.


Sunday, October 30, 2016

Today actually felt like fall. I think the temperature at noon was about 60º. Not cold, but cooler than we've been having. I pulled another weed patch, then took a walk through the wood lot to see what kind of road maintenance I need to do. There are some fallen trees and branches I'll need to cut up, but the big old cottonwood fell away from the road. The smaller trees in the road will be short work. In the afternoon I finished sandblasting the low head I brought home from Hershey, plus a set of windshield hinges and part of an engine pan I'll finish later.



Monday, October 31, 2016

My morning work was cleaning up and boxing some of the transmission parts left over from my search for a good reverse drum. In the afternoon I did more sandblasting, then went to town and picked up the new glass for the two windows I'm repairing, plus a tube of window putty. Cold weather isn't here yet, but I want to have those windows fixed before it arrives.


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