blog623

Friday, June 2, 2023

Well, Drat! The odometer on my runabout has quit. I discovered it when I filled up at the gasino and figured up the mileage. Only 7.8 mpg told me something was wrong. Between the previous fill-up and this one the odometer died. The speedometer still works, but the main reason I got it was to have a working odometer. Now the question is: Do I try to fix it myself, or do I send it to Russ the speedometer guru? I guess I can at least open the thing up and see if I can figure out what the problem is. I really didn't need this. There are plenty of other things I need to do to this car before its next trip, plus lots of other non-automotive things that need to be done.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

Checking auctions today took longer than usual. The first was in Viola, over an hour away. Finding nothing to keep me there, I drove another half hour to Harper. I also found nothing to keep me at that one. I spent the afternoon on fasteners. Last night I prepared two dozen ⁵⁄₁₆" flat washers. That means stripping off the cad plating, etching with phosphoric acid so paint will stick, painting, and baking at 180º. Today I used a few of them on the runabout and put the rest into the box of spares that rides under the seat. The job started as just replacing missing bolts, washers, and nuts on the car, and ended with using taps and dies to chase threads in spare nuts and bolts, sorting them into little bags by size, and making little size tags on card stock to fit in each bag. For Saturday treat night dinner was the Pizza Ranch buffet, and the movie was Disney's new live action version of The Little Mermaid. Halle Bailey and the other actors are good, the cgi is good, and Rob Marshall's directing is good, yet somehow I prefer the 1989 animated version.

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Today I started looking up materials for a "pocket" to install in the runabout. That will be a holder where a laptop computer can ride safely out of the way. The laptop I carried in the trunk last year suffered a cracked screen, and I don't want its replacement to encounter the same fate. It seems I have the proper sheet metal and other materials to make what I have in mind, but I'll wait awhile. I have other things I want to get done in the next couple of weeks.

Monday, June 5, 2023

This was the day to get serious housework underway. That included taking the window out of the back porch door and installing the screen, taking empty firewood boxes out of the living room and the kitchen and storing them in the garage, and cleaning the south windows in the living room. I may have washed those windows before, but if I did it was so long ago that I don't remember it. Another bit of business today was changing my primary care doc. I have no complaints about the doctor I've been seeing. I'm changing to cut expenses. I've been getting hit with "out of network" charges, so I'm switching to another clinic that's "in network". The weird thing is that both local clinics are affiliated with the local hospital but one of them is in network and the other one isn't. I have no idea why that is, but I know I don't care to spend hundreds of bucks unnecessarily.

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Day two of housecleaning included sweeping and putting away lumber and tools from the front porch, vacuuming and dusting in the entry hall, living room, and kitchen (with more of that remaining to do in all three), cleaning counters and stove top, and washing windows in the front doors. Actually I did just one door and will get the other one later. I like to wash those windows every forty years whether they need it or not. The wavy reflections indicate glass no later than the fifties. In fact I think these doors date to the forties. Another little chore on today's agenda was refilling the Boraxo can/dispenser I keep on the kitchen sink. A few years ago I bought several boxes of Boraxo online, and they will keep that can filled for years to come. I never went to town for groceries today because some cousins were bringing the eats for a cookout in the yard. When 5:00 PM came and they hadn't showed up, I checked my emails and found that they had cancelled. So I had tostadas, two with tuna and two with frijoles refritos. Frijoles are la comida de los dioses.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Laundry day. I had the wash hung out to dry by 11:00 and went to the post office to pick up my trees. You may remember that early last month I planted three new little trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, but they turned out to be three dead sticks. I notified the nursery and they sent me three replacements, which I picked up today. I set them to soak in water for three hours as the planting instructions suggest, and went about other business. Shorty and I went for groceries in the runabout, then I spent about an hour pulling weeds and trimming branches in the back yard. While I was at it I found the clippers I lost earlier this spring. They weren't too badly rusted from being outside. I cut five little forsythia branches and stuck them into wet potting soil with some alleged hormone powder that's supposed to make them grow roots. You can count me as a skeptic on that until I see it actually happen. The last job of the day was planting those three new trees. They had better be good, because no more replacements will be available until late fall.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Another day on the planet, with little to show for it. The only actual work I accomplished was watering the new trees. I did a lot of sitting around, and took a nap in the afternoon. We went to the band concert in Wilson Park this evening, then came home and sat around some more. I don't even have the energy to be disgusted with being so weak and lazy.

Friday, June 9, 2023

There is a fan in the kitchen. In the winter it sits on a chair by the south door and blows on the stove to circulate warm air about the room. In the summer it sits on the counter by the open north window and blows on me as I sit at the table for dinner. Summer is still a couple of weeks away, but this evening it went on warm weather duty for the first time this year. Real hot weather hasn't arrived yet, but it's warm enough for a fan now. Today I was a little less lethargic than yesterday, and got some weed pulling and other yard work done. I was able to use the puller on some small trees, but some of the volunteer trees by the house are big enough to require pulling by a tractor.

Saturday, June 10, 2023

This morning we went to Winfield to see if there was anything worth my time at the Defore auction, Yes, there were a couple of electric drills, and based on past experience I figured they would sell cheap. Tools always sell
last in that auction, so I determined that I would return in the afternoon and bid on them. At home I started getting the southeast bedroom ready for my brother to use next week. That includes putting away tools I'm using
in the reconstruction of the room, vacuuming, dusting, and arranging furniture. I got some of it done, including hosing cottonwood fluff off the screens, and will continue tomorrow. When I got back to Winfield in the afternoon, I was too late. The auction was already over. That's OK. There will be more drills. They're pretty common.

I made a nice internet discovery today. One of the guys on the Model T forum posts a lot of T era photos, usually up to a dozen at a time. Most of them are ordinary snapshots, often interesting in some way but not especially memorable. This one is different.

What a fantastic portrait of the three girls in the touring car! It is wonderful photography, both technically and artistically. A large format camera with a good lens combine with perfect lighting to give sharp detail and a full range of grays from white to black. The composition is inspired, even if accidental, with the top irons separating it into three portraits and simultaneously tying it together. This is a portrait of both faces and hands. The Mona Lisa smiles of the two older girls, contrasted with the seriousness of the youngest, add some emotional complexity. The oldest sister (surely they're sisters) holds the arm of the youngest with affection. Since 1839 there have been millions of photographic portraits, but few this good. I tried a Google image search for this picture and found nothing about it, so I'm left wondering who they were and what kind of lives they had.

This week's Saturday treat night dinner was carnitas at La Fiesta, always a tasty meal. The movie was Fast X, the tenth in the Fast & Furious franchise. That there have been ten of these movies tells you that they have been popular and profitable. I can't compare this one to the others, as it's the first one I've seen. But a preview during the credits makes it clear that this one won't be the last. And how is it? Silly. Fun, as long as you don't try to take it seriously, but silly. Familiar stars, fine cinematography, expert editing, and competent directing didn't persuade me for a second that all the fantastic stunts could happen in the real world. To enjoy a movie like this you have to shut off reality and pretend that unreality could be real.

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Never went off the place today. Typical for a Sunday, I wasted too much time online. But I did actually get some work done. I mostly finished getting the southeast bedroom cleaned up and ready for Mike to use next weekend. I did find that I'll need to get a mattress pad for the bed. My last job before quitting time was to run the Camry up on ramps and change the oil. That little chore comes up every 5000 miles, so it will be a few months before I need to do it again. I'll close today's entry with a gripe about TV. Many Sunday evenings when I turn on the TV at six for Sixty Minutes I often get sports running overtime instead. In fall and winter it's football, and in spring and summer it's golf. Both are a crashing bore, so I switch over to Univision and watch Aquí y Ahora. At seven I turn to Fox for The Simpsons, the only animated comedy that's actually funny. Tonight, for the second week in a row, it was football! What a bummer.

Monday, June 12, 2023

First up this morning was an attempt to buy tires. The Blockley website rejected the password I used in March, so I had to reset it. That usually takes me three or four tries before I get a new password that works. So after half an hour in Passwordland I eventually got into the website, selected the tires I want to order, entered my information, and clicked SUBMIT. But wait, there's more. You don't get to order your tires in one session. You have to wait until they email you a "quote" before you can make the purchase. Blockley being in the UK, they are five hours ahead of us. Noon CDT is 5:00 PM GMT. So I won't get my quote and buy the tires until tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have other things to do. Today that was mowing. An inspection walk in the wood lot showed that both roads needed to be mowed. I attacked the north loop with the mowing tractor, making one circuit with the mower raised for the tall grass, then starting the second pass with the mower down. I had just started the second pass when the mower hit a log buried in the grass, and that was the end of mowing with the tractor. Yard work is like farming. You have to stop and fix the equipment. In this case that meant getting on the phone and ordering a new mower belt. If it's shipped from Nebraska tomorrow it should be here Thursday. So after chow this evening I got out the Dixon mower and continued on the woodlot road until sundown. That will get the job done if it doesn't break down, but it will be slower than using the tractor.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Out of the sack at 6:00 AM (11:00 AM in Britain), I was on the Blockley website first thing and bought my tires. At 6:30 I received an email notifying me that they had been shipped. After breakfast, checking email, and deleting the daily spam, I loaded half a dozen cans in the Suburban, drove down to the gasino, and brought home thirty gallons of gas for the yard equipment (truck, mowers, saws, splitter). That should last me through the summer and into the fall. I set about mowing the woodlot road with the Dixon, but didn't get very far. The first interruption was just a bog-down from long grass wrapped around the blade. After I cleared that and started mowing again, it wasn't long before the mower belt came off the tension pulley. I fixed that and started mowing again, and soon the belt came off again. After that happened a third time I drove the Dixon into the barn and started removing the mower deck so I could get to that pulley and see if I could fix it. While I was working on that, fellow Model T guy from Florida, Bob Hester, and his cousin Larry from Belle Plaine came for a visit. We blathered about Model T's and other important stuff most of the afternoon. I ended the day finishing the mower deck removal, and tomorrow I'll see if I can fix that pulley so the belt will stay on.

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

A surprise storm overnight left 1.4" in the gauge. My first activity of the day was a visit to my new doc about my tachycardia, which is not getting any better. She says it's time to see a cardiologist, so I will be doing that soon. My other main activity of the day was working on the messed up tension pulley off the Dixon mower. I think the pulley is fixed, but I didn't get the mower deck reassembled yet. The new belt for the Woods mower was delivered this afternoon, so I may get both mowers back in action tomorrow.

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Wait, not so fast. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. The new belt for the L-59 mower turned out to be a size too small. There's no way I could ever make it fit. So I got on the phone and ordered one that I hope will turn out to be correct. I'll return this too-short one. But what about the Dixon mower? I got the deck back together, but when I started to install it I found that the belt on that mower was shot too. So I was back on the phone ordering another new belt. But what about the push mower? Dead. It absolutely will not start. So all three mowers are down until the new belts arrive. That won't be until at least Monday, or maybe Tuesday. On the plus side, my brother arrived for this weekend's family reunion. We went to dinner at La Fiesta, then the band concert in Wilson Park.

Friday, June 16, 2023

My cousin Pete is very much into the reunion thing, and she did most of the work preparing for this evening's cookout in the yard. We had cousins from California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and just up the road in Winfield. It was great to see all who were able to come, and to have little kids running around in the yard enjoying a grand time, just as there have been here on the old place for 150 years. Some of us were sitting on the front porch in the twilight and I commented to one of the cousins that there had been no lightning bugs this year. Within a few minutes the first ones of the year appeared, and I was relieved to see them. In recent years they haven't been as abundant as they once were, but I still enjoy seeing them.

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Cousins to the rescue. With all three of my mowers dead, Donna, who lives only about a mile away, brought her Hustler ZTR and a weed whacker, and she and Jennifer whipped the yard into shape. The reunion turnout was about twenty adults and five little folks. One of the dads asked for a Model T ride, so he got the ride then drove around the block for his first Model T driving lesson. Then a couple of the young boys got their rides. The meal from Big & Smalls Barbecue was delicious, and dining on the leftovers for a few days will be a treat. It was fun having the folks here, and I hope some of the ones who couldn't come this year will be able to make it next time.

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Did the reunion wear me out, or was it just the tachycardia? Probably the latter, but whatever the reason I was pretty much worthless for getting any work done today. I did work on the mowing tractor a bit, and found the center spindle loose, meaning it will probably need new bearings. I didn't have the gumption to dismantle it today. I hope I'll have the energy for it tomorrow. The only other other work I did today was a bit of weed pulling. Otherwise I did a lot of sitting about and lying down.

Monday, Juneteenth, 2023

The cousins left several dozen old family photos for me to scan, and that was today's project. Here are the Parker sisters in portraits by George B. Cornish about 1930. If you want to see any of the other pictures you can look up my Facebook page.

Mary Elzada Parker (1897-1986). The Worry Wart.
When anybody was away from home,
she was afraid they might not return.

(Hallie) Jereldine Parker Miller (1903-1989). Smart and scatterbrained, with a heart of gold.

(Clara) Ernestine Parker (1906-2001).
Always good for a laugh.
Trinity Church organist for sixty years.

(Hulda) Jessica Parker Jelf (1910-1999).
The source for my twisted sense of humor.
Me: "I have an idea!"
Mom: "Treat it kindly. It's in a strange place."

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Today I had enough energy for some mild activity that didn't leave me winded, so I pulled a back yard patch of weeds that's been bugging me, and used the puller to remove some small trees. The UPS man brought the new belt for the Dixon mower, so I hope to have that machine back together tomorrow. Getting new bearings in the Woods mower, if that's what it needs, will take longer.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Dang! Summer began with another surprise rain storm. Several times in recent weeks the forecast has showed the chance of rain as slim to none but the rain has rained. This morning it went on for over three hours and left a full inch in the gauge. In my office as the rain fell I waxed poetic on Facebook.

On the importance of the Model T:
The car that changed the world. The others — Maxwell, Briscoe, Hudson, Dort, Packard, Pierce, Peerless, Pope, Buick, Baker, Jordan, Jones, Studebaker, Rickenbacker, Overland, Olds, and hundreds more — were half the cars on the road. The other half were all Fords.

On reunion memories:

Saturday evening, sitting on the porch and watching lightning bugs flash in the twilight darkness under the trees as the littlest cousins played in the yard, I thought of how we and previous generations did the same over the past 150 years, as parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, visited and reminisced. Remembering all who have gone before, as time goes by I miss them more, not less.

This evening I worked on the website, updating the Model T page on rear axle thrust washers.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Yesterday the new mower belt for the Dixon arrived, and today I installed it. Of course, doing the job took a lot longer than telling it. I've always been slow, but going on 82 being so feeble and clumsy makes me even slower. Anyway, when I got the mower back together I tried it out and it worked fine. I should get some mowing done tomorrow.

Friday, June 23, 2023

Dave the small engine repair guy called to let me know my splitter was fixed, so I went to town and fetched it home. Fortunately I now have a working mower, so this evening after chow I was able to mow a place for it behind the shop. Speaking of chow, I've almost finished off all the pulled pork left over from last Saturday's reunion. This evening I cleaned out the last of the baked beans. I'm saving what's left of the cake for my birthday next week. When I went out to the shop this evening I found a combine and grain trucks parked by the west field, so Phillip will be cutting the wheat tomorrow. Maybe I'll remember to shut all the south windows.

Saturday, June 24, 2023

I did remember to close the windows, but it turned out to be unimportant. There wasn't enough wind to bring clouds of dust across the road. Anyway, wheat harvest is over and the windows are open again until fall. This week's auction was at the fairgrounds, and I found one item that caused me to take a number and stick around to bid. Fortunately it didn't take long for my item to come up, and I was soon headed home with a 1913 Aladdin Model 5 kerosene lamp that cost me $15. A bit of online research reduced my delight at the bargain. Replacing the missing flame spreader, chimney, and wick carrier will cost more than the lamp. Feeling tired again today, I took an hour and a half afternoon nap on the front porch swing, and after that had enough energy for some weed pulling in the back yard until quitting time. Treat night dinner was at the Chinese buffet. This week's movie was No Hard Feelings, in which wealthy helicopter parents hire a 32-year-old woman to coax their 19-year-old wallflower son out of his shell. I expected Jennifer Lawrence to be good, as she always is, and she was. The revelation was her young costar, who is new to me. Andrew Barth Feldman is a wonderful actor who communicates with voice, face, and body language. He also plays piano and sings very nicely. This movie gets two thumbs up from me.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

The only things I accomplished for myself today were (1) draining the runabout's radiator in preparation for making repairs, and (2) going to town for groceries. I spent a lot of time on internet schmoozing, but also spent over an hour online helping a guy who is shopping for a Model T to assess a car he's considering. In the end I gave him my estimation of what the car is worth, but I also suggested he post the question and all the pictures on the Model T forum and get some other opinions. I suggested the forum because the percentage of participants who know their stuff is higher there than on Facebook. In this case the seller is asking $11,500 and I came out at $9500 tops.

Monday, June 26, 2023

Today I resumed the war on enemy vegetation. I pulled weeds in the back yard, then mixed five gallons of weed killer and sprayed Johnson grass and other noxious intruders, mostly across the road. The five gallons covered about half of what I need to spray, so I'll need another session later.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

The big deal today was most of the afternoon at the hospital. I had an appointment with the cardiologist who visits from Wichita. I showed him my blood pressure and pulse rate readings that show when the tachycardia began in February. I was going along with a heartbeat in the seventies, then bam! Suddenly it was 121, 124, 122, etc. Since then metoprolol tablets have it averaging 113 or 114. I had an EKG, and seeing the heartbeat on the screen in real time drove home how fast it is. The doc said he wished I had seen him a lot sooner. I don't like the sound of that. I'll be taking two new medicines, then at my next appointment in three weeks he will administer an electric shock to slow me down. That will be great if it doesn't slow me too much.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Now I am 82. First up this morning was filling the Camry. Second was stopping at the bank for some cash. Third was a trip to Pittsburg to fetch a Ruckstell two-speed rear axle. I headed east a little before ten and got home at 3:30. The Ruckstell is the only non-Ford accessory Henry ever approved. and in fact it was sold by Ford dealers. It gives the Model T a "middle gear" between low and high, providing extra power for climbing grades without having to resort to low gear and keep the low pedal mashed down for extended periods. If most of the guts in this one are usable, buying it for $700 was a screaming hot deal. If a lot of parts have to be replaced, I paid way too much. I'll find out when I open it up. After I got home and unloaded, I went to the pharmacy to pick up the two new prescriptions from the cardiologist. One was a blood thinner that lists for $24, but brought down to $5 by my insurance. The other one, Eliquis, induces sticker shock. A thirty day supply lists for $672.90! Fortunately the insurance brings it down to $45. That's a great discount, but I hope I won't have to be on the stuff permanently. My birthday dinner tonight was about the same as last year: an 8 oz bag of traditional potato chips, the leftover three pieces of cake from the family reunion, and mint chocolate chip ice cream, my favorite.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

When I stepped on the scales this morning I weighed 152 pounds. That's more than I like. I prefer to stay down around 140. In BMI terms 140 is at the skinny end of the normal range. I know the BMI is not a reliable health indicator, but I believe it's adequate to put weights in some perspective. I'd rather be at 19 than 29. In my case, I've been indulging in too many treats recently. I'll adjust my diet toward fewer calories per day and in a few weeks I'll be back in the 140 pound neighborhood. I don't count calories, but I have a pretty good grasp of where to cut back. My supply of clean sox being exhausted, today was laundry day. While the clothes washed I updated my page about not being fat. I had the last of the wash on the line by 1:00 PM, and took the dried laundry down by twilight. The warm weather, with a high in the nineties, and the flash of lightning bugs, and the drone of cicadas singing in the trees, all indicate that we are now in real summer.

Friday, June 30, 2023

Not wanting to toil out in the sun on a hot day, I chose a sedentary job to do in the shade. My 1915 radiator had two problems. It developed a small tank leak that dripped down the left side panel, and the brace holding that side panel in place had broken loose. In fact, the brace breaking loose may have caused the leak. I removed the radiator from the car and went to work on it. I think when I melted the solder to remove the brace I may have accidentally fixed the leak. When I turned the radiator upside down and put water in that part of the tank, none leaked out. Tomorrow I'll resolder the side panel back in place and try to reinstall the brace without reopening the tank leak. Tonight I'm also wondering if I have the skill and talent to make and install a replacement for the small piece of brass trim that broke off and is now decorating a road somewhere between here and Detroit.

Restoring and installing the Ruckstell two-speed rear axle I bought Wednesday will be a winter project.

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