Saturday, July 1, 2023
As on many Saturdays,
first up today was a drive to Winfield to check out the
Defore auction. I didn't find anything interesting to make
me stay or come back later. I should have sprayed weeds, but
let the heat put me off. I did some online schmoozing
instead. I left early because treat night this week was in
Wichita, with dinner at Mexico Viejo. The movie, unlikely to
ever show down here in Podunk, was Wes Anderson's Asteroid
City. The sterling cast of Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett
Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan
Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope
Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell,
Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony
Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum nails everything.
That is not to say I understood all of it, or any of it. A
lot of decriptive words and phrases come to mind. Weird.
Funny. Visually distinctive. Smart. Mystifying. My plan was
to see Asteroid City this week in Wichita, and next week see
Harrison Ford play Indy one more time at the local cineplex.
But if Asteroid City is still playing I think I will
go for a second viewing to see if I can figure it out. Indy
can wait a week.
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Never went off the place. First up was creating this July page for the blog. After doing it every month for years I've learned a few shortcuts to use in HTML. Then I sprayed. My plan was to mix ten gallons of the magic elixir of death, but I had only enough weed killer left to mix five gallons. I'll have to get more tomorrow when the co-op is open. Of course the three gallon sprayer I was using finally failed totally and I had to resort to the two-gallon one, the only working one I have left. I have at least half a dozen defunct carcasses. They die when the pump quits working. My policy now is to buy the least expensive because they all fail, no matter how much you pay for them. I would buy them cheap at auctions, but those are cheap because everybody assumes they're broken, which they are.
Monday, July 3, 2023
Uh-oh. Intending to do more spraying, I went to the co-op and bought another jug of weed killer concentrate. But when I got home I checked the weather forecast and found a significant chance of thunderstorms. So my war on enemy vegetation will resume tomorrow. Instead of spraying I got back to work on that radiator. I resoldered the side panel which had broken loose, and ground down the blobs of extra solder. I should get the important repairs done tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll finish making a replacement for the missing piece of trim.
Tuesday, the Glorious Fourth, 2023
Well, good for me! I remembered to put up the flag, first thing. Sometimes a patriotic holiday is half over before I think of it. The weather being clear and dry, I got back to spraying weeds. A good effect of taking a day off is that by today all the enemy vegetation I sprayed Sunday was wilting and it was easy to see what I still needed to do. I was spraying across the road when I received a phone call. The name on the screen was MCF. I have known Michael C. Ford for over half a century. He is the only person I know personally whose occupation is listed as poet. In 1970 Herb Schmidt and I got a gig as a comedy team at Peggy Webber's New Hope Inn in Santa Monica Canyon. Our pay was $5 a night and all the beer we could drink. One of the memorable people we met there was Ford. The first time I saw him he was wearing a velvet cape. We soon became friends and have been so ever since. The New Hope Inn soon folded, but Herb and Michael and I, and Herb's first wife Cammy, became The Star Spangled Banner of Your Mind. I describe the group as similar to the Firesign Theater, except I'm not as smart as Peter Bergman. I once said that to somebody who knew Mr. Bergman, and she replied, "And he would make sure you knew that, too." We never hit the big time, but we had fun. One memorable experience was being part of a USO show for marines at camp Pendleton. At the end we signed autographs, like real pros. So I enjoyed taking a half hour break from spraying to shoot the breeze with Ford. We can discuss Joe Carbo and Nick Shammas, Cheryl Crane and Johnny Stompanato, Clete Roberts and the Flying Finn twins, and he doesn't have to Google anybody. With that time out today I never got around to radiator repair. After dinner this evening Shorty and I went to the band concert in Wilson Park, and then across the street to Braum's for my usual double cone. Then we went to the north end of town for the fireworks show. Some dogs freak out over fireworks, but Shorty takes it all pretty well. At the show, with the bombs bursting in air up close, she gets close to me for reassurance, but at home she ignores all the distant noise.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Rain most of the day left 1.2 inches in the gauge. I'm glad I got most of the spraying done, as there are several rainy days in the forecast and the plants will grow like crazy. Not much work got done today, as I had another of those low-energy days when I don't feel like doing much more than sitting. I did find that the heart medicine seems to be starting to work. Since tachycardia hit me in the middle of February, my pulse rate has averaged around 120, then 115. Monday evening it was 99, the first time under 100 since this started, and this evening it was 95. I hope it will continue falling and get down to my previous normal in the seventies. Maybe that will have me feeling less tired and weak so much of the time.
Saturday, July 8, 2023
There have been a few nights when I slept uncovered until the wee hours of the morning when it became cool enough to pull a sheet over me. Every summer there are some stretches when I never need the sheet. But we're not close to that yet. The past few nights it's been sheet and blanket from the start. As many Saturday mornings, today began with checking out an auction. This one was the Roth auction at the fairgrounds in Winfield. I've bought some things there, like my present refrigerator for $160, but more often they have nothing that keeps me there. Such was the case today. Checking the rain gauge I found .5". Treat night dinner was at the Pizza Ranch buffet. The food is good, not great. The one feature there I really don't like is that the only non-sugared pop they have is Diet Coke, which I have never liked. Any other non-sugared soda would be fine with me. This week's movie was the new Indiana Jones flick. It's good entertainment, but the most notable feature is technical: the 80-year-old Harrison Ford being "de-aged" to look like he did forty years ago. In most of the film he is today's Ford, but in a fairly lengthy flashback (about 25 minutes I think), he looks like the Indy we saw in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
As on many Sundays, I spent the morning online, mostly interacting with fellow Model T aficionados, friends, and relatives. In the afternoon I took advantage of the nice, soft ground after all the recent rain, and pulled weeds. I cleared a patch in the back yard. In the evening I was glad to see that The Simpsons were back, after a few weeks of being preempted by sports. It's the only animated series I find funny, and one of the few programs I watch regularly. After TV was over I thought I would get in some mowing with the Dixon, but the battery was dead. I put a charger on it and will try again tomorrow.
Monday, July 10, 2023
Insomnia is not usually a thing for me, but this morning I woke up just before five. I lay there for an hour wide awake without feeling any inclination to go back to sleep, so I got up at six and began my day. Breakfast was a toasted hamburger bun with butter. I've been breakfasting on hot dog and burger buns left over from the cookout three weeks ago. Next week the buns will be used up and I'll resume my rotation of cereals: raisin bran, rolled oats, granola, and rice. Today for the first time in a long time I felt almost normal, with tiredness and lethargy much reduced. I expect that's due to my reduced pulse rate. For a long time recently it was averaging around 114, but in the past week it's fallen into the nineties with readings of 92 last night and tonight. It seems the pills are working. Until the tachycardia hit in February I used to average 75-80. I'm scheduled to see a cardiologist later this week and I'm hoping he can put a stop to this tachycardia nonsense. I took advantage of my improved condition to get some work done. That was mixing ten gallons of weed killer and spraying the rest of the enemy vegetation in the lane to the wood lot. I enjoyed carrying the full sprayer across the road and down the lane without getting winded. A couple of weeks ago it would have had me panting like a hot puppy. This evening after chow I got busy in the shop putting things away, organizing, and cleaning up. I need to clear some working space for a project, and if I get it done in a week I'll be pleased. There's a lot to sort out and put away. The most time-consuming part is deciding where to put things that have never had a definite regular location.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
For the second morning in a row I woke up before five, lay in bed for an hour unable to go back to sleep, and got out of the sack at six. My mechanical work today was fixing the Dixon mower. When I installed the new belt recently I taped a safety switch in place. But the mower quit working because the tape worked loose. So today I fastened the switch in place with proper machine screws and lock nuts, and the mower started right up. In the shop I continued putting away and cleaning up. That always seems to bring up things I had forgotten that I had. Today I found a little package of ¹⁄₁₆" drill bits. I have no memory of buying them, but I know I bought a pack of ten because those tiny bits break often and I didn't want to keep having to go to town for a new one every time.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
During the war Gabriel Heatter used to begin his nightly news broadcast with, "There's good news tonight." No matter how dire the rest of the news might be, he always found something positive to report. My good news tonight is that there are still lightning bugs. After chow this evening I went out for a bit of mowing in the relative cool. As twilight came on I saw one flash, then another and another, until there were a couple of dozen. That's not like the old days when we had hundreds, but after none for the last few evenings it was good to see any at all. The populations of bugs, birds, and most other critters are in serious decline. We just don't have the numbers of turtles, squirrels, snakes, possums, and other wild critters that were common here a few decades ago. As for relative cool, I can tell you that at 5:00 pm today folks on TV were reporting temperatures of 100º and more in all the nearby towns. The thermometer outside my kitchen window read 90º and the one inside said 89º. This is one of the many reasons I would rather live here than in town.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Wild carrot, Devil’s plague, Queen Ann’s Lace, Queen’s Lace — whatever you call it — will completely take over an area and spread if you let it. Yesterday I started pulling a patch of the stuff in the back yard, and this morning I finished it up. I put all the pulled weeds into a trash can so the seeds would not escape. I'm sure a few slipped by, but I expect next year there will be a lot fewer of those weeds in that spot. My other main activity of the day was a drive to Wichita to see another cardiologist. The one I saw earlier operates in a hospital that is "out of network", hence the new guy. After an EKG and a consultation, he is scheduling me for a "procedure" in a couple of weeks. It needs to wait until I have been on the current meds for a month, and that will be on the 28th.
Friday, July 14, 2023
The day began with another medical appointment. This one was local, a follow-up with my primary care doc. I reported that my pulse rate has declined into the low nineties (tonight it was 89) and I'm feeling much less tired and lethargic. She renewed my prescription for metoprolol, one of the medicines that gets credit for my improved condition. After the session with the doc I did some shopping for groceries and other stuff, came home and shopped online. I was looking for drywall jacks and found several, but didn't buy yet. I'm going to need one, and with as many ceilings as I have to do it will cost less to buy one than to rent one. I did a little more shop housekeeping, and came across a can of nuts and bolts. Thinking of ways to clean them, the thought of a rock tumbler came to me. I did more online shopping and found several, but they were all overpriced for my purposes because they come as part of a kit with extra stuff I don't need. Maybe I can make one myself for a lot less. So I looked at small electric motors. I found one that would suit, but the shipping was more than the product. I'll look some more and see if I can find one with more reasonable shipping. It would be nice if I could go buy one at a store, but those days are long gone.
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Summer storms here are sometimes a good show. The one last night didn't leave much rain in the gauge (.07"), but it entertained with a lot of lightning and thunder. The one Thursday night was a gully washer, and left a half inch. Today I went to the barn and removed the bolts holding the center shaft in the L-59 mower. That doesn't sound like much, but they were rusty enough to be a tough break with a long breaker and a hard turn all the way out. It was pretty warm in there, and they wore me out, so I didn't climb up on the tractor, start it, raise the mower and pull out the loosened shaft. Tomorrow before the afternoon heat will be soon enough for that. Treat night dinner this evening was enchiladas supremas at La Fiesta, and they were delicious as usual. As I was leaving a family of mom, dad, and five kids came in. They looked like indios from southern Mexico or Central America. When a Mexican restaurant has real Mexicans not just working there but eating there, that's a good recommendation for the food. I well remember the days when our Mexican population was tiny and the "authentic" food wasn't authentic or good. I once had some tacos that were made with flour tortillas. I asked the gringa waitress why they weren't corn, and she said, "You didn't ask." Well, when I order a hamburger I don't have to specify that it be made with a hamburger bun, not Wonderbread. Food with definitive standard ingredients shouldn't have to be a special order. This week's movie was Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1. It's the seventh movie in this cinema series based on the old TV show. Again Tom Cruise shows that he's a good actor, not just a pretty boy. The movie is well made. The action scenes include some stunts that are very improbable, but they look plausible and realistic. In real life you're not going to see anybody drive a motorbike off a thousand-foot cliff and parachute to the bottom of the valley, but here it looks real and believable. The CGI is not only realistic, but it's also not blatantly apparent. That's something you don't always get in action movies, even high-budget ones with hundreds of digital artists in the credits. I call this one good entertainment. Thumbs up.
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Well, I fetched the wobbly mower shaft assembly from the barn and started cleanup and disassembly. I drove out the roll pin that holds it all together, but it turns out that I will have to wire brush the rust off the exposed part of the shaft before trying to remove the collar. That will be a cool-of-the-morning operation. I'm a bit apprehensive about what new bearings will cost.
Monday, July 17, 2023
All the leftover buns are gone, so I'm back to my routine breakfast rotation of raisin bran, rolled oats, granola, and rice. Cold, cooked, cold, cooked. I am a creature of habit. This morning I wire brushed all the rust off that mower shaft and set about trying to extract it from the housing. That's necessary to get the worn bearings out and replace them. I spent a couple of hours on it, first with a BFH and then with an air hammer. I never got it to move, but I did manage to wound my thumb enough to make it bleed, so I had to take time to go put a bandage on it. Applying a bandage one-handed is another of life's little exasperations. Eventually I thought of the press. So I'm leaving the thing overnight with several tons bearing down on it. I've squirted some ATF on it, hoping that will soak in and help it move. If that doesn't do it I'll apply the heat wrench: turn it red, let it cool, apply more ATF, and press it again. And if that doesn't work? I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
This was the day for another session with my primary cardiologist. He comes down from Wichita and sees patients at the local hospital here on Tuesdays. I call him my primary cardiologist because he's referring me to another doc for a cardioversion. Why? The other guy's hospital is "in network" and his isn't. If I had my way we would adopt a health system that's an un-Balkanized public service, as in Canada and most other civilized countries. Spare me the ritual pearl-clutching over "socialized medicine". We already have it for veterans (V.A.). We have "socialized" roads, law enforcement, military, fire fighting, and other government services. But what do I know? According to some of my friends, not much.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Today I drove up to the courthouse and paid the taxes on the 1915 Ford, the 1923 Ford, the 1951 Dodge, and the 1973 Suburban. They were $17 each. My 2008 Camry is the only thing I drive that's under fifty years old.
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Out of clean sox, I did laundry today. Getting a late start, I didn't get the last of the wash hung out to dry until after noon. No problem. On a hot and sunny day it was all dry by sundown. This afternoon there was a discussion on the Model T forum about the Old Car Festival, and that reminded me that I have only about six weeks to get the 1915 runabout ready to hit the road to Michigan. So do I want to deal with the wonky magneto now, or make that a fall or winter project and deal with all the other things now? Currently the mag is working, but not as well as it should. If I deal with it now will I have time to get all the other stuff done? If wait will it get worse and become a real problem? Decisions, decisions.
Friday, July 21, 2023
Yesterday's forecast was on the mark. It showed a 90º+ chance of rain overnight with a significant total, and when it was all over the rain gauge had 1.18" in it. Most of today's work was cleaning up and putting away in the shop. I'm leaning toward pulling the engine/transmission from the runabout and tackling that malfunctioning magneto so it won't get worse when I'm on the road. To do that I need to clear some work space. I hope this cleaning up will find the dash shield I took out of the car when I installed the new firewall last year. Naturally, it's not anywhere that makes sense.
Monday, July 24, 2023
This is ridiculous. The least little physical exertion has me breathing hard. This morning I decided to spray. I mixed ten gallons of weed killer, then spent over an hour achieving a working sprayer. Eventually I got it by combining parts off defunct sprayers. I found that just carrying the filled two gallon sprayer out to the road had me puffing. I set down the sprayer and came inside for a rest break and some cold water. An hour later I went out and sprayed, using up the two gallons. I came in to take another break and reload, but felt so pooped that I went to the front porch swing and took a nap. As if that wasn't enough, this evening after chow I took another nap. What worries me is the possibility that this lassitude is not because of the tachycardia, and getting my pulse back to normal won't fix it. I despise the idea of chronic tiredness being my new normal.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Well, that's better. I did twice as much spraying today and didn't feel wiped out. I used up another four of the ten gallons of mixed weed killer, leaving four to use tomorrow. I ended today's session not because of tiredness, but due to the heat. Tomorrow I'll finish up in the morning cool. I went to town for groceries this afternoon and saw 100º on one of the bank signs. When I got home the thermometer in my shop stood at 91º. At 5:00 the TV weather guy was reporting 100º+ in all the towns but in my kitchen it was 93º. It's often 5º - 10º cooler here than in town, one of the many reasons I'm glad not to live in a town or city.
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
As planned, this morning I used up the remainder of the weed killer I mixed Monday. There was enough to cover the Johnson grass and other tall weeds by the road south of the west hedge. I need to clear that area so I can get to the 3" to 4"stumps of small trees left by the township mower. I want them gone so I can mow there myself. The rest of the weed killer went to the Johnson grass and other enemy vegetation along the road to the east. Thanks to spraying in previous years, less spraying needs to be done there now. In the afternoon the UPS driver brought the new mower belt for the Dixon, so installing that will be Job One in the morning. I hope to get some mowing done before the afternoon heat drives me inside.
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Best laid plans. It turned out that I ordered the wrong mower belt. No way would it fit. So my first thing this morning was ordering the right belt and sending back the wrong one. In the shop I worked on the pulley from the Woods mower, using a tap to remove the remains of a broken-off machine screw. Feeling low-energy and pooped again, I lay on the front porch swing for a couple of hours this afternoon, then again for an hour this evening after dinner. I'm scheduled for a cardioversion at Via Christi Hospital in Wichita tomorrow, so I'll find out if getting my pulse down to a reasonable rate will make me feel more energetic.
Friday, July 28, 2023
Done. Donna picked me up at eight and dropped me off at the hospital a little after nine. Check-in took about an hour. I think it was around 11:30 when one of the nurses wheeled me to the operating room. There the doc asked me a few questions and I waited for something to happen. I wasn't aware of getting sleepy, but the next I knew I was waking up an hour later, back in the original cubicle where I started. I was dressed and out of the building by 1:30 and Donna dropped me off at home a little before three. And what were the results of a cardioversion? At chow time I had less of an appetite and skipped my usual cheese, half pickle, and handful of peanuts. More important, this evening's blood pressure check showed a bp of 93/76, which is in line with what I've been having, and a pulse of 47! In recent weeks the pills got my rate down only to the low eighties, so that 47 is a big improvement. It will be interesting tomorrow to see if my lack of energy has improved.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Two, count 'em, two auctions this morning had nothing to keep me at either one, or to tempt me to came back later. While I was out I stopped at the pharmacy to reload with Eliquis. The stuff lists for $672.90, but with insurance I pay $45. Even with that big discount, it's by far the most expensive medicine I take. Currently that's seven pills and two eye drops. Not too many years ago I didn't have to take anything. This afternoon I had a phone call from Jesus (That's Hey-soos, not the guy with all the churches). He's the university student in Lincoln who fell in love with my old truck when he came across a video of it online. A few days ago he posted on Facebook from Puerto Vallarta, but he's back in Nebraska now. I attempted to entertain him starting up the truck with him listening on the phone, but the battery was down. I'll have to try it again later. Saturday treat night this week was dinner at the Chinese buffet. The movie was Barbie. What I saw of it was entertaining, but I drifted off to Snoozeland and missed some of it. I wasn't bored, as I would be with a comic book superhero movie, just tired.
JUNE 2023
AUGUST 2023
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Never went off the place. First up was creating this July page for the blog. After doing it every month for years I've learned a few shortcuts to use in HTML. Then I sprayed. My plan was to mix ten gallons of the magic elixir of death, but I had only enough weed killer left to mix five gallons. I'll have to get more tomorrow when the co-op is open. Of course the three gallon sprayer I was using finally failed totally and I had to resort to the two-gallon one, the only working one I have left. I have at least half a dozen defunct carcasses. They die when the pump quits working. My policy now is to buy the least expensive because they all fail, no matter how much you pay for them. I would buy them cheap at auctions, but those are cheap because everybody assumes they're broken, which they are.
Monday, July 3, 2023
Uh-oh. Intending to do more spraying, I went to the co-op and bought another jug of weed killer concentrate. But when I got home I checked the weather forecast and found a significant chance of thunderstorms. So my war on enemy vegetation will resume tomorrow. Instead of spraying I got back to work on that radiator. I resoldered the side panel which had broken loose, and ground down the blobs of extra solder. I should get the important repairs done tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll finish making a replacement for the missing piece of trim.
Tuesday, the Glorious Fourth, 2023
Well, good for me! I remembered to put up the flag, first thing. Sometimes a patriotic holiday is half over before I think of it. The weather being clear and dry, I got back to spraying weeds. A good effect of taking a day off is that by today all the enemy vegetation I sprayed Sunday was wilting and it was easy to see what I still needed to do. I was spraying across the road when I received a phone call. The name on the screen was MCF. I have known Michael C. Ford for over half a century. He is the only person I know personally whose occupation is listed as poet. In 1970 Herb Schmidt and I got a gig as a comedy team at Peggy Webber's New Hope Inn in Santa Monica Canyon. Our pay was $5 a night and all the beer we could drink. One of the memorable people we met there was Ford. The first time I saw him he was wearing a velvet cape. We soon became friends and have been so ever since. The New Hope Inn soon folded, but Herb and Michael and I, and Herb's first wife Cammy, became The Star Spangled Banner of Your Mind. I describe the group as similar to the Firesign Theater, except I'm not as smart as Peter Bergman. I once said that to somebody who knew Mr. Bergman, and she replied, "And he would make sure you knew that, too." We never hit the big time, but we had fun. One memorable experience was being part of a USO show for marines at camp Pendleton. At the end we signed autographs, like real pros. So I enjoyed taking a half hour break from spraying to shoot the breeze with Ford. We can discuss Joe Carbo and Nick Shammas, Cheryl Crane and Johnny Stompanato, Clete Roberts and the Flying Finn twins, and he doesn't have to Google anybody. With that time out today I never got around to radiator repair. After dinner this evening Shorty and I went to the band concert in Wilson Park, and then across the street to Braum's for my usual double cone. Then we went to the north end of town for the fireworks show. Some dogs freak out over fireworks, but Shorty takes it all pretty well. At the show, with the bombs bursting in air up close, she gets close to me for reassurance, but at home she ignores all the distant noise.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Rain most of the day left 1.2 inches in the gauge. I'm glad I got most of the spraying done, as there are several rainy days in the forecast and the plants will grow like crazy. Not much work got done today, as I had another of those low-energy days when I don't feel like doing much more than sitting. I did find that the heart medicine seems to be starting to work. Since tachycardia hit me in the middle of February, my pulse rate has averaged around 120, then 115. Monday evening it was 99, the first time under 100 since this started, and this evening it was 95. I hope it will continue falling and get down to my previous normal in the seventies. Maybe that will have me feeling less tired and weak so much of the time.
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Thursday, July
6, 2023
Rain that started in the wee hours was still falling when I climbed out of the sack, and kept going lightly until afternoon. In the end there was another 1" in the gauge. I got back to work on the radiator, buffing some scratches and a little solder that had found its way into wrong places, and soldered on the brace that had come loose with the left side panel. I still have to make and install a replacement for the bit of brass trim that got lost from the lower right corner. I have an idea of how to go about that, and I'll find out tomorrow if I can actually do the deed. Other notable events today were a call from a cardiologist's office letting me know I have an appointment to see him a week from today, and the Arkansas City Municipal Band's final concert of its 153rd season. Friday, July 7, 2023 Today's all-day project was making and installing that replacement piece of radiator trim. In fact, at quitting time I wasn't done with it. So I came back after dinner and finished it up. Could it be better? With the right tools and more skill on my part it could be a LOT better. But it will have to do for now. Maybe I'll come back to it later. |
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Saturday, July 8, 2023
There have been a few nights when I slept uncovered until the wee hours of the morning when it became cool enough to pull a sheet over me. Every summer there are some stretches when I never need the sheet. But we're not close to that yet. The past few nights it's been sheet and blanket from the start. As many Saturday mornings, today began with checking out an auction. This one was the Roth auction at the fairgrounds in Winfield. I've bought some things there, like my present refrigerator for $160, but more often they have nothing that keeps me there. Such was the case today. Checking the rain gauge I found .5". Treat night dinner was at the Pizza Ranch buffet. The food is good, not great. The one feature there I really don't like is that the only non-sugared pop they have is Diet Coke, which I have never liked. Any other non-sugared soda would be fine with me. This week's movie was the new Indiana Jones flick. It's good entertainment, but the most notable feature is technical: the 80-year-old Harrison Ford being "de-aged" to look like he did forty years ago. In most of the film he is today's Ford, but in a fairly lengthy flashback (about 25 minutes I think), he looks like the Indy we saw in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
As on many Sundays, I spent the morning online, mostly interacting with fellow Model T aficionados, friends, and relatives. In the afternoon I took advantage of the nice, soft ground after all the recent rain, and pulled weeds. I cleared a patch in the back yard. In the evening I was glad to see that The Simpsons were back, after a few weeks of being preempted by sports. It's the only animated series I find funny, and one of the few programs I watch regularly. After TV was over I thought I would get in some mowing with the Dixon, but the battery was dead. I put a charger on it and will try again tomorrow.
Monday, July 10, 2023
Insomnia is not usually a thing for me, but this morning I woke up just before five. I lay there for an hour wide awake without feeling any inclination to go back to sleep, so I got up at six and began my day. Breakfast was a toasted hamburger bun with butter. I've been breakfasting on hot dog and burger buns left over from the cookout three weeks ago. Next week the buns will be used up and I'll resume my rotation of cereals: raisin bran, rolled oats, granola, and rice. Today for the first time in a long time I felt almost normal, with tiredness and lethargy much reduced. I expect that's due to my reduced pulse rate. For a long time recently it was averaging around 114, but in the past week it's fallen into the nineties with readings of 92 last night and tonight. It seems the pills are working. Until the tachycardia hit in February I used to average 75-80. I'm scheduled to see a cardiologist later this week and I'm hoping he can put a stop to this tachycardia nonsense. I took advantage of my improved condition to get some work done. That was mixing ten gallons of weed killer and spraying the rest of the enemy vegetation in the lane to the wood lot. I enjoyed carrying the full sprayer across the road and down the lane without getting winded. A couple of weeks ago it would have had me panting like a hot puppy. This evening after chow I got busy in the shop putting things away, organizing, and cleaning up. I need to clear some working space for a project, and if I get it done in a week I'll be pleased. There's a lot to sort out and put away. The most time-consuming part is deciding where to put things that have never had a definite regular location.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
For the second morning in a row I woke up before five, lay in bed for an hour unable to go back to sleep, and got out of the sack at six. My mechanical work today was fixing the Dixon mower. When I installed the new belt recently I taped a safety switch in place. But the mower quit working because the tape worked loose. So today I fastened the switch in place with proper machine screws and lock nuts, and the mower started right up. In the shop I continued putting away and cleaning up. That always seems to bring up things I had forgotten that I had. Today I found a little package of ¹⁄₁₆" drill bits. I have no memory of buying them, but I know I bought a pack of ten because those tiny bits break often and I didn't want to keep having to go to town for a new one every time.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
During the war Gabriel Heatter used to begin his nightly news broadcast with, "There's good news tonight." No matter how dire the rest of the news might be, he always found something positive to report. My good news tonight is that there are still lightning bugs. After chow this evening I went out for a bit of mowing in the relative cool. As twilight came on I saw one flash, then another and another, until there were a couple of dozen. That's not like the old days when we had hundreds, but after none for the last few evenings it was good to see any at all. The populations of bugs, birds, and most other critters are in serious decline. We just don't have the numbers of turtles, squirrels, snakes, possums, and other wild critters that were common here a few decades ago. As for relative cool, I can tell you that at 5:00 pm today folks on TV were reporting temperatures of 100º and more in all the nearby towns. The thermometer outside my kitchen window read 90º and the one inside said 89º. This is one of the many reasons I would rather live here than in town.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Wild carrot, Devil’s plague, Queen Ann’s Lace, Queen’s Lace — whatever you call it — will completely take over an area and spread if you let it. Yesterday I started pulling a patch of the stuff in the back yard, and this morning I finished it up. I put all the pulled weeds into a trash can so the seeds would not escape. I'm sure a few slipped by, but I expect next year there will be a lot fewer of those weeds in that spot. My other main activity of the day was a drive to Wichita to see another cardiologist. The one I saw earlier operates in a hospital that is "out of network", hence the new guy. After an EKG and a consultation, he is scheduling me for a "procedure" in a couple of weeks. It needs to wait until I have been on the current meds for a month, and that will be on the 28th.
Friday, July 14, 2023
The day began with another medical appointment. This one was local, a follow-up with my primary care doc. I reported that my pulse rate has declined into the low nineties (tonight it was 89) and I'm feeling much less tired and lethargic. She renewed my prescription for metoprolol, one of the medicines that gets credit for my improved condition. After the session with the doc I did some shopping for groceries and other stuff, came home and shopped online. I was looking for drywall jacks and found several, but didn't buy yet. I'm going to need one, and with as many ceilings as I have to do it will cost less to buy one than to rent one. I did a little more shop housekeeping, and came across a can of nuts and bolts. Thinking of ways to clean them, the thought of a rock tumbler came to me. I did more online shopping and found several, but they were all overpriced for my purposes because they come as part of a kit with extra stuff I don't need. Maybe I can make one myself for a lot less. So I looked at small electric motors. I found one that would suit, but the shipping was more than the product. I'll look some more and see if I can find one with more reasonable shipping. It would be nice if I could go buy one at a store, but those days are long gone.
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Summer storms here are sometimes a good show. The one last night didn't leave much rain in the gauge (.07"), but it entertained with a lot of lightning and thunder. The one Thursday night was a gully washer, and left a half inch. Today I went to the barn and removed the bolts holding the center shaft in the L-59 mower. That doesn't sound like much, but they were rusty enough to be a tough break with a long breaker and a hard turn all the way out. It was pretty warm in there, and they wore me out, so I didn't climb up on the tractor, start it, raise the mower and pull out the loosened shaft. Tomorrow before the afternoon heat will be soon enough for that. Treat night dinner this evening was enchiladas supremas at La Fiesta, and they were delicious as usual. As I was leaving a family of mom, dad, and five kids came in. They looked like indios from southern Mexico or Central America. When a Mexican restaurant has real Mexicans not just working there but eating there, that's a good recommendation for the food. I well remember the days when our Mexican population was tiny and the "authentic" food wasn't authentic or good. I once had some tacos that were made with flour tortillas. I asked the gringa waitress why they weren't corn, and she said, "You didn't ask." Well, when I order a hamburger I don't have to specify that it be made with a hamburger bun, not Wonderbread. Food with definitive standard ingredients shouldn't have to be a special order. This week's movie was Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1. It's the seventh movie in this cinema series based on the old TV show. Again Tom Cruise shows that he's a good actor, not just a pretty boy. The movie is well made. The action scenes include some stunts that are very improbable, but they look plausible and realistic. In real life you're not going to see anybody drive a motorbike off a thousand-foot cliff and parachute to the bottom of the valley, but here it looks real and believable. The CGI is not only realistic, but it's also not blatantly apparent. That's something you don't always get in action movies, even high-budget ones with hundreds of digital artists in the credits. I call this one good entertainment. Thumbs up.
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Well, I fetched the wobbly mower shaft assembly from the barn and started cleanup and disassembly. I drove out the roll pin that holds it all together, but it turns out that I will have to wire brush the rust off the exposed part of the shaft before trying to remove the collar. That will be a cool-of-the-morning operation. I'm a bit apprehensive about what new bearings will cost.
Monday, July 17, 2023
All the leftover buns are gone, so I'm back to my routine breakfast rotation of raisin bran, rolled oats, granola, and rice. Cold, cooked, cold, cooked. I am a creature of habit. This morning I wire brushed all the rust off that mower shaft and set about trying to extract it from the housing. That's necessary to get the worn bearings out and replace them. I spent a couple of hours on it, first with a BFH and then with an air hammer. I never got it to move, but I did manage to wound my thumb enough to make it bleed, so I had to take time to go put a bandage on it. Applying a bandage one-handed is another of life's little exasperations. Eventually I thought of the press. So I'm leaving the thing overnight with several tons bearing down on it. I've squirted some ATF on it, hoping that will soak in and help it move. If that doesn't do it I'll apply the heat wrench: turn it red, let it cool, apply more ATF, and press it again. And if that doesn't work? I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
This was the day for another session with my primary cardiologist. He comes down from Wichita and sees patients at the local hospital here on Tuesdays. I call him my primary cardiologist because he's referring me to another doc for a cardioversion. Why? The other guy's hospital is "in network" and his isn't. If I had my way we would adopt a health system that's an un-Balkanized public service, as in Canada and most other civilized countries. Spare me the ritual pearl-clutching over "socialized medicine". We already have it for veterans (V.A.). We have "socialized" roads, law enforcement, military, fire fighting, and other government services. But what do I know? According to some of my friends, not much.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Today I drove up to the courthouse and paid the taxes on the 1915 Ford, the 1923 Ford, the 1951 Dodge, and the 1973 Suburban. They were $17 each. My 2008 Camry is the only thing I drive that's under fifty years old.
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Out of clean sox, I did laundry today. Getting a late start, I didn't get the last of the wash hung out to dry until after noon. No problem. On a hot and sunny day it was all dry by sundown. This afternoon there was a discussion on the Model T forum about the Old Car Festival, and that reminded me that I have only about six weeks to get the 1915 runabout ready to hit the road to Michigan. So do I want to deal with the wonky magneto now, or make that a fall or winter project and deal with all the other things now? Currently the mag is working, but not as well as it should. If I deal with it now will I have time to get all the other stuff done? If wait will it get worse and become a real problem? Decisions, decisions.
Friday, July 21, 2023
Yesterday's forecast was on the mark. It showed a 90º+ chance of rain overnight with a significant total, and when it was all over the rain gauge had 1.18" in it. Most of today's work was cleaning up and putting away in the shop. I'm leaning toward pulling the engine/transmission from the runabout and tackling that malfunctioning magneto so it won't get worse when I'm on the road. To do that I need to clear some work space. I hope this cleaning up will find the dash shield I took out of the car when I installed the new firewall last year. Naturally, it's not anywhere that makes sense.
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Saturday, July
22, 2023
Drat! Mowing lasted an hour and forty minutes. I did the front lawn and started on the east lawn along the road. There the grass was especially tall. The mower bogged down and burned up a belt. I got notice of it when I saw smoke. Of course it had to happen on a weekend, so it will be two days before I can order a new one. I have plenty of other things to do, but with no mowers working the grass will keep growing taller while I do them. As often happens on Saturdays, the day began with a drive to Winfield to check out an auction. I saw nothing there that compelled me to stay. After leaving the Woods mower spindle in the press for a couple of days waiting for the penetrant to soak in, I put more pressure on it. I don't know how many tons I applied, but the photo shows what happened. That's going to cost me $206 and change plus shipping, which for a heavy item like that will not be cheap. Treat Night dinner was at a new place, Los Antojos de Tita. I wasn't wowed, but the food was better than average for this part of the country. The movie was Oppenheimer. Despite Christopher Nolan's penchant for jumping back and forth in time, that's less distracing here than it was in Dunkirk. With a lot of good actors portraying real people, excellent attention to period detail, good writing, fine photography, no cgi, and an effective score, this is a very successful collaboration of cast and crew. It doesn't hurt that Nolan shot it for the big screen on real 70mm film with iMax equipment. Sunday, July 23, 2023 With an unusual nine hours of sack time, I got a late start on a lazy Sunday mostly wasted on the internet. I guess there is some mental/emotional benefit from the social interaction, but I didn't get much else done. This was a good week for Sunday evening TV, with Sixty Minutes and The Simpsons both not preempted for sports. The latter is a special favorite. It's the only animated series I know that's actually funny. There are at least one or two laugh-out-loud gags in every episode. This time the story line was about Carl, who grew up as a black kid adopted by an Icelandic family, searching for his roots. Comedy gold. Just white wouldn't have been as funny as Icelandic. You can't get much whiter than that. Of course Homer and the other guys at Moe's were so uncomfortable with talking about race that they whispered the word. As usual, there were humorous off-topic moments too. After decades on the air, Brooks and company still keep me entertained. |
Monday, July 24, 2023
This is ridiculous. The least little physical exertion has me breathing hard. This morning I decided to spray. I mixed ten gallons of weed killer, then spent over an hour achieving a working sprayer. Eventually I got it by combining parts off defunct sprayers. I found that just carrying the filled two gallon sprayer out to the road had me puffing. I set down the sprayer and came inside for a rest break and some cold water. An hour later I went out and sprayed, using up the two gallons. I came in to take another break and reload, but felt so pooped that I went to the front porch swing and took a nap. As if that wasn't enough, this evening after chow I took another nap. What worries me is the possibility that this lassitude is not because of the tachycardia, and getting my pulse back to normal won't fix it. I despise the idea of chronic tiredness being my new normal.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Well, that's better. I did twice as much spraying today and didn't feel wiped out. I used up another four of the ten gallons of mixed weed killer, leaving four to use tomorrow. I ended today's session not because of tiredness, but due to the heat. Tomorrow I'll finish up in the morning cool. I went to town for groceries this afternoon and saw 100º on one of the bank signs. When I got home the thermometer in my shop stood at 91º. At 5:00 the TV weather guy was reporting 100º+ in all the towns but in my kitchen it was 93º. It's often 5º - 10º cooler here than in town, one of the many reasons I'm glad not to live in a town or city.
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
As planned, this morning I used up the remainder of the weed killer I mixed Monday. There was enough to cover the Johnson grass and other tall weeds by the road south of the west hedge. I need to clear that area so I can get to the 3" to 4"stumps of small trees left by the township mower. I want them gone so I can mow there myself. The rest of the weed killer went to the Johnson grass and other enemy vegetation along the road to the east. Thanks to spraying in previous years, less spraying needs to be done there now. In the afternoon the UPS driver brought the new mower belt for the Dixon, so installing that will be Job One in the morning. I hope to get some mowing done before the afternoon heat drives me inside.
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Best laid plans. It turned out that I ordered the wrong mower belt. No way would it fit. So my first thing this morning was ordering the right belt and sending back the wrong one. In the shop I worked on the pulley from the Woods mower, using a tap to remove the remains of a broken-off machine screw. Feeling low-energy and pooped again, I lay on the front porch swing for a couple of hours this afternoon, then again for an hour this evening after dinner. I'm scheduled for a cardioversion at Via Christi Hospital in Wichita tomorrow, so I'll find out if getting my pulse down to a reasonable rate will make me feel more energetic.
Friday, July 28, 2023
Done. Donna picked me up at eight and dropped me off at the hospital a little after nine. Check-in took about an hour. I think it was around 11:30 when one of the nurses wheeled me to the operating room. There the doc asked me a few questions and I waited for something to happen. I wasn't aware of getting sleepy, but the next I knew I was waking up an hour later, back in the original cubicle where I started. I was dressed and out of the building by 1:30 and Donna dropped me off at home a little before three. And what were the results of a cardioversion? At chow time I had less of an appetite and skipped my usual cheese, half pickle, and handful of peanuts. More important, this evening's blood pressure check showed a bp of 93/76, which is in line with what I've been having, and a pulse of 47! In recent weeks the pills got my rate down only to the low eighties, so that 47 is a big improvement. It will be interesting tomorrow to see if my lack of energy has improved.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Two, count 'em, two auctions this morning had nothing to keep me at either one, or to tempt me to came back later. While I was out I stopped at the pharmacy to reload with Eliquis. The stuff lists for $672.90, but with insurance I pay $45. Even with that big discount, it's by far the most expensive medicine I take. Currently that's seven pills and two eye drops. Not too many years ago I didn't have to take anything. This afternoon I had a phone call from Jesus (That's Hey-soos, not the guy with all the churches). He's the university student in Lincoln who fell in love with my old truck when he came across a video of it online. A few days ago he posted on Facebook from Puerto Vallarta, but he's back in Nebraska now. I attempted to entertain him starting up the truck with him listening on the phone, but the battery was down. I'll have to try it again later. Saturday treat night this week was dinner at the Chinese buffet. The movie was Barbie. What I saw of it was entertaining, but I drifted off to Snoozeland and missed some of it. I wasn't bored, as I would be with a comic book superhero movie, just tired.
 In Lomita, circa 1952: The cool dude with the shades is me. With Mom, Ernestine, Grandma, Dad, and Mike holding Stoveoil, the rare male calico. Where is Mary? She's taking the picture with her new Kodak Pony. Ages in the photo: 42, 11, 46, 79, 49, 6. 2. |
Sunday,
July 30, 2023 When I was a kid Mom's sisters Mary and Ernestine would bring Grandma out to California for a few weeks in the summer. I always thought they were just visiting. But after living here I realize they were also escaping the Kansas heat. Where we lived, in Wilmington and later Lomita, summer days rarely got very hot. Dad lived in a town for work, but he would much rather be out of town. So whenever he had a chance we went to the mountains. We might drive through hot weather getting there, but camping in the Sierra Nevada was at elevations above 6000 feet and very pleasant. In fact, thinking about it now makes me want to head for the Rockies. Maybe I will do that next summer, but this year I have too much to do here. Mostly that's stuff I need to do to the runabout to get it ready for its drive to the Old Car Festival. That is only a little more than a month away, so I'd better get a lot more active than I've been lately. Most of today was typical of how I've been. I spent hours sitting in front of a fan, internetting, with time out to lie on the front porch swing for a nap. That's not a recipe for getting things done. Monday, July 31, 2023 Another wasted day spent sitting about and lying down. Is my lack of energy because of some specific malady, or just old age? Dunno. I've never been this old before. I hope it's for a specific cause, preferably one that's easily curable. I'll see my primary care doc in the morning to begin the search for a cause. I was hoping that it was a result of tachycardia, but Friday's cardioversion lowering my pulse to a normal rate doesn't seem to have restored any pep. I hate this. |
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AUGUST 2023