,
2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
After a morning run and a shower before breakfast, I spent the first part of the day paying bills and getting them in the mail. The heat arrived before noon and afternoon temperatures were around 110º, which rendered me worthless for any real work. I did start shopping for some new leather top straps for the roadster. The leather was easy. I found it at the local shoe repair/saddle shop. Brass rivets to fasten things together were another story. The local pathetic excuse for a hardware store was useless, and the Hobby Lobby in Ponca City was the same. I may have to resort to shopping for them online.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The steaming weather continues. The grass was getting too shaggy, so I started mowing early in the morning. I got a lot done, but by ten the heat was building, and when the tractor quit running I was ready to stop anyway. I put a charger on the battery and moved on to something else. That was more shopping for roadster top materials. I managed to find webbing for straps, and went back to the sadddle shop where I got leather yesterday and found some brass rivets that look like they'll work. The afternoon got up to around 110º again, but by one in the morning things had cooled down to 96º.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Most evenings this time of year I bed down on the front porch swing, then go upstairs and spread out on my bed after things have cooled down. But this morning I stayed on the porch until I got up at six. It was 86º at six in the morning. I'm really looking forward to heading for the Rockies in a couple of weeks and getting out of the heat. This morning I got back to mowing after I reattached the tractor's choke linkage, and by ten had most of it done when the tractor conked out again. Not sure what's wrong with it now. Maybe I'll study it again tomorrow morning when we're back under 90º.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
That was a nice break. Rain during the night lowered the temperature and I didn't get up until almost seven, when it was only 80º. There was enough moisture to help the grass a little, but the ground is so dry there were no puddles. I spent a lazy Thursday enjoying the cooler day (never made 100º), mostly web browsing and reading.
Friday, August 5, 2011
After doing the grocery shopping I puttered on a few odds and ends in the shop. It was another scorcher and I wasn't up for any real work.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Today I drove the roadster north of town to pick up a tractor crank from a friend who had borrowed it. On the way home I stopped at the big W for some shopping. When I came out of the store and tried to start the car, the crank turned without turning over the engine because the pin that holds the ratchet on the crank had fallen out somewhere along the road. A bystander gave me a ride down to the hardware store and I got a bolt and lock nut for a temporary replacement. I learned two lessons. One is that I need to keep some kind of hand cleaner in the car. The other is that I should carry a spare ratchet pin. After another hot day I had my favorite meal at La Fiesta and washed it down with a cold Dos Equis Ambar. I don't use beer most of the year, but a cold one in the heat of summer is prettty good. I went to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a prequel to the 1968 film. It was very well done, with a plausible premise ably directed and acted. You don't get its connection to the original film until after the credits start to roll, so the folks who always leave early missed it.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
I spent a lazy Sunday on a lot of web surfing, a little cleaning, and some reading.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Today I cleaned off my computer desk top to see if I could cure the slow operation. I've been seeing the spinning lollipop a lot lately as operations got slower and slower. The cleanup and closing some applications seemed to help.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Much of today's activity was the annoying chore of shopping. I spent a long time online trying to find the right cotton webbing and hardware for some top straps for the roadster. I think I finally found what I need. In the afternoon I went to town, and wasted my time looking for camping pots and pans. Instead of the lightweight kind that used to be common, all that's available locally now is heavy enamelware. Looks like it's time for a shopping trip to Wichita.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The best was a very needed good soaking that came before midnight and continued through most of the morning. It was so good that a couple of the puddles lasted all day. The worst was a wasted trip to Wichita. After a search online turned up a couple of stores listed as selling camping equipment, I set out to buy some lightweight small pots and pans like we took camping when I was a kid. Ha! The first place had mostly clothes. The second was a megastore with lots of outdoor products, so it looked promising. When I finally found the littlle bit of cooking equipment in the place, there was the same heavy enamelware they're stocking at Wal-Mart these days, plus a couple of other items. One was a box containing a small pot and a small frying pan. For $40! The other was a small frying pan with a folding handle. For $50! So much for buying anything like what we used to have. During this trip I also looked for web chairs. The kind of folding aluminum chairs with nylon webbing that have been around for fifty years. Not a chance. I hate shopping.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
After a morning run, shower, and breakfast, I got busy answering emails, doing some online research, and participating in a couple of forums, and soon it was noon. I took advantage of the perfect weed pulling conditions after yesterday's rain and spent about a half hour getting rid of the weeds west of the garage. There are a lot more weeds to pull, but those will have to wait. I need to start getting ready for a trip next week when I head for higher ground. More about that later. I was paying a bill this afternoon when I got to thinking about making it less. I have a cable service for internet, phone, and TV. When I considered how much I 'm paying for a lot of TV channels I never use, I decided to look into what channels I can get foor $35 less per month. After wasting well over half an hour on the cable company's lame, user-unfriendly website, I phoned the outfit and had them email me a list of available channels at the lowest rate. It turned out to be more channels than I thought, so I think I'll switch to the cheaper package.
Friday, August 12, 2011
I drove the roadster to town for shopping today, just to try it out on a cool day (79º when I got home). The entire trip amounted to about thirteen miles. I made four stops, and at each one I got down by the radiator and listened. It was quiet every time. On the way home that long hill coming up from the river finally got it going. When I shut it off behind the house it was boiling away like a tea kettle. I still need to pull the head and clean out all the passages, but I suspect eventually I'll have to spring for a new radiator.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Putting away laundry brought one of life's little victories. I found the missing sock that disappeared the last time I washed. Yay! The mail brought another little bonus in the form of junk mail containing more free address labels, just as I'm almost out of the ones that came in previous junk mail. Time to get busy on house cleaning. Today's big job was cleaning the kitchen sink and washing lots of spoons, forks, pans, bowls, and other kitchen stuff that's been piling up.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
This afternoon I drove the roadster to town for grocery shopping. While I was in town I stopped to show the car to Buster White and see what he's up to. I found he's in the middle of restoring a 1926 Ford roadster. His hearing is bad and he doesn't see fine details very well, but his work still looks good. He'll be 92 in a couple of months.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Today was the day for some serious house cleaning. I vacuumed and mopped the bathroom, and did the same for the kitchen. I have more cleaning to do tomorrow while my cousin and her kiddos are on the way here from Wisconsin, then Wednesday morning we'll be off to the Rockies for some camping.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The day was long but the story is short. I finished cleaning house, then spent the rest of the day gathering stuff to take camping. In the morning we'll do a little grocery shopping, pack all the stuff in my car and head west.
Thursday, August 17,
2011
I'm baaack! We drove back from Colorado yesterday and got here about 8:30 last night. It was a busy week of vacation. I didn't even do any of the reading I took with me because we were on the go most of the time. The picture shows Austin, 6, Bella, 9, and Elizabeth in San Juan National Forest where we went to gather firewood. We were camped in Great Sand Dunes National Park, and wood gathering is a no-no in national parks. There are a lot more pictures, but I'll wait until I get a couple of rolls of film developed before I pick more of them to post. Elizabeth and the kids headed back to Wisconsin this morning, and I spent the day going through the mail that came while I was gone, paying bills, and grocery shopping.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Today's tribulation was stepping in a hole when I went out to burn trash, and getting a sprained ankle out of the adventure. Fortunately it's not a major sprain, but I won't be doing any running for a few days. I spent a good chunk of the morning recording and filing receipts, then going to town for some shopping and bill paying. I spent this afternoon getting the lights on the roadster working. All I had to do for the side lights and the tail light was fill them with kerosene. The headlights are electric, and all I had to do for them was install some wiring. When I started up the car they worked as they're supposed to. So this evening I used up some of my left over vacation film shooting pictures of the car with the lights on.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
After doing laundry I checked out an auction at the fairgrounds. Not finding anything interesting enough to keep me there, I came home and did chores. The warmth continues, with highs around 100º. That's predicted to continue for awhile, but next weekend is supposed to be at least ten degrees cooler, with a good chance of rain too.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Most of the morning was spent on little chores like getting film packed and addressed to mail to the lab, and getting other mail ready to go out tomorrow. After a nice nap I spent the rest of the afternoon replacing the tacky plastic-insulated wiring and plastic zip ties that came on my roadster with wiring more in keeping with a 1915 car.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Before sunup I drove the roadster down to the corner and back to try out the magneto powered lights. Pretty scary. I won't do any night driving with that car before the magneto is fixed to put out more power. Later in the morning I went to the sign factory in answer to an emailed inquiry, and advised the folks who have bought the business on how to mix colors. This afternoon I pulled the head off the roadster to check the water passages and found that a lot of oil has been leaking past the rings. Looks like a set of new rings is in order. I finished the day taking the radiator to town to have a leak soldered.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
This morning I drove up to Derby and bought a cylinder bore gauge at the Big Tool Store, then went on to Wichita and bought a camera case for one of my F-1 Canons, and a couple of camera straps. I spent the afternoon measuring the roadster's cylinders, studying the engine book, and fetching the repaired radiator from town.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
I spent the day working on the roadster. The first job was using a drill and a file to clean out five 1/4" water passages in the block and the head and a screw driver to clean out some larger passages, and a shop vac to remove the debris. After that I spent the rest of the day removing the #1 piston, measuring wear, and starting my list of parts to order. The local chain auto parts store can't supply any of the pieces I need, so tomorrow I'll order them from a Model T parts dealer.
This afternoon's temperature at six PM was 103º. The forecast is for three more triple-digit days, but Sunday starts a string of highs in the eighties and lows in the sixties. I'm ready.