Three words,,,
First off the list today,,, GO READ,,, Frans place has several good posts up. All worth your time, trust me.
THIS’UN, though not Frans work(but link provided by him), I whole-heartedly concur with. The “Troubles” of Ireland and The UK, are only just begun: things will only accelerate until the Brits and Celts, and Scots get their spines back and become the curmudgeons of old.
And looking at NewYuck, we aren’t far behind if we don’t start standing ground and sayin “NO” at that medieval cretins, and stepping on scrotums with prejudice.
As for my little world: BlooTwuck, Blowed up dreams and aspirations (Blowed up, NOT destroyed,,, not even close.) Da/Doctor chasin, PhysTherapy stuff (he’d better be a good boy and do what they say, I can’t babysit 24-7) Sis comin’ into town (that will be a relief with Da for a spell) Drinkin’ Camping trip this weekend,,,
Well,,, I sorta had a “come to God” moment, and considering I believe the “God” of the Old Testament is a False God (and the adherents of the old religions are just this side of “Satanic”, but I digress,,,) Thats A LOT! I essentially (FYI, This is not open for discussion in Comments on this post. IF you want to argue with me, go over to this page, and leave all you want. BUT, Read the first paragraph and understand, YOU WILL BE IN THE PUBLIC EYE,,, But please,,, prove me wrong,,,,)
Anywhooos,,,, ‘come to god’ moment. This is actually something right inline with the Buddhist tenents as well “Let that shit go!” (paraphrased but you get my point.) I quite literally ‘prayed’ with the anchor of ” I know I am just one spark of the IS, not the know all be all, and this is beyond me,,, Please guide me in the direction YOU intended, and nudge me when I stray,,, ” (there was more, but thats the gist,,,)
And it worked. The weight of all of this shit is off my shoulders, I feel much easier about the day to day, the cracked block smokey engine, the property that I co-own with my Unk that needs ‘legally’ divided up and ‘Deeded’ before some ugly comes down the pike. Niether of us is getting any younger and he ain’t looking all that good these days,,, (about like Da, maybe worse,,,) I AM THINKING CLEARER,, Thats the big point. The Engine thing,,, will happen when and if its supposed to happen,,, I leave that to Universe and keep my eyes open for that sign. The “little” issues that keep telling me ‘you don’t need to be a mobile mechanic’, like the fact that I still haven’t business cards for that aspect, and no word from the printer on a final ‘draft’ for printing, OR a properly running base vehicle (thanx Bloo’s former owner, and my over confidence,,,) “It will be what it will be” and I can do no other.
or as one of my fellow emps likes to say, Let go, Let GOD,,,, (Universe, IS, the Pelorma, Monad, BUT, not the DemiUrge, archons etc
Side note Fred: Package rcvd, YES, pay it forward!! I do try in my own small way,,, even if its just thinking outloud about things and hoping someone sees a different view in the reading. And Thank you!!! It is appreciated!!!
This weekend is Camp with Brudda B and Brudda J. There is a catharsis when we camp in this small group: we get a chance ‘to let our hair down’ and not be the Stoics the people in our worlds see us as (and I can not tell you how many times I have been called ‘Superman” at work because I do so much shit by myself It gets old. McGyver,,, ok, I kinda take a pride in that,,, Doing it all, every day, by ‘self: that can break a body down.) All three of us have been carrying hella wieghts the last year or so,,, Time to unload, get advice, or just the “me too” so we know we aint’ alone,,,
Drinkin’ helps break down the walls, and believe me, we have some damned tough walls,,,Even being in trusted company, those walls resist being moved or lowered.
So, shortened week, but not unproductive: Friday will be courthouse with Unk, then onward to CAMP, and some Spiritual therapy much needed. I may call the Chiro tomorrow and schedule an appt for Satyrday for meself,,, Could use a little reailignin’ of the zipper in my back called a spine. Take an hour from camp to get straightened up physically.
Or not..
will see
More laters
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
drizzly sonday
Kinda ooggy weather out,, not cold, mid 60’s, not high winds like yesterday.
And Bloo’s engine is dead. Well, not dead, dead, only somewhat dead, sort of alive-ish currently, but
CONDEMNED
I loosened two of the bolts holding the AC/PS bracket on, and fired her up,, Smoked a little, but I was expecting that since the last time she ran, she was smoking A LOT. Let her get to operating temps while listening in on valve train and crankshaft (Stethoscopes are wonderful for us hard of hearin’ types)
No smoke after 5 minutes, or so little as to not be anything but trace amounts.
Shut her down,,, tighten those two bolts back up and fired her back up.
looks good,,, looks good,,, NOPES!!!! Smoke and in copious amounts!!! DAMMIT!!! I was so hoping I would be wrong!!!
Granted, it takes very little oil to make LOTS of blue tinted smoke. That she is not getting oil in the coolant sort of blows my mind, (and the HC test is always negative) But there is definitely some passage between a cylinder and the oil galley’s: one that gets opened up when those bolts get torqued down.(and because of where they are, what they hold, they MUST be tightened to some degree. They could easily walk out and rip apart the fan and radiator if not tight.)
So right now, my mood matches the weather quite well. Drizzly grey and BLAH!!!
I know now which direction my future holds. And I’m ok with it now. Just a matter of time. She can stay where she is: I’ll fire her up on occasion, move her around so the tires are getting ‘excersize’ and other components aren’t ‘rotting away’ (brake discs, clutch, etc etc) I’ll even leave the insurance in place for now, as i may need to run a smokin’ truck for fuel at some point.
and of course, WATCH THAT OIL LEVEL like a hawk.
Not gonna give up. Too much invested, and other than engine troubles, she is a good truck, one that isn’t buried under onerous amounts of computer controls and federal regulations of ‘remote kill’ features.
and parts are still readily available (so long as the JITdelivery system holds together.) (and even if that fails, these trucks are littered everywhere,,, parts is parts!)
Time to visit my happy place in my head,,,,
More tomorrow
Live
Learn
Laugh
Love
LOAD!!!
The costs of living
Completely random post, just some thinks about “where” I reside on this blue marble of mostly surface water.
I have stated a time or two, that I live in the Armpit of Southern Kentuck. Don’t wanna belittle the people here, many I meet are great people, a little downtrodden (hence the high rate of Blue Blood Democrats around here) usually underappreciated in the great wide world, and lots of that due to the local economy. This area never fully recovered from the Great Depression of a hundred years ago.
But I have been doing some stuff around the “Stead today, and one of those is trying like hell to get my jeans cleaned up. I have two pair that are flat trashed from the BlooTwuck adventures, and it seemed like, no matter WHAT I did, they didn’t improve. I tried what was seemingly everything, short of taking them to a drycleaners (and that wasn’t off the table, trust me. Might have been cheaper to just buy new pairs, but WHY? there ain’t a damned thing wrong with these past the oil stains that just will NOT go away.)
today, I dropped a $20 for a gallon of “Purple Power” degreaser. Dropped a pint in a 5 gallon bucket, filled that 2/3rd full of STEAMING hot water (and its 84F out right now,, HOT water,,,) and have been plunging those jeans up and down off and on for a couple of hours. Changed the bucket once already (GROSS!!!) and on my second round.
And I started thinking about ‘go to a coin laundry and use a front loader; those get clothes cleaner,,,’
Umm,,, yeah,,,, Where’s that coin laundry ? 20 minutes away!!! We don’t even have a damned coin laundry in this town. Looked further, we dont’ even have a drycleaners!! One little hardware store that is barely kept stocked, a couple of chain fastfood places, and LOTS of Pharmacies. 9!,,,
Ah,,, But Dio,,, thats small town rural for ya! Mehbe,,, only, the local town is also the seat of the county,,, its where the courthouse is. Its where the lawyers outnumber the teachers at the local school. Its where there is a SECOND sales tax on every purchase! (go outside city limits, and thats gone.)
You can see one place, boarded up, that was a coin laundry many many moon ago. The weeds in the lot say its been gone for over two decades: you can barely see the asphalt parking areas.
And the little guys struggle,,,
I have noted, if you are NOT in a certain group around here, or accepted by said group, You will NEVER compete in any local election. If there were ever an audit of this area for corruption, I would bet it to be near as bad as the Epstein lists in who’s who of scammers. I have personally seen a small business on the take, in collusion with one of that group. Literal laundering of money through School Budget,,, One of the jobs we are currently on, stinks to high heaven of the same tactic, THOUGH, Bossman and Son of Bossman are not in that group(but are accepted by them). We just happen to be the only company doing that particular needed service. But the Budget and the work being done by other companies? No,, that whole scenario stinks of dead fish and backroom deals.
Its classic “Good Ol’Boys” clique in acton.
And we’ve no coin-laundry without a daggum drive and half,,, And about that far to get a decent burger that doesn’t have arches imprinted on it. Further if you want REAL food.
Do I sound a bit jaded on this note? Apologies,,, its just another thorn pricking my side. One of many that I get,,, I don’t mind being poor,,, I really don’t, but there are some things that I learned to take for granted in living arrangements living up in the Sin-Sin-nasty. Coin laundry were ubiquitious to every burb, burg, and even the little armpit village,,,
Its hard to justify a brick and mortar business when the local gov taxes you 69 days of a thirty day month, and then looks at you as if you were the evil doer, wanting to limit your tax footprint.
Hmmm,,,, Seems like something I have harped about many a time here, no?
Carry on, Keep on Livin’! And don’t pet the sweaty shit!
LLLLL!!!!!
(, ‘)
Feast or famine
The Dawgum outlook on life.
apparently my world as well.
Good week, FAR better than last. Two bills paid today, one two weeks early. That means that I will be able to doube down on a payment or two this month.Seeing how its the first week and I have only one more bill due for this period. Hammer time! (Its a feast week, but that doesn’t mean I am feasting, it means that I am making headway,,,. Been far too many famine weeks this year already.)
Has a suspicion on whats going on with Bloo. Not a good thing if I am correct. BUT its an easy enough check. Loosen a bolt and see how she runs.
Huh? Whutcha thinkin’ Dio?
Recall I cracked the Main cap doing the crankshaft. Well, I’m thinkin’ that may have also cracked the block a bit. Enough to let oil into one of the cylinders (or two, possible with the location of where the break happened) NOW, WHY that thought line? I had several bolts loosened up on the front of the block while doing the running valve lash adjustment. NO SMOKE,,, That didn’t start back up until I had tightened those bolts back down, and then it really started up. Every time that bracket gets tight, it could be putting additional stress on said crack and thats why it’s only getting WORSE.
ANd I could be wrong. But if I am right, this block is dead while running. And she does run, runs good, but smokes like a freight train now. Still, can’t figure it out if I ain’t looking, and thats the call for the weekend. COULD go give Burnout a hand on his POS, and may drive Bloo that far seeing how all of my tools are still located in her. Sure can’t hurt her anymore than she already is: just keep an eye on that oil level.
Anybuggers,,, Thats the highly flexible plan for the weekend. Eldest Sis is coming in next week for a couple of weeks to help with Da and getting his future lined up a bit better (he still has tentative plans, she wants to solidify them more.) He has a Phystherapy appt on Muhnday eve,,, that could prove interesting: I’m quite certain I am gonna hear quite a bit of grumping after the fact. Hardest thing is gonna keep him at it, DON’T QUIT!!! He hinted ‘if I dnn’t like it, Ic an quit’ and I came very close to reading him the riot act,,, But I kept my cool and just pointed out “if you quit, you won’t get better, and they may not want to do surgery if you aren’t improving the swelling issues”
more laters,,, flexy weekend ahead and I may get a chance to catch up on the world.
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
all in the roundabout,,,
Half day at work, progress getting Da some treatment options, still runnin’ a leetle krazy but the day is winding down.
I’m winding down more like,,,
Was feeling a touch touchy in relation to other HoomanBeans in this reality,,, Had to give my monkey a rub in Buffalo (the one that tells me “SHUT YOUR TRAP”,,,, But yea, a play on words for those of you’ns with your mind in the gutter LOL.)
I’m an introvert,,,, too much “people time” and I get a little anxious and short tempered. I know it, and I have a work-arounds, but there are days where “ENOUGH WITH THE STOOPID PLEAZE!” is just overpowering.
Good news though… Da is now on a Steroid/PhyTherapy routine for a month or so before they re-evaluate,,, Got the impression they want to do surgery, but there is so much inflammation and swelling, thats out
For now,,,
Torn Rotator Cup, several Labrum tendons showing tears,,, 7 bad spots noted in the MRI impressions, and the doc was a little perturbed that Da wasn’t passing out in pain,,, She did note that “He is 85,,, thats a lot of time to acquire this much damage and not feel it.”
he sure as shit is now though. We’re talking the man that was still splitting wood with an ax and maul up to a couple of years ago. You think those tools don’t send shockwaves up bone structures? HA!,,, Heck,,, my shoulder is grumping at me right now and not from a splitting maul, but from handshock from a bow with 45# draw,,, it all adds up.
BUT
FORWARD MOTION!!! Much better than the runaround in the roundabout that we were getting. (and just what Civil engineer thought the Roundabout was GENIUS,,, Bastach needs to be tied to a pinion in the middle and forced to watch the stoopid,,,)(note, here in SEKY, the roundabouts are a new thing, and seeing people still using them as a four-way stop is hilarious and frustrating .)
back to work tomorrow,,,, managed to get some stuff done in the four hours I did get in, and tomorrow will be riding the lightning day,,, Burnin’ metals,,, Sparky sorta day. My bread and butter,,,
And I have some side work lined up. Simple too. universal joints on a 2500,,, Client is buying the parts, I’m just charging labor. Taking the shaft out and bringing home so I can use the shop press to do it right. (that press is BIG and HEAVY,,, she ain’t riding to a jobsite.)
Not making much on the side doing the wrench diag thing, but I didn’t expect to make much at first,,, Fact, I am making more than I expected and I haven’t picked up very much at all. Still “in the hollar” workin.
How to fit the time of J.O.B. and the Gig and Da and still having a life,,,, At some point something will have to go the wayside. (J.O.B.) Not yet though,,, this is one of the ‘tests’,,, Much like Bloo is a TEST (of my patience and sanity,,,, but I digress)
Will I have time this weekend to work on Bloo? I dunno,,, weather liars are sayign tis gonna be a might wet,,, and I need to at least look at the valve seals before I do anything else. I Haven’t had a moment at all in the eves to do much of anything but pop her hood and give her a stern talking too. Not that she is gonna listen,,, But I felt better for it.
and I won’t lie to ya,,, very much thinking a new block is the end solution: anything I do at this point is just gonna be a bandaid to the end result. Bandaids may be needed to get between here and there, but I’m a realist. Granted, I shoulda listened to saner WISER heads and already gone that route,,,, What can I say,, Stubborn, bullheaded, gotta learn the hardway,,,
THAT’SA ME!!!!
I’ll get by,,, And I said that when I jumped in with all four feets into this mess,,, Gonna be tight, but when ain’t it? ( I must be part Kat,,,, Dawgs has more sense,,, but then, I’ve seen 7# kats dominate 200# Dawgums,,, You only get that to that level by jumping in feets first and runnin’ with it.)
Not much to talk about otherwise,,, Haven’t even checked my feeds today, and was in mad delete mode when I checked my emails. (nothing of import, just spam for the most part)
LIVE
LEARN
LAUGH
LOVE
LOAD!!!
Addendum: Forgot to mention,,, Burnout wants me to work on his POS for him (and help,,, NOT!) and says he’ll pay cash. I’m torn in several ways. BUT,,, I told him,,, CASH UP FRONT!!! Problem with that, I could find myself hip deep in another BLoo situation and that spells LOSS, not PROFIT. Reason I want cash up front,,, that boy STILL owes me money from when I was carting his arse around to make sure he made it to work. He still owes the Bosses cash (and I saw a note to him the other day,,, “rents due,, $75 ASAP,,,, So I know he is either struggling to pay or just so brain ded as to forget continously,,, I don’t wanna be on that list of “Bill Collector”,,,)
time fer t’inks
Fabrication days always get my brainium in motion. Once the initial figures and cuts are made that is. Once I have my parts cut and jigs(if needed) made, the rest is mindless functions, turn up the tunes and zen out,,,
And that lets the mind roam a bit.
Not going to unpack all of my thinks here, but this whole IRAN thing,,, the Israel/US concerted efforts there. Stories of Post’s going “POOF!” while looking at them. And the fact that Moscow pulled the plug on things when Iran requested MOAR!!!
Lots going on, and the story we are being told AIN’T TRUTH,,, That much I am confident to say. Something is going on in the world, and some large part of me is saying “this is much bigger than species or race, or nations,,,”
“Our war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives”
And I get a dribble of a feeling, that Mr Trumped is not playing his role as a certain “greatest Ally Evah!” wants him to. I get the distinct impression that particular bedroom suite is full of turmoil behind the curtains. How and what that turmoil might be, I can only guess at, and since I am not privy to large matters of intel, Hell, not even SMALL matters of intel, I’m formulating these thoughts on the story being told and whats NOT being said.
Put another way, there are only a handful of countries that do not have a Rothschild backed “Central Bank” and all of them have been under the crosshairs lately,,,
And the economic bomb continues to tick away,,,, Dunno’bout y’all, but that worries me far more than Ivan or a Dragon chuckin’ canned sunshine about.
But that’s alright,,, Y’see, even when things go full on teats up in the economy, PEOPLE will find ways of trade and continue on. It won’t be pretty, and there will be a certain amount of die off that takes place: its inevitable due to the level of “Dependent” class this country has developed over the last couple of decades. Far too many people have no clue where food actually comes from, or that plastic wrapped meat USED TO BE part of a living breathing movin’n’mooin’ COW. or yardbird, or,,,, And can’t tell you how many have no clue how to operate a regular STOVE,,, That microwave is IT in their world/kitchen. (actually had a guy at work shocked to learn I use a percolator make coffee. He doesn’t even know how to load a drip maker since all of his ‘coffee’ comes in those teurig cups. That ain’t coffee in my world, though I lack the language to say what I think it is.)
Yeah,,, things will keep on keeping on, even when the dollar bill is worth more to wipe your ass with, than using as an exchange tool. I worry more that they will try to go full bore Electronic Currency and all of the controls that allows them. We are already seeing signs of Klaus Straubs “You will own nothing and be happy” in play, with subscription services, and 2 owner only automobiles that deny and defy DIY service peeps.(KIAs are notorious for this now. 100000 mile warranty and when that warranty wraps up, the ‘hicle is JUNK!)
I’m just glad as hell I still see stuff like this on the regular in my little world. This is an edit of seveeral videos describing his build of a Gingery Lathe (I own this book, and may yet do this build, but the methods, used in this manner or not, are INVALUABLE,,,,)
If you can make that, the list of stuff you can’t make gets really small,,,, Kinda like building kayaks,,, you get the first one done, and before you have even christened it, you are designing the next one. In this case,,, You are in the middle of building the first one, and you are already working on ‘whats next’ and ‘this could have saved my bacon a time or three in the past’,,,,,
This is my current machine tool of choice:
She ain’t the greatest, but she does quick and dirty machine operations just fine. More than enough that I can use this to start building BETTER, when I get, IF I get to that point (Fact being, I can still pick up a used bend or lablond or some other ‘manual shop lathe’ cheaper than building my own. How long that remains that way,, who knows?)(what you DON’T see in that pic is the cases of tooling that I also picked up along the way. You can buy a lathe cheap, the tooling is where you get killed,,, Lathe bits, even the ones you grind to shape, COST,,, and those are the cheap tools,,, A dividing head is gonna cost you half the price of that lathe, EASY, and if you go for top of the line name brand stuff, DOUBLE the cost of the lathe.)(and thats what I liked about Daves book, linked above. He was a broke blue collar dude much like myself, and documented MAKING all of those tools he couldn’t afford. (pre-internet days) including dividing heads and other things, but especially showing the VALUE of ‘turning between centers’, like they did before we got spoiled by three jaw chucks and collets.)
“A lathe is the only tool in the shop that makes itself.” Once the bed and ways are set, the machine literally builds itself, and the more you use its bed for that, the more accurate it will be.
But I’m drifting away from what I came here to write about. Things in the world are shifting. and the stories we are being fed only have the barest of truth in them. So much NOT being said going on, and when you start to listen to the silence, things start making a little more sense. Like the fact that our FedGOV has essentially tossed ROL onto the dustbin (International rules that is,,, they are still of the “rules for thee, not for me” mindset,,,, coff, Epstein files, coff coff)
Listen to the silence,,, think!
And on that note,,, back to the J.O.B. tomorrow,,,, half day, gotta take da to the Ortho Clinic, fingers crossed that this isn’t just another fools errand, that they actually start some sort of treatment protocol,,,
Y’all take care,,,love ya!
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
Gotta watch those ‘in the cups’ posts,,,,
Man was I dragged down into the depths yesterday. I won’t say I wasn’t feelin’ weights, because the gist of that post implicates MANY weights on me, and there are more than just those I talk about here, though Sometimes,,, A brief mention may be made and left alone.
The whole thing with Premonitions about Bloo,,,, that one,, Seems like everything I am doing to progress a self-business is getting hammered with trials and tribs,,, And I ain’t gonna let them get me railroaded off. I may adapt ‘the business model’, but Going Solo IS the end goal, what method that takes is wide the F! open: as many paths as I have skills, and then some if you consider the option of “combined efforts” of skills. I have a hella reputation here in the locallocallocal for being the “goto” guy for many things, and I won’t sugar coat things,,, if something needs round-filed or whatever, I will tell them. Turned down a job or three because the product in question was so far over the rainbow, nothing was going to recover it short of a time machine AND hitting the PowerBall,,,
So whats goin’ on with Bloo,,,, I have no frellin’ idea at present. Rule one in diag: “what was messed with last?” Usually there is something undone, messed up, or ‘missed’ from recent works, that can cause things to not be ‘just right’,
What did I just do on BLoo? Valve stem seals. Like Fred said, I may have F!ed one up,,, OR, one popped loose and is riding the stem, not sealing SHIT,,,, Or a multiple of that,, Then, toss in that I have done pretty much everything you can do on this block without removing the heads,,,, Could be a headgasket, though I doubt that, but could be that intake manifold gasket, Brand stinkin’ new, so I am not pointing at that, but its not off the table either. PCV and breather tube are already ruled out, were ruled out yesterday because that was the FIRST thing I checked,,,, Simple checks,,, can you blow though them? yup…
Easiest check I can do is to pull the valve covers again, use my camera to look between the springs and eyeball those seals. And thats this weekend. From there,,, will see. It may be obvious, it may not be. But, start with the easy stuff first, get complicated later as needed.
STILL, plan is: Drive infrequent, more so she doesn’t just ‘sit’, pay the damnedable bills I created, and GET A NEW BLOCK (or even used block of known condition.) at some future point. I am very much distrusting of this block at this point. My work besides the point, this block has shown its prior abuse levels and I just do not trust it.
BUT,,, I had a full day at the J.O.B. will again tomorrow,,, half day on Wednesday (Da/Doc appt) but looks like the remainder of the week will be full. Really big dog Kennel job we picked up (and I believe they only accept these to keep me properly busy,.) Sure coulda used this last week, but here we are: Not gonna whine about it, just grab it and run with it.. Fact being, I am more likely to run out of pipe for fabrication before I run out of fabrication to do. Hoping we have a delivery mid-week as my stocks are dwindling fast on this build. (Its really big! 4-5 stall units, 20′ wide 6′ deep, 6′ tall. LOTS of pipe involved.)
I’m blabberin,,,, Nothing has changed, but I did get a little venting out by getting into my cups yesterday. Frustrations don’t end just ‘cuz I gotta buzz on, but I did get a moment to unwind from them and look at things a little less intensely. Too easy to get so focused you miss something, and usually something important. (and could be some of that in Bloo right now,,, something so damned obvious, I keep missing it. because I am so focused on WHAT she is intended for.)
y’all take care out there,,, Gonna be a busy week on this end, but better that than NOT busy and strugglin’.
Love ya
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
Dio's Workshop 