[Wed 8/26: 1.3 miles (with the dog); Thursday 8/27: 4.5 miles; Saturday: 6 miles; Mon 1.3]
Fortunately I have been using my Garmin regularly on recent runs so I can go back in and see what I actually did. Otherwise this once per week posting thing would have completely fallen off the shelf.
In projects, we are slowly fixing things on the MGB. Over the weekend we obtained the new starter only to discover that the jumper cables I had been using were bad. So I bought new cables and the combination of new cables and new starter gave us the uumph to turn the engine over. But no spark. So I have ordered points and condenser for our next step forward.
Obtaining the starter was interesting. I ordered it from NAPA online because they were running a discount for AAA members. But it took awhile to get it at the local store. Somehow the first one ended up in Moline. When I went to pick up at the store they told me that one got lost and they had to fed-ex me one from Denver. The fed-ex cost was over $200 and I paid less then $100 for the thing (including the AAA 20% discount). So that was an interesting thought to ponder. I decided since the store is already in the red on my account I should probably get the other ignition parts from them also. And their prices were in line.
I have some instructions about how to acquire the appropriate ignition key. But we are OK for now with jumper wires bypassing the thing. If we get spark then the next thing is fuel delivery and after that we will worry about the key.
Really almost everything is available for these cars, and not outrageously expensive. So we could eventually get it completely restored if we have the patience and desire.
On our recent trip to Mississippi I collected the weather station parts from the installation at the radio station shack. Arriving home I was able to determine that the beaglebone single board computer (SBC) was unbootable. It can’t seem to find it’s memory chip at all.
So I ordered a new one, this time with integrated wifi. And I have it working. The software we used before was wview which is now unsupported and supplanted by a python scripted package called WeeWX. I have that running on the new beaglebone w/wifi and the Vaisala weather device. I need to see if I can successfully import the historical data from the old wview installation. It is supposed to be possible.
I did some more work on the WWVB clock. I put the electronic guts in a box. I lined the box with aluminum foil for noise reduction. That actually seems to work. I have some more work on the enclosure to do, then I think it can go up on the wall somewhere.
I don’t have much to say about the upcoming election or politics in general. I am not a Trump fan, but also I can’t see myself voting for the expansion of abortion or the leftward drift with cancel culture and fashionable Mao-like reeducation and denunciation. So I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I recently saw that Andrew Sullivan, a major driving force behind same sex marriage has been caught up in the historical revisionism and that gave me a bit of sinful glee. Maybe in 20 years all of the kids who now officially have no mother (or no father) will have some good feedback for him. It couldn’t happen to someone more deserving in my opinion. But at least he got his tax break. I’m sure he doesn’t see his little bit of cultural mayhem as any way related to the burning and looting in Portland or Kenosha.
One reply on “Once a week isn’t enough”
I don’t think people in Portland or Kenosha are paying attention to Sullivan. Or in Minneapolis. My view it is the absence of social compact in some sub-cultures.
Personally, I am enjoying what Trump is doing – turning the GOP into the party of his family (major speakers being relatives at the convention). It’s text book third world behavior. (Of course not his first two wives. They didn’t stay pretty enough long enough to stick around.) He is doing to the GOP from the inside what no force from the outside could ever attempt. No mention of budget deficits. Tea party disappeared. And Trump, if you read his tweets or listen to him, is a master at historical revisionism. I think people actually believe him. “Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country.”
I should be supporting Trump. My 401K is high enough we can retire now (we are thinking about it) while working class people who voted for Trump lost jobs by the millions this year (net) and at the convention he bragged he created 9,000,000 jobs. (COVID to disappear by April.)