Good morning!!!!

[Wagtail]

Good (Tuesday) morning. Overnight Low of 0.6C with a slight morning frost. It's presently 13.8C, fairly clear and calm.

Recyclable tip run completed yesterday (cardboard & wine bottles). Today should be a dhobi day. Lazy Winter days... which I'm happy with.

That's about it, take care all.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I'm writing from Deer Isle Maine. We made it! The trip was a grind. My wife decided that we should break the trip into two days. Good thing. We ran into blasting on 78 just over the Jersey line that shut the road for half an hour. Then there was a bad accident just before the Connecticut line. Seems like rush hour in Connecticut starts at noon on Friday. The 6 hour trip took over 9 hours. Thank goodness we found a double space at the hotel where we could park with the boat. We left the hotel at 7 the next morning and traffic was surprisingly heavy. We were glad to get north of Portland. 95 in Maine is very good and the service areas were better than most. The 2006 Tundra did the job. It is a funny thing, when it was new it was deluxe but now it seems plain jane.
Chris

Do you take the northern route, to avoid the big cities?


Flat trackers were in New Jersey last week, close to a bunch of my PA peeps. This weekend headed to Peoria for the TT races.

Rich, are you going to Peoria? Still on my bucket list.

RNG, hope the process continues with fair winds.

Popgadget, love the flying pics. My guess is that you're known far and wide as "Mr. Fixit". Did the Prius scan require an expensive scanner to determine issue?

Plums, cherry tomatoes, owls, raccoons, Ron's chipmunk pic, cat on a rail fence repair, new speaker..... we got it all right here on the GM thread.

Ron, I'm having to use a precision tool grinder right now. We are dusting off some metallurgy "Jominy" test samples. I'm having to dust off the cobwebs in my mind, back when I first learned a wee bit about grinding....many decades ago. Never did much on one from a production standpoint. The one I'm using is small, and manual. No automatic feed. A good Okamoto grinder will set you back plenty for a good sized one.

We never took the trip to my sister's last week. Busy things in life on both ends.

They said interest rates might go up again...

Hot here. No rain lately. .03" in last 30 days. IIRC, only .06" in the month of June. So less than .1" in 2 hot months of triple digits.

 

[Popgadget]

Did the Prius scan require an expensive scanner to determine issue?

I have the Toyota Techstream software on a laptop that plugs into the OBD2 port, same thing that a dealer uses. It is pretty much required to do anything on a Prius. Fortunately they rarely break. This was a 2005 model.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I'd be interested to hear more stories of how you all got into the line of work you did, and if you would recommend it for a young person in today's market? What did it cost for your education to perform it? Or, did it pay you back quickly?

My daughter is 2nd guessing wanting to be a public school teacher, knowing they don't make much $. She doesn't want to pursue engineering. I'm thinking maybe business school or real estate school.

After over 40 years in machining/manufacturing, I can honestly say I'd not recommend it for a living. The work often follows the lowest paying labor location, which is now in Vietnam, Africa, and other 3rd world countries. Maybe had I been able to get on with a large defense contractor, things could have been different. But even those have their share of layoffs. Almost every shop I've ever worked in, has closed their doors for various reasons. Getting laid off s u x.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 69ºF for the start, mostly clear, light breeze. Light wind, sky became clear, and high temp was 100ºF. Putter this morning, then bike ride, lunch/cool off, then mow back yard, which got delayed because wife sleeping in back bed room. Used neck cooler. No nap .
Randy(wag) good to hear the devils are making a comeback, thanks for the response.
Ron sorry the chicken coop is more setup and cleanup than actual working on coop. Hope you can work through that. Nice chipmunk. Thanks for the background.
Drew glad you don't have our heat.
Buppies sorry you are not getting more sleep. prayers sent.
Billy neat owl pic.
Billy hope hope shower did not mess with plans too much.
Don nice your temp decreased slightly, did your humidity drop as well? Hope kitty fits in quickly and you can take care of things around house.
Drew thanks for link.
Thomas thanks for the info. Hard to believe been 3 years since Boo showed up. Hope weeding was successful.
Kilroy hope the additional training help him to be better behaved dog. Glad you slept through druggies, sorry Mrs did not. good luck with squirrel. There are so many things wrong with poster... Hope tree work goes smoothly.
Scott(vt) 1 spindle in 41 years is impressive, I only had to replace spindle when rocks magically showed up.
Paul nice to hear few pop up repairs and they were easy to deal with. Hope all went well today.
Frits when we were still living near St Louis, we trapped about 20 raccoons one summer, wife started spray paint orange on their butts to see if any repeaters. No , there were not any.
Ken sorry humidity back. hope new dryer works out.
RS hope planting was completed in shade. Glad Beatles are slowing down. Hope you got feeders filled.
RNC glad you are enjoying stay in Lompoc and hose sale moving forward.
Dennis good to hear dog roast was nice. I often wonder how many guitars were bought but not played much. Nice fence repair, glad Snagglepuss happy.
Mike glad you learn enough about construction to do a lot of your own work.
Scott(vt) glad you got a start on trimming hedge rows. Sorry about heat and humidity.
Paul glad you get a opportunity to learn in shop class. I did not take shop as that was the dumping ground for the non-academics.
David hope mattress works out, sorry Messick delivery is late.
Dennis I hope you got some mowing done, 100ºF not fun to mow in
Frits wonder what going on at Camp David?
Dennis glad you got mowing done.
Thomas sorry 3 h's making an appearance.
Mike sorry Z turn just got picked up, Hope plumber shows and has better news.
Randy(wag) good to hear recycle run successful. Hope laundry went well.
Kyle Peoria long trip from your neck of the woods. Never did "Jominy" test bars, just the hour glass shaped bars for tensile testing, Had an enclosed router to cut them, then used chips for carbon testing. Don't overheat the test bar, will skew results.
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle /Daughter, /mom's breathing, /learning new job, /friends upcoming new baby, /son's migraines, Bird /aging issues, Ron /heart, Billy /mom hypertension & congestive heart failure, David(moss) /remodel, /divorce, Buppies /new skin cancer spot and treatment, /back surgery healing, /wife knee healing, Thomas /gout, Phil /reflux, Frits /veteran son with mental issues, /granddaughter with Evans Syndrome, Ken /dad possible dementia, Steppenwolfe /son-auto immune disorder, Grev /wife's eye, Ted /knee recovery, /retirement & disability red tape, /family issues, Lou /eye issues, /loss of brother, /heart issues, Doug and wife/health issues, / hand nerve and surgery, /fall and recovery, / wife headaches and heart eval, / David(sadamo)/Sophie's and David's new eye surgery recovery, Chris /neighbor's granddaughter and Covid issues, Scaredy/shoulder dislocation, /marriage dissolving, / friend stop drinking, Paul/ wife's healing from back surgery, Dennis /retirement, /neighbor issues, /land development, /favorable winds not in the forecast there "alligallyitus" and back in hospital, Drew /back operation issues, /friend's wife cancer diagnosis and recovery, mike /wife's healing from surgery, Scotty /back pain, Helogabals /second opinion, /wife's friend situation, Fatjay /father broken hip, Ukraine war, and Country.

 

[ronjhall]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 59° with clear skies this morning. Heading to 86° with plenty of sun. Got material out for work on Chicken Coop siding. Within minutes sweat was rolling of me, Decided that this project should go on the back burner until it is cooler out. Put material back away. Got back in house where it was much cooler. In afternoon was out on Mule looking at work that was done in neighbors woods. On the way back it started raining. Good thing I have roof and windshield on Mule. In about 20 minutes got .76" of rain and hail. Did not see any damage around my place after it cleared. Not sure what I will get into today.
Flowers in my back field.

Everyone stay well and safe.

Good Morning All.

 

[ronjhall]

Kyle, I have always thought I would like add a small DoAll surface grinder to my shop. But never found one that fit my budget. Used one to make fixtures during my apprenticeship. I do have grinding attachment for my lathe. Have not used it in years.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning!

God has given us another chance to get it right (or at least not screw up too badly…).

59.4F going to mid 80s, allegedly no rain today,

Back in April, I made an appointment at the DMV FOR mom to get a corrected DL, because they screwed up spelling her name and the only way to correct it is in person, and walk-ins are not guaranteed service. the earliest appointment was almost three months out (today) and not at our local office, but two counties and 40+ miles away. Except that I now know that when you click on the Confirm Appointment button and you get the page with your time and location, you have to confirm your confirmation… so when we went to double check the appointment in the system, it wasn’t there.

when I called the office to find out what happened,Mathis little “It isn’t a bug, it’s a FEATURE” was explained to me, and apparently it is very common, since the second confirmation button is down at the bottom of the page and you have to scroll down to see it… (The Government is your friend hand has your best interests at heart )

So we will be at DMV 45 Minutes before they reopen after lunch to get mom (86YOA) on line early for walk-in service, and we are going to play up they whole sympathy for the little old lady thing by having her wait on one of those sitting rolling walkers (which she does not need or use, i scavenged it to one day use the wheels). Why not? She and we will be waiting out I. The summer sun, she needs something to sit on while doing her crosswords, why not maximize the value?

yesterday’s Trip #2 for the rest of the dolls and accessories went well. After helping the gentleman move some large walkway rocks back into place that the local bear had dislodged, he gifted me with a Ridgid compound miter (chop) saw that he had been unable to sell on the local marketplace sites. Good saw, don’t know why it didn’t move.

tomorrow is scheduled tree removal up at the woodlot for those awkward trees that are best left to people with insurance… I need to confirm time with them sometime today.

i hop everyone has a happy healthy safe blessed day!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Kyle, having an oldest brother go thru engineering school convinced me. My sisters were all teachers, although my oldest sister left teaching for other work after she got her masters. She worked awhile In Hawaii for a newspaper, and Houston Tx. Next older brother electronics tech. Younger brother electronics tech who went back later for engineering degree. Neither parent went past high school, but then that was WW2 era and Dad volunteered.
Several of my retired teacher friends say they would not recommend it today, at least in public schools, because they have their hands tied, can’t discipline, and the stuff they are forced to teach. However I think we need teachers that will stand up to what needs taught. I enjoyed teaching college CAD courses as a side gig for awhile, but it didn’t pay well.
In middle school my career goal was to be a carpenter, which I still love to do. I later decided engineering. I designed and built my house, and designed our church building.

My oldest boy is an engineer who does programming, youngest has degree in business information systems. I paid for both of their college expenses, so this talk of student loan forgiveness irritates me. I worked and paid my way thru college, but that’s tough to do today.

 

[riptides]

73 outside this AM. Heading to lower 90's. Storms coming later according to the highly excited weather crews.

May have to run around today, get some more wood, a concrete saw blade and screws. Lots of screws. Better to get than receive. LOL. Also need to get the tax papers back to the accountants. LOL. Hey, almost done this year.

College costs are way out of alignment to reality. Been that way for a long while. Nothing new. I was paying for mine up until a few years ago. I took on the majority of my girls too. I can directly see how debt holds them back. It's a changed world. If we want to compete, we need to figure out how to remove the educational financial burdens for future generations.