Installation

Now for the finishing touch. No matter how ugly your project turns out, there's nothing like a nice coat of paint. It usually improves things. And of course it does protect it 'till you scrape the paint off, which doesn't take long. When painting over rusty steel, I prefer brand name rust-type paint. Some how I maintain the illusion that this will make up for my halfassed surface preparation.

I usually go for a thick coat of paint, real thick. This is another of my self deceptions. Somehow I delude myself into believing that if all else fails, the paint will hold things together. I mean why not ? It sure sticks to me. And the paint brush too. Why is it so hard to clean a paint brush ? This explains the popularity of those water based paints. But I don't trust them, at least not on this sort of thing. It should be noted, that even after the original Truck Rack had fallen apart, it was still painted just fine.


And now comes the installation. Without this step the whole project would be pointless. With the help of the Athletical Son, the newly refurbished Truck Rack was placed on the truck. The entire assembly was then securely attached to the truck bed with a number of screws.

We haven't tried to use it yet, but it seems strong enough. I even think that if the Athletical Son decides to workout on it, it may even survive. But actually, I don't want to encourage that sort of behavior.

And so here is the finished project, ready for the road and whatever comes next.

Fabrication

Los Burritos were tasty, so, on with this Truck Rack business.
First, I should mention that My Sweetie is one of the fortunate few women who have a 230 amp arc welder under their kitchen counter. I suppose this could open up some interesting possibilities in food preparation. Remember those thing for cooking hotdogs, before microwaves, were you would stick them on some kind of electrodes ? Think what 230 amps could do ! But that is another subject. Here in my sophisticated work area, you can see all the state of the art equipment. The green box with the wheels is, of course, the welder. To the left of that, are the high-tech saw horses, complete with "C" clamps. The round looking orange thing, is one of the power supplies, behind which you may notice the cheap side grinder. A 3/8 drill with wire brush, and toolbox with odds and ends, round things out. And most importantly, the shade tree. When the cargo was finally removed from the original rack, the whole back end fell off. (You may notice it leaning against the saw horse) So the first thing was to replace that. Here you can see the system developed to assure the proper alignment of this critical component.
The small gussets were a feature of the new improved design, so they would have to be cut. Not having access to a cutting torch, I have learned to use metal cutting blades in the skill saw. This system is capable of the precision cuts necessary for these critical parts.

Now the gusset is installed. The weld still needs to be cleaned up. The side grinder comes in handy for that. By now the sun had moved and my shade was gone. This was not good. But the assembly was complete, and it was time to give it a rest.
Next we'll look at the finishing up of this project.

Truck Rack Redesign

On a recent trip home from the coast, some serious deficiencies were discovered with The Fuzz's Truck Rack.
[See, Complications in Travel, July 27, 2007]
Since this rack is a necessary accessory to the little Oriental Vehicle, It had to be repaired. The original design had leaned a bit too much in the "light" direction, and this contributed to the resultant ordeal. Some slight changes were in order. So here is the new, improved Fuzzy Truck Rack.

The Fuzz is still going for the "minimalist" thing here, just not too "minimal" he hopes. The main improvements, other than better welds, are the new Gussets. The Fuzz expects that these will add the needed rigidity and reenforce his questionable welding.
This whole affair consists of old bed-rails and scrap metal, picked up around town. Bed rails are cheap, but thin, and frustratingly hard to weld without burning holes though them.
So the "Brain" work was done, (if you can call it that) and it was time to put it all back together. The Fuzz will go though this, step by step, but not today. Its Burrito Night.

Puddin' Again

Perhaps you will remember Puddin'. This is not his obituary, in fact he is doing quite well. If you don't remember him, click on the label "Puddin' " and you can pick up the story.
Well I just wanted to mention him and let everyone who knows and loves the pitiful little thing, that he's no longer pitiful, but a heathy young cat with his own bad habits. He liked to sleep in the kitchen trash can, so now he sleeps outside with the rest of them. Maybe he'll get in in the winter, maybe not.
But cold weather is not a problem these days. As you can see, he's found a nice place on the cool (relatively) window sill.
He still loves his mommy. And he still likes to sit in-between me and the book I'm trying to read.
So far, he seems to have stayed out of the road. Maybe he'll be around for a while after all.

Coping with Heat

Today it only got up to 94'. Hot enough I suppose. This past week it's been up over 100 a few times. One thing I hear from time to time, (besides the ZZ Top jokes) is "How can you stand it in this heat ?" Well here's a little trick picked up out of necessity. Keeps the stuff off the neck so a little air can get through. I guess it would be cool to add some beads and stuff, but this is usually done on the spur of the moment as they say.
Actually, I singed an inch or two off a while back messing around trying to cook something on the grill. I forget what though. My Sweetie made me cut off the burnt part. It didn't smell too good, and I would of had to sleep by myself. That's no fun.

Looking Up

We've had temps up to 102f lately. Today with temps approaching 99' and things pretty much under control, they cut me loose a little early. As I headed the bike toward home, I glanced up and saw this blimp up there. It was pretty close then, but by the time I got to the house, (and my camera) it was not so close. But I did manage to catch this much of it with my zoom zoomer thing.
I've never been up in a balloon. I bet it would be cool, just floating along up there, all quiet like. But I suppose there would be a lot of noise from all the stuff on the ground. In the blimp, you would have the engines of course.
It would be quite different than a plane I'm sure. I wonder if it would be like floating in a boat.
Maybe someday..........

Joyless Stick

This is supposed to be the "Joy Stick". Long ago, [Thursday, February 22, 2007, (Really Getting Into This)] there were a series of posts, on garbage and related things. So I won't get into all that here, but....
This is a "Joy Stick". Why they call it that, I can't say. Because I don't know. However it is necessary for the successful completion of this important operation. If it doesn't work, you are SOL, as they say.
After a recent absence, I resumed my place as an important cog in the mighty workings of modern civilization. As I prepared to engage the first of many trash receptacles, I noticed that this important control was loose in my grip. My first thought was "Rats", or some equivalent. I soon determined that a slight twist, would retighten it. This was good, since it eliminated a return to the shop to annoy the mechanics. After a successful day, and another job well done, I did annoy the mechanics, and one did correct this problem. But....
The next day, as I went out on my appointed rounds, I found that the red button, (visible in the illustration) had no effect. This red button is supposed to make the machine pack up, or rather, "compact" the refuse. This is necessary because if it doesn't happen you won't get very far. Fortunately there is another control for this function, and since the yellow and green buttons did work, the job could still be done. So after another successful day, I once again annoyed the mechanics. But...
This morning I was informed that in the effort to repair this seemingly small problem, this component had been destroyed, and thus rendered useless. But we are prepared for these situations. So the old reliable was once again pulled out of retirement, and with real people swinging on the back, we sallied forth on our mission. New parts were ordered (mucho dinero), things looked hopeful. But....
I hate to say it, but the parts shipped, were not the parts needed, so tomorrow will be more of the same.

But I Won't Tell

Yes here it is. I'll admit, I had to read it. But if you've read all the others, how could you miss this one ? I mean, this is the one that ties it all together, right ? No, I'm not going to tell you who dies and all that stuff. You'll just have to read it for your self. Oh, I suppose there's a website somewhere that will give it all away without you having to read the whole thing. And it is fairly thick. But if little kids can do it, so can you. So I won't tell you.
I did not camp out all night at the store to get this. It's not really mine. A kind and generous person gave it to my Son. Then, Young Daughter got her hands on it. But when I had to make a recent trip, she let me take it, and I had lots of time sitting on planes, and waiting on planes, and all that. So now I know what happens, who dies, and if the forces of goodness triumph over the forces of rottenness. But I won't say here.

Sunshine State

This is the place where I went to visit my Sister. It is a Hospital, she is quite ill I'm sorry to say. But I'm not going into that right now.
There are some visual clues that this is not North Carolina. I think the trees will give it away. She lives in a Tropical Paradise Place. Not the Tropical Paradise we visited earlier this year, but tropical enough.
This looks like a new hospital. Everything here looks new. The whole town looks new. There are new streets and new sidewalks, new building everywhere. Even the grass and trees are new. The trees just look un-new. I wondered how they could find all these un-new trees in just the right places.

But then I saw this. Apparently this tree did not grow here. It must have been tree-napped from some other place. Trees can not move very fast, so it probably could not escape. It seems to have been tied up, and pulled up, and then propped up here. But this is a nice place, kinda like a park or something.
You may notice on the roof, a glassed in place, where one could enjoy the view. That would be very nice, but unfortunately, it's only there for looks. We walked all around the place looking for a way up, but there was none. After we gave up sneaking around, we even asked about it. I think it's not a real place.
But before I give the wrong impression, the people here are very nice and are taking good care of my Sister.
You may also notice the dark and cloudy sky. I am beginning to wonder about this "Sunshine State" thing. It seems to mostly rain here. We need some of that at home, but it seems to want to stay here. There are little ponds everywhere with water in them.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of people here, at least for the size of the facilities. I was told things would change latter in the year. I guess for now all the people are in the mountains back home.
But My Sister does not live in this place. Here is a view of her neighborhood.
My Sister is not really from the Tropical Paradise, but her husband is. And everything in the Tropical Paradise is not new. But it seems like everywhere things are changing. New roads, new houses, new everything, pushing the old things away.
This is the "Driveway" to their home. It is a very beautiful place. Not "New", not like a park, but like a "real" place. I suppose those other places are "real" enough, but sometimes one needs to dig one's toes down into the dirt, get off the transplanted sod, and smell the fresh earth. And maybe to look up at the real trees and the sky.
So, to those of you who do believe, and who pray, remember My Sister and her family. And appreciate Life while you have it.

More Traveling

I had to go out of town to see my sister. She's not doing very well. This is not North Carolina of course.

Complications in Travel

It's a tale of fun,
In the surf and the sun.
There's no reason to grieve,
Even though we must leave,
So it's homeward at last,
This vacation is past.

Last year as we left our Beach Experience, Troubles arose. This year, they actually arose the evening before the exodus.
You may notice the size of the load which has been placed on this puny rack on my puny truck. It should be noted that this rack was hastily constructed for the purpose of carrying only a Kayak. The Fuzz must take responsibility for this. That seems to be what people do these days when there is trouble. Maybe he could refer to this as an "error in judgment" or something. In reality it is more like a bungle. This rack was actually constructed quite flimsily on the foolish assumption that it would not be under much stress. This is actually rather uncharacteristic of The Fuzz who has historically overbuilt everything. It may have something to do with the "Downsizing" of his Truck to this tiny Oriental Thing, and the desire to travel "Light".
Be that as it may, on the evening before the exodus, a Heavy Duty Son, decided in his youthful exuberance, to use this Light Duty Rack, for what may be referred to as "playground equipment", with some disquieting results. You may notice that this inferior weld in this inferior design has failed. This is not a good thing. This has happened many, many miles from the Home Base. While these things were transpiring, The Fuzz was blissfully unaware, peacefully laying in the air conditioned beach house reading "The Brothers Karamazov" (which is pretty good if you have the time). There, he was approached with the words, "We have a mechanical problem". This might not have been entirely accurate, but it was a problem nevertheless.
There is, I suppose, some advantage to not knowing about your problems in advance. The Fuzz would probably not have enjoyed this seaside excursion so much, knowing he would have to drive hundreds of miles beneath a canoe which could fall off the truck at any moment. This was a mercy.
So the canoe and kayak were gently placed on the now somewhat unstable rack. Then, The Fuzz, with the assistance of the Sons, strapped it all together, very tightly. Those straps with the ratchet things on them work very well. The Fuzz highly recommends them for times like this. The theory was, the canoe and kayak would keep the rack from collapsing on it self, and some other straps would keep it from falling apart. It was The Fuzz's Sweetie that recommended lashing the paddle to the rack in the hope that if it did come loose, it would at least stay in the truck.
And so, the next morning the rest of the stuff was loaded, and the trip began.
The first leg was over secondary two lane type roads. This was good because of the low speeds, but there were a lot of bumps. By the time he got to the Interstate, The Fuzz noticed that the canoe seemed to be moving around more than he liked, so he pulled over.
Things were beginning to get interesting now. The Fuzz discovered to his dismay, not one, but three defective welds. This is 3 out of 4, not good at all. This seemed to be some sort of "domino effect" due to the extra strain. Back into his bag of tricks. This was a little army surplus pack crammed with straps, ropes and stuff like that. The Fuzz highly recommends carrying these sort of things on trips, when it is inconvenient to bring a welder.
Now the strapping, tying, cussing and praying began in ernest. The State Troopers stopped to see if things were all right. They left on the assurance that there were no mechanical difficulties. They probably would not have been happy with the condition of the load. The end result was an incredible web of strapping and ropes, that fortunately held up the whole way home.

And so, the Beach trip is over for another year. Once again the Return Trip was a bit traumatic for The Fuzz. But once again all is well. It's all just the grace of God.

Ups, Downs and Ups

Here at the beach there is always plenty of wind, so here are the guys getting ready to get this thing airborne. Things went well for a while, but of course, there were complications.








A rescue was initiated.






Now we're back in business.





















This isn't Kitty Hawk, but the North Carolina Coast is still an excellent place for flying.

At the Seaside

Well yes, been gone for a while. It was for a good reason though. You see, we had to take this trip. Yes it was the Second Annual Family Beach Trip. Here you can see The Fuzz, himself, on the road again. The Fuzz did not take this photo himself. He had help. He is not able to be in two places at one time, he is just not fast enough.

You may notice that the Little Truck has a big load. This will be the cause of sort of a problem at a later time, but, we won't get into that right now. Last year, the Kayak rode on the Little Truck by itself. But as this Kayak is a "Personal Water-craft" in the fullest sense, only one person can "water-craft" in it at a time. So, not wanting anyone to miss out on the enjoyment of simply messing about, The Fuzz loaded up the big stuff. This was a good move (except for that problem that turned up later).
So there we were on the N.C. Coast, on one of those Big Sandbars they refer to as islands. The place we stayed at was on the Sound side of the Big Sandbar. This means that we had to walk a couple hundred yards to the actual "Beach". It also means that we had access to our own pier and swimming beach, on the relatively quiet, Sound.
Having the canoe, The Fuzz was able to take His Sweetie out across the Sound to where all these weedy things were. When the Tide is out, this is mostly mud with a few channels, and a bunch of birds with long legs and necks hanging around. When the Tide is in, this is a maze of channels though the weeds with a bunch of the same birds. There are also fish and stuff swimming around in there. The Fuzz really likes poking around in places like this. This is looking back toward the Sandbar where we were staying.
Across this muck was the Intercostal Waterway. The Fuzz and His Sweetie paddled their little canoe across to have a look. This boat passed by as they floated there amongst the weeds. It even has Spare Boats on it. Shoot, the Spare Boats are bigger than The Fuzz's canoe.
The Fuzz and His Sweetie had a pleasant morning out there, messing about, one of many pleasant times.

Sundown

You Might not hear from me for a while.

The Poetry Corner

To the tune of "The Adams Family"
(I couldn't resist)

He's big and black and furry,
He's always in a hurry,
His teeth will make you worry,
The dogie called Barkly.

I guess you can see what kind of day it's been.

Electricity & Motorcycles

This is a Motorcycle Battery. Unfortunately it is not a happy Motorcycle battery. This Motorcycle Battery has been getting sicker and sicker for some time now. If one is a keen observer, one may notice the small connector wired to the Motorcycle Battery. This may resemble those used for trailer lights, but that is not it's purpose. It is actually there for recharging the Motorcycle Battery.
I remember a time, long ago, when motorcycles had a thing that you could push and push with your foot to crank the Motorcycle. Or else you got so tired you quit in disgust. But times have changed, and we've moved on from those more primitive days. Now there is no foot thing and if the battery is dead you're SOL.
Well, it had been coming for some time now. I knew it would happen. All last winter, I would have to use the little connector to get the Motorcycle to crank. And even now, with the warm weather, still trouble. Finally Zip.
So once again it was time for the Auto Parts Store. They gave me a box with all these things in it. When I have to get one for the car, or my truck, they just give me a big heavy battery. But this time they gave me this box of stuff. I gave them money.
One of the things in the box was a paper thing which told me what to do with all the other things. There was a container of some evil stuff that had warnings on it. They said scary things like, "Corrosive" and "Poison" ! I was instructed to pour this dangerous liquid into my brand new battery, which was already dangerous because it contained Lead ! But first I was instructed to remove a certain vent cover. If I were to fail in this, I faced the risk of an explosion ! I'm sure My Sweetie appreciated the fact that I was not doing this in the kitchen, at the risk of all our lives.
Finally this was all accomplished. But still there was more. The deadly acid was in the battery, but alas, the electricity was not. The thoughtful Battery People provided a helpful chart that told me just how much electricity to put in, and just how long to do this. So, one more time, I used the little connector, and filled this new Motorcycle Battery with electricity.
And best of all, it was worth all the danger, for this morning, the Motorcycle cranked perfectly.

Dog Sitting

Meet the Barkly. Barkly does not exactly live here, but he is visiting. Oldest Son and, Future Daughter in Law, are on a trip to where those yankees live. That is someplace north of here. So This Barkly is visiting for a few days. It's OK. He is used to a bit more personal attention than he gets here though. We did take him for a couple walks along with our own foolish little doggie that won't stay out of the road and tries to get squashed by motor vehicles. The little doggie thinks she can eat him. This is foolish of course, but it must be the Chihuahua coming out in her.
Barkly sleeps in his "Crate". This is a good thing, because he likes this, and we like this. Yesterday, when I was taking off his "harness" (used for walking), a piece came off his collar. It seemed insignificant at the time. Early this morning I got up to put him in the yard and he just pulled his head out of his collar. This was not good, since this is how we make him stay with us. Being the resourceful person I am, I just put the "Harness" on, hooked him up, and went back to bed. Little did I realize, that whilst I was dozing, he was destroying this thing, and tasting real freedom. Fortunately, he had decided to enjoy his freedom in the back yard.
When I finally got up, I looked out there and he was gone. I mumbled a four letter word or two, but then thought to check out back. Thank God he was there just playing with his "Bone". So we closed the gate, and it was time for a trip to Wally World for a new collar. Barkly is a real People Dog, so I guess he had no desire to "escape".
So Here he is looking all rednecky with his Bone under the truck.

Floating

We took the Canoe out for another excursion on the 4th. This time we poked up in this creek just to see what was to be seen. Here is where we ran out of water, or at least enough to float on.
We stopped a bit and My Sweetie tried to capture the scene with her paints. I just played with the camera and poked around. Right on the other side of the gravel bank where we stopped, there was this mighty fine swimming hole. It was at least 5ft deep right at a rock face, spring fed and cold even on this hot day in July. This place seemed quite secluded, no footprints other than deer, ducks and stuff like that. The water was actually pretty clear (I don't know why it looks murky in the pic), so we couldn't resist a refreshing dip. My Skinny Dipping habits seem to be rubbing off on My Sweetie these days. Later on, when I was home, I checked out the Google Satellite View and there do seem to be some dwellings in the area. But you'd never know it down there in the woods. Later, we paddled back out to the lake and eventually tied up on the bank for a picnic lunch. That's when this fellow showed up. He just jumped off the bank into the canoe, like he was ready to go home with us. Ah, thought I, another Photo Opportunity. But then I almost fell overboard trying to make his portrait. I did end up tossing him over the side, and by then he seemed satisfied to go, swimming happily away.

4th of July Things

My Sweetie and I were riding down to that River-Lake for some "Messing About" when we came upon this place all festive for the 4th.
It was just too classic, so we couldn't pass it up without a photo to share.
I don't think I'll set off any Pyrotechnics tonight. My Sweetie hides in the house ever since that "Butterfly" chased her around the yard a few years ago. I see where some woman in Michigan blew her head off with some Pyrotechnics. Besides that, it's kinda dry around here. Of course there's no telling what that Son might do.
So Happy Birthday USA. You might not be perfect, but people still risk their lives to get here. That must mean something.

Dredgery

Took a day off work last Friday. One thing good about this job is that I've been there so long, my vacation days build up fairly quickly. Took My Sweetie to the river for a canoe ride. It was pretty nice and mostly quiet down there. But we did come upon this odd looking boat. It was kinda noisy. They were dredging sand out of the river. When we were at the coast last year, they were dredging the channel with this big old thing. This river operation is not so big I guess. But the point here is to get the sand. Out there they just wanted it out of the way. And so, there is a long, Big Ass Hose from the dredgie thingie to this place on the bank. This spot on the river is dammed up of course, and if they didn't dredge, it would eventually get filled with sand, I suppose. On the far left you can see where the Big Ass Hose runs up into the plant. (You can "click" on it for a better look, but y'all knew that) The barrel is one of 'em that keeps the hose up off the bottom, it's pretty long. Here is a closer look at the operation. The water and sand come out of the Big Ass Hose and the water ends up back in the river. You can see this happening behind the floating barrel. The sand takes a ride up the belt and eventually makes it to a truck. There is no picture of the truck, but I'm sure you've seen one of them before.
We had a pleasant morning on the river, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. We even found a sandy "beach" for a "private" swim.
Enjoy the 4th.

Grace & Glorie

Went to a play last weekend. I'm just now getting around to this. But anyway, the local community theater group put it on. They usually do pretty good and this time was no exception. Title was Grace & Glorie. Grace is the old lady in the bed. This looks like a scene from Little Red Riding Hood. At least I think so. I'm expecting the Big Bad Wolf to come in any minute. But there was no Big Bad Wolf, just the City Slicker Lady. That would be Miss Gloria, aka Glorie.
It seems that Grace is the backwoods mountain woman who just happens to be dying. She checked herself out of the hospital so she could go home and die in peace. Gloria is the Big City Lawyer Lady who is stuck in the boonies and has taken up Hospice Volunteering. Here we see her enjoying Grace's wood stove. It looks like she is flipping the thing off, but I don't remember her doing that. It must be the camera angle or something.
Of course everyone had issues and stuff that they had to deal with, but I guess that's what makes drama and all. The play was excellent though, and we enjoyed it.