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In my travels today: an action-figure scale pickup truck and an action-figure scale police cruiser in the toy aisles of two different shops.

I'm stepping back from the brink.  The money I have in pocket might need to last for a while.

Randomnity

Jun. 10th, 2014 02:21 pm
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* The Public Radio station is playing the Lord of the Rings Symphony as I'm writing this.

* Dad just installed the window air conditioner unit, and it works.

* I frosted the cupcakes for Dad's Bible study group tomorrow.

* When I looked up my own name on a search through my data base for a graphic I've already shared here, I found a reference in a Battletech e-book.  I'm a Steiner.  I don't know how I feel about that.

* We await word from our mechanic on the status of Dad's pickup truck.  A stud in one of the wheel mounts failed, and the other studs for that wheel mount were in bad shape, so he's replacing the lot.

* I'm dabbling with Bitstrips on Facebook...but it doesn't seem to be habit-forming, yet.

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I know I've been much quieter than normal lately. I guess I'm under a more covert, sublime form of depression as opposed to the usual demoralization. At this point, I'm of a mind that just letting it run its course, and not fighting it with self-medication, is the best of my few and far-between options.

I'm loathe to plunge into clearing out Mum's desk, even though it's been a month already. Is it understandable that I don't necessarily want to make that hole in my life that much bigger right away? I'll get it done...but I want to get it done right. I guess I said that before.

I took the battery pack out of Mum's 1999-vintage Rocket e-book reader; it hadn't held a charge for years and it's likely becoming a fire hazard. I'll have to see if it could function without the battery, and if the data is safe on it. If so, I'll replace the battery when I've got the money for one. (If not I'll probably salvage the screen for my flight simulation cockpit dashboard.)

Dad sold his Buick to my niece for $1 yesterday. He's got his Nissan truck now, so that may be his last motor vehicle. Depends on if he can still see well enough to drive after his eye surgery, which is still yet to be scheduled.

I was disappointed with the Indy 500 and the NASCAR race in Charlotte yesterday, even though the latter was the better of the two. Didn't get to see anything from Monaco, but I hear that the Red Bull team is being a bunch of sore winners.
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The above is the corporate logo for the Chinese truck maker Shaanxi Automobile, whose Western doing-business-as name is Shacman. I was pointed in that direction by the China Defense Blog, which had a post yesterday about the military vehicles they are offering to the People's Liberation Army.

I got to do some Wiki-poking around and saw that Shacman is affiliated with MAN (which is connected to Volkswagen) and Steyr (which is aligned with GM Europe and Mercedes-Benz).

And so degrees to Moonshine? The Corolla/Prizm was also sold in Europe as the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, and Steyr did some of the engineering work on follow-up models of the Astra when Opel/Vauxhall evolved their own versions once the Toyota/Geo/Chevrolet/NUMMI partnership finished. In theory, even though Shacman doesn't make passenger cars at all, I could be in my rights to rebadge Moonshine as one, if only to get it "monogrammed" with my S.

I wonder from whom I could get parts...
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Dad's replacement for DodgePodge, which he sold to my Brother-In-Law last fall. It needs a lot of little fixes but is otherwise in splendid shape for its age.

It also needs a towel.
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The Dull Thud of Autumn came; dreary, misty, overcast skies and a turn to chilly air.

Our Mail carrier's SUV had a flat tire when she came to our driveway, so she spent a couple hours in our hospitality while Dad removed the flat tire and I helped him retrieve and mount the spare on the hub. The Mail carrier told us that she had two flats this week, and was thinking that maybe Fate was trying to tell her to find something else to do. She's been a good Mail carrier, and we'll miss her if she decides to retire, but I wouldn't blame her if she does.

Tools

Oct. 27th, 2010 10:42 am
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One of the things promised with my grant money is that I'll have some surplus from which to buy the tools I'll need for my later courses. I'm still waiting for my funding on that account, so I'm somewhat concerned about making sure I find all the required pieces of the set.

But I'm benefitting from a little synchronicity.

A family friend is a retired long-distance truck driver and mechanic. I'll buy a bunch of my tools--probably the lion's share--from him. Not only do I get them at very reasonable prices, I know they'll work. And a good friend will get good money for them.

I still have to wait for the money, but it takes a load off my mind.
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A sort of postscript to my entry about Moonliner/Mission To Mars at the Disney theme parks...

I was kind of curious about the dimensions on the scaled drawing of the Moonliner mockup and whether the theater/simulator would have fit inside. Granted, this was spurred on when I attempted to find something else on GoogleImage and found an interior picture of the theater. I'm not going to link to it here tonight, but I did notice something helpful beyond the obvious matter of the room being a cylinder (as it was on the mockup)--there were THREE rings of seats around the central visual projection screen disks.

I don't own a theater seat. But I do own a seat that is roughly the same size and so I posited that each row is probably 30~36". Since it counts TWICE when you add them for DIAMETER--the three rows would comprise at least 180" of the overall diameter of the space--and therefore the fuselage of the Moonliner. As the given measure of the fuselage on the measured drawing is only 108", then the mockup isn't "actual size"--it's a scaled model, if the theater/simulator was meant to "fit inside."

And then I look elsewhere on-line and see that in fact the mockup is 1/3rd scale.

Told you this was "useless".

BTW, my wall calendar this year was given us by a family buddy who's into big rig trucks. It's from Shell Oil and features custom trucks. One of the trucks for the summer months--was posed next to a restored TWA Lockheed Constellation airliner--and the Moonliner was visible in the background! It's still around somewhere!
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Because this is a weird idea...even for me.

Off-the-shelf way of configuring a rear-engine car...use the front half of the drivetrain of a 4X4 truck and mount THAT on the rear of the chassis! Cooling systems and gearbox linkages would have to be reconfigured, but it also opens the possibility of four-wheel steering and other "innovations".

It's not like there's a dearth of material out there to work from.
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Early this evening, Dad asked me if he could use the phone. I told him I was on the Internet, but as it was a few minutes before Dead Hour (7 PM ~ 8 PM) I was going to get off and let him use the phone.

In the time between his asking the question of me, and me telling him the line was open and he could make his call, he disappeared.

This made Mum and I very worried, because he didn't tell us anything before he left. We searched the house, we searched the property, and we started to search the area a little--but we couldn't do it because the weather was hot and we both were very tired.

Dad returned almost an hour later and we were both angry and concerned. We all know he takes care of himself and prides himself on his independence, but he really should have included us in his plans and communicated them before he acted.

It turned out he went to a neighbor across the street. The neighbor is a long-distance trucker--and he just lost his rig in a fire somewhere on his latest route. He was able to save the trailer and the cargo for another trucker to deliver, but the cab--along with his wallet and $1000 of walking-around money--went up in smoke. Dad's afraid this may put the poor guy out of business.

When it rains it pours.
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In itty-bitty doses, I'm going through my .mp3 collection on my WinAmp library, tweaking entry notes and dates. One song has me sort of stumped. It's the opening theme song from an action anime from the turn of the 21st Century...it seems very familiar but I can't place it.

Still have a few bootleg album CDs to upload.

Dad found a CD in his pickup truck. It's rap music and the title written on the recordable CD is "Audrey Haystack". We suppose that it belongs to one of Dad's buddies, who borrowed the truck for a while last month and would have bought it from us if he'd had enough money.

I suppose I'll have to put together a "shopping list" of music I want in the near future.
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I did not witness this directly...Dad's out running an errand and comes upon a traffic stoppage near our house. (We've been having a lot of winter mix weather lately.)

DAD: What's the meaning of this?

FALLEN TREE: All yr roadz r belong 2 us! Someone set us up the baum!

OTHER DRIVERS: :(

DAD: BRB.

(...)

DAD: Say hello to my little friends.

CHAINSAWS: Vrum vrum vrum!

FALLEN TREE: Oh noes!

(...)

The fallen tree is reduced to a stack of wood on the road side. A County truck shows up.

DAD: What took you so long? (Loads his tools up and comes home.)
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The www.cars.gov website now has a listing of participating auto dealers. So far only a few in the area where I am are "approved"--including the place where I met Moonshine. I don't know if we'll go back there to trade in Dodgepodge. Depends on Dad and what he wants.
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Due to some mutual familial prodding, I've been learning about the "Car Allowance Rebate System" (a.k.a. "Cash For Clunkers") that will go into effect today. My father's pickup truck, "Dodgepodge" (so-called due to the fact that when we bought it the previous owner had just replaced the driver's side door and front fender after an accident) qualifies as a Catagory 1 truck. We still haven't made the decision about what will happen, but I'll continue to gather information about the program.
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*) My sister's husband is set against her buying another VW. She test-drove a Kia yesterday. Dunno if she likes it enough to buy it.

*) While looking for other things, I came upon the Ford Super Pursuit, which is an Australian vehicle that is a Mustang front end combined with a pickup bed. They don't sell those in America because the Department of Transportation's laws regarding Light Trucks have been written by twerps. There has always been demand for these sorts of machines here, but the law has pushed the compact pickup truck instead for the job since the 1970s.

*) BP has a scratch-off sweepstakes going on now, but it doesn't have a Second Chance like previous ones. We won Second Chance drawings a couple times. Instead, BP says, "if you don't win, go to our website to download free Hannah Montana digital content." Which begs the question, who, older than 18 years of age and buying BP gasoline, would WANT Hannah Montana digital content?

*) I've needed to write a scene for a comic book for weeks now and haven't felt in the mood for it.

*) I rolled dice last night to set the budget for my Florida trip. It came to $372. I'm sure that sounds like very little to some of you, but for me that is a fortune.
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Just got back from Asheville, where for yet another time (I forget how many it's been now) I've helped my brother move from one living quarter to another in town. This time, he's going from one street named after a fella named Deaver to another street also named for Deaver in another neighborhood. I'm sure that's going to confuse the Postal Service.

D.Wm. borrowed Dad's pickup truck. I used Moonshine as my round-trip transport as Bro would need to continue using the truck through the weekend and beyond to complete the move. We made four hauls and finally gave up for dinner. (No, Moonshine did not carry furnature of any sort. She was parked in the lot of the church across the street from where Bro's "old" place was.)

Asheville is strange. I saw a little girl walking the sidewalk wearing a Snow White costume. *Shrug*

FP (who is glad to be at a stopping place and will probably be immobile for the rest of the weekend)

PS: My parents arranged for a replacement chair for my computer desk! Sitting down is underrated. I'm proud to be a Chairborne Ranger!
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HASH(0x8be8f24)
Sad...


Who exactly ARE you? (AnImE PiCs)
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I guess I really do need to get out more.

My brother moved, he borrowed Dad's truck, returned it today and I took him back to his new digs in Asheville. He's doing about as well as can be expected of your modern bachelor. I can't help but envy him a little. I guess that's all I can say about that for now.

FP

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Stephen R Bierce

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