Cataract Surgery - One Week AAR and The Supra Files

 My right eye has improved steadily since the operation. I saw my Ophthalmologist yesterday, and after the examination he said it progressing normally from the day-after post-op, and will continue to steadily improve. He said I "Flirting with 20/20", and I was surprised how easy it was to read the eye chart with my glasses off. The first couple of days after required me to wear the Terminator-style wrap around DARK glasses they gave me so I wouldn't dazzled by the brightness increase. And WoW, colors really "pop" again.

As of tonight, my right eye is better than the left one, although a bit blurry a few times during the day. I hope the July surgery goes as well as this one did.

I'd post some pix of the Fisher receiver I'm going through, but they'd be boring! I'm working on getting the tuner in shape now, starting with the several mechanical maladies it suffered, like the main shaft falling out of the drive mechanism. Then I restring the dial cord, check a few things, and can proceed to the testing / check-out phase.

Ms Swan is enjoying her time in "Doc's Auto Spa" getting all cleaned up under the hood as I work on things. I finished removing all the intake plumbing on the left side of the engine. I cleaned it of the worst of the crud to make it easier to find and remove things. This gives me greatly improved access to several coolant hoses, the fuel filter and lines, the slave cylinder and flex hose for the clutch, and the starter.

WHEW!

I'm upgrading the alternator-to-battery cable along with the two battery cables to make best use of the new 100 Amp alternator. I've got all the Toyota Electrical Wiring Diagrams manuals, and had a set of the "schematics" laminated so I could flip between them faster, and not have them wear out from use. Since I had the manuals, and had figured them out, I started on the wiring harness containing the new power lead.

The plastic split loom tubing used to cover the wiring harness was disintegrating along its length and needed replacement, so it went in the trash bin, along with the plastic tape used to keep the wire bundle tight. I'll do the re-wrap with a fabric-type tape, and use new split-loom tubing to cover it. This section of wiring lived above the radiator underneath the white cross-piece in front of the engine, and was in a very hot environment.

And being as it's now Early Summer in the Rockies, here's some pix of pretty stuff.

These are by the garage.

More in front of the house.

And this is "Elf City", carefully constructed by two little boys with big imaginations. The parts get cleaned and put away in the Fall, and then brought out and put back together in the Spring. And it's constantly changing. Kinda like a Real World version of SimCity.

Enjoy the coming weekend! No, I didn't watch the "debate". I didn't want to ruin my mood for the weekend!

Check your six, keep your head on a swivel, and never, ever run out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas all at once.

Still Can't Publish Replies To Comments Here

 ARRRRGH! Every time I try and post a reply to a comment here it gets kicked back with an error message.

I'm pretty this started happening after the last Firefox update. I can reply on other blogs, but not my own. I'll go search the Mozilla forums and see what I find

Really frustrating.

SO.......Thanks everybody for the replies. My right eye is getting better each day. The improvement in brightness and color rendition is amazing. I have to wear some dark "Blue Blocker" glasses when outside, but they fit perfectly over my regular glasses, and I like them.

Hope you all have a pleasant weekend.

Test Post and Eye Operation AAR

 This to see if I can still publish new posts. As of right now, I can't reply to comments made here. I've been able to comment on other blogs, just not here on this one.

So my son and I went down to the eye center at 0700 yesterday, and I checked-in to have the lens in my right eye replaced. I was surprised at how smoothly things ran, and how swift the actual operation was. They took my vitals, checked my glucose, set up an IV line, and explained everything to me. I commented to the attending Nurse about how I remember as a youngster that having this procedure was quite a Big Deal. He told me that back then it was a three-day hospital stay with sandbags on the recovering eye. Once I was rolled into the OR, they gave me a "Combination of Ingredients" through the IV, and I was out.

This part gets 'interesting'.

Next thing I know, the lights came on, and I felt like I was a nano-sized observer in a tiny vehicle looking through a porthole watching the operation take place on the "other side of the glass". No audio, just the video, strangely distorted as the Doctor performed the operation.

Then the lights went off.

Next I heard someone calling my name, and asking me if I was ready to go home. I came to, was wheeled out to my son's waiting truck, and home we came.

When the patch came off later in the day, I was stunned at how much brighter things were, and how the colors popped. Very blurry, but wow! This morning it was better, but still blurry. Saw the Doctor this afternoon for my 1-day post-op, and he said everything looked fine, and it would get better day-by-day, and I should see definite improvement in the next 48~72 hours.

So eye drops for the next month, and then they do the left eye.

Issues With Blogger?

 Having a hard time posting replies and comments on numerous Blogger site.

Anybody else see this?

Stereos and Supras

 Been keeping pretty busy with my never-ending list of projects. BUT....it's good to keep busy in retirement, or your brain and body turn to Jell-O. 

And I don't like Jell-O.

One of the main reasons I've been "running slower" than usual is my vision is deteriorating due to cataracts. I'm going in on Wednesday to have my right eye taken care of, and they'll do the left eye a month later. SLW had this done last year, and sailed right through it. She (and the Doctors) tell me I'll be amazed at how much better I'll be able to see. Right now I'm about 20/100 in the right eye, and 20/40 in the left. I can still do most things, but reading, typing, and detail work have taken a hit the last month. So I figured I owed my "readers" a bigger post than my usual dribblings.

Anywhoo.....

The repair/cleaning of the Fisher RS-2010 is coming along nicely. It took a while to source the incandescent panel and indicator lights, and now I can replace them. This radio was introduced in the Fisher 1978 catalog, and while I don't know the exact year this one was made, most of the indicator lamps look original; Very dark, silvered inside the bulb, and they were all dim. It's been repaired at least once in the past, and some of the repair work wasn't up to (my) standards. It's also a bit different that the Service Manual shows.

Ancient, darkened panel lamp. Not even in a socket! The leads are individually soldered to a wire terminal coming out of the glass envelope. Very time consuming to hunt down proper replacements and put the new ones in.

The other lamps used or the "Function" indication were equally bizarre. They were bigger than "Grain-O-Wheat" lamps, and had wire leads.

 And there's a whole flock of them living behind the front panel. Almost looks like they're nesting.....

The different colored lead wires are from previous repairs. Fisher held the bulbs in the holders using something like rubber cement. The previous repair apparently didn't have any, as some of the bulbs had little strips of electrical tape wrapped around them to wedge them into the holder........duuuuhhhh.....I can't let this out of my shop with these "issues".

And since the Service Manual differs from the "As-Built", I had to make a new diagram of how the dial cord is strung on this unit, and not Go By The Book. And the problem with the tuning being all wonky was that this little bit dropped out of place,

Which caused the shaft on the Main Tuning Capacitor to wobble, and fall out of place as I was checking it.

This pretty much made restringing the dial cord mandatory, along with all the little pulleys and things being gritty, stuck, loose, and other ailments.

 Oh. and then there's this:

What is it? Dunno. Not on the views of the chassis or board pictorials, and if it's on the schematic, it's not designated as being off the main board. I'm going to have to see what it's connected to. I had to pull it loose, as this capacitor is one of the ones running at ~95% of it's rated voltage. 

I'll take my "eye patch" time to do easy stuff on this like finish cleaning some items on it, and then I'll get back on it full-bore. Chasing down the parts on this unit has taken about double the amount of time it usually takes. The capacitors are easy-peasy, and it took some time to find the current replacements for the previous replacements for the obsolete transistors, but tracking down suitable replacements for the lamps was a bit frustrating, as these all run on 8 VAC, a bit unusual for indicator lamps.

Annnnnd.... Work continues on the Supra. I finally got the Intake Runners off the engine, and that makes getting to the starter, fuel filter, fuel hoses, water hoses. and wiring harnesses on that side of the engine much easier. Took a good hour of cleaning greasy mud off that side of the engine before I pulled the starter because the bolts were buried!

The two main battery cables are out , so I can document them and send the info to the place that makes new ones. 

The remaining cable I'm updating in the harness is the one that runs from the alternator output stud to the new junction box I fabbed up to replace the disintegrating original one. I'll get a larger gauge cable with ring lugs from the people doing the others. It's the main junction point between the high-current battery lead to the rest of the car. It's where the two main Fusible Links are located, and was really nasty looking. It's also where the high-current lead to the new fan controller will go. And I'm experimenting a bit to build a "Soft Start" control, rather than slamming a relay closed and whacking my electrical system with a 40 Amp surge as the fans speed up. More on that to follow.

Hope y'all have a good, safe week!

Happy Father's Day!

 To all the Dad's out there. May you have a peaceful, quiet day.

With coffee!

Still working on my "Mega Post", but it's a bit hard to do with the vision problem. I'm having my right eye operated on this Tuesday, and the the left eye next month.

Been Busy....Follow-Up Post Coming Soon To A Browser Near YOU!

 Been a week since last post. Been busy herding grandkids, playing with the dog, yard work, house items, and working on all manner of stuff.

More to come, with pix.....

Massive Storm East of Colorado

 The Spring/Summer weather is always interesting to watch here. Here in the foothills we're more sheltered than folks living East of here. My son's place in Greeley, about 30 miles Southeast of here, got absolutely hammered a couple of days ago. His backyard flooded, and the water ran into the basement via the back door. He was lucky, other than some trees stripped by hail, he sustained no damage. People in other parts of town got flooded, and there was a fatality.

When I was checking the weather earlier, this storm showed up:

It extends North into South Dakota, and South into Kansas. Sure glad we don't live in the storm's path!