Busy Week!

 Been cleaning and organizing SLW's "side" of the garage, and doing the usual "winterizing" tasks, as we'll have overnight lows in the 20's, so time to roll up the hoses, collect the sprinklers, and put the hats on the outside water spigots. And cut some more wood now that the garage has been gone through, cleaned, sorted, kept/tossed, and boxed up in labeled boxes.

Oh, those speaker kits that were delivered the week I broke my hip seven months ago?

The enclosures are finally ready for coating and final assembly:

I should have had my fan running to blow the dust outside, but......I didn't, and a haze of MDF dust was everywhere:

All over my nice, clean garage, too! Yes, I had a dust mask on, but still shoulda used the fan...

Anywhoo...they're downstairs on the Operating Table so I can install the crossovers, input terminals, glue-and-screw the one side on, and coat them.

The lengths of wire are used to connect everything together inside the enclosure, and the threaded inserts are for the mounting feet.

And since my "Roto-Rooter" procedure is coming up a week from today (had the pre-op this afternoon....), I've rounded up a bunch of little "Bench Projects" to keep me busy while I recuperate. I'll be under a 35 pound weight limit, NO lifting, toting, bending low, squatting and/or working on the floor for four weeks. Glad I have a ton of "little stuff" to keep me busy, or I'd go bonkers in four weeks.....

I Survived!

 Oh, yeah!

 

Hit by "Hurricane TLG", followed by "Tropical Storm TNLG", and they were both in the same area for a time on both Saturday and Sunday. Got us coming and going!

I'm OK, but the playroom and den took a beating.

 

TNLG is a lot like his older brother in that he copies a lot of things his brother does, and has most likely taught him. He was having an absolute blast with the motion and sound activated Halloween decorations his Big Brother, SLW, and I put up on Saturday. And they both run around in circles in the den, and spinning the "Rotary Ottoman" we have.

Besides the chair rotating and rocking, the foot stool also rotates freely, and can be brought up to an almost scary RPM by a determined 6 year old!

Nobody's been flung off it yet, but they're still little.....

 I marvel at their energy and stamina....

Had some brief showers which gave us .1" of rain. Not much, but we'll take it! Northeastern Weld County got clobbered, along with Fort Morgan. They always seem to get hit a lot harder than we do, being out on the wide open Plains, while we're in the foothills. Quite a big difference! WSF told me there are something like 17 micro climates running North up the I-25 from Denver to the Wyoming border, and I believe it! We never had weather like this in SoCal, and it's helped me learn some of the correct terms for things.

And I'm taking advantage of the nice weather by getting the garage all squared away so SLW can park her car inside. Since the bed on the truck is approaching 80% of capacity, I'm going through ALL the boxes of "Misc Stuff", and either giving it away (Fairly new 12V battery, lots of 10ga stranded wire...), or taking it to the dump.

And I finally managed to get the two sections of the intake manifold separated!

Some of the bolts are hard to get at, and can be easily confused with some bolts holding a hard-line vacuum line manifold, so I wound up taking all the bolts out, only to find I missed two! ARRRRGH! I'll get the entire assembly off the engine as soon as I can figure out a way to remove the electrical connector on the Cold Start Injector, which acts like a "choke" by enriching the cold-start mixture.

Yeah, lousy picture. The "Banjo Bolt" just to the left of center is the fuel line, and the red tagged wiring harness that's nicely out-of-focus is the connector, which has to have a spring wire released so the locking tabs unlock, and you can unmate the connector pair.

Extreme Bokeh?

Now I can de-crud it in the garage, and then take it downstairs to inspect, clean, measure, and adjust it per the Toyota Service Manuals and EFI Service Manuals.

Busy Weekend Ahead

 TLG (The Little Guy) will be spending Saturday night with us, and TNLG (The New Little Guy) will be staying Sunday night. So from Saturday afternoon through Monday afternoon the house will ring with the sounds of children running around.

I might be a bit tied up for a while. I pray I survive this youthful onslaught!

Things My Dad Taught Me....

 In meme form....

And many, many more....

YAWN.... I Gots Nuttin' Today

 Getting over a head cold that hit me last week and has overstayed it's welcome. Still, it's the first "Head Cold" I've had in about 8 months, and coincides nicely with stopping smoking, now six months in the rear-view mirror.

Health continues to improve, and it looks like my blood chemistry has returned to normal. Still on the "Low Normal" side for Sodium, but my Magnesium and Potassium numbers are now in-the-green, and my a1C has dropped to 6.0, which is pretty good. Have to work on building my stamina back, and trying to get my weight back to the range where my Doctor is happy. I was running around 190 Lbs before this last incident, but lost about 15 Lbs in the last month or so. SLW has embraced the "Heart Healthy" cooking philosophy, and so far everything she's made has been great. I'm eating like a horse these days, all healthy stuff, and still can't seem to get my 15 Lbs back. Oh, well, there's worse things that can happen.

Annnnd....still no action on the legal front. I'm getting ready to just walk in to a firm, and offer to pay them for a consultation. I've been "fretting" over this too much, and I'd like to get it settled, or be told "No Case.....".

Overcast, drizzly, and about 70* today, so I haven't done much garage work, and I'll most likely retreat to the basement workshop and chill out with some music. I'm almost to the point where I can paint the new speaker enclosures I've been working on, and then I can load the speakers and crossovers into them, and see how they sound.

'Twas A Cold and Rainy Night.....

 Well, it sounds better than the "Dark and Stormy...." phrase people use.

Currently 54* and drizzling. We've received about 1/4" of rain, with more to come. SO....no antenna work today! I (finally!) dropped the mast my FM Broadcast antenna is on, and mounted the GPS antenna at the top of the mast. I ran the cable for it down through the mast, making a tidy appearance. I ran those two cables, plus two spares, through the 3/4" hole I'd previously bored through the foundation, secured them to the post and fence, and then packed the hole with good old "Plumber's Putty" so rain drops and critters can't get in.

I'm quite pleased with how this Harbor Freight Demolition Hammer works. It will operate as a hammer drill for boring concrete, or just as a hammer, which is how I installed all those ground rods.

Say what you will about Horror Fright, some of their products have gotten quite good. Their "Hercules" line of power tools are definitely one of their good products. I also have the Hercules 1/2" Drill/Driver, and it's an amazing value.

Paired up with a 5AHr battery, and it goes (for me) all day, and usually still has enough juice to keep going.

They also have a very nicely made 1/2" breaker bar, that's about 6" longer than my Craftsman bar. It has a nice finish, looks to be well-made, and has a great non-slip grip on it.

As long as you pick their top-of-the-line products, like Hercules or Icon, you get a good, solid tool at a savings. Definitely "Dr. Jim Recommended"!

As for the rest of the night, I'm either going to stoke the fireplace and drive some of the chill out of the house, or retreat to the nice, dry, toasty basement workshop, and do some cleaning up and a bit of tinkering.

Maybe both......

Biden Impeachment Inquiry.......?

 Yawn....just more Kabuki Theater, but interesting reading, nonetheless.

Read All About It Here.....

Oh, Yuck.....

 Not me, I'm doing fairly well these days. I was tinkering around on the Supra last night, finally figuring out how to get the main fuse box separated from the wiring harness. I'll have much more room for cleaning that rusty area with the fuse box unplugged from all the cables.

And then I found this:

It's a junction box (or was a junction box) that lives underneath the main fuse box. The wire exiting the box on the bottom left side goes directly to the positive battery terminal, and feeds the entire car via the two wires exiting the top.

This particular area is prone to rust if you don't blast it out yearly to wash away the acid vapors that a NON-sealed battery produces during it's normal charge/discharge cycling. The residue from the vapors mixes with water that splashes up there while being driven and forms a pretty acidic mix. I'm very lucky that the car came from the Riverside area, which is dry and hot. I've seen these cars with huge chunks of that area just dissolved away, requiring some pretty extensive repairs. 

I doubt this part is available these days, so I'll have to fabricate up something new. The car stereo people have tons of similar parts, so I'll start looking there. I'm also going to add a small relay box for my Photon Torpedo high-beams, and the electric fans I'll be installing, when she goes back together.

Also drilled a 3/4" hole through the foundation and into the basement workshop so I can run some new cables in there. I'll have one RG-6QS cable for my FM antenna, another one for the GPS antenna that feeds my Master Timebase, and two spares.

Gorgeous day outside. Blue skies, sunny, 70* temps. I don't want to get caught with half-finished stuff outside like last year, so I have the chainsaw batteries on-charge, and when I finish up the cabling, I'll saw some of the wood left from the huge limb the broke off the ash tree a couple of years ago.

20 Meter Vertical is Vertical Again!

 Should have had this up a few months ago, but the hip and the other issue kind of slowed me down.

Slid the mast section out of the Rohn 5' tripod I was using, and loosened up the mounting hardware a bit.

After a bit of wrangling it around, it was up solidly.

And it's plumb. The red indicator needle swings back and forth for quite a while, and this was how far the needle was swinging. Average out the swings, and it's as close to 90* as possible.

The plate that bolts on the ground rod, and the "PolyPhaser" surge protector is mounted.

I'm about 85% finished. I have to run a jumper from the choke balun down to the PolyPhaser, and then run the coax to the RF Entrance Box, and I'll be back on the air!

We Gonna Have Some Fun Now!

 My grandson will swoon when he sees this:

Since the little Dromida trucks get "lost" out there on the street, and they won't go through grass more than a a couple of inches tall, and since we only have my hybrid Granite/Senton "Big Red" truck to go "Off Roading" with, and since TLG can drive the big truck better than the little ones, I figured I'd better get another 1/8th scale R/C model to keep up with him.

 This is a higher-end model from ARRMA, and is probably what I should have bought a couple of years ago when I got interested again in R/C cars. It's built with a sturdier chassis than Big Red, and has a brushless motor that can run a "3S" lithium cell pack. I've seen these cars doing 75MPH, so I'm glad they have very good "brakes".

I'm going to install a "Super Duty Extreme" oversize front bumper, and replace the plastic skid plates with steel ones, check the radio, reset the front toe-in, which is now front toe-OUT (makes the car get "squirrely"), and test it this weekend.

Tomorrow I have an 0700 appointment for an follow-up Echo Cardiogram to see if my heart has stabilized, or deteriorated further. As soon as test is finished, I'm making an "ASAP, Please?" appointment with my Cardiologist so he can review my past tests with the current results, and give me a prognosis. I'm not really looking forward to all this, but it is what it is, and helps fill out the picture of what happened last month.

And since I'm actually feeling "better", I staged everything I need to get my 20 Meter Vertical Antenna mounted up on the post, radials in place, and new cable to run from the ground rod into the house. Gotta have certain Winter Time indoor activities ready to go this month. It'll be snowing here before you know it!
 

Race Day Recap.....

 Sorry, but no pix. Try as she might, SLW just couldn't use my Nikon to capture the event, and for some reason, her cellphone wasn't tethered to her like it usually is.

We started by laying out a "course" in the cul-de-sac with the small orange traffic cones I had, and quickly realized I didn't have enough cones to lay out an oval track, with cones on the inside and outside. So I introduced him to the concept of "gates", using two cones for each gate, and then setting up the gates to make a small course. We got out the two little "Dromida" trucks to start with, and I promptly found out I'm really out of practice! The "race" soon degenerated into who could knock down the most cones, and it was a lot more fun than "just racing".

TLG, SLW, me, and the neighbors were laughing our behinds off as TLG and I were playing our version of Field Hockey with little R/C trucks, and 6" traffic cones! WHAM! Got One! A bunch of other neighbors came by to see what was going on, and an absolutely splendid time was had by all.

Then we got "Big Red" out. That thing weighs about 6 pounds, and goes about 50MPH. Hit a cone with it, and the cones either goes sailing through the air, or the truck just flattens it out and goes over it. Most impressive.

And as in real life racing, we got cut a bit short by some sprinkles and lightning. TLG is driving the big truck better than the small ones, and it was fun to watch him learn to use the throttle to crawl along at a waking pace, while turning the steering wheel to see how the truck responded. In short, he's developing a good "feel" for the controls, something hard to teach to somebody unless they really want to learn it.