Red Dots!

Since my wife has trouble with the iron sights on her TRR-8 357 revolver, *AND* her instructor mumbled something about the gun needing an optic, I popped for an early birthday present for her with a HOLOSUN Reflex Sight.

It got very good reviews on several sites I read, and Brownell's had it in stock  at a good price, so I ordered it.

I'll wait'll she goes out on one of her shopping excursions, and sneak it on to her pistol and set it up after it gets here.

Never thought she'd turn into a "gunney", but life is full of surprises.

ARRRGH......PC Isuues of My Own Making....Jeep Repair, etc, etc, etc

Some time ago I was having a great deal of trouble getting a version of OpenSUSE installed on a few machines, and threw in the towel. I decided on Kubuntu 19.04.

WELL......I screwed the pooch by NOT getting one of the "Long Term Support" releases. And now this version is unsupported, and since I also missed upgrading it to version 19.10, I'm stuck with it, and no longer get any updates, and don't have an easy path to upgrading it to a newer one.

Yes, I suppose it could be done by somebody with more linux-foo than I currently have, but after spending two days trying dozens of "Recommended Solutions" with ZERO positive results, I'm tossing the towel in again, and going to do a clean install of 20.04_LTS, which is supported until April 2023.

I'm grabbing my passwords, bookmarks, and some other files off this disc, then I'll install another hard drive, and put 20.04_LTS on it.

I'm glad I have several 4TB disks sitting around, and I'll make sure not to miss the next "End Of Life" notice for 20.04_LTS.

I had to take my Jeep into the dealership yesterday for some work. My Check Engine Light has been on for about 6 months, and my code reader told me the code was for the Oil Pressure Sending Unit. Looking it up online reveals that code means it failed "Off Scale High", and although I can clear it, it throws it again about 10 seconds after the engine is up and running. I bought a new sender at O'Reilly's, but I can't get a wrench or socket on it without having the Jeep several feet in the air (No Thanks!), or getting it on a lift. I would have taken it to a local garage like "Grease Monkey", but I also had four recall notices on it for various things, so I bit the bullet and took it to Fort Collins Jeep.

I dropped it off at 1000, and they called at 1245 to come and get it. The sensor (Genuine MOPAR!) was $60, and the labor charge was $108.75, for a total bill of $191. Looking at the receipt I see they charged me $16.31 for "Customer Pay Shop Charge For Repair Order", which is a bit cryptic, but most likely means I paid that amount to just issue and process the work order. Back In The Day when I was running a shop we never would have charged for something that. It was just considered part of the overhead in running the place, like the lights, heat, telephone bill, parts washer and shop towel service, and was included in our hourly labor rate.

Kinda reminds me of McNamara and his "Whizz Kids"  squeezing every penny they could out of things like the M16.

"Well, if we delete the chrome plating and change the powder type in the ammo we can save $3 a rifle!", or whatever the cost was.

To take a little sting out of handing over $200, I'm going to write it off that I paid about $75 to get the sensor swapped, and the other charges were for the recall notices.

The $40 I spent on the sending unit from O'Reilly will get stuffed into the "Bad/Uncollectable Debts" column.....

I certainly can't complain about the service. It's a brand-new building, the service bays are immaculate and have all the latest diagnostic equipment, and the free ( ? ) coffee was very good. The staff was very efficient at getting me checked in, and equally efficient at taking my payment and getting me back on the road.

Two of the recalls were for reprogramming the "Final Drive Controller Module" and one for the "EBC Controller Module", and the Jeep appears to start and run smoother, so I can't complain there, either.

I talked with the Service Manager, who was out writing tickets, and he said their business is down about 70% compared to what it was before The Virus. Cars are selling OK, but he didn't know how much the volume was down. He winked and said you could get some really good deals on certain cars in stock, and they'd make me an exceptionally good offer on my existing Jeep. I'd imagine they're getting eaten alive by their "Floor Plan" with Jeep/Chrysler, as they're a fairly high-volume dealer.

The next things I have to do on the Jeep are to get the oil changed, get it smog tested, and then renew the plates. And I still need to get the windshield replaced, and it needs new front struts and rear shocks. I'd ordinarily get new inserts for the front struts, but that means tearing them apart to replace the cartridge, and as long as they're apart I should replace the top strut bearing and the rubber-bumper/strut-rod protective boot parts. If I just buy complete replacement units I get all that, plus new springs. It also cuts the repair time significantly, because as soon as the old one comes off, the new one goes on, saving me a couple of days of tearing things apart, cleaning and replacing parts, and then putting it back in.

The rear shocks are easy-peasy, just regular "Tube Shocks", and I'm kicking myself for not doing it when I did the rear brakes. Once you take the rear wheel and tire off, the shock and all the mounting bolts are right there in front of you. The hardest part is getting it in the air and pulling the wheel/tire off.

So, Life Under Quarantine continues, and projects are being worked on.

And I just about have my Lightning Detector Project from last summer finished, just in time for the Spring storms!

Be safe!

Local Wildlife In Action

In the most realistic enactment of a National Geographic episode, I just saw a rabbit get nailed by a hawk in our neighbor's front yard.....

I'd been watching the rabbit from the garage for a while, and it was watching me. It's was a much lighter shade of brown than I'm used to seeing, so I guess the local rabbits develop a lighter coat in the winter.

So anyway.....this big, almost white, rabbit was smack dab in the middle of our neighbors brilliant green front yard just minding it's own business, Fat, Dumb, and Happy, when this brown bolt slams down from the heavens.

And I mean it SLAMMED down! I could hear it hit and hear bones crunch. The rabbit jumped a bit, and made some blood curdling noises as the hawk finished putting it down with talons and beak.

The hawk then looked around a bit, clamped on the the rabbit, and lumbered aloft at what was probably a bit over max gross.

Stunning reality check if you think about it, and it happened about 35 feet from me.

More Neighborhood Changes.....

Talked to one of our younger neighbors today, and she filled me in on the local gossip.

She and her husband are now divorced, and she leased a house a few blocks away. No idea where he might go, or if he'll stay in the house.

The young couple next to them are also divorcing, with him going to the Denver area for work, and she's headed to Florida with the kids.

The older couple who moved out a few months back had sold their house to a company that cleans them up and flips them. It was this company that hauled everything away in numerous dumpster loads, not the original owners. It's been sold, and the two cars we see there now are the new owners. So far they're very quiet.

The house next to them, which was a rental, is sloooowly being worked on. The owner lives in Arizona, and nobody knows if he'll rent the house again, or sell it. It's been empty since the two single Mom sisters bought a house about two blocks away. The only activity we've seen has been a single truck and two guys who put new carpeting in the house, and now a single guy who appears to be a painter. I don't think he's painting the whole interior, as it's kinda silly to paint the complete interior after you've had the carpet replaced! That's what the people we bought this house from did, and it resulted in the baseboards not being fully painted. Kinda hard to get down to the bottom of the molding with an inch of carpet and underlayment.

I spent the day spraying RoundUp in the backyard gravel beds, and selectively spraying Weed B Gone in the front and back to get the dandelions, thistles, and other weeds before they go to seed.

And we have a gigantic mushroom infestation at the base of the cottonwood tree we had cut down and hauled away. I was just reading that vinegar kills mushrooms, so tomorrow I'll head out and get (another) sprayer to put vinegar in.

Otherwise, life goes on......

Sea Launch Back In Limbo

And apparently the owner regrets moving the ships to Russia.

He said he was promised it would be "no more" to berth the ships there compared to Long Beach, when in reality it's costing him twice as much....

And there's no suitable launch vehicle until maybe the "middle of the decade".

Interesting, and so very sad.

RTWT right here on SpaceNews....

Emporor Polis Threatens Weld County

I think Weld County should tell him to go pound sand.....

Read all about it over here...

Hey, Springtime....You Gonna Stick Around Now??

Abso-freaking-lutely beautiful outside today. 67*, mostly sunny, 3~4MPH breezes, and with the exception of some rain later this week, it'll be like this for a while.

It's "Springtime In The Northern Rockies", which means we could still get clobbered with 12" of snow, but the chances of that happening are diminishing daily. This last snow was a lot drier than I expected, and was fairly easy to get blown off the driveway and sidewalk. It was a lot more than I expected, meaning it was deep enough to require hitting the same spot twice with the snow blower, and as such, I ran the batteries down just clearing a single 24" wide lane down the driveway and sidewalks.

And the stimulus money we received will be going to fund a GAS POWERED snow blower very soon.

The "Honda vs Ariens" battle will be decided by what I can get at what I consider to be a reasonable price.

Thunderbirds Fly By

Should have used a different lens.....

This was shot with my 80mm~400mm "Image Stabilized" lens. Why is it blurry? Because the lens doesn't focus as fast as my other Nikon lenses do, and a switch on the side of the lens got bumped, slowing it down even more.

And the slot man, all by himself.....

The lens was all the way back at 80mm, meaning I really should have used one of my lenses with a shorter focal length.

Oh, well....at least I got to see them.

USAF Thunderbirds to Fly Over Northern Colorado.

 Got a big lens on my camera, and the weather is forecast to be partly sunny and 50*.

Read more about it here.

April Showers Bring May Flowers.....

But April snowstorms bust up trees!

We got clobbered pretty good last night. Not as much as the Thanksgiving storm, but a bunch nonetheless.

I haven't crawled out to measure this, but I'm guessing 14~16"?

It even stopped my anemometer and windvane....

And broke two branches on our poor little crab apple tree...

Loaded up (no pun intended, SiG!) my ground radials on the 20 Meter vertical, too...

It's pretty, but I hope the branch on the maple tree makes it!

Bent down the lilac bush by the side of the garage...

And pulled the juniper away from the side of the garage, too...

Oh, well.....Time to get the boxes off this thing, the batteries off the charger and into this thing, and go do battle with the Forces of Nature!

Y'all be safe out there!

Here's One For LL...

A Bit of Humor.....

Saw this on FarceBook and had to share it.....

Blessed Easter To You All

Rejoice, He Is Risen!

Having The Kids and The Little Guy over for burgers and stuff. We usually have a big family Easter gathering here, but not this year.

Y'all be safe out there!

Radio Control Car Guys Help Local Hospitals

One of the forums I'm a member of is the Arrma Forum for the Arrma brand of radio-controlled models. This is one of the BEST Internet Forums I've stumbled across, and I'm happy to be a member. Rather than in-fighting about who's little toy car is "best", "fastest" or "coolest", like several other radio-control forums I've visited, these guys help each other with tips, knowledge, and humor. "Dumb Newbie Questions" are promptly answered correctly, without prejudice, and the newcomer is welcomed. It's a great forum, and I've learned tons there, along with helping a bit by answering some electronics questions.

Besides all the tech advice, some of the forum members are quite creative at 3D printing. So much so that I've downloaded the required 3D design software so I can start learning about designing stuff again. I've had courses in AutoCad, and in high-school and college I took numerous "Drafting", "Mechanical Drawing", and several other "Graphics" courses. It helped me a LOT in my career, as I could crank out a properly dimensioned drawing, sketch, or schematic diagram in short order to get parts made, or for reference in the future.

These guys go far beyond that, and have started making "Ear Savers" for the hospital masks that health care workers are stuck wearing these days.

 Rather than having the elastic cord rub your ears all day, just use one of these:

How many you can print depends on how big the bed of your printer is, but one guy was printing nine at a time with his printer.

The stl file can be had here if you have a printer.


Pretty clever work from a bunch of "hobbyists", and they're giving them away by the dozen.

Well done, guys!

Just Trying To Keep Busy.....

Besides baking, house cleaning, garage cleaning, and goofing off with TLG, I've been quietly tinkering away on my Arrma Limitless "Speed Run" car.

The best it's done is 62.6MPH, and that was limited by the amount of room I had to run it in.

Following the advice of the guys on the Arrma Forum who have run these cars well over 120MPH, I trimmed down the front and rear spoilers to cut the drag down.

Arrma provided some molded in "cut lines", so I trimmed the front spoiler down to the lowest cut line.

And trimmed the rear spoiler down a little over half-way. The prevailing wisdom, proven by track testing, is the the rear wing has "way too much" downforce, which will push the rear of the car down. If that happens and the front hits a bump, the front of the car can lift, causing a "Blowover", like I'm sure you've seen with hydroplanes, and Top Fuel dragsters.

I'm going to trim the rear wing (more of a "spoiler" than a true wing) down one more line. I'm not entirely convinced you need to cut ALL of it out, as a bit of downforce makes the car more stable.

But too much is bad.....




I also took the center "spool" apart and shimmed all the slop out of it. It was grossly loose, with .05" clearance on the left side where the big silver washer is sitting, and .025" on the right side, where you can see a thin silver shim between the bearing and the thin red spacer.

And I ordered a set of driveshfts that are about .100" longer than stock, to get rid of most of the fore-and-aft slop as shown by the two pix below. One picture shows the shaft all the way forward, and the other shows it all the way aft in it's drive coupling.

Another trick is to put a small O-Ring into the drive coupling before you install the driveshaft. The O-Ring will fill the remaining space, and yet be soft enough to have some compliance to compensate for chassis flex.

And I installed a motor cooling fan using a 3D printed fan mount that one of my friends sent me.

After just a few runs the motor is getting to the "Ouch Point" when you touch it, indicating it's about 135*F. The little fan should keep that somewhat cooler.

And I installed a new motor mount plate and center spool mount made from billet aluminum.

The motor mount uses a screw thread to move it back and forth so you can set the gear lash precisely, and the other aluminum parts are both lighter and stiffer than the plastic parts they replaced.

Tonight I'll get started on making up the new wiring harness so I can install the upgraded speed controller.

Let There Be......Cornbread!

I decided to try my hand at something a bit different today, and it came out stunningly well.

This picture was taken literally 5 minutes after I pronounced it cool enough to eat.

This is the first time I've made a non-yeast type bread, so I was extremely careful not to over mix it. You have a fixed amount of leavening in it, and after it burns out, it better be baked! Mix your dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls, then dump the wet stuff into the dry stuff (W-Stoff and D-Stoff?) all at once. Whisk it all together just enough to combine it all and get all the dry stuff completely wetted by the wet stuff. It'll look more like a "batter" than a "dough". Dump it into a buttered glass baking dish, pop it into a preheated oven, and wait about 20 minutes. When the sides pull in and the top is brown, stick a knife in the middle, and if it comes out clean, you're done!

It came out with a nicely crunchy top crust, and a soft, moist inside with a great texture.

I'm calling this one "Outta The Park and Across The Parking Lot" good.

I've always liked cornbread, but this is the first time I've ever made it, and the first time since I was knee-high to a married grasshopper that I've had it fresh out of the oven.

Super simple to make, and you spend more time cleaning up and waiting for it to bake than you do actually making it.

Quick "Recon Run" Into Town

Well, it was actually a trip to the local Target/CVS to pick up some meds, but "Recon Run" just sounded so much more.....exciting!

Traffic was extremely light, as to be expected, and the Target was a ghost town. All the checkout lanes, and the Pharmacy pick-up lane, had "Social Distancing" stickers 6' apart on the floor tile, and the self check-out lanes had a little signpost telling you to stay out of the area until called. As soon as you were done using the keypad at the kiosk, a Target employee swooped in and wiped it all down. I was In-N-Out in about 15 minutes, almost a new record for me.

The one thing the struck me on this short trip was how many businesses are shuttered. Chipper's Lanes was completely empty, and normally at 1400 there'd be a bunch of cars in the lot. Several restaurants which had opened in the last few months are closed, most with signs listing their carry-out hours, if they offered it.

A few places had signs proclaiming they were still open, and to come on in.

Most of the gas stations I passed had NO cars at the pump, and maybe a person or two (that I could see) in their convenience stores.

The kids report that my favorite little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Laporte, Vern's Place, is carry-out only, as are all the other restaurants in their town.

So even out here in my part of "Flyover Country" things are pretty much closed down. Many relief funds are set up with either PayPal or GoFundMe asking for help for local groups, and I hear about them on the radio and from signs ate the places I've visited since Emperor Polis decide to shut down the whole freakin' state.

My SLW has a cold, so she went to the clinic yesterday to get checked out. Based on her symptoms, the Doctor said "It's a cold. You'll be fine", so she came back home and has decided to "self quarantine" for two weeks.

Uh-huh.......Don't know who she's trying to protect, but if it makes her feel "better".......you know the rest.....

And I crossed a million total page views sometime last night. Took a little over 11 years, and some of you get that many hits in a month or two.

Back to the basement. Got some parts in the mail for the "Bonneville Car", so off to install them.

Be safe!

Bizzare Total Page Count...

This is "one of those things" that we all see in life from time to time.

I know, it'll be over 1 million today, but "999,666" just seemed too strange not to comment on and record...

Quiet Sunday In A Typical Town

And what do we do? MAKE BREAD!

Ready to pop in the oven...

And out of the oven and cooling...

This batch is rye bread. I took my basic "Can't Screw It Up" white bread recipe, and substituted 1-1/2 cups of dark rye flower for an equal amount of the King Arthur Bread Flour I use, and added a couple of things to give it the distinctive "rye bread" flavor. 1tsp of dill seed, 2 tsp caraway seed, and 1tbs of Gulden's mustard.

And this is my first loaf of rye with an acceptable texture...

This batch was almost a disaster because of mistakes I made, but I recovered it on-the-fly with acceptable results. I was busy with The Little Guy because Sweet Little Wife made an "emergency run" to the drugstore. I started the chain-of-errors by leaving 1/2 cup of flour OUT of the ingredients as I added the water and Happy Joyous Bubbly Yeast to the mixture. As I was watching the timer I use to help with my mixing, I noticed that the dough hadn't become dough yet at the 4-minute mark, so I started adding some flour to get it right. It took almost 1/2 cup to get it right, and by then it had mixed six minutes, what I consider to be the upper limit before damaging the dough. I turned it out on the "lightly floured" breadboard, and cleaned and butter the mixing bowl. Popped it back in the oven at ~105*F and let it raise for 90 minutes. Turned it out, divided it, put it in the butter pans, and back in the oven for the second raise, covered with damp cloth.

The cloth stuck to it as it raised, and when I took the cloth off, the loaves deflated. ARRRRRGH!

Following advice from SLW, I took them out of the pans, kneaded them again, and put them back in the pans, this time "tented" with buttered aluminum foil.

They raised just fine again, and SLW put them in the oven when I was playing "Jump The Little Truck" with TLG.

She forgot to "liberally brush the tops of the loaves with warm water", and popped them in the oven when it hit 400*F. This kind of killed the nice, browned, crunchy top I was getting, but it baked OK, and tastes very great, mistakes and all. I'm just glad I caught the mistakes I made, otherwise we'd have two loaves of very thick "Rye Hardtack", which probably wouldn't have been eaten.

Anyway, we had a fun day playing games and R/C truck, and wound up with some bread, too.

And played with little trucks.....

Sorry, can't figure out how to snag the video SLW posted on the Book of Farces...

USNS Mercy Arrives in Los Angeles

I'm not sure who took the photo, as it was posted without attribution on an FB page.

AFAIK, the Mercy will be berthed directly behind the Iowa in San Pedro at the now vacant cruise ship terminal. Much more info can be found using your Google-Foo.

May God Bless and watch over her crew during these interesting times.

The Physical Therapist is quite happy with the improvement I'm showing, and so am I. I still have some pain, but it's not nearly as bad as it was a month or so  ago when all this started. Easily managed with the Naproxen and a bit of Tramadol "as required".

Overcast, cold, rainy day and evening here, so I'll think I'll go crank up the fireplace, grab the wife, and we'll watch a movie down in the den.

The Virtual Doctor's Visit

Almost a house call, if you will, although next time I do it I'll run a GigE cable between the router and the laptop to get rid of a lot of the lag.

Anyway....While I thought my lipids were "normal", he called them "A+", and commended me on keeping my weight down, eating a decent diet, and exercising.

My other blood work was also "outta the park good", so at least my basic blood chemistry machinery appears to be working properly.

I inquired about an EKG "for the record", and he informed me that they no longer do them yearly, but rather every three years now, same with a stress test.

We then talked about the lightheadedness and afternoon drop in BP, and reviewed my medications. Since my weight is staying down and I show no signs of edema, he's taking me off the furosemide ("Lasix") diuretic. He's a big supporter of "If You Don't NEED The Medication, Don't Take It", and I agree with that philosophy. That particular drug can cause low BP on it's own, so we'll knock it off the list for two weeks and see how I do. If I'm still having the same issues with my BP dropping too low, we'll cut the metoprolol ("Lopressor") in half and "reconvene" (there's that word again...) after another two weeks.

I'll admit, I should have been checking my BP regularly (and so should you!), and just didn't for no good reason. I'm also going to pick up one of the blood Oxygen sensors that clamps on your finger. It's another good data point to have, and those little things are only about $20. I think everybody should have one, and a good-quality Blood Pressure cuff, in their home "First Aid" kit.

Then I asked him if he thought I was sturdy enough to withstand hip replacement surgery later this year. He was pretty sure I was OK, but we'll do a stress test before he'll sign me off, as it's still major surgery and I WILL lose some blood (Type A Negative, donations accepted!), so he wants some more evaluation before he'll sign off on it.

And then we talked about the Corona Virus for a bit. He thinks it will peak here in the US in the next couple of weeks, hold for a week or so, and then start to drop. He told me it aerosolized, and spread by coughing and sneezing, and the virus can hang around for up to a week, so keep washing those hands, avoid crowds, and all the usual things you during flu season, but be more careful about doing them.

Be safe out there!

UH-Oh....Kung Flu is Here.....

Last I'd heard, we had two confirmed cases here in town. I haven't heard any stats for Larimer County, and last week I think there were 80something cases state-wide.

Today it got a bit closer.

I was scheduled to have my Cardiology appointment tomorrow, but the office called and said that "they" had gotten together and decided that "non-essential" office visits would be conducted on a "virtual" basis to limit exposure fot all involved.

SO...bust out my laptop, and fire it up so it's all updated and ready to go tomorrow.

I have a USB webcam, but I don't know if it's supported on this (Ubuntu/Debian based) platform, and I also don't have/can't find the little desk mic I used to use. Since my laptop has a built-in camera and microphone, it's a whole lot easier to get it up and running at this late hour vs scrambling around trying to jury-rig an older USB camera and some kind of microphone on this Linux rig.

Besides talking with my Cardiologist about whether I'm sturdy enough to do a hip replacement, I have a couple of other things I need to talk to him about, namely the blood pressure drops I seem to be having every afternoon. I noticed I was light-headed at times, and needed a nap around 1600. I got the BP cuff out of the closet, put some new batteries in it, and started monitoring my BP. Sure enough, around 1600 every day it would drop down to about 95/65 for an hour or so. It "normally" runs around 118/70, and my Primary Doctor had indicated last summer that she might cut the BP meds back a bit, so this needs to be addressed.

No word yet if the PT session will be cancelled. The exercises seem to be helping; it still hurts, but not as much.

Speaking of batteries, they seem to be in good supply in the stores here. I remember when batteries would go flying off the shelves at the first sign of an "emergency". Guess people are used to having extremely reliable power here. This might be a good time for all of us to check our battery stocks, and replace those that are stale. If you have the room in your refrigeration devices, cold-storage will extend their lives considerably.

Be safe out there!

Goodness, What's This??

Quite a light show going on, along with sharp cracks followed by low, long rumbles.

And so far about .14" rain, although I expect that to rise sharply, judging by the not-so-gentle pitter-patting of rain on the roof.

BOOM! There's another....

As the temps drops, liquid will turn solid, with 2"~4" of snow expected. Unfortunately it won't be the dry, fluffy stuff that the snow blower can handle, but the heavy, wet stuff that breaks tree branches, downs power lines, collapses roofs, and causes other mischief.

CRACK! Lotsa flashes....

Reminds me of April in Illinois, but then Spring in the Rockies can be "Highly Variable" as the weather guys say.

Had some errands to do today after my Physical Therapy session, which may be showing some improvement. I've never had PT do more than waste my time, but the targeted exercises seem to be helping the muscle get stronger and the pain diminish, so we'll keep chugging along until the system grinds out a result.

After the PT, I walked across the lot to my Doctor's office to have my blood drawn for a "Lipid Panel" and a "Basic Metabolism Panel". ALL the staff in the medical office were wearing masks, and hand sanitizer was in good supply.

Got the results back in a few hours, and holy smokes! My "Lipid Panel" shows all the numbers smack in the middle of what they call the "Normal" range! For the first time in many years, my HDL and LDL are "Normal", which I'm sure will please my Primary Provider and my Cardiologist.

BOOM!...............another. Rain total is now .26", and a look outside shows that it's turning to snow.

After getting my blood drawn, I headed on over to the Target/CVS store to pick up some meds and get my shingles vaccine shot. It's a two-part kit, with a powder in one vial, and a "dilutent" in a second. The Pharmacist extracted the liquid, put it in the powder vial, shook it a bit, then drew the mixed contents out and gave me the shot. She warned me it might have some side-effects, and a couple of hours later I felt pretty nauseated, hot, and had to lay down for an hour or do. If this is the only side-effect I have, I'll call it a win, because I do NOT want to get shingles, thank you very much.

The store had a prominent sign stating they were NOT a CDC Testing Center, and other signs in the pharmacy area advising they were sold out of hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, aloe vera, wipes of all types, and several other things. Toilet paper was in good supply, as was the food section.

My wife tells me that it's now obvious we're a "Dog Place" here, as most stores are running out of dog food (!!), but plenty of cat food was on the shelves.

So that's it from here, and be safe out there!

Another Car Magazine Bites the Dust.....

Being a car nut, I like to read car magazines. I've been reading Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Hot Rod for decades. I used to read Car Craft back in my Street Machine days, but drifted away from that over the years. And I also had subscriptions to several other car magazines during that time.

The first magazine I really enjoyed that ceased publication was Motor Trend Classic, a compilation type magazine that looked at cars Motor Trend had originally done road tests on long ago, but with an emphasis on how things have changed over the years. MT Classic started and stopped a few times during it's existence, and then finally pulled the plug some years ago, fulfilling the balance of my subscription with the "regular" Motor Trend magazine.

It was a real bummer to me, and I'm still looking for issues to complete my collection.

Several months ago, I received a notice that Hot Rod Deluxe was ceasing publication, the balance of my subscription to be filled with full access to the Hot Rod and Motor Trend archives and streaming services. Hot Rod Deluxe was another compilation type magazine that restricted itself to 1960's and earlier cars, along with excellent articles on the history of drag racing, and many unpublished photos from the Petersen Publishing Company archives.

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter indicating that Auto Restorer magazine was going under. Since I had just renewed for two years, this got me a bit upset, as if I want to get any of my money back, I'll have to send a physical letter, with proof, to their office, and get in line to receive a few pennies per dollar on my claim. Auto Restorer was unique in that it had NO advertisements, something that most likely contributed to their going bust.

In the letters to the editor section of my new Car and Driver, I saw letters from people thanking them for picking up the slack of AutoWeek folding up, and giving the subscribers their 'balance due' in issues of Car and Driver.

I've noticed over the last decade or so that many of the car magazines were consolidating together, with "The Enthusiast Network" coming in like God's own Hoover and sucking up several car magazines.

While I'm not completely against getting "free" access (It isn't "free" at all. I paid for the damn magazine!) to their archives and streaming content, they just cannot replace the specific magazine I had subscribed to.

I don't want access to their streaming content, and a lot of the material in the various archives is poor quality, making it "uninteresting" to me.

Having subscribed to these magazines for the past 55 years or so, I've seen them all go through various changes. From Brock Yates and David E. Davis having their great blowout, to Davis leaving Car and Driver and starting Automobile magazine. And I've seen writers jump ship between magazines, and sometimes just disappear. I suppose this is nothing new, but I miss having my monthly allocation of dead trees arriving. I prefer something tangible for my money, like a magazine, that I can read at my leisure, anywhere, anytime, and then file away as reference material.

Orthopedic Consultation Results

Had my Ortho consult today, and he told me pretty much what SiG and a few others have said. I've got some arthritis on top of pretty thin cartilage inside the joint, and a torn up Labrum around it, and it's not going to get any better. The muscles, tendons, and ligaments look to be in good shape outside of the inflammation, and there's no sign of bone-on-bone contact yet.

We didn't discuss setting a date for hip replacement surgery (more below...), but we did discuss the procedure, after care, and my overall medical condition, which he rated as good enough to withstand the procedure. My cardiologist appointment is in two weeks, and this procedure will be the #1 item to discuss with him. My primary care Doctor is also very happy with my overall medical condition, and she hasn't raised any concerns about the surgery, so now it's grinding through the process. I'd expect my next step will be to review this all with her, and do a GO/NOGO, and then talk about dates.

I'm getting a feel for the bureaucratic process of our local medical system, and was just joking with my SLW that it reminds of the Boeing "Problem Reporting" (aka "PR") system, and how rigid it was.

I'm the originator of a PR (or 'squawk', if you will), which starts a long, predictable, highly-scripted, chain-of-events, leading to a conclusion. Along the way, you "Convene", "Collaborate", "Reconvene", and use several other terms which I forget.

And the process MUST go step-by-step or the Quality people will go completely bonkers and abort the flight/launch/deployment.

Anywhoo....the medical system out here reminds me of that a bit in that it's precise, predictable, and reasonably fast.

I see another "Reconvening" with my Primary Care provider to go over options and details.

BTW...the Ortho Doctor I met with today is a U.S. NAVY Doctor. Not only that, he's a USN DIVE Doctor, and he was stationed on Coronado Island working with BUDS and SEALS. I wore my BB-61 USS Iowa hat today, and that triggered quite an interesting conversation between us, lasting a good half hour.

And he's not only the Ortho Doctor there, he's also the Surgeon who would perform the operation, and I feel comfortable about it. It's a one-hour operation, they keep you overnight, and you go home the next afternoon. Leaves about a 6"~7" scar, and has an extremely high success rate.

So in the meantime, I'll do the PT exercises, take the recommended amount of Naproxen with a bit of Tramadol for "those days", and let the mills grind away.

New "Team Driver" for Scuderia Zarkov, and PT Woes and Improvements.

We gave TLG one of his birthday presents on Sunday when he came over to spend the night. I would have given it to him on his birthday, but it would have been a hassle with all the other kiddies around, and I KNOW he would have wanted to play with it then and there, so I thought better and held off.

It was a "half-off" deal I got when the local Hobby Town closed, and I probably should have bought a couple more so he and his cousins could race them in the back yard.

It's actually a pretty decent R/C car, has "Full Proportional" steering and throttle control, and the wheel radio transmitter even has a nice foam grip around the steering wheel. It's small enough, and has a tight enough turning radius, that it's very controllable down in the den.

And with Grandma providing instruction, he's been learning to drive!

I dialed the throttle waaay back so it doesn't get away from him, and he's really twitchy on the steering, but he's got his throttle control figured out, meaning he doesn't just mash the throttle trigger all the way down, and understands that he can make it go slow, as well as fast.

Had appointment #2 at the Physical Therapy place today. Neither of us expected any improvement in 7 days, and there wasn't any.

EXCEPT...he gave me some exercises to do that work the same muscles, but don't require me to 'go to ground' to do them. They're much easier to do, with the result that I *will* do them, something I was laggardly about with the first set of exercises. These will work the Gluteus Medius muscle on my right side, which should give me extra support for the hip joint.

My consultation with the Orthopedic Doctor is this Friday, and I'm sure I'll have a much better handle on things after reviewing the data with him. So far, though, 200mg of Naproxen, four times a day, has knocked down the inflammation enough that I can do the exercises without going "OW!" every few minutes, and cut back on the Tramadol, which knocks the pain down to zero but makes me a bit "dozey" at times.

TGIF! and other things.....

And it's SIXTY-EIGHT degrees here today!

Been scouting out big parking lots here with Google Maps so I can find a long enough straight to let the Limitless R/C car stretch her legs. The parking lot we shot the video in has a maximum usable distance of about 250', which is about 1/3 the distance I need, and about 1/4 the distance I'd like. The car spends most of the first 100' scratching for traction as it accelerates, and then I have to get on the brakes 100% to slow it down enough to turn as it approaches the end of the lot.

The biggest parking lot that's fairly close to me is at the Community College, so I'll have to drive down there on the weekend to see if the lot is open, and how many cars are parked there.

Up to the Northwest, on the way to Laporte, there's an airfield used by the Colorado National Guard, or at least it was at some time, called "Christman Field". You can read the history of Christman Field here, about 1/3 of the way down the page. It's also the site of the CSU Motorsport Engineering Research Center ("MERC"), which I've been looking into. This is another location I'll have to scout to see if there's any "public" access to it, and to see if it's posted "Keep Out" or "No Trespassing". This is a paved, 4000' strip that looks to be usable from the Google Map (actually USGS) images.

And then there's the now closed Fort Collins airport.

Close looking at the images show the runways to be blocked in places with stacks of tires.

And further down the runway is a large section of removed runway, and other cuts or barriers to the upper left.

They did a number on the main runway, BUT the taxiways still have some quite long uncut straights.

I'll have to talk to the guys at the eTeam Hobbyplex again to see if I'd get run off or cited for trespassing if I tried to do a run there.

The hip seems to be responding to 200mg of Naproxen three times a day, along with the pain killer "As Required". My consultation with the Orthopedic Doctor went through, and I'm seeing him next Friday. It should have been sooner, but somehow they had a wrong phone number for me. The Ortho people contacted my Doctor, who contacted me, adding about a week to getting the referral set up. I don't know if the PT exercises I'm doing are helping any, but they give me something else to do when I'm not messing around with Ham Radio or model cars.

So I'll go do some scouting on Saturday to see how full the college lot is, and if there's access to it, and then head up to check out Christman Field. I have no intentions of trying to get an organized "Speed Run" event going, but I'd sure like a surface long enough to let this thing rip!