I think I’ve seen that hill before. 
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Oh, eff yeah!
Called the motor vehicles department of my state and the phone dude said, all I need is the 90-days no-fail report from my IID servicer, and I can get that blow-n-go removed.
I mean, not that I don’t lurrrve the blower (actually I’m pretty good at it by now!), but I think the line they tapped into has disrupted voltage and current to one of the internal inverters. And it’s tiresome.
Besides, I can’t very well say “Hey, wanna go for a joy ride, neighbor?” while sucking into a tube, now can I?
In one week, the DMV will have caught up to court’s decision that all charges have been dismissed.
I walked towards a Google Street View car going on the road.
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Finally have a first draft of the third chapter of my current story written. Between not having regular time to write, and the chapter in general just. not. wanting. to. work. it’s taken much longer than I expected.
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I walked on the first street and neighborhood I lived on in almost 4 decades. Not too far from the BTTF mall and the McD’s from some movie that’s become a late night meme for some dude.
Second time when fueling up the car, I’ve left the car running and nobody said jack to me!
I rule!
My latest five articles include two releases from the last 7 hours!
DC Universe Film 'Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow' Finds Its Writer
I was on a roll last night as sundown approached and I ultimately rounded up six bags worth of fallen leaves-- PLUS I filled the green bin for trash day on Tuesday morning.
There was supposed to be heavy rain on Saturday. (It hasn’t happened yet, but could later on.) My first thought was, Oh I’ll just sweep the stuff away from the downspouts so they don’t get backed up. But then I got warmed up and just kept going. Woo!! (And now I need to buy more bags.)
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I remembered to move the turkey from the freezer to the fridge in time for it to thaw by T-Day.
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I got my Blue Sky invite code.
It’s no Threads but it’s got Bill Corbett and Todd in the Shadows.
Meh. Apparently I didn’t destroy the one tip that came with my Weller soldering station with the 60W Weller WIR60.
It’s a broad chisel tip, but a scrubbed it with a brass sponge and tinned it with some silver-based solder.
Meh, seems all right. The tip is still kind of grody looking, and I did clean everything with my dinner isopropoyl alcohol before heating her up and tinning the tip.
Doesn’t seem so bad as the nightmare I was expecting.
No, it looks terrible, but I don’t yet have a themometer to measure the tip; at least the rosin core flux is doing its job. The hard part was going full heat to melt the silver-based, rosin core solder, without
When I went to a certain fancy food-mart chain last Friday, I somehow managed to spend less than $100 and I have not dug into any of the treats I bought for tonight’s Thanksgiving. (Despite said store’s nefarious practice of putting all the best seasonal candies and cookies at eye level so you see them before you see the healthy stuff below.) HUZZAH!!
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Took a shot at cleaning up the antique doorbell buttons on my house and found that it was made of brass. So took it all apart and some time on a wire wheel cleaned it up pretty good. Still pitted so I didn’t spend a lot of time polishing it up, but all the old paint and corrosion is gone. Then printed and laminated some labels to go in the little label slots:
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I saw what I thought was dumped coffee in a trash can yet it turned out to be some coffee flavored egg nog. A month before Xmas and I already have at least one egg nog due to being a freegan.
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Pity you’re not nearby. I taught soldering to a few people born when MST was new. Sometimes a good (or mostly good) teacher giving feedback is what you need.
Yeah! I think even just watching somebody carefully would do a world of good. There are videos, of course, but for me, live and in stereo is the way to go.
I can probably put some feelers out among friends or acquaintances…seems like a good bet that some musicians, particularly guitarists, might have a decent handle on very basic soldering, like fixing instrument cables and replacing pickups/repairing pots and switches and all that.
Feels like I’m committed to at least develop some skills, since I bought some decent, but middle-of-the-road stuff, Weller 60W soldering station (with an analog dial, and no temperature read-out…probably should invest in a thermometer designed for soldering irons…and a few new tips [the Weller came with one chisel tip that is in kind of an oddball size at the “chuck” end of things, is maybe an abuse of language, where it is affixed with a set screw to the iron).
And, with some practice, maybe building a delay pedal from a kit, I might be able to do some not-very-intricate work on PCBs inside notebook computers (like replace a power jack and the like).
Don’t really have time for a new hobby, but I can make time for something useful. Always better, IMO, to repair products/DIY, when possible.
/* OH edit…I felt pretty studly when I checked my tire pressures after work today. The temperature was about ten degrees lower than it has been recently, so I expected some lower pressures. Rightly or wrongly, I just topped all four tires in the parking lot to the recommend 30 PSI for rear tires, 33 PSI for the front.
Meh, it’s fine now, but I’ll count that as pretty mundane accomplishment. */
And, actually, I pity you that you’re not nearby to show me what I’m doing wrong with these mega-simple-super-ultra joins!
For shame!
Oh well. I’ll find a substitute, and you will have been replaced!
Of course I’m kidding around, but yeah, I have a feeling many MSTies know their way around a hot iron. In general, I’m going to risk flying too close to the sun here, but it may be that many of us are nerds of some kind.
I just don’t happen to be a soldering nerd…yet! I’ll get there, though, Mister Man!
My weekend project was making a little motor/generator model using my lathe and drill press.
Starts as a kit with rough cast iron and aluminum castings that you have to machine into precision parts:
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Okay, that is pretty darn cool. I never knew kits like that existed.
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I named the letter page for the Robert Kirkman comic, Invincible. PENvinciPALS.
I’m waiting for a reference to appear on the animated series.
There are lots of kits like this for model steam engines, most of them are too big for my little lathe but this little motor/generator from PM Research is about the largest thing my lathe can deal with.
I would like to make a little sterling engine and connect it to this, then charge a phone with a tea candle…
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