The philosophy of workmanship, purpose of life, and durable projects is served up for brunch.
A Project Gutenberg page, The Project Gutenberg eBook on The Way to Wealth, by Benjamin Franklin. (free) deserves a bookmark. For in it, Franklin speaks of Practical Matters:
“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee:” and again, “If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.” And again,
“He that by the plow would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive.”
‘And again, “The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands:”
and again, “Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge;” and again, “Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your purse open.”
I sent that part to son G2 still providing medical care for 500-odd tradesman on a server farm build up in Yankee Land, somewhere south of Entiat, WA.
While it doth seem Franklin was into word-padding a might (and again) possibly not, again and again. Still, he sneaks tagentially to the topic of “happy wife, happy life” advising:
“”Many estates are spent in the getting,
Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,
And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.”
Then there was Mark Twain’s takes on “work” which we savor as well:
Mark Twain said, “If nobody offers pay to write within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for”. (I’m buying chainsaws now…)
Twain also said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life”.
I have always gotten along more amicably with a keyboard than a person, with a mouse more than a hammer. But maybe you saw that coming. Age heals all wounds with the salve of time.
Happy Life Hints
Next time you buy a television, buy at least three remotes for it.
Something (rather accidentally) improved life a good bit for us over Valentines Day that I didn’t have time to reflect on. Three (or more) television remotes will improve your life a great deal.
“Honey, toss me the remote, would you?” coos the blonde in the overstuffed chair across from my recliner. “You go to sleep and I have to root around for the remote…”
,That was the use case discovered purely by accident. When, after a hard days work, I put the remote into its normal resting place, a (gauche) cupholder. (Theory is cup holders are lower-class, but experience argues they prevent spilling drinks…see how those damned fashion experts work?) There, into the cupholder went the remote, immersing it almost completely in a full glass of red wine.
A couple of baths in distilled water, a visit with a hair dryer, and a few shakes (and more drying) later, it was still sketchy. But with the arrival of two more remotes, Elaine doesn’t have to go searching for a remote to ensure my in-recliner beauty sleep remains uninterrupted.
She also has a remote on the kitchen bar counter (facing the mediaplex). She can be (whatevering) in the kitchen and flip channels from afar.
Of course, then she forgets where she put one of her remotes. So I collect them all, and dole them out, one per day, and the process starts twice weekly, more or less.
A couple of anti-aging docs I know would be appalled by this. I can almost hear them saying “You need to work on her memory, your memory, and both of you remaining fully in the present!”
But that would involve finding the glasses, too. And now my beauty sleep is gone and done for sure.
One of these days, Elaine’s expecting some IoT genius to put IR and BT remotes into every piece of furniture they make. Imagine the convenience, right? Nope.
Just a clever excuse to refurnish the house, sounds like.
Radial Saw Project
You remember this project, which has been sitting on a bench in the shop for two winters now?
To recount the story of this project: I spied it on Craigslist a couple of years back up in Brownsboro, Texas and the feller only wanted $50 bucks for it. He helped me load it into the back of the pick-em-up truck. When I got down here, my neighbor was passing by and helped me get it up onto the shop bench.
Since then I have watched every video ever made about restoring a Craftsman radial saw. Picked up spare table clamp screws the Reader Ray advised were price along with gold. Planning ahead, I immediately stocked up on every pair that came up on eBay. Causing prices to collapse into what’s a slowly rusting pile next to the saw…
Well, then I figured there was no table or stand for the saw. It just wouldn’t be right to tear up bench space (because horizontal surfaces are to collect random shit from all over with no related purposes, understand). So I found a table let set (Original Dunlap I think). And they’ve been in a box waiting for assembly, too.
Whenever I got a half-minute to think about it, it was always either too hot, too cold, or two rainy and lazy to be out working in the shop of this beast. I did the next best thing: Bought accessories for it on eBay. It’s the most well-equipped unassembled radial saw in Texas, now. Even got the special radial arm saw lighting kit some dude was selling on eBay for $40 bucks. The price came down to $30 the week after.
Why, I even went so far as to rip down some cabinet plywood and put a glossy finish on the table which (in my fairytale about saw restoration) would go great with the freshly machine-painted saw. $15 bucks a quart went with green and yellow…
About here, I look in the mirror one morning and the guy I shave every couple of days piped up with “Aren’t you, oh, you know, over-thinking this shit, a bit?”
Well, right then I took a vow to get it working this very year. But, over the birthday retreat from actualizing Life, it occurred to me the neighbor probably didn’t have time to mess around helping me lift the saw.
Then I found it! Vevor, one of those brands I follow (tool slut disease symptom) had a sale on a jack. it’s this one. VEVOR Hydraulic Motorcycle Lift Jack Table, 350 LBS Foot-Operated Motorcycle Scissor Jack Lift with Wide Deck, J-Hooks, ATV Dirt Bike Scissor Stand with 4 Wheels.
Now, I won’t need any help to slide the heavy saw onto a piece of ply, lower it, slide it onto the saw stand. Which all goes to show how a cheap tool ($50) can be added to $135 of accessories, a nice job on a solid table with a resin top 1-1/2″ thick ($80 for Baltic birch 3/4″), and a $140 (on sale with coupon) lifting jack. Which comes to $405.
But the real punchline to all this? My degrees are in business administration.
Still, there may be hope for me, yet. I came up with an idea on how to build a metal thingy to put on the 12″ HF miter saw so I can cut dados there instead of on a radial or (God-forbid) on a table saw. That business guy keeps whispering I could just buy a Laguna F2 and be done with it. But where’s the adventure in that, for crying out loud?
OK, into schematics and a ham radio project today. The radial saw is like one of those car restoration projects that buddy of yours never gets to.
Ham Radio Learnings: Word is border crossings have dropped from 11,000 a day down to 225 a day attempted… Movie “Kid Cannabis” will give you some insights into Canadian border issues.
The other early 3806 discussion this morning on 75 meter sideband, seems to have determined that Granny D’s at Canyon Lake has some of the largest pancakes in Texas. Big? In Texas? We have that 85-ounce steak palace off I-40 just east of Armadillo…(sic).
BIG in Texas id going a stretch. Meanwhile, that kind of talk is a real “motivator.” Ure’s off to see if the blonde “kitchen aide” wants to help with cottage cheese pancakes topped with that apple pie filling organic jam on ’em from Amazon. I anticipate a 3-hour carb crash immediately thereafter…
A man needs to gather his strength for warm weather and the return of ‘old yeller’ in the sky this week. The urge to build another deck is stirring,..
Write when you blah, blah, blah…
George@ure.net ac7x
Do you remember the olden days before remotes? When you had to get up off the couch to change the TV channel?
I remember growing up when there was no tv in the home Remotes can along in the 70s with the first universal remotes in 1987…
The first remotes were ultrasonic. I could jingle my keys and change the channel.
We didn’t have a color tv until 88… we use to joke.. I don’t need a remote..hun change the channel lol.. we had 1 station and if you held a coat hanger like this with one hand and put your fingers on the two screws on the back lol lol..
where I live is a dead zone..to use cell phone up until a few years ago..there was one spot on the road if you had on an aluminum foil hat you could get something.. well just on the edge of town they put a cell tower.. last summer the i can hear you now pulled the cell phone service from that tower..
one day one of the kids was trying to make a phone call he was wandering and upset he just didn’t understand what the problem was..I had him go and showed him a long pole behind one of the stores on mainstreet..he said so..look on top of that hundred foot pole..that’s a tv antenna.. lol lol lol his cell phone service had pulled from that tower..without the internet there’s no television..
or phone service..
Grandpa in Law used to come visit my Wifes’ family every year around Tahnksgiving/Christmas. Would stay for a week, drove MIL absolutely insane. Anyway he was famous for telling her to “Change the Channel, and make me a Sandwich”.
Also the guy who told MIL one night at fancy dinner setting..”that the strawberry-rhubarb pie was so bad she oughta have to eat the whole thing herself”. Loved that dude, we watched a lot of College Football together as he was a Soonner Boomer, and I course am PENN STATE! Talking back in the Barry Switzer, Joe Paterno days.
Other famous line was from time his Son asked him if he would like a another Drink? To which he replied, “Son a Duck cant fly on but one wing”..
Like I said, Loved that Guy.
Did he leave behind a traininbg manual? A fortune on Amazon awaits!
Sure about the time I as a young kid became the remote. Good times.
Back in the 60’s, It was a tongue-in-cheek excuse to have kids.
I think of the things I was doing at my grandsons age.. and I think there’s no way they could do the jobs I did..
I remember when there was no electricity nor running water in my rural Minnesota house until I was 11.
Wow, you win today’s prize!
Ouch. Cold house and colder outhouse!
We had gas lamps .. it was a carbide gas my sister and I use to argue over who got to put the rocks and who got to put the water in it..lol lol
we had a bathtub that hung on the wall and a biffy.. lol we heated with wood and coal but mom had an old cook stove that we used corn cobs in it..the kids today don’t have a clue at all..my first place didn’t have a bathroom we did have a faucet in the kitchen.. I had to build my house from the ground up..heck I built the home I’m sitting in now..I always wanted to build an earth Hermes house with compressed earth blocks or rammed earth.. now a new thing is exciting my interest.. poured earth in ICF forms..
Not only was there was no remote, but someone had to go outside and physically wrench the antenna pole around to pick up the other channel (of the two we were getting at the time). As soon as I was old enough, I got antenna duty.
George,
Fondle your lone gold coin, while you watch the second installment of G.A. Stewart’s video series.
February 17, 2025
Elon Musk’s DOGE prepares to audit US gold reserves at Fort Knox after urging by Sen. Rand Paul…
Elon Musk wants to film this audit in Real Time. If it turns out that there is no gold in Fort Knox, that would have immediate consequences.
https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2025/02/23/g-a-stewart-prophecy-video-nostradamus-on-global-economic-collapse/
I suspect every single gold bar that’s supposed to be there, actually IS there.
I suspect they’re all solid gold.
I suspect Musk’s team won’t check serial numbers.
If they DO, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Trump gets a different report than the media pool — Too many flights from foreign lands to Central Kentucky over the past week. Interestingly, no visits from the FRBofNY…
re: “Shellgame”, P.K. Dick 1954
Ray,
Thank you for your level-headed rationale. Speaking of the NY Fed at this sensitive moment has me wondering if you’ve sighted the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Is JP Morgan doubting paperwork on current gold bullion imports from Europe? Surely the German-Portuguese gold for tungsten WW2 trade was just a blip on the radar?
I have one of those motorcycle lifts, and I will soon use it to change to more grippy tires on my new Coleman B200RSV mini bike. But it is in a hard to get to place with another motorcycle and a radial saw in front of it!
A new item I saw on Ebay can help with your remote problem: it is a remote remote, a remote from which you can operate any of your other remotes, remotely. So the old remotes can always stay in one place and you, remote from them, operate them remotely from one central place.
What are the chances you will acquire one of these remote remotes?
I’m gonna wait for the remote remote remote to come out. You know, leap frogging a generation…
Imagine how disappointed I was to find out that my new “universal remote” does not, in fact, allow me to control everything in the universe.
Dind’t WEF say “You will control nothing – and be happy?” Or was that a bug in their speech software…
COL (chuckling out loud)
When I took up video editing (Sony “Vegas”) I learned that a WACO pen & tablet was MUCH better than a mouse. (Absolute screen addressing versus relative addressing Tablet is absolute: a specific place is a place, and you never roll off the edge. Much more definite.)
(Before it was SONY “Vegas”, it was a Sound Forge product.) (Excellent.)
Unfortuntely, when you misplace the pen, you have effectively lost the entire computer. Or, if you drop the pen, and it rolls under the console during a high-pressure edit with a nervous and crazy client… things can go badly.)
Almost as bad as a MANDATORY UPDATE unexpectedly and suddenly crashing in, in the middle of an edit session– and there’s nothing you can do, but go read magazines until it’s done.
I hate when that happens…
“…during a high-pressure edit with a nervous and crazy client… things can go badly.”
Flew a bunch of equipment to a neighbor island once and assembled a recording & editing system in a hotel room for a national sport entourage. Director was a cheap hack who screamed a lot and pounded the table to make his point. Each time he pounded, the video equipment ‘glitched’, and we had to start over. Eventually we reminded him that HE was paying for the overtime he was causing with his behavior and we offered to tie his hands behind his chair. He got the point and settled down. Our local director got suspicious of the whole business deal, and took charge of the master tape upon completion. He refused to turn it over until the other production company came up with payment for the production. Gigantic screaming match. We left with the tape, packed up our equipment and flew back home. After a week of no payment from the mainland production company, we sold it commercially on local TV and aired it. The mainland company ate everything they put into it.
Still cannot believe I survived forty years of that kind of high stress work. Retirement is bliss.
That’s a remotely interesting idea. Not sure how it would work, as most TV remotes are transmit only, not transmit and receive. And if you’re that remote, why do you care what the TV/DVR/entertainment center are doing anyway?
Do we all groan in unison or in parallel with your “remote viewing” skills?
LOL
…Or uniform or parallax?
Temu has these “tracking buttons” they sell to track vehicles. (I assume duplex sat-beepers…) They’re about the size of a nickel. I’d assume someone makes a similar device that, when you whistle, whistles back (like a “key-finder,” only thinner.)
I just use Velcro — haven’t lost or sat-on a remote in 15 years…
Lol
I am old enough to remember a corded brown box sitting at the TV set with mechanical brown push buttons. It required a little energy to push a button down. Sometimes the button would stick and refuse to get one of the 6 TV stations available. This was about the same time as push key mechanical typewriters just before the IBM Selectric came along in 1961.
How is that for being old.
BTW (I didn’t tell you this) but Does BIC turn 8 3 this week? (Let’s have a round of applause from our studio audience!)
Applause for 10 Hours to Chill Out & Feel Uplifted!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFhUwgkeAI
Clapping! A lot of us here are old enough to know better, but too young to resist.
Congratulations!! May you have another productive two decades before you!! (where I grew up MANY old time farmers made it into their 100’s … still working though at a lower level, so I know that is a real thing)
Our first one was a Zenith TeeVee, and was based on a tuning fork.
Actually three tuning forks — ON/Off, channel UP, and volume UP. That’s all – and we didn’t cry ourselves to sleep on account of being deprived.
Lol lol lol and on the back there was two controls … vertical and horizontal…. lol lol lol..I built a satellite dish as a shoebox project..the dam dish I used a string to get my parabol.. Tuning in the lna and finding the satellites was the biggest..dam thing dwarfed the house lol lol lol…me sitting on top of a ladder yelling into the house as I tried to calibrate it…do you see anything yet!!! lol lol lol lol
A couple years later they were selling them for lots of money lol lol.. got two books from radio shack lol never again today you can call and get a small dish put in right away..
check the app store, almost positive that there are apps to use your phone as a universal remote. no gu, remote for your own TV, not the universe. god knows i wouldn’t trust none of ya with a universe remote. only i have that. be kind or else.
Scariest line of the day, thanks. “only i have that…”
What do you call an atheist with a God complex?
What kind?
Those of you who think they are in command are extremely annoying to those of us who ARE!
Biographies are among of my favorite books and Ben Franklin is at the top of my list. Aside from the main library at the ranch there is the “satellite” branch in my den, or according to Diana, rats nest. There reside my top favorites including an autographed copy of Bill Jordan’s No Second Place Winner, a 1938 edition of the Navy Bluejacket manual from a great great uncle, We by Charles Lindbergh, Tango Mike Mike the story of Medal of Honor recipient Green Beret Master Sergeant Roy Benevitez who was a neighbor and acquaintance of my dad at Fort Bragg when I was a wee lad, and a few others. Among them is a copy of Ben’s Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School. Highly recommended.
Stay safe. 73
remote remotes …
I’m pretty sure our Samsung S24 Ultras would be happy to talk to our Samsung big screen but I haven’t given them permission. Worst case would be Mrs. E programs her phone to override *my* remote. Who controls the “mote” has been a joke in my fam. for ages. When visiting E2 it’s a ceremonial thing to hand off the mote when he enters the room.
” It’s the most well-equipped unassembled radial saw in Texas”
Well, that’s just a sad tale there Wordlslinger. What the f*** (heck)? I bought my Craftsman radial arm saw when a bud was bailing in his rental. For $100. It’s on a wooden base probably made _with_ the saw. I use it constantly since it’s guaranteed to make square end cuts (vs a circular saw). Deluxe to walk up, click overhead LED lights and cut away.
On “C” clamps. How many should you have? All of them. I have an enormous collection (including foot long monsters from my Grandfather’s day) and every size below. Recently, I added all the whiz-bang quick clamps to my collection. Very “handy” when doing projekts.
ATL: the ice fisherman commune is out in force, easily 20-30 strong. My guess is they are doing well or wouldn’t increase in numbers. The one guy I had a chance to talk with explained a curiosity. Why were Eagles out eating fish? Note: there’s no open water. Guy said it’s ice fishermen who hurt a catch and, instead of letting it die in the lake leave it on the ice.
Same fella and I disagreed irt: coyotes. We had a deer that died on the ice and predators found the carcass and had their way with it. Bud has a large chocolate Lab. His dog could handle one, _maybe_ two, but would perish in a pack attack. In the wild, no problem. Predators serve their purpose. Down at the lake? Nyet.
The temp on rising was above high for the day. I’m trying to decide whether to build a big Sunday fire? We have so much wood indoors it makes sense but requires some work on my part. Ironic we “up” wood before wicked winter blasts hoping not to use it (in a brown out) so now burn when less chill.
Tempting when above freezing to wash my SUV. Nah. Sounds like work.
Stay warm and enjoy the day,
Egor
Teeny – tiny spring clamps are very useful as well.
Not to scrimp on the small ones.
think truth is referring to a specific STD..
antibiotic resistant no doubt..
The Jack !
-https://youtu.be/6njy7mZbwdc?si=53LvFJfWF0rRop1J
LOL
I read in BF’s autobiography that he financed General Edward Braddock’s failed march to Pittsburg in 1755, which passed about a mile from where I live now.
Don’t remember if I gave them to you…
The other secrets are:
1) Replace every bolt in the base assembly with stainless,
2) build a plywood shelf and mount it 4-6 inches above the floor, on the base assembly’s legs, and
3) unless you’re going to be moving the saw A LOT, it will be happier if you replace the base’s wheels with carriage bolts. These let you level the saw much more precisely, and they don’t move or wiggle around (the bolt heads make excellent feet, too.)
I keep my DeWalt planer on the shelf below my saw, along with various saw-related stuff. The saw, with legs, weighs about 95 pounds. My saw, with planer and tools, weighs about 300 pounds. It has zero wanderlust…
Gun bluing kit, Gun bluing kit, Gun bluing kit, Gun bluing kit! Also “The Works” (thin, not thick) toilet bowl cleaner (for derustifying on the cheap…)
Your cell phone can become your remote, so the say. You are less likely to lose your cell phone till you use it as your remote. Then back to the remote because using the cell phone as a remote is a PITA, & anyway, you lost your cell phone.
Bottom line: Only watch TV on your cell phone & get a man purse fanny pack to hold your cell phone.
Now there is a MAN with a plan!!
Should my MAN purse be studded or are rhinestone accents OK?
(sort of out of the coastal living loop here in fly over country)
“This has to stop…”
https://x.com/i/status/1893772720162148546
Thanks for the quotes regarding work from Mark Twain. I misremembered as his, a quote from one Jerome K. Jerome:
“I like work. It fascinates me.
I can sit and look at it for hours.”
There’s also the aphorism which Oscar Wilde twisted:
“Work is the curse of the drinking class.”