ShopTalk Sunday: Holiday Shop Projects!

by

Summer is nearly here, and with it, more time in the shop.

Sometimes, You Get Lucky

Take this morning, for example.

Stepped in the shower and…the water never got hot.

We had put in a new water heater back in March. Divel did the heavy work on this because, at 75, I’m trying to manage my time better. Sometimes, you spend a little bit and get a lot…which was the case here.

While I’m showering – and between curse words from cold water – having a kind of Wim Hof moment there – I start building my “Plan of Attack.”

  1. Check the breakers.
  2. Check the voltages at the water heater wiring connection. (Breakers on).
  3. If no joy, turn off breakers.
  4. Disassemble the water heater wiring, and if OK, ohm out the heater element.
  5. Check thermostat settings and operation.
  6. Ultimately, if bad, replace and update to an instant heat unit for 240V.

Which is maybe what I should have done in the first place. But, water heaters with tanks, especially when Elaine and I did a meticulous job of heat-wrapping the whole shebang, don’t fail from hot directly to freezing your ass off.  They have enough residual heat to justify their higher cost.

With an instant hot water set-up, if you lose power (or run out of propane if you went that direction) you will have about 100-500 cubic inches of water in the piping before your freezing.  I don’t like surprises – especially hot ones.

Besides, when the grid goes down for the very last time, we will still have enough hot water to grab End of World showers.  Your design parameters may be different…

Anyway, point of this story? Sometimes you get lucky.  Reset the breakers and in 10-minutes hot water was back.

We have had several lines of big thunderstorms through the area and power was up and down a fair bit. Had to reset the stove clock Saturday.

With the water heater working again, I wil’l be doing some “hot and sweaty work” outside again today.  With the promise of a full tank of hot water and a soggy list of missed body parts to pressure wash in the afternoon re-run.

My schedule, so disrupted, has pushed my major STS report “Instrumentation of Tomatoes” out to next weekend, though.  (Dog ate my shower excuse…original, huh?)

Shop Comfort

Three must-have items for the shop: Cooling, good lighting, and organizational skills. Let’s start with some organizing today.

Right now, I’m going through the “clean out the office, revise ham and electronics workstations, and kill clutter” phase.

There is a workflow to this:

It’s a little more complicated. if you have a massive collection of (shit) having to do with a hobby. Like Gardening (a small building could be used…) or ham radio. In which case you label boxes as to type and then sort each of the boxes (when everything is grouped) and you then make up – and run it through – a Dump Run filter.

Old Man Lazy – 101

When you’re 75 – and the old joints are beginning to creak a bit, you start to be looking for ways to ease the burdens associated with moving heavy materials around. (Like water heaters!)

Not that we’re complaining, no sir.  But in a typical week, I have moved (oftentimes) 500 pounds a week.  In which case, the main Moving Tools are two hand trucks, like the one I just got from Home Despots (which was cheaper than Amazon, so don’t overlook them when shopping!)

This week, for example, my FedEx guy (who is also a pilot and CFI who will likely land in a FedEx sky jockey job, at some point) dropped off three 50-pound sacks of potting soil.  They are going to the greenhouse.  Hand truck? Did I just see your hand go up?

Next bagged goods came in from postal Jed.  66 pounds of cat food.  Which will last a couple of three weeks.

And no day would be complete without UPS Justin who brought in a big (heavy sack) of diatomaceous earth. Which our organic farmers know will knock out ants and most pests.  But you will need something to put it in, so again, Home Despots was cheaper than Lowes or the Zon for a good metal garbage can.  Like $38 bucks including tax and free shipping.

Now to the Lazy Part

I no longer enjoy the “thrill” of picking up 40-50 pound bags of anything.  Come to think of it, gold and silver might qualify for my exceptions list, but that’s about it.  Pay attention now, as I teach you to “halve your workload.” Ready?

Step-by-Step Lazy: First thing you do is hand truck the heavy (ass) bag into an air-conditioned workspace.  Bring in your clean garbage can.

Optional but recommended: Since I am incredibly lazy, I cut the top off the bag of heavy stuff before moving on to the next step.

With the bag standing up, (top cut off) put the empty garbage can on it.  Push the garbage can now as far as you can, but if it doesn’t go all the way, no big.  Because now (can upside down) you push the whole thing (bag with can over it) so it falls on its side.  Like this:

With the top cut off this bag, there was no cloud of powder, though, because only the top is open at this point. The G-can contains the flying particles pretty well.

Step 2:  With the can on the floor, you can now lift up the garbage can – which you will notice has handles – unlike the bag.  You pull up and now the garbage can is upright and the bag (of whatever) is upside down in it.  Like this:

If you look closely, you’ll see I have reached in with my everyday farm carry pocket knife (a dandy) and run a big slit from the previously opened top (now in the bottom of the G-can) about half to three-quarters of the way up.

Step 3: All you need to do now is (gently!) lift the bag – tapping gently – and up she will come like so:

To get every last bit of material out of the bag, you’ll give it a few taps. While you are doing this, however, keep the open part of the bag away from you (especially with weed & feed or messy materials). Tap again around the bag, give things a minute to settle.

Then remove the now-empty bag and take it to the burn barrel, or into a trash bag for the waste crew to deal with.

G2 says I have something called “Old Man Strength.”  But this is one insider tips on how to get more work done – with less effort – which seems to be something people who work as much (or more) with their heads than their hands, anymore, don’t have much understanding of.

Besides, there is no such thing as “Old Man Strength” – just old man tendon rips and muscle pulls. Since kids don’t read, though, don’t go spoiling the story by letting the cat out of the bag.

Lazy Lesson #2

The Ultimate Assembly Worktable is something everyone needs at least a couple of.  It’s just a worktable, but it has a perfect right angle permanently affixed so that when you go to assemble something, it comes out dead-to-nuts square.  This is a lot harder than it seems.

A conventional “carpentry bench” is a great start.  Until you decide you need some additional storage areas and you put a shelving unit on top of the workbench.  Great for organization but hell on workspace.

Similarly, I have in the past carefully cut and measured and squared a couple of pieces of hardwood (oak is nice).  I spent more time than a Mason on parting my square right.  And – like the carpentry bench, – you only need the “squared away” work area only every now and then.

I ran into precisely this problem last week.  I ended up with a leftover 4 ft. by 25-inch butcher block hunk of hardwood.  After putting over a grand into designer tile in the kitchen (that’s material cost alone) the butcher block wasn’t going in the house.  I offered Elaine a workspace outside on the screen porch, now that the cats have been banished (to avoid the screens being ripped out again.

The countertop stuff is great – and occasionally you will see “deals” on it on Home Depot’s site.  Once you have slopped on enough sanding sealer and triple-thick Varathane and let it all cure out for a while, it’s easy to build a couple of 20-by-24 box frames out of 2-by-4’s.

The 24-inch dimension is the width of the table.  And the 17 1/2-inch cuts on the 2-by legs is there because you will lay out the pieces like this:

The adjustable table legs used on this project are on Amazon for $37, but there’s a $10 coupon so be sure and use it. – $27-bucks.

The first secret of a project like this?  Prefinish the material, if you can. I wanted the legs of the table to be black (unobtrusive and doesn’t show dirt) so the  2-by’s were painted with a good (primer and paint) outdoor black latex pain.

The second secret is to use your miter saw – and miter saw stand stops. You can see the saw stop (where the black 2X4 runs into it.  The stand stop is the metal on the right side here:

I am a HUGE fan of “stops” because they give you a fighting chance to have all your cuts come out the same.  When you get comfortable with them, you’ll get to a point (like I have) where measuring and marking the wood will be relatively pointless.  The distance from the right blade kerf to the stop is the by-God length the cut will be.  Lasers and eyeballing are fine – but only for one-off cuts.  If you need two or more cuts, investigate using a jig or stop.

Once you know (instinctively) that a 2 X 4 is really 1.5 by 3.5 inches, life gets a lot easier in the shop.  I have asked half a dozen contractors why if 2-by is really 1.5 inches, why the 4 dimension isn’t 3 inches even. But all I get is very unacceptable answers.  This is the kind of thing I need to check with Ray on. He’s a co-holder of “ancient wisdom.”

Third secret is to use your table saw for setting up perfectly square joins.  Seems to simple and obvious, but people overlook the obvious all the time.

You can see the 22″ piece of 2-by is up against the fence (on the right) and the 25″ piece is on the left. The two 17 1/2″ pieces are horizontal in this view.

This is a pie-simple shop project – one taking less than an hour – if you add up the pieces of time involved.  Like 10-minutes to paint up a couple of 2-by’s and things like that.  But, in the end, Elaine now has a nice place just outside the kitchen door where she can mess with cat food, painting, or drawing, and still have a view of the woods – which is what being out here is all about.

She likes her workspace to be about 28-inches high.  I’ll be using a similar lash-up to make a left-side table saw extension table to make man-handling big sheets of plywood a lot easier.

Caution must be used, though: because when you start adding appurtenances to a saw, it can eat up a lot of floor space. Which, in turn, leads to reorganizing the whole damn shop, if’n you’re not careful.  And this is only a 3-day weekend, not a four-dayer!

Back to work, then?  We will have more in a holiday ShopTalk Monday tomorrow for the holiday. Tomatoes will wait.

Write when you get rich – and count fingers before and after saw use. NO ALCOHOL AND POWER TOOLS

George@Ure.net

59 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Holiday Shop Projects!”

  1. (“With an instant hot water set-up, if you lose power (or run out of propane if you went that direction) you will have about 100-500 cubic inches of water in the piping before your freezing. I don’t like surprises – especially hot ones.”)

    https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-3886/IBC-Tanks/IBC-Tank-with-Steel-Pallet-275-Gallon?

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/272088626625

    See now I LOVE my on demand hot water heater… I don’t regret putting in ours at all.. I don’t have the space to do what I wanted to do.. first I would need a hole etc.. my desire when I first put ours in.. was.. I looked at the average consumption levels.. on average the water heaters I had consumed almost a thousand kw per month of energy just to keep the water warm for the dog.. where the on demand water heater didn’t turn on the fuel until it was needed.. I tried the same one that they use on the space station.. got that tip from a friend at the time in NASA.. it is wonderful .. but.. its meant for DC voltage and takes a shitton of energy.. thought the electric meter was going to fly off of the wall.. so I put in a Natural Gas on demand.. instead of two hundred gallon hot water heaters.. and it does nice.. and I live where it is a little cooler than most in the wastelands..
    NOW.. what I wanted to do is the idea of storage is a good one.. with cisterns.. your water keeps cold year round.. under six feet down your always going to have fifty to sixty degree water.. why can’t the Earth insulate the heat in water to.. I wanted to put a IBF tote buried .foam then gravel tank.. you start it by filling the tank with hot water.. then putting up a solar hot water collector with thermo siphon to keep only the hot water flowing into the tank.. now depending on the size of your tank.. ( you can use the fifty gallon drums as well.. this to depending on how you plumb it can be used as a cistern or waste tank and drain field) there is a green house in the outback of Nebraska that heats and cools his green house using such a similar methon he had duct pipes under the floor of the green house and a fan on one side.. amazing results.. and year round growing..
    but even without the storage tank.. ours does quite well.. there is about a minute of cold before the hot water.. now big facilities.. in their plumbing system.. we had flow pumps.. keep the water circulation going.. that was done to keep hot water always readily available.. every half hour or so the pump kicks on circulates the hot water and your water is hot.. pushes the hot water into the cold water line..

    https://www.totalhomesupply.com/p/aquamotion-amh3k-7n-on-demand-under-sink-hot-water-recirculation-pump-kit?

    for thousands of years.. man has used the energy of nature to provide the basics.. its the luxury of having it now.. and technology that has overtaken the earth strategies..
    so bury a barrel.. insulate it.. store the fifty or two hundred gallons use the sun.. then if the lights go out.. no power.. you still have water warm enough to bath with..
    the house I designed way back when I was a young teenager… would work that way.. it is still my dream home.. can’t build it.. sure would love to but would need someone else to do the physical labors.. my house building days are pretty much behind me.. age has no mercy.. but would use the energy of nature to cool heat and Swimming pools were a great way to save hot water to.. just wouldn’t want to drink it LOL…
    while a conventional hot water heater has the tank and the flame or heating element to keep the water warm.. The losses through convection, ventilation and evaporation are where the energy pulled away from the tank by the air around the tank creates more energy consumption.

    I wanted to put the tank under the floor of the house.. layer of foam vapor barrier.. gravel or sand.. foam on all sides and sand water goes in water comes out.. keep the tank at a level and save energy.. I would need to have a front end bucket..or hire it done..

  2. (“It’s a little more complicated. if you have a massive collection of (shit) having to do with a hobby.”)

    OTFLMAO… you know that is my wife’s biggest gripe.. with me LOL LOL LOL LOL to many projects and things to build and all the stuff to do it.. did you know I am still working on a violin out of paper LOL LOL LOL LOL

  4. I am more lazy or looking for the easy way, I just put whole bag of diatomaceous in the can and then just cut the top open ,, leaving the bag in the can,,, but I used a plastic tote as that was handy at the time,,, the can is a good thought
    w/lid to keep the bugs out,,,, come on, that’s a punny :-)
    I wish it worked on spiders also , but it doesnt

    I would have made a shooting bench with that butcher block board, but I see you made a better investment with it, she is worth it

    I also dust my cats with DE, they get a little pissy but it kills their fleas

    • it does work with spiders.. they have an exoskeleton.. the DE coats them and they can’t breath and dry up and die..
      DE won’t stop bugs in their tracks, it will slowly dehydrate and eventually kill bugs after coating them; the idea is to get bugs to move through DE in order to get exposed. House spiders are prime targets for DE. They are in a dry environment and can be dehydrated by DE quickly.

  5. I like your term of “old man strength”, I was always told it was “work smarter not harder” but for myself at 70 it pays to be smarter at what and HOW you do it! LOL

  6. Walk (work) like an Egyptian …

    I sometimes spend longer thinking how something can be done than actually doing it. Now, I do not spend gobs of time making printable flow charts (snicker) but …

    There are lots of large items which move from lawn to shore to waters edge to belly button deep. On shore we employ multiple stout 2 wheel carts. Then levers (steel 10′ thick wall pipe). Then military surplus foam floaties.

    Just yesterday a neighbor borrowed one of my carts to roll 1/2 of the load to get his last ginormous section of pier off his patio and into the wet. It’s the way.

    Plumber bud and son got my leaking hose valve shut off and eventually will restore the exterior valve then … I’ll show off my masonry skills.

    But not this day. Today we pontoon party.
    Gentlemen start your engines.
    Or not. Rain coming.

    Have a fine day alles,
    Egor

    • With a couple of solar panels, a mobile whip on the rail, and a ham radio for a little 20M CW, I cn’t think of any better way to spend a day (under a canopy and with two 100 amp hour batteries in case of rain – actual)

      • Not to mention what a great ground system the water makes. Field Days we enjoy planting a stick at the ocean’s edge and working the world.

        • Brings back memories of laying under a palm tree at Treasure Island resort where we living in the Cayman Islands – and I was ZF2HD back then (in addition to the AC7X callsign). 200 foot long wire about 50 feet up with a kite catching the offshore breeze in the afternoon and a 50-foot ground wire swum out to the reef edge and dropped with a rock… Instant pileups. Pontoon Mobile with a promise of a flashy qsl card ought to do it though…

  7. ya know, its an eye opener George. i got the signal from Choices. im not worried about it.

    alot of people are struggling here. alot has changed in many lives since i went to the mountain. i seen some people that were thriving who are now homeles and strung out on drugs. some died, some got divorced, some got married, some decided they were gay. some are still talking about the same exact shit they said to me a year and a half ago. like this purto rican honey with Double Ds, she said im working on being alone. everyone wants to have sex with me, but im not putting out. its like some sorta scratched record that skips the needle back to the same part of the song. and i think okay she wants to have sex. because why would you say the exact same stuff to me 2 years later. but i dont wanna have sex with her. she is batshit. so i say good for you darling. keep going, you’re doing great. then she says you wanna come over for dinner? and i just mute her. lol

    being on Mountain has changed me in many ways. i spent exactly a year on the mountain. not dating, not having sex, none of that. i spent a ton of time. sometimes whole days alone with THE DUDE. writing, reading, being still and quiet. listening.

    sometimes when you listen in meditation you dont have visions or any of that groovy stuff. its more about listening. being still. being quiet. about dicipline. over coming the urge to look at your phone, or talk to someone, or pray or eat or shit, shower and shave. its about discipline. self discipline.

    like the discipline you have George to spit out 2000 words a day for almost 20 years, now. most people dont even recognise that sorta disciplin. they think i can be a writer. but they dont have that sorta discipline. i dont to the degree you have in that art. i think i do have a greater degree in meditation than you do. than most do.

    it doesnt matter if it sunny, cloudy, i have to work, i won the 360 lottery jackpot, i have a woman in my bed or not, my kid is sick, the stock market is up or down, i feel lousey or good, sad or happy, if its my birthday or the 4th of july, someone died, someone had a baby, it doesnt matter if im getting married or divorced. it doesnt matter if i havr a hot date or a funeral to go to. it doesnt matter if im on the Mountain or cruise ship that just anchored at Grand Caymen Island. rain or shine. all things Divine.

    i pray and meditate for 2 hours every day. i will wake up at 2 am if i start work at 430, just to spend time in prayer and meditation. and i have for 25 years. every single day. i think i missed maybe 10 days in that entire time.

    that takes discipline. just like you getting up and creating content daily. that makes actuall sense. that takes discipline.

    and the rewards of consistant discipline over a long time period are seen by others as some sorta gosh that fella is so lucky. how does he do that? why does he have all that wild stuff happen to him.

    but the fail to recognise the discipline it took to get there. the consistancy. the constant drive to exercise the muscle it take to do that.

    i live in the real world. where a million things are pulling on my attention. everything from traffic, to work, to hot red heads, with green eyes and double D’s all over me, to working with others, chores around the house, being a father, sleep, the gym, the hot hispanic lady down stairs with her two dogs penutbutter and jelly, to wrangling horses, to eating food, to what is going on in the world stage.

    i had a girl invite me over for breakfast in bed last week. i said okay, cool, i will be right there —-> after i spend a couple hours sitting in the Prensence of THE DUDE. she said by then i will be starting my day. i said okay. i will catch up with ya later this afternoon. she didnt reply. lol

    i read this this morning and made me think of you George and few around here, including me.

    “Discipline of yourself is absolutely necessary before the power of God is given to you. When you see others manifesting the power of God, you probably have not seen the discipline that went before. They made themselves ready. All your life is a preparation for more good to be accomplished when God knows that you are ready for it. So keep disciplining your self in the spiritual life every day. Learn so much of the spiritual laws that your life cannot again be a failure. Others will see the outward manifestation of the inward discipline in your daily living.”

    the answers alway come.

    im here at the rail station. waiting for someone. to the do The Good work. Id rather be somewhere else. im sure they will be along when they are. im never waiting at spot, just for me. im her to send them where they need to go in life.

    because that is what i do. lol

    https://youtu.be/R4EnErMCKrI?si=5IC0G2u8YG4CZglV

    ~ La Dolce Vita ~

    • I got a kick out of Choices response to you, Andy. Because I recalled that too.
      What people don’t seem to quite…um…ingest or make part of their being…is that the future is always malleable right up until it passes (as all event time arrows do) through the narrow channel of “Now!”
      Even that fellow Stephen – when referencing Clif’s work, said his results are 20-25 percent – when tracked over an big number of years. No global subsidence yet, but Katrina-Rita? Absolutely. But thing is, Future changes more or less constantly.
      When people like you (or me) goes into “that State” – which is kinda like a cross between religious moment, going to an iMax, and a regular dream (that has somehow morphed into UHD – you can get very clearly dispensations about the Future – but only as it looked from where you are (personally) right then and there.
      Another aspect is temporal proximity; where yes, NYC is likely to burn (maybe a nuke when Russia and China decide they have had enough of us “policing the world”) we have no idea when that might be.
      Same thing with Clif’s outlooks. I have seen them all across the spectrum – close in, middle term, and longer term, but not over about a 20-30 percent fill rate in the short term.
      Which is why I went off on the WFA (word frequency analysis) (word use counts) as a way to tuning in to the short term with an eye toward taking the whole body of futuring and evolving a method to distill the whole thing into a more useful (trading) tool.
      I think it can be done, but the future is terrible complicated – and trajectories – which I talked about in a not so long ago column – are hard to get right.
      Dream and prayer work are dandy tools, too. As if having a fine sativa and just writing as you review the news. The next day, it’s interesting what the socially unhobbled mind can do under the influence of (which ever road is chosen).
      There’s a discipline to tracking it all. And I admit be to being a bit like Choices myself – the older we get,and knowing there’s only so much time allotted each of us, errors in expectations about the future can result in wasted time. And that’s bad.
      On the other hand, the imagery of NYC burning (inside the wire, if you know what that is) could be out there in America’s future because Hardliners of Other Countries seem to be making advances.
      This may not explain much, except to focus on scoring Future like one scores baseball: Home runs, hit, and strike outs.
      For now, no subsidence (steee-rike!) but that doesn’t mean the future won’t have another at-bat before our side retires to deep storage.
      No New York burning (which is a good call on Choice’s part) because each of us play umpire and we call the game as we see it. Seeing of Future is hard – even without people like me (and Choices) scoring it. But in a Kaizen kind of way (https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/definition/kaizen-or-continuous-improvement) the only way we (humans) will get a better handle on managing our future is to ruthlessly analyze and learn across a multiplicity of techniques which may then be weighted in some manner to improve predictive results.
      Again, like the baseball analogy, Choices called an “Out!” are first base. Earlier in the game (of life) you took a swing at the Future back at home plate – caught it for what it was and shared that thinking “Base hit!”
      From George’s position, it looked to me more like “Ball 1” that drifted into the stands over the right field line while the runner was in motion.
      The game is still in play, though. Iran is looking harder, and if the U.S. doesn’t pick up on Putin’s clear signals to talk about Ukraine, and instead put politics ahead of peace, the while the runner was out but another at-bat is on the way.
      Just not too soon, we would hope.

      • okay, cool. grand slam or strike. it doesnt matter much to me anymore.

        i dont predict the future much any more. i look at it as a step to the next step.

        i dont honestly remember saying that. but new york has burned several times.

        watch it burn next week. lol

        then we can all say ahhhhh ohhhh like the audiance on the Wheel of Fortune.

        for me as i get older i dont care so much about seeing the future. its only one tool out of many.

        you can predict a thousand things right. get one wrong and people say ohh look! point point.

        but fail to remember on 04/19/2016 i mentioned the panama papers as a call to attention. long before Trump would mention panama in an interview with Tucker Carlson on a platform called X. being the former President.

        incase you havent noticed my focus has been in last few years, Diving timing. harmony with all that is. that is a greater tool than seeing the future. synchronized flow, even with celestial objects.

        ya know nobody is griping about George Bush any more. and George Bush was the worst president up to Joe Biden.

        so i spend less and less time cosidering such things.

        i have others to attend to. and im trying my hand at art. and wifeing up and settling in with life once again.

        after traveling for 4 years. its good to be where im at.

        i have come so far, so good will take me further.

        • One of the great responsibilities of seeing any future – and talking about it – is to put things in such a way as to not engender bad karma is people change their life plans or directions based on something.
          For example, life south of 40 seems to be working OK for now and moving north of 40 may simply move into a radiation belt, depending on global winds aloft.
          Short term in markets, think Trajectory. And that day to 3 after major holidays.
          24 days to Juneteenth?

        • (“for me as i get older i dont care so much about seeing the future.”)

          One day I was at work.. there was a tornado headed and less than a mile away for the facility I was working at… I decided.. I would run out and see what it looked like.. I went out the door and seen the heavy churning of the clouds.. the hail.. and deathly calm.. where the storm was sucking the air up for the big wham.. went to open the door and get back into safety.. only to realize… the door was a self locking door.. I had to go around the whole building to get back in.. I walked slow and avoided seeing the threat headed our way.. the ostrich with its head in the sand hiding from the threat headed our way..

          That is how I am now with the NEWS… the FUTURE.. there is very little anyone of us can do.. The Morons pushing for this are going to do it anyway.. they have the power to do it.. and they can’t see the threat that anyone of us do.. heck even Californians are starting to realize they were to stupid to realize that this creep doesn’t have anything but his own good considered.. our govt.. hasn’t made any contingency plans for the people of the USA.. they only made arrangements for a few at the very top.. the rest of us have to go through what they are doing.. like opening the borders to illegals.. they don’t give two cents over how it will affect those of us tax payers.. they won’t feel a bit of it..
          so I am avoiding to see and hear what I think is coming.. be the ostrich with its head in the sand.. live each day enjoy each day.. and hopefully they will find what was on Oak Island before the big storm hits.. at this point.. I believe that they have already won… not militarily but financially the damage has been done.. the USA and UK the Euro .. are all on notice.. the world is not a multi polar planet with more than just them making up the rules ..
          Live each day as it comes.. give everyone that you care about a hug and let them know how much they mean to you.. that way if the storm hits.. and it is the last breath.. there won’t be any regrets on not saying those important things..
          I don’t understand what everyone is thinking about Trump being president again.. just look what they have done now.. he brought up in the broncs about the use deadly force clause that was placed in the agencies hands.. they came ready for bear..
          https://youtu.be/EvUoV4vfAe8?si=zLD2P_B_IPjVXh6Y

          so they demanded he pick up the documents.. then came and found the documents.. LOL… sounds a little fishy to me..

          https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1782486128915857520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1782486128915857520%7Ctwgr%5E2f6e89a90a7dd03661f1f01d42c173422e1a5599%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbeforeitsnews.com%2Fopinion-conservative%2F2024%2F04%2Fnew-bombshell-evidence-trump-was-set-up-in-classified-docs-3691714.html

        • (“im trying my hand at art. and wifeing up”)

          hmm… don’t just leap into a relationship.. take time and get to know them first.. and if your just visiting about someone else’s wife.. read the accounts of Joseph Smith and what happened to him…what was it almost half of his wives was married to someone else. and some of them were their daughters..
          not counting his girlfriends..

          https://archive.org/details/insacredloneline0000comp/mode/1up

      • my question is. you did see the picture i hand drew of the hands, with the rose and the spirals.

        inspired by the 5th symphony.

        you did see the picture i took of the view a week later off my deck of the purple sunset with the swirling clouds.

        then a week after that, you did see the entire northern hemisphere experiance the aurora borealis. seen from texas, to france, to China.

        a rare event called a G-5.

        G is the 5th note in the 5th symphony.

        and you did see a week after that, the young ladys after finishinf their riding lessons, draw a similar image in sidwalk chalk on the concrete next to where i park my car.

        having never seen my drawing and not knowing i park there, let alone that i posted a drawing a month prior to all these events..

        and yet, the point is, what about new york burning?????

        uhmm. huh.
        ok.

        lol.

        • Naw, Dude – a G5 is a Gulfstream jet. Get your head back in the clouds.
          Beside, Allegro con brio in c-minor is never as moving as a scherzo!

      • now if anyone would like deposit $330,000,000.00 annually in my personal bank account.

        i will give that person the my full best effort at seeing the future.

        until then, like All Children of God, i am allowed to color outside the lines.

        and unless your up for paying me my personal established value???? well, ya get what ya get.

        everyones a critic. when they make no effort on their own.

        lol.

        much obliged.

        • My life got 50 percent better when my self-talk banished the word critic and derivative like criticism from my self= talk vocabulary. “Feedback” is all it is… any emotional colorations are in how we take it.

        • (“now if anyone would like deposit $330,000,000.00 annually in my personal bank account.”)

          the way they are manipulating the economy.. how about a cheese burger coupon in the mail… in no time at all.. that might have more value than some number..

  8. lets do the math for George.

    lets modeslty say George writes 2 hours a day. for 20 years.

    2 x 365 = 730 hours a year.
    730 × 20 = 14,600 hours over 20 years.

    which is a modest estimate. george proably writes 4 hours a day or more. every day.

    that is 29,200 hours.

    writer Malcolm Gladwell) was that mastery is not born, but created, practiced, and executed.  It takes about 10,000 hours of guided practice to become masterful.  

    by that principle. George is a Grand Puba Masterful writer having 3 mastered writing 3 times over.

    https://amworkshops.com/tips-techniques/learning-1-of-the-10000-hours-rule/

    i do 2 hours a day meditation. consistantly over 25 years. i have dedicated weeks at a time to being alone in quiet reflection. every where i go stop wait 15 minutes or so before i proceed. i dedicate 2 hours in the morning every day. i probably spend 4 hours a day most days with 15 minutes here and there on top of my morning dedication.

    an modest estimate of 18,250 hours over 25 years.

    36,500 hours is more close to actuality. in meditation. the center between awake and asleep.

    and choices calls me the crazy one.

    lol

    according to what i read, a pupil will have to meditate 2 hours a day for 10 years to be considered a Budahst Priest. A master teacher.

    that is only 7,300 hours to be considered a Budast Priest. A Master Teacher.

    George has 29,200 hours. placing meditative thought into words.

    George has 4 times more than the average Budast Priest. A Master Teacher.

    discipline. in perspective

    namaste.

    • it’s about the business model.
      you see companies spending thousands if dollars to train someone into a job.oay them the bare minimum as a wage.. then dump them so that they can spend thousands of dollars to train someone new.
      I just visited with a woman that put her notice in at being a home heath aid.. Friday is her last day.. she has to travel two hours to get to her patient..what she asked for was 4 dollars more an hour..or let her work one of the patients that are closer to her. three days a week.. they have a hard time getting workers to take care of the patient anyway.. they told her no..they wanted college students to work that patient.. she makes 12 an hour no mileage..I know that the company gets 100 dollars an hour and 65 cents per mile..
      they wanted to keep her at 3 hours a day three days a week..
      the issue is if they paid her 16 dollars an hour 2 of her hours goes just to pay the gas for her travel.. and if you do it for one they all would want travel expenses..so pay them 30 cents a mile they still pocket 35 and they keep help..
      if you don’t have a sheet of paper on the wall you won’t advance.. my average work week was 100 hours..for almost 50 years.
      the old saying it’s not what you know but who you know..
      when I left the cabinet shop.. my old boss told my new boss they didn’t realize how hard I worked they had to hire six people to take my place as a human mule..
      it is always the business model..healthcare industry runs short shifts all the time..I was the only one working for over a hundred patients..labor is the only flexible budget entry.. if the guy at the top makes a million a year they have to take in 100 grand a month over and above the rest of their expenses..
      a friend’s son in law cardiac surgeon..was given a million dollar home five million just to come to the hospital as a recruiting fee and guaranteed half a million in wages.. he had to work 18 hours a day slapping out cabbages just to keep up with their spending habbits..
      where the wife works doesn’t make a dime. the place is sold every few years. the argument for medical similar to most of the world..is the cost is divided among 700 million people..through taxes wages are managed..

    • the issue I had with the ceo of the hospital was. is he really worth that kind of coin to sit and scratch is ass fir 6 hours a day..
      the kid of my friends had so many infections from his cabbages that it was a nightmare to take care of them..drain tubes galore..he cut corners to make coin..

    • take the VA Healthcare system..fully staffed..their problem is they run it like government insitution in at 8 out at 3.30..my podiatrist gets 16 weeks of vacation and all the federal holidays..he doesn’t even have to go to work.. At the hospital we had ghost techs.. I was on the schedule for 6 years after I left because of health reasons.. it looks good to state when they inspect.. every day they would put a line through it..no show..

  9. Agree with otbD–if it were me, I’d leave the stuff in the sack. Easier to get that last little bit out by upending almost empty bag than scraping together little bit by little bit from the bottom of a garbage can. My 40# sack of Hydrocal is in a metal garbage can mounted on a scrap piece of 3/4″ plywood on wheels. A couple of round-head screws fastens the bottom of the can to the plywood keeping said can from slipping off. The set-up is tucked out of the way until needed.

  10. now in every NDE i have had they tell me on the other side, not till you are 118 years old. go back and im here again. lol

    by the time i am 118 years old, long after you are all gone to the next adveture i will have logged over 111,690 hours in meditation. which i will bring with me into the next adventure.

    where does 111,690 hours of meditation take A Man? i dont rightly know.

    but if a Budahst is called a priest, a master teacher at 7,300 hours??? by the time i breath my last breath in this world i will have investes 15.3 times more than the average Master Teacher in the Hymilayas.

    :)

    • (“in every NDE i have had they tell me on the other side, not till you are 118 years old. “)

      Hmm.. Your a big boy.. xxxxlg.. you smoke, drink… and live a vagabond lifestyle… don’t know that would be a miracle in itself if you lived that long.. those that lived over a hundred that I have met lived a less stressful lifestyle .. and I have met a few.. the oldest was a hundred and seven.. abusing your body like you do is a lot like my workaholic days.. I thought I could conquer the world at your age.. I was just starting to feel some of it.. but I could still bench three and job ten miles a day swim laps.. etc.. so hopefully they are right.. I sure wouldn’t want to live that long though.. in your mind you still look eighteen.. you still have the hopes and dreams of a more youthful self.. but your body is like a motor.. change the oil put good fuel in it and drive it like you want to keep it..

  12. A long track tornadic supercell (maybe 90 miles) came through last night. I was in my shelter place cocooned in latex cushions, when it blew through. It sounded like the worst of it went several miles to the north. When I came out for breakfast, I had limbs down in a concentrated area. One 8″ diameter treetop, and some 3″ & 4″ limbs in about a 25′ swath down by the tool shed. Looks like a tree top level EF 0 signature damage. That would make three tornado incidents in less than ten years. I don’t see any other damage on surrounding properties as I did with the previous two incidents, so this windstorm stayed high. I didn’t hear the train, but I was in a closed insulated room with sound absorbing (and debris blocking) material surrounding. EF 0 tornadoes are a lot quieter than the EF-3+ slab clearing and uprooting destruction apparatus. Looks like I will be dragging limbs for Memorial. I need a better shelter. I am leaning to toward deploying some solar cells at 5 degree or less angle, to mitigate wind influence.

    • I have a friend who lives in an A-frame on a lake in Southern Wisconsin… tornado country. No basement under the house, and he freaks out when the storms come thru. I told him to get a big steel culvert dropped nearby and bury it for a storm shelter. He agreed it was a good idea, but still has not done it. So when the tornado warnings were flying for his area a few days ago I texted him: “Got that culvert yet?” The response was an immediate “F— YOU!”

      • For informational purposes I looked up your idea.

        It was not easy to get any kind of cost estimate without consulting the manufacturer. I looked up concrete culverts and box culverts and pipes. I was not able to estimate anything. Prices ranged from I’m guessing several thousand to seventy thousand. Also I don’t know if those figures are installed or just precast concrete.

        You know that they teach college level courses in construction engineering cost estimation? I can see why your ex friend was shall we say not receptive to your suggestion.

        • He is a lifelong friend, not an ‘Ex’. We can get away with telling each other ‘F-U’ regularly. There are metal pipe culvert manufacturers in the region we have checked with, and his lot is a gentle slope down to the lake, where it would be easy to dig a side of the slope out and earth berm part of the pipe also. All told about the cost of constructing a garage on the lot, so it is not out of reach for him.

    • Earth berm.. modular homes are target 1.. because the air gets under the home..the same with a house..its a brunt object that the wind can beat against..
      earth Vermont is similar to having a basement..

  13. For those that care, it seems that Weeks 533 crane has finally managed to remove the concrete/rebar layer of the highway that fell onto the Dali in Baltimore. I’m not quite sure how it was rigged to lift that enormous load but it did use a spreader arrangement on hook. The max capacity of that crane is around 500 tons, so I’m sure they took it off in sections, but how to rig something like that is definitely a challenge. Steel has tensile strength, so it’s much easier to rig, but concrete designed as a roadbed is quite different. Regardless, it got done. Baltimore harbor seems largely back to normal these days as far as functionality:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b1_rucnZFs

    It’s still missing a bridge and requires tug escorts for large vessels.

    Now I need to get some real work done! I think it’s good to keep the body moving and lift just a bit more than you can, with care of course.

  14. final thought, on the uncertain future.

    i recently was in a hotel.

    i watched a man walk up to beautiful younger, high class escort. she says $4000 and im yours for the night, you also pay for dinner, the hotel and drinks on top of that. $1000 tip after sex and i will do anything you want.

    the fella holds up a $100 bill and says, what can i get for this?

    she snatches the $100 out of his hand, smiles, blows him a kiss and walks away.

    he stood there after she left, smiled and said to himself, i just saved myself a whole shit load of money.

    i laughed.

    the best part about that story George is:

    she walks into the bar, slaps the hundred dollar bill on the counter and says i will take a Miller Lite and a shot of Tequilla! The good stuff. the hundred dollar bill falls off the bar, she bends over to pick it up. i walk up behind her and say hello.

    long story short, later that night, she buys me dinner, paid for a hotel room and fucked me for free.

    the whole time, she doesnt know i saw her in the lobby with the other fella.

    who was the big winner in that?

    until we meet again my friend.

  15. Geomagnetic Storm Classifactions by Noaa and Nasa

    https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/these-are-the-5-categories-that-measure-geomagnetic-storms
    “G5 – Extreme
    Luckily, storm levels of this magnitude are relatively rare. Still, when they occur, power systems may see widespread voltage control problems and some grid systems may experience complete collapse or blackouts, and transformers may suffer damage.

    Pipeline currents could reach hundreds of amps, HF radio propagation may be impossible in many areas for 1-2 days, and satellite navigation may be degraded for days as well, NOAA says.

    But if the skies are clear, a brilliant and intense display of the Northern Lights may reach as far south as Florida and Texas. “

  16. you can be right. all ya want. but that doesnt mean its true.

    im not in competition with you.

    there is a correction to that story i told,

    when the 100 bill blew off the counter of the bar and she bent over to pick it up.

    i was there before she noticed, and i picked it up and gave it to her as she was bending over.

    i am also not in competition with the guy who thought about how much money he saved or the high class esscort.

    all of them were winners. as was I.

  18. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is in C minor, the first five notes of which are C, D, E-flat, F and G.

    https://www.key-notes.com/blog/beethoven-s-fifth

    the thing is. i created that entire hand drawing without knowing the catagories of magnetic storms and symphony notes. i wrote them without looking them up.

    i had only heard the 5th symphony one time, 10 years ago and never once looked at the music notes prior to the hand written drawing. lol

    i dont care about new york. i care about doing more of that.

    i wont ever post here again.

    • “i wont ever post here again.”

      Andy. I think you would have more credibility here if you didn’t post this and then post twice more within the next 4 hours.

      • BIC, you’ll have to forgive ANDY, because that’s part of his dynamic character, IMO.

  19. who cares about seeing the future when i can sit down and write the notes in sequence for sheet music, of a symphony ive never seen before. and have zero experiance writing music.

    the same principle applies to unlocking combination locks

    and many other applications.

    who cares about what i said in the past. that is unimportant to what i am doing now.

    to me the pointing toward New York is a distraction.

    its thowing a stick for a dog to fetch and bring back. i am not a dog. lol

    and
    i dont give a flying fuck about Karma. i am a Christian. all debts are paid. i am a free man. i owe nothing. by the Blood of Jesus, my karmic debts are paid. in full.

    duh.

    i guess the elders were right, i will have to leave some behind in order to progress forward.

    elon did say to me again the other day, you are about to level up again and again.

    so, i wont be back here. i appreciate everything. as it has been, i have not come here much anymore anyways.

    and like glp and the web bot forum, i havent been back to them.

    as my shamman buddy says,
    what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours.

  20. my time on the light rail has been completed.

    supervisor John approached me and we got to talking. i said you are a young man. what do ya wanna do with your life? he said honestly? i want to travel the world. i didnt want to join the navy. but i love ships but idk i didnt wanna be in the military i have my medics licence etc. etc.

    he said you will laugh. but i made a vision board 3 years ago and put all the places i wanted to go. the virgin islands, italy, hong kong, tokoy. but im not rich. so its just a dream.

    i said ya know when i was your age, i wish i would have took a job working on cruis ships. they pay for your sailors licence and after you complete their training and the 6 month probation? you can hop from coast to coast, europe, the orient etc. etc. get paid, live on board, eat for free, get paid and see the whole world.

    he said wow! i never thought of that!!!! he gave me a hug and i thought he was going to cry. he said i could really do that!! thank you! thank you! thank you! wow! you just made my whole life! i feel like i just won the fucking lottery!

    i said right on. go live your best life Dan! dont let anyone hold you back.

    he walked away dancing.

    and that is why i been standing at the east main station for 2 weeks. waiting for Dan.

    time for something new. leveling up again and again.

    karmic debt? lol.

    I am in the Grand Rising silly,

    Arise from earth’s bonds, from depression, distrust, fear, and all that hinders my new life. Arise to beauty, joy, peace, and work inspired by love. Rise from death to life. i do not even need to fear death. All past sins are forgiven if you live and love and work with God. Let nothing hinder your new life.

    as predicted, i will not return to urban survival or comment here again. thanks for everything.

    • Don’t be a stranger. Sometimes the old guys get morose on Memorial weekends. Waiting to see if you hit the apocalyptic vision jackpot in July. That you don’t know whether to believe it or not makes it even more authentic.
      Are you going to be looking for a dream girl in LA ? Will you be riding the rails? A light rail dick turned freight train hopper. That would make for a YouTube channel, for sure. If you need anything, post a temporary box address. I have a like-new Aussie three-day pack in the garage which a broke burly wanderer might get some use out of.

    • I cannot even fathom a vagabond lifestyle.. going from one place to another.. living out of a suit case.. Definately would not be the life for me… I want to have contact with the kids and grand kids.. its better for them to.. getting a divorce from my first wife was extremely hard on the kids.. You to will realize this as you gain in age.. being uncommitted to anyone or anything and living the batchelors life does have its perks you have definetly had more ladies than the average man in this world.. but it has its drawbacks as well.. its the same way working long hours.. I wrote the book on long hours and no sleep work ethics.. you miss out on a lot of things.. the kids come right out and say.. where were you when I hit that home run or when I got up on stage and sang.. us going back to being just the two of us.. is nice.. We both actually got to go and watch the grandsons spring concert.. it was a blast and he was happier than you could imagine that both grandpa and grandma was there.. with the guys around.. that need your help.. only one can go.. we are going to make a trip to the city and see the grand daughter and great grandkids to….. the power company is having another meeting in a month.. this sort of scares me.. what is the meeting about they just had one.. I personally believe that it is not going to be good news … especially since they sent out that scary letter about the EPA change in rules.. gives me good excuse to hit the wife up about putting more solar on LOL…

      • If you have never lived the “low responsibilities vagabond life” it is a wonderful source of uncountable lessons. The syllabus includes self-reliance, trust in strangers, holding your core values (and learning what those really are) – Vagabonding is hugely rewarding.
        Plus it’s fun to kinda “read over Andy’s shoulder” while he does the work…there for for the grace of God go we…

        • I hear ya.. I can’t even imagine how it is. sometimes I wished I had lived that lifestyle myself..

    • “as predicted, i will not return to urban survival or comment here again. thanks for everything.”

      Andy, I wholeheartedly hope that it is not for my critical view of predictions?! People seem to be obsessed with them to their detriment, IMHO.
      Your absence on this forum will be noticeable ;-).
      However, you must have realized that most of your post were more abt. me, me, me, me, me to the point of absurdity, imo. Anyhow, I’m glad you’re well taken care of by our creator. Stay well, from a well meaning friend; Same to George who put up with most of this nonsense. :-))

      • LOL, I look at the tribe here as just a bunch of fellows seeking truth and trying to head east toward the first rays of enlightening

  21. thinking about vacuum tube hot water with a trough reflectors etc.. why not use sand or salt as the heat absorber..your manifold.. an absorbtion place below.. initial cold water starts beflow the absorbtion plate.. in larger pipes.. flows then is stepped down.. into the secondary heating manifold where the pipes are in pipes filled with sand or salt.. to the third intensifier.. a third manifold.. that has a reflective trough and the vacuum tube then down into the heat transfer coil in the insulated tank.. three manifolds.. two plates.. the plate on the pre warmer.. then the pipes filled with sand then to the outlet.. a check valve to insure that the water works like a percolator rather than doing the opposite.. which you could do if that was how your were going to use it for heating.. let the flow work both ways..
    the more I plan on teaching the kids how to make a solar freezer .. the more I think I will impliment the solar pumping action of the heat of the sun to work as a recirculation pump… you living where its hot half of the year.. a solar hot water heater would be extremely efficient.. I seen a evatcuated tube hot water done at the college in Washington state a long time ago now.. but even in all the cloudy rainy weather.. it was up to a hundred and forty degrees.. nice and hot.. here is my friend Dan.. great guy.. super nice with a heart.. he has as many of the unfinished projects like myself LOL..

    https://youtu.be/KuE_JAH7ryI?si=csukr0urFJjZ-tPb

    https://youtu.be/xWMrsqs3bFc?si=mLZWhsu6cERf4mZJ
    (I am waiting for dan to melt denises tea cup.. LOL then he would be the one getting yelled at LOL)

    Never teach children how to melt stone.. NEVER…..not a good idea at all.. teach them how to freeze shit with it but NEVER teach them how to melt shit with it..

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