Text 1337, 345 rader
Skriven 2012-07-27 02:24:13 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
   Kommentar till text 1312 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Darwion award candidate
===============================
Hi ROy,


On Thu 2012-Jul-26 09:38, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Richard Webb:

<air leak in truck>
 Roy>>> Might be a cracked hose too.

Roy> You could externally pressurize (10psi) the system instead and use
Roy> some soapy water to test for leaks.

YEah thinking about that one too, got to find a small air
compressor yet, I've been looking for a good small one, jsut when I've seen a
couple money was going somewhere else,
otherwise I'll borrow one from a friend of mine and do that. INstead I've been
just stopping and doing the air it up when I check tires before it goes out. 
But, was thinking all
along that soapy water is the way to find that bad boy.
Funny how that's effective in finding all sorts of leaks.

 RW>>> I think it was aftermarketed to just use hydraulics for the brakes,
 RW>>> and I'm not sure that was such a great idea.
<snip>
 RW> Technically anybody but it's owner has to have a cdl for this bad
 RW> boy.

Roy> Technically, if you're using the truck in 'not hauling for a fee',
Roy> anybody can drive it.

USed to be that way, but I think that some states see that
oen a bit different.  Texas law still says that.  Even
though it's not hauling, but what happens in it is for hire. Even though what
happens in the box on the back isn't
happening when it moves.  According to our insurance carrier that's what Tn
state law is on it.  Dad says he thinks Iowa
law is too.  That's where they get you I think, Tx, La. and
iirc Ar. are the way you and I look at it, but this state's
a bit different.

 RW>>   I don't know what I'm going to do when it needs more work, my
 RW>> favorite big truck mechanic around here retired, lost his lease and
 RW>> threw in the towel,

 Roy>> That happens to a lot of em...

 RW> yEah, and the good ones hang on as long as they can just
 RW> cause business is good, but when he lost his lease thanks to
 RW> landowner's kids thinking they were gonna make big money selling it
 RW> for housing development he just said to hell with it.

Roy> I know where he's coming from. When my lease came up for renewal,
Roy> business wasn't doing as well as it had in the past 10 years, so I
Roy> opted to not renew it and sold off the shop I had. Besides, I needed
Roy> to make an income that was a lot more than I reported at tax time in
Roy> those 11 years I was in business. SS wise, that increased my SS
Roy> income to max when I retired.

Can relate.  Seen that in lots of businesses.  HE lost his
lease just about the time it all started going, about '08 he knew the end was
coming.  Had the leaseholders (inheritors
of the land) been smart they woulda kept him on there.
Thing is, the young guy he had working for him wasn't bad
either and was now going to lose his gig.  I asked youngster last time we went
out there for some routine maintenance
stuff wehre he was going, we'd patronize that shop, he said
he was going back to school.  <oh well>

 RW> YEah I'm sorta resembling that remark myself these days, but this
 RW> guy's pushing 80 or already passed it by.

Roy> When you get to that age, your muscles and bones don't let you
Roy> forget that you've been working in the automotive field. I still do
Roy> it, but I'm not as agile as I was even 7 years ago when I retired...

YEah I know.  I'm wantign to see the next generation in
digital audio come along that ships multi channel audio down cat5 cable
digitally instead of hauling that heavy copper
with 28 channels of balanced audio line in from the truck.
Those 300 foot runs of 28 pair cable get kinda heavy to
wrestle, in fact age and arthritis was a big deciding factor in me not
remaining in the live sound reinforcement
business.  Wrestling those road cases racks and speaker
stacks tells on you.  When I take a gig with enough stage
hands it isn't bad, but sometimes ...

<snip>
 RW> Nah, and you're right about the one, he's got all the
 RW> farmers' work it seems,

Roy> That's what my dad and my uncle experienced when they had a garage
Roy> in lower Wisconsin. My uncle was a farmer for 30 years before he
Roy> partnered with my dad in the garage. He could fabricate and the
Roy> farmers in the area knew his work, so business was good.

Can relate to that.  IF we were located in southern Iowa I'd know three or four
good ones just for the same reason, my
dad knows them, guys I know who farm etc. know them.

 RW> cause he's fairly good, and I don't know about the other guy, I
 RW> wasn't happy with the way he treated me on the big truck, or on
 RW> something on my old GMC van, he tried blowing smoke up my tailpipe
 RW> and got caught.

Roy> 8^) That sounds like some of the 'automotive' shows on TV...they all
Roy> talk a good line of BS, but anyone with a history of being a car nut
Roy> can pick their stuff to pieces...I often do.

Yeah I've seen that with a few.  HE thought he saw me
coming.  See below.

 RW> They tell me he's one of the best in the area if you need an
 RW> automatic tranny rebuilt though.

Roy> That's a plus. A lot of them will blow smoke and give you something
Roy> that won't be right. A good transmission re-builder is a great find.

I also think that's really all he wants to do, but Kathy's
choice for mechanic when we first brought it up here, and
discovered the shoddy work on the braking system did the
midnight disappearing act, and since he already had money in hand from us he
basically left him the truck, the balance of what we'd given him not yet taken
care of and our phone
number.  Kathy and I had probably one of our worst
disagreements over her trusting him to do the work in the
first place.

<snip again>
RW>> and his dad lives down the street and across it from me, and we got
 RW>> off on the wrong foot shortly after i moved in because his dog used
 RW>> to be just let loose to ramble the neighborhood, and used to harrass
 RW>> my dog, who's properly restrained when she's out.

 Roy>> A Rotty. Right?

 RW> YEp, a rottie on a chain, in her own yard.

RW> Thought so.

 RW>>  HIs wife ran to rescue their dog once and made a comment which
 RW>> didn't get a sympathetic response from me, after all, my dog never
 RW>> runs wild in the neighborhood, theirs does. <small town life>.

 Roy>> Then he shouldn't have a problem, unless he had a hefty vet bill at
 Roy>> the time.

 RW> NO vet bill, this thing was smart enough to harrass then
 RW> back off where my Schotze couldn't get to it.  IF my rottie
 RW> would've got loose though it would have been little dog
 RW> munchies.

Roy> One of those, eh...I would have let the Rottie off the chain and
Roy> watch that little loud mouth run home or be eaten.

I really would have too, but Kathy was more mobile and agile at the time and
she grabbed our dog.  i was also fairy new
in the neighborhood, and was trying to not be too
disagreeable.  I did tell her next time that's just waht I'd do though.

 Roy>>> Riding the train into Chicago and back was quite an experience,
 Roy>>> one that I'll never forget. I've forgotten most of the western
 Roy>>> shows, but the trains still impress me.

 RW>> ME too.  I'd rather take the train long distance than the
 RW>> Grey dog, but often the Grey dog goes closer to where i want to go,
 RW>> and is cheaper.

 Roy>> I did a pre-move scouting trip to Texas in 03 by Grey dog and swore
 Roy>> off of the dog after the trip home. I prefered the previous trip by
 Roy>> AMTRAK vs the dog.

 RW> YEah I know, it's much more friendly to the body.

Roy> In 04, I drove the older Z28 to TX and when I left, I had a friend
Roy> look after it. When I returned in April of 05, it had been sitting,
Roy> untouched, for 5 months and wouldn't start (dead battery). I wasn't
Roy> very happy about that. He was supposed to start it and let it run
Roy> for 30 min every week. He never touched it.

That would bum me out a bit too.  When Kathy went down to
get the truck in hOuston after the mechs down there finished with it she rode
the dog too, and wished she had taken a
train.  I had a sound gig for a friend of mine from
California who was performing in Memphis, so I didn't go
down with her.

 RW>> STill, did some train traveling with my grandmother as a kid, and
 RW>> always liked it much better. Get up and move around more, go to the
 RW>> dining car to eat, etc.  Iirc they even had a bar car where Grandma
 RW>> could ahve a libation when I went to Chicago with her a couple of
 RW>> times.

 Roy>> Nancy and I did that from San Diego to Portland, OR and across
 Roy>> Idaho, Montana, N Dakota and Minnesota to Madison, WS...met a lot
 Roy>> of interesting people in the piano-bar car, dad picked us up
 Roy>> there...after the Grey dog dropped us off in Chicago and we stayed
 Roy>> in a hotel overlooking Lake Shore Dr and the lake for a few days,
 Roy>> the trip back to SD was just as interesting.

 RW> YEp, much better, and, back in the day if you wanted to
 RW> spend a few more bucks you could even get a bunk.

RW> We didn't do the bunks, but we agreed to a compartment if we ever
RW> did a trip like that again.

I could see that.  The compartments are nice if you're
traveling with a companion, but even a bunk's nice on the
long trips for sleeping.

<snip>
Roy> Science and Industry was the most interesting. Grandma wasn't that
Roy> interested, but I was. If you took the 'coal miners' elevator to the
Roy> lower elevation, there was an entire mock-up of a 1920s city scene,
Roy> which grandma was familiar with, having played piano in the silent
Roy> movie houses of that era.

YEah they still had that, that's the one I was thinking of,
not natural history, science and industry.  The model of the human heart you
could walk through was kinda cool too I
thought.  My grandma enjoyed it too though.

<snip again>

 Roy>> I got the 'we can afford it' impression from relatives living in
 Roy>> Chicago too. My grandfather's two brothers lived there and we'd pay
 Roy>> them a visit when something from Chicago was needed. Like our first
 Roy>> TV in 1947/48. They already had one and my brother and I watched TV
 Roy>> all weekend while dad and his uncle Walt went shopping for ours.

 RW> Can relate.  Mom's side of the family was definitely waht
 RW> you'd call well to do.  Dad's brother who lived over toward
 RW> the Indiana side, Chicago heights I think they called it,
 RW> wasn't so well off, even though he ahd a good job.

Roy> Some of G-ma Witt's family came from that area, but they lived in
Roy> Indiana...

YEp, that uncle moved over across the line into Indiana
eventually, Crown Point at the last.  They kept having to
move when they outgrew their old quarters.

 RW> Makin' all them babies tends to do that.

Roy> I used to call that 'f**kin' yourself away from the table'...mom's
Roy> side of the family was like that; all the kids and mom were healthey
Roy> specimens and gramps was as skinny as a rail. Could'a just been that
Roy> cigar he held between his teeth though. Never saw him without one.

That'll do it.  YEah I still call that the same thing you
do, but was trying to be nice to the more sensitive among us <grin>.  I
remember when he left that company in Chicago and started his own with a
partner in Bessemer, Al.  They rented this big old 13 room mansion basically,
and used most of the bedrooms <grin>.  I'll still remember freaking my mom and
my aunt out climbing up the clothes chute from the basement in
that house and tapping on the door on the second floor.

 Roy>>> I think I'm the only one in town who does custom machining that
 Roy>>> has an 18" by 24" granite plate for checking the parts I make. It
 Roy>>> would be nice to have a set of 'jo blocks' to go with it. Not that
<snip>
 Roy>> I was asked to quote on a motorcycle job from one of my highschool
 Roy>> machine shop buddies, just last week. Some guy in Fredericksburg,
 Roy>> TX was advertising on a BMW motorcycle blog that he needed
 Roy>> handlebar risers. My friend gave him my phone number, but I never
 Roy>> heard from him.

 RW> I'll catch this guy, he was out of town for a couple months
 RW> up north, and I missed last radio club meeting, but sooner
 RW> or later I'll corner him.  OFten you gotta catch him early
 RW> though as he helps out with the ve exams before the meeting
 RW> then splits right after the business meeting and before the
 RW> program, so you gotta move fast if you want to catch him,

Roy> I'd leave him a message with the VE head guy...he's sure to get it
Roy> and follow up on it, if he's a mind to.

Might do that too, but might look at those universal hitches you were talkign
about at Walmart, see if that might negate
all that.

Roy> After having your machinist friend make a tapered insert to slip
Roy> into the bottom of the pipe, place it on a piece of plywood under
Roy> the antenna mast and use it to ease the task of rotating that mast
Roy> and antenna from a sitting position at the operating table. I havn't
Roy> thought this whole thing through, but you could also use a rope with
Roy> a couple of turns around the pipe and each end tied to each end of a
Roy> 'steering' stick at the center tent pole for easier turning of a
Roy> heavier antenna, like a beam.

YEah that would work good!  mOst of the time for these apps
though if I'm using a beam antenna it's in an application
where it's an aim it and forget it deal, such as a vhf
yagipoitned at a repeater or net control on simplex.  IF
it's being used for net control then I'm using an omni.
This is if I take the van.  If I take big truck, I use the
frame that holds the hvac unit over the cab to anchor a mast with some U bolts,
and then the top of my mast is at about
25-30 feet depending on how many mast sections I use.  For
that application when the mast goes up top section has a
pulley and rope on it, so that if I want to pull up the
center of a wire dipole or something I can just attach it
while standing on the ground and haul away.

 RW>> I was quite sure of that one.  I thought I was taking a
 RW>> shortcut down a hillside in the woods one afternoon, ended
 RW>> up going down what was vertical bouncing off the rock after
 RW>> I belly flopped when I tried to run off the cliff,
 RW>> unbeknownst to old blind man.

 Roy>> Ouch!

 RW> That's kinda waht I thought, but i figured if I hadn't been
 RW> slightly inebriated it probably would've hurt worse.

Roy> I thought of a friend of mine who, years ago, was out in the desert,
Roy> riding his dirt bike, when they both went off a cliff. The bike
Roy> landed on two wheels, but the bike collapsed under his weight. He
Roy> was hurtin' for quite a while afterwards.

Bet he doesn't want to repeat that ride!!!

 RW>> NOw if i don't carry the white cane in the woods I've got a good
 RW>> sized trekking pole that I can use to feel around in front of me
 RW>> <grin>.

 Roy>> Blind men aren't supposed to be trekking through the woods on their
 Roy>> own...get a seeing-eye dog for that... 8^)

 RW> OH yeah?   PRay tell why not <grin>.  USed to do it all the
 RW> time.  SOme of my favorite fishing spots couldn't be reached any
 RW> other way <grin>.

Roy> I take it you can see objects, but not make out what you're seeing.
Roy> Kinda like some of my friends during their better days; blind in one
Roy> eye and can't see out of the other. 8^)

Basically that's it.  A dog can help, but even when I had a
trained dog I still like the trekking pole in the back
country.  Remidn me to tell you stories about me training
that dog for guide work myself some time <grin>.


Regards,
           Richard
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 * Origin:  (1:116/901)