Ayupmeducks
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Posts posted by Ayupmeducks
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We hired a youhaul truck to move from Cal to Missouri, as we can drive any vehicle on two axles, I think the Youhaul was a 24 footer, brand new, only had a few miles on the clock, automatic too. The wife drove that with a trailer, that was for my tower sections, I drove my full size pickup and 27 foot travel trailer, (caravan).
Both being licensed hams, I put a two meter radio in the truck for her so we could communicate on the way.
We'd got to the top of the Sierra's and it was downhill from there to Reno, some very steep grades, glad the travel trailer had electric brakes!!!!
We started down a steep windy grade and I noticed the wife was riding her brakes, wasn't long before I saw smoke coming from her rear brakes, I shouted for her to pull over to the hard shoulder.
Wouldn't be much longer and she'd have had a brake failure with overheated brakes. She was shaking like a leaf when I got out and got to the truck door. I got her to select manual over ride, and take a much lower gear until we got to the bottom of the grade, and touch the brakes for short periods and let them cool down. Not certain if those rigid trucks have exhaust engine brakes, but we made it to Missouri in one piece.
There's some very steep grades along I-80!!
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Marine corp had a load of harriers and tested them from a freeway. But if you've ever driven this side of the pond, we have long stretches that are perfectly straight and level, these were for landing and take off points for the military if needed.
Not sure how long it would take to drive from the east to the west coast, but I've done over 650 miles in one drive on I-40 and I-80, and most truckers can handle 650 miles a day.
All East west freeways are even numbered, north south freeways are odd numbered.
I once covered over 2000 miles from where we lived in California at the time, to the top end of Montana to look at a house and property. I did that alone, started 05-30am Friday morning and arrived back home around 7-00pm Sunday evening, I was absolutely bushed when I got home, shower, pizza to eat then bed.
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Just a thought, years back in Oz, I bought a Ryobi circular saw, did a lot of work down under on a house we refurbished. Brought it with us to the states, I know, it was 240 volts and here we have 120 volts, no problem, all houses are wired for 120, but we also have two legs, 120-0-120, as large electric "white goods" are 240 volts, like cookers clothes driers etc. And I also have a couple of 120-240 volt transformers.
The saw cut a lot of wood in the building of the house before the trigger switch failed. Couldn't find a new switch anywhere, even came up with zero on the internet. So the saw sat under a bench in the workshop for a number of years.
About four years back I decided to have another search for a switch, found some!! Of all places a dealer in China a stash of them, exact same model number and made by Bosch. So I ordered a few, the guy mailed them upon me ordering them and were stateside the same day I ordered them, took 14 days before they arrived via US Postal service. I couldn't get over that one.
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The freeway system over this side of the pond goes back to the 1950's, but still keeps up with the traffic, mind it was built for the same reason as the German Autobahn system, to move the military quickly from one end of the country to the other. It had to have long stretches of straight road, which could allow fighters or bombers to land or take off on in a national emergency.
I was reading an article the other day, "will the build any more freeways?" Seems the author doesn't think so.
BUT, more lanes have been added close to cities which helps at the rush hour commutes.
Incidentally, sections of freeways now have 80mph speed limits, experimental, if they get more accidents, the speed will be dropped again. It has been lifted from 55mph to 70 now, bit scary when a 50 ton semi flies past you, although many big haulage companies are governing their trucks to a max 55mph. Tyre blowouts in summer are getting all to common on big rigs, seems tyres for them have a max speed of 65mph continuous.
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I look out for specials on the internet, my last Makita router came with two bases and carry case, plunge and standard bases. I don't recall the price, but good discount that I couldn't refuse. It's also a variable speed motor.
You might also keep your eye's opens for top line power tools that have been refurbished, they can be as much as half price and carry a years warranty. They may not be cosmetically perfect, but hell, after you've used a new tool a few times it has a few scratches etc.
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I usually spend the money and stick with top brands, rarely get any problems that way. My favorite brand of power tools are Porter Cable, but alas they have been taken over by B&D and now made in China.
My two large routers are Makita, cracking good power tools!!
I've also got some Ryobi power tools I bought in Oz some 38 years back, and they still give me good service.
BUT, I did make the mistake of buying a Skil orbital sander in OZ, gave up the ghost a week after I bought it. was repaired under warranty, but didn't last long and got binned years back.
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From what I've seen on Youtube, and my visit over there 20 plus years back, it's one long parking lot.
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New Zealand sits on the edge of the Pacific Plate just Like California and Japan and the western side of South America, earthquakes are common there.
I was shocked by Australia having one, although I was at work the following night when a second one followed the Picton on, aftershocks.. We arrived at the surface at the end of our shift and were asked if we'd felt anything underground at a certain time...Nope, it's pretty unusual for miners to experience earthquakes underground.
A couple of years later when I was working in the western coalfield, we had a quake centered somewhere east of Lithgow. This was when we were on our way home, the lads traveling east had their cars bouncing off the roads, never felt anything traveling west to Bathurst though.
Then the evening of the Loma Prieta quake in California, I was living in Sacramento and reading. I had this odd feeling of dizziness and the weights and pendulum of the G/father clock were rocking against the cabinet, didn't dawn on me at first it was a quake, that would have been around 5-00pm. We soon found out SF had been hit big time, that's all that was on live TV for the rest of the evening...What a mess, top deck section of the Bay Bridge had collapsed, large part of a freeway collapsed trapping hundreds of commuters, fires, water mains burst, houses collapsed. Never want to see that stuff again.
A few years later was living in the foothills on the side of an old volcano, when a quake struck somewhere east of us, scary!!!
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Earth movement during earth quakes cracks plastic pipes, it's amazing how much punishment a house gets from the earth "rolling" during an earthquake, used to make me nervous even knowing the quake was miles away.
I lived in Wollongong when there was a quake centered in Picton NSW, scared the "bejazus" out of me, I lived in an apartment on the third floor all built of brick.
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Weather sure does cause ground movement, I'm sitting on a clay band, where the well is drilled it's 60 ft thick, when I built the house, I dug about 2-3 ft footings for the piers to sit on, bu the house does come under stress during hot dry spells and winter wet conditions as the clay dies out and gets wet and expands. I have to "fine tune" the front and back doors one of these days as they stick due to that expansion and shrinkage.
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The funny thing is, nobody knew about the ozone layer, then they discovered it, found a hole in it. then jumped to conclusions. The hole in the ozone layer was found by Monsanto, just before their patent expired on Freon, the finest and safest refrigerant on the market, they had a new one ready to take it's place and their lobbyists in DC and other capital cities paid politicians off to ban Freon as it caused the hole.
As for climate, how many people know about HAARP, and chemical spraying of the atmosphere by aircraft flying at 35,000feet...Could they be trying to modify weather patterns??? A country that can can control weather, can control the world!!
Research what happened after 9/11 attack and all US airspace had no planes flying for around 48 hours.
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We old farts have been lucky that we have lived through an era of great music.
I was watching my recording of the Beach Boys 50th anniversary, yes I know it was made 20 years ago, but looking at the thousands of fans in the audience, children were enjoying the music, as we;; as their parents and grandparents.
The Bee Gees , Fleetwood Mac, the vast audience of youngsters who hadn't even been born when those groups became famous, and the great music they gave us.
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What about Burt Bacharach and Hal David, hundreds of hit songs over the years.
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The hay is cut after the dew has "burnt off" then it is tedded with a tedder, ie tedder is a large rotating fork that piles the cut grass into rows ready for the baler and usually done the second day, at least that's what my neighbours do. The large bails are then collected and stored either in a barn or outside with a tarp covering them ready for winter feed by cattle.
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Bit too humid in Florida for me, I like Montana to be honest, but winters are bitter up there, so it's my wife's home state where we live.
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A wood working magazine I get had a letter to the editor from a Canadian woodworker, he said he knew only metric before he got into woodworking for a living, he said he much prefers using inches and fractions of inches when he designs and builds furniture.
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Mrs B, funny you should mention that you prefer Imperial measurements.
Everything here is made to metric measurements, if you work on a car you need metric tools.
Our gallon is smaller than the UK gallon, sometime in the 1800's the UK changed the bushel to gallons, it was the same as the US back then, we stayed the same, why alter something that works?? UK adopted a liquid measurement.
All scientists work in the metric scales.
I still prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius, Miles, pounds, gallons etc.. Although the money system has been metric for over 240 years, all soft drinks are sold by the litre bottle. Odd lot the Americans, but love them and my adopted country and have been accepted as one of them
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The point I'm making is the kids have to make up that lost time.
And yes it can be so bad companies inform their employees to stay home too when it gets serious. But lots of time when schools close due to bed weather is tied to insurance risks, but better stay on the safe side.
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1 hour ago, RadFordee said:
Yes kids nowdays would expect to get a day off if rain was coming into the classroom
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Over this side of the pond, during severe weather, they usually cancel school because of kids safety and insurance risks...BUT in saying that the kids have to make that time up, ten days lost due to weather conditions is made up on the spring and summer breaks, so instead of enjoying summer break holidays, they are stuck in the classroom making time up...Good idea???
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Kentucky is a large state, I think the flooding is in the Mississippi valley side as the weather pattern is west to east at the moment, what those in Arizona call the monsoon rains. There's plenty more to come, it's still raining from the same lot right now here in Missouri, and forecast for the next 48 hours. I'm in the Ozarks, almost at the highest point at around 2000ft elevation. The Ozarks are an ancient mountain range that is made up of limestone and stretches from the Mississippi River and into western Oklahoma and north south from just south of St Louis into mid Arkansas. It's full of year round natural springs, biggest being Mammoth Spring just south of the state line with Arkansas, beautiful state park. The small town of Mammoth Spring sits at side of it, it also is the site of the old rail road station, alas, no passenger trains go through, only the BNSF freight trains carrying coal to the power stations along the Mississippi River.
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I don't know about close neighbours, but St Louis folk are getting their feet wet, I heard 17 inches in 24 hours!! I'm just a few hundred miles from there, my wife has relatives in that city.
Her home town was flooded a few years back when the meremac river burst it's banks.
We've had about two inches of rain from the same system that's flooded St Louis and parts of Kentucky and Tennessee.
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I'm enjoying the nice wet weather we are getting, been about four days of on and off rain, the ground is starting to get wet from rock hard dry, a couple more days of much cooler wet conditions.
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Bit like the oil wells. drilled with a large drill rig, unlike the old village wells we used to see in England, that were dug by hand and lined with bricks.
Bit deeper as well and requires a borehole pump, around 6 inches diameter and about four feet in length, strainer on the bottom and pipe out the top to the surface.
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I don't think anyone around here is haymaking yet, it's way too dry and too risky taking tractor and implements into the fields, the place is a tinder box just waiting for someone to hit some flintstone.
Normally, first hay is cut and bailed in late May, but was pretty poor this year, so most hung on a couple of months, now it's a fire hazard.
Lamont Dozier
in Obituaries
Posted
Have you ever watched "Standing in ThE Shadows of Motown"??
It's about the session musicians who called themselves "The Funk Brothers" who were on every record produced at Motown Records.