fri apr 5
Back on the first of the year, I weighed 210 and I went on a diet. “Ten pounds” sounded like a nice round number, so I decided that when I hit one ninety nine point nine, I’d declare victory and celebrate with a bowl of ice cream. Or two! I got half-way there in half a hurry, so I went out and bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and stashed it, un-opened, in the freezer.
I was prepared. I was ready to celebrate! That was six weeks ago.
My weight kept fluctuating. 202. 204. 203. Up and down. Over and over. I couldn’t seem to lose that last couple of pounds. My ice cream was getting cold!
I eventually figured out what I was doing wrong and fixed it. The other day, I weighed in at 199.2. And to prove it wasn’t a fluke, I did it again the next day. Victory!
So last night, I queued up Colbert on TV, dished up some ice cream, and savored the flavors of bananas with caramel, chocolate, and graham cracker crumbles.
Honestly, it sounded better than it tasted.
C3pr is taking a break.
If I’d studied the math of motion control back in college, I probably wouldn’t have made my latest mistake. But I didn’t. So I did.
I’ve got a resonance. Inertial mismatch. The arm wobbles. Bad.
If I had known what I was doing, it would have been a stupid mistake. But since I’m flying blind, I prefer to think of it as a sophisticated nuance which I wasn’t aware of.
The best fix is simple: gear boxes. So I ordered 3 of them, and the lead time is 4-6 weeks.
You can look at this 2 ways:
1: Six weeks ?!? Aaaarrgh !!
2: It will give me a chance to step back and look at the big picture. Think it through nice and slow. Decide how to proceed. Talk to me in 6 weeks.
Meanwhile, I’ve got one motorcycle that needs assembly, and another one that needs fresh air.
wed apr 10
So I did something different for a week.
Marshall’s foyer floor was sagging really bad and there was concern that too many Easter visitors might be too much for the beam, so I did the quickest, dirtiest job I could do, and it’s good for another … couple months, tops.
I dragged out the Honda GL1000 that I’d stripped down last year before I got sidetracked. I took off the forks and instruments, and I’m starting to think the ‘1000’ in “GL1000” stands for the number of parts in it.
I power-cleaned the crud and the rust off of it and hung the frame from the ceiling like a side of beef so I can paint it. I even thought about painting it something bold, like red. There’s nothing stopping me except taste, tradition, and common sense.
They don’t make them like this any more, and it’s sad.
In the aftermath of my shop rearrangement, I’ve got quite the laboratory going on in the new “game room.”
Radio Shack:
I miss you Soooo much !!
wed apr 17
I moved my computer downstairs, where it can play with the robot. That’s a whole ‘nother story.
With my computer and workbench gone, my upstairs lair looked like a bomb went off, and Mary minced no words in explaining that the room must be reclaimed, and restored to a clean, comfortable space. Sort of like when a coal mine is shut down, and they have to detox the land before they leave.
No problem. She’s right. And since she’s gone this week (in burlington with the kids), it’s a good time to get it done.
The rug was dirty. Filthy. It had been vacuumed it many times, but it had been walked on forever, so when I moved the rug, there was a pile of dirt underneath it. I vacuumed it up and then I vacuumed both sides of the rug, and then I put the rug where it was going to go, and I found another pile of dirt on the floor where I’d last vacuumed the rug. So I rolled it up and took it outside and hung it over the bannister and beat it with a stick. Then I turned it over and beat it with a stick again, and then I brought it inside and put it on the floor. The room didn’t look quite right, so I moved the rug a few feet, and there was yet another pile of dirt on the floor where the rug had been!!
Which proves: There was more dirt in that rug than you can shake a stick at !!
mon apr 22
I bought a GoPro camera, so I can videotape myself for your enjoyment.
In its entirety, the directions included with the camera consisted of 6 pictograms and the words “www.gopro.com”. It took me forever to figure out how to get the god. damned. thing. working. In the end, I googled “gopro user manual pdf” and it gave me one single English document that answered all my questions. What a great concept!
So anyway, I needed to assemble the robot from scratch again, but I needed to route all the wires through all the joints and passageways and holes and connectors. For the first time. Just to prove that everything really does fit. I wasn’t worried, of course, because I’d thought it through thoroughly, just like I pre-think everything I do in the shop.
What can go wrong?
All it took was a gasoline IV, and the Suzuki started right up.
Now all I need is a nice day and a creemee.
tue apr 23
It’s a nice day!
And the plan for today was to spend the morning doing something useful, and then take the motorcycle out for the season’s first creemee. Didn’t happen.
Brooming the lawn sounded useful, so I went out to rent a power broom, but they were all rented out because, well, it’s brooming season in Vermont.
So I went elsewhere, rented a broom, and got started.
There was a lot of plowing done last winter, so half the driveway gravel seemed to be on the lawn, and it took me 5 hours to broom it off. Hard hard work.
And in the middle of it, Juliet drives up and tells me her dog Cyrus died. And can I bury him? Cyrus was 14 years old and weighed 140 pounds. Juliet really liked this dog, but as far as I could tell, Cyrus knew exactly one trick: He drools.
Lesson learned:
Next time, remember to pile the dirt on the UPhill side of the hole so you don’t tear up the lawn trying to push the pile uphill when you fill the hole back in.
tue apr 30
Everything is going wrong.
My truck needs a new leaf spring.
There’s a thin trickle of water on the wrong side of the foundation.
My laptop didn’t die, it just slowed to a halt. (You’re next.)
I found out the hard way that carbon fiber is a better conductor than I thought.
The cat got in a fight, got infected, got a shot at the vet, and then got extra food and TLC for a week..
I bought the wrong photo-interruptor and the stepper driver datasheet is wrong.
The tractor has a big flat tire and, after 30 years, finally can’t be fixed.
It was a good tire.