fri july 5
Last July, I picked the hottest day of the year to take a 30 mile bike ride.
This year, I picked the hottest day of the year to burn a huge pile of brush.
Stay hydrated.
I was eating leftover chinese food for lunch, and suddenly I had a hole in my tongue.
Maybe now would be a good time to get a tongue stud?
Operating instructions.
We hosted a family ‘sweaty’ and the weather cooperated with rain and humid heat.
The pinata was a big hit — once it took a big hit.
thu july 11
It hasn’t been a good summer for tires.
First, the trailer that holds the boom needed 2 new tires.
Then, one of the tractor tires went bad, and replacing it was an adventure.
The Suzuki tires were way bald, and had to be replaced.
Mary apparently hit two too many potholes this winter, because two of her tires were busted. (She was pissed)
And one of my wheels seems to be crooked, so one of my tires wore out and started thumping and losing air.
There’s a story behind each of these, but it’s late. And I’m tired.
thu july 18
I haven’t felt like blogging for the last week or so. Such a pain in the butt!
I needed some kind of a bag I could strap to the back of the Suzuki’s seat.
Something rugged. Something waterproof. Something black, with lots of loops for tie-downs, plenty of pockets, and big enough that maybe I could even lean back on it.
I looked online. Too many choices.
I looked in stores. Too few.
I looked in my closet. Just right!
Goldilocks! I can’t believe I forgot I had it.
C3PR has had some ups and downs.
The good news is that all the joints work really nicely (when they’re not broken) and I can do homing on 4 out of 5 joints. And, the wiring is much improved.
Not to be out-done, there is bad news too.
My base – linear – axis is a heavy load, and my 400 watt motor was no match for it. You would think that built-in overload protection would keep the driver from frying itself, but fry itself it did. $$
Then, for no good reason, the stepper driver in the hand died. It just went spastic and stopped. (although it still gets hot)
Plus, while I was improving the wiring, … mistakes were made. Beauties.
The ceiling in the basement is a pretty cluttered place, with lights, hooks, C-clamps, wires, and cameras all hanging from it. Which is fine, except that C3pr, at full reach, clears the ceiling by about 2″. (Do you see what’s coming here?) I’d debugged each joint’s homing sequence, one at a time, and I was feeling pretty good about it, so I decided to ‘HomeAll’
Base. Left to limit and return to center. Check.
Waist. CW to limit and return to center. Check
Shoulder. CW to limi – Wait! Stop! Shit! E-O!
The base and waist had positioned the shoulder right under a C-clamp on the ceiling, and the hand snagged on some cables as the arm swept past. A tug-of-war took place, and the ceiling won.
If I had to choose what part was going to break, this would be my second choice.
friday july 26
Aside from the tachometer, the only thing that’s busted on the Suzuki is the seat. In a former life, the bike spent a little too much time in the sun/rain/cold, and the leather on the seat turned brittle, and it had split along the seams in a half a dozen places. I tried to get Dad, with all his leather-working know-how, interested in replacing it, but he’s way too busy to take on another project. So my plan was to just ignore it and ride it as-is.
Last week, Mary was checking out my preparations, pointed out the cracked seat, and declared that it had to be addressed immediately. Before I could say “Whoa!”, she’d grabbed a roll of duct tape, criss-crossed the seat with it, and declared it fixed. Wednesday, I took a test drive to Burlington, and the heat and pressure from my butt curled the tape and smeared the glue all over. I found I was glued to the seat! If it wasn’t ‘must-fix’ before, then it sure was now.
I had a big piece of black cloth laying around, so I dragged out the sewing machine and, through sheer trial and error, managed to make a new seat cover.
Went in bad. Came out good. What a fuckin’ job.