Ace-Garageguy

Building a small battery-powered Tesla coil isn't difficult, but I haven't found the means of directing the spark at bugs...yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs6dup1cpCo

Falling down and not being able to get up is supposed to be one of the terrors of becoming an old fossil, but so far, it hasn't been much of an issue for this geezer.

I'm going to have to give this one a pass, because there's just no way I can get a Christmas tree that's big enough to get the thing under into the house. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Well fellers...I was going to post a quick video that exposes the horror of how 'common core' now 'teaches math', and why so many young people seem to be devoid of the simple arithmetic skills we old fossils take for granted. But alas, there are a couple of undeniable political references in the vid, so I cant show it to you. HOWEVER...if you have kids or grandkids or friends with offspring in elementary school, you really need to look into this...if you care about their intellectual welfare and ultimate employability.

Ago to da sto ta get sum mo.

"Unnerving" sounds like un-Irving, the thought of which might make ol' Irving a little nervous, depending of course on how much he was worth post-mortem to his survivors.

My neighbors must be drankin' agin'. Weekends have been pretty quiet in the immediate neighborhood for a while now, other than a little fracas last week or thereabouts. But it's now almost midnight and my walls are rattling with some music I find particularly annoying. Y'all listen to anything you want, but realize that everyone else on the street might not share your taste, and turn it down after 11PM...as per the local law.

Went to Hobby Town, snagged 3 used but very nicely weathered HO scale hoppers and a gon, all with metal wheels and Kadee couplers, for about $40, and a couple sheets of Evergreen scribed siding with .060" spacing to start a restoration on an old HO scale Atlas yard tower that a ham-handed reseller "repaired" with half a tube of gloo. Got a sheet to do standing-seam metal roofs in HO, and a sheet of siding with .80" spacing too, as you never know when they'll have it in stock, and buying at the store is cheaper than online with shipping. Only super duper score was a NOS HO Athearn 'Blue Box' undecorated GP38-2 shell complete with stanchions and handrails, for $5. Good price, as they usually go for at least $30 online, delivered...while usually missing all the railings, stanchions, lenses, grabs, and cab. Other nice thing is that it doesn't have molded on grabs and ladders, just little divots to show where to drill, so doing a super-detail will be considerably easier.

Last time I looked at the price of dead cow, my heart almost stopped. I'm trying to save up enough for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for Christmas dinner, but I might have to sell a couple of cars, and maybe start taking in laundry and mowing lawns.

Turned last night's nuclear meltdown pork and habanero stew into enchiladas. In some people, ingesting the capsaicin in peppers can help reduce arthritic pain and inflammation. I'm one of the lucky ones.

"Wheel" is the subject of much reinvention by generations who think they know better that anyone who came before them, because they have 'technology', and I believe the next oh-so-mo-better iteration will have four corners...because 'round' is so hopelessly stuck in the past, and AI can design computer-controlled active suspensions than can damp out the horrific thumping.

I can’t understand a world where people don’t respect each other in spite of differences, can’t find common ground, and can't seem to unite to work together for the common good. But human nature has some horrible elements, like stupidity and willful ignorance and a mindless herd-instinct, and tyrants grasping for power, even the petty ones, exploit these failings and have always done their best to keep people with decent hearts apart. Until or unless we evolve spiritually as a species, nothing will really get better. External systems of governance or technology alone are insufficient to overcome humanity's destructive tendencies without a corresponding internal moral or ethical transformation.

Overnight it may rain toads and cumquats, or drizzle dragon snot, but the reality will most likely be something more mundane.