Ace-Garageguy

I slipped the leash and got in a short hike at Kennesaw Mountain. It's just over a mile from the visitor center parking area to the summit, with a climb of about 800 feet. Got to the top in 25 minutes. Hardly a record, but not too far off my time several decades ago. And not bad for a 70+ year-old guy who broke his pelvis a few years back, and could barely climb the six steps to his front door for months afterwards. Sure is easier at 190 pounds than it was at 220, and by the time I get back down to 175, it ought to be a breeze.

Yessir. Supreme joy is a new engine, or engine parts, or just about any parts for a project, or tools, etc. I spent last weekend clearing out an old friend's basement, now that he's decided he's just not ever going to get to some of his projects. When I got some of the stuff home and really started going through it, I was like a little kid at Christmas.

If you are really concerned about what goes into your dogs, may I suggest a particular brand (and they're good hot dogs, too)...

Yup...the early mags and wide whites are definitely a good look on that little Bird. Roof scoop's cool too.

Of course...but you could also logically argue the groundwork was laid at the end of WW I, tying it to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. "I cannot imagine any greater cause for future war than that the German people…should be surrounded by a number of small states… each containing large masses of Germans clamouring for reunion." David Lloyd George, March 1919 “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years”. Ferdinand Foch Still, the beginning of WW II is pretty much universally accepted to be Sept. 1939, with Germany's invasion of Poland, and England and France declaring war against the Germans 2 days later. I don't think there's much of a "trick" question there.

Yeah, I know that. But I spend most of my time these days getting way too much stuff to fit in spaces that "aren't big enough", so if little ol' me can do it consistently, day-in, day-out, why can't teams of ethnically- and gender-diverse engineers manage to? Modern life often baffles me...

Ummm...1939.

Nope. Sorry. But strawberry milk most definitely DOES come from pink ones.

Hmmmmm. When I found it difficult to get in and out of my friend's old Miata a few years back, rather than blaming the car for being "too small", I blamed myself for becoming fat and out of shape...which I've been on the very successful road to correcting. Now, ingress and egress is only mildly discomfiting, and driving the little car is a blast. I do have to wonder though...something as huge comparatively as, say, a recent Dodge Challenger...HOW can it be so cramped inside compared to a vintage Dodge Challenger? Even kit-car and hot-rod builders have been making an effort to accommodate the almost universal embiggening (which is a perfectly cromulent word) of people in the "civilized" world, and I remember eons ago when interior room was a significant selling point car manufacturers loudly touted. Maybe designing everything on a spiffy little screen in CAD isn't completely a substitute for GETTING A BIG GUY TO ACTUALLY SIT IN A MOCKUP OF AN INTERIOR...ya think?

And Pico Elgin built a stunning model of one...

Technology in this sense means a substitute for physical involvement with reality. A spear is a TOOL that enhances a man's ability. So is a wrench, or a hammer, or an airplane. But today's "technology" is all about removing a man's ability from the equation, and encouraging little human-shaped jellies to muddle through life with the absolute minimum effort. If you were in a position where you had to hire hard-tech personnel (mechanic, machinist, welder, fabricator...floor sweeper...), you'd soon find out that if something can't be done with an app, there's almost nobody willing to even try to do it. The companies that'll be bringing autonomous vehicles to a future near you damm well better develop robots to fix 'em too, 'cause if things continue the way they're going now, there aren't going to be any humans who CAN. EDIT: Many younger folks don't see the need for learning history, general science, etc., because they believe anything they need to know is available from Google instantly. Unfortunately, this mindset usually makes them so devoid of general knowledge that they don't realize the first answer Google vomits up is very often WRONG, but has been mindlessly rebleated so many times by the like-minded willfully-ignorant it's been accepted as fact.

I agree completely...though there are a few contemporary designs I rather like. Not all that many, though. EDIT: Here's one...

Old Bachman / Rivarossi. Really cheap because someone somehow managed to break the drawbar. I got another one (different number) that had the side-rods and valve-gear bodged. There's no shortage of bargains to be had if one can un-chimp prior damage.

Very nice. Simple as it is, this is one of my all-time favorite kits. I've got something going similar to what you've got here, and another one smallblock-Chevy powered, a what-if SoCal SCCA mashup from the late 1950s. Your work is most inspiring.

Got another vintage HO scale Norfolk and Western class J, 4-8-4 streamlined locomotive. The class J was the last passenger steam locomotive built in the USA, until 1950, and finally retired (and all but one, no. 611, scrapped) in 1959. Also among the fastest steam engines ever built, they were capable of over 100 MPH. I saw them still running in regular revenue service when I was a little kid, and rode behind the restored 611 back in the mid-1980s when she was pulling steam excursions.

Great pix. Thanx.

And burn all those old books in the library too. Old information has absolutely no value whatsoever...especially to a couple of generations who are certain they already know everything anyway.

One county not too far from me has a tracked APC. Soon as they find out NYPD has a big ol' dump truck, look out.

Far as the "like" debate goes, all I can say is "who cares?" There's an element in today's society that lives for the number of "likes" they get on the interdwerbs. They're everywhere. Millions upon millions. There're also a lot of people who take the time to actually write responses online; sometimes, though admittedly rarely, even reasoned and coherent responses. Look at the typical YouTube video. You'll see "likes" and "dislikes" outnumber written responses by an order of magnitude, at least. But the folks who care enough to write something, or who just have to say something (no matter how idiotic), do it in spite of the one-click options. I don't think having a "like" button would deter anyone who has an intelligent comment, and it'd supply easy dopamine hits for the approval junkies. Is that a win-win? Meh.

The functionality of several online sellers' websites continues to deteriorate almost daily...to the point now of being laughable in spite of the annoyance. You can tell the HR departments aren't hiring on ability, and the more they "fix" things and make them "better", the worse they get. You can also tell management isn't doing much oversight. These are big companies, too. On the other hand, a few of my favored small suppliers have sites that are a pleasure to use, easily navigated, obviously intuitive, and flawless in operation. Kinda makes one wonder.

Yummmmm...

Agreed.