Ace-Garageguy

"Kapish" is one of several informal spellings derived from the Italian "capisce", used as slang for "do you understand?"

9 kinds of stupid is what I see every day.

Time is nature's way of making sure everything doesn't happen all at once.

Said the spider to the fly, believe in all my pretty lies.

Older ribs seem to crack easier than young ones.

Units built to new oh-so-mo-better resource-management standards don't always perform better in the real world, like my "low flow" terlet that takes 3 flushes to get the job done sometimes, and the HVAC heat pump that never did a decent job of heating in winter, requiring a backup gas-burner.

Right now I wouldn't mind having a few million bucks.

Much mayhem was unleashed by the Spooky / Puff the Magic Dragon AC-47 and AC-130 gunships.

Here Be Dragons.

Fell off my 4 foot high front porch Friday night after tripping on a cat. Cat's OK but I'm pretty bruised and have a couple cracked ribs. Thought I mighta cracked my pelvis again, but probably not. Glad I landed on flowerbed dirt and not concrete. Seem to be healing up pretty well, as I've already been able to cut way back on the pain meds...but yesterday was rough, still having to sleep in a chair. Coulda been a lot worse. EMTs seemed kinda surprised I didn't break anything else, and by my pulse and BP, so I guess there may be something to all that harping I do about exercise, eating "right", etc. Plenty of supplies here as I'd just come back from the grocery store, and I ought to be reasonably functional by Tuesday or Wednesday...but I'll probably take the week off.

4 semi-sight-unseen lots of HO scale model RR stuff, listed as "locomotive motors and frames, some work, some parts". Kinda rolled the dice on these and came up 7s and 11s. The locomotives are all at least 95% complete (only missing things like couplers and brake wheels), run, and a couple are nicely super-detailed and/or weathered. The cars are pretty much NOS/NIB. The "parts" are all complete kits, every single one. Probably the best single score I've made to date on vintage HO stuff.

Today's irk: someone who has everything in the world to be truly thankful for...doesn't have to work, has a paid-for home in a beautiful area, paid for newish nice car from an excellent manufacturer that will probably go another 200,000 miles, a substantial amount of money in the bank, overall excellent health, several nice neighbors, and a loving, smart dog...but who elects to whine incessantly to me.

I have a suggestion, or more accurately an anecdotal observation. Every time I go hiking for at least an hour or so, I notice a real improvement in my vision. I assume it's from increased blood flow to my old brain and retinas and optic nerves. Do with that what you will. PS: Good work lighting is essential as well.

Yup. I've been sorely disappointed by about 50% of the 3D printed stuff I've bought, with scaling oopsies (arithmetic is SOOOOOOOOO hard), parts that will never cure covered in goo, proportions wrong, etc. On the other hand I've been blown away by the exceptionally high quality from the guys who get it right. We need a name-names thread advising potential buyers about who's making good stuff and who's not.

Got the book recommended by Earl Marischal above. An excellent advanced resource. Thanks Steve.

Thanks for posting that. I always wondered about the Heller version. Now the search begins...

Air will soon be taxed on a sliding scale in an effort to further reduce deadly CO2 emissions, because the less of it you breathe in, the less CO2 you breathe out, and heavy breathers will face a massive tax burden.

"Hurt Me Baby, Make Me Write Bad Checks" is a song from the '80s.

Hobie still makes surfboards too.

Able had a brother named Ahab who liked rather large girls, one of whom he nicknamed Moby.

My first car was a $250 '62 VW Bug some flipper (yeah, they had 'em then too) put a terminally leaking 36 horse engine in (sposed to be a 40). I was 18, that was all the money I had, and I wildly overpaid for a total and complete POS. I knew nothing much really useful about cars, only having changed points and fiddled with tuneups on the family rides, and a little bodywork (small crease low on a front fender) with a claw hammer and files and rattlecan touchup paint (which came out very well, as I hammered and filed and primered according to an article in Rod & Custom until the metalwork was just about perfect). Anyway, eventually I rebuilt a junkyard 40 horse for the Bug, added headers and a 2-bbl carb, replaced the front suspension assembly (the torsion bar tubes were bent when I bought it), lowered it all 'round with a rear "camber compensator", fitted a quick-steering Pitman-arm extender and a quick shift kit, rewired it (for real gauges, 12 volts, and in general 'cause chimps had been at it), gutted the interior and put in a roll bar and fiberglass buckets, bolted on flared glass fenders and wheel adaptors and Chevy chrome-reverse 14" steel rims with Polyglas tires...and finally stuck a $500 Porsche 356 SC engine in it. It was pretty quick as a slalom car by that point, sometimes setting FTD (fast time of the day) if the guy with the 140-horse Corvair engine in a Manx with real race rubber didn't show up. He was unbeatable, period. Sure wish I still had it.

...and made instantly world-famous on the interwebs.

Us chickens resemble that remark.

Reg Urgitate wasn't anybody's name, ever.

You're very welcome, sir. I typically sweat the engineering details on my models, but in this case, even as pedantic and anal as I can be, I would most likely go with the "good enough" approach too.