It Has Gotten Quiet . . .

Chris left last night after dining with us at Sushi Tao restaurant.  We ate well, stuff must of you would not touch and some would gobble up.  To us it is great stuff at a great place to eat.

Judie made a cookie tray and took to them.  She had earlier brought some frozen quail as they expressed never have tasting quail.  They really take care of us now days.

We often go and have Chirachi, which is dish of flavored rice and Shashimi which is raw fish.  Well most of it is raw fish, some is egg cooked of course, and sometimes a few pickled items I think most for décor but tasty none-the-less.  Then we say bring us something else, a surprise.  We have had spider rolls, and of late the broiled neck of cod fish.  There are morsels of fish all around the neck or the bony piece of fish aft of the head but before the body.  You have to pick out the morsels, very tasty.

The surprise is often not found on the menu.  So like I said, we get special care.  We like it and they like it.

The house is especially quite, not kids, not adult kids, just us again.  Almost eerie feeling.  Refrigerator is down loaded, stuff is either frozen or fed to the deer or in the garbage can.  Cleaned out and ready for our peculiar diet, mostly we eat out.

Happy New year to all and Geaux Tigers.

Post Christmas . . .

December 27, quite, no kiddlings running around, trash picked up and cleaned out.  The silence is over powering.  Back to listening to TV in the back ground while workingon the computer. 

Fortunately, the stock market went up on December 26.  Today the stock market is poking long, down a few points, like maybe 10 points.  I can remember when 10 points was a big day but that was back in the early sixties and the market was around 300 or so points, not today's 16,000 points.  Big difference.  So 10 points is not a show stopper. just a short pause the trek of the Dow Jones Index.

Still trying to get the malware out of the table top computer and I am using the laptop for this blog.  Closer in that I have removed most of the blocks but apparently not all of them.  Checked out a forum on the topic and will follow the instructions.  Not a new problem for malware.  But beware of programs saying they will speed up your computer.  They want to hold on to you forever and embed all kinds of hooks to hold you.  In my case the new 2014 virus checker introduced some malware and now I am deep into fighting it.

So the quite helps.  Happy New Year to all.  And Geaux Tigers!

Meeting Miss Jane . . .

Yes, I met Miss Jane for the first time.  I was told by her grandmother that she was shy and aloof, not friendly at all. 

Wrong, Miss Jane was out going and friendly.  Not to me so much but to her grandmother and others.  While on 16 months, she is walking all over the place and evidencing her personality.  She is quite intelligent.  She has learned a lot of sign language, and can express herself to eat, etc.  She is quite precocious, very intelligent.  Not just because she is my grand child, but because she is just that.

So I have vastly enjoyed Miss Jane,  she is a pleasant child.  Rarely a tear usually only when she and hard object meet.  And that is not often either, so few tears.

She is going to be a pistol.

Christmas Day Is Closing In On Us . . .

Jacob and Anne will arrive tomorrow with their two children.  From there in we expect bedlam will befall us with loving (and crying children).  Maybe the weather is trying to tell us something, it started raining last night at about 4 AM with thunder and lightening.  It has finally let up at 10:30.

Local weather station says we have had over 1.25 inches of rain so far and to expect more.  Temperature holding steady at 40 degrees F.  Tomorrow to be dryer but a little cooler too.  No matter we will be nice and warm in the car going to and from the airport to collect Jake, etal. 

They will be here through Christmas and return home to Madison the day after Christmas.  The schedule is driven by the cost and availability of the airplane tickets.  Fortunately there is an American Eagle flight direct from Madison to DFW and back daily.  Used to be two flights a day but I think it is down to one flight per day now.  The alternate route is out of O'Hare to DFW, about a 100 mile trip for Jake and company, thus not desired route.  The flight in and out of Madison is well populated and that drives the dates for them to travel.

Chris will be here for Christmas as well as James, etal.  We also expect to see Katy and Cavin show up too.  James and family just got back from a trip to NYC seeing Manhattan and all the bells and whistles that go with it.  James has racked tons of frequent flyer miles and they used that for their trip.   NYC is Joan's old stomping grounds, she was raised just outside of New York City and went to school near by before she ended up in Texas.  So she was the willing and able tour leader for the trip.

We have been steadily purchasing food stuffs for the big day.  A ham here and a turkey there, crab meat for the gumbo, garlic bread, plus lots of other thises and that's.  We will have Ernestine's (she was my mothers cook for years) green beans and mashed potatoes to go with it all.

Then us fellows will sit back and watch some football -Not.  We will all be worn out by after dinner time.  Well, I'll qualify that, I and Judie will be worn out by then.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Can You Believe It . . .

Well after the great ice storm of December 2013, we still have unmelted ice on the ground.  It hit a little above 60 degrees yesterday and we still have globs of ice.  The globs are the result of a drifts and are found in corners where the wind whipped around and pour in more than usual precipitation.

And what ever it was, sleet, frozen rain and snow, it all turned to solid ice.  So some of those chunks so to speak were a foot and half deep.  Thus they are still there, especially if they are on the shady side of things.  We have a couple out front, one hidden under the Crepe Myrtle tree, and yet another on the back exposed part of the patio up next to the garage by the Bar-B-Q pit.  Not that we are doing any Bar-B-Qing, but at least it has give up its hold on the lawn chair that was there.  The legs were encased and frozen in place for week.  The chair is free, the ice is still there.  At least we do have access to the Bar-B-Q pit should we need it.

It is supposed to hit the mid sixties today and hopefully we will see the last of the ice in our yards.  Even a bit of the frozen remains in the valleys of the roofs, especially in houses that have good insulation (like ours).

At least the FedEx and Brown trucks can get around and deliver the Xmas gifts. The roads are free and clear.

So we will sojourn out to do a bit more Xmas shopping for the grandkids.  Got to get the right toy for them, ya know.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Melting . . .

The ice is slowly melting since the temperatures have soared to 40 degrees.  But it is a slow process.

So far I have scraped off the ice for a path to the street via the front side walk and via the side walk that goes to the drive way.  Parts of the driveway are cleared, others are cover with two or more inches of ice (note, not snow, ice).  I had to use a pick ax to break up some of it.

The highways are clear.  Texas DOT said they came in prepared to clear off a couple of inches of snow and we got a couple of inches of ice instead.  We did have a dusting of snow, not much.  We got freezing rain (that is rain that falls normally and turns to ice on contact with the cold ground and other surfaces like roofs and streets especially over passes and bridges) followed by sleet.  Sleet you well know is frozen pellets in the air and stays that way when it hits the ground.  So basically we had an ice storm and it left more than an inch of ice, closer to two inches of ice on everything.

Ice takes a long time to melt down.  Only now after two days of bright sun shine is the grass showing in places.  The drifts are as much as a foot thick.  And that too is mostly ice.

I scraped off the paths a with a spade, flat front vice a shovel that is pointed, the paths.  Now no danger of slipping and falling, well mostly no danger.  You still have to be alert as it goes below freezing a night and forms black ice on roadways and slick spots on the paths.  Just got to be careful.

Our German and Ohio experience has help us be more cautious yet venturesome.  So we went out in the weather when others watched.  But we were careful and drove slowly.  I got passed a lot and hope those fools made it home safely.

So we are gradually recovering.  I am sure the merchants got hurt severely by the lack of customers in this region.  They were off to a good start and came to a crashing halt.

Four Days . . .

Four days of ice.  The weather moved in Thursday night with freezing rain and sleet, later some snow.  Basically we got almost two inches of frozen stuff on the ground.  It is not quite two inches but it is more than an inch and in some places has drifted into deeper piles.

Now it is all ice.  At least an inch of ice.  The asphalt streets got some thaw yesterday with bright sun and temperatures greater than freezing.  Not a whole lot above freezing, about 36 or 37 degrees.  So we had lots of spots in the streets that melted and the water ran off.  Not so in the driveway and yard.  And what softened up from the 'high' temperature froze again last night.

We are predicted to get above freezing again today, to maybe 37 degrees again.  And I think that will clear up most of the streets but not the stuff in the yards and drive ways.

We have had our experience in the northern climes so we ventured out Saturday and Sunday.  But we found McDonald's closed.  And Judie's favorite spot in Willow Park, Sonic, was closed.  We did find Walmart open as we also found Sonic in Hudson Oaks open (and we got cokes and eats there).  We found Walmart quite pleasant since it was near empty, just us folks who went out to challenge the elements.

So I think a good deal of it will be abated.  The streets will be open, the main arteries will be sanded and so on.  Still a great deal of traffic accidents, people are not repeat not cautious and have little patience with the conditions.  We saw folks driving to fast, some with four wheelers thinking that such a drive system exempts them from having to worry about the ice and slush.  Not gonna happen, and they are careening off the roads.

So we have electricity and gas and are nice and cozy inside.  The garage with one oil bath heater is kinda holding its on between 55 and 60 degrees.  I go out there and fire up some more heaters for awhile and it gets reasonable, maybe all the way to 65 degrees.  The heaters are in my work area and it gets a little warmer there.

Gotta New Plane . . .

Well the plane is new to me, it is used.  It was gathering dust of which I had to clean off.  It is a Stik model designed for a .60 cubic inch two cycle alcohol engine.  I happen to use a .91 cubic inch four cycle engine, roughly the same amount of power, maybe a little more.

The person that had the plane had a .91 Magnum four cycle engine on it, so it was sort of setup for my engine.  I had to mount the engine on the engine mount rails but since they were already drilled and properly spaced it was a no brainer.  I did have to reverse the carburetor and that was a matter of removing two screws, turning the carburetor 180 degrees and reinstalling the screws.  So the engine is  done and hooked up to the throttle servo which was already installed in the fuselage.

Next I had to install a main landing gear with tires.  The owner had cannibalized the main landing gear for another model.  Fortunately, I had exactly the same landing gear in my spare parts box.  I keep all the landing gears from airplanes past and there it was all read to install.  I had to poke around for a hour in my hard sources to get four screws to mount it with.  Finally found four that will do the job and the landing gear is installed.

Next it had some checkerboard markings on the sides and top of the fuselage.  They were ugly in my estimation.  I used the heating iron to soften the stickum that holds the decals in place and peal them off.  Not to hard to do.  So that is removed and it looks more realistic now.

It had a small tear in the wing and I had to patch that up.  There is another patch that does not match on one of the Maltese Crosses on the wing.  I will have to heat that up and remove the old dark blue patch and install a black patch that will match the Maltese Cross material.  I have plenty of MonoKote to do the repairs. 

MonoKote is a plastic covering that has stikum on one side to adhere to the airplane surface.  The outside is the finish.    It takes a small sealing iron to make it stick to the balsa surfaces.  Then one uses a heat gun to stretch it.  So it is heat sensitive.  Wrinkles can be removed with the heat gun.

The control surfaces had a lot of wrinkles.  Nothing impacting performance but not good looking.  I removed some of the wrinkles and will work on the rest of them. 

Any way a couple of hours work and she is ready to go.  I had to replace a fuel line too.  It is all done now.

Next is to tune up the receiver and set up the controls.  That is an easy task.

A White Day . . .

Woke up about 7 AM to a white world.  We got the brunt of the winter storm last night.  The present temperature is just above 22 degrees with 8 to 10 mile an hour winds.  So if is both cold and slick out side this AM

We started with freezing rain.  That is regular rain that falls and freezes on contact with the earth.  Then we had sleet, which is of course rain that has already been frozen and falls.  Sleet makes a noise of hitting the leaves on the trees and so on.  Freezing rain loads up the trees and bends the limbs to the ground, it can even topple trees.  Then it all turned to snow. 

So the icy surface is cleverly disguised with snow.  You step on and slip and fall  We have a few small drifts up against the houses.  Snow and ice in the roof valleys and along the eaves where heat does not reach and it freezes quickly and stays cold and will not defrost.

It is still falling, an extra fine snow.  It is called corn snow by the folks in the mountains.  Great stuff to ski on but otherwise just winter moisture to us.

I have not seen any birds so they are all hunkered down trying to stay alive.

TV and radio are full of accidents and slick road warnings.  Schools closed.  Doctor's offices closed.  DFW and Love airports are shut down.  Son James is trapped out in Boston waiting to get back home.

Nothing is moving.  The garage is toasty warm at 60 degrees.  I will have to go out and warm the garage up so I can do some model stuff.  I bought a used airplane and have to refit it.  It needs a battery, radio receiver, install an engine, re-inforce the center wing splice (a thing I do not found in the model plans).  It has a funky pilot mounted on it and I will remove that, kind of offensive to me.  Then I will wax it to protect it.

Something to do while shut in.

Another Hearing Test . . .

I had yet another hearing test Wednesday for the VA.  This was a separate and independent test conducted at the request of the VA for evaluation of a service connected disability.

I got there early, never know what traffic is going to be like on I-30 going through the middle of Fort Worth.  The hearing place was on the eastern edge of Fort Worth.  The test is conducted by a contractor for the VA.  There was no traffic delays and I arrived early and sat and waited my turn.

It is ironic but the people that do the service connected evaluations do not trust my ENT doctor nor their own VA Audiologist doctor at their own clinic in Fort Worth.  That is just the way the system works.  The compensation people are independent of the normal medical care folks of the VA.  So I guess you can say they do not even trust their own people.  But it rules out any favoritism or any shenanigans by evaluators.  The raters get verified and good data to base their evaluations upon.

Any way the hearing examiner did her job and said, "Congratulations, you have failed the hearing test a third time."  She was just making light of the situation as we both knew the earlier results would only be confirmed.  She was very nice about it all.

Now all the information will go back to Waco, TX where the Regional Office (RO) resides.  There the evaluator will write up the findings and give me a rating.  Of course, they may not give me a rating for the disability.  I suspect they will give me a 10% rating for Tinnitus.  There is no easy way to test for Tinnitus as the more common version is generated by the brain.  I am sure the RO will do their evaluation, it will get scrubbed down, checked and finally issued.  Since Tinnitus is nerve damage of some sort, it is probably in my case be related to Diabetes Type II.  So it will be a secondary to Diabetes.

Anyway that is the way I filed the claim as a secondary condition due to Diabetes.  No question that I have Diabetes and it is verified Service Connected disability (actually it is a combat related disability).  Means little to the general public, just something to us with VA disabilities.

Some I opine that the Tinnitus is the result of damage to the Cochlear Nerves that convert sound into whatever the brain needs to "hear."  Diabetes attacks all nerves one way or the other.  More recently, some brain experts say it has nothing to do with the ear but an area inside the brain.  It really does not matter as it can not be cured, it can only be kind of drummed out of the way.  Some hearing aids generate white noise that drowns out the Tinnitus.

I hear Tinnitus all the time except when I am in a very high noise condition like a sports bar or a noisy restaurant.  And then, of course, all hearing is impaired to the extent of how loud the surrounding sound is.

Anyway the test is completed and I installed my hearing aids and went home.

Now I have to wait.

Wax Traps . . .

My hearing aids have wax traps.  Wax traps are tiny little white colored caps or ends that fit into the ends of the receivers (receivers are the nomenclature for the tiny little speakers that go into the ear canal).  I was instructed that the wax traps would eventually fill up and close off the receivers effectively stopping the hearing aids from working.

Our ears as you well know produce wax.  And if the wax is not cleaned it can block your ear drums.  This happened to Chris once out in California and I had to get a doctor to clean out his ears.  Since then he has had no problems.  All of us tend to clean our ears one way or the other, most of us use a cotton swab and that seems to work for me.

So I kept waiting for the hearing aids to shut down indicating I needed to replace the traps.  They said it would be about a month of usage.  I had gone two months and things were still working fine for me.  So I decided to replace the wax traps anyway.

I do notice after replacement of the traps, the hearing aids seem to be a bit more sensitive, so I guess the traps were gradually getting blocked by wax.  When I removed the traps I used the little brush that comes with the hearing aids to clean up the receivers.  There was wax, albeit, dried and sort of flaky here and there on the receivers.  I brushed them off carefully after install the wax traps.

There are small rubbery open cones that press on the ends of the receivers that go into the ear canal (ergo the title of Receivers in the Canal or RIC).  The cones effectively hold the receivers in place in the ear canal and yet because of the open spaces allows low frequencies to enter the ear too.  They are soft and thus fit into any ear canal shape.  I have a batch of those cones  too but I did not need to replace them.  There are two little plastic filaments that go over the receivers and are used to remove the receiver from the ear canal.  I discovered there is a right way and a wrong way to install them but eventually go it correct.  They did not give me any replacements for those filaments.

So major step two is completed.  I guess I am now a pro at using the hearing aids.  The final step will be to order a batch of batteries.  I get those to as part of the service.  I note that a couple of dozen of the batteries cost about $6 or so dollars.  A couple of dozen batteries will probably last about two months.  The VA gives me six months of batteries in one batch and says reorder at the end of three months.  So I am figuring the VA depot does not rapidly respond, ergo an ample supply is provided.

The batteries are interesting in that they come in packages of six.  You press them to open up each battery.  The back of the battery is on a sticky sealed surface.  When you remove the battery, the air activates it, so in its plastic package it will last a very long time.  I have found a battery lasts about a week of use.  One or the other units beeps when a battery starts to go bad.  It will run for about 20 or so minutes before it totally runs out of juice.  So when a battery dies, I replace both of them.  Works for me.

Alas the hearing aids do not do anything for my Tinnitus.  It is not totally unpleasant in the background all the time but it is there. It is only drowned out by loud noises, like a restaurant or sports bar during an LSU ballgame.  As I type here, I hear the Tinnitus.  I hear it even if the TV is own, it is not loud enough to drown it out.

Tinnitus will be with me until I die.  The hearing aids can generate white noise to sort of drown out  the Tinnitus but as of yet I have not had that feature activated.  When it worse, and it will, I will do just that.

VA Compensation Examination . . .

I received a telephone call out of the blue from someone saying I would receive a package in the mail shortly.  But he was doing the ground work for a Veterans Administration (VA) Compensation examination.  I expected to get such an examination any time since I received a letter from the VA saying they were working on my package.  This is normal procedure.

But what got me was the fellow wanted to know my "Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM" availability in the next three weeks.  I said, well send me your appointment time and if I can not fit it in, I will call the furnished 877 number and reschedule.  He was not all happy about that, he wanted me to be available for his services when and where he wanted them to be.  It does not work that way, he works for me so to speak not me working for him.  So I await the package and scheduled appointment and location thereof.

So I will wait for the package and see what we have.  He said I would be examined somewhere close to Weatherford, TX.  That's fine but I note it is only 16 or so miles to the Fort Worth VA clinic which has excellent audiology facilities.  I know because I have been there and noted that they are not overwhelmed by patients.  But we will see what transpires.  I am sure it will be no where near a VA facility.

You never know what the VA will do or why they do it that way.  I do have faith in them as I do know they are in good faith protectors of the veteran.  It is just that they often do not do it with any logic or do not care how they spend the governments dime.  They will be chintzy on medications (if the medication is not in their formulary, you are not gonna get it) and lavish on hearing aids.  Go figure?  The give Type TII diabetics exactly 50 blood test strips per month (I get via TRICARE a 90 day supply or about 300 test strips every 90 days).  Test strips, I know, are expensive but my PCP ( means a Personal Care Physician) says Test, Test and Test.

In general since I am military retiree, I do not use the VA facilities and services if I can avoid them.  First of all they are to far away, my local PCP is only three or four miles away.  And since I am over 65 thus I am on Medicare and my TRICARE, my military medical coverage, is secondary to the Medicare.  Basically, I do not have to pay anything for my and my wife's general medical coverage (other than what is deducted from our social security payments).  Our PCP, we use the same PCP, and specialists all accept our Medicare/TRICARE coverage.  We are comfortable and satisfied with our medical coverage.

Some how the VA thinks I should use them.  Of course, I know why.  The VA gets reimbursed from Medicare and they want the extra money.  That's okay.  But since I do not have to do it and receive in my estimation better than the communistic like service (you never know just what physician you will get at the VA or if a Doctor at all) from the VA.

In order to see an VA audiologist, I was supposed to see a VA doctor to get a referral  I did not mind that so much as that they insisted that to see a VA doctor I must have a blood test.  Not that is a gross waste of government resources as I do not know of any particular disease of the ears that requires a blood test.   Now I understand the desire for the blood screening as that can lead to innumerable situations requiring a doctor.  They were drumming up business.

I tried to argue it out with the local Fort Worth VA Executive and it was "my way or the highway" with him.  I warned him that I would write Congresswoman, the VA IG and the Disabled American Veterans (I am a life member there of).  I got a response from the DAV saying that there was little the could do but would I please keep them informed of my results.  I did not hear from the VA Inspector General nor did I hear from my Congresswoman (I wrote her to simply inform her of what was going on and did not ask her to do anything).  Lo and behold, out of the blue I got an appointment with the Fort Worth Clinic Audiology for a hearing examination.

As a result of the examination I got hearing aids from the VA.  I did not see a VA doctor nor did I have a referral from a VA doctor.  So I do not know if the locals got me the appointment, or if the local Regional Office of the VA got me an appointment or if it was the VA IG that got me an appointment.  It does not matter, I got the service I was seeking without going through a lot of hullabaloo.  Somebody somewhere saw the light.

Now I am sure I am on somebody's list for doing it my way but that's life.

And the beat goes on.

Means Testing . . .

We are over 65 years of age so we are now under Medicare.  The premium is deducted from our Social Security income.   It has not as yet been impacted by Obamacare but we know it is coming as they have advertised almost a 100% increase in premium next year (probably to cover the money the Obamacare act stole from the Medicare accounts).

But we have secondary coverage earned from my military years, it is TRICARE for Life.  Congress and passed administrations cover retire military personnel's medical care.  If you are below 65 years of age it is a basic 80/20 medical insurance plan.  Some large insurance company administers the program by bid.  So we get the lowest bidder and all the accompanying low bidder shenanigans that go with it.

When you reach age 65 TRICARE becomes the secondary coverage and all Medicare bills are automatically passed on to TRICARE for coverage.  So far so good.  Now comes the "but."  The but is that Department of Defense (DoD) wants to begin charging a small amount and it is scaled my means testing.  That is to say, higher grade personnel pay more that lower grade personnel.  Sounds good but if you do 20 or more years of service the lowest grade is going to be Technical Sargent in the USAF or grade E-6.  There may be a few E-5s but in general the vast majority will be well above E-6. 

We already have deductibles, life time limits, etc. like most insurance plans.  They are proposing an annual fee for coverage.  Of course, there is no refusal, as they will deduct the fees from your retirement pay directly.  They gotcha coming and going.

This is also true of officers.   A Second Lieutenant is an O-1, a First Lieutenant is an O-2 and so on.  There are a few Captains, O-3 that retire but the vast majority or either Majors or Lieutenant Colonels and up.  There are very few four star generals who are at the top, their grade is O-10.

What means is that the DoD is raising the rates as fast as they can.  Now, Federal retirees do not get means tested nor do regular citizens get means tested regarding their insurance though that is probably coming with the likes of Obamacare.  So stand by for ram, when you get older, ya gonna pay more.  And as Obamacare matures, in a year or two, so with average Joe public.  And the Democrats will bask in the light of "we gave it to you."

We had a pretty good deal on prescriptions.  Regular generic drugs were $3.00 for a 90 day supply.  Non-generic drugs that were on the approved Formulary were $9.00 for a 90 day supply.  That has changed.  Generic drugs are free but non-generic drugs cost $25.00 or more for a 90 day supply.  Others at the base rate of $9.00 for 90 day supply all based on Formulary drugs and their costs.  Some cancer drugs can cost hundreds of dollars now on our TRICARE system.

This is going to be next applied to the Veterans Administration drug program.  It is or was similar to the TRICARE drug prescription system but may also change.  It will then be applied to the general public via Obamacare.

H. Ross Perot once called NAFTA a "money sucking program."  He ain't seen nothing yet.  Obamacare is going to far out strip NAFTA many times over in sucking money out of your pockets.   Are you feeling good about paying for those losers that do not pay anything?

DoD was hoping we retirees would get shoved under Obamacare blanket but Congress quickly exempted the military from Obamacare.   So DoD is still stuck with funding DoD military retirees health care.   Albeit, those over 65 are not quite as costly as those below 65 since DoD is only picking up what Medicare will not pay or 20% of the allowed amount vice 80% for those under 65 years of age.

Pretty soon there will be no doctors that will accept Medicare patients.  We are lucky, our private physician started with us when I worked for Lockheed and has continued to take care us.  He is now part of a Health care system, an HMO if you will, that accepts Medicare.  That systems has already tried to double bill us but backed out when TRICARE kicked in.

We are in fair position, the general public is not.  Obamacare is a monster that will continue to grow unless curtailed.  Self destruction would be a good thing and put us back on track.

No Word from the Insurance Executives. . .

Nobody is talking much.  I suspect the insurance executives are not going to do much about  renewals of old policies.  President Obama's fiat ruling does not over ride the law and they are at a quandary.  Obey the law or obey the fiat.  The fiat can go away but if the insurance companies get sued in court, they would lose.  So mum's the word.

I note a couple of state insurance commissioners seem to think the can not put the genie back in the bottle either.  And if they do and the insurance companies acquiesce, the Obamacare is libel to take a big hit actuarialy, not enough new insurers to prop up the system.

Yet to be heard from are the young people.  Are they going to go for the insurance they believe they do not need?  Who knows but I surmise that they will go the least expensive route, pay the fine if the IRS can find them to access the fine.  Big companies and unions get to skate this year but not next year.

So year two could start in the hole and more people will get pissed since they too will lose their insurance.  Only giant outfits like Lockheed, GM, Ford, Boeing who cover their employees will survive.  And they will access the situation.  If they get fined or blamed, they too will drop their self insurance programs.  It will be like the old retirement plans, disappear into something new not at the expense of the company but at the expense of the individual.

Read today where thousands of doctors have been let go from HMOs and the like who no longer can cover their patients.  So if there coverage, there is no need for doctors.  And some will not ever return to the mix after this, they will just retire.  Those that are already retired and do voluntary work will continue for a time but if they do not get adequate compensation, they to will hang it up.

If Obamacare is successful, the medical industry as we know it will cease to exist.  In spite of itself, there will be fewer doctors to take care of more indigent patients.  And that will cause an increase in taxes and a concurrent decrease in GNP.  The economy will slow down again and stay there until Obamacare gets fixed some kind of way.  I do not mean repealed though that is a valid fix, I mean until the government is out of the medical business.  I hope that happens before the industry as we know is destroyed by do gooders, socialists and liberals.  They do not seem to able to see beyond a few inches from their faces.

Hope springs eternal, and that is about all we got.

So Sorry, My Bad . . .

Yes, that is what President Obama said about the Obamacare unveiling.  Now he is finally scrambling to do something but it appears the something is an attempt to set up the insurance industry as the scape goat.  So far the insurance industry is not buying it.  Certain state insurance commissioners are not buying it either.  He is successfully digging the hole deeper.

Now the word is he has called the insurance executives to the White House to talk to them.  I am sure they will listen and maybe a few will tell him the truth.  We shall see on the evening news.

People are not stupid especially when it comes to their money and what they get for it.  I sense they are not buying into the Obamacare scheme of things.  They may elect to (a) lie and get on Medicare or (b) pay the fine and do nothing.  Both are essentially damaging to the Obamacare Scheme of things where the more fortunate healthy people are supposed to pay for the less fortunate unhealthy people.  The healthy people feel bad about the unhealthy people but do not want to pay their bills for them, just not in human nature. They are seeing first hand this sharing of wealth and they are not happy about it.

So what is to be done.  Why more taxes to pay for the insurance of course.  But fate has intervened, the House of Representatives is controlled by the opposing party and they, the Republicans, are not gonna raise any taxes for anything much less the hated Obamacare.  They, the House may take snips and pieces of the Obamacare off the table by refusing to tax.  Obama can do a lot of things by fiat but he can not enforce new taxes by fiat, he would get laughed out of office.  They are his bills to pay and he has to figure out a way to do that.  It ain't gonna be easy.

I hope the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is in a snit.  He could have stopped this nonsense years ago but did not.  Now he will along with Obama be pointed out as a loser and be blamed for the damage being done to our nation.  Of course, he does not care as he is above it all.  But he has got to see what has transpired and what he failed to do.  He can not stand by being self righteous for he is part of the problem now. 

We are being laughed at by the entire world.  Such incompetence in the White House.

I think it is going to be a very cold winter.  Even if the ill fated Government web page gets to working people are still going to shun the program.  There will be no easy solution, it is a colossal mess.  Even the Democratic rank and file now see the folly and some may lose their positions of power in the Government, like getting kicked out of office.

What a waste . . .

Bruuuuuuur, the Arctic Express is Here!!!!!

The Arctic cold front arrived during the night.  It is mostly winds at the moment but a hard freeze is predicted tonight.  I plugged in the strip heater on the water well, it winds around the PVC pipes coming out of the ground and works its way to where the pips go back into the ground.  I also hand some old pieces of area carpet over the pipes to protect them from UV rays and add a bit of cold protection.

When I installed the strip heater, I then cover it with standard outdoor pipe insulation.  Trying to hold the heat in as close as I can to the pipes to retard any freezing.  The PVC is schedule 40 and is supposed to handle up to 200 PSI pressure, but one does not want to press the issue.  No leak is far better than any leak.

I have said before and say again, irrigation systems are constant maintenance.  One has to keep up with them, change sprinkler heads, clean sprinkler heads and sprinkler vales (though I took care of the sprinkler valves by going to "dirty water" valves that are self cleaning), occasional electrical opens (the valves are toggled open and closed by a solenoid, a simple on and off system but does require power from the sprinkler control box to do the job.  It is a low voltage system, not dangerous, just sometimes cantankerous).  That is my reasons for saying irrigation systems are constant maintenance.

The water well provides water that is down about 200 feet.  It comes out of the Pawluxy aquifer and is said to be "sandy."  It is hard water to be sure and does have microscopic grit or sand in it.  We used a sand separator until I got the dirty control valves all installed.  We got rid of the sand separator, it developed a leak, corroded hole in the side of the separator.  Welded it up once but it appeared again and it was a losing battle.  So I took it off and discarded it.  The pump is submerged down at the bottom of the well.  The on/off and regulation system is on top along with a pressure tank.

We have simple spray heads in the front yard.  Out in the back were have turbo heads that move the nozzle around.  It uses water pressure inside to generate mechanical power to move the head around.  The sand eats those up.  A slow process but one can count on the turbo heads to wear out, thus have to be replaced.  The simple spray heads get clogged up, they have a crude filter to prevent large chunks from getting in to things but little snails like the water and ensconce themselves in the top of the sprinkler disrupting, or distorting the spray.  So one has to clean those out too.

I have found tree roots that seek out the sprinkler heads, that is where the water is.  I have had to cut roots out to restore the pop up feature of the sprinklers.  And soil moves about ever so slowly and one finds sprinkler heads buried deep in the soil.  Yes, they pop up, but in time their height is not sufficient.  I have a stock of "risers" that I can cut to length.  I have to periodically raise sprinkler heads.  Another maintenance task.

Well I be on the watch of cold related irrigation problems.  There will be some and I will fix them during warm spells.

The beat goes on.

Frost on the Pumpkin . . .

It was crunchy this AM.  I went for my walk just before sunrise and saw frost all over the place.  The dew froze up.  However, I do not think the temperature got below maybe 35 or 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

But there were great swaths of white color across the open yards.  I did not see any deer about which is another sign of being cold.  On the other hand, I walked in my LSU hoodie and with gloves on (I hate cold hands).  I was very comfortable and hustled around the area pretty quick.  I did not see anybody else at that time.  I sometimes see Dr. Huggins in an early AM walk but not today, perhaps I was a little late for him.   He goes around about 6:00, sometimes I am up that early but more often now days, I do not rise so early.

No freeze.  Just a cold snap.  Back into the low to mid 70s by Saturday.  But Mother Nature is sending her signals out.  Early warning.  Too bad all that global warning crap is not working.  I could use a nice warm winter.  That ain't gonna happen.

Madison Run . . .

It is Halloween time and Judie is off to Madison.  She flies up there annually for Halloween.  She stays a four or five days and returns.  During that time she spells the parents and watches the grand kids, that is after all the prime objective.

Jane is yet to young to care.  Will at four years is full of enthusiasm.  He anticipates his grandmother arriving and the gifts she is bearing.  Plus there is always a shopping trip to Target or similar emporium of toys. 

Will is not starved for attention or toys, he just sees an opportunity to expand his horizon so to speak.  And his grandmother is pleased to do it for him.

His parents are as all young married couples with families, tied up with work and parenting and need as short respite - rest.  It sort of recharges them for the onslaught of the holiday season approaching.  The weather is nice, beginning to change from Autumn to Winter.  And Winter can be brutal in those northern climes.  The lakes freeze over, and the main lake is probably five or six times the size of False River, I mean it is huge.  No water shortage there.

I will retrieve Judie from DFW Sunday and on the way home we will stop at Pappadeaux's to eat.  I would say dine but not really sure of the time of day as we all know, airlines are imprecise on their timing.  By then I will tire of my home cooking.

It will be good to see her back.

HP Inkjet Refills . . .

Years ago I had an Epson printer, an ink jet printer.  I had terrible experience with that piece of crap.  So the next ink jet printer I got was an HP.  It was mostly plastic but worked fine.  The only thing was the ink refills were expensive.  And with time I found a secondary source of ink cartridges that saved me about 50% over HP prices.

The old HP finally wore out and I replaced with a new super duper HP.  It is connected to the computer via a 2.4 gigabyte electronic connection.  No more wires.  Well I had one wire at first, the same old printer cable from a USB port over to the printer.  Now that cable sits fallow in the back of everything sitting there just in case.

I had bought one set of secondary market replace cartridges, the infamous "564" cartridge.  A newer design but been around long enough for the secondary market to come up with refills and refill kits.

So I ordered up a refill kit.  Cost about $35 and came with four bottles of ink and two syringes with needles and set screw plugs.  The plugs are threaded and it also has a little Allen wrench to install the new threaded plugs.  Of course, it had the appropriate instructions which were dated and not quite the way to do the job.

I went on the Internet and there are several home brew videos on how to do it yourself.  There are some good tips like make sure the top of the reservoir is well sealed, not vent but the ink installation port needs to be air tight or the cartridge will seep ink.

I had one cartridge, cyan or blue, that was reporting empty.  The printer lets you know when you need to refill or reload an ink cartridge.  It will go so far as to even order one for you from HP (at an unbelievable price plus the ever present shipping cost).

I opened up the printer, removed the cartridge.  I carefully peeled back the plastic tape on top and it revealed a small hole in the top.  The syringe needle passed through the hole into the reservoir.  So I loaded up the syringe with 10 milliliters of blue ink and shove the needle and emptied the syringe.  No overflow or back flow, so I added 19 more milliliters.  Then I carefully wiped off the top and resealed the port of the cartridge.  I washed out the syringe with water, about three or four flushes with water cleared the needle and syringe for the next job.

I figure I have enough ink for the next two years.  In round numbers I ought to save about $100 or more over the refill cartridges at Staples or Walmart.

What gets me is that HP asks you to send the cartridges back as an environmental recycling thing.  All they are doing is reloading and resell the cartridges.  Staples takes the empty cartridges too.  I am sure they also recycle them with new ink.

No matter, I enjoy doing those kinds of things.  And if I can save a dollar or two at doing, well that's all the better for me.  I have time and inclination to do it.

One of the great benefits of retirement.

Clicks and Clacks . . .

I am getting used to the new hearing aids.  I hear the change in my pockets, the jangling of keys, rubbing of my hands across the steering wheel of the car and it goes on and on.  I was missing all that, well noise.  Not so sure it was a bad thing.  Running water is loud as is crushing a plastic water bottle.  Sometimes it can be very disconcerting.

These tiny devices are certainly more sensitive than can be imagined.  They are tuned so to speak.  For instance in a car, they will recognize more sound is coming from the interior rather than the exterior of the car, and emphasizes the interior sounds or conversely deemphasize the outside sounds.  Judie was tapping her fingers on the car door rest in the right seat and I could hear that very clearly while driving with the radio playing. 

These tiny devices have programs that do small things for you.  The concentrate the sound in front of you.  Each hearing aid has two microphones and can do a comparative analysis and the programs take over.  Thus if you point your head at the TV set is does a good job of collecting the sound.  Right now as I type, the den TV is on and it is located on my right side and it is emphasizing the right side.

The can also suppress wind sounds, a typical irritant to hearing aid users.  It also suppresses feed back signals so one does not get squeals in the ear as occurred in past hearing aids.

These  are so programmed for high pitched sound, the area that my hearing is deficient; it does not amplify low pitched sounds, sounds at or below 2,500 to 3,000 cycles.  Anything above that frequency starts falling off rapidly so that by the time 5,000 to 6,000 cycles are reached there is a serious loss of sensitivity.  Of course, beyond 6,000 or so cycles was missing all together.  These hearing aids fill in those areas while they do not change the sensitivity of sounds below those numbers.  So normal discussion in a fairly quite situation is about the same.

Right now they are not set up to depress the Tinnitus and I can hearing it ringing away.  It is only when I am in a very noisy situation that the Tinnitus disappears.  It is there, it is just overridden by the other income sounds.  I am told "white noise" can be programmed in and it overrides the Tinnitus.  In time your ear learns to ignore both the Tinnitus and the white noise.

My right ear is still more sensitive to the presence of the sound receiver in the ear.  So it is sometimes bothersome to me.  I push on it and it seems to change a bit and seems to go away for a while.  Sort of like pushing up your glasses every once in a while.  I am sure I will get used to it.

 Just another getting old thing.

Next Year . . .

Its next year for LSU.  I can not believe the offensive coordinator tried the same play four times and it was intercepted three times.  I would knock his vaunted salary down a few bucks.

That's the way it is.

LSU, Rain and Things . . .

Things first.  I have new hearing aids.  Nice.  Phonak Brand, is said to be top of the line.  Though I am sure all hearing aids have some draw backs.  These sound a little tinny to me but I am hearing sounds that I have not heard in years. 

Lots of new hearing aid terminology.  For instance, I have RIC hearing aids.  That means Receiver In Canal.  A receiver is hearing aid speak for speaker.  So I have the speakers in the ear.  The actual hearing amplifier, etal, is behind my ear.  A clear plastic tube runs to the receiver that is in the ear canal.  The receiver has a soft plastic cone or as I call it, basket on it.  The pointy end of the cone goes in the ear canal.  It has slits in basket so it is open to outside sounds.  In my case the hearing aids are programmed for high pitched sounds, not low pitched sounds.  So the low pitched sounds enter the ear canal by passing the cones.  The receiver transmits the high pitched sounds.  A hearing test confirmed nothing is wrong with my ear drum, it is all inner ear stuff.

Each hearing aid has to microphones in it and are separated by a switch.  The switch on the right ear turns the volume up and the switch in the left ear turns the volume down.  When you press one, you hear the aids respond with a tone.  Yes, they talk to each other.  There in lies a few new programs to help the hearing.  Wind noises are suppressed.  Feedback noise like I used hear my father-in-law experience are suppressed.  They are said to have five memories and four special programs.  Any way they work.

I also have Tinnitus.  Nothing can be done about it.  It appears to be cochlear nerve damage probably caused by Diabetes, the nerve killer.  The hearing aids can be programmed to introduce white noise to suppress the Tinnitus.  As yet I have not had that done as the while I am aware of Tinnitus all the time, it is not the dominant sounds I hear.

LSU.  LSU football team displayed a superior defense Saturday.  They shut down Florida.  I think Florida was surprised by the LSU performance.  The run game, always pretty good, became better.  The style that LSU showed was different and Florida's vaunted defense did not know what to do.  They kicked a couple of field goals, no touch downs.  While LSU hammered in two touch downs and a field goal to seal the victory.  Florida was done and done in.

Next up is Ole Miss.  Ole Miss is always dangerous to LSU.  But then it seems all SEC opponents are dangerous for LSU.  Everybody points up to be LSU.  We seem to be the standard to bring down.  Well if we survive Ole Miss, Bama and Texas A&M are next after that.  I do not think Arkansas will present much defense as they will have had the crap beat out of them by all the other teams.  Furman is a total unknow to us and should present a nice game.  Never can tell about out of conference teams and again, like the all rest of them, they seem to really get ready to play LSU.

We started to get rain in the night.  We got about an inch, maybe a little less.  Nice slow dribble like rain that soaked in.  We live on water from lakes so all rain is welcomed here in this semi-desert area.  People do not realize we are on the edge of desert here.  And all the lakes are man made here.  The little rivers flow into the lakes.  Some of the lakes are way down.  Lake Travis near Austin is down 40 some odd feet.  That is significant.  We have done a little better than Austin but not by much.

And the beat goes on.

The Shutdown . . .

I am reminded of the Democratic mantra, never waste a crisis.  The President is going after if with all he can muster.  Closing parking lots at Mt Vernon, George Washington's Plantation.  Mt Vernon does not belong to the US Government, only the access road and parking lot belong to the national park service.  So in typical Democratic mean action, they barricaded the parking lot at the end of the causeway.  A parking lot that cost nothing to maintain except an occasional street sweeper and maybe restriping of parking spaces every three or four years.  It is nothing but a blatant attempt to make use of a governmental crisis by the present administration.  They are liberally spread mud all over themselves in doing such actions.

And it among many others makes the government, yes that is a little g, and the administration look like mean old pikers.  They blame it on Republicans.  But Republicans did not shut down the government, the administration did.  The administration chose not to be realistic and mindful of the owner, the US citizens, they just ran rough shod over anything they could to irritate the public.

They closed the national cemeteries over seas.  These are stalwart reminders of the horrors of war and the need for peace.  I have been to many of them.  They are quite and peaceful locations.  In their own way are quite beautiful, some with battle dioramas.  They have clean rest rooms, plenty of parking, a welcome center and never have I seen a person doing anything for the visitor.  I am sure there is a staff to keep the place clean, mow the grass and keep up the crosses and  stars of David over each grave.  They even closed part of  Omaha Beach at Normandy.  What an insult to our French hosts, what an insult to all our European Allies.  Need I remind you there are thousands of available military personnel to keep these facilities open.

Clearly, the administration is making use of the financial crisis and exploiting all they can but they are being extremely short sighted.  The press is lapping it up.  Taking more guards to guard the barricades than when the park is open kind of thing.  It is self defeating.  It is spending what little cash the government has in the til just to be mean to its owners, the US Citizens!

I am told Lincoln Park in Washington D.C. is closed to the public but held open by Democratic and Republican Congressional persons who use it to walk in.  The Mall in front of the Capitol is a national park and they are trying to keep citizens from walking across it.   The have barricade the Lincoln Memorial and other sites only to be thwarted in some cases by citizens and Congress persons.

This is our President.  He is making a fool out of himself before the world.   He telephones Republicans but the first words out of his mouth are "I will not negotiated with you."  What kind of idiot is that that shoots himself in the foot before even talking to Congressional representatives.  He will never sell anything to them as long as he takes a hard stand.  He purposely chides the very people he needs to pass a Continuing Resolution.  President Clinton suffered through government shut downs and was able to negotiate with the Congress.  How is President Obama going to do that with his rhetoric and diatribes?  Good technique, right ~ first you piss them off, then call them names  I am sure that will do the job of convincing them to change.

An old saw comes to mind, "The lights are on but nobody is at home,"

Getting a Plane Off . . .

Getting a new plane off the ground is an effort. First of course you have to assemble it from the box.  And I made a few modifications to it, that adds a little time.  Then I had to balance it.  That took a little lead to do but it is now done.

Charged it up and took it to the field fully knowing I would not fly it that day.  There were sure to be little things wrong and there were.  First, I had a bit of trouble switching the transmitter to the correct model.  I thought I had it but did not.  Later figured that out.  Got that straightened out and tried to start the engine again.  I had it running under the incorrect model and in trying to get it to idle, I fiddled with the trim - on the wrong airplane setting of course.

Once I got the correct model installed, all was okay in the control surfaces but the engine would not start.  Then I noticed two of the engine mount bolts had backed off, one almost all the way out.  The engine, a Saito four stroke .65 has quite a power stroke and that causes the bolts to come loose.  So I had to fix that.  To top that off when tightening up the bolt I pushed the blind nut out of the wooden firewall.  The blind nut is inside the fuselage, so I knew I needed to treat with that at home.

When installing the wing I also pushed out a blind nut and that too had to be take care of at home.  Once I got home in pressed the wing blind nut back in to its hole and added epoxy cement to hold it in place.  Once the bolt is installed it holds it in place, so the cement is just to keep the blind nut in place.

Then I took off the cover plate on top of the fuselage.  The fuel tank is under the place.  So I had easy access to the blind nuts.  Got the loose one back in place and then epoxied all four of the blind nuts so they would not be pushed out.  I also added "Loc-Tight" to the bolts and reinstalled them.  Vibration will not shake them out now.

So all the little issues are taken care off for the moment.  I noted I probably needed to change the main wheels.  That had sat so long they were distorted.  New bigger wheels will do better on the grass field anyway.  So I will check my spares box or go to the local hobby shop and get a couple of wheels.

I used the heat gun to take out a couple of wrinkles.  The covering is cheap, not high grade like MonoKote but it will do.  It does mean temperature changes will cause it to wrinkle up.  Heat gun takes care of that.  A nice taut covering adds to the over all strength of the wings and structure.

So the plane is not closer to be ready for its maiden flight.  We will see how she does.  I really like the Saito engines, they are powerful and really do the job.  This engine is a tad big for the model but more power is better.  But one can assume because of the Saito a lot of shaking is going on.  It is not a new engine but certainly a great engine.

I know the engine runs but threw in a new glow plug to the field box just in case.  Will charge up every thing and go after it again.  This time it should make it off the ground.

New Orleans, Uneventful But Rewarding . . .

Our annual trek to New Orleans is over with - again.  We departed Texas on Sunday and drove to New Roads to remain over night at the camp.  We had Mark and Richard over from Baton Rouge to eat dinner.  Ate at "Not Your Mama's" in Livonia since nothing was open in New Roads.  Well I guess Satterfield's was open but since out experiences with such terrible and unreliable service we shun the place.  All the other restaurants were closed for late meals like dinner.  Not Your Mama's was quite good, we enjoyed it and the prices were reasonable.

Monday we took off for a tour of LSU, Baton Rouge, etc. before heading south to New Orleans.  Check in time we had learned was 3:00 PM so no use getting there early.  We ate lunch at Jay's Bar-B-Que, an old Baton Rouge eatery from our days at LSU in the late 50's.  It was still at its same location on Government Street though we learned there are now four such establishments for their food scattered about the city.  It was as expected though changed a bit from the 1950's just as one would expect.

We drove over to LSU and located the new bookstore, it is directly across the street from the Student Union building where it had resided for years. So it is not far and they included a two story public parking facility in the remodel of the old University Presidents abode.  Really kept on the facade of the old building and added the parking facility in the back.  They did a nice job, large Starbucks, lots of clothes and gizmo's on the first level.  An escalator led up to the second tier where the book store resides.  So it is still convenient and has better parking now days.

We went down College Drive back to intersect with the Interstate to New Orleans.  We could have driven out Highland Road and done the same but it would have many more traffic lights to negotiate.  So we back tracked so to speak and headed south to New Orleans.

We got to town with no fan fair, located the  Moneteleone Hotel and pulled into the garage as is out custom.  Bell hop came out, load up our luggage and we left the car in the hands of the garage attendants.  The hotel put us up on the 15th floor, top floor with a view of the river.  Also bright early morning sun but that comes with the territory.  We have learned not to stay on the weekends as there are usually a half dozen wedding parties going on.  So we avoid the Saints football traffic, the weddings and I guess there was only one convention going in the building.

We changed our clothes, I donned a jacket to eat at Galatoire's.  We walked out of the hotel, around the block to Bourbon Street and the restaurant only to find it was closed on Mondays.  Drat.  So we walked another block and went to  Arnaud's to dine.  We were a tad early so sat in the French 75 Cigar bar and had a drink.  They called us in 10 or so minutes and into the main dining room we went.  We could have gone into the Jazz dining room but chose the lesser noise of the main dining facility. 

Judie had the Drum fish and I had the Pompano fish.  I thoroughly enjoyed my fish.  We had oysters Rockerfellow for an appetizer.  They were superb.  So it was great choice and only a block further down the street so to speak.

We ate at Galatoire's Tuesday night.  Used our same waiter, Amber.  It was a nice experience there too.  We had snails for appetizer and Judie had the stuffed eggplant (stuffed with shrimp) and I had the bouillabaisse with shrimp, oysters and fish.  It is a fun place to eat, the waiters and servers kitbiz with you and take care of your every whim.  Plus the food is outstanding to boot.

We of course had beignets at Café du Mode in the mornings and the Tuesday we walked down to French Market.  We have a stall we eat at for lunch.  We have blackened catfish po-boy.  Judie does not like catfish but in this case loves it.  We bought a bottle of his dressing that he uses and got his recipe.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in Aunt Salley's and Judie got things for different folks.  She got pralines for Chris, and Mufalatta olive mix for Judith and so on. 

We had fun and still have to go Antoine's to dine.  I guess we just have to stay a day longer next time and plan to arrive Tuesday vice Monday.  I think we also do a little snooping around on Magazine Street (sort of parallel to St Charles Avenue.  Commanders Palace is out there and another grouping of great places to eat.  Of course, New Orleans being what it is, there is a great place to eat on every corner.  Just that there are some that are truly world class to eat at. 

May we live long enough to hit all the great restaurants!

The Wreck . . .

Last week Judie was up in Flower-Mound tending to grandson Jamie.  She was over on state route 407, a fairly busy road, going east and turning left across traffic.  She misjudged the speed of the on coming auto and it slammed into the right front of her car.  Her car, a Lincoln MKX is a pretty tough automobile, but the Volvo that hit her broke off the right front wheel, did in the grill, headlight assembly, etc.  No one is really sure about the axle except that it is broken off the transmission.  Nor do we know the state of the transmission itself.  To top matters off the over exuberant Fire Department cut the cables to the battery, that meant the wiring harness for the car was severed.  So the Fire Department did even more damage to the automobile.

The car was a 2012 and was new when we got it.  It had about 9,000 miles on it, certainly less than 10,000 miles on it.  USAA independent adjusters evaluated the car several times and in the end totaled it out.  There is no telling what Lincoln would have done on warranty items, the car had a four year warranty on it.  So I am sure they would have ducked out on all the warranty items because of the wreck.  There is also legal term called "diminished value" in that even though repaired back to original condition the auto would be worth less because of the wreck history.  So all those elements went into the USAA decision and the car now belongs to USAA.

Judie now has a 2013 version of the same version car, it is Ruby Red, bright red color.  It has basically all the same things as the 2012 with a few small changes like a towing hitch.  It has paddle shifters on the steering wheel, something we will never ever use.  The dealer, a neighbor, said that Ford installed those because GM and other makes and brands had them.  We have found the software has been tweaked, it is more user friendly, more voice activation gizmo's.  And typical of Microsoft who does the Ford system, had already a new update.  The update is on a memory stick, just put it into the USB port and it updates the car.  It has a lot of memory so a lot of music was uploaded too.  We were told it has 9 speakers in it ~ a Bose sound system.  Blue tooth synced in her cell phone and the garage door opener is also keyed in now.

So Judie is happy again.   She was very angry about the accident but she will get over it.  She likes the red color so far.  She had a Chevy Impala rental and it was a real piece of crap.  Terrible gas mileage, black, slow air conditioning system to come on and slow to cool it.  We were happy to get the new car and get rid of that junky auto.

Reminising on the Porch . . .

Reminiscing on the Porch of the camp this morning.   It was quite, real quite on False River, the lake was like a sheet of glass.  I was drinking my coffee listening to the roar of my Tinnitus and the travel on the highway up above the camp.  I was admiring the stately Cypress trees array across the lot.

Bill Gremillion, my father-in-law, a cagey business man acquired this piece of property by repairing the landownwer's owner's tractor.  The owner did not have the money to pay for the needed repairs and so traded the lake front lot for the needed repairs and maintenance on his tractor.  In those days, or at least the near the end of that era, lake front lots were not considered worth much, they could not be farmed so to speak.  So they did not return value to the land owner.   Bill had the foresight to recognize the future beauty of the place.

He along with his brothers had a camp up Red River behind Marksville.  The area had some shallow lakes  and if R. O. Martin, the lumber Barron had not discover oil, the area will have remained a wilderness.  But oil brought roads, albeit, gravel roads, and electricity to power the pump jacks on the oil wells.  Soon followed the hunters and folks that want to get away from it all.  A large hunting club grew up and the brothers were charter members.

Bill began bringing home Cypress seedlings from the Red River area.  He planted them in rows across the lot on the lake.  They are beginning to be majestic and are now recognized as a landmark along the banks of False River.  There are probably 30 of them on the "lot."

A pier has been added, and now a manufactured house, the camp, and a shed and covered area.  Judie's nephew Mark lived there and improved the place tremendously.  He named it appropriately Cypress - Myrtle.

This morning is was absolutely serene.  Cool, not cold, and a true vista looking out on the lake.  Bill's little house in New Roads has long been sold,  The  tractor business has also been sold but Cypress Myrtle remains a family heir loom.  No, it is not a ring, or a bracelet but it is a jewel to be enjoyed by Bill's heirs. 

Some how I think that was always Bill's objective.

Lindy Boggs . . .

Lindy Boggs has died.  She was a great woman, a southern woman, a champion of civil rights, a Democrat and finally a cousin.  Born Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne and named as so many of us are by the house hold servant - Lindy.

Many accolades surround her career ending with the title Ambassador to the Vatican.  Amazing how God provides us with a path, some like Lindy have a great path, most of us just exist.  She was a shinning example of success.  And she did not run rough shod over people to arrive at that position, she was selected.  And she worked hard to obtain it and keep it.

Her husband Hale Boggs and his mate Lindy have always taken us under their rings and treated us with great kindness.

We, the children of John and Polly Morrison, are in twined with the Boggs family.  My father's business partner was Robert Stanley Morrison, a cousin.  He married Hale Boggs' sister, Claire Boggs.  The Boggs family are from Long Beach, Mississippi and remain there to this day.  Stanley's children all live close by the Boggs compound.  Their mother is now the Matriarch of all our families as she is still alive and well.  And she is older than her now deceased sister-in-law, Lindy.   I wonder if I shall see her, I last saw her at Aunt Bobby's funeral in Baton Rouge.

That union Boggs and Morrison families makes for double cousins.   None are mine but they are there.

I have fond memories of short stays with Tommie Boggs and family at Wild Wood Plantation or otherwise known as Mr. Billy Coates place at Lettsworth, Louisiana.  Other visits in New Orleans at Rowena's house on 1312 First Street in the Garden District of the city.  The only vestige of Morrison's other than Chep (DeLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, once mayor of New Orleans and has heirs that still reside in the city) is Lindy's House at 623 Bourbon Street.  Lindy inherited the house from her aunt, Frosty Morrison Blackshear. 

There is a plaque on the house on Bourbon Street.  When the family finally let it go, the owner an admirer of Lindy, had the plaque installed on the outside of the structure.  Surrounded by sleazy dives, the family would not relinquish the place to become yet another Bourbon Street dive.  It has been restored and remains a private residence to this day.

Lindy had many relatives in and around Pointe Coupee.  She was the product of two well known Pointe Coupee families ~ the Claibornes and the Morrisons.  Both families still have a presence in Pointe Coupee to this day.  The first governor of Louisiana was a Claiborne ancestor, the Morrison's arrived on the scene late like 1856.  There was a time when the Morrison;s and the Claibornes were arch political enemies in Pointe Coupee.  But we are not Hatfields and McCoys and that history is long past.

Lindy's mother's house was on Wildwood Plantation.  It has long since been razed, no remnants remain.  I am sure only a few of us know where is was located at Lettsworth.

Lindy will be buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in New Roads.  I suspected that would be her choice.  You see she has a child buried there.  The child died at a very young age.  Her husband lies somewhere in the depths of Alaskan Gulf, so she will rest among her ancestors in Pointe
Coupee.

We shall miss her,  It will be a sad family reunion Thursday at St Mary's Cemetery.

Fritz Save . . .

Judie moved some house plants out side because they were bug infested.  They were placed near the  patio door.

She was on the patio and heard a scratching noise.  She figured it was Fritz and went toward the gutter, one of the favorite places for the little lizards to repose.  Nope not in the gutter, and she heard the noise again.

She narrowed it down to the flower pot with the large leafed plant (a gift, I believe from our house keeper).  Sure enough Fritz (or Fritzina) was trapped in the pot.  She could not get traction on the side of the very slick pot.  So Judie, very carefully, lifted the plant and moved the pot to the edge of the patio.  She tilted the pot over on its side and out scooted Fritz ~ free at last.

The lizards have a habit of spending the night in the flower pots.  I guess Fritz chose the wrong one.

We have seen them in the spring cozy up in Judie's yard shoes.   They are black, water proof and just right.  They soak up the heat and thus it is an ideal location for the early spring months.  Safe from predators and warm to boot. 

This time of year, no need for the heat.  So they sneak into the flower pots as a safe haven. 

Got to be careful of where you chose to be in a safe haven.  It may be a trap.

Snake ! ! !

Son Chris came over Sunday to visit.  We went out and ate Japanese in a local Weatherford restaurant.  After dining we returned home and Chris and Judie were kibitzing on the patio.

Next thing I knew Judie there is a huge snake in the yard.  So I donned by shoes thinking all the while it was python or something in the yard.  It was a common black water snake as they are so called here.  Much better than a Python or even a Copperhead (they are common around here).

The snake had also attracted a Mocking bird.  He and I watched at the snake preceded down the sidewalk toward the driveway.  Judie had circled around and was the driveway.  So the snake dived into the garage through a small crack near the bottom of the garage door.  The garage doors never seal anything up a 100% and there is a small gap big enough for this four and half foot long snake.

We opened the garaged door to see the snake scoot into the corner of the garage.  There was an electric chain saw, an old 20 MM ammo can (with tools and stuff in it but sealed up) and an old bed cloth.  Mr. snake had entwined him self in the bed cloth.  I drug it out to the driveway.

I had armed myself with a sharp shooter shovel.  Mr. snake stuck his head out of the bed cloth and I whacked him with the shovel.  Just to make sure I did it again.  He died.

We then trans ported him over to the vacant lot next door.  Threw him on an ant hill.  I am sure a possum or a Raccoon would find him and take him away.  Even the Foxes might do that. 

But it weren't a big snake, it was large for its type but no threat to anyone.  I did not want him staying in the garage, so I dispatched him.   Our neighbor, the doctor, had to kill one that took up in his garage a few years ago.  And I am pretty sure one spent the winter with us in the chest of drawers (I found a snake skin in the bottom drawer).  And he would be a threat to Fritz, the lizard.  So he had to go.

Thinking Back . . .

Thinking back on my problems with the TB22EC weed eater, I think adding Castor oil to the mix provided to much lubrication, too much slickness.  We know that Castor oil morphs into a longer molecule when heated and in fact gets slicker.  Also it burns at a higher temperature, and thus is not consumed in the combustion process.  Model airplane enthusiasts do not like the Castor oil as it leaves a mess to clean up.  But the mess means things are indeed getting lubricated.  Small price to pay.  It is the same lubricant used in WW-I airplane engines and is why you see the pilots with it all over their faces except where their goggles protect them.  Castor oil used as a lubricant is the same stuff mothers use to dose their kids with to improve their bowl movements.  It is said WW-I pilots did not have constipation problems!

Well not all of oil anyway is consumed.  But that is not a bad thing as the oil expelled also carries away some of the heat generated by the engine so it acts as a coolant.  Those are good things but maybe to much goodness for the engine or at least the piston rings.  So I will rein in my use of Castor oil in the mix.

MTD also says that the engine must absolutely have at least a 40:1 oil ratio.  A lot of folks and even little plastic bottles of oil say you can run on less oil.  And the oil is synthetic meaning among other things it has a lower temperature of combustion.  So in an effort to keep the power head clean with little or no oil residue, the lubricant is supposed to be consumed.  They advertise the oils as "ashless."  Not sure what that means but seems to indicate that the lubricant will be consumed and produce no untoward exhaust products.  A 40:1 ratio means at least 2.3 ounces of oil per gallon of fuel, so must avoid those little bottles of oil, use more not less.

Couple all of that with California emissions rules, the engines tend to run lean.  Lean burn so to speak and that leads to higher operating temperatures.  So we are at the mercy of California rules even though we are miles and miles away from California.  They have removed the slots from the ends of the fuel adjustments on the carbs.  I am inclined to use my Dremel and cut some slots so that I can tinker with the settings.  After all I have spare carbs I can use for this experiment.

At any rate the new weed eater is running just fine. Maybe a couple of tanks of fuel through it already; as it does edging, weed eating and blowing at least twice a week.  And I know for a fact the oil ratio is probably closer to 30:1 at the moment.  And by ear I can tell the engine is not overrunning RPM wise.  The fuel also has some gunk (that is what I call it) to keep the gas from going stale (turning into to much varnish).  The reason for that is the new one came with a packet of the stuff to add to the fuel.  So it has all the sweet stuff in it to make it go.

We shall see how long this one lasts.

Gave Up The Ghost . . .

The Troybuilt TB 22 EC string trimmer gave up the ghost.  Actually, I had two of them.  Both are shot.  One froze up.  So I took it apart.  This time I started from the back end instead from the front end where the controls and stub shaft are located.  Took the rear cover off and got almost immediate access to the cylinder head.

The cylinder head was held on by two bolts. Both of these were tight but easily removed.  I removed the carb assembly and the short intake stack.  That was pretty easy too.  Total of four bolts for that assembly. 

Then I removed the piston head assembly along with the attached muffler.  I later removed the muffler for convenience.  Later I had to remove the stub shaft and clutch to remove the front engine cover.  That was easy to do also.

Frankly I am getting good at this.  I can tear these Troybuilts (BTW they are now an MTD product) down in a half hour our so.  I know what to do to get parts off of it.

Finally, I removed the cylinder head assembly.  I came off pretty easy.  It has an 0-ring seal and that;s about it.  But first I removed the back crankcase cover plate.  It came off very easy.  But to my dismay, there were a few bits of metal floating around inside.  I cleaned that up.

When I got the head off, the piston came out easy.  Since it had frozen up I figure it would be hard but no it came right out of cylinder head assembly.  The top ring was okay but the second ring looked frozen in place (not good).  The sides of the piston were scored here and there.  I concluded the end cap for the connecting rod had come out and was ground up into little pieces take bits of the piston with it.

So now I can use a new piston and new rings,  The cylinder walls looked good.  Evidently, that material is a far better grade of material than the piston and ring assembly.  The piston took the brunt of the damages,  the cylinder itself after clean up look quite good.  The lower crank bearing looked and felt good.  So all I need is the piston and rings to fix her up.

Do you think you could find that on the Internet.  Well no, you can find an assembly with piston, connecting rod, rings, lower case, bearings, shaft and 0-rings for $60 plus shipping.  You can not just get a piston, rings, and wrist pin covers.

So I got a new one weedeater just like the old ones.  The reasons is simple, we have an electric starter to crank that model.  I noted other brands, similar engine but no access for electric starter.  I now know I could have gotten a lesser brand, swapped the back cover for the engine that contains the set up for the electric starter.  I could simply put the cover off the old weedeater on the new one and I would have it made.  Next go round I will do that.  Save about $40.

Mean while if you know where I can get a piston, rings and wrist pin covers let me know.

The Paper Shredder . . .

Like most households we have a paper shredder.  We get these credit card offers, you know the kind, "Sign here for your new credit card."  Of course, that kind of stuff has to be ground up into little bitty shreds.  Thus we have a paper shredder.

But like all things half mechanical and half electrical with a tad bit of electronics, it jams up.  Not a big deal, just take out the trusty long nosed pliers and pull the shreds out of the jaws.  But lately the automatic shut off has failed to function.  So it keeps on running after it has done its duty.

After while it fixed itself.  So I figured there is a sensor that gets jammed, covered, pushed out of place, whatever, that keeps it running.  At first I thought it was sophisticated with an electronic eye sensor but soon came to my senses.  This machine is not that expensive, ergo it has to be a pressure switch of some sort.  I have not found it yet.

But I have figured out that some of the shreds get spun around and packed in behind the "shredder knives."  The knives are a serrated set of wheels on a common shaft that interface with two rows of cutters so to speak.  It grabs the paper and pulls it through and messing knives slice and dice the paper.  But some of the slice and dice get caught up and lodge behind (or above) the knives.  And eventually, it really packs in there.

So I take if off its stand, turn it over and precede to "unpack it."  I use a variety of tools: an Exacto knife(with a #10 blade), two different sets of long nose pliers (one set is very long, the other set does a better job of pulling the shreds out), a small kitchen paring knife and a very long small cross point screw driver.  No I do not need to unscrew anything, it is just long enough to reach way down in the innards to fish out paper shreds.  The paring knife does its share of fishing too.

I do some shaking and tilting, cussing and pulling and eventually I get all the paper shreds out of it. 
And when it is cleaned out, the sensor must become uncovered as it starts to work properly again.  I have not found it yet but does not matter if it works.

About every six months or so, or every five or six bags of shredded material, I have to do the job.  But it keeps on going and, of course, we must keep on shredding things up.

What fun we have, right?

Rain This AM . . .

We had a thunderstorm blow in this AM about 7:15 or so.  Probably got a tenth of inch or so of rain.  Good for the grass and trees.  Cleans out the atmosphere and washes off the tree leaves and they look much better.  But then it is like a tonic to the grass that just got fertilized. 

So probably grass cutting this PM.  If not it will get out of control.  I'll fire up the weed eater, do the edging, weed trimming and then set up the blower for Judie.  I am not trusted with blowing duties, she has her pet standards.  If you are a piece of debris; look out, you gonna get blown away.

She has her book club Tuesday and I have been summarily banned from the premises.  Go somewhere, does not matter where, but be gone. 

Thursday, she launches for Madison and taste of young grandchildren.  She loves it but will be totally worn out by the time she returns.  And they know she is coming and are waiting with baited breath for her to arrive.  Seriously, she provides a small respite for the parents who love it.

She will be back Monday and just in time to, well you know, cut the grass again.  Such is life amongst us old folks, moving from one grass cutting to the next.

And the Fourth of July is coming up.

Update.  It was 0.7 inches of rain.  A goodly amount.  To top it off, we had yet another thunder storm come through this morning, the 18th of June, and got yet another 0.9  inches of rain.  Pretty soon, if this keeps up, we will be a rain forest - not.

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Is Heating Up . . .

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) oil wells are heating up - in Mississippi.  Just north of West Feliciana Parish lies Wilkenson County.  There in resides a new productive well drilled by Goodrich (no, not the tire company).  Goodrich has been reporting their production figures in "barrels of oil equivalent."

They have also added a disclaimer behind that figure that says 93% oil.  That means there are other minerals being produced such as natural gas, and natural gas fluids.  Some folks are critical of that BOE - barrels of oil equivalent, in that it kind of hides the real oil quantity.  But it seems to be legitimate number. Those wells are producing around 200 BOE per day, a respectful amount of production.

They have drilled several additional wells and things seem to be equally good.  The decline curve seems to be holding up, that is the wells are continuing to produce as opposed to declining as has been found in Austin Chalk wells.  Of course, many claim that Austin Chalk wells are being improperly drilled and "mudded" up the strata.  What that means is that excessive use of mud has garbaged up the formation and inhibits the flow of oil.

Others have said that the long laterals drilled are set up improperly and collapse which inhibits the flow of oil also.  Does not matter, it seems the production companies have yet to figure out how to drill and extract minerals in the Austin Chalk strata.

TMS is shale.  Harder material in general but not naturally fractured.  So it must be fracked.  Fracking is nothing more than putting a great deal of fluid pressure on the strata causing it to open up.  The Fracking fluids sometimes also contain sand to hold those minute cracks open.  TMS is also below the Austin Chalk but above the Tuscaloosa Trend starta that has produced deep gas.

A new Fracking process has been used in the Permian Basin in west Texas.  Slick Fracking uses fluids some of which encourage the flow of oil.  A geologist tried that process out around Miland/Odessa and sparked a new boom there in oil production.  He processed a different strata that heretofore had been ignored.  Now things are going great guns again in the basin.

Perhaps that is the secret to Austin Chalk, slick Fracking.  Who knows until we have some drilling outfit try it.

Judie Is Gearing Up . . .

Judie needs a shot of "Grandmothering."  That is she yearns to see her grandchildren in Madison, Wisconsin.  She needs this rejuvenation about three or four times a year.  She got the itch a week or two back and in cahoots with son, Jake, has acquired a plane ticket to Madison for a short visit.  She will leave on a Thursday and return on a Monday, apparently the most opportune flying times.

She collects her stuff, things for grands.  And she provides a built in baby sitter for son and daughter-in-law for a weekend.  Gives them a respite from two youngsters, one a baby and one just out of toddler stage.  They are Will and Jane with Jane being the baby.

Once a year I join her and drive up to Madison.  I rarely fly anymore; I avoid it if I can.  And as a consequence have not flown in maybe five or six years.  Just do not see putting up the with TSA and BS to fly.  So I just don't fly.  I do not mind the driving even in bad weather.

But we usually go up there together in late summer early fall time of the year.  And we can cart more stuff up there like rocking horses and the like in the SUVs.   I especially like driving through Oklahoma, up the eastern side, intersect with the Interstate going across Missouri at "Big Cabin, OK"  From there it is a short run to Joplin, MO. and off across Missouri.  We stop in Rolla, far enough for one day's drive from Texas and close enough to be a bit more than half way to Madison.  I have often thought of stopping at Fort Lenard Wood where my brother, John, took his basic training but decided the Army is just to primitive for me.  Rolla is a nice town, about 90 miles from St Louis.

I enjoy driving up through Illinois too.  Out side of Springfield (Land of Lincoln) it becomes some what flat country with farm after farm.  The terrain changes as one crosses into Wisconsin.  It gets a bit more hilly or rolling country with dells and such.  Pretty quickly after crossing into Wisconsin, we are at Madison.  Overall it is a little more than 900 miles, maybe 950 or so one way.  A good two day trip.

We stay a while doing our grand parent thing, then pack up and charge back.  On the way back we stop in Springfield, MO.  Arrive in time to enjoy a good meal, and get a full nights rest.  Up in the AM heading for the Big Cabin turn off to head down towards McAllester and on into Texas.  I have been to McAllester many times to visit the  Army Ammunition Plant on business.  We stop there for a potty break and get a fresh soda pop and hit the road heading toward Durant (big indian casino, Cherokee I think) and cross the Red River just below the Lake Texoma dam.  We cruise on to McKinney and turn right on US 80 (could be 180 or 280 - east to west running road that is four lane and avoids the toll roads).

We turn south at Denton driving past our old haunt, Argyle, on to the environs of Fort Worth, turn right again on I-30 heading for home.  About five miles or so from home I-30 intersccts with I-20 and stays that way until out in west Texas past Midland -Odessa area where I-20 intersects with I-10.  But we get way back at Weatherford.  Big state, Texas,  where Interstate highways coalesce into each other,  one two, three.  Having driven across in a number of times I can tell you it is 850 from south Louisiana to New Mexico border.  Good thing that we live in the northeast sector of Texas.

And we are home again.  And usually, the grass needs to be cut.  Yeah, we know we are home again.

More Kites . . .

The Kite family is back.  While walking this AM saw three of them roosting in the dead tree in front of Andrus' house on Forest Park.  They like that tree.  No foliage to obstruct their view of the surroundings.  And when there is a fledgling, it usually sits there while its parents do the foraging for it.

All in all I counted nine Kites all in close proximity of the dead tree.  Four were across the street and then I say two more off in the distance on power poles.  Resting up I am sure after their long flight from South America.

Now we will see them soaring over the neighborhood.  Soon they will select trees for their nests.  They are not great nest builders but usually use the crotch of a oak tree to situate themselves.  They do not seem to use the same location ever again.  But it will be near enough for us to know that they prefer our quite neighborhood to spend the summer months.

There are literally hundreds of Post Oak trees in the area.  Also some native Live Oaks and of course, the Shumars that have been planted.  There are also some Barkley Oaks, another native.  With Lake Weatherford not more than a quarter of mile in the distance, and plenty of roosting spots, they will stay with us.

It is a small thing, but it is our thing.  Rachel Carson would be happy.

Have You Noticed . . .

Have you noticed the subtle, well maybe not so subtle Internet changes.  Once you used to type a word, description or whatever and get several hits on the definition and meaning.  Not any more, all you get is "How can I sell you this item."  It gets harder and harder to find out the information you want or need.

The service/research element seems to be dying.  The sales element is on the ascendancy.  All the hits except for Wikepedia are for selling something, eBay, Amazon or some outfit like that.  If you look up Loews or Home Depot, they want to sell it to you on the Internet or at the store but no information about the product, at least not enough data to make a real decision.

I noticed a while back you could look up Briggs and Stratton engines, get part numbers etc. even exploded diagrams of how the engine is put together.  Not no more; you can buy the manual.  You ask a question and up pops three people that will answer your question - for a fee with no guarantee it will be the correct answer.  They no longer want to share information, they only want to sell information.  Sometimes a forum will be of help, but I note that even on the manufacturer's forums, they tend to clean out the old data or answers.

I was looking up oil filters for cross reference.  That used to be common data - uhuh not no more, just not there.  Go to Walmart and look in their catalogs by the oil filters, once again, cross references are gone.  They want you to buy mine and only mine, not anybody else's product.  They don't want you to know that a Briggs and Stratton oil filter at $13.95 can be had in the auto parts area by a different brand name for $2.95.  Takes a while of searching, got to go the brand's specifications and cross check thread size and relief valve (the by pass valve) rating.  Its all there but you gotta be creative in your search or they will hide the pertinent data from you.

It is sort of a kind of greediness.  Basically, I am not going to tell you anything anymore kind a of thing.  You gotta pay for it some kind of way.  No more free service.  No more assistance.  Gimme, gimme, gimme is mantra now.

I recall years ago I had Triumph Spitfire sportscar.  It had universal joints all over the place.  The main joint from the drive shaft broke down and I had to replace it.  I went to the Triumph dealer and he want $29.95 plus tax for the joint.  So I went looking in the junkyards.  Found a place that sold both new and used parts, a fancy junkyard but could convert part numbers and they did it for you.  Well what do ya know, I found the universal joint for $3.95 plus tax new.  It was a common General Motors product.  But Triumph would not tell you that.  Now days it is not so easy to find such information.

But if you are smart, you will search for the answer.  Takes some digging but it usually is out there for free if you work at it long enough.  Just got to be creative.  Sometimes you have ask for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) when dealing with fluids.  They can not hide the data.  I once had a company say to me it was proprietary.  I said, I have to protect your data but the law says you have to give me the information.  I got too.