I still have all my fingers and toes, and thoughts on how to make it true for everyone

The near-zero °F weather hasn’t been all that dangerous because I never get far from the house for long enough to get hurt. I went to check the mail twice just to make sure it didn’t run (hasn’t for 3 days so far), and that’s all the time I spent outside. So far we had one extended power outage caused by lack of natural gas to the co-op generator that hasn’t happened again. We still have good water pressure and safe water to drink, and the water heater is still online.

In other news as of today Mrs. the Poet has been married to me 43 years. Yeah I know, I don’t know how she did it either. I am NOT the easiest person to live with, but neither am I the worst person to live with. I have my problems, and so does Mrs. the Poet. We manage to not kill each other somehow and are still together in spite of all the people betting against us. How that happened I’m not really sure, but I think it means we were made for each other. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m glad it did.

Back to the weather and the problems caused by it, the causes have been isolated. Basically it comes down to a system designed to run on the ragged edge because profits, which when the Spam hit the fan basically fell apart because there was no reserve capacity for abnormal conditions like there would be if it was regulated by people who put reliability over profits. The system has enough capacity to handle the load if the weather is above freezing, but as the temperatures dropped near or below 0°F the equipment wasn’t built to take it and went offline. The controls at natural gas wellheads literally froze up and wouldn’t allow more gas to flow in spite of demand. The wind turbines were not equipped with deicing equipment and froze up and couldn’t turn at full speed, because it was cheaper to not equip them, and nobody to force them to install the equipment. This is why electrical power systems need to be regulated because making the system work in good weather is not good enough, making the system work in really hot weather isn’t good enough because it gets hot every summer, but the system has to be built for when weather gets really bad once in a blue moon. And the last time it got this cold was winter of 1989-90.

There are only 2 ways to fix this. Either make everybody build to the standard that will work at -10°F, or pay operators to be emergency capacity and have wind turbines that will work at -40°F and wells that still work at -40°F just to make sure they will work in spite of anything that comes down from Canada on the jet stream. Personally I think making everyone build to the same standard works better than paying some to build to be ready for anything. If you can’t (won’t) build to standards that exceed record bad weather then you don’t get paid as much for your electricity when the weather is good. If you build for all weather then your turbine gets a bonus to keep it that way when weather is good. This recognizes that building and maintaining systems that only get used once or twice a decade is an added expense and compensating operators that build to that standard. Since TX is so afraid of “regulations”, make them “incentives” instead. I don’t know what way would be best to do it, whether paying more per KWatt/hour, or by paying a flat rate per month for fully winterized systems. The only other way to do it and be fair is to require winterized systems for every provider.

And in case you wonder about that tag.The Flintstone Happy anniversary song full clip How Barney manages to sing and play piano with his head facing the wrong direction I’ll never understand beyond “cartoon logic”.

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Toes are done, birthday party with kids is also done

OK this was a well-filled day, as we celebrated 3 birthdays and a wedding anniversary. The younger daughter was 38 on the 4th, and the eldest was 41 on the 8th, the son-in-law turned 38 on the 14th, and I have been in wedded bliss with Mrs. the Poet for 41 years tomorrow. And for those of you doing the math, I found out Mrs. the Poet was pregnant when she called me from the hospital to tell me she was going to miss our dinner date because she gave birth to our son. Y B Normal?

In other news, I have a trip to the Whataburger tomorrow to get Mrs. the Poet a Mushroom Swiss Whataburger while I get my usual Bacon Cheese Jalapeño Whataburger and use the coupon deal to make Mrs. the Poet’s burger free. Because she wants a Mushroom Swiss Whataburger and it’s our actual anniversary date. Forty-one years ago tomorrow I told her “This is your last chance to get away” and she didn’t take it and she’s been stuck with me ever since. So I try to be nice to her every now and then.

Another reason to wish I had a viable hot rod project

If I had a project like the Sprint-T sitting in my garage, instead of scattered around my office, I could distract myself from the idiots in power by puttering around on it instead of mentally screaming. At the very least I would be doing something useful to somebody.

Well I have been trying to get some work done on the Mini Sprint-T, as much as I can do given the condition of my cutting tools and measuring instruments. I really need to get new blades on my hobby knives and saws, and the battery in my calipers died making reading the distances more accurately than ¹/₁₆” a guessing contest. On a project where that scales as 1.5″ on the full scale prototype that degree of accuracy ain’t gonna cut it. But at least I can visualize where the bits will go on the real car. But yeah, ¹/₁₆” is the diameter of the frame tubes so I need to measure much more accurately than that. I mean .01″ is a scale ¹/₄” and you would notice in a heartbeat if the wheels were mounted that much off on the real car.

Tomorrow is the Daytona 500, aka “The Great American Race” aka “Opening Day”. Also my 40^th wedding anniversary. But Mrs. the Poet has already said we aren’t celebrating tomorrow but rather on Monday, so I can watch the race and enjoy it without fear of reprimand especially since I’m buying dinner and paying for the bus passes to get there. I’m using the money from that one gig that pays in multi-store gift cards that work for the Red Robin in my neighborhood, and other places. This is also the same card I used to buy the lights for the kitchen, and the candy I gave her on Valentine’s Day. I can’t spend it everywhere, but I can get pretty good use out of it anyway.

We’re 10-ish

Sometime this month back in 2006 I started this blog on another blog provider who has gone out of business. This year I stopped the daily updates and the bike wrecks, which after a while to decompress has done wonders for my mental health.

So, I have been doing this for a decade now and barely managed to hang on to a few shreds of sanity. I don’t even read bike wreck stories any more except by accident when I’m looking for infrastructure stories for personal reading. I have even stopped reading certain web sites known to have extensive coverage of bike wrecks. But I still enjoy writing blog posts without bike wrecks, I just wish I had more to write about.

I have been planning the Mini Sprint-T construction for a while now. I have raw stock that I can use to build the front axle up to a point, but not completely. I need the hubs, and rod ends for the tie rod and control links to mount the axle to the frame. When I build the axle, and the rest of the car, I will document it here in this blog with lots of pictures. Because that will give me something interesting (to me and I hope to you) to write about.

And because I have written all that I have to say for today, this post is ended.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Wedding anniversary, Grocery Day, and the Feed

Yep, 38 years ago we got a baby sitter to watch the eldest son and got hitched. It was probably the only shotgun wedding where the groom’s father was the one holding the shotgun on the groom. Mom and Dad wanted grandkids, they just were not expecting them quite that soon. I was barely 19 at the time.

On the other part of the headline, we has foods now, yay. There was a sale on coffee flavor greek yogurt so I picked up a few cups, and some peach for Mrs. the Poet. The cats can’t eat yogurt any more so we didn’t worry about flavors they can’t share because now that’s all of the flavors. I feel sad for them because it was kinda fun watching them eat the yogurt off their little saucers, but they outgrew being able to eat dairy and I don’t want to smell their nasty farts. Seriously, that’s how you can tell when it’s time to stop giving the cat yogurt, when a UN weapons inspector stops by the house because of reported leaks of poison gas.

Also in the background is the Duels at Daytona Sprint Cup races that set the field for the Daytona 500 Sunday. Yay, racing.

Up first is another round of Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: A bridge over troubled roadway, post memorial hit-and-run, and buffed Cipollini in the buff Super Mario is Mrs. the Poet’s favorite bike racer, mostly because she likes the name “Cipollini”, and I have to admit he looked really good in that picture. (Yes I clicked through.)

Our Daily Ted part 2. Attorney Solves the Great Mystery of the “No Biking In Crosswalk” Signs

Still in CA that hit-and-run Ted mentioned. Bicyclist injured in hit-and-run after memorial for teen killed in bike crash and Cyclist hit after attending memorial for teen killed in bike accident I don’t know why the first link spent so much time on the kind of bike that was hit because it had nothing to do with the left cross followed by the driver leaving the scene of the crime. And as it was a left cross there are a list of protocols that will reduce the impact of a left cross, assuming you have time to react, posted in a link at the top of the page this is posted on.

The dead cyclist whose memorial the injured cyclist in the previous paragraph was leaving. Community Mourns Tragic Death of 13-Year-Old Student Killed in Bike Crash They are now saying the bike had brakes that were not very effective in stopping the bike. If this was a result of the robbery attempt the cyclist was fleeing or unrelated bad maintenance not released at this posting.

Also from CA. Co-workers remember cyclist killed in San Jose hit-and-run as ‘hardworking’ Lots of hit-and-run in CA this week, I hope that’s not a trend. The fact that they found the weapon vehicle with the plates removed tells me that the hit-and-run was deliberate, and possibly the wreck that preceded it.

Still in CA some of these things are not like the others, can you tell what’s different? Bicycle Safety That’s right, all the things suggested to drivers are all LAWS, while some of the things suggested to cyclists are NOT LAWS.

Are we never going to get away from CA today? FONTANA: Foothill Blvd. crash kills bicyclist, prompts DUI arrest OK everybody, what does the Witch on a Bicycle say is the thing to do with drunk drivers who kill? That’s right, put them back in their car and run the freaking car through a high speed car shredder. Seriously, by the time the pain signal from the driver’s feet get to the brain said brain is already confetti. Aside from the slight mess involved the execution is completely humane.

Moving to MO and another stupid hit-and-run. Two weeks after hit-and-run, cyclist grapples with injuries and unsolved case Finding red mustang convertibles from partial plates is Hard! It’s not like they can just to a computer search of the registered red mustang convertibles looking for the partial and hope for a match… SMH…

Legal infrastructure in OH. “I AM Traffic” – Getting Out of a Ticket & Revisiting AFRAP Unfortunately too many LEO and judges are only aware of the general case for these laws, and not that the exceptions cover as many as 100% of streets and roads in a jurisdiction. That is what was discovered one town over from WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell when they did a CIS survey. They now have BMUFL signs posted at the city limits.

This SC girl has done good. South Carolina Teen Rides Face of America to Honor Veterans and Inspire Others You Go Girl!

Gotta love the street names in Jolly Olde. Councillor says Nuns’ Corner ’roundabout plan’ is ‘outrageous’ All that work, and it still wouldn’t meet CROW Manual standards.

Another funny street name, similar problems. Toll Bar roundabout: School drop-off bay plan to help allay safety fears It would be much simpler to just ban the source of the problem, all the motor vehicles crowding into the same tiny space.

This car has been burning up the e-assist message group because it uses 5.3 pounds of H2 in a compressed gas vessel and a fuel cell pack instead of a bulky battery pack. This car travels 300 miles on just 85oz of (hydrogen) gas If it scales down that would be 300 miles of assist in a package smaller than a 25 mile battery.

And on the T-Bucket front, this car takes big motor in tiny car to the extreme possible with current technology. Allison V 12 T Bucket by Cliff Hix Yes it does say 1710 cubic inches and 1840 HP in a 3200 pound car. That makes the Sprint-T’s 430 HP and 1750 pounds curb weight look anemic, but I still think the Sprint T could beat it to the eighth mile, just barely. After that the massive HP of the V-12 and crappy aero of the Sprint-T would combine to let the Allison T top end me in a drag race. Now if there were a couple of hairpin turns and slaloms involved then the Sprint-T would be in its bailiwick and the airplane engine car would be a fish out of water.

And now I’m outta links and Mrs. the Poet beckons from the boudoir.

Bye.

This is all the post you get today

I have a trip to the lab rat keeper that will burn up most of my morning, and today is my 37^th wedding anniversary so Mrs. the Poet and I will be going out this evening to a sit-down restaurant for dinner, which takes a while to do when you have to ride the public transit system we have in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. That will pretty much sap any creative energies I have as well as most of the time I have. Sorry about that, but I will be back tomorrow with a full report on both trips as well as today’s and tomorrow’s links.

PSA, Opus