I’m annoyed

I went out to get a massage today, but when I stopped at the ATM to get the money instead of a $150 balance we were $165 in the hole. Somewhere along the way about $280 left our account before the overdraft charge. I didn’t do it, and Mrs. the Poet doesn’t recall doing it, which leaves either an authorized automatic withdrawal that was much larger than budgeted, or an unauthorized withdrawal. Mrs. the Poet plans on calling the bank for a transaction record to see where the money went, I can’t do it because technically it’s her account. I’m on the account, so I can write checks and make deposits, but stuff like this requires Mrs. the Poet to initiate the process.

I wouldn’t be so peeved except I was already out the cost of bus fare when I found out we were at a negative balance and had been on the road for over an hour. So basically I spent $2.50 and 3½ hours of travel time to do nothing. Had I been able to get my massage I would have been in the rush hour headway for the trip back eliminating the long wait for a bus back home, but I had an hour between return buses after I discovered I had no money to pay for my massage, and another half-hour at the transit center waiting for the next bus home.

The good part is all the walking I did came close to maxing out my Sweatcoin collecting. Almost the full 5 Sweatcoins I can get at this level of membership. Not the same as I was doing when M+Points was at its heyday, but about the same as I could get near the end. I was down to $1 a week at the end, about what I’m making now. If I walk really far I could collect $0.25/day, which if I could do that every day would be great, even more than I made collecting M+Points. You already know the bad part. I also did some more thinking about the Sprint-T but did not come to any new conclusions.

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OK this was weird

I was getting ready for another test walk to see if the Sweatcoin step algorithm changed depending on what level of membership you selected. It totally does, but that’s another post. I decided to trim the nail on the toe that has been hurting when I walk on the assumption that that was what was causing the pain, and it was, but I also discovered I had a small callus on the end of the toe. Not on the bottom like you would expect, but on the very end of the toe, under where the nail sticks out when it needs cutting. I find this slightly bizarre, to have a wear callus in an area that does not normally get wear. Another sign I need to buy larger shoes, perhaps? Along the same lines I was going through some of my “Left-Over” shoes and noticed that while they were all the same US size most were 42.5 European while the current set is 42 European. The European sizes 42 and 42.5 both translate as 8½US depending on the manufacturer, but I actually need that .5 to keep from rubbing the end of my toe next to the big toe, the piggy that stayed home in the children’s game.

On the Sprint-T front, I have made a model of the Pentastar V-6 for designing the frame. I’m still a bit fuzzy about oil pans, and may just make a low-profile pan of my own when I build the actual car because I have a ton of space left to right and forward from the rear of the block, just not much room to let the bottom of the pan extend down below the block. So anyway the current space-occupying model is based on the rear face of the engine using the crank centerline as the datum. The left side of the block extends 9.5″ from the crank, the right and bottom of the block are both 8″ from the crank, and the block goes to 27″ wide centered on the crank (13.5″ left and right) from 8.5″ above the crank centerline to 21″ above, and everything goes forward 20″ from the rear face of the block. I know this is not accurate but it does cover all the bits that hang off the side of the engine. Now the front is another can of worms but there’s nothing hanging off the front that I need to build around as the structural bits and controls are on the left side of the frame and it appears the potentially interfering item is on the right side. Now If I was going to keep the AC the story would be different because the AC compressor hangs down close to where steering columns and shafts usually go. Working from the inside and sliding the engine as far to the right as it will go this still leaves 8.5″ at the firewall, and a full foot just 10″ behind the firewall. Now I need to recalculate how much offset I can get, with the inside width of the firewall being 26″ and the right side of the bellhousing being 8″ from the crank that makes the crank 5″ to the right of center which is about 0.3″ to the left of balancing out my weight in the driver’s seat. So I’ll still need to hang something off the right side of the frame to get balanced.

And I need to wrap this up, and check e-mail etc.

Bored, bored, bored

With the weather being wet still this morning I’m still stuck in the house. If I had shoes I could wear in the wet I could go for a walk in the rain and not worry about it. Seriously, the rain wasn’t a problem but the water on the ground was. Drainage has been an ongoing issue in the neighborhood for years, with some areas still ankle-deep for days after heavy rain. Intersections seem to be the worst problems as the profiling puts deep spots at each corner of an intersection without giving an outlet for that water to leave. The crowning of the street blocks the water from going to the other side after it drains out of the middle, inundating pedestrian space while keeping the “car part” of the street clear. And thus the “nobody walks” becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, as pedestrian spaces become unwalkable.

In other news we have a house-guest spending some time here as issues at home are worked out. Nothing more I can say about that.

On the gathering crypto-currency front, they assure me my app is fixed, but I need someplace to walk before I can check to see if they’re right.

And there’s a barn-burner of a race from Fontana CA on the flat screen. In ten laps I’m wrapping this up and going for a walk.

Weather again

I finally got the Sweatcoin app fixed, just in time for the weather to get too bad to go outside for a walk. We are still a little low in the reservoirs we use for drinking water so runoff that fills them is great.

We just finished our traditional corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Not fine cuisine, just good food and plenty of it.

and I have my new Twitter avatar downloaded.

Isn’t Cartoon Me distinguished? I wish my real windbreaker looked that good. Thanks to @lartist for making me look so good. Just dropping the hint to go read my arc and maybe click on some ads so they can make a buck off me.

and now I have to go take care of my email and commercial “stuff”.

Time to call an audible

For those not hip to American football slang, “calling an audible” means a late change in plans. The change in plans in this case are for the trip to the lab rat keeper tomorrow. As of this afternoon it ain’t happening, no explanation given, just a call asking to reschedule for next week. This came after I made a trip to the store to take advantage of an expiring cereal sale and checked my Sweatcoin collection and I got just 4 Sweatcoin for the 2 mile trip. I did everything they said to increase my collection and it didn’t do any good. I’m still getting half of what I used to get. Rumors I’m getting are that my initial version of the app had the wrong calibration either converting miles to steps, or in counting steps from the accelerometer in the phone. If calibration is correct the two readings are close and are used to check each other but in some of the recent downloads that calibration was off and the recent update to the app corrected that mistake. Anywho, now I have to walk almost 3 miles to get what I used to get in 1.25 miles. And my feet do not appreciate it.

And I just found out Stephen Hawking died. Now I’m sad.😢

Watching races again today

Today is the first day of the Indycar season, the St. Petersburg Gran Prix, the street/airport course. Then there is a break between the end of the Indycar race and the start of the Cup race from Phoenix. During that break I’m going to take my new loop and grab some Sweatcoin, hopefully the maximum 5 coins I can get today.

And for those who think I’m joking about dark chocolate as an antidepressant, grab a peak at this report .

Speaking of the Cup race, this is the last event in the current configuration of the track in Phoenix. Among other changes the start/finish line is getting moved to what is now the backstretch as they expand the grandstands to accommodate more people and get them away from Rattlesnake Mountain.

I have been deciding on what tire for just driving around on the street and if I get something with a lot of sidewall height I can keep the same suspension setup for street and Goodguys autocross and just change the tires. So I will set up for the 245/40-15 race rubber that is 22.7″ tall, then swap over to 255/60-15 street tires that are 27″ tall and get that extra 2″ of sidewall to deflect and smooth out the ride. The handling will be a bit tippy-toe on the 255 tire, but since the 255 is for keeping the bottom of the car clear of speed bumps and wet traction, not all-out performance, tippy-toe will be fine. And we are talking tippy-toe only by comparison with the short sidewall tire, in absolute terms the Sprint-T will still be like a slot car, just a little softer slot car. The precision on turn in will still be there, just a tiny bit softer with the 255s. But seriously, for street use even the 255s will have more performance than can be used legally on the street, except maybe getting on or off a freeway ramp. Of course the CG will be 2″ higher with the 255s because physics are immutable. Plus the looks of the 255/60-15 on the car are just really good and muscular.

And this is the kind of idiot I have to deal with while composing the blog post.

It’s really hard to type when he does that.

OK earned coins don’t carry over on this app

I checked my Sweatcoin app before bed this morning and the 3+ coins I earned yesterday that exceeded my 5 coin limit were gone. Basically you have to earn fresh coins every day. Also I have found a 1.24 mile loop that gets me just about 5 coins so I can max out every day, plus get my exercise for the day.

Getting back to the Sprint-T I found the T5 transmission can weigh as little as 75 pounds and averages 85, and the clutch and pressure plate weighs from 51 down to 15 pounds. So combining the 330 pound Pentastar with the 51 pound clutch and the 85 pound average T5 and you get 466 pounds completely ready to install compared to the SBC at 545 with nothing hanging off the back, leading to a car that weighs under 1500 with no gas in the tank. Now go with the 15 pound clutch and the 75 pound transmission and you’re looking at 1450 easy. Now can you see why I am so high on this engine? It has power like a traditional V8 but weighs just a little more than half as much, meaning to have the same power to weight ratio as the Sprint-T a stripped 2018 Corvette would need to develop 715HP at the flywheel, so as an autocrosser the Sprint-T would have a power advantage over a new Corvette. Out on an open road course or open highway where aero starts to dominate then more horsepower is straight up faster, but that is not what this car is designed for. And I have been running the numbers and it might be cheaper to drill a chunk of aluminum to bolt to the flexplate in place of the torque converter than it would to buy the flywheel for a Pentastar and modify it for the 10.5″ clutch and pressure plate. I could drill the aluminum adapter for roller pilot bearing for a smooth-shifting manual transmission and not have the adaptor cost any more than installing a plain bushing style pilot. Drilling a hole doesn’t cost any different if you change the size of the hole in the design stage. So making a flywheel adaptor from aluminum is slightly cheaper than the Pentastar flywheel, and slightly lighter than the flywheel. If I can get access to a milling machine I can make this.

And I’m going back on my first antidepressant, dark chocolate. It doesn’t have the same effect as SSRI or whatever type of medication that last one was, but I can live with the side effects a lot better. I actually feel better on dark chocolate than I ever did on any of the other meds I was on. I’m going to enjoy this one a lot more than the last med, and for longtime readers of this blog you might remember when I did the dark chocolate to reduce blood pressure trial from back about a decade ago where it allowed reduced levels of medication but did not reduce BP on its own. Given what I have experienced with antidepressants and my BP going up when I quit, I think this was an example of reducing depression reducing stress, which reduced BP.

And while the weather is still good I think I’ll try that new loop again tomorrow to see if I can max out my Sweatcoin take with a single walk.