Walked to the C-store for lottery tickets

I walked about 1.1 miles round trip to purchase hope for a more comfortable future for us and the grandkid. And before anyone says anything about odds and statistics might I remind you your author survived getting hit not once, not twice, but three times getting hit by motor vehicles with enough velocity to cause the vehicles to get scrapped, and the last time I was hit the truck was going between 45 and 65 MPH with a “best confidence” speed of 60, based on my trajectory.

Anyway, the jackpot for the Texas Lotto is $9 million, which works out to just over $200K/year after taxes, which is quite enough to finish the hot rod and fix everything in the house in 2 years, and then just veg for the next 28 years to leave as much as possible for the grandkid.

The jackpot for the Powerball is enough to fix everything and make 3 or 4 cars in the first year and then spend the next 20 or so years bumming around the world, and still leave the grandkid with more than enough to live on forever.

Either one will be enough to get my teeth fixed, and by “fixed” I mean bite and chew like when I was a kid, but take them out at night for a good soak to get them cleaner than I ever could in my mouth. Seriously, I never did get the hang of brushing my teeth without some kind of a guide to show me where I missed. Soaking in some kind of cleaning solution is a much better alternative for me. And then swishing mouth wash to clean my gums, because I’m too ticklish to brush my gums.

I have a bunch of stuff that needs fixing medically, but that’s more of a long-term project, because I don’t heal like I used to. And I have been delaying maintenance for so long most of this shit is going to require surgery and years of PT to fix. If I had been able to get medical care without having to come up with mountains of cash most of this stuff could have been fixed with therapy instead of surgery. But that was then and this is now, maybe.

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Ouch! I got some exercise

I went out to get lottery tickets the long way and took the long way home for about a mile and a quarter walk. My old feet did not take kindly to the abuse and started to swell inside my shoes, and let’s just say the results were neither pretty nor comfortable.

I’m still thinking about the alternator and driving the stock water pump on the LS engine, and discovered after a few minutes that no matter which side of the engine I hung the alternator I was going to need an idler pulley to turn the water pump the right direction, because physics. The rib side needs to drive the alternator and the crank pulleys, the flat side needs to drive the water pump. That means the belt has to change direction twice to get everything running the right direction, and that means an extra idler, or two alternators with one placed in a strange orientation to be running the right direction while driven by the wrong side of the belt. Personally, I prefer an idler and a high amperage single alternator over trying to wire in two alternators to the electrical system. But it is feasible to run two alternators if you include blocking diodes to prevent power from trying to go into a dead alternator. I think the technical term is a “crowbar” diode to stop the flow of current if the alternator shorts out.

And this came in as I was composing this, Mrs. the Poet is doing some volunteer work for the election and has some information about us on the voter registration list, and there was a strange phone number attached to our names. I did a reverse lookup and it either is now or at sometime in the past was for a church in Grand Prairie, which is a few miles down the road, and about three cities are between us and the church. Looking further had my name and my father’s birthday attached to this number, which is understandable because we have different middle names to prevent me from being a Junior, but the same first name and middle initials. And obviously this is not in my stage and pen names because he was never “Opus”. He’s always been “John” or “Johnny”. But it was funny to see me listed as 85 YO, and a whole bunch of old addresses where we used to live. Further investigation shows another person currently attached to the number over in a different part of town who I never heard of. A quote from Alice seems appropriate: “Curiouser and curiouser”.

Now, back to the Sprint-T, I have also been thinking about that intake manifold and how to make it. One thing I was thinking about was to use carbon fiber around a positive mold for the runners and just doing everything into a single unit that will bolt to the heads. I have been thinking about mounting the injectors in the roof of the plenum aimed at the mouths of the runners for charge cooling, since the runners are all downhill to the mounting face on the heads. All of the fuel sprayed into the runners will get to the cylinder it was intended for, eventually. Now making sure the fuel delivered is the fuel needed will take some finagling in the tune, but I don’t see that as an insurmountable problem so much as a calibration issue with on-throttle enrichment. This is a programming function that acts like the acceleration pump in a carb, except in software. And calibration is similar to calibrating the pump shot on a carb set up, by trial and error on the street or track. The tuner has to start with enrichment disabled, then gradually increase enrichment until the engine runs smoothly even when throttle settings go from idle to wide open in a fraction of a second. The tricky part is a little too much enrichment acts like a little too little, a slight stumble on tip-in. That’s why taking very small steps is better, because the tuner is more likely to hit the sweet spot in throttle response before going past it.

And this looks like a good place to put this post to bed.

I was up to something today

And if you looked down the post you might have an idea what it was, but unless you look real close you won’t understand what it was.

The haircut is easy to see, but unless you spend lots of time with me or go back to the downloaded image and blow it up until you can count the pores on my nose, you won’t be able to tell what else I did. Or you could just get a clue from the title text. I’m not that mean.

The other thing I did you wouldn’t know about unless I told you that I walked about 2 miles total today between getting to and from the bus and walking from the barbershop to the post office to pick up a roll of stamps for Mrs. the Poet. The walk to and from the bus stop is 0.82 miles total, and I walked 1.58 miles from the barber shop to the post office and from the post office to the bus station. I did have a small problem with my feet swelling and my shoes pinching after I got home, but that happens even when I stay home.

And I’m still thinking about how to mount the steering box to the frame of the Sprint-T. I’m leaning towards a small piece of barstock from the left side extension from the front bulkhead to the bottom frame tube up to the bottom of the plate mount, and a small tube from the bottom tube on the right to the top of the mount on the left. But I also want to run a small tube from the middle tube on the right to the top of the steering box mount, making a triangulated structure that is pretty much guaranteed to not flex when the front wheels are suddenly moved to change direction. And I retain the right to run a tube from the left frame rail to the extension tube running from the front bulkhead to the frame rail. It’s hard to describe in words, but easy to show when I do it.

And my feet really hurt so I’m going to have a lie-down so they don’t get any worse. Y’all stay frosty and check your six for idiots.

Did another long walk yesterday

Yoplait was $0.25 a pop for the 6 oz containers, yesterday only, and a 2 mile round trip resulted in my staggering home with $4.00 worth of yogurt and $5 worth of Powerball, Megamillions, and TX Lottery tickets. All those millions of dollars were heavy. Tag in a 100°F heat index and bright hot sun and you have an uncomfortable walk home.

Then after I got home I chugged a quart of Gatorade, then another 2 liters of generic diet cola (burrrrrppp!) Then fixed something in the microwave for dinner.

Now I have an ARCA race from Wisconsin on the flat screen, and pretzels and ice cream (it’s good! really) waiting to be consumed after grocery shopping And I want to get back to that. So I’m putting this post to bed.

I have been busy

Between Mother’s Day, tracking down missing mail, checking what I can get to replace my mailbox and post, and just dealing with life, the last few days have just been PACKED!

The good news is I have figured out how to fix my back, both short and long-term. The problem is right leg is longer than left by a significant amount since the wreck, and the required pelvic tilt is more than my back muscles can accommodate. The back muscles on the long side have to stay contracted all the time, and eventually they reach exhaustion.Which is my situation at the moment. but the hypothetical treatment is to lie face down, and the therapist pulls my long leg until I have a level pelvis. After the spasms subside the therapist gently strokes the muscles until circulation has been restored, and the pain is gone for a while.

Long term, the problem is the back muscles have to stay contracted as hard as they can because they are too long on the side that has the longer leg, so why not make them permanently shorter? An operation would shorten the back muscles on the right (long) side so that when my feet are side-by-side both sets of muscles are the same tension instead of one contracted and the other extended. Or the top of the pelvis could be re-contoured to the same effect. I would still sway from side to side when I walk, but not so much, and it wouldn’t hurt any more.

Speaking of hurting, I have reached my limit after walking about 3 miles according to the Sweatcoin app. Clint has left long scratches in my leg from falling from my lap, and my back has me fighting tears of pain. It’s time this flightless waterfowl packed it in and hit the hay.

I misplaced my glasses before my walk

And by the time I found them it was too late to go for a walk. It was a shame because the weather was perfect for a walk, mid-70s, light wind and slightly lower than yesterday pollen levels. But no glasses means no walk as I can’t read the street signs in case I have to call 911 even though I know the route perfectly plus all the bailout points along the route. But in the dark it ain’t gonna happen. No glasses it ain’t gonna happen either.

I’m still thinking about perfecting the design of the front end for the Sprint-T. I’m pretty sure I want to have some kind of fairing over the front tires to keep crap from spraying me in the face if I drive through water on the road and also to clean the airflow off the tires for less drag and better gas mileage. Yes, I’m still thinking about gas mileage especially highway mileage. The better highway mileage I can get the smaller gas tank I can use. Smaller gas tanks are lighter fractionally which means slightly faster car.

Also I was thinking about the clearances of frame members around the front tires. The critical piece is the diagonal from the top of the coilover to the main frame rail. That part is the only possible point of interference with the tire at full lock and full bump and the only possible change I can use is raising the mounting point of the lower end of the coilover which raises the upper end of the coilover, until the diagonal clears the tire at full bump and full lock.

Weather still rotten, cats still crazy

And we are still p’. I may spend spent some more money gift card balance at Lowe’s buying cutting tools to make a Mini Sprint-T.

Mrs. the Poet went to the evil place (Wal-Mart) to spend her gift card to buy TP and tissue, and I used her bus pass to get to Lowe’s after she got back. I got a pack of single-edge razor blades and two packs of batteries, to power the digital calipers and the laser pointer cat toy. The trip up was by bus, but I just missed catching the bus as it came back around on the return loop, so instead of waiting the 0:45 for the bus to come back I decided to walk home. I managed to get back to the corner where the bus stops just before bus came by, meaning I managed to get the 1.67 miles faster than the bus managed to get around the whole loop and I didn’t even push hard to get there first. It felt good to get out and get a little exercise except for where I tore the middle toe up a few weeks ago pushing against the inside of the shoe, that still hasn’t healed up right. That was uncomfortable, but nothing I can’t deal with.

And as it turns out we don’t have cats, we have boring dogs in cat suits. Clyde ignored the laser pointer completely, I mean he saw it and reacted to it, but he didn’t react to it like a normal cat. No attack jumps or chasing the dot up the wall, just moving his head to track the red dot. Clint chased the dot for a little bit until he got bored and then ignored it after a few minutes. Then he sat down and just watched the red dot. And now he has just crossed his front paws and is ignoring the dot some more. Like I said, boring dog in a cat suit.

I should do something with the mini Sprint-T

I have been neglecting the model version of the Sprint-T in favor of trying to fix the handling problems inherent in the design of the TGS2. I mean I know I should be doing something on it, but the inspiration has been lacking compared to the TGS2 and posting in the blog.

After it quit raining Sunday evening I went for my walk and picked up a bag of cereal. Yes I’m cheap and buy the bag cereal. It’s slightly cheaper per ounce than the box, we just don’t always have the $ to pay for a bag. I also get PopTarts in the big box except when the sales on the small box makes them cheaper per breakfast. Why cold cereal and PopTarts for a grown man’s breakfast? Simple, those are relatively non-lethal to prepare when I’m pre-caffeine. Cognitive functions generally don’t kick in until the second half of the cup, and it’s much safer to have things that don’t require the use of the stove or anything more complex than pushing the lifter down on the toaster. Even the measuring out of the various ingredients of my cup of coffee have become mostly autonomous. I can’t quite do them in my sleep yet, but I’m close. It’s when things change like switching from milk and sugar to pre-sweetened creamers that stuff gets messed up. More than once I took a swig of what was supposed to be coffee and got a slug of liquid candy instead. And for some reason that stuff just seemed to get sweeter and sweeter during the day. A few hours after pouring my coffee in I felt like pouring it out.

Speaking of my walk, it was so humid after all that rain I could have almost gone for a swim instead. It was 71°F with a 70° dew-point. UGH! sticky! At least it wasn’t hot to go with that sticky.

I would do more writing but my neck and shoulder are starting to bother me and make it hard to type.

I think too much

I was on a long walk to get some stuff at the hardware, and well, my mind also wandered. Specifically it wandered around the Sprint-T. What I was thinking about was what it could be like with the Pentastar 3.6l V6 DOHC aluminum block and heads engine that weighs a factory-claimed 326 pounds (as compared to the 545 claimed for the SBC and the 413 for the 3.8 pushrod engine out of the minivan) and delivers 305 HP in stock form. As a comparison the “performance” SBC in the first-gen Camaro was rated at 290 HP. In the Sprint T with the SBC and a TH 350 transmission I was looking at just over 1700 pounds empty, with the Pentastar V6 and the 42RE transmission coming in at 1450 pounds but that 42RE transmission would be dicey for racing use. The later models used 6 and 8 speed slush boxen that would survive racing but also weigh considerably more, the 8-speed being strong enough for the legendary Hemi. The transverse version of the 3.6 would bolt to the 41TE transaxle in the mid-Bucket and take 87 pounds off the weight and rear axle, while adding more than 200 HP over the engine as it sits in the minivan. Do I want one? Not if I had to buy it from the dealer with a car around it. Would I take a similar deal as I got on the 3.8l pushrod engine, remove a derelict vehicle to remove the stuff I needed to make a car for free? Hell I would even pay for a car that got wrecked in the back as long as it wasn’t more than $1K to get the 305 HP version of the engine and then swap the FEAD (Front End Accessory Drive) for the transverse installation. I mean 200 HP more and 87 pounds less would I take that? Hell Yes I Would Take That!

So the reason for the walk was to get the ⁷/₃₂” drill bit and the small tube of GOOP for the bike and Mini Sprint-T respectively. I logged 3.93 miles and 25 checkins on Map My Walk and M Plus Places respectively and burned a lot of calories in the process. The weather was perfect, just warm enough and just breezy enough with a high overcast so that it was bright but not blinding.

And I have to get the rest of the stuff I do offline done so I can go to bed, so I’m putting this post to bed first, then me.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable