Well you know the saying about best-laid plans of mice and men. About the time I got free to take that walk last night we got more severe weather. Tornado watch severe weather, with high straight-line winds, and much lightning. But when I went shopping today the app seems to be counting outdoor steps just fine. But I’m still not seeing the daily bonus coins after I click on the designated ad.
C’est la vie.
OK I’m taking a walk tonight to see if this latest update fixes things, but the app is tracking steps again around the house. I think maybe I’ll take the opportunity to buy a lottery ticket, as I keep telling Mrs. the Poet, the odds of winning are almost zero if you buy a ticket, but absolutely zero if you don’t buy a ticket. And we are among the teeming throngs who could live a comfortable life if that chunk of income was shifted down a bit.
We had a dry line move through this morning but it didn’t wake me up, and another forecast for this evening, but not much rain near Casa de El Poeta. It was mostly wind and lightning according to Mrs. the Poet. The cats were not even bothered by this morning’s rain, and I can’t find any evidence of the rain outside.
And just for a few minutes yesterday I was considering centerline seating on the Sprint-T to see around the engine, since raising the driver’s seat enough to see over the engine would also raise my butt high enough to clear the transmission tailhousing. But that was quickly discarded because of the previously discussed raised Center of Gravity issue. Also the issue of running the steering from the center to the steering box on the left side of the chassis with the engine in the way.
But other than that I don’t have anything worthwhile to post today.
Posted in Daily post, Department of DIY
Tagged Sprint-T, sweatcoin, Texas weather, walking
I have made the decision. The engine will stick up, out, and sideways and I will look around or over as required because I put the bottom of the bucket body even with the bottom of the car. This will get the C of G as low as possible for best handling, and since handling is the #1 priority for this car inside the superset of [Win Goodguys Autocross], compromise will be made that prioritizes handling over things like seeing out of the car and gas mileage. The main reason the Sprint-T even exists as a concept is participating in autocross and solo racing and winning Goodguys. I’m not happy about not being able to see around or over the Pentastar leaving a big blind spot to the driver’s right front, which means the Sprint-T is not going to be a daily driver. And using it for trips between races is going to require some method of seeing what’s behind the engine. Maybe having two different seat inserts, one for racing and the other for just driving around? That would mean the shoulder belts wouldn’t work for the “just driving around” insert because they would put my shoulders too high to be safe. And the SCCA rules about roll bar heights above the driver’s helmet would mean that when my eyes were high enough to see over the engine just driving around the halo of the roll cage would be right next to my head. Not good, so the simple expedient of raising the driver’s seat is out. But the alternative is raising the body and everything above the body by roughly 7″ which in turn raises the Center of Gravity, which reduces speed at ultimate grip. And that runs counter to #1 priority in the superset of reasons to build the car. So, more thinking is required on this.
In other news my Sweatcoin app is completely screwed up and stuck at 100 Sweatcoins, not even counting the bonus coins for clicking on ads in the app. And I can’t buy anything in the shopping section of the app with 100 coins, except discounts for things I don’t want. This makes the app pretty much useless for me until I can start collecting more Sweatcoins.
On a tangent, I keep hearing a violin instrumental cover of the Twisted Sister song “I Wanna Rock” in a TV commercial, but I can’t see to find it to listen to minus the smarmy commercial voice-over. I really want to find it as a stand-alone. The concept sounds as crazy as AC-DC played on cellos and we all know how that turned out. So far all I can find is this duet with guitar which is good but not the music played during the commercial. Which I was able to find. Not as good as finding the music separately, but at least I know the name of the violinist. Damien Escobar. Now I need to find a clean track of the whole song minus the smarmy announcer and more than 60 seconds long.
Posted in Daily post, Department of DIY
Tagged choices, compromise, Sprint-T, sweatcoin, what was that song?
I was out and about again today after seemingly getting the Sweatcoin app back up yesterday. Well it happened again, zero steps detected all day, in spite of a 1 mile stroll in the middle of my travels. The stroll was to get from my bank to the nearest Jack in the Box for the BOGO special on the Ultimate Cheeseburger, today only and only in TX (suck it OK!). But as nice as half-price half-pound cheeseburgers are it’s still annoying to not get my steps counted when I almost have enough Sweatcoins to cash some out.
The other reason to go out today was the reason I stopped at the bank, Mrs. the Poet had a check to deposit for getting the sink fixed. And if there’s enough left over after doing that I get to get a massage. I don’t know about there being enough money for a massage, but there should be enough to get some pork chops and ground beef (the person sending the check suggested buying some meat).
I mentioned last post about the Locost homebuilt Lotus 7 clone community, and shared some pictures of Locosts. Now I’m not abandoning the Bucket, but you have to admit the Locost would solve a lot of problems I’m having with packaging on the Sprint-T, like getting the body mounted, and trying to see over and around the Pentastar engine, keeping the CofG low and the whole nose thing. TBH the whole engine-offset thing has really messed with the nose of the Sprint-T, where hiding the mess under the Locost’s hood really cleans things up. The Sprint-T will have the engine hanging out the passenger side of the body because of the pinched firewall on the ’23 T is barely as wide as the engine. The 5″ offset for balance can’t help but hang the right 5″ of the engine out of the right side of the nose. I suppose the idea I had to “unpinch” the nose that I demonstrated with “Stick-aided design” would help with this (cue the picture re-run).
Enormous amounts of bodywork aside the smooth cowl modification would have done the job at hiding the engine offset nicely, especially if accompanied with hood sides and top that keep the engine hidden but adequately ventilated. And “adequately ventilated” means just enough metal between the louvers that there is a strong semblance of structural integrity without blocking any airflow.
I made the return trip to the store to get the $1 back I was overcharged yesterday, but for some reason my Sweatcoin app only recorded one step all day in spite of walking more than 2.4 miles (3.91 km) round trip. And I was just checking my phone and there is a critical update for my Sweatcoin app that was buried in my notifications, so I authorized the update.
If I could just find the funds the plans for the Sprint-T are getting close to done, again. And as I was walking around I was thinking about what the car would be like if I could make it a Locost instead of a T-bucket. Now I know most of my readers are not car people, so some of you probably have no idea what a Locost is. Well way back about the time I was born a guy freaking genius took “Simplify and add lightness.” to freaking extremes with a car called the Lotus 7. That car has been in production longer than I have been alive, but is simply too expensive to make at a price point most of the people who want to buy it can afford, and it’s too raw and rough for most of the people who can afford it. So a cottage industry has sprung up making replicas with different powertrains (just look up images for Locosts). Now there is a lot of cross-pollination between the Locost community and the part of the T-bucket community that likes to make left and right turns. So much so that some Locost started as T-buckets, and vice-versa. TBH in some states it’s easier to get a plate for a Locost than a bucket, and others it’s the other way around. But that is a question for the future.
And I need to go take care of the crazy cat.
Witch on a Bicycle 