Perhaps we are at some juncture. People are finally questioning the “Reagan Revolution” which was supposed to help everyone by helping businesses (whether they even needed help is a different question). From Robert Reichs twitter posting. Another decades old piece of data that should surprise no one.
So, shifting tax burdens from wealthy to non-wealthy people helps wealthy people. And it took fifty years to figure this out? Even the premise is bizarre. Give money to rich people. Why not give money to people born in November? Or with last names that start with “G”? Makes as much sense.
Another pizza gate, except this time it was well funded by a prominent right wing donor. From the Texas Tribune.
We’ve had a Tesla Model 3 for about two years now. About a week ago I noticed the music sounded a bit off. First, I have to add that I’m not a big car guy and not a big car stereo guy, but this car has a noticabley nice sound system. Messed around with the controls and realized the back speakers were out. Damn.
Went on-line to the Tesla forums and found lots of people with similar problems. Seemed like a software update related to using a bluetooth phone. But I don’t use a bluetooth phone in the car. Ok, wait, I went to pick up some take out and the call went over bluetooth about the time I noticed the problem.
Tried some of the magical fixes from the forum and nothing worked. Got into the Tesla app and scheduled a maintainence appointment. Probably have to go drop it off someplace. Groan.
They texted back and asked for a short video of the problem. Ok. No problem. Afterwards they texted and asked if the front speakers were working. I went out and checked. Nope. The ones in the very front by the windshield were working, but not the ones in the door.
They were going to come out and try to fix it. After lunch I moved the car out of the garage and parked it in the driveway. Got a text that someone was on the way. After a few minutes I noticed they had left. Went out and checked and all was working! And the best part, no charge!
Not used to saying nice things about car companies, and even less so about car repair departments.
Woke up at 1am with one, possibly three, cats chasing each other across my face. Surprisingly, I knew exactly what was going on. We have three cats that noisily chase each other around in various combinations. I touched my chin and it was definitely bloody. A look in the mirror showed a pretty deep cut on my chin, and some more on my lip and cheek. More blood than I would have thought. Didn’t want to go to an ER so I patched it up with a few band aids and watched some Jaime Oliver reruns on PBS. Doesn’t look too bad this morning. Otherwise, just the usual pandemic life. Picked my tomatoes, started Hanukkah, been cooking a lot, made a big fire in the fire pit. Hung some new solar LED lights on the patio. Turned 58.
And we aren’t done yet.
I don’t really find any of this too surprising. I’m not sure his technique (body freezing) is the only way to accomplish some of these things, but I guess if you are from Iceland … Anyway an interesting read from Outdoor Magazine.
Flat earthers. Anti-vaxxers. Climate change deniers. Holocaust deniers. Moon landing deniers. Fake newsers. Now election deniers. Same old same old.
Up until now I’ve really just removed the battery and drilled a few harmless holes. But there comes a time to start really doing a Teardown. There is a bit more going on than I appreciated. First I removed the dual 42″ blades and the pulleys that ran them. Then I removed the controls and disconnected them from the engine. Then drained and removed the gas tank. A wiring harness was next. There is a somewhat complicated set of manual and electric interlocks that I still need to think about. For instance: shutting off the motor when the seat isn’t occupied, but only if the blades are in use (good if you fall off while mowing) or decoupling power from the drivetrain while braking. Removed the exhaust from the front and explored the engine mounts.
Also looking at wiring and placement of controls. A bit more to it than I realized at first. Will need two controllers, one for the drivetrain and one for the blades. A foot control is probably a better idea than a dashboard knob for a throttle. The second motor controller I have has little documentation. Wires are labeled in Chinese and something resembling English. Some experimenting is probably going to be necessary.
As far as blades, I’ve decided on 4 or 5 small blades used as string trimmer replacements. The whole deck is big and heavy and probably massive overkill for what I want to do. Might dump it all, but I will need a way to figure out how to support the blades and motors and how to make a safety cover. Probably not too hard, but something I didn’t intend to do.
Next big step: engine removal. Really not much left after that, just a frame and some wheels.
Lastly, I’ve started tagging blog entries. My goal is just to be able to group similar entries. I was just using keywords in the title, but best to use the proper tool for the job. Will go back and add tags to older posts.
Steven A. Guccione 