Good morning!!!!

[RedNeckGeek]

I can't work out the authorities here mate. If you are a football team you can do what you like. OR if you have money you seem to be able to get an exemption to go where you want. If you are an ordinary person you can't even visit your dying parent in a hospital.
The Gov't just allowed a private jet to fly in from the Indonesia to Adelaide with a family all sick with the Delta Covid variant. Money talks.

COVID-positive family who flew private plane from Indonesia quarantining in Adelaide

Health and government authorities approved a COVID-positive family to fly in from overseas to Australia last week on a privately funded medevac flight, despite ongoing calls to limit the number of overseas arrivals. SA Health has confirmed the family has the highly infectious Delta strain.

www.abc.net.au

At the very start of the pandemic, they landed hundreds of Americans in California that had been in China, quarantining them at Air Force bases. Hundreds more came home from China before that, before Chine fessed up that there was a problem. So we were doomed from the very beginning. And the political squabbling that's gone on ever since has done nothing but hamper the response.

 

[txdon]

A little Kubota tractor work by landscapers in the neighborhood today. They are unloading a live palm tree to replace one that died in the big Texas freeze this last Winter. They got it unloaded and it’s laying on the ground to be set upright and planted in the morning.
This is the land of Oaks and Cedars. One should not mess with non-natives it could get expensive.

 

[toppop52]

This talk of the midsize trucks is interesting.....
When I was shopping, I looked at the Colorado, Ranger, Tacoma, and the Frontier.
The Nissan Frontier had the towing capacity the same as the others, had the same options, but was substantially cheaper by $4-5K.

The ride is quite comfortable, power is above sufficient for get up and go.

Could be another option for those looking.....

The body is redesigned for 2022, but they probably won't be available until the end of this year.

My late wife’s brother has a Frontier, it’s a fine truck, the platform is just fairly old and that saves amortization costs. That’s why they are less expensive. Nothing wrong with them.

 

[Rich B1]

Good evening! 71 now, we did get some rain today, not like northeast of here, but some rain. It was needed.

I am off until Tuesday. Been a very busy week. I was the only person answering tech calls for the one product line. Got handed a mess first thing Monday by one of my “co-workers”. Seems he has been screwing with this for over a month. A lot of frayed nerves are involved. Admittedly it was odd, but had a tech who followed directions and gave reasonable feedback, figured it out this morning doing some off the wall testing. The tech was ecstatic that he isolated the problem. Made me happy too, thinking outside of the box works.

Global supply chain issues are getting ugly. Steel is now in very tight supply. Steel is kinda important to build construction equipment. And quality of stuff coming in is abysmal.

Hope to make decent progress n the cargo trailer this weekend. It needs to be functional in a few weeks.

Plus have a garden tractor to rebuild the steering. It’s always something.

Thoughts to everyone who needs them.

Everyone stay safe out there!

 

[lostcreekranch]

View attachment 704302
A little Kubota tractor work by landscapers in the neighborhood today. They are unloading a live palm tree to replace one that died in the big Texas freeze this last Winter. They got it unloaded and it’s laying on the ground to be set upright and planted in the morning.
This is the land of Oaks and Cedars. One should not mess with non-natives it could get expensive.

Totally agree Don.

When the last "Great Freeze" came in 1989, it got down to 7°. We had about a dozen mature queen palms around our pool and all were lost. Luckily our home, at the time, was on a bayou.

A good friend, who owned a wrecker company, sent one of his medium trucks, with a rotator, over and they set up on the bayou maintenance right of way behind the house. We wrapped chains around the base of the palms and they were easily yanked out and dropped on the right of way.

I was ready to bring a tractor, from the ranch, to pick up the palms and load them on a trailer to take them back to the ranch to burn. Now this was before we had grapples for our tractors so not an easy task.

A supervisor, from the Flood Control District, stopped by to see what we were doing and he told me that it had been "noticed" that I had been mowing about 1000 yards, along the bayou, behind ours and neighbors properties for about 10 years .. and HE would get the palms disposed of.

Learned my lesson .. about non-natives. Neil Sperry .. agreed with me.

 

[PJSprog]

Nice job, Paul. Crank some wheels and blow the dust off those rusty skills.

But who checks the quality of the quality guy's parts?

It was actually kind of fun. Took a bit to reacquaint myself with the directions of the table movements, but it all started to click again ... about the time I was done.

As it happens, just like most things there, if I want it done right, I have to do it myself. This includes checking the work. They weren't complicated parts, so it was easy enough.

The boss thanked me twice before the end of the day. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 72F for the start, partly cloudy, light breeze. Light wind day, partly cloudy all day, no rain, high temp was 90F, HI 96F, and DP 69F. Men's meeting to start day, then puttering till nap time, then town trip for groceries, wife got perm then dinner.
Covid update: Cooke 3245 confirmed cases, 8 active cases, Montague 1790 confirmed cases, 8 active cases, Grayson, 11374 confirmed cases, 13 active cases.
David hope the weather gets better for mowing
Bird glad you can still be there for her. hope no bad complications
Roy good luck with new chain saw.
Drew good luck with new car search.
Ron hope you get chance to mow, nice pic
Paul safe flight, nice to have family along.
Doug lack of "expert" expertise long been a problem
Thomas thanks for response, hope no confusion with people going maskless.
John hope you can get mowing in
RNG good luck selling the Echo stuff, like Oblivion movie.
Ken glad dog is better. not sure what you mean choking up the nose. nice pic
Drew don't overdo it
PJ good excuse to hit the studio.
Ken if engine mount was all the car ate that is a good thing. Interesting mental pic, bug vs vanagon
Randy hope they can track down what' wrong and fix it.
Drew bet the defrost not much better than heater
PJ looked at mid size trucks when bought the F150, not much price difference or mileage difference.
Drew humid 95F will do that every time.
David hoe did TV work?
Drew glad you can cool off now.
RS enjoy the cooler weather
Doug aint it the truth, we get the short straw
PJ been 30+ year since cranking a Bridgeport.
Thomas quit the temp drop.
Ron glad you got grass mowed.
RS you always seem to find something to get into hope no damage from storms
Don not sure why they want palm trees, like oak better.
Rich good to hear problem solved. Few days off will be nice as well.
Rick nice of them to dispose of trees for you.
PJ glad you had fun on Bridgeport.
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle's daughter and car crash,Bird/aging issues/daughter's foot, Billy/skin cancer surgery, David(moss)/remodel/divorce, Buppies cancer surgery/ diarrhea, Phil/reflux/wife's eyes,Steppenwolfe/son-auto immune disorder, Dennis/older brother/son, Grev/wife's eye, Randy/vision issues, Bill/DIL home care, Ted/knee recovery, Doug and wife/health issues/nerve and pain/ wife's eyes, Ken/uncle, Drew/tendon healing, David(sadamo)/Sophie's eye surgery,RNG/fire season, and Country.
stay safe and healthy you all.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Hello everyone. Been busy trying to get things done around here. Not real big projects, but numerous in quantity.

Our massive heat wave and drought seems to have broken for at least the week. Rain here has been sparse, so far only 2/10ths in the gauge. We were watching the flooding going on in the SE part of the state .... they got over 6" of rain over 3 days.

The knee has been 'status quo'. Still swells to the point of causing limited movement. Pain / irritation keeps me up at night. I haven't done PT for about 3 weeks now, but, the knee has slowly felt better since not going to PT.

Stopping PT was not my idea.... the insurance adjuster stopped the sessions. The report written by the therapist was a summary of the initial consult with us, when we explained all the injuries and surgeries occurring over the last few years. The way she worded it caused the adjuster to believe these injuries happened AFTER the most recent surgery. Now the insurance is freaking out and won't approve any additional treatment until I am evaluated by my ortho surgeon. GEEZ...... I told them all the things she had reviewed were all documented previously.... they won't believe me even though I have all the supporting documentation......

I am scheduled to see the orto doc on Thursday. Hopefully he will get it all straightened out.

Randy, sorry to hear about another loss of a fuzzy family member. Always a sad time.

I / we have been dealing with our own fuzzy butt issues. My little girl Kassie developed an abscess on her cheek about 3 weeks ago. The Vet suspected a possible spider bite, with subsequent infection and fever. She gave us some antibiotics for her and cleaned up the wound area. She seemed to be doing better, then stopped eating and would occasionally vomit. Back to the Vet.... more meds for the vomiting and some fluid injections for dehydration. Again, seemed to be doing better, almost back to her normal self a couple days ago. Today she stopped eating, stayed in her bed all day, and is sleeping almost all day. She is 14 1/2 years old.... I think this might be too much for her to get over....

I have been following you guys, but just not partaking in conversation..... a few other things going on, just trying to keep my sanity....

I'll try harder not to be a stranger.....

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

Got stuck running one of the old Bridgeport mills today. The guy who usually does stuff like this has been out for knee replacement surgery, so the boss asked if I could set it up and make 20 pieces. Got it done about 15 minutes ago. Man, it sure is a lot sweatier out there than it is in my nicely air conditioned office. Cooler temps here today, but the humidity is still a bear.

LOL

Nice job, Paul. Crank some wheels and blow the dust off those rusty skills.

But who checks the quality of the quality guy's parts?

Yep, RNG asked the same question I had..... At a place I used to work, we had a mandatory policy that someone NOT involved with planning, programming or making a part, got to inspect said part. If you had done any of the 3, then you weren't allowed to give it a 1st article inspection. Good policy IMO.

Very busy at work. 2 of our 3 cnc mills are about 20 years old. The one with the better control, has started alarming out in the Z axis. Not worth sinking money into it for multiple reasons. 2 reasons are : It's not that beefy of a machine in the first place and it has a strange proprietary Fanuc control to Yasnac drive handover which is stupid. Fanuc no longer makes the drive adapters anymore. It makes the machine have an Achilles heal. I have told/warned management many times. We need a newer or new machine. They have ponied up more for a lot of other things (that were more stupid IMO). The 3rd machine is very archaic. It does not setup easily, nor have cutter comp that works.

Now that I'm busy, having another good cnc mill would allow me to multitask, saving time and setups.

Bird, prayers for your daughter.

Ted, glad to hear from you, hope your doggie pulls through....and your knee/insurance issue.

Billy, prayers you're getting better too. Don't over do it.

Ron, nice flower pic. Thank you.

I believe the slowest modern vehicles were the diesel Golf/Rabbit back in the 80's. 54 hp. Similarly slow was the Suzuki Samarai....people actually pay money still for the Samarai's, because they are like a street legal ATV....barely. Turn off the A/C if you need to go up a hill or pass someone doing 45mph.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The return of the Maverick. Not sure what to make of that. Maybe Chevy can bring back the Monza next?

I had a monza. Was an ok car for a college kid

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Ken, my favorite races at Summit Point were the showroom stock,.

Summit Point in WV?

 

[sodamo]

This round of mowing going to be the bane of my existence. Should be done, but NO, about hour left. Didn’t get started until late morning, giving time to dry from the rain.
Lots of wild life supervision, about 10 pigs, 2 very young, then a mom + 2, then a group of 5. Even some unknown dog that may have been on the scent of the mom +2 but he missed them.
So I’m just cruising my pattern, surveying, mentally thinking maybe another hour when I smell burning rubber. Look to my rear and my mower V belts are aflame. Even some sparks. Never seen that before. Immediately shut down PTO, stopped tractor and jumped off. Flames running up both sides of lower pulley. Of course this is a set of brand new B39 belts I had just put on this morning. Luckily, I was able to snuff out with my leather gloves.

If you look behind the lower sheave you can see the bolts from the shaft bearing are tight to the sheave, acting both as a break and spark generator.. mowing done, back to the shed.
Can’t really get a wrench on the bolt heads due to newly created metal lip. They will have to be replaced, as will the belts. Fortunately, I already had replacements on order. Tracking says Sat, but likely Tues given the holiday.
Was able to retighten bolts and can probably finish before the big repair. Suspect I will have to get new bolts at Fastenal.
Think I’ll also add a fire extinguisher to tractor.

 

[sodamo]

1st car I bought after getting my license was a 60 VW bug. Fun ride (except in Maine winter) until I blew the engine. Somehow oil went dry. But I rebuilt the engine with my Dad’s help and sold it to younger brother. My 1st brand new car was 65 Corvair Monza. Loved that car. Got drafted 2 months later, but those were the days of local bank, and the manager told me as long as I made whatever payment I could it would be OK. Had that one until I got my GTO and my Dad talked another brother into buying it. Of course he totaled it within months. I often joke that my Boxer boy, Flash, from New Zealand cost more than that Monza, and he wasn’t financed. He did sire 13 beautiful pups, so he sorta earned his keep.

 

[sodamo]

Mostly, the TV worked great, really like the picture.
Sophie is a hoot, repeatedly commenting how big (75in) it is, alternating with the living room, how small (58 in) that one is. I did tell hear that I had a fleeting thought of moving the 58in into the bedroom to replace the problematic 60in and mount the 75in in the living room, but given our luck as soon as I did the problem free 58 in was go on the fritz soon after installation.

Maybe we should get the new stimulus checks for the 3 fur kids.

 

[RoyJackson]

2021-07-01, 0337

66° now...a much cooler day in the upper 70's with showers and, hopefully, much steadier rain tonight.
Last day of work for me...4 days off.
Going to be a rainy weekend....might spoil some peoples' plans...but it's OK with me

 

[daugen]

some light rain overnight, about .18 but much more coming in today, tonight and tomorrow.
Stormy weather for sure. High in the 80's today

I agree on the Frontier, wish I still had this one, very rare LE with nice wheels and my favorite color.
Traded it for something bigger to haul weight, now this would have done fine.
I like the looks of the new one also but very competitive market; right now the current Frontier is high value, just older tech.

quiet morning, then off to meet friend for lunch in Doylestown and we then go look at Volvo suv's.

 

[ronjhall]

Poured first cup of coffee. 64° with partly cloudy skies this mornings. Heading to 75° with sun and a few clouds. Grass is mowed. When it dries out some. Need to recut the area where I gathered a lot of the clipping. Worked on table and chairs. Turing out to be a lot more of a project than I planned. Too late to give up now. Hope to have it finished by end of next week. Son is staying at a campground close by. May go visit him today.

David, trying to figure what happened to mower. Bolts came loose?

PJ, if you come up here I will let you practice on my Bridgeport. No power anything except spindle. Kyle, you can help him.

Drew, enjoy your time with friend tire kicking. Do they make a Volvo pickup?

Rick, non native trees are all dying around here. Glad I never planted any. Mostly Pine trees.

Everyone stay healthy and safe.

Good Morning All.

 

[Buppies]

71 high in 90s today yesterday was hard heat index of over 100 took its toll

Rain later today then cool off for weekend. Prayers for all

 

[daugen]

yes, it was quite a drive but worth it.

Summit Point in WV?

My first experience with SCCA racing
Corvettes and Cobras were great to watch and listen to.

 

[daugen]

I truly have one car I should have put in storage. I was 23 years old, living in Annandale VA commuting to Alexandria working for Travelers Insurance, and I bought
the boss's son's 1964 Porsche SC bathtub white coupe for $3500. Black leather interior with beautiful steering wheel and a rather rubbery manual
on the floor. But not as rubbery as bug. Nicer wood shift knob too. After the clutch cable broke and left me stranded sitting up on top of the concrete barrier with both sides of
the Beltway whizzing past me, I decided I needed a new reliable car. Sold the car for what I paid for it.
As you might imagine, this is a six figure car now. Numbers matching non molested SC model with larger engine. Like an S model today.

I drove that in several gymkhanas at a few events, not overly hard, back end on that would swing out in a heartbeat if you lost traction.
But up to the grip of the 165-14 tires I had just put on, some Swedish brand, that car went plenty fast for me with no experience.
It was a crowd favorite, and I never scratched it thankfully. Well....my nose is growing longer, seems I remember when that rear end kicked out on an offramp in the rain and I spun that car
360 in confines of ramp, just kissed the back bumper for a tiny scratch which I promptly repainted, and with heart thumping I went on.
Like many of these older cars particularly with swing axles, Corvairs, etc you did great up to the limit but when you exceeded it
you were left with a very hard to control car. Nothing gradual about the experience at all.

 

[wngsprd]

Already July. Got up to 98 yesterday. As much as I like cold weather, it felt really good by late afternoon once the humidity dropped. Walked a couple of miles in town yesterday...just amazing the things I noticed and flowers I smelled that I've never noticed before when driving those same streets many times. Talked for a while with some very friendly folks.

Randy, so sorry to read that you lost Missy.

Buppies, I hope your hand is getting better.

Kyle, my wife had a '78 Diesel Rabbit when we married...like you said, it was slow, but we could get 52mpg and cram all our stuff and a big dog in the back to go on trips.

First visit back to surgeon today...hoping he'll tell me I'm ready to climb mountains, but like the groundhog, it will still be a total of 6 weeks.