Good morning!!!!

[Bird]

Kyle_in_Tex wrote "Gave the daughter some more manual transmission driving lessons in the Yaris tonight. We are now shifting gears, and driving slow on backroads. She wants to be "cool" and know how to drive a stickshift."

I think it just never occurred to the younger of our two daughters that there might be something she couldn't do. She took drivers ed in high school on an automatic transmission and we only had automatics at the time. So she was still in high school when she got a job with a pharmacy delivering prescriptions. I later learned that the pharmacist asked her if she could drive a manual transmission and she told him she could, even though she never had. So she came home and called her older sister's boyfriend that she knew drove a manual transmission car and asked him if he could teach her. Well, he came over and let her drive his car around the block ONE time and told her "NO MORE" that he wasn't going to let her tear up his car. So I guess you could say she was self taught on the job to drive a manual transmissions pickup truck.
I was still a captain on the police department at the time and drove a home storage unmarked squad car. One evening I as almost home when I drove by officers working an accident with a Lincoln and a small pickup, got in the house just in time for daughter to call to ask if I could come get her at the hospital. Yep, that accident I had seen was her in the pickup and an elderly gentleman in the Lincoln had pulled out from a stop sign in front of her and she t-boned him. Fortunately he wasn't hurt and she was only bruised up a bit since she was wearing her seat belt, as I had always insisted that our daughters do. So I went and got her at the hospital and figured she had probably lost her job, but we'd barely gotten home when the pharmacist called to ask her how she was doing AND what color she wanted because he was ordering a new pickup for her to drive.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
It’s 55 headed to 80, another clear day with low humidity.

Yesterday went by in a hurry. I did get some speaker work done in the morning before I had to leave. I saved some commute time by only driving to the local airport and flying the little airplane to Philadelphia. It’s 8 minutes by air or an hour by car. Plane uses 5 gallons of $5.50 a gallon fuel, Prius uses less than a gallon of $3.12 fuel. It takes about 15 minutes or so to actually get the plane out of the hangar and on my way, but it still saves time.
When I got home, I did get the mowing done with the Lazer, I’ll do the open areas with the tractor this afternoon. Also squeezed in an oil change and tire rotation on the Prius, but never got back to the speakers.

I’m about to get a bowl of cereal and then head over to the shop. I think that the prime reason that I build the speakers is that it lets me justify (at least to myself) buying any tool that I feel like getting. I’m actually hoping that it slows down, as it’s been perilously close to a real job getting them done in a timely fashion. I don’t advertise , it’s all word of mouth. It does give me some pride when I see one on late night TV or in a magazine. They’re never featured, just in the background of a performance or article, but it still catches my eye.

 

[Popgadget]

In this part of the world I never heard of a drivers license specifying manual or automatic transmission.

Here in Pennsylvania, they do, but only for a commercial license, and it’s pretty recent. If you held a CDL prior to the change, you are ”grandfathered”.

 

[Eric Salop]

Had a pleasant stroll around town with my wife this morning. It was good to see the place so busy again, even if we all still have to put on masks before entering shops.

Fuddy, are you tempted to buy the island home ?

Wng, good to hear you recovered enough to be roasting not just one but 3 batches of coffee.

Kyle, I have a Metabo detail sander, similar to the one you showed except with a generous length of power cord. I hate tools that skimp with short cords, though I guess it will not be long before most tools without batteries are museum pieces. It works well in the hard to reach places where I can't get in with an orbital sander. With 33 different flat faces per window, I am really glad there are only a couple of places I have to sand by hand.

Bird, sounds like your auto driving daughter grew up with a great can-do attitude

PJ, saw a sign on a chalkboard this morning that you may need to take heed of if you keep missing out on those portions of food

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 77˚F muggy, partly cloudy humidity 83%. Heading to the mid 90s today.

Kyle I had a friend in Houston whose son was applying for a job as a valet at our condo. He said his son could not drive a standard, I told him sorry I could not be a reference for his son. The incline into the parking garage was quite steep. When your daughter feels comfortable with the stick shift get her to practice stopping on an incline and the going up it without rolling backwards or dying out. This will simulate parking garages and railroad tracks. Remember the RR tracks besides South Main Street in Houston at Hillcroft, Fondren and Chimney Rock. Our first 4 vehicles were manual, never wanted to spend the extra money on an automatic. I have paddle shift in the Stinger now, one day I'm going to learn how to do it.

Different websites discussed wether BBQ charcoal could be substituted for expensive biochar. One web site seemed to make the most sense. It stated that using all natural charcoal that was not in briquettes form but in lumps was ok. I found some at HD and will crush it and add it to my compost. I do miss a good burn pile, it would be interesting to make my own good expensive biochar.

It was too hot to mow yesterday, at least all the grass is growing at the same speed and the yard looks even.

Hand and foot tournament tonight - going for the price money. Tournament is limited to the first 40 people.

Wngsprd hope you continue to recover quickly.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 67F @ 5:15AM. Sunny. High 98F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

Transfer truck full of sand was only a little late yesterday morning, but the sand was really wet. That wouldn't be a problem if they didn't charge by weight; I don't like paying for water.

Checked a few places in town yesterday for poly piping with no luck. HD has it in 300' lengths, but I don't like the idea of burying a coupler. May just end up with PVC. Still have more places to check with the phone today.

The skies were pretty cloudy when I got home, and while out on the back porch feeding the lizards, it started to rain. Big fat drops, and only for a few minutes, barely enough to wet the cement. Hope it wasn't enough to germinate a new crop of weeds. At least there was no lightning; north of here they're fighting a series of lightning fires that started two days ago. I read a report this morning that said fire conditions are already comparable to what we have in August. Hope it's not another long, smokey, summer.

TGIF gang!

 

[kenmbz]

Morning all, sunny and another nice fall (?) day.
Planted the new roses and some other plants as they were drying out a bit.
Doe and fawn greeted us for dog walk this morning, but were not happy to see us and ran

Turtle nest is open, either they hatched last night or raccoons had dinner-don't see a mess or shells, so not sure.

For those in NW, be careful in the heat

Alien, and automatic and manual drivers license? Now that's getting picky
In Massachusetts I learned to drive a neighbors VW bug manual, at all of 13 !
Today I would probably be put behind bars for doing that.

Today, shopping and bridge walk. Then maybe some time on benches, one is almost smooth. Chainsaw planks are pretty rough. Little orbital sander takes some time, but works.

Stay safe and be well,

What happens when a bird crashes into a window:

This one was lucky and just sleeping it off.

 

[MoKelly]

Good morning. 71F and raining pretty steady. Drinking coffee on screen porch with kitty.

He thinks he is a Tiger!

Pretty calm day in store (hopefully).

Only thing I must do is clean up the place a little before my wife returns from bike trip. Just need to get dishes in washer and clothes in hamper. Make the bed.

Tonite we go to my sister’s to eat and see my Dad who is visiting from Memphis. It’s his first real trip since the virus.

I’m in charge of dessert - so, I like pie. I’ll be picking up a pie on the way over from a good place here in town.

Happy Friday!

 

[Alien]

In this part of the world I never heard of a drivers license specifying manual or automatic transmission.

Yeah, crazy isn't it.

 

[daugen]

could the licensing issue be due to medium and long haul trucking companies now equipping many/most of the new trucks with automatic transmissions?
If you need to attract new drivers and they don't have to know how to drive an 18 speed twin stick, great way to get new talent in for driving trucks, which
apparently is short on staff. As long as they can pass a drug test and capably operate the vehicle, helps to have good instincts and of course good training.
Even if they only know how to drive an automatic. I'm thinking the "automatic" license is to allow less trained folks into hauling medium sized loads but above CDL.
Heavy loads, not sure anyone who isn't skilled should be driving them. Keeping drugs and alcohol out of the cab is a real problem. Just like for cars.
Didn't Bill have an automatic on one of his heavy trucks and not like it? He's pulling 70 tons likely right now.