End your programming, do things that matter.
Yesterday, I got the parts I needed to repair my 20 year old nail gun, so I did a quick video on how to repair it. I thought for a moment about just tossing it, but when I looked at how much it cost to replace ($170), I thought that I would look a little closer at repairing it.
The parts cost $21.22 plus about three dollars for shipping. The repair was easy and now it is back in service. Check out the video.
Last week’s entry was about functional fitness. I feel more like functional sickness lately. That being said, it was the monthly trap shoot last weekend. I took a picture of my range bag dump to show what I lug around to these things.
Starting at the bottom
I typically take another old shopping bag that holds targets, extra muffs, garbage and/or brass to take back home. I have experimented with taking cleaning supplies and other things before, but I have kind of settled on the fact that if something goes really wrong, I probably need to stop and fix it at home rather than keep going.
I have also found that all this gear starts to really add up in weight and bulk. There is the rest, weights, spotting scope, lights and more tools like a drill. It starts to get overwhelming just loading the car, so I try to keep it paired down when I can.
I would be interested in hearing what your essential gear is. Thanks for reading.
I still pay for the newspaper, I have always read the newspaper. Even when I was in grade school, I would look forward to the afternoon delivery. In college, I subscribed to the daily newspaper. When I was living in South Carolina, I was getting two newspapers because the local one only came twice a week. I wanted to see what was happening, I like the feel, I like the coalition of advertisements and I particularly think it is the best aggregator of local news.
That being said, when I woke up on Tuesday, I saw two headlines. The first one was “GOP senators walk out again” and the second one was “Trump piñata draws ire of far-right”. I read the articles and I did a lot of thinking yesterday – which is partly why I didn’t get a post in. I was thinking that this might warrant a more proper essay than a blog post.
I took a lot of notes and did quite a bit of research yesterday, but I think that this post will be a bit more succinct. Let me try to explain the situation of the walk-out first. Oregon requires a quorum in the senate to be able to vote on bills. Our senate has one short of a super-majority of democrats which means that legislation tends to pass in block form by party line. Oregon is also a part-time legislature, which means that there is a year session and there is a one month session the second year.
What is happening is that there is a set of bills that the democrat party is trying to pass which is related to ‘Cap and Trade’. This means that each entity (business, person or otherwise) is allowed by law some sort of carbon emissions maximum. If that is exceeded then you are taxed in an excise fashion for the overage and there is an offset where you can pay to plant trees to mitigate your excessive carbon.
The republicans have literally left the state (enforceable jurisdiction) to prevent a quorum from occurring and thus passing the legislation. This tactic was also used at the end of the full year session in 2019. There was a lot of name calling, threats of arrest etc, to the point where one local senator was barred from entering the capitol and he subsequently apologized. He was dismissed from this particular vote by the senate president.
There has been a lot of sword rattling from the governor Kate Brown stating “The Senate Republicans who walked out of the house are not against climate policy, they are against the democratic process”. Which to some degree is true, I suspect that this tactic will be used again given now that this is the second time this has been done in the last year.
The Statesman Journal states Democrats “have been given a mandate by a majority of voters to pursue climate change”. Here is where I think things are going off the rails and where history, demographics, geography all intersect.
The second headline was about a local bar setting up a piñata of Trump on Presidents day and running a theme entitled ‘Not My President’s Day’. Once local conservatives found out they started writing fake reviews in order to tank the overall rating of the bar and now both sides are mad about the situation.
The history lesson and deeper conclusions needs to wait for another post. For now, lets talk about a couple issues. One is that since the 1990’s Oregon is now a state where politics are completely controlled by the Democratic party. So, no matter how you vote, it doesn’t matter. The majority is becoming increasingly emboldened and radicalized. The riots over a Wallstreet, the dually elected president, the destiny comments, etc. are telltale signs of the future direction of the state.
There is a theory that getting caught up in the political dichotomy by picking one side or the other fuels the rise of extremism. By spending your time defending one sides actions over the other allows both sides to manipulate the population as a whole.
The use of the term Fascist gets thrown around all to often. The term has been propagandized and applied far beyond what is reasonable. We have the tools to change our government, but we don’t have the will or the desire because we live in the political dichotomy.
By far and large, we probably agree on more items than we disagree. Within my circle of associates, I am sure that we would disagree vehemently on political items. Heck, even my wife are opposites. But, there is very little I can do to change what is happening in Salem or Washington DC. And truthfully, there is very little the president or the governor have done to change my life.
One things for sure, this government does not reflect my values and we sure aren’t getting closer to more freedom. Those are the things that are important to me. So, I will move on to bigger and better things.
“My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories” by David Lebowitz is the February 2020 book selection for the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Book Club. David is an American food blogger that has lived in Paris for the last ten years. You can check out his work in the link.
This work is a cookbook, where the stories are largely about some aspect of the recipe in focus. There were a few interesting factoids that I picked up reading the book like most apartments don’t have kitchens in Paris, service at most stores is curt to nonexistent, mustard is the French salsa and the most prevalant cheese used is Gruyere (which is Swiss).
The section that interested me the most was the appetizer section. It has the most variety of recipes and is not strictly French cooking. Influences of Africa and the Middle East are very apparent in this section, like the use of Harissa.
David does a good job of Anglicizing the recipes as there are ingredients that do not exist the majority of the United States. He talks about what is considered proper and what he would use (in some cases does use) in its place.
The photography and food stylizing make the recipes look very appetizing. This month, the host of my book club will not be available. So, we will not be focused on a specific meal but just appetizers. I think that I will make ‘Sardine Spread’ as my first foray into this cookbook.
Truthfully, I don’t see myself using this cookbook much. I think that it is largely the lack of classic French dishes and the plethora of cultural fusion in the book. My go to cookbooks are written by subject matter experts on the particular cuisine, like Rick Bayless for instance. Nevertheless, I want to try a few things before it gets filed away.
Sorry, my sickness is still impacting my productivity and probably the quality of what I am putting out. It has been some time since I posted a project update.
I have made quite a bit of progress, all of the rough lumber has been milled. I am in the midst of fixing some mistakes before moving forward, like I mis-measured the refrigerator and it doesn’t fit in the cabinet I built. I didn’t realize that there was a hinge that caused the overall height to be greater than what I had measured. Normally, I would have built more tolerance into my work, but cabinets are specific (working) heights and I am pushing the threshold of maximum height already.
I already know about measure twice and cut once. So, my lesson today is when sizing something specific, look very closely at all angles to make sure that your measurements are adequate. Another note worth sharing is that mistakes can be very costly, in time. I am tearing apart the fridge cabinet, plugging the holes, relocating the shelf, re-assembling the cabinet, refinishing and leveling again.
I have also experienced some other tool failures recently. My 16ga brad nailer is not consistently returning the hammer back to the proper position. I took it apart and found that there is a plastic piece that has disintegrated. I am going to create a video repairing that next week. My planer is filling up with chips causing me to have to stop and clean it out every twenty minutes. What I know now is that that a few years ago, the planer broke off a knot and tried to push it through the chip blower. That in turn busted the fan housing and now chips are blowing into the planer causing the height mechanism to clog up. I will probably make a video about that too.
Have a great weekend everybody.
Earlier this week, I got a really cool invitation to hike the Timberline Trail in mid July. A typical hike is four days and three nights around the north side of Mount Hood. The trail is approximately 40 miles with about 9000 feet of elevation change.
I really haven’t discussed any of the details yet, but from what I have heard so far, the plan is to hike about 10 miles a day. “Oh no, what have I done?” I haven’t done anything like this since I was a teenager and in much better shape. From what I remember then, it was hard and my body was sore, especially my legs and shoulders.
In 2016, I ran a half marathon, but since that time, there has been a lot of beers down the hatch, not to mention 30 pounds and four years. The good news is that I have a lot of the gear still albeit I remember wearing jeans on the trail, my tent was probably seven pounds, etc. I have been using some of it from time to time time with the kids and scouting, but a lot of it wouldn’t be considered ultra-light.
What I wanted to talk about in this post really was functional fitness. I don’t think I am there. When I first left my job I started trying to run again, but I overdid it and had a lot of hamstring and hip pain, so I stopped to heal and never started again. But, if I am to survive this trip without injury I need to get started again. It seems like a good reason to start.
A good program I have used before is the “Couch to 5k” or “Couch to half marathon”. It is a metered approach to getting cardiovascular fit. As someone that has attempted this recently and noticed the effects of aging, I am just going to do the best that I can. I do want to practice carrying weight as well.
Functional fitness is about being prepared to handle life’s adversities. Can you walk 10 miles or carry three days worth of gear (or even touch your toes) if you had to? If you were stuck somewhere, can you physically walk home? If you were trapped by something, do you have the strength to move it? Do you have the ability to climb a tree to stay out of harms way? Being in shape and healthy are good ways to live a cheaper and more fulfilling life as you age and take advantage of opportunities when they occur.
It is definitely something I know, but haven’t practicing, so its time to get started. I would like to hear your ideas on this as well.
What an epic hassle dealing with bad thrust bearings on the bandsaw has been. Today I will be discussing my experience with Amazon Warehouse and not the guide upgrades that I had ordered. I think that it will be clear when I am done why.
First, for the uninitiated, Amazon Warehouse is a division of Amazon that resells returned items from Amazon. These items are supposed to be inspected, cleaned but otherwise in ‘like new’ condition.
In my case, the Jet JRBG-14 were bandsaw guide upgrades that cost $153 from Amazon. I noticed that Amazon Warehouse had them for $112 with Prime Shipping. Rather than trying to see if they were stocked locally or find a replacement thrust bearing, I decided that I would work around the problem for four days while I waited for a significant upgrade, according to reviews.
When the package arrived on Thursday, I eagerly opened the package and to my surprise there was a problem.
I wont make you guess or wait too long to get to the point. So, upon closer inspection, I was sent two parts that do not match the diagrams or my expectations. And worse, the bottom bracket was missing the blade guide as well. What it appears to me is that someone ordered this upgrade and returned the OEM guides back to Amazon. The dope that supposedly inspected this clearly did not do their job.
Needless to say that I was pretty PO’d. I lost four days waiting for this to not get a usable part. To top it off, some dishonest actor got away with this. And quality control at Amazon Warehouse must be very poor. This has got to be one of the few items that is returned with a diagram of what the item is supposed to look like. The next day I drove up to Portland to solve my problem for good, costing me about three hours to get the replacement bearing (but not the upgrade).
I think the Latin phrase Caveat Emptor should be put into place when buying from Amazon Warehouse. I would be skeptical ordering anything complicated or expensive in this manner. Unfortunately, you cannot actually see what you are buying and there is no guarantee that getting what you bought.
Today is the third Monday in February or otherwise known as President’s Day. It was officially declared a Federal Holiday in 1971 as an amalgamation of Washington and Lincoln’s birthday the 12th and 22nd respectively.
Interestingly, it is not a holiday that is universally celebrated or recognized. Sources I checked said that twenty-four states recognize Presidents Day as a state holiday as well. Oregon is one of the twenty-four. There are nine states that do not recognize Presidents Day or any other individual President, like Washington’s birthday. Another interesting fact is that Alabama recognizes Washington and Jefferson’s birthday but not Lincoln’s.
I can remember as a child getting Washington’s birthday as a holiday. I think in the 1980s Oregon aligned with President’s Day over individual birthday holidays. In my adult life, I have always worked in the private sector and never had this day as a holiday. Ironically, my Canadian co-workers got this day off as ‘Family Day’ in Canada. Since I was home for the first time ever, we spent the time doing family activities. Back to regular posting tomorrow.
It is always a weird day when there is some official event on the same day as Valentines Day. Oregon became a state on February 14, 1859. I remember going to the Sesquicentennial in 2009. It was interesting and fun where there was a party at the capitol and special flavor of ice cream released by a local maker. We went to the top of the capitol dome and looked over Salem (for the first time in 20 years for me). There were music, exhibits and festivities; quite the party.
But then we get back to reality, it is Valentines Day after all. Now, you have probably guessed that I am not a romantic. However, I do understand the importance of making specific time for your spouse. We will spend a few hours together today and attend an event that is focused on our relationship.
Relationships are hard… I feel strongly about my cabinets being natural, she feels strongly they should be white. I think it is OK the kids can choose not to wear a coat even after being hounded, she feels differently. As I age, I feel like I am getting more stuck in my ways and not as flexible or forgiving or tolerant or maybe gun shy overreacting without empathy. I always need to try to re-center and remind myself of the reasons below.
This person is my biggest critic, but also my biggest supporter. She is quick to anger but first to apologize. She is the fun, the encourager, the enabler, the people person, the caregiver and the love. Believe it or not, she is the reason that I up and left my job and never looked back, not something I would have done without significant prompting.
So, still not a hopeless romantic. But reminding myself that I am lucky to have this someone to be my partner. Yin/Yang or karma or God will give you what you need. Give your partner your attention and Valentines Day that they want. Your relationship will thank you and you might get something out of it too.
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