Religion = People Wanting To Believe In Magic

A few days ago there was a thing on facebook about a father corresponding with his kid's teacher about an Easter program that really wasn't really an easter program. In this exchange the father referred jebus as "the allegedly magical jew". Which got me to thinking (and yes it did hurt!!) about how religion is basically about people wanting to believe in magic, miracles, afterlife, etc...

I really don't know where this post is going, I could offer my opinions on religions, but believers are still going to believe. There are some that would say there is proof, "The bible tells me so". Well, Marvel comics tells me Spiderman is real!!.They were both written by men.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is real, there's even a website for FSM!!

After the thought occurred to me, I did a tweet saying, "Religion = People wanting to believe in magic!"

If Energy Self-Sufficiently Is A Good Thing, Why Are We So Slow In Developing More Fuel Efficient Vehicles

Yesterday while celebrating my B-day with my cousin with the same B-day the topic of gas prices came up. The consensus seemed to be that this country needs to be energy self-sufficient. Later after I got home I got to thinking about that and the thing that came to mind is that nobody seems to be working very hard at making more fuel efficient vehicles, more horsepower, Yes, more mpg, Not So Much!! All they are doing is tinkering around the edges!!

While on average the vehicles these days get better mileage than before, it's not that much better individually. Personally I can come up with several examples of how cars haven't improved much if at all. I had a '94 Escort that got better mileage than The Old Lady's 2009 Focus. In 15 years you'd think there would have been a huge improvement in similar cars, but no!! As a matter of fact, The Kid had a '87 Olds 88 with a 3.8L V-6 that got around 35mpg on the highway or about what the Focus gets now.(Focus has a 2.0L four-banger.) Whenever gas mileage comes up The Old Lady usually mentions Wendy. Wendy was a 1982 Datsun 200SX. It had a 2.2L engine with a 5 speed and got 32-36mpg. (It was named Wendy because it would nag you, a voice would say; Door is ajar, Fuel level is low, Lights are on, etc.......)

I remember my uncle having an early 60s Falcon that got 30mpg. There were other cars back then like the Ramblers that got good mileage, but people wanted more horsepower not good gas mileage. The question I have is if they could make cars with that kind of mileage 20-30-50-60 years ago, why don't we have cars today that get 50-60mpg?????????? Could all those old conspiracy theories of long ago about all the high mileage carburetors and other improvements being suppressed by the oil companies have some truth to them???????????

I remember reading articles when I was in high school (this year is my 50th reunion) about cars that were made to get better mileage. One was a 1950 Plymouth with a flat head 6. Texaco converted the engine to overhead valve with direct fuel injection. The fuel was injected into the cylinder in a swirling pattern that made combustion more complete.  It got 50mpg on any combustible liquid that you could pump thru the injectors. They used gas, kerosene, peanut oil and fuel oil, it didn't matter what it was, it ran and ran good. This was before there was electronic fuel injection.

Another one I remember was a class project. A high school shop class made a car that got 110mpg using off-the-self parts. They took a MGB and used a Kubota 3 cylinder diesel engine with a 5 speed transmission and a two speed overdrive. (They managed to make a British car halfway reliable!!) Granted it probably wasn't a very speedy car to drive, but there should be something that got good mileage and was drivable!!

The above articles were in magazines like Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics. At the time about all I read were magazines that were car related, other than magazines like Playboy.

I tried doing some google searches looking for these examples, but didn't have any luck. The articles are probably somewhere in cyber-space, but I wasn't using the right "magic words"!! I did find a blogpost about a 1970 Morris Minor that got 40mpg. This is using technology that is at least 60 years old!! (They probably first created that drive train in the 50s.)

Aircraft Maintenance

Saw this on Twitter this morning with the comment: Always worrying when @easyJet are duct taping the plane together :-s
The guy isn't using duct tape, aircraft mechanics call duct tape "200mph tape". What he is putting on the engine cowling is aluminum tape which is called "500mph tape"!!

Instead of worrying about the tape on the outside of the cowling, I'd like to know what is in the intake. Could it be his trash and he'll clean it out when he's done??

The Reason The Smoke Alarm Went Off

I got the shit tank out of The Guppy the other day. I had thought that maybe I could repair it by doing a fiberglas patch. After seeing the extent of the damage, I now realize I have to get a new tank. It is surprising how much melted from the exhaust hitting the side of the motorhome and up at the tank.  Once I get the new tank installed, I'll put some hangers on the exhaust system. I got the parts, but the tailpipe needs to be down in order to remove and replace the tank as the tailpipe goes under the tank. After I replace the tank I'll put some kind of extension on the tailpipe so it will either stick out from under the motorhome or bend down towards the ground so this can't happen again.

Google+ Sucks A Big One!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning I was trying to sign into my blog while using Firefox browser. It kept coming up with a sign-in with the Google+ that I've tried to get rid of because it was a mistake. I seem to have two Google+ pages. I did one for the hell of it some time back, but when doing the profile it kept asking to stuff I didn't feel like putting in the profile. Like it wouldn't accept just one name, it had to be a first name and a last name. And somehow my gmail wound up being used for Google+ and that is the problem. I would get rid of the gmail and Google+ if I knew it wouldn't fuck up my blog which is on google blogger.

The fucking ironic thing is I was able to sign in the way I want using Google Chrome browser. I haven't been using Chrome lately because ever since the latest Adobe update videos don't want to play on Chrome, so I have been using Firefox because videos will play on it. There's another fucking IRONY, the Adobe update was supposed to make videos play better?????

My Latest Project

Photo taken 5/19/2015.

Yesterday I started on my latest project. Eventually I hope to be able to see the train going along the tracks that go thru "The Ranch". I plan on doing a lane about 15/20 ft wide. The Old Lady used Google Earth and she figures I have about 700 ft of brush and trees to cut. Most of it is tag alder and some of it may be big enough to cut into firewood, and there are a few popple, cherry, and birch that will make some good firewood.

At one time it was fairly open, but I made the mistake of fencing the area and using it for pasture when we had a cow and a couple of steers. They ate the grass, left hoof prints in the soft earth and created ideal conditions for tag alder seeds to sprout. Most of the area I had fenced off is now overgrown with brush.

I'm not surprised to see the snow on the ground this morning (the forecast said there wouldn't be any accumulation, RIGHT!!), it has snowed on my birthday, which is next month!! It has even snowed on the Fourth of July; in fact it has snowed every month of the year at one time or another.

I Was Driving Down The Interstate And The Smoke Detector Went Off

In the two months we were traveling in The Guppy we put just over 3500 miles on the odometer. The last 300 were the most exciting. We were on our way home and were about 300 miles from home and the smoke alarm went off. I pulled over on to the shoulder (being in Wisconsin and on an Interstate there was a shoulder, not like some of the state and local roads in Missouri and Arkansas) and shut it down. The place was full of smoke. There was a weird smell to the smoke. At first I thought maybe it was wiring burning. I checked under the dash and under the hood. I also checked the RV battery and it was cool, so that wasn't the problem.

After looking at everything I could see, (which wasn't much) I started off again. I only got a mile or two before the alarm went off again. The Old Lady got up and shut it off. I continued on to where I knew there was a truck stop a few miles further. She said she saw smoke coming out from under the engine cowling. I pulled it after we parked and finally we saw some debris on the engine. There were some pine cones and seeds that a squirrel or some critter had stashed on top of the engine.

Thinking that that was the problem we took off in the morning after spending the night in a motel because of the smell in The Guppy. About  5 miles down the road the smoke alarm went off again. This time The Old Lady said she saw smoke coming from under the refrigerator. That's where the furnace is, but the propane was turned off for traveling. We checked around the furnace and couldn't find anything so I looked under the motorhome. One of the hangers on the exhaust system had broken and the muffler dropped down. When the muffler dropped it tilted the tailpipe up and it was pointing at the holding tank. It had melted part of the plastic tank (source of the weird smell and smoke) and it now was leaking. I had some safety wire which I used to wire up the muffler. The wire wasn't very heavy (.032) so I did 5-6 pieces around the pipe and parts of the frame and the broken hanger.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, smelly but uneventful.

Now I have several months to make repairs to The Guppy before we head out again. Obviously I need to replace the holding tank. Another thing I need to replace is the battery charger. It seems to be unregulated. It charges at too high a rate (it's burning out the 12v lights) and doesn't quit charging when the battery is fully charged. I had to add water to the battery as the charger was cooking the water out of it.

And I need to fix the steps going into the motorhome. The steps move when someone steps on them. Looks like the problem is that the wooden structure of the steps was just stapled together and things have worked loose over the years.

I also want to replace the TV antenna. The one we have is the original one from when the motorhome was built in 1989. It's an old analog one and now everything is digital. The only time we got any TV was at a campground in Waco and we were close enough that we probably could have gotten an signal with just a piece of wire. I used a piece of wire for a TV antenna back in the 60s when I was close to the TV station.

I need to replace the marker lights on the front at the top. I lost 3 of the five lens on the lights. I might as well replace all 5 with new led lights.

I don't think I'll have a chance to work on getting the generator running and installed in The Guppy. It would be nice to have it for those times when there isn't an electric hookup available like when you are "boondocking".

Trimming The Bush

They Brand Everything In Tejas

When we were in Tejas I bought some eggs. When I opened the carton I noticed the eggs had the store brand on them.