How'd it go today?

Once our microwave broke, I was done with the idea of rearranging molecules in my foods and drink to carry me faster into being a cancer patient.
All natural heat now and teaching the kids about the fine art of recreating leftovers.
Isn’t that a myth? I thought it just vibrated the water molecules to generate friction which heated the food?
 
I will say that the toaster oven makes most food taste better than tossing it into the microwave. But, I don’t use the toaster oven that often because I am hungry and I don’t want to wait the extra 5 minutes. This is because I don’t plan ahead. Make food before you are starving, Mike! Come on man!
 
It's just microwave radiation, a shorter wavelength than radio waves but longer than infrared. The smaller the wavelength the more dangerous because it carries far more energy, and all 3 of those have a larger wavelength than visible light.
 
So if I fight my phone long enough, I can get the mobile hotspot turned on, then using my other, older, phone, I can gain access to the interwebs! This is good for morale. Found a few places up in showlow that can fix the borked screen on my Samsung, which I'll need to do even if I want to replace it, since I can't even properly eject the SD card, or transfer the various pictures from internal memory to said card.

So anyway, with a bit of phikery I can YouTube and forum as normal. For now lolz
 
Got my new microwave. Tharrr be my new kitchenette. Not too shabby, eh? I found that angling the microwave as shown in the picture is the best position for it.

I'm currently waiting on my Wi-Fi router from Comcast. I'll be paying 1/3 the cost per month for speeds that are equal to or better my Wi-Fi in Arizona. Only $45/mo for 12 months. That's pretty darn inexpensive.

My new router is coming through FedEx sometime today. They don't have a package kiosk like my old apartment just mail kiosks, which are tiny. So packages can easily be stolen, which is pretty suspect. Gonna have expensive stuff shipped to my parent's house.

You can see my living space adjacent to my kitchen. I have two doors into my apartment. One from the stairwell and one from the hallway, and I'm on the top floor with only one neighbor to my right. Pretty ideal setup. There's an elevator in the center of the building, but it's small and a bit slow.

Two closets to the right of the hallway and on the left, to the end, is my bathroom. As you can see, I still need furniture. Still browsing around. Might just take the IKEA route. I basically just have my parents (mid-and-late-70s in age) to help me.

Going to their house tomorrow to grab the stuff in those two boxes I sent a few weeks ago, and to see my dog finally! I need a job stat!
 

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It's still a neat trick when you can just put a tool head on the end of a stick and drive it on by pounding the end of the handle without pounding it all against a hard surface. Someone taught me that when putting an ax blade on a handle, and today it worked on a shovel.
 
That's how I set handles. Just have be careful to strike square and true, or you can split the wood.
 
Had to layout a little bridge, and I fell in the creek. I was crossing the stream diversion where they had laid down plastic, and I stepped on what I thought was a covered rock, but was just an air bubble. Got a little wet. Aside from having a wet ass, and being irritated, it felt good. Good day for a swim.
 
The problem with the hydraulic pump is the plate circle which is an adapter from the bolt pattern on the engine to the conical aluminum mount for the pump was apparently hacked out by hand. I’m sure it doesn’t hold the pump concentric/straight with the engine. He’s lucky nothing else is broken…yet…that we know of. We will make a new plate with the inner and outer locators precision machined in the same operation so that it is perfectly concentric.

The big valves I had installed in the heads for a Pontiac 350 for my ‘71 LeMans…now I need to put the engine together.
@Marc-Antoine
IMG_7488.jpeg IMG_7495.jpeg IMG_7501.jpeg
 
Got up at 6am this morning and then did my first trial run trip to my parent's house (which is adjacent to the bird sanctuary/dog park where I'll eventually be creating new tree climbing content) using public transportation, leaving my place at 8am. My new apartment is only a very quick, 12 minute walk to the North Quincy train station on the Red Line. Waited only 6 minutes for a train going outbound from Boston, which gave me an 8 minute ride to the Quincy Center stop. I then waited aroud 15 minutes for the 220 bus that goes to the Hingham Depot, and rode for about 15 minutes before my stop. Then walked for 5 minutes and I was at my parent's house, with the entrance to the bird sanctuary being a stone's throw away.

The entire trip took basically one hour, but it flew by and, despite the oppressive heat and humidity, it was pretty effortless. I can definitely see myself hauling only what I need insofar as hardware, software, my harness, helmet, cameras (GoPro/phone), and a tripod to the bird sanctuary; all in my big backpack and maybe a second bag to carry by hand if necessary. Especially once the weather cools down. Then I'll need to walk/hike with everything into the sanctuary to some of my favorite trees in secluded spots where I won't get bothered or be seen by park rangers or police who periodically patrol along the paved routes.

I will definitely be waiting until the heat wave ends before I even consider heading out. But today I proved to myself that it is definitely possible and that the trip is very doable. While at my parent's house, I saw my dog, Harry, for the first time since Christmas and he we sooooo excited. He stuck by me like he was my shadow as I repacked all of the climbing gear that shipped from Arizona via UPS into smaller boxes that will fit in my smaller closet. Then I loaded them into my father's car, along with some frozen foods, and various other whatnot, and we drove back to my apartment. Then I hauled everything up to my apartment and now I'm putting all of my gear that I brought over in my suitcases into more boxes that will fit into my closets.

All in all, I have had a very productive day.
 
What's the cost of that round trip Knotty?

edit:
Trying to find you some trees to climb close to home. How about Hobart St Woods? Looks like it's in walking distance. Gets a 4.7* rating on google maps
 
Last edited:
What's the cost of that round trip Knotty?

edit:
Trying to find you some trees to climb close to home. How about Hobart St Woods? Looks like it's in walking distance. Gets a 4.7* rating on google maps
I'll have to check them out. Looks pretty dense, but that's what I like. Less coppers eyeballing me. Only a half hour walk from my place. Could be promising. Thanks, @lxskllr! I appreciate you taking the time to look! Hard to tell if there are any paths with the summer leaves view. I'll have to check out some fall maps to see what's going on. Might just walk over there myself tomorrow. Have the day off from "moving in" boredom. Even if there is ONE good deciduous tree in those woods, it's on like Donkey Kong! That could be my new spot! When Google says a 30 minute walk, that's more like 20-25 min for me! =-D
 
So, I was wrong in guessing the respectives diameters for the holes' implantation. The pump's mount is bigger than I thought at first. This sounds pretty solid now. I guess you used threaded inserts in the plate to bolt on the pump's mount. I'm not familiar with these components.
Nice milling pattern on the plate.
Yeah the big problem was lack of concentricity. But I also realized the adapter plate was too thin and flexible. Also, two of the holes were threaded and the aluminum was too soft and thin, so they had rattled out. Hence the steel inserts.
 
Two lift days in 110 and 108* weather. Plus 4 hours driving to and from to pick it up and drop it off. Ooops, forgot I had to drive further out to pick it up. 40 mins more. They forgot to road the lift to my store. So they gave me a free day to go get it. Nice.
But once we started working, it became apparent the lift had a broken couple of links in the chain the hydraulic lines and wires run in when you extend and retract the boom. Tried to eat itself. So the guys fed it back with a pole hook as I retracted. Sucked. Called service and they sent a guy end of day yesterday to fix it. So he fabbed up a bracket that captured the links. Straghtened the links. I helped. Got done at 530 or 6 out in the heat. Got down to 108 when I moved the lift to my shop.
Finally home now from dropping it off and moving the chipper back to the shop.
Pinched nerve in my hip. Not letting up.
Oh well. Made some good bank and burned some fuel. Two tanks in the diesel alone.

Im whooped
 
That's a lot of damned driving for a broken lift, and they're all broken lifts, aren't they? Seems like that's always the piece of equipment that's acting up on my jobs. My client has tons of iron, but I'm not sure they own a lift. I think they always rent them, and they're always broken.
 
I've had good ones. But I sure get my fair share of broken ones. They make it right on my bill. But the toll on my time and patience can be high. I really lucked out with the gem of a mechanic they sent me. We both could make the other laugh. He appreciated my help and ice cold water. Would not take a tip. Offered to buy him dinner. He just wated to head home. Took pride in his work. Obviously not his first rodeo. Normally I get guys that probably could not pull off fabbing a part out of a piece of angle iron he had lying in the truck.
 
I think they always rent them, and they're always broken.

The insurance and liability is the reason, for a construction company it's basically less of a headache to simply rent exactly the model you need for the job. The trailer mounted ones lead an incredibly hard life, because that's often homeowners renting and beating them up. Construction guys often beat theirs to death too, but they are usually a simpler more durable design, either scissor lift or straight stick boom with a jib, and since they're usually transported by a semi they are built much heavier because weight isn't as critical of an issue. We do use the small electric boom lifts inside a bunch on smaller spaces, and those are much more temperamental and easily damaged.
 
Today is 4Runner day. I just finished getting the new battery and battery connectors finished. It was fun to geek out on all my wiring tools and parts. Not so much fun to figure out how to make AWG and whatever mm² Toyota used work together. Next, I have to make the hood latch functional again, and istall the new hood release and grill. I also have a new bumper to go on. Then I'll be done on the front end. AC works well. I've got mold growing inside, which was a surprise. Not sure how to neutralize that. Then it's back to laying underneath to remove the third member. Nice to make progress on it.

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I have corn...

Acorn...

No, a corn...

...on my left foot.

And it hurts so much. I need surgery because the Dremel isn't doing anything anymore and it's grown down to the bone. I need a pediatrist. I waited until I moved to MA, when my benefits are better, before looking for a surgeon. Ugh. It hurts on everything. Espeically on hardwood and tile. Even on shag carpet. Even with insoles on top of the soles of my Adidas shoes. It hurts enough to be concerned. I don't want to have to wear shoes 24/7, but that's where I'm at. I need a doctor! =-P

In othe news, my new apartment is amazing and I'm so glad I left my nutcase girlfriend in AZ; I'm so glad I left AZ period. Goodbye west coast, hello East coast. My only regret is that I never got to meet @Kaveman in person! But our friendship has always overcome distance! You were already 3 hours away in Arizona with your struggling pickup! Not practical for a meetup, but we tried!

I have you digits! You know I'm relentless! =-D
 
I had and interesting thing happen today. So it was a tall 90-100’ hickory about 14” at the stump. Nice straight trunk to about 50’ up to a two lead top that both leads folded over and looked like a green and brown Cousin It. Shot a line and pulled it over easy. So after we had it cut up into logs and chipable the butt log split lengthwise on its own. I did a conventional under cut and diagonal cut, clean back cut, cut up to about an inch and half holding wood, easy pull.
I’ve never had a log split itself like that, long after it was bucked up. Stored stress of some kind? It looked like nice clean straight grain tight growth rings.
 
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