Quote of the Day

And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long. - Sylvia Plath

Found on Frog Blog.

It Runs!

Finally got all the pieces bolted on, hoses connected, wires plugged in, radiator installed, crankcase filled with oil, throttle cable hooked up (that was a pain), coolant added to cooling system, but then we find the battery is dead. I had a battery charger. I know I did. I had it for years, but now when I need it, I can't find it. Did I give it away? Did someone borrow it? Is it hiding in a corner somewhere? Don't know. In any case I couldn't find it. Took the Les Schwab battery back to Les, they put it on a charger for an hour or two and then tested and said she's a goner, dude. So they sold me a replacement at the pro-rated price of forty some odd dollars, which I thought was a pretty good deal, since I had obviously killed it by letting it set in the car, without charging it even once, for a year (!). Put the new battery in and discovered we forgot a ground strap. Connecting it seemed to improve things. It took several tries, and several sessions of head scratching, wondering what could possibly be wrong before it finally fired up and ran just fine.

Still need to install the splash shields, front bumper and wheels. I need to get a bag of those stupid little plastic jobbies they use to hold the splash shields on, but that's about it.

Quote of the Day

“We read to know we are not alone.” C.S. Lewis

Found on Andrea's Bookclub, which seems to consist solely of book reviews. I'm not a big fan of C.S. Lewis. I read a couple of his books a long time ago and they were fine stories. But then I read something about how his stories were allegories about god and religion and how the lion was god or something and I thought "what a load of rubbish". So I guess I wouldn't have anything against ol' C.S. if I hadn't read what someone else thought of him.

Anyway, I sometimes wonder why I write this blog. I suppose it's mostly because I hope someone will read it and possibly find something useful, or maybe just interesting.

I just stumbled over a post about sculpture, and I just realized artists make things for the same reason I write. They are trying to communicate with people, but for them words are somehow not enough. Most modern art strikes me as silly, and museums full of great art bore me to tears. But people are ... I was going to say oblivious, but that's not really the right term, even though they are. People can only focus on a few small things at a time. When your day is filled with obligations, how much time do you have to look outside of your little world and see what's going on? That's what artists and writers are trying to do, they are trying to show you something from somewhere else. Maybe it will give you an idea, or maybe it will provide you with a little enjoyment. One can hope.

Collectibles

Went over to Jack's Mom's house the other day to pick up a spare set of oxy-acetylene tanks. Saw some cool stuff while we were there.

Monitor - Cast iron nozzle for hydraulic mining.

 WWII era military AM communications radio

Disk from a player piano

The old man also had several two cylinder, horizontally opposed, two stroke Maytag washing machine engines.

Chrysler Sebring Day N+1

When we dropped the engine out of the car two months ago, not all of the lines had been properly disconnected. In particular, the fuel line hung us up, and in the excitement of the moment I elected to cut the dang thing instead of trying to figure out how to disconnect it. Today I paid for that rash action. $17 to be precise, for a plastic fuel line repair kit. Went by O'Reilly Auto Parts, because that was the last place that was helpful. I should have known better. I went by there yesterday to pick up a couple of hose clamps. They had them, which was good, but they were packaged in a blister pack and hanging on the display rack! That tells me it is a generic retail operation and not a real auto parts store. On the other hand I noticed that they had quite a selection of tools, including taps (tools for cutting screw threads in metal) which is something I would not normally expect to find in such a place.

Anyway, they couldn't help with my fuel line problem, so we headed over to NAPA. NAPA is not my favorite, their prices are generally a little higher and they are closed on Sundays, which sometimes interferes with my sinning. On the plus side, NAPA can get you what you need, even if it is obscure, or you screwed up by cutting a fuel line you didn't need to cut. And sure enough, they had a plastic fuel line repair kit.  All I really need from the kit is about four inches of tubing and the little metal ferrel. You know in the good old days, fuel line was either reinforced rubber hose, or copper tubing, and the one could be connected to the other with a simple hose clamp.Now we've got this plastic tube with funny plastic connectors on the ends. There's probably a million dollars worth of engineering in this part, but it only costs a nickel to make it, and then sell it for $17. The dealer probably wants $35, but it would be a snap to install. I still have some work to do to repair my fuel line using the kit I got from NAPA.

There's another factor in play here as well. Back in the good old days, fuel lines were suction lines. The fuel pump was on the motor, and it sucked the fuel from the tank in the back of the car. The pressure on the suction line was negative. Nowadays, we've got electric fuel pumps that produce something like 50 or 60 PSI (pounds per square inch) of pressure, which we need to keep the fuel injectors happy. So while a leak in an old time fuel line would make your car run poorly or not a all, a leak in a modern fuel line will spray gasoline everywhere, making a big cloud of explosive gas. Good thing fuel lines don't often leak.

Then there was the brake line. The line from the anti-lock brake unit to the right front wheel runs across the top of the front cross-member, which also supports the radiator. There are three little plastic clips that hold this line in place, and when we dropped the motor out, they did not want to let go and so they drug the brake line with them and reformed it into a new and more artistic shape. Which means it did not want to fit back where it was supposed to go. It still isn't right. I think I am going to need to stuff some rags between it and the frame so vibration doesn't wear a hole in it. That would be bad.

We did remember to disconnect the exhaust pipe when we dropped the engine. We did it by cuttting the exhaust pipe in half. If all goes well, I plan on taking it to the muffler shop and having them do a proper repair. Meanwhile, just to keep the exhaust pipe from dragging, and to keep the noise down to a dull roar, we patched the pipe with a piece of tin and a couple of hose clamps. It looks so good I might just leave it.


We misplaced one of the bolts that hold the A/C (air conditioning lines) to the compressor. Fortunately, I found one in my box-of-bolts. Unfortunately, it was an Allen head (uses a hex key). Fortunately, I just happened to have the right size metric Allen wrench with a 3/8 inch square drive. I had completely forgotten about it.

Back of the engine showing the power steering pump (blue), hoses (purple) and steering shaft and tie rod ends (yellow).

Also misplaced the screw that holds the power steering reservoir in place, which makes me think there is another jug of bolts hiding in the garage somewhere. The power steering was kind of a trick deal. By unfastening the reservoir, we were able to drop all the power steering stuff along with the engine. We did have to disconnect one hose briefly to disengage it from the aforementioned brake line. But that was all. After we got the engine out, we were able to remove the power steering pump from the engine. So we were able to remove all of the power steering from the engine without having to disconnect any of the hoses.

Bliss, aka Mutluluk

Bliss, aka Mutluluk. A fine film. In Turkish, with subtitles. Stars Özgü Namal, directed by Abdullah Oguz. Stars Ozgu, directed by Oguz. I shouldn't make fun, there are probablyEnglish names that exhibit similar characteristics.

Young woman shepherd from rural village is assaulted. According to tradition, she is tainted and condemned to death. They almost talk her into hanging herself, but at the last minute she backs out, just to spite her evil stepmother. The village leader decides they cannot kill her there in the village because there are too many soldiers around. They decide to wait until her half-brother returns from the military and have him take her to Istanbul and kill her there.

We've got some seriously screwed up folks here. Makes me wonder how they got this way. I suspect poverty has a lot to do with it. One less woman means that many fewer babies to feed and raise. One less woman makes all the remaining women somewhat more valuable. Not actually valuable mind you, just worth something more than nothing.

The story goes on, things happen, it is a bit of a Cinderella story. At the end Meryem talks for a bit, and it's like more than she has said during the entire rest of the film.

Update April 2016 replaced picture with larger one.

Quote of the Day

Rumsfeld Sorry for ‘Axis of Weasels’ Remark

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace

(2003-01-22) — U.S. Secretary Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized today for referring to France and Germany as an “Axis of Weasels.”

“I’m sorry about that Axis of Weasels remark,” said Mr. Rumsfeld. “I didn’t mean to dredge up the history France and Germany share of pathetic compliance with ruthless dictators.”

The Defense Secretary said he was “way out of bounds” with the comments.

“I should have known better than to remind people that these two nations–which live in freedom thanks only to the righteous might of America, Britain and their allies–that these nations are morally and politically bankrupt, and have failed to learn the lessons of history,” he said. “It really was an inappropriate thing to say–you know, the Axis of Weasels thing. I really should not have called them the Axis of Weasels. I think it’s the ‘Weasels’ part that was most offensive…you know, when I said that France and Germany form an Axis of Weasels. Of course, I’m so sorry.”

I know this is old news, or rather not-news, but I just love it. With a name like Scrappleface, you know it's not true, and Snopes verifies it's falsisity. Which is really too bad. If Rumsfeld, shoot, if anyone in the administration had said it , I would be over the moon.

P.S. Scrappleface sees to be on hiatus. Last post was a year ago.
Update April 2017 Scrappleface is back in business.