2022: What are you doing today?

[Crosley.In.AZ]

We stopped at local home improvement store this morning. Parked slightly away from other vehicles like we always do.

Came out to this 20 minutes later.  I circled our car in yelllow. I will never understand it.

[58 Yeoman]

Me neither.  Same thing on the highway; they will pace you with no other cars around.

[chimp koose]

The person pulled into the lot and wanted direct exit parking like you. They saw the spot to your left and avoided it as they would have to judge distance on the far side of the car . By now they were moving in to park and would have to swing out and then in to park one space away from you so just followed their curve and swung in next to you saving them exactly 3 steps to the store . Courteous not at all . Lazy at the expense of courtesy 

[Crosley.In.AZ]

The person pulled into the lot and wanted direct exit parking like you. They saw the spot to your left and avoided it as they would have to judge distance on the far side of the car . By now they were moving in to park and would have to swing out and then in to park one space away from you so just followed their curve and swung in next to you saving them exactly 3 steps to the store . Courteous not at all . Lazy at the expense of courtesy 

Makes sense... couple weeks ago as we walked away from the car, a truck pulled in next to our car.  I walked back and moved our car many spaces further out.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Me neither.  Same thing on the highway; they will pace you with no other cars around.

Had an extreme case of this in New Mexico about 20 yrs ago.  Road trip to my brothers house in El Paso TX.

I was at speed limit plus 5 or 6.  Gal was pacing me about 70 feet back in the inside lane. I was on cruise control and slowed the car down a few mph, then slower, then slower. She stayed there. I stepped on the brake since there were no other cars near us.  I rolled into the emergency lane at a very slow pace.  She went on down the road finally.

weird it was. 

[idrivejunk]

Felt like good progress this week at work but missed a day and over a half due to ice storm. Weather closings are art opportunities.

[kb426]

It got up to 68 degrees today. That makes me forget freezing last week. I procured a stick of tubing to reinforce the bedcover on the 51 this week. I moved the snow blower to the shed. It may be premature but I don't care. I'm tired of working around it. I spent most of the afternoon outside in the sun. The dakota is clean now as well as the mustang bullitt wheels I had on the front of the F16. This was a wonderful way to end February.

[kb426]

I serviced the dakota today. With all of the shutdowns in the last year, it was driven a little over 2,000 miles. It's 21 years old and has 95,000 miles on it. After that, I used a bagger mower and scalped the yard. I was surprised at all of the dirt that came up. My plan was to make it easier to kill the newly sprouted weeds. Plenty out there. After spraying, the rest of the week will be spent on the F16. It got up to 74 degrees this afternoon. I was sweating pretty good. That's a good day in my world.

[chimp koose]

I received my new mill to my school shop yesterday , now have to wait for our maintenance crew to install it  . nice machine Modern 3VM 3HP  50 x 10 table , digital readout on X,Y, Z (knee)axis, power feed on X and Y axis. I may try to put a digital readout on the quill as well ,as I have that on one of my other mills and it is quite handy . I am replacing a mill that was put in service in 1967 and may have been a used machine then. The BEAVER mill was made in England and the company went bankrupt in the mid 80's . Repair parts are next to impossible to find . I saved the digital readout from it to possibly install on my Milwaukee horizontal mill (the beast). I must be a bit odd , I am glad to have my new mill but kind of wistful about retiring the old soldier , it had served me well.

[123pugsy]

What? They still have shop class in schools?

[chimp koose]

Yup pugsy we do ! my school has welding, machining, mechanics, woods, electrical ,cosmetology, sewing, commercial cooking and a graphic arts/photography dept. It is one of 2 schools in our city to have this many shops . We are the main reason that a lot of kids come to school regularly . I have at least one kid a year pursue machining as a career . I have a few shops in town that will call me when they are looking for a new guy and some that I will call when I get a really good kid who is serious about the trade as a career . It is a great feeling to send a kid out from graduation straight into the trade . I often have a student or 2 who I help find a job at a machine shop while they are still in grade 11 when I know they really want this trade . That work experience while attending school really helps them focus on their school work .

[123pugsy]

That's terrific.

It's a shame that welding courses only teach stick and MIG usually.
I called a private local welding school to have some prospective employees sent over. They arrived and said the class didn't teach TIG welding. D'OH!

I'm thinking of setting up a course in my garage when I retire. There are just no welders out there for hire these days. The machine shops in your area are lucky to have you and your school.

[kb426]

Yesterday was another boring day in the yard. It did get to 78 degrees, though. It was nice not to be cold.

[58 Yeoman]

Yesterday was in the high fifties, so I washed the inside of the truck windows and vacuumed the floors. After my mandatory nap, though.

[chimp koose]

Our welding shop teaches Gas, stick, mig and tig. I like to teach them gas welding first as it is a slow puddle and teaches them to watch the puddle and pay attention to torch angle . They seem to better follow instructions to arc welding after learning gas as the attention to torch angle transfers to where the heat goes with rod angle . We have a very well equipped welding shop as school shops go . The welding instructor and I are both car guys and there is always a car project going on in one of our shops.