T’ursdaze t’inks
Lets talk about money today. Not just those FRN’s, and for the uninitiated, that means “Federal Reserve Notes”, which are FIAT money, IE, Money based on nothing but faith.
Or as one of my past readers put it “Fucked In Ass Thoroughly” money.
Well, the FRN’s have been with us for over 100 years,,, I don’t recall, though it wouldn’t take much to check (lazy right now) when the notes went from stating ‘backed by gold’ to what they say now: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private” Tender or Tinder,,, doesn’t seem like much of a difference some days, does it? Almost as if the choice in term were intentional misdirection.
We went off the Gold Standard in the early 70’s, right towards the end of the Vietnam War. Prior to that we debased the currency from Constitutionally Prescibed formulations (a set ratio of silver and other metals and by weights.) in 1965.
61 years and our currency is essentially plug nickles and toilet paper, that people take on faith.
And even further, 90+% of transactions these days don’t even use that! 9 outta 10 are ‘put it on the card’ transactions. Paychecks are literal electronic transfers between banks nowdays with a stub being your receipt of that transfer. No actual exchange of anything but imaginary numbers, or Ones and Zeros between computers.
Try to exchange silver coins at market value. Best bet is to find a bullion dealer and hope they give you spot, or near spot. Take the same to a pawn shop or some place that ‘we buy gold and silver’ shop and you will get 50% of spot OR LESS. One place near me give 30% at best (least to say, I do NOT encourage anyone to use that place for anything… They sell at 20% over spot, and they are still doors open tells me there are some seriously math lacking peeps in the area.)
But think about this: The kids today, the ones that were born AFTER 9-11, They have zero clue what real money is. Even I, having been born after the debasing, was clueless to what ‘Real’ Money was until the early Aughts and only because I was having an awakening of the lies and obfuscations slowly dismantling the world as I knew it.
Do you think those kids would understand that the actual value of the silver dollar was MUCH MORE than its face value? (or even understand that the reason for that discrepency is called INFLATION: that the value of that coin is ACTUAL value and the paper simularcum is worth-less?)
How does a society revert to a real money after decades of Three Card Monte by unknown and un-elected bankers?
Obviously there has to be some education factor involved, and anyone that has attended any sort of schooling since 1975 can tell you that such is NOT in the curriculum. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if there weren’t any teachers capable of that line of study. Maybe some History teacher types, but they would be more interested in the parallels between now and what happened in 2nd Century Roman Empire.
It only got worse after Carter created the EA and essentially federalized all funding to public education.
(another forgotten promise from the current admin,,, Hear occasional blurbs about dismantling the EA, but have they? Not that I have heard.)
Nothing is as it appears, or being told. Maps say things the media is not. Actions speak much louder than words. And the words we are being told don’t add up well.
Are we going down as a country? Dunno. I do beleive our currency is in for serious turmoil and that means us, here on the streets are gonna feel it FIRST. Much like that inflation thing. The lenders always feel it last as they are the ones that drive it. I’m hearing rumors of defaulting on National Debt (as if there were any other option,,, We passed the point of no return many many years back, IMO) But look at that Map thingy above and ask yourself one quesiton: Who Benefits?
the world in flux, Super Powers on the ropes. New actors fixing themselves up in new ways. NOTHING will be the same in 10 years, and No one can predict what that will look like.
“prepare accordingly” comes to mind, but what the hell does that even mean anymore?
Well, in my little world, it means regression. Take things back to simpler means. Manual labor sort of stuff. I have not set up my garden this year and that might bite me in the ass later in the year, but I do have means that do not require AI or Internet to function. I have systems in place that, while not replacing the Grid at large, support my meager needs quite well. And I have knowledge: not just ‘book learning’ but real practical hands on stuff.
And the greatest weapon that the PTwB fear: An independent learned brain.
Live
LEARN
Laugh
LOVE
LOAD!!!
Humpday nuthin’s
Seriously, got nuthin’ to add to the fray. Avoiding the Poly-tick-ian sphere with a 20′ pole because the mess I do catch is “one minute to midnite” crap, so far out of my control and comfort levels as to make me wanna crawl in a hole and pull the entrance in after me.
Not goin’ there.
Bloo is doing good. still a misfire, and still working on that diag, Very likely, its an injector issue. Ruled out plug wire last night, haven’t ruled out the plug, but these plugs are the new ones from BLoos’s last engine. Barely 100 miles on ’em. Haven’t ruled out valve adjustment either, but I did ‘listen in’ with the stethoscope and heard nothign but sliding noises of cam and roller lifters. (not ruling valves out as I should hear a ‘tink’ when the valve closes, but didn’t hear that. They may be hanging open a hair.)(in my defense, I’m about as close to deaf as you can get without tripping the Disablity Act: I may have missed that noise)
Part of me wants to complain, and the other part of me tries to beat the whiner down with a 2×4. Hell, Ia m in so much better of a position from where I was last week. Its partly my paranoia levels. (like listening to the block with the stethoscope, and hearing a minor tick at the front of the block. Yes, it may be that this crank is developing a ron knock. It DID have 189K on it when pulled. But that I can not hear it except when using listening aids and barely even then,,, Just keep the oil levels good and clean and shouldn’t be an issue for at least another year.)
And like my favo-Rite brudda by anudda mudda B says, “you’re over-thinking again! STOP THAT!”
She runs. She is actually getting halfway decent fuel milage from what I can see (will know for certain come payday when I fill her to the brim) I am babying her, warm ups in the morning, not pushing hard while she learns how to be a gear box engine, not a slushbox engine. (big differences there, think about it.) and more than a little paranoid of failures with the last six months of “now whats?”
Having finally welded the exhaust completely, she isn’t near as loud as she was just a bare week ago. She is actually more a joy to drive than prior, and I weren’t complain nune then.
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Good day today. Had to put on the McGuyver Hat for several hours, fixin’ a trio of swinging gates another company installed at a house we are putting new fencing up at. Lost keys, but we had a set from a similar latchsystem. Those worked perfect, and then adjust and re-align things so gates close smooth and actually LATCH without needing manipulations. It sounds droll, but little things like that, where I MUST think, and distract me from the muhndanity of the real world about me,,, BLISS!!!! Five hours will slide by like flowing water and I won’t notice. Managed to squeeze in seven hours with follow up with the actual fencing crew. It all adds up to a better paycheck.
and I passed out some of my business cards today as well. Of course I haven’t heard a damend thing yet, time will tell how this plays out.
Love y’all. I hope your world is improving as I feel like mine is. It may not be grand and clorious, but its not a complete hell ether.
LIVE
Learn
LAugh
LOVE
LOAD!!!
First day on the job
As in Bloo’s first REAL day on the job. (not my J.O.B., HER job.)
Things seem ok. No drippy oil spots (watching that front pan closely for the now.) Nothing smokin’ out the pipes or anything (I occasionally catch whiff of oil burning, but there is so much spread around underneath, from prior blowing leaks and dripping from joints in the exhaust pipe,, Not overly concerned with an occasional whiff. I do look though! Still just paranoid enough.
Codes today 1345, and two for Oxy sensors. BOTH O2 codes are sorta fixed now. Both codes for secondaries, one of which is MIA since it was cut off with the catalytic converters. (need to buy a bung and weld it in, then get BOTH sensors new. Not a rush order here. I can deal,,,) Good news is that the primaries are doing their thing just fine now. Nice and spikey on the graph as they walk around A/F ratio of 14.7:1
And that 1345 code. Thats the one saying the Crank sensor is not synched to the Cam sensor. Got under hood and found the distro hold down bolt just loose enough to let the distro be sloppy. I tightened that up but haven’t gone for a cruise yet. Figure it can wait. Cleared all the codes out and did some digging around in the computer. Found one misfire for #3, and a growing number for #4. Plug wire wasn’t seated well, probaby all it was. Pulled the plug anyway. It looked fouled so I hit with a torch to clean off the gunk. Seems a little better, probably some junk in the cylinder that needs burned out. Again, Will see tomorrow when I do all of this again.
All in all, MUCH HAPPIER ABOUT BLOO. Poor Buffalo looks so lonely in her stall though. At least she won’t be neglected. Just gonna be some time before i can really dig in. Mostly steering geometry needing replaced. upper A-arms definitely, but tie rod ends (both sorts) idler arm and the Pitman arm that I keep neglecting as its a REAL PITA on the S-10s. If figure if I do that engine swap on her as I have planned, I can do all of the front end at the same time, as then, access is EASY.
But thats not “NOW”,,, future and we never know what the future may hold. They may blow the world to smittereens by the end of the week.
And I really don’t give a rats ass anymore. (Lie,, I actually care a great deal, just can’t let them get under my skin anymore, so I ignore the crap. I have Zero Control over those fucknutz and they aren’t sane. ,,,,
rant over.)
tomorrow is hump day, I have no clue whats on Dio’s agenda at the J.O.B.,,, Actually, little clue on any of my agenda right now. I’m just taking it as it comes,,,,Trying to keep the FRN’s flowing in (as I watch them flow out at nearly the same pace,,,,sigh.) and get one more year under my belt while attempting to kill this debt I picked up. So far so good, tight, but expected.
and I find I’ve nothing to say,,,,
Love y’all
LIVE
Learn
Laugh
LOVE
LOAD!!!
AAR: BlooTwuck round 117
Swap done,,, Short day today, so went to Da’s and started some wrenching. I did change the timing gears, cover and water pump, made sure things were a good to go there: especially down at the bottom end where the timing cover meets the oil pan. If need be, I can swap a pan gasket easy, with no need to pull a transmission. Watching for now.
Compression test done. All within a few PSI of 175: No real stinkers that i could see, and this was a ‘dry’ test. I didn’t put any oil in anywhere, just the oil being pushed around by the pump.
Fired her up right around 4 pm. LOUD AS F! of course she was, I hadn’t rewelded the exhaust pipes yet. Needed her outside for that. BUT SHE RAN!! and only took a couple of hits to get the fuel primed in the system.
Exhaust welded up, coolant topping off and burping, and smoke everywhere for a few minutes as she burned all that oil out of the pipes and off the engine where I made messes (mostly anti-seize or Free-all penetrating oil) Final burp on the coolant, time to run down the road and help burn that shit off, AND see what she is gonna do: impress or surprise me.
IMPRESSED. Oil pressure rides a steady 50psi at cruise, sits right around 30=35 at idle, Coolant running in the window of the T-stat:185, Voltage looks good. No wyrd noises (a little bit of an exhaust leak at the manifold, and I sort of expected that with swapping out that manifold. New gasket set ordered.) I think this engine was much better taken care of than Bloos original, but then, seeing the last 6 months of fun, that ain’t sayin’ much. Still Oil pressure like that and the compression readings,,, Yeah,, this’uns good to go. I even ran down the highway, and fueled up. I’m hoping those new O2 sensors help some with the fuel consumption. (Side note: Cozzie does NOT like the fact that I can’t roll his window up while on the highway, nor the fact that there isn’t a back seat to escape to if the wind is too much. Poor puppers,,, he’ll adapt.)
Finally made it home around 7 pm. and started doing the change over from Buffalo to Bloo. Yes, I am that confident this time around, and its time she started earning her keep.
Shower out of the way, all the tools where they will be needed, (and then some) Time to turn this whirl-a-gig in a better direction. And let Buffalo have a well needed rest (so I can fix HER )
Love y’all, talk more tomorrow.
Love
Learn
Laugh
LOVE
LOAD!
R.I.P. Miss Bear-Bear. That was the bad news I received this AM on arrival to the J.O.B. She will be missed.
9 hours is enough for one day
Not done yet, but oh so so close,,,
Except, no, not really.
Decided since I wasn’t in running order, Dot the T’s and Cross the I’s and DO IT RIGHT.
Gonna pull the new WP, timing cover and timing gears off the old swap out, and put them on this’un. AND,,, since all the plugs are already out,,, Do a BASE compression test and note everything I find. The plugs I pulled looked good, but that means little in the big picture.
So, no, at this stage, I don’t even know if she’s a runner or not, other than the short vid I was sent before purchase, and some signs of recent running (like fresh gas and decent oil even if dirty.)
And Burnout finally decided to show his self up today,,,, After I went to his house and used my sledgehammers on his door. Even then, it took him an hour and a half to actually show up. WHICH,,, by that time, Da and I already had the new engine IN, and on the motor mounts. As he was pulling up, I told Da ‘Watch and follow along. I’m gonna get his goat.’ So as Burnout was exiting his hicle, and I saw he was actually watching, I raised my voice with “Thanks Da” and handed Da some cash, which went straight in his pocket (I did get it back later, but wouldn’t have been offended had he held it.) The look on Burnouts face was perfect!!! (besides,,, the boy owes ME money from many other times in the past where I was helping him out. He can pay it back with some labor on occasion.)
He was handy still,,, The big hangup today was getting the Transmission in, and between the two of us, it still took 2 hours to get in properly. And oh boy,,, when that bellhousing ‘Ting!’ed as it sat home,,, what a fricken relief THAT was!!!
And that was the hard part,,, as I told Da; the rest is just details. Lots of little details, but details. And Burnout did help getting the hood back on with me. That was a huge help.
So, here is where she sits as of 6pm,,,,
note, the distro cap is just laying up top, not on the distro. Its there to remind me about all the little details YET to be done. Almost home, except for the Dotting of T’s and Crossing of I’s.
But I am whooped, and my shoulders are athrob from all the scootchin’ around on my back today
And its back to the J.O.B. tomorrow. If its a short day, I will wrap said day out at Da’s pushing to completion.
More laters,,, Love y’all.
Live
Learn
Laugh
LOVE
LOAD!!!
(don’t let that look fool you,, she is ready for war instantly,,,, THE Mama-kat!)
Back at it today
But I saw something I wanted to post about. Having spent 8 months on ship during Desert Storm: aboard the Tarawa, the flag ship of our convoy over there, I can attest to what Matt is talking about. read the inserts,,,
I can tell you, an entire Platoon, stuffed into a steel box about the size of my current house, stacked three deep in ‘racks’ that are smaller than a coffin, cuddling with a rifle because there wasn’t enough space in the armory for our small arms (but they made sure we didn’t have easy acces to the ammo.) in a boat that is designed to ‘sink’ (flooding the cargo hold so the shore boats can come and go with all the trucks, howitzers and tanks that we were carrying)
Toss in 28′ seas off the coast of Malaysia with a bunch of land-lubber motion sick grunts,,,, UGH!!! (FTR, I never suffered motion sickness until just a few years back when kayaking in rough water. Caught me off gaurd seeing how I had never had that issue prior.)
8 months in exactly those conditions described by Matt. I think I STILL have bruises on my noggin’ from the hatchways.
One thing he didn’t describe was ‘Steel Beach Day’. this is a ‘liberty’ provided if the float extends past 6 months. You get TWO beers, and allowed to be in PT gear for the day. Thats it, and since things need to keep running, the ‘beach’ is only open for 4 hour shifts. (that four on, four off thing Matt talks about)
And the Card room is always chaos,, And avoid a session of Spades with the Nogs if you value your hearing. Those of y’uns that have been in know of what I speak. Call it racist if it makes you feel better, but I know the facts of that time. Segregation was a thing and for a reason. (and this was in the 90’s. It’s probably worse now after the Oblammy years.)
BUTZZZZ~~~~~~~~~~~
Its domestics day along with Engine Swap day, and things are about to get BIZZY!!! on my end. One more cuppa, and feed my wet kittehs (they were out playing all night and are a little damp from last nights rains) then Get At IT!
more laters
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
Dio's Workshop 