A better day

We have sundogs today, the joy of a cold winter morning.

The GlassStacker and I have done our Christmas travel early. We went to Gramma's last weekend for a really nice visit. We will have family Christmas at home. The GlassStacker will cook ribs and fixings and I will assist by keeping the fire stoked, gathering supplies and generally being available.

Late Fall in Minnesota

Winter, not yet on the calendar, is on the ground and needs to be shoveled. It is the time when the belt that drives the snowblower is discovered to be in need of replacement. Put on the mittens, boots, real clothes and hat, find the shovel and have at it.

Winter is on the ground.

The Ford runs again

There is joy in the land. I finally made the time to properly troubleshoot the Aspire. It was a bad fuel pressure regulator, $4 at U-Pull, and the thing starts and runs beautifully. This car is so ugly that it has to run really great.

I am waiting for parts for the VW. The motor is all apart on the bench and mostly in the way. I hope the bearing inserts and gaskets will be here today so I can get it to the roller/runner stage and drive it around a bit. Mother nature will not cooperate with snowless streets forever. Then I'll start the dent removal and painting on days when I have to be in the garage.

The other project is the ambulance painting for the Red Cross. The local chapter received an ambulance from Gold Cross in Rochester. Bill and I have removed all the GC labels and logos. We are going to paint the lower portion of the vehicle tomorrow afternoon. When the job is done the Goodhue County Red Cross will have a support vehicle to use as they need it.

UPS has arrived. I am off to the garage. Keep 'em running


Tom

The GlassStacker revisited

In my recent post, I lost sight of the aim of the blog, The GlassStacker.

She finds the glass, selects and arranges the pieces for each stack, then creates the stack.

Stacks are made whenever time and space permit. She teaches Art full-time, makes Ukrainian eggs, runs the household (I help), has a social life and is a caring, loving partner and friend.

Keep 'em running

Tom

The GlassStacker

By now some among you are wondering just what a glassstacker is or does. I am a bit pretentious as I have only one follower, the GlassStacker herself, and she already knows what she is doing. So on the off chance that there might eventually be another reader, here goes.


The photo below is of some of the dozens of glass stacks that are all around our yard and home. (Yes, that is a geodesic dome in the background, it is part of our screened deck.)

Stacks are made from whatever glass objects that can be found, inexpensively found, at the various thrift stores in our community and the surrounding area. We have also visited stores in faraway places and shipped glass in our checked luggage or by UPS because we found that interesting piece for the latest creation. In addition, our kids, friends, and neighbors all bring us glass. We have a lot of raw material around here.

The concept is easy to put down on a blog, one simply has to buy the glass, decide on an interesting arrangement, and stick it all together. If it were only that easy, I could do it. As the assistant, I have observed the process and recognize that I have neither the aptitude or the temperament for the task.

An interesting twist has been added to the sculptures the past few weeks. A small solar powered LED fits very nicely on top of the stack and the light from the LED projects through the glass with effects that are at once predictable and unexpected. We have spend many evenings watching and waiting for the first little lamp to turn on, then being in awe of the resulting patterns and colors produced as they all light up for us.

So much for today. Keep 'em running.

Tom

The Bonneville Salt Flats

When I started this blog I intended to post an entry for each day of my recent trip to the Bonneville salt flats in Wendover, Utah. That didn't happen. There are a million excuses for the lack of posts, none good.
The trip was a great success! I got ambushed by a cold on the way home Sunday, but I feel much better today. The motivation for going to Bonneville was provided by a group of Austin Healey owners and restorers who recreated two historic vehicles from the 1954 world speed record attempts on the salt by Donald Healey.


The endurance car


and the streamliner


were each faithful recreations of the original vehicles which set endurance and speed records in 1954.

I have wanted to go to Bonneville for decades. When I started to plan the trip one of the first things I looked at was my Hot Rod Yearbook from 1964, just to see what the salt, the cars and the people looked like and to get a feel for the place. I did find a photo of Bert Monro and his Indian but that is beside the point. What I found on the salt was far more than could ever be part of the yearbook.

The sunlight is bright and the salt surface is very reflective, I think Dan said 403% of normal. I don't know what people did without modern sunscreen. I was sure lathered up.

The people on the salt are all comrades. The Utah Salt Flats Racing Association members who run the show, the racers, crew members, other hangers-on, and the spectators all seemed perfectly willing to help each other make every speed run the best possible.

Dan and "The Beast" at Bonneville

The type of competition found at Bonneville encourages cooperation. Every racer on the salt is alone with his or her car or motorcycle, using the machine to take on the wind and the salt with the goal of beating the clock for a personal best or new world record. There are numerous classes from the AA streamliners that travel over 368 miles/hour to the Crosley that went 70 miles/hour. It is a great "run what you brung" culture.

I am going back.

Keep 'em running

Tom

A morning with my aunt

I went to St Louis Park today to visit my aunt and godmother Adeline. We had a great visit, I stayed for aboiut 1.5 hours and talked about everyone. Adeline told me stories about her parents, my parents, my kids, her kids, and grandchildren. All the while we were talking, she introduced every staff member that came by. I met more people than I can remember including the day cook, the night cook, the person that cleans the rooms, the CEO, a custodian with a grip of steel, all casually dressed, and they all know Adeline.

Tried to fix the cruise control on the Aspire when I got home. No joy.

Keep 'em running

Tom

A fresh start

Restart, This is the second post. I have no idea where the first went.

This car was built by a young man from Embarrass, Minnesota. It is powered by a Honda Snow Blower engine using a V belt drive.

Embarrass Region Fair, 31 August, 2009