The Summer of 2024

This is becoming an interesting summer. 

To start with, there was a memorable woodshop experience in Arizona, even before the summer began. The boss and I have been wintering in Mesa, AZ for several years. The park we visit is called The Resort and has a woodshop. The day-to-day operation of this facility is handled by resident volunteers. One day, in March, while I was monitoring the shop operation as part of my volunteer time, I was asked  by the club presideent to turn in my keys and leave the shop.

To say that I was shocked would be an understatement.

I did return to the shop for the remainder of the season and used the lathe. No more monitoring. What will happen this fall is yet to be determined. 

We got a little lost on the way home from Arizona. It was near Dodge City, Kansas. I was driving and missed a turn, Google told me to turn, but I just missed it. Now, the map program immediately reroutes so as not to lose any valuable travel time. We quickly found ourselves on a narrower road, then a road without a fog line, and to top it off, we were now driving on a dirt road. The boss quipped, "If this gets to be a 2-lane track with grass in the middle...".

The reroute finally finished with us and served up a more acceptable road. As my pal Bill would say, "No harm, no foul." At least there was no lake involved that day.

In late June, we traveled to Greer, Arizona, by car, along the same roads we had ridden north in April, to participate in a birthday party for our granddaughter. Greer is in the White Mountains on the eastern border of Arizona, at about 9,000 ft of elevation. Our son and his family maintain a small travel trailer there and we joined them for the early July birthday celebration.

Only one small problem with this plan.

I have always had some sensitivity in my upper respiratory system to environmental conditions. This situation has deteriorated to the point of my not being able to tolerate a 9000-foot altitude. 

We had to leave early.

Things were much better at a lower altitude east of Albuquerque. I hope that our granddaughter understands that future birthdays will be celebrated at the half-birthday mark, sometime in January, in Tucson.

If I back up a little, there was a bowl in the 2023 Artist Poet Collaboration at Red Wing Arts.

A seat, a driveshaft, and a carburetor. First, the seat. We purchased a used van several years ago for our trips to the southwest. The Boss complained, mildly, that the driver's seat was not straight and that it was hard to use for more than 2 minutes at a time. This summer, I fixed it. A new cushion from the dealership, a little upholstery work, hog rings were involved, and it is now repaired. Some things take a lot longer than necessary to get underway.

The driveshaft situation literally became a pain in the arse. One of our vehicles is a rear-wheel drive sedan which has a driveshaft with a center bearing. The failure of that bearing introduced a nasty vibration right into the driver's seat. Truly a royal pain. I hope it is fixed.

Our Big Healey, 1957 100-6. Posted here in Blogspot on December 20, 2011. Yes, that old crate has a carburetor. A leaking float bowl left the carburetor dry resulting in a hard start situation. A little tightening and sealing maintenance was needed to rectify the issue.

I met an author, not in person, but through e-mail. Lindsey Drager was an artist-in-residence at the Anderson Center in 2019. While she was there, defining a topic for her novel, she happened on the block for Saturn in the Tower View Model of the Solar System while jogging the Cannon Valley Trail. Now, the book, The Avian Hourglass, is published. The solar system model became part of the story. I provided background information about the model, its conception and construction.

It is a fantastic and well-written tale about relationships and human nature. I will read it again. And again.

The story of her journey to the finished book can be found at; https://lithub.com/a-marionette-in-the-milky-way-on-finding-your-way-into-the-story-you-want-to-tell/

The Tower View Model of the Solar System. Posted here in Blogspot on August 25, 2015.

A letter to the editor published in Physics Today, 12/2019, led Ms Drager to my e-mail address. https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/72/2/12/825311/The-inventor-of-puffed-rice

Hearing aids became part of my life.

Drat! COVID-19 caught up to me in June.

Don fell last week while doing some landscaping in his yard and broke his femur. I know this is off-the-wall, but it just happened. He suffered a stroke as a result of the injury and remains in the stroke unit at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Don is part of our Friday evening and Wednesday morning informal social gatherings. The Boss and I care for him very much. We will do whatever we can to support his continued recovery.

There are 10 SpectraPly bowls in progress.

Keep 'em running

as always

The Glass Stacker's Assistant