Hello Nor Cal, and welcome to the shortest month of the year.

Jim

 

Thank you Jim, and your headlights look mahvelous. I did something similar with Mama's Tacoma headlights. I got a little tub of Mother's Mag and aluminum polish and shined these puppies right up. That was about a year and a half ago. They are still "clear", but they've developed some cracking now, which no amount of polishing can clean up. So now I am shopping for replacement assemblies.

 

Finally got rid of the paint splattered tailgate look.



Bought a quart of Rustoleum flat black, and covered it. Also decided to do the whole bedliner with it since it too had white paint splattered everywhere. Not done though. Had to take it to a DIY car wash to get a lot of the dirt out of the bedliner ridges. Will finish up tomorrow when the caregiver does not come over.




Jim

 

You washed the dirt out of the back of your truck?!?

Isn't that like... heresy or something?

 

Well, the kid's done working in San Jose, so I haven't been having to drive so much lately. Just as well, since I remembered what I hated about commuting. At least it was mostly off-hours and counter-commute. I did get rear-ended while waiting for a green light - just a small tap, really - and I blew that, I should have asked her for her phone number and whether she was single. Ah, well.

I've re-joined the Gem & Mineral Society of Castro Valley, after a 13-year hiatus. To quote Joe Walsh in the "Hell Freezes Over" DVD: "It's not like it was fourteen years... we took... we took a week off or something... I don't know, I don't get it." When I went back into the shop after being away for so long, the place felt just the same as when I'd left... looked the same, smelled the same... kinda like coming home. I've been required to cut and polish an agate cabochon (the club's required 'first project'), because I've been away so long, but it's an easy way to get back into the swing of things. I've learned that my thumb muscles aren't used to holding material against the grinding wheels any more, but that will change. I've found and sorted through my pending rock projects; think I've got about 50 stones that I'd started on, now I want to finish them. It looks like I've still got about US$1,000 worth of opal rough, maybe US$1,000 of turquoise rough and a LOT of obsidian. I've also found some of the gold and silver that I used for making settings.

The club's attendance has fallen off and many of the old timers that I remember have died. Because I was a member for so long and because I used to be a shop supervisor there, they've asked me to fill in one of their temporarily vacant spots: Faceting Instructor. I explained that I can do that, but I'm not very good at it. Apparently, I'm the best that's available, so I'll be spending Wednesday nights teaching a couple of people how to turn rough gems into faceted gemstones. The sooner I practice that, the better I'll feel about it. At least I know enough to help keep the machines from being abused (new equivalent machines run US$3,900 per, and we've got five of them). I've ordered 2 kilos of champagne colored Cubic Zirconia rough out of China, that was about US$85 after shipping. The Shop Foreman also gave me some faceting material to use. That should allow me a lot of practice.

I keep "window shopping" parcels of opal rough on the internet. There have been a couple of times that I've almost taken out the credit card, but then kicked myself. "No, don't! You need to sell some jewelry and finish a half-ton of other stones first!".

I haven't done much with the truck, she's been tarped up for the past couple of months - quite the hangar queen. I gave her a tune up, but there's still something clanking under the truck that I need to find and fix. I'll probably spend more time on her when spring arrives. I'm still watching Scuzz Twittly's "My Ride" - and smiling!

 

Sounds like you will be busy for awhile.

Yes, I cleaned the dirt out of the truck. Can't paint over it. Well, I can, but it would look terrible. There is still a lot of white paint left, and up near the cab it looks green. Like the black was painted on, and green was the original color of the plastic bed liner. In any case, tomorrow it should all be one shade of flat black.
The tailgate opens easily now that I lubricated everything. Found out recently that WD-40 is not a lubricant. I've gone my whole life thinking it was. I knew it displaced water, but I always thought it was a spray on lubricant. So, when I first stated I sprayed lube on the tailgate, I was mistaken, it was WD-40. After buying a can of spray on lubricant, and spraying the tailgate, and both doors, and hood, everything works much better now. LOL.
I did find out the other day that the heater doesn't work. I thought it did, but after driving around long enough to warm up the engine, I slid the heater control valve to full heat, and then turned on the fan. It blew cold air. I know the heater is connected to the engine with both hoses, and see no valve in the engine compartment, so it must be a vacuum line, or cable under the dash. Guess I will wait until I can get the AC system checked/repaired and have them fix the heater too. I can always bundle up in the winter, but in the summer, I need my AC.

Jim

 

In Fresno, you need that system to work. My truck was stuck on only blowing through the dash vents. No floor heat, or defroster. I found out that I needed the defroster. Windshield fogged up. Couldn't see. In San Francisco, it's never hot enough that AC is mandatory. Open windows provide enough vent and airflow. It's never freezing cold, that I have to have heat. But that defroster not working was dangerous.

 

I'm too cheap to get a spray on lubricant, I just use the clean 40 weight that's in the oiler can. Ok, sometimes I'll use actual grease, like on the tailgate latches.

Glad you got the tailgate situation improved. I'd be more than a little miffed if I couldn't open mine.

 

You may need a pressure washer. I'm pretty sure that you can rent one for the price of a couple of car washes.

No way to "repair" those cracks by filling them with epoxy or silicone?

 

Hey guys , still cleaning up the cat 5 storm , the barn roof peeled off , lost four trees , tons of redwood fence jobs , and I don’t need anymore firewood , other than that a Rabbit chewed through the wife’s cars harness causing 10g worth of damage , so hunting rabbit has officially started , I don’t think I’ll ever get a day off , that’s about it for this hour .

 

Happy two rabbits for Tuesday Nor Cal!

Jim

 

Jim, nice looking job on the bed. Looks way better!

 

Thanks. If I don't get too lazy, I'll finish it up today. LOL

Jim

 

We don't have schools reopened yet. Kids are still in class via "zoom call". I happened to be around while my niece was "in class" today. The discussion was about families and family history. Teacher, "oh, your uncle is there, tell us about your uncle". My niece, "he rides a motorcycle and hangs out in Chinatown". Teacher, "oh, that sounds interesting....." My dad, "not really, he's lucky he's not in jail". The poor teacher must think I'm involved in corrupt city politics.

Then the topic turned towards a local high school.

San Francisco has 1 academic high school which is merit based. The admission criteria is that you have to have the best grades, score highest on aptitude test, and extra credit points are given for civic duty like community volunteer work, and extracurricular activities. It's actually not enough to have a perfect grade point average. You still have to serve meals at Glide Memorial, volunteer at senior centers, be an Explorer Scout, mow Nancy Pelosi's lawn, and wash Gavin Newsom's car. The population of this school is not balance to reflect the population of San Francisco by race. The sole purpose of the program is to have a school full of the smartest kids, and focus on preparing them to go to colleges with higher academic standards. These kids are prepped for Stanford and UC Berkeley, not beauty school & barber college. No offense to anyone who went to Community College. They don't care what color your skin is, or where you come from. This is where hard work is rewarded.

For the record, I didn't even apply for a school like that. I knew I couldn't get in. My grades weren't good enough. My scholastic aptitude test scores were not good enough. I went to a high school which had shops. So that kids like me who were not going to be doctors and lawyers, could at least learn a trade skill. Those schools don't exist anymore. Budget cuts killed the high school shop programs. Now those schools are just poorly performing, without shops, turning out kids without any skills.

The school board, which last week decided to "cancel culture" 44 schools' names, including Dianne Feinstein Elementary, has decided to end the merit based admission system used at that school. This current school board has decided that the merit based system is racist, and that the school has to admit students who cannot meet the academic standard, in order to achieve social justice. This small local issue resonates upon society as a whole. What about universities? Will places like Harvard & Yale have to take students lesser credentialed, based on a race balancing admissions system? How about Historically Black Colleges and Universities? What would happen if a HBCU were forced to rebalance the student population to reflect the actual population? Grambling, or any school for that matter, wouldn't be a "HBCU", if only 14% of the students are black.

In the effort to "make life fair" and fight discrimination; a policy of discrimination is created to punish hard working students simply because they are the "wrong race", and reward someone with undue privilege for being the "right person of color".

Quite a bit to consider beyond a pissant school system on The Left Coast. Not just taking George Washington's name off of a high school. And for the record, where I went to school, they took O.J. Simpson's name off the football field.

 

Happy Humpeth Day Nor Cal!

Jim