rustyredrock.com

All,

This will be my last RustyRedRock post.  I will leave the site up for a little while longer before I tear it down entirely.

As I have said, my wife and I are expecting our first child soon and I have a lot of projects to take care of before, during, and after the happy event.  Maintaining a website is not really that big of a task, but maintaining one to the level of care that I would like to give is a little tougher.  It’s sort of a “How many grains of sand are needed to make a pile?” sort of thing. I am just trying to reduce the size of the pile…  For now, anyway.

I have removed the Puzzle for Charity and halted work on Puzzle 05: The Chalice.  Don’t worry… They will be back when the new site is posted in a few months.  The Prize Pool and Charity Pool will retain (at minimum) the values they had when I took them down.  I will, however, be writing a $60 check to the current charity (Blue Ridge Food Bank Area Network) after I post this… No reason not to, really, and it’s only fair.  That will make a total of $247.25 (and three huge blankets) donated to charity since the start of this site.  Thanks again to Agmorion and Siun-Kelan for making Puzzle 03 possible.
 
When the site comes back up, I hope to have a few steady contributing writers to help me out.  I have tried that with extremely limited success in the past, but maybe next time will be different .  Also, I think I might switch from Wordpress/Yahoo to Blogger.  Easier for a number of reasons, it seems.  We will see.

Even better would be to write for someone else’s site, which is ultimately what I would like to do.  If you know anyone that is looking for a contributor for puzzle creation or the style of writing you see in the Unexpected Segue or World News sections of this site, let me know.  My contact info can be found in the Contact and FAQ link in the sidebar on the right.

Some final stuff:

I have started on a video project that I may or may not post in the future… The project was designed to be more of a historical archive rather than something for mass consumption so it depends on how the individual episodes turn out.  If they turn out decent enough, you will hear more about them.   If not, you won’t.  Either way, it will be a while before I find my feet and have a few finished episodes, as any of you that have done any sort of video editing will completely understand. 

Speaking of projects, I have finished building my scrap wood holder and nearly finished my firepit.  I built both with (mostly) leftover items from previous projects. The irony of the wood holder project is that I used a lot of my scrap wood to build it, so the problem it was designed to solve sort of dispappeared…  The design was taken from the book The Complete Book of Woodworking.  It is very, very good with lot’s of step-by-step pics.  Here is my (modified) version, front and back. 

Thanks to jimmydunes who provided many, many hours of unpaid labor to help me create a firepit in my backyard.  The exterior was made from the leftover bricks from the elevated garden project and the overall design was based on one at the DIY Network site.  If jimmydunes and I were able to do this, anyone can. Important Project Scheduling Note:  Brickyards (where you will get the fire clay and the fire bricks) typically have banker’s hours for some unfathomable reason, so plan accordingly.  Below is a pic of the first “test fire”, and the other picture is the mold for the capstones that will finish up the project this week. 

I have hung the curtains and ceiling fan in my new den, so the finishing touches of that project are done, at least.

The final sticks of furniture have been added to the baby’s room.  We are looking to add a border, hang some more art, and add a clock.   And some shelves for the closet… Hmm.  It looks like we aren’t done after all… I had better get a move on…  Here are some pics, though.

What else?  Oh, yeah.  I hate my Treo with all of the hate that it is possible to generate toward an inanimate object.  It locks up constantly, stays latched in “roaming” mode whenever I go inside and then leave a certain building at work, I can’t send pictures easily, I can’t convert the video with any tools I have, the Bluetooth connectivity is random… The list goes on and on but it is really no different than any other piece of 2008 technology: something claims to do a million things, but does none of them well. 

So what am I going to do about mine?  The only action that makes really makes sense is this: It’s just a phone, man. Don’t worry about it.  Unplug.  “The only winning move is not to play“, style of thing… Sort of Zen, dontcha think? But, as God as my witness, my next phone will not be Windows-based. 
 
After a rough start, it looks like the tobacco plants are going to make it.  I have started picking the smaller leaves off the bottoms of the plants and the top leaves are starting to grow faster.  I am storing the leaves I pick in a mason jar in my very hot garage to see what happens to them there.  I will use these initial clippings to make my own insecticide, I think.  The soy is also doing well, but the peanuts were a total failure.  Everything else is doing just fine.  Here is a photo of the garden and a close-up of one of the tobacco plants.

That’s about it.  Thanks to all of the readers of this site.  I had a lot of fun doing this and look forward to re-starting it when I can. 

Cheers!

 unplugnow

Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately.  As you may have guessed, getting stuff ready for a new baby has sort of been trumping my perceived importance of telling you all what I think about Christmas decorations, reviewing bad local restaurants, and mocking people who go to my gym.

Go figure. I doubt you are heartbroken, though.  :)

But here is the Cliff’s Notes version of stuff I would have written about in the past week in a less busy alternative timeline:

• There are now over one million Priuses on the road.  I have been getting 53MPG lately, and expect even higher as the weather warms up.
• Over 50% of our Incentive Check will be spent offsetting over-the-top gas prices.  Check out my previous post on the topic here.
• GTA4 has the best co-op version of any game I have ever played. The noticeably smarter and tougher cops are now sort of a cross between low grade Terminators and 007-School dropouts.    
• I believe that forests aid in randomizing weather patterns.  By chopping down huge (and not-so-huge) areas to make room for housing developments, the now chaotically smooth areas allow for stronger straight-line winds and weird hurricane-like weather patterns to develop over land.
• I don’t watch soap operas, but I am really getting tired of listening to Spinelli.  No one talks like that outside of a Renaissance Faire.
• The news angries up my blood.  The world is doomed, celebrity news, the world is doomed, puppy dials 911 to save master, the world is doomed… Etc, etc, etc.  Do what you can to fix stuff locally, and the bigger stuff falls into place a little easier.
• My tobacco plants are coming in nicely.  I hope to be able to use some of the crop as insecticide for next year.
• Today is Bike-to-Work day.  It got me thinking of all the places between my house and work (about 25 miles) where bike and/or pedestrian traffic is prohibited by law (bridges, tunnels, certain Interstate portions, and whatnot).  Is it actually illegal for some people to get to work without involving a car? Wow, if true.

I got my tobacco plants, and I didn’t have to commit a crime or have to threaten anyone with violence or anything (as in: I hope you can tell me where to get tobacco seeds or slips. [nervous laughter] I’d hate for this to turn into a hostage situation…).  As a matter of fact, the farmer I got them from was polite and knowledgeable, and was eager to help me out.  Sweet!

I planted the seven slips he gave me of yesterday before some storms came through.  I hope at least a couple of them make it - we will see.  I will take pictures as time goes by and, if all goes well, I will start building a small curing shed in the next month or so.

We - my wife and I, that is - have begun to plant things in our food garden.  Well, I use words like “we” and “our” but I am the one doing all the work tilling, weeding, planting, etc, etc, etc.  She does nothing but dictate which crops go where and does not contribute even a little bit to the labor effort.

Why not, you may ask? Why is she so damn lazy - too many soap operas and bon-bons? Hasn’t she ever read the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper? 

The truth is she is 7+ months pregnant, and her ogre of a husband refuses to let her deal with fertilizer, come near insect poison, or dig in the hot sun.  I figure she’ll have ‘labor effort’ enough later. In the meantime she can just focus on building us a little dude and let me tend to the crops.  Personally, I couldn’t be happier to do it.

Since this is “my” garden this year I got to add a few plants that normally would not have been there.  For instance I will be planting some soy, some peanuts, and even a couple of tobacco plants.

Why those? The wife and I like tofu occasionally and, as with the peanuts, I think it’s cool to get protein without having to raise and kill farm animals.  Not that I am a vegetarian -  there is nothing I like more than a huge medium-rare steak, and, statistically speaking, at the time you are reading this I probably have a #1 combo from Wendy’s somewhere in my digestive tract.  I also know that growing only a few plants might sustain a small family for a week at the outside, but no longer than that, that’s for sure.

So call this a very tiny experiment in self-sufficiency.  I will post pics and descriptions as I go.  Sort of like Agmorion has been promising to send me for well over a year now to post on this site.  I mean, would it kill him to send a few descriptive paragraphs of the work he has done on his basement greenhouse?  But, noooo, he can barely fire off a zero-text email with “a bunch of pictures attached” and remember to actually attach them… But let’s get back to the tobacco.

I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get someone in this tobacco-growing region to give me a straight answer to the question “Where can I get a small number of tobacco seeds or slips?”  50% of the people I have asked, at both large and small gardening centers have haughtily rebuffed me for even asking such a stupid question. They even seemed angry, as if this was my 50th time calling in this “prank” and they had had just about enough of my shenanigans.

49% of the respondents, while non-rude have been less than useless with their answers, trading in the perfectly acceptable reply of “I don’t know” with “I don’t know, so instead let me while away the hours telling you everything I do know about tobacco from the establishment of Jamestown Colony to modern federal regulatory actions…”  I have even gotten responses that, if true, prove the existence of time travel - “The plants are grown from seed in greenhouses in February but you can’t get seeds because the plants are grown from slips starting in May…”

It’s almost like I have stumbled onto the existence of a secret society of some kind, one whose pass phrase is “Where can I get tobacco seeds or slips around here?”.  The correct response on their end is “Tobacco plants draw worms away from tomatoes” or similar.  The correct response on my end then is probably something like “The pearl is in the river” or “John has a long mustache” at which point we would show each other our secret tattoos and they would lead me to some tastefully decorated underground lair…

But, since all I actually want are two damn tobacco plants all I get are trivia of suspicious value and strange looks.  You know, I might actually have to follow the advice of the other 1% of the people I have asked (Siun-Kelan). She said all I need are three things to get them: a shovel, the cover of night, and a moral compass that doesn’t point True North.  Check, check, and check. 

I will let you know how it turns out.   Who knows?  You might see it on the news.

At least one tornado ripped through this area today damaging a hospital, destroying dozens of homes, injuring hundreds, and killing at least one.

No damage to this neighborhood - electricity was not even interrupted.  The nearest serious damage was 3 miles from here.

Please say a prayer for those who were not so lucky.

Over the past week I have managed to drag my lazy carcass out of bed and get to the gym before work. Some of you may be thinking “For the love of God, why?” or “Hey, haven’t you written several times on the awesomeness of sleep?” or even “Whoop-de-doo.  Whaddayawant, a medal?”

The third comment notwithstanding, I am doing this for two reasons.  The first is because my job mostly involves me sitting virtually motionless in front of a computer all day and I need more than the usual 30 minutes/day of cardio I had been getting.  The second is that I have a number of projects I am juggling at home so I can’t simply tack on another half hour to my workout at night.  Something had to give to make these mandatory yet seemingly incompatible targets reachable, and that something is two hours of sleep in the morning.  So I have been getting to the gym early, doing a 30 minute treadmill workout followed by a quick upper body rotation, then getting to work early.  I love the extra energy and I am trickle-charging my comp time pool.  Pretty sweet.

But all is not happy…  The OFNOGs are there in much greater numbers in the mornings than in the evenings.  That was to be expected, though.  I have updated the counter in the sidebar to include this week’s count.  I won’t go into details.

Ok, just one detail.  One OFNOG was standing at the urinal taking care of business in a pose that can only be described as “slouchy orangutan at parade rest”.  Yep, both hands clasped loosely behind his back.  Freaking weird.

Hmmm… Since this is getting a little longer than I expected it to be, I will break this down into several articles instead of writing one giant one.

Although I talk about them a lot, the OFNOGs are not the only creatures of interest at my gym, you know.  Look for future articles describing the other fascinating life forms that inhabit the building such as: Whistler’s Great-Grandfather, The Screaming Peacocks, The Clustering Chucklers, The Towel Princess, and many more!

Stay Tuned!

The entertainment center for the den is done! 

I was able to salvage a majority of the top of an abandoned-by-the-side-of-the-road (1940’s-era according to my neighbor) dining room table and, using nothing more than a scrap two-by-four, create a TV stand for my den.  Total cost: $1.99 for a new paintbrush.  Well, that really oversimplifies things, doesn’t it.  I mean, obviously nails, screws, and glue were used.  And paint and stain.  And tools, of course.  It’s not like I drilled one-and-one-quarter inch diameter holes into the supports with my mind and the surfaces didn’t plane and sand themselves.   And let’s not forget the cost of labor.

So I guess what I mean to say is that I built a hundred-dollar entertainment center using nothing more than 30 hours labor, a drill press, a set of spade bits, a set of drill bits, a radial arm saw, a cordless drill, a belt sander, an orbital sander, nails, paint, stain, furniture clamps, wood glue, two different types of t-squares, three types of sandpaper, a Dremmel and bit set, a hammer, and an electric hand planer.  Total adjusted cost: well over $2,000.   Less romantic of a story, but more honest, I feel.

This was a fun project with the exception of the removal of the table-top’s veneer.  That was a real hassle but the electric planer really helped out, there.  It also helped remove the heavily stained surfaces  below where the veneer had peeled up and let in water and mildew for God knows how long.  Unfortunately, the blade is a little tilted which resulted in slightly uneven smoothing passes.  The resulting gouges needed to be sanded out with a belt sander.  “Isn’t the blade adjustable?”, you may ask.  “Yep,” I answer, “but look at  this:”

This scan of the instructions from my Hitachi P20SB planer shows my problem with adjusting the blades.  “There must be something I’m missing,” I thought.  I felt like I was in a dentist’s office looking at a Highlights magazine, trying - and failing - to find “which clown is different from the others”, or whatever.  I stared at that diagram for a very long time…  Once something like that is wrong, nothing else written (by the same authors) about a device that has razor-sharp cutting surfaces spinning at hundreds of RPM can be trusted.  I dealt with the gouges and belt-sanded out what I could.  Inelegant, but safe.

A Dremmel was used to get the old varnish off the curvy edge bits without completely destroying them (thanks for the advice, Agmorion).  The supports were made from scrap two-by-four.  I drilled one-and-a-quarter inch diameter holes in them and painted them gloss black.  This made them look less like scrap two-by-fours and made them look more like gloss black scrap two-by-fours with holes in them.  Hey, I don’t have a wood lathe.  What do you want me to do, whittle me up some some nice elegant fussy tea-table legs with my hunting knife?  Get off my back, man.

Scrap trim pieces were glued and screwed to the underside of the shelves to prevent the maple surfaces from splitting along the joints over time.  The legs are four square two-by-four hunks, also painted gloss black.  The unpainted surfaces were stained using that combination poly/stain I spoke about in the past.  Like I mentioned, I don’t like using it because I don’t get the control from doing the two steps separately, but I still have plenty of the stuff left over from other projects and I want to use it up.

Final assembly was easy.  The top is held on with only five finishing nails and the piece is very solid.  It looks great in my den and I am looking forward to putting together the dining-room table from the remaining parts still in my garage.  I will sell the table on craigslist to get some cash to keep the site running.  Stay tuned.

37 days after the coffee maker died, a new one has arrived to take its rightful place on my countertop just left of the dishwasher.  A while ago I asked y’all how long you thought it would take to get a new one and only one person took a shot at it.  However, weatherwax guessed “5 weeks, 2 days” - right on the money!  Well done!  Unless you secretly work for Tassimo and gamed the delivery for some sick, twisted purpose… 

The box seems to sport brighter artwork than I remember way back when we bought it.  The instructions are presented in a much more professional manner than the last iteration as well - almost Apple-like.

Well, time to let the water filter soak, fill out the warranty card, and take ‘er out for a test joe.  Wish me luck!

Tassimo called!  The service center admitted defeat and recommended that Braun mail me a brand new coffee maker.  According to the phone message I got, they will mail it off tomorrow so I should get it within two weeks… maybe sooner…

Hmm… Or maybe never…  My wife and I agree that a large fraction of the unhappiness in the world revolves around the foolish belief that one’s fellow man will actually do something they say they are going to do.   I think I’ll call tomorrow and get the tracking number…

My brother sent me a picture of an old computer today via cell phone.  He has no real interest in stuff like this but he thought I would enjoy seeing it, which is cool.

Here’s the problem: He snapped the picture quickly as he was leaving wherever it was he was at so the light is not good and the image is a little blurry. Not so blurry that you can’t tell this is an old computer with dual 5 1/4 inch floppies, but just blurry enough where the logo is just barely illegible (to me, anyway).  He does not remember any of the details other than the computer “looked old”.

He didn’t mean to send it as a brain teaser, but I can’t seem to put the clues together to identify this piece of equipment.  I checked out images of vintage computers though Google but no dice. 

Any thoughts?  If I find out anything I will post an update or a comment.

[Update: It turns out this is a Franklin Ace 1200. Thanks, everyone who wasted part of their day figuring this out!]

Today marks 30 days since the coffee maker broke. 

Tassimo called on Friday and left a garbled message saying that the service center was not open that day, so they could not check on the status of my coffee maker.  Ok.  Fair enough. 

I called back this evening to ask them (again) to please keep everything through e-mail so I could have a paper trail of this process, and to ask why I still did not get a status of any kind on Monday.  They said they they would put a note in the computer to escalate the issue.  For those of you keeping track, this is the third so-called escalation.  I am not sure what escalation is or what is accomplishes, but it seems as though my coffee maker has been put on Double Secret Probation…

In keeping with my fine tradition of “Oh-Look-a-Squirrel” home project management, I have shifted away from the wood chalice project (Puzzle 05 to be) and have begun to focus on re-purposing the table I found along the side of the road.  It looks like the legs, bracing, and skirt can all be salvaged and repaired, but, sadly, the top cannot… at least not entirely.  One of the leaves was too warped to do anything with.

The silver lining  is that about 80% of the (maple!) top could be salvaged (picture on left).  This will become the basis for an entertainment center for my up-and-coming den, and I will create a pine top for the rest of the table and sell that on craigslist.

So now one project has turned into two.  I am pretty happy about that, but you can probably hear my wife grinding her teeth from where you are…

I finished putting the remaining hardware on the access doors tonight.  The room looks a lot warmer and friendlier now - not so “attic-y”, I guess.  Click on the image on the left for a larger view.  Sorry for the cruddy quality of the picture - I had to take it with my flash-less cell phone andthe  lighting in that room is not so great. The next steps will be to paint the room and put in a new ceiling fan.  Then add a TV and a comfy chair and I am pretty much done. Not this weekend, though… too many other things going on.

Contacted Tassimo.  Again.  I did so yesterday as well, but the lady acted like I broke my own coffee maker and sent it off for the sole purpose of making her angry.  I called back tonight and got a different rep.  She said that she will “escalate” the issue and I should call back in a week if I have not heard anything.  The only way to get a hold of someone in charge is to write a snail-mail letter (they claim) to a P.O. Box in Dover, Delaware (No name, BTW).  I will write this letter this weekend and mail it off on Monday. 

The best answer I have right now is, believe it or not, to contact Kraft Foods and work my way down, which is ridiculous on a lot of levels, I know, I know. If anyone has any idea on how to directly contact a management type at Braun I would be most appreciative.  Thanks in advance.

I am nearly finished work on the access doors in my wife’s old office (my new den).  The painted plywood doors that were there allowed access to a great storage area upstairs but the stupid things folded down to open them - the hinges were near the floor.  Great design for a completely empty room.  Not so great if someone actually lives in the house and owns, say, furniture that might get in the way.  In addition to being a pain to use, it looked kind of cheap… I mean, the doors were held in the closed position with wing nuts FCOL.  I replaced the plyboard with stained T-111 and created threaded wooden knobs to hold the doors in place.  No hinges - the doors lift out so now you only need a few inches wiggle room instead of over 3 feet.  I will post pictures once the finishing touches have been added.

I saw a table by the side of the road a few days ago as I was driving to Lowe’s to pick up some hardware for the access doors.  I didn’t get a good look at it then, but I drove by again today and it was still there.  Of all the pieces of furniture I have rescued and re-purposed, this looks like it is going to be near the top of the heap when it comes to sheer difficulty.  I am guessing this is a very old ex-dining room table.  The legs are all damaged in some fashion, the top is cracked, warped, and peeling.  Click on the image on the left for a larger view.  The 2-foot level is there to give you a sense of scale.  I am really looking forward to starting on this one.  Again, I will post pictures as I progress. 

In case you are interested, I am still working on Puzzle 05: The Chalice.  I have been stumped for a while now on how to proceed, but I broke down and bought a drum sander bit (about $5) for my drill to help me smooth out the inside of the cup.  Hopefully it will help.

Hey, the microwave finally died!  We got a new one.  It felt good to do something for the economy, but I was a little worried when I spotted the sign at Best Buy that said “NO AMERICAN CURRENCY, PLEASE.  FARM ANIMALS OR BAKED GOODS WELCOME IN TRADE.”  Curse you, falling dollar… I didn’t have any chickens or cupcakes on me, but the day manager said I could whitewash his fence and we’d call it even.  Nice fellow.  I hope we get to work together on some public works project during the Even Greater Depression (coming real soon (according to the news, anyway)).  And if not, I wish him and his family swift bread lines and a wind-free alleyway to squat in.

The coffee maker has been at Suspiciously Anonymous Appliance Center in New York for a week now.  I called Tassimo to ask “Hey, jerky, what’s up with my coffee maker?” and was surprised to find myself talking with a polite, knowledgeable, and seemingly genuinely concerned customer service rep.  She said if I had not heard anything in another week, call back.  I agreed to not let it slip my mind.  I told her about the scrap of bubble wrap that came in the shipping container and the comment from the last rep: “maybe they sent you so little cuz they figured it was broken anyway”.  She agreed that “electronically malfunctioning” is not the same as “broken into a thousand little pieces”.  To apologize, she is sending me a free pack of coffee discs.

So that just goes to show you that if you repeatedly request that things you purchase actually function as advertised and don’t go missing when they do fail, eventually you will be given a consolation prize worth about 3% of the cost of the item that broke.  Which, for some reason, genuinely makes you feel pretty darn good.