Random Thought Thread

[Barry Donovan]

just emailed a realty agent and got a reply..
first time trying.

I found this little 422 square foot hut in the middle of bangor maine, with a quiet neighborhood all around it.
blew my mind.

70 years old never abandoned. It seems funny.

I am inspired by a 600 dollar a month story, a veteran still bought his own place.
the most painful part of public housing thus far..
I lived cheaper owning my own...
that is also blowing my mind.

my first 2 years is almost gone by..
gotta leave this for mental patients apparently.
this gene hanson guy I stay joking of, needs a take down to reality. I do not want to be here for it.

[Barry Donovan]

5th maine mill closure in 3 years

that must be epic to them.
One active duty air force base like loring was ten times the money lost..

I still think maine could do steel, epically so.
detrit off to the west, could even use the st.lawrence.
Newfound arctic shipping path to the north,
and europe, middle east.. to the east.

trillions of tons of steel.. zillions.

[Deaf Bob]

Alot of industries owe their downfall to tree huggers.
Sawmills on the west coast (PNW especially) spotted owl... Only to find it was NOT the logging that was killing off the spotted owl but BARRED OWLS taking over their territory.. Survival of fittest at work.. Many many mills closed!
Ship building/salvaging... Everybody wants beautiful natural looking coastlines.. Shipyard been in it's spot for over 120 years recently found to have contaminated silt.. Gonna cost so much the company declared bankrupcy
Other countries go full steam and beach ships to salvage.. $$$ in the local economy... We are geing broke and raising a generation of idiots who cannot do basic repairs!
Rant off... Yes i am very tired, in alot of pain and my pills are not working!

[Barry Donovan]

Alot of industries owe their downfall to tree huggers.
Sawmills on the west coast (PNW especially) spotted owl... Only to find it was NOT the logging that was killing off the spotted owl but BARRED OWLS taking over their territory.. Survival of fittest at work.. Many many mills closed!
Ship building/salvaging... Everybody wants beautiful natural looking coastlines.. Shipyard been in it's spot for over 120 years recently found to have contaminated silt.. Gonna cost so much the company declared bankrupcy
Other countries go full steam and beach ships to salvage.. $$$ in the local economy... We are geing broke and raising a generation of idiots who cannot do basic repairs!
Rant off... Yes i am very tired, in alot of pain and my pills are not working!

in the case of maine, one mill in lincoln can be smelled in bar harbor.
this state is as tiny as the runt that thinks like an old Cole transportation trucker.

its almost like pedophilia. Ridiculous.

we should dig a big iron pit, in canada to keep maine good, and make steel.
interesting statistic:
in 2004, I was one of 161,000 veterans in social security .. no V.A., out of 3.751 million social security users.
I also qualified for old military credits, never got them.

..and I wonder why there is blank faces, stares, stalking, terrorists, thieves, anti-fraud in the wrong direction..
I am a needle among several million people, and only getting more rare.

going on 2 years, my third attempt at V.A. and normalcy.

[Barry Donovan]

interesting hack today in my email form starbucks.
I am registered at starbucks as a guy named david blake.
searched around for david blake... some famed hacker.

I wonder how they did that.
I took it over with my own name and password.. and do not pay 40 bucks for 3 pounds of anything..

[Barry Donovan]

17 die in a housing fire

my worst nightmare.. as I just took on public housing in 2014. first time I have been helped for my given path. Should have been there a long time ago..but public housing scares me.
It took me all of 3 nanoseconds to find infra red coming off power lines, through a window, triggering fire alarms, radon holes, and 2 rooms that should not be coded for inhabitation.(that guy gene hanson I poke fun of has one of them)
Intuition told me people would hate their corner rooms or any spot in the building that is normally desirable..
this means backwards flow.
a killer.
ionizations, air and septic.
the roof has a ridge vent, no normal dormers open for venting.
metal screens that catalyze so nasty you can smell it creating a byproduct.(I swapped mine to 80% ultraviolet - non metal)
more backwards.

give me 4 hours and 2 laborers, this place can be a decent castle.

I was downstairs and made a beeline to a certain ceiling tile... to find a 3 inch pipe.
Genes drain. I just knew it was there.. it is letting something off through other materials like a radio.
that is where a vent needs to go, all the way up through the roof.
How did I find this pipe? Why did I know it was there?
I am not telling.

The TV is another long haunt for housing..the cathode ray tube of hadron vacuum sucking colliders.
Long gone now, people love the LED screens now. A greatest invention for tight housing.

may they all rest in peace.

[Barry Donovan]

you know things are bad, when your expired case of ramen noodles gets taken from the trash.

[G-Motive]

One day Subaru's may overthrow the world

[Barry Donovan]

One day Subaru's may overthrow the world

the day we all eat expired ramen...
7 bucks a normal case of 3000 packages on sale for 2.99..

I was falling down dead once, near my subaru..
the landlord comes up to me and says, "hey money bags."

that look on his face.. its as if I am the most misjusticed person known to a jewish lawyer in america.

[Barry Donovan]

I read obituaries every day.

this name is awesome.

Della Mae Day has passed away

rest in peace.

I'd name my daughter that.

[V12guy]

Boxer- reading your idea for Steel Mills in Maine. "IF" there was a large consumer base in Europe for exports, the location might be good from a shipping standpoint. We have a difficult time here (midwest) keeping stuff from freezing in wintertime. I bet Maine is 20 times harder. You need LOTS of Electricity, Natural Gas, and Railroads. And we have China Dumping Steel here. I do not foresee a new mill being built in the next 10 years.
**Big River Steel is under construction, but they are going to have a hard time getting into market share. It was an 'Ego' project, not a Financially sound one...

[Loren]

So...

Nearly a year after this:


and sitting in my yard hoping for some excuse to use parts or be a base for some crazy project which I don't need another of, last year's "4th-of-July-Truck-Roast" Chevy goes on Craigslist. It's a 1991 454/auto/4WD, 3/4-ton extra-cab longbed, I'd like a few hundred dollars mostly on account of the near-perfect bed as everything ahead of the back window is fried. I know also that to get rid of this thing I will probably need to offer moving, so I do for a couple bucks a mile. Three hours later a guy calls.

He doesn't want the bed, if I keep it will I take $250 for the rest? Yes I will, and in a couple more hours he's there. Frank (not his real name) is a cool guy, young, tough, tatted-up and seems to be having a good time no matter what he's doing. What he wants this thing for, I'm not sure. It only takes me a few minutes to get the bed off, 8 bolts and our little tractor/skiploader. We go to push the rest of the thing up on the trailer.

Problem: I've hauled a full-size truck on this trailer before, but it was 2WD. 4WD's are wider at the front track. I didn't think of that. It won't fit going forward, the tires jam into the trailer sides. It will fit going backward, as the rear axle is a little narrower than the front.

So I tilt the trailer back (it tilts), fire up the tractor again and go to push the thing up back-first. Back tires on, further, further...front tires barely on the trailer now...a little further and stop to check. With all this pushing and concentration, I fail to notice how far the rear of the truck (bare frame in that area now) has gone and it's a good thing I checked now because the frame rail is literally just touching the corner of my work-truck/tow vehicle fiberglass camper shell. Another quarter-inch and there would be damage. That Chev is a long, long truck with that extended cab and full bed. My trailer is not that long.

But, it turns out that if I roll the Chevy so the front tires are just barely on the trailer, and don't turn any corners too tight, there will be just enough room for the tow'd truck frame to not hit the tow-vehicle camper shell. So I chain it down there, tight. Extra chains, this is a crazy load.

Let me tell you a little more about this Chev. It's heavy. 6500 lbs, weighed it at the dump once, minus the bed now. So maybe 6,200? Anyhow, it's all at the front with that all-iron big block, front drive axles and the amazing incredible stout front frame GM put on their four-wheel-drives during that period. And now, all of that weight is hanging off the back of my trailer, well behind the axles. The trailer will not tilt back to normal. I get it to do so with a floor jack, the big heavy kind, lifting under the rear. It goes but the end result of all this is severe negative tongue weight on the hitch.

Everybody knows you need about ten-percent of the total trailer weight to be on the hitch, to haul safely. This is like negative 30, it's actually lifting the back of the tow-vehicle up some.

Next, about the tow vehicle. I love this truck, had it since the Chev burned. '95 Dodge with the Cummins diesel and five-speed manual, standard cab 'cause I don't need a big one anymore. I put the camper shell on it so I can carry boxes of parts out of the weather. It's not four-wheel-drive but the rear's a Dana 80 locker. It needs that locker because while it's kind-of a heavy truck itself, that's mostly 'cause of that thousand-pound straight-six which is all up front where it is not helping traction any. Just backing up the gravel driveway, the rear tires will spin if I'm not careful.

So now I've got this light-on-the-ass-end truck hitched up to this heavy, negative tongue-weight trailer making the rear of the truck even lighter than it already is. What could go wrong?

I tell my purchaser, "Frank", that we are going to be caravanning down the highway, at 30 mph. No faster, ever. Ten miles of two-lane curvy downhill road, he is to stay behind me and keep traffic back. I will pull over to let cars by, wherever I get a chance. One little twitch in this thing and we are going to jack-knife it, that is a guarantee. There will be no stopping it once it gets going, that back end is going to slide around like it's on ice. Even thirty is pushing it.

Frank's a good guy. He does exactly what he's supposed to. We make it all the way to his neighborhood, 20 miles away in about 45 minutes, not bad. Turn off the highway. His neighborhood is a nice place. Actually it's his parent's neighborhood, no kid is this rich. And it's all hills. Uphills, downhills. And corners, intersections.

Problem: We have a very light-on-the-ass-end 2WD pickup with a very-heavy-on-the-back-end trailer. We don't do hills. The tires are just going to spin trying to pull it, gosh this whole rig's barely drive-able anyhow. Trying anyhow, I get part-way up a hill and then, chirp-chirp-chirp, the rear end just starts to hop. I carefully reverse back down.

OK kid, here is what we are going to do. I need a running start. I have to go up this hill and turn left into another hill and you are going to block traffic at the intersection. I'm gonna get some speed up in the flat part and there can be NO other cars coming along to make me stop when I make that turn, if one does we are going to have to back up and do it all over again. that is if we're not jack-knifed into a ball first. He blocks traffic, he is to call me on the cell phone (immediately!) if anybody runs his block. We do it, I make it.

Next hill...maybe I'll get it? I don't. We do the same thing, he stops in the road where I have to make a turn and I get a running start. I don't make it the second try either...slower, slower and then the rear end is just doing the wheel-hop special. I reverse, slowly, all the way back down to the flattest part. Third try, the charm.

Now we go down hill...steeper, steeper, would I ever be able to get back up this if I had to?. Then, this is the place to leave the truck, the very "back-forty" of a lot where the house is up on the hill and faces a street on the other side. It's steep down hill, with a gate to a steep up-hill dirt lot. Oh gawd.

There's no way I'm going to make this. The neighbor next door happens to be out front taking the garbage in, that place is a mansion and I wonder what kinda high-price-lawyer-who-takes-in-his-own-trashbarrels this is, but can we use his side property to unload this complete p.o.s. burned-out truck with no bed? Nice guy, he agrees then goes into his house for the evening. Probably better he doesn't see this anyhow. I drive down the road, turn around (don't smack the frame into the back of the camper), get the running-start thing going and am able to pass and then back-in the side area.

So, Frank has this thing the whole moving deal depend on, a late-'70s K20 4WD truck. He goes to get it, total red-neck ride he just bought from somewhere with the windshield graphics, lift/33's and everything, we will use it to pull the Chevy into his yard. It won't pull it though. We pull, tug, slide around. I have to drag the back end of the Chev sideways by chaining it to the rear of my trailer while he pulls from the front with his 4WD. First gear (low, low ratio), diesel torque, slipping the clutch pulling all that load. Did I mention Dana 80, I'm sure anything else would have let go at that point...BANG, blammo, I was just waiting for it. The Chev slides into a gate post, wipes out the door ("you didn't want this door, did you?"), jams on the stainless-steel rr-view mirror frame. I remove the mirrors, he doesn't want them either so I stick 'em in the back of the Dodge, maybe I'll use them for something. From three different angles we work together with the two trucks and still this thing won't budge past the holes he's dug in the dirt from all that spinning.

At some point I just stand there and watch him pull in the soft dirt. What about the four-wheel-drive? I don't see any front tires spinning. He dicks around with the transfer case. Hubs locked in, check. Shift, shift, clunk, grind. Finally I ask if I can try. I find four-wheel-drive, but it's only part-time, the transfer case won't lock. We aren't going anywhere.

It's getting dark and were sitting there with Chev partly blocking the road (I've had to periodically get out and go talk to people trying to pass by, explaining what's going on and asking for patience). He goes up to the house (some distance off), returns w/ beer. We talk, think. Stories. He was in the military, probably explains why we've at-least been able to work together pretty well on this. His question, what if I push with the Dodge instead of pull? No way, it's a tough truck but the front bumper on this thing is for looks only (I don't know why Dodge did that, but they did).

And then, from Frank:

(post word count exceeded, see next post)

[Loren]

(continued)

And then, from Frank: "Oh, SHIT! I think I just heard...oh F@#&, my parents are home!"

Yeah as I was gathering, he hadn't yet let mom and pops in on the news that there would be a new junk truck coming to live in the yard of their very posh home on the hill. Well I know one thing for sure, I am NOT taking this thing back.

He trots up toward the house. Controlled urgency. I stand there alone thinking this is either where the stuff hits the fan, or where I get to go. We cannot be there in the back yard making all this commotion if there are people up in the house supposed to not notice.

After five minutes or so with the parents either soothed or totally BS'd (pick one), he comes back to say "yeah that's it", and we'll shut down and hopefully one of his friends will come over the next day and they'll either fix his transfer case or they'll get another truck. The gate is still wide open with the truck sticking out into the road but the at-least the dog will stay in. The neighbors? Oh they're going to love waking up to this next door I'm sure.

It was a much easier drive home, but cold, dark. I left the ad up on CL for another day before changing it to read "bed-only". Nobody called. I still have the bed.



R.I.P. Big-White-Chevy

[Deaf Bob]

Lol..
Sounds like my kid.. 57 ford wagon, 59 Merc Turnpike cruiser. Unloaded off the "other driveway". Still there 4 years later.. Kids muck around there.
Gonna have to load my half ton 4by with wood and drag them up hill before it rains again....
Grandma said,"oh G,, Da.. It, you are just like your dad and grandpa! ". Not sure that was intended to be "nice"

[Barry Donovan]

Boxer- reading your idea for Steel Mills in Maine. "IF" there was a large consumer base in Europe for exports, the location might be good from a shipping standpoint. We have a difficult time here (midwest) keeping stuff from freezing in wintertime. I bet Maine is 20 times harder. You need LOTS of Electricity, Natural Gas, and Railroads. And we have China Dumping Steel here. I do not foresee a new mill being built in the next 10 years.
**Big River Steel is under construction, but they are going to have a hard time getting into market share. It was an 'Ego' project, not a Financially sound one...

bethlehem built new york.
we used to haul frigid or not.

there is a turning point in silent cold, just smacking steel is its own world. its own heat.
something amazing to be had.

compressed forge, tempering... and the real world.
the midwest and automobiles, they knew what they were doing for detroit in the cold and wind.
steel.
it does a body good.

real weld takes weeks to know what ya got. cold speeds that up.


in my random thought today..
cleaning out coins in my truck. picking up receipts and little trash.
I used to drive so long, the moments of silence seemed strange.
a creak of a door hinges perhaps, the sound the glove box makes.
the big click of a tall hurst shifter.

remembering the last ride, looking little things over.
I took someone to sam's club with me. Money was bordering catastrophe. Food needed.
a 24 pack of cup-o-noodles. Got two cases of that. That stuff is special to me.
the same stuff I ate that helped pop a bubble in my skull..the salty broth I presume.
I added it to my list of miracles.
6 bucks. Seems it was the same price in the late 90s.
reminds me of a zebco fishing pole. Sits there in time the same price for 50 years.

I never mentioned to be paid back for it.
picked up a tray that holds paperwork, and there was 6 bucks sitting there...hiding.


the smell of vinegar, a long term alcoholic was in the seat. A spray of lysol odorizer, mini version, was in the console.
A quick shot, shut the door..
awaiting another day of chores.

Zebco fishing poles and 24 packs of cup-o-noodles. We will never die.