25 October 2015
Island Life 25 October 2015
25/10/15 07:51
So it’s been a rough week for animals here. I mean really we saw horrible things happening to Cubs and Blue Jays and Gophers. Even Lions got hammered once, though they clawed their way back later. At one point Marsha was thinking of calling the BC-SPCA, but we didn’t.
So it’s going to be the Kansas City Royals against the NewYorkMets. Can’t say which team we are rooting for, the Royals or the NewYorkMets, but Marsha will be watching the games. (Have to go with the Royals - marsh) For me, I’ll be in the area but I won’t be going out of my way to see them. Baseball isn’t really my game. But of course, the Red Bull Air Race series, and Dakar Rally are hard to find. I’ll be making popcorn and getting beer.
So it’s finally happened, I have a nemesis. OK maybe not a nemesis, but one guy did say he hated me. You see we were talking and I mentioned that I fuelled the car the night before. I decided to use up the change I had in my wallet and in the car, to lighten the load if nothing else. I had nine dollars which only got me about two gallons but that’s OK. It would be another two weeks before I needed to fuel again. He stared at me for a bit “Two gallons will last you a couple of weeks?” “Yeah, about that.” I replied. “I hate you so much right now. My jeep burns two gallons a day going to work and back.”
Yeah, maybe nemesis was a bit strong.
Did you know that nobody really knows why it is called a Monkey Wrench? I wondered about that this week so I pulled out the iPhone and said “Siri, why do they call it a monkey wrench?” Amazingly it figured out what I was asking and found an article without the words “monkey wrench” in the title. I was really impressed. Siri is much better than it was a couple of years ago. It actually can understand what I’m saying and find what I want.
Anyway it turns out nobody really knows where the name came from. There were similar wrenches used on carriages, but they were called carriage wrenches not monkey wrenches. There is an urban legend that some guy named Charles Moncky had the first patent on it, but that’s been debunked. There was a nautical term “monkey” for small things, but the monkey wrench wasn’t made for the navy, and anyway it’s quite large. All we know is that Loring Coes patented it in 1841 and started selling it as a “Monkey Wrench”, and nobody seems to know why.
Anyway the monkey wrench came up this week when our friend Super Dave came over to paint the peaks on the ends of our house. I wasn’t comfortable climbing up the ladder to do it myself, and Marsha was very adverse to me climbing up a ladder and doing it myself. So we hired Dave. He’s doing a great job. He even did the shutters on the front. Once he’s done we’ll get back to painting the stairs front and back and then the trim around the doors. I suspect though that we will have to leave off at some point soon and finish in the spring. The rains are coming on. “But,” I hear you saying, “why did Dave painting the house make you think of a monkey wrench.”
You’ll have to ask Penny, Dave’s wife.
Over the last few weeks we noticed that our fridge had a water leak. Every couple of weeks, and more recently every couple of days, there would be a puddle near the right front. Finally we got tired of entering the kitchen with a ‘splat, so we called to have it fixed. It turned out they used a bad hose on this model. It had a tendency to collapse and leak. A model year later they had changed to a different hose that wouldn’t do that. He replaced our hose with the newer part so we won’t have to worry about this ever again. Unfortunately our fridge was out of warrantee so we got hit for $147 for the repair. However, if we’d gotten the extended warrantee, it would have been ~$200 so we’re still ahead.
And finally Beaver Bombing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOE-m7sX9E&ab_channel=euronews(inEnglish)
It was apparently actually done in Idaho back in the 1940’s. What I wonder is, what is the airplane they showed. High wing, single radial engine without a cowl, and it looks like the landing gear attaches to the wing struts as well as the fuselage. I don’t recognize it. It kinda looks like a Stinson maybe but I’m not sure.
k-k-k-KC
Tennacious KC
You’re the one surviving team that we implore
k-k-k-KC
Reliable KC
Won’t you stomp upon the Mets that we abhor.
OK I care a little bit.
Doug & Marsha.
PIX: I hope everyone noticed Jupiter and Venus in the morning sky. Dimmer, and invisible in this picture, is Mars, making a nice cluster. Jupiter is bigger but Venus is brighter because it’s so close to us. Just remember, they’re moving so the positions will change over the week.
So it’s going to be the Kansas City Royals against the NewYorkMets. Can’t say which team we are rooting for, the Royals or the NewYorkMets, but Marsha will be watching the games. (Have to go with the Royals - marsh) For me, I’ll be in the area but I won’t be going out of my way to see them. Baseball isn’t really my game. But of course, the Red Bull Air Race series, and Dakar Rally are hard to find. I’ll be making popcorn and getting beer.
So it’s finally happened, I have a nemesis. OK maybe not a nemesis, but one guy did say he hated me. You see we were talking and I mentioned that I fuelled the car the night before. I decided to use up the change I had in my wallet and in the car, to lighten the load if nothing else. I had nine dollars which only got me about two gallons but that’s OK. It would be another two weeks before I needed to fuel again. He stared at me for a bit “Two gallons will last you a couple of weeks?” “Yeah, about that.” I replied. “I hate you so much right now. My jeep burns two gallons a day going to work and back.”
Yeah, maybe nemesis was a bit strong.
Did you know that nobody really knows why it is called a Monkey Wrench? I wondered about that this week so I pulled out the iPhone and said “Siri, why do they call it a monkey wrench?” Amazingly it figured out what I was asking and found an article without the words “monkey wrench” in the title. I was really impressed. Siri is much better than it was a couple of years ago. It actually can understand what I’m saying and find what I want.
Anyway it turns out nobody really knows where the name came from. There were similar wrenches used on carriages, but they were called carriage wrenches not monkey wrenches. There is an urban legend that some guy named Charles Moncky had the first patent on it, but that’s been debunked. There was a nautical term “monkey” for small things, but the monkey wrench wasn’t made for the navy, and anyway it’s quite large. All we know is that Loring Coes patented it in 1841 and started selling it as a “Monkey Wrench”, and nobody seems to know why.
Anyway the monkey wrench came up this week when our friend Super Dave came over to paint the peaks on the ends of our house. I wasn’t comfortable climbing up the ladder to do it myself, and Marsha was very adverse to me climbing up a ladder and doing it myself. So we hired Dave. He’s doing a great job. He even did the shutters on the front. Once he’s done we’ll get back to painting the stairs front and back and then the trim around the doors. I suspect though that we will have to leave off at some point soon and finish in the spring. The rains are coming on. “But,” I hear you saying, “why did Dave painting the house make you think of a monkey wrench.”
You’ll have to ask Penny, Dave’s wife.
Over the last few weeks we noticed that our fridge had a water leak. Every couple of weeks, and more recently every couple of days, there would be a puddle near the right front. Finally we got tired of entering the kitchen with a ‘splat, so we called to have it fixed. It turned out they used a bad hose on this model. It had a tendency to collapse and leak. A model year later they had changed to a different hose that wouldn’t do that. He replaced our hose with the newer part so we won’t have to worry about this ever again. Unfortunately our fridge was out of warrantee so we got hit for $147 for the repair. However, if we’d gotten the extended warrantee, it would have been ~$200 so we’re still ahead.
And finally Beaver Bombing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOE-m7sX9E&ab_channel=euronews(inEnglish)
It was apparently actually done in Idaho back in the 1940’s. What I wonder is, what is the airplane they showed. High wing, single radial engine without a cowl, and it looks like the landing gear attaches to the wing struts as well as the fuselage. I don’t recognize it. It kinda looks like a Stinson maybe but I’m not sure.
k-k-k-KC
Tennacious KC
You’re the one surviving team that we implore
k-k-k-KC
Reliable KC
Won’t you stomp upon the Mets that we abhor.
OK I care a little bit.
Doug & Marsha.
PIX: I hope everyone noticed Jupiter and Venus in the morning sky. Dimmer, and invisible in this picture, is Mars, making a nice cluster. Jupiter is bigger but Venus is brighter because it’s so close to us. Just remember, they’re moving so the positions will change over the week.