Blogs

Well, a pretty crappy one anyway...

As the economic meltdown accelerated tangibles in October 2008, my wife and I finally closed on the purchase of our first mortgage. Yay for officially indentured servitude to the American Dream! We'd been happy enough in the duplex where we spent the first few years of our married life, but a confluence of factors which hit in rapid succession in 2008 - a second child, horrible new neighbors, natural disasters and bonafide haunting and unexplained phenomena - made getting the heck out a top priority. The search for a home was arduou"dream home" but we did find one that seemed to offer everything we needed and most of what we liked. With gracious and generous assistance from Anna's folks and the drainage of our own savings, we closed on it the day the stock market tanked. Timing my friends - I certainly has it!

Just a quick note here.... and if you're reading this on my site you might notice a few changes. I recently upgraded the CMS and Theme I've been using and have made some other tweaks. The process was a bit painful as it pretty much broke the entire burrito-huffing site in ways I hadn't anticipated, and the fixes required (another) crash course in CSS and Javascript analysis and hackery... even for silly, stupid basic things I took for granted like margins, sidebars, banners, comment sorting ARRRGHWTFBBQ. The internet really does seem like a house of cards some days; Mosaic and Lynx, we hardly knew ye...!

Anyhow, the changes aren't major.... but hopefully gave the place a little spit-shine. Some things you might notice:

By popular demand (and by "popular" I mean "the no more, no less than three different request-ions I suddenly received in the last five weeks" - well played indeed, multiple-email-addy holders), I've now added a Wiring section to my Tyco PowerTorque Service and Rebuild Guide.

So, if you're just starting out in the hobby (may Zeus have mercy on you for doing it with Tyco in 2010!), or never paid much attention to the electrical concepts, or inherited a basket case that just doesn't make sense... hopefully this'll help you out. I gotta admit, it seemed like a pretty big oversight when people pointed it out to me; sometimes reconnecting a wire in the right place is all it takes. Oops!

Hey kids! Pull up a chair and grab the Valium, ‘cuz it’s time for Uncle Spam’s quarterly dissertation of mind-numbing drivel! Photos, videos, and headspewage abound!

When our hero last wrote in this space, he was laying it all on the line in clutches of some pretty dark terrors. Far from being a coward, he’s left the evidence, but not dwelling on it. He would, however, like to acknowledge the thoughts and prayers that came his way - all heroes need allies, after all. And then apologize because, with regards to living up to my own promise to finish that series for those who may relate, all I can say is: "someday." The victory requires no rearward glancing in the near term. Pity the tortured writer, because it’s not just a cliche.

But our hero isn’t done! He’s been fighting lots of projects, and it’s time to update this space. Tune in below for:

• Cra(p)ft Room Conundrum!
  
• Basement Beautification!
  
• Model A / Mustang Madness!
  
• The Continuing Saga of Adventures in HVAC!
  
• Radio Rehab Retrofit!
  
• Railroad Requisition!
  
• And more...!
  

2010 has been kind of a slow year in the Saint Canard backshop so far, owing mostly to family matters (er, that would be "business" and not the Urkel show), work (that is if Kentucky's elected blowhards can pull their collective heads out of their asses), and a general feeling of malaise over the early winter months.   The overall lighting and ambiance in the new place’s basement just isn’t up to par, which makes photography a chore and general enjoyment difficult… so motivation wanes a bit.   I installed a cheap track lighting system to band-aid the situation this week; while not perfect by any means it nonetheless adds warmth and brightness, so we'll see how that pans out.  I could decide it's just the ticket, but I reserve the right to rip it out and set it on fire.

Really, what I need is a properly finished ceiling, but I promised Anna that I'd destroy and rebuild her craft room properly before I'd do that. Well, guess what I started doing last week? Sledgehammers and crowbars have always been my favorite tools!

So pull up a chair and pour out a cold one, cuz here’s a list and breakdown of some of the more interesting projects to emerge so far this year. Even though it's been a slow one, this is a long read. You know me: I can't shut up...

I just realized most of the recent updates here have been model-train related. Oops! I’m usually not so obviously one-dimensional. So, given what with the blue skies and the pollen bombs and the warmer weather come thoughts of the outdoors – and working on things we enjoy in the outdoors, like cars in my case (among other things), let me try to add a measure of cool by random updates on the auto projects front. A couple o' these have only been graced a fleeting mention before!

Consider the following picture:

Waldo is in the trunk. Also, my basement may or may not look like this at any given time.

IN addition to a proper Hippie's Springtime jaunt that involved a nice hike in some desolate wooded hillside property, and an unspoilt natural cave, I spent last weekend at the farm making more progress on the Archaeological Dig known as the "tractor crib." If you can see the car buried within, good for you!...

Just a few things to mention this update, but first: Announcing the fleshing out of an old page, and the creation of a new one!

First: When I was restructuring the photo stash (which is pretty much done, yay), I found...

Author's note: On February 8, 2010, the regular contributors at Hooniverse and I posed the question "What's Your Eleanor?" to our readership. The term "Eleanor" is of course borrowed from the original Gone in 60 Seconds, where it referred to the one, singular car that taunted and teased the protagonist, for better or worse. As such it has come to represent the one car that an individual gearhead dreams about. As the day went on, we individually posted stories about our own "Eleanors"... and essentially broke the website with traffic. The results were widely varied and often surprising. What follows here is an excerpt of my own article:

Pfft, bleah, gotta get these cobwebs outta my mouth, geez, who's responsible for the upkeep around here?! Oh, wait. Yeah, so it's been pretty dead around here lately, eh? I never have been one to blow my own horn, and if you didn't believe it, just take the last few months around here as proof, 'cuz there's been plenty at times to roll with. So if you're indeed bothering to read this I thank you for the courtesy, and would you be so kind as to give my knees a good mafia whack or two just to get 'em moving again?