Oldhippie.com is a new 100% free to use classified ad site. No catches or ulterior motives.
So I’m wanting to build a smaller shop close to my lake house, and stop the 100 mile each way weekly commute. But to do so I have to sell most of my 31 cars, four containers of parts and an attic full of household item I’ve horded over the years. I was selling a lot of it on eBay, but all of a sudden they now want me to charge and file sales tax in the buyer’s home. That’s not practical.
So I created my own version of Craig’s list that I’ll be listing my stuff on. I’ve already sold a bunch on it in just the week its been up.
For Search Engine Optimization to work its best – more is better. The more ads that get listed, the more buyers are brought to the site. As such, it is in my best interest to allow others to post their free of charge.
So from cars to walking dogs, from land to landscaping, from RVs to baby sitting — what ever is legal and ethical can be listed. It operates like Craig’s list — only easier to use and better organized. So clean out your attic, shed, garage. Advertise the products or services your business offers. It’s all free and my only ulterior motive is to bring more buyers to the site so I sell my stuff faster.
The new motor is in the Screamin’ Woody and I took it for a blast down my nasty rural road. Appears to be fine, but I didn’t take it above 4500 RPM as we’ve had a lot of rain and the 35mph road is pretty rough. Changed the preload a little to help it launch straighter – but haven’t test that. I’ll come to Bradenton a day early and try to work out the wrinkles.
Back at the shop I put it on the rack. Changed the breakin oil for racing oil, cleaned the underside, and found a crimp in the fuel line making a 90 degree turn – so it was cut out and replaced with a couple 45 degree hose ends and a m/m fitting. Polished the wheels, put it back on the ground to clean under the hood, interior and exterior.
She’s ready to go into the Stacker when I finish out-fitting it.
The Thug
Because the Screamin’ Woody will be untested before the race in Bradenton, FL in early March, I’m gonna throw the Thug on the Lift as a backup, in case there’s an issue with the Screamin’ Woody. So it too had its oil changed, wheels polished and a through detailing.
Tool Time with Jake
In the above photo, you see Grandson #2 – Jake. He and his twin sister Elwood spent a few days with Deb and I, as their mother was having a medical procedure. Jake spent a 1/2 day in the shop learning a little about tools and cars.
He naturally wanted to grab a seat (including back seat) in the three cars in Shop 1 – where most of the work is done. Afterwards, he learned how to mark a 1/2″ impact wrench holster level on the Stacker door, drill through one panel while stopping before going through the outside skin, and riveting the holster on the door.
As I was trying to show him how to mount and wire up a 9000# winch in the Stacker, I found that a 5-year-old boy’s 1st tool-time (keep in mind I have two sons and three handy daughters – so this isn’t my first rodeo) has limited patience. To get him to stop rummaging through the tool drawers in the Stacker, I used the “Ole Tape Measure Trick” and had him measure some stuff.
After he got bored of that, he decided Tool-Time was over and decided to play on the playground I built in front of my house a couple of years ago.
Stacker
So speaking of the new Stacker, I need to finish out-fitting it so I can load the cars up. Check a couple of previous posts to update yourself where I’d gotten by mid last month. Most is done, but the winch (to get the cars in and out of the trailer) was not.
When I ordered the Stacker built to what I’ve learned about trailers over the years, I had them build an in-floor compartment for a winch with 1/2″ platting. There’s a door that covers it to make for a flat floor. I test fitted the winch and drilled some 1/2″ holes through the plate. The winch was then mounted by bolting in from the under the trailer, using Grade 8 hardware.
Once bolted in, it became obvious that Intech didn’t make the well deep enough for the relay box that sits on top. I took it apart to remove the mount, and the only place it would fit was in back of the winch – only if I removed the lower mounting rod off the winch.
Even then, I only had about 1/2″ clearance from the now neatly rolled spool. Since we all know this will be the last time the spool will be neat – that wasn’t going to work. I removed the relay and rolled under the trailer with it and a mount I had made from aluminum bar stock. After tearing out a clump of hair caught in the creeper’s wheel, I remembered that now that my hair is again Long – that I have to have hoodie up when on a creeper.
I then drilled a 2″ hole through the 1/2″ plate, almost breaking my wrist many times when the broch stopped moving but my big Dewalt drill still wanted to turn.
It would only be Natural that after taking two shots of mounting the relay box under the trailer that the cables to the winch would all be 1″ too short. So work stopped on the winch while I placed an order for 4Ga copper cable butt connectors and a couple options on 2″ hole grommets.
However, there was other work to be done.
Like a couple door baskets, disposable glove holder, magnetic bars for wrenches, and a couple Velcro straps to hold a yoga mat for me to lay on when under the car.
Mounted power tools, batteries and charger on bench splash board, and an oil pan holder on the wall under the oil rack. I should have the Stacker finished and the cars loaded in by the end of next week.
The Old Aluminum Trailer
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I have a 25 year old aluminum trailer I’m making new again. A few posts back I showed how the inside and outside was stripped and painted, new LED tail and marker lights, reflective Red/White/Blue stripes, Texas Flag painted on door, and about half of the out-fitting done. Since then:
I cut a 1″ square 3/16″ steel plate into four 6″x6″ plates, punched 1/2″ holes in them, primed and painted White to match the trailer. They’ll be backing plates to the Puck lock, to spread the stress on the inside and outside of the door, inside and outside of the trailer. I’ll be mounting the Puck lock next week.
At the rear of the trailer I mounted a jack pouch, spare tire, and blower on the curb side. On the street side – I mounted a strap holder with a cut down yoga mat as a wall protector. A broom holder and a holder for my director’s chair – in the black bag. Also hung a couple cord holders. I mounted some small D-Rings for bungee cords – to keep stuff from flopping or falling onto my car – as this is a very narrow trailer. I also secured the basket holding the jacks with bungee cords and D-Rings. That’s for in case the car gets too close winching out and I need to get them out of the way. The plan is to be able to quickly get to the spare, two bottle jacks and tire spinner by just opening the rear door – and not having to climb over stuff. I have much experience with flats as I drive fast, for long periods of time, on hot southern roads.
Moving to the front curbside of the trailer, I have a door cabinet with drop down table top, wrench/oil rack, fire bottle holder and a disposable glove holder on the door. On the side of the cabinet, I have rubber hands to hold the Weather station pole that extends above the trailer. Outside the door I have a White Board to leave and receive messages when I’m not in my pit. Inside next to the door is a strap rack with a yoga mat protector.
On the front street side:
I have hangers for my power tools, racks for papers and my log book, double helmet rack with stereo under and speakers to the side, a couple magnetic bars and some hand tools mounted. I still have to wire in two batteries, an inverter, a charger, the roof fan, the stereo, a pair of charging lugs and other incidentals. I also need a cover for the radio and plumb for compressed air receptacles under door and rear of trailer.
The Petty Tribute
The gas sending unit in tank was swapped so the gas gauge now works. The shifter was hitting the steering wheel in 1st and second, so a spacer was made to fix that. The retro tach still doesn’t work, so I need to deal with that. The car was cleaned up.
I dug up three old 15″ Mopar wheels for the front, and spare. I took them down to Discount for my bud Gregg to dismount the rotted tires. They were cleaned up, prepped and I hit with rust colored primer. Next week I’ll play around with cream paint and primer to make look rusty like the back wheels and then take to Discount for some new Goodrich T/As to get mounted. Then the car is done.
Ginger, my Magnum XE
The Gear Vendors overdrive is in the car, just waiting for the Driveshaft from Victory. It arrived yesterday, and that car should be back on the road next week.
The Skipper – My Magnum GT
The engine and Transmission was pulled.
All of the under hood parts were pulled.
Under the hood will get cleaned, wire brushed and scuffed before receiving a fresh coat of urethane to match the exterior. The engine will cleaned resealed and painted – as will the transmission. Then gets stabbed back in. The AC compressor cleaned and painted. The wiring cleaned – maybe replaced if I can find new authentic. Power steering pump replaced, hard lines either made to look new or replaced. I want under the hood to look as new as the exterior.
So I think that catches me up on the shop reporting. Next report in about two weeks.
Guys, it’s that time of year again. Yup another day where you’re suppose to break your balls for her – and yet she won’t honor our one day – Steak & Blowjob Day.
Since she expects you to take matters in hand on March 14th, you may as well return her the favor on February 14th. Here’s this year’s special. We’ll pick you up on the evening of February 13th, and return you the morning of the 15th.
Are you a Republican, a Democrat, or a Southerner? This little test will help you decide:
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges at you… You are carrying a Kimber 1911 chambered in .45 ACP, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?
Democrat’s Answer:
Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question! What is a Kimber 1911 and what does .45 ACP mean? Does the man look poor or oppressed? Is he really a terrorist? Am I guilty of profiling? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the pistol have an appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children? Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me? Should I call 9-1-1? Why is this street so deserted? Can we make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior. I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus. This is all so confusing!
(Sounds of reloading) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click. Daughter: “Nice grouping, Daddy! Were those the Speer Gold Dots or Federal Premium hollow points?!” Son: “Can I shoot the next one?!”
Don’t expect to be able to live comfortably on the money the government takes from you for your retirement. I planned at a very young age (early 20s) to bust my ass to be able to retire at an early age, with the money for my wife and I to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. I retired ant 44, although I’m just as busy now as I was then.
It took a plan, long hours executing the plan, and the willingness to gamble with innovation, instead of playing it safe. The time is now for young people to get their shit together and build for the future. Don’t depend on the government as they screw up everything they touch.
Slightly after midnight on December 19, 1974, I was in the backseat of a Mazda RX2 that took a curve in the Everglades at over 100mph, rolled – throwing me from the car. I was Life Flighted to James Archer Smith Hospital in Homestead, Fl. I had many broken bones, a head injury and took 177 stitches in my face and head. To this day, 45 years later, I still have a chunk of windshield in my head.
In the ensuing years, I developed the same type of arthritis that plagued Evil Knievel, which was caused by too many broken bones. By 1980, I would stop by the VA Hospital each morning at 6am, on my way to work, for treatments. I was prescribed Indocin – which made my hair fall out; Napersin – which caused stomach problems; Zomax – which was taken off the market for liver problems; Viox – which was taken of the market for causing heart issues; and finally high dosages of Celebrex – which I quit taking because of concerns. I just muscle through the chronic pain with 800mg of ibuprofen twice day. I’ve lost 80 pounds, which has helped some – but much.
I’ve had about a dozen orthopedic surgeries, including three on my shoulder. After the last one (about 15 years ago) I was told I’d need a shoulder joint replacement, which I’ve yet to do. I can no longer throw overhand, reach above my head or in back of my neck. All of the discs in my back have degenerated, and after my last MRI, the surgeon told me that the arthritis surrounds the nerves and I’m too far past surgery. He suggested shots into the spine and burning the nerve ends to help the pain, but I have a brother-in-law who having that treatment who scared me away from that because of side effects.
So family, friends, former athletes on tv and others have been preaching CBD. To me, it sounds like snake oil. For kicks my wife bought a month’s supply of 750mg CBD at the pharmacy – for $89.95. I’ve been taking one each morning for the last week. I’m told it takes at least a month for it to help.
The last few weeks my right shoulder has given me unbearable pain. Again at our Pharmacy, my wife buys 3ozs of 500mg CBD topical lotion, again for $89.95. I scoffed at it. She put some on her back, which was aching. A couple hours later she said it felt a lot better. So I tried a squirt on my shoulder before going to bed, as my shoulder makes it hard to sleep. I actually slept through the night and had less pain in the morning. I’ve used it twice since then and feel like it is giving me some relief.
So because I’m such a cheap Bastard, I decided that I needed to find it cheaper on-line. I go to Amazon at find stuff claiming to be ten times stronger and ten times cheaper littered all over the site. I’m the type that believes that if its too good to be true (the strength and price) then its not true.
I spent the next five hours researching. What I found was the following:
Amazon doesn’t sell real CBD, but only sells Hemp Oil claiming to be CBD
Hemp Oil is pressed from hemp seed, and not true CBD chemically
Hemp Oil has no anti-inflammation or pain reducing qualities
True CBD is extracted from the mamajuana flower with an expensive process using CO2
The expensive stuff that the pharmacy sells is Green Roads, and it is legit.
The other well respected legit CBD product is CBDMD. It uses the same process, a 3rd party lab analyzing every batch, and is same price as Green Roads.
The difference for me is that CBDMD will give Military/Veterans a 30% discount, and Service Connected Disabled 40%. You need a military id, DD214 to prove military or veteran status; and a statement from the VA on your disability status.
So for me, I’m not 100% convinced. However, I’ll give it a month or two to see if I get some long term relief. More importantly, I’ve learned that:
Real CBD ain’t cheap
There’ currently no real regulations to protect the end user that they’re getting legit CBD, and not Hemp Oil being called CBD
Less 1% of the CBD bought is real CBD
I’ll save 40%
I hope this helps others from getting suckered into Hemp Oil claiming to be CBD. I’ll post a follow up a month or so down the road. I’m a skeptic, and feel like I’m hard to fool. If anything, I’ll most likely error in feeling that I didn’t get relief when I might have received minor relief.
I’ve been into computers since the late 70s — when you had to assemble them yourself. I was a business computer salesman in 1982 when the IBM-PC came out with 16KB of RAM and a pair of single side floppies. I automated a collection agency I had ownership in back in 1983, sold that software to many other agencies. Was behind rewriting that system again to run on PCs, and started over again in 1990 with a clean slate – with the system know as WinDebt. I’ve owned a couple of computer software companies — and consider myself pretty savvy computer guy for an old man.
Every couple of years I treat myself to a new computer — always the top of the line as I do lot on it. I use to have a desk top in my bedroom, home office, main office and shop — but a few years ago I bought my first Surface Pro (a 2) and I have a hub, keyboard and monitor in many locations and just bring the tablet from place to place. About three years ago I upgraded the Surface Pro2 to a 2017.
For the last few months my 2017 has been showing signs of age. I have to have it plugged in all of the time as battery has expired — and the tablet mode (which I use most) has had the touch screen acting flakey. I knew the new Surface Pro X was coming out in December — so I hung in there and waited.
I received my X last week and immediately regretted it. It started with McAfee antivirus failing to install. The only message was call tech support. I did, and then hung up after 45 minutes on hold. I completely factory reset the computer and started over again — same deal. I uninstalled Windows 10, reinstalled and no soap. After wasting 3 hours I started doing Internet searches. There was nothing on the Internet about this problem — so I started looking for reviews on the Surface Pro X.
That’s when I started to find out that that while the hardware is Top Shelf with the fastest ARM microprocessor and 16GB Ram — on a 64-bit operating system — it changed a 25 year-old school method of how it uses DLLs. That rendered applications that didn’t get it together and rewrite their application to the faster standard inoperable – Just about all of them.
After finding out that I had to use Microsoft’s Firewall and Anti-Virus because none of the others yet work, I found most everything else I use is also useless. Fortunately Quickbooks Desktop and Quickbooks online both work. However, I use a virtual printer called Chax — which prints checks on blank check paper. I called their Tech support — and was lectured by their techie who knew nothing from what he speaks about Surface Pro being like an iPad — and not a computer. I explained to him that I had the most powerful personal computer on the market and it is nothing like an iPad. I tried to explain to him that its a new type of Microprocessor (ARM) and that I’ve read that there was going to be compatibility issues with older software. He told me that their software wasn’t older and that he could get it working. I gave him control of the computer with Gotomeeting — and he jacked around for an hour. I finally convince him to go to my Settings and About to see what I was running. When he did, he said “oh, your got a very powerful computer that is too advanced for this application” — I’ll have to tell management that we need to get to work on this.
Yeah Great! I spent the next hour ordering check printing on line for Quickbooks.
Next I tried to install and older version of Photoshop and it won’t install. I knew better that to waste my time — as the only option would be use the on-line per month charge version. Next up was a VPN — Express VPN — the biggest, best, and most expensive. I tried twice to install and then got with Abi from their tech support. I explained that I had a new Surface Pro X and the ARM version of Windows X. He told me that won’t make any difference as Windows 10 is Windows 10. So an hour into this I have to reboot and he tells me that he’ll email me the steps to finish. An hour later and still no email — so I get ahold of Keajy and explain the deal. He puts me through the whole deal again — not listening to me explain about the ARM version of Windows 10. 90 minutes into it and I finally convince him to look at my about. I get the “Oh I’ll need to look into this.” After looking into it he says the only VPN I can do Spoofs my IP but adds no security. I don’t need to Spoof — I need security.
Next up is Microsoft, after my Brother laser printer driver won’t install and the Windows driver make white black and black white — to where documents look like negatives. At least when I explained to the Microsoft tech guy — he was prepared for a nightmare. I gave him control to the computer and watched him and someone else try like Hell to fix. The end result was that they were going to have to get with Brother to fix the driver and will get back to me in 24-48 hours.
So I write this to warn others — as this computer is so new that there’s nothing on the Internet about these problems. The surface Pro X is a great computer — but if you need a Surface Pro right now — get a 7 as it might be a year before all of this Windows 10 ARM app incompatibility is fixed.
