Bad-Teries

It's easy to tell a cold snap, because vehicle batteries die.  A month ago, my daughter called me and told me that her car wouldn't start.  She was in the Wal-Mart parking lot, so I grabbed some tools and went to her assistance.  Sure enough, a quick look at the battery revealed it was five years old, so I put a battery in her car.  Easy-peasy.

Two weeks ago, I tried to start my work car without success.  Lifted the hood, saw that the battery was six years old, so I went to the parts house and bought a battery.  Such is my karma.

An hour ago, Milady called me.  She's stuck at work, the Explorer won't start.  She purchased that vehicle brand-spanking new in the autumn of 2009.  That battery is four years old, and Ford probably didn't put a five-year battery in that vehicle.  Guess what I'm doing this afternoon?  You guessed it.

Neutered Cat

The little cat that adopted us went to the vet's today for neutering.  It's one thing to be adopted by a cat, it's something else entirely to find a litter of kittens living under your deck.  My daughter-in-law works at the vet office and got us a deal on a neutering job, and I'm very grateful for that.  The cat's a little groggy, so we'll leave it in the carrier until Milady gets home in another hour.

The cat is in no particular distress, but I bet that it is no mood to play, and Beau is worried sick about his cat.

They've become fast friends, and Beau can't figure out why that cat won't come out and play.  He's going to worry himself (and pester me) until Milady gets home to release the cat.

Sunday Song

Chloe Agnew, of Celtic Woman.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's been a crazy week, with house guests both human and pet.  It's been fun, but crazy, and the dog has had plenty of playmates.  This morning he looked at me as if to ask what's happening next?

I don't know, pup, we'll just have to see.  As long as we're keeping family sheltered and safe, we're doing good.  Things should get back to normal really soon.  Whatever normal is.  That's subject to change at any time.

Knife Rights

Knives and the Second Amendment.  By David B Kopel, Clayton Cramer, and Joseph Edward Olson.  It's .pdf file, but it's worth the read.

Remember

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the day that the United States found itself finally, irrevocably, embroiled in Word War II.   When the naval forces of Japan launched the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Today was a defining day for my father's generation, just as the Kennedy assassination was a defining day for mine, and the September 11th attacks were a defining day that my children will always remember.

Today is a day that will live in infamy.

Cold Day

It's been cold today.  Rainy, drizzly, a clammy cold that sinks into your bones.  The weather snapshot doesn't tell the whole picture, because it doesn't show how miserable this type weather makes us in subtropical Louisiana.

Normally in December, it's not this cold.  Many times on Christmas Day I've worn a simple long-sleeved shirt and slacks.  Tonight we're cold and the temps will get under freezing, odd for this early in the winter.  I'm glad that we didn't get the ice that was predicted earlier this week.  Louisiana doesn't do well in an ice storm.

Two Sleeps

Instapundit leads me to an article on the history of sleep, where for much of our recorded existence, we've slept twice a night.  Generally two or three hours, then wakened, then gone back to sleep until morning.

His research found that we didn’t always sleep in one eight hour chunk. We used to sleep in two shorter periods, over a longer range of night. This range was about 12 hours long, and began with a sleep of three to four hours, wakefulness of two to three hours, then sleep again until morning.

Cool!  I do that sometimes, going to bed early, then waking for an hour or so, then falling back to sleep to await the morning alarm.  Milady and I do this frequently enough that we call it "vampire-ing".  As in "I vampired for a couple of hours last night.

As I understand the article, sleeping eight full hours is a fairly recent invention, since the time that electric lights were invented.  It seems that our forefathers thought that sleeping twice per night was perfectly common.

Cool!

The Mule

As far as I can recall, I've had the Mule about seven years.  The choke cable has become quite stuck, which is problematic when you're trying to start it on a cold morning.  Also, the designers at the Kawasaki plant tried to make it easy to use the choke cable, but they routed it so that it's a huge pain to replace.  So, I started casting about for a quick fix.

On looking at the engine, I realized that the choke lever and cable points directly to a body panel.  A quick disassembly of the choke cable, a quick hole punched in that body panel, and a short section of mild steel rod, and I can pull the choke from the driver's seat.  After the engine is started simply releasing the loop in the  rod releases the choke, since it is spring operated.  Easy, peasy, about a half-hour job, including figuring out just exactly how I wanted to route the rod.  It may not be beautiful, but it's certainly simple and workable.


Here's a picture.  Sorry about the focus, it's getting darker, earlier.

It ain't pretty, but it's darned sure workable.  When I grab that little ring and pull, the choke opens.  When I release it, the choke closes.  Now, maybe I can start it when it gets cold.  Until I can find a choke cable.