Battery

 Today Belle's sister came over with her husband and we went to lunch.  We took them to a Mongolian Grill in town and had a nice lunch.  We were in my Honda Odyssey.

My Odyssey is a 2020 model.  It has more bells, whistles and gee-gaws than any vehicle needs.  We got through with lunch and headed for the vehicle.  Climbed aboard, the ladies in the middle row seats.  They  pressed the buttons to close the sliding doors.  The doors closed halfway and stopped.  I got a waring light on the dashboard and then everything went dark.  Deader than Het.

We tried jumping it with a jump-pack and with jumper cables.  Two deputies from a sister parish tried to help to no avail.  Luckily, Grandson Zach was at home, so we called him to come pick up his grandmother while I assessed the situation.  He took his grandma and his aunt home, then returned with tools.  We snatched the battery, went to a parts house, paid the toll and installed the new battery.

I'm home now, poorer, but I have a ne battery in the Odyssey, so I should be good for this winter.  I bought that vehicle in April 2020 and this is the first battery I put in it.

Once the new battery was installed and the car started, I did have to go through some opening ceremonies. For example, it wanted to know if I wanted miles per hour or kilometers per hour.  I opted for mph, because that is consistent with my experience.  One thing that I did learn is that when the battery dies, nothing, absolutely nothing n the car works.  Not the sliding doors, not the tailgate. Those locks are electric. You can't put the vehicle in neutral, the transmission is electric.

That's how I spent my Tuesday afternoon.  How was y'all's?

Water Heater, Redux

 Y'all might recall a couple of weeks ago, the water heater in the shop went out.  It was a small 4-gallon tank heater.  White I was cussing and fretting, Belle went to Amazon and started searching.  We went with a small on demand heater.  I admit that I didn't do the research.  After it was installed, it gave hot water, but it would trip te breaker when I pulled on it hard.  After a couple or resets, I pulled out the specs and learned that it needed a 30-amp breaker.  The circuit it wired with a 20-amp breaker.  Well hell.

I checked with my electrician, and he wasn't sure if we had installed 10-gauge or 12-gauge wiring on that circuit.  So, not wanting to burn the shop down I did some more research.  I spent the money and bought another 4-gallon thank heater from Amazon.  This one.  It will give me four gallons of hot water and only draws 12 amps., which is okay on a 20-amp circuit.

Installation was easy.  It took me 45 minutes, but a good plumber could have done it in 10.  It sits under the sin, plugs into a 120v outlet and gives me hot water for the dishes. If it lasts as long as the first one, it will be a win.

Running Errandds

 I went to Holloway this morning.  Holloway is and unincorporated crossroads down the road from the house.  There is a barber shop there.  An old style, single chair barber shop.  A haircut is $20.  This morning, the conversation was politics, weather, and Houston, TX.  Go figure.  They were trying to figure out if Houston was the 4th largest metro in the US, or if it had been surpassed by DFW?

No one brought out a cell phone, no one tried to Google.  No one in there was under 65 years old.  Just a bunch of old men on a sunny Thursday morning.

After the barber sup, into town to the grocers to try and figure out what we're doing or lunch.  I'll fry a mixed bag for lunch, some taquitos, some chicken strips and some egg rolls.  This time of year is my favorite for cooking.  The cool temps let me do things that the hot August weather forbids.  Tomorrow it will be a beef stew.  Basic, with potatoes and carrots.

The politics of the midterms don't bother me, as most Presidents get a shellacking during the midterms.  I've seen this before.  The pendulum is always swinging.  Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, but always moving.  Life goes on.

Wow

 Congress changed hands last night, and not by a small margin.  Come January, the Democrats will be fully in charge.  Michigan elected a socialist and Texas turned purple.  That seems to be the over-arching result.

Louisiana elected Julia Letlow to replace Bill Cassidy.  It was not a forgone conclusion as Democrat Jamie Davis ran a credible race, getting within two points of Letlow. It was a near thing.

The House races are another thing entirely.  Predictably, Democrat Troy Carter won his race out of New Orleans.  That was no surprise.  Republicans Mike Hohnson, Steve Scalise, and Cla y Higgins won easily.  Two House districts are in a runoff situation.  Both the 5th and 6th districts will have final elections in December.  I live in the 5th District, which is trying to flip from D to R.  Generally, December elections in Louisiana are low turnout, so the candidates will have to have a good ground game to get their voters to the polls.  

The next two years are going to be interesting and the 2028 Presidential race starts today.

Election Time

 Tomorrow is a state holiday in Louisiana.  The schools are closed and the mail won't run. The polls will be open, though. Tomorrow is the last day for voting in Louisiana.  Early voting was several weeks ago and mail-in ballots are due no later than COB today.  

The Democrats are hoping for a blue wave that will flip the House and the Senate.  We'll see. They have the history of the midterms, but several of their candidates are batshit crazy.  Here in Louisiana we have a machine Republican that not a lot of people are happy with, versus an old-style Democrat.  The Democrat is a farmer from North Louisiana.  The Republican is a white woman; the Democrat is a black man. It is an interesting conjunction, and many people say that the race is close. 

I voted early, which is a lot easier than going to the poll on voting day. I'll be watching tomorrow, paying attention to Michigan, Texas, Alaska and Louisiana. Will Congress change hands tomorrow?

Opening Day

 Hereabouts it is opening day for the rifle season for whitetail deer.  Most deer clubs have one iron-clad rule.  If you see a hog, you put it down.  Feral hogs are an invasive species that we have to control.  Grandson Lucas was on the stand this morning and had a hog walk out on him.  Bang, flop.

Hid Dad tells me that it is 135 pounds.  It will be used, mainly as filler for ground venison unless the hog has been eating pinecones.  Hogs that eat pinecones taste like turpentine.  If the meat is edible, they will use it.

For the record, the rifle is a commercial Mauser 98 that I picked up in 2024.  This is his third season with it, and it has accounted for several whitetail deer.  Today, it accounted for pork.  The caliber?  6.5 Swede, of course.

Vehicles

 Grandson Lucas has been asking me about military vehicles I was familiar with, so I thought it would be a good time to put together some links that he could review when he had questions. My military service spanned from 1973-1998, post-Vietnam and Cold War with one very exhilarating time during Desert Storm.  So, lets talk about some of the vehicles we used.  My list will be those that I am intimately familiar with.

Transport.

M151, Truck, Utility, 1/4 Ton. - This was the "Jeep" of my era. Ubiquitous to the Army, this little vehicle went everywhere. Fun to drive, rugged, dangerous.  The driver sat on the gasoline tank and the vehicle was known for rolling over in a turn.  Produced until 1988, it was supplanted by the HMMWV.

M998, HMMWV.  The Hummer.  Both beloved and despised by my generation, it serves the Army today. I was issued one in 1996 and kept it until I retired in 98.  Mine would run down the road at 55 mph and was as nimble as a mountain goat.   We never stuck it, although we took it into some sketchy places.  Mine was the soft-top with no armor.  Canvas doors and a radio. It got me where I needed to go, and always brought me home.

M39 series, 5 ton, 6x6 truck.  Also known as the M54, this beast was the prime mover for the Army the entire time I was in service. This thing hauled troops, food, medicine, ammo, and fuel. It was the primary hauler between the logistics base and the troops in the field.

Armored Vehicles

M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. If you were in the Army during Vietnam or the Cold War, you knew what these were. It carried a squad of infantry. They were everywhere. I spent many a miserable hour in these damned things. The suspension was terrible. The seats were uncomfortable and the back ramp would fall on you and kill you. 'Nuff said.  It beat walking.

M60 series tank.  My first tank was an M60A1.  I got it in 1975 when I was assigned to Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 37th Armor at Fort Knox, KY. According to the log boo, that tank was built by the Chrysler Corporation in 1963. It had a 105mm rifled tube, no stabilization and a coincidence range finder. Everything on it was purely mechanical.  The night-vision was the old style infare that required a light source. I kept that tank for fourteen months when I moved from platoon leader to an XO slot in the 4th Brigade.

The last tank I took downrange was an M60A3.  This was a much-improved version, with better suspension, a laser range finder, GPS system, improved optics and true thermal night sights. The M60A3 was a great tank, one that I truly favored.

M577 Command Post Carrier.  This thing was a variant of the M113, designed to accommodate a tactical command post. Generally, you would find four of these in a battalion, one or each of the staff functions.  (Personnel, Intelligence, Operations and Logistics).  They would park together and form a command post.

M551 Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle.  The "Sheridan".  This thing was not a tank, but OhMyGod, it was a lot of fun. Nimble, fast, lightweight, it was just a joy to drive and command. It was designed around the Shillelagh missile system, which frankly never worked and was a bad idea from start to finish, but the vehicle was just a lot of fun to operate. The missiles never worked, but the gun would fire a HEP charge that was effective against bunkers and vehicles.  Of course, it had two machine guns, the 7.62 coax and the big 50 atop the turret. The vehicle was supposed to be "air-droppable" and sure enough, it was.  But only once. After it hit the ground, it became a machine gun emplacement.

We won't talk about the M1 Abrams, simply because I know little about it.  My last unit, 1/156 was an M1 unit, but I was a staff-rat and never took one downrange.  It's a great tank, but not one that I have any experience with.