Brian’s Morning Newsletter for June 25th 2009

Good Morning
Ruby red radishes displayed on the old park bench we have above our new garden in the backyard.  We can’t wait to see how the the beets and carrots do in the sandy river loam. In somewhat of a rare event Nell and I have the day off today, well I always have Thursday off, anyway for this day so does Nell.  Yesterday I did several odd jobs, starting with the above radishes and a walk to my parent’s house to deliver a basket full. Pop mentioned that my tractor which has been parked in front of their house for a year ought to be moved out of the sun to protect the tires.

On the way back to the house, I pulled the battery off the tractor, topped the electrolyte off with distilled water and put it on the charger. Amazingly,  it seemed to take a charge. After sitting out in the weather for a year, I would have guessed it would’ve been toast, maybe it is I shouldn’t count the chicks before hatching. Also I disconnected the blade from the back in preparation for moving the tractor over by the shop so I can work on it. Too bad about the five gallons of gas I put in it a year ago, gas doesn’t last that long and from the smell, it has turned to shellac and will need to be removed. Let’s see… a year ago? Gas was probably $4. per gallon, bummer.Expensive solvent is what it is now.

What’s the plan for the tractor? If I had any sense, I’d fix the hydraulics and finish installing the front-end loader we bought for it, crap… five or six years ago. Yeah, cause pretty soon we’re going to have our very own Dodge Diesel with a hydraulic powered dumping flatbed. The problem is the tractor is old, not as old as me but pretty close. We have already done some work on it, mostly cosmetic, but back when I lived down the hill and was a fairly fanatical worker I removed much of the old two point hitch mechanism  off the rear and modified it to approximate a modern three point hitch. 

Looking back, it was obvious that I had a lot of fun modifying the tractor, and don’t get me wrong, I made changes that mattered. I was just learning about hydraulics.  It was a time when I had my own repair shop in Las Vegas and the beginning of the end of a particularly difficult time in my life. I had installed a V6 Chevy engine in Macky’s Mercedes Benz 240D. A project I was proud of, but hadn’t considered what affect those excessive hours I spent in my workshop would have on our marriage, In hindsight obviously it was disastrous.

Karma, fate, poetic justice and a new found understanding that no good deed goes unpunished kicked me in the ass.
Because it wasn’t long until Macky and I  were divorced and fate threw that crazy car back into my hands for its finale.  Around that time, I got the tractor and was playing around with the hydraulics and wound up building a system similar to those that rescue workers use, aptly called Jaws of Life. I hooked my little hotrod up to the back of that tractor and used the hydraulics to straighten out the bent body on the Merchevy. It was quite the sight to see. The tractor would lift the car up and stretch it.

Bending the car with the tractor actually worked, which in hindsight probably wasn’t a great thing because in a twisted sort of way it supported my wayward ways. Funny how events look when we are given the chance to look back. Amazingly I survived, didn’t hurt anyone seriously, thank god, and  I did finally learn some important lessons.  The marraige, the Merchevy,  and Outland Tech went down about the same time.  The tractor survived and I started to come back to life and in the ashes of that mess the MNL was born.

MNL? That was the name I gave to the BMN in those early years. I knew so little about writing and  grammar and less about proper spelling that I thought newsletter was two words.  Morning News Letter. Hmmm. Out of the ashes huh?
What can I say? My life was a mess. Now I’m all better, smiles, but it is hard to look at the tractor and not see the Merchevy stretched out, and violently shaking in my old shop getting the treatment which in the end, did not matter, not because the repair didn’t work, but because my lifestyle was flawed, and unsustainable.

There ya go. Probably more than you wanted to know, and surely more than I ought to have written.
Laterz
Brian Rodgers

 When Highlanders get bored (sent in by Ty)

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=17075685001

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 Someone was asking where to get Alien Arena. Click on the following image it take you to their download page.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2009 June 25

Explanation: From 400 kilometers above planet Earth, the Expedition 20 Crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) was able to witness a remarkable event from a remarkable vantage point — the June 12 eruption of the Sarychev Peak Volcano. The active volcano is located in Russia’s Kuril Island chain, stretching to the northeast of Japan. Emphasizing the orbital perspective, this stunning color stereo view was made by combining two images from the ISS and is intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye). Punching upwards into the atmosphere at an early stage of the eruption, the volcanic plume features a brown column of ash topped with a smooth, bubble-like, white cloud that is likely water condensation. Below, a cloud of denser grey ash slides down the volcanic slope. About 1.5 kilometers of the island coastline is visible at ground level. The evolving ash plume posed no danger to the Expedition 20 crew, but commercial airline flights were diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.