When Brenda and I were first married, we started off cooking with a cast iron skillet. It was “old school” even 36 years ago to be using our old Wagner cast iron (were made in Sidney, Ohio), but there was something great about using those big heavy “somewhat” greasy skillets in our little two bedroom house. But as new parents, life gets busy, and we opted for simpler non-stick skillets (junky ones actually) for the ease of cleaning and storage.
Fast forward to my son Taylor needing kitchen gear for his apartment and the “retro” guy he has become grew interested in cooking with cast iron. It is great to see him enjoying our old skllets (and I think my mom’s too?) and preferring them over other pans. So here’s a video from one of my favorite woodworking guys, Jon Peters … just in case our old cast iron skillets up needing some refurbishing.
Every tech-loving guy needs a subject for a new gizmo … my son-in-law Drew is no exception. He set up his new GoPro-like camera (gift from Katelyn) to time-lapse our Christmas morning. His effort was a little bit too fast for me to watch … so I stretched out the MP4 clip to last almost 30 seconds (it is still speedy!). New gadgets are always fun.
After my recent issues with my overheating iMac, I’ve become a lot more fastidious about what software I keep running and tax the quad core 3.4 GHz i7 chip. Frankly I still don’t think the relatively light computing demands asked of this aging Mac are all that much, but Apple has sardined in a lot in this tight little package. I continue to monitor temperatures and run my own set of rules on controlling the fan.
Admittedly running Parallels on the iMac with a matching 27” Apple Thunderbolt Monitor is probably asking a lot … especially since it is used primarily for a couple real time browser-based online broker platforms AND a Java-based trading station from yet another vendor. Still, the idle CPU demands are not all that significate during morning start-up, even if they do heat up by the end of the day or when the office gets warm (I still suspect the cooling inside the iMac is not the best … and that the thermal paste between the processing chips and heat sinks degrade over time?)
Back to “fastidious” … I’m now also more focused on my Time Machine back-ups than before, but really don’t want it performing a back-up in the “heat of the day” when I want to keep the CPUs cool and available. So, enter TimeMachineEditor(screenshot at top of post) as a way to prevent back-ups from occurring during the day. So far, so good … you might want to give it a try (it seems to be working with MacOS Mojave).
They are not the cheapest, but the cast iron US made Zoeller pumps are now my go-to for pumps when replacing our “way too many” pumps. They are definitely superior to the big box store brands. Although each time I need a new one, I inch up the line as to quality … this time opting for the Zoeller M63 PREMIUM SERIES with a 5-year warranty … although I am expecting to get far more life out of it, since the last one lasted 11 years (the M57 had a 3-year warranty and lessor quality impeller).
As for number of pumps, we have two outsides to handled drainage issues, one in the sump of the pool house (plus the actual pool pump!) and 2-sumps and one macerator in the house. I’m starting to think I should be invested in a pump company?
This M63 is going into the drainage pit in our backyard as it collects water from a French drain along with a second back-up pump. We notice water building up quicker than normal last week and so I pulled the lid and stuck my backup sump pump in the pit in order to help out (it was a replaced pump that had a failed switch … seemingly the weakest point on every pump I’ve replaced over the years).
My advice if you have a sump pump … replace them before they fail.
Who knew something as simple as ordering an Mann air filter ordered from Amazon would delay getting the Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel back on the road?
I order a new battery “online” with free delivery since it was $20 cheaper than picking it up at the auto parts store (crazy!) and figured since I had to take the air cleaner parts off in order to replace the battery, I might as well order a new filter from Amazon assuming it would be here before a very heavy battery. Nope … battery is here, but the Mercedes is just sitting waiting to be buttoned back up. (Interesting, I still had to take the core back to the store to get my $22 core charge back … would make more sense to just have me pick up the battery at the store???)
On the political front, special council Robert Mueller has been digging into President Donald Trump’s campaign and practices since May of 2017 (officially: coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign) . His department has unlimited resources and likely can turn over rocks that are not flattering to anyone associated with Donald Trump or the businessman and president himself. The deeper and longer the investigation goes, the more significant a case can be built to impeach President Trump … and likely almost any politician serving in Washington DC. Personally, I doubt the original “Russian collusion” will be the charges that will stick, but likely the many other activates associated with running a New York City worldwide company, a campaign for president as well as all the arm-twisting and talking associated with many who climb to the top, that will be used to make a case. One wonders just who could survive if the government spent over $20 Million building a case on them? The article is worth reading just to know what is likely coming with a Democrat control congress likely to look at impeachment next year.
Here’s a “near the end of the year” update on my 2010 BMW X5 35d with a few modifications. Quite a bit more power, but probably not much of a fuel economy improvement. Nevertheless, it is a heavy SUV and I do tend to drive a bit above the speed limit. Unfortunately we’re back to the wider split in gas vs diesel retail pricing, so no savings there either … but I still love driving the diesel and the loads of torque.
