(no subject)

Swiped from cjdoyle, here is a list of really atrocious scientist jokes. Make sure to read the comments for more. anarchist_nomad, I think of you particularly as I post this link.

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I'm on queue for work today. I also need to see if I can get the couple things I've been paid for on Ebay, finally, packed and shipped. I also need to make a list of what I need to take to the UP and get it all together. I also need to get caught up on our bank accounts in Quicken so I know how much money we have. I also need to get a picture or two taken of a monitor for mietm and her partner. I also need to stop procrastinating quite so much. I'm getting a bit better about that, not that you could tell from that list. The Ebay wasn't my fault though; of the two items I got paid for yesterday, one of them sold a week and a day ago!

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This is at the base of the rock house at the Quincy No.2 mine site.





The rock house sat a short distance from the actual shaft, and skips (mine railroad cars) would travel up a chainway and dump their load of ore into the top of the rock house, where the ore would be pulverized in a series of great machines and separated into poor rock (which was dumped into full-size train cars that sat under part of the rock house) and copper, which was sent for smelting into ingots.

I kind of like the abstracted composition of this one. I like the rust colors too; I turned up the saturation on it to bring them out more. I think I like the patterns of shadow cast by the overhead ironwork too. Still, something still seems not quite right about it to me. Maybe it's because I've been looking at some simply awesome, just awesome, pictures from the Keweenau over at DC Clark's photostream and mine don't really compare.

But I'm working on it, and I really do think I'm getting better. I'm looking forward to photographing some of these places again this weekend!

I'll post a picture of the rock house in its entirety too; it's a huge structure.

Car stuff

After a surprise run to Pleasant Prairie to pick up a medium-sized dehumidifier from a Freecycler (yay!), I went over to Mechanic Juan's shop. He had time to work on moiracoon's car that night. I piled the four new tires in and drove over.

It was really cool watching him mount and balance the tires. Even cooler was listening to him talk about the theory of operation behind all the tools he was using. I really hope he gets into engineering school like he wants to, 'cause I think he'd make a kick-ass one.

Anyway, we got the new tires on, and then he looked at the brakes since they'd been making some unhappy noises. Turns out one of the shoes on the rear passenger side had delaminated and the loose traction pad was getting jammed up in the wheel. Not so good. And after taking it apart once, it was, of course, even worse. I know this is a bad thing because the same thing had happened in the Neon before I bought it. sabrinageek replaced the brake because it was actually physically locking up the wheel. Ouch. That would just ruin your day if it happened on a busy road....

Juan already had a job on another car lined up, and I said it could wait until next week, but he didn't think I even ought to drive it home, as the drum would be hosed if the bare shoe contacted it. He sent me out to buy brake parts in his '80 something Buick Regal. I did that, got dinner while he was doing a brake line on his dad's van (thanks for cooking again sweetie!!) and drove back to the shop.

Best part about all this (apart from yummy 'coonie chow) was that Juan's Buick is a diesel! I've never driven a diesel car before and it was pretty nifty! He has the weirdest cars that he likes to tinker with (though he told me the Buick actually belongs to someone else who's letting him use it for a bit).

The neatest car of the night though, was one of the two in the shop with the KIA. Some may remember that right up around the top of my list of cars that I want to own some day is a mid sixties Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. Right there next to the KIA in the next bay, there it was. Gold '65 Continental convertible with suicide doors. I'm in love. Love. It was so pretty that I spent most of my time looking at it instead of the AMC Ambassador in the other bay over. And I love AMCs!

So we were in the shop 'till about eleven thirty as he did a brake job on the KIA. Juan is awesome. He put lots of unexpected time into a job that he wasn't planning for, on top of one for his dad, while in the middle of getting ready to move to Madison. I'm beyond grateful, and still feel like I was undercharged, even though I added a little bit to the price he quoted me when I wrote him a check. Juan rocks.

As for the KIA; wow. After the shocks Juan put in a while ago, and with the new tires and brakes, it rides like a new car. Sweet!!

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I have my clothes together for the trip. On top of that, I've closed a bunch of tickets today already! Now I need to get camera hardware together and pack Ebay stuff. Onward and UPward!

(no subject)

Can anyone use a cracked flat-panel twenty inch widescreen monitor? If not, I'll Freecycle it or throw it out.

Also, anyone interested in buying a 17 inch flat panel or two?