Planing a short trip & also Stormy

Early interesting Cars:

A 1948 Super 8.... And that is a Packard

And so today:
Going to Oak Ridge. Yeah, that is Oak Ridge, TN. Our grandson Stephen is the manager of the new “Music and Arts” store in Knoxville. Son Jack asked if we would drive the motor home up for a couple days. We will do that and also take Stephen’s twin Josh and his wife Megan. Of course Rose Mary the great grand will go along. It should be a good trip. We are looking forward to it.
We did something we seldom do. We missed the fact that it is a holiday weekend. In an RV you must always pay attention to that, if you are headed to any destination place, RV sites fill up. We were lucky on the third park. So we do have a site, it is 16 miles out. No biggie.
I like thinking of being on the road, even if it is only a couple days.
I like petting the feral cat too!  She now owns me, part time, I guess.

I forgot I had the trail camera on. (5 second videos) Here is me petting Stormy Daniels. I sat down on the garage steps and she jumped up in my lap. 

I try to keep a towel of something between her claws and my skin. Is it normal for a cat to continually flex their claws? If I slide my hand down her legs she draws them in.
BTW like we expected, the wayward child is pregnant again.
Nite Shipslog

Today’s lesson

Early interesting Cars:

 1934 and 1937 Singers (And you thought they only made sewing machines!)
And so today:
Our church has a restroom ‘Out of order’, for a couple weeks. Being a guy that can fix most anything. (Lately I even got a Boluva chiming clock that has not worked for ten years running.) So I looked the nasty bathroom problem over. Ah ha, the commode is one of those with pressure assist flush. You probably have seen them, maybe even have one in your home. They save water and are more efficient. This one is a ‘Sloanflushmate’. It is common to look into the tank of a commode and see water, I was taken aback just seeing a black plastic sealed container inside.

A broken part on top, was obvious. I was told no one cares how it is fixed. I priced the broken part, and the cost was more than it would take to revert back to normal flushing, and so I did that. It looked like this

 The commode still would not flush. OUCH, WHAT??? I have set or fixed over a hundred commodes and never failed, NEVER. It is work, but simple is the process.
I gave up, and reversed everything I had done. Then I came home and ordered the part for the flushmate. LOL
I noticed a lavatory did not drain properly. I was assured the lines had been cleaned out and there was no obstruction. So, says I to myself “This needs a vent, I can at least fix this, I will cut the pipes and install a ‘Studor’ vent.” I did, it did not drain any better. No need to reverse this work, it can only help the situation not hurt.
So today’s lessons:
1.  One is never too old to be stumped. 
2.  One is also never too old to realize ‘you do not know it all!” 
3.  One can learn, I did learn how the ‘Flushmate’ works.

Imma hoping at least I can install a replacement part.  LOL

I have a feeling that something is clogging the main plumbing vent, none of this is normal. Will Look later.

Nite Shipslog

: Growing Pains

This was a brand new car the year I first met a girl named Sherry Harris. Later to be my wife. This is a 1954 Buick Skylark I have only saw one of these.

Now today:
Hometown folk do not want their town to grow, except to see their kids, build or buy a home and remain in the HOME TOWN. I hear complaints all the time ‘Belmont is not what it used to be.’
Belmont WAS once ‘dry’ (NO ALCOHOL SOLD HERE) with 26 cotton (textile) mills. The town actually had a ‘Textile school’. It was a very good school in a  modern building. I attended it for a school year as a ‘crip course’, but I learned a lot. This is Sherry’s hometown. It is Lisa’s hometown also (we have never met, we need to remedy that..) We have mutual friends
City planners (from northern towns) knew what would bring us back to life i.e. Closer houses, less yard, and “some alcohol.” It worked big time. Most days you are hard pressed to get a good parking place. I never stop downtown anymore but I do drive through and notice streets lined with cars where they were once were bare and down town dying. Boarded-up stores.
Our down town had a hardware, clothing stores, a couple drug stores, bank and some offices. NOW? It is mostly restaurants, café’s, coffee shops, ice cream parlors and bars.  Oh yes, we have a small animal hospital.
This small town had 26 operating textile (cotton) mills in its heyday. Now there maybe 2 operating on a scaled down basis but we have several breweries. We are a bedroom for the city of Charlotte now. The Mill Villages have been remodeled or bulldozed down to make room for high dollar homes.
I am smiling now, remembering the Imperial Mill village where Sherry lived when I met her. I lost my driver’s license once, and I walked to see her. I used to ‘float home’ going down that hill and by the mill, then the railroad track and on home.
She doesn’t even like to drive thru that area of beautiful brick homes that are there now. Home town folk. ;-)
Belmont is no longer that sleepy small town.

Nite Shipslog