The Weekly Notes 2007
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Back to the Weekly Notes 2007 Archives Safety Devices and: I am totally sick of
having a Father Knows Best, Big Brother, Nanny type government looking over
my shoulder with everything I do. With all of those Nader do-gooder types
influencing our government, it has reached a point where we cannot do
anything without some government interference. The tools we buy have so many
kludgy safety devices on them that they are impossible to use. I recently
bought a Snapper mower and it took me the best part of two days to figure out
how to defeat those stupid devices so I could do useful work with it. The first one was the
seat interlock wherein, if you raise your butt to get comfortable the damn
mower stops running. I figured out the seat interlock when I finally realized
it was trick wired. Instead of disconnecting it, I had to actually cut a
wire. Next was the reverse lockout mechanism. This one means you cannot back
the mower up with the blade engaged. Imagine how much great work you could do
when you must disengage the blade every time you want to back up. Even if
engaging the blade was easy, which it is not, that would be a nightmare. The
presumption is, people only mow their lawn by going forward or in circles.
Duh! I had to use a C-clamp to lock out the reverse lock out mechanism. The
clamp, normally a tool, has become a permanent part of the mower. As I said, engaging the
blade is not easy. It takes a great deal of arm strength to get it in. Then,
the way it was set up, the driver had to keep at least one foot on a blade
pedal to keep the blade from disengaging. Imagine how comfortable that is if
you can. I thought about taking part of the deck off the mower in order to
get at that mechanism. Then I realized there was a simpler solution. I added
my own lock in mechanism. I used a black rubber hold-down strap fastened to
the front of the mower to keep the blade handle from springing out. That
strap is now another permanent part of the mower. That was not all that
was wrong with this mower. To even mount the mower or dismount, it is
necessary to do it in a particular acrobatic way, lest the driver be left
straddling a center bar and struggling to lift his leg over it. Then there is
the towing hitch. In place of a hitch, this thing has a hole in a piece of
bent sheet metal. It is much to flimsy and it is too low to do any good. When
I tried to hook up my trailer it was way out of balance. I had to take the
real hitch off of my old Bolens mower, drill two holes at the appropriate
level and bolt the real hitch to the Snapper. I bought a new mower because
the 26 year old Bolens finally threw a rod. I should have bought a new engine
for the Bolens. Did I mention that I will not buy another Snapper product in
this lifetime? Nor will the conman who sold this one to me ever sell me
anything else. To be sure, I was conned and it is my own fault. More Billions for George is asking for
about 200 billion over the next year to continue his failure in Half of the state seems
to be on fire. Some experts say this is the biggest conflagration in their
history of forest fires. The The Goose is Dead: Most people who care
know Ford is abdicating on its healthcare commitments to its retirees. That
being the case, we must fend for ourselves as best we can for insurance to
supplement Medicare. We don’t have a lot of information about it yet.
We have received a dental brochure from the Blue Care Network Advantage
(BCNA) people. On looking it over, it does not look like any advantage to me.
It’s a real bummer. It looks like we would have to pay about $550 per
year for essentially no coverage. Most things they say are covered at 50%.
But, when you read the fine print that is 50% of the approved cost. I think
we all know what that means. I have not had a lot of
time to think much about it yet, but I think we will be going back to the
G.O.D. plan. That’s Good Old Days. I remember what we did. We went to a
dentist when we had a toothache. If we needed anything else, we shopped
around for price. I think the dental industry has finally killed the golden
goose. I remember when Bendix Corporation first offered us dental care back
in the sixties. Ford and GM were quick to follow. Then the expected thing
happened. Dental fees quadrupled within the month. They never looked back and
fees continue to increase at twice the rate of inflation. “Customary
and usual” is the phrase they use to justify some of the most wanton
gouging in the history of man. Now the goose is dead. Way it goes. A lot of dentists got
fat and lazy in the glory days. They built huge facilities and huge
bureaucracies of superfluous staff. They got real fancy, added all kinds of
customer attractions, and continued to gouge. Many got away with it and are
retired now. The new ones coming in will not get away with it. They do not
understand yet because they are young. They don’t remember the G.O.D.
plan. They will be reminded very soon. Union bluster will not salvage this
mess. Sooner than they want to, most people will have to forgo dental
treatment for the stuff that really matters. When they do see a dentist, they
will shop price first. They will call around. I am sure that’s how it
will end up for me. The dental industry will have to get real and stop
pretending that dental braces are more important than God. Banned: Mrs. Gaffer has just
finished reading Faulkner’s banned book, “As I Lay Dying.”
She told me about it and made me glad I did not read it. My guess is, it was
banned by the league of people against dumb books. What’s Necessary? From the standpoint of
human use, there are three classes of goods. These are the necessities, the
decencies, and the luxuries. When I was a kid, most Americans knew very well
the differences between them. Now I find, most Americans do not know or at
least deny knowing. We now live with the gotta-have generation. This attitude
has caused a lot of youngsters a great deal of emotional pain when they
finally have to face reality after they are up to their butts in debt and
losing their homes. Learning from mistakes is always painful. Back to the Weekly Notes 2007 Archives |