Banana spice cake, vanilla custard, cream cheese icing and candied pecans.

Now with improved oxidation.

This is my rusty 1971 GMC Vandura. '71 is the year GM introduced that body style of vanola and went on to produce it for about 24 years. I bought this one from its original owner and about 80,000 miles, five years ago, for $1,800. The van had been special-ordered as a base model, with windows, and new for 1971: disc brakes! Entirely base model otherwise, though I think it's got an oversized radiator because "towing package." 250 inline-six with a three-on-the-tree.

Because reasons, I took Rusty to my friend Rich's equipment yard around Thanksgiving 2019 and there it's sat. Recently, our good friend @Sovande rebuilt Rusty's Monojet carburetor, so my aim is to get it marginally roadworthy this Spring.

Rich and I loaded Rusty up on a heavy equipment trailer and drayed it back to the house behind Rich's 2012 Kenworth T800, which I believe was well up to the task at hand. (560,000 miles on that beast; just broken in, says Rich.)

My pal Rich in his Sterling-based crane truck. Now, that's a burly truck. Thanks again, Rich!

His birthday is a week from now, so he wasn't quite here yet when I had my birthday last year.

I got the second dose of the Phizer vaccine yesterday morning. I can definitely feel it today, low grade headache and a bit of a delirious malaise, but on a 1-10 scale, I'd probably call it a 2/10. Definitely registers, but far from debilitating. Mrs. Vandura woke up around 3 AM feeling genuinely crappy, but was pretty well again three or four hours later. We got shots because educators.

Paging @ranwhenparked ! This car has 2,9xx miles on it. Factory air, factory AM/FM radio. He said he bought it and restored it for his wife twenty-plus years ago. I don't think it gets driven much.

@tripper @MybirdIStheword @Huzer @VincentMalamute @ranwhenparked @fintail @Mr-Ontop @derpwagon @Vondon302 @MUSASHI66 @ST80MND @e90m3
@Cash-Rewards @Shop-Teacher @Highlander @tripper @Italia @BicycleBuck @RPMesq @ClassicDatsunDebate @ibRAD @HFV @AMGtech @Chariotoflove @AestheticsInMotion @facw @MisterButtercup @Manwich @sn4cktimes @Wrong-Wheel-Drive

Look at that list of excellent people. Thank you to everyone who cared and even had a bit of gallows humor me this morning. It's been a very emotional morning.

I've had a look at the ticket and the copper wrote 96 (in a 65), so we're officially 30+ on this. Court date is in June. Chippy did not impound the car on the spot, I'm assuming, because all the stickers and papers were in order and because there were still a bunch of fish in the barrel to shoot. What's alarming to me about the situation is that they did not have any idea that they were going that fast until Chippy pulled them over and informed them. That's a serious problem. That's a catastrophic accident without the accident. And it's their third inattention-caused situation, the first two being minor traffic accidents.

Operating a motor vehicle is no joke, people.

I'm taking them off the insurance and explicitly de-listing them from the automobiles garaged at this address. We are imposing a safety standdown until after the court date and then we can reassess. From what folks have said here, I'm sure we can expect to receive a court summons. Take it as it comes. All of their friends drive, and they have the Uber app on their phone. I'll keep us posted.

You know what was beautiful? Mrs. Vandura came home from work to be with them. There's just nothing like a mom, though an auntie can do in a pinch. We dads are third string.

I've got nothing but love for y'all.

If you think I'm excited, you should see his grandmother!

With apologies to @ttyymmnn ...

This is a clock that checks its time with the radio signal from Colorado. It runs off a couple of double-A batteries, and they need rather frequent replacement. I decided a hack was in order. I've got the transformer plugged into the UPS.

Rusty is back in the driveway. My aim is to drive it to work on the first day of school.

• Install the carburetor that @sovande rebuilt for me.
• Configure and install a manual choke so that I do not have to remove the dog house to start the engine.
• Confirm that the gas tank is not full of debris.
• Adjust the parking brake.
• Install new KYB shock absorbers all around.
• Install an internally regulated alternator so that Rusty has a charging system.
• Get the lights working.
• Change the door hinges on the driver's door.
• Cause the driver door glass not to fall out of the regulator when rolling down the window.
• Make it possible to actually open the driver's door from the driver's seat.

I think I am going to start with the driver's door.

@bicyclebuck said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

@ttyymmnn said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

@bicyclebuck said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

The one that comes to mind first is the Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse.

Thought they knew better, or cut corners, like they did the the pressure bulkhead on JAL 123?

In the Hyatt case, the architect specified a single metal rod for each support on the skywalk. The contractor decided that two rods with a connector was equivalent. He was wrong.

I know a bit about this case. What the contractor decided was that his way was easier. He didn't want to spend time threading a nut up 60 feet of threaded rod. The engineering was sound. The re-engineering was not sound. (That's my understanding, anyhow.)

@ramblinrover said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

For example, he didn't know what pipe thread was. The taper, how it goes together, none of it. And he was working on a drawing that involved machining a part with pipe thread.

If I were faced with that situation, I would stop and Home Despot and pick up a 3/8" NPT nipple and a 90-degree elbow and bring it to work the next morning for Show & Tell. And one of my many rolls of Teflon tape for good measure. And maybe even a small pipe wrench to demonstrate now it grabs the pipe in but one direction. And an adjustable wrench to show that yes, there's a particular direction in which you are supposed to apply torque with one of those.

I keep a hand-crank drill in my classroom because sometimes I want a pilot hole for something that needs a screw and my students saw the drill and were endlessly fascinated by it. Many of them, anyhow. I took wood shop in the fifth grade. No wood shops now, but that is another topic.

@highlander

@bicyclebuck One interesting thing is "multiplication facts." In other words, what we called times table when I was a kid. Kid see zero relevance in that because their phone has a calculator on it. Remember that I get them when they're 8th graders and they come to me not knowing what six times nine is. Or what "one half" means. They might say, "You mean point-five?" So what I do is laminate a multiplication table of my own construction and I let them have access to it all of the time. They begin to recognize factors and other things by seeing the numbers and how they relate. Big part of number theory, number bases, et cetera. It's fun trying to unlock that for them.

What we need is math teachers with single-subject credentials at the elementary schools supporting the primary grade teachers. LOLNOPE in my district. We are doomed.

@ttyymmnn Why is dividing by zero illegal?

@bicyclebuck said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

@rusty-vandura said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

Primary grade teachers don't farking know math and they tell their students they don't know math and there's the beginning of the lifelong failure mode.

Don't forget that they keep changing the rules and the way they teach math. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to teach grade-school kids to estimate instead of just doing the problem should be flogged. I taught my kids how to do multiplication and division the long way. Only then were they able to grasp the concepts around estimating.

Yes, well, I have studiously ignored all of that and just kept on exploring the math with the kiddos. There is some value to estimating, IMO, after you have completed the problem to see if your result is reasonable.

The primary grade teachers don't know s^^t about math. And if they do, they are the exception.

@ttyymmnn said in Meanwhile, at Target...:

@rusty-vandura said in Meanwhile, at Target...:

IMO, Walmart offers a wider selection of things.

It does. When I wanted a cheap-ass fridge and microwave for E's dorm, I went to Walmart. Target, however, usually has a better selection of Lego. At least when Covid isn't messing with the supply chain.

Target has a very good LEGO assortment, is true. No argument there.

@ttyymmnn said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

@rusty-vandura said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

For example: my students cannot conceptualize that a ruler begins at zero,

My drafting teacher at Maury taught me to measure everything starting at 1 instead of the left edge of the ruler, since the edge could not be trusted. Of course, you then had to subtract the one at the end. I still do that.

Accuracy, precision, rigor.

Yes, that is a very important thing and I teach it. But from the standpoint of mathematical rigor, zero is a thing and plays important roles there and in other places.

@ranwhenparked said in Meanwhile, at Target...:
@ttyymmnn Well, yeah, there's less unintentional ass crack exposure at Target. Also, less Tweety Bird tramp stamps

That's about the only thing that recommends Target. And there goes the entertainment value.

IMO, Walmart offers a wider selection of things.

@ttyymmnn said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

@rusty-vandura said in My son will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall:

Here's a fun exercise: teach 8th graders how to measure length with a ruler. I am constantly surprised at how difficult it is for them to grasp that.

I'm having difficulty understanding why this could be hard. But maybe that's because I took a drafting class in high school, and concepts like that are not foreign to me.

That is precisely why. That, and you were curious.

For example: my students cannot conceptualize that a ruler begins at zero, or that what we are counting in a measurement are the intervals between the numbers on the ruler. Forget about the 8ths and the 16ths. But the idea of counting the intervals is foundational. Kids don't know how to count things. For starters... (Discrete mathematics...)

Primary grade teachers don't farking know math and they tell their students they don't know math and there's the beginning of the lifelong failure mode.

@DipodomysDeserti
@RamblinRover