But you gotta look for it….

Seems that vaccination levels are reaching (recent) historic lows….

People simply aren’t vaccinating unless forced to for employment (Or their kids if forced by school requirements) and even then, many are claiming religious or other exemption status.

Gee…. what could have caused such mistrust of vaccines?  Of Public Health statements (and anyone who works for the CDC or any Health agency)? (apparently trust in such institutions has has been declining for the past 4 years or so….)

Add in the fact that many communities were inundated with Third World peoples who were settled in their communities with zero vaccinations, and we may well soon have a REAL (not manufactured in the media) actual health crisis.

Was Trump shooting Red Bulls before his speech? Did he find another one of Hunter’s stash?

I don’t think I’ve ever been that wired even back in the day .

How is it legal for ICE to do their duties without any (individual) Government issued badges (with a number) or Identification card on their person, and can drive around breaking traffic laws (Like running Red Lights) with no lights, no sirens and especially with no license plates on their vehicles?

More importantly, why are they getting away with such illegal behavior?

I get that they don’t want to be identified. Were I them, I’d likely be ashamed of my actions also…Or be held accountable.

But we need some sort of way to identify individuals officers and to be sure they are real ICE officials. Anyone can get the Tommy Tactical gear they are running around with when they are sweeping entire crowds with AR-style rifles and Airsoft Pepperball guns. You and I could get lookalike gear and firearms for about  $1K or so . No one would be able to tell the difference.

Even back in the Cowboy (“F-Troop”)  days when they were out of control you could still be sure that they were really ATF.

Just ’cause they are doing Gods Work doesn’t mean that we should not hold them accountable for their actions and that they should not adhere to laws like the rest of us.

“Most people judge others based upon the model they have of themselves. If they deem people untrustworthy without cause, they themselves are likely untrustworthy”

“The heart of a wise man is tranquil and still”

“If you can’t apologize, then you are not truly remorseful. Don’t expect to be forgiven”

“Motivation is a thing you have to put on and wear every single morning”

“Silence is a competitive advantage in a world where everyone talks too much.”

“The real trick to “education” is to teach people in such a way that they don’t realize they are learning until it is too late”

“The people who matter will not leave you for having boundaries”

“Sometimes it is best not to rebuild bridges or mend fences with some people…they belong Over There…away from you and your life”

“The best way to maintain peace is to retain the capability of overwhelming violence”

Just an observation:

Have you noticed that the dude they detained as a “Person of Interest” in the Brown University shooting looks NOTHING like the pictures they are currently circulating as the shooter? like totally different.

Something smells here. Like they are hiding something or that there is more to the story.

One thing to note: Once the cops had a “Person of Interest” they stop bothering to investigate further. It is a trait of police worldwide.

Someone gave them a false trail, I think.

For the right type of person

Oscar Meyer looking for Wienermobile drivers.

I am back to heating with (recently) dead trees instead of long dead dinosaurs.

Amazon delivered the cheapie Chinese motor a day early….

And it was all I expected:

Cheaply made, poor fit and finish, mounting holes large and out of spec, fasteners that were non standard, screws that seem to be neither metric or english in size….

Having said that, it was cheap, arrived early, runs well and true, and works.

It is, I think, a (really cheaply made) copy of an AO Smith motor….optimized for cost rather than quality and longevity.

When the real motor arrives, I will keep it as a spare.  Probably put it behind the woodstove this time so it will be there when I need it.

As for the old motor:

The motor shop could have fixed it, but the cost would have been prohibitive. Assuming it was just the start switch (which I think was the problem) the cost for a new switch and replacement bushings and a varnish dip to renew the old insulation (in other words, the minimum “Rebuild” ) the cost would have been within a few dollars of a brand new motor. If there were other issues found after teardown (like a bad start winding) it would have been more…They strongly discouraged me from choosing the rebuild option. They did take the time to find and show me the available motors that they felt would be good quality replacements that should last as long as the original motor. Good people that turned down a job because they felt it was the better option for me.

The original motor, BTW, a Westinghouse (no longer made) date codes to 1978….so that motor is more than 40 years old. It ran a long time.

I almost took the rebuild option but common sense prevailed. Kind of a shame to trash it, really.

Joe has a good point

You might disagree but then you’d be wrong.

So I have this woodstove…a great way to heat the house. Wood is cheap when Ma Nature provides it in the form of deadfalls and storm damaged wood and all you have to do is cut it and split it and I generally need the exercise I get from cutting it and making it into firewood and stacking it and moving it….

The stove has a heat exchanger and a fan and is tied into the forced air (gas) heating system, and it makes it pretty easy to keep the house warm. Very efficient: the fan cycles on and off as the firebox temps go up and down. EGT has to be beyond 250F or so and then the fan blows air through the heat exchanger until everything cools off….so you control the house temps with the fresh air damper. Pretty simple and you can get a load of wood in the firebox to last about 7 hours and keep the house nice and warm on a cold night….and keep the chimney hot enough to not creosote up.

So the other night, the outdoor tamps were near zero F….I filled the stove up with wood, set the damper to a really low burn rate,  and then I went to bed about 11:30 (yeah, I know, what happened to the party animal that was once me on a Saturday night?) and fell asleep shortly thereafter…..and something woke me up about 12:45…I wasn’t sure that it was that woke me. But I was wide awake.  I got up, looked around the house, could find nothing amiss, and went back to bed about 5 minutes later.

just as I started to drift off….Bzzzzerrtttt!…. then silence.

“Odd”, I said to myself: “That sounded like a stalled electric motor”…and the other voices in my head agreed that that is what it sounded like…I waited a few minutes, and there it was again….Bzzzrrtt!

I got up and checked the kitchen fridge,  then the garage heater (turned on ’cause the elderly abandoned and abused cat that lives outdoors was inside due to the forecast below zero temps)…then the garage fridge, then the downstairs chest freezer….and found nothing, all seemed to be good….then, as I was fixing to go back upstairs, I heard it again. For sure a stalled electric motor.

Yep, it was the stove fan. It is a belt drive setup that turns a squirrel cage blower. I turned the switch off (I put isolation switches on nearly everything like that…..Good practice for such events… There is one for the gas furnace too) and tried to turn the motor….nothing seemed seized. I rolled the drive belt off the pulley, and both the blower and the motor seemed to spin freely.

About that time, I heard the “click” as the thermal cutout reset itself. I turned the isolation switch back on on and sure enough, the motor just sat there and buzzed, loudly…no rotation, even with no load.  I turned the switch off, spun the motor pulley by hand and turned the switch back on,,,,and the motor spun. I let it run for a few, and then turned it off. It spun down slowly, not a bearing issue….as it slowed, I flicked the switch back on and it spun up again back to speed….let it spin down to a stop (which it did smoothly, so, again, probably not a bearing/bushing issue…I heard the centrifugal start switch click as it spun down….when it came to a stop I tried to restart it, it didn’t spin…..just buzzed .

So I dunno, a bad start switch? A start winding? It is an old Westinghouse 1/3 HP 1725rpm  48 frame motor….It was old and used and of unknown history (but good condition) when I put it on about 15 years ago to replace the totally trashed Emerson that was there before. I had oiled it and cleaned it but nothing else over it’s life on my woodstove…

I fully closed the damper on the woodstove to starve the fire of air and turned up the gas heat and went back to bed.

Sunday  morning I went to the place where I had the spare (used) motor and found nothing. just space…. I may have put that motor in a different blower for a friend last year when his went out during particularly cold week or maybe I used it on the electric concrete mixer or….who knows?……..but I never replaced it. Not sure. All I know is I have no spare. (Which is unusual for me)

Shit.

Amazon has a cheap chinese replacement for $99 on two day shipping, so I bought one. I have no idea  of the quality of a cheap chinese made Amazon $99 clone of an Emerson motor. It might be great, it might not last a month. ….And I don’t know it the Westinghouse motor is worth repairing, but I will take it to the motor repair shop today and see. The Emerson or Marathon replacement is $350 or so.  The Dayton from Grainger is over $500. I might have a replacement stashed in the pole barn, but I don’t think it is the right mounting/frame type…and I might not even still have it either. Have to go look for it and dig it out and see…But right now it is -2F so that might wait a day.

We shall see.

In the meantime I burn natural gas like a normal person.