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I'm back to bicycling again. Allen Knight, a member of the ward here, agreed to ride with me. Allen suffered a circa 60 foot fall some years ago, and four months later when he was released from the hospital, they decided he was disabled--cranial injuries left him deficient in some areas. Why else would he be willing to ride with me? |
| Allen and I had originally planned a trip to Picacho, but his wife (using logic she must have borrowed from mine) decided that riding along highway 79 was too dangerous. So instead, we rode to Tucson. In my humble opinion, the six inches of real estate that a bicyclist can claim while pedaling through beautiful downtown Catalina is the second most dangerous stretch of road within 40 miles of here (the first being Oracle Road between Ina and River). |
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Earlier that morning, I transported the motorized bike to the Fry's parking lot, left the truck there, and then rode the m-bike home against a 25 mph wind. By the time we started back to Tucson, the wind velocity had moderated some, but we still had a nice tailwind. We traversed 26.8 miles at an average speed of 13.1 mph, which isn't too bad for someone who hasn't spend much recent time astride a two-wheel vehicle. At any rate, Allen stood the trip well without being sore the next day (which says something about his level of conditioning) and I enjoyed his company. Maybe next time we will try Picacho. |
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Although it is blatantly obvious to one who looks, the fact that the sun is very destructive to car interiors is not something that has risen to the top of my cognitive thought processes. But, at my wife's urging, I have undertaken the construction of a carport to shelter her (and my) car. In all honesty, I have to admit that a major motivation is my dislike of scrapping ice off my windshield. After three months of searching the materials section of craigslist and fabricating countless mental structures, I settled on one that employed a triangular configuration for the main supporting joists. The design is simple to envision, but complex to describe, so in this case, "one good look is worth 1000 words." |
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Building "free-hand" (e.g. without the use of jigs) sometimes results in waves where straight lines are anticipated, but in this case, the curvature is not great, and I suspect it will not affect the final function. As Grandma Allen used to say, "You'll never see it on a galloping horse." |
| I agonized over the size of the rebar, and finally convinced myself to take a chance that #3 (nominally 3/8 inch in diameter) would be strong enough. When I finished the first joist, with some trepidation I supported both ends on paint cans and was very pleased to see that this 18 foot 4 inch piece was able to support it's own weight. |
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I was even more pleased to see that it would support my weight. |
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I was so happy, in fact, that I danced a jig on it... I estimated the weight of the roof to be about 800 lbs. There will be four joists, so each will have to support 200 lbs, and given that it supported my 200 lbs in the center of the span (while the weight of the roof will be distributed) suggests that it probably has sufficient structural rigidity. |
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Structural welding is not without its' exciting moments. Last Saturday, conditions must have been exactly right, because almost every time I struck an arc, the spattering slag started a small grass fire underneath were I was working. I neglected to attend to one of these as quickly as I might have, and it got a little out of hand. I enlisted the aid of the garden hose, but experienced some difficulties straightening out the kinks. As you might imagine, until that task was accomplished, things were a wee bit exciting. In the end, nothing irreplaceable was consumed by the blaze and (as is clearly visible in this photo) the combustible ground coverings are no longer a problem. |
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I have arraigned to take Thursday and Friday of this week as vacation and AJ, who is on spring break, volunteered to help me finish the project. To this point, construction of two joists has been completed. In my world, work takes between two and four times what I estimate it should, so "finish" may end up being a relative term. But then again, we may get lucky... Dad |
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