I love going to auctions. Went to my first one about ten years ago to buy some old tools for my workshop, got'em and was hooked. Over the years I've got some great deals, a General table saw for forty five bucks was one of my better ones. Some of the stuff you buy comes in a box with a bunch of other stuff and this other stuff occasionally yields some pleasant little surprises. I have an old manual telling farmers about the dangers of those new fangled inventions like electricity and automobiles. I have a Christmas toy flyer circa 1953 with toys I remember my parents buying for me. There's pill boxes for morphine, yard sticks with two number telephone numbers and old glass bottles from a century ago. Last weekend I bought that light pictured above. I thought, when I was bidding on it, that it was an old railroad light but once I looked at it I knew it just didn't fit that genre. So I looked it up. Turned out it's a tail light for a car, a model T car, model A car but a car before they had the electrical system fully worked out. One side is red, facing rear; clear, facing the licence plate and blue/green facing out. The picture below is courtesy of Shorpy.com - one of the best web sites for old photos. Check out the rear of the car. There's my light. Then look at the cat facing, it has the same light on the passenger side front window.
Got it home, filled it with kerosene and fired it up. Works, but then why wouldn't it. It doesn't get much lower tec than this. Now if only I could get a car to go along with it.

Well here it is, another February, another entry. Surely to god you would think I could manage more than one little note a year. Seems not though. But anyway here I am on yet another somewhat uninspiring winters day. The sun is trying valiantly to shine through the clouds but the wind and the cold are succeeding in keeping me indoors.
What a change from yesterday when it was a shoes and sweater day, coffee on the porch and a brilliant blue sky. Then came the snow, then the wind. Mid way through the evening the lights flickered, flickered again and died. So for a little more than half an hour we sat by the light of the fire, lit a lamp and tried to think of what we would have done if we were pioneers. I suggested listening to fiddle music on the ipod but that somehow didn't feel like something our log cabin dwelling fore fathers would have done. Before we had a chance to actually get desperate enough to figure out what we could do by lamp light the power came back on and we went back to watching TV. In our defence though we do have an old TV. No big flat screen with Hi Def and surround sound for us. Nope, we still have our old tube technology, state of the art circa 1990 Zenith. You gotta admit that having that old thing is sort of pioneer like, almost akin to churning your own butter or reading the catalogue for amusement. Will probably be carting it off with me to "the home" when I go. These damned things never seem to die and I'm not one for tossing a perfectly good thing just because it's old or there is a newer version. Except for computers that is.
The big kerfuffle around the valley these days is our member of Parliament has once again spoken a thought in public and has for a moment taken her head out of her ass just long enough to stick a foot in her mouth. Cheryl Gallant, remember that name because when you look up redneck, ineffectual, ignorant or homophobic you will see her picture as a perfect example of the type. The first thing she did as an MP was to utter some redneck idiocy that had her censured, told to shut up by the caucus and placed forever in the backbenches. She then yelled homophobic comments during a parliamentary debate which sealed her fate as a person to be ignored. She is, I'm sure, barely tolerated by her party but she fills for them the function of occupying a much needed seat in a minority government. Now if she would only keep what passes as thought, to herself.
Her latest pearl of wisdom is to tell the men and women who work on the ocean that the government should not be responsible for trying to rescue them should a tragedy occur. This of course was said in front of an audience of people who had been rescued and the loved ones of those that had been lost at sea. The stupidity of the woman is mind boggling. And the bright lights of the valley keep electing this do nothing who's biggest accomplishment is doing photo ops for things she has no involvement in but are a benefit to the area. Speaks volumes about the locals and their commitment to quality representation.
Posted by Albedo Effect at 10:54 AM 0 comments