Author Archives: Joel

I’ve spent all day slaving over a hot keyboard working on Ian’s galley proof. (which needs some editorial changes, of course, but is generally excellent. This is the first time I’ve seen the page layout and photos, and they’re great.) … Continue reading →

Big Brother decided I needed alternate wheels… It’s an fat-tired electric bike! Some assembly required, and I’m anxious to get to it but obligated to work on editing proofs for the moment. No hurry, really, because… …that battery needs to … Continue reading →

The galley proofs for Ian’s book have come down… …and so we’re frantically giving it its very last edit pass. So far it looks great: I’m less than 100 pages in but only have 3 notes. Ian reports he’s been … Continue reading →

Guess I’m just not a proper communist.

Time will tell how fixed it is, but it’s back. The new water pump certainly sounds better, or at least less bad. But while I’m uploading pix I have my kitchen timer counting down 15 minutes and then we’ll see … Continue reading →

Daddy Long-Leg spiders keep getting themselves caught in my sink. The Lair is infested with’em this time of year. I don’t know how true it is, but they say that pound for pound a Daddy Long-Leg is one of the … Continue reading →

I really don’t need those extra two older batteries, which are now bypassing the inverter and running my 12v lighting and bedroom ceiling fan. The plan was to eliminate them and free up some powershed space. But I slept on … Continue reading →

🙂 Yeah, I got nothing today.

Complete, with no untoward arky-sparky. This is a job Less-Confident Joel could find excuses to put off for a week. I did it with thunder overhead. Also included some cable-routing improvements that have been sitting on the cabinet for a … Continue reading →

(Okay, it’s Monsoon season. The cell signal is finally letting me type this but while I normally lace the post with pictures, they’re not happening this afternoon so bear with me.) Boy, I’ve sure spent a lot of time away … Continue reading →

I’m getting old, maybe… Big Brother’s monthly care package contained a couple of packages of something called tortelloni, which I never heard of but it seems a lot like ravioli which I like. So I cooked some up for lunch, … Continue reading →

…the truth is I love to say I told you so. And I had told him so. The morning I brought the Jeep to the dysfunctional little shop in the town nearest where I live, the owner practically rolled his … Continue reading →

…First ensure that the post is not mocking those links. Seems like lately I’m getting a lot of spam emails trying to get me to help people sell things I don’t believe have any value. Latest example… Reading it I … Continue reading →

I enjoy shooting. I guess you could say I like guns. But I’ve always found there to be something kind of cold-blooded about the development of the first machine guns. And this is arguably the very first one… This “Prototype” … Continue reading →

I checked the game camera after dumping a bunch of dog food at the watering station yesterday (untouched) and found over 1100 frames recorded, plus a whole bunch of fresh elk sign. So I swapped out the mem cards, pretty … Continue reading →

I’ll honestly go ahead and admit I don’t recall ever asking myself this. It’s just always been a jackknife. From my earliest memory my father and uncles and brother-in-law all carried them and I wanted one. But that is kind … Continue reading →

Eye doctor appointment in the big town about 50 miles away. Probably the first of many. I’ve really grown to hate leaving the Gulch.

Alternate title: What’r’ya gonna do with #150 of rotten dog food? No, seriously, I had to figure that out. So Landlady came up this weekend, only then remembering that Dharma’s food barrel was empty. “No problem,” said I, “We’ve got … Continue reading →

Check out this care package from Terrapod… Coincidentally or not, it contains the precise button switch I wanted for replacing the broken bit in the Jeep’s ignition switch. The. Precise. Switch. And as it happens it would not have cost … Continue reading →