MOVED!

The new and improved, Maker and Fixer of Things Blog.

My Hand Surgery Saga (Some pretty ugly pics in here)

It all started with Carpal Tunnel surgery on June 25 (a year to the day from my triple disc replacement in my neck)  That surgery went well and I got the stitches out on 8th. It looked great, it felt great. I was quite happy with it.

Immediately Post-op

Right after the stitches came out

 Then the very next morning, on the 9th, I fell. Right on the heel of the palm of the hand I had just had surgery on. The incision split open and started weeping serum. I patched it up with some Steri-strips and called it a day.

The next day (Saturday) my hand was insanely swollen and in AGONY. I pulled off the Steri-strips and lots of flesh came with it. I called the hand surgeon's office. They told me to go to Urgent Care. So I did. X-Rays were normal.

 On Sunday, I got a call from the hand surgeon asking me to come in to see his PA on Monday since he was on vacation all week.. I did.

    The PA put me on antibiotics and sent me home. A few hours later I got a call from the surgeon. He wanted me to meet him at the surgi-center the next morning. He was reasonably certain he was going to have to operate.

He did.

It turns out I had what he referred to as a "Horseshoe Abscess." Apparently, when I landed on my hand I forced mildly infected serum up the tendon sheaths that travel to my pinky and thumb. This spread what was a contained infection being treated with anti-biotics into something more. By the time I got to the surgi-center it had even become systemic.

The surgery was excruciating. He made five new incisions and reopened the old one. When he was done, there were 46 stitches in my hand. As bad as the surgery was, it was better than if I had waited. I may have lost my thumb if I waited another 5 to 7 days.

OUCH!

This surgery had me in bed for an entire week. Apparently I got a little septic and it took my body a while to fight it off. 17 days later the stitches came out. It looked like hell. One week later it was looking much better. Though at that point I could still barely bend my pinky or thumb.

46 stitches just came out.

One week later

I have been doing physical therapy twice a week. My hand is functioning at about 50-ish% right now.

50 year old Colman Stove

In preparation for my camping trip in the desert, I dug out my old Coleman Stove. This puppy is over 50 years old (like me) and used to be my Dad's. It has been storage for over 20 years.

Ancient Camp Stove

The 413G was manufactured between 1965 and 1969.  

 

413G

When I opened it up I discovered an old, abandoned mouse nest, which I cleaned out.

Visitors in the Stove

I pulled the fuel tank out, filled it with fuel and attempted to pump up the pressure. It wouldn't pressurize.

I pulled the pump and discovered that the leather cup at the end was deformed. I stretched it out some and put it back in. It worked. I could now pressurize the fuel tank. 

Opened the valve, lit a match and FIRE!
The flame settled down pretty quickly and burned nice and blue.

Next I tested the second burner. Burner two is go!

Burning Well!

Power Trike for the Playa

http://www.colinfurze.com/drift-trike.html

@carsandcamera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-JFTECoPz4

Guerrilla Public Service

Let me start by saying, the statute of limitations for vandalism around these parts is one year. :-)

Early in the winter of 2019-2020 the state DOT (Penndot) put up a right turn light at the busiest intersection in town. It was done to try and help alleviate some of the horrible traffic at that intersection. 

Well, they did a crappy job of it. They put up the set of lights shown below. 

The problem is, when the green right turn arrow is lit, the solid red light at the top is still lit. The NO TURN ON RED sign right directly above that light confused the simpletons. And as I discovered, there are a lot of simpletons.

When I would pull up behind a car and watch the green arrow light up, I'd count One One-Thousand... Then toot my horn. More than 70% of the time the driver would not move. More than half of the non-moving drivers would point at the NO TURN ON RED sign right next to them on the side of the road.

Something had to be done...

So, inspired by Richard Ankrom, I did.

I found a company that makes street signs and had the "Proceed on Green Arrow" sign made.

That was the easy part. Putting the sign up took a bit longer than I thought it would. In the county in which I live there is a website called delcodispatch.com which lets you know when the fire department or ambulances get called out. Since the local police ALWAYS precede or follow the fire company it would help me see if the police were busy.  I set up a generic alert for anything going on in my township. 

I got my break on April 4th 2020. There was a tree down on the main road that goes through this intersection. I hurried out. Now, typically there are no more than four police cars patrolling the town. I saw three police cars about 1/3 of a mile down the road. 

I quickly put up the sign. I was sad to see that my 18" sign was 6" too small, but it was too late to change it. I got the sign up and and quickly left. I drove back through the intersection a few minutes later and snapped the above picture. 

Every time I drive past it I still smile knowing the township probably thinks the state did it and the state probably thinks the township did it.

For the record, it absolutely improved the traffic flow in the intersection!

<<edited for grammar and spelling mistakes>>

Build Your Own Burning Man )'( Part Two

Build Your Own

)'(
Burning Man II

---Arms!---

With Burning Man cancelled this year (2020), I'm feeling quite depressed. With amazingly little digging I came across some vague plans for how the man was built in the early 2000's. I decided to give it a go.

See part one for measurements.

Arm and Leg Discs

Arm Staves

 Arm Discs, drilled and dry fit mounted

Arm posts and Discs glued in place!

And the arms are done.
Just waiting for the glue to dry!

Build Your Own Burning Man )'( Part One

Build Your Own

)'(
Burning Man I

With Burning Man cancelled this year (2020), I'm feeling quite depressed. With amazingly little digging I came across some vague plans for how the man was built in the early 2000's. I decided to give it a go.

What follows will be a Step by Step on how I built my own Man.

Part Two: The Arms is right HERE!

The Plan

I decided to start with converting measurements to make everything about 1/4 the size of the original man. He was around 50' tall so mine will be around 12' tall. This is a reasonable size for my yard. :-)

Man Build Measurements (all in inches)
ARMS
Arm Rings - 5 each arm
From plans (radius)			7.5	9	7.5	6	4.5
My design (radius)			1.875	2.25	1.875	1.5	1.125
Arm Ring Spacing	Post	outerRib
From plans	37	7.5	27.5	25	27.5	30	15
My design	9.25	1.875	6.875	6.25	6.875	7.5	3.75
LEGS
Leg Ring - 6 each leg
From plans (radius)			17	17	15	13	11	9	7	7
My design (radius)			4.25	4.25	3.75	3.25	2.75	2.25	1.75	1.75
Leg Ring Spacing	Post	outerRib
From Plans	66	12	40	40	36	32	28	24	20	20
My design	16.5	3	10	10	9	8	7	6	5	5

Working on the Head

I decided to start with the head. This part seems to me to be more art than anything else. So, measurements are what you make of them. It will be approximately 13" tall on it's own. Just playing with a layout here:

Faces are done!

The head completed!