if you use a homepage like this one.. you will not have to hunt for say Amazon. Thiis on their menu under shopping. And Iuse DuckDuckgo for searches. https://www.homepage.org/news/
Interesting. The majority of shoppers at my local supermarket this afternoon were not masked, myself included. Those with the face diapers seemed to be more the soccer mom types. I am beginning to think some of these sheep will be wearing masks the rest of their lives.
I'm not a soccer mom and I'm no "sheep." But I do wear a mask in public places and will continue to do so. If you don't like it I suggest you MYOB. I'm going to guess that the people in the above-referenced hamburger joint were in there to eat, so they removed their masks.
I think it's largely because those who are concerned over this stuff don't go to restaurants, because it's the only place where you sit in a tight space for an extended period of time around people who are all unmasked as they are eating. But I have noticed a big difference between my rural Walmart and the grocery stores 25 miles up the road in Charlottesville (a university town.) I'll have to go to the Walmart in Charlottesville next time I'm in town to get another data point.
I am in the minority of my brothers and sister about covid. But I think there is truth and falsehood on both sides. We must do what we feel is right. I don't want to catch any flu or sickness. But there is evidnce that ivermectin works not just a horse wormer allowing me even less fear. I actually have some in my cabinet . (long and involved evidence) My daughter works in a big box store and wears a mask every day. It dries out her skin but I applaud that she is so responsible. Masks comfort some patrons, if not all. She is very thoughtful. Mostly, I stay at the barn.
So nearly 5 months later...my 11 year old tractor battery was on the verge of dying. I got it started yesterday after a few hesitant clicks. I pulled the battery this morning and bought a replacement (the Kuboto place is in the next county over.) Since I had the hood up, I replaced that fuel stop solenoid I've hung on to for so long. Of course, it was a pain in the butt. Just like cars, the engines are assembled on a nice clean factory floor with Hugo Montenegro tunes playing in the background, then they drop it in the body and let the next poor slob (that would be me) worry about maintenance. I had to disconnect and remove a few things (air filter hose & assembly, throttle linkage) to get to it as best I could. It was still awkward. And that led to my cleaning up my socket sets because I could not readily lay my hands on my 1/4" extensions. I have 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" sets in SAE and metric, all with regular, deep well, and 8 point sockets. I'm on the web now looking for a better way to organize them than the metal bars with the sliding clips, although I doubt I'll find anything that takes up as little space. So at least now when I'm using my tractor and need to do a side task, I can actually turn the thing off and restart it without having to wait. Yay.
John: I backed up and read your old post. WTH is a "fuel stop solenoid"? If the water temp gets too high it shuts the fuel supply off? Just chuckling here. I have a 1951 Fergie T020, bought it in 1977, and not a lot of "newfangled" stuff on it -- it's about as complicated as an old lawnmower. A sticky valve went through the piston in 2000 or 2001 so I rebuilt the entire engine (no room in barn, did it out in the dirt in the hot summer sun). Runs great. I keep double-ring chains on it year-round, and it goes through snow like a grizzly bear.
The Most Expensive POS I Never Bought: This is less a rant and more an informative posting - a data point to tuck away. The POS in question is the Dyson Purifier and Humidifier, shown below. The unit cost around $900 last January. I didn't buy it. A family member did and asked me to test it to see if they should get several for their home and business. I said OK, put it in our open kitchen/family room, where it quit working within several days. Said family member decided not to buy any more (good call) and said I could have it. She had neither the time or inclination to fuss with it. The functional specs on the thing looked so good I thought it might be worth trying to get it fixed under warranty. So I took the unit to a Dyson repair facility near Boston after days of countless emails and phone calls. Several weeks later, the repair shop called and said it was fixed and I should come and get it. When I got there they said the call was a mistake and they couldn't fix it as there was a (covid-related) shortage of parts, specifically the water pump. After more phone calls and emails, Dyson sent me a new unit, which ran fine for several months. We turned it off in the spring Well, several weeks back I filled up the water reservoir and turned it on. Several days ago, the unit started telling me (via the iPhone app) that it was out of water when it wasn't. Today it let me know it had shut down the humidifier function because the water pump stopped working (again!). I'll not spend any more time with this thing. Dyson will either send me a new one or I will bust it up and put it out for the trash. Aside from the unit being a PITA, I think the ability to monitor the volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the air downstairs while in the bathroom upstairs will appeal to people with more money that good sense.
I don't get the Dyson mystique; kind of "emperor's new clothes-ish" in my opinion. I think their high ratings are because people don't want to admit they overpaid for unremarkable products. I've owned two Dyson vacuum cleaners that were mediocre at best, and a "Dyson Pure Cool, TP04 - HEPA Air Purifier and Tower Fan" that is also an overpriced piece of junque. (In my defense, I am an "Amazon Vine" reviewer and got the Air Purifier/Tower Fan for free, but the list price is around $600. It was worth every penny of what I paid. )
That's so cool. Nice job on rebuilding that engine. I worked as a small engine mechanic many years ago but never rebuilt anything larger than a 10hp motor. I posted elsewhere of our father buying a small plot of land in a very rural area in the state, and we cleared it ourselves and pulled the stumps with a 1933 Harvester International tractor. Nothing like hand-crank start and a metal seat mounted on a bent piece of steel to get your juices going on a cold morn. I was in my late teens when we did that. I'll have to tell you of getting lowered into a well on a seat made of a cinder block with ropes running through the holes (well, somebody had to glue the sections of pipe together.) I was going to buy a used Ford N Series tractor when I moved here, but I wanted (a) an owner's manual and (b) all the gadgets: front end loader, backhoe, belly mower, 3 point hitch PTO roto tiller. I've since picked up a bottom plow, a cultivator and a Shaver 3 point hitch post PTO hole drill w/auger ($50 on Craigslist, baby.) Yeh, these are little tanks. There has only been one snow since I moved here that warranted me pushing it around, but there have been plenty of ice storms taking trees down across our right-of-way. My neighbors are happy that they no longer get out the chain saws...I just push the stuff off of the road in into the woods. Same with the guy tilling his garden. I do it for him on my tractor. That's the kind of stuff that gets me free rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club delivered to my door. ***Only read further if you were not kidding about the fuel stop solenoid...my reading comprehension has not been the same since Spencer's Gifts discontinued their catalogues.*** So this fuel stop solenoid relates to the question: "How do you turn off a diesel motor when ignition occurs through engine compression and there's no electric ignition system?" I never though of it before. The answer is to cut off the fuel supply...it's the only way to shut it down (tractor or diesel car, I would assume.) So this solenoid has a rod on a spring that pushes against a valve that stops the fuel right at the injector (or maybe it's at the fuel pump.) When you turn On the "ignition," you're really activating the solenoid so it retracts the rod and allows the fuel to flow. When you turn the "ignition" Off, the solenoid rod extends again and stops the fuel, thus shutting down the engine. All of the Idiot features (getting off of the seat when the PTO is turned on) cut the juice to this solenoid. As I said in my original post, over time these wear out in Kubotas, so if you turn the "ignition" Off when the engine (and solenoid) is hot, the rod appropriately extends killing the fuel, but then it gets stuck in that position. It will not retract when you turn the "ignition" On again until things cool down. Thank goodness for OrangeTractorTalks forum in posting this issue for people like me. A faulty safety switch in the seat or on the PTOs (front or rear) or elsewhere would present similar symptoms (excepting the "works when it cools down" issue.) Even a fuel line problem could cause the "dies when it's hot" problem.
When the product sucks, throw more marketing dollars at it, huh? There have been studies you've likely seen that when you ask folks their opinion on products (like their new car), you're not likely to get an honest response for the very reason you cited...no one wants to admit to having made a mistake.
Ya know what is surprising? I bought a fuel pump with attached solenoid for my antique john deere sulky mower on AMAZON. Who knew ya didn't have to go to a dealer? (Who would probably have laughed at me)
John: I grew up driving those old IH and other brand tractors. As a kid it was just FUN! In fact, anything with a motor was fun. I didn't realize you had a diesel. Yes I'm aware that on/off can only be controlled by the fuel supply. I guess the "new" gas engined (if they still make them) tractors probably have some similar "safety" thing like that, but probably cuts the spark instead (simpler). I don't know how humanity survived without all this safety stuff. FWIW, I'm probably selling my Vette in the spring (it's sleeping in the barn for the winter). It has an intermittent electrical problem and will not start at random times. The dealer had it for two weeks and couldn't get it to malfunction so there was nothing to fix (it's a really great dealer though). The second time this happened (early November) they ate the towing charge ($225) and whatever time they had diagnosing it. Zero charge. I told the (young) service guy that of all the junk cars I had when younger, NONE of them ever left me dead in the water. Carbs and points ignition, about as reliable as you can get. This is where we're at: we're driving rolling computers that are so advanced that our ability to diagnose any problems cannot keep up.
I got a similar story with my 2005 GMC Canyon pickup. Maybe 8 years ago I started having issues with the battery draining overnight during the cold months, while it could go for days without being started in the summer. I was pulling fuses when I got home in the chilly evenings and reinstalling them every morning. Long story short, the dealer found a draw coming from the Door Lock/Window Control Panel in the driver's door console, and replaced it. I was fine for 2-3 years. Then it started happening again. I'm back to pulling fuses. Old school: I had a 1959 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite. The wiper motor took a poop. I took it apart and went to an appliance repair shop and had the guy cut me a new set of brushes, matching them up from his box of random parts (probably brushes meant for a Sunbeam Mixmaster.) The thing worked like new. In the spirit of Rant: My younger brother was a mechanic from his early teens until he died at 60. He owned his own shop for many years. He said it got to the point where the computer would tell his guys what to replace, and they became glorified Parts Swappers...although it still takes skill to do that and put the stuff back together properly. But their diagnostics skills rotted away.
Well, I Kicked The Crap Out Of That POS: That must be true since I gave the unit a taste of my shoe before going to bed last night., This morning, I woke up and the water pump fault was gone, the machine was running and the humidity was back up again. The only thing I can figure out is that I must have jarred something (e.g., lime deposit) loose in the pump so it took a dump and started working again. It's either that or Dyson reset/fixed the machine remotely. Good thing since my patience with it was near zero.