Roberto Warren and his Boa Constrictor friend

March 11 was Reptile and Amphibian Day at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Museum has taken down 2006 blurb but you can view the similar 2005 blurb. Crunch was back this year. I've taken my young friend Roberto for several years running.



The boa constrictor exhibit really draws Beto, many snakes and all are available to handle. He and this specimen became close buddies, Beto handled the boa for the better part of an hour while I watched the python man with much, much bigger specimens which he did not allow visitors to handle, too dangerous.

Overtaken By Events, my middle name(s)

I start too many projects as if I were to be in charge of scheduling my time but a high percentage of my time is consumed by events that implode on me. C/S functional again, chipping through the piles of leaves and downwood collected since last fall, then C/S engine fails again. Half a day spent investigating a used engine, failing that, ordering a short block. Reassembling the engine pending. Contra dance buddy, Gene Hubert, died after a short but intense illness and attended his memorial service. Trooper started failing on return from memserv, drove it to mech's niteowl service on a Sunday, rode Maizey back home, and rode 'dale to mech to fetch Trooper Tuesday. Clogged fuel filter. Gregg Warren rented a truck on a 3-day fee to fetch compost from the Wake County Yard Waste site and offered one day to Jeanne. I lost a Monday to two roundtrips for compost unforeseen. Piles yet to be spread. Sunday, my PC burped with "lsass.exe the ending format is invalid." Googled to learn work-around, then spent three hours making changes hoping to prevent its reoccurrence.

Thus, OBE rules. Haven't touched tax prep yet and, of course, have to allocate time to watching NCAA b'ball games.

Cadence Display on Exercycle

I bought a Cateye Mity cyclocomputer for a test at Rex Wellness Center, the objective being to set it to display cadence, not KPH/MPH, in its KPH/MPH field. Last Tuesday, I tested it on a LeMond RevMaster. I installed the unit on the handlebar, taped the magnet on the crankarm, then Gorilla Taped the pickup onto the chain guard in such a way that the magnet would activate it. Not easy but did it.

Now, what setting? The primary Mity setting is wheel circumference in cm.
167 cm/rev * 60 rev/min * 60 min/hour = 6.0 KPH rounded.
So, a cadence of 60 rev/min displays 6.0 KPH. Ignore the decimal point and, viola, it works!

I rode with it and it is a great aid to monitor how much faster a cadence I achieve when the leader says to increase and, unfortunately, how much my cadence sags if I don't ride hard to keep it up. Ellen and I had discussed my test and she'd said she'll try to talk director Neil into buying units for all 11 RevMasters if I could get it to work. I volunteered to install them all if Neil agrees.

An Unlikely Coincidence

A month ago, we bought 100' of 12/3 heavy-duty outdoor electrical cord on sale 30% off. I was concerned about coiling and storing this heavy cord and hadn't even used it. Well, a need arose and I wanted to use the cord.

Years back, a plastic water hose reel had fxed, I'd replaced it, and kept the pieces in our crawl space awaiting repair for some unknown future use. That fxed reel begged to become an electrical cord reel. A week ago, I undertook a project to Gorilla Glue and wire its fractures.

Came out quite solid and will be a perfect electrical cord reel.


Rode Maizey later in the afternoon, Rich Giroux riding shotgun. Sighting an "Estate Sale" sign, JCD requested a stop. An item for sale: a hose reel complete with hose. We bought it.


Can you explain to me why another reel should appear within hours of my repair of an existing reel?

Small Engine Repair 101 Redux

Whoops! Fast forward to March 19. I'd shredded many piles of leaves and the engine was running what seemed to be very well other than burning far too much oil. I was careful to keep oil topped up.

I raked leaves from the Deer View Drive easement into a pile and was shredding that pile when BANG! and the engine slowed to a halt. I stooped to investigate what the problem might be and saw shards of case metal on the ground. The engine had thrown its rod.

So, after investing ~$110 and mucho time to get the engine running again after its sieze up, it's dead. I've ordered a short block for $270 + NC tax + S&H. I have so much invested in C/S parts and spares, I'm willing to invest more to rebuild the engine. Don't really know the cause of the rod failure and don't really care at this moment in time.