A relapse and more rambling about lawnmowers and tonearms

I though I was getting better.
Last night I started coughing again. I just stayed in bed.
I am still in bed and it is just past noon.
The daughter is now coughing as well.
I was warned it might come back but I of course though I would beat it...
Yesterday I loaded straw and it was cold and wet and windy. This was not unusual and I doubt it set me back. I've been mowing the Baseball field and Softball field all week and that was really cold.
I did give my heavy coat to my new workstudy assistant as she did not dress heavy enough and the weather changed mid afternoon on Friday. I was washing the mower in the rain and she looked so cold hauling pine needles in the rain that I made her take my coat. Then I forgot to stop my other student who was driving off with my other rain coat.
Fortunately the fellow who I replaced was a bit of a hoarder and has a stash of coats and coffee cups which he found after sports events and he had a heavy coat.
We are getting ready for a big track event. For some odd reason it was decided that cleaning under the pine tree between the tennis court and the train tracks was a high priority. My pretty new assistant was commandeered by the irrigation and special projects guy who was convinced that people spent a lot of time in that little area.
The only people I have seen evidence of enjoying that secluded spot are those who turn old PBR cans into chronic pipes and leave empty 16 oz steel reserve cans.
It was ok as everyone looked busy and my other assistant was free to clean up the stands and edge around the Softball field.

 
But I digress...
Yesterday I was going to sell the last of my annual ryegrass straw and clean up the shed. I arrived to find my extra pile of three-tie straw knocked over with a number of bales missing, only one stack of annual, and then the tire blew on the hay squeeze.
My landlord blocked access for the trucker as he had the well-drillers truck parked in the shed and it wouldn't start.
If the tyre would not have blown I could have had the truck half loaded before they started the dadburn truck.
As it was there were problems. I had to sell the guy two-tie straw and I had problems with several stacks. It took me much of the afternoon.
I had a lot to do when I got home but the guy who I replaced and is the new boiler man texted me to see if I had a chainlift although he called it a chainfall. I guess I'm more optimistic.
I had not used the device in the ten years since my wife got it at a yardsale. I had problems getting it to work and so I took it apart.
There is an aluminum wheel with little knobs on it which match holes on the ratcheting gear. This gear is threaded inside and I think you turn the knob to set the brake to release the chain. I think the tabs allow the gear to move to change the direction of the ratchet.

 
I drilled out the broken tabs, tapped the holes to 1/4" threads and installed socket head bolts with the heads to the inside. I turned down the heads to match the holes and applied red Loctite to the threads.
It seems to work. This took way too much time and was utterly a waste of precious time.
Lulu wanted to go to Maria's in Amity to shoot pool. I was cold and a little damp but she asked nicely and I figure it is only a matter of time before the figure out that under 21 age kids are not allowed behind the fake half wall to shoot pool when the other half of the Mexican restaurant is also a pub.
The non-Mexican owner figured it out when I showed up with my daughter to play. But, he let us play Foosball for free and we had overpriced Mexican soda pop to make up for it.
Lulu beat me multiple times.
Later that evening I retired to work on the Rek-o-kut.
I am having trouble determining the distance from the spindle to the pivot point on the tone arm. I wanted to use the old Fairchild 282 mounting holes but they are slightly different.
Now I have discovered that the cartridge is not mounted according the the Rek-o-kut specs which makes the effective length of the tonearm different.
I am researching this...

 
I should be studying for my pesticide applicators license which I most likely will fail. However, I can explain to you the difference between the Baerwaold and the Loefgren theory of calculating tonearm mounting distances to minimize distortion when mounting tonearms.
Somewhere in my head there is a switch that is set incorrectly. There might be two or three...
In a side note, since this post is already so long no one will read it...
This pesticide applicator license pretty much explains why we voted for Trump and why I am overjoyed at his pick for head of the EPA and Education department. The bureaucratic rules and regulations to do anything in the country are insane and most are BS. I spent 8 hours learning the obvious, the pesticide label is the law and the instructions, look to it to find your safety equipment and how to use. If you look at the ingredients and use it for something that is not on the label you had better lie because it is illegal.
There was a discussion of how to kill the bamboo that is pushing up the rubber playground mat at the preschool. I pointed out that we have over a month when there are no children there. Then I kept my mouth shut. As we say out in the country "Shoot Shovel and Shutup"
Also, it is not in my area anymore to I really no longer care... But... If you pick a cold and overcast day and apply crossbow to the recently cut tips of the bamboo they tend to not grow as fast. Hypothetically, I read that somewhere. Actually a local city was experimenting with this direct application of crossbow and glyphosate to control blackberries without spraying the volatile 2, 4-D Esters.

A guide to making protractors and solving equations for proper tonearm alightment and mounting.

A Sick day

Yesterday was a nice day, the sun was out and it did not rain. I was stuck at a training class all day. I have to get my pesticide applicators license for my job. I do not get more money. I did not ask for a promotion that would cause me to have to have it. But it is a job requirement which I found in the FinePrint which I did not read. I figured I would have to do it sooner or later.

It was excruciatingly boring. Eight hours of hearing about stupid rules put forth by petty bureaucrats Who have a incredibly unreasonably high belief in the value of their job.

(Note, I am using speech to text on my iPhone while waiting for my daughter to get out of youth group and I probably won't proofread it)

Today I was sick. I have a bad cough, sore throat and I feel like crap.

I spent the day trying to sleep and working on my Rek-o-kut 120 tonearm.

 

And listening to the Kinks. I was drinking tea for my throats and I felt rather British...

 

Don't feel British when "tapping the admiral" but a cuppa tea and I joining the Village Green Preservation Society...

But I digress...

Muddy Valley gave me a Rek-o-kut k33H turntable with a Fairchild tonearm sometime ago. The bearings have failed on the Fairchild and so I bought the Rek-o-kut 120 as it has the same mounting footprint as the old Fairchild.

Now that vintage stereo stuff has gone through the roof price wise I only buy things that are broken or unpopular.

So I had to convert the tonearm and headshell from mono to stereo.The wires going to the headshell were bad anyway.

I ended up converting it to a common ground set up. I connected the negative wires from the headshell to the aluminum tonearm.

I found instructions at esoteric sound.com

esotericsound

It was quite a challenge soldering the really fine tonearm wire which I bought.

Especially since i had to use powerful reading glasses to see anything.

It took my mind off the pouring rain, my job, going broke, whatever.

UPDATE: Monday I am still sick and my wife suggested I stay in bed. I am still struggling with the mounting of my Rek-o-Kut 120 tonearm. It is not as simple as I thought. There is math involved.  I suspect I was not meant to be an audiophile. I have heard that CD's are the wave of the future.

Turning the baseball field green again

I am getting used to my new position at work.
I really miss my old area because it was beautiful. There were happy pretty college girls who said hi to me every day, and there were very few time-sensitive tasks, there were NO coaches involved, students sometimes bought me coffee, the lady at Security gave me brownies and pumpkin bread, and I had my own area where I could attempt to climb hills with my Gator.
Now that I am the athletics groundskeeper the only real benefit is that I have the greenhouse where I can hide when it rains.
I find it very difficult to hide my farmer abilities when using them will make my job easier.
My current task is to try and get the baseball field green.
I have an issue figuring fertilizer rates on small acreages and using lbs per 1000 sqft. I'm not so good with the mathematics and when the results are meaningless to me I find I have to covert to lbs per acre to make sure I divided the correct direction.
Last week I applied Ironman to the baseball field as it was looking a touch on the yellow side.
Ironman is a slow release 12-0-8 fertilizer with 14% iron.
The Nitrogen percentage is not the biggest concern as the Iron is what greens the field. It also 0 percent Phosphate which is what you want when you have a severe problem with POA/Annual Bluegrass, The reason the field is so yellow is in fact the Poa problem. Which I will try to solve using a combination of a growth regulator and a wilber-ellis product called PoaConstrictor. To do this I need to get my commercial applicator's license. I'm not thrilled.
Here is the problem that plagues me.
The fertilizer spreader combined with my driving and lack of concentration is less than accurate. A difference of one 50lb bag on 30,000 soft is a visible difference. A 50lb difference on 30 acres is nothing. So...I applied 6lbs per 1000 soft on the baseball field and 10lbs per 1000 soft on the softball field. Basically because I put an extra bag in the fertilizer spreader and I didn't want to drive back to the baseball field to spread it out.
The math to put it into perspective for farmers like me.
6lbs x 43 = 258lbs per acre vs 10lbs x 43 = 430lbs per acre. The softball field is a beautiful shade of dark green...
Then there is the figuring of the fertilizer rates. Mainly total lbs applied vs total lbs of NITROGEN. This is a big one. According to what I've read sports fields should take at least 250lbs of N per year. Probably in something like six applications. Depending on the percentage of N in your mix this could be from 500lbs to 800lbs per acre of total fertilizer.
Or 11 to 18lbs per 1000 sqft total applied product.
But when you say 6lbs of N per 1000 sqft it sounds like a lot less...
My supervisor tends to get those two very important numbers turned around. I don't follow what he is saying because lbs per 1000 sq means nothing to me.
But, I suspect I'm boring you all.
I'm growing heirloom tomatoes, kale, collard greens, garlic, peppers and cilantro in the greenhouse but don't tell anyone. No one has figured out we maintain a compete green house to be able to rotate 14 plants in the library... Depending on how you figure it. Actually there are 28 plants because we rotate them.
Have a nice week...

Another phone

My replacement iPhone 6s died. A flashing line would periodically appear at the top of the screen and the screen would quit responding to touch.

My iCloud account was full as I apparently checked the back up photos option. So, it didn't back up.

I attempted to back up and restore from my iBook. This did not restore the apps that Apple no longer blesses.

I had to find a new blogger App.

I'm using it.

I can now add links and videos easier.

I think...

Below is what it looks like using a reel mower in two inches of water.

A train wreck...

Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl in Texas...

Absolutely hilarious...

Confirms what I've always thought about sports addicts wearing funny costumes and showing together.

No wonder Hilary almost won the election..

On the other hand, toilets are flushing all over America right now.

I hate my iPhone 6s continued

Now I am really screwed.

I just can't leave the phone alone.

I have been trying to shut it off or connect it to my computer.

I took out the sim card and put it in a different phone.

But I can't unlock my broken phone.

I type in the password and it will not recognize the last digit.

Then it suddenly started typing on its own.

Now it is locked.

If it was not 1/8" think and made of aluminum foil it would never bent in the first place. I swear I was backing everything up to iCloud and Google Drive but nothing shows up on my spare phone.

I would kind of like to go back to my old android but I robbed the SD card from my daughter's GoPro.

We are a tech family, sort of...

So I have to drive 30 miles to the Apple store to have them tell me to go to the Verizon store.

This is the main reason not to buy an iPhone. 

Don't buy anything that you have to drive 30 miles to have them tell you they can't fix it...

I have owned Mac Computers Since buying a 512 and I Really Want To SWITCH and I hate my iPhone

My iPhone failed again.
Funny lines on the screen.
I have a 6s and it is a piece of crap.
I can't back it up because the screen failed and I can't type in the access code. It is connected to my computer but yet I can't unlock the stupid thing from my computer. Whacko Islamic terrorists can get their phones unlocked by the NSA but not you average user who just wants to save their notepad.
I have no idea who Apple hires to engineer their products but I think they are idiots.
First of all, if you have a problem with the phone you need to find an Apple store and unless you live in a major city that means a long drive for them to tell you the most common problems are not under warrantee.
Second it is so thin that someone who works for their living cannot use it without a thick case.
Third, iTunes is horrible.
It is insane that people actually buy new and modern iPhones.
I have one because I've been an Apple person forever and I stick with my favorite brands.
I will probably get another one for the same reason.
This is a stupid reason.
I would really like to get rid of my iPhone 6s.
In order to not break it you need a case which makes it to big to fit in a shirt pocket so it ends up in my back pocket and I sit on it and break it.
I do not weigh 400lbs.
The thing is...
It would not take that much to make a good usable phone. Perhaps they should try testing them with the people who actually need phones for work before coming out with a new product design.
In short...
I hate Apple and never intend to buy a new product from them again.
And I think Tim Cook is a moron.
Not a Steve Jobs that is for sure...