What did you do today?

[Ed Kennell 45,848]

6 hours ago, Horsin'round said:

Thank you for including us!

Thank you for coming Mark.   We really enjoyed having you and Dee.   After the weather warms up. the Blue Chilies should have some outdoor gigs at the local vineyards.

Maybe we can taste the grape juice.

Edited 23 hours ago by Ed Kennell

[Dan 312-8 517]

On 4/26/2026 at 12:11 PM, 8ntruck said:

Seems fitting as I am left handed and Tigger is impulsive.

We are the only ones in our right minds!

 

Tiggers are a wonderful thing!

 

Just be careful of the Jagulars out there!

[ebinmaine 78,437]

11 minutes ago, Dan 312-8 said:

We are the only ones in our right minds

 

I'm mostly ambidextrous.... which explains a LOT of my personalities 🤔 🙃 😅 

[Dan 312-8 517]

26 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

 

I'm mostly ambidextrous.... which explains a LOT of my personalities 🤔 🙃 😅 

It's funny that you say that. I throw, write, eat, and fire a handgun lefthanded, pretty much everything else I do from the right side, including shooting a rifle and kicking a ball. How does that work...? 

[Bar Nuthin 2,346]

31 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

 

I'm mostly ambidextrous.... which explains a LOT of my personalities 🤔 🙃 😅 

 

I must be ambidextrous, too.  Because I can f*ck sh*t up using either hand. 

[ebinmaine 78,437]

33 minutes ago, Dan 312-8 said:

It's funny that you say that. I throw, write, eat, and fire a handgun lefthanded, pretty much everything else I do from the right side, including shooting a rifle and kicking a ball. How does that work...? 

 

Similar here. ..... but bassackwards. 

 

I fire handgun with my right trigger finger 👉 

Long gun off the left shoulder with left trigger finger 👈

Eating is variable. Utensils 🍴 are right. Hand foods either. 

Drink depends... home coffee,  left. Vehicle coffee, right. 

I fish right. 🐟 

Bat right. Throw right. 

Archery? Nope. That's clearly left. 

Kick right but my left leg has decent dexterity for usage in martial arts or climbing. 

Write right but left arm has always been stronger. 

Hand tools I 🔧 can use either but lean right. 

Power tools like a bit driver, both hands but slightly prefer right. 

 

I've been told I ain't right. Apparently I ain't left either.  

[SylvanLakeWH 31,174]

5 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

I've been told I ain't right. Apparently I ain't left either. 

 

That pretty much sums me up... 

[Ed Kennell 45,848]

I'm about 90% left handed and 100%right eye dominate which complicates my shooting skills.

Archery is left handed with right eye closed

scoped long gun is left handed with right eye closed.

iron sight hand guns are right handed with both eyes open      dominate right eye needed for the iron sights and stronger left hand to chamber the autos.

throwing is left handed

swinging is right handed

tools are left handed

eating is left handed in the USA and right handed in Europe

So I always check my OM before  starting to be sure I'm using the proper hand.

 

Oh, forgot writing,   It's left handed and it looks like I have both eyes closed.

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Ed Kennell

[Blue Chips 734]

On 4/27/2026 at 7:39 AM, cleat said:

I have a little Milwaukee M18 Hatchet as they call it.

It is full auto oil and works great.

 

I have the same little Milwaukee saw. I've used it many times...sometimes for trees larger than what it was designed for...and it works great.

 

[adsm08 4,372]

I try to do very little on Sundays. Right now we are watching Two Towers.

[Handy Don 16,344]

6 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

I'm mostly ambidextrous.... which explains a LOT at least a few of my personalities 🤔 🙃 😅 

Suggested edit submitted for approval 

 

2 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

Oh, forgot writing,   It's left handed and it looks like I have both eyes closed.

I got lots of not-very-helpful feedback in early grades for “poor” cursive handwriting--right handed & both eyes open.

Tried writing left-handed and found I did pretty well but backwards, i.e. right to left; readable with a mirror. 

Finally I bucked the tide (with grudging support from my Mom) and went back to printing for everything by 5th grade. 

[Razorback 1,271]

We got the yard mowed. Gave me a chance to test the 36RD deck on the C160 and it did a fantastic job. Nice smooth finish to the yard…. Very nice… next time I will try the 42SD deck that I was given by a neighbor down the street. I hope it does as good!

[Beap52 2,193]

4 hours ago, Handy Don said:

Suggested edit submitted for approval 

 

I got lots of not-very-helpful feedback in early grades for “poor” cursive handwriting--right handed & both eyes open.

Tried writing left-handed and found I did pretty well but backwards, i.e. right to left; readable with a mirror. 

Finally I bucked the tide (with grudging support from my Mom) and went back to printing for everything by 5th grade. 

 

Looks like several here are ambidextrous and I fit into that catagory.

 

I eat with my left (or right as needed) 

Write with my right.  (School teacher made sure that happened--to which my writing is awful thus I print most everything.) 

Was last to be chosen on sandlot baseball.  I throw left handed and only gloves available went on that hand.  Team leaders didn't like me to catch a ball, take off glove then throw. 

 Drive a nail with hammer in either hand

Took banjo lessons-only mediocre player -later decided I should have had left handed banjo. Now with dupuytren's contracture, the banjo just sits in the closet.  

I'd say 60% right and 40% left. 

 

I know one thing, I had a terrible time when someone said "turn right" or "turn left" for years.  I had to remind myself "I write with my right and eat with my left." 

I also wear watch on right hand. 

[Blue Chips 734]

Made a little more progress on the M37 engine. Removed the crankshaft, cam, and all of the valve train parts, keeping them in the proper order, of course, and removed all but two of the core plugs. The engine stand is blocking access to two of the core plugs, so I'll get those out when I take the block off of the stand to load it into my pickup. The cam, valves, and lifters all looked nearly new, and the valve seats looked pretty good and should clean up easily. I haven't decided yet about replacing the original hardened exhaust valve seat inserts with newer ones, which 'might' be harder. I might order one new insert and compare the hardness with the old ones. This is all in preparation for taking the block in to have it hot tanked, magnafluxed and jet washed, which I plan to do in the next few days. Assuming that there are no hidden cracks, the next step would then be to take careful measurements to determine what machine work might be in order.

 

 

All of the valve train parts are double-labeled to keep them in order.

 

 

 

[Achto 31,659]

Spent the weekend doing a little fishing. Managed to limit out on trout Fri, Sat, & Sun.  Mostly Brown trout & a couple Rainbow's. After this mornings catch they all took an 8hr bath in some brine in preparation for the smoker.

 

I keep one smoker just for fish. Built this one several years ago out of a small electric water heater. Steam pan inside helps keep the meat moist.

 

After 2.5hrs at 185 degrees. 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Achto

[8ntruck 8,792]

Spent last week at the FRC World Championships in Houston.  Both of the high school teams I mentor qualified to attend this year.  Only 600 out of the 3,724 active teams this year qualify.  I inspected robots for 2 days and spectate for the other 2 days of the event.

 

The junior team had a mixed bag of qualification matches, ending up 23rd in their division.  They were not picked for participation in the elimination matches.

 

The seinor team did fantastic - until they didn't.  They got through the qualification matches undefeated, leaving them ranked #1 of their division, and captain of the #1 seated alliance.  However, their streak ended with back to back losses in the double elimination rounds.

 

Overall, the seinor team was ranked #33 in the world, the junior team #346 in the world.  Senior won 2 out 3 regional competitions, while junior was runner up in 2 out of 3 of the competitions.

 

All in all very good season, but with a dissapointing ending.

 

Edited 13 hours ago by 8ntruck

[Ed Kennell 45,848]

17 hours ago, Handy Don said:

early grades for “poor” cursive

I still have my certificate for completion of the Peterson Penmanship Test.     I used the classic over the top left hand to draw the cursive letters.

Later when it became necessary to take notes during lectures, I had to switch to a faster method moving the left hand below the line and using a combination of cursive and print letters in Ed Dogs shorthand.    Still use this today.

[953 nut 65,484]

17 hours ago, Handy Don said:

lots of not-very-helpful feedback in early grades for “poor” cursive handwriting  

17 hours ago, Handy Don said:

I did pretty well but backwards, i.e. right to left; readable with a mirror. 

 

When I was in elementary school the teachers figured I couldn't see well and attempted to "improve"  the situation with glasses. There was very little known about dyslexia and teaching methods to deal with it.

In the Navy I was a radar operator when we were underway and we had to write information backward on a Plexiglas window so the officers could read it as they went by. Most people had difficulty doing that but I had done it all my life. 

[Handy Don 16,344]

11 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

All in all very good season, but with a dissapointing ending.

I fully get the feeling.

 

This year was my second mentoring a Destination Imagination team, now up from elementary to middle school class, and it was a lesson. Distractions abounded and it wasn’t until the week before the regional competition that they completed their entry. With a discombobulated performance, they placed a lucky (and distant) second--but still qualified for states.

After winning convincingly last year at the state level, and now stung and determined, they used the two-week interval before the state competition to get their act together both in their engineered structure and in their team collaboration with hopes for better placement. 

 

The rules limit the presentation to eight minutes. They also put strict limits on the number and size of the components and a maximum allowed load for the engineered structure that the team must assemble and demonstrate as one part of that presentation. A major element of scoring is the ratio between the structure’s weight and the load it supports and so our team had opted for a somewhat complex but extremely lightweight design. 

 

At States, feeling the time pressure, one teammate did not realize they hadn’t fully mated two components of the structure. Only a few seconds after being fully loaded, the structure collapsed in a heap. 

 

Luckily (and I guess fairly), the assessors ruled it had held long enough to qualify plus the failure had powerfully demonstrated the team's exceptionally high-risk strategy (another scoring element). Combined with a more polished rest of the presentation, they were again state champs in their category and qualified for the Global competition.