Some Blog Site

Due to a convergence of topics in my life one day, I happened to be inspired to put this together.

Transcript:
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken
There’s a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Employees now work from home

Here they talked of parts production
Here it was they booked their time
Here they sang about RTO
But RTO never came

From the office in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with Zoom calls ringing
I can see them now
The very roads that they had driv’n
Became their last commuting
To the lonely parking lot, at dawn

Oh my friends my friends don’t ask me
What this office space is for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where people will work no more

Here are some more mini reviews of books. I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Simon Thorn Series by Aimee Carter

This was a good book, but I recommend against reading it, unless you read German. Because it is a 5-book series, but only books 1-3 are in English. I read book 1 then book 2 and liked them. We have book 3 but it was while reading book 2 that I realized I could not get books 4 and 5, so I didn’t bother reading book 3 because then I would have been farther into the story. So I decided to cut my losses.

If you do read the first book, which is the Wolf’s Den, then just stop at that because you get enough to appreciate the story. Save books 2-3 until books 4-5 come out. Or learn German.

Next up: In the Blink of a Screen by Terry Pratchett

I was wondering what Terry Pratchett book to start with to introduce me to his writing, when I saw this book at our library. It’s a collection of short stories, so I figured that was a good way to dip my toes in the water.

For the most part, the stories were engaging and not objectionable. I do remember thinking that one or two of them were inappropriate, but I don’t remember any details of what or why at this time, so maybe they weren’t that bad.

Next up: Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Our library website shows recommended books to its patrons. I’m not sure if it is personalized based on your reading history, or if it’s just whoever paid to have their books promoted, or just randomized. But we got a thing touting the book Starter Villain by John Scalzi. It looking interesting enough that I looked into John Scalzi a tiny bit, and people seemed to prefer his earlier book Kaiju Preservation Society better, so I thought I’d start with that.

The book had an interesting premise and clever writing and a good story. Everything you would want in a book.

Except it was full of foul language and the characters seemed to have come from a DEI checklist. It wouldn’t have been so bad except the one person who was a “they” but I didn’t realize it so I read a whole chapter thinking it was about a group of people but no, the “they” was one person, so I had to re-read that chapter and then pay extra attention in subsequent chapters.

Anyway, the very many bad words is the reason I recommend against this book. And then I looked up John Scalzi’s other work, and some of the reviews mention the language. Normally sci-fi writers seem to avoid a lot of objectionable content, but that is apparently Scalzi’s calling card that he wants to be known for so, as best I can tell, all his books have foul language and so I will not be reading anything else by him. I returned Starter Villain to the library unopened.

What would be good is if we could get like the TBS or USA Network version of this book. They are famous for editing out bad words when they broadcast a movie – making the movie more family-friendly when they air it. Someone should do that for Scalzi’s work. He might disagree, but I don’t think the story would be harmed at all by replacing bad words with milder words.

Last up: I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

This one I think I saw in a review by World Magazine. I wish they would have a section on their website with all the books they’ve reviewed. With not much to go on and never hearing of Peter S. Beagle before, I just jumped in.

It was a good story and was very entertaining. My only complaint is that just before the end of the book, he had to put one bad word in there. There was nothing foul before then, and it seemed out of character for the book. Like she could have used the word “dung” instead and that would have fit better, to me. It’s like how for some reason the ratings people decided a PG-13 movie could have one F-word and still be PG-13. How does that make sense – if the word is bad then it’s bad.

Anyway, if one s-word is enough to keep you away the you have been warned. With kids wearing shirts with bad words on them these days, I feel people in general are desensitized to bad words. But that’s another discussion for another day. Overall, I still enjoyed the book.

That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

Every year we go ice skating in the winter. We usually hit up an ice rink during the holidays with family. And then when our pond freezes the boys will go out there some times and skate.

And we did all those things this year, but then we also made a trip to Toledo. Toledo has a fun place called The Ribbon.

The Ribbon is a skating path. Here is what it looks like from above:

They have roller skating in the summer and ice skating in winter. It is cooled, so they can keep it frozen throughout the winter season even if the temperature goes above freezing.

And there is a slight elevation change, just a few feet overall and gradual. It’s most noticeable on the back stretch coming back to the rink, where you don’t need to do anything because gravity propels you down the path. Not too fast, but enough that you can stand on the skates and keep going.

The skating path is wide enough for 3 people, which is good because couples tend to skate together and you still have room to pass them.

And they have a nice firepit in the middle of one of the arms, so you can take a break and warm up if you want.

And if you want to host a party, you can rent a cabana. When we were there, we saw a couple of cabanas rented, with people hanging out. Plus some people had roasting forks with marshmallows, so I’m guessing the cabana rental includes an option for smores.

And then for those who don’t like the contraints of The Ribbon, it is attached to a small rink.

It’s a nice little respite from The Ribbon, in that you can stop and not be in anyone’s way.

I chose the above photo because it shows the decorative tower between the rink and the river. I’m guessing it looks better at night.

The Ribbon is 1000 yards long, so about 2/3 of a mile. It didn’t seem that long because it loops back on itself so everything always seems close.

There is a natural ice path (not refrigerated, so it’ll melt on sunny days) in Muskegon at the luge adventure sports park. That one is only 1/4 mile long, but it is in the pine forest and is a little more spread out. I haven’t been to that one, but it’s another option.

Then of course there are a bunch of ice skating paths in Canada. And in looking up these places, I found a place that makes them. So you can petition your own city to install an ice skating path.

For my PT Cruiser, I have a set of summer tires (all-seasons, not actual summer tires) and winter tires. They each have their own rims for easier swapping.

The difference is that my summer tires are on the PT Cruiser rims and the winter tires are on Volkswagen New Beetle rims, so the PT hubcaps don’t fit on the winter wheels.

The problem with that is that with no hubcaps, the axle nut is exposed to water and dirt and salt. Here in Michigan they get rusty and corroded enough even with hubcaps, leaving them exposed is just asking for trouble next time you need to pull the knuckle or axle. So I wanted to cover them up.

So I measured the axle nut and I already knew my bolt pattern (5×100, same as VW New Beetles and Toyota Prii), so I got to work in Tinkercad.

I came up with these thingies. The center bump needed to be large enough to accommodate the axle nut protrusion. And the mini hubcap needed to be large enough to fill in the concavity containing the lug nuts, to effectively keep splashes of whatever from trickling into the axle nut. No, it’s not perfect, as stuff on the outer rim can trickle into the middle. But it’s a spinning wheel so in theory anything viscous enough to drip into the middle would have already been flung off the wheel during driving. Ideally.

I also wanted to lower the print time, so I was going to reduce the material used. I started to make extra holes in the outer skirt, but then that would have allowed stuff to splash in. So I made the material thinner in spots but not holes all the way through.

It did take me about 3 iterations to get the size of the lug holes right (hard to measure well with that taper so it sits snug against the nuts but doesn’t get pinched enough to crack) and to account for the cotter pin variance on the side I didn’t measure.

I printed it in PETG instead of the PLA we normally use. The main reason behind the PETG is better UV resistance. These hubcaps are going to be sitting outside the whole time, lots of sunlight exposure, so UV stability is good.

The end result was this:

And for those of you who are interested enough to print your own, here is link to the STL file for the mini hubcap.

Enjoy!