Wheels Redux

Well, I have done it. I have managed to get myself into a new set of wheels that work. As I promised in my earlier post about this, it's not a Ford.

It's a 97 Pontiac Sunfire. Not what I really wanted, but it will get me around to look for something that pays better that my current job. I paid (well, my bank did, actually) only $2K for it, which the least anyone should pay for a used car. For a pickup, you could go as low as a thousand, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're not handy with wrenches and screwdrivers.

I picked it up back on May 9. Kiefer is not a big town. We have a bit of industry, but not many businesses that deal with the public, mostly 2 C-stores and 2 car lots. I got the car from Ed's Car Mall, which is located right off the main road from Kiefer to Bixby.

I didn't tell any of my local ham radio friends about this until Monday, Memorial Day. I had mentioned on the local nets that I might just show up at a ham radio event unannounced, and I did. The Tulsa Repeater Organization has supported the Maple Ridge Memorial Day Run for about 10 years. I haven't worked this event for 2 years, and I just showed up at the staging area, and asked for an assignment. Good thing I did. A couple of volunteers on the list didn't show. We had enough people to handle the job anyway. Several others said they were glad to see me, but I think the Activities Chairman was the most grateful, except for Mark Conklin. Mark has given me many rides to work and ham radio events, and I am still grateful for every ride.

I haven't yet put my mobile radio in the car, but I might this Saturday. I'm already signed up to work the Tulsa Tough rest stop at the Kiefer City Park on Sunday morning.

Where have I been?

Nowhere, in a physical sense. I know I haven't posted anything in 2 months, but I haven't really been in a mood to say anything.

Since my last post, I have bought a new cell phone. My old cell phone is OK physically, but I had to let it drop in the summer of 2006. I primarily go with prepaid phones because I don't make many calls. I could have paid to get the old one reactivated, but I figured I'd probably pay the same as what I did for the new one.
Why did I get a new cell phone? Well, the battery on the cordless phone I use for work has dropped out on my unexpectedly a few times. Also, with the weather warming up, I'll be walking longer distances, and I like having a phone with me when I'm out away from the house. If something happens to me, or I see something that needs to be reported to the authorities, I will be able to make the call.
The phone is a refurbished unit, one of those skinny flip phones that fits comfortably in my pocket. And it has a camera.

I used the camera to take pictures of an item I use often. The item is a PennyPincher, a device for holding pennies until I have enough to make a roll. I posted the pictures in a thread on CR4 to see if other members of the forum could guess what it was. Here's a link:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/20794/Picture-Challenge-Uncommon-Item-Common-Name.

And this is one of the pics:

Sorry about the quality, but the camera is part of a cell phone after all.










Here are a few images that I have created in either in AutoCAD or Inventor and posted on CR4:



The first 3 are from a Challenge Question thread about a design based on a ring of tangent circles. The fourth is from another Challenge Question thread about the distance between cities. Here are the links:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/2589/Tangent-Circles-Newsletter-Challenge-07-24-07

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/5597/Distance-CR4-Challenge-04-22-08

Two other significant changes since my last post: I have started using Firefox, and I have made a major purchase. I'll elaborate on the purchase at the right time.