'Heart of Gold’ put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch.” – Neil Young, comments written for the liner notes of his 1977 compilation, Decade.
A nice list from Ryan Holiday (the list is from the newsletter but posted here). Sign up of the newsletter here.
A few of these I have read, a few of these are not my ‘style’ but.. that’s the point. Get out of your comfort zone.
Here is the list + my additions:
Slow Productivity: The lost art of accomplishment with Burnout, Author: Cal Newport
Don’t Just March, Run for Something: A real-talk guide to fixing the system yourself
The Choice: Embrace the Possible, Author: Dr. Edith Eva Eger
Montaigne, Author: Stefan Zweig
A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts
Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything
The Children, Author: David Halberstam, Author Julia Baird
Parting the Waters: America in the King years 1954-63, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-1965, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King years 1965-68, Author: Taylor Branch
Same as Ever: A guide to what never changes, Author: Morgan Housel
The 48 Laws of Power, Author: Robert Greene
It Can’t Happen Here, Author: SInclair Lewis
Address Unknown, Author: Kathrine Kressman Taylor
The Expanding Circle, Author: Peter Singer
Atomic Habits, Author: James Clear
Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan, Author: Inazo Nitobe
How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World
Meditations, Author: Marcus Aurelius
Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longmire Mysteries), Author: Craig Johnson
The Dark Horse (Walt Longmire Mysteries), Author: Craig Johnson
I went on vacation from 12/30 to 1/14/2025. I read a few books. They are listed below. I set a goal of reading 52 books for 2025 and I think I got a good head start on that goal. I don’t have a affiliate relationship with Amazon but did link to the books.
Yikes. I had forgotten about the Apple feature ‘Universal Control’ until today when I ‘lost’ my mouse cursor and then saw it moving on the iPad. Cool feature if not a little confusing at first 🙂
I’ve been working on some Bing carburetors for early 1970’s Penton’s. I purchased two gaskets for the carbs off of eBay.
Please don’t package your gaskets using…painters tape to secure them to a piece of paper. I removed the tape… very carefully and yet still took some bits of the gasket with it.
This is a Penton Mudlark. Cool looking 2-stroke motorcycle. Not the hottest performer of its day but I like it. We have owned it since 1974 and it has been in storage since the mid 1980’s. Going to go through it, fix a few things and get it running.
Alice came into our life right after my wife’s cat, Lucy, passed on back in 2008. Yesterday, in our home with the help of a in-home service, she passed on. She was 18 years old.
Here is Alice on the first day we saw here at the shelter.
The image above is our first image of her. She’s in the shelter and is about a year old. I spotted her playing and was instantly smitten. We don’t know why nobody picked her at the shelter but we consider ourselves very, very lucky to have been able to bring her into our lives.
When we brought Alice home she marched right into the house and sat with us on the couch. No hiding under the bed or in the closet for this lady. Later that evening she slept between us in bed. Clearly she said to herself when she arrived: “Right, I’m home”.
Later on in life… before the magic bed yet clearly enjoying the day.
Below is her favorite bed with a warming pad underneath it. We had a jade plant by a window so we slide the bed right there. She loved it. Warm, comfortable and able to watch the action. Below is an image of her luxuriating under the jade plant.
Alice under the jade
In 2011 after reading an article about it, I got the idea that Alice should get her ‘face in space’, so I submitted her name. Below is the certificate confirming that, in fact, her face was in space.
Alice’s certificate certifying her ‘Face in Space’
Around 2012 Alice started having painful GI cramps and they were diagnosed as ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’. To get a true diagnosis the vets insisted on an operation on her. A pretty serious procedure. We wanted to avoid that and my wife skillfully managed the symptoms successfully with food options for a time.
Alice was disappointed in this development as we had a machine, “the food god”, which delivered three square meals a day of kibble. She knew exactly when the clock went off and had perfected a move any gymnast would be envious of to get off the top of the machine and start eating from the bowl. Once she started on the new food kibble was off the menu but…she never forgot about kibble and it was always her favorite.
Eventually, we did the surgery, confirmed the diagnosis and then we were able to get meds to manage the condition. I spent a couple of weeks with her on the floor in my office to make sure she recovered. She took those pill form meds, every day, with very few complaints for the rest of her life. Every night we would flip her into our lap, pop one or two pills into her mouth and off she went to grab her dinner.
Alice after her surgery wearing the ‘blue flower’.
In Alice’s view I was A-OK but my wife? Oh, she was the BEST. As my wife likes to say she was Alice’s mama. Whether watching a show on TV, sitting in front of a fireplace or simply in bed there Alice was hanging out next to her or in her lap.
Alice snoozing on her last day. Her liver was failing but she was still quite the little snuggler.
As you can see Alice was quite the cat, clearly, well-loved and she gave it all back to us a bazillion times over.
Alice was wicked smart, very social, lots of fun, a lover of sunbeams and a connoisseur of snuggles. Her personality filled a giant space in our home.
An Empty Space – Alice’s favorite bed with a heating pad underneath for those old joints, a jade plant overhead, a view outside and her woodpecker
It is very rare to have such a wonderful soul enter your life. She’s gone now and that space is empty. She will be deeply, deeply missed.
Replaced A-arms awhile back and now I have the Mustang up so I can work on the alignment. Good old Camber, Caster and Toe. That’s when I noticed the rear main seal is leaking. Awesome.
I have a pretty nice office in our house. Great space with a decent size closet. We had an old butcher block piece from Ikea that I originally used in our laundry room. I poured a concrete counter in there and used the butcher block to create a small narrow desk in the office closet. There is also a an old set of plastic shelves in the closet to store a bunch of junk.
I decided I need to clean this mess up, create storage for materials and electronics like printers and just generally organize and reduce the clutter.
The first part of this effort is to create cabinets for the space.
Creating the Cabinets
I’m fortunate enough to have space in my garage for a table saw and some other equipment . The cabinets for this effort are really simple. Just 3/4″ plywood held together with Kreg screws and glue.
The frames are 1″ x 2″ bits with 1″ x 4″ centers to divide the cabinets. The intention is to add doors…when I figure out how to build them.
This is the second of the two cabinets being built.
Another shot of one of the cabinets after it is completed.
Once the cabinets are built naturally we need to hang them.
Hanging the Cabinets
The picture below is after I hung the first cabinet and put everything back into place for the week. The ceilings in this house are much higher than a ‘normal’ house. It’s awesome. One other thing to note is that since the area that I’m hanging these cabinets encloses the cabinets on three sides it guarantees that I can secure them to the wall. Lots of screws…just in case.
The cabinet was…heavy but I got it up there with some help from my wife and the bit of plywood screwed to wall to give me a place to set the bottom of the cabinet as I lifted it.
Add a bunch of cabinet screws in the back and two sides and it is rock solid.
View of the closet with the first cabinet in place.
The second cabinet followed the model established for the first one. This one took more effort to hang because one of the walls has a bit of bend inward. The tolerances are pretty good.
Second cabinet being set in place.
Here is an image of the cabinets in place.
Cabinets in place
Now that the cabinets are in place it is time to build some shelves.
