I think I mentioned that was going out to pick up the roadside political signs. Ya I did. The signs are everywhere and they are “Fucking up the scenery, breaking my mind.” The weather channel has designated our recent local weather as “action days.” That apparently means that the wind is blowing. Picking up signs when the wind is blowing is a bit more challenging. While most are 4 ft. by 4 ft. or smaller, some of them are as big as 4 X 8 feet. However, I found the activity somehow enjoyable and relaxing. I’m way behind in my podcasts so I’m listening to them at 1.5 speed. I have my work gloves on and it’s sunny. For a couple of hours, I was in a special “no pain zone” and I was content to be cleaning up the neighborhood. There was nothing pressing and I could take my time. Each time I used my diagonal cutters I would hear that satisfying >click< as I cut another nylon wire tie. Each sign had four, six, and sometimes 8 ties securing the sign to the rebar stakes. After all the ties were cut, I would literally fly the sign off of the stakes and into the back of my old Red Ford Ranger pickup. I remove the rebar post by clamping a pair of vice grip pliers and rotating it until it’s loose. Then I tug on the post in an upward direction while rotating the pliers back and forth. Most of the posts have been in the ground only a short time so they come right up. However, some are bent and are a bit trickier. I have to find the right angle to pull to get the rebar to come straight up. There are a bunch of smaller signs that are in the ground with very small wire like sign holders. They are generally easy to pull up.
Yesterday, I cleared a mile of roadway which included a very busy intersection with signs on all four corners. Today, I cleared a very popular “T” intersection with a big road. There were many signs and a lot of trash on the big road opposite the intersection. I was able to get most of the signs and posts and I went back on foot with a large plastic bag and a trash pickup tool. However, there are a couple of “T” posts that have been there for a while that are going to take special equipment to remove.
If you need something to get your mind off of the current situation and you have a few hours to kill, I recommend sign removal. You might be getting some useful material while simultaneously cleaning up your neighborhood. Cheers!
Here are the pictures:
Before, after, arrival at home, stored for future use.
It has been a few months. It’s hard to believe that at one time this was a daily blog. Of course back then there were a couple of writers. I’ve still got plenty to say and hopefully there are readers who want to hear what I have to say. So how is it that over four months pass before I publish a blog entry? Notice I said “publish” there were many times that I sat down, started writing, and didn’t finish. It’s like a pressure relief valve. I sit down all fired up and a few paragraphs in the urgency to write seems to fade. I never get back to one I’ve started even though I tell myself that I’ll get back and finish it.
classroom costume contest. I was dressed as “Hot Stuff” a comic book character. It was way back in 1960. We had school Halloween parties back then and someone dressed as a little devil could win a costume contest. I wonder if things have changed much since then. As I grew up Halloween provided many opportunities to stretch my creative muscles. There were costumes to construct, of course, but more importantly we had to have a neighborhood tactical plan. We had to get to the most houses in the allotted time and a pillow case was the only acceptable option for collecting the candy. There were rules we had to follow or we couldn’t go. We weren’t allowed to eat anything homemade. All candy had to be inspected before we could eat it and we were only allowed to eat two pieces each day. If we got a good haul that meant we would have candy until Christmas! Finally in our house “Trick-or-treat” ended at the age of 12. After that age, my job was to do the handing out.
Nancy bought me a hang up clown display in 2008 and I attempted to make it come out of a box. Mercifully, I don’t have any pictures of that attempt. I started too late and the power automotive radio aerial didn’t have the >snap< I was looking for. In 2009 I started earlier and discovered pneumatics. The Clown and the Popup Ghoul were born and joined the talking pumpkin. Gravestones were put in the garden behind lumps of dirt. It was better but I made a mistake. I invited a few friends over on Halloween night to come over and see the display. It wasn’t a mistake to invite them. It was a mistake to invite them on Halloween night. There was so much going on and I wasn’t able to enjoy their visit, show off the display, operate the display, and dole out the candy.
Camp Quest AZ is over for 2016. It was great! There was a wide variety of activities for the campers and the Counselors were always on the run making things happen. As before, the staff had the help of the older campers called LTs. This year there were 9 LTs and 45 younger campers. Many were returnees and some previous attendees came back as LTs. I was in the cabin with the older boys. As a program counselor, I was responsible for running my programs and filling in when the cabin counselor had other duties. Rick was the cabin counselor but also ran programs. He was VERY busy during the week. If you want to know more about Camp Quest and Camp Quest Arizona, check out 
The fun continues…Yesterday I finished construction of Robby the Robot. As in the other Tin Can Creations projects, he is built around an empty Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle Soup can. It’s my activity and I make up the rules. So, I decided to build all my tin can robots using the discarded container of the soup I’ve eaten almost every day for almost 13 years.
The ATtiny85 microprocessor lights up Robby’s LEDs and activates his pager motor. When Robby is switched on his eyes light up along with the two flickering lights in his chest behind the discarded car air freshener. He buzzes in short bursts while at the same time his mouth lights up with blue LEDs. Then, all the lights switch on. Finally, only the three “brain” lights illuminate at the top of his dome and rotate as if he is thinking about something important.
Thanks to one of the members of Tucson Atheists, I have a couple of empty gas cartridges. They are cool and needed to find their way into one of the Tin Can Creation projects.
In preparation for my program at Camp Quest AZ, I’ve created 3 prototypes (pictured on the left). Certainly, there will be more. The prototypes are being used to help design a viable program for the young campers because a month ago this was just an idea. Hopefully, the kids will see these and become as excited as I am to create robots out of recycled materials
. They are all based on the same empty soup can. The soup can is Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle. I have a large quantity of these cans. I have it for lunch every day. The rest of the robots are constructed of items found in my workshop and in the streets near my house.
The kids will start with a “basic” kit of parts including a couple of cans and some electronics components. They’ll also have a supply miscellaneous hardware items available. Then their imagination can take over! Here is how the process worked for me…
I needed to capture the essence of the Dalek. I started with the eye stock detail. All Daleks see the world through their eye stock. A piece of tubing, pony beads, and a blue LED were pressed into service.
Fortunately I had an old dead pen with a flashing LED that would make a great “exterminator.”
Black foam insulation tape became the skirt at the bottom. Originally, I had wire nuts on top to simulate the communication antennae but I replaced them with spare LED Christmas tree bulbs.
It was a simple matter to add a battery holder and a slide switch to power all the LEDs and…”Exterminate!”
Here the trusty soup can is flanked by two miniature plastic bottles. The dome comes off of the top of a laundry detergent container. The rear trucks are spent car deodorizers that clip on the AC vents. The front truck was made out of an empty dental floss container.
First coat of paint was black, followed by a coat of silver and a final coat of white. I cut out some blue vinyl tape, mounted the LEDs, the switch, and the batteries and it was time to shoot the engineer. R2D2 was done!
Remember the Jetsons? Here is Rosie, model XB-500 reporting for cleaning duty in the house of the future. Actually it’s another Healthy Choice soup can made up to look like something other than trash. Rosie has LED lights and fancy chrome antennae. Her arms
are small water pipes and her base is a lug nut. Look into her eyes and you’ll see painted water bottle lids. Her collar came off of a greeting card and her hat and skirt are what’s left of a duster.
In the February 25th issue of The Daily Wildcat there is an article entitled “
to pull out key words from his rhetoric and create Bingo cards. To be fair, his presentations are entertaining and sometimes he uses words and phrases to color and keep the students engaged. For example here are some of the words you might find on your Bingo card: Grope, Cheap Thrills, Wicked, Margaret, Bedroom, Fear or Trembling, Squeeze, and Virgin. Some of the words might be considered rude in polite company. The SSA hands out the Bingo cards and the students listen for the key words. When they get a Bingo, they are rewarded with a piece of candy provided at the SSA table where they’ll get a chance to talk with the club members and sign on to their email list. It’s a good time.
On January 12th, the board of directors of the Secular Coalition for America announced the appointment of Larry T. Decker (an unaffiliated Christian) as the new Executive Director of the organization. I for one am not impressed!
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