Santana at Tanglewood - 1970

Needed some background music tonight so searched youtube.
People have been uploading entire shows so its a good resource.

santana at tanglewood
ripped picture

Well man this was a surprise.
An entire SANTANA show from 1970.
Tanglewood -  Massachusetts - 18august1970.

If you're doing something,
stream this show while your doing it.

Before my Grateful Dead addiction,
there was Santana and the Allman Brothers.
Yeah I said it.
The early years were (to me) the best,
and so cool to get to watch them play back when they were rockin.

Good stuff...

TP

bacon

The garage is a little tied up right now,
so old Chief has been parked out in the street.
In a way it's about time,
as it is a good excuse to drive around.

The funny thing is I always forget that to other people,
it's not normal to see an old hot rod.
In the past week,
I've met a couple neighbors or friends of neighbors,
just to talk about the old car.
Most don't have a clue to what it is,
but they like it and don't mind if it sets off their car alarms.
OK that's only one guy.

CHIEF - 1929 ford roadster pickup with hallock windshield

A quick story though that actually gave me the idea to type.

Jaxon & I drove down to the post office,
and on the way out there was an older gentleman checking out the car.
He said "in my day this was called a Hot Rod!"
I told him, "yep that's what I call it now...so did you have one?"
He said, "Well not really but my first car was a model A,
and the bearings were so shot the babbits were worn down to the metal.
My dad said to put bacon rinds in the caps to fill the gap.
Every sunday I would put some bacon rinds in there,
which would get me about 50 miles.
Enough to get to work and hopefully a date on friday or saturday!"

He stuck around to hear the engine roar,
and you could tell our couple minutes brought back a bunch of memories.

TP

hatchet

Any of you guys read the book "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen?
It's a cool little book about a kid that survives a plane crash in the wilderness,
basically alone with a hatchet.
Every kids dream or nightmare!
It's a fun quick read,
and you will learn some survival skills as well.

(Now that the kids are reading thick chapter books,
we've had a good selection of literature to choose from!)

hatchet head

You can bet a hatchet has been on our swap meet/garage sale search list.
They are surprisingly tough to find,
and when good examples are $20,
it's hard to justify the need.
Yeah we're a cheap bunch!

hatchet repair kit

We couldn't pass up this deal though,
an old Underhill hatchet head for $1!
My first thought was to weld a 1" pipe as a handle,
but we had the perfect donor.
The kids had named a rubber mallet "Thor's Hammer",
and it had broken a while back.
(most likely from trying to remove that bicycle stem)
Why we kept the broken pieces for so long I can't say.

whittler - wedge and handle

The handle was whittled down to fit the hatchet hole.
Then a metal wedge was whittled down out of some flat bar scrap.
(little metal chunk in pic)

reborn Underhill half hatchet

Within half an hour the hatchet was reborn!

buffed

Maybe not the same style hatchet in the book,
but a hatchets a hatchet right?
Nope.
Axes and Hatchets - Autonopedia
Now I know a hatchet is for one hand and an axe is for two hands.

throwing hatchet

I couldn't resist!
Even though this is a half hatchet designed for roofing -
with the nail puller and hammer end -
man this thing is made to throw!
Probably the short handle and relatively light weight.
No I didn't let the kids try!

After only a couple throws at the shanker block,
our new hatchet was stashed away.
Glad we didn't spend $20!

TP

shankers united

Many moons ago,
before kids and a wife,
this old stump was the center of attention.

the stump

Cut from a huge Ficus tree next to the old shop in Ventura,
this chunk of wood had been the target of thousands of knife throws.
Later on I realized that throwing knives and little kids didn't mix well,
and the stump was used as the base for a series of potted plants for many years.
Disaster was narrowly averted when it almost became a metal hammering block!
A good use for it if not for its history.
In due time it would live again.

reborn

Over Thanksgiving weekend,
Jakob had found the last remaining throwing knife.
A cheap beat up old thrower - not even flat anymore.
The reason it was still around was more cause it wasn't used as much.
My favorite knife was the 12"  Cold Steel - True Flite Thrower,
and they were all lost or broken.

scrapola

As a parent what could I do?
Tell Jake that he was too young,
and have him sneak around and get hurt?
Or give him some pointers on the basics to minimize those chances?
For the first couple days,
he was just throwing into the dirt.
Not bad either.

sticks

One knife was a start but not very efficient.
Internet searches pulled up a bunch of overpriced pieces of junk,
or copies of knives made famous in movies,
and then there is that time waiting for shipping.

throwing shanks

I guess we could have found a local knife store,
but where's the fun in that.
Instead,
some scrap stainless flatbar was scrounged up,
the perfect amount for three heavy 8" shanks.
These are more like abalone irons then fragile show knives,
so no easily broken pointy tips.

JAKE VIDEO

The dirt target practice paid off.
After only a couple throws,
Jakob started getting the hang of it.
I'll admit it is really addicting,
and we would both hog up our turns.

knife throwing target

We both practiced enough at the short range to toss at the virgin side,
and played a game "pig-fish-spider-deer",
where the other guy calls out the target to hit.

knife throwing block

The tricky thing about knife throwing is it is all about repetition and revolutions.
Once a smooth and consistent throwing style is figured out,
there is a specific distance from the target that is the comfort zone,
especially in the beginning.
Without changing the throwing technique,
it is possible to do a blade throw or a handle throw,
and that half revolution difference allows movement farther away.
Right now we're at the point of mastering that one basic throw!

jake's shank sheath

That night Jake whipped up a sheath out of some scrap material.
Handy kid!
The next morning Jaxon wanted in on the action.
Still in his sick clothes!

JAXON VIDEO

We gave him a wide berth!
He didn't have the hours of dirt practice like Jake.
After a short while he got the hang of it.

macey shanker

And yeah you guessed it.
Macey had to give it a shot.

MACEY VIDEO

Needless to say we were amazed!

temporary permanent

Now that this has become a family affair,
the stump was moved to a better spot.
The change took a little getting used to,
even if it's only a couple feet higher.
At least now there's not the danger of chipped brick.

To make it a little safer,
I'll attach a couple layers of cardboard over the wood,
as that is supposed to absorb the bounce back from bad throws.
Can't believe I never did that before.

Always something fun at the Perich household!

TP

Hey Sloppy hope you didn't mind me ripping off the title!

how to ship tires!

In my continuing saga of sending oddball shaped stuff across the country,
the next package of fun was this set of tires.

phoenix drag tires

Not sure really why I had these.
With no luck selling them locally,
they were destined for Wisconsin.

saran wrapped tires

Again I searched the internet for some help.
How do you ship these?
I found the easiest way to package these is not to box them,
but to basically wrap them up.
It's possible to ship tires unwrapped too,
but not worth the hassle if they get messed up.

bound

These were front tires and the total weight together was about 30 pounds,
so it was possible to ship in one package.

While these aren't show tires,

you never know what's gonna happen in transit.

There is a possibility that the sidewalls could scuff each other without protection.

First the tires were wrapped in plastic wrap.
and both taped together nice and tight.

wrapped

Since I didn't know what I was doing,
I considered wrapping them in that butcher paper,
and then make cardboard circles to make them solid.
This is actually when I did the internet search.

With the double wrap of thick paper,
and tons of packaging tape,
these should be fine for the trek out.

packaging assistant Macey

USPS was the cheapest by far although kinda slow parcel post - under $35.
UPS would be quick but even ground was $80,
which was more then the tires were worth.

The trip to the post office was interesting.
The smaller PO was way confused on how to measure these.
Fortunately I had used the USPS website and had a good idea of the price,
cause if I didn't I would have been charged double for an oversized package.
Also remember to get the bright green Confirmation/tracking #,
it's way worth that extra buck.

Hope this helps someone out!

TP

Macey's big six

Didn't I just write this?
perich brothers (and sister): 5 years - HBD MJP!!
Unbelievably one more year has passed already.

maceys 6th birthday!

Happy Birthday Macey!

xoxo
TP, Mom and the boys

patience young grasshoppers

Last week Halo 4 came out for xbox.
The boys have been patiently waiting for it,
as they've logged many hours on the earlier version.
That is,
before they went through there "modelmania" phase over the summer.
In the past couple months,
video games have been really low on there interest list.

stool time - Macey, Jaxon & stingray project #2

That obsessiveness needed to complete a project (like a model),
has now been focused on a couple schwinn projects.
Right now each of them has 2 stingrays - one rider and one project.

Jakob & stingray project #3

Needless to say it wasn't too difficult for me to veto getting Halo 4.
The daylight hours of the weekend passed by way to fast.
My project was blue-balled way too early,
and in all honesty I was ready to play some of the old Halo Reach against the kids.
Jakob even turned the machine on.

trust

I knew that Jaxon had been slowly stripping his 2nd stingray,
and there was no way he was going to stop now.
This particular stingray has been the definition of "royal PITA"
Over a month ago,
he bent up the front wheel.
*******************************************
a little backstory...

Even with the tweaked rim,
he continued to ride it around.

I'm glad it didn't taco.

After putting the stingray to the ramp test,
the headset and cranks were in serious need of adjustment.
We were shocked to see the bearings were about as dry as could be.
What started as a simple grease and tune,
ended up being a month-long disassembly nightmare.

Basically the stem had rust-welded itself to the fork.
The long clamp bolt had broke off inside,
and the goosneck was stuck inside like a chinese finger trap.

We tried everything.
Hammering, oil, torch, hammering, oil, more torch.
Interest slowly diminished,
but Jaxon would bang on it every couple days.
Nothing.
Weeks passed....
Still wouldn't budge.

check out hammer print on his hand!

Finding a replacement fork on ebay was the needed incentive.
Using all the tricks they had learned from his first stingray project,
the bike was quickly torn apart.

removing seatpost clamp

Part of me really wanted to jump in there at times,
but it was more fun to watch both the boys.
Plus who would take the pictures.

removing schwinn kickstand

We were surprised how fast it came apart.
Now it was time for surgery.

prepped

A sawzall would have taken all the fun out of watching the kids use a hacksaw.

Jaxon removing front fork

Each had their turn,
and finally the fork was removed.

jakob and the hacksaw

The old fork had a serious bend in it from the previous owner!
Goes to show how strong those ashtabula forks are.

bent ashtabula stingray fork

Now it was time to see if the stem was saveable.
I thought we could do it in 15 minutes.
Nope.
6 songs and 45 minutes later...

jakob center punching

The fork remnant was rust-jammed like nobodies business.
I thought a couple side smacks would loosen it up.
Nope.
A couple holes and more oil didn't do the trick either.
Since the headset pieces were stuck on there,
it was tough to cut lengthwise.

drastic measures - drillium

A couple strategic cuts and the stem was finally freed up.

crazy macey

Way better hanging out in garage then playing video games!

TP

how to - shipping a camshaft!

In my continuing saga of shipping stuff for more money then the value of the POS,
here is a good trick to ship camshafts.

ford 8ba camshaft

This was from that 8ba flathead engine that was just junked.
Even though it was a stock no frills grind,
it was too nice to scrap.

ford fiber camshaft gear

As usual the guy who wanted it was far away,
Texas this time.
Great.
So I searched and found a shipping trick.

wrapped

First off was to disassemble the gear,
and wrap up the stick to keep it from getting rusty or scratched.
Now to find a surprisingly expensive piece of plastic pipe.
Jeez,  I've tossed longer sections of this stuff.
I'm all for saving the earth and all,
but $8 for a 2 foot section of ABS is ridiculous.
Dang oil by-products.
Who knew there was a market for precut 2 foot pieces?

cushiony wrap

The cam was wrapped up in a series of paper and tape layers.
Not too loose and not too tight.

bulletproof

With everything jammed into the pipe,
it would have been so much easier to stick a label on it,
and send it out.
That dang cam gear screwed up that plan.
I could have sent it separate,
but this was getting expensive enough as it is.

siamese boxes

I don't buy stuff to have a box selection stashed away.
Okay that is a partial lie I do have alot of boxes for some reason.
None that were 2 feet long though.
USPS gives away priority boxes though,
and since this was getting shipped by them,
I couldn't see a problem doubling up 2 to fit.

custom boxed

This was taking way longer then planned,
but it didn't stop there.
There was a big price difference between priority and parcel post,
and it is important to have a plain wrapper,
just to have the option to go either way.
With the box gift wrapped in butcher paper,
we were finally ready.

Macey - shipping assistant

So much work!
There was literally more money in shipping and handling,
then the cost of the friggin camshaft!
$25  not including time.

At least it was going to arrive safely,

and I've got a better idea of what not to do next time.

I hope it gets used in an engine and not a hot rod show trophy!

TP

posted

Have you had one of those days when things just don't go right?
Yesterday was a bit of a whopper.
To make it worse I misplaced my sunglasses and my ATM card.
It was time to hit the bottle!
I held off though,
as that is really the time to stay away!

To top it off,
I also had a solo visit with the TJ Dentista.
Holey Chit.
Probably not the best thing in my scattered state!
And it looked like it was going to rain.

dental tools

There was no time to push it off.
I'd been waiting months to finish this one molar crown.
An accident at the end of summer had screwed up her knee,
so standing for long periods of time wasn't happening.
I have been going with the wife on her monthly trips to the adjoining orthodontist,
but lots happened in that time.

For instance...
Before the accident she had taken an impression of the post needed.
The molar had a monster side cavity,
so there was a big hole.
Well the time that had gone by (august/september)
the remaining original tooth had cracked,
so instead of 4 walls like a cup,
she had to grind one side so there was now 3 walls!

nasty molar post-root canal hole 

Isn't that nasty!
Holey Mother of Chit.
This was before she ground out that weak spot.
I didn't even want to see it after the grinding.
Taking a deep breath just seeing this picture.

(There was a temporary filler in there,
so it wasn't like this between visits!)

big ole gold dental post!

It was a stretch saving that cracked part before we started,
so it wasn't totally surprising when she had to enlarge the hole.
The bummer was she had already made the smaller post,
and now it needed to be redone.
Since I'm going gold,
the post was gold too and could be remelted.

Now you know why it was important to get down there.
Check out how big that new post is!

gold molar post

It was too late to wait for the cement to fully set,
so I'll go down there next week,
and she'll form the tooth to fit a crown,
make an impression,
and I'll wait for the gold crown to be forged out.
No CNC work this is old school modeling.

****************************************************

Jerry Garcia Band - Lonesome and a Long Way From Home
26 October 1978 - Portland Oregon
Lost Live Dead: October 26, 1978 Paramount Theater, Portland, OR: Jerry Garcia Band/Bob Weir Band
78 is one of my favorite Dead years,
but not as much for the Jerry Garcia Band.
However there are some good tunes played,
and this one has a cool mix,
like your sitting right up front.
This song gets wacky by the 6th minute that's for sure!

*****************************************************
I was too chicken to ride the bike down there,
as it's sketchy enough in the day time,
and a Tijuana dusk ride back wasn't worth the hassle.
The cool thing is we've taken so many taxi's down there,
I know a handful of drivers.
Some are really fun to talk with,
and this one (Carlos)  remembered going by the Calimax store for the rum bottle.

Bacardi Añejo Rum

The border walk went quick,
and I was back and forth in less than 2.5 hours including driving time.
Not bad at all.
On the drive back,
I even found out I left the ATM card in the old machine at the nearby bank.
Doh!
The shot picture is fake.
I didn't even want a drink by the time I got home!

TP