Click to enlarge, and then compare this guy's day with yours.There's a reason most preachers take Monday off. Someone commented recently that I seem to enjoy my work - preaching and teaching - and indeed, I do. It is at the same time the most enjoyable and the most difficult thing I do in my week. My brain is on hyperdrive and my body totally engaged in the exercise. I come home Sunday afternoons and crash, go to bed early and still feel hung over on a Monday. So today, because concentrating on anything for more than 15 minutes at a time is not going to happen, I started out with my bike ride and then went back and forth between tasks.
I'm stripping a dresser (that sounds naughty) that I bought for $40. I have most of the carcass done, so today I worked on the drawers (this is getting worse). Brush on the stripper, cover that area with aluminum foil so it won't evaporate immediately in our single-digit humidity, and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then scrape off the layers of paint and repeat.
While doing that, waiting for the stripper to work, I worked on Gerta. Back when I disassembled and lubricated the speedometer I goofed during the reassembly. I got the needle on the wrong side of the peg at zero. So I removed it again, opened it up to move the needle to the correct side, and then reinstalled it. That process takes a little time because, except for the gas gauge, all the indicators are located in the speedometer's dial. That makes for lots of wires on the back side.
I also installed the new speedometer cable I ordered weeks ago. It threads from the back side of the speedometer down through the bottom of the front luggage area and into the left front wheel from the back side. It then pokes through and gets attached to the dust cover on the hub. Very simple setup and easy to swap out.
The dresser is ready for sanding and then fresh coats of paint. Haven't decided what color(s) yet. And this afternoon I drove Gerta down to the rec center (still working on my swimming). She runs better than ever with the new carb. Now idles at the right rpm instead of too high like before - a problem I could never fix. The speedometer's needle doesn't bounce anymore and the unit doesn't scream at me either. Gerta is back and better than ever!
What will come of the situation in Iran? Worth watching! The demonstrations in Tienanmen Square lasted 10 days and were then crushed. That could happen in Iran, or it could be the beginning of the end for the current repressive regime.
I think that latter outcome is the more likely, in part because the Iranian people are more aware of the world outside their country than the Chinese were, or are. The internet, satellite TV and short wave radio have enabled Iranians to gain a clear understanding of how their government is perceived by the rest of the world, and they don't like it. They are embarrassed by Ahmadinejad's behavior and the way it makes this understandably proud people look.
If the current Iranian government falls it will illustrate a dynamic we've seen before, one that should be instructive for the future.
The Soviet empire fell from within. Thankfully, we never had the east vs. west military conflict we all feared. We came close a few times - the Cuban missle crisis, the Gary Powers incident - but in the end it was the citizens who got tired of a broken economic system. The didn't care about sophisticated ideological arguments. They wanted heat in the winter, enough food to eat, and maybe an apartment with its own bathroom. President Reagan called for Gorbechov to "tear down this wall" but in the end it was the east Germans themselves who knocked it over.
If democracy prevails it isn't because it was imposed with military force. We tried that in Vietnam. Democracy comes to a country when its people demand it. The wisest course, IMHO, for a democratic country is to model democracy's greatest strengths - political and economic - and let time do its work. There are situations when military force is necessary to protect the innocents (Sudan?) but regime change is most successful, yea, only successful when it comes from within.
So let's watch what happens in Iran. The people may do what no military or intelligence agency could ever accomplish - move that country to a truly democratic society that stands as a good citizen of the world community.
I'm stripping a dresser (that sounds naughty) that I bought for $40. I have most of the carcass done, so today I worked on the drawers (this is getting worse). Brush on the stripper, cover that area with aluminum foil so it won't evaporate immediately in our single-digit humidity, and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Then scrape off the layers of paint and repeat.
While doing that, waiting for the stripper to work, I worked on Gerta. Back when I disassembled and lubricated the speedometer I goofed during the reassembly. I got the needle on the wrong side of the peg at zero. So I removed it again, opened it up to move the needle to the correct side, and then reinstalled it. That process takes a little time because, except for the gas gauge, all the indicators are located in the speedometer's dial. That makes for lots of wires on the back side.
I also installed the new speedometer cable I ordered weeks ago. It threads from the back side of the speedometer down through the bottom of the front luggage area and into the left front wheel from the back side. It then pokes through and gets attached to the dust cover on the hub. Very simple setup and easy to swap out.
The dresser is ready for sanding and then fresh coats of paint. Haven't decided what color(s) yet. And this afternoon I drove Gerta down to the rec center (still working on my swimming). She runs better than ever with the new carb. Now idles at the right rpm instead of too high like before - a problem I could never fix. The speedometer's needle doesn't bounce anymore and the unit doesn't scream at me either. Gerta is back and better than ever!
What will come of the situation in Iran? Worth watching! The demonstrations in Tienanmen Square lasted 10 days and were then crushed. That could happen in Iran, or it could be the beginning of the end for the current repressive regime.
I think that latter outcome is the more likely, in part because the Iranian people are more aware of the world outside their country than the Chinese were, or are. The internet, satellite TV and short wave radio have enabled Iranians to gain a clear understanding of how their government is perceived by the rest of the world, and they don't like it. They are embarrassed by Ahmadinejad's behavior and the way it makes this understandably proud people look.
If the current Iranian government falls it will illustrate a dynamic we've seen before, one that should be instructive for the future.
The Soviet empire fell from within. Thankfully, we never had the east vs. west military conflict we all feared. We came close a few times - the Cuban missle crisis, the Gary Powers incident - but in the end it was the citizens who got tired of a broken economic system. The didn't care about sophisticated ideological arguments. They wanted heat in the winter, enough food to eat, and maybe an apartment with its own bathroom. President Reagan called for Gorbechov to "tear down this wall" but in the end it was the east Germans themselves who knocked it over.
If democracy prevails it isn't because it was imposed with military force. We tried that in Vietnam. Democracy comes to a country when its people demand it. The wisest course, IMHO, for a democratic country is to model democracy's greatest strengths - political and economic - and let time do its work. There are situations when military force is necessary to protect the innocents (Sudan?) but regime change is most successful, yea, only successful when it comes from within.
So let's watch what happens in Iran. The people may do what no military or intelligence agency could ever accomplish - move that country to a truly democratic society that stands as a good citizen of the world community.
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