Dog Days

I don't believe any of the houses I grew up in had air conditioning.  A few of the apartment's I lived in during and after college had it, but I wasn't in those long enough for that to become the norm.
Admittedly, in Michigan where I grew up there are more cool nights than there is in a place like Tillman's Corner, Alabama, but summer's heat could still be oppressive with its evil friend humidity.  My parents always said the best thing to do was to put a fan in the window at night, either blowing cool air in, or warm air out overnight.  I always wanted the thing directly cooling me off.

We're in the midst of the dog days of summer.
dictionary.com defines the Dog Days as:
"The sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11."  Sultry...  Reckoned...
I've always been partial to the definition from the William Armstrong's Sounder, even if it is incorrect:
"the heat is so bad the dogs go mad"
I'm not sure if she's mad, but my dog clearly lets me know when the walk gets too long during the dog days.  She knows where the shady spots are along the road and what to do when she gets there.

This past week has had a brutal combination of heat and humidity.  Lows overnight were around 70.  And while highs were only around 90, humidity was almost tropical in nature with dew points above 70 degrees at time.  The hot and humid days can be ugly, but the nights can be near hateful - I'm reminded of the first few years after moving to Southern Ohio.  If my memory is correct, I moved into my house in February, with the huge opposing furnace heating and drying the air.  As that first winter transitioned to spring to summer, the area showed what we were in for.  The dog days of summer were unpleasant.  Getting home after work to a house that never felt like it dried out.  My parent's counsel to use fans in the windows was augmented by fans blowing over the bed.  The house sat in a holler, so humidity would often pool in the slightly cooler, lower air.  The effect was cooler soupy air was pushed around overnight only to be turned into hot soupy air during the day.  Overnight thunderstorms would bring a separate set of problems.
I tried to remain stoic about it, "I've never had air conditioning."
"Well, how was sleeping last night?" Janet asks, smugly.
I didn't admit it, but it was miserable.  At that time, I probably could have afforded a window air conditioner, but it would have been a stretch.  And I wasn't sure how much additional cost would come with actually using it.

Eventually, Bill gave me his old air conditioner as he got his central system fixed as preparation for selling his house.  This was an enormous window unit - thankfully the house had large windows.  It was loud and shaky and it seemed to want to give up overnight, but the slightly cooler and drier air it created in the evening allowed sleep to come less fitfully on most nights.  For some reason, paper wasps loved to make nests in that window air conditioner.
That free unit was eventually replaced with a far more efficient window air conditioner upstairs and a second larger unit downstairs.  I've always hated window air conditioners though.  No matter how well they are secured, much of the construction of modern units is plastic and they seem a desperately weak security risk.  In my case, the risk was probably minimal for the second floor, but despite doing what I could to secure it, the ground floor always made me nervous.  And since getting really good sealing around a window air conditioner isn't easy, I always assumed it was a convenient entry point for bugs as well as burglars.
At some point, discomfort and anxiety made getting central air conditioning a better solution.  Quite frankly, it didn't cost all that much and by getting a heat pump it helped with winter bills as well.  But as the house was well over 100 years old, with several retrofits from what was likely the original fireplace and coal furnace heating system, all cold air returns (that did anything) were on the first floor.  Some cooling reached the second story helped by a fan at the top of the stairs.  But a window unit was still needed upstairs might have been helpful on the worst days.  I didn't know it at the time, but I was only able to enjoy the central air conditioning for a couple years until I ended up moving.

I'd like to believe I'm not soft, but I'm quite sure returning to a lack of air conditioning would be painful.  Childhood tolerance is long gone.  Still, not only have I lived for most of my life without air conditioning, but people have for millennia.  If there was a drastic change in circumstances, I could try to resurrect the stoic tolerance of my ancestry.
As Mark Chesnutt sang in  1990:
"These old dog days of summer
Lord, I'll be glad when they're gone..."

MGB Collision Repair

The plan was to put the MGB in storage that week.  Sometimes stuff happens.
Late in 2016, SO was rear ended in her 1972 MGB on the way home from work.  We were glad that nobody was hurt and that the damage was relatively minor.  The offending vehicle was owned by some kind of community-oriented company and thankfully was insured.

A bit of history on the car.  The MGB was made in 03/1972 and was originally "Aqua" in color.  When I acquired the car in the mid-1990's, this would probably not have been my preferred color, but I have to admit that in original form, aqua is a pretty nice color for a chrome-bumpered MGB.

The car thumped around for who knows how far and was eventually in a front end collision with a tractor-trailer (or so I was told).  The car was bought by some kid who had grand dreams of turning it into a Cal-Ace replica show car.  His ambition far surpassed his abilities and he put the car up for sale at a price that was tolerable on a college budget for what the car was.
I purchased the car.  It wasn't a looker by any means, but getting it running, driving and stopping was relatively straight forward.  The only major frustration I recall on the mechanical front was the fuel pump intermittently went out at the worst possible times.  I ended up hurling it into the ditch on the side of the road when I finally relented and purchased a new pump.

With most of the mechanics sorted out, I set out to do the body work.  I clipped the front end of the car and replaced much of the structural and cosmetic metal on the car.  Some of this was done with new body panels and some was not.  The repair/restoration was done on a college budget, so things like the floors were done with straight sheet metal instead of preformed MGB floors - these could probably use replacing at some time again, 20-something years later.
SO wanted the car dark blue, so we had PPG Concept paint custom tinted.  This was relatively early in the use of consumer/professional refinishing in 2-part urethanes; enamel was quite 1987.  After ensuring the car was structurally in good shape and straitening everything out, the car really looked good.  The car's lines all turned out really well given how it started.

Much of the ancillary MGB parts were scavenged, pilloried, salvaged and reused.  But again, this was done on a college budget.  I was happy with the final result; more importantly SO was happy with the final result.

SO drove the car, only in the summer, for a few years.  Eventually we moved south after college and the car made the trip down as well.
A few years after moving south, we were on our way to store the car for the winter at a friend's house, when the wheels lost traction on a bridge coated with black ice.  I was driving behind in my Dodge Dakota and watched in horror.  Two corners of the car struck the guard rail.  We were still far more fortunate than an SUV which ended up tumbling down the nearby hill.  One of the police on the scene, while walking across the deathly slick bridge, was almost taken out by another car that subsequently lost control on the bridge.

The damage to the MGB was considerable, but mostly cosmetic.  Mostly...

As winter weather swirled, the insurance company sent an adjuster out to estimate the damage.  I'm not sure what the adjuster was smoking, but the estimate was probably appropriate for a Red Flyer wagon.  He allowed a few hours for body repair, zero for any panel replacement, and used parts that would be as easy to find as the Lost Dutchman's Gold.
I spent a few days arguing with the insurance company before taking the car out of storage and driving to a body shop near where the car was stored.  They gave a much more reasonable estimate...

Insurance check in hand, I spent much of that winter working on the car.  There was enough damage and a few other spiggles with the car that I wanted to fix that repainting the entire car was the best action to take.  Crumpled body sections were replaced with a few parts sourced from the friend who originally taught me body work - his son had been in a similar, but mirror image, accident.  Also, the paint codes for the custom paint were long gone, so matching exactly would prove difficult when nearly half the car would end up being painted.
That next spring, the car was back on the road and looking as good as ever.  That was 20 years ago, and the last time I've done body work.

Over the past two decades, the car has had many trouble-free years, along with a few where major work was done.  A clutch was done in 2007.  Engine work done in 2015 included rod bearings, an alloy cylinder head, a radiator and oil cooler.  There have been smaller repairs and ongoing maintenance, but overall, it has been a good, fun summer car for SO.
Which brings us to late 2016.
Carruunch!

The collision pushed the bumper into the rear of the car, mashing the bumper and damaging the rear of the car.  SO worked with the insurance company after the accident, and they had us take the car to a local shop for a certified estimate.  Unlike the last accident, this estimate was extremely thorough.  I don't really pay attention to current MGB prices, and don't know what the car could actually sell for, but it seemed like the estimate approached the car's value.  Still, as a 40 year old car, I may be off on this.
We quickly got an initial check for the damage as the car was put into storage for the winter - now in my garage.  The insurance company entered subrogation with the other driver's company and a second check for our deductible followed a few months later.
Now it was decision time and I saw five options.
1.  Do nothing, the car is a 20 year old inexpensive restoration that is showing its age.  Just drive it and live with the damage.
2.  Do a quick fix up and drive the car.
3.  Sell it on Ebay with no reserve, use that money plus the insurance checks and buy a nicer MGB.
4.  Have the shop that gave the estimate do the repair - reviews suggest they do really good work.
5.  Do it myself and live with the consequences.

I chose option 5 (possibly a combination of option 2 and 5).  I really thought hard about option 3, but that could be opening up a new can of worms.  Additionally, SO has been driving the car for 25ish years, so it seemed treasonous to get rid of it due to a relatively minor accident.  I also hate to risk the car getting scrapped or turned into a Cal-Ace by some kid who didn't know what he was doing.
I also seriously considered option 4, but I was not enamored with the other shop doing the mechanical work, and I've seen it too many times where even good body shops treat aged cars the same (or worse) as new ones and they come back with wonked-out clutches or new electrical gremlins as wires are inappropriately cut and spliced.
As noted, the last time I did body work was 20 years ago and it was on the same car.  This was to be an adventure!

That winter proved difficult.  Every day I would see the car sitting there and eventually I couldn't stand it.  Even in the cold, I removed much of the rear ancillaries to assess the damage.

Nothing looked too bad, but one rear bumper bracket was very rusted to the car.  Likely this was the first time this had ever been removed since 03/1972.

The other rear bumper bracket had at some point had a different threaded portion welded on.  These had to go.  I wasn't able to find used bumper brackets, but I was surprisingly able to locate a used rear bumper on CraigsList.  It wasn't a pristine new unit, but was a factory bumper in decent shape with some pitting - meaning it matched much of the other chrome on  the car.  The price was right and the bumper was straight, so I bought it and set it aside.

I originally thought that cutting out the rear panel was going to be the best way to fix it, but after getting into the actual damage, I decided to try to push out the damage first.  I rented a portapower from a local rental shop and spent a cold afternoon pushing out the damage.  This was a good option as I was able to push out most of the damage, despite the poor condition of the rented portapower and lack of appropriate accessories.

With much of the damage mostly straightened out, I bought the cheapest heat gun that Harbor Freight had and removed most of the paint from the rear of the car.  As it was still winter and doing body work in the cold is not fun, I painted the rear of the car in a quick coat of primer to protect it.  It looked better already!

With spring bringing warmer weather, I moved the car into the pole barn to work on it.  I didn't want to have all the dust and solvents needed for body work in the garage attached to the house.  I really do enjoy body work, and just about anything is fixable since it is always possible to sand off everything and start over.  The protective coat of primer was sanded off to start the actual body work.

As I opened the can of Rage Body Filler, the scent of it instantly transported me back, not 20 years, but 25 years.  It is amazing how evocative scents can be, and I fondly thought back to the time when I was wrenching as a mechanic all day, and then doing body work with one of my coworkers almost every night.  I'm not sure if I enjoyed that time then as much as I think I did now, but potentially rose colored glasses come with Bondo after a couple decades.
The first few afternoons spent doing body work went slowly.  I would put on a bunch of body filler, then sand 97% of it off and repeat.  Getting the larger issues sorted out was pretty easy, but as the issues got smaller, the time involved went up.  In my mind, I continually heard my friend who taught me body work say, "You have a low spot there..."

Eventually I was pretty happy with how the back panel looked.  It wasn't perfect, but the area had been repaired before and much of it is taken up by lights, fuel filler and license plate, so perfection wasn't imperative.

There was also a major issue with the front fender.  At my former house, the car had to sit outside all winter and during a blustery windstorm, a large branch had come down on the car.  This cracked the paint and created a very small dent.  With a flaw in such a noticeable spot, I felt this had to be repaired since I was already doing body work.  This is an area on the MGB that tends to rust out as there is a "shelf" under this spot which holds water and debris.

I chipped out old body filler and primer and spent some time sanding to get it down to bare metal.  Because this is a spot that often has issues, I knew how to repair it.  The sanding of the body work is best done with a towel wrapped around a small rod to get the radius right.  Varying pressure and towel thickness allows for quick repair of this spot.  The rest of the top of the fender was wet-sanded to accept new paint.

With major body work completed, it was on to primer.  Both previous paint jobs on the car were done with Mar-Hyde Ultimate Primer.  But I couldn't find this primer available in small quantities and online sales of it were surprisingly difficult - not to mention pricey.  After researching various options, I eventually settled on Custom Shop 2K Urethane Primer.  This should be pretty similar to the Mar-Hyde and sold for a reasonable cost.  Epoxy primer is far more common now, but the car currently had urethane primer and with doing only sectional repair, I didn't see much benefit to the increased corrosion resistance from the epoxy.

My paint gun hasn't been used in a very long time, so I cleaned it twice and tested it with solvents a few times.  I spent a lot of time prepping the car for spraying.  My barn doesn't have the ventilation of a spray booth, so I knew that overspray and overdust can get everywhere.  I spent a considerable amount of time just masking the car to allow primer and paint to be sprayed without worrying about where else they might go.

Spraying urethane primer is quite easy and I primed both the fender and the rear of the MGB.  I really liked the Custom Shop primer, it had great build qualities and sanded very nicely to a near-mirror like smoothness.  The first coat of primer took care of minor imperfections in the body work.

A second coat was prepped for paint spraying.

At this point in the project, my nerves started to act up - I obsessed over what paint to get.  I  obsessed over the fact that I haven't painted a car is so long.  I thought about every step 20 times before thinking about it some more.
I still had the paint label from 20 years ago, but I wasn't sure if PPG Concept was still exactly the same as it was then.  Also, the label had paint spilled on it and not all of it was still legible.
I went to a paint store that was supposed to be really good in a town about 40 miles away, hoping for good advice.  The kid who was working was quite new, and of very little help.  My plan was to leave the deck lid to have the paint matched, but I was told in no uncertain terms that they would not be responsible for any damage to it and they would likely need to "truck" it out for matching.  The kid also said that they had damaged body panels in the past.  I did not feel comfortable with this...

On to plan B, I went to a more local auto parts and refinishing store.  They guy there was much more knowledgeable.  And while not particularly personable (at all), he was helpful.  He said he could mix up PPG Concept for me, but that PPG Omni may be a better choice.  Omni is PPG's lesser brand, and given the limitations I was working under as well as that it wasn't a show car that was showing its age, I went with Omni.  Total cost with hardener and reducer was less than a third of the cost that Concept would have been.
The paint matched well to a mid-1980's Honda color that may or may not have ever been sold in the US.  The match came back as Honda Nelson Blue - Nelson it is!

With a weekend of warm temperatures and low humidity, I couldn't put spraying paint off anymore.  Conditions were as good as they would get.  I was somewhat apprehensive about this.  I wasn't the best paint sprayer 20 years ago, I was quite sure that I hadn't magically improved in that amount of time.
I thought about buying a new paint gun to replace my questionable Campbell Hausfield one.  But I couldn't justify spending top coin on an Iwata paint gun and I eventually decided that buying a gun that was only slightly better would be foolish.  I knew my Campbell Hausfield would end up wasting more paint through overspray and atomization, but with a full quart of paint, I was far from paint limited.  I retaped most of my edges to avoid any overspray or trapped paint runs.
And so spraying began.  As I hit the car with the first light tack coat of paint, it was catastrophically incompatible with one of my degreasers and balled up on contact with the car.  The paint went down as one big fish eye with a bit of paint between.  That first coat looked like greasy blue streaks.
OH (*^*%%$^&(*)_)_&&^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I unhooked my gun and soaked a clean towel in reducer.  I cleaned the sprayed panel, then recleaned a couple more times with reducer.  This felt like a waste of reducer, but I figured the paint HAD to be compatible with it.
Holding my breath, I restarted spraying.  This time the light tack coat went down well.  And stuck!
Following the advice of the guy who sold me the paint, I dutifully waited ample flash time before spraying successive heavier coats of paint.
Once finished, I unhooked my paint gun and left the barn.  I didn't want to look at it immediately.  Omni is a 2-part urethane paint catalyzed with isocyanate hardeners.  It is good stuff, but is also not good for health.  I wore a 3M respirator the whole time I was spraying and one of my neighbors saw me walking to the house still wearing it.  I'm sure they were wondering what I was up to this time.

With the paint starting to dry, I walked back into the garage to see how it went.  The results were ... mixed.
The rear of the car looked great.  Good coverage.  Good wet shine.  Very little orange peel.  There was one small flaw in the paint, but it would be covered by the license plate.

The front fender was terrible though.  I absolutely ran the snot out of the paint.  I ran it at the front, I ran it on the side.  To make things worse, where the repair had actually been done, there was insufficient coverage.  I'm not sure how I managed both runs and orange peel within the same area, but I did.  And mocking me was a bug that had gotten into the paint right on top of the fender.

The Omni tech sheet says it can be recoated after 24 hours, so I let the paint dry overnight.  With continued warm temperatures and dry conditions, the paint dried well enough to sand out.  Starting all the way back to 220 grit, I sanded out the entire fender, likely sanding off most of the new paint.  I set up my paint gun with higher fan pressure and lower paint volume to lessen the chance of running.  I knew I was setting myself up for more orange peel, but orange peel isn't too hard to get rid of as long as it isn't too ugly.

Painting number two went better.  I very carefully laid down a few coats, using the technique of laying it down in a thin layer, followed immediately by additional paint to keep it wet.  As before, I let the paint flash for several minutes and laid down a heavier coat.
I didn't see any runs this time, but the orange peel looked excessive at first.  The miracle of modern urethane paint took over and as the solvent evaporated, I could see the paint flatten before my eyes.

There was still some orange peel on the side, but this appeared to be imminently fixable.  Much later, I did notice a very small run near the headlight, but this was almost unnoticeable.  I was happy (enough).

The next day I removed all my masking.  I had a moment of panic when I saw a paint drop from the top of the fender into the headlight bucket.  Demonstrating the importance of surface preparation, I was able to easily peel the offending new paint up, with only a small amount stuck at the crease of the headlight.  Everything else looked good.

While the paint looked good, the risk was far from over.  I still had the blending to do.  Since there is no distinct panel on the rear of the car to stop painting, I had hard lines and a ridge between the old paint and the new.  I cut this ridge down as much as I dared with a razor blade.  This made me uncomfortable, but worked surprisingly well.
Then, a week later I blocked out the interface between the two paints, using a stir stick with 1500 grit sandpaper wrapped around it.  Once the ridge was nearly smooth, I did final smoothing with new sand paper without a stir-stick block, and I followed that up with 3000 grit sandpaper.  To bring back the gloss, I used 3M Perfect-It rubbing compound by hand.  Rubbing compound by hand isn't fun, but power buffers can get one into trouble on new paint.  Additionally, the tight space near the rear lights would not have been ideal for a buffer.
Once completed however, the transition between the existing paint and the new paint was quite good.  There is a slight difference in color and texture, but this will be very hard to notice once bumpers, lights and license is reinstalled.  All things considered, the Honda Neslon Blue Omni paint performed admirably.

With success on the rear of the car, I lightly sanded the orange peel on the front fender.  This was then followed by 3000 grit wet sanding and again, hand buffing with rubbing compound.  The end result was paint which looked good and matched the existing paint on the car as well as I had expected.
Things were looking up.

The boot of the car had gotten very rusty over the years, so I used rust converter to protect it, followed by priming and painting the inside.  I didn't want to remask the car so I just used a brush for this painting.  While vulgar, this seems perfectly acceptable for the inside of the boot.  In order to save my urethane paint in case any more spraying was needed in the short term, I bought a quart of enamel for the boot.  Enamel costs about half of the 2K urethanes and has a much longer shelf life.  I wouldn't ever paint the outside of a car with enamel, but inside a trunk is different.

After spending some time touching up some spots that had developed over the last 20 years, it was time to order the parts needed to begin putting the MGB back together.
Moss Motors is awesome, and I placed an order for what I needed.  Given all the work done so far, the order was surprisingly small.  Thankfully nothing was on back order, and it was delivered quickly.

Reassembly of the car was remarkably fast.  As I had disassembled the car, I had made sure to put each part away in a suitable state for putting it back together.  It only took part of one day to get everything put back together.  There was one hiccup, however.  My CraigsList bumper came with overriders, but one of them was actually a front overrider without the holes needed for the license plate lights.  I ended up "unbending" the original overrider and making that work.  It isn't perfect, but easily passes the 10-foot test.  If it ever bugs me in the future or if the chrome starts to come off, that is an easy thing to replace later.

Finally it was time to wash the MGB.  From all the body work and other stuff that goes on in the pole barn, it was absolutely filthy.  I pushed it outside and gave it a good long bath.  Unfortunately, this revealed some overspray had gotten underneath my masking.  Given all the tape, paper and masking I used, I'm a bit baffled by how this happened, but such is life.  Thankfully, a bit of hand rubbing with the Perfect-It rubbing compound took the haze right off.  A second quick wash and the car looks very good.

I'm quite happy with the area that was actually damaged by the accident.  While the seam between the old and new paint can be seen, it is as good as I had hoped given the differences in paint textures, colors and age.  The paint is nice and shiny to the point that it is hard to take pictures of.

This has been a fun, if at times exhausting exercise; it has taken over much of my spring and summer so far.  I was able to resurrect my body skills after 20 years enough to get the car to pass the 10/10 rule - it looks good from 10 feet at 10 miles per hour.  It isn't perfect, but it wasn't perfect before it was rear ended either.  All things considered, it looks good for a car that was restored 20 years ago on a serious budget.
I don't see myself going back into restoring cars, and I'm not happy about the accident last fall.  But the whole adventure through the last several months was not unpleasant.

Where did the repair net out cost wise?  Below is a partial accounting:
Heat Gun:  $13 (will probably find other uses for this)
Crappy Portapower Rental:  $16
CraigsList Bumper:  $100 (I think, and I probably slightly overpaid)
Rattle Can Primer:  $4
Rage Body Filler:  $27 (I probably didn't need the extra hardener)
Spreaders and spatulas:  $7
Custom Shop Urethane Primer and Reducer:  $65
Sandpaper:  $20 (I had some, and have a bunch left over)
PPG Omni Urethane Paint:  $70
PPG Omni Enamel Paint:  $32  (I probably could have gotten just a pint)
3M Perfect-It:  $17 (worth every penny)
Rust Converter:  $11
Other Solvents:  $30 (I have a bunch left)
Moss Motors Parts:  $130
Misc:  $??

For a grand total of somewhere just under $600.

The car is back on the road with enough summer to enjoy it for a bit.  It looks good (enough), easily passing the 10/10 rule.  Hopefully it lasts another 20 years without any major intervention.

Mephitidae Financial Distress

As I let the dogs out first thing in the morning, the younger dog streaked over to the barn chasing something.  I didn't think much of this as it usually means a bunny was nearby.  After an uncharacteristically short time, she came running back to the gate into the back yard accompanied by the overwhelming smell of skunk.  My morning did not start well.
Torrential rain started a few minutes later.
A quick internet search gave a few home remedies for dealing with a skunk-sprayed dog, and SO and I were talking about what we were going to do with the dog.  Immediately after I saw a bolt of lightning strike the ground close enough to be seen out the kitchen window, there was a loud pop and flash behind the stove.  The house had just been hit, or at least affected by, lightning.

The dog got two baths, the first from a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish-washing detergent; the second with our current normal dog washing soap.
I took a look around the house and didn't see any effects of the lightning bolt.  The stove appeared to be working and none of the digital clocks were even flashing.

I did eventually make it out of the house and on to work, but it was late by my normal routine.  I was thinking about what a pain it is having to deal with a skunk-sprayed dog and the potential for very serious issues from a lightning strike when something on the radio brought me back to reality.  Other than being a bit late, nothing was really all that bad.  So while the morning had not gone well, any problems looked like first world problems.  I was still frustrated; as they say - hopefully tongue in cheek, "They may be rich white guy problems, but they are still problems."

Neal Gabler writes in a shockingly personal way about some of his own problems of a financial nature in a recent issue of The Atlantic.  Despite having what most would consider a fairly successful career, he sounds as if he is mostly living paycheck to paycheck, or at best has lived paycheck to paycheck for much of his adult life.
One of the risks about writing so openly is that he has opened himself up to criticism.  It is pretty easy to sit back and do arm chair financial planning after-the-fact.  Sadly, both the Huffington Post and Slate did so very quickly and cast this with the specter of male versus female.  Were that it was so easy; both Huffington Post and Slate instantly lose credibility and set back a cause which they claim to promote when they frame the problem on the base pairs of x and y chromosomes.

I can easily look back on bad financial decisions I've made over the years and if anyone says they can't think of any, they are bald-faced lying.  What does the phrase "bald-faced" even mean?
In Neal Gabler's case, he made a couple doozies:  Not taking the penalties of late taxes seriously, dumping a 401(K) to pay for a wedding (does his daughter have some responsibility for that - and why does everyone feel so compelled to sacrifice so much of the future on one event?) and creating severe hardship by buying a second house before selling the first (Ooops, I did that too).
But a bigger issue is lurking in that last poor decision.
Why, especially when one has chosen a field which might not be the most lucrative, live in New York?  Or Los Angeles?  Why live in Chicago when you can live anywhere as a professional writer?
I took a look at what Mr. Gabler has written, and he has five books about the entertainment industry.  While the majority of what I read is non-fiction, none of these sounds very interesting to me, but I'm sure they must appeal to some.  I can't believe that another book about Walt Disney was desperately needed.  And an entire book about Barbara Streisand?  It didn't work for Lucy, not sure it will work for Neal...
Meghan Daum made the sensible move to the Midwest when New York had threatened to bankrupt her, then oddly chose to move back to begin working towards poverty again.
New York, despite what it thinks, isn't the center of the universe.  As I was walking my dog, pre-skunk, around the 5-mile block the previous weekend, I couldn't help thinking about how lucky I was to live in the Midwest.  Of course the weather was nearly perfect, and even New York might be somewhat nice on a morning like that.

At some point however, financial issues seem to become math issues.  And sympathy is a bit hard to come by for someone as educated as Mr. Gabler when it comes to relatively simple math.

So my first world issues even might be comparatively minor.  The concoction of peroxide, baking soda and dish detergent worked relatively well - especially since the dog was washed off very quickly.  I still haven't seen any issues as a result of the lighting strike.
But there might be something to learn about the fragile nature of everything from a dog, a skunk and a bolt of lightning.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Beagle and the Diminutive Peach

"Are those yellow leaves?  Or peaches?" I asked SO as we were getting our food off the grill on a recent evening.  Despite the fact that the food was done, I had to walk over to see.

There, attached to a few branches were some inordinately small peaches.

A few years ago, I planted two cherry trees and a peach tree.  One cherry tree, which I should have immediately returned, had basically no roots and died within a few weeks.  The other died above the graft, while whatever the root stock was has taken off prolifically.  I have no idea what kind of tree or bush it is, but it seems healthy and green enough.
The one peach tree seems to suffer in the summer's heat, but has been doing tolerably well.  Despite a late freeze that seems to happen every spring, this is the first year that the tree has fruit.

The peaches are very small, and it appears that nearly every fruit has been infested with bugs and/or pecked at by birds.  The fruit is not ripe yet, and I strongly suspect that there will be no edible fruit by the time it is ripe.
Perhaps the tree should have access to more green things which consists of one thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew for another week, then let the moon do the rest!  If Auntie Spiker and Auntie Sponge lived in SW Ohio, they'd have little to fight over in my yard.  Perhaps I should write a story about an ugly, middle-aged man's trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, ending up living in a diminutive pit in New Orleans. (with apologies to Roald Dahl).

My attempts at growing trees continue to soldier on.  And yet, I'm under no delusions with this.  The very small seedlings are by nature going to have a low success rate.  My larger trees are doing similarly poorly, although I don't quite understand that.  Native trees like Oaks and Buckeyes should be well suited to the area, but they are doing poorly, at best.  Something thinks these trees' leaves are very tasty.

News reports suggest 85% of Georgia's famed peaches will be missing this year due to a very warm winter.
Peaches are the high stakes gambling of the fruit world.  Get a good one, and it is very good.  Average peaches may be tolerable.  And far too many peaches are somehow simultaneously chalky and mealy.

I'm willing to leave the few meager peaches to the bugs and angels.  I hope it will be a fair trade on someday having a small woodlot.

American Eclipse (1878 and 2017)

I just finished reading American Eclipse by David Baron.  It chronicles the path of three notable people as they prepared for and viewed the eclipse of July 29, 1878.
Thomas Edison is known as an early American prolific inventor.  He ventured west in 1878 to test an invention which was supposed to be a very sensitive heat detector.  While his experiments were largely inconsequential and his "tasimeter" a footnote at best, the theory behind its use was sound and perhaps ahead of its time as it may have been one of the first instances of searching the cosmos using radiation outside of the narrow visible spectrum of light.
James Craig Watson viewed the eclipse hoping to find the existence of a planet inside the orbit of Mercury.  He found an unknown object that he determined to be the planet "Vulcan" which he was looking for.  Dying a few years later, before his planet discovery was debunked, his legacy remains one of setting up an astronomy award which bears his name today.
Maria Mitchell went to research the eclipse with a female contingent.  Plagued by the misogyny of the era, her eclipse viewing didn't result in any immediate consequence, but her legacy lives on as an early female pioneer during America's ascendancy in science.

I read the book as I am preparing to head out to see the 2017 eclipse in a few weeks.  My upcoming eclipse viewing is strictly experiential, not scientific.  I've done as much preparing as I can at this point, which means I am now free to worry as the date approaches.
Like most people, my chosen location is based on a mix of where I live, where it is likely to have minimal clouds and where the amount of people will be tolerable.
In February of 1998, I went down to camp on St. Johns in the US Virgin Islands.  An eclipse was passing through that area but the eclipse was more of an excuse to go on a rather exotic vacation for a couple weeks.  Camping on the beach near a bizarre cast of characters and wild donkeys was quite an experience.  St. Johns was in the 80%+ band of the eclipse, and it was interesting, but anticlimactic.  If anything, the crescent shadows cast by the sun obscured by the moon were probably the most interesting feature.

I want to see totality this time.  And I'm a chronic worrier, so I have several weeks to fret.
I worry about the weather.  As much as I plan on going to an area that is likely to have minimal clouds, even the driest areas in Eastern Oregon have some probability of all-day cloudiness or torrential rain during the actual event.  I am aware that I can do nothing about this, and while minor adjustments can be made, major changes will be difficult within the time frame of accurate weather forecasts.  My preparation has essentially locked me into the general area I've chosen.  More out of curiosity, I looked at major destinations on the path of totality to see what, if any, hotel rooms were still available.  Few are, and they are all really expensive; in the most egregious example, a 1-star hotel with bad reviews in Casper, Wyoming is still available ... at a cost of nearly $1200.

I worry about people.  I plan on going to a less-populated area of the country, but will thousands and thousands of other people have the same idea.  Intuitively I think not; a small subset of the population will be going to great length to see the eclipse and a larger subset will make an effort near where they live, but I don't believe the entire path of totality will be crawling with people to view an event which is to last only a few minutes.  Still, I'd rather not view the eclipse while stuck in some traffic jam which is historic for the area I'll be in.

While I enjoyed reading American Eclipse, I'm not sure it was wise to do so.  David Baron writes of the inability of people to find boarding rooms in 1878.  There are a lot more people around with a lot more ability for information 139 years later.  In some sense, being in the right kind of crowd may be fun for an event like this - I just hope to have a few square feet for me and my tripod.
He also writes about terrible weather leading up to the eclipse.  But in the end, the eclipse day was clear and weather forecasts have come a long way in 139 years.

I guess as with any kind of travel, the anticipation is part of the experience.  Forty-nine days and counting...