Category: Life with Pratts

All Gassed Up With Nowhere to Go

Under the Covid lockdown it took a long time to use up half a tank of gas, just driving back and forth to the grocery store twice each week. I couldn’t believe the price to fill the tank — only $1.38/gallon!

Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider died recently. I don’t have any Kraftwerk records, but like most everybody I know “Autobahn”. The single version made it to #25 on the Billboard chart.

Five years after “Autobahn” was Gary Numan’s album “The Pleasure Principle”, with his own electronic auto-related song “Cars”. The single cracked the Billboard top 10, peaking at #9.

https://youtu.be/E4Lo-D8NQF0

Epic Failure Success

A puff-piece about Epic Systems.

It’s possible that the Data General minicomputers from long ago shown in the video were running MUMPS-dialect operating systems that I had custom-assembled in Cambridge, Massachusetts for Epic Systems when they were still in Madison. That receipt listing a 800 bpi 9-track tape drive makes me laugh. How well I remember having to calculate data blocking factors for the various computer tape drives of those times.

I once had to drive a rental car 300 miles from Cranbrook, British Columbia to the Federal Express depot at the Spokane airport to pick up an operating system tape. A customer neglected to tell me he bought a different tape drive than the one he first ordered, so the tape I brought with me to Canada wouldn’t work. So I called the office to get a compatible tape created, and sent to the nearest place that could receive overnight delivery from Boston.

Snow Job

After 20 years of reliable winter service, it’s time to let go of my trusty and somewhat rusty MTD Yard Machines snow thrower. Those loose bottom belts are for the auger, but the problem that prompted me to open up the gearbox was the difficulty in pushing the snow blower when the traction control isn’t engaged. It keeps grabbing, with a “chug, chug, chug” effect. The gear plate has seen a lot of wear, and it’s covered with fine metal shavings.

The new snow thrower is, like my old one was, a Consumer Reports Best Buy, the Troy-Bilt 2410. It’s currently on sale for $629, which isn’t the lowest price it’s ever been, but I can’t risk waiting for a better deal. You can pretend the two snow blowers are cats or dogs looking up at the camera, like the countless pet pictures everywhere online.

The tires are smaller and closer together than on the old beast, which is good for moving around in the garage. The engine is equivalent to 6.5 HP, compared to the 8 HP Tecumseh on the old one, which still starts and runs great, but a 24-inch model with a more powerful engine costs $900. I’m not praying for snow, but I’m looking forward to giving the Troy-Bilt its first run.