vicrider

Coming up on 80, been driving since I was 14, and now have a new fishing car and can't figure out how it works. I only drove our Outback a few times and always with wife in car doing things with it. Much of the time we had that car I was having various health problems and she did almost all the driving. The last vehicle I drove on a regular was my 2004 F-150. which I still have. She went to the big city and came home with a new Subaru Forester literally right off the showroom floor. Had it a week and I only rode in it to doc app't once. Well yesterday while she doing her aerobics I decided to go see how one of our local ponds was holding up in drought. It was way low but not dangerously low to lose fish yet.

Okay, my Ford had cruise control on the steering wheel. It had an AM/FM radio with knobs and scan button. Other than that it had a cup holder. I got in the Forester and used all the controls on the seat and mirrors and steering wheel to use Setting 2 for automatic adjustment when I get in. I had the FOB in my pocket which is some sort of key I guess. I pushed the Start/Button and nothing happened, I had to put foot on brake to get it to start. Being in Park wasn't good enough for it. I tried to move and there's some electronic parking brake I had to release. I got going watching my rear view camera thinking that will be nice when I get a hitch on it. Well I pulled out and found that all the fancy stuff shuts off when car does. I got going down highway to Dead Indian Lake about 15 miles down highway. It's quiet, firm, and that little 4 cylinder boxer had me at 85 while trying to figure out some of the controls. On one side of the steering wheel is a lever with two buttons on top of it and two below it. There's symbols on them that might as well be hieroglyphics to me. Got to the lake, saw the island was now a peninsula with some guys fishing off it.

Going back I did figure out the radio to find Syrius and put 70s tunes on. Pushing the buttons and throwing the lever on right of wheel I got it into cruise control at 65mph. I guess I hit some other stuff that works with cruise control because the thing was now driving itself. The road back to Cheyenne is good highway with several easy curves and a couple marked 55mph. One of the buttons I hit was Land Centering and it would read  stripes and adjust the car with no input from me. I held the wheel very lightly to see and sure enough it took every curve on the way back and there's several including the ones at 55 it drove through at 65. If you did take your hands off wheel completely a beep would go off and a big warning light "KEEP ALERT" would flash on dash. 

The one thing I did not like was the lane centering favored the center stripe. It was like it was a foot from center stripe and 3 feet from right edge. My wife is actually scheduled for a class to discuss all the things available behind all the icons on two different screens and one of the things I want to know is if the centering can be adjusted to favor right edge instead of center stripe. I'm sure I will like this car when I get a feel for it but his old guy is in a whole new world of tech just driving a car.

Okay, now that site is back up and I could doublecheck you were the SM in this I'll get them in mail tomorrow. With site down I thought it was your swap but have sent to wrong person before and wanted to make sure.

Looking great. Bringing some class to the show.

Considering a stop at 7 I'll do another set of different style and make the return postage more bearable.

I finally got mine out today Woodenleg. For such an amateur looking tie it was more work than most and I've had a hard time getting into anything lately. Got 'em out to beat deadline I hope anyway.

Since I posted this just the other day I can add - Defenders of Wildlife - American Mint (actually sales) - Christian Voters Organization - and another Boys Town.

One thing I didn't mention was the aggravation of their "Free Windbreaker or Blanket or Duffel Bag, etc. and to them FREE means SEND MONEY. If you need to meet the minimum donation they mark on the return pad then it AIN'T FREE. That particular con game aggravates the hell out of me and should really be illegal as false advertisement. I feel a little better now knowing I'm not the only one who has grown calloused toward all the charitable organizations. In the same vein of high salaries for top brass is the game of getting some outfit like a fire dep't or police officers union to sell the right to a third party to sell tickets to concerts and other events in their name. Third party makes a killing and the outfit giving their name to be used gets pennies on the dollar of the actual funds generated.

I have in the past donated to a few of funds that I felt were good funding programs for good purposes. I found out that this puts you on a list that is then used to raise more funds by selling your name and address to other groups seeking funding. In the last week or so I have gotten these solicitations from groups asking for funds. It is out of hand and I wash my hands of giving to any of them anymore. I cannot help them all and have a couple I still send to but know they sell my name to others. Here is groups after my funds...

Humane Society -- Feed the Hungry -- Ukraine Refugees -- Wounded Warriors -- Deputy Sheriffs -- AARP Foundation -- Jewish Widows in Israel -- Disabled Vets -- Trout Unlimited -- United Service Organization -- Mutual of Omaha Ins. -- Triple A Auto Ins. -- Bassmaster -- Boys Town -- Easter Seals -- OK Public TV -- Appalachian Children -- Jackets for kids -- Cheyenne Area Police -- 

Now I'm sure all of these put our help to good use but I'm slowing becoming one of those needing help if inflation continues to eat away at our S.S. checks, our only source of income is the monthly checks which definitely don't keep up with inflation.

Bimini15's dog is 6 years old by now. Wonder how his search turned out?

This is another kind of off the wall post but I have been hooked on watching a lot of the log sawing on You Tube channel. They are so primitive and do so much insane work in running their sawmills it is unbelievable that some of the guys there are fairly old. This is Indonesia and they use a rolling table for their logs and hand push them through what amounts to a huge band saw. They somehow muscle logs up to 5' diameter or so onto their tables and push them through to other guys on the other side of the saw catching and handling the sawn slabs. The thing is they work with no OSHA rules in sight. Shorts, t-shirts, sandals or bare feet, no safety glasses or gloves, not a hard hat in site. I don't how I got hooked on this but to me it's kind of like being mesmerized by a firepit burning. 

Okay, how does relate to this thread? These guys smoke like you cannot believe. There are times 5 or 6 are straining to roll a huge log onto the rolling bed and everyone has a smoke hanging from their mouth. Their is one old guy at one site who may have the world record for smokes consumed. Then again, he may not be old but has a perpetual squint from a dangling cigarette. I got to wondering about these guys and did a Google and darned if Indonesian men don't smoke the most per capita in the world and watching these guys at their ancient sawmills make that easy to believe.

Nick

You misunderstood. I gave the song but I also said works for me. I'm in.

For those of you still lighting them up, go ahead, it's legal and your right to smoke in many places. Since it has been years since I gave them up and wife quit several years ago and I know I've read of many on the board getting away from them I have not had a reason to check their prices. We had a bunch of company over the other day and like usual several were running their phones instead of joining in the conversation. Someone called out that in some state I can't remember the cigarette machines were at $12 a pack. I just checked and the average price per pack in US is $8 per pack. I always thought smokes ran around the same price as a gallon of gas and back when I smoked they were very close to pricing together. If they are trying to limit smoking by pricing them out of reach they're doing a good job but like so many things these prices tend to hurt the lower income folks more than anyone else.

When I quit it was for health reasons and looking at today's prices I think of how much more money I've had for rods and reels and flies because of it. So what does this have to do with fishing? Nothing, just random observation and if it prompts someone to quit the better for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXjj4K09V8I

Works for me.

Another icon of the sport has moved on. She made her mark on the fly tying and design scene.

Still waiting anxiously. Hope I didn't screw up the Pirate Ship label. I have done that before.

Damn, my tracking # says delivered several days ago. Have to check with PO and see if they stuck on a shelf or something.

I'm not doing much now. Got a bunch of out of state folks in town for awhile and have to put up a few of them but will keep my bench open as necessary. Do a flash back scud of some kind.

40 years ago darn right. That was back in "Hold my beer and watch this" days.

One of the problems with too long a due date on a swap is things keep getting put off and next thing you know you're late again. 3 weeks or two months me or someone will forget and be late. I'm with flytire in shorter time frames work out better.

On 1/7/2024 at 4:10 PM, RickZieger said:

Ona soap box a little, but am some what disappointed that many folks have not posted who they got flies from. Will hide in  my hole now.

Rick

With the time I put in in between doctor app'ts., stents in my kidneys, lazer treatment of huge stones, and all the other things I went through getting the packages sorted and wrapped you're not the only one. With this being the least follow-up in years I've done it it will probably also be the last. I have a lot of flies sent as extras and will be making packages for various fly fishing groups and time for me to start a lot of cleaning out of things I'll never get to use anyway.

My aggravation is with the damn CA on a brush. The worst is Gorillas Glue but have had the same problem with Krazy Glue. Before I get to the end of Krazy Glue or even half way through the Gorilla Glue it comes out hanging in a blob from the brush. End up throwing it out before I've used half the Gorilla or most of the Krazy. I know the cost is not as expensive as the UV stuff but still very irritating.

Our Polar Vortex cold is supposed to move in starting today and tonight and it's a good thing it held off for a day. Last night we got a hell of a rain gusher and if it had been snow we'd have looked a lot like you guys living north of the Mason Dixon Line.

Whoops. Answer was to DFoster and flytire snuck in there. We had a couple of single wides just blocked off ground at first but doublewide on slab was a much nicer setup and doors and pantries didn't shift around all the place between winter and summer like blocks on the ground did. Our house here on a perimeter foundation shifts around between winter and summer even though we never really get frost to speak of in the ground. 

That's great if you're talking a house with basement and able to do that. We had first a single wide we bought with property, then moved that and put in a slab with a doublewide.  Our water came from a sunken pump down a culvert and then drilled to about 60'. The top 15' or so was a big culvert to go down in and work on lines or pipes and we left a heat lamp on down there all winter. We covered the top of the culvert with wood and carpet and it stayed all except one winter when I plowed the snow too close to the pipe. We had a wishing well over the top and when people asked about our water out there in the sticks I just said we scoop our water from the well and dump it in a cistern under the house.

26 minutes ago, RickZieger said:

WE are supposed to get 6" Monday into Tuesday. That will be some insulation keep pipes from freezing.

There are still cracks in the ground from the drought.

Rick

Yep. Up north I looked forward to the first good snow and hope it came before the sub zero temps we had. I would go around the house and build up as much insulation of snow I could and then every snow after that I'd fill in behind the pile as it melted away from the house. Kept the pipes from freezing and limited time we had to run the heat tapes. I kept a path around house for snowblower to pile the snow up but much of the early years I did a lot of shoveling.

If he goes out on charter boats one of the things I used on my boat a lot was "flashers" with a fly trailing behind. At that time I bought mine but if you go online and look for salmon flies to troll behind flashers and dodgers and "cowbells" you may find something to tie up the charter captain can run behind one of his rigs. I know with this story I'd definitely have given favored  position to a rig with the fly you tie for him.

"the milk and bread isle at the supermarket"  We really never had that up north but down here in OK that's a real thing. We keep a loaf in freezer just in case but we just predicted with 3-4 days of pipe freezing below freezing weather and this will clean the bread shelves off and greatly deplete other things in the small Super in our town. We'll do an order for Walmart pickup tomorrow and get ready for this but leaving cabinet doors open and pipes dripping may but in store for us for a few days. The only pipes we've had freeze are those leading to kitchen faucet and this year we had kid go under house and put insulation on the all. Up north we had to live with heat tape on everything and it was fine as long as we had power.                               

Back in the day the big thing was raised rear end and dropped front. One of my friends got the idea he could drop the front end easily by just heating the the coil springs on his '57 Ford. I stood on the outside with a scale on the front bumper while he reached underneath with a torch and heated the springs. When I had him scaled at about 3" even on both sides we quit and he was happy...UNTIL HE DROVE IT. If you've ever seen a car with shocks shot in front and front end bouncing every bump this was 10 times worse. After a couple of rides with him I swore I'd never get in that car again. Sure enough a few weeks later he hit a big pothole and totally lost control and wrecked an otherwise gorgeous Ford 2 door hardtop if I remember right.