Final presentation largely complete, reflection paper done, I now step boldly towards what may be my last blog post ever. Hows that for dramatic? It is also, possibly, very inaccurate.
Since I was half the country away last week and missed Erik's talk, I am going to go on the alternate blog topic this week - something from the class that surprised me. The biggest surprise that I got this semester was that I don't hate blogging.
Oh, I did at first. Oh yes I did. I never liked reading blogs - and still largely don't - so I could not see the point of writing them. But tonight, as I listen to a huge possum eat out of the cat dish we leave outside - it really is big I should go take a picture - I am thinking that once I am done with this chapter in my academic life in August, I might pick up blogging again.
There are some bits that I will have to work out through, before I do. The first is a topic. Lets face it, the more interesting posts that I have put up have not been on emerging technology. While I have plenty of opinions, I don't have enough stored up crazy to enter the political arena. I have doubts that anyone would be interested to know about what stocks I am trading or why and given the low volume that I play with, I could hardly be called an expert in the field - and I'd rather write about something that I know about rather then making it up along the way. Which leaves old cars and family. I could write about either, and be content with my content.
The next is my audience. For this class, we had a built in audience, and that was kinda nice. I always knew that at least Amy was reading what I wrote, and maybe some of the other folks too. But if I start up my blog anew, I will not have the built in audience, and if no one is reading how long will I stay motivated to write it? If I am writing about friends and family, I am pretty sure I would have a few readers curious enough about what we are up to to read. If I write about the restoration business, I have the possibility of a rather large readership - but would have to accept that most of the readers would be argumentative jerks. Also, being that my focus for old vehicles is pretty myopic, I might not be able to compete with the folks who are blogging on the larger readership boards. Would knowing that I might be helpful to the next guy that wants to resto-mod an old army truck or unloved Porsche or Corvair, without reinventing the wheel, be enough to keep me going? I don't know.
And, I won't find out until September at the earliest. Summer class schedules are tight. I won't have any delusions about starting any new blogs until after graduation.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Life on a swing
A few weeks ago, I went online and bought my son a swing set. My wife and I had done a lot of research, and we decided that we did not want to get the uber expensive wooden sets that are all the rage these days, but rather the metal kind that was more similar to what we had growing up, and would hopefully save our son some splinters.
So, after lots of looking around, we settled on a Flexible Flyer (yes, the sled people) swing set. American made, and only a few hundred dollars, as opposed to the $1000+ for the wood sets from the Home Despot. We waited, and the swing set was delivered while I was out in Missouri early last week.
This weekend, having gotten a good leg up on my homework, I decided that I wanted to bolt together a little love, and headed outside to construct the swings. Please keep in mind that I have a well stocked workshop and build cars for fun - I did not expect this to be a challenge.
My initial impression was a good one. The set was well packaged. The hardware was very well organized in blister molded packs. The instructions, though, were a bit dubious - as they were clearly just photo copies stapled together and not the booklet that I would expect.
As I began to assemble the swings, things started going wrong. The metal poles had the mounting holes punched instead of drilled. The "hanging chads" were all simply bent into the structure. Also, the holes were much larger then the supplied hardware. The bolts and keepers wallowed in the assigned mounting holes. One very important tool not listed in the "required tools" section of the instructions was a 6 foot step ladder. Many of the connections can only be made if the opposite side of the upright is properly supported, and the only way I could find to get that support is by resting it just so on the step of the ladder, so that I could get the mounting holes to align and bolted in.
The other little bit of joy this swing set brought us today was the concrete issue. All over the Flexible Flyer website they have notes saying things like " we do not provide anchors for our swings. We suggest mounting the legs of the swing in concrete to keep it from moving." However, when we opened the box, we found a set of anchors. Interesting. Reading the instruction booklet, we found this: "If you choose to place the swing set in concrete, make sure to set the anchors in the concrete and not the legs of the swing, as doing so will cause the chains to be too short." This led to a, shall we say, debate between my wife and I. She taking the side of the Website, and myself taking the side of the instruction booklet. This debate has not been able to be brought to a close, so we are going to have to call Flexible Flyer on Monday for a ruling.
So, the swing set sits in the back yard, half built and unanchored. No reason to install the slide and swings until we have the frame fully anchored.
There is simply no reason for this to have been so complicated. What should have been a fun exercise in backyard engineering has left both parents frustrated with each other and with our recent purchase. I am still of the opinion that the wood swings are not what I wanted, but I did expect a better built unit then what we received. More consistency between the website and the packaging of the swings would have averted an argument that I am sure is enacted just about every time these sets are put up. As it is, I am considering welding an extra foot of pipe to the bottom of each leg so that it can be concreted in w/o putting the swings on the ground.
So, after lots of looking around, we settled on a Flexible Flyer (yes, the sled people) swing set. American made, and only a few hundred dollars, as opposed to the $1000+ for the wood sets from the Home Despot. We waited, and the swing set was delivered while I was out in Missouri early last week.
This weekend, having gotten a good leg up on my homework, I decided that I wanted to bolt together a little love, and headed outside to construct the swings. Please keep in mind that I have a well stocked workshop and build cars for fun - I did not expect this to be a challenge.
My initial impression was a good one. The set was well packaged. The hardware was very well organized in blister molded packs. The instructions, though, were a bit dubious - as they were clearly just photo copies stapled together and not the booklet that I would expect.
As I began to assemble the swings, things started going wrong. The metal poles had the mounting holes punched instead of drilled. The "hanging chads" were all simply bent into the structure. Also, the holes were much larger then the supplied hardware. The bolts and keepers wallowed in the assigned mounting holes. One very important tool not listed in the "required tools" section of the instructions was a 6 foot step ladder. Many of the connections can only be made if the opposite side of the upright is properly supported, and the only way I could find to get that support is by resting it just so on the step of the ladder, so that I could get the mounting holes to align and bolted in.
The other little bit of joy this swing set brought us today was the concrete issue. All over the Flexible Flyer website they have notes saying things like " we do not provide anchors for our swings. We suggest mounting the legs of the swing in concrete to keep it from moving." However, when we opened the box, we found a set of anchors. Interesting. Reading the instruction booklet, we found this: "If you choose to place the swing set in concrete, make sure to set the anchors in the concrete and not the legs of the swing, as doing so will cause the chains to be too short." This led to a, shall we say, debate between my wife and I. She taking the side of the Website, and myself taking the side of the instruction booklet. This debate has not been able to be brought to a close, so we are going to have to call Flexible Flyer on Monday for a ruling.
So, the swing set sits in the back yard, half built and unanchored. No reason to install the slide and swings until we have the frame fully anchored.
There is simply no reason for this to have been so complicated. What should have been a fun exercise in backyard engineering has left both parents frustrated with each other and with our recent purchase. I am still of the opinion that the wood swings are not what I wanted, but I did expect a better built unit then what we received. More consistency between the website and the packaging of the swings would have averted an argument that I am sure is enacted just about every time these sets are put up. As it is, I am considering welding an extra foot of pipe to the bottom of each leg so that it can be concreted in w/o putting the swings on the ground.
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