packnrat

sorry about no reply fast, i do not get on here every day.

but as to your fancy "calling" plan, is it Free? or do you pay a fee to get it? directly or indirectly?

only 650 homes for the mini nukes, can you say the ultra rich/connected will have there own. were i work they would need at least three just to keep the freezers working.  i live in a small town, and it has many more than that living here. so would need a number of the mini nukes. and yes i do believe in nuke energy production, in the long run it does produce the least amount of waste product for what is gotten out of it.

no energy production is "free" everything has a bad by product.

as to many "toys" just look at how the faa has destroyed a hobby for the money.  in the name of amazon.

yes i am a truck driver have been for 40 years, lots have changed,  most not for the better.

i own a 2004 yam FZ-1, with carbs, and it gets better millage than the second gen of the same bike, that is a good 60+ pounds lighter and has FI.

i was born a grumpy old man...

now i are one.

i am being dragged by the heels into this world that must be on-line 24-7-365.  i used to enjoy being out in the woods far from everything. now i can not even enjoy that due to unending ringing in my ears.

sad my life now requires a cell phone, (family/work) when i retire.. if i ever can, i will not have a cell phone. or if i do it will spend most of its time with no battery in it.

5 hours ago, RV_ said:

In the early 70s there was no public Internet, personal computers, Cell phones, flat screen TVs, rockets that landed on their tails, no International space stations no interstate capable Electric cars, no Bluetooth speakers or otherwise, no WiFi, No CDs, no SSDs, flash thumb drives, no digital cameras, no led bulbs, no tiny speakers that sound like big speakers like the Bose mini soundlinks, no streaming entertainment, no built in navigation in cars, no Garmin, no accurate public GPS system, no free telephone calling anywhere. No video calling, no digital satellite TV, no wireless home security cams, first MRI body scan was 1977, no usable battery tools, no tablets like Star Trek, no Keuirigs, no consumer laser devices, no free long distance calls, and that's just off the top of my head. Lots more.

what does all that have to do with having a nuke plant at home? sure everything uses electricy, but we need to get off this bad habit.

bty who gets "FREE" phone calling? and some of the toys you listed are of no use to most even here in the USA.

yea...sure..... back in the early 1970's they said. by 2020 we were to have many city's on the moon and mars.

flying cars and usable jet packs.

king pin lock just get about 5 inches of pipe drill a couple "slotted" hols and use a better pad lock with at least a 3/4 inch shank.

heavy chain through the rims again a pad lock with a 3/4 inch shank.

couple ground anchors. (see chain/lock info above).

alarm.

how to improve all locks on the outside of the rig?

armed guard"s".

no real way to stop theft. but think onion, as in layers of things to just make the grab crook go elsewhere.

a pro will get your rig.

what is legal, and really possible are two completely different numbers, sure you can safely tow well over the gcwr of any truck.

but... get stopped by that cop and your month is shot. or have a accident ( not even your fault) and your insurance co can say sorry your account is void.

every truck out there is made stronger than the rating says, it's a liability thing to protect the manf. only. (most all 3/4 ton frames are the same as the 1 ton frames, only the springs and sticker are not, some 1 tons do get better brakes).

but if you are going to tow on the heavy side. even under your gcwr then UP - grade the bakes.

i can not say for texas or any other state but here in ca you can do the paper work and pay the FEES, and TAX in any dmv office. but your home (or mailing) address will be on the title and reg papers.

here the dmv is a state thing, not a county by county deal. pending where the dmv office is located one can be in a line ALL day, or just almost walk up to a window on entering the place. (this communist chinese made flu has everything messed up, far worse than "normal").

or even do it online. from any computer even if you are not in the state. just as long as ca gets its bite of your money all is good.

most times bears have no interest in humans, we just stink to them.

but bears can be any and everywhere.

some years back on I5 just on the north side of the city of woodland in the central valley of ca. a man call 911 about a very large dog being hit by a truck. it ended up being a brown bear. it was believed it was being drawn in out of the creek bed from the smells coming from a local dennys restaurant (only thing in that area). a good 1/2 to a mile away.

13 hours ago, Kirk W said:

An online model RR show

sounds more like a collection of web pages and blogs.

i would know nothing south of bakersfield. the club i would contact is the walnut creek model rail road society in walnut creek ca, (sf east bay). i was a member there decades back.

and only one "train show" still know to me around here any longer, but this flu has everything shut down.

i need to get my ebay account un-hacked first.

my train stuff is from a collection of over 40 years. some junk, some top dollar, heck i have even rebuilt low grade cars with add-ons worth far more than the car would sell today at retail. gone are the days of $2,usd rolling stock.

almost no train shows in ca. just not a hobby here any longer. including pre flu days. out of what well over 40 stores  (sacramento - sf bay area, fresno aka: northern ca ) now i only know of three. might still be a couple "specialty places"

i have been trying to "list" my rolling stock and motive power, but what a task, and i am slow on the computer. must have over 400 cars listed so far and only put a dent in the total. listing includes the simple looks, road name/number, and my id number (applied to the bottom of the car). not figured how to include photo. some are worth it.

---LACKAWAXEN STOURBRIDGE RAILROAD. sesquicentennial in blue with the rr guy and wording "we were there" 50 ft single door.

i have a number of such "special" very limited run cars.

i would need to find out if a club would allow me to show up at one of the club nights (are they even doing them any longer?) and see if i could sell there. big layout so can handle all of my larger locos. sad i do not own a big blow.

https://www.scaletrains.com/product/museum-quality-ho-scale-union-pacific-gtel-8500-horsepower-big-blow-turbine-18-r3/

my biggest problem, is i am a "collector" not a seller.

i can not count how much ho scale rolling stock i have, and then the locos (brass and plastic, diesel, steam). guess i get to pay a big fee to flea bay.

ca is locked down, so can not even take a day off work to drive 100 miles (one way) to a train club to try and sell off some items. (they do weekends--i work then).

sure i can try to sell off my gardening tools on craig's list. maybe get penny's on the dollar for my motorcycles. (three of them).

sad part is not many out there have any moneys to buy things "used". people are racking up a big credit debt.  i work weekends so a yard sale is a no-go.

i guess i could just give away all my books to the county. as many out there do not understand the power of a Printed book.

and who still likes videos on a cd?

but yes i do need to knuckle under and put up a better front to selling off my lifes collection of "junk".

living on only $2K a month. i am still working, paying for a s&b mortgage. and debt. and right now i can not pull it together at $5-6K a month.

but i must get it right in five years and eleven months.... sooner?

 need to sell off everything, but just found out my mortgage company was allowing "other" company's into my personal info, and now that access point as been hacked with all my info taken. and so far ebay has been hacked and they refuse to help clear it it up. need to find a quick way to sell stuff.

On 3/19/2021 at 5:17 PM, Bloodhound01 said:

That’s going to be a lot of loss at 10,000 feet up in Leadville, CO.  At that stage I’ll probably be thinking about picking up a companion generator. Thankfully our Wyoming and walsenburg properties are between 4-6 thousand feet. 

i think i will run-out of breathable air before a honda 3000 will at 10 K feet.

maybe even just a cheap air compressor to supply a bit more air pressure into the intake port at higher altitudes?

like how my c-pap gives me a pos pressure while i sleep?

but yes honda now sells the eu2200 as the honda eu 2000 is no more, but from the testing i have seen the honda eu2000 has the highest surge ability (real time usage that is) than any of the "other" brands.

sound does tend to be a couple db's lower on the hondas.

possible to have a number of batteries on board? i do not know your rv so i must ask.

as one can run a small ac unit off solar and batteries, just not for very long.

but yes to the honda eu 2000. it could start my 13 btu ac on a cold day, but never in the summer. (i do not understand the how, what, or why, ask a ac guy for this answer), so a eu2000 should be no problem for your needs, and might even look into one of the "easy start systems".

sure hondas co$t, but look at all the facts of all brands before having to buy twice. as not all "2000" watts are the same, this is the surge number but in reality the lesser units are much lower then the hondas, (up to 300 watts less surge. but still say 2000 watts surge) and how long can it last doing this? then total life of the units? fuel usage? portability? service? spare-parts? sound? etc.

i will always put my moneys on quality first. sure hurts, but only once.

i do not know of any link. just every college and other so called think tanks get moneys via our tax dollars. via grants, loans etc.

just look at even this new giveaway bill in congress right now. as listed in the news they say “other” projects. so there is trillions in pork each year from our fed tax moneys. and no accounting as to were  each dollar goes.

sad lots of things should still be sold in tin cans, as the items would stay fresher much longer than in plastic, and no worries about bad chems leaching into the food stuffs. but the suppliers do not want you to have much of a shelf life to anything. aka: no pantry items. must buy new all the time.

well my first attempt was all new stuff. and i keep everything in zip lock freezer bags.

not a problem right now, but spring time ants love to come inside. guess they are mad there tree fell over. i am not so much a spic n span type , but no food laying around. heck i even freeze my bread.

i for one am not parodied. i collect old, odd, unusual guns. then learn what was going on in that country. as in politics, economy, metal making. just life. etc. love history. and love to target shoot.

getting a little .17 caliber bullet to hit in the 1/2 black circle out at 100 yards is not easy. 

only one i know of. flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder. egg, milk. such a simple list how i am screwing it up. 

so what should i do? less flour? less corn meal?

i am not much of a cook, just trying to get away from some of the poisons the gov wants in our food chain. not a nut here, just trying.

if i could i would buy direct from a ranch to get away from the garbage fed meat critters. ( cows, chickens, pork, etc). and yes they are fed garbage. i know as i have delivered some of it to the feed suppliers in years past.

help. i am having problems cooking up some cornbread.

it keeps coming out heavy and tough. one batch was just hard.

i am trying to cook from scratch.

the store mixes come out great.

what am i doing wrong?

sounds like best to avoid canada til they want our money again.

i have never been there, but on average how much $ does canada get from the citizens of the U,S,A each year?

heck even the government of the USA has admitted the testing numbers have fallen,(only so many people here, so numbers must fall).

sure the numbers of the population are only about 1% have gotten the "new drug". most that have gotten it are upper government, rich persons and first responders. us reg folk can not even get in line yet. (at least here in ca).

maybe one day i can go see canada.

2 hours ago, RV_ said:

I would love to see Fusion become a reality. From The Motley Fool, October 2020

Excerpt:

"In 2014, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) shocked the world with the announcement that it was building a nuclear fusion reactor and planned to have it online "in as little as ten years." Five years later, Lockheed confirmed that it is still working on the project -- but had made very little progress in nuclear fusion energy.

Now it sounds like MIT may beat them to it.

On the opposite side of the country from the fabled Skunk Works, which is working on LockMart's version of the reactor, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Plasma Science and Fusion Center are working on a compact fusion reactor of their own, reports The New York Times. Within the next three to four years, working in cooperation with a company spun off from MIT in 2017 to commercialize the idea, "Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC," MIT hopes to have a "SPARC" test reactor built to prove their concept. 

MIT and CFS intend to use "yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) high-temperature superconducting magnet technology" to form a magnetic field to contain a reaction in which deuterium and tritium (both isotopes of hydrogen) will be forced to fuse together under high pressure and temperatures of "tens of millions of degrees." The entire donut-shaped reactor should be "about the size of a tennis court," says CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard. But if it works as promised, the reactor should produce about 10x more energy than is required to ignite and maintain the fusion reaction within it, paving the way, says CFS, for "carbon-free, safe, limitless, fusion power." 

At that point, MIT and CFS will begin constructing a full-scale "ARC" -- which stands for "affordable, robust, compact" -- power plant, possibly as early as 2025. 

A better nuclear future?

MIT and CFS are planning for their prototype ARC reactor to put out about 270 megawatts -- about one-quarter the output of a standard fission reaction nuclear power plant, and enough to power 100,000 homes."

Much more here from Motley Fool:

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/10/11/americas-first-nuclear-fusion-reactor-online-2025/

stop giving them unlimited tax moneys, and maybe they could build something, but keep supplying unlimited cash and there is NO reason to ever make it work. jobs for life with a great pay and bennys, and never having to show anything thing for it.

pie charts are funny.

the best way to make electricy these day is by building nuke plants. in the end they produce the least amount of toxins for the environment to handle. and produce the greatest amount of electric power.

right now just northern ca alone needs to build four (4) nuke reactor units. two south west of fresno, two at the old rancho seco location. these two locations are due to bad soil and existing infrastructure. future north of yuba city... but that is  generation away.

as to southern ca.. they are on there own to build a couple - six new nuke plants.

NO amount of the so called "green" generators will do any good. except to over fill the pockets of the filthy rich.

batteries, what a cock.they still need a power source to charge them up. and that power is needed for use right now.

i agree just stay out of bad weather. just my friend bought a new rv this year and he is using up the "free" camping included in the price of the rv. this trip is just east of placerville i believe.

and a storm is hitting us now so if he goes up this weekend he will be cold. ( i am not sure of the week he is going up).

but the next two or three weekends should be great weather. lots of snow skiers are calling in sick for the next week.

yes we live in ca. and both of us are commercial truck drivers, i have 40 years driving these rigs, my friend? not quite as much as I. i think i have a good 15-20 years on him, both age and driving time.

and i have enough seniority at this job so i have not had to drive in the snow for better than 5 years.

yes i understand state requirements. just i do not recall any talk about using them on a rv. and a thought i have not had. but then i do not do much snow camping anyhow.

but as i tell the nubees at work.

better to have them, and not need them.  then need them, and not have them.

but thats for a commercial rig.

and over all i have found snow gives good traction. and ice can kill you. as i have put on more than a couple thousand miles on snow/ice and not always using chains. ( ca, ore, was, nv, az, id, ut, new mex. only been east of these areas in better weather.