Hal Blog

I don’t know whether I was just stepping out or stepping up. I participated in my first dance competition a day or so ago. I went down to Raleigh for a small comp to do seven dances. Apparently that’s a bit unusual — doing that many dances in one’s first comp. At least that’s what some people have told me since then. I guess maybe if someone had told me that earlier, I might stuck with only two or three dances, but we had been practicing eight in comp class and if I had not gone senile with one issue with the basic steps in East Coast swing, I probably would have entered in that as well.

I still don’t know if doing seven dances for your first comp is hard or not. All I know is I did it. I figured I knew the dances so I might as well do them. It wasn’t costing me anything to try them.

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I haven’t been writing much in my blog for several reasons. First is that I’m still adapting to how everything has changed since my Father died and this blog is not a personal diary. It’s not here so I can show the world my most private thoughts.

However, I’ve realized there is something that’s become a passion of mine in the past year that I have yet to write about here and it’s something I do love doing and talking about. Anyone that knows me knows I love cycling and enjoy walking and lifting weights, but that’s about the limit of any training I’ve had in movement.

And yet in August I’ll be competing in tango and a number of other ballroom dances. How did that happen?

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What do you mean when you say the word, “Free?” In software, we have two meanings, one is expressed as “free as in beer” and the other is “free as in speech.” This applies to music as well. There is music you can download for free, there’s also music you have to pay to download. Often you can pay for music and get far less than you expect, even if the song is exactly what you want.

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I make my living from the results of software I’ve written. I have two LCD monitors in front of me and, when I’m working, am often logged into 3-4 computers that could be in different locations in the city or state. When I lose my Internet connection, often I have to stop working. Even if I’m on only my workstation computer, I still need the Internet for reference and other uses. Make no mistake about it: I am a true computer and network geek. On the other hand, I held out for years, avoiding Amazon and eBay. Why? I’d rather support the merchants locally. At one point I had a part time job I loved in a small retail store. I didn’t need the money, but I liked the book store, liked their attitude, and liked helping both the store and the customers. They opened a new branch store in a mall not far from me. Once I was helping two women with a lot of questions and recommending the appropriate books for each question they had. Then I said something about one being discounted. One woman said, “Oh, we wouldn’t get it here. We’d get it on Amazon.” To this day I regret that I didn’t say, “Then see if Amazon is here to help you and patiently answer all your questions in six months. If we’re gone then and you have questions, you’ll know it’s because people bought from them and not us.” I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to prejudice their view of a store I believed in and I didn’t want to hurt the reputation of the owners. Interestingly enough, within six months, that branch store was closed due to lack of sales.

So why would I, a strong supporter of local stores, come within an inch of saying to someone in a store, “That’s okay. I’ll get it on Amazon?”

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I’ve been dealing with email before most people ever heard of email, computer networks, or even the Internet. I remember getting emails about the government considering modem taxes before most people knew what a modem was and while some tech people were still making fun of me for using a modem and connecting to networks. Many of the people I know through the Internet are techies. They tend to respond to emails the way I do, with interspersed comments, no HTML formatting or anything else at all fancy. I also have friends I’ve met through the Internet that barely know more than to log on to their computer don’t understand where their computer ends and the Internet starts.
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One thing I like about Richmond is that it’s on the James River and does, sometimes, get called “River City.” Of course, River City is much more famous when applied as a name to a small town in Iowa where Professor Harold Hill ran his last scam as he tried to tell them that “that game with the fifteen numbered balls is the devil’s tool” and that they needed a boys band because “you gotta find a way to keep the young ones moral after school.” Of course I’m talking about one my favorite musicals, “The Music Man.” I love the movie with Robert Preston and Cary Grant and every time anyone does it as a play in the area, I make sure I go see it. I was recently emailing back and forth with a friend about the movie and how it looks like just a “fluff” piece, a musical that’s fun but has no depth, but I think there is much more to it than that.

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I wanted a 380SL for several reasons. The biggest is that I’ve always wanted a convertible so I can enjoy driving around in the summer with the top down and feel the wind and sun. Of course, though, if you’re going to have a convertible like that, two things that really help make it more fun to drive around with the top down are a fun, pretty, intelligent woman in the passenger seat and a radio for good music. I can’t really give anyone advice on how to find the former, since that’s an individual’s choice, but I can add a little about what I had to do with the latter and how I got a radio/CD player working.

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I haven’t had time to post much lately and I still have a fair amount to catch up with regarding car restoration and repair work. There were several details to take care of that are simple enough to not rate a post on their own. This includes fixing the antenna, dealing with new keys, taking care of the air conditioning,  putting in a couple trans mount bolts, and fixing the interior lights. While these are simple, again, I’m blogging all that I do to this car for a couple reasons. One is selfish, so I have a record of everything I’ve done and I know if I’m the only one that reads it, I won’t have motivation to write it. The second is because the Internet community, as a whole, as been a huge help to me. I don’t think I could have started my business and gotten it running if it were not for the help I’ve gotten from people, literally, all over the world who gave me advice in email, on IRC, or through instant messages, about programming or dealing with technical software. While the people working on classic cars are not always going to be those who help people like me with software advice, the people I’ve dealt with on the web have been very helpful when I’ve asked questions about fixing or restoring cars. I’ve already been told, several times, that my posts on the fuel line and the low cost hoist I made for my roof have helped people. With that in mind, let’s look at these small details I’ve had to fix.

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I think one of the scariest repairs I’ve ever done on a car was the first time I ever worked on the fuel line. I know just having gas on the ground or open does not mean there’s going to be an explosion, but for someone without much experience in auto repairs, the first time you work on a fuel line, it keeps running through your head that there might be something you didn’t tighten properly or there might be a leak and at the next stoplight, you’ll be sitting there and a puddle of gas will be forming under your car, just waiting for when you rev your engine and — BOOM!

At least that’s the feeling I hand until I had worked on a fuel line a few times and got used to it. With my new car (often called Mrs. Peel because she’s such a classic beauty and can kick some serious tail, if you haven’t been following along), one of the two mechanical repairs I needed to attend to quickly, that could actually effect the functioning of the vehicle, was a leaking fuel line at the rear, near the fuel pump and fuel filter.

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To me, the biggest joy to owning a Mercedes 380SL (or a 450SL or a 560SL) is being able to drive around with the top down. I love the feeling of the sun on me and the wind in my hair. Yes, it’s a cliche, but it would not have been written about by millions of people if it wasn’t a good feeling. In Richmond it goes up to 102 in the summer on many days, with a heat index of 110 or more. Even on days like that, I can be seen driving around with my top down. Although it’s on days like that you’ll be more likely to find me feeling like I need to blow off steam and driving on the back roads leading away from the city and into the cooler areas in the wooded regions outside of Richmond.

There’s just one catch: If you’ve got the hard top on a Mercedes R107 body (which means the 280SL, 380SL, 350SL, 450SL, or 560SL), it takes at least two people to lift it off. I didn’t have anyone who could help me when it came time to finally lift the hard top off my first car of this type. I didn’t know if a hoist would damage it, so I searched the web. There was a company selling a motorized hoist for something like $850 that would lift the top up with the press of a button. There’s just one problem with that: I’m a cheapskate. I take great pride in my DIY (do-it-yourself, if you didn’t know) skills and was quite proud of myself when I found a way to easily make a working hoist for under $25.

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