Yet another ‘late blog’ mea culpa….sorry….
Been busy, ya know. A man’s work is never done (usually because he refuses to get started on it). But I had no choice last week. Had to haul butts and tools down to offspring’s house and pry some parts of his house loose, set them free, released them into the renta-a-bin appropriately named, ‘Bin there, dump that!’ That was good. Got to see my grandson. Waddacutie!!!
Couple extra days with Sal’s parents collectively 184 and still going full tilt. ‘Dad’ took early retirement at age 60 and has been collecting his pension for 34 years! “I just passed the time collecting my pension compared to earning it!”
THAT Has to be some kind of sweet revenge!
And then we charge back home from a HUGE Costco-shop laden to the brim only to find the fabulous funicular acting up. Well, NOT acting UP, actually. It would go down but it would NOT go up. So, we schlepped. And schlepped. And made calls to techie friends to help ferret out the gremlins in the magic motor controller box. Got instructions. Did stuff. Multi-metered some other stuff. Wiggled wires, that kind a thing.
Then went back to schlepping.
I find the motor controller and logic box unit a bit confusing. See picture. Sal, the resident electrician, is totally confounded as well. This is a learning gap larger than the age gap between grandson and great grandparents. But, we’ll figure it out. It is just a matter of time. Sal has the longevity genes…….and may need ’em.
Another reminder of Alzheimer creep (not to be confused with the old guy down the hall) is made omni-obvious by silly-me volunteering for a health care clinic initiative on the neighbouring island. I have driven more miles in the last two months than the previous year!! We all seem to meet a lot. And email a lot as well. It all seems like a helluva lot of talking to me. So, someone suggested Skyping.
Sounds good. But I do not know how to Skype and neither do all the other committee members (except the one who suggested it). They are as afflicted with AC as I am. We are a committee of Luddites. Average age..? 65? We can email. We can phone. We can drive. But Skyping? Seems a bit much, ya know?
And the ‘being hip’ gap is widening. I can ‘touch’ my credit card to the machine in some places. But not in others so that creates the embarrassing spectacle of me waving my credit card around in the air with a look of expectancy on my face only to be looked at pathetically by the pimply faced youth who says, “Like, no swiping here, man! Gotta, like, insert it, ya know?”
“Sorry. Can’t tell. Not by looking, anyway.”
Kid slowly points to a huge sign saying, “THIS TERMINAL DOES NOT ACCEPT SWIPE!”
Oh well……
Our Off the Grid Home 
Brain gym is my constant companion. Plus looking for authors writing opinions with which I agree. My latest read is “The Death of Homo Economicus” by Peter Fleming. Fleming writes about “…a fear of knowledge, facts that might disconfirm the rhetoric and surface the dirty reality of life under free markets. But it is the hatred of democratic dialogue and exchange that stands out, debate about the figures and open policy discussion.” ‘’Since facts no longer matter and official liars aren’t held accountable in any meaningful manner…the democratic process becomes worse than a spectacle where leaders pretend to tell the truth.”
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I confess I am looking for someone to blame for it all and, of course, eventually focus on the media. The Fake News media. We, the gullible public, DO place a lot of trust in them. And that trust is constantly violated. Even in the age of Trump. I still hate Trump. He’s a liar and a crook but, when I look at my news feed, selected for serious topics, the top story is about Thai kids rescued from a cave and Drake getting more awards than the Beatles or something! Then some hockey player gets traded to the Leafs and LeBron goes to the Lakers and the whole ‘feed’ seems filled with pablum, fluff, crap and celebrity. Buried deep in there was a small note that half of all corals are dead and the rest are endangered. Oh yeah….and China is still pouring OZONE destruction by the mega tons reversing the progress made over the past decades in protecting the Ozone layer. Two catastrophic events flanked by Kardashian news, basketball players and car crashes. I have NOT selected sports, celebrities, fashion, entertainment of dog-bites for my feed but 75% is full of that anyway. Drives me insane.
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The Roman poet, Juvenal, 100 A.D. coined the expression ‘bread and circuses’ to characterize the use of diversion to distract the populous from the machinations of the state and its intrigues. I agree with your comments.
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I was driving around the Lower Mainland today ( deliveries, pick ups, etc) and drove past a building with about 30 people (Age? mid twenties to mid thirties) all standing around smoking….NONE of them were talking to each other, looking at each other, OR looking at their surroundings.
Every last one of them were buried in their cell phones as they bogged away on smokes……..
The last vestiges of civility are doomed.
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So you have power to the funicular.
The motor will drive it down but not up……
Does the motor reverse polarity to drive the platform back up the hill?
Or do the controls switch a reverse gear and the motor continues running in the same direction?
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God I love it when you talk like that! Reverses the polarity. Waddya thinkin’?
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Well the motor sounds ok.
The selector switch to reverse polarity might be hooped.
Is that part of the control box software? Or is it an actual switch( forward / reverse/stop)?
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Well, there’s a motor controller and a logic box. The logic box acts like signal caller. It’s name is Logo. It has inputs and outputs and all of the inputs are connected to switches. The outputs go to the mc. So, the testing began and the inputs registered ok when tested but two outputs did not. Conclusion: Logo is down. Need a new logo. Problem: my logo has an addition. It is a 230r with extra inputs and outputs. I think I gotta get a logo plus.
I have the word out now for a new logo plus. Price is a smidge daunting but no up on the funicular overwhelmed the daunting. Gotta get me one.
A techie friend reading up on it said he thinks the damn thing needs constant power to retain its program but I have left the power off for months so I don’t think that’s it.
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Hmmm.
I loathe the solid state controllers.
They are the most finicky and the hardest to troubleshoot/repair. If at all. Usually they die and need complete replacement.
Pain in the ass.
I looked after several buildings in dwntwn Van and every time we had a power spike from BC Hydro ( a weekly occurrance) the old manual controllers wouldnt miss a beat. The new solid state controllers would lose their program, fry or die.
Throw away garbage.
I wonder if you can source out a manual controller to switch the motor from forward and reverse without all the gobbledy gook? Like they used 30 years ago..
I’ll talk to an electrician friend…….and see what he suggests..
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Brilliant suggestion! Love it. Something bronze from the Dickens era ideally. Levers. Gears. Cogs. Lube caps.
But know this: it all starts with 12v (really 17-19) DC solar power married up to make 48-54v DC. That gets inverted to 120v AC. I then transform that to 240v single phase and send it all to the magic Siemens boxes which controls the 3hp three phase Baldor motor driving a huge which. So it’s a smidge complicated……especially for me. And sadly, Sal seems to be dropping the ball on this, too. .
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Sorry I was not around to wave my hands over it again 😊
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