I’m thinking of Jerry Pournelle a lot these days, and wishing for him a speedy and complete recovery from his recent “small” stroke. What I *want* is for Jerry to keep defying odds, and keep putting out first rate science fiction (selfish of me, I know), and for Jerry to keep enjoying life. Not much to ask, is it?
* * *
Just another busy weekend for me, though. Much of yesterday I was in the woodshop, and repeated that again today. Among other things, I dismantled an old humidifier that was wasting space. Most of it is now in the recycle bin, but I scavenged the fans, controller, wheels, and inlet grid.
Scavenged from a humidifier
I built a box yesterday, and finished it out today, cutting holes and mounting bits until the new shop air cleaner was up and operational.
New shop air cleaner
The prior “air cleaner” was a filter duct-taped to a box fan. The horizontal exhaust of that setup seemed to cause some extra dust issues, sometimes. And it was prone to falling over. This new one, bigger and sturdier, certainly isn’t going to fall over, and exhausts straight up, which should be good for keeping the air circulating in such a manner as to get more of the dust out of the air and onto the filter. AND the filter is easily removable, which is also a win.
I was also working on rebuilding some front legs for a Sauder shelving unit that was damaged by the water issues from last June. The feet had swollen badly, as MDF is prone to do when exposed to moisture. So I partially dismantled the unit, and removed the front legs (which are actually the full verticals from floor to top, making up part of the face frame). After making some measurements, I did a glue-up yesterday to get a couple of new legs of the right size. Today I cut them down to final dimensions, and used the router table to cut a slot in each to mate up with the shelf sides. I’ve got some sanding, staining, and sealing yet to do for those, so it’ll be another few nights before that project is finished. Then I can get back onto the remodeling of the basement: flooring, touch-up and paint on the walls, and reassemble Marcia’s sewing area.
* * *
The exercise continues to treat me well: In my ~20 minute warm-up routine, I’m up to 60 sit ups, 30 push ups, and a variety of stretches. Then, my current elliptical routine runs like this:
Goal: 134-142 steps per minute (excepting two minutes of cool-down at the end).
Goal: 6000 steps in under 45 minutes (below 44 when things are good).
Elliptical stages:
| Resistance | Slope | Duration | Elapsed |
| 2 | 10° | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 10° | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | 15° | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 15° | 2 | 8 |
| 6 | 15° | 2 | 10 |
| 5 | 20° | 3 | 13 |
| 6 | 20° | 3 | 16 |
| 7 | 20° | 3 | 19 |
| 6 | 20° | 3 | 22 |
| 5 | 20° | 3 | 25 |
| 5 | 25° | 3 | 28 |
| 6 | 25° | 3 | 31 |
| 7 | 25° | 3 | 34 |
| 6 | 25° | 3 | 37 |
| 5 | 25° | 3 | 40 |
| 4 | 20° | 3 | 43 |
| 3 | 15° | 3 | 46 |
| 2 | 10° | 2 | 48 |
Boom. Today: 6000 steps in 43:27, total of 6550 steps in 48 minutes. A good day! The elliptical says I burned 850 calories doing that. My UP24 monitor insists that I only eked out 810 calories for the same work. Moot point, though. Feels good.
* * *
DoD reported no new casualties in the last week.
