Category: Greg’s Stuff (Page 7 of 12)

A mere vulgar craftsman….

January 9, 2009 / Greg / 1 Comment

chinesepainting2a

I was listening to a podcast this morning out of Australia on ancient Chinese history, on my way to work in southern Ohio, on my Japanese MP3 player in my Swedish car. (kinda global, isn’t it…) The speaker was talking about acient Chinese landscape painters, and how they thought it below their dignity to be paid for their work. In fact, they thought it would make them mere vulgar craftsmen, something to be despised.

Also lately I’d been reading The History of the Ancient World, and the discussion of Ancient Greece, about 500 B.C. Chester Starr was relating the fact that none of the ancient Greeks would work for anybody. Even the lowest Greek on the totem pole scratching around on his plot of dirt was too proud to work for wages. His activity was aimed at getting together a couple of bucks so that he could buy some slaves to do all the work for him.

So what’s up with that?

Seems to me, if it wasn’t for all these vulgar craftsmen who did all the work, there wouldn’t be any classical civilization, and all these guys would have starved to death before they got anything accomplished.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I like being a craftsman. I fix machines that have come to grief is some way or other and make them right again. And I get a check every week for doing it. And once you start fixing one kind of machine, you never stop there. You start fixing everything, cars, computers, cell phones… whatever gets in your way that’s broken. It becomes a way of life. I can’t stand not knowing how something works, and that does become problematic in this day and age, as even the engineers that think this stuff up don’t understand it.

However, here’s to the Chinese guy, I hope some vulgar guy makes him some paint!

greg

Wheel locks

January 7, 2009 / Greg / 0 Comments

saabwheel2

With the advent of cool aluminum wheels, wheel locks have become more popular. These are strange looking little things with an odd looking head made of high strength steel that need a special tool that locks into it to remove the wheel.

locks

The neat thing is that while some of tools interchange, there are not many duplications. And it’s really hard to get the wheel off if you don’t have the tool. So in this respect they’re great. However if you loose the tool you’re in for it.

Tool manufacturers make all sort of devices to get them out if the tool is lost, but it’s a throw of the dice if your wheel doesn’t get ruined in the process. Some wheel designs really make it harder by putting the lug nuts down some deep hole.

Personally, I don’t want taking a wheel off to be any harder than it is. The tool is small and easily lost, or left behind in a garage that is servicing your car. The Chinese make wheels cheap now that will match yours, like here.

To lock them down or not to, that is the question…

greg

Ancient History… very confusing…

January 7, 2009 / Greg / 1 Comment

historyofancientworld

Been reading a good book lately, The History of the Ancient World by Chester G. Starr. I’ve been hung up on the transition from cave men to civilized men (?), and Chester’s book covers that transition up till the fall of the Roman Empire. This is arguably an artificial limit to ancient, but you got to cut it off somewhere.

I’ve learned loads of things I didn’t know about the ancient world, like a huge barbarian invasion (from who knows where) just before 1000 BC that brought the civilized world to it’s knees from Greece to Babylon and on to India. This precipitated a dark age that lasted 500 years before these areas got back on their feet. (I like a good dark age… I think were just entering one now.)

And the Romans having direct seaborne trade with India and China. It wasn’t a lot, A trip in a ship from Rome to China in 200 AD must have been pretty rough. It was rough on sailors in the 17th Century, much less the second century. But the thought of a Roman trading ship sailing into Shanghai harbor is pretty cool.

I’m wrapping up this book, and I’m getting close to the part where the Christian faith takes over the Roman Empire, but ol’ Chester just threw me a religious and philosophical curve ball… and I quote..

“Neoplatonism, as measured by Christianity, could not truly formulate a metaphysical explanation of human individuality in relation to transcendental unity, and it could not excise the defects of it’s pagan inheritance.”

What?

greg

DIY FW190… Update..

January 4, 2009 / Greg / 0 Comments

fw190

In May of ’08, I wrote a blog about building your own Focke Wulf 190. The inspiration for this blog was the FW190 project going on at our local attraction, the Tristate Warbird Museum, in Batavia, Oh. This project has been going on for a few years, and they hope to fly it in 2010.

This particular bird was built early in 1944, and was written off late in 1944. Some more parts of it were recovered at the crash site in 2000, and are being used to finish it. The airframe was rebuilt by Flug Werk, and the 4 guys who work at the museum are finishing it. Parts for these old birds are being scavenged the world over and are principally found on the internet. There is a small tight knit community of airplane enthusiasts whose passion is to see these birds fly again.

chinesemotor

The plane is painted to represent the “Red 13” of Heinz Barr, who had accumulated over 200 victories, the last of which were in German jets. He was shot down over Soviet lines, and 17 other times, and flew over 1000 missions. He like to fly but never wanted to be a fighter pilot. Recognizing his ability, his mates talked him into it.

This aircraft in impressive in person, and showcases the abilities of the museum staff. They are also working on a P-40 flown by New Zealands top scoring ace….

but that’s another story.

greg

Webley PitBull… Rugged Belly Gun

January 3, 2009 / Greg / 0 Comments

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One of my all time favorite handguns is the Webley. The iconic British sidearm, Webleys had been made since the middle 1800’s. They served in all Britains Wars from that period on, and served on all the frontiers where Britain was involved, mainly India and Africa. They’ve dispatched their share of lions tigers and other dangerous beasts.

And dangerous human beasts, too. The .455 caliber marks were especially valued for their man stopping ability. After WW1, the British High Command lost it’s mind and decided that a 200 grain .38 caliber pistol would be just as good and the pistol would be smaller and easier to handle. The .38 Mark IV replaced the venerable Mark VI, but let’s just say the British didn’t throw their .455 guns away.

This gun is a 1915 Mark V, and had been extensively modified by some (probably) local gunsmith. This was kind of common work for gunsmiths in the 50’s and 60’s for guys with less than legal needs. The barrel was chopped to 2 inches, the grips were shaved down, the hammer spur cut off and the cylinder was modified to take american .45 auto bullets on a steel clip. The modification for .45 auto was common in this country due to lots of surplus laying around, and .455 has always been hard to get. The neat thing about the clip is you can reload this thing faster than any modern autoloader. The downside is the bullet. The .455 is a hollow base bullet that swells to meet the rifling, and the .45 is a flat base. This will tend to lose some accuracy, but with a 2″ barrel, who cares. Your not shooting a guy across the county!

bullets

It’s heavy, though, and harks back to a time when everything was heavy, and made out of steel. I appreciate the work that went into these guns, and the fact that this gun is ninety years old and still works good is a testament to their design. How good modern polymer guns are remain to be seen in another ninety years.

greg

Another Automotive Conundrum

December 30, 2008 / Greg / 0 Comments

carparts

I was watching some cars going by, and I started mentally checking all the parts that they were made of. Almost every single car that went by was made of huge number of parts, almost none of which are usable on any other brand or even another model of the same car.

This means there are huge warehouses holding huge numbers of discrete parts for every modern car on the road. And none of them are interchangable. Sure tires are, and some wheels, and water pumps and spark plugs will interchange for some engine families… but almost everything else is a custom made part for that car only.

Some dash parts like switchgear are common among car lines from a huge manufacturer, like GM, and some of the engines are shared out, but what isn’t shared out is a lot bigger pile.

In older cars, this is a huge problem, since most car manufacturers quit making parts for a car in as little as 10 years after they’re made. Then it gets tough to find stuff. The most popular cars will be accomodated by the aftermarket, but only the fast moving stuff.

If old cars are hot, like 1957 Chevy’s, some specialist maker will make almost every part. but your ’57 Nash is in trouble. To drive that thing you’re going to be good friends with a machinist.

It’s a shame too, because cars are a unique part of our heritage, and the world’s too. I get a kick out of driving old cars, and they can be a handfull sometimes, due to primitive suspensions, and no computer controls… but exhilarating. I guess keeping parts for every car ever made could get a bit overwhelming.

porsche

Except for Porsche, who still stocks parts for every model back to the 356 from the 50’s…. Now that’s my kind of car company.

greg

Longing for Home… Hue DaNang road.. 1971

December 28, 2008 / Greg / 0 Comments

nam520

Sometime around march of 1971, Sgt Spence (our 1st shirt) took me and another guy or two (can’t remember) to Da Nang to pick up some crypto stuff or other. So we loaded up in our 3/4 ton pickup truck and headed south.

It was quite a panaromic view of Vietnam. Highway one runs down the length of the Vietnamese coast with all the major cities along it. Hue and Da Nang were the 2 largest cities in northern South Vietnam. We did plenty of sightseeing along the way, had a pleasant time in Da nang, and even saw the Seventh Fleet in the harbour. We saw the fleet from the tops of the mountains coming into Da Nang, and the aircraft carrier dwarfed the numerous ships with it!

nam311

The trip back was another story. Spence was driving, and also drinking heavily. This seemed to be the curse of all top sergeants I have known. Spence was a special case tho, as he had been in the Army for 18 years, and curiously spent 17 of them in the orient. Supposedly, he had killed the wrong guy in his corner of Alabama, and his influential family shipped him off to the Army to save him from the authorities. I think he really liked it over there. So anyway, we were heading through the Hai Van Pass, the highest pass in Vietnam, with 2 of us in the bed of the truck, and Spence working furiously on his bottle of gin when the truck suddenly veered towards the small concrete abutment alongside the road. Sensing disaster, Whittley(?) had already jumped out, and I had just put my foot on the tailgate to join him when we hit the abutment. I fell back into the truck and knew this was it. Somehow the truck ran along the low concrete wall and jumped back onto the road. Whit was still laying in the road and it seemed hours before anybody could move. We were still alive!

We ambled up Higway One for hours, shooting at things and generally having a good time. Then our right front tire went flat. Spare was flat. We were in a pickle. We were hours away from home base and not in the friendliest part of Northern I Corps. So we drove up the road at 20 mph and the right rear tire went flat. Things were looking grim. Nobody was coming by, and we assessed our situation. We had 9 rounds left between us for our M-16s. Then we checked the M-79 we had with us and it didn’t work. The firing pin was broke. Yikes, it was getting dark so we drove on flat tires till we came to a Vietnamese strong point along the road. They were just setting up their claymores for the night, and we practically drove over them to get in.

nam509

There was one American advisor with these guys, and they put us up for the night. The American guy had some movie for his boys so we all watched Love Story. The Vietnamese troops would go wild everytime Ryan O’Neil would kiss Ali McGraw. They also had plenty of beer! The next morning they fixed up our tires and gave us some ammo, so in better spirits we headed for Hue. Some time later we were running along the coast and found a great beach. So we decided to take a break to go swimming.

nam521

Spence decided to watch the truck so we shucked our clothes and swam out to some small island off the coast. The water was real shallow, and it was a long way out there. The passing sampans got a kick out of some naked GI’s sunning on the island. Then we noticed the truck was in the water! It took 20 minutes to get back, and we found the truck sunk in the water half way up the cab. Spence was asleep in the drivers seat. We woke him up to find out what had happened. He got homesick and decided to go home. He drove the truck straight towards Alabama till the water swamped the motor. We were in for it again.

A passing truck radioed our position to Phu Bai and they dispatched a wrecker to pull us out. Since we had a motor full of water they had to tow us back to Phu Bai. They couldn’t quit laughing when they found out what happened. The Radio Research station at Phu Bai was our parent headquarters, so when we got there, this Colonel chewed on Spence in a spectacular fashion.

nam476

We finally got another truck and finished our mission, but I don’t think any of us really learned our lessons.

greg

Cars and the fall of the Berlin Wall…

December 24, 2008 / Greg / 0 Comments

laptop_thieves

In case you haven’t noticed… cars have undergone a huge change lately. Security. Your key looks like something from Star Trek now, and is hooked by antennas and links to a brain lurking somewhere in the car ready to deny you access at the drop of a hat.

And it doesn’t stop there. Almost everything is an electronic control unit in car nowdays, the window switches (Drivers Door Module), the sunroof motor (Sun Roof Module) and even the turn signal switch. (the Column Integration Module) And worse than that, they’re all on a bus so they talk to each other (like your home network). They all have the car’s information programmed into them, so that when something is amiss, like someone replacing a module, alarms start to go off and the car shuts down.

To replace some module nowdays, you have to go through elaborate security precautions, some instances it is a hardware key attached to a computer and only available to authorized dealerships. And what started all this, you may ask?

The fall of the Soviet Union, that’s what. Car theives were always a problem of sorts, and the car companies did address that issue to make cars harder to steal. But it was a relatively stable problem. In 1989, when the Soviet Union went out of business, a lot of engineers and other smart guys from the eastern bloc were suddenly out of work. High end cars started disappearing all over Europe, and it was so bad that all the Euro companies got together and came up with draconian measures to stop the thieves.

I doubt that their measures will completely stop car thieves, but it does slow them down a bit. The other side of the coin is, your key module now costs a thousand bucks, and you have to get someones permission to replace a control unit in your own car. I personally like to empower the consumer, but I guess if everyones car gets stolen, thats not a good thing either.

greg

Moving into Camp Eagle… 1972

December 23, 2008 / Greg / 1 Comment

nam097

Sometime in March 1972, The 101st Airborne left Vietnam for home. This left a huge army base deserted and the 1st ARVN Division decided to call it home. A South Vietnamese division has lots of American advisors, including our intelligence team, so of we went to our new home.

The first thing you see when you enter a recently evacuated American army base in Vietnam is dogs. Lots of dogs. I think every GI over there had a dog. Our detachment had 10 guys and we had 2 dogs. Some army communications guy from TOC named Lt. Pappas was assigned the job of shooting all the dogs. He kind of liked it, and earned his moniker “Mad Dog Pappas.” Nobody liked him…

Traded a .38 S&W for a homemade go kart… I coulda just waited till the Airborne guy left… but it was cool. It was made out of a ‘mule’, a kind of mobile basket with a 3kw generator engine on it, and it was used originally to unload planes. It was welded up with a seat in the middle and the motor in the back, and a big 101 Airborne insignia on the tank… No suspension though, and it would beat you to death. General Phu told my CO that he wanted it for his kid… but it kinda got wrecked before I handed it over.

Freaked out one day, my hooch was close to the perimeter and the patrol found a spider hole just outside. How long has this guy been watching me. They found rice and rifle in the hole too. Gives you the shivers.

Trying to find a place to smoke dope. Our new CO was an airborne ranger… we weren’t used to these guys, and they didn’t like punk kids like me either. One night we crawled up our radio tower, enjoying the scenery when 122 rockets started coming in, in a straight line for our tower! They must have been sighting on the helicopter beacon, I smashed it with my rifle but and came down the tower in seconds. (I think it was pretty high too…)

Wandering around the base at night, we came on an ARVN tank crew sitting around their fire. We got to drinking with them, and they showed me how their tank worked. It was an American armored car with twin 40mm guns in the turret. These were usually used for convoy protection. Unlike their American counterparts, ARVN’s drilled a hole in the dash and put a key and tumblers in place of the American switch that anybody can turn on. They didn’t trust anybody, and they shouldn’t have trusted me, because I took off in it for a joyride.. They chased me for a while, but that thing was neat.. It could knock over trees and all sorts of big stuff. I finally gave it back…

Somebody gassed out Airborne Ranger CO. He had just gotten out of the shower and was all wet… gas will burn you when your wet. I think the real target was the mess sgt, who shared the hooch with him. I heard all the commotion out on the street and came out to see the CO dripping wet in a towel with his M-16 pointed right at me. “Pfeiffer” he says, “I know it was you…” It wasn’t me, and he didn’t shoot me, thank god, but it did steel my resolve to get even somehow. While down in Phu Bai I learned that they had 2 gas grenades for a M-79 in the company safe and traded the company clerk for them. That night we climbed up our tower again and pointed the M-79 towards the officers club (we learned he was in there) and let one go. Unfortunately the officers club was 400 yards away, and the gas round could go 200 at the most. But General Phu’s hooch was 200 yards away. Shame his whole family was in there.

The next morning, in my breifing to General Phu and our CO, I duly reported an incoming round of enemy gas during the night. General Phu’s eyes were still red. That night, with one round left, I was determined to fulfill my mission, and tucked the M-79 under my jacket and boldly walked past the Vietnamese guards to the compound and let her rip right through the officers clubs screen door…. mission accomplished. The next mornings breifing included the now regular round of enemy gas….

If I spent this much energy fighting the war, we might have won….

greg

Trip home… Leaving Vietnam.. 1972

December 21, 2008 / Greg / 2 Comments

nam656

I got orders for home some time in April 1972, and I was glad to get them. I ‘d had enough of Vietnam by then. I had recently been busted by the CO for stealing his jeep (I had just borrowed it for a while) and got an Article 15 for it. An Article 15 is one step away from a court martial. I left for the Hue/Phu Bai International Airport (!) to catch a ride south, I didn’t sign out or turn in my weapon. As far as I know, that M-16 is still leaning up against a wall in my hooch. I think I owe the Government 300 bucks for it.

I got to the airfield to find that all the available aircraft were ferrying troops north, as the Easter offensive was still going on. No hope for a fllight south, I took to the road. Some old wreck of a french truck picked me up. I sat in the back with a few black toothed papasans and barrels of what smelled like fish. We got along great till we got to this roadblock. There was a recent firefight there and you could still smell the fireworks. Those papasans were starting to look funny so I hopped off this truck and got on one full of ARVN’s as they were all armed. These guys took me to Danang, and one of them befriended me took me to his house for the night. His family was nice and they treated me to a Vietnamese meal but no one could speak english. The next morning I could see that my bag looked like it had been rifled thru, so I left in a huff. I still regret that, as they were really nice people. Nothing was missing and it was probably just the kids that had gotten into it.

I walked into the Danang airbase looking for a ride and the MP’s went crazy… I guess Danang proper was off limits to GI’s… They also relieved me of my AK 47… it was a nice Russian underfolder too… I think they were just looking for souvenirs… There was no way I could get it home anyway. Finally got a flight to Saigon… however, the C130 had more Vietnamese, pigs, goats and whatever riding along than GI’s… Then the engine quit… a couple of hours later and another airplane and we were on our way…

I spent a week in Saigon before I got a flight out. I hung out in this bar for a while, full of marines that were off duty. Then a bunch of Austrailian grunts wandered in. I could see things were getting tense so I left… It wasn’t 5 minutes before people were getting thrown out the windows and such…

To get on the plane, you and your stuff had to go into a little room with a marine in it. He decided whether to take you apart or not.. They didn’t want drugs or guns going home.. I made it thru… and off on the way home. The ride back was pretty subdued… wasn’t much chatter, compared to the ride there… about forever later we were above Oakland…. but couldn’t get down. They waved us off as some woman shot a GI getting off the plane ahead of us. Seems her husband got killed by friendly fire over in Nam. We finally did get down, though, and were greeted by a large group of hippie protestors. After the usual charge of babykilling… they went home and I was finally loose in the USA…

They had a welcome home meal for us at Oakland Army Replacement Station. It looked like a big pile of steaks so I loaded up and sat down for some chow. It was liver. Who were they kidding. So I headed for home. I don’t really remember why, whether I was short of cash, (The army had lost my records, so getting paid was sporadic) or still had some wanderlust left in me, I decided to hitchhike home. I got a ride in the back of some pickup truck that night, but the temperatures in the mountains were below freezing, and I had just came back from the tropics. Yikes.

Somehow I lived thru that and had a pretty uneventful trip home. I was picked up in Nebraska by the cops as they were always looking for AWOL’s. (They didn’t even look at the obvious criminal types hitchhiking along side me.) I found the truck drivers the best. They fed me along the way and even gave me money to complete my trip.

But I did make it home…. I had 6 months left to go at Fort Bragg… but that is another story…

greg

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