[AT] What's doing during the crisis

[Easley, Greg A.]

I've got a 960 Ford setting in the driveway waiting for a tune-up/belts and hoses/fluids replacement.
It's been too cold and wet to work on it out there, and there's not enough free space right now to put it inside my workshop.
I've got  everything I need for it.  Just need a couple or three days of warm dry weather to get it done.
Put new rear tires on it a few weeks ago.  It was a gift from a cousin of a dear old friend.  He wanted it to go
somewhere that it would be taken care of and appreciated.  It's going to get the 5' rototiller when the tune-up is done.
I'm close to achieving the one tractor per implement stage of life.

I do IT for MU Health System.  I dragged a bunch of computer gear home on Saturday in order to have enough screen
space to work efficiently.  I need a better chair in my home office, but other than that all is good.  I can do my job from home.

Columbia mayor issued "stay home" orders today.  No skin off me.  I make a concerted effort to avoid CoMO's rapacious
taxes by spending my money outside of the city boundary when it's practical to do so.

We are well-provisioned at my house, so no need to rub elbows with the unwashed masses.

I have also heard rumors that the cockroaches are planning to swarm out of the cities to relieve us bumpkins of our stuff.
All I have to say to that is "good luck".

And I'm sick of mud.

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: AT [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of STEVE ALLEN
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 3:33 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] What's doing during the crisis

What am I involving myself with?

As you all know, I am hip deep in getting that JD A running, but I am limited by wretched weather and work.  I am not stuck home--my wife is--but we're both working.  I still work in the office every day, and I still teach every morning/evening.  Fortunately, both my classes were already online this session, so I didn't have to uproot any in-seat students.  But the 45 hr work week combines with the two online classes (one of them the senior capstone course) to leave me with precious little free time.

With what little time I have, however, and when the weather is pouring liquid sunshine on me, I also do the train thing inside.  I have a thing for steam engines and old JDs:  they are both horizontal, 2-cyliner engines!  (Yes, I know about all the exceptions, but they don't matter.)    They also both are about as cantankerous as can be at times.  O scale, both 3-rail and 2-rail, both standard gauge and narrow gauge.

This time of year, I would normally be gearing up for the Civil War re-enacting season (remember my thread about cannon repair last year?).  Well, the spring and early summer events are already wiped off the calendar, and I am not holding my breath about high summer.  Maybe we can hang onto the fall events.  I *should* be working on the frame for my new limber, but I need access to woodworking equipment I don't have (a *big* bandsaw that can handle 6" of oak), and no one is real eager to have me come by for a work session, ya know?  Actually, I haven't even asked, partly because no one I know has that saw, either.  After I get the cutting done, it's merely a matter of drilling and bolting (I also need to order some ironwork, but that's the easy part), but I am stymied at the cutting phase.  So I am unfortunately *not* getting my limber done right now.

In fact, despite working long hours, I am not getting much of anything done.  Furthered along, yes, but not *done*.

No local cases here in the Middle o' Nowhere, MO, but some not far to my west around Ft. Leonard Wood.  My wife works in IT for the local hospital--they are in the middle of transitioning to a new electronic record system, and she is one of the analysts (with a degree in PSYC, go figure) making it happen.  That staff is all at home to keep the process going and to reserve a trained cadre of people in case of severe staffing exposure.  We had not been keeping much extra food around, but we're good for a couple weeks without too much distress, twice that on short rations.  So long as the electricity stays on, we have water.  Most everything else is in reasonable supply (except the TP, of course).  One of the advantages of being in the Middle o' Nowhere is that people tend to be just a little smarter and less panicky.  There are silly claims that various undesirable elements from the big cities are gonna come down (we are actually higher in elevation than all of them but anyway) and rai  d us, but we really aren't concerned.  This is still Missouri, and I still have a cannon :-D

The "original" Steve Allen
Hunkered down and trusting in the Lord