Off to the DaveCave(tm) to check email and then an early bedtime.
Woke up early to get to this auction -- picked up some good hand tools. A nice small optical measuring scale, a Starrett Combination Square, two buckets of hammers that will be perfect for blacksmithing -- odd ones too so there is minimal duplication with what I already had, a Hilti Powder tool -- these puppies use a .22 blank to drive special nails and bolts into concrete. I have rented them from time to time but at $200, they were too expensive to buy, at $45 it was a done deal.
I was hoping to get a nice Miller spot welder but it went for a bit over full manufacturers list price, not the $100 or so I was hoping for. That fever buying is what keeps auctioneers in business.
One thing I did notice is that for a business that was closing, there were a lot of high-ticket brand new tools there. If they had a financial crunch, why did they spend the $50K or so to buy them.
And for the Combination Square, I already have two of them but these are cheap Taiwanese units. Pretty accurate for general work. Starrett tools are the absolute top end. A couple other companies make hand tools that are just as good (Mitotoyo is the only one that comes to mind). This square will not be used on a daily basis but every so often to check the accuracy of the Taiwanese units that I will continue to use on a daily basis.
The other errand in town was the meeting of Me, Jen and my Dad in preparation for his admittance into a Dementia Care facility. He is starting to slip away and although he is able to care for himself now (we have attendants coming in for a few hours each day to cook and clean), I would rather have him be in a safe comfortable place than to have him wander off and go missing in his present house. This is the man who was the smartest person I ever knew -- a Physicist, Author (Halliday and Resnick physics textbooks), Administrator and Manager (Dean of Arts and Sciences at U. of Pittsburgh), a man who loved the outdoors -- hiking, rock climbing, camping who is now exhausted by a 200 yard walk. I have known that this would happen for several years but his symptoms are getting to the point where this move is needed and it is not an easy decision to make. The good news is that the move will be under our control and on our timeline and not a panicked gotta-do-it-now event. The place is awesome -- lots of fun stuff to do, lots of on-site resources and a very high staff to resident ratio.
The other errand in town was the meeting of Me, Jen and my Dad in preparation for his admittance into a Dementia Care facility. He is starting to slip away and although he is able to care for himself now (we have attendants coming in for a few hours each day to cook and clean), I would rather have him be in a safe comfortable place than to have him wander off and go missing in his present house. This is the man who was the smartest person I ever knew -- a Physicist, Author (Halliday and Resnick physics textbooks), Administrator and Manager (Dean of Arts and Sciences at U. of Pittsburgh), a man who loved the outdoors -- hiking, rock climbing, camping who is now exhausted by a 200 yard walk. I have known that this would happen for several years but his symptoms are getting to the point where this move is needed and it is not an easy decision to make. The good news is that the move will be under our control and on our timeline and not a panicked gotta-do-it-now event. The place is awesome -- lots of fun stuff to do, lots of on-site resources and a very high staff to resident ratio.
I happened to read this post about your father - looking up over the monitor on my desk is a shelf, and right smack in the middle of the shelf is a copy of the 2nd edition of Physics by Halliday and Resnick. I bought this one long after college - the first edition I used in college got stolen - because it is probably the best college physics textbook ever written.
Your father has had a lifelong influence on a generation of scientists and engineers, including me. May he be blessed with peace in this stage of his life.