ABC…

I pulled into the supermarket parking lot just after this car. A guy got out with his young daughter, and I complimented him on his perfect license plate ID.

He was delighted, and laughed loudly.

“33” is a big thing in Uruguay, as it is in Masonry. I’m sure there’s no connection…suuuure.

A few blocks from home, waiting to cross the street, I had to wait for a passing car with the license plate ABC 2133. Glitch in the Matrix? On the other hand, it’s not the first license plate strangeness I’ve had here.

The scanner

I almost never discard anything complex without trying to take it apart and learn something from it. Non-destructively, if possible.

When my 13-year-old scanner abruptly stopped working, I quickly discovered it would not be coming apart without a fight. There’s essentially nothing you couldn’t see just by looking through the glass, so no real surprises, other than the motor being remarkably small – barely wider than a pencil.

The main thing I learned, though, was that this was designed to NEVER be taken apart – the way the glass was sealed … and then it struck me: of course not. It was assembled in a dust-free environment and it was essential that no dust ever had a chance to get inside!

RIP Piedra Lisa

Piedra Lisa, once a night club. Incredible noise all night in the summer. After hours of ear-splitting sound, people would walk drunkenly through the streets at 6 AM, singing loudly and badly or simply shouting conversations because they could barely hear. Trash containers overturned, plastic cups everywhere, people passed out in the dunes.

It then became a cooperative restaurant that did not last long.

It’s a shame the local government should simply let it go to waste (though someone did remove glass).

But I don’t miss the night club.

34°46’48.94″S 55°45’8.73″W

Re-purposing gutters

Long ago, somebody gave me a couple of pieces of plastic gutter. Then at a job I supervised, a delivery included excess downspout. So I bought a few more pieces and put a gutter on our barbacoa.

The problem is, I didn’t do a very good job and the fascia board was not in good shape.

As you can see.

I had another long, narrow board left over from a remodel, so I installed it. I have enough of the originals to rip a piece to fit the gap. The fascia boards should cover the rafter ends, but hey: not perfect, but not bad.

One of today’s projects was reinstalling the cutter as a planter. The 2% grade is probably overkill, but the way I’ve installed it with wire, that is easily adjustable. Note how the downspout is cut perfectly to rest on the tile zócalo. I did not cut any pipe. That just happened.