How do you unwind?

[Weston]

By the time momma comes home from work and having had a full day of non-adult activities, I've got to find some way to get out and unwind.

What do you guys do to get a "release?"

Oh, and beer and sex don't count! (beer is a given and sex... come on, I don't believe you)

I like to jump on my motorcycle and hit the road for about a half an hour. By the time I get back I'm usually cured 8)

[Weston]

Oh....Ahh....sorry I asked ](*,)

[EX Race Driver]

Well.. the obvious of course...see screen name...

Though I don't do beer on a regular basis. I do like to drink one every once in a while.

Last night I took off and went to Concord Mills Mall and hung out at Jillians with some old school buddies that I hadn't seen in years.

Usually I just set here and stare at the boob tube or the 'puter screen. But I do like to take off atleast once a week and have some me time. Wether its the track or just hangin out shooting some pool with some buddies.

Me and the lady do like to go to Raleigh a couple times a year and see Dakkota play when they play at the Longbanch.

Do you know where that is J Monkey?

[Weston]

Longbranch, yeah.

I grew up in Raleigh. Longbranch has two sides - country and rock. I've only been there twice though. Not really my thing, but it is popular.

I had a short stint as a taxi driver about ten years ago. Picked up a couple of drunks from there. One threw up in the back. :vom:

Good Times.

[jeffus]

Every couple of months, I go visit a still batchelor friend from HS overnght. Bout 2 hours away. We get some dinner, go back to the house, shoot pool, drink, and shoot the breeze until we put another rip in the table.

Getting away, change of scenery, beer, pool, good food, beer, and getting to sleep in next day - priceless! Last time I slept until noon. My buddy was worried I choked and died.

But, on a more routine basis, just getting out of the house - alone! - is a small treat. Sometimes I hold off on food shopping and go at night and take my sweet-a$$ time. Sad, but true. Lot of times I head to Lowe's or Home Depot (since I'm remodeling here) and look for stuff I need for the next big project around here. Talk to the 'associates' and try to get some fresh ideas.

As far as the remodeling goes, that's a big release for me. I usually go non-stop on the weekends while wifey watches kid. Nice for me to not have to worry about the kid, get something done (usually a nice manly project- complete with tool belt of course), and get some satisfaction from an improvement. And I don't do laundry or cook - I morph into 'general contractor man'. So like 2 days with power tools kinda makes up for 5 days of tea parties.

Other than that, I type long messages here and drink some beers....

[tt3]

Well, I might have mentioned it once before, but I like to brew to unwind. ;)
I also am getting into picking up books I should have read when I was younger but passed on for sci fi. Just finished A Tale of Two Cities, and am opening frankenstien, sutible for the season, eh? Once thats done, gonna try and tackle some more of Emerson. I read Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac in highschool a number of times, but can't seem to get into Emerson.
I really dug going out with friends, but since Tara was born, they either left town completely or married off themselves and we lost touch. That and why go out when I've got great beer on tap in my basement, a fooseball table and a smoke free environment?
...
yeah, sounds hollow to me to
:?

[jeffus]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times......

Shall I give away the ending?

[jeffus]

What you have to do is read the dictionary from cover to cover. All the books ever written are in there, just one word at a time....

[jeffus]

And when I visit that friend of mine, we always head to the local Brew-Pub and sample all the offerings. Awesome beer! I spent a week in Germany a few years back and just couldn't get over how great the beer was.

When I got back, I couldn't drink the normal mass market swill. Best thing I found was Sam Adams. Great beer but too pricey. Every now and again I get 6-pack as a treat.

And I absolutely love the concept that beer is actually sold in vending machines over there. A beer with breakfast is no big thing. You start with the pale ale for breakfast, go with the 'yeast' brew (sorry forgot the name) for lunch, and dark beer for dinner. Then, after work, you're on your own to dabble. Zwei Pils Bitte!

[jeffus]

You, my friend, need the Old English to English dictionary....to translate for us.

We need a literature degree to keep up with you.

Unfortunately, the conversation never seems to turn to mechanical engineering so I get a chance to show off a little. Wanna talk Statics and Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Stress Analysis, Solar Energy Engineering, Physics, Direct Energy Conversion?

[tt3]

oy there, don't look to me for lit genius, its an ed degree that gives me some background in sounding intelligent! (That same ed degree that is covered by the "united states beer drinking team certificate of membership" in my office. (The BS is hanging next to my wife's))

You look too far to find dissent for the dictionary though, to tie in to the all encompassing theme of the board... Dr. Suess!

Just kegged a ~7% IPA last night, sampling tonight... can you tell? :lol:

My FIL is a part owner for a small company that tests the strain rating for cranes... Not the little buggers, but the huge ones! Interesting to hear him talk about it, but I get lost easily. If I hear him right though, his company is on of the very few that will certify foriegn cranes for use in the US.
jeffus, are you thinking of a weissen beer? wheat? Thats all I can think of when you say "yeast beer"


bed time
:partyman:

[hockeydad]

you know Louis I always wondered why Lewis Carroll decided to repeat the "twas brillig" stanza. seems like he either didn't know how to end it or didn't trust that "chortled in his joy" was a good ending. which I think it is.
speaking of reading tt if your thinking of some Emerson I recommend "Gifts". its a rather obscure essay no where near his more famous but a truly unique piece. although I never could entirely buy into those transcendentalists. they seemed to be writing more to create beliefs than writing from beliefs. fun to read though.

[benj]

seemed to be writing more to create beliefs than writing from beliefs. .

What'd you expect from a mathematician? (AKA Charles L Dodgson)

Man is what he believes. -Chekhov

[jeffus]

Yep, that's it - weiss beir. With a 3 inch head of foam. You can practically eat it for lunch.

Louis - rocker bearings are used to fix one end of a span and allow the other end to move slightly. It would move under a traffic load (cars and trucks), wind load, and thermal expansion & contraction. If both ends were fixed, bridge would tear itself apart from all the expansion and contraction being transferred to the support pylons. Concrete is usually used to support bridges - and concrete doesn't like to expand and contract at all. Its good for static compressive loads. Ie- putting something heavy on it and leaving it there. Basically. (I used to build machines and distribution centers, not bridges - but the concept falls under general engineering topics that every engineer takes during first 2 years.)

[EX Race Driver]

I heard it put rather simple on a documentary.. I it was on the New Clark Bridge in Ohio(?) I think..Most bridges are just one big hinge...

I went out I-40 west right after the wreck in NC that burned the bridge down.. A tractor trailer full of gas ran into the center support and caught fire .. It burned that whole side of the bridge up... The only part that was left is the side that covered the eastbound side of 40 and it just swung down onto 40 just like a door hinge... That fire was so hot that it burned the support in the median to the ground.. Pretty much all that was left of most of the bridge was ashes melted into a big glob of glass. The glass came from the sand in the concrete... There was not a whole lot of the steel left either... Pretty much burned that away too...

My father has worked in the concrete biz for almost 30 years and he said that was the only time he had heard of a fire getting hot enough to turn concrete into mainly ashes... His company hasn't been able to recreate a fire that hot in the 5 or so years since that wreck... :shock:

[jeffus]

Burning gasoline has a temperature above 1500° F - from Firefire.com.

That's enough to melt lots of things. Especially steel - Which is what most engines are made of. (Some are made of aluminum). This is why cars are no where near as efficient as they could be. If you let gas burn completely with the correct air/fuel ratio, it'll burn at 1500F. Can't let that happen in an engine without melting it. So by controlling the amount of air and additives to gasoline - the burn temp in an engine is kept at about 500. Water cooling (your radiator) keeps the engine from killing itself and cooking your engine oil into goo.

Anyhoo, steel melts upward of 1100F, while it weakens at 200F and loses 50% of its strength at 550F. So long before it gets to 1100F, everything falls down. Concrete usually collapses at around 760F, but it provides good protection for the steel - hopefully the fire can be put out in time. But at 1200F it will turn to dust.

You may have heard some buzz about creating a 'ceramic' engine a few years ago. Ceramics could take that heat that would melt a steel engine but they can't take the forces involved in an engine. If they could make it work, we'd all be driving cars that get 100+ mpg with absolutely no pollution. Cars today are about 40% efficient.

Are you asleep yet? I can just go on and on...Tech talk is the best way to knock my wife out. It's like a bed-time story for her....

[tt3]

Please continue! :D

[Jackson's Dad]

Techie bed time stories. I can see it now:

"And then, the little engine that could began to overheat and lose his structural integrity. 'Oh no!' he exclaimed, 'where can i find an appropriate coolant to kept my internal temperature below the critical point?'..."

[Anonymous]

You, my friend, need the Old English to English dictionary....to translate for us.

We need a literature degree to keep up with you.

Unfortunately, the conversation never seems to turn to mechanical engineering so I get a chance to show off a little. Wanna talk Statics and Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Stress Analysis, Solar Energy Engineering, Physics, Direct Energy Conversion?

What flavor of engineering are you? I was a mechanical engineer in my previous life. I worked for the auto industry for seven years and have been a stay at home dad for six years now. Going back into the engineering field scares the heck out of me. That is, I have not exactly kept up with my skills and the industry. Too busy changing diapers and going to playgroups, etc. In addition, it seems any engineering job usually requires a minimum of a 50 to 60 hour week. My daughter is in the 1st grade and I would like to be there for her after school.
Ron

[tt3]

Louis, you listen to npr at all? Click and Clack, Car Talk, regulary laugh at folks using the higher octane fuels. This weekend a fellow called concerned that he'd hurt his car going from the higher to the lower right away. They laughed. Made comments about the only think hurting was his wallet, and to send them half of what he saves by buying the lower octane.
Pretty good stuff there, and you can find the program online, too.
http://www.cartalk.com/

Sorry to butt in with a response unasked for. I can't help it, its in my nature. ;)

[EX Race Driver]

99% of todays cars are built to run well on the low octane stuff... Most engines will run on it very well... If you get spark knock from it it is caused by you ignition timing being to high..

Ignition timing is where the spark plug fires in relation to where the piston is on the compression stroke.

Spark knock is the little rattling sound that comes from the engine when you shower down on the accelerator or try to climb a hill at too low of an RPM.. It is caused by a second explosion below the combustion chamber... This my friends is death to piston rings...

All you need to do to remedy the problem is have your ignition timing retarded a few degrees.... Most of todays cars do that automatically within a preset limit...Though retarding timing too much will cause the motor to cook itself from within..

When you get into higher compression engines...above 9:1...you do need to go to a higher octane fuel... but that is another lllloooonnnngggg lesson within itself...

Intresting side note: 115 octane racing fuel (Turbo Blue, VP) is considerably less flammable than 87 octane pump gas......To prove this to a friend the other week I put my cigarette out in a 5 gallon bucket of Turbo Blue... It was funny as he!!... Everybody in the garage was running and screaming like the boogy monster was after them...

If your car ever catches fire in the gas tank while you are pumping gas simply put the gas cap back on it. The fire will burn itself out.... Shut the pump off first though...

[EX Race Driver]

No lower octane fuel does not burn hotter ... the way I understand it is the higher the octane the more violent the explosion...That helped in older engines..Not in todays engines because they flow so well...less sharp edges, better matched holes, computers....

Its not that a higher performance engine needs a less efficient fuel...It is all in the way the fuel explodes under pressure...In the race cars we dont have computers and such... though we do port and polish the whole engine it is still running on a 1970s style ignition system....if we could run computers and fuel injection we could run the low oceane stuff and create just as much power...

Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow

Engineer guys correct me if I'm wrong but this is the way it has always been explained to me

[jeffus]

Intake, compression, ignition, exhaust.... That'll cover the technical terms.

[jeffus]

Ron,

Hi. I'm an ME. 50+ hrs a week was a deciding factor of staying home even though I could probably make more than the wife. Plus jobs tend to dry up and benefits go away. Her career is much more stable, good bennys, and makes what I made before I 'retired'.

I'd never see the kid if I went back to work. The way I'm figuring it- if I spent 50 hours a week figuring out how make money for other people, then hopefully, I can spent half that on how to make money for me. At this point, I'm leaning towards getting teaching credentials and following my kid through school - come on, we got physics, chemistry, math, a little biology pretty much licked. Or using the ME creds towards a nice little consulting HVAC business.

Yeah. I don't want to go back to work - at least for someone else....Put some effort into a small business especially one that's kid-oriented for the next 5 years.

[jeffus]

Back to my gas burns at this temp post....

On the philosophical side, I'm glad that the 'commodity' of the automobile engine has been discussed. Yeah, there are tons of technical details. But the actual act of controlling explosions to propel you and your family to where they want to be is pretty phenomenal.

Engineering tends to get under-rated......

[EX Race Driver]

Mazda still uses the rotary engine....Only downsides to the rotary are finding a tech to work on them and cost of repairs....those things are power houses though.....

[EX Race Driver]

Intake, compression, ignition, exhaust.... That'll cover the technical terms.

Isn't that what I said?????

Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow


lol

[jeffus]

Yup, Mazda brought back the rotary engine in the RX-8 a few years ago. Its got a very high power to weight ratio. But it's not more efficient than a regular piston engine. Actually, its the same idea as a regular piston engine but done differently. It may be slightly more efficient since there are fewer moving parts and therefore less losses due to friction.

Older WWII planes used a radial piston design (big cowlings), newer planes like Mustangs went with the in-line piston design adding super chargers to increase power and altitude.

And sorry for the echo EXRacer! And I think higher octane fuel burns a bit faster than the lower ones. That 'knock' that you used to hear was from incomplete combustion. By using a higher octane the fuel burned quicker and more completely eliminating the knock.

As far as efficiency goes, its the measure of what you put in vs what you get out. Since gas goes in and burns at about half the temperature it should - you lose 50% right there. Add friction, and mechanical losses (thru the powertrain) and you're easily into the 40% range.

[jeffus]

Back to the Dad stuff.

I "unwound" today by taking a shower after the kid puked on me 3 times.

And then I had to wash the sheets, the floor, my clothes, her clothes, and the carpet, and then figure out the efficiency of my washer and dryer!

(I know the furnace is 80% - there's a label on it).