""Restrained automotive design, these days, is as expensive as it is rare." Perhaps, but I'm reminded of a scene near the beginning of the movie "The Devil Wears Prada", where Meryl Streep's character berates Anne Hathaway's, informing her that the colour of the sweater she's wearing originated on the walkway in Paris and how it eventually filtered down to the bargain basement store where she must have bought it.There are any number of RR look-a-likes already on the street; hopefully this 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' model will continue. Mike."

"You just know some kid is going to sit halfway up and dare his friend to spin him around... 🤷"

"I use a somewhat similar idea today. I have a bench-mounted motor with a hard felt wheel mounted on it for honing. Combined with a buffing compound it renders blades razor sharp. If a blade needs more work I have a sandpaper wheel and 600 or higher grit to take out nicks. NB: If you're going to try this, be aware that a buffing wheel is the most dangerous tool in the shop. They tend to be grabby, and since that motors is spinning at 3750rpm, if you're not focused it will pull the blade out of your hands and send it down toward your leg faster than you can blink (missed mine by 2"). Also be aware that they can build up heat in the blade, which can ruin tempering. If it's too hot to hold in your bare hands, it's too hot. Back off.Mike. P. S. So-called stainless steel has addititives (nickel, molybdenum, etc.) that make it less likely to rust but in some ways high-carbon blades are better. To keep them from rusting, clean and dry them after use. And never put a good knife in the dishwasher (stainless or otherwise - see temper, above). "

"I don't remember the name of the author of this story, but I've always appreciated it...A man walks into a Kindergarten classroom, goes up the the blackboard, takes a piece of chalk and places a dot in the middle of the board. He turns to the class and asks, "What is it?" He got a hundred answers all at once: It's a bird! It's a satellite! It's a snowflake! It's a star! And on and on. The same man walks into a 2nd yr. university physics classroom, goes up the the blackboard, takes a piece of chalk and places a dot in the middle of the board. He turns to the class and asks, "What is it?" Silence fills the room for several minutes. Finally one brave soul raises a hand, and, when prompted, relies, "It's equidistant from the four corners." The rest of the class is immediately relieved that the answer has been determined. _____It's also said that Kindergarten students are much better than professors at answering this question: "What is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it you'll die?" The answer is, 'nothing'. Perhaps Harry Chapin sang it best: https://youtu.be/JMEgY57FNo0Mike. "

"This isn't the first time. I have the original Leatherman Supertool, and an adapter that holds standard ¼" hex bits. It comes with a holder in a separate pouch that also holds 8 bits. The adapter has a straight, 45° and 90° setting. I've used it a lot over the years.I always thought it was a mistake when Leatherman developed their own line of proprietary, flattened bits because hex bits can be replaced anywhere. Mike"

"Here's an image. "

"BTW, one of the things that intrigued me about this product is that it recommends 1 tbsp (15ml) for an average load. Look at the size of the cap on the laundry soap bottle. Now, have you read the instructions to see how much you need to use?"

"There's also https://www.tru.earth/ laundry strips. Bought some but haven't tried them yet. Economically they don't work out as well but the downgrade in environmental costs is huge.Mike. "

"It's a tough call. The walls in relation to this particular place and the reason for which they were built bring up bad memories. That's understandable. But the wall is just a wall. It's a more efficient way of building a brick wall, invented in a different time, in a different place. The walls themselves serve different purposes today, and the time, money and energy to tear down the walls and replace them with something else is ludicrous in a time when so many are suffering from so much. If the walls stand as a sumbol, change the symbol. Yes, the walls were built to keep us contained, but we rose above them.Look at the swastika. A lot of people associate the swastika with the Nazis. That's unfortunate because the symbol has been used for thousands of years among different cultures. To the Hopi it's the symbol of the four winds, an agent of change. In India and beyond the swastika has represented divinity, auspiciousness, peace and more for thousands of years. It was because of this that the Nazis co-opted it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SwastikaThe bottom line is that symbols themselves are innocuous. They have no built-in meaning. We - individually and collectively - assign attributes to them. What does 💗 mean to you? How about 💔? What if I suggested the latter means healing, coming together? Would that change your view? The book Strandloper tells the story of a young man from England who is sent to a prison camp in Autralia. Beyond the camp is bush; there are few restrictions because everyone knows to walk off into the bush is death. But our young man has a compass, obtained from a friend, and he plans to use it to walk back home to England. What he has is a piece of paper with a circle subdivided into quarters. Around the outside of the circle are N, E, W, S. He's almost dead from dehydration when he's found by an aboriginal man. The man looks at the paper and sees the circle of life, the four Directions, the symbols for lightning, the snake, and more. He takes the young man back to his family. Did you know the aboriginal people of Australia were officially recognized as human in 1967?Symbols are all around us; what we make of them and what they mean - to us as individuals - is a personal choice. Perspective IS Everything. My 2¢.Mike."

"You don't think racoons are wily enough to steal an RFID card? Hah!!Where we live (Canada) we're lucky to have both recycling and municipal composting. Combined with careful shopping we throw out maybe 3-4 small bags of garbage/year. We're always trying for less.Mike."

"Rain: No comment on these (which do look challenging to get off) but for a quick trip into the house from the barn... https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/home/clothing/footwear/accessories/72614-boot-slippers/Mike. "

"I still remember as a kid peeling away the white outer layer of golf balls, which revealed about a hundred miles {it seemed) of thin rubber bands. Underneath all of that lay the real gold: the hard rubber ball at the core. 🙂Mike. "