Diary of a Mad Scientist

I’m in California for a few more days, feeling like I’m juggling a bunch of money and potential purchases.

This is known as the ‘picking up where I left off when my health fell apart’ maneuver. Yuck. I was supposed to be in a much more interesting place by now.

I never “completed” my complicated move to the East Coast- partially because I wasn’t sure where I was going to ultimately end up, and partially because I own a ton of shop stuff and it’s a huge load to haul, so this is what I’m here, working on, as part of a multi-trip complicatedness.

At this point I’m moving out of my shop finally. I’m hoping to not move into a storage container, but into a trailer (to put into cheap storage) instead. I basically don’t have the time or quite enough money to do a cross country drive with the trailer this month- have a class coming up the weekend after next- so I"m trying to get an enclosed trailer, put my crap in there, come back in a couple of months when it’s warmer, with enough cash to buy a ‘disposable’ truck, do the one-way drive East, and sell the disposable truck. Yes, it makes more sense than getting a moving van, especially because I am probably moving to Asheville in a couple of months from Raleigh, and it makes no sense to unload everything twice. Lots of ‘probablies’ in chronic illness, by the way. Few certainties.

Currently I’m juggling:

-getting the moving trailer. I need one anyway- the future of the ‘class teaching trailer’ is a weird hybrid enclosed-flatbed system I’ve wanted for several years. I found the grumpiest seller EVER on Craigslist, who’s got a really good price on one, but was such an ass that I wanted to ask him if he actually wanted the money or what. I’ll be looking at this tomorrow.

-getting half a tote of fuel processed into biodiesel for this future drive crosscountry in warmer weather. Methanol is insanely pricey right now- GRRR- but getting a head start on this would mean that I’d get a much easier time with soap removal- ie , long settling time before I actually use the stuff= no washing or any other work.

In other news, Andrew Morris helped make an arrangement whereby I can get use of a large processor of some friends of his, and do it all in one batch. In other other news, he spent a day or two making his own ‘large batch’, which apparently included recovering from the fact that they’d left a lot of water in the processor (???) and he didn’t check before pumping his nice perfect oil into it. Add that to the safety checklist- if using someone else’s processor, assume nothing, check everything.

-getting the gas chromatograph last bits and pieces and chemicals ordered. Long story, I’m very excited.

-looking at trucks and buses. I really want to get a shortbus to use as a mobile shop or a lab, and this is one option for the ‘disposable truck’ scenario. I don’t quite have enough cash to do this AND the trailer, though, and it makes more sense to wait on the truck on this trip, and get “the perfect vehicle” later, with more money, I hope. I just missed the perfect setup- airport shuttle with a lift in the rear. It’ll come. Anyone have a bus in California that they need taken off their hands?

-juggling social life with a pile of people I havne’t seen in months. It’s sooo nice.

-working on the VW. Lots of things fell apart in my absence, and it’ll be nice to have it back to ‘good condition’ finally. I still can’t decide if it’s worth selling , as it’s so insanely convenient to have a car while I’m here, and I’m planning on being here a lot more if I stay healthier. I’ve been borrowing a friend’s friend’s professional mechanic shop, which is such a nice scenario. I (heart) hydraulic lifts.