Flywheel

We got a new car (used car, but new to us) and I noticed that it doesn’t want to stop very easily when the gas pedal is lifted.

In other words, instead of immediately slowing like our older car, this car just keeps on going.

This makes me wonder if perhaps it has a flywheel inside the engine somewhere.  

Fly wheel.

What is a fly wheel?  I think I know… or used to know… but I realize I have no idea if such a thing still even exists in a modern automobile.

When I was a boy my Mom told me about a “fly wheel” and I thought it was really really really really interesting…  as if it’s energy stored inside a big heavy wheel.  What’s the word for this energy?  It’s the kind of energy you store when you stretch a rubber band…   ummm…. “kinetic” energy?

Well, time to stop wondering and start learning:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel

Excerpt:

“A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed. Energy is transferred to a flywheel by applying torque to it, thereby increasing its rotational speed, and hence its stored energy. Conversely, a flywheel releases stored energy by applying torque to a mechanical load, thereby decreasing its rotational speed.”

Okay, that makes sense!

Now this one is a bit over my head:

“The phenomenon of precession has to be considered when using flywheels in vehicles. A rotating flywheel responds to any momentum that tends to change the direction of its axis of rotation by a resulting precession rotation. A vehicle with a vertical-axis flywheel would experience a lateral momentum when passing the top of a hill or the bottom of a valley (roll momentum in response to a pitch change). Two counter-rotating flywheels may be needed to eliminate this effect. This effect is leveraged in reaction wheels, a type of flywheel employed in satellites in which the flywheel is used to orient the satellite's instruments without thruster rockets.”

One day I think I’ll need to reserve an hour or two to just peruse this article and try to soak it in.

Trouble

Got in a heap of trouble at work today.  We'll see.

I'm on probation for arriving late.  The deal is if I'm late one more time, I lose my sweet early schedule.

Today I was 10 minutes late.

Hopefully my boss, who was delayed over an hour herself for the same reason, will make an exception.

?

A suicide jumper closed the 163 freeway and the effect dominoed all throughout the San Diego freeways.

$317.00 for a physical

Today I saw the bill for my physical the other day.

$317.00 !!!

That seems so high.  Probably just me living in the past and thinking it should have been $70.00 or so.

Hopefully this sweet insurance we have will pay for all of it.  Before the sweet insurance ends on December 31st.

Actually, if I had to do the terrible things that the Doctor did to me (probing, looking, etc) I would have charged $5000 for that visit.

Bless the doctors.

Sad Little Boy Who Lost His Dollar

Right now I feel like a sad little boy who has lost his dollar.

The reasons are less than complex:

1. I lost my dollar
2. I feel sad
3. I have behaved with the experience and wisdom of a little boy

The DVD set of Hawaii 5-0 (classic series), Season One, was due yesterday at the library and I now owe a late fee of $1.00, according to www.sdcl.org.

Wendy was about to take a nap, so I said I'd go walk over and return it.  Since I had no cash in my wallet, I asked her for a dollar.  She let me take one out of her purse.  (I guess that's another, fourth reason why I feel like a "little boy"... taking money out of a woman's purse at her direction).

For some reason I thought it best to just keep the dollar held against the outside of the DVD pack. 

Then when I came upon the location of a little bee hive that I'd once blogged about (not long ago) I decided to take a photograph.

It appears that by now the Bee Hive has been ravaged, perhaps by a wild animal

  

(There were hardly any bees left)

Walking on I saw some autumn trees on fall fire.  Took a picture of their bright red leaves.

Then I realized that I'd been transferring the DVD pack from my hand to under my arm as I took photos. 

The dollar was gone.

I felt pretty bad about it.  It was my only dollar!  It was to pay the man at the library and clear my record!  Wendy gave it to me!

Walking back about 5 minutes to the bee hive I kept a close eye out for my dollar.  It was nowhere to be seen.  Other's were walking about, too.  A couple of young guys walked past the bee hive.  A couple walking their two dogs came by.  A man with a backpack who said to me "we meet again!" (?).

No dollar.

This qualifies as the most fluffiest, trivial, worthless tripe on the face of the planet when it comes to stuff to blog about.

Yet it makes me feel better to express it.

Writing is a creative outlet.  Hey!  Did I just coin that?  I don't think I've ever heard---   no, cancel that.  "Writing is a creative outlet" is not a new phrase.  It's been used before.

This does illustrate something about me (and I hope all humans) and that is it can just take one little thing to make you sad.

You justify it and try to cheer yourself up, but it's still a loss, and it will take time to get over it.  Plus now I'll be leaving the library with money still owed.

Then again, it can be just a small thing that "makes everything okay again", that makes you forget your troubles.  A cute puppy to comfort you over the loss of your old dog.  A lollipop to make you forget about your skinned knee.

What a self-serving, self-centered post this has been.

Future Steve:  even at your age now (11/27/2013) you really hadn't fully matured.

DVD pack but no dollar

Broccoli

Broccoli is good.

Broccoli is tasty.

Broccoli, broccoli, broccoli.

A big bowl of broccoli.

Checkup

Going to the Doctor's office tomorrow!

Haven't been to the doctors for years and years as long as I can remember.

I'm "one of those".  No regular visits to the Doctor since my view on health is more holistic-oriented rather than medical-community and drug-oriented.

Prevent vs Fix.

However, now that I'm sliding down the other side of the mountain, it's probably a good idea to see what's going on.

Hope they give me a free sucker if I'm good and don't fuss when they draw blood.

They'd better!

Indestructible

Feelings are like energy.

They cannot be destroyed.

They at times must be expressed to prevent an explosion.

Some messages must be sent, although they are not intended to be received, but rather dissipated into outer space where they will travel on forever.