Fatherhood - Justin Foell

Before I moved to Salt Lake City to cement my relationship with Jessi, we courted. It was fun because every other month or so I’d fly to Salt Lake or Jessi would fly to Minneapolis. We would give each other the tourist treatment. I’d take Jessi to worthwhile hotspots in Minneapolis, and she’d give me glimpse into her world in trade.

Possibly as a useful introduction to her grandfather, Jessi invited me to go with her and her grandpa to the Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City. Jessi’s grandpa Robert is actually a freelance family researcher.

Robert “Bob” Vandegrift is a consummate professional. He provided custom documentation record worksheets to record our findings, as we worked our way through the census records and other documentation. He’s helped settle several cases to correctly determine family heirs. It was a great way to meet a potential family member and learn what their passion is.

The genealogy library is one of the most unique amenities available in Salt Lake City, I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to visit. You take several hours and dig into just one branch of your family tree. Continue reading →

No I haven’t been giving my 2-year-old wine, scotch, or beer. The point is, I don’t have to. She acts like a drunk 24/7. If you don’t believe me, I present for your amusement, the ways a 2-year-old is like a drunk…

They’re easily incited. If a chant is started, they’ll quickly join in, whether or not the chant goal meets their needs, they just want to join in the fun.

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We got Marlo a Y Glider scooter for her 2nd birthday. At 18 months, I had already seen her try to take up scootering at the community center. Also, she refused to walk until the 21 month mark, although clearly she knew how to stand up and walk. She just preferred to scoot, earning her the nickname “Scootio”

Jules enjoys riding Marlo’s scooter as well, but I told him he can only ride it until he turns 6. At that point, I’ll turn him loose on an old-school Variflex Strada scooter I’ve had in the shed for some time.
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When it comes to skateboards, Variflex is the last name you want to hear. It is the brand of skateboard you’d get at Target in the 1980s. In skateboard speak, Variflex is for posers.

A “real” 80s scooter made by Dyno or Mongoose would cost a pretty penny due to their vintage value. Side note: you can now buy Mongoose bikes at Target – they’re closer to Variflex in quality compared to their 80s offerings.

The Variflex Strada scooters can be had from garage sales or craigslist for $20 or even less since they sold so many. I got one for free.

The brakes are the absolute worst part of this scooter. With a decent brake upgrade, it will be suitable to ride.

New Rear V-Brake

I purchased a Mini (BMX) V-brake kit that came with the brake, a brake lever, and a cable.

V-Brake Posts

I just needed to get it all fixed up to the scooter. Since the old brake was a center-pull style brake, I needed to add the brake posts that v-brakes mount up to. For those, I hit up Erik at Peacock Groove.

The posts need to be welded to the frame. I had removed all of the paint from the frame to paint it a completely different color, but I could have just removed a small bit of paint around the welding area.

To figure out the spacing, I mounted up the rear wheel/tire assembly. I loosely fastened the posts & brakes (with brake pads), and positioned them generally where I thought they should be to make good contact with the wheel rim.

I marked the frame with a marker, and then measured the width of the post placement, center-to-center.

V-Brake Post Welding Jig

To hold the posts in place while welding them to the frame, I built a jig. It is made out of a couple pieces of flat aluminum from the hardware store:

I drilled 3 holes in the top aluminum piece. One for each brake post, using my previous measurement to space them out correctly. And one for a fastening bolt. On the bottom piece, I drilled only one hole in the center for the fastening bolt. I fastened the brake posts to the top aluminum piece using the hardware included in the brake kit, and then used a long bolt and nut to hold it all in place:

Brake Boss Fitament

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE – the posts shown in the photo above are backwards. The holes for the brake spring should be on the inside, towards the wheel. 😎

Once I had things lined up, I needed to contour the brake post base to sit nicely against the frame tubing. I put it in a vise with some cloth to keep it from being marred – masking tape would probably work as well. Then I used a die grinder to shape it – a dremel would probably work here as well.

I am not a good welder, in fact I’m probably the world’s worst. I acquired a welder from a friend for a song and I probably only weld something once a year. Accomplished welders probably welded something every day for a year to get where they’re at. I’m about 360 welds short of that.

Anyway, the posts are on and I don’t think they’re going anywhere, so I finished painting the frame and fastened everything up.

A note on paint

I had planned on doing a 3-coat process to paint: primer, base coat, and clear coat. The issue came when I applied the clear coat – the base coat began to crack and peel as if I were spraying on paint thinner. This may have been because I was using a gloss base color that possibly wasn’t meant to have a clear over it.

I just wanted to do it cheaply with some durability. Whatever caused the issue, you’ve been warned 😎

Happy Scootering!

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My son Jules loves trains. I like trains too and my enthusiasm was probably the seed that grew into his obsession. My good friend Joe bought Jules a copy of “Trainz Railroad Simulator” for Christmas a year ago. It was in the bargain bin at Mills Fleet Farm:

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But rather than using the keyboard to play the game, I thought it would be easier to use some sort of joystick. A quick internet search yielded this:

It looks huge and intimidating, but based on some of the flight simulator setups I’ve seen, the train cab controller is positively tame:

Still at $180, I wasn’t about to buy the Train Cab Controller, which would certainly make the game infinitely more complex for a 5 year old. Trainz has a “DCC mode” which allows you to control the trains very simply like they are model trains: with a dial.

I always wanted a Griffin Powermate – a superfluous USB volume knob you can add to any computer. But now I had an actual use. I got a USB Powermate for $30 shipped from Amazon.

Powermate Setup for Trainz

When it arrived, I downloaded and installed their driver software. It renders terribly in Windows 7 (it was probably last updated for Windows XP):

The “click” and “long click” actions are hidden in the interface (you can only see 4 at a time). But they’re there, you just need to highlight an action, and arrow down until you get to others.

For the Trainz Simulator setup, I added the following settings:

Rotate Right: Send Key – W (forward)
Rotate Left: Send Key – X (reverse)

These keys control the forward/reverse dial in the game. I set the sensitivity fairly high (see screenshot) so a turn of the Powermate would closely match what you saw onscreen.

Click: Send Key – S (stop)
Long Click: Send Key – A (apply brake)

“S” stops the train by putting the dial immediately back to zero, so a quick click is an easy way to stop. Trains are heavy though and the “A” key normally applies the brake, so I added a long click action to apply the brake – I like to think of the long click like pressing the brake pedal in a car.

Enjoy

It works exactly as I imagined: simple! You can see the “dial” on the screen and the Powermate glowing under Jules’ hand that now controls it. Easy peasy.

Both the Griffin Powermate and Trainz Simulator (newer versions) are available for Mac OSX so Apple loving trainiacs won’t be left out.

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I don’t normally go into gushy personal stuff here, but since publish day lands on my wedding anniversary with Jessi, I thought it was appropriate. Also, our gift giving seems to be at a stalemate this year as neither of us really wants anything, besides “your extra time and your… KISS!