Trials and tribulations, and some progress...

Trials and tribulations, and some progress...  This morning I took my new lawn and garden sprayer out for it's maiden voyage.  It worked great ... but only for about five minutes.  After that, a bolt I forgot to tighten fell out, the sprayer boom fell off, and a small (but essential) plastic part broke.  Dang it!  I called the manufacturer's customer service line, and inside of 30 seconds they identified the broken part, verified that they had stock, and promised to ship it out later today – for free, under warranty.  Can't beat that with a stick!

Last week I dealt with a very rare shipping problem for an Amazon order – a hand truck I'd ordered a month ago had never arrived.  Amazon said they'd ship me a replacement via one-day shipping.  Great!  Except that when I got the confirmation, it listed my mom's address instead of mine.  Not so great.  I called Amazon again, and they said they'd change the shipping address and I should have it by Monday (yesterday).  It didn't arrive.  So this afternoon I called Amazon again, and they said that Federal Express had reported it as lost.  Somebody doesn't want me to have this hand truck!  Amazon now has the second replacement order placed for me, also via overnight delivery, and I just checked that it's going to the correct address.  I wonder what will happen next?

On the positive side, the painters made more progress today – we now have a number of rooms that are completely finished, and things are looking very nice indeed.  Also today the new railing and handrail for our basement entrance-way arrived.  These were designed and fabricated by a local metal worker, and they are far better made than the bent and broken original.  The hand railing needs some minor modification, so it went back to the shop.  The rail, however is now completely installed.  I watched the process, which was far more interesting than I expected it to be.  Instead of the crappy fasteners and worse glue that held the old rail in (which the installers just yanked out!), the new one is anchored in super-strength concrete.  To do this, the installers drilled 3" diameter holes 4" down into the concrete (see photos below), then inserted the new railing and poured the super-strength concrete to make solid footings.  This new rail isn't going anywhere!

The old railing - note the bend in it!

The "core" drill bit...

That's a serious drill!  Note the water cooling...

The drill in action...

The "core" removed by cracking after drilling...

The new railing after installation...

The super-strength concrete footing...

I bask in my own ignorance...

I bask in my own ignorance...  Just ran across a bizarre but easy-to-understand mathematical factoid, which led me to this post that I don't understand at all.

Here's the bizarre factoid: take any prime number other than 2 or 3.  Square it, then subtract one.  The result will be an even multiple of 24.  For example, 1,373 is a prime number; 1,373^2 - 1 = 1,885,128 – which, divided by 24 is 78,547.  I have no idea why this should be so, and it seems mighty odd to me that it is.  What the heck is so special about the number 24?

One slight addendum: the starting number doesn't actually have to be prime, it just has to be relatively prime to 24 (which is another way of saying that it can't be divisible by either 2 or 3).  For example, 25 is not a prime number, but 25^2 - 1 = 24 * 26...

One scarcely knows what to say...

One scarcely knows what to say...  So it's probably best to say nothing at all...

Good citizen...

Good citizen...  Yesterday in Syracuse, Utah (an hour southwest of Paradise), a kid stole a car and then started driving repeatedly through a park full of kids out playing.  On the third pass, a standup citizen with a big diesel pickup rammed the stolen car to stop it.

I don't know how many people have the level of concern and gumption it would take to do something like this, but ... I suspect it's a lot more likely in Utah than in some other places (say, California).

Good job, citizen.  Good job...