The pine pollen is deadly

The pine pollen has been appalling. I've been doing my best to stay out of it and have been suffering its effects. This year seems to have been far worse. I suspect a number of things are at play, all related to pollution. Normally there're a lot of planes overhead and a lot of traffic. With the Coronavirus panic going on, everybody is home. Pollution probably settles on the pollen, making it heavier and less airborne so there's not as much in the air. I breathe a lot of pollution, including diesel smoke from the busses I drive at work. This probably coats my olfactory nerves so I'm a little more protected from the pollen. Without either of those factors, it's like pollengeddon! Thus my bus time has been limited.

At the moment it looks like there aren't going to be any trips anywhere in the forseable future as everything is shut down - parks, interstates, airports and most stores. Those that are open are few and far between. Social distancing measures mean people have to stay 6 feet apart. I'm only working one day a week until likely August.

Today I got on and completed the welding part of my wind generator. As a tip to those wanting to weld, it's better to arrange welding rods so that several are sticking up out of the packet quite some distance from each other. That way they can be grabbed with gloved hands, quickly. One doesn't have to remove one's gloves - which takes time.

The green pole in the center of the old wheel hub I used for a base is not quite vertical. That was annoying so I tried to get the top straight to compensate. It's almost straight and was before I welded it. Afterwards though it seems to have thrown off a little. I'll have to compensate for that when I put it into use. That's easy enough - the inside of the wheel rim is filled with dirt and I'll just put an appropriately sided stone under one or more of the 5 legs protruding from the base to level it.

Next I bolted the turbine generator into place. That was pretty easy. I didn't have any number 6 locknuts so I am hoping there's not going to be too much vibration. The reason I've not put the turbine into use before is because I don't think it's going to be worthwhile. Having said that, I have all the free time due to Covid-19 shutdowns to experiment. Even on a cloudy day, solar panels make more sense for small electricity generation projects.

The bolt to secure the rotor arm to the generator arrived today. I've not installed it yet as it came from China but went through New York where it was repackaged by Connex. I have a policy of quarantining all mail for 10 days. One cannot be too careful with this virus thing. Also in the post from China are a pair of respirators, one with a full face visor and a spare set of filters.

I don't much care how I look when I go out. If people want to laugh then let them. If it was mandatory that everybody wore a bandana or cloth mask I wouldn't have to take such precautions.  The government is too short sighted to do that so every cough and every sneeze has the potential to become a cloud of death that will kill everybody that enters it without protection. It's almost to the point where a biological warfare suit is needed, not just a respirator then at the end of a mission outside, full decontamination procedures.

Needless to say, the police have already announced they will only come out for emergencies. Police in some areas are now only coming out if there's an active shooter on the premises. Thus there has been a run on guns and ammunition. Toilet paper is in short supply. In fact everybody is wondering just what the people hoarding supplies from the stores are going to hoard next.

Public gatherings and groups of more than 2 or 3 people have been banned. Reposessions and evictions have been banned. Today though, a sweaty, chubby woman came wandering down the driveway from a big pickup truck with a big trailer, asking about where another address was. I didn't know and told her what the addresses on site were but she still looked around, scoping out the place. She said she was looking for a Honda Civic that her "friend" had for her. Strange that she didn't know where her "friend" lived. A few minutes later the pickup tore down the road with a blue car that looked like it could have been a Honda Civic aboard. One wonders whether that was a robbery or an illegal repossession. One also wonders whether the people involved were planning to rob where I'm living.

When all this started, I thought about buying a carbine for personal protection. Pistols are well and good but it's hard to hit anything more than about 20 yards away, shooting quickly. Thus after consulting with my dad who advised that most of the "information" on shooting online was rubbish I got a nice 9mm carbine. Online the websites all claim 50 yard maximum range yet the figures say that the bullet will travel at least 3,000 yards. Indeed the Germans and the British used 9mm quite successfully at combat ranges of around 300 yards during WW2.

While an SKS in 7.62 is available, the problem with rifle rounds is over penetration and over range. If somebody is more than 300 yards away, I want to take cover rather than anything else. The whole point of a carbine is it's more of a defensive weapon. I'm not a hunter but if needed to a carbine will do the job nicely. I certainly don't want to have to walk more than 300 yards to pick up my game!

There was a .357 magnum carbine available but the magazine was tubular with bullets pressing on primers all the way along the barrel. Not an ideal situation. I'd have gone for a .357 magnum carbine over a 9mm but for the lack of a vertical magazine was a deal breaker.

So the upshot is I'm likely going to have to protect my base since there are clearly villains about as evidenced by the car theft/illegal repossession and the fact the police aren't willing to come out due to the virus. I'd rather be victorious than a victim.