Once again, I’m on the road and taking the opportunity to close out the post quota for the month. I must congratulate myself for making it through the entire month without a single bird picture. Just a little relief from the barrage last month… and a break since next month will once again be all about our feathered friends – not sure yet if it will be from our Banner Marsh outing our vacation up in Wisconsin over Easter. I can tell you are already filled with excitement. Today is actually a new topic to the blog and one I’ve been kicking around for awhile. There are tools/devices that have been around for the ages yet still play a pivotal roll in our life (well, at least mine). The ones I wanted to focus on are those that really have not changed in functionality or operation. For example, I’m ruling out the cell phone – granted it really hasn’t been around all that long – but the sexy smartphones of today are far cry from the bag phones of yesteryear. So, the guidelines are it has to have the same basic functionality that it had when I became aware of it and still providing value today.
The inaugural entry in what I am referring to as Life’s Toolbox is … drum roll….the Voltmeter. One of the reasons for this choice is due to recently having to employ it to fix my tractor. My brother originally showed me how to use this device when I was growing up and we were geeking it up modifying the Commodore 64 and testing out other circuit boards – by the way, the Radio Shack experiment set should be mandatory for ALL grade schoolers. I had a number of circuit logic classes in college and oh, there was that electronic circuit class I took just for fun one summer back – I was driving over there for some Psych classes and figured I’d just stay an extra hour and compliment my human wiring classes.
Since those days tinkering with breadboards, the voltmeter has never been far -nor has the voltmeter changed one iota. I have the same one I acquired in college and used exactly the same way I did back then. Whenever something electrical breaks around the house our need to figure out what the hell our electricians did while building our house (looooong story there), I start slapping the probes on any wires I can find. This was the case when my old John Deere decided to become stubborn. I have a 316 that was built in 1985 and a 212 built in 1975 which are used as brush and trail mowers in order to keep the wear off our X500. Nothing can stop that 212 even though its used as a trail blazer in the woods. The 316 can be a little finicky and this time it wouldn’t turn over. Alright, into the garage it went and out came the voltmeter.
Hit the jump to see how the voltmeter recently came in quite handy
