Small victories

I have written from time to time about driving the casual carpool.  This happened yesterday.

I had a full car, and was on the carpool only on-ramp.  A few car lengths ahead I saw someone stop, and try to force themselves into the left hand (the on-ramp has two lanes, that merge at the very top) lane.  It held up traffic for a bit, until the driver managed to stick his nose between two cars, and make everyone wait until the lane change was accomplished.

There is no good reason to be changing lanes there, they are going to merge soon anyway.  Except, it was a solo driver on the carpool on-ramp, and a highway patrolman was parked near the top of the ramp.  The driver was trying to make it more difficult to be seen.

Shortly after, the highway patrolman was walking between the lanes of traffic.  This was not a dangerous maneuver, the traffic was stop and go.  He signaled to the right hand lane to stop, creating a gap.  He pointed to the solo driver, signaling for him to turn into the hole created by the stopped traffic, and pull over.

We passed the car as the patrolman was at the car window, explaining to the driver the error of his ways.  We all cheered as we drove by.

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A perfectly good electric motor

We use airbeds in our home.  I don't sleep on one, but we do keep two or three around.

Between children and grandchildren, family gatherings can be a lot of people.  More people than we have beds and couches for.  I think for a few days in late spring there were twelve or thirteen extra people in the house.  So out come the airbeds.

I have successfully patched airbeds with a leak, but kids just seem to have this deep seated need to make new leaks.  I have one of those right next to me.  It is fully inflated, standing up against a wall, unwilling to reveal where the latest (I have patched it twice previously) leak might be.  I think this one is toast.

And that brings me back to the question I have been pondering.  What to do with the pump?

It is a perfectly good pump, probably designed to last much longer than bed itself.  It seems like there should be something to be done with it, that it could be re-purposed is some way.

I have a treasure chest full of cables and electronic components of one sort or another that I keep, I suppose it could go in there.  But everything in there I have an idea of what I could use it for.  The pump?  Not a clue.

I have tried a few different google searches, and so far all the results have been about the PVC that most airbeds are made from, and the difficulty of recycling that.  It seems like there should be some useful purpose for a perfectly goods electric pump.

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