Walt's Corner

I’m a watch guy. You’ll never catch an Apple Watch on me. Or Samsung. I take pride in mechanical/automatic watches. And a few quartz models as well. Not that there’s anything wrong with Apple or Samsung watches. You do you, baby!

Seiko Five are some of the best bang for you buck watches you can get. That is Seiko’s entry level watches brand. Nothing wrong with them. I have several Seiko Fives and all of them cost me less than $500 each.

So when I read this article claiming that Walmart was having a sale on a Seiko Five watch that normally retails for over $1000? My bullshit alarms were clamoring like a red alert on the bridge of the USS Defiant.

The Seiko Five SNK601, features the 7S26 entry level movement. Search google. You’ll find many stores selling them between $100-150.

Whoever wrote this article on The Street is high as fuck. Is this a great watch? Hell yeah it is. Has anyone ever paid $1000 for it? Na. Slow news day.

I’m all about horror. I would say that 99% of all the books in my library are horror. But I have a confession to make. I don’t care for slasher flicks. You know, all the killing spree horror movies of the 80s that maintain a cult following to this day. Freddy. Jason. I have never watched a single one.

This is probably why Strand’s TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING didn’t stand out to me at the time of first publication in 2022 ( I think?). I remember reading about it and how it was a nod to those old movies. That is the only excuse I can come up with to answer why I never read it. I did myself wrong. Not to mention this is the story that earned him the coveted Bram Stoker Award.

Written in the format of a lengthy website article, it weaves a story about a low-budget slasher flick that ended its short-lived theater run with someone who watched it over and over again and decided to recreate as many of the murders as possible during its last showing by killing audience members in the same manner as the murders on screen – and at the same time. Our antagonist in the movie is a roofer, who snaps and kills victims with the tools (mostly) available to someone in the roofing trade.

Obviously, this ends the run of the movie right there. Flash forward 20 years later and the same theater is showing the movie again during its twentieth anniversary. All precautions are taken to mitigate any violence, but that would make for a boring story wouldn’t it? You know someone (some two, or some more?), somehow, is going to try it again.

As a shorter story, it quickly runs through to the ending where a huge twist will turn you on a dime, twice, with plenty of laughs along the way.

Money Quote

Speaking about the original killer, when buying the implementations to carry out his sadistic plan, “What is not up for debate is that he went to a hardware store and purchased a number of tools that led the cashier to believe he was about to do some roof repair.”

Disclaimer: no popcorn was wasted during the creation of the featured image.

During our last FTX (Field Training eXercise for you civilians) our absorption fridge, a Norcold N611, locked up a couple times. The infamous Gas and Power lights blinking, meaning no AC power or propane available to run the fridge. Not a good thing for weekend warriors who primarily boondock. About a year ago we experienced this fault but was due to a dirty igniter/flame sensor.

We were 3 nights in to a 4 night camping trip – not cool. After resetting it quite a few times, it finally started working again. By the time we made it back home I could not get it to light anymore. I was wondering if this was my sign to finally swap out this 10 year old propane fridge with a nice 12-volt variable compressor model. The Norcold DMC 4081 would be the perfect drop-in replacement. But we’re talking about dropping a cool grand plus after taxes, shipping, and anchoring parts.

Disclaimer

Standard disclaimer applies. Do not attempt this unless you are comfortable and experienced with working on gas lines. Better to hire a professional.

Symptoms

When turned on, the fridge would tick-tick-tick-tick-tick but no light. We all know we need 3 things for combustion: spark, air, and fuel. The tick-tick tells me we had spark. There was definitely air. Must be missing fuel. After so many attempts to light it might finally give off a WHOOMPH! But die out immediately. Wouldn’t stay lit. I could hear a strained release of propane – like something was trying to make it through. But not enough to sustain a flame. That could only be a few things. The burner tube, the gas solenoid, the control board, or a blocked gas line. I knew the gas pressure was good coming from the tanks. I knew voltage was present at the solenoid. That left me thinking either the burner or the valve. Both part numbers are listed below and are an easy find on Amazon. Just be sure your particular model number fridge is listed. Going for the cheapest item first, I ordered the $15 burner tube. Pulled it and cleaned it. No dice. Replaced it. Still no dice.

The Cure

Next up was the $69 gas solenoid valve. Turned off and burned off the remaining propane in the line using the stove. Simple gas line compression nuts came clean off and connecting the lines back up to the new solenoid was a breeze. Used some liquid propane gas leak detector and no leaks detected. The fridge fired right up. Success!

Tools Required

Offset (or low profile bit set) phillips for valve retaining screws
5/8 inch stubby wrench (valve output line)
3/4 inch wrench (valve input line)
9/16 inch wrench to hold the valve in place while torquing down the nuts
Gas leak detector

Parts

Gas Solenoid Valve – Norcold 633726
Refrigerator Burner – Norcold 621957

It is that time of year once again when my wife is unemployed for the summer. Did I mention she is a teacher? After slaving the entire school year away from oh-dark-thirty AM to oh-dark-thirty PM, she has certainly earned her summer off. But these summers seem to be getting smaller.

I remember as a kid, summers were hella-long and are where some of my most favorite memories stem from.

3^rd grade summer is especially memorable for me. We lived in the country in Michigan. The forest was our back yard. Our nearest neighbor was miles down the road. My sister and I would be gone all day exploring those woods and dirt county roads. Once we found a pear tree. None of them were ripe. None of them were given the opportunity to become ripe. We had the entire tree bare of fruit within a couple of days.

 Ivy Brown, from Link Booster Pro sends me:

Hi There,

 Ivy this side, a professional link builder. I wanted to ask if your website currently accepts guest posts or link insertions with do-follow links to a commercial website. If yes, then my client clerk.chat has some high-quality content around Tech, AI, Recruitment & Marketing links ready with me which aligns with your niche.

Could you please share your rates and partnership rules? A simple “”No”” answer will also work.

What did Ivy fail to do? Ivy did not read the name and description of Walt’s Corner. With no fucking ads or AI. Especially no bullshit AI. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. How about a simple “ignore that ass?”

Roasted 3 pounds of Brazil over the weekend. I like the flavor of this coffee but I don’t like roasting it. It makes my roaster dirtier than other coffees. Puts out more smoke while roasting. Also, the cracks are very hard to hear compared to my other coffees. I’ve only got one more pound left.

Finally ran out of the last 20 pound bag of Nicaragua and opened my next one from the Papandayan Region – think Maylasia, Indonesia area. This is Java Sunda Wet Process Siki Alit. This time the 20-pound bag came in just 43 grams over weight.

I was also lucky enough to score a pound of some Kona before it sold out, and it sold out fast. Really looking forward to that coming in!