From the start, I figured it was rigged. The game that showed up at County Fairs and carnivals consisted of a tall thermometer like thing and a press surface which the player struck with a mallet. Strike it hard enough and a ball was propelled upward to strike a bell but only in theory. No one could strike it hard enough. Close, but no banana.

I have never liked rigged games because rules don’t count. Gimmicks rule. So I never attempted that game and never felt tempted.

Now that I think back on it, the things I quickly abandon are the ones where rules don’t count except against you even though rules count heavily in the construction of the unequal contests. In those, the rules are designed to keep you defenseless and then to defeat attempts at redress.

I’ve now concluded that this is just part of  life so that by the time you have done battle with “unfair” attempts to knock you off balance and destroy your hope you become stable across the range of destabilizing obstacles you’ve had to learn to keep standing in tempest and distraction.

So I stopped writing the post of exasperation about the day when things combined against me. It was about normal stuff that seemed big at the time.

While I prepared a Sunday lesson to teach the concept that we should cultivate an attitude of happiness and optimism I was going the other way by getting more and more frustrated. My little car seemed intent not to work despite a long repair process. And there were very perplexing things going on in other arenas. Wah!

And then I started getting insights. I began to have answers to questions that had vexed me since my youth.

I had discovered secrets of the universe. Big ones.

An insight would inspire me. Some force of persuasion would arise to create doubt. Another insight would come. More doubt thrown into the pot.

And finally, a master insight came. Why I’m so late discovering this stuff is curious. My guess is there is a metering system that allows revelation to percolate.

Meanwhile, I’ve let it be known that I could be available for more appropriate employment opportunities within months. That led to an offer. I’m mulling it over.

I shared the high points with someone close who then had a dream that painted the offer in a different light than I was seeing it.

I appreciate this diagram more as life proves it true. I’ve explained it in prior posts. It came to me in 1986 to provide a guide in selecting a wife. She and I would have a similar path and similar historical patterns of living.

Who you unite your life with matters in the direction  your life will take.

Lives

Meanwhile the car is off the jacks and just requires adjustment. For now the thermostat is out pending my education about how it works so I can orient it the right direction in it’s little nest. I didn’t know if it was a bi-metal strip or simple heat expanding spring that activated the water gate. Or is there a heat activated wax that softens? It currently has trouble shifting. The linkage geometry was somewhat changed by some work I did on a pivot rod and I don’t know if I have the clutch pedal travel set where it ought to be.

Alloy Type 74 (Twin cam) Lotus brand Wheel

Castings are known to be porous so I will paint the web and inner rim with por-15

Holes are straight. No taper. So centering the wheel requires special attention

The lug nuts I have are too wide across the shank

Then I found a set of wheels for the other Europa. To my surprise I find that getting lug nuts is spendy. New ones at Rdent are about $200. Way too much. I have nuts for American Racing wheel alloys, but they’re too wide at the shank. should be 3/8″ thread 24 thread pitch 5/8th inch shank diameter 3/4″ thread shaft length. Tires are 175/70 13″ and to my surprise they were no problem to source. Costco sells them.