2025: What are you doing today?

[chimp koose]

had students help me design and build a master cyl mount and coil mounts for the chopper today . They will finish their designs tomorrow . Get a kick out of seeing how empowered they feel when I ask them "what do you think " and let them make what they/we feel is the best idea . I have a really nice coil mount shaping up and it was NOT the idea I had.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Busy couple daze here.  I spend a few hours a day on kitchen cabinet installation.  I use a wall mounted rail system Hang-it-yourself dot com product.

Upper cabinets on 2 walls are sorta done, only final trim out to be done.  Missing door you say?  Stripped hole in hinge mount. Tooth picks and glue is drying. 

3rd wall for cabinets is on the right , not seen in the photo.  I am waiting for last cabinets for that wall. Suppose to be here end of next week.  LOL

Base cabinets begin thursday.

I burned some landscape debris this morning.  No police here again. 

Tuesday nite, I worked on my car trailer a bit. I made up 2 of the battery cables from the battery. Used my Harbor freight hydraulic press tool on the wire lugs.  I shortened the wire harness for the cable plug the the hand held control box plugs into.  Still Need to mount that cable plug.

Tired old guy I am ... LOL.  I sit down and nearly fall asleep for some reason?  weird

[58 Yeoman]

Cabinets are looking good, Tony.  You guys are getting to do all the fun stuff.  Last Thursday, I had the last stitches out of my eyelid surgery which was done in February.  Three hour round trip for 10 minute session.  Monday I went in to the local dermatologist (30 minute drive one way) and he cut a large hole in the top of my head, 5.2 x 3.5cm to get rid of a basal cell cancer.  Told me I have another bad spot right in front of that one that will have to be taken care of after this one heals.  Stitches will come out April 7.  Tuesday went in for a CT scan to see if the enlarged aorta they found last year got any larger; it didn't.  Then had to go for ultra sound on both legs to see if there were any blot clots.  Nope.  Good to go.

Took both vehicles in to Costco today to have all the wheels balanced and rotated, both done at the same time.  We walked over to Target to do some shopping, as we did shopping at Costco yesterday.  Takes them an hour and a half.  I guess they want you to spend time in the store to spend more money??  We're staying home tomorrow.

[WZ JUNK]

Most of the aluminum welding is done.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Finally took the time and finished the winch install on my car trailer. Built the last two power cables. Drilled hole for the connector to hand held controller.

Black square gizmo under the winch is the relay that powers the winch. All the wires run to this relay.  It works well.

Harbor Freight winch. I waited till it was discounted $$ a few weeks back.

As I recall? My old winch was a rate 4K ? It lasted 32- 33 yrs I guess. I doubt I will be around at age 105 to replace this winch if it lasts?

[idrivejunk]

 

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Progress on the kitchen has been slower than desired.  Have the micro wave mounted. Range Vent exhaust tube hooked up , that required a visit into the attic. I had the 4inch tube in place weeks ago in the attic.

Lower cabinets in place. Attached to the walls. Fitment around the electric range set. I have to set - move cabinets a bit.  Capped off Natural gas pipe behind the range keeps the range forward an extra 1 inch. I brought the lower cabinets forward slightly so the range does not sit out further, goofy looking.

I have started on the cabinets behind me as I took this shown photo.  2 pantry cabinets, upper and lower cabinets there too.  Wife seems happy with setup so far.


Weather has been wild.  1.75 days of 30 mph winds.  Clouds. Rain. Hail.  2 day of 62*F temps,  this wednesday it was 50*F with 15 - 20 mph winds.

[jaybee]

Looking good, Tony. It'll all be worth it when you're done.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Break from kitchen work ...  We have a spot in the front yard that grows toadstools. A lot of them. This is the 3rd time I have dug out these things. The dirt starts to "hump up" , I know more toadstools are there.

The area is where the previous owner removed some plant or tree?  Filled in the area with peat moss dirt or similar. ? 

You folks know what split rail wood fence is? Common item here in the desert. I dug up a few wood rail stumps in the same area.  The previous owners lived here 50 yrs. Lots of stuff changed in the yard.

lastly: We had rain , hail , snow, wind here on thursday.  On the I-40 west of  Winslow the hail was so heavy , the road looked snow covered in a few areas.

 

[chimp koose]

Today I spent 40 minutes looking where I set down a part for the chopper that would take 45 minutes to build again ! Made weld on mounts for the pegs and forward controls .

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Spent all day thrusday and friday in the kitchen , mostly .   

Set pantry (2) cabinets in place on right.  Moved fridge in place checking for door opening interference with fridge or other stuff. Spaced bridge cabinet (over fridge) 1 inch from pantry for more space.  Spaced 2 walll cabinets over 3 inches for more space to open doors.

Counter tops are 4 weeks out.  Which is sorta OK..  I am going to install new drawer slides on the cabinets. Slow close , smoother slides than the oem stuff. These cabinets may be (are) low end units from a home improvement store that has Depot in its name. ?

Fixed more stripped holes for hinges in wood. Must be friday afternoon built cabinets?

Can not get some doors to adjust up into place and gaps set.  Measure the doors.. Couple are not same widths as other dooors? Weird.  More friday afternoon built stuff?

Worked on the bedroom wall again.. Remove sheet rock from around the window.. That went sorta smoothly. I have glue and clamps on pieces of furred out wood that split apart as I muscled the sheet rock off. ALways something. LOL  New windows are not here yet. Some windows we a ordered were discontinued. Plan B activated on that.

[58 Yeoman]

Looking better all the time, Tony.  Since we sold the backup generator and got rid of that little shed, the mrs. said I may need a new shed there to hold the overflow stuff from the shop, like rakes and shovels (because we don't want rakes and shovels in the shop).  She said it would be an early Birthday present.  Found a nice resin shed at Costco; https://www.costco.com/suncast-6-x-4-vertical-shed.product.100656654.html, which is way cheaper at the warehouse.  Anyway, there is a 1 1/2" water drain running outside the shop, right where that shed will go.  It has frozen up on me once or twice, so I thought I would heat tape it and insulate it before building the shed.

Man, you'd thought I wanted to buy a new car for $1000 trying to find that insulation in this area.  It has to be 1 7/8" ID to fit the pvc pipe and no one carries it, and to special order it, you have to buy the 15 pack for around $75.  Think I'll pass and just cross my fingers like years past.

The weather is supposed to drop below freezing again tonight.  I'm waiting for constant warm weather.  I don't like cold weather.  I want to be outside.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Man, you'd thought I wanted to buy a new car for $1000 trying to find that insulation in this area.  It has to be 1 7/8" ID to fit the pvc pipe and no one carries it, and to special order it, you have to buy the 15 pack for around $75.  Think I'll pass and just cross my fingers like years past.

Phil: can you find pool noodles in the area?  Would that fit the pipe?  just a thought

Out here , I have seen small and larger pool noodles at wally world and various other stores

[jaybee]

Phil, have you checked Amazon?

[58 Yeoman]

Pool noodles aren't hollow.  Around here anyway.  I checked Amazon, but the ones they sell say they're for pipe insulation, but also for roll bars, exercise equipment, etc., and they aren't split with the glue edges.  Yeah,  I know, petty.  They're also almost four times as expensive.  I'll probably end up getting three of them from Amazon for almost $40 when I could've gotten them from Menards for around $15, if they still sold them individually.

It just ticks me off that everyone says 'buy locally' and when you go to the store, it's 'sorry, we can order it for you, but we don't carry it.'  Well, duh, why would I make the trip when I can order it and have it delivered to my home for free?

On the bright side, I'm going to the dermatologist on Monday to have the stitches taken out of my head.  That was a deep one, and is still  painful, but that's the price I gotta pay for not wearing a hat or using sunscreen when I was young.

Taking the Subaru in on Tuesday for a fluid change on the CVT.  First one I've ever had, and I've been pleased with it, other than it feels like driving a snowmobile when you kick it down.  We bought the car when it was three years old with about 30,000 miles on it, so I don't know if it had been changed or not.  I haven't had it changed, as we usually trade her car before it hits 100k, but when we walked into the dealer in January to look at new Subies, the salesperson ticked us off, like she really didn't want to sell a new car.  And that's what I told the service manager last week when I made the appointment for the fluid change.  He asked me "was that at this dealer?"   I said yep.  Anyway, I hope it doesn't screw up the trans with new fluid in it.  I'll have to be buying new tires for it this fall too, as these won't make it through the winter. 

Got a lot of mileage out of them, BFG's. We put them on shortly after buying the car, IIRC.  Forgot to write down the miles.  Might have it in the file cabinet.  The Tacoma will need new tires this fall, too.  Michelin's with about 70,000 on them and looking good, but will not be good for snow.  Getting the windows tinted on the Tacoma this Thursday. Tired of the hot sun beating on me, plus the glare. He's going to keep it legal at 35% on the door windows (in Illinois), but is also going to tint the whole windshield.  My stepson had his done on his GMC and my wife really liked it.  Not really legal, but hard to tell it's done.