I have today (Friday) off. No work, no meetings, no just check this real fast. Day off. I haven't taken a day like this to myself in at least 10 years.
I have today (Friday) off. No work, no meetings, no just check this real fast. Day off. I haven't taken a day like this to myself in at least 10 years.
Had a presentation/review with management and their management today that I had put together well, but wasn't all rosy news in terms of timing. Had really good discussions, did know the content, and all in all went well. Been sweating it for the last ~6 weeks.
i have submitted my retirement announcement, effective 4/30. no longer will i be a tool of the man. still a tool, though.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Congratulations!
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Careful now. You'll run out of reasons for not finishing your car on time...
I didn't want to sully the above congratulations, so a separate post for being delighted that the MGB GT is now doing daily driver duty. One full day so far.
It needs... a lot. But I'm going to try to use it while I sell the F55 Mini and look for something more practically-shaped than the MG but more interesting than the Mini for DD duty. XJ6? Bavaria? ???
This gives me a great chance to document everything that bugs me about the GT so I can address as much as possible at the next round of renovation.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Congratulations man, you've earned it. If you're going to be a tool, be the best of all possible tools!
Scrapped the bare race car donor body, even though I didn't have the title. (Win #1)
Got $200 scrap for wiring, battery, AC condenser, 14" alloys, random scrap steel (win #2)
Took the rotten demounted tires to Firestone to pay to dispose. They were very busy, so service writer said "You know where these go?" Yep, I do. "Just pile them up next to the cage." Okay, thanks, buh-bye! No charge.... (Win #3)
Saturday is usually my day to take the smallest of Monohues out of the house. No single remarkable event took place today, but I'm sitting here wondering why it felt so good. It seems like his attitude and confidence seemed to very suddenly take a big leap forward, as though he transitioned overnight from a needy preschooler to an almost-Kindergartner. The highlight was getting his genuine, enthusiastic help in ripping our old mailbox off the mount and prepping the mount for the new one. All thirtysomething pounds of him was reefing on the nail puller, prying decades-old nails out of a board and shouting, "YES! I love this so much!" I put the new box in place while he went in for dinner, and when I asked him to come take a look, he said, "Yeah, let's go see our handiwork!" I guess that's a word four-year-olds use now.
That's all I got. It was just a good day to be a dad.
6 years ago we got a free grill, and spent $80 replacing grates and a burner. It's now falling apart and I haven't been able to imagine spending $300+ on a replacement.
today a neighbor put a brand new grille out to the curb - it must have been damaged in transit, as it's a little banged up on the mounting flanges. But I'm pretty sure I can hammer those flat, add some nuts/bolts from my stash, and end up with a very free, very nice brand new grill.
I successfully made breakfast sausage today for the first time.
Did a 2lb test batch exactly to Alton Brown's recipe, substituting lard for fat back, and it was ok.
Added hot honey, doubled the cayenne, and made a 4.5lb batch that's just about right.
pre cooked patties, cause they look a little better.
I'm going to cook the rest Thursday or Friday after I clean and reseason the Blackstone. End goal being home made frozen breakfast sandwich fillings with eggs, so I can grab, nuke, and eat.
Great, another expensive hobby.
I had an industrial belt sander, a Delta/Milwaukee/whatever cast iron lump, more than 20 years ago, and after using it a short time, the motor died. I picked up a new cheap motor for it, but never got it back together and eventually gave it to a buddy.
Fast forward to last month.. he mentions it's still out in his garage. He never touched it but he's a hoarder so of course it's still out there. I asked him to pull it out if he could find it. He did, and I spent a few hours finding more appropriate ratio drive pulleys for it, wiring it (it had random unmarked 12 gauge wiring sticking out of a box, WTH 20 year ago me?!).
It runs! My girls have christened it the Death Sander.
Got my new bike delivered today, most of the team is out of the office for the week. Got 90% of my paperwork up to date and done. Just a happy day all around. Going for a ride up the coast around 3:00 today to get some sun.
Construction deposit is paid, colors and finishes are chosen, upgrades are approved (gas range, better crappers, carpet pad) and we're officially underway. T-minus 20 weeks.
Went to check to see if the salvage yards in Louisville & Cinci had anything interesting that I should go look at tomorrow since they're having a 25% off sale- and saw that they are going to have a location here in Lexington opening this July! We've not had a good u-pull-it lot here for like a decade, I'm thrilled! I wonder if it's going to be in the location where the last one to close was- I hope so, it's pretty close to our house!
Edit: Yup- Google Maps already has it listed even though they're not open yet. Score!
Munchkin got her permit on the first try!
We dated 5 weeks, told the world to F-off and eloped our senior year in high school.
Everyone said we'd be divorced within a year. Then it was you'll never make it 5 years. Then 15.
Well, guess what shiny happy people, you were all wrong.
We celebrated 38 years of marriage yesterday and are already making plans for the next 38 years.
after looking at houses in our price range closer to the city, we decided to look just a little bit further out. Found a nice house with a full acre, a pool, a huge garage, and a carport for my trailer for under my budget. Houses in my budget closer to where we're renting were more fit for cooking meth than living in.
already shopping for a 4 post lift lol
This weekend was massively productive!
On Friday, I got to go to dinner and a movie with my wife, which was awesome. Saturday, I cut down some stuff from the back garden, we dug out a decent-sized section of it, and we got mulch down out there. We needed a new string trimmer and I had my eye on a Ryobi 40v one that was advertised at $159.99 but when they rang it up it was $99 for the trimmer with a 4ah battery and a charger. Then we went for dinner and drinks at a pretentious place in Dayton that was okay but nowhere near as good as they thought they were. Sunday, I got the rest of the mulch off the trailer and took it back to the storage lot, returned the mulch pallet to Home Depot to get my $25 back, did the Costco shopping, and helped a friend look at a turbo NA Miata that he was thinking about buying. After dinner, I helped my daughter get the clutch and flywheel off her Civic's engine and got the engine on the stand. It took an unreal amount of time and effort to get the alternator off the engine, but we were able to do that. Sprinkled in there, I also took an exam for my anthropology class and made up two paragraphs worth of crap for the "what did you learn this semester" writing assignment. The only bad part of the weekend was that my wife fell down the steps and it now looks like she has a softball attached to her ankle.
Another awesome weekend with my son to Camp Deer Valley. Or as the Pittsburgh folks say, "up ta camp" for the weekend.
Scary but good day: My business partner retired from our partnership, but will still do work for me. He ran the business, though.
The change will be gradual, and very likely for the better of both of us. He gets more free time (which he desperately needs) and I get more money (potentially, which would be nice.)
Somehow have managed to survive the third round of layoffs in the last year and a half- though ironically I'm still not sure whether I wanted to or not. Does at least mean we don't have to worry about finding health coverage for a while...
The blower fan in my daily (2019 Mazda CX-3) started making scary noises like eeeek, screeech, errrr a few weeks ago and then completely stopped working last Friday.
I stink at electrical diagnostics so much that if I get it right it's a "Fluke" (sorry for the dad joke, I'll get my coat).
Anyway, I ordered a new blower fan from Rock Auto on Saturday and paid forty eight bucks American all up including tax and shipping, got an e-mail this afternoon letting me know that it had been delivered, and after a tick less than thirty minutes for the R&R job I'm now searching WebMD for frostbite treatments as my HVAC system is running so strong.
Sometimes, sometimes, projects actually don't fight you.
Dear Mazda,
Thank you so much for making your cars easy to work on, I super duper appreciate it.
I gave my spinner a quick polish!
Before:
After:
In reply to Shadeux :
I did that two and a half years ago. It was a big step and slightly terrifying.
It was also the right step.
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