I signed off a bit ago, no work for me until January 3rd. My mom and her husband are coming to stay with us this weekend through Christmas, hoping I'll get a chance next week to go see my Aunt who is in from out of town and my dad who is recovering well from his surgeries (his liver cancer came back from a few years ago). And my grandmother who will turn 101 this coming year and still lives on her own!
Other than that, going to get back to work on some LEGO Technic kits, play around with the guitars, and get the sim rig updated for iRacing and everything so I can use it again.
What about y'all?
Motor just got swapped on the M3 (old one was down on compression after 220 track hours, replaced with a junkyard motor), so I need to make some room in the garage to store the old one (keeping it as an emergency spare and future rebuild core). The new/used motor hasn't run in a long, so I also need to go find a day to run at the track it before making a dyno appointment to detune it for NASA.
I ordered the parts to build a sim rig around black friday, hoping that I'll have all the parts in by next week so I can start putting it together.
Plus the usual holiday stuff -- xmas tree to put up, baking to do, xmas dinner shopping trip to Costco, presents to wrap for the kids, etc.
On PTO this week at my SIL's beach condo in SC (with wife and kids). Also tested positive for Covid yesterday so I've got that going for me..
Have to be back at work next week which is okay because it's generally a very quiet week.
Peabody
MegaDork
12/20/23 6:33 p.m.
I'm working Friday and that's it til the second week of January.
Over the years it has become customary that I would either do some reno work in the house, or build a pair of speakers. It looks like I might have time to build two pairs, one experimental, and one to replace the set in the living room, that I built a half dozen Christmases ago.
I texted my best friend this morning to see if we could arrange some sort of lunch/dinner/meetup. He moved a couple hours away and we would always get together for the Rally of the tall pines and spend the weekend at his inlaw's cottage, but that hasn't happened in some time.
I've been looking at something for a few weeks now and haven't managed to talk myself out of it yet. It's also the same couple hours away, so in the event that I can pry some money out of my tight fists I may end up with something kind of interesting, and hang out with my buddy at the same time.
Job hunting.....
Big layoff on the 15th. I kinda expected it, but still stinks. I've been half looking for a month or so and it's obvious things are slowed down for the holidays. Hopefully it'll pick back up after the new year.
Just mowed the backyard in anticipation of the grand dog being here and rain the rest of the weekend.
Got my truck running again. Putting miles on it to burn the 2.5 year old gas so I can refill it and get it inspected.
Got all our presents bought, so when I'm not job hunting, I'm doing a bunch of cleanup in the garage.
Happy Holidays all! Hope the holidays are relaxing and nice to catch up with family and very little drama.
-Rob
I don't really get a break, but I want to hit 1/16ths at 180bpm with my feet by January. I'm nudging 160 for short bursts right now, and getting pretty comfortable at 140, so that's good.
Other than that, maybe start to fix the s10 so it can be driven. Fuel leaks onto the exhaust.
Maybe finish the backup cam install on the Mazda.
I'm only off for three days, Saturday, Sunday, and Christmas day on Monday, so just my normal weekend. I'll try and salvage a share of that for some work.
My Ralliart wagon needs front brakes, and I'm doing some work on the GMT400 before I try to sell it. I'm also staying consistent with putting what time I can find, working on the engine build for the Morris.
Based on my attempt to use it this morning, fixing a no-start issue on the XJ. Then some control arm work on the track Miata. And lots of ice time.
Probably eating too much and gaining some of the 40+ pounds back I've lost the past 12 months.
Was sick Sunday with what turns out to be my first Covid infection so that's been something. Will probably stay here at home and keep isolating. Work is shut down the last week of Dec as usual. Want to get the garage more organized and maybe do some career change research. Feels like the same things I've been talking about doing for at least a year. Some other around the house stuff, nothing exciting.
Break? You mean people are off more than 2 days?
I hate to see that some of you are looking for work, it's a E36 M3ty feeling, I've been there a few times.
1stworldproblem incoming, As far as the break, there are a lot of us that are bitter that we shut down between Christmas and New Years and we are forced to use our PTO for it. Salaried folks get unlimited PTO, us lowly plebs are on accrued, so being forced to use basically a week when I wouldn't normally is a bitch. I would normally not take next week off and get some stuff knocked out.
Is rainy weather with highs barely breaking the 50s convertible weather? We shall find out. That's my plan for next week. Live thread: Bringing back a Cadillac that inspired a love of cars | News | Grassroots Motorsports
Well, I'm going to be doing a lot of cooking for the break. I am making the family tradition polish dinner for my small family here on Saturday. Sunday will be dinner with the GF's extended family. First time so that will be interesting. Christmas day, I'll be solo so probably put the motor back in the miata so I get that fired up soon.
My GF is off Tuesday so we are suppose to do something but haven't 100% decided. It'll depend on the weather some.
Then Wednesday, It looks like my coilovers will be here next week so I'll be getting all the old stuff pulled off in prep for installing those new years weekend. That and the new Sportwagen needs a baseline oil change and the front brakes are thin so I'll change those quick.
Then back to work thursday and friday. I usually go for a long multi-day hike or camping but 30's-40's and rain killed that enthusiasm.
Heading to Belize on Sunday; wife and I will be there until NYE. It's not so bad. Living in Phoenix, though, warm weather is kind of the (boring) norm so at the end of January I'm headed to Estonia to get my fill of chilly air!
Working. I usually like to take the week between Christmas and New Year off but that isn't happening. Too much to do and too little time to do it.
Tom and I have traveled a lot this year, so we're looking forward to just hanging out close to home and doing things with our friends and family. Some rock climbing, some DnD, some car maintenance, some good gym sessions, and catching up on TV shows.
Very little. No travel and little family interaction outside my household which I'm 100% fine with. As someone else said, likely gaining back weight I've lost but screw it - I want to enjoy my limited time off. I'm only taking off Monday (Christmas) and Tuesday. Working the rest.
I know comparison is the thief of joy, but my neighbors have all been off since last Friday, are getting 30% bonuses and 15% raises, and take wayyy more time off throughout the year than I do. They are all data analyst logistics project managers that source cloud data for software that is in development - I just made that up.
Peabody
MegaDork
12/21/23 1:03 p.m.
Grrr.
Buddy is spending the holidays in Hawaii. And work said I'm welcome to come in any days, any time over the holidays. We'll see what happens, those stat days are darn near $1500 a pop, kind of hard to say no.
11GTCS
SuperDork
12/21/23 1:24 p.m.
Working the week between Christmas and New Years. It "should" be a quiet week but it's been all the froot loops here for months so we shall see. Otherwise looking forward to having my son and his GF in house for a night or two over the weekend hoping to see some other family as well. There's a bit of yard cleanup to be done after all the wind and rain this past Monday so I'll probably start chipping away at that too.
Waiting on the new job to start the 2nd.
So, in the meantime, I have to raise the ranchero on the lift to be able to "skate" the Galaxie in under it, so I can move the suburban in and have room to pull the dash and replace the heater core, evaporator, and drier. Then I have to move the fairlane wagon out, pull a trailer in and unload some pellet bags on it for garage heat this winter. Put the wagon back first, then the mustang and E36 M3 the door until spring. Move trailer back to it's covered home. Do a garage cleanup so I can move inside it.
Maybe I'll have 30 sec to spare to use my tig hot glue gun and stick some metal together as practice.
