The Sun Came Out Today!

Yesterday We Had A Flood; Today a Little Snow

Typical January around here I guess.

Tuesday Is My Favorite Day of the Week

This is true because Tuesday happens to be woodworking night. Tonight was supposed to be our Christmas Party, but it kind of fell apart at the last minute for a couple of reasons. Regardless we are rescheduling it for two weeks from now.

One reason, well never mind that, it wasn't important. The second reason is that Danny called and said he had locked himself out of his house. Jordan and I decided to load up in the Miata and drive to Rogersville to antagonize help him. After breaking down his front door with a 10 lb sledge hammer, we all went out to dinner, leaving the front door hanging from the hinges for the Christmas elves to repair.

This was the second time this week a friend had locked themselves out. The other time involved keys in a minivan. Don't these things come in threes?

On the way back home, we stopped to fill up the tank. $3.03 for regular. Unfortunately the 12 gallon tank only needed 10 gallons. When was the last time I filled up the tank for less than $30?

Drove home in the rain. Dark, dark rain. I hate driving at night in the rain just like Indy hates snakes.

That is all.

Happy Halloween

A creeper!

Mr. Mouse, R.I.P.

I set out 8 traps at lunch yesterday baited with sharp cheddar cheese. Being a nocturnal, Mr. Mouse chose not to partake until about 11:30 pm. The sound of the trap snapping echoed through the house. Mr. Mouse, though a gentle soul, will not be missed.

The remaining 7 traps are still set waiting to see if Mr. Mouse has any cousins living nearby.

At times it seems that there is nothing to blog about, but I posted rather diligently anyway. Recently there has been plenty to blog about but I haven't made the time to do it. For instance:

1) We found a small mouse in the house last night. Oddly, I had the pest control guy in the house just a few hours earlier doing and inspection. Coincidence?
2) I may have set a record this weekend for emptying the hot tub. I used 4 hoses to drain it which went rather quickly. After cleaning it, I connected 3 hoses up to fill it back up. OK, yeah, that was boring, but ...
3) I helped David replace the heater hoses on his '91 Miata last Tuesday. The next day my Miata blew a hose. :(
4) My okra plants are over 10 feet tall.
5) I made a small batch of beer last Tuesday night. It is currently fermenting and should be ready in a couple of weeks.
6) The PCV valve on the Morris broken several months ago and some on the parts disappeared on the road. I plugged the holes for a brief period, but without the valve in place the engine leaks like a sieve. I found a close replacement part of a Triumph on ebay. The housing is not the same, but the internal guts are identical. Should have Roger up and rolling in no time.
7) One of my neighbors has started a Cars and Coffee for Huntsville/Madison. The first event went well. The second is only a couple of weeks way. The proceeds from the coffee are going towards an Autism.
8) Wind damage from the Tornado back in April is responsible for several leaks I have on my roof. I will get getting a new roof and painting some ceilings in the near future.

Yet Another Evening Of Small Engine Repair

For fifteen weeks, Monday night has became small engine repair night. I feel like I have learned a lot but knowledge is sometimes difficult to quantify. When it comes to fixing a small engine, one thing I have learned is that knowledge will only take you so far. Experience has a lot to do with it as well. The teacher has a _lot_ of experience. He certainly knows this stuff.

Tonight's challenge was repairing my pressure washer. The thing has never run well, at least until now.

This evening I removed the carb and cleaned it - basically the carb needed the varnish removed from the bowl and the main jet cleaned out. After that I replaced the spark plug and then adjusted the idle. Vrooom! Better than new.

Previously the engine would 'hunt' while running and it would only run with the choke on and the throttle wide open. The hunting was caused by the clogged jet. Running it wide open with the throttle mostly closed (aka running rich) caused the plug to build up a lot of black sooty carbon.

During the carb cleaning, I determined the way to keep this particular engine running well will be to remove the carb bowl after each us and drain it completely. This would certainly be overkill for some engines but not this one. A pain for sure, but it only takes a couple of minutes and it will keep the carb from needing to be cleaned again.

What can I learn about next?

The Horrible Squeaking Dryer

After several months of the dryer producing a horrible squeaking sound which could be heard at the far end of the house through 3 closed door, it has finally been mended. Total labor cost $4. The parts cost was slightly more.

On Monday, I hired Bri to help me take it apart so that we could determine the part numbers we needed to order. Brianna did all the dis-assembly and reassembly. Dad supervised. Total labor cost: $2.

Two days later, I hired Jordan to help me take it apart again and replace the worn out parts. Jordan disassembled and reassembled the dryer. Dad swapped out the worn drum glides. Total labor cost: $2.

Pretty good deal - I suspect the repair man would have gotten at least $80.

And the best part - no more squeaking.

Rained Out, But No Rain

The car show that was rained out last weekend was reschedule for this weekend. Again we had rain fore-casted but since no rain was actually falling, I decided to go on. When I arrived at the Athens Town Square, I saw a single vintage car. It didn’t occur to me to check the Cars on the Square web site for the event. It turns out the event was reschedule yet again. This time for June 6th.

First

So here it is – same content different software. During the conversion from Blogger to Word Press I thought I had lost 10 posts. Which ones? Who knows. Upon further investigation, I found that I had several draft posts that had never been published … so no content was actually lost.

Perhaps someday I will include the missing posts in the Obsession Box Set release.

What I Did and Did Not Do This Week

Last week was spent standing in a field in the middle of Ohio. I got back home Saturday at about 1:00 AM.

We got a dog Friday afternoon. His name is Yoshi. He is about 1.5 years old.

A camping trip had been planned for the weekend, but it was canceled because several of us could not make it. Turns out we had bad weather too.

There was also a car show on Saturday that I wanted to go to. It was postponed until next weekend because of the weather.

And finally there was a wood working show this weekend and I managed to get there on Sunday afternoon.

Boring Stuff

Plowed up part of the yard for the garden today, right after I called my father-in-law to ask him if he put sugar in the gas tank. Turns out he didn't.

The tiller as it turns out is a bit finicky about being cranked. It will apparently run on old gas but refuses to be cranked using old gas. The trick to getting it to crank when the old gas is in the tank is to pour a little fresh fuel in the spark plug hole. Just enough to get it running. Once it is running, it will run fine on last years left over gasoline. I have learned this twice already in the last month.

Twice.

I finally got around to uploading some photos. Speaking of photos, I ordered myself a new camera recently. I have had such good look with the last one, a Canon Elph, I decided to get another one. My previous model apparently has been discontinue so after slogging through the specifications on Amazon and the Canon web site, I picked one out.

Don't expect this to turn into a photo blog. That would be too much work.

Somehow I ended up in Florida again. Two weeks ago I was here but in a different part of the state. This week I am here on business. Last time I was at Disney, this week I am in Jacksonville.

The weather was really nice when I arrived. I was disappointed when my rental car turned out not to be the yellow 2010 Corvette convertible parked next to my Ford sedan, or as the Europeans would say, salon. Maybe next time. Ha!

Trivia for the day - what group of workers went on a national strike in 1877?

Answer - Railroad workers.

Spin City

So here is the story as I heard it. I restored an antique John Deer tractor. A tiller is practically a tractor right, and it is green, and I did take the carburetor apart. Not so far from the truth, right.

It cranked on the first pull today.

Randomness

Last nights sawdust session progressed at the standard pace. Slow.

I have arranged to borrow a rototiller from a friend. This should ease the ground breaking for the garden this year, assuming I can get it crank. Dave says it probably hasn't been cranked in 10 years. Should be fun.

I need to change a password. I keep typing in my home password at work and my work password at home. I think I will change them both to bullwinkle.

Next week the kids are out of school for spring break. It will be an awesome week.

Keep Austin Weird.

I rx'ed a book I had ordered in the mail today - "wxPython in Action".

Seven.

The Guild

Remember Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog. I recently found The Guild. Three seasons worth, each episode is about 3-8 minutes long. The first two seasons are available on Amazon, or Netflix. (It can even be streamed from Netflix - watch it now!) The final season is available online at http://www.watchtheguild.com/

Unfortunately there is no singing in this one.

If you need some singing, Dr. H. is available on Netflix also.

And if you still need more singing it may be time for "Oh Yes Wyoming!", again.

Tuesday morning we woke up to some snow in the yard and large flakes falling from the sky. Had the temperature been lower, this would have been the largest snow fall of the year.

We have definitely had more snow this year than in a long long time.

Insert global warming joke here.

Just finished packing for a camping trip. Heading out tomorrow afternoon. The weather will be dry but cold - 24F. tomorrow night.

Ready for a sing-along? It starts with Jethro Tull and goes from there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZmtq5LhFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlUlFvkQL0k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYnnmQ9x5tQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ5TajZYW6Y

More Snow this morning. We have already had more snow this year than we have had in the last 5 years combined and I believe we have more forecasted for night. It has been really nice so far because it has been pleasant to look at and then melted off very quickly.