A very slow start to the weekend but in the end a LOT of progress was made. Friday should be the kickoff to knocking out a bunch of items from the LOSTD; But, as has happened on quite a few Fridays, work left us in no mood for working. Saturday my bride was doing her second job, which she took mostly because she has a specific love for it which, it turns out, has a shelf life, which it has now passed. Being that My daughter had a friend stay over a watch movies in the media room all night, I was trying to be mostly quiet and let them sleep in for a bit. So instead of working on my Truck I was dog-sitting, my own dog.
Haas is a spoiled dog and complains bitterly if we leave him alone for any length of time. By complain I mean he destroys pillows, stuffed animals, sofas; pretty much anything with stuffing will be eviscerated and it entrails spread across the back yard before we get home. He has a crate in the bedroom which he will sit in quietly while we are gone. But the moment we get back he shoots out of the crate like a fire cracker, and runs around the house faster than a 6 year old kid with new sneakers! Then he jumps up and claws at us as if to say please don’t ever leave me alone again. I have multiple scars on my arms from these situations and as a direct result. I am not doing what I should be doing. Instead i am just sitting around with the dog waiting for my daughter to regain the semi-consciousness of a normal 21 year old. So she too can enjoy the rewards of pet ownership.
Once she was “up” I let her know I was heading out, and I jumped in the Tahoe. With coffee in hand since there is no real cup holder in this thing. It was damn nice of Tres to lend it to me, but every time I get in it with its lack of beverage containment and no stereo or AC/heater, it reminds me how much I have screwed up in my life. How did I get to spend years getting two degrees, climbing corporate ladders, starting my own company and making myself irreplaceable (no such thing), even learning how to work on my own vehicles, to save money. Only to end up at 54 years old with no working vehicle and the newest one available for me to drive being 25 year old???
Never mind, we shall leave that grammatic nightmare of a thought behind and move on. The Tahoe takes me to Lowes, where I find out to my disappointment that they don’t really carry much raw steel, and those few things they do carry are ridiculously expensive. My plan to get the parts for an inexpensive engine storage stand will have to wait. So I end up getting 6 seemly random items. Firstly a large tightly packed bag of blow-in insulation for the attic, which I will hand throw to cover the media room and garage attic areas since they were not done by the house builder. Second, a fan for the guest room, the one in there now is crap. Third, a phone mount for the Tahoe so at least the phone won’t keep falling, off the console, under my feet. I would leave it in my pocket but it is the only form of musical entertainment available. Fourth, a cheap “craftsman” glass scraper, this is actually a big find for me.
I remember my dad had one of these in England, it is very simple and somewhat flimsy but it works beautifully and is much easier than holding the blade in your hands like I am guilty of too many times. The fifth item I purchased is another cheap pocket knife. I have too many but I also tend to leave them all over the house and shop and in vehicles where they come in handy when i need them. The sixth and last item is a win for me. I have been trying to get gloss black enamel paint for a couple of months. I see it behind the locked cage for the spray paint. Granted this is a can of paint for use with a brush but whatever. I go get some help and to my disappointment, it is semi-gloss. The kind lady points out that they have a lot of flat black but just then I look down and see a gallon. I wanted the quart, but I will settle for the gallon for sure, Score!
Damn, I forgot to get salt for the water softeners. I will make a quick stop in at Wallyworld (Walmart) on the way home. I go in the gardening dept. I like that entrance, it is never busy. I walk all the way across the store to the furthest point where i pick up a case of water, I grab some beef jerky by the registers. I stop by the tool dept and pickup a hammer, tape measure, screwdriver set (with bottle opener) and a chalk line set all with matching white motif to go in the garage toolbox. My bride’s OCD will be so proud.
I get home and drop off the goods, load up 120lbs. of salt in the house softener, check that the dog is being cared for. He has taken over the spare bed in guest room and is surveying his domain from there, happy. Down to the shop! Just a quick stop at the Cabana water softener for another 40lb. load. and Into the shop. Now the brain takes over with the over load of input that is my shop. I have to stop and take a breath. Get the computer connected, find the football game and put it on the speaker.
All the electronics in the shop are left overs and temporary. Old laptops and desktops come here to die. Screens keyboards and mouses are all here. But when they are dead dead, they go in the storage shed next door. That one is for the “Art Project” the one about planned obsolescence and technology. I need to do that write up soon. Anyhoo, now the game is on as background noise, it let me pickup on what I was doing. Time to start cleaning up.
I decided that I just need to clean an aisle that I can walk back and forth from my truck to the toolbox. It takes hours. I do a little side project sorting nails from bolts etc into boxes. Call that done and go in search of a plastic box to put all the old wiring harness from the Caddy in. That done I now have a space on the floor that i can sweep. Now it is swept I can move the engine lift back out of the way. Man I really need to install those two caster I bought for it to make it easier to move when it is folded up. NO! I will wait on that project till I have all the parts. I’m just missing plates to mount the casters on but I have options on how to mount them and i don’t have time to ponder that now. On to the Washing machine. Yes I have a perfectly good washing machine taking up space in my shop. Don’t worry, I also have the dryer in here too. but that is still buried somewhere else in the shop. Not to mention the microwave, full size oven, and drop in range, but hey they were working when they were taken out so I don’t think they should be thrown away.
Damn I hate it when my love of stuff gets me off subject. It happens all the time when I am down there. I just have to keep a good attitude or I will give up and walk away. That doesn’t help anything. So, back to work! Now that I have cleaned off the washer and removed the drain hose and put it inside. I put the empty dog crate one it for more floor space. I can now see my parts washer but need to remove the oil pan on top off it and the air compressor I just removed from the washer. Ok, I find a piece of plywood from an engine crate I took apart use it as a shelf on top of the heads I have removed from the spare Lotus engine that I was working on a long time ago. I put the compressor there and move the oil pan outside to be emptied and cleaned. I stack up a couple fo 5 gallon buckets filled with god knows what. Tres probably knows too. Now I can actually get to the parts washer. I give it a quick check, it is still full of fluid and immediately put the two valve covers from the spare 350 in it to soak. I pickup the start off the floor and place it in the crate with the various other parts from spare 350 and now I have more space to sweep. I just need to move the my mig welder.
I start to wrap it up and remember that the hooks I had originally welded to wrap the ground lead around has broken off. I skillfully removed it with my shin while walking too close to it one day. Good job that weld was crap or I may have injured myself. So now I take on the task of grinding it down and welding it back on. As I do I notice that the lower shelf is just covered in crap and 5 spools of wire in various states of use. I think to myself, hey I have a small toolbox that should fit under there, and I can use the drawers to keep the extra consumables for the torch and the plasma cutter. The plasma cutter really needs to have a mount above the MIG welder and I should put a 4plex metal plug box on the cart to plug everything into, another box below it would be where I can plug in either 110 or 220 to power it. Oh wait, I’m supposed to be cleaning up. Ok just weld this on and stick it next to the shelf of BMW parts that Tres’s son needs to come and get. Now I can claim some progress!
Time’s up, my bride has returned to the love nest, so I need to get up to the house to cook dinner with her. Our new diet is heavy on meat and cheese and veggies and completely lacking in carbs. I light up my trusty gas grill, I have already replace the insides of it twice thanks to the free replacement parts from Chargrill. I still need to replace the auto lighter. It is a great idea in theory, but in practice, they almost never last a year. I just use a long lighter and place it next to the burner, I have only recently realized that my lighter is about 2 inches too short (no comments you) to reach the burner and it causes a gas build up before it lights (ca-woomph!) I now move the grill out of the way for closer access to the burners and they light immediately. I cook pork chops and chicken drumsticks each piece checked with a meat thermometer before being wrapped in a piece of foil to keep them moist.
Dinner is delicious with green and red pepper sautéd with onion with one pork chop and a big drum stick. I am starting to stiffen up due to all of the days activity, but I need to do one more thing before retreating to my TV coma. I head to the garage and attempt to remove the bottom hose of Maggie’s radiator to drain the system so I can remove the heater from the firewall so it can be painted. Much like many other things in life, it doesn’t go as planned. The hose clamp is situated in a way that it is impossible to get a screwdriver on it. I will literally have to unbolt the radiator from the vehicle to get to it. So that is what I did. I figure now that is done, I can probably paint the whole of the drivers side under hood area. So it is actually a positive. I am also thinking of stripping the paint off the top of the radiator to see if it is brass. If so, it will end up polished with a nice clear coat on it. If not it will get a coat of the nice new gloss black enamel I picked up. With this done, I am headed for a night of ice water, a heating pad for my lower back and a couple of hours of quasi-intelligent cable content while my bride giggles at tiktok on her phone. Ah, bliss.
