The Manic Mechanic

The cats that visit and hang out around the house, garage and yard are an endless source of entertainment for Jeff and I and, especially, Kodi. The cats (four regulars and a couple skittish visitors) know that Kodi will give chase at a moment's notice, and they've learned some tricks to send Kodi off on a wild goose cat chase when they are not up for it, but will indulge him now and then. I've figured a way to ensure a peaceable kingdom when it's feeding time. Everyone gets their own little pile of cat food, even Kodi. One of these days I gotta have my camera ready for one of these food fests, as everyone looks like part of the same litter.

All is not peaches and cream with these kitties, however. They've been clawing up the deck posts, one or more of them bit holes in a coiled hose that is used on the deck for watering plants. I was sitting on the deck in a funk during my Great LJ Blackout a little while ago talking situations out with Jeff. I noticed the hose full of teeth marks, and when I turned the water on, it was spraying everywhere. I figure since this is also where we get the water for the little varmints they figure they would try to get their own drink. The spigot is in the same area where we feed everyone. Ah well, one more thing to be replaced.

The kittehs put up with my silly playing, and they are great company. They all have been subjected to various LOLcat indignities (holding them like Longcat, smooshing up their faces like Serious Cat, asking if they want cheeseburgers, etc.) and they take it in stride. In fact, the more they get handled, the more wanting they become. But something strange happened the other day, and it proved a theory I had as to how one of the skylight screens got messed up a month or so ago.

A couple weeks ago Jeff heard a loud ruckus in the sunroom. He found TiggerToo meowing in the room. Thing is, all the doors were shut. The skylight screen was on the floor, now with a bent frame. The cats know how to easily get on the roof (jump up on the railing, then from there jump on the canvas pergola roof, then onto the house roof) and Pinky scared the absolute crap out of me while I was working on the skylights earlier (I should not have been on the ladder, but it had to be done). So, in my twisted little mind, I could see what TiggerToo was up to that day.

(TiggerToo climbs up on roof, finds open skylight)

TiggerToo: Guys? Hey guys! (nothing)

TiggerToo: Hey, I got a new LOLCat for you, since you like them so much! Guys? (nothing)

TiggerToo: Oh well, you'll love this anyway, here goes... (climbs into skylight)

TiggerToo: "Ceiling Cat is watching you maAAAAAAAAAHH!!!" (screen falls out of skylight, T2 rides it all the way down)

*CRASH*

*meow?*

Kitteh was not harmed, though the screen frame is kinked up pretty bad. More work for me.

Tonight, despite being in a serious world of hurt earlier, I managed to get into the garage and finish up part of a project I had going, putting larger wheels on the huge portable generator. I needed to make a new axle, make up spacers and bushings to fit the larger, one inch bore bearings, and mount everything up. The 400+ pound monster is next to impossible to push across lawns and soft ground with the dinky wheels it came with, so I rectified that. I will put the final touches on as much stuff as I can and attempt to change the oil and a couple burned out bulbs in Jeff's truck before my surgery. Everything else after that will have to wait till I recover.

I had company while I tinkered, it was T2, alone this time. Since I am stuck sitting on the floor, the cat insists on getting in my lap and pushing his face into whatever I am doing. I did notice something though, after I picked him up by the scruff of his neck to move him like kitteh moms do when they are kittens. T2, already purring, mewed a bit and started purring louder, then slowly wanted back in my lap, this time, he was nuzzling under my arm and burying his face in my lap, quietly kneading with his paws. I guess I brought back some kitten memories. Come to think of it, I had picked up each of these cats like this early one to determine the he- or she-ness of them, After doing that, they all seemed to like me even more. Must be a cat thing.

A couple weeks ago I bought a new 'shop vacuum' for the garage (of mayhem). While I already have a big, ancient Genie wet/dry vac, the thing is showing it's nearly 20 years of age, and new filters are nearly impossible to come by. I made an adaptor of sorts to fit a newer cartridge-style filter used in later models, but they have an annoying habit of falling off the motor assembly unknown to me, until I notice the vac spewing dust everywhere. While at Costco buy'n large, I noticed they had the Bissell GaragePro vac on sale at almost half the list price.



This vac is da shit. At a full 12 amps, this thing sucks more than being Republican. It also comes with a huge selection of tools geared towards detailing car interiors as well as general wet/dry garage and shop use. And a 32 foot hose. I gave the big truck and the Strat a much-needed interior cleaning, finally able to get the bleached dead carcasses of bees and bugs that have been wedged for years inside the back glass of that car. It made easy work of Kodi's dog hair that permeated the interiors. Another cool thing is the filter can double as a nifty hat, shown here being modeled by Jeff. It mounts to a wall with a substantial bracket but can be used standalone as well. The hose length covers both bays of the garage with no problems, and the vac runs super quiet. Highly recommended.

The above post also brings with it a question - given the myriad stuff I use and acquire is there any interest in my making little write-ups such as this? I can tell of the neato tools, gear and gadgets out there that might interest people, and what I discover to be not worth considering. I can give some how-tos for some easy stuff that can be done around the house with common tools, you name it. I got all this space, and really do wish I can do more with it. Since I am looking at some potential extended recovery time where I'm stuck unable to do much more than sit at the console and pounding the keys, maybe this would help pass the time. It might keep me a bit more sane during that time as well.

I was off once again on a trip to Home Depot tonight getting some little bits of hardware and a new lock for the entry door on the garage. While there I was looking for some form of rugged 1x6 to replace the beat up, cracked and rotting jamb/frame around each of the two doors. I managed to find something perfect, essentially plastic wood. The brand escapes me at the moment but it's basically PVC in the form of dimensional lumber. Made like structural foam, the stuff works like regular lumber but is impervious to weather, rot, insects, and if I keep it in it's natural white color, it never needs painting. My only issue is that it comes in 12 foot lengths only at about 30 dollars a section. Compared to standard clear wood, it's about ten dollars more. But without the need for painting, sanding and regular maintenance, it's a deal. There's going to be some waste, unfortunately. I need two 9 foot lengths and four 7.5 footers. I wonder what can be made with the remaining pieces.

I now have to track down suitable weatherstripping for the garage doors and that project is finally done. I will (re) paint the new entry door I got a few years back but never installed (the paint job got wrecked). With the new roof and gutters going on the garage and house this spring, I should not have to worry about that stuff for a long time to come.

I should learn to control my at-times short temper. Most of the time I am docile as a lamb, patience of Gandhi, bad stuff rolls off my back like nobody's business. But there are two situations I can positively lose it. Serious bouts of road rage, and while working on stuff. I can forgive a moment's stupidity on someone's part on the road if I know it was accidental. But if I know the other person's (I care not if it's a male or female) actions are obviously hostile, I will proceed to make their life on the road a living, vicious hell. Just ask Jeff. I've chased down sports cars with my big old Dodge Cummins 4x4, and I've taken on semis in the Mini Cooper. And somehow I've managed to remain here and talk about it.

There are times when I am working on stuff and I just get fed up with some recalcitrant part and I end up flinging it across the garage. Or if I clumsily knock stuff off a table I will sometimes clear it the rest of the way. Or if I manage to hurt myself somehow, I get sent into a rage. Take Exhibit A:



This is one of my shop grinders. Not seen in the picture to the right is the wall between the pair of garage doors. Since my latest project in The Garage Of Mayhem is replacing the two garage door openers, I had to attach and futz with a pair of sensors just off the floor and on either side of the big door opening. I found the clip-on mounts lacking, and made up a set of spacer blocks that also attach the sensor bracket to the wall in addition to the door track. This makes the bracket a great deal more solid and the sensors a lot less likely to go out of alignment and preventing the door from closing. After making myself comfortable sitting on the floor and installing all these pieces, I stood up. As my luck would go, I bashed my head on the tool rest attached to the 100+ pound machine. In the haze of stars and pain my instinct was to eke out my revenge. I punched the glass face shield, shattering it and bending up the frame and mounting.

Yeah, it's stupid, senseless, and, as usual, expensive. But for the few seconds after the impact as I held onto my throbbing skull, I did feel better. Reality sank in soon after and I went ahead with my work in the garage. Today while doing more work and cleaning up, I looked around and found an identical shield I had removed when I converted a similar grinder into a buffer, which has a completely open wheel with no enclosure or face shield. So I made up with my trusty machine and replaced it's mangled and shattered parts.

I've been like this for as long as I can remember. The incidents are too isolated to be indicative of some disorder, though I know when I had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed and I should not involve myself in intricate or involving projects or with anything expensive. Still, accidents will happen, then so will I.

Now, before anyone asks, no, I don't bust up people as I do inanimate objects. At worst I will get into a shouting session, but feel awful afterward. And in the case of road rage incidents that became face-to-face encounters, I kept my distance and mostly made the other party back off. But the guy who ran me off the road and cost me more than 1600 dollars in ultra-lightweight SSR Comp wheels, he drove off with the rear quarter of his Accord kicked in. Tit for tat, bitch.

I know I am in good company as well, since I recall a few LJ posts by some on my flist describing similar outbursts, sometimes with pictures of the resulting carnage. And besides, there is something primal and satisfying taking out one's frustration on that which done ya wrong. I stick with objects, since they don't lawyer up.

More from the Garage of Happy: Picking Kodi up from the groomer. He looks awesome and smells nice and clean. He's really missing Jeff though, barking and mumbling while looking outside at the empty spot on the driveway. He wants Jeff to see how utterly fierce he looks.

I can now go back down to the garage and continue my tinkering there. The alarm system gets a new battery, the old battery was shot, and just recently totally came apart at one of the terminals. No more looking at the flashing battery warning. I also am going to work my tech-fu on the new door opener to try and allow other controls aside from the multifunction wall controller to interface with it and not throw the wall control into kernel panic every time the other control activates the opener.

Among the myriad things happening in the garage today was some much needed attention spent on the truck; oil change, fixing a headlight full of water, etc. I noticed the mileage was 188878 and I thought about an earlier post from bigsabu on how he likes seeing patterns of numbers and how it sates the OCD in him. I had the camera out with me already (I was doing a photoshoot for a review of Mini Cooper oil filters - dont ask) and decided to take it with me during my post-maintenance test drive which I extended just a bit. It wont be long till I reach all zeroes for the third time.


No 'million mile' odometer here

This is for you, you big Sabu.