The Manic Mechanic

In a first, I went to PA to help out Jeff's parents without Jeff. It was strange to have time spent up there without him. I had other reasons as well. ;)

His dad's lawn tractor was acting up and in need of a blade drive belt. I had ordered the parts a while ago and took them along with tools and stuff Friday evening after a day spent running errands. I also gave him my old wood lathe, which he seemed happy to get. I didnt have any extra chisels, though. Grizzly Industrial was having it's huge tent sale on Saturday, and I had wanted to go up anyway to pick up some goodies. A nice convergence in the big sale and my weekend to go up was a cool welcome. Saturday morning Jeff's dad and I headed up, actually arriving before the official start. The parking lot was quite full, and a line at least 400 feet had already accumulated. I guess Grizzly's boasting of the one-day event drawing thousands was not an exaggeration. After getting in line and still 20 minutes before opening, the line began to stretch around the corner and along the front of the building. The showroom/warehouse is huge, with a corner of it dedicated as the showroom. This 'small' corner of the building is bigger than a large supermarket. With all these people showing up, and a first come-first serve free-for all awaiting, I actually wondered if there would be scuffles or outright fights over the bargains. While in line a representative from the place was handing out flyers with sale prices, discount coupons and instructions on how to 'work' the tent sale. Despite the crowds, things went remarkably smooth. I focused mainly on things I was more in need of at the moment. I lucked out.

I found a Porter-Cable electric pressure washer to replace my 25-year old worn out one. Issue with it? Discontinued, and was missing the soap tank. Big deal, I can use the soaping attachment from the gas powered ones I have. It was less than half the original price. Verdict? SCORE! Other people were eyeballing the thing as if it were fresh meat at the leather bar.

Needed a milling vise. Found lots, but settled on a 4-inch swiveling unit. Issue? The lead screw was bent slightly, but did not interfere with operation whatsoever. Originally $120, bought for 10 bux. Score!

Needed a machine tool lamp. Had been looking at a gooseneck fluorescent model, but did not want to pay the 60 dollars for it. Found one minus the cord for 20. Score!

Wanted one more simple miter gauge with a clamping arrangement to use among all the woodworking machines. Found one supposedly with a warped slide bar for 10 bucks. An easy fix at home and it was as good as new. Another score.

Jeff's dad shows up with a big ol' grin on his face. He managed to find an 8-piece woodturning chisel set to use with his new lathe. Issue? Missing one gouge chisel. 7 pieces for a mere 15 bucks. Verdict? Timely score.

My main reason for the trip was to pick up a monster 12" bench grinder. Conflicting info I got between the catalog and the website indicated the thing might be discontinued. Upon writing up the order, I discovered it was indeed discontinued and I got the last one. Score!

I picked up a stand for the grinder, some buffing supplies and a few other trinkets and got in line to pay. There were 14 cashier windows working, and I was still waiting more than 45 minutes to finally pay for and pick up my stuff. A woman was pushing a refreshment cart full of sodas and such for the people waiting. A really nice touch. It seems the people running the place are used to this sort of thing. There were 15 cashiers in a building outside just for the tent sale. Amazing.

I got loaded up, drove back to the parent's homestead, loaded the truck with a bunch of used, free dimensional lumber to be used for making raised garden beds here at home, among other things. I managed to thread the new belt through the six pulleys on the tractor without disassembling anything or using any tools, countering what we were told to do, in about 5 minutes flat. A happy dad then took the tractor for a test drive and mom, dad and I headed out for an early dinner. I drove home shortly after, unloaded everything (the grinder by itself was about the same as carrying a pair of aadromas at once) with Jeff seeing everything upon coming home and basically giving me the "Ho-lee hell!" expression. I told him how much I saved, etc. The rainy evening was spent sizing up and fixing the bargains, all of which are good to go. Jeff headed out to get groceries , I stayed home because we always seem to spend more when I go along. Still, Jeff came home with a haul (Me: Ho-lee hell!), but told me how much he saved, had coupons, etc. We are so alike, yet so different at the same time. lol

Today I did mostly cleanups and other sorts in the garage and basement. The weather is (again) cold and nasty and my old body reminds me of it's age. This week, aside from earning my paycheck I will be working on the trailer to get it all ready for the season. I think I have everything needed now. I seriously need a vacation.

This weekend was our last camping trip to Hillside, wrapping up four trips there, a trip to Deep Creek Lake, and, of course, Provincetown. Seems like it was not long ago that Jeff and I were planning these trips and so looking forward to them. Now they are ones for the history books. Where does the time go?

The weather could not have been better. Hillside is notorious for having freak storms, total rain-outs and snow in May. This is to be expected in a northern, mountainous region. This time, though, we enjoyed a perfect summer, full of friends, fun, frolic, food and dogs.

It was not a perfect trip for everyone, though. Jeff was stuck working on Friday, leaving it for me to me to fetch the trailer from his mom 'n' dad's place and haul it to the campgrounds solo, with Kodi never leaving my lap. Jeff calls me later in the day saying he will be much later due to problems with one of his staff. Two of our guests were completely unable to make it due to similar coworker problems, interrupting a tradition we've had going for a while. Chris, another friend staying with us had a damper tossed on his time by a troublesome tummy bug. But, we all made the best of things and had a good time despite the setbacks. We managed to find some old friends we havent seen in ages and took some time to catch up, picking up as if we had just seen each other yesterday.

Finally got to meet _angry_alan, smiling and looking anything but angry, relaxing and kicking back with his buds.

My Achilles's tendon was bothering me too much to do a whole lot of walking around this time around. Still, I made it up to the bonfire on Saturday night where we hung out with more friends and LJers. The strangest part of that evening? A rather excited youngish man came up to me and said he had seen me before, at first not sure where. He then matched me to the lip-sync video I did as part of the meme started by chrisglass a few years back, who he also mentioned by name. He knew the song I used as well ("Heartbeat" by The DeFranco Family). We chatted a while about all the videos that ended up being made and how much that meme made my day(s) at a time when I needed some cheer. I felt like an unwitting rock star, with my fan club of one. It made my night.

I woke up this morning to one of the most intense charleyhorses ever in my right calf, causing extreme pain for at least twenty minutes and a limp for the better part of the day. It still hurts, and I am afraid it might fire off again some time during the night.

We said our goodbyes, dragged the trailer home and relaxed, watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. We have one more camping trip in October at Knoebels, continuing a tradition we started last year. After that, the trailer gets mothballed until next year, hopefully to take with us to many new places. And old ones.

Both of us are keeping our fingers crossed in hopes our little long weekend vacation coming up will happen. To that end, we will be getting things ready and preparing. We both really need this little escape. Also, the trailer that is currently parked in the upper driveway in front of the house will be left temporarily at Jeff's parent's place between excursions. This will knock about 250 miles of towing distance for each trip (for a total of over 1,000 miles over all four of our planned camping trips, not chump change when it comes to gas mileage!), and it'll be great to finally have the upper driveway clear so the shrubbery and gardens can be tended to. Plus we get our parking spots closer to the house again.

This is where I beg everyone to send good vibes our way so that no problems arise from either of our jobs to shut it down.

In geek news, I have completed two computers, one is a simple, fully integrated thing with onboard video that will replace Jeff's tired PC, the other is the new server. Both are running well after being burned in for many hours and will get installed after this weekend. Soon after that, the LAN gets updated to gigabit, some Cat5e will get run around the house and to the garage, replacing some of the remaining thinnet left over from the late 80s. Between that and a new 802.11n access point, the uber-LAN here should be good to go for at least a few years to come. Once some of the gigabit Ethernet is in place, I will begin piecing together the media/file server. I buy computers in installments - a hard drive here, a case there, a motherboard... I find the good deals online as they happen and eventually gather up enough pieces to make a box. It's like layaway combined with instant gratification, piecemeal style.

As a reminder to myself, I need to get the proper trans filter for the new truck before the trip. For the last couple days, I kept forgetting. If I use my LJ to remind me, it might help. Then again, I would be posting a lot more strange gibberish than I already do.

I've been lax in my posting, but what else is new, huh?

The weekend as a whole was blessed with beautiful weather. Unfortunately, as has been the case for a while (a long while), Jeff was stuck working each of the three days, but fortunately not for long stretches. We used the time as well as the weather to our benefit, working in the yard and prepping the trailer for the traveling season. Pressure washing, a good scrubbing of the roof, some minor repairs, cleaning of the siding and the roll-up awning and it's looking mighty fine. I've been doing minor tweaks, adjustments and modifications to make it a very capable home-away-from-home. We will finish up by cleaning the inside up, stocking it with goodies and taking a little trip to Deep Creek Lake in Western MD this coming weekend. It's Jeff's birthday, and I am taking him far enough away from the area that he doesn't get easily conned into going to work. We both need a weekend away from it all, but he does so more than me.

On Monday we managed to relax a bit at our good friends Chris and Paul's place. A low-key, quiet party, I flopped about in the pool and steeped in the hot tub and relaxed with everyone else. Life was good.

Today we took lil' Kodi to the vet. He has been favoring his right rear leg, and it seemed to be getting worse. While Kodi did not complain outwardly nor even flinch at our inspections and massaging of his affected left leg, we were worried. Jeff did some intarweb research and found that a common ailment for Pomeranians is a dislocated kneecap. Today's vet visit confirmed this. Some x-rays, a shot, some other minor fussing and $331 dollars later it was confirmed what Jeff had researched. To that end, we have to try and keep Kodi from jumping, standing on his hind legs, leaping about, running/chasing after things, in short, things he does almost constantly. For a period of three weeks. Should be a chore. Especially since he will accompany us to Deep Creek Lake as well. I feel sorry for our little CrazyDogInsanityPooch. :(

I have to say, both of us are really looking forward to our little getaway. It's the first in a set of trips we are set for this summer, which includes three trips to Hillside (Bear weekends 2 and 3, Wrestling/Car Show), Provincetown (bear week, sensing a theme here), ad hopefully at least a weekend at Knoebels. Diesel fuel prices be damned, we are going to have our vacations and enjoy them. With everything else considered, it's still cheaper than hotels and flying by far. And we have one rockin' pad to stay in.

Through determination and sheer luck, Jeff actually managed to get through to Hillside on Saturday, which was the first day of reservations. We managed to snag decent (and trailer-friendly) spots for the second and third bear weekends and car show/wrestling weekend. We wont be doing the first bear weekend this time because we'll be at Deep Creek Lake instead. Besides, we've skipped on it now for a while, since it always seemed too cold and rainy. It'd be even more so being they made it even earlier this year. So, it appears that our summertime trailer travels are solidly booked. Yay! It also looks like diesel fuel will be well over four bux a gallon by then. Boo!

The weather was pretty decent the last two days, this allowed us the chance to do some work outside and enjoy the fresh air for a change. One truck is filled with shredded hardwood mulch for the front beds, that will work it's way around this week. Today some courageous croci shot up and blossomed almost level with the earth as if to say they've had enough cabin fever and want springtime to make a showing.

The studio reconfiguring is almost done, though the room is a mess still. I need to pick up another USB hub for remaining peripherals. Pics when it's done.

With the arrival of decent weather, I took the MINI out of mothballs and will drive it around this week. I have some minor tuning, tweaking and maintenance to do on it before my trip to the Dragon in early May. I'll be needing tires too, and have a spare set of SSR Competition rims to wrap them around. The garage is looking like a tire store these days. I need to rack them up somehow and get them off the floor.

I got a ton of things to do just to catch up this year. It's not gonna be easy. Or cheap. But I'll manage somehow.

We're back from a nice, relaxed weekend way out in the western panhandle of Maryland. Despite a little bit of rain, the 370-some mile trip went off without a hitch. In fact, aside from a little incident of bumping a tree while backing the trailer into place, the whole thing went off almost too well. Kodi was remarkably well behaved; this trip being one of the longest he's been on and only needing one break in each direction. The old truck handled the mountain climbing with aplomb, snarling it's way up the worst of the roads in the 90+ degree heat without blowing it's cool. My transmission project from '03 helping to handle the load. By the top of the 3-5 mile runs at over 6% grade, the temp gauge was on the high side, but the downhill runs cooled everything off in no time and got things ready for the next climb. Not bad for an 18 year old truck. To top it off, I figure I got about 12mpg in the process.

We had arrived at Deep Creek State Park and a nice sized space with electric hookup. Setup was a breeze. Chipmunks were everywhere. It was a quiet weekend, the Memorial Day prior apparently was pretty much filled. We had friendly neighbors, which is almost always the case when camping. The three of us had some nice hiking time along the lake as well as a nice drive around the area.

There is another reason aside from the scenery and facilities as to why this my choice for the 'maiden voyage'. You see, this was the place where I learned to love camping, thanks to Mom.
( Many pictures, and lots of warm memories... )

With this trip being an unequivocal success, both of us cannot wait for our next combined outings next month. First will be a weekend at Hillside, from there will be a whole week in Provincetown for Bear Week. Warning signs not required, but should be. P-Town has some terrific food.

The weekend was a nicely productive one. Spent most of it working in the yard along with Jeff, weeding, mulching, planting. Today prior to cutting grass, I moved a tarp that had blown off a pile of random firewood that ended up in the lawn. Two snakes slithered out, keeping me in their gaze. The snakes didnt bother me, what did was the patch of 'earth' under the tarp that resembled a huge ant colony. After grabbing the snakes and tossing them into my neighbor's weedpatch yard (I did not want to be making sectional snakes with the tractor, and, unlike Jeff, I dont mind having snakes around) I dug around in the loamy earth looking for ants and found none. Now, unless this is something that the snakes had done (nesting? I'm no Samuel L. Jackson expert when it comes to snakes, I just know the difference between a snake I can pick up or one I should avoid) I think this might indicate a subterranian termite colony or something bad. I hope not. I'll be keeping an eye around the area just in case. Anyone in my readership have any ideas?

Today was an unsettling day for me for the first half. I was bumming about the loss of Mom (as usual), couple that with Memorial Day, some very bad news I read on LJ earlier and the fact that I seemed to be running over landscape rocks due to my failing eyesight and getting slapped with low hanging tree branches made me lose it and attack an offending tree by crashing the tractor into it repeatedly. Yeah, I get like this sometimes. With Jeff at work and my awkward headspace, I retreated into the new trailer where I had been earlier in the day. The a/c was on (gotta give it a trial run!) and it was quiet. I gathered my senses once again, by that time a good friend came over for a visit and I mostly reset my brain. Jeff came home, we had a nice dinner and I got more grass done until I somehow snagged a steel cable in the yard (dont ask) and had to take two of the three blades off the mower deck to untangle the mess. By that time it was too late to finish. Everything got put away and I have been taking it easy since.

I am finally getting the replacement wheel/tire for the Stratus delivered tomorrow. It's been on order since early March, and I'm actually happy, since the scheduled backorder receive had kept on getting pushed out, all the way to mid July. I have a spare wheel on order to prevent such nightmares from happening. I did the same for the MINI. There is a good chance that these extra wheels will sit in the garage until the cars are no longer with me. It's insurance.

I'm getting some gauges and other goodies for the truck. I either lost or had given away some gauges I had (namely trans temp and a voltmeter), so I bought replacements from Summit. I most likely wont receive them in time to install them prior to my shakedown cruise with the trailer next weekend, so I will not push the old truck too much over the mountains till I know things are not overheating below the floorboards.

I made a bumper sticker for the trailer:


"R V Having Fun Yet?" There seems to be a certain amount of bad punnery that goes with camping.

I have some long hours to put in this week, so it's time I hit the 'post' button and haul my ass to bed. G'nite.

A very busy weekend for us. On Saturday lot of my time was spent prepping the Mini Cooper for my annual trek to the Tail Of The Dragon. A separate post about this is in the wings, since there is a bit more to it than burning up tires, brakes, gas and chasing bikers on their crotch rockets. It's emotional this time. Jeff and I scooted off for a while around noon to do some shopping and wouldn't you know, we ended up with this:



( Clicky for more towable goodness )

We decided that time has come to do some more traveling, taking time from work and seeing and doing more on our own terms. The maiden voyage of our towed abode will be a weekend at Hillside then up to Bear Week in Provincetown. The P-Town weekend is something we have been looking forward to for quite a while now, it will be our first real vacation in a few years. This is part of the 'get on with living' pledge I made for myself.

Today, along with tinkering with the Mini, I started getting the old truck in shape. It's got some new work to do. We also took Kodi in for some needed grooming at Petco. What resulted can only be termed a bad hair day that will last for a while. Me and especially Jeff were pretty upset, though Kodi was his usual overly playful self. Next time, we are going to tackle the grooming ourselves.