The Manic Mechanic

Jeff and I headed up to Pennslovakia this weekend to drag the trailer back here for its winter stay as well as take care of other business. We went out shopping for a new dishwasher for Jeff's 'rents since their old one finally gave up the ghost after slowly falling apart. We found a display model at a substantial discount. I installed it with little difficulty despite the damn stenosis. We also got them a new microwave by surprise by claiming we needed a new one. Their old one was at least 20 years old by my estimation, and in addition to having lost cooking power over the years (all microwave ovens do this as they age, the magnetron, which is a form of electron tube, wears out with use) the turntable no longer spun, so what you end up with is food that required a long time to cook and has hot and not-so-hot areas. Of course, Jeff's dad thinks there is nothing wrong with the old one. The new one has a sensor that allows for lots of automatic cooking options. I've had one for years now, and grown to love it. I hope they enjoy theirs.

We did a lot of running around, from Amish auctions, Wally World, a little Amish thrift grocery store called Hoover's, my favorite local-ish restaurant (Schiano's), Lowes, and Sears on Saturday despite not being able to get any sleep Friday night from pain and other issues. I managed to do some good work around their place despite it all, and had a bit easier time getting sleep. Sunday we headed off to a little restaurant in Jeff's home town that has been there for eons called Hanna's, for lunch. I had never been there before, but we've had ice cream from the adjoining stand many times. It's a tiny place, with around a dozen items on the menu and a few sides. Jeff and I started snickering soon after arriving because we noticed the average age of the customers (including us!) to be in the low 100s, and once noontime rolled around the place became flooded with people almost instantly. I guess church let out and Jeebus made 'em hungry.

After we left the Geritol rave, we headed into downtown Shamokin and all of its cosmopolitan glory tp pick up several tubs of ice cream from Maurer's Dairy & Ice Cream Shoppe. They are known for their delicious homemade ice creams, most notably one they call "Bittersweet" that is made with milk and dark chocolate pieces that somehow shatter into tiny bits when added to the cold churn. It's actually patented, and several corporate interests have tried to buy the recipe/process from them, but they stand firm. They have conventional flavors as well as some unusual ones. One of the most interesting is "Teaberry" which looks like (and at first tastes somewhat like) frozen Pepto-Bismol. After your brain (and taste buds) process what's going on, the flavors mix and mingle, with a primary minty fruit flavor that hints somewhat of chocolate. Nowhere near as bad as it sounds from my description, it's a definite treat, and a taste adventure to boot. We had gotten several tubs of these because Jeff had told coworkers and friends about the stuff. He had given the stuff out before, and not only have people wanted more, word got around. Since we were bringing the trailer home, we fired up the fridge/freezer to keep everything nicely frozen on the trip home.

The last couple days have not been a lot of fun for me, since I am stumbling and falling at a greater frequency. I hope that relief from this hell comes next week. I'm still trying to get things mostly in order around here prior to being out of commission so I can (hopefully) relax. My legs have become bony sticks now, and I've lost quite a bit of weight. I can't wait for my life to return to its normal state of mayhem.

I presume everyone had a decent Easter Sunday, aka Zombie Jesus Day. It's the day where Jesus arose from the dead, most likely saw his shadow and proceeded to feast on brains. The latter can be seen in action to this day in backwater megachurches as the congregants submit themselves to all manner of brain destruction in his name.

They'd be far better off eating thirteen year old Corn Flakes. ;)

Was a nice day outside, but blustery and cold. I had wanted to do some outdoorsy stuff, but instead did more work in the basement. Two trash cans filled with junk, and a wheelie bin full of paper and cardboard got set roadside today. I will be giving one of my workbenches to Jeff's father, in it's place I have a smaller maple table top and some steel legs to assemble into it's replacement. The top needs refinishing, but should be fine for use once that's done. I'll finally be able to attach my woodworking vise that I've had for years (longer than the corn flakes!) because the construction of the current table would not allow it to fit. Plus, I finally get the table top out of the garage where it's been taking up space. I've decided to make use of things I have hanging around or get rid of it. Find useful homes for the stuff when possible, or trash/recycle it. There are boxes of stuff that have not been touched since moving to this place 20 years ago. I'm sure I will have some memories flooding back when I get into some of the items, but I will either use it, give it away to a good home, or toss it. My stuff has clogged up my life long enough, it's time for a bit of freedom.

I've been rather quiet on the ol' LJ lately, it mostly mirrors how I've been feeling lately.

On Sunday I went to the memorial service for my best friend's mother. I dont know why I am so apprehensive of these things. Yeah, all the churchy stuff and sadness, but in most cases they are all about resolution, comfort and, well, love. It also became a mini-reunion of our high school group of friends, some I havent seen in 29 (!!! It's been that long?!) years, other for more than ten. Funny thing is, they are exactly as I would have imagined them to look with the added years. We talked about our current situations, reminisced of the past, complained about getting old, and renewed our connections. I took a cell-phone shot of most of us, but I misplaced the confounded adapter for the MicroSD card and I am not reconnecting the monster PC with the native reader tonight. I'll post the shot of me and my inseparable cohorts soon enough.

As is typical when I need to keep my mind off of depressing thoughts, I tinker. The weather threw me a curve these past few days with promises of rain and nastiness which did not really materialize. I knew that as soon as I set up the sawbucks and the big miter saw setup outside to do more trim work on the garage, I'd have a downpour to contend with. So instead I have been doing myriad little projects and such that have been on back burners for years. Some minor rewiring of circuits in the basement woodshop/workshop, as well as changing lighting circuits that slowly became overloaded as I added lights. Since I have four more quad fixtures to install and wore and the original circuit shares the lighting with the kitchen and bathrooms, I am installing a separate branch just for the shop lights. I replaced the emergency lighting fixture tonight as well, replaced the temporary lighting setup in a storage area with a pair of two bulb fluorescents and got rid of all the janky extension cords and such. Rewired some of the shop machinery as well, the machine lights I added to the band saw and big drill press got wired into the machine wiring itself instead of having their own separate cords, cutting down on clutter and the need for so many outlets. When the weather is more conducive to such things, I will make several more hauls to the landfill/recycling center to get rid of lots of cruft clogging the basement.

I have an area next to the Lab Of Mayhem currently used for storage. I want to finish it off and make it into an office. I'm tired of having paperwork strewn on the dining room table and want to finally have a dedicated office setup. That will go a long way in making the upstairs more livable and easier to keep neat. It has the advantage of being separated from the house by ten inches of solid concrete, making it ideal for storage of important paperwork and such in case the unthinkable should happen. When completed I will fit the room with a fire-rated steel door and a decent lock as well.

I need this short week coming up. So much in my head that I've been tending to. A nice helping of reality should do the trick, but not all at once.

Yeah, well, I've been around, if just barely. I've kept LJ close but quietly, catching up where I can and making a couple comments. Some very sad news around the flist, but some bright spots in people's lives as well. My heart goes out to those who are dealing with tremendous losses and changes. And my thumbs up for those enjoying some of the good stuff that life brings about.

As for me, last weekend I took a trip over to where I was born and raised. Camera in hand, I wandered about taking shots while being overwhelmed with memories. Long story short, just about everything has been obliterated, but there were a few remaining hints of the past to be found. Some day, hopefully sooner than later, I can assemble the pictures taken along with others I have as well as scans of photos going back to before I was born, creating a photo essay of some history very close to me. It's likely to be uninteresting to most, but it will be meaningful and perhaps even cathartic for me.

As for this weekend, not a lot went on. The weather was nice on Saturday, so Jeff and I spent part of the day doing yard work. I did tinkering around the garage, trying to gather things back into some semblance of order in preparation for springtime projects. The highlight for today was a trip to Verizon Wireless to replace our aging handsets. Jeff got a nearly-new Razr thanks to sfmini, and I sprang for a new LG Voyager. It's kinda like an iPhone, but without the smugness and with an extra battery. ;) :D I feel so techie modern now.

Here's to a good week.

Spent a fairly relaxed weekend up in PA with Jeff's 'rents. And Kodi. And, for the first time in a while, Kodi again tossed his doggie biscuits all over Jeff a mere ten minutes from our destination. Perhaps this would not have happened had we not been delayed due to trees being blown into the roadways by a storm that got into town about a half hour before us.

It was also our first visit in quite a while, so we needed to make up in the way of Mother's and Father's Day presents. At our past exploration of a new Best Buy in Columbia (which is basically the same as the old one, which is the same as every other BB you'd wander into), we spotted a Westinghouse digital picture frame. We thought it the perfect gift for his mom, so I loaded it with some of the nicest and most memorable shots I have taken over the year of his family members. Turning the thing on, you are greeted with a configurable slide show of pictures on a very bright and sharp 8 inch diagonal LCD. It was an instant hit! I was later presented with a stack of pictures to be scanned and put into the frame. The thing even does video (actually, more like silent movies. No sound. But that's kinda a good thing here).

We got his dad a pressure washer. He wasted no time trying it out. Another hit. More Gerberra daisies for the front of the house and some other trinkets were bought while wandering about in Lowes.

Went out later that Saturday to do some shopping for the new trailer and to see Shrek 3. We liked it, but it's clearly the weakest of the three flicks.

Got back today and futzed around the house and the trailer. This week, the evenings will be spent doing chores, working on the yard, the truck and whatnot. More busybusy stuff. But we are making nice progress I think.

The trip up and back was accompanied by my new portable GPS, a Lowrance iWAY 600C. This little bugger rocks. In addition to the usual 2- and 3-D maps, it has detailed US waterway charts and topographical overlays, and satellite imagery to boot. It's like Google Maps in a box. Plays mp3s and Ogg Vorbis audio files, and can display photos on it's incredibly bright and sharp 640x480 screen. It seriously kicks ass, and can be used in anything that moves. It's waterproof too. Highly recommended, especially if you are a geek like me.

Off to bed, it's gonna be a long week.

Been busier than a one-armed paper hanger lately. Lucky for me, the back trouble was apparently just a slight strain. By Friday I no longer needed any painkillers to be comfortable. Took Kodi for his third installment of Puppy School in the evening. He does pretty well I guess, and gets his excitement quotient to boot. If he would only do as well with his homework as he does in school.

Saturday rolled around and I spent it all day in the garage working on Jeff's truck and a couple side jobs. The truck needed work on the transfer case, new door hingepins and intake manifold gaskets. The gaskets took the longest, and had me bent over under the hood for several hours. If my back had healed, I sure put it through qualification tests soon enough. It passed.

Sunday I decided to do something different, so I climbed into my truck and went shopping in the snowstorm. A typical shopping trip for me, the auto parts store, Wal-Mart (ugh, during a lapse in judgement since it's next to the parts store), McDonalds for lunch and an extended wandering around Home Depot. I have a 10% discount card expiring at the end of the month that I should use on getting a new washer/dryer. My current washer is fairly new, but the dryer has been patched up more than a farmer's pickup truck to keep it going, and it's about to fall apart soon. I wont know how to act with a matching washer and dryer for the first time in my life.

Came home and cleared all the driveways and walkways of the winter mess so it would not end up like the concrete-like mess of the previous week that I took a couple spills in and impossible to remove without Ma Nature's help in melting it away.

Jeff has been under the weather this weekend and needed to work on Sunday. He took time off today to get some rest, but I think Kodi had other ideas.

This is shaping up to be a busy week. On Friday, Jeff and I are going to head to Pittsburgh for a conference he has to attend. While he does his chef and dietician duties, I will try to stay out of trouble. I could use the time off to do something different.

I've had lots of posts to make, but really not feeling it lately. Dunno what's up with that. I'm content with reading when I can for now. I'm also way behind in replies.