What did you do today?

I thought for a second that was a slab of a freak of nature tree that didn't know what proper ring growth looked like. Looks great. Did you do your black epoxy trick on it to fill voids?
Use the TV screen for a dry erase note board.

highup said:

I thought for a second that was a slab of a freak of nature tree that didn't know what proper ring growth looked like. Looks great. Did you do your black epoxy trick on it to fill voids?
Use the TV screen for a dry erase note board.

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I’m gonna put some LED strip lights behind the TV screen. They have ones that will dance to the music. I’m sure it will end up on top of the shop stereo, which is a piece of work itself.

I used regular old black wood floor filler on the plywood edge grain block and am sealing it with Waterlox. Waterlox is a tung oil product that soaks in and hardens as it cures. 3 or 4 solid coats and that thing will be sealed enough to cut beer limes on all day long. I’ve got another Japanese Damascus steel knife that I’ll get for that block because I think it will match the look better.

CJ, the TV project is so cool!

I haven't even managed to finish cleaning up in the kitchen. Been tired and trying to relax. I did make it to Walmart today for some stuff.

Friend is really stressed out with the drama and I think he's starting to realize that it's possible his ex *did* abuse the baby and may have been abusive to the other 2 kids. He wants to blame the boyfriend bc he doesn't want to accept it though. There is no evidence/proof that the boyfriend has ever been violent with children/infants. He raised all of his younger siblings and was better with the 4-yr-old as an infant than the kid's own mother. He held him, bottle fed him, changed his diapers, while my friend was at work. The ex would let the baby cry for hours and cover her ears. After the boyfriend was out of the house, friend would get home to find the baby hadn't had his diaper changed since he left for work. He also told me he believed the reason the kid didn't start trying to talk until he was 3 was bc he thought the ex yelled at him and/or hit him to make him be quiet if he tried to talk. Kid flinched when I moved my hand up to wipe something off his face. If someone asked me which of the people I thought would abuse a baby/child and the options were the ex and her boyfriend, I'd go with the ex. Her therapist said that she is a danger to others when off her meds and that if she remained off her meds it would only be a matter of time before she seriously hurt someone. On her meds she's usually ok though. Not sure if she has the physical strength to break bones on a baby though. I did note that she never said "I didn't hurt my baby" but she said "I'm not about to abuse my kids" and "I would never abuse my kids". She's shown more concern for herself and zero concern for the well-being of her children. She's angry that she was accused of abuse and that her kids were taken away as if they were property. No saying she misses them, etc. It's not going to go well for her in court. Especially since her bf's family witnessed her pummeling him. She was violent with my friend too. She was raised that way though. She was taken away from her bio parents due to neglect/abuse and landed with career foster parents who used her to get $. They found out they could make more money from her social security if they adopted her and they could continue to collect so long as she lived with them even after 18. The adopted mom was physically and emotionally abusive to her.

Ceiling in kitchen is dripping again and there are holes in the siding on the house on the west side. Not sure how they happened.

highup said:

How does Amazon do this?
I ordered it yesterday morning about 11:am and it arrived an hour ago.
...26 hours?
Nobody locally carries these.
I lost or misplaced my 20+ year old plastic Starret. I think I paid $29 back then. This aluminium one was $18
....I know I'll find my lost one within 24 hours. It's been missing for a year or more and I stopped looking.

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They are doing SAME DAY on many daily items if I order plastic trash bags or printer ink it’s daily for sure crazy

Csason said:

They are doing SAME DAY on many daily items if I order plastic trash bags or printer ink it’s daily for sure crazy

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I live in the Oregon coast. It's 23 to 27 miles between towns from the Washington to the California border. No way any Podunk town on the coast has em. It's 120 miles inland to the nearest large city. I suppose it came from Portland on a FedEx plane, then to USPS to be delivered.
.....still that's FREEKING fast.

C.J. said:

I’m gonna put some LED strip lights behind the TV screen. They have ones that will dance to the music. I’m sure it will end up on top of the shop stereo, which is a piece of work itself.

I used regular old black wood floor filler on the plywood edge grain block and am sealing it with Waterlox. Waterlox is a tung oil product that soaks in and hardens as it cures. 3 or 4 solid coats and that thing will be sealed enough to cut beer limes on all day long. I’ve got another Japanese Damascus steel knife that I’ll get for that block because I think it will match the look better.

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I used to dance when I got really lit up. Way to old now.

highup said:

I used to dance when I got really lit up. Way to old now.

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Food dancing is about all I do anymore unless I really gotta pee.

Had some actual work to do today then it’s back to side project time again. I glued up some more plywood. This one will be big enough to make a 24” round. Perfect for a big ol lazy susan.

I dont know how people retire. There’s always something fun that needs to be done.

Mom woke me up at 4am to change her insulin cartridge. I'd pre-loaded ita few hours earlier since I knew her insulin was getting low. Made changing it out much faster. She found a better way to make changing out the tubing easier as well-- she just unbuttoned the nightgown over where the tube runs in and moved the opening over the canula so it was so much easier to swap out tubing.

went to HD for curbside order. Got a bunch of garden tools on sale. Saw Steve, the employee who does curbside stuff, waving at me and he waved me over to the loading bay since it was raining. Nice dude. He's always friendly and he recognizes me and asks how things are going.

Stopped at the Chinese place for food.

On the way home my brother got a message from our friend that another mutual friend died this morning. She was only 32. She had all sorts of health issues. Both parents were military but her dad had cheated on his wife and deceived her mother (who didn't know he was married)-- he'd proposed to her. He got kicked out of the military when the girl's mother turned up pregnant. The mother almost died from some kind of chemical attack when she was pregnant. The military denied that the chemicals would impact her health in any way. She almost died several times from ketoacidosis but then she developed Graves disease and ended up having a heart attack and seizures a few days ago. Never fully recovered. She had two kids who just entered high school.

C.J. said:

Food dancing is about all I do anymore unless I really gotta pee.

Had some actual work to do today then it’s back to side project time again. I glued up some more plywood. This one will be big enough to make a 24” round. Perfect for a big ol lazy susan.

I dont know how people retire. There’s always something fun that needs to be done.

View attachment 19882

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Buy your tools now so you can make shit when you can't afford the ones you need after retirement.... Whatever that is.
I'm still trying to find a use for my 1650 lb torque impact wrench I don't need.

Might make a cool tool for clamping up cutting boards.

zannej said:

Mom woke me up at 4am to change her insulin cartridge. I'd pre-loaded ita few hours earlier since I knew her insulin was getting low. Made changing it out much faster. She found a better way to make changing out the tubing easier as well-- she just unbuttoned the nightgown over where the tube runs in and moved the opening over the canula so it was so much easier to swap out tubing.

went to HD for curbside order. Got a bunch of garden tools on sale. Saw Steve, the employee who does curbside stuff, waving at me and he waved me over to the loading bay since it was raining. Nice dude. He's always friendly and he recognizes me and asks how things are going.

Stopped at the Chinese place for food.

On the way home my brother got a message from our friend that another mutual friend died this morning. She was only 32. She had all sorts of health issues. Both parents were military but her dad had cheated on his wife and deceived her mother (who didn't know he was married)-- he'd proposed to her. He got kicked out of the military when the girl's mother turned up pregnant. The mother almost died from some kind of chemical attack when she was pregnant. The military denied that the chemicals would impact her health in any way. She almost died several times from ketoacidosis but then she developed Graves disease and ended up having a heart attack and seizures a few days ago. Never fully recovered. She had two kids who just entered high school.

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Wow, that's way too young.

highup said:

I live in the Oregon coast. It's 23 to 27 miles between towns from the Washington to the California border. No way any Podunk town on the coast has em. It's 120 miles inland to the nearest large city. I suppose it came from Portland on a FedEx plane, then to USPS to be delivered.
.....still that's FREEKING fast.

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I’m on the I-4 corridor most dangerous hiway in murica . We have Amazon warehouses everywhere with more planned we have electric Amazon trucks everywhere

DarisMulkin said:

With an electric needle. Very quick, didn't even get to say ouch.

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Hurt my back, but doing ok and was just wondering how you’re doing after the nerve burning procedure Daris ?

MSLI said:

Hurt my back, but doing ok and was just wondering how you’re doing after the nerve burning procedure Daris ?

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What happened? Owie or serious stuff?

I'm told it will be 4-6 weeks before it really kicks in. I told the Doc that i'm beginning to think we are chasing rabbits and barking at the moon. Didn't like that comment very well.

Saw an ad for "Angi" today. Did not know they still existed. Years ago when they started as "Angi's List" I got an e mail from them. They would make up and post some good reviews for me if I would send them $50. Didn't need the reviews, I was already turning down work. I had 4 apt. complexes and several house flippers and I was having trouble keeping up with them.

Floorist said:

Saw an ad for "Angi" today. Did not know they still existed. Years ago when they started as "Angi's List" I got an e mail from them. They would make up and post some good reviews for me if I would send them $50. Didn't need the reviews, I was already turning down work. I had 4 apt. complexes and several house flippers and I was having trouble keeping up with them.

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I remember the advertising. ....can't recall last time I heard of that place.
I do recall contractors complaining about them.
Heaven forbid some Karen gains traction complaining about your work.

"Karen", tho I do use the name as it's been standardized for quite a long time now, has a sore spot for me. It is what it is, and is a relatively accepted term these days , so there's no going back.
My little sister Karyn, passed away at age 40, quite a few years ago.
My sympathies to Daris that has to live with the same nightmare thanks to social media.
Tis what it tis. I'm not offended by the name use any more. She's probably laughing because she was the anti Karyn... never whining or complaining.

........That's my job now.

Wife went shopping today so I went into work to play today. I planed down the chunk of wood then made it round. Came out to be a 24” round on the money and 2.75” thick. It’s a chunk for sure. I hit the entire thing with black filler then sanded it smooth. I gave it a coat of natural and now it can sit for a day or so until I get some more Waterlox.

I need to find a way to clean up the edge without giving it flat spots. Gotta be quick n easy like a belt sander or something otherwise it’s going to be called character. I’ve got a spiral bit that leaves a nice clean edge but there are cut lines between different passes as I increase the depth. I suppose I could Superman it and go for it in one pass. Then I flip the block over and finish routing the block with a flush trim bit. That’s where I get some tear out. I need some more spiral bits because those are the shit when it comes to clean cuts.

The other thing is that some of the plywood that I used in this bigger block has string in it. String, mesh, fiber… it’s got damn string in it so when I sand it smooth you can still feel a whisp of string here n there. Wonder if my card scraper would work. Otherwise I’ll just coat the piss outta the block, which will encapsulate the string, then sand it down. I’ve still got some work to do finishing it but at least I’ve got it dimensioned. That’s the messy part.

We are getting lows in the upper 50s and highs in the low 80s. Won't last but it is a nice break.

Yesterday I was researching sheds and enjoying AC while my friend was doing yardwork. His first ex's boyfriend (who is a really great guy) came over to his house to help trim some branches in a pecan tree. He took some video.

Tree climber was giggling and having fun. He used an extension cord wrapped around a branch to lower himself back down. Friend thought he was just going to use a pole saw. I used to have a few pole saws but the guy we hired to do some yard work a few years ago stole them along with multiple other tools from our car port when I was at the store buying wire for weedeater for him to use in my yard. He took everything and immediately left without doing more work. Still owes $1k worth of work but statute of limitations is up. He spent a few years dating the friend who died recently.But he was cheating on her constantly and accusing her of cheating so it didn't work out.

Today my friend worked on our CRV. I went over to help although I couldn't do much. He got AC working. I went and got coolant and oil for the compressor and he showed me how to hold the containers to get the stuff to go in. Then I tried to help him change the serpentine belt. Struggled with that for hours but the new belt was too short. No matter what we did it wouldn't go on-- and it was the one recommended by O'Reilly's and Rockauto. Friend inspected the old belt-- no cracks, no bubbles, no signs of damage-- so we put that one back on. I did help guide it and I held on to the tool/bar thing that pulls/pushes one of the pulley wheels. Held on to that sucker with all my might while friend got the belt back on. In the future I'll have to take it to pros to get it changed.

Hoping the Ridgeline's serpentine belt isn't such a bitch to change.
The schematic looks so simple

But there's all sorts of bullshit in the way. It shows the bar-- we had to use a cheater bar on the tool-- and it sucked. I was sweating and it was slipping in my grip. Friend and I are both sore.

Took him to Walmart to get some groceries and tp afterward. Got him some Powerade. Saw a notebook for his wife and pointed it out. He snagged it for her project book and she loved it. She'd been having a rough day wrangling the 4-yr-old. CPS declared him nonverbal. He can say a few words but can't speak in sentences and has low comprehension of language. Might be on the spectrum. Not sure. But the wife is going to learn sign language and has already been teaching him some. It seems to be working. Its a pity he is nonverbal bc if he could talk he might have been able to say who hurt his little brother. Cops have confiscated his mother's phone and I think she has court tomorrow. If they think its her that did the abuse, she's looking at 20yrs unless she gets a good plea deal. Even if she's not guilty they will push for a plea deal. I think it's more likely to have been her than her boyfriend.