What did you do today?

C.J. said:

I think we all need to learn how to slow down a bit Easier said than done though.

I would say the main motivator for me was I want to ride my bike to work n back. This city is flat which means riding is easy, unless it’s windy, and it damn near never rains here. What more could you ask for. It’s a 6 mile trip one way and takes about a half hour to ride. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon will do nicely. It’s a great way to get your blood flowing in the morning. The ride home in the afternoon works out nicely for decompressing and clearing your head from the day.

Click to expand...

Don’t forget, you’re not 16 anymore!! That means no bunny hops, endo’s, rooster tails, wheelies, etc.


I feel like if I had a bike thoughts of doing said tricks would flood my head. There’s a very big chance I would act on them. There’s an even bigger chance I would eat **** and destroy myself & the bike……. Don’t be like a Tom!!!

Cats called a truce and set aside their grievances for a few hours so they could pile on top of me but when I got up to use the bathroom they started fighting. Ginger growled at me for moving her off of me. Princess broke up a brawl between Snugglebum and Gravy Jones long enough for me to get in between them. I picked Snugglebum up and set him on top of the fridge to separate them and they are annoyed but not at each other's throats. The water is not working so pretty sure the lines froze. It's pex so hopefully nothing ruptured. I have some 5 gallon buckets filled with water so we can flush toilets.

Tile Tom said:

Don’t forget, you’re not 16 anymore!! That means no bunny hops, endo’s, rooster tails, wheelies, etc.


I feel like if I had a bike thoughts of doing said tricks would flood my head. There’s a very big chance I would act on them. There’s an even bigger chance I would eat **** and destroy myself & the bike……. Don’t be like a Tom!!!

Click to expand...

No doing this, no doing that… No fun is more like it, right. Not gonna say I never hurt myself but I sure as heck have walked home enough times because I toasted a wheel.

On to room three.... Got the seam done in a different room, but it will take 3 of us to walk the carpet out the sliding door, go around the house and put it through the window........ window opening. The room is padded, but I still have an hours prep beveling back the hardwood transition a little shimming and tackstrip. and pad the closet.
Gettin' there.

C.J. said:

No doing this, no doing that… No fun is more like it, right. Not gonna say I never hurt myself but I sure as heck have walked home enough times because I toasted a wheel.

Click to expand...

I’ve eaten it more times than I can remember. Still have battle scars from it. Remember the old school metal pedals? So do my shins.

Been getting down to the 30’s at night, 50 in the shop this morning. That’s cold for here.

I decided to keep my van after all. Couldn’t imagine paying what they’re asking for vehicles these days so here we are. I called up our insurance agent to add the van onto our AZ policy. They asked me if I wanted the smart driver discount. That’s where you plug some gps type thingy into your vehicle and let them track you. I told dude hell no, I don’t want you knowing how I drive. Why would I ever do that. I had a company van with one of those tracker thingys plugged into the OBD port. I unplugged that thing. Nobody needs to know where I’m at except for maybe my wife.

Has anybody here done this for their insurance? Has it saved you money? Or do you regret it?

C.J. said:

I decided to keep my van after all. Couldn’t imagine paying what they’re asking for vehicles these days so here we are. I called up our insurance agent to add the van onto our AZ policy. They asked me if I wanted the smart driver discount. That’s where you plug some gps type thingy into your vehicle and let them track you. I told dude hell no, I don’t want you knowing how I drive. Why would I ever do that. I had a company van with one of those tracker thingys plugged into the OBD port. I unplugged that thing. Nobody needs to know where I’m at except for maybe my wife.

Has anybody here done this for their insurance? Has it saved you money? Or do you regret it?

Click to expand...

Never had it offered, but the answer would be "hell, no".

Floorist said:

Never had it offered, but the answer would be "hell, no".

Click to expand...

Me too. Never been asked. The more people say yes, the more conditioned we will become and accept this as 'normal'
.... I'll tell you what, I'm NEVER going to be normal!
.......no, no, I didn't mean it like you're thinkin'

C.J. said:

Been getting down to the 30’s at night, 50 in the shop this morning. That’s cold for here.

View attachment 20678View attachment 20679

Click to expand...

I like the look of the F/RH set. Clean and simple.

C.J. said:

I decided to keep my van after all. Couldn’t imagine paying what they’re asking for vehicles these days so here we are. I called up our insurance agent to add the van onto our AZ policy. They asked me if I wanted the smart driver discount. That’s where you plug some gps type thingy into your vehicle and let them track you. I told dude hell no, I don’t want you knowing how I drive. Why would I ever do that. I had a company van with one of those tracker thingys plugged into the OBD port. I unplugged that thing. Nobody needs to know where I’m at except for maybe my wife.

Has anybody here done this for their insurance? Has it saved you money? Or do you regret it?

Click to expand...

I have it. It really doesn’t do **** because I know I drive fast & recklessly & I still get the discount. I’ve had it for years.

So, in keeping with my luck, my jet pump that was just bought in March 2024 ruptured. No water until we can get a new one in. Will have to call in professionals to install it as my friend will be in California. Earliest a new pump might arrive is the 28th. had to pay expedited shipping to get it before February, but knowing my luck it will arrive later.

zannej said:

So, in keeping with my luck, my jet pump that was just bought in March 2024 ruptured. No water until we can get a new one in. Will have to call in professionals to install it as my friend will be in California. Earliest a new pump might arrive is the 28th. had to pay expedited shipping to get it before February, but knowing my luck it will arrive later.
View attachment 20684

Click to expand...

Oh dear, that sucks...... or doesn't suck.
What are you going to have for water in the mean time?

zannej said:

So, in keeping with my luck, my jet pump that was just bought in March 2024 ruptured. No water until we can get a new one in. Will have to call in professionals to install it as my friend will be in California. Earliest a new pump might arrive is the 28th. had to pay expedited shipping to get it before February, but knowing my luck it will arrive later.
View attachment 20684

Click to expand...

Do you have a standard 120v outlet by the pump? A cheap reflector lamp housing with a 250 infrared light bulb placed close to the pump housing and aimed 1/2 at the pump and 1/2 at the galvanized pipe would probably be enough to prevent that from happening again. You could place a batt of unfaced fiberglass over the back half of the housing.
How cold did you get?

highup said:

Oh dear, that sucks...... or doesn't suck.
What are you going to have for water in the mean time?

Click to expand...

For now I have a few 5 gallon buckets full of water. 2 in each bathroom but my brother has already been emptying one to flush the toilet he shares with Mom. I'm letting the yellow mellow in mine for awhile (will suck to clean it later) and have 2 of the buckets in my bathroom. There is one additional bucket in the kitchen but I can't get the lid off. LOL. I'll have to pry it up. We also have bottled water and I plan to get more soon. I used bottled water to fill up water for the pets.

highup said:

Do you have a standard 120v outlet by the pump? A cheap reflector lamp housing with a 250 infrared light bulb placed close to the pump housing and aimed 1/2 at the pump and 1/2 at the galvanized pipe would probably be enough to prevent that from happening again. You could place a batt of unfaced fiberglass over the back half of the housing.
How cold did you get?

Click to expand...

No. All of the outlets in the shed stopped working and have been disconnected. They were the wrong kind of outlets for that area anyway. We plan to eventually add one or two GFCI outlets but will need some junction boxes and other stuff and need to revisit the plan. I wonder if I can get a small solar powered space heater (if such a thing exists) that is rated for wet areas. I eventually also want a little gable fan. Unfortunately it's a really crappy metal shed so trying to attach stuff is a bear. Might have to invest in some PVC boards and use tapcons and Lexel to secure them. I want to put up something like Reflectix on the walls and ceiling. It's not a perfect solution but might reduce a little bit of the heat transfer. I also want to take two heavy duty tarps (tear and uv resistant ones) to secure to the outside of the shed and have them meet in the middle over the doorway. I can then use a tarp doorway zipper over the seam where the two tarps meet so we can get in and out of the shed. I wonder if rare earth magnets would help with anything. The magnets I tried to use were not strong enough. It would be great if I could get one of the tarps to wrap around over the damaged corner of the shed. Although reflectix over that might help. I even considered making some half-arsed doors out of double sided rigid foam insulation. Something that could be attached with strong rare earth magnets-- although I'm somewhat certain my cows would find a way to break the foam like they broke the original metal doors. Leaned on them and busted them in.

The coldest I saw was 19°F but it could have been colder. It very rarely ever got below freezing here. Would snow once every 20yrs. Snowed more frequently the past 10 years but usually the snow was melted by the next day. This was the longest prolonged cold and most snow we've ever had in my life time. Past snow was maybe 1" or so. Last hard freeze was possibly 2" of snow but some places got almost a foot of snow and we got at least 8" of snow out here. It got up to 51°F today but schools were still shut down.

I'm going to attempt the JB Weld and clamp fix tomorrow (if I can find the JB weld) and see about getting one of those camping blankets with foil on it for the doorway or on the corner of the shed temporarily. The ultimate goal is to have some lights in there along with outlets for heaters and also have a backup solar powered light to see in there when power is out.

Heaters take a lot of power, so I'm thinking insulation and a safe, low powered heat source. I don't think solar wod be of much help because something is fell would probably break the bank.... batteries, converter, how many panels.......
Maybe even a heating pad.... maybe there's a type of heating pad for pets.... Reptilian type pets. ...or those heating ropes/wraps for pipes.
Getting up every hour to run the water for 5 minutes or whatever it takes for the pump to turn on for a while. That's getting pretty chilly.

Z here is a saying my ex was told when on welfare. "If it is brown flush it down, if it yellow let it mellow."

DarisMulkin said:

Z here is a saying my ex was told when on welfare. "If it is brown flush it down, if it yellow let it mellow."

Click to expand...

The guy who wrote, if it's brown, go bury it in the yard..... He decided poetry just wasn't his calling.

Woke up feeling like garbage. Fighting the urge to throw up so I'm going to curl up and sleep a bit longer. Took some Pepto and if it helps and I can stave off the nausea I'll go look at the clamps down in the workshop to see what I have and then go to the store to get the JB Weld and maybe some more bottled water if there's any available.

It’s Friday! Motivation just wasn’t there at work today. I’m insulating a trailer and I’m not feeling like being itchy today. No better time to check out the spinner I got for Christmas. Wow, turns out this is a damn fine spinner. Zip it up and it goes for a really long time. I don’t even zip them up that much anymore after I had one come apart on me.

The weather is so nice today and I really wanted to go for a bike ride instead of staying at work. I left at lunch, came home and went for a couple hour ride. Just what the doctor ordered!