What did you do today?

[Floorist]

Sold my Harbor Freight Hercules 12 inch miter saw and stand for $300. Done with any home improvement that would need it. Wood is too expensive anyway. When you can buy furniture cheaper than you can build it, it’s time to free up space in the garage. I have to say though, I got a lot of good use out of it.

I would hate to part with my wood working shop, but lumber will need to come down a bunch to use it.
I have 2 drill presses, 3 band saws, jointer, planer, 4 scroll saws, miter saw, stand up sander, router table, a $1200. cabinet saw and many, many hand tools. Don't know if it would bring anything as high as wood is or not.

 

[highup]

I remember Art Bell on my camping trips. Camping was for photography purposes so I always picked logging landings for the highest view in the morning and evening. Late at night Art Bell came in pretty good in the hills east of me. His listeners were pretty fun to listen to.

 

[highup]

Well my u-joints, steering and lower ball joints have grease. I wanted to do that before the job I just finished because that probably totaled but 1600 miles back and forth to work in my little beater V6 S10. Didn't seem to have any trouble halling five, 20 foot rolls of heavy carpet even though there's a couple of 1 mile long uphill grades. Even with the tailgate down there was still 5 ft sticking off the back end of the truck.
None of the bearings were dry, so they're ready for a lot more miles.
Need to check brakes next and my upper and lower ball joints. I'm not sure what I'm going to run into there.

 

[Jon]

It's approaching 10:00 a.m. and we're about to hit 70° already. I'm going to take a stab that we hit 80 or maybe a tiny bit higher than that today. I suppose I'd rather have $80 than to have minus anything.
That's why it's not called global warming anymore. It's climate change because that covers all bases.

highup it was actually on our news today that Oregon is going to get very hot today

 

[highup]

highup it was actually on our news today that Oregon is going to get very hot today

Makes me super happy that I live on the coast.
I got up to 83° today. 120 mi away, they're holding Olympic trials in Eugene Oregon. I think they got up to 112 today. Can you imagine running a track and field event at 112°?
Looks like they will have 95 tomorrow.
I crawled under my truck today and greased the u-joints. It was 82° at the time and of course under the truck I'm in the shade. Still was not pleasant but it needed to get done. It's been a long time since I put them in and I just wanted to be sure they weren't dry...... they weren't.

 

[highup]

I haven't been thinking about it much Jon, you must be getting kind of chilly this time of year.

 

[Jon]

I haven't been thinking about it much Jon, you must be getting kind of chilly this time of year.

Yeah the cat wants to hop into bed At least we dont get snow here maybe a frost a couple of times
In the middle of the North Island people who can travel, locals okay but no overseas travelers. Aussie has been shut again for open travel due to the outbreaks they have been having can go skiing along with the South Island ski fields

 

[zannej]

Mark Brown & Highup, that guy's videos are pretty cool. I liked the one with the suction tool used to carry stuff and how he modified it to work as a vacuum for other purposes. I wish I had access to that plastic material he uses but it's not sold in my area.
Highup, if you have a Youtube account, perhaps you can leave some comments about your ideas for improving the rig as it seems the guy actually listens to the suggestions from people.
Internet wasn't cooperating and my computer crashed. It locked up doing nothing for 5min straight so I finally had to do a hard reset (flipped the power switch on and off). I discovered if I flip it on and off quickly it reboots rather than just shutting down. I lost some stuff I hadn't saved but the computer was so frozen up I was going to lose it anyway. I think it's my hard drive getting hot. I need to switch to SSD so it won't overheat like that anymore.

Yesterday I took my brother and we visited our friend. I bought lunch for everyone and we sat around watching Avengers:Endgame and the 2nd episode of Loki. Some mooches (friend's ex's former stepbrothers- their dad was briefly married to her mom but they divorced) dropped by unannounced. The older one stole my friend's bike and broke into his house (the one that burned) years ago and my friend had to get a "stay away" order on him. Friend didn't see either of them for years and then one day he heard noise on the porch and the older one was there using drugs. Friend had to threaten to call the cops to get him to go away. Even though he has no relation to this mooch, the guy keeps coming by. He showed my friend his "new" car that had problems (I suspect he wanted my friend to offer to fix it bc he used to fix cars for people before he had a stroke). Guy finally left so we went back to lunch and watching stuff. Halfway through the movie the dude came back (without his brother) and wanted to "borrow" money. Friend told him he was broke & guy kept promising he would pay him back. Friend said "I don't have anything to give you- I'm broke. My wallet is empty". Then the dude turned to me and asked for $. I'm out of $ bc I gave the last of it to my friend to keep his internet on. I told him I didn't have any. He stood there babbling about how he didn't have enough gas to get where he was going & needed $. We told him. I think he thought we were lying to him. He finally left and we discussed how he had some nerve coming and asking to borrow money from people he stole from. Dude has no reason to be coming around but my friend is too nice to tell him to stay away. Anyway, we enjoyed our movie. Fat baby woke up after the movie so he was fed. My brother had an RX to pick up so we had to leave earlier than we'd wanted. Mom called me but I couldn't get my phone out before she hung up. She said what she wanted from the store -- which was on our list.

On the way to the store my brother started being rude & interrupting me. I told him he was being a b*** and he started arguing. I realized he was getting worked up so I started mocking him. Saying things in a higher pitched voice like "Awww. Baby having little b*** fit? Whiny little baby. WAaaaaaaah" and he started getting angrier and screamed & yelled profanities at me. I pointed out I was doing what he does to me when I try to talk to him. He denied it and kept having a fit. So I just laughed and kept mocking him until he finally cracked a smile and calmed down & we were cool by the time I parked. He went to get the potstickers while I got his RX. We checked out, got out of the store and then Mom called. She was screaming about how she'd been calling but we "refused" to answer. I told her the phones didn't ring & that we had no signal. She then pitched a fit (see where my brother gets it from) about wanting bread. I asked why she hadn't mentioned that she wanted it the first time she called. She said I should have known she wanted bread. So I had to go back in and found they were out of the kind she likes. Got a different kind instead. Surprisingly, she was OK with it. There was a 50/50 chance she would have screamed about me buying something other than what she wanted. I cooked some potstickers for her right then and then took a nap.

Mom's dog woke me up around 4am and I haven't been able to get back to sleep.

 

[Tom Picciani]

highup it was actually on our news today that Oregon is going to get very hot today

Lancaster, Pa is now going through the same thing. 80 by 9:00. High of 95 and humidity way up. But no rain! And I picked this past weekend to put in 2 trees and shovell 3 yards of mulch!

 

[zannej]

Jon, there is a sewist in NZ named Trish Newberry who was just talking about how it's winter there but most of her customers are in the US where it's summer so she's designing summer sewing patterns.

Tom, a longtime family friend of mine lives in Lancaster with his wife and kids. He's the one we visited when we went to the Hershey factory.

Kidney stone is kicking around again. It's always the same kidney. Sky just turned dark so I might lose internet. I was told by an internet tech that Starlink will be launched fully in 2 months. I see my internet just went out. LOL. I will have to post this when I get signal back.

 

[Tom Picciani]

I was born in South Philly so I still feel like that is where I come from. Love a good cheesesteak! But in Lancaster, I like certain things around here. The air is clean although with a certain tang to it during the growing season! And I have great neighbors.

 

[highup]

Lancaster, Pa is now going through the same thing. 80 by 9:00. High of 95 and humidity way up. But no rain! And I picked this past weekend to put in 2 trees and shovell 3 yards of mulch!

This town is northeast of me quite a ways. I take a guess at least 350 mi away. It's in the Columbia River gorge.
https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USOR0299I think tomorrow is supposed to be 119

 

[zannej]

Watched another video from izzy who does the cool stuff. I need to find his videos on how he made the dinosaurs in the short blips. But this is a log lifter.
I can already spot some improvements it needs. I think if there was a rope that went to the top of the rig that had one of those pulley wheel like things for the rope to pass through it might add a little extra lifting power (but I could be mistaken) and it needed a cap/end on the thicker part like on a thread spindle to keep the rope from slipping off.

 

[Mark Brown]

That log has nothing on a full roll of marmoleum. He just needs some flooring installer buddies

 

[highup]

That log has nothing on a full roll of marmoleum. He just needs some flooring installer buddies

He just needs a forklift. I know that's not any fun at all but.....
..... He needs a forklift.

 

[highup]

I haven't done any maintenance on my little pickup for quite a while. It was hard keeping the upper radiator hose from leaking and it was starting to get kind of firm. I replaced that this morning and it sealed up perfect first time.
Even though I put new spark plugs distributor cap and rotor on the rig in the last 6 months for some reason it seemed to be idling on evenly at times.
I bought some carburetor/throttle body cleaner and decided to remove the air cleaner and hose everything down inside the throttle body. It's amazing what something like that can do.
I got the throttle body injectors sprayed down and the inside of the barrels and butterfly valves too. There was some build up on one side, so I was sure that was the cause of my idle..... Not my plugs or distributor cap.
It did smooth out the idle so I continued spraying.....
I figured the inside was shiny and clean I might as well continue getting oil and dirt off the outside. As I move from the back to the front the spring at the base of the throttle body injector unit, the engine stumbled when I sprayed in one spot.
.... I'm spraying on the outside of the unit now not in the bores. That means one thing a leak at the base of the throttle body itself.
I went down and bought a new base gasket because tightening the bolts to the throttle body down into no good at all. I figured there might have been a small piece of the gasket that had deteriorated, leaving an opening.
An air leak on a carbureted vehicle makes it run crappy at idle. Cleaning the inside of my throttle body illuminated my idle problem. That would do nothing on a carbureted car.
Anyway I went down and bought a new gasket and some strawberry recliner and proceeded to start unplugging things so I could remove the throttle body and install a new gasket.
I am a bit blown away. I'll bet more than 50% of that gasket had disintegrated over the years.
Though my truck is 1988 and obviously has a computer. Even though the air leak was below the throttle plates, the computer must have compensated for the air leak and that's why it's driven so well for so many years. Once I took the throttle body off I checked the metal nipple where you connect the PCV valve. It was totally plugged up. I literally spent 10 minutes with a drill bit in my fingers, two picks, a handful of q-tips and half a can of carburetor cleaner to open up that plugged line. It's squeaky clean now.
This is the first time I've ever worked on a throttle body injection unit.
Once I got it put back together and before I put on the air cleaner I started the engine to be sure that the two fuel lines were not leaking. The engine came to a higher than normal idle, about 3,500 RPM. Normally it starts up and does 2300 RPM for 15 seconds then drops down to 800.
This time it stayed at 3500 and did not change a bit. Oh my God what did I screw up.
...... Then I noticed the two electronic plugs that I didn't plug back into the side of the throttle body. These are very very important. One is the throttle position sensor and the other is for the idle air control.
If you think those two things sound important..... yea, it appears they are because they're connected to the computer.
I'm a slow learner but I got a torn apart put back together tonight and it's idle is like a champ.
Tomorrow maybe a new door handle because mine is currently broken. I fixed it with black gorilla duct tape but even front ugly truck that's not so cool.
Next I need to check out the brakes and I may do that tomorrow too. That's always the easiest time to check the ball joints. I know one of them is pretty bad. I don't want to lose my steering at 60 miles per hour so I probably need to check it out.

 

[highup]

... that's it, ....that's all I did today.
.... Probably just 4 hours or so. I'm sure glad I decided to check these things out because boy oh boy these things needed attention.
By the time I get brakes on this rig I'm probably going to have $500 into a $500 pickup
I suppose I could buy a $2,500 pickup then start learning that truck and put $500 into it as I lear how poorly it was maintained.
... But then I'd be out 2500 bucks.
I figure every time I replace something on my beater pickup I know what works and what's been fixed and I know what doesn't need fixing.
When you buy a new-to-you used vehicle, you have to start from scratch and learn what needs to be fixed. I already know my vehicle, so I'm a little ahead of the game.

 

[zannej]

It's so humid here that even when it's 89° it feels a lot hotter. It's like being in an oven.

I got up very early and swpet the hallway. Then napped until afternoon. I decided to cook some hamburger stroganof. I went through my checklist- pans, utensils, milk, cream, sour cream, water, garlic salt, colander, etc. Forgot to check for the measuring cup. There are 3 different spots its usually in. I cooked the meat and started looking for the measuring cup and realized it wasn't in the usual places. I then looked in every cabinet, under the table, on the floor, in the sink, in the front room, in the living room, in my room, in the bathrooms, on mom's desk & all around it-- to no avail. I looked for other measuring cups that I know I had in my bathroom (for measuring out for floor leveling mix). That one was gone too. I couldn't find a single f****ing measuring cup in the entire damn house. I ended up having to set the meat aside under a cover and drive to the store to get a new one. I can't figure out what the hell happened to it all the measuring cups. We used to have a stack of them in the cabinet next to the hallway. It's really pissing me off that it just disappeared. It will probably turn up somewhere around my mom's desk eventually-- she was the last person to use it. But there are no working lights in that room and she has s*** piled up so high I can't find anything. I can't move anything without creating an avalanche of her stuff. She keeps griping about not having enough space on her desk-- well, if she didn't pile papers and junk up there it wouldn't be a problem.

Sorry, venting. LOL.

Forklift would have helped with that log. LOL.

As an aside, my brother found the air fryer (mom bought it a few years ago and it never got opened) and set it up yesterday. I've already had to clean it twice because he doesn't care to clean up after himself. I think that contributed to my frustration. I'm about to disappoint Mewlatto by getting up and doing some more cleaning.

I need to call the septic tank sucker to come drain the tank. He's a jerk so I will feel no guilt over having him stand out in the heat-- although, I will have to watch to make sure he actually drains it all the way and takes the solids. I also need to take my truck in for transmission fluid change and other maintenance.

 

[highup]

Well today my pickup got a new door handle. No more gorilla tape holding it in place. It broke halfway through my long carpet job and there's no way I was going to stop to replace it at that time. They're went another 28 bucks.
I have an S10.
My old jack stands we're getting older.... I decided 3 ton is better than 2 ton, so thank you China for my $50 jack stands. I know that I don't need 3 ton jack stands for my S10. I'm kind of thinking three tons in Chinese means one and a half tons. What's that old saying, it's better to be safe than flat? ...something like that. Since I've taken part of this week off there are things I need to check out. Brakes started to squeal so I don't feel comfortable checking out those and the ball joints using just a jack.
..... Oh, I forgot to show you my old gasket from the throttle body. There was a little bit more than this because I think it sealed all the way around both throttle bores, with the exception of a small portion of the front left side. I'm thinking there was probably a 3/4-in area that air could seep in. It's so strange that a computer can correct an air leak like that.
I'm kicking myself now because I should have taken a vacuum reading before and after installing the new gasket. That gasket was as crumbly as a well made pie crust

 

[Csason]

finished another church, Ministerio pan de vida

This makes number thirty something since 2016 lol