What did you do today?

[Tom Picciani]

Millersville University closed due to flooding. In 2011 the town was cut off from most ways in due to flooding.
Our call center is open, working from home on laptops and Cisco Jabber for phone access.

 

[Tom Picciani]

And wow is it coming down!

 

[Tom Picciani]

And wow is it coming down!

 

[Floorist]

Looks like a Picasso painting.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Maybe Leroy Nieman!

 

[zannej]

I heard some thunder a few minutes ago but didn't see any rain. They had torn up more of the road and were putting down tar today. Had to wait for some of the tractors to move out of the way so I could take my brother to his job interview (his truck needs new motor mounts, CR-V's battery is dead). He went in and came out less than a minute later. Said they told him they already hired enough people & didn't bother to call him to cancel the interview.

We checked on the kitten afterward and were seeing how my friend was doing. Kitten is still tired. Friend was not doing well. His mom brought by some tomales with jalepenos. She knows he's allergic but didn't care and didn't warn him. He managed to take a bunch of benadryl when he felt his airway restricting. No epi pen sadly, but the benadryl worked.

Then his gf's family all showed up. Her brother, sister-in-law, & their two kids were already there. Then her bio mom showed up w/ her husband and the gf's inbred sister-cousin. The sister-cousin brought her baby (who is 10 days younger than the gf's baby). The baby's had no real interest in interacting with one another. She younger one seems more alert, responds to her name, stood up, and seems more intelligent-- despite having two parents who are mentally challenged (and I mean legally where they are both so mentally challenged they get social security for it). The poor sister-cousin has a speech impediment and does not understand things very well. But she's still a better mother than the gf is. I feel bad for her. Her husband is extremely abusive/violent but she doesn't have the intelligence to leave him.

I almost think I should create a story blog called Redneck Drama, change some names, and pretend it's fiction... But then, some of this stuff would seem too far fetched even though it's real.

Meanwhile, I just ate fried chicken & apparently some of the grease is still on my fingers bc Biscuits is trying to eat my fingers.

 

[Mark Brown]

Zannej my friend, I think you should. I read what you type every day and am typically speechless. Your life my friend is one epic rollercoaster of ups and downs and about the only thing that seems consistent in it all is that you clearly have a gigantic heart and I do not think I would be mistaken to think it was made of anything other than solid gold.

 

[C.J.]

Trust me when I tell you that every family out there has some sort of drama. Some are just better at hiding their crazy than others.

 

[Mark Brown]

I ca honestly say mine doesn't, ok I can't say they don't... I can only say I dont know about it.

Didn't move 6000 kilometers away for nothing

 

[zannej]

Aww. Thanks, Mark. That is very sweet. I don't need soap operas around here bc I get enough drama from watching the real life stuff here. I still remember my friend's face when he found out that his gf's sister was also her cousin. When she said that her uncle was also her sister's father, he thought she meant her father's brother. But nope. I didn't even want to ask about how that happened but am pretty sure drugs were involved. The gf was born addicted to crack.

According to her bio mom she was a very big baby and gf's baby looks just like she did at that age. She pulled out some pictures to prove it. Looks like they could be identical twins from the pics. Kid has been in size 6 diapers for a few months now. His cousin who is only 10 days younger is in size 4 diapers.

In less drama and more cuteness: Sir Hammington decided he had to follow me to the bathroom because I paused to pet him on the way there. He zerged in, jumped on my lap, headbutted my face, and then hugged my neck, snuggled me, and purred. Climbed halfway on my shoulder. I had to set him down to wash my hands but he jumped right back up so I carried him out of the room. I let him down on the cat tree and fed him. On my way in to my room Rupert meowed at me-- and he very rarely ever meows- and wanted to climb on my shoulder. He was up on a shelf so he jumped up on me and I carried him over. He's curled up in the crook of my arm right now.

Sometimes when I'm feeling stressed I hug one or more of the kitties, listen to the purrs, take some deep breaths and relax.

 

[highup]

It’s coming to central Pennsylvania. Expecting 4-6 inches of rain starting this afternoon. Some people are going to struggle.

I recall quite a few years ago we had 6. Steady rain all day without stopping. It's rare when we get more than 1 1/2". When I hear people getting 6 inches in an hour, makes me wonder if you could breath.
What town do you live in Tom, the orange one or the green one?

 

[highup]

I'm glad I can work on my own vehicles. That said, I'm g tting a bit tired working on this damn S10. I had my frosted flakes in the morning and finished cleaning up as it was just about dark. I weighed 218 in the morning and 214 at 9:00 p.m.
....I'm kind of thinking that someone forgot to open his bottle of water multiple times yesterday. I'm getting so forgetful. Everything is so close together and so tight you can't get your fingers where you want them to loosen and tighten and plug things in. This is an 88 and I can't imagine what the new vehicles are like.
Got the distributor back in place and timed .......approximately.
One rocker cover left to go and then the throttle body goes back in place..... Hopefully I haven't been the metal fuel lines so bad they're going to be hard to get back in place. Then the throttle and kickdown cables and the brake booster line.... and the second rocker cover ...and the new spark plugs, but I'm going to wipe down all the wires with paint thinner first to impress the girls.
I need to put on a new oil filter and refill it with oil..... It's been raining all day and I even flush it out with a little marvel mystery oil.
Water and small bits of shrapnel from my scraping and cleaning procedures of the valley area got into the oil pan. I made a small attachment for my vacuum to get as many bits and pieces as I could out of the lifter valley.
I bought some Delo 400 10/40 diesel oil for 13 bucks. I'm going to use that for a hundred miles or so and then change the oil again. I normally use the cheap Mobile (not Mobil One) 10/30 synthetic. I just want to be sure everything that got into the oil pan is out.
I flush The living daylights out of the engine and heater core with tons of water.
Today when replacing one of the heater hoses I decided to back flush the heater core. Holy crap I can't believe how much more stuff came out of that. I had already flushed it out One direction until it ran squeaky clean.
Before I put the distributor back in it didn't feel like it rotated smoothly enough. I figured it was carboned up a little bit inside so I took the pin out and the gear off and pulled the main shaft out of it. I actually had to pour marvel mystery oil down inside the shaft and rotate it back and forth bunch of times because the shaft was too tight.
After taking it apart and cleaning the shaft I knew that it needed that because it was overheating and discoloring the metal on the upper side. That side doesn't really get lubricant because it's a bronze or brass bushing. Well I had some cam lube, I think molydisulfide, and put a little bit of that on the upper part and the lower part of the shaft where it rides on the bushings.
I'm really glad I took the distributor apart because when metal starts turning colors, good things are not about to happen. It's all good now.
Well time to put the new plugs in, get the rocker cover on and some new oil...... The end is near.

 

[Jon]

I went out today and got some milk etc as we arent allowed to do much else due to the lock down
Its really quiet around here with nobody having any work done on their houses as one cant even buy paint
I Googled the motorways hand to us and they are empty They should be filled up with vehicles at this time of the day
Seems most office workers are working from home

 

[zannej]

Tom, I have a friend who lives near Hershey. He sent me videos from the other day of how bad the rain was even ahead of Ida. Reminded me of the rain we got in Guam where it turned the sky gray & you could barely see anything. We sometimes get that kind of rain-- where you can't see beyond the hood of your vehicle. Reminded me of a dive we went on (for diving class at Outhouse Beach. It was raining and chilly for Guam. Another class was coming out of the water & the dive instructor told us visibility was s***. "Things do wee down there, your mask". Said it was also cold underwater.

Highup, I wish I knew enough about vehicles to work on stuff. I meant to send the link to a video but forgot: They sell an attachment for drills that grabs things like oil caps and you can loosen and tighten them using a power drill. Well, there's more than one attachment. I wonder if you could MacGyver something that would work to help you reach stuff?

I was watching a video earlier of a laundry room reno. Contractor was having a hell of a time trying to remove the old sink. Screws were impossible to reach without an extension tool and then the screws stripped. Counter was being thrown away anyway so he had to cut it up to get the sink out.

I saw another video where a guy was doing vinyl plank on a concrete floor. Showed how he filled in dips and holes, then came back with a scraper to smooth things out. Lots of vacuuming. He removed the threshold for the exterior door to tuck the flooring underneath, but he mentioned that on the newer doors you can't remove the threshold. So, does that mean you just do the flooring up to the threshold now? Would it be better to install the flooring before putting in a new door or after?

He also used soapy water to slip in some boards in tight spaces. He said bar soap would work if you didn't want to get things wet. Has anyone here tried that technique? He had to slip a board between some boards in a hallway where he'd had to put one under a doorway/door trim.

It rained a lot today and barometric pressure had me feeling blech. Mild headache and feeling tired so I slept. Woke up to 8 cats and a dog piled on me. Apparently the cats were hungry and the dog was jealous so she had to get in on the snuggle action.

 

[highup]

Well most everything is buttoned up but I didn't get a chance to test drive the truck tonight. I set the distributor in the wrong place and had a hard time getting the engine started. I realize what the problem was so we pulled the distributor back out lined up the timing gear and gave it a second go. On this year you have to disconnect the computer from the distributor when you set the ignition timing. I did that, set the timing and it sounds good.
I installed a mechanical type water temperature unit instead of the electronic one that came stock on the pickup. I removed the old temperature sender and installed the mechanical one in its place....
..... When I initially tried to start the engine for the first time it would not start and made some bad sounds. I plugged the original temperature sensor back into it's plug in and the engine started.
It will not start unless that temperature sender is plugged into the harness.
I asked a question on a Chevrolet S10 forum. I want to use my new mechanical gauge but the stock gauge still has to be hooked up somehow. Right now it's just laying on the manifold. I have a feeling if it doesn't sense the temperature correctly, it will adjust the fuel and the ignition timing incorrectly.
I never knew a water temperature sensor could screw things up.
Maybe it's not that big a deal.
I still have a couple things left to do before a test drive and I'm also going to need a new grommet that holds the transmission dip stick tube in place.
It's going to take me a day to reorganize myself I've got tools all over the place and the mess to clean up. Hopefully the truck runs well enough I can take a drive 30 minutes away to the job that I was going to start on Monday. I'm talking last Monday. The problems I run into have made this a much bigger job than I expected.
Anyhow I'm going to drive the truck around town for a while and if it seems like everything's working well and nothing's leaking I'm going to take a couple rolls of pad down to my next job and measure up the rooms for carpet cuts.

 

[Floorist]

I don't know if I mentioned this on here before or not. We have been following the life of a 12 year old boy. At age 11 he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Over the last 15 months, he has gone thru numerous chemos, radiation treatments and surgeries. He has over 50,000 followers on his Facebook page. Well he passed in his sleep last night. His page was called "Christian's Journey" . He completed his journey by bringing over 50,000 people together. His father would take him from the hospice to ride roller coasters, parasailing, to the beach in Florida, and to meet his idol, Chief's QB Patrick Mahomes in person. Christian's father is the chief weatherman at a local station. There were many tears shed this morning. We all felt like we knew him personally.

 

[zannej]

Hope everything runs smoothly on the S10. My friend will no longer get S10s after his bad experiences. He was in an S10 when the tie rod came loose, wheels started to come off, & vehicle flipped and rolled several times. Nearly killed him. Got an S10 after that, was driving, felt the tie rod come loose. Hit the brakes, parked it on the side of the road, walked away and never touched it again. I think he had whoever sold it to him get it towed.

Rusty, that is very sad. It sounds like he had a lot of love in his life, but still sad that he was so ill and died so young.

I'm waiting for the pharmacy to notify me that both of my prescriptions are filled. One has been filled but the other was supposed to be filled after 2:30 (but newest estimate is tomorrow after 9:30-- they aren't even open at 9:30 and they close at 2-- if they are even open bc the pharmacy has been closed on weekends).

The 2nd prescription is not as important so I can wait until Monday.

 

[Floorist]

Hope everything runs smoothly on the S10. My friend will no longer get S10s after his bad experiences. He was in an S10 when the tie rod came loose, wheels started to come off, & vehicle flipped and rolled several times. Nearly killed him. Got an S10 after that, was driving, felt the tie rod come loose. Hit the brakes, parked it on the side of the road, walked away and never touched it again. I think he had whoever sold it to him get it towed.

Rusty, that is very sad. It sounds like he had a lot of love in his life, but still sad that he was so ill and died so young.

I'm waiting for the pharmacy to notify me that both of my prescriptions are filled. One has been filled but the other was supposed to be filled after 2:30 (but newest estimate is tomorrow after 9:30-- they aren't even open at 9:30 and they close at 2-- if they are even open bc the pharmacy has been closed on weekends).

The 2nd prescription is not as important so I can wait until Monday.

Monday is a holiday.

 

[zannej]

Oops. I guess I'll have to see if they are open tomorrow then. Mom had a prescription that won't be ready until then.

I checked on the kitten and he's doing better but he was outside. Apparently my friend's mom showed up this morning & someone let her in and she let the kitten out. She came in begging for $. She was told "No". Friend doesn't have any $ to give her. She keeps coming by and asking for $ from him all the time. Another dude who came by while he was quarantined and pounded on the door demanding to be let in but was told to go away keeps calling. He borrowed my friend's car once but then didn't return it within a timely fashion. It was gone over 12hrs and he wouldn't answer calls. friend told him he's not borrowing it again. Guy was calling him all day yesterday and today wanting to use his car. Was not taking "no" for an answer. He's also trying to get in to the gf's pants. we told her that and she said "Hell no!"

I picked up one of my prescriptions. Was behind a lady in line and overheard the pharmacist clerk tell her that her meds would be $631. "Is that with the GoodRX discount?" "Yes, Ma'am". Her daughter came over and asked if she could help but when she heard the price she apologized. Clerk apologized to them and they left empty handed. I wish I could have helped her but that is a LOT of $.

 

[Floorist]

Oops. I guess I'll have to see if they are open tomorrow then. Mom had a prescription that won't be ready until then.

I checked on the kitten and he's doing better but he was outside. Apparently my friend's mom showed up this morning & someone let her in and she let the kitten out. She came in begging for $. She was told "No". Friend doesn't have any $ to give her. She keeps coming by and asking for $ from him all the time. Another dude who came by while he was quarantined and pounded on the door demanding to be let in but was told to go away keeps calling. He borrowed my friend's car once but then didn't return it within a timely fashion. It was gone over 12hrs and he wouldn't answer calls. friend told him he's not borrowing it again. Guy was calling him all day yesterday and today wanting to use his car. Was not taking "no" for an answer. He's also trying to get in to the gf's pants. we told her that and she said "Hell no!"

I picked up one of my prescriptions. Was behind a lady in line and overheard the pharmacist clerk tell her that her meds would be $631. "Is that with the GoodRX discount?" "Yes, Ma'am". Her daughter came over and asked if she could help but when she heard the price she apologized. Clerk apologized to them and they left empty handed. I wish I could have helped her but that is a LOT of $.

Lab wanted $232.00 to check my vitamin D level. Only thing my insurance would not pay for. I said no.
I am set up for two iron infusions over the next couple weeks. If they work really well, I am going to try to go back to work part time.