What are you doing today? [Part II]

[TollKeeper]

I bought a BRAND NEW truck..

And my heart is about to jump out of my chest. Not from excitement, but from being scared. The anxiety is real!

I have never purchased a new car before, and in fact, I never intended to ever buy a new car.

I have never paid more than 10k for a car.. This is quite a bit more than that!

I am a car guy/wrench head. I love turning wrenches. My body.. Not so much any more. 1 blown disc, and 4 semi-blown discs will do that... And having 2 kinds under the age of 5!

I think its a 2023, year is not confirmed, may be a 24... Might even be a 22..

But its a Rivian R1S Quad Motor Launch Edition, LA Silver Paint, Black Leather, 20inch AT rims and tires.

This makes the second largest check I have ever written. One for my house at 120k, and then this for 76k.

View attachment 109802

Loan is complete. Paperwork is complete. Just talked to the manufacture.. 4-8 weeks. They still got to put it on the train, get it to Denver, and pre-purchase inspection.

Should be a nice X-Mas present to me..

I still cant believe I got locked in at a 5.24% interest rate. Thats only 0.25% more than a personal loan I took out 3 years ago! In todays market, I am not complaining.

 

[Sparky]

So the last few days saga...

Tore down the wall. Rotted all to heck. This was Tuesday.



Kept tearing down until I got the rot out, including cutting out chunks of the subfloor. Oh geez, what did I get myself into.... This was Wednesday afternoon, And it was supposed to rain on Thursday!



Thursday, it was cloudy, spitting rain on occasion, but got it together before it really rained! I'm beat...

 

[BrianF]

Sparky, sweet pearl of fk!!!!! That is one hell of a mess you had there!! Glad you were able to tear that all out and get it fixed once and for all.

Yesterday I replaced the A arm bushings, spring stiffeners and rear brake pads on my Magnum. Super easy, done in less than an hour. Still have the belt to do but..... like some sort of moron, when i was inspecting things prior to ordering parts, I should have checked the ball joints..... they are sloppier than all hell. So I will order some of them up now, which is not a big deal as I will have to rip the struts off to change them along with the hub seals anyway. But in the mean time, she runs way better and hetting closer to done.

 

[Mooseman]

Finished early yesterday, loaded up the trailer and headed north. Staying in our son's driveway (I'm allergic to their cat) and staying till Monday for Thanksgiving. Drive was good but arrived near midnight. With the help of both sons, setup was quick. Whole family is here except for my eldest whose home sick. Turkey coming tomorrow. Weather sucking though, rain all weekend, but making the best of spending time with the grandkids.

 

[northcreek]

Got the latest covid and flu vaccines yesterday, no reaction just like previous ones so I can't get out of wiring my sons new pole barn ...

 

[mrrsm]

R-U-A-SCI-FI-FAN?
Visit THIS Link to the Internet Archive and Download your Favorite COLORIZED Versions of Classic Science Fiction Flicks. For Quality and Color...I can tell you Officially... THESE ARE FREE and are Out Of This World!

I've Been Watching ALL of THESE All Night and Early this AM:

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archive.org

 

[TollKeeper]

Put 3 wheel bearings in the Pontiac Aztek. The fronts are easier than the rears. Still done in a short amount of time.

 

[Mooseman]

Just got back from North Bay visiting my son's family. Weather was horrible. Snow, rain, sleet. Trailer did fine with a little electric heater and the propane furnace. The slide out topper did get loaded down with snow so had to take it off before closing the slide out.

This was this morning.


The drive back was long and slow with steady rain and wind. Made it fine and the Sierra is still pulling it like a champ.

 

[Mooseman]

So interesting thing happened today at work. Was asked to go to someone's house and check all the wheel lug torque and drive it back to the dealership. Customer states " it sounds like a wheel is falling off and vibrates badly". Get there with a torque wrench, all the lugs are tight. Take off with this Cruze and the brakes sound as if it's worn down to the vanes, like you see on the YT channel "Just rolled in". This thing was really janky. Was using downshifting and the hand brake a lot. I could have stopped and called for a tow but this was close to the end of my shift and didn't want to wait 2 hours. Get it there and I have another look. Noise was coming from the right side. Just looking through the wheels, brakes look brand new. Touch the caliper and it moves! It was basically hitting the wheel whenever the brakes were applied and also on bumps. Talked to the adviser and it did have a recent brake job from there so somebody screwed up

So may need a new wheel and caliper at the least, maybe brake pads.

 

[Blckshdw]

Stupid Prime day. I JUST got done paying off my Amazon balance last month too... Guess we'll see how many boxes show up at my door in the next couple of days

 

[TollKeeper]

LOL.. I am ordering a printer right now myself..

 

[TollKeeper]

Ordered a new Mid-Gate window motor under warranty.. About the only thing I am glad I bought from AutoZone....

 

[Mooseman]

I drove home the little old lady from hell! I arrive at the service drive through and was asked to drive home this little old lady. No problem. Punch the address into the GPS and away we go. The dealership is in a very odd intersection and we can't make certain turns, especially with traffic, however, I was able to make a left turn which would have been a little shorter drive. The little old lady then starts screaming at me "where the f*ck are you going?!? Don't listen to that f*cking thing, you don't know what the f*ck you're doing!" all the while she starts flailing her arms and I really thought she was going to hit me! Told her to calm down and that there was more than one way to get to her place. After being put back in her place, she calmed down. She eventually admitted that she has anger issues (no shit!) and that she's paying $160 just to get her car checked. Yeah, most repair bills START at $1600.

Come back to the dealership, was told that she was causing all sorts of trouble before and had to be put back in place by two managers. Geez, thanks for the warning. I will suggest that they give her free valet service where we will bring the car back to her because after this, nobody will want to drive her, or pay an Uber for her.

 

[BrianF]

Last week i swung by my parents place for a visit. My dad is parting out his wood working and automotive tools as he is aging. I did not much room so i snagged his 3/4 ratchet set. Its a Japanese ITC set that I remember using with him in the mid to late '90's. No clue how old it is. I cleaned it up, pulled the ratchet apart, oiled it up and shes slick. Picked up a 3/4 to 1/2 reducer so i can run it with my impact sockets as well.

Then some sort of Japanese made tap and die set. I think its SKC and either late '80's or very early '90's when it was bought. Hell I think I remember a 400$ price tag on it. Was never used and old enough the oil on the parts dried up and looks like rust.

Today I have the side by side torn down again. Finally got that damn e brake set again, properly..... then i have to toss in a new cv shaft up front.

 

[northcreek]

Seems to be a line of demarcation when Jap tools went from being total crap to some of the best in the world, those look like the good ones….

 

[azswiss]

Went to Home Depot and picked up 20 bags of mulch for winter over-seeding.


At 50+ lbs each that's 1000+ lbs; gotta love the Nivomat auto-leveling shocks!


All spread out over the seeded front lawn.

 

[BrianF]

Went to Cambodian tire and picked up some cheap Mastercraft ratchets. A smaller 3/8 and a long handle 1/2 drive. Nothing fancy but if i can get over a decade out of them then I'll be happy. Working on dirty equipment with all the sand and water I have wrecked my or finished wrecking the cheap chinese junk i have been using since about 2006.

I was looking at ratchets from Gray tools, price was not bad, made in Canada but no dealers nearby and I hate mail order. Maybe I will treat myself to something nice in a couple of years.

 

[nathaniel]

Ozoning the 2014 GMC Sierra 1500 I picked up on Wednesday. It's definitely helped get rid of the cigarette smoke smell. Hopefully replacing the cabin air filter and scrubbing every surface/cleaning the carpet will do the rest.

 

[mrrsm]

Well in advance of "The Halloween Time of Year"...perhaps around six months ago, I was churning through as much information about Chat-GPT as I could get hold of ...and I stumbled across an Interview happening between Dwarkesh Patel and Eliezer Yudkowsky. Perhaps as much as the dreadful subject matter holding my attention.. .I could NOT get over How COOL Patel's Checkered Orange and Purple-Blue natty Button Down Shirt looked:



It is no secret around here that for me, after seeing Andrew Camarata tearing down one of his Caterpillar Tractors with a Rail-Road Wrench (Originally made by CAL-HAWK) that was covered in the famous Orange and Black Swirl Paint...that I was HOOKED on this color combination. But at that time... I really could NOT figure out WHY this was so, since almost all of my Oil on Canvas Paintings have favored combinations with Deep Shades of Prussian Blue and Alizirin Crimson. So I pondered upon the Question for the longest time.

The more I thought back about it... The More I realized that as a Foster Kid, living in other people's homes all over the State of New York that, besides learning to keep my clothes and shoes tucked away in Brown Paper Bags at the foot of whatever bed I was staying in from time to time... I was always ready to leave at a moment's notice... and that the Greatest Freedom I had EVER experienced was when I could sneak out of those Mean Places in The Fall and then run the streets of West Haverstraw (or Wherever and in Whatever city I was living in) and be by myself... all night long.

I even remembered that the first time I ever tasted a Chocolate Candy Bar... was when I went Trick or Treating on my own for the first time as a Skinny, Toe-Headed Blonde 10 Year Old Boy. Man... The sensations and the sounds of the Wind driving the smell of Wood Smoke around in the Crisp Night Air and swirling up noisy piles of Dried Maple & Oak leaves up and down the Roadways ...like they were Alive ...and then being so "Spooked" by it all ...ir makes me chuckle to think about it to this very day.

Well... long story shortened ... I recently managed to find a Shirt in that Very Same Color Scheme and Checkered (albeit smaller pattern) Motif and I've just been waiting for the arrival of October 31st to put it on:



I like the idea of wearing that New Seasonal Halloween Shirt while tucked up under a warm blanket, sitting on my own couch... in my own home... with a Hot Cup of Gevalia Coffee in my hand... and watching and listening to THIS Video while reminiscing about what it meant... TO BE SO FREE.

 

[mrrsm]

So... Whenever "The Lil Woman" doesn't feel like Cooking... It falls to me to do my "Usual" Pick Up Meal:

Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich.

Okeedoke... Here is the Recipe:

(1) Star-Kist Solid White Meat Albacore Tuna (Four Short cans)
(2) Four Cups of Whole Green Olives (with Pimentos Centers)
(3) Two Full Table Spoons of Minced Garlic
(4) One Medium Sized Onion (Minced)
(5) Sprinkle of "Tony Chachero's" Spice Powder
(6) Sprinkle of McCormick's Grill Mate Montreal Chicken
(7) Sprinkle of McCormick's Grill Mate Montreal Steak
(8) Two Tables Spoons of Ken's Steak House Balsamic Vinegar Salad Dressing
(9) LOTS of Hellman's Mayonnaise
(10) More of Publix Brand Spicy Brown Mustard

Drain and Break Up the Tuna (it's mostly a pretty dry material) in a Large Corel Bowl.
Add ALL of the Ingredients and Mix Well
Lightly Toast 4 Slices of Stern's 100% Whole Wheat Bread
Pile on the Tuna Mix a Mile High
Slice Both Sandwiches Diagonally
Give the "Lil Woman" Three Sections on a large Corel Soup Bowl
The Cook gets to "Test" his work by eating the Fourth Section
Wait for the sound of satisfaction (The Ummmmmms...)

But NO... NOPE... Uh-Uhnn ... Not THIS Time....

I was missing THE Most Important Step:

LOOK OUT FOR THE TUNA BONES!

WTF? Are You SERIOUS? YUP!!! See for yourselves what almost choked out the "Lil Woman"



The WORST of it is... I ATE 1/4th of those Two Sandwiches...and... So NOW I'm Kinda Gettin' "The Stink Eye" from "The Old Lady.." ...and I kinda felt like W.C. Fields did in THIS Scene:



She says to me (asking me)... "So Big Boy...WHAT are the Chances that "I" would wind up getting a Tuna Fish Bone caught in my mouth... with YOU Making The FOOD?" I thought about it and then said..."
Well... Look at the Math... "I" had a One In Four Chance of having THAT Tuna Bone get caught...TOO..."

Now ...earlier... I was looking for a New Jar of Olives for this Meal...and the only one I could find was about the size of a 50 Gallon Glass 'Sarcophagus' Jar that for the Life of ME... I just could NOT get the Jar Lid Loose from ...No Matter HOW Hard I tried. Finally she said to me in that Ball-Bustin' Tone that ALL Women are capable of.

"If YOU can't get that Lid Loose... I'm sending you to an Old Folks Home..."

Well ...knowing her... I KNEW that she was being SERIOUS ...So in about Two Shakes after that ...I had the Man-Hole Cover unscrewed from that Giant Jar and managed to finish making "The Tuna Sandwich of Death".

THIS has NEVER happened to me in nearly 75 Years of eating ALL kinds of TUNA... WTF People!!!

 

[Sparky]

Recently did a little maintenance on the van. Took longer than it should just because I've never had the van jacked up since we bought it about a year ago. (yeah yeah yeah but it hasn't needed anything...)

Seems strange to me that the Odyssey with a 3.5L V6 uses the exact same oil filter as the Civic with the 1.8L I4. It makes it easy to stock up on oil and filters since they all use the same stuff, but still odd to me. On the note of stocking up, any ideas what to do with an extra GM 5.3L oil filter that doesn't fit anything anymore? And I have a lifetime of oil for the Camaro now since I bought extra 5W-30 on sale a while back. Poor car is neglected, sitting covered in dirt with a dead battery as I haven't had time to clean it up this year. Such is life. Maybe next year I'll get it back out and actually drive it again. Would be nice.

Oh, and while the oil filter on the Odyssey is super easy to grab a hold of (so much easier than the Civic, easier than the Silverado as it isn't recessed into the oil pan, and definitely easier than the contortions needed for the Trailblazer!), they still stuck it right above the frame rail behind the passenger wheel so when you take it off the oil goes EVERYWHERE, a la Trailblazer. Oh well. Rustproofing I'll call it again.

On that note, there is practically no rust on the underside of this 8 year old van. We'll see how it looks in another 4-5 years though. My truck didn't appear to have much rust either when I bought it at 8 years old, but it was just lurking behind stuff to rear its ugly head a few years later.

 

[Redbeard]

Interesting tape measure...because the last time I looked there are 25.4 m.m. per 1". This tape shows nearly 30. So I wonder how long this tuna fish bone really is

 

[northcreek]

Interesting tape measure...because the last time I looked there are 25.4 m.m. per 1". This tape shows nearly 30. So I wonder how long this tuna fish bone really is

Looks like somebody gifted you with a tape from Hobo Freight...

 

[mrrsm]

@Redbeard... To be more precise, I "Miked" this Tuna Fish Bone's Length at 38.72MM ...or right at 1.524099 Inches in length. However, since recovering this "Bone Dagger" ...it has dried out enough since this happened to shrink down a little bit from say ...around 40mm in length. Even if it were only HALF as Long as this...it still could have been a disastrous situation:



I did a bit of poking around and found out that even with today's Advanced Mechanized Fishing Industry Practices, it is still necessary for a Person to Manually PULL Out such Bones from the Tuna Fish prior to final Cooking and Packaging. And... as far as any Liability goes... The Tuna Industry apparently has THIS saying:

"No BLOOD... No FOUL..."

It would seem that this situation happens more often than one might think... and I doubt that henceforth that I will summarily dump out any more Freshly Opened Cans into our Corel Bowls anymore...Not without giving the cans' contents a VERY Thorough Looking Over.

@northcreek ... Not a HF Brand... But honestly... I only bought this Lufkin 10 Meter Tape ...because the "Orange & Black" Halloween Color Motif appealed to me more than my ordinarily level-headede Mechanical Sensibilities could resist... :>)



P.S.

The NEXT Time "The Lil Woman" decides to surprise me with ANY Giant Lidded Jars with any Mummified Food Remains locked within... I will be READY for Her!

 

[mrrsm]

For @Sparky... This is the K&N "Performance Gold" Oil Filter recommended for your 2015 Honda Odyssey V6 Motor:

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/performance-gold/filters/engine-oil-filter/80c2d8dbb188/k-n-engineering-performance-gold-oil-filter/kan1/hp1008/v/a/130061/automotive-van-2015-honda-odyssey?pos=6

 

[flyboy2610]

My son turned 24 yesterday (10-28-23), so he and his GF brought their son over so they could have a little time just to themselves.
This is Kash. He's just over 7-1/2 months old. He's a little cutie, and he knows it!


I also made a big pot of chili, and bought some cinnamon rolls. Sent some home with my son.
Now, I'm getting hungry again!

 

[BrianF]

Picked up my dads old Record number 5 vise. Has been sitting in the shed for a couple decades. Not sure on age but I remember using it in the 80's. Needs a clean but works pretty good. Might do a tear down as well.

 

[flyboy2610]

A good shop vise is worth its weight in gold!

 

[Blckshdw]

Since I had spent previous weekend cleaning up/out the work room, finally time to put it to use. Got the ancient TV going with a Firestick so I could have some background noise, as I was accustomed to tinkering from the couch in front of the TV.

Put the new soldering iron, hot air handle, and helping hands station through their paces. Fantastic investment, made everything so much easier to position where I want things, and the lighted magnifying glass made visibility a breeze.

The switchback module for the driver's side mirror had stopped lighting up with the running lights, turn signal only earlier in the week. Turns out the running light input wire had broken from its solder joint. The backside LED strip for the passenger side mirror, had a broken solder joint where only 3 of the 6 LEDs light up reliably.

A trick I picked up online for reflowing SMD LEDs without burning them, is to apply hot air from the bottom, through the PCB. I would have never thought of that in a million years. I use a strip of electrical tape to cover the white PCB so they're not visible in the tinted lenses, which may be more trouble than it's worth. At some point during the trimming process, I must have scratched one of the solder joints because the OTHER 3 red LEDs don't wanna light up after I put everything back together.

At this point, I'm so irritated, I don't want to take everything apart again.

 

[Mooseman]

Haven't posted here in a while. Just been busy, both at work and home. It's just been nuts at the dealership with winter tire season came in when there was a little snow that fell on Monday and everybody lit up like "oh crap, I need my winter tires!". I've been working OT almost every day for the past two weeks because we don't have enough drivers. Apart from shuttling people, we also do valet where we go get the vehicle and then bring it back after service. It's normally a Cadillac thing but they also extend it to everybody that wants and pays for it. It's very time consuming. A car can be half an hour away which would be 4 man hours sometimes just for a tire and oil change. Where's the money in that?

And at home, past two weekends were just preparing for winter. Winterized and covered the RV, finished winterizing the pool, put yard stuff away, put a new tarp on the car shelter I use for the sled. Also had fun putting the Caprice into storage. When I went to put air in the tires, one of the front aluminum valve stems broke off and just went flat. Didn't have time to take it to a tire shop so I just put the spare on after I cut off the anti-squealers from the brake pads because the original 18" wheels don't fit with them.

Probably more madness this week at work.

 

[flyboy2610]

Took Frankie, my homemade '68 Ford F100 trailer, to the landfill today. Got rid of some tree debris and miscellaneous junk.
Frankie has a 4-pin flat trailer connector, and the '04 TB has a 7-pin blade connector. I have an adapter I made to connect the two, works just fine. I think next spring I'm going to replace the wiring on Frankie, and when I do I'm going to install a 7-pin blade plug.
Building that trailer was one of the best things I ever did!

 

[BrianF]

Down in the Queen city where my work has me learning how to fly drones. Fun but an interesting experience for a functionally retarded guy like myself.

Talked with my girls and learned that my oldest rocked her basketball tryouts. She made the jr A team and was invited to try out for the sr team later in the month.
This is the kid that missed a bunch of practices and games earlier in the year due to a bad strep infection and after the season broke her ankle. Shes a tough and stubborn kid. Must be from her moms side.....

 

[Mooseman]

Down in the Queen city where my work has me learning how to fly drones.

Hope it's like these. Would be way more useful

 

[mrrsm]

Watched another of the Amazing, Colorized SCIFI Classics available at the Internet Archive... with Claude Rains in the 1933 Classic "The Invisible man"

The Invisible Man 1933 colorized (Claude Rains) : Universal Pictures : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A scientist (Claude Rains) discovers the secret of invisibility, but in rendering himself invisible, he gradually becomes murderously insane, to the horror of...

archive.org

 

[BrianF]

First of five days off today. Have been re-sealing our horse trailer and began the roof today. Using a heat gun I've made slow progress removing the mess of sealant. It most certainly has aged out and no longer sealing. Its just that.... this is a fking huge trailer...

So, I am putting in the order for a couple rolls of eternabond tape as per @Mooseman. Looks to be the answer to sealing that roof all up.

But on a good note, had a chicken on the Traeger. Garden potatoes along with homemade gravy... son of a bitch was it good!

 

[Mooseman]

Great minds think alike. I had four racks of ribs on the smoker today. Didn't take them to fall off the bone but had a little bite to them, just enough. Sauced them up with the DIL's homemade sugar free sauce and damn they were good! The smoker didn't use as many pellets as I thought despite the cool 5c temps.

While those were smoking, went with a friend to Kenny-u-pull to look for an intermediate shaft for his Kia Rondo. Because his is a V6, it uses a bolted on intermediate shaft on the right side whereas the 4 cylinder just uses a long CV axle. The shaft is NLA from Kia or anywhere else new. There were like 7 Kia Rondos and all of them were 4 cylinder . So did some Google fu and searched on car-part.com and did find one in the US on eBay and another one in a yard about an hour away. The one on eBay has more mileage that his and unknown on the other one. He'll check on Monday.

After had a good dinner together and just chilled.

 

[BrianF]

I finished up removing the lap sealant yesterday. Slow and steady, lots of heat and shes done. I would surmise it was just shy of 20 pounds worth.

I sealed a couple spots with silicone as its likely going to have to sit outside for a few days before I can finish it. They used some sort of thin foam gasket material to seal the aluminum roof sheet but it was compromised in a few spots.

On order are two rolls of white eternabond, 3"x50'. She aint cheap but neither is my time trying to remove nearly 20 pounds of lap sealant that looked to be applied by a guy with no arms and a grade 7 education.

 

[Mooseman]

Most guys with the RVs just put the Eternabond tape right over the old lap sealant. May depend on how thick it is though.

Stayed home from work with a "man-cold". Just felt like absolute poop today. We'll see how I am tomorrow.

 

[Know1else]

More destruction!!! Or is it deconstruction? Weather was going to be nice, and my back was feeling better, so got after it with the shed extension. As expected, multiple fastener types were used but the plywood was so rotted in most areas, I could just pull it down with the hook of the prybar. After a few hours, had it all torn out, swept up, scooped up and dumped into 5 contractor bags, and the larger pieces in the bin for tomorrow's pickup.

View attachment 99438


Getting a better look at the structure, I found this section that was under the skylight, that's pretty rotted. Figured I could cut that out, put a new piece in there with some bracing.

View attachment 99439


Then I got up on the ladder, and saw pretty much anywhere there was a screw or a nail, there was rot. Some just a little, others had a lot. Either way, not sure I want to invest the time, money and energy into this project, for what I use it for. At the top of the roof area, I was able to see what the problem was. The roof from the shed doesn't overlap the roof of the extension, it just drops off a couple of inches. So whatever he used didn't seal very well, and the runoff from the shingles got to the plywood. You can see white plastic trim below the shingles, if they had used traditional drip edge there, could have just bent the bottom outwards and gotten the coverage needed.

View attachment 99440View attachment 99441


Workbench area was trashed. Top surface crumbled in my hands, and was easily torn out. Some of the support beams they were screwed to were pretty deteriorated too.

View attachment 99443View attachment 99444


So while I'm indecisive about what I'm gonna do next, I figured I'd give it a shiny new blue hat, and it can stay that way for a while. Bungee corded 3 of the corners, 2 of the sides in the middle and the boards on top should hopefully keep it from billowing when the wind blows.

View attachment 99442

Thats a mess, good thing woods cheap…just replace it all including the ledger. You need some valley flashing the cover the transition once you reframe the roof. Just pry up the old shingles and slide it in…and get some hurricane clips (simpson strongtie a50) or sim…

 

[Know1else]

I was chilling bud, then i got censored…for calling NaSA gross.

Why i spend time typing if i gonna get censored…

Whats so hard about free speech, and respect for people these days.