What are you doing today? [Part II]

[Mooseman]

You know that front seal job at the shop I was talking about last week, they're still working on it.



Got home and got to work on modifying my smoker. It's a Sam's Club Members Mark (made by Pit Boss) that I bought from Princess Auto. It's an older model as it had a flimsy flat heat diffuser that had severely warped. Saw that newer ones have a domed type. During my searches, I saw on YT how to modify it to make it easier to remove the ashes from the burn pot. My difference is that I didn't care for the searing function so I just cut out the grates and used the sliding cover as the tilting cover to access the burn pot. Welded the hinges and also welded in curved end plates at each end (not shown) to help retain heat and not affect the temp sensor .




Burn in went well. Just waiting now for my first cook. That trap door makes it so much easier to vacuum out the ashes.

 

[northcreek]

Hardwood floor came out nice after the refinish, the guy I found was a rare perfectionist, took him two days and didn't even stop for lunch.

 

[BrianF]

So my wife picked me up a present today, just because she is awesome. A client of hers had this stored in an old house and forgot about it. Needs a bit of polishing and it will look great displayed with my centenial rifle.

Its a 1973 Wilkinson RCMP centenial sword. The pictures are crap and dont show the detail on the blade but its nice.

 

[Blckshdw]

The last time I took the mower out, I noticed the wooden ramps I built were starting to get some play near the top, meaning I'd have to likely rebuild them again before the summer ended. While it would have been simple enough, I didn't wanna be bothered with it (again), so broke down and got some steel ones from HF.



Needed to figure out a convenient storage method. The wood ones I left outside, just elevated off the ground to avoid ants and rot. Everywhere I put the steel ones inside the shed, they were in the way of something else. Came up with the idea of mounting them to the inside of the shed door. After all, that's where I'd need them. Open the door, lay the ramps, move the mower.... 🤔

Decided to take a scrap piece of wood, and screw it into part of the existing door frame up top, and then use some lag screws I had laying around as mounting hooks to go through the slots on the ramps. Came out as nice as I'd hoped, fitment is good with the length. They do tend to swing a little bit when closing the door, and thump a few times, but I can live with that.



While I was at it, I decided to cut up another piece of scrap wood, and make a pair of locating blocks to let me put the ramps down in a close enough spot, so I wouldn't have to bring the mower close, make adjustments to their positions, and mess with them. The bent metal wings at the top flex a little bit from just me standing on the ramps, and they're supposed to be rated for more than twice that on each one. Should those brackets give a little too much, the locating blocks will catch the ramps as well for some added load support, if it ever comes to it. 🤞

 

[Matt]

We made it home on Saturday night at about 10.30 after 24 hours of travel. We all crashed hard and woke up after 11.

Have to say, Ohio is a bit of a let down after being home for a couple of weeks.

 

[Mooseman]

Just came back from spending the Easter weekend at my son's. Apart from spending time with the grandkids, I also helped him repair the frame on his 2011 Sierra. The same one that I helped him with two years ago. The crossmembers we installed then are still solid. It's the frame rails that were rotted out this time as well as two of the mounting points on the box. Used a bunch of steel flat bars and tons of welding to fix it as best we could. Didn't get any pics but you've seen frame rot before.

He's already resigned that he has at most two more years with this truck. Next time he has to get one from somewhere else than the north where they use salt brine on the roads. It's insane!

Oh and as thanks for this help, his kids gave me and grandma their cold. Feel like absolute garbage and my nose is running like Niagara Falls

 

[flyboy2610]

I owe, I owe
so off to work I go
my bills are high, my pay is low
I owe, I owe

 

[Blckshdw]

I owe, I owe
so off to work I go
my bills are high, my pay is low
I owe, I owe

I felt this in my soul

I've had some chats around new years, with my boss, and with HR about my situation here. It's cool and all, but there's opportunities out there, so I've been thinking about leaving. They both want me to stay put, and finally came up with an idea to get me a little more money, although it does come with more responsibility.

It would involve me (re)learning a system for our fund development department. I got trained on it years ago when their person was leaving and they hadn't hired a replacement yet. The COO was also leaving, so the guy transitioning to that role, who needed the reports and data from it was trying to learn his ropes at the same time. End result, he was too swamped with other work to ask me for anything out of there, so the 2 weeks of training I got faded away from never doing anything with it. Then they hired someone who knew the system, so I didn't need to tell them anything. Of course my question was, how much is the pay bump, but that hasn't been finalized/approved yet.

I'm pretty sure it will only get me a few more pennies in my check, but I'd be reporting to someone at the top level of management, like I was doing briefly before. The good news is, I'd get to move back into my old office that was in a quiet hallway. I've been with the marketing department since then to help their director with system related stuff, and they are all social butterflies who like to hang out in the hallway and chit chat. Great for keeping up with gossip, but a pain in the ass when someone's hair is on fire and I need to concentrate on troubleshooting data issues somewhere.

 

[Mooseman]

I owe, I owe
so off to work I go
my bills are high, my pay is low
I owe, I owe

This is mine:

I love my f*cking job, I love my f*cking job,
I owe, I owe,
I love my f*cking job!

I whistle it on a regular basis in the dealership. Nobody has a clue as to what I'm singing in my head

 

[azswiss]

Re-seated the toilet in our master bathroom. Multiple issues became immediately apparent as soon as I removed the toilet and exposed the flange. Aside from being completely corroded (no surprise as it was the original, built in '89), the flange was 1/2" below the level of the floor, it was fully encased in concrete, and the tiles were nowhere near level with each other. No small amount of grinding, sawing & chipping later the new flange is in place.

 

[northcreek]

Watched the eclipse and even though mostly cloudy (WNY..!) we got a good view,
Nice to sit on the deck for the 1st time this year and down a few ales ….👍

 

[Mooseman]

Left work early so I could pick up Mrs. Moose and head south so we would be in the path of totality. Tons of traffic heading down there and even more heading back home! We did get to a spot however it got cloudy but not heavy enough to completely obscure the eclipse. After making it back to town, went to our favourite B&G for some discounted appies and beer.



Was really weird as it got dark, the frogs started croaking and all around was dark and looked like a sunrise or sunset. Waiting for it was like watching paint dry though.

 

[Matt]

We all stood in the car park like dorks to see it at work.

 

[Blckshdw]

No eclipse for me. Took the week off to celebrate being old, so I spent most of the day at the beach yesterday. Today will run a few errands, and then check out a restaurant in the area I've been meaning to try. Tomorrow will be another beach day, and lunch with a friend. Gotta enjoy the weather while it's perfect to be outside, cuz in a couple of months... 🥵

 

[azswiss]

Repaired the shifter mechanism on our 2006 Volvo XC70. A couple of Swedish engineers got a little too clever when they added a manual up/down shift mode to the standard auto shifter. When the shifter is placed into "D" the driver has the option to shift manually ("Geartronic" mode) by pulling the shifter towards the driver's side and then pushing forward to up-shift or backwards to down-shift. There is a so-called "claw" mechanism that clamps around the shifter shaft that is used to hold it either in Auto mode or Manual mode. The claw is comprised of two plastic halves that are spring loaded to maintain a grip on the shifter. It is a common failure for the lower half-claw to break and to then subsequently get wedged into the shift mechanism thereby stranding you in either Park or Drive. In my case it was Drive. Fortunately, I was in my driveway so no major crisis there. Getting access to the claw mechanism is a royal PITA entailing removing plastic panels (all plastic snaps, no fasteners !@#$), removing the entire center console, and then partially disassembling the shifter assembly. Replacement of the claw is straightforward once you finally reach it! BTW, typical dealership charge is $600-$800!! (Edit: the OE part costs less than $20.)

 

[Blckshdw]

Another ho-hum day in the office. Put out a few fires, helped people crunch some numbers for their boss' reports, and a bunch of the usual day to day activities.

Needed to call the solar company, as one of my panels is not making any power. Looking back through my history, it started having issues last summer, under-reporting here and there. Then finally in December it stopped making power altogether.




I had emailed them last month, but there were some issues. The company I originally bought them from, SunPro Solar, got bought out by ADT Solar. On the ADT website they said they are no longer doing any new installations, just servicing existing customers. It took almost 2 weeks for them to reply to me that a case was being opened. And then nothing happened for another week after that. A service manager called my work number while I was on staycation last Thursday, so I never got the voicemail that they were sending a tech out on Friday, until this week, Tuesday.

I was actually home when the tech showed up Friday morning, but I decided to take advantage of the cool morning temps to check the fence at the back of the property and drive screws into any of the loose boards. The tech called the number on file, but that rings to my work office, not my cell, so he ended up leaving.

Got ahold of someone, and had them update the contact number. He had all the case info in front of him, he said he'd contact the service dept and a manager, so they can reschedule another tech to come out. My panels produce more juice than I need, so it's not adversely effecting anything, but that's juice I'm not selling back to the utility company for my annual credit which was much lower this month, than it had been in previous years. Lesson learned, I need to monitor my system more frequently to catch stuff like this as soon as it happens, and not 8 months later.

 

[BrianF]

Got my Trailblazer plated and back in action. I sure missed driving it. We had been throwing miles on the rez van, which works but it sure doesn't drive as nice. Still need to sort out the ac and abs issues but I'll just pay a shop as I am always short on time for lengthy projects.

The other morning, Im about to hop in the Tb for work. I notice a coyote milling around the foals. Thinking I wont have time to grab a rifle, I half ass scare it off. Piss on it, I still grab the rifle. My 15 year old comes out and spots a second one. The first disappears into the tree line but the second stops to give me one last fck you! 100m standing supported and the .308 made quick work.

Last night I grilled up some ribeyes. Started on the Traeger, then seared on the gas grill and finished on the flame. Cant complain.

Caveat: these are clearly staged after the fact. Although one could ask questions on how I sequentially loaded the pictures....

 

[Mooseman]

What am I doing today? Preparing my resignation letter for the dealership. I got the fleet job! Got the notice today. Just had to submit a copy of my HS diploma, proof of my bilingual status and fill a security screening form. The security clearance is what will take the longest, could be like 6 months. I figure I'll stay another month just to get through tire season and then quit, take a few months off, hopefully the whole summer. Till then, I'll just buy a whack of parts and tires with my employee discount

 

[azswiss]

Great news!

 

[Matt]

What am I doing today? Preparing my resignation letter for the dealership. I got the fleet job! Got the notice today. Just had to submit a copy of my HS diploma, proof of my bilingual status and fill a security screening form. The security clearance is what will take the longest, could be like 6 months. I figure I'll stay another month just to get through tire season and then quit, take a few months off, hopefully the whole summer. Till then, I'll just buy a whack of parts and tires with my employee discount

Congratulations!

 

[Blckshdw]

Yesterday, took advantage of a cold front pushing through to get a lil yard work done. A bunch of leaves had accumulated along parts of my fence under the larger trees, and cats and possums would make too much noise walking/rummaging through them, since it's still nice enough to have the windows open at night.

Managed to fill 2 of my 72 gallon yard bags. Pulled out the leaf shredder and it continues to amaze me how much volume reduction you get when the leaves get chewed up and all the air is removed. Probably gets down to 1/3 of the original volume. Wheeled that bag around to the front where I replaced some of the weed barrier around some smaller trees and dumped the shredded leaves as free mulch.

After getting cleaned up, needed to address my phone case which was coming apart where the rubber surround was glued to the plastic backing. Have had it for 2 years, and it was rock solid until a couple months ago when the finish started peeling off.



I considered buying a new case, but the official Samsung case for the Fold 4 had mixed reviews, many of them saying the case didn't hold in place. I used to always get Otterbox cases, and their version also had a number of bad reviews. So I opted to let the mod bug have at it. Pulled out the Gorilla glue, and a tooth pick, applied a bead of glue along the edge and left the case face down overnight.

Worked quite well for the most part, but would have been better if I had kept an eye on it and cleaned up the glue that expanded to the inside of the case. Sorry no pics. Ended up taking my smallest Dremel router bit and using that to clean out the inside of the case as well as some of the glue that oozed to the outside. The finish already looks crappy so some minor scratches won't be any worse.

Case feels solid again, and the rubber edge no longer pulls off when I unfold the phone, resulting in half the case falling off every time.

 

[mrrsm]

I was just *Thinking* about what a "Palindrome" is... My Name "BOB" is an Example...

palindrome at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

But I mention this because Today's Date is ALSO One of THOSE...

4-24-24

:>)

 

[northcreek]

Have you ever heard of a double Palindrome ?
Like the word boob, where the actual item is also the same when viewed L-R or R-L ....

 

[northcreek]

Working on my gas powered yard golf cart. Removed the troublesome cable shift linkage and fabricated a rod type shifter which is much more positive now....

 

[mrrsm]

@northcreek Re: Post #2,063 In my considerable experience over the years (up close...and personal) the (L) Ones are usually a Just A Little Bigger due to the position of the Heart and Blood Supply.

Nonetheless... The WORST Ones I've ever seen... Were WONDERFUL... Oh...and My wife uses your 'Double Palindrome' expression in the pejorative sense directed my way ...from time to time..

 

[Mooseman]

Took the Caprice to work today. One of the guys also has an old CVPI. It's literally all painted with bedliner