sun nov 1
It was the morning of the first snowfall of the season, and I’d added axle oil to the tractor. According to the directions, I was supposed to drive it around a little, to help it lubricate.
So I did donuts in the snow.
fri nov 6
I changed a light bulb today. It took me all morning long.
The lights on the green house porch were on the blink, and you need a ladder to change the bulb, so we called in a pro. Me.
I got a ladder and changed the bulb. It still didn’t work.
I swapped out a switch, and now at least it lit up, but the 3-way switches were only working one way. It went on and on and on, and I ended up replacing 3 out of 4 switches for 3 different reasons, and now all 3 lights work like 3-way switches are supposed to work.
I’ve been hemming and hawing and dancing around the GL1000 for a couple weeks now, because I’m nervous. I’m ‘pretty sure’ I can pull off this engine rebuild, but I’m also pretty sure something is going to go horribly wrong. The question is … What?
So on election night, when things looked really grim, I went downstairs and starting taking the GL1000 engine block apart. That kind of thing always cheers me up!
It was going pretty good until I turned it over and this fell out of the crankcase.
That can’t be good! WTF do you suppose it is?
There’s only one way to find out, so I opened her up and, sure enough, it was busted.
Bad.
That there is the main-est of the main bearings.
To replace it, some disassembly is required.
This is a big deal.
This might even be a show stopper.
Maybe I ought to just throw in the towel?
So far, I’ve refurbished the chassis and electricals, re-built the brakes, cleaned the carbs, and ground the valves. And I’m supposed to give up and throw all that away because one teeny tiny bearing has a boo boo?
Never crossed my mind.
I can do this.
No problem.
I hope.
thu nov 12
My truck is past due for inspection, and it won’t pass inspection without new tires.
(That’s fair. I’ve got a 3+1 mismatch, and they’re getting pretty thin.) So I dropped off my car and took a walk to kill an hour. I took the scenic route through the hardware and grocery stores, and walked back to the garage.
My car still wasn’t ready. “No problem,” I said. “I’ll just wait in the waiting room.” I pointed at my grocery bag, tapped my chin, and thought out loud: “Hmmm. I just bought fish for dinner. I hope it doesn’t start to stink!”
It took them forever, but the fish tasted fine.
sat nov 14
While Celia was here, she made it her mission to get the green house ready for action. And at long last, the green house is on Airbn. Our first guests arrived today. Thanks, C!
I sure hope nothing goes horribly wrong.
I took a good look, and I figured out what happened to that broken bearing I was telling you about. It looks like the last owner did the same re-build I’m doing and, after all the work and fussing, he put the engine back together with that bearing’s retainer ring rotated wrong. And when he tightened it up, the irresistible force met the immovable object.
The bearing broke but, to it’s credit, it didn’t move.
I’m pretty sure it made a horrible sound when it died, and I’m pretty sure the poor guy was really disappointed.
Yeah. That guy could have been me. It still might!
But don’t worry: That’s one mistake I won’t be making. Maybe two!
I’m going to get it right this time.
For sure.
I hope.
mon nov 23
So.
I took it apart, removed the bad bearing, and cleaned and inspected the transmission thoroughly. “It’ll be fine,” I decided.
I went through my checklist and ordered one of everything I needed. Total cost: Less than you’d think, but more than I’d say.
Package after package arrived at my door. Water pump. Bearing. O-rings galore! The anticipation built. All I need is one! more!! package!!! and I’m ready to put this baby back together! Woo hoo!!
Then I got my piston rings. They don’t look right to me.
I followed the money. I looked it up. I traced it back. And I figured it out: I fucked it up.
Me. Not them. Yours truly. It makes me wish I had an underling I could blame.
tue nov 25
Let’s do the math.
40% of americans say they’re going to be at gatherings of 10 or more tomorrow.
That’s 132 million of us.
Divide by 10 and that’s 13 million gatherings.
Suppose 1 in 10 of those gatherings includes a covid carrier, and he infects 2 others.
That’s 1.3 million … times 2 is … 2.6 million new infections.
Compare that to the recent ~100k/day. That’s a month of ‘todays’ in one day.
Quibble all you want with my rounding errors, but math doesn’t lie.
Let’s face it, folks. The pandemic is over, and it won.
Just sayin’.
The donkey next door is on death’s door, so I dug a hole for him while the ground is still soft.
‘Just in case.’
I wired up a generator panel next door.
‘Just in case.’
sun nov 29
It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, and it was brisk, but not cold.
Mary decided it was a good day to clean the windows.
I found this out when I came upstairs to refill my water glass. When I saw her hard at work, I made a U-turn at the top of the stairs and tried to tip toe away, but she saw me. Called me out. Flagged me down. “I can’t reach that window from the outside. Can you help?”
Sigh.
“Sure. let me get a ladder.” I set it up, turned around, and there she was, with an armload of cleaning products. “Spray with this, wash with this, dry with this, and polish with this,” she said. She handed me the whole collection and went back inside.
Huh? I was confused. I tracked her down and had her run that by me one more time.
“Spray with the bottle. Wash with the paper towel. Dry with the microfiber. Polish with the towel.”
My mind overflowed. Simplify. I looked at the rags. “So that’s white, then blue, then red?”
Yup. So I cleaned my windows, chanting to myself “S-A-U! S-A-U!”
And I got them clean as a whistle.