It was strange having two of the grandkids here together after several months of taking them one at a time. The younger sister and brother who used to be inseperable are growing apart it seems and much less understanding/forgiving/accepting of each other!
I've been very glad we saved the SuperNES and the original Nintendo machines, as when sharing the games they usually play together becomes impossible, one of them can usually be tempted by playing a game that Daddy had when he was their age, lol!
If only to say "wow, that's awful"! (The "Intellivision" actually gets that more often than the SuperNES.)
It got warm enough they played outside some yesterday afternoon and helped Grandma cleaning up the yard while I puttered at other things. After some fresh air they seemed to get along a bit better, plus by then it was dinner time and time for her to go home as she had school today.
The youngest is still here, as his Dad was off again today and they had one last day together to celebrate their 10th anniversary. So far it's a been a day of "Boomer" and drawing and playing with stencils...very quiet by comparison.
Time to fix him a glass of Quik for dessert!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Friday falling...
rapidly towards dusk.
I've spent the last two days doing some early "spring cleaning". When Bill and Laura's cats moved in with us the took over one bedroom, as one of them can't be trusted to stay out of the trash or any other food he can find; the other has a penchant for hiding and we fear if he gets in the basement we won't see him for a week.
The things that were stacked up in one corner of that room awaiting shelves and sorting hastily moved into the 2nd bedroom and in the throes of whatever has been dragging me down of late, I hadn't felt like dealing with it.
This weekend is John and Noel's 10th anniversary, my sister is taking Dillon and we have Talia and Caleb, so I needed to finally "caffeine up" and "get to it". I'm done now except for the final vacuuming and waiting for my sinuses to settle a bit before I start.
No good news concerning my last post; I don't really expect any and am assuming I'm just going to be "out of pocket" and grateful I'm not there going through the misery those I left behind are. If I don't hear from the apps I put in this last week by Wednesday I'll start putting in some others.
I read a piece about "surivivor's guilt" associated with lay-offs and such a few months ago. I never thought I'd understand it, but I do! As the young still there lose their jobs and the older ones do more work on the same jobs for less, knowing I got out and (so far) am collecting my pension and retaining some semblence of health care gives me great cause for gratitude and guilt.
I don't know where this will all end up; perhaps with a collapse worth of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", perhaps with those smart enough forming their own collectives or co-ops to survive. An underground economy of barter, perhaps?
I do know I'm not going to "go" quietly! I'm not going to just "lie down" and give up...
So for what it's worth, may you each have a lovely weekend and may life somehow be kind to each of you!
alan
I've spent the last two days doing some early "spring cleaning". When Bill and Laura's cats moved in with us the took over one bedroom, as one of them can't be trusted to stay out of the trash or any other food he can find; the other has a penchant for hiding and we fear if he gets in the basement we won't see him for a week.
The things that were stacked up in one corner of that room awaiting shelves and sorting hastily moved into the 2nd bedroom and in the throes of whatever has been dragging me down of late, I hadn't felt like dealing with it.
This weekend is John and Noel's 10th anniversary, my sister is taking Dillon and we have Talia and Caleb, so I needed to finally "caffeine up" and "get to it". I'm done now except for the final vacuuming and waiting for my sinuses to settle a bit before I start.
No good news concerning my last post; I don't really expect any and am assuming I'm just going to be "out of pocket" and grateful I'm not there going through the misery those I left behind are. If I don't hear from the apps I put in this last week by Wednesday I'll start putting in some others.
I read a piece about "surivivor's guilt" associated with lay-offs and such a few months ago. I never thought I'd understand it, but I do! As the young still there lose their jobs and the older ones do more work on the same jobs for less, knowing I got out and (so far) am collecting my pension and retaining some semblence of health care gives me great cause for gratitude and guilt.
I don't know where this will all end up; perhaps with a collapse worth of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", perhaps with those smart enough forming their own collectives or co-ops to survive. An underground economy of barter, perhaps?
I do know I'm not going to "go" quietly! I'm not going to just "lie down" and give up...
So for what it's worth, may you each have a lovely weekend and may life somehow be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, February 16, 2009
Death and taxes...
(other considered titles: "The Sword of Damacles", "Gnawing my leg off...")
Friday, Dottie's day off as she worked the weekend, we had our annual appointment with one of H&R Block's associates. The wife of a former coworker, downsized out of her job when a national chain bought the local bank she had worked in for 20 years, she is very good at what she does and has helped steer us in a "better direction" several times through the years.
It wasn't a good day to begin with, as it would have been Dad's 82nd birthday and it's still very hard going into this 26th year without him not to be a bit resentful thinking of all that might have been.
Nonetheless, since we finally had the last of the paperwork Dottie really wanted to get this done. We expected about $1500 back from the Federal and were hoping to use it to pay what we knew we were going to owe the State...
We knew we were going to owe them because when I took the "buyout" from GM last year they took out the Federal taxes they were supposed to, but conveniently and despite my having asked them to, forgot to withhold the State taxes. I caught the error and figured out the proper amount, opening our first savings account in 30 years with it.
What I didn't know until Friday was that since the "buyout" was paid out of our Union retirement fund, the Fed treats it like an IRA and since I'm not 55 I was liable for a 10% penalty for "early withdrawal"! So not only was I not getting back the $1500, but owed another $3000 besides! To go along with that, the lines that transfer to the State return meant that instead of owing the $2400 I had figured, I owed them an extra $700 as well. My former co-worker's wife is now very worried about what they may have in store for him because he along with many others are considering taking the current buyout!
When my son moved last fall he had two households going at the same time and there was a "limbo" period between his last check from his old job and his first on a twice monthly pay period at his new one, plus moving and start-up expenses, etc.. I lent him most of what was in the savings account on condition that I needed it back by April 15th. We had hoped to pay the State with what we got back from the Federal and what was left in the savings account and take the pressure off him...
I had used that buyout money to pay off 4 credit accounts, one of which we kept for the unexpected. The unexpected plumbing bill last fall...most of Christmas...now the big "hit" for this Federal tax penalty as there was a discounted "transaction" fee for paying it through Block, or so they thought...right up until you click "send"!
I always knew I was going back to work, in fact I had tried to pick up a job late last summer though for some reason it "fell through". Dottie kept telling me to wait until after the holidays, etc., because so many other things pop up and each day something unexpected still seems to arise.
Now it seems it's time to begin a job search in earnest, in fact I filed an app on Saturday I haven't told her about yet for fear it will fall through like that last one did. After I start some laundry I'm going to read up on a couple more and perhaps file them. I'm trying to avoid her days off so we don't lose our time together, which may be overidden by the necessity to start bringing in "some green" sooner rather than later.
Things are still "tight" for my son and his wife, especially now that she has moved back to D.C. with him and enrolled in graduate school. They are hoping she picks up a job soon and things will ease for them. If it doesn't, that card will be maxed again soon.
The lady at Block sent me home to make phone calls before she filed that, hoping that between the people that handle our benefits, our Union and GM someone would have decided they needed to do something about this. Fidelity said they told GM there was a problem before it was ever done; the Union said that there were rumors that GM was going to do something about it and gave me a GM number to call; GM says they will issue information in March or April...
I'm not holding my breath!
We had already agreed, knowing that we needed to "tighten our belts" anyway, that we weren't doing anything for each other for Valentine's Day. Friday we splurged and bought a "cheap" tray of steaks ($10 for four) at Sam's and a small tray of mushrooms when we bought milk for the week. While she was at work on Saturday I dug out a heart-shaped baking pan I had bought years ago and made a tray of brownies for her.
We will get through this, somehow, though it never seems like it in the beginning.
Don't know why George and Paul are echoing in the back of my mind now...
"Let me tell you
How it will be.
There's one for you,
Nineteen for me,
'Cause I'm the taxman.
Yeah, I'm the taxman.
Should five percent
Appear too small,
Be thankful I don't
Take it all..."
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Friday, Dottie's day off as she worked the weekend, we had our annual appointment with one of H&R Block's associates. The wife of a former coworker, downsized out of her job when a national chain bought the local bank she had worked in for 20 years, she is very good at what she does and has helped steer us in a "better direction" several times through the years.
It wasn't a good day to begin with, as it would have been Dad's 82nd birthday and it's still very hard going into this 26th year without him not to be a bit resentful thinking of all that might have been.
Nonetheless, since we finally had the last of the paperwork Dottie really wanted to get this done. We expected about $1500 back from the Federal and were hoping to use it to pay what we knew we were going to owe the State...
We knew we were going to owe them because when I took the "buyout" from GM last year they took out the Federal taxes they were supposed to, but conveniently and despite my having asked them to, forgot to withhold the State taxes. I caught the error and figured out the proper amount, opening our first savings account in 30 years with it.
What I didn't know until Friday was that since the "buyout" was paid out of our Union retirement fund, the Fed treats it like an IRA and since I'm not 55 I was liable for a 10% penalty for "early withdrawal"! So not only was I not getting back the $1500, but owed another $3000 besides! To go along with that, the lines that transfer to the State return meant that instead of owing the $2400 I had figured, I owed them an extra $700 as well. My former co-worker's wife is now very worried about what they may have in store for him because he along with many others are considering taking the current buyout!
When my son moved last fall he had two households going at the same time and there was a "limbo" period between his last check from his old job and his first on a twice monthly pay period at his new one, plus moving and start-up expenses, etc.. I lent him most of what was in the savings account on condition that I needed it back by April 15th. We had hoped to pay the State with what we got back from the Federal and what was left in the savings account and take the pressure off him...
I had used that buyout money to pay off 4 credit accounts, one of which we kept for the unexpected. The unexpected plumbing bill last fall...most of Christmas...now the big "hit" for this Federal tax penalty as there was a discounted "transaction" fee for paying it through Block, or so they thought...right up until you click "send"!
I always knew I was going back to work, in fact I had tried to pick up a job late last summer though for some reason it "fell through". Dottie kept telling me to wait until after the holidays, etc., because so many other things pop up and each day something unexpected still seems to arise.
Now it seems it's time to begin a job search in earnest, in fact I filed an app on Saturday I haven't told her about yet for fear it will fall through like that last one did. After I start some laundry I'm going to read up on a couple more and perhaps file them. I'm trying to avoid her days off so we don't lose our time together, which may be overidden by the necessity to start bringing in "some green" sooner rather than later.
Things are still "tight" for my son and his wife, especially now that she has moved back to D.C. with him and enrolled in graduate school. They are hoping she picks up a job soon and things will ease for them. If it doesn't, that card will be maxed again soon.
The lady at Block sent me home to make phone calls before she filed that, hoping that between the people that handle our benefits, our Union and GM someone would have decided they needed to do something about this. Fidelity said they told GM there was a problem before it was ever done; the Union said that there were rumors that GM was going to do something about it and gave me a GM number to call; GM says they will issue information in March or April...
I'm not holding my breath!
We had already agreed, knowing that we needed to "tighten our belts" anyway, that we weren't doing anything for each other for Valentine's Day. Friday we splurged and bought a "cheap" tray of steaks ($10 for four) at Sam's and a small tray of mushrooms when we bought milk for the week. While she was at work on Saturday I dug out a heart-shaped baking pan I had bought years ago and made a tray of brownies for her.
We will get through this, somehow, though it never seems like it in the beginning.
Don't know why George and Paul are echoing in the back of my mind now...
"Let me tell you
How it will be.
There's one for you,
Nineteen for me,
'Cause I'm the taxman.
Yeah, I'm the taxman.
Should five percent
Appear too small,
Be thankful I don't
Take it all..."
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
"La Bete Noire"
Many years ago I read of a "Locomobile" racer called that ("La Bete Noire") in "Autoweek". Having a daughter-in-law who likes to name vehicles and knowing I had to beat her to the punch or she would name my truck for me, I chose that moniker and spent hours on-line looking for the original that I had seen so many years ago. Today I tried once again and happened to luck into not only her history but some photos of her. (It's nice to know I didn't dream the whole thing up!)
There are 20 more photos of her and a bit more of her story at ConceptCarz.com to whom I am very grateful for saving this beautiful machine's history and these photos!
I'm looking forward to browsing through the rest of both of these sites, most likely sooner than later!
Reading that she had gone up for auction and not met reserve 2 years ago, I hope she is somewhere warm and dry. Apparently she has an older sister in the Henry Ford Museum and the sister has a running replica that was built for the '66 World's Fair!
The photo of my truck is from Saturday morning while we were waiting for Noel to be ready to go "antiquing" as I finished waxing it much too late on Friday for there to be light for a photo. Yesterday it was warm again, so I kept Dottie's Malibu at home and handwashed it and spent several hours removing "road oil" from it along with some yellow paint where "someone" apparently was too close to a line-striping truck on a windy day. Then I managed to get a coat of wax on it as well, finishing just as it got too dark to see.
Last night we got the upper end of the storm that dropped the tornadoes in Oklahoma and dropped from the 70's to just above freezing. Though the radar showed freezing rain and snow moving through this morning when I got up, the snow never actually hit the ground here and now the sun is out and things are dry enough that the roads shouldn't freeze tonight.
It's supposed to be warmer again tomorrow and my sawhorses (the ones I couldn't find last week) turned up at my son's under a door in his basement and found their way home, so perhaps I'll finally get that riser cut for this desk and be able to rearrange it. I saw one I really liked at Nebraska Furniture Mart the other week, but I've driven vehicles most of my life that weren't worth as much as it was...
I hope all of you are warm and dry if you're Stateside, or cool and dry if you're below the Equator given the terror that has rolled through Australia of late. May the rest of the week be very kind to each of you...
alan
Friday, February 06, 2009
Too lovely...
The respite in our weather has been amazing these last two days! I spent most of yesterday in the garage sorting and putting away things that hadn't found their way "home" when winter set in. As I have to rebuild the "stovepipe" out there before I have heat, I hadn't bothered until it was warm! I started out planning to build a riser for my computer desk, as I need a way to slip the keyboard under the monitor to have room to use the new graphics pad I picked up a few weeks back, but in trying to get to the things I needed to cut and build it, I got sidetracked!
Today it's even warmer, so my plan is to wash my truck and perhaps get a coat of wax on it.
Dillon is spending the weekend and tomorrow Dottie plans on taking his Mom antiquing as she never spent all of her "birthday money" the last time. If he feels like going then I will tag along, if not I'll stay here with him.
I "let my fingers" do the walking yesterday just for some fun, thinking I had seen photos of Harry Truman in the Oval Office working in shirt sleeves. When I "Googled" I came up with some of F.D.R. but since they said they were "rights managed" I didn't dare to post them, sorry! If you Google "Roosevelt Oval Office" and click on images all 3 come up on the first two pages...of course if I'm lucky I just set a link to the first one!
Needless to say, I have own thoughts about the "sour grapes" being thrown on Captol Hill right now and by those sent packing last month...be it someone trying to play a trump "Card" in their complaint about "the dignity of the office" being compromised by someone actually working for the people there, or the ones being tossed by the war criminal formerly known as VP!
I've heard Senators this week claim that creating jobs in the National Parks doesn't help our economy...excuse me, but if someone is getting a paycheck that wasn't getting one before, they are spending money they didn't have before...do you really think we are so stupid?
Basically, I think those who are decrying the spending are actually decrying the drop in their campaign coffers they foresee if their friends on Wall Street and in that top 1% of the income bracket have to pay their fair share of anything...
Sorry...I know many of you are "politicked out" at this point, or just plain "ticked". Forgive the rant...
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
Postscript: 6:44pm...truck is handwashed and thanks to my son and grandson has a fresh coat of Meguiar's Paste Tech Wax on it, along with tire dressing, Rain-X and that new State Park sticker we picked up last week! C'mon spring!!!
alan
Today it's even warmer, so my plan is to wash my truck and perhaps get a coat of wax on it.
Dillon is spending the weekend and tomorrow Dottie plans on taking his Mom antiquing as she never spent all of her "birthday money" the last time. If he feels like going then I will tag along, if not I'll stay here with him.
I "let my fingers" do the walking yesterday just for some fun, thinking I had seen photos of Harry Truman in the Oval Office working in shirt sleeves. When I "Googled" I came up with some of F.D.R. but since they said they were "rights managed" I didn't dare to post them, sorry! If you Google "Roosevelt Oval Office" and click on images all 3 come up on the first two pages...of course if I'm lucky I just set a link to the first one!
Needless to say, I have own thoughts about the "sour grapes" being thrown on Captol Hill right now and by those sent packing last month...be it someone trying to play a trump "Card" in their complaint about "the dignity of the office" being compromised by someone actually working for the people there, or the ones being tossed by the war criminal formerly known as VP!
I've heard Senators this week claim that creating jobs in the National Parks doesn't help our economy...excuse me, but if someone is getting a paycheck that wasn't getting one before, they are spending money they didn't have before...do you really think we are so stupid?
Basically, I think those who are decrying the spending are actually decrying the drop in their campaign coffers they foresee if their friends on Wall Street and in that top 1% of the income bracket have to pay their fair share of anything...
Sorry...I know many of you are "politicked out" at this point, or just plain "ticked". Forgive the rant...
May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
Postscript: 6:44pm...truck is handwashed and thanks to my son and grandson has a fresh coat of Meguiar's Paste Tech Wax on it, along with tire dressing, Rain-X and that new State Park sticker we picked up last week! C'mon spring!!!
alan
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Glory Days!
Appropriate title given the evening's halftime entertainment...
Yet for me, the memories that surface today are of a different time...memories of childhood...
At the point of ancience I'm approaching, I remember the celebration of our new found fame as a football town when Lamar Hunt brought the Dallas Texans to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs. I remember weekends when everything led up to the game on Sunday and that was the most important place on Earth to be, in front of the TV. I remember Dad putting the largest TV aerial I'd ever seen in our attic with a rotater so he could pull the Topeka stations to watch the games if they were "blacked-out".
I remember watching #16 and his team give their all every week, win or lose in a struggle that seemed impossible at times!
Len Dawson...
From the Pro-Football Hall of Fame's website:
"Although Len Dawson ranks among the elite forward passers of all time with an 82.56 rating compiled over 19 seasons of pro play, he is perhaps best remembered for his courageous performance in leading the Chiefs to a 23-7 upset of the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Dawson connected on 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards in the now-historic game, and his 46-yard pass completion to Otis Taylor wrapped up the surprise victory that evened the AFL-NFL portion of the Super Bowl series at two wins each. Dawson was named the game's Most Valuable Player."
I've heard Len speak on more than one occasion of that being the era where you played the game because you loved it, not because you could make a living at it. Bobby Bell, Hall of Fame defensive player in his own right, was a line foreman in the General Motors plant I hired into in the "off season". Len signed on as a sportscaster with the local ABC affiliate to make ends meet. I remember watching the sports report on the evening news while he broadcast with his hair still wet from the locker room shower.
He is still there! All through the years, this gentleman (and I mean that sincerely) has been there, a link from my chidhood to my present. Always involved in the community, in causes, I remember him starting a celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament as a fund raiser for a local children's hospital. Though it's since been taken over by a pro-golfer who can bring in the "big names" when Len brought Alan Hale, Jr. to town (you might know him as "The Skipper" from "Gilligan's Island") that was a huge deal...
This week they've been doing a series of interviews with him concerning the Chiefs and their "glory days" in the lead up to the game that starts in a few hours.
I'm putting two links here, one to a piece with him going through an NFL history of "the big game" (another Lamar Hunt dream, along with the AFL in the beginning, major league soccer and so many other things he had his hands in. It was Lamar that named it "The Superbowl".) and the second to him speaking of his fellow players.
1st video...
2nd video...
(Sorry about the Brinks commercials...especially since my younger son works for ADT!)
There are some other videos from these interviews on their website if any of you are interested. The one I was hoping to find was the one they showed with footage of Len playing, clear back to his Purdue days...All-American 3 years out of 4. It's not there. I don't know whether they couldn't get the rights to share it, or someone just forgot to post it.
Somehow, as I watch tonight, I'll be remembering all of these guys and the days when it was "more than just a game".
May the rest of the weekend be kind and may Monday be even more so!
alan
Yet for me, the memories that surface today are of a different time...memories of childhood...
At the point of ancience I'm approaching, I remember the celebration of our new found fame as a football town when Lamar Hunt brought the Dallas Texans to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs. I remember weekends when everything led up to the game on Sunday and that was the most important place on Earth to be, in front of the TV. I remember Dad putting the largest TV aerial I'd ever seen in our attic with a rotater so he could pull the Topeka stations to watch the games if they were "blacked-out".
I remember watching #16 and his team give their all every week, win or lose in a struggle that seemed impossible at times!
Len Dawson...
From the Pro-Football Hall of Fame's website:
"Although Len Dawson ranks among the elite forward passers of all time with an 82.56 rating compiled over 19 seasons of pro play, he is perhaps best remembered for his courageous performance in leading the Chiefs to a 23-7 upset of the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Dawson connected on 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards in the now-historic game, and his 46-yard pass completion to Otis Taylor wrapped up the surprise victory that evened the AFL-NFL portion of the Super Bowl series at two wins each. Dawson was named the game's Most Valuable Player."
I've heard Len speak on more than one occasion of that being the era where you played the game because you loved it, not because you could make a living at it. Bobby Bell, Hall of Fame defensive player in his own right, was a line foreman in the General Motors plant I hired into in the "off season". Len signed on as a sportscaster with the local ABC affiliate to make ends meet. I remember watching the sports report on the evening news while he broadcast with his hair still wet from the locker room shower.
He is still there! All through the years, this gentleman (and I mean that sincerely) has been there, a link from my chidhood to my present. Always involved in the community, in causes, I remember him starting a celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament as a fund raiser for a local children's hospital. Though it's since been taken over by a pro-golfer who can bring in the "big names" when Len brought Alan Hale, Jr. to town (you might know him as "The Skipper" from "Gilligan's Island") that was a huge deal...
This week they've been doing a series of interviews with him concerning the Chiefs and their "glory days" in the lead up to the game that starts in a few hours.
I'm putting two links here, one to a piece with him going through an NFL history of "the big game" (another Lamar Hunt dream, along with the AFL in the beginning, major league soccer and so many other things he had his hands in. It was Lamar that named it "The Superbowl".) and the second to him speaking of his fellow players.
1st video...
2nd video...
(Sorry about the Brinks commercials...especially since my younger son works for ADT!)
There are some other videos from these interviews on their website if any of you are interested. The one I was hoping to find was the one they showed with footage of Len playing, clear back to his Purdue days...All-American 3 years out of 4. It's not there. I don't know whether they couldn't get the rights to share it, or someone just forgot to post it.
Somehow, as I watch tonight, I'll be remembering all of these guys and the days when it was "more than just a game".
May the rest of the weekend be kind and may Monday be even more so!
alan
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The old ways...
Ange and Becky asked what I was using to treat Dillon's new boots...
Up until now I had always used "mink oil" and still have a bit of it around, but I found out the other night that a lot of what gets sold now has synthetic things in it. Silicone, while waterproofing things for the short term, tends to do funny things to stitching, some sole material and also isn't really good for leather over the long haul.
So the lady at Cabela's encouraged me to try the beeswax treatment stuff her husband uses on his, working construction here year round. Invented by a forestry firefighter, it went on very easily and putting 3 coats on took about an hour. It did darken the leather of course, mink oil would have as well. It didn't seem to draw the cat and dog like mink oil did...
(A link for their webpage.)
The boots my son's wore when they got to the ages where they wore "real ones" went to my nephews and survived them and probably were given to other kids in the Scout troops they were involved with. Dottie has a set over 20 years old now, still going strong.
For myself, I bought an $18 pair of Wal-Mart felt-pacs (rubber boots with 3/8" felt liners) over 20 years ago and other than a small hole or two in the rubber (duct taped, of course) they are still going strong. When I replaced the liners after about 15 years I cut the bottom out of the old set and put it in the bottom of the boots with the new liners on top...a boon to my old feet!
I did buy another pair of slip on felt-pacs for myself last year, as I try to keep a set in the truck in the winter and was tired of going out to get them when I needed to shovel snow or something.
Someday maybe I'll buy myself a "good" set, lol!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Up until now I had always used "mink oil" and still have a bit of it around, but I found out the other night that a lot of what gets sold now has synthetic things in it. Silicone, while waterproofing things for the short term, tends to do funny things to stitching, some sole material and also isn't really good for leather over the long haul.
So the lady at Cabela's encouraged me to try the beeswax treatment stuff her husband uses on his, working construction here year round. Invented by a forestry firefighter, it went on very easily and putting 3 coats on took about an hour. It did darken the leather of course, mink oil would have as well. It didn't seem to draw the cat and dog like mink oil did...
(A link for their webpage.)
The boots my son's wore when they got to the ages where they wore "real ones" went to my nephews and survived them and probably were given to other kids in the Scout troops they were involved with. Dottie has a set over 20 years old now, still going strong.
For myself, I bought an $18 pair of Wal-Mart felt-pacs (rubber boots with 3/8" felt liners) over 20 years ago and other than a small hole or two in the rubber (duct taped, of course) they are still going strong. When I replaced the liners after about 15 years I cut the bottom out of the old set and put it in the bottom of the boots with the new liners on top...a boon to my old feet!
I did buy another pair of slip on felt-pacs for myself last year, as I try to keep a set in the truck in the winter and was tired of going out to get them when I needed to shovel snow or something.
Someday maybe I'll buy myself a "good" set, lol!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
"But they're on sale"...
I've fallen prey to that so many times through the years! Usually my wife is the one trying to talk me out of it, or remind me that I'll find a better deal later, or there is some hidden cost I'm not figuring in.
This time it went the other way!
:o)
When we kept Talia the other weekend, the size T-shirts I had bought for Dillon the first time were also too small for her once they were washed, so we went to get the same size we ended up with for him. While there she saw a set of pink and white snow boots on a sale table...winter closeout, half off.
Of course Grandma said yes...then searched the rest of the table to find a pair for the two grandsons. Luckily she found some Spiderman ones for Caleb. $15 a pair for both sets.
My wife is one who always tries to even everything...her Christmas lists go back and forth between the number of items and the dollars spent until the grandkids are "even"...she used to do it with our boys as well. There are times I've truly despaired as the registers kept ringing in the name of "even"!
For the last two weeks she has checked every shoe department in every store she's passed to try and find snow boots for the older grandson. He is a "youth 6" meaning that next is men's 7's, probably sooner than later given his growth rate. No "felt pacs" to be found...not even 6's in most stores. Clerks keep suggesting a women's 7...the boy won't even watch Disney movies anymore because someone at school has him convinced they are "girl" movies!
Monday night she was out 'til 9 after she got off work! Dinner is hard to plan sometimes...
So finally last night we went to Cabela's. No felt pacs of course, I couldn't be so lucky! A set of Winchester 400 gram Thinsulate boots for $54, or a set of Cabela's labeled 800 gram ones for $66.
The Cabela boots won out because they are about 3/4 of an inch longer though they are the same size; we're hoping he can wear them next year as well, then someone will put them away for Caleb in a few years...
I came home and put the requisite 3 coats of sealer on them like I used to the boys boots 20 years ago and we'll take them to Dillon when Dottie gets home from work tonight.
When I go back to work I wonder how much of it will be to pay off "even"!
Of course, I guess better that than paying for Citigroup's corporate jet!
Not that I ever planned on "sitting" for the next 30 years, but there is a difference between wanting and having to!
Off to fix some breakfast and then take her Malibu to the dealer to see about a drip in a transmission cooler line!
May the rest of the week be kind to you all!
alan
This time it went the other way!
:o)
When we kept Talia the other weekend, the size T-shirts I had bought for Dillon the first time were also too small for her once they were washed, so we went to get the same size we ended up with for him. While there she saw a set of pink and white snow boots on a sale table...winter closeout, half off.
Of course Grandma said yes...then searched the rest of the table to find a pair for the two grandsons. Luckily she found some Spiderman ones for Caleb. $15 a pair for both sets.
My wife is one who always tries to even everything...her Christmas lists go back and forth between the number of items and the dollars spent until the grandkids are "even"...she used to do it with our boys as well. There are times I've truly despaired as the registers kept ringing in the name of "even"!
For the last two weeks she has checked every shoe department in every store she's passed to try and find snow boots for the older grandson. He is a "youth 6" meaning that next is men's 7's, probably sooner than later given his growth rate. No "felt pacs" to be found...not even 6's in most stores. Clerks keep suggesting a women's 7...the boy won't even watch Disney movies anymore because someone at school has him convinced they are "girl" movies!
Monday night she was out 'til 9 after she got off work! Dinner is hard to plan sometimes...
So finally last night we went to Cabela's. No felt pacs of course, I couldn't be so lucky! A set of Winchester 400 gram Thinsulate boots for $54, or a set of Cabela's labeled 800 gram ones for $66.
The Cabela boots won out because they are about 3/4 of an inch longer though they are the same size; we're hoping he can wear them next year as well, then someone will put them away for Caleb in a few years...
I came home and put the requisite 3 coats of sealer on them like I used to the boys boots 20 years ago and we'll take them to Dillon when Dottie gets home from work tonight.
When I go back to work I wonder how much of it will be to pay off "even"!
Of course, I guess better that than paying for Citigroup's corporate jet!
Not that I ever planned on "sitting" for the next 30 years, but there is a difference between wanting and having to!
Off to fix some breakfast and then take her Malibu to the dealer to see about a drip in a transmission cooler line!
May the rest of the week be kind to you all!
alan
Friday, January 23, 2009
4 days that shook D.C.!
So far I'm very pleased with the results of each of them!
The lobbyists have had a "warning shot fired across their bow"!
The doors to the Treasury are at least being watched now!
The Constitution is in the process of being restored along with the rights that have been trampled these last 8 years!
Sunshine has not only been allowed back into the bowels of the government (FOIA restored), but much is coming to light about our exchanges all having been recorded and archived!
The Fund-ublican-t claws in health care were just blunted a bit!
Not bad for 3 and half days!
______________________________
Caleb (the littlest grandson) is here for the weekend...he's happily waching "Boomer" cartoons right now and petting Angel. I spent 3 hours trying to brush her out yesterday while it was warm; got two grocery sacks worth of fur off her, and still haven't gotten her hindquarters brushed all the way out yet, though she and my back had both had enough by the time I stopped, lol!
I hope each of you is warm this weekend...the end of the month seems to be further and further away at the end of the money! May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
The lobbyists have had a "warning shot fired across their bow"!
The doors to the Treasury are at least being watched now!
The Constitution is in the process of being restored along with the rights that have been trampled these last 8 years!
Sunshine has not only been allowed back into the bowels of the government (FOIA restored), but much is coming to light about our exchanges all having been recorded and archived!
The Fund-ublican-t claws in health care were just blunted a bit!
Not bad for 3 and half days!
______________________________
Caleb (the littlest grandson) is here for the weekend...he's happily waching "Boomer" cartoons right now and petting Angel. I spent 3 hours trying to brush her out yesterday while it was warm; got two grocery sacks worth of fur off her, and still haven't gotten her hindquarters brushed all the way out yet, though she and my back had both had enough by the time I stopped, lol!
I hope each of you is warm this weekend...the end of the month seems to be further and further away at the end of the money! May the weekend be kind to each of you!
alan
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
My good intentions aside...
I had planned to get here earlier today...
A few new photos from Vermont in the Flickr stream. Photoshop runs so much better on this thing with the extra RAM! I've been reading the "Dummies Guide" I bought and learning things I hadn't managed to find on my own in the years I've been playing with it...not surprising I guess, but I'd have thought I knew more, lol!
Should have bought the book long ago I guess.
We finished shopping for Talia's birthday yesterday. Her actual birthday was on Monday, but the family party will be on Sunday. Before they went to go take her birthday portraits John called to borrow a space heater as his central furnace had stopped and it was down to 50F. in the house. He also called the service people who had just worked on late last summer because the A/C had stopped working. It turned out to be a dead thermostat and since they were already there and he didn't want to take time to go get one and for us to change it he paid them to. I'm glad he had them diagnose it, because the idea of burning up his Lennox Pulse with me trying to jumper things didn't enthuse me much...
Bill and Laura have found a place to live for a while in Virginia, a house where they will rent one floor from a couple with a toddler. It won't be more than where he has been, with more room and they seemed to hit it off with the couple, unlike his current "landlord".
Of course, they still can't take their cats...
So that's the view from the Heartland for Wednesday!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
A few new photos from Vermont in the Flickr stream. Photoshop runs so much better on this thing with the extra RAM! I've been reading the "Dummies Guide" I bought and learning things I hadn't managed to find on my own in the years I've been playing with it...not surprising I guess, but I'd have thought I knew more, lol!
Should have bought the book long ago I guess.
We finished shopping for Talia's birthday yesterday. Her actual birthday was on Monday, but the family party will be on Sunday. Before they went to go take her birthday portraits John called to borrow a space heater as his central furnace had stopped and it was down to 50F. in the house. He also called the service people who had just worked on late last summer because the A/C had stopped working. It turned out to be a dead thermostat and since they were already there and he didn't want to take time to go get one and for us to change it he paid them to. I'm glad he had them diagnose it, because the idea of burning up his Lennox Pulse with me trying to jumper things didn't enthuse me much...
Bill and Laura have found a place to live for a while in Virginia, a house where they will rent one floor from a couple with a toddler. It won't be more than where he has been, with more room and they seemed to hit it off with the couple, unlike his current "landlord".
Of course, they still can't take their cats...
So that's the view from the Heartland for Wednesday!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Monday, January 19, 2009
Too good to pass up!
There comes a point in your life when you realize
Who matters,
Who never did,
Who won't anymore ...
And who always will.
So don't worry about people from your past,
There is a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
____________________________________________
Borrowed from the blog of a friend...
A lesson that could have saved me much anguish in my 53 years, though it will still save me from even more!
Thank you, Liz!
Far too often I've wondered through the years what I had done, what was wrong with me...never realizing it wasn't me, it was them!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Who matters,
Who never did,
Who won't anymore ...
And who always will.
So don't worry about people from your past,
There is a reason why they didn't make it to your future.
____________________________________________
Borrowed from the blog of a friend...
A lesson that could have saved me much anguish in my 53 years, though it will still save me from even more!
Thank you, Liz!
Far too often I've wondered through the years what I had done, what was wrong with me...never realizing it wasn't me, it was them!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Thursday, January 15, 2009
90%...
maybe even 92 or so!
My back is finally better; I haven't taken a muscle relaxer or pain killer since I got out from under the hood of my nephew's Galaxie last Sunday. I was very still on Monday, but it has eased and the time has come for me to finally start going back downstairs to my little gym.
I call it "The Dungeon" sometimes because that's what the original downstairs gym in Venice, California was called by the guys who attended it in the early 60's. Bare minumum of equipment, lots of work to make up for the things that machines do now. No 20 minute workouts here, it takes that long to do one exercise because you can't rotate between machines...at least as things begin. Later in a workout I can do some supersets by rotating between multiple bars and dumbells, but it's still not the same.
I haven't stepped on a scale since I hurt myself, either. I fear it, since not only have I not been downstairs but the holidays interceded as well. Though my egg nog consumption was down this year, I fear it wasn't enough to save me!
So here's me resolving to get at least a half hour on the treadmill each and every day, and if I can't find 4 hours to lift on a 3 on/one off cycle, perhaps I can find two to lift every day with no off days...
Lesson learned, however, this time, instead of just doing things to strengthen my back I shall also remember to work on the abs and obliques I never got around to last time. The ones that would have strengthened the rest of my "core" enough to have not "done myself in" the way I did last month trying to help someone out of my yard!
I was told in therapy that anytime you build one side of anything stronger than the others you set yourself up for failure. I even kept telling myself I needed to make sure I made some time for those other muscles...but didn't!
Sometimes those little voices know best!
Dottie is off tomorrow, and Talia is spending the weekend, so I have no idea what is in store for me, except that she wants to make some T-shirts like Dillon did last weekend!
She's "into" horses now...I have a funny feeling...
May Friday be kind and your weekends be wonderful!
alan
P.S. I finally figured out after 3 hours yesterday how to add a Flickr slideshow; those photos going by are from the last two Vermont trips and I'll be adding more once I reduce their size to web-friendly. I hope you enjoy them!
My back is finally better; I haven't taken a muscle relaxer or pain killer since I got out from under the hood of my nephew's Galaxie last Sunday. I was very still on Monday, but it has eased and the time has come for me to finally start going back downstairs to my little gym.
I call it "The Dungeon" sometimes because that's what the original downstairs gym in Venice, California was called by the guys who attended it in the early 60's. Bare minumum of equipment, lots of work to make up for the things that machines do now. No 20 minute workouts here, it takes that long to do one exercise because you can't rotate between machines...at least as things begin. Later in a workout I can do some supersets by rotating between multiple bars and dumbells, but it's still not the same.
I haven't stepped on a scale since I hurt myself, either. I fear it, since not only have I not been downstairs but the holidays interceded as well. Though my egg nog consumption was down this year, I fear it wasn't enough to save me!
So here's me resolving to get at least a half hour on the treadmill each and every day, and if I can't find 4 hours to lift on a 3 on/one off cycle, perhaps I can find two to lift every day with no off days...
Lesson learned, however, this time, instead of just doing things to strengthen my back I shall also remember to work on the abs and obliques I never got around to last time. The ones that would have strengthened the rest of my "core" enough to have not "done myself in" the way I did last month trying to help someone out of my yard!
I was told in therapy that anytime you build one side of anything stronger than the others you set yourself up for failure. I even kept telling myself I needed to make sure I made some time for those other muscles...but didn't!
Sometimes those little voices know best!
Dottie is off tomorrow, and Talia is spending the weekend, so I have no idea what is in store for me, except that she wants to make some T-shirts like Dillon did last weekend!
She's "into" horses now...I have a funny feeling...
May Friday be kind and your weekends be wonderful!
alan
P.S. I finally figured out after 3 hours yesterday how to add a Flickr slideshow; those photos going by are from the last two Vermont trips and I'll be adding more once I reduce their size to web-friendly. I hope you enjoy them!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Obsolete knowledge...
When my nephew turned 16 my sister found him a '67 Galaxie 500 for his first car. One owner, good body and driveline, $800. His older brother took it to school with him and reupholstered it in his classes at WyoTech and it's done well for the kid.
Just before Christmas he complained of it "dieseling", trying to run after the key was shut off. Before I could gather things and go take a look at it I "dinged" my back up and only got around to it yesterday.
In attending some classes in the early 80's they were talking about the electronic revolution in automobiles and stating that not only would electronic ignition and fuel injection soon become standard, but they would be doing away with the distributor as well. I couldn't believe it at the time, but most everything on the road now is sans both distributor and carburetor.
Which brings me to my "header"...
I dug out my "dwell meter" and a "timing light", "feeler gauges" and "plug gap gauges", "distributor wrenches" along with some other tools and went to tune his car before he went to work yesterday afternoon. It turned out Brett had put points, condenser, cap and rotor and plug wires along with a set of plugs in it somewhere along the way; the point gap was OK and I double checked it with the "dwell" part of my meter. The timing was way overadvanced, so I pulled it back to "stock" then reset the hot and fast idle speeds. In trying to readjust the idle fuel mixture (made passe by fuel injection in what is in most of your driveways) I discovered a vacuum line that was off and another that was plugged. The one that was plugged was the "main feed" for the dash with all of it's vacuum controlled A/C and heater doors and switches. Since Jordan had been complaining of no heat and no defrost, I'm hoping that is fixed now. The doors definitely work now and didn't before, so as long as the thermostat is the right temp and the heater core isn't plugged he should have heat. A good thing as they're predicting 17 for a high later in the week!
The "vacuum advance" in the distributor is also "blown" (another function that magic box now takes care of) and with it being 20-25% of the gas mileage, I told him on the next warm Saturday I will come up and pull it. NAPA seems to be the only source of them lately, and they will have to match up numbers and order it. Since he only drives a few blocks to school and work it's not such a big deal, but when he starts college in the fall it will become a much larger issue!
I wonder how many more times I'll use those old tools before I'm "gone"? Of course, I also have Dad's "flathead" valve spring compressor and special tappet wrenches along with his "flathead" Ford manual as well...I've never used them, but had always planned on it somewhere along the way.
Dillon spent the weekend with us. Friday night, since he's been digging through car magazines when he's here, I let him watch "American Graffiti". Saturday found me digging up some photos of the yellow "Deuce" coupe from the movie and we made him two t-shirts with the coupe on them and two from aircraft photos I've collected through the years, a B-29 and a B-52. He was delighted with all 4.
The "critters" all seem to have settled into "toleration" of each other. Throwing 2 8 year old male cats into a house with a 2 year old male cat and a 13 year old dog and having them all survive proves to me that humans have no excuses...none...for some of what we do to each other!
My back is doing much better, though it will still "complain" on occasion. Usually sleeping is the worst as after I doze off, I tend to roll into positions that make it say "Hey!" when I try to get up. Especially if the phone rings, lol!
May the week be very kind to each of you!
alan
Just before Christmas he complained of it "dieseling", trying to run after the key was shut off. Before I could gather things and go take a look at it I "dinged" my back up and only got around to it yesterday.
In attending some classes in the early 80's they were talking about the electronic revolution in automobiles and stating that not only would electronic ignition and fuel injection soon become standard, but they would be doing away with the distributor as well. I couldn't believe it at the time, but most everything on the road now is sans both distributor and carburetor.
Which brings me to my "header"...
I dug out my "dwell meter" and a "timing light", "feeler gauges" and "plug gap gauges", "distributor wrenches" along with some other tools and went to tune his car before he went to work yesterday afternoon. It turned out Brett had put points, condenser, cap and rotor and plug wires along with a set of plugs in it somewhere along the way; the point gap was OK and I double checked it with the "dwell" part of my meter. The timing was way overadvanced, so I pulled it back to "stock" then reset the hot and fast idle speeds. In trying to readjust the idle fuel mixture (made passe by fuel injection in what is in most of your driveways) I discovered a vacuum line that was off and another that was plugged. The one that was plugged was the "main feed" for the dash with all of it's vacuum controlled A/C and heater doors and switches. Since Jordan had been complaining of no heat and no defrost, I'm hoping that is fixed now. The doors definitely work now and didn't before, so as long as the thermostat is the right temp and the heater core isn't plugged he should have heat. A good thing as they're predicting 17 for a high later in the week!
The "vacuum advance" in the distributor is also "blown" (another function that magic box now takes care of) and with it being 20-25% of the gas mileage, I told him on the next warm Saturday I will come up and pull it. NAPA seems to be the only source of them lately, and they will have to match up numbers and order it. Since he only drives a few blocks to school and work it's not such a big deal, but when he starts college in the fall it will become a much larger issue!
I wonder how many more times I'll use those old tools before I'm "gone"? Of course, I also have Dad's "flathead" valve spring compressor and special tappet wrenches along with his "flathead" Ford manual as well...I've never used them, but had always planned on it somewhere along the way.
Dillon spent the weekend with us. Friday night, since he's been digging through car magazines when he's here, I let him watch "American Graffiti". Saturday found me digging up some photos of the yellow "Deuce" coupe from the movie and we made him two t-shirts with the coupe on them and two from aircraft photos I've collected through the years, a B-29 and a B-52. He was delighted with all 4.
The "critters" all seem to have settled into "toleration" of each other. Throwing 2 8 year old male cats into a house with a 2 year old male cat and a 13 year old dog and having them all survive proves to me that humans have no excuses...none...for some of what we do to each other!
My back is doing much better, though it will still "complain" on occasion. Usually sleeping is the worst as after I doze off, I tend to roll into positions that make it say "Hey!" when I try to get up. Especially if the phone rings, lol!
May the week be very kind to each of you!
alan
Friday, January 09, 2009
The skies are gray...
but it's 55F outside, the freezer and the fridge seem OK, so things are looking better! Despite the snow in the forecast for the evening, despite the plunge back to 20 degrees by midnight!
My back wasn't very happy after wrestling the fridge out of it's assigned space and crawling around to vacuum under and through the back of it before it went back, but a few of the muscle relaxers and hydrocodone I had weaned myself from in the few days before it smoked it's circuit board and I'm feeling better again.
So it's off to make the shopping loop in time to be here when Dillon comes for the weekend. Chili for dinner, Dottie's off this weekend...I won't be around much 'til Monday.
I hope that each of you finds some brightspot in their Friday and their weeekend to particularly enjoy!
May the days be kind!
alan
________________________________________________
I put it here a long time ago, but for those who didn't see it:
Chili...
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound Jimmy Dean Sage sausage (no substitute I've found will do)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans tomato sauce
1/4 cup (or one envelope) Williams chili seasoning
1 tsp. mesquite liquid smoke (sometimes a bit more depending on my mood)
Salt to taste
Pour your tomato sauce in a 5 quart pot along with one can of water. Rinse the beans and add them. Add the seasoning and the liquid smoke and turn on medium heat, stirring occasionally until it starts to simmer then reduce heat to keep it there.
While it's heating, knead the sausage and ground beef together. I make a huge patty out of it and start cooking it like a giant burger, turning it several times and pouring the grease off as it cooks before I crumble it. It's usually pretty well cooked through by the time I do crumble it.
To reduce the grease in the chili I place a strainer in the sink with about 8 layers of paper towel in it, covering the whole strainer. I work the crumbled burger out of the skillet into the strainer, then fold about 6 more layers of paper towel to protect my hand and "mash" the burger between the layers. It will pull 95% of the grease that's left in the meat out. I work it over the top of all of it, changing the towels under my hand as they soak through. Usually by the 3rd time there's no grease left.
Take the strainer to your pot and you can pour the meat into it by pulling on the upper edge of the towel...stir it in and let it come back to a simmer. If you like your chili thin, it's ready. I usually let it simmer down for 20 minutes or so.
This isn't a tongue roasting "hot" chili, but very flavorful. If I haven't eaten it for a while it won't make me "sweat" but just bring me to the verge of it...
alan
My back wasn't very happy after wrestling the fridge out of it's assigned space and crawling around to vacuum under and through the back of it before it went back, but a few of the muscle relaxers and hydrocodone I had weaned myself from in the few days before it smoked it's circuit board and I'm feeling better again.
So it's off to make the shopping loop in time to be here when Dillon comes for the weekend. Chili for dinner, Dottie's off this weekend...I won't be around much 'til Monday.
I hope that each of you finds some brightspot in their Friday and their weeekend to particularly enjoy!
May the days be kind!
alan
________________________________________________
I put it here a long time ago, but for those who didn't see it:
Chili...
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound Jimmy Dean Sage sausage (no substitute I've found will do)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans tomato sauce
1/4 cup (or one envelope) Williams chili seasoning
1 tsp. mesquite liquid smoke (sometimes a bit more depending on my mood)
Salt to taste
Pour your tomato sauce in a 5 quart pot along with one can of water. Rinse the beans and add them. Add the seasoning and the liquid smoke and turn on medium heat, stirring occasionally until it starts to simmer then reduce heat to keep it there.
While it's heating, knead the sausage and ground beef together. I make a huge patty out of it and start cooking it like a giant burger, turning it several times and pouring the grease off as it cooks before I crumble it. It's usually pretty well cooked through by the time I do crumble it.
To reduce the grease in the chili I place a strainer in the sink with about 8 layers of paper towel in it, covering the whole strainer. I work the crumbled burger out of the skillet into the strainer, then fold about 6 more layers of paper towel to protect my hand and "mash" the burger between the layers. It will pull 95% of the grease that's left in the meat out. I work it over the top of all of it, changing the towels under my hand as they soak through. Usually by the 3rd time there's no grease left.
Take the strainer to your pot and you can pour the meat into it by pulling on the upper edge of the towel...stir it in and let it come back to a simmer. If you like your chili thin, it's ready. I usually let it simmer down for 20 minutes or so.
This isn't a tongue roasting "hot" chili, but very flavorful. If I haven't eaten it for a while it won't make me "sweat" but just bring me to the verge of it...
alan
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Tuck Foo thousand nine!
Refrigerator just died...
Of course, we just did part of the shopping today...
25 outside, half the food's in coolers in the (unheated unattached) garage, the other half on it's way to my son's, the freezer stuff we made room for in the deep freeze by culling what was in it...
Sure hope it's a defrost timer!
May the rest or YOUR weeks be kind!
alan
UPDATE: 2:45pm Wednesday-
I just kicked the circuit breaker back on after having changed the "Master Control Board" because the "defrost timer" that used to be a seperate component, a box a bit smaller than a cigarette pack that was less than $25 the last time I put on in 15 years ago in my last "fridge", is now on the circuit board. The $154 one.
I paid $24 extra dollars for a lifetime warranty on it; my last one went through 3 in it's of 26 years. I paid a service call on the 1st and watched them change it, then did the next two myself. The symptoms were identical this tiime; it was running constantly, the "reefer" wasn't cooling at all, and the freezer was up to around 50F this morning, though it was chugging merrily away.
When I pulled the circuit board you could see the burnt place on the back of the old one. (I've also seen that in voltage regulators in cars, and ignition control modules as well.)
So, it's running again...a thermometer sitting on the freezer shelf and in a half hour or so we'll see if it's dropping!
alan
Of course, we just did part of the shopping today...
25 outside, half the food's in coolers in the (unheated unattached) garage, the other half on it's way to my son's, the freezer stuff we made room for in the deep freeze by culling what was in it...
Sure hope it's a defrost timer!
May the rest or YOUR weeks be kind!
alan
UPDATE: 2:45pm Wednesday-
I just kicked the circuit breaker back on after having changed the "Master Control Board" because the "defrost timer" that used to be a seperate component, a box a bit smaller than a cigarette pack that was less than $25 the last time I put on in 15 years ago in my last "fridge", is now on the circuit board. The $154 one.
I paid $24 extra dollars for a lifetime warranty on it; my last one went through 3 in it's of 26 years. I paid a service call on the 1st and watched them change it, then did the next two myself. The symptoms were identical this tiime; it was running constantly, the "reefer" wasn't cooling at all, and the freezer was up to around 50F this morning, though it was chugging merrily away.
When I pulled the circuit board you could see the burnt place on the back of the old one. (I've also seen that in voltage regulators in cars, and ignition control modules as well.)
So, it's running again...a thermometer sitting on the freezer shelf and in a half hour or so we'll see if it's dropping!
alan
Monday, January 05, 2009
Out with the old, in with the same old new!
Five and a half hours on the phone...we finally have prescription drug coverage again...
Dottie tried to call in her blood pressure med to Medco on Friday and was told we weren't covered. I called GM's benefits "broker" Fidelity, was assured that we did have coverage but it was a computer glitch and it would be settled by Saturday.
Meanwhile the doctor calls in an antibiotic for her as well, as the amoxicyllin she got for her sinus/lung infection wasn't killing it. It was denied as well.
When you have replacement joints, infections can settle in to your joint and cause all kinds of nasty problems. She was better, but still coughing stuff up, with one day of the other med left.
Saturday? No change...
Sunday? No change...
Today? At 9:30 I called Medco and played the wait game only to be told that GM had changed our coverage to a different company without telling us. I hang up, get a notepad and all of the PIN's etc. and call Fidelity. At 11:37-
I got a human at 2:13. At 2:17 they had forced Medco's computer to accept the new group number.
At 2:20 I called her BP med in and it worked! Then I called CVS and they put the antibiotic through again and it worked as well.
So for good measure I called in my eye drops to add to that order.
Finally I'm eating lunch and then I'm off to the pharmacy!
Not what I had planned for my first blog of the New Year!
I planned on raving about how much more cooperative my desktop is with the two 1gig ram sticks my youngest helped me put in (actually, he put them in and I held the light, lol) on Friday. About how when I picked those up at Microcenter this external dual-layer Lightscribe DVD burner also followed me home, along with a new slideshow program.
But that was before I spent 10-12 hours in voicemail hell over the last 4 days...
Happy New Year!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Dottie tried to call in her blood pressure med to Medco on Friday and was told we weren't covered. I called GM's benefits "broker" Fidelity, was assured that we did have coverage but it was a computer glitch and it would be settled by Saturday.
Meanwhile the doctor calls in an antibiotic for her as well, as the amoxicyllin she got for her sinus/lung infection wasn't killing it. It was denied as well.
When you have replacement joints, infections can settle in to your joint and cause all kinds of nasty problems. She was better, but still coughing stuff up, with one day of the other med left.
Saturday? No change...
Sunday? No change...
Today? At 9:30 I called Medco and played the wait game only to be told that GM had changed our coverage to a different company without telling us. I hang up, get a notepad and all of the PIN's etc. and call Fidelity. At 11:37-
I got a human at 2:13. At 2:17 they had forced Medco's computer to accept the new group number.
At 2:20 I called her BP med in and it worked! Then I called CVS and they put the antibiotic through again and it worked as well.
So for good measure I called in my eye drops to add to that order.
Finally I'm eating lunch and then I'm off to the pharmacy!
Not what I had planned for my first blog of the New Year!
I planned on raving about how much more cooperative my desktop is with the two 1gig ram sticks my youngest helped me put in (actually, he put them in and I held the light, lol) on Friday. About how when I picked those up at Microcenter this external dual-layer Lightscribe DVD burner also followed me home, along with a new slideshow program.
But that was before I spent 10-12 hours in voicemail hell over the last 4 days...
Happy New Year!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Goodbye 2008!
May the New Year be bigger, better and brighter for each who visit here (and if I'm lucky, for myself as well)!
My birthday found us with Dottie juggling the books as is becoming common each month; I'll be hitting the bricks this next month or so to find a job. After she deposited some of the cash we'd saved for the weekend (what with Bill moving and all) I paid the last bill due for the month. Between my back and the cold she brought home from work, I didn't really feel like going anywhere, so after we finally ate breakfast we spent the early afternoon putting together a scrap wood riser to fit the new scanner I mentioned onto my desk as it's to a point the only way to go is up! I spent the rest of the afternoon deleting old software and installing new.
John, my nephew and a friend of John's dropped by to lend me an anime series I had read some good things about so I could watch all the episodes in order and not have to Netflix it. Dottie made me a pumpkin pie for a "birthday cake", since she's made pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas but we never ended up with any of our own except the cherry one I made a while back.
I got cards from Dottie's family in Vermont and phone calls from the grandkids and Noel. My sister sent a nice e-card; our New Year's Eve tomorrow night at her house will also be my family birthday party.
My mother didn't call, though last week she could find the phone each and every day for something inane. I'm sure she'd have wanted Galileo imprisoned as well for saying the world didn't revolve around her!
Since Bill and Laura hadn't paid to take their cats to the vet for the last 2 years, ours said keep them apart from ours until he could give them their shots and do bloodwork on them this Friday (after I get paid). Meanwhile, knowing they had "food issues" Dottie let them have full bowls of food anyway and the last two nights have been spent cleaning up gallons of cat puke. Thank goodness we covered the spare bed and love seat in the room they are in with plastic and old sheets first...
Bill called last night a bit after midnight; they made it to Alexandria safely. Laura called earlier to say that she had hung up Bill's heavy winter coat and an hour or so later uncovered another; mine. I guess it will be returning to me by parcel post; hopefully before we go back to zero again!
Bill was at work; tonight they planned to unload the rest of the stuff in storage and return the Budget truck. They have until Thursday, so hopefully if they don't return it tonight they will tomorrow.
As 2008 winds down I thank you each for your visits, your kind words, your support and for "being there" this last year!
May 2009 be kind to each of you!
Happy New Year!
alan
My birthday found us with Dottie juggling the books as is becoming common each month; I'll be hitting the bricks this next month or so to find a job. After she deposited some of the cash we'd saved for the weekend (what with Bill moving and all) I paid the last bill due for the month. Between my back and the cold she brought home from work, I didn't really feel like going anywhere, so after we finally ate breakfast we spent the early afternoon putting together a scrap wood riser to fit the new scanner I mentioned onto my desk as it's to a point the only way to go is up! I spent the rest of the afternoon deleting old software and installing new.
John, my nephew and a friend of John's dropped by to lend me an anime series I had read some good things about so I could watch all the episodes in order and not have to Netflix it. Dottie made me a pumpkin pie for a "birthday cake", since she's made pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas but we never ended up with any of our own except the cherry one I made a while back.
I got cards from Dottie's family in Vermont and phone calls from the grandkids and Noel. My sister sent a nice e-card; our New Year's Eve tomorrow night at her house will also be my family birthday party.
My mother didn't call, though last week she could find the phone each and every day for something inane. I'm sure she'd have wanted Galileo imprisoned as well for saying the world didn't revolve around her!
Since Bill and Laura hadn't paid to take their cats to the vet for the last 2 years, ours said keep them apart from ours until he could give them their shots and do bloodwork on them this Friday (after I get paid). Meanwhile, knowing they had "food issues" Dottie let them have full bowls of food anyway and the last two nights have been spent cleaning up gallons of cat puke. Thank goodness we covered the spare bed and love seat in the room they are in with plastic and old sheets first...
Bill called last night a bit after midnight; they made it to Alexandria safely. Laura called earlier to say that she had hung up Bill's heavy winter coat and an hour or so later uncovered another; mine. I guess it will be returning to me by parcel post; hopefully before we go back to zero again!
Bill was at work; tonight they planned to unload the rest of the stuff in storage and return the Budget truck. They have until Thursday, so hopefully if they don't return it tonight they will tomorrow.
As 2008 winds down I thank you each for your visits, your kind words, your support and for "being there" this last year!
May 2009 be kind to each of you!
Happy New Year!
alan
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Life in a cat house!
Christmas went well- both days of it. Yesterday we ended up at my sister's to say goodbye to my nephew before he returned to western Kansas; the next time we see him will be his brother's graduation in May. The 2nd round of Christmas took place with her family then Dottie and I came home to try and get Angel and Frankie settled before Bill and Laura arrived with their cats.
Up until now Bill had been renting a bedroom from someone with plans to get an apartment or house when Laura joined him. He's not allowed pets where he is, so until they have a place Dottie and I are keeping her two male cats, 8 year old littermates. Both "large" for housecats, one a very "type A" personality, the other very not a type A (thank goodness)!
We shut our pets in the back of the house to let hers acclimate a bit, then let Angel in. Willow immediately hid; Alley immediately was hissing at her, bu tfinally started to settle down.
So then we let Frankie in. 2/3 their size, he has claws, they don't. It's his house, but Alley immdiately tried to put him in his place which Frankie wasn't having any of. Dottie squirted them both with a water bottle to try to convince them they didn't want to do this, which only irritated them both even more!
This all starting at midnight, finally Laura took them both to the front bedroom to go to sleep at 2, we put Frankie in the bssement; they haven't seen each other since.
Today Angel and Alley have seen each other, but there was no hissing, though Alley won't leave the front bedroom. The only time we've seen Willow is when the breakfast ham was frying.
John and my younger nephew Jordan are helping move Bill because I couldn't really deal with 6 flights of stairs to their apartment. Laura's Mom, Dad and brother are there and most of their stuff they sold or is books and clothes now. Bill's treadmill is the only heavy piece that has to come down the steps, and they should be able to handle it.
So, that leads me back to my header...I'm petsitting!
I keep thinking my back is better right up until I let the meds wear off, then it convinces me otherwise. I'm going to eat something and take the next round and start trying some of the stretches and therapy things they had me doing last time and see if I can loosen it up a bit.
Dottie is off until Tuesday, so I won't be around much in the next few days. Perhaps if I'm feeling better we'll slip out to a movie on my birthday, but we have more than enough things to watch here at home if we don't. One day next week John is going to help me put some more memory in this old Gateway (it's a 256) which should help with Photoshop and such...
Hopefully I'll be around to visit you each before New Year's Day but just in case, I hope each of you has a wonderful Happy New Year and that your dreams all come true in 2009!
alan
Up until now Bill had been renting a bedroom from someone with plans to get an apartment or house when Laura joined him. He's not allowed pets where he is, so until they have a place Dottie and I are keeping her two male cats, 8 year old littermates. Both "large" for housecats, one a very "type A" personality, the other very not a type A (thank goodness)!
We shut our pets in the back of the house to let hers acclimate a bit, then let Angel in. Willow immediately hid; Alley immediately was hissing at her, bu tfinally started to settle down.
So then we let Frankie in. 2/3 their size, he has claws, they don't. It's his house, but Alley immdiately tried to put him in his place which Frankie wasn't having any of. Dottie squirted them both with a water bottle to try to convince them they didn't want to do this, which only irritated them both even more!
This all starting at midnight, finally Laura took them both to the front bedroom to go to sleep at 2, we put Frankie in the bssement; they haven't seen each other since.
Today Angel and Alley have seen each other, but there was no hissing, though Alley won't leave the front bedroom. The only time we've seen Willow is when the breakfast ham was frying.
John and my younger nephew Jordan are helping move Bill because I couldn't really deal with 6 flights of stairs to their apartment. Laura's Mom, Dad and brother are there and most of their stuff they sold or is books and clothes now. Bill's treadmill is the only heavy piece that has to come down the steps, and they should be able to handle it.
So, that leads me back to my header...I'm petsitting!
I keep thinking my back is better right up until I let the meds wear off, then it convinces me otherwise. I'm going to eat something and take the next round and start trying some of the stretches and therapy things they had me doing last time and see if I can loosen it up a bit.
Dottie is off until Tuesday, so I won't be around much in the next few days. Perhaps if I'm feeling better we'll slip out to a movie on my birthday, but we have more than enough things to watch here at home if we don't. One day next week John is going to help me put some more memory in this old Gateway (it's a 256) which should help with Photoshop and such...
Hopefully I'll be around to visit you each before New Year's Day but just in case, I hope each of you has a wonderful Happy New Year and that your dreams all come true in 2009!
alan
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
"I'm dreaming..."
and it actually looks like it will be a "White Christmas" this year!
My sister called a bit ago and despite the "black ice" on the two-lane last night my nephew made it home for his birthday (today) and Christmas. He won't be around to celebrate mine on Monday as he has to work on Saturday, but given the current job market, there are worse things than having to work on Saturday when you're 22!
We finished the wrapping last night, me stoned on pain-killers and muscle relaxers doing the "easy" packages and Dottie doing the ones you had to "think about". She is at work now but when she is done this evening she is off until next Tuesday. Most years I end up making my own birthday cake (except for the year I bought one at Costco) and fixing dinner. Perhaps this year I won't!
Tomorrow we'll go to the nursing home to take my Mom presents in the morning, then go to John's house to have Christmas with the grandkids. Bill is flying in from D.C. as we speak and this year my sister is coming with her family as well because Brett has to leave on Friday to go back to work, so there won't be a chance for the "family" Christmas party later.
New Year's Eve will be a combination New Year's/November-December birthday party at my sister's. Dottie works the next day, but said not to worry about it, because New Year's Day is actually rather quiet at the nursing home. I don't know whether that would have more to do with New Year's Eve or football, but I think I should just be happy for her!
As we speak I'm waiting on UPS to deliver what we're calling our Christmas to each other; a new flatbed scanner. The one I have is "Ok" but doesn't do exceptionally well dealing with anything but a "good" print. The few slides I scanned with it in the early days of this blog I was less than happy with the results.
I have every negative that Dad and I shot back to 1967, and slides back to 1950. He and I both shot a lot of larger format film (2.25 square, 6x7cm, 4x5; Dad even had an 8x10 view camera and I have transparencies he shot with it). This new Epson will scan all of those formats and has the "good" digital enhancement software with it for scratches and such. I've needed to sort through them all and cull the "unimportant" stuff and digitize the others for "posterity". Next will be breaking them into the right size packages to "burn" to disc and filling a file cabinet with hanging sleeves!
The 20% we saved on the scanner I selfishly spent on an "infrared" Hoya R-72 filter that had been on my wishlist for 4 or 5 years now, along with a stepdown ring to fit it to the telephoto as well as the normal lens of my Nikon. At almost $90 for the filter I really didn't want to buy two; the step down was less than $10. It will also let me put the "cross-star" filter I bought before Bill's wedding on the telephoto, since I hadn't thought about "not being able to" before and since I didn't get to use it at the wedding (I planned on a "starry-eyed" bride and groom shot that I was told wouldn't "look right") perhaps some icicles will find their way in front of it.
So, as the sun starts to drop behind the hill to the south and I start to contemplate dinner, I wanted to take a chance to wish each of you the Merriest of Christmases and to hope that tomorrow finds you close to someone you love, be it family, spouses, lovers or friends!
Under my "Christmas tree of life", you have each been a gift richly appreciated!
alan
My sister called a bit ago and despite the "black ice" on the two-lane last night my nephew made it home for his birthday (today) and Christmas. He won't be around to celebrate mine on Monday as he has to work on Saturday, but given the current job market, there are worse things than having to work on Saturday when you're 22!
We finished the wrapping last night, me stoned on pain-killers and muscle relaxers doing the "easy" packages and Dottie doing the ones you had to "think about". She is at work now but when she is done this evening she is off until next Tuesday. Most years I end up making my own birthday cake (except for the year I bought one at Costco) and fixing dinner. Perhaps this year I won't!
Tomorrow we'll go to the nursing home to take my Mom presents in the morning, then go to John's house to have Christmas with the grandkids. Bill is flying in from D.C. as we speak and this year my sister is coming with her family as well because Brett has to leave on Friday to go back to work, so there won't be a chance for the "family" Christmas party later.
New Year's Eve will be a combination New Year's/November-December birthday party at my sister's. Dottie works the next day, but said not to worry about it, because New Year's Day is actually rather quiet at the nursing home. I don't know whether that would have more to do with New Year's Eve or football, but I think I should just be happy for her!
As we speak I'm waiting on UPS to deliver what we're calling our Christmas to each other; a new flatbed scanner. The one I have is "Ok" but doesn't do exceptionally well dealing with anything but a "good" print. The few slides I scanned with it in the early days of this blog I was less than happy with the results.
I have every negative that Dad and I shot back to 1967, and slides back to 1950. He and I both shot a lot of larger format film (2.25 square, 6x7cm, 4x5; Dad even had an 8x10 view camera and I have transparencies he shot with it). This new Epson will scan all of those formats and has the "good" digital enhancement software with it for scratches and such. I've needed to sort through them all and cull the "unimportant" stuff and digitize the others for "posterity". Next will be breaking them into the right size packages to "burn" to disc and filling a file cabinet with hanging sleeves!
The 20% we saved on the scanner I selfishly spent on an "infrared" Hoya R-72 filter that had been on my wishlist for 4 or 5 years now, along with a stepdown ring to fit it to the telephoto as well as the normal lens of my Nikon. At almost $90 for the filter I really didn't want to buy two; the step down was less than $10. It will also let me put the "cross-star" filter I bought before Bill's wedding on the telephoto, since I hadn't thought about "not being able to" before and since I didn't get to use it at the wedding (I planned on a "starry-eyed" bride and groom shot that I was told wouldn't "look right") perhaps some icicles will find their way in front of it.
So, as the sun starts to drop behind the hill to the south and I start to contemplate dinner, I wanted to take a chance to wish each of you the Merriest of Christmases and to hope that tomorrow finds you close to someone you love, be it family, spouses, lovers or friends!
Under my "Christmas tree of life", you have each been a gift richly appreciated!
alan
Monday, December 22, 2008
Muscle relaxers and painkillers...
and suddenly things feel much better!
Dottie needed to get antibiotics for the cold she's been fighting for the last week, so she called at noon and got us in to the Dr.'s late this afternoon. I came home and took two of each and for some reason I'm not hurting nearly as much!
Perhaps tomorrow I can start trying to stretch things a bit and start doing the therapy excercises I got last time I went through this...longer ago than I thought, actually it was 5 years ago, as the Dr. was digging back through my chart.
Dottie is off now getting apples to make pies for Christmas dinner at John's and when she comes home I may try and sit at the table and do some of the wrapping so she isn't stuck with all of it.
Thank you all for the kind wishes!
May the rest of your week be kind, and may Christmas and the holidays be especially wonderful for you this year!
alan
Dottie needed to get antibiotics for the cold she's been fighting for the last week, so she called at noon and got us in to the Dr.'s late this afternoon. I came home and took two of each and for some reason I'm not hurting nearly as much!
Perhaps tomorrow I can start trying to stretch things a bit and start doing the therapy excercises I got last time I went through this...longer ago than I thought, actually it was 5 years ago, as the Dr. was digging back through my chart.
Dottie is off now getting apples to make pies for Christmas dinner at John's and when she comes home I may try and sit at the table and do some of the wrapping so she isn't stuck with all of it.
Thank you all for the kind wishes!
May the rest of your week be kind, and may Christmas and the holidays be especially wonderful for you this year!
alan
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