tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29285961628320932262024-03-13T06:58:59.982-05:00Choreplay: The Art of Seducing Your WifeIt's less demeaning to do housework than to beg:)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-7127279643313748262017-05-01T14:16:00.000-05:002017-05-01T14:22:55.870-05:00Repairs R UsIt certainly doesn't seem like almost 4 years since I posted last. A lot of things going on and the blogging gets left behind at times.<br />
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So we're working on refinancing the house for various reasons. When the appraiser came out to do the inspection there were a couple of areas that were noted as needing attention. I was well aware that these areas needed to be fixed- I just didn't realize how long I've been putting it off!<br />
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I picked up the materials I would need and spent the first day priming both sides of the siding panels and all of the trim pieces. If you've ever painted this rough-cut siding with the grooves in it you will appreciate what a pain in the butt it can. Last time I did the garage end of the house, I spent an entire day priming and painting the panels with a brush and roller. This time I approached things a little bit differently- I got one of the airless paint sprayers as a gift for Christmas. That cut my total painting time down by 85%! I love that sprayer :) Once you're used to it, you can cover huge areas effectively in very little time. I highly recommend the sprayer.<br />
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First step was to pull the soffit so that I could remove the top panels since they overlap the bottom ones. Then I removed the window. The pic on the right shows the boards I put up inside to keep the cats in while I was working on this. Next, the siding was taken off.<br />
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Same process on the smaller area. You can see where the previous owner simply added additional paneling over the old screen porch to close it in.<br />
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New panels in place on both parts of the back area. While I had the bottom pieces of wood off of the area in the pic on the right, I put in flashing and sealed it down solidly to keep rain water from running into the computer room as it had been doing for ages. There is now a single piece of flashing that runs from the cement blocks on the left all the way to the end of the cement on the right. I shouldn't have any water issues for many, many years now.<br />
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Replaced the frame on the garage door ( a bit of rot on the bottom edges, so why not fix it now?) and re-installed the window. Framed out the window, caulked and painted it all.<br />
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I then reinstalled the soffit, trim, etc. Painted the remaining areas to complete this side.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s5Kxve0WuwQ/WQeBDD-01LI/AAAAAAAAAOc/cgeRvXyAsJwvsNs-lOBjqUjitEfTC37OQCEw/s1600/20170430_180741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Next I moved on to the rear of the house. There was one small spot on the bottom right corner under that window which needed replacing. Pulled the old trim board and the offending panel, put in new ones and painted it all. Then entire house is DONE!<br />
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I took 4 days off of work to do this project, but things didn't happen the way I planned it. Ended up working on two of those days, but the total time on the project was still only 4 full days working by myself. It's nice to have it completed.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-44755289952243675622014-01-20T19:03:00.000-06:002014-01-20T19:03:02.509-06:00Recliners and pipe dreams.......I finally have a moment to breathe, so I'm taking time to catch up on some of the work I've had to do to the house. Last month we had issues with squirrels getting into the attic area and making themselves at home. The were coming in on the back portion of the house that was in pretty bad shape. It took three days, but I got all of that replaced and put together properly. I don't like to beat up on "do-it-yourself" people since I am a very active one of those, but if you're going to do it, do it properly. The back soffits were cobbled together with varying lengths of wood, some of it appearing to be scraps from some previous project. It was just done wrong. A couple of pictures- in one you can still see some of the old stuff:<div>
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All of the wood is pressure treated, and after several days of inclement weather all of the bare wood got primed and painted. The rest of it needs to be replaced, but that will wait for another day.</div>
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The last two days were spent working on the "gray water" leech field lines. If you've perused the blog at all you might recall that I had issues with that line a while back. That was due to the junction box caving in and allowing dirt into the pipes. I snaked the lines out, then ran a hose through them. I also built a cement lid over the junction box so that if I needed to get to it later I would be able to do so. </div>
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Several days ago I noticed that water was bubbling up from the junction box area. That could only mean one thing- the lines were stopped up again. I removed the cover I made and attempted to snake the lines, but I could only get about 10 feet into one line and 6 feet into the secondary. That did not bode well. The only logical option (in my mind, anyway) at this point was to replace the junction box and run new drain field lines.</div>
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I started at the junction box and dug backwards to the holding tank:</div>
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The trench looks deceptively shallow in the picture. It is actually between 1 3/4 to 2' deep. That was a ton of dirt to move by shovel. One person. Me. Alone. Not to mention the fact that every other stab with the shovel hit a stone ranging from the size of a fist to the size of a human head. The black corrugated flex pipe was extremely brittle and had breaks all along its length. No wonder the freakin' line was filling with dirt!</div>
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I opted to replace it with the white PVC. This gives a smoother surface for the water to flow across and makes it less likely that dirt will accumulate along the length of the pipe if it acquires a break in it.</div>
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And in the picture on the top you can see the new junction box. The old box looked like this after I took it out of the ground:<br />
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Slight difference, eh? Next step- back fill to the junction box and make things up to that point look nice:</div>
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Now the hard part: Making myself do the same thing all over again on the other end of the box. But on this side I had to use the perforated white PVC for the leech portion of the project. And I had to make sure that the gravel foundation was still in good shape so that the water in the line would actually leech out like it's supposed to. I started from the box and dug until I reached the end of the line:</div>
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That's another 35 feet at 18-24" deep. One person. Me. Alone. After back-filling the trench I dug out yesterday. I pulled up the old corrugated pipe and found it to be completely full of dirt. I don't mean to the half-way up the pipe point, but the ENTIRE internal area of the pipe! One ten foot section of that pipe weighed (best guess) 300-350 lbs. I was unable to pick it up, I had to drag it out of the hole. (Yeah, yeah, maybe if I hadn't moved the Marianas Trench worth of dirt already, but whatever.) ;)</div>
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I took the hose and washed the dirt off of the gravel that was under the pipe. The water absorbed (leeched) into the ground very quickly which was a good sign. It meant that I didn't have to dig the old gravel out and put in new. After cleaning excess dirt and stone out of the trench, I lined the bottom of it with a double layer of sediment cloth. I then put the pipe in place and wrapped the cloth around it. I held it in place with some duct tape strips until I put dirt on it. Next I put another double layer of sediment cloth on top of the pipe and tucked it down along the sides. Hopefully this will keep the dirt out of the system.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UipTQyUJSGY/Ut3DPfaeEdI/AAAAAAAAALE/og10dlyegJg/s1600/IMG_20140120_163620_232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UipTQyUJSGY/Ut3DPfaeEdI/AAAAAAAAALE/og10dlyegJg/s1600/IMG_20140120_163620_232.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
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As you might notice, I added a touch or two of my own. Up at the junction box I will have a cleanout pipe flush with the ground and on the final end of the pipe I put a cap so that I could actually open it and flush it out with water if the need ever arises. Also, if I ever have to snake the pipe I have the opening at the end so that I know when I've cleared the entire length of the system. And on to the back-fill:</div>
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The junction box is still uncovered, and the pipe sticking out of the clean-out hole will be cut off later. I have to structure a sturdy box around and over the junction box so that it doesn't suffer the same fate as the last one- death by riding mower. That will be done in two days when I have another day off. That will be simple though, the hard part is done.</div>
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Total cost: $175.00 and two Advil for my back. Not sure what it would have cost to have someone else come in and do it, but if I had to do this for someone else I'd get at least $2000. I'm figuring I saved a minimum of $1500. Not bad for two day's work :)</div>
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Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-39060569975575132662013-09-23T13:33:00.000-05:002013-09-23T13:33:36.281-05:00The repair saga continues.I've been moving a section at a time around the house replacing bad paneling and repairing things as needed to bring the house back into shape. I've also been painting as I go so that the house looks like it should.<br />
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It's not the wife's fault that things are as bad as they are- she's not a handyman and she really had no assistance with anything of this nature until I arrived on the scene. Progress is being made and I enjoy working on tasks such as this, especially considering what it would cost to have someone else do it.<br />
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Have I mentioned that I hate paying someone to do things I can do? ;)<br />
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The garage side of the house is the last one that could be seen from the street which hadn't been worked on yet. This was due to the fact that it was in the LEAST bad shape. I actually did an area on the back of the house because things there were so bad I didn't feel comfortable waiting any longer. But the next door neighbor has been having her house roofed and painted and considering that the garage side faces her house I decided to take care of it this past weekend.<br />
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So it started out looking like this:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xz31yy8yLOc/Uj-Bgcot6xI/AAAAAAAAAIM/EiXmwr1gInA/s1600/House1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xz31yy8yLOc/Uj-Bgcot6xI/AAAAAAAAAIM/EiXmwr1gInA/s320/House1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you will notice, the cardboard that was used for the "wings" (as I call them, not sure what the actual term is) was rotten and wavy, so I started by replacing both of those with plywood. That would be the unpainted plywood piece that you can see in the top left of the picture above. I replaced the right one as well. Those trim boards and wings are cut out of one long piece of cardboard, so I took my oscillating too and cut out the old stuff and made new to replace it using templates that I had traced earlier. Oscillating tools are awesome for this kind of thing! I refer to the trim as cardboard because it's not even pressboard. It's more along the lines of cardboard fibers bonded together rather than actual wood chips like you find in pressboard. Probably a lot cheaper, but I've been using actual wood when it needs to be replaced.</div>
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Here's a better shot of the wing:</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W4eydjIH4mE/Uj-DzuOifdI/AAAAAAAAAIY/uWf8r4LnwAQ/s1600/House2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W4eydjIH4mE/Uj-DzuOifdI/AAAAAAAAAIY/uWf8r4LnwAQ/s320/House2.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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In the first picture you can see the holes and peeling layers of the plywood (especially noticeable under the window). There were actually 4 full sheets that needed to be replaced. </div>
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Next task was to pull the window and the old wood off of the house. Then I cleaned out between the studs and put backing on several largish holes in the sheet rock so that I can patch them properly from the inside once I am done with the outside. I replaced the pipe belonging to the hose bib (made it longer and it was rusting on the inside anyway) and put a new faucet on the pipe.</div>
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Now for the fun part- putting new wood in place. While it may seem a rather straight-forward task you need to realize that each piece of wood slides UNDER the one above it, the interlocks with the one on each side of it. So there are three joints to work with. Not bad if you're putting it up as new construction, but a true pain-in-the-ass to do it as re-work. By myself. Alone.</div>
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By the end of the second day my muscles were so tired that I seriously had trouble carrying my tools to put them back where they go. But the work got done :)</div>
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A shot of the new panels in place:</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JKLfmiaa4e0/Uj-IWdA5h1I/AAAAAAAAAIk/QFWc-xA8tPs/s1600/House3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JKLfmiaa4e0/Uj-IWdA5h1I/AAAAAAAAAIk/QFWc-xA8tPs/s320/House3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thank the powers that be for nail guns. I'd be two more weekends getting this done if I had to drive all of the nails by hand! But the nail gun can be picky. You can set it to a general pressure that works for most situations or you can spend loads of time adjusting the thing to drive the nails in <i>just </i>right. I leave it on the generally setting which countersinks the nails just a bit and then I putty over the nail heads before painting (as shown below). This keeps the nails from popping out and rusting like they will if you just drive them flush and paint them.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JXKB2STLFjE/Uj-JSDiBAyI/AAAAAAAAAIs/zpoEYTpxcF4/s1600/House4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JXKB2STLFjE/Uj-JSDiBAyI/AAAAAAAAAIs/zpoEYTpxcF4/s320/House4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The remainder of the day after applying the putty to the nails was used painting the stripes between the "boards" on the plywood. Note: Before putting the wood on the house I primed both sides and all of the edges with a good primer. That served two purposes- 1) It keeps the wood from warping as it will when only one side is painted, and 2) It beats the hell out of rolling and brushing the primer on in a vertical situation. Priming the edges also keeps the wood from rotting as fast at the bottom once it's installed.</div>
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The next day after work I painted all of the siding. It went rather quickly since I was now using a roller and all of the trim painting had been done the day before. I didn't bother painting inside of the marks I had for the window opening:</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gGiKzXraT6c/Uj-LPU9RjWI/AAAAAAAAAI8/fiPvfP7-zB8/s1600/House5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gGiKzXraT6c/Uj-LPU9RjWI/AAAAAAAAAI8/fiPvfP7-zB8/s320/House5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you look closely you can see the holes I drilled in the corners of the window layout so I could redraw the lines and cut out the opening with a minimum of fuss. Next part of the project was re-installing the vent cover and the window. I simply drew lines to the edges of each hole, set my saw to the depth of the plywood, and cut the excess away with no issues. After cleaning up the window and putting some flashing into the opening I installed and sealed it:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q0Y3R1rs1OE/Uj-MUBUMYCI/AAAAAAAAAJI/-bqLbFeJy7E/s1600/House6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q0Y3R1rs1OE/Uj-MUBUMYCI/AAAAAAAAAJI/-bqLbFeJy7E/s320/House6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I cut, primed, and painted the trim boards for the right edge of the house and around the window. The following day I installed the remaining trim and put the fence panel back into place:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-emQw_6AtjC4/UkCICiwrkdI/AAAAAAAAAJY/wAHBYOIOzKU/s1600/IMG_20130923_114516_513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-emQw_6AtjC4/UkCICiwrkdI/AAAAAAAAAJY/wAHBYOIOzKU/s320/IMG_20130923_114516_513.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mission accomplished! I spent a total of $250 on paint and materials and I probably saved between $600-$1200 in the labor costs. </div>
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Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-76471020893259023652013-06-30T15:58:00.000-05:002013-06-30T15:58:33.027-05:00An Electric Tool BoxNot long after I bought my truck, I purchased a tool box to mount in the bed. I thought the box was pretty cool because you could open it from either side without climbing into the back of the truck. <div>
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Lately I've been having trouble opening the box from the driver's side (which is used the most) and it finally reached the point where it could only be opened from the passenger side of the truck. </div>
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Why would that be a hassle? Well, if you are asking that question you've never had a toolbox for the back of your pickup truck. You see, once you get your tools where you want them it simply does not work to move them to another spot. If you do that, you can't find anything ever again. Ever. Kind of like the sock-eating-dryer thing. Either put them where they go or give them away. Same end result.</div>
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I tried swapping the locks on either side of the truck, but that didn't change anything. So I took a close look at how the mechanism that operates the single rod from both sides works. After several years there is some wear on the moving parts of the latch system. Apparently the "open either side" part only works within very strict tolerances, and the worn areas are not allowing the driver side lock to do what it needs to do, since it's on the "complicated" leg of the mechanism. There is no feasible way to turn the entire setup around so that the driver side would be the simple side.</div>
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I'm really not sure what an entirely new mechanism would cost- I didn't bother pricing it. I made life simpler with a bit of creativity :)</div>
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I went to <a href="http://allelectronics.com/">AllElectronics.com </a>and purchased a lock solenoid for $6. I ran a wire to a small switch I put in the dashboard and to power. I then made a mounting bracket from a piece of aluminum angle I had in the scrap bucket. Drilled a couple of holes, shaped the actuator rod how I wanted it, hooked up a switch, power and tested it out. It works like a charm! </div>
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My next order through All Electronics will include a switch that's operated with a key. I'll replace the driver side lock with the key switch so I can open the box from the driver's side without unlocking my doors.</div>
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Here's a picture of the mostly-finished setup:</div>
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I still have to tie down the wires and clean it all up, but it works! Total cost estimate (even with the switch I want to order) is $12. And it still opens from the passenger side with the key, so if the battery is dead I can get in that way.</div>
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I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff :)</div>
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Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-18349043542346254572013-06-12T14:59:00.000-05:002013-06-12T14:59:42.558-05:00A door has opened :)Quite a few years ago, when I first visited the house we live in now, I noticed that the sliding glass door leading into the computer room was not working so well. According to my lovely wife, it had been making the awful squeaking noises for a long time before I was around. The first time I took the door apart I noticed that the rollers on the most-used door had locked up and were cutting into the aluminum track that the doors roll on. I purchased new rollers (about $16 for two of them) and installed them into the offending door. This made the sliding action easier for a while, until the track wore completely through in areas causing the bottom of the door to drag. The constant sliding of metal on metal totally destroyed the rollers I put in and was actually beginning to wear away the bottom edges of the door.<br />
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The track depth is supposed to look like this:<br />
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And it was now looking like this:<br />
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So I called several door companies to see what it would cost to replace the track strip for the doors. Guess what? They don't replace tracks- they only install ENTIRELY NEW DOORS AND FRAMES. I could find no one at all that would be willing to replace the bottom track. I even tried some handyman services, with the same results.<br />
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My next course of action was to scour the internet for door tracks that I could purchase and put in. There was not a single site found that could supply the track with the measurements I needed. (Distance between the rails that the doors roll on, height of the rails, shape of the rail, etc. You'd be surprised how many different types of rails you CAN find, but it's unlikely that any of them will fit the doors you currently have.)<br />
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So I drove to a local hardware store and talked to one of the old-timers. He told me that I could try a "rail cover" that some people use to bolster worn rails. It's basically a stainless steel cap that you place over the top of the rail. It doesn't work. The weight of the door causes the cap to bend at ANY point that isn't perfect on the rail. That totally defeats the purpose of the cap, you know? So that ended up warping and getting tangled in the bottom of the door. An effort in futility.<br />
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I waited another two years and when things reached a point where you had to pick the door up and move it instead of sliding it I decided to make a last ditch effort to fix the damned thing before spending the exorbitant amount they would likely ask to install a new set of doors and rails.<br />
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I went to a local steel yard that sells to the public and bought a strip of 1"x 1/8" flatbar, and a strip of 1/4"x1/4"x1/8" angle iron. I had to buy 20 foot strips of each since that was the minimum they would sell, but the total amount spent was on $18. I measured the set-back of the rail from the baseboard and tack-welded the angle iron to the flatbar using that measurement. This gave me a steel rail that matched the height of the aluminum rail needing to be replaced.<br />
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It looked like this (a short piece I had after I trimmed it to length):<br />
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And here you can see how I tack-welded every 8" or so on opposing sides:<br />
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I then cut out the damaged railing and inserted the iron rail under the edges of the remaining rail like this:<br />
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You can see that I tucked it in. I did this by loosening the screws holding the original to the threshold, sliding the new piece under it, and tightening them down again. This served to keep it in place and lined up with the original undamaged part farther down the track. I could have replaced the entire inside strip, but cutting the aluminum where it wasn't damaged is a pain in the butt. A grinder will gall up, the rail is on concrete so a hacksaw isn't feasible, and a rotozip in this restricted area is not going to allow a straight cut that is needed. I used one of the oscillating tools that let you cut flush to almost anything. I used a fine-toothed wood attachment and a slow and steady approach to get a nice, straight cut so I could remove the bad material. It makes a lot of noise, but it's very effective.<br />
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After installing the new piece of fabricated track and screwing everything back down:<br />
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I bought new rollers to put on the door while I had it down ($16 for two) and reassembled everything.<br />
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It. is. awesome. You can slide the door open and closed with one finger now, and my total expense was right at $34! The steel rail will last longer than the door, and I still have enough material to replace the outside rail if I need to.<br />
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Take THAT, sliding glass door people!!! Bahahahahahahaha!!!Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-5021713167083669192012-11-12T16:56:00.000-06:002012-11-12T18:38:23.010-06:00Efforts in metallurgy :)Today I finally took a bit of time to try casting aluminum. It was not quite what I expected :)<br />
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I built a smelter of sorts out of scrap a while back-<br />
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I obtained a can and put a handle on it:<br />
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I added charcoal and aluminum cans then fired it up. The pipe you see coming out of the bottom is actually a piece of tailpipe obtained for free from a muffler shop. I just went in and asked for a scrap piece and offered to pay them something for it but they just laughed and gave it to me at no cost. It's supposed to be used to push air through holes drilled around where the can sits to make the fire hot enough to melt the aluminum.</div>
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According to youtube you're supposed to put a hair dryer on "cold" setting into the pipe for proper air flow. I picked up a cheap hair dryer from Wally World and took it apart, then removed the heating elements because it didn't have a "cold" setting. Only hot and hotter. It refused to work. Upon closer inspection I realized that if the heating element was broken the circuitry refused to power the dryer (which makes sense in the normal use of the thing) but this did nothing for my efforts to have forced air. So I rewired the thing and plugged it in to promptly get a grand display of sparks and a tripped breaker. Screw the hair dryer.... I have better weapons in my arsenal :)</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IYmVH0GYE2s/UKF0bis3OOI/AAAAAAAAAF4/WblPbdmArcU/s1600/2012-11-12_15-46-10_445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IYmVH0GYE2s/UKF0bis3OOI/AAAAAAAAAF4/WblPbdmArcU/s320/2012-11-12_15-46-10_445.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I hooked up the shop-vac on the "blow" side of things and used that instead of the hair dryer. Let me tell you- it worked fabulously! Originally I had the can sitting in the middle of the fire. This is a view after I had poured my first "ingot". The majority of the crap you see left in the can is slag or "dross" (which is a fancy word for stuff that's not pure aluminum.) You're supposed to lift the dross off of the top of the melted aluminum but the melting vessel I used is really too small to get into with the spoon once you take the heat factor into consideration, so I left it there. I just poured the melted aluminum and let it run from below the slag into the ingot mould that I made.</div>
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Below you see my efforts at an ingot. I would have done more but I was running out of fire/charcoal so I got what I could with the materials I had on hand. This is two separate pours. I poured the first, re-positioned the can, allowed more aluminum to melt and then made the second pour.<br />
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All-in-all it was a fun experience. I'm going to add a stand into the bottom of the smelter to allow the can to sit up off of the steel plate so that the bottom isn't conducting heat away from the aluminum. I'm also going to get wood for fuel instead of charcoal. The charcoal worked fine, but it took an entire bag to do this little bit and at $9 a freakin' bag it would be simpler to buy a couple of pounds of aluminum, ya know? The shop vac on "blow" worked great, but I'm going to use an old vacuum cleaner motor set to blow next time I do this.<br />
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Now I just have to figure out a how they make proper moulds so that I can possible create something useful with this new technology :)<br />
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<br />Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-71749705764007934452012-08-23T18:57:00.003-05:002012-08-23T19:02:41.233-05:00Gotcha! Bahahahahaha!!!! I was out in the yard last week doing some lawn work when a guy walks up and asks me if I would be interested in getting a free estimate in regards to replacing my roof. Considering the condition of the roof at this point, I'd LOVE to know how much it would cost to have someone replace as opposed to buying the materials and doing it on my own. So of course, I said yes.<br />
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Next, he asked me when I would be available for someone to come over and give an estimate. I was off on the following Monday, so I told him to have someone come by around 10am. He then asked if my wife would be home, to which I replied no. That was an odd question, in my mind. So I tucked a little red flag next to this guy's memory spot in my brain. He then proceeded to ask what time my wife would be home and I asked him WHY? He stated that often when they gave estimates they would need input on shingle color, etc. so it was easier to have both parties present when they came out. It still sounded a bit odd, but I made arrangements for them to come out between 6pm and 7pm to give me the estimate and assured them that my wife would be home but had no wish to interact with them in any way. The guy got his boss on the speaker phone, the appointment was confirmed, and we were set to go.<br />
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Monday comes, 7pm flies by and still no roof guy to give me an estimate. Another red flag planted next to his memory spot. Wednesday rolls around and I get a call from the roofing company asking how my appointment went on Monday. I then told the man that there WAS no appointment because his guy never showed up. I let him know that we waited on dinner so that I could be outside while he was supposed to be here and also that I felt extremely inconvenienced because no one showed up or called to say why they never came. The man on the phone apologized and said "let me check my notes" after which he said "They came by and no one was home, so they left a card". I got a bit rude at this point. I let him know that I was off on Monday, I was home ALL day, and the only card I had was the one the original shyster had given to me. Then I let him know I had serious doubts about doing business with his company because if they didn't have the integrity to show up for the appointment to get my business in the first place, what were they going to do when they got some of my money? Fail to show at all? HA! Not with this kid! He apologized profusely and pleaded with me to let him arrange another appointment all the while assuring me that he would expedite this situation to the owner of the company for a resolution.<br />
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Now keep in mind that I really want to know what a roofing company would charge to come out and replace the roof. That's all I really need to know- is it worth it to pay someone for the labor I would have to expend over the course of a week or two?<br />
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Which brings us to today. After agreeing to allow them to come out and give an estimate, a guy pulls up in an SUV. I went out to meet him, all the while counting the red flags by this company's memory spot. Yep, three so far. While he was getting his folding ladder out he asked a few questions, I answered, and we chatted about the current condition of the roof. Then he says "when I'm done, we'll go inside and discuss the estimate" to which I replied "my wife is not interested in speaking to anyone". He then tells me that he has to read the "insurance mitigation clause" to both parties involved with the home. I asked him what insurance had to do with anything and he told me that homeowner's would give us 31% per year off of our homeowner's premiums with a hurricane rated roof. So I asked (with innocence in my voice, if you can imagine that from me) "when did insurance companies start giving discounts for home maintenance"? He says " Oh, no... only for HURRICANE rated roofs". (insert red flag #4) It seems that he wanted to install a super-special-hurricane-driven water-proof-roof on the house and would have to document every step of the process for the insurance company so that we would get our discount. (red flag #5)<br />
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So my next question was "how MUCH MORE is this hurricane roof compared to a conventional roof?" to which he replied "25-30%, but you save that in insurance premiums!". Hah! Yeah, right. So I informed the little man that I only wanted my free estimate to encompass normal roof replacement. He got surly and asked me why I didn't state that when I made the appointment. I got just as surly (perhaps just a weeeee bit more) with my reply of "why didn't your guy tell me what he was really trying to sell?". He was not a happy camper. He said he couldn't give me an estimate for a normal roof, packed his little ladder, and scooted his sorry self off of the property. It's not like I was going to do business with them anyway after the way the initial appointment was handled :)<br />
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I could tell that he was miffed about driving out, unpacking his ladder and finding out that he had nothing I wanted. Yeah, buddy..... karma is a bitch. You should have kept the first appointment- I can be a really nice guy when I'm treated with respect :)<br />
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<br />Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-11297461793222699102012-06-28T20:31:00.000-05:002012-06-30T15:20:16.714-05:00Life as a sponge.I don't know what it is about me that attracts water. I'm not even a great fan of Spongebob Squarepants. But dammit if the water doesn't find me where ever I may be.<br />
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A couple of months ago I noticed an unusually wet spot in the middle of the yard. We had no rain in the previous couple of months and this spot was not at a low point in the lawn. A couple of days after I noticed this spot, the lawn guys cut the grass. I'm surprised that they didn't raise hell, because judging from the size of the hole they fell into the mower had to be stuck. </div>
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Upon investigation I discovered that it wasn't a sinkhole, but a "junction box" for the septic system drain field piping. And of course, in typical contractor fashion the freakin' box was ABS (soft) PLASTIC. It's a wonder someone didn't put a foot through the damned thing.</div>
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So I dug all around it, framed it up and poured a concrete box around the junction. I then bought a cement stepping stone large enough to cover the opening and laid it on top. Now I have access to the drain pipes so that I can snake them out when necessary and keep the system working as it should. And I don't have to worry about the riding mower falling through again.</div>
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Ok, let's take a look at what we've had so far:<br />
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Solenoid on fridge- check.</div>
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Busted pipe in wall- check.</div>
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Leaking roof- check</div>
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Septic drain issues- check</div>
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What else could go wrong? Hah!</div>
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After several months of no rain whatsoever, tropical storm Debbie decided to grace us with 6 or 7 days straight rain, rain and more rain. Heavy rain. During a lull in one of the downpours I went out to the shed (my workshop) and discovered that the many of the screws holding the tin on the roof had worked loose and water was pouring in onto everything. So what did I have to do? I got on the roof with a bucket of tar and took out each screw, tarred the hole, and put the screw back in tight. An hour or so later (and 20 pounds heavier from my clothes being soaked) I had everything water-tight once again.</div>
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Only to have my wife inform me that we had some water spots forming on the ceiling in the bedroom. *sigh* Due to the fact that it was now rather late in the evening, I told her I'd check it the next day after work, which I did. I found that the AC drain line was stopped up, and the switch that's supposed to shut off the compressor when the water backs up in the drain was not working. So the water was dripping through the insulation and eventually to the sheetrock of the ceiling.</div>
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Now one wouldn't think that this is much of an issue, right? Just unstop the line and everything is fine you say. But the idiots that installed the drain line on the AC did it the same way that all of the AC people seem to do it.... without any concern for the person who has to unstop the drain. The way things are set up looks like this:</div>
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You have the AC unit with a drain line and a "T" installed on it. The "T" has a removable plug so that you can "clean out" the line. Yeah, right. There is no good way to get anything into that tiny hole at a 90' angle which would be effective in removing the slime clog. And you can't really blow it out because the slime builds up in the drain line past the "T" and not so much between the "T" and the AC Unit. So if you try to blow it out, the air goes down the path of least resistance, which is back to the AC Unit, effectively negating the effort to blow the slime out of the drain.</div>
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After having to do this once before, I decided to make it user friendly so that next time I was in the attic sweating and trying not to fall through the ceiling I would be able to get the drain blown clean and get out quickly. I went to the local hardware and picked up the fittings I needed, came home, and put together the ideal junction for doing this sort of thing:</div>
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I made an "H" junction using two "T" fittings (bottom image). On the end of each "T" not connected to the main line I put a 45' elbow, which gives plenty of angle to insert an air hose or even a clean-out fish (top image). With a plug in each elbow the air integrity is maintained as well. So now I can clean out the line between the unit and the junction, and from the junction to the outside. Both can be accessed with ease. Disconnecting them at the point shown allows me to insert a plug so that compressed air can be used to clean out either section of line without having the air take the path of least resistance, but instead pushing out the blockage.</div>
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Now, instead of running hose from the air compressor through the house and into the attic to blow out the drain I can simply take a small air tank with a ball valve (for a blast of air) and a hose that fits snugly into the 45' elbows that I installed up into the attic to take care of the problem. </div>
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Total spent in parts- $4. Why the HELL can't they do this kind of thing in the first place? I'll tell you why- so that they can charge you $95 to come out and clear the line for you. Now all I have to do is replace the defective switch and the ceiling shouldn't get any further spots :)</div>
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*Edit- I put plywood in the attic this morning so that I'm not balancing on the rafters when I have to work in the attic. While I was up there I took a pic of the new fitting that shows it better than my primitive drawings :)</div>
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<br /></div>Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-470844359144020222012-03-05T18:58:00.012-06:002012-03-05T19:51:35.626-06:00When it rains, it pours...And now I know why.<div><br /></div><div>Today I decided to finish working on the eaves of the house. I started on them last year. I know, I know.... it should have been done already. But I went to sleep and when I woke up a year had gone by and the eaves still weren't finished being repaired. (To be fair, the wife is very efficient when it comes to planning things for us to do on my day off.) Anyway, today was the day to finish.</div><div><br /></div><div>I pulled out the scaffold, ladder and tools. I ripped out the bad soffit and I was greeted with this:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TBel1sOFyaw/T1VioQUNeDI/AAAAAAAAACc/4ecLCrLQdFE/s1600/DSC00977.JPG"><span><span></span></span><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TBel1sOFyaw/T1VioQUNeDI/AAAAAAAAACc/4ecLCrLQdFE/s320/DSC00977.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716583745730738226" /></a><div><br /></div><div>If you aren't sure what you're looking at, it's the underside of the roof sheathing. And it shouldn't be wet and rotted like this. So instead of just working on the soffit I decided to replace the sheathing. This involves removing shingles, tar paper, etc, then cutting out the bad sheathing and replacing it. Then you have to replace the drip edge, tar paper, flashing, and finally the shingles. I've not replaced shingles before. I know how to install them initially, but I haven't had the opportunity to replace damaged ones on an existing roof. This was going to be fun.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's another shot of the damaged area (from below):</div><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zwc1Zz_TtxA/T1Vlngq05LI/AAAAAAAAACo/bUcsToS9lls/s1600/DSC00980.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zwc1Zz_TtxA/T1Vlngq05LI/AAAAAAAAACo/bUcsToS9lls/s320/DSC00980.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716587031475578034" /></a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>First step: remove the shingles from the affected area-</div><div><br /></div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nij-vX1vXvE/T1VmEiS9AoI/AAAAAAAAAC0/-W6cVEUHI0E/s1600/DSC00981.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nij-vX1vXvE/T1VmEiS9AoI/AAAAAAAAAC0/-W6cVEUHI0E/s320/DSC00981.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716587530128523906" /></a><div><br /></div><div>Next step: Remove the felt/tar paper to expose the wood- and guess what I find!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NvmKVVbwSJ8/T1Vm13jg4EI/AAAAAAAAADA/baG0kCFJqDM/s1600/DSC00982.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NvmKVVbwSJ8/T1Vm13jg4EI/AAAAAAAAADA/baG0kCFJqDM/s320/DSC00982.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716588377648717890" /></a><div>The idiots that put the roof on put the flashing ON TOP of the upper layer of tar paper instead of under it. You can clearly see the bump in the flashing that was allowing water to run straight down onto the wood. Like making a funnel for the rain to run into the walls. Freakin' idiots! Once I removed that flashing, the wood underneath it just fell apart.</div><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fa7hhqhEvzI/T1VoAEmq7iI/AAAAAAAAADM/IwRP8EoWVb4/s1600/DSC00985.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fa7hhqhEvzI/T1VoAEmq7iI/AAAAAAAAADM/IwRP8EoWVb4/s320/DSC00985.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716589652461940258" /></a><div><br /></div><div>And the view from the bottom:</div><div><br /></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fhk2oo4KdP4/T1VoWywZJvI/AAAAAAAAADY/XNki62NklU8/s1600/DSC00986.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Fhk2oo4KdP4/T1VoWywZJvI/AAAAAAAAADY/XNki62NklU8/s320/DSC00986.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716590042807871218" /></a><div><br /></div><div>Moving forward: Remove the bad sheathing-</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxn5LbLif6M/T1VpS3K41MI/AAAAAAAAADk/cgs4PfuIm9U/s1600/DSC00988.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jxn5LbLif6M/T1VpS3K41MI/AAAAAAAAADk/cgs4PfuIm9U/s320/DSC00988.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716591074784892098" /></a><div><br /></div><div>After removing the bad wood, I "sistered" some 2x4's to the existing so that I would have a place to nail the new wood down on the left and to level the board on the right that was water damaged on the top. You can see the added boards in the photo above.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next I put the new plywood in place:</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CUYKX_dWSu8/T1VqD8Rdo2I/AAAAAAAAADw/iipuaIGJomk/s1600/DSC00989.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CUYKX_dWSu8/T1VqD8Rdo2I/AAAAAAAAADw/iipuaIGJomk/s320/DSC00989.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716591917968237410" /></a><div><br /></div><div>Next: Tar paper, starter course of shingle, and flashing. I also put in a new drip edge before adding the preceding items. The drip edge has to go on first :)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCOvl0PiKCY/T1VqylfRo3I/AAAAAAAAAD8/_M27yd4y_mI/s1600/DSC00990.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCOvl0PiKCY/T1VqylfRo3I/AAAAAAAAAD8/_M27yd4y_mI/s320/DSC00990.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716592719306007410" /></a><div><br /></div><div>It's not perfect, but it's not bad either. And it shouldn't leak. Now for the fun part.... tying in the new shingles to the old. This is the part I was unsure of but it turned out fairly well.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a7FzBQ3TExA/T1Vr1g5A6PI/AAAAAAAAAEI/4qj_w12ZXCQ/s1600/DSC00992.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a7FzBQ3TExA/T1Vr1g5A6PI/AAAAAAAAAEI/4qj_w12ZXCQ/s320/DSC00992.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716593869123021042" /></a><div><br /></div><div>You can see a slight "hill" on the left where I tied into the existing shingles. I think I should have taken out a bit more, but wasn't sure. Apparently I should have :) All in all it's not bad for a first time with no guidance. The new shingles are some that came with the house so I'm assuming that's what the old ones looked like when they were first installed. It's about time for a new roof- there are issues in other places as well. I'm thinking about taking a week or so off and replacing the roof myself. I'm confident that I can do it, but I hate to try to tackle that by myself. I hate paying someone to do it even more :)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-18109390765980605052012-02-12T18:54:00.004-06:002012-02-12T19:34:34.911-06:00I'm in hot water! *sigh*I just changed restaurant locations a couple of weeks ago, so in order to determine the true strengths and weaknesses of the new location I worked a week of night shifts. This means that Saturday I went to work at 6:30 pm and got home Sunday at 5:15 am. After sleeping 3 hours I got my butt out of bed so that I could spend my day off doing things for work that can only be done at home. (I had some sandblasting and brazing of various parts that needed to be completed.)<div><br /></div><div>During the process of setting up the sand blaster I heard a strange hissing noise at the corner of the house. Upon closer inspection I found a steady stream of water rolling out from under the wood paneling that covers the outside of the home. I went inside and found a big wet patch of drywall (kind of oxymoronic, eh?) and a puddle forming on the floor. Just what I needed.... a leak inside of the wall.</div><div><br /></div><div>I grabbed my sheetrock hole-saw from my truck and cut out a nice square patch around the wet spot and was immediately greeted by a jet of water gushing from a hole in the copper pipe. It was the hot water return line leaking, so we should have been able to at least have cold water for coffee making and toilet flushing while I worked on repairing the bad pipe. Hah. Fat chance. The freakin' cheap valve that they put on the inlet refused to turn completely off..... the water would have to be shut off at the meter.* (I really hate those cheap valves. Hate them!)</div><div><br /></div><div>So I gathered up the wife and kids and it was off to Lowe's. I really like Lowe's :) </div><div><br /></div><div>Since I had enough 1/2" pipe in the shop, all I really needed were a pair of couplings. But I figured that as long as the water was off, I should go ahead and replace the cheap valve with a nice ball valve that will outlast the water heater, and perhaps even the house itself. I didn't have any 3/4" pipe or fittings on hand, so I ended up spending about $40 total for two 1/2" couplings, four 3/4" elbows, a 24" length of 3/4" copper pipe and some emery cloth for cleaning all of the connections for soldering. Everything else I needed I already had.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next step- cut the offending valve out of the line and drain enough water from the heater to make sure it wasn't in the way of the soldering. I also vacuumed out the lower pipes with the shop vacuum before I started working with the heat. If you don't have adequate space between any water in the line and the heat source steam is created which will absolutely prevent a solid solder joint from being able to form. I cut and dry fit all parts, then pulled them out and cleaned / fluxed everything before putting it back together. Fifteen minutes later it was time to turn on the water main and check for leaks.</div><div><br /></div><div>No leaks! None! ~happy dance~ Disaster averted, and I'm figuring that since it's Sunday if I had called a plumber the bill would have come in at roughly $230 give or take a few. </div><div><br /></div><div>I like not spending money I don't have to :)</div><div><br /></div><div>*<span>The funny thing here? A couple of weeks ago I spent a few hours in the shop making a big wrench for turning off the water main. Yes, you can buy them for next to nothing, but I enjoyed making it. When I showed it to the wife she says "What would you possibly need a water wrench for?". I reminded her of that today :)</span> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-21672984876151353142012-01-16T07:20:00.005-06:002012-01-16T07:45:26.018-06:00ConsolidationI am working on a new movement. It will save countless millions of dollars for the country and every municipality in it! The movement could possibly be considered a stroke of genius due to the simplicity and effectiveness of the idea.<div><br /></div><div>The concept came to me while I was working. It was supposed to be a normal morning but it seemed unusually slow for a Saturday. This meant that it would be very busy later in the day. I asked the crew if anything was happening in the area that would explain the slow start and they told me that there was an MLK parade happening in a nearby municipality. Last Saturday there was an MLK parade in the town where we are located and it was CRAZY busy. We were in for another crazy day.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then I started thinking.... why the hell do they have separate parades on different days? It's not like the parades are money makers for the towns. On the contrary- they cost the towns tons of money when you consider blocking the roads, police presence required, emergency personnel presence required, stores losing business while the parade is going on because no one can get to them, etc, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>So why not just have "Parade Day" every year? On January 1st (while the children are out of school, many parents are off, etc.) each city could have as many parades as they care to fit into the day. After that, no more parades for the rest of the year. That would give them a solid time frame to budget for each year, businesses would be able to plan for that day, and by wrapping all celebrations into one day across the nation billions of dollars would be saved.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just consider it.... you could have the Christmas parade, followed by MLK parades, Superbowl parades, Mardi Gras parades, and wrap it all up with a New Year's parade. Towns and cities close to each other could have alternating events so that everyone has a chance to see whatever flavor of parade they care to watch.</div><div><br /></div><div>And when it's over you've paid overtime to the Police one time, you've inconvenienced Emergency personnel one time, you've paid to have the streets cleaned one time- and then it's done for the year. </div><div><br /></div><div>Next move: Consolidate holidays :)<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-87658265636477317022011-07-31T17:15:00.002-05:002011-07-31T18:17:03.177-05:00Do it right the first time.I understand that there are times when you just have to take shortcuts. I have no issue with this if you go back at some point in the near future to make sure whatever you have rigged is done properly.<br /><br />I built out a restaurant- my own. With the experience gained from years of working in food I made sure to spend a little extra up front so that I wouldn't have issues years down the road. When I put in the cooler, I put in two cooling units instead of just one. This had a dual effect: the units didn't have to work as hard to keep the cooler at temp, and when one of them went down (as will happen with refrigeration) the other was perfectly capable of holding temp while the other was being repaired. When the AC units were installed, I made sure that the drain lines had cleanouts on them that were easy to access since the slime and muck builds up quickly here in the south. All of the water supplies inside had ball valves instead of the little cheap kind they put on everything now so I wouldn't ever have to worry about replacing a leaky on/off valve. The electric lines were run to the breaker panel and hooked up in specific order so that quadrants of the panels controlled quadrants of the store. (Electricians usually just run all of the wires to the panel, hook them up, and then figure out what each breaker controls.) The bottom 18" of every wall in the store was 1/2" pressure treated plywood instead of sheetrock so that I would never have to worry about water damage. I used expanding foam insulation on the bottom 18", and standard fiberglass in the rest of the wall space to negate the possibility of mold if water did get in. There were many other small things that I did while I was building it out to insure that I wouldn't have to spend money on repairs in the future.<br /><br />Which brings me to the house I'm currently in.<br /><br />When I got here, there was a non-working wireless doorbell system decorating the walls. So when I did some repair work on the front of the house I ran wire for a proper doorbell. When I went to install the doorbell, I discovered live wires in a hole in the hallway where a doorbell should go. I asked the wife why her ex hadn't installed a proper doorbell, and she said that he told her that there weren't enough wires to make it work. (There were two wires, all you need is two wires.) So I traced the wires to the source and found the transformer which was fully functional, put in the new doorbell, and everything works as it should. Cost? $12.00 for the doorbell and button, as opposed to the $19-$24 someone spent on a useless wireless system. Do it right the first time.<br /><br />Last weekend I decided that I should check to see if the dryer vent and element needed cleaning. I asked the wife when they were cleaned last, to which she responded "It was installed 12 years ago, and since it was new I'm pretty sure it was clean then." I was astounded when I opened the unit. There was an 8" layer of lint in the bottom of the dryer, and a 2" <span style="font-style: italic;">heat blackened </span> layer on top of the heating element. A fire waiting to happen. Clean your dryer annually! It's very easy to do and doesn't take that long.<br /><br />This weekend the wife told me that she was worried that someone would break into the dungeon (computer room) through the window where the AC unit is housed. I tried to tell her that any burglar with a modicum of intelligence would simply tap out a window pane and open any other window rather than <span style="font-style: italic;">move the air conditioner unit</span> but she would not be swayed. So after replacing the rotted support structure with pressure treated wood (which will likely outlast the AC unit) I removed the rotted plywood that was duct taped on each side of the unit and custom cut two pieces of 1/4" steel to fit the spaces. Sanded, primed, painted and drilled the steel. Screwed the panels in place making it a 30 minute job to remove everything when the AC dies and has to be replaced, but the wife is happy since a burglar definitely won't break into <span style="font-style: italic;">this </span>window. I also put in a vapor barrier to keep the steel from rusting due to condensation, and then I insulated and put in custom plexiglass panels on top of the insulation to make it all air tight and aesthetically pleasing on the inside. Do it right the first time. <br /><br />So many other little things that would alleviate issues as a home ages.... like using proper lags and screws on the thresholds instead of just trying to glue them down. Buying drain pipes that are long enough instead of forcing what you had into place when the garbage disposal was installed (improperly, at that.) Leaving enough line for the dishwasher to be pulled out without having to unhook it first. Label the breaker panel, put drip loops in the cable lines that were run. Do it right the first time.<br /><br />Oh well, at least I have things to work on, and I like the feeling of satisfaction I get when I make things right. But I'd really rather that everyone would do it right the first time ;)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-23502605222528163322011-07-13T18:32:00.003-05:002011-07-13T19:00:50.739-05:00Le Sigh and a SolenoidOk, so the posting isn't a continuous stream. Not that I am lacking things to post about... it's just that a few factors prevent most posts from ever reaching my blog.<br /><br />1: I usually think of something great to post about while I'm working, then promptly forget about it by the time I get home.<br /><br />2: Many of the posts would be work related and I'm hesitant to put anything like that in a public medium considering the depth to which many companies now dig. One never knows how any particular statement will be taken by a prospective ( or current ) employer.<br /><br />3: Some parts of my life would be really, really funny but I refuse to post about them on this blog since it's listed on my Facebook account and there are things that I don't care to have casual acquaintances knowing about me. <br /><br />If it weren't for those three things, I'd have a new post or two every day!<br /><br />On other fronts....<br /><br />When I moved in with my wife, the ice maker/dispenser was broken. That was back in 2009 and judging from the condition it was in when I first checked it out it had been that way for quite some time. (The wife says '08, possibly '07 that it quit working.) So I looked at it on and off for a couple of years while my brain tried to figure out how the thing was put together. At first, I thought that the door had to be dismantled from the inside. But while I was cleaning the coils on the fridge I ran across the water solenoid in a panel on the back of the unit. This made me realize that it probably came apart from the <span style="font-style: italic;">outside </span>rather than the inside.<br /><br />Lo and behold, upon further study I found how to dismantle the control panel to trouble shoot the damned thing. I got the ice maker working with a few tweaks, and moved on to the dispenser portion of the unit. Behind several layers of plastic and screws was a solenoid that opened the dispenser flap for the ice to flow through the door. It was solid rust. I pulled it out, took a wire wheel to it until I could read the part numbers again, and ordered another one.<br /><br />The part was at the front door when I got home. Fifteen minutes to install it and it was once again working as it should. That made for a very happy wife. And Choreboys around the world know.... a happy wife is a happy life :)<br /><br />Now why, you ask, didn't I simply call a repairman and have ice for the last 2 years? I'll tell you why: There have been many times in my life that I have called someone out to fix something only to realize how damned simple it would have been to do it myself. And I kick myself mentally every time I pay someone for things like that because it makes me feel <span style="font-style: italic;">lazy!</span> I respect the people who do repair work, I just respect myself less if I spend my hard-earned money paying them to to something I'm perfectly capable of doing.<br /><br />With all of that being said, I realize that there are people in the world that wouldn't know which end of a screwdriver to use (or the difference between a phillips and a standard) much less be able to repair something on their own. Those are the people that need repairmen.<br /><br />Me? I'm grateful for the knack I have for fixing things.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-5733151403055233882011-04-29T18:59:00.002-05:002011-04-29T19:19:04.448-05:00You're kidding, right?Working in a restaurant has benefits. If you so choose, you can eat anything on the menu fixed any way you want it and it's FREE. On the flip side, you get so tired of eating the same thing every day that it can be a treat to eat food from some other restaurant.<br /><br />Today was one of those days. We all decided to send someone out to pick up food from other places so that we could have something different.<br /><br />So I'm in the restaurant busting my butt serving people that feel like eating <span style="font-style: italic;">our </span>food when my cell phone starts to vibrate incessantly. Of course, I can't stop making food to answer the phone so I ignore it. At this point in time the store phone starts ringing, and doesn't stop. Just ring, ring, ring, ring, ring. Fifteen minutes later when the lines were eliminated and everyone was served and happy I ran back to the office and picked up the phone (which had not stopped ringing even once).<br /><br />It was the guy we had sent out for food. His question to me: <span style="font-style: italic;">"Do you want your chicken wings to be white meat or dark meat?" </span>I said "WHAT?????" "<span style="font-style: italic;">Do you want your wings to be white meat or dark meat?" </span>He was serious! I said "Fred, wings are wings. They only come one way." He says "<span style="font-style: italic;">Well, I always order my wings with white meat, because if you don't specify they give you dark meat."</span><br /><br />I did not think it was possible to surprise me with the power of human ignorance, but damn if it didn't happen today.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-75773110439560996842011-04-10T09:58:00.002-05:002011-04-10T10:13:31.754-05:00But will it make a turd?I love my dear wife, even with her fanaticism concerning weight loss. She often cooks and the food is usually good but at times it can be.... etheral in nature. Today was a special day though :)<br /><br />I once asked an older gentleman why he didn't like lettuce. He told me that he actually didn't mind the taste of lettuce, but it didn't have enough substance "to make a good turd with". Basically, his idea of good food was anything that would "make a turd" the next morning.<br /><br />Breakfast today was good food.<br /><br />We had real bacon- fried on the stove top, not precooked/devoid of fat stuff reheated in the microwave or oven. Then while the wife scrambled her artificial egg whites from a carton I fried three real eggs (fresh from the shell) in the bacon grease as eggs *should* be cooked. While I was working on the bacon and eggs, Amanda was busy cooking grits with a one pound block of Monterrey Jack cheese in them and loads of butter, and big horkin' biscuits that were soon filled with tons of butter and jelly.<br /><br />If you've never had a breakfast this good you should understand that this kind of meal will generally hold you through lunch, and depending on what time you eat it could even tide you over until dinner. This is the kind of breakfast that I used to eat as a kid, or on camping trips. I think it is sad that people don't have the time to cook a real breakfast anymore.<br /><br />Especially the kind of breakfast that will make a turd :)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-78795918300441060802011-03-28T15:45:00.002-05:002011-03-28T16:02:20.321-05:00My own gravity field...Wow. I've done it. I quit smoking, quit using nicotine gum, and quit staying at a reasonable weight. I am now heavier than I have ever been in my life. I weighed myself today and came in at a whopping 196.5 lbs, give or take a pound (it's a cheap scale). The most I remember weighing in the past was the last time I quit smoking and that was 194 lbs.<br /><br />Fortunately I'm fairly tall at 6'1" and with a loose shirt the tire around my midsection doesn't appear to be as large as I perceive it to be.<br /><br />The wife, however, insists on cooking loads and loads of foods that cause one to gain weight simply by smelling them. This wouldn't be so bad if she would assist in eating some of these foods, but she is trying to reach her goal weight and eats like a canary. She just cooks the fattening stuff to live vicariously watching others eat it. I personally believe that she's trying to make me obese so that she looks tiny when she's with me. She barely weighs the same as a box of crayons as it is!<br /><br />I suppose I'm going to have to begin a regimen of exercise like I did previously. I used to run 5k every morning before work, and sometimes again when I would get off late at night. It would probably make me feel better to do so but I'm having a hard time getting motivated to start running once more.<br /><br />To be honest? I'm not into building muscle, I just want to look reasonable in my clothes. That, and not have my own gravity field.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-6164857662592726942011-01-23T19:21:00.003-06:002011-01-23T19:39:50.878-06:00Gaurd Hound, Inc.I had an interesting week. I offered my ultimate wisdom to the 12 year old in the form of suggesting that cat fur was impervious to the adhesive properties of chewing gum. Upon noting this fact on Facebook, I was inundated with suggestions on how to remove gum from a cat:)<br /><br />Note: No animals were harmed during the course of this experiment!<br /><br />In another realm of the animal world Hound has become quite the Guard Hound (tm) that I've been training him to be. He now barks when anyone knocks on the door, fiercely defends his back yard, and howls mercilessly when we are not in the same room where he can adequately protect us. You have to understand- in his own eyes Hound stands approximately 3 feet tall at the shoulder and is just over 250 lbs of pure muscle.<br /><br />Here is a picture of Hound eating a cow's ear:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6P6nIY6GbYs/TTzVnIIX_fI/AAAAAAAAABs/5pVD4iUZuUs/s1600/DSC00784.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6P6nIY6GbYs/TTzVnIIX_fI/AAAAAAAAABs/5pVD4iUZuUs/s320/DSC00784.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565558107697315314" border="0" /></a><br />I have NO idea where the rest of the cow is.<br /><br /><br />Speaking of eating things... the wife gave me five pounds of tasso for Xmas, and actually learned to cook <span style="font-style: italic;">real </span>red beans. I am in heaven. It's been a few years since I've had a proper pot of read beans to eat, and they are a food that I simply don't get tired of consuming. I am a happy camper:)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-2837440231186641762010-12-26T18:00:00.003-06:002010-12-26T18:25:57.481-06:00Another year down....Well, just made it through yet another Christmas. This is not my time of year... I really don't like trying to figure out what to get everyone while I'm on a strict budget and then worrying that whatever I chose wasn't considered adequate or acceptable.<br /><br />This year (against the rules of being a husband) I got the wife a KitchenAid stand mixer. I chose this because the only other thing she really wanted was out of my price range and also because on many occasions I've had to pull her away from the displays in the store due to the fact that she would pet the mixers and coo like a dove.<br /><br />Fortunately, she seems to be happy getting a mixer as a Christmas present. Not all men are as fortunate as I am:) And as a bonus? There are about 73 different attachments that can be used as fall-back gifts on birthdays and other holidays. Not that I would do that, but it's nice to have the option.<br /><br />Now it's time to start with birthdays for everyone. The kids are easy, since I have two in college and one in high school that are always happy to get whatever amount of monies that I can send. Thankfully my wife is thoughtful enough to tell me throughout the year exactly what items I should add to my list of potential gifts for most occasions. She's so subtle about it too.... "Honey, put xxxxx on the gift list." It works for me!<br /><br />April will mark year three of a five year long goal that I am working on and I am so very happy that I only have two years left to reach that goal. Life will be much simpler and more relaxed once I get to that point. (I won't share the goal, but I did want to share the sentiment.)<br /><br />I am making plans to visit my older children this summer. I'll probably spend a week with them and they have already planned out our activities for that point in time. It should be a very happy reunion:) It's harder than I thought it would be for them to leave home for school. I often have to stop and remind myself that they are of legal age and the ability to "protect" them is now extremely limited. The time spent rearing them seemed so very long in the process but somehow feels to be a totally inadequate amount in hindsight. It's hard to consider the fact that I've either done a good job or not. The rest of life is up to them. *sigh* I don't feel ready to let them go, but I have no option.<br /><br />Now that this year is done, I only have to wait for the cats to finish stripping the Christmas tree of needles so that I can take it down and spend countless hours vacuuming them out of the carpet.<br /><br />Oh joy. *smirk*<br /><br />Happy New Year:)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-45359239941463548412010-11-02T15:18:00.002-05:002010-11-02T15:34:12.447-05:00Evolution?I made a trip to the eye doctor today since my last trip was almost two years ago and I'm not seeing quite as clearly as I once did.<br /><br />The doctor asked if I wanted "Progressive" glasses, the no-line glasses for those of us in need of bifocals. I informed him unequivocally that I tried those for about 8 months at one point in time and I simply could not get used to them. He then informed me that due to the nature of my vision issues, I would need trifocals.<br /><br />I had a few options-<br /><br />Go with the progressives and get a narrower field of vision and hate wearing them because you look like an owl since you have to turn your head to the direction that you want to focus on. Not to mention the fact that I hated them the first time around, there's not much chance of me falling in love with them this time.<br /><br />-or-<br /><br />Get a taller lens and put the trifocals on them, still looking like an owl with the "big-eye" lenses framing my face.<br /><br />-or-<br /><br />Order multiple sets of glasses.<br /><br />I did somewhat of a compromise. I ordered two sets of bifocals. Set number one will have distance and computer reading prescriptions in them, along with photo-gray ( the old timer's language for "Transitions".) The other set will be normal glasses with one prescription for computer and one for reading. This way I'll be able to work on spreadsheets and such without having to switch.<br /><br />As for the evolution in the title? I'm wondering if I will look like a fly when I'm 80 and need a different prescription for each foot of distance that I try to take in. Would that be considered as evolving or devolving?<br /><br />Now all I need is a pair of glasses to wear when I look into the mirror each morning. One that sees everything but gray hair and wrinkles::::)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-84685307792013492182010-10-24T08:04:00.003-05:002010-10-24T08:39:52.999-05:00Torture at the table.I think that I'm going to start a grass-roots movement in the state of Florida.<br /><br />For starters, I love salt on my food. Copious quantities even. Salt poured liberally onto food simply multiplies the wonderful flavor of whatever one eats. To be sure, it's not the same to cook the food with lots of salt because cooking alters the way salt interacts with the food being served. You have to be able to add salt to taste <span style="font-style: italic;">after </span>the food is prepared.<br /><br />When I first came to Florida, I noticed two things-<br /><ul><li>The over-abundance (verily a plague) of whole grain breads.</li></ul><ul><li>Every freakin' restaurant in the state uses the "grind it as you need it" shakers for salt and pepper.</li></ul>Wheat bread in itself is fairly innocuous, when used as a building material or as insulation blown into the attic. To actually consume the stuff by choice is beyond my comprehension.<br /><br />Salt, on the other hand, is a necessity. What restaurant owners here don't seem to understand is that for the hard-core saltaholic there is no way to hold a two pound bacon cheeseburger in one hand and salt each bite with the other without all of the ingredients sliding from between the buns into your lap when two hands are required to operate the damned salt dispenser. (The meat has to be salted, just coating the lettuce with salt and waiting for it to mingle with the meat as you chew is not an acceptable practice.)<br /><br />I'm fairly certain that the "grind your own" salt mills were introduced as a cost-control measure by the restaurant industry. The bottles ship only one third full, and they don't actually dispense salt. Instead, the illusion of accomplishment is perpetuated by the fact that you would rather eat your food while it's hot than to look like an idiot twisting and twisting and twisting the salt mill over your plate as if working a grist mill until you actually get something out of the damned thing. This keeps them from ever having to replace those dispensers.<br /><br />I think that those of us who need old-world salt dispensers should be able to get a little blue "Handicapped" table tent to carry with us. It would be the size of a credit card so that it fits comfortably in your wallet, and it would fold open to be placed at the edge of your table when you sit down in a restaurant to alert the wait-staff that you require a one-handed salt shaker when you are eating. If they can't provide a normal salt shaker, they should be required to stand at your table and work the salt mill to your satisfaction so that the food can actually be consumed before it falls back to room temperature.<br /><br />I may start carrying my own shaker.<br /><br />In a holster.<br /><br />On my hip.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-88507689593359109982010-03-21T12:01:00.002-05:002010-03-21T12:14:40.329-05:00HobbiesI think everyone should have hobbies.<br /><br />Two mornings ago I was grabbing a bite to eat before I left for a night shift at work. Keep in mind that I time my departures <span style="font-style: italic;">just so </span>in order to be to work at the appropriate time. I placed a bowl of (excellent) chili that Amanda had cooked the day before into the microwave and set the time. I then began to fill my thermos with coffee when all of a sudden a great gray ball came flying into the kitchen through one door, leaped onto the counter (knocking down three containers of animal treats), flew six feet from there and landed spread-eagled on the kitchen table, slid across the table, hit the window, landed on the floor and leaped through the other door.<br /><br />Not unusual except that there was an open bag of chips, two diet cokes with one sip missing, a candle, and several dozen individually wrapped candies on the table.<br /><br />Until the cat cleared off everything but the two cokes. Against the laws of physics, the cokes remained lying on the table gently emptying their contents across the top of it as they spun in slow and lazy circles in order to cover maximum surface area with soda. Not too bad until except that the table is an older style with minute cracks between the boards that make up the top of it.<br /><br />So I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning off the table, clearing the mess of candies and coke-soaked chips from the floor, and mopping it all up.<br /><br />I wish it had been an off day. I would have spent the remainder of my time hunting the cat down and shaving him.... with a dull pocket knife.<br /><br />As it is, he's given me an idea for my next hobby- "Cat in a Bottle". A bottle with a <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>small opening. One piece at a time.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-8231074425088056622010-02-20T18:56:00.003-06:002010-02-20T19:07:25.847-06:00Not sure where I went wrong...I'm not sure where I went wrong. Perhaps it was the great idea to become a choreboy in the first place:)<br /><br />Anyway, the way it usually works at home: I wash dishes before I leave for work, when I get in from work, and any time after Amanda cooks and I'm at home. That doesn't leave a lot unwashed at any point in time, but I really must give Amanda kudos: If I'm not home and she cooks, she almost always washes the dishes she uses to cook.<br /><br />Now that usually leaves the plates, silverware, cups, and any pots containing food that have to be cleaned up after dinner. It's really not bad and I don't mind.<br /><br />A couple of nights ago I happened to be washing dishes when she didn't have an opportunity to get to them before I got home and let me tell you- she used <span style="font-style: italic;">every single cooking utensil in the house </span>to make a simple meal. And when I say all of them, I mean <span style="font-style: italic;">ALL </span>of them. Three sets of tongs, 9 large spoons, two large roast forks, several knives, three cutting boards and a cutting "place-mat", 5 spatulas, two ladles, 3 burger flippers, three wire whisks, and an assortment of other miscellaneous items that are kept in the utensil drawer. Oh, and let's not forget all three measuring cups and every measuring spoon in the house.<br /><br />I was simply amazed and astounded.<br /><br />Good thing we had toast with butter on it for dinner. I'd hate to see what it would take to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches;)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-51491993169392027502010-02-04T10:55:00.002-06:002010-02-04T11:27:53.351-06:00Hints for the "younger" crowd...Ok, so you're newly married or perhaps even just reaching the stage where you would consider marriage. There is a rite-of-passage that every initiate to relationships must experience- Mastering the Apology.<br /><br />It doesn't matter if you've done something wrong. You, as a man, need to understand that even if you're 100% right, you're never right. Ever.<br /><br />Here are a few tips to make your passage a successful one:<br /><br />1- Always say "I'm sorry I upset you" and NEVER give specifics concerning what you're sorry about. You probably don't have a clue what set her off in the first place, and it will only give her something else to be upset about when you're ultimately wrong about what caused the situation to begin with.<br /><br />2- Be sincere in your apology EVEN IF YOU'RE RIGHT! Remember, you're never right.<br /><br />3- It doesn't matter if you caused the problem or not, you must apologize for the mistakes of others since you will suffer the consequences in any case.<br /><br />4- Never say "It won't happen again" because it will. Remember: You're never right. Instead, use "I'll do my best to see that it doesn't happen again".<br /><br />5- Above all else never, ever, ever, ever ask "What did I do?". You're supposed to know what you did since you did it and all males are mystically born with the ability to read minds anyway. Saying "What did I do?" only opens the door to an entirely different set of woes that even the veteran apologist has difficulty dealing with.<br /><br />6- Once the apology is accepted LET IT GO. I personally know of many cases where men have gone absolutely insane trying to figure out what the hell they apologized for.<br /><br />One last thing.... if you follow these steps and still don't get it right?<br /><br />I'm sorry;)Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-75017096030519290652010-01-16T19:08:00.002-06:002010-01-16T19:24:41.079-06:00The benefits of chocolate...Today I was having a really hectic day at work. Things were going well, but it was busy busy busy! Then about 4pm one of my closing employees called in. At 5pm two more failed to show up. That left the shift with only three people and the Manager in Charge which was just not feasible. And when all efforts to find replacements failed I started to get really steamed.<br /><br />So I sent someone over to the store next door and had them pick up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey's Chocolate bars, and Almond Joy coconut bars. When the booty arrived, I dove into the Reese's and promptly consumed an 8 pack of them. That's when I realized.... it's almost impossible to be angry when you're eating chocolate!<br /><br />Either you stay angry and don't have any chocolate, or you enjoy the chocolate and get a brief respite from the anger. It's amazing! Give the theory a test run and let me know the results. I think that you'll agree with me:)<br /><br />On a side note: Two younger children singing along to MP3 players (that Santa left in their stockings) at the same time with different songs playing sounds kind of like tossing a cat into a pen full of pit bulls. Especially when they don't know all of the words.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2928596162832093226.post-46972642549820296892009-12-29T02:39:00.003-06:002009-12-29T02:57:50.225-06:00The "Quit Smoking" saga continues...Ok, I've been done with smoking this time around for a bit over 4 months now. I tried a week cold turkey like I did last time I quit but I became very mean and obnoxious so I decided to go with the nicotine gum to ease the transition.<br /><br />I did some research (ok, I really had Amanda do it since she loves Googling things) and found that an average cigarette delivers 1mg of nicotine when smoked. The 4mg gum delivers the same amount due to loss from a less effective delivery system. The kicker here? With a cigarette you get that 1mg in about 4-5 minutes. With the gum you get it in 30 minutes. A big discrepancy, if you know what I mean. That would be like stretching your Big Mac meal over 6-7 days instead of eating it during one lunch hour.<br /><br />Anyway... the gum has been doing well for the most part. The cravings are still a real bitch at times but I can pop a piece of gum and feel a bit better. After four months of the 4mg gum I've stepped down to the 2mg gum. BIG difference! I still chew the same number of pieces in a day, but I can feel the edginess in my mood. I'm quicker with the smart-ass responses to things that normally wouldn't even cross my mental radar, and I'm less tolerant of things that would normally not bother me in any way. But I know that it's the lessening of the nicotine levels doing this, so I try to keep a lid on it until my system settles into the 2mg routine.<br /><br />I'm guessing that I'll do this for about 2 months, then go a month with alternating regular gum with the 2mg pieces and then eventually move over to only regular gum. I should be able to wean myself from the nicotine without alienating everyone around me if I do it this way:)<br /><br />And I don't know if this counts as a relapse, but last night I dreamed that I smoked TWO cigarettes. I could FEEL it as I inhaled and exhaled. I could FEEL the rush as the nicotine entered almost directly into the bloodstream through the lungs. Unfortunately, or may not so unfortunately, the brand I smoked in my dream was Salem. My last round with smoking was with Marlboro Lights- I haven't smoked a menthol cigarette in probably 25 years. So it wasn't as good as it could have been. But it was a cigarette, dammit!<br /><br />Just a note for any of you out there that have quit and may be considering picking up the habit again: The second time quitting is exponentially more difficult and miserable than the first. Just leave it alone, it really isn't all that.Choreboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11978275502909396813noreply@blogger.com1