70F going up to 92F this afternoon, all under clear skies with light breezes (thank goodness).
The weather station is still working, but we'll see what happens when it warms up later. Seems like each spring and fall I stumble across problems with electronics that are probably related to the temperature change. Right now the clock that self sets via radio is stuck in self set mode, resulting in all the digits flashing every five minutes, the smoke sensor in the garage is acting up, causing the alarm panel to beep every minute until I get up (usually in the wee hours) to acknowledge the problem, and one of the safety sensors on the tractor is tripping at startup, requiring a few on/off cycles of the key and utterance of a few choice words of persuasion. But then that old Craftsman push mower just keeps chugging along, and so far at least, no problems with the A/C, so I should count my blessings.
Thomas, you're probably not the only one having problems with that particular model Cub. A search on TBN might turn up a fist full of complaints to show the dealer and the higher ups from the Cub factory when they say "I never heard of that problem before". FWIW, I bucked and split about 10 cords of oak over the course of last summer. It was a good workout each morning and if felt good to work up a sweat. Then again I didn't have to worry about it drying before winter set in, as it had all been cut for at least two years already. The good part is I wasn't dealing with mud and snow in the wood lot, the bad is I had to keep up on hydration and knock off when the temps headed over 95F or so.
RS, you'll find your mower part when you're looking for something else. DAMHIKT! Also, there are automatic chain oilers for use on motorcycles out there. One called the Scottoiler comes recommended, but I have no personal experience with it. Might help your chains and sprockets last a bit longer.
Scottoiler | Motorcycle chain oiler | Scottoiler FS 365
Farmer, looking good on that bucket. Makes you wonder how the factory could let something that fragile get out the door in the first place. I was gonna guess that the second ground lead was for a plasma cutter, but your answer makes more sense.
Eric, might it be that both you and the dog may be sharing *his* house shortly?
And thanks for the latest installment of your pond story. Are we to be paced out to one per week, or will a condensed version be made available? :laughing:
Drew, you'd have been fine locked in your barn with that frig full of refreshments, and by the time you finished the beer, I'm sure you would have figured out an entertaining way of using your tools to extricate yourself from the situation without suffering the embarrassment of calling for outside help. Now THAT would have made a great "Good Morning" thread! :thumbsup:
Finished up welding the side rails on the RTV yesterday morning, then got to looking again at the tail gate. It's full of holes burned in by the PO's sloppy welding so I decided to take it off so I could work on it more easily. Only problem is that the hinge brackets are also sloppily welded on, and it'll take a plasma torch to free the 'gate. So for now at least I satisfied myself with working in place, and got a new top rail welded on after beating the underpinnings back into reasonable alignment. Today I'll grind out those ugly welds and fill up the holes, then go looking for other dragon eggs left by the last guy.
Spent the rest of the day in town, starting with a visit to the Chevron distributor for some Delo ELC antifreeze. Boy was I surprised to find the gate chained shut when I arrived. It seems the woman I'd spoken to was actually located in Redding, a town 75 miles north of here, who didn't realize I was calling about the Chico location. Since I didn't even know about the Redding headquarters and the telephone automatically forwarded when the Chico man didn't answer, how was I to know? Turns out that the only Chico employee was sick that day, so I'll have to drop by next week for the antifreeze. And since I still have to order a thermostat housing and gaskets for the job, there's really no hurry.
Then it was on to the Kubota dealer, where I learned that some of the parts I'd ordered when I visited their Oroville location had been delivered there instead of the Chico site that I normally used. Oddly the filters ordered at the same time were in Chico, so once again wires got crossed and I'm to return in a week for the rest of the stuff. Again no hurry, and I'll be in town for other errands anyway.
Then it was off to the welding supply house for a new tank of Argon. The nice man behind the counter was very helpful unloading the empty tank for me, but just stood there and watched while I heaved the full one back into the truck. WTF?!?
The BMW motorcycle dealer was next on the list, as a second love letter from the mother ship had arrived requesting me to bring one of their "ultimate driving machines" in for yet more recall work. The letter concerned the wheel flange, which if it broke, could convert said engineering marvel into a unicycle. I thought it in my best interest to make whatever arrangements were needed to save myself a round of sidewalk surfing. Another recent recall on the fuel system hadn't been resolved by the dealer, as I'd taken care of the problem years before in a much more permanent and robust way. Since I hope to soon sell this fine motorcycle, I'd hoped to find some way of getting that second recall cleared from the vehicle's computer history, and perhaps even secure some small pittance for the large time and effort expended in the resolution. We did the dance with polite smiles and pointed references, but satisfaction will be delayed for TWO FREAKIN' MONTHS while the boys back in the service department work through their backlog. Now you'd think someone might make some effort to resolve these problems in a timely manner, especially when they were the ones that caused them in the first place. But apparently business is good at BMW these days and they no longer need customers such as myself to maintain their livelihood. Good thing, as there's about a snowball's chance in Hades that any of their modern products will ever find a home in my garage again.
Next was what I'd hoped would be a quick visit to help a friend assemble some shelves she'd purchased for her garage. It was one of those bent up sheet metal things with cryptic instructions and vague, tiny drawings and lots of sharp edges, another quality product from our Chinese partners in trade. She'd tried to put it together once already, and it only took me two or three more tries to get it done. Much of it was designed to be put together and never come apart again, which made the do-overs especially entertaining. The task was accomplished with just a single blood blister, but apparently that wasn't to be my only reward. She'd planned to fix us dinner, but her constant yammering didn't have anything hot ready until nearly 8PM, and it was almost 10 before I could find a graceful way to exit. She's a nice lady, but perhaps there's a reason she's still single and in her 60s?
I still had grocery shopping to do, and the warehouse style place I like stays open 24 hours so that wasn't a problem. Only thing is they had the isles full of pallets stacked waist high with merchandise and people busily getting the new goods up on the shelves. So instead of dodging the usual shoppers, many of whom wander the isles with a cell phone plastered to one ear as they attempt to follow remote directions on what to put in their baskets, this night it was the stock boys that provided the obstacle course. Fortunately there were only a few items on the list and I was soon off into the night and headed home. There was almost no traffic, but another truck was running at about the same pace and turned out to be taking the same route, so we shared each others headlights on the trip back up into the mountains.
Safely home, I got the windows open and caught the late news while the house cooled off. Finally in bed, I'd just started drifting off to sleep when the alarm panel once again reminded me that the smoke detector in the garage needed my attention, a somehow fitting end to this less than perfect day.
TGIF folks! I think it's time for a slab of ribs on the BBQ and a cold six pack at casa Geek de Redneck! :laughing:
