Holy pressure change, Batman!

I can always tell when there’s a huge shift in the barometric pressure.  Somehow the inside of my head doesn’t want to get in tune with what’s going on outside.  And complains.

And I just wiped out a whole bunch of cr*p that I had written that nobody cares about.  No whining!

 

Let’s move on,  shall we?

 

Along with the little projects,  every so often I get sidetracked.  When I was rooting around in the attic looking for our vast array of Halloween decorations, (*pfft*) I stumbled across yet more books.

 

I’m not a “hoarder”,  really.  I just find it difficult to part with books is all.  There are more in other rooms.  I think you knew that.

I probably could have made good use of at least some of them in Vienna but of course,  our initial move was not to a German speaking country,  so I never bothered to try and dig them out.  Some might argue that our move to Austria *still* wasn’t a move to a “German speaking country”,  but let’s not split hairs.  
They do speak “English” in Newfoundland,  right?

 

Then,  right along with the books,  I found a small cardboard box with more… well,  “stuff”.  

 

Any ideas what this is?

 

Should I offer bonus points?   It would probably mean having to read and reply to comments,  and we know how bad I am at that.

I mean, *I* know what this is for.  It’s not like I discovered some mystery items in the attic.  But I sure have no intentions of ever using it again.

These items were considerably dirtier before I ran them through the dishwasher.  There’s also a thermometer that slips in the hole of the black thingy there.  Hope that helps.

 

As an idea as to how long these things have been hanging around,  there was a packing slip on the little box they were in.

 

Note the date.  This was our old address over on the other side of town.  There are some really gripping titles there.  We probably still have those books too.  Somewhere.

 

Speaking of shipping,  a box arrived today from Oneida.  And no,  I’m not talking about those other guys. 

 

Back when I was attempting to assemble my snazzy new cyclone dust collector (which is awesome, by the way) you may recall that I was missing some “caps” that are supposed to get popped onto the ends of the axle to keep the wheels from falling off? 

In frustration I called the company and we had a little chat.  And yes,  I was very pleasant. No point in being miserable.

Admittedly I should have called them back once I figured out that I could just drill a couple holes and insert cotter pins,  but by then they had gone home for the day,  and I promptly forgot about it.   Mea culpa.

 

So today there was a knock at the door,  and low and behold there was a package.

 

Well now,  that only took TEN DAYS!

 

Kind of a big box,  don’t you think?

I mean,  the only thing in there was those two caps.

 

Oh,  and look at how much it was to ship them?

TWENTY-SEVEN DOLLARS.

 

I should feel bad.   I should.

HOWEVER.   I’ve heard it said that,  you might have a wonderful product,  but if you don’t know how to run a business,  it’s not going to matter.   Why wouldn’t you ship those in a tiny little bubble envelope?  For like,  eight bucks?

Better yet,  hows about including them in the damned materials with the original shipment?

“It's beyond my control”. 

 

I spoke earlier about “Buying American” or buying offshore.  Well now,  if I buy American,  my expectations are going to be just that much higher.   That’s all I’ll say.

 

Flame on!

 

Thanks for stopping by.

The frost is on the pumpkin Baby!

Or in the case of around here, the lawn.  The dead leaves.  The driveway.

But not the car windshield!

This is a prime example of why it’s worth the effort to tuck the car in the garage.  I just noticed how all the cars in the neighbourhood had fairly thick frost on the windshields.  

Actually,  what I first noticed was a flurry of activity from next door,  with a half hearted attempt at windshield scraping,  followed by running back into the house for something,  and then jumping into a car that was clearly not “warmed up”.   Our neighbour lady then headed off into the blinding sun with still way too much frosty stuff on the windshield.   Never a good idea.

Do you think maybe someone forgot to set the clocks back?  It’s possible I suppose.  I got a definite sense that someone was going to be late for work.   Sure hope she makes it there.

 

Which brings me to a little story.

 

Once upon a time,  when I was a young snot,  working Saturdays for a company called Turkstra Lumber,  it was a frosty fall morning at right around morning “rush hour” although,  rush hour in Waterdown back in the seventies was certainly nothing like today,  when we heard a Gawd- awful bang. 

Try to imagine taking a hammer over to the local dumpster type of garbage bin and giving it a good whack.  It’s a loud “metal on metal” type of sound,  right?  Well, that was the sound that we heard coming from out in front of the store, and it startled all of us.

Within seconds we went out to investigate,  to find that there had been a rear ender,  which was due in part to frost on the windows of both the vehicles.

 

The vehicle that got rear ended had been stopped on the road,  (ya, I know!)  and the gentleman who suddenly found himself unable to see,  (because the sun suddenly came up?) was scraping off his windshield.   Along comes another car and *wham-o*,  right into his car.  So he was standing there with his scraper still in his hand,  and his car had literally been knocked out from under him.   Lucky bugger.

The stupid ones are sometimes the lucky ones.  Why is that?

The poor lady who hit him though,  wasn’t quite so lucky.  

This was well before the days of air bags,  and the momentum of the impact had sent her car off the roadway and partly into the ditch.  She was unconscious with a little bit of blood coming from her face,  and unfortunately she had LOCKED HER DOORS,  so we couldn’t get at her.   Well,  not right away anyway.   We did have tools in the lumber store,  and by the time we popped open her door,  the Ambulance had arrived.   They were literally just up the street.   She was still out when they took her away.

Again, and I’m dating myself here too,  this was in the days when you’d say, “Call an Ambulance”.   Now we just call 911 and have to try and explain what KIND of emergency we have.  Just send everyone!

 

To this day,  cars that lock the doors automatically make me a tad nervous.

Right along with seeing folks fly off into the sun without having properly cleaned their windshield. 

 

Anyhoodle, since baby pictures seem to be ‘de rigueur’ in Blog Land,  I should mention that we had a lovely visit and dinner with some long time friends of Daughter Number One yesterday afternoon.   It was sort of a version of the “Early Bird Special”,  since we were invited to show up around four.  Dinner at five,  and everyone ready to pass out by about eight.

You see,  these folks have a set of twins,  who are now, *thinks* four months old.   I think I got that right.

 

 

 

They are coping.  

Anyone who has ever had kids at all,  can well imagine the sleep deprivation that goes along with having two little eating, pooping, fussing, little guys.   Oh my.

 

Travelling Companion got her baby fix.  No pictures of her as usual,  sorry. 

This was the first time she had seen these little gaffers,  since there just hadn’t been any chance to make an earlier visit.  And really,  people coming over can be a mixed blessing when you’re just doing your best to think rationally.

So that was the extent of our enjoyment of the weekend,  since Travelling Companion worked the rest of the time.  Something to do with “inventory”.  I’m not going to go into it.   No idea how late she’ll be tonight,  since, “reports didn’t run”  or some other such thing.   Somehow the term,  “Cluster F**k” keeps running through my head. 

But this blog is not about that,  right?

 

I think with the dip in temperature that we had over the weekend,  and last night in particular, it meant that the maple tree in the back decided to call it a day,  and has been shedding leaves like mad.

This was what greeted me out the back door this morning.

Jumpin’!

 

Not sure why I bothered cleaning this all yesterday.  What a dope.

 

I think I can count the number of leaves left on that tree,  so I might just wait.  Although, the “anal retentive” side of me wants desperately to get those leaves out of there.  Can’t deal with the “clutter”.

 

Hopefully the only frost you have is on your flakes. 

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

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Better weather and better mood.

Not that I’m moody or anything. 

Well, I might have been in a bit of a “funk” over the last few days. 

Has a lot to do with what sort of storms are raging outside.  But let’s not get off on a tangent here.

Did you remember to replace the batteries in your smoke detectors this weekend?  

We have five,  along with two CO detectors.  Mind you,  I haven’t been a sound sleeper in a lot of years,  so probably even the slightest hint of something on fire would wake me.  Or maybe not. 

I’d rather not find out.

I also like to put the date on the new battery when I install it.  Just in case I have some sort of brain fart and somehow miss the next changing of the clocks. 

Which,  by the way,  is a bit of a dumb idea these days I think.  We’re not farmers anymore.  No need to spring ahead and fall back.  To me it only serves the purpose of remembering to change those batteries.  But we could just as easily do that at say, Christmas and then July first.   July forth for those south of the 49th,  if you want to get fussy about it.

 

I’m rambling because well, it’s sort of indicative of my activities over the last few days.

This,  by the way,  is one of the benefits of having a “portable” BBQ.   We had some serious wind and rain,  starting on Thursday night when I had a couple steaks I wanted to cook.  Didn’t take a gratuitous photo of the steaks.  Too hungry by then.   They were of the “tenderloin” variety.  Damned yummy.

The miserable weather didn’t really pick up until AFTER the trick or treaters came around.   I think we probably had about 20 kids of various ages.  I let Travelling Companion deal with that situation. 

Hey,  I was cooking supper!

 

Did you see this?

Some poor lady got crushed in her car down in Port Colborne.  Just on her way home,  minding her own business.

I stole that picture from the CBC.   Go to Google if you need to know more.

We could have a whole discussion about “saving trees”.   I’m all for trees.  We have nine big ones on our rather small property here.  HOWEVER,  there have been two that we’ve had to take down in the last couple of years,  rather than have them fall on someone.  Or on the house. 

If the geniuses at the City of Burlington had their way,  I’d have to get a “permit” to cut down a tree.  This stupid idea comes up in council from time to time,  and then gets voted down.  There was even one nitwit who thought it would be somehow convincing to tout the idea that,  “they do it in Toronto.”   Say that with a dumb look on your face.

Well, if that’s what turns your crank,  then I’d suggest moving to Toronto.   They have their share of idiots there too of course.  But hey,  I (thankfully) don’t live there,  so I won’t comment any further. 

Um,  just don’t be walking down the street there in a windstorm.   “Danger Will Robinson!”   Because you can’t *touch* a tree in that wonderful city.  Looks fabulous from the air.  All that green. 

I’d better settle down here.  I can feel my heart rate going up.

 

 

I’ve started on another little issue that I want to get out of the way in the next little while.  Our washing machine has been dying a slow death for a number of months now,  and needs to be replaced.  I’m sure I mentioned this a while back.  Being somewhat “parsimonious”  (i.e. cheap)  I’d prefer to run the thing until it simply wouldn’t function anymore.  That might take another year or so.  Who knows?  

Meanwhile,  we do have the new one sitting there,  so I need to get this sorted out.

Of course,  I’m not happy with the “dog’s breakfast” arrangement that I have there now,  even though I could very easily move out the old one,  move the wiring over for the 220 volt outlet,  and we’d be set to go.

It has to do with the drain and vent from the sink that I have in the garage shop.   By the way,  having a sink in your woodworking shop is the absolute cat’s ass.  I’m not sure what I would do without it. 

 

You’re probably wondering how the hell I managed to get my drill up in there.  Something to do with removing the battery and holding my mouth a certain way.  Just felt the need to take a picture.  Aren’t you glad?

I need to move the vent pipe up off the wall and tuck it away between the floor joists.  Right there to the left of the bridging that I’m drilling into is a “laundry chute”  that comes down from the bathroom upstairs.  Travelling Companion thinks she’d like to use it.  Mind you,  Muggins here is the one who does the laundry,  and there’s just the two of us.  But hey,  we may as well use the stupid thing if we have it there. 

So the idea is to have a cabinet into which the laundry falls directly below the chute.    Can’t really do that with the drain and vent pipe attached to the wall.

 

Now,  did you catch that part about the 220v power supply?

Well,  a few days ago,  as I was “girding my loins” so to speak, to get ready to do this,  I was doing a little reconnoitre of the new washing machine,  and happened to notice it had a bit of a strange plug.

 

What the hell??

 

At first I thought maybe it was a higher amperage,  but that just didn’t seem quite right,  and then I saw right there on the door that it does indeed take 220.   *groan*

But wait!

It just so happens that,  out in my little room full of treasures in the shed,  I do indeed have a receptacle for such a critter.  Not sure where it came from,  and I was probably hanging onto it with the idea that any new and improved dust collector could very well require 220.  

I guess. 

I don’t know,  why do guys hang onto things?  For the possibility of that one moment in time when they can say,  “Hey,  I got me one of those!”.   

Right?

And no,  my oh so awesome new dust collector takes 110.   So no need for any special wiring for that one.

 

The bonus is,  there’s no need for any special wiring for this outlet either,  since I already have a 220 supply that was used when we had an electric dryer.  Just have to move the wire a few feet and wire in my special receptacle.

I wasn’t going to include a picture of the thing,  but here you go. 

 

 

Just to cover off the educational portion of our program.

We won’t get into the whole discussion about 220 vs 110.  Suffice to say,  you can’t do too damned much with 110.  Heating elements?  Forget it.  Ovens?  Forget it?  Irons?  Might as well forget it.   A Table Saw?  Well,  only if you’re cutting balsa wood.

It is one of those things that I certainly got used to in Europe that I do sort of miss here.  That’s all.

 

Do I have anything else rattling around in my brain? 

Um, nope.

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Keep an eye on those trees.

 

Thanks for stopping in.