OK. Two things.

First of all,  Thursday Night Football is starting to piss me off.  I'm not sure if they have the same crew officiating every Thursday night or whatever,  but there were some head scratching moments when even Chris Collingsworth  (one of the announcers,  for the rest of you) couldn't figure out what was up.   And I'd venture to say,  he's a pretty knowledgeable guy.  Can't say the same about myself,  but if it's pointed out to me,  then I get it.

Plus,  even though I went "five for five" a few weeks back,  with a decent payout to then justify sucking for the rest of the season,  I'm getting a bit fed up with not being able to "get" that Thursday night game.  Man!

And now,  here's the other thing:

And this may be further proof that I'm an idiot,  but I'll say it anyway.

I keep forgetting to check for "Comments awaiting moderation."   

Erp.

So,  for some of you who couldn't figure out where the heck your comment went (hello, Bea!)  I do apologise.

Sorry.   (insert sad face)


Now,  for the other 80% of you   (and no,  I'm not exaggerating here)  who filled up that field with utter crap?   Go f**k yerself!   Geez!

You know,  after the first eight to ten times that you try to clog the blog with some bullsh*t message and it doesn't show up?   Maybe you might like to reconsider your marketing strategy?

Just saying.


Now go away.


Not the rest of you!

Thanks for hanging in there.

Enjoy your weekend.  Or whatever.

Every day is Saturday around here,  except of course for that whole "shopping on the weekend" thing.   You kidding?   Not unless I'm desperate. 
Too many people shuffling in the aisles.   Many of them,   OLD ENOUGH to be doing it during the week!

OK,  back to normal breathing.

Time passes.

I wanted to start out with "Chronicling Life",  but I wasn't even sure if that's a word.  And yes,  time sure has a way of passing.  It's December!  Carumba!

But of course,  there's always something to do.  Or fix.  Or dig up.

Well,  I've officially finished with that whole "digging up" crap.  I wanted to have a certain amount of the new water line in before it got too cold,  but also didn't want to wait until spring when it would be too mucky.  Been there,  done that.  The mud gets every where.

So I basically followed the pipe I had set in the ground with the control wires for the sprinklers,  and added a new water line.
I naively thought I had left some way of going under the concrete step.  Um,  not really.  I just decided to go in front and make life easier.





Figured I had best stop right there,  as there's a plant (more like a tree actually) that Travelling Companion wants to move in the spring.  So I'll dig the rest of the way after that happens.  And I guess there will be mud after all.

There is/was a water line already there,  but when we were living in The Netherlands,  and in spite of some rather detailed instructions on blowing out the lines,  something went awry,  and that didn't turn out. Not naming names.  My own damned fault really.  When we knew in the spring of 08 that we'd be moving overseas,  I never should have charged the lines in the first place.  Silly me.
So fine,  it's a 'do over'.

 Oh,  speaking of 'do overs',  we got a recall notice for our somewhat new dishwasher.   I installed a new dishwasher back in 2014 I think it was,  as our faithful Miele lost its mind after 15 years and refused to pump out the water. 
Bob doesn't bale.  Unless it's on a sinking boat,  but that's another story.

So,  apparently some wire or other would heat up,  and we were to "Discontinue using the dish washer immediately!".   
Riiiiight.   Bosch didn't exactly offer to send someone by the house every night to wash the dishes,  so that wasn't happening.

Anyway,  service Dude shows up a couple Fridays ago,  and I had already removed the kick board and the contents of the under sink cabinet,  so his job was pretty easy.  When they shipped the machine, it was to be hard wired.  No big deal,  as I've hard wired many a machine over the years,  but the previous machine had a plug and so I had put in a GCFI protected receptacle under there.  I simply ran a cord from the new box to the plug and plugged the new one in.

It would seem that,  some folks who may have done something similar had gone ultra cheap (or something, it was never explained to me),  and the wire would overheat.  I'm not sure why a wire rated for the proper amperage would overheat,  but People Be Dumb.   So Service Dude replaced the cord with one that we simply plugged in.  Should have been shipped that way in the first place. Rolling my eyes here.

Only thing was,  when he put the machine back,  it was kind of cock-eyed,  and I resolved to take it out AGAIN and see what the hell was causing the problem.
Not really a whole lotta fun,  as it involves hanging around on my hands and knees and being generally uncomfortable.

Turns out the opening in the side of the adjacent cabinet wasn't allowing the drain hose to be out of the way,  and the machine simply wouldn't go in all the way.  After a little bit of hackin' and hewin',  I got it sorted.  So it was more of an old problem,  rather than a new one.

Lemme see.  What else?

Not too damned much actually.   Oh,  I did change the oil in the generator on Sunday.  I chose Sunday,  as that's the day when it does its weekly run to keep it in working order.  I wanted the oil to be if not hot,  at least warm.  Hot oil comes out heaps easier.
 It wasn't exactly the warmest day,  so that was kind of important.

It's funny because,  when I'd check the oil,  it looked OK,  but when I drained it,  it did look rather gross.  And yes,  I disconnected the battery so it wouldn't accidentally fire up on me.  We don't really have random power outages,  but one never knows I guess.  There's gobs on info on the line if you're really not too sure what to do.

I fired 'er up for a few minutes afterwards just because that's what you're supposed to do,  and everything seems fine.  Until next year.


That might be it for December,  I'm not sure.  If I get struck with the need to say something,  I'll be back. 


Thanks for moving your eyes back and forth.

Keep that stick on the ice.

Food... my favourite.

Well,  it's that time of year again.  And no,  I'm not talking about football,  American Thanksgiving (always good for football)  or even "Trench Warfare".

That was originally going to be one of the titles I was going to use,  if I ever got around to actually saying something.

This has been a little "project" that has been occupying a bit of my time in the last little while.  I kept thinking I'd rent a machine,  but with the ground being wet,  and not having any particular deadline looming,  I just kept digging by hand.

Way back in the day,  my nephew and I had poured a concrete walkway around the garage side of the house,  and I chose to have the downspout feed into a clay pipe that we installed underground.
Of course,  prior to having the work done in 2014 (Soffits,  fascia,  troughs and gutter guards)  all of the eaves troughs were subject to getting filled with crap every year,  and Muggins here had to go up on a ladder and clean them out.
We don't do that anymore.
Meanwhile though, my handy little culvert ended up getting plugged up after some 20 years,  and when it really came down hard,  I was getting a wee bit of water coming into the garage.
No bueno.

So,  I had to dig 'er up. 

With a combination of pressure washer and wet vac,  it's all cleared out,  new weeping tile has been installed,  along with a whack of gravel,  and the hole has mostly been filled in.

Oh,  the patio stone there is only so nobody steps into the trench between digging episodes.

I'll continue to dig a trench along where those lines are in the pic above,  as I need to install a new water line out to the shed.   There was an "incident" when we were away overseas,  and the old line is somewhat buggered.   It ain't below frost,  and that's all I'll say.

Mind you,  and I didn't take any more pics of this,  I now have a bit more dirt left over that I'll have to deal with.  Weeping tile and gravel take up a certain amount of space it seems.

  *groan*

It can sit there for a while.

The reference to "Food" above is due to the fact that,  for the first time since dinner time Tuesday night,  I can eat again. 

See,  on my Mom's side of the family,  we have a certain 'history'.   She had a colostomy for the last 15 or so years of her life,  and her brother Ernie (Ernest is my middle name,  he and Dad were best buddies)  also ended up with a colostomy for the last days of his life.  He passed away in the spring of the year I was born.

Not something to be ignored.   

So,  you can probably guess the rest.  No food.  A vile liquid.  Staying mighty close to the loo.   Ya,  like that.

This time around,  the nurse must have given me a primo dose of the requested knock-out drug,  'cause I don't remember a damned thing.  And that was exactly the outcome I was hoping for!

Bad enough you have to go through the "prep",  I'd just as soon not witness the rest.  

Travelling Companion stuck around to drive me home from the hospital,  and then it was time to eat.

Now,  there's a "word to the wise"  here, and this comes from having done this a few times, (hey,  I seem to be able to grow polyps like nobody's business)  the vile medicine that's in  your system to make it all *happen*,  is still lurking around later in the day after you get home.  What that means is,  (and I'm speaking from experience here)  don't just think you can scarf down everything in sight.

Moderation kids!   

Otherwise,  you may just have to excuse yourself half way through your very expensive Chinese dinner and head for the nearest Euphemism.   It's a little vexing to crap out forty bucks worth of Chinese food,   let me tell ya.

Your mileage may vary,  but I'm just saying.

And that's the lesson for the day.

Keep that stick on the ice,  and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers.