Made it another year.

Or at least,  that's the first thought that pops into my pea brain when I pass yet another birthday.  And that was back in October.

Anyhoo,  I probably wouldn't even be on here if it weren't for the fact that I had a "Wile-E-Coyote,  Genius"  moment,  and figured I'd brag about it ever so slightly.

*Ahem*

Here we go.

As is the case with most anyone getting on in years,  there are some things/tools/whatever,  that one has had for some time.   Take,  for example,  this impact driver:

It's air powered which,  these days is a somewhat "old school",  as now you can go cordless electric with just as much oomph as this thing.  But,  the strongest impact driver I have is 18 volts,  and I suspect it wouldn't work when it came to removing lug nuts. 

You'll notice however,  that there's a gaping hole there where the trigger used to be?  Um ya,  damned thing broke a while back,  rendering the tool useless.  The "weak link",  so to speak.
On top of that,  the darned thing is so old,  that there's no hint of trying to find the part on line,  as I've had it since the early nineties.  Plus,  any replacement part is still going to be made out of plastic.  That's not going to help.

Today was the day when I was either going to throw the thing in the metal bin,  or possibly try and fix it.  It's a great working gun when it works,  so I've been reluctant to simply toss it. 

Turns out,  the little plunger thingy that opens the air valve seemed to work just fine,  so all I had to do was come up with some way to make that work.

So...I made my own switch out of some maple I had lying around,  and..."Bob's yer Uncle".

The shape isn't quite right,  and one fine day I might mill down some hardwood and cut a new one.  Meanwhile though,  I just saved us a hunnert and fifty bucks. 
Or at least that's my story.

Plus,  I didn't put the split pin back in,  as it wasn't going in without a fight,  and I didn't want to split the wood. 
That would be bad.

So I rummaged around in my junk and found a bolt.   When the wood wears out or breaks,  I've got buckets of scraps hanging around.


That's about it.   Maybe I'll do a little "summer round-up" in the next little while. 

And remember,  keep your stick on the ice.

Thanks for stopping by.

Fun with concrete.

And you'll notice I didn't say,  "cement".  This is I'm sure some sort of character flaw,  but I find it somewhat irksome when concrete is referred to as cement.   Bzzzzt.  Not the same.  There's cement IN concrete,  along with water,  and aggregate (sand and stone),  but cement by itself won't do much.

Anyhoo,  I'm not so sure it was actual "fun",  except of course,  that giddy feeling when the whole ordeal is finally over.
And really,  it's not quite "over"  yet.  I still have to hang a gate there,  and install a panel between that post and the house.

The wooden bits are there to keep things in place until the concrete cures which,  is probably just about....now.  As I was using some of that "quick crete"  kind of stuff that sets up almost instantly.

The "fun" part (and again,  it really wasn't)  was chipping away at the existing concrete that had been poured there by the previous owner.   Oy.   See,  there was this sort of greenhouse type of lean too that was there when we moved in. And right about where I wanted to put that post,  there had been a doorway. The previous owner (that would be my late father-in-law)  had this somewhat goofy idea that he'd be able to grow stuff for most of the year.  All that really happened was that he got a lot of bugs.

Oh and,  if you're hanging around,  thanks.    I have been painfully absent.   Just doing summer stuff.

Ooh look.  Here,  I'm on a boat.

I'm the idiot making with the bunny ears behind the head of one of my crew mates.  I'm sure she's seen that picture.  Surprised she hasn't said anything.  This was a Saturday regatta just last week.  Normally we don't have that many bodies on the boat,  as it's a wee bit tender,  meaning that weight distribution can be a challenge,  but we figured,  what the hell.  The more the merrier.

It's been a pretty good summer so far for sailing well,  with the exception of some of the earlier days when there was no wind.  AND,  we've had some seriously high water levels on the lake.

Here's a good example:

That area is normally ....dry.   This was back in June.   It's by now finally gone down,  but whether they've turned the power on at the slip yet or not is still the question.

This picture was taken after the town had come along and build a boardwalk on top of the existing boardwalk.  Which begs the question,  as this event happened two years ago,  and is likely to happen again,  why not just build a proper elevated board walk?  Then there would be no need to turn off the power?  Maybe?

Couldn't do that of course.  That would make too much sense.



Anyway,  I think that's all I got.   I'm off to grill up some burgers and cook some corn. 

Keep that stick on the ice.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm still here. OR, will it ever stop raining??

If you're anywhere remotely close to the Great Lakes,  you may be aware that once again,  we have very high water levels at this time of year.
We really don't need any more rain.  Really.

There's a boat out there somewhere that I have to get to.  Thankfully,  I carry a pair of rubber boots for just such an occasion.

Unfortunately,  when the R.C. of Sail and I went out last Thursday to try and set out a semi-permanent mark on the Lake,  the boots weren't even high enough.

We ended up taking one of those dinghies and putting all our stuff in and floating it out to the committee boat.

Crazy.


So,  what have I been up to?

Well,  the usual I suppose.  There has been some sailing.  The usual Tuesday nights have been hit and miss.  I was away on a little trip with T.C. (I'll mention it later) for one of the days,  and on another occasion it was too foggy out to race.  So....I think I've only been out once on a Tuesday?

However,  we did out yesterday for the Challenge Cup put on by the Oakville and Bronte Harbour Yacht clubs.   We suspect that the "Challenge"  is trying to figure out just why,  instead of very specific Sailing Instructions (they refer to them as SIs)  outlining where the start line was supposed to be, I had to get on the radio and ask the Race Committee to confirm their coordinates.

Not even close.  Good thing we left the slip in plenty of time.   One guy said he was going to "protest the race".  Not sure how you do that.  Whatever.
For our part,  we did well.  As in,  we got "the gun".  That's a racing term for,  we finished first.  Doesn't happen all that often,  so I'm braggin' just a wee bit.

It was kinda cool, but very sunny,  and in spite of putting on sun block with an SPF of something like a hundred,  I still got a wee bit brown,  and of course,  forgot to do the tops of my feet.  They're red,  but not entirely burnt to a crisp.  Gotta watch that.


Lemme see,  what else?

Well,   we did have a death in the family recently.   My sister-in-law Ruth passed away on the Friday before Palm Sunday.  I have to relate all these dates to Easter,  since that seems to be the easiest way.

She had been in a "facility"  for about three years,  as my brother could no longer keep looking after her.  She has had scleroderma for a couple decades really,  going back to the late 80s,  which is pretty much a death sentence,  but she hung in there and did all the stuff that a lot of retired folks do, like go south in the winter etc.  until she was well into her eighties,  but according to my brother,  the last time they went south (over three years ago)  she never really went outside the trailer,  as she was far too frail.
Anyhoo,  my Nova Scotia brother came up with his wife and we had them here for a little over a week.   Of course,  with Easter coming up,  we had other family members coming by to hang out,  and/or stay over,  so it was a wee bit busy.
I realised at one point that,  there was no way I'd ever be able to run a Bed and Breakfast,  'cause by the end of about 8 days,  I was a walking zombie.


Here's one of my brothers making a little speech at the Godrich Legion at the "Celebration of Life".


 

The only bald guys in the picture are my older brothers.  Oh, and the red haired lady over there is my niece.  I was an uncle at the age of five.  But we won't get too far into the arithmetic.

Needless to say,  it was raining.

Those two older brothers were both Air Force guys.   The third brother who now also resides in N.S.,  much to my dismay,  also gets a Veteran's pension,  as he served in some sort of "After supper soldier"  capacity when he was a young guy.  Who knew?
By the way,  "After supper soldier"  is a term they would use.  I had never really heard that term until they got together and started talking about "old times".  I never joined the armed forces,  and instead went to University.  Had to get that "liberal arts education"!  *rolls eyes*
I mean yes,  I suppose it does give me a rough idea as to say,  how to write a sentence or speak one or two other languages,  so OK then.


Let's see.

Oh ya,  we did take a little trip up to first Kingston to visit with a sister-in-law and her hubby,  just passing through,  and then on to Osgoode for a visit with T.C.'s eldest (and only) brother and wife.

This is their cute little house just outside of Osgoode.

Rudy is a landscape architect,  and works from home.

I decided to blank out his head,  just because.

Now that I think on it,  I built all those cabinets too.  Turns out I do have a few things scattered about here and there that have come out of my pea brain.





T.C. had been working on a dress for their daughter,  which called for a fitting.  It's a bit of a higher end sort of creation,  with "bones"  or some such thing.  I dunno.  Talk to me about woodworking.  I can do that.

I've blanked out her face,  as I certainly am not about to put her pic on the web without her knowledge or consent.

Cool dress though,  don't ya think?  Some sort of fancy schmancy fabric that T.C. bought overseas.

She only had enough for someone who is a "size 0",  or something like that.  Again,  woodworking,  hello?

Speaking of which....(don't ya love them segues?)

 I had been commissioned a while back to do a little project of my own,  as another sister-in-law had been wanting a cabinet built for some time now,  and I finally got started back in April I think it was.   It needed to be warm enough that, if need be,  I could open up the garage.   This was a rather large undertaking,  and the proceeds from which will be going towards the Caretaker Tool Fund.   I've already ordered the thing that I've been seeking,  and it'll arrive some time in July.  I'll update then.

Here I'm doing a bit of a test fit for the drawers etc.

Doesn't give a good over all perspective,  but it was,  like I said,  a somewhat large undertaking.

Here are a couple views after installation.  And yes,  it got primed and painted,  but that was before leaving my shop.

The wire situation wasn't quite resolved when that pic was taken,  but it's been tucked away in the meanwhile.

There were a couple "add ons"  that hadn't been mentioned or shown in the drawings.  One was the need for some lighting,  and the other was for the three drawers for jewellery and such.

There was much joy with the end result.  Not too shabby,  if I do say so meself.

I now have a few summer projects,  but first it needs to stop raining for a few days.  Well maybe.... weeks.


Thanks for stopping by.

Keep your stick on the ice.