Knapp Monarch heater

In recent weeks, I've posted many obscure status messages on FB, maybe some of them have confused you.  Probably you don't care, and that's ok too, I guess.  

Last one first?  Sure.  Several years ago I bought an electric heater at goodwill or someplace.  Maybe I got it out of a dumpster, I don't remember.  It's a Knapp Monarch Co, model 303 or 33 whatever.  I just learned it's an Iowa company, well, Monarch was, Knapp was from ST Louis.  

Anyway, it's old...it has a steel base, and a chrome fronted reflective dish with a 1000 watt element in front of it.  The guard to keep cats out of the element is missing, I may be able to use a fan guard on there, I'll have to check.

The cord was rather frayed where it exits the back of the dish, so I removed it, and temporarily installed a cord to test the element.  IT works, so I proceeded.  Actually, that's not exactly true.  I cleaned the base and painted it first. 

Thanks to ebay, here's some pics.  Mine is not quite like the lower pic, but the upper pic is exactly how it looked, the fray and cord is exactly the same.

I cut off the cord, removed that little round cap, and hooked up a cord to test.    It works, so I attempted to use that cord, which was 14/2...plenty big enough to carry the current of 1000 watts....which is about 8 amps.  Doesn't fit thru the ceramic cord relief, which doesn't seem to work all that well.  I could remove it, but the thin steel would cut the cord.  

What I did is this:  there's a hole in the base, to hang the unit, I suppose.  I used that hole to bolt on a bracket, bolted a switch box to that, ran that big cord to the switch and then used a piece of 16/3 with the green wire removed to connect the heater to the switch.  The 14 cord is fairly long, which is nice, and when Christmas is over, we may use the remote outlet switcher unit to control it.  Or I may buy another one.

To ensure the connection was good on the element, I tinned the wire and wrapped it around the stud...I'm sure the PO tossed it because it wasn't working, due to the burned wires in that frayed mess.  Plus one side was kinda rusty, I suppose it was getting hot due to the extra resistance/bad wires.

Knapp Monarch made all sorts of stuff...irons, fans, waffle irons, curling irons, blow dryers, mess kits, therm a jugs, and hog troughs.  Lots more items, too, I'm sure.  Yes, I painted the switch box and bracket to match the base. Switch and cover are ivory, however.  This isn't American Restorations, after all.  :)

halloween crash

A friend crashed his motorcycle on Halloween.  I say it that way because (if I understand the story correctly) he caused the crash.  As I understand it, here's what happened.

The friend was westbound, crossing a 4 lane divided highway, speed limit is 55.  He successfully crossed the northbound lanes but got hit by a southbound  vehicle.  

That stretch of road is wide, straight, flat, with no obstructions other than the normal signs, and not too many of them.  

The vehicle was equipped with day time running lights, which is good, since Crash's brother said it was one of those colours that blend into the road and sky.

So....what happened???  Was there a blinding reflection off the windshield?  He should have been able to see the car coming south from a long ways away.    He was only wearing a half helmet, so there wasn't a dirty shield in the way, no obstructions from the side of the helmet.  

I was in the area yesterday, and at that intersection straight ahead is the sun.  If you look north, the sight line is clear, same for south.  Somehow he didn't see that dumb car, it's sad.

I stopped in the DQ where the guy that saved his life works.  I thanked him, of course, then suffered thru a peppermint blizzard.

The friend is in the VA hospital, had another surgery to remove infection from his spinal surgery a week ago.  

Look twice for motorcycles, and biker friends....look 3 times for those damn cars....they are everywhere.

garage cleaning

Garage cleaning, autumn 2012

We've talked before about how garage cleaning is a bit like having ADHD, right?  Here's how it went this morning:

Enter garage and turn on the lights.  Look around and swear.  Wonder where to start.  Go sit on the bench for a few minutes, see the pickup and remember that it's sick, better look at it for a few minutes.  I gather up the 4 gallon latex paint cans to take inside, while I'm going in to get the keys.  Sit down at computer, check FB.  30 minutes later, I have to pee, too much coffee.  Done there, grab keys and look at engine for a little while, I see nothing wrong, no surprise there....there's not much wrong, so the problem will not be obvious.

My main work bench is about 2 feet high with stuff, better start there.  Put away some tools, some parts and stuff I've bought, hang some light bulbs on the pegboard, put the plastic sacks in the sack full of sacks. Put the pliers in the can o'pliers, screwdrivers in the rack.  Put the box of screws on the shelf where it belongs and then find a pkg of screws that belongs in the box. 

The sales tax people didn't pick up their lawn sign, so I pulled it and put it in the garage, now to better store it...cut the zip ties, but I can't get the sign wedged behind the plywood in the corner, oh well, leave it for now.

You know how it goes, this belongs on that shelf, oh, hey, there's a small sack of fertilizer.  Autumn is the best time to spread that crap, or so I've been told by AlGore and the internet, so back inside to get some of those nitrile gloves, pour the fert into a little bucket and spread it.  Where's that other sack, this one didn't cover the whole yard...ah, yes, right where I left it last fall, on top of the snowblower.  The crap feels like it's solidified in the sack, that's nice...if it is hard before the sack is open, what will it be like in the spring after sucking up atmospheric moisture all winter.  :(

Lawn sprinkled, I wonder what else I should do while the temp is so nice.  It's 10:30, do I have time to clean the gutter?  Sure I do.  Maybe I'll install the gutter toppers on the east side of the house.  I set off around the house with the ladder in one hand, the box of toppers in the other.  Yeah, the shingles are stuck down very well, there's no way to get the toppers installed the way they're supposed to go.  Descend from the ladder and tripped over a steel rod sticking out of the ground about 4 inches.  What the hell?  I wonder if it's a survey stake.  I wonder if I can pull it out.  Not with my bare hands, even after I kick it back and forth a few times, it's a lot looser, but I'll need pliers to get it out. If it is a survey stake, the neighbor has had his fence on my side of the property line all this time.  About 3' worth.  Oh well....more for him to mow.

East gutter clean, I check the south end of the west gutter, it's full too, but I can see that under the topper is clean, so I see that they're working as advertised.  

Better put the cover on the grill, wish I could remember to do it the same night as we grill, but once the fire is off and the door is shut, I forget about it.  

Cover the mower with the bucket I had used to transport all that squash, and basically, I didn't get much done. 

I did, however, go for lunch with a friend and then rode my motorcycle for 140 miles to get some beer that is only available in WI.  BTW, it's only 80 miles round trip to WI.  :)  I did put StaBil in the gas again, so just in case....it'll be ready.

I've got another full day of work in the garage before it'll be done; can't wait.

buckwheat for breakfast

Celiac disease?  Gluten intolerance?  No one knows...for sure.  What we do know is that we paid $6000 for a scopey experience and they found some ulcers in my stomach or maybe the small intestine.  Of course they don't know what caused them, but one thing could be this celiac sprue thingy.  

So I cut back on foods containing gluten, started eating more whole grains, vegetables, etc.  I just realized tonight that at the same time I cut out the Crystal light style kool aid lemonade stuff I'd been drinking.  :(  

The good news is that I felt better right away.  More energy, less lethargy, sometimes occasional repeated redundancy, and a few other improvements.  You don't care to read about my experiences in the bathroom, do you?

I had attributed the improvements to less gluten, but maybe it is because I'm not ingesting artificial sweeteners. 

If you are my FB friend, you may have read about my breakfast experience the other day.  I'm enhancing it tonight:

• 1 cup buckwheat
• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 3 cups milk
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 apple cubed
• handful raisins

put all that stuff in a crockpot and turn it on low till morning.  It will derive the sweetness it needs from the apple and raisins.  It's really not a lot of cinnamon, but sometimes cinnamon has upset my sizable stomach.  

You wanted to see what buckwheat groats look like, right?

I may add a spoonful of peanut butter in the morning to my bowl, and I'd add a sprinkle of millet like Angela suggested, but I don't have any.  Some chopped walnuts or pecans would be a nice addition, too.  I'm thinking I may have to add more liquid to it.  Dunno.  If I do, it'll be coffee.

I'll add that one possible downfall to eating this style of breakfast, and maybe the body will get used to it, is that the bowl contains a lot more liquid than I used to take in that time of day, and I've had to pee more often in the morning.  Given my occupation....that is kinda dangerous.

UPdate.  Hey, dates would be a nice addition.  As surmised, there was not enough liquid, now I've got some nice crustybrownness to scrape out of the crockpot.  I don't know why or if my crockpot gets hotter than the newer units, but it seems to do that a lot.  There was also not enough salt, but that's easy to change.  An apple that doesn't cook away into mush would be good, too.  But anyway...it's an easy way to make a lot of hot breakfast for a large crowd,  but maybe next time I'd use a timer so it only cooked 3 hours or so.  

lurker day

Love Our Lurkers Day 7 has Arrived!

A lurker is someone unseen. They peek in and listen to our conversations. They watch and learn. Sometimes, they may wonder, but they make no sound. Maybe they're a little bit shy or nervous or don't know quite what to say. A lurker is someone unseen. Until today, that is...

Fear not, dear lurkers, because we too are fascinated with the same subjects that brought you here. Better still, today is your day! It's Love Our Lurkers Day. This is your opportunity to poke your head up just enough to say hello. Since you and good people like you constitute more than half of our readership, we bloggers are curious about you.

We're glad that you're here and don't mind you reading anything you like. But if you could write a short introductory comment, that would be simply fantastic. If you will, please tell us your name (it doesn't have to be your REAL name), the part of the world where you live, and maybe a little bit about you're interested in reading more about.

Apparently this LOL thing has been going on for 7 years, but since I've only had this bloggy thing for 1.5 years, I didn't care about it at it's inception.

BUT I CARE NOW!!

Take just a minute comment...either here or on FB or send an email.  thanks

MoviPrep, it's what's for dinner...

615 mix and drink 1st course  

Right away I feel the poison racing around my guts...also start feeling a little sleepy, eyes not focusing.  headache.  feeling like glucose is low.
635 drink 2nd course
645, drink 3rd
655 feel urge to fart....tentatively let it go...
703 4th 
708 more urges to fart, wonder if it is safe...not going to tempt fate.
710 wife cooks dinner, mocking me.  Pretty sure that when she needs to go, I'll be on the pot.  haha

711 tummy noises, the urge to fart intensifies.
713 chills
720 cramps
730 first eruption
745 wonder if I need to head back
800 oops, need to change clothes now.  :(

I know that what I ate did not smell like that. yuck

hungry!


One week later:

Moviprep, the dinner for those going in for a colonoscope.  I'll say this, right up front:  None of it is as bad as expected.  Except the smell of the gooselike emissions.  If what I was about to eat smelled as bad as that, I'd skip dinner, thank you very much.  I'm here to tell you that I've never said that my dumpings smelled like flowers, but this was several times worse than normal. The cat was looking around for a dog to blame it on, if you can believe that.  And I've been in the same room when the cat drops his load, and won't cover it.  Proud little fucker.  I should kick his stinky little ass for mocking me.

Ok, so all of that at the very top is notes I took after mixing and taking the prep solution.  The directions state that you can suck on either a lemon or lime wedge or suck on ice right before drinking it.  I didn't find the taste to be a problem, kind of a lemon lime laced with salty pool water.  Rather viscous, it left an unpleasant film in the mouth after drinking.  

I found myself holding my breath after swallowing it; not that it tasted bad, but I knew it was going to be bad.  I wanted it to taste bad because once it was in, it felt bad.  The stuff I was provided is only a quart at night and another quart in the morning...and it comes with a mixing jar.  Reusable, too!  

Directions also say to pay attention to how your body reacts to the gut bomb, since you'll have to time your travel to the clinic between rocket blasts.

BTW, since you have to drink a pint of water after the quart of doom, go ahead and sip hot coffee  after you drink each serving of your delicious supper and breakfast.  It cuts the film of nasty out of your mouth, leaving you much more happy about anticipating the rump reaming you're about to enjoy.  

I kinda quit taking notes because I was more irritated than anything about the whole ordeal.  I'll confess, I was almost hoping they'd find something wrong with the insides of my ass just to sort of justify this whole experience.  

There, the secret is out, my bowels are as healthy as can be, or so they say.  Yay.  I think there's still a little problem there, but I'm not going to tell you about it yet.

I think I finally went to bed about 11, it'd been most of an hour since the last explosion, and yes, I did have to change clothes due to "an accident".  Yeah, my house isn't that big,  I guess I shouldn't have been sitting on that bucket. ;)  I got up about 5:30 and took the first dose right away.  2nd dose was  a bit late, I was tempted to gulp all that crap down right away and be done with it, but I was afraid that there could be severe repercussions, so I didn't.  Interestingly, since there really wasn't anything to move on out, there was no more awful-dead-skunk-next-to-a-hog confinement/turkey farm smell.  I didn't know what to expect, and it's a good thing I paid attention to what was going on, because the intake nurse Ratched wanted to know "what my bowel movements were like".  She also asked how I reacted to IV anesthesia, to which I told her the story of my wisdom tooth extraction, long story short I woke up to the pounding of a hammer and chisel in my mouth.  I figgered after that she'd make a note to give me a little extra.  Nope, that was not the case at all.  Clearly she didn't like me and wanted me to experience a little more of the procedure than most. 

By 9:20 when we departed on the long drive to the clinic (.75 mile) I was hungry, had a headache, was grouchy, irritable, and we hadn't even really started yet.  I took my earpod, cranked some tunes, which helped.  Took my dumbly named ebook device, and thankfully didn't really have time to use it much.

Spent way too long with the nurse asking a whole bunch of questions that should have filled in automatically when the form accessed my medical records.  Why doesn't this happen? GRrrrrrrrrr finally to a different room, undress, put on this gown thingy, keep on your shoes and socks.  Sit and wait. 

CUTE little girl tried a couple times to start an IV thing w/o success.  I did find a small bit of my humor when the dude came to help her, she was saying something about getting a good flash; I replied that I certainly had not flashed her, because I couldn't stand the humiliation.  You had to be there.  Too bad you couldn't see me with the robe thingy on, my light blue hat on, earpod thingy blasting into my ears, I almost didn't hear the scope nurse call me.  I could see just fine, though, and the other guy in there didn't jump up, so I did.  This nurse was nicer to me, even though she was going to have to look at my hairy naked ass.  Poor girl, I should have bought her some flowers.   Or chocolate, but maybe with her job she doesn't like chocolate.  I bet her favorite flower is a tulip...she's from Holland MI.  

At the clinic, everyone asks, where are you from.  I always say:  From down by KMart.  They almost always look confused for a minute...and some of those that don't ask "which one".  To which I reply:  there is only one in town. 

There used to be 2, but it closed before I moved here.  I moved here in 1993. Get with it, people.   Live in the PRESENT!

Tiny little doctor came in, introduced herself, blah blah blah, lie on your left side, etc.  They squirted some stuff in the IV thingy and next thing I know, my eyes are open, I can see a tv sort of, kinda blurry and feel a snake prowling around my guts.  I squint at the tv, it's got a large intestine on it and it seems like I could see the snake in there, too.  Sucks having poor eyesight.

I feel them pulling the snake out, which was different, then I may have dozed off, don't know.  I didn't try to move, but I don't think I'd have been able to move.  I didn't feel anything but the snake moving around in my guts. Weird.  When they turned the bed around, I was awake, they commented on it...I said:  I was supposed to ask how I'd get the results?...blah blah.  They gave me more dope...I don't remember a single thing about the upper scope experience, they said that they change the scope, which is good, because it'd probably taste terrible.  I think I remember them saying something about sending some polyps off to pathology, they must have been nothing to worry about.

Woke up in recovery, got dressed, took off.  We went to John Hardy's for lunch, I ate all of mine and luckily they screwed up the taters for Val, so they brought her another set, I ate those too.  I was really very extremely hungry.  Val dropped me off at home, I sat down to do something or read something but went to sleep instead.  I slept for 3 hours or so, and felt pretty good when I woke up.  BTW, I expected to find some sort of lube, but no, nothing.

The first "real B M" post scopey was a rare treat.  That's about all I'll say about that.  Yuck.  Luckily we were in Plainview at the time, so I got to share it with some dude that stuck his head in.  When I was washing afterwards, I saw a can of spray, so I hosed the place down.  Yep, dude, once I flush, my poo smells like potpourri.  I was worried that I'd have another opportunity to perform, but no, I got to take it home.  

The results were delivered via a email message, I wonder if she would have called if it had been bad news?  I hope so.

Take my advice:  pull down your pants and slide on the ice.

 

Culinary experiments

Culinary experiments for the day:

I had a very small buttercup squash and thought it'd be perfect to use the way that my friend Gracie suggested:  stuff it with a meatloaf and bake it.  And that's what I did.

I had bought a pkg of "ground turkey" which I can't imagine that it's ground at all....I'm certain that it's mechanically separated, which means it's pink slime...comes in a tube.  I cut it open, dump it into a bowl.  Into the bowl I added 2 eggs and some warm flat beer.  

I don't know why I added the beer.

I chopped up half an onion, 2 mushrooms, smashed some corn chips, dumped in some seasoned HyVee bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and "Canadian chicken" spice blend.  

I also added a small red coloured pepper that Owen gave to me.  I cut off the top, scraped out the seeds, and chopped it up pretty small.  Since it was red I didn't worry too much about it, promptly forgot all about it.  

This Canadian chicken spice blend is the same as Montreal Chicken spice, just a different brand.  I got this at Sam's club because I'm a cheap bastard.

Somehow, before I went into the bathroom, I didn't get washed sufficiently, and found out how hot that pepper was going to be.  I didn't exactly have a burning sensation when I peed, it came later.  If you know what I mean.  

Of course, if I were truly cheap, I'd just use the salt and pepper and suffer with poorly seasoned food.

I washed the little squash, knocked off the stem, and sawed off the bottom of the thing.  Scoop out the seeds, spoon in the meatloaf mix.  To make sure that it didn't rot in the fridge, I dumped the rest into a loaf pan, baked the 2 side by side on a cookie sheet.  

The cookie sheet is actually the lid for a cake pan.

Sadly, since I don't make meatloaf often, I didn't put in quite enough salt.  Nor did I cook it long enough.  :(  Since the loaf pan was not much more than half full, I pulled it out after 40 minutes and turned the squash around just in case the oven has a hot/cold spot.  When it had cooled a bit, I sampled it.  Pretty good, needs more salt.  :(  OH well, easier to add salt than to take it away!

After an hour, I pulled it out, and let it cool a bit.  Put it into a bowl, and sat down to eat.  Couple bites in I see that it's not done.  3 minutes in the microwave took care of it and tested it with the thermometer to make sure.  

Next time?  I think I'd sprinkle a bit of salt in the squash to season it too.  I'd  sprinkle some bread crumbs over the top or corn flakes, something like that.  The loaf held together just fine; I was worried about it being too wet, actually.  I figgered it would not be greasy/oily since the turkey is so lean.

However.

Once I got done eating, scraping out all the squash from the skin...I was still hungry.  Luckily I had some ripe bananas and some apples...since it was time to go back to work, those are bus friendly and quite portable.

Speaking of bananas....

I had 4 of them that were almost too ripe for eating, I ate 2 of them over the course of the afternoon and thought about what to do with the other 2 before they rotted.  

Hmmmmmmwhat to do, what to do?  A banana dessert makes sense, Fogo du Chao makes one that Val loves, so I tried to find a recipe.  No luck, but I found a recipe for something similar.

Peel the bananas, slice.  Throw a chunk of butter into the skillet, coat the slices with brown sugar.  When the skillet is hot, put some in.  Cook until they have some color, turn down heat and flip.  The other side will cook much faster...when all slices are cooked, pour in some bourbon or brandy or cognac or rum; flambe off the alcohol, boil to reduce the sauce.  Pour over the slices or ice cream, or add whipped cream or put onto cereal or oatmeal or pancakes or waffles or french toasty.

Reggie wanted to know if it was Bananas Foster.  No, no it's not.  But is quite close.  And it was delicious!  

Been a busy day in the kitchen...hey, do you want to hear about my scope experience, learn about my medical problems???

Sleep Number bed

Sleep number bed, first impressions and delivery review.

Val went to the state fair and bought a sleep number bed.  Who does weird crap like that?  We do, I guess. What's my sleep number?  Dunno.  Yet.  I've never been in the store, like a lot of people do before buying the bed, and the store personnel suggest having AT LEAST an hour of time to dedicate to the bed buying experience.  

What kind of person wants to sell sleep number beds?  I should go to the store to find out.  Think about this...you will spend an hour or 2 with prospective bed buyers, and you will see them lying down for part of this time.   Gravity changes the appearance of some body parts.

I'm not sure how much it cost, and I'm pretty sure that I don't really want to know.  I do remember spending $1800 for the bed that we've been sleeping on for the last 10/12 years.  (maybe longer)  I recall it being delivered on Memorial Day buy one dude, (they said they'd send 2) so I had to help haul the damn thing up the stairs.  (Heavy)  After a few years of the bed frame sagging, we took the frame out from under the box spring/mattress and pretended we were hippies sleeping on the floor.  No, we didn't take drugs and have wild sex parties...we just pretended to be hippies.  BTW, removing the frame didn't really solve the sagging problem.  :(

I really enjoyed this bed, it was soft and warm in the winter, it was soft and warm in the summer, soft and warm in the spring, soft and warm in the fall.  I did not use copy/paste to do that, and I should have.  Yes, I'm a dumbass.

The Sleep number bed is f'ing cold.  Except when it's hot.  Ok, I'll admit that we have changed blankets at the same time, Val took the white comforter thingy off and put on the quilt her mom made for us last winter.  I'm going to put a fleece blanket under that quilt thing, see if it helps. There's been a couple mornings when I've awakened covered with sweat,  and all I was doing was sleeping.  Maybe I was fast asleep?  Whatever.

We've had it a week now, here's delivery:

Delivery guy called Val, said they'd arrive at 9:30, and assembly should take 46 minutes.  They showed up at 10, left at 11.  Bastards.  They did not introduce themselves, cursed the whole time they were carrying up the parts, complained about the smallness of the house, banging parts and pieces into the door frames, etc.  And when they brought down the old set, they did not install it correctly onto the frame...it overhangs the headboard mounts by several inches...so we'll get to take it apart to fix that.  Yay, more exercise.

When they were done assembling, I hear "uh, we're done up here".  I mutter: does that mean I'm supposed to come up and look at it?  He showed me every page of the book, and inflated both sides to 100.

100 is about as soft as asstroturf on concrete.  I was going to suggest that the asstroturf would be installed in the bed of a Chevy ElCamino, but there you have the hope of a rust hole or a soft spring....and yes, I know I misspelled astroturf.   It's more fun that way.

At bedtime, I found the remote and lowered the setting to 50, they recommend changing it by 5 or 10 at a time.  Screw that, at 50 its about as soft as a good hotel bed, one that I can sleep on w/o waking with a backache.  Dropped to 45, and left it for a while.  I've since lowered it to 40.  

My current problem is that I don't like to lie on the edge of the bed so that my arm falls off.  But if I don't, it's like I'm lying on the side of a hill, which sucks. I did that once camping at Lake Icolda, which is just north of Corning.  The tent didn't have a built in floor, it'd been raining a bit so the ground was kinda wet.  The sleeping bag, clever! had a nylon or vinyl bottom/cloth top so that you'd stay dry and clean, except that since the tent had no floor, and the nylon was slippery, I kept sliding half out of the damn tent, until I turned over so that the cloth was in the mud, then I stayed the rest of the night inside the leaning tent of Icolda.  Yes, I froze that entire time, I hated camping.  

I suppose camping can be fun if you have the right gear, plenty of clothes and you like that sort of thing.  I know, instead of that stupid gif you want a pic of Val in the bed...maybe next week.  

I find that when I'm alone in the bed, and I'm in the center of the ravine, my ass is split by the baffle between the bladders, which must be sort of like wearing a thong.  I'd get one and try it, but you know I'd then have to post a pic of my hairy ass in the thing, and I don't want you to have to bleach your eyes, so I'll skip that entire experiment.

You're welcome.

I can't imagine what it'd be like if one of us liked it set at 75 and the other at 40...it'd be like having a mesa and a canyon in the same 5' wide bed.  Could make for some interesting/painful/inventive/frustrating rumpy pumpy.  I will just imagine how that would be....with my knee sliding off the hard side onto the soft side, plunging to my near death experience, spraining/straining several somethings in the process.  That would be an interruptus moment, to say the least.

So, a week in, I can't yet tell you to go buy a sleep number bed.  We've got 3 weeks to keep trying it before we can't send it back, we may have to call customer support or visit the store, to see if the grand canyon can be mitigated.  Feel free to share your experiences, esp if you have a sleep number bed thingy.  What's your number??

What I've done this month.

What did you do on your summer vacation?  I think we've already talked about that, so I'll tell you what I've been doing these past couple weeks.

Making people mad, mostly.  Here's how to make people mad: 

1.  Post an opinion on the internet.  
2.  wait

I've lost at least 3 FB friends, which is no loss at all, since they were not friends.  The funny thing?  I didn't insult them, call them names, nothing like that.  They called me names...and all 3 are liberal.

Enough of that.

I finished the bathroom improvement...at least for now.  There is still some work I should do;  I need to take the light back down and do some more patching around it, but I don't know when I'm going to do that.  Here's a list of what I did:

• remove border, old light, wooden towel bars
• scrape peeling paint
• wash walls and ceiling
• prime all bare/scraped areas
• skim coat all low areas, spots where the paint peeled
• smooth mud
• prime those areas
• paint:  3 colours...upper walls and ceiling white.  lower walls blue/green, trim dark blue/green
• paint again  :(
• paint trim again
• sand, stain and varnish secondary cabinet
• prime and then paint vanity cabinet
• caulk several areas
• touch up paint
• install chair rail
• remove one section of the chair rail, patch areas where the paint pulled off
• tape to paint area where the chair rail won't work :(
• install towel bars
• alter light switch plate to fit around towel bar :(
• rehang tp holder, magazine rack, curling iron/hair drier thingy, rehang door

Yeah, it took forever.  Of course, if I'd been more organized, it would have gone faster.  If I had been more motivated, it'd have gone faster.  

I like the colors, I like the chair rail thingy, I like the light and the towel bars, so long as they stay up.  

Here's what else I've done in the last couple weeks.  It's a partial list and not much compared to those of you that are workaholics:

• painted half of the front of the garage
• caulked a window
• planted a few mums
• caulked around the garage door and back door
• pulled the walk in garage door off and sanded/painted it
• patch some concrete where Val backed into the garage and destroyed the foundation
• motorcycle repair and oil change
• wash motorcycle
• motorcycle rides X 5
• pickup oil change and some repair
• reconfigure basement lights
• break fluorescent tube in basement :(
• go thru paint supply and throw out what's no good
• patch hole in sheet rock
• fill crack in driveway
• of course this doesn't include all the other stuff, like scooping the litter box, washing the dishes, grocery shopping, laundry, working, etc.

I've lost track of how many times I've cleaned my paint brush, good thing I mostly use latex paint.  Remember on FB I was bragging up the good paint in a plastic bucket?  18 year old paint, Pittsburgh brand.  We painted the upstairs of our house before we moved in with this stuff, I was amazed that what was left in the can was still good.  That said...several quart cans of paint that are newer but have been opened several times in the interim were not good and have been thrown away.  Some of my gallon cans also weren't good; the steel cans let the paint dry out.  Kind of weird.

Next up:  more garage paint, window maintenance, mower storage, week whacker storage, snow blower startage, car oil change, Val motorcycle oil change, patio clean up, AL can sale, and maybe 2 more things.  maybe.

Davis Rally review

Davis Rally review; always the weekend after Labor Day.  New Hampton IA, which is very close to Waverly, which is where you don't want to go for dinner.

Owen and Virginia wanted to go early, they had an appt to get their new bike personalized at 8, so we left home at 6.  It was dark and cold at 6, and still cold at 7, just in case you were wondering.  How cold was it?  Mid 40's, going 60 mph....makes for cold fingers!  We made the journey w/o stopping for anything other than for Virginia to put on her face mask, she has no whiskers.

We got there, paid our fee, got our wristbands, entered and parked.  There were only 2 or 3 other bikes in the lot, and turns out we knew the owners of 2 of them.  Steve/Lonesomedog from the 202 riding club strolled over seconds later on his way to the latrine and coffee vendor.  Owen took his bike over to the shelter where Lynus was to chickenscratch all over the new bike while we rested and changed jackets and shoes.  

Owen's new bike is blue, and decided to let the painter feller pick all the colours.  Painter did ask:  what colour do you want next...and I shouted out: Magenta!  Yep, worked good, too.  I could be a metrosexual, I'm sure of it.  

We walked downtown for breakfast at the senior center, about a mile, I suppose.  Buffet for $9, scrambled eggs, sausage, taters, fruit, coffee cake, muffins, juice, milk, coffee; it was pretty much worth the cost.  We sat with Steve and Bob, the 202 fellers.

Owen and Virginia hot-footed their way back to the rally to watch the feller paint the bike...can't blame them for that...fun to watch them, like kids in a candy store on Christmas morning.  I don't think I took pics of the painting, but I did take pics of some panties at a vendor's tent.  I may post them.

When we returned, we found our friends again, and walked the vendor row, seeing what there was to see.  I was looking for a few things, like a throttle lock for Val's bike, something else and one other thing that I don't remember now.  We looked at trailers, and could have bought one, just $3,000.  We didn't spend that much for the trailer that we can put both bikes on, along with a whole bunch of other crap, like oh hell, you don't care about that, do you?

Finally, the paint is dry, and we go for a ride.  We spend 6 minutes looking at a map and set off.  I keep telling people, you don't need to invest a huge amount of time planning a ride.  Just pick a direction and GO!  It was a great ride, Owen and Virginia led, since she can read a map while riding with him, it was wonderful.  We got back just in time for dinner, which was good, got parked for the parade, which was short, and the parade participants clearly did not understand.  

If you are driving in a parade:  GO SLOW!!!  If you are watching a parade, and a colour guard comes by, STAND UP.  Take off your hat.  Didn't you learn this in kindergarten?

Parade over, wind died down.  holy hell, it was windy for a little while...go to Kwik Star for gas and restroom, head home.  Owen and Val nearly hit a live skunk, all in all, it was a great day.  

Restaurant review:  The Fainting Goat, Waverly, IA

A not so perfect place in a nearly perfect town.

Very accurate.  Waverly is a lovely town.  Clean, lots of businesses in the downtown area, seems to be a wonderful place.  Read on to learn about the Goaty place.

I rode my motorcycle down to IA for a party at a friends house and on the return trip I stopped for a late lunch at this goat place in Waverly.  Here's the menu cover:

It's always a dilemma for me...use the flash and get some glare or not use it and maybe it won't show up.  It was really dark in there....maybe because I'd been outside all day in the bright sunshine....or maybe it was just really dark.  I guess if you sit in there staring at the tv throwball games, you don't need lights.

The sign says Seat Yourself.  I find a clean table and do just that.  The waiter twerp (those in the know, knows what this means) comes over to get my drink order, water, and also wants to know what I want to eat.  I need a minute, since this is my first time here, dumbass.

Interesting menu, although it gets annoying that they use an ' instead of an e in the word chicken or drunken or dipped.  Sure, occasionally it is cute or fun.  When he finally comes back, I order the big pig pork tenderloin sandwich thingy.  Batter'd or broil'd, he wanted to know.  Comes with chips, but for a measly $2.....chips will be fine.  Or so I thought.

So I'm a cheap bastard.  Sue me.  Actually, don't sue me, just make fun of me if you must.

The water came with ice, which is appropriate.  It also came with a straw.  Have you ever tried to hoover up a fresh chocolate shake thingy from Wendy's using their normal sized straw?  Yeah, you suck for a while, a pain forms behind your eyes, your ear drums collapse, your throat constricts....so when you finally get some out of the cup, it has nowhere to go.  The straw that come in the water was like that.  So I poured the water into my Denny's cup that I've been using on the bus and on the bike for several years.  It has a matching red straw that is quite stylish and sophisticated.  It does clash with the bike, but nothing is perfect.

Figgered that the twerp would refill my water glass, since it was empty.  Nope.

No, really, the chips were fine, but they must employ a 5 year old midget dwarf  that has hands the size of Tinkerbell's thimble, and is only allowed to give me one handful.  The basket came pretty quickly, and the sandwich had lettuce, tomato and onion on it...believe it or not, the tomato was pretty much ripe, too.  The onion wasn't too strong, quite good...and the lettuce was green!  The meat was well cooked, not over cooked and flavorless.

That's right, folks, before you cook meat, you should season it.  A little salt and pepper before breading would have improved the taste and enjoyability of the sandwich a great deal.  Adding salt and pepper after gets it done, too, but hey....it's the cook's job.  Lazy bastard.

I finish, go to the restroom to do restroom things....what a DUMP!  No, not like at the gas station where the fucker didn't flush the toilet, I mean like:  the sink is cracked, the counter top is covered with dirty water, the divider walls are missing from between the urinals, and the stall is caved in next to the toilet.  The walls are covered with graffiti.  

Again, finally....I don't know what twerpy was doing all day, he only had 2 tables, and he wasn't serving me...he came back with the bill.  "How was everything?"  Everything???

"the sandwich was unseasoned, my waterglass is empty and the restroom is a dump."

"oh"

I gave him my Discover card, he went away.  Probably wrote down the number, came back. "we don't take Discover....we accept Visa, Mastercard, Super America, American Express, Lane Bryant, Kohls, Citgo, Diner's club, and went on to name every other card in the world that I don't have.  Annoying.

No tip.  If he'd filled my water glass, I'd have given him a tip and not complained about the other stuff.  I was thirsty, damn it!  90 degrees, 250+ miles...6 hours, in the sun, uphill both ways in the blinding blizzard...

Recap:  dark, throwball games (no sound), poor service, half decent food, bad restroom.  

Pretty sure I won't go back, unless I find some review that shows I'm wrong/had an abnormal experience.

Bloggy post 101.  Re-introduction?  No, probably not.

If you sense I've lost interest in this bloggy thingy, you are mostly correct...I'm having a very hard time coming up with interesting crap for you to read about.  

I could tell you about my woodshop, how it's about 1/3 cleaned up.  I need some buckets or bins or shelves or something before I finish. 

Turns out there's a box of booze like stuff on the floor in the middle, pretty much right in the way.  It's been there way too long, but I work around it, pile more stuff on top of it.  I know it has a bottle of margarita mix in it, probably has a bottle of tequila in it.  We've talked about that, right?  It has some wine, maybe some grenadine.  Pretty sure any whiskey or vodka has been removed and consumed.  I've got a dog food sack full of cans, bottles, jars etc that I thought might be useful.  I've got a box full of containers that I got when I was making soaps, lotions, potions, salves and the like.  At the rate I'm using them, I've got enough for the next 578 years.  I doubt I'll live that long.

I've got some cans of paint that have been there pretty much since we moved in, when I was working for a paint store.  The cans are not aging well...probably time to move the lot to the recycle center.  Or dump it all into a 5 gallon bucket and paint the living room, hallway, bedrooms/office.  I don't mind the painting...but I don't like the prep/moving all the stuff!  

I should just haul a lot of the wood scraps out and burn them.  I always think I'll find a use for them, and sometimes I do, but....there they sit, for the most part.  I should find a project that uses small bits of oddly shaped pieces.  Ideas??

Need to complete 2 suitcase repairs...one has a broken bracket, one has a bad zipper pull and a decorative doodad is coming off.  They don't build that stuff like they used to, for sure.

Bored yet?

  

Rule #4 for blogging is to add pics if the audience is bored.  They don't have to pertain to anything.  But these pics are from an event we went to last year, but may not go to this year.  :(

This morning I went down to my woodshop to make something for you.  As I went down the stairs, I pondered what wood to use.  Should I use oak?  I think the only oak I have is either strips of flooring that I salvaged from a dumpster or was given to me by some guy that I don't know any more.  

No, not oak, this should be special.

Here's a piece of maple...it's about the right width, length, kind of thin, but would work.  I can't remember where it came from, it's no good for this project.

Here's some walnut.  Heavy, thick, beautiful wood.  It's special, too, I got that log from my Grandpa's farm and had it sawn at the same time as that ash log. Oh, here's a piece of ash, the right size.  The ash came from the farm where I grew up....wish I had some mulberry...that's beautiful wood.  Crap in one hand, wish in the other, see which one fills up first.  Use the ash.

How to make a wooden object.  It's probably on youtube and wikipedia, but sometimes I like to make my own stuff, my plans, my rules, etc.  Choose which end for the handle, now...how big should the handle be?  I traced the outline of the handle of my favorite carving knife...that's woodcarving knife, not ham/roast beast carving knife...that's just slicing!

The board is thinner than the knife, so I draw it a little wider to make up for that.  I can always glue on some strips to make it thicker.  To the band saw, which is kind of sick, but still works.  I regret getting this size of saw, it's too small and limiting.  I persevere, and make it work, as I always do.  One side is always easier to cut out than the other side, but it looks ok.  I'll have to do a little more sanding.  

I take it to the router table, it's already got the roundover bit in it, so I check the thickness/depth level, and it's ok.  I round over each side of the paddle, but not the handle....I'm going to use my knife for that.  Hmmmm kind of splintered/tore out on that one corner...bit must be getting dull.  No big deal, I'll just trim it a tiny bit and sand it smooth....if she notices or comments it'll earn her an extra whack.

Where the hell is my sander?  Oh, yes, it's in the garage.  Exercise is good for me, right?  Right.  Start with 80, sand all sides, switch to 120, 150, 180 and finally 220.  I'm sanding nearly non stop for 90 minutes, the sander is hot and vibrating...I know some girls that would like to sit on this thing. Some guys will sand on up to 400 grit, but that's ridiculous, since we're going to be putting some varnish on this thing. 

 

What varnish to use?  Spray varnish, poly or lacquer?  Tung oil?  Brush on some varnish, poly or lacquer?  Gloss or semi gloss?  Water based?  Water white?  My old fashioned standby....spar varnish.  Used forever on boats, it's one of my favorite finishes.  Glossy and smooth, this thing will be beautiful.

Kelly's birthday party:  wish I had some pics...

Not because anyone got drunk and fell in the lake, but because our waitress exemplified the fancy ass pants that I wrote about earlier this year.  Of course, I don't know her ethnic heritage, but like so many in this area she's probably half German and half Norwegian.  Tall, slender, blonde and beautiful, I'm pretty sure she was wearing a wonder bra, and those jeans....it'd take a few pics to do them justice.  

Friends, her ass was covered with sparkly jewels, Swavrosky would be jealous.   Whatever the name is, you know who/what I mean.  I mean her cheeks were crusted with these things, and she wore them well.  It was raining, we were standing outside because Kelly had rented the deck thingy so we could watch the ski show and eat dinner and drink beer.  A proper MN birthday celebration.  It actually sounds like a redneck celebration, but it was shaping up to be fun, except for the rain.

I know what you're saying....yah, yah, this is all  fine and dandy, but who the hell is Kelly?

Kelly is one of the many people that came into my life thanks to my interest and continued offering of massage.  She's one of the few that has stayed in my life after receiving the massage...continuing to get one every chance she gets.  

I met Kelly thru the FB phenomena thingy, a mutual friend was posting about massage, I posted some sort of response, Kelly responded, we worked out some details; she came over, got naked (yes, I was in a different room) and on the table, have not been able to get rid of her since.  :)  

Anyway....Kelly had a birthday, which is not unusual in or of itself, most of us do have a birthday each and every year.  Those of you that don't....sorry to be the one to tell you....but you are dead.

Kelly is now 35.  So she's organized a party.  She invited us and a bunch of people that we didn't know....which is ok, it's fun to meet new people.  The party got moved inside when the ski show was cancelled, much to the chagrin of the old people trying to shout at each other over their dinner; but we were able to annoy them just enough to get lots of dirty looks.

OH, crap, I forgot what my message was.  OH, yeah, happy birthday!

Posting #99

It's been a long time in the works...mainly because there's several things to post:

• I need to finish the MI trip from last year
• I need to finish the regional review
• I just got back from a 10 day ride in CO
• I could update you on my neck/shoulder
• We could talk about cancer...a friend has some again.

Or I could just post some pics.

Computer isn't working with the ext hard drive right now.  Did I mention I got a new computer?  Yep, from a one sale a day place, $5 shipping.  It has Windows 7, which I don't yet like.  May never like it.  Wonder if I install Chrome again, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Did a back up from the old computer onto the ext hard drive in July, wonder if I can access those files?  Mostly pics and books, which I think I copied over seperately. 

2012 Regional ride review, Saturday, day 2.

I woke early and stumbled to the shower.  Showers in a new environment are always a challenge for me, for a couple of reasons.  I'm unwilling to make a mess, so I take my glasses off and get right in there.  Then I can't see any instructions on the valve, so it's trial and error before I get the temp right.  I don't often get scalded, but when I do, you can bet that I curse. The shower was pretty nice, a good size, and a high shower head with decent pressure.  Ok, ok.  Enough of me being naked in front of all you nice people!  (There's your daily appetite suppressant.)

I get ready and go outside.  Greg is out there, drinking coffee and watching the clouds cover up the sun.  He snaps some pics and we chat a bit.  I wander around a little, head in to the breakfast room for some coffee, and to see what they have.  I see raw bacon, gravy and pop tarts.  I grab a pack of them for us for later, head back out to uncover the bike, etc.

I don't know why we bothered to cover the bikes...the covers are not waterproof, so I had to wipe them down as if they weren't covered.  Yes, remember....I went to bed when the rain started last night.  I put my towel over my dead sheep to dry it off, wiped the windshields, seats, etc.  Cleaned my visor and sunglasses, too.  About 8 I ride it out front so we can head to breakfast at the casino.  We left in groups, unorganized, no problem, it's only a mile and no one got lost.  I took my sheepskin off my seat...looks like it's going to rain some more.  Lynn hung her helmet by the helmet lock on her front tire, the helmet hangs upside down there.  (bad idea)

We went in, paid, commenced eating...I think maybe 10 minutes after we arrived it was raining hard.  Very hard.  Lynn's helmet is filling up.  BTW, the breakfast buffet there is $6.  Anything you want to drink....pop, coffee, juice, milk, any combination therein.  Eggs any way you want them.  Pancakes, waffles, ham, bacon, sausage, fruit, pudding, toast, etc.  It's a good value.  Pretty soon, Bubba and Bubblebug came in, pretty wet.  That'll teach them!  Show up on time!!!  Steve called to find out the plan, they got there before we left, and in time to show off Julie's new towel.

Lynn's helmet was totally soaked, of course, and she wasn't going to wear it, but then decided that she should.  Not sure how much fun that was, but it had to be better than bare headed when the rain set in on our ride.  There were several folks w/o helmets and rain suits...I think it'd be pretty uncomfortable to be wet all day, and to not be able to see.

The ride was good, lunch at Milty's was good, the secondary ride was good.  We went up on top of the mountain in Lansing, it was a very interesting ride up and down the hill...very steep.

Dinner tonight is provided by the motel, burgers and hotdogs, cole slaw and macaroni salad.  They also provided a cooler full of Old Milwaukee beer.  If that won't entice you to join us next year, I don't know what will.

Since it had rained, we started a fire, that was kind of fun.  Hey, what happens at the fire, stays at the fire.

Lemonade and bourbon, finished the bottle...mmmmmmmmm

2012 SCRC 171 Regional review  Friday July 13.

Once again, our event was based in McGregor IA, at Holiday Shores motel.  The day began with a rain delay; we left about 30 minutes late.  The ride started off fairly boring, just zooming down  a major highway.  Not interstate major, just a 2 lane highway that went directly where I wanted to lead my group.  It's somewhat scenic, but not very challenging.  My plan was to ride 45 miles and then get gas; the total miles for the day would be 145, so that leaves plenty of room for error (of which there were none).  I thought I screwed up, but more about that later.

So that's what happened.  We pulled off into Harmony after riding in rain for about 20 miles.  Top off the gas tank, empty the pee tank, refill the hydration tank, head on thru Harmony and straight south into Iowa.  Right after fueling, I clean my glasses and windshield; road dirt is not nice to look thru, and with 2 pair of glasses, a visor and a windshield....there can be a lot of it.  AlGore gets an honorable mention for microfiber cloths. 139 is a nice scenic enjoyable road, if only they'd tune it up a bit by grinding off some of those high spots which only serve to hurt me.

Next stop is the world's smallest church, located on a gravel road, in the worlds smallest park.  Ok, that part is not true, there are parks that are smaller.  It was nice, though, lots of trees and a tiny cemetery.  There's a corn field next to the place...it's obvious that there's been no rain there for a long time...the stalks are fired up to the first leaves, the other leaves are rolled up tight enough for Cheech to smoke.  Val bought a postcard, we took some pics, walked around the park, signed the guest book thingy and left.

I'm familiar with rich folks along gravel roads using some substance to stop dust....we never used it, because we weren't rich, plus we were right on a corner which required a good slowdown.  Plus we had a nice tall hedge along the edge of the yard, at least we had one until Jill decided we should cut it down.  Did I ever mention that she's a dumbass?  She could be a Murphy, believe it or not.  (If you're new to the bloggy world, read all previous episodes.....but I'll tell you now that Jill is a former step-monster, er stepmother.)  (Murphys are cousins that didn't amount to much, except for one of them.)

There were a couple places along this gravel road that had applied a dark brown substance across the entire surface of the road (so I know it wasn't a "honey wagon" spill) plus it kind of smelled good, sort of like freshly cut wood, oak or walnut.  I kept the speed down to keep the dust down, and I'm sure that the others appreciated that.

Next stop is lunch, and someone had to ask how far it was.  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmI don't  really know.  Val had taken the route so she could have directions, she puts mileage on hers....but screwed up the math and said 17 miles.  HA.....it was closer to an hour.  It was in fact, further than I expected and remembered.  In fact, I was beginning to think I had screwed up....but I knew we were in the right area, and forged on confidently.

I've got to say....while these were not the most twisty of roads, they were the fun fast sweeping curvy scenically awesome roads that make the day quite enjoyable, even though it is hot and humid.

Lunch was at St Olfa's Tap, a bar that has the world's largest pork tenderloin.  No one was gluttonous enough to order the giant thing....I got the medium and it was plenty.  Duane ordered chicken gizzards, partly because he likes them and partly to get others to try them.  Kind of like chewing a peppered pencil eraser.  Val and I shared a side of sweet corn nuggets.  They were everything we hoped they could be.

I don't know why they have painted the men's restroom black.  Kind of spooky.

Speaking of spooky, next stop is the Spook cave, a 35 minute boat tour thru a cave.  A fast way to spend $10, a nice way to cool off:  47 degrees, the water was 42.  They use original boats from the mid 50's, so I suppose all the money goes to profit after paying the annoying tour guide.  It was a short ride to the cave, everyone seemed to enjoy it, esp Duane and Lynn, sitting in the back of the boat.  I, of course, bonked my head and nearly lost my hat, and there was some concern that leaning way over was going to aggravate my neck, but it was fine.

It was a very short ride from the cave to the motel, and we pulled into the gas station next door to gas up; that way we'd be ready for anything.  The apocalypse did not occur, but a big rain storm did, which prevented some folks from fueling on Saturday morning.  (they lost power!)  Luckily, no one had a really short tank, so no fun stories of running out of gas...

Check in, change out of wet socks and boots into dry socks and shoes, line up to ride to dinner about 545.  Dinner was rather unremarkable, really, so we hauled ass back to the motel to break out the bourbon.  I mixed mine with pink lemonade, which is really pretty good....in my opinion.  Kind of a PIA, bottle of lemonade, bottle of bourbon, insulated cup.  A cooler full of beer would be easier, I guess, but then you have to deal with empties, and peeing all the time.

NE IA has been as dry as a popcorn fart for about a month, so there's a burn ban...no bonfire in the fire pit.  It's not as if we need the fire to keep warm....so it's ok.  Lots of us gathered in the grassy area to tell lies, fibs, and stories until it's bed time.  What time is bed time?  Whatever time you want to go to bed...we're all adults, after all.  Turns out bed time was when the rain started...at least for me.  That's about 11 for those of you that were not there.

You don't need to know too many more details about my night and early morning, and that's all I'm going to say about that.  If I can find my camera and get the other camera to work, I'll post some pics.  grrrr  Greg has posted some on the FB thingy, if you're lucky enough to be connected there.....