I'm whupped-

beat down, tired, sore, worn out and bushed. I shouldn't be so hammered but I am.

The job is beating my butt right now with all my program funds needing to be obligated by 1 August, not 30 September, as I was working towards. Now I have to get all the money obligated, through numerous, complicated channels or risk loosing it and crashing my program. On top of all the high-level funding attention my program (and me) are getting, nothing- absolutely nothing is coming together simply and streamlined and by the plan.

So, I am burning the brain cells and energy trying to get this program on track and at double-speed before I get clobbered for not completed on time.

Do you know how hard it is to buy ~58,000 feet of two sizes of wire today? Its not easy.


The kitchen overhaul is nearing completion and is really starting to look nice. The floors are done and there is minor painting to be finished. The countertops arrived and were installed yesterday and they look terrific.

Once the countertop was installed, it was my turn to do all the plumbing of the new sink and faucet. That turned out to be an all day effort and all done on my hands and knees, or my shoulders to get everything connected.

All the plumbing is new, including shut-off valves, all the way down to the cabinet floor. I also added an electrical box to the wall to enclose the garbage disposal wiring connections that used to just dangle. I installed a new garbage disposal and all new drain pipes.

Of course all that took multiple trips to the big-box store to get the parts- and then the right parts and then the extended length parts I needed to get everything to fit. And only the compression fitting on the icemaker connection leaked when I turned all the water back on. Of course it slipped out under pressure, and while I was under the sink, so it really soaked me pretty good before I got the water shut off!

Today I took it a little easier, meeting Carol for coffee then refinishing the boards that were being used as a floor under the sink that I removed yesterday. I also got the swamp cooler hooked up and running, swept out my shop and re-glued the chrome nose bumper on Sleek Black Beauty that had come loose. Removing the old glue with Goo-Gone took a long time but it didn't wreck the paint so I took the time. Its glued back on tonight and the tape is in place to hold it tight until tomorrow.

And when I get done posting this- I'm folding laundry so I will be ready for this week.

Speaking of this week- we should be closing on the house refinancing in a couple days. Wednesday night is a Mark Knopfler concert and although I don't have tickets just yet, I will have tickets by tomorrow and I'm going to that show! The BSU is agreeing to go along even if she doesn't care about the music. Its a night out so she'll humor me.

And the grass needs mowed!

Its Memorial Day and its raining

So what better time to catch up on my blogging?

I'm washed out from doing repairs on my sprinkler system this morning so I might as well stay inside where its warm and my coffee pot is nearby. The weather guessers say it might clear off later but right now it is too wet to get outside.

My hummingbird population is beginning to grow, with 3 regular visitors to the feeder outside the dining room window. Right now there are two males claiming the feeder as their own and a single female appeared yesterday. Today they are trying to hide under the porch roof from the rain but there's just no good places to hang on so they keep looking in my window, just outside where I am sitting.

Here's some pretty interesting news- I am now not only a veteran due to my military service but I'm also a disabled vet. Long time readers and family, (redundancy alert!) might remember that I finally applied for disability consideration back in September 2007. I could have done this as far back as 2000 when I retired but I deferred this action out of laziness and apathy. But I finally went through the disability consideration process- which was not all that bad, really and this week I finally received the Veteran Administration's decision. I have received a 60% disability rating!

What does all this mean? Well, it means a lot of things, not the least of which is a considerable amount of cash will be deposited into my savings account each month. The amount is 60% of my retirement pay and most interesting, it is tax free. I also received a retroactive payment from September until now. Additionally, with the letter I received from the VA, my property tax on the house will be reduced to probably 0 dollars per year, saving me another $1000 per year and I will receive free entrance to Utah State Parks and all our US National Parks! Finally, and the real reason I applied for disability consideration in the first place, I will be able to apply for any Civil Service job that I wish to apply for on base, even if it is normally open only to persons already in Civil Service employ.

So one of my next steps is to start shopping for a permanent, Civil Service job doing the Program Manager work that I'm currently doing as a support contractor!

I'm also beginning the process to refinance the mortgage so I can pay for some improvements on the house and put a new roof on the shop. As our house is currently VA backed for payment support, I discovered that because of my disability, I can be excused from paying the VA financing fee which is several thousand dollars! Right now we are planning to refinance the house for 15 years instead of the existing 21+ years and with the extra funds that I will be receiving from VA I will be able to add extra to the principle most every month and probably pay for the house in under 10 years! This disability thing is turning out to be a good deal!

Home early this Sunday night-

Well after getting home late last week on Sunday, we managed to get home a little earlier tonight. We went to Salt Lake this evening to take Kye & his GF, Stephanie out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. Since it was Mom's special day, she got to pick the place and of course, the place was Outback. Its her favorite place and even though I think its way over rated, that's where we went.

The wait wasn't too terrible and the weather was pleasant so it was pretty nice outside while we took our turn for a table. Our waitress was hard working, friendly and eager, in spite of the level of activity she was dealing with on the busiest day of the restaraunt year. And so we're home, over full and happy.

I called Mom this afternoon and we had a nice chat and I got the chance to wish her a happy Mothers Day. I bought her flowers and they were delivered on time and she said they were beautiful, so I guess I did pretty good there. I've a package here to mail tomorrow for her and Grandma and I'm keeping the contents secret until after it gets delivered.

I got the yard mowed- out front, today, for the first time this year. The back yard still awaits. The Murray mower started right back into service after its rest time in the shed but the string trimmer might have finally given up the ghost. I got it working but it won't stay running for any more than a few seconds. Its only provided 18 years of reliable service for the 60 or 70 bucks I paid for it so it might just be time to retire it and get a new one. Just doing my part for the President's Economic Stimulus Package...

Kenny & I went fishing yesterday and we got lucky- the fish weren't biting and so we didn't have to clean any fish when we got home. It was a very nice day with lots of terrific scenery to look at and birds to watch so not catching any fish didn't spoil the day.

What else? I got Loc's pistol repaired by installing a new magazine catch and I'm pretty certain I am going to turn the gun into my gun instead of his now that I've fixed its bugs. I pocket carried it tonight and it was no more trouble than my P3-AT.

My local city of Ogden had a bit of excitement last night when the police had to teargas a house to breakup a party and standoff that eventually got 17 people arrested! I'm sure glad that didn't happen on my block!

So that's it for this weekend from behind the Zion Curtain. There are some other (maybe) exciting things happening that I can't reveal just now until I get some confirmations from a couple places and persons but I will spill the beans whenever it becomes official.

Why am I always so tired on Sunday nights?

Aren't I supposed to be rested up when the weekend is over? It never seems to work out that way and particulary this weekend. I'm whupped!

Its all the car repairs I'm doing that are kicking my butt. Friday was my regular day off and I spent the first part of the day in the local junkyard looking for seatbelt parts for the Tempo in the driveway. I still can't make the motorized shoulder belt work, after changing out the drive belt, so I found out online that later model cars had the emergency release mounted on the sliding portion instead of between the seats. Friday I went hunting for some of those belts. And I found a pair that were in good shape and didn't require too much to get removed. I also scored the center console that is different from the one in the car and the sliders for each side. In addition, I scored a outside mirror housing to replace the one on the car that had been epoxied together with a couple nails for support. It was really terrible looking and for just a few bucks I found a good one at the yard.

In the afternoon I got most everything torn out of the car. I had to modify the original bracket with a hacksaw and cutoff tool and then I carried it down for some welding to add a new plate for the new bracket to mount to. That was as far as I got on Friday.

Saturday was a full day of ticketchecking at Powder Mountain and it was the first blue sky day on a Saturday this year. It was warm and beautiful all day with terrific snow and a great crowd. I even have some pictures but I'm too tired to post them tonight.

I intended to finish that job today... But a phone call from the boy last night reset my plans. Seems the girlfriend's car- their only wheels, was now broke down, stranded needing immediate attention. So- today I loaded a toolbag and headed to Salt Lake. The problem? The car won't start. All the other electrics seem to work and the battery shows a full charge and it doesn't drop off on the voltmeter when trying to start it. SO we towed the car back to their apartment and went to work. I poked and prodded a bit, decided perhaps the starter solenoid had failed, just like my truck a couple weeks back. To remove the starter and the solenoid, according to the Chilton's book, you have to drop the motor off the motor mount- or, remove the cooling fans and radiator! Turns out, all you have to do is remove the fans, the radiator can stay. But you have to remove the battery and the battery box to get the fans out!

And of course, the starter and solenoid checked out just perfect at the autoparts store... The battery tested good too... So we replaced the power cables that were junk with new ones with absolutely no improvement to the circumstance. Nothing, nada. You can hear all the relays and other stuff booting up when you turn on the ignition but there's no effort to crank up the starter. I found a 30 amp fuse in the box, labeled "Starter" but it checked good.

I think now it must be the ignition switch. Everything else seems to be in place and working. But according to the repair manual I didn't have all the right tools to do the job and it was already late this afternoon, so I didn't get the job done. Damm.

Tomorrow I'll get a switch and the dealer item hose for the PCV that's so hard it breaks off when you try to cut it and make another trip to Salt Lake to see if I can get this thing working for them. Then I can get back to finishing the seatbelt repairs on the other car!

I've still got scooters to put back together too! I need another weekend!

I think the shop is going to get a new roof-

And not just new shingles on the existing roof to try to cure the leak that I've been bitching about for a few weeks now. No, I think I'm going to remove the simple flat, sloped roof this summer with an entire new roof in a new shape!

I'm going to find out how much 12 of these trusses will cost and if I can afford it, I'm raising the roof! The current roof really doesn't have enough slope to get the water and snow to drain off and I think this design will improve the run-off while adding a little headroom inside as well. I also want to use steel roofing panels that should last forever and some staple up insulation on the inside.

That should be a nice addition to my shop, don't you think?

What have I done all day?

Nearly enough- nothing! I haven't been outside, its cold today and very windy, so I stayed inside. I've been working on the family PC for several hours now, trying to rid it of all the bugs and spyware and junk that has found its way onto the system. I think I've been successful but the BSU will let me know later if more work is required. I found trojans on the machine, safely quarantined by BitDefender but have not been able to actually remove them from the system. I'm re-running the scan right now hoping to get a status report that I can send to them for assistance.

I just got off the phone with Dad and he and Carol are (finally) thinking about breaking their dependence on a dial-up internet connection! THey don't want to give up their AOL habit just yet but apparently there is a way to keep using AOhell while using a high speed connection. Needless to say, I was doing my part to encourage their jump into all that the internet has to offer that just won't fit through a dial-up modem. Carol's also using a 10 year old computer and mentioned that there were laptops available for just $500 in the local paper, so I of course, advised that Dad encourage her to dump the old anchor and get something portable.

For some reason, re-running the virus scan is not giving me the results that I had just a little while ago. I have no idea what that means! I just hope I can get our PC running well enough without having to completely reinstall the operating system. So far, I haven't been that brave!

Anyway, its about time to scrounge up some dinner, fold laundry and think about taking down the Christmas tree and putting away the decorations. The nativity scene in the front yard remains lit tonight but I think it will be the last night for this season and I'll get up on the roof to take everything down and out of the yard later this week- when it warms up a bit!

Well this is perfect!

I got home from working at Powder Mountain Ski Resort just a little while ago, changed my clothes and the BSU announced that she was taking the truck and going out. I'm pretty certain that means she is out Christmas shopping for me.

But National Lampoon's Christmas is showing, right now on TBS and I get to watch it without disturbance. I even got to see it from the very beginning, somthing that almost never happens!

Sweet!

Well, the spouse is home from her hospital stay

She has survived all the turmoil of 2 nights in a hospital, her diverticulitus is responding to 2 types of antibiotics and she is home so she can rest.

Truth be told, she got really good care and she is getting better, which makes me really happy.

And I've got the cold bug beginning to sit on my chest... Grumble!

Well this is no good!

The BSU's dreaded diverticulitus has reared its ugly head again and plunked her back into the hospital. We've been there all day after she decided that she recognized the symptoms and did not want to wait until she became critical.

Seems she was right and closer to being critical than she realized.

So, I'm headed back in a few minutes and I'll sit with her until they throw me out. I haven't decided about tomorrow's work shift. I guess I'll figure that out later.

UPDATE: I'll be skipping work tomorrow to sit with the BSU in the hospital. There's a chance she might have to get a colonoscopy since it has been 5 years since her last one. She is mighty intent to get well and out of the hospital as her airplane ticket taking her to Oregon is dated for this coming Friday.

I look like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer!

Except that my red nose is stuck on the end of my left index finger. I've a dandy red bandage keeping my 3 new stitches clean after a little trip to the Emergency Room yesterday. And boy- is typing on this keybaord tough without my index finger!

It all started with another little mod to Sleek Black Beauty... I bought some of that chrome plastic, split wire cover to put over the control cables on the handlebars- just a little bit of bling to shiny things up a little bit. And on the first piece, when it was time to cut it to length, my index finger snuck in behind the plastic just as my swiss army knife sliced through. Youch!

It cut a nasty little flap in the side of my fingertip, just next to my fingernail... Of course I didn't want to stop what I was doing so I wrapped it with a paper shop towel and continued to work. Thirty minutes later it was still bleeding and dripping blood on everything so I went to get the BSU's assistance with a bandage. She took one look and declared that I needed stitches so off we went to the local ER. The folks there hooked me up with stitches and this reindeer nose of a bandage in pretty short order and I've been just Partially Mission Capable ever since.

I did manage to get the old stick-on Christmas light hangers off the house and today I need to put up lights and drag out the nativity set for the front yard. Just as soon as it gets above 35 degrees or so!

What else did we do this weekend?

Saw two movies, both of them pretty terrific though I will keep theim secret until I have time to write reviews.

We bought jewelry- a ruby and diamond ring. A big ring with lots of stones. Send money!

And after the BSU and I returned from a scenic fall scenery drive through the mountains, I borrowed Jim's car tote and helped rescue my buddy Loc's daughter's broken down car. It was down in Lehi so that was a 140 mile round trip and I didn't get home until after 10 PM last night.

My professional volleyball career is over...

I'm afraid so. I may never be able to play pro level volleyball again...

I have a torn rotator cuff on my left shoulder. Its official after seeing the Doc today. I have 3 kinds of anti-inflammatories to try, 2 weeks each and after that I may get some steroid shots and therapy before the Doc gets around to considering surgery.

But it sure hurts!

Well, what first?

Easy stuff first, I suppose. For those of you following along at home with my water intrusion problems in my shop, I think I've solved the problem. The water runs off my roof into a gap between my shop and the neighbor's garage that is just a couple feet wide. There is a ramped slab running down towards my shop and then there is a 6 inch wide gutter below the level of the shop floor. But after several years, the leaves and dirt and trash had piled up back there and it was blocking the rain gutter. I spent a couple hours raking and shoveling out 1/2 a trash can of junk from behind the shop and I think my intrusion problem might be under control. Good!

Since winter is bearing down, (it rained and snowed on Saturday) I got the swamp cooler on the roof drained, dried out and covered for the season. That went pretty smoothly. I still need to pull down the inside vent and stuff the insulation plug in the hole but I don't have to get on the roof for that.

I also got the camper drained out and the lines blew clear for the winter. It still needs some moving around and the cover put on it before its completely ready for winter.

No weekend blogging or even an update?

Yeah, not until later. The weekend blogging time got eaten up with a car rescue with my buddy Loc last night. There's movies, scooter mods, preparations for the quickly approaching winter season and jewelry shopping to write about. Just as soon as I can...

New windows!

We are signing the papers tomorrow night for all new windows to be installed in our house. They are pretty fancy vinyl windows, double paned, of course, argon filled and will be a huge improvement to our house. American Exteriors will be building the windows and doing the installation in a few weeks.

Our little house is the same age as me, 51 years old, and it has the original, single paned, aluminum framed windows. Upstairs there are horizontal sliding windows, downstairs we have steel framed tip-in, rocker type windows. They all are getting replaced except for two. Our bedroom window in the basement doesn't meet current code for size for a bedroom, replacing it would require much cutting of the concrete wall of the basement. So that's not happening. The other window that's not being replaced is in the basement laundry room and has the dryer vent routed through it. I don't feel like drilling a vent sized hole through the bricks in the side of my house, so that window stays too.

Anyway, its going to be a big investment and of course the BSU wants new doors installed too, though I'll be doing that seperately. We've been in the house almost 8 years and we haven't spent much on improvements, so this one will be a big deal and very valuable in the long run. Promises of reduced heating bills and increased comfort should make this a good improvement to our house.

Its the 4th of July, What did I do?

Not much really.

Last night I took the scooter apart, (again) and re-installed the headlight relays from Eastern Beaver that I bought last summer and couldn't make work properly. This time, after my buddy Loc, (a trained electrical engineer) and I perused the wiring schematic for a bit, I got it working correctly.

The problem with scooters like mine is that the power to the headlights is AC not DC. And installing the headlight relays in the typical fashion makes the headlights either flash or go out when the power is applied. Yesterday we figured out a different method of wiring the trigger and when I tried that method, it worked! So now my headlights are 100% bright all the time, don't dim at idle and even better, the battery is still charging as it should. Good deal!

Today I booked and paid for our airplane tickets for our trip and cruise in October. Dad- we'll be staying until Wednesday and will need a ride to the airport. I also learned to play The Star Spangled Banner on my guitar- not as exciting as Jimi Hendrix's version but recognizable just the same. I cleaned out the shooting bench and gear from the back of the dusty truck bed and hosed it out, unrolled the camper awning and decided it didn't need scrubbing and listened to a bit of the Raptors game on the radio while drinking beer in the shade of my carport.

I even watched a couple hours of Mythbusters this afternoon when it got really hot outside.

Tomorrow its back to work and then Friday the BSU and I are taking the camper someplace cooler for a couple days!

Seems that I am in immediate need

[Updated at bottom of post]

Of a new tool box roll-around chest. Son Noah wants his monster, silver-colored, stainless steel edifice to all things mechanical toolbox, that has been happily residing in my shop, for his own use now that he has secured employment. And I don't want to go back to using multiple small toolboxes sitting on my workbenches to store my tools. So I need a new, (or used), medium sized roll around chest.

I tried to suggest to the boy that since he's been hired as a service writer and shop helper, not a technician at a motorcycle, ATV and snowmobile shop that perhaps he should bring in just a small, portable box that could sit out of the way for his use. I also suggested that in the mechanics world, that maybe being the guy with the least experience but the largest toolbox might just cause a little stress among co-workers. Especially since there's just not that many tools inside his giant box.

But he wants it and he wants me to borrow a trailer and help load, move and unload the box at his employment location. That means I have to separate my tools from his tools, from his box where they have been happily co-mingling for over a year, in my shop. Last night the BSU and I had a look for chests at Harbor Freight where they had nothing I wanted and at Sears where the choices are plentiful but expensive. And of course, the BSU sees no need for me to have a new chest and thinks whatever I buy will be a wasteful expense at a time just before we double our personal debt by paying for a road trip to Oregon and back next month.

I'm hoping to buy a chest today so that I can move the tools just once, from Noah's box to the new one. Yesterday's pawn shop search was unsuccessful and browsing KSL's adverts last night unveiled numerous $4000 Snap-On boxes but nothing in my price range. While Noah's box was a space imposition in my little shop, I had grown pretty accustomed to having my tools (and his) available all in one place and I really want to maintain that status quo even if I have to buy my own box on short notice.

Donations will be gladly accepted…

As for moving the boy's box, my week and weekend are filling up pretty fast. So I might just let him know when its ready for him to come and get it and let him manage the transportation requirements.

UPDATE: Mission accomplished. Tonight I purchased this 6 drawer cabinet from Sears. With some assistance from the BSU, my yard trailer and the overhead hoist in the shop, we got the wheels installed and the box sitting waiting to be filled. I guess that will be tomorrow night's job. I didn't buy the matching top chest, yet, but I would like to add it to the cabinet so I have a matched set. Overall, I think this will be a much better size for my shop than Noah's huge set that just eats up a lot of floor space.

It's a damm shame

When you twist your ankle, causing swelling and excruciating pain, stepping off an unfinished, unlit sidewalk in the dark and you can't even sue the (ir)responsible party- because you can't sue yourself!

Wow my ankle is sore today! I didn't break anything but I sure hurt myself last night just stepping off the end of the sidewalk onto the sloped path at the top of the hill in the backyard. I took a good twist on my right ankle that caused me so say bad words, loudly, in the privacy of my own backyard. I managed to hobble into the house and the BSU kindly propped me up with an icepack, anti-inflammatory meds and a towel until bedtime. Today, I need more meds and to stay off this bum part as much as possible.

And, while I don't know the details just yet, friend Kenny managed to tear up his knee over the weekend! Ain't we a pair?

I'm back among the (almost) healthy!

I am feeling much better after a rather rocky week last week from the flu bug or whatever it was, that left me feeling really poorly. I felt so bad on Saturday morning that I took myself to an Urgent Care thinking that maybe I had strep throat. The Doc in the Box didn't think I had strep but did think I have a sinus infection and that was the source of my extreme sore throat. So, antibiotics for 10 days to treat the infection and maybe then I'll be well.

My trip to the Urgent Care wasn't the only medical visit for the family this weekend though. Almost like Sister Mel's family, we made a second trip, this time to the Emergency Room on Saturday night for the spouse. She had a bloody nose that had begun in the early hours of Saturday morning, continued to be a bother off and on all day and then became a non-stop flow while we watched a movie on tv. She had a gusher going that simply would not be stopped with home treatment, so we headed out to the ER.

The BSU got good care and pretty promptly, though it seemed like we were there a long time. The Doc finally had to cauterize the bleeding spots in her nose with silver nitrate after a decent period of pressure packing and some numbing medication. Today she's much better and hasn't had a single nosebleed all day, a rare ocurrence for her.

Friday I felt well enough to spend a few hours in the driveway replacing the front brake pads and rotors on the truck. That was only the second set of pads for the truck, with 144,000 miles on it now and the first rotor replacement. Can I tell you how heavy the wheels and tires, the rotors, calipers and mounts are for a F250 truck? That stuff is all really heavy! I was a bit too worn out by the time that project was completed.

D-I-V-E-R-T-I-C-U-L-I-T-U-S

Its not just a condition, it’s a pain! Where was I yesterday? Oh, from 4:30 AM until mid-morning I was in the Emergency Room with the BSU. She's had another diverticulitus attack and it required another hospital visit. Long time readers might remember that I made a no-notice trip to Oregon a couple of years ago when she was laid low with this affliction, this time she was at home and no flying was required.

And no surgery was required even though the Docs thought it might be called for, to remove her appendix. The abdominal pains that aflict her are in the exact same spot as her appendix and so the first consideration is for removal of that little organ. But the docs ordered up a CT-scan test and the healthy appendix and ailing intestine were confirmed so no surgery was required. Rather large doses of 2 kinds of antibiotics, pain meds and anti-nausea meds were required and she will be choking down those antibiotics for several more days.

So, she is getting better already after a decent night's sleep. She hurt yesterday, all day, and the meds upset her stomach something terrible but some decent rest and a easy diet for another day or two will have her back on her feet again soon.