Winter Wrap Up Random

So as usual, there's been a lot that goes on!!! Figured I'd go random and encapsulate a bit of it!!!

I'd mentioned that I bought a new set of tires for Kutcher, and took 'em to get aligned. I had the whole motor mounts fiasco with that, and still had the rest of the front end to rebuild. I bought all the stuff, and managed to get it done in two days, one for each side, with nearly no damage to myself!!! It was before our anniversary getaway, I saw and took this picture of a bruise I'd given myself while we were on that trip.

I was making good progress, and would have continued onto the other side, but this time of year the sunlight fades far too early. Plus side, the weather was good for it!!! Don't think I've ever mentioned, but I bought myself a cool little LED work light years ago. It has a built in battery, and came with a wall and 12-volt chargers. I broke it out when it started getting dark, but I think it was the first time I've tried to use the 12-volt charger, and it isn't working. Not long after we got Sidney, he hopped up on the counter and ate through the wall charger cord. I had bought some sleeving to re wire it with an armor coat. I laid it on the floor to take a picture of the light and the repair, and Sid had to come along and posed with his victim!!!

Here's one of my favorite new shirts that I've recently bought from a thrift store, the Polaroid of Shrek and Donkey after they've just listened to the “Welcome to Duloc” animatronics!!!

The final segment of Scruffy's dashboard lights finally decided to get with the program!!! Looks good!!!

Sidney is as people cat as ever, even though he never become the shoulder cat I'd hoped. Younger will pick him up and baby carry him, he's been doing it since we got him, and he... tolerates it. He's not really much of a lap cat, either, except when I'm in the bathroom!!! He's also a big fan of sink drinks. He does leave his mended leg sticking out straight when he's lounging, though, I hope it doesn't bother him. Got this shot of him sitting with it sticking funny, and a cat yawn!!!

I've picked up a few more books to read. I was in the midst of one when I bought The Left Hand of Darkness, and my wife thought it looked interesting, so she had started in on it. I don't remember exactly when it was, but I always watch Jeopardy, and one of the contestants was a science fiction book fan, and said that it was her favorite, so that was the impetus to get it. I have yet to start in on it, because when I finished the one I was reading, my wife had it. She's since declared it “too weird”, so it's next, but in the meantime I'd picked up Wuthering Heights, since it's one of those classics that's spoken of often. I read it, and was able to track it without any difficulty, but it seemed like a bit of a slog reading through it. I see there's a movie of it coming out soon. I don't think I'll be going to see it. Atlas Shrugged, I'm reading right now, and within the first few pages, I knew I'd like it!!! It is just so well written!!! I'll probably be reading more Rand in the future!!!

I'd mentioned looking into getting a Kangol hat, just because it was mentioned in a Counting Crows song, so of course they keep coming up in my suggestions. I went back and looked again, and once again didn't see any I'd be willing to pay the asking price for, but there was one that had “Make an offer” as an option, so I did, and now I've got a Kangol hat!!! It was a reasonable price to me, but still may be one of the most expensive hats I own!!! So far, I've worn it once.

We made a follow up trip to the junkyard!!! Primarily, it was to get the $10 core for the hood, but they also had the correct year Saturn SL2 there, and I was able to get the bumper bracket. Not mentioned on that post, surrogate had it parked at his work, and something fell over and cracked the passenger side fender, so we were finally able to get a replacement fender as well. I put the bracket on, but the fender still needs sanded down and painted, then installed. I think the window for the core on it will expire soon, if it hasn't already. Anyway, a couple of cars over was a Cadillac, with a full set of center caps. I didn't know if they would fit, but I grabbed them anyway. Unfortunately, when I was trying to get them off, one of the faces came loose. I used double stick tape on the back of it and got it back in place, but it's since parted ways. They extend a bit wide, but at least I had a full matching set for a while!!!

I bought this shirt at the same time I got the Shrek and Donkey one. They were both tagged with the color that was on sale for $1.99 that day, and I liked the design on this one. I tried to use the Google Lens to translate it (since I didn't want to have something I didn't know what it was, or if it was somehow offensive) and it came up with something like “Let summer bloom”, which sounded good to me, but I found out later it's a Bad Bunny album title, more something along the lines of “A summer without you”. Cool artwork.

For Halloween the younger wanted to go as a character from Team Fortress, the Scout. I think there had been talk among his friends to go as various characters, but that didn't happen. We went to the thrift store to try and find some headphones, and located some black and white shoes and the red shirt. I hacked off the one side, and fabricated a boom mic with some wire and a cork.

Surrogate went as a bank robber from another video game franchise, and another friend of theirs re purposed the goat skull mask from a couple of years ago.

On the same shopping trip that I got the aforementioned sale shirts, I also saw an aloha shirt with gray tone background. I took a closer look, and the print is of different colored monorails!!! Sold!!!

7-11 has been featuring Mountain Dew Pitch Black on tap. I quite like it!!! It's been a regular go to for me for a while now. Don't believe I've ever mentioned, we've been to Applebee's a few times, and they have a Dark Berry Bash flavor there that I also really like. Interestingly, the Pitch Black flavor is actually a fairly light blue color!!!

We went to Subways for the first time in quite a while recently. When it was topping time, I told the sandwich artist to give me as many olives as he was allowed to, and he came through with flying colors!!! I had to take a picture, then I whispered to surrogate, “This is going in the spank bank!!!” I usually don't tip at fast food places, but for all those olives (he did my wife's up proper, as well) I stuck some in the tip jar!!!

I was out in the yard recently, and Candy Pain drove by in what I assume was the same Toyota she had before. The fuzz has been removed, and it's been painted red, with a Coca Cola swoop on the the side and her name. It was there and gone before I could even think of taking a picture, and the only ones I've been able to find have the old look.

We had Thanksgiving at my mom's retirement home. She reserved a private room, and we had our own server. It wasn't that late, maybe noon or so, but you know, old people apparently eat early. They had traditional Thanksgiving fare, but when the server gave us the menus, he apologized and said they'd already run out of turkey. He was taking our order, and my mom asks for turkey. Once again, he apologizes and says they're out of turkey. My mom replies, "Oh. Well, I'll have the turkey!!!" I don't think her hearing is very good. Afterwards, we headed out to the patio and played a couple of card games, then played a Jeopardy card game my wife had given me for Christmas a couple of years ago that we hadn't played yet. I took the first game in a runaway, then played Alex for the next round, and the younger took that game, also in a runaway!!! Makes a dad proud. I'd also brought a game the older had down in the basement, Cards Against Humanity. We'd played it before with surrogate, and maybe Wolf of Cheese Ball (or maybe both, it was a while ago) but my wife and mom had never played it. We had a blast!!!

We have a friend who is a single mother (of 5!!! and recently adopted an infant from someone who couldn't properly care for him!!!) who was having some car issues. She said her brakes needed work, and when she had a tire replaced recently, the guy told her the bushings on one of the front control arms were shot. I offered to do the brakes and replace the control arms (figured both sides would probably be in similar condition), and did it a couple weeks ago. I had some difficulty, but nothing like the motor mounts fiasco. Got another nice bruise, this time on my arm, so I get a chance to show off my tattoo!!!

I had gone out to get some burgers back in October, and stopped in at the Arco AM/PM for some beverages, and it had burned!!! It didn't take the whole place out (amazingly) but it charred the underside of one awning and melted the sign!!! They had the point of origin pump boxed up with plywood, and have yet to do anything with it. I told the girl at the counter I was glad I wasn't around when it happened!!! I have a history with fires at Arcos...

When I was doing Kutcher's front end, I had the windows down and the radio playing, which is what I usually do while I'm working on a car. When I finished up, the battery was low enough that it wouldn't crank. I boosted it, and didn't have an issue from that point on. A few weeks later, surrogate and the younger had borrowed it, and had left the lights on while they got some lunch, and once again, the battery was too low to crank. They jumped it, and had no more issues, but I was wondering about the battery's condition. I stopped in at an Auto Zone and had them check it, and they said it indeed was beginning to fail. It was a 3 year warranty battery, and I asked when I'd bought it. They said it was three years back in July or August, so it was out of warranty. It was still working, so I let it go while I shopped around to see if I could locate a Die Hard battery. It doesn't appear that you can get them anymore, but I found that Wal Mart has a AGM battery with a 4 year warranty for $20 less than the 3 year Auto Zone battery!!! Sold!!! I had it shipped, and it has a $12 core that I still need to cash in on.

And finally, the second shirt I picked up on our anniversary. It's a Detroit Muscle shirt, and it has a lot written on it, and the profile of what looks like a 30's sedan delivery rod. It's roomy on me, and has a faint smell of oil to it which doesn't go away no matter how many times I wash it. Which I kind of like.

The Literary Stack

A little over a year ago, I decided that I would no longer be on my phone in the bathroom, and went back to the old ways of taking a book with me instead!!!

The result, unsurprisingly, is that I've read a lot more books!!! Books I'd been given, books I'd picked up because they sounded interesting, books by favorite authors I hadn't gotten to, and in one case, a book that came with the house!!!

That book was “Storm”, published back in the 40's, and was the origin of the naming of storms. I've heard of, but never heard, the song, “They Call the Wind Maria”. It was from the high school my mom had attended, but she has no recollection of reading it.

Speaking of my mom, she loaned me one of the books from the Dean Koontz “Jane Hawk” series, the fourth in the series, “The Forbidden Door”. It was a good book, very readable, and Koontz does a good job of making it so you don't need to have read the previous books to be able to get on board.

That was a hardcover, and once I was started, I wanted to read the rest. I picked up the rest of the series in paperback, and burned through them. Then I gave them to my mom, who also likewise burned through them!!!

Speaking of burning through books, I found this in one of those little free libraries that was in my mom's neighborhood.

I'd heard of “Fahrenheit 451” since I was in school, but had never read it. It's a bit dated (a lot of the future-set Sci-Fi books are), but the idea holds up!!! It had several afterwords including some interviews with Bradbury, and he mentioned in part of it that the mechanical hound was an updating of Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles. I have a desire to read more Ray Bradbury now.

Another dated Sci-Fi book I picked up from a free library, this time in my neighborhood, was called “Tiger Tiger”. I enjoyed them both.

I think it was at the beginning of the year I picked up Stephen King's “The Outsider”, “Fairy Tale”, and “Holly”. “The Outsider” continues the story of Holly from Bill Hodges (from the Mr. Mercedes series) detective agency and was pretty good.

“Fairy Tale” was a great story, classic King fantasy sci-fi, and I enjoyed it the most of the three.

“Holly” further continues the story of Holly, but... the Wuhan Flu and Donald Trump have destroyed the once great Stephen King. It was practically unreadable. TDS is a powerful thing.

After I'd finished the Jane Hawk series, I had a hankering to read some John Irving again. I've heard him described as the dirty old man of literature, and I find that to be an apt description.

I remember as a teen having several of my friends over when “The World According to Garp” was airing on one of the cable channels. It had Robin Williams, it has to be funny, right??? Sure enough, it had some funny, but I think that we were more traumatized than amused.

The book was much better. Who knows, maybe I just happen to have aged into it!!!

I was reading “The World According to Garp” when we were on our Catalina vacation, and while we were there, we happened on yet another little free library. As always, I had to have a look through to see if there was anything of interest.

I saw the title of this one, “Down at Flathead”, and was intrigued. Of course, the flathead Ford V-8 was an early hot rod staple, a compact V-8 engine offering much improved performance over many of the smaller and bulkier engines of the day, and were often swapped into small, lightweight cars.

I pulled it out, and the cover artwork also got my attention, and the synopsis cemented it. The author lives in Avalon, and this copy happens to have been signed. I'm only about ¼ of the way through, but so far I'm liking it quite a lot!!! They've re-stolen the Lunar Rover from Apollo 17, then stole one of the Catalina Express jet catamarans, and are currently on a large orbiting spacecraft.

A lot of the books are stacked up on the end of the kitchen table, hence the Literary Stack!!! I've got to clear out the bookshelf, and probably distribute several of the books back to the little libraries!!!

???

"Dude, there's a Q-tip stuck into your ceiling."



"Yea, I know. I stuck it up in there."

"Don't take it out."

"Don't question it, just let the Q-tip be."

"Alright bud."

The Fall of Fort 7

It was a peaceful morning, a little foggy, but no figures broke the fog. All of a sudden, a big shadow came through the fog carrying the monthly rations and 20 troops. Fort 7's security gate opened, when all of a sudden, a mortar round broke the scilence and collapsed the trenches! A nearby Sargent yelled out, "Mortars!" as 5 more rounds hit the fort. Two tanks broke the fog and opened fired with the 50-mm machine guns mounted to kill oncoming troops. Fifty battle-ready troops advanced on the tanks while others mounted the fort's defence cannons and machine guns. Troops came from the fog carrying rocket launchers and C-4. Then, just as the first tank exploded, he fort's automatic sentry turrets activated and cut down the the fog-trooper's front lines and the fort brought out the 2 antitank vehicles they had stored in the gradges. All of a sudden, the fog cleared and 3 Osprey helocopters came through the air, heading for the fort. the anti-air guns opened fire just as the troop carrying a HAVOC nuke came into the fort, planted the nuke, and ran for the motorcycle stashed by the shed. The enemy troops retreated and the fort roared in victory. Little did they know that a HAVOC nuke was planted in the barracks.

The preceding short story was written by the oldest for a quick short story assignment at school. The instructor said it was even better than their own. I thought it was pretty good, too. I left the misspellings in, to present it in "as written" form. He's been asking me to post a link to his site on here for a while to get traffic going that way. Please click over. I think he has delusions about the popularity of my blog :Þ