- Sometimes being a packrat is a good thing. When the washing machine breaks down on a Friday night, you look like a genius when you still have the washing machine you bought when you were single tucked away in a corner of the basement.
- Good: Putting out six lawn bags full of clothes, two boxes of books, three old computers and monitors, a dresser, a headboard and footboard set, and two computer desks for pick-up by a charity. Not so good: Your spouse noting that we now have a lot of room for new stuff. Sigh.
- Maybe going to the Apple store to get the laptop serviced during the first weekend after an iPhone rollout wasn’t my best idea ever.
- I’m a Halloween person, I really am. It’s the one day of the year I can be me and no-one thinks it’s strange. But when did Halloween turn into a “schlep six buckets of lights, blow-up lawn ornaments, and assorted other crap into the yard and set it up” holiday?
- This was early muzzle-loader weekend here in Kentucky, but it was way too windy and way too warm. Yeah, I’m a wimp. In penance, Irish Woman worked me like a field hand all weekend.
Thoughts on the Weekend
Posted by daddybear71 on October 17, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/17/thoughts-on-the-weekend-9/
Thought for the Day
The mark of a good belt and holster combination is that you can walk around all day long with a loaded CZ-82 on your hip and forget it’s even there.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 15, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/15/thought-for-the-day-58/
Light Blogging
Life is intruding and the laptop is in the shop to have the air in the tires rotated.
Tidbits and goofy humor to follow.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 15, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/15/light-blogging/
Car Meme
OldNFO tagged me, so here we go:
What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition
My first car was a 1959 Chevrolet Apache pickup, with a HUGE straight 6 engine and a manual 3 speed transmission.
Mine wasn’t this pretty, but might be its original paint scheme. I found hints of white and red paint under the primer.
I got it the day after my 15th birthday in 1986 from a farmer outside of Grand Forks North Dakota for $200. It had a two-tone paint job, primer red and primer gray. It leaked more fluids than I did, smoked like a chimney, required gasoline to be poured directly into the carburetor to start, and had a top end of 15 miles per hour. It had been rolled onto its side at least twice, but the body didn’t have a lot of rust on it other than the fenders and parts of the bed, which were almost transparent.
My buddies and I spent over a year tearing that car down and making it right. I did a lot of the body work using a ball peen hammer, a slide hammer, and bondo. I buffed off the rust that wasn’t too bad, and spot-welded sheet metal to the places that I had to cut off then ground the edges down and added a layer of bondo. My two partners in crime were real motorheads, and when I could afford parts, they’d work on the engine and transmission.
We dubbed it “The Beast”.
What adventures did you have in it, good or bad?
After about 14 months of on again off again work, The Beast would start without having a fire extinguisher handy, the body was back together, and we put four retread tires on it. My parents still didn’t want me driving it, so it sat in the garage. Luckily for me, they were heavy sleepers. We’d put my step-dad’s Jeep in neutral, push it out of the way, then push The Beast about half a block from the house before starting it up. We’d go pick up some other friends and go for rides in it. This was back when you could still ride in the bed of a moving pick-up. When it was time to come home, we’d stop half a block from the house, kill the engine, push it back in the garage, then move the Jeep back. As far as I know, my parents never knew.
One night we almost became a statistic when the darn thing stalled out as I was trying to get across a highway. A semi came around the corner just as we finished pushing it to the other side so we could figure out what was going on.
What happened to it, what’s the end of the story?
Just when my parents started to believe that it was safe for me to drive, my step-dad came home from work, announced that he’d quit his job, and we were moving to be near his family in California. Since the top-end on the pickup was probably less than 60 miles an hour, he told me we had to sell the truck because he didn’t want to be going slow on the trip west. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I called my motorhead friends. Their dad bought it for what I’d paid for it. It was in memory of The Beast that I started taking the step-dad’s Jeep after he fell asleep once we got to California. Again, due to deep sleep, I don’t think they ever knew.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 15, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/15/car-meme/
This is Why Daddy Drinks
Apparently Boo wants to be a mummy for Halloween.
It’s blurry because I couldn’t stop laughing.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/this-is-why-daddy-drinks/
A Learning Opportunity
The truck has been finicky lately when I try to start it. It’s a manual 5 speed, so there’s a clutch pedal and a switch that senses when the pedal is depressed. If the switch works properly, the engine won’t crank when the pedal is up, but will crank when the pedal is down.
Apparently the switch is starting to go, or maybe the clutch itself is. If I leave the pedal up, no crank. Push the pedal to the floor, no crank. Push the pedal to the floor, then back off about an inch or so, the engine cranks.
I took a look at what it takes to replace the switch, and I pretty much have to take the entire pushrod assembly out to swap it out. The switch is an integral part of some clutch component or another.
Otherwise the transmission works just fine. The clutch has to be pretty far down to engage, but I have long legs, so it’s actually more comfortable for me than one that engages high up.
Haven’t torn apart a clutch since I was 15. This is going to be interesting. Until I get both the necessary parts and the gumption to do it, I’ll just play Goldie Locks with the clutch pedal (This one is too high, this one is too low, this one is just right.) Looks like I’m going to get a little grease under my fingernails.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/a-learning-opportunity/
Silly Old Bear
Today is the anniversary of the first printing of “Winnie the Pooh” in 1926. We’re on our second generation of Winnie the Pooh here at Casa de Oso. I grew up on both the stories and the Disney movies, and I’ve carried on with my kids.
A.A. Milne did for me the same thing as Dr. Seuss: he made reading fun and interesting to a young child. Interest the child in reading, and you will have a reader as an adult, and both will find learning easier. Something tells me that my experience was not unique. Children around the world have enjoyed Pooh Bear and his friends.
In celebration, I plan on having a bit of honey today, and possibly doing a little bouncing before I sit down in my thoughtful spot for a good think. Of course, I’m a bear of very little brain, so that may take a while.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/silly-old-bear/
Good Idea
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that Zuccotti Park, the staging area for the New York-based Occupy Wall Street protests, will be cleaned on Friday, October 14. Apparently three weeks of pizza, ganja, human waste, and the detritus of hippies in their natural habitat have made the park into a health hazard. Apparently you can indeed make something in New York so funky that even New Yorkers want it cleaned up.
Hey Mike! I’ve got an idea! A wonderful, awful idea!
How about you hand out bars of Ivory soap, shower gel, and laundry detergent. Tell the hippies they have 5 minutes to undress, then hit them all with fire hoses. The lather from the shower gel and bars of soap alone would scrub the hippies down, clean the stench out of the park, get the resin out of all that hemp clothing, and make the entire area sparkle for the expected arrival of Lech Walesa. Of course, all that funk would end up in the harbor, but this is really just a case of shifting the crud away from Manhattan. Maybe if we’re lucky, the funk cloud will wash up on Martha’s Vineyard in time for the president’s next vacation.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/good-idea/
News Roundup
- From the “One Stop Shop” Department – Two men in California have been arrested for immigration, narcotics, and weapons charges after being caught selling drugs and guns out of their hot dog stand. Tentative names for the business were “Mausers and Meth”, “Weiners and Weapons”, “Sausages and Sigs”, “Brats and Boomsticks”, and “Ma Deuce Au Jus”.
- From the “Taking It Too Seriously” Department – A school in British Columbia has outlawed bracelets that say “I HEART BOOBIES”, which were being worn to raise awareness of breast cancer. Officials say that it’s a distraction and could be offensive. Boy, they’re really going to hate colo-rectal cancer awareness month.
- From the “Walking on Water” Department – A surfer in Oregon claims that after a large shark knocked him off of his board, he actually rode the beast for a few seconds. Although his story is backed up by witnesses, I’m skeptical. I’ve been related by marriage to quite a few sharks, and I’ve never known any of them to give piggy back rides.
- From the “Snakes in a Van” Department – A man was arrested recently in Georgia for transporting 13 reptiles, including 10 snakes, in his car. This one I believe. It’s amazing how many reptilian forms of life I’ve been related to through marriage that needed a ride at one time or another.
- From the “No Kidding?” Department – Researchers in Atlanta have reported an increase in births 9 months after a major snow storm shut down the city. Let’s see, it’s dark, it’s cold, you’re bored, and you’re stuck at home with your significant other. Who could have predicted that people might have gotten pregnant? Heck, if the people in the south didn’t know that, all they would have had to do was ask someone from the Great White North. We all know that you make babies when you’re snowed in, and deliver them when the leaves change colors.
- From the “Stone Age Gallery” Department – Archeologists in South Africa claim to have found evidence of an early paint factory. Among the things found were stones used to grind and mix pigments, shells used to hold the paint, and instruments to scoop it up. No word yet on the amount of jaunty berets, Galois cigarettes, primitive espresso machines, and cheap red wine that was found.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/news-roundup-78/
Today in Bear History
On this date in 1958, the first adventure of Paddington Bear was published. This lovable bear who always muddled through his adventures was one of my favorites as a child. I need to get some Paddington books for Boo. It appears that the ones we had for the older children have been passed on to other families already.
I’m going to go make a marmelade sandwich and a nice cup of cocoa. Y’all have a good night.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 14, 2011
https://daddybearsden.com/2011/10/14/today-in-bear-history/
DaddyBear
