Apr 01

Manual Labor Day…

Got up early but didn’t get out of the house until after 1000. Went up to the property and started taking the Digger apart. Got all the superstructure stuff I had to take off off and couldn’t find the hose the hydraulic fluid was leaking from. So I started it up and moved it around some (standing up cause the seat was missing) and still couldn’t find the leak. So I went back into Belfair and bought a 5 gallon container of hydraulic flued and back to the property. Once I had put about a gallon of fluid in the Digger I started it up and finally found the leaking hose. Cool! Then it took me almost an hour, and removing half a dozen other hoses, to get the leaking hose out. Stopped by Westbay Auto in Belfair and had them make me a new hose. $33. AND $44 for the hydraulic fluid. Phew! By the time I got the new hose made it was really too late for me to head back out to the property so I came on home.
SWMBO took me to the bank and we stopped at Home Depot to look for a set of Metric Wrenches for working on the Digger. Too expensive! So we stopped by COSTCO to see if they had any. Nope. But we still bought $20 worth of stuff. We just can’t go into COSTCO without spending too much money!
Came on back home and I fixed Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwiches and “bakes” (Baked french fries. Limp the way SWMBO likes them) for dinner and I’ve basically been messing around since.

Media Center is still working great. SWMBO still has to learn to use it. Sometimes I find I have too many choices for what to watch. I’m down to about 53 Gig left free on each of the two drives I have. Bout time to head to Staples and check their sales…

Mar 31

More Guesstimates!

Spent pretty much the whole day gathering guesstimates from various sub-contractors. Got new guesstimates for Power, Garage Doors, The Dome, and the well. Contacted via e-mail the guy for the radiant heat and JW Gunite for the shotcrete. Let’s hope they get back to me soon. SWMBO’s doing a bang up job on her list also. She even drove to Tacoma to look at windows.

OTT just not much going on. At least the sun came out a bit today. At least I think it was the sun. Large bright thing in the sky that somewhat warms the skin when you stand in the light from it.

Made some nice music with Magic Music Maker last night. At least I think it sounds nice. Even made a short musical piece for my oldest daughter’s birthday today. Even though the Kids don’t want anything to do with me, and I’m up in the air about wanting anything to do with them, doesn’t mean I don’t love them. Sorta. But don’t get me started!

Mar 30

Had To E-Mail The Whirlpool Folks…

And ask for specific directions (with video if possible) about something called a ’delicate cycle’ that SWMBO keeps mentioning that I’m supposed to use when I wash her ’unmentionables’ and other ’delicate’ stuff. Two guys have already answered with “Doesn’t exist” and “Urban Myth’ respectively. SWMBO swears it exists and has even tried to show it to me but I keep going blank when the dial on the washer is turned in any direction not equaling ’Left’. Turn dial left to 18, pile clothes in, pour soap over top (of clothes not the washer), pull knob (which we men know something about) and it washes. Come back in 3 hours and it’s done. Easy! I think she tried turning the knob to the right. I think. Or maybe it was too far to the left. I don’t know.
Then I e-mailed the Whirlpool technical support asking for directions (with video if possible) for that very same ’delicate cycle’ that’s supposed to be on the DRYER also. If not for knowing and trusting SWMBO these past 22 years or so I’d think she was lying to me. I mean, the same setting on the washer AND the Dryer!? Come on! How stoopid do you think I am?!? You pull the clothes out of the washer, pile them into the dryer, clean the lint thingie, toss in that sheet thingie, close the door, turn the knob to the left to the 2 hour mark, push the ’start’ button then go out and steam clean your engine with the dryer exhaust. Come back next day and they’re dry. What’s so hard about that? Works for me!
Haven’t heard back from Whirlpool Tech Support yet. I figure they’re still researching the supposed delicate cycle that’s supposedly built into their washers.Maybe I ought to check for this at snopes.com and report it if they haven’t heard of this yet. I’ll let y’all know.
Right now though I’m going to investigate this “The clothes won’t wrinkle as much if you fold them while they’re hot’ rumor she’s trying to pass off to me….

Mar 29

2008-03-29-A Dilemma. Horns Of.

I am caught between the horns of a dilemma. Talking to the finance lady at the bank yesterday; they were more interested in the amount of money we have going out each month than what we actually owed. Especially the $400/mo and SWMBO sends out for my truck (well above the minimum payment BTW). I can understand that. So SWMBO and I were talking and selling my Digger came up (by me actually). Here’s the dilemma: I can sell the Digger for about $14k and we can become literally bill free. BUT I have a butt-ton of work I still need to do up at the property that I can do with the Digger. If I sold it we’d probably get financing fairly easily. But then we’d have to either rent a digger or rent someone with one to get some of the jobs done that need to be done prior to construction beginning on the dome. What do I need the Digger for? Trenches for the power, water & septic when we get those put in. Widening the dome hole. Final grading of the dome hole prior to building. Digging the footers. Pushing dirt into that hole at the top of the dome hole and pushing dirt back around the dome after it’s completed. Moving several downed trees. Road repair and maintenance. And probably a few more things I can’t think of at the moment. But if I sell the Digger we can pay off the truck, visa overdraft and (something else SWMBO mentioned) and probably qualify for a larger loan.
Not to mention that I was seriously thinking of starting my own business of doing light trenching and land clearing after the dome was built and we were moved in.
What Do I Do?
Finally (actually) snowed here about 2315 last night. Was really coming down mixed rain/snow but then turned to just snow for awhile. Had stopped by the time I went to bed. Hailed a bit today. Light looks funny out there right now (1900). Almost like it does in Ohio just before a tornado comes through.
Finally hooked up the speakers in this new monitor. They aren’t the greatest but they’ll do. Looking for a splitter so I can still run my subwoofer though. Did clear up a lot of space to put the subwoofer under the monitor and the two speakers in the back room. Found out my vcr has component video out (you know, that 3 pronged thingie) but not in (and S-video out only) so I can’t hook the HDMI/DVI(?) output from the video card in the Media Center in to the vcr. (We have one of those DVD/VCR recorder combo’s but it’s still called a VCR.) My TV’s about 11 years old (Thank You Sears Scratch-and -Dent) and has cable or composite/stereo inputs. The cable box has a few composite/stereo outputs also.
Brrr. Time to get a fire started.