In My "Spare" Time: Year 16, Week 41, Day One (week 873)

Year 16, Week 41, Day One (week 873)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-22-16 Saturday

62 degrees early morning, before dawn, 72 at about ten, The temps stretched out a hand while leaning just to make 80 degrees at three. Blue skies all day long. Our blue skies are not the deep rich blue of up north in the cold climates. We get a lot of dust from Africa and it makes it a little more of a rich milk-paint blue. A good breeze made it nice to work. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

The wood turning club meeting was this week. I usually go directly home from work, get some stuff done and then head to the club meeting. I had to make a couple stops and when I got home, I put some stuff away and sat down at the computer. When I next looked at the clock, I realized there was no way I could get ready and go to the club in time. I missed one.

Traffic is already getting thicker and the main Snow-Birds have not arrived yet.

I suspected there would be a number of yard sales. After breakfast, I headed out alone. There was nothing in the first three segments I drove through on my route. I then found a whole lot of yard sales as I headed south. A couple of the southern segments were also empty. I stopped at two stores en route to get things I needed. When I arrived near home, there was a yard sale that was not out when I started my trek. In total, I visited 12 yard sales and drove past one that always has them and never has anything I could use..

I picked up another doll. I liked the dress and the face. I have a friend who gushes when I’ve shown her pictures of the couple other dolls I found. I gave this one to her later in the day. I got a good hug. Well worth it to say the least.

I found a shop dust pan. The one I’ve been using has seen better days. The handle is good but the plastic bin of my old one is missing pieces and does not have too much time to live. The thought crossed my mind to make something like it in another material.

I picked up two books I really don’t need. One is setting up a hydroponic garden and the other is mixing oil paints. I found a turntable that plugs into your computer to copy vinyl music. Electronics are dangerous to get as mny times they just don’t work. A l;ot of times the low price shows that it might not be usable, Other times they are just trying to get rid of it.

I picked up a router bit. It might need the edge touched up, but for rough work, it just might be fine, especially if I use it in the wrong equipment.

What I consider is my big find is a stack of dowels, rods and bamboo stakes. I was thinking about making dangling ornaments and these rods will save me a lot of work.

The radio we use out back is on its last legs, being possibly a decade or two of being out in the humidity and heat beneath the awning all that time. I picked up another radio, for a dollar, untested, and it works great. I set it on my metal table and could hear it almost to the front of the house.
There were a few other odds and ends I found that does not need to be mentioned.

I took a nap right after I got back home. You don’t realize how much work there is in yard sailing until you visit a large number of them.

I gathered my ornament blanks and decided to finish up the three paint brush ornaments I cut out last weekend. It did not take long to make them look like brushes. I now have 9 of them. I need three more and that will finish them up. They just then need painting and varnishing to make them complete.

I grabbed the shortest of the dowels I found today and created it into a spiral ornament. I have a whole lot of work to do on it yet, If nothing else, I have to clean It up, but I want to go deeper with my grooves. If I go deep enough that they “daylight” I would not complain. I have several sizes of dowels so these will be different sized spiral-dangly ornaments, unless I find another use for them. There is a use for the bamboo stakes but I am not exactly sure how.

Mom has not put up the awning yet, so nothing can be left outside. Everything has to be put away. That makes for a bit more work for each project. Also, because some equipment is not available, projects are limited to tools you have at hand.

That ended my day. I rested until it was time to leave.

I will see what I accomplish tomorrow.

Year 16, Week 41, Day two (week 873)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-23-16 Sunday

Blue skies, early morning. There were clouds way out over the ocean early on. By noon, the sky was populated with herds of wispy clouds rushing west at full speed.

Last night, My low tire pressure light was on. This morning, I pulled the truck out of my parking space and the instant I headed forward, something felt wrong. I pulled to the side of the road, still across my condo’s property. My passenger front tire was flat. I took out my little air pump that runs off the cigarette lighter. It ran for several minutes when I realized it was not doing anything. I ran my hand over the tire and found a bolt stuck into the tire.
It was time for my Three Stooges’ imitation. I have never changed a tire on this truck and it had been many years since I had to do it with any other vehicle I owned. I have three jacks and lots of parts to them. I had to figure out how to lower the spare tire. That took some time. I then had to figure out where to put the jacks to lift the truck. The instructions were not perfect, but I used what I saw and made an educated guess. When I got the truck, my brother told me to get some wood blocks to raise the jack. I never got them.
After removing the hub cap and loosening the bolts by standing on the iron until it moved, I lifted the truck high enough to get the flat tire off, but then found that the spare appeared taller. That was likely that it was full of air.
I figured out that the big jack I was using was at its upper limit, which is why you want some blocks to set under it to raise it as high as possible and still fit. I put a scissor jack under the wheel suspension to lift the hub high enough that I was able to slip the tire on. the hard part was done and I was able to quickly finish the job.
I am not good on the ground. I had to get up and down a whole bunch of times. I had limited amount of lifting the tires, but it was also enough.
I am a person who detests being late and dislikes even being on time. Being a pessimist, I tend to be early whenever possible just in case something happens like traffic back up or problems. The tire lost me an hour in my morning plans but was still able to get going on time. I skipped several stops I normally do in the morning and did a few after I left Mom’s. I do have roadside assistance on my insurance but I was half started when I remembered about it and decided I did not want to make that call. Not across the street from my house.

At mom’s house, I already decided I was not about to do any work. Getting the stuff out and put back again would be beyond my endurance.I would leave after lunch so I can go home and sleep for a while.

I much doubt the weather will be as good as this weekend, which I had not seen since spring. I figure there will still be a lot of yard sales out. I am not counting on the awning to be put up by then. While I want to do some turning of platters, I will spend my time working on ornaments until the end of November.

I will see what I do next weekend.

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