Thanks for the tournament update. Sounds like Gabe really enjoys himself and is a real team player, very cool.

 

You're welcome Keith, your kind comments are very much appreciated!

 

Wow that guy sure doesn't look like he's 12!

Hi everyone.

I think they should rename Walmart to Camping World. All day whatever I needed there was someone standing blocking it and took their sweet time moving.

Beautiful out. Gonna be nice all week. Two days this week I have something to do after work, hopefully the other three days I can get something done. I'm not sure the cold weather is done. Certainly not the rain.

Here's an idea I had. I'd love to have a Gator but can't afford one. So I thought I'd get little car for a couple hundred bucks and cut the body off until it's just the dash and motor, bolt some plywood to the floor so it doesn't flex, and use that as a moving platform. I can move branches and whatnot between the shop and the house. And when it craps out, cut it up the rest of the way and send it to the scrap pile.

Hope everyone has a good day. Work tomorrow. Gotta work all 5 this week, who wants to do that. John how you feeling today?

 

Mike - Not only is he only 12, he just turned 12 on January 22nd of this year.

Here's an alternate suggestion for hauling light stuff around. Maybe you could find a cheap little Toyota or Nissan truck. I'm thinking it might be simpler than tearing the body off a car? Just my 2-cents.

 

Mike - I passed your idea by Harold...he said go for it...

 

Easy to tear body off a car...

 

Yup

 

I had a craving for take-out pizza tonight, and the wife and l agreed on St. Louis's original thin crust Imo's pizza. Meat lovers for her on the right (14") and Special Deluxe for me on the left (14"). I ate all of mine and 5 pieces of hers to finish it off, with 3 Rolling Rocks to wash it all down. 😋 Now I'm definitely ready for an early evening nap!

 

Chris - The pizzas are a work of art - fantastic.

 

Norm - Thanks. Yes, they certainly are, as good as I've ever had from anywhere!

 

Ok dammit, I've held my tongue long enough, and I can't stand it any longer. As a 35-year Federal employee and retiree, I'm significantly distraught and dismayed by the current purge/firings of Federal employees to cut government spending. I've always been against waste, fraud, and abuse, but the current sledge hammer approach is way over the top, poorly thought out, and I hope it comes back to bite them in the ***! So dammit, ban me if you must, but Americans need to speak truth to power, and cry BULL***** when BULLSHIT is what is happening!!!

 

Good morning everyone.

Chris rant away! I have no opinion either way so I'll take your side. But I'll take their side if they send me the 5000 they're talking about! Nah, I can't be bought. We gotta be careful not to get Jamesbo riled up.

That does make me wonder. When you type in a "bad" word, the site automatically gives it the *** effect. But if you go in and edit your post, you can put in the real letters and it leaves them. Is that a glitch? Is that a feature?

We had pizza last night, from Mr. Hut. Mom didn't have anything for dinner and didn't feel like fixing anything, so I got a pizza. Mom eats pizza but she doesn't really like it but she commented on how good it was. Pepperoni, ham, onion on regular crust. But ours wasn't cut the correct way like Chris' .

If I bought a small pickup to use around the house I'd have to insure and register it, or the yard ****'s would be after me. If I cut the heck out of a car I'd call it a golf cart. Besides that it's more fun. Or I could put a belly mower on it and call it a tractor. Oh that reminds me, is there an end loader wide enough to install on a full size pickup?

Okay time for our morning meeting. Hope everyone has a great week!

 

It's a automobile forum - period.

 

Ah but Norm, it's the Clubhouse. Anything goes. Dwarf wrestling, bad grammar, household projects. Yes and even Walmart.

So that guy from work brought me in my fuel filter this morning. I'm so happy. It will probably be weeks until I put it on but who cares. I have it in hand and don't have to worry about running all over town trying to find one. Win.

Not a bad start to the day. Not a good one. Turns out I have a short week. I need to use three days of vacation before March 4, so I have a looong weekend coming up and only three days this week. Can't beat that.

 

Mike - Thanks, I've got it out of my system, for now. Glad you've got some extra time off you weren't anticipating. That's always a nice surprise. 👍

 

Mike, how much heavy hauling are you planning on? Would a used lawn tractor and trailer suffice? Chris, damn fine looking pizza. And....rant on!

 

 

Went to an Appleseed clinic this weekend. We held it at my range, but it was one of our "boot camps" instead of a normal event. The boot camps are special events put on to accelerate promotion / improve skills of whatever level at which they are pointed. For instance, last summer I went to a known distance (full range) shoot boss boot camp to learn how to run our KDs better. We have rifleman boot camps, which will accelerate people testing for Rifleman grade and hopefully be an instructor-in-training factory. This one was an instructor boot camp, intended to accelerate our instructiors-in-training IITs into full Instructors. It was put on by two master instructors. I learned a lot even though I am a long time instructor and shoot boss. We covered all activities at an event, and ended with a very good session on coaching shooting where one of the masters modeled a specific failure for us to find, correct, and coach her on.

I was able to help being local host and helping move the instruction along with questions and good points, at least I hoped. Trying to climb out of this cold, it has been a week. I am mostly better. I am moving the Stormin Normans to the evening.

Warm here, so time to get moving on projects. I need to clean gutters and hit the house with Bifentrin as I am sure Bug Season will start tomorrow since the ice left today.

 

John - The Apple Seed clinics sound like a really good time. I think I'd thoroughly enjoy them. Hope you kick what's left of your bug out the door!

 

Chris, That pizza looks good. We haven't had take out pizza in a long time. I know politics cant be discussed here so I won't- in fact I stay away and even walk away if the subject gets mentioned in neighborhood conversations- seems a sure way to lose friends who you like it most other ways. I will say that times sure are interesting now. I once posted a pic of a dace mask in my Olds ashtray and thread got deleted.. So won't go there.

 

Sorry [not] I had 2 needles in my arm for 3.5 hours yesterday Couldn't type so Chris only gets 50 lashes with a wet noodle today

 

Jim - Good hearing from you.

 

Tanks Norm, I could s not sit buy and let my buddy Mike bash my favorite store to purchase dog food Walmart]

 

Good morning everyone.

Slow at work. Getting pretty close to the end of the internet. I wish things would pick up. I heard some wheels are going to other places to get worked on because we're "overworked." The rest of the company isn't overworked, but the management is trying to cover their asses because of that accident last fall.

Jameso I get my dog food at Walmart as well. In fact I do all my grocery shopping at Walmart. If I went to Publix I'd go broke. And I can't stand Kroger. Mom will spend a buck fifty at Walmart and then on the way home say, I need to pick up a prescription at Publix. Then she'll come out with the medicine and 60 bucks worth of more groceries.

Dan I don't like using a trailer in the yard. Hard to back up and turn and maneuver. I'm sure whatever I end up using will be overloaded many times. But mostly I just want to move tree branches and junk around.

Here's a twist, I'm going to the doctor for me this afternoon. Get to find out what the MRI I had last week saw. And then tomorrow I take Mom to the doctor.

Okay have a great day everyone.

 

Jim - Great to hear from ya! Tanks for the Mulligan.

 

Good morning guys,

It was gorgeous here yesterday, sunny and got up to 67°. More of the same today, just a couple degrees cooler for a high.

Made contact with a former work buddy yesterday that I haven't seen in a couple years. He was actually one of the groomsmen in Dawn's and my wedding. He was always a big hockey fan of the StL Blues and his son grew up playing Jr Hockey like Gabe is now. The "All Star" Tournament Gabe is playing in in March is at a rink in East Alton, IL which is only about 10-miles from where he lives, so he's gonna make it a priority to make it to one of the games. It will be great to see him!

The last tax document we needed to get our taxes done got here yesterday, so I'm going to call here in just a few minutes to try and make an appointment to get them done. We're going to try a new tax service this year because H&R Block has just gotten too expensive. My daughter and one of our neighbors both use a smaller private agency in Festus they've had good service from at less than half the cost of Block.

Have a great day everyone!

 

I still am missing a 1099. Once I get that done, I can get it all set up and find out what I owe Infernal Revenue.

 

That's what I was missing too, 1099-DIV from Raymond James, always the last one to come for me. I called the new tax service we're going to try and the soonest I could get an appointment is March 5th at 7pm. It is what it is, but I sure as hell wasn't going to use the Block again, they wanted $300 total to do both Fed & State, AiYiYi!

 

Taxes are done and refunds are in my account. I have to pay the city a few coins, as Howmet will not take out city taxes (1%). Warm here as well, had 48° on the way home with plenty of sun. Pulled into my garage an noticed a 5-6" crack in my windshield. Where in the hell did that come from? Never saw it on my way home from work. Me thinks ice fell on it while at the chiropractors office a half hour ago.

 

WTH, that really sucks! I hope your auto insurance has glass coverage. Glad you were able to get your taxes squared away. When I was working our facility was located within the St. Louis City limits, and even though I didn't live in the City, my Agency was required to take a 1% City earnings tax out of my check, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

 

I began watching How The Earth Was Made on Prime Video several days ago. This documentary series is two seasons comprised of 25 episodes. I'm in Season One Episode 4. Ea. Ep. = 45'. Thing about it is it portrays/follows a ridiculous chronology. Thus far, there is nothing which remotely describes how the Earth was made. Totally odd if you ask me. The diagrams, the dialogue, the facts, depictions, geology are all correct (some things I believe they left out which could have been better portrayed). None-the-less, it's well written & IMO it's well done except for the ridiculous chronology of events. I thought it was going to describe how the Earth was made. Oh no, instead S1:E1 begins w/ a description of San Andreas Fault, S1:E2 discusses Challenger Deep, S1:E3 discusses Krakatoa & Anak Krakatau (son of Krakatoa). I'll say I didn't know the recent findings about Anak Krakatau (pretty good). It isn't until you get to S2: E3 (16 Episodes) do they drop this bombshell episode titled Birth of the Earth. So, they're going to spend 15 episodes (~15 hours) discussing geological processes/formations & then drop in a single episode about Birth of the Earth. I decided to look this stuff up (Seasons + Episodes descriptions) to figure out just when & if they're going to discuss/talk about How The Earth Was Made. Who the hell came up w/ this title? Totally bizarre. If nothing else this documentary should be called Earth's Geological Processes - Described because this is in fact what this documentary series is about.

 

Norm - Despite the misleading title, the series sounds incredibly interesting to me, especially with my background.

I just started watching a new series on Netflix titled Zero Day. Robert DeNiro is the main character but there are also several other well known actors. I've only watched 3 episodes so far, but I think it is very well done and riveting as to where it will go next.

 

Chris - Thanks for the Spoiler alert. I love DeNiro - one of the all-time best in the business - not to mention one of the few out of Hollywood w/ his head on straight. I'll be sure to look it up and give it a spin after I finish this documentary series. I think Meet The Fockers has to be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen DeNiro star in. Oh, there's no doubt you'll like this documentary series - no doubt whatsoever. Exceptional documentary w/ brilliant visuals, diagrams, videography, etc. - you'll love it.

 

Norm - You're welcome, I love DeNiro too. Too many great movies to count, but off the top of my head, Goodfellas, Kill the Irishman, and Heat jump out at me as some of my favs. How could you get much better than DeNiro as the villain, and Pacino as the cop trying to catch him in Heat!

 

[QUOTE=

Dan I don't like using a trailer in the yard. Hard to back up and turn and maneuver. I'm sure whatever I end up using will be overloaded many times. But mostly I just want to move tree branches and junk around.
[/QUOTE]

Mike Just an idea... I installed a front receiver hitch on my Honda Foreman it is handy to push trailers, log splitter and such. Here is one on a lawn tractor

 

Keith - Great idea. I call those “yard apes”…very handy.

 

Day before yesterday I had my 2nd leg "Roto Routed". Angioplasty of both main arteries. Open the arteries at the ankle and goes up to groin- amazing. I am happy with the result. Yesterday was so nice 50 degrees and partly sunny- I replaced the plugs and fuel filter on my Ski Doo and worked on my F 100- was a great day. I may work on Olds today, nice to be out in barn! I assume we are not done with snow but whatever happens will be fine, If we get enough for more riding that would be good, If it stays warmer that also would be good. Went up to local pub and had a few too many yesterday afternoon. Next door to pub is a party store that just reopened w/new owners- they sell pizza and sandwiches to go, So I ordered a pizza to take home. Well she said it would be 40 minutes so what could i do? Suck down some more beers while waiting!! Then took pizza home and it actually sucked- oh well.

 

Greg - You Da Man!!

 

Greg - Glad you're getting some of this warmer weather up there too, and that your angioplasty went went well.

 

Hey guys,

I'm sure you guys remember me talking about the "BowFlex Max" cardio machine that I've used religiously for many, many years now. I would never recommend anything like this unless I truly believed it's a high quality piece of equipment. High quality construction, gives you a great workout, and doesn't take up alot of space. If you ever thought about buying a machine like this they are having a great sale right now, 33% off and free shipping. It is normally $1,499, and now it's on sale for $999, and the free shipping which probably saves you another $200. It will come unassembled, but is not difficult to assemble, even I can do it. I just wanted you guys to be aware of this great sale in case any of you have been thinking about something like this. Here's a link to check it out.

https://www.bowflex.com/product/max-...de7ca58a05ccae