Looking forward to The Masters over the next four days beginning Thursday.

2025 Masters: Tee times, groupings announced for Rounds 1-2

 

Always my favorite PGA event to watch every year, such a beautiful course! Right now my focus is firmly on the NCAA Div 1 Men's Hockey Tournament. Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, that my Dad, Mom, and both my siblings graduated from, has made it to their first Final Four and plays Denver in their semi-Final this Thursday, and I'll be able to watch the game on ESPN2. I'm really looking forward to that and hoping they make it to the Championship game.

 

Finished installing window trim on the window & wall infested w/ termites...loved watching them die both rapidly & slowly...my own private death chamber.

Have no clue why I've been humming & singing this song all day, but it won't leave my brain. Dad loved all Western movies & all WWII movies/T.V. series. Young'ns in our group likely won't recall this movie/song. We were ushered into the Buick & watched it at the outdoor Drive-In picture show when it was released (1962). I was ten yrs. old.

 

ESPN2?? Say what? They're playing in St. Louis aren't they? Why are you not sitting in the bleachers?

As much as I've enjoyed hockey my entire life, I've never developed an interest in following NCAA collegiate hockey. Good luck to your Broncos.

 

I was only 3-yrs when it came out, but have watched it several times. Who wouldn't love a John Ford Western with The Duke, Jimmy, and Lee Marvin! 👍

Yep, you're right, the Final Four and Championship game are in St, Louis. I checked into tickets, thinking I might take the grandson's. They were outrageously expensive even in the nosebleed sections, and who wants to watch a hockey game when you can't even see the puck cause you're a million miles away. Too rich for my blood.

 

G'day Myke
Amen on neighbors

John nice you have the connection.

When I moved to this place I was truly blessed with the experience with help and share, and it lasted a couple decades. Then something changed.... what a shame. I savor the memories and move on. Try to lead by example when we can ladies and gents.

Time march's on.
(Mind the song)

 

This is why we bought such a large Livingroom Sectional!

 

Dat's right.

 

I never really was a John Wayne western kind of person. My westerns are the pasta kind from a few years later. I can make an argument for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly being the best western ever, but I can also argue for Once Upon a Time in the West as the best one. Same director, same composer.

 

Dan, yep, it is amazing how much of a jerk that guy is. I dunno about getting stuff out of storage- It snowed yesterday here- no accumulation but very cold and windy. The Olds has been on the back burner all winter- putting in new radio, etc so actually it's not ready anyway. The quad should be completely back together in a day, get that out of here then back to Olds.

 

I love all the pasta westerns, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is the best I think. Several others really stand out to me from various decades, The Magnificent Seven (incredibly talented and diverse cast) and Unforgiven (Eastwood, Freeman, and Hackman). For just pure entertainment and some great one liners, Big Jake with Wayne and his 2 sons, and Maureen O'Hara; and Outlaw Josey Wales (Eastwood, Sandra Locke, and Chief Dan George).

 

Greg - I am always amazed at guys like you that have the mechical aptitude to almost completely tear down something like that Quad, fix it, and get it all back together. Especially when you don't have a Chassis/Service manual to guide you. Do you take a bunch of pics as you go during disassembly, and tag/bag/label every set of parts? That's the only way I'd even remotely have a chance of it ever running again, and even then it'd be a crapshoot!

Oh, meant to say it's been unusually cold here too, down to freezing the last two nights. Had to cover several flowers, and bring several pots into the garage.

 

It was a peculiar winter - not the average run-of-the-mill winter - quite cold & windy & it remains very windy & now much cooler/colder. Supposedly, the result of the Arctic Polar Vortex having fallen off the Arctic circle.

 

Norm - Agree 100%, same here. We didn't get much snow here, but it seemed colder, and much more windy than normal. The winds are definitely continuing into Spring. Seems like we're having 15 to 20mph winds everyday, even without any storms moving through.

 

Storm from a week ago. Was fortunate that I received only a piece of trim off the house soffit as damage to that building, numerous holes in my fence, and a rather aggressive pruning of my red Japanese maple.

I received help from 3 neighbors, especially my neighbor Mike behind me who put my butt in the dirt on several days despite being 23 years older than me. The cleaned up pictures are after. There is still a hunk of pine tree in the sky sitting on my hickory above the fence, the fence has several damaged spots, and I have a whole pine tree scrap yard down by my burn pit.

None of the trees were mine. My property has pine tree rows on three sides, all owned by the neighbors. They always break, and are junk trees. One of the pics you can see the house and the previous breaks from that tree from summer of 2023. Pine trees are junk, especially if they split into multiple trunks. I informed the neighbor that the stump, the half destroyed tree, and the now-leaning-towards-the-road-a-lot tree have to go. I will probably be moved to my new place by then.

 

It's worth noting many people got much worse with trees, roofs, porches, and barns.

 

Good morning guys,

Busy all morning with documenting/accounting Storm Damage estimates and insurance stuff. I'm now resolved to the fact that my insurance is not going to pay for total Siding replacement. I'm going to get an estimate for total Siding replacement, but doubt I'll go down that road because I'm guessing it will be an additional $15K or more out of my pocket in addition to the $4,800 deductible that I'm already shelling out. Hopefully the house will still look decent even going the "piecemeal replacement" route.

Dawn took Monty to the Vet today to see if he is a viable candidate for Soft Palate and Nasal surgery to open up his airways to allow him to get more air when he is overly stimulated during storms. It should also help him significantly during warmer weather. He is a viable candidate even though he's 8-yrs old, and his getting the surgery should extend his life span since his heart will not have to be working as hard to get enough oxygen to the rest of his body. He is already scheduled for the surgery a week from tomorrow.

Changing the oil in both the daily driver and 4-4-2 is on tap for Friday if the weather cooperates. Gabe has hockey games on both Friday and Saturday evenings that I want to make it to. Plenty of things to keep me busy.

Hope everyone has a great day!

 

What you got was certainly bad enough, and made more than enough mess to clean up. I'm glad you got some help from the neighbors. 👍

 

Hi everyone.

Got an interesting message when I logged in. The site is not secure and someone could be stealing my information. Hm, that's the first time I saw that. Has the site not renewed its certificate that proves it is safe? Are pirates coming to my house while I'm online?

There are plenty of pine trees behind my garage at Mom's and plenty in my neighbor's yard behind my house. They break all the time. Talk about junk trees. Before this place was an airport it was a Christmas tree farm. I have some trees in my side yard that were Christmas trees decades ago and have now grown about 40 feet tall. They are not pretty. The branches are hard and brittle and hang way down. I plan to have them taken down but they will need a bucket truck, as they are too tall to cut down without landing on a house.

Work went fairly well today. A nice surprise is we are working this Saturday. Geez, we haven't had overtime since October. I hope it becomes a trend.

Gonna do some yardwork at Mom's this afternoon. Might crank up the chainsaw, that will be fun. Hope everyone is enjoying Hump Day.

 

Hi guys,
So, things just keep moving along. Surprise, fencing company contacted me a couple hours ago and said they'd like to come tomorrow and make the repairs to my vinyl fence. I said sure, come on over we'll be here.

Then I got a call from my Roofing/Fascia/Gutter/Siding guy who told me we're on the Roof schedule for the 3rd week of May. However, every day we have rain pushes it back a day. While I had him on the phone I told him I would like an estimate to replace all the Siding. He said no problem. He's doing 6 other houses on our street so he's out here alot. I told him I definitely wanted to get the QUOTE to replace all the Siding before he orders the shingles for our Roof because if we choose to have all the Siding replaced we may want another color shingle. Moving along.

 

Chris -

Nice news on the scheduling and options. I like your idea of the roof color product helping with the total decision, after all is said and done, the fresh new start form here with peace of mind could be priceless in terms of should have could have. Keep Keep'n on

 

Thanks Keith, I really appreciate your input and support!

 

Norm I have not followed the tournament for a few years and always enjoyed when I did thanks for the heads up and the link.
I saw on your previous posts the termites are under control as far as further progress. Do you have some recondition work ahead

 

Keith - Recondition?

 

Any termite damage?

 

Yes.

 

Good morning guys,

Fence repairs completed. They were quick and didn't miss anything. I paid the remaining balance. Insurance has already paid out via Direct Deposit. Wish it was all going to be this easy, but beggars can't be choosers!

 

Chris - I hope the remainder of work goes as smooth. I still believe painting the remaining/undamaged siding to match new siding could be an option. Good luck.

 

Thanks Norm, much appreciated. The paint is certainly an option if the match turns out looking like $hit.

Have you been watching the Masters? I haven't been watching, but I've been monitoring the Leaderboard.

 

I’m in PC hell at the moment. BSOD (W11) yesterday afternoon. Took me forever to recover the boot loader. Pretty sure it’s a h/w driver issue but I ran a memory diagnostic & memory is faulty (supposedly). Likely 1 or 2 other issues could be suspect, as well. I build my own equipment, devices become faulty, poorly written drivers, etc., etc. All began after latest MS Update Tuesday but I’ve had issues w/ audio, too (Nvidia). Bunch to TS. I have Recovery Points & Backups which are great when you can access them. Going to make a Recovery Device (USB & DVD) in case I elect to upgrade h/w which may or may not include a new Mobo, RAM, etc. Right now this delicious pizza at my fav restaurant is making me happy.

Historically, I have my taxes done 1st of February - not this year. This morning I created/organized piles for input into online filing. PC better hang on another 24 hrs.

 

No cable TV - can’t watch Masters live. I’ll watch some feature groups and replays later today.

 

Norm - None of what you're going thru with your PC sounds like any fun at all. Luckily you got the knowledge and skills to fix it. Best of luck going forward! Taxes just suck!

 

Hi everyone.

Just got home from work. Beautiful day out but we're supposed to get storms tonight. I'm sure I can find a few things to do outside before the rain comes.

Chris great news that the fence is fixed. Hopefully the siding goes as smoothly. Are the broken windows part of the siding deal?

Work was actually pretty busy today. The lead is trying to impress upon us that we need to continue to do a good job in order to be done with the stupid split lunch thing.

Norm just throw that thing in the lake and go get a new one.

Speaking of the lake, here's a new idea I have. It will probably be years before the lake comes down again, and I'd like to extend the block wall. What if I put on my armpit length boots and jumped into the water and dug a small trench and set blocks, and built them up like I normally would. There wouldn't be mortar between the blocks but it will only be a couple courses high, so I'll pour in cement and it will all be bound together.

Okay gotta go do -something- . Hope everyone is having a good day.

 

I watched the opening (recorded) of The Masters (Gary, Jack & Tom). I could waste away the remainder of the day viewing, but I have several pots on the stove (figuratively) right now. Just a little more paint on the window trim I can calla this one complete.

Mike - How many computers & such have you tossed into your lake? You should use what you've tossed into the lake to extend your block wall.

 

hehe Norm I say I want to toss everything into the lake but few things actually go there. One thing I threw out there was the lock box from when I bought the place. The selling agent was a colossal bitch and it took her more than a couple weeks to claim the lock box and her sign. I took them in the house because I didn't want to see them. When she started calling to come get them I wouldn't answer and when she left a message and said when she'd be there, I'd make sure I wasn't home. When the lake is down I look for the lock box, but I'm sure 18 years later it is covered in silt. The sign I gave to a friend and he bent it up and used it for a ladder rack on his pickup.

I'm not getting a lot done outside. I spent a long time sending a lengthy email to my attorney and now I don't want to start something that will get cut short when I go over to Mom's. The rain is supposed to end tomorrow then be nice for a week or better.

 

Thanks Mike! The Roof/Siding/Gutters/Fascia is one contractor, the Windows a separate contractor, however the the two have worked together in the past many, many times. My Roof/Siding guy actually recommended the Window guy.

 

Man, that's a lot of work, John. Sure looks like a beautiful place. Chris, In these days of internet and all, You can download a PDF of most everything. I downloaded the complete service manual for the 2016 Polaris Sportsman 850 Quad. I found that most places want to charge you but keep looking and you usually can find it for free. Still not easy the first time, but it is going back together.

 

What about those Broncos! Headed to the Frozen Four Championship with a 3-2 win in double OT!

 

Going to be some exhausted players after a double OT. Congrats to the Broncos.

 

Thanks Norm! The game only went about a minute into the 2nd OT before Western scored the game winner. I'm sure they're tired, but they ain't feeling it. They've got 48-hours to rest before the Championship on Saturday.