Mernin', boys & girl. Mid-50s here in da' swamp. Everybody's hopin' the rain will be tonite and not tomorrow. Spose to be a mite chili for Fat Tuesday, however. But that'd be better than Elsie hittin'. As fer me, I'll be snug as a bug at home, watchin' a bit of the frivolities from my living room and/or garage.

Scot, sure glad your girl seems to be recuperating. Awful thing, but I'm thankful it wasn't worser.

Did anybody watch the incredibly long 40th B.D. party for SNL last nite? Being an inveterate watcher for most of those 40 years, I had to tune in, and I'd say it was a pretty resounding success. I could write a few pages of opinions, but who gives a moose's patootie?

I will say the Eddie Murphy thing was the weirdest 5 minutes of the show. The man hasn't been back in 32 years, so Chris Rock slobbers all over himself building up Eddie's reappearance; then Eddie stands up there for one minute in a purple suit, says he feels like he's at his high school reunion, and then that's it! No Gumby; no Buckwheat; no nuttin'.

Anyhoot, Jamesbo, I guess that new paint will have a good workout by the time we get back up to Hiawassee.

Whelpt, y'all have a Monday, & don't fergit to eat ur Wheaties, Oldsmofriends, or whatever cereal you happen to be partial to this year....

 

Hi everyone.


I don't believe the morning we just had. My boy wanted to go out at 6 and then we went back to bed. Lately he's been beating me to the bed and gets up in the middle of it. So I laid down next to him, and we slept until 11! This is unheard of. Since tonight is my first night of work, I really appreciated not getting up every hour.


This getting up on my bed is something relatively new. I'm wondering if he's starting to feel some arthritis or something, because if he runs too much in the yard he develops a bit of a limp for a while. I'm sure the soft bed and warmth feels good to him. Part of aging I guess, I hate to see that.


It's about 40 out and overcast. I thought it was going to get arctic cold last night. Had the stove going and the temp in the house was only 78. Hope that cold doesn't decide to show up tonight.


Oh, I happened to be driving past Jamesbo's house when they first announced the sleet storm. I was gonna stop and say hi but he seemed a little pre-occupied.

 

Good Afternoon Oldsmofriends

Not too bad today but cloudy and looks like rain is coming. Supposed to get up to 63* F today but I dunno if it will quite make it. 100% chance of rain tonight, then cold again

Just got back from taking the missus to get her free 710 change. With her new Accord, the dealership threw in free 710 changes for life. Only bad thing is we gotta go to Maconda to get it done.

Thanks Ted. I believe the Corolla is really reliable and she will need that as she is finishing high school this semester. Then she will be moving in with her big sister, who now resides in Savannah. The Mazda is a good car as well.

Clint lets hope so brother We are fortunate enough to be very blessed and thankfully it wasn't any worse.

Jim didcha teach Ole Whitey a lesson today?

Whelp have as good of day as you can make outta the rest of this Monday

 

Hi everyone.


Rain started around 3. It isn't heavy, just enough to be irritating. The dogs won't stay out long tonight.


So I'm really liking the Silhouette/Venture van idea. Do both engines have the plastic intake and gasket problems? I thought I saw one van with a 3.4 . That's what our Impala had in it. Either engine would be fine with me, but all the vans seem to have right around 150K on them, I wonder if that's the magic time to dump them.


First night back. Wish a good job would come up on the bid postings. It's the same ones time and again. Specialist, senior something, manager, etc. I could make a lateral move to Detroit. Um, no.


Wow Scot free 710 changes for life. That's not bad. I'm guessing Maconda is fairly far for you. It's an hour to the Ford place where I got the Mustang. After they scratched the hood buffing it out and I had to make that trip several times, I wondered why I thought it was a good idea to buy a car an hour from my house. I only get one 710 change, after that I doubt they ever see me again.


Okay out into the rain. Hope everyone has a good evening. Tomorrow starts a shortened week. Yay.

 

Thanks John and no doubt it could've been way worse.

I guess hanging with all dem Cardashions gals sucked the testosterone right out of ol Bruce er uh I mean Betty

 

Mike, far as I know the Silhouette's all had 3.4L V-6's. The early 97-99 had electrical issues, but the 2000-2004 should be ok.

3.4 V6's also had issues with intake manifold, and also were fairly noisy until warmed up. They had a lot of piston slap, but apparently that was good for extending the overall life of the engine.

 

Mike, just found this. It may be worth taking a look at. It also lists all the Silhouettes by year and related problems/recalls/estimates of repair.

http://repairpal.com/oldsmobile/silhouette

 

Here ya go Mike: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Silhouette

 

Mornin all.

Allan, Just like all GM products, they usually quit pumping. and most if the time it happens as the owner just filled the tank.

Got a little more snow last night that should have put us over the 8" they called for. We have more coming over the weekend.

Well have a day all.

 

Dare's a little rime on de trees but dat's 'bout it. Some power outages but not many.

Didn't buy milk but I did get rye bread, Kraut, corn beef and Swiss cheese fer Rubens

May switch to hot pastrami today to use up de rye bread


John, Happy Fat Tuesday

 

Mornin All

Cold here, at least the wind went down!

Football and more football! I am taking my son to practices/ workouts/ and football camp 5 days a week. He really has his sights on NCAA . Of course you get the adults telling him to stay in Canada, but if it keeps him focused I do not care where he goes to play. His marks have gone way up and as have his talent as a player. I am very proud of him! Besides, he can almost beat me in an arm wrestle. Does not seem that long ago I was changing his diaper...

Allan, congrats on the win and beers.i started reading an article on the elimination process in curling and got lost.

Mike, I always thought minivans were pretty useful, but my wife would not have it in the driveway!

Have a day All

 

Late start today. Lots of fog and the trees are coated with hoar frost. Looks pretty but I think I'll be scraping it off the windshield shortly. Curling this mawnin at 10:30.

Clint, must be the pimps have a nasty sense of humor to do that. I hate siphoning mostly cause I don't have enough containers to empty the tank. Aren't the tanks made of plastic now?

Ted, it's easy to understand till you get to the handicaps for reading ties. That's why we insist on shoot out wins at the Saville. In the event of a tie, it's a shoot out to the button. Winning team gets 2 points, loser gets 1, but that way it's totally fair and virtually eliminates the need for handicapping.

Jim, I luv Reuben's! When ya makin em?

Mike, dat was a funny video. Good thing ha dint stop him, coulda bin nasty....

Dan, just passed 58 meelyun.

Scot, good deal on the oil changes. I do my own cause it's pretty easy and it saves me some $. Besides, then I know it's done right and I don't 'overpay' for the oil brand I use. Most fast lube places use house brand but won't tell what it is and charge $$$$ for labor. My chane comes to 28.00 using Mobil 1 synthetic and new OEM filter. Cat brand oil change derive through charges 84.00 for the same brand and Fram filter, plus shop supplies, plus oil recycle, plus tx....no brainer IMO.

Time to make some koffee and get ready for curling. Enjoy your day.

 

Happy Mardi Gras, Oldsmofriends!

'Twas a nippy 35* in da' Big Easy and a few below dat at da' Plantation. Wind chills are nippier; but no significant rain, thank heaven.

Everybody enjoy his Rubens!

 

Mawnin All

Sunny and warm here for now but supposed to be blustery tomorrow Way cool Ted I'd be proud too brother. With all girls, all I can hope for is a grandboy now
Yup Al and those fast lube places use 100% recycled oil IIRC Which I don't trust in my cars. Usually with oil & filter, I can change the oil in any of my cars for ~$20. Even for the Tahoe that takes 6 qts. I use Pennzoil 5W30 and 10W30 depending on the vehicle. I don't knock other oils, but I do think it is better to stick with one brand. And with Pennzoil, it's all I've ever used in my daily drivers. Then I use Royal Purple in the race engines.

Marti Gras is in full swing now I suppose

 

Ha! It's letting me multi-quote Musta been on the naughty list or sumphin

 

Morning all!

Cold but sunny this morning. Temp is up to a whopping 11 above right now. Twas -8 earlier. Tomorrow and Thursday going to be in the single digits again.

We got pounded on Saturday. Snow and blowing snow and below 0 temps. Sunday wasn't much better. Real tired of this already!!! I have to listen to Brian give the weather forecast to everyone he talks to over and over and over every day. You'd think the guy has never been in Ohio in February!! It's the same every year. February is usually a viscious month. Its cold. Doesn't matter what the temp is...... one day closer to spring! Me, I'm thankful for the beautiful sunshine we have today. Makes a body feel better.

Today is Lins 62nd birthday. I hope she gets my card. It may not show until tomorrow since there was no mail yesterday. Jean and I are going to go to her place this weekend, weather permitting. I didn't go out of the house Sunday at all. Saturday we did our shopping, and I shouldnt have went out then. The wind chills were awful. Cut right through ya!

Nothing new or exciting going on.

Steve was off last Friday so I had a chance to look at his emails. Found a few about the new guy Steve Mccoy that were sent to the owner. I knew Brian and Steve had lunch with him last Wednesday! They told the owner how well it went. Guess ole Steve was getting $80,000.00 a year at his former job plus a $20,000.00 bonus. We're only going to start him off at $60 some thousand. He told the guys that he has other offers out there..... who knows! They want him to start mid march. But I dont know anybody this yet..... Brian has been emailing the landlord about getting that front office in the other building done so Clay can move mid March. I don't know that either..... I'm going to do some heavy duty snooping when they go to NY on the 27th. I really don't know what the problem is here with communication when there's only 4 people..... oh well.

I signed up for the new benefits today, so that's done. Keeping the dental on myself, putting another $500 a year in the flexible spending Acct. That came in handy. It goes from March to March. Medical is the only thing that's calendar year, January to January. I think I'm going to put 2% in the 401k next month. Wish I could have been contributing all this time.... I only have like $13,000 in mine, lol. Might be enough to pay the gas bill each month when I retire!

Well I'm going to eat so I'll talk to you later. Keep warm!!!

 

Hi everyone.


It almost looked like the sun was trying to come out. Sandy you're right, just the sun being out makes things better.


So my buddy Johnboy has stacked up his truck and needs a trailer to haul it home. Now, there isn't much left of this truck in the first place but he seems bent on throwing good money after bad. So he waits until 5 minutes before I'm leaving for work to say he needs my trailer, that he knows has something on it. Oh but he could just push it off. Uh uh.


Ted sounds like you've got quite a boy there.


Eh, I don't know. I thought if I got something newish I'd be better off, but a long list of known problems on a 10 year old car that has 100+ on it doesn't sound like I'd be money ahead. At least with an old wreck I can cobble it together if I need to. This weekend when I'm off I'll start the search again. Thanks for the links you guys.


Okay off to work. Miserable out last night in the rain and wind. At least the roads weren't frozen when I came home. Have a good Fat Tuesday everyone.

 

Mornin all.

Mike. Nothing new looks good to me. Besides. You already have the Mudstain. Thats fairly new.

Sandy I hope it warms up for you Gonna be nice here the next couple days then snow and colder over the weekend.

Scot. How many beads did you get?

John, I would guess there are a lot of peanut smugglers down in the quarter if its that cold.

Allan I would figure they all have a nasty sense of humor in that line of work. But the job perks may be ok

The missus got another shipment of baby chicks (50+) yesterday. All of those but 10 sold immediately. so the SIL made another order. Unreal. They shorted us a batch of 16 and used 8 Red Star Roosters as filler for the box. So it sounds like the SIL is gonna raise then for meat.

Have a Humpday all.

 

Happy Ash Wednesday

Well, De **** frost dat I call rime is about gone but de temps and gonna fall into de teens tonite.Zo de weather foks are doing back flips 23/ 7 a-gain

Yawn

Clint, I went to school with a Japanese girl from Gaines ville Ga. De chicken capital of de world. Her father was a chicken sexer. All day long all he did was pull out de roosters from a conveyer belt He made mega bucks and I'm told it's sum kinda japanes secret handed down from one generation to anutter.

I guess it saves so much on feed cost it's worth it to know a rooster at an early age

 

'Twas Funday at the Saville yesterday. The grade 4 kids were back for their second curling lesson. Were they ever excited! It was fun to watch them after I was done. Ted, you'd fit right in there and would be a good mentor/role model for them.

Jim, whut is de diffrence twixt a rooster an a spinster? A rooster goes cokadoodledo. A spinster goes enycokelldo.

Clint, sounds like she's found a market that's willing to pay. What's rooster taste like? Any different than turkey?

Mike, good luck with your beater search. With luck you'll find something with low miles. Maybe get Darrell to find you something like that intrepid.

Freezing rain in the forecast this afternoon. Great, just great. Gotta head out on the highway.

Enjoy your day.

 

Late mornin All

Allan, bet those kids had a blast! Do you think curling is attracting a lot of the younger crowd? I would be the old dude trying to learn the sport just as they would be....would be fun. I am meeting my friend at 1pm at the rink on Sat....thanks for the mornin smile Allan!

Mike, good luck in your search...just remember ya get what ya pay for. Thanks, my son is pretty cool

Scot, my son is the last male on my Dad's side. Until his birth females dominated

Well gotta go and fix the plow cylinder...leaking all over the place

Have a day All

 

Uhh, chicken? Well, that storm that dumped snow on the Northeast again, slowed us down, as when it went through Tennessee, it knocked out one of our facilities for 16 hours....delaying ceramic cores that we need, add in that the ordering system for items from Mexico was compromised, we were encouraged to take vacation days, or lack of work passes, which aren't paid...I took two vac. days, I'll work in the basement a bit.

 

Hey Dan, sorry to hear that things aren't going well weather wise and it's affecting parts delivery/distribution. Hope it doesn't last long.

Reason I asked about what rooster tastes like is we never had one up here. It's either Turkey or Chicken. Or the other white meat - Poke. LOL, when my son was a wee gaffer he wouldn't eat anything but chicken. Not sure why but if we said we were having pork or beef he just refused to eat it. So we changed our strategy. Everything we made was thereafter 'chicken' just cooked a little differently to give a different taste/flavor. Hey, it worked! Now we all look back at that and have a good laugh. And yes, he now eats darn near everything as evidenced by the lack of leftovers in the fridge every morning....

John - enjoy Mardi Gras! Are you going on any of the floats or just collecting beads? Sounds like it's a real hoot down there. One of these days I'd love to take that in. For now I get to see it on NCIS - New Orleans. Why do all these shows always seem to paint a darker side of N.O.? The color/festival and food sounds absolutely fantastic. Onee thing is I'll stay clear of de voodoo places and tarot readers. I'm not much into destiny that others set out fer a body. I believe in creating my own.

These kids look like they're having a great time!

 

Allan, it's just a temporary thing, as we are actually working our plants up here 24/7, a hiccup as it were. When I was young I wouldn't eat steak for some reason, then when I was about 14, my mom got me to try a bite, polished that steak off, then had another!

 

Hi everyone.


Cold as a mother and windy. But the sun is out. Gonna be 12 tonight and 28 tomorrow. When did I move back north? As the saying goes, this too shall pass.


So I got off work early and got to bed early and woke up early. Instead of sleeping a little extra I kept thinking, gee I really did my friend Johnboy wrong. So I went to pick him up at his work and we got a tow dolly from a friend and we went and retrieved his truck. Lots of drama later, got him and the truck to his house, got the tow dolly back to the friend, and am now, oddly enough, a little ahead of schedule. Boy I've done some questionable recoveries in my day, but today was a doosy.


Allan that's the problem, I'd love to have a beater like Darrell's, but I only want to spend about half what he spent. That narrows the field quite a bit. I know Ted, I get what I pay for, I'm not looking for a long term relationship, maybe a year or so. Clint I don't want anything new. Then I'd be in the same boat as I am with the Mustang. No flaws and afraid to take it anywhere.


Friday tonight. No clue what's in store but after 7am they can't touch me.


Other than that, hey camel, guess what day it is! Have a good evening everyone.

 

Doohhh! Every time someone says that I have to walk a mile.....

 

Hey, boys & girl. Took it pretty easy in the chill today, and thanked my lucky stars we're here and not in the snow storm(s). 'Bout ready to hand over this jumble of paper to my tax guy. Ripped CDs in iTunes for my listening pleasure in da' Abalon.

OK... it's Lent again. Here's some food for thought that hits me right in the empty gut. Anybody ever hear of Ralph Marston? A lot of folks might poo-poo the typical inspirational messages -- and ol' Ralph does crank out a few -- but if I could only learn them, what happiness I think might follow!

This one's for me.

Empathy

You have your own perspective, and it is well-informed and valuable. Yet you do not know it all, and it’s a good idea to avoid the assumption that you do.

Other people may often frustrate and annoy you, and you may wonder how they could be so ignorant, immature, misinformed or whatever. But you only see a very small part of their perspective, and cannot possibly know everything that goes into their decisions.

Being overly judgmental rarely does anyone any good. Look for opportunities to replace judgment with empathy.

By all means, live and act with excellence, and expect excellence from others. When others fail to live up to your expectations, find ways to offer help rather than to cause hurt.

Seek to understand, and to encourage genuine understanding in others. Let go of the need to lecture and to rant, so you can spend more of your precious life in a positive state.

Make connections instead of judgments. And make the best of every situation and of every person you encounter.

— Ralph Marston


Wishing a great Lent to any and all who observe it, and a fulfilling 40 days to those who don't.

 

Mornin all.

John, That Ralph guy sounds like he has his head screwed on straight for the most part. Sounds like those kids in Allans picture would have been a little chilled this year down in the quarter.

Mike, I hear ya. You should come up here and buy something then drive it back. we have older less rusty beaters around here.

Allan, Dan's right. Tastes just like chicken since that it was it is. I don't think I could tell the difference between a hen and a rooster after its butchered and cooked. But before that the roosters make a lot more noise.

Dan. Any signs of it clearing up for you guys? We had the doors open yesterday afternoon and today is spose to be nice. Now they are calling for up to 2 feet of the devils precipitation on Saturday.

Ted, I've been lucky(knock on wood) I haven't had a cylinder failure yet with my old plow. I'm not sure why since both my angle rams are pitted and gouged to beat the band. I'm ready to put that thing away for the year.

I have to get with the Atty today about more audit stuff. The guy is more worthless than a bump on a pickle. Then I have to take 4 Skidder(bobcat, Jamesbo) tires and wheels down to have them foam filled for a customer today.

Have a thursday all.

 

Good morning everyone.


I thought the other night it was miserable when it was cold and rainy. Nope. Last night was miserable with the cold and gale-force wind. Glad I wasn't out in it too long. The weather thing on the computer says it's 17* but I think that's a little optimistic.


Clint funny you should say that. More than once I've looked on Denver's craigslist and thought, hm, what can I have Clint go look at for me. My buddy thinks that's a good idea. What better way to get me to go out and see him than to go look at a car.


John I think that was written about me. I'm gonna look him up and see what else he has to say.


Well I'm going with my neighbor to take his car to get worked on. Honestly I don't even remember what he said he's having done. He's having the stupidest things done and then makes such a big deal about it. He gets mad if you don't fawn over every detail. So tiring. I think I'm gonna start acting like that and see what he says.


Okay gonna get going. Have a good Thursday everyone.

 

12 degrees in de sunny south

GTG Family coming

 

Lord love a duck, Jamesbo. They were predikkin' 24-25 for the Hammond/Ponchatoula area, but they missed the boat. I don't think it quite froze here, thank my lucky starz.

They're sayin' about 30 for tonite, but we'll see.

12* is pretty nippy for anywhere in GA.

Y'all have a great day of Thor, Oldsmofriends.

 

Mawnin brings out Ma Natures mean streak it seems. All the walks and drives are coated with freezing rain. Police have recommended not traveling on some of the highways; some schools have been closed. Spoda warm up to 40 later on so hopefully all will be ok.

NAPA called yesterday and the replacement alternator has arrived. I'll pick it up after curling. I hate this stupid eye pad, it keeps autocorrecting stuff.

At least it's starting to get light earlier and stay light longer.

Not much else new. Enjoy y,our day.

 

Clint, the weather hasn't let up, sitting at 2°, and I'll have to snow blow again today. The forecast is frigid through the end of the month.

 

Do give up, lost post again

Have a Day All

 

Curling wasn't fun today. Chest pains. Time to go work on de low Saturn.

Ted, been there done that. Copy prior to posting is your friend if your puter is your enema.

 

Allan Better chew up sum aspirins jes in case

 

Just reading a few posts from Americans and Canadians whinging about a bit of cold weather, I always thought it was only an Englishman who moaned about the weather!! But then I had a look at the forecast for you guys and wow, you really do have something to complain about. In England if we have much more than an inch of snow the whole country grinds to a halt, the main roads are closed because idiots don't have a clue how to drive in cold and snowy weather and they close all the schools. Luckily we have had a very mild winter for the past two years with no snow. Still, look on the bright side, every day is a day nearer to spring!!

 

Hey Clint, how important is that stupid plastic cover that's sposed to go over the alt and cover the positive and weather pack connector. I couldn't get that thing back on so I left it off. I see what you mean about the latest batch from Napa. The alt I gave back was a reman Delco remy. The new one has no markings and I had touse hot glue to Hold the diode cover in place. I think it's prolly good the missus is on board with selling it. The subframe is starting to look pretty nasty.

 

What causes this in an email? a chinese looking symbol. This was in a title of an email that I received today, another one in the title from Best Buy.
Quarters速

 

John, I see that you are right about the chill hitting the South as well, brrr!