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Still 60° here at 8:30 pm, got up to 65° today, just unbelievable! The high on Sunday is supposed to be 26°, just crazy!
Just a quiet night in for Momma and me. We've started watching the "Yellowstone" TV series from the start of the 1st season and I have to say I really like it. It makes me really miss the the mountains and the western wildlife though. I really need to get back out there while I can still get up and down those mountains.
Welcome NucTec. I really enjoy going on the good morning thread and see what these other yahoos are doing and put in a little about my goings on. I hope you stay with us. Yep, Dan I also heard we are sposta get snow today. Went to a little party last night and watched U of M game. Didn't make it to midnight. We were in bed but did hear some fireworks. Well I guess that is the end of Holiday festivities for us. I think I'll go over to barn today and continue working on truck. I sent a txt to the son of a old school hot rod fabricator who past away 5-6 years ago. Son is also a body man. Anyway I asked him if he would be interested in repairing dents and rust on my front fenders. He sent one back saying yes he would so I txted back "OK when can I bring them to you?". No response. So I called and asked on a voice mail- no response. So I don't know...
I spent NYE babysitting the older dog, who is terrified of loud noises. Even though she was well tranquilized, wearing a Thunder Shirt, and hiding in a “den” that I made for her, she was still in distress. Luckily it started raining fairly hard around midnight so the fireworks were toned down slightly. I was finally able to get her outside to pee around 1 am, then finally got to bed.
I spent NYE babysitting the older dog, who is terrified of loud noises. Even though she was well tranquilized, wearing a Thunder Shirt, and hiding in a “den” that I made for her, she was still in distress. Luckily it started raining fairly hard around midnight so the fireworks were toned down slightly. I was finally able to get her outside to pee around 1 am, then finally got to bed.
Great picture. Understand...dogs get quite traumatized.
Thought I would stop on in here and say hi and happy new year to everyone. I was so out of touch that I didn't realize it was new years till I heard all the shooting. Not too unusual here for gunshots to happen but not at midnight, thought the poachers were at it again..... Lost in the fifties .. Tedd
Hi Tedd, Happy New Year! That weather that dumped snow on you passed through Arizona yesterday/last night and rained all over us down here in the lowlands, snow up in the mountains.
I spent NYE babysitting the older dog, who is terrified of loud noises. Even though she was well tranquilized, wearing a Thunder Shirt, and hiding in a “den” that I made for her, she was still in distress. Luckily it started raining fairly hard around midnight so the fireworks were toned down slightly. I was finally able to get her outside to pee around 1 am, then finally got to bed.
Kenneth - Glad the New Year's fireworks and gunshots were toned down by the rain. The same exact thing happened here. It was raining hard starting around 11 and still going strong at midnight, so we didn't hear much at all. We didn't have to tranquilize Monty at all and we were really glad about that!
Norm, I also had fish today, but from the opposite coast. Yellow fin tuna that a friend caught out of San Diego. I smoked it and made dip out of some of it, and had that for lunch.
My HEI distributor vomited its guts onto the work bench this afternoon.
The pickup coil wires were loose - the insulation cracked right where it goes into the coil - so I took the pickup coil out, cleaned the area around the wires, and applied a blob of silicone RTV to encase and support the wires so the conductors don't break.
I wouldn't call this thread quaint and charming, I'd say the inmates have taken over the asylum
I only wish the coyotes would take eat MF groundhogs but I think they're too slow
My mother was from LaGranger, Ga. In the town square they have a statue of Lafayette. I've always wondered what kind of person names his farm, "the farm" [in French}
James - I caught, prepared and ate a Marmot. Served it up during a thanksgiving dinner in college. Bunch of us genetic students one was a friend of mine staying in his advisor’s home while she was on vacation. I stripped the bones and did some genetics sequencing on the bugger.
Also, there is a short tiny street named Straat in downtown Amsterdam. I stayed at a small hotel on that street once. Name of the street is “Straat” straat (Street street). Much like the “the farm”. Odd.
Norm, Did you visit Hoofstraat? When you were there? Kinda the Rodeo drive of the Netherlands
Amsterdam [to me] was the most confusing city to walk in I've ever seen walk lanes, bike lanes, care lanes, bus lanes I almost got run over several time by a blue hair with a purse on the handlebar's of her bike
A friend of mine [Emory] was eating Lingcod for dinner the other nite. I thought I knew my fish pretty well but I never heard of it Have You?
Really cold here this morning, 18° at 0830, with a projected high of only 25° this afternoon, and then single digit temp tomorrow morning. Burrrrrrr!
No big plans for today. I'll watch the Chiefs play starting at noon. Looking forward to watching the James Taylor and Carole King concert this evening, that should be good, I'm a fan of both.
Two or three days ago tornado watches. We have trees down everywhere. Then 79 degrees yesterday. Freezing rain and sleet right now. They think maybe 1-2” of snow on the grass
weird times for sure
but. I’ve got my shop battle station setup
so it’s tolerable
ive got water in this shop I think but haven’t hooked up yet. So I’m carting water from the house
Still lots of snow here this morning, bummer, I let the Springer out the front door this morning and not 8 feet away was a deer. Dog took an hour to come back, got her morning work out.
Things to do today include getting the ashes out of the wood stove, getting so when I put a log in it, it wants to roll back out on the floor. Probably should have done this last week, but being retired, there is always tomorrow if you are lucky.... Tedd
James - I "think" I know where you're talking about - not sure. I've recorded seven trips to the Nederlands since 2003 my last stay in 2014. I believe the general area you're referring to is located not far from the first place I stayed when in Amsterdam - that place I referred to located on Straat straat. I stayed either at The Flying Pig Hostel, next door to it, or another place close by. As I look at Google I can't find the less than 100' long street called Straat straat, but that's what it was called. I see a couple places with Hooftstraat in them (Note there's a "t" after Hoof in Hooftstraat but I think you mean the same name). There are a gazillion places I've walked, ridden (rented) a bicycle or taken a street car - hard to tell. There's one place I always became confused with when I first started going to Amsterdam and that was Dam Square. I was not always in the most coherent state of mind when visiting Dam Square, which surely led to my confusion - streets all running about from all directions. I've been to maybe a dozen museums in Amsterdam and one brewery. I love all of the Nederlands. Of all the European countries I've visited I'd the Nederlands is my favorite. I have friends I visit(ed) in Maastricht - lovely town. They both work in nearby Genk (Belgium) - typical Dutch, awake each morning, ride their bike to train station, leave bike at train station, take the train to work and back home daily. I stayed in Hague once and got a free tour of the International Court of Justice in the Peace Palace (Hague) - that was outstanding. I love the Dutch people and their country.
Two or three days ago tornado watches. We have trees down everywhere. Then 79 degrees yesterday. Freezing rain and sleet right now. They think maybe 1-2” of snow on the grass weird times for sure but. I’ve got my shop battle station setup so it’s tolerable ive got water in this shop I think but haven’t hooked up yet. So I’m carting water from the house
Matt - Nice shop. Coffee pot, ceiling heater & working music. I have a couple sets of scaffolding including one identical to your yellow roll-around scaffold - that roll-around scaffold has paid for itself far numerous times. So, I think I'm sorta following you. You have water in the shop, but you said "I think". I'm guessing you just bought the property would that make sense since you haven't located a water pipe? I hope you do have a water pipe to the shop - would its source be city/county water or a well? I have water in my man-cave shop and I don't know what I'd do without it. Mine is sourced from city water. The man-cave I built, it already had a water pipe from an original well which was converted to city water 25 or 30 years ago (before I bought the property).
you are correct. we bought this place about a year and half ago There are two 40x50 buildings. About 10 feet apart.
the old shop has a bathroom and it’s own septic errr. Something. Probably just a pipe in the ground
the new shop has a pvc pipe capped and sticking out of the floor Honest I just haven’t had time to cut the water off and test it
i intend to put a mop sink in and a small on demand water heater
The two shops used to be a tractor repair business and the old one is covered floor to ceiling in gear oil. And it also burned a bit at some point
we have city water but pay a higher rate for it because we are so far out. Still cheap compared to the rest of the planet though.
We have a public owned utility and though people here won’t believe It we have super cheap everything
i love the scaffold. I hang parts from it to paint. I lower it and use as a mobile work table and used it to paint the house.
Matt - I couldn't help not to notice (because I was being sneaky) what was displayed on your monitor. I had never heard of "The Breeders". I just spent some time reviewing their history and music - interesting. I also noted a couple guys I have listened to many, many times and saw in live performances - Brian Eno & David Byrne. I haven't seen Eno live, but I've seen Bryne numerous times. I've also been following Adrian Belew for 46 years now - since the time he began w/ Frank Zappa out in Orange County, L.A. CA. I've met/spoken w/ Adrian on several occasions over the years in small taverns/lounges in the midwest. Love his music - much along the lines of Eno.
Returned from the grocery store where I am the lone wolf w/ regards to wearing a mask in indoor public places. It isn't so much I am overly concerned regarding SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.529 (Omicron) as much as: (1) SARS-CoV-2, (2) SARS-CoV-2, B.1.617.2 (Delta) and (3) WTH, let's include Influenza at this point in time, as well. I'm not being a fanatic about this stuff, but when I see some of the people in these places hacking, sneezing, wheezing, never covering their nose/mouth then thinking of the grocery cart(s) they've wheeled around I grab the big jug of disinfectant and some towels before I hit the aisles running. Holy guacamole.
I'm also safe from whatever pestilents are at the grocery store. You know why? I didn't go! After I got home from the Awful house I took a shower and then got into my jammies and there I have remained. Slept a little this afternoon, sat around, looked at the internet, repeat. It's rainy and gross out and Tiger and I just hung out. I don't really need anything from the store, so I didn't go.
The lead never said anything about going in early for tomorrow so I'm not going. I think 6 will be plenty early enough. Now, if I practiced my coughing and hacking I could call the lead and stay home all day. Nah, I'm not one to call in sick if I'm not sick. Can't speak for the rest of the crew... That's what we have vacation for.
Gonna call my Mom and then hit the sack. Hope everyone has a good start to the week.
Got my conveyor in, along with my other two shutdown projects. Did something like 135 hours in ten days on the clock. It's in, it runs, the old seat conveyor trailers are worn irregularly on their alignment ramps, so we were having big time jams coming out of the trailer, but I think and hope we got most of them.
I opined to my boss that the pay was not worth the stress, and if I had spoken to people the way some people had spoken to me today, I would've been hauled to HR a bunch. I don't have the power trip, need to command groups of people, gene that some people have, so I can take or leave this level of project, and, if the performance review I get isn't the best thing since sliced bread, I can go back to engine end effectors, no sweat here.
We make the thunder tomorrow morning with resuming production, although we'll have a reduced build target. It's my seat conveyor versus a new spare tire conveyor versus a modified traverser* conveyor changer for who can shut down west plant faster. You don't have to keep up with the line, just have to be faster than the guy with the most downtime; it's like outrunning the bear.
*In case anyone cares, the west plant at my plant was a pickup truck facility with body on frame. BOF cars are built on trim lines (our are overhead carriers), and the chassis is made up on frame lines of slat lines like a conveyor metal belt with poles sticking up to hold the frame. You bring the body in on the trim conveyor, drop it on the frame on the slat line, then pick it up at the end of the line with a final conveyor overhead conveyor. However, we went to unibody SUVs, so we have to get from the 2 post carrier of the trim lines to a 4 post carrier of the final lines, without anything in between, because unibody cars have the engines and rear ends put in from the bottom on an overhead conveyor. So, there's this station that, in one cycle, less than a minute, can lift up the car from the trim carrier, drive it forward into a final carrier, close the arms of the final carrier, and drop it down on it, then return back in time to get to the next trim carrier. It's nuts; I think it's the only overhead carrier to overhead carrier transfer conveyor Toyota has, and we made it faster and with more clearance this shutdown.
I opined to my boss that the pay was not worth the stress, and if I had spoken to people the way some people had spoken to me today, I would've been hauled to HR a bunch. I don't have the power trip, need to command groups of people, gene that some people have, so I can take or leave this level of project, and, if the performance review I get isn't the best thing since sliced bread, I can go back to engine end effectors, no sweat here.
I may not be the best career mentor, but I agree with you completely. My mindset for the past two decades has been they need me more than I need them; I am eminently capable and finding a competent replacement would be very difficult, to be blunt. Apparently that has been confirmed true as I have survived multiple "workforce reductions" and been promoted during those times. So stick up for yourself and don't take any crap (which appears to be your MO anyway). Happy New Year!
Koda, I think your stories -and Mike's- about work are interesting. I usually don't comment about things I know nothing about, but I'm sure you and Ken are saying the same thing about competent and talented people (yourselves). My older friend used to work at what used to be Oldsmobile main plant in Lansing as skilled trades line repair/maintenance. He told me of many times when he butted heads with his bosses, how he worked unbelievable long hours, how he and his buddies would go to lunch, get drunk and never return, on and on. In other words both great and failing performances at work. I came away with that when he was needed in a jamb the boss knew he would come thru- he could be counted on. So when he spouted off or did wrong, the boss would ignore it or even help cover his ***. Even though it was a UAW union shop, the smart boss knew who to take care of- who would have his back when needed. Sounds like that is what you guys are.
What a difference a day makes. This morning early it was cold and windy and rainy, and this afternoon it's nice out, not so much wind, but still cold. The sun being out is the nice part.
Work was slow. We didn't have a whole lot of wheels so we sat around a lot. The lead wasn't there, big surprise. I think I slept most of the day. I've gotten into the habit of going and getting a can of pop when I start feeling tired in the mornings. I'm trying to get past doing that, so I muscled through it. I'd get up and go for a walk, or put on some youtube songs, I did okay. This afternoon it started again. The problem is going to be tomorrow when I start at 4 and my brain will go into auto shutdown around 7. I'm much more of a night person.
So Koda did you volunteer for the conveyor gig or was it assigned to you? Who talked down to you? Now you don't have to worry about it until another model change.
Gotta go over to the house and take the trash out, might run to Walmart real quick. I know I'll be in bed early tonight. Hope everyone has a good evening.
I don't know if it ever got down to single digits last night, but it was only 12° at 0830 after the sun had been up a couple of hours. Pretty day with full sun but has only got up to about 36°.
My step-daughter that my wife helped move back from CA came over this afternoon with her 4 and 2-year old girls. They have left for awhile to go shopping at Goodwill to look for basic needs like dishes, silverware, etc. to furnish the home it looks like they will be purchasing. I don't know how in the hell she is going to be able to purchase a home with her credit history, but it appears someone is willing to finance it. Not a done deal yet, I guess we'll see? My wife`s already picked up furniture for the kid's room that she is refinishing for them.
Haven't done squat today other than my usual daily workout. I did get an email from the last boss I had before I retired, letting me know I was missed and how crappy things had been at work trying to manage at work during the Covid Era. He's a real good guy, and the small world that it is, his wife is my oldest daughter's boss at Barne's Hospital in downtown St. Louis. I also got a text from a close friend (a groomsman in our wedding) that has just retired at the end of last year from where I worked. He rides motorcycles too, and we have talked for several years about taking some cross country trips when he retired. Guess we'll see if we can make that happen? I'd really like to take some bike trips out through the Rockies and the Southwest before I get too old to do it.
I found the posts from Koda, Kenneth, and Greg about supervisors vs. workforce to be very interesting. I spent the first 20-years of my career as part of the general workforce and the last 15-years in management. During my time in management, I spent 7-years in 1st level management, 4-years in middle management, and 4-years in senior management. I can honestly say the 7-years I spent in 1st level management was the toughest job I ever had. In 1st level management you are constantly in no man's land between the employees and more senior management. I believe it would be a great thing if every employee was required to be a 1st level manager for at least a year to give them a better appreciation for what 1st level managers/supervisors are faced with. JMO, having lived it on both sides of the fence.
Hope everyone had a great day and has a relaxing evening.
Last edited by Dream67Olds442; Jan 3, 2022 at 02:18 PM.
Just a tidbit of knowledge beyond the doldrums of everyday life. Saw this article in my Google feed today and thought it was pretty good. Of course I liked the pic of the '67 4-4-2 in the article because it looks almost exactly like mine, although the blue paint may be a shade darker. https://www.hotcars.com/1965-70-olds...-a-muscle-car/
I wouldn't call this thread quaint and charming, I'd say the inmates have taken over the asylum
I only wish the coyotes would take eat MF groundhogs but I think they're too slow
My mother was from LaGranger, Ga. In the town square they have a statue of Lafayette. I've always wondered what kind of person names his farm, "the farm" [in French}
Sorry for the delay Jamesbo.
YES! Loved it there.
There's a wrecking yard on the east side of La Grange (don't recall its name - it's just south of New Franklin Rd. or Hwy 27) and appears to have a tremendous number of classic cars, BUT owner is not selling parts! The owner sells guided tours through his "kingdom". Something different.
Question Sir: I am in need of a part. Do I ask on this part of the blog or elsewhere?
Question Sir: I am in need of a part. Do I ask on this part of the blog or elsewhere?
Regards
NucTech
Hi NucTech - If you go to the "Forums" menu you will find a "Classified" section, then "Parts", then "Parts Wanted" sub-section. This hotlink should take you directly to the Parts Wanted sub-section to post the parts you need. Good luck!
Jamesbo- My dad and I have an almond orchard and the wind and rain have taken over 500 trees this year, amounts to almost 5 acres of replants. There is a hole in part of the orchard that you could land an airplane in. The orchard is past prime, and it gets to be decision time whether to rip out the whole orchard and start over again or try and keep it up with the replants.. Thought I was retired.. Tedd
