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OK, try to picture this.... Today I went over to barn to work on snowmobile trailer. I put trailer outside near garage door. I left garage door open and came back to house to eat. After lunch I went back over and walked into shop thru open garage door. I was greeted by a bat flying in circles! Scared the bejesus out of me! Why would a bat be flying around in the middle of a 25 degree day in a building??? So I left it alone and tried to continue with what I was doing. The puppy also saw the bat and was trying to find it and was growling at a spot so I looked also. I saw bat again crawling down cement block wall. So now I don't know where it went. I told you guys about the bat in my home attic a few weeks ago. I knew there was a bat living in the barn since last summer, but never saw it. From what I understand they hibernate in the winter. Why was this one awake?
Greg, do you have heat in the garage? If so, that may have gotten it active. Got a little snow headed this way tomorrow and Thursday, they are calling 4-9" with wind gust up to 50mph. Should be an interesting commute to work and back. Hmmm ten minutes ago I was coming on here to to catch up on events, then head to the store for something....I wonder what is was? Dang it.
yeah Dan I do have heat but only when I turn it on, and last time was over a week ago. Still that may be what is messing Mr. Bat up. I've been sort of studying up on bats some since they have been in the attic. I learned that if awoken during the winter they may die cuz they cant get back into deep hibernation and there is no food for them if they wake up. Well maybe I'll find him croaked later. I just ordered a bat house online to put near the house hoping it will draw them to the house and look no further ( come in attic). Maybe I should order and put another up by barn.
Well, depending on which computer model the local TV station uses, of the four that they showed, we might get from a low of 5-7.5" to 15" plus of snow. In short, they don't know. As long as it doesn't end up like it did on the east coast. I ordered a Norman Rockwell calendar form Barnes & Noble, 12"x14" by about an 1/8" thick unopened. It came in a box 13 1/2" W x 19 1/2" L x 9 1/5 deep. Overkill I'd say.
Kenneth, we will see about whether I stay once I get my performance review and compensation increase this year. Greg, those long hour stories are true; I thought I'd get off the 14s, but I seem to be staying that long even after it's installed. Mike, they assign them; it was my "big" summer project, but got delayed 6 months to winter shutdown and is now impacting some other work timing of mine. I also refurbed some door carrier lifters and removed a surf rail (it controls elevation of the car) from under a "skillet" line, which is basically a series of flatbed train car dollies with a car perch in the middle. Chris, I agree on management, it MUST be tough, because mine all seem to sell their souls and align with upper management. Selling your soul is tough, so it must be an arduous decision for them to make to ditch loyalty to direct reports in favor of towing the line.
Monday was horrible. My machine took the shop down for about two hours. One conveyor truck must have had a dead short, because it took us out all the way to the bus plug twice. Fortunately, the new machine has two bus plug taps for that reason. Many trailer to conveyor alignment jams. We kicked out the problem trailers, made modifications, and were much better today. A seat pallet showed up with a seat on it, and a hole in the pallet right where our proximity switches "see" it and it didn't track that one, and it lost its mind and had to have its memory counters reset. Less downtime, but still some. Onwards and upwards for tomorrow.
It's 4am and so far me and another guy are here. Not going to get much done at this rate. The lead carries on about how important it is for everyone to show up for overtime and tries to shame us into it, yet he doesn't come in. Some leader. I don't know if I'd be a better lead but I sure wouldn't preach something and then not do it myself.
Chris I don't remember you mentioning a second child of the step daughter. There's assistance out there for everyone except those who really need it. I'm sure she's moving into a mansion.
Greg it's odd that the bat was flying around in circles. Maybe he couldn't find his way out. Often times I feel like I'm flying around in circles. Hope he makes it back to sleep. It's a long time before the mosquitos come out again.
Koda is downtime of the new equipment built into the equation? Or do they start having a stroke the minute the first thing goes wrong? It doesn't seem realistic to think a brand new system of that magnitude is going to be flawless from the get go.
Okay three of us now. Look out. Hope everyone has a good Hump Day.
Chris I don't remember you mentioning a second child of the step daughter. There's assistance out there for everyone except those who really need it. I'm sure she's moving into a mansion.
Mike - You are correct about the 2nd child. In between my step-daughter's 1st marriage (father of the oldest granddaughter), and the guy she's leaving and divorcing now, my step-daughter had a relationship with another soldier that fathered the 2nd child, another little girl who's less than 2-years old. Are you starting to get a clearer picture of my step-daughter? I have no idea about the quality or size of home my step-daughter is trying to buy, we are not involved.
Chris, I agree on management, it MUST be tough, because mine all seem to sell their souls and align with upper management. Selling your soul is tough, so it must be an arduous decision for them to make to ditch loyalty to direct reports in favor of towing the line.
John - Certainly there are many (maybe the majority) supervisors/managers that attempt to climb the corporate ladder on the backs of their employees. Personally, I found the best formula for success was to support those under me and to create a work environment where my folks wanted to excel and out perform everyone around us. Regardless of whether I was "towing the corporate line" or not, I made it impossible for more senior management to argue with success. As a supervisor/manager I had the advantage of having performed for many years, the same work my employees were doing, and I was recognized as a subject matter expert. I think having the "street credibility" gave me an advantage on both sides of the fence.
Good luck getting the "kinks" out of the new conveyor!
Cold here this morning, 28° at 0800, and looking at a high of only 33°. The bottom drops out tonight with an overnight low of 6°, and we're supposed to get a dusting to an 1" of snow, with a high of only 17° tomorrow. Definitely winter!
Got the Archway Oldsmobile Club's monthly newsletter overnight via email. They have already decided to cancel the January and future club meetings until further notice due to the rocketing (pun intended) Covid rates in our area.
No big plans for today. Basketball practices and games resume on Friday and Saturday after the holiday break. Hope everyone has a great day!
. Are you starting to get a clearer picture of my step-daughter? .
Chris, Having grown up during the 60's [when drugs were prevalent] I've seen alot of wasted lives. Unfortunately, the kids seem to follow in the same foot steps [the apples don't fall far from the tree] It's a crying shame
Chris, Having grown up during the 60's [when drugs were prevalent] I've seen alot lf wasted lives. Unfortunately, the kids seem to follow in the same foot steps [the apples don't fall far from the tree] It's a crying shame
Amen! I don't have any problem helping someone who's also willing to help themself, but when they continue to make the same stupid choices, they can count me out.
Cold here this morning, 28° at 0800, and looking at a high of only 33°. The bottom drops out tonight with an overnight low of 6°, and we're supposed to get a dusting to an 1" of snow, with a high of only 17° tomorrow. Definitely winter!
Kenneth - Don't hate you one little bit. You deserve everyday of nice weather you can get for what you have to put up with during Spring - Fall. I hope you get many weeks of those temps!
Those temps look wonderful! Just as I walked in the sun started peeking out. Not too cold out.
Work ended up being okay. We hit our target and left at 215! Early again tomorrow. I'd stay home but I was such a star player today I want to keep things moving.
Chris this chick sounds more and more awesome all the time. Can you fix me up? NOT!! Those children don't have anything to look forward to.
So yesterday those two yard clowns actually showed up and carried on like they were God himself. I just looked at them. They had quite a long list of things that were "not in compliance." Actually it isn't all that much. The point is, though, that I hate when stupid people get their way. It's none of my neighbor's damn business what I have or what I do in my own yard. My stuff was there before he was, and if he didn't like it he should have moved elsewhere. I got a call in to my Realtor and I hope I can get things done expeditiously.
Okay errands then dinner then bed. We'll see how quickly I can do all this.
Snowing and blowing, with some drifting here and there. I'll blow out the driveway tomorrow. I took old "31" home, a two lane that existed before U.S. 31, the highway was built. When I worked second shift I usually took the highway even when it was crappy out, just less traffic at that time of night. Now that I'm on first shift, I'll avoid that route when the weather turns ugly, too many pile ups along that route during the daylight going home commute. There was a 30 car pile up on U.S. 131 North of Grand Rapids this afternoon. Kenneth, I can't wait until I see 70's around here again, probably in 5 months at the earliest.
Kenneth, I can't wait until I see 70's around here again, probably in 5 months at the earliest.
It's 180º different here - I waited 5 month for the brutal summer temperature to drop so I could go outside. Now I get 6 or 7 months of decent weather to enjoy life before I have to hibernate for the summer again. I'm beginning to understand the snowbird philosophy.
Mike, they figure the build for the shift based on the expected uptime times the seconds in the shift divided by the line speed. Let's say you have an 8 hour shift plus lunch, but minus a couple ten min breaks. That's 27,600 seconds. Divide that by, let's say, 58 seconds to build a car per pitch and you get 475 vehicles in an 8 hour shift. That's with 100% uptime. So, let's figure our target is, oh, 96%, and you really get 456 vehicles per shift if things are good. If things are bad; they look at the build, and call overtime right before the afternoon break (so you can call your woman and say when you are coming home). Overtime ranges from 0, but usually 0.7 hours to 2.0 hours. If it's a crap day, they call 2 hours OT. Or, if we're behind on sales, we'll call a lot of OT. After a shutdown, though, they know it will be bad, so they reduce build. It's still 27,600 seconds, but they figure maybe 50% uptime, so build is set for that shift to 237 or so, since they figure the line will be down half the time. However, if you take the plant down for 1.3rd the shift, they do have a stroke, and EVERYONE comes to "help".
We have been running better. Ran great this shift until some truck driver docked crookedly and caused the conveyors to jam. Dialing back the vendor support, and we're handing over support this Friday to the maint team completely. I'm rehanging sprinklers this weekend, and the vendor will come back next weekend to finish all punchlist items. I do have this dead tray; I'm going to strip the hardware and give the boogie board sized green plastic tray to the kaizen shop; I need a sign. We name our Rube Goldberg karikuri conveyor chute things made out of aluminum, sometimes after Japanese roller coasters, like we have a Thunder Dolphin, but we also have a trio called Larry, Moe, and Curly. I think I just want a "Seat Storage" in speedy font with the S's overlapping like the ZZ Top logo or something. They have a vinyl printer and would be creative and enjoy it.
Chris, there are some decent managers, but most are simply ambitious idiots. They tend to hate me because I make fun of that idiocy, and I don't really mind that they've put me on the blacklist forever and promote people with more of the desirable genetics of the moment over me. What gets me, though, is that they get high on their own supply and believe their own baloney. No amount of wishing is going to make me suck (either literally or metaphorically) no matter how they try. One side effect of blacklisting is I have 3 times the experience of the other engineers, so it's really easy to make jerks look bad.
Headed norte, It took me 2 months to get an appointment with the AGA stove repair man. It is a 6/4 [six eyes and 4 ovens] The convection oven is on the fritz and the regular oven needs to be recalibrated [ cooking very hot]
Does it look cold, it damn sure is, 14° at 0800, and looking at a high of 20° with minor flurries throughout the day. Probably got about a half-inch of snow, grass is not completely covered, but as you can see, the road and driveways are. The City plow just now came through plowing and putting down chemical. Wasn't much there to plow, and I wished they'd put that chemical down last night. They've now pushed the single digit temps back to overnight tonight and tomorrow morning.
Wife wants to pick up a table and chair set she found for her daughter sometime today, which probably won't be until this afternoon. I'm not going anywhere until I know I can get safely up and down the huge curving hill at the front of our subdivision.
No other big plans today. The dogs will enjoy playing in what little snow there is for about 10-minutes tops and then they'll want in. They don't have the coats for this kind of extreme cold.
Hope everyone has a great day!
Last edited by Dream67Olds442; Jan 6, 2022 at 06:49 AM.
Busy for a retired guy. Dropped off the Miata yesterday for new rear tires, picked up the FJ 40 from the shop and drove it back up to Forest Ranch, then had the Old Man pick me up at the house and went back and got the Miata. Full day's work and I didn't even pick up a wrench. Today I take the Money Pit to the front end shop for a complete front end job and while it is being worked on the Old Man and I will probably go for a drive just to get out of the house, he will most likely drive, he's only 95 and does quite well....Tedd
Slow day at work. We way missed our number. The lead didn't say anything about it but interestingly, he said we were starting at 6 tomorrow. We have back orders and we're not doing overtime? My guess is 6am is our punishment for being slow, so we don't get a head start and get out early. I also guess he won't be there so it won't affect him. Hope the higher ups are on board with his thinking, if that's his thinking.
Rainy right now, but not too cold. That is going to turn into frigid in the morning, and probably lots of ice on the roads. Great. I should stay home.
Chris isn't your truck 4 wheel drive? Go through the grass on the curve. Put on sun glasses so the neighbors don't recognize you.
Chris, you're colder than we are, but you have a dusting of snow, I have 11" in the yard. Put the snowblower to work awhile ago, driveway is clean. Jamesbo, I have never heard of Pittsburg Blue filet. Looks good.
Chris isn't your truck 4 wheel drive? Go through the grass on the curve. Put on sun glasses so the neighbors don't recognize you.
Mike - Not by choice, but I've been off in that grass before when the hill was icy and the front end just wouldn't hold. The hill is very steep and slopes to the left severely, and the turn is to the right, so everything is pulling you left. Another real problem is the subdivision sigh is about 1/2-way down the hill, right where the slope wants to take you. By the time we went out today the chemicals had worked and the hill wasn't slick. Parts of the street at the bottom of the hill were though, snow had already melted from the chemicals and re-froze in the shade as black ice. In addition to 4x4 the truck also has limited slip rear end, never did need to use the 4x4.
Dan - I'd much rather have the cold than the 11" of snow, although if we'd had more snow I'd have had the chance to try out the new snowblower. Tomorrow morning will be brutal though, they're saying a low of 6° tomorrow morning!
James - Steak, taters, and onions look divine. We had breakfast for dinner, which I love. Scrambled eggs, country sausage gravy, and homemade biscuits. You'll see I like my eggs smothered in gravy also. Also had a couple of the biscuits with strawberry jam. Best dinner we've had in awhile, I love breakfast food! My gal sure can cook, it's a miracle I'm not 100-lbs. overweight!
Went down to Ann Arbor yesterday, took trailer behind our 10 Impala with front fenders off 56 truck in it. Left 0530 and snowy/slushy on roads. Got to brother in law's house and dropped off trailer and Buddy (puppy) at his house. Then continued on to Ann Arbor. Snow pretty much quit as got further south. Got to my appointment at 0815. After appointment left and went thru Lansing to return a Christmas gift. No snow- clear roads. Then picked up son and 3 of us went to lunch. Then granddaughter came and her and Granny went back to BIL's. Then snow started like crazy- blowin and driften, I went and got trailer with car and went over to my friends house to deliver fenders to him- He is going to repair them. Then came back to BIL's and ate dinner with them, picked up wife and brought empty trailer back to Harrison. A long day and snow made if a little scary and stressful but all worked out fine. I heard it was pretty bad over west. You got a lot huh Dan?
Greg - Sounds like a long but productive day. Glad you got home safely in the snow.
Got up at 0430 because Monty wanted out. He went back to bed and I stayed up. It was 7° then, but is up to 12° now at almost 1000. I don't think it's supposed to get above 20° today. I watched TV on the couch until about 0630 then got sleepy and slept till 0900.
I've got basketball practice with my daughter and grandson tonight at 5:30pm, and two games, back to back, tomorrow morning. I hope most of our boys show up tomorrow, because if we only have 1 or 2 subs it's pretty hard on them having to play 2 games back to back.
No other big plans for today. Too damn cold to be out doing anything if you don't have to, but at least the roads aren't bad if you need to go out.
Hope everyone has a great day and start to their weekend!
The cold and snow knocked out some suppliers, so no production day shift here. I got vendors working, and maintenance crawling all over that thing doing their checks. I see the end of the tunnel, maybe 1 more week.
The kid I was working with learned a new word today. He asked if I were perturbed. When we didn't get out ON A FRIDAY until after 1230 I said yes I'm perturbed. As luck would have it, though, my friends were still at the Awful house so I stopped in for lunch and had a nice time.
It's pretty chilly out. I'd say around 40. The sun is out so that helps. A guy at work who's not quite a year older than me asked what happened to him. Times past he'd go work in his garage or whatever, but these days when it's cold like this he stays in because it's too cold. I said, I'm the same way, when I was a kid and it was 20 below I'd still be out in the garage. But not now. If it's below 60 I'm not happy about it.
Chris you know when I need the 4x4? When I'm off the side of my driveway a little and the one drive wheel is in the mud and all it does is spin. I hate being stuck in my own yard.
Jamesbo I had gravy on my hashbrown bowl, and it was awesome. The bacon was not raw inside, though.
I'm gonna go over to the shop for a little while and start in on the long list of grievances. What clowns. Maybe if my neighbor comes out of his house I'll hurl some insults at him.
Happy Friday everyone. I get to stay up late tonight what fun.
So, I bought a used '08 Equinox with 115k miles this summer for my oldest son, to replace the '05 Lesabre. Puked its trans 2 weeks after I bought it, so that was $4800 on top of the $5900 purchase price. Now, it's throwing cam and crank codes that are indicating it needs a timing chain. Because it's the Equinox Sport, it has the 3.6L. This is gonna be another $2600.
Now, thinking the vehicle I *could* have purchased for the $13,300 I'll wind up having into this f***er makes me soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo angry. JEFF SMASH! AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!!
Now, thinking the vehicle I *could* have purchased for the $13,300 I'll wind up having into this f***er makes me soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo angry. JEFF SMASH! AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!!
Jeff - That really sucks! Not that misery loves company in this case, but most of us on here have probably been down the same money pit road with a used vehicle, I know I have, and it ain't any fun! I sure wish you the best of luck getting it running correctly and then getting some substantial mileage out of it after the fact!
Jamesbo. I prefer "medium" for my steaks. Greg, I had 11" on my backyard snow gauge yesterday, and another 4" fell overnight. Norton Shores, which has the official weather records for Muskegon, (due to the airport being there) had 17" yesterday, so they are well over 20". The airport is about 5 miles from me, so that lake effect goes where it wants. They had a pile up on southbound U.S. 31 yesterday about 10 miles from work, so those of us that go south to get home took the secondary route, old 31. I was northbound at 6 am today, and there was another pileup in the same location, though I think just a couple of cars. I was driving between 40 & 60mph, depending on visibility. I see that there was a big pile up in Kentucky, 75 cars! Gotta slow down. Koda, I have no idea where the Toyota plant is in Indiana, but there is frequently a lot of lake effect snow in the South Bend area, due to their location near southern Lake Michigan. Jeff, I had a '07 Saturn XR with the 3.6L, the early ones were known to use oil, which lubes the timing set. If the vehicle is run while low on oil, it will burn up the timing set. To see if the timing set is bad, they have to pull the motor, 700-800 bucks, and another 1700-1800 to replace the timing set if bad. My Saturn started throwing out codes @ 127,000 miles, i wasn't going to stick that kind of money into it at that point. When I took it to trade it in on my Hyundai, the saleperson, a young kid, said "my manager really loves those", to which I replied, "then he'll love this one, 'cuz the dash lights up like a christmas tree!" The thing is, I used to change the oil every 3000 miles, but I went to 5000 miles because I thought that I was being ****. Turns out I should have kept my schedule. I don't plan on buying anymore GM products in the future.
Hey a quick question for the audiophyles. My new Suburban only has one, very bad and very scratchy speaker that works for the radio and I need to get new speakers.
What is a good speaker to get for a giant car that won't cost a king's ransom but sound good? I'd get Boston Acoustics if they still made them for cars. The radio is the upgraded double din with equalizer cassette AM-FM stereo that GM used in 1990. Not looking forward to pulling the dash loose to put in front speakers, maybe I can reach them from below.
