Tinkering Lament

10.07.2015

Wednesday afternoon was my last (hopefully) mowing of the year. I've had little problems with the mower this year - gas in the carburetor, some kind of belt broke - but for some reason I actually enjoy riding around on the mower so I get things fixed and continue on instead of going back to the guy that I used to have cut my grass.

Most of the things that have gone wrong with the mower were things I could fix if I knew how. Replacing a belt isn't the same as rebuilding a carburetor, but how hard can replacing a belt be? According to a 10 minute YouTube video it's not impossible for the common man. But I lack the fortitude to get in there and try to fix something and not give up in exasperation before something goes wrong. That's why I ended up spending over $100 to replace a $10 belt. Labor and getting the mower carried back and forth adds up.

At some point I decided I was too good to learn how to fix things with wheels. I can narrow it down to when I had my Camaro, and thanks to the combination of being in my teens/early twenties and not able to afford to have someone else fix all the little things that go wrong with a car that was 10 years old when I bought it, me and Terry were constantly fixing all the little things that go wrong with a car that old. And of course, fixing it once NEVER meant not having to fix it again.

With the above said, yesterday when I started to mow I noticed the front right tire didn't look right. My front tires on the mower aren't aligned correctly, I think thanks to hitting a trench not filled in deep enough from my water line replacement 2 years ago (this is on my "get them to fix it next year during the mower tune up" trip list). The tire looked low, not like a car tire does where the weight just kinds of flattens it out, but low as if the tire was skewing on the wheel rim. I hopped off the mower and pressed down on the tire. Yep, it was flat. Well, crap, what do I do now? How do I get air in a mower tire at home?

Back on June 5, 2013, I purchased a Black & Decker air compressor for Amazon. Why? Dunno. At the time I thought I needed one. In the garage, inside a cabinet, I finally opened the box which held that air compressor and read the instructions. Fortunately those instructions boiled down to "plug in, attach hose, inflate" and I was able to continue on mowing with a tire full of air.

It's likely that tire's been flat for a while and it's only my paranoia of getting through 1 last ride for the year before putting the mower away that made me actually notice something was wrong. I felt way to proud that I was able to put air in a tire all by myself. I wish I knew how to (confidently) take care of the other things the mower needs on an annual basis, things my grandfather used to do both at work and just in general - for some reason I remember him sharpening mower blades for our mower when I was little. I have no idea how to sharpen a mower blade, or even change the oil or whatever filter(s) the thing has. While the internet can show the steps for all of this, there's a part about getting your hands dirty and twisting everything around that I tend to screw up.

This sounds like some type of night class that should be available out there. Likely taught by some 14 year old kid.

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Tracking the Future

09.30.2015

Last week Iplaced an order for gaming stuff I don't need.  Honestly, I've got so much do I really need more?  Mostly I've been wanting better bases on which to mount the minis I've yet to paint.  Miniature Market, my #2 go-to store based out of St Louis, told me they were running a sale on one of the normally overpriced line of miniatures in which I've shown interest  in the past.   So of course this means I have to go buy stuff!!

When placing a gaming order with any of these places, there's usually a minimum order amount that garners free shipping. Well of course I reach that amount! Miniature Market provides free shipping with FedEx Smartpost - FedEx picks up the parcel, then hands it off to USPS at some point to finish up. Once the order was filled I got an email that the estimated delivery date would be Sat Oct 2 (a week from when I placed my order). No problem, I'm not in a hurry to put stuff on a shelf with all the other stuff I've ordered in the past. The last time I placed an order with them I was notified of a similar time frame, but it actually arrived in half the time. With today being half the time for the current order, I checked the tracking and saw the following at Sep 30 7:30AM (Central):

Tracking Number:	61299991028020279865
Carrier:	Federal Express
Status:	In transit
Delivered on:	Oct 2, 2015 12:00 AM
Service Type:	FedEx SmartPost

 

Location	Date	Local Time	Description
HUNTSVILLE, AL, US	Sep 30, 2015	11:01 AM	In transit
US	Sep 30, 2015	6:00 AM	Shipment information sent to U.S. Postal Service
FEDEX SMARTPOST ATLANTA, GA, US	Sep 30, 2015	4:38 AM	Departed FedEx location
FEDEX SMARTPOST ATLANTA, GA, US	Sep 29, 2015	7:47 AM	Arrived at FedEx location
ELLENWOOD, GA, US	Sep 28, 2015	11:20 PM	Departed FedEx location
ELLENWOOD, GA, US	Sep 28, 2015	6:55 PM	Arrived at FedEx location
WARTRACE, TN, US	Sep 26, 2015	4:30 PM	In transit
SAINT LOUIS, MO, US	Sep 26, 2015	3:25 AM	Arrived at FedEx location
EAST SAINT LOUIS, IL, US	Sep 26, 2015	1:38 AM	Left FedEx origin facility
EAST SAINT LOUIS, IL, US	Sep 26, 2015	12:04 AM	Arrived at FedEx location
US	Sep 25, 2015	9:08 PM	Shipment information sent to FedEx

At first glance it looks like my parcel is in transit (to? from?) Huntsville - in 3 hours. I laughed a little at the location of "US" twice (it's just info being passed off, but still). The parcel stopped in Wartrace, TN on the way from St Louis to Atlanta. I've never heard of Wartrace, but it's only 75 miles from Athens. Maybe that's why my parcel is listed as being delivered on Oct 2, it's gone into the future from Wartrace and has been delivered.

Online tracking is never exact, but I'm used to seeing it behind/updated slowly rather than showing time updates for what's yet to happen.

Permalink gaming miniatures random

Reading is half a battle

09.10.2015

It's no secret that I enjoy GI Joe, in all forms of media. After years (and years) of collecting I've finally decided to make my way through the IDW comic series. The series started in 2008, so I'm a little behind. I've read the comics intermittently, but I've never gone through the whole story line (which is still continuing). While I probably have the individual issues, I don't read them. I know, it doesn't make a bit of sense. I wait until the issues are collected into trade paperbacks and then I read them. I just like the heft of ~6 issues collected together. My problem here is that GI Joe isn't 1 title. It's many. Many that I haven't kept up with. Thankfully Wikipedia has the order the trades in which the trades were published. I've missed a few along the way, and I can never remember the order. That brings me to this post, a post just for me so that I can go back and reference what the next book I'm supposed to read is, because I keep forgetting to bookmark the Wikipedia page.

Plus I've got some collections/compendiums that lump together what Wikipedia lists. There are also some that I'm missing, but I doubt that will last for long.

• GI Joe IDW Collection Vol 1
• GI Joe IDW Collection Vol 2
• GI Joe IDW Collection Vol 3
• GI Joe IDW Collection Vol 4
• GI Joe IDW Collection Vol 5
• GI Joe Origins Vol 5 
• Cobra Civil War Compendium.
• Cobra Command Complete Collection
• Deep Terror
• Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow
• Son of the Snake
• Target Snake Eyes
• Oktober Guard
• Homefront
• Cobra Files
• Special Missions Vol 1
• Special Missions Vol 2
• Threat Matrix
• Special Missions Vol 3
• Siren's Song
• Fall of GI Joe Vol 1
• Fall of GI Joe Vol 2
• Snake Eyes, Agent of Cobra

 

7 years of reading to catch up on. The collections I've read cover 2008-mid-2011, but I'm not really in any hurry to get through them all. I've been enjoying them.

Sept 22 Update - Now reading Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow and still getting a kick out of it all.  Makes me miss the days I had the laser--rifle troooper Flash with a JUMP pack flying around, shooting unseen Cobra troops hidden somewhere in my grandparents couch.
 

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Russellmania.com 2015 ¼-Marathon!

08.22.2015

August 22, 2015 saw me as the winner of the 2015 Russellmania.com ¼-Marathon! I managed first place in this special event held near Athens High School. The route started at my car, which I found very convenient, and passed through scenic Athens, but away from traffic. Finally, after a grueling 6.55 miles that saw temperatures vary wildly from 68° to upwards of 71°, I managed to triumphantly pass the finish line FIRST after just over 2 hours. A finish line that was, again conveniently, at my car.

I was worried I might be beat out by the Kenyans, or even worse, that group of women pushing baby strollers, but I need not have fretted. I was first. FIRST! I wonder if they knew there was a race going on...?

The race wasn't without dangers. There evidently was a bicycle race going the opposite direction, as a dude on a bike passed me a couple of time. And he was flying. Although since we were going opposite directions you may need to take into account that I was viewing our relative speed, so maybe I was flying! Still, we need to talk to race organizers about concurrent races sharing the same route.

I would like to thank everyone for their support, without which I couldn't have realized this accomplishment.

First, I'd like to thank the little infant baby Jesus, laying there in his little heavenly bassinet and most likely with his little baby Jesus thumb in his mouth. I know it's not Thanksgiving but shout out to you there Lil' J.

Thanks to the Kenyans for not beating me.

Thanks to the race organizers for placing the start & finish lines at my car.

Now I've just gotten the official race results. I finished 1/1 overall. 1st in the Men's Division. Also managed 1st in Women's, Handicapable, and Breathing Heavy Divisions. Huh, it seems since it was a field of 1 I technically also came in last place. Well that sucks! I'll over look that part. Ooh, I won't even post that part. I'll hit delete and nobody will ever know!

 

---

Crap. Hit "Post" instead of "Delete" so now it's too late.

Permalink random

Air Conditioner Woes

08.07.2015

Earlier this summer I had air conditioner problems. Intermittent air conditioner problems that I first hoped were due to a cheap, 17 year old thermostat which I ended up replacing. The week after that I had air conditioner problems on the weekend that I couldn't reproduce when the A/C guy came to check. Since then everything worked fine, until yesterday.

Yesterday I noticed the house felt a little warmer than the normal 75° the house has been set at all summer. When I checked the thermostat - the super nifty wifi connected thermostat I replaced the old cheap piece of crap with, the thermostat showed 78°. Everything displayed as working properly so there wasn't a setting amiss. Bringing out the IR temp gun, I pointed it at the vent in the computer room and the air coming out was at 86°.

It had started raining heavy today after a fairly long dry spell, and the outside humidity, according to the fancy thermostat, was 98% (36% humidity inside).

This continued for a while when I noticed the indoor temp was 80° The rain had stopped but the humidity was still a little high. Thinking back to last time this happened and I complained to Jerry, he had mentioned that maybe the condenser on the air conditioner was having a hard time keeping up in high humidity. When I poked my head into the attic that time, there was water (cold water) dripping from the drain pipe that eventually leads outside. From this I mainly noticed that I now knew why there were weird spots on the kitchen ceiling - that was some serious dripping at some point.

The house felt a little cooler. Checking the thermostat the temp read 77° with an outdoor humidity of 90% (still in the 30's inside). Air coming out of the vent was at 56°

An hour later I was getting ready to go to Gina's and it felt warm again. The temp had gone back up to 78° with warm air coming out of the vents (in the 80's is all I can remember), humidity was still at 90%.

Since there was nothing I could do I went to Gina's and we had a TV night. When I got back home 4 hours later everything was back to normal. The house was cooled off to 75° Air from the vent was in the 60's. Outdoor humidity was now at 100%. Outdoor temp was 73°.

I don't know if high humidity + high temperature is more than the condenser can handle, but that's my theory. Now I've got somewhere to refer to my theory the next time it happens. Maybe the data points I'm collecting will lead to something. I know they'll eventually lead to having to spend at least $5K to replace the air conditioner, but I'd like to delay that for as long as I comfortably can.

Permalink random maintenance