What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

[Sooner Boomer]

Went for brunch at the Mexican place. We used to get up early Sunday morning and launch rockets at the university arena parking lot until the wind came up, about 11:00. Then off to the local Mexican place. We've been going there for more than 20 years now. They've moved to the other side of town, and we don't launch in Norman any more. Still go for brunch on Sundays, though.

After, went to The BORG and got bolts for the toilet tank, a deep socket set, a new flashlight, and a #0 Phillips screwdriver. $100. Glad it's the end/beginning of the month. There goes any fun money I had. The Seymour trip got cancelled, so part of that money was to go up in smoke, anyway (rocket motors/reloads). Looks like it's going to rain for a bit, so the repairs will be put off until later today, or more likely, tomorrow. I have to shut the water off at the meter.

I found my good deep socket set. I found the metric set yesterday. It's in a metal "tray". I was thinking my inch set was the same way. Then I remembered it is in its own plastic box. I still bought another set. Can't have too many tools or rockets.

 

[kuririn]

The old clunker portable A/C died, and summer is just around the corner.
Went to Home Depot and came home with a new one.
Same cooling capacity but more compact and lighter.
And more features including a remote.
So I don't have to get up off the couch and walk the 20 feet across the room to turn it on.
No wonder we're overweight.
Technological advances in 15 years I suppose.
Hope it lasts as long as the old one.
Laters.

 

[Tyeeking]

Played pickle ball in the morning and then sat on the deck the rest of the day watching the holiday weekend craziness on the lake. Very entertaining!

 

[Hobie1dog]

Played pickle ball in the morning and then sat on the deck the rest of the day watching the holiday weekend craziness on the lake. Very entertaining!

Living on the lake, my dream since junior high, but it'll never happen.

 

[Hobie1dog]

nightly breathing treatment

 

[Voyhager3]

Played darts with parents/grandparents.
I was only off by a tad…
Turns out I’m not very good at darts

 

[jqavins]

I'm assuming you're not talking about a full sized door If so, we want to see what that kid looks like

More to the point, who installed the thing?

 

[jqavins]

Logged onto the employer benefits site and changed my coverages to just me. Then I fell apart when it came up with - Kim L Gortatowsky - Deceased.

Oh, wow, what a gut punch. I can easily imagine - and I can only imagine - in your place if I hadn't totally fallen apart before then that would definitely do it.

 

[jqavins]

Refinishing the inside of our canoe. It’s only been 25 years since I built it, so no surprise that it needed some love. First pic is after some sanding. Second is after the second of three coats of water-based polyurethane. It’s not a @hobie1dog microscope finish, but it’s a solid 2-foot finish. Not bad for a boat that we use fairly regularly in summer.

View attachment 582745
View attachment 582746

While waiting for the varnish to dry, I also changed the oil in the van.

Oooh, purdy.

 

[gdjsky01]

Day 39

I slept til almost noon. I attribute that to 5 fitful hours of sleep the night before and 4 miles of walking at the MDARS rocket launch.
BTW: My friends at the launch were awesome. They did not run away when they asked how I was and I got a little emotional.

I recycled another box of her cooking magazine. Took down from a clothing rack about 20 tops to be donated. Did some laundry. Sheets mostly. Cried when I realized we used to fold them together (it's not easy folding a fitted sheet).

Started sorting through some more papers. There are millions of them to sort by what it is and when it was.

Folded a bunch of fabric she was gonna use to recover the chairs and couch. For now, I'll vacuum bag them. Maybe someday I'll honor that wish.

Penny is losing weight and I know what that means. Been there... She still is eating and 'going'. But my Kim's calico is an elder kitty.

Good God, I'll write this a 1000 more times. This is slow, insane, unimaginable torture. People mean so well when they say they lost this
person or that. But unless it's the person you slept with night after night and shared your challenges, hopes, dreams, and plans for the future with, it is not the same. Because it is ME that died on April 19th. Not just Kim Leanne. And who the F I am after that is still a work in progress.

Thanks for reading
God bless

 

[jqavins]

I spent a little time sitting outside here in Montreal on the kind of warm late spring day when the pretty young women come out in their finery - and not too much of it.

 

[Cape Byron]

And who the F I am after that is still a work in progress.

“A work in progress.”

In progress, my friend. In progress.

There is no rush.

 

[Tommie D]

Changed the passenger side upper and lower ball joints on my Dodge Ram. The lower rivets really suck to remove. Everything else went pretty smooth.

 

[kuririn]

Played darts with parents/grandparents.
I was only off by a tad…View attachment 583148
Turns out I’m not very good at darts

Good thing you didn't hit the mylar on the side.

 

[Highpowerrocketyahoo]

Babysitting a brisket for 14 hours. Ale8 and Grippos keeping me going. 225⁰ baby.

 

[Cape Byron]

Another bonfire. Just for something different.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Changed the passenger side upper and lower ball joints on my Dodge Ram. The lower rivets really suck to remove. Everything else went pretty smooth.

Well, the good this is, they'll be a lot easier the next time!

 

[teepot]

I don't fix or work on cars any more. I haven't even looked under the hood of the Explorer. I rebuilt a engine for our 70 something Honda Civic. That cured me of auto work. And that was about '83. I was fortunate that I could use the base Auto shop. I kept the car there and used their tools and advice. It's easy a friend of mine said. Get the book and follow the directions. I still put the oil seal in backwards. 2nd time was the charm. Lasted a year. We traded it in on our first new car just before it died.
Today I mowed the back yard because I forgot to do it yesterday when I mowed the front. The brush piles are in the dumpster. I did a little more pruning and was just able to get the lid closed. Mowed down a lot of weeds with the lawn tractor yesterday too. Some of the weeds were waist high. Now most are gone. Also yesterday I sprayed weeds for two hours and went through 5 gallons of Roundup and didn't get them all. Outside the fence is almost as overgrown as inside. I have a scraper that I made years ago when the weeds were bad. I might resurrect it and drag the desert. I like to keep a 30' clear zone around the property in case of fire. If a fire got close our pines would go up like matches. All the landscaping went in the early fall of 2005. Some of the trees are over a 100' tall. I was looking at all the trees I planted and I'm always amazed that I did it and how big every thing is. The landscaper put some in and I planted 22 trees myself. It's our own little oasis in the desert. And I played with the cats. I had about 50' of packing paper and gave it to them. They had a ball.

 

[Hobie1dog]

morning breathing treatment, again.
Much sadness in our home after our son got mad at his mom and hung up on her. 43 years of doing everything humanly possible for him and now it's like he turned off a switch. Now we have to figure out how we are going to see our grandson. read my signature line

 

[OverTheTop]

Mowed the back of the property we are going to demolish. I think that is the last time I'll mow the back. I am going to hit it with Zero Weedspray. I am sick of mowing it, and nobody will see it until we demolish the house.

The driving lights I put on the jeep about 18 months (more!) back were still not functional. I ended up quickly grafting a 12V remote control receiver onto the relay driving them. Now I can push a button in the car and the driving lights come on. Will do a better integration method in the future. Link them in with the high beams to make them legal.

The LED light bar started off life 16mm too long to go in between the roof-rack supports . I modified it using the milling machine to fit. They even have an adjusting knob that you reach through the sunroof to adjust the pitch of the lights. They are positioned such that they do not cast any light on the bonnet (aka hood) to make sure for optimum night-time viewing.

 

[Cape Byron]

I am going to hit it with Zero Weedspray.

Umm, any alternative to using glyphosate? It’s evil, dude.

 

[OverTheTop]

Umm, any alternative to using glyphosate? It’s evil, dude.

No. It's what I have. Nobody will be going through the sprayed area after I spray for weeks.

 

[jqavins]

I don't fix or work on cars any more. I haven't even looked under the hood of the Explorer.

Never looked under the hood? I mean, I do damn near no work on my cars anymore either, but you don't even open the hood to fill the washer fluid tank?

 

[Highpowerrocketyahoo]

morning breathing treatment, again.
Much sadness in our home after our son got mad at his mom and hung up on her. 43 years of doing everything humanly possible for him and now it's like he turned off a switch. Now we have to figure out how we are going to see our grandson. read my signature line

Prayers bro.

 

[smstachwick]

Never looked under the hood? I mean, I do damn near no work on my cars anymore either, but you don't even open the hood to fill the washer fluid tank?

I've done a bit of simple stuff myself (and some more complex stuff with help). A few lights gone out and an air filter replacement, easy peasy. On my Frontier there are no tools required for either of these jobs, you could train a chimp to do either. I was looking at doing my own brake fluid but ended up taking it into Jiffy Lube for that, but only because of lack of time right before a big trip.

I also took the thing to my uncle Lee's place for to replace the upper control arms. That was an interesting afternoon, and not as much swearing as I expected. I could probably do that myself if it came up again, but I got some good parts for it so I don't think that will happen for a while.

 

[kuririn]

I've done a bit of simple stuff myself (and some more complex stuff with help).

With every model vehicle I've gotten, within a month or two I've also gotten the Chiltons or Haynes repair manual for that model. They have paid for themselves several times over.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Did the nightlife breathing treatment but I'm not having to use the vibration vest anymore as it did absolutely nothing for me.

 

[Sandy H.]

Just got back from 3 nights of supporting a race team in TN/KY. They went to AK yesterday, but I started home. Stopped in Pigeon Forge last night and made the trip through Gatlinburg, over the Smoky Mountain National Park, to Cherokee and Maggie Valley. Stopped a bunch, took a few pictures and a few videos. Goal for that weird path home was to see if any of those places would be interesting to visit on a future vacation. Notes were made, and I sat by a stream a few times - very helpful mentally. We will vacation somewhere in that area at some point in the future.

But, I drove too many miles in 5 days, walked too much and in general am hurting pretty good. I'm guessing it will be a few days before I can walk like a normal person again. . .

But, the team I was supporting got a 3rd, 4th, 4th and win over their trip. I'm apparently the bad luck, as the win was the race I didn't go to. . .The team had never been to any of these tracks and dirt is a strange mistress, so getting those results is a total win for the long weekend.

 

[gdjsky01]

Day 40

Hello sweetheart! Its Memorial Day! Thanks for keeping my Air Force pictures. Student of the Month at Sheppard AFB in the Aircraft Maintenance class of November 1976.

My first Memorial Day without you. Next up July 4th. Then, oh f'in God. Your birthday.

Today I threw away 4 large trash barrels of stuff. Mostly from the garage. Expired canned goods... though I thought they were supposed to be Nuke-War poof goods. Lasting 10 or 20 years. But no food pantry will touch a Campbell's soup that is 6 years old. I have zero idea what the 'best by' really means or if it is just the maker making sure you buy new.

There is probably 400 LPs in the garage. Most boxed. Some not. But who knows what they are worth or who'll be honest about the estimate?

My close friend, the widow of my best man, send me two insta-pot 'for dummies' books. No wonder he adored her.

It just comes on. One minute I am fine, the next I just want to curl up and shutdown. It's one minute "la dee da". And the next "why bother?" It is simply not easy. I know that. IT MAKES IT NO EASIER!

I don't need counseling. I need Kim. And time. And I'll keep posting until I don't.

 

[Sandy H.]

Day 40

Hello sweetheart! Its Memorial Day! Thanks for keeping my Air Force pictures. Student of the Month at Sheppard AFB in the Aircraft Maintenance class of November 1976.

My first Memorial Day without you. Next up July 4th. Then, oh f'in God. Your birthday.

Today I threw away 4 large trash barrels of stuff. Mostly from the garage. Expired canned goods... though I thought they were supposed to be Nuke-War poof goods. Lasting 10 or 20 years. But no food pantry will touch a Campbell's soup that is 6 years old. I have zero idea what the 'best by' really means or if it is just the maker making sure you buy new.

There is probably 400 LPs in the garage. Most boxed. Some not. But who knows what they are worth or who'll be honest about the estimate?

My close friend, the widow of my best man, send me two insta-pot 'for dummies' books. No wonder he adored her.

It just comes on. One minute I am fine, the next I just want to curl up and shutdown. It's one minute "la dee da". And the next "why bother?" It is simply not easy. I know that. IT MAKES IT NO EASIER!

I don't need counseling. I need Kim. And time. And I'll keep posting until I don't.

As far as the LP's value goes and how to determine it, there are a few options, IMO.

1: Call a collector/reseller and let them go through it and offer you half of the real value.
2: Create a list of titles and let some of us audio-fools try to figure out what the value might be and give an estimate.
3: Post each one on ebay (or similar) at $0.01 starting bid and real/fixed shipping and see what happens and deal with the results.

Those are just the thoughts I have, but I believe if you get an offer for the whole lot from a reseller, they are taking a slight gamble and you are getting low value vs. what the collection really is. Condition matters a ton and they know how to show what is bad when buying, but also know what they can fix with a little effort.

Regardless, if there are any that mean something to you and your time with Kim and you have an LP player, they are priceless today. If you don't have a player, there are various options that can probably be worked out for shipping only. Audio-fools are just like rocket guys. They have too many of everything they own and I'm sure - given the situation - if you wanted to listen to some of the LP's, you would be taken care of.

Keep going, man. Keep posting.

Sandy.