The Namponians

Namponians are a rare breed, in the overall scheme of things, who wander in a seemingly aimless manner from their designated territory to surrounding ‘countries’ spreading joy and happiness in their never-ending quest to take over the world with their seemingly benign mannerisms. There is, however, a method to their madness because on these quests they bring children, exposing them to life outside the sphere of influence controlled by the Namponian elders, most of whom spend their days caring for the previous elders. It’s a vicious cycle maintained by the vast majority of Namponians who may travel about, but always return to pick up the mantle of support required by contracts initiated in their names at birth by those whose fruit of their loins they are. There’s no escaping this homing cycle. That’s why it’s not difficult to have them visit because the hosts know they will not stay.

In the case of Diane and myself, the Namponians arrived yesterday afternoon. The family unit is composed of two adults and a young female whose teeth I thought were silver implants until they removed her braces. Now they are white and very attractive teeth. To celebrate the occasion of their arrival, local fruits of other related loins descended upon us to visit and discuss the next time we may inhabit a location where we can breathe the same air. That is a requirement, to establish the next gathering as a primary point of business. That, and for the young, no matter where they are from, to eat pretty much everything within their grasp, sometimes retreating to dark corners so they can consume their rations in privacy. This time, however, the youngest four retreated to the roof with their bags of rations where they sat, ate, and plotted the overthrow of their respective family units.

OK – I can’t continue this. It’s mostly lies, and you know how I hate to be caught telling lies. Namponians are real people. Honest. They do tend to stay within a few miles of their homes, like deer, but they do visit outside the invisible fencing surround their territory once in a while when the elders randomly turn the fence off to see what happens. Oddly, as many enter and leave during these occasions so the population is always in stasis. This simplifies the budgetary process.

The following photos are provided as proof of this invasion and to provide others a visual reference as to the manner of their physical makeup in order to identify them should they invade your space.

First, we have three of the local FOLs, Jeran, Cedric, and Lydia, and 1 of the 3 Namponian FOLs, Maryssa, on the roof, where it got pretty cold once the sun went down. We eventually put the ladder back up so they could return to the warmth of interior.

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Next are Bob and Steffani whose loins produced the Namponian fruit.

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Here’s the FOLs again, with their midnight nectar, Namponian Orange Juice. It’s really Sunny Delight. We just let them believe it was NOJ.

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Then we had the annual “Who’s Taller” competition, which Maryssa won overall. But, Lydia’s butt is distinctly higher than Maryssa’s. We attribute this difference to the grandfather, brother Jim, the transplant Namponian.

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And, finally, the four FOLs, still consuming.

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I have to add that the FOLs were unable to consume everything so there was plenty remaining for Daniel to gratify his dietary needs when he arrived around 8:30 pm after a hard day working the innards of INTEL.

It was a good day.

Vaccums, Sprinklers, & Lawn Mowers

This is my 365 blog entry since Thanksgiving 2011. If you are obsessive, and do the math, it will be readily evident to you that I haven’t written one a day. The only time that happens with regularity is when we are traveling someplace. Then dailys are required so those who wonder can travel with us vicariously.

Vicariously. That’s a nifty word. My brother, Jack, taught me that word in 2010. I’m sure I heard it before then, but never associated it with anything I do so didn’t give it much thought. It was he, Jack, who suggested daily reports when we took our USA Tour after retiring from my day job so he could travel with us vicariously. So I did that. All those blog entries were created with Apple’s iWeb which ceased to exist in November 2011 so the only copies available are on my computer. I might just start putting those out there on this and just change the dates.

Jennifer gave me today off so I could rest. She said I’ve been working hard and deserved it. I agreed. So, while resting I vacuumed the house and we rearranged the living room. We did this mainly because Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa are going to be here tomorrow and it’s an unbreakable rule that when company is coming you either have to paint the outside of your house, or paint three rooms, or clean and rearrange everything so it will look different from the last time they were here. We actually clean fairly often even when visitors aren’t expected, but when they are it gets done twice as hard.

The livingroom remake includes addition of the ‘new’ rug Diane purchased. Looks good. After Diane was happy with my work, she sent me outside to fix the in ground sprinkler that someone ran over. It’s the one at the end of the driveway in an area that has no pavement on it. People aren’t supposed to drive there, but they do it anyway. I don’t know who did it. Might have been me. So I cast no blame on anyone. It just happened. While fixing it I moved it away from the driveway about six more inches. I don’t know if that’s enough. We’ll see.

When I finished fixing the sprinkler I was released to, finally, mow the yard. I was going to just do the front, but wound up mowing and bagging the entire front and back yards. I finally finished about 9:15 pm. The moon was bright, but just a sliver, so I had to use the mower headlights on the last 1/4 of the back yard. I’ve always wondered why riding mowers have headlights. Now I know.

Now I must go shower and remove the stench of mown grass from my body. Then I will plead with Diane to dress my blackberry and apple tree wounds. Next year I will not sustain those kinds of wounds because I’m going to remove the low hanging fruit bearing limbs and eradicate the blackberry bushes. I’m also going to remove a forsythia thing that just sprouts willy nilly out of the ground, and another flowering bush that’s about eight feet tall and is composed mostly of dead sticks.

I forgot to mention that, while rearranging things earlier in the day, we saw a doe and two spotted fawns stroll through the yard. Very adorable little creatures. We’ve seen lots of deer, and evidence of deer who eat the flowers, but never tiny fawns. It was a special treat. They looked almost exactly like this, but different because this isn’t our back yard. I got this photo from the web. But, these are pretty much the same size as the visitors.

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Now I must go. Hope everyone had a pleasant Saturday.

VA, Village Inn, and the ReStore Store

Today Diane drove me to my PT appointment at the VA Hospital on Pill Hill in Portland. I endured about 45 minutes of severe pain from EB then we went to the Village Inn, on Wielder Avenue, near the Lloyd Center, for breakfast. From there we went to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore store near Mall 205, which is, oddly, near I-205.

At the ReStore store we purchased some different festive ceramic tiles for the bathroom project, but all we went there for was to see if they had any pedestals that might fit the sinks Diane and Jennifer purchased last week. They didn’t, but we learned they allow returns.

So, while Daniel and I worked on the bathroom, to secure the overlayment flooring, Diane and Jennifer returned to the ReStore store to return the sinks and pedestals in favor of ones that match. This meant, of course, that they timed it just perfect for Portland’s rush hour traffic on Friday afternoon. They returned around 6:30 pm after stopping at Fred Meyer in Scappoose for salad to go with the lasagna that Lydia cooked. They got a watermelon, too. It was all very, very good.

As mentioned above, Daniel and I secured the layer of flooring, to which we will glue the linoleum. Because of that, it has to be absolutely smooth, with no nicks and divots due to the screws used, all of which were secured a tiny bit below the surface of the wood. Daniel used floor leveling compound to fill those divots, and the cracks between the board. Tomorrow we can see about cutting the linoleum. I’ve been wanting to do that for days, now. Just cut some linoleum. It doesn’t have to fit. I just want to cut it. With my knife.

While waiting for Diane and Jennifer to return, after we had done what we could do in the bathroom, I watched TV with Lydia and found out what I’ve been missing. We watched “The New Girl” which is all about sex and weird relationships. There are morals in there somewhere, but all of them are pretty loose ones. It’s funny on the same lines as “The Big Bang Theory” which Diane and I really like. I think there are 22 episodes stored on the DVR for later viewing, when we have a chance to sit down at home. Lately that’s been difficult.

I need to mow the yard again, too. The grass continues to grow even though we haven’t watered it all year. It’s still kinda green, too.

Did I mention hat Daniel and Jennifer laid out the new tile in a desired pattern for the wall? They did it wrong, of course, because some of the new tiles we got have a kind of rorschach pattern on them, and they are all the same. Lydia and her OCD-ness fixed it by ensuring all the patterns were lined up in the same direction. It’s going to look right nice when done. That will happen one of these days. I keep telling Jennifer that but I don’t think she believes me. She’s resigning herself to a life with nights interrupted by children using their bathroom who don’t know how to close doors quietly and who don’t realize gravity takes over when you let go of the toilet lid.

That’s it for today. Gotta save the cat from Panzee now.

Nicks, Dings, and Other Things

Today Jeran told his Dad, Daniel, that he’s surprised that I haven’t hurt myself yet while working on their bathroom. Little did he know that I’ve managed to collect memorable scrapes and punctures over the past week about which he is unaware. Most of them, I admit, were collected yesterday when Jennifer and I installed the tub and I connected the plumbing through a tiny little hole in the floor that was surrounded by screws with their pointy ends poking out.

Installing the tub wasn’t really a big deal – Jennifer and I just mixed up a 50 pound bag of thinset mortar, in one of her festively colored storage containers, for lack of a better option, and dumped it on an old tarp I’ve been using to cover the loads in my truck when I go to the dump. This mixture was situated in the area where the tub would sit then we just laid the tub back down in the gooey mess. Jennifer sat in the tub to get it back to level then stayed to enjoy the heat generated by the curing mortar while I wounded myself, over and over, connecting the drain. But it’s done, and it doesn’t leak. The fancy faucet even works. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll remember to take the camera to capture a picture before we put the walls up. I’m sure everyone is clamoring for one of those.

This morning, after coffee with Larry, Larry, and Lisa, and another trip to the church parking lot with Larry to  revisit the black top patch repair job, I returned to the bathroom project. Today was Daniel’s day off and he was eager to get to work when I arrived. Our goal was to get the overlayment down on the floor. That involved replacing the toilet drain which, in turn, required removal of a bit of floor so I could get the sawsall in a position to whack the drain off at a reasonable level. Once done we had to make an ACE run to get a sleeve and a piece of 3″ ABS piping for the drain. We only needed 3 1/2 inches of piping but 2 feet is as short as they’ll go so it cost $6 for that 3.5 inches. That’s OK.

Next step was to put down a layer of roofing felt between the subfloor and the overlayment. I don’t know if roofing felt is appropriate but its way better than the really thin paper we removed on the destruction part. We wanted to do it in must two pieces but there were just too many things sticking out of the wall to allow us room to do that, so we did it in four pieces. One piece had to have two holes cut, one for the toilet and one for the A/C vent. The holes weren’t perfect, were totally fixable, but I’m not going into those details. Let’s just way the overlayment is down and looks great. Next is the linoleum. Tomorrow.

The evening ended with Diane, Jeran, and I going to the movie to watch “Despicable Me 2”. Totally fun movie. We laughed almost non-stop throughout the entire thing. The movie was Jeran’s reward for helping Diane all day long without complaint. He was tasked with cleaning up their patio and surrounding area. It was a hard task because he wasn’t sure what should go and what should stay. When Daniel and I returned from ACE Jeran was just tossing something in the dumpster and reported that he’d “found an easier way to clean up the patio.” Daniel asked him what that was and Jeran said, “I just throw away the things Grandmas tells me to throw away.” Makes sense to me. There’s no need to make decisions using that method.

Diane worked in the living room, dining room, and kitchen the last two days straightening things up, and today it was vacuuming and shampooing the living room/dining room carpets. Not an easy task. Jeran helped with a lot of that today, moving things around for Grandma. Jennifer pitched in when she got home from work.

Cedric & Lydia were participating in Pacific Camp at their church, as they’ve been doing all summer, so weren’t around to participate. They did, however, appreciate the results of everyone’s efforts.

Tomorrow, as I mentioned, is linoleum day. First, however, Diane will be driving me to the Portland VA Hospital for my physical therapy on my right shoulder. My therapist, EB, doesn’t a great job, but I don’t think what’s wrong is going to go away. So, I’m prepared to live with it and skip these trips. Therapy isn’t really helping and the next option is surgery. I’m too busy right now to entertain that option. I’d be one-handed for longer than I can go without going to the bathroom and I know Diane wouldn’t help me with that. I’ve asked before. It’s always a resounding “No! Never!” She will, however, change my Depends when necessary.

They’re pullups.

Dog Bites, Rugs, Dentists, & All My Children

Diane’s had enough of Panzee biting on her tail, and said she’s getting to smell pretty bad. I suggested that it would be OK to take her to the dog groomer because Ozzie gets to go about once a month. Panzee has never been so I think it’s about time. Now, however, we need to wait for her tail to heal where she’s removed all of the hair from about a 4-inch patch. In an attempt to help her out a little, before we realized she’d ripped all the hair out, we gave her Benadryl because the vet said we could. That was information for Ziva, but it works for Panzee, too. That seemed to help a little with the incessant biting and chewing. Then came the odor of blood, which Diane can smell, but I can’t. Luckily, Jeff and his friend, Marc, came by so we had extra hands to find out what was going on. I tried to look, by myself, but Panzee reminded me that she’s got really big teeth and she’s not afraid to use them. There was no touching the tail. No way. It took 220 lbs of Jeff laying on her to keep her from biting me. Instead she nipped at Jeff’s cheek a few times which was just fine with me. She didn’t break the skin so we know it was just warning nips.

With all the manhandling, the tail was accessible so Diane squeezed about half a tube of antibiotic salve on the wound then we put down some gauze and wrapped it up with paper tape. When it was all done it looked like Panzee had a scrunchie on her tail. She didn’t seem to mind, once we let her go, but last night, after everyone went to sleep, she slipped it off the wound so she could lick it. We switched from Benadryl to aspirin yesterday to help her with the pain. That’s OK, too. I checked. Since she relocated the scrunchie we decided to get her to the vet for a professional decision about how to proceed. I’m guessing she’s going to wind up with one of those Elizabethan collars. She’ll hate that.

Yesterday we unrolled the ‘new’ 9×12 carpet Diane got that I don’t think I’ve mentioned. It’s mostly purple and is for the living room. We unrolled it in the garage then she made me vacuum it 15 times – on each side! That’s true. With the good side down to start, I ran the vacuum over the back to knock as much dirt loose as I could. When I folded back one side there was an incredible amount of fine dust on the floor. I vacuumed that up, unfolded the part I’d originally folded, then folded over the other end and repeated the process. I did that 15 times before there was no evidence of dust. I did this in lieu of shampooing it which, it turns out, was a stellar idea because it would have just coalesced into mud, I’m sure. Before the last go round with the vac we replaced the bag. I’m here to tell you that it was super full and weighed more than any vacuum cleaner bag I’ve ever had the pleasure of changing. I bet it was 10 lbs, a testament to our eBay vacuum.

Now the rug is rolled up and stored in Lydia’s room until we decide if we want to move furniture around in the living room again. Right now there’s a large plastic matt on the floor, the kind people put outside their Winnebago’s to keep as much dirt out of the rig as possible. It’s mostly purple, too.

This morning I had my scheduled cleaning appointment at the dentist. After my hygienist, Cheryl, was done I talked with Dr. Grimm and arranged to have one of my teeth pulled. It’s one I never use so I decided to get rid of it. That’s going to happen in September. I figure by then I’ll be able to save enough money to have it done.

At lunch I read my book, on my iPad, like normal, and Diane was watching All My Children on Hulu, on her iPad. She uses headphones while watching All My Children so it won’t annoy me. Then all the sudden she started shouting out random letters, and various cast names which concerned me. I watched for a while and figured out that she was answering questions that were being shown on the screen. She finally realized that I was perplexed with her tourettes-like behavior and started answering the questions silently, occasionally pumping a fist in the air to indicate a correct answer. After that it was much easier to concentrate on my book. After she was done she removed her earphones and asked me a question. I shouted the answer. She smiled, an indication that I wasn’t in trouble for being rude, that she understood that I was merely replicating the manner in which she was spouting her answers to her quiz. Then all was quiet. Lunch was done and it was time for me to get back to work.

At the bathroom, on which I’ve been working forever, I managed to get the new valve installed and one of the four exits connected to the tub filler spout thing. Jennifer was my guiding light, keeping me focused to get that far. I’m using PEX to connect it instead of using copper tubing. PEX is much simpler. There’s no danger of getting burned and I already had the tubing. Just needed to get the connections. Right now I’m three connectors shy of success. ACE didn’t have the ones I thought I needed so I just purchased some that I randomly removed from the racks. Tomorrow I’ll take back the ones I didn’t use and see if they have the ones I really need. I’ll figure it out, one way or another.

Now dinner is done and I’m sitting in the Man Room with Lydia and Jeran who are watching Merlin on Netflix. Diane and Jennifer are at either Safeway or Fred Meyer, cruising the isles, shopping for things to eat.

It’s a good day to be me.

Bathrooms, Rose Poaching, Diabetes, and Dead Chicken

Greetings from the BRRR – that’s Bathroom Renovation Recovery Room. Daniel and I worked all day yesterday rebuilding a wall that we had to partially dismantle in order to remove the offending tub. I suspect a “real” carpenter could have knocked it out in a couple of hours, but we learn as we go. The end result is a wall much sturdier than the one we started with, before removing the tub. All that remains is for us to get the tub in place and nail it to the wall, put down some roofing felt, cover it with plywood, install the linoleum, install sinks, re-plumb the tub, install ceramic tile, paint walls, cleanup .

It sound like a lot, I admit. At the rate we’re going, I figure we should be done before school starts in September.

I guess I should take some pictures for those of you who would really, really like to know what we’re dealing with. I’m sure it’s the majority of you; maybe 3-4 of you.

A couple of days ago Diane talked her Mom into going over to the neighbor’s house to poach their roses. In their defense, the house is empty and is being prepped for sale. A guy comes around once a week to mow the yard, but he doesn’t do anything with the climbing rose-bush which reaches to the upper deck and spurts out dozens of blossoms. Deer love them. Here’s what it looked like when they made their break for freedom …

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Again, in their defense, they trimmed the roses up very nicely. We had one of those roses on our house when we moved in and it was taking over the upper deck so I cut it down to the ground. It grew back, but I won’t let it get taller than six feet. We argue a lot when I’m mowing around it and I usually wind up with new wounds from pushing it’s arms away as I mow past it. It’s almost like black berry vines that can snag on pretty much anything and leave memorable slashes on arms and legs. I’ve learned it’s not wise to trim anything with thorns while wearing shorts and with bare hands. It’s just not healthy.

Speaking of health … I have another dentist appointment tomorrow morning at 0800. Kinda early for that kind of thing, but I like to get to folks like that early in the day before they meet any mean people and are fresh. When you make afternoon appointments it’s a crapshoot as to what kind of attitude you’ll encounter. Normally, they are all professional to the end of their work days, but I’m not taking a chance of having someone snap when they have my mouth pried open and they’re using extremely sharp tools. For my own wellbeing, I always check the tools for rust before they go to work. This does, of course, please them no end.

Now for the downer … I got the results of my last retinopathy test and learned that I probably have diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in the USA. I just learned of this today because we didn’t pick our mail up yesterday. There’s no real danger of me going blind any time soon, as long as I obey the rules and watch my BS level. Diane tells me I’m full of BS most of the time, but I have a meter for that and my BS levels are very low compared to life long diabetics. Those are Type 1 folks. I’m just Type 2. I never get 1st place.

Today was very pleasant. Not too hot, not too cold. We took Diane’s Mom, Jean, to church at 0930 then Diane drove us to Longview, Washington where we had lunch at Sizzler. We always get the all you can eat salad bar because it includes dead chicken. I really like dead chicken. Especially legs. This Sizzler has only legs and arms. They have no idea where the rest of the chicken goes. It’s possible, I suppose, that there’s a rehabilitation center somewhere for legless and armless chickens, but I doubt it. Considering the size of the chicken legs, you’d think they came from either an olympic chicken weight lifter, or really old chickens that just keeled over because they got too fat. They look like they came from turkey’s, but they are definitely chickens. Maybe they’re from the Amazon – they have big things down there. Regardless, they are very tasty and it only takes 3-4 to fill me up. To give you an idea how un-normal that is, I can eat about 12 pieces of a normal size dead chicken. Honest, I can. Ask Diane.

I hope everyone is enjoying whatever type of weather you’re having. If it gets too radical, one way or another, you can always visit Oregon to get refreshed.

Cheers.

Independence Day

First, I hope everyone has arrived safely at your destination for this annual celebration and that you are close enough to see the pretty fireworks well, but not so close they hurt your ears and eyes. They can do that, you know. We stride for no injuries to, at, and from where ever you’re going.

Us? We’re not going anywhere except our porch. From it we can see tons of fireworks all across the horizon from Portland around to La Center, Washington. Admittedly, the displays are just teeny tiny little pops on the horizon, but we can see them. Then there are always the neighbors who pop off all manner of illegal fireworks in the neighbor hoods below us. So, it will be a festive evening of startling noises, bright flashes, and barking dogs.

Diane’s busy making potato salad for our 3-fer lunch with her Mom. I love it when she cooks pretty much anything. I especially love when she finds a good-looking recipe and ad libs the ingredients because she doesn’t have everything called for. It’s always excellent and a taste treat. My favorites, in case you’re wondering, are her meatloaf, sloppy joe, beef stew, pork chops, steaks, bacon, pancakes, eggs, cheese, milk, mashed potatoes, and crackers. There are more, but I’ve run out of nouns for the moment. All I ever make is chicken and noodles for the mashed potatoes, as you may have seen in previous blogs. Oh, yes! I make omelets, too. Actually, it’s only omelet because I always make one huge one that we cut in half – 6 eggs and two handfuls of grated cheese. Sometimes three.

I got to sleep in this morning because Diane got up with the dogs. They slept in, too. Probably because it was their first night without guests in the past three days. We had Ziva and Daisy while Jeff & Heather took the little girls to the beach for a couple of days. Tiana would have gone, too, but she’s at Kiawanis Camp on Mt. Hood this week. Fun for all.

The guest dogs were good as gold and they got along great with the normal residents, Ozzie and Panzee. They even shared the big dog food bowl and water. The cat ignored them, which was perfect, because the only cats they chase are the ones who run. Breezie knows the rules of survival. Plus, she has claws and they know it.

Yesterday Daniel, Jeran and I worked at getting the floor replaced in the bathroom we tore apart. The girls, Jennifer & Diane, made a trip to Lowe’s at Delta Park in Portland to get a new tub and linoleum for the floor. The next event is to put the tub in place they rearrange the plumbing because the new tub is about 4 inches taller than the old one. So, all the controls and exits need to be moved up the wall. It’s copper pipe so we’ll have fun with that. It requires a torch and I just love to do things that allow me to use my torch.

It’s almost time for my noon nap so I’m going to quit.

Again, everyone stay safe.

Old Toilet Paper Rolls, Shower Nozzles, Urinals, and Other Stuff

I’ve always had a penchant for endowing inanimate objects with sentient emotions and feelings. I don’t know why, I just do.

This morning I discovered that my toilet paper roll was down to the last few sheets. As I was about to throw it away I wondered what it must be like for them, being stuck on a small cardboard tube for months on end, buried beneath layers and layers of siblings who they know will find the light of day long before they do, and who will find release in the sacred bowl of water, to be recycled into nature. Then, as they bask briefly in the light, perhaps they reconsider and decide that maybe the sacred bowl of water isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s heard rumors, and little toilet paper screams, as it’s siblings were swept away, never to be seen again. Maybe it’s OK to be tossed in the dry recycle bin and spend what little time they have left basking in the light. Consider this when you reach the end of your roll.

Then there’s the shower head … do you think the water coming out of it is from it’s nose or mouth? Either way, do you think it hurts them if you get the water too hot? Does it get lonely if  you don’t use it? When it drips, is it sad and crying, or does it just drip because it’s old?

How about urinals? What do they think about while hanging on tha wall with their mouth wide open just waiting for some guy to come along and, well, you know, relieve himself into the back of it’s throat? What kind of life is that? Probably OK, since that’s their purpose, but do you suppose they gargle in the middle of the night? Maybe that’s what it’s doing when you press the “Please Flush” handle. Maybe it should be “Please Gargle”.

The worst is toilets. I won’t even go there because with the previous thoughts in your head I’m sure you’re imagining all kinds of things right now. I’ll just say that they at least have the capability, with help, to close their mouths once in a while. That’s got to be at least a little bit of relief.

I explained to Diane what this was going to be about and she wasn’t pleased so I’m sure I’ll hear about this.

Today I put the carburetor back on the truck and it started without blowing up so I won’t have to go back to the doctor right away. It’s only bolted down with three bolts for reasons explained yesterday. It may remain that way for the rest of it’s life. After I did that I reattached the gas tank to the old D22 and am taking a break from the 90 degree heat before connecting the gas lines. When that’s done I’ll go get some gas and dump it in the main tank and see what I can do about getting it to start.

Sure hope it doesn’t blow up. If it does I’ll probably have to go back to the doctor anyway. Diane will insist.

Softball, Ospreys, and a Quadrajet Carburetor

The fun-filled weekend is over and we made it through another Monday. Unlike before I retired, Mondays are perfectly OK with me. I can deal with them much better now. Monday’s are actually just like Sundays. We just don’t go to church.

I needed to add an addendum to the rant from yesterday where I cried that river about bad calls, and such. It’s mostly about Lydia and Jennifer who, after all that activity, made it back to town just in time to assume their 12 hour shift at the fireworks stand that is sponsoring the high school girls soccer team. Lydia is playing when she starts high school next year. Wow! High School. Wow! Jeran’s in the 8th grade. Wow! Cedric is a sophomore. Wow! He’s 16 and doesn’t care if he drives or not! Wow!

The deal with the fireworks stand is that it must be ‘manned’, or ‘womaned’, 24 hours a day for security purposes. So, that’s where Lydia & Jennifer spent last night, from 9pm on. For both of them, the fun didn’t end until this afternoon, after VBS at their church. Jennifer teaches and Lydia is a counselor for what they call Pacific Camp. I think that’s correct. I’ll be alerted if it isn’t. For sure. Needless to say, they were both very tired this afternoon. Lydia fell asleep while laying on the floor painting her nails.

While at the games in Albany, we spied a nest on top of a couple of light poles for the field. In this one I caught an Osprey female and at least two youngsters. Before it was brought to my attention, the female flew in with a fish for the little raptors. They eat well from the nearby Willamette River.

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If you’ve heard about the rifles raffled off for the St. Helens softball program, you might enjoy is this one …

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For the tournament, the girls were allowed to put whatever they wanted on their jerseys. This is Abby, and her initials are AR. Yes, it was intentional on her part to point out the AR-15 association. I asked. Kinda cool, I thought. Lydia put “Walnut” on hers because that’s one of her nicknames. Another girl had “Peanut” because she’s the smallest on the team. Some actually used their real names, too. They had fun with it.

Today I decided to get a carburetor kit for the pickup’s Rochester Quadrajet. It’s been around a while and I thought putting some new parts and gaskets in it might perk it up a little.

So, I disconnected all the hoses, linkage, and wires then went to remove the four mounting bolts. I discovered that three of them were only about finger tight, and the other one broke off just about flush with the intake manifold. It was a “Hmmmmmm” moment for me and caused me to sit and mull things over for a while before I figured a course of action. For sure I needed a bolt extractor tool, which I found at ACE. I also needed a part for the PT to eliminate a rattle in the rear. I got that at Carquest along with the carb tune up kit.

back at the pickup, I drilled out the center of the broken bolt, per instructions, then hammered the extractor into the hole. When I turned it, after soaking it with liquid wrench, the extractor broke off. Fortunately, I had another one, just a bit bigger, so I enlarged the hole hammered in the new one. I hammered it in really good, to the point where my 1/4 socket wouldn’t fit because I’d flattened the top. So, I meticulously filed the offending flare off the top to the point where I could just feel the socket catch the corners. Then I hammered the socket onto the extractor.

When I finally got to the point where I could work the ratchet, the bigger extractor also broke. The first broken extractor came out of the hole pretty easily the first time, but not the second time. It’s sticking above the intake manifold about a 1/4″. I figure that since the broken bolt was the only thing holding the carb in place before I started this evolution, that I could just eliminate that offending hole and secure the other three. Then it would be three times as secure before I started. So, I’m not too worried about the broken bolt at this point.

Thinking I would move along with the project, I took the carburetor out back and took all the screws out of the top that held it together. Then I tried to get it apart. I couldn’t do it. I suppose with a hammer and my screwdriver I could have accomplished that seemingly simple task, but I just wasn’t up to it. Whoever put it together last time must have glued everything together.

I’m to the point now that I think, considering how things went, that I could just set the carb on the engine and it would work just fine without any of those bolts that hold it together and hold it down. Maybe I’ll try that just for fun to see what happens. Maybe not.

At this point, the carb is back together and I’m just going to put it back on after I figure out what to do about the broken extractor. Maybe I’ll get my torch out to heat it up and see what happens. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I need to burn all the gas off the top of the engine that I spilled when disconnecting the fuel line anyway.

I’ll let you know how that goes. Maybe from the hospital.

Good thing I’m insured, huh?