… this has been.  Let’s see… Where do I start?

The beginning is usually the best place.  I went to bed around Midnight last night.  My stomach was bothering me a little bit.  My back was hurting, sending pain down my right leg.  I couldn’t get comfortable at all in bed.  The only good thing was that Tink decided it was a good night to keep me company.

Around 3:08 AM, the fire siren started wailing.  I flipped on the scanner.  I’m wasn’t sleeping so I might as well listen to what was going on.  Someone was having a very bad night involving several police officers, fog, a tree and a barn stone wall.  I suppose I should have got up and thrown some clothes on and headed up to check it out.  I didn’t.  Around 4:30 or so this morning, I finally drifted off to sleep.  I awoke around 5 again.  The room was getting cool.  I had shut the cooling off on the air conditioner but the fan was still running.   I shut that off and pulled the comforter over me.  Finally, I could get some sleep.

I got up around 8’ish to feed Tink.  She was being fairly good and only semi bugging me to get up… She wasn’t pouncing on my chest yet.  “Brrrrr.. ” I thought.   I looked at the thermometer.  The house was around 60 degrees.  I walked to the thermostat to fire up the furnace just long enough to take the chill off.  As I ran the numbers up on the digital display, the relay clicked.  I would soon feel warmer… or would I?  Normally, I can hear the burner fire right after the click of the thermostat relay…  Not this time.  I went to the basement to see what was … or more correctly…  wasn’t going on with the furnace.  Its an old furnace.  It’s components are mostly mechincal in nature unlike the beasts of today with electronic ignitors and fan controllers.  I’m familiar with most of how it works.  Maybe it was something simple.

Thoughts of “How the heck am I going to afford to buy a new furnace right now” roamed through my head as I worked through the chain of operation.  My volt meter told me I had the proper voltages on the fan relay and gas valve.  The relay itself clicked when the temperature was adjusted yet the burner wouldn’t ignite.  The pilot was lit.  All the ports were clear.  Nothing seemed wrong visually.  I shut the gas off and began to check the one thing that I had no way of testing without muscling it… the Gas Plunger Valve.  It is a valve used on some older furnaces in the chain before the gas regulator and burner valve.  It has a plunger on it to get the gas flowing.  The pilot uses a separate line right off the gas feed, unlike today’s furnaces that pull their pilot light feed off the same gas valve.  It comes apart.  “What the heck?  I’m going to have to call the repair guy anyway if this doesn’t work.”  Surgery was very minor.  Dirt filled the intake side.  I must have knocked it lose when I fixed the leaking gas valve last week.  Old house… Lots of old crud in the lines… You know how it goes.  Back up the steps to the thermostat I went, hoping to hear that familiar sound “barrrrwhoooosh” as the burner comes to life.  “CLICK!”  “Barrrrrrrrwhoooooooosh” and the faint sound of gas flowing and the heat chamber expanding as it started to warm.  Crisis averted.

By now, it was slightly after lunch.  I needed to get some thing to eat and go to Walmart for a couple things.  To heck with it… I’m went to Golden Corral for their lunch buffet.  I went to school with one of the servers.  Mark is good at his job and has no problem keeping your meal entertaining.  I needed some levity at that point.  I picked a seat in Mark’s section.  Next thing I know, this other server lady stopped by asking me how things were and such like I’m was at one of her tables.  Mark had just been there.  He wasn’t on his break.  This process repeated over and over and over.  The last time she came around I asked her why she was also checking on me.  “My section is empty and I don’t feel like washing the walls so I was just double checking Mark’s tables.”  She shouldn’t have said that.  I replied “Well stop… Mark is my server and you are annoying me stopping by right after he was just here. Do your own work.”   I spoke with the manager on the way out.  I told him exactly what she told me.  He would speak with her.  I made a direct point of telling him that I was very pleased with Mark’s service and I didn’t need a second server.  Miffed… I left the restaurant to go to Walmart.

Still stewing, I parked the truck.  As I approached the store, two kids stood there with Quaker Steak and Lube wing buckets.  One had wrapped some crepe paper streamers around her bucket.  The other hadn’t done much of anything. Neither bucket was sealed.  Unlike the picture on the left, They had no signage or indication of the reason they were collecting money.  The kid closest to me shoved the bucket toward me without so much as a word.  I let out a hrrrrrumph and continued walking.  I heard a couple of elderly women question the boy as he did the same to them.   He mumbled that it was for “The … mmmmbmmb …. Gators”.  He didn’t inspire much confidence that the donation would make it to its intended destination so the old ladies passed on it as well.  I got what I needed and headed back to the truck, slightly calmer than when I went in.  I dodged the kids with the buckets on the way out.

I got home and tinkered with Maggie to get her ready for an afternoon ride.  My upset stomach had let up and I was looking forward to a relaxing ride.  Beth had texted about going for a short jaunt until Bill got his bike running and then maybe he would join us.  We usually meet at Sheetz.  I headed up to Sheetz early so I could gas up Maggie and get some water.  Maggie was burbling like she does when she is going to act up.  That being said, she was running well other than the noise.  I fueled and pulled the bike up to the parking stall.  My cell phone rang.  It was my Aunt Lois.  She was somewhat distraught.  She was at my dad’s house.  His truck was home and she had supposedly called the house phone but he didn’t answer.  She said could hear music in the house.  My heart sank.  I didn’t need to hear this after the past couple months Dad has had.   His kidneys had almost shutdown.  He has fallen.  The past two weeks he’s been battling pinched nerves in his neck.   Not answering was not a good sign.  Beth was getting ready to leave her place.  I told her I had to go check on Dad first.  Lois made the dimwitted comment that I should call her when I found out what was up with Dad.  I snipped “Why should I call… You’re at the house… I’ll be there in just a minute.”

I blew down Route 18 and made the swing onto Main Street.  What would I find when I got to the house?  I rode up on the sidewalk… parking the bike on the sidewalk instead of in the driveway.  I took my keys out and began to unlock Dad’s door.  As the door swung open, he was walking across the room.  He had been getting ready to go get something to eat.  Lois swore she dialed his home number but Dad lets his machine pick it up if he is in the bathroom or doesn’t have the phone with him.  There was nothing on the answering machine.  They talked about going to get something to eat.  I texted Beth to let her know I was still going riding.  I told Dad and Lois that if everything was ok, I was going to continue my plan to go for a ride.  Dad agreed.  Lois apologized for calling me with a giggle behind her smile.  This tripped my already twisted trigger.  I quipped, “I didn’t need the crap scared out of me on top of everything else today.” as I went out through the door.  She said “I’m sorry…”  with this stupid chuckle like she saw nothing wrong with it.  I just rode off.  I bet steam was coming out of my helmet.

The one on the left is very similar to what Maggies original filter looked like before I changed it.

Maggie picked up her typical low RPM stall as the ride went on.  By the time we were headed back towards Hermitage, she was shutting down anytime I let the RPMs go below 1500.  She was having carb issues when I got her.  I got them working pretty well.  Occassionally, she takes a backstep.  The fuel filter was plugged solid when I changed it.  Debris was getting in the lines.  I think every so often small flakes break loose causing these temporary stumbles.  Figures… Just another low point in my already sucky day.

We stopped at Sheetz so that Beth could try to get Bill on the phone to set up somewhere to meet.  I went in to the store to see if I could get some cleaner that would help poor Maggie take her fuel better.  I normally use Seamfoam, but I had found that Gumout Fuel Injector Cleaner seems to work well also.  I attribute this to the problem being that her slow idle jets clog with the debris as it loosens from the lines.  I gave Maggie a drink of her treat and we headed back to Beth’s to join up with Bill.  Bill and I took a look at his bike.  It has been overheating.   Bill didn’t think it would present a problem on this leg of the ride, as long as we didn’t sit and idle long or putzi through town.  Their youngest daughter tagged along on this leg as well.

We decided… well… Beth and I decided… to ride towards Grove City.  This leg included a stop for dinner.  The evening was beautiful but definately more fall like than most of the other rides we’ve done.  We cruised through Volant and up to Grove City.  As we pulled into Hoss’s a plane flying over dropped about six skydivers.  We watched as they floated down to the airport located just behind the restaurant.  We enjoyed dinner.  Bill had a problem with his fork.  It seemed to get dirty somewhere between the time we sat down and the time he finished eating his salad.  You had to be there.  Think about it… You’ll figure it out.

We rode home through Mercer and back 318.  I saw two fairly large doe (yes a deer… a female deer) standing in the clearing near Rocky Springs Campground.  They didn’t present any danger as they grazed away from the road.   I broke off from Beth and Bill and headed to my house in town.  By the time I hit the driveway, my fingers were pretty cool.  I had put my other jacket on under my riding jacket when we left Hoss’s but I left my vented gloves on.  The setting sun had sent the temperature down several degrees.  I covered Maggie and went in the house to recover from a long emotional day.

This week is to be cooler with Tuesday being rather wet.  I don’t know how much riding I will be doing, but Maggie is prepped for the work run in the morning.  We’ll see what the week brings.  I got invited to a special friend’s house for dinner on Wednesday.  Looking forward to seeing them again… Its been awhile.  It will probably be awkward but hopefully all will be good.

I’m going to sign off and finish watching the new Planet of the Apes movie that came out a couple years ago.  I vowed I wouldn’t pay to watch it, but its on HBO Free Preview this weekend, so I guess I haven’t broken my promise.  LOL.  Catch ya later!

~Cappy

I had made my mind up that Saturday, August 25th, 2012 would start out with a trip to Pymatuning State Park for the Curt Patterson Invitational for the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.  Curt was a coworker and friend who passed away after a battle with Cancer.  We shared similar sense of humor and would often make our coworkers groan as we played off each other’s punny quips.  After dealing with Mom’s Cancer, I look for ways I can support the Cancer cause where I think the money will go to better use locally.  Curt’s family has ties at UPMC.  His son is a doctor there.  I know they will find good outlets for money’s they raise on Curt’s behalf.

Friday night the weather was looking really great for the Invitational.  I set my alarm to make sure I got my lazy self up Saturday morning.  I knew my back wouldn’t take 5K  (a little over 3 miles) of walking or biking.  I would be there in support though both monetarily and physically.  I suppose had I been riding my mountain bike this summer instead of the motorcycle, I probably could have made the distance.  In the end, I’m glad I didn’t do the course.

Saturday started out with Maggie(my 1984 Honda V65 Magna Motorcycle for those who don’t know) being grumpy.  She ran great all week.  I guess she got up on the wrong side of the bed or something.  I got her warmed up and we headed out to Pymatuning State Park Shelter #3.  I met up with Dave, one of my coworkers.   My boss and his family were there as well.  We joked that I should get one of the kids that knew how to work a

camera and do a motorcycle camera get up like they do in the big professional races.  As the race got underway, I thought “Hey Stupid!  You can ride out to somewhere on the course via the road and get pictures for the family.”  I grabbed my trusty camera.  Maggie and I set off to the midpoint of the circuit to get some pictures.  My plan was to take pictures there until the bicycle group came back around on the second lap.  I would then head back to the Start/Finish Line to get pictures of folks coming in.  I chose the bike group because they were sent out first to avoid running over any slower runners or walkers.

The first pack of bike riders made their way back around to me on the second lap.  I headed back to the picnic shelter to catch the finish.  I got off the motorcycle and began walking towards the picnic shelter, snapping a few pictures of kids playing and random stuff.  I noticed one of the guys had pulled off to rest.  He was pulling two small kids in a cart behind his mountain bike.  I didn’t think much about it.  Maybe the kids got rowdy or something.  As I walked toward the shelter, he stood up from the picnic table and collapsed.  His head hit either the picnic table or the concrete floor or both.  I ran over to assist.  There was a volunteer fireman there who stabilized the man while I called 911.  Someone grabbed a bicycle and headed out on the course to find Curt’s son Kevin who is a doctor.  Kevin arrived and began to evaluate injuries.  I hopped on Maggie and headed out to the main road to escort the ambulance in.  911 told me they had dispatched the Park Rangers, Jamestown Fire Departments Ambulance and LifeForce Ambulance.  A lot of good the Ranger did. He couldn’t find the shelter.  He claimed that the dispatcher didn’t tell him the shelter number.  That’s funny… the ALS ambulance from LifeForce drove right up without escort.  Between the goose egg growing on his head and some minor complaints about neck pain, it was decided that transport was the best course of action.  Later reports indicated no major head trauma.  A CT was being done on his neck to verify there were no injuries there.  Hopefully there was nothing more than the goose egg and some scrapes on his legs.  The excitement turned back to the race once we knew the man was in good hands.  I apologize for using general references to the injured man.  I can’t remember his name.  Yesterday was a long day.  A picnic lunch was presented as the last few stragglers made their way in off the course.

I ate and talked with some of the folks there.  It had turned out to be such a lovely day, that I couldn’t see just turning the bike back towards home.  I decided it was early enough in the afternoon to make my way up to Lake Erie and a stop at Presque Isle.   I spoke with the family, letting them know I would forward my pictures to share with anyone who wanted to see them.  Kevin told me they would like to raise enough money in Curt’s name to open a bank account that could be used to continuously help the Cancer Institute.  That would be cool.

I was following my GPS since I had no real time schedule.  I made my way up through Ohio to Lake Erie and across through Girard PA over to Presque Isle.  Riding the motorcycle is more fun when the roads twist and turn.  Ohio has a made a habit of making roads as straight as possible.  Route 7 must be one of the straightest.  The GPS is set to avoid highways so it tends to find these quirky back roads.  It again found a good one.  Instead of taking me clear into Conneaut Ohio and then back into PA, it chose this lovely foot path of a road.  The road surface was in decent shape but was heavily used by Amish so it had wheel ruts and horseshoe pitting on the right hand side.  We see that here around home a lot.  I hadn’t realized there was that big of Amish population in the Erie area.

I hit Erie and a LOT more traffic than I had expected.  I knew Peninsula Drive would be busy.  The beautiful weather and the fact that we’re in what are probably the last two weekends of Summer for most families was going to make Presque Isle busy.  It was WAY busier than I could have imagined.  Turned out there was a Triathlon on Presque Isle in the morning to add to all the mayhem.  I think it took 15 to 20 minutes to get the 1 1/2 miles from 26th street to the entrance of the park.  My back was killing me by this point.   I pulled off at the second parking area to take pictures of the sailboats and such on the bay and give my back a rest.  My back does pretty well on the bike but I have to stop every so often and stretch.  I had ignored it the whole way to Erie.

I had originally planned to take vacation this week and ride out to the Lancaster area this weekend.  Dad getting sick and ending up in the hospital last week changed those plans.  His health has to take precedence.  That being said, I had decided that I was still going to treat my Saturday ride as a mini-vacation.  There were a couple of things I’ve always wanted to do on Presque Isle.  I either wanted to take a pontoon boat tour or the big boat tour that takes you out on the main lake.  I love boating so either one would satisfy me.  The pontoon boat excursion was busy.  It usually is and with yesterday’s traffic, I wasn’t surprised.  I stopped at Perry Monument where the other boat tour launches.  The next trip was 3 pm.  It was a little after 2 at that point so things would work out just right.  I wondered around the monument watching the boats and kayakers to kill time.  The 90 minute boat trip out around the peninsula was relaxing and very enjoyable.  I miss being out in a boat but I don’t have the time or money to make the best use of one right now.

The other thing I have always wanted to do is to stop at Sara’s Cafe.  Its a quirky little place on the right as you come down onto the peninsula.  It is decked out in antique coca cola decor.  It is one of those places that the food doesn’t really matter.  Its a fun place to stop.  I finally made the time to stop yesterday.   I ordered a Chicago Style Italian Steak Sandwich with Onion Rings and a drink.  This place is setup to crank the people through.  I was surprised that the sandwich was so large.  I walked around and took several pictures after eating.  I like little places like that.  They are way better than Mikey D’s or the other fast food chains of today.

This place is filled with character.  Old Coca-Cola coolers are made into tables.  Vintage license plates hang on the ceiling. Neon lighting is used everywhere.  Yet for all the antique memorabilia around, this place is set to handle the crowds.  Multiple ordering stations, separated pickup areas, multiple condiment and drink stands keep things moving while picnic tables both inside and out provide plenty of guest seating.  The food prep areas are setup to handle the crowds too.  There was a fairly decent line but I don’t think I waited more than 10 minutes from the time I stepped in line until I had my grub.  I will stop there again.  Usually I am rushing to get home because I waited too long to decide to head off to Erie, so I don’t think to stop.  I didn’t care if it was dark when I got back last night since this was my ‘mini-vacation’.

After dinner and some exploring at Sara’s, I headed back home.  I let the GPS guide me again.  It had recommended a different route this time.  The first few miles were a downer as it took me down Peach Street which is a busy area around the Millcreek Mall and several other shopping outlets.  Once I got out of town, the road took a country twist, naturally.   I could have followed Rt 19 the whole way to Mercer but once again it becomes straight as an arrow, so I broke from the GPS suggested course at Meadville and head back through Conneaut Lake and Greenville.  I passed my dad coming through Hermitage so I spun Maggie around to go catch up with him.  He stopped at Long John Silver’s for dinner.   He seemed to be doing pretty well which is good after his tumble Friday.

I parked Maggie for the night about 8:30 ish.  I spent the rest of the evening posting pictures from the Invitation and the ride around Presque Isle.  I went to bed tired and sore.  Surprisingly, I slept really well.  I notice that my tan has darkened again.  It had begun to fade after not riding the whole week Dad was in the hospital and the couple days of rain we had.  I’m not sure what today will bring yet.  I’m content at them moment to just lounge around here.

All and all, A good day yesterday.  Gonna see if I can make another one today.  Catch ya ’round!

~Cappy

Sometimes I get myself into things because of things people know I can do.  This past week I got a call asking me to do sound for wedding at the West Middlesex Presbyterian Church.  Originally, I was going to say know.  I ended up saying I would do it.  I wasn’t doing much anyway Saturday so that I would be in the area if Dad needed something.  I went to the rehearsal Thursday night.  It wasn’t much of a rehearsal as the wedding party showed up 45 minutes late.   They didn’t have the music or anything, a fact that would turn into a theme.  Pastor and I talked on Saturday as we waited for the bride to arrive with the music and program/bulletin.  How do you wing a wedding when you are in someone else’s church?  Neither he or I go there.  I knew a little about the church from working with their dinner theater group, but where do you come up with music etc.

The bride finally arrived.  She had burnt her music to a DVD.  DVDs won’t play in standard CD players.  I was handed a three CD set of wedding music and told play whatever I want except the Wedding March because that was to be used when she was coming down the aisle.   Pastor and I went through the program and discussed where he normally liked to have music.  I selected a couple songs on the fly and jotted them down where he said they should go.  The wedding went off well for being finalized at the last minute.  The bride was happy with everything.

After the wedding, I went home and crashed for a bit.  I’ve been having some extra pains down my legs since I carried the air conditioners up and down the steps the other day.  It has been very difficult to get to sleep.  I probably aggravated everything more today.  I have had a set of driving lights since Christmas.  I needed to get them on the truck.  The temperature was cool this morning so I took a stab at it.  They came out well but I am already feeling it in my back.  Pills before bed… Maybe even some ice.

Saturday night I went to Rick White’s bachelor party.  Lots of good food.  Chicken on the spit.  Mmmmmm.   I stayed till around Midnight.  I had ridden the bike since the evening temps were comfortable.  The ride home was a wee bit cooler.  I had taken a little heavier jacket.  I was very glad of that.  I’m sure the cold damp air didn’t help my back any.  Oh well, Can’t stay inside all the time.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed certain things bug the heck out of me and other things that used to torque my chain don’t matter.  Bigotry is one thing that I have less and less tolerance for.  People are people to me.  Black, White, Hispanic, Gay, Straight, or whatever label you want to put on someone means little to me anymore.  My personal experience has led me to believe that as long as someone doesn’t force their beliefs on me then that’s cool.  I read someone’s post this weekend about their son finding out his friend was gay and how well he handled it.  How else is he supposed to handle it.  If the person is truely your friend, his/her differences don’t matter.  There is no instruction manual that says “If you don’t believe the way I do you are not my friend”.  We are all different and its those differences that make us who we are.

That being said, I’ve heard some things come out of my own family’s mouths that just boggle my mind.  You have never spent time with a black person or a gay person if your first word out of your mouth is some stereotypical slang or derogatory remark.  I have many friends that come from all walks of life.  I’ve been treated better by most of them than by the “White” race that I am apart of.  If I’m stepping on toes, I’m sorry.  I have gotten up and walked away from conversations of that type over and over… Twice this weekend.  I may come from a backwoods area of Pennsylvania but that by no means gives anyone the right to be rude or ignorant just because that’s how things used to be.  We don’t live in that world anymore.  I may not believe in certain lifestyles or people’s beliefs but I have grown enough in myself to realize that doesn’t make them some evil monster that should be feared or put down.

I was asked this weekend what church I attend.  I told the person that I don’t attend any Church because the Church itself became the stumbling block to my faith.  I still have faith and believe but I’m not going to let a group of people in some building make me feel uncomfortable for being there.  Your Church Family is supposed to be the one place you feel loved no matter what happens or where you are in life.  When that place becomes intolerant, then it is hypocritical and not where I’d prefer to be.  The Bible says we should have love one for another and they know we are christians by our love.  I don’t know where it says you should ostracize someone because they don’t want to sing the same hymns as you or paint the church their favorite color.  Ok.. End of Rant.

I think its time to take a couple pills and head off to the land of knod.  Here’s to a great week… ummmm… yeah…

See ya!

~Cappy

Dad had been in the hospital since Monday.   Dealing with hospitals is an art.  Patience is required both by the family and the patient.  I find it interesting that waiting and waiting can be more tiring than a full day’s work.   You wait for doctors, medicines, paper work, and on and on and on…

I have no desire to go back to work while he’s in the hospital.  Since Mom’s final trip to the doctor in Pittsburgh, I don’t trust that I’m getting all the information without being there to hear it from the doctor.  Lack of information is partly what led to the doctor in Pittsburgh being so candid.  Dad holds the doctor responsible, in a least part, for Mom giving up because he put it out there on the table without pulling any punches.   When the doctor asked why they were there, he got a half answer.  He then asked if they knew how big the tumors in her lungs where.  They hung there heads.  That’s when he point blank said, “I can see you’ve never bothered to ask by the expression on your faces.”  My heart dropped.  I went to most of Mom’s first appointments because she was afraid to ask how bad things were.  My belief is you can’t fight something if you don’t know what you are fighting.  In the end she didn’t want me to take off work to go unless the appointments were in Pittsburgh.  She had resigned herself to live until she died.  I think that it was more that attitude that led to them not wanting to know just how bad things really were.  In the end, it was lack of knowledge that lead to the doctor’s frankness not that he was some kind of quack. I have often wondered if the doctor felt Mom had already given up at that point.  He point blank said “If it were my family member… my wife… I wouldn’t want to see her  go through the treatments at this point.  They will only cause you to be sick.  I would recommend getting things in order and making the best of my time.”  I haven’t had this discussion with Dad because anytime someone brings up that trip to Pittsburgh, Dad goes on about how terrible that doctor was.   He is one of the top Cancer doctors in the nation.

I realized this week that what we say can cause hurts no matter how unintentional the thought behind it was.  My aunt made a comment that she hoped my dad’s doctor was better than the one that Mom had.  She wasn’t there.  She only knows part of the story.  That judgement hurt.  There was another comment early from another friend that while it was made in the most caring of senses, it stung a bit.  I am going to try to watch how I word things from now on.  It’s too hard to touch a nerve just by saying something that reminds others about an experience they had.

I was scheduled for vacation all next week.  I think I’ll probably take most, if not all,  of it this week, especially since we haven’t heard anything about when he may come home.  I don’t care about what I had planned.  It wouldn’t do me any good to go running around the country side knowing I could have done something for him this week.  Besides, I wouldn’t get anything done at work this week anyway.

Tonight, as it stormed, I was recording a video of the rain pounding down and the wind whipping a large tree next door.  Lightning struck behind the tree.  It was so close that the concussion from the strike could be felt on my back porch.  The flash and thunder crack was almost simultaneous.  I was surprised I caught the flash/bang on the video.  I try every storm to get either pictures or video of lightning.  I rarely succeed in getting more than the rumble of thunder after or a back-lit cloud.  I wish I had been using a better camera so that I could have slowed the shot down.  Oh well… It was just neat to see.

I suppose I should go down and switch pants from the washer to the dryer and then get ready for bed.

Good night all.

~Cappy

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you just can’t sit still?  Normally, I have trouble getting motivated, not today.  Today, I felt like getting things done.  Where to start was my only question…

I decided that since it was a cool 65 degrees outside, I would work outside.  I had a couple things on my list that needed done:  Organize the shed, put driving lights I got for Christmas last year on the truck or mow the grass to name a couple.  I got outside and it was extremely humid.  So much so, a fine mist hung in the air.  I guess its organize the shed then…

I call my shed ‘the barn’ for a couple of reasons.  First, its almost three times the size of my old shed.  Secondly, I painted it barn red with white trim.  I got ‘the barn’ last fall to accommodate my ATV, Motorcycle, yard tools, lawn mower and other things that just didn’t fit in my old shed.  As fall passed, I played with different ways of putting the motorcycle and ATV in since they are the things that are most used and hardest to move if something is in the way.  I finally came up with a layout that worked well.  There was only one problem… Tools.

Tools ended up everywhere.  The racks of the ATV became a work bench and/or catch all for tools and parts as I worked to get “Maggie”, my 28 year old Honda Magna V65, up to the condition I wanted her in.  I bought her used from a friend.  She’s a runner but like with any machine that sits for long periods of time, she needed a little TLC to get her back in shape.  “Rubi”, the Honda Rubicon ATV, needs her attention too from time to time.  I’ve finally gotten tired of paying the Honda shop big bucks to change the oil and do things I know I can do.  This means many of the tools that have been sitting in my tool box are now used frequently.  I needed a place to keep all these tools so that I can actually use the ‘girls’ without having to rearrange the shed to get them out.  That IS the reason why I bought ‘the barn’ after all.

I have been looking at tool chests for some time.  I didn’t want some monster thing.  Just something with enough space that I could keep my frequently used tools organized.  I found it last night at Walmart.  The chest pictured at the right is exactly the same as the one made by Snap On except for grey drawers and doors on the lower half.  The Snap On one is all black with no doors on the bottom.  The caster bolts and everything are exactly the same placement and type.  I  had one of the ‘associates’ (he was more ass than sociable… ‘nother story) if he could check the price since the barcodes did not match any of the tags on the shelf in description or item number.  He begrudgingly had to figure out how to check the price.  We had to drag it a couple aisles away because he didn’t have a price gun and wasn’t sure where to find one.  $99.00!!!  The Snap On one was $209.00!  He went to slide the box back to the shelf.   I told him “Just load it on the cart. Its what I’m looking for.”  That made him happy… less work.  I should have made him carry it out to the register but …. again… ‘nother story.

I put the chest together last night and roughed out my plan for where it would sit in ‘the barn’.  When the mist changed my plans to working on the shed today,  I knew right where I was going to start… with the tool chest.  I spent about an hour or so shifting things around and gathering up tools.  I needed a couple things to finish out my plan which, by this time, has now changed from last night’s final plan.  Cool!  This will work out great!  It was uptown for lunch.  Then over to Lowe’s  for a couple things I needed to complete my goal.  I finished everything up around Three O’clock, very satisfied with the results.

One other task I had for ‘the barn’ was to get some kind of light up so I could see at night in the yard.  There were two reasons for this.  Number one, I’ve come in late from motorcycle or ATV rides and wanted to put the machines away but have no light in the yard.  There are lights in ‘the barn’ but they don’t catch up along side the house.  Secondly, there have been times when folks have walked through the yard.  A couple of those times they have messed with my stuff because the yard is so dark.  They’ll get a surprise next time.  Dad found a set of flood lights with motion detector at a yard sale for something like fifty cents.  They weren’t exactly what I was looking for, but the price was right and they would do the job.

Typical of my projects… no matter how well I plan… something runs amok and I end up running to the store at least once more than planned.  “Not happening this time!” I told myself.  Bulbs… Check!  Wire… Check!…  Mounting hardware… Check!  All gathered in one trip!  YAY! Go me!  I drilled the necessary holes for the wire and opened the junction box where I needed to tie in.  Woo Hoo!  Room for the wire and everything!  Groan… The stupid mounting screws gave me fits.  I didn’t have enough hands to mount the light and hold it in place… reach for the screw… hold the screw in… get the screwdriver.

After a bit of struggle and some choice words, TA DA!  It’s up!  Shwew… overall not too bad… until I turned to power on to test the lights… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHH!  One light wouldn’t light.  I swapped the bad bulb to the other socket that was working.  Both bulbs good.  Crap!  After all the struggle with getting the mounting screws in … I had to tear it apart to fix what turned out to be a bad socket.   They were probably selling it so cheap because they couldn’t get that one light to light.  Another trip back uptown to acquire a replacement socket and the lights are finally up and working.  I will go out after dark and make sure I have them aimed the way I want.  There is also a sensitivity setting which will need adjusted so they don’t go off when cars go by like my neighbor’s lights do.

A cool down period and a bit of time to gloat to myself about the way this all worked out better than my plan from the night before and it was time to find some dinner.  After dinner, I thought I would lay down and rest my back.  It was aching from all the bending and stuff I did last night and today.  No such luck.  Laying down hurt as well.   I decided that I might as well go uptown again and walk around Big Lots or some other place.  I walked for a bit then returned home a bit frustrated that my back was bothering me that much from all the more straining I did.  Oh for the days when I could practically stand on my head installing car stereos and audio gear in all kinds of weird places.

I have to admit, some of the frustration didn’t come from my back.  It came from a phone call I got as I was leaving to go walking.  I am a person of extraordinary patience.  I have been told this by numerous boss’s and colleagues.  This makes it REALLY difficult for me to tell someone off.  Everyone has those folks in their past that just won’t seem to go away.  Well, the phone call tonight was from one of those type individuals.  I broke ties for a reason and haven’t gotten back in touch for my own reasons.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate them, but they have lost my trust in a working environment so I’d rather keep my distance so I don’t get suckered back into the same circumstances.  This individual, knowing my experience with computers and networks, decided that I would be the ‘Help Desk’ for their computer outage tonight.  While I probably should have lost my temper or at least told them no… I didn’t.  I fell into my business mode.  You may have a mode like that.  You know… Where you have to be helpful whether you want to or not because its the right thing to do.   I hate doing home support for people.  Once you fix one thing for them, they tend to come back again and again.   Turns out it was nothing broken on their end.  They needed support from their ISP.

I am pleased that I got so much accomplished and it turned out better than what I had thought it was going to.  It’s getting dark now so I should go out and check the aim and sensitivity on the motion sensor for the lights.  Tink has been in several times giving me ‘leg hugs’.  She would like my presence too I guess.  Off I go to see what other trouble I can get myself into this evening.  Laundry at least… Maybe go out… We’ll have to see, won’t we.  Catch me on IM if ya want… smartphone is always logged in.

===== Update =====

I went out to test the lights.  A little tinkering put them about where I’d like them to be.  You might have wondered why I didn’t just buy a new set of lights instead of fixing the ones Dad bought.  The set he bought had a couple features I liked.  It could be mounted vertically or horizontally.  The motion detector has multiple joints so it can be aimed in a wide variety of directions.  The new ones are much more limited.  The lights Dad bought also have this receiver that plugs into an outlet inside your house.  You can plug a lamp into it that will turn on when the motion lights turn on.  It also makes a chirp (or 4) depending on how you set it.  This will prove invaluable in the overall fine tuning of the sensor as I am alerted to the action of the lights without having to see the fixture turn on.  Once they are working the way I want, I can just unplug the inside gizmo.

After all was fine tuned, I went over to the local bar to get out of the house.  I’m still restless.  I didn’t feel like sitting around.  I finally came home after being so bored that I turned the Olympics on via my iPhone and Dish Network Link.   I really suck when it comes to going out I guess.  No wonder I’m still alone.  Le Sigh.

~Cappy

My weekend started off early Friday afternoon with a text from my friend Beth.  She wanted to know if I would be interested in taking a ride out to Foxburgh.  I have been there before on the bike so it wasn’t a difficult decision.  Sure.  I work in Grove City which is on the way to Foxburg.  Rather than ride home to West Middlesex and then back past work, I would just meet them at the Sheetz in Harrisville.  I would need gas anyway.  The only catch was that Bill, Beth’s husband, didn’t get off work until 5 pm.  No biggie.  I could find something to do out this way until they got here.  I didn’t want to eat dinner yet, because there was some discussion of possibly eating at or near the Foxburg area.  I grabbed a snack at Sheetz to tide me over until then.  We met as planned about 6:20 or so at Sheetz.

Beth’s friend Sandy came with them.  Bill has a full dresser that carries passengers much more comfortably than Beth’s 250 Rebel or my Magna.  We met as planned and continued out Rt 58 to Foxburg.  We all needed to eat so we  tossed around the idea of eating at the Allegheny Grille right along the river.  After checking out the menu’s, we had the hostess show us to seats out on the deck.

Our waiter’s name was Flip (short for Phillip the III).  Flip was a pretty cool guy.  He took our silliness in jest and seemed to enjoy waiting on folks who weren’t so …  straight laced.  We enjoyed our food as the sun set over the hill.  We stopped in the chocolate shop for a bit then hopped back on the bikes to head for Emlenton Truckstop “Home of America’s Worst… errrr… Best Apple Pie”.  We ate dessert there.  I hit home shortly after ten o’clock.

I got up Saturday morning with a few chores in mind to complete.  Chores complete, one of which included a ride to the Mercer County Sherrif’s Office to renew my concealed carry permit, I stopped at my usual lunch haunt, Hogan’s Heroes Sub Shop.  I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at home doing odd things.  It was fairly warm… Ok, Hot… so I had been giving thought to taking an evening ride somewhere.  I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go.

I got another text from Beth that evening.  They wanted to ride up to Linesville Spillway.  Sure, what the heck, I wanted to go for a ride anyway.  It was a rough evening on the bikes.  Maggie has been having issues with her carbs every so often.  She takes occasional fits of shutting off at low idle or when coming to a stop.  She was running rough all day.  I really need to get those carbs torn down and cleaned.

Bill’s bike had a howling sound coming from the back end.  We decided his back tire was low.  No problem, there was a Sheetz not too far ahead.  He could air it up there.  Like many Sheetz air stations, the hose had seen better days.  Instead of putting air into the tire, it let more air out.  Bri was riding with Bill so there was no way he should be riding double on 30 lbs of air.  I knew there was a Country Fair up the road that I thought had air.  I road up to be sure so that we weren’t running Bill’s tire any longer than necessary at unsafe pressures.  Tires aired up, we continued on our way.

We arrived at the Spillway around 7 or a little after.  I walked over to the concession stand, surprised to find it still open, and bought a bag of fish food.  I have been going to the Spillway since I was a little kid.  I shared my fish food with a couple of toddlers just to watch their faces light up as the carp scrambled to get their fair share as the pellets hit the water.  We spent quite a while at the spillway.  It was a nice evening.  A breeze was blowing off the lake.

We discussed dinner before we got back on the bikes.  Again, our sideways sense of humor showed.  Someone, Bri I think, suggested somewhere in West Virginia and that started the silliness.  We ended up stopping at Pizza Hut in Greenville.  Another dark ride home and another enjoyable ride.

Sunday, I had planned on riding the WMVFD Poker Run.  I woke up about 6 am with my back and neck throbbing.  After feeding Tink, I laid back down.  There were storms moving through the area with heavy rain.  Already sore, I decided it was best not to ride in the rain.  Had I already prepaid for the event, I probably would have gone.  My rain gear works pretty well.  I didn’t do much all day.  I think it was about 6 ish when I finally decided to go get something for dinner.  The rest of the night was quiet.  Chatting on the computer, playing with Tink and watching some of the shananigans that were going on at the Olympics.

Folks thought I’d miss being at the track every Saturday night.  To be honest… These past few Saturday’s have been great.  I can do something with friends if I want or I can do nothing at all and my clothes and atv aren’t getting ruined by the dirt and crap from the track.  I think it was a good choice.   That being said… Lunch is over so I guess I should get back to chasing purchase requests. ~Cappy

I made it through the July 26th date without much complication. It probably helped that I wasn’t feeling well and slept alot keeping my mind off things. Anger and depression have been pushed to the back by trying to get my body straightened out. Crazy bug of some sort… I hope. I did get stung a couple times while mowing the grass the other night. There is still a welt on my back where one of the stings hit. Maybe it was something related to that.

The lovely little dynamite dig didn’t yield anything, much as I expected. More than 70 years have passed since the stuff was buried. Somene must have dug it up or stumbled across it in that period of time. They had to check though. Don’t want someone digging new footings for the new bridge and hitting unstable dynamite. So much for the big excitement in West Middlesex. We actually made the news fairly regularly for a couple of weeks. WOO HOO! HAHA.

Tink has been feeling better. She spends a lot of time giving me leg hugs and being spoiled. She’s such a card. I bought her one of those sandpaper arches to dig on. She’s dug on it maybe twice. She likes to sit on it like a thrown. If I go out to the store or to work in the shed, I can almost count on seeing her highness sitting on it when I come back to the door.

Probably going to ride the West Middlesex VFD’s Poker Run this Sunday. It should be fun. I was supposed to be watching for advertisements so I could register in advance. I somehow missed them. Oh well, there is onsite registration. Should be a fun ride. I know alot of folks in the Fire Dept.

Not much exciting going on right now. If I think of anything else, I’ll throw another update up.