Saturday, November 1, 2008
I went to do laundry this morning, and while the clothes were washing I went shopping. The day after Halloween is one of my candy days, when the holiday candy is half price. I buy enough for several weeks and put it in the freezer. My other candy days are December 26, February 15, and the day after Easter. I keep stocked with enough to last through the next holiday, so I never run out and always pay half price. After finishing the laundry I went to an auction, and came away with another good buy. I got a couple of halogen work lights on a stand, plus two separate halogen floor lights, all for $29. I ended the day with a trip to Ponca City to buy some overalls. The brand I buy isn't sold here. While there I had dinner at Los Compadres, then went to see Appaloosa. Ed Harris co-wrote, directed, and starred in this excellent western. He and Viggo Mortensen are outstanding, and Jeremy Irons and Renee Zelweger head a very good cast. Director Harris keeps things moving right along, and all the action is believable. The only obvious false note I detected was the daytime indoor scenes with sunshine streaming in the windows, but kerosene lamps burning bright enough to light the room. Except for that minor flaw, I'd say they got things right.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
After a little work on the andiron project, I drove over to Oxford for another session of bargain hunting. This afternoon's auction was another installment in the sale of a huge collection of antiques and memorabilia. I think this was the fourth in the series, and I think they may have sold about half the stuff so far. They started at one this afternoon, and by six the two auctioneers were tired enough to call a halt. I did OK at this one. I bought a 1940's safety razor for $2, a spare can and dasher for a White Mountain ice cream freezer for $2.50, five opal glass lamp shades for $2.50 each, and a freight scale with an 1867 patent date for $27.50. Those were all grat prices. The lamp shades, for example, cost $20 new. So I got $100 worth for $7.50.
Monday, November 3, 2008
This afternoon I did the last of the welding on the second andiron, and used the grinder to smoothe the welds on the other one. Tomorrow I'll do the grinding on the last one, then I can move on to some other chore. The only problem will be choosing which of many waiting jobs to do next.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Well, no grinding after all. After I gassed up the car and went to do my civic damage at the local polling place, I came home and unloaded the scale and other stuff I bought at the auction Sunday. The line of voters was backed up outside the school library, a longer line than I've ever seen. After I got home and unloaded the car, I fetched my 1950 Schwinn out of the barn and put it in the car. When I go to Wichita for my dental adventure tomorrow I'll visit a couple of plating shops and see what parts I want to get rechromed and which it would be cheaper to replace.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Drat! For the first time in sixty years, I'm going to lose a tooth. I spent a couple of hours in a dentist's chair today, and found that my recurring jaw infection is due to a cracked tooth that will have to come out. That shot the afternoon, so I didn't get anything done.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Didn't do diddly squat.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Today I finished grinding the second andiron, put it in the fireplace, and piled in some wood. I'm ready for a fire when the cold arrives. Looks like that may be soon. I spent the rest of the day moving stuff out of the northwest room upstairs. Part of the old Celotex ceiling has been ruined by leaking rainwater and will have to be replaced when I fix the roof, so I need to empty the west side of the room.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
I spent too much time at another auction today. I was attracted by a corn sheller listed in the ad. Unfortunately they spent several hours clearing more than a dozen tables filled with junk you couldn't pay me to haul home. I did bid on a box containing old Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogues, but it went for more than I was willing to pay. When they finally got to the sheller late in the day, the bidding on it went too high to suit me. There were a couple of other items of interest, but I had no desire to wait another hour or two to get to them. I came away with one bargain: a Kodak Brownie 8mm movie camera like the one I first used in 1955. It's in excellent condition, almost like new. I paid $1 for it.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
It was 45º in the living room when I got up this morning, so it was time to light a fire and try out the newly patched up fireplace. I didn't experience any smoke leaking out into the room, so I guess the repair was OK. If I'm lucky, it will hold together. I spent most of the afternoon taking down more old ceiling and insulation upstairs. Getting a look at the roof from the inside shows some places that will need rebuilding, some on account of rot and others because they were poorly built.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Today was a revelation. We had rain, and with that upstairs ceiling down I was able to see the inside of the roof and determine where the leak is. I was also able to find out the source of the drip that appears downstairs in front of the bathroom door during rainstorms. Water from the leaky roof has been dripping on a board which lies on top of a rafter. From there some of it has gone on down onto the ceiling and ruined the Celotex. But some has also been running along that board to the wall and down inside the wall until it drips out downstairs in front of the bathroom door. Now that I know where the leak is, I'll use some roll roofing and roof cement and apply a patch job to get me through the winter, then next spring and summer I'll do some rebuilding and reroofing.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
It was still a bit damp out today, so I stayed inside and checked out some websites.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
This was the day for another dental adventure. This afternoon I had that cracked tooth removed. That's the first tooth I've lost since 1948. I was told to avoid hard or crunchy food, so this evening I dined on mashed potatoes and tomato soup. This evening I headed to town to pick up a prescription for pain pills. Unfortunately I was blocked by a slow train crossing the road, and it was in the way until after the pharmacy's closing time. If I'm lucky the pills won't be necessary.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
After grocery shopping, I got up on the roof with some roof tar and some roll roofing and applied a patch over the area where the leaks appear to be. I'll find out how well I did the next time it rains. A letter I wrote recently was in the paper today: Traveler letter.
Friday, November 14, 2008
There was a litle rain this morning, but not enough to tell whether my roof patch is any good. This was the day for catching up on several minor chores. The biggest one was spending a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen stove.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
After doing laundry, I came home and did a little housework. About noon I went to an auction where one item had caught my eye. One source I found online said it was a Model A jack, while another said it was for a Model T. Either way, it was in excellent working condition, and which car you use it for doesn't matter. Even though the sale started at ten and I didn't go until after noon, I still waited a couple of hours for the auctioneers to wade through a sea of junk before they got to anything I wanted. I think that may actually be a plus. Maybe all the ugly pictures and plastic dustcatchers and broken fixtures selling in piles for half a dollar create a low-dollar atmosphere that keeps the bids low on the good stuff. Anyway, I bought that jack for $2, eleven combintion wrenches for $1, and a galvanized steel five gallon gas can for 25¢. On the way home I stopped at a filling station and put five gallons in that can to see if it was OK. There were no leaks, so it was a quarter well spent. After dinner at Beijing Garden, I took in a movie. I rarely go to the same picture twice, but I went and saw Appaloosa again. It's an excellent western.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
This was the day to get back to my TT project. It was dry and warm, over 60º. I sand blasted all the remaining rear spring leaves, then put the first coat of paint on them. After getting sidetracked by other chores during the spring and summer, I hope to make some real progress on that old truck this winter.
Monday, November 17, 2008
By the time I did some shopping after work and hauled the groceries home, there was just enough time left to do my three miles. My time was 30:30. I've done better, but that's not too bad for an old guy.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
This morning I took my recently bought Ford jack to work, took it apart, and soaked the parts in rust remover. I stayed after work this aftrnoon and prepped the parts and got a couple of coats of paint on them. I'll let the paint dry overnight, then tomorrow I'll take off the masking tape and put all the pieces in the big oven to cook. It's best to remove the masking tape before cooking, because heat makes it both gummy and brittle.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
With the arrival of another warm day (high about 65º), I did some more roof work. Last Thursday I patched the upstairs roof, and today I applied a patch on the living room roof where there's been a drip during heavy rains. I won't know how good these patches are until we get a good rain. If I did them both right, I won't have to deal with the roof again until next spring or summer when I'm ready to do some rebuilding.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
On the way home from work this afternoon I stopped at the lumberyard and bought five more bags of blasting sand, but this was not the day to use any of it. With a temperature of 38º and a hard north wind, it was a good day to stay inside.
Friday, November 21, 2008
I was going to print out some pictures and found that the printer was leaving out some colors. After a couple of hours troubleshooting and referring to the Kodak website I found that the thing needs a new print head. With any luck it should arrive by wednesday.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
I drove down to Lamont in Okieland this morning for an auction. There were several tempting items, but they would have been restoration projects. I have plenty of those already, so I settled for a nice chain for$12.50 and a transmission oil dispenser for $5. On the way home I stopped at a filling station in Blackwell and found that I had a flat tire. The sidewall was ruined by the rim rolling on it, so I had to get a new tire. The auction and the tire adventure pretty much used up the day.
Sunday, Novemeber 23, 2008
With company coming for Thanksgiving I started on housework today, putting away some of the stuff cluttering the kitchen and living room.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Today I did it myself. My Panasonic Technics turntable wasn't working, so last summer I took it to an authorized Panasonic repair center in Wichita. They said they couldn't fix it because parts are no longer available. Today I opened the thing up and soldered in a little length of paper clip to bypass a switch that had quit working. Now the turntable turns, just as intended. This isn't the frst time I've fixed something myself after wasting money on "professional" repair people who couldn't figure it out.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
After a little shopping I spent the rest of the afternoon on a little bit of housework.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
With
the sign business pretty slow, we took the day off and I did some
serious housekeeping. Vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and the hardest
part of all: deciding where to put things. My cousin brought the
girls over and they made pies and other goodies for tomorrow while
I cleaned house.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Pete came this morning and cooked the turkey, her son Shane came a little later with his fiancee Bristy and her three kids, and we had a grand feast. Later, while Shane took Bristy to work, the rest of us took a walk up to the cemetery and then came home through the woodlot. Everybody took food home, but a lot stayed here. I'll be grazing on the left overs for several days. Turkey sandwiches are a good thing.
Friday, November 28, 2008
I spent a big part of the day copying old email into files for saving. I finished all the messages received, and started on messages sent. There are about a thousand of those, so it will take some time to get through all of them. With a slight chance of rain in the forecast, I also spent some time putting tarps over the piles of firewood and staking them down so they won't blow away.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
After I got home from doing laundry this morning and put all the clothes away, I did a little netsurfing while I waited for the outdoors to warm up. By noon the temperature had shot way up to more than 40º F and there were even a few breaks in the cloud cover, allowing brief doses of sunshine. I took advantge of the warm day to sandblast some Ford pieces. I did all the front spring leaves, the front axle, and the steering wheel spider. Tomorrow I'll start painting all those parts. Most Saturdays I dine in town, but tonight I stayed home and had Thanksgiving leftovers. I'll probably be having turkey for the next week. That's alright. I like turkey.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Well, I didn't get as far as I expected with the parts painting. I was driving the Buick up Summit Street when the steering wheel suddenly became disconnected from the steering. Luckily I wasn't going very fast. I stopped and backed down the hill, and fortunately the front wheels turned right so the car rolled off the street and up onto the grass. I walked home and got the Suburban, then went back to town and got a lot of stuff out of the Buick to remove temptation for thieves. Tomorrow when there's a repair shop open I'll have the car towed and fixed. I did have time to get some of the parts painting done, so the aftenoon wasn't a total loss.