Reasons to be cheerful!

[billy rubin]

bought a car!

currently i have four trucks, two minivans, two passenger vans, and a little sedan sitting dead in the hay field. broken struts, leaking cooling system, unstartable, bad rear axles . . .

we have a ful time student and two people in the house with full time jobs. one vehicle, the 3/4-ton truck i bought to go tot he races with, that gets 11.6 mpg.

thats american gallons.

anyway, so today i took a day off work and went to buy a car:



this is a 2009 chevrolet cobalt, a little tin-foil econobox with 80,000 miles. they wanted US$5450.

i said, i have $5000 in cash and some money in the bank. what can you do?

how about $5200 plus tax and licensing?

sold, i said.

so now my wife doesnt have to pick up the son at work at 0130 am and then drive me to my job at 0500. she will get more sleep.

as econoboxes go, its okay. it has a little two-litre mouse motor, not much rust. starts cold, takes full throttle without the transmission slipping, stops in a straight line when i dynamite the brakes, and starts warm.

cant ask for more these days.

but he had a car i have lusted for for years

a 1938 chevrolet master deluxe two door. a beautiful machine.



^^^after the hudson commodore, the two door 38 chevrolte is one of my favorite cars

no price on that, but i cant afford it until i win the lottery

[jumbojak]

Keep an eye on the cooling system in that cobalt billy. I've dealt with a few that had problems over the years.

At work, I'm getting fairly good as a trencher operator. We laid 200 feet of conduit today and only hit one sewer line. That was my boss. Hooked that shit pipe with the mini backhoe.

[billy rubin]

uurgg

sewer

[jumbojak]

Better to find it with the backhoe than a trencher.

[Dark Lightning]

Better to find it with the backhoe than a trencher.

One, you see it, the other, you wear it! I had a plumber out to the rental house a few years back because the main drain clogged. We were looking over how to run the augur and ended up at the main vent on the roof. I noticed that the clean-out for the bath on the north side of the house is below grade. What genius installed that? 

[jumbojak]

Better to find it with the backhoe than a trencher.

One, you see it, the other, you wear it! I had a plumber out to the rental house a few years back because the main drain clogged. We were looking over how to run the augur and ended up at the main vent on the roof. I noticed that the clean-out for the bath on the north side of the house is below grade. What genius installed that? 

Probably someone I currently work with.

[Dark Lightning]

Better to find it with the backhoe than a trencher.

One, you see it, the other, you wear it! I had a plumber out to the rental house a few years back because the main drain clogged. We were looking over how to run the augur and ended up at the main vent on the roof. I noticed that the clean-out for the bath on the north side of the house is below grade. What genius installed that? 

Probably someone I currently work with.

   The joke goes, a plumber only needs to know two things- shit flows downhill, and payday is on Friday. Of course they need to know much more than that, but it leaves me wondering who installed that cleanout. Did this someone come from California, early in the '60s?

[hermes2015]

Mazel tov!

[The Magic Pudding.]

Sometimes I'll pick up a bit of plastic from the river, sometimes I think next time, it's a bit out of reach.
Today I saw an appealing piece of plastic, $5. I don't want to be alive when $5 isn't worth paddling back for.
Ah-ha that's a $50, nearly a tank of petrol, or a meal I'm too miserly to pay for, or tasty meat I'll cook myself... all $50 possibilities are possible, one doesn't exclude another if you use Magic Pudding mathematics.

I saw it first. 

[billy rubin]

see this plumbing stuff is not a problem if you dont have it. ive lived without flush toilet now for twenty years and what water we drain from our two sinks and a bathtub goes out a 3 inch PVC pipe to the side of the road.

very simple

[Anne D.]

On Feb. 20 (Presidents' Day in the U.S.), I fell on ice in the driveway and managed to break my leg and ankle. My reason to be cheerful is that they were able to get me in for surgery yesterday, a mere 11 days later, and I'm supposed to be able to walk (in a boot) and drive by March 18. I'd feared a much longer recovery.

TMP, that's crazy that you guys have plastic bank notes. I'd never heard of such a thing, had to look it up. Seems pretty practical.

[Dark Lightning]

11 days later!?    That's crazy! I hope that you heal up OK.

[billy rubin]

excuse me anne thats fucked up

11 days?

we re the u s a and cant do better than tha?

[The Magic Pudding.]

An annoying running event was on, so there was doubt about access to the boat ramp area, they have a wash down area I like to use.
So walking was the plan and seeing a guy about a boat.
Had to get some real money from an ATM in case I needed it for boat guy.
Saw daughter 2 win annoying 10km running event, gave very sweaty daughter a minimalist hug.
Went to see boat guy, asking $800 got it for $700.
Went to beach and floated about for a while, very nice, didn't get bitten or stung by anything.
I have now added a fat 17" two person kayak to the fleet, bloody solid looking thing.

Baked a leg of lamb for late lunch and after upgraded my kayak loading system to take (hopefully) the weight of Fat Bastard.

Here's Fat Bastard
 

[Anne D.]

Fat Bastard looks very bright and cheerful. Nice boat.

DL and BR, I got seen in the ER immediately--couldn't ask for better treatment. They took x-rays and referred me to a surgeon's office for a week later. The swelling needed to go down before any operation; hence, the week's wait. Was seen by the surgeon's office  a week after the fall and they got me in for surgery that same week. This really was meant to be a reason to be cheerful--I just should've explained more fully : ) DL, thanks for the good wishes. I'm in an opioid haze at the moment, so hopefully what I'm typing makes sense. Temporary opioid hazes--another reason to be cheerful.