May 6, 2009 11:25 PM 5/6/09
So I’m hoping one way or another to be done with this whole non-writing/non-posting thing pretty soon here. Work is keeping me pretty busy and my schedule just changed.
We have an almost harvestable crop of parsley now and the other herbs are seriously taking off now that they have proper potting mixture to grow in. I managed to move the tomato plants outside that were big enough into two large pots. Once the get a bit bigger I’ll plant them outside but I need to get the garden worked up first.
Bought myself another car this week - a 1981 Dodge 024, 2.2L, A/C, Automatic, 65,000 miles - for $500. It cost me another $165 to title and plate it and it’ll cost me an extra $19/month to insure it.
But it is currently getting 26 miles to the gallon where my truck gets about 10. And I can drive it in the rain. I’d say that’s a good investment.
I had one of these cars earlier in my life, the exact same year, make, and model in fact. The only differences were the engine and trans.
So I have all these specialty tools that go to that car still as well as a buttload of plans and manuals on how to service it and modify it. Depends on if I want to spend my time in that direction.
To tell you the truth though I always wanted to take that car and modify it so that it looked like it was riveted together. Add some antique brass paint and I think it would look pretty cool.
It’s got some rust on it that can be fixed fairly easily but overall the car is pretty damn clean for its age. That’s how I know it’s not 165,000 miles old. (The odometer doesn’t have a 6th digit.) It’s just too damn clean.
And to top it all off someone put a new head on the engine as well as converted the A/C to use R134 so I can just fill it up like anything else.
I finally decided on a garage layout this week. It’ll give me an open floorplan for most of the garage space, room to work on vehicles, and accounts for all my tools, furniture, and equipment. Even the large rack, the MicroVax II, and the Decwriter III printer.
I also got in the shipping scale I bought off of E-Bay. A 330lb capacity scale with remote readout for about $50. Just in time too as I have to ship several things out to different people and I’m going to be listing a few things on E-Bay.
My wife and I got some of the front yard cleaned up last weekend and I mowed for the first time this season. We still have a ton to do out there like lay down new landscape fabric and mulch in certain areas. Replace the aging decorative beam and post things on the side walk area. Replace an upper piece of siding on the house.
When I go and do that I’ll likely get a gable vent and fan as well so that I can install them when I have the old siding off. If I can spend the money I’ll get one that is solar powered as well so I don’t have to run electrical to it. Regardless the fan will definitely keep the house cooler in the summer and prevent moisture buildup in the winter.
I also found that simple AC gable fans are available at the local Menards for around $60 so I’m likely to pick up one of those for the back garage vent. Not solar but still will keep the space cooler this summer. What I really could use out there would be a solar powered air conditioner or swamp cooler. I wonder if the city would let me sink pipes behind the garage so I can do a kind of heat pump+swamp cooler thing. I’ll have to check into that...
*yawn*
Well that probably means that I’ve finally tired myself out tonight (I couldn’t sleep) so I should probably go to bed now.
‘Night all!
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