I am shot

After hitting the frog follies Friday, crawling around the attic installing an antennae and running cable Saturday, and then, spending the third day off back at the Follies, I am thoroughly shot. Follies was a blast. Picked up a chop saw for the garage with an extra cut off wheel for twenty bucks. I found some Rat Fink paraphernalia that just had to come home with me. Saw a ton of cool cars and neat tools and parts. Missed out on the wooden toolbox. It was gone, but if it was something I couldn't live without, I would have bought it first time around. I wanted to see if the guy would drop the price some more. Oops.

Who can resist a rat fink riding a hog, and I didn't have a rat fink bobble head:)

Day one of frog follies was awesome

I am still sore from all the walking I did yesterday. Today, I cut the cable. I had the other big cable company come out and install just their internet, no cable at all. Twenty five a month for the first year for 30 meg speed. Not bad. I picked up Netflix and Sling TV to cover entertainment at a small fraction of the price. Sling gives me AMC, History, TCM, Epix and a few other live tv channels I like. I spent the day installing an antennae so I can pick up the local channels. The area leaves much to be desired as far as signal strength and location. I originally came from Northwest Indiana, so, you aimed your antenna somewhat northwest and all was good. Down here, the stations are in all directions and weak. I tried an attic mount as I have a walk up attic. It is so so. During the week I will install it outdoors. It will be worth it in massive cost savings. Cable has been beyond ridiculous in cost, especially for the few channels I actually watch.

Tomorrow I plan on hitting the follies again. There was a Gerstner knock off box there that I would like. Being the last day, he will probably deal a bit more. I have a genuine Gerstner box, but this one is nice and a very decent size. It will give me additional storage for my mics and such. Many items I want to check on. Pork chop sandwiches are pretty tasty as well. Not really ready to go back to work, but hopefully next weekend will be a three day as well.

Frog Follies tomorrow.....

Finally time for the classic hotrod show. There are all kinds of custom cars rolling throughout the town. Got out of work a bit early today so I could knock out some chores. Tomorrow morning, in line at the gate anxiously waiting. One of my favorite events of the year. Huge swap meet. For sale coral has a ton of classic cars for sale. Can't wait. Weather is absolutely perfect.  Naturally, it falls on the big Indy gunshow weekend as it always does. Not sure if I can fit both in or not.

 Also have the competing cable company coming out on Saturday. Getting rid of cable altogether and going to internet only. 30 meg speed for only $25 a month for the first year, no contract. Figure Netflix and sling tv will replace cable at a fraction of the cost. Don't watch 90% of the junk on cable anyhow. Want to get my outside antennae up for the local shows this weekend. Have to run the old cable box back Saturday morning. Hate having to do that with the car show in town, but it is the end of the month and I don't want to have to pay another month.

Short week this coming week

Four work days and the Frog Follies starts up. Can't wait. Have a vacation day Friday so I can beat the crowds. This years temperatures are much more enjoyable than the usual scorching August weather. Looking forward to a whole weekend of fun. Naturally, it conflicts with the Indy 1500 gun show. I shall try and get there if I manage to get through the majority of the Follies. There is just so much to see between the cars, the parts vendors, and the huge flea market. Has to be one of my favorite events of the year. Two weeks after that, the Elnora steam show is going on. A few weeks later, the fall machine gun shoot. Lots to do almost every weekend for most of the next two months.

Back to work

It was a nice weekend off. Hit the gun show in the morning. They have a good breakfast with biscuits and gravy, so started off the day good. Not necessarily healthy, but good. Picked up some odd and end tooling and cleaning supplies, then moved on to the flea market. weather was perfect and everyone was out. Good thing about a truck, open fields become parking lots. Had a ton of cool items and antiques. Didn't buy anything, but it was sure fun looking at all the stuff. A couple of the tool vendors that usually show up weren't there. Probably at another function. Only a few more weeks until the Elnora steam show. It is the one with the working machine shop, wood shop and old time town. Really cool show. Huge flea market. Definitely an all day deal.

Finished with the fun stuff and headed home. The neighbor lady was having trouble with her gate in the back yard. The subdivision had a subpar fencing outfit put the fences up on all the houses. They quite quickly started falling apart. When I redid my gate, the hinge post was a whopping five inches in the ground with a handful of cement. Her gate was laying on the fence sorta held on by half a hinge and falling apart. I had some scrap boards from when I did mine, so I was able to get hers somewhat functional again. It isn't real pretty, but it is solid and it works. She is trying to sell the place, so functional is good enough. Did get a nice steak dinner out of it. Any day I don't have to suffer my own cooking is a good day.

Sunday was a little rest in the morning, then, on to my own yard work. Cut up some more of the tree in the front yard. Played around in the garage for a bit. Working on making some brackets for my lathe. I want to hook up some motors so I can run it as a CNC, but I am working at doing it in such a way as to retain the ability to still be able to do simple turning manually as well. Got a couple of ball screws with nuts which should get the slop out. Have almost all the hardware I need, just trying to design the brackets for the motors. Have some good ideas for how I want it, just trying to keep motivated and get it done. I picked up a bare computer case and am using it to hold the power supply and motor drive along with any relays I need. Going to be pretty basic. Run it on Mach 3 software like my little mill. I will still mount the cheap scales on it so I can use them when in manual. Starting to get there. Nice part is, once the bugs get worked out, I won't have to mess with gears for threading and I will be able to cut any pitch I want, including left hand if need be. Won't do heavy stuff, but it will be way more than adequate for the hobby work I fiddle with.

Two whole days offffff

I actually get a whole weekend off. Get to go to the local gun show followed by a trip to the flea market at the local 4H center. Hopefully the rain is done for a while. Try and get the last of the dead tree cut up and disposed of, then, play around in the garage for a while. Have a lot of projects started. Like to start wrapping some of them up. Nice to get a whole weekend off for a change.

So far so good

Windows 10 seems to have fixed most of what I hated on windows 8. Had to work today, so I still haven't had a ton of time to really get to check it out. I do like having the regular screen start up back again instead of the tiles and having to redirect. Would still like it better yet if Outlook were still the default e-mail utility verses their Mail program. Have to dig around and see if I can find my Office disk and see if it works with Windows10 or not.
Work is still insanely busy, which is good. Got a whopping 2.5% raise rather than their regular 2% raise. Better than nothing, but just barely. They can't figure out why the kids are leaving to go down the road and work at a couple of new shops that moved into town. Every time one opens, we lose help. I have enough years in, I only stick around because of the vacation time I have earned through years of service. I won't live long enough to get to four and five weeks of vacation again. Not to mention, if I can manage not getting fired or killing a boss for the next three and a half years, I will get a one time bonus of four weeks additional vacation time I can take anytime between then and the time I retire.
Actually have a whole day off tomorrow. May get to sleep in until 8 if the dog permits it. Have a cool little local gun show to hit up in the morning. Told the neighbor lady I would put up her garage door opener as well. She is trying to sell her house and she is trying to fix broken things. It is weird. We all do it. Live with something that doesn't work and then fix it so we can sell the house rather than fixing it when it breaks so we can enjoy it. Have done it myself as well. She also has trees overgrowing in back of her backyard gate, making it unusable. Figure her kid with my saw should be able to make that problem go away. Get that out of the way, I have a tree out front of my own house that is going to start going away. Figure I will start cutting and tying up branches a bit each week until the tree is gone. Should be a fun weekend, not.