Cool

Went to see the new star wars movie, in 3D. Usually the only movies I go to the theater for are sci-fi 3D movies. Movie was pretty good. No Ja Ja Binks type nonsense. The cool part was, they totally redid the theater. Prices were the same. I went to matinee since I was off and got in for $6 which isn't bad for the 3D deal on a new release. They had free popcorn as well. I go in and it is amazing. The new seats are electric leather like recliners. Dual personal cup holders. They retract to the point you are lying down. Separate head rest control. Lots of room, including leg room as aisle was made wider as well. Made it through movie without going to sleep, so that was good as well.

Christmas was fun. Went up and saw family and friends. Truck decided to eat some stuff on the way up, so that was some fun I didn't count on. Got a tow a quarter of the way up to my brothers place. Og and my brother gave a big hand and after a new battery and alternator, all was well again. Ate up most of a day I had planned on roaming the local gunstores with my brother and Og, but, we managed to get a couple in on Christmas eve. Have to get up there a day or two earlier next year. Big thanks again to my brother and Og for all the help, especially on a holiday. The alternator must have cooked the headlights as they were very dim after the repairs were made. I changed them out when I got home.

Got to see my grandbaby for his first Christmas. Totally awesome. He was having more fun with the boxes and wrapping paper than the presents, but he was happy and that is what counts. Growing like a weed. My son bought a new to him truck. Nice. They are doing great and are fantastic parents. I wish it was half as easy to photograph and video kids when mine was growing up. With modern digital photography and facebook, it is sooo convenient and easy. I get to see the grandkid grow as well as they frequently post updated videos and pictures. Not the same as being there, but still good.     

Bricks are back :)

Hit the big gun store down in Owensboro today. They have various brands of .22 by the brick again, and no limits anymore. Awesome. Picked up a couple bricks and checked out the store. They have moved everything around and are working on another huge expansion. They are already the biggest gun store I have ever been in, not sure what they are doing there. Maybe putting in a range. They have silencers on the shelf now as well. Had a larger crowd than I expected seeing as how it is a weekday.

Spikes checkup

Headed to the vet this morning to drop Spike off for his checkup and vaccinations. It is around all the shopping centers. Time to kill, I go to Best Buy and a few other stores. Exactly one week before Christmas, I am expecting a crowd. Lines everywhere. Nope. Yesterday was 67 degrees out. Today, below freezing, a few snow flakes here and there, and, some ice. This seems to be enough to get most people to stay home and indoors. Works for me. I sailed through the line at a couple stores I hit, picked up Spike and headed home. Nice big vat of chili cooking on the stove. Make some cornbread in a few hours and chill out for a bit. I just wanted something for the new grandkid to tear open, everyone else gets gift cards, so I am pretty much done shopping. Can't wait to see the little rugrat again. He is looking much bigger already.

New addition to the M1 family

A buddy at work told me about a .22 M1 Garand he saw at the local gun store. It is just a modern replica of a Garand in .22, but, it looks and feels cool. Had to have it. Used Ruger magazines, and I saw online where they have the extended magazines for it. They have a M1 magazine over it, which makes it look like a M1A. It will be a fun little plinker. I hit the gun show up again and picked up a case of 1000 9mm ammo. With the 800 from yesterday, I am now restocked for a while. If the drizzle ever quits, I can take the 9mm AR to the range for some fun.

Here is the M1 in .22 on top, M1 Garand , M1A, and my M1 carbine on the bottom. Hope to get a full auto M2 in a year or two to finish out the line up. M14 would be cool, but probably kick like a mule.

This is  a close up of the magazine on the .22 caliber rifle. They were out of the extended magazines, so I will hit up another store tomorrow to see if I can lay my hands on one. It was 67 degrees today, but drizzly. Suppose to cool off tomorrow for a bit. Back up again early in the week though. Hopefully it will dry up a bit. Want to get some range time in while I am off. I remembered to pick up some more ammo for my broomhandle and the m1 carbine while at show. Precision cartridge doesn't advertise them online, but they actually reload a lot of odd wartime calibers.

Finally, vacation time

We are officially done working for the year :)  Got off work and headed to the gun show. Precision ammo reloaders had a booth set up. They are located in Hobart Indiana, near my old homestead, now the other end of the state. I couldn't resist restocking some supplies. Picked up some 9mm and some 45acp. I was just about out of 45 and running low on the 9mm. With the new 9mm AR, I wanted to get stocked up. May hit it up again tomorrow and pick up another 1000 rounds. Want to pop over to one of the local gun shops as well this weekend. Buddy at work told me they have a .22 Garand for sale. Not an old trainer, but a new manufactured rifle that looks just like a garrand, but is a .22 cal. I have to check it out. I found it online, and it looks pretty cool. It feels good to have some down time. I am ready for a bit of rest and recreation.

Long week ahead

Last week before a two week vacation. It is going to be a long, slow week. May have to make Friday a half a day. Still have a half personal day hanging out there. Thursday is a Christmas luncheon which breaks up the week a bit.
So far, no snow :) I couldn't be happier on that front. Overcast and a bit damp, but no ugly white stuff. Hopefully be another couple weeks before I have to deal with that stuff. Shovel is out on the deck just in case. We usually only have to contend with a couple real snow storms a year. Usually melts off in a day or two.  Best perk about moving down here. Grew up in northwest Indiana, where you got the evil lake effect snow. Usually starts early winter and stays through early spring. Don't miss that at all. No snow blower, only shovel a couple times a year. Still a couple times too many. Figure after retirement, I can move to the south side of the Ohio river. Keep going until I hit the zero number of snow storms :)
Next weekend is the last local gun show for this year. Great way to start vacation. Mid vacation, go up and visit my brother, my son and his girl, my new grandson (first Christmas), and hopefully visit with the Og clan. Hoping on a snow free Christmas, but don't really expect one. Doesn't make the long boring drive very pleasant.

How cool would it be.

You now have a republican controlled house, senate and one in the White House. Trump has already turned down the salary for being president. He is a billionaire and doesn't really need security once retired from being president. Currently, Obama is seeking to increase the annual retirement benefit to him and all retired presidents. People on Social Security get screwed every year on increases and threatened with cut backs at every turn. How cool would it be for Trump to cut back on some of the waste. Like, severely reduce the salary and benefits of retired presidents. Limit the Secret Service protection to just the president and first lady after they retire, not their offspring.  Or get rid of it all together, as they are retired. Major savings. I don't have a personal security detail and they are always looking to disarm the civilians. Instead of increasing the salary per their request, reduce it. They aren't exactly living in poverty and think nothing of cutting social security. It would be great to reduce the pension for retired congress critters as well, but you would never get that approved as the ones effected would be the ones voting on it. But, cutting the expense of retired presidents would be totally doable. It would probably resonate well with the general public as well. Could always put a provision on the ballot and have all people of every state vote to reduce congress critters pay by a certain percentage and then tie future raises to the same percentage they give people on Social Security. May give them insensitive to fix Social Security. Makes no sense to let them vote their own pay raises. I would love to be able to set mine. I would definitely be able to retire early.

Mixed opinions

We lost a lot of jobs over the last several years in the area. Good paying jobs. Living wage jobs. They moved Whirlpool to Mexico. Not once have I heard anyone say "thank God they moved my job to Mexico". Instead, a lot of families were tearful, wondering what they were going to live on. Where they were going to go. How they were going to be able to survive. I work with a few of them that came to work for our company when that occurred. The large number of people displaced by the closure were not absorbed by the industry in the area as there just weren't enough skilled openings available.

Recently, they closed most of the Alcoa facility, jobs again leaving the country. My neighbor and his family that live across the street from me were in tears. He was out of work for several months. He found a job to get by recently. He now has to travel forty five minutes each way. It doesn't pay near what he was making, and he gets to work 12 hour shifts that rotate between day and night shift with a one or two day break between swings. Most of his coworkers are still out of work.

Thanks to Obama's "lets put coal miners out of work" plan, most of the mines are being shut down. More people out of work, as well as a lot of the skilled labor that supports those jobs. Again, we hired a mere couple of people out of one of the coal company repair facilities as apprentices for the shop. They got a significant pay decrease and must go to school while working. And again, there are NOW, even less companies to hire the people put out of work as we have lost several industries to this loss of jobs. Hopefully, this part may recover somewhat as Trump will probably roll back a lot of the EPA regs that killed the coal industry down here.

It aggravates me to the core to hear idiots say that the jobs leaving the country are of little value. They are blue collar jobs nobody wants. Bullshit. There are a lot of people effected with each company moving jobs out of country. Many skilled high paying jobs. Many regular blue collar jobs. A whole bunch of supporting industry that supports these jobs. It devastates areas.

I for one, applaud the efforts of Trump for at least trying to salvage some jobs. I would like to see NAFTA scrapped altogether. A lot more jobs probably could have been kept in country simply by telling Carrier that we would be looking elsewhere for products they currently supply to the government, instead of the tax incentives he gave. That also would send a better message to other companies that are relocating overseas.

Labor is only one of many reasons companies go overseas. Regulations on industry in the USA are beyond ridiculous. Anyone that has to deal with OSHA knows how ridiculous they can get with some regulations. Not knocking OSHA, as it is necessary to get companies to comply with a safe environment, but, they take it to ridiculous and ludicrous levels on many of their regulations. It is easier to have a company out of country to get around this.

Another company killing regulation system is ISO 900X. Every year the number changes as do the stupid rules. We are a tool and die shop. We manufacture molds and rebuild molds for our plastics plants throughout the USA, as well as other companies. With ISO rules, every gage block, pin, micrometer, and measuring device of every type HAS to be sent out annually for "calibration" and certified, and recertified every single year. A lot of the stuff sent out is used in a crude fashion during setup. Almost every single thing we make is of high enough precision, it has to be measured and documented (in ISO fashion) on a CMM and paperwork accompanies part as well as filed for our use. So, as stated, most of the blocks and pins and such are for reference on the floor as the CMM is the final check. This does not matter to the ISO rules. What does this mean. Every single thing gets certified annually at great cost and inconvenience as the tools are missing from service during calibration period. If one of these items is off by so much as .0001", if fails and has to be replaced per ISO regulations. One member came up with a cost savings idea. Throw out the sets of pins and gages and buy new every year. Actually would be less costly than certifying tools and replacing individual gage pins and blocks. Nope. They found out this year that even brand new, name brand gages have to be certified. The certificates that come with the new gages is not good enough. The US is way over regulated. ISO is international, but the way it is handled in the US, I would probably move a company out of country if I had to adhere to these stupid regulation. We lose hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to this alone.

I value my blue collar job as do all my coworkers. I once again thank Trump for making an effort to save some jobs from going out of country. I hope in the future, instead of giving tax incentives, he may use government contract loss more of a tool. After all, if Carrier pulls out of country, they are no longer an American company. If you are going to use a foreign supplier, may as well choose one that didn't leave the country. Hit them in the pocket book instead of the taxpayers pocket book. Jobs leaving the country DO MATTER, all of them. Every single one of them.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. Spike and I are just chilling out on the couch, watching AMC's Dukeathon. Back to back John Wayne all day. Turkey in the oven, pop in some potatoes and veggies later on. Eat some, nap some, gonna be a good day. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Wishing for some normalcy

In the last year, I have had wisdom teeth extracted, and a root canal. I can honestly say I would prefer either of these to having to sit through a play, any day, always.... Liberal trash, instead of being grown ups and appreciating a VP was in the audience watching them perform,  decided instead to belittle VP pick, Pence. To call him out, stop the show, and berate him to the audience. I am pretty sure Pence probably paid a pretty hefty price to get in to see the show. How vile and pathetic. We have put up with Obama and his ilk for eight miserable years. I have yet to hear of conservatives gathering at the golf courses (where he spends the majority of his time) booing or otherwise harassing him. For the most part, most of us conservatives respect the law and other peoples views, whether we agree with them or not. We also go to work instead of collecting welfare as we picket and pillage. The country needs a good cleansing.

Grand Tour started yesterday....

I was waiting for it to start. Missed it by a day. The new series with the guys from Top Gear started yesterday. Have to watch it later on as it is on demand. Good to see they are back. Been on vacation a couple days. Nice and relaxing. Getting things squared away. Taking a bunch of stuff to a consignment shop. Thinning things up a bit. Good to get some downtime for a bit. Short week next week as well.

I knew I forgot something

I went to the store today and grocery shopped. I meant to drop by the baby aisle and pick up some diaper pins. Not sure if the couple of liberals at work have picked any up yet. One of the bosses next door (at work, we have multiple buildings) is a Hillary supporter and anti-Trumper, I just found out through facebook. Wouldn't want them not having diaper pins. Should have got some preparation H as well. Apparently, Donald is going to stack the supreme court with judges that will let him off on the Trump University suit. Not being a liberal, my logical way of thinking gets in the way of figuring out how the supreme court pick is going to help him out.

Only a two day work week this week, if I don't use a personal day to fill in a bit. Can't wait. Going into vacation mode. Two short weeks in a row, then, three work weeks left until I go on two weeks of vacation. Freaking awesome.

I feel like I am in a bugs bunny cartoon. I have some kind of digging critter tearing the yard up. Too big of tunnels to be moles. Not sure if it is gophers or what. I am trying the poison in the tunnels first, before trying the smoke bombs. Had a mole problem up north, but the tunnels were nothing compared with the mounds these things are leaving. Much funnier on the cartoons than in real life.

Well, that was quick

My vote in the primary and the election were actually worth putting in this time. I hit it right both times for a change. Seeing Hillary dethroned, I would put satan himself in charge of the US. Already seeing a change. The local TV had a commercial for the coal mine hiring again. Looks like they might be getting ready for some regulation rollbacks already. I know it would go a long way to reviving the area again. As the mines went down, so did all the industries around here that supported the mining equipment. It would be great to see people going back to work again.

Our Bernie Sanders/ Hillary fan is looking pretty down in the dumps. He was a bigtime Bernie fan, and when Hillary screwed him out of the primary, he quickly became a Hillary supporter. Full in supporter as in going in after work to call centers trying to get people to vote for her. I might feel sorry for him had he not been a total tool both times Obama won and rubbed it in everyones faces, but, I still give him room and don't ride him. Too easy a target, and don't really like kicking someone when they are down, even if they do when they are up. I did ask him before the election how he could support a conniving POS like Hillary after she basically screwed Bernie over. His explanation, Bernie said to support her, so, like a good little robot, he obeyed. Sad. I did ask him for a Hillary sign to use as target practice. He already disposed of them.

Watching all the little special flowers go through melt down. They probably would have dealt with it better had they had a normal childhood. When you grow up in a world of playing games and not keeping score. Handing out trophies simply for participating and such, you really end up with a generation that can't handle loss. Safe spaces, in colleges. Words hurt. Grow up......Sad part is at some point, these people will be in charge. Hopefully, I will be dead before then, but I feel bad for my kids generation.

Two more work days, then a whole day off. Yeah. It is a short week next week as I am on vacation from Wednesday onward. Then the following week is thanksgiving, so it is a short week as well. I am ready for some down time. Going to head to the bank next week and get preapproved for buying a house. Then, head back and check out the house I am looking at again. I pass it on the way to work everyday.

More fun

The other day, I installed a new kitchen faucet to replace the leaky one. New one was over a hundred bucks, and all plastic, including the lines. Quality stuff. It should do for selling the house. Looks and works good. Has a soap dispenser where the spray hose use to be. It is a pull out faucet model, high mount for easy fill of big pots. When I went to install it, I turned water off at the shut off under sink. Remove all nuts holding faucet in, then, remove lines. One line comes off fine, second line, the shut off doesn't work completely and I have a little shower going under the sink. Main shut off is just outside kitchen, so I quickly shut it down. I thought the main purpose of the shut off was to not have to shut off the main. Silly me. I am cursing the Chinese junk shutoff the house builder used as I pull it. I get it out, made in the USA. Guess we make junk too. I pick up a new one at the store and go to install it. The copper tube above the ferrel is too long for new shut off. The tube is short enough above the T fitting where I can't cut the ferrel off and install new. I am not going to buy copper pipe, dig out torch and solder, try and remove stub from T and install new pipe. I put old shut off on, hook up faucet, turn on main, good enough. All works and shouldn't have to mess with ever again.

 Todays fun, replace toilet fill valve. New ones are all plastic and junk. I pull the line and have no flow. I figure the shut off is bad. I pull shut off. There is something in the line. I fish out pea gravel from the supply line. Pea gravel. Several pieces. I flush line and am hoping that was the issue with the fill valve. Hook it all back up, nothing. Go to replace the fill valve with new one. It doesn't work either. It looked like the same model I took out. I run down to ACE and pick up a different brand. I install it, my toilet fills instantly. Modern plastic junk does not last as long as the old brass hardware we use to have. You had to adjust the ball right and keep a decent rubber flapper in there, but, as long as you did that, they were perfect. Plastic junk, not so much.

I believe I am done with the repairs on the home, until something else rears its ugly head. I am hopeful to get out to the bank this week and see my loan options. I believe I may try for the home I looked at a couple weeks back if it is still available. Measured all my rooms, and the other home is much bigger, with genuine hardwood floors throughout. See what the week brings.

An hour and twenty minutes

The wait to vote. It was lined up to the back of the huge library. Longest I have ever waited to vote. It is either going to be ridiculously long on election day, or short as everyone voted early. First time I ever voted early. Am glad to be done. Don't have to worry about getting out on time Tuesday to vote now. Going to try and just see Wednesday morning what happened. I usually stay up late to watch results. This year is too depressing. I figure the Hildabeast will be our new leader, and am very depressed, but I did what I could.

I hate being simple minded

I received notice from the water department outlining the increases in my water rates (which are already much higher than they were up north) which will be increased in levels over the next few years. The reason. Upgrading the infrastructure. Now I fully understand the need to upgrade the old lines, but, what I don't understand is Flint. While I feel bad for an area hit by a disaster of any sorts, I fail to understand why federal (my tax dollars) should be used to upgrade an area I don't live in. Why I need to pay significantly more for my water to upgrade my system, while at the same time, paying for a democratic different area's water supply as well. Also getting hit on the utilities bill as the power company is upgrading the gas mains throughout the area as well. Federal LOAN, I can maybe understand. Paying for it outright, no.

Happy Halloween

Had a lot of trick or treaters today. A lot of cool costumes. It is hit or miss as to the turnout. I think the awesome weather helped out. I got the headlight on the Vette fixed as well. Typical engineering. Doesn't matter the manufacturer, they all suck. The headlight motor stripped, which in itself is no biggie. I did the passenger side several years ago and left the drivers side go since it still worked. I put in the aftermarket bronze gear in place of the nylon one. It should be good for a while. Engineering idiocy? That was the placement of the screws for the headlight motor gear box. Drivers side should have been the easy one. It wasn't. One of the bolts, the hardest one to get to, stuck and I stripped the head out. Short of trying to drill it out, awkward entire headlight assembly of car, there was no way to get at it. Stupid part. Chevy barely blocks the head of one of the three screws for the gear cover on headlight motor, forcing you to take half the assembly apart. Since I couldn't get the stripped bolt out of motor base, I gently pried a bracket out of the screw heads way and managed to get the cover off gear housing thus eliminating having to disassemble entire motor assembly. It took some finagling, but I managed to get the old gear out and everything buttoned back up .  The nylon gear has three bushings in it. They were reduced to shavings. Nothing solid, just shavings. During reassembly, I was startled by some trick or treaters. I usually hear them coming up. The dad was checking out the mustang. She is still far from done, but everyone liked it. A lot of compliments on it. A lot of the moms really liked it. Have to get back on that project again.

Go global warming

October 30th, and in the 80's, awesome. I got some more outdoor work done. Repaired the rotten boards on the yard barn and repainted. Put a new cover on the crawl space opening, the old one was cracked. Hit the flea market. It was absolutely huge. Got my exercise in for the day. Tomorrow, toss candy at the kiddies. Hopefully Tuesday, I will get the new faucet on the kitchen sink. I believe that is the last real repair I have on my list. I am still contemplating buying that house I saw last week. May hit up my bank midweek and talk to them about possibilities. I know I can do it, just not crazy about trying to sell a house this time of year. May also check with realtor and see if the seller would work off of a contingency. Not the best time of year for them to market house either. May line up to take another look at it.

A little retro

Flipping through the tv channels and come across old Dr. Who episodes playing on Retro TV. Just in time to see Tom Baker materialize during regeneration. It is on weekdays for an hour each day. I remember watching it with my brother when we were kids. He was one of the more entertaining of the old doctors.

It is time again for the Indy 1500 gun show in Indy. Not sure I want to go or not. This close to the election, the line to get in is liable to wrap around the building a couple times. It is also time for the fleamarket down town, so lots to do. So far, I am suppose to be off for the weekend, if I can get out the door tomorrow without getting signed up. Only a couple more weeks until vacation. Not going anywhere. Just looking forward to some down time. Vacation will end with a military/gun show down town.

One day off does not a weekend make.

Went to the open house of the house I like that popped up for sale. They dropped the price quite a bit. Owner got the two lots merged into one on the deed now, so putting a garage where I would want to put it would be easy. No restrictions and a bit over an acre of land. House is older. All hardwood floors. Not crazy about the stairs. It has a basement as well as an upstairs area. Kind of an odd setup, but very doable. Really don't want to move until Summer though. Going to think about it. Only thing I don't like is it has a septic system. They put city water in, but didn't tie into the sewer. Have to check and see what it would cost to connect. After looking at building, and them having corrected lot paperwork, I would be able to knock the garage wall out and move it over to make it a two and a half or three car garage. The concrete is already there, the wall was constructed even with the house. Doesn't look like it would be too hard. Would still put another garage up next year if I get it, but I would definitely expand existing first. Really don't want to move right now though. Don't need to sit on an empty house during winter. It probably wouldn't sell right away.

Burned out

Machine gun show weekend. Last steam show for the year weekend. Me. I had to work. I am totally burned out. I go in at 5 or 6 am, their choice on start time, not mine. Work anywhere from eight to ten hours a day, sometimes more. Six days a week. I need to get away. They got rid of the FMLA abuser, but, they have not replaced him, so I now have no third shift guy. Trying to make it one more month. I get most of a week of vacation ending with a military show, so that will be cool. Then, only four weeks of work left and I will be off for Christmas. My grandsons first Christmas, so that will be awesome. He is growing quickly. Facebook helps me keep in touch and watch him grow. Still not the same as being there though. I miss family, but not the area. I absolutely love being down in southern Indiana. No comparison. Much less polluted. People are friendlier. Lots more to do. Back to work tomorrow, bah humbug.

Upper, part 1

Still need to blue and engrave lower, but it is done and functional. Still need to find missing sight. May rob a scope off of the one of my other AR's to use. Just don't want to have to sight it back in as it is set perfectly for the rifle it is on.

I figured it was nice out, so I wanted to play in the garage. I started machining on the raw upper casting. Had to think about how to approach it. I figured, looking at the blueprint, most dimensions come from the center of the hole, so, I figured, square everything up so I can hold on something. Next up, find the center of the thread boss and drill a precise hole, followed by, drilling a hole through.

After several attempts, I came up with this one to hold part while making first cuts. I did the top first.

Here, I did the front of the thread boss, the rails, as well as a cleanup cut on the back face. I figure this trues up three of the four sides so I can rest on any surface to machine another side. I am not finishing anything at this time, just squaring things up so I can grab them in a vise, or clamp to an angle plate.

 Here is the clean up pass on back side of upper.

Now, I was able to flip it, put it on parallels in a vise and cut the panel on the other side. This pic doesn't show it, but I also did a clean up pass on the top and front of the two nubs so as to square them up if I should need to clamp on them later.

I clamped the part to an angle plate, using a second angle plate and a parallel to square part up and support it for drilling operations.

I center drilled the part, followed by drilling through with a 1/8 diameter drill. I drilled about half way through, when I needed more clearance for flutes of drill. I ran a bigger diameter drill down most of the way, leaving some of the 1/8 inch hole for the drill to follow. In the end, it did walk off center, which I pretty much expected, but hoped against. It only walked about .060 to one side (but did stay centered up and down). So, plan B.

I clamped it the other way and used a center cutting end mill to center things back up. I used my extra long 3/8 end mill from the lower project. I followed this up with a 1/2  end mill. I will do the same on the other side. My new plan is to use a 1/2 dowel pin on each end to use for indicating center of hole to use as a datum point.

This is the other side also opened up and ready for the dowel pin. This should not have been such a long job, but my mill is extremely primitive. I have little travel on the ram and have to move the head up and down frequently for height changes, which is a real PITA. I really want to upgrade my mill. I believe I am going to buy myself a Christmas present this year. I know what I want, and the travel on it is a lot more, plus it is built a lot sturdier than this one. Plus, it is variable speed. I bought the one I have now off Craigslist, which is probably how I will get rid of it when I upgrade. The new one will be a table top model again, but bigger. It is also upgradable to CNC.

I am hoping on moving next year so as to get a bigger garage. Am watching a house about a mile down the road. It has possibilities, if the price drops. It only has a 1 1/2 car garage, attached, but, it has a bit over an acre of land. Plenty of room for a pole barn and/or garage. In that case, the attached garage would become the shop. I would then be looking for an actual Bridgeport at some point down the line. The new table top mill at that point would turn into a CNC at some point. Only reason I am really hesitant on that house is, school is back in session. I need to sell this house to move. This subdivision sells immediately during summer break. It is a perfect family subdivision and people tend to move more in the summer when school is out. There are a few houses for sale in my neighborhood now, and they aren't moving. During the summer, average time on market in this subdivision was a few weeks. If he drops the price on the house, I may have to go for it. It does have hardwood throughout and a walk out basement. House itself is fairly small, but the property would make up for it. A garage would be built immediately at time of sale as I would have it in the mortgage. I love my house, I just hate having to pull the car out to do anything. During winter, it is hard to pull the Vette out and get it out of the way. I could definitely get a lot more done with more room.

All done

Well, still need bluing, engraving and the stock, which I have on the way. It does cock and dry fire perfectly. Safety works. Everything is smooth. Package should be here Friday according to tracking info. Hopefully take it out and try it at the range this weekend. I found one of the two sights so far. Still trying to find the second one. I eat at my couch with my dog, so, the kitchen table is usually my work area, where I found one of the sights. I am sure the other one is in one of the bowls of gun parts. I will find it.

Here is the right side. Magazine slides in and out like butter. Have two magazines so far. I am very anxious to try the 9mm out.

Here is the left side. Everything is smooth. I did have some tweaking to do. I forgot to open the hole for the roll pin on the bolt catch. I had drilled a pilot hole all the way through. I forgot to follow it up with the finish size, oops. I also forgot to widen the bolt catch slot on the top of the lower. I used a 1/8 end mill, but forgot to open the slot to finish size. Found these oversights out last night while trying to assemble. I also forgot to finish the trigger opening to finish size. Fortunately, I found all problems yesterday and fixed them as soon as I got home. Well, after letting Spike out for a sniff around the yard, and, mowing the lawn. I believe it turned out good for a first try. I did learn a few things to look for when starting on the next blank forging. The bottom of the trigger pocket is paper thin. I figure I will take less stock off the top of the next upper to allow more stock in this area for machining. Shouldn't harm anything, just not happy about it. I do want a better mill, but am trying to hold out another year. I have been house hunting. I am leaning toward moving next year. Hoping on getting at least a three car garage, or a 2 car with a pole barn out back. This would allow for a real mill. Have seen a few with walkout basements, which would also work. I would so love a shop in the basement. Be able to play comfortably year round. I want a Bridgeport, just no room. Have had opportunity to get one, just nowhere to put it at present.

Almost done

I have one small chamfer up by the charging handle to do, and one small hole to drill and tap in the threaded portion of the buffer opening. Then, just the bluing and engraving.

I finished threading the buffer area. Had issues mid threading with the drive belt on the motor. Always adds a bit of fun to the game. Picked back up on the thread and finished it. Next one, I am going to thread mill the buffer end.

I used the extra long end mill to finish pocket. I got the mag well where a magazine would slip in, but the 9mm mag adapter would not slip in. had to file it until it would slip in. Made sure 9mm mag slips in and out with ease as well. This one will stay a dedicated 9mm lower. I want to map the opening and make another lower with the 9mm mag opening in it, without having to use adapter. I have extra blank forgings. They are only $20 a pop at the machine gun shoot. I picked up some upper blanks as well, thought they look a bit more tricky on the machining. I am going to try and do at least one upper. Would like to do a whole upper, lower and trigger assembly from metal stock just to have a gun I made from scratch.

Here is the mag fitting nicely in the lower. At this point, the magazine slid in and out nice, but, the 9mm adapter was too tight. I filed the opening until the adapter fit in snug, but not too tight. It will come out only to blue the lower, then it will go in to stay.

Right hand side done. The blank forging like the one it started as is above it for comparison.

Left side done. Again, the blank above for comparison.

And a shot of the top. A lot of work, but it was fun and productive. I will finish the couple minor items tomorrow and dry assemble the whole trigger assembly, buffer tube, upper and magazine to make sure all fits are good. I tried the magazine release hardware earlier and know that works well as does the handle assembly. Upon checking out the pictures as I am doing this write up, I noticed I forgot to mill the bottom trigger guard groove, which is no big deal. I left it flat so I could hold on the flat bottom in the vice. I no longer need to mill off of surface, so I can finish it now. If I get it done tomorrow, I will post pics of the finished product. May take it to the club later in the week to try out before bluing and engraving. Like to make sure it works. Anxious to try out the 9mm upper and see how it works. Have a lot of 9mm ammo.

That was quick

My extra long end mill showed up four days early. Definitely going to order more through them. Got home and finished boring the hole for the threads. Found a better boring bar than the one I was using, but not my good one. It cut straight, no push off. I am going to tear the office area apart tomorrow night. I have looked all over the garage for it. Why it is not next to the lathe I don't know. Has a nice threading insert in it. I can use the one I am using if need be, but the carbide insert is new in the one I am looking for, and probably a bit more accurate than the hand sharpened high speed one I made. Should finish up Saturday morning if I remain off the work list. There is a steam show this weekend in Elnora I usually go to. I am leaning toward just working in the garage on some projects. See what I feel like doing.

Made my fixture for threading the buffer end of AR lower

Much like me, it ain't pretty, but it does work. I took a piece of 1.5 inch round stock and milled .125 off a section of it. This gave me a flat area to screw the lower to, and, it also centers the buffer hole (which is .625 above flat) when bolted together. Still have to center it side to side, but, that is pretty simple.

 Next, I needed a way to clamp the lower to the fixture. I fashioned a plug that will fit in the roughed out magazine well. For the next lower, I will use the same fixture, but, I will drill and counterbore through it and tap mating holes in the solid pocket area of the lower.

I drilled the holes to match those in the fixture. I bolted everything together, then, removing one bolt at a time, I used an end mill to make a flat so the bolt would tighten down straight, instead of angled, so it is nice and solid. Repeated for all three holes.

Ready for lathe. Like I said, she ain't pretty, but it is solid. Much more rigid than I thought it would be. I milled a couple flats on the side to put a brace on each side if needed. The flats are the same exact width of the outer surface of the lower. For now, I don't think I will need them, but if need be, they are there. I have some 1/8 flat stock I can easily make clamps with.

Here it is mounted in the lathe. It clears the bed easily. It is very rigid. I indicated the face true and centered the hole side to side, then, tightened everything down. One more check to make sure nothing moved.

I couldn't resist trying it out. Too late to finish the hole, but, I had to know if it was going to work. Once I got the hole trued up that I drilled in there (The drill kicked the piece to the side a bit and the hole was way off) when it was in the mill, it cut clean with no chatter. That is, until you hit the area where the threads are only on one side as it ramps down. It pushes off a bit here. It works out though. I am careful and slow the feed down (I kick the feed lever out and feed really slowly by hand) in this area as it lopes through the ramp. It forms an undercut on that side from the slight kick. Hard to describe, but I will take a picture of it when done. I hope I can figure out where I put my good boring bar. I have a threading insert in it, and it is the perfect size for this job. Thick enough to be rigid, but small enough to fit. Thought I had it in my Gerstner box. I have a few more places to look. I would like to finish the buffer area tomorrow. I am off again this weekend, if they don't change their mind. Hopefully my end mill arrives and I can finish the magazine pocket. Then I can blue it and assemble it. I still need to engrave it as well. Haven't figured what all to put on it yet. Been getting ideas online. Lots of recommendations of putting a serial number on it. One guy had a decent idea. He engraves his NRA member # followed by what number receiver he is on. That way, if law enforcement looks at the gun, you don't get grief for no serial #. Using a number you can remember helps if you need to report it stolen, so the NRA # is on your card, and unlike your social security #, you don't really care if someone sees it.

Back to work, bah humbug

I ordered the end mill to finish the magazine well. Hopefully be here by the weekend. Had an idea for a fixture for the lathe to hold the lower for boring and threading the buffer hole. Got it machined this evening. Need to pick up a few socket head cap screws tomorrow to try it out for rigidity. Wish I had thought of it before hollowing out the pockets, but, I made a couple of side plates for the fixture which should steady it up quite a bit. I will find out tomorrow. Be nice to finish it this weekend. Like to try it out and see how it works. I have a couple more blank forgings. I am going to try and make another one with no flaws. I have a block of clear poly carbonite that I want to make a see through model of for display. Think it would look cool and be able to see the inner workings. One step at a time. Hopefully get the weekend off again. Not holding my breath on it though.

It is a lot lighter now

Got the trigger area cleared out. She is a lot lighter now. Just have to thread mill the buffer tube threads in it, and finish mill the magazine well. Need to get a extra long end mill to finish the mag area. It does fit nicely though. I have a couple minor blemishes in it, but it is functional. Not bad for the first one.

 

I started off by finishing the mag release slot on the top of part.

It is easier to mill pocket if you drill holes to remove most of the material. These holes go about .010 shy of hitting bottom of trigger pocket. Want to be able to cleanly mill the bottom with no imperfections.

  The last three holes are smaller, and shallower. Same idea though. Want to remove material and it gives you a visual for where the end of the pocket is so you don't run past it when milling.

Here is the trigger portion of the pocket milled out. It is still rough in this photo. Forgot to shoot one when I had this portion finished, and before moving on to next portion of pocket.

Here, pockets are done. I didn't take a picture of the small trigger opening being milled out, but, there really isn't much to it. It is done, just no picture.

 It is a nice tight fit. No slop, very little daylight at all. Don't want to install trigger assembly until I have the buffer area threaded and the magazine well finish milled. Even then, I want to blue it before final assembly. May make a slightly undersized pin to temporarily hold magazine release lever so I can dry fit everything. That roll pin is a real SOB to get in and out. I made a small block for use as a guide to hold pin when hitting it in, if I can find it. It is just a hole in some keystock, so nothing fancy, but it works. Don't want to scratch up the finish when I finish assemble it.

I weakened

Have not bought a gun in a long time. Still didn't buy a full gun, just most of one. Picked up an upper in 9mm for an AR. Also picked up a magazine adapter and a couple of 9mm magazines, and a bolt carrier for it. I want to reverse engineer the adapter and make one from scratch, just because. May try and make a 9mm specific one piece lower, again, for the heck of it. I am back to machining my lower again. I swear if I get away from something, it takes forever to get back to it. I started milling the magazine well. I got as far as I can on the mag well until I get a 3/8 extra long end mill. I had one, but being the pig that I am, I can not find it. Tomorrow I will start on the trigger pocket so as to get something done on it. If I can get the trigger pocket done, I can see if work will loan me an extra long endmill for a day to get the other pocket done. Still need to threadmill the buffer tube threads.

 Here is the upper assembly. Have to find a set of sites for it. I have a set around here somewhere.

This is the magazine adapter along with one of the magazines I picked up for it.

 

 

I drilled some 1/8 inch through holes where the corner of the magazine pocket will be to make the finish radii in the corners. I drilled holes in the magazine to get rid of some of the material to make milling a bit easier. Here I am starting to mill the pocket out.

Here is the pocket roughed out. I need an extra long 3/8 end mill to finish the rest of the pocket. I left .005 per side stock to allow a finish pass. It was about dinner time, so, I went to the store and picked up a nice porterhouse for dinner. Kind of hard to get back at it after steak, potatoes and corn on the cob. Me and the dog relaxing a bit. Watch a bit of Roku, and hit it again tomorrow.  Hope to finish the trigger pocket tomorrow. I think I made the guys day at the show. Holiday weekend with great weather does not make for a heavy crowd at a gun show. None of the vendors were making out well.

Another three day weekend

I can get use to them really quick. Last week was Frog follies, which was awesome. This weekend, gun show, fair, and messing around in the garage. I hit the gun show this morning. New vendor showed up. He said he usually hits up the Crown Point show, but due to a booking error, wound up down here for the first time. He has a very nice selection of AR products at a reasonable price. May go back tomorrow. He had a special going on a 9mm AR at a decent price. Came home and checked around online and couldn't even come close to his price.
Weather is down right gorgeous. May hit the fair tomorrow for a bit. Good walk around weather for some outdoor activities. If I pick up the AR, I will head over to the club to break it in. May head out there anyway. Haven't been there in quite some time. Working way too much. My FMLA abuser made a brief appearance. Managed to work a whole four days. Amazing how as soon as a new month rolls up, he gets sick and takes his two FMLA days he is allotted per month, right off the bat. He should be good until October now, once he comes back again.

It's bad when the high point of your day is when you are in the dentist chair

Tomorrow is finally Frog Follies, thank God. Each week has been worse than the previous week. One machine lost a Fanuc drive. Took most of the day going back and forth with support to verify which card was triggering the alarm and get one on the way. Lost a power supply on another machine. Get the OD grinders programmed for the second shift operator, get ready to leave, display goes gray on one of the two OD grinders. I had already looked up a new display as it has been getting dim lately, sign it is on it's last leg. Log back in to my e-mail and get one of them ordered. Fortunately, the display popped back on before I left. I told the second shift guy if it goes out again, call me, I have caller ID and won't pick up, see ya Monday, I am out of here :) The best part of today was after work, getting a tooth ground down for a crown. I am ready for a vacation.

I am so looking forward to morning. Friday at the Frog Follies is great. Most people are at work and the place is not crowded. Usually do my heavy shopping on Friday. If it rains one of the days, I will head to the Indy gun show.

Short week coming up, yeahhh

Another ungodly long week done. Six day weeks getting old quick. My FMLA abuser decided it was still too nice outside. He is out for another week now, at least. Must be nice to only work five days out of a month, and that is if he comes back when he said, which is a maybe at best.

Anyhow, Friday starts the Frog Follies. The biggest antique car show I have ever been to. I go every year, all three days, without fail. Have a vacation day scheduled for Friday, and am very much looking forward to it. I have worked the last few weekends, I better have this one off. I gave notice of having plans, for them to make allowances for me to actually have a weekend off. The event is for cars 1949 and older, but, the vendors have parts for collector cars of all eras as well as the for sale corral and flea market are open for everything. Want to pick up a few more items for the Mustang, as well as check out the booths. Like to have the front seats on the truck reupholstered. They are in great shape, but are about as comfortable as sitting on an upholstered rock. Short trips aren't bad, long trips are down right crippling. Never know what you are going to find there. If it rains one day out of the three, it will turn into a run to Indianapolis for the Indy 1500 gun show. At any rate, it will be a fun weekend. Just need to get through three grueling work days.

What a week, and she's not over yet

Got added to the Saturday list. Four AM start time. Yuck. My FMLA abuser won't be back for at least another week. I am betting on at least two more weeks. Every summer for the last three years, he mysteriously gets ill for anywhere from three to five weeks. Usually coincides with Harley weather. He finally called in midweek with notice of needing two to three weeks off. I really need to find out his doctor. He already has a standing arrangement where he gets two days a month FMLA. His pick of days. Usually the first two days of the month that land on a weekend. He has had that arrangement for almost two years now. I believe the doctor gave them out in case he needed a day or two here and there for his mystery ailment. He has not missed out on using one yet, ever. So, adding them up, he gets twenty four work days a year off, no questions asked. That is only one day shy of an having an additional five weeks vacation on top of the four weeks vacation he gets. That doesn't even add in the few weeks of leave, like the one he is on now. And, my company, being the pinheads they are, give him personal days, because they don't count FMLA against personal days. In order for a worker to get a personal day, they have to have perfect attendance for a four month stretch. You can acquire three a year and use them anytime. They are a paid floating personal day you can save up for emergencies, or fun. They actually give this guy his personal day as long as his doctor gives him an FMLA form. What a crock. I work six days a week, a lot of ten hour days in there. It is hard for a worker to get personal days. I have had eight years of perfect attendance down here. I earned every personal day I got. Management needs their heads examined. He gets to enjoy summer, the rest of us work overtime trying to make up for being short staffed. At least they are predicting a lot of rain all weekend.

Happy Monday

So, it is Monday. My FMLA abuser is on his second week of holiday, and my other operator is on vacation this week. I get the machines up and running and am just about done with the job, when, boss comes up. I am one of the lucky ones to go downtown for a random drug test. Having just used the restroom, it was going to be a bit before I was ready for the test. They take you, immediately down town, to the plant and you are watched until test is done. No problem as I lead a rather boring lifestyle, if you can call it that. I get a couple tall glasses of water and have to sit there and wait for nature to work. At this time, it hits me. The irony. I am a productive worker, running my machines, minding my own business when I am taken and watched until I pee in a cup, and can't leave until they get the results. On the other side of the fence, unemployed welfare rats can smoke weed, crack, snort coke or shoot up, and no worries at all, because it would be violating their rights to require a drug test. They get to draw a check out of money from taxes I help pay. They leach off the system and have funds to get high. Having gone to trade school and not having taken any of the liberal arts crap, I find it mind boggling the double standard. Now, I don't want to go get high, but I would like to see the welfare recipients put through the same jumping of hoops that us working folk get to do. If they fail, they lose their benefits. Not fair? If I were to show signs of drug use, I would be fired instantly with no recourse. Fair play seems to be, if you are using and on welfare, you lose your free lunch. But as I said, I am one of those lowly blue collar workers and haven't had any of the liberal brainwashing the true colleges have, so my small mind has a hard time grasping the reason society allows this double standard to continue. Back to mindless fun again tomorrow. Perhaps my FMLA abuser will grace us with his presence. Happy Monday......

Hell week

First week back from vacation was extra wretched. Had one machine down waiting on technician when a second machine died the afternoon of my last day before vacation. I got back from vacation and the tech shows up, by himself. It is a two man job getting machine broke down. I worked three twelve hour days, a ten hour day, finishing the week out with a  morning root canal at the oral surgeon followed by a half day at work. The week was BAD. Technician managed to smoke a power supply and encoder board. Naturally he blamed age for the failure, not the fact that he grounded the board while testing it. I robbed another machine to get boards to finish repair of machine one. Get it together, we get a power failure during testing. Get it back up and going. Techs company sent wrong directions for teaching the b-axis back into machine. Took another day to get proper instructions, which were clear as mud. I did get tech to find bug in machine as he could not keep it running to teach part in, so, a glitch the machine had is now gone. Monday, I get to do oil flush and change on two machines, change out filters,then, hopefully I can get back to just running the machines instead of getting dirty. Tired of having to work for a living. Keep thinking of becoming a democrat so I can just stay home and live off Uncle Sam, but I like my frontal lobe too much. That pride thing sucks too. It is highly overrated though:)

Just chilled out today. Jaw is starting to throb less. Dinner was a taco casserole from a recipe from Brigid's Home on the Range blog. It was awesome. Going to try making it with chicken and buffalo sauce next week. Last weekend, I dug the mustang out of the pile of junk I had on it. Going to start working on it again. Going to check the frame out tomorrow. May see if I feel confident enough to try and weld it myself. I can always stop and take it in if I feel like I am over my head. Been looking at videos on youtube getting ideas what order to weld the plates in, and how to go about it. Have the main floor area cut out and cleaned up already. Thought that was all that was needed when I started. Need to cut out torque box (have new one already) and part of floor support and frame (also have new) and then attempt reconstruction. I found the wheels and tires I want. Don't want to order until I have it ready for road. Hope to have it road ready in the spring. Have the color down to about three choices now. Black interior leaves everything open as far as color goes. Toying with candy apple red. Found an interesting yellow candy that also looks cool. Throw some black stripes along the bottom side. Tire shop has an app where you can choose your car, color, tires, and wheels for preview. Helps visualize what combo would look like. See how I feel tomorrow. Hope to play in garage all day. Today was just trying to rest up from the week and get my jaw to calm down.

Back to work tomorrow...

That first day back from vacation. I am dreading it. Have a repair guy coming out for one of my machines, and another one of my machines had a major breakdown on the afternoon of my last day, so I will be working on it. I am going to be walking into a steaming pile. The lead person texted that my FMLA abuser is gone again and my one still running machine is still where I left off, a week ago. Yes, life sucks. Hopefully have one or both machines back up by Tuesday or Wednesday. Cap of the week will be my root canal on Friday. In the chair at 6:30 in the morning. I never heard of a doctor of any type starting that early. It will be nice to get in and get it over with so I can enjoy the rest of the day. Yeah. Already ready for next vacation.

I did get all repairs done on truck. Steering is like new. I replaced the blower motor resistor and now have full control of the fan speed again. Of course, it needed the $110 resistor instead of the $25 resistor, but it is fixed now. Aftermarket radio I installed last year now has the ability to make calls through radio with phone still holstered. I had to bypass a safety they built in the radio. They had a safety to prevent dialing if car wasn't in park with the parking brake on (push brake, release brake, then set it again) thus making it difficult for a normal person to make a phone call. I have the sense not to text and drive just as I have the sense to not be trying to dial on a screen while motoring down the highway. I can now easily dial at a stop light and use the radios built in wireless calling via mic and speaker system. I also chased down the loose connection on driver side speaker. Made an appointment for rotating tires. I should be done with most of the list of to do items for vacation. Today, relax and cruise around in the Vette on a sunny non humid day with the top off. May fire up the grill later and throw some ears of corn on with the burgers. Time to chill for a bit.

Liberal logic boggles a normal mind

Somehow, a black shooter who is out to kill all the white people and cops he can, does not count as a hate crime. The police  are trying to get the language changed in the law so it applies to police, and also white people?? Why does "white people" not count as a racial bias? I still have my frontal lobe, so this illogical logic mystifies me. Of course racist in chief has hopped on it for gun control, since after all, it isn't a hate crime because of a black dude killing crackers and all.

Steering fixed

I love the internet. It makes life so much easier. The steering on my F150 has been getting bad. Real bad. Stiff spots. I checked the power steering fluid and belt. Inspected for leaks and damage. Nothing. Hop on the internet and input my model and year with problem on youtube.  Steering shaft. The truck I have falls in the middle of the years with a flaw. The steering shaft u-joints freeze up. I pulled it and the lower joint works, one way. It is froze solid in the other direction. I changed it out and I can steer it with one finger now. Never could do that before. It has been going bad for a long time now. I feel like I have a new truck. Part was $250, but carries a lifetime warranty. Video says dealer wanted $750 to change it out. It took less than an hour to change. Definitely glad I checked as I was figuring the pump was bad. Much easier than doing a steering pump, especially when the pump turned out to be fine. Tomorrow, I fix the blower motor resistor. It has been bad for months, but it froze on and not off, so it is just an annoyance. Be nice to turn it off again.

 Not ready for the end of vacation. Back to work Monday darn it. Leave it to me to pick the only week in July that it rains almost nonstop. We lost power for most of yesterday. The west side of town is pretty much destroyed as far as trees and lines go. They are still down and Vectren has a call out to five states to get manpower to put everything right. It was a horrendous storm. I got caught out in it and pulled over until it passed. Trees down everywhere. I am just happy to have power back on again. I do love air conditioning.

Awesome weekend

Headed up north to see my first grandchild. He was born Tuesday, and is awesome. His new mom and dad are doing a great job, sharing in all the responsibilities. It was a fantastic visit. It has been many years since the last baby in the family. About eighteen years, since my last niece was born. It does make me feel a bit old, but it is awesome.

I got to visit with my brother which is always a good time. He has been busy remodeling a bathroom and clearing a fence line in the yard. Way more ambition than I have. We caught up with Og and his wife. Checked out his new garage floor. His heated garage floor. That would be a nice addition come wintertime.  He also got all the trees and brush out of the back yard a nd it looks great. It was a nice visit and a great weekend. Tomorrow will be picking up the dog and relaxing a bit.

I am officially a grampa

Little Logan took forever deciding to arrive. I lost my bet. A week overdue, I was betting it had to be a girl. Mother and baby doing great. Can't wait to see him in person.

Well, that's awesome

It is raining out, overcast and just perfect tv weather. I was poking around amazon prime today and found, Dr. Who seasons are back again. They haven't put the classic series up yet, but the new series 1-8 are back up again. Not sure when they returned. Figure they would have made a big deal about it to let people know.

Big gun show in Indy this weekend, but not sure I feel like the drive or not.  Usually find stuff that needs a home. Feels good just chilling out and binge watching for a while. Rain keeps starting and stopping making the yard work I wanted to do a bit challenging. Have stuff to do in the garage, but need to pull the Vette out of the garage to do them, and don't like parking it in the rain if I can avoid it. It spots up and I then have to wash and buff it. Major pain. Hoping on a bit of sun tomorrow. So tired of rain.

Well, that was a lot of work.

Took three trips to Menards for river rock. Front yard is just about done. I put all but the last couple hundred pounds down. Use it tomorrow to fill in the areas that look a bit light. They look good now, but fresh eyes tomorrow will probably show some light spots. I am chicken, so I took three trips. The loads were about 1500 pounds each. On the third trip, I was waiting on the guy with the forktruck. He was shaking his head. Customer he was loading up insisted on taking the full load. He had retaining wall block stacked way over the truck bed, wheels about rubbing, truck way down low. Wasn't a 350 or a 450, just a F150 like mine. Didn't see him on the side of the road on the way home, so I assume he went the other way. No way he made his destination with that load. I am just glad to be done with that job. Wasn't looking forward to it. If I can still move tomorrow, I may go back and pick up a bit more for the backyard. Did it last year, or the year before. Have a few light spots that could use a bit more. They have a great sale going on it, but it ends tomorrow. Kind of makes me have to get off my tail and get it done. Have to go back to work so I can rest:)

It didn't rain:)

We actually got a decent day. Overcast, but no rain. Suppose to be nicer tomorrow, and then back to several days of rain. I got some yard maintenance done and did some shopping. Several things I could not find down here since moving down nine years ago. One of them, gnocchi. The supermarket up north had them in the freezer section. I finally found them down here. Vacuum packed in the pasta aisle. Use to buy them in the freezer section. May cook some up tomorrow.

 Went out house hunting a bit as well. Just driving by some of the ones I find on Zillow for now. Doubt I will do anything this year. I want to thin out some of what I have first. One I liked sold already. Not on market long. Had an attached two car garage, a detached 2 1/2 car garage, full walkout basement and over an acre backing up on woods. Older smaller home, but for me and my dog, plenty big enough. Went by a couple houses that will be open housed tomorrow. Figure I can see what the houses look like in the area I want so as to get an idea what the area is worth. It is right around the club and there are a lot of little lakes and ponds out in that area. Lots of woods and no sidewalks. Nice and rural. But, there is nearby shopping less than a few miles down the road. Restaurants, movies, Lowes and the supermarket. So you get privacy, yet there are all the necessities nearby as well. It would also still be a ten minute ride to work:) The club would be a few minutes away. It has fishing and shooting, so all bases covered.

Well, maybe the cartoons aren't that far off after all with their southern depictions.

I work just inside Indiana. Right on the Kentucky border. One bridge separating the two. I work with quite a few Kentuckians. There is the usual joking banter back and forth between us Hoosiers and the Kentuckians. Today however, I had to give a few a hard time. Yesterday, the Kentucky primaries, Hillary either won, or just barely didn't (the official count is still out it is so close). How on earth does a state that makes it's money on coal and tobacco support the one nominee who has outright stated she was going to put coal mines out of business and make coal miners jobless. Not a summary or opinion of what I think she stands for, words out of her own mouth. How screwed up does a state have to be to actually support the person killing them. The local demorats are trying to spin it in Hillary's favor. They claim Trump doesn't care for Kentucky and how Clinton will make it a priority. Wow. Still trying to figure out why Hidabeast isn't wearing an orange jumpsuit while serving time on the tampering with evidence charge while they sort the e-mal fiasco out, but, what do I know. The coal mines have been devastated. A lot of people are out of work and it doesn't stop there. A lot of local businesses that supported the industry are suffering badly. I am at a loss how on earth people that have been hurt so badly by a party, can turn around and support the very people who screwed them. Unreal. Not a Bernie fan, but I am enjoying watching him torture Hillary. An antique self proclaimed socialist is giving her a run for the money. If not for the super delegates rigging the vote, Hillary would have a bit of trouble. I am so enjoying watching her get flustered.

Man, what a relief

I was really worried. The pressure is off. Kasich will not run as a third party candidate. LOL. I suppose he is trying to stay relevant. It was a bit amusing though. We are back to the balmy, dreary rain again. Did a Netflix day today as I was off work and didn't feel up to doing much. Ready for some sunshine. Tired of this dreary mess. Did finish the new handle for my lathe and got it installed. If it isn't raining tomorrow where I can get the Vette out of the garage, I will do some more tomorrow. I have the digitals on the bed, still need to attach the scale to the cross slide. Hard to get ambitious with the dreary weather.

One more day

And I get four off. Get Tuesday for my birthday and I took Monday as a vacation just to get a long break. Hoping it will be a bit drier than it has been lately. We have been getting tornadoes down here. Luckily they are hitting surrounding areas and not making it here yet. Winds and torrential downpours, power outages and other fun events. Ready for some sunshine. Get to go to a gunshow at the 4H center this weekend. Keep hoping my grandkid gets delivered this weekend to give me a chance to head up for a longer visit. Babies usually don't cooperate though. The mother to be is a Halloween baby, so a Friday the 13th baby would be appropriate. Would be a great birthday present as well:)

Garage is looking great. I finally got it really organized. Hope to play around in it quite a bit this weekend. I have been trying to decide on the garage in back and think I may have made up my mind. As much as I hate to, I believe I may move one more time. I am checking out houses on big lots out by the club. The drive to work would be the same. Right now, I am just looking around to see what is there. What I like is there are a lot of them out there with walkout basements, which would give me a nice shop area. Most have pole barns and decent lots, 1 to 2 acres. As far as a house, I don't need huge. A small three bedroom like I have would be fine. I am more interested in a bigger garage and or barn. Being right by the club would be a plus. If I hit the right area, I may be able to set up a small range in the back yard. Houses in the area are older, but I could get a decently updated house on a big lot with basement for about what my current house is worth. I hate moving and like my neighbors, but I would love to have a bit more property and wooded surroundings would definitely be a plus. I would also like to have a full size Bridgeport instead of a tabletop mill. Had a chance to pick up a small 6x18 surface grinder for next to nothing, but nowhere to put it right now. Probably hit a few open houses this weekend.

Stupid, stupid, stupid

What is wrong with the idiots in the RNC???? I am not a big fan of Trump, but with the idiots they chucked up this election cycle, I will vote for him. Can they suck it up and just go with the program? Hell no. Enter Mittens Romney to the rescue? Really. They are going to start a third party nomination to weaken the vote on the right so Hillary doesn't have to work so hard. What a bunch of braindead idiots. Here I keep hoping Bernie will go independent and doom Hillary. I swear the right just loves to screw themselves if they can. We didn't vote for one of their elites, therefore, it is tantrum time. I am willing to bet money that for next election, they will change the rules. My prediction is, they will mimic the DNC on their massive number of super delegates so as to be able to steer the election better. It is working well for Hillary, as it did for Obama in 08. If they had several hundred super delegates like the democrats do, Cruz would be winning. Hillary may get in, but, we just may be witnessing the birth of a third major party, and the death spiral of the republican party.

WOW

The polling place was packed. I made fast tracks out the door right at quitting time so I could get down there before the crowd. When I got there, the line was single file and out the door. It only took about twenty minutes to get through and out. When I left, it was out the door and half way across the parking lot, and people were still coming. I got off at 3:30 today, which is unusual for me. Popular quitting time. I am so happy I shot straight over and got in ahead of the crowd.
Would have been more entertaining a bit earlier. My buddy on second shift went in on his way to work. Says some ditzy blond (she was wearing a Bernie shirt, thus the ditzy) was in line ahead of him. One of the poll workers came up and told her she couldn't be in the building with anything pertaining to a candidate. She smiled, stripped off the Tshirt and flipped it around and put it back on. I didn't know Bernie was supplying strippers. Guess his funding ran low by afternoon. This is the busiest I have seen for a primary. It was actually busier than it usually would be for the actual election. See how the numbers come in. I keep hoping Sanders will decide to run as an Independent. It would guarantee no democrat in the White House.

Ahh, primaries tomorrow

If Trump is doing well enough, I may hold my nose and vote for Bernie for the primary. Will I vote Bernie on election day? Hell no. But any nail in Hillary's coffin is worth a try. I keep hoping Bernie will run as an independent. That would kill any chance of a Demorat getting into office.  If Trump isn't pulling the lead, I will throw my vote that way. Cruz can suck it. Don't like the way they are trying to win on a secondary vote. Trump has the majority of the vote. If they steal the nomination from him, I will vote for all offices but president. Not particularly a fan of Trump, but the underhanded tactics to try and undermine his lead is despicable. It may be legal, but it is not right. If they didn't want Trump, they should not have allowed him in to start with. Allowing him in and allowing him to spend his money on campaigning only to steal it away is wrong, plain and simple. This election is going to suck as there really is nobody worth voting for. Damned if I will allow Clinton to get in office by not trying, but, at this point, if it is Cruz or Clinton, I am out. Couldn't care less which weasel gets in at that point.

Great flea market

It was  a huge flea market/antique show. I enjoy looking at all the antiques. Unfortunately, I remember playing with a lot of the "antique" toys when I was a tot, so, I must therefore be an antique. Explains the creaks in the joints I suppose. Got out of there with just looking today. Had some items of interest, but nothing I couldn't live without. It was most enjoyable though. I cut the grass when I got home, so I got more than enough exercise for one day. Really don't want to have to go back to work tomorrow. Way too pleasant outside for that.

Cruz was in town for the latest anti Trump rhetoric. Trump is due to visit on Thursday. Kasich is suppose to pop through in May, not sure why he is still running about. Hopefully the demorats stay clear of town. Especially Killary. Bernie I can find some humor in, sort of. Hillary aggravates me on sight, just as Obama's presence does. Hillary should be doing time for multiple reasons, but, being a Clinton, it will just be noise on the news for a bit and go nowhere. This has to be the worst choices for president ever. Seems like we are on a downward spiral as I have felt the same way for the last few election cycles.