Over half vacation gone

Past the half way point of my vacation, but, I have gotten a ton of things done. Windows were last week, and are awesome. Window treatments are all up and look great. I headed up north to visit family and friends for the holidays. Stayed with my brother and his girlfriend. Met up with Og and did some running about. Hit up the gun stores and grabbed some food. It was nice to see him again. Missed getting to see the Og family this time around. Spent quite a bit of time seeing the grandson. He is walking very well now and has lots of new toys to play with. It was nice seeing everyone again. I hate the drive, but love the people. Head back up in June for the grandbabies birthday. Shouldn't have to worry about snow at that time at least.

Got back and hit up Lowes on Tuesday. Ordered my refrigerator and dishwasher. Should be here in a few weeks. I have yet to get an appliance the next day as they advertise. Always out of stock on whatever you want. It works out though. I want to run gas line for the range and reroute the water line for the refrigerator. Need to run a couple electrical outlets for the range and microwave as well. I was going to go with a 36 inch stove to keep from having to rearrange the cabinets. I am putting the range where the refrigerator is now. I found some 3 inch filler panel that matches my cabinets though, so, I will be putting a strip on each side of the opening and ordering my new countertops to make up the difference. They sell filler strips for the microwave so I will use that kit to mount a 30 inch microwave in the 36 inch opening. I know which oven I want. Hopefully I can find one of the illusive sales people in the appliance department at lowes tomorrow. I tried today and had no luck. I swear if you want one, you have to tackle them and drag them to the department. If you don't need one and you are trying to look, you have to beat them off with a club. Want to price and order the counter top as it too will take a couple weeks. It is going to be sweet when done. I will have an extra breaker as well as I am getting rid of the electric range top freeing up a 220 breaker. It will be used to power the garage. Looking forward to cooking with gas again. I hate electric.

Today, I felt like torturing myself. I painted the office. I loathe painting. I put a coat on the ceiling a few weeks back, but it needed another coat. The previous owner was a minister. That was his office. Not sure if it was a satanic church or what. The walls and ceiling were painted DARK blue. Who paints a ceiling in a room with no ceiling light DARK blue. I had two torch lamps in there and it was still dark. Painting the ceiling helped, but didn't solve the issue. I liked the color of the main bedroom. Naturally, it was the only room they didn't have a paint can for. I removed a piece of trim and had the paint department scan it and mix a gallon. I had to patch where they took a tv down as well as some other holes in the wall. I didn't want to paint that room. I lucked out and the paint matched perfectly. After patching spots in main bedroom, I put another coat of paint on office ceiling and painted the walls with the bedroom paint. MUCH better. A single torch light and the room is bright. I will let the paint dry for a couple weeks so I can tape the walls at the ceiling and retouch the ceiling in a few spots that I hit with a dap of wall paint or otherwise marked up the ceiling. Shouldn't take long to touch up, but with everything drying, need to let it all cure to finish it up. Tomorrow I will get the furniture back in place and unpack stuff I never unpacked because I needed to paint. Get the shades put up. Then, it will be down to the basement to run the electric for the new kitchen appliances. Have to get stuff ready while I am off. Want to get a new gas water heater installed and have the plumber run the new gas line for the stove while he has the gas line disconnected. Water heater works and doesn't leak, but it is old and making noise. Feel better getting a new one in as opposed to waiting for it to fail.

Busy day

Window guys showed up and finished the outside trim. It looks absolutely gorgeous. Nothing left to paint. Looks like a new house. Nice clean lines and a huge difference in the view. No more aluminum bar running through the middle of each pane. No idea why they were designed that way. Did nothing more than obscure the view. New windows tilt in for easy cleaning. No grid, just clean glass.  Guys did a great job cleaning up the mess before they left. Even closed all the gates and latched them. Quite impressed with the job they did all the way around.

I spent most of the day putting blinds back up that I took down, as well as putting new ones up. They are the cellular shades. Hit them on sale again. Two of the bigger ones are very expensive, but they are unbelievably easy to open and close. Just lift up or pull down on the center and it goes up or down easily. I expected them to be clumsy as they are about 100 inches across. No cords to mess with, and being cellular, no gaps. I have light filtering in the house, so it lets in daylight, and light blocking in the bedroom, which blocks light out extremely well. Plus, with no gaps like the slats have, it is totally dark, not stripes of light. 

I was busy inside and it turned out to be wet out, so I didn't get to cut the tree or flagpole. They will still be there in the spring. Picked Spike up after they left. He was glad to be home and I was glad to have him back home again. I hate dropping him off anywhere. He is great to have around, but it was safer to have him out from under foot during construction. Tomorrow I will try and force myself to get back to work on the office. Ceiling needs another coat, then I can start the walls. I bought blinds for that room as well. Put them up when all is painted cleaned and dry. I hate painting with a passion. No kids around, so once it is painted, I should be done. Last house still looked like new after nine years of the same paint. Dog doesn't drag the wall to much, and he is low enough to the ground, it doesn't show. Just need to bite the bullet and push through.

New windows are in

The new windows are in, and they are beautiful. Huge difference, in appearance and function. They put a special panel, window combo in the basement for the dryer vent. It looks way better than the cobbled mess they had before. Everything is white instead of the original aluminum single pane windows of before. Everything inside is done. They will be back in the morning to seal and trim the outside. Big difference on temperature and sound. Street in front is busy. Before, it was loud. Not so much anymore. The temperature of the interior glass isn't cold to the touch either. See how the utility bills do. It is going to be great in the spring to be able to open the windows and get some fresh air.

 Spike had to spend some time at the dog sitter so he isn't under foot. Pick him up tomorrow. Doesn't feel right eating without my little mooch next to me giving me the big cow eyes with the tongue hanging out.. I will pick him up tomorrow when they are done. I want to pull part of the fence down to cut a tree trapped between it and a thorn bush anyway. I can do that and get it put back up while the guys are finishing the outside of the house. The thorn bush is also grown around a dilapidated rusty flag pole that needs to come down as it is an eyesore and also about to lean on the power and cable lines coming to the house. Was going to wait for spring, but with Spike at the sitters and a sunny day in the 50s tomorrow, may as well get it done. Need to get the oil changed and a haircut sometime this week as well. May try and get another quote on the garage.

That was a lot of work

Spent most of the day Cleaning gutters, again, and clearing leaves, again. Having several mature trees is great. Having neighbors with mature trees is great. It is a nice country feel when you get home, yet I am barely in the city, so everything is convenient. But, in the fall, the yard maintenance is brutal. This is the third heavy yard day in a few weeks. I have been cleaning them up weekly so I didn't have an unbelievable amount of leaves to try and get rid of. Trees are bare. Gutters are empty. Yard is cleared. We are done. My new Stihl leafblower was a huge help. Being gas, no extension cord to fight with. I used the gutter attachment to clean gutters out. It was extremely awkward, but beats lugging a ladder around. Not to mention I don't have a tall enough ladder to reach the back, and I lack the stones to walk over from the front, single story side, and bend over and empty gutters on two story side. Just can't stand heights, therefore, I don't deal with it. I will be looking for new gutters and gutter guards in the spring. Meant to have the window guy quote gutters while he was here, but it slipped my mind. I will have the remodeler I used at the old house to quote new gutters. I hope to have him do the garage, as well as some other repairs. I am gaining around the house. Did a lot of rearranging of things in kitchen and living room again and think I have it the way I want if finally. Two weeks away from vacation and having windows done.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just chilling out with the dog. Put the turkey in pretty soon, watch some old James Bond movies and relax. Nice to have a few days off work to unwind. Plenty of chores to do, but I am taking today off.
Picked up a Stihl gas powered leaf blower at a holiday price. Be nice to cut the cord as my yard is significantly bigger than old house. Lots more mature trees as well. Be breaking it in tomorrow. They had a $50 gift card if you spent $200 or more on Stihl products. I bought the gutter cleaner kit which put me just above the amount. They also had a double warranty and a six pack of oil for it for free. So, four year warranty, and I only have to drop it off where I bought it. No mailing it somewhere or traveling anywhere special. Hopefully wont need servicing as all reviews were positive and most of the people at work swear by them. Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and a safe holiday season in general.

It's more money out the door

It is Sunday, before the evil Friday that starts the Christmas madness. But, the sales start today. My poor Galaxy s5 has been limping along, poorly. I do love the phone, and the removable battery. It has hit the point where it overheats and goes into shutdown loops where I have to pull the battery and let it cool down. I have been putting off the inevitable. They have terrific sales going on now. I upgraded to the s8. Though it doesn't have the removable battery, it has more features than I will ever need, and the price was slashed for the sale, so it is easy on the wallet. Actually got a good salesperson this go around. He transferred everything over to my new phone for me. Last time I bought a phone, the salesman couldn't get me through fast enough. I had to download an app at home and struggle through the madness. It went very smooth. I will definitely give him a good review. Still trying to enter my email passwords for mail and apps. It will take a while to get it all ironed out. Want to get a case for it as I always hate the thinness of the new phones.

Also, bought some new Klipsch speakers. BestBuy has an amazing deal going. The salesman didn't even know about it. I had to show him on the web. Buy two floor standing speakers and a subwoofer, get half off. HALF. They are very high priced at regular price, but amazing speakers at half off. Big difference when I installed them. I want to eventually get the surround speakers for it, but they are not on sale this time around. I will wait. They too will go half off as they do about twice a year.

Bank account will get another hit later in the week. I plan on buying my dishwasher and refrigerator as this is the best time of year to get a good deal on them. Range may wait until I determine what I want and run a gas line.  I have the refrigerator pretty much picked out. I am still trying to determine the dish washer as I bough a whirlpool last year for my old house, before I decided to move, and was not happy with it at all. My twenty year old dishwasher was better than it, and it was one of the higher end models with the stainless steel tub. Range, I am still bouncing around on. I am leaning towards a 36 inch, which there is not a huge selection to choose from. I could go 30 inch, but would have to pull the cabinets and move them around. Easier to just buy one to fit the opening. I want to buy new countertop this winter as well. Doing away with the built in range top gives me more counter space. Don't know how much I can get done this week, but I will try and get some of it done. Countertops may wait until spring.

I am waiting for a four day weekend. These one day weekends are getting old. Money is good, but I need some downtime to relax and get some work done. After Thanksgiving, I only have three more weeks to work this year. Have a lot I hope to get done in that time. New windows should be getting done fairly soon. Haven't heard back on a delivery date yet. Looking forward to a done house. Spring is the new garage.

Rarity

I actually had a second weekend in a row off. That almost never happens. I wasted it though. Saturday, I didn't get out of bed until afternoon, and napped on and off most of the day. I finally feel like I am over the worst of the illness. They get a good one going around work once in a while, and it usually hangs in there. Been a couple weeks of ailing, but I feel pretty good finally. Caught up on laundry and inside chores. Wish I had felt better yesterday as the weather was perfect and I could have got my yard work done. Today has been on and off severe storms. Hope the trees are all standing. Really don't want to look. Saw lots of lightening hitting close and heard thunder touching down really close. Close enough to shake the house. Crazy weather. Only a couple more weeks until Thanksgiving week. Then, only three working weeks left in the year. I could use a little time off. House is looking pretty good. I did some more organizing today and actually hung some pictures as well. Finally starting to look more like home.

Slow gains

Twisted the heck out of my knee organizing the shed a couple weeks back.  Been a slow recovery working ten hour days six days a week hobbling with a knee brace, but able to walk much better finally. Probably should go to the doctor one day to get it checked out as it frequently decides to pop out and back in from time to time, and hurts like hell when it does. Short of a replacement, not sure they can do much and I intend to put off knee replacement as long as possible. Just sucks having to be extra careful how I lift and do things. I do try and get enough walking in during the day as to keep the muscles up, which helps for normal movement. Just not able to do the constant heavy lifting I use to do. Have a treadmill for the winter time as I don't need to fall on the ice.

 Cell phone was having major issues with rebooting frequently with no warning. After reluctantly searching new cell phones, I took a gamble and tried a new battery on my cell phone. Problem went away. Cheap fix. It is a galaxy s5. Dated, but more than what I need. Don't want to get caught up in another contract. Now if I can just get rid of this nasty cold flu thing, I should be back to somewhat normal. I can't stand doctors, but after a week and a half of nonstop hacking and gagging, I caved. Got a slew of pills to take and it seems to be taking the edge off.

As far as the house, I have a contract for all new windows. They measured yesterday and I should have them installed before the holidays. One more item off of the check list. Garage will be in the spring. I have the money, just late in the year and I want to get it right, not fast. I am about positive of what and where I want it. Have to see if the city will let me build as big as I want. I intend to go as big as they will allow. Hoping to get this cold killed off so I can play catch up in the yard. Old trees are great for scenery, but in the fall, a lot of leaves and work. I usually give out candy for Halloween, but with the cold and the cold weather, I am reluctantly going to sit this one out. Like seeing the little ones going around, but need to stay out of the cold until I have this bug killed off.

 Have a plan for the kitchen. Hoping on getting it done this winter as well. Leaning toward a 36 inch gas convection oven where fridge is at now. Leaving wall oven in place but getting rid of the countertop range. Put in new countertops and back splash. New refrigerator. That is the plan anyway.
Not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but trying to save personal days back up again. It was good to have the whole weekend to try and rest up and get better. Only a few weeks until Thanksgiving, so that will be a four day weekend. Then only three weeks of work and I get a couple weeks off, so the year is getting down to the wire.

Who would have thought that was a bad idea

I have been down here about nine years. At work, we have a few CNC grinders I run when I am not repairing them, seeing as how they are Swiss made. They may know watches, but they suck at electronics. When we brought the Kelvaria down from Chicago, it had a bad air conditioner in the electrical cabinet. We were running it with the door open to keep the electrics cool. Being a tool and die shop of high precision parts, it is temperature controlled rather well, so all was good. They didn't like that down here, as I am sure OSHA wouldn't as well, so, they ordered a new unit. The company sent the wrong one, from Switzerland, for several thousand dollars. Our genius bosses didn't want to send the unit back. Against my wishes, they made it fit, with the help of a plasma cutter. They cut a hole in the back of the cabinet and the floor of the cabinet. Nine years I have had issues with the machine. It has sucked the oil and filth from the floor under the machine and blown it directly into the Siemens drives which are located directly above the AC unit.
The workhead on the machine has been dying all week. The drive finally succumbed to the oil dripping off of it. I can't believe the electronics didn't fry years ago. The drive was alarming the machine out, but I was able to limp it along for a few days if I moved chuck by hand as I hit the start button. The initial inertia was enough to get it going. The boss finally let me look into fixing it. I told him I thought the AC unit was the root of the problem and showed him the oil soaked drives. I removed the AC unit and ran machine for a few days. Without the AC unit, ALL ALARMS I have been getting intermittently for years went away. ALL of them. The drive died altogether yesterday. I ordered a new one online and robbed one from the other Kelvaria grinder to test out. Machine is running flawlessly for the first time in nine years. Boss let me order the proper AC unit for it. He would not however let me castrate the person who butchered it years ago making life a living hell. Typical lack of logic in management, they won't let me replace the other drive cards that are dripping oil and grit. I told him the place that rebuilds them would only cost us about three grand to do the rest of the drives and the power supply. Twenty five year old machine, the drives owe us nothing. Boss says we will wait for them to die. Down time will cost us way more than what preventative repair would cost. Total lack of logic in the work place. I am glad I am closer to retirement than starting out. I sure don't like the way things work anymore. Total lack of logic.

Gun show day

Made it out to the gun show at the armory. My buddy was there with some rather interesting stuff as usual. He has a very extensive collection of guns. I have bought a few. He reminded me of the pumpkin shoot they have at their club after Halloween. I need to check it out. They buy a bunch of surplus pumpkins for next to nothing after Halloween and, have a machine gun shoot. Kinda like Gunny has with watermelons. Sounds like a great time. He introduced me to his buddy at the show who sells full auto weapons. He will be there as well. They have several machine guns each, so it should be rather fun and educational.
House is coming along finally. Kitchen is pretty well in order. I bought some cabinet organizers I have yet to install. Dining room is finally cleaned out of empty boxes and miscellaneous items that needed sorting through. I found a tv stand I want so I can get the living room situated the way I want it. I was going to pick it up while I was out, but got to feeling pretty lousy, so I came home and laid down. Been working a lot of hours and I think I am just ran down a bit. Feeling rather tired and blah. Things to do, but no ambition to do them with. They will still be there tomorrow. Hopefully I will be up to doing them. They keep talking cutting overtime at work, but it hasn't happened yet. It is hard to cut hours when you have an over abundance of millennials for help that don't do much other than take up space. I could get more done if they would get them out of the way. Probably work less hours if I didn't have to fix what they mess up after I go home. Two weeks until I get a couple vacation days. Hopefully go to the machine gun shoot out in Kentucky. That is always a good time.

It's a bit comical, in a sad way

I moved down to southern Indiana and absolutely love the area. I have all the restaurants, stores and conveniences I had up north, without the traffic and congestion. I love it. Don't miss the liberal agenda being so close to Chicago. Don't miss the crime at all. It is nice. The news media down here wishes they were bigger. It is very sad, to the point of being almost comical. We had a demented individual, who happened to be black, get shot and killed. This particular individual positioned himself outside a federal building and was ranting and threatening one day. The next day, he came back with a baseball bat and started taking out windows. Police tazed him, and it didn't slow him down. He went to attack, they shot and killed him. Local news tried doing the BLM bit. Built up the fact that there was a crowd forming to protest at the federal building. I looked at the pictures. Both pictures. Six people. Same six people in both pics. One laying on the ground drawing so and so's life matters in chalk on the sidewalk. Cute side note, the authorities warned the protesters if they drew on the building, it was federal property, and they would go to jail and be prosecuted. So, draw on the sidewalk. News tried their best to build up the scenario, but nada. No mob. I love this area. Most people responding in the news posts were on the side of the police and justifiably so.

Today, the DACA protesters are in the news. They numbered in the single digits as well. Eight. Four on each side of the street. Creative photos in the news tried their best to make it look like more. Hard to do with eight people. One shot, the photographer had to be on a knee shooting almost straight up so you saw one face and a few picket signs. All the signs there :)  I am so happy that we lack the protesting idiots the big cities have. It does look almost comical at times though. Liberals are too dense to realize all Trump is trying to do is get congress to do the job they are suppose to do. DACA was an Obama overreach. Executive branch isn't suppose to make laws. That is congresses job. By killing the DACA order, it throws the ball into the lawmakers arena for them to hash out. Not being heartless, but I have no soft spot on this issue. It may not be the fault of the kids dragged here, but where do you draw the line. If you grant amnesty now, you will always grant it forever. The so called dreamers, if you do the math, are the kids dragged here by their parents after the Reagan amnesty. Fat lot of good that did as they kept sneaking in. Nothing against immigrants. Come in legally. Get a permit. Get in lint. Farmer needs help, hire workers using the work permit system. Bring them in legally. They get background checked. They are checked for diseases. If they are here legally, they don't have to put up with the abuse many do out of worry about being caught. It is a win win. Enough of the amnesty nonsense. It does nothing but tell the rest of the world, go ahead, sneak in, eventually we will grant you citizenship and you don't need to conform at all. I feel sorry for the kids that were dragged here, but at some time, you have to draw a line and stand your ground.

Nice

Lowes dropped off my new mower this morning. It actually arrived a half hour earlier than their earliest estimate, freeing up most of my day. Forty two inch cut beats the heck out of the twenty of my self propelled mower. Started right up and ran smooth. Very happy with the handling and shifting. Can't beat it for being as cheap as it was. I have had good luck out of Troybilt, so I am hoping it lasts a long time. My self propelled is nine years old and still starts at the first pull. Got the edger out and knocked back all the weeds and overgrowth. The trees in back and front yard were severely in need of trimming. The fence had the weight of years of growth on them as well as power lines. Knocked everything back and weed whacked everything. Don't think anything but a pass with a lawnmower has been done to the yard in many years. It definitely looks a lot better.

I installed the closet doors in the main bedroom today. Still need to pull the trim on the bottom so door will close all the way. Have to find my pry bar. Tools are not organized yet. Going to be a while. Refrigerator has seen better days. Doesn't seem to be keeping up very well. Checked them out at Lowes while I was there. Picked one out that is actually quite inexpensive. Massive sale going on. I can't see spending thousands on a refrigerator for weird trinkets. I have a chest freezer, so I don't really need a massive drawer freezer. Will be nice having water and ice in the door again. Rest of appliances are fine. Nice to just stick around the house and work on stuff instead of moving things. I can actually see myself gaining.

I got my drivers license and gun permit in the mail today. That was quick. Especially for being government. Didn't go to Indy for the gun show. Figured I better try and get some stuff done.

Finally done

The storage lockers are now empty and closed out. I need to bring the Mustang home before the first of the month, but my buddy said he would pick it up and tow it early next week. Tomorrow is the Frog Follies, so that is where I will be all day. Suppose to be eighty degrees with no humidity. Should be a perfect day. I will start organizing the house better Saturday. Main rooms have been set up for a while now, but the office and basement are still in boxes and disassembled furniture. I bought some LED lights for down there to brighten it up quite a bit.

 I bought my mower. It will be delivered Saturday. I wanted the Husqvarna, but after doing research, I found that all the mowers at the big box stores are knock offs. Meaning, Husqvarna and John Deere make a subpar machine with their name on it to sell at a cheaper price. The mowers at Lowes had horrible reviews. The common problem was the transmission. My buddy bought his John Deere at the John Deere dealer. They have the 100 series, which is what they sell at the box stores. Salesman told him they have floor models on display, but won't sell them because they are junk. The reviews at Lowes said people took their machines in to dealers to get fixed, and were refused service. My yard is small enough where I was borderline on buying a rider anyway. It is only about .6 acre, so push mow isn't too bad. I bought a Troybilt Pony at Lowes. It is the lowest priced one, but it has a 7 speed manual transmission instead of the hydostatic transmission. All the knockoffs seem to have issues with the hydostatic transmissions. It would definitely be nicer, while it worked. Only wound up spending $900 on it with the coupon I had for ten percent off. Troybilt is also a whore, as it sells it's name as well. I almost bought the pony model at Rural King, a local farm store, but I noticed they used a different motor, and probably a different trans as well. The Lowes model uses Briggs and Stratton, the same model at Rural king had a motor that, after I researched the name, was a cheap Chinese motor. I would have bought a name brand one at a dealer, but the price jumps to about three grand. Not worth it to me. If I had acreage, I would do it in a heart beat. My lawn is just too small to make it worth while.

Rain

Rain today, so I figured I could take a day off of moving stuff and just sit and relax. Wrong. I get an email from my storage unit. My unit was found unlocked and I need to come check it out, again. This nonsense happened last month and it wound up being that the unit, which has two doors, but only  one operable as the other one is bolted shut, only had a lock on the operable door and not the one that is bolted shut. The people who inspect the units noticed it and notified all people with double door units. IDIOTS. This time around, I got the message minutes after getting home. I let Spike out, get him back inside and head over to unit. My unit is fine, unit next to mine is missing lock and has a cut off lock laying on the ground. I go to the office. They are out to lunch. I head to Lowes and come back a bit later. I tell the office guy that he notified the wrong unit and that I found the one next to mine tampered with. He informs me their system glitched and notified everyone that their units had been left unlocked. Brilliant. He also lacked interest in the fact that the unit next to mine had a cut lock. Says people cut the locks off their units often, that it isn't a concern. I am so glad I will be out of there by the weekend. It is a pathetic way to run a business. I only have a few items left in each unit, but they are big. Two workbenches, two console stereos, and a treadmill base. I also have my two lathes in there, but they are table tops. Heavy, but somewhat manageable. Picked up some deli for dinner and now relaxing a bit. Tomorrow is the last workday for the week. Thursday I will finish emptying units, get my new riding mower, hopefully mow yard, and do some stuff around the house. Friday is the Frog Follies. Saturday will be the Follies or the Indy 1500 gunshow.

Ready for some time off.

This is ridiculous. Back to working  six day weeks. I normally don't mind overtime, I would love to have some extra time off to get everything in order. I did manage to get the smaller rental unit just about empty. Only three items left in it. Big items, but doable. I will have it emptied tomorrow and start on the big unit. I am going to empty it into the big storage shed out back. Lowes just cut the price on the mower I want, so I will be hitting them up tomorrow to pick one up. I have a ten percent off coupon, so that will help as well. Want to pick up the bagger unit for it as well as I have several huge trees that will soon be shedding their leaves. Next week is only a three day week for me. Friday starts the Frog Follies, which I never miss. I took Thursday off so I am guaranteed Saturday off. Figure I can finish off clearing the last storage shed out Thursday. I am looking forward to being completely done. I got my license changed over. Changed my gun permit and sent in my FFL change of address as well. Still have to call a few credit cards. Mail is actually coming regular now. I took this evening off. I have been working all day everyday and moving things out of storage at night. I worked this morning and decided I would just take the evening and relax a bit. Pretty much crashed on the couch for a few hours. Spike liked that. He took a nap along side me after I let him out in the yard for his romp.

Gaining, a bit

I emptied half of the small storage unit so far. Most of what is left in it is furniture, which means, bring it home and set it down. No unpacking. I am gaining ground. Hope to have it completely vacated by weekend. I am hoping on getting the Mustang home as well so I don't have to pay another months rent.. I will start emptying the big one next week. I am going to go ahead and empty it into the big yard barn I have so I don't have to pay rent on a unit. I hate the thought of moving into back yard and then into garage, but I plan on putting a back big door on garage, so access should be easy.

I keep trying to get some free time, but work doesn't permit much. I get to work Saturday again. It's easy money, and I enjoy what I do, I just wish I had time to get some stuff done. I want to call out people to quote garage and get it going, as well as price windows. I am back to cooking at home again, and that is great. I hate eating out, especially all the time. I have managed to lose some weight. Between all the moving, and not eating all the meals when I get busy, I lost twenty pounds. That just puts me at fat instead of morbidly obese :) Now if I can keep it off. Don't see myself being able to sit for long periods of time for the foreseeable future as there is way too much to do. I am gaining ground though. Love the house. It is starting to look more and more like home. Having Spike back home helps. He is great company. Don't have to worry about him getting hurt on the stairs to the basement. He is terrified of them. He shook when I carried him down them the first day. I now take him out the side door and through the gate down into the back yard. He likes that better. I am going to try and get the gate put up this weekend so I can just open the side door and let him go to the back yard on his own. Just not enough time in a day to get it all done. Next week is Frog Follies. I have to make some free time for it.

Making some progress

Picked up the new closet doors for the bedroom. Ripped up carpet in breezeway and treated with cat urine remover. I am going to be soaking the heck out of it. It is already better than it was. Tomorrow is heavy trash pick up day, so I had to rip the carpet out so I could get rid of it. Came up with a way to put a gate in so I can let Spike out from either level. Tomorrow I hope to install gate and mop up breezeway, and retreat. May try and get grass cut as well. Want one day to sit and do absolutely nothing. Hopefully one day next weekend. I do have lots to do, but I would love a day of nothing.

I had hoped to get the doors cut to the proper height, but we live in the millennial generation. The guy behind the desk said the saw would not be able to cut the length, but they could special order a door. A panel saw that can cut 4x8 panels of wood can't reach the end of a 6 foot door. OK. Guess he has better things to do. I will have to set up my table saw. I have it in the shed, just figured they could cut it to size and save me the bother. I even have a new blade installed on it. I do so hate the new generation. It is very difficult to get good help anymore. The kids they are hiring at work are about worthless. No work ethic anymore.

I figure if I hit the storage unit every day after work, I should be able to empty the one out before the end of the month, saving another months rent. Hope to get the Mustang hauled home Wednesday when my buddy works for the towing place. I need to cut down bush that is where I plan on parking the car for the time being.

Spike is home

He likes the back yard. He also loves the house layout. He loves to run laps, and the house has a pretty nice loop through it. He raced through the kitchen, dining room, hallway living room, and back into the kitchen, over and over again. He is a cool dog. I hate having him boarded. They take great care of him, but I love having him around. He doesn't like me carrying him down the stairs to let him out back. I have three choices. Down stairs and out the basement. Out the front and walk around to the back. Or, through the nasty cat pee breezeway. I don't want him going in there until I disinfect it completely. I will cut the carpet up and dispose of tomorrow. Then, disinfect concrete. I am going to put tile down in there. I need to clean it very good first. Once done, I am going to install a gate off of the front yard blocking entry to breezeway, so I can remove a segment of the fence to let me access back yard directly from upstairs breezeway. It will give Spike easy access to yard from either level, and it will also help me when I have my bad knee days. I can then go down slope in yard as opposed to the stairs. This is going to be the high priority project, but it should be fairly easy. I have tiled before and have the tools. I will seal it before Spike has access. Should prevent any future urine smells, although I have been extremely fortunate with spike as he was extremely easy to potty train, and doesn't mess anywhere. But, that room may be a bit out of the ordinary. It looks and feels outdoors enough, he may mistake it for an OK area to mess in. I love my new house. Hardwood throughout upstairs. Woodburning fireplace. The dining room, kitchen and office have nice high views of the backyard. Both back and front yard have very mature trees in them. It is really pleasant. May break out the mower tomorrow and get the lawn done. A bit big for a push mower, but it is self propelled, so it should count for some of my exercise. Want to set up a burn pit as well. Lots of dropped branches laying about. Lowes has all their lawn stuff on clearance and I have a coupon for ten percent off, so, timing is perfect.

I am now at my new home

Finally, sort of unpacked and getting settled into my new home. Was able to get the internet connected today, so I can now catch up a bit. I have to work tomorrow, so I will pick Spike up from the kennel after work tomorrow so he can check out the new house. I want to be home with him to get him acclimated to the new surroundings. I was hoping on a whole weekend, but no such luck. I have most of the boxes unpacked that weren't in the storage lockers. I will try and empty the small unit and bring the Mustang home as the week progresses. I will probably keep the big unit for a bit until I get the garage built so I don't have to move things twice. I could really use some more time off. I took Monday through Wednesday for closing and moving, but it was not enough. Out of personal days, but I get another one at the end of this month if I don't miss any time, which I never do.

House looks great with my belongings in place. I need to hang two closet doors in the master bedroom. They had curtains, which looked tacky. I bought the track kits. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I will pick up the doors for it. Need to get rid of a tv mount he left on the wall as well. Nastiest thing I have to do is clean the breezeway. The area between the garage and house, which is enclosed with glass panels and screens, was used for their cats. It smells of cat urine. I am going to cut up the carpet and then treat the cement underneath to try and kill the odor. I want to lay tile in there anyway, but it would have been nice not to have to disinfect the area first. It is overpowering. I will hit the pet store to see what products they have. I am looking forward to getting off tomorrow. I did a mini grocery stop, so Spike and I can have some breakfast Sunday, as well as cook on the patio.

Finally

I finally got the houses taken care of. Signed the sale of the old one in the morning and signed the papers of the new one in the afternoon. Movers are coming in the morning. I have the pistols all stored in a locker. Put it in the truck in the morning. I still need to get the rifles wrapped up and stored so the safes can be moved. Busy, busy, busy. May be a few days until I can get the internet hooked up. Hope to get it tomorrow, but not sure. The provider I use now can make it. I talked to the owners of the house and they said their service is just as lousy as I have where I am at. I guess I will go with the other provider. Just have to see if they can make it out tomorrow. If not, I may have to wait a few days. I paid all my bills up to date so I won't be hurting bad if the net goes away for a while. I pay just about everything online, so I don't want to be without for long. Should be somewhat back to normal very soon. Be nice to be able to cook again. Spike is at the kennel. He is going to go nuts when he sees his new back yard. It is huge. Nice cement patio to cook out on. I am already ready for the weekend. The owner said the guy across the street from my new house has a couple vettes and a couple mustangs. I will have to play catch up :)

An actual relaxing day

Simply had breakfast, hit a gun show and shopped today. Fun shopping. Hit up the local home improvement and lawn care joints to price out lawnmowers. Found a couple of decent deals. Hoping Sunday brings clearance sales. One place has a clearance going, but I have a coupon for Lowes for 10 percent off of purchase which would put a similar mower quite a bit cheaper, and with zero percent financing. Be great if Lowes puts theirs on clearance tomorrow. Should be hitting that time of year. They are clearing their lawn furniture out now. Gun show had a few cool guns. One Garand I really liked, but I have a really nice one and with the house and moving, I just don't have the money to spare at present. I did make the mistake of passing up on some ammo on the way in figuring I could get it on the way out. It was gone when I came back. I already have enough ammo to make a liberal weep uncontrollably for a great deal of time. But I can always use more. Tomorrow is suppose to rain, so I will do my cleaning and laundry. I have to disconnect and move the washer and dryer when I am done as I am taking them with. I hope to be able to move them into the garage. Moving most of stuff I can move to garage for staging. Movers are $150 an hour. My time is cheaper. I plan on cutting their time to minimal. There are three of them, so if I have everything staged, it should go quick. I disconnected the big safe and rocked it out several inches from wall so they can get a dolly under it. One in living room is lighter, but I will let them dolly it out. I will bust down beds and drag out to garage as well. Hope to have them down to a couple hours work. As soon as I get keys Monday, I plan on hauling all the boxes over and unpacking most of them into cabinets and closets so as to get the pain out of the way. I cleared a lot of stuff out to goodwill and garbage. The storage units will get emptied in the evenings after work. The rental units I got are only a few minutes away from the new house, so the trips will be very quick.

Finally

Everything is scheduled. I close on the sale of my old house Monday morning and close on the one I am buying in the early afternoon. Movers are going to be here Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, I should be settled my new house, clean up a bit on the old house, and chill out. May take Wednesday as a breather before heading back to work. Sit in the backyard, have a few cold ones and grill some meat for me and the dog. I am so ready to get back to some type of a normal existence. I plan on getting quotes on pole barns and garages as well as see where the best location is for it. Want it built and settled into before winter time. I have several recommendations for builders. See what they have to offer. Tomorrow, off to a gun show and enjoy the spring like weather. Seventies in august. Freaking awesome.

Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel...

They did the reinspect of my house today and approved all repairs. My realtor was here and met with the buyers. They know my realtor as they hang out with her daughter. Turns out, the buyers weren't aware of my wanting to keep possession of my house until the movers can get my stuff out and into my new house. Their realtor was making the calls and not relaying the info to them. We now have a full agreement where I close on my old house Friday, close on my new house Monday, move Tuesday, and hand over my old house to the new owners Wednesday. Things are finally moving in a positive direction. Wouldn't have even been an issue had all the banks used the same title company. could have packed the truck, signed papers, and unpacked in one day. Wiring the money throws a wrench in the works. I will now be able to move all the odds and ends to the new house Monday and let the movers handle the heavy stuff Tuesday. I am quite anxious to get this done so life can get back to normal again. Going to have to burn the few personal days I have, but I get another one at the end of August, so I will have one for emergency use. Should be settled in fairly quick and ready to go to the Frog Follies hot rod show in a couple weeks. First project at new house, garage. Still deciding between garage and pole barn. Have to see what the city allows as well as prices and what I like. It is going to be at least a three car. Not sure of the depth as of yet. Still trying to figure out configuration. Be able to get quotes once I am in. I found a few companies different people at work have recommended.

I am extremely sick of this nonsense.....

The people buying my house hit a snag. They were slow getting money and paperwork to their bank, which delayed their loan. They won't make deadline. I had movers set up for the first as back up since they didn't have the courtesy to tell me they were having issues. They want an extension. I agree, but they need to give me a few extra days to get out as movers are busy the day they now need. They want me out that day so they can move in on a weekend. I am sick of these people. I am literally living in a room full of boxes. I packed fully anticipating the close. I had everything lined out, and now they are being stubborn on the new dates and possession. I am debating just scrapping the deal and getting my separate loan for new house and relisting mine. I have had my fill of these people. Modern day millennials think the world should revolve around them. I am tired of this nonsense. I thought all was done and looking forward to getting back to normal. On the plus side, I have Spike back home for the weekend as repairs are done. Reinspection is suppose to be Monday so he goes back for one more day, if I don't just reject their extension and go back on market.

Starting to look empty

A buddy of mine from work who drives a tow truck after work was kind enough to tow my Mustang to the storage unit I rented for it. Garage is looking downright empty. No tools or benches. Lots of empty space. When I got home, I got quite a scare. An email from the security for one of the storage units I am renting for household stuff. It was found unlocked and they put a lock on it and want me to come out and look at it in the morning. I really lucked out and made it up there minutes before the gates lock for the night. Upon checking unit, there was a lock on it, my lock. I unlocked it and did a quick check and all looks good. I will go back tomorrow and do a better check. I emailed them to check and see if they sent a warning to the wrong unit by mistake so they can check and notify right person. That was a huge relief. More than valuables, I was worried about files and such, with identity theft being so rampant. Hope to have units emptied into new house soon.

I did hit a bit of good news. Buyers for my house ran into a snag and need a few more days to close. They need an extension which requires my OK. I now have my chance to change the amount of time I have to move out of old house into new. I intend to do that with the new addendum. That would take all the pressure off the situation. I am hoping to actually be able to relax at least one day this weekend. It is one of my favorite steam show weekends. Nice flea market as well. I can look, but better not buy as it would be more to pack. Only bad part with the extension of time is I packed dishes, silverware and pretty much everything, so living is going to be very primitive for the next week and a half. Pretty much down to a tv, furniture and a few changes of clothes. Great part is, packing is pretty much done.

The Purge

Sometimes I just think, how great would it be to have the ability to do a real life purge. No consequence for ridding the world of ignorant people. After a wretched day of work, I headed over to the place that repairs caps that idiots such as myself damage. I am going about my business when, some idiot speeds up the turning lane next to me, I am in the straight lane, and he decides he is going to cut in. I hear a horrible grinding on my passenger side. I look back and idiot is back behind me now, stopped and askew. I pull up a bit and over, he pulls up behind me. I get out and ask him politely what the hell the problem is. He proceeds to tell me I cut him off. He pulls out phone and calls police saving me the problem of having to do so. I inspect my truck and find he scuffed the side of my runner board. Just messed up the rubber a bit. I am shocked as it sounded like the side of my truck was trashed. I look at morons car. No real damage. It looks like he hit the running board with his rim and scuffed it up a bit. I call insurance, police show up. Police officer was nice. I explained how the idiot tried cutting in front of me by ramming the side of my truck, as you could see by the points of damage. He gave me contact info to turn into insurance and told me how to get a police report. My insurance agent told me it would not be worth turning in as it is the other guys fault. She said when he files a complaint for his car and they contact her, she will bill his insurance for a new running board for the truck.
I get done with the agent about the car, and she asks me, do you know you are closing on your house Friday. NO, no I don't know that. I talked to my banker and my realtor and they said nothing. I get home and check with my realtor and she is still not aware of such closing. My insurance agent said someone at my bank contacted her. I am being assured by my realtor and my bank Friday is not set. At what point does one finally notify the buyer / seller of the date of closing. Suppose to close by the first. They are still hee hawing back and forth. That is, I am suppose to close no later than a week from tomorrow, and still no set date. I am ready to go postal. My patience is at an end. Hard to get movers set up with no notice. I am past burned out. May have to watch the Michael Douglas' Falling Down and have a couple adult beverages to get my head right. Or as right as it gets anyway.

Not ready to go back to work

I feel like I haven't had a vacation at all. Been packing, storing and fixing stuff all week long. I am ready to get this nonsense in the rearview mirror. I am almost at the point where the contractors will do what is left, I can pack any and all I can live without, and pretty much wait until moving day. A couple expensive bills, but unfortunately necessary. Crawl space is wet since sump pumps don't work, but fortunately, no mold. Have a couple outfits coming to bid on job. Replace sump pumps and replace plastic liner. I did most other repairs I intend on doing. I am burned out. Missed out on Independence day celebrations altogether. On the bright side, my son and his girl dropped off for a short visit on their way back home up north. They hit Nashville for a few days and are heading back. Didn't get to see my grandson, but saw some new videos they took. Need to go back to work to rest up.

Yesterday

I moved the mill and stand, the other heavy work bench and a few shelving units, with boxes of tools to the storage unit. Not fun. All trips, except the last one, I remembered to lower the truck cap door. The trip to take the mill, I backed into the garage so I could flip the mill into bed. I hear a horrible crunch, and feel it. I forgot to lower the truck cap door. It barely doesn't clear with no load. I mangled the cap door bad. Fortunately, the garage door got spared. New cap door is $450. Don't think it is worth turning in to the insurance, so it is just an expensive lesson on stupidity.
The home inspection on my house was today. I am still dreading the results. They nitpick every little thing. They did find the sump pumps in the crawl were bad. Most of the crawl is dry, and no mold, so that part is good. He showed me pictures of one of the sump pumps and I instantly got pissed. I can't get in the crawl with the below ground entry, so I rely on other people. When I moved in, my inspector told me the sump pump needed to be replaced. I made it part of the requirements of the seller to fix. My inspector supposedly went in and checked, and approved repair. The picture I saw today was of a plastic bucket, the type you may use to mop your floor, being laid at an angle in a shallow hole and the sump pump was laid inside of it. WTF. I am going to have to fix the mess right, which will include replacing two pumps and new visquine throughout. I paid money to an independent party to check this out. I hate having to rely on people. Not sure what else they are going to list for repairs. I just want all this done. I absolutely hate moving. I am down to mainly furniture now. I will make a couple more trips to the storage unit, but the heavy lifting is done. I am so ready to just chill out.
Tomorrow is going to be the day I hit the banks and line the financing up. I am preapproved through my bank, but I have a couple others I am going to check out. It is suppose to rain the next couple days, so I should be able to just box stuff up and get paper work and phone calls done.

Busy

Clearing the garage out now. HUGE job. I got the lathe, one of the two heavy duty work benches out. A lot of stuff boxed and moved. Two of the shelving units gone. I hope to get most of the rest tomorrow. I may get one more unit to store the Mustang in until the new garage is built and ready.

I also did some calking I have been putting off for a while. I fixed an electrical outlet that hasn't been right since I moved in. I swear the electrician that wired this place was extremely weak wristed. I have fixed many switches and outlets since I have been here. Some have loose connections, loose being I can get two turns on the screw tightening it up. Some had loose connections, that turned into burnt connections through arcing. Thus, I have changes several switches and outlets since I moved here. I was trying to fix the lights outside the garage. Dummy me. I forgot they have a sensor and only come on at night. They lit up at dusk. Problem solved :) The home inspection is Wednesday and I am hoping on a good report. Only thing I am not sure about is the crawl space. Don't think there is a problem, but it is a blind area that can have issues. I am going to be happy to get this move over with. I absolutely hate moving.

Vacation

Spike is home, and freshly bathed. He had a good time. I gagged all the way home as he stunk, bad. In other words, he had a good time for a dog. Made it home and immediately dunked him in the tub. He smells much better and I am very happy to have him home again.
Vacation started today after I finally got out of work. I need to get a little calking done and repair a couple small items before inspection. They will inspect house on Wednesday. Figure I would try and handle a few obvious issues before they are issues. I submitted my report to the house I am buying for them to do some repairs. I knew the furnace was bad when going into deal, and the inspector agreed. I figure I will throw a new furnace, AC unit and water heater at it right away and get it over with. Have him fixing the chimney, some plumbing issues and some clean up of debris. Listed a few other minor repairs. I am going to be happy when this nonsense is over. I am hoping on a clean inspection. The only real area I worry about is the crawl space. I am too fat to get down there, so the last time it was inspected was when I bought the house nine years ago. Not really expecting issues as I don't smell anything and I fixed the drainage so it drains away from house long ago, so hopefully all is dry and well.

Spike comes home tomorrow

I boarded my dog for the week to allow for showing the house. House is sold, I start vacation tomorrow, and my dog comes home. Back to normal for a while. Hitting the butcher shop for some ribs, fire up the grill, and relax. I am so ready to relax and enjoy a bit of downtime. Still have to get some things done next week, but mostly just getting quotes from movers and such. I will make a check list tomorrow of things to do, knock them out, and hopefully be able to chill most of the week. Want to hit the range for a while. Haven't made it out there in a long time. Like to shoot my 9mm AR to test it out. Have quite a few guns I haven't had a chance to shoot yet. I want to lay them all out in the basement at the new house and do a full inventory. I will have a big bedroom that is going to be the gun room. One more month.

It's a done deal

Had the home inspection after work for the house I am buying. Making a list of repairs for them. I counter offered on the offer for my house, and, they accepted. Putting in writing tomorrow, and it should be a done deal. I get my house august first. Give up my current house august 9th. Gives me a week to get everything situated. I am anxious to get my dog back home. I boarded him for the week while showings were going on. Probably have a few odd boarding days to cover inspection and any repairs that need to be done. Hopefully all is well. Inspectors always seem to find something though. I start vacation next week. I will go back and talk to the builder about a firmer price on garage with accessories I want. Talk to banks and see which one will work out the best. I hope no snags develop. Kind of weird how smooth things are going. I am expecting something to pop up, but won't be disappointed if all goes well. I need a vacation bad. Hope to cook out a few days and just relax a bit. With the showings over, life can get a bit more back to normal.

First offer

Got my first offer on the house today. Third day of showing. Two more couples looking at it seriously. Hopefully be a done deal soon. First offer would work perfectly, if nothing fall through. They want possession eight days after I get my new house. The timing would be absolutely perfect. Have to see if their financing goes alright though. I try not to get my hopes up until all is done. Things can unravel in a heart beat. I will feel much better when all is done. I am on vacation next week and will line up movers and talk to bankers. My realtor gave me the names of a few banks that are suppose to be competitive. We will see. I am preapproved at fifth third, where my current home is through, but they have aggravated me on some of the things about the mortgage process. I won't need a bridge loan after all, but they were rather idiotic on the terms of a bridge loan.

I have enough equity in my home to more than cover the full twenty percent down payment on both houses with plenty left over. They said they couldn't approve a home equity loan to finance my new house. When the smoke cleared, they wanted me to put 5 % down out of my savings on the new house, and then transfer all equity to the new house once old one sells. Since the new loan would be less than 20 percent down, they would require a full years PMI insurance, even though I fully expected the bridge loan to be about a month.

Further idiocy, if I had a home equity loan open, I could expand that loan to get my 20 percent to put on new house. Since I don't have any bad debt, or home equity loan open, I can't open a home equity to purchase new house. How freaking idiotic is that. If I was irresponsible enough to get a home equity loan to go to Hawaii, I could expand that loan to buy a house. Since I have no debt, I can't. I do believe even though I don't need the bridge loan anymore, I am going to thank them by taking my business elsewhere. I am off next week and will be bank shopping.

I am so happy everything seems to be coming together. Can't wait to be sitting on my new patio BBQing and kicking back a bit. I am still researching riding lawn mowers to see which is the best deal. I have been warned against the John Deer riders as I guess some of them are knock offs. I have heard that from a few unsatisfied people. They say John Deere lets someone put their name on them and they sell at the big box stores. I am currently debating on the Husqvarna and the Troybilt. I have had nothing but good luck out of the troybilt products I have bought. Husavarna has a much better warranty. Don't need a huge one. Three more days until vacation. I can't wait.

Fingers crossed

Took a week of nonstop work, but the house is ready, and, I had my first open house on it today. Have two people interested. One of them is going to her bank tomorrow for a preapproval letter. She is worried the house won't be available when she gets back. My realtor says she had left and come back three times during the open house with different family members in tow. Sounds great. Realtor said there was another couple who are also interested, and, there were a couple showings after the open house was over. I am glad to be home and actually able to sit down and watch a bit of tv and relax a bit. I have been going nonstop all week, between work and moving stuff to storage, cleaning, fixing things. Not a fun week, but the end may be in sight. I get the new house august first, hopefully this one will be sold before then. The couple that is really interested in it, live in an apartment now, so no contingency, which would be fantastic.

First, and hopefully last, open house Sunday

Been getting called all week with people wanting to see the house. I am finally ready. Open house tomorrow afternoon with a couple appointments right after the open house. Houses in the neighborhood have been flipping really quick, usually within a couple days of going online. Last one that sold, sold for $1500 over list price as they had multiple buyers bidding against one another for it.  Of course, I did what everyone does. I fixed things that have needed fixing for years so it will sell quicker. Just got done fixing grout in kitchen. Looks like a new install. Really makes the house pop when you walk in. Dog is at the kennel for the week  to free house up for walkthroughs. Hopefully be a done deal really quick. I am ready to get in to the new house and get my new garage built. Just want life back to normal again. Spike will love the back yard. It is HUGE, and fenced. Plenty of romping room, and with all the mature trees, should be lots of squirrels and rabbits to annoy.

Weekend fun, not

One whole day off this week, and I spent it packing. Rented a small rental unit to store some of the clutter so the house looks nicer for showing. Today, disassemble treadmill and bowflex and take to rental unit, which is not close to home now, but really close to new house, so it works out. Then, tore my reloading table apart, packed up my Dillon press and all supplies, and took them to the unit. Came back and packed up some more boxes, loaded the truck so I can drop them off after work tomorrow. Have to have house ready by next weekend. Should be doable if I keep busy. I want to clear some of the garage as well. Lots of stuff out there. Break down the workbenches, knock down the mill for moving. Box up all the loose stuff. I can't wait for this to be over. Move into new house august first. If I sell this place fast enough, may see if I can schedule garage construction to start.

New home, and soon, a much bigger garage.

Finally found my new home. A little over half an acre. Nice neighborhood. Only a 1950s era one car garage, but, I have a quote for the soon to be three car garage that will be going up in the back yard. Six weeks of nightmare while I sell the current abode, but I move in august first. I can't wait. Don't have to paint or remodel, short of some electrical work. Being out of the 50s, it has a few rooms that lack ceiling lighting. I will be crawling through the attic putting in ceiling boxes and installing ceiling fans in the living room and bedrooms. Short of that, I shouldn't have to do much. Walk out basement finished in knotty pine, with a bar and full kitchen, half bath, bedroom and family room. Kitchen has wall oven, which I like. Has a nice breezeway between garage and house with a ceiling fan. I am counting the days :)

New respect for the traveling pros

I have a few friends that work on the road all the time, only home on weekends for the most part. I always respected that, as it is a trait I lack. I like being home in the evenings and on weekends. I hate hotels and can never really and truly sleep well in one. I had to travel for work this week. Spent the week in the Dayton area of Ohio training on the new machine. It was very interesting to say the least. We went over grinding threads and non-rounds, being any odd shape. Totally amazing what the machine is capable of. Got to see the many styles of machines Studer makes. Awesome to say the least.
As par usual, my company did manage to purchase an odd configuration on many levels. The boss, who doesn't machine or grind at all, took it upon himself to order the machine in the configuration we need using the information he thought he had. God forbid management involve the lowly worker in important decisions, like what they need or want in a machine.
Our machine uses an older and less often used software pack than the new machines do. Non round is not a really popularly used item, kind of a specialty niche. Our machine has an older and slower version installed, even though it is a brand new $600,000 machine. They wanted to save a few bucks. The more popular up to date software uses offline programming, so I got to learn how to do it through a computer instead of on the controller I use, because the school didn't have one, since it is not popular. So I did learn how to program, sort of. They are very similar, but it will take some playing with to get use to it on the machine. Also, my version doesn't include some of the features that allow you to import and modify DXF files, which I need to do, so I will have to figure out how to accomplish that. Had work send a couple DXF files for us to practice with. They sent some very poor prints that were done in a weird format, not the one my company uses, so we had to waste time redrawing the threads, which are not normal threads, on a cad system so we could actually import them. Wasted countless hours on stuff we didn't buy and trying to use prints that were useless. Very frustrating week. It is going to be fun playing with, but I would have liked it better if they would have paid for the trainer to come to our place and work with us on our machine with our software. It does look like it is going to be very easy to use once I get use to it though. I just wish management would take the input of it's workers into account. Never going to happen though.

I am very glad to be back home. The dog and I are relaxing a bit. I knocked out the lawn work right after I got home to get it out of the way. I can now relax for the weekend. I am going to start packing things I don't need. and stacking in the guest room. I am hoping a house I went through last week will come down on price. I want to be ready for the next house I find. That one may be it if I can get them to drop price. Has a full basement, an acre of land, two car attached garage and a pole barn. It is perfect. Has more bedrooms than I need, but that won't hurt anything. This weekend is holiday weekend and I intend to rest and enjoy a bit of down time.

 Hope to line up financing for house next week. My bank, which is one of the big ones, is about useless. All they could tell me about bridge loans was "most people don't like them". In other words, the kid I was talking to, their mortgage expert, didn't know enough about them and didn't want to find out. I had taken time to do what you had to do in the old days, printed out last few paystubs, brought in last years tax return, etc. He didn't even look at them or run a credit check. Told me best bet was to sell house and then I should be able to buy the other house. He didn't even check my accounts to see how great my credit is or the fact that I have my mortgage and all accounts there, as well as direct deposit of paychecks. That will be changing very soon, and I will be glad to tell them when I close as to why they lost a customer and multiple accounts.

 My subdivision is very popular and houses generally sell within a week or two of listing. I want the bridge loan so I can get the dog out of the old house, as well as a lot of the stuff in the house and garage to make the house look better and less cluttered. With the dog out of the house, they can put a key box on house and show anytime they want without the dog to worry about. I would also like the extra time to move gradually and put stuff away as I move and paint and ready new house as I go rather than trying to work around stuff. Hopefully this will be my last move.

MIni vacation

It is almost time for the machine gun shoot. Starts Friday. Tomorrow, get some work done around the house. Friday, watch mayhem and destruction at the shoot. Been a while. I got off work today and picked up a load of river rock and got it laid out around the house. One more trip should do it. Hopefully the rain blows past us tomorrow and I can get it done. Got rid of most of the moles. Smoke bombs choked them out pretty good, so far. No new tunnels. I am trying to get the grass fixed. Hope to get the house on market next month. I have found a few houses of interest.

Getting use to the new machine at work. I absolutely hate the safety interlocks as they do make setup unnecessarily hard. Haven't crashed it yet. It is a sweet machine. Get to train next week on grinding threads and non-rounds. It is going to be interesting grinding square stuff in an OD grinder. I have seen videos, get to see it first hand. Should be able to crash the machine really good with a 14 inch square block of steel spinning on the chuck :)

Mole patrol

Moles have moved in, and I am having fun evicting the vermin. Smoke bombs and spades are making some progress. Poor elderly gentleman that live behind me has the Scotts yard of the neighborhood, and they are tunneling through his yard as well. His cat is helping out. He gives the cat treats for every dead mole he brings him. Said cat likes to torment my dog. He sits under the bushes just outside the fence and it drives Spike nuts. I am taking a nap on the couch, generally happens after I eat whether I mean to or not, and the dog starts going insane. He is throwing himself against the screen door and frothing at the mouth. I jump up thinking intruder. I wish I had a camera handy at the time. The stupid cat was sitting a couple inches on the other side of the screen door, staring the dog  in the eyes. I went to open the door, the cat leaped on top of the fence and stared down at the door. Silly cat loves tormenting the dog. Smart little critter.

Gun auction was a bust

I went to the preview for the gun auction yesterday. The Garand sniper rifle was a hack job. Homemade, and you could tell. It still pulled $1700 out the door. The Rocola M1 carbine was in horrid shape. No finish left. Sights damaged and partly missing. Mismatched components. It went for $1000. Even some of the lower end plinkers I had a slight interest in went high. When I saw the shape the main guns I wanted were in, I just stayed home today. I was able to see the selling prices online. My buddy texted me that it was a madhouse. I did go to the gunshow. It was a bust as well. More cheap Chinese knife booths than gun booths. Nothing even remotely interesting there. I did manage to get in and get my haircut, so I did accomplish something today.

New machine

The new CNC grinder is awesome. I love how it grinds, except, being brand new, it has all the new OSHA safety devices functional. Thus making the machine a real pain. Having a brain, I tend not to place my appendages into harms way, so having access to the machine while running so I can do minor adjustments to the coolant lines is nice. Being able to test the machine motions out with the wheel off and seeing everything is nice as well. New machine, you have to have the doors locked before anything moves. Total pain. Have not crashed it yet, but that is because I am overly cautious. She is sure to have a misadventure somewhere in the near future.
I get to go to school to learn how to thread grind and do non-rounds. It is only a three day condensed course. I have seen videos on you-tube of threads and form grinding. It is really cool to watch. Not sure how fun it will be to actually grind and check the finished product. Everything we grind we have to hold a .0002 tolerance on. Not much room for error. Ridiculous tolerances seeing as how the molds make single use containers which are thrown out once product is consumed. But, you have to hold tolerances set by your customers. All parts are checked and documented through our CMM's. I still prefer working on the round containers as they are very simple to rebuild compared to the square tooling. Glad I am closer to the retirement age than just starting out. Making the molds odd shapes is making the job much harder than it needs to be.

I think winter is done, if it even started

I have seen two days where a few snow flakes were in the air. None survived the ground. Perfect winter. Perfect. No ice. No snow. Awesome. Almost made it through the season with no ailments, almost. They have been passing a bug back and forth at work all season long. I managed to get it last week, but am finally on the verge of feeling human again.
New machine at work is freaking awesome. Took a bit to get the menus down. It has a CAD feature built in so I can draw the components out, or import them. I can then turn them into 3D images. You can click on an object line and pick what you want to grind. Programming is a breeze. I love it. Best of all, it isn't twenty plus years old, so it doesn't alarm out and need attention all the time. It does require extra care as there are an infinite amount of ways to crash it, but the challenge is fun. New CEO isn't afraid to spend money. Hopefully this is just the beginning and we see more new equipment in the future. Keeps me updated as well should I decide I need to find employment elsewhere. Nice to be able to run the new controls. 
A couple more weeks until the gun auction. They have a Garrand sniper rifle setup on the block. An M1D complete. Also have a Rockola M1 carbine and a few other treasures. All at the beginning, so I don't have to sit through several hours of auction for the five items I want. Hopefully I won't come home empty handed. The other good thing about all the items up front is, I don't have to wait in a long line waiting for the firearm to get called in. Most people will wait until the end of the auction to check out. I hope to be home by ten in the morning, instead of afternoon.

Very rough school week

Had a condensed course on running the brand spanking new grinder last week. It is a brand new studer S33 CNC grinder with all the bells and whistles. She has an OD head and two ID heads on it. Costs about $600,000. And the silly people in management are letting me run it :)  It is a bit more complicated than the old G code machines we have currently. It is down right amazing what it can do. Eventually, I will be grinding threads and non rounds. Non rounds being anything not round. In the grocery aisles, margarine containers and such are all going square or rectangular shape. We make the molds that make those containers. We also rebuild those molds when they wear out. Those are examples of non rounds. It can also grind the threads that form the inside thread on the medicine bottles and caps we manufacture. It is going to get a lot more interesting than just round stuff.

It has a built in CAD/CAM set up as well. I can either draw the parts from prints, or, import them as dxf files and pick what I want to grind. It really is an incredible machine. A ton of menus and commands to learn. Hopefully get her set up and running on jobs tomorrow. It is fun trying to train people on the old grinders while learning the new one. And, trying to put together machines that got moved to make room for the new one. Very busy at work. I can't believe I actually got the weekend off with all the work going on. I am enjoying the 60 degree weather. GO Global Warming :) :) :)

Busy Busy Busy

Been back to work and very busy. They actually bought me a brand new CNC grinder with all the bells and whistles. Came in last week. We moved a whole lot of machinery around to make room for it. Suppose to start training this week. Should be interesting. I am use to older equipment. All G code driven. This one is suppose to grind threads, non rounds, ID and OD. Pretty much anything you can throw at it . Personnel is going to be interesting as well. Obama is out, Trump is in. Industry in the area is picking back up by leaps and bounds. A lot of the people we picked up last year through other companies cutting back, are now going back to their old better paying jobs. Going to be fun learning new and trying to train replacement kids on equipment at the same time. It is good to see the industries rebounding already. Obama did a lot of damage in eight years. Looks like overtime will stay in the foreseeable future. Every time I feel we are catching up personnel wise, we lose some more. Money is great, but I am getting to where time off sounds better.