Fixing the truck

This week was work on the truck week. I've been meaning to replace the rotors as they have endured 4 brake jobs in the 115K that's on the truck. It just makes sense to me for $50 just to replace them instead of trying to resurface. In the process of rotor replacement a total front wheel bearing grease re packing was accomplished.



Yeah, before you gasp with concern about laying under the truck just know that it's sitting on a jack stand with a hydraulic jack as a backup. In addition to that the emergency brake is on and the back wheels are chalked to keep anything from moving or slipping. Wouldn't do it any other way.




Of course there's always one bolt that makes life .... interesting. You can see the nasty little bugger with the rounded off head that became totally destroyed in the removal process in the following pictures. I had to buy a set of Bolt Out sockets from Sears.



All that's needed is to set the proper size socket over the ugly bolt and give it a couple whacks with a hammer to seat it. Then put the proper size regular socket over the Bolt Out socket and apply torque with a breaker bar. It's always great when a product does exactly what it says it will do. That bolt is a dealer item only and costs $10 to replace. Just a bit much for only one bolt, but a needed item to be able to fix the brakes and they know it.

Have a great day and don't forget to leave a comment

More

Today while reading one of the blogs I follow, the topic of New Year's resolutions was the entry of the day. We all know how New Year's resolutions go. We are gung ho for about a week or so then the enthusiasm wears off and the drudgery begins to invade and soon the resolutions are forgotten until next New Year's Day. This blog entry contends that a better thing would be to have a one word theme for the New Year. Things such as mindfulness, patience, me, dare, acceptance, trust, or shine were words that others had taken as their one work themes for the year. The author of the blog's word was BE. In the author's words, "It's all about me doing too much, and not taking time to just Be. Be available. Be Mum. Be still. Be calm. Be me." Mum is Queen's English for Mom. I think the author is Austrailian.

My word for this year's theme is MORE.

More spiritual contemplative prayer with reading and study.

More gardening. Those of you that have read my blogs know that I've expanded my garden and will be growing more vegetables, preserving more food, and giving away more stuff.

More completed projects. As you can see this area certainly needs a completed project. I've been thinking about it for a couple years but this year is time for some action. This alone would be a great accomplishment for the year.

More healthful cooking and eating. That would go along with the gardening. More exercising. More .... well you get the idea. It's just more.

Happy New Year to all. If you want, you can slip me a note with what you would like to change in your life for 2010.

Ode to tooth number 30

When hot, cold, chewing sensitivity became noticeable, I mentioned the fact that there might be an issue with tooth number 30 on the last teeth cleaning visit. Upon examination, my dentist declared that a root canal was needed to correct the issue. Yippee!! One of my favorite things. NOT.

The fateful hour arrived to begin the procedure. I readied my mind to what lay ahead. The dentist came with his big needle to numb the area to be worked on. The time came to drill out the roots of tooth number 30. With firmness set on his face the dentist began drilling through the crown to open up the roots. Parts of tooth were flying around inside my mouth and some even made into open air as they flew out my mouth and hit the napkin that lay pinned on my chest with the neck chain. The dentist drilled on and an oh so familiar burning tooth smell began wafting through my nostrils. Even though all this activity was going on there was no pain. Break through occurred about 1 minute after drilling began. The actual root canal procedure began with different sizes of instruments being used. After I think about five minutes, the dentist backed away and proclaimed that there was a shelf in the mesio-buccal canal that he couldn't get past and that he was referring me to specialist. So now I have a little gooey wad stuffed into the hole in the crown until January 15th which was the first opening the specialist had. Everything seems good with no pain expect when I forget to chew only on the left side. The soft little gooey wad doesn't hold up to well to chewing. It pushes down into the nerve under it and lets me know right away that I shouldn't have done that. Only three more visits to go.

I thank God for dentists and novocaine. I sure wouldn't be looking forward to a barber working on my teeth as it was in the wild west days.

If you want to hear about my root canal from a couple years ago, then click on the link below. It was quite an interesting visit for sure. Everything I do it seems turns out to be an adventure.

http://davidbentz24.blogspot.com/2006/02/root-cannels-are-alien-implants.html

Poor man's Living Patio

If you would like to see bigger pictures, left double click on the picture and it will enlarge.

Here was the beginning picture of the Poor Man's Living patio. As you can see it was quite the weed patch. Under all that mess was a beautiful spring flower garden of Crocus, Daffadill, Tulip, and Iris. By late summer it became quite the eyesore and definitely not appealing from the curb.


After a few days spent in the back breaking effort of removing all the 1965 stone wall and replacing it with nice retaining wall blocks, the improvement was wonderful. The removing of the entire flower garden weed patch came next and poor man's colored concrete squares imprinted to look like bricks was installed on top of a bed of sand. The finishing touch was the container flowers placed on the wall and the installation of an automatic watering system to make sure all containers got routinely watered.

Poor Man's Patio

Poor Man's Patio

Well folks, here's my journey through the poor man's patio. This is the ugly site of the Spring garden and my first attempt to cover up a no grass mud spot right by the front door. As you can see Spring is past and once again this area is a lovely weed patch that's a real eye catcher as one enters the front door. I finally decided that enough with this ugly mess and made plans to replace the whole front area with a poor man's patio.

Right about now I am wondering what in the world have I gotten myself into this time. Some of those rocks were pretty heavy for an old geezer. With the help of a back brace and more resting than working, I finally accomplished the task of tearing down the tired old rock wall that had been installed in 1965.

After a few days, the rocks are some what removed from the wall but still need to be transported else where. I sure wish that Star Trek teleporter had been invented about now. Undaunted by the aching bones and tired muscles, I pressed on into the third week. Yes that's right the third week. You just can't rush quality. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Finally the day arrived to begin building the wall from the concrete wall blocks. With joy in my heart I began putting the foundation blocks in place. The pains taking first blocks laid had to be level and straight. Well, except for the curve that came in the middle of the wall. It went slow and tedious, after a couple weeks the wall was completed. So now we're five weeks into the project.

After a couple more weeks the project is completed, and neighbors are giving complements about how good it turned out. Yeah, I kind a think it turned out pretty good too for a first time patio project. There's only one problem ............. all the neighbors now know that I have the knowledge and skills to install a patio. Oh well, I kind a think I'll be doing more of this stuff as time goes on with retirement. I always liked projects, but just didn't have the time. Now I got the time.

You might ask why do I call it a poor man's patio? Well, it's not real bricks. They are concrete 12 inch squares dyed and molded to look like bricks. The cost is a fraction of what real bricks would have cost. And so poor man's patio.

Still Looking for the perfect Retirement Home

Hey, I'm still in the hunting mode for a place to retire. This baby here has a wonderful water feature with a fishing porch right on the house. The surrounding landscape has that natural woodsie look. Now that's even better than the shack down by the river that I have told many to look for. I'd have to, of course, have a boat to go home at night. Getting a good internet connection may have some challenges, but all things can be overcome with the right technology. Right?


OK, now this one comes with a boat and a live cage for what ever comes out of the water. It looks like it wouldn't take much to keep it in good repair nor would it be difficult to find parts to repair problems that might pop up. I'd just have to look around and find something....anything..... and there you have it a good repair part.
So the quest for the perfect retirement home of my dreams continues as repairs on the present home move forward and excitment builds.

Old Dave's Retirement Thoughts and Home

Many have been wondering just when is Old Dave going to retire. I have given it much thought and first has to come major down sizing. I am in the process of sprucing up the old mansion to get top dollar on the market. House selling seems to be a little slow right now, so I'm not in a big hurry about the whole deal. Maybe a couple years or so depending on how fast I repair many things. You know the hole in the shower wall and the missing kitchen floor covering, and, of course, the sagging kitchen ceiling, the replacing of the tired and worn out sliding door in the dining room and then the complete refinishing of the basement.

The basement is quite a hoot. It appears the previous owner ordered up a keg and invited his friends over to finish the basement. There's some real interesting construction down there. The whole thing needs gutted and re done. That will be the biggest thing to do.

Outside there's the finishing of the house painting. It's been an ongoing project these last years. Yes I said years. I expect by the time I'm finished, it will need another coat. Twenty years of neglect has made for much scraping, sanding, priming, and painting that is if there is wood there. Caulking should be done around the windows and in some cases window replacement will need to be done as there isn't much casing to caulk around. Nothing but dead air. Nice.

I am looking for a much smaller place with less upkeep and very little yard maintenance. Most of my time would not be spent at home so primitive facilities would be quite OK. I really would like to hear the soothing trickle of a brook or a mellow rushing of a water fall.

I'm reminded of my Cousin's Great Uncle that they called Unc. I'm guessing it was short for Uncle. He lived in a log cabin with one room in the wonderful state of Minnesota. Trees are wonderful there. Tall pine trees with Birch sprinkled here and there. There's just something about walking on a carpet of pine needles and smelling the freshly squeezed aroma. Unc even had a door in the floor that led down to a cellar under the cabin where he stored his summer bounty from the garden. The inside of the cabin was well seasoned with the smell of smoke from the wood burner.

Unc had the most wonderful garden. Tall pole beans grew on six or seven foot poles lashed together in a threesome tripod. Every vegetable I could imagine was grown in this well cultivated and cared for garden plot. He lived a brisk five minute walk from White Fish lake that teemed with fish and other lake life. I have many awesome memories about Northern, Bass, and Sunfish caught from this lake. Unc had a way of smoking the fish in his smoker that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Anyway back to the retirement. Trees are a must. The more the better. I love trees. City living makes me deal with leaves, but country leaves just fall and turn into good stuff for the smaller foliage. Pets are out because I plan on traveling but wild life could be the pets of the future. In my opinion they are best pets. There's no care involved just viewing enjoyment. I never was one to have a hairy beast in the house. However, many compromises are made when a wife and kids are involved. Trails of hair and smell endlessly waft through the furniture. Training young pets was always a joy. I have had my share of pets including rabbits, dogs, cats, pigs (Guinea), fish, and turtles. I'm enjoying the empty pet syndrome.

Be on the look out for Old Dave's retirement home. I'm sending you a picture so you will know it when you see it. Oh yeah, it doesn't get any better than that. Well, unless it could be a motor home. Umm, that's a whole other story and thought.

So you be sure to be on the look out for Old Dave dream home and I'll catch up with you in the next e-mail.

David