I really need to get out more... The aisle at Lowes where they have bolts and nuts is one of my favorite places to be, after the Waffle House. I love the bins and the drawers. And those cute testers, where you screw your bolts into their holes, or your nuts onto their protrusions, to find out the size. The little plastic bags, where you put your final choices, remind me of the produce section at the grocery store. The trip to Lowes late Wednesday night was spur of the moment. Just sneak in and out. No one will notice the holes in the sweatpants. I won't even have to put on earrings. How long could it take to pick up 4 bolts and 4 nuts for the screen door?. As it turned out, almost an hour. When I got there things were in disarray. Many of the bins and drawers were empty, and the ones that weren't, had all different sizes mixed together. This would have been upsetting to someone with OCD, but to me it was just like home. My bolt wouldn't screw into any hole on the tester. The closest was 3/8", but I could only find one bolt. Just as I gave up, and found one 5/16" that should work as well, an employee came by and asked if I needed help. I told him my story. He was not the usual kid that works in these stores. I would guess in his 30's. If you had to stereotype, he would be the class nerd. Very serious, with spectacles. (Does anyone remember Mr. Peepers?) .. But he knew his nuts and bolts. The first thing he did was try my bolt in the tester and also came up with 3/8". He looked everywhere I did, and came up with only one more 3/8" bolt. I told him to forget 3/8 and could he find 3 to match the 5/16 I had found. ["Where did you find that one?" "I forgot."] . He managed to come up with 3 more. It was impressive. Then on to the nuts. He looked through everything ceiling to floor and found only five 5/16 nuts—3 regular and 2 with plastic inserts. I chose 3 regulars and one plastic. He put all 5 in a little plastic bag, labeled it, and told me... "I'm going to give you the extra plastic one for free, because what good is it to have only one nut in stock." Was he serious? I said, "You never know when someone will need only one nut." When he handed me the bag he said, "That was stressful, wasn't it?" I broke out laughing. If he was pulling my leg he got the appropriate reaction. If he was serious, he will probably avoid the hardware section from now on. I wouldn't have met him if I'd waited until morning to go to Lowes. Fast forward to next morning... I had to drill the 4 holes bigger to accommodate the narrower bolts. Then they were perfect. The door is sliding smoothly again. Unfortunately this will happen again in a couple of years, because the nut that sets the height does not stay put. Had I thought about it I would have gotten one of those nuts with the plastic to fit that (bigger) bolt. .There are people who need only one nut.
(10/23/22) Sunday New neighborhood dog barking off and on this morning. Finally went out to see what was going on. Fund raiser half marathon (13 mi). Neighbors were on the street cheering them on. The route map said this was mile 10. I'm impressed. There were a handful of seniors in the mix too. First half taken at 8:50. The sound of a trombone () drew me out again at 9:30. Needs more cowbell
This Ranger is nagging me for an oil change. It started at about 3500 miles as a polite reminder. It now has 3900 and the wording on the screen has become more of a command. If a bell starts ringing next, I'm trading it in. The manual says the interval for oil change is 7500-10,000 under normal use with synthetic oil (which it has). A 3000 miles interval applies only under severe use, like towing and mountainous off-road conditions. It has an "Intelligent Oil-Life Monitor" which is supposed to take all those things into account. So far I can't even find an exception in the manual, like "...or one year, whichever comes first" .or, "...after one year if it's new, no matter the mileage." The 3500 miles was at approximately the one year old mark in August.
(10/28/22) Friday Spent another hour more carefully looking for a sassafras tree. No luck. There is one small bright red maple near the lake. It never grows. There is no other maple that red anywhere else on the property. "In acidic soil, red maple leaves turn brilliant red, in contrast to yellow shades when grown in alkaline soil." (Univ Tennessee AgForest Research) I doubt you could find any poorer soil on Mars than where that little tree is living. Only moss grows around it, and the moss looks sick. New neighbors on the north side. I like cattle because they are quiet. Guess which one of these tough guys was doing all the barking. If we still had goats I'd be upset.
Cattle are quiet except at roundup time hahaha! I didn't realize you had a youtube channel. Very nice videos.
Well, that is cow dairy farming and not my expertise hahaha! I do know about dairy goats and their vocal abilities.
Well, I checked out cattle moo videos on YouTube all day yesterday. Didn't find a single moo that I didn't like. For one thing the cattle do seem to be smart enough to know when to quit. If one were in distress it would likely keep mooing, but then it would be for a good reason. My favorite
They can dance like goats. (I think there will be some sore muscles in the morning.) And they can play fetch
The bone density scan results came in last week. T-scores compare your bone density with young healthy adult women. Anything above -1.0 is good. Anything below -2.5 is bad. T-scores: Spine: -0.7 Hip -2.5 Forearm -2.3 Conclusion: "high risk of fracture" On second thought I believe it was more like 15 years ago when I broke my wrist, rather than 10. My father was still alive and the goat I was chasing was fully mature (>= 3yrs). That pretty much narrows it down to 2007. I believe the results are the same now as then, but I could be wrong. If so, I would think it's at least good news that nothing has changed in 15 years.