What did you do today?

Want to abuse a mower? Many years ago, my teenage son was using it. Thought great, he’s mowing. When you use it as an ATV bad thing can happen. “Dad, uh, it’s stuck on a tree”.
 
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Racerx said:
He got too close to the edge of his pond and mowed the rocks on his way into it. Submerged the deck. He never did get me new blades..
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One of the most respected figures in US military Special Operations, Eldon Bargewell, was killed in a riding mower accident. He rolled it into a ditch, was pinned underneath and drowned.
 
farmrjohn said:
Nah, try driving across Texas
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"The sun did rise, the sun did set, and we ain't outta Texas yet." Still, I'd rather take a drive across Texas (where I can stop for good brisket in plenty of places) or Wyoming (which at least has scenery) compared to Ohio. Yeah, you can get across Ohio "faster" but that four hours will be the longest three days of your life. :vomit:

Jim K said:
The new comparable model to mine runs about $12,000. It's a commercial level machine, which is surely why it has held up so well to my abuse. In 12ish years and about 1200 hours it's needed a throttle cable and a deck belt. Makes a $2300 engine a pretty easy decision.
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Ugh... I really need a new machine. I'm currently running 2/3 of a mower deck because I can't get the right parts to fix it. But looking at new ones? Big ugh. Not only need the machine but all new attachments and whether I do the same size with the options I want or a half a step up that includes them, once all the stuff is included they're north of $40K... And I can theoretically pay other people to do all the work for me for a long time with that kind of money, but I hate paying other people to do things that I can do. #stubborn
 
Noted. Might be helping ferry an Arrow out of Florida this weekend, and I had marked MVN as a decent fuel stop in my preliminary route planning.
 
Got an emergency call to fix a blocking sled for the local NFL team. If they win the super bowl it will all be because of me.

I then drew the short straw and had to fly the plane to 10c to get a surefly installed. The next plane will have ac. Got my first ride in the new zo6. For my troubles I took the old z06 to get a milkshake to cool off. I insisted.
 
well, after 6.5 years, the otterbox iphone case finally wore out. Yes, I still have the iphone I bought in Dec 2019. not planning to replace it any time soon.
 
I fabricobbled a new down pipe for my semi. Surprise! ...the local truck shop didn't have one for a 1984 AM General M915A1. They did have a turbo flange, a 5" elbow, and some straight pipe. I then fixed the A/C, and changed a couple tires.

I look like a coal miner and could wring a gallon of sweat out of my undies. Some days I wish I had put a little more effort into calculus and become an engineer.
 
Jim K said:
I fabricobbled a new down pipe for my semi. Surprise! ...the local truck shop didn't have one for a 1984 AM General M915A1. They did have a turbo flange, a 5" elbow, and some straight pipe. I then fixed the A/C, and changed a couple tires.

I look like a coal miner and could wring a gallon of sweat out of my undies. Some days I wish I had put a little more effort into calculus and become an engineer.
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Fabricobbled is my word!

I was really stupid and graduated high school early so could stop going to school. That fact is more an indictment of the public school system than it is a feather in my cap.

I still end up sending engineers drawings on a semi weekly basis when they cant figure out how to feasibly reinforce/repair something.
 
Jim K said:
Some days I wish I had put a little more effort into calculus and become an engineer
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Racerx said:
I was really stupid and graduated high school early so could stop going to school. That fact is more an indictment of the public school system than it is a feather in my cap
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You guys can still go back to school, y’know. Chicks dig engineers, and there’s nothing quite like leaving the office at the end of the day and walking into a throng of screaming middle-age engineering groupies, all wanting you to adopt their babies.

Put in just a few years at Ga Tech and the exciting life of an engineer can be yours, too!
 
Also, FWIW, engineers who have actually worked on "stuff" in real life are far better engineers than those who have merely gone to school for 4-5 years and gotten a piece of paper that says they're an engineer.

That person is the person who can not only intuitively come up with a really good solution from the start, they can then back it up with strength or whatever calculations and make it into a good, practical product. A "book smart only" engineer will come up with something that works on paper and sucks in the real world, at least until they get enough experience.

I bet @Jim K and @Racerx would both make excellent engineers.
 
Racerx said:
I've worked in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Cincinnati. Local is subjective.

Used to do a ton of work at Arlington Park. I'm skeptical.
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As a Cheesehead, of course I have to give you Bear types a hard time... But TBH, I think it absolutely stinks that the NFL (and most other sports leagues) now prevent anything other than individuals or small groups of ultra-rich people from owning a team. I'm quite sure the Bears have enough fans with a couple hundred bucks lying around that the fans could purchase the team and be community-owned like the Packers are, and I'm sure it'd make them more competitive and keep them from being the Hammond Bears. <insert "Ham and Bears" joke here>
 
How about the “Gary Rusties”?

Since I’ve worked and lived in Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis, Kansas, Louisville, and now Atlanta, I’ve become “Home Team Agnostic”.
 
After two months of my poor baby sitting in the hangar stripped naked, got another 2 hours of annual done. Total to date 5 hours.
Saturday we'll be finishing up with a run up, then signoff.

The two months was no fault of the plane's. Had a hard time finding an A&P-IA willing to do an owner-assisted. First guy agreed to do it and we made an appointment. I was there, ready and willing. He was not. He stood me up. Later he said he forgot and promised to get back to me. Strung me along for 2 weeks then said he'd decided he was too busy.

Another search.

Found a guy who was willing, even enthusiastic--a full-time, professional A&P-IA. Except he was out of town working for a week. We made an appointment. He showed up and we did 3 hours. Next day he left town for 2 weeks on another job. He returned and we made an appointment (yesterday) and we did another 2 hours. I spent a couple hours after putting some things back together. Yesterday's pause was mostly on me. I had all 8 plugs out and was servicing them.

Another hour or two on Saturday. She'll be back together and airworthy just in time for the autumn storms.

BTW, I like this guy. Hoping to make it a yearly habit.
 
Bob Noel said:
Had the entree from MRE menu #7 (Beef strips in savory tomato sauce).

...

I'll try the pudding later

Need to be careful of the calories.
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Tried the pudding. The chocolate pudding was actually pretty good. Not the best, really could use whipped cream, but definitely good enough to have another one at some point in the future. I did note that they add protein to it, so it's not your standard pudding.

A friend that had been deployed for a while until 2010 said that the MREs didn't have pudding back in his time.
 
Resurrected my wife’s greenhouse. Last winter’s windstorms destroyed it. I packed up the pieces and moved them to the new house. With a bit of engineering, I reused the arches and improved the structure. The new plastic is full height so no seams at mid height. She’s happy. IMG_0780.jpegIMG_0070.jpeg
 
Taxi tested the Parrakeet today on its new landing gear. Nothing broke, and it tracked straight. Now to take it all back apart again for painting.
flyingcheesehead said:
engineers who have actually worked on "stuff" in real life are far better engineers than those who have merely gone to school for 4-5 years and gotten a piece of paper that says they're an engineer.
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I've worked with both. I like to think I'm in the first group, I've always said I learned more about real world design building R/C planes and cars in the basement during high school then I did in engineering school.
 
Racerx said:
One of mine came in perpendicular. They had to break it into a few pieces to get it out.
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My uppers popped out in 5 minutes each. Pretty much a non-event, compared to some of the horrible stuff I've had done to me by dentists over the years.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Yeah, two of mine were like that…”do you want to do this with a local?” :rofl:
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Did one with a local at the dentist. After numbing me he asked "is your tongue still tingly?" When I said yeah... his reply was "really? well.. lets shoot you up a little more" Followed by "Lets get that thing out"

After several minutes prying he finally dropped it in the tray and said "I dont think we numbed you all the way"

I went to an oral surgeon for the next three which included the one that needed to be chiseled out.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I was born with only three. That says a lot. :)
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Same here, and all the rest of my wisdom has now been removed (as proven by my posts).

One of my uppers was badly impacted, so the dentist didn't want to do it and he sent me to an oral surgeon. The surgeon shot me up with a local, and the bottom two came out easily. The impacted upper he had to break into pieces to get out. When it was out, he shot a little extra novacaine in, handed me a script and a couple of pills, then told me to drive straight home then take the pills before the shot wore off. He told me not to drive after taking the pills (don't recall what they were), but to send my wife out to get the Rx filled. I don't recall much after taking the pills, so they must have been pretty good.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I was born with only three. That says a lot. :)
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I weirdly had six. Got them all out at once. That sucked. Now all my kids have extra teeth. great.

As for what I did today.... Fixed the Amish Air Conditioning in my other truck:

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Fixed the real air conditioning too. The little fans are still super necessary though as they are they only way to defog the windows on a rainy day.
 
When I had my wisdom teeth taken out it was by an oral surgeon. A prior multi fracture of the mandible had left me with a lot of metal plates and pins in that area of my jaw and skull and some of them were going to complicate it . He gave me a prescription to take before and after. The pharmacist told me to “leave your wallet at home have somebody you really trust lined up to drive and take care of you and give you your pills for a few days after you take the first one”. I have zero memory of it or the next two days.
 
Racerx said:
Did one with a local at the dentist. After numbing me he asked "is your tongue still tingly?" When I said yeah... his reply was "really? well.. lets shoot you up a little more" Followed by "Lets get that thing out"

After several minutes prying he finally dropped it in the tray and said "I dont think we numbed you all the way"
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My wife burns through Novocain fast for some reason. She’s finally found a dentist who believes her when she says she’s feeling pain from what he’s doing.
 
Solved the mystery of our airfield suddenly closing last month. About 45 days after the deadline to stop operations, this went up right off the end of the runway. Clearly the local power company offered the property owner more than he was making from the airfield operators lease.

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Kinda bummed it didn’t let me put in my initials…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Changed 5 filters and 2 circuit breakers on my welder.
 
MauleSkinner said:
My wife burns through Novocain fast for some reason. She’s finally found a dentist who believes her when she says she’s feeling pain from what he’s doing.
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I have that. When I go do the dentist I tell them "I don't need any more novacaine than anyone else, but I metabolize it way faster than most people", and they'll then ask me to raise my arm or something if it starts to wear off. That's worked well. Wish I would've figured that out before one particular root canal years ago, but I suppose that was a character building experience.
 
Flew Lamberts Cafe in Sikeston MO with my sister for lunch.

Had the left brake fail. Turned out the line had worked lose after some mx a few weeks ago. bonus my sister is also an A&P/ IA, so we got it fixed quickly. But it remained me I really need to get a few more tools to carry in the plane.
 
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