What did YOU do today?

[scotts90ranger]

That jackalope held at that 50mph through the no passing zone that followed so I honked for another half mile just to annoy him (paying a lot of attention in case he pulled a dumb and try to brake check) and put on my brights (was sprinkling so lights were on) until there was oncoming traffic (don't need to annoy them, I'm not a jerk) then took the next road that on normal traffic only adds like 5 seconds so I don't normally take it but I did that without signaling just so he didn't try to follow me from in front... Then I was in a mood and exceeded some speed limits, once I got home I could see him driving his slow speed on the other road... ifn I was REALLY a jerk with energy I could have gotten in front of him when the roads met back up, crossed my mind but not enough left mentally today...

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Doesn't have to be about Rangers, eh?

OK, I was out at the back fence gathering up armloads of wood for the woodburning stove in the front room - it's still a bit chill in the Pacific Northwet. I'm quietly hatcheting up slivers of dry kindling. It's a zen moment for me, early in the day, a light drizzle falling outside the woodshed. Then the neighbour lets her two small terrier-like mutts out. They race towards the fence and start to bark and lunge at the wooden fence, just three feet away from my backside. I turn and thump the 4x4 fence post with a lump of wood and give an equally loud yell back at the fence, frighten 'em just a bit, get 'em to go back inside, leave me in peace. I will say that this is a near-daily occurrence since the young couple moved in next door about a year ago. I've spoken to the male - a decent sort, pleasant and seemingly genuine - and we've maintained a friendly relationship all along, with him apologising regularly, but to no avail. When he's off at work his wife doesn't care and lets the little nasty yippers run free. He rings me and is all up in my virtual face about being rude to his wife who is "only trying to raise two small children". I remind him that the issue is that his dogs make unnecessary and unwanted noise to all of the surrounding neighbours all the day long.

A half an hour later two of the local constabularies finest are knocking on my front door. The woman rang the cops on me! Ha! Something about her feeling intimidated, they say. I was only making the same noise they make at me every coupla days. I remained calm.

In five minutes we're done conversing, with a friendly warning from them to steer clear of them since she's "felt threatened". "No worries", I say, and off they go.

My back neighbour sees the commotion and rings to enquire. She's had it up to there too, since we can't walk out into our back yards without triggering a bark session from the unrestrained mutts. We both fire off a public nuisance complaint online with the city about their dogs. To our collective surprise we both get a response within several hours. The city animal control has mailed a Notice of Nuisance Complaint to the owners, and stated they'd telephoned the owners, with instructions to us to record any evidence of further complaint, to be used in court, if needed.

I don't need the drama, and don't wish to cause anyone else any either. I'm just going about my business. My dogs are well behaved and don't bark unless someone's in-coming without warning, then they stop once we acknowledge their warning. It's not hard to train a dog with a little bit of time and a few generous treats.

Thanks for letting me get it off my chest. Their dogs haven't made a sound all day. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

At a friends place where I work on my car and his truck. The new next door neighbor had a little dog that did the same thing, coming a couple hundred yards over to constantly bark at anyone here. Got real tired of it after a few weeks so grabbed my sling shot. Put a small rock right between its eyes and never saw it again. The neighbor came over later asking if I had seen anything that might cause the poor little dog to bleed. I shrugged my shoulders. I did think after the fact I could have taken out an eye, glad I didn't.

 

[Bgunner]

At a friends place where I work on my car and his truck. The new next door neighbor had a little dog that did the same thing, coming a couple hundred yards over to constantly bark at anyone here. Got real tired of it after a few weeks so grabbed my sling shot. Put a small rock right between its eyes and never saw it again. The neighbor came over later asking if I had seen anything that might cause the poor little dog to bleed. I shrugged my shoulders. I did think after the fact I could have taken out an eye, glad I didn't.

I personally prefer the practical approach to keeping animals out of the yard by having a dog/s. I do miss our old dog for this, in a way, as she didn't like any other animal of any kind in her domain. On a few occasions I had to clean up squirl and goffer that got shredded by her. The worst case was when she tore apart a skunk. Not only did we have a smelly dog to clean up, I also had to clean up about half our yard from chunks of very potent skunk parts.

Luckily none of the neighbors cats got in the yard because I would of had to laugh in there faces saying "Well you didn't keep an eye on your pet and here I found you this." while handing them a plastic bag of remains.

 

[RainjerBill]

I haven't heard a single yap from next door so far this morning. But I'm not convinced because they'll often go quiet for a few days, maybe a week, then when there's one car in the driveway (hers) while he's away at work, the snarling li'l canines are back at it. She lets them out and just doesn't care. The dog owners - renters - are a pariah with the rest of the folks directly around this part of an otherwise pretty sleepy neighbourhood.

The folks who live directly behind us look after a very large but playful dog, of at least 110lbs, a coupla times a week. The two little runts will get right up to it and cause a barking panic attack, just to aggravate it, stir it up a bit. But they do it from behind the safety of a wooden fence. I'm sure the large dog, who otherwise couldn't be bothered, could do a one snap snack of each of the little sh*ts.

One bit of good news out of this...the dog officer who spoke to them yesterday learnt that they're moving, a reassignment as he's stationed at our nearby base, and wrote to me that they'll be gone within six months. I'll try not to watch the calendar.

 

[SenorNoob]

Actually a couple days ago now, but, I rearranged my computer/game room to keep from hitting my knees on the desk. I'm liking it so far.

I keep the security cameras on the left, the center and right are on the computer most of the time, and the right has input 2 on the Xbox. It makes watching Stargate and reading TRS on commercial breaks pretty nice.

 

[Rick W]

Sooooo, who’s the cable tv cable expert?

Remembering I do commercial real estate for a living, a few years ago in my injury/illness delirium, I represented an owner who leased a space to a Comcast installation contractor, a big franchise guy. Long story short, I picked up two full-size pickup truck fancy A,R.E. camper tops for $150. They are the heavy duty ones that sell for $3-$4000 new. I didn’t want them, but the price dropped $1000 each when they had to be out on the last day.

One was filthy, no keys, but otherwise in good shape. I bathed it in bleach and washed it, put three locks in it (a two hour effort max) and sold it for $500 in a week.

The second one physically was in good shape, but it’s missing the back door, and not only did it not have any keys, the toolbox side would not open. The T-handle would just spin and spin without activating the mechanism. That one has been sitting out back for two or three years now.

Well, with getting the tree guys out here and other things I’m trying to do to clean this place up now that my health is coming back, I decided to clean this thing up and make a door for the back and sell it. I started by drilling out the lock on the broken side and figuring out how to get that side open. Then it was like a mini Christmas.

That side was full of hardware. It had about 30 brand new ground clamps for pipes, and the kind of clamps you use join two battery-cables size cables together, all kinds of hooks and hangers to string the cables in the air, all kinds of coax cable, fittings and tie downs, etc., etc. Perfect for stocking up the shed of miracles.

There were two things that I’ve never seen before. Who is the expert? What are these things:

There’s a bag of about 30 or 40 of these. They look like they’re stainless steel, the three screws have the cup washers with a slot and an insulator, which makes no sense to me, because the screw obviously grounds everything together. They are rolled over on one side, which looks to be about the diameter of a coax cable that feeds the house or the TV. I can’t find them online to figure out what they are.

Then there was this thing:

My research online tells me it’s an AC to DC adapter converter, but I’m wondering what it’s used for. It plugs into the wall, 110 V, but then it has a coax cable outlet only. Why on earth would you convert a AC to DC and then plug it into the coax that feeds your TV?

Inquiring minds want to know…

 

[SenorNoob]

It doesn't connect to the tv line directly. It for a distribution amplifier. It simply uses that style connector because the cable and connectors are already on the truck.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/drop-amplifiers

 

[racsan]

changed oil in the V6 escape today, then got the trailer wiring harness put in my 4cyl escape, those things sure got expensive & complicated.
Speaking of expensive, I remember when plain steel white spoke rims were $30 a piece new, was looking in a summit catolog that came earlier in the week & those suckers are $100 per rim now. good greif!

 

[Rick W]

It doesn't connect to the tv line directly. It for a distribution amplifier. It simply uses that style connector because the cable and connectors are already on the truck.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/drop-amplifiers

AHAAA!!! That makes sense, I looked around online, but I couldn’t find any info like that.

So I’m guessing it’s not worth $100,000 or something like that?

I’m still stumped on those clamp looking things. When I looked closer, the two outside bolts have a nut between the head of the bolt and the clamp, in the center one does not.

 

[pjtoledo]

clamps, possibly to hang a tap box on an outside overhead cable???
just a guess.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Worked another 10 hours which wasn't enough so I need to go in for a few hours tomorrow...

Finally felt human, cold subsided... so even though it'd been a long week made a stiff drink, grabbed a cigar, fueled up the mower then drove in circles for an hour or so... got the main back portion done, grown almost 6" in 2 weeks...

Got the OHV permit for the '90 in the mail today and ordered a rear axle speed sensor for the '97 F350 so the speedo will hopefully work again and some rear axles for my Traxxas Rustler to hopefully not break them with the paddles I got for it . Loaded 4 empty gas cans in the '97 to fill up tomorrow to get inventory for my trip in a couple weeks and to stock up before the price goes up any more, already at like $4.06 at the cheap station on my commute... should get some diesel too...

 

[Rick W]

clamps, possibly to hang a tap box on an outside overhead cable???
just a guess.

I was thinking it was some kind of suspension bracket to hang over a cable too. But the screws don’t line up where you would think they have to be to make sure it doesn’t pop off the cable. Still a mystery.

 

[broncc]

Secret project is insured, inspected, and on the road!
1979 Mercury Capri


The paint is rough but its extremely clean.

Had to celebrate the triumph of Detroit with a burger.

Snapchat-1435674248 - Embed

Watch this embedded Streamable video.

streamable.com

It really needs mufflers.

 

[Bill]

I was going to install new door speakers in the Ranger, but a bit of convergence parked over my part of town which resulted in rain and temperatures in the upper 40s while 10 miles to the east and west they only got a few showers and it was in the upper 50s. So, I decided to go do some shopping and got stuck in line behind one of those women who is obsessed with how many Target Circle loyalty points, or whatever it is, that she has, or thinks she should have. Yelling started, a manager was called, manager tells woman she had to use points by a certain date or they expire, woman went crazy, cops were called because she didn't have the cognitive capacity to figure out loyalty points are a scam before she signed up.

Drove back home, it was still raining. The rain slowly decreased after sunset.

 

[pjtoledo]

life rule #368, never get behind little 'ol ladies in a checkout line, or at a bank line, or in traffic, or at a buffet.......