What did YOU do today?

[Snoranger]

That’s not the plan, but it’s always an option. I need to have the island done for Thanksgiving… I’m sick of the plywood countertop. (But it does make a good work bench.)


View attachment 120248

Almost done…
I finished building the butcher block countertop. I got it in the house and installed it. (It wasn’t easy, it weighs about 300 lbs.) I put the first coat of oil on it. The only thing left to do is cut and install the floor trim.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Well, I intended on working on getting my 88 moved, but dad decided it’s the last nicer day and he wanted to get leaves cleaned up so I ended up moving a bunch of stuff out of his way and mowing what I can of my property…

In order to run my lawn tractor and also because I have some ideas for my farm tractor I needed gas. My gas cans are currently empty because I’ve been busy and money has been tight, so I figured I’d run out to the local station and get a can of ethanol free which isn’t cheap ($4.29/gal currently), but it’s what I try to run in the tractors as much as I can and going into winter is a good idea. Turns out, I now know why we had no power last evening now. The one big cherry tree that has been leaning since it started growing on my property apparently decided to lean all the way over onto the wires. It’s now a few big chunks on my property. I’ll have to clean that up now. Never mind a couple years ago a tree company came through cleaning around the power lines. I asked them to cut out three leaners that were aimed towards the lines. They cut two and refused to do the third because “that tree will be fine.” Yup… fine long enough for them to get done, paid, and gone.

Anyway, so my property got mowed as much as I could around the downed tree and that’s probably as good as it’s going to get mowed until sometime in the spring because we’re supposed to get rain then rain/snow and colder temps. My yard is already soggy. I had thought about firing up the farm tractor to drag some of the tree down back before the ground gets any softer but apparently the battery is dead again. I was also going to use the farm tractor to move the little trailer down the driveway but that was another thing that went out the window when it didn’t start.

In other news, one of the two CMOS/BIOS batteries I need to fix my laptops showed up today. I’ll probably deal with getting one laptop fixed tomorrow. The easy one that just plugs in through a hatch in the case. The other one is soldered to the motherboard and you split the case to get to it…

 

[racsan]

Got my new seal & cv input bushing today for the escape, now just waiting on tools I ordered to do the job, who knows if I will ever use these specialty tools again but I just might. The two tool kits were twice as much $ as the parts!
Youd think they would use a ball bearing instead of a plain bushing, I could never find dimensions anywhere to know what puller/installer tooling to get, had to wait & measure it myself.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Fought with a tractor for an hour getting it ready to shred cornstalks.

Made it four rounds and blew a u-joint on the shredder.

 

[Rick W]

I finally got the 88 blue town car on the road. It’s always nice to have everything running, but with all this medical stuff I’m having to go through, I needed a vehicle that would fit in the parking decks here in the big city.

I laughed when I went because it swings around pretty easily in the older parking decks, but when I went into a couple of the new parking decks, I had to be real careful because the spaces are 2/3 is deep, 2/3 as wide, and the drive aisle is half as wide. It’s like trying to park an aircraft carrier in a pond dock.

I didn’t realize until I did this all week that I really haven’t driven any of the Lincoln’s this year. It was a new learning curve. That town car is almost 4 feet longer than my 87 Ranger. And the seat in the town car from the nose is about where the toolbox is in the bed. And then you have another 2/3 of it sticking out behind you. But I was a sporty important dude, profiling the whole way!

I wish it was as easy to fix my neck and hand and hip. I got a nerve continuity test on my arms. Basically, they use a set of micro jumper cables, and tape them to certain spots on your arm, and then they feed you a jolt to see if you can feel it, and or, if certain muscles work. Then they move inch by inch up your arm from your hand. Turns out the big problem in my hand is not coming from my neck, but rather from some busted wire somewhere in my forearm. So now I have to get another cat and MRI of my forearm. And probably another surgery.

The really interesting part, once they narrow down the area, the doc took some super thin needles, like acupuncture needles, but they were actually electrodes. They put a ground out by the tip of your finger, and push that needle literally into the nerve, and then they listen to the nerve impulses as you bend your hand this way and that way, tense it up and let it relax. Sounds like static on the radio. If it’s a smooth, consistent static that ramps up and ramps down as you move, it’s OK. When he got to the nerves in the wrist that feed my pinky and my ring finger, it’s sounded more like a Gene Krupa riff. Or, no sound. Not good news.

And they confirmed my neck is messed up, so we still have to mess with that, and we haven’t even gotten to the hip yet.

But it was a blast to ride around in the town car!

Happy turkey & all His blessings everybody!

 

[pjtoledo]

hang in there. even if some parts don't work it's highly unlikely they will fall off. ( speaking from experience )
trying to deal with a few pains myself.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I finally got the 88 blue town car on the road. It’s always nice to have everything running, but with all this medical stuff I’m having to go through, I needed a vehicle that would fit in the parking decks here in the big city.

I laughed when I went because it swings around pretty easily in the older parking decks, but when I went into a couple of the new parking decks, I had to be real careful because the spaces are 2/3 is deep, 2/3 as wide, and the drive aisle is half as wide. It’s like trying to park an aircraft carrier in a pond dock.

I didn’t realize until I did this all week that I really haven’t driven any of the Lincoln’s this year. It was a new learning curve. That town car is almost 4 feet longer than my 87 Ranger. And the seat in the town car from the nose is about where the toolbox is in the bed. And then you have another 2/3 of it sticking out behind you. But I was a sporty important dude, profiling the whole way!

I wish it was as easy to fix my neck and hand and hip. I got a nerve continuity test on my arms. Basically, they use a set of micro jumper cables, and tape them to certain spots on your arm, and then they feed you a jolt to see if you can feel it, and or, if certain muscles work. Then they move inch by inch up your arm from your hand. Turns out the big problem in my hand is not coming from my neck, but rather from some busted wire somewhere in my forearm. So now I have to get another cat and MRI of my forearm. And probably another surgery.

The really interesting part, once they narrow down the area, the doc took some super thin needles, like acupuncture needles, but they were actually electrodes. They put a ground out by the tip of your finger, and push that needle literally into the nerve, and then they listen to the nerve impulses as you bend your hand this way and that way, tense it up and let it relax. Sounds like static on the radio. If it’s a smooth, consistent static that ramps up and ramps down as you move, it’s OK. When he got to the nerves in the wrist that feed my pinky and my ring finger, it’s sounded more like a Gene Krupa riff. Or, no sound. Not good news.

And they confirmed my neck is messed up, so we still have to mess with that, and we haven’t even gotten to the hip yet.

But it was a blast to ride around in the town car!

Happy turkey & all His blessings everybody!

Did they freeze before pushing into the nerve?

 

[Rick W]

Did they freeze before pushing into the nerve?

No, the whole purpose/intent was to pick up the electrical pulse/signal in the nerve “live.” Freezing it would affect the performance.

I will say, that these needles were closer to a hair on your head than any needle you’ve ever seen. It was actually quite fascinating.

 

[Rick W]

No, the whole purpose/intent was to pick up the electrical pulse/signal in the nerve “live.” Freezing it would affect the performance.

I will say, that these needles were closer to a hair on your head than any needle you’ve ever seen. It was actually quite fascinating.

Edit/afterthought: you could definitely feel when that tiny needle hit the nerve. I don’t know if it actually went into the nerve itself, or it was just very close by. But it wasn’t a pain sensation, it was more of a dull ache, but instantaneous. And then when I had to move my fingers and hand, that ache would rise dramatically.

 

[scotts90ranger]

My brother had some free doors sitting around that had handles and they're all Schlage (and the heavier duty industrial type) and one even had a key which means it's easy to rekey! My shop is the only keyed door that uses a Kwikset key on the property so I've had a separate key... that'll change tomorrow as I just rekeyed that knob for the house/garage key. I had a packet of pins which worked for all but one that was like .010" too short so being brass I just squished it in my vise on the key end until it was long enough (going diagonal so it still fit in the bore)

The wife cleaned off the kitchen counters over the last couple days so I can work on swapping the counters and putting in a new to me sink this weekend... So far I've looked into what it'll take to get it off and it looks like it's 3/4" plywood built in place then covered with Formica so likely nailed and glued...

 

[scotts90ranger]

So far have pulled the Formica backsplash off and all the trim that was over that and around the dang countertop... living in a 110 year old house makes things interesting... Only cut myself once on broken Formica... There is a slight level issue apparently in the 12' span it's around 1/4" or so off if I'm eyeballing correctly . I'm calling it a night but I think I just need to grab a scrap of 2x4 and a deadblow and go to town on the front edge to see if I can get it to lift...

 

[Jazzer]

^ Those type of counters are usually screwed in from below in the front and back corners of the cabinets.

 

[Curious Hound]

^ Those type of counters are usually screwed in from below in the front and back corners of the cabinets.

On a 110 year old house, It's may not be. Depends on who built it. Also depends on who did the Formica job. Because I don't think that's original. It could have been cut a glued directly on top of the original countertop.

 

[Jazzer]

You’re right, but the formica won’t be an original installation.

Need a flashlight to get under and see how they did it.

 

[racsan]

took the ranger trailer to town & brought home a tree. Got it in the house but thats as much that’s going to happen to it today.