Weekend!
Holy cow, is tomorrow Friday already?
Indeed it is.
Summer is officially winding down. When I was a kid, we would not have been going back to school for another week, maybe two, but my facebook is full of pictures of kids with their “FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!” pictures.
Don’t get me wrong: we’re still talking about how hot it is and we’re nowhere *NEAR* talking about getting the hoodies out of the back of the closet.
We are, however, a lot nearer to talking about there being snow on the peak again. Once that happens? We can see if Summerslam happened yet. If Summerslam has already happened, then… then we get to say “Summer is officially over.”
Summerslam hasn’t happened yet, though. Next weekend.
*THIS* weekend is going to be one of those full weekends. The pet stores. The grocery store. A trip to Costco. Oh, and if you’re driving past Whole Foods, pick up some of those apples. *PLUS* gaming on Saturday night.
And soon Maribou and I will have to get used to new schedules again. Currently, our schedules overlap and we get off work at more or less the same time. Soon, she’ll go back to living without an alarm clock and I’ll go back to having 2-3 hours by myself every evening before I go and pick her up from work.
And that will be weird.
So this weekend is one of the last of the old normal ones before we shift into the new normal. Kinda looking forward to that.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is Tristan and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion by Gautier Map from the Messire Lancelot du Lac. He did most of his stuff in the 12th and 13th century so I figure it’s in the public domain.)
The boy doesn’t go back until Sept 22. Ah, the quarter system.
In other news, the wife and I have made plans to utter change our lives! More about that latter.
Beers at the super good German restaurant in Berkeley with my Austrian friend. We will be enjoying the Weekend Afternoon menu, thank you.Report
We will probably continue to throw out Mother in laws furniture and get the house in condition for her to move back in. We were lucky for several reasons and it does look as though it will take as long as we first thought. There is still a lot of stuff to do. I am on furniture repair detail and hope that I can fix most of the old stuff. I really want to get the roll top desk her husband made back to the beautiful work of art it was last week.
We are getting the estimate for the AC repair and I will start replacing the part of the duct work that got too wacked by the rushing water to work. Hopefully, we will have AC by next weekend. Other than that there isn’t much that is happening.Report
Is the AC in working condition at the moment? If the flood water made it up to the external motor it may need to be flushed with distilled water, I usually blast any debris out with ether based starting fluid if the internals have accumulated gunk. Have to be careful with the ether, it has enough pressure to push gunk into the sealed bushings and the damn bushings never stop squealing if that happens. The second of course is you have to let the ether evaporate off a few minutes before testing the motor. If the brushes give spark to the ether you get a nice little poof. The outside coil fins need to be clear of debris and straight also.
In the past when I ran into damaged duct I would just duct to the closest room to get relief until I could finish the rest of the house. Open whatever hall way door to flow to thermostat if need be. Charmed life stuff.
I would be happy to throw in some funding towards a small window unit to get yall past the rough patch. Is the electricity holding steady? What is the drinking water status?Report
Brushes? It shouldn’t be a DC motor, homeowner units will be running it off line voltage. Rather doubt that he is using a VFD.Report
Alternating current commutator motors can use some kind of solid brushes I forget the technical name, I doubt the the air conditioner units use that type, it’s been awhile since I had one apart. I use the ether thing on a wide range of electrical motors that have accumulated debris. Old handrills, or bench grinders that have mud dauber nest in them is a common problem. Most of those do have a solid ‘brush’ thing. Using ether I run under the assumption that all electrical motors have spark potential.Report
Hey, I am restoring a roll top also! As soon as it stops being in the water, get it as dry as possible to prevent warping (I am sure that you know this, but for our viewing audience) Then it should just be removing old finishes and starting fresh.Report
The lady friend is back from visiting the relatives in the old country. I expect there will be wine, food, and the scratching of her dog’s ears. And maybe some jujitsu and a nap.Report
@joe-sal, I truly appreciate the offer to help, but we are doing okay for now. The nights have not been miserable and we have over a dozen fans running now. Also, we spent several years down here without an AC and only got one when a nephew wanted to get married on our property and the kinfolk bought one so the bridesmaids could dress in comfort. They said that cost less that renting a church and party hall for after the wedding. So we are used to heat and high humidity. I will admit that it was cooler before Gustav blew down a giant white oak that put us in the shade at one every afternoon.
I am afraid that the insulation on the duct work is toast because it spent over twenty four hours under water, but the ducts are metal so I should only have to replace the insulation and maybe figure out how to get the mud out. My brother in law is an AC guy so we get a good deal on parts. There is over five feet between the ground and the joists so, while a waddle is the go to walk, it is not impossible to work under the house. Fema is due today so I will probably start the work Monday or Tuesday. Plus, there is a lot of antiques at the Mother in law’s house that need attention.
I have checked a lot of my carpenter tools and so far only the belt sander is not working. It was really old and finally gave up the ghost. Since I bought it at a pawn shop for five bucks I am not out much, but it was a style I liked and for some reason good belt sanders are hard to come by these days. I am afraid to try the riding mower and weed eater since both of them were under water. The mower tried to float away but was trapped by some saw horses.
So, all in all, we are in much better shape than a lot of people.
Once again, thanks for the offer.Report
Sounds like your getting along fairly well with all things considered.Report
Ours is a weekend of domesticity. Birthday party for the child of our friends on Saturday, and, on my insistence, a re-org of the toy/art/game storage area in our living room. Chaos is not quite the right word for it.
This is our last weekend before our oldest starts Kindergarten next week. I am so very ready, and so not ready at the same time. It is fun to see how excited she is, but I dread that we are now officially slaves to the school calendar.Report
You touched on our plans. NXT Takeover on Saturday and Summerslam on Sunday. We also have a kitten visitor to keep us company until we find her a home. She wandered into our yard, was discovered by our dogs, and then our son was brought out by the commotion. Unfortunately, we are at our pet limit. I am not very popular in the house right now.Report
I’ve been testing on and off for several months on different types of black powder pistols and have kind of settled on a reproduction of a 1851 Colt Navy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_1851_Navy_Revolver
mine was from Cabelas:
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Pietta-Model-Navy-Yank-Caliber-Black-Powder-Revolver/705021.uts
There are several reasons I like this one. For starters the wedge can be knocked out and the barrel comes off along with the cylinder, so cleaning is super easy, and it’s possible to get a direct line of sight to assure the grooves have no remaining soot that could lead to rust.
The 36 caliber has plenty of metal in the cylinder walls and barrel (when compared to the 44s) so conditions would have to be extreme to see a failure. It just seems to shoot all day on a pound of powder and two cups of ball shot. It doesn’t really kick at all and hearing protection is barely required. (more for the loudness of the caps than the powder charge)
I’m somewhere between 3 and 4 inch groups at 12 yards. Not great but a start. The hammer fall is the thing that takes some getting used to. Most semi-autos have a fairly quick hammer action on the primer, these things take what seems to be an eternity for the hammer to drop. That extra fraction of a second to hold on target ups the discipline that I had been taking for granted.
The other thing that takes some getting used to is the rear sight slot is cut in the top of the hammer. It can be seen here to the right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_1851_Navy_Revolver#/media/File:Colt_pegs.jpg
The top of the hammer were the slot is cut is rounded. That’s one thing I really don’t like because it takes more time than a flat surface to judge the elevation.
So this weekend I hope to grind and pollish the top of the hammer flat and remove the same from the front sight post. The elevation sighting should deliver better accuracy.
The previous round of practice, the son asked to fire it. He hit center of target and ever since I have wondered if that was just luck, or if he is that steady. I may be getting freckin old, or need to cut back on the coffee.Report
Fledermaus is away for her grandmother’s funeral, with kiddo with her.
Mr. T and I will be focusing our efforts on the old house. We had been thinking we might accept that it wouldn’t be rented out by September, so we got an extra month to do renovations between the two spaces. Not so, as there is now a tenant moving in early September.
This means we’ll likely be moving most of our stuff into the new house before the upstairs floors are finished, so the front room will be a warehouse for a bit.Report