Hiya, folks! 🙂
So it’s been a successful first day. 🙂
Though i was up late, I got up at 9 something, which was better than I’d guessed given the hour I finally got to bed. Tonight I’m better positioned for a great start Monday, as it’s 11:35 right now, and I should be in bed before midnight.
Wahoo. 🥳
As soon as I got up, I opened my laptop and started working on The Great Transition post. I probably spent a couple of hours working on that, and as promised, I had a solid working draft published to the interwebs well before 2 p.m.
There’s… lots of stuff on the list for what I want to accomplish in the transition–lots and lots. But I’m going to actively chip away at it. No excuses. It’s gonna be crazy hard, but I’m going to complete one item on the list per day. The list is likely to grow and change as I think of more stuff. For example, today I ordered a part I needed for my BMW that I didn’t have on the list, but it’s ordered now, making it three things from the list (the last one a late addition) that were crossed off the list today. Of course, those three were probably the three easiest, as they simply involved locating the item online and buying it.
Easy peasy.
Most of the other items on the list will take significantly more effort, so… yeah. There’s that. 🙃 But it’s progress.
After writing the post this morning, I went up to work on my Komatsu mini excavator. It’s been sitting there in pieces for many months now, and I wanted to get it at least put back together to decide exactly how I’m going to go forward with it. I might take it in and have it serviced, or I might just replace the bushings myself. I replaced one myself today, and it was a beast. It was, however, the one that was most in need of being replaced, so that was good. I replaced the bushing and both of the end seals.
I was happy to get that done. It was a pain in the butt, but it’s done. And probably greatest of all, I figured out how to put everything back together. That was one of my concerns, having been a part for so long and not remembering exactly where everything went. But it’s back together (though not ready to use: the parts are simply back together in their spots but aren’t tightened down).
In order to get the bushings out of the next most-needed spot, I’m going to need a welder, I think, or someone who can weld. I’m thinking about buying a welder. I’ve wanted one for a long time. I’ve wanted to know how to weld. And one of the ways of getting the bushings out of the slots on this excavator is to weld a piece of rebar to the bushing, so it can be pounded out from the other side (there are two bushings in the tunnel, but they can only come out one way. You can’t just bang them both out one end. They both have to come out the end they’re at. Which means it’s super awkward to get the bushing out because you have the other bushing in the way of being able to fit an appropriately sized punch through the hole to reach the other bushing. Don’t know if I’m explaining that well. A picture would help, but I don’t have one. 🙃
Anyway, I got the BMW part ordered. I ordered some water filter water bottles (John brought some to Costa Rica, and they worked wonderfully, so I ordered a pair). I also ordered a 10 liter dromedary bag. I used one when I backpacked through Egypt, Israel, and Jordan, and it was wonderful. Makes for a heavy pack, carrying 20 lbs of water on your back, but when you’re in the desert, and water is scarce, it’s… really nice. Unfortunately, I let my old one get moldy and nasty… or something like that.
It’s almost 12:30. Oops. I’ve been watching YouTube videos to help me better understand how to replace the bushings in my mini ex.
Well, time for bed. It’s almost the 31st, which is my deadline for completing my 2022 business property tax assessment. Well… it’s the day I’m supposed to turn it in. If I turn it in before the 31st, and then I need to buy another tool before the 31st, I have to resubmit my assessment with the amended tools list.
So… I’m just going to fill it all out tomorrow and turn it in on Tuesday.
After working on the mini excavator, I mowed a path through the lower field over to the deck that overhangs the river, and I mowed around the mailbox and along the north side of the lower pasture fence in an effort to make things look a bit nicer.
The mower, while on the steep slope just feet away from the drop off to the river, all of the sudden died, and sent smoke plumes out of the engine.
😬
Not good at any time, but even worse right there on a steep bank that means that if it rolls backwards, it goes over the dropoff and into the river.
Lovely.
I tried to restart it, but nothing. The engine didn’t crank at all. That had me worried I’d seized the motor for lack of oil. I put the e-brake on the mower, found a big flat stone and put it behind the front wheel so it wouldn’t roll even if the e-brake failed, and I went and got my work van.
I grabbed my tow strap, hooked it up to the mower, and pulled it, very carefully, up the bank and across part of the field. Then I got out, checked the oil level, and… nothing. Nothing reading on the dip stick.
😬
Crazy because I just changed the oil at the beginning of the mowing season not that long ago, and to be down that far already… I mean… not good. Hasn’t done that to me before (burn through oil).
At that point, I figured the engine was most likely seized up, but I figured I’d add oil to it and at least diagnose it for certain. First, I had to get it back up to the house, so I lined up the mower as best I could, centered behind the van, and I slowly and carefully pulled it across the field, up the driveway, and around to the side of the house where I could work on it.
Once parked and detached from the two strap, I got to diagnosing it. I couldn’t get it to crank with the key, but gratefully, I was able to hand crank it, which meant that the engine wasn’t locked up. So that was… hopeful. I added about a quart of oil (the engine takes two quarts). But it still wouldn’t start with the key. Wouldn’t even try. 🤔
Given that I could manually crank the engine, I knew it wasn’t because the engine was locked up, so I grabbed a pick tool, bridged the starter solenoid terminals, and the engine cranked over without any issues. 🥳
I got it to start that way, and it sounded relatively okay, so that was good. I checked for a blown fuse or something that might be keeping the ignition from sending the signal properly, but no, fuses were fine. I wiggled wires and connections, and eventually, it cranked over with the key and started just fine. It took it a few tries, but it finally did.
🥳
So… I don’t know if the mower is starting to be on its way out, but it appears to be burning oil, something I realized my work van is doing as well 😬. Gosh… my van doesn’t even have 100k miles on it. Hopefully it’s like a bad pcv valve or something and not ring blowby or seal leakage.
Have a couple of teeth that are giving me grief. Don’t remember if I wrote about it, but in my recent emotional struggles, I tossed my years-long no candy/sugar rule to the wind and ate nothing but candy, pretty much for a week or two.
I have really sensitive teeth, so eating that much sugar is, not only really bad for my body and added a quick pudgy gut roll to the belly, but it also super sensitized my teeth, and one of them is really unhappy right now. I’m not sure if it’s from being overly sensitized or if it’s because it has a cavity (hopefully, not the latter, but we’ll see). I’m just going to let it be for a while and see if it returns to the old status quo or if it stays unhappy.
I returned to my no sugar norm as of… the end of last week? And I’ve been just fine, but it’ll take a little bit for the teeth to calm down a bit in general, and hopefully, the one tooth that’s wigging out will de-wig.
Also, as of today, tv, movies, sports news, regular news, etc., were all successfully dropped from my… life. And it’s a good thing for me. Helps in so many ways to get me away from pure entertainment stuff. It’s a super-easy recipe for getting dragged down to emotional misery and feeling stuck/trapped/unable to get myself to do stuff.
So… it’s good to be getting out of that.
Progress. Good progress today.
Yikes, it’s almost 1:00. It’s crazy how quickly time flies while I’m writing. Gonna call this good, brush my teeth, and then hop into bed (after I put on a final coat of aloe vera gel for my rosy back (half-ish of the time I spent working on my mini excavator today was with my shirt off. Thought I’d get some vitamin whatever it is… D? But I guess I guessed poorly on the timing of putting my shirt back on. I had no idea until I went to take a shower. My back hadn’t felt hot, but I saw in the mirror that it was rosy, and after I got out of the shower, it was putting off some serious heat (despite having taken a cool shower).
So… gratitude shout out to my mother for being willing to lather me up three times over the course of a couple of hours or so, and now I’ll do the last one myself and will plop my bod in bed.
Oh, I’m more and more convinced that my chest issue is a rib out of place. Did I write that already? Has all the perfect symptoms, and the rib that is in the same area as the pain feels sunk in on the left side of my chest in comparison to the same rib on the opposite side which is much more prominent.
Maybe I’ll see a chiro soon about it if it doesn’t get better soon.
Wrist is feeling a decent bit better, I think, so that’s good.
Good night, all. Love to you. 🙂
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 