Well, the last time I chatted with ya’ll about brakes I was pretty sure I was going to have to replace mine on the SUV after having replaced the ones on TMBWitW’s Camry.

You are looking at what was almost a complete weld-up of the right front inner pad to the rotor. Wednesday morning I replaced the right front pads; that was a comedy of errors in itself. First, I couldn’t find my big sockets. Fine, I’ll use my big wrenches instead. All the standard wrenches weren’t quite fitting right. The closest I came was with the 7/8 – the 13/16 was just a tad small, and the 7/8 was actually too large. I didn’t have a 27/32, or I would have been fine. I tried using an adjustable knuckle buster, but you can imagine how THAT turned out. So, I carefully measured the bolt I was attacking and went to Checker to purchase a 21 mm box/open end wrench. When I got back, it turns out I had measured wrong. It was a 22 mm bolt. Back to Checker, buy the right wrench, and finally, about an hour and a half after starting on this twenty minute job, I got the caliper off the rotor, only to find the item pictured above. The back side of the rotor looks like the surface of the moon. I had to get to work, so I put the new pads on, buttoned up the right front, and promised the left front I would get to it soon.

“Soon” turned out to be this morning. At least there was nothing bad with the left front. Only took me about twenty minutes to do the deed. Next week I’ll be doing the back brakes, and I have to squeeze in the time to get the right front rotor turned before I completely ruin the new pads.

Even as I take a minute to write this, I’ve just gotten back from the dentist (one stubborn cavity needed to be redone) and I am making preparations to go to a friends house and install the screen doors that I built. I’ll take pictures and post them later, I promise.

If I don’t talk with you before then, have a safe weekend and stay hydrated. I’m staring 117 in the face with some high humidity – it’s usually raining by this time of the year, but the weather has been weird lately. California stole our rain last night.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

So – up nice and early, to put the brake pads on TMBWitW’s Camry. One wheel off, pull the old pads, compare – huh. Not quite the same. Gather up the worn out pads, the box of new pads, and head for the 24 hour Checker. No problem, they said – it appears you got the American version of pads, when the car is a Japanese version. Compare pads, bingo! Back to the house, the rest of the job goes smoothly. Too late for TMBWitW to take the Camry to work, so she had taken off in the SUV when I got back from Checker.

That means that after a leisurely morning of catching up on my blog friends, and waiting for MEG to wake up, we can wander downtown to have lunch with her! Maybe we can get into the Paper Plate so I can say hi to my former bosses – I haven’t seen them for a while, so this will be good.

In the meantime – how the heck are all of you? I know I haven’t been around to your blogs much, lately, but that is slowly changing as I get accustomed to the new schedule after being out of full time work for so long. That, and getting off of Farmville! That thing is a major timesuck. I was spending most of my time trying to get fuel – I had the minimalist approach going, where all I was doing was crops and a hen house, with enough room for the tractor, seeder, and harvester. Something like 571 plots. That’s why I needed fuel – to click that many times for harvesting, plowing, and planting was chewing up about an hour and a half unless I had the fuel for the machines. So – I quit it (again!) and blocked it this time. Last time I quit it I didn’t block it, and eventually got sucked back into it. No more! I’m FREE!

ahem. pardon me.

So – here it is, Friday, and I’ve got my favorite Friday polo on. It’s a quiet morning, and the temps are still in the low 100’s so it should be a pretty nice summer day. Ya’ll take care now!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I am new to the world of retail – I am learning more and more things every day. New things. Exciting things. Interesting things.

Scary things.

One day last week (I’ve got to keep this general, you never know who might be reading, and I wouldn’t want the customer to not return to the store…) there was a lady who came in and I greeted her in the hellzone. (relax, it’s a sales term, meaning that area just inside the door where the customer is afraid they won’t be noticed and the associates are afraid the customer will notice that they aren’t being noticed…) Anywho, I greeted her, and engaged, with the simple question “Who are we shopping for today?” Turns out she has a grandson that is going to be turning oh look, this is an interesting game. How do you play this is a nice travel activity. I quickly figured out that she has the adult version of ADD – or, as Dug would say, “Squirrel!”

I was needed at another point in the store for a bit, and ended up going to lunch with a certain young lady and her mommy when they stopped by to visit. When I got back, ADD lady had left. She had made a nice purchase, and left happy with her gifts. Of course, what she didn’t leave was anything in the same place she found it.

Two days later, and I am still finding stuff where it really doesn’t belong. It would appear she touched at least one of everything in about 80% of the store, and carried it with her until she found something else to pick up and/or examine.

After she had left, I noticed that one of our demo items was missing. It’s called Ball of Whacks and sometimes people get carried away with playing with it; I’ve spent a lot of mornings putting it back together so it would be in one piece for the next customer to take apart.

This time, it was simply not there. I looked all over the area, but just could not find it.

Today, while checking the display for 8-10 year old girls creative jewelry, I found the BoW. It was sitting behind a magnetic display board. How did it get there? I’m pretty sure ADD lady had it in her hands when the shiny bits caught her attention…

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

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Happy Fourth of July – Long May She Wave!

special thank you to TexasFred for the graphic!

Posting this late Thursday evening, since I’m headed to Tucson first thing in the morning to help my sister with a few things around Mom’s home before it can be put on the market. Lynn has been taking care of a lot of this herself, and I wish I could have been helping more often, but with only one real day off now, and that usually filled with a honeydo list or trying to finish up the last of the wood projects, I don’t get down there near as often as I should. So, tomorrow I’ll be down there.

I’ll be back tomorrow night, and probably too tired to do anything. Saturday morning I”m up early again and scheduled to play bass at the homeless breakfast service before I head to the store for another full day. Sunday I get to sleep in until 0700 – if I can!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!