Day 6, Tuesday 8/7/01
Laurie really had to leave this morning. She was up and gone
at 7:30. I slept till 8. Got up, had a BANANA for breakfast.
That's for Laurie who says I don't eat enough fruit. HA.
Phone line is due in today. We will see. Today I want
to take it easy and tidy up some loose ends. I want to make
preparations for the real work to come. I go slow and steady.
Its hot as hell. I head to Post to get pipe, fittings, and wire
to put up the outdoor lights. I borrowed two 500 watt lights from
Darrin. Thank you Darrin! I wire them and add a length of pipe to
attach them high up in the trees. They are so bright they need to
be high so you aren't blinded. They go up beautifully and work
perfectly.
I am beginning to undo years of working on the flat rate
system. I tell myself to go slowly and enjoy the process and the
results will take care of themselves. I think its like racing
cars or motorcycles in that if you concentrate on the theory and
doing each corner correctly, without thinking about what the lap
time will be, the lap times take care of themselves. You go
quickly because you do each little thing right. That's what I
want to do. After putting up the lights, I put in
another 120 volt 15 amp circuit and a 220 volt 40 amp circuit in
the breaker box. 220 for the compressor and welder should the
need arise and 15 amp 120 for the power tools. Again all goes
smoothly. I take lots of breaks to listen to the book on tape
and just sit and watch the chipmunks look for food and play in
my woodpile. I have lunch of tuna and tomato and a cookie.
I next head to The Big Yellow One. I didn't even start it up
today. It was so quiet that I didn't want to and didn't need to
anyway. I repaired the loose tie rod clamp. I removed the gauge
cluster to clean the lens. I unclogged the grease fittings for
the right front spindle and tie rod end. On the left side, I
successfully drilled out and removed a broken grease fitting on
the spindle. Glad I brought my left handed drills and extractors
from "work". I added 5 gallons of diesel without
spilling! Today is my day. I head over to the basement to erect
another batter-board behind corner "B". I am getting
the hang of it. I now have 4 of 8 batter-boards done. One by one
I am checking things off my list. I head to the walk out area. I
need to clear an area to be able to drive the machine into the
basement to move block and maybe to lift logs. I do some easy
clearing and decide to leave the heavy stuff for tomorrow in the
AM when its not so hot. On to Mr. Plow. I remove and repair the
plow switch. It had shorted out causing the plow to go up all by
itself as you drive. Not good. Had two problems, the trip wire
for the solenoid was melted to the exhaust and the control switch
had a broken spring. Should be ready for snow now. (I like to be
prepared for anything). I make an idle speed adjustment and fix
the air conditioning (loose connection on the low pressure
switch). I take out the Speedo looking for the loose connection
that causes the Speedo to drop to 0 at times, making the MIL
illuminate. I only find one connector. The rest is a printed
circuit board. I hope its not that. I find nothing conclusive,
so I reassemble. I will road test tomorrow.
The phone guys never showed up. They were due between 8
and noon. I get a voice mail message late in the day saying
they didn't have the address. After what Laurie went through to get
us an address and give it to them, I knew they were wrong. I called the well guy and
left a second message asking him to call me back. He didn't.
Its very quiet here without Laurie. I can't wait till
Friday so she can stay a whole week.
12 hours, thunder and a cloud burst