Good Morning CGs!

Well today is day 10 of no working out. I actually felt pretty good this morning when I woke up, no stiffness in my back, did some stretching to loosen up a bit. I am surprised that I haven't gained or lost any weight. I have cut back on my caloric intake and I'm not as hungry as usual, so that's why, but still I expected to gain a few pounds. I think a couple more days and I'll be ready to ease in to things.

Looking forward to having a few days off. There is a car show Wed night the next town over that's pretty good sized I'd like to go to. Forecast says a chance of rain but that doesn't bother me. I just want to get the car washed and I'll take RR#1 with me. I'll have to see how that pans out.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Matthew

Glad you got your AC fixed Matt. Only 105 here today so I am out early and hopefully in early.

This pic is of a car that one of my customers daughter was driving when she slammed into the back of a flat bed truck. She got out under her own power and only had a few bruises. If she had been in a little tin piece of crap she'd be dead. Screw fuel milage, put them in something that will give them a chance.....Yeah she was probably texting.....

Somebody turn off the furnace...this is getting old...or making me old anyway.

Let's get to work Guru's....

If drunk drivers was enough to throw together MADD. Texting should be enough to throw together MATT. Mothers Against Texting Teenagers. What in the world are texting drivers thinking? There are a number of mourning people at any given time, suffering the loss of someone who thought they could chat and drive. I feel bad for the families and victims but not for the texting driver. They suffer a fate resulting from a poor decision on their part. Don't let a friend text and drive.

Howdy! Steamy out there today - the office windows were all fogged up when I got here. Good day to be inside. Wow, your customer's daughter is lucky, Marcus - hope she learned a valuable lesson if she was texting.

Keep cool, Gurus!

IE crashed after writing my post ...... Screw it ......

Good Morning Gurus !

I just saw an interesting statistic on HLN. It seems that fewer and fewer teenagers are wanting to learn to drive. They prefer to be on the computer and avoid personal contact. That my friends is one sad state of affairs.

Now off to face Monday and another week.

Wow, Marcus, glad she is ok. Good thing she wasn't driving my favorite car, the Prius. I am a big fan of putting teenage and younger drivers in solid cars. Although "old" doesn't mean solid...technology has come a long way in safety since the 70s/80s.

Good morning guys....Lucky girl, Marcus. A few years back, in a little town south of us, 3 of 5 high school girls (in Honda, IIRC) were killed over the lunch hour, because the driver was texting and ran a stop sign into a Semi hauling cattle. It was a senseless accident. Changed that little town.

My grandson seems to be one of those who don't want to drive. 15 years old and we nearly had to force him to take drivers ed. Now he has to log 50 hours of driving before he can get his restricted license and he could care less about it. Strangest thing I've encountered in a long time. Not sure if he's related to me after all.

Good morning, all!

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Interesting. He caught the one robber off guard but where was robber 2? Old people are dangerous. They have nothing to lose.

It's been a busy morning for me. Before we left the other day daughter #3 (who lives up here), calls and says they took their car (04 Olds Alero) in for an oil change and they told her that she needed new front brakes/rotors and that the rear drum brakes were really dirty and needed cleaning ($100) and they needed new front hubs. All this to the tune of $1000-1200.

Well several items on that list sent up red flags with me. First off just a year ago I changed the driver side hub and cleaning the rear drums because they are dirty? Well they had new brake pads and rotors done ($350), but told them my dad would look at the other things.

So today, hubby brought the car over to daughter #1's house (she has a garage) and I unload the tools that I brought along (more on this later) and jack the car up and pull the rear tires and check the "dirty brakes". Sure enough there is brake dust in the drum.....just like you would expect but not to the effect of a problem. 106k on the car, original brake shoes still has about a 1/4" thickness on the shoes. So I take a can of Brakleen and spray on the shoes and other parts and clean them up a bit (explaining to my SIL all the parts and how they worked in the process).

Then we move to the front wheels where we jack up the car and check the drivers side bearing (the one I replaced a year ago), no play or signs of wear at all. Then over to the passenger side and crap, there is about a 1/4" of play when you grab the top and bottom of the wheel and shake.

So I decide that we have to replace the hub. This is where I say, I wasn't expecting to replace the hub and didn't bring all the required tools (Torque wrench, 36mm socket, long breaker bar). Well, we go up to the local NAPA and pick up the hub and a socket. I go to the local Northern Tool to see if they had a 1/2" torque wrench that would go up to 180ft. lbs. They didn't, but he suggested the Advance Auto Parts across the street. They do have one, 25-250 capacity $90....ouch. I go ahead and buy it. Then we make the trip to HF, they have a 3/4" torque wrench for $78 and an adapter for $5. I tell my SIL that I already bought the other one, we'll use it. But I do buy a 25" 1/2" breaker bar. My SIL says why don't we just return it after we are done. I tell him that it just isn't right to do that. "But you already have one, and don't really need another" I tell him you're right, but that just isn't honest. I'll just keep it and leave it up here.

We go back and tear into the hub and get it torn down without much problem. I get the new hub reinstalled and go to torque the hub nut down and the freaking, $100 brand spanking new torque wrench doesn't ratchet. so I fight the dang thing and finally get it torqued down.

Well we took the car for a drive and now it is fixed, no more rumbling or grinding, it drives nice and smooth. I take the dang torque wrench back to Advance Auto Parts and tell them I want my money back because the ratcheting mechanism is screwed up. They give me my money back (refund my CC). I don't feel the least bit guilty or bad about it. I would have kept it, had it worked properly, but since it didn't, I don't feel bad about returning it. Kind of makes me wonder if the torque is right, but I'm pretty sure that it's close.

WooHoo ! New laptop arrived today. So far, so good. When new software arrives tomorrow I can install it and start being "productive". If anyone is curious, it's an HP.

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What the heck is a Siri?

Wow Tom that worked out pretty slick and you save a bunch....atta boy!

Wow, good thing that girl was in a big solid vehicle. Teenagers first cars should always be big cars that they can be safer in. Glad to hear you're feeling better Matt. I have done nothing all day and very lazy, bout to go to they gym. Really don't feel like it. Head index was equivalent to hell here today, been in the pool all afternoon. Have a good evening, all.

Gotta love a cheap fix. A while back when I was working on finishing up the deck, my little Husky Air Scout compressor crapped out, wouldn't hold air. I didn't have time to putz with it, so I bought another compressor. But the Husky is handy, hangs on the wall and has wheels so it's easy to move around. I took it apart and found a little hole in a hose that goes from the tank to the manifold with the pressure switch, etc. - cost me about 4 bucks for some new hose and a couple of clamps, good as new. It was about 95 degrees in the garage, so I'm celebrating my little victory with a frosty beverage.

I did an honest days work. I'm through.

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through forever...or for the week.....?

Brad you mentioned a type of roof on your big deck....what are you thinking of doing there. I am redoing our this fall so it provides more shade and am looking for ideas....

Marcus, I decided to put up cedar 5/4 decking on the pergola, 1.5-2 inches apart. That should provide some shade, yet not hold too much snow.

@ Brad....some pics when you get er done would be much appreciated....

Sure thing!

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I saw that last night. Good job. Can you believe Illinois is the ONLY state in the US that doesn't allow some form of concealed carry?

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Duwayne Henderson and Davis Dawkins, both 19, were later arrested and face attempted armed robbery with a firearm and criminal mischief charges. They were transported to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Dawkins had a superficial wound in his left arm, but Henderson was shot in two places: his left buttock and his right hip.

Both posted bail and were released.

Williams has a concealed weapons permit. Bill Gladson of the Marion County state attorney's office says the shooting appears justified.

Neither of the men have a criminal record, authorities said

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/19/ ... l-not-face/#ixzz21UqrBBwf

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The voice that talks to you on the IPhone and does voice recognition, searches, etc.

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TB - I'm the same way with tools. I hate to buy it again when I already have it, but I won't use it and return it...unless it breaks like that. I do have several tools in the past that I've had to buy duplicates of because I was doing a job elsewhere than in my garage. When I was at my dad's a few weeks ago we had to buy some sockets to tinker with the Vette. NBD, Harbor Freight had them cheap, but still. I can't pack everything in the truck to travel with that I might need, not enough room.

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Through being honest?

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That's me Matt. I hate trying to determine what tools I'm going to need when I'm 400 miles away. I always seem to forget something.

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Oops! Misspelled

I did an honest daze work. I'm through

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Just buy a trailer from harbo freight, and mount sometype of tool storage on it... LoL...
-=Rick