Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Little bigger footprint, twice plus the cooking area. 

classicJackets (FS) said:

2 bags of trash/junk out of the garage, a couple of sell-able things listed, and general tidying happened. Always more to go, but a start is good.

3 more bags out, sold the items I listed and a few more. Have a pile of give-aways. Good progress, and it feels really good to be clearing out things I've never used or have no plan for.

Our trusty Kenmore (Whirlpool) dishwasher, which was here and not new when we bought the house in '09, stopped filling tonight.   I'm torn.  It's older than Moses's grandpa and it roars like a 6-71 Detroit, but it sure gets the dishes clean.  And parts are still available.  And I just don't have that much faith in the current crop of consumer-grade appliances.  For now, I cleaned the strainer and resealed the pump assembly.  Not sure that that was the root problem, but it's back together now and seems to be working correctly.  For tonight, it's at least a temporary win.

Also, I took a chance on a $50 window A/C unit at the secondhand home stuff store.  We have slider windows and that dictates a vertical A/C unit which are somehow twice the price of the horizontal ones, so it seemed like a reasonable gamble.  I plugged that in tonight for a test run and it quietly churned out 40° air.

Double minor win for today.  That just about equals a real win.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

I feel that; my dishwasher is original to my home, a 1978(?) unit that's Avocado/saefoam green on the interior and wood paneled with beige on the exterior. Aside from it's single dial for wash selection being very touchy with placement, it's never died or let me down; family has idly threatened me with other machines to replace it but it keeps working.

On top of that, my stepdad and I installed a microwave and range hood that was an $80 find at Habitat ReStore; I kept getting the same "Well why not buy new and make sure it works!" meanwhile we did that for a property and had to return one within 6 weeks because it broke.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

No kidding. We also have a GE microwave that is probably 25 years old and it just refuses to die. 

If you took your DW apart you could probably disassemble that rotary switch and clean the contacts, or maybe even build new ones, and take out some of that touchiness.

DarkMonohue said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

If you took your DW apart you could probably disassemble that rotary switch and clean the contacts, or maybe even build new ones, and take out some of that touchiness.

I need to; I'm just scared I'll kill something so I need to actually prepare for it properly 

18 years ago today a drunk driver in an early 90s Ford F-150 hit me head-on so hard that the front of my ’90 Lincoln Mark VII imploded. I woke up in a hospital room with my arm in a sling and an Erector set in my lower right leg. The seat belt broke my collar bone, the air bag scorched my forearms, my knees ate the dash, and the engine/trans shattered my lower right leg when they were shoved through the firewall. The drunk driver ran off with this buddy but was caught almost immediately. He was out of jail on bond before I even woke up from surgery.

I remember the moment everything went quiet in the car. I remember throwing all my weight against the door to get out, not realizing that my busted shoulder and mangled right leg were the reasons I couldn’t get better leverage. I remember finally getting the door open, landing on the asphalt staring up at the stars and the truck driver that had stopped to see if I was alive. I remember grabbing the towel I kept behind the driver seat, tying a tourniquet on my compound fracture (thank you Boy Scouts), and thinking to myself “I’m not going to die in Doraville.”

I spent months in rehab learning to walk again. Thankfully the walker only lasted a month, but I needed a cane for a year. I don’t feel the titanium as much as I used to, but the gnarled bone, screw heads, and missing muscle are a reminder of how close it came to lights out. Whenever things get rough I remind myself that I’ve been through worse and came through it okay.

I'm still here.

Don’t drink and drive folks.

 

In reply to slefain :

You are still more metal than us

$50 drill press (granted it is the smallest floor one from HF, but still infinitely better than the drill press I did not have before)

NY Nick said:

I have been considering a job change away from Mega Corp. It isn't an easy choice because I am sort of high on the pyramid (so there are less jobs at my level), Mega Corp pays well, and I really really don't want to move.

2 days ago a recruiter contacts me about a job at a company I have been interested in for ~15 years, for a job that is 1 level up from my current role, that I am extremely well qualified for and is less than 30 minutes from my house. Had the screening interview this morning and the more they talked the better the fit was. It's too early to get overly excited but it is a shot in the arm to know that there are options out there. 

Moved to phone interview with VP, now interviewing with the company and not the recruiter! Haven't had it yet setting up times still but a relief to get a foot in the door.

I picked up my new glasses today. My new prescription is only +1.0 on each side but I noticed a huge difference right away. The new frames and lenses are so much lighter and more comfortable too. I shouldn't have waited 5 years to upgrade. 

Work begged me to take an extra shift today, which is why I've been so prolific. I'm getting 8 hours of overtime at $31.50 per. They offered me a $500 bonus just for taking the shift alone. They even got me chocolates for taking it.

This happened today, I like it.

A 40 acre parcel went up for sale across the road from us. We were sure city people would buy it and put up some eyesore of a McMansion.  
Our neighbour bought it so that wouldn't happen. 

In reply to Antihero :

11GTCS said:

In reply to Antihero :

You're awesome 

If you would like one, I had my wife add it up to her Etsy store and it'll ship directly from the printer to you. Here's a link

Interstellar Sledgehammer t -Shirts

Wife gave me encouragement to better organize tools/toolboxes. Today I ordered some organizers for sockets/wrenches, and I was going to wait for the HF 44" box to go on sale.

Then I noticed it's $80 cheaper to buy it in orange, which I already liked. Just need to go order it at the store!

So a bit of a funny, minor win in the last few weeks of nothing but good.

I got interested in a video game series called Fear & Hunger- serious horror that was basically made by one eastern european dude in his bedroom, it's SERIOUSLY dark and deals with horror subject matter that's genuinely trigger-warning tier. I got interested and began watching a few videos thanks to an hour-long essay on why it's great and accidentally spoiling some things in the second game for me, which sucked!

Except "spoiling" the game meant I learned the wheelchair bound character can drift into enemies for a free attack and knockdown, meaning there's entire challenges where you beat the game by KANSAI DRIFTO into cosmic horrors.

Yesterday I drove down to Springfield to buy some wheels and tires from a guy. I don't have a smart phone and the vehicle I drove doesn't have navigation. Also, this guy lives outside the city, in the sticks, near Cooper Township so I went old school and jotted down some directions which I planned to reference while driving so I could find his house. 


We had communicated previously and I told him I planned to leave my house around 8:00 which should put me near his house around 9:30 or 10:00. I like to take in the sights when I drive and the weather was going to be nice so, I wasn't in a hurry. I pulled into a gas station at the edge of Springfield for a soda at a little bit after 9:00 and sent him a text saying I had just hit Springfield and I should be around 40 minutes away from his house.


I hop back in the car, beverage in hand, and continue down the road waiting for his response. About 20 minutes later my phone says "mrrrt mrrrt", letting me know I have a text. I pull over just past Rochester Township and read it. He says some stuff came up and it may take him an hour or so to meet me at his house. I text him that it's no biggie, E36 M3 happens. I pull into Berry Fertilizer and just kind of zone out, listening to music and enjoying the breeze. After about 30 minutes I text him to let him know where I am. He texts back that Berry is close to his home but, he still has to drive all the way across Springfield, to the West side of town where the guy that scrapped the car but kept the wheels is, then cross Springfield again to drive back to Cooper Township so, it will probably take more than an hour. I text back that that's on my way home so we text back and forth a bit, trying to find a land mark I can find easily and meet him to do the exchange (I don't know Springfield and, again, due to my Ludditeness, I have no GPS). I remember driving past a J C Penny so we settle on that. 


So, I double back to J C Penny and he continues across town to retrieve the wheels. I'm dressed in some old, dirty-looking trousers with a well-used button down shirt and a ball cap. I assumed I'd be monkeying around with dirty car parts so I wore some old clothing. Now I've got some time to kill so I head into J C Penny to browse for a while. I go in and I see several sets of eyes following me as I stroll over to the housewares section. I look at the toaster ovens and non-stick pans for about 30 minutes then begin to slowly make my way to the other side of the store. Wow, there are a LOT of employees straightening up the products on the displays as I meander by. They must really care about presentation! 


I happen to spot some cargo pants marked at 50% off so I snag a pair to try on. The waist fits great but the length is off so I hang them up and snag a different pair to try on. They fit perfectly so I hang onto them. As I leave the fitting rooms I stop next to a young guy who is fussing with the clothing display and I smile, saying nothing for a while to make it good and awkward. 

"Is there a restroom?" I finally ask.

He sputters a bit then replies, "Yes, to the left, all the way to the end of the store."

"Thanks." I reply then walk off.

More employees arranging displays. Lots of sidelong glances as I walk by. Such dedication to their craft!

Also, a large bald guy in new-ish athletic wear and bright running shoes walks by, with a definite purpose, in the opposite direction that I am traveling. He then turns immediately after we pass each other. His look screams security/asset protection/off-duty cop. I drop the trousers on the bench outside the bathroom and go in to do my business. 

I come out of the bathroom, pick up the trousers, and see no less than six employees in my immediate vicinity, with their hands buried in displays. I hear a few radios squawk and one employee reaches back quickly to lower the volume. I turn and walk back in the direction from whence I came and there's the big bald guy again, trying very hard to not look at me. A smaller guy says to him, quietly but not quietly enough, "There he is..."

I chortled a bit at that. A smile slowly spreads across my face as I spot the cash registers, placed right next to the large exit doors. I frequently and very obviously glance at the exit as I slowly walk toward then past the cash registers. I can hear a lot of shuffling feet behind me. I pause then turn around and see lots of people fade back into the aisles like the Homer gif where he slowly disappears into the bushes. I'm laughing out loud now as I get in line at the register to buy my trousers. The cashier is a tall, skinny kid in his early 20s with a mullet, and he looks all sorts of keyed up for some reason. Weird.  


Anyway, after I leave the store, the guy with the wheels calls and says one of the wheels is damaged badly and he's about 25 minutes away. He says he feels so bad about the whole situation that I can just have the wheels. He arrives within the stated time and flat-out refuses to accept any money for the wheels. He was a great guy who was just having a rough day. I made sure to stress to him that I didn't mind waiting, it was a lovely day to not be cooped up in a foundry. He also said a friend of his was using the engine from the Outback that he scrapped for his VW project and he thinks he might be on this forum so he's GRM adjacent.

Yesterday was definitely a win! 

 

In reply to Antihero :

Done! 

11GTCS said:

In reply to Antihero :

Done! 

You have excellent tastes my friend!

A few years ago I had a minor win in that I found a pair of decent Bluetooth earbuds in an unopened package on my front lawn. They worked perfectly and as I said were unopened so not previously used.  I used them a lot for yard work, etc.

Then I lost them. No idea when or where. Early this spring I went to the little charger case they live in, and they just weren't there.

Bummer. Looked all around, any place they could reasonably be, and nada.

Yesterday we went to a wedding and I pulled a pair of dress shoes I rarely wear out of the bottom of my closet. Put my foot inside and feel something weird.  Put my hand in, and...

...Bluetooth earbuds.

I'm totally baffled as to what chain of events led to that particular situation, but there it is.

In reply to Duke :

Was there an open bar at this wedding?

Streetwiseguy said:

In reply to Duke :

Was there an open bar at this wedding?

There was, but that was yesterday, the day I found them. The earbuds apparently disappeared some time around October of '22 because I mainly used them for yard work. I didn't discover they were missing until late March '23 when I went to mow the lawn for the first time of this season.

I don't have any clue about the last time I wore those shoes.

My sister lives on the Space Coast, and on Saturday she was on her way home from a long road-trip in her camper van. Instead of going home, she came to the track and we got to hang out for several hours. I think we concluded that we hadn't seen each other since our Mom's funeral in 2003.