Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Was given an LED spotlight they didn't need as work and finally got around to wiring it up (the wire came as a pigtail, so I had to put a plug and a switch on)

 Off:

on: just need to make a mount now. Not bad for $0

Today is my eighteen year anniversary of marrying Tunawife.

in...2019..? 2020? I drew stafford1500 in the nygbox. My inspiration that year was rat fink, for some reason. I drew this. A year later, I realized I still had pictures of the box, I threw them in some editing software, digitized it, shortened the tongue to something useful, cleaned it up for my vinyl cutter, made several dozen stickers, and forgot about it. They've continued to be staples in nearly everything I've mailed, and if you were REALLY lucky, you got one of the GITD ones. Those were super hard to come buy, as I bought literally the last 12" roll of oracal glow in the country at that time. Over the years I'd talked about monetizing it, selling shirts, whatever, nothing materialized, because I have a problem with finishing projects. 

Fast forward to this year. I've been fighting trying to buy the very last piece for my new less fat me wardrobe. A black hat. I bought one I thought was black. It's brown. I have a blue one. I needed black. The option to customize via a Lids store was out there but was proving to be cumbersome due to file type needed and my current inability to drive. One morning I decided to see if I could just order it online, full stop, and sure enough, the lids custom program works via the Internet. fu-tur-istic. I submitted my design, and waited. I thought there was a good possibility I would run afoul of at least two trademarks.....obvious reasons, but surprisingly within about 48 hours I got an approval back, along with a proof. Pushed go. 

That was about two weeks ago. Today, this arrived. It's pretty awesome. It's a full, professional level new era 5950. These are the same hats they make MLB on fields out of, or at least they used to. (Pay no attention to my fat berkeleyin head). It wasn't cheap to order just one (this one was about $75 landed, for proofing and digitization and such) but I've done the math, and it could be done reasonably if I switched to a snapback non-wool and ordered enough. I might put these in production, depending on interest. oh. And it glows in the dark because of course it does. 

Well I already ranted about my current airport situation. I made the most of it and just walked the entire Pittsburgh airport, 1.91 miles. At least I'm getting in some steps!

This may be classified as more than a minor win, but my sister's MIL called my wife out of the blue today.  She offered us their popup camper for free.  2018 model, super well maintained.  The only downside is picking it up from FL.  Darn, an extra trip to FL to visit this year...

Her husband passed away about a year ago, so she's been slowly going through their things that she cannot do without him and getting them gone.  

Test drove 2 generations of long Expeditions today and realized the older one (2015-17) didn't even feel like a real upgrade compared to my 2000, while the 2021 felt insanely nice and purposefully designed on the inside. My wife is now excited about upgrading..

I scored this non-functioning 1960 Curtis Mathes TV/Radio/Phonograph system for $20. I'm going to turn it into a cat house

The couple that owns the thrift shop I bought it from removed the tube. This thing was HEAVY even without it.

Tubes!

Converted to 2024 dollars, this is the equivalent of $4,243.65!

I'm a sucker for mid century modern stuff!

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

And poof, now it's a huge, heavy cat house that I'm sure will never be used after the initial investigation:

My daughter and I finally got the crankshaft and connecting rod that we need to put her engine back together!  On Wednesday, we went out to the junkyard and got the engine out of the car, separated the transmission, got the oil pan off, and got the girdle off.  But the crank bolt would. not. budge.  We tried pretty much everything we could think of.  Yesterday, I borrowed two bigger and badder impact guns and we went back this morning.  The Ryobi that cooper_tired lent me didn't budge it but eastsideTim's Kobalt spun it off.  In the process, it cracked the impact socket in 5 places.  But the sonofagun came off!  Now we can start the reassembly!

I don't know why Honda put that crank bolt on quite so tight, but that was no joke!

My work uses a strobe light for one of the machines.  It comes with 4 magnets to mount to it so you can slap it wherever.  We hard mount them, so we just have boxes of magnets that we periodically toss.

I was messing with one and realized each has 5 rare earth magnets in it.

Im gonna make so many magnetic 3D printed things now. 

edit:  the stainless screws and acorn caps are also pretty cool.

Finally got around to replacing the USB ports in my wife's car this morning.  The one for Android Auto came apart inside and would no longer connect so she's been without for a couple months now.  While I was at it, I relocated the microphone so that you can hear something other than turn signals clacking when she calls.  Since I had the trim parts in my hand anyway, I brought them inside to the utility tub and scrubbed them up even though I know my pretty goblin will have it looking like a Waffle House dumpster in about thirty six minutes.  And to cap the whole thing off, I took the passenger lower dash apart to install the HVAC duct that I forgot to put back on when I did the expansion valve a couple weeks ago. 

Finished in time to make another pot of coffee and watch qualifying!

Murdercycle 2.0 is home.

Sold the Kia van. Only got half what I was hoping for, but considering the battery was dead and it was smoking badly, neither thing was I aware of, I'll take it. One less thing to worry about. 

My 1976 Power Wagon fairly roared to life this morning. The sound of a big block Mopar makes me happy...

Got an application for grad school submitted today. Scary but exciting. 

"Big" sailboat launched, rigged and on the mooring yesterday despite the rain.  Sunfish out from under the house, onto the ramp, washed, waxed and rigged this afternoon.  A nice SW breeze kicked up and I was able to get out for a quick blast.  Dropped into the "zone" pretty quickly and had a great sail.  This is going to be OK.

Last week I won an auction for a 200W solar panel, getting it for about 1/3 of what it would have cost new. It was clearly either damaged in transport or by whoever returned it, but the damage was just cosmetic and only to the aluminum mounting flanges on the back and not the actual 'solar' part. This morning I threw it on top of the hot tub in the sun and propped it up slightly to have a bit better angle on the sun and hooked it up to the big 'solar generator' (such a stupid name) I had run down a bit during the power outage a few weeks back. Even with it being overcast out when I hooked it up it was reading as putting out a bit over 100W, and was saying it would be about 2 1/2 hours to charge the battery back up the last 10% of the way to full. I unfortunately didn't record at what time I put it out, but when I went to check it probably 2 hours later it was almost fully charged. 

So, even placed in not the ideal place (up on either the garage roof or section of the house roof that faces mostly South would be ideal, but require a lot more work/be more permanent) and on a partially overcast day it can do a good job of recharging the battery a decent amount. I'd like to get a second one to hook up to be able to charge even faster- with 2 I'd be more likely to make a more permanent mount for them even if just on the garage roof (once our neighbor finally takes down the overgrown tree that has to go before they can replace their AC compressor, the house roof will be an even better spot- but I'm far more gun shy about mounting something to the house roof than the garage). 

The 2 'generators' (one is down in the basement with the sump pump plugged into it and it into the wall in 'pass-through' mode so it will take over if the power goes out and should keep the sump running enough to keep the basement from flooding again) combined with the solar panels (I have a 120W 'suitcase' one as well) and the generator means that should we have another extended power outage we'll at least be able to keep the basement from flooding, the fridge running to keep food from spoiling, and have power to run lights and other essentials. 

Been needing to clear a bunch of brush out of my backyard for ages.  My go to has been to use the burn barrel, but I've been fighting vines coming in from a neighbor's yard, and am worried any oils/irritants from them could be really bad to burn (don't think there's any poison ivy, but better safe than sorry).  Worry has increased considering how dry it has been, and the fireworks intensity will be ramping up in the next couple of days.

Bought a small wood chipper/leaf vacuum off FBM for $60 over the weekend, changed the oil yesterday, and used it for a few hours today.  It worked wonderfully.  Didn't get everything ground up, but got the worst of it done, and now have enough room to get to some saplings I want to cut down soon, too.  Yard is far from perfect, but maybe by next spring, I'll have a nice place to hang out in the shade under the big trees.

I've mentioned Bob before, he's our track manager, and has been longer than a lot of the members have been alive. He is legendary in Canadian motocross, and also for his work ethic, and energy level. I've been helping him these last three years, and slowly he's started talking to me like an equal as opposed to a subordinate. He's a stern man who doesn't smile a lot, and at about 5'3" and 100lbs commands instant respect from everyone. He's a founding member of the club (1947), had it his way forever at the track, makes every decision, and nobody's ever dared question it. This year he's been asking my opinion, and letting me look after things for upcoming events. He recently asked if we should put a certain section in for an upcoming hare scramble, it's really a lot of work he said. Bob has never said that in his life. I immediately offered to look after it and only thought later it may have been a test. The next time I was at the track and went in the trailer to get some tools I saw this.

It's a tool pouch, with a stapler, and arrows to lay out a course. Nobody but Bob has ever laid out a course on club property.

Fleet reduction success. Sold 2013 Nissan Pathfinder using wife's FB account. Kinda shocked to complete a test drive and have cash in hand 2.5 hours after uploading the ad (mostly because the buyer was 1.5 hours away). Happy to find the right buyer - a guy who flips Nissans and understands the sketchy CVT. His son also works for Nissan.

I just wanted it gone. Pricing fairly works wonders. Minor win. 

My toilet was broken on my camper (flapper valve was bent) the camping world about an hour away had 1 in stock, drove there, got it brought it home and installed it in less than 2.5 hours total. Camper is ready to go!

I'll lay one into the minor rant on the same topic!

So how does one bend a flapper valve.  Inquiring minds want to know. 😁

In reply to dean1484 :

I am 99% sure I did it while cleaning the black tank last fall when I put it away. I have a tool that goes into the toilet and then has a spinny thing to clean the tank. I probably wasn't careful and bent it then. I didn't notice it until my first camping trip though when it wouldn't hold water in the bowl (or stinking the tank!)

I was hoping Taco's were involved.  😁😂🤣😎

I almost never have financial surprises in my favor.

I am leaving my current employer, as they were recently bought out by a private equity firm. The fiscal year for the current employer began July 1. My last day is July 22.

That means I get the entire FSA allotment to spend freely despite only contributing one month.

That means I get payout for the entire annual vacation allowance despite only taking four days and only working three weeks into the fiscal year.