Minor Win thread - Life is good!

In reply to wae :

Congratulations, love to hear it!!

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Y'all know the classic del-taco staple, chicken soft tacos? The ones that were like 20/$1 back in high school?

Of course you do. 
 

Well, today they're 2/$3. And that ain't too bad. 

Mostly soy as filler in the meat whcih is good for my bulking days, I like them. 

Made arrangements today so that by April I will have my outstanding (stupidity) debts paid off. Then it's just the mortgage payments to be made.

That's going to be a good feeling when its done. 

I proposed and am leading the efforts to do a new capacity expansion project at Megacorp.  It got approved today, huge capex like very well into 8 figures. It's exciting to have the idea and have the company trust that what you are proposing is going to work and give you the go.

booking my honeymoon trip to japan, was able to get two flights, and most of the hotels with just points I've been saving on my credit card and from work travel. Only a few hundred out of pocket for a 2.5 week long trip. Not looking forward to the 18 hour direct flight from Atlanta to Tokyo, though, looked at the first class options and they were like 9 thousand dollars so we're just going to thug it out in main cabin

Our Star Wars group had a block of overflow hotel rooms for a big convention next month, Galaxycon in Columbus.  I wasn't sure if I/we were going until just recently.  Checked the block yesterday, saw $149 rooms available, which being next to the convention center was a steal.  But I had to make sure friends could watch my dog that weekend.

Got the answer last night, went to reserve the room this morning to see "Sorry but this block is closed".  D'oh!  It did mention calling the hotel, I made 3 sep calls, talked to 3 sep people.

The nice lady had one room left w/ 2 queen beds for the $149 rate, and I took it!  (A quick glance showed $300-400 rates anywhere nearby, I was ready to start looking 30min away if I had to.)

Left work an hour early to get the airplane out before sunset-- first opportunity with decent weather in two weeks.

Had the airplane up on jacks two weekends ago to tighten up some hardware in the shimmy damper linkage in an attempt to eliminate a nose gear shimmy condition.  Needed help from a neighboring hangar to provide two extra arms to do the job.

Three takeoffs and landings completed as the sun was nearly down-- no shimmy!

Need to put some torque seal / bolt mark on that hardware as witness marks should it loosen up again.  

Took a brief detour off the PA Turnpike today to meet RevRico, got a couple of smoked pork belly lollipops and a jar of homemade salsa

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Took a brief detour off the PA Turnpike today to meet RevRico, got a couple of smoked pork belly lollipops and a jar of homemade salsa

Those look tasty sir!

Had a minor health scare last week (thankfully a false alarm) that led me to take stock of my situation.  Long story short, I got on a scale for the first time in months and realized how bad things have become, and that something has to change, right now.  I set a no-cost goal to get back into some clothes I already own, and adopted a revolutionary, three-pronged approach to get there: walk more, eat/drink less, and stop the constant snacking.  It's encouraging and surprising to see that I am, in fact, capable of managing my own caloric intake.

So far I'm down about four pounds over five days.  It's a small amount, and undoubtedly not a sustainable rate of weight loss, but it feels good to see some results right away.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

That's basically the approach I have taken since I got out of the hospital in June. I'm down 15 lbs since then. (~3 pounds/ mo) and about 55 pounds since I had my heart attack. Keep it up. You won't regret it. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

It works.  The biggest problem for me was maintaining motivation long term.  February of 22, I figured out the number on the scale that was going to make me do something.  Downloaded the Weight Watchers app that day, at 286.  August, I was at 243, which was past whatbI thought I would get to, and I was lighter than since I was late 30's.  (62 at that time)  I still use WW, but was a bit less strict, because I can squat down and tie my shoes, while breathing.  Got back to 260 this year, but 5 pounds down again without a ton of work.

I sure do understand yoyo dieting now.  It's got to be a lifestyle change, and, sadly, I have lots a bad habits and mental issues around food.  Mostly, it tastes good, and gravy helps to remove stress...

I think I'm going to get back into minibikes. I have a Coleman CT200U and a Coleman CT200U-EX that I bought in August 2022 and haven't done a whole lot with.

Since I'm over 40, I started looking at motorcycle lifts to get the bikes up off the ground. The cheapest one I could find was at Horror Freight which is $440. That's too much plus it's way overkill for a minibike.

So I hit FB Marketplace and found a kid selling his dirt bike stand for $40.

The track is a little too narrow for the fat minibike tires so I started looking for a way to hold the bike upright.

I found a motorcycle wheel chock at Horror Freight that mounts to a trailer deck. Using a highly accurate measurement (my hand), I determined that the minibike tire would juuuuust fit. I didn't have the right hardware to adapt it to the motorcycle stand but I did have a short ratchet strap.

Works like a charm and saves my back. Not bad for about an $80 investment 

So we have a trip planned next year to where my dad's family came from- but we really had no real info on how we got our name because of a lot of reasons.  We decided to hire a genealogist to see if we can fill in that data.

Well, they have found a TON of information, and even some relatives that we will meet next year!  These are 4th cousins since my G^2 Grandfather moved away from there and my G Gf moved to the US, but it's really exciting.  And it sounds like they know of my G^2 GF, but no real info of my GGF's and his brothers move to the US- so I can fill in some of the info.

We had always known that our last name was a location of a farm, but not why- the farm dates back to the 16th century, but my direct relatives didn't move there until the 2nd half of the 19th. and my G^2GF only lived there for 2 years before moving away.  For some reason, he kept the name when moving to a different part of the country, and his kids kept it when they moved to the US.  But the family that stayed on the farm changed their name at the beginning of the 20th century when the farm was broken up into smaller units.  

And that means my last name is really rare.  Anyone with my last name is related to me- which at last count was just 26 here and *maybe* 1 in the original country.

Anyway, we are super excited about it!!!

I can't make everything better, but I can make fried ham. And fried ham makes everything better. At least my breakfast was great this morning, now to see where the day takes me.

My wife just got her first Social Security check deposited into our account today. 

Nice to get money back but when did she get this old?

Doesn't look like much does it? But I got the berkeleying berkeleyer of a berkeleying berkeley wheel off.

A jack pushing on the rim didn't do it, a 20lb sledge didn't do it, heat and cold didn't do it, a 5 foot long tanker bar used to replace tank treads didn't do it. Chemically attacking rust didn't do it.

In the end I had to check the wheels, prevent them from moving and use 4wd low to spin the axle ever so slightly in the hub to break it free. High range wouldn't even do it. Also even a slight amount of throttle will climb a log and 4 chocks btw in low range. Good to know

In reply to alfadriver :

That's really awesome enjoy the trip, where's your family from?

My last name is pretty rare too, I'm mostly Scottish on one side and our friends and my wife are super excited to visit the family castle ( which is for sale hilariously).

I'm also Ukrainian......so that's gonna have to wait a bit to visit

I've been steadily losing weight since I got out of the hospital at the end of June. Last week I got below 200 pounds for the first time since the mid 90s. I had to buy new, smaller, pants a couple months ago. Well, now those are too big. So, yesterday I bought a pair of 34" waist pants for the first time in about 30 years. 

For the record, I'm not doing anything too drastic. I cut out caffeine, alcohol, beef (mostly), butter, eggs and bacon. We try to eat a lot more vegetables and smaller portions of chicken, turkey or salmon. I'm walking/jogging 3 miles on a treadmill and doing some mild strength training 4+ days a week

In reply to CAinCA :

Caffeine?  That's plain blasphemy.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to CAinCA :

Caffeine?  That's plain blasphemy.

Ha! Well, I'm allowed to have 1-2 cups of coffee a day but I've felt better since I quit drinking regular coffee. 
 

I was expecting comments about giving up alcohol, not caffeine. LOL!

Sitrep: Yesterday marked ten days of not treating every meal like an all-you-can-eat challenge. As of yesterday, I'm down seven and a half pounds. In volumetric terms, that's a gallon of fat.

I'll try not to burden you all with a running commentary from here forward, but that felt like a bit of a milestone.

DarkMonohue said:

I'll try not to burden you all with a running commentary from here forward, but that felt like a bit of a milestone.

please keep the updates coming. start a DarkMonohue self-build thread if you feel like you're cluttering up the minor win thread. we want to celebrate with you through the ups and commiserate / encourage you through the downs.

DarkMonohue said:

Sitrep: Yesterday marked ten days of not treating every meal like an all-you-can-eat challenge.

LOL

When I travel for work and sit in hotels a lot, you miss your family you tend to treat your dinner meal as some weird type of reward.

I've worked hard at just getting a salad and maybe a Lean Cuisine.  I struggled this week and packed on 4 pounds.  

42 straight days of vacation starting in t minus 3 hours. I keep thinking I am ready for retirement but I am 43 and this is a real test to see if I can live without work. I have never had more then 10 days off in a row since I started working at 15. 

I already have two weeks of trips planned, my off road 7 day trip to baja got canceled though over permits so I may fly into Mexico city and do a  tour for 6 days and have a guide for all the museums.

Don;' think I am getting to Vegas tomorrow for F1 though but I am going to move some mountains to try.  Willget the 550 registered and the 356 complete drivable for sure.