Shifting Perspectives

This piece looks important.

I guess that explains why Rabbit Season wasn't shifting right recently. Buttered it up with loctite and snugged it back down, so hopefully that'll be the last of that issue.

Laying Some Pipe

Or perhaps unlaying, as the case may be. I removed the last of the vestigial plumbing from the old garage sink (which I finally managed to get dispose of, as an aside) and replaced the shitty 30c hose bib washer connections with a fancy dual ball valve. Now I'm at least 93% more likely to switch the water off when I'm not using the washer (still never gonna happen).

Interestingly this plumbing will be somewhat short lived, as I'll eventually be relocating the washer and dryer to the west wall rather than the south wall, which will (along with replacing the hot water tank with a tankless and relocating it outside) eliminate the mess of pipes going across the stairs between the garage and the house. It's a bit absurd that they were ever there in the first place, but, well, I've learned not to ask too many questions about stuff like that.

I had, with completely unfounded optimism, assumed I could get this job done before lunch when the heat of the day would set in. Two issues prevented that, though. Firstly, this piping is at the low point of the system and I had a great deal of difficulty getting the water out of the pipes. The second, fairly minor, issue was an incomplete solder joint that happened on the valve connection for the hot water of all things. Luckily I caught that while it was still hissing air before the water reached that connection, and I was able to shut things down, re-drain the system, and re-sweat the connection without too much fuss.

In the end I managed to wrap things up by 12:30 completely covered in sweat, but a nice hot shower washed away those worries and I was still able to get a late lunch by 1:00pm. Did a load of laundry after that and everything performed flawlessly.

Feels good to have this project checked off, as it'd been on the list for a while now.

Take Off, Ya Hoser

Got some hose reels installed in the front and back. Front has a 100ft 3/4 inch hose and rear has a 50 foot 5/8 inch hose (5/8 is standard for garden hoses).

I went with the 3/4 hose in front because the longer length will tend to restrict the flow a bit more, and it wasn't much more expensive than the 5/8. It's nice to be able to actually water the plantings out front, though eventually I'd like to finish installing the automatic sprinklers that the previous owners had started... Eventually.

Point of No Return

I guess I'm kinda committed to doing all of them now.

Time to Get Swole

Gave the UPS guy a workout, now it's my turn. At least, it will be once the bar arrives.

Take a long walk up a short hill

Saturday hosted another hike day, the first in a little while. The crew and I went to San Pedro Valley Park in Linda Mar to hoist our corpses to the top of Montara Mountain.

The Search for Stain

So my Ikea patio set was starting to look a bit worse for wear, so I decided to give it a little refurbishment. Since I had some wiping varnish kicking around I decided to give a hidden spot a little quick sanding and splash some on to see how it would look.

Answer: not too hot. This is unfortunate as I wanted to limit my sanding and refinishing to the spots that were actually showing wear, and not have to get into all the little nooks and crannies to make sure everything looked the same.

The good news is that Ikea sells the stain for this furniture set. So I go online to Ikea's website and check to see if the local store has it in stock, and the nearest location that I can get it is an Ikea in frikkin' Arizona. I think to myself "great, it probably has some chemical in it know to the state of California to cause cancer" and so they can't sell it here or some junk.

Just to be sure I drop by the Ikea after work and check to see if maybe it just had a different California-specific SKU or something, but after searching the shelves I can't even find a spot tagged for it, never mind any cans of it.

As a last ditch effort I check with one of the guys manning the "I'm totally lost and need to find something" terminals and he looks it up and is like "oh, you're out of luck, we don't have any. Next shipment of it says it should be here next week."

I wasn't so sure I believed him, but I drop in the week after, this past Thursday, and wouldn't you know it...

Fuckin' miracles!

Crap Flap

So my dryer vent was literally just a hole in the wall that, while it did have some metal trim around it, wasn't exactly much of a dryer vent. I'd bought a replacement vent right when I moved in as part of replacing the shitty corrugated aluminum dryer vent hose inside, but didn't install it right away as I had other more pressing tasks to deal with. I also wanted to do it up nicely with a coat of paint and so on.

Well, today I decided to knock it out. Or, this week really as I painted it before putting it up.

First, the primer. I used an automotive spray primer for good adhesion to the metal.

Then came the exterior semi-gloss paint.

It went on pretty thick and held the brush strokes, but in the end it looked fine so I'm not too fussed. All that was left was to install it.

Kinda rushed the caulking but meh, whatever. It's fine. The actual waterproofing is courtesy of the half-tube of silicone I put in behind the vent before shoving it into place, the stuff around the edges is just for aesthetics.

So now I have a proper dryer vent complete with a rain hood and crap flap! Hurrah!

Plowing through the back 40

Just a quick 40 mile bike ride this morning to put some hours in on the road bikes, Purple Haze in this case. It went pretty well though my lower back is still the weak link in the chain despite doing straight-leg deadlifts to try to beef it up. Oh well, gotta keep working on that I guess.

Use what you got

Put the new boards in my driveway to replace the rotten swiss cheese I pulled out a few weeks ago. Redwood heartwood, with a splash of wiping varnish to help keep the water out.

The middle board is an off-cut without finish for comparison. I didn't sand the boards as it seemed like it would be a bit silly, considering their application.

Anyway, the installation went well, though it left me with the distinct impression that I'm spending an absurd amount of money on clamps.

I dunno, maybe I'll find some other use for them someday.

Let's slow things down

Literally, in this case. Did the brakes on the R65 last week and put together the video of it today.

Dawn of the First Day

Today was productive. I started off by replacing the misbehaving washer fluid pump on the pedovan.

The new one actually makes noise when you push the washer button, so that's cool. I also got a new grommet at the same time, and the new one has a nifty little crud screen on it. It took a hot minute for the washer fluid to actually start coming out after I installed the new pump, but eventually it did and my windshield was swept clean once more.

Other than that I did some pruning and yard maintenance, which kept me busy through to a late lunch, after which I kicked back and relaxed.

Tomorrow is another fresh new day!