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a win on the marginal rustbuckets I drive
Tuesday, August 14 2018
I awoke in the middle of the night with a need to poop and no desire to go to the brownhouse in the rain and mosquitoes (I was pretty sure it was still raining), so I went to the basement guestroom, and that was where I slept most of the rest of the night. At some point this morning I thought my hangover would be worse than it turned out to be. It was surprisingly low on psychological symptoms and headaches, though there was a pain in my gut for awhile.
It turns out that a good way to weather a hangover is to do active physical work. Today I replaced all the front brake pads on the Subaru, a task that required jacking up the car and removing and then reinstalling both front wheels. I also had to use a breaker bar on the 14mm nut holding the calipers over the brake shoes, but any screw that can be removed without having to drill it out is a win on the marginal rustbuckets I drive.
The weather held out for most of this work, though a surprise rain storm that arrived between the work on the driver's side and the work on the passenger's side sent me running out to rescue my tools.
To help make sure I was doing things right, I consulted YouTube videos along the way. Somehow this led me to watching a video of showcasing the "worst tools" in common circulation. Amusingly, most of these tools seemed to work okay as they were brought out and demonstrated. I was in strongest agreement about the uselessness of stud finders, which have never worked for me. Instead, I use rare earth magnets to find the screw heads buried in the drywall and deduce where the studs are from those. I also use rare earth magnets to pin posters against drywall screws, since (unlike tape and glue) they never fail.
This evening I installed another electrical outlet in Gretchen's screened in porch. The new one was in the clapboards of what had been the exterior wall in the same stud bay as the outdoor light switch in the interior wall. I'd remembered hanging a piece of romex wire down from that switchbox in case I wanted to put another outlet in the interior wall. But now, because of Gretchen's arrangement of the furniture, the need was for one in the exterior wall so she could have a reading lamp. Before cutting a big hole, I drilled a 1.25 inche hole with a spade bit so I could make sure there really was a wire down there to use. The first wire I found was a fat black piece of romex that was part of the house's original wiring. Was that what I'd left for myself? I couldn't remember. More fishing around revealed a flat piece of yellow romex in that same bay, and before long I had the new outlet installed. This sort of work is easy if you have an oscillating tool, existing wire to attach to, and an "old work" electrical box. While I was finishing that up, Gretchen whipped up a meal based on some sort of vegan ravioli (the pre-made kind; though she's been known to make it by hand).
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