Thursday, July 28, 2011

Aerie Report, July 28, 2011

I was laying on the couch late this afternoon wondering why I felt so tired. I mean besides getting to sleep after midnight last night and getting awakened by Chester just before 0600 this morning. And making three trips in to town. Then it hit me: I cut the grass this morning! Sheesh! How could I forget an hour and a half with the mower?

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Traveling around on Monday and Tuesday I noticed a shimmy in the front end of the Tundra whenever I applied my brakes. Yesterday, on our way to Binghamton, I stopped at the dealers to see if I could get the vehicle in to get looked at. Tuesday at 2 PM was the earliest slot he had, so I took it. As soon as we left the dealership, the dang shimmy stopped! All the way to Binghamton and back to the Aerie: No shimmy! Today I purposefully made three trips down the hill and on two of the three I detected no shimmy when I applied my brakes. I came t-h-i-s close to calling and cancelling my appointment.

I'm going up to the Bolt Hole tomorrow using the Tundra to haul some materials to paint the roof. I was going to haul the ATV up on the trailer, but until I'm sure about the cause of the shimmy, that's will have to wait. I will get some work done on the roof--once the forecast rains of Friday end.

Accuhunch says there could be 1.5 plus inches of rain around the Bolt Hole Friday and Friday night. Then again, they said we would see mostly sunny skies at the Aerie today and only scattered showers. We got the scattered showers, but never saw the sun. As a result, the forecast 82 degrees didn't happen and we maxed out at a very pleasant 72.

Back to the painting.... The metal roof up there is really in need of a coat of silver paint with some fiber in it. This should keep it cooler in the summer, water proof what few small leaks there may be, and allow the snow to slide off more easily. At least that's my hope. If a few hundred dollars in paint and some elbow grease will help the roof last a few more years, well, that's okay too. (I got some patching tar and ringed, washered screws to fill old nail holes as well.) The problem with the painting is you can't do it if it's too cold, too hot, too wet, or if it's going to rain within 24-35 hours. I figure, IF I can believe AccuHunch, that I've got Saturday afternoon and Sunday to get something accomplished. Scattered T-storms are forecast for Monday night but the chances are slim. If the forecast changes I'll do more painting on Monday. If the chance of rain increases, I'll go cut some more firewood. I'm flexible that way.

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I'll drive back on Tuesday for the Tundra's checkup and stay the night at the Aerie. Then Wednesday, IF the Tundra gets the okay, I'll haul the ATV up so I can get the firewood out of the woods. With a long range forecast showing no rain until August 6, I might even get more painting in on Thursday and Friday (August 4 & 5).

6 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

I wish you good luck re: the Tundra. It sounds like your next few days are booked ... my only weekend engagement (so far) is a trip to the range on Sunday afternoon. Other than that, my plans don't involve the future.

gjsmith said...

came to your site from Surber's link. Lived in Endwell from 87-95 and was wondering, did the Binghampton area ever recover? I'd worked at Link Flight, when they'd gone from 3000 employees to 700 and at the same time IBM went from 10000 to 5000. Quite a glut of Computer Science engineers.

gjsmith ( @ don's blog )

joated said...

gjsmith, No, Binghamton hasn't really come back to its glory days. Not for lack of trying, though. THey would be a boom town right now if not for NYState dragging it's heels on the Marcellus Shale drilling. All of Broome County is sitting on billions of $$ of potential income and jobs up the yazoo if/when NY stops listening to it's down state eco freaks.

joated said...

Should have mentioned, one of the reasons Hillary got elected to the senate was her promise of helping rejuvenate upstate NY and find it jobs, jobs, jobs. Didn't happen and over 25% of the young folks are saying they will be looking elsewhere when they're old enough to be on their own.

gjsmith said...

Mr. joated?

I knew quite a few good people in upstate NY. I'd probably have stayed, except :) .. my new bride talked me into a small development. If I'd own the small acreage I'd seeked, I might have stayed. In the long run, I'd moved back to NJ and now live in SC. But the "coolest" job I'd ever had was testing "problems" on the AH-64 CMS.

:)

Hope this post is "ok", on your blog. Upstate was a great place to live, just no jobs.

gjsmith said...

BTW, promises from candidates.

worth very little.