RowdyRebel

Sounds like this time I went riding with a bunch of flatlanders upstate. I was giving them a hard time about being crazy & reckless because they were riding wheelies up past 100 mph. Later on in the day, we were cruising along when one guy gunned it...so we all took off. All of a sudden, everybody else (except me) got on the binders hard...I held that throttle wide open and zipped through the approaching S-curve. Next time we stopped, they were ribbing me for giving them a hard time for riding their wheelies when I'm the one taking 70 mph curves at 130 mph. I told 'em "Looked like a 130 mph curve to me!"😂 Apparently, that's the only curves they have around there. Personally, I couldn't live like that.🤷‍♂️

We actually had our St Patricks day dinner yesterday since the wife was off. I got a 3.5# flat cut of corned beef, 4# of those little red potatoes, 2# of baby carrots, and a sweet onion & tossed it all in the crock pot before heading outside to work on the F250. Around 5:30, a guy comes walking up the driveway. Apparently, they're moving from Indiana over to Missouri and his wife's car lost power steering. He was driving the moving truck. He was seeking some power steering fluid, so I filled up a quart jug & handed it to him inquiring what was wrong...because if it was leaking that bad, they'd be right back where they are before they made it out of town. They'd had some work done on the radiator, and apparently they didn't secure a line (turned out to be the cooler), so it had come loose & dragged.on the ground. I gave him a piece of hose and some clamps to try to patch it based upon what he'd told me & sent him on his way. 7:00 our dinner is almost done so I'm cleaning up & notice he's still over there...so I jump in the Ranger and go check on them. Turns out the hole was on the bend in the end of the cooler, so the patch I'd thought would work wasn't going to work. I got to looking at it and decided by removing a couple hose clamps I could remove the cooler, then use some hose barbs to loop in a short section of hose to complete the circuit. They only had 30 or so miles to go, so it'd get them there. Anyway, when I got back home, I discovered the family had decided to eat without me. So much for enjoying a family dinner.🤦‍♂️ Worst part of the story, though, is when I got back after helping them and was putting tools away out of the back of the Ranger, I found the steel backing plate that was SUPPOSED to be between the water pump & timing cover. Oops. Guess I get to pull it apart again. I had THOUGHT all I had left to do was put the radiator back in, attach the fan, install the new upper & lower hoses and fill 'er up. Guess now I get to remove the accessory brackets (again) so I can pull the water pump off (again) and put that plate in there. Luckily I don't have to pull the timing cover off this time...THAT was a real b¡t©h to get on with all of the gaskets & seals trying to shift out of place while I was getting it put in. HOPEFULLY that won't leak...we'll find out when I eventually get to fill 'er up, I guess. Tonight we're having pizza.🤷‍♂️

...but if every road were shortened, they wouldn't get us where we need to go...unless they're just straightened out to remove all of the bends, twists, turns, and hills to provide a more direct route...but then they'd just be straight, flat, and boring. I like the narrow little hilly twisty curvey fun roads. Always have. Doesn't matter if I'm on 2 wheels or 18, that's always been my preference. Hell, as long as I've got at least 4 wheels, I'll even take a dirt or gravel road over the interstate...and my wife will even vouch for that. Our trip to Colorado last summer I spent more time driving on gravel than the interstate, even pulling the travel trailer. She wasn't amused, but it got us where we were going.😂

If anhydrous is so expensive, why do they keep leaving the valves open on the tanks here in town? Last time it happened, it was the 3rd time in a week and I was just tired of it...if the wind is blowing the wrong direction, it makes being outside unbearable...so rather than calling the sheriff like I normally do when it happens to get ahold of the company to eventually maybe get somebody out there to shut off the tank, I called the EPA and reported the leak. THEN I called the sheriff, and reported the tanks leaking again & mentioned that I had just reported the leak to the EPA. About 5 minutes later, there was an unmarked vehicle on the corner...and shortly after that the place was lit up like a Christmas tree. Fire trucks, ambulances, cop cars from both the county and the state...it was a big to-do. Probably 30+ 1st responders on the scene. Tanks got shut off, and hopefully the company got billed for the over-the-top response. In any case, it hasn't happened again since that night. If it does, I know now who to call first.😂

It'd be more of a toy than a tool. I bought my son one of those "big dig" sandbox backhoe toys and then mounted it on an old David Bradley (walk behind tractor) seat-cart frame and made it so he could pull it behind his little pedal tractor. I'd probably just hook this up behind the lawn mower and play. Don't think it'd dig a deep enough hole for anything useful like hiding bodies and it'd be too much work getting on & off to keep moving it around to dig a trench for a foundation. This video was before I modified the seat cart to hold the backhoe. I had just found some wheels for it and welded up the tongue to hitch it to the tractor.

So apparently today is the anniversary of the plane crash that took her life. Local country station played a tribute...a part of a documentary with eye-witness accounts describing the gruesome scene. Apparently, the bodies on board were so badly mangled, disfigured, and dismembered that they didn't know how many people were aboard and were only able to ID them by the documents found in their pockets. Then they went right into a Patsy Cline song. Any guesses? If you said "I fall to pieces" you'd be correct.😬🤦‍♂️ Yeah, gave me a chuckle, too.😂

https://www.harborfreight.com/9-hp-towable-backhoe-62365.html I honestly thought they'd be more expensive. I might have to get me one...🤦‍♂️

😎

My wife was down in New Braunfels, TX when I met her. Wasn't too bad...shit, that was 22 years ago this summer. Last time we went down there was a little over 5 years ago just before my boy's 1st birthday so he could meet Grandma, and my how it'd changed! Couldn't make a left off her mom's street due to a ridiculous amount of traffic...had to make a right & find someplace to turn around. We'd stopped off in Gainesville on the way down to visit some of the wife's college friends, and the entire way...300+ miles...was the traffic volume of 270 around St. Louis at rush hour, but moving at 70+ mph. Absolutely insane. We had been considering moving to Texas, but I told her I wasn't going to have to deal with that crap 10 hours per day 5 days per week. We'll get out of Illinois eventually. Texas is great, just not if you're a driver. The region we're in isn't bad...just need to get across a river. Doesn't matter if it's the Mississippi or Ohio...or even a little farther up to the Wabash...just need to get across a state line to find a little freedom. This here state sucks.

I bought my house 20 years ago this fall for $60k. Doubt I could get half that today. Anybody looking to buy a house in these parts is going to buy across the river. Anybody willing to buy a house in this state is going to buy farther into the state closer to whatever jobs haven't disappeared. Hell, nobody even wants to rent around here. There's a rental house just across the highway that's been sitting vacant for at least 4 years now. Sucks, because we'd love to GTFO of this state...but can't afford to walk away. Governor of this state loves raising our taxes, burdening us with regulations, forcing schools to teach every woke BS topic that comes along, meanwhile kids can't read, write, or do math at grade level, and they're ignorant in science & history. It's rather amusing how proud he is to declare this a "sanctuary state" while crying about the influx of illegals from Texas. I fly the flag as a big ol' F-YOU to the fat slob who calls himself the governor of this wretched state.

Thanks. Not as young as I used to be, but still not as old as some of you old farts. 😂 Taking the day off work today, the wife & I will get a day together...dig out all of the bags of cans from the garage & run them to town, maybe hit an antique shop or two. Gotta be home to get the boy off the bus. She was going to let me sleep in, but I ain't missing giving my boy a big wiggly tickly hug before he gets on the bus in the morning...so everybody is up bright & early today. Off to a great start!

It's only 20 miles farther for me to head north to Chester to cross before heading back south on my way to work, as opposed to heading south to Cape before turning north. Tacks on about 35-40 extra minutes, due to a 55 mph speed limit (or lower) the entire way vs 70 mph for about half the trip...so it really isn't too bad. Few years ago when East Cape was flooded & the bridge was closed for a few weeks, I worked 4-day weeks instead of 5, my wife worked 3-day weeks instead of 4. I came home every night. She stayed in the LQ of a horse trailer on the farm for 2 nights. Her commute was 100 miles instead of 25, so she'd drive to work & stay at the farm, then come home after the 3rd day. That way, one of us would be home with the baby so we didn't need the sitter, which would've really had us racking up the miles. Luckily our bosses understood & she had enough PTO to make it work...saved us over $300/week in gas & babysitter pay...not to mention the TIME. If I could find someone dumb enough to actually buy a house in Illinois these days, especially one that's only a stones throw from Missouri, we'd solve this occasional problem and move to Missouri where we both work and our horses are boarded. Alas, finding someone THAT dumb is a pretty difficult task, so we're pretty much stuck where we're at.😖

So Wednesday, I had to do a run in the Kenworthless, and it broke down on my way back to the mill. Sat for a while on the side of the highway, then the boss showed up with a fuel filter and some starting fluid. Changed that, and still nothing. It'd run on starting fluid, but that was it. Wrecker showed up, boss gave me a ride back, and after punching out, I made my way down to take care of my horses. Left there making my way towards the bridge...and it was closed. Cops all over. Big to-do. Said there was "evidence" scattered all over the road, so it would be closed while they process it all. Won't open before daybreak. Probably mid-day. Possibly later. So I looked at the time, and figured I'd better hang around in town to let my wife follow me home, since we'd have to go around to another bridge...about 100 miles whether we went north to Chester or south to Cairo. So she gets off work and we headed north. Made it to Perryville and she gets a flat tire. Great. She's been driving her mom's car (better fuel mileage) but that car (2015 Dodge Dart) never came with a spare. So here it is midnight and I'm phoning friends to have someone bring a trailer up. He got there, we loaded it up, he headed back to the farm with the car and we headed home. Got there at 3:30, grabbed a bite to eat, and my head hit the pillow JUST IN TIME for my alarm to go off waking me up for work. Needless to say, Thursday was fun. Anyway, turns out a guy had shot a cop up in Granite City on Tuesday, and they found him in Cape Wednesday. High speed pursuit across the bridge (eastbound in the westbound lanes avoiding spike strips) before trying to cut across a field & getting stuck. Holes up in his truck for a while, then got out with a rifle. The "Find Out" was off the charts. Volume up! Not much to see on the video...but the audio. Holy crap! The news article: https://www.kfvs12.com/2024/02/08/police-chase-happening-east-cape-girardeau-bill-emerson-bridge-shut-down/

...and I bought a Texas flag to fly on my flag pole out front. Wife might think I'm flying it for her (being from Texas and all)...but it's not. I just gotta get my Christmas lights taken down.🤦‍♂️ I run some lights up the pole to make a light tree. Can't put up the flag 'til I get the lights down.

That's what a lot of folks don't understand. The oath wasn't to a president, or to the congress, or to the courts. It was to the Constitution. When a president, or the congress, or the courts act in ways repugnant to the Constitution, your loyalty lies with the Constitution in opposition to them...as it should. If they don't like something in the Constitution, there are ways to change the document. When they know they can't get 2/3 support in both legislative chambers AND 3/4 of the states on board with their desired changes, they try to make end-runs around the parts they don't like using corrupt courts to uphold unconstitutional laws & policies. In the courts, far too much emphasis is placed upon "precedent" to justify a decision they want to make despite being in contradiction with the text & intent of the Constitution. It's much like the telephone game you may have played as a kid...where a message is whispered from one person to the next around the room. It tends to change a little bit every person or two, with the final product unrecognizable to the original message. This is how precedent works. Case A is decided on the basis of the Constitution. Case B refers back to A, C to B, D to C, and so on and so forth. By the time you get to cases E & F, the decisions have nothing to do with the Constitution. Keep going along this line of "precedent" and G, H, and I are blatantly violating the Constitution. The phrases "Congress shall make no law" and "Shall not be infringed" start to mean nothing at all because exceptions are allowed by "precedent". Further "precedent" allows the expansion of those exceptions until congress feels free to make whatever laws they want, infringing upon whatever rights they deem unnecessary. We have one party comfortable enough with the way the game has been going that they no longer try to hide who they are. We have another party who is like an abused spouse...compromising their own principals, giving the other side anything/everything they want to avoid conflict and "get things done". This desire to do something...even if it is the wrong thing...has killed the GOP. Few are willing to fight. Then they wonder how/why someone like Trump is so popular with voters. I really liked Vivek, too, and how he handled himself on the campaign...if he sticks around & doesn't blow it, I think he's got a real bright political future. Anyway, enough Sunday morning ramblings. Almost time for the kiddos to get out of Sunday School...gotta head upstairs to Church.

I'd take the Cubs over the White Sox any day of the week...

Yup. I quit drinking Budweiser when they sold out to the foreigners. Went through a variety of American beers & settled on Shiner as my "preferred" brew.

Holy crap I was glad to have my Ranger back today! Turns out the clutch problem was a bad spring clip on the connection where the line from the master plugs into the slave cylinder. Luckily, hadn't tossed the old one from when we swapped transmissions a few months ago. Anyway, driving in to work today & making pretty good time, and in the blink of an eye the roads turned slicker than a greased pig. Truck just felt like it was floating and the back end started coming around. Pushed in the clutch and kept the front wheels aimed where I wanted to go and she came back to me...and then I slowed down. Salt shaker I'd passed a few miles back came hauling ass past me and almost sucked me around...again with the clutch to maintain control. He gets about 3/4 of a mile ahead of me and all of a sudden I'm looking at his driver's door, and I'm thinking he's going into the median. He used up every bit of pavement, but managed to save it...sort of...got a good look at his passenger door as he drifted back across 2 lanes to the right shoulder. Somehow, he gathered it up...and then slowed the f*** down. All I know is it would've been ugly if I'd been in the Suburban or Blazer...both automatics. I might've been able to keep sawing on the wheel until I got it under control again...but then I might not have. Last time I got out of sorts in the Suburban, I was fishtailing for over 3/4 of a mile before I was finally able to regain control. Made it to work & spent the 1st 2 hours sliding around on the bobcat spreading salt with the bucket. Apparently, the farther north you went, the worse the roads got. A co-worker said his kid had gone about 20 miles farther up the road & turned around to go back home...had already seen 19 cars in the ditch and decided it wasn't worth trying to keep going north. Later in the day, I was heading up that way (temps higher, road thawed) and saw a recovery underway. Mail-hauler had exited the roadway through the ditch, side-swiped the tree line, and came to a stop out in a field. There was nothing left of the cab. I'll take snow over this ice/freezing rain crap any day of the week.🤦‍♂️

I've seen -6 F on bank signs while riding my motorcycle. What's the wind chill at 80 mph?🤔

My wife is funny. She says to me this morning "When the weather gets better, you should show me how to run the tractor so on days like today when you're not feeling good, I can move a round bale so you don't have to go out." This is the same girl who won't wear thermals under her clothes because she might have to buy a size bigger (heaven forbid), so she's just chronically cold every winter.🙄 Then I find out where she gets it from. I'm layered up getting ready to leave and her mother asks "Do you feel up to going out in this?" "No, but the horses need to be fed and another bale of hay put out. Doesn't matter if I feel 'up to it' or not, it has to get done." So I drive out to the farm where the horses are boarded to find all of the locks are frozen. Damn torch is in my Ranger, so I climb the gate, stall up the horses, feed them, then drive to the store for another torch & propane bottle. Get back to the farm, open the gates, tractor won't start. Hook the jumper cables up to the Suburban for a little extra juice & still won't fire. Pull the air cleaner & give it a shot of ether and we're in business. Get a bale from the barn & set it out for them, and as I'm parking the tractor back in the shed the property owner pulls in and says "Why don't you plug it in so it starts easier for you next time." Gee, thanks. Would've been nice if y'all would've had it plugged in for THIS time. Won't need it again for another week, and it won't be in the single digits then. Anyway, even if my wife knew how to operate the tractor, today would've been a bit much for her...especially when she's time-limited on her way to work.

Yikes! Here, we had 50 degrees & pouring rain all morning on Friday...enough that you didn't want to wear TOO much & sweat your balls off, but enough because temps were supposed to drop in the afternoon. And drop they did! Took the Kenworthless out for a delivery...no heat...it was 50 and calm when I left the mill, and 30 degrees with a 44mph winds by the time I made it to where I was going. 1st 8 tons went on a barn floor, so it was easy enough to stand inside the barn as it augered off the truck. Next 8 tons went into a bin. 30' up a fairly stout ladder that was twisting and flexing under the torque generated by the winds blowing broadside on me as I was climbing up to open & close the lid. It was all I could do to not get blown off. Between being damp from the morning rain, coupled with the cold wind & no heat in the truck, I had lost all feeling in my feet by 2:00. Get back to the mill, and they had started making another customer's feed...and it is rather sticky, so if it sits too long in the loadout bin or truck, it is a real MFer to get out...so I had to stick around for one more load. Got back, parked the truck, and said "I'm done" a little before 7. 58-2/3 hours for the week. Couldn't feel my feet or legs. Hips, shoulders, elbows aching. I was done. Got in the wife's Blazer (Ranger is out-of-commission for now) and cranked the heat on the floor. Checked the horses...had enough hay to get to today, and I REALLY didn'lt feel like moving a round bale, so I went home. Kicked off my boots, got out of my work clothes, and laid down until 10:30 yesterday morning. FINALLY this morning I'm feeling back to my usual warm-blooded self...just have a bit of a headache. Bad part is, today it was 2 degrees when we woke up. It's up to 4 degrees now. As much as I DON'T want to go out in it, I've got to. Got to pen up the horses & feed them, set out a round bale, and check their water. We ditched church today...between me not feeling well and the bitter cold, it's best not to take the kids out in this crap. On the plus side, at least I'm dry today, so it shouldn't be TOO bad... People think I'm nuts for prefering snow over rain...but if you can stay dry, you can stay warm. I don't care HOW good your rain gear is, if you're working outside you'll eventually get wet.

I always enjoyed the look I got when I brought back tools for replacement under warranty. My favorite was the 3/4" T-slide that I'd bring in looking more like a J-slide. When they'd pick up their jaw from the floor and ask how the hell I did that, I'd just flex and say "They just don't make tools like they used to..." Reality was, I was changing tires & breaking loose the lug nuts that wouldn't budge with my 3/4" impact...so I'd put the socket on the T-slide, slip a 3' pipe over the handle, wrap a chain around the pipe, and use my 2-ton cherry picker to lift up on the chain & bust them loose. T-slide handle would bend into a J every time. When I was done, I'd go back to Sears to swap so I'd have it for the next time.

My parents would always do whatever shopping they needed to do for big-ticket items after church whenever they could. My dad was a bricklayer back then, so if they went after work they couldn't find a salesman willing to help. After church, though, the salesman were jumping at the chance to sell to them.

Legendary Nascar driver (back when it was still worth watching) and friend of the Duke boys... https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2023/12/31/cale-yarborough-fierce-competitor-and-three-time-cup-series-champion-dies-at-age-84/

"Boxing Day" around here is the day after Thanksgiving, celebrated primarily at the Walmart, shopping malls, etc... 😂