What are you doing today?

Edd said:
So I’m crushing the Peloton just now and I learned the song is called Ballroom Blitz, I’ve always called it Bar Room Blitz and now my whole day is fucked.
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I've had that reaction when I found out the lyrics to this or that song were not quite what I had figured. But with that, at least before the era of band-supplied lyrics on streaming platforms, I could always shrug and dismiss other website-provided lyrics and stick to my view of how the song went. But when it's a track title... yeah. I feel your pain!
 
Clix Pix said:
Still doing some work with my archived images and backups.... Hoping that tomorrow I'll be finished with this.

Hanging out on forums in the meantime, of course, and fascinated by human nature and how it reveals itself.....
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In any particular way? There are some truly strange people around. I seem to work with a lot of them!
Mostly planning to spend some time on my computer today. The weather is too awful for little else.
 
Pretty glorious day, cool-er-ish, but sunny. Going to knock around in some code - doing a little cross-pollination between the two major projects - then back to the new beer :) Got a big shipment from Omaha this week, I think we're going to do lobster tacos - pan poached in butter, some small corn "street taco" tortillas, cilantro, maybe a ranch + sriracha + lime dressing.

Yesterday, hahaha, well, that was a bit of a clusterfuck ... o_O

The main bedroom shower has been a little janky, it's a turn/push-pull type setup, just time to change the cartridge. I actually had one NITB I picked up a couple of years ago to have on hand, MOEN branded replacement (the standard 1225).

Now, this is not a big deal in concept :D Remove handle, plate, lock pin, pull out old cartridge, slide new one in, done. Of course, you have to shut off the water for this, and it's rare that this sort of shower has a local cutoff (like the faucets under the sink for example). Our garage full house cutoff we had installed doesn't quite shut things down (needs to be serviced), so I had to go with the county shutoff at "the curb" (we don't actually have curbs :D). I have one of the valve tools, basically a big metal T with a slotted end, give it crank, open some faucets, let it all drain.

An important point - at this stage, we are without water.

I've already done everything short of pulling the old cartridge - I put on the supplied adapter, try to give it a turn, doesn't budge. I shoot a little PB Blaster in it, about die from fumes, go through this several times, no luck, and apparently we are without WD40 which I would've preferred. Off to YT for some help, beyond a more exotic drill and tap process, they recommend a puller tool, and yep the local hardware store has them, so I fly up and of course traffic is insane around here this weekend, we get a lot of overflow from the Daytona 500, ugh, lots of Brandon halfwits.

Grab the tool, a fresh can of WD40, spray it, let it sit, try to the tool - it's basically a screw that connects to the stem, and a collar bolts that you turn and it pulls, I've got the same sort of tool for car pulleys/steering wheels. It barely moves, I spray, turn, repeat, now we're like 2 hours into this. I get a big wrench with some leverage turn, turn, *pow*, it comes out - partially. It was so fused, it sheared off.

Now we're sitting without water and what is in effect an open water line.

I spend time trying to fish out the shrapnel, it's tough, hard to see, it's not coming out, none of my needlenose are long enough or lack the grip, I can't even tell what's what. We make the decision for some EM plumbing help, but nope, none available, either no Sat service, or can't dispatch till the next day.

Do I just try to cap it at this point? Do we go to a hotel? Hahaha, we make drinks, it doesn't help, but we don't care.

At this point I go full Hulk mode, as is usually the case, I can never depend on anyone outside of myself or my family, I'm determined to make this happen. I hit my tool chest and get some stuff wire, make some hooks, I get a couple of thin chisels, and as an odd choice, I grab a reciprocating saw blade, like a demo style, it's long, has hooked teeth.

Wires, etc., fail, but holy hell, the saw blade easily snags the left behind rubber parts, and out they come! I flush it with a water bottle, I can see what's the coupler/pipe and what's the old cart. Now I get a good attack on the stuff stuck the walls, pry, wedge, bit by bit, and finally I snag the big left over piece from the rear.

WOO!

I clean it out good, use a little soap to lube the new cart, in it goes, locking pin, outer pieces, handle, it's smooth like butter, I run outside, turn the water back on. Perfect, works amazing, the flow must be doubled, not only was the old cart not shutting 100% down and hard to move, it was impending the water flow. We had just put in a new big shower head too, now it's crazy amazing, it's one of those huge dish style, it's like a resort now - the shower beer was amazing last night :D

Went ahead and ordered all new exterior pieces too, they'll be here today, no biggie, that's just a couple of screws, water stays on, figured we did all this, time, might as well do a full refurb :D
 
Browsing online, sipping coffee, reading, watching hailstones hammer the window - and listening to the wind attempt a mindless shriek - from the next storm, the current one, that is, (the BBC forecast helpfully reminds me to expect "hail showers and severe gales") after having experienced the last (two) - the most recent pair - by way of storms over the past few days/week.
 
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Got up with the baby at about 6 am, my son then woke up and joined us at 7am. Shoulder pain and arm issues are back hence trying to take it easy where possible and keeping the nerve as warm as possible.

My wife and sister in law will take the kids swimming later which will allow me to have a bit of quiet time for some reading I hope.

-10 over here hence being outside is not for me today.
 
Eric, have they checked your heart condition (ECG, Ultrasound etc.)?
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Nothing special today either. Reading mostly. Oh, yes, went into MR battle with ericwn and cmaier.

Came back from the battle with my trousers down.
 
Ulenspiegel said:
Eric, have they checked your heart condition (ECG, Ultrasound etc.)?
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Nothing special today either. Reading mostly. Oh, yes, went into MR battle with ericwn and cmaier.

Came back from the battle with my trousers down.
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ECG is to be booked in the coming days, blood work is scheduled for next week.
 
It's President's Day. Grrrrrr........

And a nice day to boot. So Home Depot is filled with DIY'ers who have no clue why they are there or what they are looking for. :(
 
Holy shit, this is E V I L (in the best possible way :D)


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Spent some time processing older images this morning, then in the afternoon chatted with neighbors for a while -- a nice thing about this being a federal holiday is that those who are still working had the day off and were popping in-and-out so a nice time for catching up. After that I somewhat belatedly got outside again with the camera but the pickings were pretty slim as far as interesting photos were concerned. A goose and I briefly greeted each other, and a big bird -- one without feathers -- went flying overhead so I aimed the camera in that direction as well. Now at my stomach's urging, I'm contemplating what to have for dinner....
 
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