The weather is cold!

[Edwin]

We have a saying, "knock on wood," and I think it means for example if I say I am sure glad that I feel good, I will be sure to get sick right away, so I should be careful not to say that I feel good. I was at this building store when I have been getting my concrete blocks, and I helped load the blocks because they were short of help, so I got warmed up and took of my jacket. The young guy helping me said, "It sure is warm for this time of the year!" He said that because I told him that I suddenly was too warm. Well when we got home it was starting to get cold. I had a little job to do putting the 30 blocks I brought home up against the house, and so I kept warm, but there was a cold bite in the air. Before I came into the house which was really early but still after dark because of standard time, Scooby's drinking water was already freezing a pretty thick sheet of ice! So I think it will get cold tonight.

By tonight I have one end of our house with blocks 40 inches high on the wall. It is like a partial wall, 40 inches high off the ground. I think it looks really nice; my opinion of course, and it will keep the cold out with plastic keeping the wind out, so I am really happy about that. I will try to take some pictures and post them here as soon as I can. I have the north side of the house finished which is where our cold winds come from, and down each side 10 or 12 feet. As soon as we can put the water system in the cellar that will give me enough blocks to go another 30 feet or so, along our house. I figure each time I bring 30 blocks home that gives me enough blocks to do about 7 or so feet, so eventually I will get it finished. I think it will greatly improve the looks, beautify our home to have those blocks all the way around, and it will keep the cold, freezing wind from blowing underneath our house, and that will be nice. We have had metal roofing for skirting, but it has not been weather tight, letting lots of cold, freezing air blow under our house, making the floor cold, and the traps freeze which makes the shower drain not work until I can thaw it, which is not difficult, but with running water going under our house, we can't have it freezing, and I am putting some insulation under there which should help as well!

[Edwin]

I had lots of days that were nice and warm, with many of them even uncomfortably hot, but I waited until it is uncomfortably cold to work on the brakes on my pickup truck! I could have, should have done something before now, because they have not been working correctly for a long time, but I was getting by, so I just kept driving the pickup instead of fixing it. Now the brakes have gotten bad enough that it takes me too long to get any brake action, and I am apt to run into something before I am able to get my pickup truck stopped. So finally after the last trip home, I came to the realization that I can't drive it anywhere, and especially not to town until I can make the brakes work. I started with adjusting the brake shoes so they have less clearance with the brake drums. I did the two back brakes, and I was having trouble finding a safe place in the front to jack the pickup wheel up, and I was getting so cold, and so miserable, fingers, toes, and my whole body was cold, so that I decided that I had better wait for another day, when maybe the cold wind is not blowing to continue working on the front breaks, which on that old 1969 Ford Pickup, are also drum breaks. If this actions does not get results I will try bleeding the air out of the lines, and if that does not help, then maybe the master brake cylindar is worn out. Right now it is a guessing game, and eventually, before too long, I hope I will have the problem solved and the brakes fixed. I need to haul things for my projects, and right now it is not safe to use my old pickup, so I will just have to do the best I can with it!

[Smiley]

I used to have a `68 F100. Small 6 with 3 on the tree.What a great truck!I put 16 inch wheels on it,lots of ground clearance for farm trails and great gas mileage on the open road.
Thats a truck worth keepin my friend,sorry that I sold mine
.
Every year about this time,as the air gets nippy,I miss my old farmhouse and its woodstoves.Few things are nicer than feeding a wood burning stove when it is cold outside,well. . . . . maybe being someplace warm to begin with would be nice too

[Edwin]

Remember, Smiley, I started this post to complain about how cold our summer was, and you told me that warmer weather was coming in the next few days; well you were right and we had a long run of hot dry days. Well, now it is very cold again; I mean, not like cold summer, but cold winter with the wind blowing. It is okay, and we will live with it, because that is what is supposed to happen this time of the year.

Yes, I bought that old truck from a young lady that I had taught in a 1st grade classroom! I paid $500.00 for it, and the only things I have done has been to change the oil, and replace a settlement bulb under the fuel pump. I also put new tires on it as well. It is been a wonderful old truck. It has a large V 8 engine in it, so I don't drive it unless I need to haul something. I have a steep hill to pull up out of town, 2800 feet elevation, so the power is handy until I am filling up at the gasoline station! I put horse racks on it, that my brother gave to me for a birthday present many years ago. He built them himself. I have them to my son-in-law, and after he didn't need them anymore he gave them back to me, and I am very happy to have them. I put them on to tie an upright grand piano, so that it would not tip, over and that worked great. After trouble shooting I found out that the master brake cylindar has gone bad. I have one ordered for a little less than $30.00, and then I will be on the road with it again, and that is good, because I need to haul some sheets of green, mold restistant, sheet rock, gypson board for my bathroom, and I was stressing about how I would get that done when I didn't know what was wrong with my brakes. Well the part will be in town Wednesday, and within an hour or two I will have the brakes working so that it will be safe to drive again. I also need to grease it, and I have a grease gun and grease handy, so that will be a small chore, and one I have been neglecting! It also has an oil bath air cleaner that needs to be changed as well, so there's always something mroe that needs to be done, huh!

A little humor here! I was talking with the owner of a Honda shop a number of years ago, and of course he was pushing Honda motorcycles. I have always been intrigued with Harley Davidsons, partially because my Dad owned two of the earlier models to come out before he and my Mom were married. The Honda shop owner told me if I owned a Harley, I had better own a pickup also, because I would need to haul it often after it broke down, and he told me that Hondas do not break down as often as Harleys, but I think he was saying that because he was a Honda dealer! I would still love to own a Harley, and I might someday, and if not I will always dream about it anyway!

[Smiley]

I have owned a lot of motorcycles over the years.Even some Hondas. I don`t tell anybody else what they can or cannot ride. I love old Harleys.The pretty much develop personalities over the years.A Honda has about the same personality as a sewing machine. My present ride is a 33 year old shovelhead 80cu.in(1340cc) that I bored .030 over.The heads are decked .045 with oversize valves and dual plugs running on dual coils.I`m also running an aftermarket cam that is a little more aggressive.Dyna2000 single fire slid state ignition and an S&S super 'E'carb.
No one has ever mistaken it for a sewing machine.
That bike has no trouble keeping up with the new ones and looks good doing it.
I don`t pretend that it is trouble free. However,if you rode a 33 year old Honda as much and as hard as I ride,you just might be in for a world of hurt too.
I don`t know what I would ride in the Philippines.Probably not a Harley but I did see some in Manilla,I just hope that I can find something not too small or boring.

[Edwin]

Smiley, I think ou have good taste for doctoring up your bike the way you want it, and that is much of the fun of it, isn't it? I have a friend years ago that rode and worked on Harleys and I was going to visit my father-in-law with our family who lived in Bremerton, Washington at the time. He had me pick parts for him at a bike shop there, and he was customizing his bike to be what he wanted it to be. He rode with a gang of Harley enthusiats, and one of his gripes was that they had one member of the group who wanted his Harley to run perfectly, which is okay, but he was always at the side of the road trying to make it run better, which everyone else was miles down the road wandering what happened to him. I think part of the time, the more he tinkered with it, the worse it ran!

Smiley, while I was in the Philippines in 2010, what I saw was a whole lot of small underpowered Honda bikes, and the ones with the side cars. They over loaded them pitifully, and they would lug down on any little grade. If I remember correctly they were mostly Honda 125s! If I were going to live there, I think I would take my Honda 500 cx deluxe all apart, put it in a box, and ship it over there, then put it back together once I got to the Philippines, and I would have the most powerful bike on the road! Its a good bike, but at this point it needs a lot of work. Even though it was a lot of work, and almost killed me, because the front brake was bound up and I had to slide the tire to move it, and it was too heavy to be moving it that way. I put it in one of my refer trailers to get it out of the weather, and putting it in there made me feel so happy, thinking about all the fun I had riding it years ago! One of these days when I get caught up with my other projects I may put a new tire on the front, now mufflers, new throttle cable, now battery, renew the front calipers and brake pads, and I will be ready to ride!!!! Boy then I will have fun, and I just may do that, and then after that I may just lose control and go for a Harley, who knows? I have been dreaming for years! It just may be a dream come true one day!

[Edwin]

I bought a Vespa 90 motor scooter in 1966! I loved that little red scootor. The worst problem that happened to me with it was that I didn't mix the gasoline correctly a couple of times, and I fouled the spark plug and ended up getting stranded! If I would have had a spark plug wrench and a knife that would not have happened to me! It was a lot of fun. I once got it out of control after I rode through a dusty chuck hole, but I managed without wrecking. I also rode into a herd of horses after dark, and ended up skidding back and forth weaving in and out of the horse, and it is a wonder that I did wreck or have a horse kick me that time, but I survived without a problem. I once opened a wire gate, went through the gate, closed the gate, and the road was 2 distinct tracks, so I changed tracks too quickly flipping the scooter right off its wheels, but I was going slowly just starting up from a stop at the gate, and I didn't hurt myself or the scooter. When it went down it stopped faster than I did. When I went off, I just kept sliding on the ground ahead of the scooter. It was a surprise and shock, because I never expected to go down, and then to be sliding along the ground ahead of my scooter was an experience! That was the only wreck I had, and there was no damage to me or my scooter. I never lost control with my Honda 500 CX Deluxe. I was always pretty careful with my riding, and the Lord was with me!

[Edwin]

It got 14 degrees F. last night! For the first time since last April we woke up to no running water; it was all frozen solid! We shut all the water valves off, and started taking the water system parts; pressure tank, pump, and hot water heater down into the cellar. It even froze down there which is unusual. We spent most of the day doing water freezing damage control. The only real damage was to my pocket book! I had to buy a lot of propane and a tarp to heat things up, thaw things out. Then we managed to make some accomplishments, and tomorrow we are hoping for more. We are hoping to get the water system hooked up and working in the cellar sending water all through the house. We are also hoping to finish the block wall, and weather it in at the top, so that the water system will be safe. We also will be pouring more concrete, and dozens of things we need to do! It will be a relief when we are on top of everything, and just relaxing, with everything finished!

[crisipicada]

Been raining lately. Usually, month of November to March is already part of summer. I do believe it is climate change again.

[crisipicada]

There is low pressure in Mindanao. We experience heavy rainfall since morning and until now it is cloudy and rain drops. The sun did not appear and seems so dark surroundings. Need to put on jacket because the weather is so cold. It is almost December wherein the wind blowing fast and very cold.