Electricity is not my friend!!

[Jess from VA]

First, as I have posted elsewhere, I've blown a low beam relay, and stopped my Interstate radio and dash display from working while trying to find and fix the headlight relay.  I await an expert appointment sometime in April.

Second, the County has been camped out in my neighborhood for 2 weeks digging up the streets and water mains.  Our power is both aerial and below ground (mixed), and I have lost power to the house more times in this 2 weeks than the last 10-15 years combined, and I'm tired of it.  The County needs to move on to another neighborhood and torment those people for a while.

Third, I put in a full days hard work yesterday so I could go for an all-day ride today in the 70s with wind that isn't 50mph.  The only thing I didn't get to was washing a few windows, and my backyard spotlight globe.  So I went out first thing today to knock that little bit of work out while it was still cold, except the backyard spot fixture sparked up and blew the fuse.  Crap!  So I took off the fixture and bench tested it, and it was fine, but the hot wire to it was burned and I only had 1/4" of good wire left to work with, and that was all kinds of fun.  Power off fix, power on test, blow fuse again, and repeat.  I got the dang thing fixed properly, finally.  Didn't get poked and didn't burn the house down.  

But my day ride was delayed 2 hours, I still took my favorite all day ride out into VA horse county, so I got stuck in bad quitting time traffic coming home.  Don't care, best ride of the year (long sleeve T and jeans).  YeeHaw!!!    

[Serk]

Didn't get poked and didn't burn the house down.  ..... I still took my favorite all day ride out into VA horse county

Sounds like things worked out okay, even if there was an obstacle course of annoyances to get to "okay"... 

[Jess from VA]

Didn't get poked and didn't burn the house down.  ..... I still took my favorite all day ride out into VA horse county

Sounds like things worked out okay, even if there was an obstacle course of annoyances to get to "okay"... 

77 reads, one answer (thanks buddy).   

It was the best warm day of riding this year.  Cold riding, even geared up warm, is just OK. 

After asking and begging my local guys to do some split rail fence repair for me, several times with no response at all, I give up and will do it myself.  I happily never owned a post hole digger or big digging bar, but $100 later I do.  Our hard pan clay is like digging concrete.  On a whim, I called a local equipment rental and asked about one of those one-man gas auger hole diggers, and they wanted $150 for all day (and I only need it for 1 hour).   

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go. 

   

[Serk]

As the saying goes.... A man's house is his hassle!

I despise the idea of renting, but there are some advantages I have to admit.

Weather's been bright and sunny here lately, but.... severe winds... Sorta surreal driving around and seeing clear blue skies with the AC on and zero motorcycles out and about, it's just too windy right now...

[scooperhsd]

As the saying goes.... A man's house is his hassle!

I despise the idea of renting, but there are some advantages I have to admit.

Weather's been bright and sunny here lately, but.... severe winds... Sorta surreal driving around and seeing clear blue skies with the AC on and zero motorcycles out and about, it's just too windy right now...

Most reasons to buy new tools - I will. Expensive things like gas powered augers to be used one time basis - I'll rent.

[sandy]

Only two things I know about electricity.
It hurts when you get it on you and it’s hard to wash off. LOL

[Jess from VA]

As the saying goes.... A man's house is his hassle!

It is, and it isn't.  The big money and taxes and any necessary capital improvements (like new roof, foundation repair) are a big bummer.

However, in my retirement, it gives me things to do and stay motivated and busy.  I keep a nice place and it's not that hard to keep up with it, in bite size pieces.  And I enjoy most of the work.

However, a good man knows his limitations, and I didn't want to fix that split rail fence.  And it kicked my ass.  The brand new post hole digger snapped a handle off on the 4th dig (marvelous).  Digging holes and setting posts was not bad.  But getting those long heavy 12 foot rails to fit and overlap in the posts is a son of a bitch; they have to trimmed laterally and I only have hand saws (a circular is out/dangerous).  And you mount the rails pointy edges up, to stop people from sitting on them, and to have all rainwater run off.  Then I had to cut up all the old rails to fit in the dumper.  And all the ants and bumblebees were pissed off about the destruction of their homes.  I intended to stain it when done, but I am out of steam.  There is one more small repair on the driveway, and it will also wait.