So I was looking through my notes, thinking there were a few topics I could expand on. One of them was vehicle stories. Actually, I think I may have a lot of these... I was thinking, Well I could just remember my first car and go from there, but then Duh, I had cars before I had a license. And then, duh, I grew up on a farm, I was driving before I had cars or anything. I've been driving in some form or another since probably around 7 or 8 years old...
So... Let's see what are some of the first things I can remember...
Well, now what would be the first vehicles? 3-wheeler? 4-wheeler? Bobcat? Truck? Hmm... Let's see... I remember at least one 3-wheeler... I don't know if I was really driving it though. If so, I can't say I remember much more than it existing. Seems like it was a "Big Red" (pretty much any ATV's we've had have all been Honda's). 4-wheelers... Well, almost all of the ones I remember have been 4wd and I've certainly gotten them stuck in the snow real well plenty of times, but nothing hugely interesting that I recall... I do recall a really steep hill one time I was a little afraid of flipping, maybe a couple jumps one time that were kinda scary, but not as bad as I thought... I think I partially rolled one once(maybe twice). But the adrenaline was pumping well enough that I just rolled it right back up by hand without issue (they're not that light)... Probably the most interesting thing I ever did was to my uncle's 4-wheeler. I had gotten used to go-kart engines where you just filled the oil up to the top of the filler hole. Well... I tried doing that with his 4-wheeler and after I got about 6 quarts in there (here's a hint I know now-most cars don't use 6 quarts, let alone a 4-wheeler engine that's about 1/8th the size) I finally looked down at the side where you check how full it is and sure enough it was full. Drove it for a bit and it smoked and ran quite badly. I guess I didn't kill it too badly but it certainly wasn't good for it. Luckily I didn't drive it that far.
That reminded me of go-karts. I had forgotten about those... Doesn't seem like there was too terribly much excitement with those either. I think the most interesting parts were when I didn't check the oil in one (I think this was before I overfilled the 4-wheeler) and ran it dry and killed the engine. And then one time I think I was trying to oil the chain and what not and I oiled the clutch. It didn't move too well that way. (: Oh, and they had these friction brakes where basically just pushed the pedal to push this piece of metal against the tread of the tire. Well, the problem was that the metal piece wasn't QUITE long enough so that if you pushed hard enough it just pushed INTO the tire and flipped itself underneath... I think I had a mini-bike or two at one point... Don't remember too much exciting about those either... Borrowed Granny's moped a couple times... I think the only interesting thing was it not having enough power to drive me up our hill and I probably didn't help it any just holding it and trying to get it to go the whole way...
Bobcat?(Skidsteer loader)... Hmm, nothing terribly interesting comes to mind with that either...
Well, OK, that pretty much all seemed pretty boring...
Umm, OK, well probably the first road-legal vehicle I drove was a pickup truck. This was before I could reach the pedals. Dad used to take me out in the field when they needed to pick up hay or strawbales laying in the field. He would just put it in 1st gear (which was really slow) and then get out and have me steer around to the bales and they would toss them in as I went past. Then he would hop back in at the end and take over. That was kinda cool.
Oh, and tractors, I think I have a couple interesting stories there...
Let's see... I recall driving one of the big articulated tractors and the oil pressure gauge was reading REALLY low. I asked Dad about it and he said not to worry. (Our tractors seemed to rarely have working gauges). However, while discing the field or whatever I was doing, it started slowing down and acting like it was having a much harder time getting through the field. SO what do I do? Give her all the fuel I can! Well, that started going a little faster and making a lot more noise, but still slowing down and then it STOPPED. Permanently. Oops. Apparently there was anti-freeze in the oil and the oil gauge was correct. That was the last time that engine ever turned. Had to find another one for the tractor.
The other good one that comes to mind was that growing up on tractors, I never quite thought about the physics involved. Whenever I drove from the farm to a field, I just went at full speed as the tractors only went maybe 20mph max and so I could just drive full speed around turns and things. Well..... At one time, I had two big wagons full of hay bales hooked behind. You know, the ones that are like 20-30 feet high? Well, that's about the first time I found out about some of the physics involved. I was just cruising along and then right during/after a turn I was like "Man, this tractor sure seems to be pulling harder"... I leaned out and stuck my head out so I could see around the first wagon... The second was on it's side.... Oh, I just about died there. "Oh Shi*" was all I could think or say... Repeatedly... I think in a couple minutes my uncle came by and had me go home and I think I found Dad and said "please don't yell at me, but I tipped one of the wagons over" and I think I just went inside and more or less reated the story to Mom. I wasn't thinking it at the time, but what seems amazing to me now is that Dad apparently went and took care of it with my uncle and I don't think I heard anything more of it. That would be the sort of occasion where I would expect at least a little swearing from Dad. More at the situation than at me, but I would still expect it... I considered it a real big screwup...
Umm... Otherwise "Pre-MY-car" screwups? Umm... Well, I borrowed dad's little dirt bike a lot and went around to interesting locations, got it stuck a few times, pretty much burnt out the clutch one time...
Oh, again with the lack of "Physics thinking/understanding" I took a truck too fast around a corner and put it up on two wheels. That was kinda scary... And when I first started driving Mom's car I went too fast around a corner they had put gravel on and spun it out into the field. No real damage other than a bent fender, but still a bit unexpected. (:
OK so with a couple exceptions I guess that's pretty lame and little more than a summary of vehicles I'm recalling at the moment that more or less sums up my world before my own vehicles...
Oh well, hopefully the next one will be a bit more entertaining... (:
Friday, February 09, 2007
YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!
OK, first off, I just saw a couple posts this morning saying that Guitar Hero II is coming out for the Wii and possibly the DS. That is awesome. If they get it out before Christmas that will be something I will HAVE to get!
Now on the main thought of the message...
Forewarning! If you're squeamish, you might want to just skip this one as I certainly did NOT enjoy dealing with it!
So... This is why I hate cats. OK, that's not true. I love cats. But sometimes I QUITE dislike some of the things they do.
Picture this: I'm staying over at my parents sleeping rather soundly I think I was having a good dream. I don't remember it, but it seemed like it was going well, not a bad dream. then at about 12:47AM I am awoken to hacking, gurgling sounds and who knows what other nasty odd sounds. I've got a really good idea of roughly what's goingon and my immedate reaction is to say aloud "no, no guys, don't do that in here...", but at the same time I'm starting to realize that there's not much I can do because whatever is coming out is just going to make a bigger mess if I either try to get the cat to move, or move the cat myself, so I decide to just wait it out. I SOOOOO did not want to wake up and deal with this...
Well, from the sounds I thought I was dealing with hairballs or barf. Well about a minute after the sounds stop I start to smell it. And well, sometimes barf has nastier smells than I'm used to from cats, but I'm pretty sure this is out of the other end. "Oh, man, why do I have to deal with this now????" So I'm trying to decide on my options... About that time the cat finally leaves and I know the culprit. I'm still too tired and I'm thinking something about how I left My Name Is Earl playing on TV when I went to sleep(I've never actually watched it, but I've switched it on as something to go to sleep to a few times) which was interesting because Earl was the offending cat. And yes Earl is an appropriate name for this cat. Big, fluffy, lovable, but not altogether the brightest cat in the bunch sometimes. (:
ANYWAY... I'm still in the "Please just let me sleep!" mode, but trying to think about:
-Should I just go back to sleep?
-Should I get up and look and assess the situation?
-Should I see if it's in/on or next to blankets/comforters or otherwise at the bottom of the bed where I might further disturb it during my last few hours of sleep?
-What instruments/cleaning solutions am I going to need to try to clean this up?
-Are said instruments/cleaning solutions present upstairs?
-Is whatever mess is down there going to be easier/better to clean up now or in a few hours?
-Am I going to get more/better sleep if I leave it, look, or clean it now?
So... After a bit of slow sleepy thinking I decide I had better at least have a look to be sure of not creating a worse mess somehow. (This is where it's going to get really nasty cause it was just a horror for me, so I'm going to detail my horror. If you can't handle it, look away.) Well, it was in fact poop. Well more or less. From the sounds I was hearing, it must have been quite gassy and possibly painful when it came out. There were a few poops and then some loose piles of whatever and I'm assuming worms. It looked like pasta noodles of both a flat and a small round variety. OH, YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!! I SOOOOOOOOO Do NOT want to deal with this!!!! Oh, I'm almost puking just thinking of it!!! Oh well... So I'm reassessing the situation and it appears to be on the floor and a bit on the comforter. I finally decide that I guess I will just leave it for now and try not to kick my comforters or blankets down any lower and deal with it in a few hours. Well, of course it rather bothered me enough that I couldn't get to sleepvery quickly and the sleep I got for a while was rather lousy dreaming of wormy cat poop. But I think I did get some better sleep a bit later. Oh yeah, I was also thinking of writing in OD about how nasty this experience was before/during sleep again. I guess this has infiltrated my life. (:
Oh well, the alarm went off at 4AM and didn't quite feel like getting up, snoozed it once and then made it up after a bit and went to see what tools I had. As expected I had to go downstairs in search of paper towels, carpet cleaner and a litter scooper. Amazingly enough all of these items were in plain view where I expected. It wasn't quite as bad as I might have thought but oh SO much do not like dealing with poop and I SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO do not like dealing with worms, oh YUCK YUCK SUPER-DUPER YUCK! But I did a pretty good job and took the comforters downstairs for a wash.
Hopefully the rest of today is a bit smoother!!! (:
Now on the main thought of the message...
Forewarning! If you're squeamish, you might want to just skip this one as I certainly did NOT enjoy dealing with it!
So... This is why I hate cats. OK, that's not true. I love cats. But sometimes I QUITE dislike some of the things they do.
Picture this: I'm staying over at my parents sleeping rather soundly I think I was having a good dream. I don't remember it, but it seemed like it was going well, not a bad dream. then at about 12:47AM I am awoken to hacking, gurgling sounds and who knows what other nasty odd sounds. I've got a really good idea of roughly what's goingon and my immedate reaction is to say aloud "no, no guys, don't do that in here...", but at the same time I'm starting to realize that there's not much I can do because whatever is coming out is just going to make a bigger mess if I either try to get the cat to move, or move the cat myself, so I decide to just wait it out. I SOOOOO did not want to wake up and deal with this...
Well, from the sounds I thought I was dealing with hairballs or barf. Well about a minute after the sounds stop I start to smell it. And well, sometimes barf has nastier smells than I'm used to from cats, but I'm pretty sure this is out of the other end. "Oh, man, why do I have to deal with this now????" So I'm trying to decide on my options... About that time the cat finally leaves and I know the culprit. I'm still too tired and I'm thinking something about how I left My Name Is Earl playing on TV when I went to sleep(I've never actually watched it, but I've switched it on as something to go to sleep to a few times) which was interesting because Earl was the offending cat. And yes Earl is an appropriate name for this cat. Big, fluffy, lovable, but not altogether the brightest cat in the bunch sometimes. (:
ANYWAY... I'm still in the "Please just let me sleep!" mode, but trying to think about:
-Should I just go back to sleep?
-Should I get up and look and assess the situation?
-Should I see if it's in/on or next to blankets/comforters or otherwise at the bottom of the bed where I might further disturb it during my last few hours of sleep?
-What instruments/cleaning solutions am I going to need to try to clean this up?
-Are said instruments/cleaning solutions present upstairs?
-Is whatever mess is down there going to be easier/better to clean up now or in a few hours?
-Am I going to get more/better sleep if I leave it, look, or clean it now?
So... After a bit of slow sleepy thinking I decide I had better at least have a look to be sure of not creating a worse mess somehow. (This is where it's going to get really nasty cause it was just a horror for me, so I'm going to detail my horror. If you can't handle it, look away.) Well, it was in fact poop. Well more or less. From the sounds I was hearing, it must have been quite gassy and possibly painful when it came out. There were a few poops and then some loose piles of whatever and I'm assuming worms. It looked like pasta noodles of both a flat and a small round variety. OH, YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!! I SOOOOOOOOO Do NOT want to deal with this!!!! Oh, I'm almost puking just thinking of it!!! Oh well... So I'm reassessing the situation and it appears to be on the floor and a bit on the comforter. I finally decide that I guess I will just leave it for now and try not to kick my comforters or blankets down any lower and deal with it in a few hours. Well, of course it rather bothered me enough that I couldn't get to sleepvery quickly and the sleep I got for a while was rather lousy dreaming of wormy cat poop. But I think I did get some better sleep a bit later. Oh yeah, I was also thinking of writing in OD about how nasty this experience was before/during sleep again. I guess this has infiltrated my life. (:
Oh well, the alarm went off at 4AM and didn't quite feel like getting up, snoozed it once and then made it up after a bit and went to see what tools I had. As expected I had to go downstairs in search of paper towels, carpet cleaner and a litter scooper. Amazingly enough all of these items were in plain view where I expected. It wasn't quite as bad as I might have thought but oh SO much do not like dealing with poop and I SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO do not like dealing with worms, oh YUCK YUCK SUPER-DUPER YUCK! But I did a pretty good job and took the comforters downstairs for a wash.
Hopefully the rest of today is a bit smoother!!! (:
Hello?
Oh, I don't know what to write about, but I know SOMEONE is waiting for me to write an entry. Well, wait I guess I never wrote about last weekend so I suppose I could try to remember what happened... Let's see... Friday I think we mostly used up the last of our Christmas gift cards. I picked up a couple classic controllers for the Wii so I can play Mario Kart 64 which I downloaded and one of those shake lights from Wal-mart, then we went to Applebees. Haven't been there in months, but apparently they still have those combos and I got my normal Fiesta Lime Chicken. Oh, that is a yummy meal. Quesadillas, Fiesta Lime Chicken on a bed of tortilla chip shreds and good rice. Then a brownie for desert, though this time I got a blondie. I also tried out their Mango lemonade and Wildberry lemonade. Both very good. And we had an order of onion petals. I'm not so much for onion rings, but if you batter them in enough oil and what not they're not bad at all! (: Sara pleasantly surprised me by getting the same meal, except she went with Iced tea and the Brownie. Normally she has this thing about not getting the same thing that I am which seems to be a problem more often than one would think. (:
Umm... Saturday the cold really started to set in(and is supposed to be here for another week or so) and I barely got the old Benz to start after a LOT of cranking. Then we dropped off some recyclables and returned pop cans and then some grocery shopping at Wal-mart. Let's see... Oh, then my glow plug light didn't even come on when I went to leave Wal-mart so I knew I had at least 1 or 2 plugs out and that Mercedes would NOT be happy at trying to start in single digit weather without them, so as much as I had hoped I would not be monkeying with anything outside, I figured I had better do it that afternoon when it might be up to 20F than any time in the next week when it would be lucky to make it into the teens... So I spent most of the afternoon monkeying with that. I think I also got another 20 gallons of vegetable oil started filtering and pumped out another 10 of clean stuff which is handy since I was down to no full cubes (it comes in jugs about 5 gallons each about like a cube). This time of year I'm not using the partially hydrogenated stuff cause it gets solid around 50F and I need all the help I can get!
Then that night we watched some TV and A Lot Like Love Oh, please don't watch that movie. I fell alseep through part of it and didn't bother to go back and watch it and Sara barely made it through and didn't think much of it. The trailer looked like a rather romantic comedic Ashton Kutcher movie. It was just SLOOOOWWW and they get together and the leave and repeat numerous times over years... agh....
Sunday... Sara made waffles! YAY!!! I LOVE waffles!!! mmmmm, and then we FINALLY got our Christmas tree down. Oh it is so nice to actually have that open space again. (: I think that was most of the day...
Monday we went out to Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet. That was good as usual. Not as busy as normal I'm assuming because the temp was only like single digits. Other than that I think we just hung around.
And on Tuesday we're all back to work. yay... (:
Well... I guess that's about it for now... (:
Umm... Saturday the cold really started to set in(and is supposed to be here for another week or so) and I barely got the old Benz to start after a LOT of cranking. Then we dropped off some recyclables and returned pop cans and then some grocery shopping at Wal-mart. Let's see... Oh, then my glow plug light didn't even come on when I went to leave Wal-mart so I knew I had at least 1 or 2 plugs out and that Mercedes would NOT be happy at trying to start in single digit weather without them, so as much as I had hoped I would not be monkeying with anything outside, I figured I had better do it that afternoon when it might be up to 20F than any time in the next week when it would be lucky to make it into the teens... So I spent most of the afternoon monkeying with that. I think I also got another 20 gallons of vegetable oil started filtering and pumped out another 10 of clean stuff which is handy since I was down to no full cubes (it comes in jugs about 5 gallons each about like a cube). This time of year I'm not using the partially hydrogenated stuff cause it gets solid around 50F and I need all the help I can get!
Then that night we watched some TV and A Lot Like Love Oh, please don't watch that movie. I fell alseep through part of it and didn't bother to go back and watch it and Sara barely made it through and didn't think much of it. The trailer looked like a rather romantic comedic Ashton Kutcher movie. It was just SLOOOOWWW and they get together and the leave and repeat numerous times over years... agh....
Sunday... Sara made waffles! YAY!!! I LOVE waffles!!! mmmmm, and then we FINALLY got our Christmas tree down. Oh it is so nice to actually have that open space again. (: I think that was most of the day...
Monday we went out to Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet. That was good as usual. Not as busy as normal I'm assuming because the temp was only like single digits. Other than that I think we just hung around.
And on Tuesday we're all back to work. yay... (:
Well... I guess that's about it for now... (:
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