I'm too old for this shit...

...or "Why am I taking apart the mower deck on the riding mower?"

Because I can, that's why. Yeah, it saves us money; but somehow I thought that at my age I'd be paying someone else to do this sort of shit for me.

We bought a used mower. It's bigger and newer than the one we have and we got a good deal on it. We bought it knowing there was a bearing issue on the left side. We knew it would not be that expensive to fix, but once we talked to someone who'd already done it on the same model, we knew it was probably a job we could handle ourselves which means that me, being the mechanically inclined one, is the one that's handling it.

The non-mechanically inclined one went online and ordered the part based on what the person with the prior experience told us was wrong. I probably should have taken the deck apart before ordering the part to ascertain that that was indeed the part we needed because once the part arrived and I set out to do the job it turned out to be the wrong part. I knew the second that I took the pulleys off and saw the upper bearing that that was the one that was shot. Now chances are because the upper mandrel bearing is shot, it put stress on the lower one so even though I now have the correct part, I'm going to replace both the upper and lower and be done with it.

I better get some nice jewelry out of this...

I Am (still) the NRA

Amazing how "conservative" I've become since moving to Kansas. Heh, heh. This weekend was a shooting weekend. Saturday there was a Women on Target event at Milford Lake. We did shotguns, air pistols, black powder muzzle-loaders, archery and .22 rifles.

Surprisingly I did extremely well in all events. Surprising because last time I sucked at shotgunning and rifles. Even ended up selling the .22 rifle I got for Christmas because I didn't feel accurate enough (plus I really wanted a pistol to pick off squirrels, not a rifle). But this go-around I did best in the rifle and, believe it or not, archery.


I guess I should not be surprised about the archery. There was a fella back when I was growing up in the wilds of Los Angeles who was a bow hunter. He used to take me to Griffith Park where they had an archery range. This was back when a bow looked more like the kind you'd see in cowboys & indians movies rather than the modern marvels with their wheels and pulleys. I was fairly decent back then when it was a much more difficult piece of equipment to operate so I guess I should not be surprised now that my entire focus can be on siting down the arrow and not on can I draw this thing back far enough to shoot more than 10 feet. I ended up with 75% of my arrows in the chest kill zone. I wish I could say that the arrow I shot in the fake deer's ear was intentional, but I cannot. Ditto the ankle shot.

We had so much fun at Saturday's event that we went out to Fancy Creek range on Sunday and I spent a few hours with a lovely Heritage Rough Rider revolver and a Smith & Wesson .22 automatic. I have to admit preferring the automatic. While the revolver was very pleasant to shoot, I'm fairly lazy and like not having to cock a gun. I also liked that the clip on the S & W holds ten bullets affording more shots between reloads. I shoot well creating nice tight groups. Neither weapon was my own so once I had figured how it was calibrated to the owner it was a simple matter to adjust my point of reference to get the bull's-eye.

Now we're all buzzing about the BOW event at the end of September. Three days of outdoor activities for women only. I just know I'm going to sign up for Skinning and Tanning, the photography workshop and Predator Calling (to lure wildlife to the barrel of my camera lens, not my rifle barrel). Who knows what else I'll try...

Still sick...

I have had a cold since August 4th. It is now the 13th. It cost me 3 sick days at work which have a dollar value of $220.00. I returned to work on the 8th as I was on the mend. Then Friday night it settled in my chest and I had a sleepless night due to coughing spasmodically all night long which left me drained on Saturday. Saturday night and Sunday were better and I worked again today, but the cough remains. And it's an unproductive cough. Hack, hack, hack, but nothing comes up.

Now I've noticed my nasal discharge has once again turned yellow. So if I'm relapsing that bad, should I go to the doctor?

Here's my rant: If you are sick, do not go to work and infect your co-workers. I repeat:

DO

NOT

GO

TO

WORK

Next person who so much as sniffles in my range of hearing will be killed and I feel quite confident my lawyer can win an acquittal based on justifiable homicide.

On the plus side, being home has enabled me to kill two moles. Good way to get some of this aggression out.

Sick

...one of my co-workers was kind enough to share the joy that is a summer cold with the rest of us working grunts. Nothing like sitting around in 100+ degree weather with a snot-faucet of a nose and feeling like a small Asian pachyderm is sitting on your chest.

So I've been laid out with this since Saturday night. Started feeling that back of the throat tickle during the Simpson's movie. Hoping sincerely that the pregnant woman I was with didn't catch it from me. Sunday was miserable, but since my muscles were sore from a Saturday day of moving rock all over the driveway, I didn't mind being forced to take it easy. I do object to having to spend my vacation days, the days I'd planned to use for my upcoming vacation, on being home sick.

So between surgery, the horrendous shit at work, and now being sick, I just haven't felt much like blogging lately. Hope you'll forgive me...