A Break in the Rain!

Today is Chicken Pizza Day here at work. That is, they have personal size pizzas in the caf and one of the styles is Chicken. I'm going to eat one.

Unlike every day for the past week and a half, yesterday was gorgeous. It hit around 75 degrees American, the sun was shining and I left work around 3 to get out and at least see the sun. I had to swing by the auto parts store to pick up some lug nuts (remember I stripped one plugging the hole in my tire), a tire plug kit for myself and some tire plugs for Ed. We used two of his remaining three plugs on my tire and I'd hate for him to need one on the road somewhere and not have one. I opted to go to the brand name auto parts store where I figured they'd have everything I needed. I have a store right at my corner, but it's for people who really know what they're doing and I feel dumb going in there. Plus I had a button-down shirt on and I feel awkward in there if I'm not greasy. They know I don't belong. Anyway, the brand name store (Napa? Auto Zone? who knows) didn't have the lug nuts I needed despite the computer saying they had some in stock. I was going to have to go to the corner store afterall. The woman there was very helpful, got me what I needed, test fit the lug nuts on a stud, and overall treated me well. Ahh, good customer service in Pittsfield, such a rarity.

Now that I had my supplies, I went home to change and get to work replacing the one lug nut. This gave me an opportunity to use my impact wrench and torque wrench. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Hmm, the impact wrench couldn't take the lug nuts off. I wanted to get them all off and then retorque them to the manufacturer's specs. Ed cranked them on something fierce and too tight can be as bad as too loose. It turned out I had the pressure down too low on my compressor, a little tweak there and: Brrraaaaaooooww! Allow me to decode my sound effects for the impact wrench impaired...

The "Brrrrr" part is the impact part where it's trying to break the nut free. Once the nut is loose, the "aaaaaaaooooowwww" is the wrench spinning freely. So ideally it would sound like "Bbrrrrraaooooww" as the nut breaks free and then comes off the bolt (or stud, in car-speak).

I replaced the nuts one at a time and tightened them to 75 ft-lbs (manufacturer spec). The last one to go on was the new one, and it didn't want to go on. I feared it was actually the stud that was screwed up but it just needed a little encouragement. I'd say it took longer to get the tools out, than it did to do the wheel, but oh how fun it was. If you've never used air tools before, you don't know what you're missing!

After that, I tried to run the power wire for my subwoofer amp to no avail. I couldn't find a decent place to get through the firewall into the engine compartment. I looked and looked, but engine compartments aren't known to be spacious these days, even in a little 4-cylinder Subaru. That's all I'll say on that.

Thursday is also the "Thursday Night Group Run at Kennedy Park with Dinner Afterwards" at Kennedy Park. We go out to dinner afterwards. As everyone was showing up and hanging out, one couples' son showed up. He's some cross-country star at whatever college he attends. I thought it would be cool to run with him and have him push me to run a little harder. I was quickly assured that I would not be running with him, he is fast. "Yeah right, old man. I think I can keep up with him for a little while at least" I thought.

I thought wrong.

This kid was immediately GONE! He apparently runs a 5:15 pace on trails during races. To the layperson that doesn't sound like anything, but to the person who runs about a 9-minute mile that's an impossible pace. That would be a full-out sprint to me, there would be no keeping up. I did manage to keep up with the fastest of the regular guys, and we finished in under 50 minutes including a few stops to wait for one guy (and once to pee). It felt good; the weather was perfect and I got a good sweat going. Ahhhhhhhh!

Afterwards, dinner was good. Uneventful, but good. They started talking politics and war, so I kept my mouth shut. I've learned not to talk politics with anyone who's been drinking, and these guys were wolfing down the beers. I did get to explain again why I don't drink, and once again the person had to tell me how they can have a drink now and then and it isn't a problem. "Yup" I tell them, "it doesn't work that way for me. It's all or nothing. I recognized that and I'm cool with my decision, have one for me". The "have one for me" line is supposed to lighten the conversation. Despite the fact that they bring it up all the time (often the same person), I have found that people are uncomfortable with the idea of drinking issues. Whatever. "Hey, did the Sox win last night?" always works to change the subject.

So yeah, I went home afterwards and had a snack with the kittens. I had an apple with peanut butter, they had cat food. I tried unsuccessfully to repair my non-functioning wireless router situation. I forget how I had it set up before and it completely reset when I had the power off the other day. Damn! Bootlegging the internet from a neighbor gets old after a while, since I don't get a very good signal. It's fine to check e-mail, but that's about it.

ANYWHO, it's about time for chicken pizza. I'll holler at you later.

Over and out,
Old Coot