More Details on Yesterday's Topics

Alright yo, we're steadily closing in on the bicentennial - or bicentbloggial - posting here at Old Coot Productions^®. This isn't the 200^th yet, I'm just letting you know it'll be coming. I'm not saving any big stories or news items for any sort of unveiling, but I sure hope that post is worthy of such an event.

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Paint Sprayer Update

For all of you out there in Readerland who care about air tools, power tools and so on, I'd like to inform you that I am now the proud new owner of a paint sprayer. I stopped off at the local Home Despot last night to pick up some paint booth-ah items (I'll tell you about this trip in a minute) and set to work in my garage.

Contrary to my normal half-assery, I bought a canvas drop cloth to use as a backdrop for spraying. Normally I would buy a regular tarp only get paint on it and then track said paint all over my house, but this time I did it right and went with canvas. A good move by yours truly; it was a real treat to work with and only cost about $10 more than the plastic one.

With the tarp hung from the garage door tracks with care, I set up a piece of cardboard and practiced spraying it with water. This sprayer almost brought a tear to my eye as it made neither a mess of the cardboard nor a cloud of particles in the air. Next, I sprayed a piece of plywood with the aforementioned water and figured I had the hang of it.

My next step was to get the gun set up for primer. I carefully filled the cup with primer, got everything all set up and... nothing. Oh, the primer must be a little too thick, I'll thin it with some water. Here, we go... nothing. Okay, thin it again. Aaaannnnndddd... nothing.

When I say 'nothing' I don't really mean that there was no paint coming out, I just mean it wasn't working as it should. The troubleshooting section of the manual basically lists all of the adjustments for every problem you could encounter. For example, it was dripping paint at one point and the manual said that the problem was either the packing nut (some nut on the thing) was too tight or too loose, the air flow is set too low (or too high), the paint flow knob is set too low (or too high) or they paint is too thick (or too thin). "OH, now I can fix it" I thought.

I felt that the packing nut was the problem, so I tried that next. I can't describe it very well in words, but the way the nut works you also can't tell which way is tighter and which is looser. I tried both and neither seemed to work very well. By this time I had lost feeling in my big toes and a few fingers so it was time to start cleaning up. I'm thinking that I might just wait until it isn't in the single digits to try it again; maybe that was too cold for the paint.

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Home Despot has Improved

At the end of my trip to the Home Despot, I was walking toward the checkout aisles when - are mine eyes deceived? - they have installed self-checkouts! Most HD's already have these I'm told, but this is relatively new to the Pittsfield scene. I was out of there in no time!

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God Damn Sockets

Before I could use my new sprayer, I had to change the air hose on my compressor. I have a fancy new polyethylene one to replace the old rubber hose, and I needed to switch over some fittings. I busted out my million piece Mechanics Set of Craftsman sockets/wrenches and set it gently on a prostrate door, resting on sawhorses. I removed one wrench and BAM! the whole door fell down spilling sockets all over the god damned basement.

Nothing makes a job smoother than digging through piles of shit to find that last missing 4.5mm socket (for the record, that's really small). Then, to make matters worse, I had to put them all back in the proper spots in the case. Since I have the extra deluxe set, there are several of each size with subtle differences. So a 9mm socket goes in one of four places, but it has to be the right one or the case won't close. This was fun.

I will say that it was worth the hassle, because the new hose is pretty nice and will allow me to move more easily around the house without necessarily having the compressor right next to me. Instead of the basic 15-footer that came with the compressor, this puppy is 65 feet of lightweight, flexible polyethylene!

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Mortgage Update

No news today. I'm not sure if no news is good new or not, but it's at least not bad news. I'm hoping to hear from the attorney soon, when he tells me he received the signed deed and everything is set for the closing. If the soon-to-be-former co-owner drags her feet too long I could be in some trouble. With the holiday this week (MLK Day) it's possible that she just got it on Tuesday, so I'm not worried yet.

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Butt Pain Update

I gave my butt pain a roll on a tennis ball last night, and a lengthy heating pad treatment to no avail. It's possible that the massaging action of the tennis ball really just released some lactic acid (the stuff that makes muscles sore) and that's what I'm feeling today, but I'm definitely not feeling better. Limping around is getting old.

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Okay, that's all for today. If I hear anything about the mortgage, I'll be sure to let you all know. I'm hoping that the 200^th will bring news a closing gone/going well.

Over and Out,
Old Coot