How I spent my holiday weekend.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Saturday I finally got my Willys Jeep to the shop. The engine broke on the way home from the last L.A. Dopefest. I hitched it to the Cherokee and towed it 40 miles to the dealer who works on my Cherokee. They have to tear down the engine to see what’s wrong with it. Ouch. They’re also going to fix the Willys Death Wobble. This is an uncontrollable steering wobble that occurs at slower speeds and can only be stopped by bringing the vehicle to a stop. Probably bushings. Just for fun I’m having the fuel pump (which works fine) replaced with a new one that has the original-style glass bowl fuel filter on it.

While I was down in Orange County I went to Mars Music. They’re having a big sale – up to 80% off. I looked at the guitar I wanted (A Squire “by Fender” telecaster in “vintage white” – like Roy Buchannan’s) but its price was not reduced. I should never have sold the identical American made Fender back to the guy who sold it to me.

I get a lot of stuff from eBay. Film equipment and some Rolex. This left me with a large stack of empty boxes that I intended to pack things in when I eventually move. To hell with them. I can buy more boxes when I need them. Yesterday I toted them out to the dumpster. Man, that was a lot of boxes!

I also did some minor repairs on a 4,000 watt soft light and installed the lamps. It works great. Good thing I made that 100" extension cord, as it’s the only one I have handy that will handle the amperage. I could only test 2,000 watts at a time because A) the cord only has one receptacle, and B) I only have 20 amp circuit breakers. (4,000 watts would be 33.2 amps.)

I watched some episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Today I need to find some sand. I was taking a little 4-mile walk and I found a sand bag by the curb. It had holes on both sides. Half of the sand was lost as I carried it home. I dumped the remaining sand into a large coffee can and washed the fabric. Then I filled one side of the bag with the five pounds of sand and sewed it up with some carpet thread. Now I need to find some clean sand to put in the other side. I tried to buy some, but I don’t need 75 pounds. I may end up going to the beach. I’ll have to wash the sand, as I don’t want salt on my aluminum or steel light stand legs. (Oh, this is a nylon sand bag with a handle in the middle; not the kind you use to protect from flooding. It’s for weighting equipment such as stands and tripods.) It seems like a waste of time when I can get 15-pound sandbags for $20 at the movie supply house, but when you work on no-budget films you need to take advantage of situations and found items. This bag is free except for my time.

I also need to do the laundry today. The normal two loads of clothes, plus the bed linens.

And that’s how I spent my holiday weekend.

2

I literally cringed when I read this.

Johnny… you are one odd cookie.

3

Eh? What’s odd?

I found a nearby park with a sand pit. Since my taxes support it I don’t think they’ll miss a five or so pounds of sand. My needlework isn’t pretty (especially since I used brown thread on a blue bag), but it should be strong enough.

Now for the laundry…

4

The wife is out of town, so I spent the weekend doing what I like to do - nothing. I drove to Bloomington Illinois and bought some comic books and a computer game I haven’t played yet (Arcanum). I did a little HTML stuff. Read some comic books. Watched a movie with some friends. That’s pretty much it.

She’s often of the belief, “Oh, a three day weekend! We should DO something! No reason we should just lay back and enjoy it, let’s do just as much work as we’d usually do, if not more, only we won’t be paid for it! And if it involves being in a car for twelve hours, ALL THE BETTER!”

But this time I dodged the bullet and me and the dog are taking it easy, though I do need to mow the lawn and wash some dishes.

5

Austin beckoned and, despite ominous looking stuff on the radar and a gully-washer day here on Friday, I cruised on up. Not really following college ball, I hadn’t realized hotel rooms would be tight because of the UT game (they won 41-7; Hook’em Horns!).

But I got there in plenty of time to go meet the Austin Dopers at Chuy’s. Good attendance, met several new folks and renewed acquaintances (JimB brought surprise attendee Scotticher, here from Washington).

After chow (in two shifts) we congregated at the Congress bridge to watch the bats take off for their evening roamings. Max Torque and I got there just in time to see the tail end of it (hope you got a better look later, Max). Some missed it and some saw it all, as we traveled separately. We managed to reunite and adjourn to The Filling Station for a few more hours of good yakkin’. This really isn’t the 'Fest thread, so I’ll go light on the details.

I retired to my room at the Holiday Inn on Town Lake to watch Enemy At The Gate. Yawn.

Come the A.M. I tried unsuccessfully to round up some Austin friends for brunch, so I had to go it alone. Afterwards I spent some time cruising around memory lane (I lived in Austin 1975-'81) and rather enjoyed that - also realized KLBJ was playing pretty much the same tunes I listened to when I lived there. On the way out of town I cruised the Drag in front of UT and remembered why there were so many rear-end collisions on the Boulevard of the Co-eds.

That route brought me within site of the Capitol Dome and I thought, what the heck, I haven’t been there in a bit. So I went to be a tourist; visited the House and Senate chambers, read up on Texas history, gaped at the rotunda and just generally enjoyed it. They’ve restored large parts of it recently. I noticed that Governors who held office more than once with a hiatus between terms get their portrait in the rotunda for both terms of office.

Driving back was relaxing - I’ve always enjoyed highway cruising - except for a nearly opaque thunderstorm as I neared Houston. I don’t know what it takes to get a State Trooper’s attention; I blew by one at 85 and he paid me no attention.

And then last night I even tried #straightdope chat.

All in all, if I get some chores done today, a good 3-day weekend.

6

I spent Labor Day waiting for the electrician, or someone like him…

Really, I did.

7

I went to a very nice bear party. Good food, good drinks, good movies, beautiful setting, beautiful guys…

Very nice weekend all told.

jayjay

8

Poor little Jeep. :frowning: I didn’t know a dealership would do work on a vintage Jeep. But then again, I’ve never asked.

What I did this weekend–

  1. Watched the ceiling over my shower fall apart. It’s made of that sprayed-on textured material that doesn’t really belong in a moist place like the bathroom.

  2. Watched my upstairs neighbor come and go…AT 2 IN THE MORNING!! She’s not very quiet about it. I’ve resorted to pounding on the ceiling on several occasions to get the point across.

  3. Vacuumed my patio after my upstairs neighbor dropped a light bulb, covering my patio in shattered glass.

  4. Worked on homework for Calculus, Economics, and Java. Hey, I’m in college.

  5. Daydreamed about someone who frequents my favorite computer lab on campus. Mmmmm…

  6. Tried to go to the “Exotic Animal & Reptile Show” at the North Carolina Fairgrounds. Couldn’t find a parking space though.

  7. Thought about vacuuming my Jeep–the driver’s seat looks like it’s sitting in a sandbox–but couldn’t because of almost constant rain.

9

Slept late; stayed at home. Meant to catch up on some work; didn’t.

Which is why I’m spending the evening of the last day of my long vacation at the office, typing a paper for a conference that’s due tomorrow. (And further procrastinating by drinking too much and seeing what’s going on at the SDMB). It’s gonna be a long night and I gotta teach at eight tomorrow!

10

Saturday I cooked a 2.2 pound roast in a crock pot. The idea was to make BBQ beef:

2 1/2 pounds chuck roast
salt and pepper
BBQ sauce

Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper and cook in a crock pot or slow cooker for about 4 or 4-1/2 hours. Shred the beef. Mix in BBQ sauce. Eat on buns.

This time I didn’t mix in the BBQ sauce. I just poured it over the beef after I had put the beef on the bun. I got three kinds of sauce so I could have a variety. I ate some on Saturday and some on Sunday. This morning I chopped up the remaining meat and chopped up some left-over frenchfries I had in the freezer. I made hash.

Laundry’s done, but I couldn’t find some sheets I’d washed a long time ago. I must’ve packed them. I don’t feel like using the linens I just washed, so I’ll use a poncholiner as a bottom sheet and get some more sheets tomorrow. I’ll use the quilt I had originally planned on using.

A show on The History Channel made me want Coke. In glass bottles. The only place I see glass bottle 12 oz. Cokes is in catering trucks, so I picked up some 7 oz. bottles at the store. Just as well. I usually drink water at home and 12 oz. of Coke is a little much to kick back and drink. Too bad it costs twice as much as 12 oz. plastic bottles. But, dammit, it just tastes better out of a glass bottle!

11

That is, the 7 oz. glass bottles cost about twice as much as the 12 oz. plastic bottles.

Oh yeah, the former manager finally moved his 60-something Plymoth. There’s a huge puddle of oil where it used to be. I picked up some cat litter and spread it over the oil to soak it up. I hate getting oil on my motorcycle’s tyres.

12

Dragon*Con

Various Dopers

Claudia.

Half naked women (and men)

Cool costumes

Light sabre duels between Vader and Jedi officiated by Batman

Exceptional margaritas.

More fun than I’ve had in ages.