Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

Weekend Update

F1: The first F1 race of the season was this weekend. Hamilton finished first, no surprise there. Of the 22 cars, only 6 finished. Kimi was 9th, Masa DNF. Still pulling for Ferrari. G is dedicated to McLaren. Rubens(Honda) will probably be black-flagged for leaving the pits under a red light putting Kimi back into the points.

Diet: Lost another lb and a half this week. Having achieved my initial goal, I have not yet determined where I am heading now.

GMC: Disassembled the rear diff preparing for some sandblasting.

Melting: No progress.

Other: Attended auction.

199.6

[0 to go]

Another perfectly good weekend drawing to an end.

23 lbs down.

[1 lb to go]

I was just looking back at last weeks post and realized my diet progress this week [0.4 lbs] was practially nonexistent. That is OK though. I did enjoy two pieces of my birthday cookie cake and two delicious meals from Rosies. And a couple of 'thin mint' Girl Scout cookies. And one of the lemon cookies. What a great week it was!

This afternoon I went outside with the intention of doing something useful such as taking apart a differential or cleaning up the garage. The sky was clear and the sun was bright, but it was just too dang cool to be comfortable. After cranking the 1925 Chevrolet and letting it idle for a few minutes I decided to make the Miata out for a scouting expedition to located a steel supply business. I figured with a heater assist to my fleece jacket, the Miata would be plenty snug with the top down. I left the regular neighborhood and made a beeline for a gas pump. While waiting on the tank to fill up I went ahead and put the top up. Out of now where, clouds had appeared and it was sprinkling. Ce' la vie.

While out on my Sunday afternoon drive, I happened across a 1965 Beetle, for sale. The interior of this car was in really good shape. Rare for such an old car. This little car desperately wanted to follow me home, but alas, I have no place to park it. Maybe next time.

While out, I also did a recon mission to locate Danny's secret hide-away. Mission accomplished however Danny's super hero senses must have alerted him to my pending arrival for he had already escaped and moved on to his alternate secret lair.

For those wondering about truck progress, I got absolutely nothing done this weekend. I also did not do any homework. What did I do?

The new laptop is behaving quite nicely. I hope it lasts as long as the last one did. (7 years?)

[3 lbs to go]

39

Another nice weekend is coming to a close. The kids were out of school today and G and I were both off work. I had a pleasant birthday dinner with my family at Rosie's. I had lunch with a friend who I hadn't seen in a while and I spent the morning working on the truck. (Removing another 16 rivets)

Saturday I helped a neighbor build some cabinets for his garage. We took an early morning trip to home depot and then spent most of the day cutting and gluing boards in my garage. The cabinets turned out nicely.

This may possibly be the last blog post from this laptop. The keyboard and mouse pad have beening acting up for a while. Now the harddrive is making the kind of noise that says "you better back this thing up soon. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am heading for it!". A replacement has been ordered and is on the way. Hopefully it will arrive before this one says goodbye.

21.6 down, [3.4 to go]

Last night in my welding class I decided to tackle MIG welding. I have not mastered stick welding nor am I anywhere close, but I did get the basic hang of it. My primary goal for learning to weld was for autobody work. Mig provides better control and is less likely to blow a hole in the thin sheet metal. For this reason I decided to abandon stick welding and move on to mig.

My first bead with the MIG turned out very nice. I attribute it to my 'ah-ha' moment from last week with the stick welding.

The first peer to drop by and check my progress was impressed. I proceeded to tell him everything I knew (very little) about MIG welding. I started with how to adjust the equipment: wirespeed, voltage, gas pressure. Next I explained the basic process showing how to position the wire, trim to length, etc. Finally I demo'ed my technique and then encouraged them to try it as well. Before the night was over, I had give my little speil several times and every one who tried it out was very successful. You may recall, this is not my first time to teach others to mig weld. Last time it was a bunch of 5th graders. It is true what they say, "Those who can do, those who can't teach." Hopefully I will soon be one of the ones who can and still be one of the ones who teach.

I left feeling very good, not only about my progress, but about helping other folks learn to weld. The teacher was busy most of the night helping another student with a project so he never got around to teaching me how to MIG weld. That is ok because I did some reading ahead of time just in case. The reading paid off.

If only I hadn't burnt my thumb through a hole in my glove where the seam came loose. Man that hurt. I had a blister on it this morning.

Diet Progress: 19 lbs down .
[4.8 lbs to go]

Weekend Update

I got the taxes out of the way this weekend. One less thang.

Yesterday I finished up removing all the suspension leaf spring brackets on the GMC. I have made pretty good progess in the last couple of weeks considering it is winter. I suppose the next step is to drill holes for the related coil spring brackets and then touch up the frame paint. Either that or clean up, blast, and paint the rear differential. So many choices.

Today I made a trip up to Nashville to attend a parts swap. The swap was much bigger than I expected. I went looking for a GMC tailgate, or a GMC core support. Both of these items must be off a GMC pickup. Most parts are interchangeable with a 1967 - 1972 Chevrolet, these are not.

I found and purchased a GMC radiator core support. It is in very good shape. By its appearance, the donor truck spent most of its life in a garage or under a car port. The original paint is in excellent shape, considering the piece is 35 or 40 years old. The common problem with this part is the lower portion at one end is usually deteriorated due to acid from the battery being mounted directly above it. This one had the common problem, though someone had patched it. They did a fairly good job. At first I could not even tell the patch was there. Nice job.

The bargaining process went really well. Here is how it played out. I walked up, gave it a quick glance and asked the gentleman "how much for the core support?" His reply was "$50". I then picked it up and gave it a close inspection. While I inspected the core support, he dropped his price to $40. While I closely inspected the patch on the core support, he dropped his price to $30. He had done such an excellent job bargining the price down for me, I didn't even bother to counter offer. Personally, I think he just didn't want to have to carry it back to his truck. Instead, Brian (neighbor) and I carried it about a quarter mile back to our transportation. Well bought.

I also purchased a 1972 Alabama license plate. Perhaps someday this will be registered to the GMC. Brian also purchased an old Alabama license plate, his a 1966 for his Mustange.

My antique truck got posted on Stovebolt in the gallery. See it here.

This weeks welding class went well. I got a little experience arc welding. Arc welding is very frustrating at first, though I will say two+ hours of welding went by very quickly. This is definitely a learned skill and I haven't learned it yet.

[ 9.6 lbs to go]

It is cold and I am ready for spring.

[11.6 lbs to go]

The auction time is ticking down. Not as much interest as I was hoping for but then again it only takes one person. The right person, though.

Slightly over 10 lbs down, 13.6 to go.

[13.6]

Rapidly Progressing Towards Various Stages of Completion

Realizing that somethings can't be partially done, like a girl can't be a little bit pregnant, I am here to report that the truck on ebay is now 35% sold. But only 35%. It doesn't count until you reach 100%.

Diet progress: After 8 days, I have lost 7.2 pounds. So far so good, but I expect the progress to slow down soon. If it was always that easy, we would all already be skinny.

[16.8 lbs to go]

Going, Going, ...

Last week I placed an advertisement in the paper in an attempt to sell the 1925 Chevrolet Truck. The ad also appears online.

Today I put the truck on ebay. I have my fingers crossed.

G' worked this weekend so I didn't get a chance to go out for an afternoon cruise. It might have bit a bit chilly with the top down though. (I also didn't get to go scope out the Chevettes Corvettes that are on the market, you know, for research purposes.)

The Barrett-Jackson auction begins Tuesday on Speed. I have the Tivo setup to record the whole thing, 35 hours I think. This will be much easier this year thanks to the writer's strike, without which we might actually have something recorded right now.

Regarding the blasted diet, I lost a little over 5 pounds this week. My goal for next week is another 3. My diet is one of high protein, low carb varieties. My interpretation of that basically means mostly meat, salad, and high fiber vegetables. To make it bearable, I am giving myself one day a week off: Saturday. Saturday is a good choice because I usually have a lite lunch when I am busy playing in the garage and we often have Rosie's for dinner on Saturday night. Mmmmm.

[18.6 lbs to go]

I have been sitting here looking at the empty editor for about 10 minutes. Tomorrow is Friday and that's all I have to say about that.

[20.2]

I went to the tech school this evening for my first welding class. Upon arrival I found out the class had been canceled due to a lack of folks registering. I asked the woman how many more people we needed to have the class. She replied two. I then proceeded to convince a couple of guys there for another class to sign up for the welding class instead. Now with enough interested the class was un-canceled, but unfortunately the teacher was not there because, well, he thought the class had been canceled. So the first class will be next week instead.


Yesterday I started a diet. My weight loss goal is 24 lbs. For the next few months you can watch my progress at the end of my posts. I will post pounds remaining pounds to lose in this format: [24]. Accountability is good right?

[24 lbs to go]

It has been 8 days since I gave up aspartame and it has not been easy. Yesterday was the worst. I wanted something to drink and I didn't want water. So I had a bottle of water anyway. Woo hoo was not what I was thinking.

I think it is the caffiene that I miss the most.

Posts have been somewhat scarce around here lately. I would blame it on work, but work is not the direct cause, it is merely an indirect cause.

The increased amount of work time recently has decreased my extra-curricular activities.

No truck time means no posts about the GMC.

No cruising time, no rambling about the Miata.

No call from the pottery supply store, means no write up about back yard metal casting.

Tomorrow is looking like 70 and a mere 20 percent chance of rain.

Perhaps tomorrow I will write about an oil change for the Miata, or a test drive in a beamer convertible. And the Charger still needs to have the tires rotated.

Four days and counting, No diet drinks. This afternoon I tried a cup of hot peach flavored green tea. How is that for different?

The First Day Is The Hardest

At least I hope so. Having unsweetened tea with lunch was no big deal, but water throughout the day is boring. Sometimes you just want something with a little umph, the Jim Beam burn that you can only get from an ice cold Coca Cola. Unfortunately I don't really recall what that is like. It has been several years since I had a regular cola, and on that occasional is was a little flat. (I don't think you can actually get the Jim Beam burn from Jim Beam.)

Mike mentioned in a comment that he has been hitting the juice bottle. Don't do it man! Fruit juice has more calories per ounce than soda. Sure it is supposed to be good for you too, but if you strictly swap 12 oz. of DP for 12 oz. of juice, you net savings is no good. Now if you swap 6 cans of DP for 5 glasses of water and one bottle of juice your doing OK, but why would anyone want to do that? {End of rhetorical Question}

Back to the water torture. And it's raining today to. That makes my Miata sad.