Uhg!
So…it appears we’re impersonating Wyoming tonight in Loveland. The wind!
and…it’s making the bushes in my front rub against the window making a wretched screeching sounds.
Enough!
So I got some diagonal cutters and went and did a quick 11:47pm trimming!
ahhhh quiet!
back to sleep! Let’s hope the grill doesn’t blow away!

Thanks to George Costanza’s dad for making a Holiday for the Rest of Us!

Oh..and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the rest of you!

Driving my truck has been a headache…literally.  I swapped the left hub assembly, and it got a little better.  Still, though, it made a high pitched sound – even worse at 75-80mph .  I’d bought the right side but hadn’t had time to do it for various reasons.

Finally got that done yesterday and all I can say is…if you’re wheel bearings need replaced, do it.  Your ears will thank you.

I’ve also cleaned up some of my garage…I think the Honda might fit, actually, but I have to take out the trash first.  Also, I finally found the power cord to my turntable – so LP’s can play again.

Tomorrow….I’ll actually move the UHF antenna for Digital Broadcast TV and get a decent signal so I can finally kill DirecTV.

As my truck ages…things begin to fail.  Some say, “Get a new truck.”  I don’t think they’ve thought that through.  I could get a “newer” truck, that has issues I’m unaware of…starting prices are still $15k and up.  I could get a brand new truck, starting prices $27k and up.

I’ve looked at new trucks, even.  I just haven’t found any that I like more than my truck.

So, spending a few grand to maintain my current vehicle seems a bargain to me.  The body is in decent shape.  Even a brand spankin’ new engine is only around $2,000…and I can do most of the work with the help of a friend and his nicely heated garage.

The new transmission is working swimmingly well.  Fuel mileage increased to nearly 16mpg in town, up from 12.  The front wheel bearings had worn out on the drivers side, so I replaced that Saturday. Only $200 for the front hub assembly.  I decided to do the passenger side as well, because, it’s just going to fail sooner than later now days…put a new one in when the process is fresh in my mind. Takes about an hour, not a lot of hard work…and…new wheel bearings and front hub assemblies are in place 🙂

All road noise is now attributid to my noisy tires, not the grinding of the wheel bearings.

Nothing else of excitement is going on…thankfully.

I should get back on my elimination of DirecTV project…

So I made another round of bacon cookies last night. I need to remember that I didn’t like the maple glaze the first time, and it’s not any better the second time.

Either the maple flavoring just isn’t enough, or it’s got too much cinnamon in it.

I have pictures on my FaceBook page if you go there. I’m not putting anymore glaze on the tops of the rest of the cookies. They taste GREAT without it!

And the other thing about baking cookies… if you don’t own a lot of the essentials, it’s expensive. The good news is, I now have cookie sheets, measuring spoons and cups, flour, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, cinnamon, maple extract, and chocolate chips. So I guess it’s not all bad….