Yesterday’s high of 66-degrees recorded at the airport was much higher than any of the weather forecasts. This morning, under the same conditions it’s already a degree warmer. With no rain in sight I have to think this is the beginning of Springtime.
Meanwhile I wrestled with mounting the heavy-duty front replacement bumper on the John Deere X570. It is stronger and capable of handling “suitcase” weights added to the front that prevent the front-end from lifting when pulling ground equipment, and I intend to pull the spiked aerator/spreader with pre-emergent and plant some grass in the new fenced-in dog area.
The John Deere instructions were a bit…obscure. The four replacement bolts (on each side) are self-tapping “screws,” and it took a trip back to True Value to figure that out. Also the 3-foot long socket extension (arrow) that I found years and years ago, somewhere I forget where, finally came into use as I needed it to thread a hole in the frame and tighten up a replacement screw for the spring-loaded lift-assist for raising the mower deck – another component that was not at all obvious or described in the assembly instructions…and required the removal of some sheet metal and octopus like gyrations and contortions to accomplish – and some minor blood-loss. But it’s done.
Surely this Blog is going to hell with a title like that, but what happens next inside the house is a very strong and bright side-lighting of all the doggie hair and every speck of dust on the hardwood floors – there’s no escaping the daily vacuuming necessary…
The morning sky lit-up like pink fire, illuminated by the big ball-o-fire called The Sun as it arose across the Eastern prairie, beneath the clouds over the High Sierra – but after a brief display of promising weather everything went gray and the overcast hung down. So I went up with the dog on leash and shut the upper gate, and released her to romp around the acre+ of old, wet cow pasture.
The drainage is doing its job, but there is a new weed everywhere, and since every bit of weedy stuff out there has a burr, or a sticker, or a thorn, or some sticky nastiness, I/we have been grateful for the rain-softened soil because it’s easy to weed and pull it out.
Meanwhile I’ve been considering lighting improvements for the Fat Boy… Like LED replacement indicator bulbs. That (from what I’ve read) may require some kind of resistor in-line. The double-nutted hollow stalks hanging off the handlebars are not CHROME for one thing, and show age and mild corrosion and are not particularly attractive. Anyhow a change in placement will probably require some wiring modifications. A different set of bars would ideally see those forward indicators re-located to the triple-clamps instead…
Then the storm blew across the Valley and cleared out. Clear and cold tonight.
Reportedly the Derby covers require a T27 TorxPlus bit that has more square and flat “shoulders” and is therefore less prone to rounding over and causing a mellifluous cascade of swear-words to erupt. So with that thought in mind I got a T40P from the fine toolmaker S*K tools, that came via The Brown Truck of Happiness, as seen on the right.
However the expensive T40P also has thicker splines and doesn’t fit the screw, while the cheap-o Husky one from Home Depot does fit, albeit not super snugly. And so as a belt-and-suspenders kinda guy, another T40P is winging (or flat-footing) its way here by USPS from eBay, made by SnapOn. Should come today, so we’ll see what the deal is.
So there’s a THIRD kind of Torx bit, the tamper-resistant variety…also with just FIVE lobes…oh well, I’ve got time to sort this out, and now I can tamper with things!
…because reportedly – or from what I dimly gather – the pipes need to be below the rear axel in order to baggerize this beast. I don’t know if the frame configuration or combination of cross-pipes will allow it.
Meanwhile the Doggie DNA results are in and she’s 90% Siberian Husky and a 10% Chow Chow mix from the grandparents/great-grandparents line. She sure likes to chew-up toys and spit-out the polyester stuffing!
The garage is freezing cold so I’m not going out there to work on motorcycles, it’s bad enough just doing laundry, notwithstanding the regulatory debauchery of ridiculous limitations and excesses put upon me by California’s draconian “Air Resources Board” – but a set of some SK sockets (SAE) should be showing up one of these days… Maybe getting the garage insulated should be a future target.
Meanwhile, been thinking of selling the Gentleman’s Express, and considering what performance doo-dads to bling-up the Fat-Boy. The acronym FLSTF always makes me think of Falstaff, and he was a husky guy…
Down here the doggie got to ride in the pickup truck, as nature intended – but inside, not in the back… Work on the master bathroom will continue today.
