Saturday, August 1, 2009

Failure, but Looking Ahead

I've already failed at one of my goals - rather than attempt to dismantle and repair the carb on our lawnmower, I broke down and took the thing into Joe's. I figured that the longer I pondered how to fix the thing, the farther along the lawn would move toward a disaster state, if it isn't already there. Darn! It's not looking pretty, and adds to my already extensive list of home improvement projects. This one could take years, however.

My revised goals for this weekend are to:
prep my chainsaw for winter storage
rip out some shingles in prep for removing the tiles
maybe rip out some tiles
at least look at the trim along the roof
at least look at the car and think about changing the oil

All of them sound simple enough, but I'm incapable of doing anything in a simple manner. Preparing the chainsaw should be simple and straightforward, but I'm taking a more circuitous route. It's got old gas in it, so I want to drain it, put fresh gas, run it with some fresh gas and then store it. Is that too stupid? For some reason I just think this will make the machine a little happier. I did learn that I've been making the gas too rich-the oil is designed for 2.5 gallons, not 2 gallons. What a pain, though I was told by the guys at Joe's that it's better to have it rich than poor, so I erred in the right direction.

Ripping shingles out should be pretty simple, could take me half an hour, and then I'll look at those tiles. The grout is pretty soft, so it shouldn't be too bad, but we shall see. I'll also at least get out my extension ladder and take a good long look at that trim. Gotta do it, it's supposed to be nice this weekend, so it could be my only window in the near future. Besides, just deal with it, right?

As for the car, we'll see how that goes. I got the oil and the filter, and did I mention I changed the air filter? That's worth something, isn't it?

Did I mention I need to go shopping for food and deal with the recycling?

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

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