Not IDOLing Wright

This bird and his relatives are the beasts that roost above my front door in the english ivy. Drip I woke at 5:35am feeling pretty well rested and pretty damn comfortable for an old man. After some scratching and tugging about my body, I meandered to the kitchen and hit the official “go” button on my day. I suppose it would’ve been a bit much to expect two clear mornings in a row. I wasn’t expecting it and the weather forecasters weren’t predicting it. We were still entrenched in getting drenched. Still, even though the rain is back and the cloud cover thick, I could sense a change a’ comin’. While Ykraps and I were walking, the air was thick as thieves and even a bit warm – a stark difference from the chilly, wet air from the past several days. When I got back home I took a couple of photos of the dripping rain that’s been so prevalent over the past several days. After the photo op, I nestled up to a hot cup of coffee, and soon any remnants of sleep were history. After the coffee I relaxed into a short but deep meditation. My next endeavor was sending Mindy an email, which I do almost everyday without exception. After some surfing, I moved onto food prep. I packed some tuna fish that was leftover from Friday’s batch and made scrambled eggs for breakfast. At 7:30am I pushed myself towards the shower, and by 7:25am, I was ready to go. Before heading out the door I took a few shots at the geese who were roosting in my backyard. They don’t get it. I don’t care for them and will always be their nemesis. To work I went. I talked with Mindy along the way. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed with her house issue. It’s a soft real estate market right now and lots of nice houses are sitting on the market for extended periods of time. Those that are selling are selling because the deal is too good to pass up. Bottom line - want to sell fast? Sell under market price! She’s got some options to explore, though. The morning ushered in a very busy work day. We were borderline slammed. Somehow we managed to stay afloat though. Come 12:45pm I left for my run. It was about 60 degrees and cloudy. It was ‘tweener’ weather. I wore shorts and two upper layers. I was sweating good by runs end. Too warm, really. After my run I found my way back to my office by 2:00pm. I enjoyed my tasty lunch while digging back into work. The afternoon was just as busy as the morning. I stayed heavily engaged right up until 5:00pm. I needed to leave on time to accomplish a couple of personal tasks on my way home. At 5:05pm I was out the door on my way to Bahama Tan to tan for the first time this year. The tan I had amassed so far was beginning to fade since shirtless running weather has been absent from the program of late. After tanning I planned a stop at Advanced Mower Repair to try and get a tiny little o-ring for my WeedEater Leaf Blower that’s causing some fuel leakage and I suspect poor engine performance. After 15 minutes the old dude couldn’t find the specific part, but was kind enough to take the information and try to find it later. He promised a call. I was home by 6:15pm after those two rather quick errands. Soon I was walking Ykraps under sky that just couldn't decide if it wanted to be sunny or if it wanted to drop buckets of rain, and the battle raged on through most of the evening. After addressing a few quick chores I was out in the garage working on my weedeater blower just as I had planned. I found that the gasket I wanted to replace for being stretched and worn had reshrunk to its original size and once gain fit snuggly into the groove provided. So, I turned it over using placing the less worn side up and remounted the carburetor. Before testing I pulled the spark plug and cleaned it good too. After putting it all back together and adding fresh gas I fired her up. I ran but still not at full rpm which for a blower is almost paramount. Soon, too, the carburetor vibrated loose again. Damn it! How come? I calmly took it apart again to find the mounting screws loose as I expected. What I didn't know was why all of the sudden are these screws vibrating loose. I figured I had little to lose so I tightened just about as tight as one could get them. After restarting the blower, this time they seem to have held. Maybe they just needed further snugging. Even still, the carburetor on the blower seems to be mis-adjusted, which isn't allowing it to operate a full rpms with the choke off. Two adjustment screws on the carb are not accessible with a slotted screw driver. To begin, they're recessed in a little hole and have no slots for a small bladed screw driver of any sort. Later, doing some web research, I learned that many have asked for such a tool to adjust these but the manufacture won't sell it to the public - that's BS. The adjustment screws do have serrated or geared sides. Some slick message boards suggested some folks have used aquarium tubing to slide down over the screw head and use the protruding tubing to turn/adjust the screws. I may try that after checking first with my dad. He has a tool for everything. If he doesn't have one, he'll likely have some ingenious methodology for adjusting them. Worst case is I'll have to break down and buy a new blower! After an hour or so in the garage fine tuning my yard tools I found my way inside for some guitar and blogging. That took me right up until 10:00pm. I found I had no time for watching Idol tonight. I decided instead that my time was better spent doing some of the things I love. Before the night was over, I talked with Mindy via phone a couple of times. She doesn't like to stray too far. That's just how she is. So, just before fading to sleep, I gave her a call to say good night.