A Little Shop Time

I got some time out in the shop this evening after spending the better part of the day feeling low, and just kind of hanging out, and doing my laundry. I fooled around with that joint on the poplar top for the kitchen island. I got it close enough and realizing that it did not have to be perfect, I went ahead and glued it up.

The added piece is the one closest to the camera POV. I had to clamp it down to the workbench first, with a piece under the end to support it while pushing against a bend in the board. Then I put glue on the part that was already done, and put that against the new board, clamping it in the vise on one end, and using bar clamps on the other, where it was already clamped to the worktop. I think the glue is set by now, but I will let it cure a spell before I try to remove it from the worktop. I suspect I have glued it down inadvertently. Hopefully the boiled linseed oil on the bench will help out with that. All goes to plan, I need about 19 inches more glued together with these, then I need to plane it, which will be scrub on the bottom and a finish plane on the top. Finally, I will relieve the edges and get some help carrying it into the kitchen, I suspect.

Anyway, the previous boards are still holding together, and I have some more to put on, which should help bear the stress of holding the one I just put on it straight. With any luck, it will conform with the others as a matter of course while absorbing humidity. Just so long as it holds, anyway. I need to joint all the edges still, so this is a glue up in progress. I am really preparing it as I go. It is kind of crazy.

I have more of the two and a half inch thick boards to finish this with. They all have been drying over last summer and winter, at least. I am getting very eager to get them out of the workshop as much as anything. Once they are out, the shop will be safer and it will have more room to move around. Then I will get to work on one of the two cabinets I plan to make. One will be a bedside cabinet for my stead. I would do a night table, but I cannot see wasting the space under when it could hold books or whatnot, and it could do with a drawer, too. I also plan on making a bread cabinet based off the idea of a pie safe. But that is for the kitchen and will only hopefully be accepted and put to use in there. I would like to see the bread area cleaned up and things looking a bit neater in there.

Well, it all is a s it all does. Meanwhile, there are markets coming up, and we have some preparations to do for those.

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Here We Go Again!

So, I was taking a delivery no Saturday when I was sent down to Hyrum and there I was met with a severe lightning storm. The app crapped out and it took a while before I was able to connect again, and mark the delivery as done. Because of it, DoorDash thinks I delivered the food 14 minutes late, and is calling that a violation of contract, and threatening to block me. It says it is under review, and they will get back with me on 25th of May. Meanwhile, I don’t know what is going on and if I should be job hunting. I really don’t like the way they work their app. I have felt under threat over stupid shit for the last three weeks or so and now will for the next three weeks. It is worse than annoying as it is how we are paying our bills at the moment.

The app needs to be able to record a delivery time when it is offline or logged out, or whatever the hell happened. Instead, I get to have another death threat, and they get to relax and figure it out in their own sweet time. All it takes is calling the customer to see when the delivery was made. Well, I will have to let you know how this turns out, especially if it ever turns out before the 25th!

I am so mad because I do what I am supposed to do. I do it quickly and I do it well, but the app does not record accurately all the time, and I get this treatment. I also have a couple of ratings that are lower than five star, and I cannot see what is wrong, so I know how to fix issues. I’d like to know if they are fair ratings, or things that should have been pointed at the restaurants. I have it sorted out now that I cannot be blamed for missing food, so that is good. When I am handed a sealed bag and I deliver a sealed bag, how the hell am I supposed to know if they remembered everything? But the app now lets me report that the bad is sealed.

And that is the other thing. The app changes a little here and there almost daily. They make changes, they do not tell what they have changed, and drivers get to figure it out as they go. It is a stupid way to run a business. Policies are basically changing, but if I do not meet my contractual obligations, they can can me from the app. Yet they change the functionality of the app, and I am supposed to meet contractual obligations. How does that work?

I am not a happy worker. I am not happy about the lousy pay, though it has gotten better. But it is still nowhere near enough to live on alright when my cost of operation is taken into account. But it is better than a swift kick in the ass. And that is all it is.

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Just Another Manic Tuesday

Back to work today, and it was uneventful. The highlight was buying some food for lunch, and packing it into my cold lunchbox. I got strawberries and bananas, a couple of apples, and of course some cheese and heavy cream. I also picked up a summer sausage and some pistachio nuts. It could have been cheaper, but it will last through tomorrow as well. I will work on making a cheaper lunch purchase later in the week. But the key here was that I am looking for healthy, fresh food. Honestly, I snacked on the food all day. Especially the pistachios. Several of the bananas are gone too, along with half the sausage and half the cheese. I feel I got a healthy load of energy from it all.

When I got home, I soon visited with the neighbor and bought a bale of hay off him. He says he needs the rest of what he’s got, so I am cut off. That is fine. I would like to scythe the hay going forward and have the summer for free. Well, for labor.

I gave him his choice of wooden mallets from those I made from the walnut he gave me. He took the big one, I assume for his needs. I told him that it was my favorite as it fit my hand the best. I did not mention that the large end of the handle makes the balance such that it eases the strain of swinging. I also forgot to mention that it was finished in boiled linseed oil, should he want to recoat it. I’ll have to either remember to mention it later or offer to replace it if he wants when he wears it out. Well, it is a beautiful mallet, and a good choice, so I am glad he picked it. I wanted to thank him for the walnut wood he gave me that I made if from.

I did not work this evening because of the visit with the neighbor and because I was so tired. I did not sleep well last night and really felt it by the time I got the kids from the bus stop. I did not work in the woodshop either, though I would have really liked to have. I need to bring the two boards I am preparing for glueing to come into line a bit better. I have the ends apart at the moment, though I am pratty happy with how the majority of the joint is coming along. I finally realized last night that I don’t have to make them perfectly straight. I just need to make them match. And if they don’t come into the exact same plane, no big deal either as they are two and a quarter inch thick, and by the time I plane them to a smooth surface, they will be corrected. I expect to take a quarter of an inch total off the top and bottom. I also plan to scallop the bottom, which is to say I will plane it to fairly flat with the scrub plane. The top will get the fine finish. When it is done, I expect to have a three foot by six-and-a-half-foot top for the kitchen island. It’s not too fancy, as it is poplar, but it is wood I can easily source and mill here. I’ll also be happy if it is used directly as a cutting board. I want to be able to re-plane and finish it in a few years anyhow. So, I will be okay if that’s what happens to it. It needs to be like my workbench top in the shop. The kitchen is a shop!

Right! I see an early night coming on. I would like to catch up on some lost sleep and I would like to do a full day tomorrow working for money. I feel like I am somewhat caught up financially from last week’s earnings, and I would like to find that balance where I cannot just stay caught up but get back ahead. I guess by “get ahead,” I mean paying down some debt rather than carrying the minimum payments.

Oh, also, I practiced some of my Shakespeare today. I am old enough now not to recite iambic pentameter in rhythm, but to interpret the lines to feelings. I wish I could have figured this out earlier, but I was so taught that I thought the rhythm was the most important part. Obviously not! There is so much more to be expressed in emotion! Not just in the sonnets, but also in Julius Ceasar. Romeo and Juliette is often delivered when I have heard it anyway in a certain rhythm, too. Worry less of that, and more of expression!

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Normally on Monday

I would normally take Monday off, but money is required, so I worked today. It was not a bad haul for the time I worked. I am happy with it. Towards the end of the day I heard a noise coming from the right front brake. I decided with a little investigative work that it was because the brake was overheating. So, I figured that I should have greased a part yesterday that I did not, and when I got home, I got down to it and greased it after removing the wheel and partially disassembling the caliper. The test run produced no noise. I will check it out further tomorrow when I can really open her up and try to get her hot. (That sounded bad!) But the brake pad making contact with the rotor creates heat, and if I fixed it, it won’t do that anymore.

Apart from that, nothing significant happened at work today. It seems to be paying a little better, and while it could always do with being more, it is easier to make a decent amount now than it was a couple of weeks ago. I cracked $200 yesterday. That does not include the loss to the fuel tank, the car maintenance, which is genuinely costing lately, and other things like meals and etc.

I will not be going back in tonight. I have laundry to catch up on, and I helped Missus with a couple of things she had listed that she could not get without a helping hand. The best part of all was having gone to do a day at work then come home and feel well enough to do these other things, from the car to the help to the laundry. A year ago, no chance! None! Not at all. Gotta eat life up while I can.

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Wins and Losses

It is just four in the morning. I checked the DoorDash app, and there is work to be done down in the city right now. I would imagine the volume is low. But it is there. I kind of wish I could go down now, but disappearing off this time of day might not go down well, and it might not leave me the energy for later then I know the volume should be higher. I got shorted last night because I was getting a lot of noise off the brakes telling me it was time to change the pads, and I did not want to have to replace the rotors, too. So I called it and get some pads then came home and changed them. Had about 1/8th of an inch on the right-side front, and a little more on the left. My youngest helped me with the change, and she learned along the way. The test proved we had done the job well. So I will be able to go to work later today and try to top the week up with enough to get through it.

I learned recently that last weekend one of my classmates from high school passed away. In the same breath, I learned that he and his wife were no longer together, though they had been high school sweethearts, more or less. So, it was a double stun. I was surprised on both accounts. It was a guy I had nothing to do with, which in that school is a very positive thing. I got hell from so many people there, and for anyone to not be doing anything at all practically makes them my best friend! I do remember him laughing at a joke I made in a class we finally had together towards the last year. I did not know I had it in me to make him laugh. I was kind of proud of that. Anyway, now he is gone, and I feel a bit surprised as he was one of those guys who worked out a lot, and along with that I associate health. Now their daughter has lost her father, and mother has had her own scare that put her close to death in the recent years. Oh, mother is a lady I have always respected. Damn decent human being right there. We worked together at the grocery store in those days. She was a very beautiful lady, though for whatever reason, I never fancied her in the way. I always just saw her as a friend, and really appreciated her, even if it was also for not being one of the people who liked to kick.

Right, all that sadness out of the way, I am going to have to try to get back to sleep here. It is coming up to 4:30 in the morning, and I need to make up for lost time earning my pennies today. That brake job cost me about $50 to $75 in earnings last night on top of the parts I had to buy, which turned out in the end to be around $90 for pads and the bolts I may have broke and stretched out with the impact wrench. Har har! Don’t I feel dumb! I thought I could use it to get through the inevitable rust, and in the end, I had better luck doing that with the breaker bar. And putting it back together is where the trouble occurred. Best do that all by hand in the future. I also had the typical trouble with the stupid socket being interfered with by a nearby flange of metal that got in the way while working a bolt. Ain’t that just about right?

It is normal, anyway.

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Working For A Living

What a tiresome old night it is to wake up at 3AM and find myself still awake half an hour before the alarm is set to go! Who wants this? So I try to distract with YouTube and videos about chainsaw sharpening theories, and political commentary. You would thing this would have put me right back to sleep! An hour from now I will be getting ready to drive the girls to the bus stop and send them off to school. I will then be heading down to work in the city for most of the day. How I would rather lay in bed with the computer open and writing a little story about the Will o’ the Wisp dancing across a marsh, and catching the eyes of two curious children who follow it a moment, then watch as a light sets aglow beneath the water and rises up to reveal a ghostly figure that invites them to the peat bog with a dulcet voice of their long dead mother… Well, you know. I would rather lay about and daydream all day. That’s what I mean. Or at least go to the marshes and observe and take notes for just such a thing.

I don’t experience tiredness the way I once did. I will no doubt get through the day. It use to really kill my head, but now it just seems to lower my energy levels some and make me more mellow. Ah, I mean, really, I’d take the day off if I thought I could afford it. I typically give myself Monday’s off. I figure I need one a week. But like yesterday, I took the day off, worked a bunch out in the Service Yard cleaning up and getting ready to finish the woodshed and process firewood for the year, but then I went down and worked for the evening. I am fed up. I love driving, don’t get me wrong. But I am pushing too hard and burning out. I want some real ‘me time.’ Maybe it is just transitioning from before to being a worker bee again. But it is getting to me, and it is getting to me that I have to go so much just to try to keep up, and not even to get ahead; ahead so I can take a day for me, proper.

It was a little progress in the yard yesterday. A big thing was proving that the chainsaw sharpener was worth the investment. I was able ot cut up some logs with an old chain that had gone dull on me, and I sharpened it good enough on a first try to get it operational again. It did a fine job getting through plenty of wood. I even tapped it into the dirt once on accident, and it still had enough edge to cut just fine. The sharp chains will make it easy to get the logs to rounds, and I can store the extras after I have got the wood pile up for the coming winter, and I have got the rack built and loaded for sales. I cut all the rounds yesterday to 16 inches. I say that. I never measured any. I just did it by eye, but I would put money on it. It was good to get some of that done, though.

Well, time is coming. I need to get the day going.

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So Today Was…

Fun! Today was fun because I worked with my youngest daughter at my side while delivering food around. We did a bit and made some money, in fact, $50 exactly, to be exact. But while we were slow I decided to take her up Center Street to the mountain end of it, where the houses get bigger and bigger as you go up. When I got to the top, I turned around and went back a couple of houses to where I saw what looked like a garage sale laid out. Well, well, my goodness. There was nobody attending it, and a big sign in front that read…

…And with lawnmowers there, who was I to argue? Incidentally, by the time I took the above picture, I had already loaded the one I chose. It was nicer than what it still there. I got it home and tried it out and it would not start for love nor money. So, I thought about the three things needed for combustion and decided to cut to the chase and put some starter fluid in the carb. That got it going a bit, so I know air and spark are fine. It is having troubles with fuel. I may have to rebuild the carb, though I will try some cleaner first. Probably a clogged jet or flooded floats or something else I can hardly remember from my teenage days. But at least we know it will run. Not a bad price for it! And it is a John Deere. It is no cheap bottom end model, either. So, I will try to get it sorted and see if we can’t keep up on some mowing this summer with something that has a bit of power to it. 6.75 HP to be precise. Let’s give it a go!

Anyway, we came home, and I got to work on starting to clean up the Service Yard ready for things like wood cutting and finishing the woodshed construction. Some of that was just splitting up some log rounds that were sitting out there, and some of it was moving wooden fence posts out of the way. I got at it and found that by the time the light was getting short, I was still not tired, so I came in and did some dishes. I felt accomplished by the time I was done with that, and that’s when I came to write. Man, it is good to feel good! I want you to really appreciate that, and to go to the person you know who dies not do so much because they say they feel awful all the time and be kind to them, and appreciate that when they say they feel horrible and like they can’t do everything they want, it truly is a debilitating thing, and their best life will never measure up to your worst days. I mean, I have some things like sore arms from driving, and pain in my legs from standing and things like that. But none of it comes close to what I felt this time last year, and for many years before that. I was way worse! And I did not know it, the cause of it, and what I could do about it. And all it turned out to be a change in diet, and for me it was simple. But remember, not everyone is so lucky. So, give them the care they need, and please just allow them to be them. I was waiting for my wife to tell me off for doing dishes with the comment that not once when I felt horrible and could not do things did, she ever give me grief over it. So let me do the damn dishes. But she kept safe and clear. Ha! Oh well!

Well, alrighty then. I will have to work tomorrow. I need to change the oil proper in the car before we go to visit family this week. I want to be on the road with a fresh filter. I add enough oil each week to keep that fresh. Ha! I wish I could fix that on the cheap! Anyway, I see the weather is meant to improve all week till Friday, then top out in the mid 70’s before cooling off again. It is already lovely out. Spring has sprung. Couples are being romantic down in the city, going for walks, laying together on the grass, cuddling up at the bus stop. It is sweet.

I am desperate to make some changes, but for now, I have to do the work I am doing to keep things rolling along so that I can make some changes. But cleaning up in the yard and preparing for log work is also a part of it. I did not finish the Service Yard, but a little progress is just that. Progress.

My daughter was a lovely little helper today, and I really enjoyed the time with her on her last day of Spring Break. I look forward to their summer break, but I hope they do more with it than they did with the last one, or with this Spring Break, for that matter. Kids!

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All About Burning Out A Little

Today’s DoorDashing got to me after a few hours. I could have stayed and earned more, but sitting in the car, looking out at the same sort of view, maneuvering through traffic, dealing with all the people who are messing about on the road rather than driving, then it’s mostly ignorance in the restaurants where people are just too busy to hardly acknowledge a person; there is just not a lot to entertain a fella. I had a book of wordsearches along and was buzzing through pages in that between runs, like it was nothing. I think my brain is running at a different speed right now.

I saw the protests down in town. It is good to see people raising their voices, no matter the side they take.

I also got called out to a house that I was at yesterday. Funny enough, the GPS called me to a different road and took me through a driveway that led finally to the same one I came in on yesterday, too. It is a big house. Like, I drove through a neighborhood of big houses to get there, then arrived past the guest house, which was the same size, then the big house. It was a big house. I would hate to clean it! I am pretty happy with the house I have, thank you very much.

It really was a lot of just bouncing around today. I could have done with a break in the day, and perhaps I need to do batter at that. I could stop around 2PM and take time off till 4:30PM and maybe do some photography or something. Then I could catch the high points of Dashing and get some time for me for something I enjoy but cannot otherwise do! It’s not Golden Hour, but what’s that to someone who knows how to use a camera in all times and conditions? Ha!

So, I came home early today, just after doing a run to Cafe Sabor. That took me to Smithfield for delivery, and that close, fed up, and over my daily minimum goal, I am happy to go see my family! I would like to see my lovely little woodshop, too! But family first! I need to get some time in there doing some work. I want to make a thing.

I had to add oil to the car today. It leaks it or something. It does not seem to burn it. I think Honda has a problem with the lower seal on these engines. Therre is not much I can do about it unless I want to rebuild it. I don’t really want to rebuild it. But that means I will bear the brunt of the cost through loads of oil. It never leaves marks on the driveway, but it is messy and wet underneath. Then I have to ask how often I really should change the oil? I put in synthetic, which is meant to last 7 to 10K miles. The computer starts screaming at 3K, of course! So, I am over, now. I am over by about 1K. I plan to change it very soon, though. I was thinking on Monday. Add it to the lost of things I want to do when there is time! What a laugh! As soon as my health is on the up and up, I can do more, and now I cannot get it all done!

Right, then. My bed calls me. I plan on a workday tomorrow. I could do with setting a record. I won’t, but I could do with it.

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Chain Grinder

Okay, so the chain grinder arrived yesterday, and I put it together and figured out its workings and a rough idea of its settings. I say rough because there are several adjustments for a chain, and I am only pretty sure I have got them right, though I always allow for human error, or in other terms, for me to fuck up. Nah! What are the chances of that?

I put on a chain and gave it a go, then hung it up on a peg in the shop labelled “sharp.” Then I got another one. I recognized the dirty pitch on it and remembered that a few years ago I replaced it because it was cutting off to the right pretty badly. Funny to be able to remember a chain among many chains, and what was wrong with it. So I gave it a go, then put it on the saw and ran it out in the service yard. Well! It cut true and fast. I am not totally confident I was getting it right because while it did produce a lot of good shavings, it also made a fair bit of finer dust, and I’d like to get past that and refine my sharpening for more shavings. Either way, it was a straight cut. I also wonder if I took down too much of the metal on the chain and could have got away with grinding off less to accomplish the same.

I only did the two chains to start with in the end so I could get a feel and now go learn some more about the workings and settings so I can see if I can find a better grind. I mean honestly, I am fairly sure I have the correct disc on the machine, but I am not completely. I suspect it differs based on the size of the chain, and two of my saws use smaller chains. The third wheel that came with is for the rakers, so it has a flat profile rather than the rounded ones of the two sized discs. I am going to want to set chains aside while sharpening several, then doing those rakers all at once, rather than changing the wheels between each as I go.

Alright, so this is all more complicated stuff that I am not sure the reader or the Russian bots will understand. I mean, it turns out it is fairly easy to understand, but that is with the machine sat in front of you. It is not so easy to explain and understand the way I am going about it here. But really this is more for my own benefit as a journal of the moment that changed my productivity with the chainsaws and made it possible for me to get the logs down faster and with less effort. It should mean the beginning of the firewood business. There is a couple of tasks yet to do, but I should hopefully be able to sell firewood from the front of the house soon, and keep stocked up. I need to build my sales stand, and I need to get the winch fixed up and start getting more logs. All to come soon.

Today begins a marathon week working deliveries. I took yesterday off despite the urge to go get ’em when the app was showing me that it was busy in the city. I only looked because I got an alert on my phone. But apart from that, I stayed clear of even thinking of it as much as I could and just focused on resting. I have only given myself one day off a week so far while doing this. It’s not my dream life. It is certainly not my dream job, though I do at some level enjoy it. Surprisingly, I don’t enjoy the people as much as I thought I would. There are a couple worth talking to. But that topic must result in more than a new paragraph.

Right then! It is 6:45AM. I should like a little more shut eye, then it’s up and ready to start the marathon. Sometime in it I will have to put a pause on and change the oil in the car. A quick Google says that by using synthetic oils, I can extend the changes to seven to ten thousand miles. I am at 3,300. I do have synthetic in the engine now, for at least two oil changes. I went with it when we bought the car because a person is not supposed to switch back from synthetic once they start using it, and I have no idea what past owners used, so since it is a one-way gate, it is best to go into it, or to stay into it.

I think I would also like to watch the weather and the ground this week, and get some saw-time in when I can, and start getting the wood pile going. Oh, and there are oil changes to do on all the machines, and also a repair on the winch, and getting ready to start at acquisitions again, while it is cool out! Summer heat is thankless and cruel! I think I need to remember to build up a shade canopy to work under out there in the service yard.

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Oh the Horrors!

I have been quiet lately because I have come back to the work-a-day life I was in 20 years ago and more. Once again, I find myself working day after day to make hardly enough money to get by on. I really am not getting by at the moment. But maybe soon, after I figure out some new strategies on earning. I have the chainsaw sharpener coming tomorrow so I can start getting some logs cut down and some wood ready to sell. So that is one thing. DoorDashing is a joke. I will turn just over $550 total this week between working two apps. Then there is the fuel, something like $150. So now we are down to $400. No taxes accounted for yet, either. By the time I sort that out, well, you bet I better be keeping track of my miles! That’s my only hope. I also tend to need to eat sometime during a eight to ten hour working period. I would call it a shift, but that seems inaccurate when I am choosing when to start and stop. And with so much time, I need to account for it being more than I bargained for when I started doing it. I had hoped I would get some time in my shop to make things to sell, too. But that’s not really happening.

Okay, so tomorrow is a day I am taking off. I try to take Mondays. I need a day for me. I need a day to help out with the family, too. Once the chain sharpened arrives, I think I will be working on setting it up, getting a couple of the chains reconditioned, and seeing about how I hang them to keep dull ones apart from the ready to go ones. I don’t yet have a plan on where I will be putting the thing in the shop. I can cut up a few more logs ready for splitting, and who knows, maybe tackle some of that if the sharpener arrives early enough. I could also do with looking at getting the tiller on the tractor and getting it ready for some work. I do have a couple of gardening goals for the year, even if not a full garden.

So, I am keeping kind of quiet on here because I am just to damn busy working to balance it right now. No big deal. I am sure it will sort out before too long. But you know, we do what we have got to. As I have mentioned, I have a plan, and more plans, really. I also am finding the social side of working very disappointing. People have changed over the years. The ones I encounter are largely so superficial. They barely like to be involved with being at work. Even at the shops where they are generally pretty good at the customer service, there is little that is real behind the facade. So, the work is lonely. I almost never meet a customer. I have no company in the car, where I spend half or more of my time. That pretty much sums it up. Lonely, lonely, lonely. Or fake. There are maybe two or three places where I have met some people who are friendly, and real. I am always chuffed to go to them. But due to the randomness of the app, that is not often.

No worries. I will sort things out and try to get to doing some real work earning some money from home yet. There has to be something better than this! Besides, I cannot expect to make money while systematically destroying our car. So, it has to be done.

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