Here's Why -

I never complete any of my big projects. It just seems the number of little ones are constantly interrupting the flow. Last week I worked on Monday so my vacation officially started on Tuesday with a trip to the eye doctor. Wednesday it was a trip to the dentist for a crown and lots of running around. Three days at the gym, cutting some grass, spreading four tons of gravel, some odds and ends around the shack plus the items pictured.

The boxing glove was no big deal. Get out the sewing kit and do a little saddle stitching to fix the wrist band. I fixed a double end bag strap while I had the stuff out, also. About a half hour start to finish.

The jump rope had the plastic piece that keeps the rope attached break. I machined up an aluminum replacement - not too tough but a little time consuming. By the time I measured every thing up, sketched it out, found a piece of stock, faced, drilled, bored, turned, threaded, parted off, deburred and cleaned up, I had close to 1-1/2 hours in the job. That's not the type of thing a guy could take someplace to get fixed. It would just be tossed out and a new one purchased. That just kills me. However, if I were to look at it from the point of an economist and opportunity cost, my time could have been better spent. I like to look at it as a technical exercise. I do it because I can.

The little bicycle was drug home by the missus. Of course, it needed a little work. The bearings in the bottom bracket were literally torn apart but other than that it looked salvageable. I took the crank with me when I was out running around the other day knowing I would be going past a bicycle shop. Of course, they didn't have anything that would fit the Disney Little Princess. I'm never going into that place again. I've been in there a couple of times now and they're all about selling you a new bike, not repairing anything. I realize they couldn't spend much time on a little department store bike before running the bill up to what a replacement bike would be, but 0nce again, must we throw everything out? I went to see my old pals at Superior Sales and they had a kit for the bottom bracket with bearings, races, everything. Six bucks. So an hour and a half later, the little bike is once again ready to ride. That includes getting out the heat gun and peeling off all the Little Princess decals. We can't have the grandson riding around on a Little Princess, now can we?

I had a flat tire on the mower this week and while the wheel was off, I figured I would change out the plastic bushings. I just went all over two counties looking for bushings for another job, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and check the dealer. Yep, he had them at four bucks each. The other bushings I bought were thirty five cents each. These should have been fifty cents tops. So, either you can't find what you need or you pay threw the nose for it.

So there's the reason things never get finished. Because I live in the sticks there is no big industrial supplier near by, so I'm constantly chasing after some odd ball thing or another. I can't bear to throw anything away that I know I can repair. Plus, I just enjoy tinkering on all this crap. It's a curse, but at least the "to do" list shrunk a little this week.