Doohickey

The little white doohickey on the right in the photo is for draining the oil in my mower. The factory cut a hole in the engine mounting plate right under the drain plug but since the plug is horizontal, if you remove it too quickly, the oil will shoot right past the hole in the plate and go all over. Also underneath the hole is the drive belt and a couple of wires. It only took me about five minutes to figure out what I needed and about five more to make it up. It's made out of a piece of aluminum flashing bent into a "U" shape with a couple of flanges on the top. You squeeze it together, shove it threw the hole from the bottom side and when you turn loose of it, the flanges hold it in place and the oil drains into the bucket just as pretty as you please. You still have to take it easy when you first loosen the plug but that's easy enough to do. 

The monstrosity on the left in the photo is one that I made for my old mower. The mower came with a little cheesy plastic thing that I deep sixed after about the second oil change. I made this gizmo up and used it a few times and then I just said the hell with it and bought some pipe fittings and plumbed the drain to clear the frame. One of my obvious character flaws is the fact that I haven't used the thing in about five years but yet it's still around. It's still here but at least it's in the scrap pile now.

I spent most of the day piddling around Saturday. Went to the feed store, cut the grass and changed the oil in the mower. Put a bunch of stuff away and organized some more things from the pile o' junk I brought home from school. I need some shelves in the top of the new barn. Next time I run to Menard's, I'll see what they've got and decide if it's worth building or just buying some. Since the store is only about a mile away from the community college, I'll be running up that way at least twice a week for the next 16 weeks.

I got my last paycheck from the school corp Friday. It was a nice check due to the payoff for my unused sick days but since they don't give you much per day, if I had thought about it, I would have looked into donating a couple to the sick day bank. They did give me a spiffy plaque and a nice letter from the school board recognizing my 18 years of faithful service while I was in there. Plus I got a few handshakes and smiles from the office personnel. Thanks to all. It was a good career but it was time to move on. 

I went on a bicycle ride Friday morning with a former colleague and Italy traveler. We rode 18 miles on a converted rail path. It's a nice, paved path and there were only a few other people on it. I didn't have any trouble doing the distance - legs were just a little tired when we finished. There's a 25 miler in September I was hoping to be in shape for. Shouldn't be any trouble as long as I get out and do a few 8-10 milers before then. It feels good to be able to do things again. I just need to remember to back it down a notch or two from what I used to do. We had a nice talk about things educational and travel related while we rode. It was a nice way to spend a beautiful summer morning.

Back to work for me this week. Only a couple of half days per week but I'm adjunct faculty now, baby. Probably aren't too many college "professors" who can Heli-Arc two beer cans together.