Re: Really Stupid Things I Tried

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 3/31/2024 4:32 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
> On 3/31/2024 6:17 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 3/30/2024 7:07 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>> On 3/30/2024 9:03 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>> On 3/30/2024 4:43 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>>>> On 3/30/2024 6:11 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
>>>>>> I tried to do little extra things to help my guys out, but it was
>>>>>> never appreciated.  Stupid things I tried included:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I once asked a local hotdog place to run a tab for me, and told my
>>>>>> guys if they "ran out of cash" before the next pay day they could
>>>>>> use my tab there.  They bitched me out up one side and down the
>>>>>> other because they didn't want to eat hotdogs EVERY F'IN day.  I
>>>>>> closed the tab.  I didn't say I was buying lunch every F'N day.  I
>>>>>> had figured I'd have to pick up the tab for them a day or two a
>>>>>> couple times a month.  Yeah, the tab looked like they had been
>>>>>> inviting all their friends, family, neighbors, and that weird guy
>>>>>> down the street they didn't even like.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I once put a couple cases of sodas in the office fridge and told a
>>>>>> guy if he was thirsty he could grab a soda out of the office
>>>>>> fridge. Two days later it was empty.  I didn't say anything, and
>>>>>> on day three he rather pointedly told me I was GOING TO HAVE TO
>>>>>> restock the office fridge.  He'd been talking an arm load out to
>>>>>> his service truck every morning.  I unplugged the office fridge
>>>>>> the next day and told him it was broke and I couldn't afford a new
>>>>>> one after supplying him with an 18 pack of sodas every day.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I once told a guy I kept spare change in the ash tray of my truck
>>>>>> if he needed to buy a soda.  Just to see I dumped about ten
>>>>>> dollars worth of quarters in it (plus what was already in there).
>>>>>> At the end of the week he dutifully TOLD ME I need to put more
>>>>>> money in the ashtray.  I said, sorry.  "That was for if you ran
>>>>>> out of money, but now I have run out of money.  I don't know How
>>>>>> I'm going to make payroll.  I'm ten dollars short.  Just the
>>>>>> amount I kept in the ashtray."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I used to keep extra fuel in gas cans in one of my service trucks.
>>>>>> One guy kept telling me He needed to fuel his truck every other
>>>>>> day. I followed him to the gas stations and sat across the street
>>>>>> and watched when he filled the gas cans, but didn't put any fuel
>>>>>> in my truck.  I took the gas cans out, installed locking caps, and
>>>>>> filled the trucks myself every weekend after that.  Nobody every
>>>>>> said anything about the locking gas caps, but that one guy did try
>>>>>> to tell me he needed gas in his truck twice after that.  "Nope.  I
>>>>>> filled it yesterday.  You do not."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Early on when we had a slow day I would ask the guys if they
>>>>>> wanted to go home or go fishing.  I paid for everything when we
>>>>>> went fishing of course.  One guy got mad when it was a day to
>>>>>> work, and said, "Bob you are a good fishing partner, but a lousy
>>>>>> boss."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Yeah, I know.  I was a total douche bag for cutting off your flow
>>>>>> of free hotdogs for your extended family, friends, neighbors, and
>>>>>> that weird guy down the street you don't even like."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Well golly gee whiz Bob!!!
>>>>> Are you so bored that bad memories pop back into your head??
>>>>>
>>>>> And yes, your typing caused me to start and remember employee
>>>>> issues............  Bla Bla Bla............
>>>>>
>>>>> For me I made the decision that I was working harder with an
>>>>> employee than without.  So I did not hire any after the last.
>>>>>
>>>>> Life was much better!!  When I needed help I used guys that
>>>>> had there own 1 man business as a sub-contractor.  At the
>>>>> end of the job, I would get a bill for labor and I happily
>>>>> pay it out.
>>>>>
>>>>> As for your stories, I am sure you should get more busy so
>>>>> your memories will not bother your brain.  LOL
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope you have plans to go a bit east on April 8th!!  Wouldn't
>>>>> want you miss the special event!!
>>>>>
>>>>> Les
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This week I plan to make a test run hauling a 3/4 ton truck with a
>>>> 3/4 ton truck.  60 miles to go get it in Dateland and 60 miles back
>>>> over Telegraph pass.  The plan is to see if I can load and secure it
>>>> solo. Should be a good test run for my truck and goose neck trailer.
>>>> Should also be a good test for the new brakes on a hill I know I can
>>>> drive without trailer brakes if I have to.
>>>>
>>>> This week I put new axles on the trailer with new electric brakes,
>>>> because the old brakes were a combination of bad and missing, and
>>>> nobody anywhere had trailer brake hubs that would fit the old axles.
>>>> Being drop axles swapping the spindles was a bit more work than you
>>>> might think.
>>>>
>>>> I still need to finish wiring up the brakes and break away controller.
>>>>
>>>> If it works I'll do the same thing again a day or two later.  Only
>>>> this time through the mountains up to Show Low and back.  Best case
>>>> is a little over 5-1/2 hours one way.  I'm rounding up my dad's old
>>>> vehicles for salvage or repair.  I have two people interested in
>>>> buying the two 3/4 ton (both are Cummins Diesel Dodges) as is, but I
>>>> might fix one up and keep it as a backup tow rig.  I'm learning the
>>>> Duramax in my truck might not have the long life I was lead to
>>>> believe it should.  Its okay, but I am seeing them fail at lower
>>>> mileage than I was told to expect.
>>>>
>>>> While I am in Show Low I have to make a plan for pulling a park
>>>> model (my folks old summer home) out of the park where it is.  They
>>>> WANT IT OUT.  There is a tool shed full of tools I am told, some
>>>> things in the park model, and of course the truck that will be
>>>> coming back with me on this first run.  While I am there I have to
>>>> come up with a plan for the park model... with tip outs.  Manual tip
>>>> outs.  Technically it is a travel trailer, but its huge.  With tip
>>>> outs.  Lots of trees have grown up around it since it was placed and
>>>> I may not be able to just pull it out.  My truck can handle it, and
>>>> I have a couple stabilizer hitches. The hitch was dropped from the
>>>> trailer, but I am told its still there. I just hope the axles are
>>>> still on it.  Tires could be an issue...  The park has given me an
>>>> April 15th deadline. They won't even accept rent unless my mom
>>>> actually goes there to stay. Assholes.  I may put an add on the
>>>> local Facebook groups in Show Low. Free park model.  Must remove by
>>>> April 15th.  It was built in 1977.  I have the current registration
>>>> tab sitting on my desk.
>>>>
>>>> Still need to empty out my dad's work shop, storage containers,
>>>> house, old hardware store etc...  I've posted a few of his things
>>>> for sale on Facebook, but the vultures are out in force.  Like new
>>>> THINGIE. Tested works perfect.  Sells for $$$.  Asking half that
>>>> FIRM AND ETCHED IN STONE.  "Oh, will you take 1¢ on the dollar of
>>>> your asking price?" Selling shit sucks.  I am reminded why I threw
>>>> so much good stuff in the dumpster when I shut down The Security
>>>> Consultant.
>>>>
>>>> Part of my plan is to haul his cargo containers to my place and drop
>>>> them behind my shop.  That will reduce some of my headaches.  My
>>>> shop is already full of tools, and now I have a bunch of his stuff
>>>> in my shop just in the way, and its starting to over flow the space
>>>> I had left in my cargo container.
>>>>
>>>> ... and I still have to find the time to run the shop.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Well OK then, your itinerary is F-U-L-L of too much STUFF!!!
>>> For me every day is a Saturday and today was a Double Saturday!!
>>>
>>> Next Saturday we are taking a trip to Niagara Falls so we will
>>> be in the best location on April 8th!!
>>>
>>> Hoping for no clouds!!  Will get a double whammy at 3:17pm with the
>>> Horseshoe Falls lighting up and the Solar Eclipse.   Y-A-H-O-O!!
>>>
>>> Les
>>>
>>
>> This morning I refused to work on any shop stuff.  I know.  I know.
>> Its Easter Sunday.  My wife and mom went off to Easter Mass, and I
>> fixed a table that belonged to my wife's grandma.  Then I expected
>> them back, but no sign of them so I walked out and looked at the goose
>> neck trailer.  There are a couple extra lights on the back that I had
>> no idea what they were for.  I went ahead and tied them into the
>> running lights. Â Â Gives me two extra tail lights to reduce the odds of
>> a revenue stop when I go through some broke ass county in central
>> Arizona.  Then I sat there and stared at the upper deck for a while
>> trying to figure out how to mount a winch up there.  I've got a 12 ton
>> Warn winch that's a spare (sorta).  I have a Badlands 12 ton on the
>> Jeep, but I would like to use this winch on other things.  Its on a 2"
>> draw bar mount so it can be portable.  A few years ago I welded a draw
>> tube onto another trailer for this purpose, but this one isn't so
>> nicely laid out for that.  I finally figured out a plan and welded
>> half of the plan in place.  I doubt any stores are open today, and I
>> need parts.  I guess I'll have to wait until Monday.  Now to figure
>> out where my wife and mom are off to...  or maybe I should grab a
>> fishing pole and head on down to the canal bank.
>>
>> Les, there is a neat affect I've heard almost nobody talk about during
>> an eclipse.  Stand under a tree that has loose leaves.  One with lots
>> of spots of sunlight shining through.  During the eclipse look at the
>> light and shadow on the ground under the tree.  Its a lot cooler than
>> that stupid shadow box they tried to impress us with in grade school.
>
> Yes Bob, I have seen the tree thing on some videos.  Where I was at in
> 2017 South Carolina the trees were too far away to go a lookie!!
> Then up and until totality we had clouds..... Then as the totality ended
> the clouds cleared. :-)
>
> Today I worked on setting up my Nikon and Tripod to get the angles
> right.  I want to get a video, the 3.5 minutes before and after.
> I think I have everything as best I can at this point.  I got a
> UV filter and built a box for camera lens to fit into.  Works quite
> well.  I built one for my iPhone as well, just in case!!
>
> It all comes down to the day and the time it happens! Fingers Crossed!!
>
> BTW a piece of cardboard with a 1/4" hole will work as well.
>
> Les
>


So, how was your eclipse vacation Les?  I thought about it briefly.
About 11:20 was max coverage here supposedly.  (60% I think)  I
considered walking at and looking at the shadows under the trees, but
I'm just not having any fun these days. Been trying to buy a new truck,
and dealerships just suck.  I'm tempted to fly across country and buy
the truck I want several thousand dollars cheaper and drive it back just
to spite the local dealerships.  I think I'm going to grab a fishing
pole and go dunk some rubber worms.  I should work, but I need to relax
if only for five minutes.




--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff


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