The last bolt of the night…

Sometimes, things don't quite go as planned… I had a spare bolt, and as a quick last check, I ran it in a hole to check that I'd gotten the body clearance right for mounting the flares I was picking up in a couple of days.  Well, it turns out there was a little piece of body sheet metal interfering with hole.  When I went to back the bolt out, it dragged that into the hole and started extruding it into the threads!  Well, now I was stuck!  I couldn't tighten or loosen it.  The force required was too much for the relatively small Allen Wrench headed screw (I hate those things by the way…).  So I had no choice but to go after it with a pair of vice grips.  Even that didn't work.  I was putting enough force on it to chip the head of the stainless steel bolt!  So I treated it like I was tapping a hole in reverse.  Add cutting fluid, 1/4 turn out, 1/8th turn back in and repeat.  EVENTUALLY, I got it free.  I managed to clean up the bolt and the hole threads, and smooth off the head enough to be able to use it.  I also, found a replacement online.  Anyhow, be careful, you can get yourself stuck in ways that have NOTHING to do with off-roading, 4x4, hills or mud. Hahahaha.  

The good news is, I've improved my skill with broken bolts in the process of my work on the Jeep.  I've been able to recover several rusted or stuck parts by drilling them out and re-tapping them.

It sure was maddening at the end of the evening after I thought I was all finished!

Thanks to Andy’s ideas, I really cleaned up my self-rescue organization in the “trunk”

The Milwaukee PackOuts let me fit two boxes in there perfectly.  Now I can grab and go if I need something out there in the wild. ;)

I finally got the first fender and corner guard on…

It was quite a lot of work, but this should keep me from doing too much damage and look good too.  Thanks for the help, Andy! 

Three more corners to go…

I’ve been fitting my Jeep with new fenders

It's an effort to get rid of the bigger dents and rust spots.  I needed to trim the existing rocker rails, but couldn't really remove them.  So I had Andy go at it with the angle grinder.  He did a great job.  Fits perfect, and we never hit anything we shouldn't.  We used an old license plate behind the rocker rail and just went slowly. :) It looks pretty good.  Then original angle is the part at the bottom where it opens up.  Andy's line he followed is the first four inches or so starting at the top between the gray and black metal.  Nice job mister!

This looks ominous…

I haven't seen a message like this on a computer screen for quite a few years. Hahaha.  I was just updating my BIOS.

Andy learned to tap threads while helping me with my Jeep.

If you're working with an old car, it's a skill you need.  There's always a broken bolt to fix.  In this case, I needed to make a place to mount the license plate on the new corners.

A nice pic that Cheyenne posted of her and Chris!

We moved his shelves over to his new truck over the weekend.

Then we got to move in and organize all his PackOuts, tools, and equipment.  You can see some of the progress here.  It was a fun time of working and figuring it out together. 

It’s fun that one of Andy’s favorite tools is one I gave him when he was a kid

I wrote his initials on it when I gave it to him.  When it fades from use, he goes over it again so he alsways sees my handwriting when he uses it.  He says that he likes that it reminds him of me. :) He's a good, sentimental guy.

Zoe’s really good at just chillin’ with us!

My red watch face and red car lights almost match

I like the look of the night mode, but it's a little harder for my old eyes to see though.  I've never thought the normal face was too bright at night.  Anyhow I thought it made a cool picture at least.  It's even almost in focus.

Andy got a new truck for work!

So I got to help him for a change.  We worked on adding a ladder rack, bulkhead and shelves last weekend. It was fun working on it together.  I was the go-fer for a change. :)

One last one, biking around the neighborhood with Zoe. :)

 

I like the new modular faces for the Ultra watch from the latest OS update

Of course I had to take a moment to play Galaga after the meeting!

This is MY kind of meeting…

They had a table full of snacks to keep the energy up while we presented to our CEO.  Anytime Swedish Fish are included, I am all set! Hahahahaha.

A yummy lunch and nice weather at our cafeteria near Boston.

Some fun with the kids and off-roading over the last several weeks. :)

 

You have to enjoy a company meeting that hands you dirt and worms to eat…!

I had the chance to attend one of our all employee meetings in person a couple weeks back.  They offered a little dessert to go along with the presentation. :) It was a gardening themed meeting complete with our CEO dressed as a garden gnome. Fun!

Retracing the route and a few moments from my Tar Hollow Vinton County run

It’s so nice to be able to go >500 miles and not worry about where to get the next refuel… ;)

Road trip to Boston anyone?!

This was my view a couple weeks ago.

A few cool things to look forward to in the new Apple Watch and iPhone hardware…

I like the new Modular Ultra face and a bigger optical zoom lens for sure!  I have also noticed a HUGE improvement in dictation accuracy.  Some from the latest OS, even more from the improved chip sets.  It's a welcome change.

A bit of the fun from the youth group color war at church

Color wars at Youth Group

It was fun to help wiht the growth groups at church two weeks ago.  They ended the night by trying to see who could get the most colorful from chalk dust…. They posed for a group pic after.

Middle of the day on a weekend…

I guess you can surmise the future of malls from this shot.  You can't see a single other person in the picture.  Not exactly a popular place these days… :(

Still the same rock stucco…

The old sets building catalog entrance still has the same crystal rock stucco finish that it did when we were kids.  Funny that both Julie and I remembered that.

Julie and I went on a date to the Dayton Mall

We were both feeling nostalgic for Friday evening jaunts we used to do with our respective families.  I remember caramel corn, London Bobby's, Radio Shack, Children's Palace, KB Toys, McCrory's, playing Atari in Sears, shopping for tools, the home show, picking up orders from catalog shopping, and just strolling with my family.  It brought back a lot of fun memories.  

A jump up the waterfall

 It wasn’t too much trouble. I’m still learning to do it smoothly. After crossing the river, I climbed the second hill just after that guy, but they didn’t film the whole thing. These Jeeps tackle this kind of fun so easily. They’ll do more than I’m willing to try. That’s probably a good balance. Keeps me out of too much trouble.

That’s me, the first jeep after the leader.

He took this selfie and sent it to us.

Then we broke out into this serene area by the river.

It was beautiful and quiet.  We took some time to take it in, play around on all the nearby obstacles, then plan the rest of the day.

So we headed back down the other side.

We made it to the top of the hill.

Having the trees down does give a pretty view of the trails.

Then we headed out to all the tornado damaged areas in Vinton County

We hopped right up this waterfall

It's hard to tell here, but we went about 6 feet vertical in about 12 feet of travel.  

Of course, some of the folks took side trips.

I'm not so much into diving into the mud pits… This jeep is the same year as mine and all stock except the lift and tire size.  He hit this mud hole turnaround without issue.  I just can't imagine it's good for all the inner workings to do it when you don't "have" to? ;)

Trying to give you a feel for our wheelin’

These are technically "roads" according to the map.  They're unimproved forest access roads.  Yeah, you might want 4WD…

Just as we started to hit the fun stuff

The group meet up before we hit the trails.

I’m headed to an off road adventure…

 This is as I was pulling into the camping area in the Ohio State Forest around Chillicothe. We’re headed to the unmaintained “roads” in the Vinton County area.

The rest of my happy, cute balisong trainer.

This is quite an interesting, really nice priced trainer.  It's taking the market by storm.  A great thing to have on hand to encourage new peeps to give it a try.

Just a random stop on the way home on a beautiful morning

Julie’s newest uniform

She wanted a lighter, smaller shirt so found this one and had it printed up.  One of our friends found out and had them add her nickname to it.  Fun!

Just a quick shot in the Walmart parking lot

It's crazy that you can have a camera with you all the time so you can capture quick moments like this.  It stopped the action and has enough resolution to make out the flight feathers on the wingtips of each bird.

See how happy he is?!

Andy and Julie bought be an early Christmas present and surprised me with it.  It was a limited drop balisong trainer that we've all been waiting for.  Once they had it, Andy couldn't stand not giving it to me.  So they contrived a get-together and dropped it on me while the three of us were flipping other knives.  It was a fun night.

I like the cute, non-threatening design of the Squid Industries' Squiddy AL (for aluminum).  It's a great starter trainer.  Even better, you can adjust the weight and balance using the options weights.  It's fun how they screw into the eyes and give it even MORE personality.  I think I have adopted a new aluminum son… hahahahaha.

The left over dust from our fun.

The best way to clean the inside of your Jeep is just take it down the road at 70mph without a top or doors and let the wind do the work.  An air compressor works for anything left. Hahahaha.

Some rut fun we were having.

I remember the first time I saw this area, I thought there's no way I'd have a vehicle that could navigate it.  Well, I guess I do now! :) Andy jumped into the Jeep for this part since they were way too big for an ATV to handle.

Andy and me off-roading…

We had to get some time outdoors and balance the time spent working under the Jeep with time spent exploring in it.  He photo-bombed me with his guns for sure! I'm sitting there at a 30º angle.  It was enough for gas to start dripping out of there fill neck…

My nerdy little camo duck is happily spinning down the road.

I got in on some of the killer kendama action. :)

Loading up all the off-road toys for a test run

Andy and I were planning to hit the road the next day, but I figured I better make sure it was road worthy with a shorter trip first.  I ran some errands around town and it held up nicely.  I could probably make use of a lower gear ratio to compensate for the larger tires.  When you start off in first from a stop it's pretty under powered.  But I can make do until I decide if a re-gear is worth the cost and bother.

A great solution for connecting my trailer

I a put my phone's PopSocket right into the hole at the top of the drop hitch.  Then I use the camera and the remote camera app on my watch so I can back right up to it first try.  It's a nice use of the tech and it means I don't have any need to retrofit a backup camera for the Jeep.  It's kind of fun/funny too.  

In the top left and bottom right, you can see where I put my phone.  It's really stable there.  Then in the opposite corners you can see the view I get on my watch as I approach and after it's lined up.  

Wrecking Ball Kendama is actually pretty fun to play!

 

You know something special has arrived when it has THIS warning…

Andy's been waiting for this for months now (since he had to pre-order it).

It’s fun that we still get the boy’s stuff sometimes…

Paperwork, Kendama trade for mowing, and this huge box… I wonder what's in it.

Keep in mind the size of that Kendama sitting there when compared to the size of the box it's sitting on!

All Andy’s favorite things in one pic.

He sent me this a couple weeks back and I thought it was cool.  I've sure made a lot of memories with him and these things over the years.  Love it❣️