Waiting For Winter To End
This winter has been tough on me.It started off ok working on Donna’s shed and then working on Andy’s house fixing up the apartment I built there 16 years ago. Now , he’s between tenants so I’m there giving the place a face lift of sorts.It got a paint job ,and a complete bathroom make over.
What happened first is that we had a bad rain storm on a Saturday and by Sunday morning it was beautiful again so I decided I’d go riding.As I was waiting for the roads to dry up I went thru the bike checking the tires ,oil levels ,and so on then got all suited up in my leathers and as I was rushing around to get out I slipped and fell real hard on my left side in the driveway.Felt a bit of a sensation in my shoulder but nothing serious so I sat down for a few then went out.It was a great ride.Went to visit my friend Steve to see what he was up to then headed out east and did a hundred or so miles just blasting around on backroads.Next day I buttoned up Donna’s shed because snow was forecast for later in the week .
I was at Andy’s for two weeks or so and at the last week just after Christmas I noticed my left leg was stiff after the drive there .It went away after walking into the house so I didn’t pay any attention to it.This went on until I finished the job.The end of the job was installing a new bathroom vanity and hooking up the plumbing.I was under this thing on my back for about an hour fooling with this crap and finally got finished.Next day I start building the windows for Donna’s shed in my backyard and down in my basement.I have my table saw set up out in the yard so I don’t have to deal with the dust downstairs.I’m up and down the stairs a lot and at the end of the carpentry part of this job my left leg hurt so bad I could barely walk. It went from bad to worse.I spent the last month dealing with this taking hot baths and doing exercises . Took a shitload of Wobenzyme to take care of the inflamed muscles and now it’s finally ending sort of but it’s still there and painful.I kept busy finishing the windows and working in my shop on auto parts for the restoration of my 65 Valiant station wagon.It’s been a hard winter shoveling snow with a bum leg hobbling around in pain but I dealt with it myself so I didn’t get bankrupted by the medical profession .Dealt with it and kept forward motion so all’s good.Today I’m at around 85% and have made some real progress on my projects. Now it’s hurting again . It’s one step forward two back .This is life when you get into your 70’s !Got a major house renovation coming up starting in March for my friend Steve.He and I are going to be tearing down walls ,making an open floor plan for his new kitchen and living room/dining room .Should be fun.Steve and I work well together.With this in mind I’m being careful not to hurt my leg and to strengthen the muscles. What happened was the muscles got all swollen and caused me to have a bad case of Sciatica .So that’s been my life for the past 6 weeks or so.Now with things improving I’m getting to the things I really like to do like cars, motorcycles , my painting ,and this journal.
Now I’m off to the auto parts store to get some things so I can finish the distributors and carbs I’m working on and also to pick up the new oil seals I ordered for the steering box I rebuilt two weeks ago. I’m excited about actually getting started on my 1965 Valiant station wagon restoration. Been way too long since I restored a car.
Back from the parts store now. My seals for the steering boxes I am rebuilding were in and I ordered some carb parts.It’s good working down in my shop.I think I’ll start prepping the front suspension parts next.I have all new ball joints , tie rod ends ,pitman arm, idler arm , and bushings so basically I just need to clean up the center link and upper and lower controls arms so I can paint them.Getting all this stuff finished now will really help me when I’m actually working on the car.
Yesterday I built another distributor out of a few old ones I had laying around. There is a foot of snow on the ground and more on the way.I really do hate winter !
Now it’s Friday,I started this post on Tuesday . Sitting here at 8 AM eating breakfast and looking out the window when I see this squirrel climbing up this tree in my back yard with an ear of corn in it’s mouth . Now it’s sitting up there eating corn on the cob ! They really are amazing little creatures.There is this farm field out back and the farmer planted 5 acres of corn then just left it .The wildlife is feasting on it . Last week there were three deer out there eating it and some days there are a hundred or more Canada geese out there feeding on what the others drop to the ground. You know , I say I hate winter but I am lucky I live here and can see all this wildlife so it’s not really all that bad.I just wish that I could function the way I normally do without pain in my leg.Well,I feel pretty good right now so perhaps today will be better than yesterday
Sitting here thinking back to the days when I really used my skills .I wish we had digital cameras back in the early 80’s when I started to do all this construction work in the city. It really set me off in a direction that led to some amazing things like the job I did for my friend Andy.That happened when I did have a digital camera and I photographed every part of that job.I took over 1200 pictures in the 2 years I was at that house.Did it all alone being the lone wolf I am . Steve did the electrical and Andy hired a plumber for that but everything else was my work. I bought 1×10 planks of oak and milled my lumber for the kitchen cabinets in the living room where I had a complete wood shop set up ! I had every tool I owned there ,it was great, sort of like a regular job where you just put in your hours and walk away at the end of the day . Never had anything as amazing as this . Usually the things I do last a couple weeks and I’m on to something else .I built the apartment downstairs then did the rest of the house, Built the both sets of kitchen cabinets on site. Didn’t take to many photos in the apartment but upstairs in the rest of the house I did.Here are a few
I learned so much after I crashed and burned ! I’m grateful I survived the first 30 years of this life because the next 40 have been nothing but good to me. Oh wow ,a flock of about 30 geese just flew over coming in for a landing in the snow covered cornfield.Really beautiful against the bright blue sky . They say an ice storm is heading our way.Guess I’ll go out to the garage and run the generator and get ready for the worst.Loosing power in the winter is no fun .
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