What Manly Things Did You Do Today?

I was wondering why the lights suddenly dimmed.

 

Funny, in the first house my wife and I owned, they wired the house on so few circuits that if the microwave, coffee maker was in use and the refrigerator cycles on the breaker would pop. Later I re-wired the kitchen to be on 4 or 5 circuits (stove, microwave, lights, counter outlets and refrigerator).

 

My microwave is a GE that's approaching 40 years old. Yours is just barely broken in.

Having once been a culinary professional, I've often wished it were one of the Panasonic commercial microwaves I used at work. But I can't bring myself to replace something that works flawlessly.

My living room radio is a Philco 40-120. The 40 indicates the year it was built...1940. Had new capacitors and a couple of new tubes installed on it about 10 years ago. It's especially nice to use in the wintertime as it warms up the room a bit...

 

I'm all over the vintage items ..... as I sit here I'm listening to Al Jolson on a Newcomb EDT-15C (1970).

 

Earlier today, I finally installed a replacement motherboard in my eMachines computer that died about three years ago. Found the exact replacement motherboard in eBay this past summer, brand new, for about US$15 and didn't have the time or energy to install it until today.

Glad to have my old friend back in service for just $15 and one can of elbow grease. It's old enough to run Windows Vista 32-bit to support all my vintage software and old peripherals and Amateur radio gear that require parallel and serial port connections, yet still has enough guts to run 64-bit Windows 10 and modern versions of 64-bit Linux. It's the one computer I own that can do everything I need a computer to do.

 

Loppers. Hand saw. Chainsaw. Woodchipper.
(followed by ice pack, Aleve - I'm getting old)

Repeat next weekend.

 

Have an antique enameled pitcher and cup, both that a red-orange color. Chipped but not eaten through. Found that Rustoleum Lobster Red is a 95% match, more than close enough. Happy with the results.

 

Pics, or it didn’t happen!

 

This weekend.

 

Close enough.

 

Cold snap here in Florida (50s, heh) so I put on a BA pot of chili.

 

I connected a sound bar to my TV. Followed the instructions & couldn't get a sound out of it. Then, I ignored them and got it to work.

 

Bonus points if you used any form of concussive maintenance.

 

No bonus points; just used a connection method not stated for my TV.

 

I changed the oil on my Wife's 2019 Toyota Highlander.

 

Why was her car covered in oil in the first place ???

 

I always thought you had to be under the car to change the oil not on it.

 

I sewed leather.

 

I have completed a manly task started months ago. In the fall, my mom gave me my Dad’s Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. He had bought it about 45 years ago. My mom chose to give it to me, as neither of my sisters was likely to restore or use it.

As it is quite “manly” to know the limits of what you can do without help, I sent it to Victorinox, for repair. Their US repair center couldn’t handle it & offered me the option of sending it to their main factory in Switzerland. I did so and finally got it back today, beautifully restored. Some parts had to be replaced, but most of the original parts are there, now clean & sharp. Here is it, with the old parts, for comparison.