strange, productive and strange

gonna start this off by admitting that son of bossman tossed me a bone,,, a little extra on the paychecks. not an insubstantial amount, (though not near what I could be making in a better location, I will say that, but “BETTER”}

And I had to take a short day yesterday because our gas supplier screwed up and dropped us a tank of Tri-mix. 90% helium, 7.5% argon, 2.5% CO2. A TIG welding gas, not MIG. And boy howdy did my MIG hate that shit. I managed one bead and knew something was off. checked the bottle and made the call. Luckily, today was our normal delivery schedule and they made good on bringing my normal refills and replaced that bottle with the ‘right stuff’. I would love to TIG our stuff, but its not profitable for us to use TIG. and its galvanized stuff so quick and dirty MIG is the best way to go. We used to braze this stuff and that went through the roof around six years back. A 10# box of rods for brazing went well over a Benjamin and boss man was livid. I made the suggestion of MIGing everything and Son of Bossman agreed, and even told me later that the MIG had paid for itself in less than 6 months in what it saved them.

They have done well enough that they bought a new Miller-matic 210 dual voltage unit and that thing is just the bees knees in my world. Made for welders, by welders with all the bells and whistles you could ask for and MULTI-PROCESS so I could TIG with it. I have Stick welded with it and its just as smooth as a MIG weld if I crank the amps up (Like you should to some extent.) It even has dual gas ports on the back side: one for the MIG, and the other for TIG. Son of Bossman has mentioned that he wants to buy the gear to do TIG, but I just can’t see the oldman parting the purse strings for that at this point. and not much need anyway. (but it would be nice to weld our aluminum gates instead of ordering them when needed,,,, Just not much demand of them right now.)

Came home, did some logistics with B for the upcoming weekend. We are not only having a get-together of KrazzeeKayakers, we are building him an ergometer too. GOOD, He is my race buddy and I want him conditioned for doing that 13 mile run as well as me. As long as all the parts are in order, it won’t take but a few hours to rig it up, and get things tuned for use. The second version only took me a few hours and we have mine to copy from. easy peasy.

but today FEELS weird. I mentioned that. and its nothing I can put my finger on. Just odd. Strange weather blowing in? I know ol Arthur was bugging me yesterday mornin’; but not today. We either have a lull in winter on top of us, or we are in for a flippin’ heatwave,,,, But I think the bone chilling cold is away for a bit (February is usually our IceBox month,,,, followed by cold wet March and flooding,,,,)

Dunno.

again, it may be that lack of sleep thing, but this time, I have a culprit. GRIZZYKAT!!!!! That little bastard was bouncing in off my head about once an hour last night, yowling about “its Rainin’ Da!!! Makes it stopS!” *sigh*. Rained off and on all night, but didn’t really get cold. I think the night temps actually came up a couple of degrees. It’s January and I did NOT have a fire, two nights in a row,,,, whoa!!! (I do tonight, but mostly to knock down a ‘damp’ house feeling, and the temps are supposed to drop into the low forties tonight.)

Maybe THAT is whats got me feeling ‘off’,,,,

Totally ignoring the world at large right now. don’t want to spoil the vibe I am building for the upcoming weekend. If there is something about to blow up, LET IT. I’ll be cool on my little island of friends, playing with boats and toys for boats,,,, Beach