Squid’s Home On The Net

Well, I got my raise after six months that I just found out that should have been given to me at 90 days, but such is the story of my life.  As a bonus I get to switch to 3rd shift because the guy on it forgot where his job is after missing more days than he made it to work the month before.  I don’t mind it so much as I get to spend some time with the wife and kid in the evenings, but it’s harder to get things done during the day because all I wanna do is sleep.

The weather is finally turning to spring and I’m itching to get my bike on the road, but haven’t yet.  Next week is definitely the week though because it’s supposed to be 50 to 60 degrees all week long   I’m also gonna get going on the truck and get it moving again so I can have something fun to drive.

Still keeping an eye out for better job, but nothing has come up yet.  The right job will come along at some point

Guess that’s it for now.

Well, I have been working at my present job for 6 months now and have settled into the daily grind of the job.  I like the work, but because it’s shift work there is always somebody that is unhappy trying to blame somebody else for their misfortune.  I’m waiting to see what happens at my 6 month review as far as getting more money per hour.  I am pretty sure that my supervisor likes the work that I’m doing, but because the shop is a little slow I don’t know if they are doing much as far as raises go now a days.

I’m doing something different with my work than I’ve done in the past…I’m not done looking for a better job and keep up to date on job postings in the local area and put my name in on anything that sounds decent.  So far there really haven’t been any good hits that beat the job and benefits that I have now, but you never know what might come up.  I’m seriously considering seeing what it would cost for me to finish a degree now that all my student loans are paid off, but I am not sure if the payback is there for the money that it will cost me at some of the local schools, which is making me wonder about getting some technical training and see how far that will take me.

I guess the biggest problem with my current job isn’t the atmosphere at work, but the strain that it puts me and my family in because of how little time that we get to spend together working different shifts.  By the time that my wife and son are home I’m already gone to work so we really only have a few minutes a day and the weekends to spend any real amount of time together.  I’d prefer to work the same shift that my wife does so that we can spend more time together and have a “normal” evening family thing, but I can’t complain too much because the bills are getting paid and we might actually start getting a little ahead financially in the not too distant future.

My back is about 1000 times better than it has been in a long while thanks mainly to a weight loss and being able to use both arms again instead of doing everything primarily with my right arm.  For the first time in 2 years I’m in good enough shape that I will be able to really ride my motorcycle this season and with a little luck get my truck back to driveable in a short amount of time with some good weather.  Right now I’m not taking any pain pills even to sleep and just have a little soreness after work…I even seem to have a little muscle tone coming back into my legs a little bit so they don’t look as chicken legged as they have for the last few years.  All in all I am in better shape than I have been in several years physically and am looking forward to getting the last few kinks worked out.

Well, I got my first 4 days of work behind me and I’ve realized that I’ve gotten fat and lazy since I was working in May…I blame it on the surgery on my left elbow just to keep my spirits up.  I think I’m gonna like the new job even though I’m around stuff that will eat my skin off or kill everyone in the building if I mess up a mixture

The biggest problem I’ve had so far is fighting off the afternoon lazies…thinking I need a snack or something for the afternoon to give me a  little shot in the arm to finish off the last hour or so.  Anywho I’m back in the labor pool and have to do stuff that other people tell me to do and they are nice enough to give me money back for doing them.  Hope y’all have a nice weekend.

After a few kinda iffy interviews I finally got back into the swing of telling people what they want/need to hear.  It’s not a great paying job, but the company is growing still which in this area is a pretty amazing thing.  I’ll be working to maintain  chemical bath levels and content along with some light maintenance to the pumps and assorted stuff.  It’s actually located closer to me than my last job and I feel a lot better about the company itself as it has 200 employees so I don’t have to worry about a boss that is tyrannical or mentally unstable.

I’ll post a first day at work thing on Tuesday night after I get back from my first day.  I have a feeling the atmosphere there is pretty good as far as work environments go and my supervisor and his assistant actually seem to enjoy doing work.  I’m hoping that things work out where I can stay at this job for a long time…hopefully long enough to take advantage of the 401k plan they have available.

Well, I got the tranny up into place today and put the cross member back in to hold it up where it’s supposed to be.  It’s starting to look like a real truck that might actually drive sometime soon.  I still am stuck on shifter linkages, but hopefully tomorrow will shed some light on a way to route them up to the column and how to make a second one.

I’m pretty psyched for getting this truck driveable now that the last major part is installed and all that is left is some of the minor stuff.  I’m hoping to get my header into place and clutch linkage finished off in the next day or so.  Then it’s on to figuring out which end goes where on the shift linkages.

If I get too stuck on the linkages I might end up buying a cheapy floor shifter that comes with linkages and wouldn’t have to fit up around the header and clutch linkage.  I don’t expect to not be able to get it to work because after all I am pretty much a mechanical engineer.

Then once they are in place it’s time to find a driveshaft that is long enough to fit or be cut a little to fit.  I don’t have a lot of extra money to throw at it, but I don’t wanna spend 6 months trying to find one.  I’ll also try to get some pictures of what has been done so far.

Worked on my truck for a few hours off and on today.  I’m kinda disappointed at how much I can do at any given time, but I guess I’m at least getting something done.

I checked my new starter which is an old style that bolts to the bellhousing that I installed the other day.  I pulled it back off, swapped the solenoid from the old starter, and mounted it back up complete with the wires so that it’s ready to go.

I worked on the clutch z bar and decided that the only way that it would go in correctly is if I took my header off on that side.  While it’s off I decided I’d scrub some rust off of it and get a high temp paint to try and keep it from rusting quite as fast next time, so I had to go to the parts store and get some.

I’m hoping to get another coat on it tomorrow morning while I get the ball stud on the motor and get a pic of it installed.  The clutch z bar will probably get a coat of it as well to keep it from rusting away.

If all goes well tomorrow I’ll have the header back on with the z bar and maybe the clutch linkage set up finished off.  If I catch a second wind I’ll probably pull the other header and give it the same treatment that I’m doing to the clutch side header and get some pics to share along the way.

I did manage to get to work on my truck for a little bit today, but not until just about dinnertime.  I found enough bolts to get my bell housing up like I planned and started work on the linkage.  I felt pretty good getting back to work after being flat on my back and nursing my recently repaired arm.  I’m hoping to get the rest of the clutch linkage worked out so that I can push the clutch in to help get the transmission up in place later in the week.

I didn’t get as much truck time because the water main behind my house let go and I helped the neighbors divert the water so their basement’s sump pump wouldn’t be overcome by water as we tried to get people to stock up on water before we shut the water off until they get the break repaired  hopefully before monday.

Check in a couple of days and I might have some pictures to share….

My back is starting to feel a little bit better so I started to mess around with my truck a little bit today just to see what it felt like and if it made my back hurt again.  Seems that the little that I did get done didn’t do any harm so I plan on going out and messing around a bit more tomorrow.

What did I get done you ask?  I managed to get the truck up on jackstands just enough to give it a bit more stability in the driveway seeing as how it doesn’t have a transmission or park brake to keep it stationary as I work on it   I also hooked up and adjusted a makeshift park brake to the drivers side rear wheel and put another chock behind the passenger tire so now it’s held up on the jackstands, 2 cement blocks, and a proper tire chock

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get to the hardware store and get the bolts I’m gonna need to bolt up the bell housing and get the clutch linkage parts bolted up and if time and body permit maybe the bell housing in place by the end of the day.  If I don’t get that much done I’ll try and get it done over the weekend.

Once things start to look a bit more finished I’ll post up some pics showing the difference in before and after.  I still need to find a driveshaft that works with the 3 spd as the one that I have now is too short by about 6 inches.  I’m hoping I can get a decent price on a used one at a junkyard or a driveline shop as I don’t have a lot of extra money to throw into a new one.

My goal is to have the truck running by the end of August so I can at least get a few miles in before winter sets in.  Hopefully it’ll be done sooner than that as long as I hold up

Well, I am gonna try to hook up with the guy that was nice enough to store my motorcycle for me over the winter and ride it back here so I can tinker and ride it when the kids get to me.  Mikey is having company from out of town all next week so I need something to do to keep from going nuts

I have been playing around with forum ideas and made a forum for people that own the same kind of motorcycle as me.  So far I’ve only had one guy looking at it, but I really don’t expect it to get all that popular just because of how old the bike that I ride is.  It gave me something to do for a while instead of just sitting waiting for the next round of pills

I’ll probably mess around with my truck and Terri’s van next week as well to get to moving and doing things a bit more than I have been doing lately.  I don’t seem to be in pain as much as I have been lately so I guess that’s a good thing.  I had a disappointing x ray done on my arm this week and it seems that it’s not healing as well as it should be.  I’ve started having a bit more milk and dairy products to try and get the bones healing.  I have to take it easy with pushing things with my left arm for a while, but I am not doing that much at the moment because of my back pain anyways.

Well, I’m starting to get a little bored now that my physical therapy has got me feeling about 75% good to go.  I’m just about feeling good enough to start messing around with my truck and riding my motorcycle, but don’t wanna push it too hard for fear of ending up feeling worse.

I’m also in the middle of a jobhunt trying to decide what is next for me.  I don’t think that I’m ready for a desk job, but don’t wanna get another heavy lifting ugh ugh kind of job.  I’m leaning towards something with working on cars or maybe a maintenance type job, but nothing in the want ads or online feels like the right job.  I dunno I guess this means I need to do some more looking.