Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Moderate Tightwaddery

So, my design for lil kitchen project (transforming a moveable island with a 19”x 36”–with a dropleaf extension adding to that–top to a 44” x 50” top, with 1/2 as a dropleaf with folding legs) needed a buncha nominal 1” x 2” (3/4” x 1-1/2”) bits framing the top, and some nominal 2” x 2” bits for legs.

Buying that stuff precut is more than I wanted to do, so I sacrificed a 1/16” kerf 2 ways and ended up making “good enough” approximations by ripping a couple of nominal 2” x 4”.

LOADS cheaper. When I consider the fact that I’m using a piece of “scrap” furniture grade plywood for the rst of the top, the top isn’t costing me a heck of a lot to make/install. Oh, I did buy a couple of really nice Rockler locking hinges for the fold-down legs, and shelled out for a good piano hinge to run the full length of the drop leaf, as well as some nice plugs matching the finish wood on the plywood (‘cos I’m just gonna screw the top down to the frame, and I want the screws inset and covered), but out of pocket for the top ~$25, instead of buying something pre-made for well over $100 (saw something as nice as what I intend this to come out as for ~$340. Urm, no.).

2-piece top now cut to size. Assembly is next, and there I will get to use the nice DeWalt power miter saw Estimable Son-in-Law gave me for Xmas. Some gluing, clamping, screwing, and then staining and finishing, and that lil project will be off my list. (Oh, there are a few lil additions to make: a couple of boxes on wheels to add to each end of the island; one for a kitchen trash can and another for table linens; new drawer glides for the island’s drawer, as well as a strengthening of the drawer itself–little things)

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Tightwaddery2

Ab out a year ago, I found a belt exactly like the one pictured here ($16) for a buck at a local “fell off the back of the truck store (closeouts, returns, salvage, etc.). I liked the fact that it was extremely adjustable, and since I needed a belt at the time (intentional weight loss, pants falling down, broken buckle on old black belt I had used for years–had LOTS of additional holes punched in the leather, anyway), I purchased it.

After a few months, the part indicated with the arrow broke. Unlike the rest of the belt buckle, it was just cheap pot metal. #gagamaggot

Today, I finally decided to either fix the thing or toss it. So, I used a twist tie to emulate the functionality of the part that broke–a part which worked together with a spring-operated tongue on the buckle to grip notches in the belt.

It works, but that’s about all I can say for it. Still, “it works” is enough for me to once again wear the thing with a pair of pants I bought “too small” which now fall down if I do not wear either a belt of suspenders (or both *heh*)

So, Tightwaddery2, ;cos cheap buy of an item I needed and cheap fix of same item, broken.

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One Can Only Hope. . .

I have searched and searched (OK, occasionally and lackadaisically *heh*) for the source of the comment, “Let hope be not dismayed,” and found references that almost but do not match the lil five word sentence. It popped into my head and out of my mouth one day when someone said, “I hope you have a nice day,” but from whence I know not. Nevertheless, when hope is all one has, “let hope be not dismayed” is a worthy hope to pile on top of that hope, eh?

(Ps 69:6; Rom 8:24-25)

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He Never Learns

Ya know, every time Olde Guye tomcat walks right UNDER my foot, then squawks ‘cos he made me step on him, I think, “Seventeen years old and he hasn’t learned yet? Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.”

Oh, well, he’s good at other things, like keeping my left leg warm. (His fav “lap” position isn’t actually in my lap, but snugged as closely as he can get to my left leg. Oh, sometimes he crawls into my lap, very, very sneakily, but his default location is purring on my left leg *shrugs* He’s a cat. He doesn’t have to “conform to standards.” *heh*)

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Cheap Fixes

I finally got tired of using a THIRD broken keyboard on this lil lappy. Fortunately, the problem with this one was only that the cheap lil plastic retainer clips on the lower left hand side/corner were. . . ineffective (cos they broke within a week of installation) which meant the stupid thing flared up on that corner, making typing a “left hand mush” experience.

Fix? Contact cement. That’s all. Seriously. Done. (yeh, I checked what I was gluing before I did to make sure it would not interfere with any electronic or mechanical function)

It’s probably a better fix than buying yet another replacement keyboard, given the number of keyboards I’ve had fail on this thing.

Toshiba used to make better devices.

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One of the Problems with the Internet. . .

Is that, apparently, something like 90% of the folks who use it have never read a book written by someone who is actually literate, or if they have didn’t understand any of the words, including “a,” “and,” and “the.”

Is that all? Well, no. Both my readers (*heh*) know by now that I can’t leave well enough alone, so. . .

Shining is toooooo haaaard for some folks. He shined his shoes. He shined a light. The light shone.

Drinking is hard, too. Drink, drank, drunk, NOT “I drink, I drank, I have drank.”

He hung a picture, but later he hanged by the neck (until dead, as the expression goes).

None of these–and many, many more–are any problem at all for anyone who even approaches literacy in English. . . which is why so many verbs are conjugated wrong every day on social media, in emails, and in articles written by “professional journalists.”

But that’s OK, because the perpetrators feel competent to “express” themselves in English.

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Me and My. . . Messes

So, this is what our kitchen once looked like, more or less (at least the western portion):

I’ve cut off the 3′ portion of counter top that has the marble rolling pin on it (never fear; I have a use for it *heh*) and removed the support elements, so that between the mobile island (the wooden top immediately to the left of the counter top in the pic that I removed) and the remaining countertop, that 3′ of free space provides better flow for the kitchen.

But I’ve not exactly lost the very nearly nine square feet of counter top, not entirely, just made it possible to have that space be more useful, buy adding a 2’x4′ piece of plain faux butcher block (real wood but not real butcher block) that very nearly matches the existing island’s top to that island with a piano hinge and two folding legs, for occasional use.

Oh, and the counter top I cut off? I plan to later attach it to the end of the counter I cut it off of to extend that counter straight, in a modification of the current “coffee shrine,” which is a 1’x2′ extension off that counter, now. I’ll trim that 3’x3′ piece of countertop down to 2’x2′ to attach it, giving me back the net loss of ~ one square foot, plus a bit, just in a different configuration.

THe counters and cabinets in our kitchen were all carpenter-built, and so are not compliant with normal cabinetry standards, so these modifications have unearthed some. . . unique, let’s say, solutions to what was initially planned, since a simple demo was just not in the cards.

You can imagine how that 2’x2′ extension/modification of the “coffee shrine” will look (complete with expanded storage underneath) by glancing at how it looks now:

Plan slowly coming together. I did need to get the demo done before I could complete installing the new flooring in the kitchen, though. Still, I’ve made another huge mess getting as far as I have. *shrugs*

Oh, the dishes displayed above/next to the “coffee shrine” have been replaced (the ones seen above donated) with some plain white Corelle® dishes, the storage underneath the coffee paraphernalia is now full of cookbooks, and the stools have been displaced by some comfy stepstool stools with nice supportive backs, but apart from those things, it’s more or less as you see it in the pic. *heh*

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The Difference Between “Uffda” and “Feeda”

Uffda and feeda are two words commonly used by folks of Norwegian extraction, and while they have some similarities in meaning, the differences were graphically illustrated for me in the summer of 1978, when I visited my Wonder Woman’s family in Minnesota for the first time. One afternoon, while there, my Wonder Woman’s sibs took us to see “Grease” at a local movie theater. The movie was OK, but the highlight of the day came as we exited the theater and made our way toward the car. A couple of guys were walking in front of us, and one of them pointed at some gum on the ground and said, “Uffda!” The other guy didn’t see it in time, stepped in it, lifted his foot and looked at the gum on his shoe and disgustedly said, “Feeda!”

So there you have it. If one merely _sees_ something unpleasant, the proper expression is “Uffda!” But if one _steps_ in it. . .

YW. 🙂