White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Another weekend makes it into the memory banks. The parental units came down to shower adoration on the children. Saved my rear since the Mrs did not get home till after 2230 hours. She wanted to wrap up a few things since she has Jury Duty on Monday ... those few things took much too much time and the kids went to bed without her. So be it, they had the warm embrace of a couple of doting grandparents. It's good to see that I'm not the only one who is being manipulated but a couple of kids who never knew the world before the Internet, Tivo, HDTV and DVDs.

Saturday morning started out normal ... tend to the mammoth dogs, re-light the fire in the wood stove (have not turned on the heat yet), get breakfast ready and ship off the Mrs/Kids to swimming lessons. This time, Grandma went along while Gramps and I surveyed the remaining trees out on the perimeter of the back-50. I had re-assembled the flaming chain-saw +5 and we were ready to get cracking. First things first though, I needed to stop off at the Local Home Depot Temple and pick up a 2 inch hitch ball so I could go up to the rental place, SunBelt, and bring back a large tow-behind chipper shredder for the pine bows. Well, to make a long story short, I missed renting the beast by 30 minutes. Rats. I'll need to try to get it some other weekend or pay a tree service to come by and deal with it. Amish (Psycho) Dad and I (Psycho son of Psycho) make pretty good progress till the last tree. The chainsaw was seriously degrading due to parts flying off while we were cutting through the impenetrable dark forest of Untergoth. In the end, the muffler housing breaks down ... drops onto the assembly chassis and melts a hole through the oil reservoir. Not good. After 5 or so years of nearly continuous use, the overworked single piston 46cc work-horse is nearing it's final days. Tis a shame. We had only one lousy tree left to chop up. I've checked about and Sears no longer carries this product and for that matter, sells no chain saw with a 20 inch bar. They do, however, sell several similar (underpowered) products with shorter bars. I think I may see what we can do for him ... something in the line of a 55cc. Even if it comes with an 18" bar, we can swap out. It's like putting a bigger tow hitch on your car. If you have the power, go for it. I might be able to patch to hole with an epoxy plug, but once the chassis is compromised, the fate of the whole is sealed. Since we were short a chain saw for Sunday, we ended up doing minor yard-work. Dad Mowed while I planted the remaining bulbs. He spread fertilizer while I spread seed. The man tried to wear me down, I tell you. Fortunately, we ran short of 'Manly-man' activities so he headed in while I mopped up some minor branches remaining in the yard. All in a day's work.

Much of what happened this weekend was made possible by Super-Mom-Grams ability to cook food that the Twin Tyrants will eat. I'm not sure how she does it ... she must put opium or something in there because they will polish their plates no matter what is loaded up on there. Good thing she cooks for 20 so we can leverage this bounty for the rest of the week. It's going to be a long week too since I know that the kids will be asking to go to the FOB every day till we do so this coming weekend. Going to spend a week up there in the hinterlands for Turkey Day. Ahhh yes. There will be sleep to be had since Gramps has pretty much attempted to do everything under the sun and only minor work remains to be done on his plot of dirt.

Speaking of dirt, the Mrs had jury duty this morning and that left me to drop off the kids. Since the DayCare/Interment Center opens at 0700, I had to have the kids fed and ready before I got there or I would never make it to the client site at a reasonable hour. It all worked out, and I could probably do this every day to boot. So long as we get out of bed and on the road by 0655, it is entirely possible that the Mrs could be at work earlier and home for dinner. That would be perfect. I'll have to see how she feels about me taking over both drop-off and pickup. Perhaps I could convince her to pick up one of my chores ... like picking up dog poop? A boy can dream.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 10:38 AM