Dirty sonofabitch just keeps throwing sliders and curve balls at me.

I will win, eventually.

No matter how much “Shit That Bubba Did” I run into.

I got a text message from one of the Sister In Laws this morning at 0830 stating that the battery in her car was dead.

This is the same one who was complaining about her battery a week ago.

She is obviously not smart enough to take care of this on a Saturday, her day off, when most places are open, eh?

No, let’s wait until Sunday Morning and then call Phil and make it his problem.

Fuck me runnin’, this is why it’s illegal to bitch slap people.

Because it should be legal in instances such as this.

It starts out with her wanting to know if there is anybody, on a Sunday mind you, that will come to your house and change out a battery.

WTF?

The ONLY outfit that I know of that does that shit is Triple A.

Fuck no, she don’t have that, of course.

After I explain that, I tell her that Auto Zone will change out your battery in their parking lot if you can get it there.

Of course this still means that I have to drive the fuck over there and jump start the fucking thing.

I thought about all this for about ten whole seconds and said fuck all this bullshit, I’m not dealing with the potential of the thing dying on the way over to the nearest Auto Zone, or them not having the right battery and then me having to go jump start the fucker again, I’m just going to go buy a fucking battery, drive over there and change the motherfucker out in her damn driveway, because again, she is too fucking stupid to take care of this shit on her own.

Now the Wifely Unit chimes in and calls me stupid for doing this and yadda yadda yadda.

Fuck this noise, see ya later.

I go get the battery, drive over there and the very first thing thing I get to do is fuck around with massive corrosion on the hold down clamp, then clean the gross terminals, swap the fucking battery out, test the charging system, have her start it and shut it off and have her try it again.

Nothing.

Not a click, nothing.

I check the connections and they are good. The battery is good, try it again.

Vrooom, it fires right up.

Repeat this a couple of times and it did it again but then started right up on the second try.

Then it started up several times in a row.

I dunno if she has an ignition switch acting up or if she just wasn’t pushing the clutch pedal down far enough.

Either way, I tells her I am done here.

The old battery was older than shit and it was definitely bad so it needed changing either way.

Of course I chewed her ass for not taking care of this shit yesterday and waiting to dump it in my lap on a Sunday morning.

Like I don’t have enough shit to deal with.

She ate the core charge for my trouble so there is that. Then she did pay me in cash for the battery.

I told her flat out that if she has anymore trouble with the fucker that she is on her own. I absolutely do not have time to fuck with it.

A 2008 Toyota Corolla with 245,000 miles on it?

Oh HELL no!

After I got back from Horror Freight earlier, I drug out a bunch of tools and “shop consumables”, you know, those things you get charged out the ass for by repair shops like rags, brake clean, that kind of shit, and went at it.

The very first thing I see is more Shit That Bubba Did, right out of the gate.

The picture is blurry but if you look closely, you will notice that some COMPLETE FUCKING MORON PUT THE LUG NUTS ON BACKWARDS.

The cones are sticking out, instead of in like they should be.

Ye Olde Snap On 1/2 inch drive air powered bolt snapper made short work of that shit and off the wheel came.

I redid the other side first with the new hub but because I just did it last weekend, I didn’t have any problems with that.

This side however, was pretty much exactly like that one was the first time.

Completely FUBAR.

To wit,

After I finally got the wheel and hub off, I was greeted with this shit.

The inner bearing on this side was fucking GONE also.

Sigh.

Go back in the garage and dig the bearing puller kit back out, rinse and repeat.

This one came off HARD.

After I got it off finally and got the spindle cleaned off I saw why.

Big grooves gouged in the spindle.

It took a long time and a bunch of emory cloth to get that shit smoothed back out.

I messed with this little project for a good two hours easily.

The whole time it is overcast, cold, windy and off and on raining with some hail thrown in just for fun.

It would start in and I would have to beat a hasty retreat back into the garage and wait until it blew over before I could go at it again.

Eventually I got the little sonofabitch put back together though.

And wouldn’t you know it, because that’s the way it works for me, LITERALLY five seconds after I got the last lug nut tightened up, started to snag the socket off the air gun so I could start putting stuff away, the clouds parted and the Sun came out.

If you look in the background you can see the Sun shining off the brand new crop of bright yellow Dandelions that I get to attack soon.

But that part is done.

I win again.

Naturally, right after I got done cleaning everything up and was putting the last tool away, the Fed Ex guy shows up with the little plastic fenders I was waiting on.

Someone up there has a wicked sense of humor.

Fuck that, they can wait.

I’m not sure I have the flat bar I need to make the brackets out of anyway.

It actually was a good thing I decided to wait.

Twenty minutes later the clouds came back, the sky opened up and it just hailed like a motherfucker for a good ten minutes straight.

That tapered off and turned to rain and that went on for another twenty minutes.

It ain’t no joke when they say that if you don’t like the weather around here just wait ten minutes, especially this time of year.

So I did manage to get something done before the deluge.

I still have a shit ton of things I need to get done.

I just got back from the parts house because I ran out of shop rags and I needed a real short 10 mm bolt to put a cart back together with that been sitting in the bed of my truck for two weeks.

Then the mowers, then…

Yard Work.

Oh My God the yardwork that needs doing around here.

Then there is also this motor and VFD that keeps calling my name.

I swear that I am going to wind up working on that after ten at night if I ever want to get that done.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

All I know is that the battle continues.

I went to put new bearings in the hub that were shot last weekend, got almost all done and discovered that the hub had been machined out where the grease cap goes in because the inner bearing had disintegrated and that caused the wheel to kick over and the hub to rub against the spindle nut.

The cap no fit no mo’.

So after work yesterday I hauled ass across the bridge to an outfit that I used to do business with and snagged some parts.

First thing I snagged was a new hub, bearings, seal, two new spindle nuts and a grease cap.

I already have the greasable bearing caps and might throw those on today instead.

.

While I was there, I also picked up a swiveling tongue jack with a wheel on it so I don’t have to throw my back out every time I need to move the damn trailer.

I got that on last night, in the rain of course.

While I was there I got a price on a set of 12 inch wheels and tires. I was going to pick up a couple at Horror Freight last week but I wasn’t sure of the bolt pattern. Shoulda Coulda Woulda, the tires are shot on this thing.

Yeah Shoulda, this outfit wanted $80 apiece for them and they were two for that price at the Chinesium Emporium.

I went over there this morning to grab them but sure as shit, someone snagged them while I Dilly Dallied.

Crap.

However, thanks to some EXTREMELY GENEROUS readers, you know who you are, I was able to dip into Phil’s Temple of Tools Emergency Fund and get something else that I was wanting for this little unit.

Thank You, Thank You, THANK YOU!

Yes siree, I want to mount that little Bad Boy and a small battery on the front of this little bugger so I can DRAG shit on instead of trying to PUSH shit on.

Sweet!

So I am now getting ready to go back out there while it isn’t pouring rain and swap out the bad hub, redo the other one that the bearings are also shot in and start looking at what it’s going to take to mount that little winch on the thing.

I am also waiting on some plastic fenders I ordered last week that are supposed to show up today.

I will have to make brackets for them but that will be pretty easy with some 3/16’s X1 flat bar, a couple of bends and drilling a few holes.

So as usual, I am busier than a cat trying to bury shit on a hot tin roof.

I still have the engine swap to do on the mowers and I still have that 220 volt motor/ VFD to install on my Smithy 3 in 1 machine. That thing whispers my name every time I slip by it sideways and it’s driving me nuts but first things first. My Father In Laws lawn is going to be knee high by the time I get this trailer done and that mower going.

So off I go.

My sincere thanks again to you for stopping by here and my very sincere thanks to those who have chipped in to the Tool Fund.

You have made my lower back very happy.