6 August 2012

Called Goodro Lumber at 7:30 and was told that their truck was being loaded, soon to be headed my way.  So called Marty and took a rain check on our oft-postponed first-since-the-crash bike ride.  The Goodro truck showed up at 9, long after we would have returned from bicycling.  You know what would have happened had I headed out with Marty at 8…  As soon as the Goodro truck departed, called McDonough’s in Brandon about getting the Ranger tire repaired.  Was told to be there at 9:45, so put 40 psi of air in the right rear flat tire and drove as fast as I dared into Brandon, arriving at the service station 15 minutes later with 20 psi left in the tire.  Whew!!!!  Unfortunately, as soon as Mike McDonough saw the gash in the tire’s inside sidewall he said, “Unrepairable!”.  But then he told me about Brandon Auto Salvage on Route 7 in Leicester, a place I’ve driven past a zillion times and never paid any attention.  They have scads of “used but good” tires taken off wrecked cars and trucks.  Sure enough, a very nice used (but in better shape than the other three tires on the truck) 235 75R15 tire was just begging to be put on the Ranger, which was soon done… for a grand total of $65 (tire, mounting, spin balancing, and old tire disposal all included).  Now that’s a good deal!!!!  After getting water at Lynne & Perry’s, was back to Fern Lake by 11:30.  With time in hand before lunch, built a small ramp for the generator to sit level on as I move it incrementally down the wooden walkway.  After lunch, sawed a 25° angle the length of a 4x6 post, then dug the holes and planted that post plus two 4x4 posts that, together, form this slight turn in the walkway.  Then discovered that I will need 4½″ lag screws (vice the hundreds of 6″ lag screws that I have) to attach stringers to those particular posts.  So dug the holes for the next two in-ground posts, one of which will have to be wedged into a wide crack in an enormous rock, then called it a day. And in other good news: by throwing my laptop violently to the ground last night, a months-long problem with the computer’s video display has been fixed.  Somebody please explain that one to me… DISASTER!!!! When next I went to use my computer there was a zzzzzt sound, the smell of frying electronics, the finally-working-right-video display went black, and the computer became completely nonfunctional.  Was is just the video display that fried or was it the motherboard?  News in a week… The wise turtle would have been backing up all his files on a regular basis just in case his computer got sick. The smart turtle would have backed up all his irreplaceable data when the computer did get sick. Guess who’s neither smart nor wise????  Guess who’s sweating bullets right now????