What did you do today instead of working on your Mustang?

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Wife has me repairing cracked brick walls and redecorating the Bedroom, I did property maintenance for a living and didn't enjoy it, when my financial advisor said I could take early retirement I jumped at it and closed the business, Now I get to do the same crap in my Home but the worst part is I no longer get paid for it! Thats not the retirement dream I thought I was going to have!:confused:
So, you did not get the memo that when you retire you become your wife's personal assistant and step and fetch it. Your chores remain your chores and her chores become "our chores" and the ones she really does not like are mostly your chores. Such is the lot of old married men, thankfully they keep us. Chuck
 
Today I put together another "Annual State Inspection" postcard monthly mailer for a client of mine (Valley Cadillac in Rochester, NY). This was a light month, only 130 customers needed to have postcards mailed out. Usually it is closer to 200+ customers that get a postcard produced and mailed to them. All of the core work is done electronically, until the postcards are finally printed. Then it is a matter of "bursting" the 4 postcards per sheet apart (pre-scored lines make that fast and easy), stacking the postcards into manageable piles of about 75 -80 postcards per stack, rubber-banding the stacks, and handing them over to the US Mail facility in our area. If it sounds easy, it is - but only because of all the heavy lifting being done harnessing the technologies I developed over the past few decades.

Identifying who ought to get a reminder postcard in any particular month takes more than a simple notion, and the underlying considerations are easy to miss for folks not familiar with the industry and who do not understand the need for the postcards. Pulling the raw data from ancient technology based computer servers, translating the retrieved data into a format that allows current records to be updated, and new records added, to the various database tables involves a lot of intricate processing. And then, selecting the customer records that qualify for each month's mailing requires a deep understanding of how relational databases work. Once all that heavy lifting is done, in a cyclical manner using custom programs to handle all routines, the easy part comes - printing and disseminating the postcards themselves.

My medically induced/forced retirement came at a time when a lot of my clients were either selling their dealerships, retiring, or were going to be taken care of by the folks that purchased our business operation 4 years ago. That left only one client for whom I still provide services to, outside the scope of what our acquiring firm handles. So, I have taken it upon myself to provide them the same services I have been for over 20 years, as opposed to abandoning them. It is easy stuff I do. Pull raw data from their legacy server ("ancient", 55+ year old technology), which has no native ability to retrieve data for importation into a modern PC platform, much less producing and/or updating a series of database tables. I translate the raw data from multiple data sources, and update various PC based database tables (Customer, Contact Info, Vehicles, Sales History, Service History), then link the resultant PC database tables relationally to provide all kinds of analytical and marketing information for them.

I started doing that kind of custom work for auto dealers back in 1991 when I went off on my own, as folks who worked in the dealership computer industry were too focused on keeping their aging solutions limping along to see the importance of providing data in the PC environment in order to help their clients further leverage their computer machinery to do more than merely regurgitate simple reports. Keeping my fingers in the midst of the technical needs of my one remaining client helps keep me occupied and feeling relevant despite being retired. I find being involved in the world of First Generation Mustangs and Shelbys does the same, keeps me feeling relevant. It is good therapy if nothing else.

So, that is part of what I do when I am not working on, or tinkering with, our vintage pony cars. Luckily, I still enjoy that kind of "work" (it is more "play" for me than work). But, I enjoy playing with our Pony Cars, and showing/driving them more than working on computer based solutions.
 
Yesterday, I got married to a gal who has a one-owner 68 coupe and a 68 very highly modified fastback.
Yes, you read that right: I got married!!!
Congratulations! Is her name Laurie?
 
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I picked up two Polk bookshelf speakers to go with the 1972 Pioneer SX-424 receiver for use in the garage. It is a big improvement over the previous set up. Chuck
Nothing like working on the car while listing to some good tunes on a good sound system. I have my old Fisher unit out in my garage with the speakers hung up high.
 
Yesterday, I got married to a gal who has a one-owner 68 coupe and a 68 very highly modified fastback.
Yes, you read that right: I got married!!!
Congratulation! One questions - did you do it for the love of her or her cars? 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 . But really , I am happy for you. It always nice to have someone to share your life with.
 
Yesterday, I got married to a gal who has a one-owner 68 coupe and a 68 very highly modified fastback.
Yes, you read that right: I got married!!!
Like Kilgon said, we are not meant to live life alone and to find someone that will share life "with" you, share the same common interests and most likely make you a better man. The one-owner 68 coupe and a 68 very highly modified fastback are a bonus though, NOW.... go change your my car in your profile because you are no longer mustang-less. :cool:

Really congratulations on your marriage, that is great news!
 
Yesterday, I got married to a gal who has a one-owner 68 coupe and a 68 very highly modified fastback.
Yes, you read that right: I got married!!!

Congratulations 🎉

Now you know who check the shorts now...

How? Celebrating a big family event or more the small route?
 
Nothing like working on the car while listing to some good tunes on a good sound system. I have my old Fisher unit out in my garage with the speakers hung up high.
The old Fisher receivers were great. 72-80 were the glory years for audio. I still have my Technics SL-1300 and JBL 4311s. The SX-1010 died a long time ago. I am enjoying the baby Pioneer sx-424 in the garage.
 
Well, here is what I was doing the past 2 days...

>>> REMOTELY VIEW YOUR UTILITY METERS <<<

About 2 years ago, or so, I decided to begin submitting our utility meter readings to our various utility companies. I did this for a few reasons. First, there have been times where the meter reader misread a meter, and our bill was very obviously incorrect. When I called the affected utility company I would be told to pay the bill as shown and they would adjust it in the next billing. Well, when I have a bill that is several hundred dollars too high that is not the kind of solution I am looking for. But, they were adamant that I needed to pay what was billed, or I would be charged a late fee even if the next billing has an offsetting amount.

Also, once in a while the meter reader would not come by, so the utility companies simply provided an estimated meter reading. Sometimes their estimate was too high, other times it was too low. When covid hit the frequency in our meter reader coming around dropped significantly.
Anyway, those are the reasons I began to read our meters and submit the readings every month. I felt I would get it done consistently and accurately. But, there was an issue at hand. As a result of the several life saving surgeries for the brain cancer situation I faced 9 years ago, I am not able to get around as well as I used to. Going up and down basement stairs is fairly challenging, and a safety risk I prefer to not deal with. Also, I do not walk well on uneven surfaces such as a grass lawns where our outdoor electrical meter is located.

As I pondered how to get the meter readings more easily I began to consider using current and popular/common technologies. I decided a WiFi WebCam that I could use to remotely view the meters would work. The price of WiFi WebCams has gone way down (I usually use Wyze products), and my iPhone would be able to take a photo of the WebCam display and send me toe image file via email.

New there a few other challenges, all of which were easily resolved. First up, our basement located meters are in areas that are totally dark. That was solved by using a WiFi managed Smart Socket, with a simple extension cord. I used the Smart Socket to power both the WiFi WebCam, and a short length of LED lights on a strip of self-adhesive paper. I connected an LED power source to the LED strip, and adhered the LED strip to the base of the WiFi WebCam with the strip's self-adhesive backing tape.. Both the LED power adapter and WebCam get plugged into the extension cord. When I turn on the SmartSocket remotely with my iPhone the WebCam boots up and the LED lights come on.

My second challenge was handling the outdoor meter reading. For that I purchased an outdoor WebCam that is weatherproof, and solar powered. The Solar WebCams have rechargeable batteries in them, and the batteries are kept charged during the daytime. I did have to put a WiFi Access Point inside the house wall adjacent to where the electric meter is located. Thus the Solar Powered WebCams are connected to the WiFi signal, and can be accessed remotely with my iPhone or iPad.

An aside, the Solar Powered WebCams have an Infrared Night Viewing capability. I have been able to read the electric meter dials fine in pitch black night hours, but the results are better in daylight viewing.
If the ability to read your utility meters remotely, so you can submit the readings yourself, is of interest I placed a How-I-Did-It video on YouTube at the following web address:

https://youtu.be/ett1AQjXu7E


I also put together a PDF document where I go over the solutions I put together. That PDF file, which includes a list of equipment I used. I purchased everything through Amazon. That PDF file is located at the following web site:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eHjrGKSZ1NvJLGy6yRWCI_AlZJDixJnn
 
This weekend I replaced the rear pads and discs of my daily driver, a 2008 4Runner. The driver's side was starting to be metal on metal. The discs were in very bad shape showing a lot of pitting. I got some PowerStop coated discs that I hope will fare well in our harsh salty road winter.

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I added three floating shelves, a coffee bar, a single cabinet, and a small beverage fridge to our kitchen. We painted the coffee bar cabinet to match the island. We stained the shelves a driftwood aged oak gray.

The granite countertop slab template will be measured on Monday. I think it turned out pretty good. Then we made some homemade chocolate chip cookies with my lil' partner in crime.... :cool:


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Due to delays with materials I did a quick, down & dirty temporary topper for the new cabinet while we wait on the special order white quartz. Now we can use the countertop space for Christmas dinner.

Edit - I gotta stop using my phone to type..... my spelling is awful LOL. :ROFLMAO:
 

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Since the last time I worked on the Mustang (Dec 26th) I tweaked my back (L4 nerve pinch), I've pretty much been sittin' on me arse making sure I don't breathe or bend wrong to anger the lower back gods. It's gotten better, I can actually walk without the cane I swiped from my wife, and I'm at the level 'moderate discomfort' as opposed to actual pain. Still gotta be careful bending and twisting, though.

Aside from that, I gave Eddie a buzz today. He's gotten fuzzy beyond belief, so I whipped out the clippers and gave him a buzz (used the #7 blade on him). Tossed him up on the kitchen table and went for it - only took about 80 minutes this time, unlike the standard 2-3 hours (because he wants nothing to do with it and fidgets constantly), but my wife helped rotate him around and keep him still when I worked the complicated places.

He looks like he lost about 10 lbs... I wish I could look like I lost about one-fifth of my body weight just by getting a hair cut. rofl
I feel your pain my boy Maine coon cat becomes the devil on Earth when the clippers come out. It is a bad scene. Merry Christmas.
Ron
 
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