Tuesday Thoughts.

Another nice day, Temp in the high 70’s a few clouds now and then, Even the trip to take Nicole to school in Augusta was in the 60’s which is warm for 07:00AM in the morning.
I went to the car wash and got the truck washed, and when I got back a big surprise, first Nicole only had a half day of school so he Mom had got her and brought her home, don’t know if I mentioned it but Nicole and her Mom Samantha , had to move in with us as her Mom & Dad are  leaving their house.
Anyway the UPS truck finally dropped off the software for the drawing, sorry for the long wait, but it was worth it.

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2011, the blue boxes have a gps included, the green boxes are just the software.
The girl from Microsoft said that if you already had an older version  with the GPS. it will work just fine for the new version.
So what I did was I took the hat and had Nicole draw five winning slips, I listed the winners by their Blog names. In the order Nicole pulled their slips from the hat.
(1). GPS version. Travels with Kevin & Ruth
(2) GPS Version. The Cave Dwellers, Dennis & Donna Cave.
(3). Software Version Jodie, Coco, & Sandy, The Tempesta Labradors..
(4). Software Version. East Meets West, Phyllis & Len
(5). Software Version RVing Little House Big yard. Karen & Steveo Pfundler.
I was really happy and surprised by the winners, I follow all their blogs and I have one Canadian, well 4 if count the Labradors as Canadians. So it was an international event.
I had to laugh when she pulled that one as I had put a slip in for their owners in their blogs name and the dogs slip got picked.
It was really a lot of fun I am sure the lucky winners will enjoy their software and if you do, tell your other RV friends since that is the purpose of these promotions is to get the word out to others about a good trip making software. I promised the Girls that ran the promotion I would put a good word in my blog when I did the drawing so there it is. All you winners send me an e-mail to weeb@centurytel.net telling me where you want this software shipped and I will get it to the post office this week.
For the ones that didn’t make it this time, I wish you luck when Al-The Bayfield Bunch gets home and AL & Kelly have their drawing.
Well now that all the excitement is over I think I’ll celebrate with a Miller High Life Light, it’s almost Miller time here in Dardenne Prairie. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna….

Monday Meanderings.

Got a late start on this today, it was another great day with a high of 80 degrees. Just piddled around the house and then Andy & Samantha volunteered to grill burgers outside so what can I say, I helped Nicole with her puppet project and waited for supper to be ready.Nothing much going on in Dardenne Prairie, just a nice day all around.

Hope everyone else is enjoying theres. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Sunday Notes.

After getting some rain last night to day turned out to be gorgeous, Donna had to work late with the party and didn't get home till 01:00AM , made for a long night for her. I went out about 11:00AM and started on my truck replacing the front wheel bearing and hub. I took some pictures and will go through it for all your guys that have Chev/GMC 2500/3500 trucks with 4 wheel drive.

First the truck is jacked up.

Wheel &Tire removed and then the caliper guide pins taken out.

Then the caliper holding bracket is removed from the spindle and the rotor can be removed.

Then the 4 bolts holding the hub assembly in can be removed and the hub/bearing assembly taken out, this is the old one.

This is what it looks like with the hub out.

The new hub/bearing assembly is in and now the rotor and brake parts can be reassembled.

Total time for the job about 1 hour. It is an absolute must to have a good quality impact wrench to do this job, most of the bolts are to tight for a hand ratchet, the two bolts holding the caliper bracket on were so tight  neither of my two impact wrenches would break them with 120lbs of air, so I took a two foot breaker bar with a piece of pipe about 4 feet long as a handle and they came loose with that.

Is it within the realm of the do it yourselfer, absolutely, but you will need a good floor jack capable of holding your truck up, about 3-4 tons, and like I said a compressor and air tools.The 3/8 drive air ratchet, and the 1/2 in drive impact make any job a lot easier.

It is like I said a gorgeous day it will reach 80 degrees today, so this was the day to get the truck done. I took it for a test drive after I was done and it rode and handled quiet and smooth.

Rigg's is loving the warm weather and stays outside a lot especially if the kid's behind us are out playing in their yard. He goes out and barks and runs and tries to get them to come over and play with him.

Not much else doing I am going to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, Be safe out there, Sam & Donna...

Saturday Mumblings.

Donna slept in until 06:00AM, then later in the morning she did our taxes, she said we might have to pay the Feds something this year but she has to check one more thing out, it will be close. It was cloudy and cooler than we thought today and my son Andy went our someplace, so I procrastinated and put off the front hub & bearing job on the truck, tomorrow is supposed to be 76 degrees and a chance of an isolated Thunder storm, so maybe we won't be the isolated area in mind. When your retired , you can wait a day. I want to get it done while there are two vehicle here. Maybe I should look for another motorcycle, I can remember when we had 4 cars 2 motorcycles and 2 drivers in the family. Now we just have the truck and Donna's Escape so if one quits somebody is walking or looking for a streetcar.

The place was really quiet today, no Grandkid's to louden it up, even the dogs laid around, after Donna got done with the taxes, her and Rigg's took an afternoon nap and then at 04:00PM she headed out to the restaurant, she says she is scheduled for a private party at 09:00PM with 50 teenage kids, I told her she ought to draw combat pay for tonight.

Not much going on didn't leave the house only to go to the Shop & Save and get some groceries, got some stew meat, Did I ever tell you I love Donna's Stew. That is what I hope will be the main course tomorrow.

I think my 18 year old Grand Daughter in New Jersey is going through one of lifes tough times, I saw on facebook she said she had lost someone close to her in her life, and then I saw she changed her "status" to single from "In a relationship". I hope she deals with this quickly as breaking up is tough on a teenage girl. Its times like this that you wish they were close to home where you could show them some love and attention when they need it.

Well that's about it for today, Life is still good, the big decision for me now, is what I want to make for my single supper tonight.

Everyone, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna......

TGIF.

Today started as usual with Donna heading out to the truck company,I had some breakfast with Nicole and then we headed out to get her to Augusta MO. to school, Adam was still sleeping so he didn’t ride with us in the morning like yesterday.

When I got back He was awake so we watched some kid shows and he wanted to get some cheat codes off the the computer for his xbox games.

9 years old and he knows how to go on the internet and get game codes. sheesh, I’m lucky I can do a blog.

It didn’t get as warm as we hoped today stayed cloudy almost all day and about 55 degrees.

Adam’s Mom called and asked If I could bring him home today, she missed him after a week of spring break, So at 03:30PM I headed out to Warrenton MO, and I-70 was stopped just west of Wentzville due to an accident. took us over an hour to go about two miles, after I dropped him off I took some back roads home, Nicole is going to her Dad’s for the weekend and Chris will be there too. So no Grandkids this weekend. Boy it will be quiet around , I can handle a little extra rest but Rigg’s and Sadie will sure miss them..

Being it was Friday I made a small frozen pizza for me since Andy & Samantha were gone and I was cooking for one.

After changing the front axle shaft I still have a noise in the left front end of my truck, so tomorrow I will pull the hub and bearing assembly on that side and see what it looks and feels like, and I will probably have to bite the bullet and replace it.

That’s about it for today, Hope everyone is doing well out there in blogland, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Thursday Happenings.

It started out early and what a gorgeous day it is, sunny and in the mid 70’s. I took Nicole to Augusta to school this morning and then me and Adam just piddled around the house and he did some kid computer stuff on my laptop.  At noon his Dad took him and they went on a Boys day out.  They took all of the  bb gins and went to Andy’s buddy Dannys house to shoot. I guess I got him going on it yesterday and after he told his Dad about it, his dad wanted to try the full Auto on the AK47 so they decided to go shooting again.

I stopped at the auto zone again and bought some cutting wheels for my air grinder, and I found out that my tool is shot, it’s a cheapo made out of plastic and the plastic cracked and it leaks more air than it gets to turn the wheel. Lesson learned stay with metal air tools. Luckily it the only plastic tool I own.

Didn’t have enough time to look for a replacement today as I had to go and pick Nicole up from school.

 

Nicole after school, she is Grandpa’s sweetheart..

On the way home we passed the store at Hyw D & DD that we named, “The store what has no Ice Cream.” Everytime we pass it we say that and laugh. Today Grandpa took the long cut instead of the short cut so we could stop at the QT where they do have Ice Cream, and Nicole and Grandpa each got a cone, yummy..

Nicole is staying again tonight with Adam so they can play together, they get along so well it is just a pleasure to watch them..I ‘m getting so spoiled by having the Grandkids around all the time that next week when the are gone I will be lonesome for them.

Donna has the restaurant tonight, Andy, Samantha and the kids are invited to dinner at his buddy Danny’s so Grandpa will be batching it for tonight, I guess I will have one of those Potatoes & Ham Dinners you put in the Micro, and  wash it down with a couple of High Life Lights, now that sounds to me like a good St Pattys dinner.

Hope everyone is having a great time, Life is good, so enjoy it while you can. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Wednesday Musings.

First things first, I want to welcome our 99th follower, NantucketBreezes, I could not find a blog, so  if you have one let us, know, I hope you enjoy the antics of the Weeb Clan as we work our way to fulltiming.

Donna and I were up, early I stayed in bed so the two mutso’s could lay on the bed after Donna went to work, actually I got up and dressed and made the bed and then put a train movie on, Rigg’s and Sadie  sacked out and I laid down and watched the movie for an hour and a half and then got up and fired up the laptop in the kitchen for some blogging.

Adam slept in to about 08:00AM and then started watching the morning kid shows on TV.

After lunch we got his AK47 BB rifle out and I got some BB’s for him and we did some serious shooting in the back yard.

Adam shredded his target with full auto fire.

 

                      Grandpa got his turn too..

You can’t see it well in the pictures but the yard slopes down then up again so the bb’s can’t reach the houses behind us. Before they built those houses and it was fields behind us, Adam’s Dad and I shot many a night with real handguns and rifles and to this day Andy loves going to the range to shoot, he bought Adam a Kid size 22 cal. rifle for Christmas and he is taking his son now to the range like I did with him.

All in all we had a lot of fun, and it was cheap entertainment and also taught Adam more fundamental firearms safety. My Grandfather always said if you keep something like that a mystery from your kid’s, they will discovery it on there own and not the way you would have taught them, He was so wise a man.

It was in the 60’s I think it got up to about 66, and tomorrow is supposed to be mid seventies, I ‘ll take that kind of weather thank you. Snow on Monday and summer on Thursday, what a week.

Tomorrow I will put Rigg’s and Sadie back on the UPS truck watch. I am hoping for a delivery of the prizes, the hat and all those slips are waiting, and I think I’ll let Adam draw the lucky winners.

Adam went with Samantha and Nicole to MacDonalds for supper, I said I’d stay here and eat real food, but what kid would pass up a chance for McD’s.

I guess that’s the news for today, Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoys good weather. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…..