Who’d a thunk it?

Did you know that J-B Weld Kwik can be used to fix a bicycle pedal? It’s true!

My youngest has a inexpensive bike from Walmart with a solid crank. Not a knock against it – it works well for her. The problem is that she somehow managed to literally wear the threads out of the pedal hole, along with most of the threads off the actual pedal. 8-O. My dilema – hunting down a replacement crank or drilling out the pedal socket and threading it or pinning the pedal. I decided on a third option – I pulled out the secret weapon of enlightened men everywhere – J-B Weld, more specifically, the Kwik. I mixed up a batch and set it up. Wow! It filled the voids of the missing threads and when it was done setting up it was on there good. My girl got on the bike and took off. Another job done!

Oh, another thing I fixed this weekend – the dishwasher. The upper tray has these axles that clip on to the tray and has rollers that fit into the stainless slides. We’d gone for years with one broken, then another broke last week and when it dropped down we lost a few glass cups. Something had to be done. In just a few days we had a pack of four. In a few minutes (after I figured out how to take off the ends of the slides) the job was done. Kind of embarrassing it took me so long to take care of it. Oh well.

What a weekend!

We were supposed to go up to Guadalupe Friday night, but the wife unit got out of work late and was really cranky so we delayed it until the following morning. Like a dolt though, I couldn’t sleep and didn’t get to sleep until 12:30PM! Doh!

We got up a 6:15AM and were actually on the road by 7:15AM. I was duly impressed. Got to Glendale by 9:15AM – doesn’t get any better than that – we parked right up next to the entrance we were so early! No parking fee but that was made up when we paid for the entrance – $16 each for me and Vicki, kids get in free for another year and a half. Well Done

We ended up splitting up inside, with the kids orbiting us, moving between us. Vicki is on the hunt for a 1911, we need to save up money for her. I had a list of stuff, but what I really wanted, the reloading stuff, wasn’t there. I ended up getting some AK parts (recoil springs, disconnector springs, one hammer spring,), and a 25rnd 10/22 magazine. Sofia found a new dog leash for Jack – its pretty nice. Vicki got another 12-pack of mini crossbow bolts,  medical kit bag we need to fill, and a pair of personal stun guns she wants to give to my sisters. Didn’t find a whole lot else, so our next stop was Randall’s,  a firearms place in Glendale.

Randall’s – really nice guys, know their stuff, and were polite to my little girl (Sofia went in with me). What’s not to like? I got the powder I wanted (AA-7) and large rifle primers, right off the shelf. Cheaper than on-line and NO hazmat fee. I WILL go back.

We had heard about the prepper and military surplus in Mesa on Main Street, so we decided we’d go look. Nothing. Nada. I’ll have to look up on the web, we were so sure that at the one AZ prepper’s convention that we’d seen lots of cards with Main Street addresses. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

On the way back we stopped by the Native New Yorker on Broadway in Tempe, saw the first half of the Arizona vs Cal game. Towards the end of the 1st half the game was interrupted with ‘pay your bill’ message so we could only hear it. We left. At least on the radio in the Jeep and at the in-laws the game wasn’t interrupted. We relaxed there for the rest of the day, Vicki too her mom to the store, but that’s about it. We got up this morning and had breakfast before loading up and coming home. It was nice to sleep in!

I FINALLY fixed Marisol’s little storage box for her Monster High dolls. She’s never bugged me, just patiently waited. I love that kid. Anyway, now I can move on to my other projects without feeling guilty.Uncertain

To end the day, we broke out the hand-held crossbows. What a riot! They are so much fun! Even the girls loved playing with them – we WILL be doing this more often. As competitive as they are, this should get good!

Acosta Camping Trip 2007

2007!

You’ll find information on the camping trip, including who’s going, who’s taking what, and printable maps and a ‘checklist’

OK, here’s the list of people I think are going. Please email ( ) if I missed someone.

EZ and Julian / Thursday @7:00AM by way of Payson

Gracie / Friday @ 3:00pm

Domingo / Thursday by 10:00 (but probably not til later) by way of Camp Verde

Elia / Friday with Vicki

Martin (and familia) / Friday

Sunny & Elsa / Thursday @ 2:00pm

Virginia ( Sofia , Isabel and Marisol ) with Ariana / Friday about 5:00pm

Elvira / Friday

Julio & family / Friday, after work, with Vicki

Here’s a couple of maps to show the different routes to take up there. I’ll be dropping off printed/copied items at Acosta central on Thursday on my way up.

Here is the checklist in Adobe Acrobat PDF format: (I need to find it and upload it)

The different routes to Clints Well

The different routes to Clints Well

And here’s a closeup from Clint Wells to the campsite.