how a quick job becomes a nearly endless one

Decide to cross off one of the jobs on the when-you-have-a-few-minutes-honey list, and trim some of the out-of-control rhododendrons making it hard to see out of the living room windows. So I hitch up a wagon to one of the lawn tractors, trim the branches and toss them into the wagon to haul away. Then I notice that one of the front tractor wheels is entirely flat. Bring out an air pump and an extension cord, but the tube must have totally come apart, I can't get it to stay inflated for even a minute.

Okay, drive to Tractor Supply (20 miles each way) and get an inner tube. Take off wheel and walk it over to the shop. Notice that the foot-long piece of all-thread that serves as a central shaft in the mini tire changer bolted to the bench is bent enough (which bozo did THAT?) to make it not practical to use the thing. Looks like 9/16 but when I grab a piece of 9/16 all-thread from the rack it's just a little too small. Aha, must be 5/8, but I don't seem to have any 5/8 around so I drive to the hardware store (only 10 miles each way this time) and pick up a piece of 5/8 all-thread.

Nope, that's too big. Do they make 19/32 all-thread? I don't think so, so I check the old rod in my metric bolt gauge but it doesn't seem to match anything there either. Must be some kinkball size they know about only in Shenzhen. Or is there Whitworth all-thread, maybe?

Rather than looking to see whether McMaster stocks something that would fit, why not just drill and tap the threaded parts on the tire changer to take the 5/8 rod I have in my hand? Then if the rod ever gets bent again replacement will be simple. So I take it apart and put a 17/32 bit (the size for 5/8-11) in the drill press and have at it. And of course when I'm done the tap is too tight and clearly not going to work. Wotttheheck, I grab the next size of Silver&Deming bit (9/16) and re-drill. Nope, still too tight. What happened to my 19/32 bit?

Next day, borrow a 19/32 bit (and a 37/64, while I'm at it, just in case) from work, and in the evening redrill, tap, put the tire changer together, replace the tube, and all is right with the world. And order some more Silver&Deming bits.

This is why the when-you-have-a-few-minutes-honey list never seems to get shorter.

Well, good luck. I have been retired for 3 years and have been working through the 'Honey Do' list - there is NO end. I've knocked off about 3 pages that accumulated while I was in my prime working years - no time to do the stuff. Yep, the list has grown by 4 pages ! ;^)

I understand completely. My 504U had been sitting for two years, and I went out put a new battery in it, and it fired right up and all is good. Then I used the loader to pull the back blade out of the weeds, then it died, and the next two hours getting around the loader to replace the points. Did I mention that I stepped on my glasses too.
$400.00 for a set of points.

Sounds like some of my "quick" projects...

I weep for you but take some comfort in the fact that there are at least 2 of us with no manner of luck at all. Hope the next job ends well.

I have had those days and reminds me of a book the kids have, If you give a mouse a cookie, or If you give a pig a pancake.

It seems like any time I try to get a project completed, there is always a holdup. Either a part I need but don't have, a tool I need but either don't have or can't find, or some other snag comes up, and the project will go to the back burner awaiting the proper materials. Some days, I may have just as well gone fishing!!!

Sort of Like My days with my 100 things to do LIST,. starts out with a flat tire and a dead battery , a bad end of a extension cord ,, and maybe before noon I am underway,,. in the meantime organizing , fixin fence and feeding all the animules gets done every day

sounds pretty normal around here

Son 90 miles away has been having issues with Central Air Conditioning in house. After 4 unrelated things, 5 technicians, the blower motor squealed a little while before seizing on Sunday. He got furnace specs and looked up a new motor online. It arrived this morning on my back doorstep. I had plans to take my parents to his hotel where he was feeding us supper. We left early to get it done before feeding time. I fought one of the screws out with a vise grips instead of a stripped out phillips head. Got the blower out and the motor was completely wrong. 1/6 hp instead of 1/3, shaft too short, only 2 wires instead of 5, no mounting bracket on new. Welded brackets on old. Single speed motor instead of 3 speed. Well we went to supper and I will try to find one in Waterloo and send this one back to wherever. Hopefully drive to Cedar Rapids and fix it tomorrow. He is talking about a window unit and ignoring the central air. However in 3 months he will be needing heat and thus will need the furnace blower working.
At least the meal was good and he picked up the tab. (his department budget did)

Son 90 miles away has been having issues with Central Air Conditioning in house. After 4 unrelated things, 5 technicians, the blower motor squealed a little while before seizing on Sunday. He got furnace specs and looked up a new motor online. It arrived this morning on my back doorstep. I had plans to take my parents to his hotel where he was feeding us supper. We left early to get it done before feeding time. I fought one of the screws out with a vise grips instead of a stripped out phillips head. Got the blower out and the motor was completely wrong. 1/6 hp instead of 1/3, shaft too short, only 2 wires instead of 5, no mounting bracket on new. Welded brackets on old. Single speed motor instead of 3 speed. Well we went to supper and I will try to find one in Waterloo and send this one back to wherever. Hopefully drive to Cedar Rapids and fix it tomorrow. He is talking about a window unit and ignoring the central air. However in 3 months he will be needing heat and thus will need the furnace blower working.

So it's not just me...

Fred

You mentioned you have more than one lawn tractor. Would it have worked better to have switched lawn tractors, and finished the rhododendrons?

YES!!!! Cross one off the top of the list and 4 more magically appear at the bottom.........................My list is now long enough to keep me busy at least 4 or 5 years after I croak. Lol!!

Well, yeah, I did that, but I still had the first tractor stuck in the front walk till I fixed the tire...