Just an average day

Let me tell you about my day. I went in to work today, we're making these stainless steel plates, a job straight from the pits of hell. Been doing it for 5 months now and when we first started I jokingly said it would take until Thanksgiving to finish. Looks like it will actually be past that. Work went OK, I managed to get done what I planned to do. After that I replaced the hinge pins on my Ranger driver's door. We made some pins about 2 years ago, used stainless steel but it was too soft and they wore grooves. I found some replacement pins with bushings on Ebay for around $8, bought them several weeks ago, just haven't had time to install. Took out the old pins, drilled out the holes to accept the new over-sized bushings and put everything back together. I wanted to make some wax cell cups today, and was thinking of using a turkey baster to move the melted wax. So I stopped at WalMart looking for a baster. $12 for a turkey baster, not. But I did have an idea while standing there. I could use one of those nasal aspirators. It's a little suction bulb parents use to suck snot out of an infant's nose. I actually have one of those, used it on a different job. While I'm standing there I see someone walk by with a new bike, and I think I should get new tubes for my bike. I knew it had a flat which had been repaired several times. Walmart used to have these never-flat tube inserts. It's a solid rubber insert that takes the place of a tube. Just being curious I walked over. They didn't have any. I looked at tubes, a basic tube is about $5, puncture resistant self sealing tubes $12. While I wanted to get my bike back in service, it's a luxury. Vicki has now been out of work for three months. We still have received nothing from the other party's insurance and her short term disability insurance is jerking us around. While $20 may not seem like much, it does add up and in my life, with things constantly breaking, and being a pragmatist, it was an expense I could not justify. Heading home, I have some old wax that had moths and beetle larvae, and some that got wet and was growing mold so they needed to be rendered down. The propane tank was empty, I knew that and planned to get it filled this weekend. Got the tank from the back yard, walked to the truck and noticed water dripping underneath. Looked and saw it coming down the front of the engine, typical of a water pump but the pump is less than 1 year old. Opened the hood. checking hoses, squeezed the upper hose and I saw a tiny stream of water from the thermostat jacket. Rubbed my finger over it and now it's pouring out, stream is 1/8 inch in diameter. Wonderful! No way to find a water jacket for a 1993 ford on a Saturday. I have some JB weld quick, I can pull off the jacket and put on a patch. But I don't have a gasket. Auto-zone has a gasket, they're 3.3 miles away. I also only have the one vehicle but I have a bike with a flat tire. Took off the tire and patched it, this is now 5 patches on this tube. The hole was right next to a previous hole and it's suspiciously on a seam. Put in some air, soapy water, no leaks so back together and I'm off to AZ. 2.3 miles later and the tire is flat. Pushed to AZ. Got the gasket, took off the tire and the tube has a split on the seam 3 inches long. Pushed it back home. Some of my pious acquaintances will say that God was telling to fix my bike. If that's true He wasn't speaking loud enough. On a positive note, the time it took to travel allowed the JB weld to set up. Put the truck back together. I did get the propane tank exchanged and I made some wax cell cups for Sunday. Did not render wax as it was dark. This wasn't a very good day, and I have at least two of these every week. Someone is always calling me with something that's broke, last Wednesday, just as I got home. my youngest son called. His car was dead in the middle of the road on his way to work. Spent about 40 minutes under the car in the dirt but I did get it running. I'm thankful for the skills to fix stuff, but I'm getting tired.