What have you been up to lately?

OldSailor85 · Dec 18, 2024

flatheadsteve said:
Thier value has shot up the last couple years. I kept it cage free for awhile but nhra doesn't like ttops and we're shooting for a low 9 second car so we can compete in true street class.

9s?

I thought you needed a cage for anything under 12 seconds?

...and I thought pushing 350 at the rear wheels was something.

flatheadsteve · Dec 18, 2024

OldSailor85 said:
9s?

I thought you needed a cage for anything under 12 seconds?

...and I thought pushing 350 at the rear wheels was something.

Ttops and 11.49 needs a 5 pt and it goes up from there based on et and or mph. We mostly do 1/8 mile no prep races at places like old airports but take her to nhra tracks every now and again . Plan to do some bigger no prep races at nhra tracks next year to get some more 1/4 mile passes and they have a lot of rules these days! Car will be making over 525hp on motor at the crank and we have a nitrous setup we can spray anywhere from 50-200hp. The factory windshield washer tank holds 110 octane fuel to inject into the manifold when using the go juice.

OldSailor85 · Dec 19, 2024

Put this together a few years ago. Was never happy with the way it sets up, and there were a couple runs in the finish. Lots of decent parts.

Tired of looking at it, so spent the last couple rainy days "fixing" it.

Sanded off the finish, now just oil and wax. That fixed the runs... Shimmed the neck. That helped the bridge saddles find a happy medium.

Still buzzes more than I typically like with 5/64 - 4/64 string height. Especially on the bass side. Set up with 9s

It's a heavy strat at nearly 9 pounds.

airshot · Dec 19, 2024

thill said:
We had something similar... Our heat pump works down to about 36 degrees and then kicks over to backup heat coils. We mainly heat with a wood stove, but sometimes we need the heat to work when it's cold and we are away.

Obviously, something went wrong with the resistance heat side. It was struggling for awhile, then it went out completely. The tech checked the coils, and they were fine. Replaced the limit switches, and it worked again. Great. But that lasted for all of one night.

The tech came back, tested everything, and then put a flashlight to the condenser/heat exchanger. He looked several times, frowned and asked me, "How long has it been since this was cleaned?

"Cleaned? Never, that I know of." (Over 12 years)

"This makes sense, now. The system looks really good overall, but from what I can see, this thing is packed with dirt."

He spent the next couple of hours with various detergents, chemicals and a garden hose, and it was shocking how much stuff was packed between every fin of that condenser, but water would still not go through it. I eventually pulled out an electric pressure washer set on low, and it helped to finally get a spot cleared out, and we expanded the clean area until the whole thing was done. It was crazy how much stuff was in there.

It was well after dark when we vacuumed up all the debris and water, blew everything dry with compressed air and then test-fired the system.

It works better than I can ever remember. It used to take a long time to bring up the temp 2 degrees, and it would run almost constantly to maintain temp on cold nights. Now, it kicks on for a couple of minutes and cuts off. It works incredibly well!

I really appreciate that tech sticking with it and actually fixing our problem. Other companies gave blanket statements that systems should be replaced if over 10 years old. The tech says they just want our money. He says we should easily get another 10 years out of it, no problem.

We have him a very good tip!

Had our propane furnace cleaned for the first time at 22 yrs of age. An igniter went bad and tech questioned the last time it was cleaned. I told them to go for it as the furnace was never touched since new. 25 years of age currently and works great along with the A/C unit. Only a capacitor was needed after 20 yrs on the A/C unit....not gonna complain !!

lightflyer1 · Friday at 4:41 PM

Signed up for Medicare in preparation for my retirement Jan 31 2025. It will be very different not having a job any more.

Stand Up · Friday at 7:08 PM

Here in central Alberta, Canada we get the shortest days of the year.
The sun rises at 8:50 AM EST and sets at 4:18 PM EST.
It has been cold so, just hunker down and keep warm. (I'm retired)
The temps will reach 33 or 34 F on Monday, so the dog and I will go hunting for birds and rabbits. We've had a lot of snow so it may be tough to walk around my hunting area.
I'll take pictures and post them here.

OldSailor85 · Saturday at 8:38 AM

lightflyer1 said:
Signed up for Medicare in preparation for my retirement Jan 31 2025. It will be very different not having a job any more.

Retirement.

Highly recommended.

If you want to keep working, volunteer.

airshot · Saturday at 11:45 AM

lightflyer1 said:
Signed up for Medicare in preparation for my retirement Jan 31 2025. It will be very different not having a job any more.

Don't forget soc. Sec. As well. I find medicare to be far better than my wirkplace insurance!!

airshot · Saturday at 11:47 AM

OldSailor85 said:
Retirement.

Highly recommended.

If you want to keep working, volunteer.

I worked part time where I retired from...made a nice little nest egg that last year and " practiced" for retirement !

lightflyer1 · Saturday at 2:37 PM

airshot said:
Don't forget soc. Sec. As well. I find medicare to be far better than my wirkplace insurance!!

Waiting till 70 for social security. I have savings that will more than carry me through to that point.

Ray Clark · Saturday at 5:01 PM

lightflyer1 said:
Signed up for Medicare in preparation for my retirement Jan 31 2025. It will be very different not having a job any more.

I retired in 2020. I've often thought that I don't know how I found the time to go to work. I seem busier now. The big difference is that I get to direct my days, and the only person I need to keep happy is the wife. I'm fortunate that keeping her happy is an easy task.

lightflyer1 · Saturday at 5:08 PM

Ray Clark said:
I retired in 2020. I've often thought that I don't know how I found the time to go to work. I seem busier now. The big difference is that I get to direct my days, and the only person I need to keep happy is the wife. I'm fortunate that keeping her happy is an easy task.

My father used to say the same thing.

airshot · Saturday at 9:40 PM

lightflyer1 said:
Waiting till 70 for social security. I have savings that will more than carry me through to that point.

Keep one thing in mind, we do not know how our health will be in the future !! We planned ahead for our retirement, retired a little earlier than expected because we had some extra money and our health was good....two years later my wife is dissabbled. After 4 years we do nothing but stare out a window and wait for the next day, only get out to go to doctors visits. My point is....don't wait for an unknown future....enjoy life while you can afford it...a few extra bucks each month means nothing if your health goes bad.

lightflyer1 · Saturday at 10:57 PM

Well what you say is true, I have enough saved to continue my current salary Way beyond 70. I can still do whatever I want even though I'm not drawing social security yet. Even after I start drawing it, I will still have a ton of money left. Just because I'm not drawing, social security doesn't mean I have to live a life without. I want to spend the first few years of retirement traveling around the world and seeing places while I'm still healthy. They'll be enough time to stare out the window when that time comes.

Ray Clark · Sunday at 7:15 AM

I'm sorry to hear about your situation, Airshot. One of my good fishing buddies retired at 62 and he and his wife began traveling extensively. They did that because of the unknowns you cited. Several years later, my buddy's wife began to decline with Alzheimers. That downhill journey has been going on for almost a decade. It's heartbreaking to see a once-vibrant beautiful person in that state.

All of our individual financial situations are so different that I can't tell anybody how they should proceed with regard to Social Security. For us, we have not filed, yet. We will next March as both my wife and I are at our full retirement age (66 yrs, 8 mos). My wife will file as we want to do some things to the house and schedule up some more travel. I will wait until age 70 to max out my SS monthly amount and then file. That way, if something happens to me, my wife will get my stepped up basis. We have retirement accounts and my military pension to live on now, and we're quite comfortable. The pension stops when I die, and if my wife is still living, she'll have my SS, her small pension, and the proceeds of our retirement accounts to live on.

David Atkins · Sunday at 9:53 AM

airshot said:
Keep one thing in mind, we do not know how our health will be in the future !! We planned ahead for our retirement, retired a little earlier than expected because we had some extra money and our health was good....two years later my wife is dissabbled. After 4 years we do nothing but stare out a window and wait for the next day, only get out to go to doctors visits. My point is....don't wait for an unknown future....enjoy life while you can afford it...a few extra bucks each month means nothing if your health goes bad.

I fully agree with you Airshot; I am in the same boat as your wife is, fully disabled and just go to Doctors Appts. maybe the grocery store once in a while if I feel good. Doctors do not know what to do and why my health failed so quickly, triple bypass, kidney failure and now type 2 diabetes - guess I'm just waiting for the end to come and I'm only 70 years young, so I look out the window (22 degrees here today) and remember those great times fishing and hunting!

OldSailor85 · Sunday at 10:19 AM

airshot said:
Keep one thing in mind, we do not know how our health will be in the future !! We planned ahead for our retirement, retired a little earlier than expected because we had some extra money and our health was good....two years later my wife is dissabbled. After 4 years we do nothing but stare out a window and wait for the next day, only get out to go to doctors visits. My point is....don't wait for an unknown future....enjoy life while you can afford it...a few extra bucks each month means nothing if your health goes bad.

This is so true, and health is everything.

Retired at 60 Felt great, lost weight, started lifting weights again, biking an hour every day.

Triple Bypass at 62 Now almost 65. I walk with the dogs and get 30-minutes on the bike at a lower level. My overhead press is a naked 20 kg bar.

Lucky to still be suckin' air and kickin' dirt.

I can still fish. We were fishing in Mid-November on Lake Erie. The perch were delicious. Too cold for me now!

Talked to a guy the other day. His father worked to 70. Waited to take SS because he was still working. Died at 70 years an two months.

My wife has been partially disabled for quite a few years. No kids. I just want to stay around long enough to take care of her and our pups.

gillhunter · Sunday at 3:12 PM

You are all correct that health becomes a huge issue as you age. The wife and I are both retired, but are still working at 72 because we enjoy it. (she works from home) We have to start taking funds from our retirement accounts this coming year. So we have talked about fully retiring next year.

Buster · Monday at 8:29 AM

Ray Clark said:
I retired in 2020. I've often thought that I don't know how I found the time to go to work. I seem busier now. The big difference is that I get to direct my days, and the only person I need to keep happy is the wife. I'm fortunate that keeping her happy is an easy task.

About three years after my dad retired he said to me "I always wondered when retired people said 'I'm busier now than I ever was when I was working.' But now I understand--you do everything at about half the pace."
I checked out of full time work at 52 and did some light consulting for a few years just to keep a foot in the door in case I wanted to get back into work. Now I'm fully retired while my wife finishes up her career. She's happy working, I never was. My personal take on being busier is that objectively I (and most others) aren't "busier" if that means doing productive things that have to get done. Instead, we have expectations of doing more and however we decide to fill our days we can't get to all the things we want to do, so it feels busy. I also think many people WANT to feel busy because they've spent 40 years or more being busy and that energizes them. So we structure our lives in ways that make us feel busy. Using my 92yo dad again as an example--he tells me he's busy. He has to sweep the floor and read the newspaper and magazines, and there's a football game on at 3 and then he has to help mom with dinner and there's a movie he really wants to watch at 7. I wouldn't call that busy because with the exception of a bit of housework and meal prep, there's nothing on that list that has to get done--it's 90% leisure from my point of view. But I think he needs to believe he's being busy and productive. And if that keeps him going for a few more years--good on him.

David Atkins · Monday at 8:38 AM

Buster said:
About three years after my dad retired he said to me "I always wondered when retired people said 'I'm busier now than I ever was when I was working.' But now I understand--you do everything at about half the pace."
I checked out of full time work at 52 and did some light consulting for a few years just to keep a foot in the door in case I wanted to get back into work. Now I'm fully retired while my wife finishes up her career. She's happy working, I never was. My personal take on being busier is that objectively I (and most others) aren't "busier" if that means doing productive things that have to get done. Instead, we have expectations of doing more and however we decide to fill our days we can't get to all the things we want to do, so it feels busy. I also think many people WANT to feel busy because they've spent 40 years or more being busy and that energizes them. So we structure our lives in ways that make us feel busy. Using my 92yo dad again as an example--he tells me he's busy. He has to sweep the floor and read the newspaper and magazines, and there's a football game on at 3 and then he has to help mom with dinner and there's a movie he really wants to watch at 7. I wouldn't call that busy because with the exception of a bit of housework and meal prep, there's nothing on that list that has to get done--it's 90% leisure from my point of view. But I think he needs to believe he's being busy and productive. And if that keeps him going for a few more years--good on him.

Cherish your Dad because when he is gone like mine you'll miss him - alot!

What have you been up to lately?

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