This weekend was another one of those where we fit quite a bit of stuff in. In this case though, it didn't feel too jam packed. Saturday morning we finally worked in a trip to Grandpa's work to get the boys rides in the loader and "Big A". They really liked the rides, but leave it to them to find fun in something so simple; they just loved dancing and jumping in the back of the pickup and making it bounce. They even got grandpa to join in the act. Priceless.
The boys got their activity in during the morning, but Mommy and Daddy's came at night. C and I took in the 2nd half of our Valentines Day date by going to dueling pianos. The performers were really good, and we both had a good time. It was a nice change from our typical dinner and a movie kind of dates.
We've had some strange wildlife in the neighborhood lately. A few weeks ago we found a strange snow-caterpillar crawling across the back yard. It wasn't crawling very fast, and seemed to stop moving as we were watching it. Still, it was strange to see on a day where it was only in the upper 30's, and there was a couple inches of snow on the ground.
We've also had an owl hanging around the past week. This weekend we saw it perched on the neighbor's front porch. It appeared to be basking in the sun on a side of the house that was blocked from the wind. We weren't sure if it was alive or dead, but when we checked back after that part of the porch was in the shade, the owl was gone. We also got serenaded one night this past week by some coyotes in the back yard, but thankfully that was just a one night performance.
Last week I finished up what will possibly be my last Ebay project this winter. I bought some Hot wheels trucks thinking I would use them for some retro monster trucks, but since that ship seems to have sailed, I tried to find something else to do with them. I decided to turn to the TV/Movie cars market and do some Fall Guy pickups. To make sure I got the details right, I fired up on of my Fall Guy DVD's. Much like the Dukes of Hazzard, the show isn't quite as impressive now as when I was growing up. It did cause me to notice a few things though. I was trying to remember how old I was when I watched Fall Guy as a kid. I recalled building a model of the truck from the show and taking it to show and tell at school. I'm thinking I took it for kindergarten. I did let N watch a little of one of the episodes, and he was much less impressed than I was at his age. I hesitated to let him watch because of the violence. I think it was a requirement in each episode for at least one bar fight, and there to be some gun play. So while the violence made me question letting N watch, I did notice that there was not a single swear word. We have been struggling with that as of late because we can't even listen to the radio without him hearing a few words he isn't supposed to say. How times have changed.
The Fall Guy trucks may be my last Ebay project because I am starting to get back into tractor project mode. I've been working on Junior here and there, starting to take it apart to do some repainting on it. This weekend though, my attention was focused on the Ten. One of my goals for this winter was to get a broken flange on the exhaust manifold welded up. The manifold actually came off easier than I had expected, with only one twisted-off stud. Although the manifold came off, I'm still working on trying to disassemble it a little more before I take it in, and I think that is going to take lots of soaking with penetrating oil. I'm glad I got started now, instead of last year where I waited all winter and then starting working on it only a couple weeks before the first show.
