Gateway

To most people, the first weekend in February is synonymous with the Super Bowl.  In our household, the weekend is shared with the an annual trip to St. Louis for the Gateway Toy Show.  Traditionally, this has been a Dad's-day-out kind of thing, but this year I decided N was finally ready to make the trip with me.  To make it more attractive to him, and break things up a bit, I combined the trip with a stop off at my brother's, and a stop at the Bigfoot shop. 

The day turned out pretty much as well as well as I could have hoped.  N was a real trooper riding in the car, and did a great job keeping himself entertained.  He played well with his cousin's, which allowed the adults to have a nice visit.  I think for him the real hit of the day was the Bigfoot shop.  He was excited to see the trucks on display outside, and inside they had some displays you could sit in. 

By the time we got to the toy show, N felt he already had enough fun for the day and was talking about going home.  Still, I managed to coax almost two hours at the toy show out of him.  Significantly less than I would have normally spent, but enough to feel like it was worth the trip.  He did better than I expected about not wanting everything he saw, but what I didn't count on was once he bought a tractor, he was ready to go play with it rather than keep looking.  He did like the displays, especially one that had several moving parts to it. 

The workshop has been reasonably quiet the past couple weeks.  As I said last time, my big project was cleaning my office and organizing my storage closet.  As a result of that, I found several toys I had bought for future projects that I now realize I will most likely never get around to.  Last week was a fairly big Ebay week getting those sold and shipped.  One truck I found in with the project candidates was one from my childhood, but it was still in remarkably good shape. I got to thinking more about the truck and realized it came from a toy show I went to with my Dad.  I don't know if it was my first toy show, but certainly the first one I can remember.  I remembered buying it because the rubber tires on it made it more detailed than any of the other trucks I had.  I also recalled leaving it in the box for a while so it would be worth more some day, and then finally giving in and getting it out to play with.  After taking that little trip down memory lane, I decided to hold on to it a little longer.

While we did miss having a Super Bowl party to go to a little bit, it was nice to just stay home and watch the game.  We got some fun snacks and ordered pizza so it felt like a little party of our own.  L and I watched the first part of the game in the garage while we worked on tractors a little bit.  I think the boys were more impressed with the commercials than the game.  Thanks to DVR we could watch their favorite commercials several times each and still catch back up to the game.  How did we ever live without DVR?

Signs of Winter

This January brought one of the warmest birthdays I can remember, but the warm weather did finally succumb to more normal temps, and, of course, some snow.  The snow finally gave me a chance to try out Johnny with the snow blade.  It wasn't the most ideal situation for a first trial.  There was about a 1/2" of slush under the snow, and the timing of the snowfall was such that C and I both drove on it before I had a chance to blade it off.  These combined to create a scenario where the blade skidded on top of the packed tracks, plowing the snow but leaving the slush to quickly freeze into ice.  Needless to say, the result wasn't quite what I had hoped for.  By the end though, I think I figured when to use the shovel and when to use the tractor.  Of course, the shovel can't pull the boys around on a sled. 

I've had a few projects going in the workshop the past couple weeks.  The first was getting some signs put up for decoration.  I've been meaning to put up some of my grandpa's signs for a while, and got a couple more for Christmas.  I think they add a nice touch to the garage.

I posted a picture a while back of a model prototype for the antique Cat club.  I got another set of samples a couple weeks ago to review.  We are now very nearly ready to start into production, with model delivery due in April.  To coincide with delivery, I put together an article for the club newsletter on the real machines based on the research I did for the model.  Those are always nice because most of the research is already done, and it's a good way to document everything I learned.

I also continued to work on using up some of the monster truck supplies I had left from last year.  I still have some parts left, but finally got to the point where I would need to buy some additional supplies to do any more. I think that's a good stopping point until I sell out of the stock I have. For the most part I used designs I made last year, but did add a couple new ones just to keep it interesting.  I'm looking forward to moving on to something new though.  Before I dig too far into any new projects however, I'm long overdue to clean my office and storage room, and need to clear out some other surplus toy inventory before selling season ends.

Of course the past few weeks haven't been all about work.  I got to spread my birthday out over several weeks.  We got to have a nice little celebration on the actual day.  The bigger party with the rest of the family got pushed back a couple weeks to give everybody a little more of a break from the holidays.  I got to start off the party weekend on Friday morning with "Donuts with Dad" and N's school.  It was fun to take N to school.  I could tell he was excited to have me there, and for the donut.  Not everybody could make it for the party on Saturday, but it still was a good time.  It's always alot of work to host a party, but it is nice to be home where the boys have all their stuff to entertain themselves more, which allows us to spend less time playing defense, and gives us more time to visit with everybody and enjoy it.

Christmas Break

Happy New Year!  It's pretty shameful that I had a week and a half off of work and didn't find the time to update my blog.  We stayed pretty busy with house guests and family gatherings over the break.  It was nice to have some quality family time, but of course it also was nice to fit in a little project time as well. 

I think the boys and C enjoyed me being off of work as much as I did.  With N in school, he is used to having alot of structure in his day and always having something to do.  Obviously over break he didn't have that, so it took a little while for all of us to adjust.  The first half of break C and I spent alot of time getting ready for or cleaning up from various family events.  This always frustrates the boys because they don't understand why we can't just play all the time.  They also quickly got used to getting a bunch of presents every couple of days, so that was a big let down when that stopped.  After about a week, I think we found a pretty good routine, but of course by then break was almost over.  The routine included going to the gym as a family.  While C and I got our workouts in, L stayed in daycare and N played in the open gym.  From the weight area I could look down and watch N play.  It is always interesting to be a fly on the wall and see how he plays with the other kids.  While waiting for C's class to get over, I was walking around the track and decided to go get N and L and we could all walk together.  They really liked it, and I think getting to run around was good for them. 

 "Real" winter seems to mostly absent so far, which turned out to be a good thing for an unexpected reason.  One afternoon to help entertain L, I decided to take him for a ride on Johnny.  While riding I noticed a squeal coming from one of the front wheels.  I quickly pulled it into the garage to check it out, and found one of the wheel bearings was shot.  I was glad to find it now rather than while I was trying to plow snow.  Fortunately the local Deere dealer had the bearings in stock and they were fairly inexpensive, so I replaced them all. 

Mother nature hasn't totally been resting on her laurels though.  We did have a few days of colder weather and rediculously high winds.  With the winds came another bout of our furnace going out.  With some intervention, I was able to keep it going most of the first day.  I tried going the extra step of building a wind break around the flue outlet, which seemed like it would help, but in the end did not seem to make much of a difference.  The wind picked back up later in the evening, and my efforts to keep the furnace running had minimal success.  Much like the last time, I finally had to throw in the towel by the end of the evening and break out some extra blankets.  By morning it was only 59 degrees in the house.  In the morning I was able to get the the furnace running long enough to get the house warmed up, and called the HVAC guys to come back yet again.  Long story short, they suspected some changes I made to the flue piping when I finished the basement was causing too much backpressure.  Fortunately, it was in a location that was still exposed, so they redid it with fewer bends.  It seemed to help the furnace stay on, but of course by that point the winds had also died down a little.  It remains to be seen if it was enough of an improvement to make it through the next windstorm.  In the meantime, I'm leaving the wind break up just in case. 

In spite of that, I did find some time for some projects not related to combating the elements.  A couple weeks ago, I thought it would be a neat idea to make a Christmas ornament that represents my major project for the year.  I set out to make a Power Wheels Bigfoot to represent 2009, a Caterpillar Ten for 2010 and a John Deere 110 for 2011.  I got the Bigfoot and 110 done, but am still working on the Ten.  I also did a few more Monster Jam trucks.  I still haven't sold all the ones I have been putting up since October, but since I already had the materials I thought I would use them up by doing some new trucks.  The first one from the new batch is already on Ebay, and has a bid, so maybe I just needed to freshen up my offerings to spark some interest. 

Last Minute Shopping/Shipping

The Christmas/Year-End rush is certainly in full swing.  It seems everyone is trying to finish up their Christmas shopping, wrap up projects for the year, and get ready for time with family.  Today is supposed to be the busiest shipping day for the Post Office.  I think last Saturday has to be a close second.  I have never seen the line so long at the Post Office.  It didn't help that several people just brought their items loose and were purchasing boxes and packing them right at the counter.  Thank goodness for Click-and-Ship.  One of my best investments ever was a postal scale.  By having accurate weights, I can print my own postage (which is actually cheaper than paying it at the post office) and just drop the boxes off without waiting in line. 

Of course the reason for being at the post office was my Ebaying.  A couple weeks ago I thought the Smokey and the Bandit semi gravy train was coming to an end.  Several other sellers started to get into the act, and prices started to come down.  Then, surprisingly, the competition faded away just as quickly as it arrived.  Demand continues to be strong, so I bought the last four trucks I could find and made one last batch.  The last few days I have entered a new phase, the people that just have to have one for their son and can't wait for the auction to end or they won't get it in time for Christmas.  I always prefer setting some minimum price and letting the bidders decide what something is worth.  Setting a selling price for something someone's kid "just has to have" is never easy. 

When it appeared the Bandit semi sales were going to taper off, I tried to think of a new, unique way to tap into that market.  The Trans-Am has been mass-produced several times, the custom truck market is getting a little too crowded, so what is left?  Why the police cars of course.  One toy project that has been simmering on a far back burner for a while was to complete my "set" with police cars from the different scenes in the movie.  Yes, I am that big of a geek.  In the past year or so, someone has finally made a toy of the correct, late-70's dodge sedan that played such a big role in the Dukes and Bandit police forces.  So, I decided to finally complete that project, and while I am at it, make a couple extra sets to sell.  Much like the last time I took on a big, multi-car project, this one did get a little laborious, but I was happy with the results. The first set I sold easily covered my expenses, but didn't attract the bidding attention I had hoped it would.  Well, they can't all be the home runs that the semis are.

 

Of course it's important not to get too wrapped up in all the rush,  so we've been trying to take time with the boys to make some good holiday memories too. We got rained out of our annual Festival of Lights Parade tradition, but started a new one by taking to the boys to see Santa at Bass Pro.  L still isn't so sure about Santa, but N sat on his lap like a big boy.  L was more intrigued by climbing up on the boats  and checking them out.  We also enjoyed the big fish tanks and trying the shooting range with Grandpa N.  No got to see Santa again when we took him to the Polar Express experience at Wildlife Prairie Park.  We got a sitter for L, so C got to go with N and I this year.  I think N really enjoyed it this year, not just for the Polar Express stuff, but also because he got mommy and daddy all to himself for a night. 

Playing Catch Up

It has now been so long since I last posted, I don't think I will even try to do a complete update.  As usual, it's not that there hasn't been enough to write about, but every night I thought I would sit down and blog, I ended up doing spending the time doing something else.

One of my biggest time burners recently has been doing research on living room decorations/furniture.  Despite being two relatively artistic people, C and I always have a hard time figuring out how to decorate our house.  Whenever we go to someone else's house that is decorated nicely, we always come home wishing ours was decorated better.  I came across a listing on craigslist for a factory cart coffee table that I thought looked neat.  One thing led to another, and I started getting ideas for a complete living room makeover.  After spending too many hours getting ideas and searching for furniture, we decided it was OK to plan, but probably best to hold off on buying new furniture until closer to garage sale season so we can get rid of our existing stuff and not have to store it. 

The other major thing consuming my free time has been my Christmas selling season.  I don't have a ton of stuff to sell on Ebay this year.  I had a few custom monster trucks left over from last year to sell, but so far have only been able to sell one of them.  I had planned on making some more, but just discovered that Hot Wheels is "stealing" my idea and will introduce some classic style trucks of their own next year.  The big success has been my old standby, the Smokey and the Bandit semis.  One of the first things I ever bought on ebay was an old toy Smokey and the Bandit semi.  I scanned the mural off of that trailer, and have been making my own ever since.  I've used a variety of trucks as the basis for my models.  This year's crop is predominantly $7 trucks from Farm and Fleet.  They aren't as nice as some of the others I have used, and I make that clear in my Ebay listings, but that doesn't seem to be hurting their appeal to Ebayers.

I also did a little selling through Craigslist.  At the height of my Power Wheels phase, I bought a nearly mint condition Power Wheels Bigfoot circa 1988.  Although I still paid less than what a new Power Wheels cost, after the excitement wore off I started thinking I paid too much for it.  Long story short, N was less impressed with the Bigfoot than I was.  Rather than have it sit around the garage I put it away in the basement.  Now, two years later, since it was just taking up space, I thought I would float it out there and see if there was any interest.  I thought I was dreaming even asking for it what I paid for it.  I was in complete shock when only a about a day after listing it, I got an email from a guy in Virginia who wanted to drive the 13 hours each way to buy it.  I had to wait until the weekend for him to have enough time to make the trip, and in the meantime got 5 other people interested in it, but fortunately he followed through. While I was at it, I talked him into another one that wasn't quite as nice.  N was sad to see them go, but we still have his Jeep, and Grave Digger, and Toy Story R/C, and a Black Bigfoot, and...

Of course I can't go this long without doing something with the tractors.  I thought I had the Ten put away for the winter, but winter has held off so I got it out one last time and took L for a nice long ride. We had alot of fun riding, laughing and exploring.  Johnny remains ready and waiting for the first snow.  I found a cheap set of wheel weights for Junior with just one catch; they were still attached to a tractor.  It was a 1990's Murray rider that hadn't run in a while.  I got the whole tractor for less than what wheel weights usually cost.  I could have tried to get it running, but in the end I just took the parts off of it I wanted and scrapped the rest.  Last time I went to the scrap yard, I figured there was a good chance of a tire repair costing more than I got for the scrap, so this time I left it out on the curb and posted a notice for the scrappers to come and get it.  As soon as it stopped raining, they did.

With colder weather, the workshop tends to also become the playshop.  The boys enjoy it when we pull the cars out and they can run or ride around, and they love having picnics in the garage.  One of my "Black Friday" purchases was a little over-the-door basketball hoop to set up out there, so we can play some hoops too.  It should be another good way for them to burn off some energy this winter.

Tricks or Treats

Another eventful week has come and gone.  Last week brought another, short notice trip down to South Carolina.  There are certainly worse places to have to visit.  While the trip was a pleasant one, we still haven't had much success with that machine down there. 

Although short, the trip did cause me to miss a few things at home.  I missed the trick-or-treating at the High School, which we have done with N now the last 3 years.  L is still in his "too scary" phase, so C opted to leave him at home with a sitter.  I also missed a conference with N's teacher.  It didn't come as any surprise to us that his teacher said N is doing very well with his reading.  He is not as advanced in his writing, but still doing well there too.  All-in-all, a pretty good report.  I made it back from my trip in time to go to a show at 5-Points.  This was our date night for our Anniversary, which now and for the forseeable future, will likely be pushed back due to the proximity to L's birthday.  We had an excellent dinner, and the show was good too.  Of course it did conflict with the Cardinals game, but we made it home in time to see the last few innings of their victory. 

The rest of the weekend was heavily focused on the boys.  We were reluctant to let N use the gun part of his Ghostbuster costume, so I had the idea of making a ghost trap for him to use.  This was one instance where saving some unique things paid off.  Somewhere, C had aquired a miniature version of an interlocking lid storage container.  It had been on the verge of getting thrown away several times, but I always thought it would come in handy someday.  That day came this weekend.  A little paint, some yellow electrical tape, and a few other miscellaneous materials from around the workshop, and pretty soon we had a ghost trap.  I am still amazed that despite not actually seeing the movie, he immediately knew how to slide the trap across the floor to "catch the ghosts".  Of course he wanted to be able to open the doors remotely, but I was able to convince him that was a little too elaborate.  L's costume was a little easier.  I found an image online of Slimer from the Ghostbuster cartoon, and printed it out on iron-on paper.  One green t-shirt , the slimer iron-on, and a black sweat suit for underneath was all his costume required.  L's perpetually runny nose was a nice touch of realism for the "slimer" motif though. 

The costumes worked pretty well for the boys. I'm not sure most of the kids knew who the Ghostbusters or Slimer were, but then again, I didn't know who some of them were supposed to be either.  We did a trunk-or-treat with C's moms group friends on Saturday morning, and then the real trick-or-treating on Halloween night.  For that, we met up with some of the neighbors and all of us went together for one lap around the block.  That was just about right for all the kids. 

With the weather finally turning cooler and being forced to spend more time inside, N's (and therefore L's) interest in trains has been on the rise again.  Saturday I set up a train set in the garage so they could play while I got some work done.  It was a nice compromise of being able to get fresh air and see the sun, but being out of the wind.  Them playing allowed me to finally got the snowplow mounted on Johnny.  It's going to be a little painful to actually take it out the first time in the snow and scuff it up.  Looks pretty nice right now though. 

N played with the trains by himself just long enough for me to get the snowplow on, and then asked if he could invite the neighbor boy over to play.  It didn't take long though before only having one of that kind of train became a problem.  So, we had to go back inside to set up the trains that he has multiples of.  Unfortunately, we spent most of the time N's friend was over trying to remember how to set up the train set.  We made it up to him the next day by inviting him back over once it was all set up.  The boys (and Dad) had a good time setting it up and playing together. 

Season Changeover

The last couple weeks we have had a lot of fun enjoying the typical activities that come with fall.  A trip to the orchard, a U of I football game with the family, a couple weenie roasts, and in general just enjoying the beautiful fall weather we’ve been having.  Indian summer has thus far held out, but I think we all know it can’t hang on indefinitely.  Like it or not, winter is just around the corner. 

With that inevitable onset of colder weather, one of the main projects for last weekend was starting to put away the summer toys and equipment, and get out the winter stuff.  I performed what I am assuming will be the last mowing of the year.  Following that, I cleaned the push mower and Johnny’s mowing deck, and then winterized the mower, and the rototiller.  Of course, putting the mower away for the season also means it’s time to get the snowblower out.  I’m anxious to try out the snowplow on Johnny, but not ready to get rid of that snowblower just yet.  I also started putting away some of the big toys for the winter.  Since it was such a nice weekend, I didn’t want to put all the toys away.  I also didn’t quite get all the winter preparation completed, because I was taking advantage of the nice weather some myself.

Every time I walked past Junior, his cracked hood stared back at me just begging to be fixed.  With the good weather forecasted for the weekend, I figured it would be a good time to make that repair.  It appears at some point someone ran Junior into something.  There was a couple inch long crack in the hood, and immediately below it, a small dent in the grill.  The hood also had cracks in the corners, which Johnny also had, and is pretty common for that hood design. 

  

The first step was reinforcing the fiberglass, followed by filling in the cracks with bondo.  This produced one of those “you know you’re an engineer if…” moments.  There probably aren’t a lot of people that the smell of fiberglass resin and bondo triggers college flashbacks, but if you every worked on a Formula SAE team, you know what I’m talking about.  The bondo also proved to be a fun activity with N.  He saw me mixing up a batch, and was curious what I was up to.  I told him it was like playdough for daddies.  He thought that was cool, and helped me fill in a few little divots I missed with the first coat. 

Fortunately, the weekend weather proved ideal for painting.  I had the perfect temperature and wind conditions for painting the hood and grill outside.  Also, since we’ve had a few frosts, I didn’t have to worry so much about bugs flying into the wet paint.  I was extremely pleased with the results.  The only problem is it might look too good, and get me thinking more about painting the rest of the tractor. 

Painting the rest of Junior will have to take a back seat for at least a little while though.  Ebay season officially started last week as well.  I need to get busy in Santa’s workshop to take advantage of the holiday buying season, and replenish the toy/tractor fund.