Yankee Yards...

Yes – I know – I KNOW - I have not posted in a while.  Sorry.  

With the end of Tracy’s radiation regimen, and the subsequent reduction of the daily visits to Oncology down to once every three weeks to (for her Avastin trial infusion), we / I sort of got off the blog band-wagon for a bit.   

The summer has flown by all too quickly (they always do), with both Jeremy and Taylor heading back to school soon.  Jeremy is already in Boston, and he starts in 3(?) weeks, but Taylor needs to get out to Ithaca next week because he is moving into the campus student apartments rather than the dormitories.   So – we are making a mad dash out on Friday with him (two cars – due to the amount of “stuff”), with Tracy and I returning sans one kid and one car on Saturday.



Our house, normally.  Really.



Speaking of kidkars…  One of the things I have tried being good at was keeping their cars relatively well maintained – not necessarily cosmetically (they have to drive them, not us) – but definitely mechanically.   Over the last two weeks, the driveway (yes – we do have a garage – but that’s for storing “stuff” and not for cars apparently) has taken on the role of an outdoor Yankee Garage.  This includes:  Multiple old cars in the driveway, stacked horizontal tires, multiple jack stands, hydraulic floor jack, tilted cars, and at least yesterday (it was raining) an expandable awning over the front of one car.  Suffices to say – Ms. Tracy was not pleased.  Tolerant, but definitely not pleased.  Hopefully things will get back to normal this week – whatever normal “is”. Hey – at least I didn’t erect an iron pipe pyramid over the engine compartment with an engine dangling from a chain hoist.  I do pride myself on having some (minimal) level of restraint.



Our house - this past two weeks.



Final tally in order of quantity, not necessarily cost, complexity (removal, installation, or both), or amount and type of expletives generated):10 pair nitrile gloves, 8 brake rotors, 4 sets of brake pads, 3 rolls paper towels, 2 tailgate lift supports,  2 drive axles, 2 struts, 2 tires (see: struts - arrgh),2 quarts DOT3 brake fluid, 2 cans brake cleaner, 2 quarts ATF (type F),  1 gallon antifreeze, 1 wheel  bearing / hub assembly, 1 brake caliper, 1 bleeder screw, 1 power steering pump, 1 (new) power steering pump pulley puller, 1 tube anti-seize, 1 tube Permatex “Blue”, 1 (new) “external” Torx socket set, 1 new ½” Craftsman ratchet. 

Regarding the ratchet – and for the record – Sears really does honor their “lifetime warranty” on most Craftsman tools.  The clerk asked if I had used an 8-foot long breaker bar on my ratchet.  I said - simply - “It wasn’t an 8 foot long bar” and left it at that.  In actuality, it was a 6 feet long old thick-wall steel roof rack bar– and it too was seriously bent, but it was from Sweden, not Chicago, so as they say: "Vi ärar inte medvetet missbruk av verktyg."