my new truck

Just over two weeks ago I posted about my new truck. Well, shortly after I had purchased it I noticed a slight clunking noise when I was coasting. It was most noticeable when I was in 4th or 5th gear, coasting, with the clutch out. If I pushed in the clutch, or accelerated it seemed to silence. I decided to bring it in to the dealership, and see what they had to say about it, and I found out that the rear end was all screwed up. It had a lot more play than it should, so they are replacing the gears, barrings, seals, and whatever else is in there. I lost my truck for the last two days, and still don't have it back, because it is taken apart and they had to order parts, but I am not terribly upset... I like warranty. But this does reinforce my previous experience with American vehicles.

fighting and fishing

The finale of The Ultimate Fighter was this weekend. It was pretty fun to watch. I could not believe the Maynard vs Emerson fight. That is so messed up. I like how Maynard insisted he was completely with it. "I was tired!" I do like his fighting style. I think he will be around for a while. I was very happy to see Penn destroy Pulver. I would have expected no less though. Penn did a great plug for his website, which promptly crashed, and is still having issues a day and a half later. I bet he is happy about that. It was the one of, if not the only advertisements on his shorts, and it was all he said in the post fight interview.
I went fishing with Matt Sunday evening. It was a good time. Matt proved to me that Crappie Nibbles are the secret. I am going to have to invest in some of those. Matt and I had a contest to see who could lose more jigs. I think Matt won, but only because I had one jig that refused to stay snagged. I would snag it, and try to break my line so I could put a new one on, and BAM! the jig would fly out of the water and smash against the side of the boat. After bending the hook back to a hook shape I would repeat the same set of events.

boating with Matt

Yesterday after work I went out on the river for a bit with Matt in his boat. He recently got a boat that he can put in the bed of his truck. Just the other day he got a motor for it and we took it out to test it. Good thing it worked. The trolling motor would not take us up stream. :) It worked really well, and we had a good time. It was a perfect day to be out on the water. This really got me in the mood for fishing. I am going to have to bring my supplies back from Dubuque this weekend.
We are bringing our bikes back to Dubuque for the weekend. It should be a good time!

Golfing

Brandon and I headed to Gateway Park in Waterloo for some golfing yesterday after work. We played best shot, because I had not golfed in a year, and before that it had probably been at least another year. It was a really good time. It was the first time either of us had played that course. It was a very well maintained and nice course, however it was not real well marked as to where you should go. We found our way :) I think I need to spend some time on the driving range, and maybe even the mini golf course.

Brush removal

We still had the piles of brush from the trees we whacked in our back yard until yesterday afternoon. I took the afternoon off to take it all to the transfer station. 8 truck loads of brush taken down. I got a pretty good method put together to speed it up, but it still took all afternoon. My arms are scraped up and look like I was shooting up from all the pine needle stabs. But my truck has officially been put to work.
On about my 6th trip I backed in, turned off the truck and was almost done unloading when some old man that was waiting in line behind me came walking up to me, I was wondering if he thought he was going to speed things up by helping or what, but then he pretty much yells "You must get your gas cheap to leave that thing running when you unload it" I respond "It isn't running" He responds "I said you must get your gas pretty cheap to leave that thing running." I respond loudly so he can hear me "IT RUNS ON WATER." He looks at me confused for a minute and then responds "I'll be damned" and walks back to his truck. I will let someone else explain it to him.
Last night Krystal and I went to the Dome parking lot and she got some good experience driving the truck. She was really not looking forward to learning to drive a stick, but she did REALLY well, and I was most impressed.

New Wheels

Saturday morning Krystal and I bought a truck. I would like to thank Scott for getting me a great deal, I would not be driving a truck this nice if it were not for his heavy leaning on some people. :) It is a 2005 Ford Ranger Edge. I have been enjoying driving it, I really like driving a stick. This is the first vehicle Krystal and I have purchased together. I have been test driving everything and anything for a few years now, and debating if I wanted to get a car, then truck, then SUV, then back to a truck. Last week I went to test drive a truck that a lady was selling. She had listed it as a 4x4, and told me it was a 4 door, and that it was in perfect condition. When we got there to take a look, none of those were true. I was telling my friends about this, and Scott said that they could hook me up with a repossessed truck for a good deal. The original owner lost his license, and turned his truck in because he did not want to pay for something he could not drive. Well, now I get to drive it. Check out my (now functional) gallery for some pictures.

Stump Removal

Yesterday Evening I got a new chain for my saw and cut down the stump that was left in our yard. The tree is now fully down. I also picked up some stump rot stuff that is supposed to accelerate the natural rotting process of the stump. You are supposed to drill in to the stump, then put this stuff in and add water. I guess it is basically high nitrogen fertilizer, so next time I wont spend $5 for a pound of it. Anyway, I drilled about 80 1" holes in the face of the stump and added the stuff, hopefully it will go quickly. I put a Coke can in the picture to help give an idea of the size of this guy. I have not done anything with the crab apple stump, but it is not in the middle of the yard, so it did not make the high priority list, well that and the drill was pumping heat like a fire by the time I got the holes in the first stump. Each of the holes is about 8 inches deep and 1 inch diameter, in case you care.

Gallery update

Two updates in one day, now you know your luck has changed! (for the better or worse, you decide.) Since my new phone can take decent pictures now, I decided it was time to add a gallery to my blog. I used flickr because it is easy. Feel free to browse the few pictures I had sitting around, but keep an eye out for what will hopefully be regular updates.

Pete, riding, and weekend

It is official, Pete did not start his new job in Des Moines today, but rather returned to his old job, where he will continue to return. I am very happy that Pete and Therese will be kicking it in the Cedarloo area. We are still trying to figure out how we can take back the going away party.
I did not get a lot of miles in this weekend on the bike, but I did put on some new Crank Brothers clipless pedals and got some shoes for them. I could not believe the difference they can make when I tried Krystal's dad's. I rode my bike around the neighborhood and to pick up a movie, and I dig the pedals, and unlike many people new to clipless, I did not eat pavement. I rule. haha
We went back to Dubuque this weekend, and it was Awesome to get to see everyone. I had a good time. Last night was the second to last episode of Sopranos, and things are really happening finally. I can't wait for the final episode, although I will be bummed by the fact it will be over. :(
I still have a stump in my yard because all three of my chainsaw blades are so dull that all they do is heat the wood. Hopefully this won't be like all my other projects where I get them almost done and then lose motivation. Our yard looks so much more open, I really like it. I am not so sure I want to replace the tree any more. We will see I suppose.