Cup of Coffee

February 23, 2014: That Time of Year

17 Comments

It's easy to get excited about the impending baseball season when you meet as many stars as I have in the last week. Those young rich dudes and their electronics, I tells ya.

17 thoughts on “February 23, 2014: That Time of Year”

  2. Someone in Sochi has a sense of humor. They played the instrumental track from this song (from my favorite Russian band) as the American athletes paraded through the closing ceremony:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WSgI5DwL4U

    Don’t fool around, America!
    Here are some fur boots, you must be freezing
    Siberia & Alaska, the two are the same
    Steam bath, vodka, accordion & salmon.

    Don’t fool around, America!
    We won’t bite, we’re telling you
    Give us our dear land Alaska
    Give us our darling back!

  3. Mauer takes live BP for the first time in six months.

    Before he stepped into the box against Vance Worley and Logan Darnell on Saturday, Joe Mauer hadn’t faced professional pitching in just over six months.

    Well, I guess those two guys are technically "professional" pitchers...

    I didn't realize that Joe had taken that much time off from the game. Hopefully he's healthy, definitely should be pretty well rested.

    1. I suppose the upside of the rotation is that Joe gets to get back in the groove by hitting off Twins pitching.

      1. Building up his confidence!
        "Never been so easy to hit pitches! It seems like they're slower and flatter than ever!"

  5. So, just to show that we have viciously cold winters here in norcal too, It Was So Cold That the vacuum breaker on my hose bibb broke and I had to replace it (Because Spring; I've already had to mow my lawn twice).

    Code sez that when they install these things, they break the head off the set screw (a bolt, actually). Don't ask me why; it just makes it near-impossible to remove the damned things. Particularly after ~17 years. OF COURSE the screw was frozen with rust.

    Being a Modern Man, I went online to find a solution to removal. Teh yootoobs told me to use a hacksaw to cut a channel into the screw, then I should be able to use a screwdriver to back it out. Not. Frozen solid, and the screwdriver just ripped up the metal.

    The next Big Idea on the toobs was to use my rotary cutting tool to saw through the collar of the vacuum breaker on either side of the set screw, then use my channel locks or similar pliers to break that piece off, thus allowing me to unscrew the rest of the doodad. 'cept I don't have a rotary cutting tool. I really didn't want to spend $40-$100 on a tool to remove a $10 part once every 17 years.

    The third idea was to get an "Easy Out" bit for my drill. One end drills a hole in the (exact! it must be exact!) center of the screw; the other end then backs the thing out.

    "Easy Out" it is. 'cept it ain't anything but easy. Oy.

    I drill, then drill, then drill some more. Of course, I'm not on center, slide off and am drilling partly on the metal of the vacuum breaker itself. I re-drill and re-drill and re-drill. Eff it all. Apply the locking pliers and work the thing loose. I've managed to drill INTO the threads on the hose bibb. Awesome.

    Whatever. Screw the new one on, tighten the set screw. Raise my middle finger to code enforcement and don't break the head off the set screw. Reattach hose. Done. It only took about an hour and a half (including trips to both Home Despot -- which was out of "Easy Out" tools, and their competitor, OSH) to do a 10-minute job. Yea, me.

    This is why I pay people to do things.

    3. I had real good success with an easy out for the corroded-off screw from a bathtub overfill drain cover.
      Maybe it depends on the metal.

Comments are closed.