My rant for the day

[greybeard]

The rant follows the description of mundane time wasting..

Nothing of importance happened here today except I was able to lower the spare tire down on my F150 with a home made tool. Actually just a 36" piece of 1/2" thinwall square tubing. Truck came without a jack package which I don't mind terribly as I always throw away the oem jack and use a hydraulic jack and breaker bar and a good 6pt socket for a lug wrench but I do need some way to lower that spare down from under the truck. Not sure if 1/2" is the correct ID for that since most stuff now is metric but there isn't a lot of difference between 1/2" and 13mm.
I can see the square thingie way up thru there that the tire letter down thing is supposed to engage but I have no idea what it's actual size is.
I really need to find someone that has the right tool so I can get a good measurement.


oh, I also vacumed the swimming pool (lots of drowned pill bugs)and pulled a big trash bag of grass burr plants. Waited too late to spray and now they already have green burs on them. If I spray now, the plant will die but the burs (seed) will dry up and fall off and make more plants. It's what I get for being lazy. Worst part was I bought the herbicide that I know works on them but never even opened it.

BUT!

7 or 8 days ago, (last Monday to be exact and at 6pm) marked the first Monday in 2024 that Ray our ice cream man came by. It was pretty warm then but a cold front came in over the weekend and tho I stood out there on the curb yesterday, at the appointed time, several $ bills, clutched in my hand like a schoolboy, US greenbacks/cash on the barrelhead, US currency backed by the full weight and fealty of this debtor nation) in anticipation of a couple of ice cream delights... he didn't show up ....

Me and Ray gonna have to have a talk...

I have to put up with lot of feces living here but tardiness and breach of understood contract ain't among them..

 

[Ouachita]

Must be a Texas thing. When I was a small boy we lived in Irving. I remember the ice cream truck playing that carnival music. Haven't seen one since.

I have an employee with a newish Ford truck. I'll measure the spare crank tool today.

 

[greybeard]

thank you!

 

[Lannie]

When I stood out at the curb waiting for the ice cream truck, I was clutching dimes. It was a long time ago... We always had plenty of notice he was coming, because we could hear the "music" coming from well down the block, so we all ran to Dad and begged him for a dime so we could get an ice cream bar. I LOVED those impromptu ice cream bars.

 

[greybeard]

Lannie.. My neighbor across the street is a retired US Army Lt Col and a nice guy. We joke around with each other quite a bit. One day last summer, I found a you tube of the same ice cream truck music our guy plays and opened the window behind my laptop and put the speakers on high and let it rip. Sure enough, out comes Col Chuck looking down the street for the ice cream truck...

We had a good laugh over it but I forgot my other neighbor takes care of his 3 little grandchildren during the summer. They weren't as understanding as the good Col was...

 

[Hereford2]

I used to love the ice cream truck! When it came around, that was 25+ years ago.

 

[CowboyRam]

Ice cream truck, that was only something you seen in the movies when I was growing up. Northwest Colorado had no such thing, well until maybe after I became an adult I might have heard one.

 

[4hfarms]

Had one in our small south chicago neighborhood. LoL! When I was growing up. Cant remember seeing one during the highschool years, then again, I cant really remember high school.....

 

[farmerjan]

We were too far out in the "country" but at my grandmother's house, there would be one occasionally. We used to go there to swim as she had an inground concrete pool... and would be able to go out and get ice cream from the truck... That's been 50+ years ago...

 

[Travlr]

When I was a kid in Tennessee, early sixties and outside of Nashville on Old Hickory Lake, there was a reliable ice cream truck. It always puzzled me that the kids would come out and buy their ice cream... and then the adults would walk back with a quart jar of "water".
I was well into adulthood before I realized what the ice cream man was selling to the parents.

 

[GoWyo]

Deleted. Forgot how bad the language was in the video.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

So they really do(did) exist ? I have never actually seen one, except on TV.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

We have a soft serve ice cream shop in town that's open during the summer months. Good summer treat to get a cone and walk down to the beach.

 

[Ouachita]

thank you!

Well, went out to his truck at lunch. He doesn't have the OEM jack stuff either, and carries the spare in the bed. Sorry.
You might stick some putty or play doe on the end of that tubing and poke in there to make an imprint on that square drive. Just enough to measure. Maybe

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Play dough, what a good idea. My rant is I'm putting in a 48 plant vineyard. I grew these table grape vines from cuttings last year. So I sprayed Roundup on grass and weeds 6 days ago and it still looks like nothing ever happened. Not even slightly wilted.

 

[greybeard]

What kind of grass?
there's lots better stuff than roundup.
Hit the weeds hard with 2,4d and quinclorac.
I can't tell you to use above coverage or mix rate specified on the container but putting excess 2,d with dicamba on bermuda will kill it. The quinclorac kills dallis and crabgrass.
Pick a sunny day with the temp above 50 degreesF.

 

[greybeard]

Well, went out to his truck at lunch. He doesn't have the OEM jack stuff either, and carries the spare in the bed. Sorry.
You might stick some putty or play doe on the end of that tubing and poke in there to make an imprint on that square drive. Just enough to measure. Maybe

No problem. Thanks for the attempt!

 

[Travlr]

No problem. Thanks for the attempt!

Pretty sure all the square drives are the same size regardless of manufacturer. They're all built by subcontractors and sold to the various car companies, just like a lot of assemblies are. They are all sloppy fits, and I'd bet it's metric on everything. Mine measures 7/16ish with a fractional tape measure. Probably 12mm...

 

[Twisted]

On some Ford pick-ups they put that shaft under the hood, I think single cabs maybe. On extended cabs it's sometimes under the back passenger seat and on double cabs and some single cabs it's behind the back seat. I had one and my brother had one of the same year model. Mine was behind the seat, his was under the hood.

 

[sstterry]

Pretty sure all the square drives are the same size regardless of manufacturer. They're all built by subcontractors and sold to the various car companies, just like a lot of assemblies are. They are all sloppy fits, and I'd bet it's metric on everything. Mine measures 7/16ish with a fractional tape measure. Probably 12mm...

I think Travlr is right it is either 12mm or 3/8" depending on how it fits, ie. either slotted or square.

https://www.amazon.com/Steelman-Ret...d-Vehicles/dp/B00FABVHWY?tag=cattletoday00-20

Btw, I am not sure about all of you city kids. We had no ice cream truck. We had to crank our own (which was a real treat and normally reserved for company) or ride our bikes to the nearest market to buy a bar.