Worn Out Utilikilt

 I’ve been singing the Cat Stevens song “Oh Very Young” over and over lately. I’m hoping the You-Tubes of that song will embed…OD has been touch and go doing that …if the space stays that is the reason!

This is really meaningful as in the story about your favourite jeans: “and though you want them to last forever, You know they never will, (You know they never will) and patches make the good bye harder still.”

Transpose Utilikilt for jeans and that is my dilemma. My first Utilikilt has seen over four years of use and abuse. The heavy cloth is wearing through and rips are now appearing. I just tried to use the iron on tape repair with no success. I wear it now for only the most down and dirty work projects.

The lamp post was wired up yesterday and received the final coat of primer. The outlet box and cover I picked had openings for ¾” fittings. When I pieced things together for a dry run, all I had were ½ inch clamp fittings…DAMN!! Everything was opened so I could not return the stuff, and I was not in a mood to make the trip in heavy afternoon traffic for just a couple fittings. JB Weld to the rescue!! What is that stuff made of anyway? I’m at a loss to say how many jams it has gotten me out of.

A small piece of ½” conduit was JB Welded into the hole where the ¾” clamp would normally go. Then the ½” clamp was JB Welded into a connector fitting. When it was all set up, the connector slipped over the small piece of pipe and all turned out well! I was a happy boy when everything tested out O.K.

This morning I headed out quick to Homo Depot and got hunter green oil enamel paint and a new paint brush. I hate working with oil base paint, but it is the best for outside work on metal. I needed to get the post painted before the direct sun really bakes the paint. If you paint in direct sunlight the paint dries too quickly on the surface and it will “skim over”. This can cause wrinkles when the wet “bottom” paint cures. On pitted cast iron it should not make that much difference, but working on these projects I can hear my dad in the background saying, “If you can’t do a job right, don’t do it at all!”

Sunday was another road trip to Knoxville for more bricks. My little truck and I hit the I-59 interstate just around 5:00 a.m. Traffic was not bad and I was loading bricks at 10:45 eastern time. There were some 150 sidewalk bricks in the “square” design and I made arrangements to get some 25 Reynolds block. We had finished up loading up the bricks when Travis (the man selling these bricks) showed me a “short pile” of patterned brick. There would be just enough to change out an area on the patio currently in plain brick. I threw caution to the wind and again overloaded my poor little truck.

The three styles of bricks form Sunday.

It was a routine trip home. One of my few stops was for gas and coffee at Rising Fawn at exit 4 in Georgia<span style="font-family: 'B

ookman Old Style’;”>. I had picked up some cookies at Hell-Mart on the way. I again stopped at the AlabamaWelcomeCenter to use the facilities, wash, and splash cold water on my face. I enjoyed some coffee and cookies in the truck.

How do truck drivers drive how they do? I was so worn out by the time I pulled into the driveway at 3:15 after only 600 miles under my belt. I can’t imagine the stress of handling an 18 wheeler.

I just remembered another episode from the trip up. I was still in Alabama around FortPayne. It was a construction zone but nobody was working. I was in the right lane at about 70 mph. This car streaked by on my left passing me like I’m standing still. I noticed the vanity tag of “MRS XXX”.  A very short time later I noticed blue lights flashing behind me. This trooper was on a mission. About five minutes later down the road the blue lights were flashing on the shoulder with another car pulled over…. Yup it was “MRS XXX”! I love it when that happens!!

Time to get back to work with bricks wearing my old Utilikilt…