Simple Pleasures

relaxing on the deck naked with a nice lady on eithe side

Simple pleasure...

After having breakfast out on my deck, I have my laptop out on my deck enjoying the fruits of labor to put myself in the position to work remotely or work from home.

Careful! Those Hamletons can become a "gateway" to several models. <chuckling>

For context, the head of the speed adjustment screw has a diameter of about .049 inches. The threaded part is maybe half that. The smallest electronic screwdriver I have, or seen, is about 50% larger than the screw. Access to the screw is also blocked by a bridge, so straight access isn't available. This problem scratches my mechanical "fix-it" gene. But it's so delicate that I really should send it back.

That Hamilton pocket watch looks cool! Might have to check into those.

Reminds me of the one photo we have of my Great Great Grandfather, who worked for the railroad down in Durango, Mexico, before the Revolution. The photo has him in his best clothes (shirtsleeves and what looks like a cross between a fedora and a sombrero). But he's also holding what my Great Grandmother described as his most prized possession: his pocketwatch, a necessary tool for a railway man.

For tiny screws and such, I have pretty much the full Wiha line. Straight slot and phillips, standard and metric nut drivers and hex (allen), Torx heads.

But my everyday go-to set is a cheap Craftsman ratcheting driver with the small hex drive and most of the small bits from Lowes. Even though it's the newer Chinesium Craftsman tools after they turned to shit, this particular set is surprisingly good.

What can I say? I'm a typical blue-collar guy, I love good tools.

Jeweler's/precision screwdrivers can be found online. Oddball size screwdrivers and possibly jeweler's/precision screwdrivers can be found at Harbor Freight. Some electrical wholesale retailers may have them as well. Since I grew up in a family that worked in electronic equipment building and repair, I inherited those weird electronic building and repair tools.

Weird electronic equipment building and repair tools, plus purpose built tools out of the scrap laying around the house or shop, come in handy a few times a year. Back in the Fall of 2025, I used a purpose built pin placement tool that one of my parents build eons ago, to help clean out the jet of one of my stove's pilot lights. The tool did the job to clear debris, but the debris got lodged in the idler screw and I was forced to turn the gas off to the house so I could remove the pilot light itself and clean it properly... One little fleck of debris about the size of two grains of salt, fouled the pilot light and caused it to stop working.

I am sure that Sirillo can attest to purpose built tools made from junk lying around the house or shop, that make electro-mechanical repairs easier, cheaper and/or not necessary to replace a whole unit like money hungry companies and/or technicians say to do. If one is savvy with electronics or even better, with the study of electro-mechanical, it can save you a boatload of money over the years.

Reading my previous, previous post, I see that my phone was heping again. No "matchmakers" were involved. Only "watchmakers".

The A11 wrist watch is fairly easy to find on ebay. But most require significant repairs/replacement of the dial and crystal. These watches are too small for me to easily see. I'm focusing on pocket watches and mantle clocks to start with.

Interesting that a kink/LS site discusses recipes, gardening, hunting, and now time pieces. <chuckling>

This specific watch is a Hamilton 5992b produced in the 40s for the Army Air Corps.

I've played with taking a wrist watch apart and then reassembling it. Very simple stuff thus far. Adjusting the speed of this watch is very simple. But I don't have the tool needed to access the tiny adjustment screw.

Pook, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of vintage watch are we talking? One of my newest hobbies has been watches and studying up on horology. I have parts and tools to start doing a couple of watches myself, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

Plus, I like wearing a decent watch, my daily wear is a Boldr Field Medic Titanium. I still haven't gotten the bug enough to spend the serious bucks, my most expensive watches are an Erebus diver's watch and a Seiko Presage, both under $500. The true watch collectors wouldn't blink at spending $4-5K and up. As much as I love fine machinery, I can't see me spending that kind of cash.

The ones I'm really hoping to find at a decent price are a WWII era A-11 military issue (Hamilton or Eglin), and a Bruce Lee Seiko chronograph. I'd REALLY like to find an original Vietnam era "Raider Rolex" Seiko, which was used by MACV-SOG, but due to the environment, those are as rare as hen's teeth, simply because wearing it in the hot, humid jungle would destroy them.

And although I'd love to get into collecting some of the Bond movie watches, we're talking about Rolexes and Omegas, easily 5 figure price tags or better. When I win the lottery, I'll treat myself...

The very clever username "justpookingaround" puts a smile on our faces. In fact, clever usernames in general do.

Had somewhat of the same simple help. Only this time it was helping me. A matchmaker on the east coast had serviced a vintage watch for me. The hands were not aligned properly. He coached me on adjusting the hands. I had fun playing matchmaker, he helped a loyal client.

Work SP: Had one of my Canadian customers contact me with a really weird problem with some of his equipment that I service. He was really sweating the problem, thinking that it was going to be a matter of replacing the whole apparatus at around $5k for equipment alone. Turns out that I've seen the exact problem multiple times in the past and it's a simple matter of upgrading the firmware, which is available on the manufacturer's website (although they hide the page, since they've discontinued virtually everything in that market sphere). Sent him the link and he followed the instructions for the upgrade and everything runs perfectly now, with nothing he had to invest other than about an hour of his time.

There's a certain amount of satisfaction in helping one of your customers solve a problem that seems intractable to his eyes.

Simple pleasure...

I just turned my central air conditioner on for the first time this year. It was glorious to not have the recurring yearly issue of starting up the central air conditioner for the first time. After my central air conditioner broke down last summer and it got an overhaul to fix everything, it is a beautiful thing to not have the yearly start up issue anymore! It is nice to have a proper running central air conditioner that is not loud when it runs and properly cools & dehumidifies the air in the house.

Not bad for a central air conditioner that is over 40 years old, has never had a refrigerant recharge and was never beat on!

Found a phone number in a CD case insert, from what was given to me as an exchange for my Tool CD. I hit Altanta 2001 for Tool's opener for their world tour. Of all things it was a Del McCoury Band CD. Two totally opposite genres. Ha! Wonder if it was hers or a friends. Way too late now to find out. But there you go. A very small thing to bring a very big memory.

[quote=MelvinBoinkster]Simple pleasure...

Reading this article and knowing that it will be 'the benchmark' that social media companies are going to be bound by very soon... This is the same reason why I dumped social media, too. Social media is geared towards manipulation, to show you what they [the social media company] wants you to see. When you as the user explicitly set things to only show certain things in your news feed and you receive anything but what you want to see, that is a problem. That is why Meta just lost this case and why other social media parent companies may lose similar cases!

ht tps://ww w.newser.co m/story/386040/jury-orders-meta-to-pay-375m-in-child-exploitation-case.html[/quote]Um, isn't it always been that way? I'm anti-social but very friendly, if you are willing to be around me. Just don't understand being social any more.

Simple pleasure...

Reading this article and knowing that it will be 'the benchmark' that social media companies are going to be bound by very soon... This is the same reason why I dumped social media, too. Social media is geared towards manipulation, to show you what they [the social media company] wants you to see. When you as the user explicitly set things to only show certain things in your news feed and you receive anything but what you want to see, that is a problem. That is why Meta just lost this case and why other social media parent companies may lose similar cases!

ht tps://ww w.newser.co m/story/386040/jury-orders-meta-to-pay-375m-in-child-exploitation-case.html

When every shitty co-worker is busy doing their own thing and everyone is civil, that is a simple pleasure. Why can't every day at work be like today?

When I was flying, it was called the $100 hamburger. Basically an excuse to fly somewhere for lunch. Today the plan is to take the bike on a 2.5 hour spin for lunch. Five hours of riding time with my sweet-pea. I should probably install those new air cushons....

Simple pleasure:

The smell of charcoal lighter fluid being burned lighting someone's grill, wafting in the air.

Simple pleasure...

My neighbor invited me to join his family and their extended family for the fire ring he has in his front yard. I sat with his family for about three hours, away from my phone, my computer and my TV. It was nice to unplug for a bit and listen to everybody speak in Spanish. Over the years, I have picked up on some of the things my neighbor and his family says... I can at least figure out rudimentary things said in Spanish.

Simple pleasures...

When you have fought with someone for so long and then they are out of your life forever, life gets better little by little over time. That simple pleasure becomes a great pleasure over time.

When you shared a home with a negative person (parent, spouse, child, sibling, etc.) and either they leave, die or you leave, your life gets incrementally better over time. With said negative person out of your life you start to notice simple things that are truly meaningful. Simple pleasures that are truly meaningful can be many things or just one thing, to those that have dealt with a negative person for long term.

Simple pleasures that I have experienced over time since my negative mother's passing:

Clothes that look, feel & smell clean when they come out of the washer and the washer basin itself looking & smelling clean after a load.

Kitchen sink smelling clean, even when completely full of dishes. Dishes and silverware 'smelling' clean as they are being washed.

Correct water temperature and water pressure in all sinks & washer, after making the necessary repairs.

Carpet is vacuumed averaging once a week.

It truly is amazing how many simple pleasures over time make you feel better about yourself, give you a better outlook on life and brings out your true self. It is truly amazing how negative-minded people ruin the lives of genuine people.

Two more days of it and then back to reality

That definitely doesn't suck

Sitting on the balcony at Temptation in Cancun and looking at the Ocean…..

My cats want to be on video camera internet calls, too.