I'm exhausted and sore

Yesterday the boys and I helped my friend Ken with changing his Throttle Positioning Sensor on his and his wife's truck.  We also pulled the starter off my Ex-wife's Suburban because it won't start.

I spent over an hour out in the sun yesterday and because of my medications, I'm NOT supposed to be out in the sun and the heat.

But we still got the TPS taken care of, but when we went to put the new starter in my Ex's burb we found the following.

Can you see it?  Several teeth are missing out of the flywheel and several more are chewed up.  That needs to be replaced.  There are workarounds, but with all the trouble she has been having with this 'burb and the amount of money she has already sunk in it, it's reached it's point of diminishing returns.  So I need to help her find a new vehicle now.

My wallet is already cringing.  I just hope I don't have to sign anything.

Now today, however I had to go BACK out in the heat because my mom has or rather now I should say HAD a pile of brush about 5 feet tall and about 10-14 feet around.  The boys and I got over to mom's house about 0900 and before we burned the pile of brush we had to make some proper safety preparations.

First we took 5 gallon buckets of water and wet down everything around the pile.  We dumped 5-6 buckets to be SURE the ground beyond planned burn would be too wet so the fire couldn't spread.

Next, I had about a half gallon of old nasty 2-cycle mix gasoline which I poured on the pile in a circle starting in the center of the pile.

Then I called the Sheriff's Office and let them know what we were doing. I had called them before we had even left the house to check the wind and be sure a burn ban hadn't been put in place.  But I got a ok from them and once we were ready I called them again to let them know we were getting ready to light it.  They said Ok, Mark.  The Sheriff's Office actually know me because I always call them to warn them of stuff they might need to know before I start to do it.  They really appreciate that.

To light the pile, I pulled out one of my old expired Marine Signal Flares, ignited it, and tossed it into the center of the pile where I had sort of made a hole especially to throw it into.  In seconds we had a nice roaring fire.

From 0915 to 1035 the fire burned down and the boys and I stirred it up to be sure we got everything so we wouldn't have issues with embers.  I'll post a few of the pics we took below.

When we got down to the dregs of the fire we dumped buckets and buckets of water, stirred the remains and dumped even more buckets of water, then used the hose to be sure we had nothing but wet ashes, no embers, nothing which could flare back up.  We spread all the wet ashes out and around so there wouldn't be any chance of a hot spot and doused it again with more water.

At 1100 we were all done, cleaned up and back in my 'Burb on the way back to our house.

Just in time, because by noon, the temps started heading up

It got to 96 degrees today with a Heat Index of 110.  Even in my house the heat and humidity was unbearable.  And I spent too much time out in it in the morning.  My arms and legs are blistered from the sun, and I had a heat migraine.

So once we got back to the house I re-hydrated and laid down.

How was your day?