Guy Day

The following is a re-enactment of a conversation between my wife and I last week:

Brittany: "Ryan, do you care if I go shopping down in Arkansas next Monday with my friend?"

Ryan: [House to myself, no competition for the TV...] "Yes, please go."

So at 9:30 this morning, Starbucks travel mug in hand (really strong breakfast blend weakened by creamer & sweet & low), off she went. "Have fun" I called as she shut the door.

So what did I do? What else, went to Lowe's. She didn't much more than clear the neighborhood before I was on my way. I only bought one thing (and it was a pre-agreed purchase out of Christmas money) - a digital, programmable thermostat for our house. Insert Tim Allen signature grunt.

One phone call to the good people at Hunter Fan Co. and a few wires later and that bad-boy was up and running. They say you can save up to 33% on your energy bills with this thing, but after I got it home I realized how you do that. You just set it at a temperature no wife will allow during the day and then lower than that at night. I'm sure we won't save 33%, but wouldn't be shocked to save 20-25%, but we'll see.

Thermostat installed and lunch eaten it was time to head to the garage. A couple of projects were on tap: Oil change and tire rotation for the Firehawk and one other project we'll get to in a minute.

Oil change was good. When you only drive a few hundred miles per year in a car, the oil comes out about as clean as it went in. I'm pretty sure you could cook with the Mobil 1, 5w-30 that came out of the TA, but I'm not going to try it. This is a yearly Christmas / New Years ritual. Helps me remember to do it once a year. Even with pump gas prices down, Mobil 1 is going for north of $6/quart at Wal-Mart. I'm glad I don't have to do that very often.

The tire rotation included a pleasant surprise - there's more tread left on the OE Firehawk radials than I thought. And they're wearing evenly. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get at least one more rotation (which may come in 2 years if I only drive 500 miles in 2009). By my math that may mean I can get up to 4 more years on these (which would be awesome) - knock on wood.

The downside on the tire rotation was that I'd gotten a few of the lugs on entirely too tight the last time. To save a lengthy explanation I was doing this with a 1/2" ratchet and a 4" extension. I eventually gave up on one of them and got the 4-way out to break it loose. I think I must have put those on before I figured out how to use my torque wrench correctly - or else 2 years had just frozen them on there like no other. Aside from that issue the exchange went smoothly and I can assure you they are on there at 100 ft-lb. now, which should avoid any hernia or over-exertion injuries the next time.

Now, that one other project. And you young guys who are newly married or aren't yet married you need to pay attention to this. Here's how you sell a day like I had to your wife: you wash her car while she's gone. Britt's friend drove, so her car was here all day. By the time she got home it was clean.

If you're going for double bonus points you can do one other thing - make dinner. I had one of my favorite meals in the oven when she came in this evening so she didn't have to cook after a long, hard day of shopping (FYI she was spending money she got for graduation).

The obvious question would be why go to the trouble of making dinner if you've already washed her car? Well, I can think of three possible reasons:
1. You broke something while she was gone (not the case this time for me)
2. You want something (yes, but not my focus in this case)
3. You want to watch football on a week night...tonight and tomorrow (we have a winner)

Back to reality tomorrow. At least OSU plays tomorrow evening.