I Can Finally Stop Dumpster Diving for Furniture

Earlier this week I finally found a kitchen table in the dumpster at a well-known furniture retailer. For weeks I had been gathering furniture one or two pieces at a time from that dumpster. I had seen many bookshelves, dressers, desks, picture frames, chairs, and bedframes, but no kitchen tables. Finally I found a nice solid birch kitchen table and brought it home. It's spotless. I had to buy two chairs for the table. They were more expensive than the table even at full retail price, but now I can finally stop looking in that dumpster for furniture obsessively!

Success!

From 8212011

I have also been exploring the area around Rice University. I have found two bakeries with good baked goods and a coin shop with a large inventory of bullion. I bought a coin much like my lucky coin, only sharper. It's a 1942 "Dawn of the New Day" half dollar. When I told the coin shop guy that I wanted to buy it he said "You're stealing that one! It's priced under melt value." Of course I knew that ;). It had been sitting on the shelf for years at the same price, and with the recent rise in price of silver it was priced slightly below the value of the silver content. Unfortunately the sales tax here (8.25%) eliminated that advantage...

Coins!

From 826-2011

I also picked up a British penny from 1916. It was interesting to me to see how the size of pennies have changed over the years. Next to the current American zinc penny, this one is huge. Even pennies have been changed to reflect the reduced value of money due to inflation...

I have also been working on my cars. The Falcon had been running hot due to the loss of the cooling fan shroud on the North Slope of Alaska earlier this summer. The fan shroud guides air through the radiator to keep the radiator cool. Without the fan shroud, air still moves around the radiator, but with far less efficiency. I couldn't put the fan shroud back on without bending the radiator supports a bit, and I had to remove the radiator to do that. It took six hours, but I now have the fan shroud back on and the Falcon is now running well within the temperature specifications even in the Texas heat.

I also had trouble with my air conditioner on my new car. At idle, the belt pulling the compressor would squeak and fail to turn the compressor effectively. I had to increase the tension on the belt. This was an easy fix, and now my A/C works very well at idle keeping me cool even in sunny 90+ degree heat.

Three friendly people stopped by to say hello as I was working on the cars, so now I have two new friends who live in the apartment buildings near me. Someday soon I will have a party, as soon as I am sure anyone would show up.