Since I posted last, there hasn't been a whole bunch going on. I'm hoping I won't have to summer in Florida again this year; there is no place I'd rather spend the summer than in the southern Appalachians, and this year I might get to do just that.

My wife bought herself a new (to us) 1996 Volvo 940 turbo. It has been a good car so far and has proven to be easy to work on. The Mrs. was still in Florida, and I drove up to the NC to buy the car. I was enjoying the good gas mileage and get up and go compared to my truck for about three days when I went to have it inspected. At thisparticular inspection station you pull up to a stop sign in the front and a service tech drives it around back to commence the inspection process. The guy drove the car around the back and I went inside to read magazines and cavort with the other patrons. About five minutes later the service tech that had driven my wife's car around back comes into the office and asked me if I had ever had trouble with this Volvo starting. I told him he was probably holding his mouth wrong which got a chuckle. Turns out the in-tank fuel pump had gone out. I had it towed to a spot where I could work on it and after six hours and a $277 Bosch fuel pump the Volvo started right up.

I drove the "new" Volvo down to Florida to pick up the Mrs., my daughter and the 1976 Winnebago.
We drove both vehicles up to North Carolina for some camping and R&R without a hitch (unless you count money spent on fuel; that was a pretty huge hitch) and all was well in the vehicle world for a couple of months. We drove the Volvo back down to Florida in time to spend Christmas with my in-laws and the car was sort of surging while cruising. Not during acceleration, just when at speed. Turns out it was the oxygen sensor and after replacing that and cleaning the mass air flow sensor (MAF sensor) she's been running like a champ. This car gets 31 mpg at 60 mph over long distances. Nice little car.

As far as carpentry work goes, I've had very little, but I've enjoyed the few small projects I've done. I built some floral display cabinets for a store that needed to show fake floral stems in an upright position instead of hanging them upside down on hooks. Here's what I came up with. I painted them gloss white and they look nice for what they are. They hold a heck of a lot of floral stem inventory, considering that the metal fence is 1"x1" square. The entire storage area is 24"x79". I was happy with the results. So was the store manager.

Alright, that's all I have for now... good to see ya!