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another bad bolt
Thursday, March 19 2026
This morning I went out to work on the Subaru and was able to remove the top 17mm bolt securing the calipers for the last set of brakes I needed to work on. But the bottom 17mm bolt was being a bitch, and it ultimate broke one of my 17 mm six-point sockets as I tried to break it free (by pounding on the handle of the socket wrench with my inherited shillelagh and other such brutal tools. This sent me driving to Uptown to get replacement sockets. I got a new 14 and 17mm sockets at Herzog's, but neither was rated for use on an impact wrench, so I went to the Advance Autoparts and bought an impact-rated 17mm socket and a breaker bar with an adjustable handle (that last one was a bit of an impulse purchase). But when I got home and tried using it, I ended up basically destroying the head of that last 17mm socket. It absolutely refused to turn. So I gave up on it, figuring I can pay to have someone do it professionally. Since that was the last major item on my Subaru Forester checklist, it felt good to be done with that phase of my life
Our neighbor A had to go to New Jersey again today for that Netflix television program she is acting in, and again she left her dog Henry in our care. She actually left him in her house and Gretchen later went over there to get him after I went there and decided he seemed happiest just staying there. While at our house, Henry seemed much less restless than he had been the other day, perhaps because he likes Gretchen a little more than he likes me (and Gretchen was home today). But he might also be acclimating to this arrangement. Of course, we had to latch our pet door whenever he was here so he couldn't just run back home, and that made things inconvenient for our dogs. And then at some point in the middle of the day I allowed him to lead me back to his house through the forest, which seemed like something I should encourage (since it wasn't via the road). So I left him there for awhile until I went to pick him up and bring him back home. Every time I was at A's house, I investigated some dripping from an old (but not cast iron) hydronic radiator in her upstairs bathroom that she had floated the idea of having me fix.
This afternoon and into this evening, I painted an octopus with a minimal investment of time, just as an exercise (and also to earn the right to drink alcohol according to my booze rules).
Henry was still with us as we ate dinner (leftover soup for me) and watched our television shows, and he seemed to stretch out and relax for the first time. Diane the Cat, who (unlike our other critters) is still something of a Henry skeptic, felt comfortable enough with him to lie in Gretchen's lap only a foot away. But earlier today I'd seen her take a swing at him when he ventured too close.
Today's octopus painting. Click to enlarge.
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