G's cousin just got a 1996 Corvette. Red. I finagled a ride in it on Christmas day. I was going to try to bring it home with me but I wasn't quite sure I could get G' to leave her vehicle out in the driveway so that I could park it in the garage. Did I mention it was red.

According to the spellchecker, I spelled finagled correctly.

Sometimes What Happens In The Garage Doesn't Stay In The Garage

I had an interesting thought not to long ago. I guess I met my quota for 2006.

Anybody got a metric socket set, or a combo metric & SAE set? Is it a 1/4", 3/8" or 1/2" drive set?

Are you with me now? Why is the square driver measured in inches if it is a metric tool set? Is this just an oddity of the USA? Nope. Go ahead and check out the tool section at Amazon.co.uk. See their metrics sockets are the same as ours.

Does this strike you as odd also?

What Happens In The Garage Stays In The Garage

I got a really cool t-shirt for Christmas. It gets funnier every time I read it.

I forgot to write about this but Terry took care of it for me. She failed to mention the multiple trips around the traffic circle though.

This One Will Blow You Away

I finally got around to replacing the fans in my old desktop this evening. One had stopped completely, the other was grinding like a old fan in a computer with bad bearings.

Two thousand seven is on it's way. (Does the possessive form of it have an apostrophe? I thought it did but recently I read something that said otherwise.)

Miata Mod, Well Sort Of

I installed the meter hood in the Miata today. It looks really nice.

After getting everything buttoned up, I drove up to the end of the street and back hoping to verify I had not introduced any new rattles. So far so good.

Who knew replacing a broken piece of plastic could add a few horse power? Or maybe it was something else that I did.

My Seester is visiting with us for the Holiday. She was supposed to wash and wax the Miata while I took a nap today. I haven't been out to check on it yet, but I am sure she did a first rate job.

Parts is Parts

Yesterday I blasted a few more truck parts. This time it was the the three pieces of the transmission cross-member, one spindle assembly, and most of the other. And also the high-flow grill off the Miata.

No painting was done. I need to finish up the other spindle first.

Gotta go, I think I hear hooves on the roof top.

A friend of mine is building an airplane. Check out Jack's build log here. I find this process facinating, but I would never want to do this myself. (Did you just here Ginger breath a sigh of relief.) While building a plane would be pretty cool, I do not want to learn to fly. Ever. For several reasons, and my desire not to hit the ground really hard is at the heart of several of these reasons.

I had a go with RC planes several years ago. Imagine balsa wood splinters strewn out on the ground for several square yards. Imagine this happening several times. Imagine me trading several planes and all my supplies for a nice expedition sized internal frame backpack. It was a good move if you ask me.

And my success with flight simulators on the computer is not a glorious tale either. As far as I can recall, I do not think I ever successfully landed a plane on a flight simulator.

No sense in repeating these successes in real life. Yeah, I know it is not the same. I suspect it hurts more when your in an actual plane.

I am pleased to announce that I am home for a longer than normal weekend. Very pleased indeed.

Meter Hood Update

Last Saturday I won an auction on E-bay for a Miata meter hood. It arrived today. The thing is in excellent shape. Actually it looks brand new. Assuming it doesn't slip my mind, I will install it tomorrow. No more dash rattle(s).

Grades for this semester were finally posted today.

I got an A in the Special Topics Mathematics class I was taking.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South   That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Midland
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The West
North Central
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Don't Move

So far I have gotten 12 out of 20. Give it a try you cinema buffs.

http://www.stationerymovies.com/

I put some oil in the Miata yesterday, so that is one less thing to think about. One less thing.

I made the usual Sunday afternoon drive. This time I took a different route. It was a bit longer and took me past Chad's house. I stopped in for a bit to visit, to play with their little guy, and to admire his work shop.

I had something else I wanted to mentioned but I have long since forgotten what it was.

Truck Progress

Today I tapped the hole on the brake spindle. When I removed the dust plate eons ago, I twisted the head off a bolt.

While I had the drill out, I also removed size rivets from the transmission cross member. Removing a rivet consists of grinding off its head then drilling it out. Now that the cross member is disassembled I can clean out all the gunk that was between the parts.

There is more sand blasting in my near future.

Still working on acquiring a replacement meter hood for the miata.

"Don't judge a lid by it's straw hole" - Jordan

I read today that the US mint spends 1.73 cents for each penny it makes. It spends 8.74 cents for each nickel it makes. Pennies made before 1982 were 95% copper and have a commidity metal value of 2.13 cents.

Today there are only three presents under the tree. Hmm.

The official part name is: Mazda Miata Meter Hood and the part number is NA75-55-420B-00.

I found another '95 Miata gauge cover on E-bay, so the bidding has begun. It is being offered by the same guy that sold the last one. Must be a parts dealer. This auction doesn't end until Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to announce then that I have a replacement part on the way. Good luck to me.

I had a pretty rough day at work. When I got home I opened a bottle of wine and had a glass full. Not a half full glass, but a glass full. All is better except now I am tired. I am not ready to retire for the night yet, because once I do, it will almost instantly be time to go back to work.

Still hoping for nice weather this weekend. Weather permitting I will get started on the truck spindles.

Today I learned a few things from Brianna.

Dinosaurs are extinct.
They died and went to another planet.
They now live on Mars.
They left their bones behind.
Not all of that is true.


There are currently five presents under the Christmas three.

The ten day forecast shows highs in the low to mid sixties for the next 8 days.

I took the Charger in this morning to have the tire repaired. The puncture was caused by a what appeared to once have been a drywall screw.

Is it Friday yet?

Time to go check E-Bay for a Miata part.

Tonight there is one more lighted palm tree in the yard.

Today I cleaned out air filter on the Miata. It is a K&N filter so it is cleaned instead of simply being replaced. The thing is a pain to get out.

I also topped off the oil and added some air to all for tires. I bought a very useful air gauge at HF last week (On Sale) for $6. It seems fairly accurate and you can measure the tire pressure while adding air without disccnnect the hose. Odometer: just over 100,500 miles.

I tried to pick up a replacement gauge cover for the Miata on E-bay today, but I was out bid at the last second. That is ok though, I will find another one sooner or later.

The Charger has a another nail in a tire. I took the car to the Firestone shop this afternoon to have it mended. Their estimate was over two hours before they would get to it. I decided to wait and take it back first thing tomorrow morning.

Today we went to Grandma's for an early Christmas gathering. Also in attendance was my Bro, his wife, their two boys, and my seeee'ster.

The nephews are growing like weeded that have been getting plenty of water, sunlight, and nutrients. Aaron has probably grown by about 17 feet since this summer and his voice has dropped by a full 3 octaves. Austin taught me to play Texas Hold-em. Fortunately for me, real money was not invoved, because he would now own my house and car.

G' was busy Thursday and Friday. She now has all the holiday decorations up in the house. And most of the outside decor as well. We (I) still have one lighted palm tree to set out. :)

801

I submit this post as a fill-in for ADHDaddy next time he needs to take the day off.

Last night we had dinner at 801 Franklin. We did not have reservations so we were seated at a table in the bar. This turned out to be mostly ok. Or maybe not.

I do not recall exactly what the appetizer was called that we ordered, but it turned out to be essentially tender loin, sliced paper thin, served with cheese toast, and shredded celery. How did we end up selecting this? I guess I was feeling adventurous. No regrets here, but I would probably select almost every thing else on the menu before returning to this option.

For dinner I narrowed my choice down to either the salmon, the trout, or the swordfish. The waiter recommended the swordfish, so for dinner I had the grilled swordfish. This turned out to be an excellent recommendation. G' had a seafood pasta including calamari, shrimp, and scallops. Her first comment was "these are the best scallops I have ever had". Later she also praised both the shrimp and calamari. I am just guessing here, but I think she enjoyed her dinner.

Now for a little bit of oddness. About halfway through dinner we switched tables. The loud obnoxious tipsy guys at the table next to us had left and got replaced by a woman who thought she was a chimney.

Huntsville has a no smoking law but it did not apply here. Apparently per out waiter, the restaurant does not serve anyone under 19 so smoking is allowed in the bar. At this point I am feeling rather passively irate about that detail.

While I did enjoy the food, I am feeling less than satisfied with the experience has a whole.

As we left, I noticed the entire dinning room was empty. This struck me as odd. Why? The reason they seated us in the bar was because they were pretty well booked up for the evening.

At least the food was good.

It is suppose to be 17 degrees in the morning, as if the sub-30 we have now is not enough.

This evening David #17 and I put my Miata up on jack stands and crawled underneath in search of the elusive and ferocious noises emanating from the below the car. I suspected it had something to do the with clutch. The clutch line is hydraulic and the fluid level is fine. We didn't find anything interesting. After putting the car back on the ground, I attempted to demonstrate the noise to David. And you know it wouldn't do it anymore. Pretty typical, eh?

While crawling around on the ground I went ahead and took the grill off the car. It is a bit faded so I have been planning on painting it.

I also took that big piece of plastic off that covers the instrument cluster inside the car. It has two cracks in it and I thought I would try to mend it. I am drawing a blank right now on what it is called. It has been loose for a while and is a source of an internal rattle. This thing, whatever, attaches at five points. Two screws and three spring clips. All five of these connection points are broken in some form or fashion. I have a plan for repairing it, but if it doesn't work out, there is always ebay or a local salvage yard. No worries.

Yesterday the Charger visited the Goo Goo car wash. It was in serious need of a good cleaning.

Tomorrow evening I plan to crawl under the Miata and try to locate the annoying rattle. Hopefully it will be obvious (and the ground will be warm).

For the last two days I have been working at home. I am under a bit of a time crunch at work and things have been to noisy around there to concentrate. Working at home has been pleasant and highly productive. It has also been peaceful and quiet (other than me talking to myself). And think of all the money I have saved on gas by cutting out that ten miles of driving each day. And yes, I still go out for lunch, even when working at home. I like to think of it as my social hour.

Petals Around the Rose

While surfing near the end of the internet I came across this post:

http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-bg.htm

I was intrigued by the puzzle. After about 15 minutes I thought I had it figured out. This link will allow you to see the results from a few more roles:

http://vincentwoo.com/files/petals/

And the solution is available here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petals_Around_the_Rose

Enjoy.

Did you know that your fingernails grow four times faster than your toenails?

This Weeks Ketchup

It has been a pretty hectic week. My last post was a week ago today.

As you may recall, last Sunday I was procrastinating. Any thing but studying for my final. Ok, to be honest I did get a few ours of review in, but don't tell anyone. I could cause me to lose my master procrastinator status.

Monday was a typical work day, along with picking up the kids, homework, etc. At about 11:00 pm I finally decided to stop procrastinating and get to reviewing the course material. A half hour later I was in bed, and probably already asleep. Didn't want to over do it.

Tuesday was more work. After work, the final, and after the final some Mexican food. David #17 and I had decided we would grab some dinner after our classes to celebrate the end of the semester. Woo hoo!

Wednesday morning (11/29/2006) Ginger's grandfather passed away. I went to work for a couple hours but then left the middle of the morning to drive Ginger to meet her mother.

I had lunch with John D. and his two youngest, Timmy and Jonathon. We had Mexican food at a local establishment, though a don't recall the name. After lunch John gave me the tour of his Church and played me a new song he had just written on the grand piano in the church sanctuary.

The weather had been nice all day. When we left the house in the AM I had the top up so that Ginger wouldn't blow away. The unfortunate part about having the top up is that all the rattles and squeaks you can't hear with the top down, are very noticeable with the top up. Around lunch the sky started to cloud up, but no worries, I did not see a drop of rain on the windshield until I was pulling into the driveway late in the afternoon.

When Ginger got home, we decided to go our for dinner. We eventually decided on Rosie's because it had been so long since I had any Mexican food. (I have heard these things come in threes.)

Thursday, more work. David, Troy, and I had hot wings for lunch. Wings had been our first choice for after the test Tuesday night but there were no wings to be found in the local vicinity.

Thursday evening G's brother, Jim and his family (Dianna, Corey, Marisa, and Kyle) rolled into town from Maryland. They stayed with us while they were in town for the funeral. The little folks are growing up fast. I had a good time hanging with them for the next few days.

Because we had a house full Thursday evening we decided to order Mexican pizza for dinner rather than try to prepare anything. Ok, it was really just pizza, not Mexican pizza, but it could have been.

Thursday evening it was 74 at 10:30 pm. The weather forecast predicted it would be 30 degrees by 6:00 am. They were off, it was only about 40 but it did reach 30 by 9:00 am.

I drove into work that morning with the top down and for effect, I wore shorts to work that day. They think I am crazy. I know the truth.

After a brief stay at work I headed back home and we loaded up and headed to Sardis for visitation. The house was full of food brought in by friends and neighbors. We all had Mexican fried chicken for lunch. Ok, again, it wasn't really Mexican, but some of it did have cayan pepper in the breading. It was pretty good.

During visitation I got to see a bunch of the kids we don't see very often. Again, I had a good time hanging out with the kids.

We got in late Friday evening. Early Saturday morning we headed back to Sardis for the funeral. As is often the case, my name was Paul. G' played Amazing Grace on the trumpet at the grave site as requested by her grandfather. I really enjoyed it. JH had served in the military so there we a couple of Army folks there to pay honor to him. They did a good job as well. After the service, the church provided lunch to the family in the fellowship hall.

After a crazy week, I am glad to be home, with nothing in particular to do. Ok, I might crawl under the Miata to see that the new rattle is all about, but maybe not. It's cold outside, and I suspect the ground is colder. Or maybe I will take a look at the computer that quit working this week. Or maybe not. Perhaps a nap. Yeah yeah, that sounds about right.

Oh yeah! Today is Ginger's birthday. I think she is twenty-seven again this year. Happy Birthday Ginger!

Back to Procrastinating

The coil springs are complete.  I got the second coat of paint on them just a little while ago.  So far I have put about 5 hours into refurbishing the springs.

 

Before applying the first coat yesterday I had to re-clean the paint gun.  Apparently last time I used it I did not clean it very well.  Of course I did not realize this until after I had loaded it with paint and it clogged up.  What a mess. 

 

I have completely disassembled and reassembled this thing 3 times now.  The complete breakdown is not necessary to clean it good but I didn't realize that until I had it apart the third time.  It turns out cleaning it correctly doesn't take any longer than doing it per the instructions, which is apparently not sufficient.

 

I suppose the manufacturer would prefer that you just replace the entire assembly every now and then.  The paint gun in question is a Harbor Freight special, a $9.99 HVLP detail spray gun.  So far it has worked well, despite my attempts to mess it up.  No drips or runs, knock on wood.  If I ever see it on sale again, I will consider purchasing a spare.

Apple Pie

While on my recent camping expedition, one of the campers utilized my oven and made us a homemade apple pie. The pie was excellent. Was it because we were sitting in the woods at night around a large camp fire while the temperature around us dropped below freezing?

Maybe, but it was still a good pie.

I decided that I would try my hand a making said apple pie. The recipe was pretty simple. The filling was

4 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

And the crust was 2 1/3 cups of AP flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup butter flavored crisco, and 8 tablespoons of water.

The eight table spoons of water was the last thing I measured. As I was measuring I realized that I had used the tablespoon, not the teaspoon when I measure the salt. Doh! Later I realized I did the same thing with the cinnamon.

What did this mean? The crust was saltly. No so salty as to be inedible, but salty enought that 1 cup of milk with your pie would probably not be enough. Too much cinnamon was not nearly as big a problem, but I would not recommend 4X'ing any ingredient in a recipe.

All in all, the pie turned out ok, even with my blunders. The crust was still pretty awesome. Next time I will get it right, and in the mean time I will consede that Jason makes a better apple pie than myself.

I snapped a couple of photos of the pie, because I was so dang proud of it. But as usually, I will not be sharing them with you. I suspect your getting use to it though.

Master Procrastinator

I had a full two weeks to review for a final exam. So far I have managed to let 10 days pass without cracking a book. This is OK though because I have been reviewing the material in my head. Yeah, I know it is not the same, but it still helps. I intend to spend about four hours total reviewing for the test. That is one hour reviewing the material for each of the four tests I have already taken. I made some really nice study sheets for each test so four hours may be too much. Perhaps I should just browse over them while driving to the final, talking on my cell phone, and singing off key. With the top down.

And yes, two years later, I still have How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in my CD player.

Return Of The Truck

Yesterday and today I spent a little time working on the truck. I sometimes forget how relaxing a little strenuous activity can be. I actually managed to forget about work for a little while today.

What did I get accomplished? I ground the heads off six rivots yesterday. These rivots hold together the three pieces of metal that comprise the transmission cross member. Still more work to do on seperating those pieces.

Today's efforts involved nearly 3 hours of sandblasting to completely strip the two coli springs for the front suspension. I am always amazed at how much time can be consumed by such a simple task. And I am always pleased with nicely those greasey-grimey-grundgy parts clean up.

I have high hopes to get the coil springs painted tomorrow. After that I still need to blast/paint the front spindles and then it will be time for a little re-assembly.

Note to self: Don't forget to re-tap the hole on the spindle assembly where the brake shield mounts. I twisted the head of that bolt right off. Some times I don't know my own strength.

Myth Buster

Ok so we have all heard about that tripto-whatchamacallit stuff that is in turkey that makes you sleepy, right. Did you know that by weight, beef has more of that stuff, thank turkey.

Yep, it's true. So if you took a nice nap after your turkey dinner it was either because you simply like to nap, you were bored with your relatives, or you simply ate too much.

I was doing fine with my diet until I had the pecan pie. Time to get back on the wagon.

Caveat: Beef that tastes like fish will not make you drowsy, rather it will make you want to hurl.

Moi

Monday night I grilled some streaks that had been given to us as a gift. Four very nice filets mignons complete with a bacon wrap. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a secret mystery seasoning. And then I grilled them.

Through some fluke of time, space, and grilling they appeared to turn out perfectly. Nicely seared on the outside, a nice pinkish red inside. These things were picture perfect. (I didn't actually take a picture of them.) I also managed to time their completion almost precisely with when G returned home from work.

I cut a few pieces off the first steak and gave them to Jordan. Then I cut a piece off and tried it out. I will not use the word out in three consectutive sentences. I spit it out.

Have you ever had streak that tasted like fish? I have. There is something not right about it. I got G to verify something was wrong fishy and then we threw it all in the big green mini dumpster out in the garage.

Jordan got made at me for taking his steak away from him. I realize that was not a nice thing to do. Give a kid some steak and then take it away from him. How rude.

For dinner I ended up having Raisin Bran Crunch cereal. I was skerd too skerd to eat anything else that could potentially taste like fish, like steak, chicken, fish, or fish.

Jordan sampled my cereal as well. He like it so much, he requested that he have it for breakfast the next day.

At this point I am still craving a really good steak, but I have been making due with turkey in the mean time.

Twelve, Not Fourteen

Forty-five degrees today but there was nothing falling from the sky, so you know the drill.

Driving home from having gone basically no where, I was sitting at the light waiting for green when I notice my neighbor sitting in his car across the intersection.

Upon green, we passed each other in the intersection. That is when he noticed me. He gave me a grin and a wave. The grin, as best I could interpret it had something to do with the convertible and the temperature. I get that a lot.

A friend asked me this week if I would be interested in buying his hardtop for the Miata . Considering it.

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to go to Jordan's school and watch him perform in a Thankgiving play. He nailed his lines. I have video evidence to prove. Don't make me.

Too much cold weather here. It was raining this morning, top up. At lunch we had a wet 45 degrees. Yesterday during lunch there was a heavy down pour. I think I am ready for summer again. Bring it on.

Swapped blog over to the new beta blogger this evening.

This semester is almost over. Final in two weeks. Lots of material to review in the mean time.

Today we had some pretty decent weather. Good day for a little top down action. Unfortunately it rained tonight so the top was up for the ride home.

It is now getting dark earlier. Too early for my taste. The sky was gray when I headed west today. Not certain if that was the rain clouds or the sun setting or a little of both. Doesn't matter though, I suppose.

I had a great time camping this weekend. Sunday evening at 6:00 pm it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Monday morning I had a bit of trouble getting out of bed. Boy was I sore.

More on the trip later.

Gizzard Trek '06

On October 28th I decided it was time to do a little dieting. After a week and a half, I have lost 7 pounds. So far so good. My goal was 23 so I still have a long way to go. I would guess it will probably take another 8 weeks to reach my desired goal. The first one pound is always easier than the last one. To complicate matters further, I will be doing this thru the holiday season.

Dieting during the holiday season is not really a bad thing. Nothing like coming out the other side a little lighter while everyone else is packing it on.

The camping trip is rapidly approaching. We are headed out Friday noonish. Nine adventurous souls will be roughing it this weekend. Everyone is fairly excited. I have done zero packing though I have been making a list and checking it twice. I also aired out the tent this weekend.

It has been a couple of weeks since I played with worked on the truck. I am betting it will be a least another 10 days, so no news heres. I was hoping to have it 100% done before Mike rolled in this week. I don't think he will be driving Marge.

School has been keeping me pretty busy. Actually that is where most of my free time is disappearing. I had another mathematics test last night. As has been the norm for this class, I am consistently the last person to turn in my test. Everything single time. I know the material, I apparrently just don't write fast enough. Right now my grade is borderline low A so I think my level of effort has been sufficient. Most of the stuff I have missed was just mistakes made from trying to get done faster. The final is still a few weeks away. It will be nice to have a few weeks off from school after that.

I set up the tent in the backyard today to air it out. Goal number two was to clean it out.

I did get it aired out, but goal number two was unsuccessful. I let the kids play in it for a while. This resulted in a lot of small grass clippings accumulating inside the tent. Try as I might, I could not get all the grass clippings out of it.

I think a vaccum or a dust buster would have done the trick, but I would have felt silly running the cleaner in the backyard. Especially since it will just get dirty again next week. That sillyness will have to wait until after the big trip is over.

This years first real spell of cold weather has arrived. How cold is it? Cold enough that I didn't wear shorts to work two days this week.

The very casual atmosphere is one of my favorite things about my job. Unfortunately the cold weather coupled with the high humidity the last couple of days has made we, well, cold.

I tend to be warm natured. I tend to wear shorts year 'round around the house. I am also barefooted most of the time I am in the house. Yep, no shoes, no socks, no problem.

Soon enough I will adjust to the newly chilled weather, and then I will be out riding around in the Miata with the top down.

And two days later, it will be in the 80's again.

The camping trip is rapidly approaching.

I have pulled my gear out of the attic. I suppose I need to setup the tent, clean it out and reseal the seams. I am thinking I will put this off till the last possible minute. Perhaps I will get Mike to take care of it.

I also still need to make the Wal-Mart trip. This is a ritual that David E. and I usually take the night before we head it. We round up the group-grub and anything else that might want to follow us home.

The head count is currently at 9. I doubt we will see much attrition before we head out.

I went down to Shelby county on Monday afternoon for visitation and stayed over for the Funeral on Tuesday. This has been a rough week.

Last night at dinner I annouced to Ginger that it was time for me to go on a diet. Starting tomorrow.

So today went pretty well. I believe I kept the calorie intake under 1500.

For the first couple of weeks my plan is to just keep the calorie count low. Normal food, just hopefully not to much. After I return from the camping trip I will examine the my results so far and decide if I need to kick it up a notch.

I in the past, I have had good success with high-protein, low carb diet. Unfortunately normal people can't live that way long term. But it does work pretty well.

As you can imagine, right now is not the perfect time to start a diet. Pecan pie season is about to start. :(

How much am I hoping to lose? Twenty-three pounds seems like a good number. Good for who though? Note to self: don't let this ruin the camping trip.

Wish me luck, and please don't send me your left over halloween candy.

Last night the kids spent the night at my Father's house. I think he was there too.

Since we had an empty house, we decided to head out for a night on the town.

We went to a local haunt, Olde Heidelberg for dinner. Our usual waitress, Ellaine was on vacation so he had to make do.

On this occassion, I decided to stray from my half dozen usuals and try something different. When the waitress asked for my order, I simply asked for some fish. She recommended the Mediterrean Talopia with capers, olives, tomatoes in a beur blanc sauce. Sounds good, bring it on.

And it was good. Can I have seconds?

R.I.P.

Barry L. Dorough

Sunday October 29, 2006

This morning my friend Barry died. Barry and I met when we in college at Auburn back in the early 90's. We took many computer science classes together.

Points of interest from our time at Auburn included playing the Addams Family pinball machine in Foy and watching Dark Shadows on the new Sci-Fi channel. Tiny Toons, Chips-Ahoy, and Premium Saltine crackers. We procrastinated studying for tests together often, including one time when we took a short 10 mile walk around Auburn instead of studying for a final. And then there was the inedible chocolate cheesecake I made him.

We both moved to Huntsville in December of 1992 where we discovered the elusive 'extra' paycheck. Over the years our families took several vacations together both to the beach and snow skiing, but never snow skiing at the beach.

Barry was a good friend. I will miss him.

Gearing Up

I received a package in the mail from REI yesterday. I had ordered an aluminium pot handle and an thermal mattress pad for the impending camping trip.

I was amazed at the size of the package. The package was about the size of a shoe box. That is pretty small considering it contained a 2.5" pad.

The pad is advertised to pack down to about the size of a nalgene bottle. In my opinion it is larger than a nalgene bottle but it is still pretty small. Much smaller than the 1/2" foam pad I purchased from Wal-Mart back in 2001.

The only drawback is that the pad is not self inflating. So I will huff and I will puff, and I will bl-blo-bl-blo-bl-blow your house down the mattress up.

Underhanded Footballl Is Not a Crime

Yesterday after work, I picked up the kids at school and we headed for the house. Once home the kids dropped their packs on the floor and we all went outside.

This is where things get wierd. All of a sudden, Jordan is holding football. I didn't even realize he had a football. And he wants to play. Tackle, Flag, NLF, what? Hmmm. Where did that come from. So we head out onto the field, which I had never noticed before either. The field is actually our driveway and some inventive youngster has chalked off the ..30, 40, 50, 40, 30 yard lines. Well fortunately he just wanted to toss the ball. Unfortunately I can't throw overhanded more than about 10 feet, so I was throwing underhanded. Have you ever seen anyone throw a football underhanded. Jordan must have been impressed with my style because he started throwing that way also. I encourage him to throw the normal way, because only a dinosaur with bad shoulders would throw a football underhanded.

Where did this football idea come from? Is it due to the weather. I do often hear this weather referred to as football weather. Perhaps it is genetic. Ginger is a real Auburn Football fan. Perhaps it is just a nasty virus he brought home from school. If so it should clear up in a few days.

Eventually Brianna decided to join us. She wanted to play center. Hike! Hike! The game quickly altered form and eventually became "Monkey in the Middle". I knew this game as "Keep Away", though the kids do a pretty good impersonation of a yellow haired monkey in the yard. And eventually the football was replaced with a Scooby-Doo dodge ball. This was Brianna's idea.

And skateboarding is not a crime either.

Idiot Light - Which Tire?

About a month or so back, I had a nail in my tire.  I discovered this because my Charger has an idiot light on the dash to tell you when a tire is low.  When the light first came on, I looked each tire over.  Visually they appears to be 'full' so I just let it ride.  Because the light remained on, everytime I exited the vehicle, I would walking around the call looking at each time.  After several days, I finally was able to visually determine which tire was low, and almost immediately I spotted the nail.

 

The lights behavior is as follows.  When the car is started, it turns on a few seconds and then turns back off, just like all the other idiot lights.  Once I start moving, within a second or two, it comes on if the pressure is off.  Unfortunately it doesn't tell me which tire it is.

 

Last week the light came on again, at which point I started walking around the car everytime I got out.  After a few days I noticed no difference in the appearance of the tires, so I got out the gauge.  The total PSI difference per my pressure gauge between the highest pressure and lowest pressure reading was 2 PSI.  I attempted to even it out, but again, I don't think the pressure gauge I have is consistent and reliable enough to achieve such a feat.  After all this effort I got back in the car and backed it down out of the driveway.  The light stayed on.  "Oh, well I thought, the tire will eventually visually make itself aware to me."

 

The weekend rolled around and I decided to have another go at the pressure equalization.  After adjusting the pressure in all my tires, and in David's Miata as he just happed to arrive while I had everything out, I backed down the drive again.  The light came back on again.  Oh well, return to visual inspection plan.

 

This morning when backing out of the garage, the light turned on as I had grown accustomed to expecting.  On the way to work it went back out. 

 

Ah-ha!  Apparrently the thing has a memory.  So I wasn't actually foiled a second time as I expected yesterday afternoon, I just didn't drive it far enough (or is it fast enough?).  I guess 50 feet doesn't count. 

 

All the tires are now apparently within tolerance.  Do I have a tire with a nail in it?  Not that I can tell.  Do I have a slow leak?  Possibly.  Which tire?  Who knows.  I guess I will wait and see if the light comes back on.

 

What have I learned here?

 

1.  Nothing.

 

2.  Ok, possibly one thing.  I need a more accurate pressure gauge than the common $0.99 pen shaped gauge that everyone is familar with.  This gauge is just not as accurate as the pressure sensors on the car.

 

Plan:  Locate and purchase a more precise $1.99 gauge.  Perhaps a nice digital one made in China.  I wonder what Harbor Freight has to offer?

 

Final Thoughts

 

The daily temperature has begun to change.  Is it possilbe, the light came on because it has been colder outside.  That can affect tire pressure, right?    PV = nRT, right?  I would have assumed that the temperature differential for all tires would be the same so the light would stay off.  After all, it was my understanding that the sensor didn't actually look at the tire pressure but simply compared the speed of the rotating tires, much like anti-lock brakes.  A low tire, has a smaller radius and will therefore turn faster than a tire with normal pressure.  Assuming this is true, if two tires were equally low, the speed would remain similar and the light should stay off.  Maybe.

 

Look at the monkey

 

I have now been trained to walk around my car every time a yellow tire looking light appears before me.  Imagine what I could learn to do if someone would just start ringing a bell.  And contrary to what you may have heard, the door is not a jar, it is a door.

Miata: 100,000 Miles

Last Sunday, October 15, 2006, the odometer on my Miata rolled over 100k.

Where was I when this even occurred? In my driveway! How did I manage that? I put the last 2 miles on the car driving around the neighborhood, mindful of the odometer.

Obviously I took several photos of the car, odometer, etc. As is typical, I haven't posted any of those photos.

In the last week I have racked up an additional 72 miles on the odometer.

And the Charger is sneaking up on 4000 miles.

Truck Update

This weekend I managed to get another lower control arm blasted and painted. I also painted the replacment frame cross member that is located below the radiator support.

The original cross member is bent up pretty badly. I assume that the truck was in a front end collision at some point. I bought the replacement last year at a nearby salvage yard.

I still have a few, probably six, more pieces to blast and paint before front end assembly begins. This will be a huge milestone in the process.

I am on a roll tonight.

I just got a call from my friend Ken H., the creative genius behind Bravo! He is down in Birmingham right now at the Eric Clapton concert, 10th row seats. He called to let me listen to a little live music.

Now go download the Bravo! demo.

Hello World

Last Night while sitting in a math class I listened as the Professor explained Newton's Method. Basically it is a method to improve an estimate of where a function has a zero, meaning for what value of x will y be zero. He then showed how to use this information to calculate the square root of three.

For the last little bit, I have been reading a book on Python programming that I bought last December. Learning a new language is not a spectators sport. Reading alone does not cut it.

When I got home last night, I took my new found information and implemented a square root function in p\Python. This is my first real program in Python. It is a pretty simple actually, though pretty useless because Python's math module already implements a square root function, math.sqrt(). I tested my function against the library function. Mine gave the same result to the same number of digits for every value I tested.

def squareRoot(square):
  '''calculate the square root of a number'''
  def f(x):
    return (x*x) - square
  def fp(x):
    return (2*x)
  def newtonsMethod(x):
    return x - ( f(x) / fp(x) )
  input = float(square) / 2
  for i in range(1, 10):
    output = newtonsMethod(input)
    if output == input: break
    input = output;
  return output

It's got some spam in it.

Want a cube root function? Just ask.

Newtons Method says for some value X0 plugged into his formula, it will produce an X1 which is a more accurate solution. After a few iterations you have a value accurate to a dozen digits.

NM:

  X1 = X0 - ( f(x0) / fp(x0) )

where f(x) is the function of the equation you are estimating and fp(x) is the first derivative of f(x).

So to find the cube root, replace f(x) with

   f(x) = x**3 - cube

and the first derivative would be

  fp(x) = 3 * x**2

Apply Newton's method for a few iterations and you have an answer.

If your interested in learning a new programming language, give Python a try. It's free and there are lots of resources available. Check it out at www.python.org


Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, eggs, and Spam.

Camping Weather

David E. and I were talking recently. I mentioned how nice the weather was, he responded it was camping weather and next thing you know, I am planning a camping trip. I started out with a fairly short list of 5. About a week later we had two definite NAKs from the original list though the head count is at 6 with I believe 4 more maybes, or is it 6.

Our idea of camping involves loading up a back pack, driving to another state, hiking a few miles into the woods and setting up a base camp.

The trip is still a few weeks off but everyone is already getting excited.

Added a link to G's blog over there on the right hand side. Check it out.

Hello From Destin, Florida

This week was the kid`s Fall break so I took the week off and we headed to Florida.

The week has gone very quickly. We arrived on Tuesday and head back home tomorrow, Saturday. This week I have caught up on my homework, read two books ( Micro-ISV: From Vision To Reality [Bob Walsh] and Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them: How to Keep your Tractors Happy and Your Family Running [Roger Welsch] ), been out to dinner a few times, rode go-carts, played mini-golf, and played a couple of games of Monopoly. Oh yeah, the kids and G. spent some time on the beach and at the pool.

The internet access this week has been spotty, but don`t for a minute believe that is why I haven`t been blogging. It seems that I have just fallen off the wagon. Several times this week I have thought of something I meant to share but inevitably I forget what it is before I get around to writing it down.

Brianna had her 6th Birthday on Tuesday. She is growing up so fast, but she will always be my Bri-Baby.

Remember that box of truck parts I ordered a few weeks ago? Has that been three weeks already? It has still not arrived. Apparently UPS lost it. A new box was supposed to be packed up and sent my way on Wednesday, 2nd day Air.

Later I will record our dining experiences. That has turned out real handy in the past to look back at what was good and what not.

Time to watch a movie. Brother Bear 2. I am so excited.

Lazy Sunday

For a bit of pop culture, follow the link, and then go check out Wikipedia or Google for some more. Double True! Be warned, you could easy kill a few hours watching all the response videos. You definitely want to check out the West Coast response though. Crazy delicious.

Where has the Time Gone?

The last week passed quickly.  It's been almost a week since my last entry.  I must have been busy.

 

Today I received the first of two packages I was expecting containing truck parts.  The other one was suppose to show up last Wednesday.  UPS lost it.  More on that as the details unfold.  (Have you ever know anyone to be so unlucky with receiving packages, think back to the Miata rollbar before you answer.)

 

This weekend's truck progress was arduous.  When I got started I forgot the filter the sand before putting it in the blaster.  Big mistake.  After getting clogged a couple of times I decided the best plan was to empty it out and take the blaster apart to clean out all the valves.  This brought productivity to a dead stand still. 

 

Trivia - a 50 lb bag of sand almost fills a 5 gallon bucket.  Yep, using the same couple of bags of sand for nearly a year, I finally had to buy some more sand, 2 bags.  After all this time, my initial two bags had dwindled to less than one bucket.  The rest of it is blowing in the wind.

 

While I had the spray gun out this weekend, I painted the Miata's wiper arms.  They were pretty well faded.  While at it, I painted the wiper arm's for David's Miata also.

 

Ax^2 + By^2 + Cx + Dy + E = 0. 

 

Have you ever tried to derive the equation for a hyperbola?  I am pretty certain I did this years ago while at Auburn.  This weekend, I was working on this again, when I got a very real sense of deja vu.  About three pages in, I decided to give it up.  Based on my previous experience I was about half done.  The first time I tried this, I dropped a negative sign somewhere.  With a 6 page derivation, it takes a while to find such a trivial mistake.  And another while or two to fix it. You can do it with less paper but it's not legible!

 

(((X - h)^2)/a^2 ) - (((Y - k)^2)/b^2) = 1

 

I wonder when Overhaulin' will be coming to get my truck?

 

 

Parts is Parts

Saturday, after many delays, I finally got around to ordering some replacement parts for the front end suspension and steering. I ended up ordering the parts from two different companies. Classic Industries and LMC Truck. Having never ordered from either of these companies it will be interesting to see how each rank in the customer service department. If I am lucky, I won't have to talk anyone at either companies customer service department, but rather will judge them based on how quickly they shipped me the parts.

Which parts? Some ball joints, tie rods, other similar stuff.

This morning I received a notification from LMC that I had a package on the way from Kansas via UPS.

I priced this same stuff through Advanced Auto Parts, Autozone, Orielly's, and Napa. Oddly, mail order pricing had them beat. Ok, maybe it's not that odd, but it seemed that way at the time.

Did You Do Anything Unusual This Weekend?

Last Sunday, a friend asked me if I had done anything unusual in the previous week to which I responded, "Unusual for you or unusual for me?".

 

This morning three odd things have occurred already.  Let's see if I can remember any of them.

 

Uno - I saw three deer in the backyard.  After they spotted me, two went into the woods.  The remaining one, a buck, just stood and looked at me before he resumed mowing my backyard.

 

Dos  - So much for my memory.

 

I did not venture out into the garage this weekend.  I had a stack of homework to do so I decided I would not go out there until it was all done.  This was supposed to be a motivational tool.  Ha!

 

Saturday I was so motivated not to do my homework, I had all the laundry done by 1:30 pm.  Then I took my requisite nap and followed that up with a couple of episodes of "OverHaulin" on the Tivo.  I can't believe they still haven't come to get my car.

 

When Sunday rolled around, I got serious about the homework.  About six hours worth of seriousness.  I missed my Sunday afternoon nap and Miata ride due to nearly insurmountable stack of work I had.

 

I came, I saw, I calculated.  Now it is all done.  Don't you feel better.  Learning can be difficult.  The amazing thing is that If I had to do it all over again, I could probably get it done in 60-90 minutes.

 

After dinner last night, I manufactured an excuse to go for a ride in the Miata.  You can almost always use another gallon of milk when you have two kids in the house.  I got to see a pretty cool pink and blue sunset with large rolling clouds.  And we got a somewhat much needed gallon of milk.  The time is quickly approaching where these trips will require a jacket.

 

 

TGIF?

Today I got shocked by 110 volts AC three separate times.

Then my right eye turned red and swole itself shut. (Is swole a word?)

Imagine the fun I would have had if it was a Monday.

Timeout

This afternoon the kids were playing in the driveway. Jordan wanted to go inside to get something to drink. He said "Pause Game."

Who changed the lingo?

Argh Matey!

Just in case you overlooked it, today was national talk like a pirate day.

Today's Theme is a truck theme, or rather a truck blog theme. Any minute now I will be adding these to the blog list link on the side bar.

Truck Blog # 1: This is one of iMike's many alternate ego's. Last time I counted, he had at least four.

truckindaddy.blogspot.com

Truck Blog # 2: This is my sister's blog.

littletrucker.blogspot.com

$2.99 for flat repair, $12.00 for labor.

This morning I went by the tire store to get my leaking tire repaired. I went to work first thinking it would open at 8:00 am, with the plan of getting to the shop a few minutes before 7:00. When I arrived, they were already opened.

I left the car with them and walked to the bank a few blocks away to get some cash. When I got back to the shop the car was in the garage and the correct tire was off the car.

I headed back inside planning to read an old magazine while waiting for them to finish up. When I walked back in the manager asked which car I was waiting on. "The Charger" was my reply. He then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes telling me how much he likes the new Charger, especially the red one like I have.

Oh yeah, it turns out he has a black 2006 Charger SRT-8. I think that is about 425 HP to my 345HP. When I asked him about his fuel economy he hesitated to tell me it was only about 13 MPG. He apparrently has a pretty heavy foot.

Someone has a math test tomorrow and has spent the last two hours procrastinating the inevitable review of their notes from the last four weeks. Fortunately I already went back through them once this weekend.

What Kind of a Name is BoneFish?

Friday night we had dinner at BoneFish Grill. Several folks have told me this place was good. Well it turns out they were right. We arrived at about 5:30 on Friday evening and they seated us immediately.

We ordered the crab cakes as an appetizer, G had fish, I had a fillet (as recommended by a friend). I had a difficult time deciding on my entree. I was torn between at least three selections but finally went with the beef remembering how Brent had gone on and on about it.

Everything was good. Actually it was better than good. We also had a nice classic white wine with dinner, Blue Moon Riesling from the Bridgeview Winery in Oregon. Yep, a riesling from Oregon. We had had this wine before at a local German restaurant, Olde Heidelberg. Our favorite waitress, Elaine, had recommended. It remembered it because it was a riesling, and it was from Oregon.

On the way home, we stopped at Olde Heidelberg and picked up some Death By Chocolate cake to have for dessert. Mmmm

Yesterday when I got in the Charger to take Jordan to a B-day part, a light on the dash lit up indicating one of my tires was lot. I got out of the car and looked at all four tires. They all looked ok. At each stop on my journey, I walked around the car trying to spot the low tire. It was still not obvious to me. And I was too lazy to get you the tire pressure gauge.

This afternoon when I backed the car out, the light came on again. At this point I was finally able to visually detect which tire was low. I aired the tire up and then looked for a nail, etc. And I found it.

Tomorrow I will take the car in to get the tire repaired. The leak is fairly slow. The computer detected it was low on Saturday. I didn't drive it on Friday, so I must have picked up the nail either Thursday or prior to that.

Now the thing that is driving me crazy is "where did I pick up the nail?"

Another Piece of the ... Truck

For a while now, my current goal for the truck was to get the front end suspension completed. When I first started this task, my plan was to degrease it all, then blast it all, then paint it all.

The degreasing went quickly but the blasting is very time consuming. After a few weekends following this plan, I noticed that the first pieces I had sandblasted were beginning to show light surface rust. At this point I altered the plan. The new plan is blast a piece or two and then paint it.

The weekends selection was a lower control arm. The lower arms are significantly larger then the upper arms so only attempted to get one done this weekend. Blast time for the part was roughly two hours. A good bit of that time was sweeping the sand up in the driveway and filtering it through a piece of window screen to remove any large debris.

I currently have enough sand to fill up a 5 gallon bucket. I filled the blaster up four times. Four times I randomly distributed the sand back onto the driveway. After the fourth sweepup, the part was ready for painting.

The blasting was completed on Saturday morning. At this point I went ahead and painted the top side and left it to dry all afternoon. Today just before lunch, I painted the other side.

Another piece is now complete. Next week I will probably tackle the other lower control arm. That that point, the only remaining front suspension pieces I can think of are the coil springs. Blasting should go pretty quickly on those.

Things seem to be moving quickly since I am now distinguishing between steering and front suspension. It is very satisfying to take a rusted greasy part and turn it into a freshly painted clean piece of a 35 year old classic truck.

Someone needs to be taking pictures of the progress!

I changed the oil in the air compressor today. I am using Mobil 1 per the recommendation of the manufacturer. The compressor uses 6 oz. of oil so a single quart should last me 5 changes, or 15 months. assuming I remember to change it every 4 months.

To be realistic, I will probably only change it about every six months, but that should be ok because I am not using it 40 hours a week.

I Voted!

I entered a picture of my Miata in a photo contest last month. As I mentioned before, when I win, I will get a spiffy new "Oh Yes Wyoming!" t-shirt. Imagine how I will be the envy of the neighborhood.

Go here to vote for my car. If it is not obvious which car is mine, vote for the one you like the best. Just for the record, you like the one labeled "First Picture", third row centered. It is the same picture in the right hand column of the my blog. If I win, you can borrow the shirt on Tuesdays.

I considered voting for a different picture but I thought it would be a shame to get zero votes.

Yesterday's Obsession

As I have noted in the past, many of my blog entries start out with the word 'yesterday'. Perhaps it is time to rename the blog.

Yesterday M. Schumacher won the Italian Grand Prix. And then he announced he would be retiring at the end of the season. Hate to see him go. On the flip side, Ferrari will be picking up Kimi. He should be an excellent addition to the Ferrari team. He is a good driver but so far has really had a reliable car. Imagine saying a McLaren is not a reliable car.

I have already placed my order for a ticket to the 2007 US Grand Prix at Indy.

Truck News

None really. Ok, a small bit of progress was made. I managed to get 5 components of the front end suspension sandblasted and painted. Won't be long before I have no choice but to start putting it back together. When I say it won't be long, I mean maybe sometime this decade.

The Miata's odometer is in the neighborhood of 99,500 miles. It should be crossing the 100k mark within a month. At that point I think I will put it in reverse for a while.

I just spend a few minutes looking back at the early blog entries. As you are certain to recall, I started the blog at the same time I got the Miata, the first obsession among many listed here over the last couple of years.

The reason I looked back was to find the odometer reading from when I got the car. I didn't find it in my blog, but I did find a copy of the bill of sell on my computer. I also found a rather interesting photo of another red Miata.

From the bill of sale:
Purchased on March 19, 2004.
Miles on clock: 85,707

A mere 2 years and 5+ months later I have added 13,800 miles for an average of about 475 miles per month or roughly 107 miles per week. Like I said earlier, in about another month I should see the odometer roll over 100,000 miles.

Well, I suppose summer is over. Tonight, while driving home from class (top down), I had to turn on the heater.

The front suspension crossmember on a 1967-1972 GMC/Chevrolet pickup is a couple of large pieces of shaped metal welded together. The cross member is essentially hollow.

The out side portion had previously been blasted. Today I was going to remove a couple of spots of surface rust and then paint it. While getting ready to blast, I noticed that the inside was full of greasy dirt. The right thing to do seemed to be to clean it out. First I used a scraper to remove most of the gunk then I attempted to use the blaster to clean it up.

About an hour into the process and completely covered with sweat and sand, I asked myself "Why am I cleaning this out?" It is almost impossible to see into and once it is mounted back on the truck, you will only be able to see the gunk if you have it up on a lift and your crazy enough to climb underneath it.

I finally decided it was not actually an obsessive compulsive desire to clean but rather a desire to do a complete and thorough job on the truck. Perhaps I will be able to finish up this cleaning task sometime this week.

Needless to say, I did not get any painting done today.

Where did the last week go?

Friday afternoon our cable line got cut by the phone company burying a new phone line for the neighbors that had been cut the week before by some contractors burying a new power line. They also cut the neighbors cable line, but it went unnoticed as they had already switched to satelite.

While the cable guy was out Saturday hooking our cable back up Saturday, he also hooked the cable back up for the folks on the other side of us. They had a sprinkler system put in on Friday and their cable line was cut also.

Saturday was Auburn's first game of the season. It went well. Fortunately the cable was hooked back up in time for the game.

Today Jordan, Brianna, myself, and Papa went up to Monte Sano State Park to do a little geocaching. We took 5 maps and hunted for two caches unsuccessfully. We did manage to get about 1.75 miles of walking in though.

Finally the truck update. Did some sandblasting. Sand got everywhere. Everywhere!

This is actually a Miata, not a Mustang. Scroll down. You will see.

Brian's Trip to Retrieve the '66 Mustang Convertible

So Far, So Good

Terry rolled in yesterday afternoon. She arrived early enough to have the Mustang's windows tinted on Friday. She went with the darkest legal tint, as had I. The tinted windows on the Mustang were a nice touch. She also had a dark strip put across the top of the windshield. I have been considering doing this on the Miata but was concerned that it might obstruct my line of sight. After sitting in her car I have decided it would not be a problem. The darker tint used for this strip is not as opaque as I thought it might be. Assuming I do it, I will probably limit it to 5" instead of the 6" maximum allowed by law.

In celebration of this weekends F1 race, Jordan coerced me into setting up the slot car track. It was out less than a total of 9 hours. One of the cars had an internal gear damaged so I decided to put it away before anything else happened. Only one broken piece per session is my motto.

Last week, they announced the date for next years F1 race at Indy: June 17 2007. This is good news as there was some concern that the race would not be held at Indy next year.

My Father also came up to spend the day with us. I tried to convince him he needed a '69 Karmann Ghia. I don't think he bought it.

We all made the trek out to Green Brier for lunch. Greasy hush puppies were enjoyed by all. And squirrel ice cream.

Ginger pointed out this evening that Auburn Football starts next weekend. That means Fall is just around the corner.

After a three week break, there will finally be another F1 race to watch this weekend. The kids have been asking about getting out the slot car set so we can have a race of our own.

Also this weekend, my sister (say "see-stir") Terry will be coming to visit. She is planning on getting the windows on her Mustang tinted while she is here. I was very pleased with how the windows on the charger turned out. Hopefully her's will turn out as well.

Fall 2006

Another semister started yesterday. I had my first class last night. In this class, a math class by the way, we proved that if 2x+4=8 then x=2. Not by solving the equation though, but as a mathematical proof. At one point I asked myself, why would you want to do that?

Saturday mornings activities involved a hair cut and a trip to Home Depot. In transit from the barbershop to the HD, I spotted a car show in the parking lot of Best Buy.

I met a guy named Randy with a whole bunch of orphaned cars. He was in a Packard Patrician. Here is his web site.

He told me about the site for the North Alabama Region (NAR) of the Antique Automobile Club of America (ACAA). Here is their site. It contains a list of upcoming local car shows.

Suspended Animation

I made a little more progress on the truck suspension today. I removed the ball joints from the lower A-arms. These are pressed in and required a bit of force to remove. Of course there is a speciality tool to remove and install them.

Next step: Remove the 8 struck bolts from the end of the control arms. Yes, eight stuck bolts. After this, it's almost all down hill. A little degreasing, some sand blasting, some painting, and then the front end suspension can be re-assembled. That was half of my goal for this summer. It seems I am behind schedule. Ce la vie.

The total goal envolved the rear suspension as well.

Eight.

I took a ride in the '66 Mustang convertible today. About 15 minutes into it, it began to rain. Eventually the sky cleared up. It rides very nicely for a 40 year old car. Compared to the Miata, it has a lot of interior space. Fun ride.

The Punch Line

Cheetahs never win.

Surely there is a joke to go along with this. I checked the net, but couldn't find any obvious links.

Do your worst!

I am now using 46 of 2756 MB in my Gmail account.

It doesn't seem like very long ago I had a 40 MB harddrive and it was the envy of my friends.

It's All Good

After much frustration, grimacing, and a little upper body soreness, I have finally seperated the lower ball joints on the truck suspension.

I tried making the specialilty tool shown in the shop manual. I could not apply enough force to make it work. Actually I started to strip the threads on the 3/4" bolt so I gave up.

I had applied penetrating oil to the joint several times over the last week.

Today I heated the joints with a propane touch and then violently tapped on the bolt until the joint released. Unfortunately the threads were mamed. I had to file the deformed end of the bolt so that it would fit through the hole. A few minutes with a file and all was good.

Next: Press the ball joints out of the lower A-arms and perhaps a little more de-greasing.

Vanity

My neighbor Brian got back from New York today. He had flown up there to pick up a car he had bought on E-Bay. After two days of driving he arrived back home. The car is a 1966 Mustang convertible.

I offered to buy it from him. He graciously declined.

Oh yeah, he named his car Vanity.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Some serious effort went into this. I want to see Vertigo next.

Just finished watching Phantom of the Opera. Good movie. Too bad I can never remember which Lloyd is which. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Suspension And Steering

Today and yesterday I applied a little time and effort toward disassembling the front steering and suspension components. I spent a lot of time tapping a ball joint separator with a hammer. I also applied a lot of penetrating oil (Not WD-40) to stuck nuts and bolts.

I managed to separate all the ball joints but two, the lower ball joint on the lower a-arm on boths side of the truck. Why not these? My separator is 3/4" and these need one that is roughly an inch, maybe 15/16" or even 7/8"s but definintely not 3/4".

It is amazing how greasy, grimy, grungy these pieces are. I thought I was done with most of the grim when I finished up the engine. Nope.

I got the top a-arm removed, pulled the rotors, removed the wheel bearings, etc.

I have also looked up which piece the pitman arm is. And the idler arm. And a couple other necessary for steering type pieces. And then I prompty did _not_ commit them to memory because it doesn't really matter. Actually I was afraid if I tried to remember which piece was which I might forget my name or telephone number or some other useful piece of information.

Now I have to ask you a grammar question. Is it bad form to end a sentence with the word is or are? Assuming it is, re-write the following sentence:

It is amazing how greasy, grimy, grungy these pieces are.

(You will receive extra credit for correctly diagraming the sentence.)

Please Forward To Wendy

Stop me if you have heard this one before.

The leopard, dog and cockatoo

A wealthy man decided to go on a safari in Africa. He took his faithful pet dog along for company. One day the dog starts chasing butterflies and before long he discovers that he is lost. So, wandering about he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious intention of having lunch.

The dog thinks, "Boy, I'm in deep doo doo now."

Then he noticed some bones on the ground close by, and immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.

Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, "Man, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this the leopard halts his attack in mid stride, as a look of terror comes over him, and slinks away into the trees. "Whew", says the leopard. "That was close. That dog nearly had me."

Meanwhile, a cockatoo who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So, off he goes.

But the dog saw him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figured that something must be up.

The cockatoo soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The cat is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here cockatoo, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine."

Now the dog sees the leopard coming with the cockatoo on his back, and thinks," What am I going to do now?"

But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers pretending he hasn't seen them yet.

And just when they get close enough to hear, the dog says, "Where's that cockatoo. I just can never trust him. I sent him off half an hour ago to bring me another leopard, and he's still not back!!"

Originally the cockatoo was a monkey, but the part was re-cast for reasons to difficult to explain.

Oil Change Time

The Charger now has just under 3000 miles on it. Time for an oil change.

On April 4, 2006 I got the new 2006 Charger. It already had 450 miles on it when I got it.

The car was built in June of 2005 so perhaps the oil needed to be changed when I got it. Some folks recommend every 3000 miles or 6 months. Six months had definitely been exceeded.

Since I got the car, I have been considering using Mobile 1 in it. But first a little research was required. Having done the research, I believe that Mobile 1 provides superior engine protection but I was unable to convince myself it was worth the additional cost.

Roughly speaking, the synthetic oil was going to double the cost of the oil change.

From what I had read, the oil has an extended life, but Mobil recommends not exceeding the maximum change duration recommended by the car manufacturer. The typical schedule for my car is every 3k miles but for non severe driving conditions you can go every 6k miles. Per Mobil, I could go 6k miles between change.

(Aside: Per the description, there is really no such thing as non-harsh driving conditions. Less than 10 mile trips are considered harsh. Driving above 50 mph more than 50% of the time is considered harsh.)

While reading up on the subject, I read a story about a guy was driving 16k miles between oil changes with Mobil 1. Amazing. While my car is under warranty, I will not be trying that.

What is the decision? Nothing for now. I went ahead and used regular oil. I will continue to evaluate this decision.

Oddness

The Charger's manual says the 5.7L Hemi requires 7 quarts of oil. It only took 6 quarts to fill it back up. After letting it set for a few minutes it was still full. After 10 miles of harsh driving conditions, it is still full. Is 7 a typo? I talked to a guy at Express Oil. He said his computer says 6 quarts. Perhaps it was a typo.

Seven is definitely an odd number.

Today I stayed home from work. Unfortunately I am not really able to enjoy the time. I either have a virus or ate something that disagreed with me yesterday. I feel like I am being turned inside out. Too much information? Sorry.

Thursday was hot. At least until the storms rolled through in the middle of the afternoon.

My plan was to go home an perhaps do a little bit of sandblasting in the driveway. The rain put an end to that plan. What to do?

The storm had caused the temperature to drop down into the 80's. I had to make good use of this time. I finally decided I tackle disassembly of the rear end. The first task was removing the leaf springs from the axle. And the shocks. I started out using a breaker bar and then switched to the air wrench once they bolts got moving. This little exercise had me worn out. I will be sore for sure.

Next I began taking part of the front end suspension apart. As you may know, it had been removed from the truck, but it was still all bolted together. The goal was to separate the upper A-arm, lower A-arm, spindle, brake caliper, and brake disc. The left side had to be disconnected from the right side. They were connected by the steering bar thingy. Is this called the tie rod? I don't know. I will look it up later. After getting the caliper removed, the assembly was light enough (ha!) to pick up and put on a table. This stuff is always easier to work with on top of a bench. I tried picking it up before removing the caliper. I could pick it up, but not enough to put it on the table. At this point I sprayed all the bolts with penetrating oil and did a little shop cleanup. Time to go inside and prepare dinner.

It occurred to me today that I haven't had any internet access problems in a while. It seems like for a while there it was a daily occurrence. Knock on wood.

Last night I took my final for the education class I took this summer. I should know what I made in a few days. I think I was borderline A/B. Expecting the worst, hoping for the best.

To Make a Long Story Short

Yesterday we spent the day at Guntersville lake. Grilling, swimming, boating, jet ski'ing, and tubing.

This afternoon I painted the motor mounts for the truck. I used Eastwood Chassis black paint. Looks good so far.

Todays Hungarian Grand Prix was a really good race, though the results were rather unexpected.

This evening I took a little ride in my red Ferrari Barchetta, er, Mazda Miata.

I strip away the old debris

That hides a shining car

A brilliant red Barchetta

From a better vanished time

I fire up the willing engine

Responding with a roar

Tires spitting gravel

I commit my weekly crime

(from "Red Barchetta" , Rush, Moving Pictures, 1981)

How to Dismantle An ...

Well I finally broke down and got a portable MP3 player. Yep. I got a 1G Sandisk Sansa. So far I am very happy with it. Cost: just under $60. I suppose I could have waited another 3 or 4 months and got one with 8x memory at half the cost, but so what. With 1G of space I put 12 albums on it and had 268M left. Reasonable.

The sound is pretty good. Yesterday I was listening to ...Atomic Bomb on it and I heard a guitar part I had never heard before. Pretty good sound. And that was using a mediocre pair of head phones.

Sunday I acquired a small blast cabinet from the local HF store. This thing has exceeded my expectations.

It sure is nice to be able to sand blast an object without having to put on goggles, a face shield, a respiratator, a hood, and hearing protection. I do wear the hearing protection because the compressor makes a lot of noise.

Hopefully I will have the time and motivation this weekend to put this thing to use.

It has been so hot lately that the rain today made for a really nice change. I took advantage of the opportunity and sat out on the porch just listening to the rain fall.

Today like most Saturdays is just a catch up day. Laundry, homework, etc. You get the idea.

I finally wet sanded the clear coat on the Miata trunk lid this week. It looks much better now. No waterspots, no primer, and no bare metal. It will do.

Last week I ran into a friend during lunch, let's call him Mr. Sturgeon. No really. He was surprised to see me in a Miata, and David in another Miata. Mr. S previously had a Miata, a red NA much line mine. At the time I believe he was even el president'e of the local Miata club, Rocket City Miata Club. Anyway, he mentioned that he missed the car.

Yesterday I saw him again. This time he was test driving a nice shiny new red Miata. He said he was trying it out for a friend who wanted his opinion. Yeah right.

A friend of mine, let's call him Matt, wants to sell his 1969 Karmann Ghia. If your interested, let me know and I will get you some info.

This would be a fun car for someone like my Dad to have in his driveway. Hint, hint.

Here is the contest.

Here is my entry.

Mmmm, cookie!

There is a cookie monster living in my house and I think it is me.

Tonight I had two of the last three chocolate chip cookies. Yum. This weekend I am pretty sure I had the last chocolate chip cookie. Last week I know I had the last three oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. From the weekend before, I recall peanut butter cookies with Hersies Kisses on top, and then chocolate chip cookies again earlier that week.

No wonder it is time to go on a diet. I will probably wait til we run out of cookies though.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me,
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me,
'cause cookie, cookie, cookie stands for C.

Oh Yes Wyoming!

I read this week that only 1% percent of people online generate content. I am part of that 1%.

I am also proud that my content is part of the 90% as noted by Sturgeon's Law.

I sent a photo into this contest. Look for a picture of my car. I have already picked out my prize. I will win of course.

I have had two more naps since I mentioned napping a few days ago. As far as I can tell, I haven't been getting less sleep, but I sure have been tired lately. Perhaps it is the heat wave.

2006 Volkswagen - Bug'n in July Car Show

Today's car show was probably the best one I have been to this year. The show consisted of all Volkswagens and the car count was probably around fifty or just under.

There were a couple of resto-mods there, one had been featured in a magazine, a couple of Karmann Ghias, a few new Beetles, but by far the major of the cars where all old style beetles.

There were no split windows (1953 and older), but there were 3 ovals windows(1953-1957). One of the ovals was looking for a new owner. The car was unrestored, but most of the original stuff was still there. The guy was looking for an offer, any offer. The engine was intact but seized up. I am sure he will find someone to take the car home with him. One guy standing there said he already had 9 Beetles at home. The seller assured him he needed a nice even ten to complete his collection of projects. Hopefully that car will find a good home.

The other two ovals, a red one and a white one, were both restored. The red one was nice, the white one was incredible. Someone had obviously put a lot of time into it.

On the way out I talked to a guy that was trying to sell a 1967 White Beetle. He wanted $300 for the car. I tried to convince Mr. Wallen that this time share opportunity was too good to pass up. He only had $20 so we kept walking.

The show was at Point Mallard in Decatur. It was two days long and was being held under the large pavilion. Being under cover was nice, because it finally rained today after what seems like months. The temperature was about perfect today, amazing considering it was July.

If your interested in a VW time share, just let me know. I think I could store it in garage in front of the Miata. Of course the truck cab would have to move out to the shop.

Sleep deficit?

Today when I got home, I sat down on the sofa and fell asleep.

Yesterday when I got home, I sat down on the sofa and fell asleep.

Last Friday, if you may recall, when I got home I sat down on the sofa and fell asleep.

And the best part, is that I didn't have trouble sleeping later that night. Now if I could just figure out why I seem to be needing more sleep lately. Perhaps it is from riding around in the Miata in 100 degree heat.

Did I ever tell you about the big orange sofa I had in my apartment after graduating from college. I was nearly 2 miles long and extremely awesome for napping.

Shiney Red Boot

This weekend while I was doing nothing, I decided to have another go at improving the appearance of the Miata trunk lid. Ultimately I would like to get the car repainted next spring but in the mean time I was just trying to cover up some primer that had surfaced. The wind alone was the culprit for the exposed primer on the boot.

The first step was to wet sand off the remaining primer from the last attempt. I don't know what went wrong, but I ended up with a horrible mess. The clear had wrinkled up badly. This took about 45 minutes. I used 5 grits of paper attempting to be careful not to sand through any of the base coat. I did have one blowout about the size of a nickle. No worries though.

I applied 4 medium coats of clear. I think I was using rustolem, but I don't recall for sure. So far so good. I did all the work in the garage with the door up. I ended up with a few dust particles in the paint and a couple of drips (not runs) from the paint can nozzle. The surface has good color and is fairly smooth with the few exceptions I already mentioned. A little time wet sanding should remove the orange peel. Good Job. I think when I am done it will actually look better than the bonnet.

Yeah, yeah, I never can remember which is which. Boot and bonnet. I had to look it up to verify I was using them correctly.

102

Last night as I was driving to school, the weather man on the radio reported the temperature to be 99 F with a heat index of 102. Nice evening to have the top down. Actually it wasn't so bad with the car moving while the sun wasn't shining on me directly.

Forecast for the rest of the week: hotter.

A friend called this evening to tell me it was all my fault. Today he bought a 1966 Mustang convertible off of Ebay. Straight six, three speed. The car is currently near Syracuse, New York but will soon be coming to North Alabama.

If you need someone to talk you into buying something you will probably buy anyway, give me a call and I will talk you into it, but remember if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, that doesn't necessarily make it my fault. After all, a horse by any other name is still a horse of a different colour.

A horse is a horse of course of course,
Unless it's of course a talking horse.
A talking horse, of course of course,
It must be a pony car.

Today it was hot. A friend made one of those trite comments comparing the temperature and that of Hades. Those were not his exact words. I mentioned that while the temperature was about right, the smell was all wrong. I am pretty sure hell smells like McDonald's hambugers. I worked at the Golden Hiney for a couple of years in HS and I am pretty sure I know what hell would be like. And yes, I do believe everyone will be wearing brown polyester pants.

The last time I was as hot as today was just a couple of weeks ago, around July 4 when I was out in the driveway sandblasting. A few of the pieces I blasted that day haven't been painted yet. Unfortunatly two of them already have a couple of rust spots on them. I am pretty sure it is where sweat dripped on them.

Nothing

The family has gone to Maryland for the weekend. I am here.

Yesterday when I got back from Mobile, I unpacked and then sat down on the sofa were I promptly feel asleep. An hour later I was ready. Ready.

I had no idea what I would do all weekend. Nothing. I eventually made up my mind. Nothing. Or pretty close to nothing.

I did make a few exceptions to my plan to do nothing. I worked on the truck a little. I may even do it again tomorrow, if my plan to do nothing doesn't get in the way.

Nothing.

Mobile, Alabama

Here I am, here I am, here I am.

Early Wednesday morning I left Huntsville heading down here, to Mobile for work related purposes. Yee haw!

I drove the Miata, but I left the top up. The was already hot when I was loading up the enormous trunk of the Miata, so I decided top-up was probably required for most of the trip. Plus I didn't want to turn into a lobster. Plus I had to work when I got here so it probably wouldn't do to be all sweaty.

Wednesday turned out to include almost a full day of work after making the 6+ hour drive. Today included a 13 hour work day.

How was the food? I had a pretty good shrimp po-boy at lunch but the restuarant name was probably not worth remembering. For Dinner I dined with the King. Burger King.

This is not the worst hotel I have stayed in either. Though it definitly ranks second. Rank. Ha!

I got on the sloop John B. All that moaning reminded me of the song.

Hopefully the weather will allow a little top down time on the drive home. We'll see.

I got 30+ MPG on the way down. Probably because it was down hill (south) all the way here.

After about five minutes, this entry was still zero words long. And five minutes later, more of the same.