Invited some friends over tonight for grilling and chilling. Grilled some steak, bell peppers, tomatoes. Mmmmm

Merry Christmas

I finally got around to putting together the Christmas tree this afternoon. Yes, it's fake, but that minimizes the number of needles I have to vacuum up right? After assembly was complete, I made a trip to the store to buy some lights and ornaments. Having waited until December 11 to get started, the lights and ornaments were pretty well picked over. I managed to acquire just enough multi-colored lights to create a nice glow. Unfortunately I forgot to get hooks so none of the decorations are hanging yet. Guess that will wait until tomorrow.

Moontown Fly In

Bri and I attended the annual Moontown Fly-In this weekend. Had we not run out of time, she might have gotten her feet off the ground. She said she didn't necessarily feel like she was tied to the ground.

So I meant to post some copy with those last three photos but like so many things I never I got around to it.

Weekend Update

Saturday David M. and I drove up to Scottsboro to purchase some hardwood for the next couple of projects. We ended up buying some Leopard and Purple Heart. Both should make some spectacular boxes. Danny's next project will be from cedar. I already have a stash of cedar in the room above the garage so we didn't pick up any cedar at The Hardwood Center.

For Saturday afternoon the plan had been to drive up to Colombia, TN to ride the (model) trains but that little adventure was rained out again. I believe that was the third time in a row we planned to make that trip only to have it rain.

The previous photos show a piece of white oak joined with a piece of MDF, a photo of Danny using the joint jig we purchased back in the spring. Yes, that is the Morris in the background. The last photo is a shot of a weather balloon rising from Green Mountain in South Huntsville.

GMC Update: I painted the drive shaft this week.

And the Chainsaw! There I mentioned it, but it is not really news until I finish it.

Fly-In/Car Show

Saturday morning I drove over to Big Ed's Pizza. The local British Automobile club was meeting there and then driving out to the Moontown airport for the fly-in. The route was a nice scenic route over Monte Sano which included several miles of tree lined roads. The cars included several MG from various decades, the same Jag E-type I saw last week, Ernie's Fiat Spider, a Sunbeam Tiger, a Karman Ghia, a Volvo, and various German air cooled vehicles. In all there were probably about 30 and I am certain I left out a few very interesting cars.

The fly-in was pretty awesome. Lots of cool planes - old, new, single wing, bi-plane, etc. It was fascinating to watch them take-off, land, and fly by. The older planes were the most intriguing.

Last week I made the mistake of going to the car show with a dead battery in my camera. This week I did not make the same mistake. Instead my memory car was full. I wonder what my next trick will be?

I had such a great time on the drive-out, I was seriously considering joining the Brit. car club. There I was surrounded by a bunch of cool convertibles, driving my Miata! I told one of them it was an Austin. Next time maybe the Morris will be road worthy. In the midst of all this I met yet another guy from Rocket City Miata club. He attempted to recruit me for their club as well. I have been intending to join it but they meetings typically occur on a might I am busy. It turns out they are currently meeting on a night that I am free. Hmmm.

Labor Day Weekend

I started the long weekend with a quick trip to Florence to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel with John D. I also spent some time at has parents house visiting with his wife, kids, and mother. Great time.

From there I went by Danny's project house in Rogersville. The painting was complete by the time I arrived so I twisted his arm into taking the boat out on the Tennessee River. We were on the water no more than 10 minutes when we got hit hard by the rain. We had been watching it approach from the west but were oblivious to it also rolling in from the south. We were completely soaked by the time we got the boat back into the slip. Good times.

Because this post is a week overdue, I can't recall what I did the rest of the weekend. Something fun, I'm sure.

Roger's Day Out

Today we took the Morris to a Euro-Brit car show. Lots of Triumphs, MGs, Austin Healeys and Volkswagens. Quite a few Range Rovers, Minis and Porsches. On Ferrari, one Lotus, and one Morris.

The trip, fewer than 10 miles, to the show was uneventful. That is until I stopped for parking directions. At that point Roger refused to start. That has not happened before (when I had gas in the tank – I have already run out twice because the fuel gauge doesn’t work). Fortunately the car is British so no one was surprised when it wouldn’t start.

I popped the bonnet and a bunch of guys leaned in under the hood. These guys were great. And knowledgeable. And prepared. After checking to make sure there was fuel, they checked for spark. The spark was weak. Eventually they had replaced the distributor cap, the rotor cap, and the spark plugs. And Roger was alive again. The amazing part was that they had all these parts with them. And more.

I got the name of the guy that supplied all the parts so I could replace them. I also learned a lot through the process. Basically the car didn’t want to start because the spark was weak – it basically needed a tune up. The weak spark alone was not the problem. The plugs were also really dirty. The plugs were dirty because the car was running rich. And the car was running rich because the electric fuel pump was the wrong part.

Normally these cars have mechanical fuel pumps but they often get replaced with electronic equivalents. The problem was that this one pushes about 5-7 pounds of pressure where the carburetor only needs about 2 pounds. The increased gas pressure basically forces gas through the carb which is what has been causing the car to run rich. This all made complete sense, after it was explained.

The car has been running rich. I had been studying how to tune the carb in order to correct the problem. Using the instructions from my manual, I had tuned the carb down as lean as possible. I was baffled as to why it was running so rich. Now we know. We also know I need to replace the fuel pump. (One of the guys even offered to loan me one.)

I also found out that as the distributor wears out the car loses power at medium to high RPMs. I would say that based on this knowledge I would say my distributor was well worn. The car definitely felt peppier after the meta-tune-up.

And finally I received lots of good advice I plan to follow:

0. Replace the fuel pump. Soon.

1. Finish the tuneup. Replace the plug wires, the condenser, the coil, etc.

2. Carry some spare parts in the boot. Extra plugs, distributor cap, rotor cap. The parts are cheap and don’t take up much space.

3. Buy some extra tools and leave them in the boot as well. With a Harbor Freight nearby, I think I can accomplish this for about $20.

One of guys in my neighborhood invited me to this car show. I already knew about it and planned to attend. I had talked with him about my carburetor already. He was at the show and had brought me a copy of a tuneup guide for my carburetor. (Did I mention these guys were all really helpful.) Ernie is a very interesting and knowledgeable guy. He is also a Fiat guy. I believe he has 4 Fiats, maybe 5, 3 are convertibles. At least one is a parts car. He also has a couple of 1967 Datsun 1600s which are also convertibles and which I think are pretty awesome cars – I mentioned one in a post several years ago when I first saw one in a salvage yard. Most of his cars are still in the project stage and I suspect he is actually working on all of them. (And he is an accomplished brew master.)

Last night the local Euro-Brit car club went on a drive. I had wanted to attend but I was pretty sure Roger wasn’t up to it. It is a good thing I didn’t attempt the drive. Hopefully we will be up to it next year.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable day, even with the breakdown. The kids went with me and I think they had a pretty good time as well.

Mid-South Live Steamers

My backup plans for the day involved a trip to Columbia, Tennessee to see/ride the trains. Unfortunately the weather prediction there involves 100% chance of thunder storms. This is the second time in a row I canceled this trip due to rain. Checkout the pictures of previous events.

PyCon[2010]

I was in Atlanta Thursday through Sunday attending PyCon 2010. It was a great conference. I learned a lot, had a good time, and enjoyed some good food with great people.

Not So Handyman

OK, I got around to the oven today. Long-long-long story short, the oven now works though I tried really hard to mess it up. Now that the oven is functional, I believe I will be making some biscuits in the not so distant future (Saturday).

And in other news, I put the freshly charged battery back in the Miata today and it started just fine so I went out for a while. And then when I got back home, I left the headlights on. Doh! I discovered this about an hour later. Hopefully it will stick crank on ... Tuesday.

All the signs indicate that today was a very bad day for me to try to be useful. Indeed, I did not try to fix anything else. I believe this was a prudent move on my part.

Errh, Errh, Errh

...is the sound your car makes when the battery is mostly dead.

Sunday afternoon the Miata needed to go out for a while. It hadn't moved in a couple of weeks but I was still a little surprised when I put the key in and turned it only to hear the motor go errh, errh.

Being determined to roll, I jump started the Miata and all was good, that is until Friday morning when I tried to start it again. This time it only went errh. Since I was on my way to the office, I left it be and drove the Charger in that day.

So this morning it occurs to me there are twothree things I need to do today: 1) replace the battery in the Miata, 2) install the oven element that finally arrived, and 3) take a nap.

Replacing the Miata battery turned into a magical mystery tour. It turns out the battery is different. Three stops and I had not found one. At the third stop, they did offer to test it for me. According to the technician, the battery was just under charged. A good trickle charge and it should be ready to go. Hmmm.

I assumed the battery was dead and needed to be replaced because it is old. This is the battery that was in the car when I purchased it almost 6 years ago. I also assumed the recent cold snap had finished it off. It also probably didn't help that the car had only been run about once a week for the last month or so.

So I brought the battery back home and put it on the charger, which I probably should have done in the first place if it hadn't been so old, and so cold. Tomorrow I will put it back in the Miata. Hopefully next week it will still be fine. If not I will have them order me a battery.

Only two of the three items on my list got tackled today. I got my nap in as well.

Mundane Post #1109

A nice three day weekend. School has been keeping me busy.

Today I tried to catch up on some of the chores that needed to be done. Really exciting stuff like replacing a toilet and a door frame. The plumbing task is complete but the door still needs a little work.

The oil and plugs in the Miata were replaced this weekend, the odometer reading 111k miles. Filling up the tank today produced a a result of 31 mpg.

The garden is still producing tomatoes, peppers, okra, and cantaloupes thought it is mostly unattended.

I just completed a nice box made from black walnut and cherry sapwood. Perhaps that is premature, it still needs to be oiled.

2009 Greater Tennessee Valley Antique Car Show

This weekend was the big car show of year. The location this year was at Point Mallard in Decatur. The show seemed smaller this year but it was still very large. (I heard there were over 700 cars but I didn't bother to try to count them.)

I didn't have a vehicle that was road worthy this year so I hitched a ride with my neighbor Brian in his '66 Mustang. We took some chairs, a large canopy, and a cooler and made a day of it.

This was my favorite car this year. Reminds me of my first car, only it was a '76 Mercury and it was yellow.

My neighbor Brian completely out did himself for the 4th of July. Big party, lots of neighbors and the most incredible non-professional fire work show I have ever seen. Happy 4th.

Hiking on Monte Sano

Friday AM I went for a hike on Monte Sano Mountain. Our (David M. and myself) destination was the cuts. This is a pretty cool site on the top of a ridge that is basically a split in a large rock. It is probably about 30 or 40 yards total in length including a decent cave.

It had rained a reasonable amount on Friday so the trails were fairly damp. Downright muddy in some spots.

Having not hiked this particular trail in 13 or 14 years I surprised myself to be able to find the destination without a map. The trek required making the correct turn at about 5 forks in the trail. Even more surprising was that I believe I accidentally took the shortest route. Amazing!

Laugh Out Loud

The very same day I planted my garden, I spotted a rabbit in the back yard and put up a chicken wire fence around the garden to keep the bunnies out.

Today I noticed something new. A little hole covered with grass clippings and bunny fur. And inside the hole are three (or more) little gray bunnies. I didn't notice the bunny clutch on Saturday when I was trimming the grass around the garden so I suspect the bunnies are less than 3 days old.

Did I mention the nest is on the inside of the fence? {Cue Laughter}

OK, I have now re-routed the fence to place the bunnies back on the outside. I also battened down the fence in the spot where I suspect the momma bunny may have accessed the garden interior (and cabbage).

On a related note, my cabbage took on the appearance of Swiss cheese almost over night. By that I mean holey. Today I sprayed some pesticide on it and the okra. After spraying the cabbage, several worms crawled out into sight on each cabbage plant. After inspecting each plant and counting the worms, I gave up on the cabbage, pulled them all from the ground and tossed them into the woods so the bunnies could feast tonight. I had been needing to thin the garden in that area anyway to make room for the ever expanding squash and cucumber vines. I don't think I will be planting cabbage again.

I mentioned the okra was also sprayed. The okra has aphids. I didn't notice the aphids, but I did spot the ants which were apparently feasting on the aphids. Hopefully the pesticide will clear that up whole mess. Once the aphids are gone, the ants will leave too as they don't really care for okra - boiled or fried.

Alabama Jubilee

Yesterday J and I went to a car show at Alabama Jubilee in Decatur. The jubilee is an annual hot air balloon rally. Also included is the car show, a antique tractor show, and some other stuff that currently holds no interest for me. This event falls on the weekend Memorial day each year.

J agreed to the car show under a single condition. He wanted to take pictures of the cars. No problem. He did a great job with the camera and we came home with lots of good pictures.

While at the show, I saw a 1968 Corvette convertible, triple black, which was for sale. The price was reasonable as well. I have been thinking about it.

Today was a wonderful day to be outside.

I drove over the Athens this morning (in the freshly painted Miata) to attend Cars on the Square. It was a really nice show centered around the old downtown square. It was a really big show considering it was only its second year. I ran into several folks I knew while I was there. I also looked over several old Corvettes with for sale signs in their windows. All in all, it was a very pleasant morning.

During the afternoon I finished planting the garden. I added cantaloupe, okra, cucumbers and more corn. For a small garden, I definitely over-planted. I will have to thin it out some once I see which plants are strong.

Ouch!

I forgot to mention I shot myself in the finger yesterday with a nail gun. Fortunately it wasn't loaded but it still hurt. A lot. And it still does.