Gone Indy

The Indy trip was fun and it just sped by.

This year I omitted some of my usual trip technology.

First I left my laptop at home. The only place I could find a reasonably priced room (< $150/night) back when I booked it in January was at a 2-star Hotel. I knew they would not be providing free Internet access. (The room turned out to be nicer than the 3-star we had last year, though it did cost a few dollars more.)

Second, I left the camera at home. The camera is took big to carry in a pocket and I didn't want to try to wear it on my belt. That works fine when standing walking, but it is a real nuisance when trying to sit.

I did take the GPS. It is used mostly as a novelty but it is nice know how far from home I am at any given time.

I also took my SanDisk MP3 player. It is small and will easily fit in a pocket. The great benefit here is that it is also an FM radio. The race track broadcasts the announcer on 100.10 FM so having a radio and ear plugs makes it easier to hear what is going on even when the noise level is up. Taking the radio was a good call. It was definitely easier to keep up with what was going on.

I also took my TI calculator. I have a Modern Abstract Algebra test this Thursday so I had some studying to do. Believe it or not, I probably got more homework done than I would have had I stayed at home. Besides the motor sport events and dining out, there were not really too many other things to distract me thus allowing me to procrastinate.

Last night Jordan told me he wanted to be a race car driver. Me too. Unfortunately we are probably both too old to get started now. It seems kids today get started at about the age of 3 or 4.

Perhaps later I will tell you about my hotel bath tub.

Road Trip

I am heading north to Indianapolis today. The main event, the US GP, is not until Sunday. Tomorrow will be full day including F1 qualifying and several other racing events.

If your watching the race on Sunday, look for me in the drivers seat of the car sitting at pole.

Yesterday I acquired a tag for the 1925 Chevy. The tag is an Alabama Vintage Vehicle tag. The great thing about this tag is that it does not need to be renewed. And I only had to stand in line about 20 minutes. Not to bad.

Last night I decided to take it out for a trip around the neighborhood. After a few laps I stopped at a friends house to chat a bit.

When it was time to head home I started it up, drove it about 50 yards and then it sputtered and died. Out of gas!

Fortunately I was at the top of the hill and could coast home. Unfortunately I had to coast home backwards.

Raving's Of A Mad Man

A friend of mine thinks he has something to say. No pressure Danny.

http:\\dannysravings.blogspot.com

Statehood Quarters

Like many other folks, I am collecting one of each mint of the "50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act". Here in the south, we mostly see quarters with the Philadelphia, 'P', mint mark.

If you are collecting quarters as well, let me know what you need. We can work out a quarter swap. If your not collecting but would like to help me out, let me know what you have available and I will gladly send you back cash to cover the quarter and the cost of postage.

Below is a list of quarters that I still need. For completeness, I went ahead and listed the quarters that have not yet been released.

The quarters don't need to be perfect, but I would prefer that they be fairly shiny and mostly scratch free.

2001
Kentucky-D

2002
Ohio-D
Mississippi-D

2004
Michigan-D
Florida-D
Wisconsin-D

2005
California-D
Minnesota-D
West Virginia-D

2006
North Dakota-P
North Dakota-D

2007
Montana-D
Washington-D
Idaho-P
Idaho-D
Wyoming-P
Wyoming-D
Utah-P
Utah-D

2008
Oklahoma-P
Oklahoma-D
New Mexico-P
New Mexico-D
Arizona-P
Arizona-D
Alaska-P
Alaska-D
Hawaii-P
Hawaii-D

2007 US Grand Prix

This coming weekend if the F1 US Grand Prix. I will be heading out Friday for Indy. I am looking forward to the trip. This has been a great season for Formula One. I believe this will be my fourth F1 race.

Friday is a practice session. It is usually on TV before I leave AL so I will definitely miss it. Saturday AM there is typically another practices session followed by qualifying at around 1:00 PM or so. Typically there are several other races that day. And a car show on the back straight away.

Sunday is the F1 race. I think it is at 1:30 PM eastern.

Who wants a T-shirt?

GMC Differential Woes

This evening I decided to clean up the rear differential housing for the GMC. It seems like I have been on the verge of this chore for months but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I hadn't done it. Then I looked at my blog. Oh yeah, I was working.

The great thing about the blog is that I can forget what I have been doing and still have a record of it.

First I had to beat out the bear chases for the pinion. I used a 24" piece of rebar and a framing hammer. The next step would have been either removing the wheel bearings and seals and then finally I would begin the de-grunging process.

At this point I noticed something that derailed the process. I was looking at the bottom of the differential housing when I noticed what appeared to be a weld. Having never really looked closely at the bottom on the housing, I inspected it further. And then I looked inside.

The differential housing had apparently been broken at one point and the hole was big enough to put a baseball through it. The broken piece had then been welded back into place. I could imagine this had probably been done after dark one fall evening in the front yard of a single-wide.

Perhaps this was the location of the leak resulted in the differential only having about a quart of fluid in it. Perhaps.

Regardless, I think it is time to hit the salvage yards and attempt to locate a replacement GM 12 bolt housing. The complete carrier assembly is fine.

My guess is the 12 both was originally a locker. At some point it "blew up" resulting in a cracked housing and the total annihilation of the carrier. The housing was welded back and a replacement carrier was dropped in.

According to the code stamped on the axle, the differential was originally a 1/2 ton 3.73:1 from a 1972 pickup, so the housing is probably original. The gears I found inside were 3.07:1. I like the 3.07:1 ratio because it will provide better MPG at highway speeds.

It will probably be a few weeks before I can round up another diff housing. I already have plans for the next few weekends.

She's Alive

Yesterday I got the turnip truck running. As was suspected, the carburetor needed to be cleaned. There were three holes that were completely clogged. One being the jet, of course they must all be clear for the Carter RX-O carburetor to function correctly.

After getting the truck going, I gave everyone a ride around the neighbor hood. Everyone who saw the truck, stopped and waved.

Props: My neighbor helped with getting the truck running and loaned me the use of his parts washer for a couple of hours to clean some varnish out of the carb. Thanks. He has decided that he likes the truck and even offered to buy it from me at a significant loss. Ginger nixed that deal.

Vital Statistics

The truck is a 1925 Superior series. The engine is a 4 cylinder, approximately 120 cubic inches, producing about 20 horse power.

The truck is approximately 13 feet long and 6 feet wide. At its highest point, it is just over 7 foot. My garage door is just under 7 foot. No problem though, just have someone sit in the back while rolling it through the door.

I am the 5th owner.

The truck has been sitting in a warehouse for about 2 years. It rolled in under its own power. It was pushed out. The gas had turned to varnish.

So far the battery has been replaced and the gas tank drained. The plugs look OK. The carburetor needs to be cleaned and it should be good to go.

Get in line for a ride. The queue getting long.

1925 Chevrolet Truck

Look what followed me home.

Today I was asked if I had finished up the timing belt on the Miata yet? By someone who said they read my blog. Didn't I mention that on Sunday? Oh, yeah, there it is. Everything is back together and running fine.

Today I did something a little on the crazy side. More on that tomorrow.

I wish I could add words to Bloggers spell checker dictionary. It doesn't like Miata. Instead it suggests: "Mia Ta", "Mata", "Marta", and "Moat".

I recall sitting down last night to write something for the blog. Where did it go?

I found out today that my sister is famous. Jordan told me so. "Haven't you seen all the billboards and pictures?"

School started back last Thursday. Someone needs to do their homework, tomorrow.

Perfect Timing

Between a couple of hours on Saturday and another four today, the Miata timing belt is now back in place. Woo hoo! Along with the timing belt, I replaced the water pump, and the auxilary belts. I also attempted to repair the radiator mounting brackets using JB Weld.

The car cranked and ran smoothly on the first try. Ok, their was one little problem. I left the alternator belt a little loose and it made a nice squealing noise. That was easily corrected though.

I drove it around the neighborhood to check things out. Everything looks good. Only one thing left to do, the gas tank is empty.

David's is a few hours behind mine. We will probably finish it up tomorrow night.

I did not track how many hours I spent on this project, but I suspect it is approximately 10. Maybe more.

Today was Jordan's last day of school (3rd grade). Tomorrow the kids start summer care. So much for a good old fashioned summer.

Today was also my first day of summer classes. The class meets for 4 hours once a week. I was already brain dead after a mere 18 minutes.

No progress on the Miata timing belt today.

I stopped by the Miata dealership this afternoon to pick up the replacement timing belt crankshaft sprocket. $34.

Later in the evening I spent a couple of hours working on reassembling the car. It took about 20 seconds to put the sprocket back on and another 2 hours to accomplish absolutely nothing. Apparently putting a timing belt back on a Miata is a three handed job, something about valve springs causing the cams to want to rotate a few degrees off of where I want them to be. Fortunately it will all wait until the weekend. End the mean time I will concentrate on growing another arm.


Yesterday the Differential Rebuilding DVD arrived from SmartFlix. I watched it last night. The video was excellent. It answered all my questions and then some. No more mysteries hidden in the differential.


I helped a friend setup his new blog on Tuesday. I am still waiting on that first post Danny!

Today Brianna graduated from kindergarten. She was at the top of her class. Actually, she was the tallest in the class. Tomorrow she begins looking for gainful employment.

The sprinkler didn't take much time. Ginger did most of the digging and I did the electrical work. No plumbing required!

We went to see the 11:00 AM showing of Shrek. Perhaps we should have seen Pirates III instead. Afterwards we went to Casa Blanca for for lunch and then home for a nap.

Later we all played basketball.

And then I watered a dead tree. Ok, mostly dead. Five of them.

I could certainly get use to four day weekends. Today's plans is nothing. Now let me catch you up on the last few days.

I started Friday by rotating the tires on the Charger (7500 miles). I had to replace a few lugs on the front tire. They were deformed and I couldn't get the proper size wrench on them. This was the first tire rotation for the car, but I have had two flats already. My theory on the lugs is that someone had applied the wrong size socket to those lugs using an air gun. Gotta love that.

A simple tire rotation ended up taking almost two hours. That included a parts run for lugs.

Once that was complete, I met G', Bri, and David M. for lunch before heading back home to start work on changing the Miata's timing belt. David parked his Miata nose to nose with mine and we got to work. His car is a 92 with the 1.6L; mine is a 95 with the 1.8L. At first glance they are very similar but as things progress one really starts to notice the differences: Air box, thermostat housing, alternator brackets.

After a few hours I had to call it quits for the day. I estimated we were 30% done, David thought we were closer to 50%. At this point I had drained and removed, the radiator, removed the dual electric fans, the valve cover, the three plates covering the timing belt.

Next up for the day was helping Beth lock up her new house. She needed all the locks changed. First we went to the house to inventory what we needed. Next we dropped David off at his house. He was at our mercy for a lift since he no longer has a functional Miata. Step three involved finding a set of door knobs and dead bolts that matched the others in the house. We managed to find three out of four sets with matching keys. The key dude had already left for the day so she would need to make a return trip to get the remaining set to match the first three. This expedition ended with me be dropped off at home so that Beth could go pick up her son. Yes, his name is David also.

After grabbing a couple of tools, G' and I headed over to Beth's new house. The goal for today was not to replace all the locks, but simply to replace all the dead bolts. This would be good enough for now, because Ginger and I had other plans, we were going out to dinner at Bone Fish Grill.

Saturday morning David and I planned to start working on the Miatas at 7:30 AM. At about 6:30 AM I was in the getting a head start. I called him a few minutes later to ask if he had a socket. I don't recall if it was a 20 or 21 MM socket, but I didn't have it nor did he.

Yes I called David at 6:30 AM. He is an early bird and there was no risk of waking him up. He was sitting on has back porch drinking coffee.

David hit HD, Lowes, and two parts stores before he found the socket we needed. Fortunately it was only $6.

The socket was required to remove the crankshaft bolt. Having the right tool sure makes the job easier. At this point I could described a misadventure involving removing the timing belt and chipping the timing belt sprocket but no good could come from that so I will omit it.

At 9:15 AM we closed up shop again. I was heading for Decatur for a car show and David had to take care of some stuff he had been volunteered to do. The plan was to open the shop back up at 1 or 2.

The car show was nice though a little warm. My neighbor Brian went with me. While a the car show I saw Ginger's Aunt and Uncle. I saw a 1966 VW Beetle that wanted to follow me home, but I had to leave it there.

By noon I was beat. And about that same time David phoned in to say he had been volunteered for even more stuff and would be able to return until 1 on Sunday. Good for me. I think I took a nap. Then I watched some F1 and re-read the instructions for changing the timing belt. And finally I made a trip to the parts store. I knew going in that I probably wouldn't be able to get the sprocket until Tuesday. Unfortunately it was worse than that. They couldn't get it, so now I have to wait until Tuesday and try the Miata dealership.

Sunday AM started early. Beth had dropped off the other lock on Saturday morning. I skipped Church to finish up lock smithing and then returned home to assembled a basket ball goal we got Jordan for his Birthday.

At one I re-opened the Garage. At two David showed up with reinforcements (Bryant). On a Miata the power steering pump has to be removed to swap out the water pump. On a 95 Miata, the alternator must also be disconnected.

My plan for today was to show David how difficult it was going to be to replace the water pump. I would eventually convince him it was not necessary and once he had had made this decision, I would then try to convince him how important it was to change the water pump. Mind games. Ha!

The water pump swap went smoothly. At this point there were a few things I could put back together but basically I am stuck until I get the sprocket. Best case for that is Tuesday.

David has a hose he needs to replace. The parts store was no help on this one either. He needs the OEM part also.

It is looking like neither car will be running again before next weekend.

Today's plan was to do nothing. Ginger thinks the broken sprinkler needs to be fixed. These two plans don't coexist very well. I guess I will look at the sprinkler in hopes of switching back to my plan ASAP.

5...4...3...2...1

And we're back. Ten days since the last post. How did that happen? Here is a quick summary: Work, Work, Work, G's grandfather passed away.

A friend of mine, one of the many Davids that I know, recommended that everytime I have a 3 day weekend, I should burn a vacation day and have a four day weekend. Sounds like a good plan to me. And here I sit staring at a four day weekend.

Here is a partial list of plans for the weekend:

1. Replace two timing belts in two Miatas.

2. Replace all the exterior door locks in a house a friend of ours is closing on today.

3. Classic Car Show at Alabama Jubilee. Maybe the antique tractor show also.

4. Take G' out to dinner without the children.

That is my list for today and tomorrow morning. After that who knows.

the unwanted Miata Mod

I finally got around to putting the Miata up on jack stands. It appears that a plastic shroud got cracked and several nice scrapes run most of the length of the undercarriage. Fortunately nothing so bad as to put the car out of commission.

But, then I took it for a drive. And something was different. The car was louder. Yes, it now has an exhaust leak. It sounded pretty cool for about 12 seconds then it got old.

Next step: track down the noise and nip it in the bud.

Morning Break

I was hoping to be caught up by now so I could take the weekend off. No such luck.

I am currently camping out at the kitchen table with a laptop and a coffee cup that says "Dad" and has a picture of a 1966 Ford Mustang Convertible on it. I believe that is as close as I will be getting to either of the car shows today.

I have been remiss about posting for the last little something something. Several topics have crossed my mind though I have lost most of them. C'est la vie! One did pop into my mind a few minutes ago though so here we are.

One day this week, I believe it was Wednesday, I was heading back to work after having lunch at Vinnie's Indian Cuisine. I was cruzin' up Jordan Lane behind a over sized 4x4 pickup. I was probably too close to the truck ahead of me and there was a Caddy in the right lane next to me. Quicker than you can shake a stick (What does that mean anyway?)... Before I can brake, I have run over a large rock that the pickup ahead of me went over. Fortunately for him, he had plenty of ground clearance. The Miata however does not have much clearance. This rock was fairly large. I would describe it as roughly the size of a shoe box. I saw it but did not have time to react. The rock went right under the car. I felt the car rise on its suspension. It was quite a bump and I heard the sound of rock rubbing on metal as it went from the front all the way to the back.

This provided a very queasy feeling to the driver of the car, yours truly. I watched in the rear view mirror as the rock rolled down the street and the Accord behind me swerved into the lane of oncoming traffic to avoid it. Fortunately for him there was no actual oncoming traffic.

At this point I started nervously looking for smoke or any signs of fluid loss on the gauges or in the road behind me. My instinct was to go back and get the rock out of the road but there was not a good place to turn around. Also I felt I needed to get the little red car home before it quit, just in case. Hopefully one of the guys working road construction retrieved the rock before it caused any damage to anyone else's car.

Once the car was parked, I looked underneath for any drips. Nothing to be seen. The car has moved since then. I don't really feel good about driving it until I inspect it underneath. I want to make sure I don't have a cracked oil pan or a damaged fuel line, etc.

I have high hopes that there is no real damage other than a few minor scrapes on the underside. High hopes aside, I am not going to drive it again until I have verified this to be true. Three days later and there are still no leaks so I would take that as a good sign.

The Spanish Grand Prix is this weekend. Speed Channel, 6:30 AM on Sunday. My Tivo is ready to go.

Gotta get back to the code now.

Gravy Train

Not to be confused with Crazy Train.

Have a Cigar - Pink Floyd

Come in here, Dear boy, have a cigar.
You're gonna go far,
You're gonna fly high,
You're never gonna die,
You're gonna make it, if you try;
They're gonna love you.
Well I've always had a deep respect,
And I mean that most sincer.
The band is just fantastic,
that is really what I think.
Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.

We're just knocked out.
We heard about the sell out.
You gotta get an album out.
You owe it to the people.
We're so happy we can hardly count.
Everybody else is just green,
Have you seen the chart?
It's a hell of a start,
It could be made into a monster
If we all pull together as a team.

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.

Thirteen

...days ago I received an email announcing that my bentonite and clay had arrived and was ready for pickup. I was pretty busy at the time so it took me a week to get "a round tuit". The clay has now been waiting patiently in my garage for about a week. I suspect it has a few more weeks of waiting.

The diff has been in pieces for a few weeks. My next goal is to clean, paint, and reassemble it. I ordered/rented a video on diff rebuilding to get a few pointers so that I will at least have an idea what I am doing before I start the rebuilding process. A little knowledge can go a long way. Who knows when it will show up. They have a limited supply of DVDs and I am apparrently not first in the queue.

In the mean time, I can begin the de-grundging work on the housing. This is a pretty nasty job, but on the plus side, my list of greasy-grimey-grundgy pieces is getting pretty short. Good vibrations there.

In case your just tuning in, the clay is for making a furnace to do back yard metal casting with an end goal of building a metal lathe. The differential is off a 1972 GMC pickup that I am restoring.

Time to go wake up the kids.

Weekend Update

I have been working a lot lately. Last weekend alone was 22+ hours. Actually that describes several weekends in the last month or so. I promised myself I wouldn't do that again this weekend. I put a maximum limit on this weekend of 12 hours. I was successful if only ever so slightly!

The main reason I was successful was because earlier in the week, my neighbor volunteered to my wife to help me remove some shrubs from our flower bed. I didn't know I needed help, because I didn't know I was going to be doing it.

Yesterday afternoon, during the heat of the day we got started. Using a chain and a Tahoe, we pulled the shrubs from the ground. After egressing from the ground, the root ball had to be attacked with a shovel, pick, hoe, or whatever else was handy to remove the dirt from the roots. This is were we could have used a 50 gallon drum of elbow grease.

In all we removed more than 20 bushes and shrubs. Two of them were 10 feet tall. At this point there is a huge pile of greenery on the curb in front of our house. Luckily the monthly pickup of big stuff is this week, the first full week of the month.

Hopefully next week, I can get back on to the normal schedule and get some work done on the truck. BTW, I found a pretty cool web site called smartflix.com They rent how-to/instructional videos. I found several I would like to see, but the first on my list is "Differential Rebuilding". Yes, that thing is still in the bucket!

It has been 8 days since I gave up aspartame and it has not been easy. Yesterday was the worst. I wanted something to drink and I didn't want water. So I had a bottle of water anyway. Woo hoo was not what I was thinking.

I think it is the caffiene that I miss the most.

Car Season

Well it has certainly been a long weekend. That can only mean one thing. I spent most of it working.

This evening when I got home, my neighbor dropped by to talk about a car show we went to yesterday. Yes, it is car show season again. This summer I hope to visit of a few of them:

1. Cullman - May 13th.
2. Jubilee Ballon Festival. (Cars and Tractors!)
3. The big one at the Delphi Plant. (Several hundred vehicles!)
4. The air cooled VW show. (My favorite show in 2006)
5. WBC

Anymore ?

Warning

The next post was written while watching Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest.

That probably means it is full of lies, misspellings, and bad grammar.

Avast yea matey.

Test Drive

Yesterday was indeed a success. I managed to get the Miata's oil changed. Something weird happened in the process.

For some reason, the oil changing guy sprayed brake cleaner under the hood in the approximate location of the oil filter. A few minutes later he sprayed some water in the same location. I would have suspected they simply washed the filter instead of replacing it, but the mark I put on the filter with a Sharpie was no longer there afterwards. For that reason I think they actually replaced the filter.

Yes, very odd.

I left work Friday about a half hour early to go drive the beamers at the Century BMW Ultimate Drive charity event. I didn't have much time so I only got to drive 3 cars.

1. BMW 328XI - All wheel drive. I drove this one first because when I first got in line the line was about 50 folks long. Because I had just arrived they offered it to me no waiting. I had wanted to drive a 335XI last year, when I drove the 335 but they didn't have one one the lot. The loop was 7.4 miles long. The sun roof was open. I improved the environment by dropping the front windows and turning off the radio. And I pressed the Sport button for the transmission. Zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom. This car was OK, but not for me. It has always been my impression that BMWs are geared fairly low with very responsive brakes. This car matched my previous impression.

2. BMW Z4 Coupe - I took this car next again because it was offered to me while I was still pretty far back in line. I would have preferred the convertible, but all the convertibles were in high demand. The Z4 Couple seemed like a tight fit for little ole me. I again drove with the radio off and the windows down. Unfortunately it had no sun roof. While merging onto I565 I was passed two lanes out by a guy in a 328. Later he told me he hit 135 during this sprint. This part of the loop was essentially an on ramp, about a quarter mile, and then an on ramp. During this drive I was very fortunate not to get hit by some crazy guy driving an older gray Century with a couple of dents in it. For some reason this guy started to swerve over in front of me before realizing I was there. He then swerved back into his lane and locked up his brakes momentarily. The guy behind him nearly rear ended the century. This all happened in a matter of a couple of seconds. All this time I was driving at a constant law abiding speed, sticking to lane 3 of 4. Honest.

Back in line again, I decided to wait for my choice of cars this time. The girl passing out the cars continued to remind us we had time for one more loop. A woman who had been driving all day, literally 7 hours, recommended I go for the 650 convertible. Brian had recommended this car also. I was ready, I was at the front of the line, and the car was driving into the parking lot. Pay dirt! Not so fast. At precisely this moment, a dude walked up that had pre-registered to drive this car. The pre-registered folks had priority. Doh!

They offered me a 750 at this point. I had been eyeing the 750 just because it was so big and I had not been in a car of this magnitude. But I decided to stick to my guns. I was waiting on the 650. And wait I did. At the front of the line. About 15 minutes later the 650 was back. It was mine this time.

3. 650 Convertible. Sweet. Topless, 2 doors, and four seats. This was a very drivable car. At this point Friday afternoons rush hour traffic was in full force.
At every light along the loop I got to sit through one more more light cycles. No worries though, I was stylin' in the big-ole-beamer with the top down and it was a very pleasant 70 F. Again the radio was off. I preferred the peace and quiet over top-forty commercials on the radio. When I returned to the dealer ship, I passed the car to the next guy, who was also the last guy to go out in a car that day. I really enjoyed driving this car.

Had I had the opportunity to drive one more car, I thing I would have gone with the 750 over the other convertibles.

After finishing up the drive, they sent me inside to grab a t-shirt and sign the SUV. They only had L sized shirts remaining. I took one anyway thinking I could give it to Ginger. I also signed the SUV. I looked for Mr. Miata's signature but I didn't find it.

And then I drove home in my shiney red Miata with white racing stripes.

I know you must be concerned that I left work early yesterday. Don't worry about it. I made up for it by putting in a full day today. And tomorrow.

I just saw a link on Digg titled How To Live Comfortably in 96 Sq Ft Of Space (Pics).

And here is a link to the guys web site.

I think these houses all need a tiny garage with a (older) Mini parked inside.

Posts have been somewhat scarce around here lately. I would blame it on work, but work is not the direct cause, it is merely an indirect cause.

The increased amount of work time recently has decreased my extra-curricular activities.

No truck time means no posts about the GMC.

No cruising time, no rambling about the Miata.

No call from the pottery supply store, means no write up about back yard metal casting.

Tomorrow is looking like 70 and a mere 20 percent chance of rain.

Perhaps tomorrow I will write about an oil change for the Miata, or a test drive in a beamer convertible. And the Charger still needs to have the tires rotated.

Four days and counting, No diet drinks. This afternoon I tried a cup of hot peach flavored green tea. How is that for different?

The First Day Is The Hardest

At least I hope so. Having unsweetened tea with lunch was no big deal, but water throughout the day is boring. Sometimes you just want something with a little umph, the Jim Beam burn that you can only get from an ice cold Coca Cola. Unfortunately I don't really recall what that is like. It has been several years since I had a regular cola, and on that occasional is was a little flat. (I don't think you can actually get the Jim Beam burn from Jim Beam.)

Mike mentioned in a comment that he has been hitting the juice bottle. Don't do it man! Fruit juice has more calories per ounce than soda. Sure it is supposed to be good for you too, but if you strictly swap 12 oz. of DP for 12 oz. of juice, you net savings is no good. Now if you swap 6 cans of DP for 5 glasses of water and one bottle of juice your doing OK, but why would anyone want to do that? {End of rhetorical Question}

Back to the water torture. And it's raining today to. That makes my Miata sad.

Aspartame

This morning I decided to give up aspartame. Why? It just seemed like a good idea. Perhaps this will force me to drink more water.

Yesterday I read another one of those scary articles recently that talks about the possible side effects. Basically it said the stuff will make you stupid. Does one need another reason?

Several years ago I gave up regular sodas because I decided I didn't need the extra calories. I generally avoid fruit juice for the same reason. Milk, beer, and wine all belong here also but I occassionaly make exceptions. Actually, I have been having a glass of red wine every night, but it is purely medicinal.

So to recap, no regular sodas, no diet sodas, skip the juice, etc. What does that leave?

Water, coffee, tea. I usually limit myself to two cups of coffee a day, otherwise I get the jitters.

Now it is just water and tea. Unsweetened of course. Unless I am Thomas Pitt BBQ, then one must definitely have the sweet tea, on the rare occassion.

H20. Pretty exciting.

More tea sir? Yes, definitely.

More work.

Work, work, work. Work has been keeping me very busy. Not much else to say. Work, work, work.

Some how I overlooked this one so I will mention it now. I have now had the Charger 1 year, 1 week, and four days.

After a year of driving it, I would say I like it as much or more as I did when I first got it.

The odometer is currently just over 7000 miles.

I have had the Miata for 3 years, and 4 days shy of a month.

I would tell you how long I have had the GMC pickup but Ginger says it does not count as a vehicle simply because it is undriveable. Perhaps I should count the number of truck pieces I have instead.

GMC Update: Last Wednesday I receive a rebuild kit for the rear differential. Hopefully I can get those parts out of the bucket soon.

Summary For iMike

I am home again. The camping trip went well though the weather tried not to co-operate.

For Fridays hike it, we had temperatures in the low 60s. Almost perfect. The hike in was uneventful, except for a broken bottle of pepper sauce at the parking lot.

Friday evenings meal was the traditional ribeye. That was 5 pounds we were definitely willing to hike in.

Saturday we had a thunderstorm. At one point I heard a thunder clap that lasted no less than 30 continous seconds.

A couple guys (David and Alan) went for a hike Saturday morning. They were out when the bottom fell out. Even with parkas, they were totally drenched. The rest of us (myself, Billy, and Chad) hung around camp and kept the fire burning. This was a bit of a challenge at times.

Saturday during the rain storm I had a drip in the tent and a small puddle accumlated. This was resolved by simply tensioning up the rain fly. This is a rookie mistake, so I had no excuse. Chad had a drip problem also. His sleeping bag ended up getting wet. I think he came pretty close to burning the tent instead of packing it out.

Sunday mornings was cold. How cold? Don't know. But it warmed up some before the snow started to fall. The snow changed to sleet and then back to a very heavy wet snow. The view over the gorge was pretty awesome with the heavy snow.

Sunday morning we heard a wild Turkey call. Didn't see it though. Actually other than a few ants, we didn't see any creatures.

We saw one other group of campers. They were hiking in Saturday afternoon during the rain. They were headed for one of the other primitive camp sites. Their destination had been undersireable to us. It did not allow campfires. What is camping without a campfire?

The oven got put to good use. We baked bread, muffins, CC cookies, and brownies. Saturday night we had Jambo and red beans and rice.

The cold weather from this morning stuck with me all day. This evening I was still chilled when we went out for dinner, even though it was a warmer 55 degrees outside.

I had a good weekend and I am glad to be home. I enjoyed a warm shower and a nice nap this afternoon. I bet I will sleep good tonight also.

Three Day Weekend

Yesterday went by very fast. I had a full day for sure. I believe I ace'd the final and as far as I can tell, I managed to acquire everything at Wal-Mart that I needed for the camping trip. I also remembered to purchase the mandatory civil war re-enactment supplies.

At this point everything is packed and I am waiting for my ride.

Camp Oven 3.0 is making the trip again. Check it out. I suppose I should post another picture of it packed down. Don't hold your breathe.

That is all.

Thoughtless

I hadn't put much thought into what I might muse about tonight.

I have a final tomorrow and I just assumed I would procrastinate for a while and then eventually do a little bit of studying eventually giving up and going to be because it was my bedtime, not so much because I was actually done.

I did procrastinate for a while. I could have started the study session when I got home. Looking back on it, had I done so I would have been done by dinner.

I think that perhaps I use my finely honed skill of procrastinating to keep from over doing the studying.

I did finally get out the books around 8:00 PM. By 10:00 I decided I had done enough.

And so here I sit, trying not to use the phrase bloggers block, when it was really just poor planning on my part. I assumed that I simply wouldn't have time to wax poetic tonight. As you can see I was both right and wrong. I had the time but there is nothing poetic about this, eh? [Note to self, look up the etymology of the term 'wax poetic'.]

Tomorrow will be a busy day indeed. Lunch will be a magical mystery tour for sure. After work, I will be heading to Athens to take the final. Following the final will be the traditional after-the-final-Mexican-food dinner. And after filling up on refried beans it is off Wal-Mart for the traditional pre-camping-trip-trip-to-Wal-Mart-gosh-I-can't-believe-it's-midnight-already I need some stuff for the camping trip shopping spree.

And then Friday morning I will venture into the dark recesses of the attic to retrieve my gear so that I can begin packing.

There is only a 40% chance of Thunderstorms on Saturday.

Winter Wonderland

This past week I decided it was time to turn on the sprinkler system. The grass is turning green and I didn't want to be left out.

My neighbor has been reading again. He told me that one long "rain" would be better for the roots than three or four shorter "rain" showers.

Armed with this information, I decided to to reprogram the sprinkler to run one day a week, instead of three. I decided Sundays would be a good day.

Yesterday morning as we were heading out, I noticed the sprinkler had run for the first time. The driveway was wet around the edges. The grass, flowers, shrubs, and some of the lower tree branches were covered with ice. By the time we got back home, the ice had all melted and the water had all dried up. It is a shame I didn't get a pictures of the last freeze of the year.

For the record, it was about 80 the day I reprogrammed the sprinkler.

The Obligatory Friday Post

The weather has been less than desirable for the last couple of days. Cloudy, windy, and 30-50 degrees F. For fifty, it feels pretty cold. The Miata has been screaming to be taken out so that it can show off it's new stripes.

Next weekend I am going camping. I purchased a new MSR cook kit for the trip. Shiney stainless steel is so pretty. Six days until departure.

My mother-in-law is visiting for the weekend. She likes it when I mention her in my blog. Actually I think she is staying a whole week.

I have a final next Thursday and then I will be done with school for 6 weeks I believe. That will be a nice little vacation.

Differential

A 12 bolt GM differential with a 3.07 gear ratio. Forty three teeth on the carrier, 14 on the pinion.

(43/14 = 3.0714285714285714285714285714286)



Insides outside in a bucket.

Ten, Nine, Eight

The count down to the spring camping trip is now under way. Did I forget to mention the camping trip?

It's another one of those trips where we hike into the woods with a back pack full of everything needed to get by for a few days. The head count for this trip appears to be in the neighborhood of 5 or 6. Down from the dozen we had last time. We have one newbie on this trip. He gets to carry the dutch oven and the 14" cast iron skillet.

Several friends have declined the invitation purely because they didn't want to do the hike it. They prefer car camping.

Miata Mods



Racing stripes, tint strip across the top of the windshield, and the style bar. Zoom Miata, zoom.



It appears I am not done after all. I forgot to put the strip on the center section in the back, either side of the tag. And the Mazda badge on the front end.

My Helpers

Copy Cat

After another 5 hours of effort the stripes are complete.

Final opinion: Good enough.

Vent

Today was not a good day for me. It is unfortunate that it happened on a weekend too.

Last night I prepared for todays installation of the stripes by reading everything I could find on the internet regarding vinyl stripe installation. This morning I printed one of the sets of instructions and made a list of all the tools and supplies I would need. Jordan and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up a few things I didn't have: two inch wide painter painters tape, some sharp razor blades, and a spay bottle.

Once back at the house I got started by spending the next hour running a piece of tape from the bottom of the front bumper, up the hood, across the back deck, and down the back bumper. Getting the tape straight is critical because it is used to line up the stipes. If it is not centered and straight, neither are the lines.

At this point I reviewed the instructions yet again and started the installation of a couple of small pieces that go between the top and the front end of the rear deck. So far so good. Next I did the hood and then the trunk.

This is when things started to fall apart. The flat part on the top went fine, but there was a lot of extra vinyl on the outside edge because the linear distance along the outside edge of the stripe was about two inches longs than the linear distance along the inside edge. The heat gun helped a little bit but in the end, I royally messed this piece up.

At this point I went back inside to re-read the internet, specifically the tips and tricks for installing vinyl stuff. Ok, I found one that might work. Unfortunately I also read something I hadn't previously read. (Don't install vinyl stripes on a freshly painted car for at least 180 days so the paint will completely cure. *Sinking feeling*) Back to the garage.

I removed the messed up piece to give it another go. About this time I notice a dirty spot about an inch long and 1/8 inch wide. That is not a dirty spot *four-letter-word*, some of the new paint came off when I removed the vinyl. I am feeling pretty stupid at this point. Why didn't I read that before. I would have gladly waited a few more months. *&^%$#@! Try to cool off. A little touch up paint should do the trick. Hopefully.

After sufficient cooling off time I went ahead with the rear deck. It went better this time but it was still not good enough for my liking.

At this point it is about half done and I am satisfied with half the work I have done. I have enough vinyl to replace the less than perfect pieces again, but probably not enough skill to make it good enough. What to do? What to do?

Perfect timing. Here's Brian and his convertible ready to go for a ride. (No not that Brian, the other Brian.) It was a nice day for a ride but I was distracted. Distracted by the vinyl on the trailing edge of the trunk lid and fearing that if I remove it to try again, I might lose some more paint.

An hour later I am back at home. After a little time and distance it is not looking so bad. I decide to go ahead and install the three inches above the top of the windshield.

The kid have now come outside to ride their bikes. Because Brianna is still new to riding, I asked her to stay away from the Charger. A couple minutes later she is crying. I exit the garage to see what has happened. She was playing follow the leader (on Bikes) with Jordan. Jordan rode through the three foot gap between the Charger and the A/C. Brianna tried to follow and hit the Charger. She was not hurt, but she was upset because she knew she just did what I asked her not to do. The impact put an 18" long scratch down the side of the Charger. I wanted to cry when I saw this. Get over it Rick. It's just a car!

Later after dinner, I showed the mostly striped Miata to Ginger. She said the workmanship was good but she didn't really care for the stripes. My thoughts were just the opposite. I liked the stripes but I am disappointed with the workmanship. Hmm.

I would like a redo on today. On take 2, I think I would skip the stripes, leave the Charger in the garage, and be the caboose in an exciting game of follow the leader on bicyles.

The stripe kit for the Miata arrived today. Dual 8 inch wide white on red. It should be sharp.

I don't know if I will get around to the install this weekend. We will see.

This weekend I dissembled the rear diff of the truck. With one exception. I was unable to get the nut off the pinion. After two days of spring with penetrating oil, I finally manged to loosen it using a two foot breaker bar.

I immediately met the next challenge. The pinion shaft did not want to come out of the diff case. The instructions I had said to lightly tap on the bolt with a brass hammer. I tried taping on it with a framing hammer. No luck. The next day I tried hitting it with the hammer. Still no luck.

What next? Check Google. I finally found some good advice. Get a bigger hammer.

Guess what. A ten pound sledge hammer worked just fine.

Wacky Wednesday

Today I made a return visit to the cardiologist for a stress test.  (I think I failed to mention last weeks visit).  They told me expect to be there between four and six hours.  And I was.  I got to spend quality time on the treadmill, and I managed to catch 40 winks during an MRI.  The MRI took about twenty minutes.  I fell asleep during this no few than four times.  I know this because I woke up four times due to sleep apnea.  *snort*.  Last weeks visit included an echo cardiogram.  That was pretty cool.  I got to see the valves in my heart open and close.

 

I am now taking a pill everyday to lower my blood pressure.  It was down at 138/88 today from last weeks high of 178/114.  I am also taking an alternative remedy for high cholesterol, a glass of red wine every night.  My initial reaction to these new daily chores was less than positive.  It takes me a long time to develop a new habit.  Ok, the wine isn't so bad.  It's just having to remember it.

 

Perhaps I need something for my memory too.

 

 

 

 

Today Brianna achieved a huge milestone.

She can now officially ride her bicycle without training wheels. She can start and stop all by herself. She has been pretty good at balancing for several days now.

She will no longer be forced to practice riding everyday. From now on, riding is completely voluntary.

If your name is GrandMother, please remember to act surprised next week when she shows you her new skill.

This weekend I disassembled the rear differential on the GMC.

The diff only had about 2 cups of fluid in it. Sounds like it had a leak at some point. While I have it apart I am going to sand blast the case and paint it. I will also replace all the bearings and seals, and finally put some fluid in it.

I also got the remaining control arms installed on the front. Had I had a coil spring compressor, I would have also installed the coil springs and the spindles. That will have to wait til next weekend.

Miata Mod

Thursday the Miata got a new mod.

I had a 6" strip of 5% tint installed across the top of the windshield. It looks pretty good. I am considering removing the sun visors now. They just get in the way anyway.

(And there is another mod already in the works.)

Say Cheese

I had the camera out this weekend.

First I took some photos of the rear differential for the GMC. Later I took some more photos of the same diff. This time with all of the inside parts no longer on the inside.

Today I dropped in on Jack. Jack is building an airplane in his shop. I had the camera along to take a few photos. What he has done is amazing. And I have pictures to prove it.

What did I not take pictures of this weekend? I forgot to photograph the Miata with its new paint job. I also meant to take a picture of the kids.

Wait For It

A buccaneer.

How much does it cost a pirate to get his ears pierced?

You Can Call Me Old But You Can't Make Me Grow Up

The results on this weekends F1 race in case you missed it: 1) Kimi, 2) Alonso, 3) Hamilton. Massa was back at 6. Hamilton is a rookie. Hitting the podium was pretty impressive.

I received a message on MySpace today from a guy I went to high school with. Where oh where did the last twenty years go? And he accused me of being old.

That is just not right. And on a day I am feeling oh so fragile. I had a visit with a doctor on Friday. He referred me to another doctor who I saw today. The second doctor wants to put me on something for high blood pressure. The first doctor will probably want to put me on something for high cholesterol.

So there you go. I don't want to be another one of those old folks who has to take a hand full of pills everyday. No offense to all you old folks.

Doctor # 2 also suggested I lose some weight. At first he said I should probably weight in at around 150. I don't believe I ever weighed 150. Back in the glory days while I was at Auburn and I was running every day I weighted 167 and had a 30" waist.

Eventually he decided 175 might be OK. The bad news here is that 175 is a long way away. Back around November 1, I decided to lose a few. Since then I have lost 12 lbs. This is not much in the grand scheme of things but this has been without any extreme changes to my life. It may be time to kick it up a notch. Can you hear the Nordic track calling? I can barely hear it but it would be easier if the M&Ms would hush.

Yeah and on top of that, David called me old. Thanks Dave.

Formula One

...season has begun. I Tivo'ed this weekends practice session, qualifying event, and race. It looks like it is going to be a pretty exciting season. I'll be pulling for Ferrari's Kimi and Masa this year.

I am looking forward to going to Indy again this summer.

A Shiney Red Car With A Radio

The Miata came home with it's new paint job on Thursday. Red, bright and shiney. Unfortunately is was raining and by the time I got home, it needed to be washed.

We had severely nice weather the first part of the week. The rain rolled through on Thursday and brought back the cold weather. Could I please have some nice warm dry weather so that I my try out the new paint job, with the top down. Oh look. The warm weather is supposed to return on Monday.

Last night we went out to dinner at one of the local German restaurants. I had the Mediterrean Talapiea. Mmmm. Afterwards we shopped for a new sofa. So many sofas, so little time. This morning we hit the sofa trail again. The final target has still not been selected.

Three Sixty

The direction of the truck project has officially changed by 360 degrees.

Tuesday evening I, along with my one of my little side kicks, began reassembling the front end suspension. (My helper only lasted about 10 minutes but he was involved briefly.)

We, with the help of an engine hoist and a few straps, managed to maneuver the suspension cross member back into place and bolt it in. The hoist along with it's little operator were invaluable. I have let him "work" with it several times before. He always asks permission and it is usually granted. His experience as a crane operator worked to my advantage because when I needed a second pair of hands, my little buddy was willing and able.

I purchased some new bolts last fall from LMC Truck to reattach the cross member to the frame. As I was wrenching it on, I noticed the 3 lines on the top of the bolt head indicating they were grade 5. My guess would have been grade 8. I suppose those are being saved for the tractor grade.

Tuesday I also installed one upper ball joint. The second upper ball joint and one lower ball joint were installed today. This task was extremely easy standing at the work bench. It only took a couple of minutes per joint. I can imagine how much of a nightmare it is to replace them while the a-arms are attached to the vehicle. Lucky me.

What little reassembly has been done has been quite pleasant. All the parts are clean and freshly painted. The tools were clean also so no old grease was transferred to the knew parts.

Zen? Yeah, no, maybe.

Can we please set the clock back the way it was last week?

Mike phoned in Saturday morning to complain about the fog in Mobile. He was heading for Disney world. Mobile is only about 350 miles from Huntsville. I should have jumped in car headed to Mobile and joined him for breakfast. Not.

I am counting the days until the Miata returns home. Four, maybe three. Possibly two. Definitely not one.

Weekend update: Saturday I sprayed another coat of paint on the cross member. Better safe than sorry. Sunday I did a little spring cleaning in the garage. I swept, organized, and cleaned. I spent no less than an hour doing nothing other than cleaning my wrenches. They are greasy no more.

Even after the cleaning, the garage would still barely resemble organized chaos to the untrained eye. If you have an untrained eye, please stay out of my garage. It's for your own safety.

Anyone want to rotate the tires on the Charger for me?

Trading Paint

The Miata is going in for its 100k mile makeover this morning.

Gingery Lathe

I have considered taking an evening precision machine shop class at the local vocation school a few times, along with welding, and a few others. (I have already taken the cabinet making class and autobody and collision repair classes.) I am always interested in learning something new.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a book from Amazon called the Charcoal Foundry(David Gingery). It is the first of 7 books in a series.

You might say that reading this book has been my obsession o' the week. The first book is about building a low cost foundry out of a metal five gallon bucket, building a sand form from 1x4s, and learning to sand cast aluminium (using play sand, clay, and empty Dr Pepper cans). All this with an eye towards the second book.

The second books is called The Metal Lathe (David Gingery). In this book, you are stepped through the process of casting and assembling a functional metal lathe. An interesting point to be made here is that this tool is actually used to make itself. Once it is partially functional, you use it to make some of the remaing pieces. How cool is that.

The remaing 5 books cover building a metal shaper, a milling machine, a drill press, a dividing head and finally a sheet metal brake. To be honest I don't know what a dividing head is or how a metal shapper is used. I will have to do some more reading on these two. [And I already have a drill press.]

I found the first book to be extremely interesting. My friends just rolled their eyes at lunch when I was telling them about it. I will definitely put this on my long term list of things to do: Build your own machine shop tools. As the book says, if a piece of your tool breaks, you no longer have to call 1-800-Who-Cares. Instead you just fabricate a new part.

If you find this remotely interesting, Google it, or better yet order the book. There are definitely worse ways to spend $7.95.

On a similar but slightly diffent subject, did you know that you can melt pennies in a cast iron skillet on the stove? Don't try this at home boys and girls. It recently became illegal.

Front Cross Member (Painted)



This is the front cross member of the 72 GMC pickup after a sandblasting and a couple coats of Eastwood Chassis Black. It may need one more coat of paint, but I don't plan to make that decision until next week. I need to get a good look at it under natural light. If it is good, it is assembly time.

In the background you can see many other pieces ready for assembly.

Front Cross Member (Unpainted)

This is what all the fuss was about. I remembered to snap a shot after the blasting was done. It took about 2 months to get around to this. Weather was the big holdup. Hopefully as spring rolls in, progress will resume.



Eye Spy Bonus: Locate the Miata, the Charger, a wheel barrow, and a bale of straw.

Miata With Hardtop Installed



The top was nice when it was cold but definitely inconvenient when it got warm. Final judgement: not worth it.

Bri

This is a picture of Bri from last fall. I think she was still 5. Jordan refused to have his picture posted. I didn't realize he even got a vote.

Bery Bery Vusy

The locals schools all let out around noon yesterday for pending bad weather. We were fortunate not to see any tornados around here. Others in the state were not so lucky.

I picked up the kids at 11:30 and we went home were I set up shop on the kitchen table. At 3:00 I loaded the troops into the Charger and took them to work. We had a technology demonstration scheduled and I was doing the driving. The demo went well. Enough about work.

I realized this evening that I hadn't posted in four days. Then I realized I hadn't even scoped out another blog in four days.

It has been a very very busy week. TGIF.

The weekend weather outlook is looking reasonable. Tomorrow is a high of 56 with a 10% chance of rain. Think I can make it rain again? We will see.

I believe Formula 1 starts two weeks from tomorrow. I am looking forward to the first race. I should probably finish up watching the Barrett-Jackson auction so that I will have enough space to record practice, qualifying, and the race.

I received email today sent to alumni of the high school I attended. They are apparently playing in the 3A basketball state championship (Texas). Good luck.

Procrastination Pays Off

Yesterday I did not start on my homework as I intended to. Instead we watched part of a movie. (Oliver Stone's JFK: Special Edition is 3 hours and 24 minutes long.)

I have been trying to spread the assignments out over 3 days each week so a single hw session doesn't take too long. My thought last night were along the lines of M-T-W. When I am feeling motivated I usually try to do S-M-T. Maybe a little bit of review on W, but not necessarily.

Well I let S slip by and now I will probably let M slip by as well. Once G' gets home from work, I have to go back to work. It will probably be a long night. So now it is looking like it will be a S-M-T-W week.

There is a very small chance that I will feel like working some Probability and Statistics problems when I get home. What are the odds of that? Not.

Persistence Is Futile

To answer Terry's question, No. I did not get the piece blasted as I intended.

I got started yesterday morning at 9:00 am. I set up some saw horses in the drive way. Carried the cross member out. Rolled the blaster out. Pressurized the compressor. Ready, set, rain. Well not really rain, but it did start sprinkling.

There is not point in sandblasting a part in the rain. Getting it wet would cause it to start rusting again almost as fast I finished up.

I quickly moved the x-member back into the garage and went back out to grab the blaster, et al. Before I got it all back into the garage the rain stopped falling. So I started setting up again. I had it all setup and was doing some scraping to get some heavy grunge off when it started sprinkling again. Again I moved everything back into the garage and again it stopped raining. This time I decided to wait a bit to see what the weather was really going to do.

In the mean time, I did a little cleanup and organization work in the garage. My neighbor dropped by and we talked cars, trucks, and motorcycle for a while. He helped me move the truck bed floor. That thing is heavy.

After about an hour without a drop from the sky I decided to give it another go. I setup again. This time I got as far as turning on the blaster. I made about 5 minutes of progress before the rain started again. This time I had to really hustle because I needed to sweep up the sand before it got wet. Wet sand is not good.

At this point I decided to call it.

At around 3 pm, after 4 hours without a drop, I decided to give it one more try. You know the drill. I drag everything outside, get everything setup, it starts to rain and I drag it all back inside. OK, this time I really give up for the day.

Today instead of dragging out the blaster, I just used a small pick, similar to a dental pick, to clean some gunk out of the many nooks and crannies on the cross member. I did this for about an hour before I put it way again. All the prep work is done. There is nothing left to do but the actual blasting. Someday the weather will cooperate. Someday. Maybe next weekend. Cross your members fingers.

Super-Ultra-Uber-Meta-Misc

Glad to see Brian got his blogger's license renews. And who would have thought a lame entry on cookies and milk would have generated any comments.

Sometimes I leave myself cryptic messages in my blog to remind me about things later when I look back. For instance today's message is "Friday the Thirteenth". Want to guess what that means? Go ahead, I dare you.

In the mean time I will bring you up to date on the milk and cookies. Several months ago a gallon of used automotive oil mysterious showed up in the back of my Dodge truck. I eventually tracked down the source and recently I finally sent it back to the dinosaurs.

Last night on the way to school, David #17 and I stopped at a gas station to grab something to drink. He had a DP, I selected some white milk. We also bought a snack size package of no-name cookies to share. The cookies were not very good so we didn't eat them all. After arriving at the university, we parked the car and started walking to class. At that point we spot Chad's Pontiac Solstice with the top down. It was decided that instead of depositing my empty milk bottle in the trash I should place it in his car. Sort of a lame attempt at returning the used-oil-prank. After depositing the no-deposit-no-return bottle in his car we continued walking. A few minutes later David has a fabulous idea. "Don't you think Chad would enjoy some cookie with his milk." Genius idea. We turn around to head back to the car to get the cookies. About the time we are passing Chads car a second time, we here him call out behind us. We stop and talk with him a few minutes before heading on to finish our chore. David thinks we lucked out that Chad ran into us before we had retrieved the cookies. As we pass the car a third time, the cookies are deposited with the milk bottle.

Chad was gone when I got out of class. I doubt he knew who left him his gifts. Occasionally he reads my blog. I left the cookie and milk post as a hint to him. I did not hear from him today so I am guessing he did not drop by Obsession today. He will figure it out soon enough.

Chad should be glad David doesn't behave the way a friend of his did in high school. Don't ask.

Oh Yes Wyoming!

For the past few weeks posts have been slim pickings around here on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Last year, the same was true for Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

What's up with that?

Let me start by addressing Friday. On Friday evening after getting home from work I like to embrace the weekend by doing nothing. Simple enough.

My reason for as of late for Wednesday and Thursday is the same as it was last year for Monday and Tuesday. On the second of the two days, I have an evening class at a nearby University. The night prior to that, I am usually trying frantically to finish up all the home work I should have already done. By the time I am done, I am usually ready to call it a day. I am getting better about starting earlier and spreading the work out over a few days, but no promises. I may lapse back into my old ways any day now.

Today was a good day. The moderate temperature started the day out nicely. Couple that with it being a Friday. I have big plans for tomorrow. Besides doing four loads of laundry, I intend to spend part of my day doing a little sandblasting out in the driveway and then painting in the garage. This next piece has been in the queue for a while and it is the last piece required before I can begin reassembling the front syspension and steering on the truck. This is quite the milestone for me and I am very excite about it. You probably can't understand this but that is ok.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Cookies And Milk

Yada yada yada. Chips Ahoy! and chocolate milk. Yada yada yada.

Bloggers Block, Take III

When leaving work this afternoon, I realized just how nice it was.

Step I: Drive home with the sun roof open. The thermometer in the car said 73. Can this be true?

Step II: Any reason plausible reason whatsoever to go outside. Oh yeah, it's nice outside. Reason enough.

Step III: Find something productive to do outside. Ok, maybe I will just skip this step. Maybe I will just put that screwdriver away. That counts, right! *nodding head*

Step IV: Enjoy the pleasant temperature. Oh, yeah.

Weekend Weather Update: High 60's, only a 30% chance of rain. Bring it on.

Formula 1

...season starts in 26 days. I am hoping Felipe Masa and Kimi Raikkonen have a good season. I suspect there are going to be some new Ferrari fans this year.

Zoooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

What Happened To The Weekend?

I noticed earlier today that I hadn't posted in a few days. I guess I was busy. What was I doing?

Wednesday, February 14th was the last post.

Thursday evening I attended school. I got my test back from the previous week. I did better than I thought I did but not as good as I should have. I should have made a 100%.

Friday the family headed to Memphis and left me home alone for the weekend. Friday night I had take out for dinner. My choice was a Whopper Junior from BK. I watched a little bit of the Barrett-Jackson auction I recorded back in January and then fell asleep with the light on while reading Cobra In The Barn.

I woke up about 6:30 Saturday morning. The wife left her alarm clock set and it woke me up. I listened to it for a few minutes before I decided that I couldn't block it out and decided if I reached over to turn it off, I might as well get up. I decided to start the laundry early to get it out of the way. Upon opening the washing machine, I discovered a load of wet towels probably left over from Thursday. I gave them another spin to freshen them up. Once they were done I moved them to the dryer and put the whites in the washer. Once the whites were done, I discovered I had forgotten to turn the dryer on. Those towels sure were putting up a fight. So much for getting the laundry done early.

About 8:45 AM David, no not that David, one of the other Davids, called to request some help. He is building a reciprocating nose. His wife is stage managing a local production of Pinocchio and he either volunteered or was volunteered to make a remote control nose. Each time I hear the story, it changes. Regardless, he came over and we spend about half the day building a drive mechanism for an extend-o-nose. He had already modified a servo to be free spinning. I machined out a case using several pieces of polyethylene. These were fastened together using machine screws and then a 1.5" hole was bored through the center. This hole contains a reel with a piece of metal tape fastened to it. I fabricated a metal plate to fasten to each side. If you can picture it, imagine something similar to a remote controlled measuring tape. Once the box was complete, we called it a box and quit for the day. It is always amazing how many hours you can put into creating something.

David invited me over to his house for dinner. In one of my many past lives, I practically lived with David and Penny. My first year out of college I probably ate dinner there no less than five times a week. Penny still calls me her first son.

Dinner was great. I stopped at the store on the way over and picked up a jar of Hot Pickled Okra and a bottle of Piesporter Michelsberg (German wine is my favorite). When I arrived we cracked open the pickled okra and Dave made a big bowl of Guacamole (3 avocados, a small lime, and some Frontera Guacamole Starter). The Guacamole was excellent (Terry, you would have loved it. We will have to make some next time your in town.) Penny handed me a chilled bottle of muscadine wine and a fancy cork screw and put me to work. The wine was good, and you could definitely tell it was muscadine. Dinner consisted of grilled ribs, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade mac-n-cheese, rolls, and coconut cake, complete with a chorus of Happy Birthday.

After dinner, David, Ben, and I watched part of The Parent Trap remake on the tele. Ben is about 10, maybe 11. During the show, there is a scene in a wine cellar. Large barrels of wine running the length of the room. I pointed to the big corks sticking out the top of the barrels and asked Ben if the know what they were called. He didn't, but I did. I had recently learned what they were called while watching the discovery channel. The cork is called a bung. Next I asked Ben if he knew what the hole was called that the cork was placed in. Again he didn't know and again I shared it with him. David and Ben were laughing hysterically. Of course the answer is a bung hole. Why is that funny? It's not. Unless you were there. Later Penny asked me to explain to her why it was funny. I explained simply that it was just a good example of 12 year old male humor. I still think that stuff is funny. ***attempting to straighten my face***

Before dinner I said something else really funny to David. I have never seen anyone laugh so hard. I wish I could remember what it was. Actually I was on fire that day. This audience hadn't heard most of my material.

Around 10:00 PM I headed to the house. They wanted me to stay and watch a movie, but I am not a night owl. Once home, I went on to bed, and once again fell asleep reading.

And guess what. I forgot to disable the alarm clock on Saturday. Doh! That is how Sunday morning started. This time I did manage to ignore it and went back to sleep. I did finally get up around 8:00. At this point I put the last load of laundry in the washer. Two hours later and it was finally done.

That is where most of the weekend went.

Have you ever had muscadine wine and pickled okra?

Seventy Two

The 10 day outlook shows a forecast of 72 for Saturday. Sign me up. Unfortunately they are predicting rain also. Saturday is far enough away that everything could change.

I am putting my request in now for 72 and sunny.

Please, please, please.

Can I Borrow A Buck

I had lunch with a friend of mine today.  Let's call him David.  Let's call them all David.

 

Right after we sat down, David asked if I could loan him twenty dollars.  "Sure, not a problem."  I had just been by the bank and he has good credit with me.  So far. 

 

Forty minutes later when we had finished our salads, the waitress came by and said "Is this together or separate."  David quickly spoke up and said "Together".  And then "Happy Birthday".  I graciously accepted. 

 

And then he started laughing.  A deep rumbling laugh.  I quickly caught on to what was so funny.  He had borrowed money from me to buy me lunch.  It took him another five minutes to regain his composure.  I hope this doesn't affect his credit rating.

Squeaky Clean

The Miata got a drive thru car wash on the way back from lunch today. January/February is typically the rainy season here in North Alabama and it is difficult to keep the car clean. This wash was long overdue. Fortunately the sky is clear so it may stay clean for a day or two.

(And the bird badge is now gone.)

Tag

I got tagged. After looking around it appears that everyone else has already been tagged so I am afraid the buck stops here. Except for maybe Mike, Brian, and Carol. You folks are now tagged. Tag five others and then write a list of...

Five Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

4. I want to have a whole fleet of cars. Maybe about a dozen. They don't necessarily need to be high dollar or exotic cars, but they do need to be interesting (to me). I sometimes refer to them as my collection of thousand dollar cars.

3. I don't like to get dirty. I don't mind being sweaty, but dirt and sand bother me and grease even more so. I suspect the grease thing goes back to working at the Golden Hiney for a couple of years in high school. Initially this made working on the truck very difficult. Have you ever seen a mechanic who washes his hands every 15 minutes?

2. I have 3 guitars and no musical ability. None. I enjoy playing, but no one has ever enjoyed listening. Also, I briefly sang as part of a trio in church while in college.

1. I like to work with my hands and I enjoy learning. I started woodworking after taking an evening cabinet making class at a local technical school. Several years later I went back and took and auto body class. I want to take a welding class and a precision machine class, but these will have to wait until our schedule allows it.

0. Today is my Birthday. I am 38 years old.

Catching Up

Saw this earlier in the week. A new roadster convertible from Dodge. Brian said he thought the back end looked like a Nissan 350Z. I would have to agree with him

Madison County Woodworkers Guild

While I am rehashing old material, take a look at some of the furniture I built in the past. (Ok, David made some too.)

300 Baud

Arg, matey. The pirates are plundering for topics again.

Brian was reminiscing about the glory days so I thought I would whip this out. Somewhere on this page you will find a picture of my first modem. Three hundred baud. Blazing fast. If you go read this page you may find out things you didn't already know. But you won't be any smarter when your done.

What's another name for pirate treasure?

Bombs Away

I went by Express Oil to have the oil and filter changed in the Charger today. Total miles on the clock: 6171. They even cleaned the bird droppings off the windshield. Nice.

It seems this car is a bird magnet. It has already been targeted more times than the Dodge pickup was in the 8 years I had it.

Birds prefer reds.

Look up. What does it say?

Saddle Up!

This afternoon the temperature moved up into the forties with very little wind. Standing in the driveway, it seems almost warm. Saddle up!

I backed out the car, dropped the rag top, closed the garage, and headed out into the wild blue yonder.

On the way out of the 'hood, I stopped and picked up Brian. He had already been out in the Mustang with the top down, but he was up for another ride. We headed in a general NW direction toward the TN state line. I have been meaning to locate another route but this one works.

At the line I usually turn around. Sometimes I stop and get a drink: Diet SunDrop, Milo's Sweet Tea, Chocolate Milk, Diet Dew, whatever strikes my fancy. Today Brian suggested a milk shake. He is as crazy as I am. Lets go for the brain freeze, my ears are not completely frozen yet. The girl at Sonic was amused by the two old guys, in the convertible, ordering milk shakes on a cold day.

First of all, it wasn't that cold once the car was sitting still, and it does have a heater, and Brian won't be 40 until February 21. Ha!

I can't believe I drank the whole thing. Mine was chocolate. His was strawberry.

Yes, I can. I love ice cream. I scream, you scream, we all scream ...

Freebird

Last summer a neighbor asked me who cut my yard. I gave him a phone number and moved on with my life.

When we bought our first house many years ago, I bought a mower and used it exactly one time. While I was out mowing the yard work the first time, Mike the yard guy showed up and offered to write me up a bid on the yard work. His price was too good to be true and the bid included cutting, edging, blowing the clipping, trimming the bushes, and even the occasional gutter cleaning. I accepted his offer and rolled my mower back into the garage where it sat unused for a couple of years before I finally sold it to a friend.

Mike though reliable with cutting the yard is impossible to get a hold of on the telephone. His modus operandi is to cut the yard and occasionally leave a bill on the front door. Sometimes he goes months without leaving a bill.

After a while Mike became successful with his business and started running multiple crews. This presented a problem. We could always tell after the yard had been cut whether he had done it himself or one of his helpers. I complained and so now he usually does it himself.

Mike is a very friendly guy and quite a talker, just like the other Mike. When I catch him here mowing he talks my ear off. This has always seemed odd to me that he would spend much time talking because he is a hard worker, and time is money. Mike and his crew waste no time getting the work done. At times Mike will show up alone, other times he may have 4 other guys with him. My next door neighbor once told me that he timed Mike doing my lawn work. He said it was exactly 12 minutes from the time he rolled up till his truck pulled away. The times I have been here, it hasn't taken much longer than that. This is why Mike can charge such low rates.

The other neighbor who asked for Mikes number was startled by the way Mike does business. Last summer he called Mike and left a message asking for an estimate. Mike came and cut his yard, but forgot to leave and estimate. When he finally got the estimate, he agreed on the spot. Mike hits his yard right after he does mine. Several other of my neighbors have used Mike in the past also. In my last neighborhood, I think Mike was cutting close to 25% of the yards when we moved. That might be an exaggeration. Maybe not. I do recall seeing the mower run the length of four yards before turning around to make another pass.

Wednesday neighbor #1 calls wanting to know the best way to get a hold of Mike. Apparently his phone had been disconnected and he was worried. He wanted to get Mike to do an estimate on the front entrance for our neighborhood.

I believe Mike has been cutting our yard for over 10 years. He has always been difficult to contact and it seems he disappears every winter. But he always shows back up when it is time to cut the yard. And he just does it. I don't think we actually have a contract with him officially, though I remember we did one year, many years ago. When the yard needs to be cut, Mike will be there.

This is driving my neighbor crazy. I suspect he will get use to it, or return to cutting his yard himself. In the mean time, I am laughing my head off as he gets all wound up.

As usual I am stealing, er, borrowing other folks topics. Thanks Carol. Freebird, Freebird!

Roger Roger

When watching The Phantom Menace on the big screen I recall hearing a battle droid say roger, roger. For some reason this struck me as funny. I recall that I laughed out loud. This was the only laughter in the entire theater. Why was it funny? What does it mean?

It turns out 'Roger' is the term for the letter R from the old JAN alphabet (Joint Army/Navy). This sequence went Able, Baker, Charlie, etc. The modern or NATO phonetic alphabet use the sequence Alpha, Bravo, Charlies, etc and uses Romeo for the letter R.

So 'roger' is simply the letter R but still what does it mean? Apparently it was a term used by WWII pilots to signal they had received a transmission. And roger wilco means message received, will comply.

But that still does not explain why it was funny. Perhaps it was the context of use in the movie. Perhaps the droid was scared or malfunctioning. I don't recall.

We bought the kids a Nintendo Games Cube for Christmas. One of the games they have is Lego Star Wars. This games is amazing (if only they would let me play too). During the game, you often hear a battle droid say "Uh oh!" or "Roger roger". This tickles me too. Perhaps it is just the computer synthesized voice.

Did you know the term droid started out as 'droid, an abbreviation for android.

Warning:

You have reached the end of the Internet.

Slower Traffic Keep Right.

The Peanut Gallery Has Spoken
On Friday I went to the store to buy a couple of calculator batteries. The calcuator is a TI-83+. The required battery is a CR1616 or a CR2016. Either will do.

A friend, let's call him David, has the same calculator and needed to replace his battery also so I volunteered to pick up a spare.

Before going to the store, I wrote down the battery number so that I would not have to be concerned with forgetting it. Actually I wrote down both numbers. At the store, Wal-Mart, I looked over the battery selection and found the CR1620. Wait a minute, I thought it was a CR2016. Did I transpose those two numbers when I wrote it down?

I decided to call David and have him verify the battery number for me. No answer at this office. No answer on his cell phone.

I went ahead and bought the batteries which I discovered upon arriving home were definitely the wrong ones. I had not transposed the digits. Doh! "Oh well, I thought, I guess I will return them and get the right ones tomorrow."

As is the usual case, tomorrow rolled around the next day and while I was out I swung by Wal-Mart to get the correct battery. Only I forgot to bring the wrong batteries with me.

One this trip I did get the correct batteries. Why did I not spot these the first time? On the first trip I went to electronics (where the calculators live). On the second trip, an associate recommended I check in the jewelry department (where the calculators don't live).

What was the point of this story? Nothing, but iMike complained about there being no new posts in a while so I had to come up with some filler. Hope you liked it.

And the top was up on the Miata. I am still waiting on a warm breeze to blow through.

And I did my taxes last Saturday so that is one less thing. What are you waiting for?

And for the record, the whole elbow kissing thing was not my idea. Some other creative soul created that mischief. I simply got blamed 30 years later.

And the snow. I didn't even mention the snow last week.

I think I am all caught up now.

When we change our clocks

Since 1966, most of the United States has observed Daylight Saving Time from at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April to 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. Beginning in 2007, most of the U.S. will begin Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and revert to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time. {source}


History of Daylight Time in the U.S.

Although standard time in time zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads in 1883, it was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19, 1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act. The act also established daylight saving time, a contentious idea then. Daylight saving time was repealed in 1919, but standard time in time zones remained in law. Daylight time became a local matter. It was re-established nationally early in World War II, and was continuously observed from 9 February 1942 to 20 September 1945. After the war its use varied among states and localities. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided standardization in the dates of beginning and end of daylight time in the U.S. but allowed for local exemptions from its observance. The act provided that daylight time begin on the last Sunday in April and end on the last Sunday in October, with the changeover to occur at 2 a.m. local time.
During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on 6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April. In 1986, a law was passed permanently shifting the starting date of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight time has not been subject to such changes, and has remained the last Sunday in October. With the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the starting and ending dates have once again been shifted. Beginning in 2007, daylight time will start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. {source}

DST was Benjamin Franklin's idea. In some parts of the work DST, is called Summer Time. The purpose was to move an hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening when it would be more useful.

Here in North Alabama, during the summer, with DST, the sun may rise as early as 5:33 AM. Without DST, the sun would be rising at 4:33 AM during June. This would certainly make some of you cranky. You know who you are.

Myth Busted

It is a commonly held belief that we observe DST so that kids don't have to wait in the dark for the school bus on cold winter mornings. The clock is on standard time during the winter, so DST does not alter the sunrise schdule.

Did you ask yourself why the dates are changing this year? The rationale for the earlier date in the spring is energy conservation The delay of the fall change is to allow Trick-or-Treaters more light while gathering candy.

See the sunrise schedule for your town here.