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.

On Friday someone asked me "When do you graduate?". After thinking for a second, I said "Today I think". Turns out I was right.

It has been raining like crazy here for the last few days. Besides a couple of tornado watches today, we are also under a flood watch or three. So you know what that means, right? I definitely don't need to bother watering the garden this week.

The plants are all progressing nicely. I planted some more corn and okra about 10 or 12 days ago. The conditions must have been good because the plants started peeking through after only 8 days. I have even seen a couple of blooms on the tomato plants but I don't expect I will be seeing one any time soon.

I put up a chicken wire fence around the garden the same day I put the first plant/seed in the ground. Good call as I have now seen three rabbits in the back yard, or perhaps one rabbit three times.

What day is it anyway?

The shop has become a complete mess. There are so many partially finished projects and so little time. (Hopefully I will find time to move all the projects forward during the S.O.R.) I spent some time out there the last couple of days trying to do a little bit of organization and clean up. After many hours of effort, there are no visible signs of progress. Woo hoo!

Perhaps I should just focus on the truck. Surely putting a pickup back together will create some free space, unless an assembled truck somehow takes up more space than a disassembled truck. Not likely.

The Kruse Automobile auction was in Huntsville this weekend. I attended along with a couple of my neighbors. It was definitely a buyer's market.

There were several cars there I wanted to see drive across the block. Unfortunately there were a bunch of cars I had no interest in seeing go across first. We lost interest and went home long before the good stuff started to move.

Next year, instead of arriving an hour before the auction starts, I will arrive two hours after the auction starts. This will still allow me to see all the cars but I can miss the 'junk' that gets auctioned before the cars start moving. Hopefully I will miss most of the five to ten year old SUVs and Cadillac that they started with as well. Who wants to see that? Not me. I was there to see the muscle cars and older.

Let the Summer of Rick Begin

Tuesday was the last day of my internship. The internship was a positive experience. I was amazed at the response from the kids on my last day. Many of them brought me gifts (in the form of office supplies). There was also a chocolate chip cookie cake and a chocolate cake. What a great day. The students in third block even framed my gold star.

My plan for May is to do some substituting while the kids are still in school. I decided to take Wednesday off and start sub'ing on Thursday. I had arranged for spots on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday was going to be in the class I had been teaching in all semester. (The students kept telling me they were going to miss me. I kept telling them they would hardly notice I was gone.) Wednesday night the school system's auto-dialing phone message system called up to let us know that school had been canceled for both Thursday and Friday due to swine flu. Yep. (We had bacon for dinner too.)

This morning I awoke with absolutely no plan for the day. It was nice to have the day off but with no direction I was concerned that I might waste a perfectly good day. I quickly came up with a plan of weeding the garden, trimming the grass back around the garden, and taking a nap. I also visited my neighbors garage to help him achive 0-p (Zero Productivity). The day went by nicely. I believe I actually got two naps. Talk about over achiving.

I have already begun planning my weekend. My plans include a play and a classic car auction. Should be fun. Next weeks plans are still up in the air. At this point, I am not suppose to sub again until Wednesday so I feel free, free, free.

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.

On Tuesday nights this semester I have been taking a precision machines class. In this class I have basically been learning to use a milling machine and a metal lathe. I signed up for this class for no other reason than to learn about using these tools. I had no project in mind, it just seemed like it might be fun. And it has been.

Tonight I completed a small C-clamp. The clamp was made from solid stock aluminum. I even learned to cut threads on round stock. This was a pretty cool project though not very practical.

I still have four more weeks in the class. Before next Tuesday I need to come up with another project otherwise I may end up milling some aluminum door stops.

Today I finally got around to transplanting the corn into the garden. I also put a small fence around the garden made of chicken wire to keep the cute little fuzzy bunnies out. Who is afraid of cute little fuzzy bunnies. Not me, unless they have fangs or they are after my veggies.

Besides the corn, I have some tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, and squash ready to be planted. Okra is in the plans as well but it is probably a little too cool still to get that started. This stuff will have to wait a few more days, as I have the precision machines class on Tuesday nights.

Foster Falls (Spring 2009 Camping Trip)

This weekend I made a trip up to Foster Falls in TN for a weekend camping trip with some friends. We stayed at the Father Adamz campsite due to our late start on Friday afternoon.

We had an excellent campsite (with the exception of college kids who showed up to setup at the next site over around 2:00 am.)

Friday evening we sat around the campfire and watched the flames dance. Dinner consisted of chili dogs. Saturday AM we scrambled some eggs and fried some bacon. The smell of frying bacon in the woods is awesome. After second breakfast, I took a leisurely stroll to the falls overlook and then followed the trail to the base of the falls. After crossing the suspension bridge I followed the trail along the base of the cliffs. We saw a total of about 20 people doing rock climbing. I stopped and watched for a brief time. It was pretty cool to watch, but you will never get me off the ground, hanging from a rope on the side of a mountain.

All in all the trip was nice. Early Sunday AM, probably around 3:00 it started to rain. The rained caused us to skip the planned pancake feast and pack up early and head for the nearest Cracker Barrel. Not a bad backup plan.

The Miata came home from the shop a week ago Saturday. The dent in the bumper cover and fender were repaired and repainted.

Nice to have the shiney red car again.

Zoom zoom zoom

The Miata is suppose to be heading for the shop later this week for a fender repair and some fresh paint. Looking forward to have it back in one shiny piece.

The garden plot is waiting patiently for Easter to roll around so the plants can be transplanted into the ground. I have planted some seeds in containers hoping to start the plants myself, but if they don't spring forth in time, I am prepared to acquire a few plants from HD or WM. The weather has been decent and we have had plenty of rain lately so watering has been required.

F1 - Australia 2009

Last weekend was the first race of this years F1 season. I have been looking forward to it since the end of the last season. I usually pull for the red cars and this season is no exception. I also like the the drivers of the defunct Honda team newly christened as Brawn. I like many others figured they would be the underdogs this year. I guess we were all wrong. The Brawn cars driven by Button and Barrichello finished 1st and 2nd last weekend. Awesome race.

Today I arranged to have the Miata repaired. (Replace the RH fender, repair the bumper cover, repaint, and clear coat) The car is in queue and should be complete in about three weeks.

One of my favorite things about going on vacation is losing track of the day of the week. The kids are on Spring break this week and so am I.

Today J' asked me "What day of the week is it?" All I knew for sure was that it was not Sunday. At least two of us are really enjoying Spring break.

The Next Obsession

Spring break started today at 3:00 pm. While I do have a lot to do in the next week (related to school), I should have adequate time to have some fun as well.

I have been planning a garden this year. I believe the last time I planted a garden was 10 years ago. Prior to the last garden, I had seen a segment on Square Foot Gardening on PBS. (I even bought a book on the subject.) This seemed interesting to me at the time and I ended up with a 12 square foot elevated garden. The garden consisted of two 3'x4' boxes set on platforms about 2.5 feet off the ground. In this small garden I planted two types of tomatoes, squash, okra, eggplant, bell peppers, water melon, and onions.

This year the garden will be in the ground. It will probably consist of four 4'x4' plots about three feet apart. My last garden suffered from limited sunlight. This will not be an issue as the intended garden location gets full sunlight.

I have not yet determined the complete list of crops this year, but it will certainly contain tomatoes, squash, and okra. Any requests?

As you can see, I have decided to recycle a previous obsession this year. Does this mean I am running out of new and original ideas. No way!

U2 - No Line on the Horizon

The new U2 album hits the stores on Tuesday. I am looking forward to it. Time to empty out a spot in the CD changer.

I'm Not Quite Dead Yet. (Part II)

I was catching up on my blog reading when I came across this post. For just a second, I thought I was reading my eulogy. Then I remembered I was still breathing. I wonder if he realized he wrote that on my 40th birthday.

(Danny gave me a box of laxatives for my birthday. Oddly it did not appear to be a gag-gift. I now have plenty and I am willing to share.)

I guess it is time for me to get out the guitar and start practicing again. It seems Danny and I are starting a band. Look out Flatt and Scruggs.

My List of the Top Ten Albums of Rock and Roll

Ken put me up to this. Originally the list was supposed to be 15 albums. His list was twenty-five. I have limited mine to just ten. It is a slippery slope from #11 to #50. The truth is adding another five would repeat a couple of the artists. Oddly this list does not include the first couple of albums I ever bought (one of which was Petra - More Power To Ya) which I listened to non-stop for over a year. Nor does it include the album that I have probably listened to more than any other album (U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind). I actually left this one in the CD player of my trucks for two plus years.

1. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire - This one seems to top everyone's list. I walked to Wal-Mart with my buddy Matt Ramon (before we could drive) to buy this one in cassette form. This was also the first CD I ever bought (1987). Every song on the CD is good and the sum is greater than the parts. "Dirt dry bones, sand, and stone."

2. The Choir - Chase the Kangaroo - I was introduced to this one during the summer of 1987. My friend, Preacher-Man John, whom I have know since kindergarten, had just gotten a bass and started a band along with Wade and Jeff. Their original music was definitely influenced by The Choir and U2. Actually The Choir was also influenced by U2. (Thinking about this reminded me of a road trip we made to Atlanta to see U2 and the rocking flying through my windshield on the way home. Also John's little incident at the parking deck, but I digress. Good times!) "November whispers and shakes a fist, leaves fall down with promises." But who rakes the leaves?

3. The Alarm - Strength - Another John (Thrash man) introduced me to this band back when I was flipping burgers at the golden arches. I had a hard time deciding whether Strength or Declaration should fill this slot. Ultimately Strength got it. Barely. "Who will light the fire that I need to survive?"

4. Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles - This one was introduced by my imaginary friend Mike. Moon Over Bourbon Street and Shadows in the Rain are timeless classics for me. I continually use both to prove to others that I can't sing. And I shall continue to for a long long time. "Woke up in my clothes again this morning. Don't know exactly where I am."

5. Rush - Power Windows - This one comes complements of yet another John, Mr. Leeming. I heard this one for the first time while 'working truck' at McDonald's. This was totally unlike anything I had ever heard. "All the powers that be, and the course of history, would be changed for evermore..."

6. Van Halen - 5150 - I bought this one at Sound Warehouse on the way home from school one day. John Thrash was probably with me as we car-pooled for several years. Unlike may others, I liked Van Haggar. To this day I believe that Eruption from Van Halen I is the reason my hearing is not so good. Can you imagine what that must sound like in of a Chevette with 10 speakers including two 10" subs being pushed by 200 watts (peak :). "Summer nights and my radio, that's all we need, baby, don't cha know."

7. Triumph - Sport of Kings - This one is again courtesy of Mr. Trash. That guy had good tastes in music. "Is it fate, or random chance, how can I decided? Are we victims of circumstance when destinies collide?

8. REM - Document - Mr. Leeming again. John taught me how to play the first few notes of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" on my electric guitar. For all of you I have tortured with this, he is to blame. Unfortunately I didn't have any inate musical talent. John, John, and I (and maybe John) went to see John's brother's band "My Three Sons" play at a club near TCU. They dedicated Electric Co. to me. "World serves it own needs, regardless of your own needs, feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, speed no..."

9. Electric Light Orchestra - Time - As a kid, I heard "Out of the Blue" and "Discovery" time and again at Blair's house. I don't recall hearing "Time" back then but it is definitely my favorite ELO album. I will credit David E. with this one. "I met someone who looks a lot like you, she does the things you do, but she is an IBM." "...And she's also a telephone."

10. Boston - Boston - Flashback to the 70's and credit goes to Blair again. I think we nearly wore out his older brother's eight tracks. This was the first CD I listened to when I bought my first brand-new-car. Open up the sun roof and turn it up. "He smoked a big cigar, drove a Cadillac car, and said, boys, I think this band is out of sight."

So how would I fill out the next 40 or so? More U2, definitely The Joshua Tree, and The Alarm, probably Declaration and Eye of the Hurricane. And more Choir, especially the live one specially mixed to listen to in the car with the windows rolled down. Also throw in The Church's "Under the Milkyway", some Everclear, a few Barenaked Ladies, more Sting's Soul Cages (and The Police's Synchronicity) , and Pink Floyd, Green Day, and maybe the Offspring. And more Rush!

Now it is your turn to make a list. Let me know when you get it done so that I may check it out.

For the past few weeks I have been focused on school. It is amazing how one can be so focused that several days or weeks can pass without giving much thought to anything else. I believe the most difficult part is behind me now, though I still have plenty to do. Over the next couple of weeks I hope to have more free time and thus have some mildly mundane topics to speak of.

The contractors finished up repairing the garage either two or three weeks ago. I still have not moved the tools back in. I am eager to do so because the Miata has been parked in the driveway for the last couple of weeks. (This is the only time the Miata has been left outside overnight since I bought it however many years ago that was.)

The precision machine class has been very interesting. We are primarily working with a vertical milling machine, an E-Mill I believe. The project for the class is to mill a c-clamp out of a solid piece of aluminum. We should begin cutting threads in another week or so.

The Big-4-0 was completely painless. Especially since I got a box of laxatives as a gift. I have extras and I am willing to share.

"It has been a long time..."

First of all, my hand smells like tooth paste. Not as refreshing as you might think.

I have been busy lately. Real busy. The kind of busy that keeps me up past my bedtime busy. One, two, and three AM busy. All good things will pass. Eventually.

Most of the business is a result of doing my student-teaching internship. Some is also as a result of signing up for the precision machines class at the vo-tech school. The machines class is really cool. I am after all a kinesthetic learner.

Fear not, for I have not abandoned you (for Facebook), both of you, the two of you who read this blog from time-to-time. Once or twice a month. I shall return. Though it might be another seven days before you see another post.

Do you smell brownies?

Oh, yeah! Tomorrow I will be 40 and I am feeling pretty good about it.

"...since I rock-and-rocked." [power cord] [ power cord]

Crack Pipe

Today I repaired the pipe that froze last weekend. I decided it would be easier to go ahead and do the job myself rather than try to schedule a time for a plumber to come by.

After a quick trip to HD for supplies (solder, flux, 1/2" copper pipe caps, pipe cutter), I came home and learned a new trade. All my plumbing work in the past has been limited to PVC. Now I can included sweating copper pipe on my resume. I am currently looking to take on an apprentice.

This evening I invented the instant play feature for Netflix on TiVo. OK, maybe I didn't invent it but I did discover it. OK, maybe discover is a strong overstatement. But I did setup it up. Well that is not exactly true either. G' punched the code into the web browser to activate the feature. But I did pick the first thing we watched on the Tivo via the instant play feature at Netflix. Well technically we didn't watch all of it, but we did watch the first ten minutes before the kids interrupted the show. OK, maybe it wasn't exactly ten minutes, but you can't prove it can you!

We ended up watching Psych on the Tivo instead.

The instant play feature is pretty cool. Check it out.

MLK

School was out today so I had no place to be. Gotta love the extra holidays. I spent some time preparing for the school week but mostly I spent the day hooking up a new dual tuner Tivo and doing more cleanup work in the garage.

Our old Tivo was purchased in February of 2003 I believe. Yesterday it started making a horrible screeching sound. I believe one of the hard drives was ready to go. I unplugged it last night (to silence it) and today when I plugged it back in, it just didn't work. Unfortunately I had just recorded about 35 hours of Barrett-Jackson. I guess I missed it this year.

In the garage, I plugged a few holes in the ceiling with insulation and got the heater back online. The drip pan in the HVAC unit was full of water. There is a float switch in the pan which disables the unit when water is present. I vacuumed the water out of the pan and then turned the thermostat up to 50 and set the fan to on. Hopefully the constant flow of air will help dry the walls and stairs. Someone needs to change the air filter!

I also spent some time drying the grade-8 bolts that managed to get completely submerged in water this weekend. After drying them with a heat gun I packaged them in sandwich bags and labeled the bags. They are ready to go when I get another chance to work on the GMC. Drying washers/nuts/bolts with a heat gun is a zen-like experience.

And speaking of weather (someone did mention weather didn't they?), shortly after lunch some white stuff started falling from the sky. At first it looked like snow, then ice, and finally snow again. I made the little people come outside for a few minutes so they could look at a crystal-like shape of a few snowflakes. They were not impressed.

It is almost tax time. Yippee.

It's Raining in the Garage

As the garage door opened on Sunday morning, I noticed something was wrong. It was raining in the garage.

After twisting the water cut-off value, I went into the garage to investigate. The entire place was a mess. A large part of the ceiling had collapsed over my '72 GMC and the workbench next to it. Everything on the bench was soaked. Across the room, water was rolling down the face of the cabinets that I had recently built onto another workbench below them. Many tools were lying in the torrent of water. Water was close to an 1" deep on the floor at the lowest spot in the garage.

The last few days have been really cold. I had heard this was the coldest winter we have had in 6 years. I spent several hours in the shop on Saturday just generally cleaning up. (And I finally got around to putting door handles on the cabinets as well as touching up the paint) The clean up effort was in vain, the place was a mess.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon dragging stuff out of the garage, and sweeping and vacuuming up water. After removing most of the water, I setup a box fan to assist in drying out the garage. (I took several photos before the cleanup effort began for the insurance company. )

It appears that a copper pipe in the unfinished upstairs area had frozen. The pipe has about a one inch split that runs lengthwise. After splitting, water sprayed upward. Some water went down the stairwell but it appears most ran across the floor and down into an A/C vent. The duct-work filled with water and the ceiling collapsed under the weight. When the ceiling collapsed, the duct was ripped in half above the ceiling. At this point water was running across the top side of the ceiling and downs the walls.

Upstairs, most of my hardwood supply got wet. I store the wood standing upright to save space. The bottom end of every board has soaked up water. About six to nine inches of each board is swollen. The boards will not dry back evenly. Hard wood is fairly expensive and my stash is all wet. This discovery made me sad.

Back down stairs, I noticed that my planer and chop saw had been subjected to the flow of water as well. I also had a soggy box of truck parts. On the truck, the new bolts had already started rusting. This was frustrating. For about three years now I have been working on the truck - taking it apart, sandblasting the parts to remove all rust, painting them, and putting it back together. It was discouraging to see some rust forming on the truck I had worked so hard to remove it from. I realize the truck would have eventually gotten wet, but my plan was to finish it first.

While cleaning out the garage, I was glad I had sold the 1925 Chevrolet. The ceiling caved in right above where the truck was normally parked. I am not sure that truck would have ever recovered from that much water.

Precision Machines

I am taking an evening adult education class at the local vocational technology school. The class started this evening and meets for fifteen weeks.

The class I chose this semester is Precision Machines. In this class I will learn how to operate and effectively use a milling machine, metal lathe, metal shaper, and possibly a few more. These are skills I thought might be useful, interesting, or entertaining.

The first class met tonight. We covered the usual - safety first, followed by a brief tour of all the machinery as well as a description of what they can do.

One can never have to many mad skillz!

Push Button, Get More Bacon

The bacon explosion. Mmmm.

I started my teaching internship this week. Monday was orientation, Tuesday was the first class of the semester, and the rest of the week involves ARI training (strategies for incorporating content literacy in the classroom.)

The internship involves 75 days in the classroom. I have to teach at least 20 of the 75. Ten must be consecutive. I will be teaching Algebra II and Pre-Calculus during my internship.

The first day in the classroom went very well. I believe this will be a very positive experience and I hope to learn a lot. I just hope to not have to learn a lot the hard way.

Happy New Year and Other un-related Superflous Foo-Foo

On Tuesday December 30, we boarded a plane headed for Disney World. This time we stayed at Riverside in Port Orleans. I returned home on Sunday January January 4. The rest of the family stayed until Monday. (I had a school obligation on Monday.)

We managed to shut down almost park every night. Most nights at least one of the parks stayed open until midnight. That generally got us back to the room by 1 AM. The first night we were there, the Magic Kingdom was open until 3 AM. We split the scene around 2 AM.

If you can handle it, late night at the parks is a good idea. We generally managed to ride more rides in the last two hours than we had all day long due to the decreased crowds. A good plan is to head out early, return the room for an afternoon rest and then back at the park for the evening and late night hours.

While there I rode the Tower of Terror 5 times (in one night), Expedition Everest 13 times (over two days). Thunder Mountain seven times (over two days) , Spash Mountain twice, and Space Mountain twice. I also rode the train in two parks (yippee!), Pirates of the Caribbean (no wait), and many many more. We only rode Spaceship Earth once this trip. My favorite show was again Mickey's Philharmagic in the Magic Kingdom.

I got to see three complete fireworks shows (Epcot/Magic Kingdom/Epcot), the other nights we missed them while queued up for roller coasters.

My favorite Dining experiences this trip were Le Cellar (Canadian section of Epcot), Coral Reef (Epcot), and the BoatWright (Riverside at Port Orleans). I missed the trip to Ohonua (in the Polynesian Resort) because I returned home early, but it was fantastic the last time we were there. We also dined at the Mexican restaurant whose name I can't recall (Mexican section of Epcot) and The Wave (Contemporary Resort). The last two were good, but I would be willing to try something else next time.

January at Disney World provides primo weather. Sunny and 70 for the entire trip. Excellente!

Just like our last trip to Disney World (January 2007), I managed to lose track of what day of the week it was on this trip. That is the true sign of a great vacation.

Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine

I will be offline for a few days. Better things to do than hang around here writing mundane blog entries. We are heading down to see Mickey and Donald for a few days.

When we made the trip a few years ago, I took my laptop with me. The only time I took it out of the bag was at the airport. This year I will leave it at home rather than lug it all over the southeast. Surely I can last a few days without internet access.

See you in the funny papers.

The Elves are dressed in leather ...

So my seester has run out of room on the old HD and wanted to replace it with a larger one. The current was a 60 gig-ger. We went to Best Buy on the 24th and obtained a new 250 gig-ger to replace it.

Her computer had been acting up so I decided a clean install on the new HD was the correct route rather than attempting to backup/restore the existing image.

After dropping in the new HD and booting the Win-XP-Home CD, the thing booted installed a few drivers and then BSOD'ed. Something about 'pci.sys' yada yada yada. Google was fine enough to tell me I needed to install XP SP2 (service pack 2 for the mere mortals) and all would be excellent.

Having no SP2 disk, I spent a few minutes reading up on slipstreaming SP2 and proceeded to make a new Win XP Home SP2 disk? This requires using an real XP disk, downloading the SP from MS, and downloading a few more utilities to extract a boot image from the XP disk, and create a bootable disk from the existing disk with the SP integrated into it. I got most of my useful info from a site called "theeldergeek" or somethink like that. Very useful that site was.

The truth of the matter is I tried a few things before I took the slip stream approach. None worked. Very frustrating at times. When I finally got around to making my own disk, the first disk would not boot (due to a parameter in Nero Rom which should have been a '4' being a '1'). My bad.

Messing around with computers can certainly be trying. There are several times during the whole process I was reminded of a song by Spinal Tap. Christmas with the devil, in this case the devil is Terry's computer.

Things are now rapidly progressing towards various stages of completion. Next comes the hunt for all the required drivers to get that laptop back in shape for the Happy New Year.

Happy Christmas

We had an enjoyable Christmas. Christmas eve consisted of a short service followed by dinner with the family including my sister and in-laws at our house. After dinner we continued our tradition of opening all the presents. Not to worry, we still have stocking to go through on Christmas morning.

Christmas Days consisted of a trip to Albertville to have lunch with G's father's extended family.

Tomorrow I will be heading over to Atlanta with my sister and my brother's two sons. We are going to load all of T's stuff into a U-Haul truck and drive it back to HSV. That should make for a nice short day.

Merry Holidays to everyone.

It got cold again!

I am still working on painting the cabinet doors. Twelve doors total. I decided to paint them before hanging them to keep the paint off the hardware. One coat of primer, two coats of paint was the plan. I have finished the primer and the first coat of paint. I plan on making more progress tomorrow.

The Winter Break of Rick

After finishing my final final on Tuesday, I found myself in a unique position. I had nothing to do. Nothing.

When your a student there is always an assignment due. My normal modus operandi is to just work on whatever is due next. Well the calendar said I was done. No more school for 3 weeks. Awesome. I could get use to this.

Actually I do have a few things on the calendar in the next three weeks: Celebrate Christmas, Trip to Disney World, and Celebrate the New Year.

Things will be rough for me for the near future. Think of me as your working through your daily grind.

Yesterday I made my periodic pilgrimage to the dentist. As I was getting strapped into the chair to begin the genetic experimentation - wait that is a different story.

After sitting down on the chair, the hygentist gave me a warm next pillow. It felt really nice (it was cold outside) on the back of my next and I said so. She asked if I wanted to turn on the massage/heat features of the chair. I had always declined in the past but thought the additional heat might be nice. And the chair went brrrrrrrrmmm. Nice.

I was kidding around about how nice it was to be pampered at the dentist and the hygentist asked me if I had ever had the hand dip. She said I absolutely had to try it if I was feeling adventurous. Next thing you know, I have had my hands dipped in warm paraffin and I am wearing big white mittens.

For the rest of the day, my hands smelled like lavender.

And then I got my teeth cleaned.

Last Tuesday I left the house headed for school in the Miata running on fumes. The gas station I have been frequenting is about halfway between home and school. Once I arrived there, I discovered I had left my wallet at home. The tank being empty, I realized I didn't have enough gas/time to head to back the house. I also didn't have enough gas to get to school.

After briefly panic'ing for about 7 seconds, I collected all the change from the car and went inside the station to proudly request $1.50 on pump number 8. The price of regular was $1.55 per gallon which bought me most of a gallon. With my most of gallon of gas I was able to make it to school and back.

Two days later, I was in the Miata again, once again heading for school. This time with my wallet in my pocket, I stopped at the gas station and filled up the tank. Here is the amazing part. I filled up the tank for less than $20. To be more precise it cost $18.99. Gas mileage on this tank was down: about 28 MPG, but still nothing to complain about there.

It has been a busy busy week. During times like this I usually have a lot to write about unfortunately most of it never gets written.

This semester of school is almost over. I took my final for the second of three classes yesterday afternoon. The final final will be on Tuesday.

Over the last week I have managed to effectively procrastinate on several occasions by building a set of wall cabinets for the garage. I build three cabinets spanning a total of 12 feet. Hopefully the extra storage space will allow me to finally get the work bench cleaned off.

That is all for now. I am heading to the high school to sub in a Spanish class. (School started two hours late today due to possible inclement weather. We all knew it wouldn't really snow, didn't we?)

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.

I just breezed past here and noticed I have been delinquent. And then I was hit with a little deja vu. Last year about this same time the blog was idle for a few weeks. School was keeping me busy then as well. Only about ten more days until I can stop using that excuse for a few weeks.

What's Up in the Shop?

After getting the laundry done, I headed out to the shop the create some more dust. After a couple of hours I had managed to make some new cabinets. I built the case and face frame today. Still need to putty, paint, and hang the doors. That probably won't happen for a week or so.

One can never have too much storage space and cutting up some wood creates more free space.

A few days ago while watching a movie, I commented that I don't recall ever seeing a film with Morgan Freeman that wasn't good.

Today I read that they are bringing back "The Electric Company" on PBS in January.

Like I said before, can you think of anything Morgan Freeman was in that wasn't good.

(Sure, your going to mention that movie, but for the record, I haven't seen it.)

The Big One that Got Away

I spent the last week watching a local car on Ebay. The car was a 1968 Corvette convertible. I was very tempted to buy this car. I contacted the seller last Thursday and arranged to look at the car on Saturday.



This car was very sound mechanically and it looked pretty good from about 10 feet back. Did I mention I was tempted. After giving the car a good look over I went home to sleep on it.



I eventually decided to let it pass. While the price was right, there were just too many little things that it needed. All these little things could add up to many-many weekends of work (and a empty wallet). I don't need another project right now. I already have a few.

Stay tuned...

Goals and Procrastination

My goal for today was to write two papers for school. Having gotten one out of the way I decided to take a short break before finishing the other paper.

I decided I would use my break to do a little home maintenance (one of the toilets was stopped up). Now your thinking someone must really be wanting to avoid writing the next paper to tackle a glorious job like unplugging a toilet.

A mere three hours later after completely taking the thing apart, putting it back together, a trip to home depot, and taking the thing apart and putting it back together again, it was working. The entire episode was also a comedy of errors. Fortunately for me, know one was around with a video camera.

Guess what stopped it up? I little plastic Dixie cup. I have not idea how it got in there and at this point I don't want to know.

Now it is time to work on that other paper. What a glorious day it has been.

More Interesting Bits About Diagnosing A Tractor's Electrical System

I somehow managed to forget to post the follow up on the tractor. Until now. Lucky you!

Testing the alternator determined it was good (as was probably the voltage regulator). It turned out one of the wires to the regulator was bad. Upon close inspected it appeared to be smashed. It turns out it had melted. (Can you say "too much current"?). I ended up unwrapping the wiring harness and replacing a section of wire that had been melted. After wrapping it all back up, we jumped the tractor off a car (because the battery was dead). The tractor cranked and ran fine. White it was running I used my voltage meter to measure the alternator output and the battery voltage. The alternator output was fine and the battery was charging.

Using my twenty/twenty hindsight, it makes perfect since that a wire was bad.

1972 GMC Frame Pictures

Here are a few picture of the 1972 GMC pickup frame. This has been a very slow process. A few years back I bought a truck to restore. First I completely disassembled it. The frame has been sandblasted and painted along with all the suspension and steering components. These pictures were taken before the front wheels were back in place.

This first picture is where the trailing arms connect to a cross member. The differential is mounted to the other end of the trailing arms.



This is picture of the entire assembly. Finally I can see my progress.



Here we see the trailing arms again, this time showing their attachment to the differential.




Looking down the length of the frame from just above the second cross member. The cross member you can see is blocking the view of the trailing arms and the differential. My '06 Dodge Charger is trying to hide behind the rear tire.



The front end of the frame. The first cross member will be below the radiator. The second is below the engine and was quite heavy.



The rear view of the differential. The truck originally had leaf spring suspension. I am in the process of completing the conversion to trailing arm suspension.



This is the front suspension, passenger side. Shown here are the upper and lower A-arms along with the coil spring and the spindle. I mounted the brake rotors on the spindles today and put the tires on the front end.

GMC Progress

This afternoon I put the front wheels on the '72. There was actually more to it than that, but visually that is what you would notice. Also included was the installation of the brake rotors, inner and outer bearings, and other miscellaneous foo foo.

Wood Working SkillZ

Saturday's adventure was hardly as glorious. I re-sawed and planed a few pieces of scrape pine that were originally destined for the refuse bin.

The wood was actually 8 pieces of 2x4, each about 14 inches long. Really too short to be useful. (Unless one decided to make some small boxes to practice making dovetail joints.) I have certainly got a fair amount of use out of these boards. Their last use was as part of a large dolly I built to move the truck frame around on before it had its wheels back on. I recall at that point I was recycling the wood from another project though I don't recall exactly what it was at this point. Not that it matters, but I certainly felt good about using the pieces of that 2x4 three different times on three different projects.

After many past attempts, I did finally manage to get the band saw tuned up sufficiently to re-saw the wood without any wander of the blade. The solution was so simple, I can't believe I hadn't spotted it before. (One of the blade guides was misaligned.)

2007-2008 F1 Championship

This weekend was the final race in the 2008 Formula One World Championship.  The race held in Sao Paulo Brasil was on Speed at 11:30 AM central.  Per our normal modeus operandi,  we Tivo'ed the race to watch it that evening.

 

Middle of the afternoon I was online reading the news and I accidentally saw a headline stating who won the championship.  Bummer dude!  The headline stated that Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) won the championship.  I had been pulling for Felipe Massa (Ferrari) all season so I was disappointed.  Going into the final race, Lewis was ahead of Massa by 7 (or was it 5) points.  This meant Lewis needed to finish in the top 4 cars to win the season.  Massa needed to finish first with Lewis outside of the top 4 to win. 

 

The race turned out to be a thriller.  Even though I knew how the season would end, I didn't know the results of the race. 

 

Massa started from pole and maintained the lead most of the race, but that wasn't enough.  The race was actually decided in the final turn of the final lap when Timo Glock (Toyota) slowed down due to the rain and not having the correct tires.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing, nor could the folks in the Ferrari garage on TV.

 

This season was absolutely the most exciting season for F1 since I have started watching.  (Though I would like to see Michael Schumacher come out of retirement.)   Alonso who was stagnant most of the season, was showing his skill toward the end of the season.  Kimi Raikkonen who I thought would win his second championship this year showed he was a team player (and that he could smile).  Kubica showed his skill as well as a promise to be a future F1 champion.  

 

This year also marked the final season for David Coulthard and possibly for Rubens Barrichello.  We also saw the demise of the Super Aguri team.

 

Next season should be exciting (if the FIA doesn't mess it up with more stupid rules).  Maybe next year will be Felipe's year.  And maybe we will see F1 return to the United States in 2010!

This weekend Capn. Dan became a grandfather again. As I predicted, the baby and Danny both share several common family traits. Neither have any hair and they both drool a lot. Congratulations Danny.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the new baby Sean Connery Steve Jobs Danny. Note he is not drooling in this photo.

The End

Sorry iMike, I hate to be the one to break the news to you but the old truck has found a new home. Here is a final picture of Jordan at the wheel of the 1925 Chevrolet Superior Series K truck. (This is the vehicle he learned to use a clutch on.)

And here is a picture of the new caretaker loading it up to take it to its new home in Fort Payne Alabama.

Trick or Treat

Here is a picture of my neighbor Brian with the saw blade in place. He was going for a Norm Abrams "New Yankee Workshop" zombie look complete with flannel. It wasn't until I looked at the photo this evening that I noticed he didn't put on the beard. Proabably too much effort. The over all look was well done though.

Tractor Mechanic

As a graduate of Auburn University, people believe I should know how to repair a tractor. Unfortunately I never took an AG classes so I missed out on John Deere Repair 101.

My neighbor asked me to take a look a this tractor (a YANMAR 1500) with him. The first symptom was a dead battery. Sometimes a dead battery is just a dead battery. Other times it is a problem with part of the electrical system. In this case, the problem was not just the battery. After doing some research online, I took some voltage measurements on the tractor. Based on the numbers, it appeared the alternator was generating sufficient voltage but the regulator was not working. We replaced the regulator but things were still no go. At this point the alternators output had dropped from about 18 volts to about 9. This was a bit of a mystery to me. The best I can figure out, the regulator input was "open" so alternator appeared to be working. Once the regulator was replaced, it put a load on the alternator causing the alternators output under load to drop to 9 volts.

What are the odds both the alternator and the regulator were bad? Not very high if you ask me, but the original symptoms pointed to the regulator not the alternator. Obviously now, the alternator is the problem. Hopefully we will get Coy's tractor running again this week. And then I can take it out for a test drive.

Anybody have an Aspirin?

This is a picture of my neighbor. He had a slight accident and ended up with a saw blade stuck in his head.



Actually, this is just part of the costume he is working on for tomorrow night. I won't give away the details until the costume is complete.

He brought the blade down this evening along with a template of the shape of his head. I cut the blade using my meta-saw. Next I welded a few support rods on that wrap around his head and hold the blade in place. He will add some blood and guts.

The Madison County Woodworkers Guild is back in action. Danny, David, and I are all working on duplicate projects. This keeps fighting over the tools to a minimum. ("You go first!", "No, please after you", "No, I must insist that you go first"). It only took us about an hour to accomplish the first cut of the evening. Excellent progress.

The neighbors must have left their refrigerator door open last night because it was cold outside this morning. I suppose this was our first frost of the year. I am already looking forward to spring.

This weekends camping trip went well. The rain stopped before we arrived at the trail head. We arrived at the trail head around 4:30 or 5:00 pm. We didn't get to hike in very far because the sun went behind the next ridge rather early. The camp site we selected was at a fork in the trail next to a fork in the Sipsey River.

We did enough hiking to suit everyone. Friday evenings campfire was weak due to a lack of time to collect wood, but we made up for it Saturday evening. We enjoyed plently of good food as well.

All in all, it was a great trip. I am looking forward to next trip out in the spring.

Fall Camping 2008, Take II

I am heading out this afternoon for another camping trip. We are going to the Sipsey Wilderness again, though a different area. This is a really nice area for camping. Lots of trails, large rock formations, plenty of trees, and several large creeks. (In Texas they call these rivers.)

The weather is not optimal but it appears it may cooperate later. Currently it is raining but the skys are suppose to clear up mid afternoon, maybe.

Time to get packing.

GMC Update

I bolted the rear coil springs on the GMC this evening. It is starting to look like a real truck again!

Two of Ten

I have now completed two days of observation in a local middle school. This semester I am required to do a total of ten days. So far so good. It is a nice school with a very friendly set of teachers, faculty, and administrators.

The school I am visiting is on the block system. Today I learned the names of about 50 kids between the three classes I am observing. I hope to know them all, about 90, by the end of the week.

It is still odd being addressed by my sir name. I feel a power trip coming on.

I keep thinking I need to update the pictures of the kids on the side bar. No telling how long ago they were taken. For you viewing pleasure, here is an update. This picture is only a year and a half old.

Late to the Party

OK, I just discovered face book. I knew it was out there but I had been avoiding looking at it because it seemed like a time sink. It certainly is.

Besides wasting lots of time, I have managed to find some old friends. It is certainly good to be in contact with all of you.

Woooooooooooooo Whooooooooooooo!!!

Yesterday, I bolted a couple of wheels back on the frame of the truck. This was huge progress, bigger than when I reassembled the front suspension which seems like eons ago.

What did I accomplish?
1. Installed new bushings in trailing arms.
2. Bolted trailing arm brackets to frame.
3. Bolted trailing arms to brackets.
4. Bolted differential to trailing arms.
5. Installed front coil springs and spindles.

The last step required two neighbors to sit on the frame to sufficiently compress the coils while the spindles were bolted on.

What did I not accomplish? I forgot to take pictures!

I had a mid-term today.

The test had eight essay questions along with many multiple choice problems. Before the test the professor offered us an option. We could answer 4 of the 8 essay questions (along with the multiple choice questions) or one of us could select an envelope from a set of 9 envelopes containing a number between 0-8. The number in the envelope would be the number of essay questions everyone had to answer.

I convinced the class to select an envelope rather than holding at 4. I was then voted to pick the envelope. Without hesitation I selected an envelope. I should have bought a lottery ticket this morning. I picked the zero. No essay questions for anyone.

Camping Trip, Fall 2008

This past weekend we (Myself, Billy, Chad, Danny, David, David, Steve, and Jim) went camping at the Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead National Forest. It was a nice trip but it seemed like someone was missing.

Oven 4.0 was somewhat of a success: bread, biscuits, brownies, and muffins.

The weather cooperated. We heard lots of wildlife after dark, probably due to the almost full moon. Plenty of trails for hiking. I took two short hikes. One included a trip to the gas station for water. (The water filter gave up on us.)

Good times.

Monday's List of Accomplishments

After spending several hours this morning doing homework, I had a couple of free hours to spend outdoors. I managed to get two more things accomplished, in addition to my homework.

The first was unscheduled. My neighbor has an old 1980's model Honda Passport. He wanted me to help him get it running. He is actually the expert with regard to gasoline powered engines, but I have better eyes. After checking the spark, and draining the carb bowl, we finally got the motor to kick over and run even with old gas in the tank. Unfortunately the rear tire has a huge hole in the tube so we didn't get to cruise it around the driveway.

Today I also mounted two tires to the freshly rebuilt 10-bolt GM differential. I now have a partially rolling vehicle. Ha! The next step will involve connecting the trailing arms to the frame and the differential to the trailing arms.

A differential with wheels certainly takes up more space than a differential on a work bench. This is creating a problem for me, not enough space. Therefore I will make another small effort at selling the turnip truck.

For Sale: 1925 Chevrolet Superior Series Model K Truck

Camp Oven 4.0

A camping trip is planned for the near future. I decided it might be time to build another camp oven.

The previous one (see Camp Oven 3.0 here) was very successful. We used it to bake cookies, cakes, brownies, muffins, bread, etc. on many trips to NC, TN, and AL. The only real problem it had was a hot spot directly over the burner. This tended to cause the food to cook unevenly sometimes. I would use a rock placed over the burner to spread the heat.

This is my latest attempt at a DIY light weight camping oven for back packing.



The oven itself weights 23 oz. That does not include the weight of the grill or burner. I reused the burner, grill, thermometer, and PVC from the previous design.

The oven is made from 20" aluminum flashing formed to make a cylinder. The cylinder is held together by 3 qty 4-40 screws. The diameter is 17" so that two 6-cup muffin tins will fit in it.

The top is simply another 20"x20" piece. The top is removed to gain access to the cooking rack. Because the top is so light, I expect a good gust of wind may try to carry it off. To resolve this and to improve the seal between the main body and the top, place an item on top. I have found a handsaw works fine. Alton Brown would be proud because this makes my saw a multi-tasker and gives it a legitimate use in my outdoor kitchen.
I hung a wind screen below the grill to improve its overall heating efficiently. (It will preheat to 350 F in less than a minute). The wind screen does not completely encase the burner for several reasons: ease of changing the tank, ease of lighting, and not wanting to get the burner valve hot.

The previous oven was used many times. From it we learned that a wind screen was absolutely necessary on a windy day. The outside temperature doesn't seem to matter much though, Oven 3.0 was used many times while the temperature was in the 30's or while it was raining. Simply adjust the valve to compensate for the current weather conditions.



Below you see the oven at 350 F. Reaching over 500 degrees is no problem. The lowest setting on my burner only reaches about 225 F. I have found most things I want to bake need 350 to 450 F.

I drilled a second hole in the top for a second thermometer. I don't expect I will have the diverse temperature range with this oven between the two as I did with the previous version. I haven't verified this yet, as I only have one thermometer. I will be borrowing the second one to verify this soon enough.

According to the spec's for my burner, the propane tanks last 2 hours on the highest setting and 4.5 hours on the lowest. Most cooking occurs somewhere in the middle.





The final picture was from the test-run. The oven heated up quickly. I cooked a few mini-corn-dogs. (My son ate them for dinner.) Below the pan you can see the blue ring of fire on the burner.

The rack shown here is simply aluminum wire. I drilled 12 holes evenly spaced 6 inches from the top. Six inches allows plenty of room for baking a loaf of bread. You can also see a couple of the screws holding the cylinders shape if you look closely.



If you have any questions or want additional details to build your own, email me and I will try to help you out.

Madison Street Festival Parade

This morning the 1925 Chevrolet Truck was rolled out of the garage to attend a local parade. The local temperature was just under 50 when I left the house. I stopped at the nearby gas station to top off the tank, surely the most expensive gas this truck has even seen. (It made me wonder what the least expensive gas price was.) The trip to the parade staging area went pretty fast, probably about 7 miles. The speed limit was mostly 45. The truck was position 16 of 38. We loaded up the truck with our troupe of Girls Scouts along with a brother or two. All total, we had 8 people in the truck. The truck was pretty full thought we might have been able to fit two more small people.

I was amazed again this year at the number of people I there that I know. I met a couple of guys with the local chapter of the antique car club.

All in all, it was a nice little trip.

Election 2008

While attending class on Thursday, I heard some students discussing who they would be voting for in the upcoming presidential election. And why. Their reasons were ridiculous and uninformed. What about your reasons?

You still have plenty of time to select your candidate based on the issues.

What's the Difference?

This evening I finished assembling the 10 bolt GM differential for my '72 GMC pickup. I was having a tolerance problem this weekend while working on reassembling it. The pinion pin did not seem to have enough space to slide between the end of the axles. The solution turned out to be as simple as removing some grease from between the thrust washers and gears. This potential solution came to me while I was driving home from school today. Glad it worked. Who would have thought a little grease would make that much of a difference. The tolerances on these parts were definitely tight.

I have not filled the diff case with fluid. I will wait and do that after the diff has been bolted to the trailing arms. Oh yeah, I also need to touch up the paint on the differential. I scratched it up a bit, flipping the diff end over end a few times while it was up on jack stands. Again, it is a minor thing. I am calling it done.

Next Step? Assembling the rear suspension I believe.

T-F-Oh-Doe

I just found out U2's Under a Blood Red Sky is about to be released on DVD. Time to pre-order!

Now when was that new CD going to be released? Oh, yeah, it was pushed out to 2009.

The tanks in both my cars were empty Monday morning just in time for the spike in gas prices.

The Charger normally gets 89 octane as recommended by Dodge. This week it got a tank full of 87 as everything else was unavailable. I don't bother to calculate MPG on the Dodge. The number would be below 20 and no one needs to know that.

The Miata is fine with 87 octane and that is what it got as well. The calculations on the Miata this time yielded 29.3 MPG.

GMC Progress: None

After what seems like months, thought it has only been a few weeks, I finally got back to working on the differential for the GMC. What was suppose to be just a buttoning up process, turned into a minor struggle. The stuff is suppose to just go back together, easily. It did not.

I am guessing I have less than an hours work to finish it up. Just as soon as I figure out what is not right, I will start the clock on that hour. It could be a while.

I went by the parts counter at the local Chevrolet dealership to buy a special bolt today. This particular bolt is a retaining both that goes through the shaft in the chuck of the differential. According all the information I have read, this bolt needs to be replaced anytime you take it out. Failure to do so could be catastrophic for the differential.

The data in the computer at the parts counter only went back to 1973 so the parts guy had to get out an old parts catalog. Once the experienced guy took over for the new guy, he found the part number very quickly and then located the bolt in the parts room in less than a minute.

Total damage: $5.02 for a bolt. Golly-gee.

#1003

If your interested in reading a blogger's notes on hurricane Ike, check out Ain't Chicken. The author, Carol, lives in the Houston area.

Post #1002

Somehow in all the cheese excitement, I overlooked the fact that I was making my 1000th post.

Go back and read it again. It was just that good.

Kaboom!

After a mere two weeks, today my head no longer felt like it was going to implode, explode, to simply turn itself inside out. Hopefully I will be one hundred percent in another day or two.

This week I spent Wednesday and Friday working as a substitute teacher.

Wednesday was in an 8th grade math class.

Friday was in a high school class with AP Calculus, Calculus, and Pre-Calculus. During my free block I also filled in for Geometry B.

Having said all that, TGIF.

Huh?

"I spelled island wrong.  I spelled it I-S-E-L-A-N-D because I was thinking about cheese.  Cheese has a lot of 'E's in it"  - JM

Sometimes I have a hard time following his train of thought.

Is Your Computer Running Slow?

I often get asked to work on other peoples computers. (I have been using/working with computers since the mid 80's.) Sometimes I know what is wrong, sometimes I don't, but I am very persistent and usually resolve the problem.

Last year I was asked to figure out what was wrong with a computer that seemed to be running slow. Very slow. It turns out that computer had 3 different virus scanning programs running on it. Once these were removed, the computer was once again a speed demon. Removing three simultaneously running virus scanners is more time consuming than it should be, but I digress.

I personally don't run any virus scanning software on my computer. I feel like the virus scanners are usually more of a hindrance than a help. First and foremost, it causes the computer the feel sluggish. Inevitably it begins the system scan at the most inopportune time. And then all the nagging, and begging for money via upgrades and other virus/security services.

Do you really need a virus scanner? Probably not. How often does your scanner find a virus on your computer? Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Probably not. But in the mean time it is annoying you to no end. But mostly just causing you to spend a lot of time waiting on your computer to boot, open files, etc.

Let me ask you that question again. How often does your scanner find a virus? Do you really need it?

My recommendation is to remove the scanner. In my opinion the scanner is as annoying as the stuff it is trying to protect you from. Really. You will be fine with out a virus scanner so long as your have a decent firewall (usually built into routers) , stick with reputable websites, and don't open email from folks you don't know.

Should you ever get a virus on your computer, just download and install a free demo of your favorite scanner, remove the virus, and then remove the virus scanner again.

Pros: 1) You will save money by not buying a update of your virus scanner next year. 2) Your computer will run faster. 3) No more nagging from the scanning software. 4) Faster more responsive computer.

Cons: 1) When you finally do get a virus on your computer, you will have no one to blame but yourself. (You should not have been on that site.) 2) You will get no tech support from me because you forgot to say please.

Post a comment to let me know how much you are enjoying living without your virus scanner virus.

I had this very productive idea where I was going to wash and wax the Miata this afternoon.

But first a trip to WM for break and milk. And a few side trips. And stops at various neighbor's garages. And a trip to the Harley dealership with yet another neighbor. (No I didn't buy a bike)

I never got around to the wash, much less the waxing.

My head has felt like it was going to explode for about the last week. That would be one nasty mess. Sinuses, who needs um? Hopefully this little episode will be over soon.

Hopefully.

Useless Fact o' the Day

Yesterday's fill up of the Miata yields results of 28 MPG. Pretty good considering not a single mile was on the interstate.

According to some random site on the 'net, Mazda spec'ed the car at 21/27 MPG. Another site listed it at 22/28.

What kind of mileage are you getting?

The Fall of Rick

Fall semester is off to a good start. I have been busy, but not too busy. Definitely more manageable than the summer was.

On Wednesday, I substituted at a nearby middle school. Seventh grade math. This school was on a traditional 7 period schedule instead of the 4 blocks I have become accustomed to during my field work. The day flew by. I had the opportunity to apply a lot of what I have learned from the classroom management class I took this summer. Overall things went very smoothly, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I have 3 more days of sub'ing lined up. (AP Calculus, 7th grade math, and Spanish III).

I still haven't gotten around to buttoning up the differential. Only a couple hours effort remaining. I hear it calling from the garage. Soon, very soon. Unless of course I decide to take a nap instead.

Last Friday my sinus's started bothering me. I don't know exactly what caused it but I have been miserable since then. Taking meds helps, but then I end up feeling spaced out for several hours. I took some allergy medication at dinner last night which caused me to be very sleepy by 8:30 PM. By 9, I gave in and went to bed. The problem with going to bed early is waking up early.

The date for the Fall camping trip has been chosen. We have 4 ACKs, 3 NAKs, 2 MAKs, and several "No Replies". That usually means their wife hasn't decided yet. :)

I rotated the tires on the Charger today.

Odometer: 14,839

Doh!

Yesterday afternoon around 2 PM I drank a Monster Loca Moca. Mystery solved.

Time to catch a few Z's.

990

Occasionally I wake up during the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep for a few hours. When it happens I usually get up and find something to read on the internet. I don't ever watch the tv because I don't want to wake anyone else up. I use to just lay in bed but that gets restless after a while. I will start to get drowsy again in a few hours. Probably around 5:30 am, within a half hour of the time I normally wake up. I have started keeping track of when this occurs. For a while it seemed like it happened about weekly. The last time it happened was twenty days ago. This summer I have had the luxury of not having to get up at 6:00 am, but the internal clock is still wound pretty tight so most days I still wake up within a couple of minutes of 6, plus or minus.

Tonight we had takeout from Rosie's for dinner (Mexican). I woke up thirsty, but normally when that happens, I drink some water or tea and go right back to sleep.

My seester made a delivery in HSV today. We had lunch at Casa Blanca (also Mexican). She let me sit in the big rig. Nope, I didn't get to drive it, though I did wonder if I would have been able to break it loose like I did Danny's dually. I bet I could!

After lunch I drove by the Dodge dealership so that she could take a gander at the new Challenger. On Wednesday they had two on the lot. One black, one Hemi orange. Today they also had two, but they were both orange. The window sticker's MSRP was about $41,000 before the additional dealer markup of $15,000 was added. I guess the guy that bought the black one wanted it pretty bad. The engine is a 6.1 liter, 425, and it gets something like 14/18 MPG. Sweet. To me, it appears that Dodge doesn't really want to sell many of these cars. While there is a lot of interest, this car is priced to high for most folks. I suppose all the numbers will be more reasonable when the non-SRTs reach the dealerships. The Dodge website lists the starting price at $21,995 for the base model. The R/T will have 370 HP. I forgot to ask for a test drive. To borrow someone else's slogan, Zoom zoom zoom.

This afternoon I trimmed all the trees in the front yard. All four had many limbs that needed to be removed to ease mowing. I have been told that these butcher jobs should wait until the fall though I seem to always do it during the middle of the summer. It is easier to see the shape of the tree when it still has leave on it. That of course is not the real reason. The real reason is that tree trimming is usually a spontaneous event that follows having a tree limb whack you in the head while your minding your own business.

Planning for the fall camping trip is under way.

Last week I spend a few hours on a couple of days working on the differential for the old GMC. I was on the home stretch last time I touched it. Perhaps I will finish the diff up this week. School comes first though. I hope to not get too far behind too often this semester.

I recently signed up with the county school system to do some substitute teaching on the days I am not it class. Friday I sub'ed for the band director at a nearby HS. I lined up a couple more jobs while I was there.

Friday evening I helped the inlaws unload the moving truck. They bought a house nearby.

It is now 3:20. Only a few more hours to go.

This is post 990. I plan to celebrate post 1k with the mundane label also.

I recently read that the new U2 album was schedule for release in October. And then it was changed to November. They have a working title which I have inconveniently forgotten.

This week I picked up 3 lbs of okra at the big garden down the road. Mmmm. Fried okra is good. I boiled a few pods too, just to gross you out. It never occurred to me to try to steam it. I read about that here: Okra and Proud of It.

I have used some of my free time this week to work on rebuilding the differential out of the GMC. I was very lucky during the assembly process. I got the backlash within spec on the second try and the pinion shim was already correct. All that is left is to get the pinion pre-load set by crushing the crush collar and then button I can button it up.

We are home from the beach and I resolved the problem with my IP address.

The trip home took about six hours and twenty minutes which included three stops.

Before leaving the beach this morning, I went out on the balcony early enough the see the sun rise. Again, I missed it, not because of clouds this time, but because the sun rose to far to the north. Instead of being above the gulf, it rose behind the condo next door.

Last night we dined at the Crab Shack. The crab dip was excellent.

Some folks staying in the same condos, had their wedding ceremony on the beach Saturday evening. Seems risky to me, what with the possibility of sunburn, seaweed, jelly fish, sharks, thunderstorms, and sand in your shorts.

It is good to be home.

Assuming you count the day we arrived, today is day three at the beach. The Ada guys would all count that as Day One; the C guys count it as Day Zero. Big Bird would simply increase the array size by one and not worry about what he doesn't understand.

Day two went very smoothly, no jumper cables were required. The kids (and Seester) all awoke before me. I think she was actually a victim. G' prepared pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then we all headed for the beach.

After a brief interaction with the omnipotent god of the beach umbrellas, we set up shop and began to make a sea wall of sand to hold back the waves. (I thought I was going to let it go with just that single statement, but it appears I was wrong. As I can imagine iMike saying "Hey buddy, there is a reason there is only one dollar in your tip jar." ) The sea walls eventually collapsed.

We have watched two movies so far. Juno and Thankyou for Smoking. Juno was definitely the better of the two.

The dinner hour last night consisted of a trip to The Light House restaurant. The place was huge though practically empty. The food was good, the prices reasonable, and absolutely no wait at all. I decided the reason the place was empty was simply its location; it was not on the beach, and not directly on the main road.

Time to head back inside. The thunder and lightening are getting closer and the sunrise will be obscured by the clouds.

We have enjoyed having Seester here with us.

I woke up early this morning. Good thing I didn't take a nap yesterday or would have probably been up all night. I am sitting on the balcony in a fairly comfortable chair with my laptop waiting for the sunrise. I am equipped with a camera in case I decide the moment needs to be captured along with a small Starbucks coffee Frappuccino.

A small Ford tractor just passed by on the beach below with its headlights on. It was heading west dragging some sort of beach grooming device behind it. The clouds to the south above the water appear dark and occasionally I feel the rumble of thunder coming from the west, obviously further down the beach than the current location of the tractor. The waves are large this morning keeping the scavenger birds along the beach on their toes. The flags will definitely be red today.

As the sun approaches the horizon, a few adventurous souls head toward the waters edge. From the east a woman approaches carrying a coffee cup, probably almost empty. Directly below me, a family of three emerges. The son appears intent on crab hunting, the mother on seeing the sunrise, and the father on ruining the moment because he would rather still be in bed. Lightening appears to the southwest followed several seconds later by a mild clap of thunder. Or two. The small family turns around and heads for the boardwalk.

Life's a Beach (again)

I went to sleep Wednesday evening at home and woke up this morning in Florida. Yeah, I know today is Friday and I failed to mention Thursday.

Thursday consisted of a quick 6 hour trip from HSV to FL. We arrived about 2:30 pm, 30 minutes early for check-in. I shall not elaborate about the next hour and a half other than to say I need to buy a set of jumper cables for G's 4x4.

Seester also drove down from ATL, GA so we have a whole condo full of fun here.

We went to the Back Porch for an early dinner consisting for fried seafood goodness.

Due to my bouncing Internet back at home, my IP address has changed and this entry shan't be seen by you until after I return home. Probably.

I brought a wireless router with me so that we could all share the network connection here. As I look around me, there are 4 laptops being used for various purposes. What a bunch of nerds. It's good to be king.

My internet connection has been bouncing a lot in the last few days. The cable guy dropped by this evening and replaced the cable modem. Things appear to be OK now. With crossed fingers.

Even though the temperatures was down about 20 degrees yesterday compared to the day before, I believe everyone is going crazy due to the heat.

My last final exam for the summer was this week so the Summer of Rick is now officially here.

Unfortunately Ginger has started making noises regarding a list of things that need to be done. How droll. [Go ahead and look it up, I can wait. I first heard the word as a kid while watching Disney's Robin Hood. Good times, good times.]

iMike has lost it just like Sean Connery. I realize it is not funny if you have to explain it. Make sure you use the accent when saying it. "And now I've lost it!" Yeah, anyway, iMike it talking about raising chickens in his back yard. Times must be hard.

Summer Update


Finals are finally here and I will be finishing up the summer semester next week. It's all good.

Last weekend we went to GA to visit my seester. Or was it to go to Six Flags. Good times.

Weekend Update Posted Mid-to-Late in the Week

The posting has been slow around here lately. This is mostly due to my class schedule for the summer. Not that I am spending a lot of time in class, as I am only in class about 12 hours a week, sometimes slightly less if they let us out early, but still at least 10 hours. The real reason is the amount of time required to complete all of my assignments. The last few weeks has seen me spending anywhere from 40 to 60 hours per week on school. Can you say projects out the wazoo? Go ahead and try to say it. I knew you could. What happened to theSummer of Rick? It is absolutely insane, insane I tell you. Fortunately, all good things must come to an end. There are only about 2.5 weeks left of this semester.

Last Saturday I did manage to find the time to take the Turnip Truck out to the Greater Tennessesseessesseeesse Valley Antique Car Show. (Sorry about that extra eessee.) The trip to the car show was like three separate adventures. Count them.

The forecast for the day was 80% chance of rain all day long starting at 6:00 am. There were no clouds in the sky at 7:00 am so I decided I was going.

#1 Driving to the show. Driving an 83 year old vehicle is always an adventure. Doubly so when you attempt to drive 30 miles at a top speed of 35 miles an hour. No trauma on the trip out but we were amazed to see nearly twice as many cars there at 8:00 am this year than there were last year. Technically, I arrived at 8:10 AM this year. Last year I was right on the bell. When I registered, they gave me registration form #426. I assume that means I was the 426 car to arrive but I doubt it. And yes it was hot. And no, I didn't win any of the door prizes.

#2 Spending the Day at the Show. It was hot, but we came prepared. (We = me + 1 of the Brians) We had a cooler full of ice, a gallon of water, and a nice tent-tarpy-thingy along with several soccer-mom chairs, sans the soccer moms. I walked the parts swap and did not find anything I could live without. I also viewed like 70,000 old cars and trucks. OK, maybe 300. I ran into several people I knew, no surprise, and spent some time talking with Mr. Trailer Queen (Tim T.) who brought his 1924 Studebaker in on a trailer. I gave him the business because I had pretty much driven past his house on my way to the show.

Around 3:30 or 4:00 or something like that It was time to head home. Still no clouds in the sky but a call from home informed me it was raining there and had been for a couple of hours. Complete with dogs and cats.

#3 The trip consists of about 30 miles, probably an equal number heading north and east and unfortunately no roads go north east. As I am heading north, I notice large dark clouds to the east and some lightning. And some more lightning. I decided to change my route home in hopes of going around some of the rain. And lightning. I managed to find a nice bank drive thru to park under just as the rain came rolling in. The truck (and '66 Mustang) sat parked for about an hour while we waited out the rain. Eventually the rain pasted and clouds cleared and the pavement dried up. Still we sat there. Why? Have you ever tried to solve a differential equation in your head?

The rain is heading NE at 6 mph. We have a top speed of approximately 35 mph. The house is approximately 15 miles away almost due east. How much of a head start to we have to give the trailing edge of the rain before we leave so that we get home without driving back into the storm? So then we set there for another 10 minutes after agreeing we should wait at least 15. No patience to be found among us, for sure.

We did not catch the rain on the way home though at times we were just behind it. We experienced a little fine sprinkling but nothing worth blogging about. Getting home mostly dry was a major accomplishment. I guess it is good that I didn't win a door prize at the show for surely that would have used all my luck up leaving me to be drenched all the way home.

And in other news, this weekend is my favorite car show of the year. Yes, it is once again time for the air cooled Volkswagen show at Point Mallard. I will probably wait until Sunday to venture forth. See you there.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog


Got a few minutes to kill?

Jordan just asked me a tough question.

"Why is Iraq spelled with a 'Q'."

"But not a 'U'."

"Because isn't 'Q' always supposed to be followed by 'U'."

I didn't have an answer for him so we blogged about it instead.

This is How We Roll

Check out this short video featuring the kids, my Sister's Mustang and my Miata.

Top Gear and F1

I wish this show was available in the US. Here is a bit they did on F1 a good while back. It predates Alonso leaving for McLaren before returning to Renault.

Listen to all the stats he quotes on this car. And the tolerances. The engine is effectively siezed up and must be warmed before cranking.

I hope they bring F1 back to Indy in the near future!