The Inheritance

I had made mention five years ago of the passing of my father. Also on other previous posts, I've made mention of his project car of the last several years, a 1962 Studebaker Gran Turisimo Golden Hawk.

He wanted me to become it's owner and curator on his passing. He had told me to get someone to draw up plans to construct a garage on our lot, and he would pay for the construction, so it would have a protected area to reside. I never got to that point, and I don't know if he had a realistic idea of what the price would be to have it constructed. The idea hasn't left my mind, but I digress.

After my dad's passing, the older had moved in with my mom for quite a while. After he had lived with her, helping her with meals and driving her around to shop and doctors appointments, he relocated to Colorado, and she's been on her own for a while. My older sister has been trying to get her into an assisted living facility for a while, and she just last month got her into a really nice place. She is now moving to sell off her house, so the Studebaker had to be moved out. It had been sitting for almost 5 years, and the battery was dead. I took the battery out of the Falcon, and got my tools and a can of quick start. I was there on a Sunday with several friends who were helping move out some other personal effects. With the fresh battery and quick start, it would fire readily, but wouldn't run. One of my friends headed over to a gas station and bought a couple gallons of gas, which we put most of into the tank, and primed the carburetor with some of the rest. It would run for a bit with the carb primed, but stalled out. One of my friends was keeping an eye under the hood, and said it was leaking. I took a look, and asked where, and he indicated the fuel pump. I was out of time for that day, so I came back the next day with the intention of buying a new fuel pump on the way. When I stopped to get it, they didn't have any compatible pumps in stock. I bought a length of fuel hose (I had the thought that it had old hose on both sides of the fuel pump, that could be all it would need) got the address of a hub store with stock, then continued to my mom's house. I jacked up the car, and checked the hoses. Both of them looked fine, but I loosened the clamps and re tightened them, then primed the carb again, and fired it up. This time, however, it stayed running with no issue. I checked, and there were no leaks!!!

My mom had said that it had cooling issues the last times it had been run. This was news to me. Running it in the driveway with the hood open, it didn't get that hot at all. I drove over to a gas station to fill up, and it got hotter, but did fine on that stretch. While heading to the freeway in red light green light traffic, it got up to the higher range of the gauge, but as soon as it was moving along, it came down to an acceptable level. When I was off the freeway again, it started heating up again. I went ahead and headed up our hill. Around halfway, it started hesitating and cutting out, with the gauge climbing. Almost to the top, it stopped pulling, and I threw it into neutral, revved it a few times, and tried going again. It didn't go, so I gave it some more, and laid a patch of rubber and made it the rest of the way. On the way down, I can smell the coolant boiling off, and when I get it down by where I wanted to park it, it was steaming good. Wouldn't go when I tried to back it up, so I left it kind of slanty. A few hours later, I headed back out and backed it into place.

It was terrifying to drive it at night!!! It tracks perfectly straight, but when you're doing any turning, it has that old floaty power steering disconnected feeling. It has that tail dragger stance, so the inside mirror doesn't show much. A choice I never much approved of, my dad had tinted all the windows except the windshield limo black, so visibility isn't great. The outside mirror on the drivers' side has a loose pivot, so it's always going out of whack.

The tint on the drivers' side was damaged by the window mechanism and the slide, so I've removed that, as well as the tint from both of the wind wings. The passenger side front window is next. I've ordered a high flow 160° thermostat, to see if that's all it takes. If not, I'm considering an electric water pump. These are the main things that need addressing, but there's a lot of other things. The windows were rolled down while it was being stored, with a nice cover over it, but mice or rats got into it, and it's smelly and a mess in there.

The thing is a rolling work of art!!! Every time I'm out working on it, one (or several!!!) of my neighbors will stop and ask about it, or talk to me about it. I'd get some of that while driving the Falcon or the Sky, but this is to a much greater degree!!!

Car Stuff with a Broken Foot

I had mentioned last year I was thinking of doing another car post with all the things I'd recently done. I can't even remember a lot of what I'd done, but with the vintage of cars I own, there's always something!!! Here's a rundown of a few that have been done since the start of this year.

To start off, I'd mentioned that we had red flag days during the fire season, and my wife had driven the Falcon down to the bottom of the hill during that. They'd done a lift of the red flags, then after a couple of days it was back on. Eventually, we got the expected heavy rain season that always seems to follow a nice burn, resulting in mud slides in the scorched earth areas. Of course, we didn't have any fires in our neighborhood, and the rain wasn't as bad as some areas. Anyway, we haven't had a red flag day since, so that's something.

Since my foot was broken, and it wasn't bothering anyone there, I'd left the Falcon down there. After the rains, I drove by and saw that the back of the Falcon had acted as a catch basin for the various muck and debris that had been washed down by the rain!!! Guess it's time to move it back.

I had my wife drop me off one day when we were coming back, and did the classic pop the hood and remove the air cleaner, and shoot some quick start down the carb to fire it up. Got in, and hit the key. It fired as expected, and I let off the crank... but I could hear the starter was still engaged. It often won't stay running on the first fire anyway, and that's what happened, giving me a chance to see what was going on with the key. Messed with it, and it would go back farther than normal to the off position, and it didn't feel right. Gave it a little more quick start, and managed to get it running, even though I had to pull back on the key to keep it from keeping cranking, and drove it back and parked it. Afterwards, I messed with the key some more, and things definitely weren't right.

Oh yea, the back end that had caught all the crud was kind of a mess...

Started feeling around behind the dashboard, and the back of the ignition switch came apart on me!!! I've seen this before...

I knew it had happened before, but I couldn't remember when. Turns out it was about 17 years ago!!! I had no idea that it had been that long!!! I thought I'd looked into the price for a new one back then and had made mention of the price, and maybe I did but I can't find the mention now. Anyway, it was only about $20 from Rock Auto, delivered. A couple of weeks ago, I went down with my full dang foot boot on, and swapped it out. It's kind of a pain working up under the dashboard, and doubly so with my foot in the boot!!! Took a while, and it wasn't super easy, but it wasn't that hard to do. It's all good now!!! Oh yea, by the time I was able to move it back, the weather had turned to our typical beautiful Rose Parade weather, and all the dirt and silt that had washed down had turned into a fine dust, and was getting blown everywhere!!! All the cars down there were a mess. We've had a couple of rainy days since, and it's rinsed a good amount off.

On to the other thing that's been going on!!! One of the things I was going to mention in the never brought to realization car post of yore, I put a new engine in the Matrix!!! Ever since we've had it, it had an oil leak. The consensus was that the usual place it will leak is the timing chain tensioner, which I'd replaced, and then went back and replaced the seal and added some RTV when it still was leaking, all to no avail. I just lived with it. One day when the younger and I were out in it, it was making the low oil valvetrain warning noise, and I checked the oil, which was low as expected. I planned on driving it home and adding a quart, and there we headed. On the way, it got louder and louder, and I was planning on exiting and finding a store to buy a quart to add. Turned out as I decided to do so, we are on a long stretch with no exits, and the power starts dropping. I pulled to the side preparing to call a tow truck. A freeway service truck appears, and gave us a tow off the freeway, then I called and got it towed to our house. The engine was toast, I considered just junking it, then looked into the JDM take out engines. If you don't know, in Japan they have strict emissions standards, and at around 40,000 to 50,000 miles vehicles are usually retired. The engines and transmissions are shipped over, and it turns out for about $1,000 you can pick one up. I've now got a connection at a local shop, and he installed it for $800. Couldn't have bought a similar replacement for that!!!

Anyway, at some point last year the registration was due, and I managed to space out and forget to send it!!! They were kind enough to send a reminder with a past due charge, which I immediately sent in. A few weeks later, they send back a reply, “Oh yea, you need a smog check, too!!!” Thanks. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem, we've had 2 previous checks with no issue, on an engine with a lot more miles.

Once more, this was right after I'd broken my 5th metatarsal and was fairly incapacitated. My wife takes her over to get the check done. She calls me up, and it's failed. It has a code that the O2 sensor heater isn't heating up as it should, and the replacement is something like $220 with installation. I could do it for the cost of the parts for considerably less, if it wasn't for that broken metatarsal!!! Go ahead, have 'em take care of it. Oh, and there's a molded tube from the valve cover to the intake that has a big crack on the end, that needs replaced, too. Picked that up from the dealer, and surrogate son and the younger put that in, along with swapping the battery in Scruffy, under my supervision. Reset the computer, and drove it for a couple weeks to get a good data set, and checked the codes. Still has the same O2 sensor code. My wife takes it back, and they say, “Oh yea, you've got the check engine light on the dash that's burned out, it's not going to pass without that.” I figured it'd be like every dashboard I've ever dealt with, with twist out light holders. Surprise, they're not!!! The dash has the circuit board with LED lights everywhere on it for all the indicators and dash lights. I considered taking it to a shop to get the LED replaced, then remembered I had several extra LED dashboard lights I'd bought for Scruffy. Took one apart, destroying all the LEDs in the process, and then a second one, and replaced the one for the check engine. Oh, and if I didn't think the seller was shady before, the LED for the check engine light wasn't burned out or not working, it was missing!!!

Reset the codes again, drove it for a week, and the O2 code was still there. Took it back, this time I was able to come along. Still has the code for the O2 sensor, and the check engine light is burning bright (the original was probably red or amber, I've replaced it with a white one, and it's pretty bright!!!) and they tell us so. Yeah, you replaced the O2 sensor and that's done nothing for the code, time to dig deeper. The technician pops the hood, and says, “sounds like you've got a big vacuum leak.” I was in the passenger seat with the car running, and I could hear it from there. I get out and am observing from the side. He messes with the recently replaced molded hose to the valve cover, then sprays some carb cleaner on that end. It smooths out, and the fluid immediately gets sucked away from the edge of the valve cover. He declares that it's leaking vacuum from the valve cover gasket. Sounds strange to me, but I did see it with my own eyes, and it does have a large hose running to the intake right above there, so I guess it's plausible. “We'll replace that valve cover gasket for $220...” No, you will not. Another $20 to Rock Auto, and I've got a new valve cover gasket in hand. A week ago today I put it on. The old one looked like it was in excellent shape. Took quite a while cleaning out a lot of the varnish on the inside and grime from the outside of the valve cover, and it looks really good!!! I had been thinking of putting the plastic engine cover back on, I had picked up some knobs so it wouldn't require any tools to remove on the old one, and repaired some of the stripped out holes, but never got to that point, and since it looks nice now, I may never do that.

Got it all put back together, and it still sounds like there's a big vacuum leak. I start spraying around on my own, and once again, it smooths out towards the end of the valve cover. Hmmm...

I Look a little closer, and directly under there it has the fuel injector. Give it a direct spray, and it smooths right out!!! IT WAS NEVER THE VALVE COVER GASKET AT ALL!!! Pulled the first injector out, and the seal is gone!!!

I checked the local Auto Zone to see if they've got the fuel injector seals. They have an $8 kit with 4 seals, or a $15 kit with 3 different seals. I head over (it was a beautiful day, I dropped the top on Zonker and had a nice cruise) and showed the guy the $8 one. He heads back and comes out with it. It's a set of O-rings for the tops of the injectors. OK, guess that's why there's a $15 kit, let's see that. It was the one. Brought it home and put it on, and fired it up. Got out, and it's spewing gas from the fuel rail at the other end. Guess I'll need those O-rings after all. I head back, and he'd never put them away so they were easy to get. Got 'em home, and put them on. But, they didn't seem to be a good fit on the injectors, they seemed too large. Put it back together, and it's still spewing fuel. I took it apart again. One of the O-rings had split, and one was pushed out of the bore. I had an extra from the first seal kit, and I put it on, put it together again, and had the same problem. Rage quit.

I went the nuclear option, got on Rock Auto again and ordered 4 new injectors. Selected the 2-day delivery to have them here on Friday so I could hopefully get them on before work on Saturday. They didn't arrive. Being in customer service, I now fully understand the phrase, “Boned by UPS'. They were supposed to then deliver on Saturday, and to no one's surprise they didn't. The tracking didn't show movement on Monday, either, but they finally showed up just before I was off work. That's how I spent my first hour of daylight savings' time, putting them in. Seems to work fine, we'll see if it does the job!!!

13 Random for '25

I've got a couple of other things I could post, but I'm going to go a bit random instead. It's been a while.

I've had a couple of trips to the orthopedic surgeon since my 5th metatarsal fracture, the second one just yesterday. I took pictures of my X-rays both times. The break is similar to the first web located one I'd used for that post... only worse. They'd put me in the room with the X-ray displayed before I saw the doctor, and I was thinking for sure I'd be in for surgery from the look and the giant gap in the bone. The doctor came in, looks at it and tells me, “In about 95% of these breaks, I don't recommend surgery...” then he paused, and I was almost certain he was going to say I'd hit the lottery with mine, but he's willing to let it ride as is. He gave me a legit boot, and I kept from using it for the 3 weeks or so in between.

The second trip, to me, the X-rays looked exactly the same, but the doctor said it's growing bone back, see how it's got white there now??? Umm, it's bone, it's always been white!!! He gave me the go ahead to start using it some to walk on, and I've been using a cane. It feels like it's making it ache a little, but it isn't bad. I've heard you're supposed to use it a bit as it heals anyway.

This was kind of funny, in Pokemon GO, when you do a raid it displays various achievement cards I guess you'd call them. A week or so after I broke my foot, I got the card for the longest distance walked the previous day!!!

Since my wife was still recovering from her back surgery in early December, for the first time since I've been working there, I didn't take her to the company Christmas party. I took the younger son instead. It was at the Aquarium of the Pacific again, and I saw on the itinerary that there was going to be a sea otter show, so we showed up for that.

On the way in, they routed us around the side into the back, where they've got the shark pools. This ray was huge!!! The water magnification makes it hard to judge, but I'd say 10 feet across!!! They also had some fish swimming around in the same tank that had a horn protruding from their heads. I asked the girl who was giving the talk about the various displays about them: “The fish with the horns in here, baby narwhals, right???” She said they were. Can't tell if serious or trolling.

There have been fires raging around here, in no small part because of our stupid local and state government. Of course, that means lots of red flag days, which prior to this they've had 3 other times this season. On the day we were coming back from our anniversary trip, those rat bastards called one, ticketed and towed Scruffy and the Falcon before we were able to get home. Cost over $800 for all that, and of course it wasn't even windy in our area. For this one... the first night they were going to be calling it, it actually did get a good wind whipped up. I was sure it was going to break at least one of our trees, but it didn't. Of course, I was in no condition to drive. Our neighbor was going to help moving the cars to where they don't have the parking restrictions, but instead drove one to the next street over, where they have the same restrictions. Then the battery in Scruffy was dead. Long story short, my wife drove the Falcon for the first time in ages, and my younger son, who is as of yet still unlicensed, drove two others.

Anyway, this is a picture of the first morning. I start at 6 AM, and it's usually dark out when I do, and by 7 AM it's light. Didn't even realize until they mentioned on the radio, it was still dark out. I stepped out at around 8 and took this picture. I've had a little cough ever since, and a low level wheeze. It was just the first night of it that we had any wind, but that hasn't stopped them from having a near constant red flag alert. They dropped it for a couple of days, but it's back on. Knee jerk, I think, at this point.

Towards the end of last year, the ceiling fan in the bedroom stopped turning on. First, checked the remote battery, and that didn't work. Next, I pulled the wall switch to see if it was getting juice, and it was (I'd not long before added a timer switch for the bathroom fan, and the wiring backs up to the bedroom). Finally, I dropped the ceiling trim ring, and hard wired past the remote receiver. That did the trick. Tried bypassing to the fan motor while I was at it, and it was fine as well. Found a replacement remote and receiver, and had it mailed, and installed it, and it's all good now. Oh, and now I've got a timer function!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to our friends' house where they were hosting a get together pot luck. I brought pulled pork and buns and slaw, and it was a big hit. Some other friends that have moved to Arizona were there, and they brought their sphinx cats!!! My wife came (the day after she got out of the hospital, after which she didn't leave the house for quite a while) and was reclined on the couch most of the time. The sphinxes are very cuddly!!!

Look at that, without all the fur, you can actually see the brain wrinkles right through their skulls!!! Also pictured is another recent shirt my wife got me, it says, “It's not easy being my wife's arm candy, but here I am nailing it!!!”

A couple more Catalina vacation notes. Since my wife doesn't get around too well on her own, we always take her wheel chair. It's about the only place we take it all the time!!! Since we were taking surrogate son, fitting it in our car would be near impossible, so we borrowed my mom's car. Brought it to our home, and after climbing the hill, it blew off it's upper radiator hose!!! Now, for some back story, near the beginning of last year, she'd had an incident where she said it was smoking. I don't know if it was the leaky transmission pan, oil pan, or a cooling system issue, but she took it to what I've long considered to be a shady mechanic, Gretchen's Automotive, near her house. They came out with a huge laundry list of things that needed to be done totaling thousands of dollars, “Or, I'll buy it off you for $1,000, I've got a son who needs a car...” and she was going to do it!!! It doesn't have many miles on it, and she recently had the transmission rebuilt. I was pissed!!! One of the things they'd said was it needs new radiator hoses, and before she was able to back out of it (the theft of her car, that is), they'd replaced them and supposedly flushed and refilled the system, and they charged her nearly $300 for just that!!! I told her she'd never authorized the repair, since she'd used her charge card call them up and dispute the charge. She wouldn't. Anyway, there you go, you to Gretchen's Automotive in Long Beach, and they'll screw you and do a crap job of tightening your radiator hose clamp!!! Gretchen's Automotive, where elder financial abuse is the name of the game!!!

This was in the window of the place across from where we were staying in Avalon. A ghost tours place. Creepy.

We gave one of the youngers' friends a plush for her birthday, Alan from Smiling Friends. As we'd hoped, she likes it a lot, and sent a picture with the message, “He will sit next to my Perry!”

Sidney is always messing with the trash can in the bathroom. Usually it's just knocking it over, or messing around with the liner. A few weeks ago, though, he pulled the liner our, and jumped into it!!! He was just laying in there, purring!!!

We got dinner from Panda Express a few weeks ago, and this was my fortune. They gave me the title of a Killers song for my fortune. I feel like I was RickRolled by a cookie!!!

Wrenchin' Weekend+

This was a couple of weekends ago.

Actually started out the Wednesday before, they had one of the hooey red flag days. I fired up the Falcon and drove it to the bottom of the hill and parked it there. Took a lot of cranking, and I flooded it and had to let it sit for a minute on the initial starting. Have I made mention that I bought a deep cycle battery for her a couple years ago??? Some of the best money I've spent on her!!! On my way home on Thursday, I took 3 to the you-scrub car wash, then drove the Falcon over and washed it off, too. Ran flawlessly.

On Friday, I finally did the rear brakes on Jade. As always, the worst part is getting the drums off. Saturday, after I got home from work, went down to drive the Falcon back up, and it wouldn't crank from the key. Huh. Popped the hood, and jumpered the start relay, and it spun with no problem. OK, maybe now it will crank. Got back in, and tried again, and it didn't crank. Had my wife make sure the gearshift didn't pop into reverse, and went back under the hood to fire it up under there, and realized I hadn't put the crank wire back on the relay!!! That fixed it!!! On Sunday I had my mechanic friend pull several bits of metal out of the rear driver's side tire on Scruffy, and plug the hole of the one that made it through. That was one of those things I've been wanting to do for a while, ever since I noticed it. Never seemed to leak any air, anyway.

Sunday afternoon, we were out in Jade, and stopped into AM/PM for some soda. Came back out, and it wouldn't crank!!! Called up my roadside assistance, and told dispatch I need a tow truck. MIGHT be able to put jumpers on it and have enough juice to get it to crank, but the battery is almost new, so I didn't think that would be the case. MIGHT be able to give the starter a few whacks and get it to crank, but probably going to need a tow. Took them an hour and a half and three calls to get someone dispatched, and about that again before they got there. In a pickup truck, with a jump-starter. He knew it probably wouldn't work, and it didn't. Called up again, and the rat bastards told me I've used up all my service calls for the year!!! Still haven't gotten any satisfaction from them yet. Called another tow service, and it was another three hours!!!

I had the driver set it down on jack stands, so it was ready to go to work on. Ended up with a middle shift on Tuesday, so I pulled the starter out after work. Exchanged it after work on Wednesday, and put it in on Friday. That went fairly easy, but the fun came afterwards. I was jacking it up to drop it off the stands, and the jack tipped over!!! The jack stand on the passengers' side was completely clear of the car, and the driver's side ended up in the exhaust tunnel. The back tire rolled up onto the wheel block. Used a scissor jack to get enough room to pull the floor jack out, and got it lifted up enough that the jack stand was... hanging from the O2 sensor wire!!!

After that, I got the rod ends I'd bought for 3 installed. I'd gotten a look at the ones on Jade while I had her up on the jack stands, and I think those were in worse shape. Today, after work, I did a bit of sanding on the rear bumper of Scruffy, and did some primer on the areas I'd done a little filling and sanding on a while back. That rear bumper and hatch are my next targets to finish up!!!

Saturn S Series Technical Bulletin v. #512.0

Just to share a little of the information I've recently acquired...

The smaller oil filter on the right is the specified unit for all S Series 1.9 engines. The one on the left is slightly larger, hence it has more filter surface. It has the same base size, thread size and bypass pressure as the specified one, and sells for exactly the same price as the other, so no reason not to use it. I believe it is the one specified for 2000-2006 Mustang V-6 engines, but the STP one has an easy enough part number to remember.

The next two pictures I took because attempting to do an image search for "Saturn 1.9 Twin Cam Air Injection Ports" came up with only one picture of what I was looking for!!! If I ever get an engine to rebuild, I'll get some better shots. The ports are lined up directly under the studs. In the second picture, I've added in a helpful couple of purple arrows. For a while I've been getting the p0410 check engine code for secondary air injection. At first I thought it was from the connector to the valve, which was damaged in the hood incident, and the code started coming up shortly after that. I replaced it, and it didn't take care of the issue. Next, I took off the metal pipe from the valve to the exhaust manifold and cleaned out the carbon build up inside of it. Still no good.

Smog check time is coming up, and the code keeps coming back. The only thing left to do is pull off the exhaust manifold and clean out the rest of the way. The air conditioning compressor bracketry needs to come off to get to all the bolts. I left the down pipe connected and just made some room between the head and the manifold and was able to get to the ports. I had a couple wire brushes I had intended to use, but the carbon was also rather gummy in this area, and I ended up using a stiff piece of wire to get out quite a bit of gunk. Hopefully it's enough.

In addition, since I had the transmission done, I've been getting a code for the torque converter lock up not working. Took her back to the transmission place (they'd wanted to see her back in a few weeks, make sure all is well) and they told me at that time they'd need a couple hours to see to it. I couldn't do it at that time, so my wife and I came back a couple weeks later. Called them back in a couple hours, and they said they were going to need more time to take things apart. Ended up being there a couple days, and they replaced the external switch, which wasn't making good contact, they said. Made it most of the way home before the light came back on. I took it back to another garage of the same chain, not because they failed me at the first one, but because it's closer to home. They've got it now, and they've replaced the torque converter, even though it looked like it was fine, and are replacing the valve body. Seems to me that's every possible thing it could be, so this should do it.

Just last week 3 turned 100!!! Two and a half years, and I've rolled around 33,000 miles on her!!!

Also a week ago, I finally got a set of the 16" Ion alloys I've been wanting to get for Scruffy!!! Got them from two different Ions at the junkyard, and turns out there's a little difference, do you see it??? Apparently, on some they have a dark gray inside the spokes and machined look faces, and on others they've just painted the whole thing with a metallic silver paint!!! I'm looking into getting them matched, but if not, I'll just put a pair of either style on opposite sides!!!

There is Trouble With the Trees

Happy New Year!!! I can hardly believe I haven't done ONE post this year so far!!! That changes NOW!!!

WHY?

Question: Were you threatened by the trees beauty?? Were you?

Why? Why, oh why? would someone, ANYONE, chop down a perfectly 200 year old healthy beautiful tree, that was a home to animals?? Why?

Dear tree, on behalf of stupid humans, I'm sorry

That's the text from the sign hung on the fence by the stump of said tree. This was back in July of last year, and I've been meaning to post since that time regarding this. This is heading into the tract I live in, and I'd noticed the lack of tree driving past prior, but one day I actually stopped and got a look, as well as these pictures. You can see the candles and shrine made up in the middle of the stump.

So I took the shot a little wider... and maybe THIS has something to do with it!!! You can see the damage it's done to the curb, raising it and offsetting it more than it's own width and height!!!

And that's not all, folks!!! Farther along you can see more damage to the curb, and the whole street past there!!! You may have noticed there's a manhole cover there, too, so I'd bet it's encroaching and damaging that, too!!! This is one area that, if there's no opposing traffic, most drivers will swing wide around to avoid excessive wear on suspension parts. This was prior to an election, of course, when they start doing a lot of tearing up roads to prove how effective the use of your tax dollars really is or something. I had the idea that they were probably going to fix up this section of road and sidewalk, but around nine months later it's exactly the same. Of course, the election is over, so... Of course, we all know how quickly municipalities get things done. At any rate, I think that is a pretty answer to the question "WHY??"

Oh, and my neighborhood was built around the mid 1930's, and there's a lot of those trees at regular intervals along the original streets, so I'm thinking probably the tree is around 80 years old.

We're all sorry you didn't get to hug your tree one last time.

Father's Day Fail

I don't usually do posts when I'm on vacation, but for this one I'll make an exception. Truth, I haven't been doing a lot of posts at all recently. While we are on vacation this year, we were going to be in the Chicago area. A bit north of there is a Six Flags park, Six Flags Great America. Like the local Six Flags, they've got a bunch of sweet looking roller coasters. One is billed as the tallest, steepest, fastest wooden coaster, and of course I wanted to give that one a go!!! Additionally, Six Flags Magic Mountain just recently opened their re-done Twisted Colossus, which looks amazing, and a day pass at either park isn't much price difference from a season pass. The clincher is that the pass is good at all Six Flags parks. Of course, I went ahead and got those for the family!!!

Made the mistake of taking it to activate at Magic Mountain on Memorial Day. Headed up at what should have got us there around a half hour before the park opened, only to discover everyone else had the same idea!!! It was an hour later before we got parked, then another hour before we got through the security check (VERY poorly organized!!!) and into the park. By then it was already a three hour line for Twisted Colossus. Nope. Saw Full Throttle (also new since my last visit) had what looked like a reasonably short line, so got in line for that instead. Not long after, it breaks down. We wait, and it gets going again after around 10 minutes... then breaks again. Another 10 minutes and it's up again... for one cycle. I think it broke down a third time before we gave up on that. Seems like I remember it being 2 hours in the park before we got on our first ride... the Orient Express to the top of the hill!!!

Anyway, yesterday we hit Great America. Working our way in, we see Vertical Velocity, a magnetic linear induction launch coaster that pretty much just goes straight up, with a twist, falls back down, and goes up the other end backwards. Rinse and repeat. We ride that, and it's as awesome as it looks, probably better than I described.

Goliath, the tallest fastest, steepest wooden coaster was our target, but we get back where it is only to discover it's closed and won't open all day!!! Huge fail!!! A big part of the reason I was making the stop!!!

After that we go on a kiddie coaster, the little dipper. Meh, about what you'd expect. In the same area they've got the go-carts, and the younger is finally tall enough to go solo. One of those additional fee rides, but they're a blast!!!

American Eagle, a side by side wooden coaster that's REALLY long (you drive through it on the way into the parking lot) was next. Nice size drop (nowhere near the tallest, fastest or steepest, though). Really rough. Feels like it's got square wheels. Probably just all the bearings on the cars are shot.

Another kiddy coaster, Spaceley Sprocket's Rockets. Gotta love a cartoon reference that probably none of the kids today get!!!

By this time the rest of the family has had enough, so we decide to hit the Sky Trek Tower on the way out as our last ride. Usually not much line on rides of that sort, and they're pretty mellow. Off we go. Up the tower, we're enjoying the view, snapping pictures, spotting our rental in the parking lot.

We get to the top, and it starts coming down, and I have the feeling that things are going awry. As it's rotating and coming down, it feels wrong, kind of a rachetey feeling three times, like it was turning but not coming down, then it would drop some and turn but not go down. About this time the idea enters my head, "What happens if this thing comes undone??? If it were to fall from here, I don't think it's survivable!!! Surely it's got some kind of braking system..." Right??? Well, not long after that, it stops completely. Maybe ten feet from the very top.

Of course, there's a ride operator on board, but he doesn't seem to have any information. Ten to fifteen minutes later it starts down again, but without any rotation, then it stops again, maybe a third of the way down.

Parents are trying to keep their kids calm, with varying degrees of success.

Of course, we're on the side that the sun is shining in on. Oh yeah, added bonus, most of the time the air conditioning hasn't been going. It's like a sauna in there. I try calling the park, but you can't seem to get a live person without an extension, and even if you do have an extension, you still can't seem to find a live person.

One of the passengers a few over finally calls 911, and he's on the phone with them for the next little part. Close to an hour later it starts down again... but it seems to be a bit faster than normal, not falling or anything, but quick enough that hitting the bottom at that speed seems like it'd be trouble. Not to worry, though, seconds later it slams HARD to a stop!!! Interestingly, it shakes a bunch of water off the top of the cabin. Also sends the frazzled nerves of the kids (& probably more than a couple of adults) over the edge, and there's a few minutes of crying and screaming that can probably be heard on the 911 recording!!!

FINALLY, I'd say an hour and a half after things came off the rails, they announce that they're going to evacuate down stairs in the middle of the tower. REALLY??? This was an option THIS WHOLE TIME and you wait that long before you do it???

Of course, most everyone has to pee, and our good luck to be some of the last people out. Another brilliant move, they sent up a bunch of bottled water. Just what you need when you've already got to whiz. I had a bottle I'd brought up with me that was mostly empty, which I drained out the door holes, then refilled with my own urine (only half-draining myself, but taking much needed pressure off) once the bulk of the passengers were off and I could get a little privacy around the other side.

Through the hatch in the back of the seats into an open area between the cabin and the post, then up a ladder into a small access hatch, then down the stairs.

There were a couple of amusing bits of graffiti on the inside, "Fuck me damn flag!" that I got a shot of, and "Fuck me this sucks damn gorilla" that came out blurry on my shot. I have no idea what they even mean with the gorilla comment.

Oh yeah, it was grubby inside the tower. Maybe if you clean your damn tower it won't be breaking down!!!

How long altogether??? It was a bit tricky to determine as no one caught exactly what time, but my pictures of the panorama were time stamped at 5:51, and the first one out of the hole at the bottom was at 8:15, so close to 2 1/2 hours.

So what did they want to buy us off with? $25 of park vouchers, a complimentary drink voucher, a pass to come back, and a front of the line pass. ONE Front of the line pass, for ONE ride. Weak. I really don't have time to make it back, and the main one I'd wanted to ride wasn't even going!!!

Ever since then, the boy gets quite anxious when he has to ride in an elevator. Most of the time, not much of an issue, but when you're on vacation and your room is on the 15th floor, it's a thing. I'm fairly sure most any psychiatrist would deem that PTSD.

Final shot: That's as far down as it made it.