The Mountain Getaway

A couple of weeks ago I took the week off. I've got to use up some of my days off so I don't have a bunch to carry over or cash out at the end of the year!!!

Since there is a shortage of rental cars at places we might have wanted to fly to for vacations, I had been thinking of going up to the place we've had our anniversary weekend the last couple of years, right on the beach. It would be the first time the boy would have gone. However, when I called to see what kind of deal I could get, they told me a price around $450 a night!!!

Guess the time we normally go has been "off season". Scratch that, I'll come up with someplace else to visit. We decided to head up to the mountains for a few days instead.

As seen in the first picture, Running Springs is the town we were staying in. It was a very reasonable price, not a lot of amenities, but it was fine. They do have an indoor pool and hot tub that we jumped in for a while.

We drove out to the same forest service fire lookout tower that we'd gone to a few years back. It's a ways out to get to it, and this time we pulled off to the side of the road heading out there to take pictures of the impressive rock formations.

Speaking of driving out, it was the first long trip for Keanu-Kutcher, and it performed without a hitch. The driving dynamics aren't Saturn S-Series, it is close to 1 1/2 tons compared to just over a ton for the Saturns, and you can feel it. The Toyota 1.8 engine is, of course, different from the Saturn 1.9, which has more torque at lower RPMs hauling around less car. Climbing up the mountain, there are signs to turn off your A/C. We didn't, although I kept an eye on the temprature guage. Guess what, it didn't move!!! The transmission did a lot more gear changes, and the RPMs were in the higher range, but no undue dramatics anywhere, so I'm calling it a complete success!!!

The boy & I went on evening walks. The first one, we went across the road to a large turn out area, and followed a path that seemed to go down the side. It connected to a trail that went on a long while, then connected to a paved road and eventually connected another road, then came up and back the road we'd started on. I'm pretty sure we were on a private road for part of it.

The propieter of the place we stayed had told us the place across the road (towards "downtown") has the best breakfast in the area, so we went there the first morning. It was closed for construction. We went to another place.

For dinner one night, we went to a pizza place (Neo's Pizza, since we were in the Matrix, I guess we had to go there!!!) and they had some of the best pizza I've had since we'd gone to Chicago!!! Cheese garlic knots, which were excellent, too.

There was a candy store we stopped into and got some goodies, and a thrift store that we bought a couple of shirts from. The day we left, we were able to stop in for the best breakfast in Running Springs, and it lived up to the hype!!!

We pulled off in a very large turn-out on the way back from the fire tower, where someone had made up a very large eye design!!!

The last night we were there, the boy and I went on another night walk, and did some geocaching, since it turns out there were a ton of them up there!!! We found three, and took over a Pokemon gym.

It was a great little get away!!!

And Then There Was One

This happened a bit ago. It was actually a month or so before we got the Matrix, but within the window when I was already planning on buying another car. My thought was to buy a replacement, and non-op Jade, since she would likely not pass smog. Then, at my leisure, drop the oil pan and pull the cylinder head, knock the pistions out, and replace them with new ones & new rings. While I had it that far apart, I'd go ahead and get a valve job on the head, and replace the timing chain and oil pump. That would probably make it into an engine that would go another 200m to 400m miles without much issue. Probably around $750 to $1,000 in parts and machine shop work, and who knows how many of my all too brief weekends, but since it otherwise doesn't have many issues (besides the seat covers coming apart at the seams, the clear coat on the paint flaking off, and the sunroof and rear passenger side window not working) for not that much, I'd have a long lasting reliable car.

Anyway, what happened was this: We were driving home one evening on a road with 3 lanes each direction. This particular kind I don't care for, the right hand lane is available for parking... sometimes. In the evening is one of those times. We are in the middle lane, crusing along, when a Ram pickup comes flying up in the right lane, passing everyone on the right, where there's a semi trailer parked up ahead. They could slow down and drop in behind us, but do you think a passing-on-the-right jerkwad is going to do that? Nope, they just sideswipe us coming into our lane, then drop in behind us. As soon as there's room in the right lane, I do what any rational person would do, pull off to the side to get their information. Do you think a sideswiping bonehead is going to do that? That's what I thought, they just headed on, so I followed them. I had my boy write down their liscense plate number, and my wife call the law. Their attempts at evasion were fairly laughable, at the next light, they got in the left turn lane. I followed them. They got out of the left turn lane, I followed them. Where we were just before the freeway ramp we were heading for, they had gotten all the way into the right lane, and were heading as though they were going to turn into the restaurant, I was right behind them to follow them. Then, they go from the far right lane that would get onto the northbound to the next one that would go to the southbound. I followed them. When the light changed, they cut back into the northbound lanes and entered the freeway. I followed them, but this time I wasn't able to keep from getting a couple of other cars between us, and after we were on the freeway, I mistook another pickup for theirs, and at that point they got away.

Meanwhile, my wife has gotten connected to the CHP. by the time she had, I'd given up and we were headed home. They asked us to return to where it occurred, and they would send a unit out to take a report, so we doubled back. It ended up being about another hour, and based on previous experiences with hit and runs, even having the information of the other vehicle, I didn't expect anything to happen.

Fast forward a few weeks (it's blurry now, it may have been before or after we got the Matrix, but I think it was after) and out of the blue, I get a call from an insurance company about an accident I'd been involved in. I replied, "oh, the hit and run???" Yes, that was the one!!! They asked for my version (pretty much what I've related here) and they tell me they are taking full responsibility. Yeah, that seems right!!! On account of the CCP flu, the auiditor wants me to send pictures, pretty much what you see here, scrapes along the door and wheel arch, along with rubber transfer and scraping on the face of the wheel. Nothing that would be that big of a deal to repair and paint over (did I ever mention that the paint on the hood had gotten so bad that I painted it with some hammer tone paint? I don't think I did. I was considering doing the whole car with the same color since it looked pretty decent, although not a match to the Homecoming color) but they came back with the result of it being totalled!!! If we didn't retain the vehicle, they will pay us...$250 more than we'd bought it for!!! I had to think for a bit, I think it was around $500 less if we retained it, but I decided against it. Before it was towed off, I yanked off the black badges, the radio and phone holder unit, the glasspack muffler, and swapped the battery for one that wouldn't hold a charge. I left the dash cam-back up cam unit in, because it was always rather dim, and would have been a lot of work to remove. If I'd had time and inclination, I would have gotten a plain instrument cluster and held onto the Homecoming gauges. The tires were also almost new looking, I have a couple more tired tires I could have swapped on, but honestly, they are pretty cheap, and right now I don't have anything they could go on (although there's a really janky '95 SL-2 that they are only asking $800 for...)

Kind of sad to see her go. Farewell, my friend.

The Chime Tower Story

Here's one I keep meaning to share, ever since I heard the tale, way back in 2013!!!

That was the year we vacationed on Catalina for the second time, and on that visit, we did a behind the scenes tour of the Casino. Since that was so long ago, I don't have any of my own pictures available (I know ABOUT where they are, likely on the hard drive from my old Toshiba laptop, but I'm in no mood to dig through. Should buy a external HD and consolidate all my pictures!!!), so these are all web-sourced.

The Casino is an amazing classical building, with a theatre downstairs, and a huge dance floor on the top level. Of course, along with a lot of other stuff there, it was built by chewing gum magnate by William Wrigley Jr. If you notice from the ariel view, it has a couple of wings on either side. Instead of having staircases, these wings house ramps to ascend about 12 stories worth of height, the same style as he has at Wrigley Field in Chicago. I had a much better shot showing the ramp, but this is the only image I was able to find.

In a previous post, I had mentioned that the Catalina Buffalo had been brought over for the film adaptation of Zane Grey's "The Vanishing American", and that Zane had lived on the island for a while. He loved fishing, and built himself a Pueblo style house, or more accurately, a compound overlooking Avalon and the sea beyond. He also did some correspondent work for a Chicago newspaper, writing for the society page, as there were several of the rich and famous who visited Catalina.

One evening, the Wriglys were hosting an event at the Casino. Ada Wrigley was coming down one of the ramps, and her shoe hooked on the carpet and she ate it. Zane Grey witnessed it, and the incedent was reported in the newspaper. Naturally, Mrs. Wrigley was not amused. You'll notice there isn't any carpet in the picture of the ramp, she had it removed.

Not long after, Mrs. Wrigley announced that she was presenting a gift to the city of Avalon, the Catalina Chimes Tower, which chime every 15 minutes from 8 AM to 8 PM.

Located directly across from the Zane Grey compound.

Nesting Season

Here's one you could file under the heading of "instant blogging", or one I've been sitting on for a while. It's actually I'd guess close to a month and a half coming.

To start off, this was at my parents' house. Just outside the walk-in door to the garage, a hummingbird couple had made their nest. Looks quite a bit, to me, like they found a good deal of the material in a paper shredder!!! That's my mom's hand in the first picture, with the tiny little eggs, smaller than your standard size jelly bean.

And there's momma bird, sitting on her eggs.

I don't know how long after they'd hatched this was, but that's the chicks a while after having hatched.

And, the final shot of the hummingbirds, I was holding up a smallish key, not in the foreground, but right next to the nest, for scale.

Around the back yard, there's a cow skull decoration mounted on the wall. Turns out to be a perfect place for a dove to build her nest!!!

This was while we were having a lunch there, probably for Easter. My younger tells me I should do a selfie with the dove on her nest... so that's what I did!!!

And, finally, I got to watch almost the whole process on these finches!!! This is right outside my work area, turning my head about 30° to the left from my monitors. I saw when momma and daddy started showing up, bringing nesting materials and weaving them into a nest.

Within around 2 1/2 to 3 weeks, they'd hatched, and the finch parents were bringing them noms. They grew up quick, and within a couple of weeks had left the nest.

I had been wanting to re-string the lights I'd gotten for my hanging Christmas tree at the end of last year, to run them all the way along the awnings, but I didn't want to disturb them, so I held off until they were gone. Speaking of disturbing them, back when it was the egg-sitting phase, I'd let the cat out into the front room once, and he would get up by the window, and stare at them, and they would get spooked and fly off. When I had the ladder set up, re-stringing the lights, he was at the same window watching me!!!

C-C-C-Combo Breaker!!!

- OR -

The time has come again, to shop for and replace a car. Jade has been super reliable and runs great, but, like many a Saturn, goes through the oil. More than any of the others we've had. When starting, it's a big puff of oily smoke, and then again anytime you take off from a stop. I was thinking it was last year my wife had taken her and got a smog check, so we'd have until next year, but apparently I was off. Another thing, my wife does have mobility issues, and getting in and out of Jade had become more difficult, especally when she'd be on the passenger side, and the curb would encroach on the door. I had been thinking about a Toyota or Honda mini van, so I could have the option of hauling 4' x 8' sheets of plywood if I wanted. She wasn't crazy about that idea, a good deal of the objection being getting worse mileage. I've driven Mazda 5 mini vans, which are quite mini, and thought that might be a good option, but there aren't many out there, and they don't get great mileage, either. It's getting increasingly difficult to find S-series Saturns with low miles. Honda Fits get pretty good mileage, but it seems like many of them have a lot of miles on them. Civic hybrids seem to be one of the few hybrids that the price is low enough to consider. I was also still thinking about possibly stepping up to a Fiat electric, until I took a look at the back seats on one, and realized they are mostly for appearance only. Chevy Sparks, they had a few with electric powertrain, too, but the price wasn't much better, and damn they are kinda ugly! Various conventional Civics and Corollas are also on my list.

I've been trying to get in touch with people advertising what appeared to be good options, but as usual there are many flakes out there. One of the first guys I was able to actually start a dialouge with had a Saturn Astra 5-door, red with a sunroof under 100k miles, with the price reduced about $400 from a previous ad. The Astra is a rebadged Opel, and I'd always liked the look of them. It was located what would have been an hour to hour and a half north of us, so I did a good amount of research first, even running a Car Fax on it, since it has a salvage certificate. The price was low enough that I was ready to buy it sight unseen (in the flesh, at least), provided it didn't crab-walk when I test drove it. Since it was such a drive, I asked the guy if he could get a smog before I came out. He said he would, then later messaged me saying he wanted me to test drive it first, then he'd get it smogged right then. WELL, after I get off work, and make it out there and tested it even 15 minutes, it would be getting close to 5, right around when smog places are shutting down. You know what, I don't have time for your games, get bent. The search continues...

Now these, the Toyota Matrix-Pontiac Vibe twins, they're kinda nice!!! High sitting, with a roomy hatch area and what turns out to be a very upright seating position, all built on the Corolla engine and suspension!!! They are another one where a lot of them have a lot of miles already, but we found this one with only 125k miles, just getting started for a Toyota, if you are to beleive the hype!!!

The asking price was $3,900, way above where I would have liked it to be, but for the lower miles it has, I'd take a look and see if I could get him to move. In person, it appeared a little more rough, with a fist-sized dent in the hood and a scrape on the passenger side rear door and quarter panel, and faded bumper paint and the front of the roof, but still fairly decent. Inside looked pretty nice.

I'd been getting cash together to get something for a while, and had $3,200 in cash. Told the guy the asking price is a little rich. I'd really like to get it under $3,000, which is the most I'd ever spent on a car, but I understood that was quite a move. He countered with $3,500. I considered, then told him I have $3,200 in cash, and he agreed!!!

So, there it is, the combo breaker, the first car in the last five that hasn't been a Saturn, my first return to Toyota since the 90's (also our first Toyota that hasn't been a Celica), and the first ever car I've spent more than $3,000 on. I'm not sure about the "newest" car I've had, it's 2006, so 15 years old, I'm pretty sure when I bought my dad's Camaro off him, it was newer.

As we were out driving the other day, the discussion of naming it came up. I felt like it was too early, you kinda got to get to know a car before a name comes to fit. However, I did start the red pill dialouge, you know, since it is a Matrix. My wife says it could be named Neo, or be named after the guy who played Neo... you know... Ashton Kucher!!! I was losing it laughing, and she was all but convinced that was who had played him!!! So, I kinda like Keanu Kucher for her!!!

Oh, and the front liscense plate frame, it has an inset on the top that has gone missing, but that's the lower half, "Reload"

Seems appropriate, and familiar...

Flushing More $$$

A few weeks ago, we had another clog in the plumbing. As I have previously stated, old construction sometimes has these issues.

The main area it tends to clog seems to be the upstairs toilet, where it goes from horizontal to the vertical drain pipe. When we had first moved in, I had un clogged it by going up on the roof, and using a long pipe down the roof vent. Later, I made up a weight with spikes around the outside with an eyebolt on it, that I would attach to a rope and drop down the vent.

I broke out the weight and used it, for the first time in a long time, and cleared it out. Over the weekend before last, it happened again. I returned to the roof, and tried again. I could tell the clog was moving down, but it didn't seem to break through like it has on previous occasions. Sure enough, the water had gone down in the toilet, so I tried flushing it, and it started backing up into the tub!!!

I called the number of a drain cleaning company I'd gotten a card from when they were out clearing my neighbors' drain, but they said they would have to come the next day. I called the same company who had done the outside line back in 2013, and they were out in an hour. They ran their camera into the pipe, and declared it was not only clogged, but had a break in the line down under the basement. Well, you know, a man will pay a good amount to have his fancy indoor plumbing!!!

In the first and fourth picture, you can see a 2" PVC pipe with a rubber adapter to the 4" steel pipe. That was one of the first plumbing jobs I'd done not long after we had moved in. That's the drain from the washing machine, which was broken by the first guy who'd came out last time. When we moved in, it was dropped into the 4" pipe, with a bunch of rags stuffed around it, and it was one of the first things that would back up. I added the rubber adapter. I always kind of wondered what happend under the concrete, it's right next to the pipe from upstairs. Once it was dug up, I got to see what happens. This is in the water heater room, and the other shot is in the walk in closet or pantry on the other side of the wall, just behind the downstairs bathroom.

Anyway, they shunted the washer drain right into the main pipe, with a clean out added in, replaced most of the pipe, and did a trenchless coating on the remaining stretch between the inside and the outside. These guys aren't cheap, but they are about the only home service repair people that I haven't had any complaints about, so I'm OK with it!!!

And, once the concrete was replaced, I was able to put the mark and date on it!!!

Up On Two

I came across this scene a few weeks back. I've seen a lot of things, but never anything like this!!!

How??? How does that happen???

I strongly suspect that I know very well how it happened: Idiot in the Honda is driving along, and at the last moment realizes they are where they had wanted to turn left, so into the left turn lane they go, not even checking to see if there is room!!! I'm still amazed that it went this far, though!!!

ReCover-Tree Point-0

This isn't my first time, or even my second time, but here we go again!!!

As you can see, the claw post is way past needing re done again. I've had the idea in my head on how to improve the design for a while.

Every time I've re done it, I've learned lessons. The first time, I learned an important lesson, namely, it takes more than 50' of rope to cover the post!!! The second time came out much improved, but it takes a long time to do it. I completely re-imagined the construction for round 3!!!

I got some 1 x 3" and some 1 x 4" clear pine, a couple of lengths of 3' x 3/8-16" threaded rod, a couple 3/8-16" to 1/4-20" adapters, and some 1/4-20" flat head socket screws, as well as various screws and nuts and washers. I made up a long hollow post and a stubby topper from the 1 x 4's, and another long hollow post of the 1 x 3".

I set a couple of blocks in the ends of the 4" posts with indexing blocks, and the hole pattern for the 3/8-16" threaded rod. I drilled a large hole for the rope in the end of the 3" post, and wrapped it in the rope.

I drilled the same pattern in the existing base (the only part of the original, and it's getting pretty swiss-cheesed!) and attached the 3/8-16" threaded rod with nuts on the top and bottom. Then, slid the long 4", the rope-wrapped 3", and the stubby 4" topper, put on the thread adapters, and capped it off with a thin square of plywood with the 1/4-20" flat head socket screws.

And there it is!!! Finally got it so it's pointing mostly straight up!!!

And another shot, just to bask in it's glory!!!

How does the man-cat like it??? Hmmm, the base smells the same... but the other parts are different...

Aw, what the heck, I'll claw it!!! I knew he would!!! With the old one, he'd hunker down low and claw at the bottom portion, it looked rather uncomfortable. With this new design, all it requires is to remove the flat head screws, the adapters, and it can be re-wound easily... with, what I think is less than 25' of rope!!! The claw zone is right at the height he likes, too!!! I'm very pleased with the results, and so is he!!!

Clawing so fast, his paws are just a blur!!!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I feel like it's been a long time since I've posted, but it appears I've gotten in at least one a month so far this year. I've got one, maybe two more in me. As far as updates go, I finally was able to dispose of the shell of 3 two weekends ago, nearly a year after the incident. One of them is yet another pet project, but for now, you get this!!!

On my walk the other night, I came across this... very fuzzy Toyota!!! While I don't think I'd ever (never say never) do or have a car like this, I kinda love that it exists!!!

I wasn't aware, but apparently there's a lady wrestler named Candy Pain. In finding a picture of her, I came across the name of the artist who did this to the car, she's named Peggy Noland, and naturally, she's also based in L.A.