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.

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!!!

Another Hit and Run

This was a couple weeks back. I think this may be the first video I've saved from the dashcam in my wife's car. I have no idea what happened to the date and time stamp, but it was actually June 19th, 2020.

The semi truck driver decides he's changing lanes, for no reason really. With no signal. You can tell he sees the CRV, and starts waving his arm out the window at him, then clips him, rocking his car and breaking off the fender flare. Of course, he just drives off. Not like anyone has cameras everywhere or anything like that, right??? Anyway, not to worry, I caught up and got a good look at the company name and ID number on the door. LCM Trucking Inc, it looks like they're out of Riverside. Oh, and you can see right as I'm catching up to him, he does a half drift into my lane. Between the attitude, the hit and run, not being able to keep it between the lines, and being from Riverside, I'm calling meth.

Now that I've got the video uploaded, I'm going to see about contacting the CHP, hopefully they'll be able to make things right!!!

How do You EVEN???

A few days back, on my afternoon walk, I was coming home, and came upon this, when I was almost home. I have NO IDEA how anyone could manage this!!!

It was in an area where he would have been having to try and parallel park, but he managed to run up over the curb, as well as running into the back of a parked car!!! If he hadn't hit the parked car, there's a very good chance he would have ended up in the canyon, as has been seen before, only likely it would have been a much messier ending, as it would have been into the basketball court, probably at least 15 feet down, where at the time there were several people playing.

They were high-centered on the frame, and trying to get it out, but the back tire was just spinning. Here's the scrape, and you can see a chunk of cement has been knocked off.

And, on the other end, where the tire had been spinning. Yesterday I saw a guy who was there when the guy was trying to get loose, and I asked him if he knew what happened. Turns out (in addition to finding out he's got the same nickname as me!!!) it was his car that got ran into, of course jamming his properly turned front wheel hard into the curb, likely destroying his alignment. He says it's hard to shift into gear now, in addition to the back end being banged up. Said he smelled no booze or weed on the guy, who claimed "I was taking a drink of water."

5 MPH... Believe It!!!

This happened today. One of my pet peeves, when people fail to use their turn signals. When this fool started hitting his brakes, I said, "Hmmm, I wonder what's going to happen here..." but then they let off, and I thought for a moment I had been faked out, but no!!! In retrospect, they should not have let off!!! These exits are marked a 5 MPH, and if you aren't a master of cornering with decent tires, you best believe it!!!

Of course, I was driving Scruffy, and had to come to a full stop unexpectedly, so I was glad to not have another incident of rhinoplasty!!! I know the dash cam has audio recording, and it doesn't have any way to turn it off, but apparently it's not working. As I rolled past afterwards, I called out "Genius!!!"

In the Harsh, Cold Light of Day

I kept telling myself it might not be that bad. Sure, the front bumper cap would need replaced, and I was sure that some of the mounting points on the fenders would have snapped, and the hood has a little fold on it that would need seen to, but since the impact was all on the bumper, maybe it just pulled everything attached to it out of joint??? I was looking at junkyard inventory and replacement bumper caps, as well as aftermarket styled bumpers, which are mostly hideous.

Finally got a chance to check it out yesterday. I had to use a crowbar to get the finger latch undone. Nope, I'm confident it's a total loss. In the first picture, I circled the bumper mount, that looks like it's bent about 15°, and has a big crease.

The aluminum bumper beam is all twisted, too, and the side metal that mounts the fenders is pushed over. The plastic mount for the driver's side headlight is broken, as well as the front end of the fender. In the last picture, you can see my new motor mount, which should be parallel with the frame, is at an angle.

Sometime in the future, I'll be yanking the engine and probably the transmission out. This is the only Saturn that hasn't developed oil usage issues. Probably will drop it directly into Scruffy.

While I don't completely NEED another car, it's always nice to have a back up. Currently, I'm not seeing anything that's a direct replacement, but there's a super impractical Sky Redline that I really like the look of for a better price than I've ever seen before. It's a sexy beast!!! And there's another way I've been considering going for a few years that I might just pull the trigger on!!!

Rhinoplasty Part Two

It's been raining since Sunday, on and off. It was coming down in buckets on Sunday night, but not at all yesterday afternoon. Coming home tonight it was, and just before a ramp I was taking, I saw a great puddle of water, extending a lane and a half out from the right. Uh oh... As I hit it, the car started pulling to the center of the freeway pretty hard, and I probably was trying to correct the other direction. With the little traction I had, I began a spin heading towards the outside wall. I saw it coming and knew there was nothing I could do but brace myself. It was a hard hit, I was probably still doing 50 or so, and kept spinning for a second revolution, coming to rest with the back end towards the wall, and the nose out in the traffic lane. I turned on my hazard lights and assessed the situation. Of course, it shook up everything in the car, my water bottle, glasses, phone, and the lid to my coffee cup all ended up in the footwell on the drivers' side. I picked all these up, put the gearshift into park, and tried to fire it up. Started up on the second crank, and I straightened it up onto the shoulder, and assessed the the exterior. I'd thought for sure it caught both ends, but apparently it was all on the front. It looked ugly, but nothing that would prevent me from driving it. Headed home, and there was a scraping noise as I was driving. A couple blocks away, I heard something come loose, so I pulled over and discovered the plastic shield below the radiator had been knocked loose.

When I got home, I took out the memory card from the dash cam. There were a half dozen of the clips marked with the emergency save, but none of them were from tonight. Scrolled though the rest, and where it should have been, I got a clip with the unplayable message. Good thing I didn't need it as evidence for an incident with another vehicle!!! I checked the rear camera, and it didn't get scrambled like the front facing one had, and here's the clip!!! Can't tell much of what's going on, but you can see the splash of water, and the spin and where it ended up.

As you can see, it made a mess of the front bumper!!! Lost the emblem, tweaked the headlights out of place, as well as tweaking the fenders and hood out of place.

In addition, that alignment I just got is now completely shot!!! The steering wheel in about 30° out of square. We'll see how it looks in the light of day, and when things have dried out some. Also, it wasn't a sufficient hit to set off the airbags!!!

At least when my wife did Scruffy's nose, it was just the hood!!!

The Wayback Machine

I've kinda been on a roll of late with me blogging. I'm going to try and keep it going!!! I've got a lot of things I could go on about, but for now I'm taking this fork. Something I've wanted to do for a while. All the cars I've owned!!!

I did one post, back in 2009, about the first car I ever purchased, and just today I went back and added web-sourced pictures and another paragraph. Way previous to that, I'd done a tiny little post of my first actual car. Much more could be said there.

Anyway, fast forward a few years from the Dinosaur, and here's the first car I ever owned that would have had two names on the title!!! Would have, mind you, as we were never actually able to get it titled in our name. We bought it for $750 without first having the owner smog check it. I have been wary of doing so ever since, but still haven't let that stop me!!! I'm usually too antsy to jump on a "deal". Took it to a smog check center, and it had three places in the exhaust system that had leaks. Can't smog it if you can't detect anything at the end of the pipe!!! 1975, if I remember the year correctly. Seems to me it had the rear edge of one of the fenders crinkled, as though the door had met it at some point.

Anyway, this was back when we were poor. Probably 1989 or 1990 is when this all went down, and we'd saved up to buy something. I don't remember ever having to use one car between us, so I'm thinking this was while we were using the Gremlin. If you're poor, my advice to you is to stop being poor, it sucks. My wife had ridden in someone's Celica once, and liked it, so the hunt was on to see if we could find one in the price range we could afford. One of my friends growing up had a later fastback, and spun it on the freeway into the guard rail, totaling it. He'd sold the engine from it to someone he knew that had a coupe of the same color as his, swap included, and I helped him swap it. Actually, we both swung the engines (and transmissions) from the one to the other, and he flaked, so I ended up finishing everything off. I believe the girl we were doing it for ended up paying me some amount more than I was expecting, likely stiffing him for the rest of the cost. His was manual and the recipient was automatic. If you've driven an econobox of this vintage with an automatic, you'll likely agree that manual transmissions are the best option. ANyway, I was impressed with some of the innovation of those clever Japanese.

Ours was similar to these web sourced pictures I found, in that it was a red coupe. I preferred the fastback style, in most generations of the Celica, but apparently there were none to be had in our price range. Also, ours had a strange vinyl top, not the decent looking full top black pictured in the first shot, but tan, and only covering the rear half, landau style, and it looked like the color had been refreshed by spray painting. I seem to recall it wasn't fastened to the roof especially well, and would billow up at highway speed. My plan, if I'd ever gotten to it, was to strip off the vinyl, sand down the rust that was likely hiding under it (primary reason I don't like vinyl tops) and getting some black wrinkle finish paint to spray on the area.

Inside, the fun continued with a headliner hanging down. Not long after we got it, I made up an aluminum plate about 2 inches larger than the dome light all the way around, and used that to hold it up a little better. Seems to me it had some strangeness with the electrical system, and I'm pretty sure the air conditioning didn't work.

Mechanically, it had the manual transmission, and if I recall, a leaky clutch master cylinder. I seem to recall at some point filling the reservoir and opening the slave cylinder to do a "gravity bleed". Another time I was heading to my parent's house, and it stalled on the off ramp. I don't think I even opened up the cool forward-flip hood, just took off the mile or so to my parent's house. No one was home there, so I went to Sean's and we took his '68 Mustang with similar red paint and vinyl top, as well as his toolbox, to see if we can figure out what was up. Upon opening the hood, I quickly discovered the hot wire to the coil had broken off, so it was a fairly easy fix. Sean, meanwhile, found the sprinklers along the off ramp had a little plastic sign that said, "WARNING: These premises irrigated with reclaimed waste water", so he removed one and hung it by the sink in his bathroom!!! I remember some wonkiness with the windows, them not quite rolling up all the way. Pretty sure at one point one of the regulators gave out and I opened up the door panel and fashioned a 1x2" piece of wood to hold it in the closed position. I remember in the short time we had it, it rained quite a bit. It had 5-slot mag wheels, the same as my first car had, so we had two cars with the same style rims at the time. I think it had some kind of aftermarket stereo, but don't remember for sure.

It was a fun car, front engine rear drive with a fairly tight suspension, and of course that stick shift!!! Go-kart handling, and while it probably wasn't especially quick, it sure felt like it was.

I can't remember how long we had it, long enough that I remember it pretty well and fondly, but in my head I can't imagine it was more than six months. Certainly a car I kinda wished I still had. If you are able to find any of them anymore, they are either complete junk or are ridiculously priced, or both. So, here's how it ended...

We were living in North Long Beach at the time. As is the case, you end up finding short cuts to get home. Ours was to cut through the residential area before where we lived, avoiding a left turn light, then an uncontrolled left across a busy street. There were a couple of cross streets with a stop sign going crosswise to the one we'd be on, but they had deep rain gutters on either side going our way. Hence, a lot of people going our way would come to practically a stop, but we had no such respect for our suspensions, just slow enough to not bottom out. Since most people going our way would be going very slow, a lot of people rolled the stop signs. You can probably see where this is going. One afternoon I come home to my wife talking on the phone to the insurance company. Hmmm, that doesn't sound good... I look out the window into the parking lot, and see the front end basically flat. She gets off the phone and breaks down crying, and for a while I can't understand what she's saying. Come to find out, pretty much exactly what you'd guess from the intro to this paragraph!!! Some guy in a full size van rolled through the stop sign, never suspecting my wife, and she cleanly T-bones him!!! His insurance ends up paying us off to the tune of $1400 or so, if I recall, and we get to retain the hulk of the poor Celica. The cool looking front end was closed up in the middle of the grille, with the hood bent down and the bumper bent up. Since we were having trouble getting it smogged, we were more than happy with the payoff!!! I remember getting a replacement fender from half price day at the pick your part, but don't remember if that was before or after the wreck. Know I never put it on. I also remember pulling the bumper mounts and straightening 'em, but not ever getting it back together. Couldn't find a replacement hood. I'm pretty sure the radiator was leaking afterwards, but somehow I got it to my parent's house and had it in their side yard for a while. Don't remember for how long, but after the wreck I was finally able to get a salvage slip in our name, after clearing up some strangeness with the previous owner's actual name. Ended up selling it off, maybe for $100, maybe for $200, but not before I took the rims off for our next car (bought, of course, with the insurance payoff money!!!) That is, possibly, a story for another day. I've already got the images for it from the 'web!!!

More Random From the Dash Cam

Another clip from the dash cam. At the beginning, keep your eye on the left lanes. I was going down the freeway, and as I was preparing to exit, I saw something bouncing down the left hand lane. I'm pretty sure it was a roll of bubble wrap. As I exited, I saw there was a second one farther over to the right, too!!!

Scruffy Gets Stuck

Or more correctly, sticked. I considered titling this post 'Trouble with the Trees II'. I seem to be doing Scruffy posts fairly regularly, and here goes another!!! This weekend were were driving on the freeway when I saw it. Two cars ahead of us, a stick in the road. It probably started life as a 2x4, but it's had a lot of the edges knocked off. A little more than three feet long. The first car rolls over it, and the second car starts hitting his brakes... but there's nothing to be done, and nowhere for me to go. They roll over it, and launch it into the air!!! I thought it was going to go over us, but no!!! Right into the windshield it goes!!!

I've had windshields broken before, but never in as grand fashion as this!!! Of course it was loud, and I had to adjust my inside mirror afterwards. We kept driving along, but I was wondering how bad it was damaged, besides the actual windshield. The headliner was bent down about an inch, and I was thinking it had actually bent the roof. If that were the case, I was going to call it totaled.

When we got there, got out and took a look. Ended up to not have damaged the roof, and the headliner extends a couple inches into the windshield, so it was just pushed down.

Here's an odd thing, though, the very corner was also badly damaged, along with the outer frame area being cracked. At first I was thinking it had created a shock wave and kicked that portion up, but I'm thinking that the stick must have hit there, too.

See the close up shot??? Look at that, it actually embedded wood into the glass!!! One of the younger's friends looks at it and says, "that's a strong window!!!"

Last shot is before I stepped out, all these glass shards all over my pants!!! Things could have gone way worse, so thank God they didn't!!! Just a couple hundred to get it replaced, and we're back on the road!!!

Scruffy Finds Her Voice (Then Gets Radical Rhinoplasty)

Something I've wanted to do for the longest time, and finally managed to get taken care of a month or so ago. I got a 512 Labs exhaust system like I have on Sat3 made up for Scruffy!!! Quite a while ago I had got myself an actual glasspack muffler for my car (at the time it was on Baby) and welded it up with flanges in the same position as the original (actually it was a junkyard replacement for a can-type factory muffler, but you know what I mean) and saved that original for Scruffy.

When I put the glasspack on Baby, I don't remember the sound changing that much. After I'd gone through the time and effort, I remember thinking that it was kind of a waste since it didn't seem to quiet it down much at all (not that I'm complaining, it sounds pretty sweet, but was doing it out of consideration for the neighbors) but having my old muffler on Scruffy, there's a decided increase in volume. Has a bit more of a harsh bark to it. Yeah, it sounds good!!! It cost me $20 more than when I had the original made up, and I don't think I got a better job done for my money. You can see instead of being a piece bent to shape, he used a bunch of pre-bent lengths, and welded 'em at compound angles. The outside mount, instead of being to an actual rubber insulator, he welded directly to the suspension mount!!! Discovered that after we'd left, or I sure would have made him fix that!!! I've been thinking of how to remedy this... and to be sure, it's the last time I'm going to this place!!!

The only thing I really like is the tip they made up for it, it appears to be stainless. Needs a little deburring.

Took a shot of the original muffler and intermediate silencer. If you look, you can see the black marks that all Saturn rear mufflers seem to have, from scraping a hole in them. The silencer muffler is shorter from Scruffy, something I'd never noticed before. Saved it to (probably, eventually) add flanges to it and see how it sounds. Mileage seems a bit better, but not so good as I've seen before.

Then, just this week, my wife does THIS to her!!!

Good news, no one was hurt, and it didn't set off the airbags. Probably because the sensors for 'em are in the bumper!!!

She was on the freeway, and traffic stopped and she went under the back of a full size pickup truck. Of course, not her fault. Also amazing, besides a couple scratches on the front bumper, the hood was the only panel affected!!!

Last hood shot is of the insulation pad from underneath, where you can see the print of the twin cam cover, and I've added in a couple of strange pink arrows pointing out the print of the canister for the AIR injection in the front, and the oil fill cap in the rear. I took a hammer to the hood and put some clearance back into it.

As soon as she started talking about insurance, they bailed, so more good news!!!

I'm known to make comments about people locking up their wheels and "flat spotting" their tires. After I took the hood shots, I noticed that it appeared to have an example (somewhat) of just that, except it made a pattern of perfect stripes!!! Wonder if it was grooves on the roadway.

Final shot is of one of the motor mounts from the Falcon, since I'm always putting motor mount pics here!!! In the interim the starter in Scruffy had given up, and I moved the Falcon out to make room to change it. I'd bought the new mounts months ago, and just yesterday finally got them in. When I was moving it out, I drove it over and bought $20 of gas since it's been a LONG time since I have, and the tank was way low and gas was way cheap. I'd goosed it a few times, and floated the back tire for 50 feet or so while I was driving it about, and when I got home it was leaking gas again!!! That had been my last Falcon project, rebuilding the carburetor because it had been leaking from the accelerator pump. This time, turned out to be from the motor flopping over and ripping the line from the body to the fuel pump!!! During the course of changing the mounts, managed to lift the engine enough that it ripped the upper radiator hose!!! Always something...

Rite of Passage

Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence & manhood (maturity)

there should be sharp lines drawn w/

Tests, deaths, feats, rites

stories, songs, & judgments

From "Wilderness"

Jim Morrison

Here's something of a rite of passage!!! I did it as a teen, as did my friends, and now both of my sons have, too. When you go to the junkyard, you are supposed to be at least 16 years old to get in. We've all now violated this rule. I suppose that if you are going to violate an age ordinance, this is about as benign as you can get!!!

I don't know if I've ever explained how Scruffy got her name, but the driver's side rear quarter was slightly cracked when we got it, but not enough to worry about. A year or so later, I managed to take out a pillar in a parking garage with the two doors (and rear view mirror) on that same side, as well as further fracturing the quarter panel. Made a junkyard run & picked up all three of these around a year and a half back on one of the junkyard half price days. Not long after, some idiot changed lanes into the front fender, also on that side, while my wife was driving, and she has failed at getting any of the insurance information, so on yet another sale day, I picked up one of those. There's always plenty of Saturns, but there is a difference between the 1996-1999 bodies and the 2000-2002, even though they are very nearly the same. I'd gone through and found the best looking one, and just as I started pulling it, checked the style. Early. Whew, glad I checked that!!! Back around again, and found a late model in good shape. Last weekend, I pulled all the parts out to clean, sand and primer them, and discovered the doors and quarter panel were all early style!!! This also worked out, as last weekend for the Fourth of July weekend, the junkyard was doing a sale weekend again. I notice they have gone from half off days to 40% off days. So began the rite of passage!!! It's something he's been wanting to do, so before we visited my parent's house on the 4th, we went. Instead of getting all new door and the somewhat rare wagon quarter panel, I just got an early model fender to go with what I have. Once I've got it all together, if you are Saturn nerd enough to tell the years apart, you won't be able to tell what you're looking at if you notice the difference between the sides!!!

One of the things that always seem to happen is the removal of several emblems. Hehe, sexus!!!

He liked the aesthetic of the place, thinking it looks a bit post-apocalyptic and commented that it smelled like the paintball arena. I'm glad he enjoyed the trip!!!

Street Cred

A few weeks ago was the younger boys' birthday. He had some friends over and we had pizza, cake and ice cream. He and his friends played around and goofed off. There was even a recreation of the Trololo Sing Along (because that's what you do on your 14th birthday)

As you can see, the cake was styled with the Rooster Teeth logo. This ties in to what he'd decided he wanted for his birthday, a Rooster Teeth skateboard deck!!!

Of course, had to get wheels & trucks to complete the rig. Came out pretty good!!! Unfortunately, it didn't come with hardware to hold the trucks on, so I got them from my work the next day. Stainless fasteners, and some gray grippy tape, too.

He's been getting some practice on it since then, and is getting proficient on it. It's a much better board than the last one he had.

So, last week we'd gone out for some dinner. He brought his board along, because he knew the place we were going to has a parking lot that's usually mostly empty on the one side. After we eat, he's out there skating around.

Around the time we were getting ready to head out, he sees a break in the curbs around the parking area, around a foot wide by three or so long, like for a water drain channel. "Hey, should I try skating through there???" Yeah, sure, go for it!!! He goes... and somehow loses it, and it takes off towards the quite busy main street on the other side!!! Car in the right lane sees it coming and stops. The car in the left lane doesn't. It's rolled all the way to the middle island, and I'm thinking maybe it'll lay sideways along the edge, but no... the next car over rolls over it. Dang!!! He manages to retrieve it, and has had enough skating for the day. I was thinking he was going to have an expensive wall hanging after that, but it fared pretty decent. A couple of splinters coming up, and another area with around an inch long crack. I glued it back where it had been. It also has a tire track across the end now.

Now there's some serious street cred!!!

A Brush with Fame

Living in Los Angeles on occasion has those moments when you encounter the famous. You may pull up to a traffic light and look over and see a renowned actor in the car next to you, or find yourself dining a few tables away from a popular singer. I remember attending a party and being introduced to a local radio personality. When I was in my early twenties I also remember the guy my parents had hired to paint their house telling me how he met Arnold Schwarzenegger working out at the gym he goes to. "He's a lot shorter than I thought he was", he tells me. My own wife has done a bit of extra work on Unsolved Mysteries and on a Twix commercial that only aired in the UK, and always just a bit less than enough to get into the SAG.

Here's my latest such incident. Came in a roundabout way, but here's how it went. Around a month back I had turned onto a local street, that at the time had the end the way I was heading away from blocked by a fire truck. It is a smaller residential street, on a bit of a rise, on which I was heading downward. I say smaller, but it's wide enough that two cars can pass each other even when there are cars parked on either side... provided each one stays towards their respective sides. Well, since the street was blocked, a giant truck coming the other way had made the obvious choice and stopped in the road. Naturally, they were taking up about 2/3 of the road, leaving not nearly enough room to get past. Whenever I see such a thing, I always think to myself, "If it's too big for you to drive properly, you SHOULDN'T BE DRIVING IT!!!" Anyway, I call out to them and motion for them to make some room, and they SLOWLY begin to creep forward and over, until I've got a little bit of room to get by, and I'm creeping by watching my side mirror, which is clearing the back end of the truck my maybe an inch, and as soon as I'm clear I start getting to going... Since I'd been watching the left side, I somehow forgot to pay attention to the right side, and BAM!!! Clipped a parked car's mirror with mine on that side!!! Dang!!! Knocked mine clean off, if it wasn't for the wire to the power motors, it would have been on the road!!! Pulled up around the corner and headed back to see what kind of damage I'd done to my victim.

It was a newer Honda sedan, in good condition, and it appeared to have those fold-away mirrors, a brilliant device to avoid the fate of my dangling mirror. I folded it back to where it belonged and was checking it for scrapes or other damage, and discovered that either I'd gotten it good enough, or it wasn't designed to go that way, but it had broken off a good portion of the bottom of the outer portion. I got a scrap of paper and left a note with my phone number and said for them to get it repaired and I'd take care of it.

A few days later the owner had left a message, and a week or more later I finally got back in touch with her. I kept forgetting until late in the evening, after what I would consider a decent hour to return her call. She hadn't gotten a quote yet (probably not wanting to waste the time in case I'd left a bogus number) but she took my E-mail address and sent me a copy of the quote a couple days later. I replied for her to give me her an address to mail a check to, and I'd see to it.

When we had talked, I asked her if she lived in the area so I could get a copy of the bill or quote and write out a check, and she said no, she'd been in the area for a shoot. Once I'd written the check and mailed it off, I was curious if she was anyone I might have seen, and it turns out I more than likely have!!! She's done parts in NCIS Los Angeles, New Girl, and How I Met Your Mother, among several others. I don't know what else she does (it would be cliche to say all up and coming actors are also waiters) but best of luck and wishes to Anisha Adusumilli!!!

Oh, and a little postscript, while it looked like my car had fared far worse, I was able to epoxy the posts for the mirror mount back together and it appears as good as new!!!

Instant Karma

Happy 2014!!!

SO, today we went out to the Bronson Caves in Griffith Park for a little hike. Also known as The Bat Cave, where they filmed the old TV series, as well as many other shows and movies. You can also see the Hollywood sign from there, too. It was pretty cool. My youngest already posted this, so it's mostly copied and pasted from his stream. More pictures and details to come, but now this!!!

The point of this post is to tell how we CHEATED DEATH!!! On the drive home, this guy in a mini truck gets in the right turn lane next to us, then when the light tuns green, he goes straight and cuts back into our lane! I lay on the horn, and the guy just gives us the finger. OK, whatever. Drive on.

A few blocks up the street, he’s still ahead of us a ways (no doubt exceeding the speed limit), when a car pulls out turning left across his path!!! He locks up his brakes, which makes all kinds of smoke, but there was no escape, he hit the back end of the other car and spun them out, doing extensive damage to both the cars. With catlike reflexes and expert skill, I manage to thread the needle between the two cars!!! My son saw the guy’s license plate go flying off when he hit!!! Of course, he was the only one with the foresight to get any pictures (on his new, my old Ipod).

Instant Karma!!!

Car in the Canyon

My firstborn bought himself a slightly used Ipod touch recently. This is a good thing, because now he's got a device with him at most times with which he can get photo or video of things of interest. This is just such a case in point!!!

It's a little surprising that we don't see more of this sort of thing, considering where we live. Somehow someone managed to get their car down in the canyon!!! Apparently there was no broken guard rail anywhere nearby, so how exactly it ended up in there is still a bit of a mystery. As they were passing by, there were already two police cars there, and a third came up as they were further down. Looked like there was no one who had been in it, so I was thinking it might have been stolen and ditched there. Perhaps this weekend I'll investigate further.

Red Flag Day

Another busy weekend!!! Saturday I took the family to Magic Mountain again. Last time I went was just the older boy and I. We rode Colossus several times that day, wait time versus good drops, it's probably the best coaster there. We also rode Scream several times, another short wait to maximum inversions coaster. X2 and Tatsu are better coasters, but the wait is always fairly long. Also rode the new Terminator Salvation coaster that time. It has some of the best queue theming in the whole park, but I was less than impressed with the ride itself. But I digress, when the older and I had been there that time, I told him how they used to have one of the tracks on Colossus running backwards. Well, they've brought that back for their Halloween festivities!!! We rode it. Meh. I had the funny thought that I should have brought my camera, taken a picture of the back of the headrest ahead of me, and passed it off as my on-ride photo. Anyway, that was a fun time. Bought my older boy his Johnny Rocket's milkshake in collector cup, and when night was falling and they fired up the fog machines, he was filling up the cup with the fog. Looked like a Wizard's Mind Bomb!!!



Sunday I had tickets through my work for the Pepsi 500!!! I had invited Sammy, and he was excited about it, but he's been having back problems and being there all day he was worried about it bothering it. Hard to take just one of the boys, the other would want to come too. However, one of my other friends from work had won the other pair, and he has two boys, too. Since that was how I got my boys both there last year, I thought it a good payback to pass my other ticket off to him so he could take both of his sons.



Last time I was there, they were announcing after the race the shuttle to the Metro Link station. The exiting of the parking lots there is hellish, and I thought that sounded like it might be a better way to go. I'd never had experience with the Metro Link system before, so I researched it a bit beforehand. Turns out they have a station right around the back side of the track, which they only operate on race days. Sounds good to me!!! Trying to get a schedule for the local Metro Rail to Union Station to Metro Link Fontana proved to be near impossible. Metro has some of the worst planning software on their site!!! I decided that since the race starts at noon, I'd head out at ten and hopefully be there close to on time.



Made it to Union Station in short order, and got my pass for the Metro Link train. However, it would be 11:35 before it departs. Oh well, guess I'd miss some of the beginning of the race, no big deal. Boarded the train, and it is very nice. Rode there in comfort, and had a chance to read more of the Sunday paper than I usually do. The train nears Fontana, and at the race track, it slows down... then proceeds right on past!!! No explanation. The next station is about four miles later, and I exit there. It's a bus depot center there. I look at the route maps, and decide on one that heads near. The driver of that bus explains to me and a few other race fans that the track station is "locked down", but didn't say how or why. He also told us how to get to the track from the closest stop, as well as the stop to return. Close to a mile is all we'd have to walk. Each way. I was not amused. I do not believe that I will take the train out there again. I did, however, stop at Jack in the Box for lunch and payed probably about 1/3 of what I'd have paid at the track.



Got to the track not quite halfway through the race. They were under yellow flag when I got there, and re started not long after. Fairly uneventful for several laps after that, which is fairly typical of California Speedway. This is a wide, long track, and thus the races tend to be a real snore a lot of the time. Jimmy Johnson was leading the race for most of this time, almost a whole 1/3 track away from the #2 car. Then, another yellow is called for debris on the track. After that, I don't think they came out of yellow without an event!!!



Coming out of that yellow, a couple of cars got together just after the green, sending Hamlin's #11 down the grass on the front stretch. Would have been fine, except he caught the concrete pit barrier right at the end, messing up his front sheet metal. He came back several laps later with the whole front stripped off, but it wasn't working for him.



I got a lot of pictures of the incidents, and some video of a couple of the crashes. I tried to upload the shorter clip, but Blogger is being stupid about that tonight. Six laps from the finish, once again coming off a yellow, there was a sizable crash taking out four cars and calling the only red flag I've ever seen at this track. 22 minutes they spent cleaning up from that.



Jimmy Johnson managed to take the checkered flag. I was fortunate to have made it for the better half of the race!!! Worth walking almost two miles for??? Almost...

Naked News

I have much within me, I could probably go random easily, but I think I'll just stick to two topics. Oh yea, if you don't know, there is a website out there with the same name as the title of this post. This is mostly unrelated.

This was a story on the news last night. They had video of of a car chase, with the car driving at high rates of speed with no lights on. At the end, the driver loses control and crashes, rolling the car several times, whereupon the police discover that she is naked. Insert "driving without headlights" punchline here. I've been trying to find out more information on this story, and so far, it's just not out there. There were several discrepancies in the story as I've gone through, too.

The pursuit began in Pasadena, and the helicopter reporter had been saying that it ended on the 5 freeway just before the 110. That is very near my home, and I would have gone and seen myself if I had known, but I didn't hear any helicopters all night. Turns out it wasn't the 110, but either the 170 or the 210, depending on the source. Either of those makes more sense.

What precipitated the chase??? The audio on one of the video clips I've found has the helicopter pilot on the line with Pasadena PD, and the story he came back with was that she had broken into a property, and as she was leaving ran over a motorcycle (hopefully just a parked motorcycle!!!) The much more prevalent story, however, was that she was vandalizing a car. No matter the case, my question, was she naked when committing the original crime??? If so, and the crime was the latter, what kind of vandalizing was she doing??? Is that a euphemism??? If not, how talented is she to be able to drive at that speed and strip naked???

Something I only heard one time, on the television broadcast, was that she threw her purse out of the car during the pursuit.

I heard the car described as a 4 door Acura. The only way they could have gotten that any more wrong was to say that it was painted black.



For such a titillating story, it seems to be near impossible to find any pictures or revealing video to answer the question, is she anyone that you would want to see naked??? I found this picture on one website, but it doesn't say if it's really her or just a stock photo. Looks like what little you can see from the video capture I got.




I once again bought gas for Baby today. That second half of the tank always goes so quick!!! This time, I travelled 301.6 miles on 10.41 gallons, for an average of 28.94 MPG. By my calculations, that puts my average at 29.55 MPG. Still pleasing. Did I make mention that the factory driving lights weren't working??? Can't remember, but two weekends ago, I checked the fuses and found them to be fine. The other day I pulled the cover off the console (which is where the switch for the rear defroster and driving lights are, go figure) and sure enough, the plug to the back of those switches was disconnected, and lodged behind the radio. Looks like only a few screws to get that free, maybe tomorrow. But for now, I must get to bed. Recharge the super zapper.