I Fixed My Bumper With JB Weld and I'm Ashamed

This will actually be a bit of a random, catch up post.

Around a month ago, my mom had fallen out of bed and hurt her arm and hip. They took her to the hospital to check it out, and at first they thought she'd had a stroke or something, but that wasn't the case. I think they were just going by past history. Anyway, she'd either been dreaming or hallucinated that she was on top of a rock, and there was a missile coming at her, so she dove off. After she was out of the hospital, they moved her to a rehabilitation place.

For Mother's day, she wanted to go to Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant, which is just outside Knott's Berry Farm and not far from her place. She thought she would be out on the Monday after, and that was our original plan. She wasn't out, and we pushed it back a week. She thought they were going to send a nurse with her, so we had planned on that. Turned out they weren't going to be doing that, but they wanted to send her in a wheelchair. We don't have quite enough room for that in Kutcher, so we talked Surrogate into coming as well, so we could haul the chair in Scruffy. Didn't really take that much talking into!!! I'd never been there, and I was wondering what the parking situation would be like. Found a Reddit post that said there's an hourly lot off to the left, and they validate for two additional hours. Found it as they said, pulled in, and pulled off out of the way to get my wife and mom out and set up before we went off to try and find parking spots.

While we were getting them set up, after I'd gotten my wife's walker out of the back of Kutcher and the wheelchair out of Scruffy, a spot opened up right by were we were unloading. The hatch on Kutcher was still open, and my mom's wheelchair was right behind it. I was trying to get people to move, so I could get that spot, and pulled over there with the hatch hanging open, and it somehow hooked the bumper a bit on the wheelchair. A few months ago I'd drug it a little coming out of a driveway with a bunch of people in the back, and the passengers' side will occasionally pop out a little ever since.

After we ate, we went back to her place, where she had some watches that needed the batteries replaced. While she'd been in the recovery place, my nephew Eyeball and his wife (who I haven't seen in forever) had given her a couple of coloring books and pencils, Sarcastic Jesus and Jesus on Vacation. This was the first page of Sarcastic Jesus, and Surrogate and I were losing it over it!!!

I had been meaning to take a closer look at that bumper situation ever since it became an issue. It has a series of slots that correspond to catches on the body, but the forward one was broken, and it has a screw going in from in the wheel well that seemed like it wasn't mounted solidly anymore.

Took out that screw, and pulled the bumper away, and the leading edge of the plastic that mounts to the body was broken off. I sanded it for adhesion, and saw there was a groove just below the mounting area that was around 1/8” wide and 1/2” deep, so I cut a piece of aluminum bar to place in there, then put a bunch of JB Weld on the ends of the break and the groove, and held it in place with tape until it set. Also put some on the broken part of the bumper slot, I don't know how well it'll hold, but it's better than it was.

You can see the aluminum bar on the shot with the tape removed. It's holding like it should now.

Back when I was at the fly by night plastics forming company, the machinist that was there when I came along would repair the aluminum forming tools using JB Weld, which has terrible thermal properties for doing thermoforming on. Those of us who had actual themoforming experience would use Devcon aluminum repair epoxy, which has a high content of aluminum, and has much better thermal properties, and we would mock him mercilessly for his use of JB Weld. Since I've been out of there, I use JB Weld for everything!!! Just the week before, the panel for the window switches had broke, and I also used JB Weld on it.

Unrelated, but could have been in the previous post, I picked up these electronic mosquito repellers. I was skeptical, but turns out they work great!!! They give off a high pitch tone that you can hear when you first turn 'em on, but after a minute you don't even notice it.

Another unrelated, I was ordering some items for Walmart, and they had this Dirty Mountain Dew that they said was getting down to limited amounts, so I picked up a couple packs to try it. It says cream soda, but it tastes more like the actual dew with the cream added, that they've been having at Taco Bell. Better than some (once you get past it not actually tasting like cream soda) but I don't think I'll be going out of my way for it again!!!

A Look Back Recap

Here's some of what has happened recently!!!

Years ago, the boys had been sledding down into the canyon. A few weeks ago I was out doing some yard work, and a trio of neighborhood kids showed up with a sled of their own and did some of their own sledding!!! Nice to see area kids still getting up to outdoor hijinks!!! I didn't take a follow up picture of the unceremonious dismount...

Back in December the younger and I had gone down and visited my mom around Christmas. My sister and her youngest son also came down, and we all met up at the John's Incredible Pizza near where my mom lives. My wife wasn't feeling well, we'd all been off and on sick during that time. My cough came back and hung on for a month or so after, but when we were all feeling better, I wanted to go visit my mom again. Surrogate came along, as well. Haven't made mention, but the restaurant Stacked that we'd been to a few times didn't survive the stupid times, but while we've been in the area my mom lives, I've searched restaurants in the area, and turns out not far away there's another Stacked!!! Naturally, that's where we went!!!

They've done away with the “order on an Ipad” gimmick, but you can still craft your burger to order. I've mentioned that I'll almost always make one with sauteed onions and bleu cheese, and there was a burger close to that already on the menu, for less than I could have one built for, including bacon. I had to specify sauteed onions instead of the raw it came with, and added garlic aioli, and it came out great!!! I also like the building better, as well, it has the same look as the one we used to go to, but the windows towards the street are able to completely roll up for a fresh air dining experience, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!!! Photos came up with a look back collage of our visit, and Halloween 2015!!!

I did a whole post that was mostly about how the driver's side headlight on Kutcher has always given me trouble. At that time, I had gotten a socket that was touted as high temperature. Back in January, it happened again!!! I found out that there were some places that make ceramic sockets, so I ordered one, and got it going again. Not long after that, the headlight bulb itself burned out!!! Bought a replacement bulb, and took care of it yet again... for now (Jinx!!!)

Oh yeah, there's a shot of the new battery...

A friend of mine had bought his car with LED headlight bulbs installed, and a little after I'd replaced the socket, then the bulb on Kutcher, one of his had burnt out. He asked me if I could help him out with it, and I bought him a new set of bulbs and helped him install them. His high beam bulbs were still conventional halogen bulbs, and the set I bought had replacements for both, so I told him my tax for helping him was I got to keep the bulbs that still worked. Shortly after that, the driving light on the driver's side of Kutcher went out again. The lens has a small hole cracked through it, and it had rained, and I theorize that when it rains, cold water will splash on the hot bulb and break it. Anyway, the one low beam LED bulb I'd removed matched the driving light bulb, so it's now in there!!! Of course, it has kind of a bluish cast, while all the other three lights have the yellowish halogen cast, so it's an odd one out. One of these days, I'll get those yellow driving lights installed!!!

My wife had suggested going back to Pie 'N Burger again. Apparently, it is now our just after Valentine's Day tradition!!! They've got a lot of items with chili on it on the menu, and we hadn't tried it last time, so this time I upped my fries to chili cheese fries. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend them for their chili!!!

We split a slice of peach crumble pie for dessert. Go there for the pie!!!

I had mentioned that one of the pumps at the local Arco had caught on fire last year. They still haven't replaced the pump, or done much with the awnings. They've got the pump boxed off, and it's been tagged up,

I had made mention that the new phone holder in Kutcher had some issue rotating out of the proper position, and I'd put in on the forward part of the center console, with the arm pretty much straight up, and that had done the trick. A few weeks ago, the suction cup came off, and I'd stuck it back. It didn't stay, so I pulled it out, gave it a good cleaning, and it held for a week, then was falling off again. Time to go to the drawing board... I took the arm portion from the previous one (it has the same ball mount for the holder part) and made up a piece of plastic with a little portion that came out, that I could mount to one of the bolts holding the center console down. It worked, but it was close to the emergency brake handle so you had to pull it up with a finger or two, and the phone was almost laying flat.

It kind of worked, but really not acceptable. I bent up a steel angle that would mount to two of the center console bolts, and used the same plastic base to mount it to the upright. Fairly solid, and a lot closer to where it should be!!! I may take it back to the drawing board again, and rotate the base a little farther back. Shouldn't be difficult.

Had the younger's birthday get together last weekend. It was pretty cool, we went on a short neighborhood walk, they played on the swing across the street, and played a little basketball (horse). I didn't get many pictures, and most of the outdoor ones didn't come out good because it was dark out. Here he is in a shirt my wife got him, after he opened the cologne I got him. He's said for years that he'd like to get cologne that smells of petrichor, the smell after it rains, and I found some!!!

A few weeks ago, they did another rocket launch from Vandenberg, and somehow it left this crazy looking contrail!!!

A few weeks ago we'd gone to Goodwill again, I forget what even for, but I found another shirt!!! It was the sale of the day tag, and my size, and in an underrepresented color!!! Interesting, the DeLorean pictured is unmodified!!! I took the picture here with the cam in my computer, possibly the first time I've ever used it for a picture!!!

I had seen this new Mountain Dew flavor, Baja Cabo Citrus, a few weeks before, but didn't buy it. When I was getting supplies for the boy's birthday, I picked some up. It's pretty good, the flavor makes me think it's heavily tangerine.

Do the Dew Review

When a company comes up with a special edition or alternative recipe of one of their flavors, it piques my interest. Some of them just sound bad, and I usually won't try it unless I hear otherwise. Other times I'll think it sounds good, and I'll have to try it!!!

The other day I was at Little Caesar's picking up some pizzas, and they had a new Mountain Dew flavor. This reminded me of the time I was there last year, and they had pineapple Pepsi in their cooler. I had to get a couple to try them out, and let the younger try it as well.

It was... different. It wasn't great. It had some pineapple flavor to it, but it was mostly Pepsi flavored to me. Ah well, I gave it a try.

This time it was a mango flavored Mountain Dew. Apparently, Mountain Dew has previously had a mango flavor, Mango Gem, but this is Mango Rush. It's supposed to have some spice to it, but I wasn't feeling it. It has the mango flavor to it, which is pretty good, and pretty sweet. Much better than the pineapple Pepsi, but I don't think I'm getting any more. I bought three cans, one for myself, and one for the younger and surrogate son, and for three cans you spend about as much as you do for a pizza at Caesars.

Here's one I've tried that I really liked, Mountain Dew Baja Flash, that has a pineapple coconut flavor!!! Yes, I like Piña Colodas!!! I know I got it when we were vacationing in Running Springs at the store there, and I think I got it again somewhere else.

While I was looking through for Mountain Dew pictures, I happened on this picture from Christmas 2021. Another collaboration, this time between Pringle's and Halo, Moa Burger flavor!!! I picked up a tube for both myself and the younger. As I recall, this was another hit, meaty and salty flavored. This was also the year he'd asked for some Spamton glasses, which he's wearing for the picture.

There's a web sourced picture of both sides of the can, since my picture came out a little fuzzy. I like that Mr. Pringle got a boom mic headset!!!

Anyway, the mention of the Spamton glasses reminded me that I'd found him a Spamton T-shirt for Christmas 2022. I'd taken a shot of the graphics on it, most likely in anticipation of making a post, and never used it. Here it is!!!

Rando Blast

As always, there's a lot that happens, and I haven't been doing great at keeping up here. I'll catch a little up today.

A couple weeks ago I put in a new ceiling fan in the front room. The old one was one of the early home improvements I had done, and it was a bit more involved, as there was nothing there before!!! I added a junction box and a cross joist, and ran wiring inside a flexible conduit. The wiring was left as installed when the clowns re wired the place. Anyway, the old fan, in addition to looking a bit old, was getting noisy, and after I installed the one in the bedroom, I missed having a remote. I'm pleased with the results.

A month or so ago Menace from The Woody Show was doing an opening at a new Raising Cane's, so I took off work a couple hour early, and we headed down. The older boy was a fan of Cane's, but I'd never had it fresh, and it loses something when it's re heated. They were doing giveaways, and I got a sticker and key chain, and the younger got a new Woody Show T-shirt, which he accidentally grabbed two of them, so we both got one!!!

Bort was there, too, along with Heavy T, the King of Whittier. Speaking of shirts, Bort (real name Brett, but he got some critical email years ago where they called him Bort, and it's pretty much his name now!!!) liked my “Large Marge Sent Me” shirt I'd picked up at the Cabazon Dinosaurs gift shop.

Last week we were coming out to the car on a rainy afternoon, and my wife missed the last step and landed on her head. She also scraped her nose, and it was bleeding, and it looked like a gallon in the rain.

Got her back upstairs (after getting her up) and out of the rain, and she had the most huge cartoon lump you ever saw on her head!!! Nope, we're going to the emergency room to get that checked out!!! On the way, I pulled up my camera and told her to smile, and she totally did!!!

They X-rayed her and gave her a CAT scan, but (ha ha) they found nothing. One of the nurses had a bunch of tattoos on his arms, one of which was an asthma inhaler with a smiley sticker on it. The doctor told her to ice the lump, and she'd probably have a black eye, maybe two, the next day. He called it!!!

The younger had his birthday. Last year he never got to have the get-together with his friends that he wanted, but it worked out this year. One of his friends gave him the Baja Blast can-looking drink bottle, it's actually a double wall unit, really nice, but doesn't hold much. We got wings and one of those giant pizzas (it's been a long time since we've gotten on of those, I think a bunch of Caeser's would have been a better way to go, but oh well). The giant pizza place was always a pain to park at, but they just recently opened a Wing Stop just a little ways up, so I was able to park there and walk over. They played Binding of Isaac: 4 Souls. Several had to leave early, but four of them played until one had 9 souls!!!

I had repainted under the kitchen sink last year one time the drain had backed up. It was in bad shape under there. I added a couple motion detector LED light strips. Just recently I added some sub floor, and tiled under there. Looks better, but I question my tiling ability and am re thinking if I want to tile the bathroom myself. I had some large tiles, and was almost able to do it with just 4, but of course my OCD had me add the little strips on either side and center everything!!!

I've been kind of hoarding stardust in Pokemon GO, just recently got to over 10 million!!!

Fun fact, the gift shop for the Cabazon Dinosaurs is in the belly of a dinosaur!!!

About a month ago, we were in the neighborhood of this place, Charley's Philly Steaks. I'd never heard of the place, but I generally like Philly cheese steaks, except for I can't do bell peppers. Some places, they're part of the mix and you can't get it without them, but you're able to get it your way here!!!

The younger had a teriyaki chicken sandwich, and the wife and I had cheese steaks. They have wings, but we had enough stuff. They were quite good sandwiches, but the prices were a bit on the high side.

For Christmas both last year and the year before, I bought a multi pack of Chicago deep dish pizzas. This year was Nancy's, where it's a stuffed pizza. Pretty good, but could have been bigger.

The year before I bought Lou Malnati's, which were bigger. Spent the same amount, roughly, but got only 4 instead of 6, but they were bigger. Photos thought they were cake!!!

When I went to install the ceiling fan, I turned the light on the old one off and went out and switched the breaker I thought went to it. Came back in, and the light was still on, so I had they younger come out and observe while I went through the other breakers. None of them shut it off, either, but when I did the first one again, he said the light flickered. Forgot, years ago I picked up a set of LED light bulbs with a self-contained battery back up!!!

The younger watched a few cooking videos, and wanted to try his hand making Monte Cristo sandwiches, and fried cheese curds. The cheese curds had a beer batter, and as always when cooking with beer, I wanted something with flavor. We headed off to BevMo! for the first time in a while. After locating a suitable base, we checked out the other stuff, as we do. I liked the Rat Bastard, but we didn't get any. They had Baja Blast in cans there, and since it's been hard to find, we picked up a 12. A couple weeks later, I was ordering some stuff to pick up from WalMart, and they had it there, too, for a much better price.

While we were doing the curds, we had plenty of batter, so cut up some onions for rings. Check 'em out cooking, it looks like The Riddler's cooking corner!!!

While I was on the ragtop quest, one of the candidates on my list was the PT Cruiser. As I've said, we've always been on the plus side of the polarizing styling. Now that I have the Sky, I haven't been really looking, but there's this one that I drive by pretty often. Well, a few weeks ago, a for sale sign shows up in it's window!!! Naturally, there's no price on the sign, just the number. I took this picture that shows the bulk of the damage below the taillight and the number. Eventually remembered and called the number, and the guy speaks nothing but Spanish. Had a friend call for me and get some of the details. It has 140,000 miles, current smog, and he's only asking $1,800!!! Like I need a hole in my head, but I'm considering it...

Baja Blast from the fountain at Taco Bell just hits different.

We all got our new glasses recently. The younger has had his for 4 or 5 years, and he thinks his new ones are like everything is in HD now!!! In the same center as the glasses place (I didn't have my exam with my favorite, Dr. Hu) there's a Jamba Juice, and we got some. In a scenario reminiscent of the Big Mac, after we were out enjoying our juicy treats, one of the workers came out and said they'd made an extra of one if we wanted it!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

A couple of food and beverage related pictures of my wife for Thanksgiving!!!

The first is from our anniversary, at a very nice Italian restaurant: "It's the best steak I've ever had!!!"

The second is from a very authentic Mexican restaurant on the Big Island (where we ended up after we couldn't find the barbecue place)

She does not approve of your Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

Wanna Go Scream Punk???

Don't know that I've made mention here, but starting this year I'm on the weekend crew at work. It was a few years that I'd put my name in when there'd be an opening, and finally they took me on. Not only do you get a weekday swap, but they bump your pay by $1 to sweeten the deal. So, one of the advantages, I get Fridays off now. Yesterday we went to the local Six Flags park, Magic Mountain, to (finally!) take advantage of some of the payback from the epic fail at Six Flags Great America!!! After I'd gone off on the park director there for their screw up and they're lame attempt at a buy off, he asks me what I thought would be appropriate. Well... I honestly wasn't prepared for that!!! Thought we were gonna have to go round and round before we got anywhere, so off the top of my head, I said I thought a full refund of the season passes I'd bought would be right, along with passes back to his scummy park to try and get on the one coaster I'd wanted to ride (which he kicked with, but I never did get the chance to make it back) along with the $25 of park vouchers & complimentary drink voucher.

He was good about it, refunding the season pass price that very day, and sending an Email with the code to redeem for new passes back at the local park. Apparently doing the refund voided the passes we had, so new ones needed issued.

So, last time we'd gone was on Memorial Day to activate our passes. The two I'd wanted to hit while we were there were Full Throttle, new since last time I'd been there, and the just re-opened Twisted Colossus. The former kept breaking down, and the latter had a 3+ hour line by the time we made it in. Didn't get on either. It was truly a terrible day to go.

The area around Twisted Colossus has been re-themed as the "Scream Punk" zone. That's mostly what I've got shots of here, the theming elements. There's a lot of pipe construction with valve wheels and gauges, and a lot of gears.

The second photo you can even see what looks to be a flex fan from a diesel truck.

And the fourth shot features three automotive flexplates, entwined with bicycle style chain. I don't think those go together.

Off to one side they have the hemi powered steam tractor. Every few minutes it does a blast of steam from it's stack.

A closer inspection reveals that it appears to be a genuine hemi engine!!! I was getting the closer shot for the Monster Energy coil cover.

I would have liked to see the show, "Kwerk" that they have in the GearWorks Theatre, but it wasn't going on while we were in the area. They've got that, the old (relatively) Scream coaster, and the flagship Twisted Colossus in the area. Needs MORE, I think.

They do have a new sandwich shop and a gift stand, too, but I still say more...

SO, about that Twisted Colossus... Last year for my birthday they closed down the Colossus coaster. It still held it's own in my opinion, with an awesome drop and great air time whoops, but it was old and a rough ride. I always think all they have to do is put new bearings or wheels on these old coasters, but I'm no expert.

Shortly after, they announced they were going to re-make it. Nice. While they were working on it, it caught on fire!!! From that point, I always thought they should re-title it the Phoenix, but no, they went with Twisted Colossus.

More Steam Punk theming on the line going in, and the coaster cars themselves.

It used to have two tracks, but they changed that... kinda. Now it makes one circuit of the track, and comes back for a second trip through on the other track!!! Two times through for the wait of one!!! Good deal!!!

Seems like it doesn't have quite the drop of the old one, but it now has twisted barrel roll inversions, and several of what they call "High Five" effects, where you're opposite the other train. Oh, and SMOOTH like a dream!!! Probably my #2 favorite coaster now, behind the always epic X2 (which we didn't make it on again... from this point on, don't know if I'll be able to make it again, they're calendar doesn't have many Fridays, my off day).

AND!!! on the way out, I found on the ground my very own Steam Punk Souvenir!!!