The Happy Easter Post

Going a little random here, as I am wont to do!!!

To start off with, a couple of whiteboard artworks!!! The first is by my firstborn, the ancient enigma!!!

The second is my own creation. The text is from the examine of the mysterious statues in Runescape, "it's eyes stare off into the distance..."

I liked the mysterious statues better before the graphical update.

Not a lot new in the old cup art department, but I did do up this design for my 512 on my current one. I liked the way it came out. I was aiming for a bit of a Southwest look, but it missed by a bit, I think. Still like it.

The next shot is related to the boy's Birthday post. With his birthday money he bought himself a skateboard that he'd really wanted. He used it quite a bit at first, but has tapered off a lot. Seems like the wheel bearings are shot on it already, I'll see about some replacements if he promises to practice on it some more.

Finally onto the Easter festivities, here's a couple of shots of the egg hunt!!! In a move reminiscent of one seven years ago, I hid one in plain sight. It took quite a bit of hot and cold before he found it.

You can see the enlightenment on his face as he spots it!!! One of those classic perfect timing shots!!!

Good times!!!

In other not so good times news, poor Janices' transmission seems to be on it's last legs. I'm no expert, but I think it's lost the high gear band or bands, as the case may be. Naturally, right after I replace the battery again!!! Once again, I'm no expert, but I'm thinking around $1500 to have the trans done, and it's just not worth it to me. I'd totally get another one (being as I've got a good running engine in her, lifetime starter albeit not that great at staying working, and lifetime motor mounts albeit in need of being replaced already, and good tires and fresh rear axle shafts and good brakes and a new radio... all things I'd at least consider swapping over) AND there's a guy selling the rarer and more coveted 2-door coupe version in great condition (with the exception of a blown engine) with a fresh rebuilt trans for $1000... I really didn't want to get into another project like that!!! ANyway, my wife drives her more than I do (somehow that became her car) and since diesel fuel has been consistently higher than gasoline for the past few years... she's up for something else. She'd like a small, fuel efficient 4-door with decent hauling room, and even seems to more inclined towards a wagon of some kind. Ideally, I think (and she likes the idea, too) a low miles Saturn SW wagon of around the vintage of Baby would be awesome. We are quite pleased with the reliability, performance and mileage of our current Saturn, and I've got a couple of lifetime parts on her already. Alternatively, I've always liked the Subaru Legacy wagons and have heard good of their reliability. VW Passat, Escort (or better yet Mercury Tracer), or perhaps even Focus or Accord wagons might be acceptable, if we were to find nice condition, fairly low mile, and well optioned models in our price range. So far I've attempted to get in touch with four. One kept bouncing my E-mails back and undeliverable, another I left a message and never heard back, another was actually a stone's throw from our home and I cruised by and saw the guy getting out of it. Rolled down the window and asked if he wanted to sell it, and he said he'd changed his mind!!! The fourth was already sold. Sigh, car shopping.

Maybe This Year Will Be Better Than the Last

SO much to blog!!! I keep thinking I'll do better, but there's always something else, it seems. Oh well, it is the way of life.

Welcome to my year end wrap up!!! If I finish before 12 tonight, I'll have one more in for 2011!!! I'll go over a little of this & that interspersed with the pictures from this year's Christmas.

Completely unrelated thought, know how some stores (most, I would estimate) shun using the actual word "Christmas" in any of their advertisements and promotions??? Perhaps all us consumers should thusly shun doing any of our actual Christmas shopping at their establishments...

I like the way my son caught my wife giving me the sideways eyes in the first shot.

I think I did all my Christmas shopping online this year...

Bought our cat a catnip apple for Christmas. It's always lost. He never tells where it's at, if he knows.

Seems like work was busy all year. Goodie day came and went, and our department didn't do the T-shirt exchange that we usually do. Kept me from having to find one for a co-worker, usually with only a week or so of shopping time. Gravy day elicited a roar of approval from packing when it was announced to them, moments before our department. Biggest one I've ever had, bigger than everyone was thinking it was going to be, much to our delight. Not too far below the amount it was the one year prior to my arrival that the employees ended up shutting down the local branch of the bank the checks were drawn on because they ran out of cash!!! Signs so far tend to indicate this coming year will be at least as good!!!

Too much zoom in the shot of my wife getting the DVD set of Dexter season 5, boy. Actually, it came out a pretty good effect, though!!!

Now, to get on to non-Christmas related news, and in relation to the post title... Two weeks ago today I was actually up fairly early for a Saturday, when I got a call from my dad. He found my mom keeled over & unresponsive when he got up. She was already on her way to the hospital, and he was heading over.

They managed to bring her around, and the thing everyone (including myself) goes to is a stroke, so that was what they were treating her like. Turned out not to be the case. Arrhythmia and cardiac arrest was what was actually going on. Of course, we visited her that day, but she was heavily sedated and had, among many others, a tube down her throat. Somewhere between 13 and 30 times they've had to defibrillate her to get her going again. THEN she gets infected where they had the IV inserted in her hand, so it was later before they could implant the ICD... Pretty impressive device, they're able to externally adjust it, which they had to do a couple times in the next days. She seems to finally be in fairly good shape.

One bad thing, though, there's been illness within my household, so we haven't been able to visit much. I've called my dad most every day, and my mom several times also. My dad's been there every day, of course. Best Christmas ever, he says. I agree. My oldest sister has been there a lot, too, which is also a good thing.

I'm sure I could say much more, but don't want this post to be nothing but. I think I've covered most of the salient points. Oh, a little insult to injury, she went out with her leg on the little electric heater. Looks nasty, but it's healing up. Oh, another one, one of her rooms at the hospital got flooded out by the toilet. My dad was the one who discovered the extent of that one.

Got my boys a night vision viewer with video capabilities. It's pretty sweet, for the money I paid. I think they managed to delete the one pretty hilaras video of the older boy spooking the younger by coming forth from the darkness.

Massive windstorm last month. Knocked out power for something like four days and blew a sizable branch off the tree, narrowly missing the Falcon. My wife finally finished the book she was working on for a year or more. Had to use watches and phones to wake up. It was an adventure. I was very glad we have a gas heater.

I don't think I saw a single movie in the past year, with the exception of the documentary "Born to be Wild" when we were vacationing in San Diego at the Science Center's domed IMAX theater, and that was included with admission. It's about orphaned orangutans and elephants and the people who rescue them. It was narrated by Morgan Freeman, which was pretty epic. The movie was pretty decent, but you could tell it wasn't designed to be projected onto a dome, it didn't come out right around the edges. Much like facial piercings, I found that to be... distracting. They had another movie coming on after that one that I'd wished I'd opted for instead about storm chasers (which may have been the title of the movie, as well).

The couple of pretty good books I got in this year were one we'd got from my mom, John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany". Had that for a long time before I got to reading it. My wife started on it, but found it too dark. Got Stephen King's 11/22/63 when it came out, and went through that in fairly short order. It ended, I though, surprisingly upbeat for a King novel. I certainly enjoyed it. I'm currently going through Douglas Adams' HG2G books. I'd long ago gone through at least the first three (and in the middle of the third is where I currently at) but know I never made it through the final one. A couple years back, I think it was, I bought the five in one ultimate one for my first born, and that's the one I'm currently in. The one the seller shipped at first was a collectors edition with photos and such, but not all five books. They made it right, though.

Hey, it's already 2012 on the Eastside!!! Happy New Year!!!

Car news. The last week my wife was working this year, the traitorous starter on Janice went out again, less than three month later. Do NOT buy your starters from Auto Zone, their rebuilders suck. That was what I was going to be doing the weekend my mom went down, so that was delayed. Oh yea, we had been planning on doing the family Christmas the following Monday (I had it off, along with the Tuesday after Christmas as my last personal days) so needless to say that has yet to happen.

The Wednesday following THAT, Baby started showing some problems... First sign was she stalled right after starting up!!! That never happens... Had to two-foot her when coming to a stop and such. Checked forums and it sounded like (along with a previous symptom I'd noticed) a bad coolant temperature sensor. Bought a new one, as well as a fresh set of plugs and wires, the next day. When I went to install it, made the mistake of giving it one too many cranks tightening it down and snapped it off down in the hole.

Didn't want to try and get it out in such an awkward area, so I JB welded it back together. That seems to be doing fine, and it seemed to be working fine until it warmed up, then it was worse than before!!! Limped her home again, and popped the hood and heard what sounded like a major vacuum leak. Turns out both ends of the PCV hose has elbows that were both cracked open. Of course, no one makes anything like that, so I've fabricated a lengthy section of hose and an elbow from one of Janices' repairs. So far it seems fine, but I've yet to drive her any distance. At this rate, that won't happen this year!!!

Counting Crows' "A Long December", in case you didn't get the title reference!!!

And, finally, a little Christmas something for all you that read or happen across my low traffic blog, a shot of my wife's boobs (or at least cleavage) in her Christmas Victoria's Secret push-up bra and pajamas!!!

And to all a good night!!!

Random Pics Post

Here's a set of seven pics from here & there. Some comments shall describe, other comments will just share bits of randomness.

The first picture is of my niece & nephew playing catch on the front steps of my house on the older's birthday. A random and rather cool thing... in the top left side you can see one of the window screen frames is tweaked outwards. A couple of birds, sparrows or finches, have constructed a nest on the sill behind the screen, and it's got 5 eggs in it now!!! They don't seem to sit on 'em much. Bet it's gonna be noisy when they hatch!!!



In my last post I commented on Janice's battery having died. I charged it up, and it occurred to me that another problem she'd developed recently was the power antenna wasn't extending & retracting properly. I'd thought nothing of it at the time, but upon recharging the battery, it occurred to me that could be an issue. Before I fully installed the battery, I tried a test light, and sure enough it glowed a dull orange. Yanked the fuse for the antenna (and a half dozen other circuits) and out it went!!! I diagnosed the problem under the fuse box cover, and fixed it under the trunk lid!!!



Next picture is when we went for a hike on Memorial day. Fairly straight up the side of the hill. I was a bit achey the next day. Thought I was in better shape than that!!!


Have you seen the show "Miami Medical"??? One of the characters is named "Dr. Proctor". Every time I hear it, I think he should be a butt doctor.



I've noticed that my work has left off the tradition of the Thursday before payday as being axing day.


Picture #3 is also on the birthday, my sister & mother in our front room. Yes, I do have a giant slide rule in my front room. Try & contain your jealousy.



The stack of pennies was on the younger boy's birthday pictures. I know it wasn't on the same day. I estimate about fifty cents there.


I was battling bronze dragons in Runescape the other night, and after a dozen or so, one of 'em finally killed me. I want my money back for that crappy Ring of Life I was wearing!!!



Next shot is of several of the boys' cars and various other toys. I picked 'em up when I was sweeping the steps & arranged them so. Yes, that is a brachiosaurus in the back right, holding a dismembered arm. Ironically, brachiosaurus literally means "arm lizard", and I didn't even know that until just now when I wiki'ed to find out how to spell brachiosaurus!!!



Next shot is of the younger boy, on the older's birthday, showing off where he got tagged with a loquat during the loquat war. It'll leave a mark!!! If you look close (or click on it to see it enlarged) it looks like he's got a loose string pointing it out!!!

In addition to the giant slide rule, my older boy dragged home an overhead projector. It can double as a search light.



Last shot is of a hawk on the Memorial day hike. 'Ol Olympus still gots it!!!

Semi Random Auto Post

Happy Memorial Day to all!!!





I have a Capri Sun juice at morning break on workdays. I got this one that had the bonus straws!!!





And a couple of shots of the famous tailpipe that I had fabbed up a few weeks back. Not sure if I ever mentioned, when I got Baby, she always sounded like she had a little exhaust leak. I thought it might be at the manifold area (they told me the engine was rebuilt, but I don't think that ever happened, just didn't look like it's been redone) but when I had her up for an oil change early on I discovered the first muffler was leaking around the ends. It was like a canister with crimped on ends. At the pick your parts, all I found were ones with tapered ends, similar to a glass pack muffler. I hacksawed one off, along with the flange and an extra set of flanges, and welded it in place as best as I was able. Not completely successful, but better than it was. While I had it apart, I tried it with the remains of the rather restrictive pipe to the second muffler disconnected, and it sounded fairly decent, not an insectile buzz but a bit of a throaty growl. Hmmm, a plan hatches...





Truth be told, I'd been thinking that from the time I found the leak, or I wouldn't have gotten the extra flange at the junkyard!!! I envisioned a 45° angle and exiting right in front of the rear wheel. The factory pipe exits the first muffler and does a set of 90° turns, then twists over the back axle before it enters the rather massive second muffler. I found to my dismay that my muffler man had gone out of business. I stopped in to one local guy, and he came up with a price around $175 or something ridiculous. I left. On one of my first Saturdays working I googled for muffler shops by my work, and found a guy. He quoted my more around the price range I'd been thinking, $90. He didn't do it exactly like I'd planned, but in retrospect it probably worked out better as it tucks up better. I had wanted him to add a flange where the old tailpipe goes over the rear axle, but he argued (likely correctly) that there wasn't enough room, but said he'd weld it back together if I wanted to put it back on. Oh, and by paying the last of my cash he reduced my price to $85.





I'm very pleased with the results!!! It's not too terribly loud (unless you really jump on her) and, the main thing I was aiming for, bumped up my MPG by around 2 mile per gallon. It's still in the testing phase for actual averages, of course. In the flange close up photo you may notice that I've stamped it with a "5-12" logo, making it a 5-12 labs piece of speed and economy gear!!! I had the pipe off this Friday to paint it with flat black high temp paint, one of the few things on my to-do list.

One final note on Baby before I move on, she passed her smog check flawlessly, so barring major accidents or other failures, I'm driving her for another 2 years. Of allowable hydrocarbons (66 at 15 MPH, 49 at 25 MPH) she had 30 and 17. Carbon monoxide (allowable .59 & .55) came in at .02 & .01. Oxides of nitrogen (allowable 487 & 774) came 54 and 162. I'd bet that with the factory pipe and mufflers intact it would have come out higher.





I've gotten the medicine cabinet all repainted and tried to get it wired and installed this weekend. I failed miserably in the wiring. In my defense, the schematic is roughly the size of a postage stamp. After it didn't work correctly, I looked up a larger sized one on the interwebs and found the error of my ways.


More of the automotive stuffs, here's some pictures of Janice's old motor mounts. I'm not sure if the balancer was a bit off and it tore the mounts up the rest of the way, or if it was just the motor mounts all along.





Strangely enough, ever since I've gotten the latest starter installed (a week or two back) it hasn't had a bit of trouble, but Sunday her battery was dead. Charged it up, and drove her today with no troubles.


Just a little about work to round out the random. Did I make mention that they'd eliminated the middle shift, then weeks later moved the early to right between when early and middle used to start??? They did, probably at least 6 months ago. Starting tomorrow, they're going back to how it used to be!!! Of course, makes little difference to me, I'm mostly 9:45 for life (one of the guys actually has that imprinted on his tray). Nice thing for me is that they'd moved our last break from 4:00 to 4:30, for a 2 hour 45 minute stretch between lunch and last break. Very few could make that run without dropping at least one cycle to use the restroom!!!

I've been doing the Saturday shift pretty regularly. I seem to get more done around here on Fridays. Either it's the lack of distractions, or just a feeling that I should be getting something done. Either way, it's good. I'd take it for a regular gig if they offered it to me. I don't much like the early start, but being done at 3:30 is nice. Last Saturday I was having a nightmare that I was late for work. Then I woke up, and I was late for work!!! For the first time, I think.

Weekend of Win

A brief weekend recap, for a change. It all went rather well, I think.

Firstly, I had a bit of an odd weekend. Swapped with one of the Saturday shift guys, cuz he had something going on. That means I had Friday off.

Last week I'd gone on a technology shopping spree again. I had been telling a co worker, two Fridays back now, as he was perusing the Fry's Electronics ad that I had 3 things on my list:
1. LCD TV for the bedroom. Around 20-25 inches, and since I paid $300 for a 32" for the boys in December, I figure a price around $150-175 is all I should realistically have to pay. Woot had a 22" Vizio for $159 that night. SOLD!!!
2. A HD car radio for the Saturn. Right before I'd gotten the install kit for it, I was seeing them under $100. My dad got one for his garage, and he raves about it. I've been watching, but at that point they were all more, or none with HD. The next day, Fry's has an ad for one at $69. SOLD!!!
3. A good, decently priced DSLR camera & lens set up. They were having decent deals around Christmas, but not so much since. Still waiting on this one. I've been in the wait mode on this one for a couple of years, but that's OK.



Got home Thursday night and the antenna adapter I'd ordered to install the radio had come in the mail, and the TV too!!! Set up the TV (actually had an antenna coaxial cable running right by there, nice) in the bedroom. I'm pleased with it.

Friday I wake up to Mark & Brian doing a webcast where they're having chili made. I'd made a doctor's appointment since I had the day off, and got my prescriptions refilled.

I'm in the process of restoring the vintage 50's art deco looking medicine cabinet from our bathroom. Took it all apart & cleaned it off and worked on the rusty spots. Next I installed the radio. I'm very pleased with it. You can really hear the difference when the HD kicks in. Oh yeah, it also has an MP3 player input jack, as well as the ability to play MP3 & WMA encoded discs.



After work on Saturday (from 6:45 to 3:30, a three hour earlier shift than I'm used to, but nice that I'm out before it gets too late in the day) I met up with my wife & boys at my parent's house. I've been chasing down a nasty vibration at idle in Janis for a couple of months now. I had bought new motor mounts a bit ago, and now I finally got a chance to install them. After having changed out the fuel filters and harmonic balancer, I finally got to the actual cause!!! The passenger side mount was... almost like it had a hinge torn in it. The driver's side was collapsed all the way down!!! Probably a new transmission mount would be in order, too.

Took my wife to the movies that night. she wanted to see the new Nightmare on Elm Street. Not bad, but not really that good, either. The first one was better. I didn't buy any of the actors as being high schoolers.

I know there was more, but I can't remember what all.

Random Tienanmen CupDate

First time in a while I've actually gotten to do any cup artwork!!! For most of the day, I had just the text at the top, which reads, "It was 20 years ago today". One girl asked me what that was for, and I told her it was, in addition to being a lyrical reference, the day of the Tienanmen Square incident. She was unfamiliar with the story!!! I told her she should answer, "It was before my time".



Later in the day, I added the lower text, "Is fashion the reason they were there". Another lyrical allusion. Most of the tank I added in on my afternoon break.

Last Friday I went by Frys because they had laptop cooling pads for only $10, and notebook locks for $12. The cool pads were sold out, though. I did, however, pick up a patch cord for headphone jack to headphone jack. Been wanting one of those for a while, now I can play my MP3 player through Janice's radio!!!

School is doing their Spirit week this week. The older boy used one of my shirts that I got from Shirt.Woot. It has a bird made of newspaper origami. It's pretty cool, looks like the heading says "Freedom", then in other areas it appears to say "Press" and "Religion", only all the places it seems to say these things are two different pages.



Four days this week I've worked middle shift. I've had enough.

I've been driving Janice this week. I'm trying to determine what kind of mileage she gets. Not too easy, because the odometer is broken!!! I've been taking my GPS along and using it to track the distance traveled.

I wore my Mario shirt today, and two different people picked up on exactly what it was of, without it needed to be pointed out. I think this was the first time that's happened!!!

One of my co workers was sitting on the couch next to the end a few months back. He was the only one there, and I sat down on the very end next to him. I said something to the effect of, "This doesn't seem too chummy, does it???" It was all in jest, but he hasn't let me live it down. Now whenever we see each other, we'll say things like "heya, chummy!!!"

The bird shirt (which I thought was appropriate, because it is, after all, black and white and read all over) was a mystery shirt that they had for the devilish price of $6.66. It had a picture of a shirt with a blurry question mark on the site. When I first got it, I thought that I would have preferred one with a blurry question mark, but it has since grown on me.

Did anyone see the beginning of Craig Ferguson's show last night??? He did a lip sync of They Might Be Giants' version of "Istanbul", it was pretty amusing.



I've been trying to come up with some sort of algorithm for what kind of mileage I'd have to get with Janice to be better financially. At a rate of 25 cents a gallon less for diesel fuel, I figure I'd have to get around 26.8 MPG or better. What I really need is a chart with varied mileage and varied price curves delineated so I could easily see.

That spiral galaxy image is from another shirt from Woot. They were doing a pointillism design contest, where all the images were of small dots of primary colors. I got this shirt, along with a maroon one for my wife that depicts Pandora and her friends. They both tied for winning, so they offered both for one $10 price. I couldn't pass it up!!!

I took the picture of my wife over the weekend. I thought her hair looked rather 80's.

My chum was telling the guy I was working with today to be careful, I might get chummy with him. I replied, "Hey, thats just with you!!! See how you make me sound like a chum slut!!!"

I'm realizing that by the time I post this, it'll be twenty years and a day!!!

CupDate and a Bit-O-Random

Got the annual notice from the Fire Department. Brush clearance time. Actually, I never got one, but my parents, who are the owners of the adjacent lot, got theirs. Anyway, my parents came up today and my dad and myself and the oldest attempted to make the yard compliant. It certainly is more so than it was, but still a long way to go. We exceeded the yard waste allotment by quite a bit.



This picture was in my camera when I took the shot of toofy boy. I had no idea where it came from, but the oldest just told me that he'd taken it a few weeks back. It was in the yard, and he was impressed by the bug.

Speaking of bugs, tonight on Baby's rear trunk reflector, there was a little moth with a very wide wingspan. If I had my camera with me, I would have gotten a picture.



This cup was from a week ago on Friday. I had been throwing totes, and in that area they have the yellow circle stickers, and the numbered bar codes. I had downloaded Microsoft's Image composite editor to try and stitch the rotational view of the cup together. The documentation on it is very lacking, and it doesn't work, at least in this case. I'll try some other time.

I've never updated on Janices' starter. The day after the starter post, I exchanged it for another of their "lifetime" starters. Spent the afternoon installing it, and it didn't even make the little whirr noise, the only noise it made was the relay on the opposite side of the engine compartment!!! Actually, I think I did put that in comments to that post. Anyway, before I got going on the yard today, I disconnected the starter from everything but the battery and tried to jump it to test my wiring hypotheses. That was a fail. Jacked the car up again (naturally, she's parked on the street, which has about a 10% slope to it, makes for good times and a dicey proposition!!! Also, my sockets will roll away if I'm not careful) and pulled the starter out. I'm actually getting pretty good at that, didn't take me long at all. Doesn't work loose from the transmission, so I tried it first just on cables to the battery, then on Bessie's battery. Dead on arrival!!!


There was a meeting last week by the investment firm that handles our deferred profit sharing account. It was interesting for the first half. The second half, the other guy had a rather droning voice, and that combined with being in a darkened room for the presentation in the afternoon, had a narcoleptic effect on several of us!!!



While working in the yard today, I happened on one of the old brake drums from Bessie. The one that had one of the wheel studs cross threaded, and I had drilled out. There's a nasturtium growing up through the drilled out lug stud hole!!!

Ever hear of Stupid Fun Club??? I had heard of it, and just the name sounds like something where it could be the exception that proves the rule of the Groucho Marx adage "I would never join a club that would have me as a member!!!" Unfortunately, their web site doesn't seem as fun as the name implies. Guess I'll just have to make my own stupid fun!!!

Sammy contacted me a bit ago. Thursday before last I went to see him at his and his new wife's (new wife makes it sound like he had an old one... no, just newly married to her) new place. He'd gotten married, moved to this place, then those scumbags at my old job laid him off. I'm glad I got out of there at the time I did. He made some great chicken tacos and guacamole and salsa. The guacamole was a bit on the sweet side, I've never had guacamole like that before. I don't think it was intended that way, but it was pretty good. I'm actually craving some of that right now.



My wife took the oldest to the recycling center ($23.00, way to go!!!) this morning when I was starting in the yard, so I had her exchange Janices' starter. They tested it for her, and declared that it had a faulty solenoid. I asked her if she made them test the replacement. She hadn't. This evening, after cleaning up, I took the jumper cables out and tried it out. It doesn't seem to work at all, either!!! The solenoid kicks the gear into place, but it doesn't spin!!! It will be tested before I bring home another.

They called Sammy about coming back to work some. I have mixed feelings about that. Kind of how you feel when a lady friend tells you she's getting back together with an abusive, or even just scummy or loser ex boyfriend. I think those guys qualify as all of the above, but it ain't easy out there these days.

Apparently, according to the statement they mailed me, my deferred profit sharing account lost almost $4,000. Pretty impressive, actually!!! As I often say, if you don't sell when it's down, you don't lose a thing!!!

A Tale of Two Starters

Or "What's up with all the starter troubles???"

I had been getting estimates on the removal of the pepper tree near the edge of our property. It grows like a weed, and regularly encroaches on the neighbor's house. Incidentally, this is the same end of the property that has the driveway, and the tree is at the end of the driveway. And the driveway is full of cars. A few weeks back I was going to take the Falcon down to my parents house and do some work on it there, and possibly get it two-toned. However, the starter was acting up. Actually, the starter sounds like it has a handful of gravel thrown in.

This morning, after taking the oldest boy to a breakfast fundraiser, I exchanged an old Ford starter I had sitting in the basement (possibly from the original six cylinder that used to be in the Falcon, it looked slightly different) so I wouldn't have to do that while I'm greasy.



Last Wednesday, after my wife took the boys to school, Janice wouldn't start up again. Didn't even crank, just did a click, and nothing more. Hmmmm, I've had something like this happen before... and it ended up being the better part of a year before she was back on the road!!! Only thing was, this time she didn't crank right before she stopped. I would try the starter, and it would click but not turn, and make a rather faint high pitched squeak, perhaps like something was slipping. Anyway, I had the idea, as I'd had last time, that the engine got on a compression stroke and the starter didn't have quite enough to kick it past there. Instead of cranking it back as I'd done last time, I had the brilliant idea of pulling the glow plugs out to relieve the pressure. I'd remembered them as being much easier to remove last time I'd worked on her. Got them out, and it still did the same thing. The main reason I'd been avoiding just pulling out the starter is that it's a major pain to do so. It requires every one of my socket extensions to be used from the opposite end of the transmission. After putting the glow plugs back in (and breaking one terminal off and losing one of their little nuts) I finally relented and went ahead and pulled the starter out. Lo and behold, it does the same thing with no engine load on it!!!

Of course, I'd asked wifey which car I should work on first, and she'd opted for Janice. By the time I'd gotten everything back together and cleaned up, it was nearing full dark. And I'd been thinking I'd be able to get the grass mowed today, it's full of weeds and really has liked all the rain we've had in the last couple of months.

So that's what happened today, I got one new starter, which I didn't get put in, and I got one old starter that doesn't work pulled out.

Good Enough?

I'm not sure if it's everything it could be or not, but it seems to work!!! Here's the completion of the vacuum valve system I've rigged up for the Mercedes. A couple weekends ago I mounted the dump valve I'd mentioned, and had been planning on taking a couple of pictures to post here, but had left my camera out of the camera bag!!! As you can see, the dump valve switch came out SLICK!!! I realized that the throttle had a cam plate which has the perfect bump at the end of it to activate the switch if it's mounted correctly. It was a bit tricky to do, and took about three times as long as it should have. That same day I'd also made up a clamp to hold the bleed valve, and was planning to weld it to a plate to bolt onto the engine, but never made it that far.



Yesterday I went down there to finalize that portion. I couldn't find a good piece to weld it to, but at some point I realize that all I'd have to do would be to weld it to the throttle cable mount. I did that, and was fairly pleased with the results. That would be the valve connected to the double bent linkage. I am going to get some "exhaust mufflers" (little threaded air fittings with porous ends on them for pneumatic systems) for the open ports on the valves to keep them from sucking in debris, and possibly to smooth out the vacuum signal.



I liked the third shot here, the sun glinting off the valve in the afternoon sunlight made it appear golden. The function of everything seems to work well enough, but I still can't discern if it makes it into 4th gear at highway speeds. Some tweaking may still be in the future.



Here's one other thing I did, I made up a spring loaded bumper to help pop the hood open. I am planning on one for each side, but they keep sending me one with the wrong threads on it. On Friday at work, I went to take a look at the bin box containing them to see if there were several mixed material in there, but the forward location was absent. I looked it up, and it was "in transit", with a document pending. I'm suspecting that means that the ICG or checking is finally dealing with this situation. I guess better me than an actual paying customer. ANyway, even with only one rigged up, it cured all the hood opening difficulties I'd been having.

Now, for the fun stuff: Bought gas for Baby again, this time a little short of an empty tank. I've noticed that the gauge moves to only about 3/4 tank for the first 100 miles, is still a hair over half full at 200 miles, and drops quickly from there. This time I travelled 266.7 miles on 9.27 gallons, for an average of 28.77 MPG for this tank, the second lowest number I've had since I got it. I attribute this to my wife taking the boy to a doctor's appointment on mostly surface streets, and being caught in a couple of nasty traffic jams. Nice, however, is that this is the first tank I've ever bought for her that has been under $3 a gallon!!! Lifetime average of 29.47 MPG. Heck, I'd be perfectly happy if better than 28.5 every time was all I ever got!!! Once I've begun to drive Janice again, I'll have to repair the odometer to determine the mileage that she gets. I've found tutorials for doing this, and it looks rather easy, if not time consuming. I notice that diesel fuel is finally falling in line with reality, only ten cents a gallon more than regular gasoline. Good times!!!

A Million Things Run Through My Mind

This could be a random post, for the small bits of various things I've got going on. Or I could just focus on what all the pictures are about. Probably a touch of both. Halfway through edit of the opening paragraph: Make that the first four pictures, if you get tired of reading about my fabrication, scroll down for random.



I did the sketch at the top on Friday at work. It's for the vacuum bleed valve assembly I'm rigging up for Janice. The next picture shows it's current incarnation. You can see how I've welded the arm onto a shaft collar, and hooked it into the throttle linkage. For testing purposes, I used a little C clamp to hold it in place. Nice thing about the shaft collar set up, all you have to do to adjust the initial static position is loosen the allen bolt.



The next two pictures are of the action. I'm holding it at full throttle (full fuel??? Not really throttle on a diesel) and in the other one, it's at the idle position. Seems to work pretty good, for the most part. I'd like it to open a little bit slower, it tends to drop the vacuum signal rather suddenly, and I'd like it to open a little farther at the end, as it doesn't make it all the way to zero vacuum. Other than that, it works great. The position of the original valve is mounted on the injector pump on the side of the engine, with a teeter totter type linkage running it. Of course, the first thought was to keep the needle valve somewhere in that area, but I realized I'd have to do something to flip it around the opposite way, because the linkage would want to close rather than open it. If you look at my sketch, you may notice that I put the L pivot part backwards, where I'd be doing exactly that, too.



However, the modification that I've incorporated in the sketch is what it was about, the means to get it there is just in the details. I can vary the open-close speed ratio by going nearer or farther from the pivot. The idea I had was to put a simple spring loaded dump valve on a T into the same vacuum tube, and position it to where the linkage would activate it at the near full throttle position, dropping it to zero vacuum. It might just be crazy enough to work!!!

Indeed, I had planned to work on at least fabricating a more permanent mount for the needle valve today. We went down to Long Beach to visit with my parents and niece and nephew, as well as work on that. On the way, I dropped off Baby at a tint shop to have the windows re-done. Same place that did the tint on my dad's Studebaker not too long ago. We visited for a while, then all got in the pool (it may be the last time this year of 90°+ water for the year, even though we're in a bit of a nice Indian Summer right now) and the next thing I knew it was almost 4:30 and the tint shop closes at 5!!! My dad drove me back there and dropped me off. I could tell the guy wasn't done, and the proprietor told me it'd be another 20 minutes. Turned out to be about three times that long. I wasn't amused, but the guy knocked a lousy three dollars off the price as I was peeling off my cash. Ironically, that took it to exactly the same amount as I'd gotten for the scrapping of the Storm!!!

Needless to say, by the time I was back from there, there was no time to do any actual work on Janice. At least I got a few pictures to help me envision the mounts and assembly.

The expansion of the bins is nearing completion. They've got an expansion crew moving stuff into the third level of the red bins, and they've got numbers to the extended rows on the other floors. The old numbers were just white letters applied to the ends of the rows, but these are full circles with black numbers on a white background. I rather like them better!!! Wonder if I could get a couple like this to slap on Baby???

One of the stock keepers saw me doing the sketch, and I had to explain it to him. He looks at me and said, "You're one of those guys who looks like a big dummy, but you're really smart, huh???" One of the other fillers in earshot laughed, and I said that was a rather backhanded compliment. Next time I saw him, I told him, "I'm an electro-mechanical genius, thank you very much!!!" The whole thing was rather amusing.

Now who will take over the salad dressing empire???

A shot from the Las Vegas area at Legoland, the Treasure Island pirate ship battle. Hey, that's right!!! We're supposed to sing about pirate-y things!!!

There's a new guy in the bins who looks quite a bit like Odd Thomas. Can't remember his name, but it's neither Odd nor Thomas. I don't think the lingering dead visit him, either, but if they did I don't suppose that's the kind of thing you'd go telling people. I could picture another Odd Thomas novel set in the bins.

As I was driving into work on Friday, the neighbor at the bottom of the hill was coming out of his garage. The streets are quite narrow, so I had to wait. As I did, I saw a young lady with a backpack on walking down the street, past and beyond us. As we proceeded down the hill, coming around a bend in the road his car was drawing up even with her, and at that instant she was startled. At first I thought it was from the car passing her, but as I rounded the corner I saw what she had seen, a dead raccoon with its mouth open and feet up. Looked almost taxidermied.



I happened on this photo shopped image of Sarah this evening. Even though I know its not real, I rather like it!!!

I loaned Odd Thomas to my mom. She's almost done with it, and likes it so far. Now I'm going to have to dig out the next one!!!

And I never hoist the mainstay and I never swab the poop deck, and I never veer to starboard 'cuz I never sail at all, and I've never walked the gang plank and I've never owned a parrot, and I've never been to Boston in the fall.

The End of the Rainbow

Almost there...

(A semi-random post, my food random was going to be called "the random (mostly) food post". I've got more random in me still)

I worked on Janice again today. Last weekend I didn't because it was supposed to have been raining (it didn't), and I had a blood donation appointment. The weekend before, of course, I was in Vegas. I don't believe I've posted about all that since my early November post on this. The car has been in "running" condition since three weekends ago, when I fired it up for the first time. Fired up easier than any other swap I've done to date, I think. However, it ran so well that it wouldn't shut off when I turned the key off and took it out!!! That's the thing about a diesel, as long as fuel keeps flowin', it'll keep goin'!!! The fuel shut off is a vacuum line going to the fuel distribution block. The other little problem was that the drain plug for the radiator broke, so I was testing it with no coolant. This was a bit of a concern when the engine didn't want to shut off!!!

(Now, prepare for a random thing...) Have you seen the trailers for "I Am Legend"??? First time I saw it my reaction was "It's been done before, and I don't think you're gonna top Charlton Heston!!!" Since that time, every time I've seen that commercial, I've made the comment to whoever is present (usually my wife of children, who I think are growing weary of it), "I Am Legend is a poor man's Omega Man!!!"

Back to the benz, I got a new drain plug (special order and took almost a week to get) and messed with the vacuum lines, it now mostly holds it's coolant and turns off. The only problem that seems remaining is the transmission. Seems to be the same thing as I made mention of in the first post regarding this engine swap, a vacuum modulator problem. Only thing is, this time my vacuum system is kinda wacked out, because I've got a different engine vacuum system and chassis vacuum system. Ah, complications!!! I tried several things, but couldn't get it to behave.

Imagine my chagrin when I did a little bit of research and found out that Charlton Heston was reprising a role that Vincent Price had originally done in 1964, and the movie was based on a book from 1954, entitled (drum roll....) I Am Legend!!!

Today while I was working on the car, it began to rain on me. The sun was shining at a low angle, and I was looking around for a rainbow because I suspected prime meteorological conditions, but it wasn't to be found at the time. A short time later, I was test driving it for the first time, and as I came back, there was the rainbow, big and quite bright at the end of the street I was coming up. Cool!!! I brought the boys out to see it when I got back. Wish I'd had my camera with me.

Speaking of cameras, I've been eyeballing the ads for DSLR cameras, most notably the Canon D40. My dad went out today and bought his Christmas present, a point-and-shoot Olympus with 18x optical zoom. We discussed the DSLR options out there, and he started explaining about the zooms. Most of the DSLR's, if they come with any second lens, are usually only to 150mm or 200mm. He was saying that even with a 300mm lens, the zoom still isn't as good as an 18x optical zoom. I made the point that the D40 is only 6 mega pixels versus his 8.1 mega pixel rig, so you could even crop out a portion for more zoom and still have a better picture. Then, there's doubler's and such... I think I'll try his out some before I make my final decision.

Another foodie random, the cookies that Eyeball had at Thanksgiving sure made me thirsty!!!

I finally got Internet Explorer 7. I've used it some before, but now it's on my machine. I don't like the way it doesn't want to let me highlight text as I want to. Damn you, IE7!!!

I know there's more random within me, but I can't remember it. I should revert to making little notes throughout the day.

I thought that it was cool that I saw a rainbow while I was driving the car for the first time in a while. And hey, the car is painted gold!!!