Bool Disposal

During this week the drain for the kitchen sinks got clogged and backed up. It's been a while since I've had to work on that plumbing, but I have a shorty snake and my trustworthy hydraulic drain cleaner. To use either, I was going to need to undo the P trap and the elbow on the pipe going back into the wall. Not long after I started working at my current job I'd done some work down there, and have replaced that pipe with some nice schedule 80 stainless steel pipe, so it's heavy duty. I had my boy take all the crap under the sink out and put it in a box before I got off work the next day. That project spiraled, but I got it back together after much work.

Among the crap down there was this potion bottle. I don't remember the origin, but I'm pretty sure the boys had it in their room for a while. Might have found the bottle at the dollar store and put water and food color in it. I think it used to be a dark purple and it's faded over the years. It was grubby from being down there, and no one has much of a connection to it. I had the idea to just clean it off and stick it by the bleachers at the basketball court in the park across the street. I've done that with other stuff that seemed too good to throw out, such as the radio that was in the Matrix when we bought it, and it has worked.

My wife cleaned it off and it was on the counter. I saw it today and had a better idea. There's a swing over there, too, with a sand area beneath it. I went over there this evening (after yet another project that took far too long, the alternator in the Matrix had gone out. At least the rain that they had been predicting for today had all blown through yesterday!) and dug a hole and buried it off in the corner of the sand, with just the top peeking out!!! I hope a kid finds it and is filled with awe and wonder!!!

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!!!

The Better Part

Back from this year's vacation, and not only did we have the Six Flags Fail, but there were also other monumental failures. But, instead of going on about those, I'm going to hit some of the high points from the trip in this post!!!

The primary reason we'd gone to the Chicago area, the older boy's pass in review ceremony from boot camp!!! My parents also came out for it, and this is at lunch we all went to afterwards. Good to see him!!!

In the O'hare airport, he had the world in his hands!!! That, and a rather cool light-streak effect!!!

Found out the next day, that just a ways up from there, there's a bronze Fonz statue in Milwaukee!!! Just like in National Lampoon's "Vacation", we had to make the side trip to see it!!!

I realized in retrospect, our trip was quite like that movie, including Six Flags reprising it's role as a huge disappointment!!!

And, finally, Giordano's Pizza, truly worthy of it's own post!!!

Father's Day Fail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weelend CupDate

Over the weekend I had been thinking of taking the family to Six Flags again. However, my wife had neglected to remember that she had a blood donation appointment that day. A couple of weeks ago, I'd donated, and her iron level was too low to give.
Oh well, maybe the older boy and I could go, the younger one can't and doesn't want to go on a lot of the rides there. I woke him up on Saturday morning, and he didn't want to go!!! Man, I've got a family of PUNKS!!! Oh well, I'll get some stuff around the house done. Took the whole family to the red cross instead, and once again, her iron was too low!!! Bought myself a new pair of work shoes, New Balance again. Seems to be the choice of the majority of the fillers. Also cut my hair, it was getting unruly. No one at work noticed either.

Enjoyed what I saw of the Super Bowl. My metaphoric money was on the Steelers, and it was a good game to watch, especially as I almost never watch football. Today at work I inscribed the Steelers logo on the side of my cup, with the 512 reversed out of it. Came out pretty cool. Unfortunately, last time we visited my parents I forgot my camera there. I found my old Vivitar, but not the Compact Flash cards for it!!! Oh well, at least I've still got my webcam, even though the pictures generally don't come out as well.

First Random of 2009!!!

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!! I'm gonna random a bit, we'll see how this goes...



My parents took the boys and two of their cousins up to the snow on Mount Baldy last week. There was a good amount of snow up there, and it looks like they had fun!!!



As I mentioned in my last post, I worked Saturday and had Friday off. I liked the idea of having Thursday and Friday off in a row better than just Thursday in the middle of the week. I chose wisely. That Friday I took the family to Magic Mountain again. This visit worked out much better in many ways!!! First, we didn't get soaked and freeze. Second, I remembered to put on extra layers, and that worked out well. The day wasn't nearly as cold, anyway, but it did cool off in the evening.


Not sure if I'd made mention, but one of the things I got for the older boy was a pair of work gloves, fabric with rubberized palms. I'll hit him across the face with them, and give him the line from "Waiting for Guffman": "It's like in the olden days, in the... days of France, when men would slap each other with their gloves... say, y'know... ”D'Artagnan!"... y'know, "how dare you talk to me like that, you!," and... smack 'em!" I was looking around for somewhere that had a WAV file of that, but couldn't find any.



Of course, if you've been following my Twitter feed, you know there were no pretzels to be had. I had been planning on a mid-day snack of pretzels (dollar to ounce, the best value in the park, I'm convinced, these pretzels are HUGE!!! Honestly, I've seen steering wheels smaller across than these pretzels!!!) and hitting the Wendy's between the park and the freeway on the way home. Instead, we snacked on fries from the fresh cut fry shack across from where we ate last time. $30.90 for three fries (garlic, nacho, and plain) and three sodas. What a rip!!! At Wendy's, we bought three combos, plus an extra shake and fries for $30.92.


Does anyone really think we can tax away an economic downturn??? Besides the Democratic lawmakers and greedy union heads, that is???



I saw an article that they've made a new Oscar Mayer Wiener mobile out of one of those fake Minis. I thought that was very apropos, those things are already wiener mobiles.



Mixed in here are a few screen shots from Runescape. I liked this better shot I got of my character in my gold trimmed armor. The other two are of my character, and when I had to change it's gender for a quest. Unfortunately, when I changed back I lost my facial hair and dreadlocks. Maybe the barber in Falador can fix that up for me.





The evening was the best part of the day at Magic Mountain. The weather cooled off to a point where it would have been nice to get the heavy jackets from the trunk of the car, but that likely would have taken half an hour or more. The crowds there were less than last time, and even less as the night fell. The older boy and I went to ride Colossus while mom and the younger played some games in the arcade. Colossus was practically a walk-on, so we rode twice. We went back to switch, and ended up all going back. Mom and the older went on it, and didn't come off. Finally, we walked up the exit ramp just as mom was walking off. Boy wasn't with her. Turns out they let them stay on the coaster for three rides, four for the boy.


I've said for years that unions were at one time a good thing, but have outlived their time. I have been referring to them as dinosaurs wandering the country looking for a tar pit big enough to hold them. Perhaps the current economy will be just that tar pit!!!



Over in the same area is a coaster I'd never been and didn't know much about, Scream. We went to check that out, and it's pretty cool. Near no line for that one, either. It has several inversions and nicely banked curves. When it gets ready to go, an air horn sounds and the floor drops away. We rode that one twice, too.


On the Saturday after Christmas family gathering at my parents house, we all went down to Naples island to view the Christmas lights down there. Some of my favorites were the palm trees with lights on them.



After work yesterday I went to Big Lots for some of the Ace energy drink they have there. I think it may be my new favorite, and it's a great deal there. Along with everything else I decided on there, it came to $12.74. Next stop, I bought gas for Baby (31.57 MPG for this tank, w00t!!!) and of the $20.00 I'd put on the pump, I ended up spending $12.79. I marveled that, of my last four transactions, each pair came out within a few pennies of each other!!!



Last picture here is from where I was uploading pictures to here. I thought it was pretty interesting how it came out looking like a bar graph.


X2 is my favorite coaster at Six Flags now. It has great effects (FIRE!!!), and cool drops and loops, and the chairs rotate!!! Waiting in the line, they have video screens showing all kinds of funny crashing videos. Nicely done!!! Now, if the wait wasn't so long...

Christmas Part II

OK, here's a little recap of the last couple of days. Of course, if you've been watching the Twitter feed over there, some of this will be old news to you. Yesterday we broke in the family Christmas present of annual passes to Magic Mountain. It was, quite literally, VERY cool!!! I'm not sure what the temperature there was, but, for Southern California, it was freakin' cold!!!



This was pretty amazing to me. For our first "big" ride, we went on Viper. The older, who recently went with his school, was saying to go on the X2 coaster first, but it was closed on account of high winds. Viper was near to it, and the line was pretty short, so on it we went. Of course, the younger couldn't ride, so we took turns. After I rode, I waited in the exit line area, where I found the coaster does it's final dip under the tracks and loops around to the ride exit. Hey, might be able to get a shot from there!!! I didn't think it'd come out this good, but I was able to get the boy's face quite nicely. I couldn't resist adding a caption in LOLcat fashion!!!



I had bought four of the cheap ponchos from my work, and had the passes wrapped up with them. Expressly because they have several nice water rides there, which I figured would have near no lines in Winter. I was right. We rode the log jammer, which in the other seasons usually has, to me, a ridiculously long line. We donned our ponchos and walked right on. The younger generally does not like coasters, so I was surprised when he wanted to go again!!! We did, and I think that was a mistake. Our second log had probably four inches of standing water sloshing in the bottom, and rode considerably lower!!! On the drops, the water literally poured in on my pant legs and shoes. Enough of that!!!



After that, we took mom and the younger to Bugs Bunny land and the older and I went to try and ride roaring rapids, a river raft ride, before we shucked our ponchos off. Closed for the season, but it was right across from Tatsu, a coaster that hangs you horizontal and sends you on your way headfirst!!! I'd never been on it, and it was worth the wait, which wasn't even really that long.



We went back to Bugs Bunny land and met up, rode the canyon blaster (kiddie coaster) a couple of times, then went for some food. I remembered an enclosed food place along the way, something of a rarity there, and hauled us over that way. The older boy wanted a pretzel, and we ended up walking almost halfway across the park to find one.



It was full dark and even colder by the time we finished eating, and we were set to go home. Well, maybe just one more ride. On the way, we came to the entrance to Goliath, a big 'ol hypercoaster. The line took longer than I would have liked, but it was an impressively awesome ride for the wait.



There was a bit more than that, but we didn't get on a whole lot of lines, but it was fun. We may end up going back there again next Friday. I have elected to work Saturday in exchange for Friday off, a fair exchange I think!!!



Today we had the extended family Christmas gathering. Good times!!! My boys got Halo 2 & 3 for the new Xbox, which my oldest had been lamenting not getting and was already planning his and his brother's birthday wish lists with those two.



Olives: The original finger food!!! More food than that there, most notably and most loved by myself the pecan pie which I had not had yet this holiday season!!!



And, to close this post, an aerial shot of one of the little RC choppers. The tail rotor got busted today. It comes with a replacement, but it needs to be found to do any good!!!