Worrisome

The top picture is from the top of my street on Thursday. On my drive home that evening, it seemed like almost every freeway I was on had smoke billowing up at the end of it. The sky was otherwise completely clear, just smoke filling the northwest. On the second to the last freeway, I could actually see flames. Not a good feeling, looking at fire rising from directly behind where your home is. It's actually quite a bit farther away than it looked, but still too close.




On Wednesday morning I could smell it inside the house, and it was like walking into a light fog bank when I walked outside. Funny thing, that fire was since Wednesday, but there wasn't a whole lot of coverage until the last couple of days. A fire breaks out in Palos Verdes, and it's top story. More yellow journalism, I tells ya!!! Friday evening we were out, and you could see the red glow rising from the hills. I found a map tool that shows the size and scope of the fire, since they weren't showing one on any of the news channels. They'd show aerial views and say "This will give you an idea of the size and scope of this fire", but there are no points of reference.

The weather hasn't been helping. The humidity has been low and the temperatures have been high. I think it's the hottest and most sustained it's been all summer. On the plus side, the wind hasn't been that high, although these fires create their own weather.



Final shot is from Mount Wilson's webcam, where much of tonight's coverage is of the transmitter towers being threatened by this fire.

Cupmissioned Works

It's been a while since I've done much cup artwork, so this week has been something of a rarity, I did two. These would be my first commissioned works. On Wednesday morning, my younger boy told me, "You should put a joke that you like on the side of your cup today!!!"




I did one better, I put two jokes. Since I didn't put the answers on the cup here they are: How do you catch a unique rabbit??? Unique up on it!!! How do you catch a tame rabbit??? The tame way!!!




On Friday morning, he tells me, "You should make a picture of Super Cat on your cup!!!" Done and done.



On one of my floats that day, the other worker on that printer added in a victim. First I LOL'ed, then I thought it kind of ruined the aesthetic, but then I thought it was pretty funny again and appreciated the collaborative effort. Figured I'd paintshop it out, and post one of each version.

Dwarfs

Those dwarfs have some of the COOLEST gear!!!

10mm Combo Wrench, Vice Grips, Strap Wrench, Lots of Penetrating Oil, Big C Clamp, Broken Washing Machine, Hacksaw and Two Files and a Big Hammer

The title is a reference to the items required to remove the pulley from the water pump for Baby. It did not go well, all in all.

In review, she's been losing coolant since the weather warmed up a bit in July. Not much, but enough to require a refill every few weeks. Had the decency to wait until we returned from the mountains to go out altogether. I left work on Monday to find a large puddle under her. Around a quart of water filled her up for the drive home, and during this whole time she's not gotten overly hot. Bought all the parts (a new pump, coolant, and flush) on Saturday, and got to work.



There's little room, and I was not able to use anything but the 10mm combination wrench with it in place. The pulley turns, and I was unable to get it wedged still. Eventually, I decided to attempt to pull the whole unit out to try it with a socket instead. The pulley has an extra hole in it, which I figured I could put a screwdriver through to hold it in place. Pulling the pump without the pulley would be a simple task, but with the pulley on, it made it much more difficult. Instead of being able to use a socket, I had to use the combination wrench on it, too. Once I got it removed... well, then it had nothing it was mounted to, so it wouldn't stay still any better. I attempted to hold it to a plank of wood with a big C clamp, but it rotated off fairly easily. Soaked both sides of the bolts with penetrating oil, and sat there staring at it for a while, trying to come up with a better way to hold it. I came up with drilling a couple of holes in the top of our old washing machine, which was in the yard for me to remove to drum from for a fire pit. Two holes and bolting it to the top, and jamming a screwdriver through the pulley and one of the mounting holes, and leaning on the one bolt that wasn't already getting rounded off, I pulled on it. My wife says, "I think you got it!!!", I reply, "I don't think I do", at which point that bolt breaks free. One down, two to go!!!

The next two had no luck with the socket. It immediately rounded them the rest of the way off. I switched to a pair of vice grips. Pulling hard on them, first the handle broke off the screwdriver I was using. Good thing it's Craftsman!!! I put the shaft in, and the next yank on it actually breaks the end off it, too!!! I put it back in, and the next thing I know, it's broken the housing mounting hole. Moved to the next one, and it pops off, too!!! And a third one after that!!! I'm running out of mounting holes, and am glad I don't have to turn in a core unit!!! I try drilling a fresh hole into the housing, but my cordless drill runs out of juice. I switch to the big C clamp holding the pulley itself, trying carefully to not deform the pulley, and after a few slips off, the second one comes loose, too. Two down!!!

The third one, it keeps slipping off. Taking pieces of metal off with it. Eventually, it's almost pointy, and the vice grips don't even begin to grip. I switch to a hacksaw, and take as much of the bolt head off as I can. I get it pretty thin, then, since I don't have any cold chisels, I use the end of a file and a big hammer to try and get the rest off. One side peels off pretty easily, and that took the tension off the bolt, and it fairly well spun right out!!! Three for the win!!!



Of course, at this point, I've got two less bolts than I need. The store has a couple that are twice as long as I need, but beggars can't be choosers. I took 'em and had to hack saw those in half. It took several hours to do what should have been just a couple. I probably would have been way ahead if I'd gone to the junkyard and bought a pulley from there instead. I have no idea why they were that tight, but I theorize that it could have been rotational tightening from the normal motion of the pump.

Still a lot easier than the one from the Geo!!! I suppose, in contrast to that, it went pretty well after all!!!

Deep Creek

Last week we were up in the mountains. Good times!!! One day we went to an area called "Deep Creek". Hiked a bit more than a quarter mile back, and there's a, well, deep area great for the jumping into, complete with a rope for climbing up the sheer face. Notice how on my vacations I tend to find a high place to jump off into the water???

Right before you get to this place, the water spans from one side of the canyon to the other, and you have to swim from there. Of course, it was around a bit of a bend, so I couldn't get any pictures or video from there. After several jumps, I made my way back and got my video cam and found an area shallow enough to wade across. Turned out to be deeper than I thought, and slippery on the exit. Bare inches above the water, it was. Of course, after the boy shot this clip, the battery died as I was attempting to film his jump!!!

Car Show

Here's a few of the pictures I took at the work car show.



Sedan deliveries and panel trucks I have an affinity for.



























I've always loved Cougars, even before the word became synonymous with hot older women, and this is one of the finest examples I've seen.



The blue Camaro is also an amazingly clean example. The yellow one is his brother's, the organizer of the show. I would be remiss if I didn't include a picture of his, too.



The low riders were representing, and a few put on a hopping demo. Three hoppers, one blew a hydraulic hose right off, and another had his pump motor disassembled afterwards.

Counting Coyotes

Last Tuesday night was the Counting Crows concert. It was a good show, though not the best I've seen them put on. The way it was done was most interesting, however.



The current tour is billed as the The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Travelling Circus & Medicine Show. The venue was the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. I'd been there once before for a Phil Lesh and Friends show, and I really like the venue, but don't care much for the parking situation. They'll park cars down the middle of the street heading out, and on the grassy areas on either side, front to back with no way out until the cars ahead of you are gone. The theater is nice, though, small enough that most every seat is pretty close. The tickets I got were in the second row of the side terrace, up a bit but pretty much even with around the 12th row. Mine was the seat on the very edge, and I had a great view of both the stage and the concessions stand, just below the terrace.

Along with Counting Crows was Augustana, who opened for them last time I saw 'em, and Spearhead featuring Michael Franti. I'd never heard of the latter, but I overheard a girl walking into the concession area telling her friend that "They are the shit!!!" Now, the Counting Crows website they have a notice about how they're doing this show, when the curtain goes up, EVERYONE will be on stage, doing a few songs together, then one or the other will open, and the other will close out the show. Sure enough, they have the circus logo curtain up in front, and Adam steps out from the side and pulls the rope that raises the curtain. I don't know a lot of the songs by the other two groups, but I'll attempt to compile a list here of what they played. Most of the first half had at least most of the members of Spearhead and Augustana on stage, and Counting Crows for most of that half, too. Here's what I was able to get:

1. (everyone) Caravan (Van Morrison cover tune)
2. (Spearhead) Hello Bonjour
3. (Counting Crows) A Long December
4. (Counting Crows) Hanging Tree
5. (Counting Crows) Omaha
6. (Augustana) (Didn't quite make this one out, but it was good...)
7. (Augustana) Fire
8. (Augustana) Sweet and Low
9. (Augustana) (Didn't quite make this one out either, but I think Adam joined 'em again on it, and I know they segued into the Dead's "Casey Jones")
10. (Spearhead) (Dunno)
11. (Spearhead) Rude Boys Back in Town
12. (Spearhead) Stay Human
13. (Spearhead) (Don't know what this one was either, but it was very sexy... segued into "Tainted Love"
14. (Augustana) Sound of Sunshine Going Down?
15. (Augustana) Got Love For You?
16. (Augustana) ???

Intermission

17. (Counting Crows) Another Horse Dreamer's Blues (with an awesome wailing sax!!!)
18. (Counting Crows) Mr. Jones
19. (Counting Crows) Washington Square
20. (Counting Crows) Miami
21. (Counting Crows) Goodnight L.A.
22. (Augustana) ???
23. (Augustana) ???
24. (Augustana) Boston Segued into Raining in Baltimore
25. (Counting Crows) Why Should You Come When I Call
26. (Counting Crows) Hangingaround
27. (All) Cecilia
28. (Spearhead) Hey World Remote Control Version
29. (Augustana) Raise A Ruckus
30. (Counting Crows) Rain King Segued into A Little Help From My Friends
31. (All) This Land Is Your Land

So, as you can see, I didn't know all the songs, but you get A LOT of music for your money at this show!!! The energy was great, and all the groups worked well together. Many of the songs different singers would sing different verses. Next to the last song they pulled some young kid up on stage, around 12-14, and had him shaking maracas. They put him on the microphone between songs, and he said this was the first concert he'd ever been to, he wasn't expecting this. I notice that they played as many songs off August and Everything After as they did from Hard Candy. This bolsters my contention that Hard Candy, while not as widely played, is one of their best discs.

Oh, and the coyotes... Left from the venue, actually found the car without much difficulty, sat down and opened up the windows and sunroof and sat in her for a while, then as our row starts moving I go to fire her up and she doesn't even crank, so I finally reach AAA (cell phone reception is quite poor) and they're sending a tow truck, and it takes almost an hour before it shows up, and almost all the other cars are gone and coyotes are coming down out of the hills (I actually only saw four, and only two of them at the same time so it might have just been the same two several times and I have to call AAA back several times to before the truck even gets into my area, I'm flashing my lights and honking my horn but he doesn't see me or acts like he doesn't and I finally tell the dispatcher to have him stop there, and put her in neutral and coast down the hill to right behind his truck and he asks me what the trouble is I tell him its the starter he asks how I know and I tell him trust me, I know this car and he checks it out a bit and finally agrees and then asks if I tried beating on the starter, and I say no, he pulls out an 18" breaker bar whacks it a few times and she fires right up and I took the starter out last night and put a replacement in today and its all OK now but that made for a long night!!!

Flaunt It

Today was the car show and company picnic at my work.



First time for the car show, not a huge turnout, but a lot of neat, unique rides on display. I'll probably post some of my favorites later. One of my fellow bin fillers came up with the idea and organized it. Still don't know who won in the categories.

I'm going to use this post to highlight my Falcon, I finally got a few more pictures of her, looking good.



I did a bit of work on her, put a thread repair insert on the starter bolt that was stripped out (made me think I had a bad starter with the grindy noise). The other thing I did was finally installed the rectangle headlights I'd bought years back. I'm going to eventually install a pair of generation one 300Z driving lights inside of them, then fabricate an aluminum bar grille. I can picture it.

I also picked up a set of Mooneyes Moon Discs for the wheels. Ended up being up until almost midnight last night getting 'em set up. I'm very pleased with the results, and I got many comments on 'em!!!



My dad has been a tremendous help, he repainted a spot that'd been polished through, and took care of getting it to a shop to sort out a couple of brake issues, where it'd get air bubbles if I parked it downhill on the street, and the back right wheel would lock up under hard braking. Now I've actually spent more just to have someone dial in the brakes than the car cost me to begin with!!! Of course, if you've got brake issues, your whole purchase is at risk, isn't it??? More than that my dad did, but I can't remember it all right now. Mostly wanted to show some fresh pictures of her!!!

"No Swimming"

That's what the signs all said.



Looking at the actual falls, Rainbow Falls in Hilo, that seems like very good advice!!!



However, walking just a little ways up the slope (I swear, the path was part of the path the Bradys took to return that unlucky idol) and there are many tempting areas to swim, with calm water and excellent rocks to jump in off!!!



The mountain water is somewhat cooler than the ocean water, but very refreshing.



We spent the better part of the afternoon of our last day doing just that. Stayed a bit longer that I had intended (I was on vacation, I had no timepiece with me!!!) and we missed out on touring the Manua Loa macadamia nut factory. Oh well...



One of these shots is the older boy and I climbing the roots of the immense Banyan tree with the rope swing tied to it.



The last shot of the previous post has the boy jumping in with his feet just hitting the water from this part. It also has the towers we jumped into the ocean repeatedly from. That wasn't us in that shot (it was taken from our hotel balcony), we didn't get any of us actually jumping in.

Honolulu

On the way home from our second island stay, we had to fly through the airport on Oahu. We never saw any of it except the airport and from the window of the plane. Here's a little video I shot on my netbook of the younger doing his version of the Hallelujah chorus. He'd been doing it for a while, and at the end you can hear the older's exasperation!!!

Hawai'i

Finally, I'm going to post about our vacation trip!!!



Three nights in Maui, three on the Big Island. Great trip!!!



I've asked everyone what their favorite part was. The younger and my wife both chose the snorkel trip where we went out to Molokini crater. That was pretty cool, alright. No great pictures of underwater, though.



The older boy liked the sand castle we made on the beach at Hana, and the tower across from our Big Island room, that we jumped off many times. He also liked the Luau.



I agree with everyone, but one of my favorite things was swimming above Rainbow Falls. Several great places to jump off into, and there was a grotto shaded by a huge banyan tree, with a rope swing tied to it.



The volcano park was good, too. Actually drove down to where the magma is running into the ocean, sending up huge plumes of steam.



We had nice rooms on both islands. One of my co-workers told me I should slip a twenty to the desk clerk upon checking in, just for their help, and they almost always will upgrade your room, if there's any better available. Worked like a charm, best $40 I spent all week!!!



Went by the volcano park again at night, and you can see the bottom of the plume lit up red. I could have put a lot more pictures here!!! Perhaps at a later time.

Bin Twins

Here's an amusing one. A year or so after I started at this job, they hired a stock keeper. One of the other stock keepers (I'll call him G) started telling people he was my older brother. Hooked several people with that tale. He's built similarly to me, but a bit taller. His nose isn't as lumpy as mine, but more rounded. Similar mannerisms. I made a point to point him out to my wife at the Christmas party that year. She said, "He doesn't look anything like you!!!"




Yesterday we got a new supervisor. I can't even tell you how many they've gone through since I've been there, but suffice it to say they don't seem to have a very long shelf life. One of the original supervisors was walking her around introducing her. At lunch yesterday, the new stock keeper (who in the last few months has been made a filler) tells me that the new supervisor came up to him and asked him how he got that nickname, calling him by my nickname!!! His response: "Have you been talking to stock keeper G???"

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!!!

Belizean Birthday

Over the weekend we observed my dad's birthday. We went to their house, where my sister's boyfriend made a nice dinner from his native Belize. Tasty chicken that falls off the bone, seasoned potatoes, interesting veggie stew and fresh fruit. The only thing we'd been asked to bring was for me to decorate up a cake. This was my mom's idea, and once again, I think the cake came out quite nicely!!!

Gettin' Lei'ed

I thought I'd clarify something I tweeted about earlier. Right as I started my shift today, one of the girls I work with greets me, and says, "We gotta put this on you!!!" I was thinking, "Huh???" when she produces a lei and places it around my neck. "It goes with your shirt!!!" she exclaimed. It rather does.



She had a half day today, and was going to be departing on her vacation at 5 this afternoon for ten days in Hawaii. She had been wearing the lei, but it was scratchy on her neck, so she took it off. I didn't get to see it, but she apparently had a cup with an umbrella in it, and a flower in her hair.

I wore it all day, and had to explain it several times. Of course, there was much innuendo about getting lei'ed. 25 days and my own Hawaiian adventure begins!!!

Salt Winder

Here's an interesting thing from a few weeks back. A guy my dad knows is building a land speed racer.



We went out to visit him with a few guys from my dad's car club.



To start with, he had to build a custom garage to accommodate it's length. Basically it's two car lengths long by two wide. Great garage, he's got pretty much a full machine shop set up around the perimeter!!!



The car is a classic streamliner, with two small block chevy engines. No transmissions, because they were the weak link in the system. Instead he's got a slipper clutch pack that grabs more as the RPM and speed increase.



The engines are World products with raised decks, and he's got them out to 427" producing around 700 horsepower each. He was spending so much money at the dyno shop that he ended up just buying the place. Cheaper and easier that way!!!



The engines are mounted crosswise to the body. A problem with mounting them conventionally is when you nail the throttle, the rotational torque has a tendency to flip the thing over on it's side, as well as when you let off the throttle.



I learned quite a bit on this jaunt. He'll be going out to the Bonneville salt flats this fall for it's next run.