The Best Part

Upon being home from vacation, I asked my wife and my son what their favorite part of the trip was.

My wife said her favorite thing was our jaunt over to Kailua beach. Just like the sand there, it was pretty fine.

It was also an interesting part of the trip, as the boy stayed back at the hotel. We'd gone to lunch, and he'd had a turkey sandwich, and he claimed the tryptophan was putting him to sleep. Also, there was a Goodwill store a block over, so we'd gone there and done some shopping, and he was bored for that. Found myself an orange T-shirt from a local radio station (although, not the one The Woody Show is on there) and a vintage looking Hawaii Pan Am shirt.

There was a sign that there were man 'o wars (men 'o war???) in the water, but fortunately we didn't see or encounter any. We splashed about in the water for a bit. It was fairly excellent!!!

My sons' favorite part was the Dole Whip at the Pineapple Plantation. Yeah, it was pretty good, too!!! Funny thing, he follows Menace on Instagram, and shortly before we went Menace had posted a picture of the Dole Whip!!!

The Plantation has a train that takes you on a tour of the grounds, and we went on that. Don't our outfits go with the background foliage???

It wasn't the only area with them there, but we saw a few roosters.

Out in the the entrance to our lodging there was an outrigger canoe. Probably because it's called the Outrigger Waikiki Beach. The second morning we were there, I asked my son if he wanted to go jump in the ocean when we first got up. We swam for a while. They rent the aqua trikes on the beach there, and we were looking at doing that, but never got to it. They had them at the resort we stayed at on the Big Island, too, but we spent hardly any time there and missed out on them there, too. One evening, when we got back, they boy and I went down to the pool and swam for a bit. It is a pretty good pool, fully tiled. They have a bar with a live acoustic trio playing there, doing old standards in a somewhat Hawaiian style. When we were drying off to head up, I recognized the tune they were playing as Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". I called that to the boy's attention, and he was berating the style they were doing it in. He began doing his Satchmo impersonation of the song. The funny part, and he wasn't aware until we'd left the area, it appeared that a woman fairly close to us was recording the song on her phone, so hopefully she's got him berating and vocalizing on her recording!!!

Over on the Big Island, we'd set out for the Volcano park. In a logistical misstep, our lodging was about a half hour north of the Kailua-Kona airport, which is north of Kailua-Kona, which is where most of the action on that side of the island is. Anyway, we drove down that way, then around the south end to the Volcano park.

We got to the Volcano park, and apparently they are doing an anniversary special and letting people in for free, so that was nice. A good amount of the park is inaccessible due to recent eruptions and volcanic activity. Got to see a lot of sulfur and steam vents, anyway. The lava tube was off limits.

On the return trip, it routed us through the middle of the island, through Hilo and then between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. There was a lot of cloud cover as we were heading out, but about half an hour before we were back at our lodging, I pulled off to the side of the road to see what it was like. It was clear and fully dark in the area, and it was as many stars as we'd ever seen!!! I can see why they have some of the best telescopes in the world there!!! I messed with the settings on my phones' camera, and tried bracing it on the roof of the car, but it was quite windy, and this was as good as I could get. The photograph in my head is far better.

Double Mount Duty

Last weekend was a wrenching on the cars weekend. I've posted shot motor mount pictures before, so I had to keep the tradition going!!! This instance differs from previous times in that I did two different cars in one round!!!

First up were the mounts from 3. She's developed a low roar noise at cruising speed. My first thought was wheel bearings, but not long after Jade started making quite a bit of noise when put into gear, and I recalled that Saturn motor mounts are prone to failure. There seemed to be a lot of motion, so they needed doing anyway, and if that fixed the roar, so much the better. The top mount has what has been coined the "sad face" design. The bottom mounts were still in serviceable shape, but by the time I discovered that, it's not much more to replace them.

On to Jade, the top mount was in much worse shape, barely hanging on together, only slightly better than the ones I'd replaced on Baby way back. The lower ones were better, but still up for replacement. Made a nice improvement on her!!!

On back to 3, around a month back I'd done an oil change, and while I was at it I rotated the tires. While I was removing one of the rear wheels, one of the already loose lug nuts stopped spinning freely. I put my breaker bar on it to spin it the rest of the way, and snapped off the stud!!! Since I was already suspecting a bad bearing (another thing I'd done while I was rotating the tires, gave 'em a spin to see if any of them seemed to have a bad bearing) I replaced the whole hub assembly instead of trying to get a new stud pressed in. Anyway, the motor mounts and one rear wheel bearing haven't fixed the roar noise, and I have a feeling it's the front right that's the cause. Thought it might be tire noise I was hearing, and that had prompted me to think about getting another set of Ion rims for 3, if I'm buying new tires, might as well get something a bit bigger and badder. When I went to the junkyard over the long weekend (one of the ones in Wilmington is closing down, and instead of 40% they were up to 70% off!!!) there wasn't a single one of the three that had the alloys still on them. Started looking around, and realized none of the cars have any wheels on them!!!

Oh, and while I had the air filter box out to do a lower mount, I saw that the transmission temperature sensor plug was missing half of the holding tab. checked it out, and the other one broke off, too!!! I've got it held in place with shrink tube and tape right now, but will replace it soon enough.

Scruffy has had occasional check engine lights for a while, one of the codes being temperature related, and sometimes the gauge would go out. Got a new engine coolant temperature sensor with all the other stuff, and went ahead and replaced that, too. Turned out to have a length of bare area!!!

And, for a final touch, I modified the air intake tube as I've done to other Saturns. Cut out a good portion of the top of the tube to facilitate better airflow!!!

13 Shots: Sea and Land

Back from this year's vacation!!! We went to Hawaii again, this time for a few days on Oahu and a few on the Big Island. I took a lot of good pictures, so here's a sampling.

First up is from the first morning. Waikiki beach, just outside of the hotel we were staying at there. It literally had steps out directly onto the beach!!!

Next up is a couple of shots from Kailua beach on the West side of the island. I'd heard it was picked as one of the world's most beautiful beaches, so I decided to make that a stop. It truly was.

Fine, powdery sand, warm water, and surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Only thing, since it was Hawaii, it was raining on and off while we were there. A lot of it was just a little drizzle, blowing in sideways from the onshore breeze.

The next couple of shots are from Diamond Head. All the times I've been to Oahu, I've never been there before. It's a nice hike, with a great view!!!

I would have liked to have stayed somewhere not in Honolulu, but in typical fashion I booked late, and most everything else was not available. You can see, it's a lot like any other metropolitan area.

On over to the Big Island!!! This was on the evening we arrived there. On the way from the airport to our lodging, there was a scenic overlook point, and we pulled in just before the sun was setting!!!

The Big Island has a lot of areas of the black lava rock. We pulled off on the way to visit Volcanoes Park.

That was just as we were getting to the East side of the island.

The next day, we had headed up to the Northern area of the island, in search of a barbecue place, that turned out to be a guy who sets up his trailer there on Thursday nights. Sad trombone. Anyway, on the way back, we pulled off on one of the side roads marked coastal access. Not really beachy, but it was cool nonetheless.

Looked like you could possibly launch a boat there, or could have at some point anyway. In the second picture, you can see some yellow in the water, those were yellow tang.

Finally, we went to a beach just north of our lodging. It is called 49 Black Sand Beach, and the name is why we headed there. It was a really nice beach, but the sand wasn't all that black. It was more like pepper, some black, a lot of light to white grains. In the first shot, you can see Maui across the channel from it!!!

There is a lot of broken up lava stones in the water, and off to the sides. Given enough time, the sand will be more black.

Hopefully, there will be more from our adventures to follow!!!

August & Everything

Happy August!!! As is usual, I observed the traditional birthday of myself!!!

For something different, this year I had to get my driver's license renewed. If you're aware, you know that this is a major pain in California, as they had postponed implementing the Real ID act for several years, then when they started doing it, they screwed it up in typical fashion, so DMV offices have been swamped. I'd attempted to make an appointment to get it renewed before it expired. Of course, the only appointments available were for a month after it expired. Anyway, a few weeks before, on my day off, I headed over to attempt a walk-in renewal. I got there about 15 minutes before they opened, and by my estimation there were about 30 people already in line. I joined in, and by the time they opened, there were probably another 30 people. They were giving out your number as you filed in, and pre-screening where you were going. As I'd judged, I was #30!!! Did a bit of filling out on some kiosks they have there, generated a file number, then waited until they called my number. Showed my papers, paid my money, and was out in under an hour and a half, so it was nowhere near the horror story that everyone had been saying. Got my Real ID a week or so ago, nicely before mine expired. I like my look in the new one better!!!

Out driving the other day, and I was behind a car with my birth month and year on the plate!!! Now you know, if you didn't already.

What did I get for my birthday? My wife got me a nice manicure kit, and I bought myself a Firefly comic and the 40th anniversary CD from the Stray Cats. I'm planning on buying the components to repair the air conditioning in Scruffy, and thinking of getting another set of Ion rims to put on 3.

The Ketchup Random Post

It's been a while, I have several things I've been wanting to post some about, so the time has come to catch up!!!

Speaking of ketchup, found this last time I was at the dollar store. Spicy, it's interesting but not great. Last time I found a ketchup there, it was a grilled onion flavored, and that was pretty great. Of course, none of that there anymore. But I digress.

Had a week off in July. Back when my work had the Spring ticket drawing, my name was pretty low on the list, so there weren't a lot of good ones left. Then I realized that I had that week off, and thus far nothing planned, so I took a Monday evening game, for a change an Angels game!!! They were playing the Houston Astros, so there was a Texas connection. It was pretty good, the area we were in had food service to your seat, so that was nice, and getting in and out is better. Had some pastrami fries!!! There's the moon rising over the lights.

It's a bit of a haul to the area, and rather than heading back and forth, I booked us a couple nights at an Orange County hotel. Had the thought that we could get in touch with my niece and drop into the Great Wolf Lodge again to get wet for an afternoon, but instead we dropped in to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Turns out the Chick-Fil-A will set you up with a chicken sandwich if you had been to an Angels game the next day!!! Afterwards, we headed to a very picturesque beach in Crystal Cove State Park. The next day we stopped in at Boomers down there, and that was our little vacation.

The younger boy graduated from high school. He's planning on going to trade school for electrician training. He never expressed much interest in it before, but I'm sure he'll be able to pick it up pretty well, and it's a good paying profession.

He'd found an aloha shirt at the St. Vincent thrift store a while back. He wanted to get some louver glasses to go with it, and not long ago, on a 20% off day at Big Lots, we went to one that happened to be by a Party City. Went in to take a look, and they have 'em there, so we set him up with them.

Apparently, the impetus for both of those was another Homestuck adjacent troll, Murrit Turkin!!!

Finished off the week by sanding down and spray painting the rest of the right side of Scruffy. Got a couple of runs, sanded them out, sprayed it some more... Always looks far too shiny when it's fresh sprayed. I was getting antsy to get the other side done. All that remains is the rear hatch and bumper, but I've been working on the front bumper, too, eliminating the holes for the front plate mount. Not a great picture, but I did a bit of a long shot to get 2 of my 3 classics in the shot.

While I was doing so, I had the lower rocker off (it's a molded black plastic part, easier to remove than to mask) and it nicely revealed the upper part of my new exhaust tip!!! Also, the only way besides removing it that you'll see the 512 Labs inscription on the top side. I've only driven it a couple days in the last few weeks, as we've been having a heat wave, and I still haven't fixed the air conditioning on it. My birthday is coming up, maybe I'll buy the parts for myself.

I participated in The Oinkster's Burger Week again this year. The shirt is a take off on the Chili Peppers, and I don't think that anyone has picked up on that it isn't just that every time I've worn it. If anyone has, they haven't said anything.

Back before the end of the school year, they were taking the senior class to Speed Zone in City of Industry. I had been working in the area when they built the place, back in the late 90's, and have driven by it several times. It sounded like a good time, but I'd never made it over there!!! Anyway, it was on my day off, so I was able to get in on it.

There's a go-kart track, a slick track, and dragsters!!! There's an arcade and mini golf, too. The day pass was $56, but a season pass was $51!!! What would you do??? Yeah, that's what we did. We've been back twice.

They've been giving me the middle shift at work more these days. Don't know if I'd mentioned, but they eliminated the late late shift, and moved the late to 10:25 AM. Middle shift is two hours earlier. I like the way it works out, I never have to get up early on Mondays. Of course, the drive is worse. ANyway, that's the prelude to the next part of my updates!!!

I had been hearing for a while that Alt 98.7 and The Woody Show were doing a night at Medieval Times. Ravey and Menace were going to be there, and they had a promo code to get a good discount. It's been years since I've been there, but it starts 15 minutes before I get out of work. The day before, they ask if I can work middle shift the next day. Hey, I could make it!!! And, so I did!!! Made it there and visited the Alt 98.7 tent. They had one Woody Show pin left, which they gave me, so cool. They put us in Ravey's section, and our knight gave the first rose to her. We were able to meet up with them after the show. I've met Ravey before, but this is my first time meeting Menace. He's taller than I thought.

And I got one shot of Menace in his natural state, playing on his phone!!!

An Exhausting Undertaking

Here's a project I've been working on for quite a while!!!

Back in the beginning of May is when I started in on it. The idea has been in my head for longer than that, but here's the culmination.

I've been displeased with the terrible job that was done attempting to duplicate the original 512 Labs tailpipe for Scruffy. As I've been working on this, I've discovered that the system had been doing quite a bit of making contact with the tunnel. Additionally, I wanted to attempt to pick up a bit more ground clearance and improve the look of the outlet.

I started off by getting some 1 3/8" tubing and steel flat stock. I used some chipboard to fabricate a template, then used a sawzall to split the tube and cut out the flat stock.

I also got some of the old system parts and tubing, and came up with a much better output pipe, which tucks up into the tunnel much more cleanly. After getting the tip into shape, I ground the welds down quite a bit.

You can see, the end result is quite a bit cleaner on the pipe shape. What doesn't show as well in the pictures is the end section, where it does a dip down, then back up, which nicely clears the end of the tunnel area and goes under the emergency brake cable. I'm not sure if that dip makes the clearance situation no better than it was.

Laying the one pipe over the other shows it to be much cleaner.

A shot of the tip in place, prior to the addition of some black high-temp paint, the same as the original.

Here's a marked improvement over the one it's replacing, a pair of rubberized mounts on either end of the tip, for a solid but not too solid mount!!!

Took quite a while for several reasons. I was using my dad's MIG welder, and first it ran out of shield gas. Had a spool of flux core wire, and I switched to it. Took me a while to dial in the settings, but it came out pretty good. Then, at the tail end of the project, the wire kept getting jammed, and it turns out the wire feed cable was screwed up. I had a friend finish off the final welds.

And, if you hadn't noticed in the earlier shots, I've seen to it that this one has a legitimate 512 Labs inscription!!!