The Manic Mechanic

With the weatherman predicting crappy weather for Saturday, I did not expect to get much done outside. As it was, the weather was quite nice, and some much needed spring cleaning took place. A full truckoad (no kidding) of flattened cardboard boxes got taken to recycling. A full 55 gallon bag plus a partial one filled with styro packing peanuts I took to the bewildered (yet always happy to receive them) folks at my post office. Being that Jeff and I do so much internet and mail order buying, the fallout of packaging collects in no time. All the styro blocks and materials will have to find some other disposal method.

It was also time for me to tackle the soapy disaster in the trunk of The Strat. The half-quart or so of mega-concentrated dishwashing soap collected in the spare tire well, soaping up just about everything on it's way through the well. Trying to figure out a way to not waste the soap, I pulled everything from the trunk, filled the well with several gallons of water to dilute the soap, then bailed it into buckets to be used for cleaning the cars and trucks. It seemed a wonderful idea. And it was. It also begun the inside-out, bottom-to-top detailing I like to give my vehicles in the spring. Taillights were removed, housings cleaned, the trunk scrubbed and shop vac'd clean, then onto the engine bays of three of my rolling stock. Rinsing the soap from the carpet and the spare tire cover panel took about a half hour of continuous water blasting. It looked as though I had a foam party in my driveway afterwards.

People who know me well will know that I prefer to have the engine compartments of my vehicles clean enough to eat from. So, with the soapy water, engine cleaner and other goodies, I cleaned up three engine bays:


The Strat ('00 Dodge Stratus ES)


The '03 Mini Cooper S and all it's mods


The '07.5 Chevy Silverado Duramax, All 365hp/660lb-ft of diesel goodness.

Okay, the last one was a bit of cheating, it did not need a lot of work to look spiffy, since it's so new. And yes, I added a second alternator, just because I could.

Today was cold and windy, and I did not feel like washing these vehicles as I was hoping to do. Instead, Jeff and I took a trip to Carmax for kicks to see what was available. Jeff's commute , though not that long, is a killer in gas mileage since his S-10 does not exactly sip fuel with it's big V6, oversized tires and the roof visor. There was a lot of cars in decent shape, but nothing truly stood out that was not already sold or either too expensive or with way too many miles. There were some nice Cobalts, quite a few Pontiac and Malibus, an unusual blue Camry, a couple Solaras, and a couple Dodge Calibers. The pretty green late model Stratus Jeff saw on the intarweb had been sold. Other interesting cars had manual transmissions, which Jeff does not do. After some walking around, kicking tires, picture taking and a little bit of seat time, we had lunch then did our grocery shopping for the week. The funky weather put me under the weather somewhat, so I rounded out the day with some household tasks, a nap and other sundry nonsense.

This was a rather productive weekend. It was a rather grumpy, albeit short, week at work, and I was cranky about it come Friday evening. I swear I am not going to be making any friends out of upper management these coming weeks. But enough of that for now.

Saturday we took down the remaining Xmas decorations and bid farewell to our tree. It became the perfect time to tear into the living room, shampoo the carpeting and do some much needed cleaning. It looks so much better now, and it's less of an embarrassment if company shows up.

Today was too good of a day to waste inside. After all, it's January, and what better to do than to wash cars and trucks wearing t-shirts and jeans. Since the weather has become much more of a rollercoaster than it has been in the past, it's best to take advantage of what Ma Nature's schizoid personality throws at us.

After a nice dinner, we cleaned up and relaxed a bit before heading out this evening. In what has apparently become tradition around here. we once again took in our nice, if somewhat belated holiday concert with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was a crowded house at Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena, and the crew did not disappoint. While not as spot-on as the last couple shows, they still rocked the house. It fascinates me that the demographics of these shows seems completely random. From goth kids to grandmas needing canes to get around and everything in between, everyone enjoyed the show. And this time, I remembered to smuggle in my camera.



I used my new Pentax W-30 for the first time in such a setting. It's okay I guess. The focusing takes forever, and, frankly, it kinda sucks. I took a couple movies with the thing which are not bad, considering. However, it takes them in that dreadful Quicktime format that wont let me do much with it except resort to that awful Quicktime software. Yes, I am editorializing here, I have always detested the format and it's attending software.

The light show/pyrotechnics evolves and expands each year. A good bit of the audience by their show of hands are newcomers to their live show. They were all blown away. As were we. It never gets old.

This week I gotta catch up on stuff. I am finally making some headway. I think.

A short, text-based wrap-up of the past few days, since I am too tired to edit pictures and upload them to my overloaded webspace. I should make use of my personal domains once I set up a hosting plan. I keep putting that off.

Hillside this past weekend was great. New truck hauled the trailer effortlessly, we got set up in no time and enjoyed some uncharacteristically rain-free good weather. We once again played last-trip-of-the-season hosts to buffalobear and his sexy, enigmatic partner "The Pork". We also had the good fortune to bring along our good friend Doug along as well, and found out it was his birthday that weekend as well. Lots of good food was cooked and had by our little group, we were able to catch up with some people we had not seen in a while, missed out on meeting one LJer (angry_alan and his partner) but socialized with rockybear02 and his partner. Repeatedly attacked buffalobear with the Nippleizer 9000 much to his delight. Did not roam the campgrounds like we normally do since I was still wobbling around on my bad ankle, but the relaxing weekend did me some good in that respect. Kodi had a great time as well, especially when we took him to the creek again for some romping in the water. He's got a whole lot better at traveling, seemingly gone are the days when he'd toss his cookies in the car even on short trips. The new truck thanks him.

This weekend is going to be another one of traveling, on Saturday, me, Jeff, his mom and one nephew are heading up to a Penn State football game. Jeff is a huge PSU fan, and the opportunity arose to get tix and we jumped on them. Sunday will find us and a bunch of friends hanging out at Knoebels Amusement Park. It's been a while since I've been there. Anyone else game? I am slacking as far as getting my coaster fixes. Maybe I can make it to Cedar Point this year as well. Halloweekends, anyone?

I've been rather busy lately here, along with Jeff and Kodi, so not much time to formulate coherent posts and multimedia to describe it all. A brief summary: The weekend was a back-to-basics camping trip to Hillside. By back-to-basics, I mean we camped in our tent rather than the uber-trailer. Two reasons, primarily the spot we were assigned was along a road that would not easily accommodate the rig, and the truck is still parked in front of the garage waiting for me to rip out the transmission and fix it. The tent camping was fun as usual, despite three nasty electrical storms that rolled through Friday afternoon and into the night. Things cleared up nicely by Saturday morning though.

In all the themed weekends that Hillside puts on throughout the summer months, we've discovered a gem among them for the past several years. It's "Wrestling, Car Show and Talent Contest" weekend. Seemingly a kind of catch-all grouping of unrelated activities, the weekend has continuous wrestling activities (everything from collegiate to pro styles, on large, expansive mats and a pro-style ring), a chance for car enthusiasts to bring their rides to show and shine, and a talent show that raises money for the local ambulance/rescue squad. Those who have permanent sites in the lower section (the "Village") get together and host a "Village People" party, this year had tons of incredible food, a DJ and various beverages with and without alcohol, free for everyone there. This also ends up being a sightseeing party as well, with wrestly wrestlers, big muscly muscleguys with lots of muscles, bears, car enthusiasts and their prides and joys, and everyone else hanging around and socializing. It's very relaxing, fun, and seems like everyone there is friendly and outgoing.

This was also Kodi's first trip to Hillside. He had a blast. He's also a babe magnet, and plays the part well. He also discovered the creek next to our site and eventually started bounding and splashing around in the water. I dont think I ever saw this dog have so much fun. He behaved well for the most part, and seems to finally gotten over his car sickness and only needs a stop every hour or two to relieve himself.

Today marked my first trip to a couple dealers to check out new trucks. My old Dodge, which has served me very well through 18+ years of hard use, is due for semi-retirement. I had an expected bout of sticker shock as I looked at the new rides that would suit my needs/wants. Looking at Dodges (natch) and the new Chevys, with diesel engines, four doors, long beds, trailer prep, four wheel drive and a modicum of 'luxury' appointments to make travel nice, I'm looking at around fifty grand for what I want. Yikes. It's a lot of money for a truck. I knew this going in, but still, seeing the prices in black-and-white on those window stickers is a bit off-putting. It's not that I cant afford it, I just dont feel it's quite worth it.

Lots of pics and some videos from the weekend. I hope to get some posted soon.

Cheers!

Well, my birthday weekend turned out to be not so bad. It was mostly quiet. Thursday my concern with a barely-working heat pump got the best of me and I went outside after work in the dark and hooked up my refrigeration gauges. The charge was low, which is to be expected given it's 18 years of age and the fact that it's never needed a charge during that time. A minor bit of drama occurred when the supposed 'dry-break' service fitting that's meant to prevent a chilling blast of refrigerant from escaping when disconnecting the gauge set came apart and sprayed my hand with the -63 F refrigerant unexpectedly causing some minor frostbite. My left hand still has some numb areas, and the add-on drybreak connector got hurled into the back yard in a fit of rage.

Friday evening it was just Jeff and I for dinner. A good family friend stopped over and brought homemade brownies and a banana nut bread. Yum! While I was more than a bit downtrodden and mopey, I eventually got over it. Kinda.

Saturday morning offered a trip to the Lucky Dog Garage nearby for some socializing with MINI enthusiasts and fiddling with stuff. With the salty roads, I did not have to worry that my car was a mess. It was a level playing field for a change.

The afternoon was spent taking Kodi to Petsmart for some shopping and to sign up for 'obedience training'. Time will tell how that turns out. Kodi was a bit more apprehensive about going into an unfamiliar store, and upon seeing a huge black dog leer at him on his way out the door, Kodi let out an uncharacteristically large pile of dawg schitt in record time. It seemed about three milliseconds. We were prepared, and I didnt know whether to be upset or contain my giggling. I had trouble with both. Cleaning it up and continuing with tasks at hand, Kodi got signed up for puppy skool for the next few weeks (a night per week) as well as getting lots of attention from other shoppers and their pets.

After that was done, I scooted over to Best Buy and picked up a cheap HP portable photo printer (385). An impulse buy, since I have been looking for something small and portable for making on-site snapshots, this one was a closeout for $65 (half price) and too cheap to pass up. I did not expect much from the little printer, but was pleasantly suprised. It's tiny, pretty fast, uses pigment-based Vivera ink, can read from every common flash memory card or PictBridge camera and has lots of added extras like frame printing, still prints from videos, basic editing, red-eye reduction and a lot more. Sixty-five dollars from Bust Buy. It's been a while since I thought I got anything at a real deal from that place. I'd like to eventually get a nice, large-format photo printer some day, perhaps a HP B9180 or similar. Also, my 13 year old Laserjet 3D is really starting to show it's age, and I need a new laser printer for workhorse printing. Inkjets dont cut it when all I want to do is rattle off a few sheets of text, Google Map directions or service notes. It always seems that the ink is out when I really need it, or it's clogged up from weeks of non-use.

That evening we took Kodi to Jeff's friend and coworker's house to see how Kodi would react to the strange environment, their chocolate Lab and their little two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Emily. All went pretty well despite Kodi's little accident after being chased around the house by Emily and Monaco, their Lab. But Emily was a scene stealer. Smart beyond her years, she could spell not only her name, but other words as well, work the computer, dance some complicated moves and all sorts of things that five- and six-year-olds can sometimes have a tough time with. She was a true delight. There's hope for the world in little ones like this.

Sunday, Jeff was stuck going to work stoopid early in the morning, then found out he'd be there till after 7:30. Bummer. I futzed around with cars, did some grocery shopping, kept Kodi entertained and worked around the house. Took in the Stupor Bowl, expecting decent football (check), outrageous commercials (check, but only kinda) and a knockout halftime show (check and then some). Prince tore the place down singing in the rain (which would have been purple had the Ravens made it). Jeff made it home in time to see the HT show, get a bit of dinner then call it a night early. In all, a good day. And a good weekend.

Thanks to everyone who sent their birthday wishes to me. It's deeply appreciated. No one remembered at work, which is typical. Just as well.

For the past few days I've played host to some sort of stomach/intestinal bug. Yesterday it made life miserable for me while at work and I decided to stay in today and allow my body to fight it off. Besides, being horizontal for an extended period does wonders.

This past weekend I finally tackled the major rework of the water supply at Château et Garage du Mécanicien Maniaque. 'Phase 1' is done, I replaced my undersized, leaking well tank with a nice, large, 86 gallon beauty that will allow for increased drawdown between pump cycles, making the pump and the entire system last longer and work more efficiently, and I have quite a bit more reserve water when the power goes out. It's a long time coming. 'Phase 2' will involve replacing the aging but not-yet-leaking water heater and relocating it to a cetral location in the basement under the stairs from it's current spot alongside the water tank and filters. No more waiting forever for hot water in the kitchen.

While testing, purging and calibrating the new setup, I had the unfortunate experience of having the short hose I use for this task coming out of the drain pipe and blasting me face-on with exceptionally cold well water not once but twice at different parts of the day. Completely soaked before I could shut it off. Not fun, but funny looking back on it. Today I was checking for leaks and putting the final touches on the system. A strainer drain valve was leaking, so I tightened it up. As it happens, I overmuscled it, snapping it completely off and, you guessed it, I was greeted with a full body shower once again. A change of clothes and another trip to the hardware store for the part, since I had no extras.

Since I had to be the master plumber this weekend, and Jeff had to work, our weekend was spent apart from one another. These extended periods by myself have been kinda rough on me of late. but I feel I need to have these quiet times to help cope with losing Mom. The silence is crushing at times. Often I wish the phone would ring so I'd have a diversion, but aside from Jeff, no one calls, and I am not the type to call people out of the blue. The fifth anniversary of 9/11 didnt help either, since it brought up it's own fair share of demons for me.

I am fresh from my evening shower. Unlike those three times in the basement, this dousing of water was hot, relaxing and refreshing. Time to hit the hay.