When I first started IT Consulting in August 1999 I preached the importance of dynamic content on websites. When I decided to launch of website of my own, I made a point to practice what I preached by writing daily journal entries. I managed to write every day without missing until 2002. Nowadays, this practice of streaming dynamic content is commonly called "blogging".
The white Subaru also came home today with a new hood, because it has been freshened up with the turbo motor from the red Subaru, among other parts. It now needs an alignment, and I now have a boost gauge to hook up to it, because there may be more fun later down the road.
It now runs an Exedy lightweight flywheel. We couldn't use the Fidanza because it was thoroughly smoked, and since it was a two-piece aluminum unit, getting it resurfaced would have been very difficult. As a lightweight flywheel the Exedy behaves just as good as the Fidanza anyway, even though it is 12.7 lbs vs. 9.5. I suspect that has to do with the location of the weight on the flywheel itself - the Exedy unit has a bunch of holes on the outside edge of the flywheel, greatly reducing the rotational mass where it is important. Furthermore, it is one piece of steel material so it can be resurfaced in the future.
Monday, 8th of June, 2009
Saturday, 6th of June, 2009
Only 3 times in my life has the auto-stop on a gas pump failed and gas starts overflowing all over the place. All 3 times I happened to inside the service station doing something else. Fortunately this time I had just made it back to the car in time to see the mess being made. And like all other times, the gas station attendants could care less - does Oklahoma even do fuel pump inspections?
Friday, 5th of June, 2009
Thursday, 4th of June, 2009
Wednesday, 3rd of June, 2009
Also discovered a great Mexican restaurant in Kingsville - El Tapatio. Very satisfying lunch and enough left over for dinner too.
Tuesday, 2nd of June, 2009
The deep sea gulf fishing didn't happen this year because of some problem with the injectors on the Wharf Cat, and no one else did a 5-hour gulf trip on the weekdays, and we didn't want to do an 8-hour trip. Instead, we found something we could wake up even earlier for - the release of Ridly sea turtles at Padre Island. It didn't end up being as dramatic as usual though - the turtles were very asleep!
Going out to St. Joe's island was also a new experience for us - someone suggested we might see interesting things in the tidal pools. All we saw were a bunch of small fish and snails, and there were enough jellyfish out there that I didn't feel like getting in the water for a long time - maybe next time bring a wet suit?
Thursday, 28th of May, 2009
Tuesday, 26th of May, 2009
Last September when I was at Pick and Pull there were 2 1993 Driftwood Metallic Fleetwoods. However, since Willie Mae Cooper totalled it in March not a single Fleetwood has popped up at Pick and Pull or Riverside - or in the 250-mile radius as far as salvage yards go, for that matter. Fortunately, we headed down to Texas this week, where Fleetwoods of this vintage and colour are abundant. Broken Wheel Salvage, right outside of Van Alstyne, was right off of US-75, directly in our path. A very cool place indeed, since the yard specialized in GM vehicles - I have never seen so many new-ish wrecked Cadillacs in one place. The Northstar motor looks even bigger outside the engine bay.
Most importantly, they had exactly what I was looking for, and I even get a gold hood ornament this time. I knew the latch was pushed beyond normal operation threshold, so I had acquired many combinations of bungee cords and carabiners to keep it under control for the remainder of our journey, and the planning payed off - acquiring the hood wasn't too time consuming a pit stop. Yes, this hood is so big that it would have had a hard time fitting in the cargo area of our other cars - so we drove the hoodless Cadillac down to Van Alstyne. Gas mileage went down the toilet - 19 mpg.
Monday, 25th of May, 2009
Still using the 9-year-old webcam since I like the webcam capture on Youtube...
Thursday, 21st of May, 2009
I have been to one of Randy Sabien's workshops before but I had no idea he had an entire method book (Jazz Philharmonic) and play-along CD that works well for all levels of string education. Good stuff - a great way to end the school year!
Monday, 18th of May, 2009
Sunday, 17th of May, 2009
Saturday, 16th of May, 2009
Friday, 15th of May, 2009
Thursday, 14th of May, 2009
Picture - Mythbusters tries to make a Volvo's bumper shock catastrophically fail. They had a hard time even getting the car in place...
Wednesday, 13th of May, 2009
While loosening the differential bolt on the Tahoe this evening I managed to completely wrench my short 3/8 drive extension. That's what happens when you use cheap tools. I switched to a Craftsman extension and it handled the job just fine...
Sunday, 10th of May, 2009
Goo Gone Automotive Spray Gel: Fail - It did almost nothing to the sap.
A little late, but I finally saw the latest Fast and Furious movie. I knew there was going to be good car taste for the rest of the evening because in the first few minutes of the movie already featured a Grand National and we even got a glimpse of a Ford RS200! I also like the return of the modern interpretation of frontier train heist.
Saturday, 9th of May, 2009
Also discovered coolant dripping from the block between the block and the oil pain. Maybe my water pump is going out? Time to check that out.
Friday, 8th of May, 2009
Thursday, 7th of May, 2009
Monday, 4th of May, 2009