The joys of the 100k+ vehicle

That would be a bad water pump. Its been squealing for a while and started leaking a few weeks ago. New pump: $140, Thermostat: $25, Antifreeze: $26, plus $30 in new tools and $100+ in tool rental deposits. Sheesh.

That is one big water pump too!

Finally, some pretty sunsets

Generally the sunsets here have been really boring, the best ones were when the sun was red from all the smoke from the fires. During the last week though we have had some clouds and some really beautiful sunsets. These were last Saturday after I got back from my hobby shop run.

New Truck

About a week ago I was at the RC races watching and thinking how I need to do this... Well after the race they said they would be racing again next Sunday (usually its every 2 or so) and I thought ok, I can get my old truck together with some new parts by then. So I got online and found a hobby shop in the area (that means within 2 hours of here) and made a list of parts that I would need to get. Saturday I went, intending to buy all the parts needed or for +~$100 a new truck that I knew had its own class in racing here and that I have liked since it came out. After looking a while, I ended up with the new truck and some new higher capacity batteries. I got home after making a stop at the motocross track and junk yard and opened the truck up. Its a nice, big off road truck, ready to run, with lots of suspension. I was ready for the races...then I read something (I forget what) that made me look at the batteries I bought, bad news, they were a newer type than the 14 year old Radio shack batteries that I had and were not compatable with my charger. So I tried the old batteries, the truck looks really cool running around, but the batteries were only good for about 2-3 minutes and I needed 5. Well maybe I could get my Nitro car running, it just needed a tune and I could probably get away with running it in the novice class. When I was about to go run it I realized that I had to charge the glow plug heater, but where was the cord? Long story short, I found the glow heater charger about 30 minutes before the race and its a 4 hour charger. So I ended up going to the race and just watching. It was good racing and the weather turned out being a lot better than it was supposed to be.

Halloween

The question came to my mind about 4-5 days before Halloween: what sort of costume can I get/make in a town that lacks a real Wal-Mart, has a Big-K and a soon to close Mervyns (the only real clothing store in town). The reason that I needed a costume was for a party that I wasn't really expecting. I looked a bit on e-bay, but shipping probably would have been to slow. I looked into Halloween stores; I would have pretty much had to drive to LA for that. So I just decided to go with a costume I had been wanting to do for a while - ninja.

Given I had nowhere to get the good parts of the costume (weapons), I figured I could at least get a long dowel at the Home Depot for a bo ... wrong, the biggest dowel was 1/2 inch and 4 feet long. Time to head for the plumbing section :) I ended up with a 10' section of 1" PVC. Once cut down and partially wrapped in tape it is nearly the dimensions of an actual roku-shaku-bo (rough translation: 6-foot-staff).

Next was the outfit. I had seen ads for Todd's Outdoors having costume stuff so I headed that way - not so much with the costume stuff really, but he did have 2 swords. I looked around the store and found some black pants that looked like they would be good and a few other small things. And no, I didn't get the sword, I didn't feel like paying that much for part of a Halloween costume. For the top I found a long sleeved shirt that looked like it had the right cut off at the arms and removed them. I intended to do more with it, but as it was i only finished the costume 15 minutes before I left for the party. I bought some black fabric at Wal-Mart for the other things - head band, face mask, belt, shoes.

All in all it came out pretty well, by the end of the night the pieces of cut material had all frayed at the edges, but it still looked pretty good.
This costume should get used again and I know several upgrades that I want for it.

More Speedfest stuff

I just thought I would throw these videos up that other people had taken at the speed festival

What happens when I get bored

Angela was here last weekend with the Holiday, we did a whole lot of nothing, just hung out, watched some movies and spent some time with friends. This was a flex week so I ended up with a three day weekend this weekend also. The fair was in town this weekend, so I didn't go to that :) I was going to go to the demo derby today, but you have to pay for two admissions just to get into the derby - so that was out. They had a parade yesterday, but I managed to do some major sleeping in this weekend and missed that also.

So, what to do? How about painting...the truck.

The hood has been looking really bad for a while so I thought I might try to paint it. First thing was me trying to get the clear coat that was left on the hood off - what was left was really tough.
I got to a point with the sanding and decided that was enough - I'm sure I'll regret that later.
I bought a couple of work lights in case it got late, they were $5 each, which I thought was a deal.

Through down some masking material and go to painting.
Not bad for spray cans. The color matches really well, but you can still see the scratches and such that I got to hasty to sand out (and where there was still the clear underneath).

Is just red good enough? I think not.
I officially hate trying to get pinstripes straight...Ready for paint...

Removing all the plastic...There it is, I think the paint will even once it dries a little more and is clear coated. I am still trying to figure out if there is anything else I want to do before I clear it.So there it is, I like it, and I think it should last at least as long as the rest of the paint on the truck.

Silver Medalist

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Apparently they had leftovers from last year, because it has 2007 on the plate, but I don't really care.

Speed Fest Pictures

Here's the link, I took a few: 617 Pictures.

If you think your car is ugly, you could just make a new body for it:

Festival of Speed

Last weekend I headed down to San Diego for their Fleet Week and the Festival of Speed. It was two days of Vintage car racing along with a large car show.

Some only have three wheels and two cylinders:Trans Am series group, there were nearly 40 cars in this class and the racing was really good:
A picture of part of the car show, the BMW club was in the row behind me and then a mustang club behind that. There was a line of stock cars along the back fence that they let run in a exhibition race.
The Ferrari club of San Diego had a pretty big group there:
68 Horsepower to the wheels:
Cuda 440 6-pack
Old racing Vette (licensed for the street)

Cruise to Big Bear

This weekend I finally got to do something fun with the car again. Its been a real drag not having any autocross events or anything to go to. I had to start by driving down to San Bernardino (120 mi) to meet with the rest of the group. When I got to the meeting place, I was only 10 minutes early and the parking lot was empty. I sat and watched as a bunch of older cars drove by (apparently part of the Route 66 Cruise) and waited. Right about 10 am the next car drove up, both of us were surprised that we were the only two there - and so we waited. About 10 minutes later about a dozen more came around the corner. We talked for a bit to wait for any stragglers and then took off for Big Bear Lake. This was the route we took as far as I remember. Starting at B and ending at C (~100 mi). The other part is rom my entire drive (~340 mi). We went to the lake and hung out there for quite a while, the lodge we were at was having a BBQ and one of the members owns a timeshare there so we were able to get tickets. Some of the group rented boats to go out on the lake and the rest of us chatted and played in the rec room. When we were done at the lodge we went down to the Alpine Slide (http://www.alpineslidebigbear.com/). I have to say it looked like a lot of fun and I'll have to try it next time. I think the original plan was to go back out the way we came, but that changed and we ended up making the big loop instead. Here is a picture that was took as we were coming out of the mountains. I am hoping that some of the others got some good pictures, most of mine didn't come out very well. Next weekend is off to San Diego for the speed fest.

Buffed

The cars paint was starting to look little old so I decided to try to do something about it; like I tried with the truck, but less extreme (more on that once it looks better). So I went and bought the best Wal-Mart buffer money could get - it actually feels like its pretty good quality, I also got the other stuff - wax, clothes, extra buffer bonnets, etc. I am pretty happy with the results so far, I didn't pull it out of the garage yet to see how it looks in the sunlight.

This is what the roof (worst part) looked like - car was washed Saturday, so none of its dust.
And this is what it looked like after some buffing - Way better! I think it might need a little more, like I said, I haven't had it out in the day light yet.
I also gave it a try on the hood, but it didn't show a difference like the roof did. Probably because its in a lot better shape.

And that was how I spent this weekend.

More wedding pictures from the Best Man

http://www.ddm-production.com/photography/trinkle_wedding/index.html


Thanks Yosh!!!

1 month...Well almost.

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had been on here. A few things happened.

1. I got married.
(Photo courtesy of Mike and Robin Short)

2. Went to the Cat House.

3. Got the worst sunburn I have had in a long time in Santa Monica at the beach and lost my sunglasses in the ocean.

4. Finally went riding again. Its not overly hot if you go at 6:30 am.

5. The car turned 125000 mi today, and I have to say its been running really well lately.
I might remember something else later, but that is all for now.

Tetris

I think this is where the video games payoff. I finally seem to have room, even with the mess that is still there, to get in and out of the car parking it either direction.

Before:
This was how it was (the worst way), I had to climb over the Predator to get out of the garage. I also tried putting the Pred back by the door, but you could still only use one door of the car and had to park it kind of sideways.

After:
The only problem at this point is the Pred is a little hard to get out. I think I might make a rolling dolly for it. Of course if I go ahead and get a washer and dryer, they will go right where it is sitting. I'll just deal with that when it happens.

Quake

All it really felt like here was the ground shaking like Jello. The some details are below.

LOS ANGELES - A strong earthquake shook Southern California on Tuesday, causing buildings to sway and triggering some precautionary evacuations. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The jolt was felt from Los Angeles to San Diego, across the border in Tijuana, Mexico and slightly in Las Vegas.

The 11:42 a.m. quake was initially estimated at 5.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey but was revised downward to 5.4. More than a dozen aftershocks quickly followed, the largest estimated at magnitude-3.8.

The quake was centered 29 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles near the San Bernardino County city of Chino Hills, and was estimated to be about 8 miles below the earth's surface.

California is one of the world's most seismically active regions. More than 300 faults crisscross the state, which sits atop two of Earth's major tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American plates. About 10,000 quakes each year rattle Southern California alone, although most of them are too small to be felt.

Flood Video

This is one of the many that are on YouTube:

Dry, Dry Desert

So it does rain here in the desert, just a little. I saw about 15 or so cars dead on the sides of the road and a few , such as the white car, dead in the road. Apparently a lot of people don't realize that their cars are not submarines, including about 4 cops that I saw - 3 Crown Vics and a Durango.


Whats cool is that everyone brings out their big off-road trucks, so there are a lot of really big, nice trucks driving around.This car was getting flooded just sitting outside its house.
This is the intersection where my street comes out to the main street that runs North-South.
The stalled white car mentioned above:
Driving on Downs St.

House sitting

So I was house sitting this weekend with Magnus:

Hes a good dog, and a big dog, and he dreams a lot apparently. The other morning he was under the bed growling and boofing lightly. And then he was next to the coffee table the next night and kicked it in his sleep and almost knocked all the stuff off of it.

Engagement Photos

I went back to ABQ for a weekend for engagement photos and to see the family since they were in town. We also went and changed my tux around (I'm not sure what we changed, but something is different).

Ah, and I was also stuck in the airports for so long (both ways) that I could have driven there and back quicker (and for almost the same price) in the truck!

Mountaineering 2

Time to play catch up. I’ll start with the mountaineering class since this is our last week. We have been rock climbing, repelling, and rock climbing again. And this week for the class party we will be going out to rock climb again.

This is climbing one of the rocks, I have no idea which one it was since the picture is so close up. I love doing this , I would do it all day if I didn't think my fingertips would fall off. This was repelling at Fossil Falls, this was the "hard one", I think because of the small opening just off the top. It was pretty nice, almost straight down with some free fall at the end.

Riding finally, Woohoo!

I finally got to go riding for the first time since I got here, I got the Pred registered on Friday and took it out Sunday. It was pretty hot so I only rode for about 2 hours.
It was a lot clearer than I had expected with the fires...to bad I didn't bring the good camera with me.Turns out I sliced a tire on the ride, guess I'll be fixing that on my day off.