Yesterday (27 June 2007) at 07:53, Chris and Tanya Halsall became the proud parents of a baby boy. <5lbs. More details as they become available.
Monthly Archive for June, 2007
While out for a spin yesterday, I discovered that other than gashing one knee and bruising the other, I also tweaked my rear wheel in the crash on “That ride“. It’s got a good wave in it – about 4mm left and 6mm right. Hopefully I can get that straightened out… I was going to do it today, but I forgot the bike at home.
While taking a break after some mild climbs, I noticed my left shoe would rock over to the outside if I toed-down while in the saddle. Getting off the bike revealed that the outer spike had come unscrewed at some point along “That ride” and fell out. Must have been toward the end, since there isn’t any dirt inside the threaded hole. On cursory inspection, the threads appeared to be undamaged, so the spike didn’t yank out or get torqued out. Stopped by Sports Authority today to see if they had some alternative to the Sidi spikes, but the football cleats they had were too large in diameter.
6.65-miles, 38-minutes, Vavr = 10.4 mph
Jarrel brought in a set of Shimano PD-M970’s XTR pedals for me two weeks ago. Put them on last week. Tested them out on “That ride“. They are pretty. They work great. They’re the same as the PD-M959’s that they replace, except for the color, the label, and about 20-grams. Mud will be no problem with these, like their predecessors. The 959’s will move over to the cyclocross bike, and I’ll finally ditch the first generation SPD’s that are on there now.
About $160
10 out of 10
Got home, inspected FX. It’s not good. 
Look carefully and you can see where seams are seperating on this section of the lower uni-body where the A-arm mounts. There isn’t enough deforming to be obvious, but it’s there. Turning the wheel to full lock it now rubs. 
This clinches it, I’m retiring this FX. I know there are cars running out there in worse condition, it’s even probably possible to fix this so it’ll be within reasonable spec, but I know it’ll never be right. I was hoping to get this car in really good running shape, but I’ve never been quite happy with it. The boys have discussed making a frankenFX by choping the front cut of original FX and grafting it onto this one. The original FX is actually very straight, no signs of any repair work, but it really is rusting badly. It might be a fun excercise. But no, I don’t intend to keep running this FX. Oh, and the door doesn’t close tight now and the rear door edge to frame gap has widened.
I’ve got a line on another one, so maybe this was a blessing in disguise.
Her insurance adjuster is coming down tomorrow to check it out, we’ll see what they say and what the outcome of this is.
Ugh.
Well, it is possible – Chris and I proved it. We followed the trail that Jeff and I saw last time that leads from the fenceline on the third ridge. After cresting a small knoll, the trail gently ascended a wide ferny ridgetop between two ravines. The course was very evident ahead, and the trail was wide and clear here. Climbing the first hill as a contour along the left, the ferns began closing in. The initial euphoria and giddyness of finding new territory slowly eroded as the trail narrowed, but was bouyed when the trail became clear again. Continue reading ‘“That ride”: Wailuna mystery hills to Waimano’
What the F! Okay, about an hour ago I was sitting here working on my blog entry about past work on the FX. I heard something outside, I thought maybe some kid on a bike or something & didn’t really think anything of it. A few minutes later the door bell rings. Go to answer. Hmm, pretty cute local girl, wonder what she’s selling. Then she asks about the black car parked down the street. Um, yeah, that’s mine. Then she tells me she hit it. Aw geeze, tell her, hold on, I’ll get the insurance info. What the bleeping hell! Does that FX have “HIT ME” writen all over it?!
I go out and see that the FX is pushed up onto the curb. That doesn’t look good….
I’m fairly speechless. You know, I was only kidding about if someone hit the other door, then I’d have enough money to buy another whole FX from the mainland. Getting closer, I’m expecting the worst, but it’s not quite that bad. But the wheel is turned in. I don’t usually turn my wheel in to park here. My habit is to turn in where I feel the front starting to rise up the curve of the gutter, then turn back to straighten out so the car is pretty much as far to curb as possible.
I’m not happy but things are civil. We exchange info. Oo, ouch, that’s gonna smart for her nice shiny 2006 Lexus RX400. 
Looks like things are under control so I go to straighten out the FX. F, the door won’t open. It unlatches & opens, but door won’t swing out. I climb in through passenger side and move the car. I’m expecting the girl to drive off in her Lexus, but then she reverses & stops. What gives? She gets out and explains that her steering isn’t working. My parents came home from shopping while this was all developing and my mom comes over to see what’s going on. She finds a chunk of munged aluminum with a bit of chassis grease on the ground. Looks like some part of steering linkage, prob a joint of the steering shaft. Wow, junk, LandCruiser that isn’t!
The FX seems to move ok, unknown if suspension , steering, or wheel is damaged. Will have to find out. Hmm, am I going to have to rush to ABC tomorrow and get the other door and fender? And damn, if I get it repainted, am I going to have to have it painted International Orange?! Just what is going on with this car?!
Must have done something right, the car deities were smiling upon me today. Much thanks go out to Troy who called me in the morning with the news that a fellow Toyotaite, Malcom, called him to tell him that there was a FX16 at ABC Used Auto Parts. A chance like this wasn’t about to happen here on this island again, so I got on the horn and recruited Jay to ride shotgun. Picked him up after lunch and headed out to Pearl City. Darn hot, but that’s better than a spoogefest. Jay spotted it first, tucked behind a few cars, but sitting in a nice clearing.
After the incident with the FX-16, and after myself almost getting smacked, rammed, cut off, or otherwise negatively affected by people that dont know how to drive, I’ve finally decided to change out my little stock “Meep Meep” horns with something bigger. Meet the Freeway Blaster, by Fiamm.
These bad boys are rated at 130+dB, a good bit over the stock horns which are stamped 113dB. As you can see theres a pretty significant size difference too.
After cramming them in, I’m pretty satisified with the result!
Tried CytoSport’s “Fast Twitch” suppliment on Wednesday. Hard to tell if it really did anything, since I’ve been off training for a spell, but I seemed to be able to maintain a more consistent speed on the uphill sprints on my training loop with little to no burn and less oxygen debt. The single-use packet I had was “Go Grape” and was more powdery than Cytomax, which is more crystalline. Flavor was unpleasant compared to Cytomax, with a more chemically/artificial sweetener taste.
8.28-miles, 45-minutes, Vavr = 10.9-mph
This past saturday was enchiladas at Wayland’s, and booty from Hokkaido from Dave.
Since it seems to be Mexican food, we start off with shots of tequila. Honest, I didn’t drink before taking this shot, much. Needed some snacky bits to go along, so Dave busted out the salmon jerky from Hokkaido. Good stuff! Complete with Engrish! Actually grammatically the English on the packaging was pretty good, just um, ornate.
Yes, the print is impossibly tiny: “when the high northern sky clears to a perfect light higher than in any other season salmon which have survived a long long sea journey return with unrelenting determination Never daunted by raging torrents toward the river of their birthplace salmon are swimming with heartfelt devotion their silvery scales glistening What vitality and mystery they are filled with! A last salmon struggle along in their birthplace an unending goal throughout their pilgramage spawn a large number of eggs and then exhaust their remaining energy only to be carried away by a stream”
Anyway, the enchiladas came out yummy, the Hokkaido craft beer tasty, the rest of night was pretty mellow. All the pics at: http://www.studionewmedia.com/gallery/v/Waylands/2007June16/
And speaking of Engrish, was eating dinner tonight and found some. Everyone who comes to the table with a good health deserves a smack.
I’m maui bound for work tomorrow, at least I won’t have chickens waking me up ungodly early