Well now, originally the plan for Sunday was for a couple of the guys to come over and help me haul out some old junk to the sidewalk for the monthly scheduled bulk trash pickup. That plan took a detour when dad pointed out that there was something wrong with the toilet. Every time it was used, the ground around it would get a little wet. This was on Saturday, I took a look at the toilet. It didn’t look like the water inlet fittings or the tank was leaking. I figured the gunky gasket thing around the base at the poopy outlet was failing. Bleah. Shouldn’t be a terribly difficult repair, but kinda icky, and assistance would be good to lift and install the toilet on the drain. The call went out late Saturday. Continue reading ‘Home Improvement’
Monthly Archive for June, 2009
Page 2 of 3
The slowly gathering and descending cloud cover threatened to derail my Wednesday ride plans, but I managed to gear up and turn in some distance before the first drops began to fall. The Thursday Tantalus ride was called, so I wanted to get in a good ride today. Other than riding to and from home, the distance was primarily off-pavement.
D = 16.14 km (10.03-miles), Vavr = 16.4 km/h (10.2-mph), Vmax = 48.5 km/h (26.4-mph), T = 59-minutes
I dug out of work as fast as possible to get to the top of St. Louis early enough to get a full run in before it got too late. I arrived first, followed shortly by Ckucke, JT, and Kevyn. After gearing up, we dropped Dumps all the way down to agave. Chris and Jarrel had both mentioned that lower Dumps had been cleared out. It was indeed opened up and groomed, but it was still full of tombstone rocks and derailleur-muncher rocks. It was better, but still not good. Also, the dry, leaf-littered surface was hardly ideal for traction: Both Kevyn and I felt a little washy, but that also may have been from tire pressure. JT and I both washed-out and low-sided off the rock jump that divides upper and lower Dumps. We climbed back up to the first switchback sortie, then bombed the center rocky run to the road and out the exit trail to the street. All of this continues to get worse, but the good sunlight allowed for better line choices. We piled into Kevyn’s Jesus truck – now without the camper shell – and shuttled back up to the top. Continue reading ‘Ochiba’
After a couple of weeks off, it was time for a good trail ride. Ckucke and Root met me at the Ditch for an exploratory ride of the trail that ran behind the Luana Hills golf course that we had been hearing so much about. We climbed Government Road and took the right to connect to the old Maunawili Valley Road course at the gate remains. What once had been a wide cut had grown in to a narrow singletrack. Here and there, the gutter and berm along the outer edge of the cut was visible through the undergrowth, but for the most part, it was well treed in with albizia and fiddlewood. The surface was firm, varying from clay to rock. It was difficult to tell if the roadway was cut all the way down to rock, of if it had been carefully cobbled over in spots. In any case, this was definitely a surface to be wary if there was any moisture present! Continue reading ‘Luana Hills Perimeter Trail’
This past Friday was on a push to get the AE86 rolling again so could move it out of garage for planned work on J’s headlights. I’d earlier glopped on some cast iron weld to fill up the crack on the exhaust, and after some name calling got it all back together. However while I was in there, I started taking off the EGR system. A rather superfluous system which in more cases than not is malfunctioning by this age anyway. It’s pretty straightforward. Unbolt the bung from the exhaust, find a transmission filler plug from the myriad of transaxles in Root’s Toyota salvage yard, and replace the bung with that. Then unbolt the other bits that hang between the bung and the intake. The only little thing is a bit of fabrication to make a cover to plug the intake hole. Pulling out the barstock of mystery millitary surplus metal, I traced out what I needed to cut. Just about the right size. Continue reading ‘Mystery Metal’
The start
This sunday was the frenching fun on J’s Chevy. Frenching? In kustom car talk, that’s getting rid (actually covering) the chrome headlight rings, bringing the body line all the way flush to the headlights. A project to christen the newly set up air compressor and dedicated eletric outlets! I kind of anticipated this taking a while, so we planned on J showing up at 9:00AM. Soon after 9:00 was when J sneaked in, I didn’t hear the sled pull up! Anyway, we made a shopping run to Napa and City Mill for some supplies so it wasn’t till past 10:00 that we got the car into the garage and ready to start. First the headlights need to be removed. Polished rings are a snap fit and pop off. The main bucket that houses the entire light assembly needs to come off. The plan is that assembly is going to be mounted on the backside of the body metal instead of the front. So we go to start removing the bolts that hold the buckets on. Continue reading ‘Frenching Fools’
Heading over to Cedar Street Gallery after work to check out Jason Teraoka’s works in the 14-artist group show “Bus Stop Culture”. I wonder what he painted? Hopefully I can find parking down there… Wonder if the Gelato shop next door will be open? Continue reading ‘Bus Stop Culture’
Kamehameha Day took Ckucke, JT, and Kevyn out of the Thursday ride, but freed up Wayland to join Root and I in the festivities of pain. Wayland had spent a lot of time on a stationary indoor trainer, but hadn’t gotten a lot of road mileage. This was a good chance for him to experience the physical, emotional, and tactical challenge of a real-world road climb. He was in fact thoroughly challenged. The weather was warm and clear at the bottom, with the normal late afternoon clouds at the top. There was a fairly good headwind blowing all the way up, and like the light drizzle that had been falling on the upper stretches, it was both a blessing and a curse. My legs felt sluggish when I started my warm-up, but they were fine once we started the climb. The pace was slower than usual, so I couldn’t really tell if yesterday’s ride did any harm.
D = 19.01 km (11.8-miles), Vavr = 14.6 km/h (9.1-mph), Vmax = 46.0 km/h (28.6-mph), T = 1-hour, 18-minutes (9-minutes warm-up, 50-minutes up, 19-minutes down)
Tomorrow’s Tantalus day, but I had the insatiable urge to get out on the bike today. I took an easy spin and did my normal training circuit. On Kahekili, there was an acrid, phenolic smell like burning televisions (if your TV ever caught on fire, you’ll know what this smell is like). I caught up to the smell at a traffic light – it was a Daimler Sprinter van. There was smoke coming out from the engine compartment, in particular from a tubular structure on the underside on the driver’s side just forward of the front wheels. Wonder what was going on… I saw smiley security guard for the first time since I’ve been riding afternoons again after the winter hiatus. I kept the effort level low to avoid burning out my legs so I can still ride tomorrow. Hopefully I managed this. The weather was fair, but the mixed cloud cover when I started closed in toward twilight, and a hint of a drizzle ushered me home. There was no agenda, so it was relaxing and just felt good.
D = 12.17 km (7.56-miles), Vavr = 17.4 km/h (10.8-mph), Vmax = 38.0 km/h (23.6-mph), T = 42-minutes
After the Monday night ride, Ckucke, Kevyn, and I went by The Fat Greek at the bottom of St. Louis Drive for a bite to eat. Parking at this little strip mall is iffy at best, but oddly, a pair of tandem stalls were open, so Ckucke and I pulled in. Kevyn was dropping off his bike at home so came down a little later and also miraculously found parking! I ordered the gyros for $8.40 USD including tax. They have little pager things so when you meal is prepared, they hit the magic button and your unit goes off – a little better than yelling, since they have a small air-conditioned “inside” and a large “outside” patio. The prep time was longer than I would expect for the menu and venue. The food quality was very good. My entrée came with a moderately sized salad that included a cherry tomato, a Calamata olive, two cucumber slices, and crumbled feta cheese on a mix of romaine and baby greens (A-). The gyros pita (A) was well-filled with meat and was seasoned with that white yogurt-based sauce, and came with a tasty, spicy sauce on the side (sorry – I don’t recall the sauce names now, and I’m not going to look it up). As a means of comparison, it was a couple bucks more than something equivalent at Opa! In Vancouver, but the quality was a little better, and there was a little more meat filling. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – The Fat Greek’