Oops, opened up that can o worms today. The FX has been off the road in the garage since discovering with all the Thanksgiving rains that there is a leak up top and front. This one is bad because it drips onto the seat and your left thigh if your seated inside. So today I decided to pop the trim to take a look at the top edge of the windscreen. Amazingly the windscreen trim clips are still holding well and it took quite a bit of convincing. I got the top edge off, and then the passenger side. There was a lot of collected crap, and some hidden rust developing. Yuck. So I started on the drivers side. The upper corner, where the suspected leak is, there was a lot of sealant goop in the trim edge groove. Hm, wonder what went on there. The left edge trim is proving stubborn, the clips seem to be imbedded in a lot of goo. The first clip finally starts to work loose. Continue reading ‘Can O Worms’
This cracks me up! This reply to one of Root’s AE86 or FX16 threads was so funny that I had to let y’all see it:
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Everybody, please don’t panic!
OK, I’m officially super annoyed at the neighbors on the T street from us. Having the second house tell me not to park directly across from their drive way because it makes it hard for them to back out and they might hit my car. Now who’s fault is it if they do? I’m parked in a perfectly legal spot on a public street, and it’s across from their house, not blocking their view to pull out into street. I park in the spot I do because other idiots don’t know how to drive and cut the corner then swing wide and cream parked FX’s there. I barely contained my urge to say “No, this is a public street, this is a perfectly legal parking spot, you shouldn’t be driving if you can’t back out of your driveway without hitting a parked car on the opposite side of the street, I’m parking here.” WTF! If I were really pissy, I’d get all the vehicles running, I’d park the FJ40 on their side of the street in the space between the two houses who complained to me (and Fabio), and then park the FX directly across the first driveway, and the AE86 directly across the second driveway. See how they like a seven foot tall box blocking their view, and then deal with their poor driving skill getting out of their driveways. Aaarg! Learn to drive, people! But no, I need to live with these neighbors.
Even more reason to get the FJ55 Pig out of the garage and the FX16 carcass out of the driveway so don’t have to park on the street. Which BTW, miracles of miraceles, guy is coming this week to start process of taking the FJ55 away.
OK, I can tell I’m annoyed, I cooked dinner & ate, had some sake, and I’m still annoyed enough that I went out & took a pic. Take a look at this. If you can’t get out of your driveway from house on left onto this street, something is wrong with you. When you are issued a driver’s liscence, that is supposed to certify that you have the basic skill and ability to operate an automobile safely and with competance on public road conditions. If you lack the skill and ability, you should not have said liscence.
Hit St. Louis after work with Ckucke, JT, and Root before heading to McBike. The weather was clear, but being a few days away from the shortest day of the year, we had little ride time before the twilight overtook the daylight and sent us into darkness. Nice to be out on the trails after such a long absence!
Pictures here
D = 5.23 km (3.25-miles), Vavr = 13.7 km/h (8.5-mph), Vmax = 42.6 km/h (26.5-mph), T = 23-minutes
Fabio put an order together for all of us from RescueDirect for trauma shears. It was pretty difficult finding decent quality shears locally, perhaps from not looking in the right place, or not having access to the wholesale medical supply companies’ inventories. Most of the stuff I found wasn’t even PRC quality – heck, the ones McBike had were made in Pakistan or Afghanistan or something! I saw that Todd the tennis racquet stringer had a pair of nice shears that said “Acme†and “Titanium†on them. He had gotten them next door at Long’s on closeout after CVS took them over, but that was months before, so there were none left to be had. A quick search online identified the product, and a cursory investigation of the various online retailers’ shipping policy regarding The 50th State selected a dealer. The word went out, and soon we were rolling in trauma shears (it was more like a couple of months, but Fabio was busy). Continue reading ‘Acme Titanium Bonded Trauma Shears’
I set the alarm for 01:30, but didn’t get up until 02:20. That didn’t give me much time before rolling out, but I at least ate some yogurt before heading over to Kaimuki. In anticipation of something like this, I had my kit all prepped from the night before. Food wouldn’t be a problem, since I had some bars and gels, and there would be a lot of idle downtime before start time. The sky was clear, but it was only starting to cool off from Saturday’s heat. There was very little outbound traffic, but the potential of HPD action kept me at the speed limit. The freeway was clear so my timing worked out about right. Chris and Mitch were already there at the KCC parking lot, and Ckucke and Root rolled in soon after. Quite amazing – everyone showed up for the 2009 Honolulu Marathon wheelchair division escort! Continue reading ‘Why the Heck Am I up so Early?’
The Honolulu Marathon is coming up, so tonight was the pre-event meeting for the wheelchair division bicycle escorts. The meeting was at the usual Church of the Croosroads, but the person who was supposed to open up the meeting room for us forgot, so we had the meeting out on the lawn. We were all returnees, and pretty much had the routine down, so Laura just gave us a brief on what minor changes there were and distributed the official vests. Ckucke, Root, and I had ridden down from Ckucke’s house, so we stopped in at Hide-chan for dinner then rode back home. Mitch was supposed to meet us, but he couldn’t find parking.
D = 7.31 km (4.54-miles), Vavr = 14.5 km/h (9.0-mph), Vmax = 27.5 km/h (17.1-mph), T = 30-minutes
I won a ticket to tonight’s Awamori Festival fundraiser from the JCCH.  I was anticipating a learning experience about Awamori, but I learned more beforehand from Wikipedia, since all they had was “Z” and various fruity cocktails made from it. I even brought a notebook and pen so I could write stuff down and write a really informative post! I got three drinky tickets with my entrance ticket, so the first thing I had was a shot shaken with ice. Whatever “Z” was wasn’t top shelf, and the shot was seriously on the short side. At least the Asian sister who poured my second shot on the rocks gave the yellow brother a long pour. Mitch came late, so they didn’t give him any drinly tickets, so I gave him my third, although he used it for a soda. The food was pedestrain buffet fare, and none of it of a Ryukyu bent. WTF?! At least there was a good Okinawan dance performance, and I got to hang out with Mitch, Melissa, and a bunch of really nice people. The skies were dark and ominous on the way ofer to ATM after work, and sure as shingles, the sky opened up with wind whipped rain and lightning as soon as the event was underway. Everyone had to crowd under whatever shelter they could find at the open-air venue. I ran into Derrick from the JCCH whose friends were performing.  Sorry – I’d write more, but I’m really tired (Fabio, you didn’t miss much).
Here are some pictures
Well now, our volume of J mail has gone down, but today got a bunch. What kind of relationships is going on in this household? Since when did Fabio move in? And who’s Juanita and when did I marry her? Or is she a long lost sister?
Picked up a little canister stove at the Snow Peak store in Shiroishi while in Sapporo. Most Snow Peak stuff is available on the USDM, but after the first year, Snow Peak USA removed this particular item from their product listing, though you may still find remaining stock here and there. I’m not really sure what’s up with that. All the specifications and information is readily available online, so I’ll just go over some of the things I noticed. It is really small, but it isn’t particularly light. I only say this because I picked up the aluminum-bodied Ultralight version. Granted the ultralight doesn’t have an igniter which means you have to add weight elsewhere by carrying a lighter or matches. Continue reading ‘Snow Peak Gigapower Micro Max Stove Titanium’