This was quite unnerving to awaken to. No sensation. No vision-related issues. No prior trauma that would have caused it. Capillary just decided to break. Dropped by the Doc’s office, and he said it was OK and that the color would go away in a week or two. In the meantime I look like some anime vampire…
Find these. Eat these. Really. Maybe Wholesale Unlimited, Marukai, or Don Quixote. They’re green, but not “wasabi” flavored – they are sort-of like iso-peanuts but with a pistachio inside. Yes, Velcro, they’re shelled first. A buyer at an account gave some to me this morning.
Spun by Checker and bought a foot of 5/8″ Good Year heater hose yesterday. The leaky section was inaccessible from the engine compartment, and blocked from below by the front axle, lateral link, and steering telegraph rod. I managed to squeeze my arm between the axle and lateral link to get a 10mm ratcheting box wrench on the Toyota hose clamps and undo them. I knew very well that whem I popped the old hose off, the remaining coolant would spill on me, and as predicted, it went in my eyes, nose, and mouth. Continue reading ‘Hose’
On the way home from the Ditch ride with Chris and Root, my temperature gauge went up toward the “red” zone. At home, the reservoir hose was bubbling furiously into the tank. I let it cool overnight then checked around. There was a small puddle under the front axle. Orange coolant was dripping from somewhere mid-block.  Oh no! Head gasket!  The coolant was clear and the oil was not milky. Whew. A careful examination revealed a leak from a small hose section between the block-mounted oil cooler and the coolant pipe from the water pump (Land Cruisers have integrated oil-to-water oil coolers, not those sissy add-on mini radiators).Â
Hopefully I can get it fixed today. I dropped by Toyota Parts and Clyde got a new thermostat and associated gaskets rolling – I figure I’d just as well change those since the last time I had an overheating problem it was that component. It was not readily apparent if the thermo was dead and the overheating blew the hose, or the leaky hose dropped the coolant level to the point where the truck overheated. The FJ80 is 17-years old, so the current thermo is about 10-years old. I’ll spin by the generic car parts store and get some hose – the bad section is just straight, so I don’t need a proprietary Toyota part.
Oh, and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
This past Friday, I rode the rooty climb up the hill up from the District park side. The trail was clear but a little indistinct at the bottom because of the fast-growing wedelia covering the line. The uphill was as heinous as I remembered it being. Along the way, there were two new chicken families, with mother hens and tiny egg-sized chicks. They had no fear of humans, as they waited until I was almost running over them to go cackling and peeping into the underbrush. Continue reading ‘Hyoko Ride’
Finally made it to a Honolulu Festival, having missed quite a few past cultural events. I like going to the Convention Center venue, hate to admit it, because it’s air conditioned. And something different this year was the inclusion of a performance by Haruko Momoi, a popular anime voice actress. She had along a good sized group of her fanclub too. It was entertaining, and I mean that in a good way, not a cynical way. A tiny peek into otaku-dom, got a taste of the energy and enthusiasm without being swamped by massive crowds of a true hardcore event. 
And her performance was good, I honestly have to say she sang better than a lot of other big name J-Pop acts I’ve seen televised live. I do wonder what kind of toll this takes on her voice, unless it really is how she talks.
Having arrived late on Sunday and not seeing any of Saturday, I missed a lot of the performers, but still got to see a lot of vibrant performances. Go to see an aboriginal Taiwan group, interestingly it had a very native american Indian feel. And I hoofed it on over to Waikiki to catch the Grand Parade. It seems I kind of choose my position poorly. If I were being hardcore photog I would have roamed the street, but I wasn’t feeling that. I just parked in one spot and dealt with it. Didn’t even move when the finale Daijayama dragon rained sparks chasing everyone around me away. Anyway, I’ll get pics processed and posted sometime, I’m pretty pooped.
Talking bike with Chris all afternoon inspired me to get out and take a spin yesterday.  Scat and Root were going to hit the jumps, but I didn’t get the email about that until after noon yesterday, so I didn’t have my ridy kit with me. The sun was still high when I got home, but it was overcast and a little windy out. The Moment was as it was after the last ride. The shifting was fine and the suspension felt nice… the back brake felt a little pumped-up though – I’ll have to check that out later. I did my normal loop, but from the top of WCC, I saw that the State or C & C workers had cleared away a lot of brush, African Tulip trees, and invasive Albizia trees on the hill behind the District park pool. Root and I explored this hill many years ago and found several well-used trails. In recent years, the hill had become overgrown, thus attracting wild chickens and druggies, so I hadn’t ridden there in a while. The brush clearing has made it at least unattractive to the crack-heads and paint-sniffers, so I took a spin up the steep, chicken-infested hill to check things out. The trails were still there, but there was a lot of trash scattered about. I might have to add that back into my neighborhood rides – the rooty melaleuca climb, the scenic hilltop, the moonscape chicken drop-in. I went back to WCC and did a couple more laps before heading home.
D = 11.88 km (7.38-miles), Vavr = 16.7 km/h (10.4 mph), Vmax = 36.6 km/h (22.7 mph), T = 42-minutes
Just a little mini after work jump session at the Koko Head dirt jumps. Got stuck at work for a bit so a little late by the time I got there. Beautiful weather, a bit more wind, dirt seemed more dry and taking a bit of a beating. 
Jay was feeling a bit worn out from the day at work and wasn’t hitting it the same as last week. Didn’t help that he creamed the boys just before I got there. 
Some annoying munchkins came running through the jumps and couldn’t get the subtle hints of “Hey, come over here!” and kept running around the trails. Kinda interesting how some mild anger seems to make the jumping better. I hit the jumps the best I have so far. Also feeling a little more familiar with the jumps. Not a bad after work quickie. 
Sheesh. Taking a dinner break here. Getting case of vibro arms.
So here’s a tip for all you car monkeys, when you sit around grinding and cutting metal bits, try to keep away from your car, or rather your car paint. I have just spent all day buffing and picking out rusty metal filings from the paint of my car. I’m pretty sure it’s from when I was cutting those vacuum pipes a few weeks ago and I didn’t realize it was getting all over the car. After getting the nice pretty wheels on yesterday and waking up early on a Sunday (how’d that happen? Let’s just say wine has an effect of putting me to sleep & had some with dinner last night), I decided to wash the car. That’s when I discovered the tiny little rusty specks sticking all over. Ugh. Thank budha that I have the power buffer, there is absolutely no way I could have done as much in this one day without it, and I would seriously have had jelly arms. Sorry Miyagi-san, I fail, turn-on, turn-off.
Okay, time to go back outside for the final buff on the hood, then sealant the finish.
So Saturday I start on installing the rest of the wheel studs. Having gotten da theorems down, the other rear wheel is done quickly. Scat called as I was starting to work on the front. I guess he was inspired by our midweek jump session and he asked about the weather at my house. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and it’s brutally sunny. I’m sure it would be a great day to hang at the beach and watch all the beach bunnies out on this March Hawaiian day, but it’ll be roasting out at the dirt jumps. 
So instead he shows up in the Sled with Chuck. They went by the body shop to start up Chucky’s Camaro, which is finally almost done with body & paint. Long story, best you ask Chuck about it if you want to know the whole story. By this time I was already done with one of the fronts, so there was only one wheel left to do, not much they could help with there. Continue reading ‘Paint Pounders’