So many things, so little patience to actually write about any of them.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

214

Road Rhino has new struts in the front. Borrowed an impact driver, had to buy a set of metric impact sockets, but it’s done. Should be good until the mileage hits 300,000 now, since the last set lasted for 169,000.

I’m tired.

Anybody got an impact driver and sockets I can borrow? The front struts on the Road Rhino are to the point where they allow the Rhino to act like the title even on a flat straight stretch of road. It’s getting real interesting anytime I go to drive. I think Saturday was the last day TMBWitW gets to drive it until it’s fixed.

I went and borrowed the spring compression tool from O’Reilly’s and was all prepared to work on it last night until I was finished. After a second trip to the parts store to buy a 17mm box/open end (it’s guaranteed – there will be one tool that I do not have for a project, and I will not know about it until the vehicle cannot be used for transportation) I started working on disconnecting the strut. Except it didn’t happen. I nearly rounded off one 17mm bolt, and the lower main bolt just would not budge. I got the top main bolt off by using a rubber mallet judiciously applied to the 21mm wrench (that I had to purchase when I did the brakes) but the lower would not budge.

All this, of course, after I walked out Sunday morning to see the right rear flat – with a sheet metal screw sticking out of it and not enough tread for the tire shop to be able to repair the tire. So – new shoes on the back axle. Got the right front patched while I was there, though – I had been tempting fate with a bolt riding in that tire fro some time, with only a slow leak.

New struts = north of $100. New tires = north of $300. So much for the tax refund.

So – anybody got an impact wrench and sockets I can borrow?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Bushings replaced, one bearing redone, and the steering on the Road Rhino is no longer as questionable as Obama’s birthplace.

Rabbit trail time … as I was writing the title of this post, I remembered an English teacher in ninth grade, at Greenhills High School, had us keep writing journals. I have no idea where mine ended up. I do remember that on the first page, on the first line, we had to make this entry:

a______________________________________________________lot

to help us remember that they are, in fact, two separate and distinct words. I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of that teacher. She was a very good teacher, and it was my loss when the family moved from Greenhills to Palestine, Ohio, at least it appeared to be a loss at first. I had a couple of good Enlgish teachers at Tri-Village, the one I can remember is Greg Senf, who was also the drama coach. (surprise! i was in some plays in high school!) I also distinctly remember the art teacher, Dave Brown, and the science teacher, Lowell Storer. The summer after my junior year, I earned some money by painting houses with Dave Brown, and last I knew Lowell Storer was involved in a plane wreck and stopped teaching. Shame, really – he had an interesting style, and one that I was comfortable with. The summer after I graduated, I moved to Arizona. Greg Senf hitched a ride as far as Boulder, Colorado. I haven’t heard of him since. Interesting trip – I was driving my older brother’s F150, which he had left at the farm, loaded up with all kinds of stuff from the house. My two younger brothers went with me, and we ended up staying at LeaAnn and Mel’s house in Mountainaire. Dave drove down from Monterey (where he was stationed, and where I ended up for a while also) with some of his Army buddies to pick up the truck. Mom and Dad moved out, and took over the renting of the house that LeaAnn and Mel were in when Mel built a duplex just off NAU’s campus and moved into half of it. My brothers and I helped Mel that summer in his contracting business, and then on September 24th, 1980, I shipped out to boot camp in San Diego.

OK – enough remembering. It’s bedtime for this bonzo.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

So – the mechanic has the Road Rhino again, this time to see what the deal is with the lack of attention to the steering input. Not too bad, really, unless you are at highway speed and the highway curves. Then it gets a little touch-and-go, with half of your fight-or-flight center screaming like a little girl, while the other half is teeth-clenched pep-talking you through the curve.

Makes the morning commute a bit … interesting.

In other news, Japan is about to fall into the Pacific Ocean, opening a large, previously unknown underground cavern, releasing two very large and ancient enemies. Wow, that’s almost cheesy enough to be the plot of a whole series of bad sci-fi movies, isn’t it?

The new catalogs are in the mail, so there should be a slight uptick in customer traffic. Gotta love that coupon on the back cover!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!