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Friday, September 11, 2009

ARE WE THERE YET?

I realized last week that all I had to do was ride three days and I'd reach my bike mileage goal for the year.

After two days in the books on a holiday week, progress screeched into slow motion.

We all got colds. DaBoy was up most of Wednesday night. I went to the dentist at 6:30am. I just couldn't justify a bike ride so I took the truck on Thursday.

Tired and sick Friday morning I took the bus into work but rode the bike home.

I'm within 9 miles of the goal but won't get there until Monday.

Setting silly goals sucks!

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Mass Transit and Biking

As I've mentioned before I can get to work in a couple of ways; by bike, by car, or by bike/bus/bike (some call this intermodal, I like b/b/b better!). The only problem is that the bus only runs during the school year. Since it is primarily shuttling people between colleges and the busses are driven by college students, I can't fault them for shutting down my route during the summer.

My route and the bus route are identical sans the zig zaging through campuses the bus does. When I rode the bus last fall and spring I had the bus routine down pretty well and could easily ride a ways and meet a bus at a stop of my choosing. If I were tired, or it was dark, or even if the weather was getting bad I knew the stop times well enough that I could pick a spot and catch a bus.

Today was a bit different. Due to a nagging head cold, I took the bus in the morning but left work late and couldn't remember the later times for the bus ride home (plus I lost my copy of the schedule). I didn't see the bus at the "mall" stop and figured it was in front of me already. Not quite. It flew past me just before the small town green and I saw it do a quick stop (like a quick step in dancing only with a bus) at that stop and tear off down the road. When it stopped at the church I passed it as it was trying to get back into traffic.

By this point I was feeling good and figured I could get to the 3rd college on the route and then decide if I wanted to ride it. How you ask? The bus is supposed to stop at the 3rd college and wait for transfers from another bus and let time pass to get back on schedule. The route time between the 2nd and 3rd stops is padded to allow for the traffic back ups that occur at that time of day. Those same back ups allow me to shoot ahead of the bus and get to the 3rd college just as the bus is getting there. Usually.

The bus flew past me, literally, just before the 3rd campus. Now I'm thinking "I don't want this bus passing me as I climb the notch, it's to much of a speed demon. I'll catch it at Atkins since he's probably going to quick stop the in-campus stops, blow off the wait time, and take a long break at the 4th college"

So I waited at Atkins...for 10 minutes...no bus. "Damn he must have shot though campus and beaten me here. There's no traffic and it could take the left turns with ease." I was getting cold and decided to ride up the notch anyway.

DOH! Guess who passed me halfway up the hill? Creeping slowly past as if to haunt my impatience.

I guess I need to learn my schedules again.
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Thursday, September 10, 2009

How is one supposed to react....

....when one sees 700 hours of their labor floating through the Swiss Alps attached to a whirlybird by a shoe string?


A host of questions sprang to mind:
  • Did it fall?
  • Did they break it?
  • I thought they wanted a towable system. Did they really want a flight system?
  • What is that thing hanging behind it?
  • Why is the mountain terraced like that?
  • How did they terrace the mountain like that?
It got to it's mountain top hideaway safely. (*snaps fingers* aw shucks)

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Friday night (day 0 - 21Aug09):
We had dinner out while Aunty K and Memere watched the kids. Then a little trip to B&N for book research on what we were going to do this week.

Saturday (day 1):
I insulated and dry walled the new windows in the entryway while DaMom fretted over her car dying that morning when she tried to go to the Y.


Sunday (day 2):
I removed the starter from DaMoms car in the morning and then went to a pond in Springfield with her "Supper Club" friends and families. Afterward I put the new starter in her car while they went to have dinner at Memere and Peperes' house.

Monday (day 3):
Got up early to walk the kids and the dog while DaMom slept in a little. We loaded the bikes and kid trailer into the truck and went to a parking lot just over the Coolidge bridge and rode the bikes from there to Look park.


The kids played on a playscape, ate snacks, and played some more. Then we went to the snack bar and had some ice cream. The kids played on a different playscape and finally we road back to the car and truck with two overtired kids screaming. When we got home we ushered sleeping kids to bed while I did some more work on the windows (sanding and more joint compound), then started cutting trim.
If all that wasn't enough we went to the car show at Atkins that night.

Tuesday (day 4):
I went to the dentist, got a haircut, drove to W. SPFLD for the dogs meds, ate lunch out, went to the Beechgrounds splash park, and worked on the window some more.

Wednesday (day 5):
We packed the car and headed to the beach. Rocky Neck beach in CT. DaGirl was so excited to be going to the beach she didn't sleep...at all. She was up from 7am until 9pm with only a brief 1/2 hour nap at 4. They loved getting battered by the waves and playing in the sand. We went for a walk down a nearby boardwalk then had dinner at a fish house.

Thursday (day 6):
Stayed close to home Took Memere and Pepere out for pizza, and after putting the kids to bed I went to over to Canoez for a primer course in his latest boatbuilding foray. I'm intrigued but not yet sold on it, the design appears to be a bit tight. I'm sure it will be fast as hell, but I need the SUV, not the Sports car these days.

Friday (day 7):
Painted the entryway and primed one wall in the living room while the kids were asleep. After they woke up we went to the Cummington Fair, DaGirl had her first pony ride, ate fair food, watched the magic show , got wet when the skies opened up, and watched the Demolition derby on the side of the hill. That was the highlight of the night for DaGirl, sitting on daddy's shoulders, watching cars bounce into each other laughing and clapping.

Saturday (day 8):
Played with the kids until naptime, painted the primed wall in the living room then primed the remainder, took the kids out for cookies then to Memere and Pepere's for the evening, while we went home and finished painting and installed trim in the entryway. DaMom and I went out for dessert and came home (~10pm) to sleeping children and chatty grandparents (they finally left at 11:15).

Sunday (day 9):
DaMom woke up crabby since DaGirl has been climbing into bed with us between 2 and 5 looking for cuddles and DaBoy NEVER sleeps past 7, ever. We took the kids and dog for a walk around the pond and put them down for naps. when that got up DaMom was still snippy with them so I put her on the lawnmower (her first time on the WheelHorse) and put her to the lawn that really needed to be hayed (4 weeks of growth. eeeww).

And that's the readers digest version of how I spent my summer vacation.
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Classic Bad Design

As an engineer I have to think ahead of my designs. Things like adding components when the original design doesn't work and servicing the finished product when it breaks are a pair of my biggest concerns. Apparently these considerations are not in the forefront of automobile designers minds.

When the starter quit in DaMom's car last week I discovered just how poorly the designers regard any technician or shade tree mechanic. It's not that I didn't know this before but It's job that should take 15 minutes to do, including collecting and storing the necessary tools.

Any manual I could find inferred the starter was to be removed from under the car. Here is the underside view:That black cylinder behind the S-bending pipe is the starter. Just move the pipe out of the way right? Wrong! It's an air conditioning line that only flexes so far. Why it has to make those bends right here is beyond me as the pipes seem to double back toward the other side of the car.

So how can the starter come out?
Through the top of course:

What? Can't you see it in there? It's under all that wiring with no service loop, the cable protector, and the battery box.

So here's what had to be removed to get this gem out:
  • The battery cover
  • The positive voltage distribution board (it sits on top of the battery)
  • The battery
  • The battery tray
  • The little nut that shall not be seen which holds the stupid plastic cable protector in place
  • Push the much to tight wiring out of the way
  • and finally remove the starter bolts
So the next time you cringe when you have to pay that "expensive" bill to your mechanic, think of all the crap he had to get though just to get to the problem because the designer/manufacturer did not plan for the replacement of parts that fail.

It makes my truck look really nice and simple to work on....not to mention my bikes.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Paddling the Mighty Manhan

Tuesday night Canoez and I went out with an old friend for a paddle along the "mighty" Manhan River. He has a much better write up about it than I can produce, so here's a couple of pictures to remember a wonderful evening.

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