I rotated the tires on the Charger today.

Odometer: 14,839

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

The current odometer readings are:

2006 Charger R/T: 11,497

Last years reading was 5,784. Total mileage for 2007: 5,713 miles.

1995 Miata: 105,037

Last years reading was 100,774. Total mileage for 2007: 4,263 miles.

1925 Chevrolet Truck: 17879

I don't recall logging the odometer reading on this one in the past year but I am pretty sure the odometer hasn't moved. At all. Because it doesn't work. My swag for actual mileage for the truck in 2007 would be somewhere between 100 and 200 miles.

1972 GMC: 30520 or 03526

Like the 1925, the odometer(s) for the GMC have not moved. Not because they are broken but because the truck is (still) disassembled. Why two odometer readings? I bought a spare at the junk yard two years ago. I actually bought the second for its plastic bezel. The odometer was a (free) bonus. Today I learned that my odometer is apparently not the original for the truck. It is from a '69. The spare is from a '67. (Date codes are inked on the back side)

2002 Tahoe: 83,479

Again, I did not record a value at the beginning of 2007. I also put a few miles on this one driving it to various vacation destinations.

881

A couple of weeks ago our digital camera called it quits. I was tasked with selection a new one. This turned into another obsession for me. Originally I planned to petition the finance committee for a digital SLR. I have wanted a Canon Rebel XT for a while. After thinking about it thought, I decided that it would not be very practical, what I actually needed was a sub-compact - something that would fit in my pocket. This was also the only requirement provided by the other member of the Obsession A/V club.

I consults with several friends who had recently purchased cameras, Consumer Reports, CNET, and the reviews on Amazon. I made trips to Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy to investigate the cameras in person. I made a spreadsheet and listed several features I felt were important, maximum cost, minimum resolution, maximum size, power up up time, etc. After about a week of investigating I had it narrowed down to one. And then back up to three, and then back down to one again. And then it was time to scour the net for a good price.

Today I placed the order. The new camera should be here in plenty of time for Turkey day.

The Charger had its oil changed yesterday. 10500 Miles

I could certainly get use to four day weekends. Today's plans is nothing. Now let me catch you up on the last few days.

I started Friday by rotating the tires on the Charger (7500 miles). I had to replace a few lugs on the front tire. They were deformed and I couldn't get the proper size wrench on them. This was the first tire rotation for the car, but I have had two flats already. My theory on the lugs is that someone had applied the wrong size socket to those lugs using an air gun. Gotta love that.

A simple tire rotation ended up taking almost two hours. That included a parts run for lugs.

Once that was complete, I met G', Bri, and David M. for lunch before heading back home to start work on changing the Miata's timing belt. David parked his Miata nose to nose with mine and we got to work. His car is a 92 with the 1.6L; mine is a 95 with the 1.8L. At first glance they are very similar but as things progress one really starts to notice the differences: Air box, thermostat housing, alternator brackets.

After a few hours I had to call it quits for the day. I estimated we were 30% done, David thought we were closer to 50%. At this point I had drained and removed, the radiator, removed the dual electric fans, the valve cover, the three plates covering the timing belt.

Next up for the day was helping Beth lock up her new house. She needed all the locks changed. First we went to the house to inventory what we needed. Next we dropped David off at his house. He was at our mercy for a lift since he no longer has a functional Miata. Step three involved finding a set of door knobs and dead bolts that matched the others in the house. We managed to find three out of four sets with matching keys. The key dude had already left for the day so she would need to make a return trip to get the remaining set to match the first three. This expedition ended with me be dropped off at home so that Beth could go pick up her son. Yes, his name is David also.

After grabbing a couple of tools, G' and I headed over to Beth's new house. The goal for today was not to replace all the locks, but simply to replace all the dead bolts. This would be good enough for now, because Ginger and I had other plans, we were going out to dinner at Bone Fish Grill.

Saturday morning David and I planned to start working on the Miatas at 7:30 AM. At about 6:30 AM I was in the getting a head start. I called him a few minutes later to ask if he had a socket. I don't recall if it was a 20 or 21 MM socket, but I didn't have it nor did he.

Yes I called David at 6:30 AM. He is an early bird and there was no risk of waking him up. He was sitting on has back porch drinking coffee.

David hit HD, Lowes, and two parts stores before he found the socket we needed. Fortunately it was only $6.

The socket was required to remove the crankshaft bolt. Having the right tool sure makes the job easier. At this point I could described a misadventure involving removing the timing belt and chipping the timing belt sprocket but no good could come from that so I will omit it.

At 9:15 AM we closed up shop again. I was heading for Decatur for a car show and David had to take care of some stuff he had been volunteered to do. The plan was to open the shop back up at 1 or 2.

The car show was nice though a little warm. My neighbor Brian went with me. While a the car show I saw Ginger's Aunt and Uncle. I saw a 1966 VW Beetle that wanted to follow me home, but I had to leave it there.

By noon I was beat. And about that same time David phoned in to say he had been volunteered for even more stuff and would be able to return until 1 on Sunday. Good for me. I think I took a nap. Then I watched some F1 and re-read the instructions for changing the timing belt. And finally I made a trip to the parts store. I knew going in that I probably wouldn't be able to get the sprocket until Tuesday. Unfortunately it was worse than that. They couldn't get it, so now I have to wait until Tuesday and try the Miata dealership.

Sunday AM started early. Beth had dropped off the other lock on Saturday morning. I skipped Church to finish up lock smithing and then returned home to assembled a basket ball goal we got Jordan for his Birthday.

At one I re-opened the Garage. At two David showed up with reinforcements (Bryant). On a Miata the power steering pump has to be removed to swap out the water pump. On a 95 Miata, the alternator must also be disconnected.

My plan for today was to show David how difficult it was going to be to replace the water pump. I would eventually convince him it was not necessary and once he had had made this decision, I would then try to convince him how important it was to change the water pump. Mind games. Ha!

The water pump swap went smoothly. At this point there were a few things I could put back together but basically I am stuck until I get the sprocket. Best case for that is Tuesday.

David has a hose he needs to replace. The parts store was no help on this one either. He needs the OEM part also.

It is looking like neither car will be running again before next weekend.

Today's plan was to do nothing. Ginger thinks the broken sprinkler needs to be fixed. These two plans don't coexist very well. I guess I will look at the sprinkler in hopes of switching back to my plan ASAP.

Posts have been somewhat scarce around here lately. I would blame it on work, but work is not the direct cause, it is merely an indirect cause.

The increased amount of work time recently has decreased my extra-curricular activities.

No truck time means no posts about the GMC.

No cruising time, no rambling about the Miata.

No call from the pottery supply store, means no write up about back yard metal casting.

Tomorrow is looking like 70 and a mere 20 percent chance of rain.

Perhaps tomorrow I will write about an oil change for the Miata, or a test drive in a beamer convertible. And the Charger still needs to have the tires rotated.

Four days and counting, No diet drinks. This afternoon I tried a cup of hot peach flavored green tea. How is that for different?

Some how I overlooked this one so I will mention it now. I have now had the Charger 1 year, 1 week, and four days.

After a year of driving it, I would say I like it as much or more as I did when I first got it.

The odometer is currently just over 7000 miles.

I have had the Miata for 3 years, and 4 days shy of a month.

I would tell you how long I have had the GMC pickup but Ginger says it does not count as a vehicle simply because it is undriveable. Perhaps I should count the number of truck pieces I have instead.

GMC Update: Last Wednesday I receive a rebuild kit for the rear differential. Hopefully I can get those parts out of the bucket soon.

Front Cross Member (Unpainted)

This is what all the fuss was about. I remembered to snap a shot after the blasting was done. It took about 2 months to get around to this. Weather was the big holdup. Hopefully as spring rolls in, progress will resume.



Eye Spy Bonus: Locate the Miata, the Charger, a wheel barrow, and a bale of straw.

Bombs Away

I went by Express Oil to have the oil and filter changed in the Charger today. Total miles on the clock: 6171. They even cleaned the bird droppings off the windshield. Nice.

It seems this car is a bird magnet. It has already been targeted more times than the Dodge pickup was in the 8 years I had it.

Birds prefer reds.

A Week Of Wednesdays

A suspect you are waiting for a recap of the wild evening Jordan and I had last night. There is no such story to tell. It followed the usual script only a few of the cast members were missing. After picking him up, we headed to the homestead, completed his homework, played Nintendo, had dinner, played some more, and then off to bed. We did go out for dinner, but at one point that was in jeopardy. Jordan was concerned it would use up to much play time. After he got most of his mandatory playing done, he recanted and decided dinner out was a good idea, after all he was picking the destination. We headed out to O'Charley's. About halfway there he changed his mind and decided Casa Blanco would be muy bueno. [I did not attempt to influence his decision in any way whatsoever. Honest.]

Odometer Update

The Charger's odometer hit 5900 miles as I returned to work after lunch. It was 5905 when I arrived back home this afternoon.. We now know how far I drive to work. I take the long route too. [According to the blog, I got this car April 4, 2006, and it already had 450 miles on the clock.] Note to self: It's almost time for an oil change.

"Oh where, oh where, oh where, not there, oh where. My little hair brush!"

Not sure why that one popped back into my head.

Off to school...