Rat thoughts

This is "a 20% chance of snow", falling from the sky and all over the lawn.  (This was Wednesday, by Saturday most of the snow has melted, but there are still a few small patches)



Donation box seen at a local Pamida.  The viewer is left to his imagination.



An old picture of my engine.  Removing the "home plate" resonator frees up a few extra horses but leaves a gaping hole exactly the size of a regulation hockey puck.  I eventually replaced the intake elbow with one from a Camaro, which lacks the resonator hole, so I don't have a bunny under the hood anymore.



My computer tool kit.  It started life as a Belkin 65-piece tool kit acquired while I was working at Computer Renaissance.  I have since replaced almost every tool in it.  I think the only original parts left are the vacuum & attachments, the anti-static wrist strap and the sockets.  This kit contains 95% of the tools I have ever needed when working on computers.  If I could add a small multimeter, the kit would be pretty much complete.

You know that joke about what would happen if Microsoft made cars?

Plugged in the expensive brand new computer-controlled automatic-diagnostic battery charger, pressed the charge button and it immediately threw an error F02, Voltage Too Low To Accept Charge.  I went back in the house and started hunting for places that sell Optima batteries, when I discovered that it is an AGM (Absorption Glass Mat) cell, not a standard wet or gel cell like most automotive batteries.  This charger has a special mode for AGM batteries.

Feeling hopeful, I went back outside, hooked up the charger, put it in AGM mode, and pressed the charge button. 

F02

Damn.

Looks like I'll be hunting down a battery tomorrow.

I'm debating whether to stick with the Optima Red, which is a starter battery, or the Optima Yellow, which is a less powerful deep cycle battery.  Starter batteries are designed to use no more than 5% of their power; a full discharge significantly reduces it's battery life.  Deep cycle batteries are designed to be fully depleted and recharged without damage, but they produce less cranking power.  The Optima Yellow is also significantly more expensive than the Red, and it has only a 1 year warranty, the Red has 3 years.

Deep cycling a starter battery generally voids the warranty, so I doubt I'll be able to get a warranty replacement.

Damn.

Can you tell what this is and what is wrong with this picture?







Answer:  It's a closeup of my brake rotor, and those are hairline cracks across the surface.  Not a good thing.


A few weeks ago, I took my car in to get the wheels balanced and rotated.  The mechanic told me my front brake pads were looking thin and would need to be replaced soon.  I'm rather picky about the pads used on my car; I always get Raybestos Brutestop high-performance pads, since they're one of the few brake pads I've tried that didn't overheat and crack.  They're also kind of hard to find, and I had to go to 5 different auto parts shops before I could find any.

Lot of good that did me, since I couldn't find a mechanic who would install customer supplied parts.  First I tried T. O. Haas, and walked out when they said they wouldn't install them.  Then I tried Jensen, and although they wouldn't use my box of brake pads, they had that particular type in stock, so I went ahead and had them do the work.  I would have tried to find someone else, but by then my brakes were squealing pretty loudly.  I hope CarQuest will take back the pads that I'd bought.

Soon after they started work, the mechanic came in and told me the brake rotors were covered in heat fractures.  The discs had overheated so badly that the thermal expansion and contraction had started to form cracks in the surface.  Left they way they were, potentially the rotor could come apart under heavy braking.

He gave me three options:  I could go with the stock rotors, which were relatively cheap but would likely have the same problem some point in the future, I could go with a thicker rotor which could absorb more heat or  I could get a slotted rotor which would also help dissipate heat, looks sportier, but would take about a week to order.  The stock rotors were $150 each, the thick rotors were $280 each, and the slotted rotors were $320 each.

I wanted the slotted rotors, since that's what I have in the rear, but I didn't have any way of getting home and it would have taken a week to order them, so I went with the thicker rotors.  According to the mechanic, they could handle the heat better than the slotted rotors anyway.

I really didn't need this extra expense.

After much deliberation, and seeing just how fast my brokerage accounts were outpacing my money markets, I moved most of my inheritance money into the brokerage account.  I've now got about 10% in cash instead of the 50% I had before.  It's riskier, but I made as much in 6 weeks in stocks and mutual funds than my money market would make in a whole year!

I sold off most of my porn stocks on Thursday, except for Penthouse International (PTHL.PK), which I was still in the negative.  Unfortunately, my 45 day free trading period expired Friday.  I thought I was going to be stuck with the stock, but luckily, it shot up to $0.0065 a share Monday, so I was able to unload all 16,000 shares, pay the commission and still make a (small) profit!  Whoot!

While driving into Omaha on Saturday, Animale's car started overheating really bad.  We pulled off the road and checked under the hood.  Coolant had started spraying from under the radiator cap and I could see steam coming from a couple spots on the front.  Fortunately we were only a mile or so from a Chevy dealer, so we were able to limp in.  We had to stop twice more on the way because the engine kept heating up so quickly.  Apparently the radiator was both clogged and leaking.  That's another $500 expense we weren't ready for.  I had been worried about living out in the boonies and the fact that taxi service would probably be insanely expensive, but I learned there was a local cab company and it only cost about $30 (with tip) to go 15 miles.  I paid $25 to go 3 miles in San Diego!

We saw Spiderman 3 on Saturday.  Ho-hum.  I think Stan Lee's mind is no longer in mint condition.

Huge storms on Saturday, but for some strange reason, they all passed right to the east and west of us.  There were tornadoes reported in Glenwood, IA, a few miles away on the other side of the Missouri.  There were also a lot of flooded rivers, including the Platte.  Here, we got a lot of rain, and one VERY close lightning strike (when the flash and the sound occur at the same time, it's hit less than 100 yards away), but no apparent damage.

Our ISP wasn't so lucky.  Lightning hit the tower housing their wireless transmitter, knocking them offline for a good while.  Service wasn't restored fully until this afternoon.

I've been running a fever since at least Thursday.  It got up to 100.8ºF (38.2ºC) Sunday night.  I'm not sure what the problem is, I don't really feel ill, other than a headache and a bit of fatigue.  I was coughing a bit last night, but I haven't today.  I've increased my intake of Vitamin C and garlic and started taking myrrh (nasty tasting stuff!), hoping to beat down whatever infection I might have.  I still need to rebuild my herbal medicine chest, just for these kind of situations.

On my way home this afternoon, I took a bump a bit too fast and bottomed out the car.  Next thing I knew, my brakes were almost gone.  The brake idiot light is on, and the pedal goes almost to the floor, though if I press hard enough, the brakes will slowly come on.  Certainly not anything I'd trust for driving around town, but on the rural roads around here, it was enough to get me home.

I'm not sure what the problem is.  I don't really have any place to work on my car here.   The driveway is gravel and the garage has a dirt floor, not exactly the most fun place to jack up a car and go crawling underneath.  What I could see of the calipers through the wheels looks OK, but I can't really tell without taking the wheels off.

I'm hoping it's something simple like a blown brake line.  The loss of pressure would explain why the brakes still function at a reduced capacity.

Tomorrow I'll call for a tow truck (AAA call #2 for the year) and get it towed into a shop in Omaha.  If it is the brake line, I'm going to have them install braided steel lines.  They're more expensive, but they're tougher and allow for higher fluid pressures, which makes for firmer braking. While I'm at it, I'll see if they can install a longer parking brake cable, the existing one is way too short.

I really didn't need this expense right now.

Yesterday I called AAA to get some assistance in getting my SO's car out of the ditch.  They said a tow truck from Cass Towing would arrive some time before 8 am the next morning, so I took our friend with the pickup truck to Outback Steakhouse to thank him for his help.  Halfway through our meal, I get a call that the tow truck is on its way and will arrive on scene in 10 minutes.  We were about 30 minutes away, so we rush through our meal and just as we get on the road, I get a call that they don't want to drive on that road because they were afraid of getting stuck.  We drove along the road the truck would have taken

So that night, I call AAA again and schedule a new service attempt, which they estimate sometime before noon the next day.  My SO borrowed a ride to work and stopped by the car to hide the ignition key inside, in case the tow driver needed it and I wasn't available (the car is stuck about 3 miles away, too far to walk, and the driveway is too slippery here for a 2 wheel drive car).  That was about 9:30-10:00.

1 pm rolls by and I haven't gotten a call yet, so I call AAA again to find out what's going on and I am informed that the tow driver couldn't find the car and they couldn't reach me by phone.  I know cellphone service sucks out here, but they didn't leave a message on my voice mail, so I was a bit suspicious.

I had AAA schedule yet another service attempt, which they estimated some time before 7 pm.  I got a call around 4 that the driver was in the area and couldn't find the vehicle and that maybe the Sheriff had towed it away.

I called the Sheriff's office, and they didn't have a car matching this description.  So either the car was stolen by someone with a wrecker in the hour or two between Animale leaving for work and the first time the tow truck got there, or the driver is a moron.

I'm leaning towards the latter.

My SO is going to pass through the area tonight and check to see if the car is there.  EDIT:  The car is still there.  I don't know how anyone could possibly miss it, you can see it from a half mile away!

When I was forced to abandon my car this afternoon, the snow in the driveway was so thick I could barely walk through it, let alone drive.

Just about sundown, I see my SO's car come down the driveway and pull into the garage.  I noticed the temperature had climbed to nearly 40ºF, but I couldn't believe that much snow could have melted that quickly.  He offered to help me get my car free, so we hiked down the driveway.

My car was buried even further in the snow, but the areas to the sides were clear.  It took me a few moments to realize what was going on.  Apparently a neighbor had come through and plowed paths around either side of my car.  Too bad they didn't do that before I got stuck.

My SO tried sitting in the trunk for extra traction, but one of the wheels couldn't get a grip in the snow, so that didn't help.  He tried digging out the car with a shovel I keep in the trunk, but that didn't help any either.  (And he didn't put the shovel back, he tossed it in the driveway where it's now buried somewhere.  I'll have to walk down there tomorrow and try to find it.)

He ended up borrowing a friend's truck again and we towed my car out.  Once free of the snow bank, I was able to drive back to the house with no problems.

Damn, I've got to replace my differential.  If I had Positraction, it would be so much easier to get unstuck, since it would focus the engine's power on the wheel with traction, instead of on the loose wheel like a regular differential.

A few hours ago, I noticed it was snowing lightly.  The wind has shifted back to the north-west, so hopefully it won't block the driveway again.  The forecast calls for temps in the 40's in the next few days.  Hopefully winter is over now.

Not my car, this time it was my SO's car that got stuck in the driveway trying to come home last night.  While helping him out this morning (again with the help of a friend with a 4x4 truck), I discovered why he got stuck and why I nearly got stuck there last time.

Apparently the driveway dips slightly at that point and the snow drifts up really bad there.  It was over a foot deep, no wonder it was impassable.  Even the pickup with 4-wheel drive nearly got trapped.

With my SO riding in the trunk for extra traction, it took the power of both vehicles to get dislodged.  I backed his car down the driveway to the road, which was mostly snow-free.  He left for work and I walked back to the house.  Along the way back, I noticed that the driveway was level with the alfalfa field to the right.  I suddenly realized that this was very, very wrong; the field is about 3 feet lower than the driveway and there is a very sharp drop-off.  The snow had drifted about 3 feet deep along that edge, which was now only recognizable by the grasses barely sticking above the surface.  If I'd wandered just a half foot further, I'd have sunk to my waist in snow.

It was -5ºF (-20.6ºC) when I headed out this morning, and the wind chill was around -20ºF (-28.9ºC).  My face still feels numb.

Discovered today that the tires on my car, BF Goodrich g-Force KDWS, which are totally fantastic on dry pavement, utterly suck when it comes to snow.  I didn't get more than 50 yards down the driveway before I got stuck.  I tried everything I could but I just couldn't make any more forward progress.  I finally gave up, as it was another 300 yards or so to the road and there was no way I was going to make it that far.

So I tried working on getting the car to back up, which actually wasn't too bad, except I noticed that I was drifting off the driveway.  I started turning the wheel over to try to line up with my parking spot beside one of the outbuildings, but it didn't do any good, I kept drifting sideways.  Eventually I got stuck again, this time for good.   I couldn't get anywhere forwards or backwards and my tires were starting to dig into the mud under the snow, so I just gave up, leaving my car in the middle of the lawn.

It's not a clearance issue; the lowest point on the car is the front air dam, and there's a good inch or so clearance from the snow so I'm not getting hung up on anything.  The tires just don't have enough traction. 

Looks like I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.  Fortunately the forecast for the next week appears to be free of any more snow, and with temperatures creeping above freezing, hopefully the snow will melt enough for me to extricate myself.  I suppose if worse comes to worse, I can call AAA for help.

The novelty of winter is beginning to wear thin.  If I'm going to stay here for another year, I'm going to have to upgrade my differential to Positraction.  If I had that, I probably wouldn't have gotten stuck.  Another set of wheels with snow tires would be helpful too.