Hungry Like Squirrel

Phones back. Needed a new line run from the pole to the house. According to the repair guy, squirrels had eaten into the line!

Went out shopping tonight and bought some stuff for tomorrow’s brake procedure. New high temp grease for the sliders and pad shim connections. Brake Cleaner in a can for cleaning up any crud that is on these surfaces before re-greasing. Some brake fluid and a one-man bleeding kit for the possible fluid change out. There will be grease under my fingernails all week.

Purchased Today: $19.93 in stuff
Money spent since 03/03/03: $255.66
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 104

Did you miss me?

I missed you. Since sometime Wednesday afternoon my home phone has been dead or severely wounded, thereby severing my ties with the digital outside world. Called for help on Wednesday evening and bellsouth promised a visit on Thursday by 6:00 PM. Thursday AM we had a dial tone on the phone, but no DSL line sync. Called the service center and called off the technician, figuring I could troubleshoot the DSL when I got home. Sometime at mid-day Thursday the dial went away again. My mother-in law called in for help and they said we can’t guarantee a visit today because you called after 12 noon. True to their word, no one came. As of noon today still no one has arrived to fix the phone. We now have a dial tone and so much crackling that a conversation is impossible. I am blogging from work where I have Internet access. I can even check my email on the web, but don’t want to spend too much time online as around here that is a firing offense.

Purchased Last Couple Days: $zero
Money spent since 03/03/03: $235.73
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 104

Baby Needs New Shoes

The cockpit cover saved my bacon this morning. The Weather Channel had no mention of rain for today so the top was down and the cover on when at around 9:30 there came a 15 minute downpour out of nowhere. At our normal walk around the parking lot at 10:00 PM we peeked underneath the cover into the cockpit and there were a few moist spots, but nothing like there could have been.

This morning when we left for work there was a light scraping noise coming from the right front of the car. It sounded like the squealers warning of low brake pad thickness. It was there when we left work to come home too, but both times at the end of the commute it was gone. When I got home I jacked up the right side of the car and checked the pad thickness front and back. Both were nowhere near the worn out indicators. MMM, next diagnosis is a sticky caliper. With any luck it is just a sticky slider pin. This weekend I’ll pull them apart and re-lube the particulars and see what happens. I had to remove the tires to get a good look and I realize that they are getting down close to the wear bars. Only put these on last February about 19,000 miles ago. I think I am going to step back one notch in performance this time, maybe go back to getting 25K from a set. The current Bridgestone S-03 Pole Positions are awesome tires, but I don’t really drive enough at that level to warrant them.

Purchased Today: $13.25 in gas
Money spent since 03/03/03: $235.73
Started up, went down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 104

So Cruel

I am not a morning person. I hate getting out of bed, I am always the last one out in our duo. Early on in our marriage we agreed that the last one out of bed in the morning had to make it. No problem it is a small price for me to pay for those 15 minutes of extra horizontal time. I then eat breakfast and use the time as my wife dresses to make the bed. The only problem comes when I fluff the pillows up to artfully display them against the headboard – sometimes they still feel warm, DAMN I wanna just curl back up in there. That is so cruel.

Completed The Batmobile

Completed the triathlon on this 3-day weekend, I went for a 20 mile bike ride on Friday, a 6 mile hike in the woods Saturday and a 4 mile rollerblade skate today. Also completed the Batmobile this morning. Want to take some pictures, but it has been raining all afternoon. Wanted to use the natural outside light as I’m sure the dig-cam’s flash will not capture the model well.

Purchased Today: Nothing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $222.48
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 103

Pencil And Paper

Went for a nice drive this morning to go hiking in the Sumter National Forrest on a trail we used to mountain bike on back in the day. We haven’t done the drive in a while and it seemed pleasant, but to be truthful the drive is part of the reason we gave up the mountain biking. The trail we went to today was about 45 minutes from home and is the closest place to drive to for single track riding. The other “local” trails are around 15 more minutes away. The experience went something like this: 10 minutes to load the bikes, 60 minutes to drive to the trail head, 10 minutes to unload the bikes, 60 minutes of riding, 10 minutes to load the bikes, 60 minutes to drive home and 10 more minutes to unload the bikes. It got tiresome. Now with hiking: you drive 60 minutes, walk 140 minutes and drive 60 back. Still work up a good sweat in the woods with a lot less hassle, it only takes a minute to fill the Camel Backs and shrug them on.

Batmobile is 88% complete. The only thing let is to assemble the desk and the items on it and then screw the interior to the body and then the chassis to the body/interior. That’s right, desk, back before the Bat Computer the Caped Crusader used pencil and paper to catch evil villains. Come back tomorrow for a picture.

Purchased Today: Zippo
Money spent since 03/03/03: $222.48
Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 102

Netflix II

Well, guess what showed up in my mailbox today? That’s right, Norah Jones: Live in New Orleans. Now comes the moral dilemma, should I just keep it? Netflix thinks I’ve already returned it. The downside is there is probably some schmoe out there who returned his copy, but Netflix will think he didn’t. I’ll probably just return it, if I do like it I’ll just buy it, it’s only $11.24 at Amazon which is a dollar and four pennies less than her album, Come Away With Me sells for there.