WTF

Mr. Meniere Makes A Visit

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30. I was lying on my side facing the alarm clock and when I opened my eyes the image I saw spun quickly up and repeated and repeated and repeated…so I blinked a couple times, but it wouldn’t stop. I closed my eyes and decided that maybe if I rolled onto my back that would help. Trouble came about when I started to roll over I opened my eyes! I can only equate the visuals to what I imagine is a portion of a potent LSD trip. Once on my back the ceiling fan was scanning across my vision rapidly from left to right.

I closed my eyes and lay there for a few minutes contemplating. I knew what it was, it was the one symptom of Meniere’s Disease that I hadn’t suffered from back in September — vertigo. With experimentation I found that I could make it stop by jamming my eyeballs all the way to the right (direction everything was spinning.) I then woke Donna and told her what was happening. She wanted to know what we should do and I told her the first thing was I needed to go to the bathroom. Using a combination of eyes closed, eyes opened hard to the right and her supporting me, mission accomplished.

It was still early, so I suggested let’s go back to bed and see where we are when we next wake up. I woke up again at 7:30 and I was lying on my side facing the alarm clock. When I opened my eyes the image was perfectly still. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, normal. I closed them for a minute or so and opened back up to the return of ordinary. There hasn’t been a return of the dizziness since.

I’ve given up caffeine as the doctor suggested, so was it the small coffee in the morning and the 20oz. Dr. Pepper in the evening on Saturday? Was it the 300 mile road trip, more than half of it with the top down that brought it on? The pizza in Milledgeville? The glass of wine with dinner? Not getting a lot of sleep two nights before? Watching the synchronized drones of the Olympic’s Closing Ceremony?

P0455

Yesterday about half way home from work, the check engine light come on. Not on the Mini this time, but the Miata. Just like in the Mini though, there was no discernible reason for it and the car showed no drivability symptoms at all. When I got home I hooked up the bluetooth OBD2 scanner and read the code – P0455 – which translates to ” EVAP Emission System Leak Detected Large Leak.”

The most common cause is your gas cap is too loose. I opened the filler door and twisted the gas cap and when I did it may have moved just a tiny amount. I reset the CEL and we’ll see if it comes back.

On the forum, they say if you just tighten the gas cap and keep driving the light will reset after about 30 miles of driving, so I wonder if it takes 30 miles to show up. We filled up the CTBNL last Tuesday night, so it made 3-1/2 round trips to work and one quick run to the bike store on Saturday, which is roughly 30 miles, before lighting.

Mini Wiper Blade Fun

Back in October, the first time we drove the Mini in the rain, we found out that the wiper blades squeaked/squealed when they do their job. So I did a search on the North American Motoring Mini Forum and found that the most recommended replacement blades seemed to be the Bosch Icon, so I bought a pair from Amazon.

On a side note, is it really too hard to design it, so the wiper blades are the same length? Mazda didn’t have a problem with the Miata, it uses two 18″ blades. Our recently departed Hyundai Sonata had a 24″ drivers side and an 18″ passenger side blade. The Mini? An 18″ blade for the driver and a 19″ one for the passenger side. (I wonder if on the right-hand drive version of the Mini those are flipped?)

Two days later I got some really nice replacement blades that will not go on our 2013 Mini Cooper. This is because in the middle of 2012, Mini in their infinite wisdom, changed the standard hook ends on the arms to a straight connection and forgot to notify Amazon. So I boxed the Boschs back up to return them and headed to the local parts store. Of the 8-10 different kinds of wiper blades they had hanging there, none of them included an adapter for the Mini’s straight-ending arms.

When we got home, I went back to the forum and re-did my search for wiper arms. This time instead of stopping after the first couple of threads and posts, I dug deeper and discovered that there really isn’t an off the shelf aftermarket blade that’ll work on the 2013 and up cars. I ended up buying some stock blades from a forum sponsor ECS Tuning.

While perusing that site, I discovered that they actually sell a kit to change from the earlier style to these new-fangled aero blades. Is there a 2-ounce weight savings involved here? Am I crazy for considering going the opposite way and getting the older hook-ended arms next time I need wiper blades? OK, maybe I am crazy for wanting to go backwards (and I probably won’t), but for someone like me who drives longer than he should on crappy wipers, finally decides that enough is enough and buys news ones on a rainy day, it is a little unnerving to not be able to walk into the local chain auto parts store and get some replacements.

After The Beep

I had just really settled into my desk at work, it was couple minutes after 7:00 AM, and the desk phone rang. I glanced at the display and saw an 803 (SC) area code, followed by an entirely unfamiliar 7 digits, so I ignored it. I figured, wrong number, or if it was for me, they’d leave a message. No message.

Just after I had finished my sandwich at lunchtime, my cell phone started vibrating. I picked it up, flipped it over and saw a 706 (GA) area code, followed by an entirely unfamiliar 7 digits, so I ignored it. I figured, wrong number, or if it was for me, they’d leave a message. A couple seconds later the phone buzzed once, ah, a message. The Cricket visual voice mail app said, “Cannot display message.” I looked at the time the message used up, 1 second, so, no, no message.

I was just putting the cell phone back down when the desk phone rang. I glanced at the display and saw the same 706 number that had just called the cell phone. One ring and it stopped. No message again.

Spam? Scam? or just Shy?

Caffeine Has Flavor?

I’ve made no secret here that my drink of choice is Diet Dr. Pepper, usually the regular stuff, but I have come to enjoy the cherry vanilla flavor too (even though I sort of made fun of it at my first exposure.) There is always about 6 cans chilling in the fridge at all times. There is always a 12-pack box (at least half full) in the cabinet next to the fridge. Whenever the 12-packs of Diet Dr. Pepper goes on sale we buy a couple to stock up.

Weekend before last we bought a couple of 12-packs and when I went to put some new cans in the fridge I noticed that I had picked up Caffeine Free Diet Dr. Pepper. Eh, I figured, it wouldn’t make a difference. Caffeine withdrawal would usually cause a headache, but now that I’m drinking a coffee in the morning, that would prevent the headache. And it has, but…

The caffeine free has a slightly different flavor the the regular stuff and I’m not sure I like it. Who knew that the caffeine would affect the taste? The Internet did apparently, just not me.

I can’t tell the difference between caffeine free and regular coffee. Why should the soda be any different? I’m betting that it is because I’m not drinking just straight coffee like I am the soda. I like just a bit of coffee flavor in my sweetened cream breakfast drink. đŸ˜‰

Baby Triceratops Droppings?

Found something new along the road in back of the plant on today’s morning walk. I’m not sure where these three different piles of whatever came from, but when I saw them I was instant reminded of this scene in Jurassic Park.

Cicada Siren Song

Remember last Friday when I said I had two things on my honey-do list before I put down the garage floor tiles? The tiles were installed on Sunday and those two items are done, but for the life of me I can’t remember what day I did them. Might have been Saturday afternoon or heck even Monday after work, I do remember it was during the day.

I don’t have my own little shop to work in, so I often do little projects either in the driveway or on the back deck. For cutting up that junk wood, the deck was used, because this way I could lay the long pieces of wood on the seat that runs around half the deck, stick the wood out about a foot, step on it and use the circular saw to cut segments off the the end.

The 12 feet of junk wood from behind the plant started life as a box top, so along with the 1/2 thick pieces I needed for my test, there was a border of 1″ x 3″ wood strips as support that had nails spaced about 4 to 5 inches all around. Rather than try and remove the approximate hundredty-million twisted nails from the 24′ of wood, I just hammered the bent ends down flat. Because of the nails I had to cut the 1″ x 3″ wood into about 60 pieces total.

After a little while I got a nice rhythm going; cut a couple pieces, release pressure on my foot, slide the board forward, repeat until done. About halfway through cutting up the second 6′ piece of wood a very large black bug dive-bombed by the front of my face and angled down towards my right hand. I let go of the trigger on the saw and dropped it to the deck.

There was a female cicada trying to mate with still spinning blade. After a few seconds the insect realized its mistake and flew back whence it came. I finished that board and started on the third 6′ piece and wouldn’t you know, my horny cicada took another shot at the saw. I dropped it on the deck again. This time when the bug flew back into its tree, I went inside the house and got my can of Raid Wasp & Hornet spray for the next time.

Sure enough, as I was finishing cutting the third piece, my love struck bug returned. I dropped the saw, grabbed the can and fired off a stream of insecticide at her. I’m not sure if I hit the cicada with any of the stream or she finally learned that the sound of a circular saw rhythmically cutting 1″ x 3″ pieces of wood was not a male of her species, but I cut the full 6′ length of the last piece without a return fly-ins.