A Scenic Sunday Spin

We needed a few things at the store this afternoon, and it was such a pretty day we took the scenic route. (The cool thing for us is the scenic route is just a backroad that parallels Highway 4 up to Arnold - no added miles.)

There hasn't been a nice picture of the 2002 in a while, and the ones I did post earlier didn't really have a good frame of reference to show the actual size of the car. So here's a couple with human frames of reference.

Now, Dangerous Dave in Davis will object to a car post on this blog, insisting that such matters are more appropriate for Everything's Shiny. To make DDiD happy, that blog will also be updated with automotive matters of a more technical nature...

Happy Autum!

More Masked Bandits

The bandits returned last night.

Gus started pitching a fit around 8 p.m., barking at the open field next door. Knowing creatures were astir, we shut off the dog door so he'd be stuck inside once we went to bed.

About 1 a.m. he's up barking again, and I see two raccoons scavenging for dog food on our back porch. I went outside and they both climbed this tree. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera right away because when I first saw them they were both behind the tree, one peeking out from the left, one peeking out from the right.

Anyway, they vandaled around for a while and finally took their show on the road.

Happy '02 News

Despite the title of my last blog over at Everything's Shiny ("A Better Autocross, Sept. 9) my 2002 has been giving me fits ever since getting towed home that day.

Would start but not run. Would run and then the distributor cap would pop off. Would run at high RPM but not idle. Those were the things I didn't know the cause for. On top of that, I knew I had bad threads in one of the spark plug holes and exhaust leak past the plug.

With some diagnostic help from the 2002faq.com forum and Larry B., I finally figured out there were two causes to the first list of problems - a bad motor mount that let the engine rock enough to whack the distributor against the firewall and an air leak somewhere between the carb and the cylinders throwing off the air/fuel mixture.

Installed new motor mounts a week or two ago and on Friday took the head in and had the spark plug threads drilled out and replaced with steel inserts. (All four of them - don't want to have to revisit the machine shop any time soon.)
Found the air leak during the disassembly process.

Put it all back together on Saturday and it fired right up. Dialed in the timing and carb adjustments this morning, and the '02 is back on the road. Now back to tracing the short in the No. 6 circuit...

A Herd of Trees

You've heard of trees, haven't you?

I originally heard that joke (if it can be called such...) told by a dog puppet on Channel 2 out of Oakland when I was a kid. (And it was a herd of bees as originally told.) Anyway, Anonymous Diane can attest that this joke is the foundation for my belief that all humor is based on repetition.

So about the trees....

We've been watching expenses. This is the first recession/depression/collapse of civilization as we know it that we've experienced as business owners, so we've started being very cash-conscious. In fact, we recently reviewed all our regular monthly bills and saved just about $100 a month by tweaking our cable, internet, cell phone and home phone plans. All minor changes that add up over time. So big plant purchases weren't necessarily part of the plan this month.

However, the local hardware store is having an end-of-the-season 40% off sale on everything - and most of the plants had been heavily discounted already.

So we came home with five trees (two birch, one tulip, one ginko and one maple) and seven or so one-gallon plants that will pretty much do the entire landscaping of the creekbed (augmenting the natural growth that's already there). And we got it all for $125.

And because we're geeks, we took pictures.

You've heard of pictures, haven't you?

Habitat Shedding

No Cal game this week, but the Bears did move into the AP top 25. (Not playing does have its rewards...)

As a UT grad, Back From Bolivia Ben is quite happy Texas has moved into the number one spot.

New construction plan in This Land is a second shed, this one in the Back .40. This picture is the inspiration, although I'm planning some major changes. First, there will be a large window on the near end (4+ feet wide by 3 high) and a narrow (10 inch x 40 inch) window on the far end, set high for a little light and ventilation. Second, it won't have a saltbox roof (the unequal roof faces) because that shortens the rear wall too much and we're tallish people around here. Also won't have cedar shingles because of the fire danger.

I do like the dutch doors, cedar siding and size - it's 8 x 12. Although it's a spring construction plan (provided the economy cooperates...), I did get the three windows I need at a Habitat for Humanity store in Modesto this week. Two brand new, one used, all priced at $40 each. I got them because I needed dimensions to start drawing my own plans. I'm hoping the Habitat store will also provide upper and lower kitchen cabinets for the rear wall inside the shed and, if I get real lucky, the cedar siding. Might be able to get the shingles and other stuff there as well.

It'll be Diane's project place/retreat/gardening shed and will have a potting bench built outside along the near end. (We currently share the shed attached to the garage. Once the new one is built, the garden stuff will get relocated and I will get all the space in the small shed for storage.)

Since my project car gets parked right next to this shed, it'll be handy.

Deck remains on the long-term wish-list, but since fencing the whole yard and getting rid of the old dog run, there's been less need for it. We're also going to keep expenses down as much as possible for a while, so the deck may just have to wait....