Minor Confession Thread

Unrelatedly, I had a pretty terrible autocross today, which I started to try to chalk up to rustiness and an unfamiliar car on all-seasons.

It just dawned on me that the last car I autocrossed was totaled eight years ago.

In reply to Appleseed:

+1. I'm so sick of hearing about it, that it makes me want to watch it less.

I'm still mildly surprised when long term members can't make links properly, but canoes get it the first try.

This isn't a shot at anyone in particular, just noticed a bunch of canoes in the water this morning.

In reply to RevRico:

I resemble that remark.

Also, i work from home today. I was late by 5 minutes due to putting the miata back together. I will probably skip lunch to chip away at it as well.

I drove my wifes car too work today so i can finally get around to replacing the mid pipe and fix her exhaust leak. I acted childish and e brake slid it around the parking lot at work because snow!

Because my ZJ is dying, I'm considering replacing it with either an EP3 or a 5-speed Element as winter beater/DD. And then trying to rallycross either of them as well.

My life has gotten noticeably better now that I have an anvil.

Woody wrote: My life has gotten noticeably better now that I have an anvil.

My minor confession today is that I googled to see if I could find a photo of a real deceased coyote that someone had taken with an anvil on top of to add to this thread. My google fu failed and so... now I have to drop one on a coyote myself to put things straight with the universe.

In reply to Huckleberry:

There was a coyote in my back yard a few days ago. Had I known that it would have helped, I would have dropped my anvil on it for you.

I spent all afternoon being upset because I had to fix fuel leaks on the Malibu when I really wanted to chase electrical gremlins on the D350.

Pretty sure it's because I know after I fix those I get to enjoy my Tonka truck again, I'm going to ignore that it probably puked out most of it's ATF while sitting all winter.

I keep compressing braking zones at stoplights in the el camino, hoping that someone smacks the tailgate so insurance pays to fix the poor bodywork instead of my wallet.

I feel kind of like a dickhead. I should probably stop doing it.

I keep mis-interpreting the lyrics to "That Summer" to be way dirtier than they really are. And it's a pretty dirty song.

And I have rarely held another When I haven't seen her face

Replaced my wife's brakes on Sunday. Pads only. Took it for a quick test drive and everything seemed good. She drove it to work no problems. Driving back, a clicking/clanking noise developed.

Turns out I forgot to torque the lugs. After putting it up in the air and replicating my process I estimated they were about 50lbs each, but still... That could have been bad.

tuna55 wrote: I keep mis-interpreting the lyrics to "That Summer" to be way dirtier than they really are. And it's a pretty dirty song. And I have rarely held another When I haven't seen her face

Now I'm curious... Cause that is the actual line, right?

I got pulled over for the first time when I was 17. I was driving my '77 Power Wagon, doing 50 in a 35.

The cop just gave me a warning...

mtn wrote:

tuna55 wrote: I keep mis-interpreting the lyrics to "That Summer" to be way dirtier than they really are. And it's a pretty dirty song. And I have rarely held another When I haven't seen her face

Now I'm curious... Cause that is the actual line, right?

Garth is speaking of how he sees here in subsequent romances, because she was the first.

He is not indicating his preferred position.

Of all the people on this board, no one makes me feel as downright stupid as the flyboys. You guys get talking about bizarre old aircraft and crazy planes, and even control arm geometry starts to make sense in comparison. I appreciate the education though, even if I don't understand it.

In reply to RevRico:

Its a sickness I've had all my life. I'm an idiot savant when it comes to aviation. Don't be intimidated, we all start at zero.

I own a 2009 Husaberg FE450 dirt bike. It's an incredible machine and does everything I could ask. I also have 2006 Honda CRF230 that is primarily used when someone comes to visit and we want to go for a trail ride.

I think, if I'm honest, I prefer to ride the Honda.

In reply to Wayslow:

My confession: I had never heard of a Husaberg and had to go look it up. So, it was a precursor to the KTM line of bikes?

The wiki says Cagiva bought Husquvarna's motorcycle divison and then abandoned it to a couple of their engineers who named it Husaburg to enter a race.

KTM just bought them outright so... not a precursor, just an acquisition. They make them in Austria now, in a KTM plant.

But wait... Husqvarna motorcycles still exists, right? Or are they gone now?

I guess my minor confession is that I know KTM motorcycles have been around for a while now, and you could say that Penton was the actual precursor to KTM motorcycles. I have no reason or need to know this...

Husaberg broke away from Husqvarna and built some cool bikes but not enough of them. KTM bought Husaberg and started building bikes under the Husaberg name. Sorta like a Lexus division of KTM. My bike has their first fuel injection system, Brembo brakes etc. KTM then went on to buy Husqvarna and stopped making bikes under the Husaberg banner in 2014. So if you buy a new Husqvarna you're getting a tarted up KTM.

When I was sick and it started to get bad the second time around, I reached out to an artist who's music spoke to me during my journey. Certain songs lifts my spirits, others allowed me to sulk, most caused me to pause, slow down and take in life for as long as it may be. He asked me if I played any instruments and knew how to read music, which I confirmed having played piano, drums and guitar but none within the last decade. He I received an invite to skype one evening which turned into an invite to jam, but I was unable to pick up my Guild at that point. 3 days later a jamstik arrived and I received another invite to skype to learn some of the songs that touched me the most. Nearly 45 minutes later I was too exhausted to continue but I had 3 of the songs down and a 4th nearly down. Over the next 3 days he taught me 11 songs. My condition deteriorated from treatment, surgeries and resulting nerve damage to the point that I wasn't able to play for nearly 6 months. He kept in touch nearly daily, hoping that we'd be able to go on a bit of a roadtrip this past October as he was on a hiatus from touring. In late November when the nerve issues began to escalate as my treatments started to lessen he brought up the fact that he had resumed writing pieces towards a new album and was starting to record some and shared some chord sequences. Through mid February when my hands were uncooperative enough that some 2-3 sentence post on here would take over 5 minutes to type, he made sure that I at least attempted to play for 30 minutes a day no matter how frustrating it was in order to assist in the remapping of nerves. There were times that I wouldn't manage a single chord. Though strength to pick up the guild wasn't an issue at that point, tremors strong enough to potentially break it were. About 4 weeks ago the corner started to turn. I've recorded audio of me covering 14 guitar portions on the guitar including 2 of unreleased songs. I'm working on getting piano adaptations down as the it's a bit more difficult for me to play at this point as the combination of forearm, wrist and finger precision makes it a bit more difficult than the guitar portions. Once I'm confident enough in what I have recorded at home and up at Sheffield then it'll be off to 606. The craziest part is normally a group of songs, even ones that carry great personal meaning, grows stale hearing them and attempting to perform them several times a day over more than 6 months, but these songs have grown and continued to evolve in meaning. Initially I felt they'd merely help me get through the darkest times providing motivation and inspiration and they've continued to guide in dealing with guilt of surviving when others who may be more deserving aren't as fortunate and in dealing with quality of life, as just because you're fortunate enough to defeat cancer, doesn't mean that your abilities and function goes back to what it was prior to being sick (far from it). I can honestly say that in addition to modern medicine that aquatic therapy and music is what got me through, especially when dealing with the nervous system trauma and recovery, which in some ways has been more frustrating than dealing with being sick as mentally you're thinking, I'm better, I should be able to function, so why won't my hand move, or why when I try to touch my index finger to my thumb does my elbow open up and arm flail out 30 degrees.

My confession is that I forget to appreciate my good health. Then I hear about the trials some people go through and it puts my good fortunes back into focus.