We got the apartment. I'm not exactly thrilled about the rent, but what are you gonna do. It'll be our own space for the first time in nearly 7 years. Ground level, hard floors, dog ok, great on-site amenities, covered parking. Close to everything. It should be good for a year or so until I have enough time at this job to satisfy the mortgage folks. Or we win the lotto.
I just started working for the state at the beginning of the month doing case management for disabled vets. It's a great job that I really enjoy with a fantastic team. I just accepted a 6-figure income offer from a different state department to move WAY up the ladder as a lead counselor and mentor to other lead counselors. I start on the 18th of next month. Life is berkeleying awesome right now.
In reply to Appleseed :
Awesome pic.
And if you are ever in Hutchinson Kansas the Cosmosphere has an actual Blackbird in the lobby along with a shuttle too
Reunited a Free Dog Foster on the Run... with its foster family
Also found out that, despite frequent sleepykid#1 declarations/protests of "I want a dog", Popsicles are apparently more important.
We got Dustin's Thunderbird running for the first time in three years. And the best it had an 15.
Absolutely a win to see him smile
The kids and I had an Oscar Mayer Weinermobile sighting on the Ohio Turnpike yesterday.
Finished my CNY SCCA autocross season with an Out of Region event at Southern New York region's Greater Binghamton Airport lot. I was told by my CNY SCCA friends that it was some of the most aggressive driving they've ever seen out of me. Good enough to secure 8th in the overall points championship and 1st in my class. Also had some really funny interactions with some of the SNY guys:
"I came over here to tell you two things: one, you were off the gas and on the brakes about twenty feet before the finish, so you can pick up a half second there. Two, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for beating up on those poor little SSM cars with their huge wings and big Hoosiers."
Yeah, I raw-timed all the SSM cars, including multiple boosted Miatas on 275-width Hoosiers, and giant splitters and wings. Meanwhile, my supercharged Miata has no front aero, a lexan rear spoiler and 245-width 200tw tires.
"Is this the cheater car? *sees my visible confusion* Well, us at the trailer figure since you're raw-timing the SSM cars, you have to be cheating somehow."
NickD said:[...] I was told by my CNY SCCA friends that it was some of the most aggressive driving they've ever seen out of me. Good enough to secure 8th in the overall points championship and 1st in my class. Also had some really funny interactions with some of the SNY guys:
"Is this the cheater car? *sees my visible confusion* Well, us at the trailer figure since you're raw-timing the SSM cars, you have to be cheating somehow."
"Cheater? Yes, I've been under-torquing the 'nut behind the wheel' below factory specifications... we're allowed to do that in XP"
A year or two ago, my dad gave me a set of vintage Webber gages that used to belong to his Uncle. I didn't have any use for them and didn't really understand what they were for, but thought they were pretty cool. I've kept them on my shelf as something interesting to look at and as a tie to Uncle Lawrence, whom I have very fond childhood memories of. As a final check before I put the pistons back in the block for the Mercedes, I thought it would be worth double-checking that the bearing failure didn't knock the rod or the cylinder too far out of size so I ordered up a larger micrometer and a bore gauge. I know that I don't really need to finely calibrate the micrometer for the level of work that I'm doing - and I'm really just checking for out-of-round more than actual size. But I'm going to use Uncle Lawrence's gage set anyway, just because I think it's really cool.
Said yes to an awesome offer in Seattle.
It's gonna be a paycut from what I'm currently doing (by $2.50/hour) but it'll be way cooler.
Text from my wife this morning after she got to work:
"You know how in NASCAR when you're looking at someone's onboard camera and suddenly there's tire smoke and spinning cars and the driver goes down on the apron and gets through without a scratch?"
"That was me on 1-40 this morning!"
The new shop has a roof and is fully wrapped. We may get a little wind-blown rain in the windows and doors 'til those are finished, but it no longer rains in my garage.
APEowner said:Text from my wife this morning after she got to work:
"You know how in NASCAR when you're looking at someone's onboard camera and suddenly there's tire smoke and spinning cars and the driver goes down on the apron and gets through without a scratch?"
"That was me on 1-40 this morning!"
Damn! Glad she made it out OK.
APEowner said:Text from my wife this morning after she got to work:
"You know how in NASCAR when you're looking at someone's onboard camera and suddenly there's tire smoke and spinning cars and the driver goes down on the apron and gets through without a scratch?"
"That was me on 1-40 this morning!"
I see I-40 is much the same along its length.
CAinCA said:APEowner said:Text from my wife this morning after she got to work:
"You know how in NASCAR when you're looking at someone's onboard camera and suddenly there's tire smoke and spinning cars and the driver goes down on the apron and gets through without a scratch?"
"That was me on 1-40 this morning!"
Damn! Glad she made it out OK.
Thanks. Me too!
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:APEowner said:Text from my wife this morning after she got to work:
"You know how in NASCAR when you're looking at someone's onboard camera and suddenly there's tire smoke and spinning cars and the driver goes down on the apron and gets through without a scratch?"
"That was me on 1-40 this morning!"
I see I-40 is much the same along its length.
I feel like it's gotten worse here in Albuquerque in the nine years that I've lived here but perhaps Im just more easily annoyed than I used to be.
I may have a date Sunday afternoon
Wally (Forum Supporter) said:I may have a date Sunday afternoon
Sooo, no Cheesecake Factory this time?
In reply to matthewmcl :
God no, lol. Not sure where yet. I can't really eat anything yet but we've been talking for months so when we both had a free day we decided to see what happens.
I bought a 1st gen iPod Nano on eBay, which arrived today. I loaded it up with music and am currently enjoying listening to all the music I was listening to 15 years ago. It's identical to the one I had back then.
Happy Friday!
Doing rear brakes on a Santa Fe this evening in a friend's driveway. You know, these ones.
Where you have to pop a lateral link off to get to one of the caliper bracket bolts.
Why a win?
Owner left on road test a couple minutes ago. My car is loaded up.
And it JUST started raining.
Today was a good day.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
That is truly one of the legitimate "Berkin' engineer" moments in a mechanics life.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
It was originally just going to be a padslap to get through a thin spot financially, but the left pads were metal to metal and the right had 7mm.
Yup, left caliper piston was a ball of rust and was binding in the caliper. Four year old trucklet. Right side was also very rusty.
I popped the pistons out, cleaned them up as best as I could with my carbide scraper and a foam sanding thingus that was in his garage, and put the best of the left pads and the worst of the right pads on the left side to keep the seal out of the deep pits. Then put one new pad on the right, again to keep out of the deep pits.
Today the job was completed correctly, and another minor win: Neither caliper leaked over the previous week.
I would have been supercheap and replaced just the pistons, but I could see corrosion in the bores distorting the pressure seals, so the calipers had to go.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:Today was a good day.
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