Dork of all trades

I need to do more bike riding.

2008-05-16T02:45:42Z

Why?

Because if you spend stupid money to kit out your bike with 140 spoke rims, whitewalls, ducktail fenders, a springer fork and a chrome chain you better actually ride it.

Puppy!

2008-05-14T02:16:43Z

So my sweetie and I were on our way up to a meeting, and since traffic was stopped dead on I-84 I decided to take surface streets through Hartford. Well, just over the Bloomfield line, nearly at the highway again when we saw a dog wander out into the middle of the road.

It had a collar with a leash hanging off it, but no one around who appeared they should be at the other end of the leash. I stopped in the road blocking other traffic from the dog, and my sweetie leapt out and got the dog to come over so she could grab the leash.

I pulled over and we looked the dog over. Some pit-bull/boxer, some dalmatian, probably a bit of something else. White with some tiny black spots around the nose. Collar and leash, no tags. Healthy, happy and friendly. In short order it was clear he was deaf (or nearly so) and had no training (liked to lunge & drag).

Some other people stopped, apparently they'd followed the dog (by car) for several blocks, from the north end of Hartford. They were too scared to try and catch it though. The gentleman in the car called the Bloomfield police to come pick it up.

We hung out for about 40 minutes waiting for the police to show. The dog exploring and being generally lovable. We got him a cup of water from a beauty parlor, which he slurped up.

When the police finally arrived, the officer told me the dog would go to the pound and if the owner couldn't be found he'd be put down. When I pressed him for options he suggested the humane society. So we packed the dog into the back seat of Emily and drove three towns south to the humane society. Upon arrival we found they were closed. While standing outside talking on the phone with a friend about options, an employee came by and told me they wouldn't be able to take the dog anyway. And I had to bring him to animal control in whatever town, and if they couldn't find the owner in two weeks the dog would go to the humane society (assuming he was friendly, which he clearly was).

So we drove home with the dog once again lounging in Emily's back seat, and when we got home I called Hartford, Bloomfield & West Hartford animal controls, and got a raft of answering machines. I eventually got in touch with someone in Bloomfield, who told me I could bring the dog to their police station and they'd get it to animal control. Moments after hanging up the phone with them, Hartford animal control called me back. The gentleman I spoke with told me I should probably bring it to Bloomfield, but he took down a complete description of the dog in case someone called him looking for it.

About halfway to Bloomfield PD the gentleman from Hartford animal control called us back, turns out he'd just received a call looking for a dog of the same description as the one we had in the back seat. So we met him, and the owners. The owner was an older woman who was... a bit mad. But in a friendly way. She tried to give us a reward, and we told her the reward we wanted was for her to go out the next day and get a tag with her name & number, and get the dog to a vet for a checkup and get it some training. It took a while to extract ourselves from her thanks. I hope our requests, and her promises of tags, etc. stick. Though the animal control officer took down her contact info and said something to her as I was walking away about checking in on the dog in a few weeks to see that it has gotten licensed, tagged and been to a vet.

All in all we spent about 2.5 hours with "Storm", as we found his name to be, who was a wonderful dog, and I hope for the best for him.

Though it meant we missed the meeting for the third month running.

STD test results

2008-05-09T19:08:50Z

So I'll be able to find it and testing date later, feel free to ignore.

Syphilis - Neg
Gonorrhea - Neg
Chlamydia - Neg
HIV - Neg
Herpes 1 - Neg
Herpes 2 - Neg

Clinic refused to test for Hep B w/o symptoms. had to convince them to test for Herpes 1&2. No effective male test for HPV.

Brimfield Antique Show May 13-18th.

2008-05-09T15:47:47Z

So the Brimfield Antique Show is happening next week, with something like six thousand antique dealers spead over twenty-three fields in Brimfield MA.

I was pondering making a day trip of going up there next Saturday (the 17th), anyone interested in joining me? The plan would be to get up there relatively early (9-10am) and stay until we're tired of it and/or tired out (as there is no way to see it all in one day).

Best would probably be to meet somewhere (my place or off the Mass Pike depending who is coming), and carpool in with as few vehicles as possible. I can also offer limited crash space to people who'd want to come down the night before or not drive right back afterwards.

EDIT: I will be in Worcester at my sweetie's place. Crash space still available there if you need it, rather than Hartford.

Also, so I don't lose it: www.fleamarketsource.com

Grrr

2008-05-06T21:04:45Z

Some unknown person dumped two giant plastic bags of yard waste in our trash bin as it sat out on the curb waiting to be picked up. Unsurprisingly the (extremely anal) trash guys didn't take it and instead left a big orange violation sticker on them. So now we have to figure out how to dispose of someone else's yard waste. Thank you *so* very much anonymous asshole.

I apologize in advance for this one

2008-04-30T13:56:29Z

I want one of these when they come stateside, just so I can get a "Picasso" vanity plate for it.

pixel @ 2008-04-29T10:34:00

2008-04-29T14:34:20Z

For my own sake

2008-04-29T13:46:56Z

Today:

~~call Napa & order exhaust gaskets~~

~~pick up GTA IV~~
~~pick up exhaust gaskets & wire connectors~~
~~mask & paint rearend housing on Emily~~
~~Play a lot of GTAIV~~
(possibly) start re-assembly of Emily's rear suspension if paint is dry

Wed:

finish re-assembly of Emily's rear suspension
load bicycle in emily
play a lot of GTAIV

Thurs: (no work, took day off)

fill Emily's gas tank
bring Emily to exhaust shop & discuss what kind of exhaust I want
bike home
play a lot of GTAIV
pick up Emily
Gaming that evening

Fri:

Wash Emily, check fluids, tires, etc.
play a lot of GTAIV

Sat:

head up to Rhinebeck in the early AM for the Spring Dustoff Car Show & Swap Meet.

wandering realtor.com

2008-04-24T15:03:04Z

I am looking at houses again.

Some I noticed:
http://www.realtor.com/realestate/windsor-ct-06095-1097777692/
kinda meh, but might be a nice house for the money. Needs a garage.

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/windsor-ct-06095-1090600442/
The house is a bit bland in the overall, but has some nice features (clawfoot tub, solarium that is just begging to be redone steampunk style) and has a 2-car garage and decent sized lot.

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/rocky+hill-ct-06067-1092433190/
Nice sized lot, probably a 1-car garage. Has lots of rooms but they are probably smaller. Check out the pink & blue toilets.

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/wethersfield-ct-06109-1093385048/
I actually did a drive-by of this house a few weeks back. Nice enough house though I'd change some outside details. Decent sized 1-car garage, but upgrading to a 2-car would take a chunk out of the miniscule backyard. Even if it is legally in Wethersfield, it is neighborhood wise in the South-end, which is a downside.

Also:
This house has a really unfortunate growth.

You know what will help you sell your house? A fresh coat of RED PAINT! MAKE SURE IT IS REALLY RED!

Streets I wish the houses were better, cuz I wanted to live there:
Munchhausen Rd.
Bacon St.

No fair!Memories of an old truck

2008-04-23T20:18:00Z

So I've rambled before about the old chevy pickup that was the last car my dad drove before his eyesight got too bad.

It was a beat up rusty stripped-out model Chevy C/10 shortbed pickup with a 6-cyl & 3-spd. It had been badly painted blue at some point in its highly checkered past. Dad drove it until he caused an accident that totaled five other cars(and drove it home from the police station). Then he sold it to one of my uncles, who used it for dump runs & such until the front suspension collapsed. that uncle sold it to my other uncle who patched it back together and continued to use it for various jobs. He was the one who had to break *out* of a junkyard by mowing down a gate wit the truck after the owner accidentally locked them in and went home for the night(the truck had a cracked plastic grille to show for it). It was used for the move to the house I grew up in. We used it to clear the lot that our summer cottage now stands on (with my grandfather, who died a year later and never saw the cottage completed). My grandmother once repainted it with thinned down housepaint & paper towels because she wanted it to all match again. It featured heavily in a lot of memories from my childhood.

When he turned 15 my cousin got it from my uncle. He and I tore it apart with great plans to restore it. He taught me how to drive stick in it with the truck stripped down the a bare cab on the frame, no bed, hood, fenders, doors and the seat not bolted down. Eventually my cousin got distracted by a '71 Chevelle and the truck sat. Eleven years ago it was sent to the junkyard.

Well aside from the wheels and the '69 grill rather than the '71 this truck on ebay is the spitting image of my Dad's old chevy.

Same faded blue paint, same blue vinyl interior, same cracked steering wheel same white-painted bumpers. It is about as close a match as could be without being the same truck.

Now that I don't have the bug, I could find room for a third vehicle, right? And having a dump-run and beater pickup is always handy, right?

Goin' Campin'

2008-04-22T19:21:33Z

Eeee! So cute!

I kinda idly want a small teardrop trailer to tow behind either Emily or Box for camping trips. Teardrops have an enclosed sleeping area the size of a small tent, but completely waterproof, and the back hinges open to exposed a small kitchen area. So you can pull up and have a heck of a lot less setup and a more comfy place to sleep, but aren't hauling around a huge trailer. It is the best of camping & trailering. And at under 1000lbs they can be towed by virtually anything.

I want an older one as they are just better looking and more interesting than the new ones. However most are made of wood and are prone to rot problems. This one is said to have an aluminum frame which should help that, but it clearly still needs a bit of restoration.

*sigh* Just what I really don't need, another project...

Random Thoughts on being Mad

2008-04-22T16:13:32Z

ljuserpic: madsci

So I've been working on a couple different projects on my cars over the last few weeks and a few things occurred to me.

Madness is getting home from an exhausting long weekend at 8pm, wanting nothing more than to relax and get to bed early. Then finding a box of parts have arrived and staying up until nearly midnight taking apart your car (the one you need at 8am the next morning for work) to install the cool new LEDs you bought.

Madness is finding a broken leaf spring and deciding that since that needs replacing you may as well replace both leaf springs, all the bushings, the shackles, scrape the undercoating off, repaint the underside of the car...

Madness is laying under a car scraping undercoating and rust off, which fall on you getting in your hair and everything, and doing this until you are too tired to lift your arms. Then crawling right back underneath the next two evenings to do the same thing.

Madness is working with highly caustic oven cleaner to loosen the undercoating you couldn't scrape off before, and noticing it eating holes in your upper arm where it splashed. Then just wiping it off and going back to what you were doing. (oddly, the spots that hurt and the spots that actually burned were completely separate, and by the time I noticed it the damage was done)

But true madness is thinking all of this is kinda fun, and looking forward to going back to the project as soon as possible.

State of the Pixel

2008-04-11T16:05:20Z

Random life update thingy.

I deeply and personally despise the IRS and our tax system in general. It has taken several days, and calls/emails to my mom, sister, my financial adviser and the guy who did my taxes two years ago to figure out how much I owe. And one set of info had me getting back a nice chunk of change. The most current (and probably correct) version has me owing about 2-3 times what I thought I was getting back.

Progress on rebuilding Emily's rear suspension is going well. All old parts are stripped off, all new parts are acquired and confirmed to work. I have about 1/4 of the incredibly nasty undercoating scrapped off the rear of the car. Need to get the rest scrapped off, everything cleaned and rustproofing paint applied so I can re-assemble. Then I will be back on track for where I thought I was until last weekend. Ah well, this was a project I was going to want/need to do eventually it just happened sooner than I'd expected/wanted.
...though the undercoating colored snot this morning was rather unpleasant.

This weekend was supposed to be a junkin run, but it looks like it's goign to be a washout with the predicted rain. So There will probably be more scraping of undercoating. Then Sunday is Dim Sum(pork dumplings!) in Boston as Amberfiend is in the area.
I and my sweetie may be free and in the Boston area that afternoon if anyone is interested in hanging out.

Last soda post (for the moment)

2008-04-10T15:09:05Z

And it turns out Avery Soda in New Britain is still open and bottling at their plant. These guys are the coolest, 100% cane sugar soda, painted-label bottles and wood cases you return so they can scrub them out and reuse them. If you pick it up at their bottling plant (in the same barn the company started an in 1904!) you can mix & match your the case contents to your hearts content.

If I threw a soda-tasting party would people be interested? Or should I make all the drinks at the OMGWTFBBQ classic soda brands? Or both?

If you're wondering what kicked off this soda obsessing, check out this amusing article.

Sweet! (with no aftertaste!)

2008-04-10T14:56:14Z

How did I miss this before? Foxon Park Beverages down in East Haven CT still makes all their sodas with 100% real sugar.
I think I'm going to have to make a trip down there and pick up an assorted case to try.

Break out the red solo cups

2008-04-10T14:41:46Z

Sweet mother of jebus, it is possible to get Virgil's Root Beer Kegs and Virgil's Cream Soda Kegs! Not only that, but they are delivered right to your house.

I want to throw a Root Beer & Cream Soda kegger now.

Ha!

2008-04-09T15:21:01Z

So my old bug is currently Up on Craigslist. Apparently the guy who bought it has decided he didn't have the time for it either. He's asking $50 more then he paid for it, and it comes with thousands in additional parts, including all the parts it needs to fix the minor rust issues.

Not that I *want* to, but I am amused that I could buy it back from him and essentially end up with the same car and thousands in new parts for it.

Potential Junkin' Run in MA/RI Saturday.

2008-04-08T18:55:26Z

Assuming the weather co-operates we're planning to make our first Junkin' Run to Henry's Auto Parts in Blackstone MA this coming Sat (the 12th).

The plan is to leave West Hartford by 9am, to get there around 10:30-11am, we usually stay til the yard closes at 1pm. Then grab lunch somewhere before heading home. You're welcome to ride/caravan up with us from CT, or join us at the yard. We'll be bringing tools, so unless you need specific ones you should be all set in that dept. It costs $2/guy to get in, women get in free. Wear grubby clothes & boots as you will get muddy.

They are a pick-your-part lot where you can wander through the junk cars, and anything you want you remove and bring up to pay for. This gets you parts *way* cheaper then other places, and the fun of wandering among the wrecks. In particular I'll be surfing the collection of classic cars there.

Umbran, did you want to join us to look for the stuff we'd talked about?

Henry's website
List of classic junk cars there
Address on Google

Spring Sproing Sprung

2008-04-07T23:46:58Z

So while I was working on Emily this weekend I discovered that the end of the main leaf on one of her rear leaf springs was not just cracked but in fact snapped off. This meant the spring was being held on by about 50% metal and 50% pure habit.

Two days of franticly hunting the net and I've located the needed parts (including some parts that haven't been made since the 60s) and most of them should be winging their way here in the next week. Now I jsut have to tear the whole rear suspension off and rebuild it.

Which puts off getting the exhaust system replaced.

Which puts off getting Emily back on the road.

I love my old cars, and love working on Emily, but there are times when I could do with a bit better timing. :)

Mad Scientists Union Meeting & Pictures

2008-04-07T03:04:29Z

(full photoset here)

Well the meeting was a success, the weather turned out excellent and we had several cool projects going. Ian brought his forge, which once he'd lit it off he made himself a spatula out of a bedframe, and started melting and forming pennies into scale plate . Chris worked on doing the spring tuneup on his scooter. Vikkie worked on cleaning & starting restoring her Nottingham Gazelle bicycle. And I worked on lowering the front suspension on Emily.

It was a lot of fun and exactly what I'd hoped for from the group. Lots of cool ideas, lots of good conversation, and always someone around when you needed an extra hand. The Mad Scientists Union is turning out just how I'd hoped. And we're *definitely* having another meeting in May.

To perk up your morning

2008-03-28T12:49:15Z

The most entertaining trial transcript ever.

Completely apropro of nothing.

2008-03-28T00:24:30Z

"If you have six or more dildos [in Texas] you are a felon, because it is assumed you have an intent to distribute. Whereas if you have five or less you are merely a hobbyist."

For those curious and/or bored.

2008-03-27T15:23:19Z

My desk at work, with notes.

left side & Right side.

Stuff, and also things

2008-03-27T02:43:03Z

Well yesterday was my birthday. I'm 30 now. Doesn't feel any different than 29 except my car insurance should go down. And since that is about as much thought as I've put into it, lets talk about shiny things!

My sweetie and I spent part of today dragging my bicycles out of their storage in the garage rafters. We checked them over, aired up the tires, and gave them a wipedown and polished the chrome. Then we took them for a spin around the neighborhood, which was quite nice.

That is my Ratz bike. I started with a kids bike and custom painted the black and red, then recovered the seat, added flame handgrips and did some pinstriping on it.

that is my Schwinn cruiser bike. I added the whitewalls and chrome fenders. Eventually it'll get 144 spoke wheels & ducktail fenders.

Also recently I pulled the boring hubcaps off Box, and this past weekend repainted the stock steel rims to a nice graphite metallic. Then this week I got center caps I painted to match and chrome lug nuts. I love the final effect.

I've got the master cylinder to replace the defective one on Emily, and have a set of Smithy's glasspack Mufflers on the way so I can get a new exhaust fitted for her.

This weekend I'll be up at my sweetie's getting her trike kit & old bikes disassembled to haul them back down here.

Then the really cool thing is that Saturday the 5th I'll be having the Meeting of the Mad Scientists Union here at the house. My sweetie will be working on restoring her trike, and I'll be lowering the front suspension on Emily. We already have a couple other people coming by including one friend probably bringing his forge & blacksmithing rig, and another who'll be working on getting his scooter tuned up for motorcycle season.

So yay for cool stuff.

House hunting.

2008-03-25T15:26:12Z

So once again I have gotten into a cycle of looking to buy a house. Once again I have no idea if it'll go anywhere, but at least at the moment it is a buyers market like no one has seen in years.

I am amazed going through the listings, there are some people who don't seem to have gotten the memo that the housing bubble has not only burst but splattered disgusting sticky bits of ruptured bubble all over the rest of the economy.

Then there was the listing where the only picture was a shot of the pine paneled bathroom. How horrifying a house does it have to be for a bathroom with pine paneling to be the best feature?

But this listing for a duplex is my favorite, anyone see a problem here?