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A small town in Nevada
My mom's friend died a couple days ago. A day later her late friend's brother passed away. Her dog ran away yesterday. Today, Steve Jobs' passing pushed her over the edge and she went down to the bar in Wells, Nevada and had a wake for Steve Jobs. She bought a couple rounds of drinks for the patrons and pulled out her iPad and showed ( Read more... ) -
The Jimmy Rides Again... I just can't license it.
Everything is all done. The transmission is in and full of fluid. It drives. Unfortunately, it's way, way over on emissions. A vehicle of that vintage is only tested on hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide at cruise and idle. That's only four variables. It failed all four. It was especially bad at idle ( Read more... ) -
The Woeful Pontiac
My lovely wife Danna does not like large cars. She doesn't like soft-riding, cushy sedans. We used to have a nice 1992 Cadillac STS. Although that car was front-wheel drive and I generally don't like FWD, I liked the Caddy. It was smooth. It rode very nicely without any harshness. It didn't pitch and roll like my old Buick. (That said, I ( Read more... ) -
The Toby Hanson LJ Voters' Guide
It's time once again to fill out our ballots. Since I live in Pierce County I have the option of voting at the polls. I signed up for absentee ballots as soon as I moved back here from Seattle. I get to fill out my ballot in the comfort of my recliner and then either mail it in or drop it off at one of the County's handy ballot drop-off sites. ( Read more... ) -
The bitter tie rod end
Last week I took the Blazer in for an alignment. The shop told me that the lower ball joints and idler arm would have to be replaced before an alignment could be done. They quoted me $600 for the whole job- parts, labor, alignment, everything. I don't have the $600 and besides, I fix things myself. When civilization ends I'll have plenty of ( Read more... ) -
At long last
Grandma is home from the hospital. My sister has made the transition to living at her house. Part of that transition has been cleaning up Grandma's house. Grandma hasn't been able to clean it up for herself for the past six years at least. She can handle a little bit of dusting and vacuuming but that's about it. My sister Brandy has been ( Read more... ) -
Passing time at the hospital
Here I sit in the surgery waiting room at Good Sam in Puyallup. Grandma is still in recovery from her surgery this morning. It was a more difficult surgery than anticipated and she's still having nausea two hours after the surgery.
Sitting here has given me plenty of time to reflect on how this hospital has been a part of my life. My mom was born ( Read more... ) -
From the shores of Old Dewatto
OK, so were were in Belfair, not Dewatto. That's farther west on Hood Canal. We took Madi and her friend Caitlyn camping at Belfair State Park over the weekend with my old high school friends Steve and Damon and their families. We had a lot of fun. We cooked over an open fire and all I did on Saturday was sit around and eat ( Read more... ) -
Free At Last!
As of today I'm done with the well project for my Uncle George. I removed the priming pipe from the pump and replaced the floor in the well house. The job overall is not completed. The well isn't producing enough water to feed the system. It needs to be drilled deeper. Therein lies the problem with this whole situation...
The well was dug in ( Read more... ) -
Doube Or Nothing
I bought another Jimmy back in June. $1000. Bad fuel injectors. I replaced the injectors and did a lot of other little fixes on it like replacing the heater control relay and reattaching the headlight mounting bracket. The one thing I had trouble with was the transmission. It was leaking intermittently. The tranny fluid got on the exhaust ( Read more... )