Author: Zingblog 2

Fixin’ The Machinery

I’ve been feeling for a while like random tasks have been piling up, to the point where I took a day this week just to get a few things done. Last weekend I did some work on everyone’s bicycles, and I also had to rebuild the support that holds out our mailbox. But I ran out of time Sunday while the todo list keeps increasing.

The specific motivator was that my Mustang, being and old car, wouldn’t start this spring. The car is mechanically sound, but alot of the hoses and gaskets are just old. So I had to get it towed to garage, which was kind of a big deal. The place I took it to a couple years back to get the carburetor worked on (basically they replaced all the gaskets and seals in it), that specialized in classic cars, is no longer in business, so I took it to my main local mechanic. It turned out the problem was the fuel pump was leaky and needed to be replaced, a fairly straightforward fix. While they were at it also replaced a radiator hose.  I drove it home and it’s nice to be running again. The engine was a bit rough but it was a cold rainy day so it didn’t get warmed up. I need to take it out on the highway for a good run this weekend until I get that warm rumbly feeling of anachronistic V-8 power. I’m also wondering if it could use new shocks.  Also, this is the year I hope to get the body painted. I have been saying that every year for the past few years, but this time I really mean it! Still there’s always something coming up that demands my attention, so we’ll see how it goes. The first step is to shop around for a body shop to do the work.

The other fixit project is my garage door opener, which stopped working last week and was conveniently easy to reach with the Mustang away at the shop. The motor spins and goes on and off, but the drivetrain and the door don’t move. I took it apart to find the main gear — which inexplicably was made out of soft plastic — was completely stripped and snowlike shavings all over the inside of the box.  Also the main axle was seized. I lubed up the moving parts and tracks for the garage door to make it easier to slide, suspecting the problem was excessive strain on the gears. I ordered a replacement gear kit, so hopefully when it arrives I can put it back in working order.

Tea With Warriors — Niagara

My friend John Neumann recently released a new record album as Tea With Warriors. This follow-up to Quiet Revolution is called Niagara, and it’s sort of a concept album, a set or related instrumental tracks inspired by the famous river. Trancelike, moody and evocative, the songs feature lots fretless bass, ethereal synthesizers, exotic percussion, and John’s haunting violin playing. I’ve really been enjoying listening to it; I’ve had it on in a loop the whole weekend. You can learn more at teawithwarriors.com.

Long Way Home

I just got back from a great vacation in New Mexico, visiting my brother and his family.  More on that soon, including lots of photos.  For now I want to tell about my adventure getting home.

Like Santa without Rudolf we left Albuquerque flying blindly into the heart of a massive snowstorm, heading to Denver to make a connection to New York.

Our flight out of Denver pulled out from the gate on time, but as we were waiting for our turn to take off, the rain turned to snow. We taxied off to the de-icing station and back, and by the time we were at the front of the takeoff queue again the pilot decided we needed another de-icing. The snow turned heavy and we taxied back to the de-icing station a third time.  By this time an army of snowplows had been dispatched and it looked like they were only landing planes. After three hours of back and forth they finally closed the airport for takeoffs.  Then there was a queue to get back to the gate so that took another hour and a half before we could get off the plane. By this time it was dark and the snow had turned back to rain.

Meanwhile the pilot was rather unhelpful with infrequent and inaccurate updates, and the chief stewardess, who was a dude, grew hostile and insulting to the passengers as time went on. After the second de-icing the announcement came for everyone to get back to their seats immediately, breaking up a long line to use the one and only bathroom in coach.  But then the plane sat there for another half hour or more. From then on people just ignored the crew and things got a bit chaotic. One stewardess was nice and took a little extra concern over whether the kids are alright, which they were (thank you).

When we finally got off the plane our flight was canceled (although the plane took of bound for L.A. soon after) and there was no one from the airline to help us. We couldn’t really go anywhere because the kids were exhausted. The line at customer service about a quarter mile away already had hundreds of people waiting anyway. Luckily Jeannie was really heads up on the phone as went off in search of food. United was offering to rebook people on a flight on Sunday, but she pushed and got us on a Delta flight for the next morning to Kennedy. Then we got a hotel room, a cab, and finally we got to crash for the night close to midnight. I guess we were pretty lucky. By the time Jeannie got off the phone, the Delta flight was full. By the time we got to the hotel, there were no more rooms available.

Saturday at dawn we were on the bus back to the airport thru raging wind and snow and our prospects looked pretty bleak. Luckily the snow turned to rain and then that lightened up, so when the plane took off on time it was a huge relief. When we got to NYC, we found out that our luggage was waiting for us at LaGuardia, so we swung by and picked it up on our way home. So all’s well that ends well.

But the most exciting part was landing at Denver in severe gusts of wind. Literally seconds before were about to land, the plane hit a huge air pocket and lurched down and to the side. For a moment I thought it was a particularly bumpy landing with a big bounce, but by the time I realized what was happening the plane was in a steep climb. We never actually touched down, although we came within a few feet or maybe even inches. It’s no exaggeration to say we almost crashed, and the quick reaction of the pilot probably saved us. About 45 minutes later the airport had changed the direction of the runways around and we did a second, successful landing. The whole cabin broke into applause.

New Skates

I bought a new pair of rollerblades last week.  My old ones are 17 years old and from another generation of rollerblade technology, and though they are well-nigh indestructible, they’re at the point where they need new wheels and bearings, and the boots are pretty worn anyway, having been repaired once already with duct tape.

I generally hate shopping (apart from our local grocery store, which is nice and small and easy to get around).  I don’t really understand how some people really enjoy it as a form or recreation; it’s usually a big pain.  I do as much shopping as I can over the internet, or just leave it others.  But some things you have to actually go to the store for.  I did some research online first, but rollerblade.com is one of the worst web sites I’ve ever seen.  No useful information, and hard to navigate and slow respond to boot.  Ah well, off I went to the gigantic mall one day on my lunch hour to the giant sports store.  The store was dead, no customers, but somehow the people who worked there were slow and unresponsive.  They had a whole wall of skates, so I asked a rep to explain to me why one is $50 and the other $300.  He has some vague ideas, but no real detailed technical knowledge.  His beeper went off, an he excused himself, saying he had to go help some other customer, and complaining he can’t get any time to himself.  “Well you are at work.”  I reminded him as he shambled off.

So looked thru the selection and tried on a few pairs and picked one that had a comfortable boot, no obvious design flaws, and cost $150, marked down to $100.  I got them home and tried them out on the street, and they worked nowhere as good as my old skates.  Much less maneuverability, much more friction.  The skates didn’t seem to roll and pick up speed on a gentle slope, which is a problem.

One big reason was the skates weren’t rockered.  Rockering is when you raise up your front and back wheels so that only two wheels touch the ground at once.  I originally rockered my skates up about 7 years back when I was playing alot of hockey.  At the time I also put on new high-performance axles and bearings, spacers and mounts.  Well, apparently rollerblade doesn’t make skates anymore that you can rocker, and the chassis on my new skates use a totally different system of parts that are not interchangeable.  What people do nowadays when they want to rocker their skates is put on different sized wheels.  So I ordered some smaller wheels and the other night I put them on the font and back, and while I was at it, I took out the middle wheels and oiled up all the bearings, and removed the brake.  There doesn’t seem to be any analogue in the new setup for the bearing spacers, which seems like a potential weakness down the road for stress and wear and tear, but there’s nothing to be done about it for now.  I supposed I could look into replacement axles in the future.

Yesterday I went out after work and the good news the performance is much better.  So on we go into a new season of skating.  I doubt we’ll get 17 years but we’ll see how these new skates hold up.

MTV Music

Some of the people in my new group at work came from the team that built the site mtvmusic.com.  It’s basically a video player with a library of thousands and thousands of music videos.  We had fun playing with it one night last weekend when Jeannie wanted to show our kids the original version of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, the Cindy Lauper hit from the 80’s recently covered by one of those modern teenybopper acts.  Once the video was over the site presented a list of related videos.  This led to a sort of scavenger hunt.  Jeannie and I spent hours clicking on links and touring videos from the early 1980’s.  Sort of an eclectic mix, and many things not in my usual listening genres these days, but it made sense in context.  David Lee Roth, Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Cars, Duran Duran, The Clash, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Van Halen, Stevie Nicks, Wang Chung, A-Ha, and on and on.  (No Prince, BTW.)  By the time we were thru, I remembered why watching music videos felt alot like drugs.

Skating Season Start

Another sign that spring is approaching is that the other day I was able to go out on my rollerblades after work, marking the official start of skating season.  The earlier shift to daylight saving time is good for something after all, allowing me to take advantage of a mild day.  Felt great after a whole winter of the Nordic Track. But I need new wheels and my skates are more than 15 years old and pretty beat up, so this spring might be time get new skates.

The next day it was cold and rainy. Lousy Smarch weather.

Update: the next day, today, the eve of the equinox, we had a freak but intense snow flurry.  Giant fluffy flakes.  I had to brush an inch or two of rapidly melting slush of my car this morning!

The Lamb Lies Down

You can forget what I said about forgetting what I said about spring coming.  This weekend it was unseasonably warm and mild.  Saturday I went ice skating with the girls and their scout troop, out on the rink in shirtsleeves.  Sunday was the official start of yard work season.  I took down the last of the Christmas lights, uncovered the fig tree, and raked the yard clear of old leaves, branches and debris.

Enter The Lion

You can forget what I said about spring being in hoping distance. We got walloped with an unseasonably late snowstorm yesterday. The endless winter continues.

Ironically, Sunday, the day before the storm, we went skiing. It had been a bit warm last week, so we were keeping an eye on the weather report, figuring this would probably be our last opportunity for the season. It was our third time this year, which is pretty good. We took the kids and everyone did a good job of getting up early, so we were at the mountain by 9:00. We put the girls in a lesson so Jeannie and I got the morning to ski on our own. It was a bit icy but not too bad. The girls both did great in their lessons. Lizzy is now skiing blue trails with confidence, although her style is not super aggressive. Michelle can make it down the bunny hill under good balance with control over her speed and direction. She’s ready to go up on the lift next time out.

It was a good time and we were glad we went. But Sunday evening we were checking the weather again and saw a major snowstorm was on the way that was not in the forecast the night before. Kind of late in the year for this sort of thing, and by morning the whole city was under a good 6″. School was cancelled and alot of people didn’t come into the office, so all my meetings were cancelled too and I might’ve just as well worked from home. Had we known, it would have been the perfect day to hit the slopes. Ah well.

Photo Galleries Update

One of things I like to do in the wintertime is update my photo galleries.  This year it’s taken a bit longer than usual because of moving into my new computer.  Here are three Family and Friends Foto galleries, going back all the way to last spring and bringing us up to date thru the first half of the summer.  As usual they are password protected, so if you are friends and family and need the password, please contact me.

http://zingman.com/fotooz/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-03/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-04/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-05/index.html