Independence Day

Most likely one of the most unproductive independence day weekends on record.

We had some ideas,

more importantly time was spent hanging out with the kids

I got them hooked on frisbee up at the local park...

A fun way to burn some energy.

Got Macey up on a 20" stingray.

She got into it while I wrenched away in the garage.

The first time up the big hill in Point Loma...

Its a stingray family!

Good excuse to bring out the old bombers.

They've been hanging for over a year.

So yeah simple times are good times...

TP

Mountain Water

My craigslist hunting goes in waves.

It's all luck,

no search apps teasing of missed deals.

Last Sunday this thing popped up.

Just so ya know,

As a seller it's not the best technique 

to post an ad at 9pm with your phone number!

What to do?

I texted with no reply,

figuring there were a dozen other scroungers bothering the poor guy.

The next morning after another text I lost hope,

Oh well.

Then after noon I got lucky and was the chosen one!

I did use a secret trick to seal the deal...

Original owner with the original box!

For 1979 this was in really good shape,

and even came with never installed rack mount handles.

A good excuse to peak at the inside.

Really clean,

the only issue a dent on the top case.

This Sansui au-719 is 90 watts per channel,

usually measuring to 110-120.

This is an integrated amp,

a connected preamp,

no tuner like a receiver.

They were known to cheese out on the construction,

no covers for the dual transformers,

and no mini shields for the boards,

compared to the earlier au-717.

Tested out great for a couple hours,

and now it's in rotation with he big Klipsch La Scala's.

More crispy goodness!

Almost too much for our little room!

TP

Tin Can Alley

Tried to take the cradle robber for a quick spin yesterday

Poor car wasn't to thrilled to be neglected for a couple weeks,

Then expect to just get up and go.

The banger took some time to warm up,

more importantly it took the last bit of gas in the tank.

I got up the alley,

and a new sound appeared.

While it sounded like the exhaust pipe fell off,

It was only a small hole.

A good reason to take the kids off weed duty,

and show them a quick fix.

There's a reason to stash all those old hose clamps.

Emptied out some of the smashed up out of round ones.

Jakob knew right away what was going on.

Sounded like a new muffler!

That's how we do it...

TP

Silent Victory

Wow,

What a weekend.

Absolutely nothing exciting was accomplished.

Didn't go to born free 6,

or the antique nationals.

Strangely enough it was one of the most relaxing weekends in over a year.

Last week our awesome neighbors decided to not only sell their house,

but also move away!

It became so normal to be on guard,

to be stalked whenever we'd go outside.

Who videos a kid skateboarding, weeding or working on a bike?

Who cusses at 12 year old kids?

The last straw may have been last month.

He did the lawn thing again.

I wrote a letter.

Instead of mailing it like last time,

I taped it to our fence.

I also taped it to his door.

Yeah maybe a dick move.

Thing is,

I mailed the last letter,

and they denied it.

So this time I wanted to make sure.

Well 45 minutes later the police arrived.

Two cop cars,

4 cops...

We can hear some ranting and raving.

I got all our paperwork ready to explain our situation.

20 minutes...maybe 25...

Cops leave.

Never knocked on the door!

After at least 8 police visits, 3 code enforcement inspections, 2 property management walk throughs, a complaint letter directly to our home owner, months of video surveillance, multiple threats of harassment suits...

I'm hoping their house sells,

but for now a vacant house is so peaceful!

TP

Junkyard Dog

Some people choose their daily drivers by comfort or performance.

There's another factor in our equation.

The junkyard.

If your gonna have an Armageddon vehicle,

cheap plentiful parts is key!

The check engine light was glowing on the wife's car.

Thankfully she warned me early on,

the car had a shudder and the light would blink.

Holey Chit...

With some family troubleshooting help,

The first thing checked was the fuel filter.

 I could barely blow through it.

Easy fix!

Nope...

It did seem to drive better,

but there was another gremlin.

After reading the manual and researching online,

the problem was one of 24 things.

For $20,

a local shop ran a diagnostic.

First time at a mechanic in 20 years!

Supposedly there's an OBD2 code reader that plugs into an iPhone,

I may look into that.

A definite timesaver,

the code pinpointed the problem to a misfire on cylinder 4,

The Ford 4.6 uses a separate ignition coil for each cylinder,

a trick design,

however they do burn out.

It was time to make a judgement call.

The part isn't really expensive,

$45-75 depending on the brand,

but there was a principle to uphold.

Our Mercury Grand Marquis was picked for multiple  reasons,

lotsa space,

and mass produced for cheaper parts.

The Ford Crown Victoria is used as taxis and cop cars.

There are literally tons of them at the junkyards.

We had to go.

The perfect donor was found,

a beat up P71 police interceptor.

Definitely on my next car to own list,

these are built way beefier then our cruiser.

I hoped a government car would have had better servicing then an old taxi.

The remaining coils were tested and pirated,

a whopping $60 for 5,

including the rubber boots!

Motorcraft brand not aftermarket junk.

Here's the bummer.

I really wanted Jakob to check out the place,

but no minors were allowed inside.

He was a trooper though and napped for the 20 minutes.

We had a good cruise regardless.

I ended up swapping out a couple coils.

The car ran great for the test drive.

So far our $1800 car has given us about 20k miles,

and besides 2 smog checks and a couple oil changes,

this was the first issue.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

TP

Klunker

Many years ago my Dad got the ultimate Christmas gift.

A shiny new Columbia 3-star bicycle.

This was around 1953 or so.

The Korean War was on,

every family lived like "Leave it to Beaver".

We found these pics in the early 90's.

At the time I was into these old klunkers,

and somehow dug one up..

We staged the shots in front of the same house,

45 or so years later...

I need to find the others pics with my grandparents.

Come to find out,

My Dad never really liked that bike!

He really wanted the new lighter European style 3-speed.

Totally understandable,

the Point Loma area is built on a series of hills and canyons!

This one rode like a tank.

TP

solving the Rubik's cube

Here's a throwback time-waster from my school days.

Who needs algorithms to solve these things.

Jakob couldn't quite figure it out,

so I showed him an old trick.

Sure you can learn fancy algorithms,

studying different methods.

Hey it's fixed right!?

TP