Monday, February 27, 2017

February 25th

We (including Tilly) went to Sacramento for a van meetup.  Tilly was wiped out by the time we came home :o)

February 20th

Today was President's Day, when Americans celebrate George Washington's birthday by going shopping.

It was wet and blowy, so I celebrated George Washington's birthday by playing Warcraft.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

February 18th

The weather's pretty crappy, so all I achieved today was posting my state taxes (I submitted the Federal stuff online).

February 15th

The last tax form was posted, so I got my taxes finished.  Thanks to the £'s drop in value due to the Brexit, I'll be getting a refund from the Feds and the state this year :o)

February 12th

I spent the day farting around on the computer, then went flying, where I flew over the Feather Rive to see how the flooding looks at the moment.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

February 11th

The highlight of my day was changing the oil in the Jeep - I did some other minor tweaks while I was looking at it.

In the evening, we watched "Sully" - an entertaining enough film, but massively inaccurate about the role of the NTSB.

Friday, February 10, 2017

February 10th

I took the van over for a wheel alignment.  It was steering to the right, and the tyres were making scuffing noises, so I'm glad the road was wet, and it's only a few miles to the alignment place.  It took an hour or so, and everything's great now.

February 9th

I went out into the garage, mounted the speed cable to the dust cover, and installed that on the van.  Then I bled up the brake caliper on that side (all the brake fluid had run out of the open line), and reinstalled the wheel.  Then I put all the tools away and took the van off the axle stand for the first time in weeks and weeks.  I took the van out for a short drive, and it seemed OK, with a little scrubbing on the tyres.  I've made an appointment for a wheel alignment :o)

February 8th

When Vic had left for work (so I had the space), I went out and mounted the hub, disc and caliper to the van.  Sadly, the mount for the brake line wouldn't mount like it had on the old upper ball joint, so I had to wait for Vic to get home to help me take the ball joint mounting bolt off and put the brake line bracket underneath it, then put it all back on again.  We then struggled, and eventually managed, to get the brake line connected to the caliper.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

February 7th

Once it had warmed up a little, I went out into the garage and tidied up the spindle, masked it off and threw some Rustoleum paint on it. While waiting for that to dry, I turned down an old bearing race and used it as a drift to mount the races in the hub.  Then I went inside and watched a movie while killing time.  I went back out, and mounted the lower ball joint on the ball joint adapter, but I didn't think that the ball joint would rotate on itself - luckily there's an 11mm straight edge so you can hold the ball joint still while tightening it up.  I found the tie rod end and the upper ball joint had a 5mm Allen fitting, and got the tie rod done, but not the upper ball joint as I just couldn't get everything to line up.  I greased up the bearings and put them in the hub, then waited for Vic to get home so I could get a hand to mount the upper ball joint.  Progress is being made :o)

February 6th

I've taken the week off to stop me capping out my holiday.

I checked The Green Button forum, and people are starting to see guide data appear in Windows Media Center.  I started an update, and lo and behold, it worked.  I like it when I don't really have to do anything :o)

I ran Vic to work in the rainstorm so I'd have the use of the Jeep, and she wouldn't get soaked riding in.

Tony has a hydraulic press, so I went over to press out the ball joint I need to replace on the spindle for the van.  It's tricky to get the thing all lined up, so he ended up just hitting everything with a large lump hammer to get it all apart, and tapping the new ball joint in with a drift made from a piece of steel tube.  Hey, it works :o)

I was almost on the freeway when he called to say his lunch appointment had cancelled, so I turned around and headed back.  We picked up Bruce and went to lunch.

At home, I got the ball joint adapter back on the van, and put the new bearings in the freezer to make them easier to fit.

I even remembered to pick Vic up from work :o)

We watched "Seventh Son" in the evening.

February 5th

The weather sucked, and I'm out of things I can do on the van for the moment, so I pretty much wasted the day.

There's been a problem with the Windows Media Center guide download for the last few week, and I've been following progress on The Green Button forum.  It's funny that the first few pages are people talking about the problem, workarounds, what they've done, then there are 10 pages of people saying "me too" and whining about Microsoft when if they'd read the whole thread, they'd have seen it's a Rovi problem that's affecting Microsoft.  They've just noticed because WMC popped up and told them they only had 3 days of guide data left.  Anyway, here's hoping they get it fixed before it runs out on Tuesday so I don't have to spend Tuesday figuring out EPG123.

In the evening, we watched "The Huntsman: Winter'sWar".

February 4th

I started the day at the airport cooking breakfasts - the weather was crappy, but Tim's Carbon Cub was out of the hangar for maintenance, so we didn't have to feel bad about it sitting in the rain.

We ran about picking stuff up and running errands.  We stopped by the Chevy dealer, as their website shows that they have an orange Bolt, but they don't have an orange Bolt.

I picked up a ball joint splitter, and found that it wasn't big enough to fit the ball joint I wanted to split with it, so I went and swapped it for a pickle fork - a split wedge chisel, basically.  We used that and broke one ball joint on the van out, but I couldn't get it to work on the other one I wanted to split.  Oh well.

Friday, February 3, 2017

February 2nd

I got Vic's taxes all ready to go.  I'm still waiting for stuff so I can do mine, and it looks like that'll be another couple of weeks.  FML.

February 1st

A new month, so here are the stats:
Power billed

Power generated








In the evening, I went to the EAA board meeting.  Looks like we'll need to find another place for these, as Pizza Round-Up's probably closing soon.