March 25th

Vic surprised Tilly and me getting home - we're used to hearing her drive up :o)

March 24th

Vic and I flew up to Auburn to meet Chris for breakfast.  While Vic went and put our name on the list at the grill, we talked to Jim, who owns the Quickie Q200 we keep seeing and gawping at.  It took some 16 years to build, but he's won all manner of awards, including a Lindy at Oshkosh.

After breakfast, Chris went home to play tennis, and we flew to Watts-Woodland.  The local GM dealer there was supposed to be meeting us at the airport with a Chevy Bolt, but somehow managed to go to Yolo.  After several phone calls, he arrived and we did the paperwork - Vic drove him back to the dealership, and then home, and I flew back to Lincoln (after talking to Mike, one of the local RV pilots, for about 20 minutes).  I was in the hangar talking to John when Vic got home to find that we hadn't thought to bring house keys or the garage door clicker - doy.  I offered to open the garage door from the airport using the "stupid little gadget" I'd installed a month or so ago, so all was well.

When I got home, we went out for a little drive so I could see how the car handles (it's a couple of years since I last drove one).  I managed to go around the long block without using the brakes once, as I had it in the max regen mode.  Yay :o)  It's going to take a little getting used to for both of us, as it's a totally different sight picture than the Jeep.  Or the van.  I'm going to get a level 2 charger at some point, but for now it looks like we'll be able to get by with the 110v charger.

Jen came over on her way home from work to pick up some Game of Thrones DVDs, join us for dinner (we drove - we usually take her Golf as it's easier to all get in and out of), then sit in the hot tub with Vic before I turned it off for the summer.

When we got back from dinner, I plugged the car in, and it said it'd be fully charged in about 5 hours - we probably won't use it much more than it got used today most of the time.

March 23rd

I went over to help Chris with some tinkering on his gyro - it was a little screwed up from the start, as he didn't have the card key to get in to the airport, so we used the pedestrian gate and carried tools down to the hangar.  We then found that he didn't have a scissor jack to get the plane up in the air to take one wheel off (to turn the tyre around).  We also didn't have a jiggle hose to empty the fuel tank - I'd originally suggested we use the fuel pumps on the plane, but we tried siphoning it out for a bit, then went and got a hand pump.  When that looked like it'd take all damn day, we plugged the hose we already had in to the fuel line and pumped the tank out.  We then changed the fuel filter.  Score 1.  Interestingly we both thought the tank would have a couple of unusable gallons in the bottom, but when we took out the drain, we found maybe a cupful left inside.  We replaced the (leaking) drain.  Score 2.  We then pulled the dash out, as the oil temperature probe has been playing up, and Dayton had suggested it was a connection problem.  We couldn't see anything wrong, so we went out to lunch and got some electrolytic grease and neoprene washers, then put washers under the larger instrument mounting screws (where they're starting to crack the carbon fibre panel), then put everything back together.  Well, it still runs, and everything still seems to work.

While I was at Cameron Park, the remaining Jeep parts were collected, so yay.

March 21st

Well, the Jeep's gone.  Paul texted me and said they wanted to surprise their daughter (who the car's for), so they were going to pretend they were coming to me to pick up a car part.  They knocked on the door, Tilly barked, I said "let me come out, so she doesn't bother everybody" and we wandered out to the drive, where the Jeep was parked.  I opened the garage door, and pointed at the pile o' stuff from the Jeep, and Paul asked his daughter what she thought of the Jeep.  She said it was cool, so I gave her the keys and said "here, have it".  She was like "whatever" until they said it was hers, at which point she pretty much collapsed on the floor :o)  She and her mother drove of in it, and Paul and I did the paperwork, then he left to join them at lunch.  Yay.

March 20th

I agreed the sale of the Jeep - basically they're buying it as a gift for their daughter, so they want us to hang on to it until the weekend.  Sure, we can do that.

March 19th

I got up early and advertised the Jeep.  I started getting interest almost immediately, which is a good sign :o)

In the evening we finished tidying it up, and took all our stuff out of it.

March 18th

We spent some time cleaning the Jeep up and getting it ready to sell.  Yes, it's been almost 9 years, so it's time for something more practical :o)