(no subject)

It was a long day yesterday. A good one though.


--CAR STUFF--
Juan arrived to help with the car around ten. He swapped out the front passenger wheel bearing. The parts store gave him the wrong seal (this car is cursed, I tell you) and he had to reuse the old one. While he was at his shop doing sandblasting and pressing the bearings in and out, I removed the air conditioning system. I think I took out about thirty pounds of condenser, accumulator, compressor, tubing, and bracket. Not only was there no pressure in the A/C system, but the clutch on the compressor was frozen solid. Not worth repairing everything even if I wanted to.

Now that I've taken out the air conditioning condenser, I can see the radiator much better. It's so small! It only goes about halfway across the engine bay. I'm going to get some vinyl or something and build a grill block that I can fold over between full and half. That will cut down air resistance, and in the winter will warm the engine up to temperature faster.

I've also removed the cold air intake hose so the engine is pulling in hot air from the engine compartment. Hot air intake will reduce power and make the engine run leaner, and therefore more efficiently. Plans for the future include possibly removing the passenger side mirror and trying to figure out some more weight reduction possibilities. Including weight reduction of the driver! I also have to find a replacement headlight assembly as I broke a retainer on one trying to get the A/C stuff out. Oops.

I also found that the radiator is missing about a quarter of its fins, and the ones still there are inclined to just kind of fall out with a little nudging. That's going to need to be replaced before next summer. I'm not too worried about it in the upcoming winter, but I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the temperature gauge this year.
--CAR STUFF--

After finishing up with the car, posicat arrived to hang out for a while. The two of us went out to the quarter wash in my car where I hosed Perseverance down, then opened up the hood and washed the engine. I did that lightly as, despite Juan's reassurance, I was concerned about wetting something I shouldn't. The car looks much nicer now though, and I affixed my NASA "I need my space" bumper sticker to the clean rear bumper. Yay!

Then we went to the local Goodwill, where Posi hit the jackpot. He's a laserdisc aficionado, and loves finding a few laserdiscs at thrift stores to go through. Goodwill yesterday had, literally, three or four hundred of them! He found about thirty that had to go home with him. For my part, I found four that had to go home with him too! Things I *really* wanted, but I don't have a player for. My heart aches to think of all of them that may not find homes. These seem to have been from a storehouse or something. They were all in fantastic shape, all of them were in protective plastic sleeves, and they ranged over every imaginable genre, including things like Dolby surround test discs and smaller-packaged discs of music videos. I was floored.

He and I drove out to Tazino's for dinner, then out to the lake and to Carthage just to wander. He had the idea of seeing Iron Man 2, and after a little thought about spending the money, figured it would be worth it for the company and entertainment. Alas, we missed the last showing and we went back to the house where he dropped me off and headed home. It was really great to see him, and I think there will be a lot of laserdisc watching in our future.

When I got back, I found that Devin and Michelle were already here, so the three of us chatted and watched Youtube anime until I finally got to bed around one-thirty. It was really nice to see Michelle again too.

Looks like plans for seeing an abandoned factory with synicism are off today due to inclement weather. I'm stuck where I am though because Juan may come by to replace the exhaust on Perseverance. (I'd planned to take the train to Chicago to allow the car to be there for him.) So I think I'm going to do some laundry, and see where fate takes me from there. Maybe some Civ IV with akreaveter.

I'm really, really sore today. In fact, I'm having a little trouble typing. This is another reason I can't be a mechanic. A few hours after lifting heavy things, or turning really stubborn fasteners, my arms, especially my left (where the decade old break in my wrist give me problems anyway) start feeling sore and heavy. This turns into a predictable muscle-aching soreness the next day. I have my wrist brace on, and will try to avoid doing much of anything with it in the hope it will be better tomorrow.