(no subject)

Super-mechanic Juan was here today to look to look at my parents' car that has been out of service since the winter. (Verdict; It's dead, Jim.) Since he was here, he examined the Lumina too. The underlying front-end problem that was making my tire wear unevenly is, according to him, that when the tire shop did the alignment before putting the new tires on, they failed to tighten the jam nut on the passenger side tie rod. That is aggravating. But when I called they immediately offered to replace the tire, so I am somewhat mollified.

So I have to drive up to Oak Creek on Friday after work. Another annoyance.

I didn't make it too far on the brakes. I need a big Torx bit I don't have to get the rotors off the steering knuckle, plus it began looking like major rain was coming. Juan offered to let me come over to his place after school tomorrow and use his tools in his driveway, which I'm taking him up on. Yay!

Even more amazing, Juan is willing to monkey with my car to get it to pass emissions testing again. And told me again that I didn't need to pay him for the parts he gave me last time, but no way was that going to fly.

All my time this week is getting swiftly eaten away. Car stuff today. Car stuff tomorrow. Doctor appointment Thursday. Car stuff on Friday. But I am, at least getting things done.

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We had a nice couple come in to the archives today whose families have been in the area for a long time. One was looking for information about her great grandparents' schools. It made me very happy to get her the right collection to look through and that she found their names in school censuses from the late 19th century. Yay!

Vintage Hi-fi Hardware Makes Me Happy

One bit of wonderful. I hadn't taken the vintage Marantz receiver that my uncle fixed up for me out of the car until this evening due to a combination of rain and business. Now that I've got it in the house I have to rhapsodize over how gorgeous it looks. This unit looks like it came right out of the factory! Not only did he replace the broken speaker jacks, loose antenna, and missing power button (with a perfect match!), he even replaced all the lamps that illuminate the radio dial and signal meter on the face. When I turn it on, the classic eight-inch-long radio dial lights up in soft green, and the indicator needle shines bright and white in front of it.

Speaking of the radio dial, he greased the track the needle slides on too. I think the grease solidified a little in transit; I had to take the cabinet off and give it a little nudge to get it to move with the tuning dial, but it's working wonderfully now. This is no digital tuning system. This unit has an analog tuner, using a cord attached to the smooth, heavy dial that both moves the indicator needle physically across the display, and operates the variable capacitor that accomplishes signal discrimination. With the cabinet off, I can rotate the tuning dial and actually watch the gears attached to the capacitor assembly turn, and see all the rotors slide slowly in between the stators. It's elegant. I may try to make a video of it.

In short, this is a gorgeous machine. I haven't used it in years, and I'm so excited to have it back and in working order! I'm so grateful for all the work!

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As I talked with a friend who's planning to come with me about what Chicago Naked Bike Ride was like, I realized a video might be really helpful. I easily found a bunch on Youtube; definitely more than were around when I was looking soon after the event last year.

When I was looking before, I couldn't find any that I recognizably appeared in. Well, now I can. *laughs* But I won't tell you where in the video; you can look yourself, if you really want to know.

(In case the word naked isn't a good enough indicator, this video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK [or anywhere else you'd prefer not to see silly naked people] due to nudity taboos.)

Watch on YouTube

I'll be doing this again in 25 days! And with that, I'm off to bed.