Ah The Weekend

"Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness" (long-voyager-2nd-edition) 06/10/2019 at 12:03 • Filed to: Weekend, weekend wrenching, Mopar, Acclaim

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Time to do more work than I do all week at work.........

Not really, was pretty lazy this weekend. I managed to remove the LEDs from the front of the car and install my Catz lights in their place, quite happy with the result:

I did that after I started into fixing an exhaust leak that cropped up over winter. It was finally getting bad enough to affect my mileage and get some exhaust fume in the car (thankfully it’s been windows down season!), so it was time to fix it. It was the gasket where the front manifold drops into the crossover pipe, right up front, easy fix.

Or so I thought. The bolts had essentially welded themselves to the nuts thanks to all the hot/cold cycles, so just unbolting was not an option. This led to needing to cut the bolts out. The top bolt was easy, other than blowing up my cutoff wheel when it let go. This of course left me without a cut off wheel to get the bottom bolt done, so I went for my trusty Sawzall. Of course the bolt had been hardened, again from all the hot/cold cycles, so the Sawzall was useless. So I hung it up for the night.

We went to the farmer’s market Saturday morning, got a few things, best of all was the little Indonesian food truck that I grabbed “brunch” from. Then we did our weekend shopping, for which I had prepared the van. I removed the middle bench and moved the rear bench forward so we could all still fit, but had a huge cargo area. When we got home we had 3 window fans, a 42" tower fan, a 26" bicycle (not broken down), numerous other things from Menards (cutoff wheels being among them), our jogging stroller, plus groceries for the week all in the back of the van. Unloaded the van, then went back to finish up the car.

With the new cutoff wheel on the grinder, I set off in a game of “I Win”. I cut off the other bolt, removed the remnants of old gasket, installed a new MLS gasket (which you can’t buy anymore, thankfully I had one laying around), then installed new bolts:

Nice little sludge spray on the head thanks to the exhaust leak/running rich

With that all fixed, we went over to our friend’s shed to grill out and chill around a fire.

Yesterday was spent cleaning house, going to a Graduation party (where a Badminton tournament became a thing), then coming home and chilling.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 12:09

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I have no weekend updates on any car things.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/10/2019 at 12:19

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Slacker?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 12:29

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Well, I did put back up a satellite dish that had come loose from its moorings. It was full of ants. So, I spent ten or fifteen minutes between rainstorms being dripped on, sweating, on a ladder, covered with about a hundred ants. Yay.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/10/2019 at 12:37

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That sounds........not fun. 

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 12:40

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Came into the house and the pupper was all “oh, your legs are wet? and salty? and covered in ants and bark and leaves and taste like formic acid?”

*LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/10/2019 at 12:42

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Post bath bath, always the best.

Reminds me how strangely  enjoyable it is to have a dog that doesn’t lick.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 13:09

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This one has a strange tweak in her psychology where she thinks that people petting her are doing something equivalent to licking. Therefore, if you pet her or if she thinks you need petting (?), LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK

The impulse where she was contrary and wanted to lick people’s faces particularly if restrained from doing so seems to have died down. Oy.

Fuckkinja > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 14:57

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Getting close on my jet boat project. Should be in a river by the weekend. The hull covers are going to be painted as a US flag.

I need help with a name for the boat.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 06/10/2019 at 16:15

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Our dog has to be one of the weirdest dogs I’ve ever encountered.

He doesn’t lick, he doesn’t bark, he’s an extremely picky eater, he’s indifferent to kids, he’s terrible on a leash but will walk right next to you without one ( well would before he went blind thanks to diabetes ), he enjoys spending his day moving from one place to lay to another with some short bouts of play in between.

To make things stranger, he is a Jack R ussel/B lue H eeler cross, meaning he is 2 extremely energetic dogs mixed together.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness 06/10/2019 at 16:39

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Ours is a Blue Heeler. Shockingly (not). Gotten to replace another Blue Heeler who was very quiet, largely on the basis of her also being very quiet, as a puppy. She doesn’t bark much, except when she is inside and sees a robin in the lawn outside. Something about robins. Berserk.

Or, as this dog is referred to by my less than two year old niece, in a confused, concerned, and contemplative voice: “Oh, doggo”.

I used to allege our old dog had mastered rudimentary tool use, because he would push a hand scratching him in the direction it was required, with a paw. Sadly became paralyzed on one side after a stroke or something, at ~14 years old.