Car Related Quarantine Things To Do?

"M.T. Blake" (autohabit)
03/17/2020 at 10:15 • Filed to: automotive philosophy, passing the time, covid-19, ideas

This is how I imagine most of us right now.

The sky is falling! Economies are getting crushed. People are dying. We are living in unprecedented times. Now that you’re encouraged to stay at home, whatever shall we do? I have a few ideas to keep the oil flowing through your blood.

There is nothing more annoying than being forced encouraged to stay home. We have not evolved to a point where people can stop spreading the filth and disease so pervasive throughout history. We will overcome this, but in the meantime, we need to fill our time to distract ourselves from the inevitable mild virus you will probably catch.

1. The Project Car You ‘Never Had Time’ To Finish

When I tore into the interior it gave me anxiety for how much work it needed - thankfully it wasn’t too bad after all.

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy automotive related projects. What better time to catch up on the long-standing junker on blocks than now?! I know many of you have something laying around, with parts galore to install. If you’re stuck at home, why not dust off the parts and start putting the old street machine back together?

2. Play Video Games All-Day!

I bought Gran Turismo Sport months ago and haven’t had much time to play it at all. Not only am I encouraged not to walk around town coughing, or fulfill that sudden urge to travel, but in my neck of the woods, it’s raining. Today is the time I buy that R34 Skyline and really learn the proper line at Laguna Seca. Or maybe revisit some classics from childhood... Road Rash for Genesis anyone?!

3. Read a Book (or Service Manual)

While it isn’t this bad yet, I have a large bookshelf with mostly unread books.

There are plenty of excellent automotive-related novels, but maybe you’re the type who only wants to read manuals. This is the perfect time to diagnose that weird issue you could never figure out, or even go online and get ideas for your project car. By the end of this worldwide pandemic, you might be a professional consumer after all the reading and research you’ve done.

4. Virtually Plan Your Next Trip

Anyone want to take bets on the likelihood of the author going to Japan next month?!

I have a secret fetish for maps. There I said it. The first step in addressing a problem is admitting it right? Google Maps and Street View have become one of my top sites to visit anytime I’m planning a trip, or curious about some site, hotel, road, etc. There are plenty of places that people tag online, but there has been a trend to NOT tag locations to prevent the masses from ruining them. What a great time to find that next travel gem than now?!

5. Join a Forum and Contribute

Lots of places online to fill with some butts. First forum I found was twinturbo.net - it’s still one of the best.

With your new-found time, and expertise working on the project car to pay it forward. How many times have you run into an issue only to find some excellent soul who posted the ‘How to’ online? Be the ball and do this too. You have plenty of knowledge, time, and experience, we need you to help us! What better time than any to post about the ‘hidden dash fasteners in a 1992 Nissan 300zx’?

6. Get Outdoors

There should be a sign below it that says, “The next 1/4 mile will take 30 minutes”.

I didn’t say ‘travel. I said get outdoors. Go see the great outdoors, but let’s stick to the wildness in your backyard. I happen to live in the sticks so it’s easy for me - probably not the case with many of you. I’ve been wanting to test out my new 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road, and there isn’t a better time than now! What better way to pass the time and NOT be around people?

What do you plan to do to pass the time?! I know I’ve got a few things to get settled in my garage.

DISCUSSION (34)

DipodomysDeserti > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:24

“ What do you plan to do to pass the time?!”

Since I’m still being paid, I’m expected to continue to do my job. What is this “time” you speak of?

66P1800inpieces > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:25

Speaking of maps of China, there is a a great YouTube short on why all the maps are off a couple hundred feet for security reasons.

shop-teacher > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:29

Building Lego, fixing my house, playing games with my kids, making E-learning curriculum for my students. Those are filling my days.

I may do a bit of work on my truck too.

We definitely need to get outside today, while it’s sunny. It’s been chilly and damp, and it’s supposed to rain for the next three days.

Oh, hopefully I can tinker with that Chinese dirt bike my neighbor gave me!

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:43

I would start with “clean my car so it doesn’t look like a hoarder’s nest” but alas, I still have to go to work.

vondon302 > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:49

Time off? My works a zoo today. A month off sounds great right now.

TheRealBicycleBuck > DipodomysDeserti
03/17/2020 at 10:53

I’m in your boat. Deadlines still loom. My boss sent out some encouragement this morning: “The vast majority of the team is able and willing to work from home/remotely. This will require an increased level of communications and extra effort to collaborate. Under the circumstances, there is no such thing as over communicating. We are very fortunate as a firm that thus far there has been little to no interruption in our business and we can proceed in providing exceptional services to our clients.”

So, that’s what I’m doing. Providing exceptional service to our clients. And posting on Oppo....

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 10:55

Don’t forget to refresh Jalopnik, and Oppo every 30 seconds to see if there’s something new to see.

Kiltedpadre > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:00

I’m still working so the only time I’m gaining is the time I’m no longer using to get out and do things in the evenings and on weekends where other people are around.

I’ve ordered a few things to do some organizing in my garage. That will then lead to clearing out the crap the previous owners of the house left behind in the attic. Which will lead to moving items currently in the garage to the attic. Then that will result in using a couple freed up shelving units to organize my son’s closet and the spare bedroom. I need to get a small storage shed to move lawn tools into. If I find one that’ll work it’ll be a huge help to freeing up valuable wall space in the garage for bike storage.

I need to clear out some brush before it really starts to sprout, but the local yard waste disposal place is among the things closed for at least the next month. It’s very inconvenient because it’s only open 6 days a month to the public anyway, but I don’t want a pile of brushing sitting around forever.

Manny05x > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:06

I had surgery on my left foot from a car accident, i’ve been ahead of the curve for a while now. I do plan to fire up the old gaming pc and im building an outdoor grill.

M.T. Blake > DipodomysDeserti
03/17/2020 at 11:16

The “time” I speak of is that which you DON’T spend at work.

The covid-19 pandemic hasn’t slowed down my 9 to 5 train at all either.

M.T. Blake > 66P1800inpieces
03/17/2020 at 11:16

I will watch this!

M.T. Blake > shop-teacher
03/17/2020 at 11:17

The weather has caused my kids to turn into rabid wolverines. It’s survival of the fittest in here.

wafflesnfalafel > TheRealBicycleBuck
03/17/2020 at 11:18

exactly right - some of my clients need me more right now than at any other time previously... A bad and a good thing. But our VPN is getting awfully jenky and I am a bit worried...

M.T. Blake > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
03/17/2020 at 11:19

I hear you. Even when a quarantine hits, I’ll still be at work...

M.T. Blake > vondon302
03/17/2020 at 11:20

Do you get days off?

So many people have said the same... including me. There is always the ‘travel discouraged’ and ‘nothings open’ weekends!

M.T. Blake > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
03/17/2020 at 11:20

The FRIDGE too!

M.T. Blake > Kiltedpadre
03/17/2020 at 11:22

Exactly.

I wonder how many people are going to get the H antavirus or black plague from all the rodent droppings inhaled from attic projects.

If someone with COVID-19 gets either of those together... ZOMBIE OUTBREAK!!!!

M.T. Blake > Manny05x
03/17/2020 at 11:24

Bummer about the surgery! Post up details when you get time! Gaming PC stuff is usually a fun topic around here...

DipodomysDeserti > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:24

I need one of these 9-5 gigs.

M.T. Blake > DipodomysDeserti
03/17/2020 at 11:25

They’re more lucrative too when someone calls those hours a “career” .

vondon302 > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:25

U nfortunately our vacation calendar year starts in may and all I got left is one day. That’s part of the problem if anyone had any time left they took it.

I am thinking of getting the Boss out of storage this weekend though.

DipodomysDeserti > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:29

I’ve been told teaching is a “ career”, but after seven years am pretty skeptical of these claims.

TheRealBicycleBuck > wafflesnfalafel
03/17/2020 at 11:33

We’ve always had issues with large datasets over VPN when connecting to our cloud services (housed in Colorado) from Louisiana. We even have problems connecting out Baton Rouge and New Orleans offices. During Katrina, the fiber optics between the two were cut and never replaced. They ran down the I-10 bridge which had multiple sections fail. Now connections run to Houston before making the reverse trip to New Orleans.

Our solution was to create virtual machines on a server sharing the backplane with the data. The remote desktop connection over VPN isn’t nearly as demanding as a direct link to the data. The VMs have all of the geospatial, CAD, and modeling software we need. N ow we can set up a model run and let it run while continuing to work on other tasks on our local computer.

M.T. Blake > DipodomysDeserti
03/17/2020 at 11:38

Doesn’t it get better with tenure?

RPM esq. > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:44

7. Go drive around unusually empty streets.

But for me: mostly no. 2, a little no. 6.

DipodomysDeserti > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:45

Public schools here don’t pay enough for me even to consider teaching in them.

M.T. Blake > RPM esq.
03/17/2020 at 11:48

That’s getting outdoors for the city folk.

I wish I hadn’t finished all my projects a couple weeks ago. It is cold AF outside so maybe it’s a good thing?

TheRealBicycleBuck > 66P1800inpieces
03/17/2020 at 11:57

This was an interesting video. It reminds me of the days of “Selective Availability” where the military fed random error into the GPS signal. They were thwarted by people with base stations who were feeding near-real-time correction data to people in the field or were correcting the error with post-processing after the GPS data was collected. Selective availability is still used to degrade the signal when the satellites are over hostile countries. Data correction algorithms are still used to provide improved geolocation services on hand-held GPS units and in your car and phone.

The random error they discuss in the video can be circumvented if someone were to spend enough time to reverse-engineer their algorithm by comparing correct locations to erroneous location on the chinese coordinate system. I’m sure the geospatial intelligence community has already done this.

Nothing > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 11:59

I’ve got plenty of little garage organization things I can take care of, and the wife’s Jeep needs a full detail, so those are a couple of things to deal with car related. I told me wife the other day that a project car would be perfect right now.

I’d go for a hike, but that appears to be the plan for everyone here, regardless of how remote you go. I took the dog for a walk yesterday evening, and there were more people out for walks than I’ve ever seen since I’ve lived in this neighborhood.

Weekend drives are a plan for me, at least. And if we happen upon an area we want to explore a bit that doesn’t seem packed, we’ll hop out and check it out.

ranwhenparked > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 12:00

Go visit a car museum in West Virginia (Cliff’s or McLaughlin), since they’re not quarantined yet.

Kind of considering taking the 6 hour drive out to the Greenbrier for dinner and drinks, might be a fun day trip. Haven't been there in awhile

66P1800inpieces > TheRealBicycleBuck
03/17/2020 at 13:02

Interesting insight. The last bid about reverse engineering the algorithm reminds me of the story about the slot machine model that doesn’t have perfect randomization and you can use a couple of spins to determine what the next reels will show. It was a recent Radiolab (or similar podcast) , might have been a rebroadcast. Turns out the machines are still in use, they just closely watch to make sure you are not timing your bets.

Sovande > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 13:07

I just installed a new break master cylinder in my El Camino and then proceeded to break the bleed nipple off the front caliper. So I took it to the shop to have them deal with it. So far car related projects have cost me about $300 and I’m only two days in to “working from home.” I’m going to go broke. Upside is the car will be able to stop just as well as it goes, so that'll be fun.

fintail > M.T. Blake
03/17/2020 at 13:19

For years I have been meaning to create a spreadsheet inventory of my diecast collection. I think I am going to do it. Car-related, too.

M.T. Blake > fintail
03/17/2020 at 16:38

Excellent idea! I did that with my Legos a couple years ago.