I've fitted the new clock, too, but the dashboard is still out, seeing as half of the little light bulbs in it are blown. I also cleaned the faces of the clocks, while I could get to them.

I then went to the airfield and fed some wires through the wings of the plane, and put the regulator / rectifier on with the bracket I'd cobbled together for that purpose. Now I just need to get the lights all soldered to the wires, and it's done :o)

I then went and picked up Chloe from Debbie's.

While I was there, I drilled some holes in the plane and started fitting the LED navigation lights I've had sitting in the kitchen for weeks.

I then went and spent the rest of the day at the SPCA.

I've pulled off all of the seals on the pop-top, so I had to go around and remove all the old glue that the previous owner had used to hold it on. Fun.

When I got home, I walked Chloe around the block, then settled in to play a little World of Warcraft with all the new toys Jason's sent me from his higher level character. I'm currently at level 20, which isn't too bad. A lot of the time, when I'm playing there aren't that many other people on, which makes it harder to get groups to do quests.

All was going swimmingly until somewhere to the South started having a fireworks display. That always cheers Chloe up - she ends up a quivering wreck under the desk in the office while I'm working, or more or less on my lap if I'm anywhere else. It's funny, if you'd have explained to me when I was a kid that the fireworks traumatise thousands of animals in the area, I'd like to think I could have lived without them.

Then, to cap it off, my internet connection went down, so I took that as an omen to go to bed.

It's interesting having to drive somewhere these days. Would it kill people to look before changing lanes? Since I read this, I've given up expecting people to use their indicators, but surely not even looking makes it far too exciting. Oh well, maybe they're distracted. It does seem that a lot of people are having to have constant instruction on how to drive a car - I can't think of another reason why they'd have to be on the phone the whole time they're driving.

There used to be a web page in the Bay Area called "Jerque du jour" - a guy commuting up highway 17 would take pictures of people driving like dicks. With the recent fad for phones having cameras in them, and anonymous web space, I'm surprised that nobody's doing this now. I'd do it, of course, but I'm lazy, and I couldn't do it here for fear of identification. The funny thing is that often I can look at the way a car's being driven, and predict some numb-nuts behaviour is about to take place. I could get some really good pictures if I were to be holding my cellphone all the time I was driving.

Cheer up, they'll be gone soon :o)

I went out and got the other front shock on the van, then went in and watched some TV, surfed for porn, that sort of thing. After a while I got bored, so I went back out and got the rear shocks and wheels on too, so it's back to being drivable. Interestingly, it had the stock Boge shocks on the front, but aftermarket (and clapped out) KYBs on the back. Bilstein heavy duty all round now :o) I thought the rear was going to be difficult, as Jason had trouble doing his shocks, but I found that a 4800lb van on a jack is more than enough leverage to compress the shocks to where you want them using an axle stand. Jeez, at this rate I'll have run out of things to do by the time it goes in for the new engine :o)

I then decided to get a slow puncture (it's a screw, I can see it) in one of the Subaru tyres fixed, and at the same time get the new tyres fitted to the new wheels for the van.
Sounds simple, but most of the places I called for tyres wanted to put me on passenger car tyres - um, hello? This thing weighs about 5,000lbs - it needs truck tyres. I eventually found a guy who seemed to know what he was talking about, and we went through the catalogue and decided on a set of tyres. 4 hours (yipe!) later they were fitted.

By now it was really too late to go to the SPCA, so I went home and started fiddling with the van. I got one of the new shocks in, the brakes bled through and got the wheel on. The other front shock didn't want to come out, so I sprayed it with WD40 and left it to think about what it'd done.

I also scooted over to the the airfield to measure the panels so the hangar owners can replace the missing skylight. It was still sunny, but the wind was blowing at almost 20mph by the time I got there, so I then just turned around and went home.

According to the weather forecast, it won't last. Typical.

Of course, Chloe insists on picking her way through all the parts to lie on the sofa in there, so I really need to start doing stuff with it.

You know, if this keeps up, I might as well grow gills.

Don't just take my word for it... see this, this and this.

After watching the MotoGP race from Qatar, I put the indicators and suchlike back on the Hawk, then ran it over to the SPCA for a class on shelter medicine.

More practice needed there, methinks. I'm trying to keep the into wind wing down a little, but it either isn't enough, or I'm levelling the wings as I land, allowing the wind underneath it to pick the wing up :o(
I'd get a lesson and practice with Ray, but it's easier in a heavier plane. I'm going to talk it through with some pilot types though.

Later on, we went to the airfield so Jason could check out the plane, and it looks like there's a section of the roof missing from the hangar :o(

I then went home and got all my stuff together for the track day :o)

I then spent most of the day at the SPCA, then went to Jason's in the evening to see what all the fuss is about with World of Warcraft. I'm going to look into this, with all my free time :o)