| June 30th |
We chased people about our road trip, and I chased about the
van
tent. Apparently the manager needs to talk to the owner about the situation. We've agreed
to continue this in email while we're away.
In the evening, we went to
Roseville Downtown Tuesday Night
and hung out for a while. |
|
|
| June 29th |
Still too hot to do anything, but I did call up about the tent for the
van.
They'll have the manager call me back. |
|
|
| June 28th |
It was deathly hot, so we didn't really do much of anything. Record
temperatures were set all over the valley. We had talked about going flying, but couldn't
face opening the hangar in the heat. |
|
|
| June 27th |
We started out the day by refitting the old tent back into the
van.
This means that we can now use the van to camp in again... we also patched the hole in the
tent with a stick-on vinyl repair patch, so the mosquitoes can't get in. Dad washed the
van while I shortened a couple of bolts that look like they've been rubbing on the tent when
it's folded up.
In the afternoon we went to a barbecue at Jason's sister's - he and Nicole are in town this
week, and are trying to see everybody before they head off in all directions. |
|
|
| June 26th |
We decided to work on the
van.
We swapped the wheels over, so I have a new tyre on the front, rather than hanging on the
rear door as a spare. We fitted
air bags,
to level the rear end. We removed the tent, then tried to fit the
new one.
Now, bearing in mind that I installed the current tent by myself in a couple of hours, after
a few hours of struggling, Dad and I gave up and measured the tents. The new one is 5"
shorter on the height, 4" shorter on the length and about 0.75" shorter on the width. i.e.
it's not for a Vanagon. We found screw holes in the canvas where somebody else has tried to
install it on a Vanagon, too, so we were pretty pissed off.
I got the electrickery bill, and the
solar panels
generated 214Kw/h more than we used this month - long days, and only a few of them hot enough
to require the air conditioner - it's all downhill from here.
In the evening, we barbecued - there's nothing like dead charred beast and flavoured malt
beverages to make you feel better after a hard day's work. |
|
|
| June 25th |
Dad and I drove to San Francisco to meet Caroline at the airport, take her
to lunch then release her into the wild by Pier 39 so she could find her friends. Then we
drove all the way home again. Joy. |
|
|
| June 24th |
We went out and stopped at the tyre place so they could eventually air
chisel off the seriously overtightened locking wheel nut. We then toodled around techy shops,
managing to get Dad 4Gb for his laptop. |
|
|
| June 23rd |
Dad arrived today, so I spent the day tidying up a little before picking
him up from the airport. I then changed the oil on the
Subaru
(putting too much in it) and tried to swap a wheel on the
van,
only to find that the locking wheel nut had been so overtightened that I couldn't. I dropped
off the recycling on the way to the airport, then brought Dad home so that
Tilly
could bark at him. |
|
|
| June 22nd |
After the weekend, we were all pretty tired, even
Tilly.
Still, I brightened up when the
new tent,
arrived for the
van.
I hung it in the garage and doused it with waterproofer. It'll take a couple of days to dry
out completely before I can get it installed.
In the evening, I tinkered with some more stuff on the van - more fiddling with the speed
sensor for the cruise control. |
|
|
| June 21st |
We were camping in the
van,
and
Tilly
got me up early. Again. As we wandered back, Fred was out looking for us on his quad - he'd
seen us walking past. Tilly ended up riding back to the van on Uncle Fred's quad, and then I
cooked breakfast, poorly, for us all. Apparently I'm the first person other than Fred and
Marsha to cook in their trailer's kitchen.
After breakfast we went for another quad ride, then tidied up and headed home. We were all
pretty tired, and other than freaking Tilly out with the air conditioner in the van, it was a
quiet trip back down the mountain. |
|
|
| June 20th |
We were camping in the
van,
and
Tilly
got me up early. I ended up taking her for a long walk, getting back in time for Fred to cook
breakfast. Well, Tilly got kibble.
After breakfast, we took the quads and went to look at the damage from
last year's fire,
while Tilly stayed with her Auntie Marsha.
Fred cooked dinner, and we played a couple of board games before heading back to the van and
crashing for the night. |
|
|
| June 19th |
We were going camping today, so we packed up the
van,
and
Tilly,
and headed for Fred's campsite in Yuba Gap. Having immediately got bitten by a bunch of
mosquitoes, I spent a lot of time trying to tire out Tilly, and she had a grand old time, being
walked around and around. |
|
|
| June 18th |
I tinkered around with the
van,
and got the cruise control to work in "manual" mode - so that now suggests that the problem is
the Vehicle Speed Sensor.
In the evening, I went to
the airfield
and dug the
Rans
out. Jack was there, moving all of his junk, and my plane was already outside. I got it
started, and headed over to Freedom Field to see if Vince was home and flying, but didn't see
him. I ended up flying over to Far West Lake, then back to Lincoln to put the plane away. I
eventually got away from chatting with Jack about an hour later than I'd hoped :o) |
|
|
| June 17th |
After going to the gym, I took
Tilly
to the
Bear dog park.
We walked there, so when she started lying down in the water more than chasing around like a
lunatic, we headed off - after all, we had a mile to walk home, and I didn't fancy doing it
carrying a damp dog.
After a little rest at home, I went to
the airfield
and dug the
Rans
out of all Jack's junk, rearranged the hangar so I could put the Rans back where it belongs,
then went for a flight. It was all pretty cool, and everybody was courteous when I got back to
LHM air space. I like flying in the week :o) It's supposed to be high pressure tomorrow, too,
so hopefully I can get out again. |
|
|
| June 16th |
Tilly
and I had a quiet day after yesterday's excitement. I did get time to look at the cruise
control on the
van,
but it's now not doing anything at all. I think I need a hand to test everything to make sure
I haven't broken something in my recent testing :o( |
|
|
| June 15th |
We got up fairly early and loaded up the
Subaru
and headed to
Ed Levin park
for a couple of
hang gliding
sled runs. When we first got there,
Tilly
towed me to the dog park as usual, but a guy there pointed out what he thought was a
rattlesnake,
so I left her on her lead. When Vic and John arrived, they decided it was a
Gopher snake,
and John used a shovel to get it out of the dog area so that Tilly could play. |
|
|
| June 14th |
I spent the morning fiddling with the
AppleTV,
and getting the
remote control
working with it. I then synced my silly sized music library and some pictures with it.
In the evening, Vince came over and we rode the bikes to dinner. |
|
|
| June 13th |
I took the
DRZ
and picked up an
AppleTV
running hacks such as
Boxee.
My plan is that this'll let me watch stuff like
Hulu
on the TV in the family room, rather than on a PC. The oil leak seems to have been conquered
:o)
I quickly set up the new toy, then we went out to the
SPCA
volunteer dinner in the
arse end of nowhere
- it took longer to drive there and back than it did to eat :o). After getting home, I worked
some more on the home entertainment - I've found that the DVD player in the family room only
outputs colo(u)r on the component leads, and it was being demoted to S-Video. So I swapped it
with the one in the bedroom that we never use :o) |
|
|
| June 12th |
After going to the gym, and between rain shower sprinkles, I pulled the
DRZ
apart and cleaned, then instant gasketted the valve cover gasket. Hopefully that'll kill off
that little oil leak there. |
|
|
| June 11th |
After waving goodbye to Christina and Valerie, I went for a ride on the
DRZ,
and ended up at Jeff's. I helped him work on a quad with a leaking O ring in the carb, and
on my way out, Jeff pointed out a small oil leak that seems to be coming from the valve cover
gasket. Bugger... I'll have to look at that :o( |
|
|
|
| June 10th |
Christina and Valerie arrived back from spending the night in a cabin in
Coloma, and Christina'd managed to get water in her camera. We left it out on the hot tub
(by
Tilly,
sunning herself) to try and dry it out, but it's still full of condensation. I've given her my
old SLR that I never use, as she likes using the old chemical cameras. When Vic got home from
work, we all went out for sushi, but nobody actually ate cold raw dead fish. |
|
|
| June 9th |
We headed up to Coloma with Christina and Valerie and went
white water rafting
for the day. Strangely enough, the other people in the boat were from Sheffield. He was an
investment banker, but we let him stay in the boat for the rapids anyway. Apparently later in
the year when the water's lower you can raft the whole way to Folsom, but we ended up getting
towed the last few miles by a jetski. |
|
|
| June 8th |
A couple of Vic's friends from Monterrey arrived, as they're staying with
us tonight. We had a barbecue, and Vince came over to help us eat the mountains of food we'd
prepared :o) |
|
|
| June 7th |
I got Vic to help me look at the cruise control for the
van.
I've made some progress, testing things with it all apart. It looks like it should be
working - the revving then cutting out thing is, I believe, because the overrev circuit is
cutting in when it sees the revs rise quickly. With the controller in my hand, it seems
to work, at least it holds against me pulling the throttle cable until we turn it off. We
tested the speed sensor, and while I have no idea if it's correct, it is at least sensing
something - there's a voltage being generated there. More testing needed, as I'm not really
sure what's going on now.
I supervised Fred cutting bits off a tree in his front garden - it's blocking his satellite
dish. After we'd cleared that away, I headed home. |
|
|
| June 6th |
Fred came over while I was peering into the engine compartment of the
van,
and went and got his vacuum gauge. I now know that I don't have a vacuum leak, and that I'm
getting about 15" of mercury's worth of vacuum from the engine, so that should be enough to
make the cruise control work. I took the thing apart, and it all seems OK, so I don't
really know what the problem is at the moment. |
|
|
| June 5th |
I managed to hurt my shoulder a few days ago, and it's still causing me
problems, so I took it easy at the gym. I spent more time chatting with Buddy than I did
doing any actual exercise. When I got home, I just read in tje afternoon, and tried to take
things easy. In the evening, we cooked up some ribs that I'd bought, but they were a bitter
disappointment. |
|
|
| June 4th |
None of us had slept too well, what with the rain and
lightning storms
last night, so I had a slow day. I did try the vacuum reservoir on the
van,
but it's changed nothing. Hmmm. I need to look at that more some other time.
Satya, my old boss at Samsung, came over with a friend of his who's looking at selling some sort
of USB email client appliance. I threw in a couple of ideas, just to prove that my brain still
works :o) |
|
|
| June 3rd |
After the normal playing with
Tilly,
I went out to try and get a vacuum reservoir for the cruise control for the
van.
I ended up with one from a Volvo 240 - they have a reservoir up for the factory cruise control.
Who knew? I also picked up a spare side mirror while I was there - the aftermarket one I have
wobbles.
In the evening, we had a very impressive
lightning storm,
that lasted on and off into the wee small hours. |
|
|
| June 2nd |
I spent the day tidying up the garden and fiddling around with the
van.
I've decided that the problem must have something to do with vacuum, so I spent some time looking
for a vacuum reservoir. There's also a problem with the speed sensor, but I'll get that figured
out soon. I hope.
In the evening, Vince came over and I cooked. |
|
|
| June 1st |
I started the day talking to a moron at Audiovox about the cruise control.
He told me that the testing I was doing in the driveway wouldn't work, as even with it being set
up to use just the tach pickup, it wouldn't work. He said it won't work even on a lift with the
wheels spinning in the air, but couldn't explain to me why it wouldn't work. I pointed out that
the only input it has is the tach, so how would it know it wasn't in gear? He said that wouldn't
work, and eventually told me that he has no idea why it's not working in the
van.
Apparently there's nobody else there who can help, and he has no supervisor. I asked if he owns
the company, but he doesn't. </sigh> |
|
|
|