Attacked By Sea Monsters!

I was attacked at the beach this Memorial Day, we spent the whole day at the beach! We met up pretty early here at my house with a bunch of friends, we then carpooled over to Bolsa Chica which is pretty much Huntington Beach and not too far from home. It's my second best beach, but only cause you have to pay for parking. We packed up the grill, and headed off for some sun and grilled food. We were off to a late start so I fired up the grill right away, it's charcoal so it actually took about 15 minutes to get some the fire going. And since we were all hungry, those few minutes were some of the longest ever! The food was great though, and after a few minutes of letting the food settle we went for a swim and other beach activities. At sunset we lit off a bonfire but unfortunately our firewood supply was limited and it wasn't that big. It was enough to heat up and light up our little area and get some smores going! I think we will repeat this for 4th of July!

Oh yeah...sometime during the swimming I got stung by a jellyfish. At first I ignored it for a few days, but by today, the pain was so bad I could not deny it. I did some research on removing the stingers that were still in me and practiced some self medication. I hope it heals soon!

Vroom Vroom!

Woo Hoo! I owe my brother a huge thanks for getting my car running! It runs pretty much trouble free (Oil pressure does get low when the engine is up to temp w/ the engine at idle). I will have to do all the tune up stuff here shortly, since the only thing that has been done was the oil change, I will probably bleed out the brake system too. Unfortunately my driver side window doesn't work, it will need a new power window motor. The power antenna will need replacing too, however it failed in the extended position so that is not really a problem. It was kind of funny, my brother was running late cause he did some last minute shopping so by the time we had it running all the car washes were closed. I wasn't really in the mood to clean 3 years worth of dirt but I did it anyway. I drove in to work where I used some nice clean distilled water and some clean compressed air to blow out the interior. Now I just need to clean out the engine, that is still pretty dirty. "Out of sight out of mind!"

Please ignore the armor all dripping on the concrete! And even though the lighting is optimal, there are a lot of imperfections in the paint that will need taken care off! Not bad for a car that sat for three years!!!!

Carbon Neutral?

I was at a recent meeting where the topic of choice was carbon offsetting, or carbon neutrality. I will admit that some of it's points do sound really good and will make you think that this is a step in the right direction. But being the skeptic that I am I decided to do a little research on the matter. I am reminded of Al Gore's movie and it's website that encourages people to become carbon neutral. Once there click on "Take Action" then on "Carbon Neutral" to see how you can become carbon neutral. I do agree that things need to improve, and industry as a whole needs to take a look at alternative energy sources. But why should consumers pay a higher cost for something that industry should include as a cost of doing business? Would I pay more for a plane ticket if the airline promised me they would use my money to offset carbon for riding on their inefficient plane? I don't think so! Should I be ok with people being wasteful, riding on private jets, wasting our natural resources just because they can afford to donate some money to some group that will offset their wasteful ways. I still feel that there is no excuse for squandering our natural resources! I feel this is a scam, and we are all gonna get suckered into paying for it.

Closer To Running

My new to me Firebird will be running soon. We took down the fuel tank to replace the fuel pump after verifying power was reaching the fuel pump with no pumping actually taking place. I went to a local auto parts store (where I know someone on the inside) and got hooked up with a $500 part for less than $300, Cha-Ching! Anyhow, my brother will put my car back together on his next day off which should be Wednesday. After that I have a pretty decent car after just a battery and a fuel pump!

Test Discharge...

Followed by an Equalizing Battery Charge completed sat! I was very low on gas (actually diesel) and I was gonna get some gas on the way in to work tonight, however I figured that since I was relieved a little early this morning I would return the favor and fill up later. So about an hour into the shift I figured it was time to get some dinner and gas. On my way to the gas station by Cal State Long Beach about 1/4 of a block from the gas station, I hit a red light as my engine sputtered and died. Now this normally isn't that big of a deal since I have 2 tanks, but I switched tanks and got nothing. It normally takes a minute or two to get it running after running the fuel lines dry but somehow my other tank was empty too. How this happened I don't know, I must have switched tanks right when it went empty and never noticed. I walked the rest of the way to the gas station and bought a little red gas can ($15) and some petro. I walked back and started filling up. By this time the university cops were there and were nice enough to stay behind me to keep me from getting hit, I went to start it but after about 30 seconds of cranking over my batteries went dead. Apparently attempting to start up the engine twice exceeded my battery's capacity. I guess that's why most diesels have 2 batteries. Anyhow, they called another university cop over with push bars on their bumper and they pushed me to the gas station. I thanked both officers personally and called in a good word for them. I had also called Senia, and she was already on her way when I noticed an electrical outlet in the gas station parking lot. I asked the clerk if it was ok to plug in my battery charger and he said it was ok. I ran my extension cord and plugged it right in and charged my battery on starting current (75 AMPS) and got it running after about a minute of cranking over. I put everything away and filled up the second gas tank while the engine was still running. All in all, this was a good learning experience. I am glad I carry all this crap in my truck, I think I have just about anything I would need to fix minor stuff on the road. Heck I was kind of wondering why I was carrying my charger and extension cord in my truck, now I know why! All this little adventure cost me was a very expensive gas can and a couple of minutes.

Thank you Cal State Long Beach University Police!

Only One Cavity!

So I was pretty happy to see that I only had one cavity....however I still need major work done on the tooth that I went in for. A few months ago I lost my filling and I had not been able to take care of it for whatever reason would come up. Well a few days ago I actually lost about half of that tooth so I finally decided that it was actually time to go in! The tooth had to come out and will be fixed in the next couple of weeks more than likely an implanted tooth! We will see how that goes. As for now my mouth is sore, the cavity is fixed, and I am missing a tooth that you can't really notice. Oh well that's what I get for not seeing the dentist in a few years!

Working!

Just another weekend at work, same old. So nothing new in that front. My truck's alternator seems to be going bad, so I will have to replace that soon. The weather seems nice enough now that I could start riding everyday, so I will have to break that motorcycle of mine out soon. My back has been killing me for the last couple of days so it's about time to go in for a deep tissue massage or something of the sorts. I also have a dentist appointment to look forward to on Tuesday, I will need some serious work after some years of neglect so we'll see how that goes!

Oh and some good news, I bought myself a new laptop since my old one has been suffering as of late with some driver issues and a video card that is no longer supported. The BSOD has become way to common for me and I am tired of it, I am awaiting shipment of my new laptop!

En Fuego!

So Los Angeles is on fire again. It was just a few weeks ago that the Hollywood hills were on fire and now today the griffith park area is burning. It is pretty impressive how all that smoke just spreads so quickly. I hope no properties get damaged.

In other news I had an encounter with some wildlife at work, there were some coyotes that seemed to be hanging out near where I park my truck. I approached them and they were not afraid. The closer I got though the more they slowly walked away. I was thinking to myself that this was probably not the smartest thing I have ever done, but I guess I was just fascinated by them at the moment.

Still Sick!

This sux, I think I am going on my third week of being sick! It was only the first couple of days though that I was really bed ridden from whatever crud it is I caught. And luckily it is not contagious unless I have direct contact with people. I need to start eating right and exercising again to get my immune system back.

I finally got my Firebird over to my mom's house on Sunday, I sure wish I would have taken some pics of the towing. I got to wash it down a little bit too, and I might have to either get it painted or get it professionally waxed since the paint is in a little bit of a bad condition. I am sure some rubbing compound will fix her right up!

No Words For What Has Happened

I am appalled at what happened yesterday at the May Day rallies. There is no explanation for what the LAPD has done at MacArthur Park. I expect people to be fired immediately, prompt action to rectify this situation needs to take place. I feel that our local politicians are not doing their job to ensure the safety of it's citizens. I can only hope that State and or Federal officials get involved to solve this in a timely manner. Here is a video I could not post directly.