09.30.12

The Newest Addition: 1996 Grand Cherokee

Well I realized a while ago, I haven’t posted anything on here about our new vehicle.  When the Toronado went down, after about a week it became obvious that I wasn’t going to get it running in the immediate future.  So we couldn’t be with just one vehicle, that would leave Andrea and Luke stranded out here in the sticks any time I’m at work.

So we looked around, but I didn’t want to take the first thing that came along just because we were desperate.  Even though we kinda were desperate. We test drove a crappy little Ford Escort for a day.  It got great mileage, but it was TINY… two doors, and had a big dent in the side.  Driving it felt a lot like driving Andrea’s old Mustang again, only less cool and in worse shape.  I drove it around thinking… if we got this car I would hate driving it every day I have it.  If I don’t feel anything for a car, then it starts to get neglected.  And when it starts to get neglected, it starts falling apart.  So I made up my mind that I wanted something I at least LIKED, even if it was less than ideal.

I had put the word out to everyone I knew to keep an eye peeled for a car that was in our price range.  Andrea and I debated for a couple days about whether to take on a car payment or not.  Even I, seriously considered it.  But just the thought of it felt restrictive.  You know how you feel when you get a raise at work, and you have a little extra breathing room?  Well this felt the opposite of that.  So we made up our mind to look for something we could buy outright if at all possible.

Andrea and I discussed a lot of vehicles while we were looking through classifieds.  Most of the times the cars that Andrea liked were too expensive, and most of the cars that I liked were too… “grandpa”.  Then on my way to go get my new cell phone, I drove by this Jeep out front of a little car dealership.  I knew a Jeep was one of the things she would drive.  And I didn’t mind the idea of a sport utility.  Heck we are used to crappy gas mileage anyway.  But I also knew she hated red.  But it was a Jeep in our price range.  I had that going for me.  Nevertheless, I took it on a test drive and headed to Albert to see what she would say.

It drove right down the road.  It was clean.  It needed a list of little things done to it like latches and some touch ups here and there.  But it seemed solid and reliable.  I don’t know what Andrea thought when she first saw it, but when I saw it driving by I thought, “That would be perfect… and extraordinarily ordinary“.  Haha.

It is by far the most average vehicle we’ve had in a long time, but I like it!  It’s comfortable, it’s not hacked to bits. And while it’s not perfect by far, I can still take some pride in it.

I got it all detailed and took a bunch of pictures today out at Pawnee Rock.  I think it looks pretty good for an old average commonplace Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Lots more pictures if you keep reading…..

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09.26.12

Super Fun Weekend

After all the stress lately, this past weekend was exactly what was needed.  Some family came up and we went out to the Great Bend Airfest.  I was really worried that I would be dissapointed by what showed up, but it was completely awesome.  There were several vintage planes out there from the 1940’s, mostly WWII trainers and such, but the really cool ones were the B-25, and the P-51, both beautiful planes.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Qj_2CFR8U24]

I took a bunch of pictures, but here’s some of the highlights:

 

There’s a lot more pictures, so click through to see them, or check out my gallery to see A LOT more.

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09.13.12

Fuuuuuuu……dge

I wondered when this day would come.  The day that I seriously have to consider replacing the Toronado.  The damage to the front axle is more extensive that I thought, and it’s not a part that is readily available.  I don’t know if it can be fixed, and we can’t sit around with just one vehicle while I wait for the part to materialize.

I’m really kinda torn.  I’ve been driving this car for 5 1/2 years now and I still like it actually.  I’m familiar with it, and I’m comfortable with it.  But sometimes I think, it’d be nice to have something different.  Not necessarily “newer” or “older” or “cooler”, just nicer.  By that I just mean comfortable and reliable.  I don’t need anything fancy or cool.

Andrea and I differ a bit in that.  She needs the cool factor.  And the cool factor drives up the price.  One note of observation: “grandpa cars” are usually cheaper.  And they’re usually pretty well taken care of.  There seems to be a lot of them, an nobody wants one.  By contrast cool cars are wanted by everybody, so you get a lot less car for your money.  Besides, old people really have it figured out.  Big roomy cars you can stretch out in.  Comfy seats.  And why do you need lots of power?  It’s not like you’re going to pass anybody with the cruise control set at 55mph.

So I think for now… unless someone on my Oldsmobile forums posts up the part I need, I’m going to buy a super cheap car to get us by for a few months.  I don’t want to run out buy something that we settle for just because we’re desperate.  So I’m on the lookout for a super cheap car for now AND the Toro parts I need.  And maybe long term something in real nice shape that I can drive for another 5+ years.

It feels like a really sad day.

Well….  This isn’t good.  It looks like the axle failed BECAUSE another part failed.  The support that holds the axle in place, basically.

The part that is broken is listed in the picture below as “SUPPORT BRACKET AND BEARING”.

The problem is… you can’t just run down to AutoZone and get a new one.  The only place I can get one is from another Toronado.

It MIGHT be able to be welded back together.  But I don’t know.

Could this be the end of the Toronado?

I hope not.

09.8.12

Stranded.

My car has only left me stranded once before in the 6+ years I’ve owned it.  And that was due to my own stupidity flooding the engine.

This time around the failure was more… catastrophic.

As you can see in the picture above, something “exploded”.  That something was the inside joint on my passenger side axle.  I had a mild vibration over the past couple months, and I couldn’t track it down.  So I just kept driving it.  Today on the way home from town, the vibration quickly started to escalate.  I slowed down to 50, and the vibration went away, but then started to come back.  I slowed down to 40… got better…. then came back.  I found a place to pull over and did a walk around on the car.  That’s when I discovered the mess.  The car still moved under its own power so I figured I would try to limp home.

I was about 10 miles from home and figured I’d give it a shot.  Thank God I decided to take the back roads home.  So I head down the county black top doing 25mph.  Everything seems like it was going pretty good.  Until I got to a decent sized hill.  Then POP!  WHZZZZ!  And that was it.  No more go.

So I got off the road as best I could with no power.  I pulled out my cell phone and of course “Your battery has less than 10% remaining, please plug in your charger.”  Nice.  I called my neighbor Chris with my final minutes of battery life and he brought out a truck to pull me home.

So the Toronado is now back in the driveway.  I ordered a new axle.  If there’s anything frustrating about this it’s that the part that broke is a part I replaced only two years ago.  With a 30 year old car that has over 260,000 miles, you figure its going to be one of the 30 year old parts that breaks… not a two year old part with maybe 20,000 miles.  But nothing you can do about it now.  The replacement part is only $70, so still not quite justified to get a new car yet.

At least I made it to the liquor store… I was out of beer.

08.29.12

Vacation Concludes

 

Well it’s obvious that a big chunk of my time was spent playing the launch of Guild Wars 2.  It’s phenomenal.  You don’t need to go all out like me, but if you want to get on board, it’s $60 at buy.guildwars2.com.  No I don’t get any kickbacks or anything.  I’ve just really been having a lot of fun, and it would always be cool to play with awesome people like you.  And compared to the price of a Wii/PS3/Xbox360 game, I think it’s an incredible bang for your buck.  I wish my computer was beefy enough to Livestream some of my gameplay, but I’m only getting about 35 FPS as it is… so if you want to watch some action, head over to www.guildwars2live.com.

Luke and I played a lot this weekend.  He sleeps until about 11AM so I’ll hear him wake up and go to greet him, and it’s so cool watching the big smile on his face every time he sees me first thing in the morning.  Usually it’s 6PM or so until we see each other for the first time, so it’s been really cool spending more time with the family.  I was able to give Andrea a little help with the daily household stuff, so it was KINDA a vacation for her too.

He is officially walking EVERYWHERE.  He will rarely crawl at all anymore.  I think he realizes his little fingers can reach more stuff when they’re off of the floor.  Andrea took him to the store to use up the rest of his giftcard he got for his birthday and got about 20 different Hotwheels cars.  He has a blast with those things on the coffee table.  He’ll roll them to you, and you’ll roll them back.  And he’ll pick out a car he wants you to play with and hand it to you (and usually take from you whatever car you WERE playing with).  It’s gonna be so fun when he’s a little older and we can set up a bunch of the race track and go down the stairs and over furniture.

While I would be feeding Luke I had the laptop set up on the counter in the kitchen.  I got to watching Tabletop, a show that Biebs turned me onto a while back where Wil Wheaton plays various boardgames or card games with internet notables.  It’s a pretty fun show, and if nothing else introduced me to some pretty cool games I didn’t know existed.  Or maybe it’s my social substitute for real people coming over and playing real games.  I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve used the poker table for actual games of cards.  But that’s just part of being busy, and having busy friends.

The repaired lawnmower is still working fairly well.  Though I noticed there’s a crack where the wheel mounts on that same corner of the mower.  It’s just a matter of time before it reaches its end of life.  Until then I’m going to keep mowing on.  The garden is out of control.  Or rather the grass in the garden.  I don’t know how you’re supposed to grow stuff like pumpkins and watermelon.  The pumpkins are okay, but the watermelon vines have almost completely been swallowed up by the grass.  I can’t mow it, or I’ll mow over the vines.  We’ll see what happens.  I’ve got about 3 watermelons on the vine right now, and had a recent explosion of pumpkins.  I was worried we were only going to end up with 4 or 5 small ones, but since the heat wave ended, there’s probably 10 new ones and a couple are getting pretty big!

I never did get around to rotating the tires on the cars, but there’s always next week for that.  There’s a lot of stuff I can do car wise, especially on my car.  But it’s all minor stuff.  As it cools off earlier and earlier I get more excited about working on the cars.  It’s just hard to get motivated when it’s 90+ outside.

So all in all it was an awesome vacation.  I didn’t play GW2 continuously, and honestly, I’m going to take my time with the game and relesh every bit of it.  Like I talked back when I was playing Skyward Sword… you only get to play a game for the first time once.  Most of all, it was a great mental refresh.  Work can get the best of me sometimes and I really was starting to feel burnt out.  I go into tomorrow knowing that it’s going to be crazy and hectic, but I’m almost ready to deal with it.  I mean heck, I could probably hang around here for another week and not miss that place, but eventually… I would.  I really do enjoy what I do.

So I’ve got a few more vacation days in the bank for the rest of the year, which feels good too.  Might take some long weekends, or save them for the holidays, I dunno.  Maybe actually go somewhere on the next vacation… but honestly… my favorite place on earth is home.

08.28.12

Willed Into Reality

Guild Wars 2 was announced 5 years ago.  To put that in perspective, when this game was announced, the Wii and PS3 were brand new.

Then shortly after the game was announced… nothing.  Years of nothing.  To the point where you wondered if the game still existed.  Arenanet would be asked when the game would come out and they just would say, “When it’s ready.”  And then a couple years ago information really started to flow.

When it was finally announced that you could buy the game, it STILL didn’t even have a release date.  Nevertheless I pre-purchased… in full… the Collector’s Edition (which you see above).  I never in my life have spent so much money on a game, let alone a game that will come out… “someday”.  Luckily today is that day.

I’ve written extensively on my early Guild Wars 2 experiences and if you follow this blog I’m sure you will hear a great deal more in the months and years to come.  What you’ll find here are some detailed pictures of the Guild Wars 2 Collector’s Edition.  There are ALOT of pictures so be sure to click the link to continue reading if you want to see all of them.  Otherwise it would take up the whole front page!

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08.27.12

Rants of Two Old Dudes – Episode 6

 

We talk a lot about computer repair and how the average joe just doesn’t trust us.

Also Guild Wars 2!  Fun stuff!

And more general merriment.

We are considering changing the name of the podcast, as the only episode with two dudes (regardless of age) was the first one.

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For if you like the iTunes.

08.27.12

This is the world I live in…

So I’m mowing the yard the other day.  I’m on my last couple passes, and I go to turn around and the mower doesn’t budge.  I push down on the handle to try to get the front wheels off the ground so I can pivot, and nuthin.  Upon breif investigation, the handle was moving up and down, but it had now become independent from the mower deck!  $(*&#!  So awkwardly pulling the mower across the lawn to finish the last couple swatches I finish the job.

Back to the garage with the mangled machine reveals the full story.

The giant rust hole above is where the bracket for the handle attaches to.  This mower isn’t that old.  We bought it in 2007 I believe when we moved to the house in Ogden.  So let this be a lesson to you.  Clean out all those old clippings that get matted up on the deck on the inside.  If I had done that regularly this probably never would have happened.

So the problem now was, grass grows, I can’t cut it.  I can either get a new push mower for $130 or so at Wal-Mart, or get a riding mower.  Which I SERIOUSLY contemplated.  I’ve wanted one for a while and this seemed like the perfect excuse.  But I went with cheap-bastard option 3: fix this one.

So I looked around my scraps to see what I could come up with.  I’ll warn you this is almost one of the most redneck fixes I’ve ever done.  So with some scrap metal and $3 worth of hardware from the hardware store I had a game plane.

Quick aside:  WTF is the deal with prices on nuts and bolts!?  I went to pick up the stuff I need and nuts bolts and washers ranged anywhere in price from 10 cents to 18 cents APIECE!  We aren’t talking major hardware here.  Just 1/4 nuts and bolts… I have since started savaging old stuff for all the fasteners I find.

I wish I had a welder… and had a clue how to weld.  But nevertheless, I attached the new metal to the deck of the mower.  Now I have a new surface to attach the handle to.

And now the new bracket is attached.  We’ll see if it is solid enough to hold up to the rigors of mowing my divot filled yard.

So far it made it through one full mowing of the yard.  Felt pretty solid.  But the rust is pretty extensive in that area, and I fear it’s not long before it happens again.

But for now, the yard looks good.  I always liked a nice yard, and even if it’s just weeds, I love the look of a freshly cut even lawn.  Like a lush green carpet laid out for your house.  It can almost make an ugly house like mine look good.  Almost.

There’s just something about fixing something that makes me feel invincible.  Other people might have spent hundreds of dollars on a new mower had this happened.  And I threw something together and it worked.

Fixing stuff like this isn’t a matter of skill… the Frankenstein appearance of my solution should tell you that much.  It’s just about coming up with an idea in your head and saying, “Well it probably won’t work, but I’ll try it anyway.“

08.19.12

Lazy Weekend

Well I really wanted to get a lot of stuff done this weekend.  Probably NEEDED to get a lot done.  Then I came down with a stupid cold.  Not a debilitating cold, by any stretch, but enough to say, “Ah, screw it.”  So instead of doing things like rotate my tires, I spent a lot of time on the computer, hanging out with Luke, and napping.

I did get the yard mowed.  But upon finishing the last section, the bracket that mounts the handle to the mower itself complete cracked and came loose.  The metal on the deck of the mower had rusted so much that it had no strength left.  So I’m tasked with either fabbing up a bracket to replace it, or get a new mower.  I’ve thought real hard about getting a riding lawn mower… but just can’t justify the expense.

Finally got around to installing WordPress on my server here in the basement.  http://web.bgwillers.com  Been thinking about doing that for a long time since I had just a basic placeholder page there.  It’s password protected for now, but don’t worry, you aren’t missing out on anything, it’s just a blank template.  I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it, if anything.

The one thing that I didn’t get done this weekend that I really could have was beat Metroid Prime.  I can’t believe I’m still talking about this game.  What I’ve done is put myself in a circumstance where I’m not getting any games played.  I don’t want to admit that I don’t like Metroid Prime… I think it’s a fine game.  But for some reason it just feels like work to play it.  And I don’t want to play any other backlogged games until I beat that one.  The problem is I’m getting to the point that if I don’t play it again soon, I’m going to forget what’s going on and have to start all over.  I don’t know if I should just give up on the game or what.

Back to work next week.  Then the week after that VACATION!  I can’t wait!

08.18.12

Rants of Two Old Dudes – Episode 5

Sorry for the delay getting this posted.  This week it was just Biebs and me.  Topics include the supposed Xbox 720 Dev Kit that sold on eBay for $20k+.  Wii U innovations.  Maleware and how to avoid it.  And lots more!

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iTunz Here!

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