Let's off road....

I need a bigger car, even with the cargo hitch we only just about had enough room for the trip. But it does make the car look even more "macho"....grrrr you can almost see the testosterone! Also I think I've found the solution to the engine pinking when under load and at full throttle. I now run it on premium gas (as recommended in the manual) and it appears to have gone away. Being a tight wad I was trying to get away with 89 octane gas as it's cheaper but it really does need the full fat stuff.

We arrived at the campsite after the last ferry (we were told the day before that they ran til 6:30pm but got a call from our friends saying that the guy was finishing at 6!) Luckily these friends had their boat so we managed to get across to the island campsite without any problems. Putting a tent up in the dark is not easy especially trying to see what you're doing with a Walmart cheapy torch/lantern combo. Still I got it up and it was still standing at 7:30 the next morning. Boy was it a cold night, a duvet and 2 blankets wasn't enough and I had to sleep with a hat and 2 t-shirts

Thursday was a fantastic day as you can see the from the view across the river. It warmed up too during the day but it was SO buggy at the campsite that I had to cover up from head to toe. The whole island had recently been underwater 2 feet of water and they had to shut the campsite for 10 weeks. You could see the water lines on the trees even though the campsite was a 10 minute walk from the dock.


Here are the happy campers ready for a spot of fishing, we didn't land anything but you should have seen the ones that got away...

Thanksgiving dinner was prepared over the camp fire and the menu was turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce. This was followed by pumpkin pie and washed down with red wine. How very civilised

The Beast gets a makeover

It's Thanksgiving this week so that means only a 3 day working week and to celebrate we're off camping with some friends. Hontoon Island is the destination and you have to take a ferry across to the campsite....last one departs at 6:30pm and I don't get home from work til 5 so it's going to be touch and go whether we make it. If not our friends who are going down earlier in the day are taking their boat so we may have to recreate the Dunkirk evacuation! Another cold front is due to arrive tomorrow with lows of mid 40s expected. That should be refreshing under canvas

Seeing as the Beast isn't quite big enough I've treated myself to a cargo hauler that I've been promising myself since May. It fitted together pretty easily and now give plenty of room for the all important cooler. Anyway here are some before and after pics of the new headlamps...all I need do now is get them adjusted properly.

Before

After


Oh and here's the chest that I made, this is it in all it's former glory before I cut just under 7 inches off the width.

One question....WHY?

Not sure how I stumbled across this site but there are some people in the world with just too much time on their hands! It's an incredible write up but hidden amongst the waffle is gem of a link to Forbidden Lego which is mandatory reading. Obviously from here you then go to YouTube to watch it in action and before long you're watching some one dressed as Master Chief (from Halo) with a costume made from Lego....as I said too much time on their hands.

Anyway this morning I replaced the headlamps on my car, what a b**ch of a job. The old ones were hard as hell to get out and a couple of retaining clips broke on each one. No going back on this project. I got the new ones from online tat-bazaar, ebay for $56 a pair and they came with new bulbs too. Getting the new ones to fit was equally tough and several whacks later with the palm of my hand and they are in. Now I need to wait til it gets dark to try and adjust them.

Never Say Never Again

Went to see the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace on Friday and was HUGELY disappointed. As an action film it's ok but as a Bond film it's very poor (think Never Say Never Again poor). Now I like Daniel Craig as 007 and really enjoyed Casino Royale, but in this film it was just guns and fist fights. JB is much cleverer than that and gets the better of the bad guys by outsmarting them, not so in this film. I totally blame the director for mucking this film up, I mean who puts the classic Bond intro where he's walking against the white backgrand before turning and shooting at the very end of the fim, just before credits??? Oh and NOT once does he say " The name's Bond, James Bond". Avoid at all costs.

Spent most of the weekend building a blanket chest to store my Rockband peripherals in. Trouble is I made it a bit big (although Mrs P said it was fine) and it takes up too much room. So tonight I cut just under 7 inches off it. I'll finish it tomorrow as the kids are in bed and don't think they'd appreciate me using my circular saw.

Big Slick

Well the reversing lights have been fixed on my car, it wasn't that difficult but it was fiddly and very messy. You can see from the pics below just how little access there is to the Neutral Safety Switch (NSS). In fact once you've managed to pry off the connector you can even see the nut part of the switch.

Anyway here's a tip for nothing. If the oil level on the transmission dipstick is above the max indicator watch out when you remove the existing NSS. I was lucky to escape with a relatively small coating on my arm but the driveway didn't do so well. Of course this is now the area that I need to lie in to put the new part back.

So it's job done and it starts and I have working reversing lights. Cost me $20 for the part and another $10 for a 1" deep socket and 3/8" to 1/2" drive converter, Took me about an hour of which most of it was mopping up the oil spill.

No going back

With the clocks changing the last weekend I've noticed that the reversing lights on the Beast aren't working. As it's got heavily tinted windows in the rear it's vary hard to see where I'm going. This morning I checked the bulbs and they are fine a quick google and my attention turned to the Neutral Safety Switch. This is mounted on the gearbox and tells the car to start only when it's in Park or Neutral. It also houses the reversing lights switch. It's a b****r to get to as the drive shaft to the front axle is right in the way. I eventually managed to get the connector off and hot wired it to check that both the rear lights did work. The part I need is only $20 but I suspect I'm going to need another $50 worth of tools (deep socket and UJ adaptor) to get the thing out. We'll find out either Tuesday or at the weekend. Tuesday is Veterans' Day so we all get the day off. It seems strange having a public holiday midweek but I'm not going to turn it down.

I'm also thinking of putting a lift kit on the Beast too. I've not discussed it with Mrs P yet tho'. I'm thinking a mild 2" lift using the budget boosters method. If I go any bigger then it starts getting messing with long arm kits and other tricks to keep the steering geometry somewhere in line.

Last week I came off probation at work so I'm a fully fledged County employee now and at the beginning of December I'm off to school for a week to learn how they do property appraisals.

A New Hope....

Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness.

Anyway enough of the Star Wars quotes, the election is finally over and it was very exciting to watch. Obviously I can't vote but Mrs P did and she picked the winner! Anyway we stayed up way too late on a school night waiting for the results to come in and because of this I was very nearly late for work this morning. I didn't wake up til 7:15 and have to be a work at 8.

The AC/DC Rock Band track pack is TOTALLY AWESOME! Even Raina likes it too as we played it the moment I got it and listening to a 7 year old sing Highway to Hell is one of the funniest things you'll ever hear

Oh here's more ammunition (pun intended) for gun control......Retard of the biggest order

We watched a couple of superhero films last week, Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. Iron Man is cool and we both really enjoyed it. Incredible Hulk is as bad as the first move...pretty dire and we both struggled to maintain any interest in it. The best bit being right at the end when Robert Downey Jr turms up. My advice is to stick to the TV series, its infinitely better.

Back to school

Is it wrong to let kids have candy for breakfast???? Does that make Mrs P and I bad parents?? Last night was Halloween and the family dressed up and went trick or treating in a friend's neighborhood. It's actually a place Mrs P and I would like to live and the perfect house for us is on the market, shame it's $200,000 dollars overpriced.

Anyway here are a couple of photos from last night.



This morning I've been working on attaching my new vise to my workbench so that I can really get to grips with some stuff. Particularly getting my bike finished as progress has been slow the past couple of weeks.

Yesterday I turned down the biggest ticket of the year, a chance to go and watch the Gators v the Bulldogs. College football is MASSIVE here and a Florida v Georgia match is big news. Anyway the kids are having a sleep over tonight at a friends and I'm going to take Mrs P out instead. Should earn me a few brownie points. I'll need those as tomorrow Rockband: AC/DC live is released tomorrow and I intend to be strutting my stuff through 18 of the band's live tracks. School boy costumes to the ready...