Archives 2017

The Trumpster hammered another pin into his quickly growing legacy of dumbness by pulling the US out of the Paris agreement regarding global warming.  I know being a memorable president is probably very important to Donald, unfortunately he will likely be remembered as the worst president in US history.  That is a hell of a claim to make after less than 150 days in the hot seat.  The three ring circus since he stepped into power has been nothing short of incredible and historic.  Who cares about global warming, we can always water the crops with Gatorade.  Let’s bring back the glory days of coal! It makes perfect sense to look at the primary power source of the early 1900’s to propel us into the future!

This weekend the yard is going to need a full maintenance effort with weed whacking and mowing on the agenda.  Other than that, whatever else comes to mind.

So yesterday was big day for the Prius, crossing 200,000 miles while Cindy was driving it.  I have owned a lot of vehicles with more than 100,000 miles on them but I think the Prius is the first to ever make it to the double century mark.  I have to say despite the big number on the odometer the car is still performing quite well.

Yes there are a few things that I need to do it, first of which will be replacing the front and rear struts.  Since we bought the car at around 132,000 miles we have had to do very little to it repair wise.  We went through a set of tires, I replaced the trunk switch, the rear hatch struts and I think that is pretty much it.  I am sure there will be some maintenance and repairs to come but the heart of the car still feels rock solid.

The Prius has been a part of a couple epic western road trips and has been a reliable daily commuter from day one.  If someone is looking for almost the perfect used car for daily driving, a 2004-2009 Prius is hard to beat.  I am hoping it will continue to serve us well for several years to come.

The other night (actually two separate nights) I went outside after the sun set to try to get some video of the new Tacoma lights.  The first time I tried using the GoPro and got nothing but distorted starburst footage.  The second time I used my Canon camera and got some better but not great results.

I started the video with a funny clip of me counting the amount of sections of the grille I did NOT cut out.  As expected I caught some shit from the YouTube world about my decision to cut out a couple spots on my grille to accomodate the lights but overall the reaction has been pretty positive.

On my way home last night I stopped at Ali’s to work on a computer problem.  Seemingly ever since a recent Windows update her video card stopped working correctly.  So I futzed around with it awhile.  As Windows booted you could see it start to load the driver as the other two screens would flash momentarily but then it died and only one screen came up using the generic display driver.  I tried all the normal tricks like removing and reinstalling the driver and ensuring I was using the latest and greatest AMD had available on their website, reseating the card, and just swearing at the computer several times.  Nothing worked.  The Radeon 6350 card in the system was older but did have drivers for Windows 10.

So I decided that perhaps the card itself had gone bad, a rare thing but it does happen.  Walmart was nearby so I figured I would just grab a cheap card, I thought I recalled them selling a few PC components like video cards and hard drives.  Well perhaps my memory was incorrect because they had no cards, instead I had to fight through shitty rush hour traffic to get to Staples a mile or two up the road.  I almost struck out there as well, they officially stopped carrying video cards but had a couple old Radeon 6450 cards on the shelf.  I really wanted to get a Nvidia chipset card as that is what I always use but they had none.  I grabbed the card and headed back.

Well you can imagine my delight when I put the new card in and had the same symptoms.  The card used the same driver as the old one which I wasn’t thrilled with, another reason I wanted a Nvidia model, to use a different driver.  So I needed to get home to feed Elsa so I had to raise the white flag for now.  I am returning the card I bought and ordered a Nvidia chipset card which I will receive in a couple days.

Speaking of Elsa, she has picked up another weird behavior about eating.  Cindy and I have to practically beg her to start eating.  Once she starts to eat she gobbles it down quickly but for some reason she acts like something is suspicious about the act of us filling her food dish.  She often will just hide under my desk until we convince her it is ok to come out.  It’s very strange.

She also acts very strange when I come home.  Even though you can tell she is excited to see me she will run off and hide like she did something wrong and was going to be punished.  It took me over 5 minutes of coaxing when I got home last night to get her out from under my desk to go outside.  Once she realizes she isn’t in trouble she is fine but I don’t really understand why she acts this way in the first place.  We have been giving her more freedom when we are away, allowing her to roam the hard flooring areas of the house instead of being crated.  Surprisingly this added freedom appears to have made her more paranoid.

So as my Memorial Day weekend is winding down I thought I would enjoy the AC while I recapped what was a fun yet productive 72 hours.  Saturday morning we started off with another 5K run around the track.  If Cindy’s GPS was accurate it was right around the fastest pace I have carried in 2017 which I wasn’t really expecting.

So I first dug into regular Saturday chores like weeding and chicken duties however we had a much more  time consuming task lined up, repainting various areas of the coop.  Cindy was tasked with repainting the wooden sections of the chicken run and deck.  I was up on the ladder, repainting the roof white for the third time.  The first two times I painted it I used spray paint.  To hopefully get some increased longevity, I painted it this time out of a can with a brush.  I also used primer first before applying the high gloss white paint, a requirement for reflecting the brutal summer heat off the roof of the coop.

As we both broiled in the sun we wondered why we opted to wait till the end of May to do this instead of during winter when conditions are much more favorable for outdoor projects.  Neither of us had a good answer but we knew we had to get this  done before rainy season started in earnest.

So while I was waiting for the primer to dry I did my other project, making the chicken water stand more protective.  A couple months ago I made a simple stand for their water that at least got it off the ground so it stayed cleaner. However there was another problem, for a good portion of the day the water was in direct sunlight.   The sun not only made the water hot, it also promotes algae growth which is a pain in the ass.

So I created yet another mental blueprint in my head to add a roof to the stand to keep the water out of the sun for most of the day.  I used a technique similar to what I built over the house water equipment, building a slightly down pitched frame topped with durable white PVC roofing material.  Despite my seat of the pants engineering the stand turned out well and should accomplish what I intended it to do.

So by the time I was done with the stand the primer on the roof was dry.  By the time I got the paint layer applied I was beat.  Standing on the ladder all that time and suspending myself awkwardly for prolonged periods reaching the remote corners and edges of the roof just wore me out. I was quite happy when I applied my last stroke of paint.  I am hoping the extra step of priming the surface will get me at least an extra 6 months of duration before I have to do it again. Cindy and I were both beat by  the end of the day.  We decided to just chill at home.  Cindy had some serious sunburn on her body and my face got blasted despite wearing a big hat all day from the sun bouncing off the coop roof.

Sunday morning we headed out for a fun EUC ride.  We parked at Dunkin Donuts and rode from there.  Cindy wore full pads for the first time because she intended to kick her speed up on the Msuper a few notches.  She certainly accomplished her goal. According to Strava she topped out at 23.5 mph.

Sunday afternoon I handled a couple Tacoma projects.  First I did my 15,000 mile oil change, something a dealer won’t do since Toyota recommends only changing the oil every 10k.  I recorded a video of the process, thinking it would be much faster than my other video I shot of the work which was over 25 minutes in length.  Despite knowing what I was doing this time it still took awhile and the video is almost the exact same length, oh well.

I then turned my attention to installing my OEM Tacoma TRD Pro fog lights.  Installation of the lights was not quite as simple and straightforward as I anticipated but it still wasn’t bad at all.  I like the look of the lights but the fact that they are now LED makes my non-LED headlights stick out like a sore thumb.  It is now very likely I will be getting LED bulbs for my headlights soon.

Last night we again opted to stay put and watched a Netflix rental I had sitting for awhile, The Secret Life of Pets, an animated movie that I think was made as the same crew that made Minions.  The movie was cute with a slow part in the middle sandwiched with a strong start and finish.  I’d give it a B all day long.

So my Memorial Day which used to be almost 100% running club consumed between the 5K race in the morning with a a club picnic late instead had a nice leisurely flow to it.  Cindy taught her water aerobics class mid-morning and I used it as an opportunity to complete my final project of the weekend, installing auxiliary LED lights in the front end of the truck.  I had stumbled across the lights when I was buying oil for my oil change and did an impulsive snap purchase of them.

Chuck, the guy that helped me with my lift had a LED light bar installed on his Tacoma so I had been thinking about doing something loosely anyway.  The front of the box actually had a 2016/17 Tacoma with the kit installed so I assumed I should have little to no problem doing the same.  Well as is normally the case, things did not go quite so smoothly, although I did have Elsa in the truck for most of the install offering me moral support.

My issue was the cool TRD Pro grille I installed was different than the grill on the picture which was a base model Tacoma.  As a result I did not have an unobstructed area to mount the lights behind the grille.  Well after a lot of thought and more than a little hesitation, I decided to cut out one small section of the grille on either side which gave me a near perfect opening for the lights.  I spent over $400 on this grille, tasking a snips to it seemed a bit surreal but I was somewhat confident it would work out in the end.  Later in the process I even got the drill out to knock a hole in the back of the grille to get me access to turn a mounting screw for the lights.  It was kind of crazy as you can see in the video.

Anyway, everything came together in the end and I like the outcome.  The small parts of the grill I cut out aren’t really noticeable and the lights almost look like they were meant to be there.

The rest of our Memorial Day has been very nice.  For the first time in I have no idea how long, I actually used our pool for more than just a psuedo shower after yard work.  Cindy and I floated around in the pool for a good 30-45 minutes, escaping the ridiculous temps hovering around 95 degrees.

I then suggested we take Elsa on a ride to The Cone in Bonita Springs for some ice cream.  Pool time and ice cream, the perfect Memorial Day one-two punch.  Elsa got to try her first doggie ice cream ever and seemed to like it.  We limited how much she had, just in case.  My cookies and cream and Cindy’s black cherry cone were both very enjoyable.

From here out I plan to just veg and get some WoW time in.  Even though the weekend started off very front loaded with work with a large amount of projects peppered in, overall I am happy with the end result.  It’s nice to just have simple fun and get shit done.  Hey, that rhymes.

I made three videos last night that pretty much covered the excitement from yesterday.  Feel free to catch up below. There is some big related news, I have now crossed over the 2000 subscriber mark on my YouTube Channel.  The second 1000 subs happened about 300% faster than the first 1000 so I hope to keep that acceleration pattern going.

This Memorial Day weekend we will of course have labor to complete but I am hoping for once the relaxation/recreation side of the scale will be the heavier one.

So I completed the transfer of Prius ownership to my name yesterday.  I transferred the plate that used to adorn my SSR to the Prius to save a few bucks.  I have to say the plate looked much cooler and appropriate on the SSR but I do like the humor and irony of having the plate on the 50 MPG Prius as well.

I dropped off the Tacoma this morning for it’s 15,000 mile service.  I am hoping that it does not have the symptoms of the latest Tacoma recall, a leaking rear differential.  If the truck is found to have the problem Toyota is pulling the trucks off the road and providing loaners until a solution is found.  That would not be good, at all.

I have my Msuper along to take to the gym today, hopefully it stops raining before then.

So Cindy got her brand new car back yesterday which she was very happy about.  The dealership identified a faulty relay as the problem originally but Cindy got a more detailed explanation that was a bit weird.  She was told actually that a relay for the battery cooling fan was installed incorrectly.  They said that before the Ioniq arrived at the dealership for sale it was at a car show and somehow that was the reason for the misplacement for the relay.  Perhaps they pulled it to limit functionality at the show, I have no idea.  However the car show explanation does explain why the car already had roughly 30 miles on it when we test drove it Saturday.  Regardless, both Cindy and I are glad to have her new Ioniq in the garage once again.

In related activity, I will be transferring the Prius to my name today so I can assume fiscal/insurance responsibility for it.  I am going to try to transfer the old SSR MUSCL UP plate to the Prius if possible, the irony would be funny.  Keeping the Prius will allow us a way to negate some mileage on the two new vehicles as well as giving us transportation flexibility if one of the three vehicles is unavailable.  I already have a short mental list of things that I need to do to the Prius as money and motivation allows.

Of course I was saddened by the latest apparent terrorist bombing a the concert in the UK. But as I have said before, like most things in life, things, even horrible, despicable things become less impactful the more often they occur.  Gun violence, soldiers dying over seas in pointless conflicts, Trump saying/doing idiotic and dangerous things, it all becomes one big blur of bad that I can do nothing about. So I just try to make sure my own personal sphere of existence is filled with more good than bad and hope the rest of the world eventually finds a way to do the same.

RIP Roger Moore, the James Bond I grew up knowing.

So early in the afternoon I asked Cindy if she heard anything back from the Hyundai dealer yet regarding her car.  She hadn’t so she reached out to them.  She talked to a woman service advisor who said they were still working on it.  She made a request that seemed odd to me.  Cindy had told her I took a picture of the error my code reader pulled from the car.  She asked if I could send it to her.  I found this odd because obviously they have the ability to read engine codes too but what the hell, ok, I’ll send it.  Cindy said the woman was talking some technical stuff that didn’t quite make sense so I said I would call her since I had a pretty good grasp of the scenario.

So I get a call back after leaving a message.  The woman, who Cindy identified as being very nice on the phone started to explain the situation.  She said that although the salesman and the mechanic initially saw the check engine light was on, it was now off so they couldn’t get a code with their equipment.  I told her that didn’t seem to make sense since I thought whenever a check engine light condition exists, the code is stored in the ECU until it is forcibly cleared.  As soon as I made that statement the woman’s nice switch flipped to off the position.

She immediately developed a large attitude with me, how dare I question anything that she tells me?  She said several things in a very smart ass tone to me, including “Well if it is not showing a code there is nothing we can do…”  I told her I wasn’t quite sure why she was taking an attitude with me but I did not appreciate it. I told her the general manager said they would do whatever it takes to get the car fixed asap, yet I am hearing “there is nothing we can do” It was a very poor choice of words on her part, considering the circumstances. I knew I was not going to get any further with this woman so I asked if she could transfer me back to our salesman.

So I recanted my phone interaction with Matt and he was not happy about it.  He told me he would get on it asap and someone would call me back.  A little after 4PM the general manager called me and let me know that they replaced a relay that they believe was defective.  He said to make sure they wanted to keep the car overnight and drive it some more just to make sure.  I was fine with that plan, so hopefully Cindy is back behind the wheel tonight.  I guess they COULD do something about it.

I am not an overly confrontational person.  However when someone steps on my feet and brings it to my face I can react quite strongly. I can put up with a lot of shit but when I decide not to, things can heat up pretty quickly.

We started off our Saturday with an early morning run at the track.  Cindy actually joined me which was cool.  I think I am going to try to permanently move my weekend run to Saturday mornings instead of Sunday.  It’s nice to get it out of the way up front.  When I was at my running peak I was always doing my weekend run on Saturdays anyway.  The warm and muggy weather made it a tough slog but we made it.

So I told Cindy I had a lot of small chores I wanted to get done Saturday morning and she was more than willing to jump in and help.  She actually weed whacked the yard using the battery powered whacker.  One of the things I wanted to do was my every 3 month generator start up.  I take both generators out of their respective sheds and fire them up so when the time comes where I actually need them, they will start.   Of course the small Honda unit fired up very quickly, that thing is bullet proof.  The big 5000 watt unit I bought in 2005 was a different story.

After pulling on the starter cord until I got a blister it still would not fire up.  I pulled out some tools and carb cleaner and got busy.  I disconnected the fuel line and shot a ton of carb cleaner in there.  I also removed the air filter and shot another large amount of cleaner in through the butterfly valve. I pulled the spark plug to make sure it didn’t look fouled out, it didn’t.  Even after doing all of that, it would not start.

Although I knew it likely wouldn’t help, I decided to leave the generator out to bake in the sun.  I thought maybe, just maybe once it got good and warm it might start.  Believe it or not, when I came back around 4pm, it started.  Not only did it start but it ran for hours, something it normally won’t do anymore without intermittent shut offs.  I was quite happy I was able to resuscitate the generator.

So after doing the chores Cindy and I had planned to drive up to a Fort Myers Hyundai dealer to test drive a Hyundai Ioniq.  Like I mentioned previously, with the Prius on the cusp of 200,000 miles we were looking at options.  Although Cindy and I had seen an Ioniq a couple weeks prior we never drove one.  Not only did we want to drive one, we really wanted to drive one of the Limited models that has the sunroof since that is what Cindy really wants.  We wanted to see if the sunroof headroom penalty would have my head jammed against the roof.  The only problem was Fort Myers didn’t have a Limited on the lot.

Well as we were getting DD coffee Cindy just happened to browse the inventory of Tamiami Hyundai, our local dealer.  We did not approach them originally because they were not a TrueCar affiliated dealer.  Well according to their website they had TWO Limited’s on the lot.  She called and talked to a salesman named Matt to verify they were there, they were.  Even better news was one of them was the Ceramic White color that Cindy wanted.  We canceled the GPS navigation for the Fort Myers dealer and headed to the local dealer who was only 5 miles away. The only “negative” about this car was it had the tech package which of course is a positive to me.  The only bad thing is the additional cost.  This car basically had everything you could possibly get in the Ioniq line.

Our sales guy Matt was cool.  He has been selling cars pretty much his entire adult life but he has a baseball background like me so that gave us some common ground.  We wasted little time before doing the test drive.  Cindy and I were both happy to see that even with the addition of a power sunroof I still had plenty of room for my cranium.  I also immediately noticed that as a passenger I have more leg room than I do in the 2007 Prius.  When I later drove the car I had a lot more leg room as well.

The car drove great and Cindy loved pretty much everything about it.  We had already talked about keeping the Prius as a third vehicle instead of trading it in.  Ever since I got rid of the party van and the SSR, making us a two vehicle household (if you don’t count the electric unicycles), there have been multiple times when having a third option would have been convenient.  So without a paid off trade in we were going to see how the numbers worked out with a couple spiffs Cindy qualified for, as a veteran and an Uber driver as well as taking advantage of 60 month 0% financing that Hyundai was currently offering.  Cindy also brought her TrueCar pricing certificate which the dealer also honored.

It took a little bit of haggling but in the end we came up with a number that worked for Cindy and would fulfill her transportation needs for the foreseeable future. Even though we didn’t enter the weekend anticipating Cindy having a new car in the garage, that’s how it worked out, at least for one night.  More on that briefly. So I drove my Tacoma home escorting Cindy in her new wheels.  The report card she gave when we got home was A+, she just loved the car in pretty much every way.  She was extremely excited to take the vehicle to the movies Saturday night.  I was very happy for her as well.

So as we were ready to leave for the movies Cindy offered to back the car out of the driveway so it would be easier for me to get in.  I could tell something was going on as she was trying to back out as she paused.  She told me the car was making an odd noise and an error light was on the dash.  Surely I thought she had to be misinterpreting something so I asked her to let me start it.  I could hardly believe that the check engine light was on as well as a HEV system error.  Cindy was immediately very distraught but I tried to calm her down.  We did a little test drive up and down the street.  The car drove fine but the error lights were still there.  Not knowing what was going on we decided it would be better to park the car and just take the Tacoma to the movies.

Cindy called the salesman and let him know of the problem.  They were open Sunday’s so he said we could take the car there the next day.  I spent most of the drive to the movies trying to talk Cindy down as she had nightmare scenarios running through her head that she just bought a lemon.  I assured her I had confidence that the problem was likely minor and that the dealer would take care of it.  Of course I felt badly that Cindy’s new car euphoria was cut short by the problem.

Despite the Ioniq roller coaster we both really enjoyed the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie.  I would rate it as highly as the first, meaning it is in rare A+ levels.  Marvel just knows how to do it right.

So while we were driving the Tacoma I noticed that my headlights, which I had adjusted after the lift were still pointing too far downward, giving me very limited light distance on the road.  Despite it being late I wanted to get them adjusted when we got home.  Before doing so I also wanted to get some more clarity on the Ioniq error.  I hooked up code reader to the brand new car’s diagnostic port to see what it would tell me.  In a few seconds it told me that something in the circuit that controls the battery cooling fan was amiss. Getting this information was a bit of a relief as it would seem that would be a rather simple thing to fix.  It also made Cindy feel a bit better as well.

Sunday morning we did stuff around the house until mid-morning.  I followed Cindy in the Prius.  While I filled the car up with gas she headed to the dealership to get the loaner process started.  Ironically, the error lights had reset themselves during Cindy’s drive however when the salesman turned the car back on the HEV error once again reappeared, leaving no question of it’s existence.  They gave Cindy a nice Elantra Sport as a loaner and assured us they would get the problem addressed quickly.  They said if it requires a part to fix they will pull it from one of their Ioniqs on the lot if need be, which was reassuring to hear.  Below is my video documenting my initial Ioniq impressions as well as talking about the CEL issue.

We then met up with Katie and Daniel for some EUC riding, something we had not done as a group in awhile.  We had a fun time zipping around the Vanderbilt Beach area although it was ridiculously hot outside.  Daniel is ready to upgrade to a bigger/faster wheel.  I recommended he look at a Gotway ACM which has power, speed, and range to spare.  We actually cut the ride a little short because my old Ninebot One I gave to Daniel ran out of juice.

After the ride the four of us had lunch at Fuzzy Taco’s.  The experience was good once again although Katie ordered a margarita that she was not fond of at all.

When we got home we turned right around and headed back out, this time with the dogs in tow.  They had looked disappointed repeatedly over the weekend when we headed out without them.  We wanted to get one small Home Depot road trip in for them before Sadie went back to Ali’s place today.  Elsa and Sadie appeared to have fun.  Elsa is definitely acting better in public spaces.  Her freak outs are fewer and farther between.

We didn’t get back home till after 4pm.  I just chilled out for the rest of the day.  It’s funny how even with a very busy and eventful weekend, just a few consecutive hours of doing nothing makes me feel sort of lazy.

Yesterday the new tail lights I ordered for the Tacoma arrived.  They are the tail lights that come on the $45,000 Tacoma TRD Pro trucks.  They have a more blacked out appearance which goes well with other black accents I already added to the truck like the grille, nerf bars, and tail gate letters.

Installation of the new light assemblies was easier than I anticipated with only two bolts holding each in along with a couple clips.  In total the job probably took 20 minutes including time futzing with the camera.  The light swap gives the back end of the truck a sharp new look.

I actually went nuts and ordered the TRD Pro front fog lights as well which should show up next week.  The dealership I bought them from actually cut me a break on price and shipping because I told them I had been mentioning them in my other videos.  I like mutual back scratching scenarios.

This weekend we hope to finally get out to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  I also have a number of home chores on my mental list as always.  An EUC ride or two would be fun as well.