Kelly and I have made our way to Texas. After work Friday we drove down to Kelly's parents in Riverbank to see them and start our Christmas holiday. Saturday night we gave our presents to them and and opened the things they gave us. Sunday morning Kelly's Dad gave us a ride to the Sacramento airport. We got though security without any delay and arrived at our gate with tons of time to spare. Kelly was working on her last of a long list of knitted gifts. We watched about half of The Terminal on my laptop before they started boarding the plain. The flight was uneventful which is the best kind and landed at DFW about 25 minutes late. Jessica and Ruthie where waiting for us at the baggage pickup and drove us to my parents house. We have been having a great time ever since. Yesterday there was a big party with all of moms family. Last night we acted out he nativity with Kelly as Mary me as a wish man and winter as a sheep. This morning we opened even more presents. Through out this whole time we have eaten our selves silly and squeezed in a daily nap.
| 1 | Roko Teller Ashurst |
| 2 | Roko David Ashurst |
| 3 | Roko Stevens Ashurst |
| 4 | Roko Thomas Ashurst |
| 5 | Roko Peter Ashurst |
| 6 | Roko David Teller Ashurst |
| 7 | Roko Peter Thomas Ashurst |
| 8 | Roko Hiram Teller Ashurst |
| 9 | Roko Hiram Thomas Ashurst |
Third and final trimester! Roko as he will be named, is a boy if you don't yet know, and he is doing very well by all indications. He is right on average for his age, size wise. He kicks his mother all day and night. Kelly is about the cutest pregnant girl you ever saw and I'm am getting very anxious for him to come. I don't know what ells to say about it but that we are excited. This is the list of our top 10 favorite names in no particular order. Feel free to weigh in. (I know we only got 9)
Wednesday night I couldn't get to sleep. (maybe that contributed to the jeep door melee) When that happens I often find I better get up and do something useful rather than lie there not sleeping, or doing anything. The problem is what to do at 12:30? You can't make any noise. Anyway I ended up redoing the banner you see at the top of the screen. The old one has been up almost since I opened this site three years ago. So a fresh look seemed over due. The picture is from a trip I took with the scouts from our ward back in September. I like it a lot. The scene reminds me of a happy day just like the last one and I think it looks nice.
My jeep is an 87. Twenty years old this year. It has had a hard life for the last few years. Actually it had a really soft life before I bought it. I moved to California in April of 02 and bought the jeep shortly after. The guy I had bought it from got it just out of college as his first new car, and had taken really good care of it. It had been kept in the garage and the paint was immaculate. There was not so much as a door ding in it. The interior was no different, clean and spotless. In those first few years after I got it I lifted it about 5 inches and put big tires on it. I geared down the axles and put lockers in it. Then I proceed to wheel it on some of the sierras legendary trails. It was fun times. But it was hard on the jeep. As a unibody the Cherokee is light and wheels well but it also twists and flexes as you wheel it. Over time this starts to show in all the welds and joints and in the doors. My jeep is a two door and so it has longer doors and they just haven't closed all that well since I bounced the jeep down some ledges in Moab with my dad. I haven't really wheeled it hard since I got married. Though I still use it to get up in the mountains several times a year. So for a long time my plan has been to buy a newer 99-01 and move all my modified stuff over to the new rig thereby essentially replacing the body.
Anyway I told you all that as background to what I am about to tell you now. Wednesday night I was looking through the jeeps for sale on craigslist and sort of wishing I was ready to get a new one, but knowing that it wasn't going to happen for a while. It's a perennial pastime. Thursday I worked late and was driving home in the dark. As I turned onto the washed out dirt road thats the back way to our house, my jeep bounced over some ruts and I thought to my self... though it would be nice to get a newer jeep I don't need one to be happy. Life is great and it makes no difference what I drive. I have Kelly I don't need anything. I pulled into the driveway not two minutes later happy and full of gratitude. I jumped out of the jeep and took my foot off the brake at the same time. The door caught on the chain link fence as the jeep started to roll back. I tried to pull the door closed but the jeep kept rolling back. Finally I jumped in and hit the break. I restarted the jeep and pulled forward. The door had bent way forward and now would not close at all. I tried to close the door but it was not happening. Even if I bent it closed the latch no longer lined up with the frame catch. The hinges were partially ripped out of the sheet metal. It was a mess. I was an idiot.
I thought a lot about getting a new jeep that night. I looked at many of the same jeep online I had looked at the night before, but this time with a new sense of reality. I could just give up on this one. I even emailed a few of them. I could just take the door off all together and drive it like that for a bit. No option seemed like a good option. The next morning. I strapped the door to the passenger seat and drove it to work gaping open about 4 inches. It seemed like every car that drove past was thinking what an idiot. I left it sitting at work with the door hanging open. At lunch I stopped at a body shop that is in the same business park that I work in. The guy there said it would be no big deal to make it work as long as it didn't need to be pretty. He quoted me $306. I had Kelly pick me up and by Friday at lunch when I went to pick it up the door was closing beter than it had for years.
A cautionary tail about parking next to chain link fences on slopes indeed but also about how the things you have are great and how you shouldn't give up on them... not yet.
I don't read a lot. But when I do I like a book with meat. To qualify as a good book to me it must change the way I see the world. George Orwell's 1984 written just after world war two in 1948 meets this criteria more than any book or story I have ever heard. The term mind bending is an understatement. The story is very unpleasant at times as it describes how this future government controls every aspect of it's subjects lives and indeed their very thought. It is horrifying in it's near plausibility. For those of you who have not read it or phoned it in as a high school assignment it is a must read. The adjective "Orwellian" and the notion of “Big Brother” as government surveillance system overreaching it's boundary come from it pages. I don't know that I have ever read a more powerful book.
Last week Kelly and I went up to Seattle. I had to go to a trade show for work. We stayed with cousin Johnny and his lovely family in there new home. On the way up we took a detour to Battle Ground where my family lived for most of my high school years. It was interesting to see what had changed and what was the same. The town had grown up quite a bit. There were a lot of new businesses on the west end of town. The high school had added a lot of new structure though interestingly it seemed mostly to be covered hallways and a new gym. Pulse a bunch of portables where the tennis courts were. The Burgerville was still there but with a McDonalds next door. We got there just at dark and as a light drizzle started to fall. I remember after we moved the Texas being amazed at how, with a clap of thunder it would commence a downpour that would last from twenty minutes to an hour and then cease just as suddenly as it began. In Washington apparently I had never experienced such an event. In deed the rain in Washington is a completely different kind of a thing. It starts almost imperceptibly as the water in the air starts to get wet. In deed there is no bright line between the thick fog and the light drizzle. At it's most heavy Washington rain might reach the level of an average California spring rain but as if the level of exertion were just impossible to sustain that kind of rain just never last more that a few minutes, unlike the days of it we get here in the spring. Anyway Battle Ground had plenty to remind me of why we called it a hick town. It seemed that every corner ether had a chain saw shop or a tractor dealer. We got to John and Mamie's at about 8:00 having made better time on the trip than we expected owing to Oregon having lifted the 55 mph statewide speed limit that they had last time I passes through. We had a very nice evening getting to know Mamie and getting to spend some rare time chatting with Johnny. Baby Lucy having gone to bed before we got there didn't give us our fist glimpse of her till the next morning. Friday morning we all broke up to do our thing. Me to the show, Johnny to work at Boeing's 737 assembly line, and Mamie and Kelly to Seattle to see the sites. The show was interesting but small. By afternoon I was about ready to go. Johnny picked me up after work and we met up with the girls at the ferry dock to ride over to Bainbridge Island and then go see Poulsbo. Poor Little Lucy was being a real trooper, having forgone her afternoon nap. She remained pleasant throughout the trip that included enough car time to drive even us adults nutty. The ferry ride was very fun. It was just like my childhood memory. The boat hadn't changed one bit except that I remember them having more of a restaurant on them and this one only had a very basic kind of snack bar. Kelly was already half past eating time on her very regimented diabetic pregnancy diet and so not having a good dinner option on the ferry added to our stress a bit. We finally ate at a Mexican place in Poulsbo that I think was there when we lived there. It was in a strip mall kind of affair where my sisters cool friends all hung out at a skate shop. Washington was very much like I remembered. There was a good deal of grey, some with and some without drizzle and a few times of bright sun peaking through clouds. Perhaps the thing I like about it, is that it makes you want to wrap up in a sweater but really you could get away with a T shirt in a pinch.
So there is this web site that those of you who live with a 14 year old may know called homestarrunner. It's good times if you have an extra half hour to waist on adolescent nonsense. It's all about these flash animated ?guys? Including the rare poopsmith and “the cheat” It is perhaps from this last character name that I have adopted my latest in a long line of non cuss words. I find that I need at least one or... well the alternative to not having one handy is even more unseemly. I'm not proud of it but at least I try. Anyway it started out somehow as “cheater bot” thought I'm not sure why or how and kind of got shortened back to just cheat. My brother and I have always had a tendency to sort of develop our own phrases and meanings. I suppose that custom phrases are some kind of a sociological device that help to define the boundaries of a group or something. I also like to quote from movies. I think it is for the same reasons. If people have seen the movie and recognize the line it creates some kind of connection. Like one time when I was maybe 12 or 13 my older and much cooler sister was having a party at our house. I was in the kitchen somehow and one of Angela's cool friends came in looking for chips and asked if it was okay with me if he took this bowl. Now before I go on I must first tell you that at the time there was this Doritos commercial running where Jay Leno said “crunch all you want we'll make more”. And that was my reply to the hungry party goer. To this day I consider it one of my wittiest moments. He laughed and it made me feel cool.
Last night Kelly and I Rocked the bumpin' Trunk or Treat at the ward house. I was complacently in the "no I'm not dressing up this year" camp until Monday night when Kelly made the key suggestion that I could wear the black watch cap and sweater my bro in the navy gave me and be a spy. Somehow by Wednesday that ended up the classic bank robber you see here. I just love that girl!
Kelly and I went to the doctor today and they did the big ultrasound, The baby appeared healthy and happy. It was squirming around like a dancing fool. It is normal size for it's age and there didn't seem to be anything that worried the tech. To find out if it's a boy or a girl you will have to play our little game. Our favorite pic is the baby waving! My 2nd favorite is the spine picture with the baby's arm up over it's head. It looks like it's stretching. Kelly also likes the one with the baby sucking it's thumb. Although everyone thinks it maybe picking it's nose. The last three are the baby's scary Halloween face! Looks like it's gonna like the holiday as much as it's mom!
As I lay in bed in the morning before getting up I often set goals for my day. This morning I wanted to really dig into a job I have had on my plate for a week or so and get this piece of machine fixture designed and cut. Making it is the easy part. The hold up has been that there are no models for the part the fixture holds. The engineer did all his work in excel and the end result was 4 complex curves, a list of critical dimensions and a part list. From that I needed to make the parts. So the first step for me was to do all the models. Now this is actually 4 separate pumps but they share most of their geometry and in fact most of their parts in common, with only dimensional differences between them for the most part. So in order to make them most efficiently the thing to do is make one computer assembly model with a configuration for each pump. In order to do this I first needed to make configurations of the parts that were different between the different pumps. Anyway I'm getting a bit technical here... There are no short cuts and even thought we all had a good understanding of what the four pumps needed to be. The modeling had to get done before we could be sure the fixture that I needed to make would work. One thing led to another but I just never got enough done today to feel like I could make the dang fixture. At the end of the day it felt like nothing had happened all day even though work had taken place and progress made. I guess what I'm saying is that even if you have a clear idea of where you want to go you still have to cover the ground that lies between where you are and where you want to be.
Hee Hee Hee... Click Here to listen. We rented a Baby dopler like the ones they use when you go to the OBGYN. For a mere dollar a day we can hear and record our baby's swishy hart doing it's cute little thing. My nephews think it sounds like a crazy puma. That first one is the best as far as quality beat. This one is a longer session where it comes and goes a bit. This last one is another good short one.
At the time I left work Friday the plan was to go down to Kelly folks house Friday night and then go with them to Santa Cruz on Saturday to go to the boardwalk and the beach and whatever that's all about. We were both kinda looking forward to it all week. It had also been a long hard week at work and I felt like I needed a distraction to unwind. When I got home Kelly told me her dad was going to have to work and so they couldn't come. The other thing was that rain was on the forecast, so maybe it wasn't the best weekend for the beach anyway. Nether of us wanted to just stay home though, so we tossed it around a bit and decided to go back up to the same area where I had taken the teachers a few weeks before and camp at Mud Lake.
We didn't get there till well after dark. We set up our tent in the wind. The sky was clear and the moon was bright. The shadowy reflections of the trees and the stars on the lake made me think of a trip I had taken a few years earlier. What beautiful mountains we have so close. We were in bed at about 9 and stayed up talking for a while. During the night the wind died down. At 3am it was as silent as a grave. At around 7am I got up to answer nature's call and a thick curtain of white fog had settled in. It was very pretty. It reminded me of a picture in a coffee table book. I got back in my bag and snuggled in next to Kelly to enjoy one of my favorite parts of camping; laying in bed lazily in the morning with nowhere to be. Not a minute later though it started to snow. Mud lake is at about 7800 ft and I had heard the snow level would reach 7500 on the western slopes so it was not a real surprise to have snow. I was glad in fact. It was as if mother nature was saying “don't go to bed. Here, I'll make it even more pretty.” The snow only lasted a hour or so. After we had our fill of the morning laze, we packed up the tent and headed out. Just before we were ready to head out, two Jeeps came by headed for the dead end of the road. We rolled out and headed for the top of the ridge. The two jeeps showed up in my rear view mirror. I pulled over at the first wide spot to let them by as they seemed like they wanted to go a bit faster than my nowhere-to-be morning pace. The first guy pulled up next to me and long story short they decided they wanted to follow along with us. It is always nice to travel in a group when driving off road, so I was glad to have them. They turned out to be really nice guys and as we traveled along we got to know each other a bit. For the next four or five hour we quietly rolled along a the snow dusted trail shrouded by amazingly beautiful fog. It was one of the finest days of wheelin I have ever had. The trail was not really much of a challenge and that was fine. It was the kind of day that would take a poet to really do justice. But hopefully the pictures will give you a hint at the beauty. To see them full size you can click on them.
You can download a GPX file that showes where we went.
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas
Last weekend I went on a jeep trip with the teacher quorum form our ward. Only four boys ended up coming. By the time we got everyone rounded up Friday night and drove the 40 minutes to the trail head it was dark. At this point it was me and my jeep, another guy from the ward and his TJ and the four boys. We had the boys air the tires down at the trail head. Most of them had never heard of doing that. And I disconnected the sway bar. Then we drove in about 20 minutes to Mud lake where we set up camp. Everyone else just rolled out there beds on an old building foundation but I set up a tent. The boys set a world record for scouts and went right to bed while us leader stayed up chatting around the lantern (no fires are allowed this time of year). The next morning we broke camp and got ready to roll. Two other guy with jeep met us so we had one jeep for every scout. It was fun for them. We even let them drive. It was funny they were all between 14 and 16 so they are on the verge of learning to drive. Driving a jeep with an 80 to 1 low gear at 1.6 mph however is something that is fairly easy for anyone. The weather was perfect at around 80. The week before had seen summers last gasp with temperatures pushing 100 so we lucked out. The trail started at highway 88 at a place called Tragedy Springs. From there it follows approximately the route the returning members of the Mormon battalion took on there way to meet up with the saints in Salt Lake. It is called the Melissa Coray peak trail after the wife of one of the member of the battalion who traveled with them and Tragedy Springs is where three members of a scouting party for the Mormon battalion where found killed. Anyway I do enjoy living close to such a beautiful wild area and it is fun to take the boys to an area rich with Mormon history.
Today the post from Monday finally got read by someone. In fact it was my brother Joe who first saw the post. He then sent an email to everyone in my family suggesting that my blog might be worth a look. As I tried to get through the normal problems of a busy afternoon at work I was interrupted repeatedly by my family calling to express their excitement at the news. Kelly and I had been trying to keep it on the down low even between our selves, but as I talked to each sister and brother my level of excitement crept up.
Today by coincidence is the four year anniversary of Kelly and I's first date. It is strange to think that it was only four years ago that I was all single and stuff and now I'm a few months away for being a family of three. It's hard for me to think of what life was like before Kelly and I'm sure in a few years I will have a hard time thinking about what life was like without kids. Anyway thanks for all your support. Please keep us in your prayers there are still six long months of uncertainty to go.
WEDNESDAY! WEDNESDAY! WEDNESDAY! March 19TH 2008! Get your tickets NOW! for this once in a life time Extravaganza! Be the first to call and win a MAJOR PRIZE!!!
This is my new hive. I built it almost two weeks ago but I had to get it painted and I wanted to put it in the same spot as I had my temporary hives sitting on an old straw bail. So I had to move the bees, move the hay and then level out the ground (if the hive is not level the bees will build comb level anyway and mess things up) and then put the bees in the new hive. I got it all done tonight, as it was getting dark. Ants are invading my weakest hive. When I opened it up to move the bees there were ants everywhere and the bees were noticeably upset. I first tried putting Petroleum Jelly around each leg and that seemed to stop them cold. But a few hours latter and it was barley even slowing them down. It may be that as it got cooler the ants could walk on it or maybe they just figured it out. Either way I had to do something or my poor little girls were going to get eaten out of house and home. So I cut some OJ containers in half and put them under the legs of the hive and filled them with water. I don't think this is a very good long term fix as it will rot the legs of in short order, but I should buy me some time to get a better solution. You may notice that this beehive dose not look like the kind you see most commonly. The kind you see in orchards and sitting if fields are called Langstroth after the guy who invented them. My design takes much of that and blends it with the kind of hive my dad like called a top bar hive. I think the best description of mine is that it's a horizontal Langstroth. It is essentially a single Langstroth deep box that is 6 feet long with a screen bottom. I also am just using starter strips of wax rather than plastic foundation like the pros, partly as a mater of cost but also wanting to let the bees build comb any size they want. I moved one hive into each end of the box with a divider board separating each one. My thinking in building in this way was that it would have the following advantages to me:
1. It would be relatively easy and quick for me to build
2. I would not need to move my bees out of the Langstroth frames they were in
3. I could use many of the management advantages of a TBH
Kelly has been at girls camp all week. This marks the longest we have been apart in the last three years since we have been married. Just like when I was single, I have not had the TV on at all. I have been knocking things off my to-do list at a rate hitherto unprecedented. Just to name a few. I fixed a nagging problem on my jeep suspension. I de-grassed and leveled a place around where my new beehive is now. I took care of all the details and got my bees moved out of there cramped temporary shelters and moved them to there spacious new digs. I fixed my generator. I went and picked up an A/C unit that a friend wanted to give us. I mowed the lawn. Even straitened up around the house a bit. I have also been building a web site for my sister, though I'm not making as much progress as I had hopped due to all the other projects I guess. I have been eating like a king!... 10 for $10 pizzas every night. Saturday morning I may go play paint ball with friends.
It reminds me of my single days. I would have several of what I called projects going at any given time. Things from making some modification to my jeep, to building some kind of projectile device. Now-a-days I am lucky to have time to fix the stuff that breaks and take care of the things I have to do.
Now don't go off thinkin' I don't like being married. Quite the opposite is the case. Sitting around doing "projects" has limited appeal and grows old really quick. I miss talking to Kelly, and a lot of other small things about having her around. I am going to be exited to see her and I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about this weekend.
Well beekeeping has been on my mind lately. I am now up to three hives in the back yard. They all came from capturing wild colonies. The latest came from a family's yard last night. Lenny and I went over and the family showed us where the swarm had landed a couple of weeks ago. It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. The edges of the new white comb were just protruding from the ball of light colored bees. We smoked them a bit and then Lenny climbed up a ladder and started cutting the comb down one layer at a time. Considering we were destroying week's worth of their masterful work they took it rather well. They did not get too rambunctious and before we knew it we had most of the bees and all but the slightest residue of comb in the hive box I had brought them as their new home. Nobody got stung. This morning first thing, I hung all the comb and spotted the queen. She looked to be in good shape. I'm exited to have a colony for my top bar hive. I used rubber bands to hold the comb to the bars. The bees will quickly attach the comb and then chew through the bands and remove them from the hive. I didn't have an assistant so I didn't get any pictures of the hung comb. I got six bars with comb on them. I didn't want to wear gloves, as I knew it would be sticky and I needed to be handling the comb and rubber bands. I picked up each comb while it was still covered in bees. As a result I had bees crawling on my hands as I worked. It is sort of funny to be letting go of my fears. I have yet to be stung working with my bees. As the year goes on and bees feel they have more to protect they may get more defensive, but what I am learning is that something in our culture erroneously teaches us that bees are these dangerous creatures that will sting you with the slightest provocation. I am finding this to be far from accurate. They are in fact much more likely to just plane ignore your presence given half a chance, even when you are dismantling there home. Because I had the hive open with honey exposed as I was working I reduced the entrances of all the hives to help prevent honey robbing. The smaller entrance makes it easier for the hives to defend themselves. They are fascinating to watch and I love to just sit in front of the hive and watch them. I would really like to thank my dad for his encouragement and Lenny for helping me get set up with these nice colonies.
I've been a beekeeper here for about three weeks. My dad gave me an empty Top Bar Hive last summer and this is the time of year to start new hives, so I was planning to buy some bees and put them in the hive I had. I got hooked up with my mom's, brother's, wife's, brother Lenny who lives not far from here in Sacramento and he has been having all kinds of luck capturing swarms this year. So much so that he has all he wants and gave me this one. It is in a temporary cardboard hive that will not hold them for long. I am working on building them a bigger hive where they can expand all they want. Anyway this is a video of me opening the hive to see what is going on. I did this a week ago for the first time in a full bee suit but the bees were so mild that this time I didn't even bother. Lenny put them in this box when he captured them with a frame of comb and four empty frames. His frames all have plastic foundation so it would be hard to transfer them to my dads Top Bar Hive which is unfortunate. The hive I am building will hold normal frames and in that way will not be a top bar, but I am planning to make it long and horizontal so it will not stack more like a top bar. It's an experiment on my part. I'm hoping to get the ease of working the hive and managing it of a top bar with the convenience of being able to use off the shelf frames and the ability to swap frames with standard stuff.
Well Ok it's been a while and I am starting to hear from my faithful readers that a dark void is forming in their lives. In fact there has been a lot to blog about in the last few months. That indeed may be the problem. Getting a blog post out just hasn't made it to the top of the "to do" list in a while. I have a supply of stories about customer service I would like to tell.
Firstly, at work one of our customers bought two of our pumps to prelube a large pleasure craft. They called us two weeks ago and told us that they are drawing to many amps, and they are about to take it out for sea trials, so something must be done right away. Now they bought this thing out of our catalog and didn't really tell us what they would be doing with it. So we sold them. What became very clear is that the pump was too big for their application and pluming. As a result the pump was being asked to do the impossible act of delivering 30 sum gallons a minute through small hose without causing the pressure and thereby amps to go too high. We explored several possible solutions over course of the next few days. As time was short we considered with the customer rewiring the motor, re-labeling the motor, and different motors, but in the end the only solution to stay afloat was to make custom pumps that have built in pressure relief valves. The design for this happened simultaneously with exploring the other options so that by the time it was clear that no other solution could work we were ready to start making the new parts and modifying existing parts. With the help of my coworker Chris I was able to turn the first batch of parts out in less then two days. Performance tests however, quickly yielded disappointing results. This is where the overtime started to kick in. As we started to discover the reasons for the poor performance we went through several iterations. Each time I would make some change to the part either on the mill of by hand. This cost us another two days but we were finally able to get two pumps shipped out overnight to the customer the day before they needed them. I feel proud to have been a major part of the company's ability to deliver a custom product solution in only about a week. I defy you to find me another company that would even try.
Next up, the chronicle of the wrecked new car. This story begins of a bright and clear Monday morning. I was sitting at my desk programming a part or something when my cell phone began to buzz in my pocket. It was Kelly. "I hit a deer". The timing could not have been worse. For starters the car was brand new. My first new car in fact. It didn't even have its license plates yet. On top of that we had an 1800 mile trip with a planned departure in just four days. AND in an effort to counter the increased cost of insuring a new car, I had canceled rental car coverage and increased my deductible from $100 to $250 only two weeks earlier. I made a few calls and no one would be able to get the car fixed that fast. A fact that would latter become all too clear. That night she got home from work after I did and she was feeling blue. I didn't want to make her feel bad so I tried to play it down. I think I did a poor job of masking my disappointment however. I really do not blame her. The deer are crazy thick around here and it could happen to anyone. I guess it just comes down to the fact that it sucks for all the reasons listed above. The hood would not latch all the way down and was only holding on the safety catch, and the left headlight is gone, but I concluded that if I rigged some way of holding down the hood and we only drive in the daytime that we will be able to drive it on our vacation. As we drove through Las Vegas on 15 it started running kind of hot and I picked up the smell of coolant. I was thinking the accident had made a small hole in the radiator and it had taken that long to really become problem. It turned out however that my inadequate job of tying the hood down let the hood lift at times as truck passed or when we drove fast. The air coming under the hood then managed to suck the coolant out of the reservoir. Once I refilled the coolant in north Las Vegas we were fine for the rest of the trip. So we got home fine two weeks after the accident and I call the insurance outfit to set up time to get the work written up. They would not come to me I had to bring it to them, all the way on the far side of Sacramento, 40 minutes away at a body shop that they recommended, and where there agent had an office onsite. A friend of mine had just had some work done at a place in Folsom and was very happy with the results. The place they wanted me to take it was owned by the same guy and had the same name so I figured what the heck. They told me it would be about 6 days. It was a Wednesday so figured I would be out the car for the weekend and get it back on the following Thursday. It all sounded reasonable enough. They did tell me it may need more work then they could see and that they would have to take it apart to see if there was any other damage. They said that would happen later that same day so parts could get on order fast and that they would call me if there was anything else. Again reasonable enough. This was all Wednesday the 21st of March. Days went by and I didn't hear from them, so I figured good no supplement, they must not have found any surprises. The following Monday the 26th they finally call me and tell me there is a supplement and that there is more damage. Why did it take them so long to take the fenders and grill apart? At this point I'm a bit annoyed but still holding out hope that it will work out in the end, and hoping to have the car back for the weekend. No call for the rest of the week, so Friday morning I call to see what's up. They tell me its been painted but has to cure and then it will be put together on Monday. I'm a bit disappointed at the prospect of another weekend without my car, but the end seemed to be drawing close. Finally not Monday but Wednesday the 4th they call me and tell me it's done. Kelly got off work a bit early so we could go pick it up before they close a 5:30. As we pull in the lot at about 5:00 I see the car but I decided to just go in and follow their lead. There is a lady ahead of me at the counter picking up her car. "Do you want to come out with me and look it over before you sign the receptionist says". "Oh no" the lady said. "I'm sure you did a great job". I get to the counter, and tell her I would like to look mine over. She walks out with me to where Kelly is already inspecting the car. As we approach I see things that don't look right. As I get closer I see that a first grader could tell you that things aren't right. The fender is markedly not parallel with the hood. The headlight assembly is way to far forward, to the point that I can see behind the rubber seal that is supposed to seal against the hood. On closer inspection I find that they also did not pull the subtle dents in the hood and that there are three evenly spaced chips in the paint along the edge of the fender that was not involved with the accident. Clearly they had dragged something along the edge or set something there. The lady was very apologetic she said she had no idea how this could have happened and that it would get first priority in getting fixed quickly. I ask how long will it take. She tells me they will have to bump some other jobs but she thinks I could have it back Friday. I leave very disappointed. Friday afternoon I call them. The parts are painted but not back on the car. Another weekend without my car. Monday afternoon I call them. They think they may have it don't by the end of the day, and they will call me and let me know. Later that day, at the last minute for me to organize Kelly getting off work and going to pick it up, I call them again. They tell me they are done. I ask the lady if she has looked at the car. She says no but she will and she will call if she finds any problems. I get there at about 5:10 this time and the car is nowhere to be seen. She calls on the intercom for someone to bring it around. About 5:25 they bring it around. I looks a lot better this time but the back of the hood is sitting just a hair lower they the fender such that if you look at it from the front it looks fine but if you look from the side with a critical eye you can see that it's not quite right, and one head light is still perceptibly further forward than the other. I sign the papers. My level of dissatisfaction with the car has been surpassed by my level of loathing any further dealing with these people.
Veterans day and Memorial day are three day weekends with a holiday that needs at least some observing. But Presidents day? It’s just an excuse to get out of town and do something. I had in mind some kind of camping trip, or out door adventure. The weather was going to be cool, but nice. What I had in mind, however is not always the determining factor. Kelly’s family wanted to get together and do something, and as a group they just aren’t campers. They proposed instead that we go down to Monterey Bay to the aquarium there. It’s something of a legend and I have never been. As a matter of fact, as we drove down I-5 it occurred to me that I had never been west of I-5 from the Bay Area to L.A. Having been a long haul truck driver, I like to think that I have been everywhere in these United States, so it’s always kind of strange when I realize there is a big chunk that is new to me. We took Pacheco Pass from I-5 over to the coast. There really are some incredible places in California. Rows of gray clouds like a wave spread across the background while the foreground’s steep green hills looked more like a painting that exaggerated both color and shape. Clumps of a dozen or two cows grazed here and there. An old farm house sits in a valley, some wind mills dotting a ridge. The impression is sort of hyper-real, like a Tim Burton film. We got to the aquarium and started at the jellyfish exhibit. They were in tanks set into the wall with frames around them and backlight, so as to be like art. They were really a work of beauty. Perhaps my favorite were these smallish guys called blue jellys that looked like mushrooms. They were so fast they just kept franticly squirting and squirting like they were terribly late for something. Later in the day a diver descended into a big two story tall tank to feed the fish. The tank has some BIG fish as well as sharks. Getting in there with a box of food did seem a bit crazy. She was mauled by a swarm of fish of every description. On the way home we took the faster route up through San Jose. We were all tired and sick of driving when we got home, but it was worth it for a very fun day.
Almost exactly two years ago Kelly and I bought a very nice car. Bella as we called it was a 99 Subaru forester with 65,532 miles. She was the nicest car either of us had ever had. She turned out to be the perfect car for us. Good mileage, fun to drive, safe, comfortable on long trips, great for poking around in the woods, and a ton of space for whatever. Today with 117,670 miles, we traded her in for a brand new model of the exact same car. It is a nice light gray. "Urban Gray" as they call it. It reminds us of a black pearl so we have decided to call it Pearl. The thing that we like the most about it is how much it is just like Bella. It drives very similarly, and sitting in the driver seat just plain feels the same. In a way it's kind of a let down. It my first new car and it's just like my old one. On the other hand we loved the old one. Almost every thing about it was great. This one does have a few very nice improvements. Our only complaints about our preveous car were that there was a lack of usable cup holders and poor cruse control layout. Technically there were four cup holders but two were in the back and one was right where your right elbow wanted to be when you shifted. The forth while convenient enough to use, pulled out right above the climate controls making them hard to use and making it so any spilled soda from a speed bump ended up on the stereo. The cruse control button was down low on the dash and behind the steering wheel, and the indicator light for the system was on was the danged button. Pearl has addressed both of these problems. The cup holder situation is almost overkill. There are two very usable holders in the center consol and one in each front door as well as four more in the back. The curse control is way better, with all the controls on the little lever by the driver's right fingertips and clear indicator lights in the instrument panel. We bought the extended warranty so she will be covered for 100,000 miles bumper to bumper. It is so nice for me to know that Kelly is driving a safe reliable car that handles like a dream. Pearl had 7.7 mile on her when we picked her up this morning and at least 2 or 3 of those were from us test-driving it last night. As it sits in the driveway right now it has 232. We drove down to show it to Kelly's family in Modesto this afternoon. I'll have to try and get a picture or two tomorrow.
The holidays are over. Tomorrow it's back to work. For Christmas we spent the weekend at Kelly parents house. It was nice… relaxing. The week before had been very stressful at work and the next few weeks promised to be more of the same. I'm in the middle of a big production cycle and I'm kind of chronically a day and a half behind. I really just enjoyed the long weekend away. Kelly's parents gave me an Ipod nano so I am now one of the cool kids, and I got a lot of other nice things. For New Years Eve, Kelly and I didn't go anywhere. We did stay up and toast the New Year before retiring but we didn't even bang pans or yell and whoop. Why is it that we feel it necessary to welcome the New Year with noise anyway? Today we got up at the crack or 10:30 and finally rolled out of here by noon on one of our no planning adventures to go play in the snow. We drove up through the El Dorado National Forest to Wentworth Springs Road and then took that over to Ice House Road and on up to Loon Lake. Along the way we met up with a guy in a jeep Cherokee and invited him to come along with us. It's always nice to travel with another vehicle so that if one of you gets stuck in the snow there is someone to give you a yank. By the end of the day though this guy was driving us nutty. I don't know for sure if he was just a few eggs short of a dozen, if he had had one to many beers, or both but he talked non stop, and was just kind of a know it all. Anyway… and thus we welcome the New Year and prepare for the coming week.
