Thanks Dad

Glad you made it back and then to the 40th anniversary.  Wish you could've made it to the 80th.

Radio Repair Needed?

Just had the old FT-450D radio – you know, the one I'd burned the finals on 6+ years ago – repaired by Midwest Technical Services.  Fine job, quick turn-around, and reasonable price.  Give Tim a yell if you get too aggressive on tuning that random wire and happen to let the magic smoke out of your radio the way I did.

I tell ya, man.  First the Mustang, next this old radio – it feels good to get things working right again.

Gravel Bikes

Last week I was asked, "So, what is a gravel bike?"  Well, this is a gravel bike:

And this is my gravel bike.  It's a few years old (so old that gravel bikes had not yet fully speciated from cyclocross bikes), and I'd really like to have disk brakes and run wider tires, but hey I've got it and a box full of parts, so I might as well enjoy.  Got to say though, $1.5k-$2k for that Breezer does sound mighty reasonable, and I fully agree with the video's "if I had to choose one bike" sentiment.

One more cool-factor thing, Breezer is the follow-on company from the guy who torched up what's generally recognized as the first made-for-purpose mountain bike frame in the lineage evolving up from the old Schwinn ballooners the Marin crew was using at the time, into ultimately became what we know today.  Here's Breezer's history page.

Happy First Day of...

Oh, you know.  At least it's so good so far:

Things to do today list:

• top off the big LiFePO4 battery (it's on the charger now)
• fill & stabilize gas cans
• check chainsaw oil supplies, for both engine and bar

Got this plus a stack of other things to sort out.  Time to down this cup of coffee and get moving.  Welcome to hurricane season.

Book Mention: Hiking the Gulf Coast

I borrowed this from the library, and I am glad that I did in both ways that statement can be taken.  I was hoping to find some local hidden gems and perhaps find out a new thing or two about trails I've hiked, however was left with an overall sense of disappointment.  In the areas that I know well – the Forgotten Coast and the Mississippi Gulf Coast – the real centerpieces were skipped.  Furthermore, the book focuses on very short day hikes, with many of them being little more than short things that used to be labeled as nature walks and birding trails.

OK that's the bad, but there's still a lot of good stuff to be found in this book.  I really do need to get over to the St. Marks lighthouse area to explore some of those trails, and the Ochlockonee River Loop looks promising.  I used to go quite a bit to the Leon Sinks Loop back in the day, and it was good to be reminded to get back there.  It is extremely well organized, and there is a useful overview map showing all of the reviewed trails on page vi.  Beyond showing trails in general areas, it also reveals the author's bias towards his home in Mobile, where there is a thick cluster of listed trails.  I wish he'd just stuck closer to home and done a more thorough job.

If you're just planning a brief trip through any of the Gulf Coast that might include some short hikes, this book is an OK – but little more – place to start.  Pick your area and start digging deeper.  This blog is one place to start (hiking and for longer endeavors backpacking tags, and yes there is a lot of overlap), and there are about a zillion other resources.  Again, I'm glad that I borrowed this book from the library, but there's not as much there there in it as I'd hoped and will be glad to return it as well.

Getting Ahead of Cascading Failures

Last Sunday's post was about fixing the (1) plugged drain on the under-hood airbox that caused (2) wet passenger side carpet and (3) a waterlogged cabin air filter leading to (4) not having AC or, even more importantly, a working windshield defroster, which potentially leads to all kinds of bad.  That was only a leisurely hour's worth of fixing.

However, as the old hard-pitch commercials used to say, But wait! There's more!  (5) The AC blower motor was rusty and unreliable from all the water it had ingested.  Tearing into a dashboard is usually nightmarish, but not on a Mustang.  Here's a quick video on replacement:

Total time, including the drive to and from the auto parts store, was right at one hour.  The actual install time was 15 minutes flat – and that was using a ratchet wrench, not the faster power drill in the video.  Didn't even have to empty the glove box.  Remember/note to self, 7mm socket for the glove box bolts, 8mm for the blower bolts.

I'm hoping that this gets the car ahead of this particular chain of fail.  Next up: install those door panels.

Why I Drink Rye Whisky but Won't Touch Aspartame

Set in two futures at roughly 1982 and 2032 as imagined from 1959, H. Beam Piper's short science fiction story Hunter Patrol is still very much worth reading.  What's it about?  A side skirmish of WW-IV, time travel, and a forgetful dictator who keeps the population in check via a psychoactive soft drink.  Also, the protagonist keeps a sixth of rye at hand to aid his after-hours research.  Two thoughts: (a) pfft, chemists, what can you do with them, and (b) wait, a sixth of rye?  I guess shrinkflation afflicts even denizens of alternate timelines.

I hadn't read this story in over forty years, since right when it was re-issued in the early Eighties, and right before nutrasweet hit the market.  Seemed like a bad idea at the time, seems even worse as the years have passed.  I have to say though, for all the bizarre twists of that now mostly-passed fictional future, it is in many ways considerably less strange that what has actually come to pass.

The short story's still in print in paper, e-book, or audiobook forms.  Perhaps best of all, it's in a Piper "Megapack"e-reader anthology for a buck.  Dig around in all the usual places.

BTW, the illustration has absolutely nothing to do with the story.  It appears to have been lifted from a cover of a pulp magazine where the story made an early appearance.  A lurid eye-grabber there and then as well as here and now, and presented for all the same reasons.