Monthly Archive for October, 2007

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Rolling Thunder

Back driving the van this week.

I can go and get coffee whenever I like.

I’ve been listening to that 101.1 MHz Japanese-language radio station that Fabio told me about while driving.  Seems to be somewhat natsukashii programming though…

Today was apparently “Hot local Asian girl” day at Windward Mall.

Car-ma, Shiny?

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So Saturday decided to take care of some little stuff & look at the hachi roku. First off to finish bleeding the brakes. Some more kroil & pounding with deadblow mallet got the crusted on wheel loose. Here’s what the before and after looks like on one brake.

img_0893.JPGimg_0894.JPG Continue reading ‘Car-ma, Shiny?’

Moyashimon

moyashi.jpgOk, the new season of anime has started in Japan, and I haven’t said much about the shows because I haven’t seen anything of much note yet. There’s been some shows that are looking to be decent enough to find possibly entertaining, like Clannad, Bamboo Blade (surprisingly), and some others ok but not particularly unusual. I was begining to think there wasn’t going to be anything as good as the previous season. And then Moyashimon comes along. It remains to be seen how good this turns out to be, but the premise and the first episode are off to a good start. So how’s this, it’s about a kid who can see germs. I’ve said in the past that you can find a manga about virtually anything, but I have to admit this is something I wouldn’t have thought of. So we have anthropomorphic yeast and their buddies having parties and whatnot. Trying to figure out where the character designs remind me of, perhaps Genshiken. He is entering college too. Anyway, I’m interested to see where this goes, and all the cute little germies, when you think about it I think it would be pretty icky to have this ability.

Ma-ma… Makino-Chaya

Well… it’s not poison.

Went to Makino-Chaya for lunch today.  They used to be on King Street, but now they are in Aloha Tower Marketplace.  Gone is the “tabe-houdai table service” – it’s just a regular buffet now.  There were some downtown office people and local buffet-hounds, but a lot of the clientele were the bus-in fresh arrivals from Japan who were a captive audience at ATM before the buses returned to take them to their hotels at check-in time. Continue reading ‘Ma-ma… Makino-Chaya’

Car-ma, Second Movement

After ignoring the car yesterday, I ran out side this morning to give that wheel a squirt of Kroil. Noticed a nice slick of oil under the engine. Guess that’s the leak Allen mentioned. It’s a pretty good one. Don’t know where its coming from yet, appears to be dripping from rear of block, but the engine is tilted so hard to tell. Looks even more like I’ll be swapping engines, but I forgot about the water pump deal, will have to figure out what to do with that. More details later.

Dark!

It was sunny out the window at work all day, and the H3 traffic cams showed a sunny Haiku and Halekou interchange, so I hurried home to ride.  The overturned truck at Sand Island had been cleared away, so traffic on Nimitz was no worse than usual – perhaps better since people were avoiding it.  The sun was already dipping behind the tops of the Ko’olaus when I got onto Kahekili.  I rode my normal loop in the twilight and turned in a few more laps than usual at WCC since I was feeling good.  I considered continuing, but I really couldn’t see with just the little LED headlight, so I went back home.

D = 9.35-miles, Vavr = 11.7 mph, Vmax = 25.1 mph, T = 48-minutes 

Car-ma, Act 2, First Movement

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The red AE86 Corolla has finally made it to docks, so I recruited Derek to help me pick it up from Matson. Some frantic calls to my insurance finally got me a copy of temp insurance minutes before Derek arrived in the bwop mobile. So jump in and it’s off to Sand Island. I show him the secret shortcut to bypass the Piikoi/Lunalilo St. mess and we make it onto the freeway in no time. It’s almost 3:00 so the traffic is getting heavy, but we see it still moving so once we get through the merge it’s moving decently. Decide to chance going to Nimitz under the airport viaduct and take the U-turn, then bam we hit traffic at the merge as a fire engine comes up from behind. Uh oh, this can’t be good. We crawl along to the Sand Island Access Road intersection to see one of the massive traffic light poles got a nice smush going. Nice one! Luckily we make it to Matson just in time.

Continue reading ‘Car-ma, Act 2, First Movement’

Decramp

The Monday night Freeride was called on account of poor attendance,  so I bailed home and went for a spin around the neighborhood on the Ellsworth.  The mud from the last Wailuna ride was dried and flaking off of the frame and tires, and there was still grass and ferny bits stuck in the chainrings and elsewhere.  It took me longer than I had expected to get out of the house because I couldn’t find the cap to my Soma bike bottle.  Robert Goulet must have been inside my house messing with my stuff… Continue reading ‘Decramp’

Bicycle Toys


TriNewt

Sheesh, look what happens when you cancel a ride, you go and buy bicycle toys instead. So what did I waste good money on this time? The latest bicycle light from NiteRider. Is this a guy thing? All the guys I know love flashlights. Back in the day, having a MagLite would put a swagger in your step. Getting yet another AA MiniMaglite stocking stuffer would never bum us out, you can always use one. When the tiny keychain LED lights came out, we thought it was a brilliant idea. You’ll find us drooling over finely machined pieces of manly agressive “tactical” lights that can curl the retina off your eyeballs with batteries that require fat wallets and last about as long as that money stays in those wallets. And then stadium light technology in portable form appeared, the first one to come out nicknamed the alien abduction light. If we were to find ourselves crashed in the deepest remotest regions of Africa confronted by aborigines ready to throw us into the evenings crock pot, what would we whip out? Well, lighters aren’t allowed anymore (did they change that again?), so it would have to be the trusty flashlight in the god fearing eyes! Perhaps its this primevel fascination, the defying of something so basic, darkness, with a creation of man, the flashlight.

Continue reading ‘Bicycle Toys’

Boots

Salomon delamination!The old Salomon boots died in Japan this September.  The EVA midsole crumbled, leaving the rubber outsole detached from the upper back to about the ball of my foot.  They stayed together long enough for me to get back to Hawaii without the sole becoming completely detached and making me look like a Charlie Chaplin character.  Age was the factor here, not wear.  The outsole was not heavily worn and hadn’t become hard with age yet.  The Gore-Tex was still leak-proof and the leather was fine.  The rubberized scuff-patch on the toes had started to peel and crack over a year ago.  I picked up a pair of Danners for $140 to replace the Salomons, but thusfar haven’t tested them – hopefully they won’t be as slippery on snow and ice as the slick-as-$h!t Salomons were. Continue reading ‘Boots’