from the twisted minds of snm
WTF?
The Albizia trees bloomed toward the end of April. I’m driving back from Waimanalo Yesterday, and the Albizia trees along Kalanianaole are throwing a new set of flowers! Do they bloom every two months? The fallen flower debris from last time is still visible in areas along the Ditch Trail, and the trees are going to go off again!
Get ready for another round of allergies!
So I’ve started moving some things around from the old site, and created a new blog thing-a-ma-bob on the banner menu which I’ve named goodies. A lot of snm extras will find their way in there eventually. First up is oni’s collection of email back to us during his tenure as a JET office guy in Okinawa originally titled Our Man In Japan. Going back to these emails really brought back some fond memories of those times.
Incidentally, it was recently OniSpawn’s first birthday. Congratulations!
Look forward to more goodies as I get to them!
While I was setting this all up I accidentally did a computerwide search on the term “goodies”, and it came back with this little gem! I had forgotten all about this.
All the more reason to beware of guys with snowdecks (AHEM, risu…..)
Just recently opened up is this place Discount Electronics up at the top of Wailae, in the row of shops between Bank of Hawaii and Toys and Joys, where that shoe place used to be. Their strategy is to find and resell closeouts, overstocks, etc. on electronics items. Seems a lot of their initial stock is from the recently closed CompUSA. I just picked up a Seagate 500G SATA drive, reasonable price. Competetive to NewEgg if you factor in shipping. I should have checked them out for the 80G that I needed for work, that one was cheaper than what I ordered online for. One wall has a decent selection of large flatscreens, Sharp, Sony, Philips. In same area small selection of some home theater components, JVC combo DVD & VHS that supposed to play Divxs too, a Sony DVD. They had some laptops, bags, some unlocked cell phones, various LCD monitors, keyboard & mouse combos. The selection may not be big, but from what I saw prices are reasonable. That is the nature of the business, guy I talked too said they plan to keep stock coming in weekly, hopefully they can as I think that is a key to a business like that, to keep stock fresh. Staff was pretty pleasant and helpfull. I understand much of the staff is from CompUsa also, but with the small setting there’s a much better atmosphere. I’ll be checking them out again in the future.
I’m in back of this female in an Acura on H1 Westbound. She’s going below 40-mph. Why is she even on the freeway to begin with? She takes the Vineyard cutoff and speeds up to 60! WTF?!
(0)
Okay, I’m sold. Jeff and Chris have been using those Clif Shot Blok gelatinous carb chunks for a while now. I remained on the fence and stuck with gels for a quick boost and bars for sustained energy. The blocks were just an intermediate substance in a somewhat inconvenient package. Clif recently introduced a high-salt “Margarita” flavor intended to aid in replacing lost electrolytes – ideal for the hot, humid riding conditions we have to deal with here. For around $2 USD, you get a heat-sealed plastic bag containing 6 blocks. The serving suggestion is half the package, yielding 90 calories and 210mg of sodium per serving. The sealed edges of the package are serrated-cut, so it is pretty easy to tear into. The plastic also rips fairly straight, so it is possible to tear along one edge without too much difficulty, leaving enough material to fold over after half the contents are eaten. The flavor is good. It sort-of reminds me of the flavor of a margarita, but really, if I’m sitting sweating out on the trail in the middle of nowhere popping one of these warm blocks in my mouth, I’m not fooled one bit. Continue reading ‘Convert’
Took the Bridgestone out again Wednesday afternoon. It’s such a fun bike! I switched out the 12-32t XTR cassette for a 11-30t XT cassette on Tuesday night. I didn’t notice the loss of the easier climbing gear on the ride, but I did notice the one higher speed gear. I’ll probably throw on a larger outer chainring when the existing one gets worn out – I probably won’t go throwing on a road crankset or anything like that… unless maybe I run across something good for really cheap.
D = 15.63 km (9.71-miles), Vavr = 20.3 km/h (12.6 mph), Vmax = 41.4 km/h (25.7 mph), T = 46-minutes
Fast service is something I generally don’t expect from a government agency, but I was pleasantly surprised when I sent in my passport for renewal. It had slipped my mind with all that has been going on recently, but I realized that my old passport expires next year in February. That would still be 6-months good if/when we go to Whistler for mountain biking in July/August, but it would be too short for Japan in September. There would be insufficient time to get the renewal after Whistler, so I needed to get it beforehand. The turnaround was supposed to be 6-8 weeks, and that was a little tight considering the July/August trip. I grabbed the renewal form from the Downtown Post Office, got photos from Sears, and sent everything in on the 4th. Continue reading ‘Customer Service’
Got the bolt holes slotted by Roy the machinist after work today. Half an hour and they were done perfectly. Head home, insert the Koni cartridges, pull the old struts, swap springs. Instal new strut assemblies and even take time to wash the wheels.
It takes a little jockying to get the lower bolts in, but nothing more than usual. It all goes together nicely, oh what a relief! The clearance under the strut is pretty close, but it works! Install wheels, torque everything up, took two hours for this final install. Go for test drive, feels good. Bouncing is much more controlled. I turn up the damping adjusters some more and definitely matches the spring rates better. Looking carefully, having the upper hole drilled does lift the suspension up a bit. The back rides a little higher now. Hopefully this doesn’t mess up the caster too much. We shall see how this all drives, nice to have this finally done!
Last week work on the FX was spent on the starting and cleaning up some smaller issues. Starter solenoid wire indeed has a rat bite. Wonder if they can make wires that are unappealing to rodents, for some reason they like chewing wires. But the wire itself is intact so I don’t think it’s the source of starting problems. I cut out the section and splice the wire. Move to the inside of vehicle and search for the relay. Did I rant earlier about the manual saying it’s in the wrong place?
So here’s my jumper wire fix to bypass that relay. To get better access to this wiring, I decided to take out the ventilation fan and a/c evaporator (or is it condenser, always get confused which). And there’s that cascading effect of as long as I’m taking this out, should take care of other things, so one thing leads to another and the dash has now exploded into this mess. Woohoo, yet another Scat nightmare!
Continue reading ‘FX Cleanup’
Monday, Scat sends the feelers out for a evening freeride down St. Louis. It’s been a while since I did that, so I was itching to hit the downhills. The night before saw some rain at my place, but the day was shaping up sunny and hot. 
By the end of work, clouds were rolling in, but Scat, Ckucky, and I were in! Met up at Ckucky’s to be greated by the wonderful aroma of someone cooking dinner. Dang, I’m hungry already! We cram everything into his work van and take the drive up the hill. As we climb in elevation, there’s a noticeable drop in temperature, and when we park at the top, we’re greeted by a drizzle and that grassy smell of rain in the air. We’re not detered, in fact there’s no mention of calling it, we unpack and gear up. Continue reading ‘Saint Loui’
