Remember a couple days back when I talked about replacing the Amazon Basics UPS with a unit I'd put a new battery in?
Yesterday the clock on the microwave said 0:00 for the time and the garage clock was short a few hours.
The power had gone out while I was sleeping and there was nothing else to make us notice.
It cannot have been out for very long because the coffee pot's clock was still right. It'll recover after a short outage because unplugging it briefly is how you reset the "clean the pot" notice.
Crispy decided that having a functioning 'G' key was too much today.
If there wasn't a 'g' in the password to unlock the screen, that would have been OK...
Fortunately, the keyboard on a Lenovo T420S is easily replaced and I had a spare already. It's the same keyboard as the T410 The Boy rocks, so we laid spares in deep against his inadvertent destruction. A cover membrane has prevented his eating over the board from taking one out for a long while... Eyes crossed.
I think these kind of studies are looking to see if they cure the disease or lead to a lessening of symptoms over time.
Booze is also ineffective in the treatment of PTSD, but that has not stopped veterans from self-medicating with it for... as long as I can remember being around veterans.
What booze and weed let you do is not give a fuck about it for a while.
Addressing a symptom while ignoring the cause.
Self medication leads to lots of worse problems, so getting at the cause is a better plan.
BREAKING NEWS: Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Massachusetts.
A National Guard task-force detailed to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault-style weapons, was ambushed by elements of an anti-Government, para-military extremist faction.
Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.
Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “treasonous criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault-style weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.” Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.
During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed the government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the National Guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.
And this fellow Americans, is exactly how the American Revolution began, April 19, 1775.
History. Learn it, or repeat it.
I found the above on Facebook, posted by Todd Peterson.
This is also pretty much how it would be reported today too.
A standard, everyday, FAL is 10.9 lb. loaded. No optics, no lasers, no suppressor.
With a 100 round basic load it's 17.3 lb.
The, strangely, beloved M14 is the same.
If we upped the spare magazine count from four to six, like the M7, we get 140 rounds and that increases the load to 20.5 lb.
0.7 lb. lighter than the M7 with it's basic load and without the capabilities of the optics, lasers and suppressor.
The thing is, it was nearly universally agreed that the 7.62 battle rifles were too heavy and you got insufficient dakka.
The "amusing" thing is we could add a 5.56 calibrated M157 optic to a suppressed M4A1+ and have a loadout of 17.1 lb. Saves 4.2 lb. and has 50% more shots. We'd be sacrificing the theoretical benefit of the 6.8x51mm round.
If only someone had written a book 76 years ago explaining how piling on pound after pound on the troops was a bad plan...
Remember, the folks lugging an FAL or M14 around weren't also encumbered with body armor past a steel helmet.
The Aimpoint M4 aka M68 Close Combat Optic is a Collimating Sight (HT p. 156). It gives a +1 to Guns/TL skill out to 300 yards and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,100; 0.8 lb.
The Trijicon TA31RCO is a 4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155). It gives, up to, +2 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,300; 0.9 lb.
The Elcan M145 is a fixed 3.4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155). It gives +1 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,450; 1.5 lb.
The Vortex Optics M157 is a TL8 Computer Sight (HT p. 157) giving a +1 to Guns/TL skill and a +3 to hit with an aimed attack out to 4,000 yards using the laser rangefinder, but without the Night Vision or Infravision in the description; however it has both a visible and IR Integral Targeting Laser (Shoulder Arm) (HT p. 156-157). It is also a 1 to 8 power Telescopic Sight (High Tech, p. 155) that gives up to +3 to Accuracy with an Illuminated Reticle, which cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties (High Tech, p. 155). $5,400; 1.9 lb.
"Whoopty doo, Basil, what does it all mean?" A Powers IMMoM
The M4 is simplest. If you're inside 300 yards, you get a +1 to your skill. In the real world, we'd call it "aiming" but GURPS doesn't think of using the sights as "aiming."
Telescopic sights require a turn of the aiming action per point of bonus. So to get your +2 bonus with the ACOG, you have to spend 2 actions aiming. The variable power of the M157 means you take a second to dial it to the bonus you want then spend the requisite number of actions aiming, zero to three.
If you spend an action using the laser rangefinder, it gives a +3 to the built-in +1 for a total of +4... Spending an additional three second aiming gets a total of +7 with it dialed to 8x!
The USMC has declined to participate in the M7 and XM8 programs. They stuck to their M27 IAR.
I just found out that the 27 comes from the first unit to field them and isn't in sequence with ANY of the nomenclature systems the military has ever used. The stubby M38 version is, likewise, named after the first unit that used it.
I think less mass is better than more if you're lugging it around.
I think that more beans is better than fewer.
I think the Marines got a shorter barreled version of the M16A4 for just 0.1 lb. of weight savings and lose the shorter length by adding a suppressor.
They're still at 210 rounds combat load compared to 140 for the M7 and save 1.3 lb. They're only ahead of the XM8 by 0.2 lb. but the 175 round basic load still looms large.
There's a distinct lack of reporting on if the problems with the M157 have been fixed.
I still think it's VERY telling that SIG proposed the XM8 so soon after the M7 was accepted and complaints started rolling in about various features.
Compare those "plus basic load" weights. More weight, fewer beans... No sir, I don't like it.
I still don't really see what the Marines are getting for the extra mass on their gun compared to the M4A1+.
At any rate, I keep cutting and it's still too short.
GRIN
Just to be paranoid, I checked the torque of the lug nuts.
Still at 140 ft-lb.
That's an insane value, but that's what the book says.
I didn't go that far on Moxie once and ended up with finger loose lugs and clunking coming from a wheel.
Coming home from the grocery store today sure underscored how "accustomed" to the vibration I'd become. I goosed it to 45 and was already bracing... for something that didn't happen.
The place I'd measured 2-7/8" was a generous taper down to the requisite 66.9mm and not a bore of 73.1mm.
The centric rings did not fit at all, so I popped off the center cap, torqued the lug nuts and stuck a feeler gauge down there between the bore and the hub. Just barely a race-fit!
With the front right foot in the air I checked to see if there was a high spot. Nope.
It's been the damn tires all along and procrastinators are people who are WAY more ambitious than me about fixing things.
Again, I was able to put it off for so long by sticking to the back roads and not going very far from home.
I am so damned happy with the car now, it's indescribable!
In Florida, a "permanent" handicapped parking permit is good for three years. This requires your doctor to fill out the paperwork every three years to renew your "permanent" permit.
If your placard is lost or destroyed, you need the same paperwork from your doctor to get a permit that expires on the same date as the lost or destroyed one.
They cite abuse of the system by people who aren't handicapped as the reason for making the honest people jump through additional hoops.
I am getting sick of this paradigm.
I think the people who should be most affected by laws are the people breaking them and not additional burdens on the law abiding.
How's this one for size: Unlawful use of a handicapped permit results in loss of license for 10 years and seizure of the vehicle used. Forfeit of said vehicle if the owner used the permit illegally. Hefty fine for the owner to recover their vehicle if they loaned it to the violator.
There are two entrees. Lentil stew and pasta in tomato sauce.
The lentil stew is BLAND even with the entire packet of red chili peppers added.
The crackers are unsalted.
The thing that sounds like it's a pop tart from the description is literally an unfrosted Pop-Tart!
There's nothing in it that I've tried that's horrible.
I have not tried the pasta, yet, because the lentils were very filling. I worry about how bland they're going to be based on the lentils, but I haven't used the salt and pepper packets yet.
There's a shortbread cookie, fig bars, peanut butter and strawberry jam yet to try!
I must say that the new tires are MUCH smoother than the old tires.
It'd be a shock if they weren't, to be honest.
I did a loop of the greater area which included all the various legal limits and I cruised at all of them. Even a couple of jaunts 10 over to check for vibrations.
Nada.
I am happy!
The tire guy says that I'd benefit from a set of hub-centric rings. I hadn't thought of getting a set because The Beast's hubs are 66.9mm; just like a Camaro.
The rims on her are stock Camaro rims... Yet they appear to have a center-bore of 73.1mm.
WTF?
So I ordered a set of rings that should be here tomorrow. We'll see how they work. Will they make any difference at all? Who knows?
There's a seller on GunBroker selling a lot of 15 large-round forward assist buttons.
I've long wanted one because I remembered the tank's issue M16A2 having this feature.
Before I spent the money on having 14 extra forward assists, I decided to see if anyone had bothered to document the serial number range for this early feature.
S/N 860,000 to 1,200,000 is the expected range according to the AI helper on the search engine.
My M16A2's serial number was 6,300,574, apparently, well past when they changed to the current small-round forward assist.
HOWEVER!
The first M16A2's start at 6,000,000!
Others have found that the large round lasted to 6,280,000; which also places my rifle just outside the range of the early feature.
The last colt M16A2 (or XM4) is (approximately) 6,590,478.
FN M16A2's run is 7,000,000 to 7,429,766.
At least for US Property marked guns. Other serial number ranges for M16A2 are around for export usage.
The United States should be doing everything I can to destroy South Africa as a functioning nation. If they are going to do these racist things, let them bleed.
Wanna know one of the best things about not being a Catholic?
When the dude in the stupid hat says stupid shit, I don't have to listen.
But I have noticed that there's a shit ton of Catholics who are going to be in direct conflict with what the Vatican is putting out of late.
Don't fret, it won't be the first time such a schism has happened.
The Orthodox folks left before it was even called Catholicism.
The Church of England happened because the leader of a nation wanted to ignore the Pope.
I wonder what the Church of America is going to look like.
Where will the CoA's version of the Vatican be?
Can't wait to see what American Bishops do about the hunk of the money and property they will be claiming over the Vatican being the false Church and thus not entitled to it any more. If only they'd return to the fold...
Me? What religion I might have leans to spirits in the machines. I don't care what my friends' invisible friend says let alone some dude in a funny hat in Italy says his invisible friend said.
Actually, I think I'd have more respect if the Pope actually cited their invisible friend and not just Church dogma.
Also, remember, the deal made way back when was God stayed out of politics and politics would stay out of the church.
Every once and a while one side or the other has to start this pissing match again.
We've been here before and we're going to be here again.
I keep wondering if there's anything positive to the citizenry from any kind of registry of firearms, legal or not.
We keep getting told that it helps solve crimes.
If that were true, I'd think there'd be ample bragging about it.
It doesn't even get stolen guns recovered from thieves back to their rightful owners because many jurisdictions simply destroy any firearms they find at crime scenes.
If this story is correct, an illegal, and useless for anything good, registry will soon be a thing of the past.
Not that we can trust them to have actually destroyed ALL copies of it...
Take tires for The Beast; I originally got them back in April 2022, almost 32 thousand miles ago. I tossed four, apparently, good tires because I had a bad vibration at interstate speeds. I blamed the balance and the previous owner's notorious tendency to buy cheap tires.
It was not the tires.
I spent the next two years and 16 thousand miles replacing front suspension parts in the most commonly to be the problem to least likely to be the problem. It was the left front control arms. The design of the control arms makes diagnosing them difficult because they don't get hand-wobbly when they're loaded-wobbly.
One reason that it took so long to fix is that the vibration didn't really happen at speeds around town, and I don't really go on long trips much any more. Vibration at interstate speeds? Stay off the interstate! Problem successfully ignored!
Oh, and drive Moxie more...
I discovered, sadly, that replacing the offending suspension components did not completely cure the vibration in the steering wheel, but now it was cyclic. Every minute or so on the interstate it'd shake and every minute or so would stop.
When I got the Camaro rims, the road-force balancing discovered two of my tires were out of round.
That made sense. The suspension shake was rather violent, it could have damaged the tires. Another clue is I can mitigate the cycle somewhat by rotating a wheel a lug or two.
The main UPS is a CyberPower 1,500w unit I bought from Wal Mart right before Milton came through in October 2024.
I replaced the APC 600w unit in the garage with a CyberPower 425w in September 2025.
I bought new batteries for the dead APC 1,500w in September 2025, it's in storage. I don't remember when I purchased it originally, but this might be the second set of batteries.
I replaced the battery in the dead APC 600w (originally purchased in September 2020) in September 2025 and it was in storage until tonight when I finally admitted the Amazon Basics 400w UPS from February 2023 wasn't surviving even minor power interruptions.
This is me putting this information in one place so I can, hopefully, find it later.
I normally ignore the emails reminding of them because they trend towards vacation packages at places I can't afford.
But I clicked to see this time and saw they have a 25% off on Goodyear tires.
That's a four tires for the price of three!
The Beast is needing tires, so we plunked down for some Eagle F1 All Seasons.
Something else new is the mobile installer.
That's kinda cool.
I have not been rolling on Goodyears since the Eagle GT II's I had on The Biscayne SS in 2004 when I replaced the 15" rims with Impala SS 17" rims.
I used to buy Goodyear exclusively before then.
I guess, technically, I was running Goodyears when I bought The Precious, but I chucked the run-flats at 16k miles because they really rode poorly.
This is the second time I've been offered a deal on Goodyears, and the first time I've taken advantage of it. A while back, one of you generous readers gave me a code for your employee discount that I promptly forgot about until today. I still appreciated that, even if we didn't use it.
Most, if not all, unintended consequences from socialist "planning" seem to come with the expected consequences.
Most, if not all, unintended consequences are predicted before the "planning" can be implemented.
What's amazing is how many people are still surprised when the Gods of the Copybook Headings, with terror and slaughter, return.
California has become the latest state to notice that upping the minimum wage to a stupidly high level doesn't result in comfortable lifestyles for the people earning that wage.
The best case was inflation eating up all the gains in income, and they are not getting the best case. When the one-time costs of automation are cheaper than the ongoing expenses of keeping an employee, the bot gets the job.
If the cost of employing people makes a business unprofitable, then it closes.
In both cases, the minimum wage worker will be getting the true minimum wage.
In so many ways watching YouTube will make me curl up in a ball and ask Harvey to sell my tools.
Mike Finnegan is making a drag and drive Cadillac and...
The stuff they just casually do and all of the tools and expertise on display!
Yeah.
That's not me.
I don't have the money to get the entry level versions of those tools to begin to cultivate the skills; let alone the gigantic space needed to have all of those tools.
I can't do what they're doing and I never will be able to do it, so let's just drop the facade and get a Honda?
He's not inspiring me, he's making me feel inadequate.
The one channel that was making me feel like working on my junk was Saturday Garage.
He went out and got a job! Now he's too busy to make videos.
Plus I am recovering from Moxie going unreliable and replacing Harvey's car.
I just hit me why the sequels to The Curse of the Black Pearl fell flat for me.
The complicated fight sequence is a pause in the plot. The longer that runs, the longer I have to wait before the story starts moving again.
Especially since the story doesn't depend on that fight being there.
Especially since it's obvious that the fight with deadly weapons will not result in any bloodshed, let alone a death, because all of the principals are essential to the plot.
A plot on hold while they have their flashy little tiff.
Being of moderately high mileage, my only experience with MRE's is the OG brown bag ones with the original 12 menus.
Wikipedia says these were from 1981 to 1987 and are MRE I to VII.
To me, the absolute worst thing in those 12 selections was the Beef Stew. It's a holdover from the MCI rations (erroneously called C-rats) and, apparently, lima beans were more popular with Boomers than us GenX motherfuckers.
Despite my service dates being from 1987 to 1990, I never saw anything from the MRE VIII to XII (1988 to 1992) menu.
I liked several things that others hated, so I was a happy trooper.
I like Vienna sausages, and the "four fingers of death," to me, were four giant Vienna sausages and not hot-dogs. If you look at it from my perspective, it's good. If you wanted hot-dogs, it's bad.
The dehydrated meat patties were fine eaten dry as far as I was concerned. Same for the dehydrated fruits. Something with a non-mush texture with some flavor? I'm in!
But looking at the 12 choices, it's clear that I never had a couple. Beef slices in BBQ sauce and ground beef in spiced sauce I remember seeing, but not eating.
My willingness to eat the dehydrated patties meant trade opportunities. People would offer desserts to take the pork patty if I'd give them the BBQ slices.
Crumbled up beef patty soaked in the chicken-a-la-king and heated was decent.
Which reminds me of something I rarely dealt with.
Eating them cold.
Avco-Lycoming was kind enough to develop an MRE heater and Chrysler was kind enough to include it in every M1 Abrams.
When you have a back-deck bar and grill, you never have eat a cold MRE.
Who was the second person to cross the English channel in the air?
Who was the second person to make a trans-Atlantic flight?
Hell, who was the crew of Apollo 8? Because their absolutely essential mission to prove the gear pales to insignificance against the Apollo 11 mission.
Nobody was watching the Apollo 13 mission until everything went wrong.
I have the newspaper clippings for Apollo 17... It's not first page news.
I want to participate in the hype, but I worry that if we don't get back to the Moon before Trump leaves office, we're not getting there until SpaceX ignores the FAA and launches his mission that doesn't come back; but establishes a base.
So, goody for the crew of Artemis II and I wish the program all the luck in the world.
But we need to get on with it and stop with dead ends like SLS.
I guess if your grand parents never taught you to cook, then you have to resort to cans...
Even resorting to cans, I'm not using any of the above choices. Cooking tomatoes down to sauce is a pain, so using a can of tomato sauce is acceptable.
But marinara is essentially just tomato sauce with some spices tossed in, for fuck's sake.
Not that I make marinara very often. I make a variation of Bolognese sauce with Italian sausage; just like great-grandma taught us!
We never used it to make Ragu Bolognese though, it was just spaghetti sauce to us.
Coming up for air from getting all of the ammo-tables from the various GURPS High-Tech books into one spot.
I did this with the guns too, once upon a time, and it really helps when making handouts for the player.
It's not difficult, just tedious.
Especially since their pet gun nerd, Hans-Christian Vorstich, defaults to Universal Metric or the common name for a round in the EU today.
The US will call a round something else entirely and he catches it most of the time, but he screws up what a Brit would call it because of his preference for the Universal Metric designations.
That makes checking on the introduction dates tiresome because 1.65" Hotchkiss comes right up and 42x235mmR doesn't.
Then there's Wikipedia that's scoured the articles on individual rounds and lumped them into caliber. Thus, they no longer tell me when 20x102mm is introduced. I didn't remember if it predates the Vulcan or not. It does. It's also not the same round as 20x110mm USN. Yes, it matters!
Apparently, allegedly, the Trump administration tried to get some small arms to the people of Iran so they could more effectively rebel against the theocracy.
Also, apparently and allegedly, they used Kurds as intermediaries to move the guns.
Apparently and allegedly, these same Kurds kept the guns for themselves.
Um.
Duh.
They've no reason to believe that the people of Iran, once the theocracy is deposed, will be any different than the Ottomans about letting them have an independent existence.
But I can see them trying to secede once the theocracy is weak enough.
First off, she's lying, they are not banning classic cars with this bill. Bad way to start.
What they are changing is the issuance and usage of cars with the special classic car license plate.
Near as I can tell, if you register your hot-rod normal like, you are not constrained by the new rules.
At the moment you pay $13.50 for a rear plate or, optionally, $15.50 for front and rear plates; plus $150 for sales tax and $25 one-time registration. It's always been the law that you can't use it for "general transportation purposes." So $178.50 and your car is registered forever in Minnesota.
General transportation purposes is not actually defined.
The proposed bill really defines, and limits, what you can do with your special, lifetime, registered car.
I am not that shocked that they went very restricted.
But you takes the tax break, you takes what restrictions come with it.
This is not going to destroy the hobby and most people who actually qualify for the plate as it was originally intended have the money to register and insure their cars with normal plates and can drive as much as they like, anywhere they like.
Betcha that there's a lot of shitboxes that are 2006 and older that have a "Collector's Vehicle, collector plate" who are doing it to avoid the 10% of original MSRP plus 1.575% of current value.
For reference a '69 Chevelle's MSRP is in the $2,600 ballpark. Current value is VERY subjective, so let's say $50k because that's what Autotempest says. So $1,047.50 a year to register your '69 Chevelle in Minnesota. That's steep.
A 2006 Toyota Corolla ran $14,725 sticker price and is worth $6,500 today. $1,574.88 a year.
See the incentive to call your shitbox a collector car?
The Rat Rod people have also made it difficult to make a, "is this a collector car?" decision on condition.
Club memberships don't really help either, there's scads of Ricer clubs that will include that Corolla.
Considering that I paid $250 total for three cars in Florida, I can see that the real problem isn't the definition of "Hot Rod" but a rapacious and greedy Democrat controlled government.
Calling someone a filthy Jew is being very rude and obnoxious; but it's probably protected speech.
Assaulting someone after calling them a filthy Jew is a hate crime.
And, yes, you don't have to actually touch someone to commit assault!
Once you've articulated an actionable threat that appears to be imminent, you're assaulting.
And you're lucky if your chosen victim is armed and declines to shoot you.
It's noteworthy that this happened in Florida and the actual victim is home, safe, with their family and the (alleged) perpetrator is behind bars without bail.
I am shocked that a Frenchman can't understand it.
French gives us the ultimate explanation in one short sentence, "Tous pour un et un pour tous!"
Heinlein explained it in Starship Troopers.
"Are a thousand unreleased prisoners sufficient reason to start or resume a war? Bear in mind that millions of innocent people may die, almost certainly will die, if war is started or resumed."
I didn't hesitate. "Yes, sir! More than enough reason."
"'More than enough.' Very well, is one prisoner unreleased by the enemy, enough reason to start or resume a war?"
I hesitated. I knew the M.I. answer -- but I didn't think that was the one he wanted. He said sharply, "Come, come, Mister! We have an upper limit of one thousand; I invited you to consider a lower limit of one. But you can't pay a promissory note which reads 'somewhere between one and one thousand pounds' -- and starting a war is much more serious than paying a trifle of money. Wouldn't it be criminal to endanger a country -- two countries, in fact -- to save one man? Especially as he may not deserve it? Or may die in the meantime? Thousands of people get killed every day in accidents ... so why hesitate over one man? Answer! Answer yes, or answer no -- you're holding up the class."
He got my goat. I gave him the cap trooper's answer. "Yes, sir!"
"'Yes' what?"
"It doesn't matter if it's a thousand -- or just one, sir. You fight."
"Aha! The number of prisoners is irrelevant. Good. Now prove your answer."
I was stuck. I knew it was the right answer. But I didn't know why. He kept hounding me. "Speak up, Mr. Rico. This is an exact science. You have made a mathematical statement; you must give proof. Someone may claim that you have asserted, by analogy, that one potato is worth the same price, no more, no less, as a thousand potatoes. No?"
"No, sir!"
"Why not? Prove it."
"Men are not potatoes."
I still say our policy about ANY American, ANYWHERE, is that it should be safer to eat white arsenic than to harm our citizens.
Due to our drought conditions, we're restricted from washing the cars except on one designated day of the week based on the last number of our address.
That means Friday here.
All three cars needed a wash, Moxie the worst.
Harvey and I knocked it out and waxed today.
Like gun cleaning products, car care products have improved dramatically since I first got into this.
Harvey was able to wax both Alice and Moxie in direct sunlight because Garage One GT makes a spray-on/wipe-off wax you can use that way.
Several youtubers and podcasters who cover entertainment have been mentioning that Hollywood is increasingly concerned that all the jobs are disappearing and that LA will start looking like Detroit soon.
Let's just look at the similarities!
Democrat run mayor's office.
Pivotal industry in an environment that's increasingly hostile to it.
Pivotal industry dominated by many unions, driving production to places where such domination is much reduced or eliminated.
Welcome to your own goal territory, Hollywood!
The automakers never really solved for the union problem, and it's following them even to right-to-work states.
Democrat run mayor's offices are much harder nuts to crack because by the time things are REALLY wrong, all the people who'd vote against them (and their businesses) are long relocated.
Worse for them is the increasing push-back from places that emigrants from self-blighted places are getting from their new homes.
"Don't California My Texas," and, "Don't New York My Florida," are popular slogans.
I think it's fair to say the model of Democrats and Unions is that of locusts.
Smith and Wesson is, apparently, giving away some 3rd Gen pistols.
If you click this cunningly crafted link, and enter yourself into the sweepstakes, I get 15 additional entries and, thus, increase my chance of winning slightly.
Giving me more entries than you reduces your chance of winning, but you're here to help, right?
PS: It could be an April Fools prank, but they already have my contact information from doing a warranty return, so...
The problem appears to have been the VVT solenoids.
OEM solenoids die in a way that shorts them to ground and that sets off the code associated with them.
Aftermarket solenoids mostly die the same way, but occasionally will fail mechanically so the computer will think they are working and notice it's getting out of range information from other sensors.
They don't fail all the way, so you get a long time of spurious and intermittent fails.
That's our story and we're sticking to it!
The shop put 20 miles into a test drive. I just did 10 running around.
Related: All three cars have new wiper blades. My house is also out of equity from buying them...
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