Nearly forgot this one -- last Sunday I was hauling ass up the Barton Creek Greenbelt (sounds for hauling ass: SatsiSonik on memekast and Squarepusher's "Ultravisitor") to burn off the vestiges of Saturday night, when I get to the point where it's less a trail and more a collection of boulders and decide to walk this one for a bit. I'm still feeling pretty good about my handling of the trail, until this 60ish-looking man blows by in the other direction on a - get this - mountain unicycle - scaling those too-hard-for-me rock faces like they're nothing but the tiniest bumps in the road.
I have seen the pinnacle of awesome, and it is that guy.
Today, September 4th Parking and Transportation Services will be holding a silent auction of over 150 bicycles. The preview will be at 5pm and the silent bidding will begin at 5:30pm. The starting bid will be $3.The location of the bike auction will be the roof top of the Trinity Garage, located at 1815 Trinity Street. In case of rain, the auction will be held on the 5th floor of the garage.
Images of the bicycles to be auctioned are currently online at the BikeUT webpage www.utexas.edu/parking/transportation/biking
About 5 years ago I heard a record played on, I think, KVRX, wherein, to my best guess, an elderly Orson Wells narrated an hour-long history of 20th century USA politics, in King James Old Testament style. To wit:
On nixon: "And the people sayeth, 'wouldst thou buy a used chariot from this man?'" On the Chicago Democratic National Convention: "I say unto you, verily, thou canst smite city hall." "Yea, verily, like unto a snowball in hell." "Then did the hippites and the yippites descend upon Chicago, but Daley sent forth his legions and smote them, and the blood flowed." And Daley sayeth, 'let us lay out a carpet of red for them.' And they smote the hippites, and the yippites...(here my memory fails me)" "Dan of the tribe of Rather stood upon the watchtower and wept to see the smiting of the children...."
Dear lazyweb, where can I find this? The best I've done is a suggestion that it's a Stan Freburg radio serial. Beyond that I've got a whole bunch of nothing.
Also, Denver 2008 is shaping up to look like Chicago 1968. Delegates, remember to bring your gas masks.
lift jeep onto 2 stands and 4 jacks (wheels, engine, trans) remove center console detach shift assembly remove driveshafts detach speedometer/clutch cabling from transmission disassemble 4wd controls remove crossplate defy fermi-dirac laws of physics to reach bolts connecting bell housing to engine detach starter pry transmission off of engine, slide over exhaust supports, side aside remove clutch assembly remove flywheel & cover finally get at a blown freeze plug: a $0.96 2" steel disc that sits in a hole in the engine block. By design, the purpose of the freeze plug is to blow and drain the cooling system if the block freezes over. Judging from the hole in the plug along with the directional scoring on the flywheel and starter, I'm guessing that some small thing, a rock perhaps, got through the gap in the housing and was flung into the side of the plug at high speed, weakening it to the point of near-collapse, which happened when towing another vehicle.
Replaced the plug and have been reassembling since last night. This was probably not worth my time to do myself, but it was totally worth my time in illuminating the mechanisms of cars. The impacted grease under my fingernails is another story entirely.
edit: forgot to note that this was a computed risk decision, as due to the location and nature of the leak, it was either this plug or a cracked block, either one occuluded by the flywheel. If the former, it's a small part with a good deal of effort - my time and the shop costs would be neat equivalent. If the latter, the numbers are conditional - I can't afford a new block (~3k usd), but I could weld it shut (minimal cost, more time), so if it's cracked I need it here, and if it's at the shop all that disassembly is wasted time and money. 50/50: go for the option that yields more information.
also also, I continue to be astonished that the machinery underlying our society keeps running.
