|
6.28.09
So last weekend I completed my first triathlon. Even
though I am quite happy that I actually completed the
triathlon (even though it was only a sprint distance),
I am not happy with my performance. I have a fair amount
of work to do on my biking and running. As this was
my first triathlon I took it pretty easy on the bike
and run. I did this to make sure I could actually finish
the triathlon. Now that I know what it takes to actually
complete the distances, I can now start working on my
weaknesses. Here is a pic as I came out of the swim,
at this point I was in 209th position out of about 600.
We won't mention where I ended up finishing : )

After the triathlon I drove up to michigan
for the rest of the weekend. Saturday night on the way
to Holland I stopped in St. Joseph for dinner with Nick,
Stephanie, Andrew, Valerie, Steph's Parents, Steph's
Grandpa, My Grandma, and My Parents. We ate at a nice
little restaurant
Tosi's. I made it to the restaurant a bit before
everyone else so I had a couple drinks at the bar in
an attempt to alleviate my now horrible headache. Dinner
was quite good, and the company was fantastic as always.
Then on Sunday (Father's Day) I spent
a relaxing day with my parents. Jacquie made it to Holland
for the day as well. It was nice to get to spend some
relaxing time with them especially since they are up
in Canada so much now, but who can blame them.
This week has been one of the hottest
weeks I can remember. We were in the 90s every day and
humidity was always above 80%. This made it so I spent
every minute I could indoors enjoying the wonderful
air conditioning. But last night a storm came through
and provided some rain that my lawn needed and also
brought with it some much better weather. Today I spent
a good amount of time tearing about the steering knuckle
on my Willys. I had found the problem with my engine
binding and now I was trying to find the problem with
my steering binding. And I have now found the problem.
It only took half an hour to get the knuckle off, but
it took about 2-3 hours running to the store after each
piece was taken off to get the tool needed to take the
next piece off. But I am not the happy owner of all
the tools needed to break down my from axle. I hope
these tools won't be needed much in the future but it
is good to have them. Now I can put together my parts
list of all the things I need to fully put my engine
and front axle back together and have no problems with
either the engine or steering.

6.7.09
I have finally, after many years of having a prepaid
cell phone, purchased a nice cell phone on a contract.
Now which phone could possible get me to make this major
change in my theory of cell phone use? Meet my new Palm
Pre.

I have in the past thought about getting
an iPhone but the plans were too expensive and the iPhone
just didn't have all the capabilities I wanted in a
cell phone. In my opinion the new Palm Pre is a game
changing phone. What makes this phone so different is
is mixes the benefits of a windows mobile phone and
the iPhone. It can like a windows mobile phone run multiple
applications at once just like any computer you can
go between multiple open applications. Where the iPhone
you have to close any application you are in before
you go to another application. To give you an example
of why this is so great: when I am driving somewhere
in my car my phone can be streaming Pandora radio over
the cell network in the background to my car stereo,
but also have it's turn by turn gps navigation program
open and in front. If a call comes in I can answer it
and it will mute the Pandora radio but still allow me
to have my gps program running on the front screen.
This is impossible to do on an iPhone, partly because
it doesn't even have a true turn by turn gps program
yet. But it certainly can't multitask like that.
So now I will be available on all channels
of communication at all time (e-mail, facebook, twitter,
aim, etc.) I am looking into doing a revamp of my website
so that I can post updates here directly from my phone.
I know I am not too diligent at posting updates here.
With facebook and twitter now I haven't felt the need
to post too often here, but I know there are a few of
you that don't do the whole social networking sites.
So I will attempt to redesign my website here probably
in the next month or two to allow updating directly
from my phone.
In my last post I had started to tear
into my truck to fix all the little things that needed
work on it. I am happy to say I have identified the
reason for my slight engine binding causing the engine
to not crank over. The person who assembled the engine
swapped the connecting rods between cylinder 3 and 4.
They are offset rods so you can not just swap them.
This was causing the piston to be slightly pushed into
the cylinder liner. It hadn't worn completely through
the honing from the recent rebuild so I swapped them
to where I should have been and now I am waiting on
an engine gasket set to put the engine back together.
Now I need to work on the front axle which is having
a hard time turning, and I need to adjust the brakes
and then I should have no issues (for the moment) on
the truck and I can start using it more.
That is really about all that is new around
here, so even in over months time not much worth posting
has come up. But with the weather getting nicer I am
sure I will have more things to post, so keep checking
back. And keep your eyes out for a new layout!!!!
News Archive
|