Seems wierd

That in only about 23 days, both A and C will be off to school and the house will be very quiet. I am not looking forward to it, both have grown nicely to young adults and are generally fun to be around.

I knnow you guys

Think I am crazy, but... you are probably right. Tonight after work, I fixed C's VW shifter. It seems there was a lot of excess play in the gear shift for the manual transmission, so it was not going into gear properly.

I checked online for what the various communities suggested (http://www.vwvortex.com), checked out the problems and ordered the parts. The parts came today, so tonight I installed them. It took about an hour and a half, and the car shifts much tighter. I even installed a short shift linkage to improve the shift.

Next up on the repairs, C's VW and a window regulator (the thing that makes the window go up and down). Only after the parts arrive. No wonder I am getting a good rating on eBay.

Something good happened

last week. A wanted to have a couple of friends, who were in town to see a concert, over for the night and gave K very short notice. They are from Asheville, so would have had a 3 hour drive home at 11PM. As K is in the middle of a sewing project, the house was not exactly up to snuff.

So K stopped what she was doing, and made the house presentable. The friends came over and everything was fine.

The next day, after her friends had left, A wrote a note to K saying that she appreciated the work that K did to get the house clean and how nice the place looked when they got there. My baby is growing up! Sniff, sniff.

It has been too long

And I have been too busy.

Some highlights:

Traveling much due to work. I have been to Northwest Ohio, Cincinnati, and Columbus (tried to stop in at R and J's but they were not home) on a quick business trip.

I have been to Savannah GA for a trade show. I rode the Juliette Gordon Low water taxi (for you GS's) from my hotel to the down town business area across the Savannah River. It was also fun to watch the multiple container ships traversing the river Then off to the mountains of NC, all on business.

I have been to Atlanta, GA, again on business.

I have been working on the cars here to keep them running properly, doing oil changes, routine maintenance, and fixing a couple of minor issues. I now do my own oil changes because the people that we had previously taken the cars to did not put the oil plug back in tightly, leaving an oil leak and a potential for catastrophic damage to A's car and did not fill up the oil as needed in the Van. I am also being environmentally responsible by recycling the oil properly and disposing of the oil filter at a hazardous material disposal site maintained by the county.

Yesterday, I went to see B and K in VA. B was asking for help on some electrical issues regarding his fish tank and refrigerator. It seems both the fish tanks and his refrigerator are all on the same 15A service breaker. Every once in a while, the breaker would trip causing issues for the food and for the fish.

So, B and I ran a new dedicated circuit for the refrigerator; ran a new, dedicated circuit with 4-GFCI protected outlets for the downstairs tank; and changed out a standard duplex receptacle making 4 GFCI protected outlets for the upstairs tank.

The hardest part about doing the electrical work was moving around in the crawl space. In a old house, there is not much room under it for two big guys.

BTW, B and K are doing great.

Hope all of you have been safe and healthy.

Same Time, Next year

It sounds like the Cubs, but we will get 'em next year. Congrats to the Beavers, but GO HEELS!

Hey Sis

This is for the NC/OSU rematch in the College Baseball World Series.

GO HEELS!

On the way home (Dial-Up Warning)

From Irwin, PA, K and I stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette Station, WV. I have driven over it many times, but never stopped to look. K and I have also been under it whitewater rafting, but that was many years ago. This time, we stopped.

This is a bridge they close once per year for about 4-6 hours so that people having a higher level of insanity than me can base jump off, as it is about 1000 feet up from the river bed. On normal days, help vehicles are near-by in case you break down as they want no one on the bridge, to prevent other silly ideas.

A warning to my brother: if you look at the pictures, you will stare at the center of the bridge, and not at the edges, you might fall off.

Travels over the weekend

This weekend, K and I went on a road trip to Irwin, PA for a memorial service for Aunt L, a wonderful, dignified lady that was a great person to around. She was married to my mom's brother for 59 years before succumbing to cancer in the spring. There were 20 or so people in attendance, some from both sides of their family with K and I representing ours.

It was a time for remembering fun things we did, memories of family members now gone and share news of our lives as they happen in the place where we all say our family started. Uncle J, Aunt L, B, B and J had a great relationship inside their family and with my family and for that I am grateful.

Below are some pics:

My Uncle J

J, B and B
B and her family M and T

My cousin B, in a silly moment after having her picture taken many times.



I also want to thank my Aunt W for taking such great care of many of my family members grave sites. This one is from my sister and Great Aunt, however, my Mom's and other Aunt's look great as well.

Happy Father's Day, Dad

56k, no way. I found this video on youtube, it is 9+ minutes long and says much without saying too much. Anyway, Dad, Happy Father's Day, you taugh me much about being a Dad, thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-c_wgKAs-8

New Responsibilities

I have new job responsibilities. I will be responsible for the Municipal market in Georgia, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. It should be interesting as I have called it the "Dark Side" for many years. It was offered to me without opportunity to decline, if you know what I mean. This is an add-on with no responsibilities removed. We shall see.

With A home for

The summer, things around here are quite hectic. A has 3 jobs and is taking an Anatomy class at the local UNC campus.

A has her lifeguard job, she coaches the pool swim team (and gets paid for it) and works at a local relatively fast food restaurant called Cook-Out at night when the pool is closed. By at night, this is from 9PM or so until close. These folks close at 2AM Sunday through Wednesday and until 4AM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. A gets home around 3AM on some days and around 5AM when she works the weekends.

When she is not working, she is studying or sleeping. The best part about this is she has very little time to get into too much trouble. She is either working, studying or sleeping.

I think that A is getting exposed to more of America than she expected. Cook-out is a drive through/walk-up only type restaurant with no indoor seating on a busy corner. She is the only person of her race working at this restaurant. She has seen: many people ordering at the drive through with guns in their laps, some pretty wicked fights in a parking lot across the street and even a gunshot or two from her perch at the restaurant. This restaurant is only about 3 miles from our home, yet a world away.

The place has a significant safety program in place for closers at 3/4/5 AM to prevent possible problems. All of the money goes into the safe that cannot be opened by any single person. Also, when it is time to leave, some of the people go to their cars while others remain in the building. Once safely in their cars, locked, cell phones in hand and started, the others then head for their cars.

It has been really interesting to hear the stories that A brings home, even at 5 AM. I told you the drama would increase, but you did not believe me.

Hope your week is a good one.

The New VW Passat

Just an update on a previous post, the Passat was taken for a 30 mile test drive last night. It drove very smoothly and without issues. Tomorrow comes a better test, a drive to Raleigh and back. I do not expect any issues.

Car Situation - C has wheels

While all of the previous post was happening, I was cruising the Internet on Sunday May 20, seeing what was out there for vehicles for C. I was looking on Craigslist, Cars.com and eBay.

On eBay, I found a 1999 VW Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, green in color, used by a college student that just graduated from Villanova near Philadelphia. He was selling it because he did not want the hassle of moving it to Las Vegas where he was moving to take a job. It had a couple of minor issues, but in general seemed OK. Needless to say, I won the auction. This is Sunday at about 2PM. I left my phone number and he called me at about 2:30PM.

He indicated that he was leaving Philly on Monday at 5PM. I told him that I would check into a few things and get back with him, but could he make arrangements to have a friend complete the transaction in a couple of days.

With gasoline prices as they are, it would take about $150 worth of gas to drive to Philly and back for the van, plus 16 hours of K and my time. I looked into flying, but thought on short notice, they were going to get me. I was wrong. Southwest had flights from Raleigh to Philly for $58 ($49 plus taxes), so I booked my flight. I also ordered the parts needed to fix the known issues. I called the seller, making arrangements to be met at the airport at 1:30PM the next day (Monday).

While my plane was a few minutes late, he met me at baggage claim and we drove off to the National Car Rental car return. His parents were in town for his graduation, and were returning their rental car. He, his parents and I completed the transaction in the parking lot of the National Car Rental. I left for home by 2:30PM and they took the shuttle to catch their planes.

I got home around 11PM, going down the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay on 301 to avoid the DC evening drive time. As I had not been down that way, it was a very scenic drive. My computer GPS guided me the whole way, more for knowing that I was going the right direction than actual directing.

As a potential interesting footnote, I found out that the guy I bought the car from was going to try to make it in the world of professional poker. When I Googled his name, he already has a reputation and has won a significant amount of money in only a few tournaments. He is going to do the WSOP for a year, then off to grad school for an MBA in Finance. I had no clue, nor really cared.

So we are now a 3 VW family. A and C drive Jettas and I drive a Passat. All with manual transmissions. We will NOT be trading in the van for a Microbus or Bug, thank you very much. Happy motoring.

Update on the car situation 2

This will be a rather boring post about our car travails. As many of you know, my Intrepid died at 329k miles. It had only one new transmission put into it, which was amazing for the Dodge product. Now, the rest of the story.

We were down to two cars with spring break a coming. Then the transmission went thump in the van and we were down to one. $1500 and a week later, we were back with two.

For many years, I have wanted to rebuild/replace an engine in a car. I thought it would be fun and stress relieving. Well, I was cruising eBay in mid-April and saw this car. It needed an engine and could be had for a decent price, so I purchased it.

The car, a 1999 VW Passat with a V6 engine, had the timing belt break, doing valve damage. I thought it would be a great learning experience to rebuild this engine. So I bought the how to repair book, and set about tearing into the engine. When viewing the engine heads, all of the exhaust valves were bent from contact with the pistons. One intake valve was visibly bent, but the others seemed fine.

I attempted to purchase used heads from an automotive recycler unsuccessfully, so the heads were taken to the local machine shop. $600 later, the heads were as good as new. The reassembly could begin.

Keep in mind that during this time, work had me travel to NY for a trade show for a full week and then give a tour of industrial and biopharm facilities for my Brazilian counterparts, again for another full week.

The reassembly went rather well once the heads were in my possession. Everything went back together extremely well. Along with the rebuilt heads, I put a new timing belt, water pump, thermostat, tensioner pulley, idler pulley, and upper control arm on the car. When the time came to fire up the car, it idled well. No check engine lights.

As K and I went for a test drive down our street, as the RPM got to 1400, the engine would buck, hesitate and in general raise havoc, the check engine light came on as well. The engine reached operating temperature fine and immediate turn back for home occurred.

I purchased a $22 cable and $100 software for my computer for doing diagnosis taking a couple of days while the materials arrived. Doing some analysis of the the trouble code using the Internet VW forums, it was determined that the throttle body electronic positioner was not communicating with the main engine computer.

I took out the offending part, cleaned it and re-installed it. Same problem. Did it again, slightly better, but same problem. After several posts on the VW forum (both VWVortex and PassatWorld) someone suggested a different cleaning method, but that I was definitely on the correct part.

So I tried their method and... no improvement. I ordered a new Throttle Body with sensor (that is the only way they come) and began the wait for it to arrive. While waiting, the old throttle body and sensor were disassembled by me as I had nothing left to loose. If I broke it or was unable to fix it, the new one would be there in a day or two. If I fixed it, then I could return the new part for a small restocking fee. I completely disassembled the position sensor, cleaned it with electrical contact cleaner, throttle body cleaner and used a can of computer compressed air to blow out any residue. The part was left to dry completely overnight.

The next day, as the old part was being installed, the new part arrived. I finished installing the completely cleaned old part and checked through my computer that the part was "visible" to the engine computer. It was, so the existing "Check Engine Light" codes were cleared and the engine was tested. It met with initial success in the carport, but would it stand up to being driven.

So K and I went on a short, 3-mile, test drive and the car drove wonderfully. No problems. Later today we will get license plates and insurance for the car so it can be street legal. The next step will be to do a 15-20 mile test drive just to make sure before I go gallivanting around the countryside using this as my daily driver.

The Tradewinds, they are a blowin'

As we were puttering around the house on Sunday evening, we got a call from some relatives that were in a neighboring city. AW and UJ were in Raleigh for a wedding of a grand-niece or nephew and wanted to come by to visit on Monday. We were happy to see them, come on by!

As always, it is good to see them as we enjoy lively conversation regarding all topics, past, future and current. We relived many of my childhood escapades for my daughters, and shared some escapades by siblings that were least embarrassing. We had a great time.

They are off to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC before winding their way back home to PA.

Thanks for stopping by, travel safe.

Cuz, It was great to see ya

I popped in to see my DC burb cousin MEH yesterday. Although she was not feeling well, it was great to see her, her husband and their children. I was going to take a picture or two, but because ME was not feeling well, the camera was not used.

K and Sh had to go to to a school ensemble concert, so I did not see much of them early, but I stayed long enough to get some conversation afterward.

We discussed much, solved many of the world's problems and in general enjoyed the company. Thanks ME and K for the delightful evening.

Wow, It is May the 8th

Much has occurred over the past 2 weeks. I will try to cover it in as few words as possible.

1) Interphex was Interphex. As all trade shows are being attended less, so it was with Interphex. There were abour 30% fewer people there this year than last. Tuesday and Wednesday were ok from a people walking by standpoint, but Thursday was very slow. Fortunately for me, my company had a couple of new people with us at the show and asked me to take them around to some of the show to explain how our equipment works in systems. That part was fun.

2) I want to thank my boss for the cold he shared with everyone at Interphex. I have the left over sinus congestion but am otherwise back.

3) Last week, it was my responsibility to help show some of my Brazilian counterparts equipment in operation. This took the entire week and was a drain on my productive time. It did however help the Brazilian guys, even though there was a slight communication barrier. We went to paper mills, textile plants, chemical plants and Biopharm facilities. I think I gave them my cold.

4) A is home for the summer, so the drama has increased. She has been here only one day, yet there are conflicts between A and C. Nothing earth shattering, but C was the primary focus and now has to share the spotlight.

5) Item 4 above has created another issue. Since my Intrepid died, we have been making due with 2 cars. Now with 4 drivers, there will be more challenges. I am seeking a new vehicle. It does not, however, make sense to have 4 vehicles with 4 drivers when one of them will be away at school and cannot take a car with them (does it C?). We will only be inconvenienced during the summer months.

6) C's room is now 90% complete. There are some details that need to be completed (like widow coverings), but the paint is done and the closet shelving has been installed. Pictures will come later this week. Think Robbins Egg Blue with white trim.

More soon...

This weeks challenge

is to get through a trade show, Interphex (the International Pharmaceutical Exposition), at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York with out going crazy. It means standing in our 40x40 booth, for approximately 8 hours per day greeting customers to show them equipment that they already buy, then taking agents and customers out to dinner. It means sharing a hotel room with another company employee during my stay. It means being "on" 24hrs a day for 5 days.

I may post some pictures of NY if I get some free time.

One final thing

Did I mention that we are down to one vehicle for a short while. When my Intrepid died, that put us down to two. Last week, the transmission on the van started acting up and Friday, it was put into the shop.

We will get is back on Wednesday or Thursday, but for now, that leaves one car.

It really put the clamps on a certain 16YO, kinda like when I was a kid until I bought my own car.

Another thing

on which we have been working is C's room. The drywall is in and mostly finished (should be done in the next day or so) and we are beginning to put up trim. There is painting to do as well as floor covers, and a "closet system" to install. There is still much to do, and I will be traveling heavy for the next 2 weeks (NY for a trade show M-F this week and Bosses traveling with me M-Th the following)

A will be coming home for the summer in about 3 weeks.