Small Project
Last August while Laurie and the kids were staying cool at more northerly latitudes I was here. I decided to remodel our office desk. When we moved in it was a door across two cabinets. Not too attractive. I bought the wood to make the new desk. I joined the planks glued them together and planed them to make each panel for the desk and then I waited for Laurie to get home and clean off the desk. She came home and still I waited. Birthday’s, Thanksgiving, Christmas, they all came and still I waited. But finally late last week she cleaned off the desk, so I could measure, alter, fit, glue, sand and finish the desk. Here are a couple photos:
Before:
Finished:
Completed with everything replaced and running.
Next project: Tackle the cords. Maybe I should invest in that wireless power technology that Tesla invented in the 1800’s that we still have yet to see applied to everyday life.
Hyacinth
A few years ago (we still lived in the apartment) I bought Laurie a beautiful hyacinth for some flower giving occasion, valentines day or her birthday or something. Everywhere I looked online said that hyacinth purchased at grocery stores will not bloom again. Especially in the Arizona desert where it doesn’t get cold enough to encourage re-bloom. Well apparently something is working. I don’t get grandiose 12 inch stems covered by flowers as they do in cooler climates but I also don’t put them in my fridge for a month, they stay in the ground under the stately mulberry tree eternally. They do produce a few very fragrant flowers. Hyacinth is one of those scents that is wonderful as slight wiff in passing, but in the house it becomes very overbearing and almost repugnant. Perhaps this year I’ll fertilize them and encourage some larger blooms next year. Or maybe I’ll be lazy and just let mother nature take her course.
Bread Testing
I’ve been testing bread recipes for a chef who is writing a new bread book. One of the benefits of this has been being able to get hands on experience, and personal recommendations from the author, without having to pay a fortune for culinary school. I also have always wanted to learn to make more flavorful breads like rye and sourdough. So this has been a great experience. I don’t know how Laurie feels about the pet sourdough sponge taking over an entire shelf in the fridge. She complained about it at first, but has been mum on the subject for a while. (As soon as I use more of it I promise I’ll put it in a smaller container). Please remember that some people have sponges that are 100+ years old. And now that mine is finally started I have no plans on letting it die. Anyway, I found this picture of a rye loaf I made a few weeks ago and thought I’d share it.
NIST and little miss chatterbox
I read Hannah the Little Miss Chatterbox (Mr. Men and Little Miss)
Hannah didn’t get it and I couldn’t explain it to her satisfaction. I guess the days of calling time are over. I did get a little curious, and it turns out that you can still call time. NIST (the National Institue of Standards and Technology), the people who are the official deciders of what time it is down to the nearest nanosecond (1 billionth of a second), have a number that still tells you the time. (303) 499-7111 or (808) 335-4363 if you prefer calling from Hawaii. It says the time once then beeps at you.
And I thought that calling time was ancient history.
Brake Job on the Mini
So I’ve been changing my own brake pads for a while now. It’s a very easy job, take off the tire, undo 2 bolts that hold the brake caliper on and then take the caliper off. The old pads then slide out. After that you use a ‘C’ clamp to press the piston back in and then and the new pads slide right in and the whole caliper slides back onto the roter and you put the 2 bolts in and replace the tire. Voila it’s done. Not even 10 minutes if I have help 20 if I don’t.
My dad asked me to help him do the brakes on his Mini. Sure, they’re not that bad, I figured with help we’d have it done in 30 minutes. Heck with the mini you don’t even need a jack, he could lift up one side and I’d put a jack stand under it.
Apparently disk brakes on European vehicles work differently than those on American and Asian made cars. After an hour trying to take the caliper off I finally decided that since the pads were going into the garbage I’d destroy them and use a hammer to take it off. That worked, now to compress the piston. After going next door to borrow a clamp big enough we tried and tried and it didn’t compress. After playing for a while we discovered that if we activated the emergency brake the piston would come all the way out. We took the boot off and the piston twisted off. The piston screws on, that explains why we couldn’t push it back into place. At this point we have the brake caliper completely disconnected. With the help of a pair of needle nosed pliers we got it twisted back into place. After we completely reconnected it we went to do the other side. We couldn’t get that caliper twisted back into place until we disconnected the brake lines and drained the fluid out. Still the second brake only took about 15 minutes, well 20 after we found the small leak at the connection of the brake line and got that fixed. After bleeding the brake lines we logged more than 5 hours for a 30 minute brake job. Apparently all we needed was a brake caliper rewind kit and it would have taken the 10 minutes per brake. I guess since one of the brakes was to the metal and we’ll have to replace that rotor before long we’ll have to get that set and save ourselves 4.5 hours.
I learned a lot. I still don’t understand why BMW charges $1,000 for a brake job. We could replace all the pads and rotors for less than $300. If they really make $1,400 per hour I need to be a BMW mechanic. Maybe I should open up my own shop and charge $1,000 dollars per hour. Heck even $100 per hour would be nice.
