Cars Suck

Pop quiz. Do you know what this is (or more appropriately, what this used to be)? It's the mangled remains of the idler pulley for the auxiliary (a.k.a. fan) belt in Amanda's car. It appears as though the bearing seized, which led to the plastic shearing away from the bearing. This then rubbed against the remains of the bearing, melting down to just a rim. Finally, it slipped over and the belt ate away part of the outside. In it's last grasp for freedom, it threw itself off of the mounting shaft and into a cavity in the engine compartment, where it got tossed around by the fan belt with a clatter loud enough to get Amanda to call me.

She drove home safely and I found the above piece wedged between the fan belt and the chassis. Amanda and I fished the part out that evening and I took it into work the next day. After scanning some photos on e-bay with my co-workers Wednesday, we determined that it was the tensioner pulley for the fan belt. So, I called a local parts store and ordered the part, as well as a new fan belt. I picked up the tension arm assembly Friday. Sure looks like the part. Then Friday evening I take a look inside Amanda's car again. Not the tension pulley. Only the idler pulley. Hard to explain why this was an easy mistake to make, but it was. It wasn't clear until I was holding the part in my hand and comparing it to what was in the car. And by comparing I mean looking into dark recesses with a torch and feeling around with my hands. They pack everything in so tightly these days.

Today, I'm calling around seeing if anybody has it in stock. It's not looking promising. So that means I'll have to take Monday off to fix the car. However, the good news is that while the tension arm set me back about 50 pounds, the idler pulley is only about 15 pounds.

Onomotopoeia

I may get scorned for this post, but I think it's worth it.

What word do you think best describes the sound of a sock hitting a pillow? Poof maybe? How about flif (I made that one up)? According to Amanda the correct answer is, "...Hit the pillow with a thud." Thud? Thud is the sound of a brick hitting hard dirt. Thud is the word for your head slamming into the door that was closing when you weren't paying attention. Thud in no way describes the sound of a SOCK hitting a PILLOW.

Let me back up a bit.

I have to wake up about 45 minutes before Amanda, which in and of itself sucks. As I was looking for a pair of socks in my sock pile (who folds their socks, really), I came across one of Amanda's. So, to segregate it from my stuff, I tossed it onto my pillow which happened to be next to Amanda's face while she slept. No harm, no foul.

After I got home from work that night, I mentioned that I found one of her socks in my sock pile and left it on the bed for her. She said, "Yes, I noticed it this morning when you tossed it at my face and it hit the pillow with a thud."

I couldn't stop laughing. It was like a phrase that Douglas Adams would write ("Hung in the air in much the same way that a brick doesn't"). But here's the thing, she was serious, and my laughing was making the whole situation worse. How can you not laugh when someone describes the sound of a sock hitting a pillow as a thud.

If I could write, the above would be funny. I guess you had to be there.

I guess you also had to be me.

8 Weeks Left

There is a bit less than 8 weeks until we all come home. I don't think its enough time to finish my last project, but I'll get close enough. There are some unanticipated bugs (aren't there always) that are slowing me down, and on top of that the AMRC is upping stakes and moving into a new building. The upshot is that all the machines are being moved and I can't get some parts made. I think by the time I get my part, it will be time to pack it in. Eh.

January has been a bit dull. Jenny and Lance were here and that was great fun. We did one of the caverns near Castleton, which I enjoyed. I took some photos, but they weren't very good (too dark, too slow, all blurry). I'll post what I got on Flickr. I've been running about once a week. Only doing 5K at a time. But running. My cold-weather running kit is nice. Warm and comfy.

I also did a big panorama from our upstairs balcony of our view of Sheffield. This is about 20 photos stitched together, which is probably too many because Autostich struggled to blend out the seams. I'm pleased with it none-the-less.



Overall this month the weather has been winter in England. Rain, wind, gray. I think the lack of sun has really gotten me down. I'm really sick of the short days and the lack of sunshine. I'll even be O.K. with the bitter cold winters of the states just to get some sun back. We notice the days getting longer again, but it's not happening fast enough for me. I think my mood varies with the sunshine quite a bit.

For diner tonight we had a small leg of lamb roast (just the joint, already boned). It was really good. I'm going to miss how easy it is to get a decent piece of lamb.

There are still some hikes I'd like to take. And I fancy another trip up to the Lake District (Amanda would rather go to Edinburgh). The Boy wants to do a bit more bouldering (in the gym). I'd like to do a bit more bouldering as well, but in the peaks. I took a friend who just started climbing to the bouldering gym Thursday. We had a great time, and I really wore myself out. My fingers still ache. I go back and forth between bouldering and routes. Right now, I think I favor bouldering.

I've been watching too much TV and playing too much Forza (although I've gotten much better at it). I wish I had more cool stuff to talk about and cool stories to tell, but it's been ordinary day after ordinary day lately. Winter sucks.

Happy New Year

We are back from Skye, and had a great time. It was a wonderful trip (apart from The Boy's car sickness). Father Christmas was kind to the family. I got a new winter outdoor sport coat. Waterproof, windproof, warm and light. I also got a new jumper and some Dalek cuff-links. The cuff-links are cool. I got out and did a bit of hill walking on Christmas day.

The best way to imagine what it was like is to see the photos. They will be up on Flickr shortly. There are a couple of panoramas that I stitched together using Autostitch. Below is one.



At 57 N (and a bit), the days are short. It's further north than the southern shores of Hudson Bay, about as far north as the northern tip of Newfoundland or the southern tip of Greenland. It would get light about 8:30 or 9:00 and then get dark about 3:30 or 4:00. So you really only had about 6 hours of usable daylight. Even then the sun didn't get very high in the sky and when it wasn't raining, the low sun created spectacular rainbows in the mist (which was perpetual). We saw probably two or three double rainbows. One rainbow was so bright, you could clearly see it in front of the hills in the background. Very much gave the illusion that it was touching the ground.

The best thing to do to get a feel for our holiday is browse the photos. A lot of them need digital manipulation to improve the color. Most of the scenic vistas are quite soft in appearance because of the constant mist and rain. I'm still learning how to get good results from the camera. I think my skies are getting better now that I consistently shoot -0.5Ev.

This was a great year overall. I'm looking forward to coming home soon though.

Back in the UK

I'm back.

Last week I was in the US. My flight over was on Air France. It is so cliche, but the French are rude. Actually, the better way to say it would be that attitude which is perfectly acceptable for the French is seen as rude by Americans. For example, on an American airline, the flight attendants would pace the cabin seeing if you need anything. On Air France they just hang out in the kitchen until you page them. Also, the starter course for dinner (both out and back) was foie gras. I've tried to like foie gras in the past, and I tied again this time. I just can't; the flavor is too strong and the texture is like dry mud. Lastly, I got altitude sickness on the flight over. It was no big deal, I just felt like crap before landing. A bit queasy and the start of a headache. Then, as the plane started to descend, I suddenly started to feel better again. Probably a bit dehydrated because the flight crew didn't bring water around. Damn French.

In DC I had a great time. I had dinner with Alix and Kevin a couple of times. On Tuesday night we went to see Avenue Q at the National Theater. I haven't seen puppet sex like that since Team America, World Police. I laughed until my voice was hoarse. A great time.

On Wednesday night I had dinner with the COO of the company that I was there to see. We started talking about his business ventures in the past and he said he made a great success of moving Baskin Robbins around the country. He would find a failing store, buy out the assets for about 25 cents on the dollar, and then rebuild it in a more profitable location. Turns out the first one he did this with (with great success) was the Baskin Robbins in Kewanee in 1986. Small world.

After DC I flew into St. Louis for the night to attend the ATF reception. I had lunch with my family which was great. My nephew has grown a lot. Every time he sees me he hopes that I am bringing the kids back. Next time, Gavin. I also briefly saw Merl, Kristi, and Charlotte. I think being home for just one night made me even more home sick.

On Friday I flew back. I had a five hour layover in DC, so I took the 50 cent shuttle bus to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum which is right by the airport. If you are at Dulles for more than about two hours, take the time to see this place. It was very cool.

And now I'm home again.

Catching Up

The last two weeks at work have been brutal. I had two colleagues in from The States, and we were working on a tough problem (asynchronous extended Kalman filter for tracking 19 state variables). It was the kind of problem where I get so engrossed in solving the next step that I forget to break for lunch until about 15:00. I have notebook pages of derivatives now. Done by hand. The most calculus I've done since university. Fun (not sarcastic). As a result, I didn't feel like blogging when I got home at night. (As an aside, I finally have a fair understanding of quaternions!)

Last weekend I went with a couple of mates up to the peaks for a quick walk around. It was raining in Sheffield, but as soon as we got into the peaks (not even 5 miles away) it was snowing, near blizzard, limited visibility at the top. Below is The Girl, standing in front of Stannage Edge. There are two others on Flickr. It was cold and windy, but we had fun.



The family also went back to Bolsover Castle. I think I liked it a bit better the second time around. There were no crowds this time.

I did get Thanksgiving off. Both Thursday and Friday. Thursday was spent on a bit of shopping and fixing Amanda's car. Monday, her car wouldn't start. I figured that it was a weak battery since the weather turned cold. When I got home Monday night I tried it and it cranked just fine. I even got it to run briefly, but labored. Then it couldn't hang on and quit.

Luckily one of the guys at work used to be a Peugeot mechanic. I had him come over and take a look. My guess was that it was getting starved for fuel for some reason (fuel pump?, something else crazy expensive?). We popped the bonnet and I turned the key while he looked and listened inside the engine bay. Almost immediately he said "Got it" and invited me to take a look while he cranked the engine. Said I'd spot it right away. I was sure that I would see smoke or a leak somewhere once pressure was on the system. Instead, as he turned the key one of the spark plug wires started arcing to the engine casing straight away. Because it was dark out it was as obvious as someone flicking a cigarette lighter. Trip to Halfords for new spark plug leads (a mere 17 GBP), and 30 minutes under the bonnet. Car fixed.

Amanda wrote about Thanksgiving dinner. It was good. The breast was acceptable, though I still would have preferred a whole turkey. They had small ones at Sainsbury's (4-6 people on the label). We would have eaten half I think.

For my birthday, Amanda and I got two copies of Neverwinter Nights Chaotic Evil. It's a package of NWN1, NWN2, Shadows of Undrentide, and Hordes of Underdark. Online D&D, here we come.

Yesterday I went bouldering. I worked on some Font 4-5 problems. Some were really lame. One or two were great. I climbed until my fingers were blistered (I worked on about 15 problems). Today I ache. Bouldering problems are a lot more demanding of strength than routes. Still, you see all ages there from children to 60's. It is a life long sport.

Little Boulderers

I took the kids bouldering this weekend at The Climbing Works. What is great about this venue is that they have a kids problem section. Lots of holds closely spaced. The Boy was doing actual problems, and The Girl could get up all-holds-on under her own power. You can see a quick glimpse of the kids section in the video below. The kids actually get to top out, and then come down a slide from the top. Lucky them. It was a great day and we spent about three-and-a-half hours there.



Today is Guy Fawkes day! So fireworks have been non-stop all weekend. After bouldering we all went over to a mates house for diner, a bonfire, burn an effigy, and a few fireworks. I can just see the kids when we get back to the States.

Random Teacher: What did you learn in England?
The Boy: How to set a scarecrow on fire.

Tonight, we just got back from a fireworks display at the kids school. It was cold, but loads of fun. I really like the school that the kids go to and will miss it terribly when we get home.

Speaking of which, it looks like we will be here until the end of March, for those of you who don't read CPA Mommy. It's not carved in stone yet, but seems quite likely.