Geo-treck

Well Tricia was in her final seminar in the cities for her student teaching, I spent the morning on foot in south Minneapolis exploring and finding geocaches.

I made 12 finds on my 5.8 mile walk. I made it as far south as Lake St. walking down stream along the Mississippi, then worked my way back through residential neighborhoods. Along the way I took pictures with my iPhone of things that were interesting including some nice views, a tree trunk that I used to shimmy down a cliff, and a neat truck that I found just off of Lake Street.

 

The reflection was even more impressive in person...

Watch your step...

Getting around Tarzan style...

Campfire anyone?

Who wants a truck?  It has a fresh coat of paint on it (among other things).

Monkey See, Monkey Do

OK, maybe it's more of a monkey do, monkey do.  Tricia was asking how to get her prezi into her blog, so in the process of learning how to get that done, I had done it with my prezi I made for my project at work.  It may not mean much out of context, but maybe the moving shapes and colors will be interesting. :o)

Here's a link to Prezi where you can do a little playing of your own.

What once was broken now will brake...

If you've ridden with me in my car in the last week, or been around when I've pulled up, chances are you've wondered, "What is that awful noise coming from your car?"  I figured I knew what the problem was, but I wanted to be sure.  So, last week I jacked my car up and ripped apart my rear left brake.  Sure enough, the inner pad was totally worn.  Being that it was Friday night, there wasn't a whole lot I could do, and I knew I would be working the next three days, so I decided that it wasn't going to do any more damage that it already had seeing as the inside of the rotor was pretty well grooved.  However, with a day off on Tuesday, it was time to get things taken care of.  After some on-line research, a stop by the auto parts store, a quick consultation with Jonny, and stops at the Family Dollar and NAPA, I was ready to go.

With the exception of the rotor being pretty well rusted to the bearing assembly, the rear left brake/rotor replacement went quite smoothly.  When it came time to do the other side, I thought I should do a little documentation of the process for the blog since I haven't posted in over a year...

Here's were we started with the whole process - old brakes and old disks.

 Looking closer, you can see some light circular makings on the rotor, but this is normal wear.

 After popping the wheel off the caliper and rotor are exposed, and I've already pulled the spring off of the caliper.

 The caliper comes out pretty easily (if you've released the parking brake that you put on to loosen the wheel lugs that is) and you can see the back side of if in the foreground of the picture resting on the caliper bracket that is still in place.

 When your brakes wear down, the cylinder that squeeze the pads on the rotor keeps on extending.  Here you can see the almost fully extended caliper cylinder that needs to be retracted before I can fit it over the new pads and rotor.

 

After 45 minutes of work (I'm not sure why this one was such a bugger) I finally was able to get the cylinder fully retracted.  The rear cylinders are self adjusting ratcheting cylinders, so you need to spin them clockwise while you push them in, so the usual "C-Clam method" is out.  For both calipers I ended up opening the bleeder screw and to be able to get them back in.  They make a special too for these kind of cylinders, however, 45 minutes and a needle nose pliers will get the job done too...

You can see the two divots in the face of the cylinder where your specialized too/needle nose pliers would go.

With some Liquid Wrench, a 14 mm open ended wrench and a 5 pound hammer, the bolts holding the caliper bracket jumped right off the mounting points behind the rotor and now all I had to do was loosen up the rusted on rotor and I'd be totally disassembled.

It didn't take too much work with the hammer, first on the front of the rotor between each of the studs, then from the back side where the caliper sits to loosen it up and pull it off.

With a new shiny rotor in place, I bolted the caliber bracket back on and hosed the whole thing down with brake cleaner.

The outer pad just sits on the caliper bracket and is held in place by the two "fingers" of the caliper.

The inner pad actually mounts to the cylinder and here it is being held up by a bungee in the wheel well.

Slap the caliper back in place and put the spring back on and it's time to get that rotor and wheel locked down on the hub.

And the finished product.

Minus the 45 minutes it took me to retract the cylinder, I'd say that if everything went smoothly I could switch out pads and rotors at about a hour a wheel.  Everything is working great now, with the exception of the air I sucked back in while dinking with that cylinder, so I'll have to find a buddy and bleed those lines soon.  All in all, I'd call it a success and a money saver.

Tools to have next time -

Cylinder retraction tool
14 mm socket
an impact wrench would be nice, but I don't think I'm going to rush out and get one.

While my normal commute home from work in the evening is pretty quick and less than notable, tonight I had to take a bit of a detour...

Here's my usual route home.

And here's the route I actually took....

I guess we go a little bit of rain....

Coinsidence? I think not...

We all know how much of a Full House fan Mindy is - but if there was ever any question, this should clear things up...

Kids say the darndest things...

Here are some fun quotes from my day:

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"You aren't a nurse."
"What am I then?"
"Your a boy nurse."

".... to Custodian, another Code 3...."
I think there were 7 today....

"Mindy says you're a really good nurse, so when I want to get rid of my wife - what should I use?"
"I'm a nurse, not a pharmacist..."

Just another day in the life of a school nurse..

Big Weekend

Well, for "not having much going on" this weekend, it sure turned out to be a fun filled time.

To start the weekend off, the sheep shearing guy came on Friday night just a little before 6, and being the cruel and heartless monsters that we are, relieved them of their wool in mid-January.  But, now they get to stay inside, and there was no shivering going on while we were out there on Saturday cleaning, so they don't have it that bad I guess. 

Saturday night was Wil's 21st birthday, so we were all but obligated to celebrate this occasion with much alcohol for will and lots of laughs with friends.  We went out to eat at Chester's around 8:00, and had a good meal.  We has some time to kill before the show at the comedy club started so we walked over to B&N and wandered until closing time.  Being shooed from one bookstore, we sought another, however, I think there's only one other bookstore downtown that's open after 9:00.  Do you know which one?  So after our tour there we headed to Goonie's to wait out the clock there.  We ended up in the front row, for a great show including a great warm-up comedian and two very funny "professionals".  The headliner certainly made the show worth the price of admission, but I don't think that he could have predicted the show would have turned out as it did.  Lots of improvisation by both the big names made for a very funny night.  After the show, we walked down to Gilligan's for some standard 21st birthday items, including one shot from the bartender and one shot from a total stranger for Wil.  Wil survived the night with all memories intact and awoke the next morning without a hangover, so I think we did our job.  Happy birthday, Wil.

Today I went with Berean on their ski trip to Mt. La Crosse.  I ended up driving some of the kids, so I was in more of a "adult" role than they thought they would need me to be, but that was my whole reason for going anyway - to help out on the chaperon end of things.  I guess I didn't really mind getting to go skiing out of the deal, but those are just details.  Not having been out at all last winter on downhill skis, it took a little bit of warming up to get back into it.  But, by the end of the night, I had re-polished my carving skills, got my feet wet in the jumping/tricks department, helped out with two patients on the hill, and cut a full-circle at the bottom of the hill.  I must say, it was a most productive day.  I wonder what this next week will bring?