Why cold and diesels are so much fun! (:

Ahh, what fun I have with my ol' veggie-mobile!
Soooooooo....
This morning I wake up and the temp is supposed to be about 2F.  Well, it turns out to be -6F.  That certainly sounds pretty cold.  Good thing I plugged the car in last night(hint - diesels have engine heaters cause they don't like the cold) and I *think* it was working when I plugged it in last night.  So I head out at a little before 5am and think "hey, this is nice that the wind's not blowing and creating that -20F windchill they were talking about"(and it's always blowing up on the hill).  de-ice the windows (which broke my really solid ice scraper), unplug the block heater and get in.  The car says that the glow plugs(more engine warming devices to help out the old 83' Mercedes diesel) only need 15 seconds to heat up the engine, but I know better and let it go for 30 seconds.  She starts up without much issue at all.  Cool.(literally)
So I start out on my 10-15 minute trip to town.  I make it across the intersection and maybe 1/10 of a mile from the driveway and she sputters.  I think "well this isn't that out of the ordinary, she usually takes a second to get her breath".  But she dies completely.  She almost starts, but won't quite stay running.  Which is especially fun since the exhaust is almost non-existent and makes a good bit of noise and I have conveniently stopped next to a random neighbor who is probably not normally up at 5am.  After a little bit of monkeying she starts again.  I think of backing up towards the house but figure "Nah, this is just cold, she'll only start running better the more I drive".  Well another couple hundred feet down the road and she's all but dead again as I'm coasting down to the next farm.  So she's not interested in running much at this point so I get out with my flashlight and see if I can prime any fuel to the engine.  I'm pumping away, but it doesn't seem to be doing much.  I start using tools and pull off the first connection of fuel and sure enough there is diesel coming out of there(didn't realize it was quite that green though, I thought I had anti-freeze coming out).  I check the other side of the first filter.  Nope, nothing coming out.  "Hmm, ok must be something solidifed in the filter, I'll pop in a new one".  OK, now we have fuel through the filter and I hook it back up.  Well, it kinda starts but again, won't keep running.  OK, must be the other filter is coagulated.  I'll replace it.  Well, I was trying to get it filled with some fuel when I realized that I was not getting filter through that brand new filter now.  So I decided to bypass the first filter.  DId that and it almost started, but just couldn't quite manage.  So by this time I'd gathered a couple visitors from our neighbors farm and one was nice enough to give me a tow back up to our shop.  So I got it in there, put the battery charger on it (gotta love that nice new monster battery.  I could swear I must have drained it and yet it just keeps going) added maybe 50% kerosene and got it running(badly) only stalling once in a while.  By this time it's after 6 and Dad comes out and I borrowed a bottle of diesel fuel 911 service stuff that's basically supposed to make your fuel all happy again.  Poured that in there too and put the first filter back in.  By this time it was almost 6:30, the car was up to normal temperatures, and mostly running, but still not terribly well.  So I headed off to work and it was a fun ride of "ok, there's some power" and then "ok, we've dropped to about 1mph(literally) but we haven't quite stalled yet" and repeat.  Luckily there was only one other car out so I wasn't holding up traffic.

So, anyway it's supposed to get up to almost 20F today and I'm planning on filling up and getting some anti-gel stuff at the truck stop to hopefully avoid this problem in the future.  And I now know that apparently diesel fuel gels up in the filter even if not in the lines.  And apparently even in these cold areas they don't sell diesel that will stay liquid at these temps.  Oh, and -6F isn't bad at all after about 20 minutes of monkeying around.  (:

Ahh, I remember the Subaru that I "just drove" anytime anywhere without any problems.  How fun could that be compared with an old Mercedes?!  HAHA!

Trying some more new things

Well, things seem to be coming along fairly nicely at the moment. The website is starting to gain some substance and more changes are in order. I'm creating a few blogs for different topics. All of which should have some sort of updates directly from my site.
The other new thing I'm trying is a new technique for remembering things. It seems I tend to lose things in my memory shortly after I do them. They seem to still exist, just difficult for me to recall without a trigger. I tried writing notes or using a voice recorder, but neither of those seemed to last much more than a day. Well, I had this little mini digital camera that came with a remote control airplane that Sara got me and thought I would try and pull it out and see if it might work in this scenario. Sure enough it does work on it's own and Linux is nice enough to find it and get the pictures. They're not great pics(to say the least) but I can at least recognize it and remember what it was I was thinking(or at least I think so). I've tried it for a few days, and while I haven't come up with a lot lately, nor added the other items I've noted yet, I think it may work. I didn't take a pic of the camera, but it is pretty much the exact camera pictured. Except that instead of that keychain mine has a little mini cable that would have plugged into the airplane. But it's still small enough to just go in a pocket and then I just pull it out for about 3-5 seconds and it's back in my pocket. Quick and discrete. I hadn't decided whether or not to actually post the pictures, but I think I might just for laughs sake if nothing else. (:

New Improvements

Well, I've had a couple ideas and with some encouragement from at least one friend, I am actually starting to implement a few of these thoughts.  I think I can make my website http://findlevi.com a central repository for perhaps some interesting content on new fronts.

So, I'm still hashing out thoughts in my head and trying to remember that good thought after the fact, but if all goes as planned, there should be more blog updates and more web page updates.  I should have my page set up now to actively show my latest blog entry and a link to my myspace page and my e-mail address.  I've also added a few potential links while I'm thinking of them...

Levi (:

The National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD on 1/14/07

A slideshow of our trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD on 1/14/07.

Medieval Times in Maryland on 1/13/07

This is a slideshow from our trip to Medieval Times in Maryland on 1/13/07. Lots of horsemanship!

Baltimore!

Well, we went to Baltimore this past weekend for some fun! 
We headed down Saturday morning had a nice trouble-free trip and made it to Laurel, MD where our Hotel was.  We stopped at a KFC for lunch and of course used to restrooms.  Well...  The mens room was OK (I consider myself lucky if it simply functions) ignoring the toilet paper on the floor and what not.  So I'm waiting out by the counter thinking that Sara had been gone a while, but she had to go to the car first so I didn't know how long she had been in the bathroom.  Well then I hear "LEVIIIII!!", and banging and as I'm making my way down the hall "CAN SOMEONE HELP ME IN THE BATHROOM!" and I'm worrying and wondering what on earth has happened to Sara, I open the door and apparently the inside door handle had come off in the stall.  Luckily there was no problem from outside.  As I headed back out another woman was standing asking if Sara was OK as apparently she had gotten locked in as well but her daughter was there to let her out.  The lady at the counter just said "someone's supposed to come look at it".  Needless to say, Sara wasn't too happy with them.
Then we got to the Days Inn and it was surprisingly nice.  Quite large and roomy and pet friendly and Sara even felt that it was clean(a rare occurrence).  So we checked in and after a brief sit, we headed over to the Arundel Mills Mall.
The mall was quite large and we walked all the way around which took about an hour.  And Sara was happy to get her Dairy Queen fix for the day.  We stopped in this big outdoor world store and looked around a bit and we were still an hour or so away from the 3:30 check in time for Medieval Times so we went out to the car to sit with Shadow and get the camera.  We came back a while later and walked about half of the mall again at which point it was about 3:20 and we found Medieval Times had a line out to the door which rather surprised us since the show didn't start until 5:00.  So we stood in line for a while, then stood around inside the waiting area where you can buy your drinks and swords and what not.  They had a couple "knighting ceremonies" for Birthdays and Anniversaries, but otherwise we just stood around until almost 5.  At that point we finally got in and seated.  It was a great meal and show as I had remembered from the one I had gone to with the Meyer's in Texas.  Lots of horsemanship and jousting and such.  Sara very much enjoyed the horses.
After that we headed back to the Hotel, but tried to find some ice cream on the way.  We tried out the GPS' search function and the Dairy Queen's looked to be a ways away so we headed for a McDonalds.  Unfortunately the two that were nearby seemed to be shutdown or non-existent, but we did find a dairy store and some ice cream.

So Sunday morning we got up and had a pretty good breakfast.  This time they actually had waffles and a little more than the usual coffee and danish.
We then headed over to the parking garage in Baltimore.  We had a coupon for one in particular so we were trying to find it.  But if you've never been to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, We can tell you that there are a considerable number of parking garages  and most of them don't have much in the way of signage to tell you their names.  Luckily as we were driving around Sara noticed a LITTLE sign with the name on it and we got parked.
Was a nice short walk to the aquarium which was surprisingly already getting a line at about a quarter to 10 (they don't open until 10) so we got inside and they finally let us go around 9:55.  Lots of interesting aquatic animals to see but it is set up a bit funkily.  They tell you on a little sign to plan your day accordingly as there are feedings basically every half hour in the morning.  However, they don't tell you that information ANYWHERE else...  And the whole place is set up as a one way up through the levels, basically a self-guided tour.  Which would be fine, except that after you've been doing the tour for half an hour you're up around the 4th floor and you then find that the 10:30 feeding you want to see is down on the first.  So I found the elevator in the dark corner (after heading the wrong way) and we
made it to the second floor anyway which was a nice view of the stingray feedings.  Though we later found out there's a better view at tank level underwater.  So then after that we head BACK up to the 4th floor and look around a little bit before the puffin feeding there.  Then a little more looking before we have to head back to the first floor so that we can take the bridge over to the other pier to watch the dolphin show.  That was the best part for sure.  Sara loved the dolphins as well, often mentioning how they were just like Shadow in terms of smartfullness and playfullness. 
Then after that, back to the 4th floor so that we could go to the jungle on the 5th floor, and there were a couple other exhibits along the way.  In all it was around 1:30 and about 4 hours from when we started so I was ready to get off my feet but we had pretty much covered the National Aquarium.  So we decided to head home and stop somewhere on the way.  We found a Wendy's near York, PA and had a nice lunch.  Somewhere closer to Williamsport we were looking for a Dairy Queen and the Hardees I had seen on the way down.  Well I JUST missed the Brusters ice cream at one exit unfortunately, but then found the Hardees.  I couldn't think of the name of the sweet frosted biscuits I wanted and they weren't on the menu, but we got to the window and I asked if they had "those biscuits" and sure enough they did!  So I ordered like 3 two packs to take home.  Well we get on the road and Sara opens them up and says.  Uhh, these are like buttery biscuits.  Well, buttery biscuits are good and all but are NOT the glazed cinnamon raisin ones I wanted even though the box did say that they did have cinnamon raisin biscuits.  Oh well.  We decided to try for the nearest Dairy Queen which was 10 miles in the wrong direction.  Well of course that was closed too.  Oh well, I was getting a bit frustrated by then and was just heading for home.  Sara and I each had a biscuit and our Shakes that we had gotten from Hardees.  A while later we made it to where we had seen closed Dairy Queens Saturday morning.  I had mistakenly thought they were closed for the season.  Apparently not as they were open!  So we pulled in and got some food to go.  Well we got back to the car and I was just laughing as I said "well, Shadow enjoyed those biscuits!"  I noticed earlier she had been smelling them just sitting up in the bag up front and was very interested.  We didn't put them anywhere so there were just 3 empty boxes sitting on my seat.  Ahh, I'm sure she enjoyed them much more than I would have!  (:
So a more or less uneventful trip the rest of the way home.  I can tell you this though.  AVOID the Texas toast from Dairy queen.  Very bad flavored rubber about sums it up.  (:  Made it home just before the ice started and we were inside Monday when it was icing.

Well, as usual I write too much and I still don't say everything in my head.  Sara took some pics so I will have to see if I can get them up here.  Hopefully before too long!
Levi (:

Finally tried Myspace - Medieval Times

Well, I finally tried out Myspace and surprise surprise I actually found some people I was previously wondering where they had gotten to!  And some of them even have up-to-date blogs.  Which is somewhat inspiring to me to try to update mine.  However, I seem to forget, or rather perhaps not permanently forgotten, but I place them elsewhere in my mind where I forget to find them until someone or something reminds me of them.  That can make finding thing to blog about somewhat more difficult.  That and the fact that I don't exactly lead a terribly exciting life.  However, I do believe I can find/create enough stuff if I get myself figured out correctly.  (:

ANYWAY....  As for things I'm actually doing well the big one is that Sara and I are planning a trip to Baltimore-ish this weekend.  Going to the Medieval Times Sat night, then the National Aquarium on Sunday and heading back up.  Should be a lot of fun!

Well I hope everyone(anyone?) out there is having a great time!
Levi (: