Stripping the engine

So Sunday I went out and took the engine down about as far as I can. I've got the heads off and one jug slides. The other 3 pistons do seem pretty stuck.

Finally found the screws that needed to come out for the shrowd assembly. Took a bit of work to get the distributor loose.

Heads came off with some work. Amazing how simple the valve covers, push rods and rockers come out.

Brakes all but done!

So yesterday I put the T in the brake lines and thought about bleeding the brakes, but knew I was going to have to replace the backing plates so figured I might as well do that first. First one was pretty straight forward. I could see on the used parts I got how the E-brake hardware goes together and the cable goes through the back.

I also noticed that Mid America VW parts sent me 2 right hand E-brake cable clips and no left one. Oh well, I had a used one that worked.

Not entirely sure about what's what with parts at the wheel bearing there. The manual says something about replacing a gasket or O-ring, but I don't really see where one would need to be replaced while taking off the backing plate...

Then the left side...

Well, when the outer bearing/cover(again, still not entirely sure what's what there) there's definitely part of a seal or something that's in pieces. That might explain why that side is rather greasy. I figure for now I'll just bolt it back together and either look it up and see if I can figure out what's supposed to be there/what I need, or just wait for it to get worse and replace it.

Then the used backing plate. The adjusters seemed pretty seized. Which was odd since while these used ones had some rust, they were nowhere near as rusty and full of mud as the ones I had. So I mounted them so that I could get more leverage. I managed to get the bolts out, but the teethed adjusters... No such luck. They were quite solidly stuck. Much frustration.

So... I went back and looked at my old backing plate on that side. That one wasn't broken through anywhere. So decided to use it, and the set of adjusters that the used seller included on a third backing plate. Not sure if that's from the front or some other bug, it only has 3 holes for mounting.

So, finally, everything back together and I bled out the brakes.

Sure enough, I still need to attach the cables to the handle, but I can pull on either one and stop the wheel and the brake pedal brakes all 4!

My first time flaring brake lines

Well, Mike showed me how to flare brake lines and supplied the parts and tools and I went about it and sure enough, minus the front T that showed up late to the party, I now have brake lines completely run.

I still need to replace the rear backing plates, so I may try to do that before I go bleeding everything out. Hopefully those rear bolts aren't completely rust-welded in.

Also need to remember to pick up another vacuum pump as when I pulled mine out last week it just broke apart in my hands as I tried to pump it.

Axle nut and Neutral

Well, I tried to get the locking bolt for the axle nut to work. It's that stupid M7x1 bolt that seems to be the odd one that no one uses. Near impossible to find short of buying a new axle nut with bolt for like $10+$10 shipping.

I got as near as I could find in a standard size and hoped to rethread it. I think it may be a hair too large or something as it really doesn't want to go into the die.

I ended up having to run the tap through the nut just to get anything to thread into it and then I tried the hex head M7 bolt. It went in, but prettymuch just submerged itself and still wasn't tight enough. I think I may try to slot the bolt next.

Either that or I'm just going to have to make an hour trip to pick one up from a couple craigslist responses.

Noticed that the transaxle that I had filled(overfilled by normal standards) was leaking out of the input shaft and gear selector. I decided to try on getting the last bearing(s) to come loose. (It was still stuck in 3rd). I put it in 4th and started rocking the bug back and forth again. I was getting rather tired and it wasn't showing any signs of loosening up after like 30 seconds. But then... Is it just me or is it doing something a bit different? It kinda seems like it's moving a bit more... Woah... I think it's actually turning! Sure enough, Neutral is now there! So, other than reverse being a bit iffy... It won't stay in reverse on it's own and it kinda clicks... Not sure how that's going to play out with an engine in there...

Also put a hole into the front of the tunnel to route the brake line. Hopefully that will get done today.

I think that's about it...

Sunday

I put the nose cone back on the tranny and went looking for atf fluid I had laying around to throw in there and completely fill/soak it in hopes of making those stuck bearings a little more likely to break free.

I filled the tranny and got it back in the bug. Sure enough it would now roll with both wheels in the same direction! Of course no Neutral yet, but we can hope... Dunno, I tried throwing it in 4th and rocking the wheels back and forth, but nothing happened yet...

So, with a working brake and rolling wheels I rolled it out of the garage and into the driveway. Then got the 4-wheeler out which I had pretty much blocked in to this point. I hooked it on to the trailer which had the bug's engine on it and brought it down to the garage and took a look at what I had. Umm yeah, me thinks it sitting outside, face down in the mud for years didn't do it a lot of good. I blew off all the pine needles, pine cones, a nest out of the exhaust and who knows what else from around and scraped off the mud and cleared the mud out of places.

Then I added oil to bring it up to at least the low line.

Then I tried to turn it. Umm, it would seem to prefer not.

Took out spark plugs. They looked not super-great either, sprayed some PB Blaster in there as well.

Tried to get the alternator/fan to turn. Unh-uh. Figured out how to get the belt off. Got a big wrench and pipe on it. No sir, it would really rather not turn at all.

I started taking the fan assembly off and I was getting tired and it was getting colder out and I decided it was about time to head in.

Monday...

Found a fan shroud for the bug with a coil and generator mounted.

Tuesday:

Picked up the rear brake hoses.

Trying to determine what I need and where to get it. I put an ad on craigslist looking for that axle nut and I have a response saying if I pull it I can have it. Bit of a drive though. We'll see.

Saturday, A brake, and a Tranny!

So Saturday I made it out and pumped through the existing brake fluid, added some old bake fluid I had laying around, attached the new hose to the only existing connecting lines/hoses, adjusted the brake drums, bled the cylinder and ta-da, I have a right front wheel that turns as well as brakes. WOOHOO! Made plans for Monday to run the rest of the lines and get/replace the rear hoses.

Also finished off ordering backing plates for the rear and the parking brake hardware.

And then started the scary task of opening the transaxle that currently seemed to be stuck in 3rd gear and not moving other than the differential.

I've never been in a transmission before. And the warnings in the service manuals basically say "If you've never been in a transmission, don't let this be the first!"

But... As Mike told me, you've basically got something of no use as it is... So, I started as he suggested with the side cover. As expected, nothing really came out, or rather it didn't really open. So I started looking in the manual and just went backwards from the reassembly instructions along with pictures. Found seals inside where the CV joints attach and removed those. Then took a bit of work, but I got the C clip(the type with no eyes on the ends) off the shaft, then that cv mount came off and then the cover came off.

I was now looking at the back side of the diff which had some rust on it. But it didn't want to come out. I checked the other side. Sure enough, same thing. Seal, Clip, mount of and then the diff came out.

Bummer. No access to gears. That's in the forward end... So I look at the manual some more and start going backwards/pictures again.

Remove C-clip, slide off collar, unscrew input shaft extension.

Mark castelated nut on the gear that connects to the diff. Couldn't think of much that would work well. Found some spray paint. That just kinda made a big splotch. I basicall tried to wipe off all but one spot. Kinda worked...

Then you were supposed to move it somehow with a hammer and chisel... Not sure of the approved method. The nut didn't look all mangled up when I started(it looked perfect) But it was looking quite punched after I used my hammer/punch on it to rotate it a few times.

Then came the nuts/bolts on the forward end. And then a lot of prying/hammering/prying and finally somehow the gear assembly moved and then finally came out from the case.

Things were definitely a bit stuck. But really, it didn't look bad in there. Just seized a bit... I managed to get reverse lever moving, then the reverse gear to slide.

1/2 shifter already wiggled a bit.

That 3/4 shifter really didn't want to move much.

Hole thing really still didn't want to turn more than like a 1/2"...

I used about a half a can of PB Blaster, finally got the 3/4 shifter to neutral, then to 4 and back and forth.

Then found one spot where I could get vice-grips on a shaft and finally got the shafts to turn all the way around.

Made sure 1 and 2 shifts also could happen.

I still have at least on bearing that hasn't broken free as even though it's in Neutral it's still spinning like it's in 3rd. Input and output are still connected. I'm hoping I can get more leverage in car.

So I put some gasket sealant on the gear assembly, a bit of grease on the shims so they didn't fall off, engaged reverse so that I could get that gear attached to the shifter and then back in the case. The manual said something about a gentle tap from a mallet or something... I ended up really pounding that thing in repeatedly until I could get the studs to go through so that I could tighten it down with nuts/studs.

Then castellated nut back on with more punch/hammer mangling. I'm hoping I have it the right amount of turns and to the right position back on...

Screw the input shaft back on, slide the collar back down and replace the c-clip.

Then put the diff back in, the mount on one side, the c-clip and seal.

Then the spacer on the diff, the cover back on, bolt down, other mount, c-clip and seal.

Sure enough at this point, however roughly I can actually turn both axles in the same direction at the same time. (though input shaft is still turning).

Hopefully I can put some ATF or something in there for a bit, get it mounted up, more leverage and get Neutral to show up, clean out the gunk, replace with correct fluid and maybe it will work for a while? Not sure what the likely lifetime will be... It is definitely quite rough at the moment, but then it's had almost no oil for years, seized up and only yesterday started to free up with PB Blaster...

I think I shall head out shortly to see about remounting it...

Wednesday Master cylinder works.

Lunch:Returned the old rear shoes for my $2.50 core charge., stopped by Advance and picked up the third wheelstud they had to order and a set of front shoes.

On the way home I decided to take the seasonal road and see if it was passable as Dad had told me it was some weeks ago. It was passable, but definitely still quite snowy/icy/slushy. But it reminded me that I was going to check out back of the barn where he said there was an old stripped bug that they had decades ago. So I went back and looked. Definitely not much there, and definitely older than what I have. I was hoping to find that stupid little bolt on one of them, so I went up to the house, got tools, stopped back down, but nope, apparently they were different back then.

Once home: Replaced front shoes. Still not positive which way they are supposed to go in, or which springs are supposed to go where. Questions to ask Mike tonight. Took another look at the master cylinder. Still pretty sure it must be set up. I got it disconnected from the brake pedal and the brake line that was attached and woah, it sprayed fluid as it should... OK... Checked brake pedal... It worked as well... So I put it back together and it was still pumping. Hooked up the brake line(which the other end is hanging loose) Nope... Hmm, something is plugged. I unplugged the 3 or 4 different brake line junctions testing along the way. Sure enough, the last rubber brake line is where the plug lies... I found it odd that would be where the problem was or that it was plugged instead of leaking. We'll see if I can find those today and get one brake working to start.

The search for bolts

Tuesday:

Headed out at lunch to see what I could find.

Spent about half an hour at Napa. They confirmed they could not find that M7x1 Socket head(allen) bolt to even order.

Nor could they find my 7/16" wheel studs. Well, actually they could match it up to one in a book, but apparently couldn't order it.

Mid afternoon they called and said my parts were in.

After work I stopped back down and sure enough had all the parts. ~$75 Not bad really for 4 wheel cylinders, rear shoes and hardware.

Then stopped by Advance to see what they could do to match up bolts. Ugh, there's like 3 guys, probably all in high school still. And the one to ask if he could help was the one from before that didn't know they had lugnuts in the aisle(in fact he told me for sure they didn't) and when he tried to match it up he couldn't figure out that I needed a 7/16" bolt even after I stated repeatedly and showed him where the ones he was picking out didn't have the same numbers, nor did they obviously look the same size.

So he took a glance and said "nope". Thankfully, one of the other guys had a sense of trying to help out or do what was needed and started looking at the computer to see if he could find it, and when he couldn't he told me what size it was and to try next door at Value. I was a bit dubious that a hardware store would have this odd metric axle locking nut, but I'll check.

He had more trouble trying to find a match for the wheel studs, but he did eventually get down to their collection and came up with 2 of the 3 I need. The other should be in this morning.

So I stopped over to Valu and sure enough it looked like they would have what I needed! But... Not quite... They had exactly what I needed except M6 or M8. No M7... Or, they had an M7 but with a normal hex head. Bah. I got the closest hex head I could find and figured I'd give it a shot.

So last night I went and assembled parts. Wheel cylinders in all around, rear shoes and hardware. That went pretty smoothly. I didn't connect any of the brake lines that are in the vicinity, figure I'd rather get some brake fluid run through anything and closed up before contaminating the new parts.

Unfortunately on the last front wheel I also noticed that in fact one of my front shoes is halfway detached from the backing. So, I guess I'll pick up a set of those when I stop down to Advance for the wheel stud. Surprisingly they have those in stock for a decent price.

Then I decided to see what state the master cylinder was in. From what Mike said it sounds like it might be from an S-10. Well, I managed to get the cover off and it was actually still full of fluid. Hope! But then I went to move the brake pedal and no dice. I PB Blasted the pedal assembly and it seems the clutch and gas pedal move pretty well, but not much more than a wiggle from the brake pedal. and I think I'm getting the impression it's the master cylinder that doesn't want to move, not the pedal itself.

So... I think I'm about at the point where I'll see if Mike can stop up and take a look and see what he thinks as far as getting a parking brake hooked up, see what he thinks about the master cylinder, and if he thinks there's any hope for the tranny.

I should probably swap out the front shoes tonight and if nothing else looks obvious on the master cylinder.(Maybe I'll see if I can dismount it), maybe I'll go take a look at the bus tranny and/or engine and see what I have there. I haven't looked much there yet....

More Brakes

Sunday we were in Rochester and I stopped by the Pep Boys. They had none of the brake parts, nor were they able to match up any wheel studs.

Monday:

Opened up the front drums. Interesting setup with an axle nut holding the wheel bearing together up there. Especially since the left one is a left hand thread and they have some sort of socket cap metric screw to lock that nut and my left one is not here.

Front drums looked a lot better than the rears. Me thinks not letting them sit in mud helps.

Shoes look usable.

Hardware seems to be usable.

Cylinders... One piston moved. The other broke. The other side acted like it might have been salvageable, but if I'm replacing one, I'll just replace both fronts.

Found the speedo cable hookup(I think) out of the left front hub. No idea if there's still something usable in there. That will be later.

Decided might as well try again on that right rear drum. I tried getting the chevy adapter off, though it's not as critical on the back drums. I don't really "need" it off at the moment. I broke another (my last) 3/8-1/2" adapter and about 3 or 4 14mm sockets.

Decided to go for broke on the axle nut. I looked again to make sure I wasn't missing a cotter pin in there somewhere, then jammed the pry bar in the wheel against the frame again. Pounded it in a touch to try to keep it in place better. Tried the 3' breaker bar in both directions but no movement i could tell. I briefly tried a hammer and punch on the nut, but that didn't look too promising either. Let's go for broke.

Put the 3-4' pipe extension on the 3' breaker bar and just about jumped on the end of it waiting for SOMETHING to crack. Was rather expecting it to be the breaker bar. But no, it finally cracked and the it was the nut the moved a bit. It got gradually easier and it did finally come off.

Surprisingly for some reason that this nut is rusted solid on, whereas the left is nice and hand turnable, yet the left side drum was half full of frozen mud and crap and this right one had relatively little. Though the right side backing plate seems more rusted through. But i believe the important structural bits are ok.

Later, I pulled the pry bar out and realized I had seriously bent it. Oops. Well, better it than the car.

Looked some more at prices and locations of brake parts. Finally just tried to send the list to Napa and have them send me all 4 wheel cylinders and rear shoes and hardware. It puked at the end so I figure I might as well call them. They didn't seem to know much about the internet, but put in the order.

Saturday Tranny/Brakes

Saturday...

Oh yeah, did I mention it's only been like 20 or so degrees F? This car work has surprisingly not been too bad, but my nose is definitely running while I'm out there.

Anyway, I headed out in the morning.

By now I'd gathered enough information that said that I might be able to shove a screwdriver in the drain plug hole of the tranny and hopefully shove the shift fork so that it would get out of 3rd gear. I monkeyed with it for a while. No such luck. I can see where the fork is for 1-2 shifts at the fill plug, but not the 3-4 fork I'm looking for...

Started monkeying with wheels and brakes. Cleaning up the threads on the original lugnuts and then running them on the studs so I can get the new lugnuts on without screwing up the threads any more than necessary.

Also took off the chevy spacers which was more needed on the front wheel which was missing a stud and then turned out two of the studs are either the wrong thread, or just messed up enough that I can't for the life of me get any lugnut on them.

Then went to looking at the brakes. Started at the right rear, no cotter pin visible in the axle. Hey, those axle nut sockets that I figured I would never need again came in handy, I actually had a 36MM socket as needed! However, with the weight of the buggy, there's no way the nut was going to turn before the wheel. I jammed a pry bar in the wheel against the frame. Nope. 3' breaker bar was not cutting it. I got out my 3-4' pipe to put on it for more leverage. The bar was bending more than I was comfortable with and no movement. OK, let's try the left rear wheel...

Found a nail in the cotter pin hole, got that out and then the nut came off at about hand tightened tightness. Wasn't too difficult to get the drum off. I'm not used to these stupid drum brakes that require opening up wheel bearings to get to brakes. Seems like a stupid idea to me because for one you're monkeying with the wheel bearings when you don't need to. More importantly you're opening the wheel bearings and all of their grease to all of the junk/dust/dirt that's in the brakes. *sigh*.

Anyway, got the brake drum off. One shoe came off inside the drum, no longer attached to the backing. Then the other was also off it's backing just laying there. It was somewhat difficult to tell just what was supposed to be where. I determined that having those drums sitting in mud for a few years wasn't great. Basically the bottom half of the drum was full of frozen mud/dirt/whatever. I chipped away with the screwdriver and hammer. The spring hardware was all rusted out and in pieces, if there at all. Went to see if the wheel cylinder would move and it immediately just broke off a tab with very little effort on my part.

Finally found the adjusters buried in the gunk at the bottom and with enough PB Blaster/vice grips/big adjustable pliers, I managed to get them to start moving(which greatly surprised me). And with enough time/effort I actually got them moving to a level that didn't require vice-grips. I'm not entirely decided, but I think they may be usable enough for now. We'll see when we get the parts back in there.

Tried getting the brake line out of the wheel cylinder, but as expected, no go with wrench. I ended up snipping the line at both ends and using a socket.

Tried to figure out what to do for parking brake. I think there may be some other sort of missing part that goes inside the drum, and I'm pretty sure stock cables aren't going to work too well because of length and likely attachment points. I did hoever managed to get the parking brake handle to move and actually ratchet more or less as intended. That was a pretty big surprise as well given how rusty it was/is...

Friday - Tranny

I think Friday afternoon I started further monkeying with the tranny...

Used my new hex socket to remove fill plug... No signs of oil.

Went to drain plug. No access from underneath. Went to get drill/hole saw to make access. Battery dead. Go for spare battery. Also dead.(rather expected since they sit for months at a time in various states of charge and out in the cold.)

No way to remove nose cone from transmission with it in place.

Remove rear tranny mounts, still not much movement.

Get my new triple square bit and get the bolts that hold the CV shafts to the tranny out.

Tranny wiggles now, (and car rolls) but definitely going to need to disconnect that front mount. Two more bolts from below and it's out. And nicely doesn't weigh much.

Nose cone off of tranny and I see the "hockey stick" I've heard reference to and see how it would slide these gear sliders in and out. I spend probably an hour or two monkeying around, but by the end of the day or the next, I pretty well put it together in my head that it's stuck in 3rd gear. Still doesn't explain why the input shaft doesn't turn.

By then I had enough charge in a drill battery to make a hole for future draining of the tranny fluid.

Oh, and I also removed the drain plug. There are signs of something oily, but not really any oil in the tranny to speak of. It also still doesn't really want to turn as it should nor exit 3rd gear.

I think I may have started putting the new lugnuts on as well.

The Bug/Rail up to this point

OK, I think I may try to detail out what I do on the bug project in more detail here. Though honestly I'm not sure if I'll ever come back to read it again, but I still feel like chronicling it...

So far... I have some pics I haven't put up here...

I got rid of my motorcycle some years ago because in the last year or two of ownership I think i drove it like once during the whole year.

I still get a bug for a motorcycle, but realistically, I would pretty much have to make special trips just to ride it. I generally always have the dog and/or Sara with me. Neither of which are wanting to ride on a bike.

So I went looking for what would be the next step up. Basically the most minimal vehicle with 2 side by side seats.(in retrospect I suppose it was more 2 sit down seats I was looking for(i.e. no motorcycle seats), however, I didn't really come up with any dual-longitudinal seat setups).

Initially when I was really getting ready to potentially do something I was thinking a trike with a Goldwing at the back. Though the more I looked, the more expensive that was starting to look.(Even 20+ year old Wings are generally a couple thousand $...)

In looking around, I asked my neighbor his thoughts and he mentioned having a VW tube kit-car thing out in the field. This had been a thought to me as well at some point, but I didn't really come up with much availability I guess.

So I went and looked. Sure enough, that's pretty minimal. Unfortunately this one needed quite a bit of work, but then the price was right and I was kinda looking for a project...

From my perspective it started as a rusty frame(well almost entirely a frame), but minus the paneling, the tubing seemed solid.

It had steering(once I got some PB Blaster on a joint) and two wheels on the front.(one of which kinda held air and turned)

A master cylinder connected to one front brake and misc other pipes just cut off and sticking out in various places in the car. No actual working brakes though.

A tranny mounted to the frame but the rear had no wheels and the drums were sitting in the much.

In general there were a decent amount of weeds and muck, etc. on it. I didn't even realize until it was lifted up that there was framework that went out beyond the rear wheels.

And an engine face down in the dirt.

So, about a week later, we proceeded and got the buggy over to neighbor's shop looking for wheels and by the end, I had a set of Fiero wheels with some half-decent tires mounted on them and he got the brakes freed up so the wheels would roll. He also helped me get the engine out, adn then he found a bus transmission in his barn and a Haynes manual.

Once up to the garage, I realized contrary to what I though, I didn't actually have a rolling buggy yet. The wheels turned. Just not both rear wheels in the same direction at the same time. Oops, tranny problem. Luckily it doesn't weigh much so I brute-forced it into the garage with the 4-wheeler.

When I next went to look at it, I realized that I needed a 17mm hex socket for the tranny drail/fill plugs and a 12pt(also apparently known as "triple square") 8mm socket for the cv joint to tranny bolts.

Evan made front page news!

Evan made front page news! (:

THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2008
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N-J | Sean McNeil | BUY THIS PRINT Evan Ruffino, 13, hammers out the blues on his guitar. Evan has been playing guitar for about three years.

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June 05, 2008

Open mic night gets teens' adrenaline running

By SETH ROBBINS
Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- While most teens click the plastic frets of games like "Guitar Hero," Evan Ruffino has honed his chops playing blues riffs on a cherry-red Fender Stratocaster he calls Sparky.

Ruffino, 13, first picked up a guitar when he was 10, but he never wailed in front of an audience until Tuesday night. Wearing a faded Doors T-shirt and talking about blues legend Robert Johnson, Ruffino had set the bar high.

"I was really nervous," he said, blond locks falling in front of his face. "My knees almost buckled."

He did not disappoint. The crowd chanted "encore" when he finished his first song.

"That got my adrenaline pumping," he said.

Ruffino from Port Orange was part of the first teen open mic night at the Hot Spot, a coffee shop on South Ridgewood Avenue. The event, which was put together by music promoter Phinesse Demps, was meant to give local teens a way to showcase their talents, and also a place to congregate away from the streets.

"I want to show our youth that they can earn a living through music and writing," said City Commissioner Dwayne Taylor, who sponsored the event. Taylor is also the author of a murder mystery novel called "Forced To Defend."

"If they start now, they have an even greater opportunity to reach their goals," he said.

Tayla Spivey, 14, recited her poetry to an audience for the first time. With her mom, she drove 45 minutes from Pierson to take part in the event.

"I felt nervous at first, but then it was cool," she said. "Everyone was very appreciative."

Dewoun Buchanan, who goes by the stage name "Young Prophecy," has been writing and reciting lyrics since the fourth grade. He was ridiculed at first for his passion, explaining to his friends that poetry can be more like hip-hop in its rhythm.

"A lot of kids in my neighborhood don't come to this kind of stuff," he said. But Buchanan, who lives next to the police station on Orange Avenue, hopes to change that.

"Some kids don't have an outlet," he said. "For me, I love the essence of poetry. Every time I perform, there is a spark."

Buchanan is part of the quartet "Love of the Spoken Word," which performs regularly at the Schnebly Recreation Center in Daytona Beach and tours throughout the Southeast. He has opened for the Rev. Al Sharpton, and his poetry takes on questions of spirituality like the poem he calls "Expiration Dates."

"We often choose things that are temporary," he said of the poem. "Things that just feel for the moment."

Meanwhile, Demps can hope the "Night of Poetry and Expression" won't have an expiration date -- he plans to hold one every month. And it has already produced its first rock star. Ruffino has been invited to play at the Bank & Blues Club on Main Street.

Though the teenager might need a note from his mom to get in.

seth.robbins@news-jrnl.com

Did You Know?

Sophisticated anti-establishment aficionados known as beatniks gathered in coffeehouses during the 1950s sipping java, listening to poetry performances and snapping their fingers, rather than clapping, in approval.

· The finger-snapping is said to have originated as a way to ease tensions between coffeehouse owners and local residents who didn't appreciate the noisy late-night applause.

· In some clubs, like the Gaslight in Greenwich Village, the heating systems were so antiquated that open ducts ran from the building's cellar, where the clubs were, directly into the apartments above.

· So the hip, laid-back response to performances by the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg might simply be attributed to club owners who never got around to soundproofing the basement.

SOURCE(S): Compiled by News Researcher Janice Cahill from The New York Times and St. Petersburg Times.

Front page news - newsjournalonline.com

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Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley.  Well, let me just lay him out here for you.  (literally)  (:

 

First off, here's how he arrived to me.  As you can see here, he was so scared to go through the mail that he decided to kiss his butt goodbye.

But shortly thereafter he started opening up to me.  He certainly is flexible.  I think he must do a lot of yoga.

Hello Stanley!

 

Pretty shortly after that we started putting him to work.

Here he is trying to help me with the thermostat on the Jacuzzi:

 

And here he is working on the lawnmower so we can use it at the old house:

 

And here he is ready to head over to the old house to start mowing:

 

And here he is changing the oil in Sara's Subaru:

 

And then working on the chainsaw.  He doesn't always pick the safest places to stand...

 

Of course then he saw the 4-wheeler and wanted to take that for a drive:

 

Then he decided to cuddle up with Shadow for a while:

 

Then it was back to work.  This time fixing the blades on the mower at the new house:

 

And then time to go mow the lawn at the new house!

 

After all that mowing we decided to give him a bit more of a vacation.  First off we let him hang out with the furbies.  He was a bit scared when they started to surround him, but this is only half of them so they left him a way out...

 

Then he went out on our front deck to admire the view.

 

Then it was time to take him out for a night on the town.

First off we took him out to Andy's Subs which is Mrs. Stockfield's Favorite place.

 

Then I stopped in quick to drop off a video and when I came out, he wanted to drive the Prius.  I'm not sure if Shadow was trying to stop him, or just drive herself...

 

After that we took him to Mrs. Stockfield's favorite ice cream place, or rather custard:

 

Then to finish off the evening we took him up to see the new wind turbines that are going up all around the area.

 

And then I figured I should take him out for a few last things yesterday.  So the next few are just views of the rolling hills all around in the morning:

 

Then we took a quick stop past which I am SOOO hoping I remembered correctly as Mrs. Stockfield's elementary school...

 

And then in the afternoon I took him up to see some of the cows.  That was interesting.  For some reason I thought I remembered the cows always running away and didn't think I'd get a good pic of them.  Well, must be these are used to getting fed, or just otherwise interested (I did go to one of the younger sections) since they saw me, then they saw Stanley and pretty much all came running over.  I didn't let Stanley get too close for fear they might try to lick him to death.  (:

And one last pic in front of some of the smaller calves.

Sat, Apr 26th Buffalo - Tifft Nature Preserve

Oh let's see....  Where did I leave off from Buffalo...  Ok, we're up to Sunday...

So we slept in a while (like 8 or 9 I think) at the Days Inn, then we made it down for some breakfast before that ended at 10.
Umm, oh then we had some fun with our room card...  Let's see if I can remember exactly...
Well, I had trouble the night before with my card, but Sara got in ok so we thought I just did something wrong.  Then it did it again later and I thought it was just flaky.  Well, after breakfast it got really bad and we couldn't get in.  Nicely there was a cleaning lady out there and she was surprised to see that her card didn't work either.  Then she called the front desk and then this other cleaning lady came by and she let us in our room.  The first cleaning lady just said to leave the crossbar open so the door wouldn't shut when we left.  No prob.
So we were hanging out in the room for a bit and I almost thought I heard something, but then it sounded so remote I figured it had to be the room next door or something.  Then a couple minutes later the phone rang and it was the front desk saying they had keys for us.  I told them not to worry, we were about to check out.  So...  Then a bit later we're heading out and I was ready to put the crossbar on the door to keep it open and the cleaning lady was out there as we were leaving and I forget exactly what she said to me, but I was a bit confused and I said "So do you want me to leave the door open?" And she said "No" then something like "as long as the cross bar is out".  I paused and then started to ask her to confirm which way she wanted the door left and she seemed to be in a hurry and just said something like "just go over there".  She didn't say it meanly, but she seemed to want me out of the way, so I left with the door allowed to shut.  I was about in the elevator by this time with Sara a bit behind trying to figure out what was going on as I vaguely heard the cleaning lady say "you shut the door".  Personally I didn't think much of it, I tried to do what she wanted, but she seemed to be in too much of a hurry to tell me what exactly it was she wanted and the only answer I specifically got was "no" so that's how I left it.  But Sara was trying to talk to her about how she had said no and, blah blah, I don't remember, but it ended up being just a touch bit bigger of a deal than it should have been.  (:

So, Sara had looked up this Tifft Nature Preserve and I still love GPS, cause the Prius knew just exactly where it was again.  Nice little place.  Interesting that as near as I can recall it was originally a boat/railroad shipping yard, then was closed and was used as a landfill and is now a real nature preserve.  One of the most active ones I've seen yet.  Short of being in a zoo where everything is FORCED to be in a certain place, I've never seen this much.  There was basically something moving around ever minute or two that we walked around.  Here's some pics...

This one is of some windmills near where the preserve is.  Sara wanted pics because she thinks these look ok as opposed to ones she's seen in Cohocton that are much bigger and scary looking.  She absolutely abhors those.



Here's a cute little painted turtle on the preserve.


Here's the Levi out of his native habitat.  (:


Here's a goose that Sara swore was looking for his wife because he had somehow lost her.


And a cute little snakey.


Can you see the deer?  She's right there!


Look just to the left of the feeder or house or whatever that thing is.  That's what we call Goose Butt.  There were a lot of Goose Butts that day as they dove down looking for fish.  (:


Here's the really scary goose.  She was sitting there right the edge of our path, sleeping.  This was taken right after Sara tried to gently wake her by telling her we were going past.  We only had like a couple feet to the left of her to get past.  She was hissing at us as we went past.  Quite scary!  (:


3 cute turtles out sunbathing!


Can you see the black butterfly kinda in the middle?  He's awfully hard to make out in there.  (:


Ohh, look it's a Levi with his lovely mate!  (:


And then of course Sara wanted to pet one of the geese before we left!


Ahh, here we are again.  Neat how I hadn't previously noticed my arm running through Sara's eyes.  (:




And after that?
Well...
We headed back up to the Mall and went to the Cheesecake Factory!!!  YUMM!!!  Well...  More or less...  We got there and it was quite busy.  They said 45 minute or more wait.  We decided to go for it, took the beeper and then went out and wandered the mall for like half an hour or so and as we were coming back near the Factory the buzzer went off.  That definitely is a yummy place and we definitely need to start bringing a cooler with us for leftovers!  I wanted to try some Tortilla thingy, but the waitress warned us that their dishes were quite large.  So I went for the *lunch* sized hawaiian pizza with a salad.  We also had some bread and I got some Mango Twist drink.  All VERY yummy and we were quite full by then, but of course we had to find room for the Cheesecake!  So I had their special one which was a chocolate pistachio something or other and Sara got the Godiva chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate, whatever.  (:  They were both super yummy!!!  Though I think that was about the quickest my stomache has started changing it's mind on just how much room was in there.  I finished before the cheesecake and was thinking "yeah, I'm full, but I think I can fit in cheesecake without much issue".  Felt fine when I started in on it, but those last few bites were like all of a sudden "NO MORE ROOM DOWN HERE!"  But we made it through!  YUMMM!!!


And then after that we started to make our trip back home.  We didn't get very far before passing a nursery that Sara wanted to stop and take a look at.  Lots of pretty trees and what not.  Other than that, I think it was a pretty uneventful trip the rest of the way home!

Buffalo Zoo - April 25th

After we left the Botanical Gardens... Oh let's see... We went in search of food. Wouldn't have thought this would have been that big a deal. But to ME, Buffalo seems very industrialized or some such thing. There are plenty of little shops, but it seems difficult to find anything like an Applebees or what not short of heading all the way up to the Galleria Mall. So we found the zoo, but not the food yet, we wound around in some somewhat sketchy looking places, and we ended up at Harry's which is right down on the water. Not the nicest day out, but it was still nice to be out on the water with the birds catching fish and what not. We were a bit worried that we were a bit under-dressed, but it wasn't too bad. There was like a piano player and what not. It took our waiter a while to get around to getting our order, but after that it was a pretty good lunch. I got a burger and Sara got a Reuben. Ahem... Sara ordered A Reuben. Apparently at this place A Reuben means THREE BIG sandwiches. He said they don't tell the customers beforehand so that they can see their face. Weird. So Sara had one, and we hoped the the other two would make it to the Hotel or what not. We need to remember to keep a small cooler in the car for restaurant leftovers.

After that we headed back to the zoo. Lots of interesting animals to see...


First off were these playful bears. The black one is a Kodiak and the brown one is a Grizzly. They were playing just like Shadow does. Big mouths open and mock-biting each other and pawing at each other. It's an interesting site. That switch of looking at them and thinking "oh, they're so cute" and then their faces change and you think "Woah, that would be scary to meet up with. They might just rip you in half". (:






Next up was the polar bear. He just keep swimming under this rock ledge. Not really sure what he was doing under there...


Then this spectacled bear. Don't think I've ever seen one before. He looked a bit different. Not sure if it's just his markings or not, but he didn't look all that happy to be there...


Then a couple river otters.


Some tigers. I forget exactly what these were...


Then this guy. I don't recall exactly what sort of monkey or ape he was. We didn't realize he was there at first. We were just standing at the fence looking up at the other ones, then we heard something in the bushes and thought it was just another bird. Then we looked again and noticed him under there just picking stuff out of the dirt from our side of the fence.


And a hyena. He wasn't laughing.


Then just about at the end of our visit we were walking and came across these two big birds just walking along the normal human walking path. Seems odd that they would let them loose... Well as we came up to them they just hopped up into this pen which is the peacock pen. When they jumped in this guy just started give us a lovely display. Though he seemed to like to show us his backside and wiggle his butt more than show us his front, but he did show us a few times. Quite beautiful. (:


And then our last stop was the Giraffe house. It was REALLY busy in there so all we got was one blurry photo of them. But here we are outside in front of the giraffe statue. (: I'm not normally one for wearing a hat, but I didn't want to burn. I think I'm going to have to get used to it.