Sunday, February 26, 2006
Engage 4WD
Fixed the four wheel drive again today. If only I weren't so darn lazy it would have been fixed long ago. Total cost... about $10 for a tube splice at Napa that I got today and a couple hoseclamps I got sometime earliner in the winter or last fall. Total fixing time... about 20 minutes. So yeah, there had to be a reason because no other way I'd take the time to fix it. There was an incident last night calling for my spectacular towing skills. I'm not the only one that gets stuck. Anyway, forgot how cool this equation is: my truck + 4wd + chains = stupid fun. We got probably close to 10 inches of snow over the weekend and since I'm so lazy, after pulling Johnson out of the ditch I smashed down the snow in my driveway, beats the pants off shoveling...
My truck has quite the yin and yang. With the chains (and 4wd working) it can go any place but without them it's more like insta-stuck... Not like that ever happens... like back in September... it didn't make the pages here but would have if I hadn't gone down to watch The Donnas in Anchorage (that's a whole nother story... scored a guitar pick, broken guitar string, the set list, and they yelled at me down there) and then headed up to the north slope a day or two after that.
So, Johnson and I went out grouse hunting one weekend down Rosie Creek just down the Parks Hwy from town. Didn't see any grouse so after killing a couple trees instead we started following all the logging trails we could find. With the added bonus of having my GPS with us we could see how close we were getting to the regular part of town. Anyway, had a blast, drove around a few trees that should have stopped us and through super heavy brush and generally got to thinking we were invincible. So, of course, head down the last trail. It's been raining out but that hasn't mattered much. It gets real bumpy all of a sudden and I try to power through just as the darn thing necks down to become a four wheeler trail. Yay. Totally stuck. So, for the next eight hours I try to build a courduroy trail from the twigs and branches around the truck. Jacking each tire up two or three times and stuffing as much wood under as possible only to have the darn thing settle back into the clay and mud. So, finally Hagen gets off work and comes to pick us up. First off though we give it one more try with his truck. It works!! But momentum is the enemy and I nearly get towed off the trail:
Monday after work we headed back out with Ken and his brother plus a couple come alongs, a handyman jack, some 8x8 chunks of wood, a couple ramps and some rope all from Mike... Another four or five hours of tugging, mostly with the come-alongs and we finally get out of there.
Lesson learned? Yeah, more like tune in again next summer.
My truck has quite the yin and yang. With the chains (and 4wd working) it can go any place but without them it's more like insta-stuck... Not like that ever happens... like back in September... it didn't make the pages here but would have if I hadn't gone down to watch The Donnas in Anchorage (that's a whole nother story... scored a guitar pick, broken guitar string, the set list, and they yelled at me down there) and then headed up to the north slope a day or two after that.
So, Johnson and I went out grouse hunting one weekend down Rosie Creek just down the Parks Hwy from town. Didn't see any grouse so after killing a couple trees instead we started following all the logging trails we could find. With the added bonus of having my GPS with us we could see how close we were getting to the regular part of town. Anyway, had a blast, drove around a few trees that should have stopped us and through super heavy brush and generally got to thinking we were invincible. So, of course, head down the last trail. It's been raining out but that hasn't mattered much. It gets real bumpy all of a sudden and I try to power through just as the darn thing necks down to become a four wheeler trail. Yay. Totally stuck. So, for the next eight hours I try to build a courduroy trail from the twigs and branches around the truck. Jacking each tire up two or three times and stuffing as much wood under as possible only to have the darn thing settle back into the clay and mud. So, finally Hagen gets off work and comes to pick us up. First off though we give it one more try with his truck. It works!! But momentum is the enemy and I nearly get towed off the trail:
Monday after work we headed back out with Ken and his brother plus a couple come alongs, a handyman jack, some 8x8 chunks of wood, a couple ramps and some rope all from Mike... Another four or five hours of tugging, mostly with the come-alongs and we finally get out of there.
Lesson learned? Yeah, more like tune in again next summer.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Another Onion Article nearly comes true
You may have seen it, I came across it tonight and it seemed appropriate:
The Onion
Look out Nostradamus... but, if there's a bright side, this should be a good opportunity for everyone to refresh their memory on safe gun handling. Shoot the squirrels, not your neighbors...
The Onion
Look out Nostradamus... but, if there's a bright side, this should be a good opportunity for everyone to refresh their memory on safe gun handling. Shoot the squirrels, not your neighbors...
Friday, February 03, 2006
Broken Shoes
Not sure when it happened but I noticed today that the vinyl in my shoes had cracked from walking to work in the cold. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. So, chalk it up as another winter novelty. Cracked the heck out of my arctic extension cord this morning, too. Right in the middle. A few days back I drove off with out unplugging (pretty sweet when using two extension cords) but they ended up at the end of the driveway. My personal record for driving with an extension cord happened back in December when I went out to do NADP between Christmas and New Year's. I drove about 36 miles (UAF to Chatanika pretty much) with the cord dragging along the ground beneath the truck. A couple choice pieces of electrical tape and the cord still works though.
I guess it's official
Larry's finally made the paper. It only took how many months? Pretty cool that he's official though.
