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Showing posts from July, 2013

The Nissan Leaf Gets a New Rear Axle

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Well, I finally have a salvage title for the 2013 Nissan LEAF (Actually I dont have the title yet, but I think they mail it to me. We are far from settled with the insurance company for sure. It has been six months since Angie was rear ended. The following chart shows a very sad and disturbing trend. Insurance companies aren't paying out. It should be criminal. I went shopping for a new rear axle so I can get the car driving again. The rear ended axle was so bent, the car couldn't move. The new one with no connecting bits was over a thousand dollars. The cheapest used ones I could find on ebay were over 500 dollars. I finally scored at a local used parts place for 95 dollars (removed) and with associated bits such as bearings, bushings, parts of the brakes. It took me a concentrated day with cancelled and moved meetings to get the axle replaced and the car running again. The accomplishment felt good. I am now configuring the car with tractor tires and other modifications t...
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Does the world really need this tension?
I was out in Peoria Illinois Thursday last week. Friday night I flew to Ithaca NY. Saturday we loaded up my truck and drove back to Atlanta with my truck. That is a long drive. I spent Saturday night near Carlisle PA. It is a great place since there are a huge number of hotels to support the huge auction need. Great.. provided there isn't an auction going on. The traffic was bad at times and the rain all made it what it was. I am now back in Duluth feeding my imaginary cat. Here kitty kitty kitty!
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It is mid-week. Busy as usual. I bought a bird cam for my bird feeder. The reviews said that it was good for retires. Maybe that is why I bought it. The technology seems sound. The manual is terrible. I have to decide if I go with it or replace it with a halfway decent remote control camera instead. I don't have a single decent picture to post with it yet. Maybe that answers my question. I am back in Illinois this week and NY this weekend. The weather in Atlanta has been very wet. I got a photo today from a colleague with snow in Southern Brasil (shown below). Sim, meu Portugues aulas continue. For a minute a while back I thought everything might have been perfect. I remembered George Carlin's bit that says something like "Wait.. here it comes. Heree it comes... * ... Holy shit its gone!" (ed) It is that "time" thing again. I took a test on CSM about Russia. It was pretty tough. I was a bit ashamed with my score. The good news for today is that I am...
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Today is cleanup day. I had a neighborhood party at the house again last night. There were more people than last time and some new faces. I really like my house and neighborhood in Atlanta. There are definitely some characters in my neighborhood. We had a beer tasting of several beers from Brazil, Russia and Belgium. Earlier this week I was in Wichita, Kansas. The flight back was a classic with delays, some short, some long. They all add up. Even though it is only a 2 hour flight from Wichita to Atlanta it is mentally tiring. It is depressing when you can see your car out the plane window on final approach and it takes an hour to get to it. ATL is usually a very fast airport, sometimes not.
Time for a refresh on this great song. Encyclopedia Galactica entry
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I am back from Moscow after a great trip with many many photos to sort through. The pic with me with the US flag is at the US Ambassadors reception at his residence in Moscow (Spaso House). That is where I had my July 4th backyard BBQ this year. I brought Potato Salad. Very cool. Other pics show Putin's ceremonial residence at the Kremlin Lenin's tomb in Red Square Soviet space shuttle "Buran" in Gorky park. World's largest cannon "Tsar Cannon" Russian river boat Soviet exhibition center fountain www.vvcentre.ru/eng/