Streams of consciousness 2
Nov. 8th, 2018 02:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyIt's been a solid year since I sold the trailer, and that's given me good time for introspection. Sure, there are things I miss about the trailer. At the same time, for every one thing I miss about it, there are about 5 or 6 things I don't miss, many of them rather significant. I think I made the right choice. Not that I'd be against moving back to a trailer if needed. If all hell breaks loose, and I have to move back into a trailer, I could do it. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I could do it.
For all the flak that mobile homes and their communities get, what makes or breaks them are the people who live there. I was lucky; I had good neighbors, and the park owner had standards on who could move in (such as a good credit history and no criminal record) and had requirements for upkeep of the property. The worst I had to deal with was when my next-door neighbor saw fit to mow their lawn at 9AM in the morning when I was trying to sleep, and the lack of soundproofing made that worse.
Recently, a potentially dangerous issue appeared on Nozomi. That is, one of the brake bleeders wasn't sealing properly and had a bit of a leak, ever so slight. Ok, I know how to deal with that. It's just a matter of swapping out the bleeder valve, as the current one looked kinda funky. Nope, still leaking. Perhaps I could crank down on it with a bigger wrench but that's asking for trouble. Speaking from experience, it does not take much to snap them off. My initial idea was to take the bleeder out and see if I could clean up the surface where the bleeder seats. So I investigated what I would need to do this, and discovered it was going to be better in every possible way to just replace the whole caliper.
The trickiest thing about using the QuickJack is lining up the support pads with the hard points on the car I'll be lifting. It takes a couple minutes to line everything up and it's worth it for the stability and amount of working space I get. To speed up the alignment process, I've come up with a marking system involving pieces of electrical tape.
In Japan, twice a year, there is Comic Market. I won't be there for that, because my power levels are not yet high enough. There is also something called M3, or Music Media Mix. Doing a search for "M3 2018" yields almost entirely ads for a certain BMW model I know I'll never be able to afford, so I have to be more clever with how I search. Anyway, M3 (the event) is to music what Comic Market is to doujinshi. While I won't be in Japan for M3, I will be there after, and I know a lot of the music offerings are going to find their way to the various stores. Although, they do sell doujin music at both events. Such as this:
The way I handle trips to foreign countries is much different than how I do road trips. With road trips, the focus is on the travel itself and the ever-changing scenery. Visit one place for a little bit, then move on, and keep moving. The next point of interest might be 20 miles away. Or it might be 200 miles. Sometimes I have an idea on what that might be, other times I won't know until I see something that catches my eye. Everything is dynamic.
When I'm flying somewhere, I tend to stay in that general area for the duration of the trip. Well, there wasn't much choice in that matter when I went to Ireland. There was a fair amount of driving by necessity for what I had to do. As for Tokyo, one could spend months or years there and they'd scratch the surface at most. Once again I will be going to Akihabara. Because that's how I roll. Mostly Akiba, anyway. I'll be honest, I was itching to go back within weeks of coming back home from last year's trip.
This does not mean I've given up on road trips, far from it. I just don't know when the next Big One will be. That will depend on the girls and how they feel. I also need to fix the air conditioning in at least one of them. But there will be more road trips. I want to visit all 50 states eventually, and going by car would be the better way for most of them. While that won't win me any prizes, it'll be more of a personal achievement thing. I can say I did it, when not many can say the same.
Since the remaining states are in clusters, and a good distance away, I would need a total of 4 weeks of time off, maybe 5. It won't happen all in one trip, and would need to be spread out over a couple years. As much as I'd like to be able to say I drove to Alaska, I figure I'd need at least 3 weeks just for that to really make that worthwhile. I'm currently getting 4 weeks per year now, but it's nice to be able to take off a day or two here and there, so taking a whole month off isn't quite feasible. At least not yet. Or, I could combine that with Hawaii.
There's so much construction and renovation where I work, that we make more drywall and masonry dust than actual product. Yeah I know, the construction is a means to an end and the product is what pays the bills. But a lot of dust is bad, especially for a semiconductor cleanroom.
My local grocery store stopped being open 24/7 and now closes at midnight. I am quite cross about it. As I get home after midnight, you can see how that's a problem. My options now are either do my grocery shopping on the weekends, or stop at W*mart on my way home from work. Grocery shopping before work isn't an option, as I tend to just bolt down the highway as soon as I leave the house. Maybe they did that because of all the renovations they were doing (expanding the store, re-arranging, starting beer sales). Or maybe they're just being stupid.
Ok, time to finish up packing and preparations. My flight is soon. As in "we storm the gates at dawn" soon.
For all the flak that mobile homes and their communities get, what makes or breaks them are the people who live there. I was lucky; I had good neighbors, and the park owner had standards on who could move in (such as a good credit history and no criminal record) and had requirements for upkeep of the property. The worst I had to deal with was when my next-door neighbor saw fit to mow their lawn at 9AM in the morning when I was trying to sleep, and the lack of soundproofing made that worse.
Recently, a potentially dangerous issue appeared on Nozomi. That is, one of the brake bleeders wasn't sealing properly and had a bit of a leak, ever so slight. Ok, I know how to deal with that. It's just a matter of swapping out the bleeder valve, as the current one looked kinda funky. Nope, still leaking. Perhaps I could crank down on it with a bigger wrench but that's asking for trouble. Speaking from experience, it does not take much to snap them off. My initial idea was to take the bleeder out and see if I could clean up the surface where the bleeder seats. So I investigated what I would need to do this, and discovered it was going to be better in every possible way to just replace the whole caliper.
The trickiest thing about using the QuickJack is lining up the support pads with the hard points on the car I'll be lifting. It takes a couple minutes to line everything up and it's worth it for the stability and amount of working space I get. To speed up the alignment process, I've come up with a marking system involving pieces of electrical tape.
In Japan, twice a year, there is Comic Market. I won't be there for that, because my power levels are not yet high enough. There is also something called M3, or Music Media Mix. Doing a search for "M3 2018" yields almost entirely ads for a certain BMW model I know I'll never be able to afford, so I have to be more clever with how I search. Anyway, M3 (the event) is to music what Comic Market is to doujinshi. While I won't be in Japan for M3, I will be there after, and I know a lot of the music offerings are going to find their way to the various stores. Although, they do sell doujin music at both events. Such as this:
The way I handle trips to foreign countries is much different than how I do road trips. With road trips, the focus is on the travel itself and the ever-changing scenery. Visit one place for a little bit, then move on, and keep moving. The next point of interest might be 20 miles away. Or it might be 200 miles. Sometimes I have an idea on what that might be, other times I won't know until I see something that catches my eye. Everything is dynamic.
When I'm flying somewhere, I tend to stay in that general area for the duration of the trip. Well, there wasn't much choice in that matter when I went to Ireland. There was a fair amount of driving by necessity for what I had to do. As for Tokyo, one could spend months or years there and they'd scratch the surface at most. Once again I will be going to Akihabara. Because that's how I roll. Mostly Akiba, anyway. I'll be honest, I was itching to go back within weeks of coming back home from last year's trip.
This does not mean I've given up on road trips, far from it. I just don't know when the next Big One will be. That will depend on the girls and how they feel. I also need to fix the air conditioning in at least one of them. But there will be more road trips. I want to visit all 50 states eventually, and going by car would be the better way for most of them. While that won't win me any prizes, it'll be more of a personal achievement thing. I can say I did it, when not many can say the same.
Since the remaining states are in clusters, and a good distance away, I would need a total of 4 weeks of time off, maybe 5. It won't happen all in one trip, and would need to be spread out over a couple years. As much as I'd like to be able to say I drove to Alaska, I figure I'd need at least 3 weeks just for that to really make that worthwhile. I'm currently getting 4 weeks per year now, but it's nice to be able to take off a day or two here and there, so taking a whole month off isn't quite feasible. At least not yet. Or, I could combine that with Hawaii.
There's so much construction and renovation where I work, that we make more drywall and masonry dust than actual product. Yeah I know, the construction is a means to an end and the product is what pays the bills. But a lot of dust is bad, especially for a semiconductor cleanroom.
My local grocery store stopped being open 24/7 and now closes at midnight. I am quite cross about it. As I get home after midnight, you can see how that's a problem. My options now are either do my grocery shopping on the weekends, or stop at W*mart on my way home from work. Grocery shopping before work isn't an option, as I tend to just bolt down the highway as soon as I leave the house. Maybe they did that because of all the renovations they were doing (expanding the store, re-arranging, starting beer sales). Or maybe they're just being stupid.
Ok, time to finish up packing and preparations. My flight is soon. As in "we storm the gates at dawn" soon.
