Whispering Wind Wednesday

Today's GPS/APRS/Ham Radio Tracking

Yesterday was blown with me working on my old Ford Exploder.  The thermostat had stuck in the open position a couple weeks ago, resulting in the temperature guage not coming off zero no matter how long the vehicle was driven.  This upsets the monster's computer, too, resulting in lower gas mileage, etc, as the temperature is one of the parameters that help the computer regulate fuel flow and whatever.

I had purchased a new thermostat and gasket many days ago and had kept putting off taking the time to install it, even though it's not a terribly time-consuming job.  I also purchased a serpentine belt for it to replace while I was under the hood.  Jacque and I used it yesterday morning to deliver a family-heirloom dresser drawer cabinet and matching night-stand that my Dad built when I was a baby, which was in the late 1940's, since I was born in 1947.  Anyway, the vehicle was unduly warm from sitting in the bright sunlight and the air conditioner did NOT work, meaning it had been unused too long over the winter months.  So now I had another irritating thing to work on:  Recharging the A/C with R134 refrigerant.  Yesterday afternoon I decided to actually dig into it, after we returned home all hot and bothered with nothing but outside air to  cool us, which wasn't that helpful.  First I dug out my A/C recharging gear and that worked out OK, resulting in cold air coming out the vents after about 20 minutes.  Since I had the hood up I figgered I should go ahead and do the rest of the immediately needed repairs.  I got the thermostat installed without too much groaning and moaning on my part, but when I started on the serpentine belt, things got a bit more aggravating. 

When I popped off the old belt I checked all the related idler pullies that should - without a belt attached - spin freely and without noise.  Of course, the lowest (and hardest to remove) idler pulley had a bit of a rattle and grind to it when I spun it, so we made a high speed Albuquerque run to purchase a new one.  When we returned, I still had over a half hour of daylight left so I installed the new idler and began a fruitless effort to install the new belt.  After a few false starts I finally got the belt routed properly, following the diagram label on top of the radiator....

I grunted, busted knuckles, griped, stressed, and strained until it got dark, and still could not rotate the spring loaded idler far enough out of the way to get the belt on the last pulley.  Exhausted, low on blood sugar, and grumpy, I gave up for the night and left tools and everything as they were, scattered around the vehicle.  It looked fairly dry in the sky so I hoped it would not rain on anything.

This morning I finally got started again on it and still made no progress until I finally enlisted Jacque's help to come pull the belt into place from the top of the engine compartment while I laid underneath and pulled on the long arm wrench to release the spring-loaded idler tension, with everything I had.  It was still a struggle but Jacque finally succeeded in popping the dern belt into proper position and everything seemed to work fine after that.

Thus most of today, as well, had been shot working on the petrol-burner.  It doesn't get driven very much at all, but when you rely solely on used cars without payments, as we do, we need a spare vehicle "just in case".  

It was almost 5 PM and I was thinking there wasn't sufficient daylight left for a bike ride when we suddenly realized no one had yet gone anywhere at all, meaning the MAIL had not yet been retrieved.  A perfect excuse to do a short but strenous ride.... so off I go.

 Today's Thrilling Video (Snort)

Helmet-Cam showing clips from our Goat-Path to Pavement, Etc.

Since Jacque was home I left both doggies with her and rode alone, thought the girls were mightily disappointed when I rode off without them, according to Mama Jacque.

The wind was howling today, as the weather guessers had predicted, but not as badly as I have experienced with many rides in the past.  It was in my face all the way west to the Post Office and I assumed it would be a good strong tail wind on the way back.  As other cyclists well know, often the wind doesn't feel the same when approaching from another direction, and the wind was mostly sideways and partially in my face on the way home too.  Still, as usual, a great day for a last minute ride.

Ride Started: 4:51 PM    Ride Ended:  5:51 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:   13.8   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest:  13.0
Lowest Temp  57 F      Highest Temp:  67 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.49
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.5 MPH                                7.2 MPH                  27.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
  59 minutes                            45 minutes                 14  minutes