Adding it all up.

A short while ago Adam, in Utah, decided to start tracking his Calories via The Daily Plate (.com). He's being a brave one by posting his weight, so we can all watch and heckle him as he tries to lose some. He is a brave man.

Now - I'm not trying to lose weight (do I admit, I may in fact be trying to gain some... at least I wouldn't mind a bit more muscle and I hear weight comes along with that)- and I'm really not going to tell any of you how much I weigh... cause, I don't know. However - I've long wondered exactly what my daily caloric intake is - I think I eat plenty of food, as I'm never hungry - others maintain I eat something similar to the diet of a hamster. I've attempted to keep track of everything I eat before... but when you always have to track down the boxes, write out the calories, estimate or track down numbers when you go out to eat - to create a hard copy list - it just doesn't get done for very long. So - when Adam pointed out this great, fun little internet accessory I realized it was time to get serious.

Now - let me be clean - I'm not dieting. No one out there needs to freak out that I'm paying an un-healthy amount of attention to my weight (that's directed at you, mother). We don't even own a scale (and have no intention of getting one).

However - I'm a really unhealthy eater. D is constantly furious at me for my diet. I have a horrendous sweet tooth, am pretty sure Fried is the food group at the base of my pyramid, and consider Ice Cream my primary strategy for calcium intake. So I'm hoping increased awareness will lead to better choices.


There's also the small matter than even though I eat horribly - that doesn't mean my body likes it, or really, can handle it. On my mother's side of the family is a genetic history of difficulty with fat digestion... something to do with the pancreas (is that right - mother???) I've never totally understood the whole story, except I can get really horrible stomach aches (intestinal aches... who really knows which part is unhappy) when I eat too much of the wrong foods too quickly, and can only presume that's why I've grown into this minimalist diet. (This is the primary reason why I've tried to track my eating before - to document associations between what I eat and how I feel - but as I've said it's only worked for so long before I stop keeping as strict of track and everything falls apart, though these attempts have subtly shaped my eating).


All this increased awareness will hopefully, eventually lead to a strong and realistic nutritional strategy for TransIowa - but I'll get into that later, as the heating repairman has arrived (yes - after the car was out of operation for almost two weeks and our internet connection went on vacation the last two days - this morning our heater wasn't working... can't tell you how interested I am to wake up and find out what little thing is going wrong tomorrow.... especially cause D's getting a colonoscopy!!!)

Yea!!!

p.s. That's why I was posting photos of food last night... just to be mean - as he can't eat anything solid today!!! (Joking - it was an accident - I wouldn't have done it if I'd remembered)

What am I???

Yummy - that's what.

Picasa my friend.

Sifting through some of the unchecked photos on the computer - I thought I would offer these two amusing pieces.
D - rock hopping in Tenaya Canyan (just for fun - that wasn't a required move).

And this little gem was our lunch in Seligman, AZ - on a Elk-Hunting-Area scouting trip. The main point of interest being that little fried smiley face... what is it??? It appeared to be some form of potato product - and it was most definately Delicious... I wanted to go back and ask for a whole basket of just smiley faces, cause you only got one in each basket of french fries...

Yummy.

Riding.

To answer Whiskey's question about whether or not I rode this weekend...
this was a view off our deck last week, right after it snowed slightly.

This is the view off our deck right now. Note the solid white curtain of clouds that descends just beyond the last row of houses. I'm just not in the mood for riding in the rain today. I'll go to the gym later, if D gets back from The South in time.

I know it makes me a bad little "Enduro" - to bail on a long ride cause it's raining. But ya know what??? I'm going to make cookies now.

Can I hear it for the Fuel Injector!!!

They are going to order and then replace the #2 fuel injector - and only charge us their cost (meaning about 20% less than we would have otherwise paid - because they didn't managed to figure this out before).

I'm still irritated. They can't order it till Monday, it will arrive and they can fix it on Tuesday. I called all the parts stores in town to see if anyone else had one in stock - no dice.


D didn't think working on his patience was a quality use of his time this weekend - he has rented a car and driven down to Hell (ahem... the Phoenix metropolitan area) to carry-on with the planned bicycle riding and running this weekend. Let's all wish him a good time.

Umm... can I take back my praise???

I'm posting from the computers at the dealership again.

D said everything's been running fine when he drove it home yesterday afternoon - and then up to work and back today.

I got in it to run a quick errand before D went south for the weekend - and what do you know - it started up even worse than it did before.
So - we drove her back to the dealership. The really nice service guy continues to be friendly and upbeat - but I'll wait to find out what they say before I sing his praises again.

p.s. To be clear - it is functioning worse than it was before (but in the exact same ways) - and pulling up the exact same Cylinder #2 Misfire. Yippy.

The Morning Routine.

Besides reading through various comics, blogs, and news headlines - I also like to check out The Morning Report most days. The Morning Report is put out by the National Park Service each business day, and includes incident/accident/rescue summaries, wildfire tracking, weekly summaries on legislative actions that effect the NPS, and various other general information about very specific and very general changes to our National Parks. Granted - it can be a bit dull sometimes... but then other times - you get this -

Everglades National Park (FL)
Rangers Remove Python From Visitor’s Car

On Tuesday, January 15th, visitor Ron DeLong stopped his car on the main park road in order to watch a crawling, six-foot-long, exotic Burmese python. As DeLong stepped out of his Ford Explorer, the python began crawling underneath the vehicle and into its engine compartment. DeLong attempted to grab the python with the curved end of his walking cane, but was unable to stop it. After several failed attempts to remove the snake, DeLong decided to drive 15 miles to the main entrance station for assistance. When ranger Willie Lopez, wildlife biologist Skip Snow, biologist’s assistant Alex Wolf and firefighter Henry Delvalle checked the Explorer, they found its hood open, with only the tail end of the python visible – the rest of the snake was coiled around various parts of the engine and undercarriage. Several attempts were made to pull it out through the top of the engine, but failed because the snake tightened its hold on the car. The four responders then discussed their options. Snow reported that there had been several published articles about the successful use of tasers to loosen the tight grip of constricting snakes, so that was tried. Unfortunately, it resulted in the python contracting and excreting bodily fluids all over the responders. They then decided to disassemble parts of the Explorer’s undercarriage in order to get to the python’s head, which was then covered with duct tape. The snake’s head and body were uncoiled and maneuvered through the engine compartment, then pulled out the top of the engine. Since Burmese pythons are exotic, prolific and aggressive, the snake was euthanized and taken to a lab to be studied. DeLong’s car was then put back together. [Submitted by Willie Lopez, Pine Island District Ranger]


Classic!!!

Quote of the Day.

Trying to get a little TransIowa fix I was reading Guitar Ted's blog... he discussed a certain Irony inherent in an uber-expensive cycling gear company trying to make their customers feel Hard Core (tm) by setting up a website dedicated to underground style - endurance cycling events.

Hey - I own a company - I know what marketing is all about... however - reading through that site I started wishing it was actually a comedy set up - cause really, who can keep from laughing when they read something like this -

"He stopped only at night to sleep wrapped in plastic, in the bottom of ditches, on the side of the road. He wore the same bib shorts and sleeveless jersey three very long days straight... Like Randonneuring or Touring only faster and sexier..."


Can someone please explain to me what's Sexy about three day old bib shorts???

This is a joke, right???


Heck - I start thinking about getting separate apartments after D's been in bib shorts for six hours.


p.s. They don't appear to do women's clothing... what am I to make of that???

WooHoo!!!

Word from the dealer is - no leaking head gaskets!!!

See - Josey still loves us!!!


Problem is entirely coolant leaking from under the intake manifold into the #2 cylinder and causing the plug and wire to malfunction. This is great news - though it's still a very big project to pull off the intake manifold - which is why we'll be paying the dealership a ton in labor to get it done. We should have her back on Thursday at the latest.

Secondly - I heard all sorts of bad things about Nissan dealerships from various Nissan and XTerra internet forums while I was doing research - but our dealership service department is just totally wonderful - especially Joshua, the service manager, and the guy I call when dealing with all this. He's been totally helpful and always friendly and doesn't even mind all my questions (and I've made him explain each and every little thing about what's going on). Plus he makes frequent phone calls to keep us informed - and I do love updates!!!

Now granted - there were a few moments the other day when we were talking to him in person, when he kept turning to D and not me... and nothing bothers me more than when I ask someone a question and they deliver the answer to my husband - as if I'm just a woman and what do I know... but he wasn't nearly as egregious as some - so I'm willing to forgive him.

But anyway... woohoo!!!

A new Vehicle???

All the cargo space you need and look at that beautiful wood... only weighs 275 pounds!!! (From The Dutch Bicycling Company - who imports them from Europe to the US)

Bit more, well, everything... those white and black bags on the back slide on and off for easy shopping. (Just the tip of the iceberg from Basil)

Maybe the real solution??? VW's Jetta SportWagen available with their newest diesel technology... now if only they offered a diesel Tiguan in the US... something to hope for...


in the meantime - we still haven't heard from the dealer... either way it goes, she's going to get fixed - we're not ready to give up on Josey yet... we'll have plenty more roadtrips together.

675 miles.

In the end - we took their shuttle home (they even put down the seats in the back to take our bikes home with us to) as their pressure sensor broke and we're waiting till tomorrow morning for them to run all the pressure tests and tell us whether it's a $2,200 repair, or a much more exciting $1,600 repair!!!

In the meantime - D's been playing with my calculator... which is never a good thing.

We drive about 38,000 miles a year. Considering how long we owned Josey and what we paid for her - if we retired her right now, she'd have cost us $100 a week to drive (not counting regular maintenance... which, considering she was our house for like eight months - isn't too bad, but still seems like a lot).

When you break it down and average it out - that's 675 miles we drive each and every week!!!
Which means we've paid 15 cents per mile... just for the car - not counting the gas, new tires, filters, fluids....

Anyway - on the more positive spectrum - if we do this fix and manage to drive her another six months, the fix would have paid for itself by our current rate. Seems reasonable.


D was also looking at various other cars (and whether - if we bought another car right now, we'd get a big fat SUV or a happy fuel efficient car). The biggest issue here being that currently, we can sleep in the back of our Josey - in fact, we can drive her down the worst, cruddy roads in the middle of a thunderstorm (though in the desert that wouldn't be smart), stop where ever we want, climb in the back and go to sleep without even getting out of the car and getting wet...

which is nice.

However - at our current rate of driving, if we bought a Prius, we could pay for 90 nights in a hotel room in Moab during the off-season, or, like 45 nights in a hotel room anywhere, with the money we'd save on gas...

hmm... the again - they don't often have hotel rooms where we spend the night...

too much to think about (Prius batteries still haven't been perfected, etc) plus, ideally we'd want something in between, something with decent gas mileage, decent ground clearance, decent cargo space, etc... but that doesn't exist - and why???

Because of what car companies are offering in the United States.

What happened to Subaru??? What happened to Volkswagen???

D used to have a Forrester that we both adored - but the Forrester he got nine years ago got better actual mileage than what they report on their site for their '08s. Oh - and the Jetta we used to have - got like 8 mpg better than what VW is reporting for their '08s.

You know what car I really want???

A Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion. 52mpg. Diesel. Know what I'd have to do to get one???

Move to Germany!!!

The Dealership.

Well the Nissan dealership in town is part of a huge car dealership conglomerate - which in this instance is a really great thing.

I'm currently posting this on one of their provided computers (they also have wireless), staring through two huge windows into the incredibly clean and efficient looking service area. I can see our car right now :)

They'll also drive you places in their little shuttle - a service we have yet to make use of - but may just come in handy.


Now the bad news - we originally dropped off Josey and went across the street to get breakfast, came back right as they were calling us to say we're leaking coolant out of the intake manifold, and we possibly have problems with the head gaskets. Now we're chilling in their waiting area (which besides computers - also has donuts... and at $100 just to look under the hood, I appreciate a donut or two) while they do pressure tests to determine whether fixing the intake manifold at $600 will be enough, or if part or all of the head gaskets need help at another one to two thousand dollars.

And D's looking through all the shinny procures and keeps telling me what he'd want if we bought a new vehicle today.

Good times.

The beginning of the end.

So - nothing has worked. There are no other possibilities within my ability and tool capacity to evaluate.

Tomorrow I take her to The Dealership. I'm hesitant, skeptical and relieved.

Quote of the Day.

In reference to Diagnostic Code P0325 "Knock Sensor" - the one Josey is displaying - from a forum discussion -

"Furthermore it is the "run home to mamma" code. When the computer does not really know what is going on it throws that code. "


While the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve makes sense for some of the symptoms - there are specific codes indicating a problem with it - and none of those codes popped up...



more research.

No option but success.

Well - I was so certain it was the spark plugs - so I wasted Friday playing with them when I could have taken it somewhere. When we learned that wasn't it, I tried calling the dealership in the afternoon, but they were all going home early for the three day weekend!!!

So now it's Me, Josey and the Parts Store.

I said I could get it fixed... D placed his confidence in me (well, actually, Thursday night he said "I'm too tired to think about this, do whatever you want") but I feel this nagging compulsion to get it right after so many failed attempts (or, well - two and counting).

It started up fine after we replaced the distributor parts... and D went off for a bike ride. I told him I wouldn't let myself get excited about the fix until after he got back from his ride and started the car to drive it home. And there you have it - it was misfiring (though apparently less... ) when he started it up just a little while ago (he called to tell me). It appears to act up more when it is colder... we're adding that into the factoring...

I'm researching the EGR now that Enel has re-nudged me in that direction. The parts store is open till 9pm...

New Friend.

I made a new friend today. He wears a torn, fake leather jacket, and doesn't usually work at AutoZone on Saturdays, but just happened to be there at 8am this morning.

The enigma of "Service Engine Soon" got transcribed via a hand held computer into "Knock Sensor" and "Misfire". This was obviously illustrative. After additional online research last night (I don't know how people fixed automotives before there was the "XTerra Owner's Club" Forums and the like), and a brief discussion with my new friend - we decided to buy new spark plug wires, distributor rotor and distributor cap.

We got home and attacked the Distributor first. Rotor looked alright, but it's cheap, so it got replaced without much thought. The Cap (shown) is just a plastic dome with six little metal pegs that go from the inside to the outside. On the outside, each peg connects to a spark plug wire, on the inside there's the rotor, with a metal connector on one end, it spins around and creates circuits with each little peg in turn, making the spark plugs fire. So the little pegs in our old one were all white and covered with corrosion!!! Not a happy Distributor Cap!!! So it got replaced, and we're hoping that was the problem... if it's all corroded and the connection fails to get made between the rotor and the peg, then that spark plug doesn't get the juice it needs to fire, hence - Misfire!!!

The Knock Sensor we're hoping was just picking up the accompanying shake in the engine from all the cylinders not firing in proper sequence. We'll see. My Josikins started fine after the exchange, but we're waiting till she cools down again to really be sure everything's back to Happiness. If not - then we'll install those new wires we got, and continue... if the wires don't help - we're probably looking at $700 worth of fuel injectors and goodness knows how much $ in labor.

But seeing as she's at 175,000 miles and has never so much as hiccuped - she's allowed to demand a little attention now and again (I just think D wishes she wouldn't have asked for it at the start of a three day weekend)!!!

Happiness.

Look at the Spark Plug sticking out of the end of the socket - thank goodness for whomever first made sockets with little rubber grips to hold Spark Plugs in place!!!

Then just when I was getting discouraged - one of our neighborhood RoadRunners came to say Hello... Beeb, Beeb!!!

I had to swear to D - there really was a Spark Plug down that deep dark hole... but he eventually got it out...

Define "Soon".

Yesterday, driving - a light came on...

we're talkin' bout Josey the Xterra here. It said -Service Engine Soon. How soon???

D read to me what the Owner's Manual had to say about the light. Let me just say - I'm not a big fan of Owner's Manuals - I believe they contribute to people not knowing as much as they easily could about their own vehicles. Anyway - it said something or other about "mis-firing" as well as "exhaust control system"...

now what on earth is a person suppose to do with that???

Well - I asked D - When was the last time we changed our Spark Plugs??? We've owned Josey for a little while over two years, and about 80,000 miles. Now, our Plugs are suppose to last 100,000 miles but Josey was also previously owned... things weren't looking good when D confirmed we'd never done it. So I convinced myself - after some additional research online - that it must be the Spark Plugs.

I rode my bike over to the parts store this morning - bought some various socket extending devices - as spark plugs are just not easy to get to. I got four of the six changed before D got home - barely managed to replace the most difficult to reach one, but required D's "Man Intelligence" a.k.a. Brute Strength, to get the last one out.

And Josey still wasn't happy upon restarting. She's clearly mis-firing, she's rough and chugging when started, belches white smoke out the tail pipe, that irrelevant light comes on...

it makes me so angry - the idea that my car knows exactly what's wrong, but the only way for it to share that information with me is through an expensive mechanic. I'm taking her over to AutoZone in the morning - where it's rumored they have the requisite computers to tell me the precious code I need to figure this out. I was so sure I had the answer with the Spark Plugs it's sort of a vendetta now. I'm thinking it's the injectors, maybe... which are suppose to be even worse than the Spark Plugs... which I really can't imagine... let's take a look at the Spark Plug install - shall we???

This is what it took to get in there...

See those dust covered wires coming in from the bottom right??? Now follow them...

See them round the corner???

Where is that going??? Can I go there too???

The answer is NO... no you can not - not without the tool in the first picture...

Quote of the Day.

D and I talking about Training.


D - It's not about any type of rest, you need to rest deliberately, not just follow your whims.
M - Are you calling me Whimsical and Capricious???

D - No, I'm calling you Lazy.



Now I'm going into town proper to see what I can do about my dérailleur that's missing a pulley :)

Re-engage.

The main reason for me to go to Bike Camp Lynda this last weekend, was to re-engage in my training plan. After the slackness required post wisdom extraction, then the holiday traveling, I got a bit de-railed from my training schedule. So I'm kicking myself back into gear for the last three months before TransIowa V.4. D seems to be doing a similar thing, and since he's posting his realigned goals and training plan - I thought I'd do similar.

Now I don't have the whole three month schedule worked out yet - but I figured I could atleast discuss the shorter term goals I have already set.

Goal 1 - Don't finish off the first half of the pan of brownies until after I come back from the gym today.

I think that's a pretty good start. Go me!!!

(Especially cause I won't be going to the gym till like 8pm tonight... that's gonna be a real push for me - but ya gotta set difficult goals to get where I want to go!!!)