How can it be December already? Apparently my last post was about the return trip from Sandusky.
A lot has happened since then, but nothing all too interesting.
Over the Labor Day weekend Plonker and I decided to take another trip to Cedar Point, sans bikes this time. We made it to Toft’s this time around and had small cones.. THEN large cones. That’s like 15 scoops if you keep track of that type of stuff. Check out the pics at out instagram!
In the end we decided to get Platinum Passes to the Cedar Fair parks. I have anyway. Plonker keeps putting it off. With the Platinum Passes we had a free entry day to Halloweekends. Plonker also won 2 free tickets to Halloweekends. We didn’t make it at all due to Plonker having a surprise trip the planned weekend and I being busy the previous weekend. #fail
We haven’t biked since returning from Sandusky. We tried once, but Plonkers knee was still fucked and I wasn’t “feeling” it. So we made it like 4 total miles. As the fall went on and the dreary Pennsylvania winter is here I’m now looking forward to the next bike trip: blue skies, warmth, losing some weight, warmth, away from work and this area, sunny skies, warmth…. you get the idea. The problem: we have no idea where to road trip to. On one side we feel that it would be a good idea to no over tax ourselves and make it like a one day trip. On the other hand, I like to push limits. We did 135 miles, twice, in a week. We just gotta surpass that! Gotta!
The other problem is, where Fujupz HQ is located, there’s not a whole lot to do. Cedar Point was like the “sweet spot”: far enough away, but not too far away. We met that challenge and conquered it. Granted, with a lot of whining and bitching, but that status quo for Plonker.
On the return trip from Cedar Point over the Labor Day Weekend, we tossed around the idea of King’s Island. It’s definitely farther than Cedar Point’s 135 miles… about 300 from where we sit. Well, from where Plonker sits. About 306 from where I sit. That would take major planning and at LEAST 3 days of travel time just to get there. Four days for a known one day travel distance. Of course, our major planning would culminate the day of the trip, most likely around noon, and as we reach the first Dairy Queen. So Plonker, start planning. Also we need clipless pedals, maybe Plonker’s knee won’t get tweaked by his horrible foot positioning.
I finally got the first time lapse of the bike trip done, check it out on our channel! I started with the return trip because I took a laptop with me to update the blog and to transfer the trip pics to free up SD card space. However, that meant that when I returned home, the SD card with the return trip was easier to transfer to the Desktop (which is a much better system than the POS laptop). I wasn’t super impressed with the resolution of the movie though. I’m not sure if it’s the software or the lack of an actual graphics card in my desktop, or possibly because I made smaller clips then combined the clips in the final movie. Though, even when I do clips in GoPro Studio they are very clear. However, the clips it produces is incompatible with my movie editing software, and even GoPro Studio was giving me issues. And I can’t get better movie editing software due to my lack of a graphics card (so far…). For the “To” trip time lapse I think I’m going to not make smaller clips first. Either way don’t view it on a Roku.. holy shit I watched it on mine and the resolution was dog shit. Other videos are clear. It’s a conspiracy against Fujupz! Plonker for President 2020!
In non-Fujupz related business, I’ve been rebuilding my engine in my 1993 GMC C1500 Pickup. Is it worth it? Nope. But I like to do that type of shit. It’s not even a v8. It’s not my first foray into engine building. I mean, it’s the Fujupz way of engine building, but it’s always worked for me. Actually I didn’t even plan on rebuilding the engine.. my summer plan was to rebuild the transmission.
The progression went something like:
I had replacement bumpers, but they were in my way, so I decided to replace the rear one first. I noticed my leaf springs were broken. Ordered new ones, got bumper on.
In the mean time, put on front bumper, but need to take out grille and headlights to get to bolts. Down that far, I have a new radiator core support and radiator… and fenders. Take those out, the engine is right there.
Take out engine and transmission. Might as well rebuild engine. Had cracked piston skirts. Learn how to replace pistons on the connecting rods.. the Fujupz way. Oil pan gasket wouldn’t fit buy a second. Destroy first set of cam bearings. Buy second set of piston rings because I had to replace the pistons. Destroy valve stem seal because I wouldn’t stop fucking with it. Set cylinder head and stand on fire. No particular order. Had I realized it would be such a fucking mess I would have recorded it. With all the stopping it’s taken me months to do it.
Start on Transmission. Break wiring harness. Find broken spring, check ball floating around, and issues getting the pump out.
So all in all, par for the course. I did get my leaf springs in though.
I’ve also moved on up to Head of Maintenance at work, equipment maintenance, not custodial duties. However, it was know that I would move from my current position in Wide Format Printing for months before it happened. So about a month before the move the give the job to a guy form another department. So they need to hire someone to replace him. His replacement quit after 12 days. So they hire another one and he gets roughly 8 days of training. My replacement then comes over about 5 days before the then current head of maintenance retires. Horrible timing, we had large rush jobs to get out that took days to finish. So he basically got to learn on aspect of the job really well for 3 days straight, had a day for everything else, then a half day because we were both high on OT. I helped him out for about a week after that for a large percentage of my time, then as needed after that. In the end, he quit after 3 weeks, then worked 2 more. So now I’m back to doing double duty until they can find a qualified candidate.
I’m all ready for another vacation. Plonker, grab your bike
