What I did this Saturday

Channeled my anger at the husky loss to build bunks for the boat to ride in the truck bed.

Total Cost $15, plus I have 45 deck screws and 6' of 2"x4" left over.

Then on Sunday took the boat out and went for a 3 mile row.

Woop Woop

Alright, t-minus 20 minutes to kickoff of UW - BYU. Let's all hope together for an improved game 2 out of the huskies. Hopefully Tim Lappano will open up the playbook to include runs to the outside and screen passes and the O-line will restrain the 25 year olds on the D-line. I would like for Jake Locker to look back and not regret his decision to be a Husky. Go Dawgs!!! In other news, I am $395 away from the commencement of project build a boat. Also, taking the head off the Toyota on Sunday so I can take it in for a valve job. That one won't be too cheap. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures so I can post some up here. I need to take some anyway so I can get that thing back together when the head comes back. Alright, game time, happy Saturday.

Potential Boats

FL 12 ($480 to build, not including tools and trailer)

Sissy Do

Nutshell Pram

Drift Pram

Fast Skiff 14

One Sheet Skiff

August/September Update

whew! done with 3 months of travelling all over the place. 9 states (not counting my good ol' home state that is) and 1700 miles of driving had left yours truly pretty exhausted. Thankfully all of our travels are over the time being, as much as I enjoy seeing new places, it sure is nice to be home and enjoy the weekends. 

 

This is especially true with the start of college football season (go dawgs!), however, with the excitement of every impending saturday, comes the knowledge that sunday will be very sad thanks to brilliant scheduling from the UW athletic department.

 

In other news, I'm contemplating the construction of a wooden boat. I have been collecting designs from all over the internet (free and pay) and will soon start posting a directory of them for my own personal use.

 

In truck news, did a valve adjustment over the weekend, went okay as far as the adjustment itself, but I think I have a vacuum leak somewhere now, I'm going to hit schucks today to get a bunch of hose and just start replacing anything that looks old or cracked.

 

Peace out for now

 

Canyonero

5F10 Canyonero

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..

Canyonero! Canyonero!

Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!

Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey Hey

The Federal Highway comission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.

Canyonero!

12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!

Canyonero! Canyonero!

Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!

Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)

She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She's a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!

Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)

Drive Canyonero!

Woah Canyonero!

Woah!

 

This lovely revisitation of the Canyonero episode of the Simpsons is owed to the first emergence of $4.00 a gallon gas in the puget sound area. Coinciding nicely, Honda is in the news with its newly announced aim of affordable hybrids with only a $2,000 premium over a non-hybrid model of the same car.

 

Meanwhile, back in the United States of Slow Adaptation, Ford cuts its forecasts of potential profit in 2009 mostly because they can't seem to make a decent vehicle that isn't a truck. Plus, their core consumer market of contractors and construction workers who feel a desire for small penis compenstion via huge tires are feeling a bit of a pinch in the back pocket with rising fuel costs and a falling construction market.

Simultaneously, consumers who are trying to trade in their Canyoneros of all shapes and sizes are being offered pennies on the dollar for their costly to operate rides.

 

This brings is to the question/statement/Jerry Springer moment of the day - what shall we do with all of these SUVs? I believe that all of the excess trucks that were merely status symbols will be readily absorbed by small business owners, farmers, etc who actually have uses that justify the high operating costs, but what about the Tahoes, Lexus SUV's and others that have no practical purpose a minivan can't emulate? What to do with all this sheetmetal?

 

I am now a proud Hunter's Ed graduate

Cue up the pomp and circumstance, after a grueling 10 hour (more like 8 hour really) course, I can now purchase a hunting license and shoot woodland creatures. Of course, everyone in my class, including kids aged 8 to 12) passed, so you can surmise that this is not the most intellectually intense challenge out there.

 

Highlights included a video entitled "Shoot, Don't Shoot" which details a variety of scenarios, all including a mustachioed woodsman about to shoot an animal. Right before the moment of truth, the video pauses and the class must chant out "Shoot" or "Don't Shoot" As you can imagine, only about 1/3rd of the scenarios were actually "Shoot" moments, but the audience voted to shoot about half the time. This includes some particularly obnoxious 12 year olds who I would have liked to take outside and beat (though not because they voted to "Shoot" every time, there were numerous other reasons for a solid beatdown).

 

Pat and I simulated getting in and out of a boat and crossing a fence together, it was a very precious moment that I wish all could have witnessed.

Pudding apparently killed this melamine bowl, not sure why, just took it out of the fridge and it was shattered around the bottom.