Odd couple of days…

On my way home Friday I saw the car above on the I-5 Express lanes. It had “Super Bee” graphics on the sides. What is wrong with this picture?

Then later on, in the midst of the never-ending I-5 construction in Everett, my car stalled and would not restart. Thankfully I was in the right lane and pointed downhill. I was able to coast over to the side and onto a wide section of median just north of the “Boeing Freeway” on-ramp onto I-5 as you head down the hill past Everett Mall. I immediately knew the cause, or at least had a strong suspicion – my fuel filter.

The car had stalled the night before while ascending a VERY steep hill near my office, so I figured it was clogging again. I was able to restart it the night before. I figured I’d change the filter once I got home… but of course it conked out about 25 miles from my tools. Ironically I had a spare filter in the trunk, just no tools. I called home and described the tools that I needed (a brake bleeder and either a pair of vise grips or pliers) and told them to come rescue me. Traffic was its usual Friday night disaster. I was visited by no fewer than two State Troopers and one DOT truck while I waited. I told them what was going on and that help was on the way. My family arrived about 40 minutes after I called them, with my brake bleeder…. and a Crescent Wrench!

Sigh.

Undaunted I had the filter swapped in about 20 minutes (would have been 5 if I had a pair of pliers!) The car roared back to life and I was able to make it home without further incident.

I’ve figured out what was causing my fuel problems. The bottom barrel in my final filtering setup has contaminated the fuel. So instead of being the final resting place of my home brew fuel at its cleanest… it was getting clean right up to that step where it would get dirty again. I’m fixing that as we speak… more details later.

Today we went to Everett Mall to watch Chris participate in the semi-finals of Hi-Q. Hi-Q is the geek equivalent of sports. It is a team event with a range of difficult questions in several subjects presented in a quiz show format. He’s been competing all year and has done very well with his team from Arlington High School.

Today was the first time I was able to attend a contest. Arlington dominated the competition. Here’s the final score:

The Finals will be this coming Tuesday.

Sorry for the crappy cell-cam shots. My real digicam was out of reach both in the car and at the mall.