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 HiQ. HiQ 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.
You can read detail about this timelaspe from the source blog here.
Very nostalgic, as it captures the pre-boom Seattle that I miss so much. HOV lanes? Nah. The Rainier Brewery. The Kingdome(!) Makes me want to watch Almost Live reruns.
In 1988 I was living in Ballard and working in Bellevue. Sue & I were married that summer. Note the shocking lack of traffic. Other than the perpetually under-construction I-90 project over Mercer Island I don’t remember traffic being an issue anywhere around town back then. How times have changed.
This also feeds my well-known lust for driving timelapses.
Thanks to Roger for the hint on the link. The blog itself has some good stuff in it too - obviously a kindred spirit.
Filed under: Cars, Weird Seen — chuck goolsbee @ 7:11 am
I had to share.
The Jaguar Clubs Of North America hold three competitive events nationwide, Concours (bleagh), Rally, and Slalom. The latter is frankly the ONLY reason I pay my JCNA dues every year. I’d rather have a root canal than actually *compete* in Concours. I love TSD rallying, but only one of the three JCNA clubs around here (the Canadian XK Register) actually bothers to do real rallys. But Slalom (the world JCNA uses for auto-cross) is a ton of fun.
The concept is simple: Identical course and timing gear throughout North America. Distinct classes for the various models. The playing field therefore is VERY level and driver skill is the real test, and you can compare yours against everyone on the continent. They have a non-Jaguar class too, which is comprised usually of sports and muscle cars and it is cool to see both shows up, and what does well. I had what I thought was a most unusual Slalom participant posted here before, but the one above literally takes the prize.
Of all the tools to bring to an autocross, a BMW Isetta is not on the top of the list. Note the stellar handling!
I hope to bring my TDI Jetta to a slalom this year and set the bar for a Bio-Fueled vehicle.
During last week’s Macworld Expo I ran into Dave Provine in the Speaker’s Lounge and he and I sat there amidst a whirlwind of high technology, talking about old cars. It was an enjoyable retreat from the hectic week of emerging technology. Dave drives an old Triumph Spitfire, and we traded stories about roadside repairs and driving adventures. Afterwards he sent me some photos via email, including the one above, which melded the two themes of automobile repair and networking technology quite well.
Dave says that is a Lucent switch acting as a jackstand. Best use for a Lucent switch I’ve seen to date!
Anyone have four Cisco 6509s handy? I’ve got to do some work on my exhaust.
