A family blog
Hanna blew through overnight. All of the weather people were in a major panic. It was just 12 hours of good soaking rain and a few hours of decent wind, about the same as a thunderstorm. After Elmo got cut short by a power outage, we decided to go splash in the water rather than sit inside and be bored.
On the way to Charlotte over the Labor Day weekend Olivia (and mom and dad…) were getting stir crazy in the car. We decided to stop by the zoo for about an hour. It was a great choice, even with a new pair of skinned knees. We all had fun at the zoo then Olivia CRASHED in the car all the way from Asheboro to Charlotte.
I happened upon this clone of my old WRX in a used car posting on nasioc. I hadn’t been looking for a new car at all but just by curiosity went to the private for sale forum and found this. It rolled over 106,000 miles on the test drive up in DC. It’s a small world, as Nick, a friend of Dr. Biggly, helped the previous owner install some suspension parts a few years ago. Things came together very well with this purchase and the sale of the RS all happening within two weeks. So far I’ve fixed some little things like the burned out instrument panel bulbs, changed to a stock shifter, and changed the suspension to a good hybrid for rallyx, occasional autox, and daily use. I’ve also done general maintenance, such as spark plugs, which upped the mileage by at least 10%.
In the beginning of August we went to Washington State to visit Andrea’s family, enjoy the cool weather, and go to the West Coast beaches. We also managed a day in Portland, with dinner at a cool French cafe’ in an eclectic portion of SE Portland.
Today we had Olivia’s second birthday party at the pool. What fun. Bunches of kids and adults showed to play and eat pizza and cake.
To view this video, please right-click and select “Save Target As…” to save the file to your computer before viewing. We’re borrowing the hosting for this site from a friend and don’t want to kill their bandwidth.
Today is a beautiful day in North Carolina. The sun is bright, but there is still a chill in the air when walking outside in the shade. Spring is not quite here yet (which means that the steamy summer is also still a ways away,) in spite of daffodils being evidence to the contrary. Olivia is napping (finally) and Kevin is cleaning the gutters, while I try my hand at the blog thing. We spent a joyful morning with our friends (and next door neighbors) the Kirks, walking on the tobacco trail with the kids, and then playing at a park nearby. The kids and adults enjoy one another’s company, and all love to be outside in the woods, picking up rocks, getting a little muddy, and enjoying God’s creation in our own backyard. Here are a few pictures of our morning. Enjoy!
A table with (almost?) all VW transmissions and their ratios for FWD cars from 1975 to about 2001 is available in the old site archives.
