Palm Springs

Hanna and I spent some time in Palm Springs over the holidays--what a neat place!  We hit the Palm Springs Living Desert Museum, which has a good sized zoo, native desert landscaping gardens and an HO-scale railroad with authentic-looking and sounding trains, buildings, tressel bridges and tunnels. 

I am starting to get why they call this place "Palm Springs."

Golden Eagle

With lunch

One very bored Wolf. 

Here kitty kitty

 

I haven't seen one of these in Roseville for a while; you forget how amazing their markings are.

HO-Scale Train

 

The detail was very realistic.  Just like real life, the paint is peeling off this Chevrolet product

Is that a Ford Pinto I see?

Heading south-east on Hwy 111 there isn't much of the town of to see; the really neat part of Palm Springs is on the 3-lane north-west bound side.  After visiting the museum we walked around downtown Palm Springs and had a really great Italian dinner on an outside patio.  The temperature was in the high-70s; gotta love winters in California!

Downtown Palm Springs at night

Holiday happenings

The holidays were a whirlwind...Christmas (a week early) at my house with Mom and my sister and Joe, Christmas Day at my father's in the central valley with my sister and Joe and Grandparents, followed by a trip to Los Angeles to spend time with Hanna's family, then a progressive New Year's party that started at my house with appetizers, followed by dinner at Maria's and then Ricardo's house for dessert.  My favorite is the new year's predictions we do each year.  Everyone makes predictions about what each other will or will not do over the coming year, then we look back what actually happened over the course of the year.  Everyone predicted that I would not fall off another cliff in 2010 (thankfully, that was true), that I secretly wanted Sara's (the roommate I had when I first bought my house) cat to go missing (not true!) and for 2011 they predicted I would still have blue tape on my ceiling marking the recessed lighting I never installed (that may end up true too).  They predicted I would work for the Department of Fish and Game in 2012 (many of the people at the party work there now) and also predicted Hanna and I would get married and have four children in 2012...I think the red sangria I made must have kicked in because that's a tall order for one year.  Anyways, it's great fun. 

Other than prepare for the holidays I have done little else other than tool around the house when free time presents itself.  I learned on YouTube of all places how to service a household heating and air conditioning system (HVAC).  The outside air conditioner condensing unit sucks in leaves, pet hair and dirt, which greatly reduces its efficiency.  I removed the lid, shop vac'd about 6" of leaves out, then rinsed the condensing coils with condenser cleaner and hose water.  The pool of mud that formed afterward was evidence enough that this maintenance was needed.  In the attic I entirely removed the blower wheel and motor for cleaning.  If you replace your return air filter every couple of months, you may not ever have to do this.  The blower is much quieter now and should push more air through the system.  When summer approaches I will do the final service--open up the air conditioning evaporator coil (sits just behind the blower and furnace in the attic--it's the device that gets cold to cool the house) and clean it like I did the blower wheel.  When the evaporator is covered in dust, the air passing over the cold evaporator coil is not effectively cooled, wasting energy.  I really enjoy learning new skills and I feel like I am becoming quite handy these days.  :)

Blower wheel out for cleaning:

I like tinkering with LED lights, so I hand-built some modules for the house to softly illuminate the perimeter at night.  I used metal spice tins with clear lids, mounted aluminum C-channel inside to act as a heatsink, a single 1 watt Cree LED in each housing, then strung wire between each light and connected them to a driver that drops household electrical current down to low voltage/amperage.  This is how each module turned out.  There are 11 in total--a few down each side of the house, two illuminating the driveway out front and one in the entryway.

They really aren't noticeable unless you know what you're looking for.  See what I mean?

And here is how it looks at night:  (front)

Side:

The pictures are slightly overexposed...the light is a very pleasing soft light and are placed on both sides of each backyard sidegate and along the entire length of the sideyards.  This also provides the benefit of acting as security lighting as well.

I have worked a little on the Volvo too, fixing some of the little annoying problems.  Many of the dashboard cluster lights were burned out as well as the lights that illuminate the switches.  Volvo wants $14 per bulb (!!), however thanks to the internet I read how easy it was to buy microbulbs from RadioShack for $1 each and wire them into the Volvo bulb holders.  I partially fixed the portion of the dashboard cover that had delaminated and pulled away from the rest of the dash.  It's much better than it was but still not to my satisfaction.  I will keep my eyes open for a used replacement.  Finally I did some more cleanup...the sunroof drip tray, insides of the door frames/trunk drip rail, etc., were all very dirty; now the car feels 10 years newer.  I installed used trunk struts so the heavy trunk lid stays open on its own and replaced yet more burned out bulbs--corner marker lamp, a license plate bulb, etc.  Volvo spent all of their research and development money on airbags rather than decent bulbs.  That said, I do like how every single switch, no matter how unimportant, is illuminated at night, the overhead lights are actually aimed so any passenger including the rear seat passengers could read at night and even the floorboards, center consoles and storage bins are illuminated.  Or at least they are now that I replaced a million burned out bulbs. 

Car masked off for rubber trim re-glazing:

With the trim now re-glazed black I will use the leftover product to turn the chrome grill pure black.  It would defeat my entire purpose of buying this car if I dumped a bunch of money into it, so I'm only willing to do inexpensive things to improve its appearance.  Here's someone else's car that also did the black-out work...I really like the boxy shape of these cars:

My total investment in this car so far is $45 including some bulbs, black body trim glazing, used trunk struts, adhesive for dash repair, etc.

The $1,000 car challenge

The goal, buy a decent car for $1,000.  Something to spare the 4Runner from the abuses of daily commuting including door dents from fat, lazy and disrespectful peeps, the damage that a 2-mile daily commute does to a car (cold starts followed by shutting down the engine before it reaches operating temperature), and the potential of vandalism/theft from leaving a car at park & rides and in downtown Sacramento or sitting at the airport.

A craigslist search for sub-$2,000 cars reveals these beauties:

A 1998 Cavalier for $1500.  Lots of dents and only one person was murdered in the backseat.

A 1970 Buick Riviera with no engine and transmission for $1,000.  While it would be fun to park this battle axe at the park and ride, pushing it there would get old quick.

An 89 S10 for $1,000.  Amazing photographer, I wonder if it has a front end.

This fine Accord for $1,200.  "It'll buff out."

$1200.  Rust included for no extra charge.

$1100.  Dented and ugly but runs.

$1300.  Most cars have to make due with a catalytic converter, while this one uses a "Cadillac" converter.

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So here's what I ended up with, a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo for one grand.  

The good:  it has a very nice running and powerful 5 cylinder turbocharged engine, it has had a reasonable level of maintenance performed such as oil changes, belt and hose replacements, transmission flush, timing belt and a few other odds and ends.  Everything works, even all of the electrics.  No leaks of any kind and has brand new tires.  Mileage is a reasonable 129,000 miles.  Depending on which engine model I have it makes either 222 or 240 horsepower, making it fun to drive.  Gas mileage is okay at 19/26.  It has an airbag to coddle each and every organ and limb in my body in the event that someone fails at the art of driving.  The bad:  Front leather seats are trashed and covered with seat covers, the dashboard cover isn’t really attached to the top of the dash anymore (something I may be able to fix) and accordingly the interior has rattles, a crack in the windshield, the exterior isn't perfect and it needs a few maintenance items—driver’s side CV boot and the PCV and EGR (emissions system) need cleaning. The body metal on this car is so thick that you can barely open the trunk without the trunk struts, so that gets one check in the “bad” category and another check in the “good” category.  With proper maintenance these cars last a very long time.  Allegedly.

I brought the car home and did some cleaning.  Without even touching polish or wax of any sort, the body cleaned up way nicer than I had expected.  Things I assumed were scratches, discoloration and blemishes disappeared.  There is a crease in the passenger door and in front of the rear fender, but it’s hard to notice due to the color.  There’s a dent in the trunk lid as a reminder that talking on a cel phone while applying make-up and driving is a bad idea (was rear-ended) and the trunk-mounted spoiler needs paint.  Our fellow motorists are sure to bang it up even more, but honestly, I don’t think it looks too bad.  Someone at the park and ride saw it this morning and said it was “sporty looking.”  Sporty + Volvo do not belong in the same discussion.

I am daily driving it now, however after the holiday craziness is over I will pull it into the garage and catch it up on maintenance.  The driver’s side CV boot gets replaced first, then the intake manifold comes off so I can clean the PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) and nearby EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve that both clog at higher mileage.  When that happens it causes other expensive problems.  I don't like expensive problems. 

I admit though, I may have missed out on this $1500 Ford Econoline motorhome deal.  I could have made coffee or cooked up a batch of meth while I sit in the park & ride lot waiting for the bus.

Supercharged

The 4Runner got a boost in power last month via a Toyota factory supercharger.  These units were available starting in 1997 from the performance division of Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development).  The supercharger does not affect the factory powertrain warranty and is 50-state emissions legal.  I got word that there were only 33 of these superchargers left in the country, so I decided to pick one up before they were gone.

On the workbench and ready for installation:

 The supercharger is basically a belt-driven air pump that forces air into the engine rather than relying on engine vacuum, which is the long way of saying it adds power to an engine without the inefficiencies that a really large engine would have.  Because the air gets thinner at altitude, a supercharged engine does not loose power at elevation like a non supercharged one. 

The old 1997 ad for the supercharger states "the TRD Supercharged 3.4L V6 makes more torque at 1,800 RPMs as the normally aspirated engine does at its torque peak."  The graph below is for 1st generation TRD Supercharger, which boosted the stock horsepower from 183 to 265.  The second generation that I have produces five more horsepower (total of 270) and 12 foot pounds more torque than shown below:

It adds 87 horsepower to the engine, but torque is what you feel in a truck.  If you look at the bottom graph, the red on top of the black is the amount of added torque, which is significant.  Once I complete installation of the kit that improves the fuel system, horsepower will be around 295.  And of course then I can add a smaller supercharger pulley and make over 300...nice.

I had an install party and Scott and Molly and Mike showed up to help.  Scott has had a supercharger on his 4Runner for four years now.  Install took about five hours and dare I say it was easy.

Here is the stock engine:

Off comes the intake manifold:

Manifold removed.  Everything looks clean and good:

Here is the final product:

So what do I think?  It's not fast (per se) from 0 to 60; it accelerates really well for a truck but it's nothing that would impress any sports car owner.  I have owned much quicker cars (a 430 hp Supra turbo), but that said this is the most powerful truck/SUV I have driven.  (That makes me happy because my old Supra is still the most powerful car I have ever driven.)  The big bump in torque means it goes up hills exceedingly well without slowing down, it has gobs of passing power and most important for me, it will take high elevation grades while loaded with ease.  It added as much power to the existing engine as some economy cars make in total.

Economy-wise, most owners claim anywhere from a 1 mile per gallon (mpg) loss to a 1 mpg gain, or basically a wash.  So far that's about where I am.  I seem to be about 1/2 mpg down, but that might be related to my heavier right foot as I get used to a much more powerful engine.  :)

I have owned nothing but Toyota trucks and 4Runners since 1994, but the new ones have gone downhill big time.  The last good year of the 4Runner is 2009.  The 2010+ 4Runners are so bad that it just made Consumer Report's list for vehicles that scored low or "don't measure up to the standards set by previous models" and was summarized with the words "a clear disappointment." 

http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/03/2011-annual-auto-issue-new-cars-consumer-reports-car-ratings.html

I made a big investment into a 12-year old truck, which doesn't really seem like the most intelligent move, however the 4Runner is a long term vehicle for me...it's perfect for my lifestyle, it's probably one of the most dependable trucks made in the past century and quite simply, I like it and plan to keep it.  Oh, it's also paid for.  If I had to guess the future I would say that in ten years our cars won't be powered by gas.  Each American garage will contain an all-electric car or perhaps a hydrogen fuel cell car AND one truck for Home Depot, camping, hauling, towing, etc.  That's where the 4Runner comes in.   

Front yard refresh

You may recall that this time last year I was ripping out turf grass [link here] in my sideyard and replacing it with native vegetation.  This cut down considerably on the amount of time I spend maintaining the yard.  It also greatly reduced my water and fertilizer application and provided something more interesting to look at than grass.  I must have forgotten how sore my back was because somehow I decided to have a go with the front yard to further reduce maintenance and add some curb appeal to my otherwise boring house.

Let's take a look at what I started with...boring old crab-grass-infested turf between my driveway and my neighbor's:

Like any project I engage in, much more had to be done than just dropping new plants in the ground.  The area in the far left of the photo has always flooded; the area is 8-10 inches lower than the surrounding areas and both my gutter water and the neighbors pools badly in this location.  I started by taking scrap plastic and building sides and a back on an NDS drainage grate to collect water shooting out of my gutter downspout. 

Water collected from the gutter flows toward the right into a new drop inlet (the round opening that collects water and puts it in the pipe, rather than flooding 8-10" deep like before).

...then flows from the drop inlet (foreground) to a pop-up emitter out on the street.

At this point you can see all of the grass has been removed.  I found the second best tool to use for turf removal is the maddox--the yellow-handled tool two pictures up.  The first best tool is a tie between a sod-cutter that I couldn't afford or doing burnouts on the grass until it's gone.  I went with the less redneck approach, in this case.

While I was fixing drainage issues, I decided to tackle the one on the other side of the house too.  The weeping willow tree on the corner has extremely evasive roots, so it clogged the gutter system, causing water to overflow at the bottom of the gutter rather than flow out to the street.  Sub-optimal.  In this picture, I replaced 100% of the pipe since it was root-bound and gave it a new path out to the street.  As you can see, below, I actually had to tunnel under the roots to get the pipe out to the street.  I would rather get poked in the eye with a stick than do this job again.  The pipe coming from the right comes from the gutter at the back of the house and the one right in front of my feet is from the front gutter.  Problem fixed.

With drainage fixed, sprinklers capped and the soil amended, Hanna and I hit Green Acres Nursery for plants.  We decided on some black and blue sage, a feather reed grass, crocosmia, echinacea, yellow cone flowers, yarrow, snapdragons and some purple verbena transplanted from the sideyard.  Don't assume there was method to the madness, we used the completely random "oooh that's pretty plant approach."  None of it is in bloom right now, but here's the end-product.

The process was similar on the other side of the driveway.  Remove grass, cap sprinklers, break up and amend soil, lie on dining room floor with bad back, add bender board, add plants.  We also decided to add some stepping stones to make approaching the house easier when there are cars in the driveway.  Lifting those was also good fun and required another trip to said dining room floor.

Finally I made some changes to the irrigation system.  The timer is now a smart timer, which measures temperature and rainfall and adjusts the irrigation schedule accordingly.  So far as the weather has cooled off it has dropped probably 30-40% off the summer watering schedule.  When we get measureable rainfall it suspends irrigation until after the event.  I've seen it suspend watering for as little as 14 hours and as much as 95 hours.  In the photo below it measured 2.23 inches of rain and it suspended irrigation for 95 hours.  I like knowing this timer will take care of the watering while I'm in Canada during the summers.  If it proves to be unreliable, well, at least it has a pretty blue screen.

I also replaced all of the 14-year old leaking automated valves with new high quality ones, pressure reducers and sandfilters (for drip only), along with screw-on couplers so they can be more easily removed next time I have to service one.  And to show you just how OCD I am, I sprayed all of the couplers with black rubberized plasti-dip so they're all matchy-matchy.  Technically they're more protected from freezing, but I care more about the bling factor.

Finally, I replaced all of the old worn-out sprinkler heads with new high precision nozzles.  I'm sure it's difficult to tell the new ones from the old ones, so I'll give you a tip, the new ones are on the left.

So, any interest in seeing the before and after pics?  No?  Well, too bad; here they are.
(When I bought the house):

Final product:

On the left side of the driveway we planted a variety of clumping grasses (like Dianthus, Armerias and Blue Fesue), along with different colored Lantana, a Mexican Sage, some Blanket Flowers and May Night Sage.  The Chinese Pistache tree in the front yard puts on a nice fall display as well.

That's it for now!