One of those Mornings

Posted on May 14, 2012 by thishero

It’s 6:10 am, normal time for getting up on a work day. First order of business is to take the dogs out… no shoes on my feet, hair has full on bed head, the air is crisp and clean, with a chill in the air, the plant life is covered in dew… It felt like tent camping… that walk to the bathroom in the morning… you’re up because the sun is out… people are starting their camp fires, love the camp fire smell… wives and kids are bundled in their sleeping bags… you can never be clean because you’re camping… We’ll be going to Yosemite the first weekend of June, we’ll be staying in a hotel, but it’ll be nice to be there in the fresh mountain mornings again…

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Cru-Zin in the Vineyard Update

Posted on May 6, 2012 by thishero

We’re getting ready to print the t-shirts for the 2012 Cru-Zin in the Vineyard show at Terra d’Oro Winery in Plymouth, CA, and while I had the back of the shirt done, I didn’t have a front of a shirt. My father-in-law had another buddy that really wanted his car on the shirt, so we obliged…

The Show is quickly approaching, and I still have a long way to go on Low-Mator, but we’ll be there, no matter what, and so should you!

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Latest Mator Update

Posted on April 24, 2012 by thishero

Have a goal of trying to get Mator somewhat presentable for the upcoming Cru-Zin in the Vineyard car show, so I’ve been busy working on it’s presentation style. I got the windows in a week ago with the help of my wife, then last week I found a pitman arm, hooked it up and am placing the steering column. I actually straightened the truck in the garage using the sterring wheel… First time that has ever happened. Keep checking back, in the next two months the updates should be rapid, including getting it to one primer color… Hopefully.

I like to call her "Low Mator"

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Illustration of a ’38 Chevy for the 2012 Cru-Zin in the Vineyard Show

Posted on April 18, 2012 by thishero

So every year around this time I get the call to create the artwork for the Cru-Zin in the Vineyard Classic Car and Hot Rod Car Show in Plymouth, CA held at Terra d’Oro Winery. The t-shirt always has a large print on the back and then a front pocket piece. Well in the past I have used clip art for the car on the back, but have illustrated the car for the front pocket. This year, my father-in-law wanted an illustration of his buddies ’38 Chevy that is always at the event, so he sent me a picture and I got to work. Anyways, without further ado, here’s the illustration I did for the back of the t-shirt…

 

Word has it that I’ll still be illustrating the image for the front of the t-shirt. I think I know what car he wants, I just need to wait for the photo.

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Comments from WordPress

Posted on April 11, 2012 by thishero

ok, I know in all reality not a lot of people read my ramblings, but I do know someone is reading, even if it’s crawlers trying to get me to click on their links to drive traffic to other sites. Why they need my clicks I’m not sure? Are they so desperate to get traffic they would resort to these tactics to get it? Are there virus’ on the side of the link that are just sitting there, ready to infect my computer and still my data? Who knows, and frankly who care… The good news is I don’t publish comments so you’ll (no one) never have to see them and be tempted to click on them. Anyways, I thought it would be fun to publish some of these comments since it just seems so fun…

thanks this has really helped, as has many of your other articles.could you increase the amount of your posts, i would like to read them more often.

i would like to tell you that your blog is more and more interesting each day.

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An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers

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Surely a perfect piece of writing! We’ve book marked it and sent it out to all of my friends since I know they’ll be intrigued, thank you very much!

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Building a Better Mtn. Bike

Posted on April 3, 2012 by thishero

Well I got the Transition Trans Am up and running. Took it on a maiden voyage, boy is that seat hard. Not sure if it’s the seat or my butt for a lack of riding the last couple of months. Anyways, it rides pretty good. When I measured for the water bottle mounts, I made sure there was plenty of room for me to pull the bottle out. The one thing I didn’t check was my reach when sitting on the bike. After my ride I notice I have to reach pretty far down to grab the bottle, sure wish it was higher up… oh well.

The following day I rode the bike to work, and on my way home I stopped for a busy intersection so I came to a complete stop. Well an opening formed, but I was going to have to be quick, so I stepped on the pedal and pushed to get me going as quick as I could, and as I pushed I fell to the street with a thump and the pedal went flying off to my right landing about 15 feet away. I was dumbfounded, how did this happen?

I tried to put the pedal on by hand, but noticed the crank arm was stripped, thankfully I was only a couple of blocks from home so I limped the rest of the way and examined the arm there. After examining and thinking about it, I remembered that when I assembled the bike, I didn’t have a wrench thin enough to fit between the pedal and the crank arm so I couldn’t tighten it the pedal down and figured I’d come back to it later. Apparently I forgot.

So after doing a search for a replacement crank arm, and not being able to find one, I’m assuming because they are close to 10 years old and were high-end (for the time) I looked into replacement cranks. I found a nice set on jensonusa, Race Face, includes bottom bracket and they were only $75. I’m sure they are some Chinese specials, with the Race Face name on it, but it works.

I rode the bike for the first time to work yesterday, and it pedaled very smooth, so for now I’m pretty happy. Now off to ride some more…

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Story Idea for Pixar

Posted on March 7, 2012 by thishero

I remember reading a story about when Pixar first got into making movies. How they were sitting around a cafe/bar/restaurant and were coming up with story idea’s. They had the basics they wanted for Toy Story and A Bugs Life, but I think after that it was just one liners with the very concept of a story, for example, for Monster’s Inc. they may have wrote down “Monsters under the bed are real”. Then from there they would develop the story, then they develop it some more and then they continue to develop it and then they strip it of anything that is un-necessary until they have this perfect little fun story.

I love the idea of sitting around the table and coming up with idea’s and I think Pixar (before Disney) really did a great job of finding fun stories, with fun characters and they were able to get everything out of them, and then package them in a fun, friendly way to make it interesting for people to want to see.

So anyways, I was driving home from work the other day, and there was a powerline, and along the wire were a line of birds all huddled together, heads tucked to keep warm from the cold. Well with as I sat at a red light I imagined what they would see from up there, and I was thinking how I wouldn’t want to be up there on the wire. Then I thought, what if a bird were afraid of heights? He would never make it. He would have to hang out on the ground, and all his friends would be the worms that he would normally try to eat. Would the other birds make fun of him? How would he overcome this fear of heights?

To me it sounds like a perfect story idea for Pixar. The story would show a common fear people can relate with, making friends with enemies, and together over coming those fears.

Now only if I can sell the idea to Pixar.

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Building A Better Mtn. Bike Part 2

Posted on March 5, 2012 by thishero

Well finding someone to weld on those brakes bosses proved to be a little bit more difficult then I thought. I gave the frame to my brother to see if someone at his machine shop could do it, but after it sitting over there for three weeks, I asked for the frame back and tried something else. I decided to go to craigslist and called a couple of welders on there, and each time I got their voicemail, and none of them returned my call. This seemed weird, what can be so hard about welding on a couple of bosses. My thinking was it’s probably not the welding itself, but the the placement of the bosses so that the brakes would align with the rim.

New thought, I’m gonna find a frame builder and see if they would do it. Being in Modesto, and it not exactly a bike riding paradise, I decided to start my search in Sacramento. So I did a google search for “bicycle frame repair sacramento” and got some good results. I first decided to read the reviews, and after that decided on Rex Cycles in Sacramento. I called and talked to Steve and he said he could do that with no problem and it would be $50-75. So I took the frame up on the Saturday before we went to Hawaii, and then picked it up three weeks later after we got back.

The bosses are only braised on, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it looks great. I then got my brother to powder coat the frame a very nice pearl white. I was hoping to put the bike together this past weekend, but other things were required, so I’ll start the assembly this evening.

Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully I’ll be reporting shortly that the Transition Trans Am will be ready by the end of the week.

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Pass Gas

Posted on January 18, 2012 by thishero

When mom was 10, her dad took her to the Stanislaus County Fair. You see he was a big chili fan and they were having a chili cook-off and there were 100 contestants, which means there were 100 different chili;s he was going to be able to taste test. Mom, she was just looking forward to the rides, and spending time with her dad so she wore her favorite dress.

Once they got to the fair they made a bee line to the chili cook-off where they were immediately were given a “Stanislaus County Fair – Chili Cook-off” bib, which was perfect for protecting mom’s dress. So after a little coaxing, dad was able to talk mom into trying the chili, and after deciding she liked it, they made their way through the tables, getting spoonfuls of chili. It was around chili 73 that dad noticed that mom’s dress was poofing out every now and then, and the further they went along with the chili, the more frequently it poofed. After they were finish with the chili, and mom’s face was covered with chili, dad asked her, “you’re puffo-ing aren’t you?” And mom, her face turning a bright red nodded. “That’s ok, everyone puff-o’s” he told her. “But dad” she asked, “why don’t you ever puff-o?” and he said, “because I’m a gentlemen, and gentlemen don’t puff-o”. And along they went off to ride the rides.

After a few hours of riding the rides, mom was tired and it was time to go. So they walked back to his truck and drove back towards Modesto. Along the route dad suddenly let out a giant puff-o, that started from his side and reverberated along the seat to mom, making a long and quite loud ripping noise. Dad turned just as red as mom did earlier in the day, and she looked at him and with a sheepish smile said, “Daddy, you puff-o’ed” And dad just started laughing and said yes, I passed gas. And they continued on home, mom sitting next to her dad and dad driving with his window down.

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Busy night last night

Posted on January 10, 2012 by thishero

Last night the girls were more awake then normal, and Barb was busy working on a project for their school, so the girls got two stories. While I’m not going to write out the stories in detail, I will give you a “cliff notes” version.

Story 1 – This was a very girlie storie, for the girls. They were talking earlier in the day about the drama of their young lives and about how friends use abuse each other, so this story had a moral to it. Like I stated before the stories will usually “star” either myself or Barb, and since this was a story about girl drama, Barb gets to be the star. The story starts out about Barb in Junior High School, and how she was a star on their 8th grade basketball team, and how she carried the team to the Stanislaus County Championship game. The second part of the story was about how Barb’s best friend told lies to Barb about a boy she wanted to ask her out to the prom. Well the girl, told Barb that the boy did not like her in any way, and would never agree to go with her to the prom. However, another friend told Barb the truth that he did like her, and that the first friend was just lying to her. After some investigation and some luck, Barb found out the truth, and when she confronted that so-called friend, the day before the big championship game, there was a shoving match and Barb ended up falling down some stairs and twisting her ankle. Well with the bad ankle, Barb couldn’t play in the game, and by half time, Barb’s team was losing by 20 points. After a very motivational and uplifting speech by Barb at halftime, the team came around and won the big game as a team, and even though Barb didn’t play, she was carried off of the court. And then, just before they were to enter the locker room, the boy Barb liked came up to her, and asked her to the prom.

A very girl story.

Story 2 – This was a quick story, about a fish tank we had at my house as a boy, and about how a catfish was fighting with another fish, and how peace could not be found between these two fish, and in the end a divider needed to be set-up, dividing the tank in half so that the catfish and the other fish couldn’t cause trouble any longer.

It was short and sweet, and for some reason the girls liked this story better. Go figure.

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