In the early ’50’s an investor proposed taking surplus PBY Catalina flying boats and converting them into flying amphibious yachts, and LIFE magazine did a photo spread. I’ve always loved Catalinas, the idea of having a go-anywhere adventure vehicle, and the style of the 1950s, so this is the center of a Venn diagram of awesome for me.
Our trusty CR-V is back from the shop, sitting in the driveway with the pod bolted to the roof, ready for adventure. It started making grinding noises at the beginning of the year that I thought might be the clutch or transmission slipping, and they were getting much worse this past month. The week before the parade I poked around to see why the muffler was getting louder and found a pinhole leak in the resonator pipe. This is our vacation vehicle, so we needed to address the issues before shipping out next week. Our trusty mechanic down the street chased the grinding noise down to the serpentine belt and diagnosed a failing water pump, which cured the grinding noise, and replaced the resonator pipe underneath. The ‘V sounds like a new car again. At 117K on the odometer we’re moving into the nickel and dime phase of ownership to fix the stuff that’s beginning to wear out, so it’s not like this is unexpected. I’m just glad it wasn’t the transmission, because that would have been a catastrophic repair bill.
The next thing I’d like to find is a used silver hood to replace the one we have. The clear coat has been peeling off for years now to the point where it’s almost all gone, and it looks shitty. Jen and I love the ‘V and plan to keep it on the road as long as possible, so we gotta make sure it looks good. I haven’t found a decent replacement inside 500 miles yet, but I’m on the lookout every week. If the right one comes up, I’ll go get it.
There’s been a lot going on over the past week, but here are a few pictures from the 4th of July.
Mr. Peanut was at the parade!
I’m pretty sure this guy isn’t a Washington Capital, and that’s not really the Stanley Cup.
I think all the kids had a lot of fun.
Bear held his first sparklers on the front lawn. I think he liked them!
Hmm. File this under “future plans”: Apparently in Maryland it’s theoretically possible to use a set of license plates issued in 1976 on a vehicle built in 1976. Bennett has these on Heavy D, his D-series pickup. The rules are murky and apparently you must find an MVA employee in a good mood, but I could buy some used plates on eBay and tag the Scout with them. I think that red over white would look great on a purple Scout.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
We’re doing a lower-key parade party this year–there’s only 60+ people RSVP’d, which means we’ll get 80–but that still means we have to get the house and yard spruced up. I busted my hump on Saturday getting the lawn shaped up with the new mower and repaired trimmer, painted the front of the garage, washed the front stairs, organized inside the garage, bagged brush and yard waste, and generally made the place look better. Last weekend I shattered the outside window of the front door with a rock when I was edging the walk, so I had to order a replacement unit in the hopes it will be here before the parade. In the meantime I knocked all of the loose tiny bits of glass out of the frame and vacuumed up everything I could see. It sucked being out in 103˚ heat all day, but the yard looks much better for it.
I took some time on Sunday to upgrade the compressor setup I bought from Bennett a few weeks ago. It’s a Craftsman 25 gallon/4HP unit, and dates back to the year I graduated college. It came with two hoses coupled to make one long one, and the first section was old and cracked. I pulled that off, replaced it with a junction and an inline water filter, then re-attached the second hose. I also picked up an inflation kit and filled Finn’s sumo balls to find where one of them was leaking, then aired up all the tires in the garage.
I’d also bought $40 air wrench, but failed to realize the drive size was 3/8″ (the tiniest available). This is not optimal but I’ve got 3/8″ sockets, so I dragged my old cast-iron kitchen sink from 620 South Lakewood out of the garage and used the air wrench to bolt the mounting plates to some reinforced lumber on the wall next to the rain barrel. I still can’t lift anything above 20 lbs. by myself, and I couldn’t barely lift that sink on my own on a good day, but with some added muscle on Parade Day we should be able to get it up off the ground and mounted to the wall.
My sunglasses have gone missing since Friday afternoon, when I went out to get us some lunch. I remember wearing them back to the house but after that the trail goes completely cold and they are in none of the normal places I would have stashed them. I go through phases like this where my systems work for six months or a year and then I have a spell where I lose things, which drives me NUTS. I developed a system for myself years ago that revolves around my messenger bag: Important stuff (keys, wallet, phone, sunglasses, notebook, camera, train ticket, headphones) go in the bag. If it comes out of the bag, it’s with me, and if I put it down, it goes back into the bag. This is how I’ve kept this pair of sunglasses since before Finn was born, and they are on their second set of lenses. They have been everywhere with me for years and now I feel like I’ve lost a limb. I hate to lose things, especially my everyday items. I feel like they have been stolen; I can’t think of where they might be.