Potholes 1 : Me 0

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but the potholes this year seem worse then ever. While driving on Big Beaver Rd by my house i hit a huge one. When i got home i went over to the tire and heard a hissing noise. I had hit the pothole so hard that it compressed the tire and put a slice in the tires sidewall. You can't really see it but there was a cut in the ribbed area.
So the next morning, the day i was leaving for Arizona, i changed the tire.


While changing the tire i noticed that the swing arm link was not attached to the shock. The pothole not only popped the tire but broke the rotating bolt that attaches to the link.
After putting on the spare tire i went to Goodyear, Firestone and Discount Tire. They all quoted a price of around $130 for the tire and $120 for the sway bar link.

I know that in about a year i will need to get 4 new tires so i was hoping that i could get them to put on a good conditioned used tire for me. None of them had the right size, but one guy suggested a Citgo gas station down the road.

I went in the garage there, told the guy what my problem was and he said, "So how much do you want to spend?" The part cost $30, the tire was $30, so i said $75. Also they didn't care if i stood there and watched them when the put the tire on the rim and bolted on the new link. I definitely wouldn't have gone there for anything more complicated than that.

Spring Training - 2011

I went Arizona again this year for spring training baseball. I was there with Adam and John, John's uncle and his buddy Opitz. We saw 4 games in three days between March 11th -13th. I think the teams we saw were the Mariners, Diamondbacks, Angels, Padres, Rockies, and Reds.

Here's us waiting to go into the Angels Stadium.

I tried taking some panorama pictures of the fields. Like before i took 3 to 5 overlapping pictures and combined them using the program AutoStitch.

(click to enlarge)

View from right field.

Empty batting cages.

The second day in between the 2 games there was a car show going on outside of the stadium in a parking lot.

It's a little blurry but look at both of the pitchers names. UNKNOWN.

A typical fan.

Outfield signs

John and Adam at the new Diamondbacks stadium in Scottsdale.

$30 Mower

Last week i bought a lawnmower on craigslist for $30. It runs, which means it is already better off than the old Snapper riding mower i bought last year. It can also mulch or attach a bag to collect the grass clippings. The one downside is that it isn't self propelled. That's not a huge deal because i will only be using this to mow in tight corners where i can't get with the riding mower.

So i got it home, cleaned it, sharpened the blade, sprayed it with WD-40 and then oiled everything. The motor is a Briggs & Straton just like the Snapper mower. It's 5hp and seems to run well.

One problem it had was the throttle cable was jammed. Apparently the last owner figured the way to un-jam it was to pull so hard on the handle that it snapped off. So i removed the cable and tried everything to loosen it. After about 30 minutes of bending the cable and twisting the wire it finally freed up.

Now i had to fix the broken throttle handle. First i thought of just cutting a piece of aluminum and bolting it on to where the original had snapped off. But then i noticed an old bicycle tire quick release. I ground off the rivet and the new handle fit perfectly around the broken plastic dial.

One bolt and nut was all it took. Simple and strong.

It almost looks like it was meant to be there.

HTC Freestyle

It's been 2 years and a few months since i got my last cell phone. I was thinking of joining the rest of society in 2011 and getting a smart phone with GPS, Google, E-mail, apps and everything you can think of. The problem with those phones is that they cost around $200 even with the rebate, plus you have to pay a monthly data fee. For AT&T that meant another $25 per month. It seems like a good idea and i'm sure i would have loved one of those phones but i decided against it.

I waited for a few months and then i found the perfect solution. The HTC Freestyle.

It looks and acts like a smart phone but it isn't. Through Amazon.com it only cost $20 and there's no monthly fee. The reason is that it's sort of a hybrid. All those other phones that i liked REQUIRED you to pay the $25 per month. This one didn't. It can have GPS, Google, E-mail and all that stuff, but it can also be just like another basic phone.

So after using it for a few days i'm not 100% happy. I wish it ran on Android instead of the BREW operating system. All those great Apps that run on Android don't work on this phone. If it did have Android i could download tons of great apps online then transfer them to the phone. But with BREW it seems a little dated. It's kind of like a Ferrari that someone removed the steering wheel and replaced it with some cheese. It has the ability to do all this stuff but it just doesn't work. I guess i can't have it both ways.

In 2 more years i'll most likely be ready for a phone with unlimited everything. But for right now this is just fine for me.