I recently took an overnight road trip with my family to New Orleans to pick up a puppy.

I already made a post on the cars I saw while there.

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/4087/dots-the-cars-of-new-orleans/16

But now, it's puppy time!

Meet Arlo, a 9 week old whippet pup! He's just the most adorable thing while also being suspiciously well behaved.

Don't be fooled, he's an adorable sleepyhead when he's not frolicking around the yard. Arlo's also pretty large for a whippet puppy.

Fortunately, he gets along great with our other whippet, Turkey, who's six years old.

And to send off this year, have the show quality whippets from that litter. There were two pet quality whippets to choose from at the breeder's place outside New Orleans and I believe we chose well.

Bonus puppy picture to anyone who can figure out why we named him Arlo.

I replaced the automatic transmission fluid and front brake pads in my car. It doesn't sound that impressive, I know, but it was more involved than you might expect.

The principle problem I had to face is that the transmission doesn't have a dipstick but rather a weep hole that only functions when the car is completely level. And is helpfully located behind the driver side wheel. AND neither my two jackstands nor my craptastic floor jack can fit under the car on level ground.

This is all the way down. Look at how tight of a fit that is! But even then, the jackstands I borrowed that are lower still won't fit and the car has to be perfectly level front to back and side to side. How does one do this?

I'll admit, this was marginally sketchy getting it standing even on all four corners, but the fact that two patio pavers is the exact right height for the low jack stands to fit under seemed too good to be true.

Oh wait, it was. One is inexplicably shorter than the other. I made up the difference with the floor jack on the side with no tire and let the short jackstand act as a safeguard in case of jack failure.

Anyways, draining the old stuff wasn't the difficult part. The ATF that came out was brown like pre-emptively changed engine oil but not black like many of the videos I watched. so I figure I caught it just in time. I have no idea the last time this was done.

This stupid weep hole instead of a dipstick was why this was so hard in the first place. The car must be entirely level for it to work. I put in 2.8 quarts with the engine off before it dripped then I turned the engine on and added 1.7 quarts when it started to drip.

And I swapped the front brake pads while I was under there. The rear drum brakes didn't need anything but you can clearly see the front disks weren't doing their best job. Pretty even wear on the rotor, though it might be time to change them soon.

The car stops so much more confidently now. It isn't running out of puff late in the travel like before. I'm sure I could have squeaked some more life out of them, but the quality of the drive is much improved. And I didn't notice any clunky shifts or slippage from the automatic and it seemed to hesitate less on upshifts. I'll have to get some more seat time to be sure, but I feel today was a huge success.

I saved a crap ton of money too. All in, I have a little under $90 in this repair and I'd be looking at quadruple that for a shop to do it. It's my first real "big" wrench and I'm proud of my work.

GM and lighting the reverse lights up when you lock and unlock.

But yeah, Ford and their keypads and capless fuel fillers. Ugh.

Fellow Oppo and collegiate @Taylor-Martin dropped by yesterday on his way through Atlanta. We saw some cars, some graves, and an accident.

He couldn't get to where I was waiting because a car had rear ended another car and was blocking traffic. The driver was so traumatized by the airbag going off she didn't want to move the thing, so he offered to. Problem was, once it was rolled back out of the way, the parking prawl and handbrake refused to function, meaning we couldn't disengage ourselves from the situation. Some nearby rocks chocked the wheels and we were off. What a nice man.

We ended up at Oakland Cemetery for a bit, but it's not as pretty in the winter.

Took a wrong turn and ended up at the famous Krogg St Tunnel, which I've never been to before. It's quite an experience, being rather long and rather dark plus having every inch covered in street art.

Now, for the cars. This has got to be a classic Mini, but I don't think it's the red one I saw a while back.

Then we saw a very nice bright yellow Land Rover Defender. @Just-Jeepin would approve.

Not only is it yellow, it's a rather uncommon LHD Defender 90 with only minor modifications. The few I do see tend to be ludicrously overdone four door high budget restomods. Plus, this one was a manual and most of the ones I see tend to be LS swapped ones with the accompanying GM slushbox. It probably is still rocking its original powertrain, which is a rarity in NA Defenders in my experience.

Anyways, I can confirm his TSX Sportwagon named Iris is quite a beauty and was clearly living the #wagonlyfe carrying all that camping gear.

Masks were worn, fun was had, and good was done. What more could you ask for? Oppos are the best people.

Another hot lap of the sun complete! Post quirky French things.

I'm very fortunate to get to go back home, though it's drawing to a close. I did get to play the single greatest driving game of all time (fight me).

And I got a (much nicer than I asked for) dashcam from my parents. It's got a front and rear facing camera! Fuse adaptor kit coming soon.

I've really been on a kick of vintage car brochures. I created a few collages of images on 11x17 paper and printed them off to make the wall behind my desk more interesting. I sorted them by manufacturer but I think I need to redo the Saab one.

What do you think? I had a bunch of printing credits and this seems a good use of them.

Almost exactly 4 months ago, I arrived in Atlanta for my freshman semester of college. Since that time, I've driven a total of 40 minutes across three separate times. I drove my own car twice during that time frame and I drove down the block and back in a 4Runner for some not very good reasons.

So, basically, I have to make up lost time with my carbon footprint. I think I'll use it up in a new 911 GT3. What's that, that's not how this works? Dang it, SPEED AND POWER is what I crave.

I'll be very happy to be back home and able to drive my car again. When I went back home last week for Thanksgiving, my dad very kindly did an impressively thorough detail on it as it had gotten quite dirty in the intervening months. Of course, both times I got a chance to drive my car it was pouring rain but I got to appreciate it while it was clean.

I'll miss Atlanta a lot though. I desperately needed a change of pace after the lockdown and this has been it. The past few months have been very kind to me even if it included more long nights of work than I wished (and I predict at least two more before this semester is over). Going carspotting downtown on the weekends was a great way to relax and I managed to capture some truly wonderful machinery. My favorite of course would have to be the Citroen H Van that came to me, though the classic 500 and Fiat Panda are high up there.

https://drivetribe.com/p/down-on-the-street-citroen-hy-van-CmOHxsH4R0y37JPB-pSwAg

I love living in the city but it's nice to escape every now and again. I managed to get away from the hustle and bustle on some adventures with a small group of friends a few times, including a trek to this spectacular view.

Though yeah, freshman semester sucks for trying to make friends and dodging 'Rona at the same time. I've been very blessed to have this amazing community of people to keep me company during the times when nothing was going on.

So before this gets too sappy, greetings from Atlanta and thank you.

@highlander No love for Daihatsu? They sold cars in North America. . . briefly

I'm going to share ALL the data and statistics drawn from 47 documented nights delivering food for DoorDash Incorporated. The 'gig economy' is a vast and unpredictable beast, but this particular corner of it actually works well as a part time job to make some money on the side.

First, let me set the stage. Usually doing 6 nights a week several weeks in a row, I've managed to make in excess of $2,600 over 47 nights , usually between the hours of 5 - 9 PM. I live in a large and relatively wealthy suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, USA in an area with a booming restaurant scene and where the DoorDash app is quite popular. It's a great area for such a side gig as there are many upper middle class residents around who may be inclined to tip more and there are lots of popular restaurants in a central location.

Over the course of a night, usually working somewhere between 3 and 4 hours, I naturally might get drawn out towards other areas, but I have a location I always drive back to as it is a hotspot for restaurants. The app displays the locations of restaurants that have been receiving lots of orders, but I usually just hole up in the alley behind Taqueria Tsunami because it's so close to so many other restaurants.

Now, for the data. I compiled a spreadsheet containing all data points I collected and several important and interesting statistics. I only worked one day where I forgot to record my data, so this list is pretty comprehensive.

I'll pick out the most interesting and relevant statistics here. In total, I managed to earn $2,627.98 over the course of 47 days working a grand total of 160.7 hours. That gives me an average earning of $56 per night with a projected $16 per hour.

However, one of the defining characteristics of the gig economy is how uncertain your income can be. Take May 25th for example. I made $34 over 3.5 hours. 3.5 hours is also my median hours worked but puts that night at almost half my median earnings of $60.

On the vertical axis, we have my earnings per night. On the horizontal axis, we have, respectively, hours worked and miles driven. As you can see, earnings trend up with more hours worked for obvious reasons. However, the average variance between values is huge and only gets larger the longer I work. It's an unpredictable business.

And on the graph of miles driven, you can see the values sort of plateau. Sometimes you just have to drive a lot further for your orders. I still maintained an average in excess of my goal of $1 a mile at $1.20. I generally don't accept orders with less than a dollar earned per mile, but that doesn't count return trips.

Speaking of wear and tear on your vehicle, I drove 2,215 miles in total while operating the Dasher app. The median miles driven per day was 45, a not insignificant amount. My own car, a sensible thoroughly depreciated domestic sedan, doesn't have high running costs, but gas isn't the expensive part of doing DoorDash. On the median night I mentioned, I might burn 1/8 of a tank to the tune of around $5. It's really the insurance that takes a bite, especially as a younger male driver, even with a totally clean driving record.

Depreciation also takes a bite too. My car isn't losing much value with each added mile, but doing Doordash with a newer leased vehicle might prove problematic with mileage limitations and the greater depreciation miles tend to add on newer cars. Keep in mind not all cars are as well suited to doing deliveries. Ideally, you want a car cheap to run with low insurance costs that is also small enough to squeeze into tight spots but pleasant enough to drive that you don't despise getting in and out for several hours. I think my humble Chevy Cruze fits the bill.

I have come to the conclusion that what DoorDash is good for is not making pocket money, but rather covering the expenses of car ownership you're probably already incurring, freeing up a greater portion of your regular income with just a little bit of gravy on top. My median hours worked of 3.5 is doable for a typical 9-5 job, but even with less free time you can make a good dent in that insurance bill at an average of $16 an hour working the peak dinner rush exclusively.

So, what do you think? Do I have enough data? Did I miss some obvious correlations? What do you want to know about the glamorous life of a Dasher?

@chariotoflove The dad jokes are strong with this one. What a shame about Poor_Sh.might have to call a 911 for that.

@jawzx2 Just like a dog trying to get the cone off. Or my dog rubbing his jacket off on a cold day then complaining about the cold by trying to steal my body heat.

Ah yes, the livestock game is as fickle and changeable as the animals. Does it seem to be a strong bunch this year? Especially if lots are only a year away from the great farm in the sky on the plate.

Is this hoof problem widespread among that breed? Sounds like you're breeding for resistance to it as well.

@way2blu The human eyes on that horse, I won't sleep tonight.

@carsoffortlangley I watched someone take one of those aftermarket targa panel tops off from my window and it seemed pretty effortless. Like a sunroof but better.

That's a great pic. What sort of place was it taken? Not too many wide open publically accessible fields around here. Or really none at all that you can drive on.

@jawzx2 said in Lamb Update: 5:22pm EST 2/26 2021:

grounds for dismissal.

Or grounds for mutton. So basically you have a year end performance review and the ones who don't give birth successfully get eaten. That could make a good movie. . .

. . . like this Netflix movie I watched about a vertical prison where a platform of food is lowered each day and if you're assigned a low level you starve to death. Or eat your cell mate. Pretty decent but I didn't expect the brief nudity. Called The Platform and much better with subtitles in Spanish instead of dubbed.

Oh, right, sheep. Yeah can't imagine kneeing myself in the stomach just by walking but it sounds uncomfortable. I wonder if some sort of external sheep corset could fix that. . .

What percentage of newborns do you usually keep? I'm still curious about the sheep turnover year to year.

@spasoje Or you can have two screens with Discord up on one

@jawzx2 said in Lamb Update: 5:22pm EST 2/26 2021:

After lambing they have trouble even walking in the field... it's a ticket to the sausage maker's.

Just the ones who have triplets or all? Curious what your turnover year to year for sheep actually is. Because if you're getting around 75% replaced with new ones like you said and assuming you sell some, you're replacing the whole flock every two years.

Also, how do you deal with that if they've still got a lamb up in there? Or does it rarely give out before it has done its job?

@carsoffortlangley It really isn't any different on mobile. Some of the tasks are easier with a touch screen like that darn leaf one.

And then just use the Chromebook for Discord. That worked well for me in the past.

@glemon forget that, I'm trying to ID the debadged car in the photo. I spy a Toyota parts bin doorhandles. '14 Rav4?

@dtg11 fender and a bumper on an Xterra plus labor? Easy $1800 right there.

Fusion now, that's a tricky one. Lots of labor time for fixing that dent in the main body she'll plus it's moved whatever is holding the taillight housing. $5,500.

Oh, and Sony, didn't read the comments beforehand so that's not a sly undercut.

@dtg11 You're good.