Well well well, my parking lot mechanic days are over (up until something breaks while I'm in a parking lot of course). I now am the official leasee of a car hole that happens to have some living space attached. When I looked at the place, all I cared about is the garage. There was something something about a living area and a bathroom and nice outdoor space blah blah blah. But look at all this room I got for activities!

And I'm not even tetris'd in there properly. This will primarily be Miata parking as well so it'll have even more space. There's even a back room for decent storage (although washer and dryer will have to fit in there and not be buried so I can use them).

I'm keeping my storage unit (now only ten minutes away across town) so I'm not too worried about space for storage anyways. I'll be just keeping all my regular use outdoor equipment here. My current plan is a small tool bench against the back left wall and a few hanging tool organizers in various places. I'm just planning for oil changes and regular maintenance but will likely build up to having an engine on a stand instead of any cars in there lol. I have enough room for two cars outside technically so I've got options. Looking forward to meeting the neighbor and I'll definitely be doing a bbq in my back patio asap!

No idea what to do with this garden nook area but I'd like to do something with it since it's mine to use.

Oh yeah and theres an inside too I guess but nobody really cares about that.

All about the most important room!

Brought the Miata over to the new place today since I needed it for uhh trucking duties:

And figured I would see how it fits in the garage since that will be the primary car in there. Turns out this car is way smaller than my Subaru so I have tons of space. With the door shut and the car backed all the way up, I have 6' from the nose of the car to the back wall. And so much room on the sides for my wall mounting endeavors. So time to get creative!

New garage light is awesome too. Just a cheap multi directional led with motion sensor and brightness settings. Currently set to the dimmest possible in that photo. And the motion sensor is perfect so that I get light as soon as I open up the door. Looking forward to playing with the peg board and mounting some tools.

Good thing they cut peg board though since this would maybe have had an issue fitting in/on the Miata.

Today I had ketchup thrown at me while biking, I helped out a motorcyclist that I watched high side it around a corner, and I completed a gnarly century ride with gratuitous elevation. Oh and I last minute slid in and took the weekly ride crown from @VincentMalamute

Sorry, not sorry!

This ride was definitely full of it's ups and downs (no pun intended). I had a pretty stress free first 45 miles or so. It was freezing cold followed by boiling hot and back to cold again. Plus it took 35 minutes to get my burrito at my lunch stop (but damn was that fish burrito 100% worth it). But overall great riding. With the refuel, I headed back out with the mild goal of doing another climb and maybe hitting 90 or so miles. Well at the top of the hill, the "incident" occured.

I was riding along minding my business when all of a sudden I'm hit by something and it's wet. I hear "GET OFF THE ROAD <n-word>" and laughing as a black previous gen Mazda 3 hatch speeds by. There's ketchup all over my side and my headlight on the bike. I REALLY hoped the dicks would get stuck in traffic ahead on the downhill so that I could give them back a rock. Or at least jot down the license plate for a bogus police report of some sort involving guns and drugs.

But alas I hit the next uphill and stopped to clean up instead. Kept the rock JUST in case luck came to help. After a short delay, I calmed down and continued on. Not 10 minutes later do I pass a motorcycle group coming the other way. As the last motorcyclist went to round the corner behind me I hear SCRAAAAAPE, turn around, and see the dude thrown over the handle bars into the road. Time to earn some karma, so I went back to assess and see how banged up the guy is. Thankfully he was just a bit shaken and probably bruised up. But he was walking and despite the look of a hoodie and sweat pants, he was actually wearing armor underneath so it was not a bloody mess. His friends were long gone so I helped him get the bike out of the street and talked to him for a bit to determine if he was actually hurt or not. I felt kinda bad leaving after a little bit as I later thought how adrenaline can hide all sorts of injury. But all things considered that dude was lucky and there was more than enough daylight and passing cars that I figured he'd be alright.

After that I knew I had to make this into an epic day. Granted it was already full of excitement but I made sure to complete the ride at a full century no matter what. I had to run a couple laps around the neighborhood at the end and it was fully dark when I rolled over 100. But it was totally worth it. It definitely was "A DAY". And now I'm gonna go gorge on some food and then pass out. Hope you all had less excitement in your Sunday!

Staying in an A frame house in Tahoe and just amazed by the front window in the living area. The light coming through is spectacular and it's just a marvel to look at. Today was a sleep in, finish watching Top Gun on Netflix (gotta get ready for the sequel), short hike, lunch at the beach, and then relaxing before an early dinner. So a proper vacation!

The Tesla is doing well too, no long drives today but it's perfect for just driving around town and getting stuck in town traffic. I did charge it while at the grocery store even though it was at ~75% charged just because the thing was there. The hike was stupid easy but man what great views!

Weather is perfect with highs around 60, full sun, and no winds. Last time we visited, shit was literally on fire in the distance, it was like 85-90 every day, and it was packed. I'm sure the weekend will be busier but I don't care, I could just not leave this house and be quite happy.

Today I went on a nice and short 50 mile bike ride. While that's not even a metric century, I did that with almost 7000 feet of elevation pain gain. I'm a wee bit tired but at least it was an excellent day!

And naturally a nice meal to celebrate the summit. I have been making it a habit to eat a nice full meal somewhere towards the end of a ride. It's funny that it never ends up actually being post-ride but nonetheless it hit the spot.

The last 4 miles of the climb were absolute misery but at least the downhill was awesome! I was averaging sub 3mph for like the last 2 miles due to the final gain of nearly 2000 feet.

I'm not surprised going down the hill was faster than going up. But 90 minutes versus 9 minutes is nuts! The downhill was a bit hairy but at least I didn't have any cars chasing me down through the switchbacks. I had a big dumb grin the whole way down since I definitely earned it!

I pushed myself to complete an epic hike today that took nearly the entire day and all of my effort. 6000 feet of elevation gain. The miles don't even matter nearly as much as that figure. On top of that, the final climb was a rock scramble which was steep and loose. I had to go shale skiing most of the way back down and ride rock slides every once in a while. But oh man was it all worth it.

And on the final descent, A SNEK

Perfect weather with full sun and temps below 70 all but the final bottom areas. And even then it was probably at most 74. Considering tomorrow that same area will have a high of 86, I consider myself lucky. I went through 3L of water plus 0.75L of water with Liquid IV in it. Lunch was a tuna sandwich, protein bar, nuts, and an apple. Now I need to rest my feet and prepare for next weekend!

What is next weekend? Hiking Mt Langley in the Sierras to knock my first 14er off my bucket list. Camping at 4000ft on Thursday and 9000ft on Friday to acclimate. Some mild hiking at altitude Friday to prepare as well. Saturday will be the big day with 5000 feet of climb on a 23 mile hike. Some parallels to today's hike for sure!

Today I completed my first 100 mile ride ever! This has ascended me from the ranks of the pure mortals into a CYCLIST. The funny thing to me is though that this ride was relatively flat on a beautiful cool day with little wind except for a nice tail wind most of the way back. I've done wayyy harder rides in the ~60 mile range due to doubling the elevation gain and adding a good 30-40F to the temperatures. But passing the century mark is still a solid test of endurance and an even better test of cycling insanity. Road biking is definitely not for everybody and is quite honestly boring at times. At least in comparison to mountain biking for me, road biking without crazy hills seems kinda silly.

Also, those tacos and fries at mile marker 63 truly hit the damn spot! Completing the last 40 miles powered by carnitas, shrimp, fish, and all the fixings just felt great. I am incredibly tired and a bit hungry again now a few hours later but as to be expected after a day like this.

This is literally the only other photo I took, a random shot of the campus at UC Santa Barbara. I was a bit focused on not dying the whole time so I didn't do my usual take in the scenery and get some photos. Overall an awesome experience. Idk if those tacos would be as good without the sense of accomplishment in getting there but I think I've gotta go back again soon regardless.

Also, this video that YouTube suggested to me made me chuckle and is the inspiration for this post:

New clutch is in. Transmission is in. Only took all damn day just to get the trans into place. My arms are beat, feels like ive been lifting weights all morning, because I basically have been. I dont have a trans jack so it was a bit of a sufferfest. If spending the $150 at harbor freight would have made this easier, it was totally worth it. But I got it done! I had to take a snack/sanity break in the middle of it but it is done. Now from here to the end is just making sure I dont skip any steps. Might get to turn the key tonight. But I wont rush it just for that. Lunch time and then time for the damn axles and continuing the grind. No pics but just wanted to come up for air. Full review of this adventure coming soon!

Theres a reason this costs a few grand in labor. But hey, if it works out thats like a free mountain bike right?

Heres lunch!

Witnessing some musical cars due to Oppo's favorite electrical car owner, @His_Stigness. While I was waiting for him to move some cars around I took some pictures.

I'm a fan of the color on this ID4 although I might also be partial to white as well thanks to my Subaru. And regardless with how clean every car is in this household, any color is gonna look nice! More important though is the DOG TAX.

Are electric cars the future? Probably. There's enough range in these for pretty much anybody now and charging seems reasonable enough. Having just paid $4.11 for 91 this week, I can see the value! Teslas are infinitely more popular but so many other options are now available at much better cost points (and much better build quality).

I was very excited when I saw this parking spot available next to a near identical copy of my car. One might note though that these are actually two different colors since Subaru had two shades of white at that time. A very clean example which is pretty rare. I'm used to seeing these kinda clapped out or modded to hell but it's actually even cleaner and closer to stock than my own.

It has a darker tint than me and an aftermarket exhaust but it's still not got anything visually crazy to suggest mods. Obviously sleepier engine mods are likely but one can dream. It's so weird to me seeing clear oem headlights since I've gotten so used to mine.

Looking at the cars side by side I do wonder whether this one is a wrx with a wing on it though or if instead all of the STi badging has been removed.

Either way, I love when things like this happen!

@Just-Jeepin said in For our outdoorsy Oppos, especially those in the northeast...:

@ShrimpHappens Guess not. Here’s an older map showing the stark difference.

Glad to live in one of them 1% areas as I have gone hiking and ended up with 20+ ticks on me without even going through heavy brush. Nice to know that statisically my odds are pretty good even with plenty of ticks around.

@CarsOfFortLangley

Obligatory contributions

I need to get on dirt more often!

@just-a-scratch Type 2 fun is my favorite kind of fun!

As evidenced by my elevation gain stats so far this year.

@AestheticsInMotion got me in suspense with the username and title at first. I thought I was going to be reading another thunderstorm kayak adventure or something gone wrong on a motorcycle. Surviving the past means it's worth taking a more risk-adverse outlook to the future. My goal in life is to have no self inflicted near-death encounters. So far I've achieved that even with taking on plenty of potentially risky activities.

@ash78 said in The Italians have a saying..."There is nothing like a good pizza and Dominos is nothing like a good pizza":

*reasonable is apparently now "all the $5 footlongs a couple years ago are $7.50 now..."

Hah try more like $9 if you want a cheap foot long. The pricier ones are $12+. $7.50 will hardly get you a 6 inch now. Granted it's still cheaper than elsewhere though.

Subway is the only option I have near work if I forget to pack lunch (or more likely, forgot to grocery shop or slept in). So I unfortunately get stuck eating there once a month or so. No matter which sandwich I order it tastes exactly the same. Not terrible, not great, but gets the job done.

@sony1492 how do you feel about the electric steering? Have you gotten used to it? It was absolutely the standout item for me comparing my NB to an ND1 as well as an RF that I've driven. It's a better car in almost every way. And it's actually still a better Miata too generally. But the steering felt excessively light and noncommunicative to me. It was especially noticable getting back in the old car after, it felt as significant as the difference between a go kart with full manual and the Miata.

I guess one could get used to it eventually but it really put me off and I couldn't shake it in the period of an extended weekend rental.

@ranwhenparked I would consider not mentioning the locksmith thing. It's definitely not an asshole move, but it wouldnt be perceived particularly well. I could see it being seen as a trust thing where you don't trust your friend to understand "no means no". Now if that pissed someone off, they are probably toxic/projecting but that's a different problem.

Either way don't feel bad one bit about your actions. Your house, your rules. Make it clear your intent and don't cave in to pressure.

@ItalianJobR53 said in Weighing Tires Options:

@Long_Voyager94 I’ve never looked at “performance” “toruing” whatever
If the tire is supposed to work in the dry wet and snow, its an all season
If its only dry and wet, that a summer tire

All season only means that the compound works below 40F and meets a minimum tread width. Doesn't really mean it will work in ALL seasons. The all weather designation is the standard that means it will work in both snow and dry warm conditions.

@dtg11 I always like looking at a calculator to see what actually changes with the different size.

Doesn't look like too much of a change so I think it would work out fine.

@Gabriella said in Are phones too big?:

@tae Many people think they’re too big but I disagree, I moved to a larger phone (iPhone 6s to XR) and wouldn’t go back, it’s a lot better for doing things (I write most articles on my phone) and I think just feels cooler (though probably doesn’t help my eyes which are utterly terrible).

This is why I have a tablet for sure. Only time I really want a bigger screen is when I'm lounging at home doing some web browsing in bed or consuming media while traveling, especially on a plane. And using a laptop is cumbersome unless I'm sitting at a desk. I miss the midsize tablet format (Nexus 7) as it fit this gap even better but of course giant phones are nearly the same size nowadays.